PURPOSE
This study focused on developing a new method to assess VO2max outside laboratory conditions and without the need for maximal exertion. We hypothesized that the combined use of accelerometry and HR monitoring, under daily life conditions, could provide a good estimate of physical fitness.

METHODS
Twenty-six healthy subjects (15 women, 11 men), aged 28 +/- 7 yr, performed a maximal incremental test on a bicycle ergometer to determine VO2max. Body composition was measured with underwater weighing and deuterium dilution using a three-compartment model. A triaxial accelerometer (Tracmor) and an HR monitor were worn for seven consecutive days under free-living conditions. The ratio of HR to activity counts per minute (ACM) was used as a fitness index (HR.ACM(-1)).

RESULTS
As hypothesized, HR.ACM(-1) was significantly correlated with VO2max. Using fat-free mass (FFM) (P < 0.0001), age (P = 0.025), and HR.ACM(-1) (P = 0.021) as the independent variables, the explained variation in VO2max was 76% (P < 0.0001, SEE = 363 mL x min(-1)). In order to generate a prediction formula that is applicable in the field when no data on body composition are available, the same analysis was done with body mass and gender in the model instead of FFM. HR.ACM(-1) was significantly (P = 0.023) correlated with VO2max. The total explained variation of the model was 71%, with a SEE of 409 mL x min(-1), or 13.7% of the average VO2max.

CONCLUSION
After correction for body composition, VO2max was significantly related to HR.ACM(-1). It is, to our knowledge, the first tool that yields a measure of VO2max by monitoring people in their daily life activities without the need for a specific protocol or for maximal exertion, and therefore is applicable to a large variety of subjects.


The layer formation of phosphonic acids on mica surface as a model system, from aqueous and ethanol solutions has been investigated. The aggregation behavior (critical micelle concentration, cmc) of molecules in the solution phase has been determined by surface tension measurements in order to select the appropriate concentration for the layer formation experiments. Layer formation of self-assembling molecules of alkyl-phosphonic acids has been followed by atomic force microscopy (AFM). Nucleation, growth and coalescence of densely packed islands of phosphonates from ethanol solution have been recorded on mica surface. The structure of islands depends on the length of alkyl-chains. Self-assembly of phosphonates has been also observed from aqueous solution, as presented by octyl-phosphonic acid (OcPA). The height of OcPA islands is 1.46 0.22 nm, which is practically equal with the length of molecule (1.4 nm). This shows that OcPA molecules form monolayer height domains on the mica surface.


Operant conditioning has been shown to influence perceptual decision making in the auditory and visual modalities but the effects of conditioning on touch perception are unknown. If conditioning can be used to reduce the tendency to misinterpret somatic noise as signal (tactile false alarms), there may be the potential to use similar procedures in the treatment of excessive physical symptom reporting in clinical settings. We explored this possibility in 4 experiments investigating whether the false alarm (FA) rate in a somatic signal detection task (SSDT) could be altered with operant conditioning, and whether the resultant learning would transfer to other sensory decisions. In Experiments 1a and 2a, nonclinical participants were rewarded for hits and punished for misses on the SSDT, with a view to increasing their FA rate. In Experiments 1b and 2b, participants were rewarded for correct rejections and punished for FAs, with a view to decreasing their FA rate. Control participants received no treatment in Experiments 1a and 1b and underwent sham training in Experiments 2a and 2b. As predicted, operant conditioning increased (Experiments 1a, 2a) and decreased (Experiments 1b, 2b) FAs on the SSDT. Training effects did not transfer to an unrelated somatosensory task and there was only weak evidence for transfer to an auditory task in Experiment 2a. Auditory and tactile FAs correlated positively in the baseline phase. The results indicate that the tactile FA rate is trainable, but that the conditioning effect does not transfer across sensory decisions with this brief training paradigm.


Loranthus micranthus Linn. (Loranthaceae) is a botanically significant hemiparasite that grows on tree branches or trunks and is used in traditional medicine. This study compares the antioxidant activity and qualitative phytochemical screening of Nigerian and South Africa Loranthus micranthus Linn. Standard techniques for phytochemical screening were deployed while thin layer chromatography (TLC) bio-autography was utilized to analyze antioxidants qualitatively. Quantitative antioxidant analysis was performed using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH); hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) free-radical scavenging; and ferric chloride reducing power. The results of qualitative phytochemical screening revealed the presence of flavonoids; glycosides; saponins; phenolic compounds; phlobatannins; tannins; and terpenoids. As for the antioxidant potentials of the four extracts—i.e., Nigerian dichloromethane (NGDCM); South African dichloromethane (SADCM); Nigerian methanol (NGMeOH); and South African methanol (SAMeOH)—the SADCM extract had more creamy bands compared to the Nigerian, thus indicating potentially more antioxidant compounds. A better complementary antioxidant potential was observed for the Nigerian methanol extracts over their South African counterparts. The DPPH quantitative analyses underpin that the SADCM exhibited greater scavenging activity compared to the NGDCM, but this was less than the gallic acid control, with the highest activity at a concentration of 0.2 mg/mL and 0.4 mg/mL, respectively. However, as the concentration increased from 0.6 to 1.0 mg/mL, the SADCM again dominated in its antioxidant potential over all the analytes. The half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values obtained were [SADCM = 0.31 mg/mL, NGDCM = 0.51 mg/mL, SAMeOH = 0.51 mg/mL, NGMeO = 0.17, gallic acid = 1.17 mg/mL, and BHT = 1.47 Mg/mL)]. Both the H2O2 scavenging and the Fe3+ to Fe2+ reduction assays mirrored a similar trend in the antioxidant potentials of all the analytes except for the BHT, which performed better in the ferric chloride reduction assay at a concentration of 0.2–06 mg/mL. Based on the facts gathered, it can be inferred that the South African and Nigerian Loranthus micranthus Linn. are chemically equivalent. This is in support of their similar morphology and taxonomical classification, notwithstanding the environmental, biological, and edaphic impacts experienced by each plant.


This study conceptualized exploratory and exploitative learning as distinct team-level activities, constructed measures of them, and examined their relationships with psychological safety, task conflict, and team performance. Structural equation analysis in a sample of 142 innovation project teams indicated that psychological safety was linearly and nonlinearly related to team exploitative and exploratory learning, respectively; whereas task conflict positively moderated the relationship between psychological safety and exploitative learning. Furthermore, exploratory and exploitative learning were additively related to team performance, as rated by team managers, and mediated its relationship with psychological safety. The findings contribute to understanding how and under what conditions organizational teams engage in exploratory and exploitative learning to maximize their performance.


Despite improvements in preventive, diagnostic, and therapeutic approaches, lung cancer remains the leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. There are currently no effective therapies for those diagnosed with later stage lung cancer. Recent efforts have focused on targeting specific lung cancer-related growth pathways, such as the hepatocyte growth factor (HGF)/c-Met signaling pathway. HGF/c-Met signaling plays a critical role in mediating proliferation, angiogenesis, invasion, and inflammatory responses in non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC). This signaling pathway also confers resistance to therapies targeting other growth factor pathways such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF). This study focuses on two aspects of HGF/c-Met signaling relevant to lung cancer: HGF stimulated c-Met angiogenic response and EGFR ligand-induced c-Met pro-cancer signaling. We previously reported airway expression of a human HGF transgene (HGF TG) produced mice that were more susceptible to lung tumorigenesis induced by a tobacco carcinogen. Here we show untreated HGF TG mice display enhanced vascularization and lymph vessel formation in the lungs compared to wild-type (WT) littermates, as ascertained by microvessel density. Whole lung microarray analysis consistently found significant decreases in expression of genes involved in angiogenesis including the VEGF family of genes (Vegfa,Vegfb, Vegfc, Vegfd/Figf) at 10, 20, and 40 weeks of age in HGF TG animals compared to WT littermates. HGF TG lung tumors derived from carcinogen treated HGF TG mice demonstrated reduction in VEGF genes with an increased expression of five Cxcl family genes including Cxcl1 and Cxcl2 (murine forms of IL-8). Thus, increased vascularization produced by airway over-expression of HGF may occur through direct activation of c-Met on endothelial cells and expression of inflammatory mediators, rather than induction of VEGF pathways. Ligand-independent delayed and prolonged activation of c-Met has also been demonstrated previously by our laboratory via cross-talk from the EGFR pathway. Here we show that prolonged activation of STAT3 by EGFR-ligands is dependent on delayed c-Met activation. Inhibition of c-Met, by PHA665752, eliminates EGFR stimulated activation of STAT3 at delayed time points. The failure of Src inhibition, by PP2, to block delayed phospho-STAT3, and the co-immunoprecipitation of STAT3 with c-Met 8-24hours post EGF stimulation, suggests STAT3 is directly activated by c-Met. These data reinforce the idea that delayed c-Met activation is utilized by EGFR to potentiate its full biological effects through STAT3. Both ligand-dependent transient and ligand-independent delayed c-Met activation appear to be important in lung tumorigenesis. The findings of this study support future development of novel HGF/c-Met and EGFR combination therapies in NSCLC.


Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the causative organism for one of the pandemic diseases in the world, tuberculosis (TB). The length of treatment often results in multi-drug resistance (MDR) and patient non-compliance. One of the most important enzymes as a drug target for tuberculosis is dihydrofolate reductase (DHFR), which plays an important role in the folate cycle and inhibition of the enzyme stops cell growth. DHFR inhibitors are usually 2,4-diaminopyrimidines, which have high binding affinity to the enzyme but have the potential to inhibit the human enzyme. This project focuses on the development of new inhibitors with improved potency and selectivity for the M. tuberculosis enzyme. Inhibitors containing a 5-phenyl group were targeted in order to increase lipophilicity and binding to the enzyme, whilst reducing binding to the human enzyme. Condensation of diethyl phenylmalonate with guanidine followed by chlorination and amination of the carbonyl group gave 2-amino-6-chloro-4-pmethoxybenzylamino- 5-phenylpyrimidine, which was deprotected to give 6-chloro-2,4- diamino-5-phenylpyrimidine. Reaction of 2-amino-6-chloro-4-p-methoxybenzylamino- 5-phenyl-pyrimdine with different aromatic and aliphatic amines was also investigated. Amination with an amino alcohol in presence of potassium carbonate in the absence of solvents was used to synthesise a number of analogues. Deprotection of the pmethoxybenzylamine was achieved by DDQ oxidation to give the desired 2,4-diamino- 5-phenyl-6-aminoalcohol-pyrimidine products. The synthesis of the triol motif began with protection of ribonolactone and reduction of the carbonyl group to give the diol. Derivatisation of the product with various protecting goups was investigated.


We consider a problem of active diagnosis, where the goal is to efficiently identify an unknown object by sequentially selecting, and observing, the responses to binary valued queries. We assume that query observations are noisy, and further that the noise is persistent, meaning that repeating a query does not change the response. Previous work in this area either assumed the knowledge of the query noise distribution, or that the noise level is sufficiently low so that the unknown object can be identified with high accuracy. We make no such assumptions, and introduce an algorithm that returns a ranked list of objects, such that the expected rank of the true object is optimized. Furthermore, our algorithm does not require knowledge of the query noise distribution.


Low-speed machines play an important role in industrial production, and the condition monitoring of these machines is of great importance. Monitoring with wireless sensor network (WSN) has many advantages. To monitor the condition of low-speed machines, we need to acquire low-frequency, weak and hardly-varying physical signals. As such, we designed a WSN system for high-precision signal acquisition. Actual measurement results showed that the acquisition precision of nodes could reach 0.01 mV. When the sensor nodes continuously acquired and sent data, the energy conversion efficiency was higher than 90% and the nodes' power consumption came to about 110mW. The WSN system was designed based on the low-power consumption 802.15.4 MAC/Zigbee, and the WSN was built through MESH topology. Data transmission was stable and the PER was lower than 1%. The measurement results under laboratory and industrial field conditions showed that the WSN system designed met the requirements for on-site data acquisition and monitoring of low-speed machines.


We review the historical debate about the assessment of psychotherapy outcome, along with the current status of outcome research. Although strides in statistical techniques have allowed us to conclude that psychotherapy is effective, we argue that typical statistical measurement does not allow researchers to demonstrate the complexity of change for individuals. We thus recommend that researchers include individualized and qualitative approaches in their assessments of psychotherapy outcome.


Ceramide (a sphingolipid) and reactive oxygen species (ROS) are each partly responsible for the intracellular signal transduction of a variety of physiological, pharmacological or environmental agents. It has been reported that synthesis of ceramide and ROS are intimately linked, and show reciprocal regulation. The levels of ceramide are reported to be elevated in atherosclerotic plaques providing circumstantial evidence for a pro-atherogenic role for ceramide. Indeed, LDL may be important sources of ceramide from sphingomyelin, where it promotes LDL aggregation. Using synthetic, short chain ceramides to mimic the cellular responses to fluctuations in natural endogenous ceramides, we have investigated ceramide effects on both intracellular redox state (as glutathione and ROS) and redox-sensitive gene expression, specifically the scavenger receptor CD36 (using RT-PCR and flow cytometry), in U937 monocytes and macrophages. We describe that the principal redox altering properties of ceramide are to lower cytosolic peroxide and to increase mitochondrial ROS formation, where growth arrest of U937 monocytes is also observed. In addition, cellular glutathione was depleted, which was independent of an increase in glutathione peroxidase activity. Examination of the effects of ceramide on stress induced CD36 expression in macrophages, revealed a dose dependent reduction in CD36 mRNA and protein levels, which was mimicked by N-acetyl cysteine. Taken together, these data suggest that ceramides differentially affect ROS within different cellular compartments, and that loss of cytosolic peroxide inhibits expression of the redox sensitive gene, CD36. This may attenuate both the uptake of oxidised LDL and the interaction of HDL with macrophages. The resulting sequelae in vivo remain to be determined.


Abstract As some scholars have already suggested, the « Artemidorus map » does not depict a Spanish landscape, but a huge river delta. This article argues in favour of the Nile delta in Ptolemaic times. The three main river courses at the centre of the map correspond exactly to what Ps.Skylax (340 BC) called the « Sebennytic », « Mendesian » and « Phatnitic » mouths (stomata). Some peculiarities, like the Bubastis island and the Red Sea canal, seem to confirm this identification.


Social enterprise models have been critical in the recent crisis because resources are few, the need is great, and the challenges are new. Since 2007, the market has changed rapidly and frequently. Significant federal policy response did not arrive until 2009; and in 2013, public stimulus has largely been exhausted even as foreclosures continue to affect millions. In this changing market context, social enterprises have the advantage of an inherently responsive and flexible approach to creating social impact through a self-sustaining, or at least highly efficient, business platform.


Here, we report on the virtual screening, design, synthesis and structure–activity relationships (SARs) of the first class of selective, antibacterial agents against the energy-coupling factor (ECF) transporters. The ECF transporters are a family of transmembrane proteins involved in the uptake of vitamins in a wide range of bacteria. Inhibition of the activity of these proteins could reduce the viability of pathogens that depend on vitamin uptake. Because of their central role in the metabolism of bacteria and their absence in humans, ECF transporters are novel potential antimicrobial targets to tackle infection. The hit compound's metabolic and plasma stability, the potency (20, MIC Streptococcus pneumoniae = 2 µg/mL), the absence of cytotoxicity and a lack of resistance development under the conditions tested here suggest that this scaffold may represent a promising starting point for the development of novel antimicrobial agents with an unprecedented mechanism of action.


Experiments performed in laboratory animals suggest that ionizing radiation can induce DNA damage in the germ cells of exposed individuals and lead to various deleterious effects in their progeny, including miscarriage, low birth weight, congenital abnormalities and perhaps cancer. However, no clear evidence for such effects has been found in epidemiological studies of people exposed to radiation. The predicted risks of hereditary effects of any kinds resulting from parental exposure to relatively low doses of ionizing radiation remain very low, compared to the spontaneous risks in the absence of irradiation. Irradiation of the mouse embryo can lead to various effects (lethality, growth retardation, congenital abnormalities), depending on the period of gestation at which irradiation occurs. In humans, prenatal irradiation has only been exceptionally associated with congenital abnormalities, but irradiation between weeks 8-25 has been shown to be able to induce severe mental retardation. Although being not proven, the risk of developing a childhood cancer following prenatal irradiation may also not be excluded. Like for genetic effects, the risk of adverse effects following exposure of the embryo to relatively low doses remains quite low compared to the natural risks.


The study centers on principals' management techniques and effective schoolcommunity relation in Ahoada East Local Government Area of Rivers State. It is a correlational study. One research question guided this study. Relevant related works were reviewed for the purpose of study. Three hundred and fourteen teachers randomly selected and the principals of the fifteen government secondary school in Ahoada East Local Government Area represented the sample size. The principals' management techniques questionnaire was used to collect data for the study. Findings indicated that there is no significant difference between principals' management techniques and school community relations Based on the findings made that : (1) seminars and workshops should be organized from time to time by the ministry of education for principals on management techniques. (ii) The ministry of education or schools board should constantly encourage the principals' by giving them incentives in the form of a award or inservice training for excellent performances (iii) The Government should also pay teachers' salaries on time to improve their productivity.


This paper describes tones on citation syllables in Lhasa Tibetan. Acoustic data from six speakers showed that Lhasa has a high vs. low tonal contrast on the one hand; and its tonal melodies are highly constrained by syllable types on the other hand. Lhasa tones served as a typical case in Tibetan tonogenesis: First, the high vs. low tonal contrast results from the historical prevocalic voicing distinction; Second, tonal melodies are further developed from F0 perturbations of postvocalic consonants.


We report on the bipolar resistive switching (RS) behaviour observed from silver sulfide/silver (Ag2S/Ag) nanowire array and thin film structures fabricated under similar conditions. By examining the RS parameters measured using electrical probing with a similar tungsten probe on both types of structures, we conclude that the larger SET voltage and lower ON-state conductance in the thin film structures are the result of the longer conductive filamentary paths formed during the SET process. In addition, we found that the metal filament can be established at a constant voltage bias which is much lower than the measured SET voltage for a sweeping voltage bias, as long as the constant bias/stress voltage is applied for a sufficiently long duration. This time dependency in the SET process is possibly related to the migration and reduction of silver ions to form silver atoms at the filamentary formation site. Experimental results also show that an applied voltage bias, either with increasing magnitude or duration, will increase the ON-state conductance. This is explained by the increased cross-sectional area of the conductive filamentary path. From the comparative investigation of the RS parameter values obtained from the two different structures, it is concluded that nanostructuring of the Ag2S/Ag heterostructure from a two-dimensional thin film to a one-dimensional nanowire structure results in an improvement in the SET process parameters.


Introduction Manoeuvres such as Valsalva or adenosine injection are routinely applied in patients presenting with narrow complex tachycardia (NCT). However, such manoeuvres could not be applied in short burst of NCT on telemetry or holter monitoring. Thereby, precise diagnosis of the underlying rhythm may not be identified until invasive electro physiology study is performed. Such delays, potentially for few weeks, may put patients with undiagnosed atrial flutter at significant risk of developing thromboembolism. Therefore, other tools are needed to aid diagnosis and potentially management of NCT. We sought to establish whether coronary sinus measurement (diameter) would prove to be a useful predictor for the diagnosis of atrial flutter for patients with NCT. Methods A retrospective analysis of all consecutive patients who were referred to invasive electro physiology study following an episode of NCT between April 2013 and March 2014. CS size was measured blindly from EPs results and was recorded in end diastole using transthoracic echocardiography. Patients were divided into two groups: atrial flutter and non-flutter group. Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS 22.0. Results Total of 90 patients were identified and coronary sinus was identified in 80% of patients. Pulmonary vein isolation cases were excluded from the analysis. Patients who have potential risk of developing thromboembolism i.e., CHA2DS2-VASc 1) were only included in this analysis. Mean age was 55 ± 21, 40.4% males with mean CS of 7.4 mm. There was no significant difference between the flutter and non-flutter groups in terms of right ventricle size and function, left ventricle ejection fraction, left ventricle end diastolic diameter, symptoms duration or CHA2DS2-VASc score. Atrial flutter group were are older and less likely to be females. They also have statistically significant larger coronary sinus (8.3 versus 6.7 mm, p = 0.007, Figure 1). On univariable logistic regression analysis age, female gender, coronary sinus diameter and right atrial size were all predictors of atrial flutter (see Table). However, coronary sinus was the only independent predictor of atrial flutter diagnosis (OR 1.58, CI: 1.01–2.48, p = 0.046) using multivariable logistic regression analysis. Receiver Operating Characteristic area under the curve was 0.74 (p = 0.006) for the mean coronary size diameter of 7.4 mm to identify the flutter group (see Figure 2). Conclusion Coronary sinus might be a useful tool to predict atrial flutter in patients with NCT who are at risk of developing thromboembolism. It is a non-invasive simple marker which could be measure using echocardiogram.


The Gynecologic Cancer Intergroup (GCIG) is an international collaboration of cooperative clinical trials groups who conduct randomized phase III clinical trials in the population of women affected by gynecologic cancer. This collaboration amongst 18 member groups allows for rapid accrual of women to such trials with outcomes that are rapidly generated and readily generalizable to a broad population. Future considerations should include studies in prevention and translational research through improved processes and new global partnerships


Programming today's increasingly complex heterogeneous hardware is difficult, as it commonly requires the use of data-parallel languages, pragma annotations, specialized libraries, or DSL compilers. Adding explicit accelerator support into a larger code base is not only costly, but also introduces additional complexity that hinders long-term maintenance. We propose a new heterogeneous compiler that brings us closer to the dream of automatic accelerator mapping. Starting from a sequential compiler IR, we automatically generate a hybrid executable that - in combination with a new data management system - transparently offloads suitable code regions. Our approach is almost regression free for a wide range of applications while improving a range of compute kernels as well as two full SPEC CPU applications. We expect our work to reduce the initial cost of accelerator usage and to free developer time to investigate algorithmic changes.


INTRODUCTION
Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is an antioxidant that enhances the activity of complex I and II in the Electron Transport Chain. Many preclinical and clinical studies evaluated CoQ10 for neuroprotection against Parkinson's disease (PD). The aim of this study is to synthesize evidence from published randomized controlled trials (RCTs) about the benefit of CoQ10 supplementation for patients with Parkinson's disease.

METHODS
We followed the PRISMA statement guidelines during the preparation of this systematic review and metaanalysis. A computer literature search for (PubMed, EBSCO, Web of science and Ovid Midline) was carried out. We included RCTs comparing CoQ10 with placebo in terms of motor functions and quality of life. Outcomes of total Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), UPDRS I, UPDRS II, UPDRS III and Schwab and England scores were pooled as standardized mean difference (SMD) between two groups from baseline to the endpoint.

RESULTS
Five RCTs (981 patients) were included in this study. The overall effect did not favor either of the two groups in terms of: total UPDRS score (SMD -0.05, 95%CI [-0.10, 0.15]), UPDRS I (SMD -0.03, 95% CI [-0.23, 0.17]), UPDRS II (SMD -0.10, 95%CI [-0.35, 0.15]), UPDRS III (SMD -0.05, 95%CI [-0.07, 0.17]) or Schwab and England score (SMD 0.08, 95%CI [-0.13, 0.29]).

CONCLUSION
CoQ10 supplementation does not slow functional decline nor provide any symptomatic benefit for patients with Parkinson's disease.


: PSRO adopted a methodology in which first five days of hospitalization were exempted from utilization review. Substantial savings and expanded concurrent review resulted.


This paper explores the connections between math, as seen in the interplay of chaos and fractals, and literature, as seen in the form and structure of Dante's Divine Comedy and Stoppard's play Arcadia. Dante seems to intuitively grasp the order in the chaos that Benoit Mandelbrot and those that followed after him would formalize within fractal theory and dynamical systems theory centuries later. Stoppard is a separate case, showing that order and chaos are human themes, and also by bringing mathematics directly into his play. Stoppard's intentional and un-intentional connections serve as a bridge between the mathematics of fractals and the literature of Dante, and show that these two disparate disciplines connect on a fundamental and human level.


Nedaplatin, a cisplatin analog, has been developed to decrease the toxicities induced by cisplatin, such as nephrotoxicity and gastrointestinal toxicity. The dose of nedaplatin is determined by body surface area, not by the area under the curve (AUC). The recommended therapeutic dose is 80–100 mg/m2, although the pharmacokinetic profile of nedaplatin is similar to that of carboplatin. In our preliminary study, there was a favorable correlation between AUC and creatinine clearance (CL), suggesting that renal function should be considered when nedaplatin is administered. Ishibashi's formula, ie, DoseNDP = AUC × CLNDP, where CLNDP = 0.0738 × creatinine clearance + 4.47, would be predictable and useful for estimating the individual dose of nedaplatin. Several Phase II studies have suggested that nedaplatin might be a useful second analog, especially for patients with non-small cell lung cancer, esophageal cancer, uterine cervical cancer, head and neck cancer, or urothelial cancer. Further, nedaplatin was reported to be a useful chemotherapeutic agent with radiosensitizing properties; however, there is no Phase III study of nedaplatin, neither with chemotherapy nor with concurrent chemoradiotherapy, because nedaplatin is not commonly used throughout the world. Further evaluation in a randomized controlled trial is warranted to demonstrate definitively the activity of nedaplatin.


Abstract Purpose: Within a larger investigation of their conceptualizations of wellbeing, this article explores elements of physical health discussed by youth with vision impairment (VI) to inform physical health programs, with youths' personal motivation to be physically active previously identified as key to participation. Methods: Twenty-one youth (aged 12–25) participated. The qualitative data discussed was collected for each participant across three interviews/focus groups and audio-recording tasks in a project regarding their conceptualizations of wellbeing. Results: Thematic analysis identified an understanding of physical health characterized by four subthemes. First, participants' bodily health and fitness produced positive self-perceptions, but also held greater importance given the increased physical risks of living with VI. Second, energy—a positive, motivating feeling—held additional salience given extra demands upon participants related to their VIs. Thus, relaxation strategies (e.g., reading) were essential to meet these demands and recover from injury/pain (bodily health). Meanwhile, physical activity promoted fitness and vitality. Specific activities also entailed freedom of movement, contrasting heightened environmental risks in other settings. Conclusions: To better align with possible participation motivators, participants' discussions suggested that programs should target relaxation and energy in youth with VI—alongside physical activity—and offer free and safe movement in space. Implications for Rehabilitation Youth with vision impairment consider feelings of energy important to their physical health, alongside their bodily health and fitness. Physical health programs for youth with vision impairment should target both physical activity and relaxation. Youth with vision impairment report greater physical and social threats to their bodily safety in considering their bodily health. Physical health programs for youth with vision impairment should provide an opportunity for free movement in space to balance these lived physical risks.


A software vulnerability could be exploited without any visible symptoms. When no source code is available, although such silent program executions could cause very serious damage, the general problem of analyzing silent yet harmful executions is still an open problem. In this work, we propose a graph neural network (GNN) assisted data flow analysis method for spotting silent buffer overflows in execution traces. The new method combines a novel graph structure (denoted DFG+) beyond data-flow graphs, a tool to extract {\tt DFG+} from execution traces, and a modified Relational Graph Convolutional Network as the GNN model to be trained. The evaluation results show that a well-trained model can be used to analyze vulnerabilities in execution traces (of previously-unseen programs) without support of any source code. Our model achieves 94.39\% accuracy on the test data and successfully locates 29 out of 30 real-world silent buffer overflow vulnerabilities. Leveraging deep learning, the proposed method is, to our best knowledge, the first general-purpose analysis method for silent buffer overflows. It is also the first method to spot silent buffer overflows in global variables, stack variables, or heap variables without crossing the boundary of allocated chunks.


The operation of wearable epidermal biofuel cells is prone to rapid irreversible deactivation effects under dynamic sweat pH changes from neutral to acidic. We demonstrate that the encapsulation of lactate-oxidase (LOx) within a hydrophobic protective carbon-paste anode imparts unusually high stability during dynamically changing pH fluctuations and allows the BFC to continue harvesting the lactate bioenergy even after long exposures to acidic conditions. The unique power-recovery ability of the carbon-paste BFC after its failure in harsh pH is attributed to the protective action of the non-polar paste environment.


The growing needs for energy combined with the will to reduce CO2 emissions lead to the increase of the demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG), which will be stably available for many decades to come. Cryogenic materials used for the manufacture of the inner tanks for LNG storage are composed of 9% Ni steel plates with excellent low-temperature toughness, great ductility and crack resistance for a high safety level. To guarantee the reliability and safe operation of large-scale metallic structures exposed to cryogenic temperatures for extended periods, it is important to evaluate structural and mechanical properties of the metal base as well as the welded zone in their own operating conditions in order to prevent damages that could occur.


Vitamin D3 inhibits cell growth and induces apoptosis in several human cancer lines in vitro and in vivo. However, little is known about the molecular events involved in vitamin D3-induced apoptosis. Here, we demonstrate that the growth-promoting/pro-survival signaling molecule mitogen-activated protein kinase kinase (MEK) is cleaved in a caspase-dependent manner in murine squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) cells induced to undergo apoptosis by treatment with vitamin D3. Cleavage resulted in nearly complete loss of full-length MEK and ERK1/2 phosphorylation. ERK1/2 expression was affected only slightly. The phosphorylation and expression of Akt, a kinase regulating a second cell survival pathway, was also inhibited after treatment with vitamin D3. However, the pro-apoptotic signaling molecule MEKK-1 was up-regulated in both apoptotic and non-apoptotic cells with greater induction and partial N-terminal proteolysis of MEKK-1 observed in apoptotic cells. In contrast to vitamin D3, cisplatin and etoposide down-regulated Akt levels only modestly, did not promote significant loss of MEK expression, and did not up-regulate MEKK-1. We propose that vitamin D3 induces apoptosis in SCC cells by a unique mechanism involving selective caspase-dependent MEK cleavage and up-regulation of MEKK-1. Additional evidence is provided that vitamin D3-induced apoptosis may be mediated via p38 MAPK.


Place branding is seriously studied in various academic disciplines. Its impact on strategic development plays a vital role in processes of sustainable urban transformation. Place branding originated in tourism management and over time its research focus spilled over and evolved in environmental science, urban studies and public administration. Scholars and policy makers are currently faced with a myriad of concepts in place branding research, which show considerable overlap but should be carefully distinguished from each other. To increase our understanding of this body of research, this article observes a strong pattern of the concepts in use, in their references to location types (i.e., urban, city, destination, place) and broadcasting activities (branding, marketing, promotion). It builds on this observation by collecting studies from the Scopus database by location type and broadcasting activities (LT–BA) reference pairs and systematically analysing and reviewing these from 1980 to 2018. A total of 2665 articles and reviews were identified and analysed based on (1) occurrences per reference pair, (2) co-occurrences per reference pair, and (3) co-occurrences for each reference pair with other concepts. On that basis, the origin and evolution of the research field including multiple reference pairs in use is explored and described.


BACKGROUND
Despite its proven efficacy, beta-blocker therapy remains underused in elderly patients after myocardial infarction (MI). The objectives of this study were to identify undertreated groups of seniors and to determine whether older and frailer patients are being selectively dispensed low-dose beta-blocker therapy.

METHODS
From a comprehensive hospital discharge database, all people aged 66 years or more in Ontario who survived an acute MI between April 1993 and March 1995 were identified and classified into those who did not receive beta-blocker therapy and those dispensed low, standard or high doses of this agent. Logistic regression models were used to study the effect of age, sex, comorbidity, potential contraindications to beta-blocker therapy and residence in a long-term-care facility on the odds of not being dispensed a beta-blocker. Among beta-blocker users, the odds of being dispensed low relative to standard or high doses of this agent were evaluated.

RESULTS
Of the 15,542 patients, 7549 (48.6%) were not dispensed a beta-blocker. Patients 85 years of age or more were at greater risk of not receiving beta-blocker therapy (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 2.8, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.5-3.2) than were those 66 to 74 years. Having a Charlson comorbidity index of 3 or greater was associated with an increased risk of not receiving beta-blocker therapy (adjusted OR 1.5, 95% CI 1.3-1.8) compared with having lower comorbidity scores. Patients who resided in a long-term-care facility were at increased risk of not being prescribed beta-blocker therapy (adjusted OR 2.6, 95% CI 2.0-3.4). Among the 5453 patients with no identifiable contraindication to beta-blocker therapy, women were significantly less likely than men to receive this agent (p = 0.005). Of the 6074 patients who received beta-blockers, 2248 (37.0%) were dispensed low-dose therapy. Patients aged 85 years or more had an increased risk of being dispensed low-dose therapy (adjusted OR 1.6, 95% CI 1.3-2.0) compared with those aged 66 to 74 years. Compared with those who had the lowest comorbidity scores, patients with the highest comorbidity scores were more likely to be dispensed low-dose beta-blocker therapy (adjusted OR 1.3, 95% CI 1.0-1.8).

INTERPRETATION
Almost half of Ontario patients aged 66 or more who survived an MI, particularly those who were older or frailer, did not receive beta-blocker therapy. Among those dispensed beta-blocker therapy, older and frailer patients were more frequently dispensed low-dose therapy.


Technology especially computer skills plays a key role in promoting the economic development of a country. Many of the productivity gains in the developed world economies over the past decades can, to a great extent be attributed to the impact of technology in particular computer. Most governments appreciate and recognize that technology use and computer literate work force is the foundation on which a nation can acquire the status of a knowledge economy. Advancement in technology has dramatically revolutionized ways in which information is collected, analyzed, transmitted and stored. This has made computer very important equipment in industry, government and private organizations. Educators and curriculum planners have been compelled to go back to the drawing board to re-examine the national goals and objectives of education. Against this background, Kenya decided to make education the natural platform for equipping the nation with computer technology skills in order to create a dynamic and sustainable economic growth. Computer education was introduced in Kenya public secondary schools in 1996 so that learners could be computer literate, to achieve national goals of education and to advance their knowledge as they prepare to venture into various careers in the areas of Information Communication Technology in order to compete for world market jobs. The purpose of this study was to investigate the extent of utilization of computer technology in public secondary schools in Nyanza Province and to state the reasons why teachers use it in teaching and learning. The study used a descriptive survey design, and was conducted in twenty-five secondary schools that had computers at the time of this research. Participants included 25 Principals, 89 heads of departments and 20 classroom teachers. The secondary schools represented rural, urban and suburban areas. Data was collected using questionnaire for principals and heads of departments, while semi-structured interview schedule was used to collect data from classroom teachers. Data analysis involved descriptive statistics that combined qualitative and quantitative methods. The main research findings indicated that teachers used computers to improve students' communication skills, to teach science, mathematics and computer literacy skills. Principals and heads of departments supported and encouraged teachers to use computers to improve performance in academic subjects. The majority of schools did not have enough computers and teachers were not adequately trained in the use of computers.


This protocol aims to develop, validate, and deploy a prediction model using high dimensional data by both human and machine learning. The applicability is intended for clinical prediction in healthcare providers, including but not limited to those using medical histories from electronic health records. This protocol applies diverse approaches to improve both predictive performance and interpretability while maintaining the generalizability of model evaluation. However, some steps require expensive computational capacity; otherwise, these will take longer time. The key stages consist of designs of data collection and analysis, feature discovery and quality control, and model development, validation, and deployment.


Hemoglobin adduct measurements provide a useful tool for the development of models for risk assessment of chemicals. The measurements can be used to identify reactive metabolites and to determine the in vivo doses of these metabolites. Thus, the need to use default assumptions with regard to animal metabolism and dose-response relationships can be reduced. The research presented here involved the study of a number of important industrial chemicals, primarily 1,3-butadiene, glycidyl ethers, acrylonitrile and acrylamide. Many of these chemicals were shown to be mutagenic in several tests (in vivo/in vitro) and are carcinogenic in experimental animals. The compounds or their metabolites have the ability to react with DNA to form adducts. Formation of such adducts is believed to be responsible for the development of mutation and cancer. The main aim has been to study relationships between exposure and in vivo dose. In some cases analytical methods to measure hemoglobin adducts were already available (for acrylonitrile and acrylamide) or were relatively straightforward (for some glycidyl ethers). In other cases considerable method development was required (for reactive metabolites of 1,3-butadiene, allyl glycidyl ether and acrylamide). The hemoglobin adducts analyzed in the present study are formed from the electrophilic moiety of the compound of interest with N-terminal valine in hemoglobin. The analysis and quantification of these adducts was achieved by derivatization with pentafluorophenyl isothiocyanate, in some cases followed by acetylation, and analysis of the corresponding pentafluorophenylthiohydantoin derivatives by GC/MS or GC/MS-MS. The methods have been applied for dosimetry in experimental animals as well as for biomonitoring exposure in human populations. Discussions in the literature on the carcinogenicity of 1,3-butadiene have been focused on its metabolites diepoxybutane and 1,2-epoxy-3-butene. Our results show that 3,4-epoxy-1,2-butanediol is an important metabolite of 1,3-butadiene. Another important outcome of the studies was that the double bond of allyl glycidyl ether is metabolized to a reactive epoxide in mice. This means that a bifunctional alkylating agent, diglycidyl ether, could possibly be formed. Bifunctional alkylating agents are usually more biologically effective than monofunctional compounds. Data obtained from this research will help to better understand the mechanism of toxicity of the chemicals under study and to provide an improved basis for risk estimation.


Recently, deep hashing methods have attracted much attention in multimedia retrieval task. Some of them can even perform cross-modal retrieval. However, almost all existing deep cross-modal hashing methods are pairwise optimizing methods, which means that they become time-consuming if they are extended to large scale datasets. In this paper, we propose a novel tri-stage deep cross-modal hashing method – Dual Deep Neural Networks Cross-Modal Hashing, i.e., DDCMH, which employs two deep networks to generate hash codes for different modalities. Specifically, in Stage 1, it leverages a single-modal hashing method to generate the initial binary codes of textual modality of training samples; in Stage 2, these binary codes are treated as supervised information to train an image network, which maps visual modality to a binary representation; in Stage 3, the visual modality codes are reconstructed according to a reconstruction procedure, and used as supervised information to train a text network, which generates the binary codes for textual modality. By doing this, DDCMH can make full use of inter-modal information to obtain high quality binary codes, and avoid the problem of pairwise optimization by optimizing different modalities independently. The proposed method can be treated as a framework which can extend any single-modal hashing method to perform cross-modal search task. DDCMH is tested on several benchmark datasets. The results demonstrate that it outperforms both deep and shallow state-of-the-art hashing methods.


This paper describes an active learning-based education tool which enables dental students to learn preventive techniques relevant to patient dental health behaviour. 2 studies were conducted involving 33, 2nd year (study 1) and 9, 3rd year (study 2) undergraduate dental students. In study 1, snacking behaviour and its antecedents were analysed from detailed 3-day diet diaries completed by the students. Study 2 entailed the students changing one aspect of their sugar/diet behaviour using self-management techniques. It is concluded that dental students can successfully (a) identify antecedents to sugar snacking behaviours on several levels, i.e., cognitive, emotional and situational, (b) set goals and use behaviour change techniques to modify these behaviours, and (c) appreciate that this experience is relevant to similar preventive techniques that they will use in clinical practice. Training in the application of these skills to their own maladaptive behaviours provides a strong educational tool based on psycho-educational theories.


A linear estimator, cokriging, was applied to estimate hydraulic conductivity, using pressure head, solute concentration, and solute arrival time measurements in a hypothetical, heterogeneous vadose zone under steady state infiltrations at different degrees of saturation. Covariances and cross‐covariances required by the estimator were determined by a first‐order approximation in which sensitivity matrices were calculated using an adjoint state method. The effectiveness of the pressure, concentration, and arrival time measurements for the estimator were then evaluated using two statistical criteria, L1 and L2 norms, i.e., the average absolute error and the mean square error of the estimated conductivity field. Results of our analysis showed that pressure head measurements at steady state flow provided the best estimation of hydraulic conductivity among the three types of measurements. In addition, head measurements of flow near saturation were found more useful for estimating conductivity than those at low saturations. The arrival time measurements do not have any significant advantage over concentration. Factors such as variability, linearity, and ergodicity were discussed to explain advantage and limitation of each type of data set. Finally, to take advantage of different types of data set (e.g., head and concentration), a computationally efficient estimation approach was developed to combine them sequentially to estimate the hydraulic conductivity field. The conductivity field estimated by using this sequential approach proves to be better than all the previous estimates, using one type of data set alone.


Much emphasis has been placed on participant's psychological safety within genomic research studies; however, few studies have addressed parental psychological health effects associated with their child's participation in genomic studies, particularly when parents meet the threshold for clinical concern for depression. We aimed to determine if parents' depressive symptoms were associated with their child's participation in a randomized‐controlled trial of newborn exome sequencing. Parents completed the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS) at baseline, immediately post‐disclosure, and 3 months post‐disclosure. Mothers and fathers scoring at or above thresholds for clinical concern on the EPDS, 12 and 10, respectively, indicating possible Major Depressive Disorder with Peripartum Onset, were contacted by study staff for mental health screening. Parental concerns identified in follow‐up conversations were coded for themes. Forty‐five parents had EPDS scores above the clinical threshold at baseline, which decreased by an average of 2.9 points immediately post‐disclosure and another 1.1 points 3 months post‐disclosure (both p ≤ .014). For 28 parents, EPDS scores were below the threshold for clinical concern at baseline, increased by an average of 4.7 points into the elevated range immediately post‐disclosure, and decreased by 3.8 points at 3 months post‐disclosure (both p < .001). Nine parents scored above thresholds only at 3 months post‐disclosure after increasing an average of 5.7 points from immediately post‐disclosure (p < .001). Of the 82 parents who scored above the threshold at any time point, 43 (52.4%) were reached and 30 (69.7%) of these 43 parents attributed their elevated scores to parenting stress, balancing work and family responsibilities, and/or child health concerns. Only three parents (7.0%) raised concerns about their participation in the trial, particularly their randomization to the control arm. Elevated scores on the EPDS were typically transient and parents attributed their symptomatology to life stressors in the postpartum period rather than participation in a trial of newborn exome sequencing.


Background: Liver diseases in HIV infected persons can occur due to hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) co-infections, chronic alcoholisms, and hepatic tuberculosis or due to hepatitis caused by antiretroviral drugs. Co infection of HIV and HBV is frequently encountered with HIV having negative impact on HBV progression. Objectives: The objectives of this study was to detect the prevalence of hepatitis B virus in HIV positive individuals and impact of HBV- HIV on liver function tests. Materials & Methods: - Serum of 200 patients positive for HIV were screened for HBsAg by ELISA test and LFTs were performed in first, second and third week in serum of patients co infected with HIV- HBV and HBV alone. Results: - Prevalence of HBV was found in 15 out of 200 HIV positives with maximum in age group 21-40yrs 60% of the cases. In HIV-HBV co-infected patients the amount of total Bilirubin, ALP and ALT was found to be considerably lower as compared to HBV infected persons only and the difference was statistically significant. Conclusions: - From the present study it is fairly clear that the co-infection of HIV and HBV is an emerging problem that should be addressed immediately. Hepatic damage in case of co-infected patients should not be assessed only on the basis of serum liver enzyme estimation as their rise is not significant enough in these cases. Liver biopsy accompanied by liver function test provides a clearer picture of nacroinflammation. Such co-infected individuals also face increased risk of hepatotoxicity from anti-retroviral therapy. Individuals with HIV-HBV coinfection should have both the infections completely assessed in order to decide on the best therapeutic option for both viruses.


This work was designed to study effect of low-intensity infrared laser radiation (LIIRR) on orbital circulation in children with progressive progressive short-handedness. Parameters of the blood flow in the orbital artery, central retinal artery, and posterior ciliary artery were evaluated in a total of 88 patients at the age from 6 to 14 years. The study group (group 1) comprised 66 children with moderately severe progressive myopia (112 eyes), the control one (group 2) included 22 patients without visual disturbances (44 eyes). Patients of group 1 received physiotherapy for the treatment of significantly deteriorated hemodynamics in the orbital region. Indirect action of LIIRR on the orbital region promoted stabilization of short-handedness in 78.8% of the treated patients. It is concluded that the method described in this paper is clinically efficient and may be recommended for the prevention of progressive myopia in children.


We consider the problem of fitting a piecewise fractional autoregressive integrated moving average model to strongly dependent signals with large data. The number as well as the locations of structural break points, the model order and the parameters of each regime are assumed to be unknown. A four-step method based on distances between parameter estimates is proposed, to avoid the optimization problem which criterion based methods may be trapped in when there are a lot of data in the signal series. Monte Carlo simulations show the effectiveness of the method with different distances and an application to real traffic data modelling is considered.


We verify that widows are much more likely than couples to be poor and that they make up a large proportion of the poor elderly; 80 percent are widows or other single individuals. Then we seek to explain why the single elderly are poor, with emphasis on widows. We do this by tracing back over time their financial status, using the Longitudinal Retirement History Survey. The death of the husband very often induces the poverty of the surviving spouse, even though the married couple was not poor. While only about 9 percent of prior couples are poor, approximately 35 percent of the subsequent widows are. A large proportion of the wealth of the couple is lost when the husband dies. In addition we find that: (1) the prior households of poor widows earned and saved less than the prior households of non-poor widows, (2) more of the smaller accumulated wealth was lost at the death of the husband, (3) the absence of survivorship benefits or life insurance insured that the loss in wealth would leave the widow poor thereafter.


A new consolidation in-situ forming process for high-performance alumina ceramic using acetate starch was investigated. The pasting behavior and thermogelling properties of acetate starch and the effects of different amount of acetate starch and solid loading on the rheologic behavior of the ceramic slip, as well as the linear shrinkage, density, strength and microstructure of the green body were discussed. The results indicate that acetate starch paste has good thermal stability and gelling ability. When the content of acetate starch is about 0.5%~1.5% (mass fraction), the apparent viscosity of alumina slurry, which is always less than 1Pa·s even for 58% (volume fraction) dense suspension, increased with increasing the acetate starch content and solid loading. That results in easier to cast. Moreover, with the increasing of solid loading the linear shrinkage and dry strength of green bodies decreased and the relative density increased. With the increasing starch content, the linear shrinkage rate and the density of the dried body decreased, while the strength of the dried body almost linearly increased. The green body with homogeneously-distributed density and pore size was also obtained in this work. It is concluded that Al2O3 ceramics can be consolidation in-situ formed based on the gelling network of thermally swelled and gelatinized acetate starch.


Tuberculosis (TB) is a disease caused by bacteria that can affect serious infection in the lungs. It can spread from one person to another through tiny droplets released into the air via coughs and sneezes. West Java is one of the locations with the largest TB sufferer in Indonesia. This research used the number of TB cases data in West Java 2017 to identify group of factors that can influence TB infections. The group factors applied include health factor, environment factor, health facility factor, and demography factor. The method that used in this research was group lasso. After the group factors have been identified, the ordinary least square applied to determine significant factors to affect TB infections based on these group factors. The selected group factors of this research was health factor, environment factor, and health facility factor significant to influence TB cases. Furthermore, number of diarrhea sufferers, unemployment, and number of malnutrition sufferers were significant to be the variables that important to affect the TB cases in West Java based on ordinary least square.


Addressing questions of equitable contributions to emission reductions is important to facilitate ambitious global action on climate change within the ambit of the Paris Agreement. Several large developing regions with low historical contributions to global warming have a strong moral claim to a large proportion of the remaining carbon budget (RCB). However, this claim needs to be assessed in a context where the RCB consistent with the long-term temperature goal (LTTG) of the Paris Agreement is rapidly diminishing. Here we assess the potential tension between the moral claim to the remaining carbon space by large developing regions with low per capita emissions, and the collective obligation to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. Based on scenarios underlying the IPCC's 6th Assessment Report, we construct a suite of scenarios that combine the following elements: (a) two quantifications of a moral claim to the remaining carbon space by South Asia, and Africa, (b) a 'highest possible emission reduction' effort by developed regions (DRs), and (c) a corresponding range for other developing regions (ODR). We find that even the best effort by DRs cannot compensate for a unilateral claim to the remaining carbon space by South Asia and Africa. This would put the LTTG firmly out of reach unless ODRs cede their moral claim to emissions space and, like DRs, pursue highest possible emission reductions, which would also constitute an inequitable outcome. Furthermore, regions such as Latin America would need to provide large-scale negative emissions with potential risks and negative side effects. Our findings raise important questions of perspectives on equity in the context of the Paris Agreement including on the critical importance of climate finance. A failure to provide adequate levels of financial support to compensate large developing regions to emit less than their moral claim will put the Paris Agreement at risk.


Implantable sensor network becomes nowadays an important area of research. Sensors are implanted inside the patient body to measure its physiological changes and send them wirelessly to an external close-by device. Such network is called IWBSN (Implantable Wireless Body Sensor Network). The life time of the embedded batteries associated with these tiny sensor nodes is too short. Hence power consumption is the most important design metrics associated with these sensors. A novel ultra low energy communication protocol has been proposed to address the life time of the battery within the sensor. Our proposed protocol is based on time synchronization between all sensor nodes and the base station, where the delay of the wireless signal propagation is very critical. Tracking of the time synchronization using the standard algorithms is very costly energy-wise. In this paper, we propose a technique which automatically calculates the delay (sensor-node to Base-station) and compensates for any discrepancies. This correction is done while saving the tiny energy resources inside the sensor nodes. Our proposed solution has been tested wirelessly through transceiver boards using a single FPGA board. The experimental results have shown the correctness of our protocol along with the delay correction technique.


In the midst of the scorching heat and dry weather in Jombang, in the month of August 2015, the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) finally chose K.H. Dr. Said Aqil Siradj as the Chairman of NU. The NU's 33rd Congress (Muktamar), held in Jombang, East Java, re-elected him for his second term in office in this historical Congress, which was loaded with heat, competition, and compromise. This time the Congress theme was "Upholding Islam Nusantara for Indonesia and World Civilization." Islam Nusantara, literally meaning "Islam of the archipelago," may connote different things for different people. It may mean Islam that is rooted in local values, or the kind of Islam that has been promoted by scholars, traders and missionaries with peace, not war. Or, it could suggest a form of Islam that resulted from these various elements. But speaking to an audience weeks before the Congress, Said Aqil Siradj concluded that, as the largest Muslim mass organization in Indonesia, NU felt obliged to remind everyone about the importance of integrating the prinsip kebangsaan (national principles) in conducting worship (beribadah) and implementing religious beliefs (kepercayaan beragama). The theme was strengthened not only in the lively public discussions, book launches and book exhibitions across Jombang, but also in the way NU scholars framed their debates and arguments in the Bahsul Masail forums. The latter is a primary and prestigious forum among NU scholars to discuss important socio-religious issues and produce NU's formal and strategic decisions. DOI:  10.15408/sdi.v23i1.3317


We investigate the long-term degradation of 2.3-μm wavelength InAs/InP highly strained multiquantum-well distributed-feedback lasers with a p- and n-type InP buried heterostructure during constant power aging. Stable operation beyond 20 000 h is confirmed at an ambient temperature of 45 °C and with a constant output power of 3 mW, and we successfully fabricate a practical optical source for trace gas monitoring applications. A conventional diffusion process dominates the main degradation mechanism as found with conventional telecommunication lasers. Furthermore, we show that some defects are located in the regrown p-type InP layer above the active layer and that downward diffused defects degrade the guide, upper separate confinement heterostructure (SCH), and active layers.


Background: The literature theorizes, but does not test, that variation over time in selective loss in utero affects the observed count of live-born birth defects cases. We test the hypothesis that the risk of birth defects among live-born males varies inversely with the strength of selection against males in utero. Methods: We identified a subset of six birth defect phenotypes among males from the California Birth Defects Monitoring Program, an active surveillance system for over 490,000 male singletons born in eight California counties from 1986 to 2004. We assigned each birth defect case infant to a monthly conception cohort at risk of selection in utero. We used the monthly sex ratio at birth (M:F), derived from each conception cohort, as the indicator of selection against males. We analyzed the odds ratio of birth defects with both individual-level logistic regression and aggregate time-series methods. Results: Consistent with selection in utero, male infants from conception cohorts with low outlying sex ratios (i.e., stronger selectivity) exhibit fewer than expected birth defects (adjusted odds ratio [OR] = 0.86; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.76, 0.98). Aggregate time-series tests also yield similar findings (OR = 0.81; 95% CI = 0.71, 0.90). Conclusions: Our findings among males indicate that variation in the strength of selectivity in utero accounts for a portion of observed cohort differences in morbidity due to birth defects. These findings suggest that "revealed prevalence" of morbidity across birth cohorts varies, at least in part, from selective loss in utero. See video abstract at, http://links.lww.com/EDE/B209.


Halogen bonding mediated electrochemical anion sensing has very recently been established as a potent platform for the selective and sensitive detection of anions, although the principles that govern binding and subsequent signal transduction remain poorly understood. Herein we address this challenge by providing a comprehensive study of novel redox-active halogen bonding (XB) and hydrogen bonding (HB) ferrocene-isophthalamide-(iodo)triazole receptors in solution and at self-assembled monolayers (SAMs). Under diffusive conditions the sensory performance of the XB sensor was significantly superior. In molecular films the XB and HB binding motifs both display a notably enhanced, but similar, response to specific anions. Importantly, the enhanced response of these films is rationalised by a consideration of the (interfacial) dielectric microenvironment. These effects, and the resolved relationship between anion binding and signal transduction, underpin an improved fundamental understanding of anion sensing at redox-active interfaces which will benefit not just the development of more potent, real-life relevant, sensors but also new tools to study host–guest interactions at interfaces.


Desmoid tumor is a rare neoplasm with extra-abdominal location and female predilection. Anatomopatological analysis is necessary to establish the diagnosis unequivocally, but Magnetic Resonance is the no aggressive method with the best sensitivity and specificity. Surgical resection is the elective treatment yet, and prognosis is not so good as it could be expected in a benign tumor. We report a young male case without polyposis coli antecedents. When he was attended, he related only an abdominal bulk with no other symptom. An intra-abdominal mass 32 cm length per 25 cm width consistent with desmoid tumor was finally resected.


We present a Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array (NuSTAR), Chandra, and XMM-Newton survey of nine of the nearest ultraluminous infrared galaxies (ULIRGs). The unprecedented sensitivity of NuSTAR at energies above 10 keV enables spectral modeling with far better precision than was previously possible. Six of the nine sources observed were detected sufficiently well by NuSTAR to model in detail their broadband X-ray spectra, and recover the levels of obscuration and intrinsic X-ray luminosities. Only one source (IRAS 13120–5453) has a spectrum consistent with a Compton-thick active galactic nucleus (AGN), but we cannot rule out that a second source (Arp 220) harbors an extremely highly obscured AGN as well. Variability in column density (reduction by a factor of a few compared to older observations) is seen in IRAS 05189–2524 and Mrk 273, altering the classification of these borderline sources from Compton-thick to Compton-thin. The ULIRGs in our sample have surprisingly low observed fluxes in high-energy (>10 keV) X-rays, especially compared to their bolometric luminosities. They have lower ratios of unabsorbed 2–10 keV to bolometric luminosity, and unabsorbed 2–10 keV to mid-IR [O iv] line luminosity than do Seyfert 1 galaxies. We identify IRAS 08572+3915 as another candidate intrinsically X-ray weak source, similar to Mrk 231. We speculate that the X-ray weakness of IRAS 08572+3915 is related to its powerful outflow observed at other wavelengths.


Recognising the challenge facing many young South Africans in accessing affordable, appropriate reading material and content, the FunDza Literacy Trust produces texts, including novels, short stories, poetry, and non-fiction written for a young adult audience. The focus in this article is on the short stories which are made available via a cellular telephone-based social networking platform called Mxit. Users of the FunDza Mxit platform are able to read short stories and can also comment on what they have read on interactive discussion boards. In their comments on these discussion boards, users make extensive use of a form of written English to which I will refer as textspeak. The discussion boards create a digital space in which users can engage in literate activities that encompass both the traditional aspects of literacy (the mechanics of reading and writing), and the social aspects of literacy (the ideologies and power relations present and represented in a text). Using critical literacy as a framework, and a qualitative textual analysis approach, I analyse one short story and the user comments from the interactive discussion board on that story. My analysis of the user comments suggests three themes: 1) using textspeak, young people are engaging in literate activities; 2) this engagement demonstrates a promising level of literacy among the users; and 3) the users are engaging critically with texts and their social messaging and functions, and, therefore, are displaying a level of critical literacy. From this analysis, I conclude that there is potential in using digital platforms like the FunDza Mxit platform, and forms of language like textspeak, to encourage young people in South Africa to develop critical literacy about important issues that affect their lives, such as gender and sexuality, agency, and risk and vulnerability.


Finger millet (Eleusine coracana), also known as Nachani, Ragi or Nagli, is one of third most important millet (sorghum and pearl millet) grown in tropical semi-arid regions of the world primarily in India and Africa. The aim of the study is to review the potential health benefits of finger millet. Desk reviews were collected from Dr. Balasaheb Sawant Konkan Krishi Vidyapeeth, Dapoli University, Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal, libraries and other web sources etc. Finger millet is rich in several nutrients as well as non-nutrients such as phenols. It has high energy, has less starch, high fiber (3.6 g/ 100 g, most of which is insoluble), has low glycemic index (55) and is gluten free. The protein content ranges from 5.6 to 12.70 % and it is low in lysine, tryptophan, threonine and the sulfur-containing amino acids. The energy of millet is greater than sorghum and nearly equal to that of brown rice because the lipid content is generally higher (1.3 to 2 %). Total ash content is higher in finger millet than in commonly consumed cereal grains. The ash content has been found to be nearly 1.7 to 4.13 % in finger millet. Calcium and iron content of finger millet ranged from 162 to 487 mg % and 3.61 mg/100 g to 5.42 mg % respectively. Calcium deficiency leading to bone and teeth disorder, iron deficiency leading to anemia can be overcome by introducing finger millet in our daily diet. They are also recognized for their health beneficial effects, such as anti-diabetic, anti-tumerogenic, atherosclerogenic effects, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties.


In this study density variations in the solar wind are examined based on data from the Cluster Mission. The data are originating from the stream outside the bowshock and thus they are spanning in an interval of three to four months for each mission year up to 2006. As the data are examined, variations above the relative electron density threshold of 1.3 are archived. The variations are analyzed in terms of position, orientation, magnetic field perturbation and scale sizes. The magnetic field perturbations are exhibiting diamagnetic and paramagnetic behavior and a possible link to similar observations inside the magnetosphere is attempted through the impulsive penetration mechanism. The final conclusion of the report is that plasma density enhancements, similar to those identified from previous studies inside the magnetosphere, are also evident in the free solar wind stream close to earth.


With the changes in the social structure of a society, the individuals need to manage their wealth and resources in such a way so as to ensure that the various personal and family goals that arise during their lifetime are met. This calls for a choice of investment options that would meet the individual's needs and personal preferences. Since the investment preferences of women are different from that of men, therefore, the financial institutions need to target women as a separate market segment.Moreover, although the involvement of women in various sectors has grown over the past few decades, their participation in the stock market is still very limited. Thus, with greater number of women entering the workforce and with tremendous changes in financial behavior of women, studying the investment preferences of women has become all the more important. Therefore, the current study is an attempt to examine the investment preferences of women stock as well as non-stock investors in Punjab. For the purpose of the study, data were collected from primary sources using a pre tested, well-structured questionnaire. To analyze the collected data, Descriptive Statistics have been used. The results of the study brought out that Fixed Deposits are the most preferred investment avenue of women investors in Punjab. Women non stock investors aspire to invest in the stock market in the near future while women stock investors show less inclination towards the stock market. The finding highlights the fact that women who are already investing in the stock market are not satisfied and want to withdraw their investments from the stock market.The paper suggests that education and awareness camps should be organized especially for women. Increase in awareness about the stock market will lead to trust and satisfaction among women, thereby improving their participation in the stock market.Women being risk averse investors need to trust the stock market in order to continue investing in it.


We investigate spin-valve sandwiches with thin amorphous CoNbZr as soft layers. The magnetoresistance (MR), microstructure, and magnetostatic coupling are studied in these sandwiches with different layer deposition sequences. For the CoNbZr/Cu/Co sandwich, the CoNbZr underlayer provides a smoother surface on which smooth Cu and Co layers can subsequently grow. The Cu spacer is dense and pinholes-free, leading to a good ``spin valve'' effect with a larger MR ratio of 3.8%. For the Co/Cu/CoNbZr sandwich, however, the Cu spacer is rough and pinholes were observed, which could induce a direct ferromagnetic coupling. Correlated rougher surfaces on both the sides of the Cu spacer were also observed, giving rise to an ``orangepeel'' coupling of about 0.105 erg/cm−2. This strong ferromagnetic coupling in Co/Cu/CoNbZr results in a lower MR ratio of 1.6%. Moreover, upon proper thermal annealing, the CoNbZr/Cu/Co has a larger MR enhancement and a superior thermal stability to 350 degrees C due to the dense and homogenous structure in the spacer layer.


Ethiopia has been implementing Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) and Household Asset Building Program (HABP) that are important as complementary food security programs that involve establishment of area closures to rehabilitate degraded lands. Forest inventory using systematic random sampling was conducted in 9 PSNP area closures and one agroforestry system located in six National Regional States of Ethiopia to provide up-to-date and reliable information/data on existing growing stock, woody biomass resources and the actual quantities of carbon stored.  The above ground biomass and carbon stock and carbon sequestration potential of PSNP area closures were estimated using existing allometric equations and conversion factors, respectively. The above ground biomass at the PSNP area closures ranged between 2.09±0.83tone/ ha and 22.21±1.86 ton/ ha. The aboveground biomass of woodlots, Enset and Coffee based agroforestry system and scattered trees on farm at Damote Gale agroforestry system was 33.27±3.33, 12.92 and 1.93±0.57 tone/ha, respectively. The above ground carbon stock and carbon sequestration potential of PSNP area closures ranged from 1.045 to 11.105 tones/ha and from 3.83 to 40.72 tones/ha, respectively. The difference in the amount of above ground biomass, carbon stock and carbon sequestration potential might be attributed to the difference in site characteristics, climatic conditions and age of area closures. The present inventory work showed that rehabilitation efforts brought positive response in most of the PSNP area closures and most area closures qualify for carbon projects. The output also presented the current stock to measure the difference in carbon stock over years. Keywords : Area closures, aboveground biomass, carbon fund, food security


Security in wireless sensor networks is an upcoming field which is quite different from traditional network security mechanisms. Many applications are dependent on the secure operation of a wireless sensor network, and have serious effects if the network is disrupted. Therefore, it is necessary to protect communication between sensor nodes. Key management plays an essential role in achieving security in wireless sensor networks. To achieve security, various key predistribution schemes have been proposed without deployment knowledge. Deployment knowledge can benefit the key predistribution scheme, as the nodes that are likely to be neighbors of each sensor node are assumed, and hence each node does not need to waste its memory to store unnecessary secret information. However, the existing key predistribution schemes require more memory and larger transmission range to achieve the desired connectivity. In order to enhance secure communication among sensor nodes, grid and hexagon deployment models are used. In both the deployment models, the sensor field is divided into equal grids. The keys are distributed from a large key pool randomly and pairwise keys are generated for each pair of sensor nodes. Once the pairwise keys are generated among neighboring nodes, they establish a secure connection and transmit data. We propose a new scheme based on cell splitting concept to improve the security level, in which a hexagon is subdivided in to smaller groups. The performance is evaluated in terms of connectivity and resilience against node capture. The analysis show that the performance is better using cell splitting concept compared to normal hexagon based scheme.


Compressed air is one of the most common systems used in industry. In countries such as Australia, Italia, France, China and USA, energy consumption of compressed air systems contributes about to 10% of the total electricity consumption in industry. In Colombia, this value reaches 8%, highlighting the textile industry, with a 24% of consumption. Despite of all its advantages, compressed air is expensive, between 10-30% of consumed energy reaches the end-use point. Improvements to compressed air systems can achieve between 20-60% of energy savings, with pay-back periods lower than two years. These are the reasons that they can be considered as one of the main targetsystems while planning energy efficiency actions in industry. Colombia through different strategies has proposed to implement a group of measures to improve energy efficiency and reduce electricity consumption to 2021 around 7 %. Implementation of good practices in compressed air systems is one of them. This paper is showed the share cost, electricity consumption and the savings potential of the compressed air systems in the different divisions of the Colombian manufacturing sector, the main sectors to be involved as well as the potential savings and reduction of dioxide carbon emissions.


The preoperative and postoperative management of patients undergoing right hemicolectomy for colon cancer has undergone significant change in the 20th century. From a time where a postoperative stay of 10 days was not uncommon, patients are now routinely discharged on postoperative day 2–3, and same day colectomy is also practiced in some centers. Enhanced recovery programs are standard practice and their guidelines are developed from a strong evidence base around perioperative management and recovery. The preoperative visit is increasingly important and is used to identify modifiable risk factors such as malnutrition, anemia, smoking, and alcohol abuse. Detailed counselling and preoperative education should also be undertaken so patients are psychologically prepared for their cancer surgery and have clear expectations and goals for their recovery. Nausea and vomiting postoperatively is a common cause of delayed discharge. Patients at risk should be identified preoperatively and treated prophylactically. Prehabilitation is an exciting field in colorectal surgery but its role in right hemicolectomy for colon cancer is limited due the necessary short interval between diagnosis and surgery. Patients should be fasting for the minimal amount of time preoperatively and should be allowed clear carbohydrate containing fluids up until 2 hours before surgery. The intraoperative use of opioids should be minimized and high risk patients should have goal-directed fluid therapy (GDFT). As the majority of right colectomies are performed laparoscopically, TAP blocks should be used instead of epidural analgesia for postoperative pain relief. The routine use of nasogastric tubes or abdominal drains should be avoided. Patients should be mobilized the evening after surgery and diet advanced early to prevent postoperative ileus. In modern colorectal practice, regular audits should be undertaken in the unit to ensure adherence to enhanced recovery programs and to identify areas for improvement.


Derek Pardue, Ideologies of Marginality in Brazilian Hip Hop. New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2008. 224 pp. Derek Pardue is a cultural anthropologist and the foremost US scholar on Brazilian hip hop, having already contributed a number of articles on the topics of race, educational practices, and marginal ideologies in relation to hip hop. As the only English-language book-length study on the topic, Ideologies of Marginality in Brazilian Hip Hop provides an important contribution to a slow but growing body of scholarship on hip hop's globalization. This is especially significant in Brazil's case, as Brazil has a vibrant yet understudied hip hop scene. Pardue focuses on various elements of hip hop (MCing, DJing, break dancing, graffiti writing) to demonstrate how Brazilian participants represent their reality in response to daily social, economic, and locational marginalization. According to Pardue, these self-constructions through hip hop provide both an empowering space for practitioners as well as a way to deconstruct and reconstruct societal notions of race, gender, and favela life in Brazil. Pardue's primary research came from four years of residence in Sao Paulo, Brazil between 1995 and 2002, as well as various two-month research stays during which he interviewed dozens of rappers, DJs, b-boys, b-girls, and graffiti artists. Although Pardue did speak to a growing number of hip hop icons and celebrities in Brazil, his focus is mainly the independent artists residing in the favelas, their everyday lives, and how they use hip hop in an attempt to comment on or change their lives and Brazilian society as a whole. His focus on Sao Paulo favela residents omits the existence and impact of a completely divergent scene in Rio de Janeiro, where highly commercialized baile funk competes with more socially conscious messages. Within this ethnographical approach, Pardue's discussion of what specific conceptual aspects of hip hop in Sao Paulo are particularly "Brazilian" are approached through several theoretical and methodological frames, which he outlines in the introduction. Specifically, he frames Brazilian Hip Hop as an "alternative system" of cultural production and identity formation for marginalized populations. More than just a musical form of expression, Pardue conceives of hip hop in Brazil as an ideology of social consciousness, truth-telling, and transformation. He contends that hip hoppers in Brazil use the idea of periferia (their periphery location and social standing) as a primary source of information and social consciousness and as a way to inspire transformacao (transformation) in both their communities and individual lives. The periferia, then, is both a place and an ideology, simultaneously signifying marginality and empowerment for the favela resident engaging in hip hop culture. While the numerous interviews and variety of practitioners that he came into contact with is significant, his ethnographic approach engages with very little lyrical analysis, which would have further illuminated this idea of transformacao. While Pardue presents what the hip hoppers say about their involvement, he provides very little of what they actually produce, for example, in terms of written lyrics for rappers, or artwork for graffiti writers. Pardue incorporates a brief but important history of hip hop's development in Brazil within the context of the country's socioeconomic disparities, the military dictatorship, the black consciousness movement and the emergence of a musica black. …


Four new species of soft-bottom sabellid polychaetes are described and illustrated. Branchiomma costaricensis n. sp. is described from 31 m depth off Isla del Coco, Costa Rica; Dialychone arabica n. sp. from 105 m depth in the Arabian Sea; Dialychone blakei n. sp. from 487 m depth off Louisiana in the Gulf of Mexico and Paradialychone harrisae n. sp. from 30 m depth in southern California. Branchiomma costaricensis n. sp. is characterized by having microstylodes with the median pair 1.5 times longer than neighbouring pairs, thoracic uncini with two rows of teeth above the main fang, an unspotted body and large interramal eyespots. Dialychone arabica n. sp. has the anterior peristomial ring lobe exposed beyond the collar and a pre-pygidial depression occupying eight segments. In D. blakei n. sp., the anterior peristomial ring lobe is not exposed beyond the collar, the pre-pygidial depression occupies the last four segments and the posterior segments possess thin elongate, narrowly hooded chaetae. Paradialychone harrisae n. sp. differs from the other species of the genus in having the anterior peristomial ring lobe bilobed and exposed beyond the collar, a rectangular ventral collar shield and paleate chaetae with a long mucro.


By all accounts, trade secret law is now recognized as one of the major categories of intellectual property law. Less recognized, however, is the degree to which private actors are pushing the law past its traditional, market-competitive boundaries and toward an all-purpose seclusion doctrine. We argue that trade secret law today is increasingly functioning not merely as a tool to protect intellectual property against misappropriation, but often as a tool for open-ended concealment. The law is moving from trade secrecy to trade seclusion. This shift raises serious concerns, ultimately distorting the flow of information that should be available to the public. Confronting these disparate claims of trade secrecy or confidentiality— which can crop up in civil litigation, criminal law, open records disputes, and elsewhere—requires, first of all, a common vocabulary. In this Article, we collect and identify a variety of nontraditional cases to demonstrate the alarming extension of trade secrecy arguments in a host of different areas of law. We classify these scattered claims into three categories: investigatory concerns involving journalists and whistleblowers; delegative concerns where the government relies on private technologies, such as automated decisionmaking and artificial intelligence; and dignitary concerns where employers seek control over employee attributes, such as diversity data and workplace harms, beyond the normal context of employer/employee trade secret lawsuits. In our final Section, we present a range of solutions. Some suggest ways to recuperate trade secret law's traditional architecture and thus pay heed to its intrinsic boundaries. As we argue, some nontraditional trade secrecy claims involve information that is not a trade secret at all. And, even where information qualifies as secret (or as confidential, in open-records parlance), we draw upon recent scholarly efforts to define doctrinal limits to trade secrecy and similar


Focusing on the feature of JPEG2000 data structure, this paper researched the encryption algorithms for JPEG2000 by analyzing JPEG2000 encoding and the existing image encryption, the encryption rule for JPEG2000 was found that we should make the compression unaffected or affected to a small degree, at the same time, the security can be improved. Through further research, the author has proposed a new encryption scheme that uses chaotic system to encrypt the coefficient-bit and the context according to the plane coding, in the view of JPEG2000 image compression standard. For the data compressed and encrypted, the experiment indicated that encryption did not increase JPEG2000 CODEC'S burden. Since it was carried out at the same time as coding/decoding, the scheme makes the compression ratio influence small, retains the original compression algorithm's stream elasticity, and also enjoys low cost and high security. Therefore, it is proved to be an effective encryption/decryption resolution for JPEG2000. So the scheme is well for application.


Persistent hot-dry or cold-wet summer weather can have significant impacts on agriculture, health and the environment. For North-Western Europe, these weather regimes are typically linked to, respectively, blocked or zonal jetstream states. The fundamental dynamics underlying these circulation states are still poorly understood. Edward Lorenz postulated that summer circulation may be either fully or almost intransitive, implying that part of the phase space (capturing circulation variability) cannot be reached within one specific summer. If true, this would have major implications for the predictability of summer weather and our understanding of the drivers of interannual variability of summer weather. Here, we test the two Lorenz hypotheses (i.e. fully or almost intransitive) for European summer circulation, capitalising on a newly-available, very large ensemble (2000 years) of present-day climate data in the fully-coupled global climate model EC-Earth. Using Self-Organising Maps, we quantify the phase space of summer circulation and the trajectories through phase space in unprecedented detail. We show that, based on Markov assumptions, the summer circulation is strongly dependent on its initial state in early summer with the atmospheric memory ranging from 28 days up to ~45 days. The memory is particularly long if the initial state is either a blocked or a zonal flow state. Furthermore, we identify two groups of summers which are characterised by distinctly different trajectories through phase space, and which prefer either a blocked or zonal circulation state, respectively. These results suggest that intransitivity is indeed a fundamental property of the atmosphere and an important driver of interannual variability.


Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) with acceptable performance are becoming commercially available at an affordable cost. Due to this, the use of drones for real-time data collection is becoming common practice by individual practitioners in the areas of e.g., precision agriculture and civil defense such as fire fighting. At the same time, as UAVs become a house-hold item, a plethora of issues—which can no longer be ignored and considered niche problems—are coming of age. These range from legal and ethical questions to technical matters such as how to implement and operate a communication infrastructure to maintain control over deployed devices. With these issues being addressed, approaches that focus on enabling collectives of devices to operate semi-autonomously are also increasing in relevance. In this article we present a nature-inspired algorithm that enables a UAV-swarm to operate as a collective which provides real-time data such as video footage. The collective is able to autonomously adapt to changing resolution requirements for specific locations within the area under surveillance. Our distributed approach significantly reduces the requirements on the communication infrastructure and mitigates the computational cost otherwise incurred. In addition, if the UAVs themselves were to be equipped with even rudimentary data-analysis capabilities, the swarm could react in real-time to the data it generates and self-regulate which locations within its operational area it focuses on. The approach was tested in a swarm of 25 UAVs; we present out preliminary performance evaluation.


Because poverty is in part a factor of social networks that are local and homophilous, the ability to connect to the wider world through social network sites is a potential boon for residents of economically depressed communities. At the same time, low-income and particularly older adults are shown to have the lowest level of digital skills while at once being those who are most targeted by online scams and hacks. For those seeking connection as a means to survive life in poverty, then, digital inclusion through social network sites presents unique promise and risk.

Studies of younger and middle-class social media users argue that users negotiate opportunity and risk in reference to personal experience and levels of digital skill. How do economically marginalized adults approach such a balance based on their experience of poverty and limited digital skills? The aim of this study is to understand how unstably housed adults in the inner city approach social networking on Facebook. The method of study – ethnography and in-depth interviews – allows insights into how practices follow from attitudes, and attitudes from experience. The study explores in-depth the cases of low-income adults in Chicago who consider Facebook one tool for getting off the street and into self-sufficiency in income and housing, an digital-age optimism I refer to as "connective ambition." To shield themselves from risk, users engage in atypical tactics to avoid unwanted exposure and root out scammers, tactics of "creative caution". The study concludes that promoting privacy skills is a frontier for the digital inclusion for disadvantaged users on social network sites. Yet skills are not a silver bullet: disadvantaged users such as those experiencing homelessness face difficult choices in whether to present themselves as homeless online in order to appeal for help. The barriers to digital inclusion are thus not only instrumental – as in access and skills – but also social and perceptual – including the stigma that follows marginalized users as they venture into networked publics.


Triangular-layered NiGa2S4, contrary to intuitive expectation, does not form a noncollinear antiferromagnetic structure, as do isoelectronic NaCrO2 and LiCrO2. Instead, the local magnetic moments remain disordered down to the lowest measured temperature. To get more insight into this phenomenon, we have performed first principles calculations of the first, second end third neighbors exchange interactions, and found that the second neighbor exchange is negligible, while the first and the third neighbor exchanges are comparable and antiferromagnetic. Both are rapidly suppressed by the on-site Hubbard repulsion.