We study multi-agent reinforcement learning (MARL) in infinite-horizon discounted zero-sum Markov games. We focus on the practical but challenging setting of decentralized MARL, where agents make decisions without coordination by a centralized controller, but only based on their own payoffs and local actions executed. The agents need not observe the opponent's actions or payoffs, possibly being even oblivious to the presence of the opponent, nor be aware of the zero-sum structure of the underlying game, a setting also referred to as radically uncoupled in the literature of learning in games. In this paper, we develop a radically uncoupled Q-learning dynamics that is both rational and convergent: the learning dynamics converges to the best response to the opponent's strategy when the opponent follows an asymptotically stationary strategy; when both agents adopt the learning dynamics, they converge to the Nash equilibrium of the game. The key challenge in this decentralized setting is the non-stationarity of the environment from an agent's perspective, since both her own payoffs and the system evolution depend on the actions of other agents, and each agent adapts her policies simultaneously and independently. To address this issue, we develop a two-timescale learning dynamics where each agent updates her local Q-function and value function estimates concurrently, with the latter happening at a slower timescale.


SUMMARY: Glucan synthase activity in cell-free extracts of Saccharomyces cerevisiae was partially stabilized when cells were broken in the presence of sucrose. Under these conditions a significant amount of enzyme activity remained in the supernatant after high-speed centrifugation. When this supernatant fraction was incubated with UDPglucose, microfibrils were synthesized. Microfibrils were insoluble in water, ethanol and acid, and soluble in alkali. Under the electron microscope they appeared more or less uniform with an average length of about 0·5 μm. Alkali-insoluble residue appeared in the form of densely-packed longer microfibrils. After acidification of alkali-solubilized glucan, shorter microfibrils were reprecipitated. Microfibrils were digested by both endo- and exo-1,3-β-glucanase. In the latter case, glucose was the only product indicating that the microfibrils consist of 1,3-β-glucan with no detectable branches.


OBJECTIVE
With recent advances in technology, advanced MRI methods such as diffusion-weighted and perfusion-weighted MRI, MR elastography, chemical shift-based fat-water separation, and MR spectroscopy can now be applied to liver imaging. We will review the respective roles of these techniques for assessment of chronic liver disease.

CONCLUSION
MRI plays an increasingly important role in assessment of patients with chronic liver disease because of the lack of ionizing radiation and the possibility of performing multiparametric imaging.


This paper generalizes the concept of velocity obstacles given by Fiorini et al. (1998) to obstacles moving along arbitrary trajectories. We introduce the nonlinear velocity obstacle, which takes into account the shape, velocity and path curvature of the moving obstacle. The nonlinear v-obstacle allows selecting a single avoidance maneuver (if one exists) that avoids any number of obstacles moving on any known trajectories. For unknown trajectories, the nonlinear v-obstacles can be used to generate local avoidance maneuvers based on the current velocity and path curvature of the moving obstacle. This elevates the planning strategy to a second order method, compared to the first order avoidance using the linear v-obstacle, and zero order avoidance using only position information. Analytic expressions for the nonlinear v-obstacle are derived for general trajectories in the plane. The nonlinear v-obstacles are demonstrated in a complex traffic example.


The present work has investigated the influence of calcium on the microstructure and properties of AISI M2 high speed steels. The results show that the as-cast structure consists of the iron matrix and networks of M2C eutectic carbides, which are greatly refined in the ingot modified by calcium. Meanwhile, the morphology of M2C evolves from the plate-like shape into the fibrous one. Compared with the plate-like M2C, the fibrous M2C is less stable at high temperatures, which promotes the spheroidization and refinement of carbides. Therefore, M2 steels modified by calcium obtain higher hardness and red-hardness after heat treatment than those without the addition of calcium.


Whether or not Indian society in the early medieval period was feudal has remained an important issue of animated debate in Indian historiography for nearly four decades. The hypothesis of Indian feudalism has been criticised by traditional as well as by 'radical' historians, though both categories of scholars often seem to share a neo-colonialist perception of early Indian society as static. This volume brings together a vast mass of empirical data which shows the fallacy of their arguments. The book is divided into three parts, each devoted to an important aspect of the feudal phenomenon. The first part deals with the problem of transition from pre-feudal to feudal society and the second with the nature of state shaped largely by the growth of new classes as a result of agrarian changes, sluggish trade and the limited role of money in society. The third part explores the linkages between the socio-economic changes and the ideological trends noticeable in early medieval times. A collection of articles by eminent historians with an unquestionable grasp of the primary sources, the work underlines the heuristic value of the feudal construction for a meaningful understanding of historical processes at work in early medieval India. The editors introduction convincingly refutes the arguments of the critics of the feudal model by drawing comparable material from European as well as Asian countries, and adds new dimension to the feudalism debate by relating it to developments in the field of religion, literature and art.


Building Information Modeling (BIM) adoption is significantly increasing and is highly supported by governmental bodies because it has great potential for the construction sector. Nevertheless, some firms do not know how to proceed for implementation. Many design firms have also already adopted BIM, so feedback is now available: several research on BIM implementation have shown that there is a lack of understanding of implementation process and a need for guidelines. Moreover, these research work, case studies and action-research have not been cross-referenced in any significant way to deduce generic and adapted guidelines for firms that are now embracing BIM implementation. In this paper, guidelines for doing a four-phases BIM implementation plan are proposed, by referencing, cross-checking, comparing, and synthetizing case studies of BIM implementation in design firms and change management literature. © 2019 The Authors. Published by Budapest University of Technology and Economics & Diamond Congress Ltd. Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Creative Construction Conference 2019.


The camel rearing sub-sector has been an integral part of agriculture in Africa, Ethiopia. It has been contributing to the household food, income and poverty alleviation and national economy through export. The country has huge camel resources and made it the fourth leading country camel milk in world. In most camel rearing societies, camel milk is mainly consumed in its raw state without being subjected to any sort of processing treatment. Consumption of raw state camel milk is the major concern from public health point of view Therefore, the milk produced is likely to cause food-borne diseases and the natural antimicrobial factors can only provide a limited protection against specific pathogens and for a short period. However, only little is known about camel milk quality and therapeutic uses or limited researches have been done on nutritional characteristics. Although camel's milk is known for its various economic and health benefits, unlike the live camel, there is no processing industry, quality and typically not available in pharmacies and also lack of awareness market value for it in Ethiopia. In this review, the quality and therapeutic uses of camel milk deals; as milk is the key base raw material for all dairy products. On the review focused, constituents of camel milk and their therapeutic properties (use) are described, and the factors affecting the chemical composition and processing characteristics of camel milk, and also deals preservation method. Regarding to the chemical composition of camel milk, it contains a high proportion of antibacterial substances and higher concentration of vitamin and minerals in comparison with cow milk. It is also low in protein, sugar and cholesterol and lactose contents. Therefore, camel milk is unique from other ruminant milk in terms of chemical composition as well as functionality as it contains high concentration of immunoglobulins and insulin. The uniqueness (importance of camel milk) as Food security -"second god,and Medicinal qualities of camel milk- on diabetes, autism; immunity, stomach cleansing; infectious diseases e.g. tuberculosis. The objective of this review is to review the physicochemical quality, therapeutic uses microbial quality, preservation method and sensory quality of camel milk.


Jane Cave Winscom was an 18-century British poet who suffered from excruciating headaches. Three poems about her pain appear in the 1794 edition of her Poems. They provide both a valuable historical account of the treatments she underwent and a patient's account of the physical and psychological effects of headache. Winscom's poems display many of the same features as current pain narratives. They expose private and devastating suffering to public gaze, and publicly question the medical establishment that has failed to restore her to health. They also reveal features that have come to be understood as foundational in pain narratives: a body turned on itself and figured as an external enemy, and the absolute power of pain to silence the sufferer. Most important, the poems demonstrate Winscom's narrative composition of a self who has overcome this enforced silence to speak the experience of head pain.


Anievas and Nı̇şancioğlu's text, How the West Came to Rule, attempts to offer not only an insightful critique of a contemporary consensus within Orthodox Marxist historiography, but also explores the incomplete narratives embedded within postcolonial studies and world-system analysis. In this contribution I argue that they succeed more in the former challenge than in the latter and suggest that a careful analysis of recent world system research is really less Eurocentric than Anievas and Nı̇şancioğlu claim. Extending their analysis into the present would make their theoretical model less divergent from Wallerstein's approach than they suggest. As they point out, a myopic and biased interpretation of the Rise of the West is not only related to a rigid adherence to obsolete theoretical models, but also to the creation of separate disciplines within the modern university system which tends to (re)produce Eurocentric epistemology about past, present and future conditions.


AIM
To consider the relevance and potential role of patient reflection in their overall healthcare experience.

METHOD
In-depth, unstructured, qualitative interviews were conducted with 19 patients due to have elective orthopaedic surgery. A longitudinal study design was used, covering the period from a few weeks before to approximately three months after surgery. Forty five interviews were conducted in total.

RESULTS
The degree to which participants expressed evidence of reflection and the nature of their reflections varied. Much reflection focused on remaining unknowns and lingering queries. Participants seemed to be trying to work towards an acceptable interpretation of their experiences. This interpretation then fed into their experience of, and responses to, their care.

CONCLUSION
Intrapersonal care is suggested as a way of conceptualizing the patient's process of reflection. This complements interpersonal care given by nurses. Intrapersonal care must be well supported to realise its potential therapeutic effect.


The lack of data democratization and information leakage from trained models hinder the development and acceptance of robust deep learning-based healthcare solutions. This paper argues that irreversible data encoding can provide an effective solution to achieve data democratization without violating the privacy constraints imposed on healthcare data and clinical models. An ideal encoding framework transforms the data into a new space where it is imperceptible to a manual or computational inspection. However, encoded data should preserve the semantics of the original data such that deep learning models can be trained effectively. This paper hypothesizes the characteristics of the desired encoding framework and then exploits random projections and random quantum encoding to realize this framework for dense and longitudinal or time-series data. Experimental evaluation highlights that models trained on encoded time-series data effectively uphold the information bottleneck principle and hence, exhibit lesser information leakage from trained models.


Homologous recombination (HR) is an indispensable tool to modify the genome of yeast and mammals. More recently HR is also being used for gene targeting in Drosophila. Here we show that HR can be used efficiently to engineer chromosomal rearrangements such as pericentric and paracentric inversions and translocations in Drosophila. Two chromosomal double-strand breaks (DSBs), introduced by the rare-cutting I-SceI endonuclease on two different mobile elements sharing homologous sequences, are sufficient to promote rearrangements at a frequency of 1% to 4%. Such rearrangements, once generated by HR, can be reverted by Cre recombinase. However, Cre-mediated recombination efficiency drops with increasing distance between recombination sites, unlike HR. We therefore speculate that physical constraints on chromosomal movement are modulated during DSB repair, to facilitate the homology search throughout the genome.


Wide, deep pipelines need many physical registers to hold the results of in-flight instructions. Simultaneously, high clock frequencies prohibit using large register files and bypass networks without a significant performance penalty. Previously proposed techniques using register caching to reduce this penalty suffer from several problems including poor insertion and replacement decisions and the need for a fully-associative cache for good performance. We present novel mechanisms for managing and indexing register caches that address these problems using knowledge of the number of consumers of each register value. The insertion policy reduces pollution by not caching a register value when all of its predicted consumers are satisfied by the bypass network. The replacement policy selects register cache entries with the fewest remaining uses (often zero), lowering the miss rate. We also introduce a new, general method of mapping physical registers to register cache sets that improves the performance of set-associative cache organizations by reducing conflicts. Our results indicate that a 64-entry, two-way set associative cache using these techniques outperforms multi-cycle monolithic register files and previously proposed hierarchical register files.


We report e;{+}e;{-}-->bb[over ] cross section measurements by the BABAR experiment performed during an energy scan in the range of 10.54 to 11.20 GeV at the SLAC PEP-II e;{+}e;{-} collider. A total relative error of about 5% is reached in more than 300 center-of-mass energy steps, separated by about 5 MeV. These measurements can be used to derive precise information on the parameters of the Upsilon(10860) and Upsilon(11020) resonances. In particular we show that their widths may be smaller than previously measured.


This paper presents a split-gate flash EEPROM cell that relies on enhanced hot-electron injection onto the floating gate for fast 5 V-only programming. The device is referred to as the High Injection MOS (or HIMOS) cell and is fabricated in a 0.7-/spl mu/m double polysilicon CMOS technology with minor additions to the standard CMOS process flow. The cell has been optimized for a virtual ground array configuration in order to shrink the area down to the range of 10-20 /spl mu/m/sup 2/ per bit. An extensive study is presented of the influence of applied programming voltages and device geometry on cell performance. It is shown that, for a cell area of 16.5 /spl mu/m/sup 2/, microsecond programming can be achieved with a program-gate voltage of 12 V and 5 V-only operation. Furthermore, during programming the unique features of the HIMOS cell result in very low drain current (approximately 25 /spl mu/A per cell for 5 V-only operation) and a correspondingly low power consumption. It is shown experimentally that the combination of high programming efficiency with low power consumption indicates that 3.3 V-only operation is already viable in 0.7-/spl mu/m technology. In addition, a detailed study of the various possible disturb effects confirms the reliability of the HIMOS technology, and the feasibility of using a virtual ground array for this memory cell. >


Abstract The occurrence and distribution of monogenic eruptive features in volcanic areas testify to the presence of deep-crustal or subcrustal magma reservoirs hydraulically connected to the surface via a fracture network. The spatial distribution of vents can be studied in terms of self-similar (fractal) clustering, described by a fractal exponent D and defined over a range of lengths (l) between a lower and upper cutoff, Lco and Uco, respectively. The computed Uco values for several volcanic fields on Earth match the thickness of the crust between vents and magma reservoirs at depth. This analysis can thus be extended to other volcanic fields and volcanoes on rocky planets in the solar system where features such as vents and dykes occur, and for where complementary geophysical data are currently lacking. We applied this method to the Ascraeus Mons volcano on Mars, which presents hundreds of collapse pits similar to those observed on Earth volcanoes that are most likely related to feeder dykes. Based on structural mapping with High Resolution Stereo Camera data at 12 m/px and Context Camera data at 6 m/px mosaics, more than 2300 collapse pits and dyke traces were analysed, revealing two distinct fractal clustered populations. The obtained Uco values reveal the presence and likely depth of both a deep magma reservoir (c. 60 km deep) and a small shallower chamber (c. 11 km deep). This analysis can help to better constrain the depth and time evolution of volcanic processes on Tharsis, and on terrestrial planets' volcanoes in general.


Monitoring storm-induced dramatic beach morphology changes and long-term beach evolution provides crucial data for coastal management. Beach-profile measurement using total station has been conducted along the coast of west-central Florida over the last decade. This paper reviews several case studies of beach morphology changes based on total-station survey along this coast. The advantage of flexible and low-cost total-station surveys is discussed in comparison to LIDAR (light detection and ranging) method. In an attempt to introduce total-station survey from a practical prospective, measurement of cross-shore beach profile in various scenarios are discussed, including: (1) establishing a beach profile line with known instrument and benchmark locations; (2) surveying multiple beach profiles with one instrument setup; (3) implementation of coordinate rotation to convert local system to real-earth system. Total-station survey is a highly effective and accurate method in documenting beach profile changes along low-energy coasts.


A general nonlinear differential equation for the one-dimensional consolidation of saturated plastic soils is presented. The variations of compressibility, of permeability, and of the coefficient of consolidation are taken into account. Application of the theory to the oedometer test, neglecting the submerged unit weight of the soil and assuming the change in thickness to be small, is made. The consolidation curves are found to depend on the ratio of the final to the initial thicknesses H 2 /H 1 and on the ratio of the parameters λ/γ. Here λ = 1 - γκ, where γ and K are the nonlinear coefficient of compressibility and the coefficient of permeachange, respectively. For the special case that the coefficient of consolidation is constant, λ = 0, the consolidation curves move somewhat (to the left for compression and to the right for swelling), more as the values of H 2 /H 1 are smaller for compression or higher for swelling compared to unity, respectively. The effective stresses at any time and depth are smaller than those predicted by the linear Terzaghi's theory. The significance of the degree of consolidation given by Terzaghi's theory, for the case C v = constant, is given introducing a nonlinear concept for U. For the general case that the coefficient of consolidation is not constant, λ ≠ 0, the corresponding consolidation curves are the subject of a companion paper.


Many previous studies have shown that peer assessment teaching can help develop cognitive skills. There are also numerous studies that explore issues related to web-based peer assessment activities. However, most current studies focus on peer assessment instructional activities under an asynchronous collaborative learning environment. In turn, there is a lack of research related to the interactive process of synchronous peer assessment activities and the cognitive dimensions of the discussion. Therefore, this study conducts an empirical analysis of an instructional activity in which 38 students used online instant messaging tools to conduct peer assessments. Students viewed and evaluated each other's work on a one-to-one basis. This case study uses the cognitive processing dimensions from Bloom's Taxonomy to analyze the contents of the discussions. Quantitative content analysis, lag sequential analysis, and qualitative content analysis were conducted during the study to explore the cognitive dimensions of peer assessment, both the characteristics and limitations of interactive behavioral patterns, and the differences in discussion patterns between high- and low-quality discussion groups. The results show that synchronous peer assessment discussions can elicit a two-way interaction between basic and advanced cognitive dimensions, which may be valuable in developing cognitive abilities. However, the results also show a lack of advanced cognitive dimensions and a tendency for the discussion to repeatedly go off-topic in the observed discussion. After examining the results, we propose relevant recommendations and references for teachers and researchers interested in synchronous peer assessment instructional activities.


A comparative study was conducted to determine the implications of the status and anticipated development of technology teacher programs in the United States for reconstructing technology teacher education programs in Taiwan. Data were gathered through a nationwide survey of the departments of education of the 50 states plus Washington, D.C., and the 111 institutions housing technology teacher education programs in the United States. Concurrent with the survey, documents pertaining to technology teacher certification and preparation in Taiwan were collected from the Ministry of Education and two technology teacher preparation programs. Nine conclusions on the status and anticipated development of technology teacher programs in the United States were drawn: (1) using grade point average to admit students will continue to be widely practiced; (2) the appropriate proportion of general coursework, technical studies, and professional courses remains undetermined; (3) English, mathematics, and natural and social science will continue to dominate the general education area; (4) communication, construction, manufacturing, and transportation and power have been established and will continue to dominate the technical studies area; (5) instructional methods and student teaching will continue to be addressed in the professional studies area; (6) raising admission and graduation standards will continue; (7) 5-year programs will not be widely implemented in the near future; (8) using testing to verify teacher candidates' competencies will continue; and (9) there is great diversity in the requirements for certifying technology teachers. Implications for the status and anticipated development of technology teacher programs in the United States for reconstructing technology teacher education programs in Taiwan include the following: Taiwan technology teacher educators should seek to provide more effective communication and to influence legislation to make current technology teacher certification criteria more professional; teacher certificate renewal requirements should be increased to push technology teachers to participate in inservice education; and the knowledge base for certification examination should be identified. (Contains 12


An effort concerned with the feasibility of achieving melt-processable polyacrylonitrile copolymer system precursors for producing high modulus carbon fibers is detailed. High molecular weight poly(acrylonitrile-ran-methyl acrylate) (PAN-MA) copolymer with high acrylonitrile content were mixed with various water containing binary melting point modifiers to produce systems that formed stable melts at temperatures below the temperature corresponding to the onset of PAN-MA crosslinking. The structure of the copolymer was found to be 96.5 ± 0.13 mole % acrylonitrile and 4.40 ± 0.13 mole % methyl acrylate by 1HNMR with an Mw = 238 kDa and dispersity of 1.9 determined by size exclusion chromatography. A reduction in the Tm of the copolymer of 200°C was established for a copolymer/melting point modifier system containing copolymer mixed with water and acetonitrile with the following composition: PANMA/ACN/H2O 55/25/20 wt:wt:wt. This corresponds to the greatest reduction in a PAN-based copolymer melting temperature yet reported. From isothermal DSC and pressurized capillary rheometry experiments it was found that the stability of the resulting melts shows a strong temperature dependence, but does not show a strong dependence on shear rate. Copolymer mixtures with H2O and acetonitrile or H2O and adiponitrile were found to be suitable for melt-extrusion at 170°C with viscosities ranging from 1800-2000 Pa*s with stabilities ≥ 1 hour. The modification of membranes to improve gas separation properties is of considerable interest. Crosslinking is one route to modify membranes, but the resulting effects on thin membranes have yet to be investigated to understand the impact of such modification at thicknesses that are relevant to industrial membranes. In this study, the influences of UV irradiation and physical aging on O2 and N2 gas permeation properties of thin (~ 150 nm) glassy poly(arylene ether ketone) (PAEK) films at 35°C and 2 atm were investigated. Thin PAEK films prepared from tetramethyl bisphenol A and 4,4'-difluorobenzophenone were UV irradiated on both sides in air or N2 at wavelengths of 254 nm or 365 nm. This induced crosslinking and, in some cases, photooxidation. Gas permeability decreased and O2/N2 selectivity increased as UV irradiation and aging time were increased. At 254 nm, samples irradiated in air had lower permeability coefficients and higher selectivities than samples irradiated in N2, and this was ascribed to additional decreases in free volume due to photooxidation in airirradiated samples. Additionally, air-irradiated samples at 254 nm exhibited less physical aging than non-crosslinked and N2-irradiated samples at 254 nm, possibly due to interactions among photooxidative polar products that may restrict polymer chain mobility, thereby lowering the aging rate. The influence of water vapor on physical aging of air-irradiated samples was examined. Finally, irradiation at 254 nm leads to more extensive crosslinking and/or photooxidation than irradiation at 365 nm, possibly due to greater UV absorption by the polymer and the higher probability of radical formation at the lower wavelength. Poly(2,6-dimethyl-1,4-phenylene oxide) (PPO) is utilized for gas separation membranes. It has a relatively high free volume with high gas permeabilities but suffers from low selectivities. PPO polymers with Mn's from 2000-22,000 g/mole were synthesized and blended with a poly(arylene ether ketone) derived from bisphenol A and difluorobenzophenone (BPA-PAEK). DSC showed that the blends with all but the lowest molecular weight PPO had two Tgs, thus suggesting that two phases were present. The ketone carbon and benzylic methyl groups on the BPA-PAEK and the PPO polymers crosslinked upon exposure to UV light. The gel fractions after UV exposure were high and the tensile properties were similar to the PPO control polymer that is currently used as a gas separation membrane. The crosslinked blends had improved gas selectivities over their linear counterparts. The 90/10 wt/wt 22k PPO/BPA PAEK crosslinked blends gained the most O2/N2 selectivity and maintained a high permeability. Two series of high molecular weight disulfonated poly(arylene ether sulfone) random copolymers were synthesized as proton exchange membranes for high temperature water electrolyzers. These copolymers differed based on the position of the ether bonds on the aromatic rings. One series was comprised of fully para-substituted hydroquinone comonomer and the other series incorporated 25 mole % of a meta-substituted comonomer, resorcinol, and 75 mole % hydroquinone. The influence of the substitution position on water uptake and electrochemical properties of the membranes were investigated and compared to the state-of-the-art membrane, Nafion. Mechanical properties of the membranes were measured for the first time in fully hydrated conditions at room and elevated temperatures. While submerged in water, these hydrocarbonbased copolymers had moduli an order of magnitude higher than Nafion membrane. Selected copolymers of each series showed dramatically increased proton conductivity at elevated temperature and fully hydrated conditions while their H2 gas permeabilities were well controlled over a wide range of temperatures. These improved properties were attributed to the high glass transition temperature of poly(arylene ether sulfone)s. General Audience Abstract In this work, the author is attempting to create precursor material for carbon fiber that is melt-processable. Currently, carbon fibers are produced from precursor fibers which were spun from organic solvent solutions. This method is more expensive and less environmentally friendly than producing the precursor fibers from the melt. The precursor polymer has a tendency to crosslink and degrade at temperatures that are less than its melting point, thus preventing is from being melt-processed. By creating formulations with the precursor polymer and various modifiers, the author was able to produce materials that could be melted without significant degradation and could therefore potentially be used to melt-process carbon fiber precursor fibers.


In order to solve the deformation of thin-walled parts when fixed by fixtures in the environment of examination, transport, welding, assembly and demonstration, the paper is based on automatic planning approach of main champing points in Rapid Fixture Design System and mainly focuses on auto-planning auxiliary clamping points of thin-walled parts in Rapid Fixture Design System and represents the layout of auxiliary clamping points to deal with the problem of easy deformation of thin-wall parts when under small stress environment, which establishes automatic planning approach of RP. Finally, the paper gives an example to verify the effectiveness of the approach. Achieve the goal of designing rapid fixture automatically, fast and efficiently and enhance the capacity of enterprises responding quickly to dynamic changes in the market.


In a previous work, we presented a technique that allows verifying the conformance between Java implementations and UML class diagrams, using design tests. While it allowed verifying conformance it does so in a sense that does not deal adequately with some design patterns. In such scenarios, there are semantic constraints among the involved elements that UML does not allow our technique to recognize them. Therefore, if one evolves the implementation violating the design pattern, the generated design tests will no longer be capable of detecting the design violation. To address this problem, we propose in this paper an approach based on: (1) UML profiles to explicitly tag UML incorporating design patterns; and (2) a set of design test templates able to recognize the appropriate implementation of these design patterns on Java code. We also present a prototype capable of automatically generating the design tests to verify the design patterns explicated by the UML profile.


Eleven new rare earth (RE) p-chlorobenzoic acid-1,10-phenanthroline complexes have been hydrothermally synthesized and structurally characterized via single-crystal and powder X-ray diffraction. This series builds on four previous single complex studies to analyze the structural, supramolecular and luminescent properties of the set of binuclear molecular complexes that are formed with all members of the lanthanide series and yttrium (La–Y). All complexes discussed herein feature a bidentate phenanthroline ligand, p-chlorobenzoic acid ligands exhibiting multiple bind modes, chelating-bridging bidentate, bridging bidentate, bidentate and monodentate, and for the larger Ln3+ ions (La–Nd) a bound water molecule. Supramolecular assembly yields 2D sheets for all the binuclear species with Cl-π, π–π and hydrogen bonding interactions simultaneously present in structure type I, π–π and hydrogen bonding assembling the binuclear tectons in structure type II and a combination of Cl-π and π–π interactions stitching together the dimer units of structure type III. Visible luminescence experiments were performed on the Pr, Sm, Dy and Tm materials and the results ranged from complete sensitization for Sm and Dy to incomplete energy transfer in the Tm complex, and a complete absence of luminescence in the Pr material.


This paper presents a novel device which provides the opportunity to perform high-throughput biochemical assays on different individual cells. In particular, the proposed device is suited to screen the rare cells in biological samples for early stage cancer diagnosis and explore their biochemical functionality. In the process, single cells are precisely positioned and captured in activated micropores. To show the performance of the proposed device, cultured yeast cells and human epithelial circulating tumor cells are successfully captured


Marine pollution is one of the main concerns of our society. In order to reduce air pollution produced by ships, the International Maritime Organization has developed technical, operational and management measures. Part of the operational measures refers to CO2 emissions that contribute to the energy efficiency of the vessel. The difficulty in assessing the energy efficiency of the vessel rests with the diversity of voyage parameters, including quantity of cargo, distance and type of fuel in use. Assessing the energy efficiency of the vessel is thus not a matter of determining the absolute value of the CO2, but of providing a meaningful construct to enable tracking performance trends over time, for the same ship, a fleet of ships or across the industry. This concept is the Energy Efficiency Operational Index, EEOI. The purpose of this study is to analyse the influence of a well predicted voyage on the EEOI value. The method used consists in a comparative analysis of two situations regarding berthing prospects: the real passage plan and an early prediction that supposes the vessel to arrive on time as required. The results of the study represent a monitoring tool for the ship owners to assess the EEOI from the early stage of designing the berthing prospects.


The development of methods for cleavage of DNA at specific site(s) that are widely spaced would facilitate physical mapping of large genomes. Several methods for rare and specific cleavage of chromosomal DNAs require a nearly complete methylation of a given type of restriction site except the one that is specifically protected. It is expected that as the target DNA increases in length, it will become less likely to achieve nearly complete methylation. The intron-encoded endonucleases may also provide a capability to cleave megabase-sized DNA segments due to their very large recognition sequences. However, there are endogenous cleavage sites in the chromosomes of most organisms. We present here a new method to specifically cleave intact chromosomal DNA using lambda-terminase. A plasmid containing two specific cleavage sites (cohesive-end sites) for lambda-terminase was specifically introduced into the E.coli genome and into chromosome V of S.cerevisiae. Chromosomal DNA was prepared from the resulting strains, and then cleaved with lambda-terminase. The results showed that the 4.7-megabase pair (Mb) circular E.coli chromosome and the 0.58-Mb linear yeast chromosome V were specifically cleaved at the desired sites with very high efficiencies. The approach of using the lambda-terminase cleavage reaction is a simple one-step procedure with a high specificity which is particularly suitable for mapping very large genomes of eucaryotes.


The mass of non-living particulate organic matter, or detritus, often exceeds that of liv- ing plankton in pelagic environments; in coastal waters the difference can be 10-fold. Relatively little is known about the dynamics of this pool of organic matter because it has not been previously possi- ble to accurately determine its magnitude. A recent approach utilizing fluorescence microscopy (Ver- ity et al. 1996) provided estimates of the volume of detritus. Here, laboratory experiments were con- ducted to estimate carbon:volume (C:V) and nitrogen:volume (N:V) conversion ratios of detritus formed by 2 phytoplankton species when incubated in darkness in the presence of bacteria. The vol- ume of detritus was measured directly, along with total particulate organic carbon (POC) and nitro- gen (PON), and that contained in the associated phytoplankton and bacterial communities. Detrital carbon and nitrogen were estimated by difference and compared to detrital volume, from which con- version factors were calculated. The physiological state of the bacteria was assessed using a recently developed fluorescent stain and molecular probe protocol (Williams et al. 1998). The 2 phytoplankton cultures were degraded at different rates. At the times of peak bacterial abundances, most of the remaining bulk POC and PON was in the form of bacteria cells. Conversion efficiencies, however, were only 8 to 9% (carbon) and 10 to 11% (nitrogen). The fraction of the bacterial community com- posed of active cells was inversely related to the C:N ratio of the bulk particulate matter in both cul- tures, although with different absolute values. C:N ratios of detritus, distinct from surrounding bac- teria and phytoplankton, were typically 35 to 50 but varied during the 56 d incubations because bacteria selectively degraded PON compared to POC. C:V and N:V ratios were typically 0.09 to 0.11 and 0.002 to 0.004 pg µm -3 in fresh detritus, respectively, and ratios declined as the detritus degraded in the presence of bacteria. Mean C:V and N:V ratios were 0.05 to 0.11 and 0.0014 to 0.0031, respectively. These ratios indicate that detritus derived from phytoplankton cultures contains reduced densities of organic carbon and nitrogen compared to living plankton. They provide the means to directly estimate the carbon and nitrogen content of natural detritus, although the C:V and N:V ratios of cultures need to be compared to those estimated from natural plankton communities.


The marble acoustic emission characteristics under different temperature tested and analyzed under uniaxial compression, and the contrast analysis that passes to acoustic emission the signal and the mechanics parameters to the marble can get,The characteristic curve of acoustic emission is distinguishing with the variety of temperature and stress level, the acoustic emission characteristic and stress-strain curve of fracture rock exists corelation characteristic. At the same stress-level, along with the temperature raising up, the relevant dimension has the trend of the aggrandizement, and the related coefficient will change randomly. The marble then expresses a mechanics characteristics of soft rock at over 1000oC, and the strength-limit descending sharply. The process parameters of AE count in the time domain has a better self-similar characteristics.


With the advent of all oral direct-acting antiviral drugs (DAAs) with a low incidence of side effects and very high success rates, we are entering an exciting new era in the treatment of hepatitis C virus (HCV), and now the major goal is the elimination of this viral infection. However, at least in Latin America, there are multiple barriers that must be attended.


This thesis focuses on the problem of determining appropriate skeletal configurations for which a virtual animated character moves to desired positions as smoothly, rapidly, and as accurately as possible. During the last decades, several methods and techniques, sophisticated or heuristic, have been presented to produce smooth and natural solutions to the Inverse Kinematics (IK) problem. However, many of the currently available methods suffer from high computational cost and production of unrealistic poses. In this study, a novel heuristic method, called Forward And Backward Reaching Inverse Kinematics (FABRIK), is proposed, which returns visually natural poses in real-time, equally comparable with highly sophisticated approaches. It is capable of supporting constraints for most of the known joint types and it can be extended to solve problems with multiple end effectors, multiple targets and closed loops. FABRIK was compared against the most popular IK approaches and evaluated in terms of its robustness and performance limitations. This thesis also includes a robust methodology for marker prediction under multiple marker occlusion for extended time periods, in order to drive real-time centre of rotation (CoR) estimations. Inferred information from neighbouring markers has been utilised, assuming that the inter-marker distances remain constant over time. This is the first time where the useful information about the missing markers positions which are partially visible to a single camera is deployed. Experiments demonstrate that the proposed methodology can effectively track the occluded markers with high accuracy, even if the occlusion persists for extended periods of time, recovering in real-time good estimates of the true joint positions. In addition, the predicted positions of the joints were further improved by employing FABRIK to relocate their positions and ensure a fixed bone length over time. Our methodology is tested against some of the most popular methods for marker prediction and the results confirm that our approach outperforms these methods in estimating both marker and CoR positions. Finally, an efficient model for real-time hand tracking and reconstruction that requires a minimum number of available markers, one on each finger, is presented. The proposed hand model is highly constrained with joint rotational and orientational constraints, restricting the fingers and palm movements to an appropriate feasible set. FABRIK is then incorporated to estimate the remaining joint positions and to fit them to the hand model. Physiological constraints, such as inertia, abduction, flexion etc, are also incorporated to correct the final hand posture. A mesh deformation algorithm is then applied to visualise the movements of the underlying hand


Having reviewed the basic radar concepts, we move on now to the practical consideration of their implementation. While there is an endless variety of radar designs, we can get a rough idea of what is involved by considering three generic radars. First is a radar of the sort used by the all-weather interceptors of the 1950s and 1960s, called simply a 'pulsed' radar. In different configurations, it still is used today. The second generic type is a far more capable one, called a 'pulse-doppler' radar. It is the kind used in the current generation of conventional fighter and attack aircraft. In various forms, it too has a variety of applications. The third generic type is a pulse-doppler radar tailored to meet the special requirements of stealth aircraft.


The main objective of the present study was to investigate the differences between Iranian EFL monolinguals and bilinguals in terms of vocabulary language learning strategies. In fact, it was an attempt to investigate whether bilingual/ monolingual learners differ significantly in using vocabulary learning strategies. To this end, 70 EFL, 45 monolingual (Persian) and 25 bilingual (Arabic-Persian) pre-university students were selected to answer Schmitt's Vocabulary Learning Strategies Questionnaire (VLSQ). The participants were homogeneous in terms of age, sex, nationality and level of instruction. Following the administration of a general English proficiency test and one VLSQ, interviews were conducted. Then, descriptive statistics and independent t-test were used to analyze the data. The findings obtained through comparison revealed significant dissimilarities between bilinguals and monolinguals' usage of determination, memory, cognitive and metacognitive strategies. There was no significant variation, however, in their use of social strategies. Further, interviews exhibited some aspects that were not mentioned in the VLSQ.


Based on fieldwork carried out in 2004/2005, this dissertation explores how different people and social groups participate in public space in Milan, Italy. In the first part of my work I discuss three different perspectives on public space and their implications on its openness and accessibility. First, I examine how a street forum by the largely Italian, middle class, association VivereMilano activates the ideal of public space as agora of the city, all while marginalizing issues of importance to less privileged residents of the city. Secondly, I look at how Milanese oppositional Social Centers depict urban space as deeply political and as a central locus and object of struggle. Thirdly, I look at some aspects of the complex relationship between immigration and urban space. Although public spaces are a precious resource for several new immigrants, they are usually the ones who have the hardest time to claim them as their own. In the second part of this thesis, I argue that visibility is an important aspect of city life. I trace how some people I met during my research used embodied practices of seeing and performative engagements to imagine and situate themselves in Milan's social landscape. I also reflect on how some oppositional groups adopt a language of (in)visibility to talk about inequality in the city, and to draw attention to the invisible social actors and the spatial ghosts of the postindustrial urban terrain. In this part of my work I theorize vision as embodied, multiple, and contested, and connected to circulating discourses on the way the city should look like and who should figure in it. As not every body can enter the field of vision in the same way, ways of seeing and appearing can reinforce gender, class, and race hierarchies in urban locales. In turn, less privileged inhabitants of Milan can use alternative ways of representing the city and their presence in it to help create a public space that would be more inclusive and egalitarian.


In October 2001, two inhalational anthrax and four cutaneous anthrax cases, resulting from the processing of Bacillus anthracis–containing envelopes at a New Jersey mail facility, were identified. Subsequently, we initiated stimulated passive hospital-based and enhanced passive surveillance for anthrax-compatible syndromes. From October 24 to December 17, 2001, hospitals reported 240,160 visits and 7,109 intensive-care unit admissions in the surveillance area (population 6.7 million persons). Following a change to reporting criteria on November 8, the average of possible inhalational anthrax reports decreased 83% from 18 to 3 per day; the proportion of reports requiring follow-up increased from 37% (105/286) to 41% (47/116). Clinical follow-up was conducted on 214 of 464 possible inhalational anthrax patients and 98 possible cutaneous anthrax patients; 49 had additional laboratory testing. No additional cases were identified. To verify the limited scope of the outbreak, surveillance was essential, though labor-intensive. The flexibility of the system allowed interim evaluation, thus improving surveillance efficiency.


We give a characterization of the spectral properties of linear differential operators with constant coefficients, acting on functions defined on a bounded interval, and determined by general linear boundary conditions. The boundary conditions may be such that the resulting operator is not selfadjoint. We associate the spectral properties of such an operator S with the properties of the solution of a corresponding boundary value problem for the partial differential equation ∂tq±iSq=0. Namely, we are able to establish an explicit correspondence between the properties of the family of eigenfunctions of the operator, and in particular, whether this family is a basis, and the existence and properties of the unique solution of the associated boundary value problem. When such a unique solution exists, we consider its representation as a complex contour integral that is obtained using a transform method recently proposed by Fokas and one of the authors. The analyticity properties of the integrand in this representation are crucial for studying the spectral theory of the associated operator.


In natural situations, motor activity must often choose a single target when multiple distractors are present. The present paper asks how primate smooth pursuit eye movements choose targets, by analysis of a natural target-selection task. Monkeys tracked two targets that started 1.5° eccentric and moved in different directions (up, right, down, and left) toward the position of fixation. As expected from previous results, the smooth pursuit before the first saccade reflected a vector average of the responses to the two target motions individually. However, post-saccadic smooth eye velocity showed enhancement that was spatially selective for the motion at the endpoint of the saccade. If the saccade endpoint was close to one of the two targets, creating a targeting saccade, then pursuit was selectively enhanced for the visual motion of that target and suppressed for the other target. If the endpoint landed between the two targets, creating an averaging saccade, then post-saccadic smooth eye velocity also reflected a vector average of the two target motions. Saccades with latencies >200 msec were almost always targeting saccades. However, pursuit did not transition from vector-averaging to target-selecting until the occurrence of a saccade, even when saccade latencies were >300 msec. Thus, our data demonstrate that post-saccadic enhancement of pursuit is spatially selective and that noncued target selection for pursuit is time-locked to the occurrence of a saccade. This raises the possibility that the motor commands for saccades play a causal role, not only in enhancing visuomotor transmission for pursuit but also in choosing a target for pursuit.


Clouds provide an illusion of an infinite amount of resources and enable elastic services and applications that are capable to scale up and down (grow and shrink by requesting and releasing resources) in response to changes in its environment, workload, and Quality of Service (QoS) requirements. Elasticity allows to achieve required QoS at a minimal cost in a Cloud environment with its pay-as-you-go pricing model. In this paper, we present our experience in designing a feedback elastically controller for a key-value store. The goal of our research is to investigate the feasibility of the control theoretic approach to the automation of elasticity of Cloud-based key-value stores. We describe design steps necessary to build a feedback controller for a real system, namely Voldemort, which we use as a case study in this work. The design steps include defining touchpoints (sensors and actuators), system identification, and controller design. We have designed, developed, and implemented a prototype of the feedback elasticity controller for Voldemort. Our initial evaluation results show the feasibility of using feedback control to automate elasticity of distributed key-value stores.


Network Text Analysis (NTA) involves the creation of networks of words and/or concepts from linguistic data. Its key insight is that the position of words and concepts in a text network provides vital clues to the central and underlying themes of the text as a whole. Recent research has used an inductive or bottom-up approach to the question of theme extraction. In this paper we take a top-down or deductive approach in that we first establish prior expectations as to the key themes to be found in the text. We then compare and contrast the results of our network analysis with the results of literary and cultural analyses of the film Fight Club as reported in over four dozen other peer-reviewed publications. While our results are remarkably consistent with and complementary to results in those studies, our analysis permits something the others do not—an analytical framework for relating those underlying and central themes to one another.


Amazon, the National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) on Monday rejected the US e-commerce giant's appeal against an antitrust suspension of its investment deal with Future Group, saying the retailer had not made full disclosures at the time of seeking approval. The NCLAT upheld a 200 crore penalty on Amazon by the Competition Commission of India (CCI) and asked the ecommerce giant to deposit the same in 45 days. The appellate tribunal ratified the CCI findings that Amazon didn't make full disclosures regarding the deal with Future Retail subsidiary — Future Coupons Pvt Ltd. In its order, NCLAT said, "Amazon has not made full, whole, forthright and frank disclosures of relevant materials. It had furnished only limited disclosures pertaining to acquiring its strategic rights and interest in FRL (Future Retail Ltd)" and executing the commercial contract. "In this regard, this appellate tribunal is in complete agreement with the view arrived at by the first respondent (CCI)," said the NCLAT bench comprising Justice M Venugopal and Ashok Kumar Mishra. The CCI on December 17, 2021, levied a 200 crore penalty on Amazon and suspended its deal with Future, stating that the US firm deliberately suppressed the actual scope and purpose of the 2019 investment and made false and incorrect statements. Amazon had challenged the decision, arguing that it had not concealed any information. A hope that Covid-19 could soon be a nightmare of the past may be entirely misplaced. The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that countries are likely to witness waves of Covid-19 infection every four to six months. Making this prognosis, WHO chief scientist Soumya Swaminathan has said that there is a need to get the booster shots to deal with the situation. "Boosters are important to boost waning immunity, especially in the vulnerable age groups," she said. "One is likely to see waves every four to six months, the intensity depends on how many susceptible people are there in the population," she told a TV channel. She emphasised that booster dose was particularly important for vulnerable people. After registering a lull period for a few months, India has been again registering an upward trend in Covid infections Swaminathan outlined several reasons behind the current rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in India. Waning immunity, more transmissible subvariants like BA4 and 5, and crowding with no masks are some of the reasons behind the spike, she said. She said the Government must explain to the people the booster shot is needed for a strong long-lasting immunity. Meanwhile, three cases of BA.4 and one of BA.5 Omicron sub-variants of coronavirus were found in Mumbai on Monday. Amid a surge in Covid-19 cases in Mumbai and other parts of Maharashtra, medical experts say most of the patients are showing mild symptoms and fatality is low in the present "mild wave", and also no new virus variant of concern has been observed. The patients were being administered paracetamol, and not Remdesivir drug, which was used for patients in the first and second Covid-19 waves, they said. Meanwhile, with 8,084 new coronavirus infections being reported in a day, India's tally of Covid-19 cases rose to 4,32,30,101 while the daily positivity rate was over three per cent after nearly four months, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Monday. The death toll climbed to 5,24,771 with 10 fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated. The active cases comprise 0.11 per cent of the total infections, while the national Covid-19 recovery rate was 98.68 per cent, the Ministry said. An increase of 3,482 cases has been recorded in the active Covid-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate was recorded at 3.24 per cent and the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 2.21 per cent, according to the Ministry. C leader Rahul Gandhi who was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Monday in a money laundering probe linked to the National Herald newspaper was asked to appear before it again on Tuesday, officials said. They said the questioning on Monday continued well past 9 pm. Rahul reached the agency's headquarters accompanied by party leaders and a large number of supporters. Rahul was questioned for almost 20 minutes when he reached the ED office around 11 am. He was allowed by the ED to leave for lunch around 2 pm and returned for the questioning around 3.30 pm. Sources said Rahul wrote down his statement under section 50 of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act (PMLA) during the first round of questioning. When Rahul left the Congress headquarters he was accompanied by party leaders, including Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram. Priyanka sat with Rahul in a vehicle as the convoy of seven SUVs, escorted by armed CRPF personnel, entered the ED office on APJ Abdul Kalam Road. The probe pertains to alleged financial irregularities in the party-promoted Young Indian that owns the National Herald newspaper. The National Herald is published by the Associated Journals Limited (AJL) and owned by Young Indian Pvt Limited. At a Press conference later in the day, the Congress said the 1937-established AJL faced huge debts and the party during 2002-11, gave 90 crore to the National Herald to pay the salaries of the journalists and staffers who worked there. !" # $%& ! ' " #% &&$ " ( " " " " " " ' ' '" )


Using the concept of 'organic intellectual', this paper explores the role of the indigenous community activist who engages with young people who become involved, directly or indirectly in communal and political conflict. The research also seeks to compare the skills, strategies and struggles utilised in this process between conflict and post conflict situations. Given the 'fluid' nature of the notion of the 'organic intellectual' it will also explore the intra-communal 'struggle' between 'organic intellectuals' with differing and opposing ideological worldviews, for the 'hearts and minds' of young people who find their communities in the forefront of conflict. The 'organic intellectual', being of and from the indigenous community and with an understanding of that community's 'commonsense philosophy', is in a unique postion to influence and 'empower' young people. Often in conflict situations, and due to the socio-political realities and experiences of their community, many young people find themselves under communal pressure to enter into direct action and conflict or to resist such involvement. Either way a decision of this nature carries with it far reaching sociological and psychological consequences for the young individual and the community. The ideological position and subsequent role of the 'organic intellectual' is particularly significant when communities are in the process of both 'divergence' i.e. moving towards conflict and 'convergence' i.e. in the process of reconciliation and reconstruction. As 'organic intellectuals' they are in a position to motivate their respective communities through their ability to understand and articulate the prevailing dominant 'commonsense philosophy' and world view. As such they may also be 'catalysts' for change either as key mediators or antagonists in the 'divergent' or 'convergent' process. This paper, and on-going research, explores the struggles, strategies and skills of the 'organic intellectual' in working with young people to empower them to engage in democratic political processes.


Ozone and PM 2.5 concentrations over the city of Paris are modeled with the CHIMERE air-quality model at 4 km × 4 km horizontal resolution for two future emission scenarios. A high-resolution (1 km × 1 km) emission projec-tion until 2020 for the greater Paris region is developed by local experts (AIRPARIF) and is further extended to year 2050 based on regional-scale emission projections devel-oped by the Global Energy Assessment. Model evaluation is performed based on a 10-year control simulation. Ozone is in very good agreement with measurements while PM 2.5 is underestimated by 20 % over the urban area mainly due to a large wet bias in wintertime precipitation. A signifi-cant increase of maximum ozone relative to present-day lev-els over Paris is modeled under the "business-as-usual" sce-nario (+7 ppb) while a more optimistic "mitigation" scenario leads to a moderate ozone decrease (−3.5 ppb) in year 2050. These results are substantially different to previous regional-scale projections where 2050 ozone is found to decrease un-der both future scenarios. A sensitivity analysis showed that this difference is due to the fact that ozone formation over Paris at the current urban-scale study is driven by volatile organic compound (VOC)-limited chemistry, whereas at the regional-scale ozone formation occurs under NO x -sensitive conditions. This explains why the sharp NO x reductions im-plemented in the future scenarios have a different effect on ozone projections at different scales. In rural areas, projec-tions at both scales yield similar results showing that the longer timescale processes of emission transport and ozone formation are less sensitive to model resolution. PM 2.5 con-centrations decrease by 78 % and 89 % under business-as-usual and mitigation scenarios, respectively, compared to the present-day period. The reduction is much more prominent over the urban part of the domain due to the effective reduc-tions of road transport and residential emissions resulting in the smoothing of the large urban increment modeled in the control simulation.


ABSTRACT Background Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) was proposed to surmount arbitrary clinical decisions in the field of biological therapies for psoriatic patients. At the same time, MCDA may further highlight the potential of bimekizumab for the treatment of moderate-to-severe psoriasis, compared to placebo, adalimumab, ustekinumab, secukinumab, and even ixekizumab and risankizumab. Research design and methods The EVIDEM framework was adapted to reflect relevant criteria for the assessment. Estimated values were obtained by means of an additive linear model combining weights and scores assigned by a multidisciplinary committee of 12 experts. Consistency and replicability were evaluated through an alternative weighting method and a re-test. Results Bimekizumab was assessed by the committee as an intervention with a positive value contribution for the treatment of moderate-to-severe psoriasis in comparison to any of the alternatives. The drug provides a substantial therapeutical benefits and improves the health results reported by the patients, as it combines a higher level of clearance, rapidity, and persistence with a similar safety and tolerability profile. Conclusions Under a methodology with increasing use in the health field, bimekizumab was evaluated as a drug with a high added value for the treatment of moderate-to-severe psoriasis when compared to six different alternatives.


The authors present the case of a perforation of uterus at manual removal of placenta (MROP) treated conservatively. This patient was a low risk gravida 2, who had a retained placenta after a normal vaginal delivery. An uncomplicated MROP was performed and the patient was discharged home the next day. 5 weeks later she was readmitted with a large vaginal bleed and passed a small amount of retained products of conception. On ultrasound there was an adnexal mass which looked to be continuous with blood clot seen in the uterus. An MRI confirmed a defect in the myometrium of the lower uterus linking the adnexal mass with the endometrial cavity. As this patient's symptoms had settled, and she wished to consider further fertility, she was treated conservatively with regular MRI and US follow – up showing the defect gradually resolving. There is only one other case in the literature which shows a perforation at an otherwise uncomplicated MROP and this was associated with placenta accreta and managed surgically with a hysterectomy. This is the only case to detail conservative fertility preserving management.


A piezoelectric microactuator for minimally invasive surgery procedures was developed using the piezoelectric tube actuator. The tube was fabricated by electrophoretic deposition of a doped PZT powders on the graphite rod substrate and co-sintering. The obtained tube shows maximum strain 0.045% in 31 mode and coercive field 1.5 kV/mm under static condition. Under dynamic condition, bending and longitudinal vibration modes can be identified from impedance spectrum and simulation. Theoretical analysis indicates that the displacement of the two modes depends on the geometry, material property, driving condition and damping conditions. The developed device uses bending mode to create rotation mechanical motion, and longitudinal mode to produce ultrasonic energy to soften and break up the target into fragments.


Characterizing and quantifying faecal sludge (FS) at a city-wide scale in low- and middle-income countries is essential for designing and planning appropriate FS treatment facilities. However, there currently is no accurate methodology for the estimation of these values. The FAQ (faecal sludge quantification and characterization) study developed a methodology, and is validating it in Hanoi, Vietnam and Kampala, Uganda. The method utilizes spatially analysed demographic data as a predictor of FS characteristics. Extensive sampling has been conducted to field test the presented method. This paper presents results of collected and analysed secondary data, and preliminary results of the TS, VS, COD and SCOD concentrations from household septic tanks in Hanoi, which were on average 26,471, 19,395, 37,541 and 713 mg/L respectively, and ongoing data analysis is being conducted.


The analytical transport network (ATN) model was developed to study transport through heterogeneous and hierarchical microstructural networks. Here, ATN is extended to electrokinetic flow, a linear, coupled flow that satisfies Onsager's reciprocity relations. In Part 1, a channel-scale model was developed to describe electrokinetic flow through a channel of arbitrary morphology. In Part 2, we exploit the computational economy of the channel-scale model to develop an efficient network-scale model of electrokinetic flow in large, geometrically complex material structures. The corresponding algorithm for applying the theory to voxel-based, three-dimensional (3D) images is automated and computationally efficient. In addition, it provides a means for rapidly obtaining a structure's tortuosity factor from a 3D image. We outline the manner in which morphology and topology exerts an additional influence on electrokinetic flow relative to pure conduction and viscous fluid flow. The effort represents an important initial step in extending the ATN approach to a broader range of linear and eventually nonlinear coupled flow phenomena. The extension is relevant to a number of technological fields, including emerging energy conversion and storage technologies.


High levels of noise usually exist in today's captured images due to the relatively small sensors equipped in the smartphone cameras, where the noise brings extra challenges to lossy image compression algorithms. Without the capacity to tell the difference between image details and noise, general image compression methods allocate additional bits to explicitly store the undesired image noise during compression and restore the unpleasant noisy image during decompression. Based on the observations, we optimize the image compression algorithm to be noise-aware as joint denoising and compression to resolve the bits misallocation problem. The key is to transform the original noisy images to noise-free bits by eliminating the undesired noise during compression, where the bits are later decompressed as clean images. Specifically, we propose a novel two-branch, weight-sharing architecture with plug-in feature denoisers to allow a simple and effective realization of the goal with little computational cost. Experimental results show that our method gains a significant improvement over the existing baseline methods on both the synthetic and real-world datasets. Our source code is available at https://github.com/felixcheng97/DenoiseCompression.


Neurons release neurotransmitters such as glutamate to communicate with each other and to coordinate brain functioning. As increased glutamate release is indicative of neuronal maturation and activity, a system that can measure glutamate levels over time within the same tissue and/or culture system is highly advantageous for neurodevelopmental investigation. To address such challenges, we develop for the first time a convenient method to realize functionalized borosilicate glass capillaries with nanostructured texture as an electrochemical biosensor to detect glutamate release from cerebral organoids generated from human embryonic stem cells (hESC) that mimic various brain regions. The biosensor shows a clear catalytic activity toward the oxidation of glutamate with a sensitivity of 93 ± 9.5 nA·µM−1·cm−2. It was found that the enzyme-modified microelectrodes can detect glutamate in a wide linear range from 5 µM to 0.5 mM with a limit of detection (LOD) down to 5.6 ± 0.2 µM. Measurements were performed within the organoids at different time points and consistent results were obtained. This data demonstrates the reliability of the biosensor as well as its usefulness in measuring glutamate levels across time within the same culture system.


Background Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is remarkably common in elderly people with highly prevalent comorbid conditions. Despite its increasing in prevalence, there is no evidence-based effective therapy for HFpEF. We sought to evaluate whether inspiratory muscle training (IMT) improves exercise capacity, as well as left ventricular diastolic function, biomarker profile and quality of life (QoL) in patients with advanced HFpEF and nonreduced maximal inspiratory pressure (MIP). Design and methods A total of 26 patients with HFpEF (median (interquartile range) age, peak exercise oxygen uptake (peak VO2) and left ventricular ejection fraction of 73 years (66–76), 10 ml/min/kg (7.6–10.5) and 72% (65–77), respectively) were randomized to receive a 12-week programme of IMT plus standard care vs. standard care alone. The primary endpoint of the study was evaluated by positive changes in cardiopulmonary exercise parameters and distance walked in 6 minutes (6MWT). Secondary endpoints were changes in QoL, echocardiogram parameters of diastolic function, and prognostic biomarkers. Results The IMT group improved significantly their MIP (p < 0.001), peak VO2 (p < 0.001), exercise oxygen uptake at anaerobic threshold (p = 0.001), ventilatory efficiency (p = 0.007), metabolic equivalents (p < 0,001), 6MWT (p < 0.001), and QoL (p = 0.037) as compared to the control group. No changes on diastolic function parameters or biomarkers levels were observed between both groups. Conclusions In HFpEF patients with low aerobic capacity and non-reduced MIP, IMT was associated with marked improvement in exercise capacity and QoL.


Chlorophyll (Chla) and chlorophyllin (CHL) were shown previously to reduce carcinogen bioavailability, biomarker damage, and tumorigenicity in trout and rats. These findings were partially extended to humans, where CHL reduced excretion of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1)-DNA repair products in Chinese unavoidably exposed to dietary AFB1. However, neither AFB1 pharmacokinetics nor Chla effects were examined. We conducted an unblinded crossover study to establish AFB1 pharmacokinetic parameters among four human volunteers, and to explore possible effects of CHL or Chla cotreatment in three of those volunteers. For protocol 1, fasted subjects received an Institutional Review Board–approved dose of 14C-AFB1 (30 ng, 5 nCi) by capsule with 100 mL water, followed by normal eating and drinking after 2 hours. Blood and cumulative urine samples were collected over 72 hours, and 14C- AFB1 equivalents were determined by accelerator mass spectrometry. Protocols 2 and 3 were similar except capsules also contained 150 mg of purified Chla or CHL, respectively. Protocols were repeated thrice for each volunteer. The study revealed rapid human AFB1 uptake (plasma ka, 5.05 ± 1.10 h−1; Tmax, 1.0 hour) and urinary elimination (95% complete by 24 hours) kinetics. Chla and CHL treatment each significantly impeded AFB1 absorption and reduced Cmax and AUCs (plasma and urine) in one or more subjects. These initial results provide AFB1 pharmacokinetic parameters previously unavailable for humans, and suggest that Chla or CHL co-consumption may limit the bioavailability of ingested aflatoxin in humans, as they do in animal models.


Analysis of the nature frequency of flexural vibration is vital to be able to provide effective shock absorption for a ship's tail shaft. The paper built mathematic model of ship's tail shaft flexural vibration by transfer matrix method, and put forward an effective method for calculating the natural frequency of vibration system: a genetic algorithm (GA). Through example calculation compared with Prohl method under conditions bearing isotropic supporting, the result showed that the method can meet the requirements of engineering calculation, and overcome the disadvantage that initial value of calculation is difficult to be obtained with other methods. Then the method has advantage especially when the degrees of frequency equation increase.


Since polarization-sensitive optical coherence tomography (PS-OCT) is emerging as a new technique for determining phase retardation in biological materials, we measured phase retardation changes in cartilage during local laser heating for application to laser-assisted cartilage reshaping. Thermally-induced changes in phase retardation of nasal septal cartilage following Nd:YAG laser irradiation were investigated using a PS-OCT system. A PS-OCT system and infrared imaging radiometer were used to record, respectively, depth-resolved images of the Stokes parameters of light backscattered from ex vivo porcine nasal septal cartilage and radiometric temperature changes following laser irradiation. PS-OCT images of cartilage were recorded before (control), during and after laser irradiation. From the measured Stokes parameters (I, Q, U and V), an estimate of the relative phase retardation between two orthogonal polarizations was computed to determine birefringence in cartilage. Phase retardation images of light backscattered from cartilage show significant changes in retardation following laser irradiation. To investigate the origin of retardation changes in response to local heat generation, we differentiated two possible mechanisms: dehydration and thermal denaturation. PS-OCT images of cartilage were recorded after dehydration in glycerol and thermal denaturation in heated physiological saline. In our experiments, observed retardation changes in cartilage are primarily due to dehydration. Since dehydration is a principal source for retardation changes in cartilage over the range of heating profiles investigated, our studies suggest that the use of PS-OCT as a feedback control methodology for non-ablative cartilage reshaping requires further investigation.


THE MATERIALITY OF EARLY LITERACY CURRICULUM: A NETWORK CASE STUDY OF ONE KINDERGARTEN CLASSROOM IN NEW YORK CITY Daniel Edward Ferguson This dissertation draws on data from a six-month study of the materiality of one Kindergarten classroom undergoing curriculum reform in an urban public elementary school. Informed by a network case study approach, whereby case study methods are uncased through an Actor Network Theory lens, I question what it means to say literacy curriculum is enacted, or reformed, by acknowledging the multiplicity of actors entangled within curriculum, both human and non-human, local and distant, invited and uninvited. Furthermore, I propose ways of uncasing studies of literacy curriculum, revealing how no site—a school, a classroom, or an instructional block—is a fixed case but rather is constructed through networks of mobility streaming from many places. Through ecological surveys, images, fieldnotes, recordings and document archives, I trace the materialities of one Kindergarten classroom outward to reveal multiple dynamic networks—shifting school zones, neighborhoods, and curricular trends—that mobilize various bodies and materials into one seemingly stable public-school classroom. Networked within one morning meeting, for instance, were rotting pumpkins, pocket charts and cheese sandwiches doing the work of environmental nonprofits, DOE officials, and cafeteria staff, all entangled with the teacher and students in solving the problem of food waste at lunch. However, I also confront ethical choices made in tracing literacy curriculum as material "network effects." Set in the nation's most segregated school system, I address how curriculum is not only affected by networks of circulating materials, but also networks circulating students' bodies into unequal school spaces, leading to neighborhood gentrification and changing school funding and enrollment. I conclude with what responsibilities exist for researchers advocating for a material focus to address systemic issues of injustice in schools.


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SIR,-In a discussion on how to increase the uptake of rubella immunisation Dr David Andrewes and his colleagues (16 February, p 560) say that "of the 50o of schoolgirls who escape immunisation [in an optimal vaccination programme with a 950% vaccination rate] 90° are likely to have acquired natural immunity by the age of 20, resulting in a 0 5 "o susceptible adult female population." However, as soon as a vaccination programme is started the chance of acquiring natural immunity will decrease, since what Anderson and May have termed "the force of infection" will be successively diminished.' Accordingly, the natural immunity among unvaccinated individuals will be less in the community that has been vaccinated than in the prevaccination community. In Sweden, where about 90VO of 12 year old girls have been vaccinated against rubella each year since 1975, I have found in an investigation of 18 year old male conscripts born in 1965-6 that 93/400 (23 30o) lacked detectable antibodies. Before the vaccination programme began 10-15%, of the adult population lacked rubella immunity. To counteract this development a new vaccination programme was started in Sweden in 1982, in which both sexes are given a combined vaccine against measles, mumps, and rubella at two ages18 months and 12 years.2 If a two dose vaccination programme is not applied rubella and measles may become what Cherry has called "time bombs" among the adult population.3


This study evaluated the use of the Model of Engaging Communities Collaboratively (MECC) to guide the Jandu Yani U (For All Families) project, in which the Triple P – Positive Parenting Program was collaboratively adapted for use in very remote Aboriginal communities in Western Australia. The communities' responses to the MECC processes were evaluated through interview-style or selfadministered surveys, semiformal interviews, focus group discussions and storytelling. The MECC processes were acceptable across all groups (mean score 3.86 on a 5-point acceptability scale). Qualitative data supported and gave context to the quantitative findings, demonstrating the acceptability and utility of the approach. The MECC provided a valuable framework for Aboriginal community engagement, program dissemination and implementation of research.


PURPOSE
The primary objective of this phase I trial was to determine the maximum-tolerated dose of radiation that could be delivered to the primary tumor concurrent with full-dose gemcitabine in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Thirty seven patients with unresectable (n = 34) or incompletely resected pancreatic cancer (n = 3) were treated. Gemcitabine was administered as a 30-minute intravenous infusion at a dose of 1,000 mg/m(2) on days 1, 8, and 15 of a 28-day cycle. Radiation therapy was initiated on day 1 and directed at the primary tumor alone, without prophylactic nodal coverage. The starting radiation dose was 24 Gy in 1.6-Gy fractions. Escalation was achieved by increasing the fraction size in increments of 0.2 Gy, keeping the duration of radiation constant at 3 weeks. A second cycle of gemcitabine alone was intended after a 1-week rest.

RESULTS
Two of six assessable patients experienced dose-limiting toxicity at the final planned dose level of the trial (42 Gy in 2.8-Gy fractions), one with grade 4 vomiting and one with gastric/duodenal ulceration. Two additional patients at this dose level experienced late gastrointestinal toxicity that required surgical management.

CONCLUSION
The final dose investigated (42 Gy) is not recommended for further study considering the occurrence of both acute and late toxicity. However, a phase II trial of this novel gemcitabine-based chemoradiotherapy approach, at a radiation dose of 36 Gy in 2.4-Gy fractions, is recommended on the basis of tolerance, patterns of failure, and survival data.


by Sasson Sofer. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1998. 449 pp. $59.95 (c).Theodor Herzl enjoys a well-deserved reputation for prescience. One of his works, Altneuland, anticipated a characteristic that is vital for understanding contemporary Israeli politics: even though the Jewish state is a new country its politics are not. How old they are is a matter for debate. Whether or not one finds the antecedents of the Israeli political process in the Bible, there can be no doubt that governing after 1948 was in many respects a continuation of processes that became well established during the Mandate period. Among the areas of continuity was ideology. Indeed the emergence of the various Zionist ideologies goes back to the very early days of the Zionist movement. However, until the creation of the Mandate, these ideological positions did not have to be tested against the realities of life in Palestine. The encounters with the real world in Eretz Yisrael between 1920 and 1948 led to substantial changes in the various ideologies, often accompanied by organizational ruptures and mergers, not to mention the solidification of intense antagonisms among many of the protagonists. There were only about 600,000 Jews in Palestine in 1948 and far fewer at the beginning of the Mandate. It is truly amazing that such a small community could generate such variegated and intense ideological positions as the Yishuv did. It is even more amazing that Israel has been able to function politically with any degree of unity in light of that history of multiple divisions. The challenge to diplomats to represent such a country has been a mighty one. Even more difficult has been the task of government leaders, who have had to fashion foreign policies in a coalition environment that has often reflected the intellectually competitive atmosphere of a Zionist Congress.Sasson Sofer thoroughly examines the ideological varieties during the years before statehood while focusing on the development of a diplomatic tradition. Even though his main interest is foreign policy, his discussion necessarily deals primarily with the meaning of Zionism for the various groups, how they relate to Jewish history, the personalities identified with each of the positions, and the organizational machinations associated with the various groups. His approach differs from that used in other works on Zionist ideology, such as those by Arthur Hertzberg and Shlomo Avineri, in that he does not examine a limited number of thinkers in some depth but rather tries to identify nearly everyone who exercised some ideological leadership and gives at least a brief summary of their ideas. Moreover he incorporates political leaders who were not necessarily innovative ideologically and tries to explain how the various organizational schisms and amalgamations occurred. Thus he has produced a rich ideological history of the Yishuv, one that ends in 1948 despite a concluding chapter in which he attempts to relate his study to the unfolding events of the subsequent 50 years.The book is certainly a learned analysis of the various positions. Sorer systematically goes through every conceivable ideological position, to the extent that he even offers chapters on such diverse groupings as Lehi, the Communists, the farmers and Sephardi notables, and Canaanites and Semites. Naturally all of the more consequential groups are included as well. The problem is that most of the groups that he identifies have had little if any impact on Israeli diplomacy. Arguably he should have devoted more attention to those groups that have been prominent in government and less to the groups that have not. One gets the impression that Sorer wrote the book that he wanted to write but that the title is not very descriptive. …


This issue of the IEEE Journal on Emerging and Selected Topics in Circuits and Systems (JETCAS) includes some of the highlights of the best articles from the 1st IEEE International Conference on Artificial Intelligence Circuits and Systems (AICAS 2019), which was held at the Ambassador Hotel Hsinchu, Taiwan, on March 18–20, 2019. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is driving the new revolution of not only information technology but also all other industries. New algorithms and application systems are introduced with the power of AI. New computing platforms are required to support the emerging AI algorithms and applications, from cloud servers to edge devices, from system level to circuit level. Facing this new challenge and opportunity, the first AICAS was launched and fully sponsored by IEEE Circuits and Systems Society (CASS). It is established to facilitate the state-of-the-art research, innovation, and development activities at the frontiers of AI circuits and systems. It is an ideal forum for allowing academia and industry from international communities to exchange experiences, demonstrate their results and further advance AI technologies on circuits and systems.


Entropy sources are designed to provide unpredictable random numbers for cryptographic systems. As an assessment of the sources, Shannon entropy is usually adopted to quantitatively measure the unpredictability of the outputs. In several related works about the entropy evaluation of ring oscillator-based (RO-based) entropy sources, authors evaluated the unpredictability with the average conditional Shannon entropy (ACE) of the source, moreover provided a lower bound of the ACE (LBoACE). However, in this paper, we have demonstrated that when the adversaries have access to the history outputs of the entropy source, for example, by some intrusive attacks, the LBoACE may overestimate the actual unpredictability of the next output for the adversaries. In this situation, we suggest to adopt the specific conditional Shannon entropy (SCE) which exactly measures the unpredictability of the future output with the knowledge of previous output sequences and so is more consistent with the reality than the ACE. In particular, to be conservative, we propose to take the lower bound of the SCE (LBoSCE) as an estimation of the worst-case entropy of the sources. We put forward a detailed method to estimate this worst-case entropy of RO-based entropy sources, which we have also verified by experiment on an FPGA device. We recommend to adopt this method to provide a conservative assessment of the unpredictability when the entropy source works in a vulnerable environment and the adversaries might obtain the previous outputs.


Abstract Ancient coppice woodlands are coppice-originated forest stands with a long-term continual development, and with the preserved typical natural and historic elements of old sprout forests. Prominent natural elements in the ancient coppice woodlands are namely old coppice stools. There is, in scientific literature, lack of information about features of ancient coppice stools. Therefore, our contribution aims to describe shape and form of ancient coppice stools, including the most important microhabitat of coppice woodlands – dendrothelms. Based on field survey of 20 localities of important coppice woodlands we recorded 135 ancient coppice stools of 13 tree species and a total of 80 dendrothelms in 9 tree species. Basic features of ancient coppice stools and dendrothlems were measured and evaluated.


The objective of this study was to evaluate the time-dependent viscoelastic properties of an aesthetic orthodontic archwire. The wire is based on a recently developed translucent polyphenylene thermoplastic, whose rigid molecular structure provides high strength. While the wire has good instantaneous mechanical properties, over time all polymers may relax so it is important to understand the potential impact of the relaxation on orthodontic force systems. Four samples of 0.020 inch round and six samples of 0.021 × 0.025 inch rectangular wire were loaded in tension to a range of initial stresses, and relaxation of the stress was monitored for 7 days. Sixty-three additional samples were maintained in edgewise bracket pairs with vertical displacement for up to 6 weeks. The deformation of these wires was measured immediately after removal from the brackets and for 2 days as the samples recovered. Tensile stress decayed about 10-30 per cent over 24-48 hours depending on the initial stress. The relaxation behaviour was proportional to the initial tensile strain and therefore these data were combined into a single curve using regression. Deformation of the samples placed in the bracket pairs increased with increasing vertical displacement and time, evaluated with analysis of variance, but 19-100 per cent of the deformation was recoverable. The force systems from polyphenylene wires could vary with time and activation, but this behaviour is predictable.


Abstract : Warfighting Commanders in Chief (CINCs) have identified a need to provide lower-level tactical units (especially brigades) with real-time responsive Reconnaissance, Surveillance, and Target Acquisition (RSTA). There are many unanswered questions, some of which are: "Which UAV system best suits the needs of the brigade commander?", "How many UAVs does a brigade need?", and "What are the Tactics, Techniques, and Procedures (TTP) for the use of this new system?" This thesis demonstrates the ability to design a small high resolution simulation which can be used to answer these questions. The simulation can be used throughout the acquisition process, and potentially beyond.


HIV/AIDS is a pandemic event with an estimated 33.2 million people living with the disease. Ghana is classified as having a generalised HIV epidemic with prevalence hovering around 2% in the last decade. This thesis documented outcomes and adverse events of Post-exposure HIV Prophylaxis (PEP) in Ghana, discussed the safety concerns of Pre-exposure HIV Prophylaxis (PrEP), documented adverse events associated with antiretroviral therapy (ART) and its effect on treatment modifications and evaluated the knowledge and attitudes of People Living with HIV (PLHIVs) to antiretrovirals in Ghana. We examined the characteristics and outcomes of occupational exposure to HIV and the utilization of a risk assessment system (RAS) based PEP among health workers (HCWs) and students (HCSs). A total of 260 and 35 exposures were reported by HCWs and HCSs respectively. Ward attendants reported the highest incidence rate of 6.46 of 100 person-years. None of the 289 individuals administered PEP seroconverted to HIV after 6 months of monitoring. The frequency of adverse events ranged from 28% to 96%, with highest rates observed in 28-day regimes. We recommend the additional use of the RAS as a complementary tool to assist in determining the immediate administration of PEP based on the potential risk of sero-conversion. Another study presented a review of the safety issues associated with tenofovir as PrEP. A total of 11 clinical trials on PrEP were reviewed and results indicate the main adverse effects with PrEP are gastro-intestinal in nature and graded below 2 for severity. Major adverse event concerns were renal, hepatic and bone toxicities which resolved after discontinuation of tenofovir use. We further assessed the association between documented adverse events (AEs) and ART modification. Adverse event was reported in 53% of patients with modified therapy and 4% in patients without treatment modifications. The most documented AE was anaemia (18%) and presence of AE was associated with an almost 3-fold increased risk of ART modification. We recommend that the management of AEs including dose adjustments and choice of appropriate regimen is a key strategy for improving adherence among PLHIV on ART in order to prevent therapy switches. We also examined the long term effects of tenofovir based regimen on renal profile in 300 PLHIV. At study end point 63 participants developed moderate impairment with 2.3% having severe impairment. We recommend an effective means of monitoring patients on TDF-based patients' regimens in order to detect and manage early signs of renal impairment. Finally, we evaluated the knowledge and attitudes of patients to ART following routine adherence counselling and education. Majority of participants were rated high on knowledge of AEs and exhibited positive attitudes towards AEs. Continuous education and counselling of PLHIVs improves patients' knowledge of AEs of ART and improves treatment outcomes. In conclusion, this thesis added to our understanding of the use and safety of antiretroviral medicines in Ghana. Collaboration between stakeholders is necessary to bring awareness of pharmacovigilance to health policy formulation and implementation to secure the safety of patients in the use of antiretroviral medicines.


Fire departments have replaced traditional uniforms with modern, more thermal protective gear. Although the new uniforms afford superior burn protection, they may reduce work time. Our purpose was to determine if exercise time was (1) reduced by wearing the modern versus traditional uniform, and (2) increased by a design change to a modified modern uniform (T-shirt and short pants rather than a shirt and long pants under the outer uniform). Male firefighters (n = 23; age 27 to 59) performed a maximum exercise test in gym clothes (maximal oxygen consumption = 46 +/- 9 ml/kg/min) and then returned on separate days to exercise using a moderately high intensity, constant work rate treadmill protocol while wearing fire fighting breathing apparatus and each of three uniforms. Firefighters exceeded anaerobic threshold by 1 minute and eventually reached or exceeded maximum heart rate and maximal oxygen consumption. Exercise time in modern (15 +/- 3 min) was significantly less than in traditional (18 +/- 5 min) uniform. Exercise time in modified modern (17 +/- 5 min) was significantly greater than in modern and not significantly different than in traditional uniforms. The rate of change in oxygen consumption and water loss were significantly affected by uniform type, with faster rates in modern compared with modified modern or traditional uniforms. These findings show the impact that design changes have on energy demands and exercise duration.