The purpose of this small-scale, mixed methods study was to explore the temporary 'freezing up' of cognitive processing capacity experienced by dyslexic HE students in one UK University. The term, cognitive immobilisation (CI), is used in this work to define this phenomenon which occurs when dyslexic HE students have become so stressed in relation to their studies that they temporarily lose their ability to process and respond to incoming stimuli, reducing them to a mental state where they are briefly unable to think, act or even speak. The main aims of the inquiry were firstly, to discover the extent of the occurrence and possible triggers of CI in dyslexic HE students; secondly, to explore the relationship between this occurrence, individual variations in processing capacity relating to working memory/long term memory interactions and ipsative measurements of fluctuating emotional status; and thirdly, to investigate the efficacy of possible coping strategies, including those which have been employed successfully to manage similar phenomena in disciplines outside education.
Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from an initial online survey of dyslexic HE students (n=40); semi-structured interviews with Specialist Dyslexia Support Tutors (n=6) and assessments with 13 participants who took part in a yearlong study. Over the course of the study regular semi-structured interviews/monitoring meetings and diarised accounts of incidences of CI and self-reported assessments of emotional status took place with the students. Initial assessments were carried out with the participants using all nine indexes of TOMAL-2 to discover detailed profiles of their memory systems. The participants were assessed with The Self Image Profile for Adults (SIP Adult); The Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and The Beck Hopelessness Scale (BHS) in order to provide baseline measurements of self-esteem/self-image; level of anxiety and level of hopelessness respectively. Participants were then required to self-report using these assessment tools during the latter two academic terms and record incidences of CI.
Analysis of the findings suggested dyslexic HE students are likely to experience CI more frequently than their non-dyslexic peers. Findings suggested that the participants who reported the highest frequencies of CI also had predominantly below average/well below average scores for all nine of the TOMAL-2 indexes and were more likely to miss assignment submissions than those participants who took study breaks or did not complete their course. However, study breaks/non-completion of courses was associated with levels of hopelessness which increased above co-occurring levels of anxiety, suggesting further research in this area may be advantageous. It was generally observed that fluctuations in self-image were mirrored by those of self-esteem.


It is presented that high frequency electronic ballast for fluorescent lamps is designed with root placement method using natural frequency and damping ratio. Also, a fluorescent lamp is designed as to have dynamic resistant. The method proposes simple mathematical calculations instead of complex mathematical calculations and the approaches based one of the component of resonant tank, which arbitrary chosen value. Also it is capable to provide accurate values, which can be employed in new types to ballasts.  Natural frequency and damping ratio, which are parameters of the method, are chosen switching frequency, 0.707, respectively. Transfer function of electronic ballast circuit is calculated by means of proposed method. After that, components of the circuit are find out. 220 V(rms) voltage was achieved at ignition and obtained 30 W lamp power in state space operation. Electronic ballast design and a fluorescent lamp are made of using Matlab/Simulink interface and the results are presented.


A green and efficient protocol has been developed for the Pd(OAc) 2 -catalyzed ligand-free Suzuki{Miyaura reaction of N -methyliminodiac acid (MIDA) boronates in water. In the presence of Pd(OAc) 2 as a catalyst and ( i -Pr) 2 NH as a base, the cross-coupling reactions of aryl bromides with aryl MIDA boronates proceeded smoothly in water without any surfactant, and various functional groups were tolerated under the optimized conditions.


Background Injury is a major cause of mortality and morbidity. The emergency department (ED) registry based data, provides a cost-effective way to estimate the burden of injuries. Previous studies in general population have suggested that survey based data collection is not efficient and suffers from recall or selection bias. The aim of this study was to compare the yearly incidence of home, leisure, traffic and work injuries estimated by survey-based and registry based methods among adults in Luxembourg. Methods Survey based data on 1529 residents aged 25–64, were collected during 2013/2014 in the frame of the European Health Examination Survey (EHES). Luxembourgish ED registry based data supplied to the European Injury Data Base (IDB) for the period 2013–2014 were used for the comparison. Both IDB and EHES are now part of the BRIDGE-Health (BRidging Information and Data Generation for Evidence-based Health Policy and Research) development. Results The estimated incidence rate of all the selected injuries from registry-based data was 8.4% in 2013 and 8.3% in 2014. From survey based data the incidence of; injuries treated in hospital (CI: 95%) was 8.8% (7.7%; 10.4%), treated outside the hospital was 3.6% (2.8%: 4.7%) and not medically treated was 2.7% (2.0%: 3.7%). Conclusions Both survey and registry based data are concordant in estimating ED treated injury incidence among 25–64 years old in Luxembourg.


Abstract. The Blue Nile Basin is confronted by land degradation problems, insufficient agricultural production, and a limited number of developed energy sources. Hydrological models provide useful tools to better understand such complex systems and improve water resources and land management practices. In this study, SWAT was used to model the hydrological processes in the upper Blue Nile Basin. Comparisons between a Climate Forecast System Reanalysis (CFSR) and a conventional ground weather dataset were done under two sub-basin discretization levels (30 and 87 sub-basins) to create an integrated dataset to improve the spatial and temporal limitations of both datasets. A SWAT error index (SEI) was also proposed to compare the reliability of the models under different discretization levels and weather datasets. This index offers an assessment of the model quality based on precipitation and evapotranspiration. SEI demonstrates to be a reliable additional and useful method to measure the level of error of SWAT. The results showed the discrepancies of using different weather datasets with different sub-basin discretization levels. Datasets under 30 sub-basins achieved Nash–Sutcliffe coefficient (NS) values of −0.51, 0.74, and 0.84; p factors of 0.53, 0.66, and 0.70; and r factors of 1.11, 0.83, and 0.67 for the CFSR, ground, and integrated datasets, respectively. Meanwhile, models under 87 sub-basins achieved NS values of −1.54, 0.43, and 0.80; p factors of 0.36, 0.67, and 0.77; r factors of 0.93, 0.68, and 0.54 for the CFSR, ground, and integrated datasets, respectively. Based on the obtained statistical results, the integrated dataset provides a better model of the upper Blue Nile Basin.


Abstract:#MeToo generated what has been deemed 'exciting' debate about contemporary feminism and misogynist violence. Through popular media, such as Twitter and Instagram, women rallied around a hashtag which has been covered in traditional news outlets (NYT, Time etc.) as galvanizing a global feminist movement. In this essay, I use Lacanian psychoanalysis to understand such excitement as jouissance. Further, I suggest that the #MeToo 'mo(ve)ment' also pivots off a different affect to excitement: that of anguish–which demands an understanding of a divided, in this case, 'Woman' subject. I suggest that this not-whole Woman '#Me' of #MeToo does galvanise, but in the site of the Real.


The article presents the analysis of purposes statement in higher education management. Currently, the ideas, about the economic education content, having received which, the person is able to continue to plan the career, are changing. The increasing recognition gets approach within which formation of key competences, design type of thinking, analytical skills, motivated aspiration to continuous self-education, self-improvement becomes the main objective of teaching and educational process that provides formation of competent experts with economic education and possibility of their further professional growth. Innovative processes in the economy in the last decade, stimulated in Russian society, the development of skills needs at all levels in the field of economy, capable of practical creative activity, initiative, enterprising, ready to solve non-standard tasks, problems and objectively analyzing the supply and demand in a market economy. The education management system objectives should be focused on addressing global psycho-pedagogical, didactic and methodological problems. Keywords : education management, marketing, hierarchy of management, economic education, professional competence JEL Classifications : I29, I20, M11


Artificial seagrass plays an important role for the distribution of benthic organisms and fishes. Based on this perspective a study was conducted in the Sepanggar Bay located in the Northern part of Kota Kinabalu, Malaysia from November 2006 to February 2007 to determine the potentiality of artificial seagrass as an alternative habitat for marine fishes. The artificial seagrass area is located approximately 100 m from the coastline at the depth between 6 and 10 m and made up of Dorken Advance Engineer Rubber which was tightened on a square 1 x 3 m metal mat. The sampling process was done by capturing photos and video recording. The picture of the fishes was taken as many as possible to increase the accuracy and precision of fish identification. A total of 497 fish species belong to 17 families were observed in 5 sampling periods throughout the study. Out of 17 families, Pomacentridae was dominant with 25.55% (127 individuals) followed by caesionidae with 22.13% (110 individuals). It was observed that Caesio sp. from a family Caesionidae was dominant genus in the artificial seagrass area, followed by Chromis sp. and Pomacentrus sp. from a family Pomacentridae. Overall Shannon diversity (H') value of 2.5315 indicates artificial sea grass could play a vital role as a nutrient rich habitat for marine fishes


This pattern was originally designed to classify sequences of events in log files by error-proneness. Sequences of events trace application use in real contexts. As such, identifying error-prone sequences helps understand and predict application use. The classification problem we describe is typical in supervised machine learning, but the composite pattern we propose investigates it with several techniques to control for data brittleness. Data pre-processing, feature selection, parametric classification, and cross-validation are the major instruments that enable a good degree of control over this classification problem. In particular, the pattern includes a solution for typical problems that occurs when data comes from several samples of different populations and with different degree of sparcity.


This paper presents an extension of indexed constraints, such that they can apply not only to individual morphemes, but also to potentially complex constituents such as the stem. This modification allows us to capture a class of long-distance morphologically derived environment effects (MDEEs) that have been previously unexplained. MDEEs typically involve an exceptional phonological pattern that is lost under affixation. Formally, MDEEs are predicted if complex constituents such as stems are treated as lexically exceptional only when every morpheme contained within them is independently exceptional. This approach further predicts asymmetries between bare roots and affixed words, between roots and affixes, and between inflected and derived words. All other things being equal, the first of each pair is more likely to be exceptional in more contexts.


An approach to checkpointing and rollback recovery in a distributed computing system using a common time base is proposed. First, a common time base is established in the system using a hardware clock synchronization algorithm. This common time base is coupled with a pseudorecovery block approach to develop a checkpointing algorithm that has the following advantages: (i) maximum process autonomy, (ii) no wait for commitment for establishing recovery lines, (iii) fewer messages to be exchanged, and (iv) less memory requirement.<<ETX>>


Medical research has linked financial vulnerability to accelerated cognitive aging — the process by which cognitive abilities decline with age. Consumers who understand the risks of cognitive aging and what their financial institutions are doing to detect and deter financial crimes are better positioned to safeguard their retirement savings. In this paper, we examine how consumers and financial institutions can prepare for the financial pitfalls of aging. We present seven important steps that consumers aged 50 or older can take to protect themselves. We also provide consumers with a list of six questions to determine how well their financial institutions are prepared to detect signs of diminished financial capacity, elder fraud, and financial abuse, and to prevent financial losses from occurring.


Christian-Muslim Relations, a Bibliographical History 10 (CMR 10) is a history of everything that was written on relations in the period 1600-1700 in the Ottoman and Safavid empires. Its detailed entries contain descriptions, assessments and comprehensive bibliographical details about individual works.


The mosquito-borne West Nile virus (WNV) causes human and animal disease with outbreaks in several parts of the world including North America, the Mediterranean countries, Central and East Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. Particularly in elderly people and individuals with an impaired immune system, infection with WNV can progress into a serious neuroinvasive disease. Currently, no treatment or vaccine is available to protect humans against infection or disease. The goal of this study was to develop a WNV-vaccine that is safe to use in these high-risk human target populations. We performed a vaccine efficacy study in non-human primates using the contemporary, pathogenic European WNV genotype 1a challenge strain, WNV-Ita09. Two vaccine strategies were evaluated in rhesus macaques (Macaca mulatta) using recombinant soluble WNV envelope (E) ectodomain adjuvanted with Matrix-M, either with or without DNA priming. The DNA priming immunization was performed with WNV-DermaVir nanoparticles. Both vaccination strategies successfully induced humoral and cellular immune responses that completely protected the macaques against the development of viremia. In addition, the vaccine was well tolerated by all animals. Overall, The WNV E protein adjuvanted with Matrix-M is a promising vaccine candidate for a non-infectious WNV vaccine for use in humans, including at-risk populations.


In a modification of the previous profile discrimination experiments [summarized in D. M. Green, Profile Analysis (Oxford U.P., New York, 1988)], intensity increments were introduced at one of ten temporal positions during the overall duration of 11‐tone profiles. When both the frequency and the temporal position of intensity increments are varied randomly from trial to trial, listeners show considerably lower thresholds for increments occuring at higher frequencies, and later in time. These results are, in some cases, quite similar to the distribution of selective attention to individual tonal components of multi‐tone patterns [e.g., Watson et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 60, 1176 (1976)]. When the same increments are presented under minimal‐uncertainty conditions (i.e., at a single frequency and temporal position within each block of adaptive‐tracking trials), thresholds are reduced by as much as 6–8 dB. These results suggest a common source of the distribution of selective attention to the components of se...


This paper presents a new anytime incremental search algorithm, AD*-Cut. AD*-Cut is based on two algorithms, namely, Anytime Repairing A* (ARA*) and the novel incremental search algorithm, D* Extra Lite. D* Extra Lite reinitializes (cuts) entire search-tree branches that have been affected by changes in an environment, and D* Extra Lite appears to be quicker than the reinitialization during the search utilized by the popular incremental search algorithm, D* Lite. The search-tree branch cutting is a simple and robust technique that can be easily applied to ARA*. Consequently, AD*-Cut extends D* Extra Lite in the same manner, as the state-of-the-art Anytime D* (AD*) algorithm extends D* Lite. The benchmark results suggest that AD*-Cut is quicker and achieves shorter paths than AD* when used for path planning on 3D state-lattices (a 2D position with rotation).


This research is dedicated to the study of Elon Musk's personal brand. Communicative and linguistic devices used by Elon Musk to build, maintain and boost his personal brand, as well as to counter threats to its status, were analyzed on the basis of Twitter and online publications within the framework of the present research. The study traced the conflict between Elon Musk and short sellers with the participation of the US Securities and Exchange Commission and proved that regardless of the financial losses and legal challenges the businessman faced, the reaction of Elon Musk's followers was mostly positive due to the effective brand-building techniques employed by Elon Musk. The conducted Twitter analysis dealt with both Elon Musk's personal publications and the responses of his followers, and found that the main linguistic and communicative devices of Elon Musk's personal branding were provocative tweets, popular culture references, connotatively charged notions, irony, allusions, acronyms and wordplay. As part of the present research, we studied how the linguistic phenomenon shaped reality, as Elon Musk took a literary technique and used it as a real-life enhancement of his personal brand. According to the results of the research, these devices were aimed at reinstating the credibility and authority of Elon Musk's personal brand, attracting the attention of the followers, winning their support and counterattacking the opponents in order to re-establish a powerful personal brand. The research proves that these devices found positive response among Elon's followers and had a positive effect on his brand attracting attention and boosting popularity and recognizability of Elon Musk's personal brand.


One of the highest priorities of system requirements needed in software development industry is security requirements. However, to identify the complete and correct software security requirements are a challenging task especially creating enterprise assets security requirements. Enterprise assets security requirements are to identify security basic needs, to assess risks, to establish security approach and service, and to specify external enterprise consideration including confidentiality, integrity, availability, and accountability concerns. Moreover, these may be applied to other security requirements such as identification and authentication, access control, firewall architecture, etc. Security patterns may be used to create this security requirements but understanding, analyzing and transforming from security patterns to security requirements are difficult to accomplish. We proposed a grammar, called ESRMG (enterprise security and risk management grammar), and a prototyping tool based on security patterns in a scope of enterprise asset identification and risk managements which are the fundamental of enterprise security requirements. The proposed grammar and tool are beneficial for any organization to construct enterprise security requirements and may help reduce cost and time in overall of system development.


Objectives Intraarticular injection is used for pain relief in knee osteoarthritis (OA), but there is not a well defined profile of patient who could get more benefit from it. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the frequency of pain relief at one year after corticosteroids intraarticular injection and to identify clinical factors associated to response in patients with knee osteoarthritis with joint effusion. Methods One-year prospective cohort study of patients with knee OA with joint effusion confirmed by ultrasound. An intraarticular injection was performed following a clinical protocol. Anthropometric measurements, laboratory parameters, clinical severity, ultrasound parameters and radiological severity were collected. Response regarding pain and presence of synovial fluid on ultrasound at one month and at one year were evaluated. Clinical responder were consider in subjects with enough improvement to carry out normal daily activities with pain VAS<40mm. Results One hundred and thirty-two patients were included.A significant number of patients (61.4%) improved pain at one year following the protocol established in this study. Pain and ultrasound synovial fluid at one month appeared to predict the response at one year. The Lequesne index and the percentage of body fat were independently associated to pain at one year while the Lequesne index and ultrasound synovial hypertrophy were independently related to the presence of synovial fluid at one year. Conclusions The status regarding pain or ultrasound synovial fluid at one month after an intraarticular joint injection appeared to predict the status at one year in patients with knee osteoarthritis and synovial effusion.


Investigation of a >6‐km‐thick succession of Cretaceous to Cenozoic sedimentary rocks in the Tajik Basin reveals that this depocentre consists of three stacked basin systems that are interpreted to reflect different mechanisms of subsidence associated with tectonics in the Pamir Mountains: a Lower to mid‐Cretaceous succession, an Upper Cretaceous–Lower Eocene succession and an Eocene–Neogene succession. The Lower to mid‐Cretaceous succession consists of fluvial deposits that were primarily derived from the Triassic Karakul–Mazar subduction–accretion complex in the northern Pamir. This succession is characterized by a convex‐up (accelerating) subsidence curve, thickens towards the Pamir and is interpreted as a retroarc foreland basin system associated with northward subduction of Tethyan oceanic lithosphere. The Upper Cretaceous to early Eocene succession consists of fine‐grained, marginal marine and sabkha deposits. The succession is characterized by a concave‐up subsidence curve. Regionally extensive limestone beds in the succession are consistent with late stage thermal relaxation and relative sea‐level rise following lithospheric extension, potentially in response to Tethyan slab rollback/foundering. The Upper Cretaceous–early Eocene succession is capped by a middle Eocene to early Oligocene (ca. 50–30 Ma) disconformity, which is interpreted to record the passage of a flexural forebulge. The disconformity is represented by a depositional hiatus, which is 10–30 Myr younger than estimates for the initiation of India–Asia collision and overlaps in age with the start of prograde metamorphism recorded in the Pamir gneiss domes. Overlying the disconformity, a >4‐km‐thick upper Eocene–Neogene succession displays a classic, coarsening upward unroofing sequence characterized by accelerating subsidence, which is interpreted as a retro‐foreland basin associated with crustal thickening of the Pamir during India–Asia collision. Thus, the Tajik Basin provides an example of a long‐lived composite basin in a retrowedge position that displays a sensitivity to plate margin processes. Subsidence, sediment accumulation and basin‐forming mechanisms are influenced by subduction dynamics, including periods of slab‐shallowing and retreat.


An elastomer-free, extremely thin (less than 2 μm), and highly transparent (higher than 95%) pressure–sensitive capacitor is successfully fabricated using a combination of polyvinyl butyral (PVB) and a percolated network of silver nanowires (AgNWs). The strong affinity of PVB to the polyvinyl pyrrolidone (PVP) layer, which capped the AgNWs, stabilizes the sensor mechanically to an extent that it can resist 100000 cycles of bending under a curvature radius of 200 μm. The strong hydrogen bonding interactions and entanglement of PVB chains make the cross-linked PVB freestanding and very strong, facilitating the reduction of the thickness to less than 2 μm. The capacitance is formed on an AgNW tandem compound electrode pattern by the fringing effect, which increases with an increase in the pressure-induced bending applied to the surface of the sensor. The sensitivity is three times higher than that of an elastomeric pressure sensor with the same sensor design. The use of the AgNW/PVB sensor as a wearable acupressure sensor and a transparent motion detector is successfully demonstrated.


Purpose: Infection with human papillomavirus (HPV) type 16 has been suggested to be a risk factor for squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN) and to be more commonly associated with SCCHN occurring in the oropharynx and in never-smokers. We hypothesized that HPV-16 exposure, as evidenced by seropositivity, is a risk factor for SCCHN and may be of particular importance in never-smokers. Experimental Design: To test this hypothesis, we conducted a hospital-based case-control study of 120 patients with SCCHN (60 never-smokers and 60 matched smokers) and 120 cancer-free matched controls. We compared the presence of HPV-16 antibodies in ever-smoker and neversmoker patients matched on age ( 5 years), sex, and tumor site. Each patient was also matched with a corresponding ever-smoker or never-smoker cancer-free control on age ( 5 years) and sex. Serum was collected from study subjects and assayed for IgG reactivity to HPV-16 L1 virus-like particles by using an ELISA. Results: Forty-nine of the 120 case subjects (40.8%) but only 11 (9.2%) of the control subjects tested positive for HPV-16 antibodies (adjusted odds ratio, 6.69; 95% confidence interval, 3.01–14.90). Among cases, HPV-16 seropositivity was more common in those with oropharyngeal cancer (41 of 70, 58.6%) and poorly differentiated tumors (25 of 43, 58.1%). HPV-16 seropositivity was associated with a significantly increased risk of oropharyngeal cancer (adjusted odds ratio, 59.53; 95% confidence interval, 5.71– 620.20). Whereas HPV-16 seropositivity was more common in never-smokers with SCCHN than in ever-smokers (43.3% versus 38.3%, respectively), this difference was not statistically significant. Conclusions: HPV-16 infection is associated with a significant increased risk for oropharyngeal cancer but not oral cavity cancer. Furthermore, HPV-16 infection does not appear to be more common in never-smokers than eversmokers with SCCHN.


The business valuation industry generally uses at least one of three basic approaches to value a long-term care facility: the cost approach, sales comparison approach, or income approach. The approach that is chosen and the resulting weight that is applied to it depend largely on the circumstances involved. Because a long-term care facility is a business enterprise, more weight usually is given to the income approach which factors into the estimate of value both the tangible and intangible assets of the facility.


It has been suggested that the American Law Institute's Model Penal Code might serve as a model for a European Model Penal Code, or at least for the project of assembling general principles of European criminal law. This paper presents a critical analysis of the Model Penal Code project, paying particular attention to the form of the project, rather than its substance, on the assumption that the idea, and the drafting, of the Model Penal Code would be of greater interest to a European criminal law project than its content, a systematic and comprehensive general part and a representative special part of "American criminal law."


Existing techniques for sharing the processing resources in multiprogrammed shared-memory multiprocessors, such as time-sharing, space-sharing, and gang-scheduling, typically sacrifice the performance of individual parallel applications to improve overall system utilization. We present a new processor allocation technique called Loop-Level Process Control (LLPC) that dynamically adjusts the number of processors an application is allowed to use for the execution of each parallel section of code, based on the current system load. This approach exploits the maximum parallelism possible for each application without overloading the system. We implement our scheme on a Silicon Graphics Challenge multiprocessor system and evaluate its performance using applications from the Perfect Club benchmark suite and synthetic benchmarks. Our approach shows significant improvements over traditional time-sharing and gang-scheduling. It has performance comparable to, or slightly better than, static space-sharing, but our strategy is more robust since, unlike static space-sharing, it does not require a priori knowledge of the applications' parallelism characteristics.


The Serra Norte Carajas banded iron-formation (BIF)-hosted iron ore deposits are located in the Carajas mineral province. The deposits are hosted in the ca. 2.7 Ga Grao Para Group, a metamorphosed volcanic-sedimentary sequence where jaspilites are under- and overlain by basalts, both at greenschist facies conditions. They represent one of the largest high-grade (>60 wt % Fe) BIF iron ore deposits and resources in the world, with hypogene iron mineralization considered to be Paleoproterozoic. Four main open pits have, to date, produced about 1.2 billion metric tons (Bt) of high-grade iron ore with additional resources of 10 Bt. Ore types at the Serra Norte deposits include soft and hard ore; the latter consists of banded, massive and/or brecciated ores and is mainly localized along the contact with the surrounding hydrothermally altered basalts. Distinct hydrothermal alteration zones consist of veins and breccias that surround the hard ores, including: (1) an early alteration zone (distal portion of orebodies), characterized by recrystallization of jasper, formation of magnetite (+/- martite), and the local introduction of quartz and carbonate-sulfide (+/- quartz) veins; (2) intermediate alteration, synchronous with the main iron ore-forming event, which is accompanied by widespread development of martite, quartz-hematite and hematite-quartz veins, and dissolution of carbonate; and (3) proximal alteration zone having various types of hard and hard-porous hematite ores containing naicroplaty, anhedral, euhedral, and tabular hematite species. Locally, high-grade breccia ores contain dolomite and kutnahorite matrices indicating carbonate introduction. High-grade ore zones contain quartz +/- carbonate-hematite veins and breccias. Combined microthermometry, iron chromatography, and in situ laser ablation ICP-MS analyses on fluid inclusion assemblages from five vein types reveal that (1) early alteration vein-breccia quartz-carbonate contains high-salinity (up to 30 equiv wt % NaCl) fluid inclusions, with Ca, besides Na, K, and Mg, which were trapped at temperatures of 220 degrees to 320 degrees C. The quartz-hosted fluid inclusions have a wide range of Cl/Br ratios, presence of Li, base metals Cu-Pb-Zn, and Fe; (2) intermediate alteration vein quartz contains both low-salinity (Na-Fe-Mg-rich) and high-salinity (Ca-Mg-Fe-rich) fluid inclusions, with trapping temperatures of 210 degrees to 290 degrees C; (3) advanced alteration vein and breccia quartz-carbonate has low- to high-salinity fluid inclusions and trapping temperatures between 240 degrees to 310 degrees C, with the low-salinity inclusions being much more abundant in quartz. There is a gradual dilution of the metals signature in fluid inclusions from early to late- and/or advanced-stage veins and breccias. The large amount of Ca in the fluid inclusions is compatible with extensive exchange of the hydrothermal fluids with the surrounding chloritized-hematitized metabasaltic wall rock. Oxygen isotope analyses on different oxide species reveal that the heaviest delta O-18(smow) values, up to 15.2 parts per thousand, are recorded for jaspilites, followed by magnetite, between 0.4 to +4.3 parts per thousand, and then by different hematite species such as microplaty, anhedral and tabular, which fall in the range of -9.5 to 2.4 parts per thousand. These results show a progressive depletion in delta O-18 values from the earliest introduced hydrothermal oxide magnetite toward the latest tabular hematite. The advanced alteration stage in high-grade ore displays the most depleted 180 values and represents the highest fluid/rock ratio during hydrothermal alteration. This depletion is interpreted to result from the progressive mixture of descending, heated meteoric water with ascending modified magmatic fluids. Sulfides from the distal zone of metabasaltic rocks have delta S-34 values close to 0 parts per thousand, consistent with a magmatic origin for the sulfur. Heavier delta S-34 values, of up to 10.8 parts per thousand, in vein sulfides hosted in jaspilite, may reflect interaction with meteoric waters or, alternatively, variations in fO(2) and pH conditions during evolution of the hydrothermal fluid. Calcite-kutnahorite delta C-13 and delta O-18 values from the distal alteration zones show a large delta C-13 range of -5.5 to -2.4%o and a relatively narrow delta O-18 range of 9.3 to 11.7 parts per thousand. However, dolomite matrix breccias from the advanced hydrothermal zone, i.e., ore, exhibit a wider delta O-18 range from 15.1 to 21.8 parts per thousand and a more restricted delta O-13 range from 5.0 to 3.9 parts per thousand. This latter range points to a single carbon source, of possible magmatic nature, whereas the larger delta O-18 range suggests multiple carbon and oxygen sources. The Sr-87/Sr-86 ratios for carbonates from the distal and advanced hydrothermal zones range between 0.7116 to 0.7460, suggesting incorporation of strontium from multiple crustal sources, including magmatic-hydrothermal fluids. A dual magmatic-meteoric hydrothermal fluid-flow model is proposed for the hematite ores in which an early, low Cl/Br ratio, saline, ascending modified magmatic fluid, caused widespread oxidation of magnetite to hematite. Progressive influx of light delta O-18 meteoric water, mixing with the ascending magmatic fluids, is interpreted to have been initiated during the intermediate stage of alteration. The advanced and final hydrothermal stage was dominated by a massive influx of low-salinity meteoric water, which maintained intermediate temperatures of 240 degrees to 310 degrees C, and concomitant formation of the paragenetically latest tabular hematite. The giant Carajas iron deposits are unique in their setting within an Archean granite-greenstone belt and their modified magmatic-meteoric hydrothermal system, compared to the other two end-member BIF iron deposit types, namely the basin-related Hamersley type and the metamorphosed metasedimentary-basin-related Iron-Quadrangle-type. The distinct hydrothermal alteration signature present in both wall-rock basalts and jaspilites, in combination with distinct fluid chemistry signatures, particularly the low delta O-18 values of paragenetically late oxides indicative of massive influx of meteoric water into the high-grade orebodies, provide distinctive parameters for defining the Carajas end-member type BIF deposit class


Importance
The establishment and renovation of supermarkets may promote healthy diet practices among youth by increasing retail infrastructure for fresh foods.

Objective
To estimate the association between the Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) program and the weight status of children and adolescents.

Design, Setting, and Participants
Using a difference-in-differences (DiD) design and including 12 months before and after a FRESH supermarket opened, data were analyzed for residentially stable public school students in kindergarten through 12th grade with objectively measured height and weight data from the academic years 2009 through 2016. Of the 8 FRESH-subsidized supermarkets in residential neighborhoods in New York City, New York, 5 were new and 3 were renovation projects between December 2011 and June 2014. Data were analyzed from June 2021 to January 2022.

Interventions
The treatment group included students who resided within 0.50 miles of a FRESH-subsidized supermarket and had at least 1 body mass index (BMI) measurement within 12 months before and 3 to 12 months after the month a FRESH supermarket opened (n = 22 712 student-year observations). A 2-stage matching-weighting approach was used to construct a control group of students who resided more than 0.50 miles from a FRESH supermarket in a FRESH-eligible area (n = 86 744 student-year observations).

Main Outcomes and Measures
BMI z score was calculated using objectively measured height and weight data from FITNESSGRAM, an annual, school-based, standardized fitness assessment of every New York City public school student. Obesity was defined as 95th percentile or greater of the BMI z score using Centers for Disease Control and Prevention growth charts.

Results
The treatment group in the analytic sample had 11 356 students (22 712 student-year observations), and the control group had 43 372 students (86 744 student-year observations). The students were predominately Black (18.8%) and Hispanic and Latino (68.5%) and eligible for free or reduced-priced lunch (84.6%). There was a significant decrease in BMI z score among students who resided within 0.50 miles of a FRESH supermarket (vs control group students) in the 3- to 12-month follow-up period (DiD, -0.04; 95% CI, -0.06 to -0.02). This was true for those exposed to supermarkets that were either new (DiD, -0.07; 95% CI, -0.11 to -0.03) or renovated (DiD, -0.03; 95% CI, -0.06 to -0.01). A statistically significant decrease was also observed in the likelihood of obesity (DiD, -0.01; 95% CI, -0.02 to -0.002).

Conclusions and Relevance
Government-subsidized supermarkets may contribute to a small decrease in obesity risk among children residing near those supermarkets, if part of a comprehensive policy approach.


Background: The diagnosis of acute bacterial meningitis rests on CSF examination by lumbar puncture. Before lumbar puncture, intracranial mass lesions that increase intracranial pressure, must be ruled out, so brain CT-scan may be considered . In this study we evaluated the accuracy of physical examination for intracranial mass in patients with meningismus.
Materials and Methods: 100 patients who had symptoms and signs of acute meningitis were evaluated and then brain scan was performed. After this, clinical manifestations were compared with CT results and sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values and accuracy were analyzed.
Results: 73% of patients were men and 27% women. Most of patients were between 22 to 31 years old. 34% of patients had meningitis, 22% had SOL, 69% had one neurological symptom or sign at least. As a whole, sensitivity, specificity, pos. and neg. predictive values and accuracy in diagnosis of contradictions of L.P. are 90.9%, 37.1%, 28.9%, 93. 5%, 59% .
Conclusion: This study shows that with help of symptoms and signs fundoscopy in patients suspected to have meningitis, we can perform LP without brain CT preliminary.


Some new Ni(II), Zn(II), Co(II), Cu(II), and Cd(II) of mixed Sulphadiazine and Vitamin C complexes have been synthesized and characterized by different spectroscopic techniques such as FT-IR, elemental analysis, molar conductivity, and magnetic measurements. Both ligands used for this research work act as bidentate ligands towards the central metal ions coordinating through the nitrogen atoms of >C=N-, NH2 groups of Sulphadiazine and oxygen atoms of OH, CO groups of Vitamin C. Tetrahedral and square-planar geometries have been proposed for the complexes. The complexes are stable under atmospheric conditions. The ligands and their complexes were screened for antimicrobial activities against some isolated organisms: Klebsiella pneumoniae, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterococcus faecalis to evaluate their microbial inhibiting potential. The derived complexes were found to exhibit an increased inhibitory action against the organisms when compared to the free ligands. The percentage reduction in parasitaemia for the compounds was also evaluated against Plasmodium berghei. In this realm, [Cd(Su)(Vit)]Cl2 showed the highest activity (89%) as compared to other compounds: Sulphadiazine, Ni(II), Zn(II), Co(II), and Cu(II) complexes are 70, 50, 81, 76, and 77%, respectively, Vitamin C showed no activity.
Keywords: Sulfadiazine, Antimalarial, Vitamin C, Physicochemical, Metal-drug complexes, Antimicrobial


The understanding of pharmacology of impotence has shown a steady improvement over the last 15 years which has resulted in a better appreciation of the neurovascular mechanisms of the erectile process especially at the level of the corpora cavernosa; however, central mechanisms which control libido and erection are not yet completely elucidated. Frequent diseases most commonly encountered in elderly patients--i.e. diabetes, hypertension, atherosclerosis, depression, etc--represent a frequent cause of erectile dysfunction (ED) and are treated with medications that can interfere with sexual functioning at the central and/or peripheral level. Antidepressants, including the tricyclics and the monoamine oxidase inhibitors, have been implicated in ED, decreased libido, and impaired ejaculation. Most antihypertensives have been associated with some erectile impairment, but diuretics seem to have little effect on erectile function. The calcium channel blockers and ACE inhibitors are associated with a low incidence of ED. Sympatholytic antihypertensives seldom cause importence but can cause retrograde ejaculation because of the relaxation of the smooth muscles in the prostatic urethra and bladder neck. The most commonly prescription drugs that can affect sexual function are briefly discussed and an integrated pharmacological approach to the patient with drug-induced ED is proposed.


The Pool Lifeguard Skill Set (SISSS00111), recognised across Australia, is targeted at those that wish to be professionally certified as a Pool Lifeguard in Australia. Incorporating risk management, supervision, communication, aquatic rescue and emergency care training, the audience covers a broad demographic in city and regional locations. The course has traditionally been taught through pre-course workbooks, reference to a manual, and face-to-face training sessions. While this traditional approach has been effective, Royal Life Saving wished to offer a more engaging and memorable pre-course delivery method.  The goal was to enable students to arrive at the face-to-face training with a stronger, more embedded knowledge of key concepts and principles and allow for more face-to-face training time to be devoted to becoming proficient in the role's important practical skills, such as aquatic rescue, first aid and advanced CPR.  Hence, a project to develop an e-learning blended delivery solution was undertaken.  The intention was that the online component of the course be completed prior to the face-to-face training and that it should augment the lifeguarding manual.  It was also important that it is highly learner-centred, requiring learners to interact with the screens in order to access the key content and that it is a visually pleasing product with a quality aesthetic design.


Some incorporators/developers, in order to have a feedback of their projects, have resorted to satisfaction evaluations. However, the data collected have not been systematically used in the feedback of management processes for new designs. The literature shows the importance of incorporating these data. Thus, the designers can generate more value to the final client. This research has hypothesized the possibility of decision supporting tools e.g. AHP, AD, TRIZ and QFD to be used in a theoretical model which helps to process the data collected in satisfaction evaluations, aiming at the process improvement and at the value generation. The qualitative research was divided into three methodological steps: the analysis of the tools, the adaptation of these tools and the test of the model. Through a pre-test and a focus group, the preliminary versions of the model were refined and the theoretical model was proposed.


Quantitative methods for examining and describing the surfaces of off-axis parabolic mirrors are given, together with practical suggestions for the most effective use of such mirrors. Included are tests with, and without, an optical flat. In each case the theory and experimental procedure are illustrated by application to a particular mirror. The quality of a mirror is given in terms of the minimum slit width that can be profitably used with it.


: Efficiencies in repeated-measurements experiments are studied by the use of F statistics when appropriate and of Hotelling's T2 statistics otherwise. Bounds on the asymptotic relative efficiencies of these statistics are given and conditions are found under which one test dominates another uniformly. Similar comparisons are made between T2 and the Lawley-Hotelling T2(0) test in the analysis of repeated vector measurements. It is found that the T2 test may be considerably more efficient than its competitors, but that its efficiency cannot be substantially less. These findings are illustrated numerically by examples from the literature. It is shown further that F and T2 tests are exact for all unimodal distributions constant on ellipsoids, and that efficiency comparisons among F tests are preserved under scale mixtures of multidimensional Gaussian laws.


Appropriate function of the neocortex depends on timely generation and migration of cells produced in the germinal zones of the neocortex and ganglionic eminence (GE). Failure to accurately complete migration results in cortical dysplasia, a developmental syndrome implicated in many neurologic disorders. We developed a model of cortical dysplasia in ferrets involving administration of methylaxozymethanol acetate (MAM), an antimitotic, to pregnant ferrets on gestational day 33, leading to dramatic reduction of layer 4 in the neocortex. Here, using time-lapse video imaging, we investigate dynamic behavior of migrating cells arising from the GE and cortical ventricular zone (CVZ) in ferrets and the role of GABAA activity. Treatment with MAM significantly reduced migration speed and the relative proportion of cells arising from the GE demonstrating exploratory behavior. To a lesser extent, the behavior of cells leaving the CVZ was affected. Pharmacologic inhibition of GABAA receptors (GABAAR) improved the speed of migration and exploratory ability of migrating MAM-treated cells arising from the GE. Additionally, the expression of α2 and α3 subunits of GABAAR and the potassium chloride co-transporter (KCC2) increased in the neocortex of MAM-treated animals. After MAM treatment, increases in endogenous KCC2 and GABAAR combine to alter the dynamic properties and exploratory behavior of migrating interneurons in ferrets. We show a direct correlation between increased GABAA and KCC2 expression with impaired migration and ability to explore the environment.


Objective. Hypoglycaemia is regularly accompanied by hypovolaemia. To suggest a mechanism for this phenomenon, we reviewed data from eight studies conducted by our group and examined the circumstances under which rebound hypoglycaemia develops after intravenous infusion of glucose solutions. Material and methods. Forty healthy volunteers and 40 patients received a total of 122 infusions of glucose solutions at different rates, volumes and concentrations. Plasma glucose and the haemodilution were measured repeatedly during and for at least 2 h after the infusions ended. Glucose kinetics was calculated using a one-compartment turnover model and the plasma volume expansion was estimated from changes in Hb. Results. A strong linear correlation was found between the glucose level and the plasma volume expansion in all series of experiments (pv0.001). After infusion, there was a risk of hypoglycaemia and hypovolaemia developing in healthy volunteers with a high glucose clearance and when infusing glucose solutions of higher concentrations than 2.5 %. Few and mild hypoglycaemic events occurred in patients with insulin resistance, such as in diabetics and in those undergoing surgery. The immediate linear relationship between hypoglycaemia and hypovolaemia suggests an osmotic link between the two parameters. More specifically, infused fluid accompanies glucose during uptake into the cells, while volume expansion by the same fluid has already elicited an effective diuretic response. Conclusion. Hypovolaemia is a consequence of hypoglycaemia after intravenous infusion of glucose solution and is caused by the osmotic translocation of fluid from the extracellular to the intracellular fluid space that occurs despite effective renal elimination.


Adoption of smart mobile devices (smartphones, wearables, etc.) is rapidly growing. There are already over 2 billion smartphone users worldwide [1] and the percentage of smartphone users is expected to be over 50% in the next five years [2]. These devices feature rich sensing capabilities which allow inferences about mobile device user's surroundings and behavior. Multiple and diverse sensors common on such mobile devices facilitate observing the environment from different perspectives, which helps to increase robustness of inferences and enables more complex context detection tasks. Though a larger number of sensing modalities can be beneficial for more accurate and wider mobile context detection, integrating these sensor streams is non-trivial. This thesis presents how multimodal sensor data can be integrated to facilitate robust and energy efficient mobile context detection, considering three important and challenging detection tasks: indoor localization, indoor-outdoor detection and human activity recognition. This thesis presents three methods for multimodal sensor integration, each applied for a different type of context detection task considered in this thesis. These are gradually decreasing in design complexity, starting with a solution based on an engineering approach decomposing context detection to simpler tasks and integrating these with a particle filter for indoor localization. This is followed by manual extraction of features from different sensors and using an adaptive machine learning technique called semi-supervised learning for indoor-outdoor detection. Finally, a method using deep neural networks capable of extracting non-intuitive features directly from raw sensor data is used for human activity recognition; this method also provides higher degree of generalization to other context detection tasks. Energy efficiency is an important consideration in general for battery powered mobile devices and context detection is no exception. In the various context detection tasks and solutions presented in this thesis, particular attention is paid to this issue by relying largely on sensors that consume low energy and on lightweight computations. Overall, the solutions presented improve on the state of the art in terms of accuracy and robustness while keeping the energy consumption low, making them practical for use on mobile devices.


We prove the first proof size lower bounds for the proof system Merge Resolution (MRes [Olaf Beyersdorff et al., 2020]), a refutational proof system for prenex quantified Boolean formulas (QBF) with a CNF matrix. Unlike most QBF resolution systems in the literature, proofs in MRes consist of resolution steps together with information on countermodels, which are syntactically stored in the proofs as merge maps. As demonstrated in [Olaf Beyersdorff et al., 2020], this makes MRes quite powerful: it has strategy extraction by design and allows short proofs for formulas which are hard for classical QBF resolution systems.
Here we show the first exponential lower bounds for MRes, thereby uncovering limitations of MRes. Technically, the results are either transferred from bounds from circuit complexity (for restricted versions of MRes) or directly obtained by combinatorial arguments (for full MRes). Our results imply that the MRes approach is largely orthogonal to other QBF resolution models such as the QCDCL resolution systems QRes and QURes and the expansion systems $\forall$Exp+Res and IR.


The relative sensitivities of and interrelations between different measurements of diastolic function were studied in 50 patients with left ventricular hypertrophy diagnosed on anatomical grounds. Isovolumic relaxation time, the interval from minimum cavity dimension to mitral valve opening and relative dimension increase during this period, and the peak rate of dimension increase and wall thinning during rapid ventricular filling were measured by digitised M mode echocardiography. The relative heights of peak early diastolic and atrial velocities (a/E) and the time for decline of early diastolic velocity to half its peak value (velocity half time) were measured on continuous wave and pulsed Doppler and the relative height of the "a" wave was measured by apexcardiogram. All sets of values except those of the interval from minimum dimension to mitral opening were unimodally distributed, and all differed significantly from those in 20 age matched controls. The relative height of the "a" wave on the apexcardiogram (90% values were abnormal) was the most sensitive method of studying left ventricular diastolic function and peak rate of dimension increase was the least sensitive. Though none of the correlations was high, there were individual associations between peak rate of dimension increase, a/E, peak wall thinning rate, and velocity half time, and independently between delay in mitral valve opening and dimension change during this period. Other values seemed to be independent of one another, suggesting a different physiological basis. It is concluded that these various abnormal values do not reflect a single underlying disturbance of diastolic function. There are at least four possible discrete abnormalities: prolongation of isovolumic relaxation; incoordination during isovolumic relaxation; reduced rate of rapid filling; and an increase in the relative amplitude of the "a" wave probably caused by increased passive stiffness. These may be present singly or in combination in any patient.


Abstract Amongst the large carnivores, the leopard Panthera pardus is a highly adaptable, elastic species. Because of these ecological traits, it comes into direct conflict with people, posing serious consequences to the lives of those affected, thus impeding larger conservation goals. In India, one of the key mitigation strategies towards leopard conflict includes capture and translocation of individual leopards. In response to severe conflict, a policy guideline was brought out in 2011 by the government that discouraged capture and translocation of leopards. In this study we evaluate the impact of these guidelines and responses of the field managers towards them. A total of 357 leopards were captured in Karnataka state during 2009–2016. The data collected on these captures indicates that since the government guidelines were issued, leopard captures have increased by 9.67 per year, and monthly translocations increased threefold. Captured animals were translocated mostly to protected areas (85.5%), taken to captivity (10.8%), and a few resulted in capture mortality (3.8%). A total of eight primary reasons were listed for capture of leopards, with livestock depredation (38.1%) being the main reason. Questionnaire surveys revealed that 64% of the managers were unaware of the presence of the guidelines, and only 1.9% followed them. The guidelines make a set of thoughtful suggestions to reduce conflict, but large-scale improvement is required by bringing in field-level managers, communities, media personnel, and other stakeholders while developing such policies. Similarly, targeted outreach and capacity building is mandatory to raise awareness and for effective implementation of the guidelines.


: In these studies, we investigated the phenomenon of change in impulse activity of isolated hippocampal neurons during longtime recording. We described the use of serial tachograms during registering the electrical activity of neurons, analysis of which can improve the reliability of data. An analysis of the data identified three phases of changes in impulse activity of isolated neurons in the experimental registrations: a phase of increased activity, phase of stable activity and the phase of declining activity. It is established that in conditions of the perforated patch-clamp the phase of stable activity started at 10-15 minutes after formation of the tight junction and had an average duration of 30 minutes. It is shown that the use of the serial tahograms and phases of activity improves the quality of assessment in the measurement of the electrical activity of neurons.


SARS-CoV-2 pneumonia and COVID-19 disease are characterized by a maladaptive immune response and prothrombotic state. The Spike protein of SARS-CoV-2 virus unleashes a storm of lipid mediators with very high levels of thromboxane B2 and prostaglandin D2 in the bronchoalveolar lavage fluid. DPr2 receptors for prostaglandin D2 and TPr receptors for thromboxane A2 have been proposed as therapeutic targets in COVID-19 in order to decrease viral load and inhibit platelet dependent thrombosis, respectively. Ramatroban is an oral, dual receptor antagonist of the DPr2 and TPr receptors with established safety profile, having been used in Japan for the treatment of allergic rhinitis for over 20 years. We report two patients, an 88-year-old woman and a 31-year-old man, both with COVID-19 pneumonia who were successfully treated in ambulatory setting with oral ramatroban, leading to rapid improvement in oxygen saturation from about 80–82% to about 90–95% over 24–48 hours followed by gradual recovery from the disease. The mechanism of action of ramatroban and its efficacy reported here supports clinical trials on this drug as a potential treatment for COVID-19.


Research has identified poor quality and unprofessionalism as factors that limit the appeal of Kenyan video films (Kenya Film Commission, Audience Consumer Trends Survey, 2010). This study investigates the problems that Kenyan films face in trying to "break down the wall preventing Kenyan films from being shown and celebrated beyond Kenyan borders" (Justine Edwards, 2008, p. 2). It does this through an analysis of three video fiction films by three local filmmakers: Wandahuhu"s 'Njohera' ("Forgive Me"), Simon Nduti"s 'Kikulacho' ("What Bites You") and Simiyu Barasa"s 'Toto Millionaire,"all which have been made under the banner of a Kenyan film industry that is informally known as Riverwood. The objectives of the study is to examine the narrative character or these homegrown video films by analyzing them against the classical film form conventions as a benchmark so as to determine how the Kenyan filmmakers" narrative choices affect communication of meaning. The study is basically guided by the constructivist theory of film criticism which is founded on the tenet that it is the reader (viewer) of the film text that constructs the story and meanings in the story using the clues that the filmmaker puts before him on the screen. Given the broadness of field that is the Kenyan video film practice, and that not much is known concerning its fiction film"s narrative form, this study opts for explanatory case study as its research design. This design lends itself conveniently to the study"s chosen methodology of detailed interpretive textual and contextual analysis of the said films and their relationships. Although this limits (without eliminating) the study"s capacity to generalize its findings, the least that can be hoped for from these few examples of fiction film videos selected is a light, however bright, shone at the anarchic world that is the Kenyan – and by extension African – video film industry. The filmmakers and the specific works that form this research"s case studies have been selected using expert and purposive sampling, respectively, to arrive at a sample that the researcher considers as representative of the typical Riverwood feature film, made by Kenyans and expressing a Kenyan consciousness. What stands out in the findings of this research is the illustrational character and functionality of the Kenyan video film, which cuts across the narrative and its constitutive elements. This is to say that as opposed to the classical film model that forms this study"s benchmark, the Kenyan video film does not consider a freely-unfolding story as the core unifying factor in filmic story-telling. What matters is what point the narrative makes, whether at isolated points of its narration, or with specific narrative elements it uses, or with its overall message. These findings, the researcher hopes, will prove useful in the development of theory and practice of Kenyan film as it aspires to contribute its unique voice to the global cinema, and appeal to an audience whose filmic sensibilities have largely been shaped by previous exposure to the classical mode of filmic storytelling.


BACKGROUND Previous studies of microfocused ultrasound with visualization (MFU-V) on facial and neck laxity were largely based on masked physician assessments, histological analysis, and safety profile. More quantitative studies are needed. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the 800 treatment lines of MFU-V on skin tightening effect of face and neck in Asians using 2 quantitative analysis systems at 0, 90, and 180 days after treatment. MATERIALS AND METHODS Total 25 subjects were recruited in this prospective study. Subjects were treated with MFU-V to the face and neck using 2 different transducers: 4 MHz, 4.5-mm focal depth and 7 MHz, 3.0-mm focal depth with total 800 lines. The subjects were evaluated by skin complexion analysis and 3-dimensional imaging system at 0, 90, and 180 days. Mean brow height lift and submental lift were calculated. RESULTS All 25 subjects completed treatment and received the follow-up examinations at 90 and 180 days. Two of the 25 subjects were male. Mean patient age was 53.3 years (range: 39.8–61.1 years). Wrinkles, texture, and pores were 3 variables relevant to analysis of skin laxity. Only mean wrinkles score reduction at 90 days was statistically significant (p = .0222). There was a mean 0.47 mm brow lift at 90 days (p = .0165), but there was a 0.12 mm decrease in brow height compared to baseline at 180 days (p = .6494). At 90 days, a mean 26.44 mm2 submental lift was noted (p = .0217). And at 180 days, a mean 13.76 mm2 submental lift was noted (p = .243). CONCLUSION This study showed that the most prominent change after the 800-line MFU-V treatments in Asians was the significant submental lift at 90 days. Other noninvasive or minimally invasive treatment modalities can be considered to combine with MFU-V for the optimal treatment response. Additional MFU-V treatments can be considered 3 months after the first treatment.


The process of aging results in an increase in collagen in arterial walls, but the blood levels of insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) decrease remarkably as adults age. There is an almost simultaneous increase in insulin secretion, particularly in obese individuals. It is not known if, under these hormonal conditions, the enrichment of collagen in the arterial wall is due to insulin. We studied the effect of insulin on the production of collagen in vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) from elderly persons with high levels of insulin secretion after blocking the insulin receptors with a monoclonal antibody. Results were compared to those without insulin receptor blockage and to those with IGF-1. Despite the inhibition of 14C-glucose uptake, insulin clearly stimulated the release of procollagen III, and increased the collagen synthesis. The hydroxyproline labelling rate from 3H-proline increased to more than twice the control values. IGF-1 is a more potent effector than insulin, but the effect of insulin on the rate of collagen production became similar to IGF-1 when the specific receptors were blocked. The results indicate that under special conditions that occur with aging, insulin interacts with nonspecific receptors in VSMC, especially IGF-1, stimulating these cells to produce collagen.


Abstract This eye-tracking study establishes basic benchmarks of eye movements during reading in heritage language (HL) by Russian-speaking adults and adolescents of high (n = 21) and low proficiency (n = 27). Heritage speakers (HSs) read sentences in Cyrillic, and their eye movements were compared to those of Russian monolingual skilled adult readers, 8-year-old children and L2 learners. Reading patterns of HSs revealed longer mean fixation durations, lower skipping probabilities, and higher regressive saccade rates than in monolingual adults. High-proficient HSs were more similar to monolingual children, while low-proficient HSs performed on par with L2 learners. Low-proficient HSs differed from high-proficient HSs in exhibiting lower skipping probabilities, higher fixation counts, and larger frequency effects. Taken together, our findings are consistent with the weaker links account of bilingual language processing as well as the divergent attainment theory of HL.


Except for Soviet citizens, no people in this century have endured so much mass killing as have the Chinese. They have been murdered by rebels conniving with their own rulers, and then, after the defeat in war of the imperial dynasty, by soldiers of other lands. They have been killed by warlords who ruled one part of China or another. They have been executed by Nationalists or Communists because they had the wrong beliefs or attitudes or were simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. In "China's Bloody Century", R.J. Rummel's careful estimate of the total number of killings exceeds 5 million. How do we explain such killings, crossing ideological bounds and political conditions? According to Rummel, the one constant factor in all the Chinese mass murder, as it was in the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany, is arbitrary power. It was the factor that united warlords, Nationalists, Communists, and foreign armies. The author argues that whenever such undisciplined power is centralized and unchecked, the possibility exists that it will be used at the whim of dictators to kill for their own ends, whether the aim is ethnic-racial purity, national unity, development, or utopia. The book presents successive periods in modern Chinese history, with each chapter divided into three parts. Rummel first relates the history of the period within which the nature and the amount of killings are presented. He then provides a detailed statistical table giving the basic estimates with their sources and qualifications. The final part offers an appendix that explains and elaborates the statistical computations and estimates. While estimates are available in the literature on the number of Chinese killed in Communist land reform, or in Tibet, or by the Nationalists in one military campaign or another, until this book no one has tried to systematically accumulate, organize, add up, and analyze these diverse killings for all of China's governments in this century. For the first time in one place, hundreds of published estimates of Chinese genocide and mass murder are listed with sources, analyzed, and their historical context presented. This book will be of central interest to Sinologists, Sovietologists, and those interested in comparative politics and society.


The objectives of this study are i) to determine an electrical property, especially resistance, of carbon  (C), tin oxide (SnO2), and C+SnO2 thin films. ii) to determine the optical property of C, SnO2 and C+SnO2 thin films based on UV-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis). and iii) to determine the crystallinity of C, SnO2 and C+SnO2 thin films based on X-ray diffraction (XRD). The results show different physical characteristics from the three samples of the thin film layers. The result on the resistance measurement shows that C thin film has the lowest resistance, followed by SnO2, and C+SnO2 thin films with resistance values of 1.0769 mΩ, 1.0774 mΩ, and 3.8875 mΩ, respectively. The UV-Vis results show a peak for each of the thin film at 256 nm, 257 nm, and 258 nm for C, SnO2, and C+SnO2, respectively, which is in the UV area. The XRD results show that the C and SnO2 thin layers are amorphous while C+SnO2 thin layer is crystal


BILINGUAL DEVELOPMENT: LANGUAGE INPUT AT HOME IN SEQUENTIAL SPANISH-ENGLISH CHILDREN by Vanessa Noemy Bermudez The literature on language input provided to sequential Spanish-English bilingual children has largely been focused on children attending Head Start. The role of siblings in children's language outcomes has only been investigated in simultaneous bilinguals. The current longitudinal study extended research on language input by investigating early developmental changes in language input and the role of siblings in the language outcomes of 112 sequential Spanish-English bilingual children. Relative exposure was assessed via a parent interview when children were 18 and 56 months of age. Standardized measures of receptive vocabulary and expressive language in Spanish and English were administered at 56 months. Findings showed an increase in English relative exposure over time in overall exposure and in the exposure provided by different sources of language input, including parents, siblings, and other adults. Linear mixed models' results demonstrated that relative exposure from siblings was a unique predictor of children's scores at 56 months, extending previous research on young simultaneous bilinguals. Future research should incorporate siblings when investigating the language input of sequential bilinguals and when designing programs aimed at supporting their


The recently adopted global climate deal is expected to enter into force in 2020, at the end of the second commitment period of the Kyoto Protocol. It has been hailed as a turning point in climate negotiations, after the failed attempt at Copenhagen climate conference in 2009 and four years of groundwork started in 2011 with the Durban Platform for Enhanced Action, whose mandate was to involve all countries, both developed and developing, in adopting "a protocol, another legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force" applicable to all Parties to the UNFCCC. The paper examines the main features of the new global climate agreement, paying particular attention on mitigation, cooperative approaches, adaptation and loss & damage, climate finance, compliance and review mechanisms.


The aggregation of an amyloid protein, α-synuclein (α-Syn), has been suggested as a potential cause of Parkinson's and several other neurodegenerative diseases. To explore the possibility of using nanoparticle-based therapeutic agents for the treatment of such diseases, we investigated the influence of surface chemistry and concentration of mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNPs) on the fibrillation of recombinant human α-Syn protein in the present work. Bare MSNPs as well as MSNPs of different surface functionalities, including 3-(2-aminoethyl amino) propyltrimethoxysilane (AAS), succinic anhydride (carboxyl), and polyethyleneimine (PEI) were prepared and characterized by electron microscopy, zeta potential measurement, Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) isotherms, and FT-IR analyses. The process of α-Syn fibril formation was monitored by Thioflavin T (ThT) assay, atomic force microscopy (AFM) and fluorescence microscopy imaging. The conformation of α-Syn molecules in fibrillar forms and upon adsorption onto MSNPs was investigated by circular dichroism (CD) analysis, and an MTT assay was employed to evaluate the cytotoxicity effects of α-Syn fibrils on a PC12 cell line in the absence and presence of MSNPs. The synthesized MSNPs were spherical and monodisperse with an average size of 83 ± 6 nm. Our results showed that the fibril formation is reduced considerably in the presence of positively-charged MSNPs, i.e. AAS- and PEI-MSNPs, and is enhanced while treated with negatively-charged MSNPs, i.e. bare and carboxyl-MSNPs. Furthermore, it was also demonstrated that increasing the concentration of the MSNPs regardless of their surface chemistry results in greater effects on the fibril formation—promoting or inhibiting for negatively and positively-charged MSNPs respectively. Subsequently, the cytotoxicity of the formed aggregates was noticed to be significantly reduced in the presence of AAS- and PEI-MSNPs in comparison to that in the absence of these MSNPs. These results suggest that the electrostatic charges and concentration of MSNPs play important regulatory roles in the fibrillation process of α-Syn. Thus, the present study contributes towards the better understanding and control of protein fibrillation by nanoparticles which can lead to development of nanoparticle-mediated therapies.


Alice has made a decision in her mind. While she does not want to reveal it to Bob at this moment, she would like to convince Bob that she is committed to this particular decision and that she cannot change it at a later time. Is there a way for Alice to get Bob's trust? Until recently, researchers had believed that the above task can be performed with the help of quantum mechanics. And the security of the quantum scheme lies on the uncertainty principle. Nevertheless, such optimism was recently shattered by Mayers and by us, who found that Alice can always change her mind if she has a quantum computer. Here, we survey this dramatic development and its implications on the security of other quantum cryptographic schemes.

PACS numbers: 03.65.Bz, 89.70.+c, 89.80.+h


Intellectual Property Rights and Communications in Asia: Conflicting Traditions. Pradip Ninan Thomas and Jan Servaes, eds. New Delhi: Sage Publications India, 2006. 262 pp. $69 hbk. Communication and legal scholars have long been aware of the important role that intellectual property rights play in shaping communication, culture, and access to information. Most of the attention has been paid to the United States, the world's leading producer of intellectual property. However, globalization has made intellectual property rights a critical global issue, subject to international regulation through the World Trade Organization and the World Intellectual Property Organization. Scholars increasingly are focusing their attention on how intellectual property rights affect nations and cultures outside of the United States and the European Union. This edited volume by Pradip Ninan Thomas and Jan Servaes, both professors at the School of Journalism and Communication at the University of Queensland in Australia, focuses on intellectual property rights in Asia. Most of the fifteen chapters were first presented at a conference in 2004 sponsored by the World Association for Christian Communication's Global Studies Program. As is often the case with a published collection of conference papers, the work is uneven and not as cohesive thematically as it could be. Topics range from the protection of indigenous knowledge to control over sporting events in Australia. The volume does not always succeed in achieving the editors' goal of demonstrating that issues related to intellectual property rights are "fundamentally local and require local solutions." All of the contributors are critical of the current level of intellectual property rights as tilting too far in favor of capitalist business interests and not taking into account the important cultural and human rights dimensions of granting control over information and knowledge. The editors sum up that concern when they reason that "If access to knowledge in a knowledge economy is a passport to a better quality of life, then its fair distribution and universal availability ought to become a standard norm." Most of the chapters focus on copyright, though a few discuss patents as well. Unfortunately, many of the contributors make the common mistake of conflating expression with knowledge, even though copyright protects only the former and not the latter. The strongest chapters in this volume include an analysis of the U.S. Trade Representative's intellectual property rights reports regarding the Asia-Pacific region from 1999-2004, a discussion of the likely impact of intellectual property rights on traditional indigenous cultures, and a "thick description" of China's domestic film industry. The chapter on the Chinese film industry demonstrates how the complex interplay between politics, production costs, state control over distribution, and intellectual property rights creates contradictions that stymie China's attempt to embrace a "socialist market economy" for cultural and knowledge production. …


The mouse zona pellucida genes are expressed uniquely during oogenesis and are developmentally regulated in the absence of cell division. Little is known about the mechanisms that control the expression of these germ-line-specific genes that play crucial roles in early mammalian development. We have constructed a lambda gt11 cDNA library from ovarian poly(A)+ mRNA and have isolated clones coding for ZP-3, the mouse sperm receptor. The identity of the clones was confirmed by comparing their DNA sequence with an amino acid sequence obtained from an isolated ZP-3 peptide. The ZP-3 gene is transcribed as a 1.7-kilobase poly(A) mRNA that is detected exclusively in ovarian tissue. This germ-line-specific expression is reflected in the observed hypomethylation of the ZP-3 locus in ovarian but not liver or brain DNAs. The ZP-3 gene is otherwise identically organized in somatic and germ-line DNA where it appears to be present as a low-copy-number or single-copy gene. Despite the fact that the mouse sperm receptor demonstrates species specificity, the ZP-3 cDNA cross-hybridized with DNA from a variety of mammalian species, including rat, rabbit, dog, pig, cow, and human.


There is concern about the burden day-stay surgery created upon community services. We have followed 128 children and 38 adults undergoing day-stay tonsillectomy and a similar cohort of adults and children undergoing tonsillectomy as inpatients and looked at the demands made on general practice and casualty services over the 2 weeks after discharge. Twelve adults (18%) and four children (3%) required overnight admission after day-stay surgery. Within the first 2 weeks, 27 adults (48.2%) and 62 children (50%) visited their GP and 13 adults (23.2%) and six children (4.8%) visited the casualty department. There was no statistically significant difference for either adults or children when comparing the day-stay and inpatient cohorts. Adult day-stay tonsillectomy is associated with a high admission rate. Both adult and paediatric tonsillectomy lead to considerable demand for general practice and casualty services, but this demand is high regardless of whether the day-stay or inpatient route is chosen.


We investigate the real-time probing of nonequilibrium electron transfers in aqueous solutions of disulfide molecules. Our attention is focused on the elementary steps of an IR electron transfer from a charged donor (chloride ion) to a biomolecular acceptor (cystamine dihydrochloride: RSSR, 2HCl, R = (CH 2 ) 2 NH 2 ). Following a femtosecond UV excitation of the ionic donor, an ultrafast electron attachment on a SS bond takes place with a time constant of 160 ′ 20 fs at 294K. The determination of a UV signature centered around 3.0 eV and characterized by a half band width of 0.6 eV substantiates the subpicosecond formation of a nascent sulfur-centered radical anion (RS SR - ) with a 2σ/1σ * bond. The ultrafast attachment of an IR prehydrated electron on a S-S bond competes with the nonadiabatic radiationless transition of IR p-like electrons. These results raise the fundamental importance of solvent caging effects during the efficient coupling between a p-like IR prehydrated electron and a S-S bond.


Author: Miguel A. Montoya Title: Environmentally Tuning Asphalt Pavements Using Phase Change Materials: Benefits, Design, and Challenges Major Professor: Dr. John E. Haddock The vulnerability of highway infrastructure to changes in environmental conditions is becoming a topic of concern, and the effects of climate on pavement performance need to be better mitigated. Abrupt environmental fluctuations can detrimentally affect pavement performance and service conditions. Moreover, noticeable temperature fluctuations, coupled with heavy vehicles and ample rainfall and snow precipitations, can cause pavements to reach their limiting performance criteria rapidly. Asphalt materials must balance the need for thermal management with mechanical resistance to maximize pavement performance in such unpredictable environments. The ability to endow asphalt pavements with thermal energy storage capacities based on environmental conditions will enhance their life cycle performance. Phase Change Materials (PCMs) have demonstrated ideal characteristics as thermoregulating agents for various engineering applications. PCMs are substances that absorb and release thermal energy as they liquify and solidify, depending on pavement temperature. Accordingly, this study investigates the environmental tuning of asphalt pavements using PCMs. This dissertation presents four thematic research efforts that intend to: (1) reveal the benefits of modifying asphalt pavements with PCMs to lessen the appearance of low and high temperatures in roads, (2) develop characterization and design techniques to aid the tuning of asphalt pavements with Microencapsulated PCMs (μPCMs), (3) illustrate the challenges of implementing new paving technologies, and (4) propose a statistical approach to predict the volumetric, mechanical, and thermal properties of asphalt mixtures simultaneously. The findings of this dissertation corroborate through experimental and computational results that, indeed, PCMs can enhance the thermal response of asphalt pavements to adverse freezing temperatures, leading to a considerable reduction in snow accumulation and ice formation at the pavement's surface. A prototype PCM asphalt pavement slab shows that, over a year and across 100 locations in the United States, the exposure of asphalt pavements to freezing temperatures could be reduced up to 29.1% by taking advantage of the thermal effect of PCMs. Additionally, μPCM modified asphalt mixtures demonstrate that high temperatures (above 43°C) in asphalt pavements could be alleviated, reducing the contributions of roads to the urban heat island effect. Thermal cycling results suggest that μPCM tuned asphalt mixture specimens can experience temperature reductions between 1.8 and 10.3°C, as compared to non-μPCM modified asphalt mixture specimens subjected to the same ambient temperatures. However, this outcome depends on the amount and characteristics of μPCMs, asphalt mixture materials, ambient temperature, phase change transition (liquification or solidification), depth from the pavement surface, and density of the compacted asphalt mixture specimens. Thus, to systematize this tuning effect, a portion of this study focuses on developing a rheological approach for identifying the μPCM latent heat effect and a design approach for reproducing asphalt mixtures with μPCM in large quantities. A Complex Shear Modulus (G*) Change Rate emerges as one of the most interesting findings of this dissertation and as a novel parameter to detect the μPCM latent heat effect using rheological measurements. The G* Change Rate links well with the Differential Scanning Calorimetry results of μPCM modified asphalt binders and thermal response of μPCM modified asphalt mixtures. Although the design of μPCM modified asphalt mixtures is successfully demonstrated, mechanical testing results reveal that there are still several challenges to be addressed in the implementation of μPCM tuned asphalt pavements. As such, this dissertation presents a field demonstration project accompanied by a thorough statistical analysis that could assist in implementing asphalt pavements with PCMs. The proposed statistical approach could help adjust the volumetric, mechanical, and thermal properties of μPCM modified asphalt mixtures. Overall, the findings of this dissertation are worth further exploration to promote the adaptability of asphalt pavements to the environment through the utilization of thermal energy storage systems.


Cultivation analysis investigates television's contributions to viewers' conceptions of social reality. Developed by George Gerbner in the 1960s, cultivation research continues to expand in numerous directions, with over 125 new studies published since 2000. This article reviews the history of cultivation theory and takes stock of recent trends in the field. We argue that cultivation has taken on certain paradigmatic qualities, and we consider the future prospects for cultivation research in the context of the changing media environment.


This study examines the ideological content of six internationally-used ELT textbooks, three British and three American. Applying the theory and procedures of critical discourse analysis (CDA), three aspects of the conversations in the textbooks, i.e. content, relations, and positions were examined. Results suggest that in terms of content, British textbooks tend to entertain the students while American textbooks include more occupational and business-related issues. Regarding relations, characters in the conversations were placed in socially equal roles. Moreover, inequalities were rarely addressed in the interactions and there was little attempt to make learners aware of issues such as dialogue management strategies. Finally, characters in the conversations took mostly societal positions.


This thesis focuses on two aspects of European economic integration: exchange rate stabilization between non-euro Countries and the Euro Area, and real and nominal convergence of Central and Eastern European Countries. Each Chapter covers these aspects from both a theoretical and empirical perspective. Chapter 1 investigates whether the introduction of the euro was accompanied by a shift in the de facto exchange rate policy of European countries outside the euro area, using methods recently developed by the literature to detect "Fear of Floating" episodes. I find that European Inflation Targeters have tried to stabilize the euro exchange rate, after its introduction; fixed exchange rate arrangements, instead, apart from official policy changes, remained stable. Finally, the euro seems to have gained a relevant role as a reference currency even outside Europe. Chapter 2 proposes an approach to estimate Central Bank preferences starting from the Central Bank's optimization problem within a small open economy, using Sweden as a case study, to find whether stabilization of the exchange rate played a role in the Monetary Policy rule of the Riksbank. The results show that it did not influence interest rate setting; exchange rate stabilization probably occurred as a result of increased economic integration and business cycle convergence.
Chapter 3 studies the interactions between wages in the public sector, the traded private sector and the closed sector in ten EU Transition Countries. The theoretical literature on wage spillovers suggests that the traded sector should be the leader in wage setting, with non-traded sectors wages adjusting. We show that large heterogeneity across countries is present, and sheltered and public sector wages are often leaders in wage determination. This result is relevant from a policy perspective since wage spillovers, leading to costs growing faster than productivity, may affect the international cost competitiveness of the traded sector.


Objectives: The aim of this study was to work collaboratively with a rural Community Mental Health Team (CMHT) to examine the issue of workplace stress and address issues specified by the group. Method: A five stage action research method following the Susman and Evered Model of Change was implemented for this research with four distinct cycles completed. Results: A cyclic process of action research established that organizational policies, clinical skills and educational levels of staff were inadequate. Two overarching themes drove the research cycles: staff safety and inadequate education of nursing staff to assess and appropriately manage consumers with mental health issues. Conclusions: This study found that unsafe environmental conditions in the health workplace and limited staff knowledge contributed to workplace stress. Staff identified as vital strategies to manage aggressive or potentially aggressive incidents effectively and ensure staff and client safety. Managers, policy makers and government officials need awareness of the threats to healthy workforces. Tools to guide practice and staff education were implemented to address the identified problems.


In this paper a presentation is made of the method recently developed in Portugal for the detection of inconsistent horizontal curves in single carriageway rural roads of the Portuguese National Road Network, and the improvement of their safety records. The method involves the determination of the consistency class for each curve on a road, and the application of a systematic treatment - involving such low cost engineering measures as marking, signing and shoulder improvement - to the curves of each class. It is intended that this method will be applied progressively to over 8700 km of national roads.


Clinical descriptions of Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) positive infectious mononucleosis (IM) are rare and their results are inconsistent. Over a 4-year period, we prospectively studied 590 young adults with clinically suspected IM, all of whom were tested for the presence of EBV IgM antibodies. We investigated the demographical, clinical and laboratory features of subjects with positive EBV IgM serology and heterophile antibodies. Contrary to previous studies, we found a seasonal disease pattern with a peak incidence during summer months, and a lower-than-expected prevalence of lymphadenopathy (88·9%), leucocytosis (46·2%), atypical lymphocytosis (89·2%) and elevated liver enzymes (57·9%). The prevalence of hyperbilirubinemia was relatively high (14·9%). The classic triad of fever, sore throat and lymph-adenopathy had relatively low sensitivity (68·2%) and specificity (41·9%) for EBV infection. Our study provides a complete and updated description of the clinical and laboratory presentation of laboratory confirmed IM, which is important for both clinicians and epidemiologists.


We describe progress on a novel process-chain being used to produce eight 1.4m hexagonal segments as prototypes for the European Extremely Large Telescope - a Master Spherical Segment as a reference, and seven aspheric segments. A new pilot plant integrates a bespoke full-aperture test-tower designed and built by OpTIC Glyndwr, with a Zeeko 1.6m polishing machine. The process chain starts with aspherising hexagonal segments on the Cranfield BoX™ grinder, followed by smoothing, corrective-polishing and edge-rectification using the Zeeko CNC platform. The paper describes the technology and progress, and anticipates how the process-chain is expected to evolve through the seven segments to increase both process-speed and surface-quality.


This paper summarizes our past achievements in thermo management material solutions' development, recently venturing into Capture of atmospheric Carbon for Re-Use applications. Climate Change is closely related to the CO2 stock in atmosphere, nowadays at 550Gt. To stay within the +2°C scenario this atmospheric stock should never go beyond 800Gt[1]. Therefore opportunities to Re-Use atmospheric Carbon stock in substitution of imported fossil Carbon from earlier ages should be explored. Hydrogen-Carbon Synthesis based materials can offer a great opportunity to achieve Carbon offsets > 100% of the feedstock's Carbon content if transformation efficiencies are favorable. Therefore shifting from mined to Captured Carbon resources could offer one of the greatest economic opportunities to mitigate Climate Change.


In this paper, we propose a novel transmit beamforming algorithm combined with vertical Bell laboratories layered space-time (V-BLAST) over correlated fading channels. Using the antenna groups at the transmitter, not only spatial multiplexing gain but also beamforming gain can be achieved. We encode the transmit signals in order to enhance the diversity gain compared with conventional V-BLAST system combined with beamforming without changing the number of antennas. Simulation result shows that our proposed algorithm provides a significant reduction in the BER compared with the conventional V-BLAST and transmit beamforming combined with V-BLAST without encoding transmit data.


Sequencing the human genome has made vast amounts of potentially useful genetic data accessible. An important challenge in statistics is to develop methodology to extract information from this data. In this thesis, developments are made in two methodological areas that have wide applications in genetics. First, probabilistic methods to deal with the label switching problem in Bayesian mixture models are introduced. Mixture models are used in situations where populations may consist of a number of sub-populations, or as a semi-parametric modelling tool. The label switching problem can prevent meaningful interpretation of the output of Markov Chain Monte Carlo samplers. Specifically, inference on attributes specific to sub-populations can be difficult. Such attributes play an important role in understanding genetic effects. We introduce probabilistic relabelling strategies as a natural way of overcoming the label switching problem, and compare with existing strategies. The comparisons demonstrate that the advantages oered by probabilistic strategies come without loss in parameter estimation ability. Second, we introduce direct eect testing (DET), which is a novel method that distinguishes direct from indirect eects between binary predictors and a binary response. DET consists of two stages: the rst stage nds eects, the second stage infers the uncertainty in determining which predictors cause which eects. The method is useful when it is of interest to recover direct eects between a large number of predictors and the response. This is a common goal in genetics, where we are interested in the eects of variations in the genome on the prevalence of a phenotype. This work includes detailed simulations, comparing the ability of a number of methods at recovering direct eects. DET outperforms existing methods at recovering direct eects in situations where there is high correlation between predictors, and matches their performance when the correlation is moderate or small.


Getting steam out of the ground is the first crucial step in the conversion of geothermal steam into electricity. Getting it to the turbine and making the steam flow measurement is likewise important. It is at the turbine or, more precisely, just before the turbine, that many measurements are made. Performance Acceptance Tests (PAT's) are conducted here to ensure that the equipment provided by the turbine manufacturer is performing as specified. The need for accurate steam flow measurement is critical on the main steam line (MSL). Historically, orifice plates, venturies and averaging pitot tubes have been used with greater or lesser success and with associated challenges. Orifice plates typically have high permanent pressure losses and averaging pitot tubes have small holes on their leading edge which can plug. A different solution is needed — one that provides an accurate and repeatable measurement with low maintenance requirements. In recent testing spanning over a year of operation, it was found that an Annubar™ flowmeter, installed in the top mounted position, provided the low permanent pressure loss, and met the accuracy, repeatability and maintenance requirements of the end user. Typically, in steam applications with Annubar primary elements, conventional wisdom dictates that the Annubar primary element and transmitter be positioned below the pipe. The previously recommended orientation has a number of issues particularly with geothermal steam and its constituents (silica scale, non-condensable gases,) plus the likelihood that pockets of condensate will form and lead to metallurgical issues including stress corrosion cracking, thus shortening the life of the primary element. The installation can be further enhanced with an automated nitrogen purge system that blows nitrogen through the Annubar primary element to ensure the ports remain clear. The MSL flow measurement is critical for regulatory compliance and performance monitoring. Knowing with precision and repeatability the volumetric steam flow rate is critical. The top-mounted Annubar flowmeter with nitrogen purge system, which has been in service for more than a year, has proven to be reliable and has provided precise, repeatable measurement of steam flow.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


To the noise in the vibration information of long-distance distributed optical fiber-sensing system, discrete wavelet transform was adopted to eliminate. On the basis of analyzing noise eliminating theory, wavelet shrinkage method was proposed and a few kinds of threshold selection rules were discussed. The processing results of different noise eliminating techniques to vibration signal and its energy distribution in frequency domain were simulated and analyzed. The results show that discrete wavelet transform has the same excellent performance with stationary wavelet transform in noise eliminating to vibration signal.