The African Initiated Churches pose a challenge to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa/Central Diocese, regarding living up to the challenges of moratorium debate in missions in the 1970s. Among other things, the moratorium debate was advocating for values of autonomy such as; self-governing, self-support, self-propagating and self-theologising (Bigambo, 2001; Kendall, 1978 & Wagner, 1975). In its original sense, a full moratorium meant the cessation of all activity on the part of missionary personnel as well as financial assistance brought to the African churches from Europe and North America. It also means that the missionaries were to return to home from Africa for a period of five years Uka (1989:193). In this article, I do not align myself fully with this definition per se, however, I firmly believe that certain aspects of the moratorium debate illustrated by the African Initiated Churches in this article warrant attention in relation to Evangelical Lutheran Church in Southern Africa/Central Diocese.


Computer simulation has become a very useful and flexible tool in the planning process of passenger facilities. By this means the probability of queues, congestion and delays can be determined, and different design concepts and operational disciplines can be considered experimentally. Within this thesis two different check-in disciplines, restricted flight system, and common system are compared. The stochastic simulation models developed to evaluate the performance of the alternative check-in systems examined the impact of 1) changes in the number of passengers boarding per flight, 2) reduction in the number of counters, and 3) different time value to the passengers. Input to the model including 1) service times, 2) passengers rate of arrivals, 3) characteristics of the passenger groups, etc. allowed for testing both alternatives. Output from the model included 1) queuing times, 2) number of persons in queue, 3) density of crowds, and 4) counter utilization. After calibrating the model with data gathered at Knoxville's airport, it was found that the common system has better performance than the restricted system. Also it was determined that the restricted system became inefficient iii iv for a large number of persons checking in per flight. Finally, by assigning monetary value to the passenger time, it was possible to select the number of counters which represented the minimum cost to the airlines, the airport operator, and the passengers.


In China's political selection system, officials capable of growing local economies are reward-ed with promotions. Eager to demonstrate economic achievements, newly appointed local lead-ers may raise tax revenues to expand fiscal expenditures on infrastructure projects. Against this backdrop, we study how political appointments influence local firms' tax planning. Based on a sample of locally administered state-owned enterprises (SOEs), we find firms decrease their tax avoidance after new leaders take office. The political-turnover effect on these firms' tax positions is more evident when the incoming leaders have more political clout over SOE managers, the incentives to divert resources are stronger, or politician-manager networks are present, and subsides following the launch of the anticorruption campaign. Furthermore, firms with higher post-turnover tax payments subsequently receive more government contracts or subsidies. Overall, our findings suggest political incentives shape the tax-planning activities of SOE managers in a "two-way favor exchange" manner.


Multivariate Pattern (MVP) classification holds enormous potential for decoding visual stimuli in the human brain by employing task-based fMRI data sets. There is a wide range of challenges in the MVP techniques, i.e. decreasing noise and sparsity, defining effective regions of interest (ROIs), visualizing results, and the cost of brain studies. In overcoming these challenges, this paper proposes a novel model of neural representation, which can automatically detect the active regions for each visual stimulus and then utilize these anatomical regions for visualizing and analyzing the functional activities. Therefore, this model provides an opportunity for neuroscientists to ask this question: what is the effect of a stimulus on each of the detected regions instead of just study the fluctuation of voxels in the manually selected ROIs. Moreover, our method introduces analyzing snapshots of brain image for decreasing sparsity rather than using the whole of fMRI time series. Further, a new Gaussian smoothing method is proposed for removing noise of voxels in the level of ROIs. The proposed method enables us to combine different fMRI data sets for reducing the cost of brain studies. Experimental studies on 4 visual categories (words, consonants, objects and nonsense photos) confirm that the proposed method achieves superior performance to state-of-the-art methods.


BACKGROUND
Structured histopathology profiling is recommended when reporting chronic rhinosinusitis with nasal polyp (CRSwNP) tissue. The objective of this study is to identify features in structured histopathology that predict outcome after functional endoscopic sinus surgery (FESS) in a cohort of CRSwNP patients from Singapore.

METHODS
Latent class analysis was performed on structured histopathology reports of 126 CRSwNP patients who had undergone FESS. Outcome measures were polyp recurrence, need for systemic corticosteroids, revision surgery or biologics, and disease control at 2 years post-FESS.

RESULTS
Three classes were identified. Class 1 was characterised by mild, predominantly lymphoplasmacytic inflammation. Class 2 comprised of 100 eosinophils/HPF, hyperplastic seromucinous glands, mucosal ulceration and mucin containing eosinophil aggregates and Charcot-Leyden crystals. Classes 2 and 3 were significantly associated with uncontrolled disease at 2 years post-FESS. Class 3 was additionally associated with the need for systemic corticosteroids.

CONCLUSIONS
Eosinophil count, degree of inflammation, predominant inflammatory type, hyperplastic seromucinous glands, mucosal ulceration and mucin containing eosinophil aggregates and Charcot-Leyden crystals predicted need for systemic corticosteroids and uncontrolled disease at 2 years post-FESS. The presence of >100 eosinophils/HPF should be reported, as this subset of tissue eosinophilia was associated with less favourable outcomes after FESS.


Cross-linguistic influence (CLI) is one of the key phenomena in bilingual and second language learning. We propose a method for quantifying CLI in the use of linguistic constructions with the help of a computational model, which acquires constructions in two languages from bilingual input. We focus on the acquisition of case-marking cues in Russian and German and simulate two experiments that employ a picture-choice task tapping into the mechanisms of sentence interpretation. Our model yields behavioral patterns similar to human, and these patterns can be explained by the amount of CLI: the negative CLI in high amounts leads to the misinterpretation of participant roles in Russian and German object-verb-subject sentences. Finally, we make two novel predictions about the acquisition of case-marking cues in Russian and German. Most importantly, our simulations suggest that the high degree of positive CLI may facilitate the interpretation of object-verb-subject sentences.


Fatty acids and carotenoid has been known as an anticancer agent on both preventing and treating cancer disease. This study was conducted to analyze the fatty acid profile, carotenoid and in vitro anticancer activity of 12 sea cucumber harvested from Karimunjawa and Lampung waters. The aim of the study was to determin the potency of sea cucumbers as raw material for nutraceutical products. Fatty acid profile and carotenoid content were characterized by gas chromatography and spectrophotometry techniques, while in vitro anticancer activity was assessed by MTT assay against cervix (HeLa), breast (T47D and MCF-7) and colon (WiDR) cancer cells. Results of the study showed polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA) dominated the composition of fatty acids in the samples from both locations. Holothuria sp. was detected to contain the highest amount of carotenoid. Furthermore, the highest in vitro anticancer activity was detected also in the sample of Holothuria sp. The activity of 30 ppm Holothuria sp. extract against HeLa cell was detected to be almost equal to the 5 ppm doxorubicin control. Concentration of 5 ppm Holothuria sp. extract also showed positive result in killing 50% of MCF-7 and T47D, but capable to 100% kill HeLa and WiDR cells. At concentration of 25 ppm, the extract was able to kill all the 4 cells tested. Statistical analysis showed the amount of carotenoid and two particular fatty acid compounds (docosadienoic and eicosapentaenoic acid) significantly (P<0.05) contributed to the cytotoxic activity that was found in the sea cucumber samples. Those compounds were found in highest concentration from Holothuria sp harvested from Lampung waters, thus being the most prospective raw material for nutraceutical or functional food ingredient with anticancer potency.


Primary aortoduodenal fistula is a rare condition. Common causes include atherosclerosis, leading to formation of an aortic aneurysm (most common); syphilis; carcinoma of the pancreas; trauma; tuberculosis, and myocosis. Presented herein is the recognition and successful treatment of what appears to be the first patient with a primary aortoduodenal fistula following paraaortic radiotherapy. Once suspected, immediate surgical treatment is mandatory. Primary aortic control (closure or resection), along with resection of the diseased intestinal segment, would appear to be the safest and most acceptable treatment.


Enhanced and deregulated expression of N-MYC, a member of the MYC family of transcription factors, drives the development of multiple tumors, including tumors of the nervous and hematologic systems and neuroendocrine tumors in other organs. This review summarizes the cell-of-origin, biological features, associated signaling pathways, and current treatment strategies for N-MYC-driven tumors. We also highlight biological differences within specific tumor types that are driven by the different MYC proteins.Significance: N-MYC is a driver of multiple tumor types that are derived through a mechanism that involves direct differentiation within the same lineage (e.g., in the case of neuroblastoma, medulloblastoma, and acute myeloid leukemia) and is often associated with a poor prognosis. Emerging data suggest that N-MYC also drives other tumor types through a mechanism that promotes a lineage switch and that this switch may be exploited for therapeutic purposes. Cancer Discov; 8(2); 150-63. ©2018 AACR.


Stewardship has always figured predominantly in the mission of libraries. This paper discusses major findings and implications of a study of licensing in U.S. academic libraries. The data suggests that not all libraries are accepting their heritage role — that is, they are not planning for long–term preservation and access for their growing licensed digital collections and resources. Instead they rely increasingly on third parties to perform this fundamental function. This shift may have far–reaching implications for long–term preservation and access to the world's knowledge and cultural and historical record.


We measured plasma concentrations of malondialdehyde (MDA) as indices of the levels of lipid peroxidation products. In addition, we studied the activities of the antioxidant enzymes, superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT), in broiler chickens infected with Eimeria tenella and treated with a ® combination of Cygro (1% maduramycin ammonium) and vitamin E. Before treatment with this drug combination there were significantly higher levels of MDA, ® decreased SOD and increased CAT erythrocyte activities in the infected chickens compared to the healthy controls (P<0.001). Treatment with Cygro alone ® showed some beneficial effects on lipid peroxidation in broiler chickens infected with Eimeria tenella. However, a combination of Cygro (5 ppm) and vitamin E, at a dose 50 mg per chicken for 11 days, did not attenuate oxidative stress (increased plasma MDA) and did not normalize the ecological oxidative balance (EOB) in the chickens (decreased SOD and increased CAT). The observed changes in the economical parameters (weight gain and FCR) were indicative for a severe infection, in which the oxidative stress probably was also involved during pathogenesis.


The article outlines the mandatory quality requirements for manufactured and installed metal entrance shockproof doors, which should ensure the safety of life, health and property of citizens. The main technical features of these designs and their characteristics are presented. The problem of quality control is considered, since quality is a guarantee of reliability and a guarantee that doors will serve for a long time and reliably. The installation of high-quality "armored" doors will not only protect housing from unauthorized penetration, but also help to isolate the premise from the external environment; therefore in the problem of selecting entrance metal doors, an important place is occupied by the issue of heat and sound insulation. While choosing a good metal door, every detail should be taken into account. The quality of the goods and safety of the premise directly depend on all design components. The article raises such a topical issue as the establishment of quality works on manufacture, storage, transportation and mounting of entrance metal shockproof doors while performing forensic construction and technical examination. The technical characteristics of building materials that can be used in this case are presented. The authors also pointed out that it is very important to resolve disputes on this type of researches, so this is the availability of technical documentation. All data about the product should be included in this documentation up to the information on transportation and storage, since this information will much facilitate the work of experts in the future. After all, the establishment of the quality of this type of products is a fairly complex and time-consuming process. While determining the quality, all details are important, starting from the quality of the used building materials, the works on manufacturing of the door blocks, their storage and transportation conditions, and finishing the placing (mounting).


The primary motivation for this research, in which a qualitative method was employed, was to examine political apathy amongst students at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. The secondary motivation was to question whether youth political apathy threatens the consolidation of democracy. The researchers arranged four focus groups at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. A purposive sampling technique was utilised. All 50 participants in the study were Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University undergraduate and postgraduate black students, with ages ranging from 21 to 35 years. The researchers encouraged participants to have maximum participation in the focus group deliberations. The researchers also made use of elite interviews in the study. The findings of this study suggest that political apathy does exist amongst students at Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University. Most of the participants in the focus groups indicated that young people in post-apartheid South Africa have no interest in politics.


AIMS There is little in vivo data in regards to the impact of adventitial neovascularisation on vascular remodelling and plaque composition. Using a porcine model of coronary atherosclerosis, we aimed to determine the impact of adventitial neovascularisation on plaque composition and vascular remodelling evaluated by IVUS. METHODS AND RESULTS Coronary atherosclerosis was induced by adventitial delivery of lipids and a high cholesterol diet. At termination all vessels were analysed using IVUS to determine the degree of remodelling of each individual segment containing atherosclerotic lesions. Then, each segment was correlated with its correspondent histological frame for plaque composition and neovessel density. A total of 57 atherosclerotic lesions at different stages of development were analysed. The total neovessel count (TNC) correlated to the degree of plaque burden (15.6+/-7.2 TNC in 60% stenosis, p<0.01) and to the amount of intra-plaque collagen (32.4+/-14.1%, lower TNC tertile versus 47.5+/-8.9% upper TNC tertile, p< 0.01). The amount of intra-plaque SMC content inversely correlated with the TNC (49.7+/-18.9% versus 36.4+/-14.4%, lower versus upper tertiles, p<0.05). Plaques with the highest TNC showed higher remodelling indexes by IVUS (0.89+/-0.32 in lower TNC tertile versus 1.36+/-0.73 in upper TNC tertile, p<0.05) and higher macrophage cell content (161.42+/-157.6 in lower TNC tertile versus 340.6+/-127.2 in upper TNC tertile, p<0.05) compared to non-remodelled segments. CONCLUSIONS Adventitial neovascularisation is more prominent in positively remodelled segments and appears to be associated to SMC loss, increase collagen deposition and localised macrophage infiltration.


Abstract Lynch (1999) proposed a method for estimation of genetic correlations from phenotypic measurements of individuals for which no pedigree information is available. This method assumes that shared environmental effects do not contribute to the similarity of relatives, and it is expected to perform best when sample sizes are large, many individuals in the sample are paired with close relatives, and heritability of the traits is high. We tested the practicality of this method for field biologists by using it to estimate genetic correlations from measurements of field‐caught waterstriders {Aquarius remigis). Results for sample sizes of less than 100 pairs were often unstable or undefined, and even with more than 500 pairs only half of those correlations that had been found to be significant in standard laboratory experiments were statistically significant in this study. Statistically removing the influence of environmental effects (shared between relatives) weakened the estimates, possibly by removing some of the genetic similarity between relatives. However, the method did generate statistically significant estimates for some genetic correlations. Lynch (1999) anticipated the problems found, and proposed another method that uses estimates of relatedness between members of pairs (from molecular marker data) to improve the estimates of genetic correlations, but that approach has yet to be tested in the field.


In this paper, we present empirical evidence showing that Differential Object Marking (DOM) in Spanish is determined by structural conditions related to Case and agreement. We also argue that semantic concepts such as specificity, definiteness, animacy, or topicality, tightly connected to the presence or absence of A , must be parasitic on the syntactic configurations where DOM is licensed. We also present some consequences of our analysis for the general theory of agreement. We argue that the same structural relation is involved in all cases of DOM, as well as in Dative Clitic Constructions, where the presence of the particle A preceding clitic-doubled datives is syntactically unified with DOM phenomena. The accusative/dative distinction traditionally attributed to the Spanish pronominal system does not correspond, in synchronic terms, to different case relations, but distinguishes between agreeing and non-agreeing arguments. Similarly, the distribution of DOM corresponds to a Case-checked/Caseless difference. We extend the analysis to account for well-known restrictions on the co-appearance of two DOM arguments, which are analyzed as the consequence of a competition between two arguments for a single target.


Drug self‐administration is a procedure in which a subject performs a response, called an operant, that results in the delivery of a drug injection. This procedure is viewed as a relevant model for the study of human drug‐taking behavior. Drug self‐administration in primates has several characteristics that resemble drug‐taking behavior in humans, and drugs that are commonly abused by humans also typically maintain self‐administration behavior in monkeys. Drug self‐administration procedures allow for the study of a variety of drug properties. For instance, they are used to investigate the abuse potential of new compounds and to study the effects of candidate medications for the treatment of drug addiction. These procedures also can be used to study the process of drug reinforcement. This unit describes intravenous drug self‐administration in large primates, such as rhesus macaques, and smaller primates, such as squirrel monkeys.


Intelligence is one component of self esteem, but it is not well represented in standard measures. To further research on intelligence and self esteem, adolescent attitude toward intelligent behavior in school were measured. To measure students' opinions, an instrument referred to as "Thoughts on Thinking" was developed. This thirty statement, ten-point scale was administered to 699 students in grades 5 through 12 in a small suburban school district. There were 84 students who identified themselves as having participated in the district gifted program while 615 did not so identify themselves. Three factors were found to be present: factor I: "Smartness Self-Esteem"; factor II: "Smartness Preference"; and factor III: "Smartness Self-Concept." Significance for grade level and gifted ability on factor I; for grade level and gender on factor II; and for gender and gifted ability on factor III were found. On factor I, fifth graders were found to be significantly more confident that they were smart than were other grade levels. The same finding held true for those identified as gifted versus those not identified as gifted. On factor II, males more strongly preferred athletics/popularity to intelligence than did females. On factor III, the "identified gifted" had significantly less concern than those students not identified as gifted. Generally, attitudes toward intelligence were found to be extremely stable in fifth through twelfth grades. (Author/MKA) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ********************************************************************************


During the administration of a construction project, various types of participants are engaged in the project. From the design phase to the maintenance phase, these participants may confront many risks. To avoid these risks, participants should utilize an insurance company or a bond company. The types of risks and liability that a construction manager may face are listed in the construction law or contract. But there are some arguments related to risk transferring and the content of risks. For this reason, construction managers must carefully consider any possible risks in the contract and the construction law. Therefore, for construction managers to deal with risks appropriately, the introduction of a legal requirement to carry professional liability insurance, a defined compensation range for damages, a method of guarantee in the event of defects, a defined compensation claim period for damage, and a method of damage claim were suggested in this study.


This second edition of Bruce Tremper's acclaimed book is regarded as the most authoritative commentary on avalanche matters. Winter recreation off-piste, particularly in North America and Europe, has increased steadily over the years and so has the number of deaths caused by avalanches. As search and rescue teams are increasingly strapped for funding, self-education has become a larger necessity for snow-sport enthusiasts.This new edition .of Bruce Tremper's seminal book is organised according to the structure of the American Avalanche Association classes and all chapters have been updated with the most recent data and techniques, and reviewed by peer experts.


Injection of lipopolysaccharide from Escherichia coli intravenously into mice affected the ability of their peritoneal macrophages to adsorb antisheep erythrocyte cytophilic antibodies in vitro. After a single intravenous injection of lipopolysaccharide, the alteration in antibody uptake took the form of a triphasic response. An early evanescent increase in adsorptive capacity took place, which reached a maximum 5 min after injection and was followed immediately by a phase of depressed uptake of antibody. Enhancement of antibody uptake then increased to reach a maximum about 24 hr after injection, before declining slowly. The second enhancement phase was inhibited by prior immunization with E. coli or after multiple injections of lipopolysaccharide. Exposure of macrophages to lipopolysaccharide in vitro did not alter their capacity to take up cytophilic antibody. Changes in the capacity of macrophages and polymorphonuclear neutrophil leukocytes to adsorb opsonized erythrocytes were induced by injection of lipopolysaccharide and


Clostridium nigrificans was found to be a spoilage organism of canned mushrooms in Taiwan. A modified beef extract tryptone iron medium, both in broth and agar form, was designed for the detection and recovery of the organisms. A procedure of simple plate counting method of C. nigrificans was established. Canned mushrooms constitute important and the production of this commodity is constantly The major


In this paper, a three-dimensional (3-D) interferometric synthetic aperture radar (ISAR) imaging method for moving targets is presented. This imaging method is based on the ISAR principle and the simple observation that all scatterers on a moving target move in tandem. The angular motion parameters in the cross-range directions could be estimated using the overall range profile of the moving target. Registration of the respective complex images at the two (or more) interferometric antennas can then be achieved via compensating the respective echoes at the raw data level, thus avoiding phase-unwrapping processing and image-resampling processing as required by conventional methods. Finally, a 3-D image of the moving target can then be reconstructed from the 3-D spatial coordinates of these scatterers. Furthermore, the method works well even for a target moving in heavily cluttered environments.


This article investigates the detection and isolation of false data injection (FDI) attacks in a smart grid based on the unknown input (UI) interval observer. Recent studies have shown that the FDI attacks can bypass the traditional bad data detection methods by using the vulnerability of state estimation. For this reason, the emergency of FDI attacks brings enormous risk to the security of smart grid. To solve this crucial problem, an UI interval observer-based detection and the isolation scheme against FDI attacks are proposed. We first design the UI interval observers to obtain interval state estimation accurately, based on the constructed physical dynamics grid model. Through the capabilities of the designed UI interval observers, the accurate interval estimation state can be decoupled from unknown disturbances. Based on the characteristics of the interval residuals, a UI interval observer-based global detection algorithm was proposed. Particularly, the interval residual-based detection criteria can address the limitation of the precomputed threshold in traditional bad data detection methods. On this basis, we further consider the detection and isolation of FDI attacks under structure vulnerability. Namely, there exist undetectable FDI attacks in the grid system. Taking the attack undetectability problem into account, a logic judgment matrix-based local detection and isolation algorithm against FDI attacks are developed. Based on the combinations of observable sensor cases, local control centers can further detect and isolate the attack set under structure vulnerability. Finally, the effectiveness of the developed detection and isolation algorithms against FDI attacks is demonstrated on the IEEE 8-bus and IEEE 118-bus smart grid system, respectively.


: The slow internal dynamics and the conformational state of Escherichia coli alkaline phosphatase by the action of temperature in the range 0-100 degrees C have been investigated by tryptophan room temperature phosphorescence and fluorescence. It has been shown that heating an alkaline phosphatase solution in the interval 0-70 degrees C leads to a substantial increase in the slow internal dynamics. A further increase in temperature to 95 degrees C causes a reversible enhancement of internal dynamics and a partial unfolding of the globule. Heating the protein solution in a narrow temperature range 97-100 degrees C induces an irreversible conformational transition, which is characterized by total unfolding of the globule, a drastic increase in internal dynamics, and the loss of enzymatic activity.


PURPOSE
To compare the effects of transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic shunt (TIPS) creation with those of endoscopic treatment with or without propranolol administration (i.e, conventional treatment) on recurrent bleeding, encephalopathy, and mortality by using meta-analysis of 11 published randomized clinical trials.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Data from 11 relevant studies were retrieved by means of computerized and manual search. The combinability of the studies was assessed in terms of clinical and statistical criteria. Data were extracted on the basis of the intention-to-treat principle, and treatment effects were measured as risk differences between TIPS creation and conventional treatment. Pooled estimates were computed according to a random-effects model.

RESULTS
A total of 750 patients were included in 11 trials. No significant heterogeneity was found for any of the outcomes. Pooled risk differences were recurrent bleeding, -31% (95% CI, -39%, -23%); encephalopathy, +16% (95% CI, +10%, +22%); death due to all causes, +2% (95% CI, -4%, +9%); and death due to bleeding, -5% (95% CI, -11%, +6%). Clinically important complications occurred in 22% of patients and were associated with both treatments. TIPS dysfunction occurred in 55% of patients.

CONCLUSION
TIPS creation markedly reduces risk of rebleeding but increases risk of encephalopathy without affecting survival. Therefore, TIPS creation may not be the best first-choice therapy for prevention of recurrent variceal bleeding. Criteria for selection of candidates for TIPS creation should be assessed in future prospective studies.


Human T cells genetically modified to express chimeric antigen receptors (CAR) specific to the B cell tumor antigen CD19 can successfully eradicate systemic human CD19(+) tumors in immunocompromised SCID (severe combined immunodeficient)-Beige mice. However, in the clinical setting, CD4(+) CD25(hi) T regulatory cells (Treg) present within the tumor microenvironment may be potent suppressors of tumor-targeted effector T cells. In order to assess the impact of Tregs on CAR-modified T cells in the SCID-Beige xenotransplant model, we isolated, genetically targeted and expanded natural T regulatory cells (nTreg). In vitro nTregs modified to express CD19-targeted CARs efficiently inhibited the proliferation of activated human T cells, as well as the capacity of CD19-targeted 19-28z(+) effector T cells to lyse CD19(+) Raji tumor cells. Intravenous infusion of CD19-targeted nTregs into SCID-Beige mice with systemic Raji tumors traffic to sites of tumor and recapitulate a clinically relevant hostile tumor microenvironment. Antitumor efficacy of subsequently infused 19-28z(+) effector T cells was fully abrogated as assessed by long-term survival of treated mice. Optimal suppression by genetically targeted nTregs was dependent on nTreg to effector T-cell ratios and in vivo nTreg activation. Prior infusion of cyclophosphamide in the setting of this nTreg-mediated hostile microenvironment was able to restore the antitumor activity of subsequently infused 19-28z(+) effector T cells through the eradication of tumor-targeted nTregs. These findings have significant implications for the design of future clinical trials utilizing CAR-based adoptive T-cell therapies of cancer.


When we detect conflicting irrelevant stimuli (e.g., nearby conversations), we often minimize distraction by increasing attention to relevant stimuli. However, dissociating the neural substrates of processes that detect conflict and processes that increase attention has proven exceptionally difficult. Using a novel cross-modal attentional cueing task in humans, we observed regional specialization for these processes in the cognitive division of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACCcd). Activity in a dorsal subregion was associated with increasing attention to relevant stimuli, correlated with behavioral measures of orienting attention to those stimuli, and resembled activity in dorsolateral prefrontal regions that are also thought to bias attention toward relevant stimuli. In contrast, activity in a rostral subregion was associated only with detecting response conflict caused by irrelevant stimuli. These findings support a two-component model for minimizing distraction and speak to a longstanding debate over how the ACCcd contributes to cognitive control.


The purpose of this paper is to diagnose two types of causal relationships from the perspective of the structural equations model. First, the relationship is analysed between managers' beliefs regarding the use of marketing information in making decisions and the rational premises of decision validity. Next, the rational premises of decision validity are considered in reference to managers' abilities to select appropriate information from marketing research reports. Taking into account all of the above premises, the author in the empirical research conducted here introduced the following two research hypotheses which state that: H1: the high level of managers' beliefs about the usefulness of information from marketing research does not yet positively influence their way of reasoning and making decisions in the light of the bounded-rationality theory. H2: managers who do not use the bounded-rationality criteria of decision assessment, lack of the analytical approach in solving decision problems, also reflect the inability of selecting proper information from a marketing research report.,In the conducted empirical research, that is, in the process of gathering the information, the internet questionnaire survey was used, which included the author's own version of items measuring respective latent variables. Next, to the chosen group of the respondents (invited to the survey through the two social networking sites: LinkedIn and Golden Line), a direct link to the questionnaire was sent via personal e-mails. The method of providing answers to the questions in the online survey included indicating by the respondents the answers on a seven-point Likert scale for the statements which were expressed in agree/disagree format. The whole empirical research was conducted between March 1 and August 31 in 2014, and the process of choosing the appropriate respondents to the sample was conducted with the use of the two techniques: judgemental sampling and snowball sampling. The final size of sample equalled n=213 and its structure included the individuals in companies, who have borne the responsibility mainly for the organisation and planning of strategic and tactic marketing activities. In short, the sample structure consisted of the respondents responsible for decision-making processes and included: marketing directors (45 per cent), product managers (27 per cent), managing directors and chief executive officers (20 per cent), as well as marketing executives (8 per cent).,On the basis of findings and the obtained empirical results it is argued that decision makers in companies, despite their strong declarations regarding the use of marketing information, in reality prefer to act in a non-analytical way when making choices. Managers, when faced with difficulties in information processing, adopt simple solutions in solving decision problems which are much closer to the irrational sphere of making choices. Thus the full potential of information that is available to them from marketing research is not even considered. This irrational behaviour in decisions as well as the lack of analytical thinking result in further consequences pertaining to the way that information is selected.,In spite of all theoretical arguments supporting the bounded-rational theory of making choices, the irrationality or, simply, the non-analytical thinking in decision-making processes in organisations takes place. The inability to use effectively information by managers in companies and failure to scrutinise their own processes of decision making on the basis of logic and reasoning is admittedly the Achille's heel of many information users. Using information from marketing research in decisions, as well as undertaking the sequence of steps to ensure the valid decision-making process, seems to be a huge problem for managers. Taking into account, the empirical research findings, one can argue now that in spite of the managers' conviction about the usefulness of the information from marketing research, that is, despite their declarations pertaining to use of information in decision-making processes, such information is in practice often ignored and not taken into account.,In the paper the author explains why, as is supported by empirical evidence, managers in companies decide to conceal their real beliefs concerning the usefulness of marketing information. Taking this into consideration, the indirect question of the empirical research conducted here is whether managers ever seriously consider marketing research results when making decisions?


This is a detailed study of learning in the context of dry stone walling. It examines
what happens in the learning situation. The aim of this work was:
'To understand the nature of expertise in dry stone walling, how it is understood
by those practising the craft, and how it is transmitted to others'.

The main research questions were, therefore:

What happens when dry stone wallers are learning their craft?

How do they acquire expertise in dry stone walling?

How is this learning communicated?

This process necessitated developing a way of engaging with the practitioners,
eliciting descriptive data about what they were doing, and why they were doing it,
through interviews (or conversations) with both individuals and groups, whilst
they practiced their skill. Twenty three wailers were interviewed as they worked,
building walls.

The material obtained was analysed under seven different themes:

'Knowing how'

The use of tacit knowledge or intuition

'Flow'

Constant decision making, reflection and learning from mistakes

Individual and subjective variations and experiences

The relevance of emotion

The use of 'rules of thumb' or maxims.

Learning walling does not fit simply into any of the seven themes. It is
contextualised, complex and individual. It demonstrates tacit knowledge and
intuition. It involves emotion, sometimes consciously, sometimes not. It involves
memory, problem solving, and learning from mistakes, and reflection. Maxims or
'rules of thumb' were a key element in the learning process at all stages. Linear
stages of learning were not evidenced. Deep understanding of the practice is
evidenced, and the wider learning and teaching implications are explored.


We introduce a universal framework for characterizing the statistical efficiency of a statistical estimation problem with differential privacy guarantees. Our framework, which we call High-dimensional Propose-Test-Release (HPTR), builds upon three crucial components: the exponential mechanism, robust statistics, and the Propose-Test-Release mechanism. Gluing all these together is the concept of resilience, which is central to robust statistical estimation. Resilience guides the design of the algorithm, the sensitivity analysis, and the success probability analysis of the test step in Propose-Test-Release. The key insight is that if we design an exponential mechanism that accesses the data only via one-dimensional robust statistics, then the resulting local sensitivity can be dramatically reduced. Using resilience, we can provide tight local sensitivity bounds. These tight bounds readily translate into near-optimal utility guarantees in several cases. We give a general recipe for applying HPTR to a given instance of a statistical estimation problem and demonstrate it on canonical problems of mean estimation, linear regression, covariance estimation, and principal component analysis. We introduce a general utility analysis technique that proves that HPTR nearly achieves the optimal sample complexity under several scenarios studied in the literature.


Whatever the shape of the information network, collection imposes special burdens on the patients who are the subject of the information and who form the data pool for queries and analytics. Data storage, transfer, and queries create privacy risks: "No security measures…can ever completely safeguard against…release…or inappropriate use." Patients therefore face actual or feared employment or insurance discrimination, reputational loss, or identity theft. Many patients also believe they have a claim to their information, of which collection deprives them. They may find research projects repugnant to their moral or religious beliefs, and appear to suffer dignitary harm when their information is used without their consent, whether identified or deidentified.

The key problem is this: increasingly, these burdens are being placed on individuals who enjoy less social welfare, by focusing information collection efforts on those groups. Government programs aim to enhance data collection from these groups; by law, this data are available for public research to make the secondary research breakthroughs current medicine is based upon. By contrast, those with higher levels of welfare can keep their information from the communal pot, although they are well-position to reap health benefits as the learning health system gets off the ground.

This Article argues that burdens should be distributed in a just manner. This entails taking into account the social welfare of the individual patient where possible when imposing on them information burdens and distributing information benefits. In concrete terms, this would require altering the points at which we collect information, focusing less on public benefit programs like Medicare and Medicaid, and looking to other sources such as wearable devices and wellness programs. It would also require us to alter research methods by broadening and where possible shifting the data pool that is queried or distributed for research. And it involves ensuring that benefits in the form of clinical decision support and smart devices that learn from iterative algorithms are accessible and used by the care providers of worse off populations.


An actively enhanced resonant transmission in a plasmonic array of subwavelength holes is demonstrated by use of terahertz time-domain spectroscopy. By connecting this two-dimensional element into an electrical circuit, tunable resonance enhancement is observed in arrays made from good and relatively poor metals. The tunable feature is attributed to the nonlinear electric response of the periodic hole array film, which is confirmed by its voltage—current behavior. This finding could lead to a unique route to active plasmonic devices, such as tunable filters, spatial modulators, and integrated terahertz optoelectronic components.


0.1 Motivation: Functional genomic annotation of epigenetic histone modification ChIP-seq data is a computationally challenging task. Epigenetic histone modifications that have inherently broad peaks with a diffuse range of signal enrichment (e.g., H3K9me1, H3K27me3) differ significantly from narrow peaks that exhibit a compact and localized enrichment pattern (e.g., H3K4me3, H3K9ac). Varying degrees of tissue-dependent broadness of the specific epigenetic mark coupled with environmentally mediated 3D-folding of chromosomes for long-range communication make it difficult to accurately and reliably link sequencing data to biological function. Hence, it would be useful to develop a software program that can precisely tailor the computational analysis of a histone modification ChIP-seq dataset to the specific tissue-dependent, environmentally mediated characteristics of the data. 0.2 Results: geneXtendeR is an R/Bioconductor package designed to optimally annotate a histone modification ChIP-seq peak input file with functionally important genomic features (e.g., genes associated with peaks) based on optimization calculations. geneXtendeR optimally extends the boundaries of every gene in a genome by some genomic distance (in DNA base pairs) for the purpose of flexibly incorporating cis and trans-regulatory elements, such as enhancers and promoters, as well as downstream elements that are important to the function of the gene relative to an epigenetic histone modification ChIP-seq dataset. geneXtendeR computes optimal gene extensions tailored to the broadness of the specific epigenetic mark (e.g., H3K9me1, H3K27me3), as determined by a user-supplied ChIP-seq peak input file. As such, geneXtendeR maximizes the signal-to-noise ratio of locating genes closest to and directly under peaks that may be linked by epigenetic regulation. By performing a computational expansion of this nature, ChIP-seq reads that would initially not map strictly to a specific gene can now be optimally mapped to the regulatory regions of the gene, thereby implicating the gene as a potential candidate, and thereby making the ChIP-seq experiment more successful. Such an approach becomes particularly important when working with epigenetic histone modifications that have inherently broad peaks. We have tested geneXtendeR on 547


Respiratory motion affects a wide range of techniques in the field of medical image acquisition and analysis. In image-guided interventions it may cause misalignment of static road maps with the patient's anatomy. In imaging such as magnetic resonance (MR) imaging or positron emission tomography (PET) it may cause the images to appear blurred which may impede disease diagnosis and staging. Manifold learning is a powerful tool for the non-linear dimensionality reduction of imaging data, which can be used to uncover the data's dominating sources of motion. By aligning low-dimensional embeddings of multiple datasets, which vary due to the same motion, in a joint low-dimensional space accurate correspondences between the datasets can be established. In the first part of this thesis, manifold alignment is investigated for the robust reconstruction of high-resolution 4D (3D+time) MR imaging sequences of respiratory motion from sequentially acquired coronal 2D MR slices. In particular, a novel groupwise manifold alignment scheme is presented which outperforms two current state-of-the-art reconstruction techniques. From such 4D MR images very accurate motion estimates are derived, which, in turn, are used to correct for motion in simulated PET-MRI data. In the second part of this thesis, a patient-specific respiratory motion model presented based on groupwise manifold alignment. Such a motion model can be used to correct for 3D organ motion during an image-guided intervention where only 2D images are available. It is shown that the aligned low-dimensional representations obtained using manifold alignment may be viewed directly as a surrogate-driven motion model. By updating this low-dimensional manifold with points obtained from new 2D imaging data, the model can automatically adapt to previously unseen breathing patterns. Lastly, in the third part of this thesis, a novel manifold alignment method is outlined which does not require any of the datasets to be comparable in the image space. To this end a novel similarity kernel is proposed which allows comparison of visually distinct datasets by analysing their internal graph structure using a random walk approach. This allows to embed all data simultaneously in one step rather than in groups. It is shown that improved 4D MR reconstruction from multiple sagittal 2D MR slices can be achieved using this approach. Furthermore, the method is demonstrated on the time-resolved compounding of multiple 3D ultrasound views of the same organ.


Abstract
This study aims to determine consumer response based psychografic segment and to the shock markets in Batam City, especially in the nine districts that are in the geographic area of Batam Island. To analyze the response of segments to the shock market used qualitative method with descriptive approach. Analysis method is Interpretative Phenomenologi Analysis (IPA). Using Model Analysis Spradley with departing from the broad focus of study and then find more widespread. Batam city composed of 12 districts, there are only nine districts have 27 shock markets. In this study, geographic units based on those districts. Spreading shock market dominated by the District of Batu Aji with 10 shock market following the District of Sekupang with five shock market, while the District Sagulung four shock market and the District of Batam Kota have two shock market. For Nongsa District, Batu Ampar, Bengkong, Sei Beduk, Lubuk Baja, each one shock market. All the time, social class, personality, and lifestyle are different always change and provide opportunities for industrial goods and services. The same thing happened with the shock market business. In Batam, for the nine districts that consist of different characteristics of the variable social class, personality, and lifestyle, mingling in the shock market. There is no limit to the specific psychographic segments in the shock market in Batam City.
Key words: Segment,  Psychographic, Shock Market


The integration of proper algorithms and computer graphics-based systems seems promising for the design of biomechanical models and the relative motion analysis. Thus, consequences on research fields as gait analysis are gathered, focusing on joints kinematics. Human motion patterns are indeed directly influenced from human model and associated joints parameters, such as centers and axes of rotation. These, as a matter of fact, determine the body segments coordinates systems. Joints parameters are estimated with several methods. The aim of this research is to evaluate the consistency of a functional approach versus a the predictive one. A validation of the algorithm used to estimate the lower limbs joints centers in gait analysis is provided with a proper subject-specific multibody model implemented in OpenSim space. Joints angles are estimated using a global optimization method and a comparison with the gold standard technique is also discussed. Overall the obtained results are consistent for the two different methodologies. The correlation of the curves is excellent in the sagittal plane, and very good in the coronal and transversal plane.


The wavelength utilization can be improved by TDM technology in WDM optical networks. In this paper, the dynamic routing, wavelength and timeslot problem is studied. We propose a new algorithm MCSA which based on the most-continuous-same-available resources and its performances is evaluated through simulation. The results show that the MCSA algorithm can effectively reduce the connection blocking probability and optimize the resource utilization of WDM-TDM optical network.


The results of the empirical study among the members of election commissions (N=112, age: 25−68 years) for Ukrainian parliamentary elections 2019 to study the styles of their professional activity and the level of stress are presented. The most pronounced style of professional activity is "Professional-perfectionist", which contributes to the high productivity of members of election commissions. The work tasks at a polling station are best fulfilled by the person with a more pronounced style of professional activity "Formalist-bureaucrat". It is undesirable to involve working at the polling station persons with high rates in the style of the professional activity of "Nihilist". It has been found that the major psychological difficulties of working in election commissions are due to excessive psycho-emotional and psychophysical overload, to which some members of the commissions are not ready. This overload can cause them to experience certain mental stress, different levels of stress, their manifestation, and consequences. Although the majority of participants demonstrated a high degree of adaptability to stressful workloads, members of commissions should perform their duties at a highly professional level in extremely difficult circumstances, including at night and in a state of intense emotional stress. The results of the research should be taken into account during the organization of the election process and the holding of elections to central and local authorities. To improve it, it is advisable to organize and conduct early training and skills upgrading of members of election commissions. To do this, it is necessary to develop and implement training programs for the development of style peculiarities of professional activity, which will contribute to effective work in the election commission and overcoming psychological difficulties.


Multimorbidity (MM) is the co-existence of two or more health conditions. Whilst its prevalence is higher in older adults, in absolute numbers there are more multimorbid young people. Recently, the trends for increasing life expectancy observed in high income countries have stalled or reversed. The relationship between MM and premature mortality requires exploration. We assessed the prevalence of secondary care MM in mid-life and its association with premature mortality in the Scottish Aberdeen Children of the 1950s (ACONF) cohort.

 Prospective cohort study. ACONF members were linked to electronic hospital records and mortality records. Secondary care MM was assessed using hospital records in 2001 when participants were aged 45-51 years. The association between MM and mortality over 15 years (to age 60-66 years) was assessed using Cox proportional hazards regression. There was adjustment for key covariates: age, gender, social class at birth, childhood intelligence, educational attainment, alcohol, smoking, body mass index and adult social class.

 Of 9,625 participants (51% male), 3% had MM. Higher childhood intelligence and adult social class were associated with reduced MM. In relation to the reference group (no MM), those with MM had a mortality hazard ratio of 4.5 (95% CI 3.4-6.0) over 15 years. The association remained when adjusted for the covariates (2.5 [95% CI 1.5-4.0]).

 Secondary care MM prevalence was 3% in mid-life and associated with premature mortality. Younger adults with MM are an important group at risk of premature mortality which should be the focus of public health action. This includes reducing the impact of social inequality and reconfiguring secondary care services to offer comprehensive management of younger multimorbid adults.

 Multimorbidity in mid-life is associated with premature mortality and may be an important influence on reducing life expectancy trends. Much focus is upon multimorbidity in older adults, however younger adults with multimorbidity are at risk of premature mortality, requiring public health action.


On-Orbit Servicing (OOS), meaning inspection, upgrade, repair, replenishment or maneuvering of a spacecraft on orbit, promises to be a capability with the potential to change the way space business is conducted, for manufacturers, operators, and insurers. The Institute of Astronautics (LRT) of Technische Universitaet Muenchen (TUM) is investigating the feasibility of, and technologies for, telepresent on-orbit servicing. With this approach, a human operator on ground controls a servicer satellite via geostationary relay satellite in real time, thereby giving him or her at least semi-global access and over 45 minutes of uninterrupted manipulation time. It is argued that this telepresent approach to controlling a freeflying servicer satellite is similar to operating Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) underneath the oceans. However, in some respects the space environment is markedly different from the underwater environment and also from operators' every day experience of physics. Therefore, some innovative assistance technologies and methods are required in order to enable the operator to efficiently and safely operate a satellite platform and robotic manipulators with two satellites in close proximity to each other. This paper describes the reasoning, methods, and technologies being investigated by LRT as part of its participation in the collaborative research center "High Fidelity Telepresence and Teleaction".


Alex is always being left on the bench - in fact, he's sure he's only in the team at all because his dad helps out at his team's weekend matches. His teammates think he's just a useless jelly belly - but they get a shock when they see Alex has a hidden talent. That belly - and all the rest of him - turns out to be spectacularly good at stopping goals. Jelly Belly has found his place in the team! A sparkling football story about a determined underdog.


Eleven bovine heterografts were utilized in the repetitive administration of chemotherapy in 10 patients with insufficient vascular access. Six grafts remained patent until the time of death and five grafts clotted from 71 to 1110 days postoperatively. Three patients are alive and well. All grafts were initially patent and no wound infections resulted. The bovine heterograft appears to be a useful adjunct for securing vascular access for patients requiring cancer chemotherapy.


The effects of streamwise aspect ratio (AR) on the asymmetric wake flow over and behind right-angled trapezoidal cylinders with AR (= upper cylinder length to height ratio) = 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 were investigated using particle image velocimetry. The Reynolds number based on the free-stream velocity and cylinder height was 14700. The flow characteristics are examined in terms of the mean velocity flow, Reynolds stresses, probability density function (PDF) and two-point correlations. The results show that the primary vortex in the AR1 and AR2 trapezoidal cases extends into the wake region but is confined to the surface of the longer cases and two asymmetrical wake vortexes are only observed in the longer cases. Dual peaks of elevated streamwise Reynolds stresses are observed in the wake region, regardless of the aspect ratios. The magnitudes of the Reynolds stresses and turbulent kinetic energy are higher in the shorter cases (AR1, AR2 and AR3 cases) compared to the longer cases. The PDF distributions show a bimodal asymmetrical shape in the shorter cases but a nearly Gaussian distribution in the AR5 case. Two-point auto-correlations of the streamwise and vertical velocity fluctuations revealed that the spatial coherency of the turbulent structures is highly sensitive to the streamwise aspect ratio and reference locations. Systematic comparison between the present asymmetric results and symmetric wakes generated by rectangular cylinders with similar aspect ratios and Reynolds number shows significant differences between the asymmetric and symmetric wakes, especially at smaller aspect ratios.


The functional linear array model (FLAM) is a unified model class for functional regression models including function-on-scalar, scalar-on-function and function-on-function regression. Mean, median, quantile as well as generalized additive regression models for functional or scalar responses are contained as special cases in this general framework. Our implementation features a broad variety of covariate effects, such as, linear, smooth and interaction effects of grouping variables, scalar and functional covariates. Computational efficiency is achieved by representing the model as a generalized linear array model. While the array structure requires a common grid for functional responses, missing values are allowed. Estimation is conducted using a boosting algorithm, which allows for numerous covariates and automatic, data-driven model selection. To illustrate the flexibility of the model class we use three applications on curing of resin for car production, heat values of fossil fuels and Canadian climate data (the last one in the electronic supplement). These require function-on-scalar, scalar-on-function and function-on-function regression models, respectively, as well as additional capabilities such as robust regression, spatial functional regression, model selection and accommodation of missings. An implementation of our methods is provided in the R add-on package FDboost.


This study aimed to analyze the antiproliferative and genotoxic potential of synthetic food flavorings, nature identical passion fruit and artificial vanilla. This assessment used root meristem cells of Allium cepa L., in exposure times of 24 and 48 hours and using doses of 0.2; 0.4 and 0.6 mL. Roots were fixed in Carnoy's solution, hydrolyzed in hydrochloric acid, stained with acetic orcein and analyzed with optical microscope at 400× magnification, 5,000 cells for each treatment. For data analysis, it was used Chi-square test at 5%. Doses of 0.2 mL at ET 48 h; 0.4 and 0.6 mL at ET 24 and 48 h of passion fruit flavor, and the three doses of the vanilla flavor at ET 24 and 48 h significantly reduced the cell division rate in the meristems of roots, proving to be cytotoxic. Doses of 0.2; 0.4 and 0.6 mL of the passion fruit additive, and the three doses of vanilla tested, in the two exposure times, induced mitotic spindle changes and micronuclei formation in the cells of the test organism used, proving to be genotoxic. Therefore, under the studied conditions, flavoring solutions of vanilla and passion fruit, marketed nationally and internationally, significantly altered the functioning of the cell cycle in root meristem cells of A. cepa.


The fractional quantum Hall effect (FQHE), now entering it's fourth decade, continues to draw attention from the condensed matter community. New experiments in recent years are raising hopes that it will be possible to observe quasi-particles with non-abelian anyonic statistics. These particles could form the building blocks of a quantum computer.The quantum Hall states have topologically protected energy gaps to the low-lying set of excitations. This topological order is not a locally measurable quantity but rather a non-local object, and it is one of the keys to it's stability. From an early stage understanding of the FQHE has been facilitate by constructing trial wave functions. The topological classification of these wave functions have given further insight to the nature of the FQHE.An early, and successful, wave function construction for filling fractions ν=p/(2p+1) was that of composite fermions on planar and spherical geometries. Recently, new developments using conformal field theory have made it possible to also construct the full Haldane-Halperin hierarchy wave functions on planar and spherical geometries. In this thesis we extend this construction to a toroidal geometry, i.e. a flat surface with periodic boundary conditions.One of the defining features of topological states of matter in two dimensions is that the ground state is not unique on surfaces with non trivial topology, such as a torus. The archetypical example is the fractional quantum Hall effect, where a state at filling fraction ν=p/q, has at least a q-fold degeneracy on a torus. This has been shown explicitly for a few cases, such as the Laughlin states and the the Moore-Read states, by explicit construction of candidate electron wave functions with good overlap with numerically found states. In this thesis, we construct explicit torus wave functions for a large class of experimentally important quantum liquids, namely the chiral hierarchy states in the lowest Landau level. These states, which includes the prominently observed positive Jain sequence at filling fractions ν=p/(2p+1), are characterized by having boundary modes with only one chirality.Our construction relies heavily on previous work that expressed the hierarchy wave functions on a plane or a sphere in terms of correlation functions in a conformal field theory. This construction can be taken over to the torus when care is taken to ensure correct behaviour under the modular transformations that leave the geometry of the torus unchanged. Our construction solves the long standing problem of engineering torus wave functions for multi-component many-body states. Since the resulting expressions are rather complicated, we have carefully compared the simplest example, that of ν=2/5, with numerically found wave functions. We have found an extremely good overlap for arbitrary values of the modular parameter τ, that describes the geometry of the torus.Having explicit torus wave functions allows us to use the methods developed by Read and Read \& Rezayi to numerically compute the quantum Hall viscosity. Hall viscosity is conjectured to be a topologically protected macroscopic transport coefficient characterizing the quantum Hall state. It is related to the shift of the same QH-fluid when it is put on a sphere. The good agreement with the theoretical prediction for the 2/5 state strongly suggests that our wave functions encodes all relevant topologically information.We also consider the Hall viscosity in the limit of a very thin torus. There we find that the viscosity changes as we approach the thin torus limit. Because of this we study the Laughlin state in that limit and see how the change in viscosity arises from a change in the Hamiltonian hopping elements. Finally we conclude that there are both qualitative and quantitative difference between the thin and the square torus. Thus, one has to be careful when interpreting results in the thin torus limit.


The purpose of this paper is to appraise the analytical usefulness of Williamson's theory of the firm by investigating the explanatory capacity of transaction cost concept. Particularly, the aim is to criticize Williamson's main tenet that the emergence of the hierarchical form of capitalist production system can be analysed in terms of efficiency considerations. Contrary to Williamson's rationale, I conclude that the concept of power seems, in contrast to Williamson's adherence to the efficiency principle, to be a more effective analytical tool in explaining the establishment of the factory system.


Identifying agricultural practices that enhance water cycling is critical, particularly with increased rainfall variability and greater risks of droughts and floods. Soil infiltration rates offer useful insights to water cycling in farming systems because they affect both yields (through soil water availability) and other ecosystem outcomes (such as pollution and flooding from runoff). For example, conventional agricultural practices that leave soils bare and vulnerable to degradation are believed to limit the capacity of soils to quickly absorb and retain water needed for crop growth. Further, it is widely assumed that farming methods such as no-till and cover crops can improve infiltration rates. Despite interest in the impacts of agricultural practices on infiltration rates, this effect has not been systematically quantified across a range of practices. To evaluate how conventional practices affect infiltration rates relative to select alternative practices (no-till, cover crops, crop rotation, introducing perennials, crop and livestock systems), we performed a meta-analysis that included 89 studies with field trials comparing at least one such alternative practice to conventional management. We found that introducing perennials (grasses, agroforestry, managed forestry) or cover crops led to the largest increases in infiltration rates (mean responses of 59.2 ± 20.9% and 34.8 ± 7.7%, respectively). Also, although the overall effect of no-till was non-significant (5.7 ± 9.7%), the practice led to increases in wetter climates and when combined with residue retention. The effect of crop rotation on infiltration rate was non-significant (18.5 ± 13.2%), and studies evaluating impacts of grazing on croplands indicated that this practice reduced infiltration rates (−21.3 ± 14.9%). Findings suggest that practices promoting ground cover and continuous roots, both of which improve soil structure, were most effective at increasing infiltration rates.


Rating how aesthetically pleasing an image appears is a highly complex matter and depends on a large number of different visual factors. Previous work has tackled the aesthetic rating problem by ranking on a 1-dimensional rating scale, e.g., incorporating handcrafted attributes. In this paper, we propose a rather general approach to map aesthetic pleasingness with all its complexity into an automatically "aesthetic space" to allow for a highly fine-grained resolution. In detail, making use of deep learning, our method directly learns an encoding of a given image into this highdimensional feature space resembling visual aesthetics. In addition to the mentioned visual factors, differences in personal judgments have a substantial impact on the likeableness of a photograph. Nowadays, online platforms allow users to "like" or favor particular content with a single click. To incorporate a vast diversity of people, we make use of such multi-user agreements and assemble an extensive data set of 380K images (AROD) with associated meta information and derive a score to rate how visually pleasing a given photo is. We validate our derived model of aesthetics in a user study.Further, without any extra data labeling or handcrafted features, we achieve state-of-the-art accuracy on the AVA benchmark data set. Finally, as our approach is able to predict the aesthetic quality of any arbitrary image or video, we demonstrate our results on applications for resorting photo collections, capturing the best shot on mobile devices and aesthetic key-frame extraction from videos.


The ABET TC2K criteria now require proof of continuous improvement similar to the quality assurance programs, such as, the Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) that have long been used in industry. In order to effect continuous improvement in a program or course, ABET requires documentation of the procedure for assessing the course or program, a determination of any areas of weakness, effecting necessary changes to improve the course and then, re-assessing to find out how well the adopted measures worked, thus "closing the loop" on the continuous improvement process. The Civil Engineering Technology (CET) program at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) is preparing for an ABET accreditation next fall. In preparation for the accreditation visit, the author carried out a survey of students in the online and on-campus structural analysis courses to gauge how well the predetermined set of intended learning outcomes (ILOs) were achieved. The students were asked to rate the ILOs for each of the six modules in the course on a scale of 1 to 5 (5 being "very well understood" and 1 being "not understood at all"). The students submit the survey for each module at the completion of each module, thus providing immediate and ongoing feedback on student learning that could be used to make mid-course corrections. This paper discusses the results obtained from this assessment, if differences in student learning exist between the online and on-campus sections, and identifies potential areas of improvement.


The development of G-quadruplex (G4) DNA binding small molecules has become an important strategy for selectively targeting cancer cells. Herein, we report the design and evolution of a new kind of carbazole-based benzimidazole dimers for their efficient telomerase inhibition activity. Spectroscopic titrations reveal the ligands high affinity toward the G4 DNA with significantly higher selectivity over duplex-DNA. The electrophoretic mobility shift assay shows that the ligands efficiently promote the formation of G4 DNA even at a lower concentration of the stabilizing K(+) ions. The TRAP-LIG assay demonstrates the ligand's potential telomerase inhibition activity and also establishes that the activity proceeds via G4 DNA stabilization. An efficient nuclear internalization of the ligands in several common cancer cells (HeLa, HT1080, and A549) also enabled differentiation between normal HFF cells in co-cultures of cancer and normal ones. The ligands induce significant apoptotic response and antiproliferative activity toward cancer cells selectively when compared to the normal cells.


Metal additive manufacturing (AM) has recently attracted attention due to its potential for batch/mass production of metal parts. This process, however, currently suffers from problems including low productivity, inconsistency in the properties of the printed parts, and defects such as lack of fusion, keyholing, and un-melted powders. Finite Element (FE) modeling cannot accurately model the metal AM process and has a high computational cost. Empirical models based on experiments are time-consuming and expensive. This paper improves a previously developed framework that takes advantages of both empirical and FE models. The validity and accuracy of the metamodel developed in the previous framework depend on the initial assumption of parameter uncertainties. This causes a problem when the assumed uncertainties are far from the actual values. The proposed framework introduces an iterative calibration process to overcome this limitation. In addition, the u_pooling metric used as the calibration metric in the previous framework is found not as good as the second-order statistical moment-based metric (SMM), after comparing several calibration metrics. The proposed framework is then applied to a four-variable porosity modeling problem. The obtained model is more accurate than using other approaches with only 10 available experimental data points for calibration and validation.


The proliferation of bioinformatics activities brings new challenges – how to understand and organise these resources, how to exchange and reuse successful experimental procedures, and to provide interoperability among data and tools. This paper describes an effort toward these directions. It is based on combining research on ontology management, AI and scientific workflows to design, reuse and annotate bioinformatics experiments. The resulting framework supports automatic or interactive composition of tasks based on AI planning techniques and takes advantage of ontologies to support the specification and annotation of bioinformatics workflows. We validate our proposal with a prototype running on real data.


PURPOSE
In vitro, in vivo, and epidemiologic studies support a role for selenium in reducing the risk of prostate cancer. Our group previously demonstrated a strong interaction between plasma selenium and the manganese superoxide dismutase (SOD2) gene and incident prostate cancer risk. We now hypothesized that SOD2 modifies the association between selenium level and risk of aggressive prostate cancer at diagnosis.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
We assessed SOD2 variants and plasma selenium in 489 patients with localized/locally advanced prostate cancer from an ongoing retrospective cohort. Cross-sectional associations with aggressive prostate cancer (ie, stage T2b-3, prostate-specific antigen > 10 ng/mL, or biopsy Gleason score > or = 7) were evaluated using the chi(2) test, Cochran-Armitage test for trend, and estimations of relative risk (RR) and 95% CIs.

RESULTS
SOD2 genotype alone was not associated with disease aggressiveness, whereas higher versus lower selenium levels were associated with a slightly increased likelihood of presenting with aggressive disease (RR = 1.35; 95% CI, 0.99 to 1.84). There was evidence of an interaction between SOD2 and selenium levels such that among men with the AA genotype, higher selenium levels were associated with a reduced risk of presenting with aggressive disease (RR = 0.60; 95% CI, 0.32 to 1.12), whereas among men with a V allele, higher selenium levels were associated with an increased risk of aggressive disease (for VV or VA men, RR = 1.82; 95% CI, 1.27 to 2.61; P for interaction = .007).

CONCLUSION
These data suggest that the relationship between circulating selenium levels at diagnosis and prognostic risk of prostate cancer is modified by SOD2 genotype and indicate caution against broad use of selenium supplementation for men with prostate cancer.


Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most common malignant tumors, which is also often fatal. An early and accurate diagnosis is a decisive step towards the survival of the patients. Molecular biology improved significantly the prognosis of liver cancers through learned use of tumor markers like proteantigens, cytokines, enzymes, isoenzymes, circulating RNAs, gene mutations and methylations. Nevertheless, much improvement is still achievable and needed in this area, which is crucial in order to make an early diagnosis and monitor the progression of the disease. We present in this review what we believe to be the most relevant data regarding tissue and serum biomarkers related to HCC.


Music can modulate perceptions, actions, and judgments in everyday situations. The aim of this study was to investigate a potential influence of music on moral judgments in the context of film reception. In the course of an online experiment, 252 participants were assigned to three different experimental conditions (no, positive, or negative music). Participants were requested to assess actions shown in two 2–3-minute audio-visual film excerpts with regard to their perceived moral rightness and to report induced emotions after watching the film clips. Afterwards, they were asked to complete the MFQ-30 questionnaire measuring the foundations of their moral judgments. Results revealed that in one of four cases (i.e. happiness in film excerpt 1), music had a significant effect on recipients' emotions and also indirectly influenced their moral judgment. In three of four cases, however, the intended emotion induction through film music did not succeed, and thus a significant indirect influence of music on moral judgment was not found. Furthermore, associations between moral foundations, perceived rightness of action, and induced emotions were observed. Future lab studies are indicated to investigate potential moderating influences of the experimental environment on emotion induction through film music.


In the last decade, new practices in Supply Chain Management (SCM) have been implemented in leading industrial sectors such as the Automotive Industry (AI), usually at a greater speed than has been studied or reported by academia. In the case of Brazil, pursuant to a series of investments in new plants, the AI has become a reference in several aspects of SCM. Spain, in turn, after seeing its automotive sector grow and prosper for almost two decades, is now experiencing a phase of relative stagnation and of concern, particularly due to the growing membership in the European Union (EU) and the resulting establishment of new plants and investments in Eastern Europe. In this context, the main purpose of this paper is to present and discuss the major findings of a case study focusing on new practices in SCM implemented in Brazilian and Spanish automotive plants that use new supply chain configurations.


With less than 100 registered Indigenous accountants in Australia compared to an estimated 200,000 non-Indigenous people in the field, there is serious underrepresentation of the Indigenous population in the profession. There are many imperatives for increasing the number of Aboriginal people in accounting, but the barriers that individuals face before or upon entering the field are formidable. Therefore, the development of enabling programs in higher education is essential. The objective of this research is to develop a curriculum for the Indigenous Pre-Accounting Enabling Program at Charles Darwin University (CDU) in Darwin, Australia that is culturally empowering, breaks down the barriers for entering university, motivates Indigenous students to study accounting, links students to Indigenous professionals, offer gateways into the industry, and establishes a community of Indigenous students online and on campus. The novelty of the program is its early involvement of Indigenous accountants as role models as well as Indigenous corporations, regulators of Indigenous businesses (such as the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations) and accreditation bodies such as the Chartered Professional Accountants and Chartered Accountants.


The smart way to learn Office SharePoint Designer 2007 one step at a time! Work at your own pace through the easy numbered steps, practice files on CD, helpful hints, and troubleshooting tips to master the fundamentals of building customized SharePoint sites and applications. You ll learn how to work with Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and Office SharePoint Server 2007 to create Web pages complete with Cascading Style Sheets, Lists, Libraries, and customized Web parts. Then, make your site really work for you by adding data sources, including databases, XML data and Web services, and RSS feeds. You ll even learn how to create workflows and applications with custom forms, templates, and dashboards to enhance your team s productivity. With STEP BY STEP, you can take just the lessons you need or work from cover to cover. Either way, you drive the instruction, building and practicing the skills you need, just when you need them! Includes an easy-search companion CD with hands-on practice files, a complete eBook, and more!Key Book Benefits:Includes coverage of the fundamentals for building custom SharePoint sites and applications to enhance your productivityCovers Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 and SharePoint Server 2007Features easy-to-follow lessons and hands-on skill-building exercisesIncludes an easy-search companion CD with practice files, a complete eBook, and other resources


Anaerobic Digestion (AD) is often chosen as a suitable treatment for tannery wastewater (TWW) since this waste stream is rich in organic matter. Nevertheless, the high organic load and the presence of compounds commonly used in the leather production process and responsible for inhibiting the biological activity (e.g. chromium and sulphide) limit the full capitalization of the whole potential in producing biomethane from this low-cost and interesting source of renewable energy. Pretreatment of substrates is considered by most as the solution to overcome this negative aspect as a higher biomethane production in a shorter time is expected after that. Actually in this study three different temperatures have been tested, in detail, 90, 80, and 70 °C, to pretreat a real TWW prior to a mesophilic AD process conducted in a series of batch biomethane potential (BMP) tests aimed at evaluating the optimum temperature that can result in increasing the soluble COD content and consequently the AD performance . After the pretreatment, the soluble COD concentration increased from a minimum of 11% to a maximum of 80%: which resulted in an increase of the biomethane production compared with the raw substrate. The highest temperature (90°C) investigated gave the highest increasing in soluble COD but had a negative effect on AD process performance, as the final production of biomethane was 178 ml CH4/g TVS, more than 4 folds less than the maximum yield of 891 ml CH4/g TVS obtained from the sample pre-treated at 80°C where the increase in soluble COD was by 57%. These results highlight the critical aspect of the thermal pretreatment: the increase of temperature can enhance the biomethane production as well as reduce it, therefore the choice of the most suitable temperature depends strongly on the characteristics of the substrate and it can be made only through experimental tests.


Purpose: This paper investigates and evaluates the weaknesses of Enron's corporate governance structures, weaknesses that lead to the collapse of the company. Overall, poor corporate governance and a dishonest culture that nurtured serious conflicts of interests and unethical behaviour in Enron are identified as significant findings in this paper. Methodology/Approach: Employing the case study method, the paper synthesises, analyses, and interprets all aspects of corporate governance that lead to Enron's collapse based on three main reports: The Powers Report (Powers, Troubh and Winokur 2002), the Testimony of Chief Investigation (Roach 2002), and The Subcommittee's Report (United States Senate's Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations 2002).Findings: Firstly, Enron's Board of Directors failed to fulfil its fiduciary duties towards the corporation's shareholders. Secondly, the top executives of Enron were greedy and acted in their own self-interest. Thirdly, many of Enron's employees witnessed the wrongdoings of Enron's top executives, and quite a few whistleblowers came forward. Lastly, Enron outsourced external auditing for its internal audit function instead of establishing a functionally internal audit mechanism and its external auditor acquiesced in the application of questionable accounting and fraudulent financial reporting.Originality/value: Although Enron's collapse has been widely discussed in the literature, no paper has been found that synthesises the various aspects of corporate governance that resulted in the Corporation's collapse. This paper contributes to the literature on the numerous weaknesses of Enron's corporate governance structures, including the following: the role of the Corporation' board, especially its top executives; the Corporation's corporate culture and whistle-blowing system; and the Corporation's internal auditor and external auditors.


Background Patient-derived xenografts (PDXs) are considered to better recapitulate the histopathological and molecular heterogeneity of human cancer than other preclinical models. Despite technological advances, PDX models from hormone naïve primary prostate cancer are scarce. We performed a detailed analysis of PDX methodology using a robust subcutaneous model and fresh tissues from patients with primary hormone naïve prostate cancer. Methods Clinical prostate tumor specimens (n=26, Gleason score 6–10) were collected from robotic-assisted laparoscopic radical prostatectomies at Turku University Hospital (Turku, Finland), cut into pieces, and implanted subcutaneously into 84 immunodeficient mice. Engraftments and the adjacent material from prostatic surgical specimens were compared using histology, immunohistochemistry and DNA sequencing. Results The probability of a successful engraftment correlated with the presence of carcinoma in the implanted tissue. Tumor take rate was 41%. Surprisingly, mouse hormone supplementation inhibited tumor take rate, whereas the degree of mouse immunodeficiency did not have an effect. Histologically, the engrafted tumors closely mimicked their parental tumors, and the Gleason grades and copy number variants of the engraftments were similar to those of their primary tumors. Expression levels of androgen receptor, prostate-specific antigen, and keratins were retained in engraftments, and a detailed genomic analysis revealed high fidelity of the engraftments with their corresponding primary tumors. However, in the second or third passage of tumors, the carcinoma areas were almost completely replaced by benign tissue with frequent degenerative or metaplastic changes. Conclusions Subcutaneous primary prostate engraftments preserve the phenotypic and genotypic landscape. Thus, they serve a potential model for personalized medicine and preclinical research but their use may be limited to the first passage.


OBJECTIVES
Post-cardiotomy cardiogenic shock is a major concern in cardiac surgery. We reviewed our experience of extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) as temporary circulatory support in post-cardiotomy cardiogenic shock.

METHODS
Between January 2005 and December 2014, adult patients implanted with ECMO after cardiac surgical procedures were included. Indications for ECMO were failure to be withdrawn from cardiopulmonary bypass or refractory cardiogenic shock occurring during postoperative Days 1 and 2. Patients' characteristics and outcomes were prospectively collected in a local ECMO database.

RESULTS
Ninety-two patients, median age of 63 years (17-83 years), were supported by ECMO following valvular surgery (66%), acute aortic dissection (10%) and coronary artery bypass grafting (9%). A total of 37% were combined surgical procedures, 24% were redo procedures and 33% were emergent procedures. The median duration of ECMO support was 6 days (1-28 days). The weaning rate from mechanical support was 48%. Overall 1-month and 6-month survival rates were, respectively, 42% and 39%. Survivors were younger (57 vs 63 years old, P = 0.02) and had a higher preoperative left ventricular ejection fraction (52.5 vs 44.1%, P = 0.017). There was a trend for lower serum creatinine levels and total bilirubin rates in the survivors' group 24 h after initiation of ECMO (respectively, 162 vs 212 µmol/l, P = 0.06; 25.3 vs 54.2 mg/dl, P = 0.08). Valvular surgery and peak lactic acid serum level were associated with poor outcomes. The mean health-related quality of life EuroQoL scale was 68 ± 16/100 at 2 years.

CONCLUSIONS
Refractory cardiogenic shock requiring ECMO was most frequently observed after redo valvular surgery in the present study. The overall 6-month survival rate was 39% after ECMO support for post-cardiotomy cardiogenic shock with acceptable health-related quality of life. Improved kidney and liver functions after 24 h of support were associated with favourable outcomes.


The detection of an intensity increment in a longer duration sinusoid or pedestal is often used as a measure of intensity resolution, but the decision processes underlying this measure are poorly understood. Thresholds were obtained for detection of an increment in a 370-ms, 4-kHz pedestal in quiet or in noise to determine the relative contributions of background noise level and pedestal level, the effect of increment duration, and the effect of different noise spectra. Increment detection thresholds expressed in units of DeltaL[10 log(1+DeltaI/I)] decreased as pedestal levels increased. At low pedestal levels, increment detection was limited by the masking effect of the noise and was similar across noise conditions for pedestals of equal sensation level. At high pedestal levels, the noise had no effect and increment detection was determined by the pedestal level in dB SPL (sound pressure level). Increment detection improved with increasing increment duration and was altered less by a noise band above the pedestal/increment frequency than by a broadband noise that produced equal masking at the pedestal/increment frequency. The quadratic-compression model described by Neely and Jesteadt [(2005). Acta Acust. Acust. 91, 980-991] provided a better approximation to the data than a model based on excitation patterns.


Prostaglandin D2 (PGD2) has marked inhibitory effects on the canine proximal colonic epithelium set up in Ussing chambers. These effects involved a receptor that is pharmacologically distinct from the classical DP, presumably the recently identified CRTH2/DP2 variety. The mechanism underlying these effects was studied using 13,14-dihydro-15-keto-PGD2 (DK-PGD2), a stable metabolite of the parent prostanoid. The metabolite quickly reversed short circuit currents (I(sc)) stimulated by diverse agonists. Greater inhibitory effects were seen with stimulants such as carbachol and cyclopiazonic acid (CPA) rather than with forskolin or protein kinase A activators. Since the same stimulants were differentially affected by removal and replacement of serosal Ca2+, we tested the possibility that the prostanoid inhibited basolateral Ca2+ entry. In the absence of serosal Ca2+, tissues primed with CPA demonstrated concentration-dependent increases in I(sc), to cumulative additions of Ca2+ or Sr2+, though the former was more potent. Cl- removal and pretreatment with bumetanide virtually abolished responses, suggesting that the increase in I(sc) reflected Ca2+ dependent Cl- secretion. Though responses were insensitive to the L-type channel antagonist, verapamil, a marked inhibition was seen in the presence of metal cations (Gd3+, Cd2+, and La3+). Pretreatment with DK-PGD2 inhibited responses to Ca2+ in CPA-primed tissues. Thus, basolateral Ca2+ entry via store-operated Ca2+ channels may be the locus for the inhibitory effects of PGD2 in this tissue. These results could indicate a potential transduction mechanism for the novel DP receptor variously called CRTH2 or DP2.


Commercial distribution of fan fiction (e.g., Amazon's Kindle Worlds) is viewed as a great step forward by some fan authors. These individuals point out that for-profit distribution allows authors of fan fiction to reap the profits associated with the hard work put into drafting their new stories. However, it is possible that commercialization may have unforeseen, negative consequences. This Article evaluates how commercial sales may hinder the production of noncommercial fan fiction by undermining the assertion that fan fiction is a "fair use" and, thus, does not represent an actionable copyright infringement. Specifically, this Article describes how commercial distribution creates a market to license the right to draft fan fiction, and how such a market may negatively impact the assertion that fan fiction is a fair use.


: Contrary to the accepted Cold War stereotypes about state socialist mass women's organizations, we will show that Communist leaders were attentive to the construction of gender roles and used women's magazines as a forum to discuss openly the changing ideals of masculinity and femininity. Th rough a discourse analysis of articles in Vlasta (Czechoslovakia) and Zhen-ata Dnes (Bulgaria), our article will interrogate the categories of "man" and "woman" and their negotiation during the Communist era on the pages of o ffi cial state magazines. In the Bulgarian case, we will discuss key articles that explicitly dealt with the importance of fathers and fatherhood, as for the case of Czechoslovakia, we will examine a series of articles and letters in which women's union leaders and ordinary citizens discuss women's entry into the workforce that had previously been the purview of men.


At present, the explosion isolator of the fuze safety system using stepping motor or based on the slider continuation move realized safe state restorability, but the former is restricted by the volume of stepping motor, however, the stepping motor is vulnerable to electromagnetic interference; the latter structure is complex, with several independent components, not compact and irreversible. In view of this, an action reversible mechanism based on piezoelectric actuator is proposed, realizing the fuze safety system reversibility. The principle of the piezoelectric actuator is described and the drive mechanism is designed. The feasibility is analysed. The study shows that the mechanism has the certain practical value for compact structure, small volume and reliable actuation.


Drug Reaction with Eosinophilia and Systemic Symptom (DRESS) is a potentially life-threatening syndrome including severe eruption, fever, eosinophilia and internal organ involvement. A 17 year-old female with bipolar disorder was admitted with maculapapular rash accompanied by a fever and malaise. Patient shows signs of hepatocellular injury by elevated liver enzymes. Carbamazepine was immediately stopped, and the patient was treated by oral antihistamines and dermal corticosteroids.


A study has been made of a resonant type LiNbO/sub 3/ optical modulator employing superconducting electrodes. Numerical calculations of the modulation depth of the optical modulator show that the driving power of the optical modulator using superconducting electrodes can be much smaller than that using normal metals. Experiments to demonstrate the operations of the optical modulator with Pb-In electrodes resonant at 14.8 GHz have been successfully made at 4.2 K. An excellent agreement between theory and experiments is obtained. It is shown that the modulation power in the superconducting state was estimated to be as small as 140 mW compared with 400 mW in the normal state. The present results demonstrate the possible application of superconducting electrodes to high performance LMbO/sub 3/ optical modulators.<<ETX>>


This book describes the Throughput Model methodology that can enable individuals and organizations to better identify, understand, and use algorithms to solve daily problems. The Throughput Model is a progressive model intended to advance the artificial intelligence (AI) field since it represents symbol manipulation in six algorithmic pathways that are theorized to mimic the essential pillars of human cognition, namely, perception, information, judgment, and decision choice. The six AI algorithmic pathways are (1) Expedient Algorithmic Pathway, (2) Ruling Algorithmic Guide Pathway, (3) Analytical Algorithmic Pathway, (4) Revisionist Algorithmic Pathway, (5) Value Driven Algorithmic Pathway, and (6) Global Perspective Algorithmic Pathway.

As AI is increasingly employed for applications where decisions require explanations, the Throughput Model offers business professionals the means to look under the hood of AI and comprehend how those decisions are attained by organizations.

Key Features:

- Covers general concepts of Artificial intelligence and machine learning

- Explains the importance of dominant AI algorithms for business and AI research

- Provides information about 6 unique algorithmic pathways in the Throughput Model

- Provides information to create a roadmap towards building architectures that combine the strengths of the symbolic approaches for analyzing big data

- Explains how to understand the functions of an AI algorithm to solve problems and make good decisions

- informs managers who are interested in employing ethical and trustworthiness features in systems.

Dominant Algorithms to Evaluate Artificial Intelligence: From the view of Throughput Model is an informative reference for all professionals and scholars who are working on AI projects to solve a range of business and technical problems.


This paper describes work undertaken in the ADEPT (Advanced Decision Environment for Process Tasks) project towards developing an agent-based infrastructure for managing business processes. We describe how the key technology of negotiating, service providing, autonomous agents was realized and demonstrate how this was applied to the BT (British Telecom) business process of providing a customer quote for network services.