The manuscript discusses interfaces between academic and practical fields of Global Health and Planetary Health, shedding light on some critical perspectives of cumulative and synergistic causes of global crises, and effects on health and food security, on human rights, on migration, and on environment. Concepts of Global Health and Planetary Health and the path for the Sustainable Development Goals -SDG in the context of the Syndemy of Global Crisis, in particular the COVID-19 pandemic, are presented. COVID-19 lessons highlight challenges of infectious diseases and pandemics of the crisis of food insecurity, and of climate emergency. The manuscript advocates for an innovative approach that simultaneously broader awareness of the interconnected problems and of their complex causes and calls for emancipatory knowledge to face urgent challenges for a transdisciplinary research agenda aiming to tackle enormous planetary problems brought by the Anthropocene. It calls for practical solutions, with examples of some nature-based. It highlights the need of a collective reflection on a viable path to promote changes for a more sustainable, equitable, and adaptive future, bridging gaps from Global and Planetary Health.


Smouldering wildfire in peatlands is one of the largest and longest-lasting fire phenomena on Earth, but whether peat can support a flaming fire like other surface fuels is still unclear. Our experiments demonstrate the successful piloted flaming ignition of peat soil with moisture up to 100 wt-% under external radiation, indicating that flames may rapidly spread on peatland before transitioning to a conventional smouldering peat fire. Compared with smouldering ignition, flaming ignition of peat is more difficult, requiring a higher minimum heat flux and tripling the ignition energy. The propensity for flaming increases with a drier peat and greater external heating. We also found that the flaming ignition temperature increases from 290 to 690°C as the peat moisture increases to 100 wt-%. Flames from peat soil are much weaker than those of pine needles and wood, and they eventually transition to smouldering. The heat of flaming is estimated to be 13MJkg−1, close to the heat of smouldering. The measured CO/CO2 ratio of flaming peat fires is less than 0.02, much smaller than 0.2 for smouldering peat fires. This research helps understand the development of peat fire and the interaction between flaming and smouldering wildland fires.


Exploration of the Medici chapels in San Lorenzo in Florence revealed the burials of nine infantile members of the Medici family. Eight children were found in the intact tomb of the last Grand Duke Giangastone (1671- 1737). The crypt contained several small coffins collapsed to the floor or randomly spread over a raised plank, as a result of the disastrous flood of the Arno river in 1966, which partly upset the tomb and left a layer of dry mould. The children's remains, mostly skeletonised, were found inside the coffins or scattered on the floor or on the plank, probably transported by the water. Another child was exhumed from the chapel of Grand Duke Ferdinand I (1549-1609) and Cristina from Lorena (1565-1636). The infantile remains were submitted to anthropological study, which allowed to establish the number of individuals buried in the crypt, and to estimate the age at death. The anthropological results were compared with information provided by archival documents, related to members of the family who died in infantile age. An identification of the children is proposed.


A promising 3D nanoprinting method, used to deposit nanoscale mesh style objects, is prone to non-linear distortions which limits the complexity and variety of deposit geometries. The method, focused electron beam-induced deposition (FEBID), uses a nanoscale electron probe for continuous dissociation of surface adsorbed precursor molecules which drives highly localized deposition. Three dimensional objects are deposited using a 2D digital scanning pattern—the digital beam speed controls deposition into the third, or out-of-plane dimension. Multiple computer-aided design (CAD) programs exist for FEBID mesh object definition but rely on the definition of nodes and interconnecting linear nanowires. Thus, a method is needed to prevent non-linear/bending nanowires for accurate geometric synthesis. An analytical model is derived based on simulation results, calibrated using real experiments, to ensure linear nanowire deposition to compensate for implicit beam heating that takes place during FEBID. The model subsequently compensates and informs the exposure file containing the pixel-by-pixel scanning instructions, ensuring nanowire linearity by appropriately adjusting the patterning beam speeds. The derivation of the model is presented, based on a critical mass balance revealed by simulations and the strategy used to integrate the physics-based analytical model into an existing 3D nanoprinting CAD program is overviewed.


The worship and interactions of the 2006 General Convention showed the simple commonality of Anglicans' shared faith, at a time when the Episcopal Church in the US and the Anglican Church of Canada consented to withdraw their representatives from some functions in the Anglican Consultative Council. The Episcopal Church has responded to the Anglican Communion with humility and grace even though these responses have meant exclusion and marginalization. The Episcopal Church's current situation in the Anglican Communion is one with which indigenous people feel great empathy. This suggests that it is time for Anglicans to rethink how they understand differences in identity. It is time now to re-vision how we collectively use the distinctive gifts, skills, and resources of the various peoples in the Anglican Communion to strengthen the household of faith. It is time to establish a common holy-ground coalition of inclusive Anglicans in order to find a way toward the beloved community, where all may belong and none dominate.


For 'Twice Upon a Time: Magic, Alchemy and the Transubstantiation of the Senses', the Call for Papers cast the context for the conference in the following terms:

... Western tradition remains cautious of unreasoned sensorial data, treating it with illusory trepidation. While this paradigm has proven an efficient methodology, it has installed a discriminatory partition between that which can be rationalised or mathematized and that which is 'only' sensory.
This paper takes a backward glance to a pre-Enlightenment age, when 'unreasoned sensorial data' was accepted as part and parcel of everyday life. It touches on the unquestioning belief in the supernatural power of holy relics, exemplified here by a 'miraculous' event brought about by a sacred fragment from the head of Saint Andrew the Apostle (first century AD). The occasion was orchestrated by Pope Pius II, the learned humanist Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (b.1405-1464); the setting, the village of his birth, Corsignano, which he renamed Pienza, after himself. As well as thus creating a memorial for posterity, the buildings and streets of Pienza - indeed also the surrounding countryside - provided the scenography for his ultimate foundational act, the performance of religious ritual in time and space, lifted onto a cosmographical plane by the endowment of the relic on the occasion of a holy feast day falling at the autumnal equinox.


Emergency preparedness is crucial for oil and gas operators. While accidents in this industry are commonly connected to oil spill disasters, helicopter accidents are, in terms of incidence rates, a more grave concern in Norway. A recent helicopter accident near Bergen has brought this subject back into focus. We introduce RescUSim, a simulator for rescue missions after offshore helicopter accidents, which is implemented as an open source library with bindings for the Python language. We discuss the modules in the existing Python ecosystem that are used for data preparation and analysis. We show how RescUSim and the interactive computing environment IPython can join forces to provide a tool for planning rescue preparedness for oil and gas related offshore activities.


Presents the application of a case-based reasoning approach to the selection and modification of behavioral assemblage parameters. The goal of this research is to achieve an optimal parameterization of robotic behaviors in run-time. This increases robot performance and makes a manual configuration of parameters unnecessary. The case-based reasoning module selects a set of parameters for an active behavioral assemblage in real-time. This set of parameters fits the environment better than hand-coded ones, and its performance is monitored providing feedback for a possible reselection of the parameters. The paper places a significant emphasis on the technical details of the case-based reasoning module and how it is integrated within a schema-based reactive navigation system. The paper also presents the results and evaluation of the system in both in simulation and real world robotic experiments.


A flow injection preconcentration system for the flame atomic absorption spectrometric determination of hexavalent chromium has been developed. The method employs on-line preconcentration of Cr(VI) on a minicolumn packed with Cr(VI)-imprinted poly(4-vinyl pyridineco-2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate) placed into a flow injection system. Hexava-lent chromium was eluted with a small volume of diluted hydrochloric acid into the nebulizer-burner system of a flame atomic absorption spectrometer. An enrichment factor of 550 and a 3σ detection limit of 0.04 μg·L-1 along a sampling frequency of 4 h-1 at a sample flow rate of 3.5 mL·min-1. The relative standard deviation is 2.9% for 1 μg·L-1 Cr(VI) (n = 11). The flow injection system proposed has the advantage of being simpler because the use of expensive and sophisticated instruments is avoided. Ease of use, continuous process and selectivity make this method suitable for Cr(VI) determination in different environmental samples such as sea and river waters, soils and sediments.


OBJECTIVE
To determine elution characteristics of bone morphogenetic protein (BMP)-2 from a polycaprolactone coating applied to orthopedic implants and determine effects of this coating on osseointegration.

ANIMALS
6 sheep.

PROCEDURES
An in vitro study was conducted to determine BMP-2 elution from polycaprolactone-coated implants. An in vivo study was conducted to determine the effects on osseointegration when the polycaprolactone with BMP-2 coating was applied to bone screws. Osseointegration was assessed via radiography, measurement of peak removal torque and bone mineral density, and histomorphometric analysis. Physiologic response was assessed by measuring serum bone-specific alkaline phosphatase activity and uptake of bone markers.

RESULTS
Mean +/- SD elution on day 1 of the in vitro study was 263 +/- 152 pg/d, which then maintained a plateau at 59.8 +/- 29.1 pg/d. Mean peak removal torque for screws coated with polycalprolactone and BMP-2 (0.91 +/- 0.65 dN x m) and screws coated with polycaprolactone alone (0.97 +/- 1.30 dN.m) did not differ significantly from that for the control screws (2.34 +/- 1.62 dN x m). Mean bone mineral densities were 0.535 +/- 0.060 g/cm(2), 0.596 +/- 0.093 g/cm(2), and 0.524 +/- 0.142 g/cm(2) for the polycaprolactone-BMP-2-coated, polycaprolactone-coated, and control screws, respectively, and did not differ significantly among groups. Histologically, bone was in closer apposition to the implant with the control screws than with either of the coated screws.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
BMP-2 within the polycaprolactone coating did not stimulate osteogenesis. The polycaprolactone coating appeared to cause a barrier effect that prevented formation of new bone. A longer period or use of another carrier polymer may result in increased osseointegration.


The 2-kidney, 1-clip (2K1C) model has provided many insights into the pathogenesis of renovascular hypertension. However, studies using the 2K1C model often report low success rates of hypertension, with typical success rates of just 40-60%. We hypothesized that these low success rates are due to fundamental design flaws in the clips traditionally used in 2K1C models. Specifically, the gap widths of traditional silver clips may not be maintained during investigator handling and these clips may also be easily dislodged from the renal artery following placement. Therefore, we designed and tested a novel vascular clip possessing design features to maintain both gap width and position around the renal artery. In this initial study, application of these new clips to the left renal artery produced reliable and consistent levels of hypertension in rats. Nine-day application of clips with gap widths of 0.27, 0.25, and 0.23 mm elicited higher mean arterial blood pressures of 112 ± 4, 121 ± 6, and 135 ± 7 mmHg, respectively (n = 8 for each group), than those of sham-operated controls (95 ± 2 mmHg, n = 8). Moreover, 8 out of 8 rats in each of the 0.23 and 0.25 mm 2K1C groups were hypertensive, whereas 7 out of 8 rats in the 0.27 mm 2K1C group were hypertensive. Plasma renin concentrations were also increased in all 2K1C groups compared with sham-operated controls. In summary, this novel clip design may help eliminate the large degree of unreliability commonly encountered with the 2K1C model.


Improving the political integration of immigrants is an important task for the European Union. The number of people with an immigrant background in the EU is gradually rising, a trend that is expected to continue. As a result, immigrants and their descendants are likely to play an increasingly significant role in the political life of Member States, as well as at the European level. Nevertheless, political parties in the EU seem to have neglected this phenomenon. Immigrants from third countries and their descendants rarely appear as party members; party leaders at the local, regional, national and EU levels; or as paid officials or candidates. Political parties should therefore consider more carefully the political potential of immigrants and their descendants.


Experimental data indicate that postconditioning at distance is an effective method of cardiac protection against reperfusion injury. Remote postconditioning prevents reperfusion necrosis and apoptosis of cardiomyocytes, decreases probability of postinfarction remodeling of the heart. Cardioprotective effect of remote postconditioning is depended on release from tissues after transient ischemia of humoral factor(s) increasing cardiac tolerance to long-term ischemia-reperfusion. Clinical studies show that postconditioning at distance is an effective method of prevention of reperfusion injury of the heart during coronary artery bypass surgery.


SUMMARY. The aim of the present study was to investigate the effects of drug solubility, inert pellet size and binders used in drug loading on release behavior from Eudragit NE-30 coated pellets. Aqueous solutions of highly water soluble drugs, diltiazem hydrochloride and chlorpheniramine maleate while hydroalcoholic solutions of poorly soluble drugs, diclofenac sodium and theophylline were applied onto inert pellets to produce drug pellets, which were subsequently coated with aqueous polymer dispersion using bottom spray fluidized-bed coater. Coated pellets were cured at 37 oC for 24 h prior to dissolution studies. Drug release from coated pellets using different drugs showed different release profiles. The larger size pellets displayed significantly slower release rate compared to smaller size pellets. A faster drug release was achieved with PVP for drug loading in contrast to slower release profile with HPMC. Drug pellets can be differentiated using scanning electron microscope compared to pellets coated with Eudragit NE-30.


Since the formation of COMSAT 20 years ago, the number of international telephone circuits made through satellites has grown 400 times and the cost of a telephone call has decreased by 12,000 percent. Worldwide communications linking 109 nations are achieved with 14 satellites in earth-synchronous orbit. Advances in microwave technology have expanded the transmission bandwidth per satellite from 50 to more than 3000 megahertz. Improvements in solar cell, battery, stationkeeping, and microwave amplification technology have increased satellite lifetime from 1.5 years to 10. The sixth generation of INTELSAT satellites, now being manufactured, will be introduced into the system in 1986, and each satellite will carry more than 40,000 telephone channels plus two television programs. The next generation of satellites, now under design for expanded capacity, will be needed by the middle 1990's to meet the traffic demand. These satellites are likely to add new frequencies (20 and 30 gigahertz), onboard signal processing and switching, and more bandwidth-efficient modulation, to achieve larger communication capacity at each orbital location.


Material and structure engineering are increasingly employed in active optical media,in this context defined as media capable of providing laser or/and optical parametric gain. For laser materials, the main aim of the engineering is to tailor the absorption and emission cross sections in order to optimise the laser performance. At the same time, the engineering also results in a collateral modification of the material's nonlinear response. In the first part of this work, the nonlinear index of refraction is characterised for two crystallographic forms of laser-ion doped and undoped double-tungstate crystals. These laser crystals have broad gain bandwidths, in particular when doped with Yb3+. As shown in this work, the crystals also have large Kerr nonlinearities, where the values vary significantly for different chemical compositions of the crystals. The combination of a broad gain bandwidthand a high Kerr nonlinearity makes the laser-ion doped double tungstates excellent candidates to employ for the generation of ultrashort laser pulses by Kerr-lens modelocking. The second part of the work relates to the applications of engineered second-order nonlinear media, which here in particular are periodically-poled KTiOPO4 crystals. Periodic structure engineering of second-order nonlinear crystals on a submicrometre scale opens up for the realisation of novel nonlinear devices. By the use of quasi-phase matching in these structures, it is possible to efficiently downconvert a pump wave into two counterpropagating parametric waves, which leads to a device called a mirrorless optical parametric oscillator. The nonlinear response in these engineered submicrometre structures is such that the parametric wave that propagates in the opposite direction of the pump automatically has a narrow bandwidth, whereas the parametric wave that propagates with the pump essentially is a frequency-shifted replica of the pump wave. The unusual spectral properties andthe tunabilities of mirrorless optical parametric oscillators are investigated.


Frequency-dependent effects in power system components and subnetworks can be efficiently represented via rational function-based models that characterize the component port behavior as a function of frequency. The port behavior can be defined by alternative parameter sets (e.g., admittance (Y-), impedance (Z-), or scattering (S-) parameters). The model extraction procedure approximates the port characteristics over a desired band of frequencies via a compact rational model. This paper shows a detailed procedure for interfacing such models with electromagnetic transients simulators via a Norton equivalent and convolution, for multiport Y-, Z- and S-parameter-based models. The interface of a multiport transfer function element is also shown. The procedure is applicable for models on pole-residue and state-space form. The correctness of these model implementations is demonstrated for a small electrical circuit. Application examples are shown for subnetwork modeling from computed Y-parameters and for cable modeling from measured S-parameters.


Water-soluble fluorescent Ag nanoclusters consisting of several to ∼100 Ag atoms have received increasing attention in recent years due to their unique optical, electrical, chemical, and physical properties. Substantial effort has been made to develop different synthetic schemes to prepare stable, highly fluorescent water-soluble Ag nanoclusters and explore their potential applications in chemical- and bio- sensing, bio-imaging, and catalysis. The synthesis of sub-nanometer sized Ag nanoclusters in aqueous solutions, however, is challenging because Ag nanoclusters will tend to grow, forming more stable and larger Ag nanoparticles with reduced surface energy. In this chapter, recent advances in water-soluble fluorescent Ag nanoclusters, including a variety of preparative methodologies, structure and property characterizations, and potential applications in chemical- and bio- sensing, are reviewed.


Objective High mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) functions as an inflammatory mediator and is implicated in the pathogenesis of various autoimmune diseases. Our primary aim is to determine whether HMGB1 is involved in the pathogenesis of myasthenia gravis (MG). Methods Serum HMGB1 levels of 60 patients with anti-acetylcholine receptor (AChR) antibody-positive MG without immunosuppressive treatment and of 10 patients with anti-muscle-specific receptor tyrosine kinase (MuSK) antibody-positive MG were compared with those in 40 controls. We also investigated the potential correlation between serum HMGB1 levels and the clinical variables in patients with MG. Results Serum HMGB1 levels in patients with anti-AChR antibody-positive MG were higher than those in controls (7.80±7.47 vs 4.13±2.55 ng/mL, p=0.004) and were decreased after treatment (p=0.051). Although not significant, patients with anti-MuSK antibody-positive MG showed higher serum HMGB1 levels than the controls (p=0.178). There were correlations between serum HMGB1 levels and phenotypes of anti-AChR antibody-positive MG: patients with generalised MG showed higher HMGB1 levels than those of patients with ocular MG (p=0.059) and controls (p=0.002); patients with thymoma showed higher HMGB1 levels than those without thymoma (p=0.094) and controls (p=0.001). Conclusions Serum HMGB1 is elevated in patients with MG and may play a key role in the inflammation of the neuromuscular junction.


Recently, Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) have become a major online learning methodology for millions of people worldwide. However, the dropout rates from several current MOOCs are high. Usually, dropout prediction aims to predict whether a learner will exhibit learning behaviors during several consecutive days in the future. Therefore, the information related to the learning behaviors of a learner in several consecutive days should be considered. After in-depth analysis of the learning behavior patterns of the MOOC learners, this study reports that learners often exhibit similar learning behaviors on several consecutive days, i.e., the learning status of a learner for the subsequent day is likely to be similar to that for the previous day. Based on this characteristic of MOOC learning, this study proposes a new simple feature matrix for keeping information related to the local correlation of learning behaviors and a new Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) model for predicting the dropout. Extensive experimental validations illustrate that the local correlation of learning behaviors should not be neglected. The proposed CNN model considers this characteristic and improves the dropout prediction accuracy. Furthermore, the proposed model can be used to predict dropout temporally and early when sufficient data are collected.


This work is concerned with the development and validation of two accurate, precise and specific spectrophotometric and chromatographic methods for analysis of Phenylepherine (PE), Lidocaine (LC) and Thiomersal (TM) in their ternary mixture and in Chromoderm® solution. The developed spectrophotometric method is the mean centering of ratio spectra (MCR) spectrophotometric method that depends on using the mean centered ratio spectra in two successive steps which eliminates the derivative steps and therefore the signal to noise ratio is enhanced. On the other hand, the developed chromatographic method isocratic RP-HPLC method that depends chromatographic separation on Zorbax C18 column using a mobile phase consisting phosphate buffer: acetonitrile: triethylamine (40:60:0.1, by volume pH=6 with orthophosphoric acid). The flow rate was 0.6 mL min-1 and the eluent was monitored at 245 nm. Factors affecting the developed methods were studied and optimized. Moreover, they have been validated as per ICH guidelines. The developed methods have been successfully applied for determination of PE, LC and TM in different laboratory mixtures and in solution dosage form. Also, Statistical analysis of the results of the two developed methods with each other using F and student's t tests showed no significant difference


There are many different machine setup parameters and variables that affect the production of cone crushers in a mineral processing plant. One of these variables is the eccentric speed at which the cone gyrates. In June 2012, pilot tests were conducted on a 200 hp high speed cone crusher to determine the production and operating conditions over a wide spectrum of eccentric speed. Every plant will have variations in the ore characteristics and feed rates throughout the life of the mine, and at times throughout a single shift of operation, which result in non-optimal use of the crushing energy and inconsistent process control. For high speed cone crushers, the crusher will exhibit a different capacity, power required, and discharge size distribution as the speed ranges over the design limits of the machine. This study documents the measured variation in production and energy efficiency both when the crusher was ran at full capacity as well as when the feed to the crusher was not sufficient to run at full capacity. Overall, the results match theory and the capacity and power fluctuated by 25% and 17%, respectively, over the speed range when operated full while there was an overall trend of slightly coarser discharge size distribution as the speed decreased. The results with the fixed feed rate were more telling, as the crushers had 4-14% higher production when making a theoretical minus 12.5 mm product when operating at the optimal speed as compared to the worst speed in the "typical" speed range for this application. Secondary analysis of the fixed tonnage testing also showed that the power draw was more consistent with lower magnitude spikes at the higher speeds (higher cavity level), as on average the standard deviation of the power draw increased from 7% to 18% and the peak power spikes from 20% to 48% over the speed range tested. The findings lay groundwork for more efficient plant design. Varying the speed of the crusher can be used to tune the crusher speed during commissioning, adapt to changing ore conditions over long periods of time, or be used as a dynamic input into an advanced control system. Each action above would serve to make the crusher(s) more productive and more energy efficient, and would also have mechanical benefits for the machine.


Elizabeth Wilson Risk Factor Clustering Among Adolescents Infected with or At-Risk for Chlamydia: A descriptive study (Under the direction of Dr. Richard Rothenberg, MD, MHP, FACP and Dr. Laura Salazar, Ph.D.) STDs are a major public health epidemic in the United States with an estimated 19 million new cases occurring annually. Associated direct medical costs are estimated at $17 billion annually (CDC, 2010). Chlamydia is the most prevalent of all STDs and is also the most reported notifiable disease in the United States. While adolescents only account for an estimated 25% of the sexually active population, they account for nearly half of the 19 million cases. The higher prevalence of STDs among adolescents is most likely a reflection of multiple issues within a national socio-economic context. Additionally, the burden is even more disproportionate when examined by race. African American adolescents aged 15-19 experience the greatest burden of STDs. The purpose of this study is to examine proportions of risk behaviors reported among groups and the differences that are found. From the estimation of differences that were determined substantial, an analysis of was conducted in order to determine if adolescents in the study population exhibit clustering in regard to risk behaviors for STD acquisition and describe the where the potential clustering occurs as well as identify which factors that may serve as important indicators for STD positivity among this population. This paper examines data that was collected as part of a National Institute of Health grant-funded project entitled: "Behavioral Clustering in Adolescents with STDs", conducted by Dr. Richard Rothenberg, Principal Investigator. This paper presents descriptive statistics for selected behavioral characteristics for four groups from the original study and each group's contacts. The proportions for each characteristic are also analyzed for to see if behavioral clustering occurs within and between groups. The scope of this paper does not allow for the statement of conclusive results however, substantial differences did exist for variables among each sub group. Comparing data by group cluster and interview type proved to reveal the most about the study population. Negative males and their contacts may have extensive clustering as this group was only found to have substantial differences for two variables. Comparison of the positive and negative ego groups for both males and females also indicated clustering as only two (ego females) and three (ego males) variables were found to be substantially different. Proportions for variables regarding education, incarceration, sexual initiation, and number of partners were compared between several groupings of the study population. This paper recommends further analysis of the data in order to identify the patterns of assortativity which will be valuable in understanding the STD transmission dynamics among the social and sexual networks of the adolescents in the study population as well as have important implications on future research.


A parameter adaptively adjustable utility function based on the asymmetric sigmoid function is investigated for the non-cooperative power control game (NPCG) model in cognitive radio networks (CRN). Each secondary user (SU) can adaptively adjust the parameter to track along with the wireless interference environment for the optimal power strategy. From the fairness of view, a pricing function related to the channel gain of each SU is designed, which can improve the Pareto optimality of the Nash equilibrium solution (NES). A parallel utility function choosing approach for each SU is proposed according to channel state information (CSI) and the utility obtained at this time. The simulation results show that the proposed power control scheme achieves a better performance compared with the fixed utility function method, and the pricing function actually improves the optimality of the NES.


Background Point-of-sale tobacco marketing has been shown to be related to tobacco use behaviours; however, specific influences of cigarette price discounts, price tiers and pack/carton availability on cigarette purchasing intention are less understood by the tobacco control community. Methods We conducted discrete choice experiments among an online sample of US young adult smokers (aged 18–30 years; n=1823). Participants were presented scenarios depicting their presence at a tobacco retail outlet with varying availability of cigarette price discounts, price tiers and pack/carton. At each scenario, participants were asked whether they would purchase cigarettes. Generalised linear regression models were used to examine the associations between of cigarette price discounts, price tiers and pack/carton with intention to purchase cigarettes overall and stratified by educational attainment. Results Participants chose to purchase cigarettes in 70.9% of the scenarios. Offering price discounts were associated with higher odds of choosing to purchase cigarettes. Reducing the number of cigarette price tiers available in the store was associated with lower odds of choosing to purchase cigarettes. Stratified analysis showed that offering discounts on high-tier cigarette packs increased odds of choosing to purchase cigarettes among young adult smokers with at least some college education, while offering discounts on medium-tier cigarette packs increased odds of choosing to purchase cigarettes among those with some college education or less (eg, with a 10% discount, adjusted odds ratio [AOR]some college=1.62, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.21 to 2.16; AOR≤high school=1.44, 95% CI 1.08 to 1.93). Conclusions Availability of cigarette price discounts, price tiers and pack/carton could potentially influence cigarette purchasing behaviours among young adult smokers. Regulating these marketing strategies may, therefore, reduce education-related smoking disparities.


A paradigm shift has recently occurred in our knowledge and understanding of water in the lunar interior. This has transpired principally through continued analysis of returned lunar samples using modern analytical instrumentation. While these recent studies have undoubtedly measured indigenous water in lunar samples they have also highlighted our current limitations and some future challenges that need to be overcome in order to fully understand the origin, distribution and evolution of water in the lunar interior. Another exciting recent development in the field of lunar science has been the unambiguous detection of water or water ice on the surface of the Moon through instruments flown on a number of orbiting spacecraft missions. Considered together, sample-based studies and those from orbit strongly suggest that the Moon is not an anhydrous planetary body, as previously believed. New observations and measurements support the possibility of a wet lunar interior and the presence of distinct reservoirs of water on the lunar surface. Furthermore, an approach combining measurements of water abundance in lunar samples and its hydrogen isotopic composition has proved to be of vital importance to fingerprint and elucidate processes and source(s) involved in giving rise to the lunar water inventory. A number of sources are likely to have contributed to the water inventory of the Moon ranging from primordial water to meteorite-derived water ice through to the water formed during the reaction of solar wind hydrogen with the lunar soil. Perhaps two of the most striking findings from these recent studies are the revelation that at least some portions of the lunar interior are as water-rich as some Mid-Ocean Ridge Basalt source regions on Earth and that the water in the Earth and the Moon probably share a common origin.


Current remote patient monitoring (RPM) systems are fully reliant on the Internet. However, complete reliance on Internet connectivity is impractical in rural and remote environments where modern infrastructure is often lacking, power outages are frequent, and/or network connectivity is sparse (e.g. rural communities, mountainous regions of Appalachia, American Indian reservations, developing countries, and natural disaster situations). This paper proposes augmenting intermittent Internet with opportunistic communication to leverage the social behaviors of patients, caregivers, and community members to facilitate out-of-range monitoring of patients via Bluetooth 5 during intermittent network connectivity in rural communities. The architecture is evaluated for Owingsville, KY using U.S. Census Bureau, the National Cancer Institute's, and IPUMS ATUS sample data, and is compared against a delay tolerant RPM case that is completely disconnected from the Internet. The findings show that with only 0.30 rural adult population participation, the architecture can deliver 0.95 of non-emergency medical information with an average delivery latency of ∼13 hours.


In this chapter, we have described various galvanic cells in which a spontaneous chemical reaction is used to generate electrical energy. In an electrolytic cell, however, the opposite process, called electrolysis, occurs: an external voltage is applied to drive a nonspontaneous reaction. In this section, we look at how electrolytic cells are constructed and explore some of their many commercial applications.


In this paper, we consider the finite-length performance of a capacity-achieving sequence of irregular repeat-accumulate (IRA) code ensembles. We focus on a sequence of bit-regular ensembles with degree 3 which was shown to achieve capacity with bounded complexity [Pfister, 2005]. To characterize how fast the block length of the code must grow with respect to the truncation point of the degree distribution (i.e., maximum check degree), we compute an upper bound on the average weight enumerator. Based on this analysis, we present a particular truncation sequence that could achieve a minimum distance which grows like n/sup 1/3/ even as the gap to capacity goes to zero. We also consider the performance of these codes in the waterfall region by extending the finite-length scaling law [Amraoui] from low-density parity-check codes to IRA codes. This shows that the performance near the iterative decoding threshold is well characterized by a suitably scaled Q-function for large enough block length. Numerical results are given for the scaling parameters of this ensemble sequence and for a few other IRA codes. Unfortunately, the simulation results for the capacity-achieving sequence start to match the scaling law only for very large block lengths.


The following issue presents a brief description about the "cana fistula" tree (Cassia fistula L.) including information about its phenology which directly relates to fruit recollection, seed treatment, nursery, and germination processes.


In this paper a gas cooler for trans-critical carbon dioxide water heater was designed and calculated according to the theory basis for the optimal design. The characteristic parameters of gas cooler in heat pump hot water system were compared and analyzed, applying the data from trans-critical carbon dioxide water heater test bed, under one-time heating condition, by different flow of chilled water and hot water, different inlet temperatures of chilled water and hot water. To sum up, coefficient of performance can be increased by increasing the chilled water inlet temperature or hot water circulating flow, while it can be decreased by increasing the inlet temperature of hot water circulating system,the parameters (flow of water, inlet temperature, the refrigerant mass flow, gas cooler pressure and inlet temperature of refrigerant) need to be adjusted to different requirements, for ensuring the high efficiency of system.


A unique type of heavy transition metal carbide Ru2C was synthesized experimentally at high pressure-high temperature and consequently quenched to ambient condition. The dynamical stability study reveals the instability at ambient condition. We have found that it can be stabilized from 30 to 110 GPa. The stronger 4d-2p hybridization and the formation of a cage like Fermi surface do impact the stability. The mixed bands primarily 2p characteristic weighted crossing the Fermi level form a Fermi surface piece at Gamma point under pressure. The clear change of topology of Fermi surface verifies the Lifshitz transition from ambient condition to high pressure.


A Womersley model-based assessment of pulsatile rigid-tube flow is presented. Multigate Doppler ultrasound was used to measure axial velocities at many radial locations along a single interrogation beam going through the center of a stiff tube. However, a large impediment to Doppler ultrasound diagnostics and resolution close to the wall is considerable noise due to the presence of the wall-fluid interface as well as many other effects, such as spectral broadening, coherent scattering, time resolution, and Doppler angle uncertainty. Thus, our confidence in measured signals is questionable, especially in the wall vicinity where the important oscillatory shear stresses occur. In order to alleviate known biases and shortcomings of the pulsed Doppler ultrasound measurements we have applied Womersley's laminar axisymmetric rigid-tube approximation to reconstruct velocity profiles over the entire flow domain and specifically close to wall, enabling unambiguous determination of the shear stresses. We employ harmonic analysis of the measured velocity profiles at all or selected trusted tube radial locations over one or more periods. Each of estimated Fourier coefficients has a unique counterpart in the respective pressure gradient component. From ensemble-averaged cross-sectional pressure gradient components we compute velocity profiles, volume flow rate, wall shear stress, and other flow parameters. Estimation of the pressure gradients from spatially resolved pulsed Doppler ultrasound velocity measurements is an added benefit of our reconstruction method. Multigate pulsed Doppler ultrasound scanners offer powerful capabilities to noninvasively and nonintrusively measure velocity profiles for hemodynamic and other fluid flow applications. This flow reconstruction method can also be tailored for use with other flow diagnostic modalities, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and a wide class of optical methods.


Abstract. Atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) mole fractions were continuously measured from January 2009 to December 2011 at four atmospheric observatories in China using cavity ring-down spectroscopy instruments. The stations are Lin'an (LAN), Longfengshan (LFS), Shangdianzi (SDZ), and Waliguan (WLG), which are regional (LAN, LFS, SDZ) or global (WLG) measurement stations of the World Meteorological Organization's Global Atmosphere Watch program (WMO/GAW). LAN is located near the megacity of Shanghai, in China's economically most developed region. LFS is in a forest and rice production area, close to the city of Harbin in northeastern China. SDZ is located 150 km northeast of Beijing. WLG, hosting the longest record of measured CO2 mole fractions in China, is a high-altitude site in northwestern China recording background CO2 concentration. The CO2 growth rates are 3.7 ± 1.2 ppm yr−1 for LAN, 2.7 ± 0.8 ppm yr−1 for LFS, 3.5 ± 1.6 ppm yr−1 for SDZ, and 2.2 ± 0.8 ppm yr−1 (1σ) for WLG during the period of 2009 to 2011. The highest annual mean CO2 mole fraction of 404.2 ± 3.9 ppm was observed at LAN in 2011. A comprehensive analysis of CO2 variations, their diurnal and seasonal cycles as well as the analysis of the influence of local sources on the CO2 mole fractions allows a characterization of the sampling sites and of the key processes driving the CO2 mole fractions. These data form a basis to improve our understanding of atmospheric CO2 variations in China and the underlying fluxes using atmospheric inversion models.


Band structure engineering for specific electronic or optical properties is essential for the further development of many important technologies including thermoelectrics, optoelectronics, and microelectronics. In this work, we report orbital interaction as a powerful tool to finetune the band structure and the transport properties of charge carriers in bulk crystalline semiconductors. The proposed mechanism of orbital interaction on band structure is demonstrated for IV-VI thermoelectric semiconductors. For IV-VI materials, we find that the convergence of multiple carrier pockets not only displays a strong correlation with the s-p and spin-orbit coupling but also coincides with the enhancement of power factor. Our results suggest a useful path to engineer the band structure and an enticing solid-solution design principle to enhance thermoelectric performance.


One mechanism of action of thyroid disrupting compounds is the competition for thyroid hormone (TH) binding sites on vertebrate serum transport proteins, including transthyretin (TTR) and albumin (ALB). An in vitro competitive binding assay was optimized for use with thyroxine (T4) and human TTR or ALB. This assay was applied for two classes of novel and environmentally relevant flame retardant (FR) chemicals, and/or some degradation products; organophosphate (OP) triesters, and tetradecabromo-1,4-diphenoxybenzene (TeDB-DiPhOBz). Structure-related differences in the binding of these ligands with TTR or ALB were observed, including a newly discovered apparent allosteric interaction of OP esters with TTR that enhances binding of T4. Degradation products of TeDB-DiPhOBz are ligands for human TTR and ALB in vitro, as well as gull TTR in silico, with para-hydroxylated lower brominated congeners being the strongest binders. Overall, results indicate potential interference of these novel FR contaminants with human TH transport, in a structure-dependent manner.


Therapeutic electrical stimulation (TES) is a rehabilitative stimulation therapy for individuals with neuromuscular disorders. TES uses subthreshold transcutaneous electrical stimulation to cause muscle growth and neuron sprouting through increased blood flow. To optimize TES therapy, a new method was required to determine the electrical current density in the target muscle. This is because TES's subthreshold stimulation intensity does not produce any measurable physiological effect. The finite element method (FEM) was the numerical modeling method chosen. FEM provides the ability to the model complex properties found in living beings, such as different tissue types and anisotropic tissue properties. TES uses a 35 Hz biphasic waveform. At this low frequency, the quasi-static approximation was used. This allows the heat transfer model solution to be used to find the steady state electric field solution. The goal of this paper is to show that the heat transfer results are the same as the electric field measurements made in a biological phantom. Laboratory measurements were made in a one liter cylinder of normal saline using bipolar stimulation. Electric field measurements were made using silver chloride electrodes at various points in the stimulated solution. This allowed the mapping of the electric potentials. The empirical data compared favorably to the results of the FEM thus validating in the method and assumptions. Finite element modeling provides an accurate method to visualize the electrical current densities resulting from bipolar stimulation. The FEM can now be used to determine the optimal electrode configuration for TES and other electrical stimulation protocols. This computer modeling method will ultimately lead improved patient results.


PURPOSE
To investigate the effect of ACE inhibitor, lisinopril and AT1 blocker, losartan, on the obstructive pancreatitis in rat.

METHODS
Acute pancreatitis in rats (n=21) was induced for a common hepatic duct were ligated proximal to its entry into the pancreas and the common bile - pancreatic duct were also ligated near its junction with the duodenum, under ether anesthesia, after which the abdomen were closed. The animals was divided in tree groups, being two treated and control group. The animals was treated with Losartan and Lisinopril at the dose of 10µg/Kg body weight per day, i.p., in a proportional volume, for five days, before and after treatment.

RESULTS
The inflammation, collagen deposition in the pancreas of treated animals were smaller, suggesting that the use of antihypertensive agents interfered positively in the depletion of the injury of the pancreas. Scythe showed a correlation between activity of pancreatic stellate cells (PSCs) lower in treated animals when compared to control.

CONCLUSION
The pancreatic stellate cells strength are involved in collagen production during acute pancreatitis and why antihypertensive drugs such as lisinopril and losartan may possibly have beneficial effects in reducing pancreatic fibrosis in models of experimental obstructive pancreatitis.


This thesis presents two major sections with the objective of introducing a new cold-formed steel (CFS) shear wall system with corrugated steel sheathings. The work shown herein includes the development of an optimal shear wall system as well as an optimal slit configuration for the CFS corrugated sheathings which result in a CFS shear wall with high ductility, high strength, high stiffness and overall high performance. The conclusion is based on the results of 36 full-scale shear wall tests performed in the structural laboratory of the University of North Texas. A variety of shear walls were the subject of this research to make further discussions and conclusions based on different sheathing materials, slit configurations, wall configurations, sheathing connection methods, wall dimensions, shear wall member thicknesses, and etc. The walls were subject to cyclic (CUREE protocol) lateral loading to study their deformations and structural performances. The optimal sit configuration for CFS shear walls with corrugated steel sheathings was found to be 12×2 in. vertical slits in 6 rows. The failure mode observed in this shear wall system was the connection failure between the sheathing and the framing members. Also, most of the shear walls tested displayed local buckling of the chord framing members located above the hold-down locations. The second section includes details of developing a Finite Element Model (FEM) in ABAQUS software to analyze the lateral response of the new shear wall systems. Different modeling techniques were used to define each element of the CFS shear wall and are reported herein. Material properties from coupon test results are applied. Connection tests are performed to define pinching paths to model fasteners with hysteretic user-defined elements. Element interactions, boundary conditions and loading applications are consistent with full scale tests. CFS members and corrugated sheathings are modeled with shell elements, sheathing-to-frame fasteners are modeled using nonlinear springs (SPRING2 elements) for monotonic models and a general user defined element (user subroutine UEL) for cyclic models. Hold-downs are defined by boundary conditions. A total of three models were developed and validated by comparing ABAQUS results to full scale test results.


This thesis draws together and thematically links the notions of the afterlife contained within the in the Book of Enoch. This thesis compares the afterlife beliefs in the Book of Enoch to the religious myths of the Sumerians, Babylonians, Greeks and Persians. The Book of Enoch has also been compared to ideas found in the Hebrew Bible. The concept of restoration of justice is one of the major themes of the Book of Enoch. Its imagery of the afterlife developed as an imagined way of fixing an unjust world.


Ideas can influence the reproduction of social orders in our work lives, and ideas can alter activities to create new social orders. A key concern of my research is whether individuals can engage new ideas to create organization social structures that promote the basic ideals of democracy. To address this concern, I examined the social structures of labor-managed firms, which, through their ownership by those who are workers in the firm, are believed to embody the ideals of organization democracy. In previous research I developed a general framework of organization democracy from a narrative analysis of the ethnographic and case study literature on labor-managed firms. I propose that there is a fundamental contradiction in the practices of organization democracy among labor- managed firms in that some members believe that humans are essentially egoistic in nature, while some members believe that humans are essentially cooperative in nature. My contribution is that an unproven belief regarding human nature, or what one might call faith, will drive the preferred types of social structures utilized to create organization democracy within a labor-managed firm.


OBJECTIVE EII is the virtual consolidation of data from multiple systems into a unified, consistent and accurate representation. An analyst working in an EII environment can simultaneously view and analyze data from multiple data sources as if it were coming from one large local data warehouse. This paper posits that EII is a viable solution to implement a system covering large areas and disparate data sources for syndromic surveillance and discusses case studies from environments external to health. BACKGROUND A comprehensive definition of a syndrome is composed of direct (911 calls, emergency departments, primary care providers, sensor, veterinary, agricultural and animal data) and indirect evidence (data from schools, drug stores, weather etc.). Syndromic surveillance will benefit from quickly integrating such data. There are three critical areas to address to build an effective syndromic surveillance system that is dynamic, organic and alert, capable of continuous growth, adaptability and vigilance: (1) timely collection of high quality data (2) timely integration and analysis of information (data in context) (3) applying innovative thinking and deriving deep insights from information analysis. In our view there is excessive emphasis on algorithms and applications to work on the collected data and insufficient emphasis on solving the integration challenges. Therefore, this paper is focused on information integration.


Simple Summary Cow longevity is a key driver of the beef cattle industry profitability that can be improved through genetic and genomic selection. Censored data are commonly dealt with in genetic evaluations of longevity, which can unfavorably impact the accuracy of breeding values and the rates of genetic progress. In this study, we evaluated alternative scenarios to define the best approaches for genetically evaluating longevity in North American Angus cattle in the presence of censored data. Abstract This study aimed to evaluate the impact of different proportions (i.e., 20%, 40%, 60% and 80%) of censored (CEN) or penalized (PEN) data in the prediction of breeding values (EBVs), genetic parameters, and computational efficiency for two longevity indicators (i.e., traditional and functional longevity; TL and FL, respectively). In addition, three different criteria were proposed for PEN: (1) assuming that all cows with censored records were culled one year after their last reported calving; (2) assuming that cows with censored records older than nine years were culled one year after their last reported calving, while censored (missing) records were kept for cows younger than nine years; and (3) assuming that cows with censored records older than nine years were culled one year after their last reported calving, while cows younger than nine years were culled two years after their last reported calving. All analyses were performed using random regression models based on fourth order Legendre orthogonal polynomials. The proportion of commonly selected animals and EBV correlations were calculated between the complete dataset (i.e., without censored or penalized data; COM) and all simulated proportions of CEN or PEN. The computational efficiency was evaluated based on the total computing time taken by each scenario to complete 150,000 Bayesian iterations. In summary, increasing the CEN proportion significantly (p-value < 0.05 by paired t-tests) decreased the heritability estimates for both TL and FL. When compared to CEN, PEN tended to yield heritabilities closer to COM, especially for FL. Moreover, similar heritability patterns were observed for all three penalization criteria. High proportions of commonly selected animals and EBV correlations were found between COM and CEN with 20% censored data (for both TL and FL), and COM and all levels of PEN (for FL). The proportions of commonly selected animals and EBV correlations were lower for PEN than CEN for TL, which suggests that the criteria used for PEN are not adequate for TL. Analyses using COM and CEN took longer to finish than PEN analyses. In addition, increasing the amount of censored records also tended to increase the computational time. A high proportion (>20%) of censored data has a negative impact in the genetic evaluation of longevity. The penalization criteria proposed in this study are useful for genetic evaluations of FL, but they are not recommended when analyzing TL.


ABSTRACT Sedimentary organic matter is a potential indicator of paleoenvironments. In this study we examine the relationship among composition of kerogen (insoluble organic matter), sedimentary environments, and sea-level changes in Miocene to Pleistocene sediments of the Niigata and Akita backarc basins, central Japan. Our primary analytical tool is a ternary diagram with apexes consisting of woody-coaly organic matter, herbaceous with pollen and spores, and amorphous organic matter (AOM) with alginite (organic-walled marine microfossils). The composition of kerogen plots into distinct regions on the ternary diagram: fluvial to estuarine, prodeltaic, shelf, slope and basin-floor submarine fans, and distal basin-floor sediments. The fluvial and estuarine sediments have high proportions of woody-coaly and herbaceous organic matter with pollen and spores, and a lesser proportion of AOM + alginite, because pollen and spores were mainly deposited in estuaries. Because abundant coarse-grained, terrigenous organic matter was supplied by delta distributaries, the prodeltaic sediments have high proportions of woody-coaly organic matter. The composition of kerogen in the shelf sediments is similar to the kerogen in slope and basin-floor submarine-fan sediments, as plotted on the ternary diagram. Both kinds of kerogen accumulations have high proportions of woody-coaly organic matter and AOM with alginite and lesser proportions of herbaceous organic matter with pollen and spores. This relationship suggests that turbidity currents supplied the terrigenous sediments. The sediments on the distal basin-floor contain high proportions of AOM. Each pattern in the ternary diagram reflects a difference in hydrodynamic behavior, distance from land, and the supply of terrigenous organic matter. The sub-ternary diagram, which has apexes of WFA (weakly fluorescent amorphous organic matter), NFA (nonfluorescent amorphous organic matter) + FA (fluorescent amorphous organic matter), and alginite, further suggests the origin of AOM. The NFA in shelf sediments and WFA in distal basin-floor sediments are inferred to consist of terrestrial higher plant and marine organic matter, respectively. A 13C value of kerogen rich in NFA (-24.6 and -27.3‰) suggests land plants, whereas kerogen rich in WFA (-20.0 to -23.6‰) suggests marine plankton. These inferences agree with those derived from the sub-ternary diagram. Furthermore, compositional changes of the kerogen in turbidites reflect relative sea-level changes, as seen by shifts in compositions on the ternary diagram. The use of ternary diagrams like those used here is recommended for future studies of kerogen, depositional environment, and sea-level relationship.


The introduction of counter-cyclical payments (CCPs) and a base acreage updating option under the 2002 Farm Act have potential supply response implications. To gain insight into the economic incentives and efficiency implications of these provisions, this paper presents the design of a 3-stage experimental market used to gauge the actual response of economic agents under conditions simulating those faced by U.S. farmers. When completed, the results of the experiment will be used to assess the impact of the CCP system and of policy uncertainty regarding future base-updating options, relative to a market revenue-only baseline.


There is limited data on the standards of diabetes care in people on peritoneal dialysis (PD). Our aim was to assess the standards of diabetes care and the burden of hypoglycaemia in people with diabetes on PD. We performed a retrospective study at three university hospitals from December 2021 to January 2022. Clinical data were extracted from electronic health records. Diabetes care of people on PD was compared against recommended standards for people with diabetes on haemodialysis (as there are no agreed standards for PD). The degree of hypoglycaemia awareness was assessed by validated questionnaires. A total of 65 adults (15 type 1, 49 type 2 and 1 monogenic-diabetes) with a mean age of 63 (range 29-88) years were evaluated. Of them, 92% had diabetes retinal screening with annual review. In contrast, in this high-risk group for foot disease, only 77% had annual foot reviews. The rates of diabetes specialist reviews were variable between hospitals at 63-94% and 10 (15%) had impaired hypoglycaemia awareness. Of the cohort, 32% had HbA1c within the acceptable range of 58-80 mmol/mol (7.5-8.5%), 21% had HbA1c below 58 mmol/mol (7.5%) and 21% (n = 14) reported at least one hypoglycaemic event per month. Our results indicate variation of care within and between different centres, and the need for improved diabetes care in people on PD. Further work is required to establish agreed standards/recommendations of diabetes care in this population. Our findings highlight the necessity of an integrated multidisciplinary approach to improve the standard of diabetes care for people on PD.


"...This classic work is widely considered the genesis of the Reconstructionist Movement, and remains one of the most original and stimulating contributions to modern Jewish thought."- International Journal of Jewish Education Research Judaism as a Civilization is widely considered the genesis of the Reconstructionist Movement, representing a watershed moment in modern Judaism. In this classic book, Mordecai Kaplan introduced a new way of looking at Judaism: as an evolving religious civilization. His approach required innovation in liturgy and ritual, elimination of obsolete customs, and adjustment in light of prevailing social, political, and cultural conditions. Kaplan felt that all Jews-traditional and liberal, religious and secular-could play a part in this; "reconstruction."; Judaism as a Civilization, first published in 1934, remains one of the most original and thought-provoking contributions to modern Jewish thought.


In this thesis we study toric Fano varieties. Toric varieties are a particular class of algebraic variety which can be described in terms of combinatorial data. Toric Fano varieties correspond to certain convex lattice polytopes whose boundary lattice points are dictated by the singularities involved. Terminal toric Fano varieties correspond to convex lattice polytopes which contain only the origin as an internal lattice point, and whose boundary lattice points are precisely the vertices of the polytope. The situation is similar for canonical toric Fano varieties, with the exception that the condition on boundary lattice points is relaxed. We call these polytopes terminal (or canonical) Fano polytopes. The heart of this thesis is the development of an approach to classifying Fano polytopes, and hence the associated varieties. This is achieved by ordering the polytopes with respect to inclusion. There exists a finite collection of polytopes which are minimal with respect to this ordering. It is then possible to "grow" these minimal polytopes in order to obtain a complete classification. Critical to this method is the ability to find the minimal polytopes. Their description is inductive, requiring an understanding of the lower-dimensional minimal polytopes. A generalisation of weighted projective space plays a crucial role – the associated simplices form the building blocks of the minimal polytopes. A significant part of this thesis is dedicated to attempting to understand these building blocks. A classification of all toric Fano threefolds with at worst terminal singularities is given. The three-dimensional minimal canonical polytopes are also found, making a complete classification possible.


As exemplified by Madame Butterfly, East-West relations have often been expressed as the relations between the masculine, dominant West and the feminine, submissive East. Yet, this binary model does not account for the important role of white women in the construction of Orientalism. Mari Yoshihara's study examines a wide range of white women who were attracted to Japan and China in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century and shows how, through their engagement with Asia, these women found new forms of expression, power, and freedom that were often denied to them in other realms of their lives in America. She demonstrates how white women's attraction to Asia shaped and was shaped by a complex mix of exoticism for the foreign, admiration for the refined, desire for power and control, and love and compassion for the people of Asia. Through concrete historical narratives and careful textual analysis, she examines the ideological context for America's changing discourse about Asia and interrogates the power and appeal-as well as the problems and limitations-of American Orientalism for white women's explorations of their identities. Combining the analysis of race and gender in the United States and the study of U.S.-Asian relations, Yoshihara's work represents the transnational direction of scholarship in American Studies and U.S. history. In addition, this interdisciplinary work brings together diverse materials and approaches, including cultural history, material culture, visual arts, performance studies, and literary analysis.


Global Warming is a major environmental problem that all kind of organisms has been affected at present. Urban Heat Island (UHI) is one of primary impacts of Global Warming. UHI is a phenomenon that the temperature of urban area is higher than surrounding rural areas or suburban areas. This increasing trend of temperature in urban areas affects many environmental entities such as air quality, water resources, habitats behaviors and climate changes. The most remarkable incident that relate with UHI is the difference of thermal properties of the surfaces. Many countries experience the consequences of Urban Heat Islands in many aspects such as economic, health, social and environmental affects. Thus to mitigate such impacts of UHI, it is very important to identify the main reasons behind this. In this paper UHIs in Colombo, Gampaha Districts and the relationship between UHI and vegetation cover were analyzed based on Landsat 8, 30m resolution data. Land Surface Temperature was derived from Landsat thermal Infrared band through several equations of United State Geological Survay (USGS) guidelines using Arc GIS 10. Conversion of Digital Number (DN) values to Top of Atmosphere (TOA) Radiance, Conversion of TOA Radiance to Satellite Brightness temperature and final calculation of Land Surface Temperature considering land surface emissivity are the steps that had been done for the analysis. Vegetation cover was derived by using vegetation index with the Red and Near Infra Red bands. The result shows that the land high surface temperature directly relates with the urbanized regions where vegetation cover is very less. High temperature difference could be identified that cause to arise the urban heat island effects in Colombo & Gampaha districts. There is a strong linearly negative correlation with correlation coefficient value of -0.742 between land surface temperature and vegetation cover. 78.8 km2 (including water) of total area had been identified as NDVI value less than 0.1. And extent of high temperature area was 74.12 km2 where temperature more than 27oC at 10.22am. The area in temperature range of 25-27 was 464.95km2 and area in NDVI value range 0.1-0.2 was 333.04 km2. 1471.1 km2 was identified as NDVI value between 0.3-0.4 and the area at low temperature was 1529 km2where temperature less than 25oC. According to this results, high temperature at non-vegetated areas and low temperature at vegetated areas could be noted very clearly. This is probably due to the ecological function of vegetation that lay down the surface temperature from high evapotranspiration. Vegetated areas are mostly sensed with surface temperature.Thus research output can be useful for policy-makers and planners of development projects such as Western province Megapolis project as well as for general public to understand the urban heat island effects and importance of vegetation cover to mitigate such impacts.


A 10-year-old boy with daily headache for 1 month and intermittent diplopia for 1 week was found to have a unilateral partial abducens palsy and bilateral papilledema; otherwise, his neurologic examination showed no abnormalities. A cranial computed tomographic (CT) scan was normal. Lumbar puncture disclosed a markedly elevated opening pressure of > 550 mm of cerebrospinal fluid with normal cerebrospinal fluid. Medical therapy with acetazolamide for presumed pseudotumor cerebri was begun. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain, done several days later because of continuing symptoms, unexpectedly showed multiple hyperintensities of cerebral white matter on T2-weighted and fluid-attenuated inversion recovery images. Despite high-dose intravenous methylprednisolone for possible demyelinating disease, he failed to improve. A left temporal brain biopsy followed and disclosed an anaplastic oligodendroglioma. In a patient with features indicating pseudotumor cerebri, a negative cranial CT scan is not adequate to rule out underlying pathology; thus, MRI of the brain should probably always be performed. A revised definition of pseudotumor cerebri could better include "normal MRI of the brain" rather than "normal neuroimaging." (J Child Neurol 2004;19:609-613).


Urumaco and Venezuelan Paleontology offers a synthesis of the paleontological record of Venezuela, including new discoveries on stratigraphy, paleobotany, fossil invertebrates, and vertebrates. Besides providing a critical summary of the record of decapods, fishes, crocodiles, turtles, rodents, armadillos, and ungulates, several chapters introduce new information on the distribution and paleobiology of groups not previously studied in this part of the world. Given its position in the northern neotropics, close to the Panamanian land bridge, Venezuela is a key location for understanding faunal exchanges between the Americas in the recent geological past. The book reviews the recent paleobotanical and vertebrate fossil record of the region, provides an understanding of Pleistocene climatic change and biogeography for the last few thousand years, and integrates new information with summaries of Spanish language works on Venezuelan geology and paleontology.


In recent years, software project managers compare actual completion of activities against the progress reports filled by project members to identify significant deviations from the estimated schedules and manage software project risks. However, quantitative measurements are limited due to the format of project documents, which are mostly natural languages. In this paper, we propose an intelligent system for software project monitoring and control by using natural language processing techniques to recognize textual entailment of progress reports to further evaluate the level of project fulfillment in a qualitative manner. Our experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can recognize entailment from text efficiently and outperform other textual entailment approaches. Moreover, we successfully apply the textual entailment technique to project monitoring and control, which not only reduces the project cost and human's effort but also provides a basis for project managers to qualitatively evaluate the performance of each project member.


EDITOR,-The article by Jalleh et al' describes a high frequency of portal tract changes in operative liver biopsy specimens from 52 patients undergoing surgery for chronic pancreatitis (alcoholic aetiology 77%). A study by our group in 19862 recorded the same phenomenon in 38 consecutive non-jaundiced patients who had a biopsy (usually percutaneous) between 10 days and six months after an attack of pancreatitis (alcoholic 8, miscellaneous 9, idiopathic 21) which was classified as acute in eight cases and acute on chronic in 30 cases. The portal tracts were abnormal in 28 cases (74%): the changes included diffuse lymphocytic infiltration, focal bile duct proliferation, focal ductopenia, and features suggesting primary sclerosing cholangitis or primary biliary cirrhosis. We also noted subtle changes, including siderosis, in hepatocytes occupying 10-100% of parenchyma in 23 cases (60%). The abnormal cells were sometimes large and water clear and sometimes had the typical appearance of ground glass hepatocytes. We suggested: (a) that the aberrations in hepatocytes represented hepatic enzyme induction from chronic exposure to xenobiotics with superimposed damage from toxic metabolites; (b) that the portal tract disturbances were initiated by the entry of excessive amounts of lipid oxidation and other toxic metabolites in bile. Support for enzyme induction came from parallel studies of drug metabolism3 and hepatic morphometry.4 The idea of toxic metabolite related damage was reinforced by morphological evidence of excessive deposition of lipofuscin and microvesicular steatosis, or both, and dilated endoplasmic reticulum on electron microscopy; together with biochemical evidence from the amounts and types of lipid oxidation markers in secretin stimulated bile.56 With regard to the possible connection between increased outputs of reactive intermediates in bile and initiation of portal tract inflammation, there is evidence that free radical activity causes alterations in the structure of gammaglobulins.7 The longstanding preoccupation of pancreatologists with the idea that abnormal bile may reflux into the pancreas and initiate damage therein, led us initially to take the argument further in that direction. Only when surgical diversion of this abnormal bile failed to stop the course of pancreatitis in three patients8 did it become clear that pancreatic and liver damage proceeded independently. If reflux, however, was also to occur as was shown unequivocally in one of those patients it would be expected to compound damage in the head of the gland. Of further interest was the finding that pancreatic acinar cells from that patient (who had had a Whipple operation) showed microvesiculation very similar to that in his hepatocytes. Immunocytochemistry of tissue fragments from subsequent patients, and organ donor controls, have now proved the constancy of hepatic and pancreatic cytochrome P450 induction in patients with chronic pancreatitis,9 while clinical trials, both anecdotal8'0 and placebo controlled,'0' have shown the value of antioxidant supplementation in controlling symptoms. The concept that oxidative stress, through induced cytochromes P-450 in pancreatic cells, is central to the pathogenesis of chronic pancreatitis rationalises the recent report from Bourliere et al in the same issue ofGut. 2 The authors concluded that cigarette smoke and alcohol are distinct risk factors for pancreatic damage in chronic pan creatitis, but not for liver injury. Whereas ingested xenobiotics such as alcohol would preferentially reach the liver, inhaled xenobiotics would strike the pancreas directly. The concept predicts that diets enriched in corn oil, a potent inducer of cytochrome P-4501, should facilitate the development of an experimental model of chronic pancreatitis.13 '4 Free radicals are not the only tissue damaging principle: others include proteases and phospholipases from inflammatory cells, and cytolytic properties of a complement cascade. The corollary is that the outcome of oxidative stress is different within different organs depending upon the inherent antioxidant capacity, as well as populations of resident macrophages and immune systems to amplify and perpetuate injury. The liver with its generous quota of each of these systems is better equipped than the pancreas to resist wholesale cellular destruction from oxidative stress but, paradoxically, may display the kind of subtle changes that have now been documented in portal tracts and macrophages. We find it difficult to accept the alternate explanation by Jalleh et al that these changes are secondary to inflammation of the pancreas, for the reasons discussed above. N Y HABOUBI Withington Hospital, Manchester H H ALI Royal Infirmary, Huddersfield J M BRAGANZA Royal Infirmary, Oxford Road, ManchesterM13 9WL Correspondence to: Dr J M Braganza.


Objective: To explore the imaging changes of lung lesions in patients with imported COVID-19 when reaching the discharge standard. Methods: The clinical and CT imaging data of 60 cured patients with imported COVID-19 and discharged from January to February 2020 in Anhui Province were retrospectively collected. At the initial diagnosis, 5 cases were mild, 53 were ordinary, and 2 were severe. The clinical characteristics of the patients and the characteristics of chest CT images at discharge were analyzed. Results: Fever (57 cases) and cough (55 cases) were the main symptoms in 60 patients. In 5 mild patients, 3 cases were negative in the whole course of CT examination, 2 cases were negative in the first time and abnormal in the second time. The first CT imaging features of 55 patients (53 common type and 2 severe type) were mainly bilateral lung involvement (51 cases), multiple lesions (33 cases), more common under the pleura (40 cases), and ground glass opacities were the most common (55 cases). The features of chest CT in clinical outcomes were that the ground glass shadow in the lung gradually faded and was completely absorbed (19 cases); the scope of ground glass shadow in the lung expanded and progressed to crazy-paving, consolidation shadow, and the lesion gradually absorbed again followed by fibrous cord shadows (27 cases); ground-glass opacities in the lungs quickly progressed to a consolidation and then slowly absorbed. Most of the lesions were accompanied by more residual fibrous cord shadows (4 cases). In 2 severe patients, the lesions in the lungs were larger ground glass, and a large amount of fibrous foci remained after slow absorption. Conclusions: Chest CT plays an important role in the diagnosis and treatment of imported COVID-19, and the degree of lung involvement seen on CT images is in good agreement with clinical outcome.


Despite modern chemotherapy, advanced breast cancer remains a significant cause of cancer morbidity and mortality in women. Patients with disease involvement of multiple lymph nodes represent a subgroup with a high risk of relapse. In particular, 50% of patients with 4 to 9 axillary lymph nodes involved will relapse after standard chemotherapy. In an effort to improve the survival of patients with 4 to 9 involved nodes, we performed a phase II study in which 61 patients with surgically diagnosed stage II or III breast cancer and 4 to 9 positive lymph nodes received 3 cycles of doxorubicin and 5-fluorouracil followed by high-dose chemotherapy consisting of cisplatin, cyclophosphamide, and carmustine and infusion of autologous hematopoietic progenitor cells. All patients received posttransplantation localized radiotherapy unless contraindicated, and all patients with hormone receptor-positive disease received tamoxifen. After a median patient follow-up of 6.7 years (range, 4.6-8.6 years), the 5-year overall survival rate was 79% (95% CI, 69%-90%), with relapse-free survival of 73% (95% CI, 62%-85%). Treatment-related mortality was 3%. Interstitial pneumonitis occurred in 69% of patients but did not contribute to mortality. Our study presents long-term favorable results regarding the use of consolidative HDC with autologous hematopoietic support in previously untreated patients with high-risk primary breast cancer.


The objective of this paper is to generate a closed form of the equations of motion for two serially connected manipulators. Instead of computing the coupled dynamics directly, this work constructs overall dynamic equations from previously known equations of each manipulator and coupling terms derived in this paper. This approach will reduce the number of computations significantly and show the structure of the coupling dynamics between two arms. The proposed technique has been coded in Malhemalica for symbolic computation. As a case study, the proposed approach is applied to two examples: micro/macro manipulators and a mobile manipulator. Each case shows not only simplicity of derivation but also a reduction in computation time of at least one-third compared to the conventional direct derivation.


The sponge-loop hypothesis proposes that coral reef sponges convert the dissolved organic matter (DOM) released by benthic primary producers into particulate detritus available to higher trophic levels. The hypothesis was developed and subsequently supported from studies of cryptic, encrusting sponges; however, the sponge-loop has yet to be considered for massive, emergent sponge species that dominate the surface of Caribbean reefs and represent a large proportion of sponge community biomass. We tested the generality of the sponge-loop for emergent sponge fauna by using direct In-Ex methods combined with acoustic Doppler velocimetry and sponge volume calculations to quantify carbon flux for 9 sponge species representing a variety of functional types. The diet of 5 species hosting abundant symbiotic microbes (HMA) primarily consisted of dissolved organic car bon (DOC), while 4 species with low microbial abundances (LMA) primarily consumed detritus and picoplankton. None of the sponge species studied were found to produce significant quantities of detritus. We conclude that, instead of releasing assimilated carbon in the form of detritus, as originally proposed by the sponge-loop for encrusting, cryptic sponges, emergent sponge species likely retain assimilated carbon as biomass. Given the high rates of DOC uptake observed for HMA species, we propose an additional pathway by which the sponge-loop fuels higher trophic levels via predation by fish, turtle, and invertebrate spongivores.


Prostaglandin E2 (PGE2), a product of cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) enzymatic activity, induced aromatase activity which converts androgens to estrogens and mediates cell biological function. However, the relationship between estradiol (E2), COX-2 and PGE2 signaling pathway in Her-2/neu breast cancer cell was still unclear. In this report, we elucidate the mechanisms that mediate COX-2 expression and define the relationship of E2 and PGE2 with clinicopathological characteristics in breast cancer patients. The results were presented to demonstrate that the high level of PGE2 (P=0.02) and E2 (P=0.09) was significantly correlated with histological grade. To further investigate the signaling pathways mediating COX-2 gene expression, the experiments were performed in human breast cancer cell lines. In vitro study we found that time and dose courses of COX-2 were induced by E2 treatment in human breast adenocarcinoma cell lines Her-18(Her-2/neu stable expression cell lines), but not in MCF-7 cell lines. Furthermore, the effect was eliminated by pretreatment with MAPK, P38, PI3K, Her-2 inhibitor and estrogen antagonist ICI 182,780. Collectively, our data indicate that MAPK/PI3K/COX-2 is the functional signaling pathway intermediates linking Her-2/neu and E2 and suggest that inhibitors of PGE2 synthesis will suppress cancer cell proliferation in human breast cancer cell lines. Citation Format: Eing-Mei Tsai, Tsung-Hua Hsieh. Estradiol induced prostaglandin E2 expression to regulate cell proliferation through MAPK/PI3K/COX2 signal pathway in Her2/neu breast cancer cell. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research; 2012 Oct 16-19; Anaheim, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Prev Res 2012;5(11 Suppl):Abstract nr A42.


Reproductive phenology of 13 sympatric taxa of Chamaecrista in three sections was surveyed at Serra do Cipó, south-east Brazil. Mean abundance of flowers and fruits per plant and mean number of aborted, predated, and surviving seeds per fruit were estimated. Monthly average number of developed seeds per fruit multiplied by the monthly mean number of fruits per plant gave the monthly average number of seeds produced by a plant of each taxon. Five types of phenological behaviour were differentiated by cluster analyses according to the season during which each species produced most of its mature seeds. This behaviour was related to the taxonomic section to which the taxa belong, to plant architecture, to geographical range, to seed predation and to local climatic seasonality. Herbs were more affected by variation in rainfall than shrubs and trees. Two species did not show any clear seasonal behaviour. Widespread taxa produced most of their mature seeds in the rainy season or immediately after it, and all but one of the narrowly distributed species produced most of their mature seeds in the dry season or in the transition from dry to rainy season. Seed predation is probably not an important selective force affecting reproductive phenology of larger taxa, while the smaller taxa seemed too constrained by abiotic factors for biotic factors to influence their phenology significantly.


: In recent decades, market power has increased substantially, according to multiple measures that describe industry concentration, mark-ups, and business profitability. While market power can generate benefits, it also raises vexing policy concerns, including the potential for adverse effects on labor markets, income inequality, and the dynamism of market competition. The concept of market power also has implications for how we conceptualize capital income, making it important to distinguish between normal and above-normal returns to capital. The tax system taxes both types of returns to capital, but often imperfectly and incompletely. Full consideration of the relationship between market power and capital income suggests important implications for optimal capital taxation design, including the role of entity taxation, the use of graduated business tax rates, and international tax reform.


World energy consumption is increasing annually due to use of high energy consuming products and industrial revolution. World is facing dilemma of energy shortage, which signifies the need to shift from traditional energy generating procedures to modern cost effective and durable energy generating resources. Biofuels presents an excellent alternative to traditional energy resources by its use an environment friendly fuel. The present study aims to generate bioethanol using different lignocellulosic substances i.e. sugarcane bagasse, leaves of neem plants and different grasses respectively collected from local sources. Fermentation was carried out using different bacterial isolates also obtained from local environment. Each substrate was subjected to pretreatment by 5% and 2% sulphuric acid and stream heat treatment before initializing bioethanol production. pH and reducing sugar content of each sample was determined. Bacterial isolates were isolated from agricultural sites. Bacillus thuringiensis was isolated from the soil of agricultural field and E.coli was isolated from locally collected waste water. Bioethanol was separated using the process of freeze drying. Total content of bioethanol obtained from E.coli was 0.15% and 0.09% from Bacillus thuringiensis.


Chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) and 30% of adult acute lymphatic leukemia (ALL) are characterized by the Philadelphia chromosome (Ph+), having a (9;22) chromosomal translocation. The BCR/ABL fusion protein is the hallmark of Ph+ leukemia. BCR/ABL is characterized by deregulated and constitutively activated ABL tyrosine kinase activity that determines its transformation potential. Tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKI) have greatly improved the overall prognosis of these diseases, particularly by altering the natural history of chronic phase (CP) CML and preventing the previously inexorable progression to terminal blast crisis (BC). However, unsatisfactory responses in advanced disease stages, resistance and long-term tolerability of BCR/ABL inhibitors represent major clinical problems. The most important mechanism of resistance against TKIs is the selection of leukemic clones driven by BCR/ABL harboring point mutations, such as the E255K, Y253F/H (P-loop), H396R (activation loop) or the T315I (gatekeeper). The "gatekeeper" mutation T315I confers resistance against all approved TKIs, with the only exception of Ponatinib, a multi-target kinase inhibitor. CML and Ph+ ALL, rarely present at diagnosis with a BCR/ABL harboring a resistance mutation to TKI. Resistant clones may be present and only detectable by highly sensitive methods. We have previously shown that the resistance mutations may influence the biology of BCR/ABL and its transformation potential.
 We therefore hypothesized that the presence of mutations such as the T315I select for a "dormant cell population" which manifests following initial treatments with TKI inhibitors and treatment failure. The aim of this study was to determine whether the ''gatekeeper'' mutation T315I is able to confer biological features to BCR/ABL influencing its leukemogenic potential.
 We investigated the influence of T315I on the biology of BCR/ABL in CML and Ph+ ALL. We used Ph+ ALL patient derived long term culture (PDLTCs), factor dependent Ba/F3 cells and syngeneic mouse model of BCR/ABL induced CML-like disease. These models allowed the direct comparison of BCR/ABL with BCR/ABL-T315I. We observed significantly slower proliferation of Ba/F3 cells and PDLTCs expressing BCR/ABL-T315I compared to the native BCR/ABL. This was further confirmed by undertaking mitotic index calculations and colony formation assays on both cell types. Furthermore, the induction of a CML-like disease in syngeneic mice was significantly delayed in the presence of T315I (median: BCR/ABL - 27 days; BCR/ABL-T315I - 61 days). We undertook functional studies to determine the putative signaling pathway and found that Ras/Erk1/2 pathway was activated inT315I positive cells.
 This study may assist towards therapy decisions in patients with CML/Ph+ ALL with a T315I mutation.

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Theoretical calculations suggest that crystals exceeding 100 nm thickness are excluded by dynamical scattering from successful structure determination using microcrystal electron diffraction (MicroED). These calculations are at odds with experimental results where MicroED structures have been determined from significantly thicker crystals. Here we systematically evaluate the influence of thickness on the accuracy of MicroED intensities and the ability to determine structures from protein crystals one micrometer thick. To do so, we compare ab initio structures of a human prion protein segment determined from thin crystals to those determined from crystals up to one micrometer thick. We also compare molecular replacement solutions from crystals of varying thickness for a larger globular protein, proteinase K. Our results indicate that structures can be reliably determined from crystals at least an order of magnitude thicker than previously suggested by simulation, opening the possibility for an even broader range of MicroED experiments. Summary Atomic resolution protein structures can be determined by MicroED from crystals that surpass the theoretical maximum thickness limit by an order of magnitude.


This thesis is presented in two Parts; Part I forms the full exposition of the mysticism of Hamzah Fansuri, a Malay Sufi of the 16th century who lived in Barus in North Sumatra; Part II contains his three extant prose works edited in romanised Malay and translated into English; both the edition and the translation are annotated, A general picture of the spiritual climate of the period in which Hamzah lived, together with a brief biographical sketch attempting to establish his place of birth and the span of the period in which he lived - both of them problematic questions - is presented in the first chapter. Then in the second chapter allegations concerning the "heresy" in his ideas levelled against him by Nuru'1-Din al-Rahiri of Gujerat, who was in Acheh in North Sumatra in 1637. are critically examined. A conclusion that the allegations were unfounded is submitted. Chapter three deals with Hamzah's mystical doctrines in the domains of ontology, cosmology and psychology. Similarities with the doctrines of Ibnu'l-'Arabi and 'Abdu'l-Karim al-Jili are noted. Chapters four and five introduce methodological concepts in a modern semantic analysis which is employed to ascertain the meanings of important concepts in Hamzah's mystical system. These concepts - the Divine Will, Being, Existence, the Self - are couched in Malay, and comparison with Arabia, Greek, Persian and Sanskrit terms with a view to establishing equivalents is attempted. In the conclusion Hamzah's contributions in Malay classical literature, both in the field of poetry as well as that of rational inquiry is stated. It is further suggested that gamzah was the first man to set down in Malay the Sufi doctrines; that he was the first man to produce systematic speculative writing in Malay, A theory on the islamization process in the Malay-Indonesian Archipelago, in which it is suggested Hamzah played an important and hitherto undiscovered role, is also presented. The Appendices contain material already given in the table of contents. The most important material there is the Index of the Semantic Vocabulary of Hamzah's mystical system, which supports everything that has been said with reference to the concepts in Hamzah's teachings - in particular with concepts explained in Chapters four and five.


This Article critically evaluates the view widely held by courts that contract claims for lost leisure or personal time do not justify compensation. The thesis of this Article is that while the conventional judicial wisdom may be correct about some forms of nonpecuniary loss, it is entirely wrong regarding lost time. After setting aside assumptions, I show that traditional arguments against this form of recovery are deeply flawed Most importantly, I rely on the recognition of hedonic damages by forensic economists to debunk the myth that loss of time is no more than an everyday aspect of life not worthy of judicial attention. This Article demonstrates the relevance of lost time claims to remedial policy generally, showing that the denial of these claims undermines the twin remedial policies of fairness and efficient deterrence. Finally, I reject the various hedonic models that have been used to measure leisure time on the ground that they are either administratively cumbersome or are anti-egalitarian, and propose a model that eliminates these two deficiencies. The lack ofJudicial and academic attention given to lost personal time claims is somewhat astonishing, considering its prevalence in legal contexts. This trend suggests that the traditional common law position against the recovery of nonpecuniary damages generally has a powerful hold on our judicial intuition. A reevaluation of at least one aspect of this slighted area of law would be good public policy, and it's about time.


Image representations, from SIFT and Bag of Visual Words to Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs), are a crucial component of almost any image understanding system. Nevertheless, our understanding of them remains limited. In this paper we conduct a direct analysis of the visual information contained in representations by asking the following question: given an encoding of an image, to which extent is it possible to reconstruct the image itself? To answer this question we contribute a general framework to invert representations. We show that this method can invert representations such as HOG more accurately than recent alternatives while being applicable to CNNs too. We then use this technique to study the inverse of recent state-of-the-art CNN image representations for the first time. Among our findings, we show that several layers in CNNs retain photographically accurate information about the image, with different degrees of geometric and photometric invariance.


Both dividing and nondividing cells were able to recover from bleomycin-induced potentially lethal damage, but not from sublethal damage. The recovery from bleomycin-induced potentially lethal damage by nondividing cells was twice as great as that exhibited by dividing cells; and, potentially lethal damage recovery was sufficiently high for cells in both growth states to conceal the true response to sublethal damage. Through the use of integral dose fractions of bleomycin, the recovery from potentially lethal damage can be reduced significantly. These data suggest that closely spaced treatments with fractionated doses of bleomycin may be a more effective means of eradicating tumors containing large nondividing cell populations in vivo.