Researchers evaluated the efficacy of an intervention based in general practice on the occurrence of repeat episodes of deliberate self harm.1 A cluster randomised controlled trial study was performed, involving 98 general practices. The intervention consisted of a letter from the general practitioner inviting the patient to consult, with guidelines on the assessment and management of deliberate self harm for the GP to use in consultations. The control treatment was standard care. Participants were patients registered with one of the study practices who had attended an emergency department after an episode of deliberate self harm (referred to as the index episode). A total of 1932 patients were recruited; 964 were allocated to the intervention and 968 to the control.

The primary outcome was a repeat episode of deliberate self harm in the 12 months after the index episode (categorised as yes or no). Although a higher proportion of patients had a repeat episode of deliberate self harm in the intervention group than in the control group, the difference was not significant (21.9% (n=211) v 19.5% (n=189); odds ratio 1.2, 95% confidence interval 0.9 to 1.5; P=0.16). No significant interaction existed between the treatment group and the patient's sex (P=0.51) or the method used to cause self harm (categorised as poisoning, laceration, or other) (P=0.64). A significant interaction existed between the treatment group and a history of deliberate self harm before the index episode (categorised as yes or no) (P=0.017). A subsequent subgroup analysis showed an apparent benefit of the intervention for patients with a history of deliberate self harm (0.57, 0.33 to 0.98), but an adverse effect for patients …


The CSGM framework (Bora-Jalal-Price-Dimakis'17) has shown that deep generative priors can be powerful tools for solving inverse problems. However, to date this framework has been empirically successful only on certain datasets (for example, human faces and MNIST digits), and it is known to perform poorly on out-of-distribution samples. In this paper, we present the first successful application of the CSGM framework on clinical MRI data. We train a generative prior on brain scans from the fastMRI dataset, and show that posterior sampling via Langevin dynamics achieves high quality reconstructions. Furthermore, our experiments and theory show that posterior sampling is robust to changes in the ground-truth distribution and measurement process. Our code and models are available at: \url{https://github.com/utcsilab/csgm-mri-langevin}.


Concern has been voiced in the research ethics literature that under U.S. federal regulations U.S. sponsors, particularly the NIH, are not required to provide compensation for the treatment of research-related injury for trial participants or to allow grant funds to be used by investigators for appropriate insurance. This is problematic in developing country contexts because most participants are unlikely to have health insurance, resulting in overburdened and under-resourced health systems in many developing countries being responsible for providing care and treatment for research-related injury. This study provides preliminary insight into how respondent principal investigators of NIH-sponsored HIV/AIDS clinical trials in Africa and African research ethics committees deal with compensation for research-related injury. The majority of PIs surveyed provided free treatment for research-related injury, but few provided other forms of financial reparation to participants. The study also found that half of the PIs surveyed indicated that NIH funds were used for compensation, highlighting a contradiction between literature and practice. The majority of REC chairs surveyed indicated that their RECs routinely reviewed compensation plans for research-related injury and that their ethics application forms specifically requested information on compensation. Findings from one southern African country revealed that NIH funds were not used to provide treatment and/or financial reparation for research-related injury. Instead, PIs from this country relied on the government or the individual research participant (and/or their medical aid/health insurer) to cover the costs of research-related injury. The findings are discussed in the light of the recent (December 2011) U.S. Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethics report which recommends that research participants are morally entitled to compensation for research-related injury.


ABSTRACT Background and Objective: The Flipped Classroom (FC) approach has become increasingly predominant and popular in medical education. This study aimed to explore the usefulness and the scope of FC based on medical students' experience, with their adaptation challenges. Methods: The present study was a mixed-method accomplished during the academic years 2019-20, involving fourth-year students at the College of Medicine in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A self-administered questionnaire was used to seek their first experience and opinion of the FC. Results: A total of 234 questionnaires were distributed to the students, and 214 students completed the survey (response rate of 91.45%). Out of this total, 68.2 % were males and 31.8% were females. Most of the students agreed 156 (72.9%) that the flipped classroom was more engaging than the traditional lecture, among them 100 (68.5%) males and 56 (82.3) females agreed. Almost ~79% of students liked FC as it enabled them knowing the material in advance, and the class time was spent clarifying the facts and principles with active interaction, as commented during focus group discussion "More chance for discussing with the doctors, and I got the chance to answer" (St. 6). Conclusion: The results showed that the students like the FC more than the conventional classroom. Suggestions were given by students to improve the active learning sessions within the FC modality.


Over the past decade, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have become the breakthrough technology most anticipated to have a transformative effect on pharmaceutical research and development (R&D). This is partially driven by revolutionary advances in computational technology and the parallel dissipation of previous constraints to the collection/processing of large volumes of data. Meanwhile, the cost of bringing new drugs to market and to patients has become prohibitively expensive. Recognizing these headwinds, AI/ML techniques are appealing to the pharmaceutical industry due to their automated nature, predictive capabilities, and the consequent expected increase in efficiency. ML approaches have been used in drug discovery over the past 15–20 years with increasing sophistication. The most recent aspect of drug development where positive disruption from AI/ML is starting to occur, is in clinical trial design, conduct, and analysis. The COVID-19 pandemic may further accelerate utilization of AI/ML in clinical trials due to an increased reliance on digital technology in clinical trial conduct. As we move towards a world where there is a growing integration of AI/ML into R&D, it is critical to get past the related buzz-words and noise. It is equally important to recognize that the scientific method is not obsolete when making inferences about data. Doing so will help in separating hope from hype and lead to informed decision-making on the optimal use of AI/ML in drug development. This manuscript aims to demystify key concepts, present use-cases and finally offer insights and a balanced view on the optimal use of AI/ML methods in R&D.


It has been suggested that exertional rhabdomyolysis (ER) and malignant hyperthermia (MH) are related syndromes. We hypothesize that patients with unexplained ER harbor mutations in the ryanodine receptor gene type 1 (RYR1), a primary gene implicated in MH, and therefore ER patients are at increased risk for MH. Although there are reported cases of MH in individuals of African descent, there are no data available on molecular characterization of these patients. We analyzed RYR1 in six, unrelated African American men with unexplained ER, who were subsequently diagnosed as MH susceptible (MHS) by the Caffeine Halothane Contracture Test. Three novel and two variants, previously reported in Caucasian MHS subjects, were found in five studied patients. The novel variants were highly conserved amino acids and were absent among 230 control subjects of various ethnic backgrounds. These results emphasize the importance of performing muscle contracture testing and RYR1 mutation screening in patients with unexplained ER. The MHS‐associated variant Ala1352Gly was identified as a polymorphism predominant in individuals of African descent. Our data underscore the need for investigating RYR1 across different ethnic groups and will contribute to interpretation of genetic screening results of individuals at risk for MH.


Transversal implementations of encoded unitary gates are highly desirable for fault-tolerant quantum computation. Though transversal gates alone cannot be computationally universal, they can be combined with specially distilled resource states in order to achieve universality. We show that "triorthogonal" stabilizer codes, introduced for state distillation by Bravyi and Haah [Phys. Rev. A 86, 052329 (2012)], admit transversal implementation of the controlled-controlled-Z gate. We then construct a universal set of fault-tolerant gates without state distillation by using only transversal controlled-controlled-Z, transversal Hadamard, and fault-tolerant error correction. We also adapt the distillation procedure of Bravyi and Haah to Toffoli gates, improving on existing Toffoli distillation schemes.


Although the concept of place has most often been used to examine micro-scale locales, recent explications of place-making and place-framing can usefully inform debates on nations, nationalism, and the nation-state. Viewing the nation as a contested, unstable, and relational place enables a pluralist and dynamic understanding of how nation-places are constructed and contested, by whom, and towards what ends. In this paper, we examine public debates over the extraction of the Canadian tar sands as an illustrative example of how place is negotiated, deployed, and contested to legitimize particular outcomes. We analyzed 50 articles from one of Canada's most widely circulated daily newspapers, The Globe and Mail. We found diverging place-frames of Canada used by government, industry, Indigenous groups, environmentalists, and other stakeholders as they make cases for and against the development of the tar sands. Framings of Canada promoted by the government and industry—Canada as a modern, rational, and legitimate actor—featured most prominently in the sample. Importantly, however, counter-frames trouble narratives of Canada's inherent benevolent and responsible nature, and offer a small, yet strong opposition to hegemonic national imaginaries.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the contribution of HLA-DM alleles to susceptibility to systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in a Caucasian population.

METHODS
HLA-DMA and DMB alleles were studied in 73 patients with SLE, 147 randomly selected controls, and 86 HLA-DRB1 genotype matched controls by oligotyping of polymerase chain reaction amplified genomic DNA with sequence-specific oligonucleotide probes.

RESULTS
There was a significant presence of HLA-DMA*0103, DMA*0104, and DMB*0102 in the SLE patients compared with the randomly selected controls. After stratification of patients and matched controls according to DRB1 genotypes, only HLA-DMA*0104 was increased in SLE patients negative for the SLE susceptibility HLA-DR alleles. For the patients and controls positive for HLA-DR allele-susceptibility for SLE, HLA-DMA*0103, DMA*0104, DMB*0102, and DMB*0103 alleles tended to be more frequent, but without reaching statistical significance. No correlation was found between HLA-DM phenotype frequencies and any clinical or biological manifestations of SLE.

CONCLUSION
This is the first study evaluating the influence of HLA-DM in a Caucasian SLE population. Our results suggest that HLA-DMA*0104 may represent a novel allele of susceptibility to SLE.


: A cytological investigation of erythropoiesis and the peripheral blood was performed in 66 patients with a severe burn disease. It was established that the ultraviolet photomodification of the autoblood in complex with detoxication optimized hemopoiesis and allowed the nontransfusion correction of burn anemia to be performed at the expense of using the reserves of medullary hemopoiesis. The maintenance of basic parameters of the peripheral blood at the adaptational level requires 20% less erythrocyte-containing preparations of blood which naturally reduces the risk of post-transfusional complications.


The pervasiveness of smartphones has facilitated a new way in which owners of devices can monitor their health using applications (apps) that are installed on their smartphones. Smartphone personal health monitoring (SPHM) collects and stores health related data of the user either locally or in a third party storing mechanism. They are also capable of giving feedback to the user of the app in response to conditions that are provided to the app therefore empowering the user to actively make decisions to adjust their lifestyle. Regardless of the benefits that this new innovative technology offers to its users, there are some ethical concerns to the user of SPHM apps. These ethical concerns are in some way connected to the features of SPHM apps. From a literature survey, this paper attempts to recognize ethical issues with personal health monitoring apps on smartphones, viewed in light of general ethics of ubiquitous computing. The paper argues that there are ethical concerns with the use of SPHM apps regardless of the benefits that the technology offers to users due to SPHM apps' ubiquity leaving them open to known and emerging ethical concerns. The paper then propose a need for further empirical research to validate the claim.


The paper deals with agri-environmental indicators, examines farm inputs, on the basis of statistical data of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (Szabo, Pomazi 2002) and the Eurostat (2004). The examined indicators are placed in the agricultural DPSIR model. The paper presents how the use of farm inputs changed in Hungary from 1980-2000. Farm inputs are related to the inputs of the EU-15, the study demonstrates that today they are below the EU- 15 average. Area under agri-environmental measures in 2003 - which covered the 4% of agricultural area of Hungary - as a response indicator is also presented and based in the land-use zone system developed by Godollo Agricultural University (Angyan et al., 1998).


A large diameter steel pipe reinforced by stiffening rings with saddle supports was subjected to thermal cycling as the system was started up, operated, and shut down. The pipe functioned as an emission control exhaust duct from a furnace and was designed originally using lengths of rolled and welded COR-TEN steel plate butt welded together on site. The pipe sustained local buckling and cracking, then fractured during the first five months of operation. Failure was due to low cycle fatigue and fast fracture caused by differential thermal expansion stresses. Thermal lag between the stiffening rings welded to the outside of the pipe and the pipe wall itself resulted in large radial and axial thermal stresses at the welds. Redundant tied down saddle supports in each segment of pipe between expansion joints restrained pipe arching due to circumferential temperature variations, producing large axial thermal bending stresses. Thermal cycling of the system initiated fatigue cracks at the stiffener rings. When the critical crack size was reached, fast fracture occurred. The system was redesigned by eliminating the redundant restraints and by modifying the stiffener rings to permit free radial thermal breathing of the pipe.


Globally, expansion of non‐native woody vegetation across floodplains has raised concern of increased evapotranspiration (ET) water loss with consequent reduced river flows and groundwater supplies. Water salvage programs, established to meet water supply demands by removing introduced species, show little documented evidence of program effectiveness. We use two case studies in the USA and Australia to illustrate factors that contribute to water salvage feasibility for a given ecological setting. In the USA, saltcedar (Tamarix spp.) has become widespread on western rivers, with water salvage programs attempted over a 50‐year period. Some studies document riparian transpiration or ET reduction after saltcedar removal, but detectable increases in river base flow are not conclusively shown. Furthermore, measurements of riparian vegetation ET in natural settings show saltcedar ET overlaps the range measured for native riparian species, thereby constraining the possibility of water salvage by replacing saltcedar with native vegetation. In Australia, introduced willows (Salix spp.) have become widespread in riparian systems in the Murray–Darling Basin. Although large‐scale removal projects have been undertaken, no attempts have been made to quantify increases in base flows. Recent studies of ET indicate that willows growing in permanently inundated stream beds have high transpiration rates, indicating water savings could be achieved from removal. In contrast, native Eucalyptus trees and willows growing on stream banks show similar ET rates with no net water salvage from replacing willows with native trees. We conclude that water salvage feasibility is highly dependent on the ecohydrological setting in which the non‐native trees occur. We provide an overview of conditions favorable to water salvage. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


BACKGROUND
Mechanical ventilation is commonly used during the acute management of cervical spinal cord injury, and is required on an ongoing basis in the majority of patients with injuries at or above C3. However, to date there have been limited systematic investigations of the options available to improve speech while ventilator-assisted post-cervical spinal cord injury.

AIMS
To provide preliminary evidence of any benefits gained through the addition of positive end expiratory pressure (PEEP) and/or a tracheostomy speech valve to the condition of leak speech.

METHODS & PROCEDURES
Speech production in the three conditions was compared in two ventilator-assisted participants using a series of instrumental and perceptual speech measures.

OUTCOMES & RESULTS
The addition of PEEP or the use of a speech valve resulted in speech that was superior to leak speech for both participants; however, individual variation was present.

CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS
Leak speech alone or with the addition of PEEP or a tracheostomy speech valve can facilitate functional communication for the ventilated patient, though PEEP and valve speech were found to be superior in the current study. These findings will be of assistance for clinicians counselling the growing population of patients who may require tracheostomy positive pressure ventilation long-term regarding communication options.


A successful completion of a project entails the proper use of project management. Project management includes different areas of which scope, as a major one, requires  identification of the work that should be completed in a project. This is greatly facilitated by the use Work Breakdown Structure (WBS), of which Work Packages (WPs) are the basic components. This study aimed at identifying major criteria used by project managers, to establish the work content of the WPs included in the project. The study is based on analysis of 25 projects by their project managers. As part of the analysis, project managers requested to analyze a sample of WPs from each project generating a total of 219 WPs that were analyzed. Five major groups of WPs nature were identified, namely' design, testing, management, production, and procurement.  Project managers were asked to identify the rule used by them to stop further decomposition of WPs. Six major rules were identified, which captured 93% of the rules used by project managers in establishing the WP size.


This study aimed at determining whether fine-scale molecular diversity of Symbiodinium corresponds to functional differences in host/symbiont specificity during the onset of symbiosis in cnidarian/alga mutualisms. Infection experiments were conducted in aposymbiotic larvae of the scleractinian Fungia scutaria using known algal Internal Transcribed Spacer (ITS)-2 types within Clade C. Our results show that algal type is directly related to specificity during the onset of symbiosis in F. scutaria larvae. The 3 ITS symbiont types (C1f, C15 and C31) within the major Symbiodinium Clade C engaged differentially in symbiosis with coral larvae. The homologous symbiont (C1f), found in adult F. scutaria from the field, showed a significantly better association with the host larvae than the other 2 heterologous symbionts (C15 extracted from Porites compressa, and C31 from Montipora capitata). This is the first evidence that fine-scale ITS diversity of Symbiodinium confers functionality in the symbiosis.


The Val158Met polymorphism of the gene encoding catechol‐O‐methyltransferase (COMT) is one of the most widely tested variants for association with psychiatric disorders, but replication has been inconsistent including both sex limitation and heterogeneity of the associated allele. In this study we investigate the association between three SNPs from COMT and anxiety and depression disorders and neuroticism all measured within the same study sample. Participants were selected as sibling pairs (or multiples) that were either concordant or discordant for extreme neuroticism scores from a total sample of 18,742 Australian twin individuals and their siblings. All participants completed the Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) from which diagnoses of DSM‐IV depression and anxiety disorders were determined. Of the participants, 674 had a diagnosis of anxiety and/or depression from 492 families. Study participants (n = 2,045 from 987 families) plus, where possible, their parents were genotyped for rs737865, rs4680 (Val158Met), and rs165599. Using family based tests we looked for association between these variants and neuroticism, depression, anxiety, panic disorder and agarophobia (PDAG) and obsessive compulsive disorder. We found no convincing evidence for association either in allelic or genotypic tests for the total sample or when the sample was stratified by sex. Haplotype T‐G‐G showed weak association (P = 0.042) with PDAG before correction for multiple testing; association between this haplotype and schizophrenia has been previously reported in an Australian sample. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


The role of particular third sector organisations, Social Clubs, in supporting gambling through the use of EGMs in venues presents as a difficult social issue. Social Clubs gain revenue from gambling activities; but also contribute to social well-being through the provision of services to communities. The revenues derived from gambling in specific geographic locales has been seen by government as a way to increase economic development particularly in deprived areas. However there are also concerns about accessibility of low-income citizens to Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMS) and the high level of gambling overall in these deprived areas. We argue that social capital can be viewed as a guard against deleterious effects of unconstrained use of EGM gambling in communities. However, it is contended that social capital may also be destroyed by gambling activity if commercial business actors are able to use EGMs without community obligations to service provision.
This paper examines access to gambling through EGMs and its relationship to social capital and the consequent effect on community resilience, via an Australian case study. The results highlight the potential two-way relationship between gambling and volunteering, such that volunteering (and social capital more generally) may help protect against problems of gambling, but also that volunteering as an activity may be damaged by increased gambling activity. This suggests that, regardless of the direction of causation, it is necessary to build up social capital via volunteering and other social capital activities in areas where EGMS are concentrated. The study concludes that Social Clubs using EGMs to derive funds are uniquely positioned within the community to develop programs that foster social capital creation and build community resilience in deprived areas.


This study explores the potential links between specialization in cocoa exports and deforestation in developing nations through the lens of ecologically unequal exchange. Although chocolate production was once considered to have only minimal impacts on forests, recent reports suggest damaging trends due to increased demand and changing cultivation strategies. I use two sets of regression analyses to show the increased impact of cocoa export concentration on deforestation over time for less-developed nations. Overall, the results confirm that cocoa exports are associated with deforestation in the most recent time period, and suggest that specialization in cocoa exports is an important form of ecologically unequal exchange, where the environmental costs of chocolate consumption in the Global North are externalized to nations in the Global South, further impairing possibilities for successful or sustainable development.


Retailing Retold offers an alternative approach to the analysis of how international retail images are translated across national boundaries. The approach extends the view on image in previous research as an instrument for monitoring the effects of marketing strategies on consumers' perceptions of the retailer. Instead, it suggests that the usefulness of image resides in its ability to capture the relationship between international retailing and the lived culture. Informed by communication and cultural studies, the book argues that the formation of retail image needs to be understood as a construction process whereby consumers give retailing meaning in everyday practice. To this end, image construction is posited as a spatial storytelling in which consumers make sense of their experiences of retailing. In the tension between the strategically planned retail place and the lived spaces of those who use it, image is produced. In the book the image construction process is empirically explored through consumers' storytelling of a major international furnishing retailer situated in Sweden and China. The exploration demonstrates how image is built via the manner by which the retailer is retold. By being retold, the retailer is silently provided with a unique and embodied existence in an everyday culture. The findings reveal a set of spatial tensions involved in the construction of an international retail image, which give fresh insights into how images of planned environments evolve with time and place. (Less)


A biochar produced from empty fruit bunches (EFB) was gasified in a fluidized bed using air to determine gas yield, overall carbon conversion, gas quality, and composition as a function of temperature. The experiment was conducted in the temperature range of 500–850 °C. It was observed that biochar has the potential to replace coal as a gasification agent in power plants. Hydrogen gas from biochar was also optimized during the experiment. High temperatures favor H2 and CO formation. There was an increase of H2 over the temperature range from 500–850 °C from 5.53% to 27.97% (v/v), with a heating value of 30 kJ/g. The C conversion in the same temperature range increased from 76% to 84%. Therefore, there are great prospects for the use of biochar from EFB as an alternative fuel in power plants, as a renewable energy providing an alternative path to biofuels. Results from this work enable us to better understand syn gas production under high treatment temperatures.


The thesis highlights the global and local under-representation of women in positions of
leadership. The research provides insights into the barriers that women managers in the
hospitality and financial services sectors faced, the key success factors and the strategies that
they employed in breaking the glass ceiling.
Research has established that in societies with minimal representation of women in business
leadership such as Zimbabwe, women's roles are more traditional and women tend to be found
largely in supportive and submissive roles of family care-giving, household responsibilities,
nursing and teaching. Stereotypes and gender biases are high and the glass ceiling is harder to
break. The study explores what researchers have found regarding effective leadership and
management styles and confirms that culture impacts on gender and leadership.
This thesis utilized the mixed methods approach to qualitative research in order to identify the
leadership and gender challenges that impact on the participation of women in management in
the hospitality and financial services sectors in Zimbabwe. The conceptual framework that
guided the research methodology and design was the Input- Process- Output (IPO) model used in
the systems approach. Data from the questionnaire, in depth interviews and focus discussion
groups provided input into the framework. The output provided responses to the key study
questions.
The main leadership and gender challenges identified in the thesis have to do with difficulties in
work life balance and prejudices from colleagues resulting in them not being taken seriously.
The main success factors identified included hard work, acquiring the necessary qualifications,
confidence, assertiveness and creativity in managing work life balance.
The main recommendations from the study include: acquiring the necessary professional
qualifications for the particular industry, willingness to take up challenges that come with senior
positions, hard work, effectively managing work-life balances, the need for awareness- raising
through networking with other women managers, and enforcement of policies for increasing
representation of women in boards and senior management positions.


The parotid and the principal and accessory submandibular glands of the little brown bat, Myotis lucifugus (Vespertilionidae), were examined using light microscopy and staining methods for mucosubstances. The parotid gland is a compound tubuloacinar seromucous gland. Parotid gland secretory cells contain both neutral and nonsulfated acidic mucosubstances. The principal and accessory submandibular glands are compound tubuloacinar mucus‐secreting glands. They contain somewhat atypical mucus‐secreting demilunar cells that often appear to be interspersed between mucous tubule cells. The mucous tubule cells in both the principal and accessory submandibular glands contain sulfomucins. Demilunar cells of the principal submandibular gland contain moderate amounts of nonsulfated acidic mucosubstances, but the corresponding cells of the accessory submandibular gland contain considerable neutral mucosubstance with very little acid mucosubstance. Intercalated ducts composed of cuboidal or low columnar epithelial cells are present in all three glands. Striated ducts in all glands are composed of columnar cells whose apices bulge into the ductal lumina. Excretory ducts are composed of simple columnar epithelium, with occasional basal cells that suggest a possible pseudostratified nature. The cells of the excretory ducts also have bulging apices. All duct types contain apical cytoplasmic secretory material that is a periodic acid‐Schiff positive, neutral mucosubstance. Ductal apical secretory material is more evident in intercalated and striated ducts than in excretory ducts.


A simulation-based modular planning and scheduling system developed for semiconductor fabrication facilities (SFFs) is discussed. Firstly, the general structure model (GSM) for SFFs, composed of a configurable definition layer, a physical layer, a process information layer and a planning and scheduling layer, is proposed. Secondly, a data-based dynamic simulation modeling method is given. Thirdly, a simulation-based modular planning and scheduling system (SMPSS) for SFFs, including model modules, release control modules, scheduling modules and rescheduling modules, is designed and developed. Finally, a case study is used to demonstrate the effectiveness of


In 12 asthmatic patients with mild airway obstruction we have measured the effect on specific airway resistance (sRaw) of inhaling the smoke of one Datura stramonium cigarette. In 11 patients sRaw decreased substantially after the cigarette, the mean maximal decrease being 40% at the 30th minute. In seven patients the subsequent inhalation of 200 micrograms salbutamol caused no further decrease in sRaw. In the remaining four patients salbutamol induced a larger decrease in sRaw than the cigarette smoke. The inhalation, however, of a synthetic anticholinergic agent (SCH 1000, 600 micrograms) proved as effective as salbutamol in these patients. In one patient the cigarette smoke and SCH 1000 produced only a negligible amount of bronchodilatation whereas the bronchial obstruction was reversible with salbutamol. Minor side effects were observed in six patients after the cigarette.


Consideration is given here to colour removal, carried out using immobilised biological cells, Shewanella strain J18 143. In order to provide greater control of an overall colour removal process and to give a basis for the effective recovery of the cell culture species, cell immobilisation has been established on chemically modified cellulose. The modification was achieved by chemically inducing the graft copolymerisation of methacrylic acid onto cotton fabric. The immobilised cells were able to decolorise the dye. The immobilisation methods, physical adsorption, "growing-in" and chemical coupling, were compared. Each of the methods was effective to some extent. However, the latter two immobilisation methods provided the greater effect in decoloration. Each of these immobilised systems is relatively simple to achieve, whether by adsorption, physical interlocking or covalent coupling. The graft copolymer is able to offer versatility in use. The decoloration was shown to be rapid under relatively simple processing conditions. Thus, compared with the established controls, complete decoloration of solutions of Remazol Black B was observed. The potential use of the graft copolymer substrate as support for a biochemical agent was confirmed.


The past decade has witnessed the rapid growth of data in large-scale distributed storage systems. Triplication, a reliability mechanism with 3x storage overhead and adopted by large-scale distributed storage systems, introduces heavy storage cost as data amount in storage systems keep growing. Consequently, erasure codes have been introduced in many storage systems because they can provide a higher storage efficiency and fault tolerance than data replication. However, erasure coding has many performance degradation factors in both I/O and computation operations, resulting in great performance degradation in large-scale erasure-coded storage systems. In this thesis, we investigate how to eliminate some key performance issues in I/O and computation operations for applying erasure coding in large-scale storage systems. We also propose a prototype named ESetStore to improve the recovery performance of erasure-coded storage systems. We introduce our studies as follows. First, we study the encoding and decoding performance of the erasure coding, which can be a key bottleneck with the state-of-the-art disk I/O throughput and network bandwidth. We propose a graphics processing unit (GPU)-based implementation of erasure coding named G-CRS, which employs the Cauchy Reed-Solomon (CRS) code, to improve the encoding and decoding performance. To maximize the coding performance of G-CRS by fully utilizing the GPU computational power, we designed and implemented a set of optimization strategies. Our evaluation results demonstrated that G-CRS is 10 times faster than most of the other coding libraries. Second, we investigate the performance degradation introduced by intensive I/O ii operations in recovery for large-scale erasure-coded storage systems. To improve the recovery performance, we propose a data placement algorithm named ESet. We define a configurable parameter named overlapping factor for system administrators to easily achieve desirable recovery I/O parallelism. Our simulation results show that ESet can significantly improve the data recovery performance without violating the reliability requirement by distributing data and code blocks across different failure domains. Third, we take a look at the performance of applying coding techniques to in-memory storage. A reliable in-memory cache for key-value stores named RMemcached is designed and proposed. This work can be served as a prelude of applying erasure coding to in-memory metadata storage. R-Memcached exploits coding techniques to achieve reliability, and can tolerate up to two node failures. Our experimental results show that R-Memcached can maintain very good latency and throughput performance even during the period of node failures. At last, we design and implement a prototype named ESetStore for erasure-coded storage systems. The ESetStore integrates our data placement algorithm ESet to bring fast data recovery for storage systems.


Background and aims Real-world data on Cutaneous Lupus Erythematosus (CLE) patients are scarce, limiting our understanding of the course and unmet need of this chronic disease. Objectives To assess progression, clinical burden and drivers of severity amongst CLE patients. Methods Data were drawn from a 2013 survey of 101 dermatologists across the US and EU (France, Germany, Italy, Spain and UK). Dermatologists provided evidence on treatment patterns, disease/clinical history, demographics for their next five consulting CLE patients. For analysis, CLE patients were categorised into groups based on their current severity reported by their physician. Descriptive statistics outline the clinical characteristics of included CLE patients. Drivers of physician severity classification were explored using stepwise logistic regression. Results Final analyses included 496 CLE patients; 74% were female; mean age at diagnosis=39.6 years; mean disease duration=4.2 years. Currently, 27% of CLE patients are classified as moderate-to-severe. Amongst these patients, severity remained the same since diagnosis for 72% whilst deteriorated for 10%. Clear clinical differences emerge between moderate-to-severe and mild CLE patients (Table 1) Stepwise logistic regression results highlight the significance of remission and symptom burden, in severity classification; mild vs. moderate-severe (Table 2): Conclusions Despite an average of 4 years since diagnosis, a sizeable proportion of CLE patients remain moderate-to-severe, indicating persistence, relapse or worsening. Results highlight unmet need for better disease control, particularly around remission and symptom burden. This study contributes to scant literature on CLE, informing our understanding in a real-world clinical setting, and supports development of appropriate interventions amongst uncontrolled patients.


Resource allocation is a major concern in wireless communication systems. The main aim of allocation of limited resources is to increase the total capacity as much as possible. Fair or demand-based resource allocation approaches can be applied for different scenarios. Stable matching algorithm lets us to consider both quality of service (QoS)-sensitive or fair allocation for an efficient usage of the scarce bandwidth. In this paper, we analyse the stable matching algorithm and its applications on wireless communications are considered. As a realistic approach, stable matching algorithm is applied to heterogeneous networks (HetNets) for resource allocations. The fairness and capacity performances of stable matching algorithm are studied on both one-to-one systems and systems that maximize the number of users.


This book offers a quick and basic guide to using SPSS and provides a general approach to solving problems using statistical tests. It is both comprehensive in terms of the tests covered and the applied settings it refers to, and yet is short and easy to understand. Whether you are a beginner or an intermediate level test user, this book will help you to analyse different types of data in applied settings. It will also give you the confidence to use other statistical software and to extend your expertise to more specific scientific settings as required.

The author does not use mathematical formulae and leaves out arcane statistical concepts. Instead, he provides a very practical, easy and speedy introduction to data analysis, offering examples from a range of scenarios from applied science, handling both continuous and rough-hewn data sets.

Examples are given from agriculture, arboriculture, biology, computer science, ecology, engineering, farming and farm management, hydrology, medicine, ophthalmology, pharmacology, physiotherapy, spectroscopy, sports science, audiology and epidemiology.


This article presents an analysis of Soviet law on the family which was valid in Lithuania from 1940, in order to ascertain how it reflected gender equality, how (or if ) it was formed, the legal measures the state harnessed in order to create family and gender relation models in various areas of life, and what kind of family and gender policy formed as a result. The law is contextualised in this paper by immersing it in the social reality of its time. This allows us to determine what norms and provisions determined the political and legal resolutions of the Soviet authorities, and to discuss their influence on society. The two most important periods in Soviet gender policy are distinguished. Initially revolutionary and radical in Lithuania, with the aim of changing society to realise its goals, after the 1950s, state policy became more reactive, and adapted to the changed, modernised society and its needs. This paper proposes to see changes to women's situation during the Soviet period not as emancipation, but as (double) mobilisation. The reasons for the stagnation in masculinity in Soviet law and policy, for not keeping up with or adapting to the rapidly changing social reality, are also analysed. The contradictions in Soviet policy regarding the family and gender are shown, where it proved impossible to unambiguously apply 'conservative-liberal' or 'traditional- liberal' distinctions in both policy and reality.


In this study explosive substance [2.4.6] three Nitro Toluene (TNT) was attached with nanostructures of fullerene (C24) and boron nitride nano-cages (B12N12). After that using B3LYP (Becke, three-parameter, Lee-Yang-Parr), a method from density functional theory (DFT), thermodynamic parameters of TNT with foregoing nanostructures, in different conditions of temperature, were computed. To this aim, the materials on both sides of suggested synthesis reactions were geometrically optimized, and then, the calculations of the thermodynamic parameters were done on all of them. The values of enthalpy(ΔH), Gibbs free energy(ΔG) and Specific heat capacity(Cv) for these reactions were computed, also various parameters such as energy levels, the amount of HOMO/LUMO values and related parameters including electrophilicity scale, chemical hardness, chemical potential, and the maximum amount of electronic charge transferred were computed, Finally, the effect of type and Molecular weight of nano structure fullerene ( C24, B12N12) on explosion properties and other chemical properties of TNT were evaluated.


This work covers a lifecycle assessment of monolayer and multilayer films to quantify the environmental impacts of changing the management of plastic film waste. This lifecycle assessment offers the possibility of quantifying the environmental impacts of processes along the lifecycle of monolayer and multilayer films and mapping deviating impacts due to changed process parameters. Based on the status quo, the changes in global warming potential and abiotic fossil resource depletion were calculated in different scenarios. The changes included collecting, sorting, and recycling mono- and multilayer films. The "Functional Unit" under consideration comprised 1000 kg of plastic film waste, generated as post-consumer waste in Austria and captured in the lightweight packaging collection system. The results showed the reduction of environmental impacts over product lifecycles by improving waste management and creating a circular economy. Recycling all plastic film reduced global warming potential by 90% and abiotic fossil resource consumption by 93%. The necessary optimisation steps to meet the politically required recycling rates by 2025 and 2030 could be estimated, and the caused environmental impacts are presented. This work shows the need for increased collection, recycling, and significant improvement in the sorting of films to minimise global warming potential and resource consumption.


The purchase allocation problem is one of the most important problems faced by an electric energy service provider under the new market environment. The optimal purchase allocation problem for dual electric power markets and demand bid generation are discussed in this paper. The price volatility is considered explicitly in purchase allocation problems, and the sequential nature is modeled by conditional stochastic characteristics. Analytical solution for the optimal allocation is derived with given demand and statistical characteristics of the market prices. The method for generating demand bids for a purchaser based on market allocation and price forecasting is developed. The numerical simulation for market allocation and bid generation are shown based on actual data of the U.S. California power market.


Activity recognition from sensor data has spurred a great deal of interest due to its impact on health care. Prior work on activity recognition from multivariate time series data has mainly applied supervised learning techniques which require a high degree of annotation effort to produce training data with the start and end times of each activity. In order to reduce the annotation effort, we present a weakly supervised approach based on multi-instance learning. We introduce a generative graphical model for multi-instance learning on time series data based on an auto-regressive hidden Markov model. Our model has a number of advantages, including the ability to produce both bag and instance-level predictions as well as an efficient exact inference algorithm based on dynamic programming.


The importance of water scarcity in irrigated agriculture in Spain provides the rationale for this paper, which analyses and evaluates the risk of water shortage on the economic result of this kind of agriculture. The main objective is to monitor this risk on a real-time basis. For this aim, we first estimated a number of regression models that explain irrigated agricultural productivity based on crop price indices, a time trend and water availability. These models, which correct for auto-correlation, yield good explanatory power. Second we carried out ex ante simulations of agricultural productivity using fitted distribution functions of water balance. The risk model framework provides the basis for a real time drought management system through a variety of distribution functions of expected economic results, which can be revised on a monthly basis before the beginning of the irrigation season. The results of the simulation show how this kind of risk model can be used to anticipate the effects of droughts and complement the hydrological models used to manage water storage in years of scarcity. Different risk profiles are identified. For example, in Genil-Cabra we found that the resilience of the system after a drought period is very high, whereas in La Plana de Castellon the risk of irrigation area abandonment is increasing year by year. In Genil-Cabra the estimated losses were 60 million euros in 2007. The models were applied to some of the most agriculturally relevant irrigation districts in Spain.


We analysed the effects of body mass on the monthly activity patterns of six Mediterranean lacertid lizard taxa, four relatively small species, the Italian wall lizard (Podarcis siculus), the common wall lizard (Podarcis muralis), the blue-throated keeled lizard (Algyroides nigropunctatus), and the Ionian wall lizard (Podarcis ionicus), and two larger species, the western green lizard (Lacerta bilineata) and the Balkan green lizard (Lacerta trilineata). The highest number of observations for all six species occurred in April and May and the lowest in July and August, the latter being the hottest and driest months of the year. The two larger species were mainly active from March to July, whereas the four smaller species had an additional period of high activity from September to November. As all six species reproduce during spring, the increase in activity of the smaller species in autumn was consequently unrelated to reproductive behaviour. There was no difference in seasonal activity of the two smaller Italian species at sites with or without the larger green lizards. It is therefore unlikely that interference competition/predation by green lizards caused the increased autumnal activity of the smaller lizards. We suggest that due to their lower mass-specific metabolic rates, larger species can obtain sufficient lipid stores over a shorter annual activity to ensure successful reproduction the subsequent spring. By contrast, smaller species have greater need to replenish their lipid reserves after summer fasting and therefore resume much higher activity levels in September to November to attain this goal.


To clarify the role of IL-15 at local sites, we engineered a transgenic (Tg) mouse (T3b-IL-15 Tg) to overexpress human IL-15 preferentially in intestinal epithelial cells by the use of T3b-promoter. Although IL-15 was expressed in the entire small intestine (SI) and large intestines of the Tg mice, localized inflammation developed in the proximal SI only. Histopathologic study revealed reduced villus length, marked infiltration of lymphocytes, and vacuolar degeneration of the villus epithelium, beginning at ∼3–4 mo of age. The numbers of CD8+ T cells, especially CD8αβ+ T cells expressing NK1.1, were dramatically increased in the lamina propria of the involved SI. The severity of inflammation corresponded to increased numbers of CD8αβ+NK1.1+ T cells and levels of production of the Th1-type cytokines IFN-γ and TNF-α. Locally overexpressed IL-15 was accompanied by increased resistance of CD8αβ+ NK1.1+ T cells to activation-induced cell death. Our results suggest that chronic inflammation in the SI in this murine model is mediated by dysregulation of epithelial cell-derived IL-15. The model may contribute to understanding the role of CD8+ T cells in human Crohn's disease involving the SI.


Scotland's Curriculum for Excellence (CfE), constitutes the demands that teachers are supposed to meet. Its intentions for the mathematics curriculum are similar to those in many countries: that learners be sufficiently mathematically literate to use mathematics in the personal, professional and societal dimensions of their lives. But like many attempts to reform mathematical curricula elsewhere, CfE does not address the fundamental issue of mathematical understanding. Of course, learner understanding transcends the mathematical curriculum per se, but the significance of mathematical understanding for competent functioning exemplifies the imperative of teaching for understanding or 'deep learning'. The article begins with some conceptual 'ground clearing' to establish mathematical understanding as a neglected issue. It then considers what mathematical understanding is, why it is important, the increasingly important role of metacognition, and the very necessary role of teachers. At each of these points, implications for pedagogical practice are raised.


A thin flip-chip (FC) BGA with a 65 nm device has been developed for the bottom package of package on package (PoP) packaging for mobile equipment. The device has a low-k interlayer dielectric (ILD) that is known to be fragile material, and the device and the substrate are connected by lead-free solder bumps in taking environmental safeguards into account. The bumps are arranged in 120 um pitch staggered array. A package height of as low as 0.85 mm (nom) was established and 0.76 mm (nom) is under development. To use this package of 0.76 mm (nom) heights for PoP packaging the total height of the PoP after stacking a memory MCP with a height of 0.85 mm (nom) result in a total height of 1.4 mm (max). The package size is 14 mm sq., and we are able to produce larger package size applying the developed techniques. This paper explains three challenges in developing a thin FCBGA. The challenges are, first, the warpage of a thin package, second, connective reliabilities of solder bumps, and last, reliabilities of the 65 nm device with low-k ILD. The influence of making package thinner was examined by the stress simulation using various die and substrate thicknesses. And the verification experiment was also conducted. Then, the further simulation was conducted to reduce the package warpage, which is significant to the thinner outline, and to examine the stresses derived from reduced warpage, using various package materials. The package warpage of 80um or less was the result of the simulation for the optimum combination of the materials, and was confirmed by the physical experiments. This package also passed the qualification test. Thus, a thin FCBGA that has high reliability and low warpage was developed.


Given the growing attractiveness of alternative energies, the goal of this research project is to gain a better understanding of the photovoltaic effect through the design, fabrication, and characterization of silicon solar cells. First discovered in 1839, the photovoltaic effect is the conversion of optical energy into electrical energy. A common device used to realize the photovoltaic effect is the silicon solar cell. Through basic semiconductor fabrication techniques, silicon wafers are processed to create a layered structure known as a pn junction – the foundation of a solar cell. A pn junction is formed by the diffusion of different dopants or impurities into the silicon in order to affect its electrical characteristics. Depending on the diffusion time and temperature, the structure and electrical characteristics of the pn junction, and the resulting performance of the solar cell, will vary significantly. For example, a longer diffusion at a higher temperature may produce a more conductive path for the flow of the photocurrent (electrical current produced by the incident solar energy); however, these processes may also increase the depth of the pn junction into the silicon wafer, making it more difficult for the optical energy to penetrate down to the junction. Similarly, a larger electrical contact may enhance the electrical performance of the solar cell (lower contact resistance); however it can also reflect more optical energy away from the solar cell. In our study, several semiconductor wafers are processed using different dopant materials, different dopant diffusion times and temperatures, and varying electrical contact designs in order to find the configuration that provides the best photovoltaic performance.


Objective: To assess the diagnostic accuracy of serum GPC3 versus alpha-fetoprotein (AFP) for HCC by using the method of system review. Methods: PubMed and EMBASE were searched from its inception to 20, April 2014 for studies that compared diagnostic accuracy of serum GPC3 with AFP for HCC. Sensitivity, specificity and other measures were pooled using random-effects models. Summary receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was used to summarize the overall test performance. Results: Fourteen studies were included in this meta-analysis. Summary estimates for serum GPC3 and AFP in diagnosing HCC were as follows: sensitivity, 69% (95% confidence interval (CI), 56-80%) vs. 60% (95% CI, 5069%); specificity, 91% (95% CI, 76-97%) vs. 92% (95% CI, 84-98%); diagnostic odds ratio (DOR), 22 (95% CI, 6-83) vs. 18 (95% CI, 8-41); and area under sROC, 0.85 (95% CI, 0.81-0.88) vs. 0.80 (95% CI, 0.76-0.83). The pooled sensitivity and specificity for (GPC3+AFP) and AFP were: sensitivity 80% (95% CI, 75-85%) vs. 64% (95% CI, 53-73%) and specificity 86% (95% CI, 74-93%) vs. 96% (95% CI, 86-99%). A significant heterogeneity was found among the ten studies, and meta-regression and subgroup meta-analysis suggested that race and assay type were probably responsible for the heterogeneity. Conclusions: Serum GPC3 may be a promising diagnostic marker of HCC and it was helpful for early detection of primary hepatocellular carcinoma when combined with AFP. More studies for specific race of patients, and using certain methods for detecting GPC3 are required to further confirm the diagnostic value of GPC3 for HCC.


We address the general problem of hard objects on random lattices, and emphasize the crucial role played by the colourability of the lattices to ensure the existence of a crystallization transition. We first solve explicitly the naive (colourless) random-lattice version of the hard-square model and find that the only matter critical point is the non-unitary Lee–Yang edge singularity. We then show how to restore the crystallization transition of the hard-square model by considering the same model on bicoloured random lattices. Solving this model exactly, we show moreover that the crystallization transition point lies in the universality class of the Ising model coupled to 2D quantum gravity. We finally extend our analysis to a new two-particle exclusion model, whose regular lattice version involves hard squares of two different sizes. The exact solution of this model on bicolourable random lattices displays a phase diagram with two (continuous and discontinuous) crystallization transition lines meeting at a higher order critical point, in the universality class of the tricritical Ising model coupled to 2D quantum gravity.


Abstract. The current study examined factors that may serve as barriers to the success of ethnic minority graduate students by assessing the academic, social, and emotional experiences of approximately 87 ethnic minority and 313 ethnic majority school psychology graduate students. Results indicated that ethnic minority graduate students reported significantly more negative race-related experiences, which were associated with higher levels of emotional distress, than were ethnic majority graduate students. In addition, ethnic minority graduate students reported lower levels of belongingness than did ethnic majority students' and negative race-related experiences were associated with lower perceptions of belongingness across all participants. Belongingness and autonomy were significantly associated with self-reported academic engagement for both ethnic minority and majority students. Discussion focuses on the significance of racial microaggressions and belongingness to graduate students in school psychology programs.


A method for the quantitative measurement of macrophage aggregation by lymphokine preparations has been described previously. This involved the continuous measurement of the light absorbance of stirred suspensions of guinea pig peritoneal exudate cells (PEC). We now show that using a modified method, both aggregation of normal PEC, induced by preformed lymphokine, and direct aggregation of sensitized PEC with specific antigen can be measured. The method is suitable for the assay of large numbers of samples. Aggregation is shown to be immunologically specific for two antigens (bovine gamma-globulin and ovalbumin) and to be partially inhibited by sugars which inhibit migration inhibitory factor activity (rhamnose and fucose).


Murine leukemia virus (MuLV) induced T-lymphomas bear surface receptors specific for the leukemogenic retroviruses they produce. We have proposed that such virus receptors on lymphoid tumors are the antigen-specific receptors present on their normal lymphocyte counterparts. To determine the relationship between immune receptors and virus receptors on malignant lymphocytes, a spontaneous B cell lymphoma, BCL1, was investigated. BCL1-lymphoma cells from an in vivo passaged BCL1-cell line grew in vitro only in contact with splenic stromal cells. These stromal cells produced a retrovirus, termed BCL1-V, which was lymphotropic but not leukemogenic. BCL1 cells bound BCL1-V, whereas normal spleen cells did not. Isolated BCL1-IgM bound BCL1-V, whereas three other IgM myeloma proteins, MOPC-104E, CBPC-112, and HPC-76, did not. Rat anti-BCL1-IgM monoclonal antibodies recognizing mu chain isotypic determinants and BCL1-specific idiotypic specificities, blocked BCL1-V binding to BCL1 IgM. These data support the receptor mediated leukemogenesis hypothesis, suggest a role for virus:cell surface immunoglobulin interactions in the development of B cell lymphoma, and implicate an antigen presenting cell population in the lymphomagenic process.


AIM
To investigate structure-activity relationships of N-(3-Oxo-3,4-dihydro-2H-benzo[1,4]oxazine-6-carbonyl) guanidines in Na/H exchange inhibitory activities and probe into a new method of the computer-aided molecular screening.

METHODS
The hyper-polyhedron model (HPM) was proposed in our lab.

RESULTS
The samples with probably higher activities could be determined in such a way that their representing points should be in the hyper-polyhedron region where all known samples with high activities were distributed. And the predictive ability of different methods available was tested by the cross-validation experiment.

CONCLUSION
The accurate rate of molecular screening of N-(3-Oxo-3,4-dihydro-2H-benzo[1,4]oxazine-6-carbonyl) guanidines by HPM was much higher than that obtained by PCA (principal component analysis) and Fisher methods for the data set available here. Therefore, HPM could be used as a powerful tool for screening new compounds with probably higher activities.


Kinins are biologically active peptides that are powerful mediators of cellular inflammation. They mimic the cardinal signs of inflammation by inducing vasodilatation and by increasing vascular permeability and pain. Neutrophils are chemoattracted to sites of inflammation by several stimuli. However, the evidence concerning the chemotactic effect of kinin peptides has been contradictory. We analyzed the chemotactic effect of kinin B1 receptor agonists on neutrophils isolated from peripheral blood of human healthy subjects. Chemotaxis was performed using the migration under agarose technique. To test the effect of B1 receptor agonists, each assay was carried out overnight at 37°C in 5% CO2‐95% air on neutrophils primed with 1 ng/ml interleukin‐1β. Simultaneous experiments were performed using unprimed cells or cells challenged with formyl‐Met‐Leu‐Phe (fMLP). A clear chemotactic activity was observed when primed neutrophils were challenged with Lys‐des[Arg9]‐bradykinin (LDBK) or des[Arg9]‐bradykinin at 10−10 M but not when unprimed cells were used. A reduction in the chemotactic response was observed after priming of cells in the presence of 0.5 mM cycloheximide and 10 μg/ml brefeldin A, suggesting that some protein biosynthesis is required. Techniques such as reverse transcriptase‐polymerase chain reaction and in situ hybridization confirmed the expression of the B1 receptor mRNA, and immunocytochemistry and autoradiography demonstrated the expression of the B1 receptor protein. In contrast to other chemoattractants such as fMLP, cytosolic intracellular calcium did not increase in response to the B1 receptor agonist LDBK. A generation of kinin B1 receptor agonists during the early phase of acute inflammation may favor the recruitment of neutrophils to the inflammatory site.


Technology has been contributing significantly to the development of assistive devices for disabled persons (DPs). Many of these devices aim to assist people who are blind or visually impaired, providing them with friendlier ways to interact with their surroundings (obstacles, objects, and navigation). However, the high cost of these devices makes it difficult for DPs to purchase them. The development of an assistive device kit to be used by the visually impaired in controlled environments (indoor) or urban spaces (outdoor) is presented in this work with a didactic and detailed approach. This low-cost kit (USD 50 per device) consists of a Smart Cane, Smart Cap, and Smart Glove. The methodology addressed aims to support and encourage the reproduction, customization, and manufacture of new assistive devices with low cost and wide applicability. The devices are functional, benefit usability, and, due to the characteristics of the project and the materials used in their construction, do not impact the ergonomics of the visually impaired or disabled person who may use these devices. The devices that integrate the assistive kit can be used independently or combined. In addition to having detection, fall-control, navigation, and real-time tracking functions, they are independent of additional local infrastructure for their use.


Visual Abstract The pre-Bötzinger (pre-BötC) and Bötzinger (BötC) complexes are the brainstem compartments containing interneurons considered to be critically involved in generating respiratory rhythm and motor pattern in mammals. The pre-Bötzinger (pre-BötC) and Bötzinger (BötC) complexes are the brainstem compartments containing interneurons considered to be critically involved in generating respiratory rhythm and motor pattern in mammals. Current models postulate that both generation of the rhythm and coordination of the inspiratory-expiratory pattern involve inhibitory synaptic interactions within and between these regions. Both regions contain glycinergic and GABAergic neurons, and rhythmically active neurons in these regions receive appropriately coordinated phasic inhibition necessary for generation of the normal three-phase respiratory pattern. However, recent experiments attempting to disrupt glycinergic and GABAergic postsynaptic inhibition in the pre-BötC and BötC in adult rats in vivo have questioned the critical role of synaptic inhibition in these regions, as well as the importance of the BötC, which contradicts previous physiological and pharmacological studies. To further evaluate the roles of synaptic inhibition and the BötC, we bilaterally microinjected the GABAA receptor antagonist gabazine and glycinergic receptor antagonist strychnine into the pre-BötC or BötC in anesthetized adult rats in vivo and in perfused in situ brainstem–spinal cord preparations from juvenile rats. Muscimol was microinjected to suppress neuronal activity in the pre-BötC or BötC. In both preparations, disrupting inhibition within pre-BötC or BötC caused major site-specific perturbations of the rhythm and disrupted the three-phase motor pattern, in some experiments terminating rhythmic motor output. Suppressing BötC activity also potently disturbed the rhythm and motor pattern. We conclude that inhibitory circuit interactions within and between the pre-BötC and BötC critically regulate rhythmogenesis and are required for normal respiratory motor pattern generation.


Aortic smooth muscle cells (SMCs) have been proposed to derive from lateral plate mesoderm. It has further been suggested that induction of SMC differentiation is confined to the ventral side of the aorta, and that SMCs later migrate to the dorsal side. In this study, we investigate the origin of SMCs in the descending aorta using recombination-based lineage tracing in mice. Hoxb6-cre transgenic mice were crossed with Rosa 26 reporter mice to track cells of lateral plate mesoderm origin. The contribution of lateral plate mesoderm to SMCs in the descending aorta was determined at different stages of development. SMC differentiation was induced in lateral plate mesoderm-derived cells on the ventral side of the aorta at embryonic day (E) 9.0-9.5, as indicated by expression of the SMC-specific reporter gene SM22α-lacZ. There was, however, no migration of SMCs from the ventral to the dorsal side of the vessel. Moreover, the lateral plate mesoderm-derived cells in the ventral wall of the aorta were replaced by somite-derived cells at E10.5, as indicated by reporter gene expression in Meox1-cre/Rosa 26 double transgenic mice. Examination of reporter gene expression in adult aortas from Hoxb6-cre/Rosa 26 and Meox1-cre/Rosa 26 double transgenic mice suggested that all SMCs in the adult descending aorta derive from the somites, whereas no contribution was recorded from lateral plate mesoderm.


This research examines the relationship between 'race' and class in Britain. This is achieved by considering how these two concepts articulate in the overall structuring of class relationships in a society which is typified by the incorporatation of black labour into a majority white society, This relationship is examined through an investigation of those black workers who occupy a position in the objectively defined middle class. The basic theme underlying this research is that 'race, in the form of structural racism, plays a significant role at two levels. Firstly, it serves to structure the class position of black labour in Britain. Secondly, it serves to determine the type of race, class and political consciousness generated by black labour. The study was carried out in the London area. Occupation was used as an indicator of 'objective' class position when selecting respondents to be included in the two survey populations required for the research. A 'network' approach was used to actually locate the respondents. In-depth interviews were carried out with all the respondents. The study concludes that the concepts of 'race' and class are not independent of each other in the overall structuring of class relationships between black and white labour. It is argued that the inter-relationship identified between these two concepts serves to highlight the fact that the structural position of black labour, the type of consciousness generated and the type of decisions taken by those who took part in the research are to a large extent a result of the structural constraints deriving from the effects of structural racism in Britain.


This paper proposes a new clock offset estimation that mitigates unwanted link asymmetry for precise clock synchronization. The main contribution is to address the primary and traditional design issue of the IEEE 1588 standard precision time protocol (PTP), which estimates clock offset under the assumption that the delays of exchanged packets are symmetric. To mitigate the issue, we focus on the fact that PTP measures asymmetry variation through the derivatives of its timestamps with respect to the time step. By exploiting the measurement of the variation, the proposed approach defines the asymmetry in the form of a linear differential equation (LDE) and leverages the LDE to define and exclude asymmetry-induced errors. Additionally, we clearly derive the state transition of the asymmetry. Subsequently, we derive a novel state-space model from our approach. The model describes PTP clock offset estimation perfectly, allowing optimal clock offset estimation. We verify the theoretical validity of the proposed method with real data. Our approach improves PTP accuracy by more than thousand times and achieves an accuracy at the level of tens to hundreds of nanoseconds on an asymmetric communication link. Our approach realizes an accuracy comparable to that of PTPv2, without the cost of specialized hardware.


Neutrophils spreading are a key event in the development and progression of inflammation, which is signaled by cytokines. In order to undergo inflammation process, neutrophils will migrate towards the site of infection by adhering along the endothelium and undergoing a major morphological transition from a spherical shape to a flattened shape, which is known as neutrophils spreading. Neutrophils transmigrate, whether by migration between the endothelial cells or through an endothelial cell. Calpain are involved in several key aspects of migration, including adhesion and spreading. Neutrophils were isolated from whole blood and observed under the microscope in order to study their spreading behavior. The results of neutrophils spreading were recorded and measured in terms of the cells surface area of spreading after stimulation with chemoattractant. This study showed the inhibition of calpain, which is triggered by Ca2+ influx has prevented neutrophils from changing its shapes and spread to its optimal. fMLP induced calpain inhibitor-treated neutrophils demonstrated smaller spreading areas (116.09µm2±2.58) as compared to the positive control cells (219.88µm2±3.73). Therefore, a calpain inhibitor may play an important part in preventing neutrophils from spreading, which could halt the progression of inflammatory disorders.


Objectives: The ability of the World Health Organization (WHO) growth standards to represent the growth of South East Asian infants has been questioned. The aim of this study was to provide contemporary data on the growth of Indonesian breast-fed and formula-fed infants, compared with the WHO growth standards. Methods: A prospective cohort study of 160 normal healthy infants was undertaken in a suburban area of South Jakarta, Indonesia. Infants from 2 to 6 weeks of age were recruited, and they consumed exclusively either breast milk or infant formula for at least 6 months, with follow-up until 12 months of age. Results: Overall, the infants in the present study were lighter (weight-for-age), were shorter (length-for-age), and had smaller head circumferences (head circumference-for-age) than the average WHO Growth Reference Study population but were of similar proportion (weight-for-length). Compared with the WHO Growth Reference Study, the z scores for weight-for-age, length-for-age, and head circumference-for-age in the Indonesian children fell from birth to 6 weeks of age and then increased until 3 months of age in both the breast-fed and the formula-fed infants. At 6 weeks of age, the weight-for-age z scores fell below −2 standard deviations for 16 (20.5%) breast-fed and 40 (51.3%) formula-fed infants, and the length-for-age z scores fell below −2 standard deviations for 31 (39.7%) breast-fed and 41 (52.6%) formula-fed infants. Conclusion: The WHO growth standards do not reflect the growth of the present cohort of Indonesian infants and may overestimate the levels of underweight and stunted children.


Many species are predicted to shift their ranges to higher latitudes and altitudes in response to climate warming. This study presents evidence for 37 species of nonmigratory British dragonflies and damselflies shifting northwards at their range margins over the past 40 years, seemingly as a result of climate change. This response by an exemplar group of insects associated with fresh water, parallels polewards range changes observed in terrestrial invertebrates and other taxa.


Cubic Journal is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal. All journal content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0). Work may be copied, shared and distributed when authors are properly accredited; this includes outlines of any work. Amendments to the original work needs to be shown. The licensor does not in any way endorse third party views or how journal content is used by others. How to Cite APA Tipene, L. (2018). Drawing the Impossible — The Role of Architectural Drawing in the Production of Meaning in Social Space. Cubic Journal, 1(1), 90-107. http://dx.doi.org/10.31182/cubic.2018.1.005


Rats are often anesthetized prior to positron emission tomography (PET) brain imaging in order to prevent head movements. Anesthesia can be administered by inhalation agents, such as isoflurane (Forene), or injection mixtures, such as fentanyl-fluanisone-midazolam (Hypnorm-Dormicum). Unfortunately, anesthesia affects a variety of physiological variables, including those in the brain. The aim of this study was to compare the effects of inhalation and injection anesthesia on the binding potential of the dopaminergic D2/3 tracer [11C]raclopride used for PET brain imaging in human and animal studies. Male Lewis rats were assigned to either inhalation (isoflurane; N=4) or injection (fentanyl-fluanisone-midazolam; N=5) anesthesia. Isoflurane was given continuously, and fentanyl-fluanisone-midazolam was supplemented every 30-60 minutes when the tail reflex was positive. Catheters were surgically placed in femoral arteries and veins for blood sampling and tracer injection. After a short attenuation scan, the rats were PET scanned for 90 minutes after injection of [11C]raclopride. We found that rats anesthetized with isoflurane had double the binding potential in the striatum compared with fentanyl-fluanisone-midazolam anesthetized rats. Our results are in agreement with other studies showing that anesthesia may have a major influence on brain imaging studies involving tracer kinetics in rats.


This paper presents the finite strain results from seven oriented samples data on Tertiary sandstone of Muqdadiya Formation and (400) samples of pebbles and conglomerate of Bai –Hassan Formation at the southwestern limb of Al-Tib Anticline in the Southeastern part of Iraq. Measurement and analysis of finite strain are carried out including these rocks at fluvio- lacustrine environment. The present study followed Fry method. The computed strain was, in the form of ellipses, within three prepared perpendicular  planes in a single sample and Center to Center method was used to determine the strain ratio of the these samples. The strain in the studied area is low, this is mainly due to the sampled rocks underwent brittle deformation during folding. The calculated axial ratios (Rs), (three dimensional orientations of the strain axes) of strained rocks are shown which is equivalent to the log Flinn diagram normally used for plotting strain ellipsoids and according to the stereographic projection method, the long axes of this ellipsoid are sub parallel to measured Al-Tib Anticline axis and the short axes are approximately perpendicular to the axis of Al- Tib Anticline in the study area. This orientation of these axes is related to the movement of the Arabian plate.


Early Warning Scores (EWSs) systems support the timely detection of patient deterioration and rapid response of the care team. Due to the mobility nature of healthcare settings, there has been a growing tendency to use mobile-based devices in these settings. This chapter aimed to design a mobile-based EWS application (app). This was a descriptive study to design the architecture of the proposed EWS app. The design of architecture was done using the Unified Modeling Language diagrams including a class diagram, use-case diagram, and activity diagram. We evaluated the architecture using the ARID scenario-based evaluation method. The proposed EWS application (app) was the integration of three EWSs, including NEWS2, PEWS, and MEOWS. The workflow of these EWSs systems was designed and integrated into a single app. Also, the static structure of the proposed EWS app was designed by class diagram and the behavioral structure was depicted by use-case and activity diagrams. The class diagram showed the system components and their relationships. However, the use-case diagram displayed the app's interaction with its environment, and the activity diagram illustrated how the EWS app processes were carried out. Evaluation results showed the possibility of designing the architecture for the proposed EWS app. In our app, the EWSs were designed in the clinician's workflow, and it was integrated with the patient's Electronic Health Record (EHR). These factors may lead to more use of EWSs. Considering the frequency of alerts represented to clinicians and the user-friendly design of the app, some suggestions can be considered by EWS systems developers in the future.


Iatrogenic dysmotility syndromes, particularly achalasia-like conditions, occasionally complicate esophageal and paraesophageal surgery. We describe a patient who developed a very unusual (and as far as we know unreported) syndrome characterized by severe dysphagia, esophageal dysmotility (segmental simultaneous contractions of the distal esophagus), and very large saccular outpouching (diverticulum) involving the right wall of the distal half of the esophagus as a consequence of excision of an asymptomatic congenital cyst. The cyst had been discovered as an incidental finding on a pre-employment chest x-ray. Our patient's dysphagia did not improve with nonsurgical treatments that are usually successful for idiopathic and iatrogenic achalasia.


This article develops the point that incentive and risk‐bearing problems associated with contractual holdup may justify legal intervention. Contractual holdup is considered both for fresh contracts and for modifications of contracts. One type of legal intervention is flat voiding of contracts. Such intervention tends to be advantageous when holdup situations are engineered. Another type of intervention is price‐conditioned voiding of contracts—voiding only if the price is excessive. This policy tends to be advantageous when contracts are socially desirable (bad weather puts a ship in jeopardy and it needs rescue). Price‐conditioned voiding prevents the imposition of holdup prices but still allows contracts (to tow ships in distress) to be made. Both types of legal intervention in contracts and their modifications are employed by courts to counter problems of pronounced holdup. In addition, various price control regulations appear partly to serve the same objective.


Robert C. Palmer examines the Whilton dispute, an intrafamilial, multigenerational contest over a large estate that continued, primarily in the courts, from 1264until 1380.Originally published in 1984.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


This Evidence Check review looked at the grey and peer reviewed literature related to the effectiveness of programs to support children and young people (10-17 years) at risk of homelessness. It aimed to identify key features of effective programs, core/common elements of the included programs and in establishment and rollout, and challenges and facilitators. Twenty programs were included, with 4 rated as "evidence based" and 7 as "promising", 9 were considered to have insufficient evidence. Programs were also categorised into the following themes – in descending order of evidence: family therapy, intensive case management, service capacity building and early intervention.


Scholars have paid increasing attention to the role of non-verbal communication within intimate relationships. Reportedly, immediate behaviors such as touch escalate opposite-sex relationships by promoting increased intimacy and psychological closeness. This study examined the effects of relational stage, gender and touch avoidance on unobtrusively coded public touch behavior. An ANOVA indicated that relational stage was curvilinearly related to public interpersonal touch such that the level of touch was higher in intermediate stage of relationships than in either initial or stable stages. Gender had no effect on touch. Instead, a high correlation was found between the amount of touch used by males and the amount of touch used by their female partners. Touch avoidance was found to be linearly related to the amount of touch displayed, with low touch avoiders touching the most and high touch avoiders touching the least. There was a strong additive effect for touch avoidance, with all three touch avoidance groups following a curvilinear pattern for relational stage. x2 tests found that touch increased primarily in the hand and waist areas during the intermediate stage. Implications for the study of reciprocity, immediacy, intimacy and stage theory are discussed.


China's economy has shifted from a high-speed growth stage to a high-quality development stage, which is the most distinctive feature of China's economy in the new era. Industrial upgrading is the core and key to China's future high-quality economic development. The overall change of the international pattern leads to China's need to find more internal driving forces for economic development. In this context, the biggest innovation of this paper is to explore a new way to promote industrial upgrading relying on the integration of domestic market from the perspective of domestic market integration and resource allocation. This paper regards the construction of the high-speed rail as a quasi-natural experiment. Based on the panel data of 2004-2016, a multi-period DID model is constructed to study the impact and mechanism of high-speed rail on industrial upgrading.The study finds that, on the whole, the construction of the high-speed rail can significantly improve the rationalization and advanced level of a city's industrial structure, and the estimation results are still robust after considering the assumptions and a series of factors that may interfere with the estimation results. The analysis of the impact mechanism finds that the construction of high-speed rail significantly promotes the flow of labor between cities, and promotes the rationalization and upgrading of industrial institutions by triggering economies of scale, technological innovation and capital labor allocation. Among them, economies of scale have the greatest contribution to the rationalization and upgrading of industrial structure, followed by technological innovation and capital labor allocation. Therefore, it is necessary to create conditions to exert technological innovation and spillover effects and improve capital labor allocation. Further mechanism decomposition shows that high-speed rail construction has a more significant effect on the overall economic development level and the higher-level industrial structure of the city, and the higher-level changes in the industrial structure are mainly due to the optimal re-allocation of resources between cities; cities with relatively poor development base benefit from the optimization and re-allocation of resources within the city after the construction of the high-speed rail, and the level of rationalization of the industrial structure has been significantly improved.The findings of this paper on the facts and mechanisms for the promotion of the high-speed rail to promote industrial upgrading show that high-speed rail construction will promote the deepening of industrial division of labor between regions, improve resource allocation efficiency, and urge new developments in production industry and economic development, but it does not mean that all cities can achieve the desired effect after the construction of high-speed rail. The construction of high-speed rail in China is accompanied by the general trend of industrial transfer and upgrading in developed regions. Compared with the existing poorly-developed regions, the high-speed rail has optimized the allocation of factors in cities with relatively good economic development. The large differences in the capital, technology and infrastructure of the region under the big economy determine the particularity of China's industrial upgrading. Based on the research findings, this paper proposes the following policy recommendations: In the historical process of large-scale construction of China's high-speed rail, accelerated industrial restructuring, and transformation of economic development mode, it is necessary to coordinate the synchronization of high-speed rail construction and industrial transformation and upgrading, and continue to improve the efficiency of resource allocation by developing and optimizing high-speed rail networks to reform and innovate. Deeply excavating and continuously releasing the resource reconfiguration effect of high-speed rail construction will provide support for industrial upgrading and high-quality development under the new normal economic development.


Molecular imaging advances our understanding of cellular and molecular functions within complex biological systems. The development of novel imaging probes that can be applied to answer fundamental biological questions, diagnose and monitor disease progression and the efficacy of therapy in vivo is essential to the field of molecular imaging. Bioluminescence imaging is a powerful technique that allows to study and follow biological processes of interest noninvasively in real-time in living animals. Activatable bioluminescent probes can be designed according to the target of interest and can provide imaging signal in response to the specific stimuli. A strategy called "caged luciferin" can be used to design new bioluminescent probes for imaging of enzymatic activity, the presence of small molecules or metabolite uptake in vivo. In Chapter 1 we present an overview of bioluminescence imaging, with a focus on firefly luciferase-luciferin system. The caged luciferin approach is discussed and examples of existing caged luciferin probes are presented. In Chapter 2 we describe the development of a bioluminescent probe for imaging of bacterial nitroreductase activity and show the potential for its application in different areas of research. Bacterial nitroreductases have been widely utilized in the gene-directed enzyme prodrug therapy (GDEPT) approach for cancer therapy that reached clinical trials. However, both preclinical and clinical development of NTR-based GDEPT systems has been hampered by the lack of imaging tools that allow in vivo evaluation of transgene expression. We developed the NTR caged luciferin (NCL) probe and demonstrated its application for sensitive bioluminescence imaging of NTR in vitro, in bacteria and cancer cells, as well as in vivo in mouse models of bacterial infection and NTR-expressing tumor xenografts. We anticipate that this probe would significantly accelerate the development of cancer therapy approaches based on GDEPT and other fields where evaluation of NTR expression is important. In Chapter 3 we describe the development of a bioluminescent probe for imaging of hydrogen sulfide (H2S) using the caged luciferin approach. The objective of the research was to develop a probe that can detect endogenously produced H2S noninvasively in real-time in living animals. We present a series of caged luciferin probes that were evaluated on their ability to rapidly and selectively detect H2S in in vitro assays, in cells and in bacterial culture. The two selected probes were applied for imaging of exogenous H2S in the gastrointestinal tract in living mice. We anticipate further applications of the best performing probe (Az-CL) for imaging of H2S production by gut microbiota in mice. In Chapter 4 we present the overall conclusion followed by the outlook and future perspectives.


This paper explores some critical aspects of leadership in the context of multisectoral partnerships. It focuses on leadership in practice and asks the question "How do managers experience and perceive leadership in such partnerships?" The study contributes to the debate on whether leadership in a multi-sectoral partnership context differs from that within a single organisation. It is based on the accounts of practising managers working in complex partnerships. The paper highlights a number of leadership challenges faced by those working in multi-sectoral partnerships. Partnership practitioners were clear that leadership in partnerships was more complex than in single organisations. However, it was more difficult for them to agree a consensus on the essential nature of leadership in partnership. We suggest a first, second and third person approach might be a way of better interpreting leadership in the context of partnerships.


The interdict was an important and frequent event in medieval society. It was an ecclesiastical sanction which had the effect of closing churches and suspending religious services. Often imposed on an entire community because its leaders had violated the rights and laws of the Church, popes exploited it as a political weapon in their conflicts with secular rulers during the thirteenth century. In this book, Peter Clarke examines this significant but neglected subject, presenting a wealth of new evidence drawn from manuscripts and archival sources. He begins by exploring the basic legal and moral problem raised by the interdict: how could a sanction that punished many for the sins of the few be justified? From the twelfth-century, jurists and theologians argued that those who consented to the crimes of others shared in the responsibility and punishment for them. Hence important questions are raised about medieval ideas of community, especially about the relationship between its head and members. The book goes on to explore how the interdict was meant to work according to the medieval canonists, and how it actually worked in practice. In particular it examines princely and popular reactions to interdicts and how these encouraged the papacy to reform the sanction in order to make it more effective. Evidence including detailed case-studies of the interdict in action, is drawn from across thirteenth-century Europe - a time when the papacy's legislative activity and interference in the affairs of secular rulers were at their height. Readership: Scholars and students of medieval history; theologians, philosophers and legal historians. Contents Introduction 1. The justification if the interdict in medieval thought 2. Kinds of interdict 3. Laying of interdicts 4. The terms of an interdict 5. The interdict in action 6. The lifting of interdicts Conclusions


OPTIMIZING CHRONIC SLOW BREATHING TRAINING TO CAUSE A THERAPEUTIC EFFECT ON HEART RATE VARIABILITY Jennifer Joy Brown Old Dominion University, 2012 Director: Dr. David P. Swain Heart rate variability (HRV) is a valid and reliable tool that can be used to determine the basic state of an individual's autonomic health. The current study attempted to establish the minimum frequency of breathing practice necessary to produce a therapeutic effect on HRV over the course of a four-week period with four different treatment groups, specifically, groups that practiced a slow breathing protocol for either 2, 3 or 5 times per week, and a control group. Forty-three subjects (14 males, 29 females), ages 18 50 years, were screened, pre-tested, matched for sex, age and HRV, assigned to a specific group for a four-week training period, and completed the study. All preand post-test measurements were made during a 10-minute period of supine rest, and included systolic and diastolic blood pressure (BP), heart rate (HR), and the following HRV measures: standard deviation of the normal to normal R waves (SDNN), root mean square of successive differences (RMSSD), high frequency power (HF), low frequency power (LF), and HF/LF ratio. During the 4-week training period, subjects kept a log of their breathing training and then returned for post-testing of the same variables. A two-way analysis of variance with repeated measures on one factor and post hoc T-tests were used to evaluate the data. Significance was set at the 0.05 level. Following the 4-week training period, the control group experienced an increase in systolic BP, while all three training groups experienced a decrease. For diastolic BP, the control group experienced an increase, while only the 2 times per week training group experienced a decrease. For HR, the 2 times per week and 5 times per week groups demonstrated a decrease, while no other groups changed. There were no differences in any HRV measures as a result of training in any group. In conclusion, although previous research had found that breathing training affected HRV measures, there was no effect in this study regardless of the frequency of training. Breathing training did cause a reduction in resting BP and heart rate, but the frequency of training had little to no differential effect. The study was unable to demonstrate a minimum frequency of breathing training for affecting the autonomic nervous system.


In this paper, we model the problem of optimizing crowdfunding platforms, such as the non-profit Kiva or for-profit KickStarter, as a variant of the multi-armed bandit problem. In our setting, Bernoulli arms emit no rewards until their cumulative number of successes over any number of trials exceeds a fixed threshold and then provides no additional reward for any additional trials a process reminiscent to that of a neuron firing once it reaches the action potential and then saturates. In the spirit of an infinite armed bandit problem, the player can add new arms whose expected probability of success is drawn iid from an unknown distribution – this endless supply of projects models the harsh reality that the number of projects seeking funding greatly exceeds the total capital available by lenders. Crowdfunding platforms naturally fall under this setting where the arms are potential projects, and their probability of success is the probability that a potential funder decides to fund it after reviewing it. The goal is to play arms (prioritize the display of projects on a webpage) to maximize the number of arms that reach the firing threshold (meet their goal amount) using as few total trials (number of impressions) as possible over all the played arms. We provide an algorithm for this setting and prove sublinear regret bounds.


High doses of sodium fluoride in bones lead to severe softening, by weakening interfacial properties between the inorg. minerals and the org. components, while leaving mineralization unchanged. This leads to redn. of microdamage and assocd. stress-whitening pointing to a change in failure mode. Accordingly, elastic modulus, failure stress, and indentation-distance increase are decreased, whereas failure strain is increased. [on SciFinder (R)]