Web application security has become paramount for the organisation's operation, and therefore, static analysis tools (SAT) for vulnerability detection have been widely researched in the last years. Nevertheless, SATs often generate errors (false positives & negatives), whose cause is recurrently associated with very diverse coding styles, i.e., similar functionality is implemented in distinct manners, and programming practices that create ambiguity, such as the reuse and share of variables. The paper presents an analysis of SAT's behaviour and results when they process various relevant web applications coded with different coding styles. Furthermore, it discusses if the SQL injection vulnerabilities detected by SATs as true positives are really exploitable. Our results demonstrate that SATs are built having in mind how to detect specific vulnerabilities, without considering such forms of programming. They call to action for a new generation of SATs that are highly malleable to be capable of processing the codes observed in the wild.


The uptake mechanism of aristolochic acid I (AAI) was investigated using Caco-2 cells cultured on dishes and permeable membranes. The uptake of AAI from the apical membrane of Caco-2 cells cultured on a dish was rapid, and a decrease in the pH of the incubation medium significantly increased uptake. Incubation at low temperature (4°C) and treatment with sodium azide (a metabolic inhibitor) or carbonylcyanide p-trifluoromethoxyphenylhydrazone (a protonophore) significantly inhibited the AAI uptake. Coincubation with L-lactic acid or benzoic acid, typical substrates for the proton-linked monocarboxylic acid transporters (MCTs), significantly decreased the AAI uptake, as did coincubation with α-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamate (an inhibitor of MCTs). Dixon plotting revealed the competitive inhibition of benzoic acid on the AAI uptake. To confirm the AAI uptake via MCTs, the apical-to-basolateral transport of AAI was investigated using the Caco-2 cells cultured on the permeable membranes. The transport of AAI at pH 6.0 was markedly higher than that at pH 7.4, and was significantly decreased by coincubation with benzoic acid. These results suggest that the uptake of AAI from the apical membrane of Caco-2 cells is mediated mainly by MCTs along with benzoic acid.


Robust transmission of images is achieved by using fixed and variable-length coding together without much loss in compression efficiency. The probability distribution function of a DCT coefficient can be divided into two regions using a threshold, so that one portion contains roughly equiprobable transform coefficients. While fixed-length coding, which is a powerful solution to the synchronization problem, is used in this inner equiprobable region without sacrificing compression, the outer (saturating) region is reserved for variable-length codes. The proposed image coder first encodes the bit allocated DCT coefficients using a fixed-rate quantizer bank, then the saturated values for these coefficients are encoded using an entropy constrained scalar quantizer, followed by an arithmetic encoder. Our simulations show that the proposed encoder is appropriate for applications in which an acceptable quality must always be maintained in any channel condition.


This paper investigates the effect of different switched diversity configurations on the implementation complexity and achieved performance of dual-hop amplify-and-forward (AF) relaying networks. A low-complexity model of the relay station is adopted, wherein single-input single-output antenna configuration is employed. Each of the transmitter and the receiver however employs multiple antennas to improve the overall link performance. Single-phase and two-phase based receive switching strategies are investigated assuming optimum first hop signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Moreover, the simple scheme in which the switched diversity is applied independently over the two hops is studied using tight upper bounds. Thorough performance comparisons and switching thresholds optimization for the aforementioned strategies are presented. Simulation results are also provided to validate the mathematical development and to verify the numerical computations.


Units, rules, codes, systems: this is how most linguists study language. Integrationalists such as Michael Toolan, however, focus instead on how language functions in seamless tandem with the rest of human activity. In Total Speech , Toolan provides a clear and comprehensive account of integrationalism, a major new theory of language that declines to accept that text and context, language and world, are distinct and stable categories. At the same time, Toolan extends the integrationalist argument and calls for a radical change in contemporary theorizing about language and communication.

In every foundational area of linguistics—from literal meaning and metaphor to the nature of repetition to the status of linguistic rules—Toolan advances fascinating and provocative criticisms of received linguistic assumptions. Drawing inspiration from the writings of language theorist Roy Harris, Toolan brings the integrationalist perspective to bear on legal cases, the reception of Salman Rushdie, poetry, and the language of children. Toolan demonstrates that the embeddedness of language and the situation-sensitive mutability of meaning reveal language as a tool for re-fashioning and renewal.

Total Speech breaks free of standard linguistics' fascinated attraction with "cognitive blueprints" and quasi-algorithmic processing to characterize language anew. Toolan's reflections on the essence of language, including his important discussion of intention, have strong implications for students and scholars of discourse analysis, literature, the law, anthropology, philosophy of language, communication theory, and cognitive science, as well as linguistics.


We study the spectral features of the polarized fluorescence spectra of normal and cancerous human breast tissues through continuous wavelet transform, which clearly identifies distinguishing features between the tissue types. After pinpointing these robust features in the wavelet scalogram, we systematically study the autocorrelation property of the wavelet coefficients of the fluorescence spectra, which is found to differentiate normal and malignant tissues with high sensitivity. The intensity difference of parallel and perpendicularly polarized fluorescence spectra is subjected to investigation, since the same is relatively free of the diffusive background.


OBJECTIVE
To ascertain the dimensional accuracies of some commonly used ceramic self-ligation brackets and the amount of torsional play in various bracket-archwire combinations.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Four types of 0.022-inch slot ceramic self-ligating brackets (upper right central incisor), three types of 0.018-inch ceramic self-ligating brackets (upper right central incisor), and three types of rectangular archwires (0.016 × 0.022-inch beta-titanium [TMA] (Ormco, Orange, Calif), 0.016 × 0.022-inch stainless steel [SS] (Ortho Technology, Tampa, Fla), and 0.019 × 0.025-inch SS (Ortho Technology)) were measured using a stereomicroscope to determine slot widths and wire cross-sectional dimensions. The mean acquired dimensions of the brackets and wires were applied to an equation devised by Meling to estimate torsional play angle (γ).

RESULTS
In all bracket systems, the slot tops were significantly wider than the slot bases (P < .001), yielding a divergent slot profile. Clarity-SLs (3M Unitek, Monrovia, Calif) showed the greatest divergence among the 0.022-inch brackets, and Clippy-Cs (Tomy, Futaba, Fukushima, Japan) among the 0.018-inch brackets. The Damon Clear (Ormco) bracket had the smallest dimensional error (0.542%), whereas the 0.022-inch Empower Clear (American Orthodontics, Sheboygan, Wis) bracket had the largest (3.585%).

CONCLUSIONS
The largest amount of theoretical play is observed using the Empower Clear (American Orthodontics) 0.022-inch bracket combined with the 0.016 × 0.022-inch TMA wire (Ormco), whereas the least amount occurs using the 0.018 Clippy-C (Tomy) combined with 0.016 × 0.022-inch SS wire (Ortho Technology).


The referral and/or final diagnoses of schizophrenia in 100 patients were examined. Discrepancies between these diagnoses were frequent and little evidence of a standardized approach to this diagnosis was revealed. Misinterpretation of cultural phenomena emerged as a further source of error. The critical nature of the interview and assessment situation, together with the need for standardized criteria and comprehensive understanding of cultural factors, is emphasized.


The study attempted to find out the pupils' performance of the Mother Tongue-Based (MTB) and Non-Mother Tongue-Based (Non-MTB) Grade I class of pioneers schools in Reading, Mathematics, Filipino, English and Social Studies subjects at Region XII. The study used experimental design with an element of comparative design. It compares the test results of MTB and Non-MTB Grade I class in Reading, Mathematics, Filipino, English and Social Studies subjects. The subject of the study were two hundred seventy (270) Grade I pupils of MTB class as experimental group and one hundred seventy two (172) Grade I pupils for Non-MTB class as control group a total of four hundred forty-two (442) Grade I pupils of eight (8) pioneer schools.In line with the problems raised in this study, the researcher came up with the following findings: The results show that children are well distributed by gender into the two programs. Therefore, we would not expect to find that any variation in performance by gender is going to explain any variation in performance by program (the intervention). The MTB class had 57.8 overall mean score. The performance advantage was quite small in three cases — Filipino with a mean score of 65.9, English with a mean score of 63.0 and Social Studies with 58.2 mean score. The result shows that students performed well in both subjects. The Non-MTB class had 54.3 overall mean score. Among the subjects Filipino got the highest mean score of 62.3 which means students perform well in this subject while Mathematics subjects got lowest mean score of 38.4 which mean students of Non-MTB class not performed well in this subject considering that Filipino Language is their second language at school and even at home. Moreover, the MTB class scored higher than children in the non-MTB class on all subjects. However, the performance advantage was quite small in three cases — Filipino, English and Social Studies. It also shows that largest differential was in the subject of Reading where the MTB class outperformed the non-MTB children by 9 percentage points which is a gain or improvement of 18.4 percent taking the non-MTB performance level as the frame of reference. The result also shows a biggest difference in the case of learning to read while Mathematics subjects are relatively low for students in both programs. The MTB class also did slightly better on the Filipino, English and Social Studies tests but not enough better for the difference to be statistically significant. Furthermore, the Non- MTB class, male students outscored their female counterparts on every subject tested though none of the differences would be considered statistically significant. While, the MTB class the male children outscored female children in three subjects, Reading, Math and in Social Studies, while the female students scored higher in two subjects, English and Filipino. In the case of Mathematics, male students demonstrated the same advantage in the MTB class as that seen in the non-MTB class.


Tandem structure provides a practical way to realize high efficiency organic photovoltaic cells, it can be used to extend the wavelength coverage for light harvesting. The interconnecting layer (ICL) between subcells plays a critical role in the reproducibility and performance of tandem solar cells, yet the processability of the ICL has been a challenge. In this work the fabrication of highly reproducible and efficient tandem solar cells by employing a commercially available material, PEDOT:PSS HTL Solar (HSolar), as the hole transporting material used for the ICL is reported. Comparing with the conventional PEDOT:PSS Al 4083 (c‐PEDOT), HSolar offers a better wettability on the underlying nonfullerene photoactive layers, resulting in better charge extraction properties of the ICL. When FTAZ:IT‐M and PTB7‐Th:IEICO‐4F are used as the subcells, a power conversion efficiency (PCE) of 14.7% is achieved in the tandem solar cell. To validate the processability of these tandem solar cells, three other research groups have successfully fabricated tandem devices using the same recipe and the highest PCE obtained is 16.1%. With further development of donor polymers and device optimization, the device simulation results show that a PCE > 22% can be realized in tandem cells in the near future.


We explore the structure of a textile absorber in terms of its electromagnetic and absorption properties in the microwave region. Its absorption characteristics are similar to those reported for various metamaterial-based absorbers, exhibiting absorption as high as 98% at resonance. In addition, the angular behavior of the absorption properties of the sample reveal incident angle independency, which is the other added value of the study. Also, the suggested textile absorber has a simple configuration, which introduces flexibility to adjust its material properties and easily tune its structure to suit other frequencies. The proposed textile absorber and its variations have myriad potential applications in radar technology, long distance radio telecommunication, and so on. Although in its current state the proposed structure provides almost perfect absorption covering a wide range of microwave C-Band, the developing technology will soon allow manufacturing textiles that can manipulate lights, leading to the design of invisibility cloak and other science fiction devices besides finding important application areas in medical science.


This article proposes an evolutionary algorithm using multiple penalties and multiple local surrogates (MPMLS) for expensive constrained optimization. In each generation, MPMLS defines and optimizes a number of subproblems. Each subproblem penalizes the constraints in the original problem using a different penalty coefficient and has its own search subregion. A local surrogate is built for optimizing each subproblem. Two major advantages of MPMLS are: 1) it can maintain good population diversity so that the search can approach the optimal solution of the original problem from different directions and 2) it only needs to build local surrogates so that the computational overhead of the model building can be reduced. Numerical experiments demonstrate that our proposed algorithm performs much better than some other state-of-the-art evolutionary algorithms.


Despite their considerable communicative abilities, young children often have difficulty interpreting complex linguistic structures in context. Two examples of this phenomenon are negation and pragmatic implicature, both of which pose sometimes surprising difficulties for preschoolers. Both of these structures require children to resist a more salient alternative interpretation; since executive function abilities develop extensively during childhood, perhaps failures are due to problems in inhibition. To test this hypothesis, we designed speeded tasks to measure inhibitory control, negation, and implicature comprehension in children and adults. Using standard analyses as well as drift diffusion models, we found different patterns of processing on all three tasks, and no support for the hypothesis that inhibitory control per se is playing a role in either adults' or children's negation or implicature processing. Instead, our analyses reveal qualitatively different developmental trajectories for each task, suggesting task-specific factors driving these changes.


This paper presents the design and construction of a 12-DoF biped walking robot. The kinematics of electrically actuated 6-DoF legs is similar to that of human legs with three DoF at the hip, one at the knee and two at the ankle joints. The mechanical design of the robot was based on dynamical simulations realized in a modular PC environment. Two communicating software were used in order to solve the forward dynamics of the system and to design walking controllers. Forward, backward and lateral walking as well as stair climbing behaviors with up to 6 km/h forward walking speeds have been simulated in order to determine the nominal power rates required at joints. Hip joints are actuated by DC motors coupled to harmonic reducers situated both in joint axes. The actuators driving the knee and ankle joints are situated higher than the respective joint axes and the rotational output motion of DC motors are transmitted to the joints through linear ball-screw mechanisms. Spherical joints are used within the transmission of spatial motion required for the 2-DoF at ankle joints. All joints consist of absolute encoders and 6-axes force/torque transducers are mounted at the ankle joints. The robot is controlled through an embedded industrial PC running real-time operating system. All electronic control hardware including the motor drivers and sensors communicate through CAN bus. The robot's mass without batteries is 55 kg and its height is 142 cm.


Unconditional human image generation is an important task in vision and graphics, which enables various applications in the creative industry. Existing studies in this field mainly focus on"network engineering"such as designing new components and objective functions. This work takes a data-centric perspective and investigates multiple critical aspects in"data engineering", which we believe would complement the current practice. To facilitate a comprehensive study, we collect and annotate a large-scale human image dataset with over 230K samples capturing diverse poses and textures. Equipped with this large dataset, we rigorously investigate three essential factors in data engineering for StyleGAN-based human generation, namely data size, data distribution, and data alignment. Extensive experiments reveal several valuable observations w.r.t. these aspects: 1) Large-scale data, more than 40K images, are needed to train a high-fidelity unconditional human generation model with vanilla StyleGAN. 2) A balanced training set helps improve the generation quality with rare face poses compared to the long-tailed counterpart, whereas simply balancing the clothing texture distribution does not effectively bring an improvement. 3) Human GAN models with body centers for alignment outperform models trained using face centers or pelvis points as alignment anchors. In addition, a model zoo and human editing applications are demonstrated to facilitate future research in the community.


Background: Hypoglycemia remains a risk for closed loop insulin delivery particularly following exercise or if the glucose sensor is inaccurate. The aim of this study was to test whether an algorithm that includes a limit to insulin delivery is effective at protecting against hypoglycemia under those circumstances. Methods: An observational study on 8 participants with type 1 diabetes was conducted, where a hybrid closed loop system (HCL) (Medtronic™ 670G) was challenged with hypoglycemic stimuli: exercise and an overreading glucose sensor. Results: There was no overnight or exercise-induced hypoglycemia during HCL insulin delivery. All daytime hypoglycemia was attributable to postmeal bolused insulin in those participants with a more aggressive carbohydrate factor. Conclusion: HCL systems rely on accurate carbohydrate ratios and carbohydrate counting to avoid hypoglycemia. The algorithm that was tested against moderate exercise and an overreading glucose sensor performed well in terms of hypoglycemia avoidance. Algorithm refinement continues in preparation for long-term outpatient trials.


A child is a growing and developing human being early from conception throughout the end of adolescent period. Children at any stages of growth and development need to be protected from environmental health hazards. They need safe and health promoting environment to reach their optimum growth and development that they are capable genetically. However physical, chemical, biological and social environments have changed throughout decades and children of today are living in a very different environment than from their grandparents and parents. Today they are at most risk of being exposed to new chemicals that are mostly not tested for fetus and children. Since World War II, approximately 80,000 new synthetic chemicals have been manufactured and released into the environment in large amounts, with 10 new chemicals being introduced every day. The vast majority of these chemicals have not been studied adequately for their impacts on human health or their particular impacts on fetus. Many of these synthetic chemicals are persistent and bio-accumulative, remaining in the human body long after the exposure. Parental exposures occurred before the conception threatens the fetus both because the maternal or paternal reproductive organs are affected and because chemicals that can be accumulated in the mother's body before pregnancy may be mobilized and cross over placental barrier during pregnancy. Many synthetic chemicals are already present in cord blood and we do not know how these multi-chemical exposures affect programmed development of fetus and studies are limited on long term effects of single chemical exposure. Some examples of health effects resulting from developmental exposures include those observed prenatally and at birth such as miscarriage, stillbirth, low birth weight, birth defects. Establishing a causal links between specific environmental exposures and complex multifactorial health outcomes is difficult and challenging.


This appendix contains additional results on using scanner data to estimate inflation rates at the household level. There are three sections. Section 1 shows cross-sectional distributions of Fisher and Paasche inflation rates. Section 2 shows the evolution over time of measures of dispersion of Fisher and Paasche inflation rates. Section 3 shows cross-sectional distributions of two-year inflation rates measured with Fisher and Paasche indexes.


A small molecular-weight, malonic acid-based probe [(2-(5-fluoro-pentyl)-2-methyl-malonic acid or ML-10] labeled with the radioactive isotope fluorine F 18 with potential apoptosis radioimaging use. Upon administration, [F18]-ML-10 binds selectively to apoptotic cells due to apoptotic cell membrane features that differ from those of normal, healthy and necrotic cell membranes. Upon entering the apoptotic cell, this agent accumulates within the cytoplasm where it can be imaged using positron emission tomography (PET). Detection of apoptotic cells using this imaging technology may be useful in monitoring tumor responses to cytotoxic therapies. ML-10 appears to mimic the alkyl-malonic acid motif present in gamma -carboxyglutamic (Gla), an amino acid that plays a crucial role in the binding of clotting factors to negatively-charged phospholipids exposed on the surfaces of apoptotic cells.


The Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri Kuwayama (Hemiptera: Psyllidae), is the primary vector of Candidatus Liberibacter asiaticus (Las) associated with huanglongbing, or citrus greening, the most devastating citrus (Citrus spp.) disease worldwide. Here, we developed a new "excised-leaf assay" that can speed up Las-inoculativity tests on Asian citrus psyllid from the current 3-12 mo (when using whole citrus seedlings for inoculation) to only 2-3 wk. Young adults of Asian citrus psyllid that had been reared on Las-infected plants were caged on excised healthy sweet orange [Citrus sinensis (L.) Osbeck] leaves for a 1-2-wk inoculation access periods (IAP), and then both psyllids and leaves were tested later by quantitative polymerase chain reaction (PCR). When single adults were tested per leaf, percentages of Las-positive leaves averaged 2-6% by using HLBaspr primers and 10-20% by using the more sensitive LJ900 primers. Higher proportions of Las-positive leaves were obtained with 1) higher densities of inoculating psyllids (5-10 adults per leaf), 2) longer IAPs, and 3) incubation of leaves for 1 wk postinoculation before PCR. Logistic regression analysis indicated a positive correlation between Las titer in Asian citrus psyllid adults tested singly and the probability of detecting Las in the inoculated leaves, correlations that can be very useful in epidemiological studies. Comparison between excised leaves and whole seedlings, inoculated consecutively for 1 wk each by one or a group of psyllids, indicated no significant difference between Las detection in excised leaves or whole plants. This new excised-leaf assay method saves considerable time, materials, and greenhouse space, and it may enhance vector relation and epidemiological studies on Las and potentially other Liberibacter spp. associated with huanglongbing disease.


This paper investigates the effect of the ductile deformation behavior of high performance hybrid fiber-reinforced cement-based composites (HPHFRCCs) on the shear behavior and damage of diagonally reinforced coupling beams under reversed cyclic loading. The effects of matrix ductility on deflections, crack widths, crack patterns, failure modes, and ultimate shear load of the coupling beams have been examined. The combination of a ductile cement-based matrix and steel reinforcement is found to result in improved energy dissipation capacity and damage-tolerant inelastic deformation behavior. Test results showed that the coupling beam constructed with an HPHFRCC material exhibited excellent strength, deformation capacity, and damage tolerance capacity, in comparison with the regular reinforced concrete beam.


Delineation of commuting regions has always been based on statistical units, often municipalities or wards. However, using these units has certain disadvantages as their land areas differ considerably. Much information is lost in the larger spatial base units and distortions in self-containment values, the main criterion in rule-based delineation procedures, occur. Alternatively, one can start from relatively small standard size units such as hexagons. In this way, much greater detail in spatial patterns is obtained. In this paper, regions are built by means of intrazonal maximization (Intramax) on the basis of hexagons. The use of geoprocessing tools, specifically developed for the processing of commuting data, speeds up processing time considerably. The results of the Intramax analysis are evaluated with travel-to-work area constraints, and comparisons are made with commuting fields, accessibility to employment, commuting flow density and network commuting flow size. From selected steps in the regionalization process, a hierarchy of nested commuting regions emerges, revealing the complexity of commuting patterns.


Makran Subduction Zone (MSZ) offshore of Iran and Pakistan is one of the most tsunamigenic sources in the Indian Ocean. Historically, the MSZ has generated some tsunamigenic earthquakes like that of 28 November 1945 with the death tool of more than 4000 people along the coasts of Iran, Pakistan, India, and Oman. In this study, the tsunami hazard associated with the MSZ is investigated. At first, a review of historical tsunamis in the Indian Ocean basin was performed which reveals the Makran region has experienced al least 4 tsunamis including events of 326 BC, 1897, 1008, and 1945. Consequently, since the pattern and extent of vertical ground deformation from an earthquake determines whether or not a tsunami is formed, a computer program is developed to predict the seafloor deformation due to the earthquake occurrence in the MSZ. The model was verified through run of it on some actual tsunamis so far occurred. Then, using the data of the 1945 Makran tsunami, the seismic parameters of the MSZ were calibrated. Finally, we used the developed computer program to calculate seafloor deformation at the location of Makran subduction zone for several earthquake scenarios with moment magnitudes ranging between 6.5 and 8.5. The results of this research show that the risk of tsunami generation from MSZ can be classified into three main categories, as follows: (1) very little risk for tsunami generation in the case of the occurrence of an earthquake having magnitude up to 7; (2) little to medium risk for moment magnitudes ranging between 7 and 7.5; and (3) high risk for moment magnitude greater than 7.5. At the end of the paper, modeling of tsunami propagation is performed for an earthquake scenario with magnitude of 8 offshore Chabahar, in order to give preliminary information about tsunami behavior in this region.


Central and Southwestern Ontario is one of the largest migratory flyways for raptors in North America. The expanse of airfields and prey availability make airfields attractive to migrating raptors, which may result in an increase in over wintering birds. These birds do not readily scare with conventional wildlife control methods and have high public profile. Even though the strike risk is moderate, raptors routinely make the top ten list for strikes from all bird species (8%) at Canadian Airports. The potential for damage from a collision with raptor species is high due to their size and weight. It has been suggested that the live trapping and relocation of raptors has limited application and success. The banding of trapped and relocated raptors from Lester B. Pearson International Airport (Toronto, ON) and Windsor Airport (Windsor, ON) suggests that this approach to control is very effective. Of the 1502 Red-tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis) relocated from Pearson International Airport over the past 15 years, 4 % returned to the airfield and that less than 2% returned within the same migratory period (90 days from initial encounter). The data collected also indicates that the concept of resident birds being replaced by naive birds is not accurate because the majority of birds caught at Pearson are trapped during migration and therefore are by definition not resident birds.


The PAMELA space experiment is scheduled for launch towards the end of 2004 on-board a Russian Resurs DK1 satellite, orbiting Earth at an altitude of 300– 600 km. The main scientific goal is a study of the antimatter component of the cosmic radiation. The semipolar orbit (70.4◦) allows PAMELA to investigate a wide range of energies for antiprotons (80 MeV–190 GeV) and positrons (50 MeV– 270 GeV). Three years of data taking will provide unprecedented statistics in this energy range and will set the upper limit for the ratio He/He below 10−7. PAMELA is built around a permanent magnet silicon spectrometer, surrounded by a plastic scintillator anticoincidence shield built at KTH. The anticounter scintillators are used to aid in the rejection of background from particles not cleanly entering the acceptance of the tracker. Information from the anticounter system will be included as a veto in a second level trigger, to exclude the acquisition of events generated by false triggers. An LED-based monitoring system has been developed for the anticounter system. The LEDs mimic the light signal produced in the scintillator by an ionising particle. This allows the functionality of the AC system to be verified in-orbit. The development and testing of the monitoring system are presented and comparisons have been made with independent radioactive source-based calibration methods. The anticounter system has also been extensively tested with cosmic rays and particle beams. Most of these tests have been performed with the anticounters integrated with the other PAMELA subdetectors in a flight-like configuration.


An experimental system is designed by combining the split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB) with microwave heating device, based on stress wave theory, availability of the experiment technique is analyzed. Tests of concrete whose temperature changes from room temperature to 650°C and impact velocity from 5m/s to 12m/s are completed and for the first time high-temperature dynamical damaging phenomena of concrete are obtained. Based on data analysis, the dynamical mechanical behavior of concrete with high temperature is affected by not only the strain rate effect whose influence keeps on decreasing with temperature increasing, but also the high temperature weakening effect. And the strain rate hardening effect is coupled with high temperature weakening effect, but the latter has greater influence.


—We tested the degree of habitat selection at two spatial scales by captive-raised oregon spotted frog (Rana pretiosa) individuals released at two sites in british Columbia to inform translocation and habitat-based recovery actions for this highly imperiled species. telemetry of captive-raised adults during the post-breeding season (2009 and 2010) suggests that oregon spotted frogs selected for herbaceous and shrub macrohabitats (delineated from high-resolution aerial imagery) that form continuous floating mats or mats interspersed with water. at the microhabitat level, frogs consistently selected for taller vegetation (= 122.9 ± 8.0 cm) and thicker submerged vegetation (= 23.5 ± 2.4 cm), based on comparisons with paired random locations (= 99.2 ± 9.4 cm, and = 13.8 ± 1.9 cm, respectively). Within two study wetlands, microhabitats with < 50% cover of semi-open herbaceous or shrub vegetation were also associated with higher frog presence. these results provide support for the hypothesis that oregon spotted frogs at these sites select for taller, less dense vegetation, irrespective of the floristic composition at the microhabitat scale, but not at the macrohabitat scale. these results from captive-reared animals corroborate findings from habitat-selection studies that used wild-collected animals. Differences in selection at the macrohabitat scale between years suggest that a wide range of wetland types could be considered as candidates for reintroduction efforts. our results emphasize the need for methods that transcend site-specific floristic differences among wetlands to inform potential reintroduction sites and guide habitat restoration activities.


Glycans constitute one of the most complex families of biological molecules. Despite their crucial role in a plethora of biological processes, they remain uncharacterized because of their high complexity. Their intrinsic flexibility, along with the vast variability associated with the many combination possibilities and relatively loose structural character, has hampered their experimental determination. Although theoretical methods have proven a valid alternative to the study of glycans, the large size associated with polysaccharides, proteoglycans, and glycolipids poses significant challenges to a fully atomistic description of biologically relevant glycoconjugates. On the other hand, the exquisite dependence on Hydrogen bonds to determine glycans' structure makes the development of simplified or coarse-grained (CG) representations extremely challenging. This is particularly the case when glycan representations are expected to be compatible with CG models of, for instance, proteins. We introduce a CG representation able to represent a wide variety of polysaccharides and most glycosylation motifs in proteins, which is fully compatible with the CG SIRAH force field. Examples of application to N-glycosylated proteins, including antibody recognition and Calcium-mediated glycan-protein interactions, highlight the versatility of the enlarged set of CG molecules provided by SIRAH.


The paper presents a probabilistic model used to investigate the effect of different variables upon the failure probability of hydraulic cylinder housings subjected to fatigue loads. The inputs of the model are: i) an experimental distribution of surface discontinuities; ii) a threshold model obtained by experiments on micronotched specimens; iii) geometric tolerances of the tubes; iv) POD curve of the NDT control. A key input in the proposed model is the surface quality, which is modeled considering the distribution of longitudinal surface discontinuities obtained from experimental measurements. Crack propagation threshold has been modeled taking into consideration the effect of short cracks. The probability of detection of surface inhomogeneities during ordinary non destructive tests have been modeled according to data reported in the literature. Finally the Monte Carlo method has been implemented to assess the reliability of a component in different conditions.


A virtual path connection (VPC) is a labelled path which can be used to transport a bundle of virtual channel connections (VCCs) and to manage the resources used by these connections. The virtual network is organized as a collection of VPCs which form a VPC, or logical, overlay network. If the VPCs are permanent or semi-permanent and have reserved capacity, establishing new VCCs requires simple connection admission decisions at the VPC terminators of existing VPCs. This would enable faster connection establishment since transit nodes are not involved in the connection setup. The virtual path concept also allows the possibility of segregating traffic types according to quality of service requirements. However, the extent to which VPC provisioning is able to improve network efficiency is dependent on the resource management decisions that determine the VPC topology and capacity allocations. The article surveys resource management using virtual paths in an ATM network. Of interest are techniques which modify the VPC topology and capacity assignments in order to adapt to changing traffic conditions and possible network failures. The resource management activities employed to facilitate such adaptation can be categorized by the timescale on which they operate. On the shortest timescale are strategies for dynamically making minor changes to the VPC topology or capacity assignments. On a somewhat longer timescale are strategies for making more widespread modifications to the VPC overlay network. This would be appropriate for traffic changes based on time of day and for recovering from network failures. Finally, on an even longer timescale, strategies may be employed to design a general VPC overlay network, to be used at startup or after major network upgrades. Solutions to VPC resource management for each of these timescales are discussed.


In this paper, a contactless power transfer (CPT) system with a newly developed high-performance Z-source resonant inverter (HPZSRI) has been proposed. CPT systems with large air gap generate excessive leakage flux. Therefore, magnetic resonance coupling is widely used to reduce reactive power intake from the source. To achieve the same, high frequency resonant inverters are used in CPT systems. CPT technology is commonly employed for battery charging systems, for which constant voltage source is needed. Moreover, it is well known that the output voltage control of CPT systems is a major problem. In the proposed inverter for CPT systems, an additional Z-source network (ZSN) serves the purpose of output voltage control as well as power factor correction without any extra switching devices and control circuitry. Moreover, ZSN is suitable for high power applications since it is immune to shoot-through states, thereby enhancing stability and providing boost in output voltage without increasing dc link voltage.


Summary Complex gridshell structures used in architecturally ambitious constructions remain as appealing as ever in the public realm. This paper describes the theory and approach behind the software realisation of a tool which helps in finding the affine self-weight geometry of gridshell structures. The software tool DOMEdesign supports the formal design process of lattice and grid shell structures based upon the laws of physics. The computer-aided simulation of suspension models is used to derive structurally favourable forms for domes and arches subject to compression load, based upon the input of simple architectonic parameters. Irregular plans, three-dimensional topography, a choice different kinds of shell lattice structures and the desired height of the dome are examples of design parameters which can be used to modify the architectural design. The provision of data export formats for structural dimensioning and visualisation software enables engineers and planners to use the data in future planning and to communicate the design to the client.


With the rapid growth of fashion-focused social networks and online shopping, intelligent fashion recommendation is now in great need. We design algorithms which automatically suggest users outfits (e.g. a shirt, together with a skirt and a pair of high-heel shoes), that fit their personal fashion preferences. Recommending sets, each of which is composed of multiple interacted items, is relatively new to recommender systems, which usually recommend individual items to users. We explore the use of deep networks for this challenging task. Our system, dubbed FashionNet, consists of two components, a feature network for feature extraction and a matching network for compatibility computation. The former is achieved through a deep convolutional network. And for the latter, we adopt a multi-layer fully-connected network structure. We design and compare three alternative architectures for FashionNet. To achieve personalized recommendation, we develop a two-stage training strategy, which uses the fine-tuning technique to transfer a general compatibility model to a model that embeds personal preference. Experiments on a large scale data set collected from a popular fashion-focused social network validate the effectiveness of the proposed networks.


Abstract This paper details a dynamic evaluation of a 1 m3 fixed bed anaerobic digestion reactor in response to organic overloads and toxicant shock loads. Raw industrial wine distillery wastewater was used as a reference substrate and several disturbances were applied to the process: (i) organic overloads with and without pH regulation in the feeding line, (ii) adding of ammonia in the input wastewater. The purpose of this study was to assess, using on-line instrumentation, the robustness of a fixed bed anaerobic digester. Anaerobic digestion processes have the reputation of being difficult to operate and prone to process instability due to external disturbances and the objective of this study was to demonstrate the possibility of such a reactor configuration for industrial use.


In today's dynamic commercial environments, project management is becoming more and more
crucial in supporting organizations to achieve their enterprise goals. However, increasing task
complexity in projects, finishing projects on time within budget, and achieving the scope of the project becomes ever difficult. The purpose of this research as arisen from one of the most important areas in project management, both from a research and a practitioner perspective; 'How to avoid project failure and achieve higher rates of project success?'. The outcome of this work is to demonstrate how the adoption of project management tools and specific risk management software, if successfully implemented, can be important tools in enabling project managers to achieve higher levels of success.


Mobile phones equipped with a rich set of embedded sensors enhance participatory sensing to collect data for different applications. However, many challenges arise when selecting participants to perform sensing tasks. Among these challenges, we can cite energy consumption, users' mobility impact and the quality of retrieved data, recently defined as Quality of Information (QoI). In this work, we study the QoI and Energy-aware Mobile Sensing (QEMSS) problem. Hence, for a given set of users, a sensing area and data quality requirements, the objective of QEMSS is to find the subset of users that maximizes QoI in terms of spatial and temporal metrics while minimizing the overall energy consumption and reducing the redundancy during the sensing process. We propose a meta-heuristic algorithm based on Tabu-Search to provide a sub-optimal solution. Simulation results, for both deterministic and unknown participants' trajectories, are compared to other state-of-the-art methods. This allows showing that our approach outperforms both the greedy- based and the random selection strategies. Particularly, the achieved data quality by our scheme is significantly higher in challenging scenarios such as low dense areas or scarce users' energy resources.


A piston is a component of reciprocating engines, reciprocating pumps, gas compressors and pneumatic cylinders, among other similar mechanisms. It is the moving component that is contained by a cylinder and is made gas-tight by piston rings Piston that transfer the combustive gases power to the connecting rod. To improve the efficiency of the engine there is a need to study about the piston. Pistons that are usually made up with alloy steels that show the grate resistant against thermal loads and structural loads. In the project we design a piston by using solid works 2016 design software and we did the structural load analysis and thermal analysis by applying various materials such as composites on piston in ansys workbench software.


This article examines how space mediates the relationship between publishers and public attention. Drawing on a heterodox reading of attention economics, it relates the rise of the yellow newspaper the New York Journal and the viral news publisher BuzzFeed to the spatial structure of two marketplaces of attention: the streets of New York City in the late 1890s and the Facebook News Feed today. It finds that the sensationalist media forms developed by these two publishers were institutional adaptations to spaces in which information and sensation were heavily concentrated; time–space was radically compressed; and multiple different social contexts were collapsed. By juxtaposing Facebook's News Feed with the streets of New York City, this article ultimately endeavors toward a more rigorous understanding of the space of social media.


Introduction: Th e incidence of hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection is increasing along the U.S.-Mexico border and across the world. Th ere are signifi cant implications for patients who are non-funded and seeking treatment for hepatitis C that are faced by border communities. Having a disproportionate number of individuals without insurance and high rates of undocumented residents may infl uence treatment outcomes for HCV patients. Th e purpose of this project was to examine the eff ect of health insurance status and offi ce visit compliance on sustained virologic response (SVR) in adult patients living along the Texas-Mexico border treated for HCV. Methods: We conducted a longitudinal retrospective chart review of patients who underwent treatment with dual and triple therapy in a border community in Texas. Th e sample included patients between the ages of 18 and 65, with a diagnosis of HCV, who underwent HCV treatment between January 01, 2010 and August 15, 2013, El Paso, Texas. Data were collected from the charts of patients who received HCV treatment with pegylated interferon, ribavirin, and a protease inhibitor. Results: A total of 76 charts were reviewed. Twenty patients met study criteria and were included in the data analysis. Th e other 56 (73%) patients did not complete treatment or did not return for SVR testing. Of the 20 patients who were included in the study, 19 (95%), were Hispanic, 12 (50%) were female, age included 11 (55%), age 20-29, 7 (35%), age 30-39, 2 (10%) age 40-49. Most patients were overweight with BMI 18-25 in 3 (15%), BMI 25-30 in 9 (45%), and BMI >30 in 8 (40%). Eleven patients were genotype 1, 4 were genotype 2, 5 were genotype 3. Of the 20 patients included in the study, 4 had insurance and 16 did not. Of the 16 patients who were non-funded, all 16 patients were on an indigent managed health care program. SVR was achieved in three-fourths (75%) of patients with insurance versus 12/16 (75%) without insurance (p=1.0). Gender, age, and HCV PCR baseline level did not show signifi cant eff ects on SVR response using multiple logistic regression analysis. Conclusion: In conclusion, in this sample of HCV patients treated in a Texas-Mexico border community, insurance status did not aff ect SVR outcomes. Patients who did not have insurance, but were provided some type of assistance or managed care program, completed treatment and had high SVR rates. Disclosure Roberta Romero DNP, RN, FNP-C has received honoraria from Genentech, Vertex, and Gilead Pharmaceuticals and is on the speaker's bureau for Genentech and Gilead. Ogechika Alozie has received honoraria from Abbvie Pharmaceuticals and is on the speaker's bureau for Abbvie and ViiV.


Anomalous left coronary artery from pulmonary artery (ALCAPA) is a rare but important congenital coronary anomaly. Patients with ALCAPA typically present with paroxysms of crying, pallor, diaphoresis, agitation and heart failure in infancy due to myocardial ischaemia. Clinical course thus very much depends on the presence and development of collateral circulation. We report the clinical presentation and method of diagnosis of ALCAPA in Chinese children in Hong Kong. We also study their long term outcomes after surgery and compare local data with overseas results. Early diagnosis and correction are important to avoid development of or progression of mitral regurgitation, which appeared to be associated with lower chance of requiring mitral valve annuloplasty/replacement. The majority of patients in Hong Kong presents as infantile form with heart failure, mitral regurgitation and dilated cardiomyopathy. Typical ECG changes are present in 5 cases (55.6%). Echocardiography confirms the diagnosis in 3 cases (33.3%). The remaining patients require cardiac catheterization to confirm the diagnosis. Early diagnosis therefore relies on a high index of suspicion. The diagnosis of ALCAPA should be considered as differential diagnosis of mitral regurgitation, endocardial fibroelastosis and dilated cardiomyopathy. Cardiac catheterization is warranted in doubtful cases. Long-term survival and outcome after surgical treatment appear to be favourable with good functional status. Residual lesions occur in 4 (44.4%) patients and re-operation on the mitral valve is required in 1 (11.1%) patient. Our local results are comparable to overseas reports.


The article is devoted to the topic which deals with an empirical evaluation of regional competitiveness. The position of 27 Ukrainian regions was analyzed by the means of multivariate statistical methods respecting the multidimensional character of selected social economic variables. The current variables were obtained from the database of State Statistics Service of Ukraine. Chosen data sets are suitable for describing fields such as Industry, Investment, Household Income, Wages and Their payment, Labour Market, Demographic situation, Environment. By the factor analysis the data sets were reduced and authors of the article identified four regional competitiveness factors (Economic Development Factor, Industrial Production Factor, Migration and Employment Rate Factor, Labour Market Factor). Factor scores were obtained as an additional result of the factor analysis and consequently were used as input variables for the cluster analysis.  As the result of the multivariate classification the groups of regions with similar levels of regional competitiveness were found. The created regional clusters are discussed in the article regarding their current regional competitiveness and economic development. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ee.23.4.1296


This paper investigates the degree of inflation inertia in Egypt and its determinants using the cross country data consisting of over 100 countries. Medium-unbiased estimator of inflation inertia in Egypt is high compared to other countries, as indicated by its location around the upper quartile among the sample. The cross country analysis indicates that counter-cyclical macroeconomic policy and fiscal consolidation are a key to reduce inflation inertia and the costs of disinflation.


The target of human pose estimation is to determine body part or joint locations of each person from an image. This is a challenging problems with wide applications. To address this issue, this paper proposes an augmented parallel-pyramid net with attention partial module and differentiable auto-data augmentation. Technically, a parallel pyramid structure is proposed to compensate the loss of information. We take the design of parallel structure for reverse compensation. Meanwhile, the overall computational complexity does not increase. We further define an Attention Partial Module (APM) operator to extract weighted features from different scale feature maps generated by the parallel pyramid structure. Compared with refining through upsampling operator, APM can better capture the relationship between channels. At last, we proposed a differentiable auto data augmentation method to further improve estimation accuracy. We define a new pose search space where the sequences of data augmentations are formulated as a trainable and operational CNN component. Experiments corroborate the effectiveness of our proposed method. Notably, our method achieves the top-1 accuracy on the challenging COCO keypoint benchmark and the state-of-the-art results on the MPII datasets.


The pearl oyster industry is a growing multibillion dollar sector of molluscan aquaculture. The end product of pearl farming, the pearl, is unique to this sector. Pearl production is entirely based upon health. The pearl itself is a product of the oyster's immune defences as a response to soft-tissue irritation. Today, most disease problems are caused by opportunistic pathogens taking advantage of oysters weakened by the stress of handling, including pearl surgery and sub-optimal growing conditions. Further development of the industry will inevitably lead to increased risk of disease introduction, spread or emergence. Against such an unwanted future, health management is the critical line of defence. This publication provides guidance on the management of pearl oyster health and reviews pearl oyster mortalities and disease problems that will be useful for designing programmes aimed at reducing the risks from diseases. Part 1 consists of pearl oyster health - the current interest in it and an overview of the cultured marine pearl industry. Part 2 examines pearl oyster health management: husbandry and handling, hatchery production, diseases, field collections of samples, laboratory protocols, national strategies... Certain countries in the pearl oyster producing regions have acquired a great deal of experience in health management of cultured species. Experiences from Australia, the Cook Islands, Japan, French Polynesia, the Philippines, China, the Persian Gulf and the Red Sea are included in Part 3 which also contains a general review of pearl oyster mortalities and disease problems.


Staphylococcus aureus is an important pathogen bacteria causing food poisoning and various infection in animals and humans. Haemolysin is one of the virulence factors of Staphylococcus aureus. The aims of the research were to characterize haemolysins of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from various food of animal origin, phenotypic- and genotypically. In the present study, eleven Staphylococcus aureus isolated from various food of animal origins from traditional markets and supermarkets in Yogyakarta, Sidoarjo, Jakarta, and Bandung were characterized for haemolysin, pheno- and genotypically. Characterization of haemolysin phenotypically based on haemolysis pattern of Staphylococcus aureus on sheep blood agar plate. Genes encoding hemolysin were amplified with specific primers by using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique. The results of the studies showed that Staphylococcus aureus on sheep blood agar plates revealed an alpha haemolysis pattern (18,18%), beta haemolysis (27,27%) and gamma haemolysis (54,55%). Based on amplification of the gene encoding haemolysin of Staphylococcus aureus with specific primers showed hla genes (81,81%), and hla combined with hlb genes (18,18%). The amplification of gene hla and hlb had a single amplicon with a size of approximately 534 bp and 833 bp, respectively. The haemolysin characteristics of Staphylococcus aureus from various food of animal origin could be used as important information to control staphylococcal food poisoning. Keywords : Staphylococcus aureus, haemolysin, PCR, food of animal origins


Due to the complex and diverse indoor environment, the traditional positioning algorithm used indoors will greatly reduce the positioning accuracy. Aiming at the ever-increasing demands of accuracy and stability in indoor positioning, an indoor micro-positioning system based on Bluetooth technology is designed. The low-power Bluetooth wireless data transmission module RL-CC2541-S3 is used as the signal acquisition unit, and the STM32F103ZET6 highperformance microprocessor is used as the core to complete the data processing and positioning calculation. An indoor positioning algorithm based on Gaussian filtering and Elman neural network is designed to improve the positioning accuracy of the system. Firstly, the Pauta criterion is used to eliminate the outliers of the sampled data to ensure the validity of the data. Then Gaussian filtering is used to remove the interference of Gaussian noise and the least squares method is used for curve fitting to further improve the accuracy of ranging. Finally, the nonlinear approximation of Elman neural network is used to achieve the target location. The experimental results show that the absolute error of indoor positioning is close to 0.3m, which is better than the traditional Chan algorithm, LS algorithm and Taylor series positioning algorithm, which can meet the needs of general indoor micropositioning. Keywords—indoor positioning, Bluetooth, Elman neural network, Gaussian filtering


This dataset was created as a compilation of experimental data in the literature on the production of medium chain carboxylic acids (MCCAs) by microbial mixed cultures (MMC) fermentation. The intention was to provide a dataset as comprehensive as possible that includes the majority of experimental results available in this research area to the best of our knowledge. The focus lied on MMC-based studies processing complex organic feedstock, yet selected studies were included on synthetic substrates. The relevant literature studies were collected and experimental results categorized according to bioreactor operation, i.e. batch, fed-batch and (semi-)continuous. Operational parameters, such as feedstock type, organic loading rate, temperature, etc., were extracted from information reported in studies and placed alongside product outcome in terms of MCCA production for each experiment. This dataset forms the backbone of the discussion and figure generation of the literature review "Medium chain carboxylic acids from complex organic feedstock by mixed culture fermentation" by V. De Groof, M. Coma, T. Arnot, D. Leak, A. Lanham. Published in MDPI Molecules: Special Issue "Chemicals from Food Supply Chain By-Products and Waste Streams" 2019.


The terms "Sustainable Development" and "Sustainable Building" are often overused and ill-defined. A refocus on the core meaning basically results in two requirements with regard to buildings: 1) stay within nature's limits, and 2) design according to human needs. In this context, the socio-technical system "dwellers and building" not only has to be "green" but "green enough". There is strong evidence about what green enough means: altogether 80 kWh/ma primary energy for heat (space heat, DHW) and embodied energy. Yet even in new buildings, almost nobody meets his dwelling needs with this small amount of energy. But the most prodigal energy needs prevail in existing buildings. SOLANOVA applies the know-how from new "green enough" buildings to a real retrofit of a typical building with 42 flats in Hungary. Similar developments contain about 34 million flats in Eastern Europe alone. SOLANOVA is meant to serve as a best practice example for all of Europe, and therefore, gets support from the European Commission. The project demonstrates how to stay within environmental limits while meeting the dwellers' needs even in a retrofit situation. Initial interviews with all the dwellers in SOLANOVA revealed the topics that really matter to inhabitants as well as crucial behavioural patterns. These insights were fed into the design in order to exploit the full potential for increased well-being and energy savings of more than 80%. The retrofit was finished in October 2005.


The phenomenon of coupled consolidation and contaminant transport occurs for a variety of practical applications in the area of geotechnical and geoenvironmental engineering. These applications, among others, include mechanical dewatering of contaminated soil or slurry, and contaminant transport through a landfill compacted clay liner during waste placement operations. In these applications, soil consolidation and contaminant transport occur simultaneously and the coupled effects must be accounted for in order to accurately simulate the transport process. First, an enhanced version of the CS2 model (Fox and Berles 1997) is presented for one- dimensional large strain soil consolidation. A variety of numeric examples indicate that the new capabilities describe important considerations for consolidation analysis. Based on the enhanced CS2 model, a numerical model, called CCRS1, is developed for one-dimensional large strain consolidation under constant rate of strain (CRS) loading conditions. Results indicate that analytical solutions obtained using small strain theory can be in significant error for large strain conditions with changing coefficient of consolidation. Based on an existing CST2 model (Fox and Lee 2008) and the newly developed CCRS1 model, a numerical model, called CSTCRS1, is developed for coupled one-dimensional large strain consolidation and solute transport under CRS loading conditions. Numerical investigations are presented to illustrate the effects of initial concentration distribution, transport conditions, applied strain rate, initial specimen height, and drainage and concentration boundary conditions on consolidation-induced solute transport for CRS loading conditions. Using the CST2 model and CSTCRS1 model, numerical investigation is conducted to compare the solute transport for increment loading (IL) and CRS consolidation conditions. Using the CST2 model, the results of a numerical investigation are presented to assess the significance of compacted clay liner (CCL) consolidation on contaminant transport through single CCL and composite geomembrane/CCL landfill bottom liner systems. Simulation results indicate that consolidation can have an important effect on contaminant transport through CCL, not only during the course of the consolidation process but also long after consolidation has ended. Analysis based on traditional advective- diffusive transport fails to consider the transient advection and properties changes of CCL caused by consolidation and thus can lead to significant errors


Despite the fact that ice skating is one of the most popular sports, its risks of potential injuries are often underestimated. There are a variety of injuries associated with this sports ranging from acute injuries like fractures to chronic manifestations like tendon injuries and tendinoses. Some and quite few of these injuries are preventable by good planning and good education. Skaters should be educated on best methods of breaking their falls and freely supplied with protective measures at the ice rink. The aim of this study was to review the characteristics of injuries caused by ice skating, to compare them in children and adults, to identify risk factors associated with such injuries and to review the role of injury prevention strategies. We evaluated these injuries, were able to identify the risk factors and were able to formulate prevention strategies.


Modular exponentiation is an essential operation for various applications, such as cryptography. The performance of this operation has a tremendous impact on the efficiency of the whole application. Therefore, many researchers devoted special interest to providing smart methods and efficient implementation for modular exponentiation. One this method is the sliding-window method, which pre-processes the exponent into zero and non-zero partitions so that the number of modular multiplications required computing the modular power is reduced. In this paper, we devise a novel hardware for computing modular exponentiation using the sliding-window method. The implementation is efficient when compared against existing hardware implementations of the modular exponentiation


The Family Assistance Tax Credits provide income-tested (and in some cases work-tested) financial assistance for families with financially dependent children who are living at home. This paper describes the evolution and operation of the Family Assistance programmes. This description clarifies how these programmes have evolved and operate and provides a basis for future research. The topics discussed in this paper are as follows: the programmes that preceded the Family Assistance programmes; the changing levels of assistance, abatement regimes and eligibility criteria for each of the Family Assistance programmes; the roles of the Inland Revenue Department and the Ministry of Social Development in administering the Family Assistance programmes; the definitions of income in operation in the social welfare and tax systems, the calculation of the taxation and abatement of social welfare benefits and the calculation of Family Assistance entitlement; the calculation of the impact of the Family Assistance programmes on the financial rewards from work; and the fiscal cost to the government of the social assistance system in general and the Family Assistance programmes in particular.


We present the case of a young male diagnosed with haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome. The patient presents himself with flu-like symptoms, with a rapid aggravation of the clinical and biological status towards a hemorrhagical syndrome and acute renal failure. Antibodies anti-Hantavirus (ELISA method), confirmed a recent infection. Hantavirus, classified in the Bunyaviridae family may cause two clinical syndromes: haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome and pulmonary hantaviral syndrome. Wild rodents serve as agent's host.


The use of flow diverting devices to treat complex intracranial aneurysms difficult to treat with coils and clips has recently received substantial attention. Initial experiences with increasing numbers of patients have been carried out with promising results [1]. However, it is still difficult to predict the outcome and/or the aneurysm occlusion time after treatment with flow diverters. The purpose of this work was to relate the hemodynamic environment created immediately after treatment and the occlusion period of a pair of tandem aneurysms.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


ABSTRACT The profusion of images following from the development of nanoscience/technology has coexisted with persistent confusion about how nano images work and what they mean in varying contexts. This article gives insights on some of the more pervasive images, how they can be categorized and what problems have occurred in efforts to use visual information in the exploration and confirmation of the nanoscale.


Modern taxation systems often experience complexity and investigations have attempted to define whether the tax complexity has an impact on the compliance of taxpayers. A low level of literacy can be an obstacle in the tax system. This paper will examine the impact of financial literacy on tax revenues to prove the relationship between literacy and taxation. The study will also provide suggestions for developing financial literacy which may reduce the negative influence of tax complexity on tax compliance. The educational systems do not provide taxation as a subject at any stage, however, tax knowledge is required for understanding taxes and for implementation of tax calculations and those skills directly affect the finances of individuals and the performance of businesses. A low level of financial education and tax knowledge in society affects the financial attitude of individuals and households which can lead to lower tax compliance and eventually, create a fertile environment for tax evasion. The tax complexity concerns not only people and businesses but also governments and tax administrations, because it also decreases tax revenues in the end. The study will use a simple regression model as a method in order to find out the relationship between financial literacy and taxation, as well as it will support suggestions to eliminate tax complexity issues. The main tax variables will be taken from the Eurostat database and financial literacy variables will be sourced from the OECD survey of financial competencies. Every individual and country must take financial education into serious consideration to avoid the anticipated consequences in personal life and negative results in economic development.


BACKGROUND
 Depressive symptoms are the most prevalent mental health concern among older adults (possibly heightened during the COVID-19 pandemic), which raises questions about how such symptoms can be lowered in this population. Existing research shows that offline social connectedness is a protective factor against depression in older adults; however, it is unknown whether web-based social connectedness can have similar effects.

 OBJECTIVE
 This study investigates whether social connectedness on a support website protects older adults against depressive symptoms over the course of a year, above and beyond the protective effect of offline social connectedness. The secondary aim is to determine whether older adults with increased depressive symptoms are more likely to engage in social connectedness on this website. Thus, we examine depressive symptoms as both an outcome and predictor of web-based social connectedness to fully understand the chain of causality among these variables. Finally, we compare web-based social connectedness with offline social connectedness in their ability to lower depressive symptoms among older adults.

 METHODS
 A total of 197 adults aged 65 years or older were given access to a social support website, where they were able to communicate with each other via a discussion forum for a year. Participants' social connectedness on the web-based platform, conceptualized as message production and consumption, was measured using behavioral log data as the number of messages participants wrote and read, respectively, during the first 6 months (t1) and the following 6 months (t2) of the study. Participants self-reported their offline social connectedness as the number of people in their support networks, and they reported their depressive symptoms using the Patient Health Questionnaire-8 both at baseline (t1) and at 12-month follow-up (t2). To ascertain the flow of causality between these variables, we employed a cross-lagged panel design, in which all variables were measured at t1 and t2.

 RESULTS
 After controlling for the effect of offline support networks at t1, web-based message consumption at t1 decreased older adults' depressive symptoms at t2 (β=−.11; P=.02), but web-based message production at t1 did not impact t2 depressive symptoms (β=.12; P=.34). Web-based message consumption had a larger effect (β=−.11; P=.02) than offline support networks (β=−.08; P=.03) in reducing older adults' depressive symptoms over time. Higher baseline depressive symptoms did not predict increased web-based message consumption (β=.12; P=.36) or production (β=.02; P=.43) over time.

 CONCLUSIONS
 The more messages older adults read on the web-based forum for the first 6 months of the study, the less depressed they felt at the 1-year follow-up, above and beyond the availability of offline support networks at baseline. This pinpoints the substantial potential of web-based communication to combat depressive symptoms in this vulnerable population.

 CLINICALTRIAL

 INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT
 RR2-10.1186/s13063-015-0713-2


OBJECTIVE
This cross-sectional study examines associations between cardiac vagal control and mainstream acculturation by systematically investigating the independent contributions of resting, reactivity, and recovery Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA)-physiological factors contributing to adaptive functioning, including social engagement capacity. This study also examines the moderating role of RSA reactivity in associations between perceived ethnic discrimination and mainstream acculturation.

METHOD
The sample comprised 111 migrants from Maghreb (Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia) to Montreal, QC, Canada. On average, participants (60 women) were 31 years old and had immigrated 7 years prior to the study. The study design was cross-sectional. We collected both psychophysiological (electrocardiogram) and self-report questionnaire data.

RESULTS
All three facets of cardiac vagal control are independently associated with mainstream acculturation: Higher mainstream acculturation was associated with higher resting RSA (β = .24), lower RSA reactivity (β = -.27), and higher recovery RSA (β = .26), controlling for several theoretically relevant covariates. Furthermore, lower RSA reactivity to a discrimination-recall task dampened the relation between perceived discrimination and mainstream acculturation (interaction β = -.20).

CONCLUSIONS
This study replicates and extends prior work linking RSA and mainstream acculturation using a sample of racialized and marginalized migrants. It provides evidence that RSA is related to migrants' adoption of the mainstream culture and may modulate how they handle perceived ethnic discrimination. Thus, this study also provides evidence that RSA is tied to how individuals successfully navigate novel social environments, including novel cultural contexts. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).


Anti-tax loss trafficking rules disallow the use of loss carryforwards after a change in ownership or activity (such as significant changes in turnover, employment, or the product portfolio). This restriction could threaten accumulated loss carryforwards of start-ups. Accounting for the increased risk and reduced return on their investment, VC investors could reduce their funding. I analyze whether the venture capital (VC) funding of start-ups in Europe is affected by these regulations. I base my empirical analysis on several case studies and a panel analysis covering VC- funded companies in the EU28 Member States from 1999 to 2014. My findings suggest that strict anti-tax loss trafficking rules indeed impair VC funding. Especially more mature companies and companies in high-tech industries are affected.


Climate exerts a universal dominant influence on ecology, but processes of karstification have an equally high ecological influence in carbonate rock regions. Development of karst features depends greatly on the degree to which water containing carbon dioxide has been able to move on and through carbonate rocks and to remove some of the rock in solution. Distinctive features of many karst terranes include scarcity of soils, scarcity of surface streams, and rugged topography; less distinctive are the highly permeable and cavernous rocks, especially at the shallow depths. This high permeability gives rise to many practical problems, including (i) scarcity and poor predictability of groundwater supplies, (ii) scarcity of surface streams, (iii) instability of the ground, (iv) leakage of surface reservoirs, and (v) an unreliable waste-disposal environment. Natural karst processes in some carbonate rock regions have caused a greater restriction in the development of biota than man can ever be suspected of causing.


Purpose of review Acute critical illness increases the risk of malnutrition, are more obese, and have multiple comorbidities and frequent pre-existing nutritional deficits. There is a vast amount of research and literature being written on nutritional practices in the critically ill. We review and discuss herein the important nutrition literature over the past 12 months. Recent findings Sarcopenia, defined as loss of skeletal mass and strength, is associated with increased mortality and morbidity, particularly in elderly patients with trauma. Ultrasound is emerging as a noninvasive and promising method of measuring muscularity. Measuring gastric residuals and postpyloric feeding may not decrease rates of pneumonia in critically ill patients. Trophic and full feeding lead to similar long-term functional and cognitive outcomes in patients with acute respiratory distress syndrome. Summary Nutrition and metabolic support of critically ill patients is a complex and diverse topic. Nutritional measurements, requirements, and modes and routes of delivery are currently being studied to determine the best way to treat these complicated patients. We present just a few of the current controversial topics in this fascinating arena.


The aim of this work was to isolate the abortogenic virus strain of Equine Herpesvirus 1 representing the current infection situation in the Czech Republic, describe it at the molecular level with accent on genes coding viral glycoproteins and observe the changes caused by the passaging of the virus on a cell culture. In 2009, an isolate of equine herpesvirus 1 was obtained from an abortion case in a mare from a herd affected by abortion storm. The virus identification was performed using the PCR method. The virus was isolated on the RK 13 cell line and after 6 passages in vitro the stability of sequences of selected sections of the virus genome was assessed and compared with the original field isolate. The virus sequences were also compared with known sequences of the abortogenic reference virus strain (V592) and with other known viral strains. One point mutation in a nucleotide sequence coding glycoprotein G was found, distinguishing the field isolate from V592. One point mutation in the gene for glycoprotein C was passage-induced. It was noted that the virus during the passage on RK13 cell line in the monitored sections was stable and is a suitable starting material for next experiments. EHV-1, viral abortion in mares, glycoproteins, genom


Landing hazard detection and avoidance technology is being pursued within NASA to improve landing safety and increase access to sites of interest on the lunar surface. The performance of a hazard detection and avoidance system depends on properties of the terrain, sensor performance, algorithm design, vehicle characteristics and the overall all guidance navigation and control architecture. This paper analyzes the size of the region that must be imaged, sensor performance parameters and the impact of trajectory angle on hazard detection performance. The analysis shows that vehicle hazard tolerance is the driving parameter for hazard detection system design.


New ammonite faunas consisting of 13 taxa provide the first reliable biostratigraphic dating of the Debarsu Formation of the Yazd Block, west-central Iran, indicating several levels in the Upper Albian and Lower Cenomanian, while a foraminiferal assemblage places the top of the Formation in the Middle Turonian. Among the identified ammonite taxa, Acompsoceras renevieri (Sharpe, 1857) is recorded from Iran for the first time. The upper part of the lower Upper Albian is proved by the occurrences of mortoniceratines of the Mortoniceras ( M .) inflatum Zone in the lowermost part of the Debarsu Formation. For the upper Upper Albian (traditional Stoliczkaia dispar Zone), the M . ( Subschloenbachia  ) rostratum and M . ( S .) perinflatum zones are proved by their index taxa. However, there is no evidence of the terminal Arrhaphoceras ( Praeschloenbachia ) briacensis Zone. The upper part of the lower Lower Cenomanian  Mantelliceras mantelli Zone ( M. saxbii Subzone) is proved by M. saxbii and M . cf. mantelli . Below, there is an ammonite-barren interval of ca. 100 m in thickness between M . ( S .) perinflatum zonal strata and the M. saxbii Subzone. The upper Lower Cenomanian is documented by the presence of typically M. dixoni zonal ammonites such as Acompsoceras renevieri . Upper Cenomanian and Turonian ammonites have not been found in the upper part of the Debarsu Formation, but micro-biostratigraphic evidence (planktonic foraminifers) from the uppermost part of the formation indicate that the formation ranges into the Turonian. For the development of the major tectonic unconformity at the base of the overlying Haftoman Formation (which yielded Lower Coniacian inoceramids near its base), only 2–3 myr remain, stressing the geodynamic activity of Central Iran during mid-Cretaceous times.


In this paper we attempt to investigate the effect on income inequality of some recent trends in the labour market, changes in regulations of temporary positions and the surge in immigration in many EU-countries. The empirical results show that less strict regulations of temporary positions and higher immigration increase income inequality. The effects of other labour market institutions, such as tax and benefit replacement ratio, on wage inequality are mainly in line with previous literature, but our results are based on a larger sample size in both the time and country dimension. The empirical analysis is conducted on panel data for 20 OECD countries between 1973 and 2011. We perform two robustness checks to our results. First, we account for indirect effects of changes in labor market institutions on wage inequality via the unemployment rates. The indirect effects suggest that labour market institutions have a larger effect on wage inequality than before. Second, we account for cross-sectional dependence and the results point at lower but significant effects of most of the labour market institutions on wage inequality.


I consider a model of delegated bargaining where an uninformed principal bargains with an opponent and can delegate negotiation to a biased agent who is privately informed about the cost of agreement. Applications include diplomacy and bargaining on behalf of a firm by division managers. I characterize the equilibria that result, showing that there are equilibria with inefficient delay, as well as with immediate agreement. Any equilibrium with delay has an atom of acceptances followed by smooth screening. As long as the principal is less eager to agree than the agent for the highest costs, the Coase conjecture fails in every equilibrium. Using an agent can benefit the principal, but only in the initial stages of negotiation. If the conflict of interest between the principal and the agent decreases, the payoff of the opponent increases.


It is likely that climate change will be associated with reductions in inflows of water to the Murray-Darling Basin. In this study, we analyse the effects of climate change in the Murray-Darling Basin using a simulation model that incorporates a state-contingent representation of uncertainty. The severity of the impact depends, in large measure, on the extent to which climate change is manifested as an increase in the frequency of drought conditions. Adaptation will partially offset the adverse impact of climate change.


Purpose: A worldwide compassionate-use program has enabled >42,000 patients with advanced non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) to receive gefitinib treatment. Here we report the outcome of gefitinib therapy in patients who enrolled in the "Iressa" Expanded Access Program at the Samsung Medical Center. Experimental Design: Patients with advanced or metastatic NSCLC who had progressed after prior systemic chemotherapy and for whom no other treatment option was available were eligible to receive gefitinib treatment as part of the Expanded Access Program. A post hoc assessment of potential prognostic factors for response and survival was performed by multivariate analysis. Results: All 111 evaluable patients had stage IV disease; most patients had a baseline performance status of 2 [n = 52 (47%)] or 3 [n = 18 (16%)] and had received ≥2 prior chemotherapy regimens (56%). The objective response rate was 26%, the disease control rate (measured over ≥8 weeks) was 40%, and the 1-year survival rate was 44%. Adenocarcinoma histology was associated with better response and disease control rates, and a performance status of 0–2 was also associated with a better disease control rate. Both of these factors, as well as female gender, were significantly associated with longer survival. Gefitinib was well tolerated; the most common adverse event was grade 1 skin rash. Conclusions: Gefitinib demonstrated significant antitumor activity and a favorable tolerability profile in this series of NSCLC patients with poor prognosis.


Stannous fluoride, the widely used anticaries toothpaste additive, and other tin and germanium dihalides form complexes with hemoproteins such as hepatic cytochrome P-450, hemoglobin, and peroxidase. These complexes are characterized by visible spectra closely similar in shape, molar absorptivity, and absorbance maxima to those obtained with analogous complexes of carbon monoxide. Evidence is presented that the observed complexes are formed with uncharged MX2 or LMX2, moieties (where L is a neutral Lewis base, M is a metal, and X is a halogen) acting as pi-acceptor ligands.


The coinhibitory receptor T cell immunoglobulin and ITIM domain (TIGIT) is widely expressed by immune cells, including CD4+ T cells. Previously, we showed that circulating gut homing CD38+ (CD62LnegCD4+) effector T cells are enriched for TIGIT+ cells with an immunoregulatory phenotype. In newly diagnosed inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients, low frequencies of regulatory TIGIT+ cells in circulating gut homing CD38+CD62LnegCD4+ effector T cells associate with more severe disease. IBD is a chronic disease characterized by aberrant CD4+ T cell responses to intestinal microbiota. Together, this led us to hypothesize that TIGIT+CD4+ T cells regulate immune responses to intestinal bacteria thereby maintaining intestinal homeostasis.

 We studied TIGIT expression in subpopulations of murine and human intestinal CD4+ T cells. In addition, we assessed the signals required for the induction of TIGIT expression in vitro using CD4+ T cells isolated from human healthy donor peripheral blood.

 TIGIT was expressed by more than 50% of memory, but not naïve, CD4+ T cells in the intestinal lamina propria of both mouse and human. Both Foxp3+ and Foxp3neg intestinal CD4+ T cells expressed TIGIT. Intestinal TIGIT expression depended on the presence of microbial antigens, as conventionalization of germ-free mice with specific-pathogen free (SPF) microbiota dramatically increased TIGIT expression in both small intestine and colon. T cell receptor (TCR) ligation mimicked by anti-CD3 stimulation was essential to induce TIGIT expression on CD4+ T cells isolated from human peripheral blood, but CD28 co-stimulation led to reduced TIGIT expression. TIGIT expression could only be induced on antigen-experienced CD4+ memory T cells, but not naïve CD4+ T cells. Using the calcium ionophore ionomycin and the calcineurin inhibitor tacrolimus, we demonstrated that the induction of TIGIT expression upon TCR ligation depended on downstream calcium-dependent signaling. We next assessed whether retinoic acid (RA), a metabolite produced by intestinal antigen-presenting cells (APCs), can further enhance TIGIT expression. RA plays an important role in mucosal immune responses, as it promotes the development of Foxp3+ regulatory T cells and induces the expression of the gut-homing markers CD38 and α4β7. We showed that co-stimulation with RA also significantly enhanced TCR-induced TIGIT expression, as it increased both the mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) and frequencies of TIGIT+ cells in CD4+ memory T cells.

 In conclusion, these data argue that TCR ligation and retinoic acid production by intestinal APCs induces TIGIT expression on CD4+ memory T cells, which in turn may contribute to regulation of immune responses against microbial antigens.


Deafness has been associated with poor abilities to deal with digits in the context of arithmetic and memory, and language modality-specific differences in the phonological similarity of digits have been shown to influence short-term memory (STM). Therefore, the overall aim of the present thesis was to find out whether language modality-specific differences in phonological processing between sign and speech can explain why deaf signers perform at lower levels than hearing peers when dealing with digits. To explore this aim, the role of phonological processing in digit-based arithmetic and memory tasks was investigated, using both behavioural and neuroimaging methods, in adult deaf signers and hearing non-signers, carefully matched on age, sex, education and non-verbal intelligence. To make task demands as equal as possible for both groups, and to control for material effects, arithmetic, phonological processing, STM and working memory (WM) were all assessed using the same presentation and response mode for both groups. The results suggested that in digit-based STM, phonological similarity of manual numerals causes deaf signers to perform more poorly than hearing non-signers. However, for digit-based WM there was no difference between the groups, possibly due to differences in allocation of resources during WM. This indicates that similar WM for the two groups can be generalized from lexical items to digits. Further, we found that in the present work deaf signers performed better than expected and on a par with hearing peers on all arithmetic tasks, except for multiplication, possibly because the groups studied here were very carefully matched. However, the neural networks recruited for arithmetic and phonology differed between groups. During multiplication tasks, deaf signers showed an increased reliance on cortex of the right parietal lobe complemented by the left inferior frontal gyrus. In contrast, hearing non-signers relied on cortex of the left frontal and parietal lobes during multiplication. This suggests that while hearing non-signers recruit phonology-dependent arithmetic fact retrieval processes for multiplication, deaf signers recruit non-verbal magnitude manipulation processes. For phonology, the hearing non-signers engaged left lateralized frontal and parietal areas within the classical perisylvian language network. In deaf signers, however, phonological processing was limited to cortex of the left occipital lobe, suggesting that sign-based phonological processing does not necessarily activate the classical language network. In conclusion, the findings of the present thesis suggest that language modality-specific differences between sign and speech in different ways can explain why deaf signers perform at lower levels than hearing non-signers on tasks that include dealing with digits.


Islamic polities of the classical period recognized the importance of seaweeds in their daily life. Their men of science, craftsmen, and navigators used them for medicinal purposes, manufacturing, and navigation. The agar components were used in treating pathological conditions such jaundice, spleen, kidney and skin ailments, and malignancies. As food, we stress that our conclusions derive from Qur'ān-based commentaries and Muslim religious law that encouraged seafaring and exploiting the resources of the sea. Concerning navigation, sailors could identify coastal trunk routes, shallows, and various marine phenomena; shipwrights used agar compounds as a protective coating against the Greek Fire. Like their Greco-Roman counterparts, Muslim physicians, chemists, botanists, and professional sailors of this period were acquainted with numerous species of seaweeds and could appreciate the actual scientific importance of each type as well as the aquatic environment where these species lived and developed. Their scholarly literature consists of several generic Arabic and Arabicized terms to denote seaweeds and the terms variations appeared to be physical rather than linguistic.


We present a game-theoretic model that formalizes core ideas of conversational grounding theory. This game-theoretic model is based on the concept of signaling games, originally proposed as a model of linguistic convention. We extend signaling games with an observation model, which allows for the possibility that the actions a dialog participant takes may only be partially observable to others. We then apply this model to the domain of referential communication tasks, a type of task commonly used in psycholinguistic experiments.


To protect parental rights, Texas law presumes that a child's parent or parents are in the position to make decisions regarding the best interest of their child. However, Texas courts favor granting nonparent visitation rights, even over parents' objections, if there is sufficient evidence presented by the nonparent to overcome the presumption. Although Texas law is well-established when considering sufficient evidence to overcome the presumption in nonparent child custody cases, courts are inconsistent about the standards and tests involved in nonparent child visitation cases. There are differences between child custody disputes and visitation disputes, such as the level of parental intrusion and the duties required of the nonparent. Thus, Texas courts should consider certain factors when evaluating a nonparent's evidence for court-ordered visitation, which differs from the evidence necessary in child custody disputes. This Comment seeks to explore the gaps in Texas law regarding nonparent visitation and resolve, through a factor test, what qualifies as sufficient evidence to overcome the parental presumption in visitation cases. It does so by proposing the same standard of evidence in visitation and child custody disputes to safeguard the fundamental right of parental autonomy. Further, this Comment analyzes the specific factors Texas should consider in creating a factor test that other state legislatures and supreme courts deem relevant in visitation disputes. Implementing a factor test increases the predictability of visitation outcomes, allowing litigants to understand the evidence courts will consider, while still providing flexibility for the courts to analyze each situation involving a nonparent and child on a case-by-case basis.


Auckland city is New Zealand's fastest growing city which continues to sprawl outwards degrading the biodiversity of the natural systems. The population's culture of the 'quarter-acre dream' opposes intensification in low rise suburbia. While suburban shopping centres are the product of urban sprawl they are now situated in central areas relative to the growing city. Their land is now more valuable than the surface car parking that occupies the majority of the site and has the opportunity to foster intensification. In addition, these centres no longer provide a new exciting retail experience and the retail environments lack any point of difference between suburb to suburb, city to city and country to country.  The research explores three bodies of work; new urbanists Jan Gehl and Peter Calthorpe; retail theory on theatrical experience from the architect Jon Jerde, and eco-master planning of Ken Yeang. Forming the hypothesis that ecology has the ability to facilitate the hybridisation of new urbanism and retail environments creating identity and sense of place for an intensified suburban-centre. Ecology has the capacity to create a theatrical experience to re-image the retail environments towards environmental conscious consumption. The inquiry contends that urban planning and development has fragmented the regions natural systems degrading the biodiversity of species that once occupied the built area. As we continue to consume more land and more commodities, we become removed from the environment, the thing that gives us life.  The outcome of this investigation is an urban masterplan and framework for Highland Park Shopping Centre, accommodating commercial, retail, recreational and residential activities in the form of a new suburban centre that reconnects and enhances the region's natural systems. The centre becomes a catalyst for further intensification in its surrounding context. The strategies employed for the design case study can be replicated at other suburban centres allowing intensification to be enriched from the sites ecology.


Place-making – the set of social, political and material processes by which people iteratively create and recreate the experienced geographies in which they live – is an important but oft-neglected part of political theory. Place-making is an inherently networked process, constituted by the socio-spatial relationships that link individuals together through a common place-frame. While place-oriented scholars have long acknowledged the importance of interaction and communication in place-making, the mutual integration of network concepts, political theorisations and place conceptualisations has been relatively weak. We use case studies in Bolivia's forests and Athens, USA to explore how integrating these concepts can guide empirical research. This article argues that a more robust and explicit notion of 'relational place-making'– the networked, political processes of place-framing – positions the concept of place in a way that offers new analytical utility for political and urban geographic scholars.


The torquer is an important part of the dynamically tuned gyroscope (DTG). Usually, it can be used as a sensor of angular velocity and acceleration. There are different types of torquer, but the permanent magnet (PM) torquer type is more reliable than the other types. This type of torquer offers significant advantages over other torquers particularly for DTG, such as high reliability, high accuracy, fast response, less volume and weight, etc. As a torquer consists of different parts with different geometry and materials, optimal design could make more convenient solution for different cases. In this paper, a PM torquer is designed in order to achieve maximum torque per ampere; for this purpose, the first governing equations of the torquer will be written, and for the desired object, functions will be arranged. By this procedure, a PM torquer will be designed, and torque performance will be evaluated by 3-D finite-element method. Comparison between the performances of the optimized motor and the initial case shows the prominence of the optimized motor and result improvement.