Polystannanes have been synthesized by a number of useful routes. Generally, these polymers have been limited to homopolymers containing a single type of substituent. We now demonstrated a novel condensation polymerization utilizing dialkyl or diaryl tin dihydrides and dialkyl tin diamides to prepare alternating polymers with neighbouring tin centers possessing different group functionalities. Three new alternating polystannanes containing both organically
solubilizing (n-Bu, Me) and less solubilizing (Ph) side groups as well as the homopolymer dibutylpolystannane have been prepared. A variety of closely related model tristannanes using the same synthetic methodology was also completed. We have also carried out a computational study of a number of model stannanes in order to optimize structures of the oligo- and polystannanes synthetically prepared and predict their spectral properties by using time dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT). This study has yielded results that can be influential in predicting chemical orientation, bonding properties and electronics.


Most large-scale educational surveys utilize a multi-stage stratified cluster sampling design. Past findings revealed that the standard errors of Taiwan students' mean performances were slightly larger than other countries'. In response to the request by the institute in charge of TIMSS sampling, this study was launched to derive a formula that could estimate the standard error of population mean prior to conducting a two-stage stratified cluster sampling design. This formula could then be used to select an optimal stratification framework that could reduce the size of standard error to an acceptable level. Its validity was investigated in three subsequent studies. In the first study, standard errors for 30 TIMSS 2007 participating countries were estimated according to the newly derived formula as well as by the jackknife replication. The correlation between the two sets of standard errors amounted to 0.98. The second study investigated the practicality of using the new formula in addition to auxiliary variables for predicting standard errors on the data of 29 countries that participated in both TIMSS 2003 and 2007. The third study explored the relationship between the number of stratum and the standard errors under a two-stage stratified cluster sampling design when the auxiliary variables for stratification were continuous. This paper closed by suggesting a four-step procedure to facilitate researchers in estimating standard errors of means during the planning stage of sampling design.


The challenges of developing new medicines are well known. Effective application of clinical pharmacology expertise is vital to the successful evaluation of potential new medicines. In drug development, this depends on effective integration of diverse skills. Many of these are currently in short supply, but through innovative partnerships between industry and academia there is an opportunity to reinvigorate the discipline by nurturing these key skills to the benefit of both partners. Specific areas of focus should be experimental medicine, modelling and simulation, and translational skills.


A technique for assay of lecithinase antibodies in serum was developed in this laboratory by using a lecithin-agar plate diffusion procedure based on a combination of described plate assays. Egg yolk lipoprotein composed primarily of lecithin was used as a substrate for reaction with free or non-neutralized lecithinase C after incubation of known amounts of lecithinase C with various dilutions of control and test sera. It was found that the size of the reaction zone was a function of enzyme concentration and inversely proportional to the antibody concentration. Accuracy and precision of the assay were determined. In addition, lecithinase antibody levels in sera from experimentally inoculated rats and rabbits and sera from randomly selected human patients were studied.


This project was developed within the framework of the 2019-2020 edition of the Richard H. Driehaus Architecture Competition. It was the winning proposal for the Alzira site. The aim of the competition was to find a solution for revitalising the western part of its historic city centre, an area that dates back to medieval times. After the Church of Santa Maria was destroyed during the Civil War, it was further disfigured by the erection of a number of large industrial and administrative buildings.


The Glasgow Glam Rock Dialogues is a collaboration between David Archibald and Carl Lavery from the School of Culture and Creative Arts at the University of Glasgow. It is an attempt to "perform thinking" in front of a live audience, and mixes Brechtian techniques with a glam rock aesthetic. During the performances, our middle-aged glam rockers channel the spirits of Marc Bolan and Suzi Quatro, Karl Marx and Peter Kropotkin, to approach pressing issues facing the world today. In the Glasgow Glam Rock Dialogues, the aim is not to teach but to provoke debate, whilst sporting spandex trousers and feather boas.


The fault diagnosis of transformer windings is a basis for condition maintenance. Conventional online or offline diagnosis methods require additional pulse or impulse signal. If the overvoltage signal can be regarded as the broadband excitation source for the fault diagnosis of transformer windings, the interference caused by signal injection is likely eliminated without additional pulse or impulse signals. In this study, the transient overvoltage response performance of transformer windings with short-circuit fault is presented, which could provide a new method for the diagnosis on transformer fault diagnosis. A 10 kVA, 2400 V/220 V, 50 Hz, 1-phase tapped transformer was designed, and a test platform for the fault diagnosis of transformer windings is established. The excitation signals for the fault diagnosis of the transformer windings included different lightning waves and damped oscillation waves, as indicated by the differences among actual overvoltage waveforms. The voltage and current of windings under normal and fault conditions are determined, and the frequency responses of admittance and voltage transfer function are calculated. The criterion for the fault diagnosis of transformer windings is obtained by comparing and analysing statistical indicators that reflected the differences in the frequency response of transfer function under normal and fault.


Shipping accidents and the resulting catastrophic oil spills have received widespread public attention, illustrating the problems associated with vessel transportation and the subsequent degradation of the marine environment. However, these spills only make up a relatively small proportion of the total amount of oil pollution that occurs at sea, Large amounts of oil are deliberately released everyday through the discharge of bilge and ballast waters and these are going undetected. Also, leakages occur from oil platforms and pipelines adding to pollution. Many countries do not have the resources to effectively monitor more than a small proportion of their Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). This paper reviews past and current experiences of RADARSAT International and its partners using SAR data fi-om IUD,4RSAT1 for operational monitoring of oil spills and the illegal and uncontrolled discharge of pollution, Case studies will be presented where SAR is used operationally for oil slick detection and oil spill monitoring by providing near real time target reports and image sub-scenes delivered electronically to the client. These current operations show that SAR is a valuable component to effective monitoring and response in conjunction with sea and aerial based surveillance. Important information about the ship can also be transmitted to the client showing synergy with vessel monitoring system providers (VMS), coastal radar operators, Coastguards, patroI craft and response teams, The next generation of SAR satellites is then reviewed which provisionally demonstrates the improvement of the new sensors for tactical operations and the vision of a global oil pollution control and deterrent system. © 2002 WIT Press, Ashurst Lodge, Southampton, SO40 7AA, UK. All rights reserved. Web: www.witpress.com Email email@example.com Paper from: Oil and Hydrocarbon Spills III, CA Brebbia (Editor). ISBN 1-85312-922-4


In 1938 German emigre Hans Knoll set up Factory No. 1 in New York City, Selling Scandinavian-inspired furniture to a small but growing crowd of American architects serving the new corporate American client. By chance, the small-scale manufacturer met an ambitious young architect and the pair joined forces to expand into one of the most successful furniture, textiles, and interior design planning companies in American history, a company that achieved widespread success by midcentury. The architect's name was Florence Schust, and she would eventually be recognized as one of the most influential figures in postwar American architecture and design. From 1946 to 1965, Florence directed all creative efforts at Knoll Associates, including a planning unit that designed interiors and a textile division that served the planning unit by providing original materials for upholstery and drapery, and later offered cut yardage to the trade. Her textile division in New York operated like a mini-Bauhaus, with architects, weavers, and graphic designers all contributing towards the ultimate goals of producing eye-catching architectural materials for mass production. But unlike the Bauhaus in the twenties and thirties, this midcentury workshop democratized the arts through the production of a single material. Rather than being considered, as it was historically, 'women's work,' textile work occupied a highly visible position within Knoll Associates. Prominently featured within furniture exhibitions, architectural magazine advertisements, and high-profile corporate interior's projects, textiles functioned on multiple levels as architectural material and graphic surface. At a time when the modernist aesthetic was considered to be radical in America—not yet classic or ubiquitous—Florence Knoll took all of her modernist architectural training and applied it to the design direction of her furniture, textiles, and planning company. Through a close reading of a key commissioned interiors project and primary materials from 1946- 1965—when Florence Knoll was active creative director and the president in 1955—my study re-frames textiles as critical, rather than ancillary, to the reception of modern architecture in postwar America.


The central problem of producing of Al/SiCP composites is to avoid the forming of brittle Al4C3, which leads to a poor corrosion resistance and degraded mechanical properties [Mingyuan, 1999]. The possible way is the covering of the SiC particles. This paper deals with the covering of SiC. The coated particles will be applied for producing aluminium matrix composites. We have covered three different grain sizes of particles. We have applied the nonelectrolytic method of deposition from solution for coating. Before the covering the surface needs to be catalysed. We have compared the effects of different type of catalysators, then we have analysed the effects of plating time by means of the scanning electron microscopy.


The effect of host genotype on incubation period, receptivity, lesion diameter and leaf area damage of Didymella arachidicola on nine peanut (Arachis hypogaea L.) genotypes was investigated under monocyclic infection in the glasshouse. The genotypes, Florunner. P 84/5/256, C 347/5/6, C 346/5/8 and P 105/3/7, resistant to the pathogen in field trials, had a longer incubation period, reduced receptivity, lesion diameter, and percentage leaf area damage, than susceptible genotypes. Among the susceptible genotypes, Tamnut 74 had the shortest incubation period, and highest receptivity, the largest lesion diameter, and percentage leaf area damage. The other susceptible genotypes. Egret, 38/7/20, and P 84/5/112, were intermediate for these variables. Production of pycnidia and pseudothecia of the pathogen could not be demonstrated in infected leaf tissues of any of the genotypes studied. There was significant interaction between plant age and disease development. Younger plants had a shorter incubation period, higher receptivity, larger lesion diameter, and percentage leaf area damage than older plants. Correlation coefficients among incubation period, receptivity, lesion diameter, and leaf area damage were highly significant. The possible role of these variables in disease epidemics and their use in glasshouse screening of peanut germplasm for resistance to D. arachidicola are discussed.


Religious life in the later middle ages was increasingly dominated by the
mendicant Orders, notably the Franciscans. Their dominance also extended to the
artistic life of the day.
The initial artistic campaigns of the Franciscans centred on the native
province of the founder, most notably in the Upper and Lower churches of S.
Francesco in Assisi. With the expansion of the Order and the death and
canonization of the second Franciscan saint, Anthony of Padua, his adopted
province, the Veneto, became an important centre for theological and artistic
activity. The Basilica del Santo, built to enshrine the new saint's relics, rivalled the
mother church at Assisi in both scale and lavishness of decoration. The fourteenth
century in particular was marked by a succession of decorative programmes, a large
part of which has survived. Soon the other Franciscan churches in the Veneto were
similarly patronized.
Unlike Umbria and Tuscany, areas where Franciscan churches are ridden
with problems of dating and attribution, the Order' churches in the Veneto are
probably the best documented of Italy. They provided a unique opportunity to set
up a control of Franciscan patronage of the arts during the later middle ages. This
thesis touches on all types of Franciscan patronage: conventual, and lay, communal
and ecclesiastical. This research relied on a newly published Franciscan archive of
over 27,000 documents, and is the first extensive survey of its kind for the
Franciscan Order.
It is hoped that this contribution has filled some gaps in our knowledge of
artistic patronage. Firstly it has thrown light on the role played by the Order of
friars minor in artistic projects, from the initial planning stages to the
commissioning, execution and supervision of works. It has been shown that
Franciscans were not always involved in artistic projects; at times they cooperated
with individuals, or families, and at other times they played no part at all. Whether
actively involved or more inactive, the friars were open to all sorts of artistic
experiments, which means that the Franciscan church was an ideal environment for
creativity.


Recently disordered gambling is reclassified as an addictive disorder which inter alia affects a little but significant proportion of adolescents. The aim of this study is to identify and assess different levels of gambling severity among adolescent gamblers (N=1157) from middle and high schools of Korca region, utilizing a cross-sectional design and self-report questionnaire. Using Exploratory, Parallel, Reliability and Confirmatory Analysis, the PGSI measurement instrument, designed for these purposes, resulted to be an appropriate unidimensional screening tool of adolescent disordered gambling in terms of psychometric properties. A traditional Latent Class Analysis using the nine PGSI-items as indicators is performed to identify and predict subtypes of adolescent gamblers, classifying them into latent classes based on their problem gambling severity levels. The inclusion of three covariates related to adolescent gambling problems into Latent Class Model improved the model, helping us to better understand the latent structure.


It has been conjectured that the Fisher divergence is more robust to model uncertainty than the conventional Kullback-Leibler (KL) divergence. This motivates the design of a new class of robust generative auto-encoders (AE) referred to as Fisher auto-encoders. Our approach is to design Fisher AEs by minimizing the Fisher divergence between the intractable joint distribution of observed data and latent variables, with that of the postulated/modeled joint distribution. In contrast to KL-based variational AEs (VAEs), the Fisher AE can exactly quantify the distance between the true and the model-based posterior distributions. Qualitative and quantitative results are provided on both MNIST and celebA datasets demonstrating the competitive performance of Fisher AEs in terms of robustness compared to other AEs such as VAEs and Wasserstein AEs.


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text Objective: To document COVID-19 sero-prevalence, prior testing, symptom experiences, and risk factors in a sample of community health center (CHC) workers. Methods: Descriptive statistics and log-binomial regression were used to analyze an electronic employee survey linked with COVID-19 antibody results. The sample included 378 employees who completed the survey; 325 had complete lab data. Results: The sero-positivity rate was 15.4%. One third of sero-positive participants had no previous COVID-19 symptoms or were unsure. Working on-site only and/or with direct patient contact was not associated with sero-positivity. Employees in their 20s were more likely to test positive than employees ages 50+, controlling for sex, race, and region (PR = 2.96; P < 0.05). Conclusions: With CHCs central to COVID-19 response and vaccination efforts, public health messaging should remind CHC workers, especially younger employees, of their risks of community-based exposure.


Produced water (PW) is the largest waste stream generated by hydraulic fracturing in an unconventional shale gas reservoir. Oxidation processes (OPs) are frequently used as advanced treatment method in highly complicated water matrix treatments. However, the degradation efficiency is the main focus of research, organic compounds and their toxicity have not been properly explored. Here, we obtained the characterization and transformation of dissolved organic matters of PW samples from the first shale gas field of China by two selected OPs using FT-ICR MS. CHO, CHON, CHOS, and CHONS heterocyclic compounds associated with lignins/CRAM-like, aliphatic/proteins, and carbohydrates compounds were the major organic compounds identified. Electrochemical Fe2+/HClO oxidation preferentially removed aromatic structures, unsaturated hydrocarbons, and tannin compounds with a double-bond equivalence (DBE) value below 7 to more saturated compounds. Nevertheless, Fe (VI) degradation manifested in CHOS compounds with low DBE values, especially single bond compounds. Oxygen- and Sulfur-containing substances, primarily O4-11, S1O3-S1O12, N1S1O4, and N2S1O10 classes, were the main recalcitrant components in OPs. The toxicity assessment showed that the free-radical-formed Fe2+/HClO oxidation could cause significant DNA damage. Therefore, the toxicity response byproducts need spcial attention when conducting OPs. Our results led to discussions on designing appropriate treatment strategies and the development of PW discharge or reuse standards.


The binding and uptake of phosphatidylserine (PS)-expressing cells appears to involve multiple receptor-mediated systems that recognize the lipid either directly or indirectly through intermediate proteins that form a molecular bridge between the cells. Here we show that β2-glycoprotein I (β2GPI), a 50-kDa serum glycoprotein, binds PS-containing vesicles and serves as an intermediate for the interaction of these vesicles with macrophages. Chemical modification of lysines and cysteines abolished β2GPI-dependent PS uptake by inhibiting the binding of PS to β2GPI and the binding of PS·β2GPI complex to macrophages, respectively. Recognition was mediated by β2GPI and not by the lipid because antibodies to β2GPI inhibited binding of the complex to macrophages. These results indicate that human (THP-1-derived) macrophages bind β2GPI only after it is bound to its lipid ligand. Competition experiments with monosaccharides that inhibit lectin-dependent interactions, and PS·β2GPI binding experiments using deglycosylated β2GPI, suggested that carbohydrate residues were not required for macrophage recognition of the complex. Antibodies to putative macrophage PS receptors (CD36, CD68, and CD14) did not inhibit uptake of the complex. These data suggest that β2GPI can bind cells that fail to maintain membrane lipid asymmetry and generate a specific bridging moiety that is recognized for clearance by a phagocyte receptor that is distinct from CD36, CD68, and CD14.


ABSTRACT Passive seismic approaches, using a single-station, enable rapid, cost-effective and non-invasive estimates of the thickness of sedimentary rocks overlying crystalline basement. This approach was applied to estimate the Cenozoic and Cretaceous succession beneath the Nullarbor Plain in southeastern Western Australia. Passive seismic data acquired at the majority of the 94 sites show a single, strong resonance frequency peak between 0.4 and 0.6 Hz suggesting an impedance contrast of a single subsurface layer. Modelling these resonance frequencies against known stratigraphy at 12 drill holes shows that this impedance contrast corresponds to the contact of the base of the Cenozoic–Cretaceous sedimentary succession of the Eucla and Bight basins with the crystalline basement. Data from the remaining sites produced sediment thickness estimates ranging from only tens of metres near the western edge of the Nullarbor Plain to over 860 m near its southern margin. Near this margin, rapid thickening of the sedimentary cover is coincident with an interpreted paleosea-cliff or indicative of localised faulting. Beneath the Western Australian portion of the Nullarbor Plain the sedimentary cover is on average 320 m thick with the succession thinning gradually towards the margins of the basin. A passive seismic approach is thus seen as a useful screening tool for the mineral exploration industry in areas that are under cover allowing for better targeting and cost-reduction in greenfields exploration.


This study investigates the relationship between acidity and the mechanical properties of two Japanese tissue papers (Yukyu-shi and Sekishu Mare), which were treated with a range of plant dyes, watercolours and acrylic paints and then exposed to artificial ageing. Mechanical strength was correlated with the concentration of hydrogen ion (pH) which is an index of the acidic hydrolysis of cellulose in paper structure. In general, the papers treated with plant dyes were more acidic than those treated with watercolours and acrylic paints. Plant-dyed Japanese papers also displayed less folding and tear resistance after ageing and there was a difference in these properties in both of these papers. The untreated Sekishu Mare papers, as well as those treated with watercolours and acrylic paints, exhibited greater tear resistance than the Yukyu-shi papers treated in the same conditions. The Sekishu Mare and Yukyu-shi papers, both untreated and treated with acrylic paints, as well as the Yukyu-shi papers treated with plant dyes, suffered no loss of folding endurance after ageing, which was unexpected considering that the papers were aged for 12 days at 70°C and 65% relative humidity (RH). This study provides paper conservators with a better understanding of toning materials and their impact on the mechanical and chemical stability of papers often chosen for conservation treatments.


The onset of the Cold War had a blighting effect on the campaign for a national health insurance program in the United States. In the highly charged atmosphere of the late 1940s, proponents of social insurance spent considerable time and energy denying that they were agents of foreign powers. In one widely promoted conspiratorial formulation, some on the right traced the origins of subversion not only to Moscow but also to Geneva, Switzerland, home of the International Labor Organization. In the fractiously partisan context of the period, conservative political leaders amplified concerns over disloyal bureaucrats' manipulating the levers of legislative politics as well as the design of health policy. One federal official in particular, I. S. Falk, became the object of outright demonization. The paranoid attacks took their toll on the drive to extend social protection. The reformers' difficulties suggest the limitations of heavy dependence on bureaucratic expertise in the pursuit of health security.


Iron disulfide (FeS2) is attractive as a positive electrode material in lithium batteries because of its low material cost, environmental non-toxicity, and high specific energy density. Furthermore, natural pyrite is a secondary product of the mining extraction of coal. For these reasons, natural and synthetic pyrites have been proposed as active cathode materials in secondary lithium batteries. We investigated the effect of various solvents on the electrochemical properties of lithium-FeS2 batteries. The specific discharge capacity of Li/FeS2 cells varied from 500 to 780mAh/g based on FeS2.


In this dissertation, I use 3D dynamic rupture modeling to understand the dynamics of previous large earthquakes and, more generally, to advance the physical understanding of coseismic processes on natural faults. I focus on a set of large and destructive earthquakes, characterized by puzzling features, and I conduct additional numerical analyses to investigate the scale-dependence of fault roughness effects.

I first study the complex dynamics of the 2016 Mw 7.8 Kaikōura earthquake. I present a highly realistic 3D dynamic rupture scenario that reproduces key characteristics of the event and constrains puzzling features. I show that the observed rupture cascade is dynamically consistent with regional stress estimates and a crustal fault network geometry inferred from seismic and geodetic data. In the model, overpressurized fluids, low dynamic friction and stress concentrations induced by deep fault creep result in low apparent friction. I then present a coupled scenario of the 2018 Palu, Sulawesi earthquake and tsunami. The model, constrained by rapidly available observations, suggests that the primary tsunami source, a key riddle of the event, may have been direct earthquake-induced uplift and subsidence. This study demonstrates that physics-based interpretations can be an important part of the rapid earthquake response toolset. Next, I explore the dynamics of the 2004, Mw 9.1 - 9.3 Sumatra-Andaman earthquake. My models suggest that along-depth variation of trench sediments, off-fault plastic yielding, and along-arc variations of regional stresses and tectonic convergence rates are the dominant factors controlling the event's dynamics and kinematics. I demonstrate that 3D dynamic rupture modeling of megathrust earthquakes is now feasible and is critical for understanding the interplay of subduction mechanics, megathrust earthquakes and tsunami genesis. Finally, I investigate the scale-dependence of fault roughness effects on earthquake kinematics, dynamics and ground motion. The models on fractal strike-slip rough faults do not reveal systematic wavelength dependence of these effects. Nevertheless, the characteristic length scale posed by rupture process zone width affects rupture dynamics locally. In this study, I also propose strategies to capture fault roughness effects on coarser geometric fault representations, which offer an interesting compromise between computational efficiency and accuracy.

Overall, this work advances the physical understanding of earthquake rupture processes. The developed models shed light on the physical mechanisms of cascading ruptures in complex fault systems and of megathrust earthquakes. In particular, they pose constraints on the conditions leading to such large earthquakes. This work contributes to advancing the current state-of-the-art of modeling earthquake source dynamics, by bridging the gap between rupture dynamic modeling and seismic observations.


Kihansi spray toad Nectophrynoides asperginis was discovered in 1996 in Kihansi gorge. The toad was declared extinct in the wild in 2009 due to habitat alteration. Before its extinction, 499 individuals were flown to the United States of America zoos in 2000 for captive breeding. In 2010, the University of Dar es Salaam, and in 2011 the Kihansi captive breeding facilities were established in Tanzania. The intention was to breed, and reintroduce the toad back to the natural environment in the gorge. The founder populations for the two facilities were sourced from the USA zoos. This study addresses captive management practices, and population status of the toad at the two facilities from 2013 to 2019. Toad counts were carried out once every two months. There was a significant increase in the number of toads over the years. The increase was associated with suitable management practices. Success in captive breeding at the facilities led to the removal of 3,236 individuals from the University for restocking the Kihansi facility and for reintroduction, and 1,273 individuals from Kihansi facility for reintroduction. The establishment of the two facilities played a major role in both the ex-situ and in-situ conservation of the toad.


Although the first Quakers aligned history with superfluous tradition, detrimental to true appreciation of the inward voice of God, by the early eighteenth century they had produced their first histories as a defence against Anglican allegations of continued disorder and enthusiasm. At the same time, pressure to publish the collected works of James Nayler, a convicted blasphemer, proved particularly contentious. Leo Damrosch has sought to understand what Nayler thought he was doing in the 1650s; this study considers what motivated later Quakers to censor his works and accounts of his life, and demonstrates how English Friends in particular sought to revise the popular image of Quakerism by rewriting history.


Probiotics are living microorganisms that can have a positive impact on health when consumed in adequate amounts. This research aimed to determine the effect of different binders on the viability of Lactobacillus acidophilus , a member of Lactic Acid Bacteria (LAB). The probiotic granules were prepared with wet granulation method using mannitol as the filling ingredient. Formulas I-III used acacia as a binder (3%, 4%, and 5%), while Formulas IV-VI used sodium alginate (1%, 1.5%, and 2%). The probiotic granules produced from all formulas were evaluated for flow time, the angle of repose, compressibility, and LAB viability. The LAB viability test results showed that all of the six formulas met the probiotic requirements, i.e., at least 10 7 CFUs (Colony Forming Units) per gram. The viable LAB in Formulas I-VI were 3.94x10 7 , 4.4x10 7 , 2.7x10 7 , 2.6x10 7 , 3.5x10 7 , and 2.3x10 7 CFU/g, respectively. The data were analyzed by comparing the average values of the One-Sample T-Test results, followed by Mann-Whitney test. The results revealed that each formula had different capacity in maintaining the viability of Lactobacillus acidophilus with different binders (i.e., acacia and sodium alginate) as a probiotic product. Formula II (4% of acacia) produced probiotic granules that met the requirements of compressibility and the angle of repose. However, its granular flow time exceeded the standard.


Software systems that learn from user data with machine learning (ML) techniques have become ubiquitous over the last years. Recent law requires companies and institutions that process personal data to delete user data upon request (enacting the "right to be forgotten"). However, it is not sufficient to merely delete the user data from databases. ML models that have been learnt from the stored data can be considered a lossy compressed version of the data, and therefore it can be argued that the user data must also be removed from them. Typically, this requires an inefficient and costly retraining of the affected ML models from scratch, as well as access to the original training data. We address this perfomance issue by formulating the problem of "decrementally" updating trained ML models to "forget" the data of a user, and present efficient decremental update procedures for three popular ML algorithms. In an experimental evaluation on synthetic data, we find that our decremental update is two orders of magnitude faster than retraining the model without a particular user's data in the majority of cases.


This research is a detailed study on the performance of external walls aimed at providing a guidance tool which will enable designers to determine the appropriate thermal upgrade system for a housing retrofit, particularly in Ireland; taking into account wall type, climatic conditions and orientation. This paper explains the steps taken to establish a research design and methodological approach suited to the topic at hand. The choice of research methodology is a difficult step for the researcher to decide upon in the research process. When it comes down to an architectural technologist, the process becomes even more difficult. Throughout a college process of taught procedures for accurate building design, solutions do not delve into the world of methodological approaches. Research methodology is simply not a common concept or approach throughout the Architectural/Engineering and Construction (AEC) sector. This paper assesses the existing limited research in the AEC sector, while highlighting how this was interpreted by a novice researcher with a background of architectural technology, to allow accurate and precise research analysis. Each research method has inherent strengths and weaknesses. Careful attention to the methodological approach of the design process, as discussed here, can enhance the validity and consistency of a given study. Combining quantitative and qualitative approaches in research design and data collection should be considered whenever possible. Such mixed methods research improves the validity and reliability of the resulting data and reinforces fundamental implications by providing the opportunity to observe data convergence or separation in the analysis of the theory.


The existing creep constitutive models do not include directly shear stiffness of the soil that can be easily obtained by standard geotechnical tests. These models do not account for high shear stiffness of the soil at small mobilisation degree. In this respect, they do not distinguish between soil elements that undergo lower mobilisation in the far field and the ones that undergo higher mobilisation close to the embankment. This may result in overprediction of horizontal displacements under the field and the result of the finite element analysis is sensitive to the extension of the model boundary. To address this model deficiency, a new critical state soft soil creep model with shear stiffness (CS-SSCG) is implemented. In the CS-SSCG model, shear stiffness of the soil will be explicitly given by the engineer instead of commonly used Poisson's ratio. Results from the simulation of the MIT-MDPW embankment show that horizontal displacement has been improved significantly using the CS-SSCG model compared to Plaxis Soft Soil Creep (SSC) standard model.


One of the activities of IXIS CIB, the investment bank of Groupe Caisse d'Epargne (3rd French bank) consists in structuring real estate investments and retaining part of the risk associated in its books. The transactions involved are generally highly leveraged sale and lease back transactions. Within the bank, Risk Control is in charge of quantifying risk associated with those investments and expressing opinion on the opportunity of these transactions. This is carried out through a 3 steps framework.First, Risk Control values the whole transaction in a completely independent manner, with its own model and assumptions for the business plan. Second, stress scenarios are applied on the various risk factors of the transactions which include exit prices, inflation rate, vacancy rates, capital expendituresO But such scenarios may be more or less biased, depending on traders' experience or market expectations.Third, we move from deterministic scenarios to stochastic ones and let random processes explore what future prices could be. Associating then a probability to occur to each scenario, we run Value-at-risk calculation. Therefore, Monte Carlo techniques, that are already widely used within the bank to value complex options or assess risks, have been adapted to Real Estate transactions. This approach is mainly risk oriented but it is also a powerful tool to compare projects between them in bid processes. Presentation shows step by step how this methodology works, one of the most interesting output is a distribution of the profit of the transaction. It also presents how, using the Merton's scheme of the firm, investor and debtor have opposite interest and how the profit distribution that was produced through Monte Carlo simulations could be used by the lender also to estimate his risks and expected returns.


Background: Many studies of gluteal augmentation techniques have been published in recent decades, including case reports, retrospective and prospective case series, and multicenter survey reviews. However, to date, there has been no study of the overall complications or satisfaction rates associated with the broad spectrum of techniques. Objectives: The authors performed a comprehensive literature review to determine outcomes and complications of gluteoplasty techniques, including patient satisfaction. Methods: A search on PubMed/Medline was performed for clinical studies involving gluteal augmentation techniques. A priori criteria were used to review the resulting articles. Results: Fifty‐two studies, published from 1969 through 2015, were included ‐ representing 7834 treated patients. Five gluteal augmentation techniques were identified from these studies: gluteal augmentation with implants (n = 4781), autologous fat grafting (n = 2609), local flaps (n = 369), hyaluronic acid gel injection (n = 69), and local tissue rearrangement (n = 6). The overall complication rates of the most commonly utilized techniques were: 30.5% for gluteal augmentation with implants, 10.5% for autologous fat grafting, and 22% for local flaps. Patients' satisfaction was reported as consistently high for all the five techniques. Conclusions: Implant‐based gluteal augmentation is associated with high patients' satisfaction despite a high complication rate, while autologous fat grafting is associated with the lowest complication rate yet including serious major complications such as fat embolism. Local flaps and local tissue rearrangements are the ideal procedures in case of massive weight loss patients. A paucity of data is available for hyaluronic acid gel injections, which appear to be effective but temporary and expensive. Level of Evidence: 4 Figure. No caption available.


[1] The Miniature Thermal Emission Spectrometer (Mini-TES) on board the Mars Exploration Rover Spirit is part of a payload designed to investigate whether a lake once existed in Gusev Crater. Mini-TES has observed hundreds of rocks along the rover's traverse into the Columbia Hills, yielding information on their distribution, bulk mineralogy, and the potential role of water at the site. Although dust in various forms produces contributions to the spectra, we have established techniques for dealing with it. All of the rocks encountered on the plains traverse from the lander to the base of the Columbia Hills share common spectral features consistent with an olivine-rich basaltic rock known as Adirondack Class. Beginning at the base of the West Spur of the Columbia Hills and across its length, the rocks are spectrally distinct from the plains but can be grouped into a common type called Clovis Class. These rocks, some of which appear as in-place outcrop, are dominated by a component whose spectral character is consistent with unaltered basaltic glass despite evidence from other rover instruments for significant alteration. The northwest flank of Husband Hill is covered in float rocks known as Wishstone Class with spectral features that can be attributed uniquely to plagioclase feldspar, a phase that represents more than half of the bulk mineralogy. Rare exceptions are three classes of basaltic "exotics" found scattered across Husband Hill that may represent impact ejecta and/or float derived from local intrusions within the hills. The rare outcrops observed on Husband Hill display distinctive spectral characteristics. The outcrop called Peace shows a feature attributable to molecular bound water, and the outcrop that hosts the rock called Watchtower displays a dominant basaltic glass component. Despite evidence from the rover's payload for significant alteration of some of the rocks, no unambiguous detection of crystalline phyllosilicates or other secondary silicates has been observed by Mini-TES. The mineralogical results supplied by Mini-TES provide no clear evidence that a lake once existed in Gusev Crater.


Object tracking is a process that follows a specific object through some consecutive frames of images to determine the movement of that object relative to the other objects of those frames. Simply, tracking is the problem of estimating the trajectory of an object in the image plane as it moves around a scene. Depending on the tracking domain, a tracker can also provide partial and full object occlusions along with the other features. Here the problem with occlusion is being focused. It is experimented that if the color and texture features are applied then after occlusion object can be tracked. But sometimes it fails to detect the objects after occlusion. In this experiment we tried to include the partial visibility information of an object individually and along with these factors and has tried to proof that with this extra information we can project a better and more realistic trajectory of the object being tracked both before and after the occlusion. For this purpose a new and a very simple algorithm has been proposed which is able to track objects before and after occlusion even if the color and texture do not come up to scratch. Some experimental results are shown along with several case studies trough which the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm is explored.


Feature hierarchy (FH) has proven to be effective to improve recommendation accuracy. Prior work mainly focuses on the influence of vertically affiliated features (i.e. child-parent) on user-item interactions. The relationships of horizontally organized features (i.e. siblings and cousins) in the hierarchy, however, has only been little investigated. We show in real-world datasets that feature relationships in horizontal dimension can help explain and further model user-item interactions. To fully exploit FH, we propose a unified recommendation framework that seamlessly incorporates both vertical and horizontal dimensions for effective recommendation. Our model further considers two types of semantically rich feature relationships in horizontal dimension, i.e. complementary and alternative relationships. Extensive validation on four real-world datasets demonstrates the superiority of our approach against the state of the art. An additional benefit of our model is to provide better interpretations of the generated recommendations.


The Malaysian health system has evolved significantly from the public sector dominated delivery system in the 1950's to a more balanced public private health care system found today. Rapid expansion of the private health sector occurred from the 1990's and as a consequence, private shares of health financing have been on the increase. This thesis on fair financing of health is motivated by welfare concerns arising from consumption of private health care by the poor, specifically the impact on household welfare caused by household out-of-pocket (OOP) health payments. The
concept of fair financing generally holds that society has a moral obligation to ensure that the health needs of the poor can be met without requiring them to fully pay for the
health care needed and consumed which they may not otherwise be able to afford.
Fair financing for health is examined using data from three comparable nationally representative household expenditure surveys conducted in 1993/94, 1998/99 and 2004/05. The first part of the study, assessment of financial risk protection for health, looks at the distribution of household OOP health payments as well as comparing
household OOP payments to two payment thresholds - a catastrophic payment threshold which is set at a predetermined share of household consumption and official Malaysian household poverty lines. In essence this part of the study measures extent to which distributions of OOP payments are favouring richer or poorer persons, levels of
catastrophic health payments and medical impoverishment. Availability of data allowed financial risk protection to be assessed for the years 1993, 1998 and 2004. Financial
risk protection for health has also been examined by geographical regions in Malaysia (Peninsular, Sabah and Sarawak), urban rural strata and ethnicity. Distributions of OOP payments have also been examined by public private sector providers and categories of health care services. The second part of the study assesses the progressivity of entire health financing system by measuring the progressivity of six health financing sources, namely personal income tax, sales tax, non-tax Federal Government revenues, social security funds from the Employee Provident Fund and Social Security Organisation, private health insurance payments and OOP health payments, singly and in
combination. Availability of data and information allowed progressivity to be assessed for the years 1998 and 2004.
This study has found evidence of fair financing in Malaysia which included small OOP payment burdens for the average person with distributions favouring richer persons, low
levels of catastrophic health payments and medical impoverishment as well as an overall progressive health financing system, mainly made up of four progressive
financing sources namely personal income tax, social security funds, OOP health payments and private health insurance payments. As expected, this study has found that
OOP payments have been predominantly for the purchase of private health care, mainly for non-hospital based care and pharmaceuticals. Financial risk protection was higher
among some sub-populations in the country including those living in Sarawak, rural areas and the Chinese. However, over time from 1993 to 2004, some features of fair
financing appeared to have diminished where the distribution of OOP payments and households incurring catastrophic health payments became less concentrated among the rich. The overall health financing system was found to be progressive in 1998 and 2004. Changes in progressivity were too small to make a definite conclusion of the trends over time.
Declining fairness in health financing in Malaysia may be explained by increasing OOP payments for private care and increasing uptake of private health insurance by poorer
households. This in turn may be due in part to declining quality of care provided by the public health system which may have been partially caused by the rapidly expanding
private health sector. If so, the situation is likely to worsen further if remedial actions are not taken.
This study has provided two main health policy lessons with regards to private provision and private financing of health care. The first is that extensive taxation-based
funding of health care can ensure fair financing despite high OOP health payment shares of total health financing in a country. The second is that a situation of fair
financing can co-exist with a large private health sector financed mainly from OOP payments. The main message is that it is not so much the quantum of payments that matters but rather the distribution of payments.


A fawn cocker spaniel, male, 2 years old, was subjected to behavioral counseling as he presented aggression towards owners and other dogs, especially male. According to the French school, the symptoms presented by the subject can be traced back to a form of sociopathy with the presence of a strong disturbance of intra- and inter-specific communication. Given the episodes of biting, therapy with Clomipramine (2 mg / kg / day) for 5 months was established, in addition to 2 months necessary for weaning from the medication. The use of Dog Appeasing Pheromone, with collar worn for 6 months was prescribed. The behavioral modification therapy initially focused on the proper management of resources by providing adequate information to owners about it. Aggression is one of the most frequently reported behavioral problems referred to veterinary behaviorist and requires careful management for the serious physical and psychological consequences that may result in bites. If the first effort of the veterinarian should be to ensure the safety of people who are in contact with the dog, the protection of animal welfare is not less important. In fact, a dog presenting an aggressive behavior towards co-specifics or, especially, towards the owner, must receive careful clinical and behavioral assessment to identify the cause, accompanied by a thorough risk analysis. An urgent action is therefore necessary to ensure the welfare and to prevent any worsening of symptoms resulting in exclusion from the family. In fact, an aggressive dog will often be confined in small spaces and can not share with the owner many opportunities for social life. Immediate action is also requested by the instrumentalisation of the aggressive behavior that is very frequent and dangerous.


The stretch from the riparian zone of a major river, through the mouth and upstream in tributaries forms a range of differing habitats. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of these different habitats on the riparian frog community in primary rain forest in Borneo; i.e. examine whether any gradients could be demonstrated in terms of species composition, diversity and density of frogs, as well as which environmental characteristics that seem to be of most importance in forming habitats of high conservational value. A major river, Segama, and three of its tributaries were investigated. The surveys were carried out at night by searching for frogs visually and acoustically along the streams, from the shore of the Segama river and 400 metres upstream in the tributaries. In all transects 10 habitat variables were also measured. The results from the study show a significantly lower diversity and abundance of frogs along the shores of Segama and close to the mouths of the tributaries compared to further upstream, and a significant difference in species assemblage. Most species exhibited a negative correlation with the downstream transects or were not found there at all. The habitat characteristics waterfalls and boulders were found to be of most importance for the diversity and abundance of frogs, making these characteristics key components of habitats with high conservational value. Major rivers could also potentially form dispersal corridors for invasive species, which findings of the introduced species Fejervarya limnocharis along the shores of Segama shows.


In Okamoto spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR), elevated arterial blood pressure is not transmitted to the renal interstitium, and therefore pressure natriuretic and diuretic responses are attenuated. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of increasing renal interstitial hydrostatic pressure (RIHP) by direct renal interstitial volume expansion (DRIVE) on natriuresis and diuresis of SHR and Wistar-Kyoto rats (WKY). Unilateral nephrectomy and implantation of two polyethylene (PE) matrices were performed 3-4 wk before the acute experiment. Four groups of rats, two experimental and two time control, were used. A control clearance period was taken in all groups. In experimental groups and at the beginning and middle of the second period DRIVE was accomplished by bolus injection of a solution of 2.5% human albumin in saline directly into interstitium through one of the PE matrices. In time-control groups saline was infused in renal interstitium at the beginning of the second period. The second PE matrix was used to continuously measure RIHP in all groups. In experimental groups, DRIVE produced a significant increase in RIHP from 3.8 +/- 0.4 to 5.7 +/- 0.8 mmHg (P less than 0.05) in SHR and 4.3 +/- 0.4 to 7.1 +/- 0.5 mmHg (P less than 0.05) in WKY. In both groups the significant increase in RIHP was associated with significant increases in urinary sodium excretion (UNaV), fractional excretion of sodium (FENa), and urine flow rate (V).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


OBJECTIVE
Human trophoblast cells in primary culture are difficult to use for the rigorous study of trophoblast function because of contamination with other cell types, paucity of numbers, poor viability and inter-experiment variation engendered by the need to prepare fresh cells for each experiment. DNA-transfection to produce immortalized cells, or cells with extended life-span, has been the obvious approach to solve this problem. Although there have been a few reports in the literature describing trophoblast cell lines generated in this way, it is clear that to date the methods are difficult and few lines have been generated. The basic problem is that transfection efficiencies of different methods are cell type-specific. The objectives of this study were therefore to compare the transfection efficiencies of three commonly used techniques, to use the best technique to generate trophoblast cell lines, and to conduct preliminary characterization studies.

METHODS
We have compared calcium phosphate co-precipitation, DEAE-dextran and poly-L-ornithine (PLO) DNA transfection protocols. We then used the most efficient to transfect human extravillous trophoblast with pSV3neo.

RESULTS
Our modification of the PLO method has a transfection efficiency greater than 30 times that of the next best method. Several cell lines were established which had an extended life span and displayed an invasive phenotype, including the expression of MHC Class I framework antigens, human placental lactogen and human chorionic gonadotrophin, and thus have characteristics of extravillous trophoblast. In addition these cells express the integrin subunits b1, a1, and a3, all of which are known to be expressed in human trophoblast, and respond to IL-1alpha by increased secretion of GM-CSF.

CONCLUSIONS
PLO is a highly efficient, rapid, reliable, simple and low-cost technique for the procurement of human trophoblast cell lines which retain most, if not all, the phenotype of the parental cell. These lines are potentially powerful tools in the rigorous study of trophoblast function.


Summary Many parts of the world's extensive hot drylands pose significant problems for the civil engineer because of chemically aggressive and changing ground conditions. The most important areas are generally the broad flat coastal strips of more recent sediment, for these commonly contain abundant sulphate as gypsum and anhydrite and have widespread surface or near-surface crusts of halite. The coastal water and groundwater in these regions are usually sulphate and chloride rich, moving slowly through the sediments because of rapid evaporation of the groundwater via the capillary fringe into the drier atmosphere. This movement of groundwater accelerates solution and precipitation of the more soluble minerals, the greater the flow rate the more rapid the compositional change in the sediments—sufficiently rapidly to be of engineering significance. The engineering works themselves can effect significant changes in the ground chemistry and this is most often brought about by changing the position of the water table or the capillary fringe, by dewatering, or raising ground levels by depositing fill. In addition to the significant effect of salts on results of standard engineering tests, the other most likely problems created by the chemical changes are: settlement due to solution in flowing groundwater, heave due to crystallization from groundwater or by reaction between soils and groundwater, and the creation of a chemically aggressive environment in foundations. The properties of these groundwater-soil systems are reviewed from the point of view of field observations and some large-scale experiments which give indications of the magnitudes and rates of the chemical processes. Two case histories are cited by way of illustration-Dubai Dry Dock and the Harbour Works at Mina Jebel Ali, Dubai. The Dry Dock represents an example of settlement effected by the solution of gypsum from lithified sediments through which seawater was passing, and the Harbour Works show how groundwater and fill chemistry have been changed in the few years required for the construction works.


I discuss strangeness as a tool for studying the reaction and hadronization dynamics of relativistic heavy-ion collisions at RHIC. In particular, I focus on quark-number scaling of elliptic flow as a tool to determine the nature of hadronization as well as to quantify the amount of collective flow the strange quarks carry and discuss the use of (multi-)strange hadron radial flow and interferometry for characterizing the collective expansion and emitting source dimensions of a hadronizing quark-gluon-plasma.


This article explores the language of corporate accounts of business and human rights. Using innovative methods drawn from computational corpus linguistics, the article explores discussions of business and human rights in a data set composed of 346 corporate social responsibility reports drawn from firms in extractive industries. The article concludes that human rights are 'put to work' in corporate accounts by reconfiguring their meaning to draw them into the 'familiar frames' of business accounting narratives.


As the amount of available linked data expand and the number of related applications increases, the management of aspects such as provenance and access control of such data begin to become an issue. Current approaches do not provide sufficient support for automatic reasoning over different metadata types and their possible interdependencies. MetaReasons is a framework that supports representation and automated reasoning over metadata in a single logical formalism. Different types of metadata, like data-provenance and accessibility-restrictions, are represented as distinct meta-theories and dependencies between metadata types are represented by rules between different meta-theories. In this paper we present the definition of the MetaReasons framework and two examples meta-theories for provenance and access control. Moreover, we propose a materialization calculus for forward reasoning on the two aspects.


Abstract When the esophageal carcinogen methyl- n -amylnitrosamine (MNAN; concentration, 3 mg/liter) was incubated in vitro with rat esophagi for 3 hr, five principal neutral metabolites (Metabolites 2 to 6; total yield, 3.0% of the MNAN per 100 mg tissue) were separated by gas chromatography, with detection by a thermal energy analyzer. Rat liver produced similar metabolites (total yield, 2.1% of the MNAN per 100 mg tissue). Metabolites 4 to 6 and a minor product, Metabolite 7, were tentatively identified as 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-hydroxy-MNAN (HO-MNAN), respectively, from a comparison of their gas chromatography retention times with those of the synthesized compounds. Rat esophagus produced similar amounts of 3- and 4-HO-MNAN and lesser amounts of 2-HO-MNAN, whereas rat liver produced mainly 4-HO-MNAN. Rat nasal tissue metabolized 8.0% of the MNAN per 100 mg tissue, with a metabolite pattern like that of the esophagus. Rat lungs produced mostly 5-HO-MNAN. A comparison of yields from tissues of rats, hamsters, guinea pigs, and mice supported the view that the total production of neutral MNAN metabolites indicated the sensitivity to MNAN carcinogenesis, with some exceptions. MNAN injected i.p. was less carcinogenic for the esophagus and nasal cavity in Sprague-Dawley than in MRC-Wistar rats, perhaps because the livers of Sprague-Dawley rats metabolized more of the MNAN. The urine of MNAN-treated MRC-Wistar rats contained MNAN and metabolites provisionally identified as 2-, 3-, and (as the major product) 4-HO-MNAN. The identity of the urinary 4-HO-MNAN was confirmed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. We speculate that tissues like the esophagus, which (unlike the liver) produce significant proportions of 2- and 3-HO-MNAN, also produce significant amounts of the most likely proximal carcinogen, 1-HO-MNAN.


Mughal Warfare offers a much-needed new survey of the military history of Mughal India during the age of imperial splendour from 1500 to 1700. Jos Gommans looks at warfare as an integrated aspect of pre-colonial Indian society. Based on a vast range of primary sources from Europe and India, this thorough study explores the wider geo-political, cultural and institutional context of the Mughal military. Gommans also details practical and technological aspects of combat, such as gunpowder technologies and the animals used in battle. His comparative analysis throws new light on much-contested theories of gunpowder empires and the spread of the military revolution.


An adaptive network-based fuzzy logic power system stabilizer (ANF PSS) is presented in this paper. This method combines the advantages of artificial neural networks (ANNs) and fuzzy logic control (FLC) schemes together to design a new PSS. In this approach, a fuzzy logic based PSS with learning ability has been constructed and is trained directly from the input and the output of the generating unit. The proposed PSS employs a multilayer adaptive network with the error backpropagation training method. Results show that the proposed ANF PSS can provide good damping of the power system over a wide range and significantly improve the dynamic performance of the system.


Jan Huygen van Linschoten's 1596 Itinerario, published in Amsterdam just before Dutch world hegemony, opened the Indian Ocean world for the European geographical imagination, especially regarding its spice markets and non-Christian cultures. Linschoten confirmed rumors in Europe that the Portuguese Estado da Índia had become decadent and unstable, especially in its capital Goa. He also mentioned the absence of Portuguese control in the market of Bantam, which would become the capital of Dutch Indonesia. In addition, the book disclosed nautical and economic information about the Indian Ocean until then carefully guarded by the Portuguese, especially about the Spice Islands. In fact, the book's navigational section was published early so it could be on board the so-called First Voyage organized by the Dutch. This article discusses the main features that made the cartographic, cultural, and economic information of the Itinerario crucial to this historical expedition. Historicizing the discipline of geography is indispensable for understanding how travel and technology affect what can be known of the planet. Following Foucault's understanding of the production of knowledge, the central argument is that the Itinerario inaugurated a leap in the Dutch geographical "episteme" and a new struggle for the Indian Ocean. Linschoten's humanist scholarship was from the start a multiplicity of knowledges and voices that could be read and used in many ways.


On the 15th of March 2020, the current president of the Republic of South Africa, Mr Cyril Ramaphosa, declared a National State of Disaster as a response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). A range of regulations and directions were effected in many countries to respond to this pandemic. Essential service workers were deployed across the country to help minimise the spread of the virus. Some of these essential service workers lost their lives in the line of duty. Clergies found themselves having to bury more people in a short period of time. The increase in the death rate resulted in an increase in funerals. Therefore, clergies were also part of the essential workers during this pandemic. Clergies also found themselves having to bury fellow clergies. Congregants and clergies became mourners. The church found itself having to adjust to the 'new normal', because the way church nine-function has changed, it will never be the same again. Clergies like many South Africans became chief mourners because they also had to bury their relatives. However, they also had to bury members of their own congregations because of COVID-19 related illnesses. This challenged the way pastoral care has always been done. It challenged clergies to find new ways of doing pastoral care while keeping social distance, protecting themselves and others. This article looked at the practice of practical theology during the COVID-19 pandemic, reflected on caregiving during the pandemic, referred to literature to encourage clergies to acknowledge their own pain and also briefly discussed the change in ministry since the beginning of the pandemic. The aim of this article was to challenge pastoral care to look deep into caring for clergies, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. As they care for others, they also need to be cared for. Intradisciplinary and/or interdisciplinary implications: The contextual perspective challenged by this research is the understanding of self-care for clergies, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. This research calls for a change in the traditional cause of Practical Theology. This research will be done using a literature review on suicide according to both Christianity and psychology. © 2022. The Author.


Background: This study aims to investigate the detailed computed tomography (CT) measurement of the nasopharynx (NP) in normal adult detecting mean of its dimension and relation of that measurement to that of the sphenoid sinus. Methodology/Principal: A normal paranasal CT scan and a straight nasal septum of 128 individuals (256 sphenoid sinuses) were included in the study. Axial images were acquired with multiplanar reformates to obtain delicate details in coronal and sagittal planes for all subjects. Measurement of the width, length, and anteroposterior dimensions of the NP and sphenoid sinuses were taken separately. Results: In 128 studied CT of adult subjects, the mean height of the NP was 19.4619 ± 4.52661 and mean depth was 21.80714 ± 4.62324 while the mean width was 25.31951 ± 3.80521. No significant relations between diameters of NP and sphenoid sinuses were found. Conclusion: The detailed CT measurement of the NP in normal adult is an easy and reliable measurement. This study put the base of CT measurement of NP for further work to describe changes in such measures in patients with nasal and paranasal sinus anomalies.


Innate immunity plays a central role in resolving infections by pathogens. Host survival during plague, caused by the Gram-negative bacterium Yersinia pestis, is favored by a robust early innate immune response initiated by IL-1β and IL-18. These cytokines are produced by a two-step mechanism involving NF-κB-mediated pro-cytokine production and inflammasome-driven maturation into bioactive inflammatory mediators. Because of the anti-microbial effects induced by IL-1β/IL-18, it may be desirable for pathogens to manipulate their production. Y. pestis type III secretion system effectors YopJ and YopM can interfere with different parts of this process. Both effectors have been reported to influence inflammasome caspase-1 activity; YopJ promotes caspase-8-dependent cell death and caspase-1 cleavage, whereas YopM inhibits caspase-1 activity via an incompletely understood mechanism. However, neither effector appears essential for full virulence in vivo Here we report that the sum of influences by YopJ and YopM on IL-1β/IL-18 release is suppressive. In the absence of YopM, YopJ minimally affects caspase-1 cleavage but suppresses IL-1β, IL-18, and other cytokines and chemokines. Importantly, we find that Y. pestis containing combined deletions of YopJ and YopM induces elevated levels of IL-1β/IL-18 in vitro and in vivo and is significantly attenuated in a mouse model of bubonic plague. The reduced virulence of the YopJ-YopM mutant is dependent on the presence of IL-1β, IL-18, and caspase-1. Thus, we conclude that Y. pestis YopJ and YopM can both exert a tight control of host IL-1β/IL-18 production to benefit the bacteria, resulting in a redundant impact on virulence.


Electronic business (e-business) systems are important for SMEs operating in Saudi Arabia. Despite its importance, little is known about how SMEs operating in Saudi Arabia (which has some unique SME characteristics) approach e-business systems adoption process. Much of the current e-business literature focuses on the adoption decision of e-business systems. As e-business systems are complex and inter-organisational in nature, an improved understanding can be developed when adoption process of these systems is considered as a temporal process involving multiple stages. Relatively limited empirical research is however reported that focuses on the multiple stages of the e-business systems adoption process. This is particularly true for Saudi Arabia in which SMEs are expressing an interest in e-business systems adoption. Motivated by these concerns, this study examines the e-business adoption process among Saudi SMEs by developing a three-stage e-business adoption model which is rooted in the ideas borrowed from the Diffusion of Innovation (DOI) literature. The model incorporates a total of 19 'stage specific' factors and 10 'common' factors identified from various streams of literature. The model was then evaluated using an online experts panel and a case study in which 20 SMEs from Saudi Arabia participated. The case study findings indicate that a total of 14 'stage specific' factors (i.e. compatibility, complexity, trialability, observability, perceived e-business attributes, availability of technical expertise, knowledgeable employee attitude toward technology, communication, customer readiness, security concerns, high competence in IS, perceived e-business value, owner attitude toward technology, and training) are important for Saudi SMEs to adopt e-business systems. In addition, eight 'common' factors (i.e. cost, relative advantage, management support, external pressure, owner-manager characteristic, organisational readiness and awareness, trading partners' readiness, and organisational culture) are important for Saudi SMEs to adopt e-business systems. Interestingly, some differences are noted in the influence of these factors among SMEs across the manufacturing and service sectors. The research model and the case study findings are useful. The model assists researchers in understanding the e-business systems adoption process in SMEs based on the notion of a 'stage model' approach. Knowledge of the factors supported through the case study provides useful guidelines for those SMEs which are contemplating the introduction of e-business systems for the first time. These guidelines identify those specific factors which SME management should care for during each of the three stages of the e-business systems adoption initiatives in their companies. This will in turn facilitate eventual implementation success of e-business systems for the SME context. E-business researchers are encouraged to replicate this study to other countries particularly for those in the Arabian Gulf region.


We propose a novel method of estimating default probabilities using equity option data. The resulting default probabilities are highly correlated with estimates of default probabilities extracted from CDS spreads, which assume constant recovery rates. Additionally, the option implied default probabilities are higher in bad economic times and for firms with poorer credit ratings and financial positions. An inferred recovery rate, after controlling for liquidity effects, is also related to underlying business and firm conditions, varies across sectors and predicts subsequent equity returns.


Although density-edge effects are commonly reported, we have only scratched the surface in understanding the mechanisms underlying how habitat edges mediate species interactions. Here, I use a combination of field surveys and experiments to explore the linkages between the presence of host-plant edges (Scolochloa festucacea), the within-patch distribution of planthopper eggs (Delphacodes scolochloa), and the oviposition behavior of their egg parasitoids (Anagrus spp.). The field surveys revealed that densities of hosts and parasitoids at the edge were > or = 2.5 times lower than densities in the patch interior and that the effect was independent of patch size. As a consequence of its edge-avoidance behavior, host within-patch dispersion was significantly more aggregated in the presence, as compared to the absence, of an edge. Also, as patch size decreased, the proportion of the patch that was core (i.e., beyond the influence of the edge) decreased, and the degree of host aggregation increased. In a subsequent field experiment, I found that the dispersion of hosts affected Anagrus oviposition behavior only when hosts were present on islands with discrete edges. Under these circumstances, the proportion parasitized and per capita parasitized were 2.3 and 3.4 times higher, respectively, when hosts were clumped as compared to when hosts were uniformly or randomly distributed. Based on a laboratory experiment using small S. festucacea patches, I found that Anagrus had 40% shorter step lengths, spent 52% more time in the patch, and parasitized 84% more hosts when hosts were clumped as compared to uniformly distributed. These results were indicative of area-restricted search by Anagrus, which is an effective foraging strategy when hosts are clumped. This is the first study to demonstrate that predator foraging behavior in response to prey dispersion can be mediated by the presence of a patch edge. Also, because edge-averse behavior is commonly reported in the literature, an underappreciated effect of fragmentation on predator-prey interactions and stability could arise from edge-mediated effects on prey within-patch aggregation.


Siqanus rivulatus, a successful herbivorous immigrant fish from the Red Sea, consumes along the Israeli east Mediterranean coast a wide variety of algae. Only four of them composed about a half of the bulk of its food, and only twelve, about 80% of it. Seasonal changes in quantitative representation of different algae in the food followed several patterns. Most algae were taken throughout the year. Proportions in the food of some algae fluctuated only slightly during the year, proportions of others were very great during short periods and much smaller during the rest of the year. Polvsiphonia is an example for the former, Ulva and Spatoglossum, for the latter. Among the latter, Ulva dominates the food contents during the end of winter and spring; Spatoglossum, during the late summer.

As shown previously, s. rivulatus prefers certain algae as food. Nevertheless, food composition in fish captured at inshore sites differed from that of fish captured offshore. This reflects, to a certain extent, the difference in vegetation between these sites, and the fact that the fish tend to graze in a rather limited area at a time.

Small and large fish take different algal food species. Unexpectedly, small fish clearly preferred some large and robust algae, consuming them in much greater proportions than bigger fish. Also unexpectedly, medium size fish showed preferences and avoidances of their own in regard to the consumption of certain algae, and not merely occupied an intermediate position between small and large fish.


Universal mask wearing is recommended to help control the spread of COVID-19. Masks reduce the expulsion of aerosols of respiratory fluids into the environment (called source control) and offer some protection to the wearer. Masks are often characterized using filtration efficiency, airflow resistance, and manikin or human fit factors, which are standard metrics used for personal protective devices. However, none of these metrics are direct measurements of how effectively a mask blocks coughed and exhaled aerosols. We studied the source control performance of 15 cloth masks (face masks, neck gaiters, and bandanas), two medical masks, and two N95 filtering facepiece respirators by measuring their ability to block aerosols ≤ 7 μm expelled during simulated coughing and exhalation (called source control collection efficiency). These measurements were compared with filtration efficiencies, airflow resistances, and fit factors measured on manikin headforms and humans. Collection efficiencies for the cloth masks ranged from 17% to 71% for coughing and 35% to 66% for exhalation. Filtration efficiencies for the cloth masks ranged from 1.4% to 98%, while the fit factors were 1.3 to 7.4 on headforms and 1.0 to 4.0 on human subjects. The Spearman's rank correlation coefficients between the source control collection efficiencies and the standard metrics ranged from 0.03 to 0.68 and were significant in all but two cases. However, none of the standard metrics were strongly correlated with source control performance. A better understanding of the relationships between source control collection efficiency, filtration efficiency, airflow resistance, and fit factor is needed.


The first book of The Runelords, an epic heroic fantasy in the bestselling mode of David Eddings Certain works of fantasy are immediately recognizable as major monuments, towering above the rest of the category. Authors of those works, such as Stephen R. Donaldson and J. R. R. Tolkien, Robert Jordan and Terry Goodkind, come immediately to mind. Now add to that list David Farland, whose epic begins in The Runelords. Young Prince Gabon, a Runelord prince who has received endowments of strength and perception according to the system of magic that works in this world, is traveling in disguise with his warrior-guard, Borenson, to the fiefdom of his father's friend King Sylvarresta to ask for the hand of his daughter, lome, in marriage. But as they stop on the way in a market town, they meet a beautiful woman, Myrrima, who catches the eye of Borenson. The prince, seeing this and having a sudden and unusual intuition of her honor and loyalty, encourages Borenson in immediate courtship. As he sits in a tavern, Gaborn notices two foreign assassins, powerful and well-trained men who should not be there, who head out toward Sylvarresta. And in a moment, his happy journey turns into a perilous race to warn the King of deadly danger, a danger that seems local but escalates with astonishing speed to such a magnitude and scope that all human life is threatened. Monstrous evil is loose among men and in the world. So begins the fantasy epic of The Runelords. "When I reached the end of this first volume, The Runelords, and saw grace arise from a devastating battlefield where too many great hearts lay dead, Farland had earned the tears that came to my eyes. It was not sentiment but epiphany".-- Orson Scott Card, Author of Alvin Maker "This is a major talent". -- Fantasy and Science Fiction


Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices are generally fabricated on rigid substrates that support the propagation of waves efficiently. Although very challenging, the realisation of SAW devices on bendable and flexible substrates can lead to new generation SAW devices for wearable technologies. In this paper, we report flexible acoustic wave devices based on ZnO thin films coated on various substrates consisting of thin layers of metal (e.g., Ni/Cu/Ni) and/or polymer (e.g., polyethylene terephthalate, PET). We comparatively characterise the fabricated SAW devices and demonstrate their sensing applications for temperature and ultraviolet (UV) light. We also investigate their acoustofluidic capabilities on different substrates. Our results show that the SAW devices fabricated on a polymer layer (e.g. ZnO/PET, ZnO/Ni/Cu/Ni/PET) show enhanced temperature responsivity, and the devices with larger wavelengths are more sensitive to UV exposure. For actuation purposes, the devices fabricated on ZnO/Ni/Cu/Ni layer have the best performance for acoustofluidics, whereas insignificant acoustofluidic effects are observed with the devices fabricated on ZnO/PET layers. We propose that the addition of a metallic layer of Ni/Cu/Ni between ZnO and polymer layers facilitates the actuation capability for the acoustofluidic applications while keeping temperature and UV sensing capabilities, thus enhancing the integration of sensing and acoustofluidic functions.


This study aims to analyze the performance of the loan products and services offered by Indonesian government's Forest Development Financing Center (BLU-P2H Center) that target the prevention and repair of forest damage. The methodology used is a systematic literature review that identifies, assesses, and interprets this chosen research topic's findings. The study attempts to answer three formulated research questions— (i) How can P2H products and services policies that align with the carbon credit risk mitigation of deforestation be mapped?; (ii) How should P2H products and services that contribute to carbon credit risk mitigation be investigated?; and (iii) How can the impact of P2H products and services in preventing deforestation be measured? The systematic literature review findings highlight that the Indonesian Government has adopted some important provisions and institutions, namely P2H products and services, and carried out loan disbursements to prevent forest destruction, specifically, the forestry business and environmental investment financing. The findings also indicate that while the government most extensively disbursed certain loans, such as community forest enterprises (HR), there was a low level of loan disbursement for community forest-based loans (HKm) because of the constraints faced by farmers in arable land that produces seasonal crops. Therefore, the study implicates that the forest destruction, particularly in Indonesia, resulting from illegal logging by local communities, needs to be further prevented by increasing the public knowledge on the sustainability impact of deforestation and also by increasing the public's access to and opportunities for public welfare, alternative livelihoods, and micro-business activities. The study findings also make an original contribution to the literature on the carbon credit risk mitigation of forest damage as they illustrate a government-sponsored, innovative P2H scheme in the form of loan disbursement aiming to reduce and prevent forest destruction.


We show how to use security market data to restrict the admissible region for means and standard deviations of intertemporal marginal rates of substitution (IMRSs) of consumers. Our approach (i) is nonparametric and applies to a rich class of models of dynamic economies, (ii) characterizes the duality between the mean--standard deviation frontier for IMRSs and the familiear mean- standard deviation frontier for asset returns, and (iii) exploits the restriction that IMRSs are positive random variables. The region provides a convenient summary of the sense in which asset market data are anaomalous from the vantage point of intertemporal asset pricing theory.


We use a concept of framing to explain 3 cases in which participants initially lacked mutual understanding but then achieved significant mutual understanding. The cases were all consistent with a pattern of positional framing that includes a human participant who is inquiring, which we call a listener, and a source, which may be another human participant or a non-human system. Participants with these different positionings have different perspectives that shape the interpretations and functions of their contributions. We hypothesize that achievement of mutual understanding also depends on participants having epistemological and conceptual framings that are sufficiently aligned. We distinguish between cases in which the participants achieved alignment of conceptual framing by adopting a schema that was in their common ground, cases in which the participants co-constructed a coherent framing without the benefit of a prefabricated schema (by constraint satisfaction, we hypothesize), and cases in which mutual understanding involved a refinement that did not require reframing. We argue that our hypotheses qualify as explanatory mechanisms, and we explicate this in an appendix. Our general goal is to contribute to the growing body of scientific studies that include concepts and methods for understanding cognitive structures and processes integrated with concepts and methods for understanding interaction that people have with each other and with other material and informational systems. [Supplementary materials are available for this article. Go to the publisher's online edition of the Journal of the Learning Sciences for the following free supplemental resource: "A Mechanistic Analysis of Discourse," which presents an analysis of an episode from Case #1 of this article as a more detailed example of the kind of mechanism we have hypothesized in our more general accounts of interaction presented in the article.]


Bendiocarb is a carbamate insecticide which causes general toxic effects on mammalian. This study aimed to examine the possible ameliorative roles vitamins E and C and their combination against effect of bendiocarb small intestine toxicity in rats. For this purpose, forty-eight adult albino male rats were divided like: vitamin E, control, vitamin C, vitamins (C and E), bendiocarb, bendiocarb+vitamin E, bendiocarb+vitamin C, and bendiocarb+vitamin C+vitamin E groups. After four weeks of treatment small intestine tissues were examined for histopathological alterations. Bendiocarb induced toxicity on small intestine tissues, vitamins had not protective effects of this toxicity


An upward looking 75 kHz ADCP (Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler) was moored at 100 m above the bottom in 912 m water depth in the central-north Alboran Sea (W-Mediterranean Sea). The ADCP sampled current and acoustic echo-amplitude at a rate of once per minute for 9 days, thereby revealing particular internal wave–zooplankton interactions that varied with depth. The ADCP's echo-amplitude, a measure of zooplankton abundance, showed a dominant diurnal periodicity due to vertical migration, and occasionally intense reflections manifesting high-frequency interfacial internal waves close to the buoyancy frequency. These waves reached excursions of up to about 90 m crest-trough, around 250 m. They were only visible in acoustic data during daytime when the zooplankton gathered near these thin interfacial layers. Around 500 m where the vertical density stratification was 10 times smaller than at 250 m, larger amplitude internal waves were observed, measuring up to about 150 m crest-trough. These waves had the lowest internal wave frequency, close to the inertial frequency. Below 600 m, the stratification was so weak that large (~100 m) vertical convection in the direction of the earth rotational vector dominated over internal gravity waves. At these depths, diurnal vertical migrations were not observed, which suggests that zooplankton either avoid or become dispersed by waters with large vertical convection. Light limitation is not expected to be a key factor in this case, as vertical migration has been observed deeper than 1000 m in other areas where stratification is greater.


Mathematics teaching and  learning process expectedly should portray an interactive and dynamic classroom experience capable of promoting mathematical understanding and sustaining learners' interest in anticipation of applying what they have learnt. This study, being quasi-experimental, therefore expands the empirical base for understanding learners' cognitive  load memory capacity in relation to use of graphical materials on students' mastery of  mathematics concept of Set Theory. The sample consisted of seventy-five (75) students from the selected schools in Egbeda, Oyo State. Three research hypotheses were tested using t-Test statistics. Evidence from field survey indicates that students were more enthusiastic in classroom because of the interactive nature portrayed by the graphical materials. Results also indicated that students taught with the aid of graphical materials, that is, the experimental group, had significantly higher mean gain score and it was recommended that, teachers should begin the use of graphical materials as opportunity to make the learning of mathematics easier and that, if properly harnessed, this aspect of instruction may serve as simulator helping learners construct meanings and develop their own understanding, ready to take on more complicated structures as they moves towards complex concepts in mathematics.


Wearable accelerometers can be used to objectively assess physical activity. However, the accuracy of this assessment depends on the underlying method used to process the time series data obtained from accelerometers. Several methods have been proposed that use this data to identify the type of physical activity and estimate its energy cost. Most of the newer methods employ some machine learning technique along with suitable features to represent the time series data. This paper experimentally compares several of these techniques and features on a large dataset of 146 subjects doing eight different physical activities wearing an accelerometer on the hip. Besides features based on statistics, distance based features and simple discrete features straight from the time series were also evaluated. On the physical activity type identification task, the results show that using more features significantly improve results. Choice of machine learning technique was also found to be important. However, on the energy cost estimation task, choice of features and machine learning technique were found to be less influential. On that task, separate energy cost estimation models trained specifically for each type of physical activity were found to be more accurate than a single model trained for all types of physical activities.


A railway signalling system is the control equipment performing vital functions, and the validation on functional safety of its software is a very important issue. Recently, various software testing tools have been applied to verify signalling system software. However, these tools are unable to support black-box testing to verify the functional safety of embedded signalling system software, and few black-box testing tools are currently commercialized. Since most of these commercialized black-box testing tools depend on a testing method through direct accessing to the target memory under test, there are a lot of difficulties when applying them to the test. In the case of using the existing tool, it is possible to test them only if the internal memory addresses values that are occupied by the executing embedded software. Therefore they are rarely utilized to verify the embedded software in the actual operating environment. To overcome these problems, this study developed a black-box testing tool using communication interfaces which are utilized when actually operating. The real interface channel is used as an input and monitoring channel for black-box testing. This approach carries out the test in a manner where the test data are input and the results are fed back to these interface channels by utilizing interface channels with other signalling equipment already operating. Boundary value analysis and equivalence class analysis modules were used to generate test cases within the developed new testing tool. The pilot of the proposed testing tool has been completed, and the feasibility study is now in progress with railway signalling system software in Korea as its test target.


The term 'inflammatory arthritis' (IA) encompasses a spectrum of diseases, of which the most common forms are rheumatoid arthritis (RA), psoriatic arthritis (PsA), and ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Over the past decade, the advent of immunomodulatory biological therapies has dramatically changed the management of such diseases, and offers alternatives for patients with a poor response to the more conventional disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs).

Over recent years, more emphasis has been placed on the concept of shared care between specialist and primary care physicians for many chronic conditions once on a stable treatment regime, in order to improve hospital workload and enable more flexibility for patients. This brief review highlights the key points relevant to primary care physicians involved in the care of patients with IA on biologic agents.

Immunomodulatory biologic agents (Table 1) are proteins derived from human genes that are genetically engineered to inhibit precise components of the immune system.1 By doing so, they suppress specific pathways that play a pivotal role in IA pathogenesis and, hence, differ from the more commonly used DMARDs, which have broader targets.1 If tolerated, biologic agents are used in combination with methotrexate, or an alternative DMARD, in view of enhanced efficacy.

View this table:

Table 1.
Summary of biologic agents licensed for …


(This article originally appeared in Management Science, April 1970, Volume 16, Number 8, pp. B-466-B-485, published by The Institute of Management Sciences.)

A manager tries to put together the various resources under his control into an activity that achieves his objectives. A model of his operation can assist him but probably will not unless it meets certain requirements. A model that is to be used by a manager should be simple, robust, easy to control, adaptive, as complete as possible, and easy to communicate with. By simple is meant easy to understand; by robust, hard to get absurd answers from; by easy to control, that the user knows what input data would be required to produce desired output answers; adaptive means that the model can be adjusted as new information is acquired; completeness implies that important phenomena will be included even if they require judgmental estimates of their effect; and, finally, easy to communicate with means that the manager can quickly and easily change inputs and obtain and understand the outputs.

Such a model consists of a set of numerical procedures for processing data and judgments to assist managerial decision making and so will be called a decision calculus. An example from marketing is described. It is an on-line model for use by product managers on advertising budgeting questions. The model is currently in trial use by several product managers.


In this paper we present a geometrically-constrained time delay estimation method for sound source localization (gTDE). An algebraic analysis reveals that the method can deal with an arbitrary number of non-coplanar microphones. We derive a constrained non-linear optimization problem that can be solved using convex programming. Unlike existing techniques, which consider pairwise TDE's, the proposed method optimally estimates a set of time delays that are consistent with the source's location. Extensive simulated experiments validate the method in the presence of noise and of reverberations.


Determining the category of a text document from its semantic content is highly motivated in the literature and it has been extensively studied in various applications. Also, the compact representation of the text is a funda- mental step in achieving precise results for the applications and the studies are generously concentrated to improve its performance. In particular, the studies which exploit the aggregation of word-level representations are the mainstream techniques used in the problem. In this paper, we tackle text representation to achieve high performance in different text classification tasks. Throughout the paper, three critical contributions are presented. First, to encode the word- level representations for each text, we adapt a trainable orderless aggregation algorithm to obtain a more discriminative abstract representation by transforming word vectors to the text-level representation. Second, we propose an effective term-weighting scheme to compute the relative importance of words from the context based on their conjunction with the problem in an end-to-end learning manner. Third, we present a weighted loss function to mitigate the class-imbalance problem between the categories. To evaluate the performance, we collect two distinct datasets as Turkish parliament records (i.e. written speeches of four major political parties including 30731/7683 train and test documents) and newspa- per articles (i.e. daily articles of the columnists including 16000/3200 train and test documents) whose data is available on the web. From the results, the proposed method introduces significant performance improvements to the baseline techniques (i.e. VLAD and Fisher Vector) and achieves 0.823% and 0.878% true prediction accuracies for the party membership and the estimation of the category of articles respectively. The performance validates that the proposed con- tributions (i.e. trainable word-encoding model, trainable term-weighting scheme and weighted loss function) significantly outperform the baselines.