Objective The objective of the study was to assess urinary biomarkers of renal injury for their individual or collective ability to predict Worsening renal function (WRF) in patients with acutely decompensated heart failure (ADHF). Methods In a prospective, blinded international study, 87 emergency department (ED) patients with ADHF were evaluated with biomarkers of cardiac stretch (B type natriuretic peptide [BNP] and its amino terminal equivalent [NT-proBNP], ST2), biomarkers of renal function (creatinine, estimated glomerular filtration rate [eGFR]) and biomarkers of renal injury (plasma neutrophil gelatinase associated lipocalin [pNGAL], urine kidney injury molecule-1 [KIM-1], urine N-acetyl-beta-D-glucosaminidase [NAG], urine Cystatin C, urine fibrinogen). The primary endpoint was WRF. Results 26% developed WRF; baseline characteristics of subjects who developed WRF were generally comparable to those who did not. Biomarkers of renal function and urine biomarkers of renal injury were not correlated, while urine biomarkers of renal injury correlated between each other. Biomarker concentrations were similar between patients with and without WRF except for baseline BNP. Although plasma NGAL was associated with the combined endpoint, none of the biomarker showed predictive accuracy for WRF. Conclusions In ED patients with ADHF, urine biomarkers of renal injury did not predict WRF. Our data suggest that a weak association exists between renal dysfunction and renal injury in this setting (Clinicaltrials.gov NCT#0150153).


The electronic structures of a series of uranium hexahalide and uranyl tetrahalide complexes were simulated at the density functional theoretical (DFT) level. The resulting electronic structures were analyzed using a novel application of the Quantum Theory of Atoms in Molecules (QTAIM) by exploiting the high symmetry of the complexes to determine 5f- and 6d-shell contributions to bonding via symmetry arguments. This analysis revealed fluoride ligation to result in strong bonds with a significant covalent character while ligation by chloride and bromide species resulted in more ionic interactions with little differentiation between the ligands. Fluoride ligands were also found to be most capable of perturbing an existing electronic structure. 5f contributions to overlap-driven covalency were found to be larger than 6d contributions for all interactions in all complexes studied while degeneracy-driven covalent contributions showed significantly greater variation. σ-contributions to degeneracy-driven covalency were found to be consistently larger than those of individual π-components while the total π-contribution was, in some cases, larger. Strong correlations were found between overlap-driven covalent bond contributions, U–O vibrational frequencies, and energetic stability, which indicates that overlap-driven covalency leads to bond stabilization in these complexes and that uranyl vibrational frequencies can be used to quantitatively probe equatorial bond covalency. For uranium hexahalides, degeneracy-driven covalency was found to anti-correlate with bond stability.


Objective Diuretics reduce congestion in patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). However, comparison of clinical effects across diuretic classes or combinations of diuretics in patients with HFpEF are not well described. Therefore, we sought to conduct a scoping review to map trial data of diuretic efficacy and safety in patients with HFpEF. Review methods and results We searched multiple bibliometric databases for published literature and ClinicalTrials.gov, and hand searched unpublished studies comparing different classes of diuretics to usual care or placebo in patients with HFpEF. We included randomised controlled trials or quasi-experimental studies. Two authors independently screened and extracted key data using a structured form. We identified 13 published studies on diuretics in HFpEF, with 1 evaluating thiazide use, 7 on mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs) and 5 on sodium-glucose co-transporter 2 inhibitors (SGLT2i). There remain 17 ongoing trials evaluating loop diuretics (n=1), MRAs (n=5), SGLT2i (n=10) and a polydiuretic (n=1), including 2 well-powered trials of SGLT2i that will be completed in 2021. Conclusions The limited number of published trials evaluating different classes of diuretics in patients with HFpEF have been generally small and short term. Ongoing and emerging trials of single or combination diuretics with greater power will be useful to better define their safety and efficacy. Scoping review registration doi:10.18131/g3-dejv-tm77.


The relationship between present-day stress state and fluid flow within fractures in crystalline bedrock is investigated in the light of a comprehensive fracture database consisting of 38,703 fracture observations made during investigations at the site of a planned high-level nuclear waste repository in Finland. By combining fracture orientation data with detailed stress and fluid flow measurements, we observe that the orientations of conductive fractures display characteristic patterns attributed to the effect of the present-day triaxial stress state and that the highest transmissivities are associated with fractures having the lowest normal tractions. Our findings indicate that contemporary stress data combined with slip and dilation tendency analysis can be used in predicting the orientations and relative transmissivity values of conductive fractures.


PURPOSE
To evaluate the periodontal conditions and integrity of abutment and non-abutment teeth of patients evaluated 7 years after insertion of the removable partial denture (RPD).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Twenty-two patients (17 women, 5 men) were assessed at the moment of denture insertion and 7 years later. The following items were verified in each assessment: bleeding on probing (BP), probing depth (PD), gingival recession (GR), and mobility (M), comparing direct and indirect abutment teeth, and the teeth not involved in the denture design. Tooth integrity was also evaluated and classified as intact when no caries or fractures were observed. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to reveal statistical significance between the groups (p = 0.05) as well as the Bonferrroni-corrected Mann-Whitney test for post hoc comparison. The Wilcoxon test was used for evaluation within the group over time. Fisher's exact test was applied to cross data about abutment integrity.

RESULTS
Statistically significant differences were found for GR (baseline, p < 0.001; 7 years, p < 0.001) and PD (baseline, p = 0.001; 7 years = 0.004) between the three groups at baseline and after 7 years of follow-up. Mean BP and M values increased from initial assessment to after 7 years of RPD use in every group, but no statistically significant difference was found between the groups. For abutment integrity, a statistically significant difference (p = 0.028) was observed, and the direct abutment exhibited more (33.3%) caries and fractures.

CONCLUSION
RPDs generated more periodontal damage to direct abutments, since higher gingival recession probing depth indexes, and presence of caries and fractures were observed in comparison to indirect abutments and non-abutments.


We examine the X-ray spectra and variability of the sample of X-ray sources with LX ≈ 1031-1033 ergs s-1 identified within the inner 9' of the Galaxy by Muno et al. Very few of the sources exhibit intraday or intermonth variations. We find that the spectra of the point sources near the Galactic center are very hard between 2-8 keV, even after accounting for absorption. When modeled as power laws, the median photon index is Γ = 0.7, while when modeled as thermal plasma we can only obtain lower limits to the temperature of kT > 8 keV. The combined spectra of the point sources is similarly hard, with a photon index of Γ = 0.8. Strong line emission is observed from low-ionization, He-like, and H-like Fe, both in the average spectra and in the brightest individual sources. The line ratios of the highly ionized Fe in the average spectra are consistent with emission from a plasma in thermal equilibrium. This line emission is observed whether average spectra are examined as a function of the count rate from the source or as a function of the hardness ratios of individual sources. This suggests that the hardness of the spectra may in fact be to due local absorption that partially covers the X-ray-emitting regions in the Galactic center systems. We suggest that most of these sources are intermediate polars, which (1) often exhibit hard spectra with prominent Fe lines, (2) rarely exhibit either flares on short timescales or changes in their mean X-ray flux on long timescales, and (3) are the most numerous hard X-ray sources with comparable luminosities in the Galaxy.


ABSTRACT Objective: This article investigated whether work-to-family conflict (WFC) and work-to-family enrichment (WFE) were associated with employee sleep quality. WFC and WFE reflect the potential for experiences at work to negatively and positively influence nonworking life respectively, and may have implications for sleep quality. In this article, we examined whether WFC and WFE were linked with sleep quality via hedonic balance (i.e., positive affect relative to negative affect). Participants: The sample included 3,170 employed Australian parents involved in the Household Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. Methods: Information on WFC, WFE, hedonic balance, sleep quality, and relevant covariates was collected through a structured interview and self-completion questionnaire. Results: WFC was associated with poorer sleep quality (β = .27, p < .001), and this relationship was stronger in males than females and in dual parent–single income families. WFC was also found to be indirectly associated with poor sleep quality via a lower hedonic balance (β = .17, 99% confidence interval [.14, .20]). WFE was not directly associated with sleep quality, but was indirectly associated with better sleep quality via a higher hedonic balance (β = –.04 [–.07, –.02]). Conclusions: These results indicate that aspects of the work–family interface are associated with employee sleep quality. Furthermore, affective experiences were found to link WFC and WFE with sleep quality. Workplace interventions that target WFC and WFE may have implications for employee sleep.


During the first half of the twentieth century information engineers developed the fundamental theory of electronic circuit and filter design, telecommunications, signal processing, and control engineering. Much of this theory was rooted in linear differential equations, complex variable theory, and Fourier and Laplace transforms. Yet when it came to practical design, engineers developed a range of techniques that enabled them to exploit the power of the mathematical models underpinning their technological devices and systems without recourse to the classic formalism of the mathematics. Many of these techniques were graphical in nature, such as: the normalised time and frequency response curves of linear systems; the Bode Plots, Nichols Charts and pole-zero plots used in circuit and control system design; the Smith Chart and signal constellation diagrams used in telecommunications; and so on. These methods led to engineers talking a new language based on the characteristics of the graphical representations. Rather surprisingly, the humble decibel, originally a simple logarithmic expression of sound intensity, proved a particularly useful measure in this new graphical world.

This paper will demonstrate how these quintessentially engineering tools freed designers in the information engineering field from having to solve differential equations or deal with the niceties of complex variable theory. Perhaps rather surprisingly, most of these techniques have recently achieved a new lease of life as part of the interface between modern computer-aided design tools and designers themselves.


We define the engineering of complex computer systems as all activities pertinent to specifying, designing, prototyping, building, testing, operating, maintaining, and evolving complex computer systems. While in the past, relatively noncomplex traditional systems sufficed for most computer control applications, the new and emerging demands of applications and the evolution of computer architectures and networks now essentially force systems to be complex, given our current understanding of how to engineer these systems. Complex computer systems are found in almost every industry. These include industrial process control, aerospace and defence, transportation and communications, energy and utilities, medicine and health, commercial data processing, and others. Unfortunately, the state of the art in research and technology has clearly fallen far behind the requirements of industrial, commercial, and government complex computer systems. >


Given two intervals $I, J \subset \mathbb{R}$, we ask whether it is possible to reconstruct a real-valued function $f \in L^2(I)$ from knowing its Hilbert transform $Hf$ on $J$. When neither interval is fully contained in the other, this problem has a unique answer (the nullspace is trivial) but is severely ill-posed. We isolate the difficulty and show that by restricting $f$ to functions with controlled total variation, reconstruction becomes stable. In particular, for functions $f \in H^1(I)$, we show that $$ \|Hf\|_{L^2(J)} \geq c_1 \exp{\left(-c_2 \frac{\|f_x\|_{L^2(I)}}{\|f\|_{L^2(I)}}\right)} \| f \|_{L^2(I)} ,$$ for some constants $c_1, c_2 > 0$ depending only on $I, J$. This inequality is sharp, but we conjecture that $\|f_x\|_{L^2(I)}$ can be replaced by $\|f_x\|_{L^1(I)}$.


Cancer is nowadays one of the main causes of death worldwide. The numbers have shown that one in three people will develop cancer at some point in their lives. Cancer is a major issue for the whole humanity, and therefore a lot of research has been running for the past years in order to understand the mechanisms that underlie tumorigenesis and eventually cancer formation, with the perspective to discover new approaches for effective treatment. Gene therapy strategies that intended to tackle cancer systemically are often impaired by inefficient delivery of the vector to the tumor site. Several studies have shown the possibility of using mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs) as a future therapeutic mechanism against cancer, since they possess important features such as the ability to home to and target cancer cells. The engineering of MSCs to produce and deliver an apoptotic factor, calledtumor necrosis factor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) has been studied excessively. TRAIL is a transmembrane protein that causes selective apoptosis of tumor cells but does not have any harmful effects on the normal neighboring cells. Experiments have shown that this approach has significant results in mouse models and has now proceeded for clinical trials.


Water Resources Information Systems (WRIS) present different types of problems during the data storage and analysis phases, related with the complex nature of the environmental data spacio-temporal phenomena. There are many questions to deal with, such as geographic representation of environmental variables, large time- series management,measurements and observations related with different hydrologic phenomena recording and the integration of simulations models to information systems. Conceptual models allow us to understand and simplify problems in a specific domain. These problems can be expressed through analysis patterns, which reflect conceptual structures of an application domain speeding up the development of the abstract analysis model. This model will be able to capture the main requirements from real world problems. This type of patterns, are used in the present paper to define conceptual microarchitectures that allow the appropriate representation of environmental information in WRIS. Accordingly, the physic domain environmental objects are initially identified and an architecture style is defined, allowing this way the integration of WRIS with another interacting systems. The representation of the hydrological phenomena spatial component, is made by means of the conceptual Framework GeoFrame specialization.


: The purpose of the work was to study some problems relating to the pathogenesis of cardiac insufficiency in patients with thyrotoxicosis. To do this a total of 108 patients suffering from thyrotoxicosis with varying degree of severity and aged from 17 to 59 were examined. In addition to the general clinical examination vectoro-, poly- and mechanocardiography was employed. The resulting findings ascertained two possible ways for the development of cardiac insufficiency in patients under consideration. One of them is cardiac hyperfunction that comes to the forefront. In this case the myocardial changes are of a stage-wise nature. The myocardial contractility at the onset of the affection is up, a slight hypertrophy is developing, chiefly, of the outflow passages. As the disease progresses further hypertrophy gains in intensity and dilation of the heart comes in as an intercurrent factor. At this time the contractile function of the myocardium is still unaffected and the patients are at a stage of compensation. With progressing dystrophy and wearing away of the myocardium its contractility is declining and signs of cardiac incompetence appear. Such a development is characteristic of patients with severe course of thyrotoxicosis, long-standing disease and frequent relapses. Of the other way is typical cardiac hyperfunction of low intensity. To the forefront come dystrophic alterations in the myocardium unaccompanied by hypertrophy, and in this case cardiac insufficiency is of latent nature. Such alterations are seen to occur with a milder course of thyrotoxicosis, with the disease of short duration. Dynamic observations bear proof to a reversible nature of hypertrophy and dystrophy of the myocardium.


Background: Evaluation of smell function is essential especially in cases of gradual deterioration, e.g., in neurodegenerative diseases, where rates of unawareness of the disorder are high and the importance of screening for olfactory dysfunction is increasing. To date, none of the tests for evaluation of olfactory dysfunction has been validated in Lithuania. The aim of the study was to develop a Lithuanian version of Sniffin' Sticks 12 (SS12) odor identification test. Materials and Methods: The study was performed in 4 stages. The first stage included translation and back-translation from German, pilot group testing and language adaptation of the original SS12 test. In the second stage a survey group of 99 subjects was questioned for familiarity with the descriptors, used in the original version of the test. In the third stage after replacement of the least familiar distracters, a modified version of SS12 was created. Original and modified versions of SS12 were tested on 112 and 119 healthy subjects accordingly. The fourth stage of the study proved necessary as neither of the two SS12 versions turned out to be valid. After another round of replacement of the misleading distracters the second modified version of SS12 was created and it was tested on 115 healthy subjects. Results: Unsatisfactory correct identification rates of less than 75 percent in the same one item (lemon) were observed using both original and modified SS12 versions. With the second modification of distracters of SS12, identification of lemon increased significantly and overcame 75 percent. The decrease of SS12 scores in relation to age was ascertained in the study sample. Gender and smoking status did not prove to be independent predictors of SS12 scores in multiple linear regression analysis. Conclusion: The study presents an olfactory testing tool, which is adapted and modified culturally for use in the Lithuanian population.


Performing bispectrum analysis on the actual measured vibration signals of the roller bearing with different failure modes, it developed that the spectrum distribution regions are similar among the same failure modes, and distinguishable among the different failure modes, thus this character can be used to classify fault types. The binary images extracted from the bispectra are taken as the feature vectors. The fuzzy clustering analysis based on objective function is applied for pattern recognition, which makes use of the binary image to construct a core and a domain representing the common and scope of bispectrum distribution, respectively, then constructs the objective function as the classify to achieve pattern recognition and diagnosis. The roller bearing fault diagnosis is performed as an example to verify the feasibility of the proposed method.


This paper presents a myoelectric control of an arm exoskeleton designed for rehabilitation. A four-muscles-based NeuroMusculoSkeletal (NMS) model was implemented and optimized using genetic algorithms to adapt the model to different subjects. The NMS model is able to predict the shoulder and elbow torques which are used by the control algorithm to ensure a minimal force of interaction. The accuracy of the method is assessed through validation experiments conducted with two healthy subjects performing free movements along the pseudo-sagittal plane. The experiments show promising results for our approach showing its potential for being introduced in a rehabilitation protocol.


In the light of concern about the harmful effects of media reporting of suicides and a lack of comparative research, this study compares the number and characteristics of reports on suicides and road traffic accidents (RTAs) in young people (aged 11–18) in newspapers and Twitter during a 6-month period. Tweets about young people's suicides were more numerous than newspaper reports. Twitter and newspaper reports were more strongly correlated for suicides than for RTAs. Recent suicides were less likely to be reported in newspapers than recent deaths by RTA. Bullying-related suicides were especially newsworthy. Suicide prevention organizations should consider routinely monitoring social media reporting.


The purpose of this experiment was to better define the relationship of personality variables to conditionability (responsiveness to verbal operant conditioning) and to find a measure that can differentiate between individuals that are easily conditioned and those who are not easily conditioned. This experiment examined how 56 female undergraduate Ss differed in verbal operant conditioning as a function of whether they experienced control over their environment and whether or not they expected to control the outcomes of their behavior. The half-hour experiment was divided into two procedural phases: In Phase I the Ss completed the Tiffany Experience Control (EC) Scale and the Rotter Internal - External (I - E) Control of Reinforcement Scale which, by a median split on each scale, divided the Ss into four groups of 14. The two Scales are theoretically similar but do not correlate. In Phase II, the Ss were administered the Taffel Sentence Construction Task. It was hypothesized that conditionability would be a function of expected control of reinforcers and experienced control from the environment. The predicted hypotheses were not supported. The results indicated a reversal and a limiting of the hypothesis. Conditionability showed a tendency as a function of the combination of expected and experienced control. The I-E X EC X Blocks of Learning Trials interaction showed a tendency. The main effect for Blocks was significant. The I-E variable may have accounted for some of the variance as opposed to the EC in the interaction. These results suggested that the combined Scales by Blocks may have reached significance if more Blocks of Learning Trials had been required. Tentative explanations for I-E probably accounting for more variance in the I-E X EC X Blocks are offered in terms of awareness, perceived choice and social desirability.


Are emerging economies implementing inflation targeting (IT) with a perfectly flexible exchange-rate arrangement, as developed economies do, or have these countries developed their own IT framework? This paper offers a new method for assessing exchange-rate policies that combines the use of "indicator countries", providing an empirical definition of exchange-rate flexibility or rigidity, and clustering through Gaussian mixture estimates in order to identify countries' de facto regimes. By applying this method to 19 inflation-targeting emerging economies, I find that the probability of those countries having a perfectly flexible arrangement as developed economies do is 52%, while the probability of having a managed float system, obtained through foreign exchange market intervention, is 28%, and that of having a rigid exchange-rate system (similar to those of pegged currencies) is 20%. The results also provide evidence of two different monetary regimes under inflation targeting: flexible IT when the monetary authorities handle only one tool, the interest rate, prevailing in ten economies, and hybrid IT when the monetary authorities add foreign exchange interventions to their toolbox, prevailing in the remaining nine economies.


Istanbul's main lithological unit is a greywacke formation locally known as the Trakya Formation. It is weathered and extensively fractured, and the stress relief induced by deep excavations causes excessive displacements in the horizontal direction. Therefore, predicting excavation-induced wall displacements is critical for avoiding damages. The aim of this study is to develop an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model to predict anchored-pile-wall displacements at different stages of excavations performed on Istanbul's greywacke formations. A database was created on excavation and monitoring data from 11 individual projects in Istanbul. Five variables were used as input parameters, namely, excavation depth, maximum ground settlement measured behind the wall, system stiffness, standard penetration test N value of the soil depth, and index-of-observation point. The proposed model was trained, validated, and tested. Finally, two distinct projects were numerically modeled by applying the finite element method (FEM) and then used to examine the performance of the ANN model. The displacements predicted by the ANN model were compared with both the computed values obtained from the FEM analysis and actual measured displacements. The proposed ANN model accurately predicted the displacement of anchored pile walls constructed on Istanbul's greywackes at different excavation stages.


Crime is undergoing a metamorphosis. The online technological revolution has created new opportunities for a wide variety of crimes which can be perpetrated on an industrial scale, and crimes traditionally committed in an offline environment are increasingly being transitioned to an online environment. This book takes a case study-based approach to exploring the types, perpetrators and victims of cyber frauds. Topics covered include: - An in-depth breakdown of the most common types of cyber fraud and scams. - The victim selection techniques and perpetration strategies of fraudsters. - An exploration of the impact of fraud upon victims and best practice examples of support systems for victims. - Current approaches for policing, punishing and preventing cyber frauds and scams. This book argues for a greater need to understand and respond to cyber fraud and scams in a more effective and victim-centred manner. It explores the victim-blaming discourse, before moving on to examine the structures of support in place to assist victims, noting some of the interesting initiatives from around the world and the emerging strategies to counter this problem. This book is essential reading for students and researchers engaged in cyber crime, victimology and international fraud.


All practitioners are playing a critical role in developing NASA's next generation of flight software. The goal is spacecraft autonomy. If we achieve this key ingredient of space exploration's next phase, NASA can have many more space platforms operating at once, make more effective use of limited communications resources and attempt bolder mission concepts involving direct investigation of remote environments.


Adolescence is the most important stage of every individual, and puberty is one of the most critical phenomena of this period. According to the important role of parents in helping children for safe and healthy transition of this stage, and the first step in educational program is need assessment of target group so, this study aimed to determine effect of need assessment-based education on father's attitude toward puberty health in male adolescents. This study is a quasi-experimental and the field trial. After determining fathers' educational needs by separate descriptive survey, a one-day educational workshop was planned. 30 subjects were randomly selected. Fathers' opinion measured by a researcher-made questionnaire and compared, before and after intervention. The data were analyzed by statistical software SPSS using Chi-square, paired t-test and Wilcoxon. The results indicates that there was a significant difference between total mean score as well as level of knowledge in pre-and post-intervention (P<0.001). There was a significant difference between total mean score of opinion about psychological-behavioral health and physical and sexual health in pre-and post-intervention (P<0.001), but level of opinion have no significant difference in before and after intervention (P=0.4). The results showed that needs assessmentbased educational program can promote the opinion of parents about puberty period in male adolescents. This makes them better able to help their children for healthy transition of this critical period.


Ground improvement was required for construction of the Jaber Al Ahmed New City located about 25 km west of Kuwait City, Kuwait. Loose to medium poorly graded sands, and silty sands extended from ground level to a depth ranging from 5m to 9m. Dynamic compaction was employed, as an economic method, to increase the soil bearing capacity and reduce its compressibility for foundation design and construction. The testing program included borings and sampling, Standard Penetration Tests, Cone Penetration Tests and Pressuremeter Tests before and after dynamic compaction. The area covered in this study is about 31415m2. The results indicated significant ground improvement, and satisfaction of the specified acceptance criteria resulting in an allowable soil pressure, for shallow foundation design, equal to or exceeding 300 kN/m2.


Heart failure (HF) is a complex disease with a broad spectrum of pathological features. Despite significant advancement in clinical diagnosis through improved imaging modalities and hemodynamic approaches, reliable molecular signatures for better differential diagnosis and for better monitoring of heart failure progression remain elusive. The few known clinical biomarkers for heart failure, such as plasma BNP and Troponin, have been shown to have limited use in defining the etiology or prognosis of the disease1, 2. Consequently, current clinical identification and classification of heart failure remain descriptive, largely based on functional and morphological parameters. Therefore, defining the pathogenic mechanisms for hypertrophic vs. dilated or ischemic vs. non-ischemic cardiomyopathies in the failing heart remain a major challenge to both basic science and clinic researchers. In recent years, mechanical circulatory support using left ventricular assist devices (LVAD) has assumed a growing role in the care of patients with end-stage HF 3. During the earlier years of LVAD application as a bridge to transplant, it became evident that some patients exhibit substantial recovery of ventricular function, structure and electrical properties4. This led to the recognition that reverse remodeling is potentially an achievable therapeutic goal using LVAD. However, the underlying mechanism for the reverse remodeling in the LVAD treated hearts is unclear and its discovery would likely hold great promise to halt or even reverse the progression of heart failure.


Cryogenic noble liquid detectors are presently considered one of the best options for WIMP Dark Matter searches, especially when extensions to multi ton scale sensitive masses are foreseen. The WArP experiment is the first one that exploits the unique characteristics of liquid Argon to make a highly sensitive search for WIMP Dark Matter candidates. In 2008, a double phase detector has been assembled in the Gran Sasso National Laboratory with 140 kg sensitive mass and a discovery potential in the range of 5 × 10-45 cm2 in the spin-independent WIMP-nucleon cross-section. In addition to standard neutrons and gamma-rays passive shields, WArP implements an 8 ton liquid Argon active shield with 4p coverage. The detector was commissioned and put into operation during the first half of 2009 for a first technical run. Detector design, construction and assembly are described, together with the very first results of this technical run.


The recently unlocked 6-GHz spectrum is accessible to cellular and WiFi networks for unlicensed use while they conform to the constraints imposed by the incumbent nodes. We allow only a fraction of the cellular base stations (BSs) and a fraction of WiFi access points (APs) to use the 6-GHz band so that sources of interference are spatially segregated and made sparse, thereby decreasing the overall interference to each other. Through our proposed framework, we control this fraction as we group portions of cellular and WiFi network elements into entities competing with the other entities for the spectrum resources. These entities interact to satisfy their Quality of Service demands by playing a non-cooperative game. The action of an entity corresponds to the fraction of its network elements (WiFi APs and cellular BSs) operating in the 6-GHz band. We use tools from stochastic geometry to derive the theoretical performance metrics for users of each radio access technology, which helps us capture the aggregate behaviour of the network in a snapshot. Due to the decentralized nature of the game, we find the solution using distributed Best Response Algorithm (D-BRA), which improves the average datarate by 11.37% and 18.59% for cellular and WiFi networks, respectively, with random strategy as the baseline. The results demonstrate how the system parameters affect the performance of a network at equilibrium and highlight the throughput gains of the networks as a result of using the 6-GHz bands, which offer considerably larger bandwidths. We tested our framework using real-world data, which shows that practical implementation of multi-entity spectrum sharing is feasible even when the spatial distribution of the network elements and population are non-homogeneous.


High-power linear accelerators have potential applications in fusion materials testing, intense spallation neutron production for neutron physics, production of nuclear materials and destruction of nuclear waste. Determining the optimal configuration and operating parameters for the accelerator early in the design process is an important step in minimizing development costs associated with these applications. A coordinated evaluation capability in the rf system and other major supporting subsystems would thus provide a fully integrated system design. Further, characterizing component redundancy where necessary to provide a specified facility/system on-line availability completes a highly representative engineering and costing configuration. The Accelerator System Model (ASM) code provides this unique capability for developing optimum designs. ASM has been under joint development of computer interface, physics and engineering activities for four years and now permits the detailed layout and evaluation of a wide variety of normal and superconducting accelerator and rf power configurations for the aforementioned devices and other accelerator applications. This paper describes the current capabilities of the latest version of ASM, details continuing concentration on an integral reliability/availability approach, new component development and support system models.


The remarkable breakthroughs in point cloud representation learning have boosted their usage in real-world applications such as self-driving cars and virtual reality. However, these applications usually have a strict requirement for not only accurate but also efficient 3D object detection. Recently, knowledge distillation has been proposed as an effective model compression technique, which transfers the knowledge from an over-parameterized teacher to a lightweight student and achieves consistent effectiveness in 2D vision. However, due to point clouds' sparsity and irregularity, directly applying previous image-based knowledge distillation methods to point cloud detectors usually leads to unsatisfactory performance. To fill the gap, this paper proposes PointDistiller; a structured knowledge distillation framework for point clouds-based 3D detection. Concretely, PointDistiller includes local distillation which extracts and distills the local geometric structure of point clouds with dynamic graph convolution and reweighted learning strategy, which highlights student learning on the crucial points or voxels to improve knowledge distillation efficiency. Extensive experiments on both voxels-based and raw points-based detectors have demonstrated the effectiveness of our method over seven previous knowledge distillation methods. For instance, our 4 x compressed PointPillars student achieves 2.8 and 3.4 mAP improvements on BEV and 3D object detection, outperforming its teacher by 0.9 and 1.8 mAP, respectively. Codes are available in https://github.com/RunpeiDong/PointDistiller.


Ever-increasing demand for biobased products in the market and the prevalence of an instinctive perception of biobased products with 100% sustainability has led to a need for policy makers to identify ways of mapping the associated concerns, benefits and opportunities. The aim of this study is to propose and test the effectiveness of a sustainability assessment methodology that incorporates the principles of sustainable consumption and production (Sustainable Development Goal 12), resource efficiency and circular economy into a holistic life cycle assessment to enable a fairer comparison of biobased products and fossil-based products. A set of hybridised indicators were developed combining life cycle indicators with that of industrially-applied green chemistry resource efficiency metrics, also incorporating the principles of circular economy. The effectiveness of these methodologies was assessed via an exemplary comparative LCA of the biobased products and their fossil-based commercial equivalents, from manufacturing to 'distribution to consumer' phases. In addition to the conventional LCA-based impact indicators, hybridised indicators including waste factor, secondary resource efficiency and circularity were also applied. The methodologies provided a unique dimension to the sustainability evaluation of biobased products, also highlighting some of the "easy to interpret" impacts, particularly waste generation, material and energy efficiency of the product and process in question.


A small-volume dielectric constant and soil water content sensor would be desirable in many laboratory experiments. Phase shift of the reflection coefficient in soil and various solutions was measured with a coaxial probe (CP) and a network analyzer operating at a frequency of 795 MHz. The CP had a measurement depth <1 cm. Five soils, varying widely in texture, bulk density, and organic matter content, were tested and comparison was made with other dielectric methods. Synthesized time domain reflectometry (TDR), resonant waveguide, CP, and conventional TDR measurements were in agreement for the sand. A simple mixing model for known dielectrics accurately predicted measurements of the apparent dielectric (K.) for mixed solutions. A linear function (r 2 = 0.90), fit for the water content of all soil data, had a single measurement root mean square error (RMSE = 0.039 m 3 m -3 ). The uncertainty improved when individual linear soil calibrations (singe measurement RMSE = 0.012 to 0.032; r 2 = 0.95 to 0.99) were used and further improved when repeated measurements were averaged (RMSE = 0.0073 to 0.026; r 2 = 0.97-1.00), The CP method for measuring K a is fast, simple, linear, easily repeated, and reasonably accurate, indicating that this instrumentation is useful for studying dielectric behavior of soil and various solutions and for rapid determination of soil water content in a small sample.


In November 2003, a vice president of Deutsche Bank Securities received a request from a client to finance the acquisition of a large hospital-supply distributor. The client needed to present to the seller an offering price and indication of financial commitment within two weeks. The contemplated transaction entailed a highly leveraged acquisition of the target. The tasks for the student are to value the target firm and projected synergies, assess the creditworthiness of the target (i.e., the ability to bear the high debt), and critically evaluate the general design of the transaction.


We have analysed the expression of HLA-G in 40 leukaemia samples of various subtypes [seven cases of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL), 28 cases of acute myelogenous leukaemia (AML), three cases of chronic myelogenous leukaemia (CML) and two cases of chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL)] by flow cytometry using HLA-G-specific monoclonal antibody. No leukaemia samples expressed HLA-G without incubation with interferon (IFN)-gamma. However, six out of 28 (21%) AML samples expressed HLA-G upon incubation with IFN-gamma. These six samples derived from one out of seven M2, two out of eight M4 and three out of five M5. The results indicated that AML cells, especially myelomonocytic leukaemia samples, are capable of expressing the HLA-G molecule.


Increasingly, text mining approaches have come to academic and commercial foreground as an effective solution for managing textual resources. Users" and consumers" comments and reviews hyper proliferation due to web 2.0 emergence, generated the need for such techniques implementation as a way to get insights from an active world expressed textually and not limited to specific scales and options. Sentiment analysis constitutes a NLP method aiming at sentiment detection out of textual snippets. On the other hand, it is a common truth that academic libraries have been intensively based their evaluation attempts on quantitative methods. The current study proposes the use of Sentiment analysis on user comments about Hellenic Open University Distance Library and Information Center which were included to the institutional annual survey. The analysis highlighted latent information about specific aspects of the library that couldn"t be detected through the constraints that scaling pοses.


The radial profiles of gas, stars, and far-ultraviolet radiation in 20 dwarf Irregular galaxies are converted to stability parameters and scale heights for a test of the importance of two-dimensional (2D) instabilities in promoting star formation. A detailed model of this instability involving gaseous and stellar fluids with self-consistent thicknesses and energy dissipation on a perturbation crossing time gives the unstable growth rates. We find that all locations are effectively stable to 2D perturbations, mostly because the disks are thick. We then consider the average volume densities in the midplanes, evaluated from the observed H i surface densities and calculated scale heights. The radial profiles of the star-formation rates are equal to about 1% of the H i surface densities divided by the free fall times at the average midplane densities. This 1% resembles the efficiency per unit free fall time commonly found in other cases. There is a further variation of this efficiency with radius in all of our galaxies, following the exponential disk with a scale length equal to about twice the stellar mass scale length. This additional variation is modeled by the molecular fraction in a diffuse medium using radiative transfer solutions for galaxies with the observed dimensions and properties of our sample. We conclude that star formation is activated by a combination of three-dimensional gaseous gravitational processes and molecule formation. Implications for outer disk structure and formation are discussed.


Introduction NHP is a position that depends on morphology and figure of every body. The purpose of this study was measuring cephalometric norm in NHP to compare four anteroposterior analyses of Cooke, Wits, Reidel and Sassouni in NHP and determining their consistence with clinical status. Materials and Methods This study was a cross sectional study and the data collecting method was direct observation and lateral cephalomteric radiography using informational forms. In this study 40 highschool student girls with normal occlusion and the age between 16-18 years old with an avarage of 17.3 years old were selected from different districts of Mashhad through random cluster sampling. From each student one lateral cephalometry (with permission from the parents and students) was taken in NHP position. The data were analysed using SPSS statistical software (Fisher's exact test in two way cross tabulation). Results 1.Cooke, Wits, Reidel and Sassouni showed 85, 75, 70 and 32.5 concordance with the clinical status respectively. 2. In comparison between wits and Reidel analyses, the difference was not significant. P-v>0.05 3. In comparison between Cooke and wits analyses, the difference was not significant. P-v>0.05 4. In comparison between wits and sassouni, the difference was highly significant.P-v<0.01 5. In comparison between Reidel and sassouni, the difference was highly significant. P-v<0.01 6. In comparison between Cooke and sassouni, the difference was highly significant. P-v<0.01 Conclusion In this study statistical evaluation justifies more concordance of the anteroposterior analysis of Cooke, Wits and Reidel with clinical status but Sassouni analysis can not be considered as a reliable method. In comparing the upper methods from view point of reliablity, Cooke seems to be the most reliable analysis followed by wits and Reidel analyses.


The kinetics and dynamics for the growth of hydrogen bonding clusters in the Aa-Dd system are considered. The explicit relations between conversions of proton-acceptors and proton-donors and Gibbs free energy are deduced, and then the sol-gel phase transition is predicted to take place and the generalized scaling laws satisfied by the k-th moment and k-th radius near the critical point are given. The conclusions obtained from which are consistent with the statistical descriptions on the system under investigation.


This project is a commentary accompanying three of my published books – two unauthorised celebrity biographies about movie star Robert Downey Jr. and TV scientist Professor Brian Cox and a textbook about entertainment journalism. Using these three texts, this piece of work explores how my background as a showbusiness journalist informs both their execution and my wider writing practice. It examines how entertainment journalism is currently perceived by the public and why it should be given sufficient weight in terms of its adherence to Galtung and Ruge's (1965) and Harcup and O'Neill's (2001) taxonomies of news values and its impact on society.

Looking at theorists across celebrity culture, journalism and linguistics, alongside various practitioners, it will explore how the construction of unauthorised celebrity biography responds to myth-making and narrative theory and how that feeds into my academic writing. Then, utilising different methodologies including persona, narrative, showbusiness journalism tropes and the teaching of so-called soft skills required by modern employers, as well as considering the goal of media textbooks, it will demonstrate how I have used my style of writing to create 'tribridity' within the textbook form by introducing celebrity journalism into the format, alongside memoir and how that is reflected in my teaching practice.


Flotation is the separation process most used to recover valuable minerals from sulphide ores. The design of industrial flotation plants is a complex process involving many stages. Current design practice involves performing laboratory scale grinding and batch flotation tests, followed by a circuit design based on the scale-up of the laboratory kinetics and recovery-grade data. A pilot plant is then operated to evaluate the performance of the circuit based on recovery and grade, usually in the configuration of the intended full-scale plant. The circuit design is refined and economically evaluated after which the design of the full-scale plant is performed. A new approach to full-scale flotation plant design has been proposed by the Julius Kruttschnitt Mineral Research Centre and the Mineral Processing Research Unit of the University of Cape Town, as part of the Australian Minerals Industries Research Association (AMIRA) P9 Project. In this new methodology, the effects of the ore on plant performance are decoupled from the circuit effects. The ore properties are characterised by operating the pilot plant in as simple a configuration as possible. The pilot plant units are configured to perform a similar duty (in terms of mineral content and particle size) to the full-scale operation and their response measured. An important factor in the success of the methodology is having a pilot plant that is capable of accurately characterising the ore properties. For this purpose, the Wemco® Floatability Characterisation Test Rig (FCTR) was built. The FCTR is a self-contained, highly instrumented mobile pilot plant designed to develop and validate the new flotation plant design methodology. The aims of this thesis were to propose, develop and validate a methodology for using the FCTR to design industrial flotation plants. The hypothesis was that full-scale flotation plant design could be accurately performed using the P9 flotation model and modelling and scale-up methodologies, in conjunction with the FCTR. Test work was performed in three main areas: calibration of the ore characteristics and model parameters for the flotation model currently used by the AMIRA P9 Project; validation of the flotation model and modelling methodology; and prediction of full-scale plant performance using parameters determined on the FCTR. The ore floatability characteristics were calibrated using four FCTR circuits of increasing complexity. The ore floatability characteristics were determined for various models derived from data from one, two, three and four calibration circuits. Validation of the flotation model and modelling methodology was performed using three validation methods: internal validity tests, parameter sensitivity tests and predictive validation. From the internal validity tests, some of the models did not meet the validation criteria. The parameter sensitivity tests used Monte Carlo simulations to determine the sensitivity of the regressed model parameters. The tests produced small differences in the values determined from the models and the average values from the Monte Carlo simulations. The floatability characteristics appeared to be stable and unique. Predictive validation was performed using five FCTR circuits, different in configuration to the calibration circuits. The predictive validation was performed using the floatability characteristics determined from each of the calibration models, in conjunction with estimates of the model parameters. Overall, the predictions of the circuit performance were accurate and within experimental standard deviations for most streams in the circuits. The predictions of the key parameters of pentlandite and chalcopyrite recovery were accurate, especially for the final concentrate. The prediction of pyrrhotite recovery produced the largest errors. The prediction of pyrrhotite recovery appeared to be dependent on the addition of depressant to the cleaner and recleaner circuits of the circuit to be predicted. When the depressant addition rates were significantly different from those used in the calibration circuits, the prediction of pyrrhotite recovery was inaccurate. These errors were however reduced when experimental water recovery values were used. The extensive and robust validation of the flotation model and modelling methodology has shown that the flotation model and modelling methodology are valid under certain conditions. This test work represents the first comprehensive validation of the flotation model and modelling methodology incorporating changes in circuit configuration. Using the proposed modelling and scale-up methodology in conjunction with the FCTR, the metallurgical performance of three industrial flotation circuits were predicted. The predicted results were then compared to the experimentally determined results around the industrial circuits. In each case, a scale-up factor between the ore floatability characteristics determined on the FCTR, and the full-scale floatability characteristics, was required to achieve an accurate prediction. The scale-up factor ranged from 0.17 to 0.97 for the case studies investigated. In light of the results from each stage of test work, the proposed flotation plant design methodology was refined. With this methodology and the continual development of techniques for the measurement and prediction of the P9 flotation model parameters, accurate industrial plant design using the FCTR will become possible. With the addition of other unit operations, such as comminution, into the flowsheet, this methodology will eventually lead to the achievement of the ultimate goal of accurate plant design of green-field sites.


ABSTRACT Most marketing researchers and practitioners emphasize sustaining strong customer relationships for improving profitability. Profitably managing customer relationships is, therefore, an important foundational cornerstone of marketing. In contrast, the role of effectively prioritizing customers for increasing profitability has been challenged in marketing literature. While there are divergent views on the principle of customer prioritization, the role of differential use of marketing instruments in managing relationship marketing investments to effectively retain customers is yet to be substantiated. The current study proposes a conceptual framework explicating the key role of customer prioritization in accounting for the effectiveness of relationship investments and interaction frequency. The effect of customer prioritization on customer retention is contingent upon the length of the relationship. We test the proposed framework with a multimethod approach to help ascertain the value of customer prioritization in enabling firms to effectively use relationship investments for customer retention. The findings also establish the moderating role of the relationship phase on customer retention over the length of the relationship.


New data now allow conjectures on the levels of real and nominal incomes in the thirteen American colonies. New England was the poorest region, and the South was the richest. Colonial per capita incomes rose only very slowly, and slowly for five reasons: productivity growth was slow; population in the low-income (but subsistence-plus) frontier grew much faster than that in the high-income coastal settlements; child dependency rates were high and probably even rising; the terms of trade was extremely volatile, presumably suppressing investment in export sectors; and the terms of trade rose very slowly, if at all, in the North, although faster in the South. All of this checked the growth of colony-wide per capita income after a 17th century boom. The American colonies led Great Britain in purchasing power per capita from 1700, and possibly from 1650, until 1774, even counting slaves in the population. That is, average purchasing power in America led Britain early, when Americans were British. The common view that American per capita income did not overtake that of Britain until the start of the 20th century appears to be off the mark by two centuries or longer.


Global change drivers of land-use/cover change (LUCC) like population dynamics, economic development, and climate change are increasingly important to local sustainability studies, and can only be properly analyzed at fine-scales that capture local biophysical and socio-economic conditions. When sufficiently widespread, local feedback to stresses originating from global drivers can have regional, national, and even global impacts. A multiscale, global-to-local-to-global (GLG) framework is thus needed for comprehensive analyses of LUCC and leakage. The number of GLG-LUCC studies has grown substantially over the past years, but no reviews of this literature and their contributions have been completed so far. In fact, the largest body of literature pertains to global-to-local impacts exclusively, whereas research on local feedback to regional, national, and global spheres remain scarce, and are almost solely undertaken within large modeling institutes. As such, those are rarely readily accessible for modification and extension by outside contributors. This review of the recent GLG-LUCC studies calls for more open-source modeling and availability of data, arguing that the latter is the real constraint to more widespread analyses of GLG-LUCC impacts. Progress in this field will require contributions from hundreds of researchers around the world and from a wide variety of disciplines.


Scholars and jurists recognize Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis's influential Harvard Law Review article, "The Right to Privacy," as the first articulation of a constitutional right to privacy, but its relatively late date (1890) in the chronology of constitutional law raises a number of questions. Why did the right to privacy become important at that particular moment? How did a concept with roots in property law come to apply to the "inviolate personality," in Warren and Brandeis's memorable phrase, independent of considerations of class (or race or gender)? This dissertation proposes answers to those questions, tracing the genealogy of the right to privacy through literature and law from the end of the eighteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth. The first chapter examines the connection between privacy and the written word, especially in letters and epistolary fiction. Writers like Hector St. John de Crevecoeur and Hannah Webster Foster probe the connection between personal correspondence and national commitments, contemplating the costs and benefits of privacy, and proposing the epistolary form as a vehicle for the self. The second chapter looks closely at representations of women in literature and readings of privacy that connected women with domestic space. Works by Alcott, Hawthorne, and Poe interrogate the limitations of domesticity and conventional gender roles, while proposing the written word as an alternate, more constructive site of privacy. The third chapter considers links between literacy, deprivation, and privacy, using anti-literacy laws and narratives by Frederick Douglass and Harriet Jacobs to examine how the marginalizing experience of slavery informed discussions of privacy. The final chapter of the dissertation analyzes how societal changes create a perceived need for new rights and protections. Writers like William Dean Howells and Henry James decry newspaper culture and urbanization, warning that scrutiny and publicity endanger the self. This fear that publicity leads to privation informs Warren and Brandeis's "The Right to Privacy," as it urges protections for persons rather than property. The surprising origins of the right to privacy still affect our conflicted views on the uses of this right and the measures that we take to safeguard it.


Tabernaemontana divaricata Linn. is an ornamental, evergreen and highly useful ethno medicinal plant which is utilized for various traditional treatment purposes worldwide. The plant is commonly called Crepe Jasmine and it is belonging to the family of Apocynaceae. The plant is found in Asia, Australia, China, Japan, India and Myanmar. The plant is 1.5-2.5m in height with silvery grey bark; wrinkled and milky latex exudes when wounded, and has white colored flowers. The leaves are shiny deep green in color. According to the previous study the plant has diverse ranges of phytochemicals constituents such as alkaloids, steroids, flavonoids, phenolic acids and enzymes. The flowers of the plant contain epivoacangine, apparicine, isovoacristine, tabernaemontanine, voaphylline, and vobasine. It is ascribed with extensive series of useful pharmacological activities like anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer, analgesic, antioxidant, anti-diabetic, anti-convulsant, antimicrobial and anti-infertility activities. This plant is also used to treat various disorders like abdominal tumors, epilepsy, eye infections, fever, headache, inflammation, leprosy, asthma, diarrhea, paralysis, rheumatic pain, ulceration and vomiting. So, the review article briefly describes the morphological features, ethno medicinal uses, pharmacological properties and phytochemical composition of this medicinal plant. The present study is also is an attempt to combine and document the important information of Tabernaemontana divaricata and highlights the future need for research and development.


This paper provides an overview of key future directions that child psychiatry may follow. It then focuses on the potential value of longitudinal studies in general and on those involving attention deficit hyperactive disorder in particular, with the aim of delineating how such studies may enable us to proceed toward some of the future directions outlined.


This paper presents a study of the Nigeria's presence in Cyberspace. The Cyberspace (Internet) is now critical to every nation's socio-economic, cultural and political activities. When it is disrupted or fails, can grind a nation to a standstill. On the contrary, its correct functioning and pliability is transforming modern society with exceptional pecuniary and social benefits. With nearly all traditional activities increasingly moving to the Internet, Cyberspace has become a new stage for innovations, enterprises, social networking, criminality and war. For this study, the United Nations (UN) e-governance framework was used, the highlights of the United Nations E-Government Survey report of 2014 was analyzed to show the ranking of the world leaders, West African countries and where Nigeria stands. The Internet penetration growth and evolving Internet infrastructure provisioning in Nigeria were reviewed and a critical assessment of Nigeria's presence on the Cyberspace was carried out using the UN online presence index methodology between the months of August and September 2015. The Web content, interactivity, the currency of information, downloadable documents, etc. were used to compare various sectors of the Nigerian economy; all tiers of government, academia, and the organized private sector. The study revealed that the organized private sector and private educational institutions are doing better than government educational institutions and ministries. Based on international best practices, a list of recommended actions for increasing cyberspace presence and achieving e-governance for improved services and productivity in Nigeria and similar developing countries is proffered.


At present the world socioeconomic system is at a great crossroads, the New World Order is in the decisive offensive to achieve its objectives and it is not known if it will succeed. The military industrial complex, negative accumulation of capital based on the destructive sectors, and the productive only as their sustenance, which implemented the empire, is no longer the key to the extermination of the population, which is the product of a change in strategy generated by the end of the cold war. Here the issue of governance based on current indicators of a Latin American sub-region: Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela and the challenges that the other subregion faces Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Peru and Paraguay, while the Caribbean is going behind. And in the last part we can see the new vital juncture, water stress in Latin America and its inequalities, despite being a continent with sufficient but predatory water resources. Issues that affect mortality but do not compare with Asia and Africa, culminating with a reflection.


The article analyses the development of creativity concepts. Notions of creativity transformed historically from uncontrolled divine inspiration and non-reflected artistic inspiration to the targeted work resulting in commercially successful creative products. The analysis begins with Plato's discussion that a poet should be overtaken by divine inspiration, that human beings do not create by themselves, they are dictated to by the Muses. Renaissance, Rationalism and Romanticism are analysed including their reflections in recognised artists of 20th century. Today's notions of creativity are reviewed including ones important for creative industries and consumer society.


The paper presents a new method to describe and to predict the development of scale during metal forming processes, especially hot strip rolling processes. This is necessary because scale develops during all hot deformation processes over 600 °C and affects the mass loss of the raw weight as well as the surface quality of the semi-finished product. The main components of oxide scale at steel are wustite, magnetite, and hematite with various volume fractions. A challenge for the correct characterisation of the total scale layer is the consideration of the strong inhomogeneity with respect to the mechanical properties of each scale component. Owing to these differences, the deformation behaviour of the single oxide layers is diverse, too. As result of high deformation stresses, the oxide scale cracks, however low deformation degrees can be compensated. Due to the high hardness of the oxides, the fragments are pushed in the raw material and influence the grip conditions in the rolling gap and the material flow. Because of this the Institute of Metal Forming developed a new method to determine the temperature dependent properties of the scale layers, which are relevant for the arrangement of metal forming processes. The strategy was based on the use of pure powder of each scale element for the production of testing samples with different geometries (cylindrical and cubic samples) by compression and heat treatment steps.


A method to evaluate wave-front aberrations in optical telescopes that is based on the method of curvature sensing but that solves the irradiance transport equation by variable separation is presented. This technique is simpler for processing than are previously released techniques and can perform more efficiently, as is required by active and adaptive optics. Testing for consistency of the method by evaluation of several sets of out-of-focus images obtained with the 2-m telescope at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México was carried out, and a stability of 10% for the derived values of Zernike coefficients was found.


Abstract Background Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is an endocrine disorder that affects women's fertility and causes alterations such as obesity, insulin resistance, menstrual irregularities, and polycystic ovaries. The results of the studies show that the issue of vitamin D and vitamin D receptor (VDR) is controversial for PCOS susceptibility. Objective To investigate the association of BsmI polymorphism in the VDR gene with metabolic parameters in obese PCOS women. Materials and Methods In this case-control study, 38 obese subjects with PCOS and 40 unrelated obese individuals were evaluated to determine the allelic and genotypic frequency of BsmI variant by Polymerase Chain Reaction Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism method. Body Mass Index, parathyroid hormone, phosphorus, and calcium were evaluated in all participants. Results BsmI (rs1544410), (A/G) AA, AG, GG, A, and G percentage of genotypic/allelic frequencies were 65.8, 26.3, 7.9, 78.9, and 21.1 in cases and 57.5, 40, 2.5, 77.5, and 22.5 in controls, respectively. Statistical analysis revealed that the differences in genotypic (p = 0.31)/allelic (p = 0.83) frequencies and dominant (p = 0.45)/recessive (p = 0.35) models between the cases and controls were not significant. This study indicates no association between the BsmI genotypes and metabolic parameters. Conclusion It can be concluded that VDR BsmI (rs1544410) Intron 8 (A > G) was not associated with obesity along with PCOS susceptibility in the studied groups.


Addressing the high prevalence of overweight and obesity is a priority for Aboriginal youth. This study evalu- ated the implementation of a comprehensive school-wide vegetable and fruit program for grade six to eight First Nation students in Fort Albany, Ontario. The impact on nutrition knowledge and self-efficacy, and intentions to eat more vegeta- bles and fruit was evaluated using the Knowledge, Self-efficacy, and Intentions questionnaire, adapted from the Pro- Children Questionnaire. Evaluation also included focus groups with teachers and questionnaires for parents/guardians and students to assess satisfaction. In this sample of students, the program improved knowledge, exposure to, and preferences for vegetables and fruit, but did not impact intentions or self-efficacy. Thus, school nutrition programs may be popular and effective in shifting knowledge and preferences to consume healthy foods; however, no sustained benefit can be achieved without addressing barriers to access to affordable, healthy foods in remote communities.


Applying pressure with a scanning probe microscope tip causes the polarization state of a ferroelectric material to switch. It is an obvious fact that falling objects accelerate due to Earth's gravitational field. It is much less obvious, however, that objects also stretch during free fall. The decay in the gravitational field strength with distance away from Earth's surface means that, during a fall, parts of objects closer to the ground experience a greater force of attraction than those farther away. This difference in attractive force between top and bottom produces a net stretching effect. It is not the field strength that causes stretching; rather, it is the change of field over distance, or field gradient, that matters. In extreme environments, such as those close to black holes, gravitational field gradients can be huge, causing such profound elongation that astrophysicists have coined a specific term, "spaghettification," to convey the change in shape suffered by objects in these exotic regions of space. In our everyday experience, however, effects resulting from field gradients are not usually strongly noticeable and are generally only considered to produce second-order effects of little consequence. Despite this, on page 59 of this issue, Lu et al. (1) have been able to cause a reversal in the direction of polarization in a ferroelectric material (ferroelectric switching) solely by using the induced gradient of an applied mechanical stress.


The physical properties of atoms, molecules, and solids in ultrahigh magnetic fields B ≫ 109 G that are believed to exist on the surface of neutron stars are discussed. In these fields, atoms are strongly deformed and elongated along the magnetic field lines; the binding energy and ionizing energy of the atoms are substantially increased and the interatomic interaction is dramatically changed. This strongly modifies the properties of matter at the surface of magnetic neutron stars which are crucial for modelling the pulsar magnetosphere. A scenario for magnetosphere evolution is proposed which suggests free emission for a young pulsar and strong binding of the matter to the surface at a later stage. This later stage is due to strongly bound chains of alternate heavy atoms and light atoms accreted on the surface of the star.


A robust and reliable 3D QSAR model which is pharmacophore based has been developed in the present study, based on reported sequence of purine analogues for the inhibition of serine threonine class of cancer drug target. The present model showed statistical significance with regression coefficient value of r2 = 0.98 and cross validation coefficient values of q2 = 0.7725. The model was validated by allocating the compounds under two sets, namely, test and training set. The latter was made use to build model of QSAR whereas, the test was to endorse the QSAR model that was developed. Also the model showed a huge F value 654.7 and Pearson coefficient value of 0.8812, suggesting the accuracy of the model. The developed model could be utilized to develop selective inhibitors which are also novel, for serine threonine
class of cancer drug targets.


Ten patients (aged 39–94 years) with cholecystolithiasis were selected for percutaneous rotational lithotripsy with the Rotolith lithotriptor either because they were considered high-risk patients for cholecystectomy or because they had refused surgery. The procedure was completed in 7 patients. Five of these were stone-free at cholangiography 1 to 2 days after lithotripsy. Conclusive cholangiograms were not obtained in 2 patients due to gallbladder leakage, which in itself did not cause any serious sequelae. At ultrasonography after one month, one of these 2 patients had no visible gallbladder, the other one had small residual gallbladder stones. Rotational lithotripsy is an alternative to cholecystectomy in patients at high surgical risk, especially elderly patients who have undergone cholecystostomy as an emergency treatment for acute cholecystitis.


As rooibos tea's economic value has risen, its status has gone from a wild plant to a culturally significant product against which some residents of the South African rooibos-growing region measure their sense of belonging and indigeneity. I examine how "coloured" residents negotiated the region's fraught history of cultural indigeneity as well as its celebratory relation to ecological indigeneity. With the majority of land still in white South Africans' hands and more than a quarter of the population without work, indigenous claims have taken on increasing importance as political rallying points and means of economic survival. Although "coloured" people, members of a South African racial category denied nativity to any place, could potentially benefit from claims of indigeneity, many rejected a temporally and spatially incarcerating idea of cultural indigeneity. Instead, they found economic possibilities in and metonymic identification with an indigenous plant. [race, indigeneity, South Africa, multispecies, agriculture, commodity]


As increasing research effort has been made, pervasive computing is on the step closer to realization. Recent technologies have allowed smaller-scale computational devices with characteristics such as low-cost production, low energy consumption and wireless communication to capture and manage information. The technologies of Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) and Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) are gaining high attention for their promising applications in the field of pervasive computing. Integrating RFID and WSN has been researched extensively in recent years, and deployed in variety of applications. In this paper, WSN architecture, sensor node hardware and RFID system are discussed firstly. According to RFID and WSN architectures and taking into account the specific circumstances of pervasive computing, the integrations of RFID and WSN are classified into three main categories. Each category of integration is described in details through some prototypes.


BACKGROUND
Amyloid-β soluble oligomers (Aβo) are believed to be the cause of the pathophysiology underlying Alzheimer's disease (AD) and are normally detected some two decades before clinical onset of the disease. Retinal pathology associated with AD pathogenesis has previously been reported, including ganglion cell loss, accumulation of Aβ deposits in the retina, and reduction of nerve fiber layer thickness as well as abnormalities of the microvasculature.

OBJECTIVE
This study's aim is to better understand the relationship between brain and retinal Aβo deposition and in particular to quantify levels of the toxic Aβo as a function of age in the retina of a rodent model of AD.

METHODS
Retinas and brain tissue from 5×FAD mice were stained with Congo red, Thioflavin-T (Th-T), and Aβ plaque-specific and Aβo-specific antibodies.

RESULTS
We show that retinas displayed an age-dependent increase of Th-T-specific amyloid fibrils. Staining with anti-Aβ antibody confirmed the presence of the Aβ plaques in all 5×FAD retinas tested. In contrast, staining with anti-Aβo antibody showed an age-dependent decrease of retinal Aβo. Of note, Aβo was observed mainly in the retinal nuclear layers. Finally, we confirmed the localization of Aβo to neurons, typically accumulating in late endosomes, indicating possible impairment of the endocytic pathway.

CONCLUSION
Our results demonstrate the presence of intraneuronal Aβo in the retina and its accumulation inversely correlated with retinal Aβ plaque deposition, indicating an age-related conversion in this animal model. These results support the development of an early AD diagnostic test targeting Aβo in the eye.


Purpose The aim of this study was to determine the roles of collagen XII in the regulation of stromal hierarchical organization, keratocyte organization, and corneal mechanics. Methods The temporal and spatial expression of collagen XII at postnatal days 4, 10, 30, 90, and 150 were evaluated in wild-type (WT) mice. The role of collagen XII in hierarchical organization was analyzed by measuring fibril diameter and density, as well as stromal lamellar structure, within ultrastructural micrographs obtained from WT and collagen XII-deficient mice (Col12a1–/–). Keratocyte morphology and networks were assessed using actin staining with phalloidin and in vivo confocal microscopy. The effects of collagen XII on corneal biomechanics were evaluated with atomic force microscopy. Results Collagen XII was localized homogeneously in the stroma from postnatal day 4 to day 150, and protein accumulation was shown to increase during this period using semiquantitative immunoblots. Higher fibril density (P < 0.001) and disruption of lamellar organization were found in the collagen XII null mice stroma when compared to WT mice. Keratocyte networks and organization were altered in the absence of collagen XII, as demonstrated using fluorescent microscopy after phalloidin staining and in vivo confocal microscopy. Corneal stiffness was increased in the absence of collagen XII. Young's modulus was 16.2 ± 5.6 kPa in WT and 32.8 ± 6.4 kPa in Col12a1–/– corneas. The difference between these two groups was significant (P < 0.001, t-test). Conclusions Collagen XII plays a major role in establishing and maintaining stromal structure and function. In the absence of collagen XII, the corneal stroma showed significant abnormalities, including decreased interfibrillar space, disrupted lamellar organization, abnormal keratocyte organization, and increased corneal stiffness.


Mobile Ad hoc Networks (MANETs) always bring challenges to the designers in terms of its security deployment due to their dynamic and infrastructure less nature. In the past few years different researchers have proposed different solutions for providing security to MANETs. In most of the cases however, the solution prevents either a particular attack or provides security at the cost of sacrificing the QoS. In this paper we introduce a model that deploys security in MANETs and takes care of the Quality of Services issues to some extent. We have adopted the concept of analyzing the behavior of the node as we believe that if nodes behave properly and in a coordinated fashion, the insecurity level goes drastically down. Our methodology gives the advantage of using this approach


Laboratory experimentation was once considered impossible or irrelevant in economics. Recently, however, economic science has gone through a real 'laboratory revolution', and experimental economics is now a most lively subfield of the discipline. This study attempts to examine answers to questions of the changing behaviour of opposite sexes under conditions of both anonymity and knowledge of gender by playing the ultimatum game in Pakistan. It is observed that the behaviour of males and females in Pakistani society is quite different from that found in earlier studies. Insights from the previous experiments have already shown that normative economic theory had failed in its predictions of human behaviour. Currently, the ultimatum game is widely discussed in behavioural economic literature, and this paper will adjust the traditional ultimatum game into a new form wherein it will be tested in the country (Pakistan) with multidimensional behaviour of subjects. With regard to gender effect specifically, all previous studies came up with somewhat mixed results, since results do not always point in the same direction and it is rather early to draw far-reaching conclusions regarding the behavioural differences of men and women. More facts are required in order to move towards the development of a systematic theory. This work is a small attempt to investigate the changing behaviour of opposite sexes under different controlled conditions.


There is a growing body of research emphasizing the advantages of teaching students social and emotional (SE) skills in school. Here we examine the economic value of these skills within a benefit-cost analysis (BCA) framework. Our examination has three parts. First, we describe how the current method of BCA must be expanded to adequately evaluate SE skills, and we identify important decisions analysts must make. Second, we review the evidence on the benefits of SE skills, again noting key methodological issues with respect to shadow pricing. Finally, we perform BCA of four selected social and emotional learning (SEL) interventions: 4Rs; Second Step, Life Skills Training; and Responsive Classroom. These analyses illustrate both methodological and empirical challenges in estimating net present values for these interventions. Even with these challenges, we find that the benefits of these interventions substantially outweigh the costs. We highlight promising areas of research for improving the application of BCA to SEL.


Acute Tubular Necrosis (ATN) causes severe damage to the kidney epithelial tubular cells and is often associated with severe renal dysfunction. Stem-cell based therapies may provide alternative approaches to treating of ATN. We have previously shown that clonal c-kitpos stem cells, derived from human amniotic fluid (hAFSC) can be induced to a renal fate in an ex-vivo system. Herein, we show for the first time the successful therapeutic application of hAFSC in a mouse model with glycerol-induced rhabdomyolysis and ATN. When injected into the damaged kidney, luciferase-labeled hAFSC can be tracked using bioluminescence. Moreover, we show that hAFSC provide a protective effect, ameliorating ATN in the acute injury phase as reflected by decreased creatinine and BUN blood levels and by a decrease in the number of damaged tubules and apoptosis therein, as well as by promoting proliferation of tubular epithelial cells. We show significant immunomodulatory effects of hAFSC, over the course of ATN. We therefore speculate that AFSC could represent a novel source of stem cells that may function to modulate the kidney immune milieu in renal failure caused by ATN.


The quantumness of the correlation known as quantum correlation is usually measured by quantum discord. So far various quantum discords can be roughly understood as indirect measure by some special discrepancy of two quantities. We present a direct measure of quantum correlation by revealing the difference between the structures of classically and quantum correlated states. Our measure explicitly includes the contributions of the inseparability and local nonorthogonality of the eigenvectors of a density matrix. Besides its relatively easy computability, our measure can provide a unified understanding of quantum correlation of all the present versions.


Traditional in-line inspection (ILI)-based crack management programs use deterministic methods, where the calculated failure pressure ratio (FPR) and ILI-reported crack depth are compared with their respective thresholds. In recent years, TC Energy has developed a probabilistic crack assessment method, where annual probability of small leak (POSL) and probability of failure (POF, i.e., probability of burst) are evaluated. The mitigation plan is then made by comparing the annual POSL and POF with their respective thresholds. The advantage of the probabilistic method over deterministic method is that the former portrays reality better by explicitly accounting for the uncertainties associated with pipeline geometric and material properties, ILI-reported crack sizes, crack growth and burst pressure models.
 This study demonstrates the safe implementation of the probabilistic assessment method for stress corrosion cracking (SCC) based on EMAT-reported ILI data and correlated dig data associated with three natural gas pipelines in Canada. Comprehensive validation was conducted by comparing the EMAT-based mitigation plan with the in-ditch assessment of a large set of dig data. Three key questions were addressed in the validation: (1) Does the probabilistic method capture all critical features identified in the field? (2) Whether the features avoided by the probabilistic method were unnecessary to excavate based on in-ditch assessment? (3) What is the benefit of the probabilistic method in comparison with the traditional deterministic method?
 The examination indicates that the developed probabilistic assessment process captures all the critical SCC features identified in the field, and the digs avoided by the probabilistic method are confirmed to be unnecessary in the field. The result demonstrates that the reliability-based method can reduce a significant number of unnecessary digs without compromising safety.


The eutectoid transformation of the spheroidal graphite cast iron (S.G.I.) has been investigated with "in situ" dilatometer, which was made for the investigation of the cast iron alloys. The investigation of the eutectoid transformation has been taking place by evaluation of the "insitu" dilatation curves in connection with metallographic examinations, chemical analyses and thermodynamic calculations of the phase equilibriums. By dilatometric curves it is possible to follow the exact eutectoid transformation of austenite. On a basis of numerous quantitative relations, as the relation between the ferrite and pearlite fractions in the as-cast SGI, which was determined by the analysis of the dilatometric curves and the composition, the ratio between ferrite and pearlite in the microstructure could be determined in a very short time. From the kinetics of austenite transformation and temperature dependence of the ferrite or pearlite growth the following characteristic temperatures of the eutectoid transformation have been established: the ferrite nucleation o Tα , the beginning of the ferrite growth Tα , and pearlite growth Tp , respectively. Kinetic curves, which show the fraction of the single microstructure constituents in the microstructure in dependence of the transformation time for mainly ferrite SGI, are good represented by the physical sigmoidal Boltzmann model.


Measures of oxidative stress have potential for integrating positive and negative life experiences into comprehensive cellular indicators of animal welfare. We explored this possibility when three adult grizzly bear brothers at the Detroit Zoo were temporarily moved to a smaller habitat while their primary home was expanded. We expected that the spatial compression and construction activity might be sources of stress. We observed increased social play and other affiliative behavior in the smaller habitat, and we used daily fecal samples (17 to 24 per bear) to examine whether concentrations of fecal glucocorticoid metabolites (FGM) and 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG, a by-product of DNA damage) were correlated with social behavior. Our overall aim was to explore 8-OHdG as a potential indicator of welfare based on the prediction that 8-OHdG would be lower when more positive social interactions occurred. Concentrations of fecal 8-OHdG increased significantly with higher FGM concentrations, supporting a potential relationship between adrenal activity and rates of DNA damage. However, we found that on days when they engaged in higher rates of affiliative interactions, there were trends for 8-OHdG concentrations to increase for one bear and decrease for another, and no relationship for the third bear. These preliminary results should be interpreted with caution, but suggest a potential relationship between social behavior and 8-OHdG that is modulated by health, personality, or other individual factors. Further validation research is needed, but 8-OHdG may have promise as a non-invasive, cumulative indicator of animal welfare.


The difficulty of removing intramedullary methylmethacrylate (MM) in revision of hip prostheses is considerable. To facilitate its removal from bone, Nd:YAG laser energy was delivered to a bovine anatomic specimen of the femur with the medullary canal filled with MM. Through an endoscope the laser was observed to soften and ablate the methyl methacrylate. The vapors generated by this process were analyzed by mass spectrometry. The two chief components were hydrogen and carbon monoxide, followed by carbon dioxide, methane, acetylene, and C3 unsaturated hydrocarbons. A high capacity smoke evacuator must be used in conjunction with laser vaporization of methylmethacrylate. The method should be evaluated under in vivo conditions in dogs before it is attempted in patients.


We describe a computation of the contribution to the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon from the disconnected part of the hadronic vacuum polarization. We use the highly-improved staggered quark (HISQ) formulation for the current density with gauge configurations generated with four flavors of HISQ sea quarks. The computation is performed by stochastic estimation of the current density using the truncated solver method combined with deflation of low-modes. The parameters are tuned to minimize the computational cost for a given target uncertainty in the current-current correlation function. The calculation presented here is carried out on a single gauge-field ensemble of size $32^3\times48$ with an approximate lattice spacing of $\sim0.15$ fm and with physical sea-quark masses. We describe the methodology and the analysis procedure


Almost all of the world's energy demand growth is projected to occur in low- and medium-income countries (LMICs). Targeted energy efficiency investments have the potential to mitigate tensions between economic growth objectives and sustainable development commitments. We review the empirical evidence on both the private and social benefits of energy efficiency improvements in LMICs. In addition to direct energy savings, energy efficiency investments can generate indirect benefits such as improved reliability, enhanced energy access, and increased productivity. We highlight the role that energy subsidies, unreliable power supply, and capital constraints may play in the underinvestment in energy efficiency. Increasingly, LMICs are implementing policies and programs aimed at mitigating these barriers. We discuss some recent policy design innovations and emphasize the importance of rigorous evaluation.


This paper investigates whether AspectJ can be used for efficient profiling of Java programs. Profiling differs from other applications of AOP (e.g. tracing), since it necessitates efficient and often complex interactions with the target program. As such, it was uncertain whether AspectJ could achieve this goal. Therefore, we investigate four common profiling problems (heap usage, object lifetime, wasted time and time‐spent) and report on how well AspectJ handles them. For each, we provide an efficient implementation, discuss any trade‐offs or limitations and present the results of an experimental evaluation into the costs of using it. Our conclusions are mixed. On the one hand, we find that AspectJ is sufficiently expressive to describe the four profiling problems and reasonably efficient in most cases. On the other hand, we find several limitations with the current AspectJ implementation that severely hamper its suitability for profiling. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


BACKGROUND
The Food and Drug Administration's Center for Drugs and Radiological Health issued Guidance in 2016 on generating patient preference information to aid evaluation of medical devices. Consistent with this guidance, we aimed to provide quantitative patient preference evidence on benefit-risk tradeoffs relevant to transcatheter mitral valve repair versus medical therapy for patients with heart failure and symptomatic secondary mitral regurgitation.

METHODS
A discrete-choice experiment survey was designed to quantify patients' tolerance for 30-day mortality or serious bleeding risks to achieve improvements in physical functioning or reductions in heart failure hospitalizations. Two samples were recruited: an online US panel of individuals reporting a diagnosis of heart failure (n=244) and patients with heart failure treated at Duke University Health System (n=175). Random-effects logit regression was used to model treatment choices as a function of benefit and risk levels.

RESULTS
Across both samples, approximately one-quarter (23.5%) consistently chose device profiles offering the higher level of physical functioning despite mortality and bleeding risks as high as 10%. Among respondents who at least once chose a device profile offering a lower level of functioning, improvement in physical functioning equivalent to a change from New York Heart Association class IV to III was ≈6 times more preferred than a change from New York Heart Association class III to II. Estimated discrete-choice experiment utility gains and losses revealed that respondents would accept up to a 9.7 percentage-point (95% CI, 8.2%-13.3%) increase in risk of 30-day mortality with devices that could improve functioning from New York Heart Association class IV to III, or up to 2.0% (95% CI, 1.4%-2.7%) for an improvement from New York Heart Association class III to II.

CONCLUSIONS
Severity of heart failure symptoms influences patients' willingness to accept risks associated with mitral valve medical devices. These findings can inform shared decision-making discussions with patients who are being evaluated for transcatheter mitral valve repair.


Software architecture evaluation methods aim to predict the quality of a software system before it is built. Depending on the results of these evaluations, the software architecture can be transformed to improve its quality. In general, processes of transformation of software architecture designs are implicitly defined in existing software architecture evaluation methods. Additionally, these
methods use scenarios and do not treat concerns as first-class entities. The explicit representation of concerns enables explicit reasoning and identification of crosscutting concerns. Crosscutting concerns may cause scattering and tangling of code fragments, which have a negative impact on the maintainability and complexity of software implementations. The Concern-Oriented Software Architecture Analysis Method (COSAAM) is an iterative method for evaluating and transforming software architectures. COSAAM uses and extends various existing approaches to create a method to systematically transform software architectures. COSAAM inspired by the Aspectual Software Architecture Analysis Method (ASAAM), which is a scenario-based analysismethod for identifying architectural aspects. Additionally,
it uses Design Structure Matrices (DSMs) for concern identification and dependency analysis of architectural modules and Domain Mapping Matrices (DMMs) to measure scattering and tangling. DSMs and DMMs are general purpose system analysis tools that have been applied in project management, product design and more recently, software architecture design. COSAAMprovides transformation rules to systematically transforma candidate software architecture. COSAAM is demonstrated by a case study of a window manager software architecture. The window manager software architecture is
transformed in eight iterations and is extended with several aspects. After the end of the evaluation, the scattering and tangling in the window manager software architecture is eliminated. However, this is offset with added complexity due to interacting aspects. This thesis is concluded with an overview of lessons learned during the development of COSAAM and provides suggestions
for further work and tool support.


This is a collection of web-based resources to support research for the 2018 Health Inequity: Health and Social Justice Hackathon at Bakersfield College. This event is open to the public and this research guide will thus only contain resources in the publ


ABSTRACT Biometric technical capabilities enable the collection, storage, transmission, sharing, matching, and analysis of biometrics to enable decision making and actioning in support of national security objectives. United Nations Security Council Resolution (UNSCR) 2396 (2017) and UNSCR 2322 (2016) calls upon member states to investigate foreign terrorist fighters and share biometrics and contextual information, which requires a close alignment between military operations, border security, and law enforcement investigations. A system of systems design of biometrics technical capabilities allows for closer alignment between relevant entities to support national security objectives. However, this alone is not sufficient and there is a need for legislation and organizational policy to enable national and international biometrics collection, storage, transmission, sharing, matching, analysis and actioning. This paper discusses the complex Australian legislative and policy considerations to enable the biometric system to support the criminal justice, law enforcement, military and intelligence systems to meet national security objectives. Sharing of biometrics data and contextual information to meet national security objectives need to be balanced with privacy concerns and civil liberty.