The macroeconomic crisis in Indonesia in the late 1990s reduced real per capita income by 74 percent and increased prices of some food groups by 92-445 percent. Adjustments in the consumption decisions of households during this period was analyzed using SUSENAS data. The data showed a very strong pattern of adjustment in the consumption decisions of households. That is, households substituted away from more expensive food groups to cheaper alternatives. Of the nine food groups examined, per capita consumption declined in seven food groups with largest declines in eggs-milk (38%), fish (20%), and meats (13%). In contrast, consumption of the cheapest food group - tubers, increased by 22 percent. Also, households substituted away from the expensive animal-protein sources to cheaper plant-protein sources. Consumption of legumes increased by 13 percent. Moreover, the proportion of households with positive consumption showed the largest declines in meats (13 percentage points) and eggs-milk (10 percentage points), while it declined the lowest in legumes (0.66 percentage points). On the other hand, the proportion of households with positive consumption actually increased only in tubers. The same pattern is shown by the budget re-allocation of households. An AIDS model that accommodates zero consumption was estimated using Heien-Wessels and Shonkwiler-Yen methods. Variation in the parameter (and elasticity) estimates between the two models is largest in food groups with higher proportion of zero consumption such as in meats, while parameter estimates did not vary significantly in food groups with high proportion of positive consumption such as vegetable and cereals. Welfare analysis shows doubling of the cost of purchasing a bundle of food groups that give the same level of utility as in the pre-crisis period.


This appendix reproduces a 195-question survey of federal agency rule drafters that covers a variety of topics related to agency rule-drafting and statutory interpretation. The survey is modeled on the path-breaking empirical work Lisa Bressman and Abbe Gluck have conducted on congressional drafting, though it differs in substantial respects. The author administered the survey over a five-month period in 2013 at seven executive departments (Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Transportation) and two independent agencies (Federal Communications Commission and Federal Reserve). Of the 411 officials sent the survey, 128 responded for a 31% response rate. The findings from this survey will be reported in a series of papers, starting with Chevron Inside the Regulatory State: An Empirical Assessment, 83 Fordham L. Rev. 703 (2014) (invited contribution to Chevron at 30 symposium), available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2483760, and Inside Agency Interpretation, 67 Stan. L. Rev. 999 (2015), available at http://ssrn.com/abstract=2501716.


We present MatRox, a novel model-based algorithm and implementation of Hierarchically Semi-Separable (HSS) matrix computations on parallel architectures. MatRox uses a novel storage format to improve data locality and scalability of HSS matrix-matrix multiplications on shared memory multicore processors. We build a performance model for HSS matrix-matrix multiplications. Based on the performance model, a mixed-rank heuristic is introduced to find an optimal HSS-tree depth for a faster HSS matrix evaluation. Uniform sampling is used to improve the performance of HSS compression. MatRox outperforms state-of-the-art HSS matrix multiplication codes, GOFMM and STRUMPACK, with average speedups of 2.8x and 6.1x respectively on target multicore processors.


Abstract A high school–aged right-handed adolescent boy presented with a 5-mo history of persistent proximal right arm weakness and numbness after an American football stinger injury without a documented history of a shoulder dislocation or humeral fracture. He developed diffuse deltoid muscle atrophy, persistent shoulder abduction weakness, and reduced pinprick sensation confined to the axillary distribution over 5 mos. Needle electromyography demonstrated dense fibrillation potentials and no voluntary activation in all three deltoid muscle heads, indicating a severe posttraumatic ruptured axillary mononeuropathy. The patient then underwent a complex three-cable sural nerve graft repair for attempted reinnervation of the axillary-innervated muscles. Isolated axillary nerve injuries are usually associated with anterior shoulder dislocations; however, a severe isolated persistent axillary mononeuropathy from a ruptured axillary nerve may occur in trauma patients without a clear history of shoulder dislocation. These patients may present with only mild persistent weakness of shoulder abduction. Electrodiagnostic testing to fully assess axillary nerve function should still be considered to identify patients with high-grade nerve injuries that may benefit from sural nerve grafting. The rapid recovery of our patient's initial symptoms with persistent severe axillary injury suggests a unique vulnerability of the nerve due to the neuroanatomy and possibly other factors.


In this research, the effects of rootstocks on the storage performance of Nova mandarins grafted on Carrizo citrange, Troyer citrange, or sour orange grown in the ecological conditions of Dortyol were studied. Fruits were harvested at optimum maturity and kept at 4 °C and 6 °C for 120 days. Changes in weight loss, incidence of fungal decay and physiological disorders, juice content, total soluble solids (TSS), percent fruit with green button, titratable acidity (TA), juice pH, vitamin C content, and rind color (L*, C*, h°) were monitored at 15-day intervals during storage to determine the effects of rootstock on postharvest quality of Nova mandarins. The fruit of Nova mandarin grafted on sour orange and Carrizo citrange had higher weight loss than Troyer citrange. Weight loss from Nova mandarins kept at 4 °C and 6 °C reached 7.71% and 12.21%, respectively, after 120 days of storage. Juice pH, incidence of fungal decay, and physiological disorders increased, while juice content, TA, vitamin C content, percent fruit with green button, and L*, C*, and h° values of rind color decreased in the Nova mandarin cultivar during cold storage. According to the data, the fruits of Nova mandarin grafted on Carrizo citrange, Troyer citrange, or sour orange were stored better at 4 °C than 6 °C. Fruit could be kept at 4 °C for 75 days and at 6 °C for 45 days without any quality deterioration.


The metal-catalyzed successive activation and functionalization of arene/heteroarene is one of the most fundamental transformations in organic synthesis and leads to privileged scaffolds in natural products, pharmaceuticals, agrochemicals, and fine chemicals. Particularly, transition-metal-catalyzed C-H functionalization of arenes with carbene precursors via metal carbene migratory insertion has been well studied. As a result, diverse carbene precursors have been evaluated, such as diazo compounds, sulfoxonium ylides, triazoles, etc. In addition, there have been significant developments with the use of iodonium ylides as carbene precursors in recent years, and these reactions proceed with high efficiencies and selectivities. This review provides a comprehensive overview of iodonium ylides in C-H functionalizations, including the scope, limitations, and their potential synthetic applications.


Brooke‐Spiegler syndrome is a rare, autosomal dominant disease characterized by multiple skin appendage tumors caused by various mutations in the CYLD gene on chromosome 16q12‐q13. We describe a family, in which we performed a molecular‐genetic examination and found a new mutation in exon 19 in the CYLD gene leading to a frameshift. It is important to be aware of this syndrome and its pathogenesis as its phenotypic features can vary so that apparently different diseases are caused by the same genetic defect. In addition, there may be malignant transformation of the generally benign tumors, so that a timely diagnosis is essential for appropriate monitoring and therapy.


This article examines Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol (1843) through the lens of Soren Kierkegaard's philosophical concept of anxiety. Owing to its enduring popularity, A Christmas Carol rarely elicits rigorous explication, much less philosophical exegesis. This critical blind spot, however, should not prevent those interested in establishing a nexus between literature and philosophy from examining it as a serious and important artefact within the history of ideas. A Christmas Carol is indeed historically important, so much so that it may have influenced or even inspired Soren Kierkegaard's The Concept of Anxiety (1844). This work, published on 17 June 1844, put forward the nature of anxiety and explored the ways in which it became manifest. For Kierkegaard, anxiety must precede the qualitative leap of faith which is freedom. Indeed, it is only through anxiety that the self can come to understand its relation between the finite and the infinite, the temporal and the eternal. A seminal existential text, it influenced a range of thinkers including Heidegger, Sartre, Jaspers and Tillich. It is timely, however, to propose that one of the key concepts of anxiety that Kierkegaard expounds in this extraordinary work, that of 'the demonic' or neurotic individual, was actually anticipated 6 months earlier, in the fictional form of Ebenezer Scrooge, in Charles Dickens's widely published and translated popular masterpiece, A Christmas Carol.


In this paper, we propose a rate-adaptive bit and power loading approach for the OFDM-based relaying communications. The cooperative relay operates in the half-duplex amplify-and-forward mode. The source and the relay has the separate power constraints. The maximum-ratio combining is employed at the destination for maximizing the received SNR. Assuming the perfect channel knowledge available at all nodes, the proposed approach is to maximize the throughput (the number of bits/symbol) at the given power constraint and the target link performance. Unlike the water-filling method, the proposed approach does not need the iterative loading process, and can offer the sub-optimum performance. Computer simulations are used to test the proposed approach for various scenarios with respect to the relay location or the distributed power allocation.


The first lifetime measurement used to study the magnetic response of halo nuclei is presented. The lifetime
of the first excited state of the one-neutron halo nucleus 19C has been measured by two complementary
Doppler-shift techniques with the Gamma-Ray Energy Tracking In-beam Nuclear Array (GRETINA). The
B(M1; 3/2+ →1/2+g.s.) strength of 3.21(25)×10−3μ2
N determined for this decay represents a strongly hindered
M1 transition among light nuclei. Shell-model calculations predict a strong hindrance due to the near-degeneracy
of the s1/2 and d5/2 orbitals among neutron-rich carbon isotopes, while tensor corrections and loosely bound
effects are necessary to account for the remaining strength.


Author(s): Ancheta, Angelo N.; Proyecto Derechos Civiles, Civil Rights Project / | Abstract: The district court below correctly upheld the constitutionality of the Lynn School Committee's Voluntary Plan for School Improvement and the Elimination of Racial Isolation. In particular, the district court's conclusion that promoting racial diversity and reducing racial isolation in the Lynn schools are compelling governmental interests is well supported by both the expert testimony introduced at trial and numerous research studies documenting the benefits of racially diverse student bodies and the harms of racially segregated learning environments. Among the many benefits that accrue from student body diversity are increased academic achievement, greater educational and occupational aspirations, more cross-racial understanding, a stronger sense of civic engagement, and an increased desire to live and work in settings with members of multiple racial groups. Among the harms associated with racial isolation and segregated learning environments are adverse effects on school attendance and performance, stereotyping and racial hostility, decreased opportunities to learn from members of other racial groups, and poorer preparation to address interracial contexts as adults. Research studies also support the district court's conclusion that the Lynn Plan is narrowly tailored because of the necessity of employing race-conscious policies in attaining student bodies that can promote the benefits of racial diversity and prevent the harms of racial isolation.


Summary
The aim of this report is to provide an overview of the current status of efforts on the potential rehabilitation of sturgeon populations in Turkish waters, describing the structure and the outcome of projects carried out since 2006 and identifying the strategic needs for sturgeon conservation measures at a national level. It is well known that there were six sturgeon species occurring around Turkish Black Sea coasts while entering the rivers, mainly Kizilirmak, Yesilirmak, Sakarya and Coruh Rivers for spawning. Anadromous sturgeon species have been strictly protected throughout Turkey since 1997. Conservation and management measurements have been implemented since 1970s. However, this was apparently with little success as stocks continued to decline and habitats deteriorated further, threatening the stocks with extinction. At the same time the needs for survival are not well documented. A project was initiated on 30 January 2006, consisting of seven-work packages including studies on population structure, reproduction, habitat assessment, genetic variability between and within stocks and the development of protective management strategies and plans. The work covered the Turkish Black Sea coastline and the rovers Yesilirmak, Kizilirmak, Coruh and Sakarya. Actively sampled and/or accidentally caught specimens have been tagged by T-bars and released after measurements and tissue sampling for genetic analyses. In addition, broodstocks of Russian sturgeon (Acipenser gueldenstaedtii), Beluga (Huso huso), and stellate (A. stellatus) are being built by rearing fish at the Central Fisheries Research (Yomra, Trabzon, Turkey) Institute. Reproduction studies have mainly focused on sperm collection, cryopreservation and induced spawning as well as on larval rearing.


The study investigated how social capital influences firms to generate higher performance through innovation among SMEs in Ghana. The study employed a quantitative approach. The study employed stratified sampling to sample 240 respondents from 240 SMEs in the Eastern Region of Ghana. Primary data was gathered using a questionnaire adapted from previously validated instruments. The data gathered was analyzed using Partial Least Square (PLS) of the Structural Equation Model (SEM). The findings proved internal and external factors of the SMEs were found to be strengthened through innovation initiatives of the SMEs. The social capital initiatives of the SMEs positively and significantly enhanced the innovation practices of the SMEs. The result showed internal and external social capital initiatives of the SMEs were positively and significantly associated with the innovation practices of the firms. It concludes that the effect of social capital among SMEs on firm performance is indirectly through their level of innovation practices. The results provide empirical support to the validation of existing theories that a company's utilization of important values offer some level of competitive advantage for superior performance in an industry. We therefore recommended that Owners and Managers of SMEs take advantage of their internal social resources as well as building strategic external capital in the quest to remain competitive and enhance profitability.

Citation:Tetteh, F. K., Mohammed, J. and Teye, E. (2021). Effect of Social Capital on SME: Does Innovation Matter?
International Journal of Technology and Management Research (IJTMR), Vol. 6 (2): Pp.21 -37.
Received: February 5, 2021
Accepted: September 1, 2021


We review the functional renormalization group (RG) approach to the Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer to Bose–Einstein condensation (BCS–BEC) crossover for an ultracold gas of fermionic atoms. Formulated in terms of a scale-dependent effective action, the functional RG interpolates continuously between the atomic or molecular microphysics and the macroscopic physics on large length scales. We concentrate on the discussion of the phase diagram as a function of the scattering length and the temperature, which is a paradigm example for the non-perturbative power of the functional RG. A systematic derivative expansion provides for both a description of the many-body physics and its expected universal features as well as an accurate account of the few-body physics and the associated BEC and BCS limits.


Three enzymes catalysing the synthesis of four intermediates (phosphoribosylglycinamide, phosphoribosylaminoimidazole-succinocarboxamide, phosphoribosylaminoimidazole-carboxamide and AMP) in the purine biosynthetic pathway were detected in extracts of Mycobacterium microti and M. avium, even when the organisms had been grown in mice. However only one of the three enzymes, adenylosuccinate AMP-lyase (catalysing the synthesis of the last two of the four intermediates listed above) was detected in M. leprae. Phosphoribosyltransferases, which convert adenine, guanine and hypoxanthine to the corresponding nucleoside monophosphates, and adenosine kinase were the major enzymes for purine scavenging in all mycobacteria studied. In contrast to enzymes in the synthetic pathway, evidence for metabolic regulation of the purine-scavenging enzymes was obtained. In particular, 20-80-fold differences in the activities of guanine phosphoribosyltransferase and adenosine kinase were observed when M. microti was grown in media with or without purines, or in mice. In M. leprae, activities of all phosphoribosyltransferases were low in comparison with activities in M. microti and M. avium (specific activity less than 2% when comparisons were made between extracts of host-grown mycobacteria). However, activity of adenosine kinase was higher in host-grown M. leprae than in host-grown M. microti or M. avium.


High power white LEDs are expected to replace the existing lighting technologies in near future which are also suggested for visible light communication (VLC). We proposed an algorithm for high precision indoor positioning using lighting LEDs, VLC and image sensors. In the proposed algorithm, four LEDs transmitted their three-dimensional coordinate information which were received and demodulated by two image sensors near the unknown position. The unknown position was then calculated from the geometrical relations of the LED images created on the image sensors. We described the algorithm in details. Simulation of the proposed algorithm was done and presented in this paper. This technique did not require any angular measurement which was needed in contemporary positioning algorithms using LED and image sensor. Simulation results showed that the proposed system could estimate the unknown position within the accuracy of few centimeters. Positioning accuracy could be increased by using high resolution image sensors or by increasing the separation between the image sensors. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijece.v1i2.165


The need for low cost, compact, highpower laser systems with their applications in medicine and high energy physics is growing rapidly. Counter propagating laser pulses amplification promise a breakthrough by the use of much smaller amplifying media, that is, millimeter plasma scale. The full-wave solution for the two laser pulses interact in almost homogenous or plasma channel is conducted along with particle-in-cell simulation for the same pulses' parameters. Motivated by the promise of reduced cost and complexity of the intense lasers, the amplitudes of laser pulses are taken to be small (a0 < 1). The growth rate of the seed pulse and the dephasing limitations are calculated. The results show that the energy is transferred from the pump pulse to the seed pulse effectively depending on the length of amplification and the isolation of the limiting conditions. A wide variety of system parameters such as frequency of laser pulses, plasma density matched to three waves interaction, and intensity of the pump wave and seed wave are studied. The influence of plasma and pulses parameters on simulation results are thoroughly investigated using a moving window technique and are compared with theoretical and numerical predictions. The comparison shows that the numerical full wave solution is very sensitive to any plasma density changes near the entrance of the pump pulse into the plasma.


Our common definition of literacy is the ability to read and write in one language. But as Margaret Ferguson reveals in "Dido's Daughters", this description is inadequate, because it fails to help us understand heated conflicts over literacy during the emergence of print culture. The 15th through 17th centuries, she shows, were a contentious era of transition from Latin and other clerical modes of literacy toward more vernacular forms of speech and writing. Ferguson's aim in this work is twofold: to show that what counted as more valuable among these competing literacies had much to do with notions of gender, and to demonstrate how debates about female literacy were critical to the emergence of imperial nations. Looking at writers whom she dubs the figurative daughters of the mythological figure Dido - builder of an empire that threatened to rival Rome - Ferguson traces debates about literacy and empire in the works of Marguerite de Navarre, Christine de Pizan, Elizabeth Cary and Aphra Behn, as well as male writers such as Shakespeare, Rabelais, and Wyatt. The result is a study that sheds new light on the crucial roles that gender and women played in the modernization of England and France.


Augmented Reality (AR) is the combination of virtual objects and the physical world surrounding us. These virtual objects are used to enrich the real world. Because of technical improvements of mobile hardware, there are quite a number of AR applications deployed in the last decade.

To illustrate the potential of the AR technique and to look for a new concept of human-computer interaction, we started the 'Augmented Reality for 3D Multi-user Interaction' (ARMI) project. The goal of the ARMI project is to build an AR application where, two or more users, can work concurrently on the same virtual maquette. This maquette is visible through a Head Mounted Display (HMD) to display visual objects on top of the real world. The virtual maquette can be used for representing specific traffic situations with roads and cars but also for modelling other 3D scenarios. The following basic actions are supported: creating, selecting, moving, rotating, and deleting virtual objects.

The virtual maquette, build by the ARMI project, depends on four distinct areas and we identify the following research areas: hand tracking, hand-pose estimation, 3D interfacing, and AR-object replication. This thesis looks into the possibilities of object replication for the AR application. First, a number of AR applications are considered and it becomes clear that most AR applications with multiple users are depending on a client-server approach and no object replication is used. Second, a number of replication systems are described in which more than one server is involved to keep the data consistent and a number of fundamental replication algorithms are discussed. Based on the related work the decision is made to use a speculative variant of an asynchronous majority consensus algorithm for the AR-object replication.

Furthermore, in this thesis the development, implementation and evaluation of the AR-object replication is described. From the evaluation it becomes clear that it is difficult to satisfy all the required replication parameters. We notice a number of replication limits. For example a scaling problem, which means that the number of clients is limited, and specific user behaviour in terms of performed operations per second. Based on the evaluation we conclude that the relaxation of a number of replication parameters is necessary to keep the system responsive enough for an AR application.


The carotenoids lutein (L) zeaxanthin (Z) and meso-zeaxanthin (MZ) accumulate as macular pigment (MP) in the macula lutea, the central region of the retina responsible for central and fine detail vision. These carotenoids confer protection against age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the most common cause of blindness in the developed world. The light-filtering properties of MP may also improve visual performance and resolution.
The first body of this work (referred to as the Meso-zeaxanthin Ocular Supplementation Trial, or the "MOST" Study) was to assess the serum and macular response to three different macular carotenoid formulations in normal subjects (n = 27) and in patients with AMD (n = 27). Subjects were randomly assigned to one of three interventions. Group 1: 20 mg L, 0.860 mg Z; Group 2: 10 mg L, 2 mg Z, 10 mg MZ; Group 3: 3 mg L, 2 mg Z, 17 mg MZ. Serum L, Z and MZ were quantified at baseline, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks using HPLC. MP optical density (MPOD) was assessed at baseline, 2, 4, 6, and 8 weeks at 0.25⁰, 0.5⁰, 1.0⁰ and 1.75⁰ of eccentricity using customised heterochromatic flicker photometry (cHFP).
MP increased significantly at 0.25⁰, 0.5⁰, 1⁰ and 1.75⁰ of eccentricity in all Groups, with the exception of the 1.75⁰ eccentricity in Group 3. MP response was statistically similar for AMD versus normal subjects, with the exception of a significantly greater response for AMD subjects at 1.75⁰ eccentricity in Group 2. Serum L and Z increased significantly in Group 1 and Group 2, with no significant change in Group 3. Serum MZ increased significantly in Group 1, Group 2 and Group 3.
While all three formulations achieved a significant and comparable increase in MPOD within eight weeks, the formulation containing L:MZ:Z in a 10:10:2 ratio (Group 2) was uniquely efficacious in terms of achieving maximum concentrations of circulating levels of all three carotenoids, thereby optimising the bioavailability of these compounds for capture by the target tissue (retina).
The second body of this work (referred to as the Egg Xanthophyll Intervention Trial, or the "EXIT" Study) developed a novel, carotenoid-enriched hen egg as an alternative to traditional supplements to augment MP. This was achieved through the incorporation of oil-suspended carotenoids into the hen feed given to egg-laying hens. Yolk carotenoid concentrations were measured by HPLC. 568 ± 72 μg/yolk L and 732 ± 110 μg/yolk MZ were successfully incorporated into the egg yolks.
Human macular and serum response to supplementation with carotenoid-enriched eggs were also investigated in an eight-week clinical study. The "enriched" group (n = 25) was supplemented with L:MZ eggs (described above) concurrently with a control group (n = 25) supplemented with standard hen eggs. Serum carotenoids and MP optical density were measured using HPLC and heterochromatic flicker photometry respectively.
The novel carotenoid-enriched egg was successful in augmenting serum L, Z and MZ. It was not successful as a means to augment MP in the current study, likely due to the short eight-week study period. Further work is required to demonstrate a significant effect by this form of supplementation on MP levels.


Over the past decade and more, there has been a significant growth in academic attention directed towards community and alternative media. This increase is indicative of a number of trends in global media and communication. The growth in internet-based media initiatives and the explosion of social media sites are obvious examples – although the content and process of these media are not always alternative of course, even though the medium may be new. Alongside these newer technologies, more traditional outlets of community and alternative media (in particular, radio) have also grown exponentially. In Australia and internationally, much of the community and alternative media literature shares at least an admiration or even at times, a celebration of the new media's potential to deliver communicative democracy. Typically, this local-level grassroots media – for the people, by the people – challenges mainstream media by destabilising the status quo, enabling a positive cacophony of diverse and/or marginalised voices to communicate their ideas and beliefs. And audience research (Meadows et al, 2007; McNair, 2010) suggests it presents not only an opportunity to broadcast, but to be heard. In an age where concentrated media ownership and associated economies of scale limit diversity, these efforts signal the possibility of something different. Despite this recent growth, there is no doubt that these media have flourished in a broader environment which remains relatively hostile. At the current historical juncture, media policy environments and the mediasphere at large are defined by the discourses of neo-liberalism. Reviewing the authors' local, national and international experiences of alternative and community media, and with one eye on the recent Independent Media Inquiry, this paper confronts the contemporary neo-liberal powerhouse and its implications for community and alternative media producers and their audiences.


This work, efforts are concentrated on solving the problem of decoding binary cyclic code, using hamming neural network. Therefore, this work shows the ability of hamming network in solving one of the important problems in coding theory. It presents the results of applying hamming network as a decoding algorithm for cyclic code. Th e results prove the relative efficiency of hamming network in decoding large linear cyclic codes compared with other decoding algorithms.


This paper focuses on a workshop entitled "Matter of ambiances" which takes place at the School of Architecture of Nantes (France). The aim is to help the future architects and urban designers to question the atmosphere of spaces through to materials to make them more aware of working invisible matter (ambiance) with visible matter. Materials testing and experimentations are the principal teaching method thanks to partnerships with materials producers. Materials manipulated by students come from removal of barriers between industrial fields. New architectural process actually lead us to think that ambiances could be the result of their application.


We show, for the first time to our knowledge, that highly nonlinear optically active as well as orientationally optimized crystalline materials for second-order nonlinear optics can be prepared by a proper design of short hydrogen-bonded molecular aggregates derived from a specially developed merocyanine dye. One of the cocrystals is shown to be a very useful and highly efficient crystalline material for electro-optic devices because of the perfect chromophoric orientation, the large electro-optic coefficient r111=30±3 pm/V at λ=1535 nm, and the greatly improved physical properties such as higher melting point and crystal properties such as crystallinity. In addition, we demonstrate that one can vary or tune the linear and nonlinear optical properties of this cocrystal without modifying the chromophoric orientation in the crystal lattice by changing the crystal growth conditions.


One of the drawbacks of the gas turbine is that performance drops rapidly when ambient air temperature increases. This is a major drawback for gas turbines operated in a tropical country like Sri Lanka. In Colombo, commercial capital of Sri Lanka where this study was carried out, the ambient temperature typically varies between 25 0C and 32 0C. The Kelanitissa gas turbine plant has single shaft gas turbines (GE MS5001 R) operated in open cycle which use diesel as fuel (designed for dual fuel) at a designed heat rate of 13,980 kJ/kWh and an electrical efficiency of 25.8%. The designed exhaust temperature is 513 0C. In this study, Kelanitissa gas turbine unit was used for assessment of the performance with the changes in ambient air temperature. Two approaches were used to study this phenomenon. Firstly, the performance parameters were calculated by using actual data acquired by the operation history of the power plant. Secondly, the performance was analyzed using thermodynamic principles. Then results of the two approaches were compared. The present performance values of the studied gas turbine, when compared to designed values, showed a very poor performance due to predominantly high ambient air temperatures. Originally designed for an efficiency of 25.8%, the maximum efficiency achieved at 33 0C was only 21.2%. This translates into a 4.6 %-point reduction in efficiency at 33 0C ambient temperature. Estimated cooling load for the proposed inlet air cooling is 679.87 RT. Cost per unit cooling load of the reference 2-stage direct-fired absorption system is $751-721 (according to 600RT-700RT). For the worst case scenario the value of $751 per RT and exhaust system constituting 98% of the cost of a market-ready direct fired system (Broad Inc., 2008) can be used. This results in $736/RT as the cost for an absorption chiller system driven by exhaust heat. Total cost for the 679.87 RT system is $ 500,370.72 (Rs. 65Mn). Payback period of the project is 11 years but the present value after 19 years is exceeding the project cost. Present value for 19 years is Rs. 65.86 Mn. Bringing down the temperature from an average of 270C to the ISO value of 15 0C would give Rs. 6 Mn of annual savings.


Katherine Mansfield and T.S. Eliot had a friendly yet fraught relationship in which an initial mutual admiration turned into wariness. Their literary acquaintance began with the Bloomsbury Circle, and Mansfield's enthusiasm for The Love Song of Alfred J. Prufrock which she read out at Garsington Manor in June 1917, saying: 'that's what I want modern poetry to be', and 'it is after all, a short story'. Later she saw his poetry as 'unspeakably dreary', while he formed the view that she was 'a thick skinned toady', and 'a dangerous WOMAN'. Eliot's brief comments on Mansfield's story 'Bliss' give some insight into his views of her work. This paper, however, aims to examine his modernism as a possible influence on on her artistic practice (evident in allusions to 'Preludes', Prufrock and 'Rhapsody on a Winter's Night'), and the possible impact of his criticism and theories of art on her thinking (for example, her belief in the impersonality of the artist). Finally it will consider how the relationship has been taken up as a subject for fiction by New Zealand writer and critic, C.K. Stead, in his novels The Secret History of Modernism (2001) and Mansfield (2004).


Abstract. The self-organizing map (SOM) technique is considered and extended to assess the extremes of a multivariate sea wave climate at a site. The main purpose is to obtain a more complete representation of the sea states, including the most severe states that otherwise would be missed by a SOM. Indeed, it is commonly recognized, and herein confirmed, that a SOM is a good regressor of a sample if the frequency of events is high (e.g., for low/moderate sea states), while a SOM fails if the frequency is low (e.g., for the most severe sea states). Therefore, we have considered a trivariate wave climate (composed by significant wave height, mean wave period and mean wave direction) collected continuously at the Acqua Alta oceanographic tower (northern Adriatic Sea, Italy) during the period 1979–2008. Three different strategies derived by SOM have been tested in order to capture the most extreme events. The first contemplates a pre-processing of the input data set aimed at reducing redundancies; the second, based on the post-processing of SOM outputs, consists in a two-step SOM where the first step is applied to the original data set, and the second step is applied on the events exceeding a given threshold. A complete graphical representation of the outcomes of a two-step SOM is proposed. Results suggest that the post-processing strategy is more effective than the pre-processing one in order to represent the wave climate extremes. An application of the proposed two-step approach is also provided, showing that a proper representation of the extreme wave climate leads to enhanced quantification of, for instance, the alongshore component of the wave energy flux in shallow water. Finally, the third strategy focuses on the peaks of the storms.


A new method for estimating the diffuse attenuation coefficient for photosynthetically active radiation (KdPAR) from paired temperature sensors was derived. We show that during cases where the attenuation of penetrating shortwave solar radiation is the dominant source of temperature changes, time series measurements of water temperatures at multiple depths (z1 and z2) are related to one another by a linear scaling factor (α). KdPAR can then be estimated by the simple equation KdPAR = ln(α)/(z2−z1). A suggested workflow is presented that outlines procedures for calculating KdPAR according to this paired temperature sensor (PTS) method. This method is best suited for conditions when radiative temperature gains are large relative to physical noise. These conditions occur frequently on water bodies with low wind and/or high KdPARs but can be used for other types of lakes during time periods of low wind and/or where spatially redundant measurements of temperatures are available. The optimal vertical placement of temperature sensors according to a priori knowledge of KdPAR is also described. This information can be used to inform the design of future sensor deployments using the PTS method or for campaigns where characterizing sub‐daily changes in temperatures is important. The PTS method provides a novel method to characterize light attenuation in aquatic ecosystems without expensive radiometric equipment or the user subjectivity inherent in Secchi depth measurements. This method also can enable the estimation of KdPAR at higher frequencies than many manual monitoring programs allow.


The increasing heterogeneity of the VM offerings on public IaaS clouds gives rise to a very large number of deployment options for constructing distributed, multi-component cloud applications. However, selecting an appropriate deployment variant, i.e., a valid combination of deployment options, to meet required performance levels is non-trivial. The combinatorial explosion of the deployment space makes it infeasible to measure the performance of all deployment variants to build a comprehensive empirical performance model. To address this problem, we propose Feature-Oriented Cloud (FOCloud), a performance engineering approach for deployment configurable cloud applications. FOCloud (i) uses feature modeling to structure and constrain the valid deployment space by modeling the commonalities and variations in the different deployment options and their inter-dependencies, (ii) uses sampling and machine learning to incrementally and cost-effectively build a performance prediction model whose input variables are the deployment options, and the output variable is the performance of the resulting deployment variant, and (iii) uses Explainable AI techniques to provide explanations for the prediction outcomes of valid deployment variants in terms of the deployment options. We demonstrate the practicality and feasibility of FOCloud by applying it to an extension of the RuBiS benchmark application deployed on Google Cloud.


In this collection of essays, leading cultural theorists consider the meaning and implications of world-scale humanist scholarship by engaging with Immanuel Wallerstein's world-systems analysis. The renowned sociologist developed his influential critical framework to explain the historical and continuing exploitation of the rest of the world by the West. World-systems analysis reflects Wallerstein's conviction that understanding global inequality requires thinking on a global scale. Humanists have often criticized his theory as insufficiently attentive to values and objects of knowledge such as culture, agency, difference, subjectivity, and the local. The editors of this collection do not deny the validity of those criticisms; instead, they offer Wallerstein's world-systems analysis as a well-developed vision of the world scale for humanists to think with and against. Scholars of comparative literature, gender, geography, history, law, race, and sociology consider what thinking on the world scale might mean for particular disciplinary practices, knowledge formations, and objects of study. Several essays offer broader reflections on what is at stake for the study of culture in decisions to adopt or reject world-scale thinking. In a brief essay, Immanuel Wallerstein situates world-systems analysis vis-a-vis the humanities.

Contributors . Gopal Balakrishnan, Tani E. Barlow, Neil Brenner, Richard E. Lee, Franco Moretti, David Palumbo-Liu, Bruce Robbins, Helen Stacy, Nirvana Tanoukhi, Immanuel Wallerstein, Karen Wigen


Schemes like conventional password schemes such as textual password scheme, graphical scheme are commonly used for authentication. But these schemes are vulnerable to dictionary attack, shoulder surfing attack, accidental login. Hence the text-based shoulder surfing resistant graphical password schemes have been proposed. These existing schemes are not secure and efficient enough and have high failure rate. The text-based shoulder surfing resistant graphical password scheme is improved by using colors. In addition one time password is also used. So it has become more secure. User can easily login to the system. Unauthorized user cannot get the password easily. Hence this scheme provide protection against the shoulder surfing.


This investigation was carried out to evaluate the use of allergic skin tests in the diagnosis of pseudotuberculosis in sheep. For this purpose, two different allergens were prepared by two different methods. Allergens were prepared from C. pseudotuberculosis NVH 3368 strain. The study was carried out on farms with a total of 300 sheep in the province of Konya. The effects of two different allergens injected into four different sites in all three groups (infected, suspected and healthy) were examined (P < 0.05). At the end of the allergic skin test it was found that 73 (73%) of infected sheep tested positive. Sixty-one (83.5%) of these 73 were tested by SAT, 60 (82.1%) by postmortem examination and 38 (52.0%) by bacteriological examination (P < 0.05). All tests gave negative results for the healthy group. Moreover, in the infected animals, the sensitivity, specificity and predictive values from SAT, postmortem examination and bacteriological examination were investigated. The values were 100.0%, 29.0% and 75.5% for the axillary site. It was confirmed that the axilla is the best injection site in allergic tests. In conclusion, it was found the allergic skin test was a reliable method for the diagnosis of pseudotuberculosis in sheep in the field.


Mixing-throat cavitation in a liquid jet pump results from high jet velocities, low suction (NPSH) pressure, or low discharge pressure. Incipient cavitation at the jet boundary has no effect on jet pump efficiency, but under severe conditions it spreads to the walls. A limiting flow condition results which is independent of discharge pressure. Efficiency deteriorates rapidly and the pump head-flow characteristics can no longer be predicted by conventional theory. Eight correlation parameters (1937–1968) and their interrelations are examined. A Cavitation Index σL is recommended for correlation of cavitation-limited flow results. Limiting flow data from 14 references on water, oils, and mercury, plus additional data on three water jet pumps are compared, showing that 11 sets of data on water, oils, and mercury can be represented by the single-number index σL , with a range of 0.8 to 1.67. Conventional jet pumps are described by σL = 1.0 to 1.4 and σL = 1.35 is recommended for conservative use. The limiting flow function Y (NPSH) is shown to be a useful tool in comparing cavitation response to design changes. System design to avoid cavitation is facilitated by a simple limiting flow equation, ML (R, σL , NPSH, Vn ), and the equation is compared with recently published data. Cavitation can be avoided by reducing Vn , and R, or by raising suction port pressure. Flow passage contours, including nozzle-to-throat spacing, influence σL and the limiting flow ratio can also be improved by reducing σL (0.9 or less) through careful design. Systems handling high gas-solubility liquids can be improved by reducing gas content; fluid properties otherwise have little effect on this jet pump phenomenon.


Product quality and a sustainable food chain of ruminant products are largely determined by animal nutrition, in which forage is the major feed source. Forages and grasslands play a unique role in agriculture because they contribute through animals to our food supply and to the abatement of environmental problems. Interest in grassland management and grass utilization for dairy production in temperate and subtropical regions has recently led to considerable research efforts. In the past this research often emphasized on plant and animal aspects separately. However, the interrelationship between pasture and the grazing ruminant is a dynamic, two-way process. Many people are not aware of these complex relations, and scientists often focus on either soil-plant interactions, plant production, animal nutrition, animal production or product quality issues. This book contains the contributions of researchers and experts in the field of grassland management and grass utilization. Chapters are arranged in an order that allows progressive development within the food chain, moving from the big picture to basic principles of grassland management and effects on herbage quality, intake and nutrient flows.


Agrin is a secreted, motor neuron-derived heparan sulfate proteoglycan that is required for the development of the postsynaptic region of the neuromuscular junction. After activating its receptor, the muscle-specific kinase, acetylcholine receptors (AChRs) on the surface of muscle fibers aggregate into high-density clusters and become anchored to the cytoskeleton. Wang et al. determined that the cytoplasmic domain of the AChR β subunit interacted with the tumor suppressor protein adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) in response to agrin. Treatment of cultured myotubes with agrin stimulated relocalization of APC from the cytoplasm and nucleus to clustered AChRs. Expression of a competing fragment of APC blocked formation of AChR clusters in response to agrin. APC interacts with actin and microtubules, and the authors propose that the observed APC β subunit association may link AChRs to the cytoskeleton and facilitate specification of the neuromuscular junction. The interaction also suggests possible cross-talk between the agrin pathway and Wnt/β-catenin-APC pathway. J. Wang, Z. Jing, L. Zhang, G. Zhou, J. Braun, Y. Yao, Z.-Z. Wang, Regulation of acetylcholine receptor clustering by the tumor suppressor APC. Nat. Neurosci. 6, 1017-1018 (2003). [Online Journal]


Multidrug resistance (MDR) is a major obstacle to successful cancer treatment. To understand the mechanism of MDR, many cancer cell lines have been established, and various mechanisms of resistance, such as ATP-binding cassette (ABC) transporter-mediated drug efflux, have been discovered. Previously, a MDR cell line MCF7/AdVp3000 was selected from breast cancer cell line MCF7 against Adriamycin, and overexpression of ABCG2 was thought to cause MDR in this derivative cell line. However, ectopic overexpression of ABCG2 in MCF7 cells could not explain the extremely high drug resistance level of the selected MCF7/AdVp3000 cells. We hypothesized that MCF7/AdVp3000 cells must have other resistance mechanisms selected by Adriamycin. To test this hypothesis, we compared the global protein profiles between MCF7 and MCF7/AdVp3000 cells. Following two-dimensional gel electrophoresis and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry analysis, 17 protein spots with differential levels between the two cell lines were identified. Although 14-3-3sigma, keratin 18, keratin 19, ATP synthase beta, protein disulfide isomerase, heat shock protein 27, cathepsin D, triose-phosphate isomerase, peroxiredoxin 6, and electron transfer flavoprotein were increased, nm23/H1, peroxiredoxin 2, nucleophosmin 1/B23, and inorganic pyrophosphatase were decreased in MCF7/AdVp3000 cells. The differential levels of these proteins were validated using Western blot. Furthermore, functional validation showed that the elevated 14-3-3sigma expression contributes considerably to the observed drug resistance in MCF7/AdVp3000 cells. We, thus, conclude that these proteins likely contribute to the resistance selected in the MCF7/AdVp3000 cells, and their altered expression in tumors may cause clinical resistance to chemotherapy.


In combination with a certain road tunnel instance Ningwu Highway,a working face rock ahead of forecast model is established. The prediction criterions include the Working face of rock radar images coefficient factor rock tunnel face conditions and the tunnel observation and analysis of geological factors are determined in the article. Their evaluation indexes are determined by the principle of which degree comes close and judged by experts. Finally the prediction results are came up through the fuzzy comprehensive evaluation and compared with the indexes of the degree of stability. Then it can make the prediction conclusion. The result shows that the model is convenient to use in practice very well. So it is proved that this prediction model is reliable.


The ability to accurately control posture and perceive self-motion and spatial orientation requires knowledge of the motion of both the head and body. However, whereas the vestibular sensors and nuclei directly encode head motion, no sensors directly encode body motion. Instead, the convergence of vestibular and neck proprioceptive inputs during self-motion is generally believed to underlie the ability to compute body motion. Here, we provide evidence that the brain explicitly computes an internal estimate of body motion at the level of single cerebellar neurons. Neuronal responses were recorded from the rostral fastigial nucleus, the most medial of the deep cerebellar nuclei, during whole-body, body-under-head, and head-on-body rotations. We found that approximately half of the neurons encoded the motion of the body in space, whereas the other half encoded the motion of the head in space in a manner similar to neurons in the vestibular nuclei. Notably, neurons encoding body motion responded to both vestibular and proprioceptive stimulation (accordingly termed bimodal neurons). In contrast, neurons encoding head motion were sensitive only to vestibular inputs (accordingly termed unimodal neurons). Comparison of the proprioceptive and vestibular responses of bimodal neurons further revealed similar tuning in response to changes in head-on-body position. We propose that the similarity in nonlinear processing of vestibular and proprioceptive signals underlies the accurate computation of body motion. Furthermore, the same neurons that encode body motion (i.e., bimodal neurons) most likely encode vestibular signals in a body-referenced coordinate frame, since the integration of proprioceptive and vestibular information is required for both computations.


We examined the effects of intravenous infusion of calcitonin gene-related peptide (CGRP) and sodium nitroprusside (SNP) on baroreceptor afferent nerve activity, renal sympathetic efferent nerve activity (RSNA), and heart rate in alpha-chloralose-anesthetized rabbits. Baroreceptor afferent nerve activity was measured from aortic nerves during CGRP- and SNP-induced hypotension. Decreases in aortic nerve activity in response to decreases in mean arterial pressure were not different during CGRP and SNP infusion. Progressive infusion of CGRP (12-120 pmol.kg-1.min-1) increased RNSA by 83 +/- 14 (mean +/- SE), 175 +/- 26, 246 +/- 36, and 343 +/- 41%, and heart rate by 8 +/- 2, 24 +/- 3, 37 +/- 4, and 47 +/- 6 beats/min during falls of blood pressure of 5, 10, 15, and 20 mmHg, respectively. These increases in RSNA and heart rate produced by CGRP were significantly greater than those produced by SNP. The alterations in heart rate and RSNA with CGRP were reversed by restoring blood pressure with phenylephrine HCl. In rabbits with sinoaortic and vagal deafferentation, the responses of heart rate and RSNA to a fall of blood pressure were abolished during both CGRP and SNP infusion. Therefore, it is suggested that the facilitated responses of heart rate and RSNA during CGRP infusion occurred by way of the arterial baroreflex arc.


Deep learning models have recently shown to be vulnerable to backdoor poisoning, an insidious attack where the victim model predicts clean images correctly but classifies the same images as the target class when a trigger poison pattern is added. This poison pattern can be embedded in the training dataset by the adversary. Existing defenses are effective under certain conditions such as a small size of the poison pattern, knowledge about the ratio of poisoned training samples or when a validated clean dataset is available. Since a defender may not have such prior knowledge or resources, we propose a defense against backdoor poisoning that is effective even when those prerequisites are not met. It is made up of several parts: one to extract a backdoor poison signal, detect poison target and base classes, and filter out poisoned from clean samples with proven guarantees. The final part of our defense involves retraining the poisoned model on a dataset augmented with the extracted poison signal and corrective relabeling of poisoned samples to neutralize the backdoor. Our approach has shown to be effective in defending against backdoor attacks that use both small and large-sized poison patterns on nine different target-base class pairs from the CIFAR10 dataset.


This paper evaluates the extended target zone proposal of Williamson and Miller using the National Institute world economic model (GEM). Williamson and Miller's proposals envisage that real exchange rates will be controlled by movements in relative interest rates, that fiscal policy will be used to steer nominal demand towards a target which depends on capacity utilization, inflation and the current balance, and that the average level of world interest rates will be used to control global nominal demand. We evaluate the performance of these rules for the United States, Germany and Japan over the period 1975-84, using control methods to determine the best choice of parameters in the feedback rules. We then consider how history would have differed from actual events had such rules been in place. The results suggest that such rules would have led to a significant improvement in economic performance: exchange rate variability would have been reduced and the dramatic increase in United States interest rates which took place after 1980 would have been avoided.


We present a new adaptive regularization by cubics (ARC) algorithm, which we name ARC and which is very close in spirit to trust region methods, closer than the original ARC is. We prove global convergence to second-order critical points. We also obtain as a corollary the convergence of the original ARC method. We prove the optimal complexity property for the ARC and identify the key elements which allow it. We end by proposing an efficient implementation using a Cholesky like factorization. Limited preliminary experimentation suggests that ARC may be more robust than its trust region counterpart and that our implementation is efficient.


In this paper we characterize inter-generational and intra-generational patterns of earnings for Italian dependent workers for the period 1984-1995. Using data from the Bank of Italy's Survey of Household Income and Wealth, we construct cohort specific age profiles for mean wages (the measure of central location here adopted) and for the 90-10 percentile differential (the inequality measure); we estimate the age profiles for three categories of workers, which differ for educational attainment; we verify how different cohorts have been doing comparatively and finally we test whether, with time, the (mean) returns to experience and education have increased. Moreover we verify how the inequality measure has changed with time and across cohorts. Our results indicate that for the three groups considered each successive generation, with the exception of those that entered the labor market in the years 1993 and 1995, have benefited from higher entry wages. At the same time we find that the age profiles for the two groups with lower education have become flatter so that we cannot conclude that more recent cohorts of middle and low educated workers are better off than their immediate predecessors. Finally we find that inequality tends to increase with age, while across-cohort variation does not seem to be very significant. JEL Classification: J31


In the past few years, the world comunity has become increasingly aware of the sea and its resources. The increasing pressure of world population expansion is expected to lead to more intensive . exploitation of the fishery resources of the world's oceans. It is the purpose.of this study to integrate all relevant biological and utilization factors into one complete model of the world demand and supply for seafood products. Forecasts of anticipated consumption and expected price over the ,next 30 years are derived within the framework of the model. The species which are studied include: (1) Tuna (?) Salmon(3) Groundfish ..(4) Halibut, (5) Sardines (6) Shrimp (7) Crabs,, (8) Lobsters, (9) Oysters, (10) Clams, '(a) Scallops, and (12) other food fj.sh. With the exception of sardines, oysters, clams, and scallops it is estimated that all of the species will reach the point of maximum sustainable supply in the l985.-2000 period. Policy implications are discussed and possible program areas are outlined.


Abstract. Sperm-mediated gene transfer (SMGT) has been considered as an innovative
device for transgenesis on a mass scale by taking advantage of live
spermatozoa to transfer exogenous DNA. However, the fertilizing ability of
transfected sperm cells and the poor reproducibility of this method are still
matters of controversy. Hence, the current study was conducted to evaluate
transfecting the enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) as the source of
exogenous DNA into bovine spermatozoa using a high-performance polymer
reagent as well as assessing the fertilizing capacity of transfected sperm
cells by in vitro fertilization (IVF). In the first experiment, three
different concentrations of rhodamine-labeled DNA and high-performance
polymer transfection reagent, X-tremeGENE HP, were used to transfect bovine
spermatozoa. In the second experiment, IVF and fluorescence microscopy
methods were utilized to assess the fertilizing capacity of sperm cells
carrying exogenous DNA when X-tremeGENE HP was used either alone or with
dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) treatment. Findings revealed that at 1 µL
X-tremeGENE HP and 1 µg of DNA concentration, approximately
one-third of total spermatozoa were transfected. However, following IVF and
fluorescence microscopy, no EGFP expression was detected in zygotes and
morula-stage embryos. Results of this study showed that, although X-tremeGENE
HP could transfer EGFP to bovine spermatozoa, transfected sperm cells were
unable to transfer foreign DNA to matured bovine oocytes. Under our
experimental conditions, we hypothesized that the absence of the EGFP
fluorescence signal in embryos could be due to the detrimental effects of
transfection treatments on sperm cells' fertility performance as well as
incompetency of IVF to produce transgenic embryos using transfected sperm
cells.


A finite element method of space vibration analysis of the time-dependent system of long span suspension bridge and train under wind load is put forward in this paper. The correlation coefficient of wind along long span bridge is taken into account to simulate the wind speed curve in every point along the bridge. The matrix of space vibration equations of the time-dependent system of train and bridge are assembled by the principle of "Sit in the right place". We calculate and analyze the critical wind speed of the train both from aspects of safety and riding comfort. Taking into account the effect of rail irregularity, wind action and various kind of nonlinear factor etc, we made a detailed vibration analysis for the system of bridge and train, and obtained the warning wind speed and bridge-closed wind speed when trains running on the bride.


Three-dimensional (3-D) visualization has become an essential part for imaging applications, including image-guided surgery, radiotherapy planning, and computer-aided diagnosis. In the visualization of dual-modality positron emission tomography and computed tomography (PET/CT), 3-D volume rendering is often limited to rendering of a single image volume and by high computational demand. Furthermore, incorporation of segmentation in volume rendering is usually restricted to visualizing the pre-segmented volumes of interest. In this paper, we investigated the integration of interactive segmentation into real-time volume rendering of dual-modality PET/CT images. We present and validate a fuzzy thresholding segmentation technique based on fuzzy cluster analysis, which allows interactive and real-time optimization of the segmentation results. This technique is then incorporated into a real-time multi-volume rendering of PET/CT images. Our method allows a real-time fusion and interchangeability of segmentation volume with PET or CT volumes, as well as the usual fusion of PET/CT volumes. Volume manipulations such as window level adjustments and lookup table can be applied to individual volumes, which are then fused together in real time as adjustments are made. We demonstrate the benefit of our method in integrating segmentation with volume rendering in its application to PET/CT images. Responsive frame rates are achieved by utilizing a texture-based volume rendering algorithm and the rapid transfer capability of the high-memory bandwidth available in low-cost graphic hardware


The rocks sampled include ?Permian, Upper Triassic, Lower Cretaceous, and Lower Tertiary, with rocks at 2 sites being of uncertain age, probably Mesozoic. A total of 137 orientated samples was collected at 25 sites from 13 localities in N and central Sumatra. 2 Lower Tertiary sites (Geunteut & Breueh Island) yield magnetic directions of D=8, I = l l and D=34, 1=3 respectively, equivalent to apparent palaeomagnetic poles at 82°N 183°E, and 56°N 190°E. An Upper Triassic site gives D=220, I=26, equivalent to a pole at 49°N 210°E, assuming, as seems likely, that the field was reversed. These results indicate a probable northward drift of 12° since the late Triassic, accompanied by a clockwise rotation of 40°. The results from remaining localities are less reliable because of uncertainties of age, low stability, or small number of samples, but all results except one confirm clockwise rotation, and low palaeolatitudes (within 26° of present latitude) since the Permian. The clockwise rotation of Sumatra contrasts with anti-clockwise rotation of W Borneo, the Malay Peninsula, and SW Sulawesi indicated by palaeomagnetic evidence, and suggests that Sumatra, or at least the parts sampled, was not coupled to 'Sundaland' until the mid-Tertiary.


Zaire achieved substantial economic progress until independence in 1960. But turmoil resulted from the social, political, and organizational vacuum left by the precipitous departure of the European cadres and settlers. A decline in agricultural production induced a process of rural emigration on one hand and a return to subsistence farming on the other. New investment in industry has had a limited employment creation effect because of high capital intensity, and real wages of unskilled workers are low. The country remains highly dependent on mineral exports for securing financial resources. Constraints to economic development are physical, financial, and institutional and human, which limit available strategy for development despite the considerable natural resource endowment. A suitable development program will require increased investment in agriculture, closely coordinated with development of transport infrastructure. Investments in education will have to increase and should be geared to long-term objectives. Any strategy will require improvement in the decision-making process and policy coordination in economic management.


Optimization-based meta-learning typically assumes tasks are sampled from a single distribution - an assumption oversimplifies and limits the diversity of tasks that meta-learning can model. Handling tasks from multiple different distributions is challenging for meta-learning due to a so-called task ambiguity issue. This paper proposes a novel method, ST-MAML, that empowers model-agnostic meta-learning (MAML) to learn from multiple task distributions. ST-MAML encodes tasks using a stochastic neural network module, that summarizes every task with a stochastic representation. The proposed Stochastic Task (ST) strategy allows a meta-model to get tailored for the current task and enables us to learn a distribution of solutions for an ambiguous task. ST-MAML also propagates the task representation to revise the encoding of input variables. Empirically, we demonstrate that ST-MAML matches or outperforms the state-of-the-art on two few-shot image classification tasks, one curve regression benchmark, one image completion problem, and a real-world temperature prediction application. To the best of authors' knowledge, this is the first time optimization-based meta-learning method being applied on a large-scale real-world task.


This chapter presents a detailed analysis to identify the best Mihrab (prayer niche of Imam) geometry with respect to acoustic performance of mosques. Mihrab geometry has an impact on daily prayer recitation and orders, as the Imam (prayer leader) faces this semicircular shape. Sound pressure level (SPL) has been simulated to compare different well-known designs and geometries of Mihrab by ODEON. A typical mosque in an educational campus was considered for the study, and it is found that Safavid Mihrab geometry has the best performance followed by Chinese, Mughal, and Tulunid Mihrab geometries, while the worst performance is found in Almoravid Mihrab geometry. This study obviously guides the mosque designers to choose the appropriate Mihrab geometry with regard to the acoustic performance.


The paper addresses the issue of estimating the symbol timing in turbo receivers. We propose a linear timing estimator which benefits from the soft information delivered by the turbo system at each iteration to compute the timing estimate. This estimator is then compared to a synchronizer based on the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm (Herzet, C. et al., ICASSP, 2003). Performance of the proposed synchronizer is illustrated by simulation results and proves better than that of the EM-based counterpart regarding both convergence speed and range.


The enhancer region of Akv murine leukemia virus contains the sequence motif ACAGATGG. This sequence is homologous to the E-box motif originally defined as a regulatory element in the enhancers of immunoglobulin mu and kappa genes. We have used double-stranded oligonucleotide probes, corresponding to the E box of the murine leukemia virus Akv, to screen a randomly primed lambda gt11 cDNA expression library made from mouse NIH 3T3 fibroblast RNA. We have identified seven lambda clones expressing DNA-binding proteins representing two different genes termed ALF1 and ALF2. The results of sequencing ALF2 cDNA suggests that we have recovered the gene for the basic-helix-loop-helix transcription factor A1, the murine analog of the human transcription factor E47. The cDNA sequence of ALF1 codes for a new member of the basic-helix-loop-helix protein family. Two splice variants of ALF1 cDNA have been found, differing by a 72-bp insertion, coding for putative proteins of 682 and 706 amino acids. The two ALF1 mRNAs are expressed at various levels in mouse tissues. In vitro DNA binding assays, using prokaryotically expressed ALF1 proteins, demonstrated specific binding of the ALF1 proteins to the Akv murine leukemia virus E-box motif ACAGATGG. Expression in NIH 3T3 fibroblasts of GAL4-ALF1 chimeric protein stimulated expression from a minimal promoter linked to a GAL4 binding site, indicating the existence of a transcriptional activator domain in ALF1.


Background: Streptococcus pneumoniae infections can lead to severe morbidity and mortality, especially in patients with invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD). This study evaluated factors associated with pneumococcal disease, pneumococcal vaccine effectiveness, and risk factors for mortality among hospitalised adults with pneumococcal disease in Singapore. Methods: Retrospective case-cohort study of patients tested for pneumococcal disease with streptococcal urinary antigen testing and at least one sterile site culture, during their admission to a tertiary hospital in Singapore from 2015-2017. Patients were defined as cases of IPD or non-IPD, or as controls, based on laboratory results and clinical diagnoses. Multivariable models were constructed to determine factors associated with IPD/non-IPD, and risk factors for mortality from pneumococcal disease. Vaccine effectiveness against IPD/non-IPD was estimated using a variation of the test-negative design. Results: We identified 496 pneumococcal disease cases, of whom 92 (18.5%) had IPD. The mean age of cases was 69.1±15.4yrs, and 65.5% were male. Compared with controls (N=9,181), IPD patients were younger (mean age 61.5±16.3yrs, vs 72.2±16.1yrs in controls; p<0.001) and with less co-morbidities [median Charlson's score 1 (IQR 0-4), vs 3 (1-5) in controls; p<0.001]. IPD patients also had the highest proportions with intensive care unit (ICU) admission (20.7%), inpatient mortality (26.1%) and longest median length of stay [9 (IQR 8-17) days]. On multivariable analysis, IPD was negatively associated with prior pneumococcal vaccination (relative risk ratio=0.20, 95%CI 0.06–0.69; p=0.011). Risk factors for mortality among pneumococcal disease patients were ICU admission, diagnosis of IPD, age ≥85yrs and Charlson's score >3.Conclusion: Patients with pneumococcal disease (especially IPD) were younger and had less co-morbidities than controls, but had higher risk of severe clinical outcomes and mortality. Pneumococcal vaccination was negatively associated with IPD and should be encouraged among high-risk patients.


Background Models to stratify risk for patients hospitalised for acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) do not include the change in N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) levels during hospitalisation. Objective The aim of our study was to develop a simple yet robust discharge prognostication score including NT-proBNP for this notorious high-risk population. Design Individual patient data meta-analyses of prospective cohort studies. Setting Seven prospective cohorts with in total 1301 patients. Patients Our study population was assembled from the seven studies by selecting those patients admitted because of clinically validated ADHF, discharged alive, and NT-proBNP measurements available at admission and at discharge. Main outcome measures The endpoints studied were all-cause mortality and a composite of all-cause mortality and/or first readmission for cardiovascular reason within 180 days after discharge. Results The model that incorporated NT-proBNP levels at discharge as well as the changes in NT-proBNP during hospitalisation in addition to age ≥75 years, peripheral oedema, systolic blood pressure ≤115 mm Hg, hyponatremia at admission, serum urea of ≥15 mmol/L and New York Heart Association (NYHA) class at discharge, yielded the best C-statistic (area under the curve, 0.78, 95% CI 0.74 to 0.82). The addition of NT-proBNP to a reference model significantly improved prediction of mortality as shown by the net reclassification improvement (62%, p<0.001). A simplified model was obtained from the final Cox regression model by assigning weights to individual risk markers proportional to their relative risks. The risk score we designed identified four clinically significant subgroups. The pattern of increasing event rates with increasing score was confirmed in the validation group (BOT-AcuteHF, n=325, p<0.001). Conclusions In patients hospitalised for ADHF, the addition of the discharge NT-proBNP values as well as the change in NT-proBNP to known risk markers, generates a relatively simple yet robust discharge risk score that importantly improves the prediction of adverse events.


Criminals growth in Indonesia, not only by adults but also by children. Handling of child offenders by police was different, this is due to the child's psychological growth still unstable. In dealing with criminal offenses committed by children, police use discretion authority. How does the application of police discretion against child offenders and any constraints faced by the police? Legal research aims to determine the application of police discretion and the obstacles encountered when dealing with criminal offenses committed by children. Legal research is a normative legal research. Data were analyzed qualitatively and reasoning methods used are deductively that the deduction of general knowledge and is used to assess a particular incident.
Children in conflict with the law is a 12 years old, but not yet 18 years old suspected of committing a crime. Delinquency is an act which if committed by an adult is a crime, but the child is not a crime because it is considered as a process for identity. Juvenile justice system is the overall process of settlement of children in conflict with the law, from the investigation stage to coaching after convicted. Children who commit criminal acts, can be decided live action and penalties, to account for his actions.
Police is all the happenings related to the functioning and police agencies in accordance with the legislation. The main task is to maintain the security police and public order, enforce the law, provide protection, guidance and service to the community. Meanwhile, police discretion is a policy based on the power to act on the basis of judgment and self-confidence.
Police discretion in implementing is done by the police summoned the parties involved in criminal child, in order to do consultation and consensus. The party is made up of actors, parents offender, the victim and the victim's parents. Result of the agreement submitted to the court and specified. Then, the results of the agreement executed by the parties concerned. Constraints faced by the police is the victim or the victim's parents and try to process child offenders to court. In addition, parents try to protect criminal offenders or unwilling to resolve crimes committed by children.


Four experiments reexamined the hypothesis that immediate serial recall is limited by the spoken duration of list items during output. In all the experiments, spoken serial recall was measured for visually presented words of short and long duration. The duration of first- and second-half list items was varied independently. Experiment 1 used the disyllabic words from Lovatt, Avons, and Masterson (2000). No main effect of the duration of words recalled first was obtained on accuracy of recall. Experiment 2 used the disyllabic words from Cowan et al. (1992). For this set of words, placing long items at the beginning of the list brought about a decrease in recall as predicted by theories of output decay. Experiment 3 confirmed that an effect of duration of words recalled first was confined to the Cowan et al. words, but this effect vanished when the first-half errors were statistically controlled or excluded. Experiment 4 extended these findings to the disyllabic words originally selected by Caplan, Rochon, and Waters (1992) and a new set of three-syllable words. For all these word sets, speech time during output differed for the long and short words. However, for two sets there was no effect of first-half word duration, and for the other two sets first-half word duration was confounded with first-half error rate. Taken together, the results provide no evidence that the spoken duration of early list items directly affects later recall, as predicted by the speech time hypothesis.


Kidney function monitoring using creatinine-based glomerular filtration rate estimation is a routine part of clinical practice. Emerging evidence has shown that cystatin C may improve classification of glomerular filtration rate for defining chronic kidney disease in certain clinical populations and assist in understanding the complications of chronic kidney disease. In this review and update, we summarize the overall literature on cystatin C, critically evaluate recent high-impact studies, highlight the role of cystatin C in recent kidney disease guidelines, and suggest a practical approach for clinicians to incorporate cystatin C into practice. We conclude by addressing frequently asked questions related to implementing cystatin C use in a clinical setting.


One of the essential means of supporting Human-Machine Interaction is a (software) language, exploited to input commands and receive corresponding outputs in a well-defined manner. In the past, language creation and customization used to be accessible to software developers only. But today, as software applications gain more ubiquity, these features tend to be more accessible to application users themselves. However, current language development techniques are still based on tra- ditional concepts of human-machine interaction, i.e. manipulating text and/or diagrams by means of more or less sophisticated keypads (e.g. mouse and keyboard). In this paper we propose to enhance the typical approach for dealing with language intensive applications by widening available human-machine in- teractions to multiple modalities, including sounds, gestures, and their combination. In particular, we adopt a Multi-Paradigm Modelling ap- proach in which the forms of interaction can be specified by means of appropriate modelling techniques. The aim is to provide a more advanced human-machine interaction support for language intensive applications.


BACKGROUND
Ichthyosis is a disorder of keratinization characterized by diffuse uniform and persistent scales resulting from abnormal epidermal differentiation or metabolism. The identification of steroid sulfatase (STS) as the cause of X-linked ichthyosis (XLI) points to the importance of this enzyme in skin desquamation. Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) analysis is a good diagnostic technique with which to detect a common deletion of the STS gene.

OBJECTIVE
In this study, the authors set out to detect the X-linked type of ichthyosis, diagnosed by detection of STS gene deletions among Egyptian males.

METHODOLOGY
Egyptian males complaining of X-linked ichthyosis were clinically examined, evaluating pedigree analysis of the family, cytogenetic studies using G-banding technique and FISH using locus specific probe for steroid sulfatase (STS) gene which is located at chromosome Xp22.3.

RESULTS
Of patients, 11.11 percent had nocturnal enuresis and 33.33 percent showed STS gene deletion by FISH analysis.

CONCLUSION
This study underlines a difficulty in diagnosing X-linked ichthyosis on the clinical features or familial pedigree analysis in Egypt and the importance of cytogenetic and molecular cytogenetic studies for diagnosis. FISH analysis is a good, reliable and rapid diagnostic tool with which to detect STS gene deletion. Since FISH will not detect partial deletion or point mutations, the authors recommend further molecular studies to reach the proper diagnosis of X-linked ichthyosis.


Earthy-musty flavors are a prevalent customer complaint for drinking water utilities. Sensory analysis can be used as an inexpensive early warning system to signal a taste and odor (T&O) event and to define the water quality objectives the treatment process has to achieve. T&O threshold concentrations of both 2-methylisoborneol (MIB) and trans-1, 10-dimethyl-trans-9-decalol (geosmin) were reassessed using a French and a Spanish panel, using a flavor-by-mouth protocol. Results of the 2 panels were found consistent and lower than those reported in the literature. Additional sensory testing experiments were performed to investigate the resulting perception when the two compounds (geosmin and MIB) are both present in solution and to clarify the effect of chlorine on both geosmin and MIB (masking or confusion in the perception).


The flow near a stagnation-point is a fundamental topic in fluid dynamics and it has been studied by several researches during the past decades because of its relevant applications. In this Thesis we investigate the influence of the electromagnetic field on the stagnation-point flow of a Newtonian or a micropolar fluid. To this end we consider three types of such a motion: plane orthogonal, plane oblique and three-dimensional. We take into consideration a fluid which moves towards a flat surface. We descrive several situations which are relevant from a physical point of view when an external uniform or not uniform electromagnetic field is impressed. Actually, we have prove that if the external magnetic field is uniform and the induced magnetic field is neglected, then the stagnation-point flow exists if, and only, if the external magnetic field has some suitable directions. Further, we compute the induced magnetic field in the other cases. We prove also that if the external magnetic field is not uniform and it is parallel to the velocity at infinity then the three-dimensional stagnation-point flow is possible if and only if it is axisymmetric. In all the cases here considered, the MHD PDEs which govern the motion are reduced to a system of nonlinear ODEs. These boundary values problems are then integrated numerically and some graphics and tables are furnished in order to show the behaviour of the solution near the obstacle.


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Since originally described in 1985 by Ciaglia, percutaneous dilational tracheostomy (PDT) has grown in popularity, and today is widely used for critically ill patients requiring long‐term mechanical ventilation. Since the inception of PDT, obesity has been considered a relative contraindication to its use. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the risks of PDT in obese patients.


Historians have only recently begun to chart the experiences of maritime regions in rich detail and penetrate the historical processes at work there. "Seascapes" makes a major contribution to these efforts by bringing together original scholarship on historical issues arising from maritime regions around the world. The essays presented here take a variety of approaches. One group examines the material, cultural, and intellectual constructs that inform and explain historical experiences of maritime regions. Another set discusses efforts - some more successful than others - to impose political and military control over maritime regions. A third group focuses on issues of social history such as labor organization, information flows, and the development of political consciousness among subaltern populations. The final essays deal with pirates and efforts to control them in Mediterranean, Japanese, and Atlantic waters.


CONTEXT
Cyclophosphamide is used for renal and major extrarenal involvement in systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and is associated with a risk of premature ovarian failure. There are no data available about the relation between anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) serum levels and the probability of subsequent pregnancy in SLE patients.

OBJECTIVE
We analyzed AMH levels and the probability of pregnancy in SLE women exposed to cyclophosphamide.

DESIGN AND SETTING
We conducted a matched cohort study in referral centers for SLE.

PATIENTS
Fifty-six cyclophosphamide-exposed SLE women younger than 40 years of age and 56 control SLE women matched for age within 6 months participated in the study.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
AMH was measured in samples from the PLUS study (ClinicalTrials.gov no. NCT00413361). All patients were interviewed in May 2012 regarding their obstetric status.

RESULTS
The mean age ± SD of the 112 patients was 31.6 ± 5.8 years. The mean AMH level was low (1.21 ± 1.01 ng/mL) and was significantly lower in patients exposed to cyclophosphamide (P = .03) and in patients older than 30 years (P = .02). During a median follow-up (interval between sampling and the interview) period of 4.2 (range, 2.5-4.8) years, 38 patients sought to become pregnant, and 32 (84.2%) succeeded. In the univariate analysis, the risk of failure was associated with cumulative cyclophosphamide dose (P = .007) and older age (P = .02), but not with AMH.

CONCLUSION
We confirmed that AMH levels are low in SLE patients and decrease significantly with age and cyclophosphamide exposure. Nonetheless, the risk of failure to conceive was low and was predicted by cyclophosphamide exposure and age, but not by AMH levels.


Background: Melanoma is the most deadly tumor in skin tumors and is prone to distant metastases. The incidence of melanoma has increased rapidly in the past few decades, and current trends indicate that this growth is continuing. This study was aimed to explore the molecular mechanisms of melanoma pathogenesis and discover underlying pathways and genes associated with melanoma.Methods: We used high-throughput expression data to study differential expression profiles of related genes in melanoma. The differentially expressed genes (DEGs) of melanoma in GSE15605, GSE46517, GSE7553 and the Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) datasets were analyzed. Differentially expressed genes (DEGs) were identified by paired t-test. Then the DEGs were performed cluster and principal component analyses and protein–protein interaction (PPI) network construction. After that, we analyzed the differential genes through bioinformatics and got hub genes. Finally, the expression of hub genes was confirmed in the TCGA databases and collected patient tissue samples.Results: Total 144 up-regulated DEGs and 16 down-regulated DEGs were identified. A total of 17 gene ontology analysis (GO) terms and 11 pathways were closely related to melanoma. Pathway of pathways in cancer was enriched in 8 DEGs, such as junction plakoglobin (JUP) and epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR). In the PPI networks, 9 hub genes were obtained, such as loricrin (LOR), filaggrin (FLG), keratin 5 (KRT5), corneodesmosin (CDSN), desmoglein 1 (DSG1), desmoglein 3 (DSG3), keratin 1 (KRT1), involucrin (IVL) and EGFR. The pathway of pathways in cancer and its enriched DEGs may play important roles in the process of melanoma. The hub genes of DEGs may become promising melanoma candidate genes. Five key genes FLG, DSG1, DSG3, IVL and EGFR were identified in the TCGA database and melanoma tissues.Conclusions: The results suggested that FLG, DSG1, DSG3, IVL and EGFR might play important roles and potentially be valuable in the prognosis and treatment of melanoma.


Photoluminescence (PL) from silicon nanocrystals deposited on top of silica-glass template and from silicon nanocrystals in nc_Si/SiO2 multilayer films were studied as a function of ultraviolet (UV) laser irradiation time in vacuum. Both the films exhibit intense visible PL at room temperature under laser excitation. It was found that upon prolong irradiation time using a He-Cd laser (325 nm) the PL intensity of the films was spectacularly enhanced. The process is reversible and does not happen with excitation wavelength longer than 400 nm. Upon introducing air into the measurement chamber, a rapid decrease of the PL intensity was recorded. This observation suggests that the UV light may lead to modification of nonradiative recombination centers in the films and thus improves the emission yield of silicon nanocrystals.


UML has been largely adopted as a standard modeling language. The emergence of UML from different modeling languages that refer to various system aspects causes a wide variety of completeness and correctness problems in UML models. Several methods have been proposed for dealing with correctness issues, mainly providing internal consistency rules but ignoring correctness and completeness with respect to the system requirements and the domain constraints. In this article, we propose addressing both completeness and correctness problems of UML models by adopting a domain analysis approach called application-based domain modeling (ADOM). We present experimental results from our study which checks the quality of application models when utilizing ADOM on UML. The results advocate that the availability of the domain model helps achieve more complete models without reducing the comprehension of these models.


While benevolence-based programs have been a large part of meeting immediate financial needs of the poor, they lack the relational aspect needed to facilitate long-term behavior change. Recently many social service organizations have adopted financial coaching as a promising replacement for benevolence programming. The field of coaching has dealt with its own challenges. Most coaching practitioners surveyed in 2016 and 2019 acknowledged lack of client follow-through as their number one challenge. Behavior economics offered nudges as a solution. Nudges are cues placed within the physical environment to prod clients toward behavior change. A quantitative field study was conducted to evaluate 2 program models: a traditional financial coaching model and a behavior economic financial coaching model. The goal was to determine if nudges could produce significant outcomes with client goals of becoming banked and/or increasing savings. A sample population of 70 clients was randomly assigned to 1 of the coaching models. Baseline banking and savings data were collected from both groups. Clients in the behavior economics group received priming and framing as nudges at initial and subsequent coaching sessions. The study found that the behavior economic coaching model produced statistically significant differences in savings increases versus the traditional model. Implications of action for community-based nonprofits offering coaching include initially measuring client intentions to complete goals and integration of nudges throughout sessions. An integrated coaching model was produced and serves as the core foundation for improving client engagement and program outcomes.


Three dimensional (3D) nonlinear photonic crystals are one of the potential candidates for enabling photonic circuits. Most of the current top‐down fabrication approaches for such crystals are time consuming and suffer from small surface areas and limitations to specific substrates. Herein, a bottom‐up fabrication technique (UV‐soft nanoimprint lithography) together with solution processing of barium titanate (BaTiO3) nanoparticles is used to create large‐scale 3D nonlinear woodpile photonic crystals. Opposed to other 3D photonic crystals, the woodpile structure can be fabricated layer by layer. This property makes it suitable for roll‐to‐roll fabrication, which can be easily adapted in industry. The prepared photonic crystals with up to eight layers have surface areas of 1.0 cm2. The linear and nonlinear optical behavior of these 3D woodpile structures is characterized. Their transmission stop band lies around 757 nm and a relative linear minimum transmission of 48.4% for a four‐layer sample is obtained. Images of diffraction patterns together with polarization‐dependent second harmonic generation measurements prove a cubic photonic crystal structure in the linear and nonlinear regime. In addition to second‐order nonlinearity, BaTiO3 exhibits electro‐optic, elasto‐optic, and thermo‐optic effects. Therefore, it is especially suited for future active photonic crystal applications.


Labile mRNAs that encode cytokine and immediate-early gene products often contain AU-rich sequences within their 3' untranslated region (UTR). These AU-rich sequences appear to be key determinants of the short half-lives of these mRNAs, although the sequence features of these elements and the mechanism by which they target mRNAs for rapid decay have not been fully defined. We have examined the features of AU-rich elements (AREs) that are crucial for their function as determinants of mRNA instability in mammalian cells by testing the ability of various mutant c-fos AREs and synthetic AREs to direct rapid mRNA deadenylation and decay when inserted within the 3' UTR of the normally stable beta-globin mRNA. Evidence is presented that the pentamer AUUUA, which previously was suggested to be the minimal determinant of instability present in mammalian AREs, cannot direct rapid mRNA deadenylation and decay. Instead, the nonomer UUAUUUAUU is the elemental AU-rich sequence motif that destabilizes mRNA. Removal of one uridine residue from either end of the nonamer (UUAUUUAU or UAUUUAUU) results in a decrease of potency of the element, while removal of a uridine residue from both ends of the nonamer (UAUUUAU) eliminates detectable destabilizing activity. The inclusion of an additional uridine residue at both ends of the nonamer (UUUAUUUAUUU) does not further increase the efficacy of the element. Taken together, these findings suggest that the nonamer UUAUUUAUU is the minimal AU-rich motif that effectively destabilizes mRNA. Additional ARE potency is achieved by combining multiple copies of this nonamer in a single mRNA 3' UTR. Furthermore, analysis of poly(A) shortening rates for ARE-containing mRNAs reveals that the UUAUUUAUU sequence also accelerates mRNA deadenylation and suggests that the UUAUUUAUU motif targets mRNA for rapid deadenylation as an early step in the mRNA decay process.


Abstract. This paper investigates the value of observed river discharge data for global-scale hydrological modeling of a number of flow characteristics that are e.g. required for assessing water resources, flood risk and habitat alteration of aquatic ecosystems. An improved version of the WaterGAP Global Hydrology Model (WGHM) was tuned against measured discharge using either the 724-station dataset (V1) against which former model versions were tuned or an extended dataset (V2) of 1235 stations. WGHM is tuned by adjusting one model parameter (γ) that affects runoff generation from land areas in order to fit simulated and observed long-term average discharge at tuning stations. In basins where γ does not suffice to tune the model, two correction factors are applied successively: the areal correction factor corrects local runoff in a basin and the station correction factor adjusts discharge directly the gauge. Using station correction is unfavorable, as it makes discharge discontinuous at the gauge and inconsistent with runoff in the upstream basin. The study results are as follows. (1) Comparing V2 to V1, the global land area covered by tuning basins increases by 5% and the area where the model can be tuned by only adjusting γ increases by 8%. However, the area where a station correction factor (and not only an areal correction factor) has to be applied more than doubles. (2) The value of additional discharge information for representing the spatial distribution of long-term average discharge (and thus renewable water resources) with WGHM is high, particularly for river basins outside of the V1 tuning area and in regions where the refined dataset provides a significant subdivision of formerly extended tuning basins (average V2 basin size less than half the V1 basin size). If the additional discharge information were not used for tuning, simulated long-term average discharge would differ from the observed one by a factor of, on average, 1.8 in the formerly untuned basins and 1.3 in the subdivided basins. The benefits tend to be higher in semi-arid and snow-dominated regions where the model is less reliable than in humid areas and refined tuning compensates for uncertainties with regard to climate input data and for specific processes of the water cycle that cannot be represented yet by WGHM. Regarding other flow characteristics like low flow, inter-annual variability and seasonality, the deviation between simulated and observed values also decreases significantly, which, however, is mainly due to the better representation of average discharge but not of variability. (3) The choice of the optimal sub-basin size for tuning depends on the modeling purpose. While basins over 60 000 km2 are performing best, improvements in V2 model performance are strongest in small basins between 9000 and 20 000 km2, which is primarily related to a low level of V1 performance. Increasing the density of tuning stations provides a better spatial representation of discharge, but it also decreases model consistency, as almost half of the basins below 20 000 km2 require station correction.