With shrinking technology, the increase in variability of process, voltage, and temperature (PVT) parameters significantly impacts the yield analysis and optimization for chip designs. Previous yield estimation algorithms have been limited to predicting either timing or power yield. However, neglecting the correlation between power and delay will result in significant yield loss. Most of these approaches also suffer from high computational complexity and long runtime. We suggest a novel bi-objective optimization framework based on Chebyshev affine arithmetic (CAA) and the adaptive weighted sum (AWS) method. Both power and timing yield are set as objective functions in this framework. The two objectives are optimized simultaneously to maintain the correlation between them. The proposed method first predicts the guaranteed probability bounds for leakage and delay distributions under the assumption of arbitrary correlations. Then a power-delay bi-objective optimization model is formulated by computation of cumulative distribution function (CDF) bounds. Finally, the AWS method is applied for power-delay optimization to generate a well-distributed set of Pareto-optimal solutions. Experimental results on ISCAS benchmark circuits show that the proposed bi-objective framework is capable of providing sufficient trade-off information between power and timing yield.


Static and dynamic behavior of the epitaxially grown dual gate trench 4H-SiC junction field effect transistor (JFET) is investigated. Typical on-state resistance Ron was 6 – 10mΩcm2 at VGS = 2.5V and the breakdown voltage between the range of 1.5 – 1.8kV was realized at VGS = −5V for normally-off like JFETs. It was found that the turn-on energy delivers the biggest part of the switching losses. The dependence of switching losses from gate resistor is nearly linear, suggesting that changing the gate resistor, a way similar to Si-IGBT technology, can easily control di/dt and dv/dt. Turn-on losses at 200°C are lower compared to those at 25°C, which indicates the influence of the high internal p-type gate layer resistance. Inductive switching numerical analysis suggested the strong influence of channel doping conditions on the turn-on switching performance. The fast switching normally-off JFET devices require heavily doped narrow JFET channel design.


Research on resiliency and recovery in forensic psychiatric patients is still limited. Information pertaining to factors associated with successful community reintegration would contribute to a more comprehensive assessment of functioning and informed treatment planning that fits within a recovery approach of service provision. Using a retrospective design involving file reviews and a 3-year follow-up period, the authors investigated the rate of successful/unsuccessful community reintegration (defined by the presence or absence of an absolute discharge/readmission to hospital) in female forensic psychiatric patients (N = 48). The study evaluated the extent to which the risk and protective factors captured in the Short-Term Assessment of Risk and Treatability (START) predicted a range of positive and negative outcomes in the study sample. Results showed that 47.9% of the women qualified as having successfully reintegrated into the community, with the remaining 52.1% qualifying as still being in recovery. Successful individuals possessed significantly more protective factors and significantly fewer risk factors than individuals still in recovery. Furthermore, both the vulnerability and the strength scale of the START demonstrated good predictive validity, however we did not find evidence of incremental validity of the strength scale.


The development of the Internet in the recent years has made it possible to access different information systems anywhere in the world. Information Integration is the merging of information from heterogeneous sources with differing conceptual, contextual and typographical representations. In this paper, we exploit Information Integration techniques for movies data from different sources over the web. Graphs are used to model many complex data objects and their relationships in the real world. In recent years, graphs have become increasingly popular in a variety of domains varying from Biology, Chemistry, Healthcare systems and computer vision to Business Intelligence and Social Media Analytics. We have developed a system that integrates data about movies from various sources across the web and populated the TITAN graph database. This enables us to show that complex information can be retreived using simple queries using Gremlin, a graph query language.


We demonstrate a simple, statistically secure, ORAM with computational overhead $\tilde{O}(\log^2 n)$; previous ORAM protocols achieve only computational security (under computational assumptions) or require $\tilde{\Omega}(\log^3 n)$ overheard. An additional benefit of our ORAM is its conceptual simplicity, which makes it easy to implement in both software and (commercially available) hardware.
Our construction is based on recent ORAM constructions due to Shi, Chan, Stefanov, and Li (Asiacrypt 2011) and Stefanov and Shi (ArXiv 2012), but with some crucial modifications in the algorithm that simplifies the ORAM and enable our analysis. A central component in our analysis is reducing the analysis of our algorithm to a "supermarket" problem; of independent interest (and of importance to our analysis,) we provide an upper bound on the rate of "upset" customers in the "supermarket" problem.


1Department of Neurosurgery, Beijing Tiantan Hospital, Capital Medical University, Beijing, People's Republic of China; 2China National Clinical Research Center for Neurological Diseases, Beijing, People's Republic of China; 3Department of Neurosurgery, Peking University International Hospital, Beijing, People's Republic of China; 4Acornmed Biotechnology Co., Ltd, Beijing, People's Republic of China Background: Tremendous efforts have been made to explore biomarkers for classifying and grading glioma. However, the majority of the current understanding is based on public databases that might not accurately reflect the Asian population. Here, we investigated the genetic landscape of Chinese glioma patients using a validated multigene next-generation sequencing (NGS) panel to provide a strong rationale for the future classification and prognosis of glioma in this population. Methods: We analyzed 83 samples, consisting of 71 initial treatments and 12 recurrent surgical tumors, from 81 Chinese patients with gliomas by performing multigene NGS with an Acornmed panel targeting 808 cancer-related hotspot genes, including genes related to glioma (hotspots, selected exons or complete coding sequences) and full-length SNPs located on chromosomes 1 and 19. Results: A total of 76 (91.57%) glioma samples had at least one somatic mutation. The most commonly mutated genes were TP53, TERT, IDH1, PTEN, ATRX, and EGFR. Approximately one-third of cases exhibited more than one copy number variation. Of note, this study identified the amplification of genes, such as EGFR and PDGFRA, which were significantly associated with glioblastoma but had not been previously used for clinical classification (P<0.05). Significant differences in genomic profiles between different pathological subtypes and WHO grade were observed. Compared to the MSKCC database primarily comprised of Caucasians, H3F3A mutations and MET amplifications exhibited higher mutation rates, whereas TERT mutations and EGFR and CDKN2A/B copy number variations presented a lower mutation rate in Chinese patients with glioma (P<0.05). Conclusion: Our multigene NGS in the simultaneous evaluation of multiple relevant markers revealed several novel genetic alterations in Chinese patients with glioma. NGSbased molecular analysis is a reliable and effective method for diagnosing brain tumors, assisting clinicians in evaluating additional potential therapeutic options, such as targeted therapy, for glioma patients in different racial/ethnic groups.


The anti-TFNα are undoubtedly an efficacious cure in the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis, but their costs are so high that a thorough pharmacoeconomical evaluation is needed in order to identify the specific conditions in which their use is to be considered convenient. For this reason there are related the most important experiences that have studied the cost-efficacy and cost-utility relationships of anti-TFNα drugs, which have been made marketable in Italy. The data available, unfortunately, are too various to allow a final settlement of the chart of convenience between the different therapeutic alternatives. Moreover the socio-medical reality in Italy is so much different from the ones in other countries that it is impossible to try and use the foreign experiences. In a country of high social commitment like Italy, a fair judgment can thereafter be made only when the issue is considered related to our society, taking in account the summation of the medical costs endured by the National Health System, the patient's expenses and the ones that are a consequence of the loss of productivity.


In pollen tubes of Nicotiana alata, a membrane-bound, Ca2+-independent callose synthase (CalS) is responsible for the biosynthesis of the (1,3)-[beta]-glucan backbone of callose, the main cell wall component. Digitonin increases CalS activity 3- to 4-fold over a wide range of concentrations, increasing the maximum initial velocity without altering the Michaelis constant for UDP-glucose. The CalS activity that requires digitonin for assay (the latent CalS activity) is not inhibited bythe membrane-impermeant, active-site-directed reagent UDP-pyridoxal when the reaction is conducted in the absence of digitonin. This is consistent with digitonin increasing CalS activity bythe permeabilization of membrane vesicles. A second group of detergents, including 3-[(3-cholamidopropyl)dimethylammonio]-1-propane-sulfonate (CHAPS), Zwittergent 3–16, and 1-[alpha]-lysolecithin, activate pollen tube CalS 10- to 15-fold, but only over a narrow range of concentrations just below their respective critical micellar concentrations. This activation could not be attributed to any particular chemical feature of these detergents. CHAPS increases maximum initial velocity and decreases the Michaelis constant for UDP-glucose and activates CalS even in the presence of permeabilizing concentrations of digitonin. Inhibition studies with UDP-pyridoxal indicate that activation by CHAPS occurs by recruitment of previously inactive CalS molecules to the pool of active enzyme. The activation of pollen tube CalS by these detergents therefore resembles activation of the enzyme by trypsin.


more specific interdisciplinary fashion. Physical symptom control in dying children is a very specialised area and it is difficult for the nonspecialist to get a grasp of this from any book, but the chapter on physical symptom control complements practical experience. I would recommend this easy to read book to anyone interested in the care of dying children and their families or to those wishing to improve skills in understanding children and subsequently improving communication with children.


This paper presents the development of the "Entertainment Guide", a 3G location-based entertainment guide application for the outdoor environment. The focus of this research study is on the software support for location-based applications, especially designed for 3G mobile networks. Contrary to the majority of the available LBS applications, the current study deals with the design and the implementation of a real 3G LBS application, offering to mobile users added-value services, such as high quality mobile multimedia location-aware content on high-data-rate wireless channels. In this paper we describe the Entertainment Guide system and discuss the processes involved in the development of this 3G LBS application (location-based service supply chain and system architecture).


The article has two parts. Part II discusses the materials we reviewed to inform the development of a queer legal pedagogy. In particular, it examines the categories of queer legal scholarship and highlights the contributions of other outsider scholars to legal education debates. Early in our research, we found limited material on queer legal pedagogy, and we discovered nothing that posited a theoretical approach. We did, however, find rich resources written by other outsiders to law from which some design principles for queer legal pedagogy might be drawn. We should note at the outset that our goal in this Part of the Article is not to review queer scholarship or outsider approaches to legal pedagogy exhaustively, nor is it to provide a literature review. Instead, our purpose is simply to acknowledge the contributions of these scholars to our understanding of what queer legal pedagogy might be by highlighting some of the fundamental insights in that scholarship. Part III of the Article proposes eight principles of queer legal pedagogy. Although we conclude that it is premature to suggest an overarching theoretical approach to this pedagogy, we present these eight principles to begin a discussion of what a queer legal pedagogy might look like. We also attempt to apply these principles to the law school curriculum, making some preliminary remarks about how the curriculum might be queered. Finally, the Article concludes with some tentative thoughts about the transformative power of queer legal pedagogy.


This paper considers antenna selection (AS) for packet reception at a receiver equipped with multiple antenna elements but only a single radio frequency chain. The receiver makes its AS decisions based on noisy channel estimates obtained from the training symbols (pilots). The time-correlation of the wireless channel and the results of the link-layer error checks upon data packet reception provide additional information that can be exploited for AS. This information can also be used to optimally distribute pilots among the antenna elements, so that packet loss due to selection errors is minimized. The task of the receiver, then, is to sequentially select (a) the pilot symbol allocation for channel estimation on each of the receive antennas and (b) the antenna to be used for data packet reception. The goal is to maximize the expected throughput, based on the history of allocation and selection decisions, and the corresponding noisy channel estimates and error check observations. This joint problem of pilot allocation and AS is solved as a partially observed Markov decision problem (POMDP) and the solutions yield the optimal policies that maximize the long-term expected throughput. The performance of the POMDP solution is compared with several other schemes for a 2-state Markov channel model, and it is illustrated that it outperforms the others.


Congratulations on the concise article on anal fissure.1 It covered pathology and management well with one exception, the role of stool softening.

While the cause of an anal fissure is unknown, the condition is perpetuated by the cycle:

pain → internal sphincter spasm → faecal retention → hard stool → rapid anal stretching at (inevitable) defaecation → opening of the fissure → pain

This cycle can be broken by adequate stool softening. Increasing fibre intake is slow to act and often fails to give adequate softening. The stool needs to be as soft as toothpaste.

Osmotic agents (e.g. macrogol) or non-absorbed sugars (e.g. lactulose) can be used but have their disadvantages. The cheapest, most rapid acting product is liquid paraffin. A large dose can be given initially so that within 24 hours defaecation is pain free or almost so. In children, depending on their age, a dose of 20–30 mL to start can be followed by 10–15 mL twice daily. The dose can be easily adjusted according to the response. Liquid paraffin can be continued for two to three months, after which it is reduced slowly. Fibre can then be used if hard stools are a long-term problem.

As paraffin is not digested, does not change intestinal movement, and does not cause movement of water in or out of the gut, it is relatively safe. Some leaking of oil is seen occasionally but this can be controlled by lowering the dose by a few mL.

I have yet to find good evidence of a complication other than pulmonary aspiration secondary to gastro-oesophageal reflux. It is best to avoid giving a dose last thing at night. Macrophages in intestinal nodes can show micro droplets but no ill effect has been noted. About 30 years ago there was a belief that liquid paraffin could cause fat soluble vitamin deficiency, however this has not been substantiated by subsequent research.2


This paper presents a theoretical investigation of the polarization and magnetic sensitivity of the near-ultraviolet (near-UV) solar spectral lines of Fe ii between 250 and 278 nm. In recent years, UV spectropolarimetry has become key to uncovering the magnetism of the upper layers of the solar chromosphere. The unprecedented data obtained by the CLASP2 suborbital space experiment across the Mg ii h and k lines around 280 nm are a clear example of the capabilities of near-UV spectropolarimetry for magnetic field diagnostics throughout the whole solar chromosphere. Recent works have pointed out the possible complementary diagnostic potential of the many Fe ii lines in the unexplored spectral region between 250 and 278 nm, but no quantitative analysis of the polarization and magnetic sensitivity of those spectral lines has been carried out yet. To study the polarization signals in these spectral lines, we create a comprehensive atomic model including all the atomic transitions resulting in strong spectral lines. We then study the magnetic sensitivity of the linear and circular polarization profiles in a semiempirical model representative of the quiet Sun. We present a selection of Fe ii spectral lines with significant linear and circular polarization signals and evaluate their diagnostic capabilities by studying their formation heights and magnetic sensitivity through the action of the Hanle and Zeeman effects. We conclude that when combined with the CLASP2 spectral region these Fe ii lines are of interest for the inference of magnetic fields throughout the solar chromosphere, up to near the base of the corona.


Zataria multiflora Boiss, known as Avishan-e- Shirazi in Persian, with traditional pharmacological properties take advantage of being useful medicinal plant. In this study, the chemical composition of different parts of Iranian Z. multiflora Boiss oils and also its antioxidant and antibacterial properties have been considered. The results showed that the main oil components especially thymol and carvacrol are identical in the oils exctracted derived from leaf, flower and aerial parts of the plant. In addition, the different part oils indicated the high radical scavenging and antioxidant properties. Also, E. coli and P. aeroginosa are more sensitive to the effects of the oil samples. However, the flower and aerial part oils of Z. multiflora are more efficient than the leaf in sensitivity to these microorganisms. These findings suggest the antioxidant and antibacterial activities of the oils derived from the leaf, flower and aerial parts of Z. multiflora regarding thymol and carvacrol as the major components. With a view to these biological properties, the applications of the oils in medicinal purposes are promising findings.


Objectives To investigate the container closure integrity of a closed system transfer device syringe adaptor lock in combination with disposable Luer-Lock syringes as the terminal closure device. The UK National Health Service (NHS) Pharmaceutical Quality Assurance Committee (PQAC) requires syringe integrity data for final storage devices of aseptic products such as chemotherapy drugs when prepared in advance and stored before use, as is standard practice for dose banded drugs. The assessment comprised both physical and microbial integrity testing of the combination closed system/Luer-Lock syringe containers at syringe sizes of 1 mL, 20 mL, and 50 mL. Methods Integrity testing was performed as described in the NHS Pharmaceutical Quality Assurance Committee yellow cover document, second edition 2013 'Protocols for the Integrity Testing of Syringes', with Chemfort (Simplivia, IL) syringe adaptor lock (SAL) devices as replacement for sterile blind hubs. Microbiological integrity was assessed according to method 1 part 1.4 using Brevundimonas diminuta at 32°C for up to 14 days of contact time. Two positive control devices per syringe size were tested using a blind hub cap as closure which was loosened before the test. Physical integrity was assessed using method 3 of the yellow cover document which is a dye intrusion method. Dye intrusion was assessed both visually and using a validated ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometer method. For each size/batch of test articles a positive control device (n=1) was assessed using a wire wrapped around the syringe plunger tip deliberately compromising integrity. Negative controls for each size (n=1) consisted of devices not immersed in methylene blue dye. Results Chemfort syringe adaptor lock/Luer-Lock syringe combinations were shown to be: (1) free of microbiological contamination after 14 days of contact time (n=60); and (2) free of dye intrusion at all syringe sizes tested (n=61 in total). The data demonstrate 100% closure integrity of the final container system when the Chemfort syringe adaptor lock replaces the syringe hub as the terminal closure device. All positive control devices demonstrated system suitability as container integrity was compromised in all positive control tests. All negative controls were negative for microbial and dye intrusion. Conclusions Syringe adaptor lock components complied with the NHS Pharmaceutical Quality Assurance Committee yellow cover document syringe integrity requirements when used as the terminal closure of Luer-Lock disposable syringes from 1 mL up to 50 mL. Therefore, syringe adaptor lock (Chemfort) can be used as the terminal closure system for pre-filled syringes of chemotherapeutic drug products prepared in advance in UK NHS pharmacy technical services.


Context. Dusty high-z galaxies are extreme objects with high star formation rates (SFRs) and luminosities. Characterising the properties of this population and analysing their evolution over cosmic time is key to understanding galaxy evolution in the early Universe.
Aims. We select a sample of high-z dusty star-forming galaxies (DSFGs) and evaluate their position on the main sequence (MS) of star-forming galaxies, the well-known correlation between stellar mass and SFR. We aim to understand the causes of their high star formation and quantify the percentage of DSFGs that lie above the MS.
Methods. We adopted a multi-wavelength approach with data from optical to submillimetre wavelengths from surveys at the North Ecliptic Pole to study a submillimetre sample of high-redshift galaxies. Two submillimetre selection methods were used, including: sources selected at 850 μm with the Sub-millimetre Common-User Bolometer Array 2) SCUBA-2 instrument and Herschel-Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) selected sources (colour-colour diagrams and 500 μm risers), finding that 185 have good multi-wavelength coverage. The resulting sample of 185 high-z candidates was further studied by spectral energy distribution fitting with the CIGALE fitting code. We derived photometric redshifts, stellar masses, SFRs, and additional physical parameters, such as the infrared luminosity and active galactic nuclei (AGN) contribution.
Results. We find that the Herschel-SPIRE selected DSFGs generally have higher redshifts (z = 2.57−0.09+0.08) than sources that are selected solely by the SCUBA-2 method (z = 1.45−0.06+0.21). We find moderate SFRs (797−50+108 M⊙ yr−1), which are typically lower than those found in other studies. We find that the different results in the literature are, only in part, due to selection effects, as even in the most extreme cases, SFRs are still lower than a few thousand solar masses per year. The difference in measured SFRs affects the position of DSFGs on the MS of galaxies; most of the DSFGs lie on the MS (60%). Finally, we find that the star formation efficiency (SFE) depends on the epoch and intensity of the star formation burst in the galaxy; the later the burst, the more intense the star formation. We discuss whether the higher SFEs in DSFGs could be due to mergers.


Malignant hyperthermia (MH) is a potentially fatal pharmacogenetic disorder manifested as a life threatening hypermetabolic crisis in susceptible individuals following exposure to inhalation anesthetics and to depolarizing muscle relaxants. The preoperative diagnosis of MH susceptibility is difficult. The gold standard for determination of MH susceptibility is the in vitro contracture test. However, it is invasive, requiring skeletal muscle biopsy and is not widely available. Recent advances in genetic testing for mutations that result in MH during anesthesia have helped some genetic test have limitations in clinical application due to the diversity of mutations. In Korea, we found the RYR1 genetic mutation by molecular genetic testing for MH susceptibility in a family for which MH had occurred. Based on the results of genetic testing, we could known MH susceptibility of 2 patients. We believe that the genetic testing for MH can be developed and used with some limitations in clinical settings in Korea.


In this study, we investigated molecular mechanism underlying the regulation of endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) expression by fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF21). We analyzed FGF21 and eNOS expression in hypertensive and healthy (control) subjects (n=30/group). To evaluate the effects of FGF21 on endothelial cells, we transfected FGF21 mimics or FGF21 inhibitor into human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs). Cell proliferation was analyzed using the methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium assay, and cell migration and invasion were assessed using Transwell assays. In addition, eNOS, PI3K, and AKT mRNA in the HUVECs were evaluated by quantitative reverse transcription PCR, and p-eNOS, PI3K, and p-AKT were evaluated by Western blotting. Our results showed increased levels of FGF21 mRNA and eNOS mRNA/protein in the blood of hypertensive patients compared with healthy controls. The FGF21 inhibitor inhibited HUVEC growth, migration, and invasion and significantly decreased eNOS, PI3K, and AKT mRNA levels and p-eNOS, PI3K, and p-AKT protein levels in HUVECs. Treatment with VEGF and/or overexpression of eNOS partially restored cell proliferation and p-AKT levels. Taken together, our results indicate that FGF21 regulates eNOS through the PI3K/AKT pathway.


Thirty-six cases of feline urine marking problem were collected through the cooperation of veterinary practitioners in the Kanto, Chubu, and Kansai areas in Japan, for an assessment of the clinical effect of treatment with a synthetic analogue of a feline cheek gland pheromone-like product. The mean frequency of urine marking was 14.2 times/week (median, 10; range, 1-77) at pre-treatment week (preW), and decreased significantly from the first week of treatment, dropping to 4.2 times/week (median, 2; range, 0-44) at the fourth week of treatment. This effect continued until the fourth week after cessation of treatment. These 36 cases were divided into 3 groups based on the effectiveness of treatment as demonstrated in the fourth week of treatment; 37% was categorized as the totally eliminated group (urine marking was not seen), 40% as the reduced group (the frequency of urine marking was equal to or less than 50% that of the preW), and 23% as the unchanged group (the frequency of urine marking was more than 50% that of the preW). Effectiveness of treatment in these groups was 38%, 24%, and 38% at the fourth week after the cessation of treatment, respectively. The decreasing rate of urine marking was compared between cats with and without intercat aggression, and it was revealed that the frequency of marking was sustained at high level in cats with intercat aggression. These results suggest that this pheromone treatment is as effective in Japan as has been reported in other countries for solving feline urine marking problems.


An investigation is made into the problem of constructing a model of the appearance to an optical input device of scenes consisting of plane-faced geometric solids. The goal is to study algorithms which find the real straight edges in the scenes, taking into account smooth variations in intensity over the faces of the solids, blurring of edges and noise. A general mathematical analysis is made of optimal methods of identifying the edge lines in figures, given a raster of intensities covering the entire field of view. There is given in addition a suboptimal statistical decision procedure, based on the model, for the identification of a line within a narrow band on the field of view given an array of intensities from within the band. A computer program has been written and extensively tested which implements this procedure and extracts lines from real scenes. Other programs were written which judge the completeness of extracted sets of lines, and propose and text for additional lines which had escaped initial detection. The performance of these programs is discussed in relation to the theory derived from the model, and with regard to their use of global information in detecting and proposing lines.


The aim of this study was to investigate the Impact of policies and infrastructures on the access and use of library electronic resources the extent of access to and use of library electronic resources and their implications on remote users at the National Open University of Nigeria. The study adopted a quantitative research approach and survey research method was employed. The study targeted 1,680 population samples of which include 1,513 Students, 140 Academic staffs, and 27 Academic Librarians. Probability (Stratified random and systematic) sampling and nonprobability (purposive) sampling methods were adopted. Two sample frames were used: Students classified into subgroups (Level) in each selected study centers and Academic staff classified into subgroups (academic staff/academic librarian). Online (Google form) selfadministered closed-ended questionnaire was sent to participants' email. Data collected were analyzed through Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). This finding revealed that the academic staff and students access and use the library electronic resources for various multidimensional purposes, however, there is a low patronage of these electronic resources by academic staff and students as less than 40% of academic staff and students access and use the library electronic resources. Recommendations: the library management should develop awareness programmes that is appropriate for an ODL university community through the use of modern communication tools, and emphasy should be on the use of electronic resources in the university curriculum.


One of the current trends in governance and legal development in Russia is aimed at establishing a modern, efficient and internationally harmonised system of safeguards of human rights and civil liberties. A fairly recent addition to this system has been the institution of ombudsman as a public authority specialised in promoting and protecting human rights and civil liberties. The introduction of this institution as well as its formalisation at the constitutional and legislative levels has been increasingly relevant and important, as it raises the dealings between the state and the individual to a new level. As an independent public institution resolving conflicts between citizens and government authorities, the ombudsman makes steps, within the scope of his jurisdiction, to restitute individual rights, and helps to enhance the reputation of government.
The present work describes and assesses the birth, development and institutionalization process of the Ombudsman Office in the Russian Federation, at federal and regional levels, with a particular emphasis on the role of international references and cooperation for institution building.
Ombudsmen have done a magnificent job in demonstrating value with the resolution of individual and systemic complaints; subsequent improvements to government; and economic savings by mitigating litigation costs.


Accurate predictions of retention times, retention indices, and partition constants are a long sought-after goal for theoretical studies in chromatography. Configurational-bias Monte Carlo (CBMC) simulations in the Gibbs ensemble using the transferable potentials for phase equilibria-united atom (TraPPE-UA) force field have been carried out to obtain a microscopic picture of the partitioning of 10 alkane isomers between a helium vapor phase and a squalane liquid phase, a protypical gas-liquid chromatography system. The alkane solutes include some topological isomers that differ only in the arrangement of their building blocks (e.g., 2,5-dimethylhexane and 3,4-dimethylhexane), for which the prediction of the retention order is particularly difficult. The Kovats retention indices, a measure of the relative retention times, are calculated directly from the partition constants and are in good agreement with experimental values. The calculated Gibbs free energies of transfer for the normal alkanes conform to Martin's equation which is the basis of linear free energy relationships used in many process modeling packages. Analysis of radial distribution functions and the corresponding energy integrals does not yield evidence for specific retention structures and shows that the internal energy of solvation is not the main driving force for the separation of topological isomers in this system.


Purpose: Jamaica has the highest incidence of prostate cancer in the world. Dietary fat is associated with prostate cancer. The Ω6 polyunsaturated fatty acids have been shown to stimulate prostate carcinogenesis and the Jamaican diet is rich in linoleic acid. We hypothesized positive correlations between Ω6 polyunsaturated fatty acid, prostate specific antigen and prostate biopsy pathology. Materials and Methods: A total of 148 men were enrolled in Kingston, Jamaica. Serum prostate specific antigen and erythrocyte membrane polyunsaturated fatty acids were analyzed. Men with prostate specific antigen 2.6 ng/ml or greater underwent biopsy. Histopathological and statistical analyses were performed on available data. Results: Of the 54 men who underwent biopsy 24 had prostate cancer, 17 had a Gleason score of 7 or greater and 11 had a tumor volume of 50% or greater. There were significant positive correlations between linoleic acid and Gleason score (p = 0.009), and the linoleic acid-to-docosahexaenoic acid (Ω3) ratio and tumor volume (p = 0.03). There was a significant negative correlation between the arachidonic acid (Ω6)-to-docosapentanoic acid (Ω3) ratio and Gleason score (p = 0.04). Statistical correlations between prostate specific antigen and polyunsaturated fatty acids were inconsistent. Conclusions: The positive correlations between linoleic acid and Gleason score, and the linoleic acid-to-docosahexaenoic acid ratio and tumor volume support studies showing that Ω6 polyunsaturated fatty acids stimulate and Ω3 polyunsaturated fatty acids inhibit prostate cancer growth. The negative correlation between the arachidonic acid-to-docosapentanoic acid ratio and Gleason score supports studies that demonstrate increased metabolism of arachidonic acid in prostate cancer to form carcinogenic metabolites, namely prostaglandin E2. Our findings support the association between dietary fatty acids and prostate cancer, and they warrant further dietary and tissue studies in high risk populations.


Background Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is the most common form of acute leukemia in adults resulting in >10,000 deaths per year in the US. Limited treatment options and poor clinical response to current standard of care (SOC) necessitate development of more efficacious therapeutics. CD98 is a heterodimeric cell surface protein that is implicated in the pathogenesis of many hematological and solid malignancies and its elevated expression is correlated with poor prognosis and patient outcome. Previous studies demonstrated that CD98 functions both in integrin signaling and amino acid transport processes, which support the proliferation, anchorage-independence, invasion, and metastasis of tumor cells. Here we demonstrate that IGN523, a humanized monoclonal antibody targeting CD98, possesses multiple mechanisms of action (MOAs) and elicits potent anti-tumor activity against a variety of leukemic xenograft models.

Methods CD98 expression was assessed on CD34+/CD33- progenitors and more mature CD34+/CD33+ precursors from AML patient bone marrow samples by flow cytometry. Anti-tumor efficacy of IGN523 treatment was evaluated across 11 lymphoma or leukemic xenograft models, including 5 AML, established in NOD/SCID, CB17, or NSG mice. Animals were treated with either IGN523 alone or in combination with SOC anti-tumor agents and dose-responses were performed in selected models. IGN523's ability to elicit NK-cell mediated antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) and complement-dependent tumor cell lysis was determined. Additional in vitro MOA studies investigated IGN523's effect upon lysosomal and mitochondrial membrane permeabilization, amino acid transport, tumor cell proliferation and apoptosis.

Results Flow cytometry data demonstrate that CD98 is differentially expressed on CD34+/CD33- and CD34+/CD33+ AML bone marrow cells compared to healthy donors. In AML patients, CD98 expression was significantly increased on the CD34+/CD33+ cells versus the CD34+/CD33- population. Leukemic tumors were established in mice (100-200mm3 starting volumes) prior to weekly treatment with IGN523 dosed at 15 or 30 mg/kg. IGN523 elicited robust and significant tumor growth inhibition (TGI; p<0.01) in the majority of models including Ramos (87% TGI), HL-60 (70% TGI), KG-1 (53% TGI) and OCI-AML-3 (74% TGI). A well-defined IGN523 dose response (0.1 – 30 mg/kg) was also observed. IGN523 was at least as efficacious as SOC anti-tumor agents (e.g. cytarabine). In vitro data established that IGN523 elicits strong ADCC activity, induces lysosomal membrane permeabilization, and inhibits essential amino acid transport function. Moreover, IGN523 impedes cell proliferation/survival signaling cascades through reduction of PRAS40 and p70s6K phosphorylation, ultimately resulting in caspase-mediated apoptosis.

Conclusion The combination of increased CD98 expression on AML cells, pre-clinical efficacy of IGN523 in xenograft models, and identification of diverse MOAs provide strong scientific rationale for therapeutic use in patients. Clinical trials are therefore warranted to evaluate the efficacy and safety of IGN523 in AML.

Disclosures: Hayes: Igenica, Inc.: Employment. Chinn: Igenica, Inc.: Employment. Cantor: Igenica, Inc.: Consultancy. Velilla: Igenica, Inc.: Employment. Ginsberg: Igenica, Inc.: Consultancy. van der Horst: Igenica, Inc.: Employment.


There is growing recognition of the burden of depression in people living with HIV/AIDS (PLWHA), associated with negative behavioural and clinical outcomes. Unfortunately, most HIV care providers in sub-Saharan Africa do not routinely provide mental health services to address this problem. This article describes the process of developing a model for integrating the management of depression in HIV care in Uganda. Theory of Change (ToC) methodology was used to guide the process of developing the model. Three successive ToC workshops were held with a multi-disciplinary group of 38 stakeholders within Wakiso district, in the Central region of Uganda. The first 2 workshops were for generating practical ideas for a feasible and acceptable model of integrating the management of depression in HIV care at all levels of care within the district healthcare system; while the third and final workshop was for consensus building. Following meaningful brainstorming and discussions, the stakeholders suggested improved mental wellbeing among PLWHA as the ultimate outcome of the program. This would be preceded by short-term and intermediate outcomes including reduced morbidity among persons with HIV attributable to depression, allocation of more resources towards management of depression, increased help-seeking among depressed PLWHA and more health workers detecting and managing depression. These would be achieved following several interventions undertaken at all levels of care. The participants further identified some indicators of successful implementation such as emphasis of depression management in the district healthcare plans, increased demand for anti-depressants etc; as well as various assumptions underlying the intervention. All these were graphically aligned in a causal pathway, leading to a ToC map, contextualizing and summarizing the intervention model. The ToC was a valuable methodology that brought together stakeholders to identify key strategies for development of a comprehensible contextualized intervention model for managing depression within HIV care in Uganda; allowing greater stakeholder engagement and buy-in.


In the UK the most problematic pests of the potato crop are the potato cyst nematodes Globodera rostochiensis and G. pallida. A structured survey of potato growing land in England and Wales was undertaken to reassess their occurrence and distribution. PCN were present in 64% of sites sampled and of the populations found, 67% were G. pallida, 8% were G. rostochiensis and 25% contained both species. Just over 50% of the sites sampled had a rotation length of 1 in 5 or less and cultivars with partial resistance to G. pallidarepresented only 6% of the total number of plantings while those with resistance to G. rostochiensisrepresented 43%. The results show an increase in the incidence of PCN compared with previous surveys and confirm the perceived shift towards G. pallida as the predominant species.
 Two field experiments were done to look at the integration of methods for the control of PCN and subsequent reduction in yield loss in situations of very high PCN levels. The first experiment assessed the use of 1,3-dichloropropene (1,3-D) with the granular nematicides aldicarb, oxamyl and fosthiazate when growing the susceptible cultivar Estima. The second experiment assessed the use of the resistant cultivar Sante with 1,3-D and oxamyl at full and half-rates. 1,3-D significantly advanced emergence, increased percentage ground cover, root invasion, yield, tuber numbers, and improved tuber size distribution. Nematode multiplication was significantly reduced by fumigation in the first experiment.
 The use of 1,3-D for the control of weed seeds was assessed and the results show a reduction in germination of weed seeds in soil after fumigation. The use of 1,3-D for the control of Rhizoctonia solani was also assessed and a trend in reduction in R. solani was observed after fumigation although the differences were not statistically significant.


Abstract A preliminary description of a new specimen belonging to the family Discosauriscidae (Seymouriamorpha), Discosauriscidae indet., is presented in this paper. The specimen is partially prepared; only its skull was chemically removed from the matrix and accessible for the study in dorsal aspect. The skull is about 40 mm long and three-dimensionally preserved. The skull differs from all other discosauriscids in three autapomorphic features: 1) distinct ornamentation of the skull roof bones consisting of strongly developed ridges and deep grooves; 2) intertemporal larger than the supratemporal; and 3) anterolateral margin of intertemporal almost straight. These features strongly indicate that the specimen represents a new taxon. However, the taxonomy of this specimen will be evaluated only after its complete preparation.


Permanent mold casting is a well-established route for casting large magnesium alloys components. Casting parameters like superheat, mold temperature, and holding time can often result in inhomogeneous properties, porosity, and segregation problems in the cast part. In order to optimize the casting process, control of the casting parameters including mold temperatures and holding times is essential to promote directional solidification, and ensure defect free homogenous structure. Binary Mg-9wt.%Al and Mg-10wt.%Gd alloys were used to investigate the effect of casting parameters such as melt temperature and holding time on the part macro and microstructure.


Background Sarcopenia is the most frequent complication of cirrhosis. A transjugular intrahepatic portosystemic stent (TIPS) lowers portal pressure in cirrhosis and alters the body composition. Changes in the skeletal muscle area and adipose tissue volume were quantified by computed tomography (CT) before and after TIPS. Materials and methods Fifty-seven consecutive cirrhotics who had a CT scan before and after TIPS were studied. Simultaneous age-matched, sex-matched, Child's score-matched, and Model for End-Stage Liver Disease score-matched cirrhotics (n=32) who did not undergo TIPS comprised the disease control and 57 healthy individuals who had undergone CT abdomen comprised the healthy control population. Muscle area and fat volume were obtained at the mid-L4 vertebra level on the CT scans. Results Patients (mean age 55.5±8.1 years) were followed up for a mean of 13.5±11.9 months following TIPS. Total psoas and paraspinal muscle area increased significantly (P<0.0001) after TIPS (from 22.8±0.9 to 25.1±0.9 cm2 and 54.5±1.3 to 57.9±1.5 cm2, respectively). After TIPS, muscle area increased in 41 patients but remained unchanged or decreased in 16 patients. Post-TIPS visceral fat volume decreased significantly (47.7±4.1 to 40.5±3.4 cm3; P<0.001). Failure to reverse sarcopenia after TIPS was accompanied by higher (P=0.007) mortality (43.5%) compared with patients in whom the total muscle area increased (9.8%). On multivariate analysis, predictors of reversal of sarcopenia after TIPS included male sex and lower pre-TIPS muscle area. Cirrhotic patients who did not undergo TIPS showed no change in the mean muscle area over 13.1±1.3 months. Conclusion TIPS reverses sarcopenia in cirrhotic patients. Failure to improve muscle area after TIPS was accompanied by a higher mortality.


BACKGROUND
Percutaneous stellate ganglion blockade (SGB) has been used for drug-refractory electrical storm due to ventricular arrhythmia (VA); however, the effects and long-term outcomes have not been well studied.

METHODS
This study included 30 consecutive patients who had drug-refractory electrical storm and underwent percutaneous SGB between October 1, 2013, and March 31, 2018. Bupivacaine, alone or combined with lidocaine, was injected into the neck with good local anesthetic spread in the vicinity of the left stellate ganglion (n=15) or both stellate ganglia (n=15). Data were collected for patient clinical characteristics, immediate and long-term outcomes, and procedure-related complications.

RESULTS
Clinical characteristics included age, 58±14 years; men, 73.3%; and left ventricular ejection fraction, 34±16%. At 24 hours, 60% of patients were free of VA. Patients whose VA was controlled had a lower hospital mortality rate than patients whose VA continued (5.6% versus 50.0%; P=0.009). Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator interrogation showed a significant 92% reduction in VA episodes from 26±41 to 2±4 in the 72 hours after SGB (P<0.001). Patients who died during the same hospitalization (n=7) were more likely to have ischemic cardiomyopathy (100% versus 43.5%; P=0.03) and recurrent VA within 24 hours (85.7% versus 26.1%; P=0.009). There were no procedure-related major complications.

CONCLUSIONS
SGB effectively attenuated electrical storm in more than half of patients without procedure-related complications. Percutaneous SGB may be considered for stabilizing ventricular rhythm in patients for whom other therapies have failed.


Research findings, if they are to fulfil their purpose, must be perceived as valuable and worth accessing. The role of research is to change the status quo, therefore findings need to be absorbed by practitioners. Research is more than a cycle of methodologies and data analysis techniques for
other researchers to use and adapt. It is accepted that findings may not always be relevant to the problems or issues faced by practitioners. Practitioners need to be aware of the range of research undertaken and any findings, in order that they may make informed decisions. Much of the research
that is undertaken within the information community addresses issues of concern to practitioners. However, the extent to which practitioners are aware of research, have access to research findings and particularly, how this impacts on their decision making is not well understood. To investigaie
the impact of research information on practitioners, it is necessary to look beyond outward behaviour patterns and to try to understand the internal processes which lead practitioners to decisions. There is a need to examine the knowledge of the practitioner and how it is applied. Such
an approach would produce a fuller and more useful model of how and why research information impacts on practitioners.


We study a squeezed vacuum field generated in hot Rb vapor via the polarization self-rotation effect. Our previous experiments showed that the amount of observed squeezing may be limited by the contamination of the squeezed vacuum output with higher-order spatial modes, also generated inside the cell. Here, we demonstrate that the squeezing can be improved by making the light interact several times with a less dense atomic ensemble. With optimization of some parameters we can achieve up to -2.6 dB of squeezing in the multi-pass case, which is 0.6 dB improvement compared to the single-pass experimental configuration. Our results show that other than the optical depth of the medium, the spatial mode structure and cell configuration also affect the squeezing level.


Internet has become an indispensible part of today's life. World Wide Web (WWW) is the largest shared information source. Finding relevant information on the WWW is challenging. To respond to a user query, it is difficult to search through the large number of returned documents with the presence of today's search engines. There is a need to organize a large set of documents into categories through clustering. The documents can be a user query or simply a collection of documents. Document clustering is the task of combining a set of documents into clusters so that intra cluster documents are similar to each other than inter cluster documents. Partitioning and Hierarchical algorithms are commonly used for document clustering. Existing partitioning algorithms have the limitation that the number of clusters has to be given as input and the clustering result depends on this input. If the number of clusters is not known, results are not acceptable. In this paper, we have developed a novel algorithm which generates number of clusters automatically for any unknown text dataset and clusters the documents appropriately based on Cosine Similarity between them. We have also detected zero clustering issue in partitioning algorithm and solved it using our novel algorithm.


In this paper, a design seminar on embedded systems is described for fourth year students in the multimedia and signal processing option at our electrical engineering department. The aim of the seminar is to ease up the adaptation of the universitary curriculum to what is expected by industry of a high level engineer. The main purpose of the seminar is to provide the students with a real life problem, covering different expertise areas and multiple hardware platforms, programming techniques and development tools in order to develop a commercially viable application with off-the-shelf tools, hardware and software. The interdisciplinary character of this seminar is an excellent opportunity to see how the different topics taught in different courses interact in a real life system.


Background The important goal of Avahan programme is to reduce HIV transmission among female sex workers (FSWs) and MSM-T by increasing consistent condom use, reducing risk behaviour and timely treatment of sexually transmitted infections. In order to assess the impact of programme exposure on these outcomes, many of the earlier studies have done impact analyses using periodical Integrated Biological and Behavioural Surveys (IBBAs). Since these studies were cross-sectional in nature, they could not give true impact of programme exposure in the absence of a suitable control group. Therefore, the fact that results may have not occurred independently of the intervention, instead re fl ecting natural trends in HIV/STI prevalence cannot be ruled out. Methods Using fi rst two rounds of IBBAs conducted during 2005 e 2006 and 2008 e 2009 respectively in four districts of Karnataka namely Belgaum, Bellary, Shimoga, and Bangalore, we use Propensity Score Matching (PSM) method to demonstrate the true effect of different components of programme exposure on HIV/STI prevalence and consistent condom use with all partners. By creating a proxy group of controlled individuals (those individuals who are not exposed to programme), PSM method compares the outcome measures with each respective cases who were exposed to programme. Further, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is used to generate a composite index by combining a set of programme exposure to analyse whether greater access to programme results into to better outcome. Results Findings suggest that consistent condom use was higher with occasional clients in comparison to the regular clients cutting across all the districts. The consistent condom use was highest with occasional clients and regular partner in Belgaum (about 92 and 78 percent respectively) while lowest in Shimoga (55% and 48% respectively). The extent of condom use increased for both regular and occasional partners from fi rst survey to second one. Result shows that about 12% FSWs in Belgaum reported any STI symp-toms whereas it was about more than 9% in rest of the districts. Findings further revealed the fact that greater the access to program, better was the outcome indicators. The application of PSM method clearly suggested the fact that among all the programme indicators contact of the peers with sex workers signi


Validity, efficacy and responsibility of acts depend on the intelligence and will of the acting subject; therefore when they are reduced or debilitated, these acts may be declared as non-valid and the author, not-responsible for the acts. Some neurological pathologies may generate physical and/or psychic permanent deficiencies, which prevent subjects from acting on their own. For these cases, the law establishes the incapacity state, in order to protect the disabled and complete the reduced ability, guaranteeing their rights and security. The disabled state will be determined by a legal sentence, which states the lack of ability to manage. In that sentence extension and limits of the disability will be determined; disability level will be proportional to the insight degree. Similarly, a subject suffering a pathological condition that invalidates his/her will and intelligence will be considered non-responsible and not imputable, since there is no culpability ability. The Penal Code establishes the criteria that will determine the possibility of imputability or its absence, as well as modifying circumstances.


This paper presents a radial basis function (RBF) based approach for blind signal separation in a nonlinear mixture. A cost function, which consists of the mutual information and partial moments of the outputs of the separation system, is defined to extract the independent signals from their nonlinear mixtures. The minimization of the cost function results in the independence of the outputs with desirable moments such that the original sources are separated properly. A learning algorithm for the parametric RBF network is established by using the stochastic gradient descent method. This approach is characterized by high learning convergence rate of weights, modular structure, as well as feasible hardware implementation. A simulation result demonstrates the feasibility, and validity of the proposed approach.


We have described the concentration-dependent inotropic effects of halothane, isoflurane and sevoflurane on rat ventricular cells and investigated the role of the sarcoplasmic reticulum (SR) in these inotropic actions. Single ventricular myocytes, isolated from rat hearts, were stimulated electrically at 1 Hz and contractions recorded optically. Cells were exposed to a range of concentrations of halothane, isoflurane or sevoflurane for a period of 1 min to determine the concentration-dependency of their inotropic actions. For each anaesthetic, the peak negative inotropic action was determined early during an exposure, and sustained negative inotropic action was measured at steady-state just before wash-off. In some experiments, cells were equilibrated with ryanodine 1 mumol litre-1 to investigate the role of the SR in these intropic effects. Halothane caused a concentration-dependent initial increase in contractions (to mean 130 (SEM 28)% at 10 mmol litre-1) followed by rapid onset of a negative inotropic effect (K0.5 0.34 mmol litre-1 for peak effect; K0.5 0.46 mmol litre-1 for sustained effect). Exposure to isoflurane induced a small potentiation of contractions in some cells, followed by a concentration-dependent decrease in contraction in all cells (K0.5 0.85 mmol litre-1 for peak effect; K0.5 1.92 mmol litre-1 for sustained effect); contractions recovered partially during a 1-min exposure. On wash-off, contractions were increased transiently above control. Sevoflurane caused a large initial decrease in contraction which then returned rapidly towards control (K0.5 0.2 mmol litre-1 for peak effect; K0.5 2.57 mmol litre-1 for sustained effect). In common with isoflurane, removal of sevoflurane caused a transient increase in contractions above control. After exposure to ryanodine, the positive inotropic effects of halothane and isoflurane did not occur, and recovery of contractions during exposure to isoflurane and sevoflurane was abolished as was the transient increase in contractions seen on wash-off, indicating that these effects were mediated via the SR. Halothane had the most potent sustained negative inotropic effect but there was little difference between the negative inotropic effects of isoflurane and sevoflurane at clinically relevant concentrations. At higher concentrations, sevoflurane caused a less potent negative inotropic effect than isoflurane. The SR plays a major role in the effects of all three anaesthetics. One possible mechanism underlying the initial potentiation of contraction by halothane (and isoflurane) may be sensitization of the Ca(2+)-induced Ca(2+)-release process of the SR.


Dynamic changes in traditional technologies and rising of new technologies call for development of new services. If service providers want to stay on information technologies market, they must keep track with this trend and adjust their services to customer requirements or develop new services. New applications will mainly depend on communication bandwidth and end users ability to handle it. If network providers will be able to ensure necessary bandwidth, there will be nothing that can stop service providers and developers in new service development. People know about growing necessity of new service and ask for them, but they hardly understand that the most important thing for service providers is merchantability and economic return of resources they gave to the development and implementation. By the lack of flexible development environment that is able to develop, test and provide final service for operation, new service development is not easy. There are different new service design procedures for various technological and user areas. This is the reason why this paper provides brief description of new service development procedure from technological and administrative point of view.


We study the relationship between major clinical-diagnostic indicators with breast cancer. We show the progression of the disease is characterized by a significant decrease in the number of correlations between the clinical diagnostic and immunogistochemical characteristics of tumor tissue.


Indonesia represent one of the State in the world have resource involve representing the source of plasma nutfah and can be exploited to assemble pre-eminent varietas of future which is very supported development of agricultural sector. In practice of piracy of just crop varietas-varietas still happened. Relate to the hoisterous piracy of crop varietases hence formed by Law of Number 29th in Year 2000 About Protection Of Varietas Crop. In execution of Law Protection of Varietas Crop expected by role of institution or institute which in Departmental scope Agriculture to run role and its function give protection of adequate law to pre-eminent crop newly varietas.
This writing aim to know, descripted and analyse role of BPTP in execution Protection Of Law To Right Owner Protection of Varietas Crop and also constraint faced by side of BPTP in execution Protection Of Law To Right Owner Protection of Varietas Crop.
Approach method which is used in this writing method of yuridis sosiologic. As for data obtained to be analysed with method discripted qualitative.
Role of BPTP in Protection Of Law To Right Owner Protection of Varietas Crop is examiner of subtansif to varietas asked by rights or protection of crop varietas. Besides personating examiner of side subtansif BPTP also personally investigator of functionary civil country to doing an injustice area protection of crop varietas ( PVT). In practice, role of BPTP as examiner of subtansif very effective this matter can be seen from varietases which have been tested by office of BPTP. However, still many crop varietases which still yet in registering by all sources. While in the case of as investigator of functionary of civil country not yet is effective of this matter because of there is no doing an injustice case it in area of PVT which have been handled by side of BPTP.
Constraints of BPTP in doing of Protection Of Law To Right Owner Of Protection of Varietas Crop among others still lack of expert energy / researcher and still the limited equipments of examination had by BPTP. While other constraint still lack of socialization about Law Protection of Varietas Crop.


 Abstract — The aim of this study was to evaluate the role of multisensory elements in enhancing and facilitating foreign language acquisition among adult students in a language classroom. The use of multisensory elements enables the creation of a student-centered classroom, where the focus is on individual learner's language learning process, perceptions and motivation. Multisensory language learning is a pedagogical approach where the language learner uses all the senses more effectively than in a traditional in-class environment. Language learning is facilitated due to multisensory stimuli which increase the number of cognitive connections in the learner and take into consideration different types of learners. A living lab called Multisensory Space creates a relaxed and receptive state in the learners through various multisensory stimuli, and thus promotes their natural foreign language acquisition. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected in two questionnaire inquiries among the Finnish students of a higher education institute at the end of their basic French courses in December 2014 and 2016. The inquiries discussed the effects of multisensory elements on the students' motivation to study French as well as their learning outcomes. The results show that the French classes in the Multisensory Space provide the students with an encouraging and pleasant learning environment, which has a positive impact on their motivation to study the foreign language as well as their language learning outcomes.


The recently cloned vanilloid receptor subtype 1 (VR1) is a ligand-gated channel that is activated by capsaicin, protons, and heat. We have attempted to develop a dominant negative isoform by targeting several mutations of VR1 at highly conserved amino acids or at residues of potential functional importance and expressing the mutants in Chinese hamster ovary cells. Mutation of three highly conserved amino acid residues in the putative sixth transmembrane domain disrupts activation of the VR1 receptor by both capsaicin and resiniferatoxin. The vanilloid binding site in this mutant is intact, although the affinity for [3H]resiniferatoxin (RTX) is diminished by nearly 40-fold. Interestingly, this mutant retains a significant but diminished response to protons, supporting the existence of multiple gating mechanisms for different stimuli. The mutant appears to function by interfering with the gating induced by vanilloids rather than the expression level or permeability of the receptor. In addition, this mutant was found to function as a strong dominant negative mutation when coexpressed with wild-type VR1, providing functional evidence that the VR1 receptor forms a multimeric complex. Analysis of both current density and [3H]RTX affinity in cells cotransfected with different ratios of wild-type and mutant VR1 is consistent with tetrameric stoichiometry for the native capsaicin receptor.


A substantial amount of environmental justice research has taken the form of "proximity studies" that analyze the race and class composition of populations living in close proximity to general sources of pollution. Such studies often find disproportionate minority, poverty, and low-income populations proximate to the pollution source. This proximity study has a different starting point. We begin by locating nearly 700 of the nation's highest volume polluters of specific toxins that put children's health and learning abilities at risk: developmental neurotoxins. We then examine (a) the numbers of schools and children located within two miles of each polluter, and (b) the race and class compositions of the populations within two miles. The result is a study of the proximity of vulnerable populations to pollution that highlights the vulnerability of children, not just that of minorities and the poor. We find thousands of schools and hundreds of thousands of children at risk. We also find that a substantial proportion of the high volume polluters studied are surrounded by disproportionate minority, poverty, and low-income populations.


The outstanding pattern recognition performance of deep learning brings new vitality to the synthetic aperture radar (SAR) automatic target recognition (ATR). However, there is a limitation in current deep learning based ATR solution that each learning process only handles one SAR image, namely learning the static scattering information, while missing the space-varying information. It is obvious that space-varying scattering information introduced in the multi-aspect joint recognition should improve the classification accuracy and robustness. In this paper, a novel multi-aspect-aware method is proposed to achieve this idea through the bidirectional long short-term memory (LSTM) recurrent neural networks-based space-varying scattering information learning. Specifically, we first select different aspect images to generate the multi-aspect space-varying image sequences. Then, the Gabor filter and three-patch local binary pattern are progressively implemented to extract comprehensive spatial features, followed by dimensionality reduction with the multi-layer perceptron network. Finally, we design a bidirectional LSTM recurrent neural network to learn the multi-aspect features with further integrating the softmax classifier to achieve target recognition. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can achieve 99.9% accuracy for 10-class recognition. Besides, its anti-noise and anti-confusion performances are also better than the conventional deep learning-based methods.


In 2013, the Supreme Court of Canada held that, in some cases, trial courts do not have to follow precedents from higher courts (the "Bedford/Carter exceptions"). However, lacking clear rules for when these exceptions apply, trial courts have been understandably reluctant to use this power. This article proposes that the Bedford/Carter exceptions should apply in three circumstances: where the legal test has changed, where assumptions necessary to the holding no longer apply, and where the precedent conflicts with non-binding law. It comes to this conclusion through two analytical paths. First, it identifies the theoretical justifications for vertical stare decisis and shows that they are weaker in these circumstances. Second, it shows that courts have in fact applied the exceptions in those circumstances.


This thesis is about Boolean functions and their cryptographic properties. T w o kinds of Boolean functions are discussed balanced functions and bent functions. In addition to surveying recent activities of research into Boolean functions, a new representation of bent functions degree-3 homogeneous bent functions are discovered. The complete 7 set of degree-3 homogeneous bent functions on the lowest dimension Boolean spaces V6 is given. By using bent functions, some ways to construct highly nonlinear balanced Boolean functions are shown in this thesis, which yield a new property of bent functions. The structure of degree-3 highly nonlinear homogeneous balanced functions is also discussed. These results are based on computer searching. The theory of symmetric groups is applied in the research. In this study symmetric groups are applied to Boolean functions. Any Boolean function on Vn has its own symmetric properties associated with the symmetric group Sn. The relations between Boolean functions and symmetric groups are highlighted. This may lead to a new way to design good S-boxes by using an additive group of Boolean functions which is a subset of the function group generated by the symmetric group. Because good symmetric properties have the potential to be faster for implementation, the applications of homogeneous Boolean functions taken as rotation functions are discussed. Bent-like balanced functions are very good candidates of Boolean functions for good S-box design. In a degree-3 homogeneous bent or balanced Boolean function, each term is considered as a three variety block. Then it is found that the homogeneous Boolean function is tightly related with block designs BIBD and PBIBD. So in this thesis, the method of combinatorial block designs to discuss Boolean functions is also used. The connection of symmetric group theory with Boolean functions is established.


The capital shift to passive investing is among the most important evolutions in investment management in the last four decades. Striking in its magnitude and relative speed of adoption, the significance for asset management, and investors more broadly, is still not well understood. Those switching to passive investing have predominantly turned to indexing, with broad-based market and asset class indices seeing the vast majority of these inflows. Moreover, indexing has been dominated by a simple market-capitalization weighting mechanism.

In this study, we bring new evidence to bear on the optimal weighting of indexing strategies for those wanting broad-based exposure to equities in both the U.S. and abroad. In particular, we document three main findings: (1) along with several other methodologies, revenue weighting has outperformed market-capitalization weighting in both absolute returns and return per-unit-risk over the past 40 years in the U.S., (2) revenue weighting provides more stable exposures to industries over this period, and (3) while the international evidence is more mixed, in developed markets and in the largest emerging market economies, revenue weighting appears to dominate market-cap weighting in terms of return and return per-unit-risk over the recent history through present-day. Given the totality of evidence, revenue weighting appears to be a fitting alternative when considering an allocation to broad indexation approaches.


Traditional agroforestry systems are widely recognized for their contributions to provisioning, support, regulation, and cultural services. However, because of the advancement of industrial agriculture and a corporative food system, peasants' food systems are rapidly undergoing transformation. We identify the contributions of four types of agroforestry systems (AFS)—shade cocoa agroforest, shade coffee agroforest, milpas and homegardens—to food provisioning in peasant families and discuss conflicts between traditional food systems and the contemporary industrial model of production and consumption confronted by peasants and semi-proletarian migrants. We carried out research in 17 peasant communities in Chiapas, Mexico, and conducted 97 semi-structured interviews and agroecological inventories with peasant families, and 15 interviews with semi-proletarian families laboring in shade-grown coffee plantations. Thirty-nine weekly food diaries were applied in two communities. We recorded 108 plant species belonging to 49 botanic families. These species play an important role as sources of carbohydrates, protein, vitamins, minerals, and fatty acids. Despite the extraordinary agrobiodiversity of peasant agroecosystems, peasant families (PF) are changing their AFS' structure, composition and functions due to the influence of agribusiness, global markets, and public policies that orient changes in production and marketing, which in turn devalue local food, agrobiodiversity, and knowledge. Changing perceptions regarding the value of "good food" vs. "food of the poor" and competition over land use between traditional and modern systems are driving changes in diet, food sources, and health of PF who are including industrialized foods in their diets, driving changes in consumption patterns and affecting human health. For semi-proletarian migrants laboring in coffee plantations, land access in and outside of the plantation and strengthening social networks could mean access to healthier and culturally appropriate foods. While peasants have historically responded to market and household needs, articulating both activities to satisfy family needs and provide income is limited. This work highlights the urgent need to acknowledge the non-monetary value of local foods, agrobiodiversity, local knowledge, community building, and the need to work towards securing land access for landless workers in Latin America.


We aim to model the impact of variability in and changes to water availability in the Murray-Darling Basin on flows available to the environment and irrigation, and impact on the value of irrigated agricultural production. Our objective is to understand the opportunities for changed management of the basin, how they are constrained by climate change and other factors, and how they might affect the returns to irrigation and flows for the environment, so that we may provide information to help plan for the future. In this paper we describe the model: in other papers in this conference we describe analyses of water availability and use in the basin based on this model. The hydrology component of the model is based on a simple, monthly water balance stocks and flows model of the basin, subdivided into 58 catchments. In each catchment, the rainfall and potential evapotranspiration are used to partition the rain between actual evapotranspiration and runoff. Runoff accumulates in the rivers, and flows downstream; it is stored in dams, fills lakes and wetlands from which it evaporates, spills onto and is partly consumed on the floodplains, is diverted for irrigation, eventually (if enough water remains) flowing out of the mouth. This hydrology part of the model is calibrated against observations of flow at the downstream flow gauge of the 58 catchments (the records of which vary from a few years to the full 114 years of our typical simulation period from 1895-2009). It simulates reasonably well the full range of flows, and the development of dams and irrigation diversions. The economics part of the model is based on regressions with dependent variables: the observed areas, production, water use and gross value of production of irrigated agriculture. Each dependent variable is estimated as functions of water available, evaporation and rainfall, and crop prices, for ten major commodity groups. The regressions are based on data for 17 regions and four recent years during the drought: they cover a wide range of water uses, water availability, rainfall, evaporation and commodity price circumstances observed during the drought. We report separately in this conference on this statistical analysis (Connor et al, 2012a. In the integrated model, the hydrology model first determines the availability of water for irrigation in the 58 catchments and also calculates the flows, on a monthly cycle. Once per year, the water availability values are aggregated to the 17 economic regions, and the economic model determines the irrigation outcome in terms of areas under each commodity group in each region and the gross value of production. The integrated model has some unique features in comparison to existing MDB economics models: the coupling of economics with detailed hydrology; the ability to simulate active management of environmental flows and the resulting consumptive water use economic impacts; and, the ability to simulate the dynamics of the water balance and economic impact over 114 year historical and simulated future climate sequences.


The paper presents data about the sorting and stimulation of germination of rape seeds with the help of corona discharge field (CDF). The seed- preparing machines used the electric field to sort seeds according to the unit of mechanical and electrical features and improve germination. A survey of literature discussing the methods of the increasing of seed germination of electrophysical nature and the duration of the various periods from the stimulation to sowing time has been viewed. The conveyer type electric separator designed in the institute was used for the seed processing. The 3�10 5 V m -1 field strength was used for seed sorting according to the biological value in the electric separator. The change of the germination stimulation effect during the one- month seed storage period was determined for the seeds with conditional moisture content but two different initial germination rates. The same strength of corona discharge field was used in research of the germination dynamics. The duration of seed treating in the field was 2 s. During the research the following facts were established: that by the sorting of non - conditional rape seeds it is possible to get 80% of seed to correspond to the requirements of the standard; CDF has positive influence on germination dynamics of treated seeds; density function of the seeds treated with CDF is described by lognormal distribution and that of untreated seeds, by normal distribution; the average increase of the germination of stimulated seeds has been reliable during the one-month period from stimulation to sowing. Statistical processing of the test data shows that the increase in germination of the seeds treated with CDF is reliable in comparison with the control.


CD40 ligation provides
signals central to chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) cell survival and
proliferation. The release
of soluble CD40 (sCD40) may impact on both these signals and CD40 targeted
therapies. In this study we investigated the prognostic significance of plasma sCD40 inuntreated CLL patients (n = 34). We report that 56% had levels
higher than those of normal donors and that elevated levels were associated
with significantly shorter treatment free (TFS) and overall survival. In
bivariate analysis sCD40 remained a significant marker of TFS independent of
Binet staging, CD38 positivity and lymphocyte count. RT-PCR analysis
demonstrated that CLL cells expressed transcripts encoding putative sCD40.
These results suggest sCD40 may play a role in CLL progression and that its
function, prognostic
significance and potential impact on antibody based therapies should be further
investigated.


One of QGIS' greatest strengths is that a large number of the developers are also daily users of the software. Many features are developed in response to the common challenges these developer/users experience while using QGIS. Over time, this has lead to QGIS being jam-packed with handy shortcuts which speed up daily workflows. Unfortunately, the rapid pace of QGIS development also means that many of these shortcuts go unnoticed by users. In this session I will present and demonstrate a number of relatively unknown shortcuts and workflow improvements for efficient day-to-day mapping operations within QGIS. From simple tricks through to exploring some of QGIS' more advanced features, I aim to use this session to help users rethink how they can tackle common tasks and harness these features to speed up their use of the software. Tasks I will demonstrate within this session include:

performing calculations within widgets
efficiently working with colors
expression variables and their uses
rapid modification of geometries (eg buffering a selected subset of features)


Pancreatic β-cells modulate insulin secretion through rapid sensing of blood glucose and integration of gut-derived signals. Increased insulin demand during pregnancy and obesity alters islet function and mass and leads to gestational diabetes mellitus and type 2 diabetes in predisposed individuals. However, it is unclear how blood-borne factors dynamically access the islets of Langerhans. Thus, understanding the changes in circulating molecule distribution that accompany compensatory β-cell expansion may be key to developing novel antidiabetic therapies. Here, using two-photon microscopy in vivo in mice, we demonstrate that islets are almost instantly exposed to peaks of circulating molecules, which rapidly pervade the tissue before clearance. In addition, both gestation and short-term high-fat–diet feeding decrease molecule extravasation and uptake rates in vivo in islets, independently of β-cell expansion or islet blood flow velocity. Together, these data support a role for islet vascular permeability in shaping β-cell adaptive responses to metabolic demand by modulating the access and sensing of circulating molecules.


In the past, segmentation of capital markets incentivized numerous companies to crosslist in more integrated markets by promising better investor recognition and thereby lowering cost of capital and increasing stock liquidity. In recent years, however, more and more companies have decided to terminate these dual listings. In contrast to previous studies, which mainly focus on the benefits and/or drawbacks of the initial cross-listings, this paper investigates share price effects linked to the termination of cross-listings. A special focus lies on the characteristics of companies' home markets to explain observed price effects. The empirical results show negative abnormal returns on the event date as well as negative cumulative abnormal returns in the weeks following the announcement of the termination of the secondary listing. The absolute value of the price reaction varies positively with foreign investors' difficulty to enter the companies' local market and the fraction of liquidity allocated to the foreign listing prior to the delisting event. Valuation effects of termination of cross-listings 2 The Journal of Financial Perspectives


: A cross sectional study lasting one week has been carried out in order the frequency of traumatological illnesses diagnose by specialists of the Social Security in Valencia province. Rheumatological diseases mean more of 50% from the total demand.


The shedding of Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Listeria monocytogenes in the feces of ruminants and the consequential risk to the public and environmental health is well reported. However, the influence of dietary manipulation on the shedding of fecal bacteria is not well understood. This study was conducted to improve understanding of the relationship between dietary feed composition and shedding of E. coli O157:H7 and Listeria spp. in dairy feces. Twelve cows were randomly assigned to four treatment diets of two dietary forage levels: low forage (37.4% dry matter, DM) vs. high forage (53.3% of DM) and two dietary crude protein (CP) levels: low protein (15.2% of DM) vs. high protein (18.5% of DM) in a 4×4 replicated Latin square design with four periods each including a 14 d adaptation and 3 d sample collection periods. Generic E. coli was detected in some of the feed ingredients, such as cotton seed, alfalfa hay, almond, and CaCO3, while Listeria was detected in the alfalfa hay and mineral mix. A significant interaction effect was observed between dietary forage and CP on the presence of fecal E. coli O157:H7 (P=0.01) but not with Listeria. On average, the greatest E. coli O157:H7 level (6.6 log10 CFU/g of feces) was observed from the high forage and high protein diet and the lowest level was 6.1 log10 CFU/g from the low forage and high protein diet. The average Listeria shedding rate was within the range of 1.7–2.3 log10 CFU/g among the dietary forage and CP treatments. For the CP treatments, significantly low levels of Listeria were observed from cows fed the high protein (0.9−1.6 log10 CFU/g) compared to the low protein (1.3–2.1 log10 CFU/g) diet. Considering temporal fluctuations, no significant diurnal pattern was observed for either E.coli O157:H7 or Listeria. In addition, no time of sampling over day by dietary forage or CP content interaction on fecal E.coli O157:H7 or Listeria level was observed. This study showed that diets can influence the shedding of potentially pathogenic bacteria in dairy cow excreta.


BACKGROUND
Previous studies have suggested that when reading texts, lower achievers are more sensitive than their stronger counterparts to surface-level cues, such as graphic illustrations, and that even when uninformative, such concrete supplements tend to raise the text's subjective comprehensibility.

AIMS
We examined how being led astray by uninformative concrete supplements in expository texts affects achievement. We focused on the mediating role of metacognitive processes by partialling out the role of cognitive ability, as indicated by SAT scores, in accounting for the found differences between higher and lower achievers.

SAMPLE AND METHOD
Undergraduate students studied expository texts in their base versions or in concrete versions, including uninformative supplements, in a within-participant design. The procedure had three phases: Studying, open-book test taking, and reanswering questions of one's choice.

RESULTS
Overall, judgements of comprehension (JCOMPs) were higher after participants studied the concrete than the base versions, and the participants benefited from the open-book test and the reanswering opportunity. An in-depth examination of time investment, JCOMP, confidence in test answers, choice of questions to reanswer, and test scores indicated that those whose metacognitive processes were more effective and goal driven achieved higher scores.

CONCLUSIONS
The effectiveness of metacognitive processes during learning and test taking constitutes an important factor differentiating between higher and lower achievers when studying texts that include potentially misleading cues.


The new Generation of Ecological Architecture Building owners today are increasingly confronted with the question of energy efficiency. Aside from mandatory national requirements and optional certificates, a general consensus of passive house has emerged. Within a few years this building standard has become widely spread. Depending on the climatic zone, passive houses require very different technologies, interventions and steps to be taken by the architects. These have meanwhile evolved from the formerly very uniform look of the passive house and are now found in buildings with very different appearances. This volume portrays approximately 60 singe family passive house homes and shows a multitude of great and at the same time sustainable architecture, including Seaside in House in Grosseto, Italy (Modostudio) House in Bessancourt, and France (Karawitz Architecture) House.


The productivity slowdown in Europe since the mid-1990s is a reason for concern. Labour market rigidity, hampering innovation, may be a cause of the slowdown. In the paper this argument is placed in a broader perspective. Labour force participation is an important factor in explaining differences in productivity and welfare over time and across regions as can be illustrated by comparing the US and the EU-15. Moreover, technological change is not entirely exogenous. Dynamic increasing returns as introduced by Kaldor and Verdoorn may boost productivity. For countries other than the US catching up appears to be of importance. The question is then to what extent labour market institutions account for productivity growth. Regression analysis on a panel of 21 OECD countries covering the period 1960-2005 reveals that employment protection is relevant but that the impact is qualitatively different before and after 1980. The reason is that in the first sub-period technological change is driven in most countries by imitation, whereas in the second sub-period innovation becomes the predominant factor everywhere.


The interest in video surveillance has been increasing in the fields of maritime industry in the past decade. Maritime transportation system is a vital part of the world's economy and the extent of global ship traffic is increasing. This trend encourages the development of intelligent surveillance systems in the maritime zone. The development of intelligent surveillance systems includes sensor and data fusion, which incorporates multispectral and multisensory data to replace the traditional approach with radars only. Video cameras are widely used since they capture images of greater resolution than most sensor systems. Also, combined with video analytics they provide sensors with high capability, complex pattern recognition analytics, and multiple variables for the decision making process. In this paper, an overview of a small part of the system is presented – horizon detection.


The research of the present work was to investigate the removal of methylene blue dyes from aqueous solution by using Acid Activated Carica Papaya (ACPCNC). Generally, dyes are organic compounds used as colouring products in chemical, textile, paper, printing, leather, plastics and various food industries. The need for the treatment of dye contaminated waste water passed out from the industry. In this study, Acid Activated Carica Papaya was studied for its potential use as an adsorbent for removal of a cationic dye methylene blue. The various factors affecting adsorption, such as initial dye concentration, contact time, adsorbent dose and effect of temperature, were evaluated. The experimental data were fitted into the pseudo-second order kinetic model. The equilibrium of adsorption was modeled by using the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The objective of the present work suggests the ACPCNC may be utilized as a low cost adsorbent for methylene blue dyes removal from aqueous solution.


This paper deals with an optimal stochastic linear-quadratic (LQ) control problem in infinite time horizon, where the diffusion term in dynamics depends on both the state and the control variables. In contrast to the deterministic case, we allow the control and state weighting matrices in the cost functional to be indefinite. This leads to an indefinite LQ problem, which may still be well posed due to the deep nature of uncertainty involved. The problem gives rise to a stochastic algebraic Riccati equation (SARE), which is, however, fundamentally different from the classical algebraic Riccati equation as a result of the indefinite nature of the LQ problem. To analyze the SARE, we introduce linear matrix inequalities (LMIs) whose feasibility is shown to be equivalent to the solvability of the SARE. Moreover, we develop a computational approach to the SARE via a semi-definite programming associated with the LMIs. Finally, numerical experiments are reported to illustrate the proposed approach.


Systems of systems (SoS) are large-scale systems composed of complex systems with difficult to elicit and model emergent properties. One of the most significant challenges in the engineering of such systems is how to elicit their non-functional requirements such as security. In this proposal paper we introduce a Model Driven Engineering (MDE) security requirement process for SoS. It is based on the Relax language to define invariant and relaxed security requirements. This enables taking into account security concerns early in the requirements phase of the SoS. We illustrate our process on a maritime safety and security case study.


Background : Increasing number of patients facing end-organ failure, as well as the therapeutic challenges surrounding allotransplantation, has catalyzed the evolution of tissue engineering and regenerative medicine. The successful recapitulation of development requires choosing an ideal scaffold material as a mediator of biochemical and biophysical signals. The extracellular matrix (ECM) functions as a scaffold for tissue morphogenesis and provides cues for cell proliferation and differentiation. Rabbit decellularized lung tissue was used for fabrication of scaffold. Method s: In this experimental study, the fabrication of scaffold from rabbit lung tissue was done via snap freezing method, use of sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) and cell bleaching. Interactions between scaffold and blastema tissue were evaluated and scaffolds were placed in blastema rings and stored in culture media for 30 days. Sampling of blastema and scaffolding tissues was done for every five days. Results: Histological and microscopic analysis confirmed the removal of cells from prepared scaffolds and porosity was done for lung tissue scaffold. The penetration, proliferation and differentiation of cells was also studied when blastema tissues were cultured on scaffold by using different days Conclusion: In this study, a three-dimensional natural scaffold was fabricated from lung tissue using SDS treatment. The prepared scaffolds can have an inductive effect on the cell behaviors such as migration, penetration, division, and probable differentiation. However, further studies are necessary to demonstrate the identity and behavior of the cells and scaffold characterization. It seems obtained scaffold after decellularization of lung tissue can be used as suitable model for primary research in lung tissue engineering.


Abstract Advanced manufacturing (AM) is a disruptive manufacturing process often referred to as "the next industrial revolution" because of its ability to fabricate components with complex geometries and site-specific materials and properties. While other industries, like automotive, aerospace, and fossil-fired power companies, are adopting and evaluating AM processes, the nuclear industry, including the fusion materials community, has been somewhat slow to capitalize on the seemingly beneficial aspects of AM. To address this gap, Oak Ridge National Laboratory is evaluating candidate AM techniques to fabricate nuclear-relevant materials including ferritic-martensitic (FM) steels. This paper discusses the development of a road map for AM approaches for FM steels. Specifically, the connection among alloy composition, additive processes, processing conditions, and postprocessing and the resulting microstructure using both wire-based and powder-based directed energy deposition techniques is detailed. Finally, strategies to develop specialized alloys for additive manufacturing are outlined.


Purpose: To use a high precision LUCY phantom designed specifically for stereotactic radiosurgery to perform comprehensive QA and determine which dosimeter to use for different cone sizes with the BrainLAB iPlan TPS. Methods and Materials: An image set was acquired in a Philips Big Bore CT simulator for the whole phantom and transferred to the BrainLAB iPlan TPS for contouring and planning. An SRS cone treatment plan was generated with the LUCY phantom as a patient. A treatment plan for the "patient" was generated using the same clinical approach as used for actual SRS patients. The LUCY patient plan was loaded and mapped onto the LUCY QA phantom with the iPlan Phantom Mapping software to create a QA plan. A PinPoint ionization chamber (0.016cm3) and Gafchromic EDR2 film were employed for dose measurement. Film calibration was performed running a "step‐wedge" calibration procedure. Films were stored overnight to allow for post exposure changes. An optical densitometer was used to read OD. Results and Discussion: The range of percentage differences between calculated and measured doses for the ion chamber was 3.83% to 0.2% for cone sizes of 30mm down to 10mm. For the two smallest cones, 7.5 and 5.0 mm, the percentage difference was beyond clinical tolerance (>5%). All film dosimetry results were within clinical tolerance. Discussion and Conclusion: The DQA for cone size of 30mm down to 10mm were verified with LUCY phantom using both the PinPoint ion chamber and EBT2 film. For cone sizes smaller than 10mm, the PinPoint ion chamber did not measure dose accurately because the ion chamber dimensions were of the same magnitude as the field size. Gafchromic EBT2 film was able to measure the dose for all cone sizes.


This special issue aims to shed light on and recognize the full potential of engaged anthropology and its place in academia and beyond. It argues for an inclusive approach to be both theoretically enriching and methodologically grounded in diverse practices and forms. The introduction addresses common confusions and obstacles distracting engaged anthropology from its core premises and potentials. As the Interface Commission of the Swiss Anthropological Association (SEG), we seek to deepen the conversation about how engagement bolsters the discipline to stay relevant and robust, and embark on new paths of theoretical reflection. By "repositioning" engaged anthropology at the heart of contemporary anthropology, we seek to overcome unproductive dichotomies on engagements and practices by embracing critical reflexivity in the process of knowledge production and social action.