Many aspects of the classical price-setting newsvendor problem have been studied in the literature and most of the results pertain to the case where the price-demand relationship and demand distribution are explicitly provided. However, in practice, one needs to model and estimate these from historical sales data. Furthermore, many other drivers besides price must be included in the demand response model for statistical accuracy, along with conditional heteroskedasticity effects in the demand distribution. In this paper we develop a practical framework for data-driven, distribution-free, multivariate modeling of the price-setting newsvendor problem, which includes statistical estimation and price optimization methods for estimating the optimal solutions and associated confidence intervals. The specific novelty of the framework is that the relevant statistical estimation methods are carried out in close conjunction with the requirements of the optimization problem, which in this context requires the estimation of three distinct aspects of the demand distribution, namely the mean, quantile and superquantile (also known as conditional value-atrisk, CVaR). We investigate different statistical estimators, which are broadly based on generalized linear regression (GLR), mixed-quantile regression (MQR), and superquantile regression (SQR) respectively. Our results extend the previous literature, notably to incorporate heteroskedasticity in MQR, and to obtain a novel and exact large-scale decomposition method that is computationally efficient for SQR (these extensions are of independent interest, besides the application discussed here). Our detailed computational experiments indicate that quantile-based methods such as MQR and SQR provide better solutions for a wide range of demand distributions, although for certain location-scale demand distributions that are similar to the Normal distribution, GLR may be preferable.


Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) is the oil produced from fresh coconuts. Unlike the ordinary coconut  oil,  Virgin  Coconut  Oil  (VCO)  is  produced  not  by the  addition  of  chemicals  or processes  that  use  high  heat.  Virgin  Coconut  Oil  (VCO)  beneficial  to  health,  this  is  because Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO) contains many medium chain fatty acids (Medium Chain Fatty Acid /  MCFA).  MCFA  are  most  in  the  Virgin  Coconut Oil  (VCO)  is  Lauric  acid  (Lauric  Acid). Properties  that  is  easily  absorbed  MCFA  will  increase  metabolism.  The  addition  of  energy produced  by  the  metabolism  of  this  produces  stimulating  effects  in  the  human  body  thereby increasing the level of energy produced.  Core  processes  in  the  manufacture  of  Virgin  Coconut  Oil  (VCO)  is  located  on  the separation of oil from water and protein. Many obstacles must be faced for separating oil from water  and  proteins,  such  as  in  the  fermentation  process,  the  separation  process takes  a  long time to get the Virgin Coconut Oil (VCO). While the centrifugation, the separation is done by utilizing the weight of the lighter oil. Although I do not require centrifugation long time but the way it has in the purity of the product constraints.  This research was conducted by using coconut cream from coconut milk is silenced for 3  hours.  Then  the  cream  is  incorporated  into  the  instrument  with  speed  centrifuges  spin 600,700,800,900 and 1000 rpm with vaiasion  times very; 30, 45, 60.75 and 90 minutes after that  coconut  cream  layer  divided  into  3  layers  of  oil  that  is,  the  middle  layer  of  protein (blondo)  and  next  underwater  layer  silenced  for  8,10,12,14,  and  16  hours  .  The  results  of virgin  coconut  oil  (VCO)  is  obtained  and  then  analyzed  with  the  parameters  water  content, protein content, Lauric acid, color and odor.  From the research, obtained the best conditions of rotational speed centrifuges at 1000 rpm and centrifuges turnaround time 90 minutes and 8 hours stagnand time with the quality of Virgin  Coconut  Oil  (VCO)  which  produced  yield:  Lauric  acid  yield  of  36.67%  and  52.23% results. Keywords: sentrifuge, coconut cream,,% yield results, VCO


The use of an unintensified charge-coupled device (CCD) camera for the acquisition of broadband CARS signals is demonstrated. The CCD camera offers significant advantages compared to intensified, linear photodiode array (PDA) detectors that are generally used for broadband CARS measurements. These advantages include higher spectral resolution and improved instrument function, larger dynamic range, and a 2-D format.


The brilliance of Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519) was unprecedented in his own lifetime and has never been exceeded. The universality of his genius is extraordinary: he was a painter, sculptor, musician, architect, engineer, inventor, scientist, anatomist and mathematician. Even today he is rarely out of the news, and fascination with this Renaissance master and his work has never been greater. Leonardo famously left behind only a very small number of completed projects, but his surviving drawings, sketches and notebooks give an extraordinary insight into the workings of his mind and the enormous scope of his interests.Through drawing Leonardo attempted to record and understand the world around him, transmitting knowledge more accurately and concisely with images than would be possible with words. Beginning with an introduction to the life of the artist, this beautifully illustrated gift book presents a chronological selection of priceless drawings by Leonardo along with other beautiful works thought to be by his students and other members of his circle. These demonstrate his astonishing mastery of technique and how he communicated this to the artists who followed him. Leonardo's working methods and his wide range of interests are also explored, leading credence to the notion that the true nature of Leonardo's intentions can only be known through his remarkable drawings.


Hexacelsian, the hexagonal polymorph of BaAl2Si2O8, experiences a phase transition near 300oC with an accompanying large volume change, which can lead to cracking and thermal shock, limiting the potential applications of hexacelsian. It has previously been reported that certain additions, including MgO and TiO2, can suppress the undesirable phase transition. Room-temperature neutron and high-temperature X-ray diffraction have been used to study the structure and thermal behavior of hexacelsian, both pure and substituted with varying amounts of MgO and TiO2. The diffraction data of the pure sample was refined using the P-3 space group. Attempting to refine the substituted sample with the same structure led to significant error due to peak intensity mismatch and the presence of extra peaks. The most likely explanation for the poor fit may be that the addition of Mg and Ti cations to hexacelsian significantly alters the structure in a way that has not been accounted for in the structural model thus far. Additions up to 10mol% MgO and 6.67mol% TiO2 did not suppress the α↔β transition near 300oC in a solid-state synthesized sample. However, it has been previously claimed that additions of 5-25mol% MgO, 6-14mol% TiO2, 0-10mol% ZnO, and 0-8mol% ZrO2 would suppress the α↔β transition, when using melt-glass crystallization synthesis. Also, thermal expansion coefficients for solid-state synthesized samples were calculated and found to be lower than those previously reported for zeolitederived synthesis. It may be concluded that the method of synthesizing pure and substituted hexacelsian affects the thermal properties and phase relationships.


Knr4, recently characterized as an intrinsically disordered Saccharomyces cerevisiae protein, participates in cell wall formation and cell cycle regulation. It is constituted of a functional central globular core flanked by a poorly structured N‐terminal and large natively unfolded C‐terminal domains. Up to now, about 30 different proteins have been reported to physically interact with Knr4. Here, we used an in vivo two‐hybrid system approach and an in vitro surface plasmon resonance (BIAcore) technique to compare the interaction level of different Knr4 deletion variants with given protein partners. We demonstrate the indispensability of the N‐terminal domain of Knr4 for the interactions. On the other hand, presence of the unstructured C‐terminal domain has a negative effect on the interaction strength. In protein interactions networks, the most highly connected proteins or "hubs" are significantly enriched in unstructured regions, and among them the transient hub proteins contain the largest and most highly flexible regions. The results presented here of our analysis of Knr4 protein suggest that these large disordered regions are not always involved in promoting the protein–protein interactions of hub proteins, but in some cases, might rather inhibit them. We propose that this type of regions could prevent unspecific protein interactions, or ensure the correct timing of occurrence of transient interactions, which may be of crucial importance for different signaling and regulation processes.


The paper presents the optimisation of process parameters during wire electrode discharge machining (WEDM) of Ti6Al4V (grade 5) alloy using the response surface methodology (RSM) and desirability approach, as unique set of properties of Ti6Al4V is being increasingly utilised in various industries including biomedical and aerospace. However, due to low thermal conductivity and being highly reactive at elevated temperatures tool wear is a significant problem during conventional machining operations. Hence, WEDM may be a viable alternative in certain applications when machining titanium alloys. In this investigation the effect of WEDM process parameters such pulse on time, pulse off time, servo voltage and wire feed are evaluated for material removal rate (MRR) and surface roughness. The optimum process parameters were obtained for the selected range of experiments using a desirability approach. Confirmation experiments were conducted to validate the empirical models of MRR and surface roughness that indicated developed models are suitable for predicting the response parameters.


A survey of hydrothermal activity along the superfast-spreading (approximately 150 millimeters per year) East Pacific Rise shows that hydrothermal plumes overlay approximately 60 percent of the ridge crest between 13�50' and 18�40'S, a plume abundance nearly twice that known from any other rige portion of comparable length. Plumes were most abundant where the axial cross section is inflated and an axial magma chamber is present. Plumes with high ratios of volatile (3He, CH4, and H2S) to nonvolatile (Mn and Fe) species marked where hydrothermal circulation has been perturbed by recent magmatic activity. The high proportion of volatile-rich plumes observed implies that such episodes are more frequent here than on slower spreading ridges.


A decline in enrollments in accounting programs in the United States of America has been well documented over the last decade. Some researchers have suggested that this decline is in part due to the misinformation or lack of information about the nature of accounting and the duties performed by accountants. Other studies have found that a significant number of students make their career choice decisions while at high school and that teachers are influential in this decision making process. Hardin, O'Bryan and Quirin (2000) carried out a study to identify the perceptions of US high school teachers of the accounting profession compared to engineering, law and medicine based on 24 attributes of a profession. We have replicated this study in both Australia and New Zealand to ascertain whether the US results could be generalised. Our findings indicate that the results from the NZ and Australian studies are similar to the results from the US study. This is of particular concern given the efforts of the professional accounting bodies in Australia and NZ to improve the image of accountants since the original US study was undertaken. This implies there are significant issues for educators and the profession. These include, repositioning the image of the profession, and a possible mismatch between the requisite skills perceived by the teachers and those sought by the profession.


Background: Anal sex is an important yet little studied HIV risk behavior for women. Methods: Using information collected on recent sexual encounters, we examined the influence of sex partner and relationship characteristics on the likelihood of engaging in anal sex among women with a high risk of HIV infection. Results: Anal sex was nearly 3 times more common among actively bisexual women (OR = 2.96, 95% CI: 2.17–4.03). Women were more likely to have anal sex with partners who injected drugs (OR = 2.32, 95% CI: 1.44–3.75), were not heterosexual (OR = 1.85, 95% CI: 1.18–2.90), and with whom they exchanged money or drugs for sex (OR = 1.79, 95% CI: 1.10–2.90). The likelihood of anal sex also increased with the number of nights sleeping together (OR = 1.15, 95% CI: 1.06–1.24). In contrast, emotional closeness and social closeness were not associated with anal sex. Condom use during anal sex was uncommon, and did not vary according to partner or relationship characteristics. Conclusions: Our findings support the need for HIV prevention interventions that target anal sex among heterosexuals, particularly in drug-using populations residing in neighborhoods with elevated levels of HIV prevalence.


Congenitally immune-deficient bg/nu/xid (BNX) mice are severely compromised in their ability to mount T-cell, B-cell, and lymphokine-activated killer (LAK) cell responses. Successful engraftment of BNX mice with human hematopoietic stem cells has been demonstrated recently. We have investigated the potential use of BNX mice for studies relating to the biology and immunotherapy of human malignant melanoma. The intravenous injection of fresh single-cell suspensions of human malignant melanomas into mice resulted in widely disseminated disease. Metastatic spread of human melanoma in BNX mice mimicked that observed in patients: eg, there were numerous tumor nodules identified in the subcutaneous tissues as well as in a variety of visceral organs, including spleen, kidneys, thyroid, adrenals, lungs, heart, and brain. BNX mouse lymph nodes were replaced consistently by human malignant melanoma cells. The presence of human tumor cells in these mice was confirmed by histologic analysis and microcytofluorometry analyses using human melanoma-specific monoclonal antibodies (MAbs). Moreover, human melanoma cells passaged in BNX mice remained lysable in vitro by specifically cytolytic, autologous human tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs). The capacity of fresh human malignant melanoma to disseminate widely in BNX mice may prove valuable not only for study of the biology of metastatic spread but also for studies of the immunotherapy of human melanoma using melanoma-specific MAbs and chemotherapeutic agents, as well as human TILs and LAK cells with or without retrovirus-mediated gene transfer modification.


Since the identification of mesenchymal stem cells, stem cell biology is a greatly researched field of regenerative medicine and tissue engineering therapies and has become an essential part of practical dentistry. Mesenchymal stem cells are multipotent stem cells that can differentiate into many cell types. Dental mesenchymal stem cell populations have been identified in dental pulp, human exfoliated deciduous teeth, periodontal ligament and dental follicle of third molars and tooth germ of third molars, gingival of periodontium, alveolar bone, and apical papilla. Dental stem cells are the most natural, noninvasive source of stem cells that have been identified, and they have gained recent attention due to their accessibility and the associated relatively low cost of integration into regenerative therapy. Long-term preservation of dental stem cells is becoming a popular consideration and mirrors the ideology of banking umbilical cord blood. This review outlines the recent progress in the mesenchymal stem cells used in dentistry as well as some advancement that are being made in preserving dental stem cells for future personalized medicine. The aim of this study was to completely and concisely review the current use of adult dental stem cells specifically oral sources of stem cells, banking of dental stem cells, and applications or uses of dental stem cells specifically in oral regions and in a clinical setting.


Author(s): Kerster, Bryan Elvis | Advisor(s): Kello, Christopher | Abstract: Foraging is an essential process for all mobile organisms. It allows organisms to locate resources such as food and mates. There is a long history of research on animal foraging in the ecology literature and recent work in cognitive science has revealed similarities between cognitive search behaviors and animal foraging behaviors. This gives rise to the possibility of bringing the rich animal foraging literature to bear on cognitive search processes. Historically there have been several major approaches to the study and modeling of foraging animals. One approach is known as optimal foraging theory which is focused on optimizing the amount of time an organism spends foraging a single location before moving on to another location. Another is an expansion on that approach which operationalizes those ideas into a spatial model known as area-restricted search. A third approach is known as the Levy flight hypothesis. It focuses on the longer term distributional properties of foraging animals, and optimizes coverage of a given search space. These approaches all make assumptions about environmental conditions faced by foraging organisms. The degree of resource sparsity and clustering in a foraging environment are believed to be important, but it is unclear how they affect foraging behaviors. Additionally spatial memory is a key concept important to animal search strategies, but is frequently ignored in the existing literature. For this dissertation, a series of experiments utilized a web-based foraging game to test how these variables affect foraging behaviors. The first experiment demonstrated that the degree of clustering in the environment had a significant impact on search strategies, and provided qualitative evidence that memory played a role in people's search behaviors. The experiments revealed distributional patterns very similar to those predicted by the Levy flight approach. The second experiment refined the method and directly tested memory cues and a broader range of resource densities. This experiment revealed results similar to the first with the addition of significant effects of both memory cues and resource density. This dissertation then discusses a model that combined key concepts from both optimal foraging and Levy foraging to produce results very similar to those produced by human participants, but with significantly higher performance. Experiment 3 examined how human performance changes when specific advantages are provided that can be found in our model, including perfect memory and accuracy. Finally a continuation of the model is discussed that explores the dynamics of multiple foragers searching the same space. Overall, I demonstrate that people will generate Levy-like search distributions in a wide variety of environmental conditions, but that search strategies will alter based on the current environment. I also demonstrate that spatial memory is a key factor in foraging, and provide a simple memory-based model that produces foraging behavior very similar to those utilized by people.


Objective: To determine factors related to chronic persistent pain lasting more than 6 months after mesh repair for inguinal hernia.
Methodology: This study included 114 patients who underwent elective inguinal hernioplasty at Department of General Surgery, Federal General Hospital, Islamabad, Pakistan from July 2012 to December 2014. All were followed upto end of six months. Postoperatively pain was recorded at second, seventh and fourteen day and at the end of six months on Visual Analogue Scale.
Results: Chronic pain at six-month follow up was present in 37 (32.45%) patients. The incidence of factors responsible for chronic pain were pain before surgery in 22 (19.29%), early postoperative pain in 10 (8.77%) of patients, wound infection in 2 (1.75%), hematoma formation in 3 (2.63%), and seroma formation in 4 (3.508%) patients.
Conclusion: Chronic pain after mesh repair for inguinal hernia causes significant morbidity. Early recognition and management of the factors prevents patient morbidity.


Objectives To determine whether the introduction of the capsular group B meningococcal vaccine (4CMenB) in the UK has increased presentations of infants to emergency departments with adverse events following immunisation (AEFI). Participants, design and setting A retrospective review of hospital records of infants aged 1–6 months presenting to Oxford University Hospitals NHS Trust's emergency departments from September 2013 to August 2016 with discharge diagnoses of vaccine reactions or non-specific conditions. Immunisation history was checked by reference to centralised immunisation records. Main outcome measures Presentation classifications were 'probable vaccine reaction' (ie, symptoms within 48 hours of immunisation; no alternative cause found), 'possible vaccine reaction' (symptoms within 48 hours of immunisation with a possible alternative cause) or 'not related' (clear alternative diagnosis or not immunised within previous 48 hours). Results Prior to 4CMenB introduction (2013–15), an annual average of 12 infants presented with probable or possible AEFIs, increasing to 38 infants in the year following 4CMenB introduction (2015/2016). Rates of AEFIs per 1000 immunisation episodes increased post-4CMenB introduction from 1.03 to 3.4 (p<0.001) at 2 months and from 0.14 to 1.13 (p=0.005) at 4 months. At 3 months, when 4CMenB is not given, no increase was seen (p=0.380). 4CMenB introduction was also associated with increased AEFI-related hospital admissions, invasive investigations and intravenous antibiotic use. Conclusions The increase in emergency department attendances, investigations and antibiotic use for AEFIs following 4CMenB immunisation may influence the cost-effectiveness of the 4CMenB immunisation campaign.


This research has a purpose to provide empirical evident about political cost hypothesis and debt/equity hypothesis. Political cost hypotesis said that some firms that are more vulnerable to political cost than the others manage income downward to avoiding the attention of government and regulator. Debt/equity hypothesis said that the larger the debt/equity ratio, the more likely the firms is to increase current period reported earning or optimist financial statement. The conservatism proxy used in this research is first, accruals obtained form differences between net income and cash flow. Second, market to book value ratio. The statistic methode which is used to test on the research hypothesis is  multinomial logit. The result of reseach shows that: first, the small firms are more politically sensitive than larger firms or financial statement more conservative. Second, the larger a firms debt/equity ratio, the more likely the firm's manager is to report financial statement more optimist.


Reinforcement learning (RL) has demonstrated its ability to solve high dimensional tasks by leveraging non-linear function approximators. However, these successes are mostly achieved by 'black-box' policies in simulated domains. When deploying RL to the real world, several concerns regarding the use of a 'black-box' policy might be raised. In order to make the learned policies more transparent, we propose in this paper a policy iteration scheme that retains a complex function approximator for its internal value predictions but constrains the policy to have a concise, hierarchical, and human-readable structure, based on a mixture of interpretable experts. Each expert selects a primitive action according to a distance to a prototypical state. A key design decision to keep such experts interpretable is to select the prototypical states from trajectory data. The main technical contribution of the paper is to address the challenges introduced by this non-differentiable prototypical state selection procedure. Experimentally, we show that our proposed algorithm can learn compelling policies on continuous action deep RL benchmarks, matching the performance of neural network based policies, but returning policies that are more amenable to human inspection than neural network or linear-in-feature policies.


We often need to access and reorganize information available in multiple tables in diverse Web pages. To understand tables, we rely on acquired expertise, background information, and practice. Current computerized tools seldom consider the structure and content in the context of other tables with related information. This paper addresses the table processing issue by developing a new framework to table understanding that applies an ontology-based conceptual modeling extraction approach to: (i) understand a table's structure and conceptual content to the extent possible; (ii) discover the constraints that hold between concepts extracted from the table; (iii) match the recognized concepts with ones from a more general specification of related concepts; and (iv) merge the resulting structure with other similar knowledge representations for use in future situations. The result is a formalized method of processing the format and content of tables while incrementally building a relevant reusable conceptual ontology.


With the growing importance of services in the modern enterprise there is a need for innovating traditional management accounting practices. In the Service Science literature, some work has been devoted to service accounting but mainly on a conceptual level. To address this research challenge, we have built an integrated service accounting framework on top of the business ontology REA. The e3value model is a useful tool to give an overall picture of a service network, which can be combined smoothly with the more detailed REA model. The result has been evaluated on the basis of the requirements and with an example from online gaming. As far as we know, it is the first worked out service accounting framework in Service Science and allows giving often-used concepts as value-in-use a precise definition.


Even if not originally conceived of as related to cultural heritage, the common heritage of mankind (CHM) principle progressively makes its way into this field too. International norms regulating underwater cultural heritage (UCH) fit in the same evolving trend. However, they have to relate to an existing legal framework that has a completely different and possibly opposite primary objective. Indeed, the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) provided for archaeological and historical objects found at sea, prior to the adoption of an international convention specifically for UCH. Nevertheless, the related provisions of this convention have raised many doubts. The 2001 UNESCO Convention on the Protection of the Underwater Cultural Heritage would seem to intend to fill the vacuum, but it has not yet received the necessary acceptance and this surely impacts on the promotion of the UCH towards a more 'common' interest. This paper retraces the evolution of the protection of UCH as perceived through the prism of the CHM doctrine, wondering whether a tangential route is the best means to reconcile these two doctrines.


Five- and six-membered N-heterocyclic compounds play an important role in medicinal
chemistry and the development of new drugs. There is a constant demand for the development of novel
biologically potent compounds, and there is also an increasing pressure to develop alternative and
more sustainable synthetic methodologies following the Green Chemistry principles. Thus, the present
review aims to compile the latest progress in the use of ultrasound irradiation in water conditions
to mediate the synthesis of five- and six-membered N-heterocyclic compounds in an environmentally
benign manner.


Post-translational modifications (PTMs) of histones play important roles in regulating the structure and function of chromatin in eukaryotes. Although histone PTMs were considered to mainly occur at the N-terminal tails of histones, recent studies have revealed that PTMs also exist in the histone-fold domains, which are commonly shared among the core histones H2A, H2B, H3, and H4. The lysine residue is a major target for histone PTM, and the lysine to glutamine (KQ) substitution is known to mimic the acetylated states of specific histone lysine residues in vivo. Human histones H3 and H4 contain 11 lysine residues in their histone-fold domains (five for H3 and six for H4), and eight of these lysine residues are known to be targets for acetylation. In the present study, we prepared 11 mutant nucleosomes, in which each of the lysine residues of the H3 and H4 histone-fold domains was replaced by glutamine: H3 K56Q, H3 K64Q, H3 K79Q, H3 K115Q, H3 K122Q, H4 K31Q, H4 K44Q, H4 K59Q, H4 K77Q, H4 K79Q, and H4 K91Q. The crystal structures of these mutant nucleosomes were determined at 2.4-3.5 Å resolutions. Some of these amino acid substitutions altered the local protein-DNA interactions and the interactions between amino acid residues within the nucleosome. Interestingly, the C-terminal region of H2A was significantly disordered in the nucleosome containing H4 K44Q. These results provide an important structural basis for understanding how histone modifications and mutations affect chromatin structure and function.


Keeping the Inflammasome in Check Nucleotide-binding and oligomerization domain (NOD)–like receptors (NLRs) play an important role in the detection of pathogens by cells of the innate immune system. For several NLR family members, activation results in relief from autoinhibition, oligomerization, and the recruitment of signaling components that together make up the inflammasome, a large multiprotein complex. The inflammasome protects the host by inducing cell death and cytokine secretion. The specific molecular mechanisms that regulate NLR activation and inhibition, however, are not well understood. Hu et al. (p. 172, published online 13 June) report the crystal structure of autoinhibited NLR family member NLRC4, which reveals the domains that are critical for interaction with adenosine diphosphate to keep NLRC4 in its inactive state and the domains that mediate oligomerization of the protein upon activation. Adenosine diphosphate binding to the NOD-like receptor keeps it inactive in the absence of ligands. Nucleotide-binding and oligomerization domain–like receptor (NLR) proteins oligomerize into multiprotein complexes termed inflammasomes when activated. Their autoinhibition mechanism remains poorly defined. Here, we report the crystal structure of mouse NLRC4 in a closed form. The adenosine diphosphate–mediated interaction between the central nucleotide-binding domain (NBD) and the winged-helix domain (WHD) was critical for stabilizing the closed conformation of NLRC4. The helical domain HD2 repressively contacted a conserved and functionally important α-helix of the NBD. The C-terminal leucine-rich repeat (LRR) domain is positioned to sterically occlude one side of the NBD domain and consequently sequester NLRC4 in a monomeric state. Disruption of ADP-mediated NBD-WHD or NBD-HD2/NBD-LRR interactions resulted in constitutive activation of NLRC4. Together, our data reveal the NBD-organized cooperative autoinhibition mechanism of NLRC4 and provide insight into its activation.


Morphology of calcium carbonate crystals is controlled mainly by rate of crystallization, and Mg and Na content of the precipitating waters. Together, these factors integrate to provide important indicators of environment. Magnesium selectively poisons sideward growth of calcite; thus CaCO 3 prefers to crystallize as aragonite, or as minute fibers or steep rhombs of magnesian-calcite, whose sidewise growth is generally stopped at widths of a few microns. Thus in Mg-rich environments, such as beaches or marine bottoms, micritic or fibrous aragonite and magnesian calcite cements form. As seawater is buried, Na usually remains high but Mg is selectively lost so that the Mg/Ca ratio drops from 3:1 to about 1:3. Thus, in the absence of Mg-poisoning, coarse sparry calcite cement can form in the subsurface, and crystallizes as irregular polyhedra. In meteoric waters, both Mg and Na are very low. If precipitation is very rapid, calcite micrite may form (caliche). Fresh-water calcite can also occur as euhedral rhombs in very dilute solutions. In the phreatic-meteoric zone, sparry calcite develops. Carbonate ooze initially contains much Mg. Upon lithification, it is proposed that much of the Mg is retained as a sort of "cage" around each polyhedron of calcite, preventing growth beyond a few microns. Fresh-water flushing removes this Mg-cage, and allows recrystallization to coarser microspar.


Under economies of scale, Demsetz's (1968) proposal of franchise bidding results, at best, in uniform prices approaching average cost. This article questions the accepted belief that the auctioneer always needs to know the market demand function, if the concept is modified so as to allow for bids consisting of block-rate tariffs in order to increase welfare. Given a setting of repeated auctions, the auctioneer can apply a sequential mechanism to evaluate bids, instead of evaluating them in each auction independently. We characterize the conditions under which a second-best block-rate tariff for given thresholds is approached in equilibrium.


The study examines the macroeconomic rebound effect for the UK economy, arising from UK energy efficiency policies and programmes for 2000-2010. The work explores the relationships between energy efficiency, energy consumption, economic growth and policy interventions using a well-established and highly detailed macroeconomic model of the UK economy. The work has been carried out in response to a call from the UK Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), with the support of Defra's energy-efficiency policy team. As the focus of this study is to assess the magnitude of the macroeconomic rebound effect, the projections given in the report should not be taken as forecasts of future UK economic or environmental performance, e.g. the projections given here differ from those in the 2006 Climate Change Programme.


Background: Cherry laurel fruits are characterized by their dark color and rich phenolic contents. Previously, phenolic extracts from cherry laurel varieties were shown to demonstrate anti-proliferative activities against cancerous cell lines. Aim: To characterize the phenolic compound content of cherry laurel varieties since their characterization is incomplete and determine their apoptotic potential. Methods: The phenolic compounds of fruit extracts from 3 different cherry laurel varieties were analyzed using an LC-MS/MS method. Using flow cytometry, apoptotic activities of cherry laurel extracts were studied against HCT-116 human colon carcinoma cells. Results: 14 different phenolic compounds were qualitatively determined, whereas for 5 compounds quantitation was possible. To the best of our knowledge, the presence of epicatechin, epigallocatechin, quercetin, quercetin-3-glucoside, procyanidin B2, delphinidine-3-O-rutinoside, delphinidine-3-Oglucoside, cyanidine-3-O-glucoside and cyanidine-3-O-rutinoside is being reported for the first time for these extracts. Although some dependence on phenolic profile and concentration was obvious, in most cases, a significant extent of apoptotic induction (40-60%) was observed against HCT-116 cells. Conclusion: Findings on anti-proliferative and apoptotic activity verified the anti-carcinogenic capabilities of cherry laurel extracts.


Background: Positioning is a crucial aspect of developmental care because it keeps the infant flexible, aligned, confined, and comfortable. It is a simple therapeutic procedure that is effective and safe for preterm infants.
Objectives: To determine the effectiveness of an instructional program on nurses' practices toward change position, and to find out the relationships between the effectiveness of instruction program and demographic characteristics of nurses.
Methodology: A quasi-experimental study design was initiated from 20 December 2022 to 22 May 2023 at Maysan hospital for child and birth, in Al-Amarah city. A non-probability "convenience" sample was selected and consisting of 50 Nurses. The data was obtained by observation utilizing a constructive practices checklist. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data by using SPSS (version 26.0)
Results: Findings reveal that nurses in the study group are showing fair level of practices during the pre-test time (76%) while they are showing good level of practices during the post-test 1 (88%) and post-test 2 (84%) that indicate the significant changes in level of practices among nurses after applying the program.
Conclusion: The Instructional program had a positive effect on the practices of neonatal intensive care unit nurses. There were significant differences in the study group's practices scores between the pre-test and post-test. There was association between nurses' practices and their age.
Recommendations: Providing Neonatal intensive care unit nurses with posters, leaflets, and books so they can learn enough about the right and safe position for preterm babies. Standardized checklists should be made available in NICU.


Ten Swallow Floats were deployed in the Ionian Sea (Mediterranean) during the SACLANTCEN sea trail of June 1992. Each of the floats (property of the Marine Physical Laboratory—Scripps) contained three orthogonal particle velocity sensors, one hydrophone, and a compass, enabling measurements of vectorial acoustic intensity in the range of 0.5 to 25 Hz. The data compare well with other ambient noise data from heavy shipping traffic areas, and comparisons are made with published data from other sources. Because of a subduction front south of Crete, the area is rich in seismic events. Part of the earthquake energy is transmitted into the water, and the intensity measurements allow one to locate the areas that are particularly active. In fact, due to the relatively low acoustic attenuation in water, a Swallow Float seems to have a higher sensitivity than a land station to earthquakes occurring under water. Examples to support this hypothesis are shown. A transmitted 20‐Hz tone allowed the causes of errors in b...


Unhealthy eating habits and lack of physical activities are among the contributing factors for obesity and diabetes. It has been reported that consumption of naturally occurring phenolics could exert beneficial effects toward these diseases. Therefore, this study aims to evaluate the ability of phenolic-rich soy husk powder extract (SHPE) in modifying the physical and biochemical parameters for obesity and diabetes. Forty-nine Sprague Dawley rats were divided into seven groups, including three supplementary/treatment groups. Rats in supplementary/treatment groups were provided with either 4 mg/kg BW Rosiglitazone Maleate, 250 mg SHPE/kg BW, or 500 mg SHPE/kg BW. The effectiveness of SHPE in alleviating obesity-diabetes was evaluated by measuring body weight (physical parameter), blood glucose metabolisms (biochemical parameters), and PPARγ expression. Findings in the present study revealed that short-term SHPE and Rosiglitazone Maleate administration improved the physical and biochemical parameters of obese-diabetic rats. In addition, SHPE was also demonstrated to upregulate PPARγ expression in adipocytes. These findings suggest that soy husk could emerge as a potential hypoglycemic and anti-adipogenic nutraceutical in future. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS: This was the first study to evaluate the potential effects of soy husk against the parameters of obese-diabetes in rats. In addition, promising effects derived from this study might explore the possibility of soy husk to be utilized as an antidiabetes nutraceutical.


This study investigates the statistical
relationship between climatic variables and aspects of cotton production (G.
barbadense), and the effects of climatic factors prevailing prior to flowering or subsequent to boll setting on flower and boll production and retention
in cotton. The effects of specific climatic factors during both pre- and
post-anthesis periods on boll production and retention are mostly unknown.
However, by determining the relationship of climatic factors with flower and
boll production and retention, the overall level of production can be possibly
predicted. Thus, an understanding of these relationships may help
physiologists determine control mechanisms of production in cotton plants.
Also, the study covers the predicted effects of climatic factors during
convenient intervals (in days) on cotton flower and boll production
compared with daily observations. Further, cotton flower and boll production
as affected by climatic factors and soil moisture status has been considered.
Evaporation, sunshine duration, relative humidity, surface soil temperature
at 1800 h, and maximum air temperature, are the important climatic factors
that significantly affect flower and boll production. The least important
variables were found to be surface soil temperature at 600 h and minimum
temperature. The five-day interval was found to be more adequately and sensibly
related to yield parameters. Evaporation, minimum humidity and sunshine
duration were the most effective climatic factors during preceding and succeeding periods on boll production and retention. There was a negative correlation
between flower number and boll production and either evaporation or sunshine
duration, while that correlation

 with minimum relative
humidity was positive. The soil moisture status showed low and insignificant
correlation with flower and boll production. Higher minimum relative
humidity, short period of sunshine duration, and low temperatures enhanced
flower and boll formation.


Learning planning is incorporated into the Lesson Plans (RPP) or some other terms such as instructional design, learning scenarios. RPP contains KI, KD, indicators to be achieved, materials to be learned, learning steps, learning media, and learning resources and assessment. Problems that happened many teachers who have not understood and motivated in preparing the Curriculum Learning Implementation Plan 2013 completely. Most teachers did not received training in curriculum development in 2013. This research aims to improve teacher competence in preparing the Learning Implementation Plan through assistance in MAN Pugaan (KabupatenTabalong). Method used in this research is School Action Research that conducted through two cycles. Subjects are teachers of MAN Pugaan amounted to 27 teachers of civil servants and non-civil servants. The results is in cycle I the mean value of RPP component was 69% and in cycle II 83%. So, there was an increase of 14% from cycle I.


BACKGROUND
Diabetic dyslipidemia has specifics that differ from dyslipidemia in patients without diabetes, which contributes to accelerated atherosclerosis equally as dysglycemia. The aim of this study was to deduce the interdependence of diabetic dyslipidemia and cardiovascular diseases (CVD), therapeutic strategies and the risk of diabetes development with statin therapy.

METHOD
We conducted a literature review of English articles through PubMed, PubMed Central and Cochrane, on the role of diabetic dyslipidemia in atherosclerosis, the antilipemic treatment with statins, and the role of statin therapy in newly developed diabetes, by using key words: atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus, diabetic dyslipidemia, CVD, statins, nicotinic acid, fibrates, PCSK9 inhibitors.

RESULTS
hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia cannot be treated separately in patients with diabetes. It seems that dyslipidemia plays one of the key roles in the development of atherosclerosis. High levels of TG, decreased levels of HDL-C and increased levels of small dense LDL- C particles in the systemic circulation are the most specific attributes of diabetic dyslipidemia, all of which originate from an inflated flux of free fatty acids occurring due to the preceding resistance to insulin, and exacerbated by elevated levels of inflammatory adipokines. Statins are a fundamental treatment for diabetic dyslipidemia, both for dyslipidemia and for CVD prevention. The use of statin treatment with high intensity is endorsed for all diabetes-and-CVD patients, while a moderate - intensity treatment can be applied to patients with diabetes, having additional risk factors for CVD. Statins alone are thought to possess a small, although of statistical significance, risk of incident diabetes, outweighed by their benefits.

CONCLUSION
As important as hyperglycemia and glycoregulation are in CVD development in patients with diabetes, diabetic dyslipidemia plays an even more important role. Statins remain the cornerstone of antilipemic treatment in diabetic dyslipidemia, and their protective effects in CVD progression overcome the risk of statin- associated incident diabetes.


This study reports the results of a single-arm, noncontrolled, Type 3 hybrid effectiveness-implementation trial evaluating virtual reality job interview training (VR-JIT) delivered in five preemployment transition programs comprising 15 schools, 10 administrators, 23 teachers, and 279 youth ages 16–21 years receiving special education preemployment transition services. Fidelity, expected implementation feasibility, and teacher and student acceptance of VR-JIT were high. Youth completed virtual interviews (M = 10.8, SD = 7.4) over 6–8 weeks. At the 6-month follow-up, teachers reported that youth using VR-JIT had employment rates higher than current national employment rates for youth with disabilities. A multinomial logistic regression revealed VR-JIT engagement was associated with greater employment rates by 6-month follow-up (odds ratio = 1.63, p = .002). This study provides promising evidence that VR-JIT may be feasibly implemented with high fidelity in special education preemployment transition services and can potentially enhance employment outcomes among transition-age youth receiving special education services.


This paper first provides an overview of the various senses in which the terms 'marked' and 'unmarked' have been used in 20th-century linguistics. Twelve different senses, related only by family resemblances, are distinguished, grouped into four larger classes: markedness as complexity, as difficulty, as abnormality, and as a multidimensional correlation. In the second part of the paper, it is argued that the term 'markedness' is superfluous, because some of the concepts that it denotes are not helpful, and others are better expressed by more straightforward, less ambiguous terms. In a great many cases, frequency asymmetries can be shown to lead to a direct explanation of observed structural asymmetries, and in other cases additional concrete, substantive factors such as phonetic difficulty and pragmatic inferences can replace reference to an abstract notion of 'markedness'.


(1) The effects of diazoxide on the conversion of oral doses of glucose-U-C-14 to fatty acids in adipose tissue, and to fatty acids and glycogen in liver have been studied in intact mice. (2) Diazoxide in a subcutaneous dose of 10 mg. per kilogram inhibited conversion of the glucose-U-C-14 to fatty acids of epididymal fat approximately 50 per cent. The inhibition in conversion of isotopic glucose to fatty acids in liver was slightly less than that found for adipose tissue. These inhibitory effects as well as hyperglycemia occurred within twenty minutes after drug administration and ten minutes after the glucose-U-C-14 was given. (3) In spite of the sensitivity of the system, insulin overcame the inhibitory effects of 200 mg. per kilogram diazoxide on all these parameters. This large dose of diazoxide did not antagonize the action of exogenous insulin. (4) Although diazoxide inhibited conversion of glucose-U-C-14 to liver fatty acids, net incorporation into liver glycogen was stimulated one-hundredfold. A net increase in the weight of total liver glycogen also was found. The significance of the striking elevation in glycogen synthesis in terms of proposed mechanisms of action for diazoxide will be discussed. (5) The inhibition in conversion of the glucose-U-C-14 to fatty acid and the hyperglycemia were accompanied by an increase rather than a decrease in the specific activity of the plasma glucose. This, combined with the fact that no antagonism to the action of exogenous insulin was observed, is consistent with the hypothesis that diazoxide-mediated hyperglycemia, at least at low doses, results primarily from an inhibition in insulin secretion. At higher doses adrenergic mechanism could also become involved in potentiating the hyperglycemia.


Measuring Change provides voluminous data substantiating the claim that students can and do experience personal formation in the context of Christian higher education. This volume is a one-of-a-kind, mixed-methods analysis of Canby Bible College (CBC) alumnae. By means of a three-part research instrumentation, CBC graduates assess and articulate the transformational journey they gained as a Bible Collegian. Ultimately, Measuring Change contends that Christian education should be more about personal transformation than information acquisition, thus making a robust case for the wide-scale implementation of "transformational outcomes" in Christian higher education.


In her provocative essay "Nihilism in Italy," Franca D'Agostini argues against the possibility of rendering a philosophically coherent position on nihilism. In short, nihilism, which is rife with logical contradictions, cannot be sustained as an actual theoretical position; rather, she claims, nihilism is properly understood philosophically as a method, or as a meta-theoretical attitude. D'Agostini's theoretical and hermeneutical analysis takes up the various forms that nihilism assumes in thinkingepistemological, ontological, axiological, theological, and logical-all of which are present in the philosophy of Nietzsche, arguably our most profound thinker of nihilism, as evinced by D'Agostini's rich and extended treatment. A central concern is whether Nietzsche is actually a nihilist and, if so, what type of nihilist, but it is not my intention here to take up this question that D'Agostini has already aptly discussed, nor is it my intention to shed further light on the Italian debate on nihilism, exemplified in large measure for her through the respective positions of Gianni Vattimo and Emanuele Severine. Rather than assume either a critical or analytic stance to the numerous questions and problems D'Agostini poses, I will offer instead a brief and considerably narrower line of thought in the hope of rendering a supplemental hermeneutic to her analysis of Nietzsche and Vattimo that will allow hopefully for a fuller grasp of what I consider the fundamental impetus of the latter's thinking on nihilism, that of nihilism's cultural unfolding. Nietzsche of course offers his own classification of nihilism-psychological, historical, incomplete, complete, active, passive, extreme, cultural-most of which are engaged by D'Agostini to varying degrees. There is, however, a significant absence in this list that is crucial to providing a clue to the questions of whether and what kind of nihilist Nietzsche is. In his posthumously published notes, Nietzsche refers to an "ecstatic nihilism" which makes way for a "new order of life." This is not lost on Heidegger, whose monumental study on Nietzsche has added much to the current debate over nihilism in Italy and elsewhere. Heidegger connects this ecstatic nihilism with Nietzsche's more famous remark of nihilism as a "divine way of thinking" that points, in Heidegger's words, to "a historical movement that extends far behind us and reaches forward far beyond us."2 This is a crucial observation, and while Heidegger's interpretation of Nietzsche is controversial, there is some truth to his claim that Nietzsche marks the culmination of metaphysics, though not because his thought of the will to power is ultimately a "will to will," but because he stands, as the citation from Heidegger himself testifies, at the threshold of the old and the new, marking an absolute coincidence of opposites that he names the "death of God." The issue at hand is that of the death of God and its attending "theological nihilism," to borrow D'Agostini's term. In turning my attention to this aspect of nihilism in Nietzsche, I will take up her discussion of Vattimo since the death of God assumes a prominent role throughout the corpus of his thinking, marked further by a significant appreciation of religion and theology in his later writing. In The Adventure of Difference Vattimo writes, In Nietzsche, the statement "God is dead" has a much more literal meaning than is often believed. It is not the metaphysical proposition that God "does not exist," since this would still imply a claim to be referring to some stable structure of reality, some order of Being, that is, the real "existing" of God in the history of thought. Rather, it is the recognition of a happening, the happening in which Being no longer needs to be thought of as endowed with stable structures and ultimately with a foundation. . . . But strictly speaking, insofar as the statement "God is dead" indicates the end of the logic of the foundation which dominates metaphysics, it is one proposition among others capable of legitimizing the claim that Nietzsche is at one and the same time still a metaphysical thinker and a thinker who already announces "what comes after. …


A reliable protocol to synthesize both racemic and chiral (E)-4-iodobut-3-en-1-ols from aldehydes or epoxides, respectively, containing various aromatic and aliphatic substitutions has been established. The utility of these compounds was then demonstrated by providing access to known fungal decanolides as well as novel aromatic macrocycles. The protocol provided a gram-scale route to (-)-aspinolide A and (-)-5-epi-aspinolide A utilizing a catalytic Nozaki-Hiyama-Kishi reaction to close the macrolide in the final step in 65-84% yields.


Through a discourse analysis of the end-users' statements on their choice of primary care, there is a focus on how they use certain discourses in society with regard to which discourses governs their choices of primary care. For this purpose, a group interview was administered in a location in the south of Sweden. It was strategically designed to on the whole include individuals with following characteristics: age between 20-45 years, and 65 year or older, and also living in a small community. The following main discourses have been identified in the discussion; freedom of choice; i.e. to say that one has actively chosen one's health centre or doctor, to be able to reject and re-select care-givers, networking; i.e. 'to say that friends' and acquaintances' experiences affect the choice of a new health centre and professional service, i.e. to say that doctors and other staff should give professional service. It seems like choice of care has improved the possibilities of the citizens to choose preferred care provider, or drop one due to dissatisfaction. When implementing reforms in health care it is valuable to take into account the voices of the users, as they are able to contribute to the development of health care.


Data for Japanese Regional Economic Clusters and Standard Consolidated Areas for the period 1970 to 1975 are analyzed with respect to regional growth and metropolitan decentralization and compared to similar data for the 1950s and 1960s. It is found that the Japanese urban system continued to centralize (i.e. metropolitan regions grew faster than non metropolitan regions) and that metropolitan decentralization was slight. The data also reveal more rapid growth among middle-size regions than previously. Analysis of intercensal migration data is also undertaken to show the relative decline in inmigration to large, metropolitan regions. Comparisons are made with migration data for other industrialized nations and similar patterns are shown to exist.


Pharmacoepidemiology with medico-administrative databases enables to study impact of health products in real-life setting. These studies require to manipulate the raw data, the care trajectories, in order to identify pieces of data that may witness the medical information that is looked for. The manipulation can be seen as a querying process in which a query is a description of a medical pattern (e.g. occurrence of illness) with the available raw features from care trajectories (e.g. occurrence of medical procedures, drug deliveries, etc.). The more expressive is the querying process, the more accurate is the medical pattern search. The temporal dimension of care trajectories is a potential information that may improve the description of medical patterns. The objective of this work is to propose a formal framework that would design a wellfounded tool for querying care trajectories with temporal medical patterns. In this preliminary work, we present the problematic and we introduce a use case which illustrates the comparison of several querying
formalisms.


This paper presents an ultra-fast detection algorithm for locating faces in grey scale videos. We first use motion detection to reduce the working area and find the approximate position of the head. Then a morphology-based technique is applied in this area to detect eye-analogue and lips-analogue regions. Next, the resulting components are used to search for potential facial features. Finally we select from the candidate triplets, the one that best represents a real face, calculating a fitness which takes into account things such as the symmetry and the proximity with the extrapolated position of the face. In order to achieve the maximal speed-up, we use the vector parallelism provided by the SIMD (simple instruction multiple data) extensions, available on most mainstream processors. The final program runs 65 times faster than the real-time. Experiments demonstrate that the success rate for single face videos reaches 85% in good conditions and can go down to 60% in harder cases. This approach can be useful in many applications, where the detection rate is not as important as the computation time, such as video face identification, or human-computer visual interfaces.


Systems biology aims to understand the nonlinear interactions of multiple biomolecular components that characterize a living organism. One important aspect of systems biology approaches is to identify the biological pathways or networks that connect the differing elements of a system, and examine how they evolve with temporal and environmental changes. The utility of this method becomes clear when applied to multifactorial diseases with complex etiologies, such as inflammatory-related diseases, herein exemplified by atherosclerosis. In this paper, the initial studies in this discipline are reviewed and examined within the context of the development of the field. In addition, several different software tools are briefly described and a novel application for the KEGG database suite called KegArray is presented. This tool is designed for mapping the results of high-throughput omics studies, including transcriptomics, proteomics and metabolomics data, onto interactive KEGG metabolic pathways. The utility of KegArray is demonstrated using a combined transcriptomics and lipidomics dataset from a published study designed to examine the potential of cholesterol in the diet to influence the inflammatory component in the development of atherosclerosis. These data were mapped onto the KEGG PATHWAY database, with a low cholesterol diet affecting 60 distinct biochemical pathways and a high cholesterol exposure affecting 76 biochemical pathways. A total of 77 pathways were differentially affected between low and high cholesterol diets. The KEGG pathways ''Biosynthesis of unsaturated fatty acids'' and ''Sphingolipid metabolism'' evidenced multiple changes in gene/lipid levels between low and high cholesterol treatment, and are discussed in detail. Taken together, this paper provides a brief introduction to systems biology and the applications of pathway mapping to the study of cardiovascular disease, as well as a summary of available tools. Current limitations and future visions of this emerging field are discussed, with the conclusion that combining knowledge from biological pathways and high-throughput omics data will move clinical medicine one step further to individualize medical diagnosis and treatment.


Preterm delivery is one of the main causes of infant mortality in developed countries, and infants who survive require long−term rehabilitation. Therefore it is important to understand the causes of preterm delivery and perform an adequate and early selection of women at risk. This enables surrounding them with intensive supervision and education guided towards prevention and early detection of symptoms of preterm contractions. According to cur− rent knowledge, effective prophylaxis of preterm delivery is connected with screening and treatment of asympto− matic bacteriuria in all pregnant women, progestogen administration, and screening for and treatment of asympto− matic bacterial vaginosis in the group at high risk. In the group at high risk, additional actions are necessary: fibronectin marker in cervical−vaginal smear, regular ultrasonographic evaluation of cervix length, and, in case of its shortening, the use of cervical cerclage and examination for the presence of autoantibodies. Treatment of the threat of preterm delivery consists of assuring the patient's peace and using drugs to restrain contractions. Inefficiency of such treatment is connected with the necessity of administering glucocorticosteroids and determin− ing a way of labor termination that will guarantee maximum protection of the fetus (Adv Clin Exp Med 2007, 16, 1, 155–164).


Homogeneity of the enzyme was shown with the methods of gel filtration and disc electrophoresis. The molecular mass of penicillinamidase (PA) was determined. Sorption of PA by a carboxylic ion exchanger within a wide range of pH was studied. The values of pH in the ion exchanger phase under the conditions of the enzyme sorption were estimated. The ion exchange technique for determination of the isoelectric points of the proteins is described and the isoelectric point of PA is determined. It is proposed to use the method for estimation of close ionization constants of amphoteric an weak electrolites for interpretation of the bell-like pH dependence of kinetic and equilibrium parameters of the enzymatic reaction. The ionization constants of Michaelis complex of PA were evaluated. The activation energy of benzylpenicillin hydrolysis catalized by PA was determined.


The U.S. has high renewable methane potential. Biogas can be obtained from many organic sources like landfills, wastewater, animal manure, industrial, institutional, and commercial organic waste. Biogas can also be produced from lignocellulosic biomass; also, there is attention in biofuel and biogas production from various kinds of algae. In the U.S., 5% of the natural gas utilized in the electric power sector and 56% of the natural gas in transportation can be directly replaced with biogas. In a typical Californian household, around 50% of the 354 therms Natural Gas energy supplied goes to water heating. Hence, a large amount of emission from residential spaces is due to water heating units. Introducing renewable natural gas (RNG) or biomethane to natural gas pipelines has shown great potential for greenhouse gas mitigation. However, the upgrade process is energy and cost intensive. Assuming primary biogas composition as methane (CH4) and carbon dioxide (CO2), an understanding of the tolerance for residential appliances (significant pipeline delivery point use) to biogas addition could save cleaning/upgrading costs. Focusing on the combustion performance of two representative models of storage water heaters (low-NOx and conventional) in California, this research addresses how much CO2 in natural gas can be tolerated without losing critical performance parameters for reliable operation. Characteristics like blow-off, ignition time, flame structure, efficiency, and emissions (NOx, NO, N2O, CO, CO2, UHC, CH4, and NH3) at different concentrations of CO2 in natural gas are investigated. The pilot operation becomes unstable for the low-NOx water heater beyond 10% CO2, and the probability of blow-off increases. At both 5% and 10% CO2 addition, a stable though the increasingly flat flame is observed, and pilot operation is stable both during idling and while the main burner relights. For the conventional gas storage water heater, a stable flame is established up to 25% CO2 addition, with the flame becoming increasingly shorter beyond 30% CO2 addition.
 On the other hand, the stable pilot operation could not be established even at 5% CO2 addition, which proved to be the limiting factor for the operation of this device. A similar trend of NOx/NO decrease and CO/UHC increase with increasing CO2 percentage was observed for both water heaters. Further, methane emissions from water heaters during active and idle operations and pilot light's role were quantified. The present study show 10% CO2 can be added to natural gas without any significant loss of efficiency for the low-NOx storage water heater. We found that both the water heaters emit CH4 during active and idle operation, of which more CH4 is emitted during the idle process. This study can inform policymakers on allowing higher composition variability for the pipeline gas and research into modifying water heater burners for increased tolerance to biogas with reliable performance and a simultaneous decrease in pollutant emissions.


Hypertension (HT) is still the major risk factor for various cardiovascular diseases. Previously we found that central cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1) inhibition prevented the development of angiotensin II (AngII)-salt HT and sympathetic hyperactivity in Sprague Dawley rats. We found a significant up-regulation of prostaglandin D synthase (PGDS) mRNA levels in the organum vasculosum lamina terminalis, a circumventricular organ. This was accompanied by a significant increase in the protein levels of PGDS in the choroid plexus lining the ventricles. Therefore we hypothesized that the enzyme, PGDS is critical for the development of HT in this model. To test this hypothesis, adult male Sprague Dawley rats were implanted with radio-telemeters for hemodynamic measurements. After 3 days of basal recordings, rats on 2% NaCl diet were pretreated with vehicle or AT56, a PGDS inhibitor (10mg/kg, ICV) through a mini-osmotic pump. From day 8, all rats received AngII (150 ng/kg/min, s.c.). In vehicle-treated rats, mean arterial pressure (MAP) rose significantly. Rats that received AT56 showed attenuation of MAP compared to vehicle-treated rats (p<0.05). To examine if PGDS drives sympathetic nerve activity in this model, we treated these animals with the ganglionic blocker, hexamethonium (30mg/kg BW, i.p.) on day 14. In AT56-treated rats, fall in MAP was significantly lower than that of the control rats after ganglionic blockade. We conclude that PGDS products or the enzyme by itself is critical for the development of AngII-salt sympathoexcitation and HT.


This is a study of news production by eight major news organisations in the UK and Canada. Through observation of daily routines and semi-structured interviews, 124 journalists were included in the final sample. The overall aim of this research was to explore the interrelationships between new technologies, the potential autonomy accessible by journalists and the structure of constraints under which they operate. The news marketplace has become congested while audiences have fragmented and public news-producing behaviours have soared, facilitated through the ubiquity of new media. These developments were crucial to the analysis of mainstream news production within a media environment that has left news organisations struggling to retain audiences and their own credibility. New technologies adopted by news organisations have altered routines both within newsrooms and out in the field. News values have shifted towards 'live' coverage while workflow has been improved and convergence become the norm. At the same time, new media available within the public realm – including the internet, online publishing tools and advanced mobile phone technologies – are also available to individual journalists. However, it is those journalists already familiar with technology who are more likely to incorporate them into their own daily routines, along with the wider range of sources now available within the information producing strata of society.

Research findings relate to the specific locations in the news production process at which new technologies, journalistic autonomy and constraining factors have the most impact. For this purpose, a model was developed along with an autonomy-constraint ratio. Key findings are that the transmission phase of news production presents the least amount of autonomy for journalists while the newsgathering phase offers the greatest amount of autonomy. Due to the temporal and theoretical limits of previous research frameworks, an autonomy-centred approach is proposed as a means of complementing the existing constraints-based approaches that have tended to dominate news production studies.


Abstract : This thesis explores the impact that High Velocity Maintenance (HVM) will have on aircraft availability rates for the B-1B by examining the proposed changes to the field maintenance and supply processes for the two B-1B squadrons of the 28th Bombardment Wing located at Ellsworth AFB, SD. There is a significant restructuring of depot level maintenance planned with the implementation of HVM, and the impact that this will have on base-level operations is important to determine, for it will provide insight as to whether or not HVM will be a feasible program with a high probability of successfully improving B-1B aircraft availability rates. To examine the impact of HVM at the base level, discrete-event simulation is used. Two simulation models are created in ARENA 12. The first model captures the current state of operations for the base maintenance and supply processes, while the second model captures the processes as they are planned with the implementation of HVM. Comparisons of the two models reveal that HVM does have the potential to significantly improve aircraft availability rates, but the improvements that must occur with aircraft failure rates and base stockage effectiveness for HVM to operate as planned may not be feasible.


This paper examines conceptualization of the field of study that is 'workplace bullying'. Contemporary British and Australasian researchers have used 'bullying' as a term since the inception of their research which can be traced back to the mid 1990's (e.g. Adams, 1992, Rayner, 1997; McCarthy, Sheehan & Kearns, 1995). Bullying as a term in Europe is supplanting 'mobbing' which was been used in early Scandinavian and German work (e.g. Groeblinghoff & Becker, 1996). The picture in the USA is more fragmented, and the paper discusses these nomaclamentures by distinguishing between what is harmed (e.g. reputation, opportunities for advancement, self confidence) and how it is harmed (e.g. incivility, aggression, verbal abuse). The paper uses Analoui's (1995) three parameters of style, form and motive to provide delineation of negative experience at work and the subsets within it. The author continues to use (as an overarching term) 'bullying' and explores its definition by examining how the area has been studied, discussing the key parameters: the behaviors experienced, the persistency of those behaviors, whether or not targets of bullying need to label themselves, whether or not bullying should have had a negative effect on targets, and finally whether or not there must be an imbalance of power between the parties. A short review of contemporary work identifies how the problem can be viewed from several basic perspectives. Most commonly bullying is seen to be an interpersonal issue (i.e. between individuals). A growing area of study, led largely by those who seek to make preventative interventions, has focused on the group level and has examined how group norms can uphold bullying behaviors. Finally at the corporate level, the possibility of the 'organization as bully' is emerging. Clearly each of these approaches will utilize different underpinning theoretical bases, and this might be one reason for the apparent conceptual untidiness within the field. It is suggested that researchers must have a clear idea of the 'slice' of the domain they are studying and acknowledge they are part of a wider whole.


A simple and efficient low-voltage two-stage operational amplifier with Class-AB output stage is introduced. It has a large effective output current boosting factor (/spl sim/50) and close to a factor 2 bandwidth enhancement. This is achieved at the expense of minimum increase in circuit complexity and no additional static power dissipation. Experimental verification of the characteristics of the proposed circuit is provided.


In this article, we describe a computer-aided design process for generating high-quality Birds of a Feather solitaire card puzzles. In each iteration, we generate puzzles via combinatorial optimization of an objective function. After solving and subjectively rating such puzzles, we compute objective puzzle features and regress our ratings onto such features to provide insight for objective function improvements. Through this iterative improvement process, we demonstrate the importance of the halfway solvability ratio in quality puzzle design. We relate our observations to recent work on tension in puzzle design, and suggest next steps for more efficient puzzle generation.


This paper assesses the levels of comfort within outdoor educational urban precincts in Melbourne. Three urban spaces, in relatively close proximity to each other were investigated in two different seasons: spring 2014 and summer 2015. In total, 368 and 413 comfort responses were collected in the spring and summer seasons, respectively. The preliminary results show the characteristics of thermal perceptions, using the 7-point scales of thermal sensation votes (TSV) and comfort scale 'affective evaluation'. In addition, the Physiological Equivalent Temperature (PET) index was also used to predict the thermal comfort for a large number of space users. While the mean temperature for spring was recorded as 21.55 °C, it reached up to 24.75 °C in summer. The overall thermal sensation votes for both seasons were toward the slightly warm side of the scale and its value moved from 0.47 in spring to 0.78 in summer. However, comfort responses, using 7-point comfort scale, on average, were from moderately to slightly comfortable conditions in spring, which changed to between just right and slightly uncomfortable conditions in summer. The changes found in the results of two seasons illustrate the extent of seasonal changes impacting thermal perceptions. Adopting the PET as a thermal comfort indicator, the results prove the reliability of this index for the study periods.


Density is one of the most important fuel properties influencing the injection, spray, and combustion characteristics. Since a number of articles have recently been performed investigating the effects of biodiesel–diesel–alcohol ternary blends on combustion characteristics and exhaust emissions, the reliable density data and regression models for the ternary blends become more important in developing accurate spray, combustion and emission models. However, there is lack of studies which focus on (a) the measurement of densities of ternary blends including higher alcohols over wide alcohol blending ratio at different temperatures, (b) development of one‐dimensional regression models to predict densities of ternary blends, and (c) comparison of predictive capabilities of models with artificial neural networks (ANNs). Therefore, in this article, to eliminate the lack of such studies in the existing literature, waste cooking oil biodiesel was produced, and it was mixed with diesel fuel and several alcohols to prepare ternary blends. The density measurements of ternary blends were performed under various temperatures (278.15 K−368.15 K). The exponential equation which can be used in spray or combustion model was derived by fitting the density data. The predictive capability of the exponential model was compared with the linear model and ANN using different density data of ternary blends to determine the best‐fit correlation. According to results, ANN is the most suitable one to estimate density; however, the exponential model is also thought to be an alternative to ANN.


The crystalline phase and morphology of the products formed during the synthesis of yttrium oxide via the hydrothermal treatment yttrium nitrate were characterized by X-ray diffraction, transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Products with high OH/NO3 ratios are formed with the increasing of hydrothermal treatment. The crystalline phases are evolved from Y2(OH)5.14(NO3)0.86•H2O toY4O(OH)9(NO3) and finally Y(OH)3. The hydrothermal reaction conditions play an important role in the synthesis of the microstructures. Results show the particle size and final morphology of samples could be controlled by reaction temperature, reaction time, and OH- concentration. Sheets, hexagonal and needle-like Y2O3 powders are obtained with the hydrothermal treatment of yittrium nitrate at 180 oC to 200oC for 2-8 hours at pH 9-13.


Jean Plattard once suggested that, like all the major French poets of the midsixteenth century, Pierre de Ronsard overwhelmingly preferred the narrative-type, historical and mythological painting produced at the Chateau de Fontainebleau by artists such as Il Rosso and Primaticcio to the concurrent genre of courtly portraiture practiced by painters such as François Clouet and Corneille de Lyon: "Les poetes donnaient naturellement a ces peintures historiques et mythologiques la preference sur les portraits." 2 The appeal, Plattard believed, was two-fold. On the one hand, there was "l'ampleur de la conception" (p. 492) of narrative painting-its conceptual magnitude, or ability to represent multiple (yet related) subject matters in a single frame. On the other hand, there was its "hardiesse et . . . liberte de l'imagination" (p. 492)-its imaginative boldness, as demonstrated by the ability of narrative painting to give form to the purely conceptual truths of ideal Nature (to borrow the Neoplatonic terminology of the period). For Plattard, Ronsard considered these qualities "comme caracteristiques du genie de la poesie et des arts en general" (p. 492). Pierre de Ronsard | French poetry | Painting | Literary analysis | Second livre des


Discusses the specification and automated synthesis of mixed synchronous/asynchronous systems in the context of a VHDL-based design environment. We propose a flexible paradigm for describing asynchronous behavior in VHDL that supports (1) the description of behavior as a signal transition graph (STG), (2) its expression in the form of an initializable edge-triggered finite state machine, and (3) the specification of a level-sensitive asynchronous finite state machine. An important feature is that free-running signals such as clocks can be included in the asynchronous specifications. The input specification, consisting of timing diagrams and/or the behavior and interface specifications for a set of interacting processes, is mapped into an appropriate combination of hazard-free asynchronous circuits and synchronous circuits.<<ETX>>


At present, web-client programming using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript is essential in web application systems to offer dynamic behaviors in web pages. With rich libraries and short coding features, it becomes common in developing user interfaces. However, the teaching course is not common in universities due to limited time. Therefore, self-study tools are strongly desired to promote it in societies. Previously, we have studied the programming learning assistant system (PLAS) as a programming self-study platform. In PLAS, among several types of programming problems, the element fill-in-blank problem (EFP) has been implemented for code understanding study of C and Java programming. In an EFP instance, the blank elements in a source code should be filled in with the proper words, where the correctness is checked by string matching. In this paper, we implement EFP for web-client programming in PLAS. In a web page, HTML and CSS define the components with tags in the document object model (DOM), and JavaScript offers their dynamic changes with libraries, which are blanked in EFP. Besides, a set of web page screenshots are given to help the solution. For evaluations, the generated 21 EFP instances were assigned to 20 master students in Okayama University. By analyzing their solution results, the effectiveness was confirmed for JavaScript programming learning.


Abstract. There is a growing number of sensors, cameras and measuring devices in the public space. Why are they hanging on the lamp post? What are they measuring? And by whom? Those questions are relevant to the citizens to be assured that no private and sensitive data are collected without their approvement. At the same time the municipalities feel obligated to be transparent about the hanging devices to the inhabitants and provide a good working registration tool to the owners of the measuring devices. The sensor owners would also value the clarity about the process to register their devices and uniformity in the legislation if they plan to install their devices throughout more cities. We cannot forget about researchers, developers and data scientists who would highly appreciate the transparency about the measuring devices and the potential access to the data from the sensors.A National Sensor Registry (SensRNet) seems to be the solution to answer the abovementioned questions. The registry would: provide transparency to the municipalities and citizens about the data collected by the devices and the purpose for collection; provide overview and insight into where sensors are placed in public space and who is the owner; allow sensor owners to register the devices in a uniform way; provide access to highly demanded data to utilize the smart city concept; act as a platform that provides transparent, safe and secure environment where citizens and entrepreneurs can get more information or make objections against the reason behind collecting data.


Abstract Objective The coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has negatively affected many people's mental health with increased symptoms of stress, anxiety and depression in the general population. Anxiety and depression can have negative effects on pregnant women and result in poor neonatal outcomes. Therefore, we analyzed stress, anxiety and depression in pregnant women during the COVID-19 pandemic. Materials and methods Cohort study of pregnant women during COVID-19 compared to pregnant women before COVID-19. Pregnant women were recruited through social media platforms from 21 May 2020 to 22 June 2020. Pregnant women ≥ 18 years of age, who master the Dutch language were included. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and the Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-10) were analyzed. Demographic features were summarized using descriptive statistics. Possible differences in demographic variables between groups were compared using Mann Whitney U test and Chi-squared test. Significant demographic differences between groups were controlled for using logistical regression analysis or an independent one-way analysis of covariance. Results Thousand hundred and two pregnant women completed the questionnaires during COVID-19, and 364 pregnant women before COVID-19. We found no differences in clinically high levels of anxiety (HADS-A ≥ 8) and depression (HADS-D ≥ 8) in women during COVID-19 (19.5% and 13.2%, respectively) and women before COVID-19 (23.1% and 15.7%, respectively). A question was implemented whether participants related their stress level to COVID-19. Women who related their stress to the COVID-19 pandemic reported significantly higher overall stress levels on the PSS-10 compared to women with stress unrelated to COVID-19 (mean, 15.62; standard deviation [SD], 6.44 vs. mean, 10.28; SD, 5.48; p < 0.001). Conclusion In contrast to previous studies, COVID-19 did not increase anxiety and depression levels in Dutch pregnant women. Women who related their perceived stress to the COVID-19 pandemic experienced higher stress levels than women who did not relate their stress to the COVID-19 pandemic, suggesting that interventions that specifically aim to reduce COVID-19 stress, may help to reduce overall stress levels in pregnant women during the pandemic.


Abstract. The equilibrium composition of volcanic gases with their magma is often overprinted by interaction with a shallow hydrothermal system. Identifying the magmatic signature of volcanic gases is critical to relate their composition to properties of the magma (temperature, fO2, gas-melt segregation depth). We report measurements of the chemical composition and flux of the major gas species emitted from Turrialba Volcano during March 2013. Measurements were made of two vents in the summit region, one of which opened in 2010 and the other in 2012. We determined an average SO2 flux of 5.2 ± 1.9 kg s-1 using scanning ultraviolet spectroscopy, and molar proportions of H2O, CO2, SO2, HCl, CO and H2 gases of 94.16, 4.03, 1.56, 0.23, 0.003 and 0.009% respectively by open-path Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectrometry and a multi-species gas-sensing system. Together, these data imply fluxes of 88, 8, 0.44, 5 × 10-3 and 1 × 10-3 kg s-1 for H2O, CO2, HCl, CO and H2 respectively. Although H2S was detected, its concentration could not be resolved. HF was not detected. The chemical signature of the gas from both vents was found to be broadly similar. Following the opening of the 2010 and 2012 vents we found limited to negligible interaction of the magmatic gas with the hydrothermal system has occurred and the gas composition of the volcanic plume is broadly representative of equilibrium with the magma. The time evolution of the gas composition, the continuous emission of large quantities of SO2, and the physical evolution of the summit area with new vent openings and more frequent eruptions all point towards a continuous drying of the hydrothermal system at Turrialba's summit at an apparently increasing rate.


Soil acidity Feed components are merchandise utilized in animal nutrients to enhance the nice of feed and the pleasant of meals from animal origin, or to improve the animals' overall performance and In Ethiopia, dairy manufacturing relies upon especially on indigenous livestock genetic sources; extra particularly on cattle, goats, camels, and sheep.
Therefore, the results of somatotropin at the performance of lactating animals were the problem of a hobby for over 50 years. It becomes, to begin with, confirmed that injections of crude pituitary extract improved milk production in dairy cows. On the opposite hand, four factors may be considered to decide if a feed additive needs to be used: Anticipated reaction, financial go back, available research, and Field responses. But manufacturers are endorsed to significantly evaluate the fee-to-benefit ratio of each feed additive in their management structures. In normally feed additives fall into much different paperwork and can be useful in decreasing consequences of ruminal acidosis, enhancing feed efficiency, a charge of advantage, heat suppression and bloat manage to call a completely few. When nicely utilized in properly-managed surroundings, a lot of these components can improve performance and profitability extensively. This assessment discussed several feed additives used for boosting milk production.


Electrical is used for various activities in all sectors. Rapid increase of electricity demand recently, makes it necessary to have an even more efficient method for generating electricity. Renewable energy and the microgrid provides an integrated and alternative solution for electricity generation. In microgrid systems, energy storage devices are one of important aspects. Batteries are one kind of the energy storage technologies widely used in power system and hence, their suitable capacity must be determined in order to develop an effective system installation. In this research, sizing optimization of battery capacity is modeled as a minimization of microgrid battery capacity using the Particle Swarm Optimization/PSO algorithm with considering islanding operation of the system for effective battery installation. Results show that optimal battery capacity can be obtained and the developed computational model gives satisfactory results for the system under study.

Keywords: Battery, microgrid, energy storage system, PSO algorithm


Although there have been growing concerns on how service-learning can accentuate the power differences between the server and the served, service-learning can foster transformative partnership by recognizing the contributions each can offer for a better society. Using participant observation and discourse analysis, this case study examines the perceptions of third-year undergraduate students of a health-related degree in a Philippine-based Jesuit university about their school–community collaboration in a primary healthcare setting. Despite apprehensions at the start of service-learning, students saw themselves confronted with the challenge to overcome personal barriers from authentically encountering the urban poor, whom they served in the community. However, establishing transformative partnership in service-learning was not without its share of dilemmas. Such findings can contribute to discourses on service-learning, informing practitioners how to support social transformation in university– community collaboration.


The report deals with a 15-year long experience gained by the clinical staff of the Institute in treating more than 3,500 patients with gastro-intestinal tumors. In recent years, the research conducted by the staff has been focused on further improvement procedures for malignant tumors of this localization. Both surgical procedures and methods of combination and complex therapy have been improved. For example, since 1967 all operations for rectal tumors have been performed by two teams of surgeons working simultaneously. Most perineal wounds have been closed by sutures and vacuum-drained. Extraperitonization of enterstomy is considered to be an indispensable component of colon resection procedure. Lienal angle and distal third of transverse colon are being used on a large scale in performing abdominoanal resections. The results of treatment of more than 250 patients have demonstrated the advantages of preoperative radiation therapy application for rectal tumors. Extensive use has been made of endolymphatic chemotherapy in cases of stomach neoplasms and regional endovascular chemotherapy for malignant rectal tumors.


With a text mining and bibliometrics approach, we review the literature on the evolution of deep learning in medical image literature from 2012 - 2020 in order to understand the current state of the research and to identify the major research themes in image analysis to answer our research questions: RQ1: What are the learning modes that are evident in the literature? RQ2: What are the emerging learning modes in the literature? RQ3: What are the major themes in medical imaging literature? The analysis of 8704 resulting from a data collection process from peer-reviewed databases, our analysis discovered the six major themes of image segmentation studies, studies with image classification, evaluation procedures such as sensitivity and specificity, optical coherence tomography studies, MRI imaging studies, and Chest imaging studies. Additionally, we assessed the number of articles published each year, the frequent keywords, the author networks, the trending topics, and connections to other topics. We discovered that segmenting and classifying the images are the most common tasks. Transfer learning is the most researched area and cancer is the highly targeted disease and Covid-19 is the most recent research trend. © WMSCI 2021.All right reserved.


A key concern for all multinationals is where to find a suitable location for their business activities, bearing in mind that they must find the right balance between global integration and local responsiveness. This article contributes to the internationalization debate by asking: in what sense will information technology enable globalization? We focus on the sourcing process, an area where globalization is often claimed to be the case. Re-examination of empirical evidence shows that global sourcing is not as generally predominant as is claimed. Consequently inhibitors to global integration exist and we classify these inhibitors into three categories: geographical, relational and environmental inhibitors. We then analyze the role information technology plays in reducing these inhibitors and formulate propositions that are then illustrated in two case studies. Information technology is proposed to reduce the geographical and relational inhibitors, but it will have no effect on environmental inhibitors. However, the latter category of inhibitors will become more prominent in the future. Information technology thus shifts the balance towards global integration, but simultaneously creates new problems in managing internationalization.


This paper presents two discrete cosine transform (DCT)-based pilot-symbol-aided channel estimation methods using different pilot arrangement schemes. By exploiting the properties of DCT, both proposed methods mitigate the aliasing effect introduced in discrete Fourier transform (DFT)-based channel estimation method when the multi-path fading channels have non-sample-spaced path delays. Of these two DCT-based channel estimation methods, one reduces the additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) and inter-carrier interference (ICI) significantly by iteration, while with reasonable constraint and phase shifted pilot sequences for each transmitter antenna, the other one can achieve highly efficient and accurate estimation without sacrificing much system overhead. The computer simulation results demonstrate effectiveness of the proposed DCT-based channel estimation methods.


Abstract:This study offers a reading of the early nineteenth-century Chinese novel Jinghua yuan 鏡 花緣 (Flowers in the Mirror) by Li Ruzhen 李汝珍 (1763–1830?) as a fiction about fiction making. Contextualizing the novel in a society where the civil service examinations are among the most important cultural institutions, this article considers the protagonist Tang Ao's 唐敖 voyage to bizarre, fantastical islands, narrated in the early chapters of the novel, as an account of his conversion from examination scholarship to fiction creation. From these islands, his symbolic realm of fictionality, he sends flower spirits-turned-girls to China for the female examinations, here interpreted as an enterprise to fictionalize the examination system. Thus the narrative of the girls' participation in the exams and ensuing celebrations in later chapters becomes a fiction within the fiction. Discussing the dynamic between the examinations and fiction writing elevated in the metafictional structure of the novel, this study considers Tang Ao a fictional representative of many scholars in late imperial China, whose experience with the examinations was not merely a cause of intense frustration but also an inexhaustible source of literary inspiration.


For the last decade the STRIPS paradigm has had a dominant influence on research in planning systems. More recently researchers have realized that a departure from this framework is necessary if planning systems are to be able to deal with complex, real-world environments in an intelligent, flexible, and efficient manner. The present report surveys some of the problems encountered by workers in this area, and indicates what the author believes are some of the underlying causes of the difficulties. The author then proposes the notion of a "fuzzy algorithm" as a means for encorporating strategy and flexibility into the planning process. It is suggested that that the further development of the idea of a "fuzzy algorithm" is a fruitful direction for research which can provide a unifying framework for various other proposals encountered in the literature. ... Read complete abstract on page 2.


Reinforcement learning methods have emerged as a popular choice for training an efficient and effective dialogue policy. However, these methods suffer from sparse and unstable reward signals returned by a user simulator only when a dialogue finishes. Besides, the reward signal is manually designed by human experts, which requires domain knowledge. Recently, a number of adversarial learning methods have been proposed to learn the reward function together with the dialogue policy. However, to alternatively update the dialogue policy and the reward model on the fly, we are limited to policy-gradient-based algorithms, such as REINFORCE and PPO. Moreover, the alternating training of a dialogue agent and the reward model can easily get stuck in local optima or result in mode collapse. To overcome the listed issues, we propose to decompose the adversarial training into two steps. First, we train the discriminator with an auxiliary dialogue generator and then incorporate a derived reward model into a common reinforcement learning method to guide the dialogue policy learning. This approach is applicable to both on-policy and off-policy reinforcement learning methods. Based on our extensive experimentation, we can conclude the proposed method: (1) achieves a remarkable task success rate using both on-policy and off-policy reinforcement learning methods; and (2) has potential to transfer knowledge from existing domains to a new domain.