Abstract : An aircraft's response to control inputs varies widely throughout its flight envelope. The aircraft configuration also impacts control response through variations in center of gravity and moments of inertia. Designing a flight control system (FCS) to accommodate the full flight envelope and configuration set of an aircraft is clearly a complex undertaking. Quantitative feedback theory (QFT) is a design tool which enables the engineer to attack this task in an efficient way. Although QFT is a robust control design technique, it is an interactive algorithm allowing the engineer full control over compensator order and gain. In this research effort, a full subsonic flight envelope FCS is designed for the VISTA F-16 aircraft using QFT. Four aircraft configurations are considered. The strict control of the compensator order and gain allowed by QFT facilitates the attainment of desired performance while avoiding physical saturations. In addition, flying qualities are imbedded in the longitudinal design through the use of a control parameter which varies with the aircraft's energy state. This parameter is synthesized to closely reflect the actual control desires of the pilot throughout the aircraft flight envelope. Linear simulations with realistically large control inputs are used to validate the design.


Understanding B cell evolution following vaccination or infection is crucial for instructing targeted immunotherapies when searching for potential therapeutic or virus-neutralizing antibodies. Antibody phylogenetics holds the potential to quantify both clonal selection and somatic hypermutation, two key players shaping B cell evolution. A wide range of bioinformatic pipelines and phylogenetic inference methods have been utilized on antibody repertoire sequencing datasets to delineate B cell evolution. Although the majority of B cell repertoire studies incorporate some aspect of antibody evolution, how the chosen computational methods affect the results is largely ignored. Therefore, we performed an extensive computational analysis on time-resolved antibody repertoire sequencing data to better characterize how commonly employed bioinformatic practices influence conclusions regarding antibody selection and evolution. Our findings reveal that different combinations of clonal lineage assignment strategies, phylogenetic inference methods, and biological sampling affect the inferred size, mutation rates, and topologies of B cell lineages in response to virus infection.


SIR,--A preliminary report was published by the M.R.C. Subconmittee for the study of the relations between oral contraceptives and thrombo-embolic disease (6 May, p. 335). It is striking that in this communication no statement is given regarding the criteria for -the diagnosis of deep venous thrombosis. In our and others' experience the clinical diagnosis of venous thrombosis is extremely difficult and unreliable. In a series of 512 cases, in which the diagnosis of deep venous thrombosis had been made by experienced surgeons, subsequent phlebography revealed a completely normal venous system of the lower extremity in 233 cases-that is, in 46%. Our experience from phlebographic examination performed in the acute stage of disorders of the leg with classical signs of deep venous thrombosis also showed faulty diagnosis in about 50% of the cases. From these results we concluded that a scientifically tenable diagnosis of deep venous thrombosis cannot be made without the proof of phlebography in every single case. It is hardly probable that diagnoses made by 29 practitioners are more accurate than those made by surgeons with profound experience of thrombo-embolic disease. With these observations in mind the otherwise admirable work by the committee certainly must be interpreted most critically. Also in previously published reports of cases of venous thrombosis in women having taken oral contraceptives the final proof of correct diagnosis by phlebography is lacking but for a few exceptional cases. Moreover, studies of the coagulation pattern in patients taking oral contraceptives failed to reveal any basis for the assumption that these drugs might induce thromboembolic disease.-We are, etc.,


Data from wind-tunnel tests on a model of the NY-1 airplane were used in a study of the effect on the steady spin of a number of factors considered to be important. The factors were of two classes, mass distribution effects and aerodynamic effects. The study indicated that mass extended along the longitudinal axis has no detrimental effect or is even slightly beneficial, mass extended along the lateral axis is detrimental if the airplane spins with the inner wing tip far down, and mass extended along the normal axis, if of considerable magnitude, has a strong favorable effect. The aerodynamic effects considered in terms of rolling, pitching, and yawing moments added to those for a conventional airplane showed that added stable rolling moment could contribute favorable effect on the spin only in decreasing the amount of inward sideslip required for equilibrium. Negative pitching moment of moderate magnitude has unfavorable effect on a high-angle-of-attack spin, and stable yawing moment has pronounced beneficial effect on the spin. Experimental data from various sources were available to verify nearly all the deductions resulting from the study of the curves. When these results were considered for the purpose of deciding upon the best means to be developed for controlling the spin, the yawing-moment equilibrium was found to offer the most promising field for research. The wing-cellule yawing moment, of which the shape of the chord-force curve is an approximate measure, should be made as small as possible in the unstable sense and the damping yawing moment of the tail should be made as large as possible. The most serious unfavorable effect on the damping yawing moment of the tail is the blanketing of the vertical surfaces by the other parts of the tail.


Every fashion collection begins with research. But how do you start? How much should you do? How do you use that research? This book is designed to answer these questions and demystify the process for students. Illustrated throughout with inspirational photographs and images of good practice within student sketchbooks, the book begins with the basics of primary and secondary research sources and shows students how and where to gather information. Chapters on market, fabric and colour research are followed by the final chapter, which shows how to gather all the information together, understand it and use it in a process known as triangulation. Additionally, case studies from a wide range of international designers showcase different working methods.


p53 deficiency confers resistance to doxo (doxorubicin), a clinically active and widely used antitumour anthracycline antibiotic. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the reversal mechanism of doxo resistance by the potent PARP [poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase] inhibitor ANI (4-amino-1,8-naphthalimide) in the p53-deficient breast cancer cell lines EVSA-T and MDA-MB-231. The effects of ANI, in comparison with doxo alone, on doxo-induced apoptosis, were investigated in matched pairs of EVSA-T or MDA-MB-231 with or without ANI co-treatment. Doxo elicited PARP activation as determined by Western blotting and immunofluorescence of poly(ADP-ribose), and ANI enhanced the cytotoxic activity of doxo 2.3 times and in a caspase-dependent manner. The long-term cytotoxic effect was studied by a colony-forming assay. Using this assay, ANI also significantly potentiates the long-term cytotoxic effect with respect to treatment with doxo alone. Decrease in mitochondrial potential together with an increase in cytochrome c release, association of Bax with the mitochondria and caspase 3 activation were also observed in the presence of ANI. Therefore PARP inhibition may represent a novel way of selectively targeting p53-deficient breast cancer cells. The underlying mechanism is probably a potentiation of unrepaired DNA damage, shifting from DNA repair to apoptosis due to the effective inhibition of PARP activity.


Drugs can be used to treat the symptom of COVID-19, but still considered by medical experts due to their side effects Dandelion can be used as an alternative medical treatment which has less hazardous side effect This study has an objective to observe the trends and relevance point of information about dandelion in the United Kingdom (UK) and Sweden big data This study is quantitative, using a data mining approach in collecting data The samples are a topic about dandelion in UK and Sweden big data Data is analyzed using Vosviewer software The result shows that both the UK and Sweden show a significant popularity point of dandelion while COVID-19 cases were in a critical situation Both the UK and Sweden consume dandelion along with other ingredients as the herb It can be concluded that dandelion is not just a pest, but useful her for COVID-19 treatment © 2020 EManuscript Technologies All rights reserved


Capturing complex ecosystem dynamics through aggregate metrics is challenging, especially against a background of climate instability and local disturbances. Robustness, a key determinant of long-term success or failure, is particularly awkward to distil, because it also conveys many different meanings. Hence, metrics tend to be limited or specialised. Herein we develop an index (Q) which captures one aspect of robustness and, unusually, integrates both spatial and temporal information. Q is defined as the probability that the value of a macroscopic system feature remains above a specified fraction of 'baseline' condition, at a proportion of spatial localities sampled over time. As a test case we analyse coral cover from a long-term survey in Thailand. Sites were subjected to dredging effects in 1986 an 1987 (Sites A and B), elevated sea temperatures and depressed sea levels especially in 1997 and 1998 (Sites A, B and C) following climate related events in the Indian Ocean. Sites A and C have similar Q values, because they experienced similar levels of overall disturbance, albeit different types of disturbance. We show that this metric can also assess specific (e.g. climate related) disturbances. The cut-off value of Q for declaring a system robust is arbitrary. However, our analyses support recent biodiversity studies that used the same coral data set, which suggest remarkable robustness of these reef flats to adverse environmental conditions. Our metric could potentially also quantify change in composition of process oriented features, such as key functional groups, a better proximal determinant of robustness of reefs to hurricanes and other agents of environmental change than coral cover. Probabilistic measures similar to Q could have even wider application, for example to quantify feedback and self-regulation. In a greenhouse world, this behaviour in ecosystems may become increasingly significant.


Since approval was given via a referendum in 1997 for the advent of the Scottish Parliament, the benefits and constraints of Scotland's devolved role within and against the UK has, understandably, formed the primary axis of political debate, despite increasing evidence that Scotland, like other nations, is part of a globalised world. It is also argued that nationalist Scotland exercises a preference for closer ties with a less imperialist Europe rather than with the colonially tainted state of the United Kingdom (Hechter 1975, 310). However, the precise meaning of Scotland's role within a changing Europe receives little attention in mainstream debate (Imrie 2006). Meanwhile, the European Union is engaged in the ongoing process of enlarging and renegotiating its boundaries. Despite the paucity of texts that address ostensibly Scottish-European concerns, I want to consider the meaning of Europe through a focus on how these have been written into critical accounts of Scottish, British and European cinema while also examining how this relationship is given meaning in recent films produced in Scotland, in order to map the different manifestations of the relationship between Europe and Scotland.


BACKGROUND: It is generally accepted that the clinical-psychotherapeutic treatment of severely depressed adolescents is a difficult and complicated undertaking. AIM: To gain insight into the various factors, often present simultaneously, which block or undermine the adolescent development phase of separation-individuation and lead to depression, and to find out how the situation can be remedied. METHOD: The multi-layered hypothesis is developed with the help of case-material and takes exogenous as well as endogenous factors into account. RESULTS: The investigation has demonstrated that in the treatment of depressed adolescents every possible factor needs to be taken into account if a long-lasting result is to be achieved. CONCLUSION: This result is not surprising in view of the crucial developmental stage involved which is focused on the formation of identity. This developmental process cannot be consolidated until all the necessary elements have fallen into place.


: The avian endocrine pancreas shares some similarities with those of mammals. Previously we have reported a technique of isolation of B islets from chick pancreas and also demonstrated their possible use for hypoglycemic drug screening as efficiently as mammalian islets. Here we describe a novel cryopreservative medium for the cryopreservation of chick islets. Isolated chick islets were suspended in a cryo medium consisting of Dulbecco's modified Minimum Essential Medium: Ham's F12 (1:1), Fetal Bovine Serum (20%), Dimethylsulfoxide (10%) with different concentrations (50 microg/ml to 500 microg/ml) of riboflavin or nicotinamide. The viability of revived islets after three and half months was checked by trypan blue dye exclusion and functionality was assessed by insulin secretion in response to glucose challenge. The maximum recovery of viable islets and insulin secretion was obtained in response to glucose challenge at 250 microg/ml concentration of Riboflavin or Nicotinamide. This is a first report on cryopreservation of chick islets exhibiting cryoprotective role of water soluble vitamins without vitamin C.


Despite the remarkable success of Deep RL in learning control policies from raw pixels, the resulting models do not generalize. We demonstrate that a trained agent fails completely when facing small visual changes, and that fine-tuning---the common transfer learning paradigm---fails to adapt to these changes, to the extent that it is faster to re-train the model from scratch. We show that by separating the visual transfer task from the control policy we achieve substantially better sample efficiency and transfer behavior, allowing an agent trained on the source task to transfer well to the target tasks. The visual mapping from the target to the source domain is performed using unaligned GANs, resulting in a control policy that can be further improved using imitation learning from imperfect demonstrations. We demonstrate the approach on synthetic visual variants of the Breakout game, as well as on transfer between subsequent levels of Road Fighter, a Nintendo car-driving game. A visualization of our approach can be seen in this https URL and this https URL .


The receptors for insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) and insulin are related heterotetrameric proteins which, like the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor, possess intrinsic ligand-stimulated tyrosine protein kinase activity. In Rat 1 fibroblasts, stimulation of mitogen-activated protein (MAP) kinase via the IGF1 receptor and the Gi-coupled receptor for lysophosphatidic acid (LPA), but not via the EGF receptor, is sensitive both to pertussis toxin treatment and to cellular expression of a specific Gβγ subunit-binding peptide. The IGF1, LPA, and EGF receptor-mediated signals are all sensitive to inhibitors of tyrosine protein kinases, require p21ras activation, and are independent of protein kinase C. These data suggest that some tyrosine kinase growth factor receptors (e.g. IGF1 receptor) and classical G protein-coupled receptors (e.g. LPA receptor) employ a similar mechanism for mitogenic signaling that involves both tyrosine phosphorylation and Gβγ subunits derived from pertussis toxin-sensitive G proteins.


Most professionals working within the UK construction industry are familiar with the recommendations of both the Latham and Egan reports, their conclusions called for improvement to the service that the construction industry delivers both for its clients and for the profitability of the enterprises involved. Their recommendations were the impetus for the drive within the industry to use strategic partnering as a replacement for competitive tendering and supply chain management as a means of improving the design process and reducing conflict, in order to achieve greater integration between enterprises involved in business transactions within the construction supply chain. It is however noteworthy that to date few suggestions have been made as to how to achiev e integration of partner enterprises and project teams once an agreement is made or a team formed and thus this paper seeks to investigate why fragmentation is necessary how it adds value to the overall labour process how cross-cultural training techniques can be used as a structured means of achieving the integration of partner enterprises or project teams by reducing conflict. The investigation will follow several paths. First it aims to identify the barriers to successful integration of enterprises within the construction supply chain. Second it reviews the various different techniques by which cross-cultural training is currently carried out and its effectiveness as an assimilation tool. Thirdly it looks at the effectiveness of the application of cross-cultural training in the construction context through an action research exercise carried out on a live project.


The microfinance revolution has transformed access to financial services for low-income populations worldwide. As a result, it has become one of the most talked-about innovations in global development in recent decades. However, its expansion has not been without controversy. While many hailed it as a way to end world poverty and promote female empowerment, others condemned it as a disaster for the poor. Female empowerment has often been seen as one of the key promises of the industry. In part, this is based on the fact that more than 80% of its poorest clients, i.e., those who live on less than $1.25/day, are women. This paper discusses what we have learned so far about the potential and limits of microfinance and how insights from research and practice can help inform the industry's current products, policies and future developments.


Modern investment treaties give private arbitrators power to determine whether governments should pay compensation to foreign investors for a wide range of sovereign acts. In recent years, particularly developing countries have incurred significant liabilities from investment treaty arbitration, which begs the question why they signed the treaties in the first place. Through a comprehensive and timely analysis, this book shows that governments in developing countries typically overestimated the economic benefits of investment treaties and practically ignored their risks. Rooted in insights on bounded rationality from behavioural psychology and economics, the analysis highlights how policy-makers often relied on inferential shortcuts when assessing the implications of the treaties, which resulted in systematic deviations from fully rational behaviour. This not only sheds new light on one of the most controversial legal regimes underwriting economic globalization but also provides a novel theoretical account of the often irrational, yet predictable, nature of economic diplomacy.


In the novel As I Lay Dying William Faulkner portrays the Bundrens, a Southern family that has decided to travel to Jefferson, Mississippi in order to bury their matriarch. The novel gives an account of the modern American family on the verge of collapse and is told from the eyes of fifteen different narrators, seven are the Bundrens while the other eight are made up of citizens from either the rural land or city. Although novel centers on the Bundrens, the majority of the chapters are allotted to non-Bundren narrators. One of the main purposes of emphasizing non-family narrators is to create what this paper refers to as distantiation- a distancing effect, which illuminates how different forms of space, whether they are geographical, social, or personal, play into lives of individuals. Through an examination of the characters in the novel, this paper considers how, through the different forms of distantiation used by both Faulkner, and the characters he creates, it becomes possible to see how the Bundrens self-destruct


A system for secure teletransmission destined for a receiving person includes a secure server comprising a program providing a redemption code and a designation code for designating an object to which the teletransmission pertains. A terminal includes an interface allowing a sending person to indicate the designation code and to take cognizance of the redemption code, and an interface for connection to the secure server to send a request and to receive the redemption code, in response. A terminal includes an interface allowing the receiving person to enter the redemption code and the designation code, an interface for connection to the secure server to receive an authorization from the secure server. The authorization confirms correlation of the redemption code entered with the designation code. A deliverer automatically delivers the object, after receipt of the authorization.


The basal amounts of metallothionein (MT) and its rates of biosynthesis were compared in resting and proliferating Chang liver (CCl-13) cells. In resting cells the total amounts of the detectable isoforms MT-2 and MT-1e were approx. 1.6x10(6) and 4x10(5) molecules per cell respectively. In exponentially growing cultures the cellular contents of both isoforms increased co-ordinately approx. 4-fold and decreased again to the initial values within 48 h after entering density-mediated growth arrest. As documented for MT-2 its transient accretion was attributable to a 10-fold rise in the rate of biosynthesis of this protein during the growth phase. Measurements of the relative amounts of MT-2 mRNA indicated the occurrence of a more than 50% increase within the first 12 h after subculturing of the cells, followed by a return to basal levels thereafter. These results denote a direct link between the programming of MT synthesis and proliferation and thus attest to a central housekeeping function of the MTs.


Introduction  Quality of life is closely linked to retronasal olfactory function. Familiarity with odors vary, so tests need validation. Testing can be time-consuming, so a quick test and a thorough test are needed for clinical and research settings. Objectives  The objectives of this study were to validate the original retronasal powder olfactory test in a Danish population and to develop a novel quick retronasal test for easy application. Methods  Ninety-seven participants were included in the study, 59 healthy controls and 38 patients with olfactory impairment. The retronasal test was modified by substituting unfamiliar odors and descriptors and validated with a criterion of correct identification rate of 50% in the original test and 90% in the quick test. Items with over 90% correct identification rate in the modified original test were included in the quick test, resulting in a 10-item test. Results  The modified retronasal olfactory test achieved good test characteristics, with a 10th percentile cut-off value of 13: sensitivity was 88.9%, specificity 83.0%, positive predictive value 78%, negative predictive value 91.7%, and the receiver operating characteristics area under the curve (ROC-AUC) was 0.86. The quick test achieved acceptable test characteristics, with a 10th percentile cut-off value of 8.2: sensitivity was 72.2%, specificity 90.6%, positive predictive value 83.9%, negative predictive value was 82.8%, and ROC-AUC 0.81. Conclusion  Validation of both tests demonstrated satisfactory accuracy. We recommend the quick test for screening purposes, and the modified original version for a thorough evaluation. The tests are easily implemented as they are easy to understand and very affordable.


In this paper, we analyze the defects of LEACH protocol and clustering based on RSSI ranging algorithm. Mainly considering the network load balance, the residual energy and protocol overhead factors, an improved protocol is proposed based on LEACH protocol and uneven clustering. By simulating the improved protocol, a conclusion is drawn that the number of cluster head generated by the improved protocol is more stable than that of the unimproved LEACH protocol, and the improved protocol can extend the network lifetime effectively.


Smoking is a significant risk factor for initiation and progression of oral diseases. A patient's current smoking status and tobacco dependency can aid clinical decision making and treatment planning. The free-text nature of this data limits accessibility causing obstacles during the time of care and research utility. No studies exist on extracting patient's smoking status automatically from the Electronic Dental Record. This study reports the development and evaluation of an NLP system for this purpose.


We investigate the effectiveness of trace-based supervision methods for training existing neural abstract machines. To define the class of neural machines amenable to trace-based supervision, we introduce the concept of a differential neural computational machine (∂NCM) and show that several existing architectures (NTMs, NRAMs) can be described as ∂NCMs. We performed a detailed experimental evaluation with NTM and NRAM machines, showing that additional supervision on the interpretable portions of these architectures leads to better convergence and generalization capabilities of the learning phase than standard training, in both noise-free and noisy scenarios.


High‐spectral resolution measurements from the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder (AIRS) onboard the EOS (Earth Observing System) Aqua satellite provide unique information about atmospheric state, surface and cloud properties. This paper presents an AIRS alone single field‐of‐view (SFOV) retrieval algorithm to simultaneously retrieve temperature, humidity and ozone profiles under all weather conditions, as well as cloud‐top pressure (CTP) under cloudy skies. For optically thick cloud conditions the above‐cloud soundings are derived, whereas for clear skies and optically thin cloud conditions the profiles are retrieved from 0.005 hPa down to the earth's surface. Initial validation has been conducted by using the operational MODIS (Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer) product, ECMWF (European Centre for Medium‐Range Weather Forecasts) analysis fields and radiosonde observations (RAOBs). These inter‐comparisons clearly demonstrate the potential of this algorithm to process data from high‐spectral infrared (IR) sounder instruments.


The dependence of the linewidth on the temperature in a spin valve driven by spin-polarized currents is analyzed by means of full micromagnetic simulations. The results are compared to the recent analytical predictions by Tiberkevic and confirmed by the experiments of Boone In agreement with the Tiberkevic theory and experiments of Sankey , our micromagnetic results point out two regimes. The linewidth increases linearly with the temperature until a threshold value, above which a square root dependence is observed.


This paper presents the concept and design of a digital system to record seismological signals. The hardware and software designed has been interfaced to the PC 104 BUS architecture in order to achieve a modular system to acquire, process, record and transmit seismic data by telemetry. The modularity of this system offers independence technology from the manufacturers of this kind of equipments both in hardware and software, also because the system was developed under the Linux operating system GNU, which allows easy update of hardware; the software is an open platform developed in C, which allows the user to configure the system to operate online and updating according to needs.In brief, we propose in this paper a system design option for seismological instrumentation, which presents significant advantages also for other regions and countries with high seismicity and needs of earthquake monitoring, but have serious limitations in acquiring and maintaining commercial systems imported from developed countries.


In this paper, the patchouli oil complex microcapsules were prepared by complex coacervation method, with chitosan (CTS), quaternary ammonium salt of chitosan (HACC) and gum arabic (GA) as the wall materials, patchouli oil as the core materials. The surface morphology of microcapsules was characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM).The in vitro release property of patchouli oil from microcapsules was measured by UV–visible spectrophotometer. The results showed that the shapes of microcapsules were spherical, and the diameters of microcapsules were mostly 3-9 μm. The entrapment efficiency and drug loading of microcapsules were 60.6%and 20.2% respectively. The release effect of microcapsules could be influenced by the temperature of the release medium.


In this study, the microstructure, high-temperature tribological performance, and mechanical properties of solution-aged Ti–10V–2Fe–3Al were investigated. The microstructure of solution-aged Ti–10V–2Fe–3Al reveals a bimodal α and β microstructure with uniformly dispersed α precipitates in the β matrix phase. The hot tribological performance of solution-aged Ti–10V–2Fe–3Al was investigated at different temperatures (28, 250, 350, and 450 °C) in a high-temperature pin-on-disc configuration. The wear mechanisms were evaluated at the worn-out surface using a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The abrasive wear mechanism is predominant at 28 °C and 250 °C testing conditions, whereas the oxidation and delamination are dominant wear mechanisms at 350 °C and 450 °C testing conditions. The worn-out surface at different temperature conditions was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and energy-dispersive X-ray spectrometer (EDS) analysis. The absence of protective oxide formation at 28 °C and intermittent protective oxide formation at 250 °C testing condition are ineffective in protecting the surface from wear damages and high wear loss. The protective tribo-oxide formations at 350 °C and 450 °C are continuous and provide improved wear resistance behavior of the material. The V2O5-rich tribo-oxide layer formation at 350 °C offers excellent wear resistance and protection against wear damages among the testing conditions. The Vickers microhardness study of the samples tested at different temperature conditions shows significant differences in the hardness magnitude at the cross section.


OBJECTIVE
To study muscle strength and functional performance in patients with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury with or without surgical reconstruction 2 to 5 years after injury. Good muscle function is important in preventing early-onset osteoarthritis (OA), but the role of reconstructive surgery in restoring muscle function is unclear.

METHODS
Of 121 patients with ACL injury included in a randomized controlled trial on training and surgical reconstruction versus training only (the Knee, Anterior cruciate ligament, NON-surgical versus surgical treatment [KANON] study, ISRCTN: 84752559), 54 (mean age at followup 30 years, range 20-39, 28% women) were assessed a mean +/- SD of 3 +/- 0.9 years after injury with reliable, valid, and responsive test batteries for strength (knee extension, knee flexion, leg press) and hop performance (vertical jump, one-leg hop, side hop). The Limb Symmetry Index (LSI; injured leg divided by uninjured and multiplied by 100) value and absolute values were used for comparisons between groups (analysis of variance). An LSI >or=90% was considered normal.

RESULTS
There were no differences between the surgical and nonsurgical treatment groups in muscle strength or functional performance. Between 44% and 89% of subjects had normal muscle function in the single tests, and between 44% and 56% had normal function in the test batteries.

CONCLUSION
The lack of differences between patients treated with training and surgical reconstruction or training only indicates that reconstructive surgery is not a prerequisite for restoring muscle function. Abnormal muscle function, found in approximately one-third or more of the patients, may be a predictor of future knee OA.


A new 3-D finite element model of cardiac electrical conduction has been developed. The purpose of this study was to construct a simple but physiologically reasonable heart model and to simulate body surface Laplacian maps (BSLMs). The heart model consists of 29,109 elements in a cubic lattice with left and right ventricular boundaries. Each element has three intrinsic states-resting, depolarizing, and refractory-and interacts with its neighbors by a weighted probability interaction rule. The BSLM is calculated directly from the current dipole distribution within the heart. The results of normal sequence and left/right bundle branch block simulations, closely matched the experimental results of B. He et al. (1992) and demonstrate the ability of BSLM to resolve and image normal and abnormal cardiac electrical activity with high spatial resolution.<<ETX>>


Although democratization in Thailand is often seen as an illustration of modernization theory, the extent of middle class support for democracy is actually unclear. The greatest advance for Thai democracy
 in the 1990s was the passage of the 1997 Constitution, more closely linked to economic globalization than modernization.


In recent decades a style of preparing and drinking tea modelled largely on gongfu tea associated with the Chaoshan region of north-eastern Guangdong Province, China, has been taken up as a contemporary tea art in Taiwan, Hong Kong, the Chinese mainland and elsewhere. This paper draws on fieldwork conducted in Chaoshan to examine gongfu tea as contemporary practice in its home setting. Three aspects are considered: gongfu tea as an everyday practice, as a refined practice, and as commercialised leisure in tea-houses. I argue that, as an everyday practice in Chaoshan, gongfu tea primarily serves to nourish social connectedness with family, friends and associates. It is regarded as an integral part of day-to-day life rather than a tea art. However, some people separate it from the everyday world by cultivating discernment and knowledge with regard to selected aspects, such as high-quality teapots or appreciation of different teas.


Abstract Recently, ant colony optimization (ACO) algorithms have proven to be efficient in uncertain environments, such as noisy or dynamically changing fitness functions. Most of these analyses have focused on combinatorial problems such as path finding. We rigorously analyze an ACO algorithm optimizing linear pseudo-Boolean functions under additive posterior noise. We study noise distributions whose tails decay exponentially fast, including the classical case of additive Gaussian noise. Without noise, the classical EA outperforms any ACO algorithm, with smaller being better; however, in the case of large noise, the EA fails, even for high values of (which are known to help against small noise). In this article, we show that ACO is able to deal with arbitrarily large noise in a graceful manner; that is, as long as the evaporation factor is small enough, dependent on the variance of the noise and the dimension n of the search space, optimization will be successful. We also briefly consider the case of prior noise and prove that ACO can also efficiently optimize linear functions under this noise model.


The period of a muscle's activity during cycling can be described by the onset and offset of electrical activity. Certain muscles can exhibit two distinct periods of activity (a 'double burst'), reflecting different muscular functions during a pedal revolution. Our aims were to determine (1) the consistency of the double burst pattern in the Gastrocnemius Lateralis (GL) muscle during cycling and (2) by how much the reliability of the offset of GL is improved by taking the double burst into account. 11 cyclists volunteered to participate. Participants cycled for 6 min at 265 W and 90 rev.min-1 on three separate days. Using surface electromyography, an ensemble-average of GL was constructed from a 30 s segment. Onset and offset threshold was set at 25% of the peak activity of the ensemble-averaged pattern to determine the crank angle of onset/offset. Two onsets/offsets were recorded for double bursts. Reliability of the primary offset was determined using the Standard Method (SM), that is, the offset of the final activity; and an Alternative Method (AM), which incorporated the muscular function, with the most frequent offset across days being regarded as the 'primary' offset. A double burst was consistently detected for only 7 of the 11 cyclists. AM showed better reliability for the offset than SM (Standard Error of Measurement: 6.8° vs 21.3°, Intra Class Correlation: 0.82 vs 0.47). The double burst pattern is commonly observed in GL while cycling in trained cyclists. However, detection across several days is more difficult and could lead to erroneous conclusions about the (double) burst pattern. When analysing muscles with a possible double burst pattern, researchers could incorporate the muscle's function. This decreases the impact of an inconsistent double burst pattern across measurements.


We propose an efficient and robust iterative solution to the multi-object matching problem. We first clarify serious limitations of current methods as well as the inappropriateness of the standard iteratively reweighted least squares procedure. In view of these limitations, we propose a novel and more reliable iterative reweighting strategy that incorporates information from higher-order neighborhoods by exploiting the graph connection Laplacian. We demonstrate the superior performance of our procedure over state-of-the-art methods using both synthetic and real datasets.


Electroporation of the chick embryonic neural tube has many advantages such as being quick and efficient for the expression of foreign genes into neuronal cells. In this manuscript we provide a method that demonstrates uniquely how to electroporate DNA into the avian hindbrain at E2.75 in order to specifically label a subset of neuronal progenitors, and how to follow their axonal projections and synaptic targets at much advanced stages of development, up to E14.5. We have utilized novel genetic tools including specific enhancer elements, Cre/Lox - based plasmids and the PiggyBac-mediated DNA transposition system to drive GFP expression in a subtype of hindbrain cells (the dorsal most subgroup of interneurons, dA1). Axonal trajectories and targets of dA1 axons are followed at early and late embryonic stages at various brainstem regions. This strategy contributes advanced techniques for targeting cells of interest in the embryonic hindbrain and for tracing circuit formation at multiple stages of development.


Washington National Cathedral, located in Washington, D.C., is one of the major landmarks of the United States. Formally, it belongs to Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States. Informally, it is the spiritual center of the nation. The article discusses a number of factors contributing to this status of the Cathedral. Most of the Founding Fathers of the US were Episcopalians, as well as Episcopalians were the US presidents who played key role in the nation's political history (George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt, George Bush, Sr.). Episcopalian Church belongs to the Anglican community of Protestant churches. This branch of Christianity combines different doctrines of Protestantism, being divided into High Church, Broad Church, and Low Church. With teaching and appearance, High Church borders with Catholicism, whereas Low Church is close to Congregationalism. Thus, Episcopal Church encompasses the whole spectrum of Christianity represented in North America, being acceptable to the widest parts of society. Built in Neo-Gothic style, located between Chesapeake to the South, the historical citadel of Anglicans and Catholics, and New England in the North, the stronghold of Puritans, Washington National Cathedral symbolizes the harmony and interrelationship between different spiritual doctrines, one of the facets shaping the worldview of society of the United States of America.


The development of practice is but one aspect of Clinical Nurse Specialists' (CNSs) work, and a number of factors act to shape the extent to which CNSs are able to work with and develop practice with nursing and residential care homes. A postal survey of 730 community CNSs in palliative care working in the UK was undertaken to explore the involvement of these nurses with nursing and residential care homes. Much of the focus of the involvement was reactive work meeting the direct clinical needs of residents, primarily with cancer. Although the CNSs perceived that there were some educational and care deficits in these care settings, the amount of proactive work undertaken to improve practice was limited. The development work undertaken was focused on educational initiatives and establishing link nurse systems. There is potential to develop palliative care practice in nursing and residential care homes through practice development initiatives.


This dissertation examines the impacts of India's trade liberalization and a variety of other policies on productivity and employment among manufacturing firms. One main contribution of this work is that it considers not only large firms in India's organized (formal) manufacturing sector, but also small firms in the unorganized (informal) manufacturing sector. Informal firms are those that have fewer than 20 employees (10 employees if power is used), and are therefore not required to register with the government under India's Factories Act. Most of the literature on India's trade and other reforms has focused on formal firms, but the informal sector accounts for approximately 80% of manufacturing employment.In the first chapter, I describe a unique dataset that I constructed by linking formal and informal firm-level surveys that were conducted by the Indian government. The resulting dataset provides three cross-sectional snapshots that are representative of the entire manufacturing industry during the course of the 1990's. This chapter discusses the industries in which formal and informal firms are found, examines various issues related to the size distribution of firms, and compares formal and informal firms with the same number of employees.The second chapter examines the impact of India's trade liberalization on the productivity of manufacturing firms. Despite a large literature investigating the links between trade and productivity, there is almost no evidence on how small firms react to trade liberalization. In this chapter, I show that India's trade liberalization increased firm productivity in both the formal and informal sectors; however, the increases occurred through different channels in the two sectors. In the informal sector, I find that the liberalization of final goods tariffs increased productivity by approximately 15% during the course of the 1990's. In contrast, the increase in productivity among formal firms was driven by the liberalization of tariffs on intermediate inputs rather than final goods. Furthermore, I examine the effect of the trade liberalization on the productivity and output distributions, and I find evidence suggesting that at least part of the increase in productivity in the informal sector was driven by the exit of the smallest, least productive firms. The third chapter investigates the phenomenon of the missing middle in Indian manufacturing - the fact that employment is concentrated in small and large firms, with relatively little employment in mid-sized firms (firms with 50-500 employees). A number of policies have been proposed as causes of the missing middle, but there is little quantitative evidence on how changes in these policies would affect the employment size distribution. I consider the impacts of five policies - credit availability for small firms, electricity surpluses, trade liberalization, industrial licensing, and foreign direct investment liberalization - on the employment size distribution. I find that improving India's poor electricity supplies would mitigate the missing middle by shifting the employment size distribution towards firms with 50-1,000 employees. India's liberalization measures of the 1990's had mixed effects on the missing middle: the liberalization of final goods tariffs exacerbated the missing middle, while the liberalization of intermediate input tariffs mitigated it. The foreign direct investment liberalization shifted the employment size distribution towards firms with 20-500 employees, while the industrial licensing reforms shifted the distribution towards firms with 10-60 employees, and away from firms with 60 or more employees. The results also indicate that India's labor regulations played a role in how many of these policies affected the missing middle.


Introduction: On October 1, 2015, the United States made a major transition in its medical billing and coding system, by switching from ICD-9-CM to ICD-10-CM. Several cost-analysis studies have attempted to estimate the eventual impact of the ICD-10-CM transition on medical practices, but all were completed prior to the actual transition deadline. Our study seeks to assess the post-implementation financial impact of the transition on small and medium medical practices which used a set of non-profit resources for their implementation. Methods: 6,000 medical practices were randomly selected from the approximately 70,000 user database of a non-profit ICD-10 provider and emailed a seven question survey. 419 practices completed the full survey (8.5% response rate), providing practice demographics, as well as estimates for the hours spent and cost accrued on the implementation. Results: Based on the reported data, the average total explicit cost of the ICD- 10-CM implementation was $1,206 for small medical practices and $2,462 for medium medical practices. The average total number of staff hours spent was 61.2 hours for small practices and 139 hours for medium-sized practices. The average total number of physician hours spent was 35.6 hours and 75.1 hours, respectively. Discussion: The total average cost of the ICD-10-CM implementation was calculated to be between $6,748 to $9,564 for a small medical practice and between $14,577 to $23,062 for a medium-sized medical practice. The results of this study suggest that for practices which used a set of free online resources, the eventual financial impact of the ICD-10-CM transition was less than predicted by the landmark Nachimson report for the American Medical Association (AMA), but greater than the study by Kravis et al (3M).


This paper focuses on a development of a classification model that gives an accurate placement of regions into classes of the relative risk of crimes over time. The analysis was based on statistics on the cases of burglary and murder from 13 regions of Namibia for the period 2002 - 2006. Since crime statistics are counts, they are often contaminated by heterogeneity. The effect of population heterogeneity in the crime counts in particular makes comparison of crime risk across regions using traditional methods of classification impossible. As such a method for standardizing crime counts was introduced and models for modeling population heterogeneity proposed. In particular a mixture likelihood approach to clustering by McLachlan and Basford (1988) which was further extended for covariate effects was used. This is due to its ability in identifying important clusters and in mapping the relative risk of crime onto the study regions via the maximum a posteriori (MAP) method while inference was done via the EM algorithm of Dempster et al (1997). The result shows that the space - time mixture model conducted under non - parametric form gives a good account of the relative risk of the two crimes over time, while both space - time mixture and covariate adjusted space - time mixture models points to a 3 risk classification of the regional relative risk of the two crimes namely high, medium and low risk class respectively.


Introduction Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), a major promoter of fibrosis, has been linked to diabetic complications. The aim of this observational case–control study was to investigate urinary connective tissue growth factor (uCTGF) as a marker of diabetic nephropathy and diabetic retinopathy (DR) in a cohort of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). Patients and methods The study included 60 patients with T2DM (group A: 20 patients with normoalbuminuria; group B: 20 patients with microalbuminuria, and group C: 20 patients with macroalbuminuria) and 20 age-matched and sex-matched healthy participants as controls. Thorough clinical evaluation and fundus examination were done to determine the presence of DR. Laboratory workup included glycated hemoglobin, serum creatinine level, estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) using modification of diet in renal disease (MDRD) formula, urine albumin to creatinine ratio (UACR), and uCTGF measurements. Results uCTGF levels showed a stepwise increase in group A (116.2±33.4), group B (197.9±75.7), and group C (365.5±197.3) (P<0.001). In patients with T2DM, uCTGF showed significant positive correlation with UACR (r=0.731, P<0.001) and HA1c (r=0.230, P=0.038) but negative correlation with eGFR (r=−0.421, P<0.001). uCTGF was an independent predictor of eGFR (β coefficient=−0.042, P=0.017) and UACR (β coefficient=0.720; P<0.001). In contrast, patients with DR had no significantly different uCTGF level from patients without retinopathy (329.18±47.149 vs. 252.02±27.3, P=0.067). Conclusion In the present study, uCTGF was significantly associated with markers of nephropathy but not with retinopathy in patients with T2DM.


In the present work, we study autocatalytic pathways which contain reactions that need the use of one of their own productions. These pathways are common in biology; one of the simplest and widely studied autocatalytic pathways is Glycolysis. This pathway produces energy by breaking down Glucose. It is shown that this pathway can be simplified as a network of three biochemical reactions. We first revisit some conditions on the underlying structure of the autocatalytic network, which guarantee the existence of fundamental limits on the output energy of such networks. Then we focus on autocatalytic pathways with several biochemical reactions. Our aim is to characterize the zero-dynamics for a class of autocatalytic networks and then study the fundamental limitations of feedback control laws, using their associated zerodynamics. For this aim, it is shown that the zero-dynamics of autocatalytic networks play an important role in studying the fundamental limits on performance. Zero-dynamics is defined as the dynamics of a system restricted to the control input and initial conditions such that the output of the system remains zero for all future time instances. We characterize the zero-dynamics for a class of unperturbed autocatalytic networks based on the structure of the original network. It is well-known that by knowing the zero-dynamics of a specific class of systems, one can obtain lower bounds on the best achievable performance (L2-norm of the output) for the system. For a specific class of autocatalytic networks, we characterize their zero-dynamics in terms of the state-space matrices of the underlying network. This can be utilized to quantify inherent fundamental limits on performance (the level of disturbance attenuation) for this class of network. In general, one should apply numerical algorithms to obtain such fundamental limits. We explain our method using a simple but illustrative example.


Today in Africa, there is a growing awareness that humanity is threatened not only by regional conflicts but also by continued injustices among peoples and nations, perpetuated through corruption. The root cause of corruption is due to lack of ethical behaviors by the leaders. Lack of respect for the poor has resulted into plundering of resources causing a progressive decline in the quality of life. The sense of precariousness and corruption that such a situation engenders is a seedbed for collective selfishness, disregard for others and dishonesty. Faced with the widespread corruption of the individual as well as of governments, people everywhere are coming to understand that we cannot continue to enjoy equality in sharing the national resources as we ought to. The public in general as well as political leaders are concerned about this problem. And experts from a wide range of disciplines are studying its causes. Moreover, a new ethical awareness is beginning to emerge which, rather than being downplayed, ought to be encouraged to develop into concrete programs and initiatives. Many ethical values, fundamental to the eradication of corruption are particularly relevant to the ethical question. The fact that many challenges facing Africa today are politically motivated confirms the need for carefully coordinated ethical initiatives based on a morally coherent world view. So what are Ethical Initiatives required by both the government and the private sector to combat corruption in Africa in the 21 st Century? As has often been noted, an important step toward addressing any problem is accurate diagnosis. Corruption has many characteristics or dimensions. Corruption in Africa is characterized by lack of moral ethics, human exploitation, selfishness, greed as well as oppression and absence of good governance that is 'state failure'. The unethical governments are also faced with national economic mismanagement which leads to lack of justice and fairness. Such unethical practices interact and combine to keep individuals and at times governments in persistent corruption. So this paper intends to critically analyse unethical practices among individuals and governments that contribute to corruption, and how good initiatives could help in combating corruption. This paper will demonstrate that good ethics can cause profound changes in the politics of our times that could free the society from corruption.


A new, automated technique for collection and instant preparation of blood components has been developed. The device enables the combined collection of red cells (250 mL) and plasma (475 mL). No adverse effects were seen in the donors. The blood components were of good quality. The impact of the pre-separation temperature on whole blood was studied in two studies. In the first study blood was collected and put into stoppered test tubes. The test tubes were then put into water bath at 15,20,25 and 30 °C. Samples were taken at intervals during 24 hours. The lactate concentration increased and 2,3-DPG concentrations decreased during storage and at a higher rate with higher temperature. In the second study blood was collected and dived into half units. One half unit was actively cooled to 20 °C the other half kept at 28 °C. Blood component preparation was done after 6 hours. There were a significant change in 2,3-DPG, pH and lactate already after two hours hold of the whole blood. The differences were maintained for one week and for 2,3-DPG throughout 28 days storage. Myeloperoxidase levels in plasma were lower in the cooled units. The leucocytes reduction properties of BAT procedure were improved by addition of mannitol in the anticoagulant. The contents of leucocytes in RBC units were in the test group 32x106 and in the control group 573x106. In vitro storage data showed no significant difference between the two groups during 42 days of storage of the red cells. A photochemical treatment (PCT) process has been used in decontamination of buffy-coat derived platelets (BC-PCs). Different strains of bacteria known to be associated with bacterial contamination's of blood components were added to two pooled ABO matched BC-PCs. After mixing the BC-PCs were divided. One BC-PC underwent PCT and the other did not. All bacterial experiments were made in duplicates. In all experiments, the bacteria were killed except in one with Bacillus cereus, a known spore former. PCT conditions similar to those used in the bacterial inactivation experiment were efficacious to inactivate HIV-1. In a second study a number of in vitro parameters known to be related to viability or function of stored platelets were tested. No physiologically relevant differences were found between the test and the control BC-PCs during 7 days of storage.


Aberrant cell proliferation is one of the hallmarks of carcinogenesis, and cholesterol is thought to play an important role during cell proliferation and cancer progression. In the present study we examined the pathways that could contribute to enhanced proliferation rates of HBL-100 cells in the presence of apolipoprotein E-depleted high-density lipoprotein subclass 3 (HDL(3)). When HBL-100 cells were cultivated in the presence of HDL(3) (up to 200 microg/ml HDL(3) protein), the growth rates and cellular cholesterol content were directly related to the concentrations of HDL(3) in the culture medium. In principle, two pathways can contribute to cholesterol/cholesteryl ester (CE) uptake from HDL(3), (i) holoparticle- and (ii) scavenger-receptor BI (SR-BI)-mediated selective uptake of HDL(3)-associated CEs. Northern- and Western-blot analyses revealed the expression of CLA-1 (CD-36 and LIMPII analogous 1), the human homologue of the rodent HDL receptor SR-BI. In line with CLA-1 expression, selective uptake of HDL(3)-CEs exceeded HDL(3)-holoparticle uptake between 12- and 58-fold. Competition experiments demonstrated that CLA-1 ligands (oxidized HDL, oxidized and acetylated low-density lipoprotein and phosphatidylserine) inhibited selective HDL(3)-CE uptake. In line with the ligand-binding specificity of CLA-1, phosphatidylcholine did not compete for selective HDL(3)-CE uptake. Selective uptake was regulated by the availability of exogenous cholesterol and PMA, but not by adrenocorticotropic hormone. HPLC analysis revealed that a substantial part of HDL(3)-CE, which was taken up selectively, was subjected to intracellular hydrolysis. A potential candidate facilitating extralysosomal hydrolysis of HDL(3)-CE is hormone-sensitive lipase, an enzyme which was identified in HBL-100 cells by Western blots. Our findings demonstrate that HBL-100 cells are able to acquire HDL-CEs via selective uptake. Subsequent partial hydrolysis by hormone-sensitive lipase could provide 'free' cholesterol that is available for the synthesis of cellular membranes during proliferation of cancer cells.


This thesis focuses on the non-motor symptoms (NMS) of Parkinson's disease (PD), with particular emphasis on impulsive-compulsive spectrum behaviours (ICBs).
The relevance of NMS is investigated as presenting complaints amongst 21% of 433 patients with pathologically-proven PD. These patients had delayed diagnosis of PD, and often underwent unnecessary and potentially harmful interventions. Motor and NMS of LRRK2- associated PD are compared with idiopathic PD, and NMS of LRRK2-associated PD are more benign than in idiopathic PD. Increased Lewy body burden was shown to correlate with NMS in a subgroup of idiopathic PD patients at post-mortem.
A metanalysis investigates pathological gambling and the dopamine dysregulation syndrome in PD, highlighting the importance of dopamine agonists in pathological gambling. A new ICB in PD, named "reckless generosity", occurring in association with dopamine agonist use is described. Dopamine agonists are also implicated in the development of ICBs in patients with pathologically-confirmed progressive supranuclear palsy.
An increased prevalence of excessive hoarding as a NMS of PD is shown, particularly in patients with other ICBs. Hoarding is shown to relate more to impulsivity measures than obsessive-compulsive symptoms. The overlap between sleep disturbance, dreams, mood and ICBs in PD is demonstrated. Sleep disturbance is independent of dopaminergic medication use, and instead relates to anxiety, depression, and the presence of ICBs.
Reward learning in PD patients with and without ICBs, and healthy controls is tested on a reaction time game, the Salience Attribution Test. PD patients with ICBs show increased impulsivity on temporal discounting tasks, but do not show increased aberrant salience to rewards. Positron emission tomography (PET) scanning is used to investigate the dopaminergic pathways involved in ICBs by comparing PD patients with ICBs to those without ICBs after a L-dopa challenge and visual reward-related cue exposure. The results differ from studies on PD patients with addictive dopamine dysregulation, or other non-PD drug addicted individuals.
The role of deep brain stimulation surgery for PD, patients with ICBs is investigated in a case series of 21 operated PD patients exhibiting ICBs at some stage during the course of their disease. The mixed results suggest the need for careful selection of patients for this procedure.


In recent times cloud computing has appeared as a new model for hosting and conveying services over the Internet. This model is striking to business vendors as it eradicates the requirement for users to plan in advance, and it permits the organization to start from low level and then add more resources only if there is an increase in the service demand. Even though cloud computing presents greater opportunities not only to information technology industry, but every organization involved in utilizing the computing in one way or the other, it is still in infancy with many problems to be fixed. The paper discusses research challenges in cloud computing.


This review of literature explored eating, lifestyle, and sleeping patterns that may positively or negatively impact long term health in college athletes. The authors of this review of literature demand that having adequate sleep of at least eight to nine hours is essential to recovery but can be difficult due to the athlete's schedule. Although athletes are provided with food, it may not be enough due to being so active and not having enough time to make healthy choices. Due to busy schedules, having a healthy lifestyle pattern can be difficult especially with school and other external factors to balance. The authors of the reviewed research noted that athletes need strong organizational and time management skills and the ability to make informed and mindful choices. The articles used in this review of literature provided tips that are practical, easy, and effective. In summary, the authors note that an athlete's long term health is influenced by the decisions they make, as well as their desire to be healthy.


To develop a model for endogenous thyroid autoantigen presentation, we transfected EBV-transformed B lymphoblastoid cell lines (EBV-LCL), established from patients with autoimmune thyroid disease and normal controls, with cDNA for the human thyroid autoantigen thyroid peroxidase (hTPO). hTPO-antigen presentation to patient peripheral blood T cells was demonstrated after stimulation in vitro for 7 d with irradiated hTPOtransfected or untransfected autologous EBV-LCL. AntihTPO-reactive T cells were subsequently cloned in the presence of irradiated, autologous hTPO-transfected EBVLCL and IL-2. 10 T cell-cloned lines exhibited specific hTPOinduced proliferation (stimulation indices of 2.1-7.9) towards autologous hTPO-transfected EBV-LCL, and were subjected to human T cell receptor (hTCR) V gene analysis, using the PCR for the detection ofV a and V fi hTcR gene families. The results indicated a preferential use ofhTCR V a 1 and/or V a 3 in 9 of the 10 lines. In contrast, hTCR V f gene family use was more variable. These data demonstrate a model for the endogenous presentation of human thyroid peroxidase in the absence of other thyroid specific antigens. The high frequency of antigen-specific T cells obtained from PBMC using this technique will facilitate further studies at both the functional and hTCR V gene level. (J. Clin. Invest. 1993.91:1567-1574.)


This research will examine and explore the evaluation of law enforcement practices in the 2015-2020 Concurrent Elections through various doors (justice in many rooms), namely Election Supervisory Board Province/Regency/City, State Administrative Court, District Court, Honorary Board of Election Organizers and Constitutional Court. The result triggers legal uncertainty and is oriented towards procedural fairness rather than substantive justice. This research is normative legal research. Research approach used is the principle of law, legislation, and conceptual. Data collection techniques are carried out using the library study method. Technical data analysis using hermeneutic methods, namely describing objectively and systematically the content of norms and practices interactively. In the future (ius costituendum) is needed integration (one roof system) in the enforcement of electoral law in order to achieve the ideals of substantive justice. The operationalization of this idea is to redesign the electoral law enforcement system through the revitalization of Election Supervisory Board current function as a semi-judicial Judicial Settlement Agency. Election Supervisory Board authority to complete cases of administrative violations, violations of the electoral process, and a code of conduct whose rulings are final and binding. While the dispute of election results is resolved through the Supreme Court in accordance with the provisions of Article 24 of the 1945 Constitution and Article 157 Paragraph (1) of Law Number 10 of 2016 concerning the Election of Governors, Regents and Mayors. Election Supervisory Board authority is designed to focus more on law enforcement with administrative sanctions instead of criminal.


In two recent papers [K. R. Dienes and B. Thomas, Phys. Rev. D 85, 083523 (2012)] [K. R. Dienes and B. Thomas, Phys. Rev. D 85, 083524 (2012)] we introduced ``dynamical dark matter'' (DDM), a new framework for dark-matter physics in which the requirement of stability is replaced by a delicate balancing between lifetimes and cosmological abundances across a vast ensemble of individual dark-matter components whose collective behavior transcends that normally associated with traditional dark-matter candidates. We also presented an explicit model involving axions in large extra spacetime dimensions, and demonstrated that this model has all of the features necessary to constitute a viable realization of the general DDM framework. In this paper, we complete our study by performing a general analysis of all phenomenological constraints which are relevant to this bulk-axion DDM model. Although the analysis in this paper is primarily aimed at our specific DDM model, many of our findings have important implications for bulk-axion theories in general. Our analysis can also serve as a prototype for phenomenological studies of theories in which there exist large numbers of interacting and decaying particles.


Three-dimensional (3D) video technologies are becoming increasingly popular, as they can provide high quality and immersive experience to end users, where depth maps are employed to generate the virtual views by depth-image-based rendering technique. However, how to reduce the compression and rendering complexities for depth maps while maintaining high rendering quality is still unresolved. In this study, a novel depth map compression and depth-aided view rendering method is proposed. In the proposed method, depth maps are represented with different layers and compressed with different macroblock-mode decision procedure, and several optimisation techniques, including spatio-temporal consistent warping, colour correction and temporal consistent hole filling are embedded into the view rendering framework. Experimental results show that compared with the traditional method, the proposed method can reduce more than 79% compression computational complexity and more than 45% rendering computational complexity, while maintaining high rendering quality.


This paper presents a novel method for the suppression of random-valued impulsive noise from corrupted images. The proposed method is composed of an efficient noise detector and a pixel-restoration operator. The noise detector has been used to discriminate the uncorrupted pixels from the corrupted pixels. The noise-free intensity values of the corrupted pixels have been computed by using triangle-based linear interpolation and the values of tuning parameters of the proposed method have been optimized with differential evolution algorithm. Extensive simulation experiments indicate that the proposed method significantly outperforms all of the comparison methods mentioned in this paper. The success of the proposed method over comparison methods is due to its excellent detail preservation performance independent from the level of noise density.


Interaction of rabbit alveolar macrophages with morphocycline, tetracycline and methacycline was studied. The use of the membrane microfiltration technique in investigation of the antibiotic absorption by the macrophages provided description of the time course of the drug interaction with the cells at its early stages. It was shown that the macrophages mainly absorbed the tetracyclines within the first 20 seconds (1 minute incubation). Later, within the period of 1-5 minutes no significant time course was observed. The medium temperature within 4-37 degrees C and the number of the cells in the system (0.1-5 minutes no significant time course was observed. The medium temperature within 4-37 degrees C and the number of the cells in the system (0.5-1 million/ml) had no effect on the parameters of the tetracyclines sorption by the macrophages. The percentage of the decrease of the morphocycline level in the extracellular medium was stable at the drug concentration in the cells ranging within 10-50 micrograms/ml. The respective figures for tetracycline and methacycline were 10-100 and 10-5000 micrograms/ml. Further increasing of the concentration of the antibiotics in the incubation medium resulted in a significant lowering of the percentage of their binding. It was suggested that absorption of the tetracyclines by the cells was associated with their intracellular binding.


Laser welding can offer many advantages over conventional welding when used in the right
applications. Some of these advantages include smaller heat affected zone (HAZ) and lower
thermal stresses, narrow weld seams with smooth surfaces reducing or even eliminating
additional steps of refining work, high strength coupled with low weld volume, high welding
speeds relative to conventional welding and easy integration potential to name a few. Laser
welding even with its obvious benefits faces a lot of skepticism among manufacturers;
especially sub suppliers who could benefit the most from committing to laser welding.
Conventional welding have established and proven guidelines and standards within the
manufacturing industry, techniques quantifying for example the throat measure. Laser
welding lacks universal measures or guidelines aside from data and documentation provided
by the producer of laser welding systems.
The weldability of the stainless steel EN 1.4301 (AISI 304) sheets of 1.5 mm thickness has
been investigated. The goal has been to achieve a method that can be applied also in future
investigations of other alloys.
Iteration of welding parameters has been made in order to find optimized welding
parameters. Butt joint welded test specimens with geometrical tolerance deviations were
manufactured to investigate the process sensitivity against tolerance deviation. To
characterize the influence on the mechanical properties a series of ASTM standardized
mechanical tests were performed. Tests include tensile testing, bend testing and hardness
testing on metallographically prepared cross-sections. Computer simulations of the heataffected
zone were made using the numerical computing environment MATLAB.
Results show a local increase in peak hardness of approximately 28-43%. Bend testing
results show that even with this local increase of the peak hardness, ductility is not critically
affected. Bend testing was performed without fracture or presence of surface irregularities
but for one sheet. In this case the specimens had the most extreme tolerance deviation in
the specimen series, giving rise to incomplete welding and severe stress concentration.
Tensile tests results show no significant effect on tensile strength and elongation at break for
specimens with tolerance deviations up to 150 μm. Larger tolerance deviations showed an
abrupt drop in both tensile strength and elongation at break.


Abstract. This paper addresses the classification of CORINE classes. Three land use classes (arable land, pastures, and natural grassland) report similar spectral responses which make it challenging to separate. Therefore, we adopted a multitemporal and multispectral approach using Sentinel-2 satellite imagery in combination with the NDVI vegetation index, Haralick's textural measures, and topographic information. The workflow identifies a methodology for combining various groups of input data (optical, NDVI, textural, topographic) and explores the suitable use of the Random Forest classifier for the task. The classification was carried out in three different European locations. The results present a strong separation of arable land (F1 score over 96%) from the other two classes. Pastures and natural grassland classes achieved F1 in the range of 76% to almost 85% in both cases. In conclusion, we discuss the suitability of the CORINE database for such classification problems.


AIMS
The high rate of implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) lead failures related to the Sprint Fidelis' and Riata's design have raised serious concerns about the reliability of ICD leads. The St. Jude Medical Durata family of leads replaced the preceding Riata line following increased rates of lead failure (1.17% per year). The aim of our study was to evaluate the long-term performance of the Durata lead.

METHODS
Eight hundred and eighteen Durata ICD leads were implanted in 11 Italian centers. The incidence of lead failure, defined as a sudden rise in long-term pacing or defibrillation impedance and/or a sudden change in R-wave amplitude and capture thresholds, was assessed. The incidences of lead dislodgment and lead perforation were also evaluated.

RESULTS
During a median follow-up of 1353 days (3.7 years; 25-75th interquartile range 806-1887 days) lead failure occurred in 16/818 leads (0.54%/year). The overall survival, free of lead failure, was 98.9% at 3 years, 98.2% at 4 years and 97.5% at 5 years. Lead dislodgment occurred in 12/818 leads with an incidence of 0.4%/year. No cases of cardiac perforation were reported. No major adverse events were reported except for two cases of inappropriate shocks as a consequence of failure or dislodgment.

CONCLUSION
Our study suggests that the Durata lead does not engender a higher risk of failure. Overall survival, free from lead failure, was found to be higher than previously reported for the Riata lead.


Majority of accidents experienced with railway transportation involve collision with automobiles or other vehicles and collision with other trains. These collisions can be averted by putting safety measures in place. Part of the measures can be achieved by using computerized railway station traffic control systems that use microcontrollers and electromechanical devices to shift traffic from one rail lane to another and also to operate the level crossing gate. The two major stages of the system being described here are thus the track switching stage and the level crossing gate stage.  The system makes use of microcontrollers for decision making. The microcontrollers are programmed to detect signals from sensors and to output the processed signals to control electromagnetic devices through motor drivers. The codes for the microcontrollers were written in PIC Basic programming language and were debugged and compiled using Micro Code Studio Integrated Development Environment. The resultant Hex files were programmed into the memory of the microcontrollers with the aid of a universal programmer. Software simulation was carried out using the Proteus virtual system modeling software. A scaled down prototype of the system was built and tested. The prototype was able to execute all the decisions required to control the given railway station. A practical real life system would require the scaling up of the power required to drive the various motors; the logic of the system would however remain unchanged. The inclusion of the automated traffic control lighting system at the level crossing gate in the system eliminates the fatigue and tedium associated with a manually controlled traffic system. The computerized railway station traffic control system which helps in track switching and level crossing gate traffic control is capable of improving reliability, speed, operational safety and efficiency of the railway transportation system.


The growing diffusion of the distributed generation systems, due to the European and national legislations which impose the fossil fuel and greenhouse gas emissions reduction and the renewable sources exploitation, have led to an increase in the complexity of the existing energy networks. The main issue of the complex energy grids is their management, which consists in the resolution and optimization of the load allocation problem by minimizing the primary energy consumption and, thus, improving the overall efficiency. In this context, the aim of this paper is to develop and validate a nonlinear algorithm suitable for the resolution of the load allocation problem. In detail, the software combo, which has been developed by the University of Bologna, is based on a nonheuristic algorithm and allows to optimize a complex energy network—characterized by electrical, thermal, cooling and fuel fluxes—by evaluating all the possible combinations of solutions. The objective function of the software consists in the minimization of the total cost of energy production, including not only the variable costs, but also the costs related to the environmental impact of the energy systems. In this paper the mathematical model of the algorithm at the basis of the software combo is presented and described in detail. Furthermore, the software has been validated by its application to a case study and comparing the results with the ones obtained with a previously developed software based on a genetic algorithm (heuristic nonlinear method).


Lee and colleagues (Improving the quality of care for infants: a cluster randomized controlled trial, Aug. 10 online) have presented an intriguing evaluation of 2 QI interventions in their NICUs. The pulmonary group implemented only 23% of their own selected potentially useful practices, but with good effect. The infection group showed no pulmonary change. Collection and presentation of the NI group's pulmonary practices would have enhanced the reader's ability to judge which of the implemented practices were associated with change. I would encourage the investigators to make these data available.


Abstract Linear disturbances associated with on- and off-road vehicle use on rangelands has increased dramatically throughout the world in recent decades. This increase is due to a variety of factors including increased availability of all-terrain vehicles, infrastructure development (oil, gas, renewable energy, and ex-urban), and recreational activities. In addition to the direct impacts of road development, the presence and use of roads may alter resilience of adjoining areas through indirect effects such as altered site hydrologic and eolian processes, invasive seed dispersal, and sediment transport. There are few standardized methods for assessing impacts of transportation-related land-use activities on soils and vegetation in arid and semi-arid rangelands. Interpreting Indicators of Rangeland Health (IIRH) is an internationally accepted qualitative assessment that is applied widely to rangelands. We tested the sensitivity of IIRH to impacts of roads, trails, and pipelines on adjacent lands by surveying plots at three distances from these linear disturbances. We performed tests at 16 randomly selected sites in each of three ecosystems (Northern High Plains, Colorado Plateau, and Chihuahuan Desert) for a total of 208 evaluation plots. We also evaluated the repeatability of IIRH when applied to road-related disturbance gradients. Finally, we tested extent of correlations between IIRH plot attribute departure classes and trends in a suite of quantitative indicators. Results indicated that the IIRH technique is sensitive to direct and indirect impacts of transportation activities with greater departure from reference condition near disturbances than far from disturbances. Trends in degradation of ecological processes detected with qualitative assessments were highly correlated with quantitative data. Qualitative and quantitative assessments employed in this study can be used to assess impacts of transportation features at the plot scale. Through integration with remote sensing technologies, these methods could also potentially be used to assess cumulative impacts of transportation networks at the landscape scale.


Genomic deletions induced by imprecise excision of transposons have been used to disrupt gene functions in Drosophila. To determine the excision properties of Tol2, a popular transposon in zebrafish, we took advantage of two transgenic zebrafish lines Et(gata2a:EGFP)pku684 and Et(gata2a:EGFP)pku760, and mobilized the transposon by injecting transposase mRNA into homozygous transgenic embryos. Footprint analysis showed that the Tol2 transposons were excised in either a precise or an imprecise manner. Furthermore, we identified 1093-bp and 1253-bp genomic deletions in Et(gata2a:EGFP)pku684 founder embryos flanking the 5′ end of the original Tol2 insertion site, and a 1340-bp deletion in the Et(gata2a:EGFP)pku760 founder embryos flanking the 3′ end of the insertion site. The mosaic Et(gata2a:EGFP)pku684 embryos were raised to adulthood and screened for germline transmission of Tol2 excision in their F1 progeny. On average, ∼42% of the F1 embryos displayed loss or altered EGFP patterns, demonstrating that this transposon could be efficiently excised from the zebrafish genome in the germline. Furthermore, from 59 founders, we identified one that transmitted the 1093-bp genomic deletion to its offspring. These results suggest that imprecise Tol2 transposon excision can be used as an alternative strategy to achieve gene targeting in zebrafish.


We examine the major technical problems that students experience in authentic scientific inquiry and propose an Arduino-based device, adapting the Internet of Things technology, which is designed for the school science in order to solve those technical problems. Three major technical problems as follows: First, it is difficult to have a variety of measuring tools which may satisfy the needs of students. Second, it is hard to equip students with tools befitting the complex inquiry procedures which students develop on their own. Lastly, there exists a problem in which a particular group(s) of students take advantage of their competence in technology and have a monopoly in the process of data analysis. Physical computing and the IoT technology can provide solutions to these problems. Development boards like Arduino and Raspberry Pi can be purchased at affordable prices, which allows for measuring devices to be made at low cost by connecting sensors to those boards. Utilizing these development boards may also lead to the possibility to optimize measuring methods or procedures for inquiries of each student. By transmitting the measured data to the IoT Platform, students can have an equal access to the data and analyze it easily. We also investigate technologies used in IoT-applied physical computing including development boards, IoT platforms, and telecommunications technologies. Lastly, as an example of inquiry that adapts physical computing and IoT, we introduce the case of transferring data, measured by a temperature/humidity sensor connected to a development board, to the IoT Platform and visualizing them.


HLA-based collaborative simulation is an effective way to integrate different disciplinary models together for the design and development of complex product. In this paper, the HLA-enabling method based on HLA agent model is proposed to make models created through commercial software compatible with HLA standard. Next, a prototype system for forging manipulator system based on such HLA-enabling method is developed accordingly, where an approach of developing ABAQUS engine agent is proposed, which solves the difficulty of wrapping ABAQUS software. Finally, a case study on forging and manipulating process is conducted and verifies the high fidelity and effectiveness of our collaborative simulation technology.


The study makes use of theories of emotions to describe and analyze interviewsconducted with eight students who had recently taken part in, or were at the moment,taking part in a doctoral education at the Faculties of Humanities or Social Science atStockholm University. This study is thus a qualitative study focusing on the followingresearch questions: Firstly, how does the Ph.D education influence the studentemotionally. Secondly: do the participants in the doctoral education experienceemotionally intense situations related to contexts interpretable in terms of rites ofpassage. Thirdly: can the student, looking back, rate how the education met theexpectations the student had beforehand.Results regarding the first research question point to that the education as such – astime goes – becomes a part of the student.Results regarding the second research question indicate that doctoral educationmostly, with exceptions, is looked upon as a steady trot towards the dissertation, duringwhich you are made as a researcher.Results regarding the third research question indicate that many of the students hadvery vague ideas of what the the education would be like and thus; they had no clearpicture to measure their education against.


Salmonella is a zoonotic disease that is transmitted from animal products by contact with sick animals or the environments where these animals are living. The mathematical model of transmission disease improve the students' understanding of pathogen dynamics, the role of factors that influence the transmission and control of a specific pathogen and the trend of antimicrobial resistance for this pathogen. The tendency to increase of resistance of Salmonella to antibiotic and combination of antibiotics suggest that models are useful in simulation of different scenarios for dynamic of transmission of this disease. There are two main Salmonella types: Typhimurium serotype and Enteritidis serotype. Both types are included in the software toolbox in a tutorial and interactive manners. The three models of Salmonella compartmental are presented in friendly manner to user with possibility to automatically generation of system equations using built-in templates. Tools that calculate the R0 number and stability analysis are provided as modules in order to evaluate how the experimental data are fit to model or to evaluate the influence of constant coefficients over mathematical model. Because Salmonella typhi bacteria is responsible for a communicable disease, Typhoid fever, an optional module is append to main software in order to give to student the possibility to improve the knowledge with mathematical model of this disease as direct result of a particular bacteria from a larger group of bacteria. The educational software has a friendly GUI (Graphic User Interface) that help student to understand better the dynamic of a specific pathogen modeled by class of larger mathematical models, the compartmental models.


Background Contrast enema (CE) in Hirschsprung's disease (HD) provides a road map to surgeons by ascertaining the transition zone (TZ) and helps in pre-surgical planning. In our institute, we use CE as the initial investigation for HD and carry on till the whole colon is fully distended, followed by a 24-hour abdominal film which is also a part of the international protocol. The main aim of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of this 24-hour delayed film in detecting HD, compare it with gold-standard biopsy results, and to evaluate other imaging features of contrast enema for diagnosis of HD in our tertiary-care hospital in Pakistan. Methods This retrospective study was conducted at the Department of Radiology, Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi. Records of pediatric patients referred for radiological evaluation of symptoms and signs suspicious of HD during the years 2007-2017 were reviewed. A delayed film was labeled positive if the contrast was not completely evacuated when the residual contrast was present till transverse colon and not beyond. Specificity and sensitivity along with positive and negative predictive values were calculated for each finding according to rectal biopsy, taken as the gold standard. Results In all, 82 patients met the inclusion criteria out of 111 cases, as they had both biopsy results and delayed 24-hour films. HD was confirmed using rectal biopsy in 56 (43 patients were males and 13 were females) of 82 cases. The most sensitive radiological finding was the transition zone with a sensitivity of 91.07%. The rectosigmoid index was the second most common finding on contrast enema with a sensitivity and specificity of 91.07% and 83.93%, respectively. In all, 59% patients had a positive delayed 24-hour film and were confirmed with having HD on biopsy. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive predictive value of delay in contrast evacuation after 24 hours in our study was 81.25%, 90.91%, and 97.50% respectively. Conclusion Contrast enema examinations along with the 24-hour delayed film with mid transverse colon cut-off are optimal for initially investigating HD in a developing nation, and our results show that it correlates well with biopsy. However, rectal biopsy still remains the gold standard for diagnosis.


The localization and organization of actin-like microfilaments in normal, SV-40 and adenovirus transformed cells are determined by the coordinated use of light optical, electron optical and biochemical techniques. In adenovirus-type 5 transformed hamster embryo cells, microfilament meshworks appear to be the predominant organizational form of cellular action, while in normal hamster cells, microfilament bundles are prevalent. Differences between 3T3 and SV-40 transformed 3T3 cells are less apparent and may be related to the packing and intracellular distribution of microfilament bundles. Attempts at relating these ultrastructural changes in transformed cells to the images obtained following reaction with fluorescein-labelled myosin fragments and indirect immunofluorescence with smooth muscle myosin antibody are discussed. In several instances the fluorescence microscope images to not correspond to the ultrastructural observations. The results are discussed in terms of the possible relationships between alterations in cytoplasmic contractile elements and the abnormal behavior of transformed cells.


This letter presents a method for estimating the quantization noise introduced by a nonuniform quantizer, like those used in the family of MPEG-2/4 AAC audio coders. The method is generalized for the case of estimating the mean squared or the maximum value of the quantization noise. Its use will allow the bit-allocation algorithm to be adapted to different coding scenarios, depending on the available number of bits. Using the proposed method, it is possible to implement a loopless bit-allocation algorithm, without the need for using any kind of iteration loops. This helps to dramatically reduce the computational complexity of the bit-allocation algorithm, making it easier to implement in real-time applications where computational power is limited.


A novel 3D BiFeWOx/Bi2WO6 (BFW/BWO) composite has been synthesized via a facile one-pot hydrothermal process. A tight chemically bonded interface between the BFW and BWO could be constructed by this simple and environmentally benign method. The composite structures and chemical properties were investigated by XRD, FE-SEM, HR-TEM and EDS. The photocatalytic performances of the as-synthesized materials were assessed by photocatalytic oxidation (PCO) of NO under visible light illumination. The optimum BFW/BWO-1 composite exhibited 87% PCO efficiency, which was higher than that of the single phase BWO and BFW. The enhancement of the photocatalytic activity of the BFW/BWO-1 composite was ascribed to the effective separation and reduced recombination rate of the photoinduced charge carriers, evinced by transient photocurrent, EIS and PL measurements. The radical trapping experiment and DMPO spin-trapping ESR measurement revealed that H+ and ˙OH were the important active species. The tests for stability and recyclability revealed that the BFW/BWO-1 composite could be a desired photocatalyst for the oxidation of NO in the ecosystem. The kinetics and possible mechanism for the PCO of NO on the BFW/BWO-1 composites were discussed.


The global distribution and climatology of ice clouds are among the main uncertainties in climate modelling and prediction. In order to retrieve ice cloud properties from remote sensing measurements, the scattering properties of all cloud ice particle types must be known. The Discrete Dipole Approximation (DDA) simulates scattering of radiation by arbitrarily shaped particles and is thus suitable for cloud ice crystals. The DDA models the particle as a collection of equal dipoles on a lattice, and is computationally much more expensive than approximations restricted to more regularly shaped particles. On a single computer the calculation for an ice particle of a specific size, for a given scattering plane at one specific wavelength can take several days. We have ported the core routines of the scattering suite "Amsterdam DDA" (ADDA) to the Open Computing Language (OpenCL), a framework for programming parallel devices like PC graphics cards (Graphics Processing Units, GPUs) or multicore CPUs. In a typical case we can achieve a speed-up on a GPU as compared to a CPU by a factor of 5 in double precision and a factor of 15 in single precision. Spreading the work load over multiple GPUs will allow calculating the scattering properties even of large cloud ice particles.


Especially for the new Fall 2013 class! This guide should help you acclimate quickly and effectively as you begin your studies at Sierra Nevada College! Welcome and remember, We're here for you!


Damping the oscillations of the wind energy conversion system of a grid connected Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) is the main objective in this article. PID controller is commonly used in many industrial process, but its parameter tuning is a challenging task. The PID parameters values are not optimally adjusted by conventional methods being used such as frequency response. Such that, a new algorithm is used which is hybrid Differential Evolution with Linearized Biogeography-Based optimization (LBBO-DE). Linearized-Biogeography Based optimization (LBBO) is a new version of Biogeography-Based optimization (BBO). Cauchy and Gaussian mutation operators are proposed to modify the mutation equation. The algorithm LBBO-DE with the proposed mutation operators had been tested with 53 benchmarks and then compared with the 40 algorithms that have been accepted for 2005 and 2011 Congress on Evolutionary Computation (CEC). The proposed algorithm achieved advanced rank between them and gave better results and lower variance, which proved to have competitive performance with state-of-the-art evolutionary algorithms. A simulation model is used to show the oscillation damping in case of symmetrical and asymmetrical fault occurrence at the grid connected to WECS-DFIG. As a result, the LBBO-DE with Gaussian mutation equation is used to optimize the controller parameters for achieving oscillations damping. The simulation results of direct-drive PMSG model is also used for the oscillations damping purpose under the case of wind speed variation, which is done by the LBBO-DE.