: In the period of 1988 - 1990 the ZVEZDA Aerospace medicine Department fulfilled comprehensive physiological investigations in order to assess the prospects for water immersion as an anti-g gear for pilots of high-maneuver aircraft. Both dry and open water immersion methods were used. More than 150 centrifuge runs were conducted to define limits for the acceleration value and time of 9-g tolerance. Volunteered subjects in the pilot's posture were inclined at 35 degrees and 55 degrees to the total inertial force vector. The obvious subjective discomfort felt during acceleration and absence of clinical aftereffect were qualified as a positive outcome. The subjects were ready for repeated runs even after a very brief repose. The main impediment to the professional anti-g use of immersion is visual disorders which in this case are not predictors of coming loss of consciousness and attributed to alterations in regional hemodynamics. The authors assert that there is a good reason to continue search for implementation of the immersion principle in g-protection of pilots to reduce the rate of professional pathologies and to intensify flights.


This article analyses the conception of obligation, which is the essential component of morals education. Obligation is derived not from the natural or public request, but from the various inborns. Classification of inborns is grounded on human structure: physic, psychic and spiritual. Proper ways and means should be developed that enable to turn inborns into obligation and responsibility for oneself, socium, culture. The direction of obligation is determined by the progress of the personality, nation, state and humanities development. The implementation of interaction between inborns and obligations facilitates all functions of education and strengthens behaviour and values of the personality.


Author's note, 2013 Poverty and social security was published in November 1992 (though the title page states 1993). First published 1993 by Routledge, ISBN 0-415-05935-6 and 0-415-05936-4. The rights to publish have reverted to me, and I am making it freely available on the internet. The book has dated in some respects, but I have not attempted to update it. Much of what the book had to say about the idea of poverty, the contribution of social security and the methods that can be used is still relevant. After I had written the book, I came to change my views on poverty in particular, under the influence of the multidimensional, multi-faceted views that came to the fore in international organisations. By the time I came to write The idea of poverty (Policy Press, 2007) I was firmly committed to a different normative and analytical framework. I would not now even attempt to combine the treatment of poverty and social security in the same book. One of the arguments I was taken by when I wrote this book has been translated into a different framework. When ˜budget standards were first tested, they seemed not to work in the way that I expected - the term came to stand for the kind of normative budgeting that was associated with Rowntrees household budgets. Subsequently, however, the approach - looking at what people actually do, rather than what experts suppose they might do - has yielded valuable insights into minimum income standards and the nature of a ˜living wage. See, e.g., D Hirsch, 2013, a Minimum income standard for the UK in 2013, York: Joseph Rowntree Foundation. I have not changed the text in any way. Preface (1992) This book is concerned with the ways in which poverty can be defined and identified, and the responses which have been made to the problems of poverty in the development of financial assistance for people who are poor. The first part of the book is concerned with the idea of poverty, the way it has been operationalised, and the kinds of responses which might be made to it. The second part is concerned with social security: its connection with poor relief, the way in which benefit systems operate, and the extent to which such systems do effectively relieve poverty. On the face of it, this seems straightforward enough as a field for a critical study; on closer examination, though, the focus may seem difficult to justify. The definition of the subject matter depends crucially on a set of conventional interpretations about the ideas of 'poverty' and 'social security'. If the idea of 'poverty' was to be examined adequately, it probably ought to be considered in much wider terms than a consideration of financial assistance would imply; equally, any proper consideration of income maintenance touches on many topics beyond the relief of poverty. The justification for a narrower focus is in large part centred on a particular kind of problem: the discussion of what sort of benefits should be provided for the relief of poverty, and at what level they should be provided. This problem has been dominant historically in the development of services, and continues to be a major concern in the debates about social security now. The debates around this issue have to a large extent affected the way in which the issues of poverty and poor relief are discussed. The purpose of the book is, then, to discuss a set of problems and responses. It does this principally by considering a range of inter-related concepts. For reasons which I explain in the text, the book does not offer any authoritative definition of the problems, an approach which I know might drive some readers to distraction. The method has more to do with social philosophy than with social science. What it does is to outline options and ways and thinking about the issues, in the hope that it will help to establish an understanding of the relationship between poverty and social security, and inform discussion in the future. Part of the focus, too, is comparative. My own experience is from Britain. I have found it useful to draw on that experience for many of the examples, but concentration on Britain alone is not really adequate to understand either the problems of poverty or the methods which are available to respond to them. Many of the arguments made about social security in Britain - like the case for Child Benefit, or arguments against meanstesting - rely on a received wisdom based on a restricted range of policies, and the most effective way to put them into perspective is to draw on material from other countries. The book is intended mainly for an academic audience: it should be of interest to those studying social policy, sociology, politics and public administration, and there are elements which may be useful to students of economics and philosophy. On the principle that a better understanding should make for better policy - though I really ought to know differently by now - it may also be helpful for those who are involved in policy-making and administration for the poor.


Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni, Asteraceae, is a natural sweetener called "Stevia". Its properties came from the diterpenoid glycosides presented in the leaves: a stevioside and rebaudisioside. The percentage of seed germination of S. rebaudiana is very low and the plants produced are heterogeneous, so it is not suitable for mass propagation in the field.The tissue culture in temporary immersion systems, is an effective tool for micropropagation, since it increases the multiplication coefficient and produces the improvement in the quality of in vitro regenerated plants. This research determined the efficieness of propagation process using temporary immersion devices for scaling up the mass production of Stevia rebaudiana, with the use of liquid media in automated temporary immersion system (RITA®) and twin flasks system (BIT), compared with semisolid culture. Most of the treatments involving temporary immersion systems (BIT y RITA®), produced green plants and vigorous plants, with low levels of hyperhydricity. The highest average of regenerated leaves and shoots was obtained in the RITA® system, with 10 minutes of immersion every 8 hours. It was determined also that 10 minutes on inmersion each 12 hour with the BIT produced vigorous plants, with an increased length, fresh and dry weight mass. The use of in vitro culture in temporary immersion bioreactors (RITA® and BIT), offers many advantages in the process of scaling the production of this kind of commercial plant, related to connentional propagation system and encouraging the process of acclimatization.


Following the presentation of the XMM-Large Scale Structure (XMM-LSS) survey X-ray source detection package by Pacaud et al., we provide the source lists for the first surveyed 5.5 deg2. The catalogues pertain to the [0.5–2] and [2–10] keV bands and contain in total 3385 pointlike or extended sources above a detection likelihood of 15 in either band. The agreement with deep log N– log S is excellent. The main parameters considered are position, count rate, source extent with associated likelihood values. A set of additional quantities such as astrometric corrections and fluxes are further calculated while errors on the position and count rate are deduced from simulations. We describe the construction of the band-merged catalogue allowing rapid subsample selection and easy cross-correlation with external multiwavelength catalogues. A small optical Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope Legacy Survey multiband subset of objects are associated with each source along with an X-ray/optical overlay. We make the full X-ray images available in FITS format. The data are available at the Centre de Données de Strasbourg and, in a more extended form, at the Milan XMM-LSS survey data base.


The outcome of stapedotomy depends on several surgical steps. Using laser light, the ossicular chain can be handled and the oval window can be punctured with a non-touch method. Various lasers are being used or considered, however, it is not clear which settings and characteristics will contribute to optimal or adverse effects (vestibule damage and loss hearing frequencies). Using a unique high speed thermal imaging setup based on Schlieren techniques, the mechanical and thermal effects during laser stapedotomy were studied in an inner ear model consisting of human, fresh frozen stapes positioned on a liquid filled cavity in a gel cast. The cw KTP (532 nm), cw CO2 (10.6 μm), cw Thulium (2.0 μm), pulsed Er,Cr;YSGG (2.78 μm) coupled to special fiber delivery systems were applied at typical clinical settings for comparison. The imaging techniques provided a good insight in the extent of heat conduction beneath the footplate and (explosive) vapour formation on both sides. For the pulsed laser modes, explosive vapour expansion can to be controlled with optimized pulse energies while for continuous wave lasers the thermal effects can be controlled with the pulse length and repetition rate. The fluence at the tip of the delivery system and the distance to the footplate has a major impact on the ablation effect. The pulsed IR lasers with fiber delivery show to be promising for a controlled stapedotomy.


Background Tubulointerstitial inflammation (TII) in lupus nephritis is associated with a worse prognosis. Vimentin, a filamental antigen, is commonly targeted by in situ activated B-cells in TII. The prognostic importance of high serum anti-vimentin antibodies (AVAs) in lupus nephritis and their relationship with common lupus autoantibody specificities is unknown. Herein we investigated associations between AVA isotypes, other autoantibodies, and response to mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) in the presence or absence of rituximab. Methods The Translational Research Initiative in the Department of Medicine (TRIDOM) cross-sectional cohort of 99 lupus patients was assayed for IgG-, IgA- and IgM- AVAs, lupus-associated and rheumatoid arthritis-associated antibodies, and hierarchically clustered. Serum from baseline, 26 and 52 weeks from 132 Lupus Nephritis Assessment with Rituximab (LUNAR) trial enrolled lupus nephritis patients was also analysed and correlated with renal function up to week 78. Results In TRIDOM, AVAs, especially IgM AVAs, clustered with IgG anti-dsDNA and away from anti-Sm and -RNP and rheumatoid arthritis-associated antibodies. In LUNAR at baseline, AVAs correlated weakly with anti-dsDNA and more strongly with anticardiolipin titers. Regardless of treatment, IgG-, but not IgM- or IgA-, AVAs were higher at week 52 than at baseline. In contrast, anti-dsDNA titers declined, regardless of therapeutic regime. High IgG AVA titers at entry predicted less response to therapy. Conclusion AVAs, especially IgG AVAs, are unique in distribution and response to therapy compared with other commonly measured autoantibody specificities. Furthermore, high-titer IgG AVAs identify lupus nephritis patients resistant to conventional therapies. These data suggest that AVAs represent an independent class of prognostic autoantibodies.


Many-objective optimisation poses great challenges to evolutionary algorithms. To start with, the ineffectiveness of the Pareto dominance relation, which is the most important criterion in multi-objective optimisation, results in the underperformance of traditional Pareto-based algorithms. Also, the aggravation of the conflict between proximity and diversity, along with increasing time or space requirement as well as parameter sensitivity, has become key barriers to the design of effective many-objective optimisation algorithms. Furthermore, the infeasibility of solutions' direct observation can lead to serious difficulties in algorithms' performance investigation and comparison. In this thesis, we address these challenges, aiming to make evolutionary algorithms as effective in many-objective optimisation as in twoor three-objective optimisation. First, we significantly enhance Pareto-based algorithms to make them suitable for many-objective optimisation by placing individuals with poor proximity into crowded regions so that these individuals can have a better chance to be eliminated. Second, we propose a grid-based evolutionary algorithm which explores the potential of the grid to deal with many-objective optimisation problems. Third, we present a bi-goal evolution framework that converts many objectives of a given problem into two objectives regarding proximity and diversity, thus creating an optimisation problem in which the objectives are the goals of the search process itself. Fourth, we propose a comprehensive performance indicator to compare evolutionary algorithms in optimisation problems with various Pareto front shapes and any objective dimensionality. Finally, we construct a test problem to aid the visual investigation of evolutionary search, with its Pareto optimal solutions in a two-dimensional decision space having similar distribution to their images in a higher-dimensional objective space. The work reported in this thesis is the outcome of innovative attempts at addressing some of the most challenging problems in evolutionary many-objective optimisation. This research has not only made some of the existing approaches, such as Paretobased or grid-based algorithms that were traditionally regarded as unsuitable, now effective for many-objective optimisation, but also pushed other important boundaries with novel ideas including bi-goal evolution, a comprehensive performance indicator 3 and a test problem for visual investigation. All the proposed algorithms have been systematically evaluated against existing state of the arts, and some of these algorithms have already been taken up by researchers and practitioners in the field.


Purpose
The accounts receivable pool (ARP) is an e-invoice management system that provides suppliers with easy access to financial service. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the strength and weakness of ARP mechanism and suggest efficient methods to identify creditworthy borrowers.

Design/methodology/approach
By decomposing the sales records of 348 ARP borrowers and predicting the occurrence of overdue incidences, this study first portrays the creditworthy borrowers by sales features. Then, content analysis was applied to measure the loadings of soft and hard information, and examined the effectiveness of different information structures in creditworthiness assessment.

Findings
For ARP borrowers, upward trend and low volatility reveal their creditworthiness. In order to identify creditworthy borrowers beforehand, ARP financiers who have elaborated more soft information and less hard information can perform better.

Originality/value
This study first discussed ARP finance from a critical perspective and underlines borrower assessment to eliminate the defect of loose recourse. The empirical evidence presents the sales features of creditworthy borrowers. Moreover, the results suggest an efficient approach for ARP financiers to conduct better assessment.


ABSTRACT We studied changes in pathogenicity, virulence, and aggressiveness of Globodera pallida populations over time. As a measure for pathogenicity, the reproduction factor on a partially resistant host was used; for aggressiveness, the reproduction factor on a susceptible reference host was used; and, for virulence, the ratio pathogenicity/aggressiveness was used. The G. pallida populations were reared in a glasshouse for four generations on potato cultivars with different levels of resistance. The cultivar Elkana did not increase pathogenicity significantly, but the more resistant cultivars Karakter and Darwina did. This increase in pathogenicity was caused by an increase in virulence, whereas aggressiveness generally was not altered significantly. The increase in virulence appeared to be caused by an enhanced ability of eggs to develop into cysts, and not by an increase in egg production per new cyst. The observed changes in virulence could be predicted reasonably well by a simple numerical model. The rate of selection depended strongly on the nematode population. Rearing a mix of two different populations on a susceptible host decreased the virulence strongly, as predicted by the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium, but increased the aggressiveness because of heterosis.


We examine the propagation of two-dimensional relativistic jets through the stellar progenitor in the collapsar model for gamma-ray bursts (GRBs). Each jet is parameterized by a radius where it is introduced and by its initial Lorentz factor, opening angle, power, and internal energy. In agreement with previous studies, we find that relativistic jets are collimated by their passage through the stellar mantle. Starting with an initial half-angle of up to 20°, they emerge with half-angles that, though variable with time, are around 5°. Interaction of these jets with the star and their own cocoons also causes mixing that sporadically decelerates the flow. We speculate that this mixing instability is chiefly responsible for the variable Lorentz factor needed in the internal shock model and for the complex light curves seen in many GRBs. In all cases studied, the jet is shocked deep inside the star following a brief period of adiabatic expansion. This shock converts most of the jet's kinetic energy into internal energy, so even initially "cold" jets become hot after going a short distance. The jet that finally emerges from the star thus has a moderate Lorentz factor, modulated by mixing, and a very large internal energy. In a second series of calculations, we follow the escape of that sort of jet. Conversion of the remaining internal energy gives terminal Lorentz factors along the axis of approximately 150 for the initial conditions chosen. Because of the large ratio of internal to kinetic energy in both the jet (≥80%) and its cocoon, the opening angle of the final jet is significantly greater than at breakout. A small amount of material emerges at large angles, but with a Lorentz factor still sufficiently large to make a weak GRB. This leads us to propose a "unified model" in which a variety of high-energy transients, ranging from X-ray flashes to "classic" GRBs, may be seen depending on the angle at which a standard collapsar is observed. We also speculate that the breakout of a relativistic jet and its collision with the stellar wind will produce a brief transient with properties similar to the class of "short-hard" GRBs. Implications of our calculations for GRB light curves, the luminosity-variability relation, and the GRB-supernova association are also discussed.


A wider use of composites in larger, commercial vessels has been limited by initial costs and fire regulations, but both of these obstacles are diminishing. Increasing fuel costs and more stringent emission requirements have heightened the value of lightweight structures. Due to the higher acquisition costs and other entry barriers, composite designs must be as cost efficient as possible in order to compete with traditional steel or aluminium designs. The purpose of this article is to investigate which fibre-reinforced polymer materials and types of structures are most suitable for different parts of a ship design in order to minimize weight or cost. This is done by designing and comparing individual composite panels while varying a wide range of input parameters and strictly following the 'Det Norske Veritas (DNV) Rules for Classification of High Speed, Light Craft and Naval Surface Craft'. The results are presented as weight and cost comparisons between materials and structures and also degree of utilization for the different design criteria; carbon fibre structures are on the average 20%–30% lighter than glass fibre structures but are consistently more expensive. The results also indicate that sandwich panels in most cases are lighter than single-skin panels, and that for sandwich structures, the mechanical properties of the core material are commonly the critical design criterion. The minimum amount of reinforcement stipulated by the rules is also found to be a critical factor.


Roscher believed that human existence is rooted in organic nature. In his view, a national society can be regarded as an organism in which households function as mutually dependent organs. Examines the nature of Roscher's organicism, which to a certain extent is characteristic of the historical school through its link with historicism. Outlines the roots and development of Roscher's organicism. Considers the related ideas of other economic theorists.


Choreographies specify multiparty interactions via message passing. A realization of a choreography is a composition of independent processes that behave as specified by the choreography. Existing relations of correctness/completeness between choreographies and realisations are based on models where choices are non-deterministic. Resolving non-deterministic choices into deterministic choices (e.g., conditional statements) is necessary to correctly characterise the relationship between choreographies and their implementations with concrete programming languages. We introduce a notion of realisability for choreographies –called whole-spectrum implementation– where choices are still non-deterministic in choreographies, but are deterministic in their implementations. Our notion of whole spectrum implementation rules out deterministic implementations of roles that, no matter which context they are placed in, will never follow one of the branches of a non-deterministic choice. We give a type discipline for checking whole-spectrum implementations. As a case study, we analyse the POP protocol under the lens of whole-spectrum implementation.


Relationships between the appearance of chlorophyll patches and a nitrogen concentration gradient were studied in the laboratory using sediment from an eutrophic mouth river environment (Guadalhorce, SE Spain). An agar-ammonium nitrate block was inserted at one of the sides of a tray filled with this sediment. The tray was placed in a chamber with light and temperature constant. Eight samples which were placed along a line ranging from 1.5 to 22.5 cm from the nutrient source were taken periodically. Nitrate concentration measures, as well as an estimation of the total chlorophyll a concentration, were made to obtain a space/time distribution of these variables. Spatial cross-correlation and autocorrelation analyses were carried out, helping to show the maintenance of a pattern consisting of regularly spaced patches of chlorophyll. The tendency for a nutrient concentration gradient to be established in an environment with low terms of phytobenthos diffusivity, as well as a possible interrelation between space and microsuccessional stages with a preferred direction of development of the photosynthetic populations on areas where the resources have not been recently utilized, could be responsible for the maintenance of the observed instabilities.


What do we share when we donate or receive an organ? What meaning does donation have in the mourning process of a loved one or in the therapeutic process of a transplant patient? These questions rarely reach the public arena, but they do animate the people who concretely participate in the circulation of organs, whether it is because they accept the removal of an organ, receive one or are in charge of organizing it. With this contribution, I wish to shed light on the answers to these questions, as they emerge in practice, and thereby expose the social component of these surgical operations. I first examine the trend towards the promotion of organ donation and transplantation since the 1970s; then I look at the limits for the patients of an approach to transplantation based solely on a biomedical prism; and finally I examine the horizon of possibilities in terms of recognition of the relationships that organ transplant can create between donors and receivers.


A method to enable the impact of a novel component-based approach to the implementation of production machinery design and build processes from the perspectives of the manufacturing engineering partners within the automotive industry is reported in this paper. The assessment method is based upon the representation (using CIMOSA-based constructs) and simulation (using the ithink™ software package) of the activity, actor and event relationships between distributed partners when involved in a global engine manufacture program. Assessment is vital to ensure that the impact of any novel approach is appreciated in terms and metrics that are consistent with the current operational and interaction paradigms. Without this information is it extremely difficult for the engineering partners to appreciate the impact of changes on their roles, responsibilities and profits and hence determine a roadmap and timescale for the adoption of the changes associated with the novel technology.


This research focuses on one student's experience of using music therapy to support the interpersonal communication skills of children in a mainstream primary school. Using first-person research as a methodological approach (Hunt, 2016), I examined the rich, qualitative data I had collected in my clinical notes as part of my practice. I used secondary analysis of data using thematic analysis to code, categorise, and detect themes in the data, which then enabled me to tell my story. I drew on music therapy literature which described the communication challenges children with learning support needs typically experience (for example, those with autism spectrum disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), as well as literature on interpersonal skills such as turn-taking and joint attention. Although early research shows that music therapy interventions can support interpersonal communication skills, the research on children with various learning support needs in New Zealand is still scant. My research will add to this literature by describing some of the ways music therapy is used with three children who have various learning support needs in a mainstream school environment in New Zealand.


According to standard rational choice theory, as commonly used in political science and economics, an agent''s fundamental preferences are exogenously fixed, and any preference change over decision options is due to Bayesian information learning. Although elegant and parsimonious, this model fails to account for preference change driven by experiences or psychological changes distinct from information learning. We develop a model of non-informational preference change.Alternatives are modelled as points in some multidimensional space, only some of whose dimensions play a role in shaping the agent''s preferences.Any change in these `motivationally salient'' dimensions can change the agent''s preferences. How it does so is described by a new representation theorem. Our model not only captures a wide range of frequently observed phenomena, but also generalizes some standard representations of preferences in political science and economics.


: Appendectomy when performed at the pubertant age is considered to be an etiological factor causing a disturbance of the menstrual cycle in girls. While revising the internal genitals during appendectomy, it is necessary to differentiate possible pathological alterations in the ovaries from their physiological changes associated with functional peculiar features which are characteristic of the pubertant age.


The engineers who analyze traffic on high bandwidth networks must filter and aggregate either recorded traces of network packets or live traffic from the network itself. These engineers perform operations similar to database queries, but cannot use conventional data managers because of performance concerns and a semantic mismatch between the analysis operations and the operations supported by commercial DBMSs. Traffic analysis does not require fast random access, transactional update, or relational joins. Rather, it needs fast sequential access to a stream of traffic records and the ability to filter, aggregate, define windows, demultiplex, and remultiplex the stream.

Tribeca is an extensible, stream-oriented DBMS designed to support network traffic analysis. It combines ideas from temporal and sequence databases with an implementation optimized for databases stored on high speed ID-1 tapes or arriving in real time from the network. The paper describes Tribeca's query language, executor and optimizer as well as performance measurements of a prototype implementation.


The article studies the relationship between climate variability and gran production in Scania (southern Sweden), between 1702 and 1911. The study also claims, in the abstract, that it will shed new light on the climate history of the region by homogenizing the Lund instrumental series. The article, therefore, has several goals and is ambitious. As some of my questions, have been dealt with in the discussion already, I try to focus on some other issues that could improve the manuscript. The manuscript has potential, but the manuscript could use a thorough revision when it comes to structure. In its current form, it is difficult to follow the authors line of thought. Sentence structure is often speculative and results and approaches needs to express intent more clearly.


Transformers are generally considered to be the costliest assets in a power network. The lifetime of a transformer is mainly attributable to the condition of its solid insulation, which in turn is measured and described according to the degree of polymerization (DP) of the cellulose. Since the determination of the DP index is complex and time-consuming and requires the transformer to be taken out of service, utilities prefer indirect and non-invasive methods of determining the DP based on the byproduct of cellulose aging. This paper analyzes solid insulation degradation by measuring the furan concentration, recently introduced methanol, and dissolved gases like carbon oxides and hydrogen, in the insulating oil. A group of service-aged distribution transformers were selected for practical investigation based on oil samples and different kinds of tests. Based on the maintenance and planning strategy of the power utility and a weighted combination of measured chemical indicators, a neural network was also developed to categorize the state of the transformer in certain classes. The method proved to be able to improve the diagnostic capability of chemical indicators, thus providing power utilities with more reliable maintenance tools and avoiding catastrophic failure of transformers.


All cardiac surgical procedures performed in 81 German cardiac surgical units throughout the year 2006 are presented in this report, based on a voluntary registry which is organized by the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. In 2006 a total of 97,123 cardiac surgical procedures (ICD and pacemakers procedures excluded) have been collected in this registry. More than 9.6 % of the patients were older than 80 years compared to 8.4 % in 2005. Hospital mortality in 51,273 isolated CABG procedures (10.1 % off-pump) was 3.1 %. In 20,028 isolated valve procedures a mortality of 4.9 % has been observed. This registry will continue to be an important tool of the German Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery enabling a continuous and voluntary quality assurance and illustrating the development of cardiac surgery in Germany.


Plasma cell leukemia is a rare and aggressive plasma cell neoplasm that may either originate de novo (primary PCL) or by leukemic transformation of multiple myeloma (MM) to secondary PCL (sPCL). The prognosis of sPCL is very poor, and currently no standard treatment is available due to lack of prospective clinical studies. In an attempt to elucidate factors contributing to transformation, we have performed super-SILAC quantitative proteome profiling of malignant plasma cells collected from the same patient at both the MM and sPCL stages of the disease. 795 proteins were found to be differentially expressed in the MM and sPCL samples. Gene ontology analysis indicated a metabolic shift towards aerobic glycolysis in sPCL as well as marked down-regulation of enzymes involved in glycan synthesis, potentially mediating altered glycosylation of surface receptors. There was no significant change in overall genomic 5-methylcytosine or 5-hydroxymethylcytosine at the two stages, indicating that epigenetic dysregulation was not a major driver of transformation to sPCL. The present study constitutes the first attempt to provide a comprehensive map of the altered protein expression profile accompanying transformation of MM to sPCL in a single patient, identifying several candidate proteins that can be targeted by currently available small molecule drugs. Our dataset furthermore constitutes a reference dataset for further proteomic analysis of sPCL transformation.


The distribution of isotopes within O2 molecules can be rapidly altered when they react with atomic oxygen. This mechanism is globally important: while other contributions to the global budget of O2 impart isotopic signatures, the O(3P) + O2 reaction resets all such signatures in the atmosphere on subdecadal timescales. Consequently, the isotopic distribution within O2 is determined by O3 photochemistry and the circulation patterns that control where that photochemistry occurs. The variability of isotopic ordering in O2 has not been established, however. We present new measurements of 18O18O in air (reported as Δ36 values) from the surface to 33 km altitude. They confirm the basic features of the clumped‐isotope budget of O2: Stratospheric air has higher Δ36 values than tropospheric air (i.e., more 18O18O), reflecting colder temperatures and fast photochemical cycling of O3. Lower Δ36 values in the troposphere arise from photochemistry at warmer temperatures balanced by the influx of high‐Δ36 air from the stratosphere. These observations agree with predictions derived from the GEOS‐Chem chemical transport model, which provides additional insight. We find a link between tropical circulation patterns and regions where Δ36 values are reset in the troposphere. The dynamics of these regions influences lapse rates, vertical and horizontal patterns of O2 reordering, and thus the isotopic distribution toward which O2 is driven in the troposphere. Temporal variations in Δ36 values at the surface should therefore reflect changes in tropospheric temperatures, photochemistry, and circulation. Our results suggest that the tropospheric O3 burden has remained within a ±10% range since 1978.


The design of nanostructured materials with tunable dimensions and properties that maintain their structural integrity under physiological conditions is a major challenge in biomedical engineering and nanomedicine. Helical rosette nanotubes (HRN) are a new class of materials produced through a hierarchical self-assembly process of low molecular weight synthetic organic modules in water. Here, we describe a synthetic strategy to tune their stability and hierarchy by preorganization of the self-assembling units, control of net charge per unit of nanotube surface area, amphiphilicity, and number of H-bonds per self-assembling module, and through peripheral steric (de)compression. Using these criteria, HRNs with tunable stability and hierarchical architecture were produced from self-assembling modules that (a) persist as individual molecules in solution, (b) self-assemble into HRN but denature at high temperature (<85 degrees C), (c) self-assemble into HRN whose structural integrity persists even in boiling water (>95 degrees C), and (d) self-assemble into well-dispersed short nanotubes, long nanotubes, ribbons, or superhelices. Given the biocompatibility, synthetic accessibility, and chemical and physical tunability of these materials, numerous applications in biomedical engineering, materials science, and nanoscience and technology are envisioned.


The purpose of this study was to identify emergent themes regarding higher education instructors' perceptions concerning the provision of collaborative learning activities and opportunities in their online classroom. Through semi-structured interviews, instructors voiced their teaching experiences and reported specifically about the online collaborative opportunities offered in their online classrooms. A multi-phase coding process was used to analyze the information, including the constant comparative coding method for theme and category development. The three main themes that emerged from this study are: online communication approaches matter, challenges and supports for online collaborative learning, and care is at the core of online learner support. In the online classroom there are additional considerations included in developing successful online collaborative learning beyond group work, including additional time and nurturing, scaffolding, instructional design, and understanding students' comfort level working together online. The findings of this study are discussed and recommendations are provided for the development and design of meaningful online collaborative learning.


Moses Isegawa's Abyssinian Chronicles sets out to rewrite history in that it corrects the distorted colonial vision by creating symbols for a new national identity—dealing with self-consciousness, loss of self-identity, and search for identity in coming to terms with the wreckage of war and independence. In Snakepit, Isegawa returns to his native Uganda haunted by greed and megalomania, a period when Idi Amin's dictatorship turned men in power into agents of deception, extortion, and murder. This article critically analyzes the "postcolonial" imagery in Snakepit as forms of resistance in the aftermath of colonialism and in the story "The Return of Shadow" in Viviane Sassen's collection of photographs Flamboya, and so challenge the way Western eyes have perceived the African continent. Snakepit and Flamboya thus both function as tools with which Africa's collective identity is redefined, the former coping with Uganda's post-European struggle for independence and fight against African corruption, the latter shedding light on the "darkness" Africa has been associated with by casting a post-European shadow on the image of Africa(ns).


To quantify the detailed mechanisms that cause sedimentation at the tidal inlets in the Messolonghi-Aetoliko lagoonal system, the MIKE 21 FM (HD & ST) numerical simulation models were applied. The study focuses on the hydrodynamic circulation in the vicinity of the tidal inlets and the associated wind and tide-induced currents, as well as sediment transport, bed level evolution and total sediment load accumulation, with emphasis on the vicinity of two tidal inlets, where the problem is more acute. Based on the numerical predictions, which have been qualitatively corroborated via satellite images from Google Earth, it is shown that under the prevailing winds and tidal action, sandbars are formed in front or behind the tidal inlets depending on the wind direction, resulting in a gradual decrease of the mean water level at the mouths. Under the combined action of the tide and the wind the characteristic horizontal structure of the flow includes cyclonic and anticyclonic eddies that form at the near tip area of the jetties, which are associated with sediment transport mechanisms.


A longitudinal open prospective study involving 100 pediatricians from 4 different health institutions was performed. After a written description of inhaler technique was provided and a special questionnaire, physicians were asked to demonstrate the technique using a placebo MDI. Correct use was considered if 10 points were obtained. Thirty pediatricians used MDI in children less than 5 years. The correct written description was observed in 55% (55/100) but 32.7% (18/55) failed to use it properly. Although 45% (45/100) made an incorrect description 25% (25/45) demonstrated a describe previous reports which describe that more than half the physicians ignore the correct steps of inhaler technique. Moreover this lack of information appears to be one of the most important factors which affect self-management of acute and chronic symptoms of asthma in which have contributed to the increased morbidity/mortality of the disease since 1980.


Motivated by the problem of Gallai on $(1-1)$-transversals of $2$-intervals, it was proved by the authors in 1969 that if the edges of a complete graph $K$ are colored with red and blue (both colors can appear on an edge) so that there is no monochromatic induced $C_4$ and $C_5$ then the vertices of $K$ can be partitioned into a red and a blue clique. Aharoni, Berger, Chudnovsky and Ziani recently strengthened this by showing that it is enough to assume that there is no induced monochromatic $C_4$ and there is no induced $C_5$ in {\em one of the colors}. Here this is strengthened further, it is enough to assume that there is no monochromatic induced $C_4$ and there is no $K_5$ on which both color classes induce a $C_5$.
We also answer a question of Kaiser and Rabinovich, giving an example of six $2$-convex sets in the plane such that any three intersect but there is no $(1-1)$-transversal for them.


This thesis describes the physics and computational aspects of an end-to-end simulator to predict the performance of a Space-based Far Infrared Interferometer. The present thesis also includes, the science capabilities and instrumental state-of-the art. The latter is the ambitious next step which the Far-Infrared Astrophysical community needs to take to improve in anyway on the results of the most recent and current space telescopes in this wavelength region. This thesis outlines the requirements involved in such a mission and describes the most promising technique to capture most of the astrophysical information by combining spectroscopy to spatial interferometer. The simulation of such a system is extremely complex requiring multiple Fourier transforms each of which is subject to instrument non-idealities and appropriate optimization techniques. As a conclusion, the thesis provides an example of the basic performance achievable with such an instrument when targeting a young star formation region.


A model is presented which consists of injecting a liquid coolant into the gas or superheated vapor of centrifugal compressors via slots in the rotating blades. The aim of the injection is minimization of required compression work. The three-dimensional analysis determines the relative velocities and trajectories of the liquid particles, and their rate of vaporization as a function of the prevailing flow field and inlet conditions. Inertia, viscous drag, centrifugal and Coriolis forces are all included. The analysis rests on the assumption of low volumetric liquid/gas ratios so that the aerodynamics of the flow is not appreciably disturbed. The computer-obtained results show that for optimum conditions, and to avoid collision with the blades, it is desirable that injection occur at the suction side of the blades and close to the hub, that low rather than high initial particle velocities are preferred, and that small droplet sizes are required both to avoid blade erosion and to assure the highest rate of vaporization.Copyright © 1982 by ASME


Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) are millimeter-sized microbial communities developing on the topsoils of arid lands that cover some 12% of Earth's continental area. Biocrusts consist of an assemblage of mineral soil particles consolidated into a crust by microbial organic polymeric substances that are mainly produced by the filamentous bundle-forming cyanobacteria, among which Microcoleus vaginatus is perhaps the most widespread. This cyanobacterium is the primary producer for, and main architect of biocrusts in many arid soils, sustaining the development of a diverse microbial community. Biocrusts are only active when wet, and spend most of their time in a state of desiccated quiescence, from which they can quickly recover upon wetting. Despite their ecological importance for arid ecosystems, little is known about the mechanisms that allow biocrust organisms to endure long periods of dryness while remaining viable for rapid resuscitation upon wetting. We had previously observed the persistence of significant rates of light-dependent carbon fixation in apparently dry biocrusts dominated by M. vaginatus, indicating that it may be able to remain hydrated against a background soil of very low water potential. One potential explanation for this may be that the abundant exopolysaccharide sheaths of M. vaginatus can preferentially retain moisture thus slowing the water equilibration with the surrounding soil allowing for extended activity periods. In order to test this hypothesis we aimed to develop methodologies to visualize and quantify the water dynamics within an undisturbed biocrust undergoing desiccation. We used synchrotron based X-ray microtomography and were able to resolve the distribution of air, liquid water, mineral particles and cyanobacterial bundles at the microscale. We could demonstrate the formation of steep, decreasing gradients of water content from the cyanobacterial bundle surface outward, while the bundle volume remained stable, as the local bulk water content decreased linearly, hence demonstrating a preferential retention of water in the microbes. Our data also suggest a transfer of hydration water from the EPS sheath material into the cyanobacterial filament as desiccation progresses. This work demonstrates the value of X-ray tomography as a tool to study microbe-scale water redistribution in biocrusts.


BACKGROUND
The anti-inflammatory effect of montelukast, a leukotriene receptor antagonist, in patients with bronchial asthma is not entirely clear. Basophils can release a variety of mediators, including histamine and leukotriens, which most likely play an active role in the late allergic response.

OBJECTIVES
To study the effect of montelukast (10 mg/day) on histamine and cysteinyl leukotriene release from basophils taken from 12 mild atopic asthmatic patients who took the drug for 4 weeks.

METHODS
Basophils were withdrawn at baseline, and after 48 hours, 1 week, and 4 weeks of therapy. Histamine was measured by a radioenzymatic method and leukotrienes by immunologic assay. Histamine and cysLT release was measured spontaneously and following stimulation with interleukin-3 and anti-immunoglobulin E. Spirometry and symptom score were measured before and during treatment.

RESULTS
During the treatment with montelukast there were no significant changes in spontaneous, IL-3 and anti-IgE-induced histamine release. cysLT release decreased significantly only after 4 weeks of treatment (from 2899 +/- 550 pg/ml at baseline to 2225 +/- 430 pg/ml at 4 weeks, P= 0.02).

CONCLUSIONS
Montelukast does not seem to affect the release of histamine from basophils but mildly inhibits the cysLT release seen after 4 weeks of treatment.


Microstructure evolution during annealing of a Ni-20%Cr alloy subjected to high-pressure torsion (HPT) at ambient temperature was examined. It was shown that recrystallization processes are dependent on the annealing temperature and strain. Discontinuous static recrystallization (DSRX) took place in the alloy strained to <3. Continuous grain growth (GG) occured under subsequent annealing in the material strained to ≥6. It was attributed to the fact that HPT led to the formation of nanoscale grains with an average size of 50 nm. Increasing fraction of these grains with strain led to transition from DSRX to continuous GG under subsequent annealing. The different annealing behavior was attributed to strong strain dependence for the relationship between driving pressures, which were caused by the stored dislocations and the boundary energy.


BACKGROUND
Empirical studies have revealed a significant, but modest association between maternal depression and insecure mother-child attachment. Across studies, however, a substantial number of mothers with depression are able to provide a sensitive caretaking environment for their children. This paper aimed to explore whether a mother's own state of mind regarding attachment moderated the association between postpartum depression and insecure mother-child attachment.

METHODS
Mothers (n = 111), mainly middle-class mothers, and their infants participated in a longitudinal study of postnatal depression, maternal attachment state of mind and child attachment. Depression was assessed using a diagnostic interview (at 4 and 12 months) and symptom checklists (at 4, 12 and 15 months). The Adult Attachment Interview was conducted at 12 months and the Strange Situation procedure at 15 months.

RESULTS
Mothers diagnosed as depressed were more likely to have an insecure state of mind regarding attachment. Infants of chronically depressed mothers were more likely to be insecurely attached; however, the relationship between maternal depression and child attachment was moderated by maternal attachment state of mind.

CONCLUSIONS
Results are discussed with reference to resiliency factors for women with postnatal depression and implications for intervention.


Labor market frictions are able to induce sluggish aggregate employment dynamics. However, these frictions have strong implications for thesourceof this propagation: they distort the path of aggregate employment by impeding the flow of labor across firms. For a canonical class of frictions, we show how observable measures of such flows can be used to assess the effect of frictions on aggregate employment dynamics. Application of this approach to establishment microdata for the United States reveals that the empirical flow of labor across firms deviates markedly from the predictions of canonical labor market frictions. Despite their ability to induce persistence in aggregate employment, firm‐size flows in these models are predicted to respond aggressively to aggregate shocks, but react sluggishly in the data. The paper therefore concludes that the propagation mechanism embodied in standard models of labor market frictions fails to account for the sources of observed employment dynamics.


This paper considers the problem of modeling and extracting arbitrary deformable contours from noisy images. We propose a global contour model based on a stable and regenerative shape matrix, which is invariant and unique under rigid motions. Combined with Markov random field to model local deformations, this yields prior distribution that exerts influence over a global model while allowing for deformations. We then cast the problem of extraction into posterior estimation and show its equivalence to energy minimization of a generalized active contour model. We discuss pertinent issues in shape training, minimax regularization and initialization by generalized Hough transform. Finally, we present experimental results and compare its performance to rigid template matching.<<ETX>>


Research in many fields has become increasingly reliant on large and complex datasets. "Big Data" holds untold promise to rapidly advance science by tackling new questions that cannot be answered with smaller datasets. While powerful, research with Big Data poses unique challenges, as many standard lab protocols rely on experts examining each one of the samples. This is not feasible for large-scale datasets because manual approaches are time-consuming and hence difficult to scale. Meanwhile, automated approaches lack the accuracy of examination by highly trained scientists and this may introduce major errors, sources of noise, and unforeseen biases into these large and complex datasets. Our proposed solution is to 1) start with a small, expertly labelled dataset, 2) amplify labels through web-based tools that engage citizen scientists, and 3) train machine learning on amplified labels to emulate expert decision making. As a proof of concept, we developed a system to quality control a large dataset of three-dimensional magnetic resonance images (MRI) of human brains. An initial dataset of 200 brain images labeled by experts were amplified by citizen scientists to label 722 brains, with over 80,000 ratings done through a simple web interface. A deep learning algorithm was then trained to predict data quality, based on a combination of the citizen scientist labels that accounts for differences in the quality of classification by different citizen scientists. In an ROC analysis (on left out test data), the deep learning network performed as well as a state-of-the-art, specialized algorithm (MRIQC) for quality control of T1-weighted images, each with an area under the curve of 0.99. Finally, as a specific practical application of the method, we explore how brain image quality relates to the replicability of a well established relationship between brain volume and age over development. Combining citizen science and deep learning can generalize and scale expert decision making; this is particularly important in emerging disciplines where specialized, automated tools do not already exist.


50-year-old previously healthy to our department for suspected mitral valve endocarditis because of a 3-week history of fever, weight loss, and the echocardiographic discovery of a mitral valve mass. On admission, the patient was cachectic (body mass index of 18 kg/m 2 ) and subfebrile (37.5°C) with dyspnea at rest, jugular vein distension, and tender liver enlargement. Her heart examination showed regular tachycardia (100 bpm), apical systolic murmur (3/6 degree), and diastolic rumble. The ECG showed sinus tachycardia (105 bpm) and signs of left atrial abnormality (wide, notched P wave measuring 140 ms; Chest x-ray a cardiothoracic index of 0.6, with left atrial enlargement and interstitial edema


Understanding web co-location is essential for various reasons. For instance, it can help one to assess the collateral damage that denial-of-service attacks or IP-based blocking can cause to the availability of co-located web sites. However, it has been more than a decade since the first study was conducted in 2007. The Internet infrastructure has changed drastically since then, necessitating a renewed study to comprehend the nature of web co-location. In this paper, we conduct an empirical study to revisit web co-location using datasets collected from active DNS measurements. Our results show that the web is still small and centralized to a handful of hosting providers. More specifically, we find that more than 60% of web sites are co-located with at least ten other web sites---a group comprising less popular web sites. In contrast, 17.5% of mostly popular web sites are served from their own servers. Although a high degree of web co-location could make co-hosted sites vulnerable to DoS attacks, our findings show that it is an increasing trend to co-host many web sites and serve them from well-provisioned content delivery networks (CDN) of major providers that provide advanced DoS protection benefits. Regardless of the high degree of web co-location, our analyses of popular block lists indicate that IP-based blocking does not cause severe collateral damage as previously thought.


The nasal dermal sinus cyst is one of many midline nasal masses that often pose diagnostic and treatment dilemmas for the plastic and reconstructive surgeon. The differential diagnosis of the midline nasal mass includes both congenital and acquired processes. A thorough understanding of its cause is crucial to treatment. A comprehensive discussion of the pathogenesis, diagnosis, sequelae, and surgical management, and a representative case analysis, of the nasal dermal sinus cyst is presented to delineate the role of open rhinoplasty in optimizing the care of this congenital nasal deformity.


Scalable and automated monitoring processes for testing, debugging, and operation of VNFs and service-chains are crucial components towards achieving the aims of network softwarization - i.e., cheaper, faster, and shorter service deployment and network management processes. In this paper we present a decentralized monitoring approach aimed at supporting automated deployment and operation of VNFs and service-chains. The approach is inspired by network tomography and is designed to address observability limitations and scalability issues that arise from performing measurements from an SDN controller. From successive end-to-end measurements link metrics are derived via in-network parameter estimation with no need of forwarding raw measurements to the controller, which significantly reduces the measurement overhead compared to when monitoring individual links explicitly from an SDN controller.


Wave energy is one of the most promising renewable energies available with its very large resource. The waves generated by the wind field are steadier than the wind field itself, rendering wave energy more consistent than wind energy. It is also more predictable than wind and solar. Wave energy is making continuous progress towards commercialisation, and thanks to an increasing number of deployments at sea, the sector is increasing the understanding of the costs and economies of these projects. No wave energy converter has been demonstrated to be commercially viable, and it is yet to be proven that wave energy can contribute to the renewable energy mix. In this context, and in order to find an economically viable solution for exploiting wave energy, it is important to assess the economic potential of a particular concept throughout the entire technological development process. At early development stages, this assessment can be challenging and present large uncertainties. Notwithstanding, it is important to perform the economic assessment already at the early stages in order to identify possible bottlenecks or potential improvements or modifications of a concept. This work presents guidance for the economic evaluation of a wave energy concept at an early development stage by setting up the economic frame based on a target LCoE. It involves the understanding of the entry cost to be achieved for a specific target market and evaluating the breakdown of costs based on a detailed technology agnostic database of costs. The guidance is then applied to a new type of wave energy converter, in which the primary coupling with the waves is through hydrodynamic lift forces.


Abstract Objective Neonatal sepsis is one of the most important causes of neonatal morbidity and mortality. Symptoms and signs of neonatal sepsis can be silent; therefore, laboratory investigation is necessary in cases of doubt or if there are risk factors. Early diagnosis is important for early intervention and treatment. The most valuable method for diagnosis is blood culture; however, false positivity due to contamination or false negativity despite ongoing fatal bacterial infections can be seen. Pentraxin 3 is a prototype of the long pentraxin family. It has some differences from C-reactive protein (CRP) in terms of gene organization and localization and production site. It is effective in the early phase of inflammation and it is detected as an early marker of sepsis in adults. The aim of this study was to investigate whether pentraxin 3 can be used as a marker in neonatal sepsis. Materials and Methods Thirty newborns with suspected sepsis with antenatal history or the presence of clinical signs of sepsis, such as hypo/hyperthermia, feed intolerance, lethargy, hypotonia, irregular cardiac rhythms, bradycardia, cyanosis, apnea, respiratory distress, or metabolic acidosis, were enrolled in the study as a case group, and 28 healthy newborns were included as a control group. Serum pentraxin 3, procalcitonin, CRP, and hemogram in the study group and serum procalcitonin and pentraxin in the control group were examined. Results Serum pentraxin 3 (pg/mL) and serum procalcitonin (ng/mL) levels were 2,273.82 ± 1,260.75 and 0.86 ± 0.52 in the case group and 957.41 ± 268.00 and 0.19 ± 0.18 in the control group (p < 0.001 for both), respectively. Conclusion The present study showed that serum pentraxin 3 levels may be a useful marker in the diagnosis of neonatal sepsis.


Primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL) is a rare, non-Hodgkin, B-cell lymphoma thought to originate from thymic B cells, which occurs primarily in young adults such as in the active duty population. Primary mediastinal large B-cell lymphoma (PMBCL) presents as a large mediastinal mass, posing risks to the cardiopulmonary safety of patients and challenging the routine approach to diagnosis. We describe a case of a 23-year-old male sailor who presented to sick call on his ship while in port with shortness of breath, night sweats, 50-pound weight loss, and pruritic punched-out lesions on all extremities. An initial chest X-ray showed a large consolidation. After being seen in the pulmonary medicine clinic 5 weeks after his initial presentation, the patient was admitted to the intensive care unit after computed tomography of his chest revealed a mediastinal mass, causing compression of both the right bronchus and superior vena cava with a large pericardial effusion. Empiric high-dose dexamethasone was initiated before a formal diagnosis due to his significant risk for cardiopulmonary compromise. Following diagnosis and two cycles of chemotherapy, the patient was transferred to a medical oncology facility in the continental USA. This case demonstrates the need to educate all military providers to recognize the presentation of mediastinal masses in active duty service members and the importance of urgently escalating these patients to higher levels of care in order to avoid life-threatening complications.


Like its predecessors, the 2012 European health report describes both the overall improvements in health in the WHO European Region and their uneven distribution within and between countries. It breaks new ground, however, by helping both to define well-being, a goal of Europe's new health policy, Health 2020, and to map the way towards achieving it.
By describing health in Europe, this report provides policy-makers and public health professionals with the epidemiological evidence base that underpins Health 2020 and its six overarching targets. In addition, it sets out the agreed approach to monitoring progress towards Health 2020, outlines the collaborative agenda to address the challenges ahead and makes the case for measuring well-being as a marker of progress in health.


Dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) is a promising technique for battery-powered systems to conserve energy consumption. Most existing DVS algorithms assume information about task periodicity or a priori knowledge about the task set to be scheduled. This paper presents an analytical model of general tasks for DVS assuming job timing information is known only after a task release. It models the voltage scaling process as a transfer function-based filtering system, which facilitates the design of two efficient scaling algorithms. The first is a time-invariant scaling policy and it is proved to be a generalization of several popular DVS algorithms for periodic, sporadic, and aperiodic tasks. A more energy efficient policy is a time-variant scaling algorithm for aperiodic tasks. It is optimal in the sense that it is online without assumed information about future task releases. The algorithm turns out to be a water-filling process with a linear time complexity. It can be applied to scheduling based on worst-case execution times as well as online slack distribution when jobs complete earlier. We further establish two relationships between computation capacity and deadline misses to provide a statistical real-time guarantee with reduced capacity


Although the title is addressed to peacetime conditions, it is pointed out that the possibility of mobilization for war effort, needs to be considered, at least as a background for decisions. It is indicated that mechanization in the component-parts industry is not new, having had substantial beginnings 20 years ago. The author states, although there are in operation ceramic capacitor assembly machines, capable of producing a minimum of 5000 completed capacitors per hour, that general mechanization of the component-parts industry is almost economically impossible. An analysis of production records shows that 75% of all orders are for less than 100 pieces, that 25 to 40 thousand different capacitors are manufactured each month and that 80 to lO0 new designs or variations are created each week, at Aerovox. It is stressed that the multiplicity of types and ratings makes it impossible to speed deliveries, maintain a sizable stock, or implement a general automation program. Materials are pictured as not being a bottleneck item on the standard parts level; but on the other hand, that special materials are badly needed to meet the extended environmental and operational conditions forced upon the industry by new weapon requirements. A step-up in the Military preferred parts activities is recommended as a move to drastically reduce the number of standard parts. Some concern is voiced regarding the controversial Aircraft Industry practice of commissioning small suppliers to design and build "specialty items". It is charged that the practice creates still more items purchased from sources where automation is even less practicable, and that reduces reliability through the sponsorship of a handassembly atmosphere.


Clustering vortices Many-body systems generally become more disordered as more energy is pumped into them. A curious exception to this rule was predicted in the context of turbulent flow by the physical chemist Lars Onsager. He suggested that the entropy of certain two-dimensional (2D) systems can decrease with increasing energy, corresponding to an effective negative temperature. Using 2D Bose-Einstein condensates of atoms, Gauthier et al. and Johnstone et al. put Onsager's theory to the test. They provided energy to the system by perturbing the condensate, creating vortices and antivortices. With increasing energy, the system became more ordered as clusters containing either only vortices or only antivortices emerged. Science, this issue p. 1264, p. 1267 2D Bose-Einstein condensates are used to reach the vortex clustering regime in Onsager's model of turbulent flow. Adding energy to a system through transient stirring usually leads to more disorder. In contrast, point-like vortices in a bounded two-dimensional fluid are predicted to reorder above a certain energy, forming persistent vortex clusters. In this study, we experimentally realize these vortex clusters in a planar superfluid: a 87Rb Bose-Einstein condensate confined to an elliptical geometry. We demonstrate that the clusters persist for long time periods, maintaining the superfluid system in a high-energy state far from global equilibrium. Our experiments explore a regime of vortex matter at negative absolute temperatures and have relevance for the dynamics of topological defects, two-dimensional turbulence, and systems such as helium films, nonlinear optical materials, fermion superfluids, and quark-gluon plasmas.


The aim of the present study is to evaluate the expression of microRNA (miRNA) in peri-implant soft tissue and to correlate epigenetic information with the clinical outcomes of the implants up to the five-year follow-up. Seven patients have been rehabilitated with fixed screw-retained bridges each supported by implants. Peri-implant bone resorption and soft tissue health parameters have been recorded over time with a five-year follow-up. Mini-invasive samples of soft peri-implant tissue have been taken three months after implant insertion. miRNA have been extracted from cells of the soft tissue samples to evaluate gene-expression at the implant sites by microarray analysis. The epigenomic data obtained by microarray technology has been statistically analyzed by dedicated software and compared with measured clinical parameters. Specific miRNA expression profiles predictive of specific clinical outcomes were found. In particular, some specific miRNA signatures appeared to be "protective" from bone resorption despite the presence of plaque accumulation. miRNA may be predictors of dental implant clinical outcomes and may be used as biomarkers for diagnostic and prognostic purposes in the field of implant dentistry.


Two hundred forty patients with benign gastric ulcer were treated in a controlled clinical trial to assess the effect on healing of cimetidine, antacids, and hospitalization. Inpatients and and outpatients were randomly assigned to one of three treatments: cimetidine plus antacid, cimetidine plus dummy antacid, or placebo tablet plus antacid. In 206 patients who met criteria for analysis, ulcer healing as shown by endoscopy occurred by 12 days in 11 to 26 percent and by 42 days in 58 to 76 percent. There were no significant differences in healing between hospitalized and nonhospitalized patients or between treatment subgroups. Symptomatic response was equivalent in all groups. The median antacid consumption was 328 mEq of in vitro buffering capacity per day. Patients taking antacids experienced significant diarrhea compared with those taking no antacid. This investigation suggests that the effect of cimetidine is equivalent to that of large amounts of antacid, but because a true placebo group was not studied it is not possible to conclude from this study alone whether either agent influenced healing. In contrast to widespread belief, initiation of treatment in the hospital did not enhance healing, but because patients were not randomly assigned to inpatient and outpatient status no final conclusion about the effect of hospitalization on healing can be drawn.


Abstract. A web-based system based on the 3DTown project was proposed using Google Earth plug-in that brings information from indoor positioning devices and real-time sensors into an integrated 3D indoor and outdoor virtual world to visualize the dynamics of urban life within the 3D context of a city. We addressed limitation of the 3DTown project with particular emphasis on video surveillance camera used for indoor tracking purposes. The proposed solution was to utilize wireless local area network (WLAN) WiFi as a replacement technology for localizing objects of interest due to the wide spread availability and large coverage area of WiFi in indoor building spaces. Indoor positioning was performed using WiFi without modifying existing building infrastructure or introducing additional access points (AP)s. A hybrid probabilistic approach was used for indoor positioning based on previously recorded WiFi fingerprint database in the Petrie Science and Engineering building at York University. In addition, we have developed a 3D building modeling module that allows for efficient reconstruction of outdoor building models to be integrated with indoor building models; a sensor module for receiving, distributing, and visualizing real-time sensor data; and a web-based visualization module for users to explore the dynamic urban life in a virtual world. In order to solve the problems in the implementation of the proposed system, we introduce approaches for integration of indoor building models with indoor positioning data, as well as real-time sensor information and visualization on the web-based system. In this paper we report the preliminary results of our prototype system, demonstrating the system's capability for implementing a dynamic 3D indoor and outdoor virtual world that is composed of discrete modules connected through pre-determined communication protocols.


Info 2022 The Coronavirus 2019 outbreak caused the world to experience a pandemic and paralyze human activities, including the education sector. Consequently, the teaching-learning system changed from face-to-face to online. This study aimed to determine how high school students' preferences and challenges in Pekanbaru city employing the Google Classroom to learn English. This descriptive study involved 30 high school and vocational high school students as the sample who obtained through purposive sample technique. Google Form and interviews with Zoom were employed to gather the data. This study found that Google Classroom was quite effective in helping students replace the learning process during a pandemic with an online learning Preferences This is an open access article under the CC BY-SA


It is generally agreed that some judgments by the Court of Justice are more important than others, but the ability of traditional legal methods to identify such judgments is inherently limited. In this article, we apply various tools developed in network analysis to identify which judgments are the most important as legal precedents. The study reveals that certain well-known judgments, like van Gend en Loos, have limited importance as precedents, while other judgments, like Bosman, PreussenElektra and Schumacker, are likely overlooked.


Interleukin-1 (IL-1) and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) have been shown to inhibit basal and pentagastrin-stimulated gastric secretion in rats and histamine-stimulated secretion in dogs. IL-1 also reduces the severity of ethanol and stress-induced gastroduodenal damage. The aim of this study was to examine the effects of human recombinant IL-1 alpha and TNF-alpha on enzymatically dispersed and enriched (> 90%) parietal cells stimulated with histamine, histamine plus 3-isobutyl-1-methylxanthine (IMX) or carbachol (all 10(-5) M). Acid secretion was assessed indirectly by quantitating [14C]-aminopyrine (AP) accumulation. IL-1 alpha (500 and 1000 ng/ml) inhibited histamine-stimulated AP uptake by 53% and 60% respectively, and it inhibited IL-1 alpha (1500 ng/ml) by 69%. IL-1 alpha (500 and 1000 ng/ml) inhibited histamine plus IMX-stimulated AP uptake by 36% and 34%, respectively. IL-1 alpha (500 ng/ml) also inhibited carbachol-stimulated AP accumulation. TNF-alpha (100 and 250 ng/ml) inhibited histamine-stimulated AP accumulation by 38% and 36%, respectively. TNF-alpha also significantly inhibited histamine/IMX- and carbachol-stimulated AP uptake (P < or = .01). Indomethacin did not affect IL-1 alpha-induced inhibition. These results show that IL-1 alpha and TNF-alpha inhibit histamine- and carbachol-stimulated isolated parietal cell secretion and that, for IL-1 alpha, this effect does not depend on mucosal prostaglandin synthesis.


Objectives: The objective is to compare the effectiveness of intra-articular injection of ropivacaine and bupivacaine in providing pain relief after
arthroscopic knee surgery.
Methods: A total of 60 patients of both genders aged 20–60 years, the American Society of Anesthesiologists physical Status I and II, undergoing
day-care arthroscopic knee surgery under spinal anesthesia, were assigned into two groups randomly. Group 1 received 10 ml of 0.2% ropivacaine,
while Group 2 received 10 ml of 0.25% bupivacaine intra-articularly at the end of the procedure. Pain was assessed for 24 h postoperatively using
visual analog scale (VAS) and diclofenac sodium given as rescue analgesia when VAS >3. Time of first analgesic request and total rescue analgesic were
noted and compared. Statistical analysis used: Students unpaired t-test and Chi-square test and Mann–Whitney test "Z" value wherever appropriate.
A p<0.05 was considered statistically significant.
Results: Based on comparable demographic profiles, time for the requirement of first post-operative rescue analgesia (262.43±57.13 vs. 256.30±44.4)
min and total mean rescue analgesic requirement was 152.50±57.367 vs. 142.50±41.07 mg in Groups 1 and 2, respectively. Group 1 showed slightly
prolonged duration of analgesia, but total analgesic requirement was more than Group 2. However, comparing the duration of analgesia and total
analgesic requirement showed no statistically significant difference between the groups (p>0.05).
Conclusion: Both ropivacaine and bupivacaine injected intra-articularly have similar efficacy statistically in relieving post-operative pain in day-care
arthroscopic knee surgery.


In the time available, I have built up a picture of the molecular pathology of IgE antibodies; and considered that of IgG4 antibodies in comparison. As will have become apparent, much less direct evidence is available on the latter; partly because of lack of reliable and relevant in vitro functional assays. Nevertheless, I hope that in speculating on the possible molecular pathology of IgG4 antibodies, I have said enough to convince you that their likely mode of action in immediate-type hypersensitivity reactions will prove to be fundamentally different to that of IgE antibodies. It is important to bear this in mind in attempts to devise suitable assays of use in clinical diagnosis; and in considering their unique contributions to allergic reactions.


In what has come to be regarded in Marxist/structuralist theoretics as a landmark essay, French theorist Louis Althusser proposed that ideology has a material existence-not, he claimed, in "the same modality as the material existence of a paving-stone or a rifle," but "in an apparatus, and its practice, or practices" (my emphasis).1 Ideological apparatuses, according to Althusser, reify ideology in the form of various institutions, organizations, and/or systems within a society: the military, law enforcement agencies, and court systems as well as schools, the family, political parlies, trade unions, etc. Film theorists have, for the most part, embraced Althusser's concept of ideology as having a "material" existence, pointing to the cinema as an ideological apparatus that continually creates, perpetuates, and assesses ideological concepts by depicting other ideological apparatuses at work. Because this depiction may be positive or negative, the cinematic apparatus, by its nature, is infused with political meaning; that is, every finished film (regardless of the intentions of the filmmaker) possesses an inherent political textuality and thus inevitably transmits a political ideology. Few popular films of the past decade have evidenced with more consistency the cultural rumblings within the traditional framework of America's various ideological apparatuses than have the science fiction films of James Cameron. Because science fiction narrative often concerns itself with politically volatile issues-human survival, the integration/alienation of the individual into/from the community, global destruction, the potential effects of present practices on future generations, and so forth-the genre is particularly suited to political interpretation. I do not mean to suggest here that Cameron's films are in any way subversive, only that one detects in them a textual politics that offers effective ideological criticism by vilifying what America's capitalist ideology recognizes for the most part as revered institutions. This political textuality (and perhaps "subtextuality" would be the more accurate word here) places Cameron's films squarely within the realm of what film theorist Peter Biskind has defined as "radical" science-fiction cinema. "Radical films," says Biskind: were the mirror image of centrist sci-fi. There, Us was the "extremists" and Them was the center. When the center became the enemy, both scientists and soldiers were vilified. The state, the federal government, was either bad or ineffectual. . . . Since in radical films, the enemy was the center, it was not too surprising that the form in which this enemy, this Other, was imagined was not nature but culture. . . .2 Thus "culture" is signified by centrist ideology, bodied forth as various structures or "apparatuses" whose role is to ensure the perpetuation of all the Community deems necessary and sufficient for its own survival, and acculturation functions as the process by which the individual is initiated-via his or her relationship with those apparatuses-into the social conventions considered acceptable by the ideology. Although Biskind is concerned primarily with films of the 1950s, his politically oriented schema provides a useful vehicle for substantiating and clarifying political subtexts informing films of virtually any era. Granted, America's social and political center has shifted considerably to the right over the past thirty years (largely as a result of the domestic uprisings of the '60s, a collective feeling of betrayal following Watergate, and continuing disillusionment concerning the Vietnam War, to name only a representative number contributing to a myriad of causal factors), but the basic utilitarian assumptions granting the needs and desires of the Community at the expense of the Individual (if need be) still form the basis of America's centrist ideology. It is therefore necessary that any political stance aligning itself with radical philosophies must lay bare any inherent malevolence informing this kind of social ethic. …


Microdeletion 4q21 syndrome has been described in about a dozen patients with deletions ranging from 3.2 to 15.1 MB with similar features including the distinctive facial characteristics of broad forehead, hypertelorism, and prominent front teeth, with severe growth delay, developmental delay, and neonatal hypotonia. A 1.37 MB minimal critical region has been described that accounts for this shared phenotype and includes five known genes: PRKG2, RASGEF1B, HNRNPD, HNRPDL, and ENOPH1. We report on two new patients found through single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) microarray testing that expand the reported phenotype. Patient 1 has a novel deletion of 2.0 MB, the smallest reported deletion, which involves only a partial deletion of the minimal critical region, including the genes HNRNPD, HNRPDL, and ENOPH1. She shares much of the typical phenotype including moderate developmental delay, unusual facial features, small hands and feet, but not any growth delay or neonatal hypotonia. This patient allows further genotype–phenotype correlation of the genes in the minimal critical region, and supports that heterozygous loss of PRKG2 leads to the growth delay. Patient 2 has a novel 3.4 MB deletion that includes the entire critical region, and has typical features, but also presented with cleft palate and Pierre Robin sequence, which have not been previously described. A gene reported to be associated with inherited cleft palate, SCD5, is in the deleted region in this patient, which suggests it may be playing a role in palate formation. Taken together, these patients allow for an expansion of the microdeletion 4q21 syndrome and provide candidate genes for particular features of the phenotype. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Most economic studies of pollution control analyze policies that are optimal for a given set of underlying parameters. Less understood is how such policies perform when the underlying parameters change and policies are not adjusted in response, or what the benefits of adjustment are. We construct several measures of welfare sensitivity and use them to analyze the welfare impacts arising in a simulation of second-best, agri-environmental policies.


The aim of the historical dictionary project is to create a full-type corpus-based dictionary of the early written Latvian texts. The main tasks cover the whole scope of the dictionary making process: to develop a necessary methodology, to write sample entries covering all POS, to make an electronic version of the entries; a further task is to find or to create a lexicographer's workbench.Till now ca 500 entries have been compiled (~ 300 appellatives and ~ 200 proper names) and guidelines on dictionary entry writing have been set.The present report deals with issues concerning corpus compilation, finding spelling variants of the headword, detecting the meaning for lexemes with a small and a large number of occurrences. Special emphasis is put on the description of the origin of the lexeme, detecting lexical, derivational and semantic loans (according to Betz 1959 terminology Lehnworter; Lehnbildungen; Lehnbedeutungen). Loans could be found among collocations and idioms, as well as in the syntax (German Lehnwendungen; Lehnsyntax. As the early sources are mainly religious texts, the special interest lies in religious discourse analysis.The Dictionary is the first and for the moment the only known corpus-based dictionary in Latvia. The input data is the Corpus of the Early Latvian Texts 'SENIE'. The Corpus includes 43 full-text sources with almost 965, 000 tokens covering the 16–18th c.All main sources of the 16th c. are represented in the Corpus, but more data could be explored: 1) The Lord's Prayer published in different collections; 2) manuscript data (songs, separate sentences). The huge quantity of 17th c. data should be added to the Corpus, e.g., The Old Testament; dictionaries, both printed and manuscripts; grammars; texts of the late 17 th c. and manuscripts (both ecclesiastic and clerical texts).One of the issues of corpus development is the unavailability of the early sources in Latvian libraries. Thus, international co-operation should be established in order to raise awareness of the Latvian texts kept in foreign collections and, if possible, to digitalize them.The early texts are rich in spelling variants which puzzle lexicographers, see five versions of the root māja 'house' written as follows: mahj-, mahy-, mai-, maj- and may-. In order to facilitate finding all the occurrences of the head word, a time-consuming solution is to rewrite all the texts in standardized form or to use some software to detect all the spelling variants. Such a solution is found for the Old English texts (software VARD — Variant Detector and the adoption of this practice is worth considering.In detecting the meaning of a lexeme, problems are caused by words with one or two occurrences in the Corpus and those with several thousand occurrences. By means of the concordance program one is able to process words with up to 2,000 occurrences. See the entry pasaule 'world' (1,528 occur at the moment of writing this entry) where not only word meanings with the first and the last citation are listed, but also a number of collocations are presented. While processing a headword with a large number of occurrences (e.g., the conjunction ka 'that' with >16,000 occurrences or Dievs 'God' > 11,000 occur.) the compilers decided to analyze only two sources per century in detail.If only one occurrence is met in the Corpus, additional sources should be examined to determine the meaning: other 17–18th c. dictionaries, dictionaries of different vernaculars, studies in history and botany, the Mulenbach-Endzelin dictionary, Grimm's Das Deutsche Worterbuch, in some cases (delete the) Luther's Bible is consulted (e.g. pakaļazobi — Luther's Backenzahne 'molars').The on-going Dictionary supplies new data for studies of the origin of Latvian words, it detects more precisely the time of the lexeme's entry into the written language which in most cases is identical to the time of the word's origin in general.The compilers of the Dictionary explore the former studies of semantic and lexical loans and only some new explanations or previously unrecognized lexemes are expected to be found. Derivational loans are a challenge for researchers, and new examples are found in corpus analysis, e.g., next to kapsēta 'graveyard' we can find the lexeme baznīcsēta 'churchyard', which is a derivational loan from Middle Low German kerkhof. In contemporary German Kirchhof is encountered, the same as Swedish kyrkogard.Early Latvian texts are rich in derivations and compounds the origins of which are still to be clarified. Hopefully, work with corpus, careful text analysis and comparison to possible source texts can supply new data for a historical dictionary and studies of the early religious lexis.


There are few studies to date that determine the effects of ibuprofen on mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨM) and DNA integrity in neotropical fish. The objective of this study is to determine if four months' exposure to ibuprofen in different concentrations (25 and 50 µg/L) produces effects on ΔΨM and alters the integrity of DNA in striped catfish Pseudoplatystoma magdaleniatum. For this study, the fish were placed in tanks with water at constant concentrations of 0 (control), 25, and 50 µg/L of ibuprofen for four months. Subsequently, blood samples were taken for analysis of ΔΨM and DNA integrity, using a flow cytometer LSRFortessa BD Biosciences. After four months of exposure to ibuprofen at different concentrations, the results showed no increase in Low ΔΨM, indicating that there are no alterations in the mitochondrial membrane potential. On the other hand, the percentages of DNA damage were below 0.39, which indicates that there were no alterations in DNA integrity. It is possible that under the conditions in which this study was conducted (ibuprofen levels, exposure time), they are not sufficient to demonstrate the effects caused by this drug. Higher ibuprofen levels and/or longer exposures may be required to determine alteration in ΔΨM and DNA integrity. Flow cytometric analysis for these types of samples is a fast, specific, and reliable technique, compared to traditional methods.


(Read Sept. 20th, 1913).

The district in which the rocks under discussion are situated is bounded on the N.W. by Coverdale, east by the Valley of the Ure, west by Wharfedale, S.E. by the watershed dividing the Burn and Laver valleys, and on the S.W. by an arbitrary line running due west, from Ramsgill into Wharfedale.

The whole of the Millstone Grit sequence is not seen in this area, beds which have been referred to the top of the Third Grits being the highest that have escaped denudation.

It is of course well known that the succession consists of the usual alternations of grits, sandstones and shales, but owing to the variation horizontally and general similarity of the sandstone and grit bands, it does not appear possible or useful to attempt any division of the series based on the occurrence of grit or sandstone beds at varying horizons.

Marine fossils occur at two well-defined horizons, and it is proposed to make use of these two bands as a basis for the subdivision of the sequence.

Phillips in his " Geology of the Mountain Limestone District " (pp. 209–212) published in 1836, records five marine fossils from Colsterdale on the authority of Danby.

The Rev. J. S Tute recorded from the neighbourhood of Ripon (Proc. Yorks. Geol. Socy., 1867 and 1886), a list of marine fossils from an horizon in the Third Grits which he termed the Cayton Gill Beds on account of their being well exposed in Cayton Gill, ...


Respiratory RNA viruses are constantly evolving, thus requiring development of additional prophylactic and therapeutic strategies. Harnessing the innate immune system to non-specifically respond to viral infection has the advantage of being able to circumvent viral mutations that render the virus resistant to a particular therapeutic agent. Viruses are recognized by various cellular receptors, including Toll-like receptor (TLR) 3 which recognizes double-stranded (ds)RNA produced during the viral replication cycle. TLR3 agonists include synthetic dsRNA such as poly (IC), poly (ICLC) and poly (AU). These agents have been evaluated and found to be effective against a number of viral agents. One major limitation has been the toxicity associated with administration of these drugs. Significant time and effort have been spent to develop alternatives/modifications that will minimize these adverse effects. This review will focus on the TLR3 agonist, poly (IC)/(ICLC) with respect to its use in treatment/prevention of respiratory viral infections.


Objective The antihypertensive effect of fish oil was estimated from randomized trials using metaregression analysis. Modification of the blood pressure (BP) effect by age, gender, blood pressure, and body mass index was examined. Methods A total of 90 randomized trials of fish oil and BP were identified through MEDLINE (1966–March 2001). Trials with co-interventions, patient populations, non-placebo controls, or duration of < 2 weeks were excluded. A total of 36 trials (50 strata) were included, 22 of which had a double-blind design. Original reports were retrieved for data collection on sample size, study design, duration, fish oil dose, BP changes and baseline characteristics of trial populations. Pooled BP estimates were obtained by metaregression analysis, weighted for trial sample sizes. Stratified analyses according to population characteristics were performed. Results Intake of fish oil was high in most trials (median dose: 3.7 g/day). Fish oil reduced systolic BP by 2.1 mmHg [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.0, 3.2;P < 0.01] and diastolic BP by 1.6 mmHg (95% CI: 1.0. 2.2;P < 0.01). Restricting the analysis to double-blind trials yielded BP reductions of 1.7 mmHg (95% CI: 0.3, 3.1) and 1.5 mmHg (95% CI: 0.6, 2.3), respectively. BP effects tended to be larger in populations that were older (> 45 years) and in hypertensive populations (BP ⩾ 140/90 mmHg). Conclusions High intake of fish oil may lower BP, especially in older and hypertensive subjects. The antihypertensive effect of lower doses of fish oil (< 0.5 g/day) however, remains to be established.


Time series solutions for spectral analysis in missing data problems use reconstruction of the missing data, or a maximum likelihood approach that analyzes only the available measured data. Maximum likelihood estimation yields the most accurate spectra. An approximate maximum likelihood algorithm is presented that uses only previous observations falling in a finite interval to compute the likelihood, instead of all previous observations. The resulting nonlinear estimation algorithm requires no user-provided initial solution, is suited for order selection, and can give very accurate spectra even if less than 10% of the data remains.


Large-batch training has been essential in leveraging large-scale datasets and models in deep learning. While it is computationally beneficial to use large batch sizes, it often requires a specially designed learning rate (LR) schedule to achieve a comparable level of performance as in smaller batch training. Especially, when the number of training epochs is constrained, the use of a large LR and a warmup strategy is critical in the final performance of large-batch training due to the reduced number of updating steps. In this work, we propose an automated LR scheduling algorithm which is effective for neural network training with a large batch size under the given epoch budget. In specific, the whole schedule consists of two phases: adaptive warmup and predefined decay, where the LR is increased until the training loss no longer decreases and decreased to zero until the end of training. Here, whether the training loss has reached the minimum value is robustly checked with Gaussian process smoothing in an online manner with a low computational burden. Coupled with adaptive stochastic optimizers such as AdamP and LAMB, the proposed scheduler successfully adjusts the LRs without cumbersome hyperparameter tuning and achieves comparable or better performances than tuned baselines on various image classification benchmarks and architectures with a wide range of batch sizes.


In this paper the application and the rote of information systems and technologies in production processes in the EU members countries and candidates members for EU will be shown. In modern conditions the successful implementation of goals and objectives of the enterprise depends on its effective use of information resources. Information resources are the basis for activities of enterprises in EU, they define their strategic success. Information support of the enterprise depends not only on the availability of information resources and opportunities and implementation of information innovation, streamline information flows of the company, the issues of its effective information interaction with market players as Bulgaria, Ukraine, Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia etc.