Objectives: As residency programs adjust to new duty hour restrictions, the use of cross-coverage systems requiring handoffs will rise. Handoffs are vulnerable to communication failures when unstructured. Accordingly, we implemented a standardized sign-out process on our inpatient neurology services and assessed its effect on completeness and perceived accuracy of handoffs. Methods: Residents spent the first half of their rotations utilizing unstructured sign-out. They transitioned to a structured sign-out system (using the situation-background-assessment-recommendation format) during the second half of their rotations. We analyzed survey responses before and after implementation to evaluate for an effect. Results: Residents utilizing structured sign-out were significantly more likely to share test results with patients/families prior to shift changes (p = 0.037), update our electronic service list (p = 0.045), and feel all important data were being transmitted (p = 0.041). Overall satisfaction (scale 1–10) increased from 6.2 ± 1.6 to 7.4 ± 1.3 (p = 0.002). Conclusions: Our findings demonstrate that standardized sign-out improves the completeness and perceived accuracy of handoffs. Such improvement has the potential to improve patient safety and quality of care.


For nearly 6 decades, the schizotypy construct has served as a conceptual guide for understanding the phenotypic and clinical variability associated with schizophrenia-spectrum vulnerability. Despite the impact of schizotypy on academic research, the public burden of schizophrenia-spectrum pathology has not diminished over time, and it remains poorly understood with no cures, few treatments, and heavy stigma from the lay public. Following on the success of the 2013 Lemanic Workshop on Schizotypy, the International Consortium on Schizotypy Research (ICSR) was formed to address these needs by accelerating scientific discovery of schizophrenia-spectrum pathology. The ICSR convened its 2017 meeting in Beijing China with the theme of "Crossing Borders". This included a focus on expanding schizotypy research across 5 domains across: Academic disciplinary borders (promoting brain and genetics/genomics research), clinical borders (promoting clinical and non-clinical applications), geographic borders (promoting cross-cultural research), laboratory borders (promoting "big" and "small" data collaborations), and methodology borders (promoting emotion, cognition and behavior research using novel methods). This special supplement provides the highlights from this meeting and related work, including 3 theoretical and position articles, 7 research articles, and 1 invited commentary.


The time of flight diffraction technique has attracted attention as the most accurate discontinuity depth measurement technique in the industrial testing field. Since it utilizes a weak discontinuity tip echo, the most harmful discontinuity in industrial structures is a crack because crack closure sometimes causes an error in crack detection through time of flight diffraction measurement. However, the dependence of the quantitative behavior of the crack tip echo on crack closure for the longitudinal waves used in time of flight diffraction has not yet been investigated. In this paper, we prepared UNS A97075 (7075-T6) aluminum alloy specimens with a fatigue crack penetrating the surface and the crack tip opening displacement was controlled by the amount of load. The amplitude and spectrum of the crack tip scattered and diffracted echoes of 5 MHz ultrasonic longitudinal waves for various crack tip opening displacement values were measured. As a result, the crack tip opening displacement of 0.1 μm (3.9 x 10 -6 in.) was found to be sufficient for giving echoes with amplitude comparable to that of the echoes from artificial slits, in the time of flight diffraction measurement using a 5 MHz longitudinal wave. The minimum detectable crack tip opening displacement by the time of flight diffraction technique was found to be 20 nm (7.9 x 10 -7 in.). The crack tip opening displacement for a fatigue crack can be estimated using the amplitude or the peak frequency in the spectrum of the crack tip echo.


When experiments are carried out over a period of time, the response may be subject to time trends. We use an algorithm for exact optimum designs to construct a series of designs resistant to linear and quadratic trend. Designs considered include the allocation of simple treatments, multifactor designs in qualitative or quantitative factors, and response surface designs. The investigation is extended from consideration of linear ordering in time to include designs with several trials at each time point, designs in which several trials are spread over only one out of three shifts per day, and designs in which there are more time points than experiments. Comparisons with designs in the absence of trend show that surprisingly little information is lost by designing for protection against a potential trend. The BT algorithm for obtaining these designs is outlined.


Superwetting membranes offer a good platform for oil/water separation, but the generation of responsive membranes for on-demand oil/water emulsion separation with both high permeation flux and selectivity is still a challenge. Herein, bilayer membranes that feature asymmetric wettability across the membrane thickness are constructed, simply by depositing a thin layer of polydopamine-coated single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs) and subsequently coating with a SWCNT layer. When a low applied pressure difference across the membrane, Papplied, is utilized, the hydrophobic–superoleophilic surface is critical for the separation of surfactant-stabilized water-in-oil emulsions. Triggered by an intensive Papplied, surfactant-stabilized oil-in-water emulsions can also be fully separated by a synergistic effect of dual layers. Such ultrathin bilayer membranes exhibit ultrahigh permeation flux and separation efficiency with excellent antifouling for both water-in-oil and oil-in-water emulsion separation in a single-unit, which is readily achieved by the modulation of Papplied. Therefore, we envision that our bilayer membranes show great potential in oil/water emulsion separation.


The perinatal hormonal imprinting takes place perinatally, when the developing hormone receptors meet the hormones of the newborn and this suits the normal receptor-hormone connections for life. In this period the developmental window for imprinting is open and the receptors can be cheated by hormone-related exogeneous molecules, provoking faulty hormonal imprinting with lifelong consequences, as alteration of receptor binding capacity and hormone production, functional changes, altered sexual behavior, immunological alterations and inclination to or manifestation of diseases. However, there are other critical periods of life, when the window is open, as weaning, adolescence, regeneration in adults as well, as in continously dividing cells. The most sensitive non-perinatal critical period is the adolescence. In these periods hormone-like endocrine disruptors (e.g. bisphenol A, benzpyrene, pesticides and herbicides, soy isoflavones, medically used synthetic hormones etc) are provoking faulty hormonal imprinting with lifelong consequences. The hormonal imprinting is an epigenetic process, which is inherited to the progeny cells of the organism and to the offspring of the organism, by which it can chip in the evolution. The non-perinatal faulty hormonal imprinting is justified in animal experiments and seems to be likely in case of survivors of childhood cancer treatment. Similar to the faulty perinatal hormonal imprinting, the late (non-perinatal) faulty imprinting can participate in the provocation of later manifested diseases.


Although work performance has become an important outcome in cost-of-illness studies, little is known about the comparative effects of different commonly occurring chronic conditions on work impairment in general population samples. Such data are presented here from a large-scale nationally representative general population survey. The data are from the MacArthur Foundation Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS) survey, a nationally representative telephone-mail survey of 3032 respondents in the age range of 25 to 74 years. The 2074 survey respondents in the age range of 25 to 54 years are the focus of the current report. The data collection included a chronic-conditions checklist and questions about how many days out of the past 30 each respondent was either totally unable to work or perform normal activities because of health problems (work-loss days) or had to cut back on these activities because of health problems (work-cutback days). Regression analysis was used to estimate the effects of conditions on work impairments, controlling for sociodemographics. At least one illness-related work-loss or work-cutback day in the past 30 days was reported by 22.4% of respondents, with a monthly average of 6.7 such days among those with any work impairment. This is equivalent to an annualized national estimate of over 2.5 billion work-impairment days in the age range of the sample. Cancer is associated with by far the highest reported prevalence of any impairment (66.2%) and the highest conditional number of impairment days in the past 30 (16.4 days). Other conditions associated with high odds of any impairment include ulcers, major depression, and panic disorder, whereas other conditions associated with a large conditional number of impairment days include heart disease and high blood pressure. Comorbidities involving combinations of arthritis, ulcers, mental disorders, and substance dependence are associated with higher impairments than expected on the basis of an additive model. The effects of conditions do not differ systematically across subsamples defined on the basis of age, sex, education, or employment status. The enormous magnitude of the work impairment associated with chronic conditions and the economic advantages of interventions for ill workers that reduce work impairments should be factored into employer cost-benefit calculations of expanding health insurance coverage. Given the enormous work impairment associated with cancer and the fact that the vast majority of employed people who are diagnosed with cancer stay in the workforce through at least part of their course of treatment, interventions aimed at reducing the workplace costs of this illness should be a priority.


not only in the task of supporting the clinical decisions but also to perform relevant analyses, allowing them to understand better the disease and the factors that can identify the high risk patients. For those purposes, in this work, we use several machine learning algorithms to estimate the outcome of COVID-19 patients given their clinical information. Particularly, we perform 2 different studies: the first one estimates whether the patient is at low or at high risk of death whereas the second estimates if the patient needs hospitalization or not. The results of the analyses of this work show the most relevant features for each studied scenario, as well as the classification performance of the considered machine learning models. In particular, the XGBoost algorithm is able to estimate the need for hospitalization of a patient with an AUC-ROC of 0 . 8415±0 . 0217 while it can also estimate the risk of death with an AUC-ROC of 0 . 7992±0 . 0104 . Results have demonstrated the great potential of the proposal to determine those patients that need a greater amount of medical resources for being at a higher risk. This provides the healthcare services with a tool to better manage their resources.


Under the Kyoto Protocol many countries have been requested to participate in emissions trading with the assigned emissions. In this environment, it is inevitable to change the system and market operation in deregulated power systems, and then ensuring safety margin is becoming more important for balancing system security, economy and emissions. Nowadays, available transfer capability (ATC) is a key index of the remaining capability of a transmission system for future transactions. This paper presents a novel approach to the ATC evaluation with emissions using multi-objective particle swarm optimization (MOPSO) technique. This technique evolves a multi-objective version of PSO by proposing redefinition of global best and local best individuals in multi-objective optimization domain. The optimal power flow (OPF) method using MOPSO is suggested to solve multi-objective functions including fuel cost and emissions simultaneously. To show its efficiency and effectiveness, the results of the proposed method is comprehensively realized by a comparison with the ATC which is not including emissions for the IEEE 30-bus system, and is found to be quite promising.


Service discovery is a challenging task in mobile ad-hoc networks which are characterized by their dynamic, infrastructure-less and bandwidth-limited nature. The goal of this paper is to develop a bandwidth efficient approach for service discovery in mobile ad-hoc networks. The main contribution of this paper is a novel track-based hybrid service discovery scheme. The proposed scheme performs service discovery based on the one dimensional proactive structure (e.g. tracks), instead of the existing two dimensional proactive structures (e.g. zones). This scheme can lead to reduced proactive traffic due to its light-weight organization of the hybrid structure. The density of proactive tracks is adapted to network traffic pattern dynamically for less proactive traffic. We simulated the Track-based approach in ns-2 network simulator with various network scales and mobility, and compared the performance with pure reactive (e.g. flooding) and Zone-based hybrid (e.g. bordercasting) protocols. Preliminary results show that, the track:-based approach achieved better efficient trade-offs between control packet overhead and querying success rate with minimal proactive costs among all the approaches compared


Measurements are a central institutional component of markets and economic exchange. By the nineteenth century, the measurement system in Britain was desperately in need of revision: a multiplicity of measurement standards, proliferation of local or regional weights and measures, and a confusing array of measurement practices made everyday measurements unreliable. Aashish Velkar uncovers how metrology and economic logic alone failed to make 'measurements' reliable, and discusses the importance of localised practices in shaping trust in them. Markets and Measurements in Nineteenth-Century Britain steers away from the traditional explanations of measurement reliability based on the standardisation and centralisation of metrology; the focus is on changing measurement practices in local economic contexts. Detailed case studies from the industrial revolution suggest that such practices were path-dependent and 'anthropocentric'. Therefore, whilst standardised metrology may have improved precision, it was localised practices that determined the reliability and trustworthiness of measurements in economic contexts.


Current group communication services have mostly been implemented on a homogeneous, distributed computing environment. This limits their applicability because most modern distributed computing environment are heterogeneous in nature. This paper describes the design, implementation, and performance evaluation of a CORBA group communication service. Using CORBA to implement a group communication service enables that group communication service to operate in a heterogeneous, distributed computing environment. To evaluate the effect of CORBA on the performance of a group communication service, this paper provides a detailed comparison of the performance measured from three implementations of an atomic broadcast protocol and a group membership protocol. Two of these implementations use CORBA, while the third uses UDP sockets for interprocess communication. The main conclusion is that heterogeneity can be achieved in group communication services by implementing them using CORBA, but there is a substantial performance cost. This performance cost can be reduced to a certain extent by carefully choosing a design and tuning various protocol parameters such as buffer sizes and timer values.


Summary While resveratrol and quercetin possess antiplatelet activity, little is known on the effect of gallic acid on platelets.We studied the interactions of these three different polyphenols among themselves and with aspirin, at the level of platelet cyclooxygenase-1 (COX-1). Both functional (in vitro and in vivo) and molecular modelling approaches were used. All three polyphenols showed comparable antioxidant activity (arachidonic acid [AA]-induced intraplatelet ROS production); however, resveratrol and quercetin, but not gallic acid, inhibited AA-induced platelet aggregation. Gallic acid, similarly to salicylic acid, the major aspirin metabolite, prevented inhibition of AA-induced platelet function by aspirin but, at variance with salicylic acid, also prevented inhibition by the other two polyphenols. Molecular modelling studies, performed by in silico docking the polyphenols into the crystal structure of COX-1, suggested that all compounds form stable complexes into the COX-1 channel, with slightly different but functionally relevant interaction geometries. Experiments in mice showed that gallic acid administered before aspirin, resveratrol or quercetin fully prevented their inhibitory effect on serum TxB2. Finally, a mixture of resveratrol, quercetin and gallic acid, at relative concentrations similar to those contained in most red wines, did not inhibit platelet aggregation, but potentiated sub-inhibitory concentrations of aspirin. Gallic acid interactions with other polyphenols or aspirin at the level of platelet COX-1 might partly explain the complex,and possibly contrasting, effects of wine and other components of the Mediterranean diet on platelets and on the pharmacologic effect of lowdose aspirin.


This paper develops a model of an economy with clubs where individuals may belong to multiple clubs and where there may be ever increasing returns to club size. Clubs may be large, as large as the total agent set. The main condition required is that sufficient wealth can compensate for memberships in larger and larger clubs. Notions of price taking equilibrium and the core, both with communication costs, are introduced. These notions require that there is a small cost, called a communication cost, of deviating from a given outcome. With some additional standard sorts of assumptions on preferences, we demonstrate that, given communication costs parameterized by e > 0, for all sufficiently large economies, the core is non-empty and contains states of the economy that are in the core of the replicated economy for all replications (Edgeworth states of the economy). Moreover, for any given economy, every state of the economy that is in the core for all replications of that economy can be supported as a price-taking equilibrium with communication costs. Together these two results imply that, given the communication costs, for all sufficiently large economies there exists Edgeworth states of the economy and every Edgeworth state can be supported as a price-taking equilibrium.


Cyber proxies—whether mercenaries, patriotic zealots, pranksters, or simply allies of convenience—are thought to be widespread. By outsourcing to proxies, this logic goes, a host government can plausibly deny its involvement in operations that advance its military and foreign policy aims. This presents central challenge to empirical researchers. If the value of proxies derives from their deniability, this same quality should mean that implausibly deniable types—the types sponsors supposedly wish to avoid—receive disproportionate attention in data and discourse. Accordingly, proxy activity appears to have flagged across several widely used datasets, depending on how the data are parsed. Do proxies still pay? A formal model is used to hypothesize about how new norms of attribution (specifically, the willingness of victims to make accusations on the basis of circumstantial evidence) can encourage capable states to insource more than they outsource. In the model, victims have the power to decide whether denials are plausible. "Usual suspects" who learn that they will take the heat regardless have fewer incentives to rely on proxies. Empirical evidence on insourcing patterns offers backdoor support for this proposition. The findings should decrease our confidence in plausible deniability as a logic for why states outsource to proxies. The paper joins an emerging body of research that has questioned the role of plausible deniability in covert action, including cyber conflict.


An infinite planar array of stepped circular waveguides radiating through a multilayered disk structure, which is arranged above the waveguide apertures in order to shape the flat-topped element patterns, is analyzed. The analysis is based on modal representations for the fields in the partial regions and for the currents on the disks with subsequent application of the mode-matching method and Galerkin's method for determining the modal coefficients used in the calculation of the array characteristics. The application of the algorithm is demonstrated by an array design that provides flat-topped element patterns of /spl plusmn/20/spl deg/ width in the main planes within a 5.6% frequency band. Outside the indicated band, the disk structure can cause sharp dips in the element patterns at the broadside, and some features of this effect are discussed.


Morphology, vegetative compatibility groups, and molecular characteristics were compared among 47 isolates of the dollar spot pathogen Sclerotinia homoeocarpa. Isolates were collected from cool- and warm-season turfgrasses in Florida and the northern United States. Mycelial pigment accumulation, substratal stromata formation, and symptom development were used to separate the collection into two distinct morphological types: a common-type (C-type) and a Floridian-type (F-type). Phylogenetic relationships estimated from ITS sequences supported the morphological typing. Identification and characterization of the S. homoeocarpa mating-type locus revealed an idiomorphic organization for both C- and F-types with nearly equal frequencies of each mating types present in both groups. These findings suggest heterothallic control of mating and indicate potential for outcrossing in both groups. Dollar spot disease of turfgrass in Florida is caused by two distinct morphological types of S. homoeocarpa which may be cryptic species. These findings could have implications for disease management.


Abstract: The Wikki Warm Spring (WWS) is located on the Kerri-Kerri formation of tertiary age. This forms part of the Benue Basin, which links up with the Chad Basin in the north and extends southwest to the Anambra Basin in Nigeria. The stratigraphy of the WWS region consists of alluvium, the Kerri-Kerri formation, the Gombe formation, the Pindiga formation, the Yolde formation, the Bima formation, and basement rocks as the oldest. We estimate the depth to the bottom of magnetic sources (DBMS) in the WWS region using the fractal sources distribution approach on aeromagnetic data to identify the geothermal system of the WWS region. The adopted computational method is based on statistical methods of depth determination from the radial power spectrum assuming a fractal distribution of magnetic sources. The average estimated DBMS at the WWS source location is 10.72 ± 0.54 km. The obtained results imply an average thermal gradient of 54.11 °C km-1 and heat flow value of 135.28 mW/m2. Generally, shallow DBMS values are obtained in the northeastern region of the WWS area and these increase towards the southwestern region when regional variation patterns of estimated depths are considered. The generally shallow DBMS obtained in the study area is attributed to magmatic intrusion or diapirism in the subsurface and emphasizes the effects of large-scale tectonic events, particularly the basin-initiating event, as major influences on the thermal history. Results will contribute to decisions on where to drill boreholes for further geothermal energy exploration in the region.


The representation and management of meta-information is an important issue in reflective architectures. In the case of complex base-level systems, such as middleware platforms, this issue becomes even more crucial, given the large number of entities of different kinds that must be dealt with and especially, given the fact that such entities are normally distributed, which makes it difficult to maintain their consistency. The authors present an approach to represent and maintain middleware meta-information and show how it is integrated with their reflective architecture for middleware, which is based on the idea of multi-model reflection. The result is a principled way to control the use and evolution of meta-information in the platform, also offering a means to harness the power of reflection. The paper also outlines an implementation of the approach, as well as the major implications of its use.


This paper describes a hierarchical operational space control (OSC) method based on least square optimization and outlines different ways to reduce the dimensionality of the optimization vector. The framework allows to emulate various behaviors by prioritized task-space motion, joint torque, and contact force optimization. Moreover, a methodology is introduced to partially excite the natural dynamics of the robot by open-loop motor regulation while the entire behavior is stabilized by hierarchical OSC. As a major contribution, the presented control strategies are tested and validated in real hardware walking, trotting, and pronking experiments using a fully torque controllable quadrupedal robot.


The C,H,N composition of sedimentary humic acids (HA) extracted from three sites in Manila Bay and six sites in Bolinao Bay yielded H/C atomic ratios of 1.1-1.4 and N/C atomic ratios of 0.09 - 0.16. The Manila Bay HA's had lower H/C and N/C ratios compared to those from Bolinao Bay. The IR spectra showed prominent aliphatic C-H and amide I and II bands. Manila Bay HA's also had less diverse molecular composition based on the GC-MS analysis of the CuO and alkaline permanganate oxidation products of the humic acids.


Quanta Imager Sensors provide photon detections at high frame rates, with negligible read-out noise, making them ideal for high-speed optical tracking. At the basic level of bit-planes or binary maps of photon detections, objects may present limited detail. However, through motion estimation and spatial reassignment of photon detections, the objects can be reconstructed with minimal motion artefacts. We here present the first demonstration of high-speed two-dimensional (2D) tracking and reconstruction of rigid, planar objects with a Quanta Image Sensor, including a demonstration of depth-resolved tracking.


This thesis presents a late-Durkheimian theoretical framework on civil society as a sphere of solidarity and applies it to the development from modern society to an "information society". The framework is used to identify the cultural codes that exist in different information societies and to show their role in integrating or dividing the members of civil society. The framework is applied to South Korean civil society entering an information age coincident alongside processes of democratisation. Three policy debates relating to information are used as case studies to show the coexistence of, and conflicts between, a "developmental code" based on economic growth and anti-communism deriving from the authoritarian period of state-sponsored capitalism, and a later "democratic code" based on human rights. The three cases are: the Electronic National Identification Card, the National Education Information System and the credit information system. The thesis argues that the values of a "democratic" code are becoming more dominant in recent South Korean society, despite continuous challenge for its validity. The cases provide evidence that democratisation and informatization can operate in tandem to establish the dominance of the democratic code in public discourse in South Korean civil society.


The Irish famine of 1845-1851 killed a million people, mostly from disease resulting from months of slow starvation. Hundreds of thousands were evicted and left destitute, and another million and a half fled the country, taking with them the horrors of hunger, disease and despair. Linked to a BBC2 television series, this book tells the story of this huge tragedy, from the social background of the impoverished Ireland of the day, through the famine's devastating course as people died in their starving thousands, to its lasting legacy in the rising Irish independence movement. Attempting to separate the myths from the history, the author draws on oral traditions which have passed stories of the famine down through generations in story and song, as well as original letters and first-hand accounts. The book offers an aid to understanding "the Irish question" and the roots of The Troubles today.


We present experimental results on a model system for studying wave propagation in a complex medium exhibiting low-frequency resonances. These experiments enable us to investigate a fundamental question that is relevant for many materials, such as metamaterials, where low-frequency scattering resonances strongly influence the effective medium properties. This question concerns the effect of correlations in the positions of the scatterers on the coupling between their resonances, and hence on wave transport through the medium. To examine this question experimentally, we measure the effective medium wavenumber of acoustic waves in a sample made of bubbles embedded in an elastic matrix over a frequency range that includes the resonance frequency of the bubbles. The effective medium is highly dispersive, showing peaks in the attenuation and the phase velocity as functions of the frequency, which cannot be accurately described using the independent scattering approximation (ISA). This discrepancy may be explained by the effects of the positional correlations of the scatterers, which we show to be dependent on the size of the scatterers. We propose a self-consistent approach for taking this "polydisperse correlation" into account and show that our model better describes the experimental results than the ISA.


This article lists the differences between self-perception of body posture among the elderly suffering from postural alterations or not, in order to ascertain whether self-evaluation of posture can lead to preventive measures. Eighteen cases from the elderly population participated in the EPIDOSO project at UNIFESP and were subjected to postural evaluation. Postures were photographed and copies given to the participants and their subsequent comments were analyzed by the qualitative method. The narratives were taped and cataloguedusingthe technique of theoretical axial and selective coding from the perspective of symbolic interactionism. A passive attitude was identified among the elderly in relation to postural alterations. There is a distortion of body image by those with postural deviation. Participants with adequate spinal alignment were more conscious about body posture and the importance of this being assimilated in the phases prior to aging. The adoption of postural self-care seems to occur in the earlier stages of aging and preventive measures should be implemented at this stage. Lack of concern about posture is linked to the concept of the elderly regarding the notion that aging is, in itself, the accumulation of inevitably simultaneous or successive dysfunctions.


An improved oxide-charge and interface-trap lateral profiling charge pumping technique (iLPCP) is described. Erase-induced oxide charge and interface traps are investigated in flash EPROM devices. It is shown that the improved technique allows the extraction of profiles in cases where the previous method does not yield satisfactory results. A comparative study of iLPCP and of an existing direct current (DCIV) technique for lateral profiling of interface traps is conducted: both erase- and program-induced interface traps are investigated in flash EPROM devices. The results indicate that 1) iLPCP probes a much bigger portion of the gate region; 2) iLPCP probes a wider energy range; 3) DCIV is more sensitive deep in the channel and thus complements iLPCP.


Background: Retinoblastoma is the commonest primary intraocular malignancy of childhood. Under-standing the different modes of presentation with timely intervention are associated with prognosis. Objective: To determine the clinical profile of retinoblastoma and its association with optic nerve infiltration by tumor. Methods: A retrospective analysis of the clinical records and histopathological reports of patients admitted with retinoblastoma in a tertiary heath care center, eastern Nepal (June 2009 to July 2012) was carried out. Results: A total of 27 patients (28 eyes) with retinoblastoma were studied. The mean age at presentation was 2.89 ± 0.93 years. The mean duration of symptoms to presentation was 3.35 month, ranged from 7 days to 2 years. Male to female ratio was 3:2. Thirty-three percent patients were Muslims. Twentyseven patients (96.3%) had unilateral eye involvement. The commonest mode of presentation was leukocoria in 23 eyes (85.2%) followed by redness 9 eyes (33.3%), proptosis in 5 eyes (18.5%) and phthisis bulbi in one eye (3.7%). Histopathological reports of 26 eyes confirmed the diagnosis of retinoblastoma. One patient with distant metastases was referred to oncology center. Infiltration of the optic nerve by tumor cells was seen in five eyes (18.5%); of which two cases had proptosis (p-0.166). At two years follow up, recurrence was seen in one patient with proptosis and optic nerve infiltration (p-0.136). Age at presentation was positively associated with recurrence of tumor (p-0.005). Conclusion: Leucokoria was the most common mode of presentation of retinoblastoma. Larger sample size with longer follow up is required to come to a definite association with optic nerve infiltration by tumor. Health Renaissance 2015;13 (3): 129-136


This paper discusses Ghana's decentralisation and local government system
vis-à-vis the District Assembly concept which has functioned since 1988. It
analyses why the system has not made the desired impact on the country's
governance system and democratic process. It concludes that the decentralisation
system has failed to make the desired impact due to a lack of democratic
accountability and legitimacy at the grassroots level and the absence of
political will of successive governments to devolve power. It makes some
recommendations and proposals on how the system could be made more functional,
democratic and accountable to build the confidence and trust of citizens and
increase their level of participation in the democratic dispensation.


Planar active waveguides, produced in lithium fluoride crystals by implantation with 2 MeV He/sup +/ ions at several doses, have been characterized by optical absorption, photoluminescence and m-lines spectroscopy. All the colored samples support several modes, whose analysis allows reconstruction of the depth refractive index profiles of the waveguides as a function of dose. Two competitive physical mechanisms, associated with different processes of energy deposition along the ion track, are responsible for positive and negative modifications of the refractive index in the irradiated volume.


Nanocrystalline ZnS thin films are prepared on glass substrates under various deposition conditions (radio frequency power, and sputtering pressure) using radio frequency magnetron sputtering at room temperature. Through optimization of deposition process, very thin and uniform ZnS layer was deposited to minimize the light blocking effect in short wavelength region. This paper investigates the influence of ZnS buffer layer by magnetron sputtering,and analyses structure,surface topography,and optical properties of ZnS films by using X-ray diffraction (XRD), UV-spectroscopy measurements and scanning electronic microscope (SEM) analysis techniques. Findings show that the high-quality ZnS thin films with a good crystallinity and optical properties, which is zinc blende cubic structure with a preferred orientation, can be grown by sputtering at 300W and 0.6Pa. The films exhibit the optical transparency as high as 80% in the visible region, and the resultant ZnS thin films have a high crystallinity, low defect concentration and good optical properties with the band gap of 3.50eV.


Hate speech detection in online environments faces numerous challenges. One of them is that hate speech has fundamental target-specific elements. Although certain characteristics are common to many forms of hate speech, forms directed against one group, such as Jews, can be very different from forms directed against Muslims, Roma, members of the LGBTQ+ community, and bullying victims. Due to the heterogeneity of hate forms, we suggest approaching forms piecemeal and building labeled datasets that are specific to target groups. These datasets can then be combined into an aggregate dataset that increasingly reflects the diversity of hate speech found for a given language. Another challenge is the subjectivity of annotators and heterogeneous labeling. We created a labeled dataset of 4,137 antisemitic and nonantisemitic tweets, using a detailed definition and a specially designed annotation portal. The annotation was done by expert annotators who discussed their disagreements of each tweet. The dataset is built on representative samples of tweets containing more common keywords (such as "Jews") and keywords most likely to be used in antisemitic contexts (such as the term "kikes"). The dataset will be made available to the scientific community with the publication of this paper and will be updated with additional tweets and labels as the project continues. The paper describes the dataset, the labeling process, the infrastructure that was built for this project, some of the challenges that we faced, and an evaluation of the inter-coder reliability. The goal is to provide a detailed description of the labeled dataset to serve as a preliminary gold standard and a model for creating similar datasets.


Complestatin was isolated in 1980 from the mycelium of Streptomyces lavendulae as inhibitor of alternative pathways to the complement cascade. An efficient synthesis of complestatin was developed. Intramol. Suzuki-Miyaura and SNAr reactions were employed for the construction of two macrocycles by the formation of aryl-aryl and aryl-aryl ether bonds, resp. A [3+3] segment coupling was used for the construction of the hexapeptide backbone, which makes this synthesis highly convergent. [on SciFinder (R)]


Two new species of Jupiaba Zanata are described from Brazil. Jupiaba iasy, new species, is described from rio Teles Pires and rio Jamanxim, tributaries of rio Tapajos, and from rio Aripuana, in the rio Madeira drainage. It is distinguished from its congeners by its color pattern consisting of a single posteriorly displaced dark crescent-shaped humeral blotch, situated over the first 5 to 7 lateral line scales, and an inconspicuous dark spot at the end of caudal peduncle. It also differs from all remaining Jupiaba for the following combination of characters: 34-36 lateral line scales, 19–21 branched anal-fin rays, 8–10 predorsal scales arranged in a regular row, 6 horizontal series of scales above and 4 series below lateral line, body depth 32.3–36.1% of SL, and absence of filamentous rays in the first dorsal and anal-fin rays. Jupiaba paranatinga, new species, is described from rio Teles Pires, tributary of rio Tapajos. It is distinguished by having 34–35 lateral line scales, two vertically elongated humeral blotches, a conspicuous caudal spot at the end of the caudal peduncle, extending over 8–10 median caudal-fin rays, eye diameter 43.7–46.9% of HL, and relatively low body depth (31.3–35.5% of SL). Additionally, comments on the putative relationships of the new species with their congeners and an updated key to the species of the genus are provided.


The Skipper CCD-in-CMOS Parallel Read-Out Circuit (SPROCKET) is a mixed-signal front end design for the readout of Skipper CCD-in-CMOS image sensors. SPROCKET is fabricated in a 65 nm CMOS process and each pixel occupies a 45 µm × 45 µm footprint. SPROCKET is intended to be heterogeneously integrated with a Skipper-in-CMOS sensor array, such that one readout pixel is connected to a multiplexed array of nine Skipper-in-CMOS pixels to enable massively parallel readout. The front end includes a variable gain preamplifier, a correlated double sampling circuit, and a 10-bit serial successive approximation register (SAR) ADC. The circuit achieves a sample rate of 100 ksps with 0.48 e − rms equivalent noise at the input to the ADC. SPROCKET achieves a maximum dynamic range of 9,000 e − at the lowest gain setting (or 900 e − at the lowest noise setting). The circuit operates at 100 Kelvin with a power consumption of 40 µW per pixel. A SPROCKET test chip will be submitted for manufacture in June 2022. The Muon-to-Electron Conversion Experiment (Mu2e) at Fermilab will search for the charged-lepton flavor-violating process of a neutrino-less conversion of a muon to electron in the presence of a nucleus. It will do so with an expected sensitivity that improves upon current limits of four orders of magnitude. Such sensitivity will require less than one expected background event over the lifetime of the experiment. The largest background are cosmic rays entering the experimental hall and producing an electron at the expected signal energy. To mitigate this otherwise indistinguishable process, the Mu2e Cosmic Ray Veto (CRV) is designed to veto cosmic rays with 99.99% efficiency while having low dead time in a high intensity environment. The Mu2e CRV is currently being fabricated at the University of Virginia and this talk will discuss the design and fabrication process. The high intensity of POT and excellent particle identification and reconstruction capabilities of LArTPCs make experiments within the SBN program sensitive to a multitude of BSM models. One such example is the demonstrated sensitivity of the program's detectors to dilepton pairs originat-ing from exotic Higgs Portal Scalar decays. Columnated showers that come from scalar decays to electron/positron pairs have topologies similar to those of photon pair production or single showers, making them difficult to distinguish from background. In this work, Geant4 is used to generate the distribution of charge deposited by Higgs Portal Scalar events within a box of 40 Ar. This con-figuration of Geant4 provides theorists and phenomenologists a fast and accessible way to simulate LArTPC data. We then apply projections to create two dimensional images of each simulated event, similar to those captured by wire planes in operating detectors. Finally we harness the power of deep neural networks to distinguish images of signal and background events for the Higgs Portal Scalar model at the SBN program, improving upon the projected sensitivity from cut-and-count techniques by 30% in sin θ for the benchmark scalar mass of 10 MeV. chamber technology makes it well-suited to precisely measure a wide range of final states, including those produced by neutral current (NC) interactions. NC π 0 interactions in particular are a significant background in searches for Beyond the Standard Model (BSM) e + e − production and are an irreducible background to rare neutrino scattering processes such as NC ∆ radiative decay and NC coherent single-photon production at low energies. Therefore, understanding the rate of NC π 0 production will improve the modeling of this background channel, reducing uncertainties in measuring BSM signatures and single-photon production processes. In this talk, I will report the highest-statistics measurement to date of the neutral current (NC) π 0 production cross section for neutrino-argon interactions. Pulsars - spinning neutron stars that are magnetized – are likely the leading source which could explain the large excess in the observed positron flux present in data measurements from the AMS-01, HEAT, and PAMELA collaborations. While first thought to be from a source of annihilating dark matter, there have since been more compelling observations - via experiments such as HAWC - of TeV halos associated with pulsars that are especially young and within a few kiloparsecs of Earth. These halos indicate that such pulsars inject significant fluxes of very high-energy electron-positrons pairs into the interstellar medium (ISM), thereby likely providing the dominant contribution to the cosmic-ray positron flux. This talk highlights the important updates on the constraints of local pulsar populations which further support the pulsar explanation to resolving the positron excess, through building upon previous work done by Hooper, Linden, and collaborators. Using the cosmic-ray positron fraction as measured by the AMS-02 Collaboration and applying reasonable model parameters, a good agreement can be obtained with the measured positron fraction up to energies of roughly ∼ 300 GeV. At higher energies, the positron fraction is dominated by a small number of pulsars, making it difficult to reliably predict the shape of the expected positron fraction. The low-energy positron spectrum supports the conclusion that pulsars typically transfer approximately ∼ 5 − 20% of their total spindown power in efficiency into the production of very high-energy electron-positron pairs, producing a spectrum of such particles with a hard spectral index of ∼ 1.5 − 1.7. Such pulsars typically spindown on a timescale on the order of 104 years. The best fits were obtained for models in which the radio and gamma-ray beams from pulsars are detectable to 28% and 62% of surrounding observers, respectively. conducting an extensive prototyping campaign for the Liquid ArgonTPCfor the DUNE Near Detector. The DUNE ND-LAr detector consists of 35 individual modules withatotal fiducial mass of 50 tons. As part of the prototyping campaign a demonstrator detector holding modules is placed in the NuMI beam at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory (Fermilab). Each 2x2module is tested individually at the University of Bern, recording > 5 million cosmic ray interactions. Usingthesedata different detector performance studies could be performed. This talk will discuss the performance of the light readout system with a focus on the spatial and temporal resolution as well as on the photondetection efficiency. is a direct WIMP dark matter search experiment using liquid time projection Its primary detector, DarkSide-50, since a LAr-TPC radioactivity underground produced world-class results for both the mass < 10 GeV/c2) and mass (> 100 GeV/c2) WIMP search. the will the DarkSide-20k, a fiducial mass LAr-TPC free x DarkSide-LM is another future experiment This will The axion is a very well-motivated Dark Matter candidate in the µ eV mass range. Its discovery would also solve the longstanding question why the electric dipole moment of the neutron is vanish-ingly small, < 10 − 26 e cm, so far consistent with zero. ADMX searches for axion dark matter via its resonant conversion to photons inside a strong (7.6T) magnetic field using RF cavities. In this talk we will review the physics behind the experimental setup, recent results, and future runs. on quantum (QCD) explain the production mechanism of heavy bound recent models the Evap-oration Model (CEM) QCD (NRQCD) explain the higher transverse momentum spectra explain the alignment measured by various experiments. The /Ψ is a charmonium bound state of charm and anti-charm quark with spin 1. fixed target experiment at Fermilab, The spectrometer of the experiment was designed to measure high energy muons, and it uses a 500 cm long Iron (Fe) block as beam dump. While interactions in the target served the primary goal of probing the flavor structure of the nucleon, a wealth of data from interaction with the iron beam dump provides ample opportunity to study charmonium production as well. In this talk, we report our progress on the measurement of the spin alignment of J /Ψ produced in 120 GeV p -Fe interactions at the SeaQuest experiment. Estimates are presented for the SpinQuest experiment to extract the Transverse Single Spin Asymmetry (TSSA) in J / ψ production as a function of the J / ψ transverse momentum ( p T ) and Feynman- x ( x F ). SpinQuest is a fixed-target Drell-Yan experiment at Fermilab, using an unpolarized 120 GeV proton beam incident on a polarized solid ammonia target. Such measurements will allow us to test models for the internal transverse momentum and angular momentum structure of the nucleon. J / ψ is predominantly produced by strong interaction via quark-antiquark annihilation and gluon fusion. A non-zero asymmetry provides information on the orbital angular momentum contribution of "sea-quarks" to the spin of the nucleon. Simulated data were generated using the SpinQuest/E1039 simulation framework. Gaussian Process Regression (GPR), which is a powerful technique used in machine learning, was used to predict the background under the J / ψ invariant mass peak by fitting the Radial-basis function (RBF) kernel in side-band regions on either side of the J / ψ peak. We used this trained kernel to predict the background in the J / ψ peak region. After subtracting the background, we used iterative Bayesian unfolding to make corrections for the detector inefficiencies and smearing effects. In this presentation, we discuss results on predictions for the expected absolute error of the asymmetry ( A N ) for a few p T and x F bins for 10 weeks of running. fully depleted charge coupled device to achieve ultra-low readout noise. While these detectors have already made a significant impact in the search for rare events and direct dark matter detection (SENSEI), its uses are being expanded to quantum optics, neutrino physics and astronomy. In this short talk I will go over


The effects of single mothers' welfare participation and work decisions on children's outcomes are important. First, theories and empirical studies regarding the effects of mothers' work on children's attainments yield ambiguous findings. Second, participating in AFDC also exhibits a negative statistical relationship with the participating children's possible outcomes of all sorts in the data. We develop a dynamic structural model of a single mother's work and welfare participation decisions while their children are young. This model is used to measure the effects of mothers' decisions on children's attainments in the short run. Using NLSY79 children's PIAT Math test scores as a measure of attainment, we find that single mother's work and welfare use in the first five years of her child's life both have positive effect on her child's outcome, but this effect declines by the initial ability. The higher the potential ability of child, the lower the positive impact work and welfare have. In fact, in case of welfare the effect is negative if child has more than about median initial ability.. Furthermore, we find that work requirement reduces a single mother's use of welfare. However, the net effect of work requirement on a child's test score depends on whether mother's work brings in enough labor income to compensate for the loss of welfare benefits. We also look at the implications of welfare eligibility time limit, child bonus, and maternal leave, on child's outcome.


Mechanical alloying and mechanical fine grinding processes are mostly based on the high energy milling technique. Equipment of a horizontal high-energy ball mill that has been developed in the Cefet-BA is a low cost machine with high performance. These milling machines are equipped with a cylindrical stainless steel horizontal container. Inside the container, a chamber of water circulation is used to maintain, powdered materials, the room temperature. The grinding container inside to chamber horizontal container is a container, cylindrical stainless steel, opened of the two sides. The container with the powder particles is a sealed of two sides and vacuum out-gassed is realized. A motor driven rotor is used to accelerate the grinding media and the milling process is realized due to the ball to ball/rotor/wall impacts as their kinetic energy is transferred into the powder which is randomly located between the colliding balls. The rotor milling machine equipment permits two rpm e.g. 500 and 1500 rpm. Machines based on this design from lab scale (3.0 liter volume), mainly to develop new powders and materials.


A novel blind equalisation scheme is developed based on maximum likelihood (ML) joint channel and data estimation. In this scheme, the joint ML optimisation is decomposed into a two-level optimisation loop. An efficient version of genetic algorithms (GAS), known as a micro GA, is employed at the upper level to identify the unknown channel model and the Viterbi algorithm (VA) is used at the lower level to provide the maximum likelihood sequence estimation of the transmitted data sequence. The proposed GA based scheme is accurate and robust, and has a fast convergence rate, as is demonstrated in simulation.


The present study investigated the effect of two different language teaching methods (TBLT and TSLT) on students' speaking performance and motivation towards learning and speaking English. The study employed a mixed-method, quasi-experimental, pre-/post-test design. The participants were 59 English as a second language (ESL) undergraduate students (aged 20 to 23), who were assigned to two intact groups namely the EIST (explicit instruction + speaking tasks, i.e. TSLT) group and the ST (speaking tasks only, i.e. TBLT) group. The instruments utilised within this study involved both quantitative and qualitative methods. Students' speaking performance was assessed through a speaking test whereas their motivation towards learning and speaking English was elicited through a questionnaire and interview. These instruments were implemented at the pre- and post-test data collection points before and after the speaking intervention which lasted for 8 weeks. For the data analyses, eleven measures of speaking and five sub-scales for motivation were employed to assess students' speaking performance (complexity, accuracy and fluency) and L2 motivation (attitude, integrativeness, instrumentality, linguistic self-confidence and learning situation), respectively.
The findings of the study indicated that students in both groups had an approximately equal level of speaking performance and motivation at the pre-test. However, at post-test, the results showed that the two teaching methods had different impacts on students' speaking performance and motivation. The TSLT method had a significant effect on the EIST group's vocabulary (lexical complexity) outcomes whereby the language produced was more diverse than the ST group. However, experiencing the TBLT method, the ST group managed to produce more complex and sophisticated language with the presence of abstract words, even though overall levels of lexical complexity and productivity were lower. In addition, the ST group had become more fluent over time with a significant decrease in pauses, repetition and reformulation
compared to the EIST group. Nevertheless, neither group demonstrated a statistically significant improvement across the measures of syntactic complexity and accuracy. As for motivation, the questionnaire data indicated that the two language teaching methods had no effect on students' attitudes, integrativeness and instrumentality. However, TSLT had a positive impact on the EIST group's linguistic self-confidence and learning situation motives, whereas TBLT had a positive effect on the ST group's linguistic self-confidence only. Nevertheless, within the interview, analysed qualitatively, students in both groups showed positive views across all sub-scales of motivation.
The study provides evidence that the two different language teaching methods affected students' speaking performance and L2 motivation in different ways. These results imply that the TSLT approach had a positive impact on students' overall vocabulary outcomes and L2 retention and the TBLT approach was more effective in promoting complex and fluent language. Furthermore, the study highlights the importance of the teacher's role and the TSLT approach in encouraging students' overall L2 motivation.


This paper studies the optimization of list intersection, especially in the context of the matching phase of search engines. Given a user query, we intersect the postings lists corresponding to the query keywords to generate the list of documents matching all keywords. Since the speed of list intersection depends the algorithm, hardware, and list lengths and their correlations, none the existing intersection algorithms outperforms the others in every scenario. Therefore, we develop a cost-based approach in which we identify a search space, spanning existing algorithms and their combinations. We propose a cost model to estimate the cost of the algorithms with their combinations, and use the cost model to search for the lowest-cost algorithm. The resulting plan is usually a combination of 2-way algorithms, outperforming conventional 2-way and
 k
 -way algorithms. The proposed approach is more general than designing a specific algorithm, as the cost models can be adapted to different hardware. We validate the cost model experimentally on two different CPUs, and show that the cost model closely estimates the actual cost. Using both real and synthetic datasets, we show that the proposed cost-based optimizer outperforms the state-of-the-art alternatives.


This study aimed to determine the genetic diversity and relationships among barley varieties (Hordeum vulgare L.) growing at Wollo Highland areas by using hordein and agro-morphological traits. Twenty (20) varieties were laid down in randomized complete block design (RCBD) design with three replications; they were planted by irrigation at Wollo University, Dessie Campus from January to May 2014. The genetic analysis using hordein was done in the laboratory of Ethiopian Biodiversity Institute (EBI) in July 2014. Ten (10) competitive random plants from the rows of the experimental plots were taken for recording their agro-morphological characters. Electrophoretic separation of barley storage proteins or hordeins was done using acid polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (A-PAGE). The traits: day of heading, day of maturity, grain yield (kg/ha), plant height, spike length, number of spiklet per spike, kernel number per spike, weight of seed per spike and biomass yield (g/plot) were highly significant for the diversity of barely, whereas thousand seed weight was less significant. The results reveal positive correlation between spike length and number of spiklet per spike (the highest correlations from the agro morphological traits); the next highly correlated traits were kernel weight per spike and thousand seed weight. The A-PAGE analysis showed limited variation among the analysed accessions. The Nei's genetic distance for all varieties of barely varied from 0.0000 to 1.6094. It is found that the 20 genotypes of barely investigated in this research were having a gene diversity (h) of overall populations (0.138) using hordein. The cluster analysis grouped the 20 barely genotypes into three different clusters using agro-morphological traits and into four clusters using hordein. This indicates the presence of wide diversity among the tested genotypes. From cluster mean values of agro-morphological traits, genotypes in cluster III deserve consideration for directly developing high yielding barely varieties. The result of the principal components analysis revealed that the first three principal components having greater than 1 eigenvalue contributed 84.22% of the total variation. From this study, it can be concluded that the presence of high morphological variation indicated the potential of Wollo Highland areas in contributing to barley improvement and conservation activities of land areas.

 Key words: Acid polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis, agro-morphological traits, hordein, genetic distance, hordeum vulgare, variability.


The objectives of this resource pack are to provide students with a background in the experience of Aboriginal people and introduce while simultaneously introducing them to historical thinking concepts. Lesson 1 introduces the complicated issue of naming for Aboriginal people through the lens of historical significance. Lesson 2 looks at First Contact and settlement through historical perspective. Lesson 3 focuses on the Cherokee removal by exploring cause and consequence. Lesson 4 explores the residential school experience and the ethical dimension of history. Lesson 5 looks at the Navajo code talkers in World War II with a focus on how to use historical evidence. Lesson 6 explores current issues with a focus on the Western Shoshone and change and continuity in Aboriginal history.


We investigated how future ocean conditions, and specifically the interaction between temperature and CO2, might affect marine aggregate formation and physical properties. Initially, mesocosms filled with coastal seawater were subjected to three different treatments of CO2 concentration and temperature: (1) 750 ppm CO2, 16°C, (2) 750 ppm CO2, 20°C, and (3) 390 ppm CO2, 16°C. Diatom-dominated phytoplankton blooms were induced in the mesocosms by addition of nutrients. In aggregates produced in roller tanks using seawater taken from the mesocosms during different stages of the bloom, we measured sinking velocity, size, chlorophyll a, particulate organic carbon and nitrogen, and exopolymer particle content; excess density and mass were calculated from the sinking velocity and size of the aggregates. As has been seen in previous experiments, no discernable differences in overall nutrient uptake, chlorophyll-a concentration, or exopolymer particle concentrations could be related to the acidification treatment in the mesocosms. In addition, in the aggregates formed during the roller tank experiments (RTEs), we observed no statistically significant differences in chemical composition among the treatments during Pre-Bloom, Bloom, and Post-Bloom periods. However, physical characteristics were different and showed a synergistic effect of warmer temperature and higher CO2 during the Pre-Bloom period; at this time, temperature had a larger effect than CO2 on aggregate sinking velocity. In RTEs with warmer and acidified treatment (future conditions), aggregates were larger, heavier, and settled faster than aggregates formed at present-day or only acidified conditions. During the Post-Bloom, however, aggregates formed under present and future conditions had similar physical properties. In acidified tanks at ambient temperature, aggregates were slower, smaller and less dense than those formed at the same temperature but under present CO2 or under warmer and acidified conditions. Thus, the sinking velocity of aggregates formed in acidified tanks at ambient temperature was slower than the other two cases. Our findings point out the potential of ocean acidification and warming to modify physical properties of sinking aggregates but also emphasize the need of future experiments investigating multiple environmental stressors to clarify the importance of each factor.


Many complex domains, such as robotics control and real-time strategy (RTS) games, require an agent to learn a continuous control. In the former, an agent learns a policy over $\mathbb{R}^d$ and in the latter, over a discrete set of actions each of which is parametrized by a continuous parameter. Such problems are naturally solved using policy based reinforcement learning (RL) methods, but unfortunately these often suffer from high variance leading to instability and slow convergence. Unnecessary variance is introduced whenever policies over bounded action spaces are modeled using distributions with unbounded support by applying a transformation $T$ to the sampled action before execution in the environment. Recently, the variance reduced clipped action policy gradient (CAPG) was introduced for actions in bounded intervals, but to date no variance reduced methods exist when the action is a direction, something often seen in RTS games. To this end we introduce the angular policy gradient (APG), a stochastic policy gradient method for directional control. With the marginal policy gradients family of estimators we present a unified analysis of the variance reduction properties of APG and CAPG; our results provide a stronger guarantee than existing analyses for CAPG. Experimental results on a popular RTS game and a navigation task show that the APG estimator offers a substantial improvement over the standard policy gradient.


It is well-known that deciding equivalence of logic circuits is a coNP-complete problem. As a corollary, the problem of deciding weak equivalence of reversible circuits, i.e. ignoring the ancilla bits, is also coNP-complete. The complexity of deciding strong equivalence, including the ancilla bits, is less obvious and may depend on gate set. Here we use Barrington's theorem to show that deciding strong equivalence of reversible circuits built from the Fredkin gate is coNP-complete. This implies coNP-completeness of deciding strong equivalence for other commonly used universal reversible gate sets, including any gate set that includes the Toffoli or Fredkin gate.


In this thesis we study problems in the theory of semigroups which arise from model theoretic notions. Our focus will be on omega-categoricity and homogeneity of semigroups, a common feature of both of these properties being symmetricity. A structure is homogeneous if every local symmetry can be extended to a global symmetry, and as such it will have a rich automorphism group.
 On the other hand, the Ryll-Nardzewski Theorem dictates that omega-categorical structures have oligomorphic automorphism groups.

 Numerous authors have investigated the homogeneity and omega-categoricity of algebras including groups, rings, and of relational structures such as graphs and posets. The central aim of this thesis is to forge a new path through the model theory of semigroups.
The main body of this thesis is split into two parts. The first is an exploration into omega-categoricity of semigroups. We follow the usual semigroup theoretic method of analysing Green's relations on an omega-categorical semigroup, and prove a finiteness condition on their classes. This work motivates a generalization of characteristic subsemigroups, and subsemigroups of this form are shown to inherit omega-categoricity. We also explore methods for building omega-categorical semigroups from given omega-categorical structures.

In the second part we study the homogeneity of certain classes of semigroups, with an emphasis on completely regular semigroups. A complete description of all homogeneous bands is achieved, which shows them to be regular bands with homogeneous structure semilattices. We also obtain a partial classification of homogeneous inverse semigroups. A complete description can be given in a number of cases, including inverse semigroups with finite maximal subgroups, and periodic commutative inverse semigroups. These results extend the classification of homogeneous semilattices by Droste, Truss, and Kuske. We pose a number of open problems, that we believe will open up a rich subsequent stream of research.


In this paper, we discuss several critical problems of electronic measurements on the acupuncture system, such as the size, shape, location and stability of acu-points and acu-meridians; the violent fluctuation of the measurement data; the holographic phenomena and the statistical selfsimilarity of measurement data; the transmission of signal along meridians and its speed; the parallel distributions between higher-conductivity points and higher sound intensity points and the mathematical background of log-normal distribution of measurement data. A conclusion, which comes from the contradictions between the results of these experiments and the existing knowledge in modern anatomy, histology, neurology and biochemistty, is that there is an invisible dissipative structure of electromagnetic fields which are mainly composed of an interference pattern of standing waves in the resonance cavity of the human body under the condition of permanent support of energy in an open system. To some extent, the invisible structure corresponds to the mysterious acupuncture system and is closely related to many energetic medicines. The conclusion and recognltlon of the existence of the invisible dissipative structure of the electromagnetic field inside a body offers not only a new understanding of the background of acupuncture and many orher branches of holistic medicine, but also a scientific and quantitative way to evaluate the degree of coherence, namely harmony, of a body-mind system.


: Cystadenocarcinoma of the pancreas is a rare malignant tumor. It may appear as a typical pseudocyst on US and CT. Percutaneous drainage of a presumed pancreatic pseudocyst not only may have complications but also may miss the correct diagnosis. In such patients, only a total excision of the cystic mass and complete pathologic examination can distinguish between inflammatory, benign, or malignant neoplastic lesions.


Emerging infectious diseases in humans are frequently caused by pathogens originating from animal hosts, and zoonotic disease outbreaks present a major challenge to global health. To investigate drivers of virus spillover, we evaluated the number of viruses mammalian species have shared with humans. We discovered that the number of zoonotic viruses detected in mammalian species scales positively with global species abundance, suggesting that virus transmission risk has been highest from animal species that have increased in abundance and even expanded their range by adapting to human-dominated landscapes. Domesticated species, primates and bats were identified as having more zoonotic viruses than other species. Among threatened wildlife species, those with population reductions owing to exploitation and loss of habitat shared more viruses with humans. Exploitation of wildlife through hunting and trade facilitates close contact between wildlife and humans, and our findings provide further evidence that exploitation, as well as anthropogenic activities that have caused losses in wildlife habitat quality, have increased opportunities for animal–human interactions and facilitated zoonotic disease transmission. Our study provides new evidence for assessing spillover risk from mammalian species and highlights convergent processes whereby the causes of wildlife population declines have facilitated the transmission of animal viruses to humans.


Alzheimer's disease, a neurodegenerative disease, is a progressive and irreversible disease that has become a global challenge due to its increasing prevalence and absence of available potential therapies. Protein misfolding and aggregation are known to be the root of several protein neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease. Protein aggregation is a phenomenon where misfolded proteins accumulate and clump together intra-or extracellularly. This accumulation of misfolded amyloid proteins leads to the formation of plaquesin the neuronal cells, also known as amyloid β plaques. The synthesis of amyloid β plaques and tau protein aggregation are the hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. Potential therapeutics must be developed in conjunction with an understanding of the possible root cause involving complex mechanisms. The development of therapeutics that can inhibit protein misfolding and aggregation, involved in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease, could be one of the potential solutions to the disease.


This paper presents a comparative analysis of the spatial transformation in the Hungarian and Slovenian pig sectors at the level of local administrative units (LAU). Concentration and inequality measures were applied in the empirical analyses, along with Markov transition probability matrices, to examine the stability and/or mobility over time and the presence of clustering effects. Both countries experienced a rapid decline in pig population. This profound structural change has led to a smaller number of more concentrated pig farms and increased territorial concentration. The degree of farm and territorial concentration and inequality in Hungary has been much higher than in Slovenia, and the concentration gap between the countries has increased. Between 2000 and 2010, the degree of concentration was much higher in Hungary than in Slovenia; average herd size per holding increased by 68 percent in Hungary, and only seven percent in Slovenia. In Hungary, clustering effects were particularly significant, with the pig sector moving towards large-scale concentration. The former effect was also confirmed in the Slovenian pig sector, but significantly weakened during the period under investigation. The exploitation and policy management of spatial externalities justifies these agricultural, economic, and agri-environmental practices.


A new genus and new species of potamid crab, Gurumon gurumayum gen. et sp. nov., are described from the Arunachal Pradesh State of northeastern India. Gurumon gen. nov. has affinities with Abormon Mitra, Pati & Ng, 2021, Pararanguna Dai & Chen, 1985, and some species of Potamiscus Alcock, 1909, but the new genus can easily be differentiated from them mainly by its low external orbital angle, the relatively stouter exopod of the third maxilliped, and the relatively broader male pleonal somite 6. Their male first gonopods are also different from each other. Counting Gurumon gurumayum gen. et sp. nov., India is currently known for ten genera and 24 species of potamiscine freshwater crabs, and Arunachal Pradesh for eight genera and 11 species of these crabs. The current nomenclatural problems with Potamiscus are also discussed.


Background: Though predominantly an infection of children, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) also infects adults, particularly those with immune compromise. Objectives: To define the clinical spectrum and impact of RSV pneumonitis on hospitalized, immunocompromised adults. Methods: Retrospective chart review. Clinical parameters including premorbid conditions, presentation, radiologic findings, treatment and outcome were examined in a consecutive patients series from an inpatient tertiary-care center.Eleven immunocompromised adults who had undergone bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) between January 1987 and December 1996 and who had culture-verified RSV pneumonitis were evaluated. Results: This series consisted primarily of patients undergoing chemotherapy or bone marrow transplantation for lymphoma or leukemia. Two were immunosuppressed due to high-dose corticosteroids. A majority (91%) were admitted between November and May, with dyspnea and productive cough. In contrast to earlier studies, there was a paucity of upper respiratory infection symptoms (i.e. sinus congestion, sore throat) and a preponderance of lower respiratory physical exam findings (i.e. wheezing, bibasilar rales). Patients were typically hypoxemic and febrile prior to BAL. Eight demonstrated co-isolates of bacterial or fungi on BAL. The chest radiographs generally revealed diffuse patchy infiltrates, including alveolar opacities. Histology demonstrated diffuse alveolar damage, bronchiolitis with organizing pneumonia, and hyaline membrane formation. Over half required intubation, and 55% died. Although ribavirin therapy may be beneficial in some intubated patients, its overall efficacy cannot be established from this series. Conclusion: RSV is a serious cause of morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised adults. Further development and implementation of an effective vaccine and additional therapeutic interventions are needed.


We present a general coalgebraic setting in which we define finite and
infinite behaviour with B\"uchi acceptance condition for systems whose type is
a monad. The first part of the paper is devoted to presenting a construction of
a monad suitable for modelling (in)finite behaviour. The second part of the
paper focuses on presenting the concepts of a (coalgebraic) automaton and its
($\omega$-) behaviour. We end the paper with coalgebraic Kleene-type theorems
for ($\omega$-) regular input. The framework is instantiated on
non-deterministic (B\"uchi) automata, tree automata and probabilistic automata.


Abstract : Mild Traumatic Brain Injuries (mTBIs) and Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) are two of the signature wounds of war. Due to the advances in technology the survival rates are higher than in previous wars, however, the weaponry has changed. The world has seen an increase in the use of suicide bombs, improvised explosive devices and rocket propelled grenades which increases the number of blast related injuries. One of the major problems with blast related injuries is that they can be invisible to the naked eye. The lack of physical evidence suggests the soldier is not injured and can be sent back into battle, when there could be an undetected internal injury. Due to the overlap in symptoms, many soldiers are being treated for PTSD instead of mTBI, which can cause long-term damage. In order to shed light on this issue, this thesis evaluates 2007-2008 active duty medical costs to determine the costs the PTSD and mTBI. The findings suggest that mTBI and PTSD account for .53% and 1.8%, respectively, of the 2008 population data sample. While this may seem like a small percentage this was only two months of data. However, it is important to properly diagnose mTBI and PTSD because these illnesses could cost the military member thousands of dollars in out of pocket medical costs.


The study aimed to compare the effectiveness of IITA training courses conducted at on-campus and offcampus locations. A survey research design was used for the study with a population of 210 respondents who attended IITA courses both on-campus and offcampus. Data were collected with the use of questionnaires. The results showed that trainees perceived that there was no difference in the overall assessment of courses and achievement of course objectives of both onand off-campus courses. The same result was obtained for course design and delivery, which indicates that resource persons at offcampus are as technically effective as their counterparts on-campus. Trainees however perceived a better interaction of resource persons with trainees and better facilities in the on-campus than at off-campus locations. It was therefore recommended that moving of training courses from the headquarters of international centers to off-campus sites should be a gradual process until adequate facilities are provided.


Positive psychology has emerged as an antidote to the negativistic focus of mainstream
psychology and human flourishing has recently been identified as its underlying aim.
Flourishing is also the aim of positive education, an applied area of positive psychology
that uses wellbeing theories and research on students in educational settings. Although
there are several positive psychological theories of flourishing, a key limitation of these is
"contextlessness," or the tendency to neglect the role of context in flourishing. I argue there
are three specific facets of contextlessness: in the conceptualisation of flourishing, in its
measurement, and in the relationships between flourishing and its wider contexts.
To address this gap, I present a series of exploratory studies aimed at
contextualising flourishing. Higher education was selected as an appropriate setting for this
work as positive education is limited at tertiary level and would benefit from contextualised
understandings of flourishing. Findings of the studies – both qualitative and quantitative –
provided novel and insightful understandings of flourishing as it is understood by students
in higher education, aided the development and validation of a psychometric tool that
measures context-specific flourishing in higher education, and enabled the exploration of
flourishing in higher education in the political, economic, and cultural contexts within
which higher education operates. Overall, results suggest flourishing in higher education is
a complex and unique notion not always accountable by extant positive psychological
theories.
The thesis culminates in the proposition of a new theoretical framework,
complementing extant theories, which enables flourishing to be understood and researched
with greater recognition of the role of context. Further implications of the research and
suggestions for the future are discussed with regard to the findings.


MALOTKY, ERICA LOUISE. Functional Characterization of MoeA and MoeB Tungsten Cofactor Synthesis Proteins from the Hyperthermophilic Archaeon Pyrococcus furiosus. (Under the direction of Amy Grunden) The hyperthermophilic archaeon, Pyrococcus furiosus depends on the element tungsten for growth since tungsten-containing enzymes such as aldehyde ferredoxin oxidoreductase (AOR) are key to its metabolism. Crystal structure analysis of the tungsten cofactor in AOR indicated that the tungsten cofactor exists as part of a tricyclic pterin moiety analogous to molybdopterin cofactor present in molybdoenzymes such as nitrate reductase. Molybdopterin cofactor synthesis has been well characterized in Escherichia coli with the identification of at least 14 genes that participate in this process. Analysis of the P. furiosus genome revealed that it has homologs to all cofactor synthesis genes except for modE, a transcriptional regulator of molybdopterin cofactor synthesis, and mogA, a putative molybdo-chelator. Two of the molybdenum cofactor biosynthesis genes, moeA and moeB, involved in activation of molybdenum and in donation of sulfur to the pterin ring structure, respectively, each have two homologs in P. furiosus (MoeA, 45%, MoeA2, 44%, MoeB, 50%, and MoeB2, 47% similar to E. coli MoeA and MoeB respectively). The MoeA and MoeB homologs were targeted for initial functional activity studies to determine if they participate in cofactor formation. The activity studies entailed complementing E. coli strains mutant in moeA or moeB with recombinant P. furiosus homologs in an in vitro system and assaying for restoration of the molydoenzyme nitrate reductase (NR) activity. Partial complementation of defects in E. coli moeA and moeB were observed for assays including P. furiosus MoeA2 and MoeB2 which supported 13.1 nmole NO2•min•mg (10μg MoeA2) and 19.6 nmole NO2•min•mg (100μg MoeB2) activity respectively. These specific activities represent 10.1% and 15.1% of wild type E.coli nitrate reductase activity (130 nmole NO2•min 1 •mg) Only negligible restoration of nitrate reductase activity was observed when P. furiosus MoeA or MoeB was included in the assay, with specific activities 0.16 nmole NO2•min•mg (1μg MoeA) and 0.74 NO2•min•mg (50μg MoeB). Partial complementation of the E. coli moeA mutant was also observed for in vitro trimethyl amine oxide (TMAO) reductase assays where 10 μg MoeA2 supported a specific activity of 40.97 nmole TMAO reduced•min 1 •mg and 10 μg MoeB2 supported a specific activity of 6.3 nmole TMAO reduced•min•mg compared to 2,374 nmole TMAO reduced•min•mg for the wild type E. coli. When TMAO assays were conducted in the presence of tungsten rather than molybdenum, the wild type E. coli had a specific activity of 1,297 nmole TMAO reduced•min•mg. E. coli moeA mutant had an activity of 2.07 nmole TMAO reduced •min•mg when supplemented with 10 μg MoeA2 and the E. coli moeB mutant supported 6.01 nmole TMAO reduced•min•mg when supplemented with 100 μg MoeB2. The partial nature of the complementation seen in these studies is likely due in part to the use of sub optimal assay temperatures (37°C), as required for E. coli NR, well below the optimum temperature of 95°C seen for most P. furiosus enzymes. Nevertheless, these complementation assays demonstrate that P. furiosus MoeA2, and MoeB2 homologs likely function as MoeA and MoeB in tungsten cofactor synthesis in P. furiosus. Functional Characterization of MoeA and MoeB Tungsten Cofactor Synthesis Proteins from the Hyperthermophilic Archaeon Pyrococcus furiosus


The walking interview is used to explore the lived experiences and meanings individuals attach to place(s). Despite scholarly interest in place and volunteering, attention to the walking interview is lacking. This article presents an exploratory study, which invited five volunteers to participate in a walking interview. Our aim is to discuss the walking interview to expand the range of methodologies employed in research on volunteering, particularly volunteering and place. The walking interview has novel implications for the conceptualization of volunteers and for the meanings individuals identify in their volunteer experience(s). Volunteers can be conceptualized as mobile subjects to explore the implications of physiological movement in place for the volunteer experience. Walking can unearth the significance of emotions and memories to volunteers' negotiation of the 'everyday politics' of volunteering. The mobility of people and objects in sites of volunteering are salient as they reveal embodied aspects of the volunteer experience.


Implantation is an intricately timed event necessary in the process of viviparous birth that allows mammals to nourish and protect their young during early development. Human implantation begins when the blastocyst both assumes a fixed position in the uterus and establishes a more intimate relationship with the endometrium. Due to the impracticalities of studying implantation in humans, animal models are necessary to decipher the molecular and mechanical events of this process. This review will discuss the differences in implantation between different animal models and describe how these differences can be utilized to investigate discrete implantation stages. In addition, factors that have been shown to be involved in implantation in the human and other various animal models including growth factors, cytokines, modulators of cell adhesion, and developmental factors will be discussed, and examples from each will be given.


Mathematical proofing process requires skill in accordance with critical thinking indicators. Effective critical thinking skills help in understanding the concept of mathematics This research aims to analyze the critical thinking process of students of mathematics education teacher candidate STKIP PGRI Sidoarjo in the mathematical proof. The analysis of critical thinking process in this research using a qualitative approach. Research subjects were four students, consisting of two male students and two female students who had the high mathematical proof capability. Teh subject to do mathematical proofing problem followed by an interview. The tests and interviews were conducted to analyze the critical thinking process of prospective teachers in mathematical evidence. The results showed that all subjects had not met the overall indicator of the critical thinking process, which was to judge a conclusion properly, to assess a specific statement, and to assess a mathematical principle in a statement.


The use of hidden Markov models (HMMs) in continuous speech recognition is reviewed. Markov models are presented as a generalization of their predecessor technology, dynamic programming. A unified view is offered in which both linguistic decoding and acoustic matching are integrated into a single, optimal network search framework. Advances in recognition architectures are discussed. The fundamentals of Viterbi beam search, the dominant search algorithm used today in speed recognition, are presented. Approaches to estimating the probabilities associated with an HMM model are examined. The HMM-supervised training paradigm is examined. Several examples of successful HMM-based speech recognition systems are reviewed.<<ETX>>


The life span of a Rotary Shaft Lip Type Seal (RWDR) depends substantially on the friction torque. The friction torque can be determined metrological exactly and it depends on different operating conditions. Calculation of the friction moment with the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) allows the minimization of cost-intensive tests. At present FEA of the RWDR is possible only with significant simplifications. A reason for this is that the sealing mechanism is insufficiently described by the theory. This research shows exemplarily the FEA of the friction torque of the RWDR. Furthermore a comparison of the FE-results and test results is shown.


The main objective of this study was to propose a methodology for which the implementation could examine the state of business organization in some enterprise and give concrete directions for its improvement, considering the principles of total quality management. Apparently, every concept of total quality management depends on appropriate actions of people involved in the business process. Leaders usually pay attention on what should be done, ignoring how their actions or directives could affect their colleagues or their feelings. The methodology proposed in this paper puts an employee's emotional wellbeing in the centre of attention in order to achieve efficient business organization. First of all, some parameters of business organization were defined for observed company. Existing condition of these parameters were tested through stress level of employees, regarding their level of functioning and quality of life on one hand and their sympthomatology on the other hand. With further analysis, conclusions could be reached about the exact part of business process where improvement should be done. In that sense, the use of this model can help companies to develop and implement better strategy for achieving business excellence. The proposed model has been tested and verified trough the research carried out in Serbian post.


This paper presents an energy consumption modeling technique for embedded systems based on a microcontroller. The software tasks that run on the embedded system are profiled, and their characteristics are analyzed. The type of executed assembly instructions, as well as the number of accesses to the memory and the analog-to-digital converter, is the required information for the derivation of the proposed model. An appropriate instrumentation setup has been developed for measuring and modeling the energy consumption in the corresponding digital circuits.


For an accurate automatic online measurement of ship's attitude we develop an intelligent sensing system which uses one servo-type accelerometer and two servo-type inclinometers, which are appropriately located on the ship. By considering the dynamics of the servo-controlled rigid pendulums of the inclinometers, linear observation equations are derived on the rolling and pitching signals of the ship. Moreover, one accelerometer is utilized to extract the heaving signal. Through the introduction of linear dynamic models and the linear observation equations on the three signals, their online measurement is reduced to the state estimation of the linear dynamic systems. A bank of Kalman filters are used to execute the online state estimation and to overcome changes in parameters in the dynamic models with time lapse.<<ETX>>


Many cyanobacteria are capable of fixing atmospheric N2, a reaction that is also producing H2. This hydrogen is often metabolized by an enzyme called hydrogenase. The aim of the present work was to identify and characterize hydrogen metabolism/hydrogenases in the free-living N2-fixing cyanobacterium Nostoc sp.strain PCC 73102. With immunological techniques it was revealed that Nostoc PCC 73102 contains proteins that are immunologically related to hydrogenases from other microorganisms and that these proteins seem to be present in both the vegetative cells and the heterocysts. A light-dependent hydrogen uptake was detected in nitrogen-fixing cells of Nostoc PCC 73102. This hydrogen uptake is positively regulated by the substrate H2. Furthermore, the in vivo nitrogenase and uptake hydrogenase activities appear to be co-regulated when nitrogen-fixing cells are exposed to either combined nitrogen or organic carbon sources. Using both physiological and molecular techniques, no evidence could be found for the presence of a reversible/bidirectional hydrogenase in Nostoc PCC 73102. The characterization of the structural genes encoding the uptake hydrogenase in Nostoc PCC 73102 demonstrated a high sequence identity with the sequence of the cyanobacterium Anabaena PCC 7120, but a high degree of difference in comparison with sequences from other microorganisms. In addition, Nostoc PCC 73102 appears not to perform a site specific rearrangement within hupL. Furthermore, in a Nostoc strain containing both an uptake- and a bidirectional hydrogenase, an induction of a hupL transcript was evident after a shift from non-nitrogen fixing to nitrogen fixing conditions.


The irregular moons of the Jovian planets are a puzzling part of the solar system inventory. Unlike regular satellites, the irregular moons revolve around planets at large distances in tilted and eccentric orbits. Their origin, which is intimately linked with the origin of the planets themselves, is yet to be explained. Here we report a study of the orbital and collisional evolution of the irregular satellites from times after their formation to the present epoch. The purpose of this study is to find out the features of the observed irregular moons that can be attributed to this evolution and separate them from signatures of the formation process. We numerically integrated ≈60,000 test satellite orbits to map orbital locations that are stable on long time intervals. We found that the orbits highly inclined to the ecliptic are unstable due to the effect of the Kozai resonance, which radially stretches them so that satellites either escape from the Hill sphere, collide with massive inner moons, or impact the parent planet. We also found that prograde satellite orbits with large semimajor axes are unstable due to the effect of the evection resonance, which locks the orbit's apocenter to the apparent motion of the Sun around the parent planet. In such a resonance, the effect of solar tides on a resonant moon accumulates at each apocenter passage of the moon, which causes a radially outward drift of its orbital apocenter; once close to the Hill sphere, the moon escapes. By contrast, retrograde moons with large orbital semimajor axes are long-lived. We have developed an analytic model of the distant satellite orbits and used it to explain the results of our numerical experiments. In particular, we analytically studied the effect of the Kozai resonance. We numerically integrated the orbits of the 50 irregular moons (known by 2002 August 16) for 108 yr. All orbits were stable on this time interval and did not show any macroscopic variations that would indicate instabilities operating on longer time spans. The average orbits calculated from this experiment were then used to probe the collisional evolution of the irregular satellite systems. We found that (1) the large irregular moons must have collisionally eliminated many small irregular moons, thus shaping their population to the currently observed structures; (2) some dynamical families of satellites could have been formed by catastrophic collisions among the irregular moons; and (3) Phoebe's surface must have been heavily cratered by impacts from an extinct population of Saturnian irregular moons, much larger than the present one. We therefore suggest that the Cassini imaging of Phoebe in 2004 can be used to determine the primordial population of small irregular moons of Saturn. In such a case, we will also better understand the overall efficiency of the formation process of the irregular satellites and the physical conditions that existed during planetary formation. We discovered two dynamical families of tightly clustered orbits within the Jovian retrograde group. We believe that these two clusters may be the remnants of two collisionally disrupted bodies. We found that the entire Jovian retrograde group and the Saturnian inclination groups were not produced by single breakups, because the ejection velocities derived from the orbital structures of these groups greatly exceed values calculated by modern numerical models of collisional breakups. Taken together, the evidence presented here suggests that many properties of the irregular moons previously assigned to their formation process may have resulted from their later dynamical and collisional evolution. Finally, we have found that several irregular moons, namely, Pasiphae, Sinope, S/2001 J10, S/2000 S5, S/2000 S6, and S/2000 S3, have orbits characterized by secular resonances. The orbits of some of these moons apparently evolved by some slow dissipative process in the past and became captured in tiny resonant volumes.


In this paper, a new microstereolithography apparatus is described. It is an integral process in which a complete layer can be made in one exposure only, in contrast to vector-by-vector processes which are based on the vectorial tracing of each layer. As for most microstereolithography processes, complex objects can be realized by superimposing layers, each layer being obtained by a light-induced polymerization of a liquid resin. The vertical and transverse resolution of the process we are developing have been measured. Complex in shape objects have been realized: small 3D polymer components have been built such as turbines, microsprings, or micropipes. They are compared of a large number of layers with a resolution better than 5 micrometers in the 3 directions of space. Some of these objects serve to demonstrate that complex in shape 3D objects can be manufactured with this technology. Sample structures which can be used in microfluidics, microrobotics or in the biomedical field are presented.