The potential of blockchain has been extensively discussed in the literature and media mainly in finance and payment industry. One relatively recent trend is at the enterprise-level, where blockchain serves as the infrastructure for internet security and immutability. Emerging application domains include Industry 4.0 and Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). Therefore, in this paper, we comprehensively review existing blockchain applications in Industry 4.0 and IIoT settings. Specifically, we present the current research trends in each of the related industrial sectors, as well as successful commercial implementations of blockchain in these relevant sectors. We also discuss industry-specific challenges for the implementation of blockchain in each sector. Further, we present currently open issues in the adoption of the blockchain technology in Industry 4.0 and discuss newer application areas. We hope that our findings pave the way for empowering and facilitating research in this domain, and assist decision-makers in their blockchain adoption and investment in Industry 4.0 and IIoT space.


For more than five decades, Nigeria has witnessed series of efforts toward development which have been largely unsuccessful. With the aid of secondary data from various sources, this paper discusses the issue of Nigeria's development aspiration in relationship to its security problems. The paper contends that the absence of good governance and insecurity have engendered elements of unaccountability, political division, disunity, violence, deprivation of infrastructural facilities, unemployment, etc. which constituted obstacles to the country's development aspirations. Good socio-political and economic systems are identified as the key objectives to Nigeria's development in the 21sstt century. In this dispensation, Nigeria has failed to fashion out its own development brands, while a successful development can only be achieved through a home-grown strategy and not necessarily through imported ideas or theories. The elements of good governance that guarantee freedom of speech, transparency and accountability, political stability and effectiveness, rule of law, etc. have not been given much recognition. The paper concludes that the persistent institutional uncertainty, weak rule of law, political deceit, infrastructural decay, unemployment, monumental corrupt practices and insecurity need to be addressed for Nigeria to make progress, and that adequate effective measures are required from the political stakeholders to safeguard Nigeria's future and achieve development. Recommendations for better security system and development attainment are proffered.


Since the 1980s, the presence of xenophobic, right-wing populist parties has been a persistent blot on the European political landscape. Time and again, the far Right has sought to elevate considerations of ethnos—its preferred ideological idiom—above those of demos. However, to reconceptualize democracy's meaning in ethno-populist terms violates the fundamental norms of democratic citizenship. It departs from the idea of universal equality, which is the foundational precept of the rule of law, in favor of the idea of ethnic and racial hierarchy. Such an approach implies a return to the darkest hour of twentieth-century European history: the hour of the ethnocentric or "racial state." This return is incompatible with universal norms embodied in Europe's democratic constitutions. European political culture must stress and nurture these values in order to offset the seductions and temptations of the new illiberalism of the ethnopopulist credo.


Reports theoretical and experimental results on electrooptic Bragg-diffraction modulators in GaAs/GaAlAs heterostructure waveguides. The devices utilize the linear electrooptic effect in periodic structures to facilitate spatial modulation of the refractive index in the waveguide. A numerical method was established to solve the waveguide equation and quantify the induced changes in the effective index of the waveguide as a result of reverse bias. The numerical calculation has established the guidelines for an optimum design of the modulator that operates in the Bragg regime. The measured diffraction efficiency of the single-grating Bragg modulator was as high as 90 percent at a driving voltage of 15 V. A device consisting of four such basic diffraction gratings was also fabricated and used to demonstrate the function of scalar addition. The highest bandwidth of the devices that have been measured exceeds 1 GHz. The planar waveguide Bragg modulators offer advantages including lower optical propagation loss, greater fabrication tolerance, and spatial separation between the diffracted and the undiffracted light beams. >


Three new species of black flies of the genus Schoenbaueria are described which differ morphologically from other species of this genus. The new species were found in drying up brooks that also differs them from the species of the genus Schoenbaueria which develop mainly in large rivers. Material was collected in the Komsomolsk and Furmanov regions of the Ivanovo district.


Electronic commerce which enables business transactions to be conducted electronically has demonstrated significant operational and strategic benefits. Developed countries have actively adopted e-commerce and have made it an integral part of business activities. Despite its ability to bridge economic and digital gap between developing and developed countries, developing countries are still slow in e-commerce adoption. Currently, there is still a lack of e-commerce readiness research in developing countries to fully assess the relevance of e-commerce in these unique environments. This study aims to shed light into the e-commerce readiness in China, by assessing technological, organizational and environmental contexts of the grocery industry. The uniqueness of China in various aspects including cultural, economic and political, poses different challenges and requires different strategies to encourage widespread adoption of e-commerce.


Commentators have suggested that action sports have provided space for more progressive gendered power relations than many more traditional, institutionalized sex-segregated sports. However, as action sports become institutionalized via Olympic inclusion, what are the potential opportunities and challenges for girls and women as both athletes and industry leaders? Drawing on interviews with male and female leaders in surfing and skateboarding industries, media and cultures, and an analysis of niche media, we assess the opportunities for women as the sports prepare for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The two case studies reveal the different struggles and strategies of women in these two sporting cultures, as well as the roles played by men in supporting cultural change. This article contributes to the critical literature assessing the International Olympic Committee's (IOC) claims to provide opportunities for diverse groups of women and, more widely, the challenges in establishing effective policies to "empower" girls and women in and through sport.


The relation between Stockholm's Moderna Museet and regional developments, with a focus on women artists, was the interest of a recent research project. The aim of the research group Representation and Regionalism was to shed light on the situation in Sweden and to compare Moderna Museet with regional museums with substantial collections of 20 century art: Goteborgs konstmuseum, Malmo konstmuseum, and Norrkopings konstmuseum. Representative of government authority, Moderna Museet is responsible for 20 century and contemporary art made nationally and internationally. But a closer look at how the collection had largely been acquired – namely at Stockholm art galleries – does not represent art production nationwide but rather one that is centered in the capital. This might provoke further probing into the question of the museum's display of national art, as well as what art history it re-presents – adhering to the center and neglecting the periphery. Furthermore, we focused on the absence of women artists in the collections. Our intention has been to contribute to diverse aspects of gender studies and to facilitate another take at representation and regionalism. Nevertheless, we have been able to pinpoint many problems that concern all artists (i.e. the fact that most artists are represented through no more than a single work) – especially working in a country whose art scene is more or less dominated by one city. Questions regarding national identity are closely linked to how an image is constructed in the capital. The project Representation and Regionalism is the starting point for this article, it aims to highlight future possibilities that will help to understand the development of great historical narratives.


The increasing need for extrapolating information from one species to another has been highlighted by contemporary research in bioinformatics, genomics, proteomics, and animal models of human disease, as well as other fields. We propose an approach to correlating the anatomy of Homo sapiens with selected species, using the Foundational Model of Anatomy (FMA) as a framework, and graph matching as a method, for determining similarities and differences in the nodes and relationships (edges) defined by the attributed graph of the FMA. We illustrate our approach by comparing anatomical structures of mouse and human that present prototypical mapping problems.


This paper presents some considerations for the simulation of real protocol, SSCOP(Service Specific Connection Oriented Protocol), in the viewpoint of test sequence generation, not of implementation. For the automatic generation of test sequences, we need information for the state transitions of the system to be tested with as high coverage as possible. The information can be obtained during the simulation of the protocol. In the case, the final goal of such a simulation is to achieve 100 percent of coverage for all the possible transitions of the protocol. To obtain a good coverage during the simulation, we modified the SDL model of the protocol. By applying the test sequence generation algorithm for the state transition graph obtained after the simulation of the system, we have generated optimized test sequences for the SSCOP.


We examine characteristic properties of deterministic and stochastic diffusion in low-dimensional chaotic dynamical systems. As an example, we consider a periodic array of scatterers defined by a simple chaotic map on the line. Adding different types of time-dependent noise to this model we compute the diffusion coefficient from simulations. We find that there is a crossover from deterministic to stochastic diffusion under variation of the perturbation strength related to different asymptotic laws for the diffusion coefficient. Typical signatures of this scenario are suppression and enhancement of normal diffusion. Our results are explained by a simple theoretical approximation.


Learning-based 3D object reconstruction enables single- or few-shot estimation of 3D object models. For robotics, this holds the potential to allow model-based methods to rapidly adapt to novel objects and scenes. Existing 3D reconstruction techniques optimize for visual reconstruction fidelity, typically measured by chamfer distance or voxel IOU. We find that when applied to realistic, cluttered robotics environments, these systems produce reconstructions with low physical realism, resulting in poor task performance when used for model-based control. We propose ARM, an amodal 3D reconstruction system that introduces (1) a stability prior over object shapes, (2) a connectivity prior, and (3) a multi-channel input representation that allows for reasoning over relationships between groups of objects. By using these priors over the physical properties of objects, our system improves reconstruction quality not just by standard visual metrics, but also performance of model-based control on a variety of robotics manipulation tasks in challenging, cluttered environments. Code is available at this http URL.


In the 1970s Shiva Naipaul travelled to Africa, visiting Kenya, Tanzania and Zambia for several months. Through his experiences, the places he visited and his various encounters, he aimed to discover what 'liberation', 'revolution' and 'socialism' meant to the ordinary people. His journey of discovery is brilliantly documented in this intimate, comic and controversial portrayal of a continent on the brink of change.


Researchers investigated the effects of adding an oxytocin infusion to bolus oxytocin on blood loss during elective caesarean sections. A double blind placebo controlled randomised trial was performed. The intervention was bolus oxytocin (intravenous slow 5 IU oxytocin bolus over one minute) and infusion oxytocin (additional 40 IU oxytocin infusion in 500 mL of 0.9% saline solution over four hours). The control treatment was bolus oxytocin (5 IU oxytocin bolus over one minute) and placebo infusion (500 mL of 0.9% saline solution over four hours). The setting was five maternity hospitals in the Republic of Ireland. Participants were women aged over 18 years with a singleton pregnancy who were booked for elective caesarean section at term. In total, 2069 women were recruited and randomised to the intervention (bolus and infusion; n=1037) or control (bolus and placebo infusion; n=1032). Of those women allocated to the intervention, 1007 completed treatment, as did 994 of those allocated to control.1

The primary outcome measures included major obstetric haemorrhage (blood loss >1000 mL) and the need for an additional uterotonic agent. In the intervention group, 158 (15.7%) women experienced a major obstetric haemorrhage, whereas 849 did not. In the control group, 159 (16.0%) women experienced a major obstetric haemorrhage, whereas 835 did not. The unadjusted odds ratio for the occurrence of a major obstetric haemorrhage for the intervention compared with the control was 0.98 (95% confidence interval 0.77 to 1.24; P=0.85). When adjusted for hospital and previous caesarean section, the odds ratio was 0.98 (0.77 to 1.25; P=0.86). The need for an additional uterotonic agent was significantly lower in the intervention group than …


The removal of submicron particles from gaseous streams is becoming an increasingly important operation, both in industrial (nanotechnology) as well as in occupational (inhalation of particula te matter) applications. Among the equipments commonly employed for the removal of particula tes of the gaseous stream, the electrostatic precipitator, ESP, is the one capable of removing particles of such size with high efficiency. Furthermore, it has other advantages as the low pressure drop and the flexibility of working at higher temperatures. Therefore, the objective of this research was to evaluate the influence of operational and design parameters in the efficiency of particle removal of a plate-wire ESP operating in the removal of submicron particles. The precipitator was built in acrylic, with copper plates as collecting electrodes and stainless steel wires as discharge electrodes. The study was divided in two stages: the first studied the collection of PM2.5 (high risk particle matter), using alumina, with median diameter of 0.6 μm and maximum diameter of 2.5 μm as test powder, while the stage 2 focused the nanometric range, utilizing particles of sodium chloride, with diameters between 8 and 100 nm. In stage 1, the project parameters analyzed were duct length (L), diameter of the discharge electrodes (2r) and spacing between them (2c); the operational variables were the electric field (E) and the air velocity (v). Each variable was evaluated in two levels, whose values were Lne = 15 and 30 cm; 2r = 0.045 and 0.025 cm; 2c = 4 and 2 cm; E = 5 and 8 kV/cm and, finally, v = 0.5 and 1.0 m/s. The process performance was evaluated through the analysis of the global efficiency of removal of the particula te matter, obtained through isokinetic sampling. In stage 2, the project parameter analyzed were the duct length (Lne), the ratio s/2c and the distance between the collection plates (2s) and the operational variables were the air velocity (v) and current density (j). Each operation variable was evaluated in three levels, whose values were v = 0.125, 0.25 and 0.50 m/s and j = 1.8, 2.8 and 3.8 mA/m. The project parameters were studied in two levels, Lne = 15 and 30 cm and 2s = 0.04 and 0.06 m. The process performance was evaluated through the analysis of the removal efficiency of the particulates obtained by particle counting, with the use of the Condensation Particle Counter 3007, from TSI. It was observed that the precipitator possesses high collection efficiency, even in the nanometric size range, were efficiencies larger than 99% were obtained, depending on the used configuration. As expected, the increase in air velocity, as well as the decrease of the collecting plate length and of the generated current caused a decrease in the efficiency. Conversely, larger spacing between plates resulted in an increment in the efficiency, phenomenon also observed by some other researchers for larger particles. The ratio s/2c did not show a clear tendency in particle removal. When compared to models from the literature, the one that offered the better adjustment to the experimental data was the classic Deutsch model when used with a drag coefficient given by a modified version of the Li and Wang (2003a e b) equation.


Because of the accessibility of smartphones, students tend to spend more and more time using applications on these devices. This can be exploited in the development of new teaching applications, turning learning into something more attractive, and increasing the knowledge assimilation capacity. An important indicator in the evaluation of serious games is the experience gathered by the players in different stages of interaction between them and the context of the game. The main aim of the paper is to present a mobile application that implements the behaviour of industrial processes, in our case a thermo-electric power plant. This graphical application is developed as a game, optimized for Android devices. The player can execute specific commands for controlling the plant: turning on or off equipment like coal mills, water pumps, combustion air vents, he can change the functioning regime, and he can configure the parameters for automatic control. He must supervise the correct operation of the plant and interfere in case of emergency situations. The application simulates the real time for a predefined period and keeps the student active and connected to the process during this entire time. The level of optimisation achieved at the end of this period can even be used as a score for evaluation of his practical abilities. This application will help students understand the physical and chemical factors involved in the plant's functioning and how their decisions can affect the performance. They will learn not only how to tune control loops, but also how their decisions can affect the plant stability, rejection of perturbations, and optimal operation. As the game fundaments effects resulting from real time decisions, an important aspect to be considered is the correct implementation and fast rendering of the computations needed for the real physical processes simulation. The developed system can be improved by adding new functionalities, like simulations of major system failures caused by hazardous situations and can be adapted for real operators training. The proposed method adapted from game-based teaching provides important benefits in this field from traditional methods.


Heat Exchanger Networks (HEN) are able to reduce the operating costs in an industrial plant. Cost-optimal HEN generally leads also to a substantial reduction in pollutant gases emissions. However, HEN synthesis approaches are based generally on the optimization of total annual costs (TAC) only. In that manner, this work aims to address environmental impacts (EI) more directly. The EI were converted into an objective function by using a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) methodology. With two objective functions (EI and TAC), a multi-objective optimization (MOO) may be performed. A meta-heuristic approach is adapted to handle MOO in the formulation proposed. As expected, a conflictive behaviour was noticed. The approach proposed was able to yield Pareto fronts efficiently, providing good intermediate solutions that could be used by decision-makers in search of a trade-off HEN configuration which is able to present low costs and is also environmentally friendly. The results reported in the case study also demonstrate the method reliability with intermediate solutions that are much more environmentally friendly than the cost optimal configurations, presenting costs only marginally higher.


After the initial use of anti-folates for treatment of malignancies, folate metabolism has emerged as a rational diagnostic and therapeutic target in gastrointestinal cancer. The one-carbon metabolic pathway, which comprises three critical reactions (i.e., folate and methionine cycles), underlies this effect in conjunction with the trans-sulfuration pathway. Understanding of the one-carbon metabolism pathway has served to unravel the link between the causes and effects of cancer phenotypes leading to several seminal discoveries such as that of diadenosine tri-phosphate hydrolase, microRNAs, 5-FU and, more recently, trifluridine. In the folate cycle, glycine and serine fuel the mitochondrial enzymes SHMT2, MTHFD2 and ALDH1L2, which play critical roles in the cancer survival and proliferation presumably through purine production. In the methionine cycle, S-adenocyl methionine serves hydrocarbons and polyamines that are critical for the epigenetic controls. The trans-sulfuration pathway is a critical component in the synthesis of glutathione, which is involved in the production of reactive oxygen species in cancer stem cells. Therefore, characterization of one-carbon metabolism is indispensable to the development of precision medicine in the context of cancer diagnostics and therapeutics. In the present study, we review the historical issues associated with one-carbon metabolism and highlight the recent advances in cancer research.


This thesis is in the field of quantum information science, which is an area that reconceptualizes quantum physics in terms of information.  Central to this area is the quantum effect of entanglement in space.  It is an interdependence among two or more spatially separated quantum systems that would be impossible to replicate by classical systems.  Alternatively, an entanglement in space can also be viewed as a resource in quantum information in that it allows the ability to perform information tasks that would be impossible or very difficult to do with only classical information.  Two such astonishing applications are quantum communications which can be harnessed for teleportation, and quantum computers which can drastically outperform the best classical supercomputers.   In this thesis our focus is on the theoretical aspect of the field, and we provide one of the first expositions on an analogous quantum effect known as entanglement in time.  It can be viewed as an interdependence of quantum systems across time, which is stronger than could ever exist between classical systems.  We explore this temporal effect within the study of quantum information and its foundations as well as through relativistic quantum information.  An original contribution of this thesis is the design of one of the first quantum information applications of entanglement in time, namely a quantum blockchain.  We describe how the entanglement in time provides the quantum advantage over a classical blockchain.  Furthermore, the information encoding procedure of this quantum blockchain can be interpreted as non-classically influencing the past, and hence the system can be viewed as a `quantum time machine.'


Precipitation polymerization of diphenyl ether and isophthaloyl chloride catalyzed by AlCl3 via Friedel-Crafts acylation was examined in various solvents to clarify the polymerization behavior. Polymerizations were carried out in three categorized solvents based on the solubility to both catalyst and polymer, which were cyclohexane (CH), 1,2-dichloroethane (DCE) and DCE containing 2 wt% nitrobenzene (2%-NB). In DCE which was widely used, the oligomers were precipitated as a form of the complex with AlCl3 at the early stage of polymerization. The precipitates of the oligomers were swollen by the solvent, in which any short-range regular structure did not exist. The further polymerization proceeded even in the precipitates with eliminating by-produced HCl, and high molecular weight poly(ether-ketone)s (PEK) were finally formed. Nevertheless the reaction in 2%-NB yielded the well-swollen precipitates, the high molecular weight PEK was not synthesized in the precipitates because the reaction was terminated by not only the inefficient elimination of HCl due to the higher solubility of HCl but also the deactivation of catalyst by coordination of NB to AlCl3. Although the precipitation occurred more readily in CH due to the lower solubility of oligomers, the polymer was not synthesized in the precipitates. The resulting precipitates comprised of the dimers were not swollen in this case, and thereby it was very difficult to react between dimers and eliminate HCl from the precipitates. The solvents having high miscibility to catalyst and the polymers, low solubility of HCl gas, and no basicity are necessary for making high molecular weight polymers via the precipitation polymerization.


Telepresence robots could help homebound students to be physically embodied and socially connected in the classroom. However, most telepresence robots do not provide their operators with information about whether their speaking volume is appropriate in the remote context. We are investigating how operators could benefit from live feedback about speaking volume appropriateness as part of our ongoing research on using remote presence robots to improve education and social connectedness for students experiencing extended absences from school. This preliminary report describes (1) the development of a model of speaking volume appropriateness to provide this feedback, (2) implementation of a feedback element in the operator's user interface, and (3) plans for long-term deployment to assess impacts on the social and educational experience of homebound high school students.


A whole grain consists of the intact, ground, cracked, or flaked caryopsis, whose principal anatomical components—the starchy endosperm, germ, and bran—are present in the same relative proportions as they exist in the intact caryopsis. Whole grain food products can be intact, consisting of the original composition of bran, germ, and endosperm, throughout the entire lifetime of the product, or reconstituted, in which one or more of the original components of a whole grain is recombined to the relative proportion naturally occurring in the grain kernel. Increased consumption of whole grains has been associated with reduced risk of major chronic diseases including cardiovascular disease, type II diabetes, and some cancers. Whole grain foods offer a wide range of phytochemicals with health benefits that are only recently becoming recognized. The unique phytochemicals in whole grains are proposed to be responsible for the health benefits of whole grain consumption. In this paper, whole grain phytochemicals and the health benefits associated with their consumption are reviewed.


The outline of Palmerston's extraordinary career is well-known: his near forty years in Cabinet office, his lead in bringing the Crimean War to an end, his attempt to bluff Bismarck over Schleswig-Holstein. Also known is his swashbuckling, womanising reputation. But not explored until now are the powerful intellect, perception and subtle diplomacy that lay behind Palmerston's high-handed, blustering style, and which made him one of the most internationally influential statesman in British history. James Chambers pays particular attention to the politician's early years, showing how his 'scandalous' private life and his long, frustrating apprenticeship at the War Office played their parts in turning the diffident 'Lord Cupid' into the notoriously over-confident 'Lord Pumicestone'. Instinctive and headstrong, he horrified his Cabinet colleagues with his brinkmanship. The apparent champion of the underdog and a pioneer in the exploitation of public opinion, 'the people's darling' became England's most popular and powerful politician since the elder Pitt. Even at the end of his career, Palmerston retained the nonchalance that had epitomised the bucks and dandies of his Regency youth.His levity irritated the redoubtable Queen Victoria, but a more astute observer, Florence Nightingale, saw through it. 'He was,' she said, 'so much more in earnest than he appeared.'


SUMMARY: Amino acid utilization by Euglena gracilis strains z and SM-ZK (a streptomycin-bleached mutant) was studied in the presence or absence of ethanol as a carbon source. Among 21 amino acids examined, glutamate was the most effective nutrient for both strains under all conditions. Methionine, cysteine, threonine, leucine and phenylalanine inhibited the growth of E. gracilis on glutamate as the carbon and nitrogen source, but neither glutamate transport nor respiration was inhibited by these amino acids. The growth inhibition by methionine, threonine and phenylalanine were specifically relieved by glycine, valine and tryptophan, respectively.


Background: Medical adhesive bandages are extensively used in both inpatient and outpatient medicine. However, few reports describing proven allergic contact dermatitis (ACD) from medical adhesive bandages exist in the literature. These reports do not adequately correspond to the frequency that patients report having an "allergy" to medical adhesive bandages. Objective: To determine if there is a chemical present in medical adhesive bandages that causes ACD in people who identify themselves as having an "allergy" to medical adhesive bandages. Methods: Twenty‐six patients were enrolled and underwent patch testing with our standard trays (104 chemicals) and a customized adhesive tray (54 chemicals and 10 tapes and bandages in their whole form). Results: We were able to identify an allergen in four patients that was related to their presumed adhesive allergy (Mastisol, neomycin/bacitracin [two different patients], and cortisone‐10 cream, respectively). However, there were no positive allergic reactions to the tapes or bandages or any relevant allergic reactions to our customized adhesive tray. Eight (73%) of the 11 patients who had the bandage or tape left on for 7 days had an irritant reaction. Conclusion: We feel that the perceived reactions are not secondary to ACD but instead are due to an irritant contact dermatitis.


Although, English language has spread across Sindh to a great extent over the years due to plethora of reasons which mainly include the status of English as the official language of the province of Sindh; secondly it is a medium of instruction at all levels in the educational institutions and universities in Sindh. Due to the hegemony of English, the trend of imparting education from primary to post doctoral studies has deepened its roots in Sindh like that of entire Pakistan. Yet the speaking anxiety of undergraduate students studying in various departments at this university remains intact rather than diminishing. English speaking and learning anxiety as an unambiguous feature of the language acquisition have employed an immense area of research since last couple of decades. This study is aimed at exploring the height, level and degree of anxiety in speaking & learning English amongst the undergraduates of various departments of the University of Sindh. This research has been carried out with the help of a quantitative research design after bringing a survey methodology in use so as to collect data. The sample of the research consisted of 200 participants belonging to different departments of the University of Sindh, Jamshoro. The students for the purpose were chosen indiscriminately. English as foreign verbal communication lecture hall nervousness scale urbanized by Horwitz, Horwitz, and Cope (1986) has been utilized en route for gathering information for this research. Results and findings of the research have underlined more than a few implications in this regard. Moreover the remedy for removing the students' anxiety has also been insinuated and suggested.


A total of 17 Leptospira clinical strains isolated from humans in Croatia were serologically and genetically analysed. For serovar identification, the microscopic agglutination test (MAT) and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) were used. To identify isolates on genomic species level, PCR-based restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) and real-time PCR were performed. MAT revealed the following serogroup affinities: Grippotyphosa (seven isolates), Icterohaemorrhagiae (eight isolates) and Javanica (two isolates). RFLP of PCR products from a 331-bp-long fragment of rrs (16S rRNA gene) digested with endonucleases MnlI and DdeI and real-time PCR revealed three Leptospira genomic species. Grippotyphosa isolates belonged to Leptospira kirschneri, Icterohaemorrhagiae isolates to Leptospira interrogans and Javanica isolates to Leptospira borgpetersenii. Genomic DNA from 17 leptospiral isolates was digested with NotI and SgrAI restriction enzymes and analysed by PFGE. Results showed that seven isolates have the same binding pattern to serovar Grippotyphosa, eight isolates to serovar Icterohaemorrhagiae and two isolates to serovar Poi. Results demonstrate the diversity of leptospires circulating in Croatia. We point out the usefulness of a combination of PFGE, RFLP and real-time PCR as appropriate molecular methods in molecular analysis of leptospires.


Problem statement: The present study reviewed the efficacy of body-weight support treadmill training in patients with incomplete spinal cord injury. Approach: We developed a computer-supported search strategy for finding studies in the main data bases: Pubmed/Medline, ISI Web of Knowledge and Scielo. We also developed a manual search withing all electronically references found. The search terms gait, locomotor training, spinal cord injury, SCI, body-weight support treadmill training were used. Only papers published in English and conducted from 1991 up to 2012 were preferentially reviewed. The inclusion criteria were: (a) studies using body-weight support treadmill training in patients with iSCI; (b) studies with iSCI patients classified as ASIA C or D. The exclusion criteria were: (a) studies comparing the BWSTT with manual and robotic techniques and associated BWSTT with the use of drugs. Results: After a careful electronic search in the data bases, forty seven articles were found. Studies with patients of ASIA A and/or B26 classification, studies comparing the BWSTT with manual and robotic techniques and studies associating BWSTT with the use of drugs were excluded of the study. Thus, only 21 articles were selected. Conclusion: iSCI is a severe neurological condition that causes serious compromises, such as gait disability. The wide use of BWSTT seems to be an effective, safe and reliable method for functional rehabilitation of gait. Even though, there is no sufficient scientific evidence to confirm that the BWSTT is superior to the other rehabilitation techniques.


A localized high hydraulic conductivity zone with high water pressure is denoted as a hazardous zone. This study focuses on the 3D coupled mechanical and hydraulic analysis of the effect of a front hazardous zone on shield tunnelling. The tunnelling process is modelled by a step-by-step excavation. And a series of three-dimensional coupled mechanical and hydraulic analysis are performed to estimate the distribution of the TSR of the ground ahead of the tunnel face. The result show that the tunnelling directly influences on the distribution of the pore water pressure and the TSR. The maximum influence range of the hazardous zone on the face stability is within 4 times the R value. And the high water pressure can induce a failure of the ground at the tunnel face by itself in conjunction with a poor ground condition.


The prevalence and importance of algorithmic two-sided marketplaces has drawn attention to the issue of fairness in such settings. Algorithmic decisions are used in assigning students to schools, users to advertisers, and applicants to job interviews. These decisions should heed the preferences of individuals, and simultaneously be fair with respect to their merits (synonymous with fit, future performance, or need). Merits conditioned on observable features are always \emph{uncertain}, a fact that is exacerbated by the widespread use of machine learning algorithms to infer merit from the observables. As our key contribution, we carefully axiomatize a notion of individual fairness in the two-sided marketplace setting which respects the uncertainty in the merits; indeed, it simultaneously recognizes uncertainty as the primary potential cause of unfairness and an approach to address it. We design a linear programming framework to find fair utility-maximizing distributions over allocations, and we show that the linear program is robust to perturbations in the estimated parameters of the uncertain merit distributions, a key property in combining the approach with machine learning techniques.


The current study presents an analysis of main lipid fractions and expression of apolipoprotein A-IV (apoA-IV) of the blood plasma of calves during the first week of life, before and after administration of a milk replacer with additional quantity of lactose. The experiment was performed on 7 male Polish-Friesian calves, var. Black-and-White. Blood samples were collected before the morning feeding from the 6th to 8th day of life. In the evening on the 6th day of the experiment and in the morning on the 7th day of the experiment, monohydrate lactose in an amount of 2 g per 1 kg of body weight was added to the milk replacer. In all tested calves, after the administration of the additional quantity of lactose, there was a significant increase observed in expression of apoA-IV in the blood plasma. At the same time, no significant differences in the concentrations of triglycerides, total cholesterol, and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol were recorded, both before and after the administration of an additional dose of lactose. A gradual low increase observed in the plasma high-density lipoprotein cholesterol of calves allows us to conclude that the increase of this lipid fraction after the supply of an additional lactose is associated with elevated expression of plasma apoA-IV.


Abstract Serpentinized ultramafic rocks recovered from beneath the southern Iberia Abyssal Plain (Ocean Drilling Programme Leg 173) provide the first record of fractal carbonate replacement patterns in a serpentinite. The patterns are expressed as microscopic branching aggregates (clusters) of aragonite disseminated throughout the serpentinites. Aragonite growth was the final mineralization event. The aragonite diminishes rapidly in quantity from an essential to a trace component of the serpentinite over a distance of ~40 m from a normal fault. Decreasing abundance of aragonite away from the normal fault links the growth of the carbonate to the multistage hydrothermal mineralization associated with the fault. Aragonite clusters are concentrated in picrolite, where they are interwoven with colloid-sized chrysotile, and show fractal growth habits. Areas adjacent to the clusters are sites of Mg enrichment of the serpentine medium relative to aragonite-free picrolite. It is interpreted that the aragonite clusters result from incursions of reactive seawater solutions through fine-scale pore structures in and around the fault in response to pressure gradients emanating from active tectonism. Cluster growth is interpreted to be a percolation phenomenon and provides a novel source of information on the nature of fine-scale reactive fluid flow, pore-space connectivity, and carbonate replacement processes in serpentinites.


The confocal microscope can image a specimen in its natural environment forming a 3D image of the whole structure by scanning it and collecting light through a small aperture (pinhole), allowing in vivo and in vitro observations. So far, the confocal fluorescence microscope (CFM) is considered a true volume imager because of the role of the pinhole that rejects information coming from out‐of‐focus planes. Unfortunately, intrinsic imaging properties of the optical scheme presently employed yield a corrupted image that can hamper quantitative analysis of successive image planes. By a post‐image collection restoration, it is possible to obtain an estimate, with respect to a given optimization criterium, of the true object, utilizing the impulse response of system or Point Spread Function (PSF). The PSF can be measured or predicted so as to have a mathematical and physical model of the image‐formation process. Further modelling and recording noise as an additive Gaussian process has used the regularized Iterative Constrained Tykhonov Miller (ICTM) restoration algorithm for solving the inverse problem. This algorithm finds the best estimate iteratively searching among the possible positive solutions; in the Fourier domain, such an approach is relatively fast and elegant. In order to compare the effective improvement in the quantitative image information analysis, we measured the volume of reference objects before and after image restoration, using the isotropic Fakir method. Microsc. Res. Tech. 64:151–155, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Writing Violence As a critical medical anthropologist, my terrain if the "body," which, like the vexed designation "coloured,"(1) requires a standing set of quotation marks to indicate the body's contested status as both bio-existentially "given" (the source of all certitude, as Wittgenstein [1969] saw it) and just as surely "made up" (and the source of all doubt). My specific set of concerns, derived from an early and indelible reading of Foucault, is the "everyday violence," the little routines and enactments of violence practiced normatively on vulnerable bodies in families, schools, hospitals, medical clinics, in various administrative and bureaucratic settings (from mayor's office and public registry office to the public morgue and the graveyard) -- all of which, in Franco Basaglia's (1986) sense of the term, are "institutions of violence." While studying the madness of everyday life in the mid-1970s in a small, quiet (but nonetheless psychologically "violent") peasant community in western Ireland, I was largely concerned with interior spaces, with the small, dark psychodramas of scapegoating and labeling within traditional farm households that seemed to be driving so many young bachelors to drink and to bouts of psychotic depression and schizophrenia (see Scheper-Hughes, 1979; 1982). I paid scant attention to the activities of little Matty Dowd, from whom we rented our cottage in the remote mountain hamlet of Ballynalacken, and who used our attic (with our silent consent) to store a small arsenal of guns, rifles, and explosives that he and a few of his Sinn Fein buddies were running to Northern Ireland. Consequently, I left unexamined the possible links between the political violence in Northern Ireland and the tortured family dramas in West Kerry that I carefully documented. Since then, I have studied other forms of what I call routine or "everyday" violence: the abuses of medicine and psychiatry when they are practiced in bad faith against the weak, the mad, and the hungry, as well as the social indifference to child death in Northeast Brazil that allows political leaders, priests, coffin makers, and shantytown mothers to rather casually dispatch a multitude of hungry "angel-babies" to the afterlife (Scheper-Hughes, 1992). Yet even in Brazil, I did not begin to study the structure and meaning of political violence itself until (beginning in the late 1980s) the spouses and half-grown children of my comrades,(2) friends, and neighbors in the shantytown of Alto do Cruzeiro began to "disappear," their mutilated bodies turning up later, the handiwork of police-infiltrated local death squads (see Scheper-Hughes, 1992: Chapter 6; 1994b). Until then, I had believed that a running analysis of the political violence occurring within the context of military dictatorships, police states, or in times of transition during and after civil wars and wars of liberation was best handled by political journalists. For one, anthropologists were too slow, too hesitant, too reflective, and our knowledge was too local, too embedded, while political events were altogether too fast, too volatile, too unstable, so that by the time anthropologists had something to say, it was usually irrelevant or obsolete. Since the Brazilian newspapers insisted on running stories about the "dangerousness" and "violence" of shantytown dwellers (especially poor young Black men and boys), a perceived threat that made the work of the death squads seem to be a necessary defense against the anarchy of the favela, I saw that anthrological interventions were necessary to correct the manipulative (even exploitative) half-truths of the media. Despite our relentless self-critique of anthropology, the greater danger resided in leaving the analysis of violence to the journalists. With shades of Levi-Strauss' (1963) comment on Quasalid, the Native American shaman, our anthropological truths might be false (or at best partial), but they were certainly less false than those of the media. …


Abstract Evidence suggests that problem gambling is an unstable state where gamblers move into and out of risk over time. This article looks at longitudinal changes in risky gambling and the factors associated with an increased risk (measured by the Problem Gambling Severity Index [PGSI]) in the current New Zealand context, which has experienced a doubling of the electronic gaming machine (EGM) market over the last two decades. Respondents from a nationally representative baseline sample (n = 2672) were recontacted two years later to assess changes in gambling behaviours. Among the 901 respondents reached at follow-up, average gambling risk increased over time, and the prevalence of those who had at least some level of gambling risk (i.e. low-risk or greater) more than doubled (from 4.7% to 12.4%). The majority (80.2%) of those who were at risk at follow-up had not been at risk at baseline. Multivariate linear regression analyses show that the predictors of low to moderate increased risk include Pacific ethnicity; high neighbourhood deprivation status; baseline frequent, continuous gambler type; baseline PGSI status; and playing EGMs. These findings highlight the need to develop theories of gambling addiction trajectories and to identify the earliest point along the trajectory where public health interventions should occur.


Between 1889 and 1939 Britain created security for itself through alliances, rearmament, or appeasement (either alone or in some combination). The existing literature emphasizes the role of geopolitics, domestic characteristics, and individual idiosyncrasies to explain Britain's choices. I argue that within Britain, two broad and logrolled coalitions (outward-looking internationalist bloc and inward-oriented nationalist faction) battled to advance their faction's preferred security strategy and to capture the associated distributive benefits. Supporters and opponents understood that how Britain secured itself would create internal winners and losers. Supporters and opponents also recognized that any changes in the security strategy would have domestic redistributional consequences. I apply this model to Britain and use a longitudinal controlled comparison over three periods: 1889—1914, 1914—1919, and 1919—1939.


The date palm tree (Phoenix dactylifera) is one of the oldest cultivated plants ever known; it is considered as the life tree for Arabs. However, no adequate information about the bioactivity of the leaves. In this study, the methanol extract of leaves demonstrated the presence of some compounds with potential biomedical properties for human, which were cardiac steroids, flavonoids, phenols/polyphenols, phytosterols, quinines, saponins, tannins and resin. The results of the antimicrobial test indicate that the methanol leaf extracts of the three date palm cultivars contained potential antibacterial agents, particularly against Gram-positive bacteria and no antifungal effect detected against Candida albicans. The most susceptible bacteria were Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Bacillus cereus and Enterococcus faecalis, respectively.The antioxidant activities of extracts of different leaf cultivars obtained with methanol were also investigated, using DPPH (2, 2-diphenyl-2-picrymhydrasyl hydrate)radical-scavenging activity assay, all extracts exhibited considerable antioxidant potential. The current investigation suggests that leaves of date palm can be used as a promising source for natural antibacterial and antioxidant drugs.


Grids structures which form the main body of the score immediately project unique notational environments within which performers may operate. The paper aims to understand how and why grid structures are used in contemporary notational practice, to discover differences in the approach to their employment, and how they can influence composer's decision making.

Some of the first instances of grid structures in western experimental music scores are seen in Morton Feldman's graph pieces from the Projection and Intersection series (1951-3). Feldman's notions of framing material (in his own words, he is not "creating music, it's already there") underpin his use of grids, and this provides an analytical approach for the study of scores by more recent composers. Examples from scores by Michael Pisaro, Phill Niblock, John Lely, and the author's own recent music are reviewed for their individual use of grid structures. In particular, the manner in which grid structures can be used to encompass many parameters, or to focus on one specific parametric variation, is considered.

From this, the paper explores what can be conveyed by the use of a grid in the main body of the score. By including what the composers themselves say about their own use of grids, and related comments from performers, the paper establishes a scholarly insight into the interpretive decisions of musicians prompted by the use of grid structures.

To understand further the communicative aspects of grid structures and their use in creative formats, the nature of grids in the visual arts will be discussed. The work of artists such as Agnes Martin, Francois Morollet, James Hugonin and Hanne Darboven will be presented to identify connections with the use of grids in music notation, and how these are interpreted by the observer. The viewpoints of graphic designers such as Mark Boulton are also included to consider the wide-ranging capabilities of grid structures, providing avenues for further creativity in all areas of musical activity.


We describe a simple and fast approach to FPGA programming that allows to efficiently exploit the numeric processing capabilities of recent FPGA chips. It basically consists in programming on top of a library of complex components for FPGA based scalable processor networks and providing a high-level programming interface to it. The FPGA application is presented as a network of processes which is automatically transformed into a corresponding network of simple processor components by a compiler. The compiler then generates individual program code for each of the simple processors. The coarse-grained processor network is eventually compiled into an FPGA configuration bitstream using standard FPGA tools at close-to-interactive speeds. Our approach has the additional benefit of being fully compatible with processor programming and extendible to mixed multi-component FPGA and processor systems. An experimental implementation of the process mapping scheme uses the p-Nets language that provides convenient structures for the presentation of the application processes and supports composite targets including processors linked to the FPGA chips. The evaluation of our concept on some FPGA chips includes an estimate of their floating point processing performances.


Foxtail millet (Setaria italica (L.) P. Beauv.) is an ideal crop for changing climate and food habits of peoples due to its short duration, high photosynthetic efficiency, nutritional richness and fair resistance to pest and diseases. However, foxtail millet yields are low mainly due to the lack of effort for its improvement and the lack of proper utilization of existing genetic variability. To enhance the use of diverse germplasm in breeding programmes, a core collection in foxtail millet consisting of 155 accessions was established. Core collection accessions were fingerprinted using 84 markers (81 simple sequence repeats (SSRs) and three Expressed Sequence Tag (EST)-SSRs). Our results showed the presence of greater molecular diversity in the foxtail millet core collection. The 84 markers detected a total of 1356 alleles with an average of 16.14 alleles (4–35) per locus. Of these, 368 were rare alleles, 906 common alleles and 82 the most frequent alleles. Sixty-one unique alleles that were specific to a particular accession and useful for germplasm identification were also detected. In this study, the genetic diversity of foxtail millet was fairly correlated well with racial classification, and the race Indica showed a greater genetic distance from the races Maxima and Moharia. The pairwise estimate of dissimilarity was >0.50 except in 123 out of 11,935 pairs which indicated a greater genetic variability. Two hundred and fifty pairs of genetically most diverse accessions were identified. This large molecular variation observed in the core collection could be utilized effectively by breeders or researchers for the selection of diverse parents for breeding cultivars and the development of mapping populations.


STEWART COLLINSON
SCHOOL OF ART & DESIGN, LINCOLN UNIVERSITY, U.K.

ABSTRACT SUBMITTED FOR
*JOHN CAGE: *
*MAN-WORK-PARADOX*
Conference
Krakow, 16-18 October 2012

To Er is Human.
To Hmmm? is Divine Sublime

Through reference to Seth Kim-Cohen's discussion of John Cage's Anechoic Epiphany, by way of Douglas Kahn and Jean-Francois Lyotard's rethinking of the sublime, I wish to return to and circle the discursive relationship occurring between Cage and Joyce, reading through Cage's reading through Joyce, through my reading of Colin McCabe and David Toop. Sound through text.

Joyce's writing on/of sound is crucial, I think, to Cage's thinking on/of sound. In many ways it prefigures or pre-echoes what Kahn identifies as a "third internal sound", the "Hmmm..?" 1, in Cage's epiphany. In his book, "James Joyce and the Revolution of the Word", discussing Ulysses, Colin McCabe describes the moment in "The Sirens" when the drinkers in the Ormond Bar listen to the shell brought back from Rostrevor Beach by Miss Kennedy.

"Those in the bar who listen to the shell and who are caught up in the experience of speech, locate the sound as present in the shell and originating in the sea. For us, however, guided by our writer Bloom,
the sound is produced by the process of listening.."2

McCabe elaborates this moment as a metaphor of discourse, as the source and site of the production of meaning. To elaborate further for the current context, it is in the convergence and interaction of the two spirals of the shell and the cochlea that a cohe(a)rence occurs, but it is the writer, Bloom, at a distance, who identifies it's nature,

"The sea they think they hear. Singing. A roar. The blood is it. Souse in the ear sometimes. Well, it's a sea. Corpuscle Islands."3

Through the mediumship of his writing, David Toop raises the spectral quality of listening present in literature and painting where there can only be silence. Further exploring the interaction of the ear, (imagined) sound and thought, he articulates this space between and its potential for the uncanny and the sublime.

The presentation seeks to explore the interaction between sound, it's attenuation or absence, the ear and the perceiving mind. It seeks to consider that Sound – Art, as it expands, is a new universe created by the silent big bang of "that moment in the anechoic room", and that the potential for it's creation lay in the silent words in the writings of James Joyce.

©Stewart Collinson October 2012

1. KAHN D. (1999) Noise Water Meat (a history of sound in the arts) Cambridge Mass. MIT, quoted in
 KIM-COHEN S. (2009) In the Blink of an Ear (toward a non-cochlear sonic art) London Continuum
2. McCABE C. (1983) James Joyce & the Revolution of the Word London Macmillan
3. JOYCE J. (1936) Ulysses London Bodley Head


This paper summarizes the main problems and solutions of power quality in microgrids, distributed-energy-storage systems, and ac/dc hybrid microgrids. First, the power quality enhancement of grid-interactive microgrids is presented. Then, the cooperative control for enhance voltage harmonics and unbalances in microgrids is reviewed. Afterward, the use of static synchronous compensator (STATCOM) in grid-connected microgrids is introduced in order to improve voltage sags/swells and unbalances. Finally, the coordinated control of distributed storage systems and ac/dc hybrid microgrids is explained.


This article reports on the findings of a pilot study conducted in 2011 that investigated technology-pedagogy preparation for graduate students in PhD-granting rhetoric and composition programs in the United States. The study aimed to answer two questions: (1) Are rhetoric/composition doctoral programs preparing their students to teach with technology?; and (2) If so, how? Based on our findings, we believe it is futile to prescribe one approach to techno-pedagogy preparation and insist that techno-pedagogy needs to be both dispersed and integrated throughout English studies graduate curricula.


The main purpose of this paper is to examine the convergence of energy productivity for 35 Asian countries over the period 1993–2010. These 35 countries are divided into five different geographical regions, namely, South East Asia, South Asia, North East Asia, North Asia and West Asia. We first use the sigma-convergence approach to investigate the disparity of energy productivity over time and find weak evidence of sigma-convergence process in energy productivity for all sample countries and mixed evidence for sub-sample countries. We then estimate the beta-convergence model by using the spatial panel data approach and find an existence of beta-convergence process in energy productivity for the whole set of sample countries and North East Asia. Moreover, we find mixed evidence of beta-convergence process in energy productivity for South East Asia, North Asia and West Asia. In South Asia, we find strong evidence of divergence process in energy productivity over the study period.


Understanding the influence of mesoscale and submesoscale features on the structure of phytoplankton is a key aspect in the assessment of their influence on marine biogeochemical cycling and cross-shore exchanges of plankton in Eastern Boundary Current Systems (EBCS). In this study, the spatio-temporal evolution of phytoplankton size classes (PSC) in surface waters associated with mesoscale eddies in the EBCS off central-southern Chile was analyzed. Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) size-fractionated filtration (SFF) data from in situ samplings in coastal and coastal transition waters were used to tune a three-component (micro-, nano-, and pico-phytoplankton) model, which was then applied to total Chl-a satellite data (ESA OC-CCI product) in order to retrieve the Chl-a concentration of each PSC. A sea surface, height-based eddy-tracking algorithm was used to identify and track one cyclonic (sC) and three anticyclonic (ssAC1, ssAC2, sAC) mesoscale eddies between January 2014 and October 2015. Satellite estimates of PSC and in situ SFF Chl-a data were highly correlated (0.64 < r < 0.87), although uncertainty values for the microplankton fraction were moderate to high (50 to 100% depending on the metric used). The largest changes in size structure took place during the early life of eddies (~2 months), and no major differences in PSC between eddy center and periphery were found. The contribution of the microplankton fraction was ~50% (~30%) in sC and ssAC1 (ssAC2 and sAC) eddies when they were located close to the coast, while nanoplankton was dominant (~60–70%) and picoplankton almost constant (<20%) throughout the lifetime of eddies. These results suggest that the three-component model, which has been mostly applied in oceanic waters, is also applicable to highly productive coastal upwelling systems. Additionally, the PSC changes within mesoscale eddies obtained by this satellite approach are in agreement with results on phytoplankton size distribution in mesoscale and submesoscale features in this region, and are most likely triggered by variations in nutrient concentrations and/or ratios during the eddies' lifetimes.


While the direct impact of geographic endowments on prosperity is present in all countries, in former colonies, geography has also affected colonization policies and institutional outcomes. Thus, one can disentangle the partial effects of endowments and institutions on income by utilizing the interaction of geography and colonial experience. I first document that climate and disease did affect institutional development in the group of former colonies while this is not the case in the rest of the world. Second, I develop an empirical strategy that identifies the relation between institutions and income but that also accounts for the direct effect of endowments. I find that institutions are the main determinant of development and that endowments also have a sizeable direct impact on development. Third, I highlight the importance of disease environment for both colonization policies and income directly.


In this paper, we maximize the throughput of a cognitive radio (CR) network with respect to the frame length when quickest sensing is used. The amount of interference to the primary network, measured by the probability of collision with primary users (PUs), is constrained below a certain maximum. The corresponding problem when CRs use block sensing is also solved, assuming that collision with PUs causes a drop in throughput for the CR -- this important assumption was missing in prior work. We then compare the maximum achievable throughput with block and quickest sensing schemes and show that for a practical range of protection levels for the primary network, the quickest sensing approach results in significantly higher average throughput.


We consider the problem of constructing a penalty function associated with a given monotone function. We provide a construction that allows the monotone function to be discontinuous or bounded. We show that, although the penalty may be non-convex, it is weakly convex. We briefly discuss the implications for iterative solutions of linear inverse problems.


Issues involved in the design and implementation of the ground monitor segment Global Positioning System (GPS) are analyzed. In particular, two alternative ground monitoring schemes are presented and compared, one using classified GPS information, and the other not. For each scheme, processing functions that must be performed by the ground monitoring segment are identified, considering both the impact of selective availability on monitoring and the integrity decision concept recommended by the Global Integrity Channel (GIC) Working Group of the Radio Technical Commission for Aeronautics Special Committee-159. >


This paper describes the communication platform that was implemented for the European BETEUS (Broadband Exchange for Trans-European Usage) project. The BETEUS communication platform supports the fast implementation of networked multimedia applications with conference character and CSCW (Computer Supported Collaborative Work) features. The platform exhibits the notion of a site as one of its main abstractions. A site is a collection of workstations, media input and output devices and switching devices that are, in terms of control, tightly coupled. The available equipment within a site is logically mapped onto nodes, where the definition of a node is application dependent. Connection control in a site is centralized within a connection management entity. A site management entity residing on top of the connection management provides high level connection and session abstractions to applications. Applications can run within a site as well as span multiple sites, in which case application and connection control is distributed among the involved sites. So far, two applications have been implemented on top of the platform: a telemeeting application and a tele-tutoring application. The ease with which these applications could be implemented justifies the extra-effort that went into the development of a platform.


the main physics goal for Back-n white neutron facility at China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) is to measure nuclear data. The energy of neutrons is one of the most important parameters for measuring nuclear data. Method of time of flight (TOF) is used to obtain the energy of neutrons. The time when proton bunches hit the thick tungsten target is considered as the start point of TOF. T0 signal, generated from the CSNS accelerator, represents this start time. Besides, the T0 signal is also used as the gate control signal that triggers the readout electronics. Obviously, the timing precision of T0 directly affects the measurement precision of TOF and controls the running or readout electronics. In this paper, the T0 fan-out for Back-n white neutron facility at CSNS is proposed. The T0 signal travelling from the CSNS accelerator is fanned out to the two underground experiment stations respectively over long cables. To guarantee the timing precision, T0 signal is conditioned with good signal edge. Furthermore, techniques of signal pre-emphasizing and equalizing are used to improve signal quality after T0 being transmitted over long cables with about 100 m length. Experiments show that the T0 fan-out works well, the T0 signal transmitted over 100 m remains a good time resolution with a standard deviation of 25 ps. It absolutely meets the required accuracy of the measurement of TOF.


Cell phone call location data has been utilized for the study of travel patterns, but the underlying activities that originate the movement are still at a less explored stage. Resulted from routine and automated features of decision-making processes, human activity and travel behaviour exhibit a high level of spatial-temporal periodicities as well as a certain order of the activities. In this chapter, a method has been developed based on these regularities, which predicts activities being conducted at call locations. The method includes four steps: a set of comprehensive variables is defined; feature selection techniques are applied; a group of state-of-the-art machine learning algorithms and an ensemble of the above algorithms are employed; an additional enhancement algorithm is designed. Using data gathered from natural communication of 80 users over a period of 1 year, the proposed method is evaluated. Based on the ensemble of the models, prediction accuracy of 69.7% was achieved. Using the enhancement algorithm, the performance obtained 7.6% improvement. The experimental results demonstrate the potential to annotate call locations based on the integration between machine learning algorithms and the characteristics of underlying activity and travel behaviour, contributing towards the semantic interpretation and application of the massive data.


In order to achieve higher product quality for sculptured surface productions, an advanced strategy are proposed for machining planning, namely a tool-posture-control strategy. In the tool-posture-control strategy, machining chatter is reduced by controlling the machine rigidity along cutting feed direction. This proposed strategy, which improved product quality of sculptured surface when subjected to both the part geometry and the machine rigidity constrains, is described in this paper. A new machining-planning aid called local stiffness index is developed to help tool posture planning. This proposed strategy subjected to multi-constrains help a part programmer to choice the optimum tool posture. In order to illustrate the application of stiffness index map and the proposed strategy, the applications of the proposed strategy to real three-dimensional complex surface (e.g. a turbine blade) are presented in this paper.


ABSTRACT Preparing a media plan aimed at opinion leaders requires accurately identifying and describing the attributes of this target as well as measuring its affinities with different media. Our research findings on women's fashion, particularly magazines, reveal that a media plan targeted at opinion leaders can succeed, that these opinion leaders tend to be positive toward and discuss advertising media, and that they read more women's fashion magazines and have significantly more affinities with such media than nonopinion leaders.


Background & objectives: Obstructive sleep apnea is a preventable and prevalent major health hazard with serious health consequences including excessive daytime sleepiness, cognitive disturbances, depression, cardiovascular diseases and hypertension. Obstructive sleep apnea is a disorder affecting 2 to 4% of the adult population. The continuous positive airway pressur e (CPAP) is the most efficacious therapy and is often the first option for these patients. The pressure titration during laboratory polysomnography is required for treatment by CPAP. Methods: The patients with obstructive sleep apnea requiring continuous positive airway pressu re treatment were selected. CPAP titration was done according to American Academy of Sleep Medicine protocol. Comparison among continuous positive airway pressure with polysomnographic parameters was performed and analyzed with Pearson correlation coeffici ent. For analysis of qualitative parameters, we used chi -square and then checked with SPSS version 18 software. Results: From 125 patients with obstructive sleep apnea, there were 112 cases with inclusion criteria. Mean age of participants was 55.07± 12, male frequency was 59.2%, apnea hypopnea index was 43.62 and mean continuous positive airway pressure was 12.50. There was significant relationship among the pressure of continuous positive airway pressure with apnea hypopnea index (P=0.028), arousal index (P=0.011), body mass index (P=0.041) and O2 desaturation index (P=0.022), although age was not significantly related. Conclusion: In accordance to this data, we found out a prediction equation for optimal CPAP in


The results of recent research display an unequal distribution of early Bible translations in the Italian peninsula with a definite focus on Tuscany. Through the text analysis of a Florentine testimony, Corsiniano 1830 (kept at the Biblioteca Corsiniana in Rome), the present article wishes to sketch the aspects of a presumable Bible translation attitude and style of Italian scriptural texts in the Middle Ages. Diplomatic and interpretative transcriptions form the basis of the linguistic examination of the translation.


Schools, universities, and other educational entities are increasingly aware of the untapped potential of digital transformation, an essential process for increasing efficiency and collaboration, and reducing costs and errors in the management of at-scale training systems. In this context, the "Riconnessioni" project was promoted by the Compagnia di San Paolo in agreement with the Ministry of Education but planned, started and developed by the Foundation for the School. The digital transformation started with a defined strategy that leveraged opportunities presented by new technology while meeting the objectives of system stakeholders. Through several steps, that strategy was developed for education connecting everything to support tomorrow's digital world and creating strong strategic partnerships able to build an ecosystem connecting people, processes, and things into a powerful, secure, and smart communications network. This paper reports on the three-year Riconnessioni project, which is combining the energies of teachers, managers, administrative staff, students, among others, and experimenting with new learning models, taking advantage of opportunities that emerged from perceptions stemming from concerns and systemic issues. To date, more than 150 schools in Italy have been included in the project, together with 550 teachers selected to scale up the instructional process. Using a methodology called "cascade training", the 550 selected teachers were able to spread the knowledge to more than 2,600 colleagues. The monitoring and evaluation activity performed in Riconnessioni aims at processing information on implementation and results, following three lines. First, it regularly evaluates project activities from a reporting standpoint. Second, it verifies the plan consistency against implementation achievements. Third, it identifies changes produced and focuses on teachers' and students' skills to evaluate the effects of the project. The assessment framework is also discussed in this work, reporting on results regarding feedback, follow-up, and effects gathered from the field. The evaluation highlighted that labs were indeed able to improve teachers' competence and underlined the added value of cascade training which spread digital domain knowledge and awareness into the group of involved schools.


Introduction Over the last decade, the numbers of patients presenting with chronic liver disease has risen. During this period the approach to the treatment of variceal bleeding has undergone important changes both internationally (adoption of early TIPSS in high risk cases), and locally with the development of a 24 h endoscopy service (2006), movement to single site hospital with enlarged intensive care capacity (2009), adoption of the Danis™ stent (2009) and a shift to carvedilol as the primary agent for prophylaxis (2013). We reviewed all episodes of variceal bleeding in the last 8 years to describe patient outcomes. Methods All episodes of bleeding from oesophageal varices managed in the Liver Unit at Royal Derby Hospital from 2005 to mid 2013 were identified from clinical coding data – population served approx. 650,000. A retrospective review of the patient records identified the aetiology and severity of liver disease, morbidity, mortality, endoscopy findings and episodes of rebleeding. Results Each year between 17 and 31 patients presented with variceal bleeding. 5 day mortality fluctuated between 3–22% whereas 30 day mortality fell steadily from a peak in 2006 of 41% to 5% in 2012 (Figure 1). The reduction in mortality was in Child's B/C cirrhosis. Interestingly, the proportion of episodes in Child's A cirrhosis increased from 2009 onwards (7% of all bleeding episodes in 2009 to above 30% in 2013). 30 day mortality rates for Child's A did not improve but remained lower than for those with Child's B/C cirrhosis (mean 9.8% compared to 22.8% (2009–2013)). From 2007, there was a fall in frequency of rebleeding from 35% to below 10% in 2013. Only 3 high risk patients underwent an early TIPSS procedure, all after 2012. Abstract PWE-129 Figure 1 Conclusion Variceal bleeding rates have remained surprisingly constant over 8 years despite the rise in admissions with chronic liver disease. Outcomes for acute variceal bleeding have improved which is likely the result of several organisational changes. Notably, rebleeding rates and 30 day mortality decreased even before the adoption of early TIPSS. Disclosure of Interest None Declared.


Disorders in lipoprotein metabolism (dyslipidemia) can result in premature atherosclerosis or pancreatitis. Dyslipidemias can be classified as hypercholesterolemia, hypertriglyceridemia, combined hyperlipidemia, and low levels of high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol. All of the dyslipidemias can be primary or secondary. Both elevated levels of low density lipoprotein cholesterol and decreased levels of HDL cholesterol predispose to premature atherosclerosis. Triglyceride levels greater than 1,000 mg/dL increase the risk for pancreatitis. In the appraisal of the dyslipidemias, measurement of serum cholesterol, triglycerides, HDL-cholesterol and obtaining the LDL cholesterol by Friedewald equation is usually sufficient in the majority of patients. However, in some cases, such as the diagnosis of the Type III dyslipidemia and when triglycerides are > or = 400 mg/dL, ultracentrifugation is required to determine the VLDL or LDL cholesterol. Lipoprotein electrophoresis can be useful in the diagnosis of Type III dyslipidemia (broad beta band) and also to detect chylomicrons. In young subjects with coronary artery disease with a normal LDL cholesterol an apolipoprotein B-100 level may be a useful test. In children and young adults with severe hypertriglyceridemia, measurement of lipoprotein lipase activity or assaying apolipoprotein C-II levels can be useful in elucidating the cause. Also, laboratory tests are useful in excluding a secondary cause of dyslipidemia (urinalysis, plasma creatinine, TSH, glucose, protein electrophoresis, alkaline phosphatase and transaminases). Thus, laboratory investigations play an important role in the management of dyslipidemia.


This study examines the impact of company news and events on its stock prices. Prior researches show evidence of news effect on the stock prices of the company, depending upon the kind of news and the prevailing economic atmosphere of the country in which the company operates and is registered in the stock exchange. This study investigates what type of news has a positive, no - effect and negative effect on the stock prices of the selected companies listed at all three stock exchanges of Pakistan. Event window methodology was used to analyze the news and events. ANOVA post - hoc tukey and Multiple Regression statistical techniques were used. Data analysis shows that dividend; profit, new investment decisions, appointment of new company administration, insider trading shows positive effect on company's stock indicies. Other news like further issue of stocks, leverage decisions suggested that investors and analyst tends to perceive these as negative or less effects on further investments decisions rather risky towards earning per share and dividend income loss.


Until now, the refusal by many researchers to recognize curative treatments for pelvic pain other than the individual symptomatic treatment protocol is very disappointing. Furthermore, it should be recognized that finding an optimal individual treatment protocol may require a period of trial and error. This refusal appears to have shocked people suffering from chronic pain all over the world and those pursuing the best approach and cure through primary resolution of the cause of the pain. In a review article in the March issue, Yang et al. [1] stress the primacy of the host defense mechanisms and assert that the dysregulation of innate immune response can lead to inflammatory disease pathogenesis. They also suggest new challenges for the development of novel targets and appropriate situation-dependent adjustments for the treatment of auto-inflammatory disorders including interstitial cystitis (IC). Urogenital chronic pain including prostate or bladder pain is a significant healthcare issue and is not etiology specific one. I want readers to focus on the 2 prominent clinical conditions in practice, which are chronic prostatitis/chronic pelvic pain syndrome and IC/painful bladder syndrome. There is a new turnaround on the urologist's stance over the symptomatic treatment of urologic inflammatory disease, with pursuance of the primary causes of the diseases and with priorities placed on auto-inflammation. Urologists must recognize recent advances in the regulatory mechanisms of host defense and various inflammatory diseases to optimize diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for the difficult-to-manage chronic pain that does not routinely respond to traditional treatment. Inflammasomes are multiprotein complexes responsible for the activation of caspase-1 and caspase-5 protease required for processing and activation of the proinflammatory cytokines interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-18 [2]. Moreover, NLRP3 (nucleotide binding oligomerization domain [NOD/NACHT], LRR, and PYD domains containing protein 3; also known as NALP3, cryopyrin, or CIAS1) expression is found in the urothelial layer in the bladder [3]. I think that the presence of NALP3 in epithelial cells lining the urogenital tracts allows the rapid sensing of invading pathogens, thereby triggering an innate immune response.


The wider adoption of the Lost Foam Casting (LFC) process by the foundry industry has been impeded by the occurrence of fold defects. It is well known that a new foamed polymer, which degrades with less thermal energy (or less endothermic) and produces fewer gaseous pyrolysis products, may be a solution to fold defects. Hence, this pioneering research was an attempt to develop novel polystyrene composite beads for the LFC process through suspension polymerization. Low molecular weight polystyrene composite beads were initially produced, and the presence of the additives inside these beads was confirmed by Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis. High molecular weight polystyrene composite beads were then produced. The thermal properties of these low and high molecular weight beads were then produced. The thermal properties of these low and high molecular weight beads were studied using advanced characterization techniques such as a thermo-gravimetric analysis (TGA) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC). It was found that these polystyrene composite beads degrade faster and at lower onset temperatures of degradation than the unmodified polystyrene beads in the LFC industry to reduce casting defects.


In using radio waves to perform wireless communication in a wireless communication system when a communication link is established between the electronic information apparatus, the method determines the target wireless communication connection, is used as wireless communication, a wireless communication with strong directivity, a transmission source of the connection request transmitting identification information of the electronic apparatus of the information communication device connected to the electronic communication device requesting destination. The identification information transmission means, electronic information communication device connected to a connection request destination determining the electronic communication device request source information, and the link is established.


This study investigates the new clauses of the Civil Code of the Russian Federation in regards to pledges. Special attention is paid to the investigation of legislative provisions regarding the content of the pledge agreement with emphasis placed on the analysis of previous and new civil law regulations on the content of the pledge agreement. The study described essential conditions of the pledge agreement that are of particular importance, since they establish that the pledge agreement cannot be concluded until the parties reach an agreement in regards to each said condition. The study states that it is currently possible to register a pledge of property that is not real estate by registering a notice of pledge in the register of pledges of real estate; emphasis is placed on the fact that in relations with third parties, the pledge holder has the right to refer to his or her right of pledge only after the pledge notice is registered and recorded. The study also features a comparison of liens in Russia, CIS countries and Western European countries.


These laboratory studies examined the stain removal efficacy and hard tissue abrasivity of a new dentifrice formulation--Crest Extra Whitening--based on the incorporation of elevated concentrations of a proprietary silica. Cleaning power assessments were made using a modification of the laboratory test method developed by Stookey and associates at Indiana University Oral Health Research Institute. Abrasion assessments were made using Radioactive Enamel and Radioactive Dentin Abrasivity (REA and RDA) measures. Results show that Crest Extra Whitening dentifrice produced statistically significantly improved stain removal when compared to a number of conventional dentifrices, including Crest Cavity Protection and Crest Tartar Protection, and a number of recently marketed cleaning and whitening dentifrices. Laboratory studies further demonstrated that the Crest Extra Whitening dentifrice produces dentin and enamel abrasivity similar to conventional silica dentifrices.


In Hong Kong, public discontent against the government has evolved into a series of civil disobedience campaigns in the past few years, and digital communication platforms served to channel public sentiments and shape collective action. Grounded in the communication mediation model, this study analyzed the Asian Barometer Survey (ABS) data. Findings show that political social media expression was negatively associated with government evaluation. Moreover, internal political efficacy was negatively associated with government evaluation, and it also mediated the associations between both political social media information seeking and expression, and government evaluation. External political efficacy was positively associated with government evaluation, whereas it only mediated the association between information seeking and government evaluation. Furthermore, democratic preference was found to be a significant moderator upon which the association between expression and government evaluation operated via internal political efficacy was contingent. Our findings provide insights into understandings of social movements.


I. The Problem of the Neural Code This tech brief concerns the problem of the neural code and a new approach to the neural coding problem. Briefly stated, the problem of the neural code is this: What is the organization of the system or systems of information coding in the brain? The problem was first raised in 1956 by John von Neumann and to this day has remained one of the outstanding unsolved problems of theoretical neuroscience. Von Neumann saw the neural coding problem as analogous to a "brain language."


Most adults spend one-third of every day sleeping and another third of most days at work. However, there is little analysis of the possible connections between common workplace experiences and sleep quality. This study uses the longitudinal and nationally-representative Americans' Changing Lives study to examine whether and how common conditions and experiences at work may "follow workers home" and impinge on their quality of sleep. We also explore how competing stressful experiences at home may influence sleep quality, and whether these are more salient than work experiences. Results show that frequently being bothered or upset at work is associated with poorer sleep quality, and the association is not explained by stressful experiences at home. These findings are discussed in relation to the sociological literatures on work, stress, and emotion.


Non‐oxide cobalt‐based water‐oxidation electrocatalysts have received attention recently for their relative ease of preparation, they are stable both in acidic and basic media, and they have higher turnover frequencies than cobalt oxides. Recent studies show that one of the main bottlenecks in the implementation of non‐oxide systems to water splitting is the low number of active metal sites, which is in the order of nmol cm−2. Herein, a new series of non‐oxide water‐oxidation catalysts has been introduced to the field. Cobalt dicyanamides are observed to have around four times higher surface active sites and better catalytic performances than cyanide‐based systems. Long‐term catalytic studies (70 h) at an applied potential of 1.2 V and electrochemical studies performed in solutions in pH values of 3.0–12.0 indicate that the compounds are robust and retain their structures even under harsh conditions. Moreover, the addition of Ni impurities to cobalt dicyanamides is a feasible method to improve their catalytic activities.


This paper studies the industry-level and aggregate implications of financial development on international trade. I set up a multi-industry general equilibrium model of international trade with input-output linkages and heterogeneous firms subject to financial frictions. Industries differ in capital intensity, which leads to differences in external finance dependence. The model is parameterized to match key features of firm-level data. Financial development leads to substantial reallocation of international trade shares from labor- to capital-intensive industries, with minor effects at the aggregate level. These findings are consistent with estimates from cross-country industry-level and aggregate data.


This paper provides an empirical analysis of what determines access to occupational pensions as perceived by workers. We investigate this issue in Germany, where workers have the legal right to an occupational pension since 2001, but many might lack the incentive or the ability to gather and process the relevant information to make use of their right. In particular, if workers rely exclusively on the information available at their firm, employers will continue to regulate access despite workers' rights. Our findings suggest that the current regulation in Germany has not resolved the problem of workers' ignorance of their access to occupational pensions. Only about half the workers are aware of having access to an occupational pension. We find that there is important heterogeneity in workers' perceptions, and that this heterogeneity is directly related to worker and firm-side factors as well as outcomes of the employer-employee match. Distorted perceptions have important consequences for workers, policy makers and firms. Workers can only make optimal savings decisions if they are aware of their savings possibilities. Policy makers could help by making information material about occupational pensions mandatory and/or by defining standardised information. A low level of knowledge of employees might also be frustrating for employers, as this would suggest that workers do not appreciate their occupational pension, limiting the power of occupational pension as a Human Resources tool.


Abstract Modern dielectrics used in power capacitors can exhibit a dissipation factor lower than 0.005 %, which approaches the limits of presently available measurement techniques. This article reviews techniques, apparatus, and available calibration services for dissipation factor with regard to lowest achievable uncertainties. It is shown that further metrological advances are necessary to lower uncertainty in the measurement to levels at least five times less than presently achievable, in order to ensure traceable and quality-assured measurement of modern dielectrics with such low dissipation factors.


Abstracts: Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research 2008

B105

Angiogenesis is a limiting step for the switch from a dormant to malignant state in tumor progression. During tumor development tumor cells induce profound changes in the surrounding tissue, leading to the formation of an altered tumor microenvironment that is critical in permitting further tumor growth and tumor progression.. Angiogenesis and inflammation are common targets of many chemopreventive molecules that suppress the antiangiogenic switch in premalignant tumors.We evaluated in vitro and in vivo the antiangiogenic activity of two synthetic oleanoleic acid-derived triterpenoids under study for their chemopreventive and therapeutic potential, CDDO -Me and -Im. In vitro both compounds exhibited a strong inhibitory activity on endothelial cells isolated from umbilical veins (HUVEC). Futher, these compounds inhibited inflammatory cell chemotaxis towards specific chemokine stimului. The triterpenoids interfered with activation of the PI3K/Akt pathway following VEGF stimulation and activation of the NF-kappaB pathway subsequent to TNFalpha stimulation. Moreover CDDO-Me induces cell death in androgen-responsive and unresponsive human prostate cancer cell lines at very low concentrations, by acting agains GS3K pathway (Vene R, Larghero P, Arena G, Sporn MB, Albini A, Tosetti F. Cancer Res . 2008). In vivo CDDO-Im and especially CDDO-Me significantly inhibit neoangiogenesis in the matrigel sponge assay in C57BL mice, reducing both CD31+ cell number and Hb content in the sponges. We tested different schedules of treatment, by administering compounds as prevention before matrigel injection, as therapy after injection and as combination of prevention and therapy. All three protocols reduced angiogenesis when compared to controls the combinationof prevention and intervention was the most effective and at very low dosages. Since currently CDDO-Me is being assessed phase I trials in the US, the potential anti-angiogenic activity of these drugs should be taken into consideration in evaluating efficacy in these trials.

Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2008;1(7 Suppl):B105.


Transition metal-catalyzed allylic substitution reactions of pre-activated allylation agents with nucleophiles are extensively studied synthetic methods that have enjoyed widespread applications in organic synthesis. The direct alkylation of allylic C–H bonds with nucleophiles, which minimizes pre-functionalization and converts inexpensive, abundantly available materials to value-added alkenyl-substituted products, remains challenging. Current methods generally involve C–H activation, require the use of noble-metal catalysts and stoichiometric chemical oxidants, and often show limited scope. Here we report an electrocatalytic allylic C–H alkylation reaction with carbon nucleophiles employing an easily available cobalt-salen complex as the molecular catalyst. These C(sp3)–H/C(sp3)–H cross-coupling reactions proceed through H2 evolution and require no external chemical oxidants. Importantly, the mild conditions and radical mechanism ensure excellent functional group tolerance and substrate compatibility with both linear and branched terminal alkenes. The synthetic utility of the electrochemical method is highlighted by its scalability (up to 200 mmol scale) and its successful application in the late-stage functionalization of complex structures.


The Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is an all-sky survey mission aiming to search for exoplanets that transit bright stars. The high-quality photometric data of TESS are excellent for the asteroseismic study of solar-like stars. In this work, we present an asteroseismic analysis of the red-giant star HD 222076 hosting a long-period (2.4 yr) giant planet discovered through radial velocities. Solar-like oscillations of HD 222076 are detected around 203 μHz by TESS for the first time. Asteroseismic modeling, using global asteroseismic parameters as inputs, yields a determination of the stellar mass ( ), radius ( ), and age (7.4 ± 2.7 Gyr), with precisions greatly improved from previous studies. The period spacing of the dipolar mixed modes extracted from the observed power spectrum reveals that the star is on the red-giant branch burning hydrogen in a shell surrounding the core. We find that the planet will not escape the tidal pull of the star and will be engulfed into it within about 800 Myr, before the tip of the red-giant branch is reached.


Deep neural networks (DNNs) have successfully classified EEG-based brain-computer interface (BCI) systems. However, recent studies have found that well-designed input samples, known as adversarial examples, can easily fool well-performed deep neural networks model with minor perturbations undetectable by a human. This paper proposes an efficient generative model named generative perturbation network (GPN), which can generate universal adversarial examples with the same architecture for non-targeted and targeted attacks. Furthermore, the proposed model can be efficiently extended to conditionally or simultaneously generate perturbations for various targets and victim models. Our experimental evaluation demonstrates that perturbations generated by the proposed model outperform previous approaches for crafting signal-agnostic perturbations. We demonstrate that the extended network for signal-specific methods also significantly reduces generation time while performing similarly. The transferability across classification networks of the proposed method is superior to the other methods, which shows our perturbations' high level of generality.


Essential facts An estimated one in 12 (900,000) children aged 5-19 in the UK experience bowel and bladder conditions. The impact of continence conditions can be profound on a child's or teenager's life and can continue into adulthood. Those affected can have a lower quality of life than their peers, miss out on education and social activities, and are more likely to be bullied. Most bowel and bladder problems are avoidable and treatable, yet it's estimated that only 11% of those affected ask for help.


Annotation is a natural way for adding information to a specific representation. Every designer knows that, and it is the first thing a designer do when he wants to express a point of view or argument on a solution (evaluate, criticise, …). Most of the time these annotations remain informal and are considered as mere supports to a verbal exchange. We want to show in this paper that annotation is more than that, and that it is important to consider them as complex and composite elements. We argue that providing annotation facilities within CAD systems is not enough. Regarding what we exposed before we think that a work must be done in formalising organisation that will support annotation process in all its dimensions. For example functionalities of creating, storing retrieving new symbols should be implemented. Rules elicitations and formalisation should be implemented too, without forgetting the level of organisational learning. Indeed, we consider that the process of creating the rule is as much important as the rule itself.