Traditional downlink power control methods for code-division multiple-access (CDMA) cellular systems allocate individual power levels to the different users of a given cell according to their relative needs, while assuming the amount of total power transmitted by each base to be constant. If this amount is not controlled, it is impossible to reduce unnecessary interference and, as a result, to achieve an optimal power control performance. In this paper, we address rather a simple convergent algorithm for adjusting the total power as well as allocating it for each user. The objective of this algorithm is to allocate the available power of each base to as many mobiles as possible that can enjoy sufficient transmission quality. In the appendix, we also provide an extended version of the algorithm, which relaxes an ideal assumption on soft handoff pertaining to existing works. Numerical results show that the proposed algorithm can be an alternative for CDMA downlink power control.


A cosmologically significant population of very luminous high-redshift galaxies has recently been discovered at submillimeter (submm) wavelengths. Advances in submm detector technologies have opened this new window on the distant Universe. Here we discuss the properties of the high-redshift submm galaxies, their significance for our understanding of the process of galaxy formation, and the selection effects that apply to deep submm surveys. The submm galaxies generate a significant fraction of the energy output of all the galaxies in the early Universe. We emphasize the importance of studying a complete sample of submm galaxies, and stress that because they are typically very faint in other wavebands, these follow-up observations are very challenging. Finally, we discuss the surveys that will be made using the next generation of submm-wave instruments under development.


It is my position that those wishing to prevent genocide are not the only ones studying it. A clear understanding of how genocides are initiated and carried out also helps regimes recognize when genocide is a viable option, and offers functional insight into how to initiate it. In this investigation I examine how and what genocidal leaders learn from other genocides. It is my contention that the information gathered by leaders from other genocides is utilized for the planning and preparation of genocide in their society. This investigation focuses on how the genocide of Armenians in 1915 informed the planning and preparation for the Holocaust, and how both the Armenian genocide and the Holocaust informed the leaders of the Rwandan genocide. This paper considers genocide by focusing on the outside factors that determine the environment in which genocide develops. I examine the interconnection of genocide within the context of politics, media and propaganda, third party actors, and law using a historical institutionalist lens. This investigation will utilize the theoretical framework of social learning theory to examine data. Genocide, even when perfectly contained is a threat to international peace and security because one genocide sets the stage for the next. The international community has often responded to genocide ineffectively. My goal is to identify some of the actions and omissions of the international community that may encourage a favourable environment for genocide. I intend to achieve this using a case study approach with a qualitative methodology. A clearer understanding of the role of the social learning process of the genocide leaders in past genocides will provide a framework for recommending future actions, and offer a better understanding of how the world can respond prior to, and in the aftermath of, genocide in order to prevent future genocides.


Rarely has a resolution by the European Union heads of state and government been criticised from such diverse perspectives and positions of vested interest as the EU's agreements with the Turkish government of 29th November 2015 regarding the alleviation of the refugee crisis. Eastern European states, human rights organisations, a European public critical of Turkey and Turkish intellectuals are united in their skeptical rejection of Brussels' policies. They take the view that the EU's financial and political concessions to Turkey have overstepped the mark. By contrast, the situation in Turkey has barely played any part in the discussion to date. Little interest has been shown in the financial means at Turkey's disposal in order to fulfil these tasks, in the political cost which would arise for the government as a result of steps taken in the above-mentioned direction and in the major upheaval in Turkish asylum and aliens policy which is inevitably associated with the agreements. Also lacking is speculation on why Turkey is prepared to cooperate with the European Union at all, how it could have been persuaded to participate in such a collaboration initially and on which mutual objectives and interests a cooperation of this nature could be based.


Background: Groundwater pollution is becoming more and more important and concerns about its use for food represent a health hazard [1].In view of this degradation of the quality of these waters, we proposed to conduct a study to evaluate the physico-chemical quality of the waters of twenty-one representative wells located in the Sidi Taibi region. The latter is known for its important agricultural potential exploiting these underground waters of the Maâmora aquifer. Objectives: The objective of this study was to evaluate the physical and chemical quality of groundwater including twenty-one representative wells in the rural commune of Sidi Taibi (province of Kénitra) during a sampling campaign in 2015. Methods: The physical parameters, in situ and laboratory measurements allowed to characterize the groundwater enveloping Sidi Taibi. SO, facts of pH, temperature, electrical conductivity by integrated mobile hardware measurements and analysis of non-type HANNA pH-meter (HI98150) thermometer and connectivity (HI9033), so that the parameters of other analyzes were carried out within the Radiation Laboratory of the National Center for Energy, Nuclear Measurement Science and Technology. The statistical analysis of the results obtained is based on the comparison of the averages of the various parameters measured. We used maxima and minima to evaluate changes in these parameters for selected sites and for well-defined periods. We also carried out a principal component analysis of the different values obtained through the XLStat software (2014), in order to highlight the possible relationships between the evolution of the parameters. Results: The results obtained show that most of the physicochemical parameters involved in determining the quality of these waters comply with the standards of Morocco [2]and those of the WHO [3]. However, we obtained non-conformance values for ammonium analysis, complete alkalimetric titer and turbidity. These parameters can be considered as indicators of the degree of pollution of this groundwater originating from the domestic and agricultural activities of the population of the region. Conclusions: In the light of these results, as well as those described above, we advocate continuous monitoring of the parameters studied for wells with abnormal values, in particular P16, until the competent authorities connect the villages Region of Sidi Taibi to the drinking water network and the sewerage network. Also, a campaign to sensitize the population on the basic means and techniques of treatment of water intended for human consumption.


Surface seawater samples collected from the North Sea and English Channel were analyzed for total 129I and 127I, as well as for iodide and iodate. Relatively high 129I concentrations (2-3 x 10(11) atoms/L) were observed in the northern part of the English Channel and in the southeastern North Sea. The atomic ratio of 129I/127I decreases from the eastern (1.0-1.9 x 10(-6)) to the western (4-6 x 10(-8)) parts of the North Sea and from the northeastern (1.5 x 10(-6)) to southwestern (1-5 x 10(-8)) parts of the English Channel. The ratios of iodide to iodate are 0.1-0.5 and 0.5-1.6 for 127I and 129I, respectively, in open seawaters, whereas these ratios range from 0.6 to 1.3 and 0.8 to 2.2, respectively, in coastal waters. The results suggest that (1) imprints of the La Hague facility dominates the 129I distribution in the surface water of the North Sea, (2) reduction of iodate to iodide is relatively fast during the transport to the European continental coast, (3) oxidation of newly produced 129I- to (129)IO3- is insignificant during water exchange between the coastal area and open sea, (4) reduction of iodate and oxidation of iodide in the open sea seems to be a slow process.


Reinforced concrete silos and bunkers are commonly used structures for large storage of different materials. These structures are highly vulnerable when subjected to intense seismic forces. Available guidelines for analysis and design of these structures require special design skills and code procedures.

 The current study is aimed to elaborate the design procedures from different sources to a unified method, which can be applied to a larger class of reinforced concrete silos. In this study, analysis and design procedures are summarized and presented in a simplified form to make sure the efficient practical design applications of reinforced concrete silos.

 Four different cases of silo design based on the type and weight of stored material were considered for the study. For each case, the silo was designed using given design procedure and modeled using FEM-based computer package. All of the reinforced concrete silos were subjected to gravity, wind and seismic forces.

 After performing the analysis and design of different silos, the bending moment, shear force and axial forces profiles were given for a sample silo. The results obtained from the proposed design procedure were compared with FEM values for different components of silos such as slab, wall and hopper.

 The comparison of tangential and longitudinal forces, bending moments, shear forces and reinforcement ratios of different parts of silos have shown a fair agreement with the FEM model results. It motivates to use the proposed design procedure for an efficient design of reinforced concrete silos.


Sexually selected traits are shaped by an interaction between sexual selection and other natural selection pressures in the environment. However, there is little understanding of how recent anthropogenic environmental change affects the elaboration of sexually selected traits. Most sexually selected traits are complex displays comprising multiple components that interact in a functional way, thereby affecting overall trait expression. To understand how environmental change may shape the expression of sexually selected traits, we have to consider not only (i) the phenotypic plasticity of individual components of traits but also their (ii) phenotypic integration, that is, the correlations among trait components, as well as (iii) plasticity integration, that is, the correlations among the plasticities of trait components. Here, we show that background noise is a considerable pressure in shaping a sexually selected multicomponent acoustic signal, bird song. We compared singing behavior of European robins (Erithacus rubecula) in territories that differed in levels of anthropogenic noise and conducted noise-exposure experiments to test if behavioral plasticity caused immediate changes in song components, for example, minimum frequency, song complexity, and song length. We found that song components differed in their plasticity to background noise and that plasticity integration between components may further restrict the elaboration of song. Thus, the altered expression of song components under noise exposure leads to increased phenotypic integration, which is linked with reduced song complexity. Our findings demonstrate that plasticity integration restricts the elaboration of a sexually selected trait, which raises the question of how changing environments may modify sexual selection.


Gastric vagally evoked extracellular unitary responses were recorded in the hypothalamus of anesthetized cats. The evoked unitary responses were localized in the paraventricular dorsomedial region, ventromedial nucleus, and lateral hypothalamus. The mean latency of the gastric vagally evoked hypothalamic neuronal responses in these three areas ranged from 368 +/- 39.8 to 371 +/- 45.2 (SD) ms. The majority (82%) of the gastric vagally evoked hypothalamic responses consisted of one to five spikes, while the remaining 18% were tonically active units. The vagal effect was inhibitory in 78% of the tonically active hypothalamic units responding to gastric vagal input. Convergence of gastric vagal input on single hypothalamic units from afferents in the dorsal and ventral vagal trunks was observed. Units were identified in the hypothalamus that responded to activation of mechanoreceptors in the proximal stomach by an intragastric balloon. This study provided new direct evidence of the density, localization, and characteristics of neuronal processing of gastric vagal input from the proximal stomach in the hypothalamus. The reciprocal connections between these areas of the hypothalamus and nucleus tractus solitarius in the caudal brain stem suggest that the hypothalamus may serve an important role in modulating the input of primary vagal afferent input from the proximal stomach.


The objective of this study was to compare adipocyte morphology and lipogenesis between breed types (Angus vs Brahman) in brown adipose tissue (BAT) and white adipose tissue (WAT) from newborn calves. The Brahman calves (n = 7) were born during the fall season, whereas the Angus calves were born in fall (n = 6) or the following spring (n = 4). At parturition, Brahman cows were lighter than fall Angus cows, but were heavier than spring Angus cows (P < .05). Birth weights and perirenal BAT weights were greater in spring-born, but not in fall-born Angus calves, than in Brahman calves (P < .05). Fall-born Angus BAT contained 63% more (P < .05) adipocytes/100 mg tissue and contained a greater proportion (P < .05) of adipocytes with mean diameters of 40 to 50 microm, and fewer adipocytes with diameters of 60 microm or greater, than Brahman BAT. Brahman BAT contained two-to-three times as many beta-receptors as Angus BAT (P < .05), although the dissociation constant (Kd) was not different between breed types. Mitochondria in Brahman BAT were primarily spherical, whereas Angus BAT mitochondria were elongated, and mitochondrial cross-sectional area tended (P = .08) to be greater in Brahman BAT than in Angus BAT. The mitochondrial uncoupling protein (UCP) mRNA concentration (per 10(6) cells) was greater in Brahman BAT than in BAT from fall-born Angus calves. Lipogenesis from acetate was greater in Angus BAT than in Brahman BAT (P < .05), and glucose and palmitate contributed a greater proportion of carbon to lipogenesis in Brahman BAT than in Angus BAT. These differences in lipogenesis between breed types were not observed in s.c. WAT. The WAT from both breed types contained adipocytes with distinct brown adipocyte morphology, suggesting an involution of BAT to WAT in utero. We conclude that differences in UCP gene expression cannot cause the greater peak thermogenesis of Angus calves; however, differences between breed types in lipid metabolism and(or) mitochondrial morphology may contribute to this phenomenon.


Bacterial biofilms, formed on biotic or abiotic surfaces, can lead to serious environmental or medical problems. Therefore, it is necessary to find novel antimicrobial agents to combat biofilms, or more effective combinations of existing biocides. In this study, initial biofilms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 9027 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538 in the presence of xylitol or xylitol and isothiazolones were determined using crystal violet staining in 96-well microplates and confocal laser scanning microscopy. Xylitol and isothiazolones exhibited enhanced synergistic inhibition of initial biofilm formation, and also the structure and production of extracellular polymeric substances by P. aeruginosa ATCC 9027 and S. aureus ATCC 6538 in a dose-dependent manner. In addition, xylitol and isothiazolones inhibited and restored the swimming motility of P. aeruginosa ATCC 9027, respectively. These findings show that a combination of xylitol and isothiazolones exerts pronounced antimicrobial activity against P. aeruginosa and S. aureus biofilms and may be applicable for preventing or reducing bacterial biofilms in vitro.


Stent malapposition (SM), also referred to as incomplete stent apposition, is defined by the separation of at least one stent strut from the intimal surface of the arterial wall with evidence of blood behind the strut, without involvement of side branches.1 SM can be quantified by measuring the number of malapposed struts, the arc subtended by the malapposed struts, the distance between the malapposed struts and the vessel wall, and the area, length and volume of the gap between the stent and the vessel wall.w1 This phenomenon, commonly identified by intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) imaging studies, may be detected early, at the time of stent implantation (and classified as acute) or later, at follow-up (therefore classified as late). Late stent malapposition can be further classified, in terms of pathogenesis, into two broad categories: late persistent SM, when an inadequately apposed stent (during the initial intervention) remains incompletely apposed at follow-up; and the late acquired stent malapposition (LASM) when it is documented despite the appropriate apposition of the stent during the index procedure. The different types of stent malapposition are graphically explained in figure 1A,B. It is evident that differentiating between the two different forms of late SM requires intravascular imaging both at stent implantation and at follow-up.2

Figure 1
Various types of stent malapposition. Reproduced with permission from Hur et al. 2

LASM represents a well recognised problem in interventional cardiology that became more prominent in the era of drug eluting stents (DES) (reported incidence 10–25% compared to about 4–6% after bare metal stent (BMS) implantation, in native coronary arteries).3 ,4 w2 w3 Its clinical significance, that will …


Political and economic transitions have had substantial impacts on forest conservation. Where transitions are underway or anticipated, historical precedent and methods for systematically assessing future trends should be used to anticipate likely threats to forest conservation and design appropriate and prescient policy measures to counteract them. Myanmar is transitioning from an authoritarian, centralized state with a highly regulated economy to a more decentralized and economically liberal democracy and is working to end a long‐running civil war. With these transitions in mind, we used a horizon‐scanning approach to assess the 40 emerging issues most affecting Myanmar's forests, including internal conflict, land‐tenure insecurity, large‐scale agricultural development, demise of state timber enterprises, shortfalls in government revenue and capacity, and opening of new deforestation frontiers with new roads, mines, and hydroelectric dams. Averting these threats will require, for example, overhauling governance models, building capacity, improving infrastructure‐ and energy‐project planning, and reforming land‐tenure and environmental‐protection laws. Although challenges to conservation in Myanmar are daunting, the political transition offers an opportunity for conservationists and researchers to help shape a future that enhances Myanmar's social, economic, and environmental potential while learning and applying lessons from other countries. Our approach and results are relevant to other countries undergoing similar transitions.


Modeling human behavior requires vast quantities of accurately labeled training data, but for ubiquitous people-aware applications such data is rarely attainable. Even researchers make mistakes when labeling data, and consistent, reliable labels from low-commitment users are rare. In particular, users may give identical labels to activities with characteristically different signatures (e.g., labeling eating at home or at a restaurant as "dinner") or may give different labels to the same context (e.g., "work" vs. "office"). In this scenario, labels are unreliable but nonetheless contain valuable information for classification. To facilitate learning in such unconstrained labeling scenarios, we propose Community-Guided Learning (CGL), a framework that allows existing classifiers to learn robustly from unreliably-labeled user-submitted data. CGL exploits the underlying structure in the data and the unconstrained labels to intelligently group crowd-sourced data. We demonstrate how to use similarity measures to determine when and how to split and merge contributions from different labeled categories and present experimental results that demonstrate the effectiveness of our framework.


This study charts the terrain of research on writing during the 6-year period from 1999 to 2004, asking "What are current trends and foci in research on writing?" In examining a cross-section of writing research, the authors focus on four issues: (a) What are the general problems being investigated by contemporary writing researchers? Which of the various problems dominate recent writing research, and which are not as prominent? (b) What population age groups are prominent in recent writing research? (c) What is the relationship between population age groups and problems under investigation? and (d) What methodologies are being used in research on writing? Based on a body of refereed journal articles (n = 1,502) reporting studies about writing and composition instruction that were located using three databases, the authors characterize various lines of inquiry currently undertaken. Social context and writing practices, bi- or multi-lingualism and writing, and writing instruction are the most actively studied problems during this period, whereas writing and technologies, writing assessment and evaluation, and relationships among literacy modalities are the least studied problems. Undergraduate, adult, and other postsecondary populations are the most prominently studied population age group, whereas preschool-aged children and middle and high school students are least studied. Research on instruction within the preschool through 12th grade (P-12) age group is prominent, whereas research on genre, assessment, and bi- or multilingualism is scarce within this population. The majority of articles employ interpretive methods. This indicator of current writing research should be useful to researchers, policymakers, and funding agencies, as well as to writing teachers and teacher educators.


: In the last few years, a large number of studies on mortality in patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) have been published. All these studies aim to provide knowledge with the ultimate aim of reducing the increasing number of deaths. However, these studies also introduce subtle methodological factors that should be known to correctly interpret the data. The present study aims to review and update the information provided by studies of mortality in COPD by evaluating their possible clinical impact and reviewing some methodological features that, to a greater or lesser extent, influence their interpretation. In particular, studies on the specific cause of death, those analyzing prognostic factors and, lastly, those on pharmacological interventions are reviewed, with special attention paid to the controversy aroused by the publication of the most recent clinical trials.


This paper investigates the effects of stock market wealth on consumer spending. Traditional macroeconometric models estimate that a dollar's increase in stock market wealth boosts consumer spending by 3-7 cents per year. With the substantial 1990s rise in stock prices, the nature and magnitude of this "wealth effect" have been much debated. After describing the issues and reviewing previous research, I present new evidence from the SRC Surveys of Consumers. The survey results are broadly consistent with lifecycle saving and a modest wealth effect: Most stockholders reported no appreciable effect of stock prices on their saving or spending, but many mentioned "retirement saving" in explaining their behavior.


The purpose of the work is to provide an experimental benchmark on the seismic behavior of tunnels, with the final aim of calibrating numerical and analytical design methods. A series of plane-strain centrifuge tests with dynamic loading on a model tunnel was, therefore, carried out at the Schofield Centre of the Cambridge University Engineering Department (CUED). Four samples of dry uniform fine sand were prepared at two different densities, in which an aluminum-alloy tube was installed at two different depths. The tube was instrumented with strain gauges to measure hoop forces and bending moments at significant locations. To monitor the amplification of ground motion from the base to the surface, vertical arrays of accelerometers were placed in the soil model and along the box. The instrumentation also included linear variable differential transformers (LVDTs) that measured the soil surface settlement during all test phases. The test procedure and the results are described in this paper, showing the evolution of both accelerations and internal forces along the tunnel lining during the model earthquakes.


In this thesis, the novelty of using machine learning to identify the low-RMSD structures in decoy discrimination in protein tertiary structure prediction is investigated. More specifically, neural networks are used to learn to recognize low-RMSD structures, using native protein structures as positive training examples, and simulated decoy structures as negative training examples. Simulated decoy structures are derived by reversing the sequences of native structures in the set of positive training examples, and threading the reversed sequences back to the native structures. Various input features, extracted from these native and simulated decoy structures, are used as inputs to the neural networks. These input features are the identities of residue pairs, the separation between the residues along the sequence, the pairwise distance and the relative solvent accessibilities of the residues. Various neural networks are created depending on the amount of input features used. The neural networks are tested against the in-house pairwise potentials of mean force method, as well as against a K-Nearest Neighbours algorithm. The second novel idea of this thesis is to use evolutionary information in the decoy discrimination process. Evolutionary information, in the form of PSI-BLAST profiles, is used as inputs to the neural networks. Results have shown that the best performing neural network is the one that uses in put information comprising of PSI-BLAST profiles of residue pairs, pairwise distance and the relative solvent accessibilities of the residues. This neural network is the best among all methods tested, including the pairwise potentials method, in discriminating the native structures. Therefore this thesis has demonstrated the feasibility of using machine learning, more specifically neural networks, in the problem of decoy discrimination. More significantly, evolutionary information in the form of PSI-BLAST profiles has been success fully used to further improve decoy discrimination, particularly in the discrimination of native structures.


The charge dynamics of the spin ladder compound Sr14-xCaxCu24O41 with x=0,6,13.6 has been investigated using wavelength- and temperature-dependent phonon Raman scattering on single crystals. In the unsubstituted, x=0, compound, a set of sharp two-phonon lines shows a strong increase in intensity below T similar to 200 K for light polarized along the ladder layer and with excitation energy close to the charge transfer gap similar to 1.9 eV. The temperature dependence of the strongly enhanced two-phonon bands below 200 K closely follows the recently reported formation of a standing charge density wave in the ladders [P. Abbamonte , Nature 431, 1078 (2004)]. Upon calcium substitution the polarized resonant Raman response rapidly decreases, signaling an increase of hole mobility in the ladder units. Temperature-dependent measurements of the x=13.6 sample indicate mobility of holes down to < 8 K.


Gastrointestinal distress, such as diarrhoea, cramping, vomiting, nausea and gastric pain are common among athletes during training and competition. The mechanisms that cause these symptoms are not fully understood. The stress of heat and oxidative damage during exercise causes disruption to intestinal epithelial cell tight junction proteins resulting in increased permeability to luminal endotoxins. The endotoxin moves into the blood stream leading to a systemic immune response. Tight junction integrity is altered by the phosphoylation state of the proteins occludin and claudins, and may be regulated by the type of exercise performed. Prolonged exercise and high-intensity exercise lead to an increase in key phosphorylation enzymes that ultimately cause tight junction dysfunction, but the mechanisms are different. The purpose of this review is to (1) explain the function and physiology of tight junction regulation, (2) discuss the effects of prolonged and high-intensity exercise on tight junction permeability leading to gastrointestinal distress and (3) review agents that may increase or decrease tight junction integrity during exercise.


The hemiparasite Rhinanthus minor is a common component of many northern temperate grasslands. It can have major impacts on ecosystem processes, and is often present at very high densities, therefore constituting an important potential food source for invertebrate herbivores. Thus, the aim of this thesis is to investigate the interaction between this hemiparasite and its invertebrate herbivores, and to explore the various ecological factors which are likely to affect this interaction.

In the first series of experiments the thesis explores how the density of the hemiparasite affects the composition of the vegetation, the performance of the hemiparasite and the levels of invertebrate herbivore damage it receives. The results of a field experiment and a greenhouse study demonstrated that hemiparasite density can adversely affect its own performance and survivorship and dramatically change the composition of the vegetation, but surprisingly appeared to have no impacts on the levels of herbivore damage the hemiparasite receives.

The second series of experiments investigated the impacts if host identity on the performance of the hemiparasite and how this affects its invertebrate herbivores. The results demonstrated that host identity can have a major impact on the performance of the hemiparasite and its herbivores; however, the indirect effects on the invertebrates appear to be species specific.

Thirdly, the thesis examines the effects of multiple host plants on the performance of R. minor and the knock-on effects for its invertebrate herbivores. Experiments
demonstrated that multiple hosts are beneficial to R. minor, and that the antiherbivore defensive properties conferred to the hemiparasite by certain host plants
are maintained in the presence of a second host species.

Finally, the impact of nutrient addition and host plant damage on the performance of the hemiparasite and on the performance of its invertebrate herbivores was examined. The experiments showed that while certain host plants have highly contrasting effects on the performance of the hemiparasite"s herbivores, the addition of nutrients and impact of host plant damage largely remove these differences, while neither factor appeared to affect the performance of the hemiparasite.


When young children see others fail to achieve a goal, they spontaneously help. But there are many reasons why someone might fail, and consequently, many ways to help. In order to help effectively, we need to understand why someone is failing, so we can address the cause. One important distinction is whether the failure is due to the agent's own actions or something external to her in the world. Here we show that 24to 48-month-olds can use their past experience to reason about the probable cause of another person's failure and provide help appropriate for that cause. Children's help targeted the world when their prior knowledge suggested that the source of failure was external to the agent, and targeted the person's actions when this source appeared to be internal to the agent.


Based on the structural bionic method, the rotary worktable of vertical lathe was optimized. Through fuzzy similarity analysis, the similarity of the bionic prototype and the rotary worktable was obtained, and the rationality of the bionic prototype was verified. According to the bionic prototype, the optimization model was established. Then it was transferred into the Workbench of the ANSYS to be analysed by the finite elements method. Comparing with the prototype, the results indicate that the bionic worktable's mass reduces 280kg, and the deformation reduced 4.7%. The first five natural frequencies of bionic worktable increased. The results show that the bionic rotary worktable is more reasonable. It offers a new solution to optimize the rotary worktable of various vertical lathes.


Symposium Transsonicum. Edited by Klaus Oswatitsch. Springer-Verlag, Berlin. 1964. 490 pp. DM96. This book consists of the papers presented at the Symposium Transsonicum, which was sponsored by International Union of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics and held at Aachen in September 1962. Those parts of the discussion that were received as written contribution are also included. Most of the papers are in English, with a few in French or German. There are contributions from many of the wellknown research workers in transonic flow, and the proceedings therefore provide an excellent and up-to-date review of transonic flow theory. It is not restricted to flows at about Mach 1, the papers by Garabedian and Kuchemann, for instance, consider the transonic region of hypersonic free stream flows. An overall impression is that, despite the evidence provided by this volume of the large effort that has been put into transonic flow studies, very little emerged of direct relevance to the aircraft design. Of the 30 papers presented at the symposium few make mention of a lifting wing and not many more consider even a non-lifting aerofoil section of the simplest kind. Thus many of the contributions describe exercises in mathematical or numerical analysis with little relevance to the physics of transonic flow. Of the new work presented that of Laitone considers the possibility of shock-free transonic flow about a convex surface and deduces that such isentropic flow is likely to be limited to M * = nj 2. This problem of the appearance of shock waves in transonic flows also arises in the work of Taylor and of Rotta. Taylor obtains a solution of the transonic flow equation through the use of a mass flow function that permits a discontinuity in the solution which can be interpreted as a shock wave on an aerofoil surface. In this paper, and in Rotta's, improved agreement with experiment is shown when an empirical (but mathematically unjustified) shock relation is used at the discontinuity rather than the classical normal shock equations. This general technique of obtaining useful transonic flow solutions through a combination of incomplete, but physically sensible, methods was further illustrated by Lock. His paper described experimental results on a wing/body combination designed to have shockfree wing flow at transonic speeds. The design method is a combination of two-dimensional aerofoil theory, linear theory and sonic theory. Although only partial success was achieved the results again suggest that a blend of mathematical theory and physical reasoning on which the design method is based


American Towns: An Interpretive History. By David J. Russo. (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee., 2001. Pp. Xv. 350. Illus., notes, bib., index. Cloth, $28.95.) Until the early twentieth century, most Americans lived in, or in the orbit of, small towns. Yet until recently the small town was largely ignored by historians, and despite studies of Dedham, Sugar Creek, Dodge City, and other towns, few have attempted to grasp their story as a whole. Richard Lingeman's Small Town America: A Narrative History 1620-The Present, is a rare exception, weak in its treatment of government and now dated, while old standards by Lewis Atherton and Page Smith are far from comprehensive. David J. Russo has pulled together most if not all the strands in this synthetic account, describing the lives of ordinary townspeople and analyzing what made towns unique. Russo, author of (among other things) a study of nineteenth-century local history writing, has mined a wide range of sources, including studies of company towns, utopian towns, and a selection of autobiographies. Thematic chapters move from brief discussions of Native American settlements to the present, centered on the seventeenth through nineteenth centuries, before the town had ceased to be the primary community for a mainly rural population. (xiii) Smallness brought intimacy to small town politics and governance, but suffrage, social structure, and state laws make this subject complex. Political structures ranged from company-run mining and factory towns to New England's participatory, relatively democratic towns. Often, towns were part of large, rural-dominated local governments, and town and hinterland did not always see eye to eye. During the nineteenth century, local governments in towns began providing urban-like services, employing paid officials. Unfortunately, Russo neglects to discuss "local" postmasters, attacked by Robert LaFollette and other reformers as mainstays of statewide machines. The Great Depression marked a turning point, after which state and federal governments dictated more and more of the local government agenda. Most towns have served as agricultural service centers, but an important minority were the earliest homes of water-based industries, and Russo argues that "the birthplace of modern industry was the town, not the city. " (137) Russo focuses here on factories rather than proto-industrialization, but the argument might be expanded to the putting-out system radiating to small towns from early nineteenth-century Lynn. Russo analyzes subsequent transformations both in the industrial roles of towns and in occupational structure. Aside from utopian establishments, the least hierarchical of towns were those providing services for farmers little connected to the market; commercialization brought steeper stratification. Where plantations, lumber, or mining dominated the local economy, social cleavages were much greater, and racial divisions largely cut across the town/ city boundary. Noting the geographic mobility of the unskilled, and broad land ownership in non-plantation agricultural areas, Russo argues class divisions were far less acute than in big cities. …


Introduction
 In recent years, CAR T-cell therapy has emerged as a potentially curative intent treatment for some patients with relapsed, refractory hematologic malignancies. Despite the exciting results, not all patients are able to receive CAR T-cells due to manufacturing failures. T-cells for CAR products are typically autologous and isolated from heavily pre-treated patients, which might account for some of the manufacturing failures and suboptimal clinical efficacy. T-cells collected either early into cancer diagnosis or prior to diagnosis may improve CAR T-cell expansion and limit manufacturing failure. We evaluated the feasibility of generating a CAR T-cell product manufactured from 50 ml of healthy donor blood.
 Methods
 Collaborators at Cell Vault collected 50 ml of whole blood from 3 healthy donors, isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs), and cryopreserved the cells in cryovials at 5e6/vial (1.05-1.35e8 total cells). The vials were shipped to the Medical College of Wisconsin and stored frozen in liquid nitrogen until use. All PBMC vials for a given donor were thawed and pooled. Thawed PBMCs (0.93-1.17e8 cells) were loaded onto a CliniMACS Prodigy device, CD4 and CD8 T cells enriched by immunomagnetic sorting, and T cells placed in the culture chamber with IL-7, IL-15 and TransAct reagent to induce proliferation. On the second day of manufacturing, T cells were transduced with a lentiviral CAR vector encoding anti-CD19, 4-1BB and CD3z. Final CAR T-cell products for these pre-clinical studies were harvested on day 8 of manufacture.
 Results
 Starting enriched T-cell numbers from the 3 healthy donors ranged from 4.0-4.8e7 cells, the cells were 74-79% CD4/8+, and the average CD4/CD8 ratio was 1.4. On the day of CAR T harvest (day 8), total cells in the chamber had expanded to 3.6-4.6e9 cells (74-115 fold expansion), the cells were >99% CD3+, and the average CD4/CD8 ratio was 2.9 (Table 1). Final cell numbers were similar to what previously published CAR T manufacturing runs on the CliniMACS Prodigy (Zhu et al., Cytotherapy, 2018), that started with 1x108 enriched T-cells obtained from apheresed mononuclear cells. Cell surface CD19 CAR expression on the final cell products varied from 19.2-48.1%. While more than 50% of the starting T cells had a naïve (CD62L+ CD45RO-) phenotype, the final cell products contained greater than 80% central-memory (CD62L+ CD45RO+) T cells. Finally, the number of CD19 CAR T cells obtained from these pre-clinical manufacturing runs ranged from 7.82e8 to 2.21e9 cells.
 Conclusions
 50 ml of cryopreserved PBMCs was adequate to manufacture clinically relevant CAR T-cell therapy doses from healthy donors not previously exposed to chemotherapy. Sufficient numbers of CAR T-cells were obtained to dose an 80 kg individual with at least 9e6 cells/kg which is greater than prescribed commercial doses of CD19 CAR T-cells. Further studies are indicated to determine if T-cells collected prior to disease modifying chemotherapies result in an improved product. These results demonstrate feasibility for generating CAR T cells from small volumes of whole blood collected at a time point before a cancer patient has been treated with multiple lines of therapy that could negatively impact starting T cell numbers and function.

 Hari: GSK: Consultancy; Amgen: Consultancy; BMS: Consultancy; Takeda: Consultancy; Incyte Corporation: Consultancy; Janssen: Consultancy. Shah:TG Therapeutics: Consultancy; Celgene: Consultancy, Honoraria; Incyte: Consultancy; Kite Pharma: Consultancy, Honoraria; Cell Vault: Research Funding; Miltenyi Biotec: Honoraria, Research Funding; Lily: Consultancy, Honoraria; Verastim: Consultancy. Johnson:Miltenyi Biotec: Research Funding; Cell Vault: Research Funding.


A symmetrical optical system consists of a series of vertex to vertex intervals separating coaxial refracting or reflecting surfaces of revolution. This paper develops two types of matrices composed of constant elements, one representing intervals and the other surfaces. These matrices are multiplied together in the same order as the corresponding intervals and surfaces occur in the optical system. The resultant product matrix expresses the paraxial, aberrational and chromatic behavior of the system.Such a formulation may be applied mechanically by unskilled computers, and suggests a passive electrical network analogue to optical systems. The surfaces are not limited to spheres.


Storage has many benefits for power systems with a high share of renewable energy. It reduces renewable curtailment, can participate in ancillary services and contributes to system adequacy. However, its business model is far from clear since most of its revenues come from arbitrage in energy markets, and this is usually not enough to recover the investment. Advanced storage can facilitate the profitability of storage and ease the integration of renewables in power systems by reducing costs and allowing an enhanced performance. The profitability requirements of future advanced storage systems (batteries) are assessed in this paper by means of an optimization method and an uncertainty analysis for an optimal Iberian (Spain and Portugal) power system that meets the targets of their National Energy and Climate Plans. Results show that needed storage capacity is only a small part of the demanded energy, but technical advances are required for optimal performance. High prospective storage cost leads to a wind-dominated renewable mix, while low storage cost favours photovoltaics. Arbitrage with storage may cover its investment costs under carbon prices close to the actual Social Cost of Carbon.


Automatic guided vehicles (AGV) have made big inroads in the automation of assembly plants and warehouse operations. There are thousands of AGV units in operation at OEM supplier and service facilities worldwide in virtually every major manufacturing and distribution sector. Although today's AGV systems can be reconfigured and adapted to meet changes in operation and need, their adaptability is often limited because of inadequacies in current systems. This paper describes a wireless navigated (WN) omni-directional (OD) autonomous guided vehicle (AGV) that incorporates three technical innovations that address the shortfalls. The AGV features consist of: 1) A newly developed integrated wireless navigation technology to allow rapid rerouting of navigation pathways; 2) Omnidirectional wheels to move independently in different directions; 3) Modular space frame construction to conveniently resize and reshape the AGV platform. It includes an overview of the AGVs technical features and how the flexibility and agility can be adapted to fit military and commercial application. The AGV is being evaluated as a mobile work station platform and a precise material handling robot.


Dynamics modeling is of primal interest to track objects using particle filters. Even the choice of a well fitted noise parameter may lead to unsuccessful tracking when unexpected events arise, such as outliers, occultations, dynamics discontinuites… In this paper, we propose to introduce structural spatial information in particle filters. This information, expressed as spatial relations such as orientation or distance, is modeled in a fuzzy set framework, and is introduced in the dynamics in order to model the potential changes from one instant to the next one. The fuzzy modeling provides flexibility both in the semantics of the relations and in the transitions from one relation to another one. We show in our experiments that this kind of modeling is really adaptive to unexpected changes of dynamics, and outperforms classical filtering techniques while using only a small number of particles.


In recent years higher education in Poland has been facing serious problems. Due to the demographic fall, fewer and fewer students continue their education at universities. On the other hand, competition between institutions is quite large, because in Poland there are now 470 of them (including 132 public universities and 338 private ones), which is the largest number of higher education institutions in Europe.The decreasing number of students results in lowering the income from tuition fees, as well as a real reduction of state subsidies. At the same time labor costs, energy prices, the media, etc, are rising. Some of the universities with help from the EU have also invested in infrastructure, new buildings. Due to the smaller number of students, they remain unused, contributing to the worsening of the financial situation of many universities.However, the problem does not only concern educational buildings. Many universities, in particular public ones, have significant assets in Poland also for other use (commercial, service, residential, etc), which is not well exploited and managed as well.Undoubtedly, the asset management process involves making decisions regarding the formation of the rational structure of property, sources of financing, assessing the effectiveness of the use of individual assets and thus affects the economic situation of each university. Irrational management led to increase of operating cost, lowers budgetary incomes, disorganizes management process. The general aim of the study is to provide insight into the principles of asset management of universities in Poland on the example of a public university - University of Gdansk. Main problems faced by Polish universities will be presented in the field of asset management, asset management determinants of universities, as well as the attempt will be made to identify possible solutions to improve the efficiency of asset management universities in Poland. Developing the answers to the above stated problem can contribute to the competitiveness and greater efficiency of the universities in making real estate decisions that determine higher education institution investment and development. The contribution of the project to a new knowledge area is, therefore, not only of theoretical nature, but has scientific and applicability values in the first place. The experience of the Polish market also may support development of asset management universities in other countries.


Easy control on etched surface structures, either pillars or holes, in metal-assisted chemical etching (MaCE) of Si is presented. Starting with Ag mesh film with holes, which is generated by Ag evaporation in combination with a colloidal monolayer mask, the usual MaCE process has led to the vertical arrays of Si pillars. On the other hand, O2 reactive ion etching (RIE) on such Ag mesh film has led to sputtering and re-deposition of Ag on empty sites. During the following MaCE, the damaged Ag mesh spontaneously delaminates off the substrate and thus the etching with remaining Ag dot patterns results in holes array. Mechanistic studies of these etching behaviours have been performed and thus optimized, including the spontaneous mesh delamination. The obtained Si surfaces, either pillars or holes, were found to have comparable anti-reflection properties to other texturing approaches, which would be useful for photon management in applications such as photovoltaics, photoelectrochemical processes, etc.


This work was carried out to determine the potential applications of Corchorus olitorius and Hibiscus sabdariffa oil seeds by investigating their physicochemical and microbiological characteristics. Physicochemical parameters of the extracted oils were respectively as follow: refractive index (1.46 and 1.45), acid value (3.74 ± 1.62 and 2.80 mg KOH/g), peroxide value (6.67 ± 0.58 and 5.33 ± 0.60 meq O 2 /kg), iodine value (132.54 ± 1.22 and 118.57 ± 1.22 g I 2 /100 g), saponification value (183.63 ± 3.24 and 189.23 ± 1.62 mg KOH/g), unsaponifiable matter (0.88 ± 0.04 and 0.85 ± 0.05 %), vitamin A (0,45 ± 0.01 and 0.60 ± 0.01 mg/g), cholesterol (0.00 mg/g) for C. olitorius and H. sabdariffa respectively . Absorbances of the two oils decreased abruptly in the range of UV-B and UV-A wavelengths. C. olitorius and H. sabdariffa seeds showed relatively high content of linolenic acid (about 29 and 37% of total fatty acids) with extremely low n-6/n-3 ratio (0.26 and 0.46). Microbiological analysis revealed that the crude extracted oilseeds were pathogenic bacteria free and the lipolytic bacteria counted belonged to Micrococcus genus. All these interesting characteristics should arouse attention for the usage of these oilseeds in food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Key words : Corchorus olitorius, Hibiscus sabdariffa , seed oils characterization, linolenic acid, lipolytic bacteria.


The computational power and memory bandwidth of graphics processing units (GPUs) have turned them into attractive platforms for general-purpose applications at significant speed gains versus their CPU counterparts [1]. In addition, an increasing number of today's state-of-the-art supercomputers include commodity GPUs to bring us unprecedented levels of performance in terms of raw GFLOPS and GFLOPS/cost. In this paper, we provide an introduction to CUDA programming paradigm with an emphasis on simulations which can exploit SIMD parallelism and high memory bandwidth on GPUs. OpenCL is also briefly described as a recent standardization effort to set up an open standard API for general-purpose manycore architectures.


The toxic effect of killed and live Shigella sonnei cultures on normal mice and on mice, tolerant to Shigella O-antigen and to human erythrocytes of different blood groups (in the ABO system) was under study. The toxicity of shigellae, introduced intraperitoneally, has been found to depend on their viability, on their capacity for penetration into the blood, and on the split character of immunological tolerance to Shigella antigens.


To maintain the safety of well control operation, especially for the prevention of uncontrolled blowouts, early kick detection is extremely important in the drilling rigs. From very early stage of rig operation, a sudden increase in pit level has been interpreted as an effective kick signal detection mechanism. However, pit level fluctuates at different period of the operation, which may mask a kick. The objective of this project is to develop a method to determine the nature of active pit level variation anytime during the operation so that it would be possible to track down any kind of undesired behaviour of the pit level.To achieve the convictable objective, a traditional and fundamental method was employed to develop mathematical models for different circulation condition and generate pit level data from these models. Pump conditions and tripping are known to be most responsible factors for pit level fluctuation. Therefore, appropriate mathematical model has been developed for these processes. Later,the developed models are modified to take into account different factors concerned with the processes. All the developed models are coded into FORTRAN, which made it possible to generate effective and reliable pit level data for any kind of operation. Data generated from the above procedure are plotted using MATLAB for visual representation of the behaviour of the pit at a specific rig condition. The developed model has been compared with the ideal system in order to gain knowledge about the significance of different processes and factors that affect the pit level variation. Finally, mathematically generated data are compared with the real-time pit data in order to test the effectiveness and reliability of the models. It has been observed that the developed models can successfully determine the nature of fluctuation and predict the pit level behaviour in an average manner. However, the developed models are failed to generate 100% reliable data for different period of circulation. The possible reason for the failure might be the assumptions made to simply the models.Therefore, more work is needed to take into account different pit conditions and circumstances for establishing the best model that can accomplish the task of making the well control operation safer.


Public transportation is a vital part of urban living. For instance, public transportation services help reduce road congestion, oil consumption and air pollution, and they serve people who need to travel throughout urban environments at the same time do not have access to private vehicles. The latter aspect is an important matter of social justice. Therefore, it is important to understand why the interest in equity in transport is growing, why public transportation should favor the transport disadvantaged, and why analyses of equity measurement and improvement are needed. Measuring the level of access to public transportation among the transport disadvantaged provides a theoretical basis for analyzing potential improvements in access by adjusting public transportation facility locations. This research will focus on modeling approaches used in establishing public transportation infrastructure and systems. Using GIS and spatial optimization models, the level of access to public transportation in terms of equity will be evaluated and improvement of the level of access will be attempted by offering new service stop locations. To this end, using the Maximal Covering Location Problem (MCLP), the optimal locations of potential facilities to cover equity favoring originand destination-based demand are identified. This research finally provides a set of optimal service stop locations maximizing coverage of originand destination-based demand simultaneously through implementation of a bi-objective model, applied to the City of Hilliard, Ohio.


When a new user just signs up on a website, we usually have no information about him/her, i.e. no interaction with items, no user profile and no social links with other users. Under such circumstances, we still expect our recommender systems could attract the users at the first time so that the users decide to stay on the website and become active users. This problem falls into new user cold-start category and it is crucial to the development and even survival of a company. Existing works on user cold-start recommendation either require additional user efforts, e.g. setting up an interview process, or make use of side information [10] such as user demographics, locations, social relations, etc. However, users may not be willing to take the interview and side information on cold-start users is usually not available. Therefore, we consider a pure cold-start scenario where neither interaction nor side information is available and no user effort is required. Studying this setting is also important for the initialization of other cold-start solutions, such as initializing the first few questions of an interview.


For a real number $β >1$, we say that a permutation $π$ of length $n$ is allowed (or realized) by the $β$-shift if there is some $x∈[0,1]$ such that the relative order of the sequence $x,f(x),\ldots,f^n-1(x)$, where $f(x)$ is the fractional part of $βx$, is the same as that of the entries of $π$ . Widely studied from such diverse fields as number theory and automata theory, $β$-shifts are prototypical examples of one-dimensional chaotic dynamical systems. When $β$ is an integer, permutations realized by shifts have been recently characterized. In this paper we generalize some of the results to arbitrary $β$-shifts. We describe a method to compute, for any given permutation $π$ , the smallest $β$ such that $π$ is realized by the $β$-shift.


Using the high statistics datasets of the HotQCD Collaboration, generated with the HISQ (2+1)-flavor action for light and strange quarks, and treating the charm sector in the quenched approximation, we analyze the second and fourth order cumulants of charm fluctuations and the correlations of charm with lighter conserved flavor quantum numbers. We can make use of a factor 100 larger statistics on 𝑁 𝜏 = 8 lattices which never have been used in studies of charm fluctuations. Analyzing correlations of charm fluctuations with baryon number and electric charge fluctuations we can project onto charmed baryon and meson correlations and compare results with quark model extended hadron resonance gas model calculations. We aim at a precise determination of the dissociation temperature of charmed hadrons and will probe the sensitivity of the fluctuations observables to the presence of multiple-charmed baryons.


The Earth Observation (EO) domain can provide valuable information products that can significantly reduce the cost of mapping flood extent and improve the accuracy of mapping and monitoring systems. In this study, Landsat 5, 7, and 8 were utilized to map flood inundation areas. Google Earth Engine (GEE) was used to implement Flood Mapping Algorithm (FMA) and process the Landsat data. FMA relies on developing a "data cube", which is spatially overlapped pixels of Landsat 5, 7, and 8 imagery captured over a period of time. This data cube is used to identify temporary and permanent water bodies using the Modified Normalized Difference Water Index (MNDWI) and site-specific elevation and land use data. The results were assessed by calculating a confusion matrix for nine flood events spread over the globe. The FMA had a high true positive accuracy ranging from 71–90% and overall accuracy in the range of 74–89%. In short, observations from FMA in GEE can be used as a rapid and robust hindsight tool for mapping flood inundation areas, training AI models, and enhancing existing efforts towards flood mitigation, monitoring, and management.


Wireless Mesh Networks (WMN) are receiving growing attention. They can widely find applications in Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN), Wireless Metropolitan Area Networks (WMAN), Wireless Personal Area Networks (WPAN) and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN), helping to substantially improve the network performance, cut down the operation cost and bring more convenience to both operators and end users. There are lots of open research issues in the field. Among them, the design of the Media Access Control (MAC) protocol is the most challenging one. This thesis proposes Mesh Distributed Coordination Function (MDCF), a novel MAC protocol that can be used to construct efficient WMNs supporting Quality of Service (QoS). MDCF applies Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) to share the radio medium in a fully distributed manner. It is able to run on a single frequency channel independent of physical schemes. Transmissions in MDCF networks take place in periodic time slots in a dynamic Time Division Duplex (TDD) mode of operation. A novel synchronization algorithm, operating under fully distributed control, is proposed for synchronizing mesh points (MP) for TDMA operation in the multi-hop environment. MDCF is well designed to properly handle highly loaded situations, hidden stations, exposed stations and capture effect which usually appear in a mesh environment and may dramatically deteriorate the network performance. For QoS support, besides a prioritized, collision eliminating and fair channel access mechanism, a distributed Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol is used to evaluate and allocate a fair portion of bandwidth to a specific traffic flow. The assigned portion of the bandwidth for a flow is adaptable with the traffic load and overall channel utilization. As a result, MDCF is able to efficiently exploit channel capacity, fairly distribute bandwidth and support multi-hop relaying of a large number of concurrent various traffic services in a WMN. The performance of MDCF is extensively evaluated by both analytical and simulation approaches. The results exhibit the outstanding performance of MDCF, significantly outperforming the IEEE 802.11 Distributed Coordination Function (DCF) and Enhanced Distributed Coordinated Access (EDCA), in both single-hop and mesh environments. MDCF has been submitted as a MAC proposal for the IEEE 802.11 Task Group s (TGs), which is formed to develop mesh WLANs. It can also be tailored for WMAN, WPAN and WSN mesh applications.


At the end of the second century and at the start of the third century, teachers Khuong Tang Hoi and Mau Bac brought Buddhism to Vietnam. Other lineages, such as Vinitaruci and Wu Yen Tong, emerged until the sixth, seventh, and eighth decades. The presence of these lines rendered Buddhism more dominant. Vietnam became autonomous in the fifth and eleventh centuries (after the Dinh, Le, Ly, and Tran empires). Buddhism was a huge input to the creation of Vietnam and to christian teaching.


The author presents the attitude of Russian poets of the XVIII–XIX centuries to different aspects of economic life based on their works. The poetry of the XVIII century was rigidly differentiated by genre, and it was not supposed to reflect the specifics of economic relations in general. The only exceptions were satirical works whose authors criticized, primarily from the moral side, certain aspects of everyday life, and in particular, the practice of tax collectors. Nevertheless, poets did not do without comments about the socio-economic division of society into separate groups, the significance of certain power decisions for the development of the country's economy, and, of course, the role of money and trade in the development of society as a whole and in human lives. Some poems contain curious references to international trade, the development of which, especially in the reign of Catherine II, led some poets to hail progress and even characterize this time as a 'Golden Age'. It is shown how the assessment of the epoch changes during the first half of the XIX century, and how the 'Golden Age' is transformed in common opinion into the 'Iron Age'. The role of economic and socialist theories in the life of society is increasing. A poet of the XIX century descends from the position of an external observer watching the sinful earth and he is horrified to find himself at the mercy of money and related interests, which produce a highly negative effect on morality, subordinating all human aspirations to monetary relations and, therefore, coarsening the soul. We consider the disputes about the progress between the lyric poets and our quite straightforward Westerners. Alexander Blok sums up a certain result of the social orientation towards purely economic relations and the technological progress associated with it in the poem "Retribution".


Developing operational User Interfaces (UI) can be challenging, especially during machine upgrade or commissioning where many changes can suddenly be required. An agile Integrated Development Environment (IDE) with enhanced refactoring capabilities can ease the development process. Inspector is an intuitive UI oriented IDE allowing for development of control interfaces and data processing. It features a state of the art visual interface composer fitted with an ample set of graphical components offering rich customization. It also integrates a scripting environment for soft real time data processing and UI scripting for complex interfaces. Furthermore, Inspector supports many data sources. Alongside the short application development time, it means Inspector can be used in early stages of device engineering or it can be used on top of a full control system stack to create elaborate high level control UIs. Inspector is now a mission critical tool at CERN providing agile features for creating and maintaining control system interfaces. It is intensively used by experts, machine operators and performs seamlessly from small test benches to complex instruments such as LHC or LINAC4.


Galaxy mergers are a major evolutionary transformation whose effects are borne out by a plethora of observations and numerical simulations. However, most previous simulations have used idealized, isolated, binary mergers and there has not been significant progress on studying statistical samples of galaxy mergers in large cosmological simulations. We present a sample of 27 691 post-merger (PM) galaxies (0c ≤ z ≤ 1) identified from IllustrisTNG: a cosmological, large box, magnetohydrodynamical simulation suite. The PM sample spans a wide range of merger and galaxy properties (M⋆, μ, fgas). We demonstrate that star-forming (SF) PMs exhibit enhanced star formation rates (SFRs) on average by a factor of ∼2, while the passive PMs show no statistical enhancement. We find that the SFR enhancements: (1) show no dependence on redshift, (2) anticorrelate with the PM's stellar mass, and (3) correlate with the gas fraction of the PM's progenitors. However, SF PMs show stronger enhancements which may indicate other processes being at play (e.g. gas phase, feedback efficiency). Although the SFR enhancement correlates mildly with the merger mass ratio, the more abundant minor mergers (0.1 ≤ μ < 0.3) still contribute ${\sim}50{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of the total SFR enhancement. By tracing the PM sample forward in time, we find that galaxy mergers can drive significant SFR enhancements which decay over ∼0.5 Gyr independent of the merger mass ratio, although the decay time-scale is dependent on the simulation resolution. The strongest merger-driven starburst galaxies evolve to be passive/quenched on faster time-scales than their controls.


Capsaicin, a pungent molecule from red
chilli is known for its therapeutic
benefits. However, poor aqueous solubility coupled with inherent pungency has limited
its applications. We envisaged, encapsulation of capsaicin in biocompatible MOF
material derived from γ-cyclodextrin (γ-CD) to overcome solubility and pungency attributes. Encapsulation
of capsaicin was accomplished via crystal growth achieved by vapour diffusion of ethanol to synthesis
solution consisting of γ-CD,
KOH and capsaicin.The
accomplished MOF Caps@γ-CDMOF was thoroughly
characterized in solid state by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD), IR, DSC, SEM
and in solution by UV, fluorescence, NMR spectroscopic techniques. The
encapsulation of capsaicin was found to
be slightly higher than 3:1 (γ-CD:
capsaicin ratio) in Caps@γ-CDMOF.


The Gulf Stream system features some of the fastest and most persistent currents in the Atlantic Ocean and has long been identified as a promising target for renewable ocean current energy. This study investigates the theoretical energy potential of ocean currents for the Gulf Stream system. A simplified analytical model is calibrated and utilized to represent the quasi-geostrophic balance in the North Atlantic subtropical circulation. The effect of turbines is included in the model as additional turbine drag force. The energy equation in the system is derived and analyzed both locally and basin-wide. Basin-wide, energy production from surface wind stress is balanced by energy dissipation from natural friction and turbines. However, the pressure gradient is playing an important role in redistributing the energy in the local energy balance. It is found that increasing turbine drag does not necessarily increase total energy dissipation from turbines. The maximum energy dissipation by turbines is estimated to be approximately 44 GW, although electrical power output will be significantly reduced due to various engineering and technological constraints. The turbine drag has significant impact on the circulation system. The reduction of energy and volume fluxes in the circulation is featured for different levels of turbine drag. It is found that residual energy flux along the western boundary can be significantly reduced under the peak energy dissipation by turbines, while reduction of volume flux is less extreme.


The main problem of developing countries in today's economy is that they cannot increase their per capita income above a certain level. This situation is expressed as middle-income trap. Being stuck at a certain level of gross domestic product per capita for long years, raised the question of whether Turkey is caught in the middle-income trap. Aim: To assess the situation in Turkey in terms of middle-income trap concept and to provide recommendations. Method : The concept of middle-income trap will be defined, relevant literature will be presented, exit strategies brought in the literature will be presented in conjunction with Turkey's current data. Findings: Whether or not in the middle income trap, there are important steps to be taken by Turkey in order to become a developed country economy: These can be listed as increasing the savings rate and investment in R & D and innovation, improving the quality of education, ensuring fairness in income distribution and in particular raising the level of technology used in the manufacturing industry Keywords: Middle Income Trap; GDP Per Capita; Economic Growth; Turkey.


Background—It is not presently known whether non–insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (NIDDM) is associated with the presence of structural alterations in small arteries or whether the combination of hypertension and NIDDM may have an additive effect on endothelial dysfunction. Therefore, we investigated subcutaneous small arteries in 12 normotensive subjects (NT group), 18 patients with essential hypertension (EH group), 13 patients with NIDDM, and 11 patients with NIDDM and EH (NIDDM1EH group). Methods and Results—Subcutaneous small arteries were evaluated by a micromyographic technique. The internal diameter, the media-to-lumen ratio, remodeling and growth indices, and the collagen-to-elastin ratio were calculated. Concentration-response curves to acetylcholine, bradykinin, the endothelium-independent vasodilator sodium nitroprusside, and endothelin-1 were performed. The media-to-lumen ratio was higher in the EH, NIDDM, and NIDDM 1EH groups compared with the NT group. EH patients showed the presence of eutrophic remodeling, whereas NIDDM and NIDDM1EH patients showed 40% to 46% cell growth. The collagen-to-elastin ratio was significantly increased in the EH and NIDDM1EH groups compared with the NT group. The vasodilatation to acetylcholine and bradykinin was similarly reduced in EH, NIDDM, and NIDDM1EH groups compared with the NT group. The contractile responses to endothelin-1 were similarly reduced in EH, NIDDM, and NIDDM 1EH patients. Conclusions—Our data suggest that the effects of NIDDM and EH on small artery morphology are quantitatively similar but qualitatively different and that the presence of hypertension in diabetic patients has little additive effect on small artery morphology and none on endothelial dysfunction. (Circulation. 2001;103:1238-1244.)


The protective effects of red cabbage extract (RCE) on oxidative damage in rabbits with experimentally induced hyperthyroidism were studied on forty male New Zealand rabbits. The experimental animals were randomly divided into 4 groups :(healthy as (control), hyperthyroidism, hyperthyroidism treated with vitamine E and hyperthyroidism treated with RCE .Hyperthyroidism was induced by oral administration of 20 µg/kg b.w/day L-thyroxine for 4 weeks. At the end of the experimental period, blood samples were taken from heart puncture of all animals for the determination of oxidant/antioxidant biomarkers: lipid peroxidation marker malonaldehyde (MDA), glutathione (GSH), glutathione peroxidase (GPx), Catalase (CAT) and superoxide dismutase (SOD) ,triiodothyronine (T3), thyroxine (T4) , thyroxine-stim ulating hormone (TSH),interleukin 6 (IL-6),interleukin 10 (IL-10) and tumor necrosis factor alpha(TNF-α) levels. Our results indicate that levels of MDA, T 3 , T 4 ,IL-6, IL-10 and TNF-α were significantly increased(P<0.05) in sera of the hyperthyroid animal group, while SOD; GPx, CAT, GSH and TSH levels were decreased significantly (p<0.05) compared to the control group. Hyperthyroid rabbits treated with 100 mg/kg.b.w daily of RCE for 4 weeks decreased significantly the elevated MDA, T 3 ,T4, IL-6, IL-10 and TNF-α levels and restore levels of GSH, GPx, SOD, CAT and TSH to control value. In conclusion, results indicated that RCE was beneficial as a protective agent against oxidative stress induced by hyperthyroidi sm and it had antihyperthyroid activity for the first time.


: Seasonal changes in populations of Biomphalaria pfeifferi and Bulinus globosus were observed at 62 locations in Liberia, West Africa. All varieties of water in both urban and rural locations were sampled. A wet season decrease and dry season increase of B. globosus populations in both urban and rural locations, similar to that reported elsewhere in West Africa, was observed. Similar fluctuations of B. pfeifferi populations were noted. The prevalence of schistosome infected vector snails varied markedly between rural and urban locations. At rural sites parasite prevalence followed the appropriate vector snail prevalence. At urban sites a portion of the vector snail population appeared relatively unaffected by seasonal changes. This stable population harbors a reservoir of infected snails that sustain year round transmission. Human infection was sampled in school children in the study area and prevalence of approximately 50% was found for both Schistosoma mansoni and S. haematobium. Added to the malacologic information this suggests less than hyperendemic transmission. The data suggest that urban environments should receive priorities for control programs.


We demonstrated the efficiency improvement of GaAs single-junction (SJ) solar cells with the single-material zinc sulfide (ZnS) bi-layer based on the porous/dense film structure, which was fabricated by the glancing angle deposition (GLAD) method, as an antireflection (AR) coating layer. The porous ZnS film with a low refractive index was formed at a high incident vapor flux angle of 80° in the GLAD. Each optimum thickness of ZnS bi-layer was determined by achieving the lowest solar weighted reflectance (SWR) using a rigorous coupled-wave analysis method in the wavelength region of 350-900 nm, extracting the thicknesses of 20 and 50 nm for dense and porous films, respectively. The ZnS bi-layer with a low SWR of ~5.8% considerably increased the short circuit current density (J(sc)) of the GaAs SJ solar cell to 25.57 mA/cm(2), which leads to a larger conversion efficiency (η) of 20.61% compared to the conventional one without AR layer (i.e., SWR~31%, J(sc) = 18.81 mA/cm(2), and η = 14.82%). Furthermore, after the encapsulation, its J(sc) and η values were slightly increased to 25.67 mA/cm(2) and 20.71%, respectively. For the fabricated solar cells, angle-dependent reflectance properties and external quantum efficiency were also studied.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Planmeca Compare software in identifying and quantifying a common critical error in dental students' crown preparations. In 2014-17, a study was conducted at one U.S. dental school that evaluated an ideal crown prep made by a faculty member on a dentoform to modified preps. Two types of preparation errors were created by the addition of flowable composite to the occlusal surface of identical dies of the preparations to represent the underreduction of the distolingual cusp. The error was divided into two classes: the minor class allowed for 1 mm of occlusal clearance, and the major class allowed for no occlusal clearance. The preparations were then digitally evaluated against the ideal preparation using Planmeca Compare. Percent comparison values were obtained from each trial and averaged together. False positives and false negatives were also identified and used to determine the accuracy of the evaluation. Critical errors that did not involve a substantial change in the surface area of the preparation were inconsistently identified. Within the limitations of this study, the authors concluded that the Compare software was unable to consistently identify common critical errors within an acceptable degree of error.


Dear Editor: In recognition of the newly gained prominence and visibility of health professionals in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization has made 2021 the International Year of Health and Care Workers, after having designated 2020 as the International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife. Nurses are essential at the different levels of health care, following best practices, offering timely information and action in health, and coordinating and managing care and services. However, investment in nursing professionals has proven to be insufficient; efforts must be made to strengthen leadership and optimize this workforce for an effective response to the health needs of the population.


In the UK, flooding is responsible for significant losses to the economy due to the impact on businesses, the vast majority of which are Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs). Businesses of this nature tend to lack formal plans to aid their response to and recovery from disruptive events such as flooding. This paper reports on work on how an agent-based model (ABM) is being developed based on interview data gathered from SMEs at-risk of flooding and/or have direct experience of flooding. The ABM will enable simulations to be performed allowing investigations of different response strategies which SMEs may employ to lessen the impact of flooding, thus strengthening their resilience.


Significant advances in Internet and computer technology have made it possible to develop an Internet-based virtual lab system to support distance learning courses that require a laboratory component where Internet-based control laboratory experiments such as measurement, monitoring, and control applications can be accessed remotely. The proposed virtual lab system architecture includes such features as control, measurement, networking, and reporting. This paper addresses issues in the architecture, election, electronics, embedded processors and software, Web and Internet technologies, and laboratory development.


Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder caused by the loss of dopaminergic (DA) neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta. Gait abnormalities, including decreased arm swing, slower walking speed, and shorter steps are common in PD patients and appear early in the course of disease. Thus, the quantification of motor patterns in animal models of PD will be important for phenotypic characterization during disease course and upon therapeutic treatment. Most cases of PD are idiopathic; however, the identification of hereditary forms of PD uncovered gene mutations and variants, such as loss-of-function mutations in Pink1 and Parkin, two proteins involved in mitochondrial quality control that could be harnessed to create animal models. While mice are resistant to neurodegeneration upon loss of Pink1 and Parkin (single and combined deletion), in rats, Pink1 but not Parkin deficiency leads to nigral DA neuron loss and motor impairment. Here, we report the utility of FTIR imaging to uncover gait changes in freely walking young (2 months of age) male rats with combined loss of Pink1 and Parkin prior to the development of gross visually apparent motor abnormality as these rats age (observed at 4-6 months), characterized by hindlimb dragging as previously reported in Pink1 knockout (KO) rats.


Objective Birth weight is an indicator of newborn health and a strong predictor of health outcomes in later life. Significant variation in diet during pregnancy between ethnic groups in high-income countries provides an ideal opportunity to investigate the influence of maternal diet on birth weight. Setting Four multiethnic birth cohorts based in Canada (the NutriGen Alliance). Participants 3997 full-term mother–infant pairs of diverse ethnic groups who had principal component analysis-derived diet pattern scores—plant-based, Western and health-conscious—and birth weight data. Results No associations were identified between the Western and health-conscious diet patterns and birth weight; however, the plant-based dietary pattern was inversely associated with birth weight (β=−67.6 g per 1-unit increase; P<0.001), and an interaction with non-white ethnicity and birth weight was observed. Ethnically stratified analyses demonstrated that among white Europeans, maternal consumption of a plant-based diet associated with lower birth weight (β=−65.9 g per 1-unit increase; P<0.001), increased risk of small-for-gestational age (SGA; OR=1.46; 95% CI 1.08 to 1.54;P=0.005) and reduced risk of large-for-gestational age (LGA; OR=0.71; 95% CI 0.53 to 0.95;P=0.02). Among South Asians, maternal consumption of a plant-based diet associated with a higher birth weight (β=+40.5 g per 1-unit increase; P=0.01), partially explained by cooked vegetable consumption. Conclusions Maternal consumption of a plant-based diet during pregnancy is associated with birth weight. Among white Europeans, a plant-based diet is associated with lower birth weight, reduced odds of an infant born LGA and increased odds of SGA, whereas among South Asians living in Canada, a plant-based diet is associated with increased birth weight.


Abstract  Ultramafic xenoliths in alkali basalts from Jeju Island, Korea, are mostly spinel lherzolites with subordinate amounts of spinel harzburgites and pyroxenites. The compositions of major oxides and compatible to moderately incompatible elements of the Jeju peridotite xenoliths suggest that they are residues after various extents of melting. The estimated degrees of partial melting from compositionally homogeneous and unfractionated mantle to form the residual xenoliths reach 30%. However, their complex patterns of chondrite‐normalized rare earth element, from light rare earth element (LREE)‐depleted through spoon‐shaped to LREE‐enriched, reflect an additional process. Metasomatism by a small amount of melt/fluid enriched in LREE followed the former melt removal, which resulted in the enrichment of the incompatible trace elements. Sr and Nd isotopic ratios of the Jeju xenoliths display a wide scatter from depleted mid‐oceanic ridge basalt (MORB)‐like to near bulk‐earth estimates along the MORB–oceanic island basalt (OIB) mantle array. The varieties in modal proportions of minerals, (La/Yb)N ratio and Sr‐Nd isotopes for the xenoliths demonstrate that the lithospheric mantle beneath Jeju Island is heterogeneous. The heterogeneity is a probable result of its long‐term growth and enrichment history.


The COVID-19 pandemic swept across the world rapidly, infecting millions of people. An efficient tool that can accurately recognize important clinical concepts of COVID-19 from free text in electronic health records (EHRs) will be valuable to accelerate COVID-19 clinical research. To this end, this study aims at adapting the existing CLAMP natural language processing tool to quickly build COVID-19 SignSym, which can extract COVID-19 signs/symptoms and their 8 attributes (body location, severity, temporal expression, subject, condition, uncertainty, negation, and course) from clinical text. The extracted information is also mapped to standard concepts in the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership common data model. A hybrid approach of combining deep learning-based models, curated lexicons, and pattern-based rules was applied to quickly build the COVID-19 SignSym from CLAMP, with optimized performance. Our extensive evaluation using 3 external sites with clinical notes of COVID-19 patients, as well as the online medical dialogues of COVID-19, shows COVID-19 SignSym can achieve high performance across data sources. The workflow used for this study can be generalized to other use cases, where existing clinical natural language processing tools need to be customized for specific information needs within a short time. COVID-19 SignSym is freely accessible to the research community as a downloadable package (https://clamp.uth.edu/covid/nlp.php) and has been used by 16 healthcare organizations to support clinical research of COVID-19.


Medical education curricula have the potential to impact the gender attitudes of future healthcare providers. This study investigated whether gender-biased imagery from anatomy textbooks had an effect on the implicit and explicit gender attitudes of students. We used an online experimental design in which students (N = 456; 55% female) studying anatomy were randomly assigned to a visual priming task using either gender-neutral or gender-biased images. The impact of this priming task on implicit attitudes was assessed using the Implicit Association Test (IAT) and the impact on explicit attitudes was measured using the Gender Bias in Medical Education Scale. Viewing biased images was significantly positively associated with implicit gender bias as indicated by higher IAT scores in the treatment compared to the control condition (mean IAT difference = 43 milliseconds; Cohen's d = .33). In contrast, there was no significant effect of gender-biased images on explicit gender attitudes.


Introduction: The psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) is sensitive measure of performance impairment arising from sleep loss and circadian misalignment. Some individuals are able to maintain stable, good performance during laboratoryimposed sleep restriction. It is unclear whether such individuals need less sleep or whether they are more resilient to the effects of sleep loss. We aimed to characterize the relationship between sleep duration and perceived sleep need with PVT performance under real-world conditions.


Received July 4, 2003 Abstract Biliary atresia is the commonest cause of pathological jaundice in infants. The aetiology and pathogenesis are largely unknown despite advances in molecular science. Hepatic portoenterostomy (Kasai operation) remains the primary treatment of choice with a satisfactory cure rate. With the continuing success of paediatric liver transplantation programmes worldwide, many infants with deteriorating liver disease after failed Kasai operations can now be saved by liver transplantation. Here, we discussed the current understanding of biliary atresia and our experience in both the Kasai operation and liver transplantation.


After Harrod and Domar independently developed a dynamic Keynesian circular flow model to illustrate the instability of a growing economy, mainstream economists quickly reduced their model to a supply side-only growth model, which they subsequently rejected as too simplistic and replaced with Solow's neoclassical growth model. The rejection process of first diminishing the model and then replaced it with a neoclassical alternative was similar to how the full Keynesian macroeconomic paradigm was diminished into IS-LM analysis and then replaced by a simplistic neoclassical framework that largely ignored the demand side of the economy. Furthermore, subsequent work by mainstream economists has resulted in a logically inconsistent framework for analyzing economic growth; the popular endogenous growth models, which use Schumpeter's concept of profit-driven creative destruction to explain the technological change that Solow left as exogenous, are not logically compatible with the Solow model.


The information available to decision makers is often vague and imprecise, and various methods based on interval estimates of probabilities and utilities have been proposed to deal with this. The discussion has, however, mostly evolved around representation, and much less has been done to take into consideration the evaluation, and also computational and implementation aspects has been left out. The Delta method for handling vague and imprecise information is one of the most elaborated approaches in its category and is therefore a reasonable starting point for this thesis. However, one major disadvantage is that the approach only handles single-level decision trees and cannot nontrivially be extended to handle multi-level trees. The capability of handling multi-level trees is important, since it appears naturally in many real-life situations. The purpose of this thesis is to present a generalization allowing for multi-level trees and imprecise information, thus extending the Delta approach. The extension is implemented in the decision software DecideIT, which consequently allows for interval statements and value comparisons between different consequences, in the form of multi-level trees. Five papers are attached to the thesis. Two of these present the necessary algorithms and an implementation employing them. The third and fourth papers demonstrate how decision problems can be modelled and evaluated taking into account the imprecise input data. A fifth paper presents how the method can be extended to a multi-attribute decision tree evaluation method.


In this work we describe tools that can be used to extend the User-Centered Design (UCD) process in its individual phases, such as user research and analysis, ideation, prototyping and usability testing. Doing so can potentially result in the three key advantages of a) involving a broader audience in the design process, b) simplifying multidisciplinary team communication, and c) providing tools that ease and speed up the development process. In this paper we are providing suggestions how such extensions, in the form of toolkits, might look.


A recent string of vicious, senseless and tragic mass spree killings have propelled an intense re-appraisal of U.S. gun laws, but the ensuing dialogue amply demonstrates that the opposing sides of the gun policy debate are as firmly entrenched in their mutual opposition to one another as ever before (Washington, 2012). Those who favor stricter "gun control" axiomatically oppose "personal protection" (e.g., "right to carry") strategies, whereas those who favor "personal protection" measures stridently oppose "gun control". The present study compares statistically (N=1736) these two contrasting approaches according to the methodological recommendations published by a National Academy of Sciences Research Panel (Wellford, Pepper & Petrie, 2005), and the results provisionally suggest that "personal protection" ("right to carry"; henceforth "RTC") laws may reduce both gun homicide rates and total homicide rates, whereas traditional "gun control" policies do not detectably effect either outcome. However, the present study also observes that neither type of measure was originally designed to protect the public against the presently emerging and more deadly threat posed by armed and mentally


Abstract Retrodeformation of fossils can improve taxonomic and paleobiologic interpretations, but fossils that lack symmetry or other regular geometric properties are difficult to retrodeform unless strain markers are preserved within the fossil-bearing strata. Strain markers, however, are generally distributed unevenly, and their use can be problematic if strain varies among specimens and the markers do not occur in close association with the fossils. We use two approaches to retrodeform Carboniferous tetrapod tracks from the Narragansett Basin of southern New England: (1) a direct method in which the strain ratio (Rs) is obtained from deformed raindrop imprints preserved on the same specimens as the tracks and (2) an indirect method in which the range in orientation of the bedding-cleavage intersection lineation is used as a proxy for Rs. The latter follows from a strong correlation between the range in orientation of the bedding-cleavage intersection lineation and Rs values obtained from the deformed raindrop imprints, and allows the retrodeformation of tetrapod tracks not preserved in close association with deformed raindrop imprints. Our methodology was applied to both anamniote and amniote traces and was tested by retrodeforming originally bilaterally symmetric insect traces from the same location. In all cases, the trace fossils return to their expected morphology. This work shows that deformed raindrop imprints and bedding-cleavage intersection lineation are useful strain markers for the retrodeformation of trace fossils and expands our understanding of the fossil record of early tetrapods in southern New England.


One encounters an obvious problem when using an evolutionary framework to understand online pornography. On the one hand, theories of sex specificity in mating strategies and evolved human nature lead to the prediction that there are commonalities and universals in the content people would seek in online pornography. That is, due to the fact that men have faced a distinct set of issues over the duration of human evolution, research suggests general tendencies in mate preferences, and presumably in the types of pornography that men therefore consume. Likewise, women have dealt with sex-specific challenges during human evolutionary history, resulting in patterns of mate preferences that are reflected in the types of online pornography they consume. Consequently, although the sexes likely differ in the content they prefer, there also should be a rather limited range of material that addresses male and female evolved heritages. Looking online, however, we can immediately ascertain that this limited focus is not the case, and hence, the dilemma. There is a wide range of pornographic material available online, to the extent that we are left with no option but to agree with Rule 34: "If it exists, there is porn of it." This problem demands a solution; how can there be evolved tendencies and yet such diversity in the content of online pornography? We review who the consumers of online pornography are, how frequently they consume it, and the type of content that is most commonly consumed. Our goal is to address the issue of common sexual interests and the diversity of online pornography. We discuss not just sex-specific content but also the variety of interests that are seen within online pornography and erotic literature.