Seagrass beds and salt marshes are important in the life histories of many fish, inverte- brates, and aquatic birds, such that population size and production of these organisms can be limited by the loss of these habitats. Therefore, restoring seagrass or salt marsh would be expected to benefit species dependent on these resources. Following the 'North Cape' oil spill of January 1996 in Rhode Island (northeastern USA), habitat restoration was used to compensate for losses of fish, inverte- brates, and aquatic birds. A habitat restoration model based on food-chain transfers was used to estimate equivalent production at the same trophic level as the losses, a novel approach that uses energetic efficiencies to scale across trophic levels. Benefits of habitat to each trophic level were esti- mated by assuming that the production of consumers is proportional to prey production gained by the restoration of habitat. The habitat restoration model balanced the losses with trophically equivalent production, discounting future gains in compensatory production relative to present losses such that interest is paid, analogous to economic discounting. Results showed that restoration of seagrass beds would be more productive than salt marsh restoration in southern New England and, likely, other temperate zone locations. Moreover, benthic faunal production in salt marshes could be accounted for by in situ primary production of angiosperms and benthic microalgae, whereas in seagrass beds, benthic faunal production exceeded that expected from in-bed primary production. The trophic model provides a methodology to estimate the scale of a restoration project that will provide produc- tion (ecological services) equivalent to losses of organisms at multiple trophic levels, applicable to natural resource damage assessments and other environmental assessments.


This study investigates the relationship between inflation, real exchange rate, and currency substitution in Southeast Asian economies based on the panel Vector Error Correction Model. Regarding the panel unit root testing result indicates that variables are stationary in the first difference which appropriate to be utilized of panel VECM technique. The empirical results suggest that there exists panel cointegration and long-run relationship between inflation, real exchange rate and currency substitution. Moreover, the evidence from both Fully Modified Ordinary Least Square (FMOLS) and Dynamic Ordinary Least Square DOLS also confirmed the existence of long-run association between variables. Increasing of inflation rate and devaluation of domestic currency positively effect on currency substitution in the long-run. Furthermore, the result of short-run causal relationship based on panel Granger causality reveals the bidirectional relationship between inflation and currency substitution and unidirectional relationship between exchange rate and currency substitution in Southeast Asia.


In the months of February and March 2017, I conducted a survey among 3 population groups and 392 participants on the state of the systems for monitoring and alerting the population, so the information received is up-to-date. The information received and summarized should not be taken as a constant, since the situation is changing dynamically, both in terms of the political situation in Bulgaria and the region and the intentions of our neighbors in relation to sites that present radiation risks and in terms of meteorological elements that influence possible radioactive contamination. Particularly dynamic is the development of meteorological elements that need to be analyzed very thoroughly in the event of a nuclear accident or incident. The results and consequences of the closure of uranium production and its processing in Bulgaria, as well as the storage of radioactive waste in Bulgaria, are shown. The results of the study are presented, diagrams are presented, and analyses and directions for follow-up are made.


Investigations into gallstone pathogenesis this year continue to emphasize kinetic factors that determine whether gallstones form once supersaturation of bile occurs. Studies of biliary phospholipid and cholesterol vesicles show two peaks that may be important in cholesterol precipitation. The larger void-volume peak is present in bile from most patients with cholesterol gallstones, whereas the smaller peak's eluting just before micelles correlates with nucleation time in bile. Evidence is presented showing that much of the promoting activity in fractions separated on concanavalin A columns is due to biliary immunoglobulins. In addition, alterations in gallbladder absorptive function, gallbladder contractility, and secretion of mucin, which might contribute to gallstone formation, are examined. Results of dissolution therapy with ursodeoxycholate and chenodeoxycholate are reviewed. Nucleation time in bile and volume of stones in the gallbladder are good predictors of gallstone dissolution in patients with "pure" cholesterol gallstones. A combination of ursodeoxycholate and chenodeoxycholate seems to be superior to either agent alone, but ursodeoxycholate is superior in treating obese patients undergoing rapid weight loss. A relatively new contact dissolution agent, D-limonene, was tested in 200 patients with retained common duct stones. Forty-eight percent of stones were completely dissolved by this agent, but 84% of patients experienced some degree of abdominal pain during treatment. The incidence of gallstones was reexamined in several groups of patients. The high incidence of gallstone disease in elderly patients emphasizes the increasing risk of gallstones with increasing age, and high incidences of gallstones with hemolytic anemia and cirrhosis were again supported. Finally, a high incidence of common duct stones in immigrants from southeast Asia, compared with Americans and Europeans, warrants routine cholangiography in this population.


Selection functions enable Evolutionary Algorithms (EAs) to apply selection pressure to a population of individuals, by regulating the probability that an individual's genes survive, typically based on fitness. Various conventional fitness based selection methods exist, each providing a unique relationship between the fitnesses of individuals in a population and their chances of selection. However, the full space of selection algorithms is only limited by max algorithm size, and each possible selection algorithm is optimal for some EA configuration applied to a particular problem class. Therefore, improved performance may be expected by tuning an EA's selection algorithm to the problem at hand, rather than employing a conventional selection method. The objective of this paper is to investigate the extent to which performance can be improved by tuning selection algorithms, employing a Hyper-heuristic to explore the space of search algorithms which encode the relationships between the fitnesses of individuals and their probability of selection. We show the improved performance obtained versus conventional selection functions on fixed instances from a benchmark problem class, including separate testing instances to show generalization of the improved performance.


In Computer-Aided Diagnosis-based schemes in mammography analysis each module is interconnected, which directly affects the system operation as a whole. The identification of mammograms with and without masses is highly needed to reduce the false positive rates regarding the automatic selection of regions of interest for further image segmentation. This study aims to evaluate the performance of three techniques in classifying regions of interest as containing masses or without masses (without clinical findings), as well as the main contribution of this work is to introduce the Optimum-Path Forest (OPF) classifier in this context, which has never been done so far. Thus, we have compared OPF against with two sorts of neural networks in a private dataset composed by 120 images: Radial Basis Function and Multilayer Perceptron (MLP). Texture features have been used for such purpose, and the experiments have demonstrated that MLP networks have been slightly better than OPF, but the former is much faster, which can be a suitable tool for real-time recognition systems.


2D materials such as graphene have great potential as the basis for novel optoelectronic devices. Typically, 2D materials are produced via chemical vapor deposition and therefore form continuous layers. Here Laser Induced Backwards Transfer (LIBT) is used to deposit pixels of 2D materials with precisely controlled size, shape and position. In LIBT, part of the laser energy that is absorbed in the donor substrate becomes kinetic energy imparted to the 2D material, causing localised transfer of 2D material onto the receiver. The capability to deposit high-quality intact 2D materials, in well-defined microscale pixels will eliminate costly and time-consuming lithographic processing. ABSTRACT (250 words for technical review) Laser Induced Backwards Transfer (LIBT)1 is a candidate for next generation additive manufacturing, especially for materials that are unsuited to more conventional methods. Broadening the range and complexity of materials that can be deposited will enable developments in material functionality e.g. for sensing applications, metamaterials and silicon photonics. Here we demonstrate LIBT as a means of achieving intact transfer of 2D materials (such as graphene and MoS2) onto a receiver substrate (which could be a silicon based electronic or photonic device). Typically, 2D materials are produced via chemical vapor deposition and form featureless, continuous layers. In LIBT, part of the laser pulse energy that is absorbed in the donor substrate becomes kinetic energy imparted to the 2D material, this causes localised detachment and transfer of the 2D material onto the receiver. Here, the transfer region is defined by beam-shaping using a Digital Micromirror Device (DMD)2 allowing precise control over the size, shape and positioning of the 2D material deposition. We use high resolution imaging to observe removal of 2D material from the donor substrate and present Raman analysis of the receiver substrate, verifying both that transfer has occurred and that the 2D materials retain their high quality and viability for end applications. [1] Feinaugle, M. et al., "Laser-induced backward transfer of nanoimprinted polymer elements," Applied Physics A 122(4), 1-5 (2016). [2] Heath, D. J. et al., "Dynamic spatial pulse shaping via a digital micromirror device for patterned laser-induced forward transfer of solid polymer films," Optical Materials Express 5(5), 1129-1136 (2015).


Controlling the resolution in adaptive beamformers is often crucial. A simple method that works for both narrow-band and broad-band arrays is presented. This method is based on the normalized leaky LMS algorithm in conjunction with a generalized sidelobe canceller (GSC) structure, where the GSC is designed using a spatial filtering approach. In essence, the suppression of the spatial filters and the implicit noise of the leaky LMS algorithm together determine the adaptive beamformer. Analytical expressions are given for the Wiener filters and the output spectrum versus frequency and point source location. These expressions are employed in the design specification of the spatial filters and to obtain conditions for a controlled quiescent beamformer response. Simulation results are presented to illustrate the behavior of the array. >


: The reproductive health of teenagers deserves a special attention and must be regarded from the viewpoint of their future prospects as well as their social and cultural media. The mentioned social-and-cultural factors affecting the teenagers' attitude towards sexuality and preconditioning their access to information and services of healthcare have an impact on the status of their reproductive health and on their general well-being, including the ability of teenagers to avoid an undesired pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases.


The optical emission spectroscopy is used for determination of hydrogen molecule rotational Trot, vibrational Tvib, and translational temperature Ttr. The experiment was carried out using copper or titanium hollow cathode discharges operated in pure hydrogen. The rotational temperature of excited electron energy levels is determined from Fulcher-a diagonal bands (d3Πu →a3σ+gelectronic transition, P, Q and R branches), which were later used to derive rovibronic temperature of the hydrogen molecule ground state, which is assumed equal to Ttr. The vibrational temperature Tvib is determined for the same electronic transition (d3Π-u→a3σ+g, with v' = 2,3;δv = 0). For all temperatures the radial temperature distribution is reported.


The present-day orogenic collision structure of the Himalayan mountain belt is the result of long-term tectonic processes of frontal upper crustal accretion, internal deformation, exhumation and thrusting along major fault zones. To provide the first detailed seismic images of the Eastern Himalaya for better understanding the lateral structural variations in this region and to provide insights into the present-day seismotectonics of the Bhutan Himalaya a temporary, passive seismic network, the GANSSER network, of 38 stations was deployed in the Kingdom of Bhutan between January 2013 and November 2014. Based on these new seismic data, we derive the main seismic lithospheric structure using different seismological methods, including receiver function imaging and upper crustal ambient noise group velocity tomography. To accurately image lateral variations and dipping seismic converters with receiver functions in this complex tectonic region, we extend a 2-D highfrequency ray approximation common conversion point stacking method to 3-D and include linear phase weighting and a quality assessment. Our results of the seismic structure reveal significant along-strike variations in the crustal collision within Bhutan and spatially correlates with variations in the seismic behavior of the Main Himalayan Thrust (MHT) and the underthrusting Indian crust. In western Bhutan, crustal thickening is indicated by a distinct downdipping of the Moho and coincides with a pronounced mid-crustal ramp at the front of the Higher Himalaya. Clustered microseismicity located along this ramp and a high shear-wave velocity anomaly atop indicate localized tectonic deformation in its hanging wall and likely stress buildup on a fully coupled MHT towards the south, as proposed by tectonic models of the long-term growth of the Himalayan orogen. In eastern Bhutan, the underthrusting of the Indian crust is imaged as subhorizontal structure at around 50 km depth with distinct intra-crustal listric structures beneath the MHT. Seismicity in this region is concentrated at shallow depth at 12 km, likely representing a local, partially creeping fault segment of the MHT. In contrast, brittle deformation in western Bhutan is predominantly located in the underthrusting Indian crust by scattered strike-slip faulting. In correlation with the regional large-scale lithosphere collision structure in this part of the Himalayan arc, we propose that these variations in the seismic structure and behavior are primarily driven by an Indian mantle-slab in northwest of Bhutan, and its absence in the Northeast. Besides these first-order lateral variations, our results of upper crustal shear-wave velocity anomalies provide the first seismological evidence for localized duplexes of the Lesser Himalayan Sequence at the base of the Himalayan orogenic wedge related to the formation of tectonic windows such as the Paro window in western Bhutan or the Kuru-Chu half-window in eastern Bhutan. Distinct intra-crustal structures resolved by the receiver function converter in the Indian crust, such as the listric structures in eastern Bhutan, indicate internal deformation and suggest a long-term involvement of the underthrusting Indian crust in the orogeny of the Bhutan Himalaya. Beneath Sikkim and western Bhutan and its southern foreland, the occurrence of a broad zone of mid-crustal seismicity, in correlation with a low P-wave velocity anomaly, indicate an active NW-SE striking dextral fault zone in the Indian crust. We name this fault the Dhubri-Chungthang Fault Zone (DCF), which might connect the deformation front of the Himalaya with the Shillong Plateau in the foreland. A continuation of this peculiar oblique-striking fault zone across the MHT would imply a segmentation of megathurst events between eastern Nepal and western Bhutan. Strike-slip faulting along the DCF the Indian crust and beneath western Bhutan might take up parts of the convergence in this region, however, its influence on the average recurrence time of large earthquakes or on the apparent instrumental lower seismic activity in western and central Bhutan remains unclear.


Summary The first evolution of WAZ seismic data acquired over 10 years ago provided a sizable uplift over previous NAZ data sets. The addition of orthogonal surveys, advances in data processing, and improved geological understanding have recently introduced another step change in the data quality. These improvements are now leading to a greater improvement in data analysis and interpretation than just structural imaging uplift. We can see 4 distinct behaviors in 6 azimuth M-WAZ marine data. When data is acquired over "simple" geology, we get common signal in all azimuths. We also notice that close to salt, there are major differences between the 6 azimuths over large depth ranges due to illumination. These two observations have been known and published for the last decade. Our findings show that there are untapped potential and knowledge in marine M-WAZ data if acquired and proccessed correctly. We believe that we can map azimuthal-amplitude variations, and therefore, map stress and fracture fields to facilitate the production of hydrocarbons. If the data is acquired with a significant time lapse between acquisition, there is also an opportunitiy to perform 4D studies.


Cassava, rice, and chickpea starches with different amylose contents and amylopectin structure are used to prepare helical inclusion complexes with lauric acid (LA) and to investigate the effect of pullulanase debranching on complex formation, crystalline structure, thermostability, and morphology compared to their non-debranched counterparts. The quantity of inclusion complexes in debranched starches increased 2-9 times compared to non-debranched starches, due to the release of debranched, linear amylopectin chains. The amount of complexes after debranching increased with amylopectin content, and with the proportion of amylopectin short chains. Retrogradation occurred under the same conditions as and in competition with complexation; however, carefully adjusting the conditions enabled minimization of retrogradation and maximization of complex formation.


This paper introduces the Unsupervised Neural Net based Intrusion Detector (UNNID) system, which detects network-based intrusions and attacks using unsupervised neural networks. The system has facilities for training, testing, and tunning of unsupervised nets to be used in intrusion detection. Using the system, we tested two types of unsupervised Adaptive Resonance Theory (ART) nets (ART-1 and ART-2). Based on the results, such nets can efficiently classify network traffic into normal and intrusive. The system uses a hybrid of misuse and anomaly detection approaches, so is capable of detecting known attack types as well as new attack types as anomalies.


As software development migrates from its roots as a process for building a custom product to a process for building packaged products, there is a greater need for an appropriate product development process model that is market-oriented. Field data suggests that process models are not widely used in the package industry. An overview of normative process models in the software engineering, engineering management, and marketing disciplines reveals that all of them fall short in one way or another for packaged software processes. Eight special needs are identified that set the packaged software process model apart from other individual models: addressing multiple user types; differentiating the product; finding the remote customer; involving the remote customer; facilitating speed of development; creating the marketing interface; developing in a highly iterative mode; and releasing a near defect-free product. These needs are operationalized into the proposed packaged software process model. The process model is based on two central constructs: a requirements loop; and a quality loop. The loops are separated by a stage in which requirements specifications are frozen. The requirements loop's goal is to discover requirements early and comprehensively. It is incremental (relying on prototyping), has several evaluation and exit points, and structures involvement of customers and other external sources such as marketing. The quality loop addresses the need to reduce defects; it begins with design and coding stages. It is also incremental and has several evaluation and exit points. >


Texture is an important cue in vision and has been analysed in its own right for the last three decades by researchers in psychophysics as well as computer vision and image processing. The three important early vision roles that texture analysis can play include texture classification, texture description and texture segmentation, all of which are pre-requisites for higher levels of analysis namely image interpretation and understanding. It is well known that colour can aid the human vision system in the analysis of many visual phenomena like shape, motion and texture. This notion coupled with the recent advent of fast computing hardware and the widespread availability of good quality colour cameras, digitizers, and monitors had created a new pathway for improving the performance of traditional grey level texture analysis schemes by incorporating colour information. In this thesis, the problem of statistical colour texture analysis is addressed. As a pre-requisite to analysing colour textures a review of the main texture analysis techniques available in the open literature is presented. The local linear transform technique is singled out as the main texture analysis scheme to be used throughout the course of the work. This technique boasts of several advantages; compactness in texture measurement, implementation simplicity, and suitability for stochastic or random texture representation. It is found that the structural property of the local linear transform for texture measurement resembles that of the energy measures based on Gabor functions. This has resulted in the possibility of emulating the latter texture extraction process by a set of quadrature filters like in the case of Gabor filtering. The motivation here is the speed improvement in the computation of the texture representation as the filtering process can be accelerated by Fast Fourier Transform. But unfortunately the number of quadrature filters needed to successfully emulate the local linear transform measures has been found to be unexpectedly large making the FFT implementation very uneconomical to realise. Two colour texture analysis schemes are developed. The first method advocates the dual transformation of the colour input image which requires the initial transformation of the tristimulus values into several colour co-ordinate systems and tlien extracting texture attributes from these transformed component images. The performance of these features is measured as the percentage of correct classification. Feature behaviour under illumination intensity variation will be investigated. The second approach harnesses the texture and colour information separately in an attempt to eliminate redundant or highly correlated features that are usually associated with the first approach. The colour histogram is used as an image model from which a colour representation scheme of this method can be derived. An efficient and fast way of coding the colour histogram by approximate principal component analysis is developed here. This reduces both the memory requirement for histogram storage and computation time for colour features by a factor N82/9, where Ng is the total number of grey level of each channel. It is shown that features derived from the latter approach perform better in experiments involving colour granite classification. These colour features are shown to be more robust to illumination intensity changes than colour texture features computed from the individual transformed channels. Further to this, the overall size of the colour texture feature dimension of the second approach is considerable lower than the first approach. The encouraging results gathered here indicate the usefulness of a hybrid form of multi-variate feature measurement of colour texture using separately, colour and texture attributes.


A rotating shaft vibrating in a squeeze film bearing and a tube in a heat exchanger oscillating with fluid-filled cylindrical supports both involve cylindrical squeeze films. Many theoretical and experimental results show that the squeeze film force consists of both a damping force and an inertia force. For relatively large amplitude motions or when the initial eccentricity is large, the time waveform of the squeeze force is significantly nonlinear. In order to predict the transient response of a rotor with squeeze film bearings or a heat exchanger tube subject to flow induced vibration, the nonlinear instantaneous squeeze force must be calculated. This paper presents a model for the instantaneous cylindrical squeeze film force for planar motion. The squeeze film model for a two-dimensional plate shows that there are three nonlinear terms included in the squeeze force. Based on this model, an equation for the short length, cylindrical squeeze film force for moderately large eccentricities is developed. The equation includes the three nonlinear terms: the viscous term, the unsteady inertia term, and the convective inertia term. All three terms are functions of instantaneous eccentricity. The equation predicts the nonlinear multi-harmonic and unsymmetrical time waveforms of the instantaneous squeeze film force for planar motions with both in-line and out-of-line initial eccentricities. The results are compared with experimentally measured squeeze force waveforms obtained with a length to diameter ratio of 0.75 and instantaneous eccentricities less than 0.75. The squeeze force waveforms for this finite length geometry can be reasonably predicted if correction coefficients, which account for the circumferential flow, are applied to the three nonlinear force terms. These coefficients are themselves functions of frequency, initial eccentricity and amplitude.


This paper examines how mobile messaging apps have changed the way that people microcoordinate. It is based on five focus groups of young adults in Singapore and Taiwan. Originally, microcoordination usually assumed dyadic interaction using either SMS or mobile voice calls. Increasingly, mediated communication uses mobile messaging apps that allow multisided interactions that facilitate task-based chat groups. Groups are easily formed but can be difficult to manage. This paper advances our understanding of microcoordination via the use of messaging apps. Specifically, it provides insights into the dual roles of instrumental and expressive interaction integral to the functioning of these messaging groups, ambient-mediated sociation in the form of readily available communication partners in groups, and the emergence of meme-based coordination. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]


This brief describes a multirate energy-bounding algorithm that significantly increases the displayable stiffness while guaranteeing the overall haptic interaction stability. Unlike haptic interaction control algorithms that are based on the multirate simulation of virtual environments, the proposed multirate approach separates the low-level control thread from the haptic thread. The haptic thread updates the haptic interaction computation, or the collision detection and response and dynamic or deformation simulation, of a virtual environment at slow rate while the low-level control thread updates the actuator command force determined by the energy-bounding algorithm to guarantee the interaction stability at a high update rate. An analytical derivation study shows that the displayable stiffness of virtual environments can be significantly increased by an order of N, which is the ratio of the fast actuator command signal update to the slow haptic simulation update. Experiments using a commercial haptic device demonstrate that the displayed stiffness significantly increases while guaranteeing stability even when the haptic rendering rate is slow.


Objective Evidence on the impact of legislative changes on individual alcohol consumption is limited. Using an observational study design, we assessed trends in individual alcohol consumption of a Swiss adult population following the public policy changes that took place between 1993 and 2014, while considering individual characteristics and secular trends. Design Cross-sectional study. Setting Swiss general adult population. Participants Data from 18 963 participants were collected between 1993 and 2014 (aged 18–75 years). Outcome measures We used data from the 'Bus Santé' study, an annual health survey conducted in random samples of the adult population in the State of Geneva, Switzerland. Individual alcohol intake was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Individual characteristics including education were self-reported. 7 policy changes (6 about alcohol and 1 about tobacco) that occurred between 1993 and 2014 defined 6 different periods. We predicted alcohol intake using quantile regression with multivariate analysis for each period adjusting for participants' characteristics and tested significance periods. Sensitivity analysis was performed including drinkers only, the 10th centile of highest drinkers and smoker's status. Results Between 1993 and 2014, participants' individual alcohol intake decreased from 7.1 to 5.4 g/day (24% reduction, p<0.001). Men decreased their alcohol intake by 34% compared with 22% for women (p<0.001). The decrease in alcohol intake remained significant when considering drinkers only (28% decrease, p<0.001) and the 10th centile highest drinkers (24% decrease, p<0.001). Consumption of all alcoholic beverages decreased between 1993 and 2014 except for the moderate consumption of beer, which increased. After adjustment for participants' characteristics and secular trends, no independent association between alcohol legislative changes and individual alcohol intake was found. Conclusions Between 1993 and 2014, alcohol consumption decreased in the Swiss adult population independently of policy changes.


In colocated multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) radar using compressive sensing (CS), a receive node compresses its received signal via a linear transformation, referred to as a measurement matrix. The samples are subsequently forwarded to a fusion center, where an l1-optimization problem is formulated and solved for target information. CS-based MIMO radar exploits target sparsity in the angle-Doppler-range space and thus achieves the high localization performance of traditional MIMO radar but with significantly fewer measurements. The measurement matrix affects the recovery performance. A random Gaussian measurement matrix, typically used in CS problems, does not necessarily result in the best possible detection performance for the basis matrix corresponding to the MIMO radar scenario. This paper considers optimal measurement matrix design with the optimality criterion depending on the coherence of the sensing matrix (CSM) and/or signal-to-interference ratio (SIR). Two approaches are proposed: the first one minimizes a linear combination of CSM and the inverse SIR, and the second one imposes a structure on the measurement matrix and determines the parameters involved so that the SIR is enhanced. Depending on the transmit waveforms, the second approach can significantly improve the SIR, while maintaining a CSM comparable to that of the Gaussian random measurement matrix (GRMM). Simulations indicate that the proposed measurement matrices can improve detection accuracy as compared to a GRMM.


The most frequent orchiepididymitis are those of non-specific infectious nature. Specific and granulomatous forms are rarer. Brucellar orchiepididymitis is an uncommon cause of specific infection of the testis and the epididymis. It occurs in around 5-10% of all brucellosis as a result of urine brucellas removal or as a blood-borne septic metastasis. In our experience with a total of 150 acute orchiepididymitis studied in 7 years, we have observed only one case of brucellar epididymitis. The one case being reported happened to a 23-year old shepherd who was referred to the emergency service because of an evening fever of 3 months evolution, associated with pain over the last 4 days and increased size of right teste.


Aim: This study was designed to evaluate the in vivo antioxidant and hepatoprotective potentials of Costus afer stem extracts against paracetamol induced acute liver injury. Methods: Fifty male albino rats were randomly distributed into ten groups of five rats each and orally co-administered with varying doses (20 60 mg/kg b.w.) of ethanol stem extract (ETSE), chloroform stem extract (CFSE) and paracetamol (PARA) (1 g/kg b.w.) for 7 days. In vivo liver and plasma antioxidants and hepatotoxic biomarkers were examined by using spectrophotometric methods. Results: Antioxidant study indicated no significant difference (p>0.05) in liver and plasma superoxide dismutase (SOD) activities in all treated groups compared with untreated control group. Catalase (CAT) activity in co-administered "PARA + ETSE" treated groups were significantly reduced (p<0.05) compared with "PARA + CFSE" treated groups. The liver and plasma glutathione (GSH) levels in "PARA + ETSE" treated groups were elevated compared with "PARA + CFSE" and PARA treated groups while the liver and plasma glutathione Stransferase (GST) activities in "PARA + ETSE" treated groups were reduced compared with "PARA + CFSE" and PARA treated groups. Liver and plasma malondialdehyde (MDA) concentrations were significantly reduced in "PARA + ETSE" treated group compared with "PARA + CFSE" and PARA treated groups. Furthermore, "PARA + CFSE" treated groups have reduced plasma aspartate amino transferase (AST) and alanine amino transferase (ALT) activities compared with "PARA + ETSE" treated groups and PARA treated groups. Conclusion: This investigation indicates that C. afer ETSE possess a higher antioxidant activity than CFSE while CFSE had a higher hepatoprotective property against paracetamol-induced tissue damage. Hence, C. afer stem could be exploited in drug discovery process to identify potential biopharmaceutical agents against oxidative stress related diseases and hepatic disorders.


This thesis focuses on tracking the development of 17 tertiary English language learners (ELLs) studying how to write job application letters. The research took place within the context of a Business Writing in English module, in which the pedagogy was informed by a Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) approach to genre. While much genre-based research in educational settings examines pedagogic practices, Cheng (2006) urges genre researchers to focus on learner development. In this project, learner development in writing job application letters was of interest for two reasons: (a) the letters were new to the learners, in the project's national context and (b) the letters required the complex task of both: demonstration of suitability for jobs and maintenance of appropriate social relations with presumed readers.

Within their coursework, the 17 learner-participants wrote three job application letters, in response to three job advertisements, at three points in time. For the 17 participants, demonstration of suitability for the jobs was examined. For three of these participants, a mor.e detailed analysis was carried out, concerning their management of social relations with their presumed readers. Analysis for tracking development was informed by SFL and focussed on the lexicogrammatical and register strata, in relation to the generic staging of a job application letter. Participant interviews and feedback from Human Resources professionals supplemented the linguistic analyses.

From the findings, three main conclusions are drawn and presented with reference to Halliday's (2004) language learning triad: (a) 'learning language' - genre development can be seen through the participants' appropriate expansion, organisation, and variation of repertoire; (b) 'learning through language' - genre development can be seen through the participants' 'resemiotisation' (ledema, 2003) of themselves as job applicants; (c) 'learning about language' - genre development can be seen through the participants' demonstration of 'practical' and 'discursive' knowledge (Giddens, 1984). Based on insights from the research, policy and practice implications are offered. Finally, further research directions are suggested.


Self-control refers to the ability to deliberately reject tempting options and instead select ones that produce greater long-term benefits. Although some apparent failures of self-control are, on closer inspection, reward maximizing, at least some self-control failures are clearly disadvantageous and non-strategic. The existence of poor self-control presents an important evolutionary puzzle because there is no obvious reason why good self-control should be more costly than poor self-control. After all, a rock is infinitely patient. I propose that self-control failures result from cases in which well-learned (and thus routinized) decision making strategies yield suboptimal choices. These mappings persist in the decision-makers' repertoire because they result from learning processes that are adaptive in the broader context, either on the timescale of learning or of evolution. Self-control, then, is a form of cognitive control and the subjective feeling of effort likely reflects the true costs of cognitive control. Poor self-control, in this view, is ultimately a result of bounded optimality.


In this demonstration paper we present MAPS, a novel system that combines approximate information retrieval and filtering functionality in a peer-to-peer setting. In MAPS, a user is able to submit one-time and continuous queries, and receive matching resources and notifications from selected information sources. The selection of these sources in the retrieval case is based on well-known resource selection techniques for peer-to-peer query routing, while in the filtering case a combination of resource selection and novel behavior prediction techniques using time-series analysis of publisher statistics is used. The integration of the two functionalities is done in a seamless way utilizing the same machinery: a conceptually global, but physically distributed directory of statistics about information sources based on distributed hash tables.


Manure distribution across the application swath of a spreader needs to be relatively uniform to take full advantage of fertilizer nutrients in solid manure. A series of field experiments measured application uniformity across the swath and in the travel direction for two rear- and one side-delivery manure spreaders using solid beef or dairy manure. Uniformity of overlapped patterns at various swath widths was calculated from field data. For the rear-delivery spreaders, apron speed affected the application rate and at times the distribution uniformity, as measured by coefficient of variation (CV). Increasing apron speed usually increased application rate and at times increased distribution uniformity. Uniformity was similar for both one- and two-beater rear-delivery spread patterns. Load phase (beginning, middle, and end of a load) had little effect on the distribution of the manure across the swath. With the side-delivery spreader, a full gate opening tended to improve across-swath uniformity as compared to a half gate opening. A deflector on the side-delivery spreader placed in mid-position improved across-swath uniformity during fall applications with drier manure; however, deflector position had no effect on uniformity in a spring experiment. Application uniformity across the swath was worse than in the travel direction, particularly for the rear-delivery spreader, unless the swaths were carefully overlapped. High across-swath CVs were usually lowered when spread patterns were overlapped, although the amount of overlap required to maximize uniformity may be impractical. Application and uniformity graphs generated from field data can be useful in predicting the uniformity of the spread pattern for a swath width selected to provide a given application rate.


We have designed and implemented an open, market-based computational system called Spawn. The Spawn system utilizes idle computational resources in a distributed network of heterogeneous computer workstations. It supports both coarse-grain concurrent applications and the remote execution of many independent tasks. Using concurrent Monte-Carlo simulations as prototypical applications, we explore issues of fairness in resource distribution, currency as a form of priority, price equilibria, the dynamics of transients, and scaling to large systems. In addition to serving the practical goal of harnessing idle processor time in a computer network, Spawn has proven to be a valuable experimental workbench for studying computational markets and their dynamics.


Our aim was to study the effects of maternal perinatal mood and maternal emotional availability on child emotional availability and negative affect during the still-face procedure (SFP). The sample included 214 women who participated in a prospective study. We assessed maternal mood problems using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview and PRAQ questionnaire during pregnancy and using STAI and EPDS questionnaires during pregnancy and at 6 months after delivery. Maternal and child emotional availability were studied using the Emotional Availability Scales during the SFP at 6 months. We observed and quantified child's negative affect during SFP episodes. We found that mothers with maternal mood problems (anxiety and/or depression) during pregnancy, but not postnatally, showed less optimal maternal structuring during the SFP, and the children showed lower involvement and responsiveness during interactions with their mothers. Furthermore, lower maternal emotional availability was related to the child's higher negative affect during the SFP. Our findings underline the independent roles of both prenatal stress exposure and maternal caregiving behavior in a child's socioemotional development.


ABSTRACT Improved understanding of the ecology and epidemiology of Campylobacter in the poultry farm environment is key to developing appropriate farm-based strategies for preventing flock colonization. The sources of Campylobacter causing broiler flock colonization were investigated on one poultry farm and its environment, from which samples were obtained on three occasions during each of 15 crop cycles. The farm was adjacent to a dairy farm, with which there was a shared concreted area and secondary entrance. There was considerable variation in the Campylobacter status of flocks at the various sampling times, at median ages of 20, 26, and 35 days, with 3 of the 15 flocks remaining negative at slaughter. Campylobacters were recoverable from various locations around the farm, even while the flock was Campylobacter negative, but the degree of environmental contamination increased substantially once the flock was positive. Molecular typing showed that strains from house surroundings and the dairy farm were similar to those subsequently detected in the flock and that several strains intermittently persisted through multiple crop cycles. The longitudinal nature of the study suggested that bovine fecal Campylobacter strains, initially recovered from the dairy yard, may subsequently colonize poultry. One such strain, despite being repeatedly recovered from the dairy areas, failed to colonize the concomitant flock during later crop cycles. The possibility of host adaptation of this strain was investigated with 16-day-old chickens experimentally exposed to this strain naturally present in, or spiked into, bovine feces. Although the birds became colonized by this infection model, the strain may preferentially infect cattle. The presence of Campylobacter genotypes in the external environment of the poultry farm, prior to their detection in broiler chickens, confirms the horizontal transmission of these bacteria into the flock and highlights the risk from multispecies farms.


The current moment, seen by some as an interregnum between societies of discipline and control, is marked by intense forms of religious fanaticism and iconoclasm that are striving to create new forms of the state. This is evident in the militancy and political engagement of Buddhist monks in Sri Lanka, who promote war against Tamil separatists as well as violent resistance to the proselytization identified with global civil society agencies that, due to the war and the 2004 tsunami disaster, have been active in the country. The article looks at this rising Buddhist militancy, which is associated with a political party that is linked to the more famous party known as the JVP. It argues that instead of resisting the formation of the new global civil society, the iconoclasm of this Buddhist political formation is facilitating its establishment.


Phrase alignment is the task that requires the constituent phrases of two halves of a bitext to be aligned. In order to align phrases, one must discover them first and this article presents a method of aligning phrases that are discovered automatically. Here, the notion of a 'phrase' will be understood as being given by a subtree of a dependency-like structure of a sentence called linkage. To discover phrases, we will make use of two distinct, language independent methods: the IBM-1 model (Brown et al., 1993) adapted to detect linkages and Constrained Lexical Attraction Models (Ion & Barbu Mititelu, 2006). The methods will be combined and the resulted model will be used to annotate the bitext. The accuracy of phrase alignment will be evaluated by obtaining word alignments from link alignments and then by checking the F-measure of the latter word aligner.


Androgens control a variety of developmental processes that create the male phenotype and are important for maintaining male fertility and normal functions of tissues and organs that are not directly involved in procreation. Androgen receptor (AR) that mediates the biological actions of androgens is a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily of ligand-inducible transcription factors. Although AR was cloned over 15 years ago, the mechanisms by which it regulates gene expression are not well understood. A growing body of in vitro experimental evidence suggests that a complex network of proteins is involved in the androgen-dependent transcriptional regulation. However, the process of AR-dependent transcriptional regulation under physiological conditions is largely elusive. In the present study, a series of experiments were performed, including quantitative chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) assays, to investigate AR-mediated transcription process using living prostate cancer cells. Our results show that the loading of AR and recruitment of coactivators and RNA polymerase II (Pol II) to both the promoter and enhancer of AR target genes are a transient and cyclic event that in addition to hyperacetylation, also involves dynamic changes in methylation, phosphorylation of core histone H3 in androgen-treated LNCaP cells. The dynamics of testosterone (T)-induced loading of AR onto the proximal promoters of the genes clearly differed from that loaded onto the distal enhancers. Significantly, more holo-AR was loaded onto the enhancers than the promoters, but the principal Pol II transcription complex was assembled on the promoters. By contrast, the pure antiandrogen bicalutamide (CDX) complexed to AR elicited occupancy of the PSA promoter, but was unable to load onto the PSA enhancer and was incapable of recruiting Pol II, coactivators and following changes of covalent histone modifications. The partial antagonist cyproterone acetate (CPA) and mifepristone (RU486) were capable of promoting AR loading onto both the PSA promoter and enhancer at a comparable efficiency with androgen in LNCaP cells expressing mutant AR. However, CPA-and RU486-bound AR not only recruited Pol II and coactivator p300 and GRIP1 onto the promoter and enhancer, but also recruited the corepressor NCoR onto the promoter as efficiently as CDX. In addition, we demonstrate that both proteasome and protein kinases are implicated in AR-mediated transcription. Even though proteasome inhibitor MG132 and protein kinase inhibitor DRB (5, 6-Dichlorobenzimidazole riboside) can block ligand-dependent accumulation of PSA mRNA with same efficiency, their use results in different molecular profiles in terms of the formation of AR-mediated transcriptional complex. Collectively, these results …


In this thesis an attempt is made to detect, define and characterise, on the basis of their floristic composition, the principal types of vegetation occurring in the Northern Isles of Shetland. Some 600 samples were taken from as wide a variety of vegetation types as possible, and from as many parts of the Northern Isles as possible. The data was processed using a computer assisted hand-sorting routine (which simulated traditional Zurich-Montpellier methods of analysis) , leading to the production of structured species-sample tables. Fourty-seven Groups were identified and described and compared with related units recognised from Britain and North-west Europe. Thirty-eight of the Groups were arranged into 17 Associations, of which one represents a new syntaxon. The remainder were left as noda of uncertain status. The communities were all classified into higher ayntaxa essentially following the scheme used by Westhoff & Den Held (1969).The Classes and Alliances used to contain the communities as as follows:- Cakiletea maritimae Atriplicion littoralis Open communities (of mainly annual species) of shingle beaches and strandlines. Agropyretea pungentis Honkenyo-Crambion maritimae. Open and often unstable communities of biennial or perennial species of shingle beaches and strandlines. Agropyrion pungentis. Perennial, generally closed communities of shingle beaches and strandlines. Ammophiletea arenariae Agropyrion boreoatlanticum. Fore-dune communities. Festuco-Brometea Mesobromion erecti. Semi-dry calcareous grasslands. Asteretea tripolii Puccinellion maritimae. Halophyte communities of the lower parts of salt marshes. Armerion maritimae. Halophyte communities of the lower parts of saltmarshes. Armerion maritimae Halophyte communities of the mid and upper zones of salt marshes. Silenion maritimae. Cliff-top grasslands. Molinio-Arrhenatheretea Cyanosurion cristati. Communities of lowland grazed pastures and related habitats. Calthion. Fen meadow vegetation. Parvocaricetea Caricion davallianae. Low-growing sedge vegetation of base-rich mire. Scheuchzerietea Rhynchosporion albae. Communities of bog hollows and pools. Oxycocco-Sphagnetea Erico-Sphagnion. Bog Communities. Nardo-Callunetea Violion Caninae. Rough grasslands. Ulicion nanae. Heaths. Caricetea curvulae Arctostaphyleto-Cetrarion nivalis. Chinophobus montane grass and dwarf-shrub heaths of poor soils. Thlaspeetea rotundifolii Arenarion norvegicae. Communities of calcareous montane screes. The new Association described is the Empetrum-Rhytidiadelghus loreus Association of the Erico-Sphagnion. A short account of the occurrence and interrelation ships of these vegetation in the Northern Isles is given.


Diffusion-Induced Recrystallization (DIR) is investigated in size mismatched thin film interdiffusion couples. New grains formed in the diffusion zone are characterized by distinctive composition levels which seem to be characteristic to the interdiffusing materials. In this paper, we analyzed sputter-deposited Ni/Pd films. The lattice mismatch and the driving force are varied by pre-alloying one side of the diffusion couples. Recrystallization was detected after heat treatment by transmission electron microscopy, energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy and X-ray diffractometry. We determined characteristic concentrations from XRD data. Remarkably, the difference between the concentration inside newly formed grains and that of the parent layers remains practically constant, when initial layer concentration is varied. Also, the characteristic compositions are nearly independent of temperature. A thermo-mechanic model has been derived, which demonstrates that the observed concentration differences are such that the stress in front of the moving grain boundary reaches a maximum close to the ideal strength of the host material.


BACKGROUND
Toreforant is a selective histamine H4 receptor antagonist. H4 receptor activation may play a role in immune-mediated inflammation in psoriasis.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate Toreforant efficacy and safety in patients with moderate-to-severe psoriasis.

METHODS
Biologic-naïve patients were to be treated (30, 60, or 3 mg Toreforant or placebo) for 12 weeks and followed through week 16. In this adaptive-design study, assignments were guided by interim analyses. Primary and major secondary efficacy endpoints, evaluated using Bayesian analyses, were the proportions of patients achieving ≥75% improvement in Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) from baseline and achieving Investigator's Global Assessment (IGA) of cleared (0) or minimal (1), respectively, at week 12.

RESULTS
Per interim analyses results, patients were randomized to 30 (n = 30) or 60 mg (n = 26) Toreforant or placebo (n = 6). The estimated mean difference in the PASI 75 response rate at week 12 from the posterior distributions compared to placebo was 14.1% (95% credible interval [CI], -0.1% to 30.9%) and 8.9% (95% CI, -5.0% to 24.3%) with 30 and 60 mg Toreforant, respectively. The posterior probabilities of 30 and 60 mg Toreforant inducing a greater response rate than placebo were 97.4% and 90.3%, respectively; neither met the 97.5% predefined success criterion. Results for the IGA 0/1 endpoint were similar. Toreforant was generally safe and well tolerated. No deaths, serious or opportunistic infections, active tuberculosis, or malignancies were reported.

CONCLUSIONS
Toreforant efficacy at 30 and 60 mg was greater than placebo but did not meet predefined success criterion. J Drugs Dermatol. 2018;17(8):873-879.


In this article, I briefly outline what I see to be the outstanding strengths of the psychology of personal constructs (PCP). These are: its roots in pragmatism and its rejection of dualism, its phenomenological approach to the person and its formulation of core role structure. The concept of core role sees the person as a social product, but once constructed, a centre for choice and agency. I begin with a critique of the ways in which PCP is perceived within orthodox psychology, proposing that its radical approach makes it difficult to classify. I argue that it has humanistic features, but emphasize its rejection of a unitary self. I conclude by looking at the problem of hatred, contending that a PCP formulation helps us re-think this in a more useful way.


Scholars engage in intellectual enquiries which is why they are considered to be the cornerstones of any research geared towards solving societal problems or testing phenomena. This makes their research outputs needed to be readily available for public consumption. For quite long, scholars are rated based on the number of scholarly contributions they make. While mobile phone has diffused, adopted and used as part of our everyday life, researchers neglected the dimensions of attitudes of scholars for adopting and use of mobile phone technology in the course of their scholarly communication. The components of attitudes of scholars for adopting and the use of technologies depend solely on their strengths, accessibility and ambivalence. The paper examines the emerging behavior of the 21 st century scholars in the digital age in using tools like Facebook, Tweeter, blog, social networking sites, etc. for accessing and using information. The paper is largely informed by consulting different literature and focusing on contemporary issues to support its claims. Technology advancement, globalization and its penetration into scholarly community clearly indicate how scholars should adopt the technology for increased content globally. Alternatively, the paper argued that, despite the potentialities of these online platforms the same cannot be said about Nigeria as many factors hinder the possibilities for harnessing these benefits. The study concluded that, unless the national bibliography is metamorphosed, the Nigeria's scholarly contents will be less visible and competition with scholarly global environment would be a challenge.


Authors Jonathan Kölemo (890303) and Simon Jensen (870212) Supervisor Veronica Svensson Ülgen Examiner Helena Forslund Title Goodbye to Inbound and Outbound waste A case study at IKEA's Distribution Centre, Älmhult Background The DC in Älmhult is working in two administrative teams; Inbound and Outbound. The relationship between and inside the Inbound and Outbound teams are complex and unclear. This increases the risk for bad and unnecessary work. The teams' are handling tasks regarding planning and scheduling for unloading and loading shipments. The complexity at the DC in Älmhult also makes it difficult for managers to control and understand the whole flow within the two teams. The problem is based on complicated and unsynchronized tasks, poor utilization of IT systems and lack of integration and standardization within the teams work. Purpose The purpose with the thesis is to identify wastes within the teams' work, and thereby provide suggestions for improvements. Method A positivist approach has been used as a scientific perspective throughout the study. The scientific approach is deductive and the research strategy is qualitative. From the theoretical and empirical material an analysis has been designed that eventually lead to a conclusion. Results The study shows that both the Inbound and Outbound teams' processes consist of a number of wastes. By using One-piece-flow, Standardization, Capacity and FIFO theories, the wastes can be reduced or completely eliminated. Conclusions The most critical wastes have been chosen and by combining the four improvement theories, reductions of unnecessary activities can be made. By implementing the suggested improvements, the number of unnecessary activities can be reduced, and the total process and lead times will decrease. By doing this, the Flow planners can focus on more important activities and the same amount of staff can handle increased throughput of goods.


Inconel 718(Ni-19Cr-18Fe-3Mo-5Nb-1Ti-0.5Al) nickel-base superalloy strengthened mainly by Ni3Nb type γ″ and partially by Ni3Al type γ′ precipitation is today's most widely used superalloy in the world. China has paid special attention on Inconel 718 research and development. Systematic long-term research project has been conducted in close cooperation among our university, research institutes and factories. The goal of this long-term project is in 2 steps. First step is to improve Alloy 718 to get high quality and the second step is for improving the alloy temperature capability from 650oC to 680-700oC. The basic idea for alloy improvement is still to keep the chemical composition in the range of specification by small adjustment or control of minor elements, such as S, P, N, Si and Mg. The main achievements are segregation control by adjustment of S, P, Si, control of N for cleanliness, micro-alloying of Mg for grain boundary strengthening and control of low S and high P for stress rupture life improvement. Modification of Alloy 718 is based on structure stability study and its improvement in adjustment of main second phase strengthening alloy elements Nb, Ti and Al in total amount and the ratios among them. The goal is to achieve more stable second phase strengthening by control of alloy elements. Experimental results show that the future of modified 718 alloys is very attractive to raise the temperature capability improvement from 650oC to 680-700oC.


In2O3 is an optimal material for sensitive detection of carbon monoxide (CO) gas due to its low resistivity and high catalytic activity. Yet, the gas response dynamics between the CO gas molecules and the surface of In2O3 is limited by its solid structure, resulting in a weak gas response value and sluggish electron transport. Herein, we report a strategy to synthesize porous In2O3/Fe2O3 core-shell nanotubes derived from In/Fe bimetallic organic frameworks. The fabricated porous In2O3/Fe2O3-4 core-shell nanotubes present outstanding gas sensitivities, including a response value 3.8 times (33.7 to 200 ppm CO at 260 °C) higher than that of monometallic-derived In2O3 (8.7), ultrashort response and recovery times (23/76 s) to 200 ppm CO, low detection limit (1 ppm), promising selectivity, and long-term stability. The enhanced sensing mechanisms are clarified by the combination of experiment and first-principles calculations, showing that the synergetic strategy of higher adsorption energy, increased electrical conductivity, higher electron transfer numbers, and larger specific surface area of porous core-shell structures promotes the surface activity and charge transfer efficiency. The present work paves a way to tune gas-sensing materials with special morphologies for the development of high-performance CO sensors.


This retrospective study analyses and compares early complications during the first month after primary and secondary posterior chamber implantation of transsclerally sutured IOL. The analysis covered medical records of 65 patients who underwent posterior chamber implantation of transsclerally sutured IOL at the Eye Clinic in Rijeka between 1998 and 2003. In 30 patients (group 1) lenses were implanted in one eye during complicated cataract surgery (primary implantation), whereas 35 patients (group 2) had lenses implanted afterwards (secondary implantation). There were 77 early complications, equally represented in both groups, i.e. 40 in (51.9%) the first and 37 (48.1%) in the second group. The most frequent complications were: vitreous hemorrhages 24.7% (14.3% and 10.4%), cystoid macular edema 19.5% (9.1% and 10.4%), keratopathy 14.3% (6.5% and 7.8%), pupil distortion 11.7% (9.1% and 2.6%), IOL decentration and tilt 10.4% (6.5% and 3.9%), high intraocular pressure 9.1% (2.6% and 6.5%), inflammation 6.5% (2.5% and 3.9%). Retinal and choroidal detachment had low incidence: 2.6% (1.3% and 1.3%) and 1.3% (0% and 1.3%) respectively. As concerns early complications, there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups, except for pupil distortion, which was more frequent in primary IOL implantation (p = 0.045). After primary implantation of IOL, the average visual acuity was 0.38 +/- 0.27, whereas after secondary implantation visual acuity was 0.52 +/- 0.21. The difference was not statistically significant.


1. Soil organisms, such as earthworms, accelerate mineralization of soil organic matter and are thought to be beneficial for plant growth. This has been shown in short-term microcosm experiments. It is thus legitimate to ask whether these increases in plant growth are due to brief pulses of mineralization or whether these increases are long-lasting. 2. This question was addressed using a system of differential equations modelling the effects of decomposers on nutrient cycling via trophic (nutrient assimilation) and nontrophic effects (through their ecosystem engineering activities). 3. The analytical study of this model showed that these processes increase primary production in the long term when they recycle nutrients efficiently, allowing a small fraction of the recycled nutrients to be leached out of the ecosystem. 4. Mineralization by the ecosystem engineering activities of decomposers seems to deprive them of a resource. However, it was shown that a decomposer may increase its own biomass, through its ecosystem engineering activities, provided the created recycling loop is efficient enough. 5. Mechanisms through which earthworms may modify the efficiency of nutrient cycling are discussed. The necessity of measuring the effect of earthworms on the nutrient input-output balance of ecosystems under field conditions is emphasized.


Texture images of limited size can be insufficient for statistical learning to perform the task of image retrieval. This paper proposes a hypothesis that the utilization of synthesized texture and noise addition can improve texture analysis with spatial statistics. Rationales for this hypothesis are that texture synthesis allows the enlargement of an image size for better description of its spatial statistics, and noise added to texture pixels at some levels enhances discriminative power of texture randomness. The improvements using synthesized images of coarse-aperiodic and fine-periodic texture categories with added noise for feature extraction with the semi-variogram and feature-vector matching using the log-likelihood ratio suggest the validation of the proposed hypothesis that is promising for handling classification of texture of small sample sizes.


ABS1RACT : Even though beavers (Castor canadensis carolinensis) occur over most of the southeastern United States , the impacts of increasing beaver populations on riparian forests within the southern Appalachian mountains are. not been well documented. Long-term browsing and inundation by beaver may alter the composition and structure of riparian forests. A survey of 62 streams (7 4 mi) within the Chauga River drainage in the mountains of South Carolina was conducted during 1991 - 1992 to determine the level of beaver activity within the drainage and the amount of timber damaged by beaver activities. Thirty-six streams had evidence of significant beaver activity with a total of 5.3 mi (7 .2%) affected by beaver . Twenty-six streams (17.3 mi), primarily those with steep gradients and no flood plains, had no evidence of beaver activity. On beaver impacted areas, values of beaver damaged timber averaged $781.27 /ac for sawtimber and $36.01/ac for pulpwood. While high in terms of volume/acre within impacted riparian areas, timber damage was relatively minor for the entire drainage because of the small area (49 .2 ac) affected.


We consider the problem of scheduling operations in bufferless robotic cells that produce identical parts. The objective is to find a cyclic sequence of robot moves that minimizes the long-run average time to produce a part or, equivalently, maximizes the throughput rate. The robot can be moved in simple cycles that produce one unit or, in more complicated cycles, that produce multiple units. Because one-unit cycles are the easiest to understand, implement, and control, they are widely used in industry. We analyze one-unit cycles for a class of robotic cells calledconstant travel-time robotic cells. We complete a structural analysis of the class of one-unit cycles and obtain a polynomial time algorithm for finding an optimal one-unit cycle.Constant travel-time robotic cells are used in real manufacturing operations that the authors have encountered during their interactions with companies. The results and the analysis in this paper offer practitioners (i) a tool to experiment with and study the design of a proposed robotic cell during a prototyping exercise, (ii) a lower bound on the throughput of a robotic cell to help them make an informed assessment of the ultimate productivity level, and (iii) a benchmark throughput level (for comparison purposes) for robotic cells whose operations differ slightly from those discussed in this paper.


Although mutualisms are often viewed as fragile constructs, subject to in- vasion by "cheaters" that gain from the mutualism without providing compensating ben- efits, few studies have explored whether or not apparent cheating behavior by one player actually denies benefits to the other species. Panicled bluebells (Mertensia paniculata) experience high rates of nectar robbery by bumble bees (Bombus mixtus and B. frigidus) in the Wrangell Mountains of southcentral Alaska. Nevertheless, experimental prevention of nectar larceny in two seasons did not enhance components of female reproductive success (nutlet initiation, seed-set, and seed mass) or male success (pollen removal). Observational data show that the absence of a negative impact of nectar robbery is a consequence of bumble bee behaviors; the two bee species that rob mature flowers buzz-pollinate the same flowers at an earlier stage in floral development. The shift in bee behavior is driven by the presentation of different rewards at different times in the flowering period; young flowers contain pollen and older flowers produce nectar. Although flowers typically receive and donate pollen before most nectar is produced, the mature flowers producing a robbed nectar reward may nonetheless contribute to the reproductive success of bluebell plants. Flowers sequestered from pollinators in the early stage were still capable of initiating nutlets, demonstrating that older flowers can enhance female reproduction if pollinators are rare (when many early-stage flowers may go unvisited). Moreover, the removal of mature flowers reduced the visitation rate to early-stage flowers on the same plant. Because individual bumble bees switch frequently between nectar robbing and pollen collection, the nectar reward in mature flowers may act as a key enticement to pollinators, which then enhance plant reproduction by legitimately visiting early-stage flowers. Rather than representing a case of cheating behavior, nectar robbery may be an integral part of this plant-pollinator mutualism.


This paper presents the flow physics of condensing steam flow across a straight through labyrinth seal from numerical simulations performed using ANSYS CFX. Homogeneous nucleation model and droplet growth model, which are critical in predicting condensation, are validated with good agreement against a well-known experimental data set from convergent-divergent nozzle. Validation data includes static pressure drop, condensation location, condensate mass fraction and Sauter mean radius. CFD study is performed on a five teeth labyrinth geometry to predict leakage flow rate, location of condensate accumulation and condensation rate. Impact of subcooled and condensed steam on leakage flow, pressure and temperature field are also discussed. For condensing steam, the condensate accumulation trend is identified. Some of the key findings and physical insights of interest to the designer are listed including: the effect of cooling on the leakage flow (with and without condensation) and the minimum seal wall temperature to avoid condensation based on subcooling needed for droplet formation (at location condition). Also investigated is whether steam condensation continues or if existing condensate evaporates in the downstream pockets, and the effect of heat release from condensation on number of droplets formed and the Sauter mean radius.


Solar flare observations in the deka-keV range are performed by the WATCH experiment on board the GRANAT satellite. The WATCH experiment is presented, including the energy calibration as applied in the present work. The creation of the solar burst catalogue covering two years of observation is described and some examples of solar observations are given. The estimated energy releases in the flares presented here are found to extend below the range of hard X-ray flares which were previously studied by ISEE-3 and HXRBS/SMM detectors. The X-ray emitting component cannot be exclusively explained by contributions from a thermal plasma around a few keV. Either a hotter component or a non-thermal population of particles must also be present to produce the observed deka-keV emission. The WATCH data furthermore shows that the relative contri- butions of these components may change during an event or from event to event and that the injection of energy contained in suprathermal electrons may occur throughout an event and not only during the rise phase. For the most energetic WATCH flares simultaneous observations performed by other experiments at higher energies further indicate that non-thermal emission can be observed as low as 10 keV. A statistical study is performed on the total WATCH solar database and frequency distributions are built on measured X-ray flare parameters. It is also investigated how the properties of these frequency distributions behave when subgroups of events defined by different ranges of parameters are considered. No correlation is found between the elapsed time interval between successive flares arising from the same active region and the peak intensity of the flare.


Given a convolutional dictionary underlying a set of observed signals, can a carefully designed auto-encoder recover the dictionary in the presence of noise? We introduce an auto-encoder architecture, termed constrained recurrent sparse auto-encoder (CRsAE), that answers this question in the affirmative. Given an input signal and an approximate dictionary, the encoder finds a sparse approximation using FISTA. The decoder reconstructs the signal by applying the dictionary to the output of the encoder. The encoder and decoder in CRsAE parallel the sparse-coding and dictionary update steps in optimization-based alternating-minimization schemes for dictionary learning. As such, the parameters of the encoder and decoder are not independent, a constraint which we enforce for the first time. We derive the back-propagation algorithm for CRsAE. CRsAE is a framework for blind source separation that, only knowing the number of sources (dictionary elements), and assuming sparsely-many can overlap, is able to separate them. We demonstrate its utility in the context of spike sorting, a source separation problem in computational neuroscience. We demonstrate the ability of CRsAE to recover the underlying dictionary and characterize its sensitivity as a function of SNR.


each. Virology in general practice is considered and also the use of a virology laboratory. The book concludes with chapters on viral vaccines and the diagnosis of tropical infections which may appear in this country. The contributors clearly have varying ideas of the potential readership and there will not be many who are enthralled from cover to cover. All will certainly profit from judicious sampling, and this is encouraged by the modest price of the book, which might have been even lower without the illustrations. Several of these are unnecessary and others are too poorly reproduced to be really informative.


The research reviews structural changes taking place in the 21st century, which is an era of shifts in the world economy, occurring under the influence of scientific and technological revolution, specialization and cooperation of industrial production and contributing to qualitative changes in the field of globalization of commodity markets. These processes are imperfect and, due to many shortcomings, require further scientific research. The purpose of the study is to determine the role of drivers of the global commodity market shaping. The article investigated the essence of factors of the global commodity market formation and its components. Influence of trade liberalization on formation of global commodity market was determined; the development of information technologies in the field of communications, information processing, transport technologies, as well as vigorous action of multinational companies were analyzed.


We consider a change-point test based on the Hill estimator to test for structural changes in the tail index of Long Memory Stochastic Volatility time series. In order to determine the asymptotic distribution of the corresponding test statistic, we prove a uniform reduction principle for the tail empirical process in a two-parameter Skorohod space. It is shown that such a process displays a dichotomous behavior according to an interplay between the Hurst parameter, i.e., a parameter characterizing the dependence in the data, and the tail index. Our theoretical results are accompanied by simulation studies and the analysis of financial time series with regard to structural changes in the tail index.


The measurement of the boron to carbon flux ratio provides relevant insights on the propagation of cosmic rays in the Galaxy. There is a common misconception about the fact that high-energy B/C data from AMS-02 directly provides the slope of the diffusion coefficient, implying that additional effects at play (convection, reacceleration, and destruction) can be neglected.

Using the USINE code and taking into account all the relevant processes, we show that this assumption is not supported: the B/C data slope is not constant, its rigidity dependence being shaped in particular by inelastic interactions up to TeV energies. Heavier species are expected to be more impacted than lighter ones, and this should reflect in AMS-02 data, for which a softening of the slope with Z is predicted.


Cryptochromes (CRYs) are blue-light photoreceptors with known or presumed functions in light-dependent and light-independent gene regulation in plants and animals. Although the photochemistry of plant CRYs has been studied in some detail, the photochemical behavior of animal cryptochromes remains poorly defined in part because it has been difficult to purify animal CRYs with their flavin cofactors. Here we describe the purification of type 4 CRYs of zebrafish and chicken as recombinant proteins with full flavin complement and compare the spectroscopic properties of type 4 and type 1 CRYs. In addition, we analyzed photoinduced proteolytic degradation of both types of CRYs in vivo in heterologous systems. We find that even though both types of CRYs contain stoichiometric flavin, type 1 CRY is proteolytically degraded by a light-initiated reaction in Drosophila S2, zebrafish Z3, and human HEK293T cell lines, but zebrafish CRY4 (type 4) is not. In vivo degradation of type 1 CRYs does not require continuous illumination, and a single light flash of 1 ms duration leads to degradation of about 80% of Drosophila CRY in 60 min. Finally, we demonstrate that in contrast to animal type 2 CRYs and Arabidopsis CRY1 neither insect type 1 nor type 4 CRYs have autokinase activities.


We address the design of parameter-dependent mixed H2/H∞ filters for output estimation of linear parameter-varying (LPV) plants that include a time-varying delay. We investigate the conditions to satisfy asymptotic stability, and H2 and H∞ performance requirements in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Our synthesis conditions, that provide mixed H2/Hinfin filters, are dependent linearly on the rate of change of the delay. We take the estimation error into account in the performance index and design the filters to minimize the output energy subject to a bound on the L2-gain from the noise to the estimation error. The designed filters are shown to have the capability of tracking the desired outputs of the plant in the presence of external disturbances and time varying delays. We examine two classes of filters: one that is rational and another one that has delay in the filter dynamics and, hence, it is nonrational. It is shown that the time-delayed (nonrational) filter results in reduced conservatism and improved performance. Illustrative examples are used to verify the design methodology and to demonstrate the superiority of using the proposed delayed filter configuration compared to the rational one.


This chapter has two purposes: (i) it gives an introduction to the principles of probability, which plays an important role in most methods of structure determination, and (ii) it describes the application of such techniques to the first phase of structure determination – the resolution of space-group ambiguities. The introduction in Section 2.1.1 justifies briefly the application of statistical methods to the structure-factor function. In Sections 2.1.2 and 2.1.3, a discussion is presented of the average intensity of general reflections and of zones and rows, with particular attention to the relation of these averages to symmetry elements present in the crystal. This is followed in Section 2.1.4 by mathematical preliminaries to the basics of the calculus of probabilities and the central limit theorem is introduced. In Section 2.1.5, probability density functions (p.d.f.'s) are derived which allow one to determine whether or not the crystal is centrosymmetric. These p.d.f.'s are widely applicable to structures with a large number of not too dissimilar atoms in the asymmetric unit. Such functions for structures containing dispersive scatterers and noncrystallographic centres of symmetry are also presented, and distributions of sums, averages and ratios of intensities are discussed in Section 2.1.6. All these p.d.f.'s are based on the central limit theorem and are termed ideal p.d.f.'s. However, these ideal p.d.f.'s are no longer applicable when an outstandingly heavy atom is present in the asymmetric unit. Two approaches are discussed in this chapter which may resolve this difficulty: (i) the correction-factor approach (Section 2.1.7), well known from classical probability as Gram–Charlier or Edgeworth p.d.f.'s, and (ii) the Fourier method (Section 2.1.8), only recently introduced to crystallography. The Gram–Charlier p.d.f.'s depend on even moments of the magnitude of the structure factor. General expressions for such moments of all orders are given for space groups of low symmetry, and the first four even moments are tabulated for all 230 space groups. The Fourier p.d.f.'s depend on their characteristic functions, or their Fourier transforms. Expressions for the atomic contributions to the characteristic function are tabulated for space groups up to and including the cubic space group . Higher cubic space groups can be satisfactorily treated with the correction-factor p.d.f.'s. A comparison of these two non-ideal methods indicates that in the instances in which departures from the central limit theorem predictions are large, the Fourier method is definitely superior to the correction-factor method.


Click here to listen to the Podcast Background Form 1 of the European Society for Medical Oncology-Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale (ESMO-MCBS) serves to grade therapies with curative intent. Hitherto only few trials with curative intent have been field tested using form 1. We aimed to evaluate the applicability of the scale and to assess the reasonableness of the generated scores in early colon cancer, in order to identify shortcomings that may be rectified in future amendments. Methods Adjuvant studies were identified in PubMed, Food and Drug Administration and European Medicines Agency registration sites, as well as ESMO and National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines. Studies meeting inclusion criteria were graded using form 1 of the ESMO-MCBS V.1.1 and field tested by ESMO Colorectal Cancer Faculty. Shortcomings of the scale were identified and evaluated. Results Eighteen of 57 trials and 7 out of 14 meta-analyses identified met criteria for ESMO-MCBS V.1.1 grading. In stage III colon cancer, randomised clinical trials and meta-analyses of modulated 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) based chemotherapy versus surgery scored ESMO-MCBS grade A and randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and meta-analyses comprising oxaliplatin added to this 5-FU backbone showed a more modest additional overall survival benefit (grade A and B). For stage II colon cancer, the findings are less consistent. The fluoropyrimidine trials in stage II were graded 'no evaluable benefit' but the most recent meta-analysis demonstrated a 5.4% survival advantage after 8 years follow-up (grade A). RCTs and a meta-analysis adding oxaliplatin demonstrated no added benefit. Exploratory toxicity evaluation and annotation was problematic given inconsistent toxicity reporting and limited results of late toxicity. Field testers (n=37) reviewed the scores, 25 confirmed their reasonableness, 12 found them mostly reasonable. Moreover, they identified the inability of crediting improved convenience in non-inferiority trials as a shortcoming. Conclusion Form 1 of the ESMO-MCBS V.1.1 provided very reasonable grading for adjuvant colon cancer studies.


The genus Saccharomyces currently includes eight species in addition to the model yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae, most of which can be consistently isolated from tree bark and soil. We recently found sympatric pairs of Saccharomyces species, composed of one cryotolerant and one thermotolerant species in oak bark samples of various geographic origins. In order to contribute to explain the occurrence in sympatry of Saccharomyces species, we screened Saccharomyces genomic data for protein divergence that might be correlated to distinct growth temperature preferences of the species, using the dN/dS ratio as a measure of protein evolution rates and pair-wise species comparisons. In addition to proteins previously implicated in growth at suboptimal temperatures, we found that glycolytic enzymes were among the proteins exhibiting higher than expected divergence when one cryotolerant and one thermotolerant species are compared. By measuring glycolytic fluxes and glycolytic enzymatic activities in different species and at different temperatures, we subsequently show that the unusual divergence of glycolytic genes may be related to divergent evolution of the glycolytic pathway aligning its performance to the growth temperature profiles of the different species. In general, our results support the view that growth temperature preference is a trait that may have undergone divergent selection in the course of ecological speciation in Saccharomyces.


The collection of surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS) spectra of proteins and other biomolecules in complex biological samples such as animal cells has been achieved with gold nanoparticles that are introduced to the sample. As a model for such a situation, SERS spectra were measured in protein solutions using gold nanoparticles in the absence of aggregating agents, allowing for the free formation of a protein corona. The SERS spectra indicate a varied interaction of the protein molecule with the gold nanoparticles, depending on protein concentration. The concentration-dependent optical properties of the formed agglomerates result in strong variation in SERS enhancement. At protein concentrations that correspond to those inside cells, SERS signals are found to be very low. The results suggest that in living cells the successful collection of SERS spectra must be due to the positioning of the aggregates rather than the crowded biomolecular environment inside the cells. Experiments with DNA suggest the suitability of the applied sample preparation approach for an improved understanding of SERS nanoprobes and nanoparticle-biomolecule interactions in general.


An algorithm for the least squares matching of overlapping 3D surfaces is presented. It estimates the transformation parameters between two or more fully 3D surfaces, using the Generalized Gauss-Markoff model, minimizing the sum of squares of the Euclidean distances between the surfaces. This formulation gives the opportunity of matching arbitrarily oriented 3D surfaces simultaneously, without using explicit tie points. Besides the mathematical model and execution aspects we give further extension of the basic model. The first extension is the simultaneous matching of sub-surface patches, which are selected in cooperative surface areas. It provides a computationally effective solution, since it matches only relevant multi-subpatches rather than the whole overlapping areas. The second extension is the matching of surface geometry and its attribute information, e.g. reflectance, color, temperature, etc., under a combined estimation model. We give practical examples for the demonstration of the basic method and the extensions.


The major problem of this study is to reveal how women's position and role are reflected in Arthur Golden's Memoirs of a Geisha. The objective of this study is to analyze the novel based on its structural elements and to analyze the
novel based on the feminist analysis. In analyzing Memoirs of a Geisha, the writer uses qualitative method and
feminist approach. The object of the study is Arthur Golden's Memoirs Of a Geisha published in 1997 by Vintage Books, a division of Random House,Inc.,New York. The data sources consist of primary data and secondary data sources. The primary data source is the novel Memoirs of a Geisha itself and the secondary data sources are the other sources related to the analysis such as the author's biography, books of literary theory and feminism. The method of the data collection is library research. The technique of data analysis is descriptive analysis. The outcome of the study shows in the following conclusion. First, in this novel, Arthur Golden wants to illustrate how women are subordinated and exploited in patriarchal society. Second, in this novel, Arthur Golden wants to say that women Right are not given but must be struggled for. Third, in this novel, Arthur Golden wants to describe that in order to get their rights as human beings women should be smart and talented. And the last, this novel contains many facts
that are revealed by Arthur Golden which reflect woman's position, woman's role, woman's right, and woman's participation in leading her life as a geisha, and there
are also many forms of subordination, oppression, exploitation, and violence toward woman.


Biodiversity is under threat by the ongoing global change and especially freshwater ecosystems are under threat by intensified land use, water abstraction and other anthropogenic stressors. In order to monitor the impacts that stressors have on freshwater biodiversity, it is important to know the current state of ecosystems and species living in them. This is often hampered by lacking knowledge on species and genetic diversity due to the fact that many taxa are complexes of several morphologically cryptic species. Lacking knowledge on species identity and ecology can lead to wrong biodiversity and stream quality assessments and molecular tools can greatly help resolving this problem. Here, we studied larvae of the caddisfly family Sericostomatidae in the Montseny mountains on the Iberian Peninsula. We expected to find cryptic species and that species would not occur in syntopy due to different ecological niches. We sampled 44 stream sites and sequenced 247 larval specimens for the barcoding region of the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase gene. A modeling approach was used to assess the bioclimatic preferences of the found species. Two molecular groups were identified. One could be assigned to Schizopelex furcifera and one to Sericostoma spp. We did find both taxa in syntopy in >50% of sampling sites and could show that the taxa prefer similar bioclimatic conditions. A reexamination of larval specimens showed that Sericostoma and Schizopelex larvae could not be unambiguously identified to the genus level. Overall, our results show the importance of including molecular tools into biodiversity assessments in order to correctly identify the species diversity of a region and to prevent wrong assessment results.


Tramadol is a widely used analgesic opioid for moderate-to-severe pain due to its efficacy and safety. Although tramadol induces less adverse effects compared with other opioids, an increased number of documented cases of dependence, abuse, intentional overdose or intoxication have been described. In fatal intoxication, the interpretation of the probable cause of death often relies on the measurement of the tramadol concentration in blood. However, postmortem redistribution (PMR) may affect the results and therefore bias the autopsy report. In the present study, the postmortem cardiac and femoral blood samples from 15 cases of fatal tramadol intoxication were obtained to assess the PMR of tramadol and its main active metabolite, O-desmethyltramadol (M1). Toxicological analysis was performed by the gas chromatography-electron impact-mass spectrometry (GC-EI-MS) method, previously developed and validated for the quantification of both analytes. The cardiac-to-femoral blood ratios of 1.40 and 1.28 were obtained for tramadol and M1, respectively. Results were compared with those in the literature and it was possible to conclude that femoral blood should be considered for quantitative interpretations in fatal cases of tramadol intoxication.


As society is aging, the frequency of age-related diseases is increasing. An area of age-related diseases that requires special attention is that of ocular diseases as they eventually cause blindness and therefore have a huge impact on the quality of life of the patient. Understanding the underlying cause of the disease and being able to treat it effectively is thus becoming increasingly important. To evaluate the effectiveness of a treatment, the behaviour of the medication in the body needs to be known or estimated. Monitoring the diffusion of medication is commonly referred to as pharmacokinetics, and the pharmacokinetics of ophthalmic medication are currently assessed by sacrificing animal eyes at given points in time after the application of the drug. This procedure does not allow for a high enough temporal resolution and incorporates a number of disadvantages such as the fact that the eyes are non-human and that the behaviour of the drug has to be extrapolated from the data obtained from different eyes. An instrument that can measure the pharmacokinetics of ophthalmic medication in a non-invasive manner will therefore increase the knowledge about the behaviour of the compound of interest considerably.

This thesis presents a novel ocular fluorophotometer which can measure the diffusion of inherently ophthalmic drugs with high temporal and axial resolution (0.6 s and 124 μm, respectively) and a sensitivity of 2 nM in terms of Fluorescein concentration. The design process of the instrument and its performance in terms of resolution and noise are discussed. Thorough consideration of the eye safety of the instrument is presented. The instrument is calibrated for both a fluorescence standard (Fluorescein sodium salt) and an ophthalmic drug for treating open angle glaucoma (Brimonidine) and it is shown that the concentration of a sample with high signal to noise ratio can be accurately recovered with an error below 20%. It is however found that for samples with less good signal to noise ratios the accuracy decreases significantly. The repeatability of the measurements is also assessed and found to be slightly worse than the accuracy with an error of below 23% within one week. The calibration in in vitro porcine eyes is also discussed and suggestions made for its improvement. Further measurements of diffusing fluorescent compounds are then presented and discussed. It is found that the diffusion can be monitored with high temporal resolution and that the concentration after complete diffusion is measured correctly. Finally, measurements of in vivo eyes of human volunteers are presented and discussed. The instrument is shown to be of a similar standard to a commercially available instrument, and it is believed that the instrument presented here has the potential to become the new gold standard ocular fluorophotometer.


Diblock copolymer nano-assemblies of poly(2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate-b-benzyl methacrylate) (PHPMA-b-PBzMA) were synthesized by initiators for continuous activator regeneration atom transfer radical polymerization (ICAR ATRP) using the CuIIBr2/tris(pyridin-2-ylmethyl)-amine (TPMA) complex as a catalyst under dispersion conditions and were compared with those obtained by RAFT dispersion polymerization. It is found that these two kinds of polymerizations afford good control, as indicated by the linearly increasing molecular weight with monomer conversion and the narrow molecular weight distribution, whereas the ICAR ATRP runs a little faster than RAFT. In the two cases of dispersion polymerization, the morphologies of the PHPMA-b-PBzMA nano-assemblies are similar to each other and change from spheres to wormlike aggregates with block extension, whereas the size of the nano-assemblies by ICAR ATRP is usually larger than those obtained by RAFT. The degree of polymerization (DP) of the poly(2-hydroxypropyl methacrylate) and poly(benzyl methacrylate) blocks affecting the size and/or morphology of the PHPMA-b-PBzMA nano-assemblies is investigated, and the reason for the larger size of the PHPMA-b-PBzMA nano-assemblies by ICAR ATRP is discussed.


Today's category-level object recognition systems largely focus on fronto-parallel views of objects with characteristic texture patterns. To overcome these limitations, we propose a novel framework for visual object recognition where object classes are represented by assemblies of partial surface models (PSMs) obeying loose local geometric constraints. The PSMs themselves are formed of dense, locally rigid assemblies of image features. Since our model only enforces local geometric consistency, both at the level of model parts and at the level of individual features within the parts, it is robust to viewpoint changes and intra-class variability. The proposed approach has been implemented, and it outperforms the state-of-the-art algorithms for object detection and localization recently compared in [14] on the Pascal 2005 VOC Challenge Cars Test 1 data.