India's external debt has been rising ever since independence 50 years ago. The debt service ratio has also been rising and touched a peak of approximately 35%. The country also has been facing foreign exchange crisis on account of the above and increasing imports burden. The two make India a disadvantaged player in international trade. Exports alone are not able to meet the increasing demands of foreign exchange. It is necessary that India to generate foreign exchange and develop debt-repaying capacity through alternative means like becoming a global player. Foreign investments inspired inflows, which have provided a temporary respite from foreign exchange crisis, may not be a lasting solution, if necessary structural changes are not undertaken to make India a global player. The investments may dry up soon if they do not fetch expected returns. If they are successful they will generate additional demand for foreign exchange. The structural changes undertaken so far do not seem to be adequate to make India a truly global player. Indeed, it looks that the initiatives taken may lead to India becoming a global market instead. The paper suggests that there is a need for major changes in the present approach, which almost ignores new product development within the country. It identifies the barriers to India's becoming a global player and suggests several action strategies. The paper has been divided into five sections. Section I gives introduction and raises the issues of adequacy of the economic reforms initiated by the government of India six years ago, to meet the long term challenges that the Indian economic system. Section II gives the historical backdrop and current scenario of external debt and foreign exchange and points to the need of India becoming a global player. Section III presents the trends and patterns pf foreign collaborations, import and exports. Section IV explains possible reasons for the same for the present state of affairs. It also presents the findings of a study on foreign companies' interests in India and discusses behaviour of the domestic companies, leading to the conclusion that India may become global market instead of becoming a global player, and possible long-term repercussions thereof. Section V discusses several policy and action strategies required to supplement the current reform measures to meet the challenge that the Indian economy faces today.


Wind power is playing an increasingly significant role in our daily life. However, wind farms are usually far away from cities especially for offshore wind farms, which brought inconvenience for maintenance activities. Two conventional maintenance strategies, namely corrective maintenance and preventive maintenance, cannot provide a condition-based maintenance to identify potential anomalies and predicts turbines' future operation trend. In this paper, a model based data-driven condition monitoring method is proposed for fault detection of the wind turbines with SCADA data acquired from an operational wind farm. Due to the nature of the alarm signals, the alarm data can be used as an intermedium to link the normal data and fault data. First, KPCA is employed to select principal components to retain the dominant information from original dataset in order to reduce the computation load for further modelling. Then the selected principal components are processed for normal-abnormal condition classification to extract those abnormal condition data that are classified further into false alarms and true alarms related to the faults. This two stage classification approach is implemented based on the KSVM algorithm. The results demonstrate that the two-stage fault detection method can identify the normal, alarm and fault conditions of the wind turbines accurately and effectively.


This paper presents an ecological performance analysis and optimization for an air-standard irreversible Dual-Atkinson cycle (DAC) based on the ecological coefficient of performance (ECOP) criterion which includes internal irreversibilities, heat leak, and finite-rate of heat transfer. A comprehensive numerical analysis has been realized so as to investigate the global and optimal performances of the cycle. The results obtained based on the ECOP criterion are compared with a different ecological function which is named as the ecologic objective-function and with the maximum power output conditions. The results have been attained introducing the compression ratio, cut-off ratio, pressure ratio, Atkinson cycle ratio, source temperature ratio, and internal irreversibility parameter. The change of cycle performance with respect to these parameters is investigated and graphically presented.


The solar cell concept presented here is based on 3C-SiC nano- or microwires and conju¬gated polymers. Therefore the silicon carbide wires are fabricated by a sol-gel route including a car-bothermal reduction step, allowing growth with predetermined uniform diameters between 0.1 and 2μm and lengths up to several centimetres. The design of our photovoltaic device is therein based on a p-i-n structure, well known e.g. from silicon photovoltaics, involving an intrinsic semiconduc¬tor as the central photoactive layer, sandwiched between two complementary doped wide-bandgap semiconductors giving the driving force for charge separation. In our case the 3C-SiC microwires act as the electron acceptor and simultaneously as carrier material for all involved components of the photovoltaic element.


BACKGROUND
Little is known about barriers to Hereditary Breast and Ovarian Cancer (HBOC) genetic counseling among Puerto Rican women.

OBJECTIVE
This study reviews existing literature to identify individual, interpersonal, and systems level factors that may impact the use of HBOC genetic services among Puerto Rican women living in the United States.

METHODS
A systematic search of articles published between the years 1995-2014 was performed in PubMed and ISI Web of Science. Additionally, the bibliography of relevant articles was reviewed for additional potential articles.

RESULTS
Individual level barriers most frequently identified included: a lack of knowledge or awareness about HBOC or genetic counseling and testing, and facilitators included high levels of interest in genetic counseling/genetic testing. Interpersonal level barriers included worry about knowing a family member's risk, and conversely, a facilitator was the ability to help family members. Systems level barriers included concerns about the cost, having competing life demands, whereas facilitators included holding private insurance.

CONCLUSION
Puerto Rican women are a unique ethnic minority group with specific perceptions, beliefs and levels of education about genetic counseling and testing for HBOC. Addressing individual, interpersonal and systems level factors unique to this group may improve knowledge and awareness. Policy and structural changes may be needed to improve system level barriers.


Application of the as low as reasonably achievable (ALARA) principle to many tasks across the Department of Energy (DOE) complex logically leads to the realization that remotely operated equipment is highly desirable. The Pit Viper is a tele-operated system intended for pit operations at the Hanford Site. Commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components were used in an attempt to reduce integration hurdles and increase reliability. One key factor is that only a limited number of available, off-the-shelf robotic manipulator systems are available and all of them have some characteristics that present interfacing challenges. The state-of-the-art in remote technology is not as mature as many might hope. This paper describes the issues (and proposed improvements) that surfaced during the development and first deployment of the Pit Viper System. Important areas are contamination control, operator interface and operator training, adaptation of tools, and workspace interfaces. The Pit Viper, as is, provides significant improvement over the current baseline approaches.


This is a fascinating and insightful study of the development of New Orleans jazz and its effect on jazz history. "New Orleans Style" is the story of how New Orleans jazz came to be recognizable as a discrete style and how that recognition affected the writing of American jazz history. The men and women who participated in the awakening of American jazz scholarship were partisans of a community of 'hot' record collectors, whose interest in the origins of jazz was a foregone conclusion. An international network of collectors took shape between the 1920s and 1934, providing a mechanism for the circulation of historical information on jazz, which then became the basis for the emergence of a jazz literati writing for magazine such as "Down Beat", "Esquire", "The New Republic", and "Jazz Information".Inspired by their love for the music and emphasizing 'New Orleans style', writers like Charles Edward Smith and William Russell explained in work such as "Jazzmen" (1939) and "The Jazz Record Book" (1942) that jazz was 'born in New Orleans'. Raeburn traces the conceptualization of jazz history derived from "Jazzmen" to its ultimate refuge in New Orleans and its integration into the cultures which it celebrated. The result is an essential work of jazz criticism that will fill a major gap in the field's literature.


The traditional biomedical and person-in-environment (PIE) perspectives are often found in conflict when framed within broader gender discrimination and consumerist health care practices. Our critical feminist analysis addresses the case of Katie, a vulnerable health care recipient, whose intersecting identities fall outside of the "margins of acceptability." Communication deficits among team members and a lack of clear care protocols become evident. Insurance demands to justify coverage undermine the processes of beneficence and the ethic of care required for emancipatory advocacy. We present the tripartite paradigm of transformative complicity, cultural humility, and systems-based empowerment to address the complex ethical dilemmas that emerge. Strategies informed by experimental ethnography help us model effective transdisciplinary dialogue by inviting voices/commentators to rise from the margins (foot/endnotes) and decenter authorial power. Using an emancipatory social work framework, we offer actionable steps which, as revealed by our commentators, are often lacking from the medical team's and care recipient's toolbox. We call ffor discursive courage to chip away at the socially constructed myths of biological and moral deficit that merge gender, colorism, class, and invisibility in the web of historical and structural discrimination. In addition, we welcome service seekers, as therapeutic colleagues, in the process of systemic empowerment.


In the effort to address behavioural risk factors – which contribute significantly to the global burden of disease – there is a growing movement in public health towards the use of interventions informed by behavioural science. These interventions have the benefit of being amenable to testing in randomised controlled trials, are cost-effective and, when scaled up, can have significant public health benefits. A subset of these interventions attempts to change behaviour by shifting social norms perception (what I think everyone else does and thinks). We surveyed the work on social norms intervention and considered its applicability to issues of public health in South Africa. Social norms interventions have widespread and significant potential to address issues of public health in South Africa; policymakers should look to these interventions as cost-effective tools to address key issues. More broadly, we advocate for an expansion of the use of behavioural science in developing public policy in South Africa.


Data security is a significant requirement in our time. As a result of the rapid development of unsecured computer networks, the personal data should be protected from unauthorized persons and as a result of exposure AES algorithm is subjected to theoretical attacks such as linear attacks, differential attacks, and practical attacks such as brute force attack these types of attacks are mainly directed at the S-BOX and since the S-BOX table in the algorithm is static and no dynamic so this is a major weakness for the S-BOX table, the algorithm should be improved to be impervious to future dialects that attempt to analyse and break the algorithm  in order to remove these weakness points, Will be generated dynamic substitution box (S-BOX) base on the input key, shifting, chaotic theory (1D, 2D logistic map), and particle swarm algorithm. At the same time will be generated inverse of the table S-BOX through output of the S-BOX which will be generated from the suggestions above will return the values of the union of the row and the column for all the values generated for S-BOX. The S-BOX output is tested in several measurements represent (complexity, time, avalanche criterion, and balance) and the results show that any change in the input will change the output S-BOX also the proposed algorithm will be measured by the five statistical and NIST measurements all results will show a successful exception random excursions, random excursions variant (test not application ). The time needed to implement it requires only milliseconds and is approximated to the time taken for the original algorithm.


This paper constructs a piece-wise fuzzy linear regression model for terminal delay estimation using the traffic demand and weather. Earlier, the features of traffic demand and weather were used to develop a linear regression model for delay. The accuracy of delay estimation model using a single linear fit is improved by the three-piece fuzzy linear model. Results are presented on the development of the three-piece fuzzy linear model using 360 days data of one terminal area from 2004. The fuzzy methodology, together with the three-step regression model, provides the estimation of the terminal delay performance.


Eldana saccharina is an indigenous lepidopteran insect pest and the most damaging stem borer of sugarcane in southern Africa. Breeding for E. saccharina resistance in South Africa started in 1980 by crossing resistant parents (expected to possess resistance genes) and selecting for resistance. The objectives of this study were to compare family to individual plant selection, identify superior families and parents using best linear unbiased predictors (BLUP) and determine the optimum sample size for data collection. Data on number of bored stalks were collected from a randomised block design trial with 12 families and three replications. The larger broad-sense heritability and percent predicted selection gains of families indicated superiority compared with individual plant selection. BLUP estimates identified superior families (VV0061 and VV0564) and parents (80M0971 and 87M0965), indicating that breeding for E. saccharina would be enhanced using family selection. Parents selected from breeding programmes where E. saccharina is endemic consistently produced less damaged progenies than those from low E. saccharina infestation, indicating the occurrence of natural and recurrent selection. The results suggested presence of additive and non-additive genetic effects as well as significant maternal effects for resistance. The optimal sample size for data collection would be four replications and 10 individuals per family plot to adequately discriminate families.


Three experiments were conducted to examine different protein sources for segregated, early weaned (SEW) pigs. Protein sources evaluated included extruded soybeans, extruded-expelled soybeans, solvent-extracted soybean meal and spray-dried egg product as a substitute for spray-dried plasma protein. Performance differences among the four treatments could not be detected after seven weeks (two-week experimental period and five-week common corn-soybean meal diet). The cost of gain was reduced during the two-week treatment period by feeding diets with reduced plasma protein levels with or without the partial or complete substitution of spray-dried egg product. In addition, SEW pigs consuming the diet containing 20 percent soybean meal and 6 percent spray-dried plasma performed similarly to pigs receiving a more conventional SEW nursery diet (10 percent soybean meal, 6 percent spray-dried plasma protein). These experiments suggest egg protein and soybean proteins may be used for SEW pigs without signifi-cantly decreasing nursery performance over a seven-week period. The role of plant protein sources in diets for SEW pigs needs to be reevaluated.


Researchers have established that the local social or moral order impacts on aspects of death announcements in various societies, though few have consequently sought to problematise that order. Those studies appear to presume the homogeneity of the studied society although modern societies typically include diverse peoples. This article assesses whether death notices in Aotearoa New Zealand are circumscribed by the dominant social/cultural order or reflect its multicultural character. Examining a large number of notices from the New Zealand Herald, we found most incorporated the same structural elements and employed a common vocabulary, evidence that the writers were guided by a single social order. Utilising published research and death notices deviating from the standard we were able to identify cultural characteristics of that local social order that were being rendered ordinary in the sample of death notices. Identified features of that dominant order are: it fixes a gulf between past and present; it limits relationships of the deceased to their immediate family; it expects positive portrayals of the deceased; and overtly religious language is largely absent. Underpinning these notices were two cultural characteristics: an understanding of time as a unidirectional flow of empty instants and a taken-for-granted a-social individuality.


When do groups—be they countries, administrations, or other organizations—more or less accurately understand the world around them and assess political choices? Some argue that group decision-making processes often fail due to biases induced by groupthink. Others argue that groups, by aggregating knowledge, are better at analyzing the foreign policy world. To advance knowledge about the intersection of politics and group decision making, this paper draws on evidence from a multiyear geopolitical forecasting tournament with thousands of participants sponsored by the US government. We find that teams outperformed individuals in making accurate geopolitical predictions, with regression discontinuity analysis demonstrating specific teamwork effects. Moreover, structural topic models show that more cooperative teams outperformed less cooperative teams. These results demonstrate that information sharing through groups, cultivating reasoning to hedge against cognitive biases, and ensuring all perspectives are heard can lead to greater success for groups at forecasting and understanding politics.


No significance has been shown yet between the cytological subtypes of canine lymphoma and clinical behaviour. This paper describes and illustrates the cytological and histological criteria for application of the National Cancer Institute Working Formulation classification system, a scheme with demonstrated prognostic capability for human non-Hodgkin's lymphomas, to a series of 285 canine lymphomas. The Working Formulation can be used without difficulty for canine lymphomas. Low grade follicular tumors were found to be much less common, and high grade, aggressive tumors much more common than these cell types in humans. Low grade tumors tend to have low mitotic rates and high grade tumors tend to have high mitotic rates. There may be an association between hypercalcemia and lymphoblastic cell type. A review of available literature data for canine lymphomas suggests that prognostic extrapolation of clinical behaviour based on human lymphoma data may be possible. These results suggest that there may be strong similarities of morphology and behaviour between human non-Hodgkin's lymphomas and canine lymphomas.


This paper presents a formal systematic optimization process to plate-fins heat sink design for dissipating the maximum heat generation from electronic component by applying the entropy generation rate to obtain the highest heat transfer efficiency. The design investigations demonstrate the thermal performance with horizontal inlet cooling stream is slightly superior to that with vertical inlet cooling stream. However, the design of vertical inlet stream model can yield to a less structural mass (volume) required than that of horizontal inlet stream model under the same amount of heat dissipation. In this paper, the constrained optimization of plate-fins heat sink design with vertical inlet stream model is developed to achieve enhanced thermal performance. The number of fins and the aspect ratio are the most responsive factors for influencing thermal performances. The heat sink used on AMD Thunderbird 1-GHz processor has been examined and redesigned by presenting optimization methodology. The optimal thermal analysis has a very good agreement to the both of vendors' announced information and using simulation of parabolic hyperbolic or elliptic numerical integration code series (PHOENICS). The optimum design that minimizes entropy generation rate in this paper primarily applied three criteria for plate-fins heat sink optimal design: formal constrained nonlinear programming to obtain the maximum heat dissipation; prescribed heat dissipation; prescribed surface temperature. As a result, the thermal performance can be notably improved; both the sink size and structural mass can apparently be reduced through the presented design method and process. This analysis and design methodology can be further applied to other finned type heat sink designs.


Energy storage can be utilized in a wide range of applications. The main types of applications covered by the chapters in the present volume include utility and other electrical power systems, conventional and renewable power generation, renewable energy sources, heat pumps, building heating and cooling and district energy systems. The ability of energy storage to facilitate the efficient, effective and economic operation of renewable energy systems is reinforced in this volume, with chapters focusing on using energy storage to improve solar power plants and other renewable energy applications. This book addresses both existing and potential future energy storage technologies and systems.


Purpose : Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) suffer from poor oral hygiene and periodontal disease that may predispose them to systemic diseases. In order to receive dental care, the assistance of a certified registered nurse anesthetist (CRNA) is often needed. The role of the CRNA is to provide sedation to reduce the high level of anxiety demonstrated by many individuals with intellectual disabilities in the dental suite. However, this can become a challenge with patients that are anxious when they arrive. The purpose of this paper is to describe an interprofessional dental team that added a certified therapy dog and handler to reduce anxiety of individuals with IDD when they arrive in the dental suite. Methods : A convenience sample of 30 individuals with intellectual disability seen for dental care in an outpatient setting met with a therapy dog prior to receiving preventative dental care. Comparisons were made between observed anxiety levels and behaviors measured by the ADAMS (anxiety scale) and a researcher-developed behavior tool prior to and after the interaction with the therapy dog. Results : This program suggested that the addition of the therapy dog to the interprofessional team prior to sedation decreased anxiety levels and improved the behavioral outcomes of the individual with intellectual disabilities. Conclusions : The incorporation of a certified therapy dog and handler as part of an interprofessional healthcare team in the dental suite may pay great dividends in improving the compliance and comfort of the individual with intellectual and developmental disabilities during dental care visits.


Kazmirski, Todd J. M.S., Purdue University. May 1987. Steady State Analysis of a Brushless DC Motor with Half Bridge Inverter. Major Profes sor: Paul C. Krause. Brushless do motors have received significant attention in the fractional horsepower motor industry in recent years. The inverter drive used with this system has traditionally been of the full bridge configuration. However, it is possible to use a half bridge inverter to drive the machine. In this paper a method to analyze the brushless dc motor with half bridge inverter is developed. The method is integrated into a digital computer program to simulate the steady state response of the system. The program allows both the inverter conduction angle and the inverter firing angle to be changed. This provides an efficient means of evaluating the effects of system parame ters as well as inverter operating modes on the performance of the system. The results of the simulation will demonstrate reductions in efficiency and torque pulsations as well as an increase in average torque as the conduction angle of the inverter is increased from 120 degrees to 180 degrees.


As the wind power industry is the fastest growing energy resource in the world, wind turbine structures have been continuously increasing their dimensions and in particular their height, a trend which is expected to continue in the future. The height of wind turbines has doubled during the last 10 years and their power has increased by a factor of 5. This increase in height comes along with an overwhelming increase in the construction cost as well as with a plethora of emerging problems involving design/construction/erection processes. The present paper studies the problem of the most critical geometrical imperfections for the buckling capacity of wind turbine tower shell structures. The presented study is applied to many different tower geometries and includes linear elastic as well as plastic buckling through a series of nonlinear finite element calculations. The most critical geometrical shape imperfection is calculated through the parametric interaction of the buckling modes of the shell tower structure. The results present the sensitivity of the buckling capacity of the shell structure to the interaction of the modes considered as the geometrical onset for the nonlinear finite element analysis. The produced interactions are compared to the widely applied Eurocode design codes and useful conclusions are drawn.


In recent years, advances and improvements in engineering and robotics have been strengthening interactions between biological science and robotics in the goal of mimicking the complexity of biological systems. In this paper, motor control paradigms inspired by human mechanisms of sensory-motor coordination are applied to a biologically-inspired, purpose-designed robotic platform. The goal was to define and implement a multi-network architecture and to demonstrate that progressive learning of object grasping and manipulation can greatly increase performance of a robotic system in terms of adaptability, flexibility, growing competences and generalization, while preserving the robustness of traditional control. The paper presents the neural approach to sensory-motor coordination and shows preliminary results of the integration with the robotic system by means of simulation tests and experimental trials.


The THO/TREX complex negatively regulates phosphate starvation-induced root-associated acid phosphatase activity by suppressing ethylene signaling in Arabidopsis. Induction and secretion of acid phosphatases (APases) is an adaptive response that plants use to cope with P (Pi) deficiency in their environment. The molecular mechanism that regulates this response, however, is poorly understood. In this work, we identified an Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) mutant, hps8, which exhibits enhanced APase activity on its root surface (also called root-associated APase activity). Our molecular and genetic analyses indicate that this altered Pi response results from a mutation in the AtTHO1 gene that encodes a subunit of the THO/TREX protein complex. The mutation in another subunit of this complex, AtTHO3, also enhances root-associated APase activity under Pi starvation. In Arabidopsis, the THO/TREX complex functions in mRNA export and miRNA biogenesis. When treated with Ag+, an inhibitor of ethylene perception, the enhanced root-associated APase activity in hps8 is largely reversed. hpr1-5 is another mutant allele of AtTHO1 and shows similar phenotypes as hps8. ein2 is completely insensitive to ethylene. In the hpr1-5ein2 double mutant, the enhanced root-associated APase activity is also greatly suppressed. These results indicate that the THO/TREX complex in Arabidopsis negatively regulates root-associated APase activity induced by Pi starvation by inhibiting ethylene signaling. In addition, we found that the miRNA399-PHO2 pathway is also involved in the regulation of root-associated APase activity induced by Pi starvation. These results provide insight into the molecular mechanism underlying the adaptive response of plants to Pi starvation.


Atmospheric turbulence is caused by the random fluctuations of the refraction index of the medium. It can lead to blurring in images acquired from a long distance away. Since the degradation is often not completely known, the problem is viewed as blind image deconvolution or blur identification. Our previous work has observed that blurring increases kurtosis and introduced a new blur identification method based on kurtosis minimization (KM). In this letter, this observation has been studied using phase correlation. The KM method is compared with two other signal processing methods. The limitation of the method is also discussed.


High quality AI solutions require joint optimization of AI algorithms and their hardware implementations. In this work, we are the first to propose a fully simultaneous, Efficient Differentiable DNN (deep neural network) architecture and implementation co-search (EDD) methodology. We formulate the co-search problem by fusing DNN search variables and hardware implementation variables into one solution space, and maximize both algorithm accuracy and hardware implementation quality. The formulation is differentiable with respect to the fused variables, so that gradient descent algorithm can be applied to greatly reduce the search time. The formulation is also applicable for various devices with different objectives. In the experiments, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our EDD methodology by searching for three representative DNNs, targeting low-latency GPU implementation and FPGA implementations with both recursive and pipelined architectures. Each model produced by EDD achieves similar accuracy as the best existing DNN models searched by neural architecture search (NAS) methods on ImageNet, but with superior performance obtained within 12 GPU-hour searches. Our DNN targeting GPU is 1.40× faster than the state-of-the-art solution reported in Proxyless [1], and our DNN targeting FPGA delivers 1.45× higher throughput than the state-of-the-art solution reported in DNNBuilder [2].


Overall survival for patients with ovarian cancer (OC) has shown little improvement for decades meaning new therapeutic options are critical. OC comprises multiple histological subtypes, of which the most common and aggressive subtype is high-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC). HGSOC is characterized by genomic structural variations with relatively few recurrent somatic mutations or dominantly acting oncogenes that can be targeted for the development of novel therapies. However, deregulation of pathways controlling homologous recombination (HR) and ribosome biogenesis has been observed in a high proportion of HGSOC, raising the possibility that targeting these basic cellular processes may provide improved patient outcomes. The poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor olaparib has been approved to treat women with defects in HR due to germline BRCA mutations. Recent evidence demonstrated the efficacy of targeting ribosome biogenesis with the specific inhibitor of ribosomal RNA synthesis, CX-5461 in v-myc avian myelocytomatosis viral oncogene homolog (MYC)-driven haematological and prostate cancers. CX-5461 has now progressed to a phase I clinical trial in patients with haematological malignancies and phase I/II trial in breast cancer. Here we review the currently available targeted therapies for HGSOC and discuss the potential of targeting ribosome biogenesis as a novel therapeutic approach against HGSOC.


Family is viewed as central to Latin American society, and yet little is known about the interdynamics between husbands and wives within a patriarchal society that has had strong influences from the Roman Catholic Church. Family is the context in which cultural values and norms about gender roles are formed and transmitted from one generation to another (Castillo de Miranda, 1993; Gonzdlez de la Rocha, 1994), and a major part of how gender roles are identified in families is through decision making processes. Decision making processes within marriages are key to understanding the dynamics that occur within these relationships (Rettig, 1993) and also to understanding how the public and private domains of a society interact (Jelin, 1991). This is because decision making processes reveal interaction and agency within relationships, and can indicate where individuals are acting out or resisting social norms. Just as an association between the power dynamics and decision making processes between husbands and wives is often drawn too quickly without a breadth and depth of understanding about the processes, so too, has the gender differentiation of the public-private duality (domestic-private/female/powerless domain in opposition to public/male/powerful domain) led to the analysis of household activities in isolation from the sociocultural and socioeconomic context of the societies in which they are embedded. Although this study can only be viewed as exploratory, it begins to provide some means for dialogue about whether there is a pattern of gender norms for decision making within Panamanian couples. The study has two purposes: (a) to investigate perceptions of decision making process, outcome and implementation within urban Panamanian couples, and, (b) to investigate the amount of convergence between the perceptions of husbands and wives. DECISION CONTEXT AND PROCESS Most family decision making studies have emphasized the outcomes of decision making until recently (McDonald,1980; Olson & Cromwell,1975; Safilios-Rothschild,1976; Scanzoni & Polonko, 1980; Scanzoni & Szinovacz, 1980), when they began to use the organizing concepts of decision context and process (Danes, 1993; Danes & Rettig, 1993; Godwin & Scanzoni, 1989a, 1989b; Hill & Scanzoni, 1982). The decision context of this study is greatly affected by the foundations of Panamanian society. Culture and politics, along with strong sociocultural norms rooted in the Roman Catholic Church, have created an environnent where public and private life are viewed as separate (Jelin, 1991). Family is understood to be a private institution and is so defined in public documents. Panama's constitution indicates that the state will create an organism to protect the family and promote responsible fatherhood and motherhood. The constitution also recognizes the Roman Catholic faith as the country's predominate religion (Meditz & Hanratty, 1989). A renewal movement by the Catholic Church began in the 70s and 80s in the urban areas to promote the establishment of community services for the poor and educational courses to solidify the familial base within the communities (Flores, 1990; Opazo, 1988). Given these foundations, family life and domestic labor are taken for granted as existing within a private sphere that is outside the realm of scientific investigation (Jelin,1991). Although there is little discussion about family decision making patterns in the Latin American literature on families in the United States, there is a wealth of literature addressing the social and cultural context surrounding gender roles in Latin American societies. The twin phenomena of machismo and marianismo are said to influence a pattern of expectations based on real or imagined attributes of individuals (Scott, 1986; Stevens, 1973). The chief characteristics of machismo are exaggerated aggressiveness and an uncompromising stance in male-to-male interpersonal relationships, with callousness and sexual aggression in maleto-female relationships. …


The conventional energy sources are inadequate to accommodate the demand of energy which increases due to rapid industrialization and population growth. To overcome these problem non-conventional energy resources are used. Solar flat plate collector is a solar energy collector which is used to absorb solar radiation from sun and employed for heating the fluid flowing through it. Generally it uses circular pipe through which fluid is flow. Flat plate collector is use to raise the temperature of flowing fluid up to desired temperature that is up to 1000C. This collector absorbs both direct and diffuse solar radiation. Due to this reason it can works effectively on cloudy days. Hence, performance of solar flat plate collector is increased.


In Reply. —I share Dr Haines' concerns about superstitions that can arise from unexamined experience, but there are many useful ways to analyze experience, only one of which is a formal, prospective clinical trial. In fact, one might consider a randomized clinical trial to be a form of "final inspection" of a promising idea that almost always comes from other learning processes. Indeed, most human knowledge comes from sources other than randomized controlled trials. Systematic observation, carefully interpreted, led the Northern New England Cardiovascular Study Group to impressive success and saved lives. By continuing their study and observations together, the surgeons are learning steadily about which specific factors probably contributed to that success and which did not. Perhaps Dr Sheikh is correct that "spontaneous" improvements or "a general trend toward improved outcomes" may explain the gains of the Northern New England group, but I doubt it. First, trended over time, the results


The paper refers to the mathematical model of gasoline engine, and builds liquid-jet LPG(Liquefied Petroleum Gas) engine model. Based on the model, when the specific of the parameters distribution of operating engine are known, RBF neural network can estimate center value and the number of hidden layers precisely, and control engine A/F in fine range. But the parameter features of operating engine are unknown in advance. The paper provides a improved subtractive clustering - RBF neural Networks algorithm to control A/F of LPG engine. Simulation shows, improved subtractive clustering can precisely determine the number of neuron of RBF neural network hidden layers under unknown operation parameters, and the precision is higher, and self-study and adaptive adjusting is better than before.


Many managers in traditional product-oriented organizations are struggling to turn their companies into solutions-oriented businesses, widely considered the route to success in the 21st century. A good shortcut may be to establish corporate consultancies ? consulting units that offer customers solutions based on the traditional business's products or expertise. Thus computer companies such as IBM are moving toward integrated information-technology solutions, and telecom-equipment manufacturers such as Nokia are providing turnkey network solutions.

Changing from a product-oriented manufacturer to a customer-focused solutions provider can be rewarding, but because it involves a sweeping reorientation of the organization, it is also difficult. That's why the less radical approach of a consultative component often works best.

But even that strategy has its challenges, with success depending on determined managers who know what the pitfalls are and how to avoid them. Without firm management, the consultancy may be swept away by forces that draw it too far into the product business or too far away from it.

By thinking through the mission, identity and structure challenges and choosing the right strategy for handling them, leaders can both manage the consultative component and attain synergies between the product-centric business and the corporate consultancy's customer solutions.


Previously, we discovered that human glutathione transferase (hGST) A1-1 could be site-specifically acylated on a tyrosine residue (Y9) to form ester products using thiolesters of glutathione (GS-thiolesters) as acylating reagents. Out of a total of 20 GS-thiolester reagents tested, 15 (75%) are accepted by hGST A1-1 and thus this is a very versatile reaction. The present investigation was aimed at obtaining a more stable product, an amide bond, between the acyl group and the protein, in order to further increase the value of the reaction. Three lysine mutants (Y9K, A216K, and Y9F/A216K) were therefore prepared and screened against a panel of 18 GS-thiolesters. The Y9K mutant did not react with any of the reagents. The double mutant Y9F/A216K reacted with only one reagent, but in contrast, the A216K mutant could be acylated at the introduced lysine 216 with eight (44%) of the GS-thiolesters. The reaction can take place in the presence of glutathione and even in a crude cell lysate for five (28%) of the reagents. Through the screening process we obtained some basic rules relating to reagent requirements. We have thus produced a mutant (A216K) that can be rapidly and site-specifically modified at a lysine residue to form a stable amide linkage with a range of acyl groups. One of the successful reagents is a fluorophore that potentially can be used in downstream protein purification and protein fusion applications.


Concanavalin A (ConA), a mannose (Man)‐specific leguminous lectin isolated from the jack bean (Canavalia ensiformis) seed extracts, was discovered over a century ago. Although ConA has been extensively applied in various life science research, recombinant mature ConA expression has not been fully established. Here, we aimed to produce recombinant ConA (rConA) in lettuce (Lactuca sativa) using an Agrobacterium tumefaciens‐mediated transient expression system. rConA could be produced as a fully active form from soluble fractions of lettuce leaves and purified by affinity chromatography. From 12 g wet weight of lettuce leaves, 0.9 mg rConA could be purified. The glycan‐binding properties of rConA were then compared with that of the native ConA isolated from jack bean using glycoconjugate microarray and frontal affinity chromatography. rConA demonstrated a glycan‐binding specificity similar to nConA. Both molecules bound to N‐glycans containing a terminal Man residue. Consistent with previous reports, terminal Manα1‐6Man was found to be an essential unit for the high‐affinity binding of rConA and nConA, while bisecting GlcNAc diminished the binding of rConA and nConA to Manα1‐6Man‐terminated N‐glycans. These results demonstrate that the fully active rConA could be produced using the A. tumefaciens‐mediated transient expression system and used as a recombinant substitute for nConA.


Purpose: To analyze and compare two motion models constructed from 4D‐CT using deformable registration using two different computation approaches: Eulerian and Lagrangian.Method and Material: Accurate motion modeling within the lung is an important consideration in different clinical applications. We consider 4D‐CT scans for three patients treated in radiotherapy for lungcancer. 4D‐CTs were acquired using a 4‐slice fan‐beam CT scanner (GE Lightspeed QX/i; GE Heathcare Technologies, Waukesha, WI), and a respiratory surrogate (Real‐time Position Management; Varian Medical Systems, Palo Alto, CA). Two motion models were constructed from vector fields computed with demons algorithm with Gaussian regularization. We used also a image pre‐treatment method, a priori lung density modification, to handle this limitation of the demons algorithm. The first model, obtained with the Eulerian approach, uses small deformation estimations between successive phases of the 4D‐CT. The second model, obtained with the Lagrangian approach, was generated by estimation of larger deformations between the end‐exhale phase and all other states. The models were validated and compared using consistency (symmetry and transitivity) and accuracy (based on landmark points) metrics. Results: Mean values of accuracy were on the order of the image resolution and comparable to inter‐observer variability (1.9 mm), with slightly better results for the Lagrangian approach: 2.3 mm vs. 2.6 mm. The differences were not statistically significant for consistency.Conclusions: The results of this study suggest that the Lagrangian approach is more appropriate to use for generating a 4D‐CT motion model with deformable registration. In ongoing works, lung and GTV contours are used in order to conclude on the superiority of one motion model over the other for an automatic contour propagation tool, and for lung physiological information computation and analysis.


BACKGROUND
Currently the executive boardroom of University of Twente does not meet the demands and wishes of its users. Technical and design aspects are outdated and the overall appearance does not connect with University of Twente anymore. The interior design has an impractical setup which leads to undesirable and unintentional use during boardroom meetings, presentations and receptions. The Executive Board has asked the Facility Service Centre for a redesign proposal.
APPROACH
Firstly an exploratory research was done to gain a better insight in University of Twente, the executive boardroom and its users.
Secondly the demands and wishes of the users have been analyzed and interior aspects and issues have been examined together with intended future usage of the boardroom.
After that, more general aspects important to the redesign of the boardroom have been analyzed together with the Dutch Law on Working Conditions (ARBO) for office design.
Together with the primary users of the boardroom, ideas have been created, resulting in a detailed design brief. This design brief is used as a framework during the concept phase.
A final concept has been presented to members of the Executive Board in order to gain feedback. This feedback has led to a final redesign proposal.
RESULT
The result of this assignment consists of a redesign proposal of the executive boardroom of University of Twente.
A boardroom with a timeless, hospitable, open and durable appearance has been designed. The boardroom finds connection with University of Twente's green campus while elements of the visual identity can be recognized. A large boardroom table, boardroom chairs and main presentation area are designed to support long lasting meetings for both large and small groups. In sharp contrast, a secondary presentation area has been added, designed for smaller, faster and more active meetings. These two opposites promote versatile use of the boardroom. At the same time improving accessibility is intended to lead to increased usage of BV100. Furthermore, BV100 is designed to accommodate a number of secondary uses such as crisis meetings, receptions, ceremonies and video conferences.
A state of the art audio-video system is designed to maximize ease of use, add a variety of connection capabilities and fully support a 'Bring you own device' setup while maintaining a high-quality appearance. Interior climate aspects are improved to ensure a feeling of well-being.
CONCLUSION
By carefully gathering the demands and wishes of the users and actively involving them in the design process a successful design proposal has been made. The presented final concept is well received and initial reactions are positive. Now that final feedback has been added, a final presentation will be held for the Executive Board and members of the Facility Service Centre. When approved, this will lead to the start of the redecoration of the executive boardroom.
ABSTRACT
Figure


The notion of information puts the human, the animal and the vegetable all on the same plane, and tends to dissolve the previous specificities of these categories. DNA, in this way, is fetishized. Also, the notion of information, and of the gene, has moved from the domain of expert or technical culture to become a part of mass culture: a development that has important social consequences. The human body is seen as a prototype that needs to be tested or rectified (a consequence of the notion of 'bad' genes). From prenatal testing to the courtroom, it is implicitly around the notion a 'life worth living' (that is to say, of good morphological or genetic quality) that intense debates have arisen concerning the status of the body, of illness and of disability. Genetics is becoming part of the social environment, and it is setting itself up as a form of secular religion, with fundamentalist overtones. This article will analyse the anthropological shifts that have grown up around these new definitions of the human.


Chronic partial ureteral obstruction (CPUO) causes an increase in renal vascular resistance (RVR) that can be prevented by angiotensin II (ANG II)-converting enzyme inhibition. To assess the early effects of CPUO, guinea pigs subjected to neonatal left ureteral obstruction were anesthetized at 11-13 days of age for measurement of cardiac output and renal blood flow (RBF) using radioactive microspheres. Although RBF of the hydronephrotic kidney was not decreased at this age, that of the intact kidney more than doubled (P less than 0.01). To evaluate the hemodynamic response to relief of 5 or 10 days of neonatal left CPUO, animals were studied at 19-28 days of age. Although chronic enalapril maleate administration (30 mg.kg-1.day-1) did not further reduce the ratio of RVR to total vascular resistance (TVR) of the postobstructed kidney, it lowered RVR/TVR of the intact contralateral kidney by 40% (P less than 0.05). Renal renin content [RRC, pg angiotensin I (ANG I).mg protein-1.h-1] was twofold higher in both kidneys of animals with unilateral CPUO compared with those of sham-operated guinea pigs (P less than 0.03), and relief of obstruction normalized RRC. The rise in RVR/TVR resulting from ANG II infusion was not different in left kidneys of sham, CPUO, and CPUO-relief groups. However, for the intact kidney of animals with contralateral relief of CPUO, the increase was greater than in remaining groups (P less than 0.05). We conclude that by reducing intrarenal renin, relief of neonatal unilateral CPUO decreased ANG-mediated vasoconstriction of the postobstructed kidney and increased the vasoconstrictor response of the intact kidney to ANG II.


Monolayer two-dimensional transition metal dichalcogenides (2D-TMDCs) have gained immense attention for their desirable transport properties and direct bandgap that have led to a plethora of studies on modern nanoelectronic and optoelectronic applications. These properties are known to occur exclusively in TMDCs when thinned down to one or few monolayers. However reduced dimensionality poses a significant challenge for photonics and optoelectronics applications due to poor light absorption and emission dictated by the volume of semiconductor material. Plasmonic nanostructures have been widely studied for enhancing light-matter interactions in wide variety of material systems resulting in increased emission and absorption properties. 2D Materials provide the ultimate lower limit in terms of material thickness, therefore investigation of plasmon/2D Material hybrid material systems with a specific aim to enhance light-matter interactions is essential for practical optoelectronic applications. In this talk, I will discuss increased photoluminescence emission from MoS2 using both periodic plasmonic nanodisc arrays as well as a single plasmonic optical antenna. I will also describe a method for understanding and identifying the contributions of excitation and emission field enhancements to the overall photoluminescence enhancement using a tapered gold antenna. Additionally, I will describe a systematic study in which we have demonstrated increased light absorption in a monolayer WS2 film.


We describe a technical solution implemented at Halmstad University to automatise assessment and reporting of results of paper-based quiz exams. Paper quizzes are affordable and within reach of campus education in classrooms. Offering and taking them is accepted as they cause fewer issues with reliability and democratic access, e.g. a large number of students can take them without a trusted mobile device, internet, or battery. By contrast, correction of the quiz is a considerable obstacle. We suggest mitigating the issue by a novel image processing technique using harmonic spirals that aligns answer sheets in sub-pixel accuracy to read student identity and answers and to email results within minutes, all fully automatically. Using the described method, we carry out regular weekly examinations in two master courses at the mentioned centre without a significant workload increase. The employed solution also enables us to assign a unique identifier to each quiz (e.g. week 1, week 2…) while allowing us to have an individualised quiz for each student.


China Spallation Neutron Source (CSNS) is a high intensity proton accelerator-based facility. Its accelerator complex includes two main parts: an H- linac and a rapid cycling synchrotron (RCS). The RCS accumulates an 80 MeV proton beam and accelerates it to 1.6 GeV, with a repetition rate of 25 Hz. The AC dipole of the CSNS/RCS is operated at a 25 Hz sinusoidal alternating current which causes severe vibration. The vibration will influence the long-term safety and reliable operation of the magnet. The CSNS/RCS AC dipole-girder system takes vibration isolator to decrease the vibratory force and the vibration amplitude of the dipole. For the long-term safety and reliable operation of the dipole, it is very important to study the dynamic characteristics of the dipole-girder system. This paper takes the dipole-girder as a specific model system. A method for studying the dynamic characteristics of the system is put forward by combining theoretical calculation with experimental testing. The modal parameters with and without vibration isolator of the dipole-girder system are obtained through ANSYS simulation and testing. Then, the dynamic response of the system is calculated with modal analysis and vibration testing data. With the simulation and testing method, the dynamic characteristics of the AC dipole-girder are studied.


Yogurt is a natural source of gut-friendly bacteria. It has a considerable body of evidence that supports the significant positive effects of yogurt as probiotics on quail production performance and health. Yogurt containing bacteria can improve quail economic indexes and resistance to pathogens. With this objective, 240 growing Japanese quails were randomly distributed into three groups A1 (control), A2 (Yogurt), and A3 (Protexin) (4 replicates/treatment of 20 birds) to investigate the effect of yogurt as a probiotic source. Birds were allowed to be fed ad libitum with a commercial quail ration. Yogurt and Protexin were mixed at the rate of 5 ml/L (5ml into 1 lt. water) and 1g/L (1gm into 1 lt. water) in A2 and A3, respectively. Six (6) weeks of investigation showed a significantly higher result in yogurt than in the other two groups. Body weight had a significant difference between the control and protexin groups. Body weight gain (g) was significantly heavier in A2 at the finisher phase. No significant effect was observed in feed intake, but FCR (Feed Conversion Ratio) was significantly lower in A2, but no significant effect was noticed between A1 and A3. The mortality percentage was higher in the control group (2.66%) and lowest in yogurt (1.03%). Carcass characteristics were significantly heavier in A2 than A1 and A3. Non-carcass characteristics illustrated significant differences among the three groups, but a non-significant difference was observed in head weight. The gross return per bird was higher in A2 (12.05 BDT), whereas it was 6.55 BDT and 7.08 BDT for A1 and A3. With those observations, it can be concluded that yogurt successfully enhanced overall broiler performance and gross return of Japanese quail.


The main political responsibility of the legislator to the citizens is to create laws and institutions for the sake of promoting the virtues of citizens. In Plato's Laws, there is a tension between desiring a strong sense of virtue for the population while settling into a pessimistic acceptance of the inability of most humans to even approach it. This article draws out the tension between a strong sense of virtue and amore practical and achievable sense of virtue within the text by examining sōphrosunē as the key method of raising up the citizen. Considered in contrast to the legislators' attempts to instil self-control and moderation in the citizens are the ways in which the legislators undermine their own project through indoctrination, coercion and the lack of opportunities to practise sōphrosunē.


As part of the Selected Areas Starcounts Survey, a CCD survey to V > 21, we have obtained VI photometry of two fields at b = ±40° aligned roughly with an extrapolation of the major axis of the Sagittarius dwarf spheroidal galaxy. Comparison of the color-magnitude diagram (CMD) for some of these fields with the CMDs of fields reflected about the Galactic l = 0° meridian reveals an excess of stars at V0 = 17.85 and 0.9 < (V-I)0 < 1.1 in the (l, b) = (11°, -40°) field. The excess stars have colors consistent with the Sgr red clump, and deeper CMD imaging in these locations shows evidence of a main-sequence turnoff (MSTO) at V = 21, with the main sequence extending to the limit of our data (V = 24). The surface brightnesses we derive from either the potential excess of red clump stars or the apparent excess of MSTO stars are consistent with each other and with the results of other surveys at this latitude. No similar excess appears in our northern Galactic hemisphere fields near the (l, b) = (353°, +41°) field. We have obtained spectroscopy of all 30 candidate red clump stars in the range 0.9 < (V-I)0 < 1.1and 17.75 < V0 < 17.95. The radial velocity distribution of the stars, while dissimilar from expectations of Galactic structure models, does not show a contribution by stars near the Galactocentric radial velocity seen in other studies near the Sgr core. It is difficult to reconcile a photometric result that is consistent with other explorations of the Sagittarius stream with a radial velocity distribution that is apparently inconsistent. In a companion paper, we discuss how some of the discrepancies are resolved if our potential Sgr detection corresponds to a different Sgr tidal streamer than that detected by most other surveys.


Malaysia furniture exports performance show growth recently. The country's furniture exports increased to RM4.14 billion in the first five months of 2019 versus RM3.77 billion a year earlier. The furniture industry especially on exports market contributes largest number of values for Malaysia gross income through primary industries which is RM20.4 billion in 2018. However, the contributions of Bumiputera entrepreneurs towards the total value of Malaysia's timber and furniture exports is still low at RM6.63 million or less than one percent. This scenario is becoming worst where majority of Bumiputera furniture entrepreneur still depending on government market without initiate on design innovation to expend their market globally. There are several factors that contributes to this small numbers which discusses previously in the others researcher findings based on several of Bumiputera Furniture Manufacturer responds. In this case, design and quality factors are the highest influences that contributes to the decline of export values and percentage on Bumiputera Furniture industry. Therefore, this purpose of the study is to discuss why PETRA lacked in the context of design and product quality. The significance of the study is to enhance design process in PETRA to make sure they can serve a better product in the market. In this regard, this paper discusses the preliminary findings of issues revealed from sample of case study. The findings are very important for future research direction to improve the capabilities in the context of design innovation for the association.


We discuss rst order theories in which individual concepts are admitted as mathematical objects along with the things that reify them. This allows very straightforward formalizations of knowledge, belief, wanting, and necessity in ordinary rst order logic without modal operators. Applications are given in philosophy and in articial intelligence. We do not treat general concepts, and we do not present any full axiomatizations but rather show how various facts can be expressed.


BACKGROUND
The studies has indicated that mistakes related to nutritional manner and continuously decreasing level of physical activity cause that diet related diseases became an important issue of nutritional epidemiology.

OBJECTIVE
The aim of the study was the estimation of dietary intake of lower secondary school students with differentiated state of nutrition. The effect of selected socio-economic determinants (parents education, the number of children in the family) on the nutritional status of examined children was also considered.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The study group involved 947 students from lower secondary school in Bialystok, including 517 girls and 430 boys. Children with normal weight (total number 666, BMI 10-85c) and excessive body weight (total number 243)- with overweight (BMI 85-95c) and obesity (BMI > or = 95c) were selected based on the value of BMI indicator. The study questionnaire contained questions concerning socio-economic determinants. A 24h dietary recall was taken of the day preceding the examination in order to perform a quantitative evaluation of daily food rations.

RESULTS
Daily food rations of the study children were characterized by insufficient intakes of energy, carbohydrates and dietary fiber. Excessive intake of protein were noted in the study children. Excessive intake of fats was also noted in daily food rations of boys with overweight or obesity. There were no statistically significant differences in the education of parents, depending on the nutritional status of children, however boys of normal weight had a statistically significant lower number of siblings, compared with boys with excessive body weight.

CONCLUSIONS
The investigation showed the inappropriate dietary intake for children and adolescent, independently on their gender and nutritional status. Found in our study the presence of a significant proportion of children with excessive body weight with incorrect dietary intake requires the nutrition education including the ability to select products, not only because of their caloric value, but also relative proportions of intake of essential nutrients.


In nonagricultural systems, the relationship between intrinsic water-use efficiency (WUEi ) and leaf nitrogen (Narea ) is known to be stronger for legumes than for nonlegumes. We tested whether these relationships are retained for major agricultural legumes and nonlegumes. We compared the response to N nutrition of WUEi (and its component parts, photosynthesis (Asat ) and stomatal conductance (gs )) for legumes Cicer arietinum, Glycine max, Lupinus alba and Vicia faba, nonlegume dicots Brassica napus and Helianthus annus, and nonlegume cereals Hordeum vulgare and Triticum aestivum. Surprisingly, and in contrast to studied cereals and nonlegume dicots, Narea was positively related to photosynthesis in the legumes, explaining nearly half of the variance in Asat . WUEi was tightly coupled to Narea for agricultural legumes and nonlegume dicots, but not for cereal crops. Our analysis suggests that breeding efforts to reduce gs in legumes could increase WUEi by 120-218% while maintaining Asat at nonlegume values. Physiologically informed breeding of legumes can enhance sustainable agriculture by reducing requirements for water and N.


In this masters project, a system is developed for the analysis of the structure and the style of a percussive audio sequence with the aim of generating an arbitrarily long musically meaningful and interesting sound sequence with the same stylistic characteristics as the original. The framework is developed around a Variable Length Markov Chain (VLMC) that is used to predict and re-shuffle the basic bricks of a musical phrase, the musical events. Using an onset detector, at first, the sound is split into segments. Applying various clustering thresholds simultaneously, the clustering of the segments yields a multi-level discrete representation of the sound sequence. Then a regularity estimation of the levels is performed to determine the levels of refinement where regular time patterns appear. Those periodic events are then used as the core structure on top of which a regular temporal grid is built. The temporal grid defines the events, the tempo, and the meter. Finally different resolution levels are taken into account for the prediction using a generation strategy enhancing statistical significance while maximizing cluster resolution in order to avoid musical discontinuities. On a data base of percussion and beat boxing examples, the system was evaluated objectively as well as subjectively by two professional percussionists, showing that the automatically generated sequences maintain the style and beat of the original and that they are musically interesting.


An Arabidopsis transcription factor regulates the accumulation of seed storage reserves, including storage proteins and fatty acids. Seed storage reserves mainly consist of starch, triacylglycerols, and storage proteins. They not only provide energy for seed germination and seedling establishment, but also supply essential dietary nutrients for human beings and animals. So far, the regulatory networks that govern the accumulation of seed storage reserves in plants are still largely unknown. Here, we show that TRANSPARENT TESTA GLABRA1 (TTG1), which encodes a WD40 repeat transcription factor involved in many aspects of plant development, plays an important role in mediating the accumulation of seed storage reserves in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). The dry weight of ttg1-1 embryos significantly increases compared with that of wild-type embryos, which is accompanied by an increase in the contents of starch, total protein, and fatty acids in ttg1-1 seeds. FUSCA3 (FUS3), a master regulator of seed maturation, binds directly to the TTG1 genomic region and suppresses TTG1 expression in developing seeds. TTG1 negatively regulates the accumulation of seed storage proteins partially through transcriptional repression of 2S3, a gene encoding a 2S albumin precursor. TTG1 also indirectly suppresses the expression of genes involved in either seed development or synthesis/modification of fatty acids in developing seeds. In addition, we demonstrate that the maternal allele of the TTG1 gene suppresses the accumulation of storage proteins and fatty acids in seeds. Our results suggest that TTG1 is a direct target of FUS3 in the framework of the regulatory hierarchy controlling seed filling and regulates the accumulation of seed storage proteins and fatty acids during the seed maturation process.


This book introduces the work of an important medieval Islamic philosopher who is little known outside the Persian world. Afdal al-Din Kashani was a contemporary of a number of important Muslim thinkers, including Averroes and Ibn al-Arabi. Kashani did not write for advanced students of philosophy but rather for beginners. In the main body of his work, he offers expecially clear and insightful expositions of various philosophical positions, making him an invaluable resource for those who would like to learn the basic principles and arguments of this philosophical tradition but do not have a strong background in philosophy. Kashani held the position that philosophy awakens people from forgetfulness and incites them to reach for the perfection of existence. It was for this reason that he sought to make philosophy as accessible as possible to a wider than usual group of readers. In this book, Chittick uses Kashani and his work to introduce the basic issues and arguments of Islamic philosophy to modern readers.


Mobile information services differ from traditional, office information systems in their focus on entertainment value, their ability to be exposed to shifting social contexts, and the increased reliance of people (especially teenagers) on mobile telephones as important parts of their lives. This paper introduces a user acceptance model that addresses each of these differences: it includes hedonic value, context relevance, and perceived risk as major drivers of user acceptance. Our empirical research was conducted entirely online with the 'context' operating as an experimental treatment, and the other constructs measured using an online survey instrument. The research (N = 123) confirms that a consumer's utilitarian value and hedonic value of a mobile information service are strongly correlated. Further, utilitarian value had a significant impact on intentions to use a service, whereas hedonic value had no such impact. There was a significant negative influence of perceived risk on utilitarian value, implying that those who considered the service to be a greater risk also perceived it to be less useful. There was no significant influence of perceived risk on hedonic value. Finally, a change in context caused a significant change in utilitarian value, implying that people exposed to more relevant contexts found the service more useful than the people with less relevant contexts.


Biocompatibility of metallic implants and bone in orthopaedic surgery plays an important role in long-term survivor of the prosthetic implant fixation. However, titanium and its alloys do not bond to bone in the early stage of implantation (<6 months). On the other hand, titanium alloy undergoes electrochemical exchange and releases metallic ions in the physiological environment, which is believed to be the cause of implant failure. Cathodic electrolytic deposition is an important method in ceramic processing. In this paper, the nanocrystalline BaTiO3 coating were prepared by electrolytic deposition process. According to the XRD results, we can clearly identified that electrolytic deposition Barium titanate hydrate gel annealed at 350°C for 1 hr will form to BaTiO3, and its grain size about 4.85 nm. From dynamic cyclic polarization tests, we can found that dense BaTiO3 coated effective improved corrosion resistance of Ti substrate than untreated. From immersion tests, we can found that BaTiO3 exhibited excellent bioactive.


For close to a million soldiers, sailors and marines on their way to participate in World War II, Hawaii was, as the forward base and staging area for all Pacific operations, their "first strange place". What they found there was a complex crucible in which radically diverse elements - social, racial and sexual - were mingled and transmuted in the heat and strain of war. Drawing on a reservoir of documents, diaries, memoirs and interviews with men and women who were there, the authors recreate the dense, lush atmosphere of wartime Hawaii in this text. Hawaii was also the first place on another kind of journey - the long and troubled journey toward the new American society that began to emerge in the post-war era. Unlike the largely rigid and static social order of pre-war America, this was to be a highly mobile and volatile society of mixed racial and cultural influences, in which, above all, women and minorities would increasingly demand and receive equal status. In this text, Bailey and Farber show how these changes were tested and explored in the highly-charged environment of wartime Hawaii.


Resorbable bone fixation devices may be used in various surgical procedures for internal fixation in place of traditional metallic devices. Currently, there is no radiographic technique for tracing the postsurgical location and resorption of these devices. This study was undertaken to ascertain whether magnetic resonance imaging is a suitable tool for performing such evaluations. Using an animal model, the authors investigated the correlation over time between the magnetic resonance image of a surgically implanted pin and its histologically verified location and state.


Obstruction of the large and small airways occurs in several diseases, including asthma, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, cystic fibrosis, bronchiectasis, and bronchiolitis. This article discusses the role of ventilator waveforms in the context of factors that contribute to the development of respiratory failure and acute respiratory distress in patients with obstructive lung disease. Displays of pressure, flow, and volume, flow-volume loops, and pressure-volume loops are available on most modern ventilators. In mechanically ventilated patients with airway obstruction, ventilator graphics aid in recognizing abnormalities in function, in optimizing ventilator settings to promote patient-ventilator interaction, and in diagnosing complications before overt clinical signs develop. Ventilator waveforms are employed to detect the presence of dynamic hyperinflation and to measure lung mechanics. Various forms of patient-ventilator asynchrony (eg, auto-triggering and delayed or ineffective triggering) can also be detected by waveform analysis. Presence of flow limitation during expiration and excessive airway secretions can be determined from flow-volume loops. Abnormalities in pressure-volume loops occur when the trigger sensitivity is inadequate, with alterations in respiratory compliance, or during patient-ventilator asynchrony. Thus, ventilator waveforms play an important role in management of mechanically-ventilated patients with obstructive lung disease.


This paper presents a novel method to detect three types of abnormal Red Blood Cells (RBCs) called Poikilocytes in Iron deficient blood smears. Classification and counting the number of Poikilocyte cells is considered as an important step for the automatic detection of Iron Deficiency Anemia (IDA) disease. Dacrocyte, Elliptocyte and Schistocyte cells are three essential Poikilocyte cells that are prevalent in IDA. The suggested cell recognition approach includes preprocessing, segmentation, feature extraction and classification steps. Classification is done by using three distinct classifiers including Neural Network (NNET), Support Vector Machine (SVM) and K-Nearest Neighbor (KNN) classifiers. Finally, the output of all of the three classifiers are used via Maximum Voting theory to choose the proper class. In maximum voting theory, the class that receives the maximum number of votes is chosen as the final predicted class of a sample cell. In this paper, the accuracy of the proposed method is %99, %97 and %100 for detecting Dacrocyte cells, Elliptocyte cells and Schistocyte cells, respectively.


The ATF2 project is the final focus system prototype for the ILC and CLIC linear collider projects, with a purpose of reaching a 37 nm vertical beam size at the interaction point (IP). During the initial commissioning, we started with larger-than-nominal β-functions at the IP in order to reduce the effects from higher-order optical aberrations and thereby simplifying the optical corrections needed. We report on the simulation studies at two different IP locations developed based on waist scan, dispersion, coupling and β function multiknobs correction in the large β optics of ATF2, in the presence of two kinds of magnet inaccuracies (quadrupole gradient and roll errors) to generate all possible linear optic distortions at the IP. A vertical beam size which is very close to the nominal beam size is obtained based on the simulation study.


This report was prepared for the DOE Nuclear Data Committee, and covers work performed at ORNL since April 1980 in areas of nuclear data of relevance to the US applied nuclear energy program. The report was mostly generated through a review of abstracts of work completed to the point of being subjected to some form of publication in the open literature, formal ORNL reports, ORNL technical memoranda, progress reports, or presentation at technical conferences. As much as possible the complete abstract of the original publication has been reproduced with only minor editing. In a few cases progress reports were written specifically for this publication. The editors have selected the material to be included in this report on the basis of perceived interests of DOE Nuclear Data Committee members.


This paper incorporates insights from social capital theory into the traditional Austrian business cycle theory (ABCT). Whereas in the standard Austrian narrative, recovery processes entail the reallocation of investment resources from more towards less-capital intensive industries, social capital may represent an alternative avenue for investment energies. Unique characteristics of social capital are surveyed and strategic opportunities for leveraging social capital by different decision maker types are explained. Recognizing social capital developments amidst business cycles helps to account for the long-term resilience and continual social progress of economic performance amidst increasingly interventionist central banking practices. DOI: 10.1515/jbvela-2016-0015


A review of work reported in the literature was used to present quantitative descriptions of protein use in the growing pig. These are detailed in the text, which also points to preferred values, and to anomalies and lacunae. The review was prepared with the objective of allowing from its content the inclusive and quantitative modelling of amino acid requirement. Requirement was approached as the sum of the component factors: maintenance and protein retention. Ileal true digestible protein and amino acid requirements are presented in a form consistent with that forwarded for energy. Thus both energy and protein elements can be conceptualized within a single coherent framework. Priority uses for absorbed amino acids were assumed to be (a) to support endogenous protein losses resultant from the passage of food and incomplete re-absorption prior to the terminal ileum, (b) to replace lost hair and skin, and (c) to cover the basic maintenance losses which will occur as a result of minimal protein turn-over even when protein retention is zero. The bulk of the protein requirement was directly linked to the daily rate of protein retention, for which the linear-plateau response was accepted. For determination of the maximum rate of protein retention the Gompertz function was proposed, although the use of a single value throughout the growth period was not dismissed. The balance of amino acids for protein retention is specified as different from that for maintenance. Central to the approach was the proposal that the inefficiency of use of ileal digested ideal protein, even when not supplied in excess, was an expression of protein losses occurring as a result of protein turn-over. The requirement for the satisfaction of the losses from protein turn-over occurring as a consequence of protein retention, and therefore additional to the requirements for maintenance, was identified. Quantification was attempted with sufficient success to warrant its inclusion into requirement estimation. It was concluded that this element addressed previously inadequately explained protein utilization inefficiencies. Algorithms are presented based upon protein turn-over which appear to be consistent with empirical findings.


BACKGROUND: When evaluating children with mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBIs) and intracranial injuries (ICIs), neurosurgeons intuitively consider injury size. However, the extent to which such measures (eg, hematoma size) improve risk prediction compared with the kids intracranial injury decision support tool for traumatic brain injury (KIIDS-TBI) model, which only includes the presence/absence of imaging findings, remains unknown. OBJECTIVE: To determine the extent to which measures of injury size improve risk prediction for children with mild traumatic brain injuries and ICIs. METHODS: We included children ≤18 years who presented to 1 of the 5 centers within 24 hours of TBI, had Glasgow Coma Scale scores of 13 to 15, and had ICI on neuroimaging. The data set was split into training (n = 1126) and testing (n = 374) cohorts. We used generalized linear modeling (GLM) and recursive partitioning (RP) to predict the composite of neurosurgery, intubation >24 hours, or death because of TBI. Each model's sensitivity/specificity was compared with the validated KIIDS-TBI model across 3 decision-making risk cutoffs (<1%, <3%, and <5% predicted risk). RESULTS: The GLM and RP models included similar imaging variables (eg, epidural hematoma size) while the GLM model incorporated additional clinical predictors (eg, Glasgow Coma Scale score). The GLM (76%-90%) and RP (79%-87%) models showed similar specificity across all risk cutoffs, but the GLM model had higher sensitivity (89%-96% for GLM; 89% for RP). By comparison, the KIIDS-TBI model had slightly higher sensitivity (93%-100%) but lower specificity (27%-82%). CONCLUSION: Although measures of ICI size have clear intuitive value, the tradeoff between higher specificity and lower sensitivity does not support the addition of such information to the KIIDS-TBI model.


In this paper, we apply the Weyl transform to represent the vocalization of marine mammals. In contrast to other popular representation methods, such as the MFCC and the Chirplet transform, the Weyl transform captures the global information of signals. This is especially useful when the signal has low order polynomial phase. We can reconstruct the signal from the coefficients obtained from the Weyl transform, and perform classification based on these coefficients. Experimental results show that classification using features extracted from the Weyl transform outperforms the MFCC and the Chirplet transform on our collected whales data.


: The paper attempts to systematically present the problem of creating the desired level of situational awareness of the population by indicating the possibility of a comprehensive approach to the threats, evaluation of the risk associated with the materialisation of these threats and its impact on the state of situational awareness. Based on this analysis, it was proposed to model the possibilities of counteracting the effects of risk through the use of modern information technologies, including the integration of the information database on threats, with particular emphasis on the Things Internet platform and Big-Data class systems. Against this background, the role of multi-faceted exploration of data on threats, the intensity and directions of their spread has been highlighted. This applies in particular to the promotion of the level of situational awareness not only of the society but also of local-level, state-level and international-level authorities and organisations managing the crisis under COVID-19 conditions. However any threats and disruptions to information systems directed to the population can cause confusion and chaos, which can naturally result in a real risk of reduced ability by various entities and the whole society, or by selected communities, to perform their tasks.


Nitroheterocycle antibiotics, particularly 5-nitroimidazoles, are frequently used for treating anaerobic infections. The antimicrobial activities of these drugs heavily rely on the in vivo bioactivation, mainly mediated by widely distributed bacterial nitroreductases (NTRs). However, the bioactivation can also lead to severe toxicities and drug resistance. Mechanistic understanding of NTR-mediated 5-nitroimidazole metabolism can potentially aid addressing these issues. Here, we report the metabolism of structurally diverse nitroimidazole drug molecules by a NTR from a human pathogen Haemophilus influenzae (HiNfsB). Our detailed bioinformatic analysis uncovered that HiNfsB represents a group of unexplored oxygen-insensitive NTRs. Biochemical characterization of the recombinant enzyme revealed that HiNfsB effectively metabolizes ten clinically used nitroimidazoles. Furthermore, HiNfsB generated not only canonical nitroreduction metabolites but also stable, novel dimeric products from three nitroimidazoles, whose structures were proposed based on the results of high resolution MS and tandem MS analysis. X-ray structural analysis of the enzyme coupled with site-directed mutagenesis identified four active site residues important to its catalysis and broad substrate scope. Finally, transient expression of HiNfsB sensitized an E. coli mutant strain to 5-nitroimidazoles under anaerobic conditions. Together, these results advance our understanding of the metabolism of nitroimidazole antibiotics mediated by a new NTR group and reinforce the research on the natural antibiotic resistome for addressing the antibiotic resistance crisis. the removal of crystallographic waters. FMN was kept in the structure. By centering on the ribityl moiety of FMN, the grid box was defined with parameters: center_ x = 16.736, center_ y = 11.088, center_ z = (cid:2) 0.590, size x = y = z = 40 Å, energy_range = 4, exhaustiveness = 8. The results were analyzed with PyMOL. The binding mode used to elucidate protein–ligand interactions in the active site was chosen considering the orientation of the substrate 12 and nicotinic acid in the elucidated crystal structures, distance from the nitro group to N5 of FMN, and the binding energies.


: Plasmids with the sizes of 5.7; 51; 70-77; and 120-130 kb were found in six strains among the ten strains collection of Yersinia pseudotuberculosis. The restriction endonucleases analysis. Southern-blot hybridization and physical maps construction were performed for the plasmids. The 70-77 kb plasmids were found to be analogous to the Ca2(+)-dependence plasmid pYVO19 from Yersinia pestis EV76. The difference between the plasmids of this type is in the insertions or deletions located on the similar fragments of the restriction maps. The 51 kb plasmid has no common fragments with the Ca2(+)-dependence plasmids and does not code for virulence properties of the strain harbouring it. No homology is shared by the 5.7 kb plasmid and the 10 kb plasmid from Yersinia pestis EV76. Replicon of the 5.7 kb plasmid has been used to construct the pVS11 vector plasmid.


Measures of community population composition, such as residential segregation, are important theoretical mechanisms that have the potential to explain differences in fertility between immigrants, their descendants, and destination natives. However, only a handful of studies explore these mechanisms, and most are limited by the fact that they carry out cross-sectional analysis. This study proposes a new approach, which focuses on community composition in childhood. It uses longitudinal census data and registered births in England and Wales to investigate the relationship between completed fertility and multiple measures of community composition, including residential segregation. The results show that the fertility of immigrants is closer to native fertility if they grow up in less segregated areas. This provides evidence in support of the childhood socialisation hypothesis. Furthermore, residential segregation explains some of the variation in completed fertility for second-generation women from Pakistan and Bangladesh, the only second-generation group to have significantly higher completed fertility than natives. This suggests one reason why the fertility of some South Asians in England and Wales may remain "culturally entrenched." All of these findings are consistent for different measures of community composition. They are also easier to interpret than the results of previous research because exposure is measured before childbearing has commenced, therefore avoiding many issues relating to selection, simultaneity, and conditioning on the future.


OBJECTIVE
Pregnants and puerperas show different perceptions of their body image and appearance, so authors investigated their perceptions related to pregnancy and puerperium, evaluating their views on cosmetic surgery, by a cross-sectional study.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
5-item questionnaires were administrated to women at first pregnancy and puerperas. Patients were submitted also to Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) and Body Image Inventory (BII) analysis, indicating the level of anxiety, depression and body dissatisfaction for somatic changes during pregnancy and after childbirth.

RESULTS
186 healthy women, aged between 25-35 years, equally divided in pregnancy and puerperium, were compared in terms of body image, with no significant difference between groups. Analyzing the item "cosmetic surgery is required after all pregnancies", there was a significant difference in puerperas and the item "cosmetic surgery is necessary for postpartum" was the principal. The comparison of BII, BDI, BAI values between pregnants and puerperas showed a significant difference between groups (p<0.00), with higher scores in postpartum patients.

CONCLUSION
Body shape and physical dissatisfaction during pregnancy is linked with increased risk of depression in pregnancy and puerperium, pushing women to opt for cosmetic surgery, especially in puerperium.


Automated test generation has been suggested as a way of creating tests at a lower cost. Nonetheless, it is not very well studied how such tests compare to manually written ones in terms of cost and effectiveness. This is particularly true for industrial control software, where strict requirements on both specification-based testing and code coverage typically are met with rigorous manual testing. To address this issue, we conducted a case study in which we compared manually and automatically created tests. We used recently developed real-world industrial programs written in the IEC 61131-3, a popular programming language for developing industrial control systems using programmable logic controllers. The results show that automatically generated tests achieve similar code coverage as manually created tests, but in a fraction of the time (an average improvement of roughly 90%). We also found that the use of an automated test generation tool does not result in better fault detection in terms of mutation score compared to manual testing. Specifically, manual tests more effectively detect logical, timer and negation type of faults, compared to automatically generated tests. The results underscore the need to further study how manual testing is performed in industrial practice and the extent to which automated test generation can be used in the development of reliable systems.


OBJECTIVES
This study characterizes primary petroclival meningioma growth rates, before intervention, using volumetric analysis. In addition, predictors of growth are analyzed.

METHODS
Patients with previously untreated petroclival meningiomas were retrospectively reviewed (1999-2015). Image analysis software was used to perform volumetric analyses of tumor size and growth. Three-dimensional segmentation volumetric analyses were compared with volumes estimated utilizing three orthogonal dimensions. Tumor growth was defined as a 15% increase in volume.

RESULTS
Thirty-four patients who underwent at least two magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) studies before intervention were included. The mean age was 55.2 years, and 65.7% were women. The mean tumor volume at presentation was 5.6 cm (range, 0.1-25.8 cm) as determined from segmentation volumetric analysis. At a mean follow-up of 44.5 months (range, 3.7-125.1 mo), 88.2% of tumors grew. The mean annual volumetric growth rate was 2.38 cm/yr (-0.63 to 25.9 cm/yr). Tumor volume, T2 hyperintensity within the tumor, peritumoral edema, and ataxia and/or cerebellar symptoms at presentation were all significantly associated with greater rates of tumor growth. Ultimately, 10 (29.4%) patients underwent treatment during the follow-up period.

CONCLUSION
Our experience demonstrates that the vast majority (88%) of untreated petroclival meningiomas grow; the mean volumetric growth rate was noted to be 2.38 cm/yr. We found a significant association between increased growth rate and larger tumor size at diagnosis, T2 hyperintensity within the tumor, peritumoral edema, and the presence of ataxia and/or cerebellar symptoms.


Tongue thrust is involved in nearly all open bites. An open bite can be created by tongue thrust, tongue posture or mandibular posture. Tongue is an unusual muscle in that its contraction allows it to assume many shapes; its influence in the swallow can create an open bite in the area dictated by the contraction, thrust or rest position. Once space has been created between the upper and lower teeth by the tongue it continues to enter the space created, consequently enlarging the space. Skeletal open bites do not occur in patients whose masseter muscles are active during the swallow (an open bite can develop in these individuals due to habit or during orthodontic therapy). In these individuals the masseters fully contract during the swallow. The weaker the masseter muscles, the more likely an open bite will either be present or may develop during orthodontic treatment. Orthodontic movement will always result in occlusal interferences at some point in treatment. Occlusal interferences during orthodontic treatment make it difficult for patients to find a comfortable biting position. At this point they do not fully contract--"squeeze"--the masseters during the swallow to avoid traumatizing the teeth. Once the masseter squeeze is reduced, the tongue must contribute more to the swallow than when the masseters were more actively involved. The tongue becomes the cushion for the dentition during the swallow. The tongue now positions itself between the teeth during the swallow and the open bite during orthodontic treatment is born. Once the open bite occurs it is best to treat it immediately as the open bite thus created will only worsen with time. If the patient was originally a counterclockwise grower (brachycephalic), it is easier to correct. A clockwise grower (dolichocephalic) is hardest to correct, but can be corrected with patience, perseverance, exercise and a properly constructed tongue thrust appliance. While it is true that some skeletal configurations (i.e. clockwise growers, dolichocephalic facial types) lend themselves to the development of an open bite, the skeletal configuration itself seldom produces an open bite. The tongue is the main progenitor of open bites and it is also responsible for perpetuating the open bite. Dolichocephalic facial types lend themselves to open bite development as any orthodontic treatment which either distalizes molars or allows molars to extrude will tend to wedge the mandible and dentition open. (In this type of patient the masseter muscles develop insufficient force on closure to intrude the molars.) Once the bite opens, the tongue now enters the picture in order to complete the swallow. The open bite immediately worsens. The open bite thus created may require several months to correct. In the clockwise growth patient it is imperative that all precautions be taken during treatment to counteract open bite development. It is also imperative that an open bite, once detected, be treated immediately as the longer it persists the more difficult it becomes to treat. If left untreated, it becomes a habit and the more engrained a habit the more effort needed to change it.


In recent years M-health has become one of the key innovations in e-healthcare
services delivery, especially for chronic disease management. In particular, for
chronic heart diseases there has always been a need to monitor and record the
electrical activity of the heart. As of late there has been a rise in chronic heart
conditions resulting from the increasingly sedentary lifestyle that populations
have, and as such a rising need to monitor a growing number of patients.
Electrocardiogram (ECG) is a technique used to monitor the electrical activities of
the heart and hence helps in finding the cause of heart failure. Currently used
monitoring systems tend to be bulky, time limited (due to power constraints) and
require visits to medical professionals to retrieve the gathered data. Moreover,
very few systems exist with the ability to record, monitor and relay
electrocardiograph data in real time to medical professionals or to a health
management system.

This research aims to develop an architecture and the necessary software for a
low-power short-range communication system for electrocardiography
management that addresses different low-power communications options
including Bluetooth low-power and WiFi (IEEE 802.11).

In addition, this thesis compares the performance analysis and power consumption
of these communication technologies together with the connectivity of the system
with smart phones and with web-based health management system.


In the context of mitigating climate change and increase energy security, the utilization of biomass in the energy sector is expected to play a major role. However, to estimate the possibility of fulfilling national goals concerning the future use of biomass sources and to estimate the future use of biomass sources in the energy sector, the current energy system models needs to be further developed to consider the high sub-national variances in the supply and cost of the biomass sources. In this paper we present a sub-national MARKAL/TIMES model for estimating regional utilization of biomass sources and the future development of the energy system. The proposed model is evaluated for two case studies, France and Sweden, for which the future utilization of biomass is evaluated utilizing numerous scenarios of the potential supply of biomass, cost of biomass, and end-use demand. Our results show that the limit of national biomass potentials for energy purposes in France is approximately 35 Mtoe, while all demand scenarios for Sweden could be fulfilled by national biomass potentials. Furthermore, the results show that there are large differences in the regional utilization level of biomass sources, even when the total utilization level of biomass sources is high.