This paper presents a guided tour system for the WWW. It is a module for the Webvise open hypermedia system that implements the ideas of trails and guided tours, originating from the hypertext field. Webvise appears as an open hypermedia helper application to the user and stores the guided tours in an XML format called OHIF separated from the WWW documents included in the tour. The main advantages of the system are: (1) a browser independent format in terms of HTML and PNG-based image maps for reading the guided tours; (2) support for a familiar metaphor, namely, a metro route map; (3) overview maps and route maps with indication of which stations of a tour have been visited; and finally (4) support for arbitrary web pages as stations on the tour. The paper discusses the Webvise Guided Tour System and illustrates its use in a digital library portal. The system is compared to other recent Web-based guided tour systems, and it is argued that Webvise Guided Tour System solves a number of prior system problems.


Several questions arise: e.g., How often is lying accompanied by emotion sufficient to influence blood pressure? How many innocent suspects will exhibit similar blood-pressure changes from fear of making inaccurate or compromising answers? Under' Armchair Criticism' and elsewhere, Dr. Larson attempts to answer all such questions; and deprecates • hasty inferences' and • extravagant claims,' remarking • As the science of criminal investigation develops ... deception tests will be used only in the preliminary investigations to furnish a lead,' NOT for production in court. Opinions may differ as to how far such methods of investigation might prove helpful to our C.LD., but Dr. Larson has undoubtedly given us a fair-minded and cautious account of a very interesting, painstaking and valuable research.


A large portion of the recent performance increase in the High Performance Computing (HPC) and Machine Learning (ML) domains is fueled by accelerator cards. Many popular ML frameworks support accelerators by organizing computations as a computational graph over a set of highly optimized, batched general-purpose kernels. While this approach simplifies the kernels' implementation for each individual accelerator, the increasing heterogeneity among accelerator architectures for HPC complicates the creation of portable and extensible libraries of such kernels. Therefore, using a generalization of the CUDA community's warp register cache programming idiom, we propose a new programming idiom (CoRe) and a virtual architecture model (PIRCH), abstracting over SIMD and SIMT paradigms. We define and automate the mapping process from a single source to PIRCH's intermediate representation and develop backends that issue code for three different architectures: Intel AVX512, NVIDIA GPUs, and NEC SX-Aurora. Code generated by our source-to-source compiler for batched kernels, borG, competes favorably with vendor-tuned libraries and is up to 2× faster than hand-tuned kernels across architectures.


This paper introduces EXMOVES, learned exemplar-based features for efficient recognition of actions in videos. The entries in our descriptor are produced by evaluating a set of movement classifiers over spatial-temporal volumes of the input sequence. Each movement classifier is a simple exemplar-SVM trained on low-level features, i.e., an SVM learned using a single annotated positive space-time volume and a large number of unannotated videos.
Our representation offers two main advantages. First, since our mid-level features are learned from individual video exemplars, they require minimal amount of supervision. Second, we show that simple linear classification models trained on our global video descriptor yield action recognition accuracy approaching the state-of-the-art but at orders of magnitude lower cost, since at test-time no sliding window is necessary and linear models are efficient to train and test. This enables scalable action recognition, i.e., efficient classification of a large number of different actions even in large video databases. We show the generality of our approach by building our mid-level descriptors from two different low-level feature representations. The accuracy and efficiency of the approach are demonstrated on several large-scale action recognition benchmarks.


The Internet has given learners the ability to learn anytime and anywhere at their own pace facilitated by interactive and adaptive software. Digital learning technology is more than just providing students with a laptop. Digital learning requires a combination of technology, digital content, and instruction. This study aims to identify and observe the impact and mediation of top management support in relation to the successful adoption of digital learning technologies in developing countries. A questionnaire was designed and distributed to rate the successful adoption and utilization of digital learning technologies in developing countries and data was analyzed using structural equation modeling. This study provides empirical evidence and explains many complex factors, such as user awareness, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and information communication technology infrastructure, in the context of top management support to facilitate the effective utilization of a digital learning technology. Mediating the top management support between adoption of a digital learning technology and user awareness, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of use provides clear and crucial evidence to support the effective adoption of a digital learning technology.


OBJECTIVES
In Klebsiella pneumoniae, overproduction of RamA and RarA leads to increased MICs of various antibiotics; MarA and SoxS are predicted to perform a similar function. We have compared the relative effects of overproducing these four AraC-type regulators on envelope permeability (a combination of outer membrane permeability and efflux), efflux pump and porin production, and antibiotic susceptibility in K. pneumoniae.

METHODS
Regulators were overproduced using a pBAD expression vector. Antibiotic susceptibility was measured using disc testing. Envelope permeability was estimated using a fluorescent dye accumulation assay. Porin and efflux pump production was quantified using proteomics and validated using real-time quantitative RT-PCR.

RESULTS
Envelope permeability and antibiotic disc inhibition zone diameters both reduced during overproduction of RamA and to a lesser extent RarA or SoxS, but did not change following overproduction of MarA. These effects were associated with overproduction of the efflux pumps AcrAB (for RamA and SoxS) and OqxAB (for RamA and RarA) and the outer membrane protein TolC (for all regulators). Effects on porin production were strain specific.

CONCLUSIONS
RamA is the most potent regulator of antibiotic permeability in K. pneumoniae, followed by RarA then SoxS, with MarA having very little effect. This observed relative potency correlates well with the frequency at which these regulators are reportedly overproduced in clinical isolates.


This paper presents a set of novel profiled strip parameter measurement equipment which is in serial production. In order to measure shape parameter, this paper designs the structure of equipment and illustrates method of image processing which carries on object location and shape parameter calculating work-piece for using machine vision. This method is proved to be useful and efficient in practice. This paper is innovative in four facts. First, it works using image processing which never appeared in such type of application. Similarly, the equipment can work no matter what directions that profiled strip lies. Third, the equipment can work automotive without man-made measurement error. Finally, it can be used to measure multi-kind of work-piece in the line. This method can be widely used in other similar application.


We consider a pure 2m-qubit initial state to evolve under a particular quantum mechanical spin Hamiltonian, which can be written in terms of the adjacency matrix of the Johnson network J(2m, m). Then, by using some techniques such as spectral distribution and stratification associated with the graphs employed in Jafarizadeh and Sufiani (2008 Phys. Rev. A 77 022315), a maximally entangled GHZ state is generated between the antipodes of the network. In fact, an algorithm is given for determining the suitable coupling strengths of the Hamiltonian, so that a maximally entangled state can be generated between antipodes of the network. By using some known multipartite entanglement measures, the amount of entanglement of the final evolved state is calculated, and finally two examples of four-qubit and six-qubit states are considered in detail.


Anthropogenic influences and land use practices in eastern Australia over the past 200 years have resulted in vastly altered channel and catchment conditions. This has not only reduced geomorphic diversity but also vegetation diversity and ecological functioning. As such, identifying the impact of various land use regimes is highly important when developing future riparian zone management strategies. To investigate the influence land use (specifically grazing) has on the riparian zone and river system, 12 in-channel river deposits were studied on the Hunter River between Muswellbrook and Aberdeen. Three land use types were selected — i) never grazed, ii) crash grazed and iii) perennially grazed — and samples were taken at three study reaches (Aberdeen, Downstream Aberdeen and Dart Brook Mine). One hundred and eleven (111) soil samples were collected from bars and benches in order to determine organic carbon content and fine sediment retention. The soil samples were analysed using loss-on-ignition (LOI) testing to determine the percentage (%) of organic carbon (OC). The Malvern Mastersizer was used to analyse average grain size and to determine the dominant sediment fraction within each soil sample. Hand sieves (-4 phi and -1 phi) were used to determine the main sediment fractions as a measure of bar variability. Spatial and hydrologic analyses were undertaken to determine historical and recent changes in both vegetation and river geomorphology. Results from the sample analysis showed that sites that had never been grazed had an average increased OC concentration of 6.43% and were also comprised of the finest sediment (FS), at 108.7m. Study locations that had been subjected to controlled grazing (3.02% OC and FS 324.4m) fell on average between permanently grazed (2.68% OC and FS 376.4m) and never-grazed locations across most variables analysed. Riparian zone management is a prevalent and important topic and these results provide guidance for developing management strategies. It has been found that stock may be useful in removing exotic vegetation as part of a larger weed management program, however in doing so they may decrease the amount of carbon sequestered and fine sediment retained. Decreased organic carbon can affect the nutrient cycling and the removal of nitrogen and phosphorus from water prior to entering the stream. In addition, decreased fine sediment retention may result in increased turbidity and therefore decreased light availability throughout the water column. These results may also have implications on global carbon storage through the riparian zone and its associated role in mitigating climate change.


Electric heat tracing systems have been around for decades. They are often taken for granted until a failure disrupts a process and in the worst case scenario causes a costly unit wide shutdown of an industrial facility. This is especially the case in the petroleum and chemical industries where critical processes have evolved requiring tighter control and monitoring along with predictive diagnostics. Using proven technologies, heat tracing systems can be brought into the 21st Century with real-time protection, monitoring and control to improve process reliability.


Abstract The dissolution of hydroxyapatite (HAP) and fluorapatite (FAP) has been studied (25 °C, 0.1 M NaCl medium) within the pH ranges 2–11 (FAP) and 4–10 (HAP). A range of techniques has been utilized to achieve understanding in how these two abundant minerals may interact with their natural surroundings (e.g., body fluids and soil environments). Synthetic crystalline HAP and FAP were prepared, and both minerals were found to undergo a phase transformation generated during a dialysis step of the synthetic routes. Surface-deficient layers with the nonstoichiometric compositions Ca8.4(HPO4)1.6(PO4)4.4(OH)0.4 and Ca9(HPO4)2(PO4)4F2 were identified. The equilibrium analysis of experimental solubility data of the two apatite systems was based upon potentiometric titration data, batch experiments, and zeta-potential measurements in combination with information provided by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and attenuated total reflectance-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy. The analysis required, besides the two solubility equilibria, the formation of surface protonation/deprotonation reactions, re-adsorption processes involving phosphate and fluoride ions as well as an ion exchange reaction (≡F + H2O ⇋ ≡OH + H+ + F–) to fully describe the dissolution characteristics of the two apatite systems. The resulting model also agrees with observations from XPS and solubility data, claiming the formation of CaF2(s) in the most acidic pH range of the FAP system. In addition, calculated isoelectric points (pHiep) are in agreement with values from surface charge measurements showing pHiep (HAP) = 8.1 and pHiep (FAP) = 5.7.


Currently, surface subsidence has become an important problem what we are facing. Because of complex topography, uneven distribution of rainfall, and the fast development of urbanization, many cities of the world have undergone surface subsidence disaster, such as Chiba, Paris, Tokyo, Beijing. The surface subsidence has occurred in Chiba since the early twenty-first century. The surface subsidence seriously threatens the safety of human life and property. In order to monitor surface subsidence, people have done a lot of research, and time-series InSAR technique with its better coverage, lower cost and high measurement accuracy advantages shows great potentiality for monitoring surface subsidence. Time-series InSAR technique can be applied for analysis of subtle surface subsidence which occurred consistently for a long term period. This paper uses time-series InSAR technique, Permanent Scatterers Interferometric SAR (PSInSAR), to monitor surface subsidence of Chiba. The used dataset consists of thirty-four Envisat ASAR images from September 2006 to August 2010. For the experimental results, this paper uses GPS data to verify the reliability of the results, and the results can provide information for local government to prevent the occurrence of surface subsidence.


In this paper, the authors analyze the influence of the introduced public transit improvements on the exhaust emissions based on the example of the proposed traffic organization changes i.e. separate bus lanes on Garbary and Mostowa streets in Poznan. To that end, software for traffic microsimulation was applied with modules enabling exhaust emission testing being divided into vehicle types, exhaust emission standards and the extent of influence of the traffic conditions. A selected portion of the road network of the city of Poznan was subjected to an analysis that covered the said streets and parts of the adjacent ones. In order to enable a comparison of the introduced changes in the traffic conditions and exhaust emissions level, the authors analyzed the existing road network in the first place (no separate bus lanes) and then, with the same vehicle type structure, the variant with the said modification was scrutinized. The potential influence of the introduced modification in the traffic organization on the traffic rate on the analyzed road portion was determined with the use of a macrosimulation traffic model. The above will enable a comparison of results and an assessment of the purposefulness of the introduction of changes from an environmental point of view. The proposed approach aims at proving the need to extend the current approach to the planning of changes in the traffic organization and the process of realization of infrastructural investments, particularly in the areas of intense housing development by also taking into account the environmental aspects.


Object-oriented analysis and design methodologies are considered as the most popular software development methods for the 1990s. A common drawback, however, is that they have been developed informally. There is no theoretical framework enabling us to define precisely the object-oriented concepts involved, to solve concurrency problems, and to verify the correctness of the implementation. We propose a 3-dimensional net structure behind object-oriented software development. This structure consolidates the concepts of classes, inheritance, overloading and message passing through a single model. Inheritance and overloading can be unified with message passing in a 3-dimensional representation, but are physically differentiable by occupying the vertical and horizontal planes, respectively, of the model. Furthermore, the formal model can be mapped to various object-oriented analysis and design notations. The theoretical framework can thus be adopted for systems validation and verification for existing methodologies. The liveness and consistencies of objects can be verified, and inheritance and interaction coupling can be identified and checked.


This paper addresses a new task called referring 3D instance segmentation, which aims to segment out the target instance in a 3D scene given a query sentence. Previous work on scene understanding has explored visual grounding with natural language guidance, yet the emphasis is mostly constrained on images and videos. We propose a Text-guided Graph Neural Network (TGNN) for referring 3D instance segmentation on point clouds. Given a query sentence and the point cloud of a 3D scene, our method learns to extract per-point features and predicts an offset to shift each point toward its object center. Based on the point features and the offsets, we cluster the points to produce fused features and coordinates for the candidate objects. The resulting clusters are modeled as nodes in a Graph Neural Network to learn the representations that encompass the relation structure for each candidate object. The GNN layers leverage each object's features and its relations with neighbors to generate an attention heatmap for the input sentence expression. Finally, the attention heatmap is used to "guide" the aggregation of information from neighborhood nodes. Our method achieves state-of-the-art performance on referring 3D instance segmentation and 3D localization on ScanRefer, Nr3D, and Sr3D benchmarks, respectively.


In this study of the English language as it is spelled in America, D. W. Cummings demonstrates that behind the apparent disorder of spelling in American English lies a self-regulating and self-reorganizing system that is responsive to four kinds of imperative: phonetic, semantic, etymological, and systemic. Cummings offers a systematic theory of orthography and applies this theory to the American English vocabulary with numerous examples. Cummings also describes the explication of written words into their elements, particles, and processes, and he sets out the tactical and procedural rules that control the distribution and sequencing of vowels and consonants. In the largest section of the book, he provides an exhaustive description of the major and minor correspondences between the sounds of American English words and their spellings. An essential reference work, American English Spelling moves beyond questions of how words are spelled to an understanding of why they are spelled as they are.


Cystic Echinococcosis (CE) is caused by the cestode Echinococccus (E.) granulosus sensu lato (s. l.). CE is endemic in parts of Africa, the Middle East, Asia and Latin America. The primary sites of CE are the liver (70%) and lungs (20%), but other sites including the spleen may also be infested by CE. The occurrence of CE in the spleen is rare, varying between 0.9–8% in the literature (Akhan O et al. Semin Ultrasound CT MR 2007; 28(1): 28–34). Diagnosis of CE is based on clinical findings, imaging and serology. Ultrasound is the basis of the imaging in the abdomen. The diagnosis is confirmed by microscopy of cyst material and by measuring antibodies against echinococcal species (Brunetti E et al. Acta Tropica 2010; 114: 1–16). Treatment of CE can bemedicalwith benzimidazoles, surgical, by PAIR (puncture, aspiration, injection, re-aspiration) or by a combination of these interventions (Brunetti E et al. Acta Tropica 2010; 114: 1–16 and Brunetti E et al. WHO; 2001; Available from: http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2001/ who_cds_csr_aph_2001.6.pdf). The PAIR technique was developed for the treatment of intra-abdominal presentations of CE. It is a minimally invasive therapeutic option that replaces surgery. In the literature PAIR is most often used for CE in the liver, whereas CE in the spleen is often treated by partial or total splenectomy (Culafic DMet al. Scand J Gastroenterol 2010; 45(2): 186–90). Echinococcal cysts are classified in 6 stages according to their sonographic appearance (CL-CE5). Stage CE1 and CE2 are considered active stages, CE3 is considered intermediate and stages CE4 and CE5 are considered inactive. Stage CE3 is subdivided into 3a and 3b, where 3b is predominantly solid with daughter cysts. In the current guidelines by Brunetti et al., PAIR is only recommended for stages CE1 and CE3a, which are predominantly cystic. However, it is also stated that PAIR can be used in inoperable patients or patients who refuse surgery (Brunetti E et al. Acta Tropica 2010; 114:1–16 and Stojkovic M et al. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 6(10): e1880). We describe a case of ultrasound-guided PAIR treatment in a patient suffering from isolated splenic CEwho refused to undergo surgery.


The European Space Agency's Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) spacecraft has already logged 3 months of continuous observations of the sun from its vantage point 1.5 million kilometers from Earth. Last week, SOHO researchers announced the first results from SOHO's diverse instruments. They include spectacular pictures of the sun's violent atmosphere, suggesting that even in its current lull of activity, the sun is unexpectedly turbulent; analyses of the solar wind showing that the sun's surface preserves an unaltered sample of the primordial solar system; and hints from oscillations of the entire sun that its internal engine may have a different structure than theorists had thought.


It was at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games that, for the first time, activists mobilised against the Israeli securitisation of sport. Brazilian-Palestinian solidarity action, calling for Rio to be an 'Olympics without Apartheid', led the then Brazilian government to distance itself from a $2 billion agreement with an Israeli security company. The authors discuss the way in which the solidarity movement emerged and how Israeli companies use Gaza as a 'lab' to develop weapons, policing techniques and security technologies for sale on the world market. They point to the parallels between Israel's securocratic war of pacification and Brazil's immense security measures against the favelas during a decade of sport mega-events. They trace the flow of securitisation between Israel and Brazil in terms of racial apartheid and settler colonialism to show the impacts on people in occupied Palestine and the favelas of Rio.


To identify facilities at risk of receiving patients colonized or infected with multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs), we developed an interactive web-based interface for visualization of patient-sharing networks among healthcare facilities in Tennessee, USA. Using hospital discharge data and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services' claims and Minimum Data Set, we constructed networks among hospitals and skilled nursing facilities. Networks included direct and indirect transfers, which accounted for <365 days in the community outside of facility admissions. Authorized users can visualize a facility of interest and tailor visualizations by year, network dataset, length of time in the community, and minimum number of transfers. The interface visualizes the facility of interest with its connected facilities that receive or send patients, the number of interfacility transfers, and facilities at risk of receiving transfers from the facility of interest. This tool will help other health departments enhance their MDRO outbreak responses.


This study compared the acceptability and relative effectiveness of case-based learning (CBL) versus traditional lecture-based (LB) instruction in a preclinical removable prosthodontics course in the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Dentistry DDS curriculum. The entire second-year class (N=82) comprised this crossover study's sample. Assessments of baseline comprehension and confidence in removable partial denture (RPD) treatment planning were conducted at the beginning of the course. Near the end of the course, half of the class received CBL and LB instruction in an RPD module in alternating sequence, with students serving as their own control group. Assessments of perceived RPD treatment planning efficacy, comprehension, and instruction method preference were administered directly after students completed the RPD module and six months later. Analyses of variance accounting for period, carryover, and sequence effects were used to determine the relative effects of each approach using a p<0.05 statistical significance threshold. The results showed that the students preferred CBL (81%) over LB instruction (9%), a pattern that remained unchanged after a six-month period. Despite notable period and carryover effects, CBL was also associated with higher gains in RPD treatment planning comprehension (p=0.04) and perceived efficacy (p=0.01) compared to LB instruction. These gains diminished six months after the course-a finding based on a 49% follow-up response rate. Overall, the students overwhelmingly preferred CBL to LB instruction, and the findings suggest small albeit measurable educational benefits associated with CBL. This study's findings support the introduction and further testing of CBL in the preclinical dental curriculum, in anticipation of possible future benefits evident during clinical training.


Abstract. Societal biases are a major issue in school students' access to and interaction with science. Schools engagement programmes in science from universities, like independent research projects, which could try and tackle these problems are, however, often inequitable. We evaluate these concerns applied to one such programme, Physics Research in School Environments (PRiSE), which features projects in space science, astronomy, and particle physics. Comparing the schools involved with PRiSE to those of other similar schemes and UK national statistics, we find that PRiSE has engaged a much more diverse set of school students and significantly more disadvantaged groups than is typical. While drop-off occurs within the protracted programme, we find no evidence of systematic biases present. The majority of schools that complete projects return for multiple years of the programme, with this repeated buy-in from schools again being unpatterned by typical societal inequalities. Therefore, school students' ability to succeed at independent research projects appears independent of background within the PRiSE framework. Qualitative feedback from teachers show that the diversity and equity of the programme, which they attribute to the level of support offered through PRiSE, is valued and they have highlighted further ways of making the projects potentially even more accessible. Researcher-involvement, uncommon in many other programmes, along with teacher engagement and communication are found to be key elements to success in independent research projects overall.


In this paper we study a new semi-blind channel estimation algorithm in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems. The proposed scheme is an extension of a recently reported subspace-based blind channel estimation algorithm in cyclic prefix systems which requires very few received blocks. The semi-blind estimation algorithm is devised by using the information obtained both from the blind channel estimation method and a pure pilot-assisted method. The proposed algorithm uses a small amount of received data and can be applied to any types of communication constellations. Simulation results show that, with the same number of pilot samples, the semiblind algorithm has a clear improvement in system performance over the pure pilot-assisted method. To achieve the same biterror-rate performance, the proposed semi-blind algorithm uses fewer pilot samples. 1


Aspirin (acetylsalicylic acid) is a powerful antiplatelet agent used in prevention of atherothrombotic vascular events. However, antiplatelet effect of aspirin is not uniform and some patients could not benefit from aspirin. These patients are clinically called as aspirin resistant or aspirin non-responders. Aspirin resistance could be determined by: bleeding time, optical aggregometry, PFA-100 (Platelet Function Analyzer), Ultegra-RPFA (Rapid Platelet Function Assay), activated aggregation time, whole blood aggregometry, platelet aggregate ratio, flow cytometry, measurements of platelet surface proteins and blood or urine thromboxane B2 levels. Mechanisms of aspirin resistance have not been elucidated yet. There is evidence that aspirin resistance increases clinical cardiovascular events. Adequate additional therapies may reduce atherothrombotic risks and major cardiovascular events rate in aspirin resistant subjects. However, we need further studies to decrease major cardiovascular events risk in aspirin resistant subjects and to optimize antiplatelet therapy.


Bridges play an important role in transport infrastructure and it is necessary to frequently monitor them. Current vibration-based bridge monitoring methods in which bridges are instrumented using several sensors are sometimes not sensitive enough. For this reason, an assessment of sensitivity of sensors to damage is necessary. In this paper a sensitivity analysis to bridge flexural stiffness (EI) is performed. A discussion between the use of strain or deflections is provided. A relation between deflection and stiffness can be set by theorem of virtual work, expressing the problem as a matrix product. Sensitivity is obtained by deriving the deflection respect to the reciprocal of the stiffness at every analysed location of the bridge. It is found that a good match between the deflection and the bridge stiffness profile can be obtained using noise-free measurements. The accuracy of sensors is evaluated numerically in presence of damage and measurement noise. Field measurements in the United States are also described to identify the potential issues in real conditions.


Late Cenozoic mammalian remains have been collected from New Mexico for more than a century. The most important nineteenth-century collections came from the Espanola Basin. Work in this century has continued to focus mainly on the Miocene faunas in that basin and the northern part of the adjoining Albuquerque basin. The lithostratigraphy of these basins has recently been reviewed and revised, but the description of the large collections of fossil remains from the basinal deposits is largely incomplete. Pliocene and early Pleistocene faunas have been found in deposits that mark the development of external drainage of the major rivers of the state. Study of these assemblages has been cursory, although the lithostratigraphy of these deposits has received considerable attention in recent years.

The Miocene basinal deposits accumulated under conditions of internal drainage in local structural environments that led to the development of partly synchronous depositional records. Biostratigraphies worked out in each basin overlap sufficiently so that the composite succession forms an important biochronological standard for southwestern North America.

The Espanola and Albuquerque-Belen basins contain the only Miocene faunas of importance presently known in New Mexico. Their fossil records complement one another in that the northern Albuquerque basin has the only adequate representation of the early Miocene and the Espanola basin a more complete record of the medial and late Miocene. Synchronous faunas in these basins show a high degree of taxonomic resemblance extending to elements that represent endemic taxa or forms rare elsewhere. Compared with coevel assemblages in the Great Plains, there is considerable generic and specific similarity. This allows easy reference of the New Mexican faunal succession to the sequence of North American mammal ages that are essentially typified by the Great Plains biochronology. In addition to these taxonomic relationships, the New Mexican faunas retain throughout the Miocene characters that may typify a southwestern faunal province. The general features of the latter would include diverse and abundant artiodactyls, especially Camelidae, including a late occurrence of endemic stenomyline genera, and less diverse and abundant perissodactyls, especially horses, when compared with the Great Plains.

The fossil vertebrate record of Pliocene and early Pleistocene time in New Mexico is largely confined to the basins of the Rio Grande and the Gila River and is derived from deposits of the axial rivers that were the percursors of the modern streams and from the piedmont slope facies of the basin margins. Sites scattered along the length of the Rio Grande rift from the Santo Domingo basin near Santa Fe south to the international border have yielded Blancan and early Irvington faunas. These assemblages can be arranged in temporal order from their position in local stratigraphic columns, from their biological affinities, and with respect to dated basalts and ashes interbedded in the sediments containing the fossil remains. Important reference sequences are available in adjacent Arizona and Texas, where mammalian faunas and calibrated biochronologies compare closely with those in New Mexico. The New Mexican record supports the southwestern biochronology for Pliocene and early Pleistocene time, including the following events and their calibration: the last appearance of hipparionine horses ( Nannippus ) and the first appearance of the South American immigrants, the glyptodont Glyptotherium and probably the mylodontid sloth genus Glossotherium , were nearly synchronous events close to the Gauss-Matuyama boundary (2.5 m.y. B.P.); at least three species Equus were present in the Southwest by the time of the Nannippus extinction; the first appearance of the Asiatic immigrant Mammuthus in the southwest between 1.2 and 1.4 m.y., postdating the Olduvai Event and, by definition, indicating that the Blancan-Irvingtonian boundary, at least as determined for the Southwest, lies close to the beginning of medial Pleistocene time.


The treatment of peptic ulcers has been revolutionized by the discovery that Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) bacteria is a causative agent for ulcer formation. However, when patients present with dyspepsia or epigastric discomfort, more than 80% of patients will not have ulcer disease and empiric treatment of H. pylori is not recommended for these patients. Eradication of H. pylori has not been demonstrated to improve the symptoms of non-ulcer dyspepsia compared with non-ulcer dyspepsia patients treated with placebo. Therefore, we recommend that patients should first be evaluated for peptic ulcers with endoscopy or upper gastrointestinal series before the diagnosis and treatment of H. pylori. Generally, the treatment of H. pylori should be limited to patients with peptic ulcers, mucosal-associated lymphoid tissue lymphomas, and gastric cancers. Most diagnostic tests for H. pylori, including quantitative IgG antibody, urea breath tests, rapid urease tests (CLO), tests of gastric mucosal biopsies, and staining of gastric mucosal biopsies, have equivalent diagnostic characteristics. Therefore, the choice of diagnostic test for H. pylori should be based on cost, ease of use, and lack of complications. Multiple antibiotic regimens are available for the treatment of H. pylori. Triple antibiotic therapy is the least expensive but has the highest rate of side effects and the least compliance. Combining a proton pump inhibitor with clarithromycin and another antibiotic will eradicate H. pylori with fewer side effects and better compliance but this is the most expensive antibiotic regimen.


Objective. To address the low prevention and treatment rates for those at risk of glucocorticoid-induced osteoporosis (GIOP), we evaluated the influence of a direct-to-patient, Internet-based educational video intervention using "storytelling" on rates of antiosteoporosis medication use among chronic glucocorticoid users who were members of an online pharmacy refill service. Methods. We identified members who refilled ≥ 5 mg/day of prednisone (or equivalent) for 90 contiguous days and had no GIOP therapy for ≥ 12 months. Using patient stories, we developed an online video addressing risk factors and treatment options, and delivered it to members refilling a glucocorticoid prescription. The intervention consisted of two 45-day "Video ON" periods, during which the video automatically appeared at the time of refill, and two 45-day "Video OFF" periods, during which there was no video. Members could also "self-initiate" watching the video by going to the video link. We used an interrupted time series design to evaluate the effectiveness of this intervention on GIOP prescription therapies over 6 months. Results. Among 3017 members (64.8%) exposed to the intervention, 59% had measurable video viewing time, of which 3% "self-initiated" the video. The GIOP prescription rate in the "Video ON" group was 2.9% versus 2.7% for the "Video OFF" group. There was a nonsignificant trend toward greater GIOP prescription in members who self-initiated the video versus automated viewing (5.7% vs 2.9%, p = 0.1). Conclusion. Among adults at high risk of GIOP, prescription rates were not significantly affected by an online educational video presented at the time of glucocorticoid refill. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT01378689.


We develop a measure of maximum sustainable government debt for advanced economies. How much investors are willing to lend to a country's government depends on the country's expected primary surplus, the level and volatility of its rate of growth, and how much debt the government expects to be able to raise in the future for the purpose of servicing the debt it seeks to raise today. We provide a simple formula that computes a country's maximum sustainable debt (MSD) as a function of four easy-to-estimate parameters. We further compute a country's theoretical probability of default (PD) as a function of its debt-to-GDP ratio. We finally calibrate our measures for 23 OECD countries and test the relation between sovereign yield spreads and our theoretical PD at prevailing debt levels. We find it to be strongly statistically significant.


This paper investigates whether, in what direction, and to what extent one mode of technology transfer – namely, overseas R&D – is influenced by the strength of intellectual property protection that host nations provide. Using data spanning the period 1977-2004, we find weak support at best for the claim that strengthening intellectual property rights will have a significant positive influence on the magnitude of overseas R&D investment by (US) multinationals. This result is found to be robust to dis-aggregation of both the measure of intellectual property protection into its component indices, as well as to dis-aggregation of overseas R&D into industry-specific magnitudes. Instead, the host country market size and availability of local human capital resources are found to be the consistently important explanatory variables. [CDE DSE WP NO 166]


Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are hazardous organic chemicals consisting of two or more aromatic rings. United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA) has identified 16 priority PAHs are carcinogenic and mutagenic. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that their levels not to exceed 50 ng/L in water. Nairobi city is the economic and industrial hub for Kenya with increasing industrialization and urbanization. This increase has led to water and air pollution as a result of poor waste management, posing a health hazard to humans and the environment. European Union (EU) and US EPA have recommended that PAHs to be measured in a variety of matrices including water and effluent releases. Data on PAHs in rivers Nairobi and Ngong is limited. The aim of the study was to determine physico-chemical parameters (pH, dissolved oxygen, turbidity, flow rate, conductivity) and levels of sixteen (16) US EPA priority PAHs in water in the Ngong and Nairobi rivers. Physico-chemical parameters were measured using LabQuest vernier multi-parameter meter. PAHs from water samples were extracted, cleaned prior to identification and quantified (internal standard method) by GC-MS. All the Physico-chemical parameters measured were found to be within the recommended levels set by WHO except for turbidity, dissolved oxygen and conductivity. The total concentrations of 16 PAHs in Ngong River water ranged from 2.69 ng/L to 14.22 ng/L with an overall mean of 11.53 ng/L and in Nairobi River the range was between 5.19 ng/L and 9.14 ng/L with an overall mean of 10.08 ng/L. Significant differences (p<0.05) in water from Ngong and Nairobi rivers were noted in the levels of dibenz(a,h)anthracene, benzo(b)Flouranthene and flourene. Generally, the results show that water from the two rivers was contaminated with PAHs although the levels were below the recommended WHO limit of 50 ng/L. However, it is feared that continuous use of their water by man may result to risk exposure to PAHs.


The notion of missing at random (MAR) plays a central role in the theory underlying current methods for handling missing data. However the standard definition of MAR is diffi cult to interpret in practice. In this paper, we assume the missing data model is represented as a directed acyclic graph that not only encodes the dependencies among the variables but also explicitly portrays the causal mechanisms responsible for the missingness process. We introduce an intuitively appealing notion of MAR in such graphical models, and establish its relation with the standard MAR and a few versions of MAR used in the literature. We address the question of whether MAR is testable, given that data are corrupted by missingness, by proposing a general method for identifying testable implications imposed by the graphical structure on the observed data.


Ebola virus and lyssaviruses are global health threats that cause lethal disease in humans. The ability of these viruses to evade immunity is critical to infection, but the underlying mechanisms are incompletely understood. This thesis identifies novel immune evasion strategies whereby viral targeting of the host protein STAT3 suppresses responses to interleukin-6 cytokines, critical players in inflammation and immunity. The thesis also reveals novel exploitation of host trafficking machinery by Ebola virus to transport its immune evasion protein between important cellular sites. These data provide fundamental insights into infection, and identify potential targets for the development of antivirals and vaccines.


In this Chapter, continuous Haar wavelet functions base and spline base have been discussed. Haar wavelet approximations are used for solving of differential equations (DEs). The numerical solutions of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) and fractional differential equations (FrDEs) using Haar wavelet base and spline base have been discussed. Also, Haar wavelet base and collocation techniques are used to approximate the solution of Lane-Emden equation of fractional-order showing that the applicability and efficacy of Haar wavelet method. The numerical results have clearly shown the advantage and the efficiency of the techniques in terms of accuracy and computational time. Wavelet transform studied as a mathematical approach and the applications of wavelet transform in signal processing field have been discussed. The frequency content extracted by wavelet transform (WT) has been effectively used in revealing important features of 1D and 2D signals. This property proved very useful in speech and image recognition. Wavelet transform has been used for signal and image compression.


Corn ear feed rate variations in the threshing-separation unit of a combine harvester have a significant impact on the dynamic indicators of the threshing process. In this study, we conducted experiments using a stationary tangential threshing device and measured the forces acting on the rear part of the concave as well as the torque of the rotating cylinder during a threshing process. The ThreshLab software was developed for this purpose. We found that increasing the corn ear feed rate made the threshing process more even, due to decreasing the fluctuation of forces acting on the rear part of the concave and torque of the rotating cylinder. The corn ear threshing process may be more stable if the threshing cylinder is fitted with filler plates (FP-II). A comparison of the results obtained for variations in the forces acting on the rear part of the concave with those obtained for variations in the total torque of resistance and the speed of the threshing cylinder revealed a linear correlation between these parameters at varied feed rates.
DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.mech.24.4.20721


The cultural history of the telephone is one that has run in parallel with that of recorded technology in popular music. Both histories are invoked by the corpus of "telephone songs", songs whose lyrics focus chiefly on the mediation of a romantic relationship by telecommunication technology. Lady Gaga's "Telephone", originally a solo project designed for Britney Spears but later a collaboration with Beyonce, exploits the standard conventions of the telephone song genre. Common tropes are explored, but also sometimes subverted through playful manipulation of the expectations for women in relation to technology, sexuality, race and gender.


Creating many replicas in the processing of data-intensive jobs in data grid is an efficient strategy. Replica replacement is the crucial step to this strategy. Economic model, popularity model and hybrid model etc. have been proposed to solve this issue of replica replacement with analysis and prediction based on each data file, however, these models neglect association relationships among different data files. To find out these association relationships hidden in data-intensive jobs, Apriori algorithm in data mining field is adopted to analyze behaviors of each data-intensive job. An associated replica replacement algorithm based on Apriori approach in data grid is proposed in this paper. This algorithm has two major steps: 1) associated behavior analysis and classification of data files in each node; 2) generation and application of replica replacement rules. Our proposed algorithm is simulated in Optorsim to be compared with LFU algorithm. The experiment shows that there is a relative advantage compared with LFU in mean job times of all jobs, number of remote file access and effective network usage perspectives.


OBJECTIVE
To review the evaluations of computer-based clinical decision support systems (CDSS's).

DATA SOURCES
The literature collected in the MEDLARS, EMBASE, SCISEARCH and INSPEC databases was searched from 1974 to the present. The reference lists of relevant articles were reviewed as were conference proceedings.

STUDY SELECTION
Prospective, controlled studies were included. Studies were rated for methodological quality.

DATA EXTRACTION
Study quality was assessed and data on study setting, subjects, method of allocation, and computer system were collected and verified using a structured form.

CONCLUSIONS
There is considerable heterogeneity in both systems evaluated and design features of those systems. Future evaluations of CDSS's should focus on methodological issues in order to enhance overall quality of evaluations.


People in rural areas are less likely to obtain broadband Internet access due to a combination of economic disadvantage, technical difficulties, and lack of service providers. There is a great need to develop robust, low-cost and easy-to-maintain network management platform for Wireless Internet Service Providers (WISP) in rural areas. The goal of this project is to partner with a small local start-up WISP and relieves some serious management & security problems the company encountered by the provision of an open source network management & monitoring system as well as a robust core router. To achieve the goal, an internal test bed consisting of a Wireless Router Application Platform (WRAP) was setup in a lab environment. Various open-source network applications such as Nagios, Snort, MRTG and Open VPN were customized and integrated. Several business management applications were also developed, including Request Tracker System, MySQL-based customer database, and database-driven web application for management interface. All these systems integrated together will allow a network management team to diagnose and solve network connectivity and security issues accurately and promptly. The survey shows that the proposed solution significantly reduce the company's operation cost and improve the customers' satisfaction.


This paper presents the nonlinear identification of system parameters for a capacitive dual-backplate MEMS microphone. First, the microphone is modeled by a single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) second order differential equation with electrostatic and cubic mechanical nonlinearities. A harmonic balance nonlinear identification approach is then applied to the governing equation to obtain a set of algebraic equations that relate the unknown system parameters to the steady-state response of the microphone under the harmonic excitation. The microphone is experimentally characterized and a nonlinear least-squares technique is implemented to identify the system parameters from experimental data. The experimentally extracted bandwidth of the microphone is over 218 kHz. Finally, numerical simulations of the governing equation are performed, using the identified system parameters, to validate the accuracy of the approximate solution. The differences between the properties of the integrated measured center velocity and simulated center displacement responses in the steady state are less than 1%.Copyright © 2005 by ASME


The process of organ donation and retreat is complex and involves a high cost for hospitals that do it.PURPOSE: to survey the expenses with the process of donation and retreat of organs.METHODS: retrospective study based on medical records of 32 donors, admitted in the Search Organs Organisation do Instituto Dante Pazzanese de Cardiologia, during the period from January to December of 1999.RESULTS: the process is complex and involves a special structure as well as 24 hours of activities, making it costly. Expenses were related with the following items: human resources, permanent material, public utilities, complementary examinations, depreciation of equipment and transportation. A comparison with the values reimbursed by the Single Health System (SUS) followed.CONCLUSION: the total cost was high than the reimbursement provided by SUS, showing the necessity of research about cost of procedures and the reinvestment margin.


Background Evidence of the efficacy of omalizumab for mast cell activation disease (MCAD) has been collected from only a few case series and isolated cases. It is not approved for this indication in the USA or Europe. Purpose To describe omalizumab's effectiveness in a patient with MCAD. Material and methods A 40-year-old woman with MCAD syndrome had initial symptoms of hives, itching, angio-oedema, flushing, palpitations, diarrhoea, dizziness, dyspnoea and episodes of anaphylaxis. After a maximum dose of antihistamines, the patient presented with urticaria symptoms, to the same clinic, reporting constraint of her usual daily activities. Results She had improvement in symptoms with omalizumab therapy, reducing the flushing, urticaria and tachycardias, and had better exercise tolerance. These symptoms had not improved with the maximum dose of antihistamine. For management of the disease, previous studies used the same dose of omalizumab, regardless of the levels of IgE and patient weight. The patient described generalised tingling the days prior to the next dose and in the days after administration. She continues to receive omalizumab 300 mg subcutaneously every 4 weeks, showing a good clinical response. Conclusion This case supports the potential efficacy of omalizumab as a mast cell stabiliser for MCAS in adults not responding to maximal antihistamine therapy. References and/or Acknowledgements To my pharmacists colleagues. No conflict of interest.


The administration of a high-molecular polysaccharide Sacran results in a significant decrease in renal injury and oxidative stress, compared with that for the oral carbonaceous adsorbent, AST-120 (Kremezin®) or a non-treatment group in 5/6 nephrectomized rats. An oral administration of Sacran (20 mg/day) over a 4 week period resulted in a significant decrease in serum indoxyl sulfate, creatinine and urea nitrogen levels, compared with a similar treatment with AST-120 or the non-treatment group. Sacran treatment also resulted in antioxidant potential being maintained, compared with that for AST-120 or the non-treatment group. Immuno-histochemical analyses also demonstrated that CRF rats, when treated with Sacran, showed a decrease in the level of accumulated renal fibrosis and 8-OHdG compared with AST-120 or the non-treatment group. These results suggest that the ingestion of Sacran results in a significant reduction in the levels of prooxidants, such as uremic toxins, in the gastrointestinal tract, thereby inhibiting the subsequent development of oxidative stress in the systemic circulation.


This paper proposes a control strategy to a reduced switch count single-phase to three-phase converter for constant frequency output voltage applications. The topology allows single-phase to three-phase power conversion for supply three-phase load. The control strategy is proposed to obtain the same voltage rating of a five-leg converter. The system can be used for applications in which the load operates with constant frequency. Pulse-width modulation techniques are developed, introducing the concept of local and general apportioning factor. Experimental and simulated results are presented


The emerging relationship between China and Russia is perhaps the most important force redefining international relations in post-Cold War Asia. In the past five years, Russia and China have built a ""strategic partnership aimed at the 21st century,"" a development that deeply worries some Western observers and puzzles others. In this first comprehensive study of Russian-Chinese relations, Sherman Garnett and a team of 15 U.S., Russian, and Chinese scholars analyze the most important issues posed by the relationship, including cross-border trade, the impact of Russia's center-periphery politics, migration, arms sales, and (mis)perceptions of one another. The book assesses what will be one of the most important relationships, economically and strategically, in the dynamic region stretching from Central Asia to the Far East. It also weighs the prospects for real cooperation between Russia, a severely weakened power, and China, a power on the rise. Contributing authors include Stephen Blank, Sherman Garnett, Vilya Gel'bras, Harry Gelman, Li Jingjie, Michael McFaul, Lu Nanquan, Martha Olcott, Gilbert Rozman, Judith Thornton, Dmitri Trenin, Tamara Troyakova, Galina Vitkovskaya, Alexei Voskressenski, Elizabeth Wishnick, and Zhanna Zayonchkovskaya.


Automated answering of natural language questions is an interesting and useful problem to solve. Question answering (QA) systems often perform information retrieval at an initial stage. Information retrieval (IR) performance, provided by engines such as Lucene, places a bound on overall system performance. For example, no answer bearing documents are retrieved at low ranks for almost 40% of questions.

In this paper, answer texts from previous QA evaluations held as part of the Text REtrieval Conferences (TREC) are paired with queries and analysed in an attempt to identify performance-enhancing words. These words are then used to evaluate the performance of a query expansion method.

Data driven extension words were found to help in over 70% of difficult questions. These words can be used to improve and evaluate query expansion methods. Simple blind relevance feedback (RF) was correctly predicted as unlikely to help overall performance, and an possible explanation is provided for its low value in IR for QA.


Abstract Understanding early life has been one of the hottest topics in palaeobiology for many years, attracting some of the finest palaeontological minds. Three of the most fundamental innovations in the history of life were the appearance of the first cells, the evolution of multi-cellularity and the evolution of animals. The MOFAOTYOF principle (my oldest fossils are older than your oldest fossils) commonly clouds discussions around the oldest fossil evidence, requiring a rigorous and critical approach to determining which fossils are reliable and should form the basis of our understanding of early life. In addition, evidence for early fossils must be considered within their spatial context; we need to understand the conditions under which they were preserved and how they were preserved. This book summarizes recent progress in the fields of: (1) the cellular preservation of early microbial life; and (2) the early evolution of macroscopic animal life, including the Ediacaran biota. Deciphering the evidence for early life requires some degree of exceptional preservation, employment of state-of-the-art techniques and also an understanding gleaned from Phanerozoic lagerstätte and modern analogues. This integrated approach to understanding fossils, combined with adoption of the null hypothesis that all putative traces of life are abiotic until proved otherwise, characterized the work of Martin Brasier, as is well demonstrated by the papers in this book. Supplementary material: A chronological listing of all Martin Brasier's publications is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3727696


Background Millions of patients suffering Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) are treated with TNF-α inhibiting agents, however, response rate is low (30 to 40%) and no tool exists to predict the treatment response. Objectives Using the HTG-Edgeseq platform, an innovative combination of nuclease protection assay and next generation sequencing, we identified sets of miRNAs that discriminate responders from non-responders to anti TNF-α therapy. Methods Sixty-seven patients diagnosed with RA, eligible for treatment with 1st line anti-TNFα and for whom DMARD therapy had failed were enrolled in the study. Twelve to 14 weeks after anti-TNFα therapy, patients were categorized as responders or non-responders based on DAS28 index. Patients' miRNA profile was established from 15μl of plasma using HTG-Edgeseq Whole Transcriptome Assay (WTA) miRNA panel (2256 miRNA). Results were normalized based on the median of the sample and Random forest was used as the classification model. For 8 patients, miRNA were also analyzed with the qPCR Exiqon miRNA panel V4 to determine HTG-Edgeseq accuracy. Method reproductibility was assessed by analyzing 4 times an independent sample on different sites, with different instruments/days/operators. Results Results obtained from both HTG-Edgeseq and qPCR methods showed an overall correlation of 0.63 for the 341 miRNA common between those 2 kits, and correlations factors between the 4 independent experiments ranged from 0.993 to 0.999. Statistical analysis of patients' miRNA profile identified 2 panels of 6 and 52 miRNAs with significant predictive power to discriminate responders from non-responders (sensitivity was 0.898 and 0.918, and AUC 0.773 and 0.824 respectively). Conclusions In conclusion, miRNA profiling in RA patients using HTG-EdgeSeq allowed us to build 2 predictive models for response to anti-TNF-α drugs. Moreover, we showed that HTG-Edgeseq platform offers accurate and sensitive miRNA expression measurement. Its low sample input requirement and compatibility with all biological material makes it an invaluable tool for biomarkers discovery. Disclosure of Interest None declared


With the development of WebGIS, it plays a more and more important role in government and enterprises. The effective way to access and control spatial data, because of relating to the security and business secrets of government and enterprises, becomes an urgent concern for them. Now, RBAC (Role Based Access Control) can be a valid method to access and control uniform resource, but it is lack of flexibility and real-time ability to control spatial data in WebGIS. For that, this paper proposes G-RBAC model based on RBAC model to enhance the flexibility and real-time ability to access spatial data.


In an influential paper, Peter Singer claims that affluent people have a strong obligation to relieve famine. If they fail, they allow others to die, and makes them murderers. In responding to this outrageous claim, which has given uneasy conscience to many, I show that Singer is engaged in indefensible moralizing that substitutes bullying for reasoned argument and gives a bad name to morality.


We introduce CS1QA, a dataset for code-based question answering in the programming education domain. CS1QA consists of 9,237 question-answer pairs gathered from chat logs in an introductory programming class using Python, and 17,698 unannotated chat data with code. Each question is accompanied with the student's code, and the portion of the code relevant to answering the question. We carefully design the annotation process to construct CS1QA, and analyze the collected dataset in detail. The tasks for CS1QA are to predict the question type, the relevant code snippet given the question and the code and retrieving an answer from the annotated corpus.Results for the experiments on several baseline models are reported and thoroughly analyzed. The tasks for CS1QA challenge models to understand both the code and natural language. This unique dataset can be used as a benchmark for source code comprehension and question answering in the educational setting.


Several ocean colour (OC) Earth observation (EO) sensors are presently collecting data on an operational basis, including the Envisat MERIS sensor. This study aims at quantifying the differences in performance of the ocean colour EO sensors MERIS, MODIS/Aqua, and SeaWiFS for coastal monitoring and for the particular case of coastal algal bloom situations. The standard chlorophyll a, and radiance and reflectance products from the three sensors have been processed and compared for data acquired during the development of an early-spring algal bloom in 2004 in the eastern North Sea region. The study shows a high level of consistency between the Case 1 water Chl a products for all sensors. We conclude that the use of MERIS Chl a and other relevant products enable continued and possibly improved performance of an existing system for harmful algal bloom (HAB) detection and monitoring which up to December 2004 has been based on SeaWiFS.


Leading up to the time just before the economic and global meltdown of 2008, economist and theorist forecasted as early as 2005 about and impending financial crisis that would affect every sector of the business and financial community. As we discover in more dramatic detail that family firms are occupying a big percentage in small to medium size enterprises, we wondered how they would be affected by such a high degree of uncertainty and volatility in the financial markets during the economic crisis. With these factors in mind, we would like to see it in a more day–to–day, practical application within family firms. In the supply chain or procurement life-cycle, firms need to receive products and services from the supplier and the supplier will in turn offer those same services to the customer. The firm will tend to structure this tradeoff with a contractual structure to guarantee achievement of mutual benefit and economic objectives of the firm. On the other hand, family firms are famous for being distinguish from non-family firms in their non-economic objective they persuade along their businesses. Considering these two different logics that affects the decision of the firm in structuring contractual governance with the exchanging party. We ask the following questions in our purpose.


We developed a clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/retron system for multiplexed generation of substitution mutations by co-utilization of a retron system that continuously expresses donor DNA and a CRISPR/Cas9 cassette that induces cleavage at target genomic loci. Our system efficiently introduces substitution mutation in the Escherichia coli genome in a high-throughput manner. These substitution mutations can be tracked by analysis of retron plasmid sequences without laborious amplification of individual edited loci. We demonstrated that our CRISPR/retron system can introduce thousands of mutations in a single experiment and be used for screening phenotypes related to chemical responses or fitness changes. We expect that our system could facilitate genome-scale substitution screenings.


There has been continuous progress in the development of different synthesis methods to readily produce graphene at a lower cost. Compared with the other methods, chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is an effective and powerful method of producing graphene and has attracted increased attention during the last decade. In this way, we can obtain good uniformity with a multitude of domains, excellent quality, and large scale of the pro - duced graphene. Meanwhile, it is also helping for large-area synthesis of single-crystal graphene. In the CVD method, precursors are typically absorbed on the surface followed by pyrolytic decomposition, which leads to the generation of absorption sites on the sur face and promotes the growth of continuous thin films.


We report a synergistic method using bioassay-directed liquid chromatography fractionation and time-of-flight mass spectrometry to guide and accelerate bioactive compound discovery. To steer purification and assays toward anticipated neutral lipid activators of a constitutive androstane receptor splice variant, a relative mass defect filter was calculated, based on the ratio of the mass defect to the measured ion mass, and used to reduce the number of candidate ion masses. Mass measurements often lack sufficient accuracy to provide unambiguous assignments of elemental compositions, and since the relative mass defect reflects fractional hydrogen content of ions, this value is largely determined by the hydrogen content of a compound's biosynthetic precursors. A relative mass defect window ranging from 600-1000 ppm, consistent with an assortment of lipids, was chosen to assess the number of candidate ions in fractions of fetal bovine serum. This filter reduced the number of candidate ion m/z values from 1345 to 892, which was further reduced to 21 by intensity and isotope filtering. Accurate mass measurements from time-of-flight mass spectrometry and fragment ion masses generated using nonselective collision-induced dissociation suggested dioctyl phthalate as one of few neutral lipid constituents in the active fraction. The identity of this compound was determined to be di(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate using GC/MS, and it was ranked as a promising candidate for reporter assay screening.


This major reference book provides an authoritative analysis and survey of consumer research and economic psychology. It provides an international, in-depth overview of the present state of knowledge and theory which will be indispensable to students, researchers and practitioners. The Companion presents over 100 specially commissioned entries on important topics in consumer research and economic psychology from behaviourism and brand loyalty to trust and the psychology of tourism.


In the 1970s, when the bipolar transistor was the undisputed king of analog integrated circuits (ICs), most electrical engineers regarded the MOS transistor as a second-rate device for ICs: it was a good switch, but a mediocre amplifier. As a graduate student at UC Berkeley, under the supervision of Paul Gray, Yannis Tsividis had a very different vision. He saw the MOS transistor as the future star for mixed-signal ICs and was excited to prove to the world he was right. The opening gambit was his thesis work demonstrating the first fully-integrated MOS opamp. This single achievement propelled him to the top of his generation of researchers and earned him a Berkeley PhD degree, a teaching appointment at Columbia University and a consulting position at Bell Laboratories.


⎯ Three dimension (3D) face model based on anthropometric data is used as facial plastic surgery simulation, which can be used for setting up a pre-surgery communication between a surgeon and his patient. All this time, Indonesian plastic surgeons have made preoperative and intraoperative evaluation based on the patient's aesthetic sense or desire, and the surgeon's operative technique preferences referring to subjective visual "landmark" and Caucasian parameters instead of referring to parameters of the normal Indonesian face which have not yet been established until now. The research objective is creating 3D digital modeling of the Indonesian facial type, which will provide useful reference points speedily, accurately and efficiently, in facial aesthetic and reconstructive plastic surgery and other interdisciplinary fields. The Methods is an applied study using anthropometric data as basis for formulation of 3D digital modeling of Indonesian facial type, performed 17-25 years old students without history of facial reconstruction and orthodontics. The first step was to distribute questioners to obtain criteria of normal and attractive female faces. Lateral cephalometric, photometric, direct anthropometric and photography were performed. Then the analysis results were applied to 3D modeling programs to make the Indonesian facial type digital geometry overview. Furthermore, the image was interpreted by an expert before concluding the end result. The results are description of distinguishing parameters between normal and attractive groups by discriminant test included nasal bridge index, binocular width, nasal tip protrusion, mouth width index. According to cephalometry and photometry results, the Indonesian face was more convex than the Caucasian face. Anthropometric, photometric and lateral cephalometric measurements played a significant role in differentiating the Indonesian face between normal and attractive also from faces of other races. 3D digital woman models can serve as instruments for characterizing normal and attractive faces visually.


ABSTRACT
 The western pine beetle, Dendroctonus brevicomis LeConte (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae), is a major cause of ponderosa pine, Pinus ponderosa Dougl. ex Laws., mortality in much of western North America. This study was designed to quantify relationships between western pine beetle trap catches [including those of its primary invertebrate predator Temnochila chlorodia (Mannerheim) (Coleoptera: Trogositidae)], and levels of tree mortality attributed to western pine beetle at 44 trapping sites (stands) and within five general locations (forests) in California. Furthermore, we evaluated relationships between forest stand characteristics and levels of western pine beetle-caused tree mortality. Preliminary analyses were conducted by Pearson's correlation coefficient (r) using tree mortality per hectare and percentage of tree mortality and 10 potential predictor variables. All predictor variables that had significant correlations (western pine beetle per day, western pine beetle: T. chlorodia, percentage of western pine beetle [percentage of total trap catch represented by western pine beetle], trees per hectare, basal area of all tree species, basal area of P. ponderosa, mean diameter at breast height [dbh] and stand density index) were considered for linear and multiple linear regression models for predicting levels of western pine beetle-caused tree mortality. Our results suggest monitoring western pine beetle populations through the use of pheromone-baited multiple funnel traps is not an effective means of predicting levels of western pine beetle-caused tree mortality. However, levels of western pine beetle-caused tree mortality can be efficiently predicted (adjusted R 2 >0.90) at large spatial scales (forests; ≈3,000–14,000 ha of contiguous host) by simply measuring stand density, specifically the basal area of all tree species or stand density index. The implications of these results to forest management are discussed.


Background. Liver fibrosis progresses faster in individuals coinfected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV). Interferon λ3 (IFN-λ3) has both antiviral and proinflammatory properties. Genotypes at IFNL single-nucleotide proteins (SNPs; rs12979860CC and rs8099917TT) are linked to higher HCV clearance, potentially via rs8103142. We examined the relationship between IFN-λ genotypes and significant liver fibrosis in HIV-HCV coinfection. Methods. From the prospective Canadian Co-infection Cohort (n = 1423), HCV RNA–positive participants in whom IFN-λ genotypes were detected and who were free of fibrosis, end-stage liver disease, and chronic hepatitis B at baseline (n = 485) were included. Time to significant fibrosis (defined as an aspartate transaminase level to platelet count ratio index [APRI] of ≥1.5) by IFN-λ genotypes was analyzed using Cox proportional hazards, with adjustment for age, sex, ethnicity, alcohol use, CD4+ T-cell count, HCV genotype, γ-glutamyl transferase level, and baseline APRI. Haplotype analysis was performed, with adjustment for ethnicity. Results. A total of 125 participants developed fibrosis over 1595 person-years (7.84 cases/100 person-years; 95% confidence interval [CI], 6.58–9.34 cases/100 person-years). Each genotype was associated with an increased fibrosis risk, with adjusted hazard ratios of 1.37 (95% CI, .94–2.02) for rs12979860CC, 1.34 (95% CI, .91–1.97) for rs8103142TT, and 1.79 (95% CI, 1.24–2.57) for rs8099917TT. Haplotype TCT was also linked with a higher risk (hazard ratio, 1.14 [95% CI, .73–1.77]). Conclusions. IFN-λ SNPs rs12979860, rs8099917, and rs81013142 were individually linked to higher rates of fibrosis in individuals with HIV-HCV coinfection. IFN-λ genotypes may be useful to target HCV treatments to people who are at higher risk of liver disease.


This dissertation reports sympathetic cooling of the molecular hydroxyl anion (OH– ) via collisions with ultra cold rubidium (Rb) atoms. The anion's translational and rotational degrees of freedom were cooled simultaneously. A new generation hybrid atom-ion trap (HAITrap) has been set up, combining an octupole radio frequency (rf) trap for ion storage and a dark-spontaneous force optical trap (darkSPOT) for Rb atoms. While the octupole rf-trap provides a large rf-field-free region decreasing rf-induced collisional heating, the darkSPOT reinforces this effect by locating the atom cloud in the center of the ion trap. The darkSPOT also enables to generate large dark state fractions, suppressing associative detachment and thus ion losses. Evidence on translational sympathetic cooling in the HAITrap was provided using two methods of kinetic thermometry: photodetachment tomography (PD) and measurements of the time of flight (ToF) distribution. The ToF analysis has shown to be more conclusive and numerical simulations validated the experimental findings qualitatively. Based on a one dimensional ToF-temperature mapping, the narrowest measured energy spread would correspond to a temperature of 35 ± 5K. Deviations from thermal distributions were observed, as predicted from a theoretical model developed by our group. Rotational sympathetic cooling was observed via state selective photodetachment (SSPD). This was performed by pre-cooling the atoms with helium buffer gas at 295K and further cooling the ions with Rb at 300 μK. SSPD thermometry yielded a 70% decrease of the anions rotational temperature after interaction with Rb. These experimental findings could have direct applications in cold collision studies, quantum control of chemical reactions or sympathetic cooling of anti-protons.


The low grade of copper deposits and the use of the froth flotation process have caused excessive tailing production. In recent years, experts have looked for new alternative methods to improve this situation. Black copper minerals are abundant resources not exploited by large-scale copper mining and possess high Mn concentrations. On the other hand, manganese nodules are submarine resources and show high concentrations of Cu, Ni, Fe, and, mainly, Mn. However, both mineral resources are refractory to conventional leaching processes, and so a reducing agent is necessary for their treatment. We studied the use of tailings obtained from the flotation of foundry slags with a high content of Fe3O4 as reducing agents at different MnO2/tailings ratios and H2SO4 concentrations. Mn dissolution was compared in marine nodule and black copper minerals samples. It was found that higher Mn dissolutions are obtained from marine nodules, likely due to the acid consumption created by Cu dissolution from black copper minerals. The remnant elements in manganese nodules were leached under an oxidant condition.


Garidi-5, a traditional medicine composed of 5 herbs including Terminalia chebula Retz., Aconitum Kusnezoffii Reichb., Acorus calamus L., Saussurea lappa L., and musk of Moschus moschiferus, has been used in traditional Mongolian medicine as an analgesic and antibacterial medicine. The present work was undertaken to evaluate the traditional drug Garidi-5 for its anti-inflammatory activity. Methods . The method of Winter et al. was used to study acute inflammation. Rats in groups of five each were treated with vehicle, Garidi-5 (20, 80 and 200 mg/kg, p.o.) and Indometacin (10 mg/kg) one hour prior to Carrageenan injection. 0.1 ml of 1% Carrageenan was injected into the subplantar tissue of left hind paw of each rat. Swelling of carrageenan injected foot was measured at 0, 0.5, 2, 4 h using Plethysmometer (UGO Basile, Italy)). The right hind paw was injected with 0.1 ml of vehicle. Results . The Garidi-5 (20, 80 and 200 mg/kg) significantly (P<0.01) inhibited carrageenan induced rat paw edema as compared to control group. Maximum inhibition of paw edema was observed with Garidi-5 (80 and 200 mg/kg) at 4 h when compared to the control group. In assay data, the TNF- α secretion in serum were highly elevated by carrageenan induction but administration of Garidi-5 significantly reduced serum secretion of inflammatory mediators as compared to vehicle group. Con clu sion . In conclusion, these results suggested that Mongolian traditional drug Garidi-5 analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects.


Schisms within groups are extremely widespread, yet the phenomenon has been virtually ignored within social psychology. Indeed prominent theories of group process virtually exclude the possibility of schism by presupposing the unitary nature of group identity. In this paper we offer a social psychological approach to the schismatic process based on the idea that, while group members may expect to achieve consensus, the issue of where that consensus should reside may be a matter of argument. When differing constructions cannot be reconciled such that what one faction considers to represent group identity is seen by the another to contradict group identity, then the basis for schism exists. This approach is illustrated using an analysis of the 1991 split of the Italian Communist Party (PCI) into two organizations, the PDS and RC. Interviews with 26 members of these two organizations show that they produce different arguments concerning the identity of the categories involved. However, all the arguments are structured so as to construe the ingroup faction as consonant with the true identity of the PCI and the outgroup faction as dissonant with that identity. The implication of this analysis both for a social psychology of schism and for the conceptualization of group consensus are discussed. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Forest management requires the use of comprehensive remote sensing data which enable monitoring of biodiversity changes. Biophysical and biochemical vegetation parameters can characterize changes in biodiversity through changes in ecosystem structure and function. To address this need the University of Twente, Faculty ITC (the Netherlands) in collaboration with the Bavarian Forest National Park and the German Aerospace Center, (DLR) in Oberpfaffenhofen coordinated a summer school in July 2017. The two weeks of summer school was funded by EUFAR and was hosted by the Bavarian Forest National Park and DLR. The 19 participants of the summer school were PhD students and post-docs from 10 EU member states. The summer school offered the field expertise as well as the technical skills to understand and measure a number of essential biodiversity variables (EBVs) in forest ecosystems. Further, the students learned how to process the hyperspectral, thermal , and LiDAR data for the estimation of EBVs. The course contained two days of fieldwork in the Bavarian Forest National Park, and the participants of different themes (Hyperspectral, Thermal, LiDAR) were trained how to perform field measurements of various EBVs in a forest ecosystem. Further, the course participants were taught how to conduct field spectroscopy, thermal spectrometry and terrestrial LiDAR measurements. Concurrent to the time of field measurements an airborne campaign with the NERC Airborne Research Facility (NERC-ARF) was organized that simultaneously acquired hyperspectral as well as thermal-infrared imaging data using the Specim AISA Fenix and Owl systems, respectively. The second half of the summer school was parallel with the ICARE 2017 conference, and the course participants visited the aircraft exhibition and were welcomed by the airborne research and operator community.


Nanostructured Aluminum Nitride (AlN) has been prepared by carbothermal reduction followed by nitridation (CTRN) of alumina gel over a temperature range 1200°C–1350°C and time period of 30 min to 3 h. Before heat treatment the gel is repeatedly evacuated and purged with ammonia. The nanopores of the gel are filled with ammonia which acts as a source of in situ nitrogen at heat-treatment temperature. Dextrose also decomposes at the reduction temperature and generates ultrafine carbon. The stability diagram of the carbon saturated Al–N–O system is constructed and it shows that extremely low partial pressure of oxygen is required for the stability of AlN. The ultrafine carbon as well as hydrogen from the cracking of ammonia is not sufficient to create the extremely low partial pressure of oxygen required for the stabilization of AlN. So the sample is heat treated in charcoal boat in nitrogen atmosphere to achieve an extremely low partial pressure of oxygen required for the formation of AlN. The material has been characterized through XRD, FESEM, and HRTEM analyses. The spherical particle size of AlN is obtained ∼21 nm.


As waves travel and shoal towards a beach, their surface elevation becomes peaky (sharp crests) and asymmetric relative to the vertical, differing from the sinusoidal profile of linear waves. Below the surface, the passage of the progressive waves induces fluid velocities, showing similar (time) asymmetries. These nonlinearities are inextricably linked to sediment transport, but the processes involved are not well understood. This work analyses the data collected during a recent experimental project under skewed oscillatory flows. It validates a simple method based on the defect law to reproduce the horizontal velocities within the wave bottom boundary layer. Results indicate a good agreement between the measured and modeled velocities using this methodology.


In this review we summarize data obtained from animal studies showing that glucocorticoid hormones have a facilitatory role on behavioural responses to psychostimulant drugs such as locomotor activity, self‐administration and relapse. These behavioural effects of glucocorticoids involve an action on the meso‐accumbens dopamine system, one of the major systems mediating the addictive properties of drugs of abuse. The effects of glucocorticoids in the nucleus accumbens are site‐specific; these hormones modify dopamine transmission in only the shell of this nucleus without modifying it in the core. Studies with corticosteroid receptor antagonists suggest that the dopaminergic effects of these hormones depend mostly on glucocorticoid, not on mineralocorticoid receptors. These data suggest that an increase in glucocorticoid hormones, through an action on mesolimbic dopamine neurons, could increase vulnerability to drug abuse. We also discuss the implications of this finding with respect to the physiological role of glucocorticoids. It is proposed that an increase in glucocorticoids, by activating the reward pathway, could counteract the aversive effects of stress. During chronic stress, repeated increases in glucocorticoids and dopamine would result in sensitization of the reward system. This sensitized state, which can persist after the end of the stress, would render the subject more responsive to drugs of abuse and consequently more vulnerable to the development of addiction.


Abstract. Submarine springs are a common discharge feature of the karst aquifers along the Mediterranean coast. In some instances, occasional and localized
saltwater intrusions can occur through the submarine spring and negatively
impact the quality of the groundwater resource. The hydraulic and
geochemical behaviour of a submarine spring discharging into the Thau Lagoon just offshore of the Balaruc peninsula near Montpellier, France, has been characterized to determine the impacts of such phenomena to better
understand the dynamics of a regional karst aquifer and improve its
groundwater management. This work is based on both historical and new
hydrogeological and geochemical data, illustrating six occasional saltwater intrusion events (from 1967 to 2014) in the Thau Lagoon area (southern France). Hydraulic perturbation of the aquifer is propagated instantly within the
Balaruc-les-Bains peninsula and reaches a distance of about 5 km upgradient within 9 d. Comparison of hydraulic heads during seawater intrusion events in 2010 and 2014 indicates an aggravation of the phenomenon with an increase in hydraulic head variations. In contrast, isotopic tracers (87Sr∕86Sr, D/H, 18O∕16O) and rare earth elements (REEs) demonstrate that the geochemical impact of these inversac events is only observed at the local scale but is still perceptible several years after the event. For example, some of the thermal wells had not recovered their initial geochemical state 20 and 40 months after the last two inversac events (2010 and 2014, respectively), suggesting a geochemical legacy of this phenomenon within the complex karst system. By contrast, an adjacent deep karst compartment located south of the study area is not affected by the saltwater intrusion and is characterized by distinctly different hydrodynamic behaviour. Overall, this work on occasional and localized saltwater intrusions constitutes a key step in understanding the dynamics of this complex karstic and thermal aquifer and will support the management of the groundwater resource.


China's rise has been the greatest development of the 21st century. It has emerged as the second largest economy in the world, a country with a modern army and nuclear weapons. China's rise has come to be seen as a major threat by the West and especially the US. Most scholarly debates predict that it will lead to a conflict between China and the US. Set in this context, this paper takes John Mearsheimer's theory of offensive realism, which predicts intense competition and conflict between China and the US and examines China's behaviour as a rising power against it. The paper finds that far from being an aggressive, hegemonic and a revisionist state, China is a status quo power that aims to preserve its position in the international system rather than upset it. The paper argues that China's behaviour displays elements of defensive rather than offensive realism.


Virtual Worlds (VW) are online environments where people come together to interact and perform various tasks. The chat transcripts of interactions in VWs pose unique opportunities and challenges for language analysis: Firstly, the language of the transcripts is very brief, informal, and task-oriented. Secondly, in addition to chat, a VW system records users' in-world activities. Such a record could allow us to analyze how the language of interactions is linked to the users actions. For example, we can make the language analysis of the users dialogues more effective by taking into account the context of the corresponding action or we can predict or detect users actions by analyzing the content of conversations. Thirdly, a joined analysis of both the language and the actions would empower us to build effective modes of the users and their behavior. In this paper we present a corpus constructed from logs from an online multiplayer game BladeMistress. We describe the original logs, annotations that we created on the data, and summarize some of the experiments.


Rough Rider, hunter, trust-buster, president, and Bull Moose candidate. Biographers have long fastened on TR as man of action, while largely ignoring his political thought. Now, in time for the centennial of his Progressive run for the presidency, Jean Yarbrough provides a searching examination of TR's political thought, especially in relation to the ideas of Washington, Hamilton, and Lincoln--the statesmen TR claimed most to admire. Yarbrough sets out not only to explore Roosevelt's vision for America but also to consider what his political ideas have meant for republican self-government. She praises TR for his fighting spirit, his love of country, and efforts to promote republican greatness, but faults him for departing from the political principles of the more nationalistic Founders he esteemed. With the benefit of hindsight, she argues that the progressive policies he came to embrace have over time undermined the very qualities Roosevelt regarded as essential to civic life. In particular, the social welfare policies he championed have eroded industry and self-reliance; the expansion of the regulatory state has multiplied the special interests seeking access to political power; and the bureaucratic experts in whom he reposed such confidence have all too often turned out to be neither disinterested nor effective. Yarbrough argues that TR's early historical studies--inspired by Darwinian biology and Hegelian political thought--treated westward expansion from an evolutionary and developmental perspective that placed race and conquest at the centre of the narrative, while relegating individual rights and consent of the governed to the sidelines. Although his early career showed him to be a moderate Republican reformer, Yarbrough argues that even then he did not share Hamilton's enthusiasm for the commercial republic, and substituted an appeal to "abstract duty" for The Federalist 's reliance on self-interest. As New York governor and first-term president, TR attempted to strike a "just balance" between democratic and oligarchic interests, but by the end of his presidency he had tipped the balance in favour of progressive policies. From the New Nationalism until his death in 1919, Roosevelt continued to claim the mantle of Washington and Lincoln, even as he moved further from their political principles. Through careful examination of TR's political thought, Yarbrough's book sheds new light on his place in the American political tradition, while enhancing our understanding of the roots of progressivism and its transformation of the Constitution.


Harnessing biomass to fabricate electronic devices has lately drawn significant research attention because it not only represents a promising strategy for making materials but is also beneficial for the sustainable development of technologies. Numerous recent studies have demonstrated that green materials are promising candidates for synthesizing high-performance materials, such as biopolymers and hierarchical porous carbons. To catch up with this emerging tide, we have here compiled a comprehensive overview of state-of-the-art green materials, with a specific emphasis on recent progress in biodegradable polymeric materials and biomass-based carbon materials, together with their electronics and energy storage applications. Besides, we also assess the performance of end-of-life electronics recycling to highlight the merits of integrating green design with resource recovery.


Studies were carried out to determine the effects of salt stress (0.25, 1.00, 2.00, 4.00 and 6.00 dSm -1 ) and water deficiency (0, 12.5, 25.0, 37.5 and 50.0 %) on some yield components and essential oil contents of lemon balm (Melissa officinalis L.). The results showed moderate tolerance of lemon balm against salt with death of all plants when irrigation water had salinity level of 6 dSm -1 . Dry yield per plant under salt stress varied between 4.33-14.87 g with maximum yield at 1 dSm -1 salt concentration. Lemon balm was found highly tolerant against water stress. Dry yield under water deficit varied from 13.05 to 19.20 g per plant. Reduction in yield was not statistically significant till 25 % water deficiency. Each increase in salt stress was accompanied with reduction in essential oil, whereas its ratio increased with each increase in water deficiency.


BACKGROUND
Users of typical antipsychotic drugs have an increased risk of serious ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. However, less is known regarding the cardiac safety of the atypical antipsychotic drugs, which have largely replaced the older agents in clinical practice.

METHODS
We calculated the adjusted incidence of sudden cardiac death among current users of antipsychotic drugs in a retrospective cohort study of Medicaid enrollees in Tennessee. The primary analysis included 44,218 and 46,089 baseline users of single typical and atypical drugs, respectively, and 186,600 matched nonusers of antipsychotic drugs. To assess residual confounding related to factors associated with the use of antipsychotic drugs, we performed a secondary analysis of users of antipsychotic drugs who had no baseline diagnosis of schizophrenia or related psychoses and with whom nonusers were matched according to propensity score (i.e., the predicted probability that they would be users of antipsychotic drugs).

RESULTS
Current users of typical and of atypical antipsychotic drugs had higher rates of sudden cardiac death than did nonusers of antipsychotic drugs, with adjusted incidence-rate ratios of 1.99 (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.68 to 2.34) and 2.26 (95% CI, 1.88 to 2.72), respectively. The incidence-rate ratio for users of atypical antipsychotic drugs as compared with users of typical antipsychotic drugs was 1.14 (95% CI, 0.93 to 1.39). Former users of antipsychotic drugs had no significantly increased risk (incidence-rate ratio, 1.13; 95% CI, 0.98 to 1.30). For both classes of drugs, the risk for current users increased significantly with an increasing dose. Among users of typical antipsychotic drugs, the incidence-rate ratios increased from 1.31 (95% CI, 0.97 to 1.77) for those taking low doses to 2.42 (95% CI, 1.91 to 3.06) for those taking high doses (P<0.001). Among users of atypical agents, the incidence-rate ratios increased from 1.59 (95% CI, 1 .03 to 2.46) for those taking low doses to 2.86 (95% CI, 2.25 to 3.65) for those taking high doses (P=0.01). The findings were similar in the cohort that was matched for propensity score.

CONCLUSIONS
Current users of typical and of atypical antipsychotic drugs had a similar, dose-related increased risk of sudden cardiac death.


Heuristic QoS algorithms under strict constraints perform poorly in terms of finding a path that is suitable for a user's QoS needs-the multiple constraint path problem (MCP). Exact QoS algorithms, on the other hand, guarantee that a path satisfying user needs would be found and offer a more realistic approach for solving the MCP problem in view of the fact that the NP-complete character of graphs are not common in real networks. This fact has driven approaches like the SAMCRA and A*prune algorithms. However, these algorithms still have very high running times relative to heuristic approaches. When QoS routing algorithms are used in online traffic engineering (TE) environments it may be necessary to route thousands of traffic flows each minute. Exact algorithms simply cannot work in such environments. We propose a heuristic algorithm that is suitable for working in an online TE environment. Simulations show that this algorithm produce high success rates in terms of finding suitable constraint paths for user flows while at the same time having execution times comparable to another heuristic based algorithms.