OBJECTIVE
To compare the overall nutrient intake of American children (ages 2 to 19) who exclusively use skim milk instead of 1%, 2%, or whole milk; lean meats instead of higher-fat meats; or fat-modified products instead of full-fat products.

STUDY DESIGN
A unique sorting procedure was used to categorize respondents to the 1989-1991 Continuing Survey of Food Intake by Individuals according to reported use or nonuse of certain fat-reduction strategies. Differences in intake of 23 macronutrients and micronutrients, as well as energy, by exclusive users, mixed users, and nonusers of each strategy were statistically analyzed using analysis of variance with Scheffe's test. The number of fat-reduction strategies used by the children as well as demographic characteristics also were analyzed.

RESULTS
Only a small number of children qualified as exclusive users of skim milk (3%), lean meats (2%), and fat-modified products (1%). Energy intakes for all children were below 100% of the recommended dietary allowance. However, children (n = 85) who used skim milk exclusively in place of higher-fat milks closely approximated the current dietary recommendations (30% energy from fat, less than 10% from saturated fat, and less than 300 mg cholesterol) while maintaining adequate micronutrient intake and without significantly impacting energy. Children (n = 52) who used lean meats in place of higher-fat meats achieved the guideline for total fat; however, energy intake was 70% of the recommended dietary allowance and vitamin E was 63%. Children (n = 20) who use only fat-modified versions of cheese, salad dressing, cake, pudding, and yogurt made no significant impact on their energy, fat, or micronutrient intake. Of the 3299 children in the data set, only 3 qualified as users of two fat-reduction strategies and none qualified as users of all three strategies. Exclusive users of skim milk, lean meat, or fat-modified products were more likely to be female, white, and live in families with higher incomes. Those using skim milk or lean meat exclusively also were more likely to be older, whereas those exclusively using fat-modified products were younger. Furthermore, those using skim milk or fat-modified products exclusively were more likely to live in households where the head had more years of education, whereas those exclusively using lean meats were from households headed by those with slightly less years of education.

CONCLUSIONS
Despite the inherent limitations of population-based food surveys (including issues of underreporting, lack of biological markers and accurate anthropometric measures, and limited nutrient databases), these results provide insight into the rate of use of certain lower-fat food choices by children and suggest exclusive use can facilitate achievement of contemporary dietary recommendations. The impact of using these fat-reduction strategies on children's overall nutrient intake differs depending on the strategy used. Use of skim milk is an economical single-food strategy that facilitates achievement of contemporary dietary guidelines while maintaining nutrient adequacy. Professional guidance is recommended for children who exclusively use lean meats to assure adequate intake of energy and vitamin E. The impact of fat-modified products needs to be monitored closely as the number of such products increases in the marketplace. Results of this study can be used by health professionals working with children and their parents to highlight the overall efficacy of dietary recommendations while alerting them to potential pitfalls.


The study of the lymphatic system still remains far from completed. The question of the relation of the lymphatics to the two most important systems of the animal body, the central nervous system and the bone marrow system, has been especially obscure. There has existed a widespread opinion that the brain is entirely lacking in independent (not perivascular) lymph channels. Unbelievable as it is, that the lymph circulation in the most delicate tissue in the body—the brain substance—is dependent for its metabolism on the perivascular lymphatics, this opinion was supported by such authorities as His 1 and Retzius. Bevan Lewis 2 was the first to raise the question of an intervascular lymphatic system, independent of the perivascular and intravascular systems; once raised, this question never disappeared from the literature until Meynert proved clinically and Kronthal 3 morphologically that there are lymphatics of the cortex of the brain independent of


A new family of zero-current-switching (ZCS) pulsewidth-modulated (PWM) converters which uses a new ZCS PWM switch cell is presented in this paper. The main switch and auxiliary switch operate at zero-current-switching turn on and turn off, and the all passive semiconductor devices in the ZCS-PWM converter operate at zero-voltage-switching (ZVS) turn on and turn off. Besides operating at constant frequency and with reduced commutation losses, these new converters have no additional current stress in comparison to the hard switching converter counterpart. The new family of ZCS-PWM converters is suitable for high-power application using insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT's). The PWM switch model and state-space averaging approach is used to estimate and examine the steady-state and dynamic character of system. The principle of operation, theoretical analysis, and experimental results of the new ZCS-PWM boost converter, rated 1 kW and operating at 30 kHz, are provided in this paper to verify the performance of this new family of converters.


This study quantifies the schooling behaviour of a coral reef fish and, in particular, examines the stlmuli that may motivate school formation. The focus of the study was the parrotfish Chlorurus sordidus (family Scaridae) which, in the juvenile phase, is able to undergo rapid physiological colour pattern ('PCP') changes. Juvenile C. sordidus frequently schools with other juvenile parrotfish species that share some PCPs. Solitary juveniles were followed in the field before and after joining a school to investigate whether their behaviour correlated with characteristics of the school joined. The variables recorded were size and PCP of focal juveniles, size and composition of schools and the feeding behaviour and PCPs displayed by the school members. Data were systematically collected and analysed using log-linear modelling to quantitatively examine the relationship between all possible combinations of the variables measured. The results of the study provide correlational evidence that juvenile C. sordidus display assortative schooling based on PCP and size characteristics of schools. In addition, the foraging behaviour of schools was influenti.al in determining an individual's schooling behaviour. These data serve to highlight the complex and dynamic nature of schooling behaviour in this species.


The 1940s in Canada are crucial to the understanding of labour history in this country. Following the Depression, and sparked by the need to mobilize the workforce during the Second World War, this decade led to a restructuring of the relationship between labour and the state. In Harnessing Labour Confrontation, Peter S. McInnis examines the reformation of Canadian society and its industrial relations regime from the perspective of labour organizations and their supporters and from that of government and business. What results is a synthesis of labour and political history, which the author uses to analyze in a North American context the role of confrontation and heated debate in the formation of a national postwar compromise and in the birth of a modern welfare state. Among the factors affecting the postwar compromises were, argues McInnis, the divided jurisdiction between federal and provincial governments, the return to gender-biased societal norms, a developing Cold War climate of national insecurity, and a promise of strong consumer purchasing power based on postwar wages and benefits packages. While some of the results of the 1940s compromise and the welfare state remains intact today, many of the political and social structures have deteriorated in the last two decades.


Compositions of landfill leachate and groundwater pollution were studied at industrial sites landfill, which are located at Ota, Nigeria. The leachate was sampled at 5 different locations at the landfill, and at 15 and 20 m downstream of the landfill. Groundwater samples were collected from 10 different sources to study the possible impact of leachate percolation into the groundwater. The leachate and groundwater samples were collected during wet season, due to the excessive generation of leachate during this season. The objective of this work was to analyzed the groundwater pollution due to the landfill leachate. The leachate and groundwater were physically and chemically characterized. The parameters measured were pH, acidity, alkalinity, electrical conductivity (EC), total hardness (TH), chloride (Cl–),sulphate calcium hardness, heavy metals (Pb, Zn, Cd and Cu), major cations (Na, Mg, ph, and Fe). The leachate at this landfill were most likely in methanogenic phase, based on the pH value recorded (pH=6.08). The result show that the samples are contaminated, where the concentration of physicochemical parameters are below the standard acceptable levels which are required for drinking water adapted by The Nigerian Standard for Drinking water quality (NSDWQ). Therefore, detailed study of the leachate and its effect on the groundwater in the study area was recommended. Keywords : Groundwater, leachates, conductivity, heavy metals, pollution.


Extended ML is a framework for the formal development of programs in the Standard ML programming language from high-level speciications of their required input/output behaviour. It strongly supports the development of modular programs consisting of an interconnected collection of generic and reusable units. The Extended ML framework includes a methodology for formal program development which establishes a number of ways of proceeding from a given speciication of a programming task towards a program. Each such step gives rise to one or more proof obligations which must be proved in order to establish the correctness of that step. This paper is intended as a user-oriented summary of the Extended ML language and methodology. Theoretical technicalities are avoided whenever possible, with emphasis placed on the practical aspects of formal program development. An extended example of a complete program development in Extended ML is included.


Temperature characteristic of platinum piezoresistive atmosphere pressure sensor is studied in this paper, in which platinum is used as the sensing material and SU-8 is used as adhesive bonding layer. Normally, temperature variation will bring on resistance change of sensing platinum resistor with a linear relationship. Simultaneously, the thermal expansion mismatching in different material will also change the resistance. They both affect the temperature characteristic of sensor. Based on elasticity theory, the relationship between resistance change and thermal expansion mismatching is analyzed and is not linear. Sum of two parts resistance change is still nonlinear. Because the output of atmosphere pressure sensor is proportional to resistance change, relationship between output and temperature change is also nonlinear. The analysis is consistent with the experimental results.


Salix psammophila can grow rapidly in desert and grassland areas. As an abundant bioresource, it is useful to understand its cell morphology, chemical compositions and mechanical properties. In this study, Anatomical properties of Salix psammophila in different annual rings were measured and compared. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and chemical titration were used to estimate cell wall chemical compositions. Moreover, mechanical properties in different annual rings were measured through nanoindentation. Fiber cell lumen diameter, fiber cell wall thickness, vessel cell lumen diameter and vessel cell wall thickness of Salix psammophila were measured to be 7.371, 2.285, 32.541 and 1.926 μm, respectively. Fiber cell lumen diameter, fiber cell wall thickness, vessel cell lumen diameter differs among the annual rings. The cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin contents of Salix psammophila were 44.43, 34.99 and 17.93 %, respectively. Both hemicellulose and lignin contents varied among the annual rings with more hemicellulose but less lignin at the annual ring closer to the pith. The modulus of elasticity (MOE) of fiber cell wall of Salix psammophila decreases from pith to bark.


Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), today the primary mean for Position, Navigation and Timing (PNT) information on-board of a vessel, are highly vulnerable to unintentional and intentional interference like jamming or spoofing. Therefore, maritime community seeks for an alternative system to compensate this thread and follow the vision of the eNavigation strategy of International Maritime Organization (IMO), a safe navigation of vessels from berth to berth. The only alternative terrestrial backup for GNSS is the enhanced LOng-RAnge Navigation (eLORAN). However, that system will probably never reach global coverage because a substantial part of LORAN stations was shutdown in the years 2010 to 2015. There are only certain regions where it is still usable as well as Chayka, the Russian system. Today, in case of a temporal loss of GNSS no system can provide absolute positioning in areas with increased necessity for reliable navigation data provision on a global scale. One candidate for a terrestrial backup system is R(anging)-Mode which utilizes existing maritime radio infrastructure for the broadcast of modified signals, which allow distance estimation to the transmitter. First feasibility studies were done in the North Sea, in China and in South Korea.
The Baltic Sea is due to the high number of vessels along the shipping routes and its sensitive marine ecosystem a suitable region for the implementation and testing of R-Mode firstly as a terrestrial backup system to GNSS. It will supplement navigation information in order to reduce the risk of collisions and groundings. New marine applications that require a continuous provision of position information will be made possible at sea, in coastal areas and in harbours.
A consortium of 12 research institutions, administrations and industry of Germany, Poland, Sweden and Norway is currently engaged to setup the first R-Mode testbed, which utilizes IALA (International Association of Marine Aids to Navigation and Lighthouse Authorities) beacons and Automatic Identification System (AIS) land stations for the broadcast of R-Mode enabled signals. This will be organized in the southern Part of the Baltic Sea until 2020 funded by EU within the scope of R-Mode Baltic Project.
Beside this main goal of the Project (back-up to GNSS) further research and development activities will be conducted. This comprises the selection of most suitable way of R-Mode service implementation on IALA beacon and AIS signals without disruption of the legacy service. Further the selection of best algorithms for positioning either with only one type of R-Mode signals or with both is part of the research activities. In addition a concept development and test installation for the time synchronization of a transnational network of R-Mode stations which is currently maintained by independent national maritime administrations as well as the development of first prototypes of R-Mode receiver capable to cope with modified IALA beacons and/or AIS signals as well as R-Mode base station hardware for R-Mode signal generation is planned. Finally, with R-Mode enabled PNT data processing and Pilot Plug Unit the first two R-Mode applications will be made available. All this activities will be done in close contact with the maritime administrations, IALA, and maritime users. It is anticipated, that R-Mode will be a terrestrial backup system that can fulfil their need for robust and reliable PNT data for safe navigation at sea.
Beside a general description of the project first results of a common coverage prediction for the IALA beacon and AIS communication channels for the Baltic Sea region will be estimated and presented. Latter shows that especially the relevant Baltic Sea region with its narrow passages of coastlines in the North (Denmark, Norway and Sweden) and in the South (Germany, Poland) is already well equipped with a dense network of IALA beacons and AIS stations in the vicinity of vessel routes. In case of positive Project results, upgrading all of them to R-Mode service level these would allow positioning in the entire region. Furthermore, the output of the requirement phase study on the R-Mode system and its components is presented. This was done starting from relevant documents of IMO and IALA requirements for a terrestrial backup system were extracted and next further broken down for specific components of the R-Mode system. This shall give guidance throughout the project when selecting appropriate algorithms, methods and technical solutions.


With the end of the Cold War and the expansion of the international liberal order, human rights have entered the UN Security Council agenda. However, this has become a divisive issue. In a context of greater influence of the US and its Western allies over the decision-making process of the most important multilateral institutions, the UN above all, the interpretation allowing intrusive practices by the Security Council promoted by the Western permanent members has clashed with the defense of sovereignty promoted by Russia and China. Analyzing divisive resolutions with reference to human rights in the period 2001-2017 (Lebanon, Myanmar, Zimbabwe, Libya and Syria) and the only thematic meeting on the issue, the article focuses on voting behavior, sponsoring of draft resolutions and official statements during Council meetings to outline the terms of the conflict.


Exchange of genetic information during meiosis occurs in all sexually reproducing species to produce haploid gametes from diploid cells. This process involves tight coordination of a meiotic specific cohesin complex, the synaptonemal complex, and DNA damage repair mechanisms. In this study, we describe a putative myosin heavy chain protein orthologous to human myosin 1, F28D1.2, which we named Abnormal Transition Zone (atz‐1). Deletion of atz‐1 results in embryonic lethality and a depleted transition zone, accompanied by reduced expression of the meiotic cohesin protein, REC‐8. atz‐1 mutants display disorganized and aggregated chromosomal bodies in diakinetic oocytes. In addition to this, atz‐1 mutants are hypersensitive to mild inhibition of DNA damage repair, suggesting that DNA replication in atz‐1 mutants is impaired. Moreover, the atz‐1 mutant phenotype is germline specific and resupplying somatically expressed atz‐1 does not rescue the reproductive defects associated with atz‐1 mutants. Overall, our data suggest that atz‐1 contributes to meiosis and maintains germline chromosomal stability.


The new drugs strategy for England stops short of the abstinence based policy demanded by some on the Tory right but instead focuses on recovery.

The Conservative Party manifesto had criticised existing treatment programmes, saying that too many people received methadone that maintained their habit. Some on the right of the party had called for cuts in benefits for drug users who refuse treatment. But the new coalition strategy has shied away from taking such a hard line approach.

Launching the strategy, the public health minister, Anne Milton, said: "Recovery is at the heart of our new approach. As set out in our white paper, the system will be locally owned and led by directors of public health and local government. We will work with individuals and their families to offer them a clear route out of dependence."

The strategy's emphasis on recovery is along the same lines as the Scottish drugs strategy launched in 2007 and …


The first step in the design and implementation of DAC is to analyze the characteristics of the baseband modulated signal right before digital-to-analog conversion. This is crucial in order to minimize the complexity of the DAC. The paper demonstrates the generalized derivation of the optimum DAC resolution for various wireless standards based on the analytical evaluation of the normalized power distribution, clipping noise effect, and dynamic range.


Small capacitively coupled RF plasma sources operated with helium are popular as excitation sources for element detection, especially in combination with a gas chromatograph. The high mobility of helium and the use of relatively low RF frequencies lead to strong time dependences of the electron density and temperature, and hence excitation efficiency. In this study, the electron gas parameters of such a plasma were measured with temporal resolution. This was done by Thomson scattering using a triple-grating spectrograph for stray light rejection and by absolute spectral line intensity measurements. The electron density is measured to vary within a factor of two around 1.5×1019 m−3. The electron temperature found by Thomson scattering varies with the RF signal between 0.5 and 3.8 eV, whereas the temperature deduced from the absolute spectral line intensity ranges from 1.2 to 2.0 eV. This difference suggests the electron energy distribution to deviate from a Maxwellian equilibrium shape, as was observed in a number of Thomson spectra. A model is presented to explain the electron density behaviour on the basis of the measured electron temperatures.


The motion of a bubble through a fluid has attracted considerable scientific attention for many years due to the complex, interesting fluid dynamics in their wakes, coupled to a rich and varied interface motion. Additionally, vapour and gas bubbles have been found to significantly increase convective heat transfer rates between a heated surface and the surrounding fluid. Bubbles play a key role within two phase heat exchangers, in addition to applications in chemical engineering, water treatment and medicine. Of particular interest are two-phase cooling systems, which can achieve heat transfer coefficients considerably larger than their single-phase counterparts. However, a widespread implementation of these systems has yet to occur. This is due to their considerable size and to reliability issues resulting from the complexity of the flow, since the mechanisms involved in this bubble motion are dynamic and are often poorly understood. Although numerous studies exist for bubbles rising in an unbounded medium, that of bubbles rising in constricted geometries has received less attention. The particular case of a gas bubble sliding underneath an inclined surface in a quiescent medium is of key importance in the above applications. In particular, the wake of a sliding bubble and how it influences bubble interactions has received little to no attention in the literature. This study experimentally investigates air bubbles sliding under an inclined surface in quiescent water in terms of the bubble mechanics, fluid motion and resulting heat transfer. Time-resolved particle image velocimetry (PIV) is utilised in three measurement planes to study the flow features in the wakes of sliding bubbles for a range of bubble diameters and surface inclination angles. High speed imaging and advanced analytical techniques are used to capture the dynamics of the bubble and the motion of its interface. High speed, high resolution infrared thermography is used to measure the two dimensional transient convective iii surface heat transfer. An experimental setup has been designed and built to facilitate these measurements, while purpose specific code has been developed to analyse the experimental data in detail. These measurements are performed both for single bubbles and an in-line bubble pair. Analysis of the measured velocity and vorticity fields reveals a wake structure consisting of a near wake that moves in close proximity to the bubble, shedding vorticity at the extrema of the bubble path. Downstream of the bubble in the far wake, these structures evolve into asymmetrical, oppositely-oriented hairpin vortices that are generated in the near wake. These hairpin vortices bear similarities to those observed behind freely rising bubbles and near-wall bluff bodies and are found to cause significant motion of the bulk fluid. This fluid motion is key to the convective heat transfer enhancement associated with a sliding bubble. Sliding bubbles were also found to provide local heat transfer enhancement of up to 6 times natural convection levels, which evolves dynamically as the bubble traverses the surface, spreading over a large area and affecting heat transfer rates. The current work links the bubble wake to the centroidal and interfacial dynamics of the bubble, in addition to quantifying the bubblewake interactions in terms of fluid flow, bubble dynamics and surface heat transfer. This in-depth description of complex flow phenomena will be key in the future optimisation of multiphase convective heat transfer.


&NA; There is significant variability in blood coagulation among world populations. In particular, there may exist important differences in regulation of the fibrinolytic system in Asian populations that contribute to diseases of thrombosis and hemostasis. To investigate this issue, we compared fibrinogen concentration, plasma clot formation, and fibrinolytic resistance of healthy Asian subjects from Hat Yai, Songkhla, Thailand (Thai) vs. healthy North American subjects from Seattle, Washington, USA (SEA). Citrated plasma samples were obtained from healthy adult volunteers. Fibrinogen concentration was measured in plasma by the method of Clauss to examine for baseline differences of fibrinogen concentration. Samples were then standardized to 2.8 mg/ml fibrinogen using physiological buffer for each sample prior to fibrinolytic testing using rotational thromboelastometry (ROTEM) to examine for differences of clot lysis not attributable to fibrinogen concentration alone. Clot lysis was examined with ROTEM extrinsic pathway activation in the presence of 0, 0.5, and 1.0 &mgr;g/ml of tissue plasminogen activator (tPA). Two-way repeated measures analysis of variance was used to determine the effects of tPA and study group on ROTEM parameters. N = 49 Thai samples were compared with N = 58 SEA samples. Mean (SD) fibrinogen concentration was significantly increased for the Thai group at 4.03 (0.79) mg/ml vs. the SEA group at 3.66 (0.70) mg/ml (t test P = 0.014). After standardization of all samples to equivalent fibrinogen concentration, there were no differences in clot formation between groups without tPA. There was a significant effect of increasing tPA concentration on all ROTEM parameters except for clotting time. There were significant individual differences for amplitude at 10 min and lysis onset time, where amplitude at 10 min was significantly increased and lysis onset time was significantly prolonged for Thai vs. SEA at tPA concentrations of 0.5 and 1.0 &mgr;g/ml. Variability in thrombosis and hemostasis in Asians vs. other populations is likely to involve differences of fibrinogen concentration and regulation of clot lysis.


Topic modeling is a method for building a model of a collection of text documents. The model is able to determine topics for each of documents. Shifting from term space to space of extracted topics helps resolving synonymy and polysemy of terms. Besides, it allows for more efficient topic-sensitive search, classification, summarization, and annotation of document collections and news feeds. The paper shows an evolution of topic modeling techniques. The earlier methods are based on clustering. These algorithms use some similarity function defined on two documents. The next generation of topic modeling techniques is based on Latent Semantic Indexing (LSA). Words co-occurrences in documents are analyzed here. Currently, the most popular are approaches based on Bayesian networks — directed probabilistic graphical models which incorporate different kinds of entities and metadata: document authorship, connections between words, topics, documents, and authors, etc. The paper contains a comparative survey of different models along with methods for parameter estimation and accuracy measurement. The following topic models are considered in the paper: Probabilistic Latent Semantic Indexing, Latent Dirichlet Allocation, nonparametric models, dynamic models, and semi-supervised models. The paper describes wellknown quality evaluation metrics: perplexity and topic coherence. Freely available implementations are listed as well.


PLA fiber is a green eco-fiber of excellent properties and sustainable development, with adequate sources of raw materials, low energy consumption, good biodegradability, and excellent physical and mechanical properties, thus the development of this product not only has considerable economic benefits, and also has excellent social benefits. In this paper, through comprehensively testing the properties of PLA fiber, it carries out the systematical analysis and research on the Tests of PLA fiber length, fineness, over length, double length, and defects, combustion property, heat resistance, and hydrolysis property, etc. several aspects.


The question of whether the ratio of dietary carbohydrates to fat substantially impacts total energy expenditure (TEE) or body fat has been investigated for decades, with most studies pointing to no clinically meaningful effect. However, a recent study by Ebbeling et al. (https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k4583) reported substantial differences in TEE between diets varying in their ratio of carbohydrate to fat. The original pre-registered statistical analysis plan for the primary study outcome of Ebbeling et al. addressed the question of whether the reduction in TEE during weight loss maintenance compared to the pre-weight loss baseline depended on the dietary carbohydrate to fat ratio. However, the final analysis plan was modified to make the diet comparisons with the TEE measurements collected in the immediate post-weight loss period rather than at the pre-weight loss baseline. Here, we reanalyzed the data according to the original plan we found that the TEE differences were no longer statistically significant between the diet groups and the nominal diet differences of ∼100 kcal/d were much smaller than the ∼250 kcal/d differences reported in the publication. In other words, when conducting the analysis originally planned by the authors we found that the significant increases in TEE with the low carbohydrate diet that were reported by Ebbeling et al. disappeared. Furthermore, the TEE effect modification by baseline insulin secretion also disappeared.


We present a model for estimation of the probabilities of future earthquakes of magnitudes m ≥ 4.95 in Italy. This model is a modified version of that proposed for California, USA, by Helmstetter et al. [2007] and Werner et al. [2010a], and it approximates seismicity using a spatially heterogeneous, temporally homogeneous Poisson point process. The temporal, spatial and magnitude dimensions are entirely decoupled. Magnitudes are independently and identically distributed according to a tapered Gutenberg-Richter magnitude distribution. We have estimated the spatial distribution of future seismicity by smoothing the locations of past earthquakes listed in two Italian catalogs: a short instrumental catalog, and a longer instrumental and historic catalog. The bandwidth of the adaptive spatial kernel is estimated by optimizing the predictive power of the kernel estimate of the spatial earthquake density in retrospective forecasts. When available and reliable, we used small earthquakes of m ≥ 2.95 to reveal active fault structures and 29 probable future epicenters. By calibrating the model with these two catalogs of different durations to create two forecasts, we intend to quantify the loss (or gain) of predictability incurred when only a short, but recent, data record is available. Both forecasts were scaled to five and ten years, and have been submitted to the Italian prospective forecasting experiment of the global Collaboratory for the Study of Earthquake Predictability (CSEP). An earlier forecast from the model was submitted by Helmstetter et al. [2007] to the Regional Earthquake Likelihood Model (RELM) experiment in California, and with more than half of the five-year experimental period over, the forecast has performed better than the others.


Glaciers act as very good climate indicators, and the relationship they develop with climate can be exploited at 2 levels. First of all, changes in meteorological conditions are directly recorded in glacier mass balance changes (in the form of either winter precipitation or summer ablation). Therefore, from separately measuring these two terms, climatic trends can be inferred and corresponding results are all the better as mass balance series are spanning longer periods. These mass balance changes then later express under the form of fluctuations in glacier length and thickness and/or ice surface velocities. Measuring these changes is another means of inferring climate change, although the relationship is much more complex because of a time-lagging non-linear response due to complicated processes such as ice rheology or basal gliding which only a deterministic ice-flow model can capture. Due to this specificity and complexity of the dynamical response of glaciers, using these glacier changes for climate reconstructions will also require as long as possible measurement series. It is therefore in this context of a better understanding of climate through glacier change that the glacier survey network was initiated. Three main types of measurements are undertaken ; (i) mass balance measurements with both winter accumulation and summer ablation, (ii) glacier dynamical response to mass balance change in the form of thickness and length changes as well as surface velocity measurements and last (iii) measurements of local meteorology with the help of Automatic Weather Stations. This paper describes the structure and the context in which the survey network was initiated as well as all the ensuing measurements. Some scientific applications are then presented as the results of these observations like the significant changes in surface mass balance connected to the strong changes in radiative and turbulent heat fluxes at the surface of glaciers over the last decades, or the better understanding of ice dynamics from direct inspection of glacier dynamical changes or from using these latter changes for tuning, validating and exploiting the results of an ice flow model.


: In experiments on unanesthetized cats, electric stimulation of biologically active points (BAP) led to a prolonged facilitation of the amplitude of brain cortex evoked potentials. Morphine (2--2.5 mg/kg) produced unidirectional changes (with respect to electric stimulation) in the electrophysiological indices. Reserpine (5 mg/kg) shortened the period of the effect induced by electric stimulation of BAP during complete depletion of the brain monoamine pool. It is suggested that variation in the balance of brain biogenic amines is of certain importance for, rather than determines the realization of the effect of BAP electric stimulation.


Accuracy in solder balls and joint void detection is very important. If voids are incorrectly identified, board yield will be affected by incorrect scrapping and rework. Voids are difficult to detect using manual inspection alone. One current solution to make voids visible involves the use of a 2D x-ray system to image the boards. Some existing x-ray inspection systems have void detection algorithms that require the use of intensive, time consuming, fine tuning operations. These algorithms typically use two different global thresholds to segment the balls or joints and the voids using operator trial and error. However, using global thresholding over the entire image is invalidated due to varying image brightness. Existing methods also eliminate balls or joints that are partially occluded by other components due to difficulties in segmentation. The results are that many voids that can be easily observed by the human eye are missed by the existing automated methods. In this paper, a robust, accurate, and automatic void detection algorithm is proposed. The method is applicable to either Pre SMT solder balls or post SMT solder joints. For simplicity, the term balls will be used throughout the document. The proposed method is able to detect voids with different sizes inside the solder balls, including the ones that are occluded by board components and under different brightness conditions. The proposed method consists of segmenting individual balls, extracting occluded balls, and segmenting voids inside the solder balls. The segmentation of the individual balls is achieved by using the proposed histogram and morphological based segmentation method. A voting procedure is used to segment the occluded balls where the pixels inside the occluded area are checked to obtain candidate pixels representing the occluded joint's or ball's centroids. An independent edge detection procedure is used to get candidate voids inside individual balls. Mathematical morphology operations are used to locate all possible valid voids and remove non-void areas. The proposed algorithm was applied to 3 different Intel products. The results of the proposed method were compared to the results obtained by an automated algorithm in an existing state-of-the-art 2D x-ray inspection system, the results obtained by trained operators from 2D x-ray images, and the results obtained by trained operators from 3D CT scan images. The results (pre SMT solder balls) show that the proposed method is capable of successfully locating all possible visible voids inside the solder ball even the ones that were missed by using other methods as well as those that are hard to see by the human eye. The results also show a high correlation with ground-truth data obtained from 3D CT scan and experienced operators. The algorithm is fully automated, benefits the manufacturing process by reducing operator effort and provides a cost effective solution to improve output quality.


The IATTC staff recently developed a new spatially-explicit ecological risk assessment (ERA) approach— Ecological Assessment for the Sustainable Impacts of Fisheries (EASI-Fish)—to quantify the cumulative impacts of multiple fisheries on data-limited bycatch species in the EPO. The method is generally applied to a suite of impacted bycatch species, where a proxy of the instantaneous fishing mortality rate (F) is estimated for each species based on the 'volumetric overlap' of each fishery and each stock's distribution. F is then used in length-structured per-recruit models to assess the vulnerability of each species using conventional biological reference points (e.g. FMSY, SSB40%). EASI-Fish is therefore, primarily used as a quantitative prioritization tool to allow fisheries managers to identify the most vulnerable species to which resources can be directed to either implement mitigation measures to remove the key risk(s) or subject the species to data collection programs to gather sufficient data to facilitate more traditional population assessments. However, EASI-Fish also has the capability of simulating hypothetical conservation and management measure (CMM) scenarios (e.g. spatial and/or temporal closures, gear modifications) that may mitigate fishery risks to a species, without incurring significant investment in costly data collection programs. This paper uses EASI-Fish to explore the changes in the vulnerability status of the spinetail devil ray (Mobula mobular)—a slow-growing species with low reproductive potential and a paucity of information on post-release mortality (PRM)—under 18 hypothetical CMM scenarios 1 Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, 8901 La Jolla Shores Drive, La Jolla, California, USA 2 AZTI-Tecnalia, Marine Research Division, herrera kaia, portualdea z/g, 20110, Pasaia, Spain DRAFT NOT TO BE CITED BYC-09-01 – EASI-Fish & Mobula 2 simulated for EPO purse-seine and longline tuna fisheries for 2016. CMMs involved various spatial and temporal closures of the EPO and 'hotspots', decreasing PRM, increasing the length at first capture and various combinations of these CMMs. The "status quo" scenario revealed that F2016 and the spawning stock biomass per recruit (SSB2016) exceeded precautionary biological reference points (F40% and SSB40%), classifying M. mobular as "most vulnerable". Increasing the duration and/or number of spatial closures significantly reduced the vulnerability of the species but was insufficient in changing its classification from "most vulnerable". Only 3 of the 18 scenarios resulted in the species being classified as "least vulnerable", which primarily involved reductions in PRM. This is fortuitous in that the development of best handling and release practices and the education of fishers is likely to be a far simpler, rapid and cost-effective CMM than the implementation of increased spatial and temporal closures and gear modifications that will likely result in substantial decreases in the catches of target species. However, given the current lack of reliable information on the PRM of M. mobular—and other mobulids—there is an urgent need for a tagging study to quantify the PRM of M. mobular from purse-seine and longline fisheries in the EPO.


Senior Registrar and Lecturer Charing Cross & Westminster Medical School London *The author replies below: Sir, Unfortunately Professor Maurer does not seem to have grasped the essential point that we were describing observations within defined populations. He seems to imply that a temporal relationship was considered but we merely pointed out that, at one time, those who perforated tended to smoke more than a control population. That is all. C WASTELL


Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the World Wide Web, envisioned it as a place where "people can communicate … by sharing their knowledge in a pool … putting their ideas in, as well as taking them out" (Berners-Lee, 1999). For much of its first decade, the Web was, however, primarily a place where the majority of people took ideas out rather than putting them in. This has changed. Many "social software" services now exist on the Web to facilitate social interaction, collaboration and information exchange. This article introduces wikis, jointly edited Web sites and Intranet resources that are accessed through web browsers. After a brief overview of wiki history, we explain wiki technology and philosophy, provide an overview of how wikis are being used for collaboration, and consider some of the issues associated with management of wikis before considering the future of wikis. In 1995, an American computer programmer, Ward Cunningham, developed some software to help colleagues quickly and easily share computer programming patterns across the Web. He called the software WikiWikiWeb, after the "Wiki Wiki" shuttle bus service at Honolulu International Airport (Cunningham, 2003). As interest in wikis increased, other programmers developed wiki software, most of it (like WikiWikiWeb) open source. Although wiki software was relatively simple by industry standards, some technical knowledge was required to install, maintain and extend the "wiki engines." Contributors needed to learn and use a markup language to edit pages, and even if the markup languages were often simpler than HTML, non-technical users did not find these early wikis compelling. In the early years of the twenty-first century, a number of developments led to more widespread use of wikis. Wiki technology became simpler to install and use, open source software was improved, and commercial enterprise-grade wiki software was released. The not insignificant issues associated with attracting and managing a community of people who use a wiki to share their knowledge were discussed in forums such as MeatballWiki (http://www.usemod.com/cgibin/ mb.pl?action=browse&id=MeatballWiki&ol did=FrontPage). The public's attention was drawn to wikis following the launch, in January 2001, of the publicly written Web-based encyclopedia, Wikipedia (www.wikipedia.org). And wiki hosting services and application service providers (ASPs) were established to enable individuals and organizations to develop wikis without the need to install and maintain wiki software themselves. By July 2006, nearly 3,000 wikis were indexed at the wiki indexing site www.wikiindex. org, popular wiki hosting services such as Wikia (www.wikia.org) and seedwiki (www.seedwiki. org) hosted thousands of wikis between them, and Wikipedia had more than four and a half million pages in over 100 languages. Moreover, wikis were increasingly being used in less public ways, to support and enable collaboration in institutions ranging from businesses to the public service and not-for-profit organizations.


There is a growing interest on qualitative methodology as evidence by an increasing number of qualitative research design employed in social science researches. In qualitative inquiry process, the role of theory in the field of social science and where it situates in the research framework has always created a challenge for the
researchers. However, inconclusive and differing opinions have so far been documented about the role and position
of theory in qualitative research. The purpose of this paper is to build a general perspective in terms of the position of theory in qualitative research methodology applicable to social science research. Review of literatures on these issues were presented and discussed. As a result, a deep comprehension of a phenomenon, event or experience in real-life cannot always or necessarily be based on theory, yet the significant role of theory in literature review is an undeniable fact.


To leverage the power of big data from source tasks and overcome the scarcity of the target task samples, representation learning based on multi-task pretraining has become a standard approach in many applications. However, up until now, choosing which source tasks to include in the multi-task learning has been more art than science. In this paper, we give the first formal study on resource task sampling by leveraging the techniques from active learning. We propose an algorithm that iteratively estimates the relevance of each source task to the target task and samples from each source task based on the estimated relevance. Theoretically, we show that for the linear representation class, to achieve the same error rate, our algorithm can save up to a \textit{number of source tasks} factor in the source task sample complexity, compared with the naive uniform sampling from all source tasks. We also provide experiments on real-world computer vision datasets to illustrate the effectiveness of our proposed method on both linear and convolutional neural network representation classes. We believe our paper serves as an important initial step to bring techniques from active learning to representation learning.


eScholarship provides open access, scholarly publishing services to University of California and delivers a dynamic research platform to scholars worldwide. Abstract: A number of Bangladeshi wheat genotypes (varieties and advanced lines) have been tested for boron efficiency through sand culture experiments over two years (2007-08 & 2008-09) against two Thai check varieties 'Fang 60' (boron efficient) and 'SW41' (boron inefficient). Performances of the genotypes were evaluated with respect to grain set, boron uptake and grain yield. The genotypes differed considerably in their response to added boron. Some commonly grown varieties such as 'Sourav', 'Prodip' and 'Sufi' showed little response to boron application, while 'Shatabdi' had a high response to added boron, thus the former varieties can be regarded as boron efficient and the later as boron inefficient. Some advanced lines, 'BAW 1051', 'BAW 1086' and 'KRL-1-4', also demonstrated their performances as boron efficient genotypes. Wheat genotype response to added boron showed considerable variation between two years, so it is unclear that under what conditions the boron translocation from the vegetative part to the reproductive part is affected and at what stage of plant development does this take place. Our field data indicate that high temperature and water stress at specific stages of plant development might have an interacting effect on boron


Various classification methods have been developed to extract meaningful information from Airborne Laser Scanner (ALS) point clouds. However, the accuracy and the computational efficiency of the existing methods need to be improved, especially for the analysis of large datasets (e.g., at regional or national levels). In this paper, we present a novel deep learning approach to ground classification for Digital Terrain Model (DTM) extraction as well as for multi-class land-cover classification, delivering highly accurate classification results in a computationally efficient manner. Considering the top–down acquisition angle of ALS data, the point cloud is initially projected on the horizontal plane and converted into a multi-dimensional image. Then, classification techniques based on Fully Convolutional Networks (FCN) with dilated kernels are designed to perform pixel-wise image classification. Finally, labels are transferred from pixels to the original ALS points. We also designed a Multi-Scale FCN (MS-FCN) architecture to minimize the loss of information during the point-to-image conversion. In the ground classification experiment, we compared our method to a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)-based method and LAStools software. We obtained a lower total error on both the International Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing (ISPRS) filter test benchmark dataset and AHN-3 dataset in the Netherlands. In the multi-class classification experiment, our method resulted in higher precision and recall values compared to the traditional machine learning technique using Random Forest (RF); it accurately detected small buildings. The FCN achieved precision and recall values of 0.93 and 0.94 when RF obtained 0.91 and 0.92, respectively. Moreover, our strategy significantly improved the computational efficiency of state-of-the-art CNN-based methods, reducing the point-to-image conversion time from 47 h to 36 min in our experiments on the ISPRS filter test dataset. Misclassification errors remained in situations that were not included in the training dataset, such as large buildings and bridges, or contained noisy measurements.


In this study, we used a in-silico cardiac wedge model with high spatial resolution to evaluate the role of transmural heterogeneity on T-wave morphology. Computer simulations were performed with transmural electrograms recorded with a pacing rate of 60 bpm. QT and TpTe intervals were extracted. The model consisted of i) a human left-ventricular wedge mesh (~4 millions cells); and ii) modified version of the ten Tuscher 2006 cardiac cell model with an added late sodium current. Heterogeneity was generated by changing the spatial distribution of cell types, i.e., M-cells and Epi-cells, across the wedge. Three different cell distribution were used in the simulations: i) random; ii) layers; and iii) layered then gradient. The wedge was stimulated to produce a normal activation propagating from endocardium to epicardium. Our simulations showed that a positive T-wave required the repolarization wave to predominately propagate in opposite direction to the depolarization wave with longer APDs in the endocardial region compared to epicardium. Moreover, QT intervals increased with the amount of M-cells in the wedge model while TpTe intervals were dependent on the transmural heterogeneity. In summary, we showed that cell distributions highly affect both repolarization and T-wave morphology parameters in a high-resolution human wedge model.


Objective: Fast-disintegrating tablets (FDTs) are tablets that disintegrate and/or dissolve rapidly in the mouth, thereby helping patients who have difficulty in swallowing tablets. Ginger extract contains gingerol and is generally known for its antiemetic property. This study aimed to obtain and use coprocessed excipients of pre-gelatinized cassava starch (PCS) with acacia gum (AG) in FDT formulations of ginger extract. Materials and Methods: In this research, five types of PCS-AG coprocessed excipients (Co-PCS-AG) were prepared by mixed PCS and AG with the following ratios mass of PCS and AG were 5:5, 6:4, 7:3, 8:2, and 9:1. The prepared Co-PCS-AG excipients were characterized in terms of morphology, particle size distribution, moisture content, pH, flow-ability properties, and swelling index. Based on the results, three types of Co-PCS-AG excipients, which were 7:3, 8:2, and 9:1, were selected for use in FDT formulation of ginger extract. The FDTs were then examined for tablet hardness, tablet friability, wetting time, and disintegration time. Results: The results indicated that Co-PCS-AG 9:1 was ideal excipient to be used in FDT formulation, as it revealed good flow properties and swelling index compare to the other ratios. The Co-PCS-AG excipients were formulated into tablets and evaluated. Analysis of the ginger extract FDTs revealed that the FDT prepared using Co-PCS-AG 9:1 excipient had the best performance with tablet hardness, friability, wetting time, and disintegration time of 0.7 kp, 2.12%, 93 seconds, and 134 seconds, respectively. Conclusions: Co-PCS-AG 9:1 excipient is a potential excipient with ideal binder, disintegrant, and filler properties for use in FDT formulation.


This paper seeks to offer a new perspective on the interrelated questions of globalized capitalism and anti-Blackness. We engage with current geographical work on the question of Blackness, highlighting the ways in which prevailing forms of global capital accumulation—which take shape in numerous spatial and political practices around the world—coincide with acts of anti-Blackness. In recognizing the connections between capitalism and anti-Black violence, however, we choose not to frame anti-Blackness as an effect of capitalist relations. Rather, we insist that anti-Blackness remains a necessary precondition for the perpetuation of capitalism, as the perpetual expansion of capitalist practices requires "empty" spaces open for appropriation—a condition made possible through the modern assumption of Black a-spatiality. Drawing on theoretical discussions of both global capital and anti-Blackness, empirical examples of shifting global spatial-racial regimes, and the discursive and material practices of Black Lives Matter, the Movement for Black Lives, and the Afro-Brazilian community Ilha de Maré, this paper attempts to forge new geographical conversations regarding current capitalist practices and the matter of Black lives.


The nutritional value of detritus to small coral reef fishes was examined by assessing the trophic status of salariin blennies on the Great Barrier Reef, Australia. It is often assumed that filamentous algae satisfies the dietary requirements of fish feeding on the epilithc algal matrix (EAM); however, gut content analysis of nine blenny species, from five genera, found they all ingested predominantly detrital aggregates and only small amounts of filamentous algae. For the representative species examined in greater detail, Salarias patzneri, detrital aggregates were the dominant item ingested irrespective of season or age. Comparisons of S. patzneri gut contents with EAM samples from within their territories showed that S. patzneri ingested a significantly higher proportion of particles <125µm and significantly lower proportion of filamentous algae than was present in their territory.

Visual examination of particulates <125µm collected from Salarias patzneri territories found that organic matter was almost exclusively in the form of amorphic detrital aggregates. Biochemical comparisons of detrital particles <125µm with filamentous algae determined that protein:energy ratios of particulates <125µm were slightly higher than those of filamentous algae, suggesting detritus is of comparable, if not slightly higher nutritional value than filamentous algae. The mean protein:energy ratio of particulates <125µm in the summer (11.3 ± 0.8 mg.Kj⁻¹) and winter (10.3 ± 1.3 mg.Kj⁻¹) was also greater than values required to sustain fish growth. The organic content of particulates <125µm was high (15-20%), and, overall, these particles accounted for approximately 41-44% of the total organic matter in the EAM. Detrital particulates <125µm were therefore a nutritionally valuable and abundant component of the EAM in S. patzneri territories.

Lipid biomarkers were used to identify the source of amorphic detritus <125µm in Salarias patzneri territories. Fatty acid, hydrocarbon and sterol profiles from detrital aggregates and filamentous algae samples were similar, suggesting a large portion of the amorphic detritus is derived from filamentous algae. However, differences in the relative concentration of specific lipid biomarkers in detritus and algal samples indicated additional inputs to the detritus from microalgae, coral mucus and bacteria.

The concentration of fatty acid biomarkers in Salarias patzneri tissues were also compared to detritus and filamentous algae samples to assess which of these resources were assimilated by blennies. The ratio of the fatty acid 16:1ω7 to 16:0 and the percentage of 18:2ω7 in detrital samples and S. patzneri tissues were similar; however, the ratio/ percentage of these dietary biomarkers were significantly different in filamentous algae and S. patzneri tissues. This difference suggested that S. patzneri assimilated lipids primarily from detrital aggregates rather than filamentous algae.

Detrital aggregates therefore represent 62 ± 5% of S. patzneri gut contents, are of a high nutritional value, represent a major source of organic matter available to S. patzneri in their territories and are assimilated by this species. Salarias patzneri can, therefore, unequivocally be classified as a detritivorous fish, and, based on the gut contents of 9 salariin species, other blennies are also likely to be detritivores.

As a group, salariin blennies were most abundant, and biomass estimates greatest, on the tops of exposed seaward reefs. At a finer spatial scale, individual species showed a preference for dead coral microhabitats. It is hypothesised that both broad and fine scale habitat associations of blennies are partially related to the availability and quality of detritus. On the exposed reef crests at Lizard Island, where the number and biomass of detritivorous and herbivorous fishes is greatest, blennies accounted for approximately half of the density and one fifth of the estimated biomass of territorial detritivores. Compared to other functional groups, territorial detritivores accounted for approximately a third of all detritivorous/herbivorous fishes and one quarter of total biomass estimates on exposed reef tops. The substantial contribution of blennies and other detritivores to fish assemblages that feed on the EAM, relatively high nutritional value and abundance of detritus, combined with its undeniable contribution to blenny diets, indicates that detritus and detritivorous fishes are an integral and important component of coral reef trophodynamics.


The purpose of this study is to identify the factors that influence financial help-seeking behavior among university students in Surabaya. The study was conducted by distributing questionnaires to undergraduate and graduate students in Surabaya. Data analysis was performed with logistic regression. Help seekers tend to have less financial education, negative financial behavior, higher financial risk tolerance, higher levels of financial stress, and low financial self-efficacy. The results of this study are expected to help the concerned parties to formulate various policies that can improve one's financial welfare, in this case, university students.


Since 2003, EWU has been using the Mobile Wireless Classroom, a pilot
project consisting of a self-contained portable set of 30 Pocket PCs for
electronic assessments. Pocket PCs were selected as an alternative to laptop
computers as they maintain much of the same capability but at a fraction of
the cost and are much less invasive in general classroom use. Students
ranging from first-quarter freshmen in English Composition to last-quarter
seniors in Developmental Psychology use the Pocket PCs to respond to
lectures, watch videos of laboratory procedures, and to submit writing
samples for peer review. Professors using the mobile assessments can
quickly gather feedback from students and pinpoint areas where further
review is needed.


The proteins synthesized in chicken embryo fibroblasts infected with wild-type Semliki Forest virus and 16 temperature-sensitive mutants derived from it were studied by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. In addition to the structural proteins, five nonvirion proteins (NVP) with molecular weight of 130,000, 97,000, 86,000, 78,000 and 62,000 were found varying amounts in cells infected with the different RNA+ mutants and also in the wild-type-infected cells. Pulse-chase experiments suggested that NVP 130, NVP 97, NVP 86, and NVP 62 are precursors presumably of the structural proteins. The amount of NVP 78 was not affected by the chase, and it may represent a translational product of the nonstructural part of the genome. The NVP 130 was shown to be a common precursor of the structural proteins by tryptic peptide mapping. Kinetic evidence from one of the mutants (ts-3) suggested that NVP 86 is one of the precursors of the capsid protein. A common feature of all the RNA+mutants was the inability to cleave the NVP 62 into E2 and E3, suggesting that this cleavage is a crucial reaction in the virus maturation.


The Reserve Bank of Australia's Term Funding Facility (TFF) was announced in March 2020 as part of a package of policy measures to support the Australian economy. It achieved a key objective of providing banks with three-year low-cost funding and was available for drawdown until 30 June 2021. This paper examines the effectiveness of the TFF in increasing the supply of credit to businesses, which was another one of the objectives of the program. Using bank-level data and a difference-in-differences approach, we find no statistically significant evidence that the TFF increased credit supply to businesses. However, our confidence intervals are wide and there are significant identification challenges involved in disentangling the effects of the TFF from the effects of pandemic-related disruptions and other policy interventions on credit supply and demand. Nonetheless, the TFF provided an assured source of funding at a time of considerable stress in the financial system and lowered banks' funding costs, and any effects on business lending via these channels may not be fully reflected in our results.


Completeness of tuberculosis case reporting in Puerto Rico was assessed. Cases diagnosed among hospitalized, tuberculosis, and human immunodeficiency virus clinic patients during 1992 were retrospectively reviewed. Hospital discharge diagnoses, pharmacy listings of patients receiving anti-tuberculous medications, laboratory and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome registry data were used for case finding in selected hospitals and clinics. Identified cases were matched to the health department TB case registry to determine previous reporting through routine surveillance. Records of unreported cases were reviewed to verify tuberculosis diagnoses. Of 159 patients with tuberculosis, 31 (19.5%) were unreported. A case was defined according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention definition. Unreported cases were less likely than previously reported cases to have specimens that were culture positive for M. tuberculosis, 14 of 31 (45.2%) compared with 111 of 128 (86.7%). Excluding the laboratory, tuberculosis diagnoses in acquired immunodeficiency syndrome registry patients had the highest predictive value of finding tuberculosis (94.1%), followed by tuberculosis clinic records (71.7%), and pharmacy listings (45.6%). Tuberculosis discharge diagnoses, however, yielded the largest number of unreported cases (14). Health care providers should be educated regarding the importance of promptly reporting all suspected TB cases regardless of results of laboratory testing.


Drug repurposing or re-profiling has become an effective strategy to identify novel indications for already-approved drugs. In this study, peptidomimetic FDA-approved HIV/HCV inhibitors were explored for their potential to be repurposed for the inhibition of the replication of dengue (DENV) and chikungunya virus (CHIKV) by targeting the NS2B-NS3 and NSP2 protease, respectively. MM/GBSA-based binding free energy results put nelfinavir forward as a potential inhibitor of both dengue and chikungunya virus, which subsequently was further explored in a virus-cell-based assay for both viruses. Nelfinavir showed modest antiviral activity against CHIKV (EC50 = 14 ± 1 μM and a selectivity index of 1.6) and was slightly more active against DENV-2 (EC50 = 3.5 ± 0.4 μM and a selectivity index of 4.6). Even though the antiviral potency was limited, the fact that some activity was observed in these assays made it worthwhile exploring the potential and properties of nelfinavir as a stepping-stone compound: a more detailed computational analysis was performed to understand the binding mode, interaction, hydrogen bond distance, occupancy and minimum pharmacophoric features. The comprehensive data set that resulted from these analyses may prove to be useful for the development of novel DENV and CHIKV protease inhibitors.


The MHC class II-associated invariant chain interacts in trimeric form with class II molecules, inhibits peptide binding, and mediates targeting of class II molecules to endosomal compartments. To dissect the different functions of the invariant (Ii) chain, a set of cDNAs, encoding truncated forms of the Ii chain, was constructed. mRNAs, transcribed from these cDNAs were translated in vitro, together with mRNAs encoding class II HLA DR1 alpha and beta subunits. An Ii chain truncation that contains the 104 NH2-terminal amino acids was able to associate with class II molecules. This construct contains the region from which class II-associated Ii chain peptides (CLIP, amino acids 81- 104) are derived. The absence of a further eight residues at the COOH terminus results in a construct of 96 amino acids that is unable to associate with class II molecules. Association of the truncated Ii chains with class II molecules showed a strict correlation with inhibition of peptide binding. Removal of the NH2-terminal cytoplasmic tail and transmembrane region of Ii chain and its replacement with a cleavable signal sequence led to aberrant folding and impaired association with class II molecules. The region between amino acids 163 and 183 was found to be essential for visualization of Ii chain homotrimers by covalent cross-linking.


Abstract. Phytoplankton as chlorophyll-containing organisms is the first step of production in most marine processes and food chains. Nutrient enhancement in the seawater due to the discharge of agricultural, industrial, and urban wastes threatens the Caspian Sea environment. Increasing concentrations of chlorophyll-a in seawater, in reaction to the elevation of nutrient supply can have severely damaging effects on the marine environment of the Caspian. In this research, seasonal variability of the chlorophyll-a concentrations in the western part of the southern coastal waters of the Caspian Sea near Iranian coast was examined using field observations. The data showed that the most chlorophyll-a was found below the sea surface. The thermal stratification in water column and outflow of the Anzali Lagoon affect the chlorophyll-a concentrations in the region. Concentrations of chlorophyll-a were recorded in midsummer in a range of 0.2–3.4 mg m−3.


Automatic topic detection becomes more important due to the increase of information electronically available and the necessity to process and filter it. In particular, when language is noisy like in weblog postings, it is challenging to determine topics correctly. Nevertheless, it is still unclear, to what extent existing topic detection algorithms are able to deal with this noisy material. In this paper, Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA) is exploited to determine topics in weblog sentences. We perform an extensive evaluation of this algorithm on real world data of different domains. The results show that LDA can successfully determine topics even for short and noisy sentences.


This essay examines the 1525 interlude, Gentleness and Nobility , credited to John Heywood and John Rastell, which features a debate among a Plowman, a Knight, and a Merchant on the origins and justice of social hierarchy. The essay locates the Plowman's role in relation to the tradition of subversive speech on the early modern stage as voiced by Elizabethan stage clowns, as well as to a rich oral tradition among the lower classes that sought to combat agrarian capitalism and social inequality in Tudor England. Using reasoned argument and material evidence, the Plowman exposes the Knight and the Merchant's claims to gentility as an empty rhetorical show while making a powerful case for his own 'nobility'.


The faulted mode of a six-phase induction machine (6PIM) denotes that the motor is working with one or more missing phases. This situation leads to torque oscillations and poor tracking behavior. Therefore, the design of a suitable robust control is a challenging task. In this way, this paper presents the application of fuzzy logic and sliding mode controls in order to obtain a high-accuracy positioning of a 6PIM rotor in both healthy and faulted modes. The two control strategies are completely different from a theoretical point of view, but the final objectives are to remove the drawbacks of the specific fault on interest. The experimental results are obtained on a dedicated setup based on a 6PIM coupled with a variable mechanical load and for which up to three phases can be removed.


Advances in nanoscale processing and simulation have led to the capability to directly control the mechanical properties of a material through change of its structural makeup at the nanoscale. A novel class of mechanomutable materials in which mechanical properties can be both tunable and reversible via in situ modifications of a material's nanostructure through stimuli such as pH, light, or electrical fields provides a promising strategy to develop stimuli-responsive polymer-composites. Here we report atomistic-level molecular dynamics (MD) studies, used to investigate the tunable adhesion properties of a polyelectrolyte complex consisting of poly(acrylic acid) (PAA) and poly(allylamine hydrochloride) (PAH) to elucidate the complexation and electrostatic cross-linking behavior of the constituent polymers of polyelectrolyte multilayer (PEM) systems. To accommodate a link between experimental and simulation results, a rate dependence investigation of the adhesion strength is undertaken to reconcile the time-scale limitations of atomistic simulations. A comparison with Atomic Force Microscopy experiments is provided, showing good agreement with simulation results. To investigate potential mutability of the system, we perform a systematic variation of the percent ionization of each constituent polymer. The ultimate strength of adhesion for the aligned polymers is shown to range from approximately 15 nN to 40 nN for an equivalent pH range of pH 2.5 to pH 10. Theoretical regimes of ionization extend the adhesion strength range from 8 nN to 45 nN, displaying the potential application of tunable, mechanomutable PAA/PAH systems. The findings reported here should be useful in steering experimental efforts in the characterization of polyelectrolyte multilayer composites.


Nanostructured WC-17Co coatings, nanostructured WC-12Co coatings, conventional WC-17Co coatings were prepared by means of High Velocity Oxygen Flame (HVOF) technique. The characteristic of powders and coatings of nanostructured WC-17Co coatings, hardness of different coatings, distribution gradient of the hardness of the nanostructured WC-17Co coatings in the depth direction, fracture toughness and interface fracture toughness of different coatings, residual stress of different coatings, different phase and distribution of WC phase in the depth direction were investigated. The results indicated that the micro-crack is spread along the phase interface where the brittle phase are more in the Co rich area , where there are more different properties in the Co rich area and W rich area, where there are more defects close to the intend end in the W rich area, even spread through the WC particles in microcosmic and the different residual stress of different phase are because of different melting point and different expansion coefficient , so the WC, W2C produced compressed stress, the Co6W6C produced tensile stress. The residual stress manifested from higher to lower in the depth direction of the coatings.


We consider the question of computing Maximum A Posteriori (MAP) assignment in an arbitrary pair-wise Markov Random Field (MRF). We present a randomized iterative algorithm based on simple local updates. The algorithm, starting with an arbitrary initial assignment, updates it in each iteration by first, picking a random node, then selecting an (appropriately chosen) random local neighborhood and optimizing over this local neighborhood. Somewhat surprisingly, we show that this algorithm finds a near optimal assignment within n log2 n iterations with high probability for any n node pair-wise MRF with geometry (i.e. MRF graph with polynomial growth) with the approximation error depending on (in a reasonable manner) the geometric growth rate of the graph and the average radius of the local neighborhood - this allows for a graceful tradeoff between the complexity of the algorithm and the approximation error. Through extensive simulations, we show that our algorithm finds extremely good approximate solutions for various kinds of MRFs with geometry.


The desire to translate may not be innate; on the other hand some individuals may offer fertile ground for such a desire to grow and bear fruit. A wide variety of mental and physical elements may, like alchemy, combine to generate the need to translate. However, it would seem that a crucial trigger is required, which we can call the motive, to make us aware of this still unformed desire and put it into practice. In my own case, the determining parameters that led me to active translation were a receptiveness to others, an ability to listen, the repeated mental gymnastics involved in moving from one language to another, the practice of music, and an attraction to elsewhere in the broadest sense. The trigger was my meeting with a "spiritual father", which awakened in me the desire – not to say the need – to translate his words and enabled me to combine and use the previously unconnected qualities that were required.


India is on the verge of being emerged as the most populated country of the world. To manage the massive urban population, smarter, sustainable and greener cities are envisioned in India's newly adopted urbanization policy. While smart city program with techno-infrastructure interventions for a few selected cities leave the Indian urban ecological spaces uneven, various issues on social, cultural, economic and environmental sustainability put forward challenges which are yet to be addressed. In this paper the author presented a critical analysis of current urban growth trend in the Indian urban scenario and delved into the issues on peoples' participation, inclusive planning and environmental considerations. Citing various case studies from Indian urban trends, the author argues that a comprehensive sustainable inclusive urbanization policy is attainable with convergence of the mission in practice and a vision for the future with alternative path of self reliance for the urban poor in India. Keywords: Sustainable Development, Inclusive Planning, Smart City, Peoples' Participation


c Abstract: Today, wind energy participates by not more than 0,5 % in the gross world production of electric energy. However, according to the presently existing world trends and due to the fact that the world's wind energy potent ial is immense, it can be predicted that in the following decades this low percentage might become thirty times larger. Unfortunately, not one modern wind generator has yet been installed in our country, although conditions are favourable in this respec t. Experiences the world has had so far impose the necessity of analyzing technical possibilities for the construction of wind generators and the necessity to incorporate wind energy into the strategic model of the development of energetics in Serbia and Montenegro (SM). In this paper we analyze the availability of wind energy on the global scale, in Europe and in SM. We show in this paper that in SM wind is the energy resource about 10 000 MW (20 TWh/year) whose activation would greatly enlarge already installed capacities, increase the diversity of types of energy sources and reduce the dependance on the importation of raw energy sources.


In this thesis associations between biological risk factors and the occurrence of coronary heart disease in elderly persons are described. The focus is on classical (i.e. total and high density lipoprotein cholesterol and blood pressure) and some new (i.e. homocysteine, white blood cell count and serum albumin) biological risk factors. The studies are based on two Dutch cohorts. One is a cohort of 292 men and women, aged 64 to 87 years in 1971, from a general practice in Rotterdam, with a mortality follow-up of 17 years. The other is the Dutch cohort of the Seven Countries Study which consists of 939 men aged 64 to 84 years in 1985 from the town of Zutphen. The morbidity and mortality follow- up embraced five years. In general, the classical risk factors were important predictors of coronary heart disease occurrence in elderly people. Systolic blood pressure was a strong independent long-term predictor of coronary heart disease mortality in elderly women, but the long-term association was less clear in elderly men. Total cholesterol was also significantly associated with long-term mortality from coronary heart disease in elderly women, but in men the association tended to be inverted U -shaped, i.e. men with cholesterol levels in the median tertile of the cholesterol distribution had a higher risk than those with levels in the first and third tertile. Regarding the Zutphen study, the short-term associations with incidence of coronary heart disease were usually weaker than with mortality from the disease. Elevated systolic and diastolic blood pressure, and especially isolated systolic hypertension, were important short-term predictors of sudden cardiac death in elderly men. For mortality from coronary heart disease, which was not additionally recorded as sudden, U -shaped associations with systolic and diastolic blood pressure levels were observed, i.e. men with the lowest blood pressure levels and those with the highest blood pressure levels and using antihypertensive medication had the highest risk. Serum total cholesterol was related to short-term coronary heart disease mortality in elderly men. For incidence of the disease, an association was only observed in a subgroup of the population with serum albumin levels below the median. High density lipoprotein cholesterol was not predictive of mortality from coronary heart disease, but there appeared to be an association with the incidence of the disease. Concerning the new risk factors, serum homocysteine appeared to be associated with mortality from coronary heart disease in elderly men in the first one-and-a-half years of follow-up only. A strong association with mortality from cerebrovascular disease was observed in normotensive men. In addition, an association with an increased risk of cognitive impairment was suggested. Both white blood cell count and serum albumin were important predictors of coronary heart disease independent of the classical risk factors for coronary heart disease. The association with serum albumin could only partly be explained by baseline health status indicators. The experience obtained from the studies described in this thesis has made clear that elderly people are a heterogenous group with respect to risk factor levels as well as coronary heart disease risk. It would therefore be desirable to have a measure of susceptibility for coronary heart disease to identify elderly people who are at increased risk of the disease. Our studies suggest that white blood cell count and serum albumin, routine clinical blood chemistry values, may be useful in this respect in addition to the classical risk factors. Future studies should aim at assessing the effectiveness of a multifactorial approach of risk factor management on coronary heart disease and all-cause mortality as well as on quality of life in older men and women.


Benefits of cooperative organization in agriculture come from price advantages in procurement and marketing, cost reductions and efficiency gains from sharing of productive assets and processes, and improved access to and increased efficiency in using credit, logistics, and information. Efficacy of strategic activities designed to capture these advantages is investigated empirically in a case study of the Tonghui Agricultural Cooperative in Inner Mongolia, an autonomous region of China. Information from interviews, on-site visits, evaluation of cooperative, member and partner information, and participation in the advising process are used to evaluate the impact of efforts to re-engineer the supply chain for independent farmers through cooperative organization. Specific examples of marketing channel development and operation for Wallace melons and mutton represent implementation of strategic plans. The case also reviews the cooperative's credit system, designed increase access to and reduced cost of funds ...


Parvovirus-B19 (PV-B19) is a member of Parvoviridae, which is one of the smallest DNA viruses. PV-B19-associated diseases usually serve as a good representation of the balance of virus, host response and the immune system. The diseases manifested with PV-B19 are erythema infectiosum, which is common in children, hydrops fetalis, transient pure red cell aplasia in patients with chronic hemolytic anemia, arthralgia - mostly observed in women, and chronic pure red cell aplasia in immunocompromised individuals. Cytopenia (bicytopenia, monocytopenia or pancytopenia) may also accompany the diseases mentioned above. On the other hand, there are many diseases, including neurologic, vasculitic, hepatic, rheumatoid, nephritic, autoimmune, myocardial, and others in which the mechanisms of the diseases are not clear, which may be associated with PV-B19. The virus may manifest with unexpected and unexplained clinical pictures and lead to misdiagnosis. Therefore, hematologic disorders in any unestablished clinical diagnosis should be investigated for PV-B19 infection. However, serologic examination for PV-B19 diagnosis is not sufficient in immunocompromised status. The virus can be determined with polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the serum or tissue samples. Supportive therapy, blood transfusion and immunoglobulin are the conventional therapeutic interventions for PV-B19 today. Vaccination studies are under examination.


Summary Increasing yields in farmer fields is a priority to address increasing food demands. The study was conducted within four wheat-growing areas in Ethiopia: Debre Birhan, Hosaina, Sinana and Maychew. The objectives were to identify (1) best-bet soil fertility management options based on agronomic performance and economic evaluation and (2) key yield-reducing factors in farmer fields based on an agronomic survey among 55 participating farmers. Two types of on-farm experiments were conducted: researcher-managed trials that tested combinations of nutrients, including micronutrients, organic resources or both over two cropping seasons and farmer-managed trials comparing 'improved practice' against 'farmer's practice'. Fertilizer treatment affected wheat productivity in Debre Birhan (p < 0.01), a site limited in sulphur. Here, full NPK increased yields over the control (p < 0.05), whereas a combination of NPK and manure was better than the application of manure as the only source of added nutrients (p < 0.05). Applying half the recommended NPK with micronutrients and manure achieved similar yields as the full fertilizer treatment. In Hosaina, treatment had no significant effect on wheat productivity, although a combination of NPK and zinc resulted in an additional 26–57% yield relative to the other treatments. In Maychew, a significant treatment effect (p < 0.05) was observed. Here, the treatment with lower rates of nitrogen and phosphorous had lower yields than the full NPK treatment. A significant effect of plant densities on on-farm productivity was also observed. We conclude that although nutrient management including use of micronutrients is important in specific cases, investments to optimize plant densities have a huge potential to increase food productivity.


The rapid evolution of digital technologies has led to significant transformations in various industries, including higher education. This study explores the role of Agile Enterprise Architecture (AEA) in supporting digital transformation initiatives within Higher Education Institutions (HEIs). AEA provides a flexible, adaptive, and iterative framework to manage the complex and dynamic nature of digital transformation. We conducted a qualitative study using a multiple case-study approach, investigating four HEIs that implemented AEA in their digital transformation initiatives. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and participant observation. We employed thematic analysis to identify the key factors contributing to the successful implementation of AEA in these institutions. Our findings revealed that AEA plays a crucial role in facilitating digital transformation by providing a holistic, systematic, and adaptive framework. The AEA approach enables HEIs to effectively manage the complexities of digital transformation, enhance their agility, and respond to changing stakeholder needs. Key success factors include strong leadership, effective communication, a skilled workforce, and a culture of collaboration and continuous improvement. The study contributes to the understanding of AEA's role in promoting digital transformation in higher education and offers practical implications for HEIs looking to leverage digital technologies for improved performance and stakeholder satisfaction. Further research is needed to explore the generalizability of these findings to other contexts and industries.


The revelations about Edward Snowden's leak of American national security information helped to reinvigorate public rhetoric about the crime of treason, which Article III of the Constitution defines only as levying war against the United States or adhering to the enemy by giving aid and comfort. Political leaders and others regularly commented on whether Snowden was a "hero" or "traitor." And more than one American political leader suggested that Snowden should be tried for treason. But these rhetorical episodes simply demonstrate that despite treason's stature, numerous gaps remain in the public's (and even in political leaders') understanding of the rarely-invoked, rarely-discussed Treason Clause. This paper, written for a symposium on the ramifications of Snowden's disclosures, therefore focuses on the constitutional provision that requires "adhering" to the enemy, giving them "aid and comfort" – what the paper calls Adherence Treason, which is the provision most likely at issue in a treason case involving actions like Snowden's – and examines the relevance of the actor's mental state to the interpretation and application of the Treason Clause. Drawing on the Supreme Court's World War II treason cases, the paper examines treason in light of complicity doctrine in the criminal law. It demonstrates how information that reaches the enemy does not constitute treason – even if the information actually aids the enemy, as Snowden's disclosures could have done – in the absence of a specific intent to betray America, which is the mens rea required for treason and which Snowden appears to have lacked. Still, when viewed in light of complicity law, even the narrow standard for American treason could be implicated by contemporary aid-to-the-enemy cases that are distinguishable from Snowden's, such as the terrorist-aid cases that are now prevalent but are being prosecuted under the material support statutes instead. These terrorist-aid cases, especially when combined with the modern technology that can make it easier for one to communicate with and assist the enemy, could potentially keep the Treason Clause alive, but only in narrow circumstances where legally sufficient aid and the intent to betray coalesce.


Objectives: Oral pentoxifylline shows modest, non-significant effect on the healing rates of chronic wounds. The present research aimed to formulate topical pentoxifylline-hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) gels and evaluate their physico-chemical properties, in vitro release characteristics and in vivo wound healing effects. Methods: Six gel formulations containing pentoxifylline (F1-F6) were prepared using HPMC with varying grades and concentrations. The physicochemical properties of gel formulations were evaluated in term of drug content, spreadability, rheological properties, swelling, and release characteristics. The efficacy of optimized formulation was further evaluated using in vivo excision wound models in rats. Results: The spreadability, flow index and swelling percentage of gel formulations ranged 10.71-12.24 gcm/sec, 0.33-0.91 and 148.61-8011.61%, respectively. The rheological study of the prepared formulations exhibited pseudoplastic behavior, which is a characteristic feature of topical gels. Swelling results of F5 and F6 deduced that the cross-linked structures were formed between the polymeric chains. The in vitro drug release profiles of all formulations were found to be followed Higuchi model. The in vivo evaluation performed using rat excision wound model showed significant difference (P < 0.05) in the percentage reduction of wound size between treatment and control groups. The treatment group exhibited complete healing by day 13 as compared with day 15 in the control group. Conclusions: These findings indicated that F5 gel formulation had demonstrated effective release profile for pentoxifylline. The in vivo results confirmed that F5 has pronounced wound healing effects when employed topically.


Robotic applications nowadays are widely adopted to enhance operational automation and performance of real-world Cyber-Physical Systems (CPSs) including Industry 4.0, agriculture, healthcare, and disaster management. These applications are composed of latency-sensitive, data-heavy, and compute-intensive tasks. The robots, however, are constrained in the computational power and storage capacity. The concept of multi-agent cloud robotics enables robot-to-robot cooperation and creates a complementary environment for the robots in executing large-scale applications with the capability to utilize the edge and cloud resources. However, in such a collaborative environment, the optimal resource allocation for robotic tasks is challenging to achieve. Heterogeneous energy consumption rates and application of execution costs associated with the robots and computing instances make it even more complex. In addition, the data transmission delay between local robots, edge nodes, and cloud data centres adversely affects the real-time interactions and impedes service performance guarantee. Taking all these issues into account, this paper comprehensively surveys the state-of-the-art on resource allocation and service provisioning in multi-agent cloud robotics. The paper presents the application domains of multi-agent cloud robotics through explicit comparison with the contemporary computing paradigms and identifies the specific research challenges. A complete taxonomy on resource allocation is presented for the first time, together with the discussion of resource pooling, computation offloading, and task scheduling for efficient service provisioning. Furthermore, we highlight the research gaps from the learned lessons, and present future directions deemed beneficial to further advance this emerging field.


: Insulin action starts with binding to a membrane receptor (insulin receptor-tyrosine kinase) and with activating an insulin receptor substrate 1 (IRS-1) and substrate 2 (IRS-2). Insulin receptors interact at least with three cascade reactions, phosphorylating G proteins and IRS-1, that activate PLC "ras" and PI-3-K. NIDDM can be defined as a disease caused by defective transduction of insulin signals and IR as a complex phenotype manifesting itself, emphasized by individual and environmental factors, in the cellular systems of signal transduction. IRS is a syndrome characterized by NIDDM, hypertension, visceral obesity, CHD: the X syndrome. Up to day the described mutations of the insulin-receptor gene are rare (e.g. the leprechaunism): genetic IR. Obesity is the principal cause of IR by receptorial and post-receptorial defects: metabolic IR. The obese skeletal muscle shows a reduction of insulin receptor and IRS-1 phosphorylation and of PI-3-K activation; the scarce expression of these proteins would determine the muscular IR. IR is a pattern of essential hypertension. Hypertension, dyslipidemia and abnormality of glucose metabolism are linked by IR. The so called high erythrocyte Na(+)-Li+ counter-transport is a new biochemical marker for IR and hypertension. These drugs can reduce IR: metformin, sulphonilureas, fibrats, dexfenfluramine, troglitazone, doxazosin, ACE-inhibitors.


Abstract Saflufenacil (BAS 800H) is a new herbicide being developed by BASF for PRE broadleaf weed control in corn. Field studies were conducted at two Ontario locations in 2006 and 2007 to evaluate the tolerance of field corn to PRE and POST (spike and two- to three-leaf corn) applications of saflufenacil at 50, 100, and 200 g ai/ha with and without an adjuvant (surfactant blend + solvent [petroleum hydrocarbons]; 1% v/v). Saflufenacil applied PRE reduced corn height by as much as 12% with the highest rate of 200 g/ha; however, corn yield was not affected. When saflufenacil was applied without an adjuvant to corn at the spike stage, injury was as much as 12%, 7 d after treatment (DAT). However, corn height and yield were not affected. Saflufenacil applied POST to two- to three-leaf corn at 50 to 200 g/ha without an adjuvant resulted in as much as 25% injury and reduced corn height 31% but did not affect yield. Adding an adjuvant to POST applications of saflufenacil caused as much as 4 and 99% injury, reduced corn height 13 and 77%, and reduced corn yield 0 and 59% when applied to corn at the spike and at the two- to three-leaf stages, respectively. Based on these results, saflufenacil applied PRE can be safely used in corn at rates up to 200 g/ha. Saflufenacil applied to corn at the spike and two- to three-leaf stage at 50 or 100 g/ha without an adjuvant demonstrated acceptable corn tolerance and may allow for the use of saflufenacil beyond the proposed PRE use pattern. In contrast, applying saflufenacil POST with an adjuvant to spike and two- to three-leaf stage corn resulted in unacceptable injury and yield losses in field corn. Nomenclature: BAS 800H; saflufenacil; corn, Zea mays L.


Scholarly affinities are one of the most fundamental hidden dynamics that drive scientific development. Some affinities are actual, and consequently can be measured through classical academic metrics such as co-authoring. Other affinities are potential, and therefore do not leave visible traces in information systems; for instance, some peers may share interests without actually knowing it. This article illustrates the development of a map of affinities for academic collectives, designed to be relevant to three audiences: the management, the scholars themselves, and the external public. Our case study involves the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering of EPFL, hereinafter ENAC. The school consists of around one thousand scholars, seventy laboratories, and three institutes. The actual affinities are modeled using the data available from the information systems reporting publications, teaching, and advising scholars, whereas the potential affinities are addressed through text mining of the publications. The major challenge for designing such a map is to represent the multi-dimensionality and multi-scale nature of the information. The affinities are not limited to the computation of heterogeneous sources of information; they also apply at different scales. The map thus shows local affinities inside a given laboratory, as well as global affinities among laboratories. This article presents a graphical grammar to represent affinities. Its effectiveness is illustrated by two actualizations of the design proposal: an interactive online system in which the map can be parameterized, and a large-scale carpet of 250 square meters. In both cases, we discuss how the materiality influences the representation of data, in particular the way key questions could be appropriately addressed considering the three target audiences: the insights gained by the management and their consequences in terms of governance, the understanding of the scholars' own positioning in the academic group in order to foster opportunities for new collaborations and, eventually, the interpretation of the structure from a general public to evaluate the relevance of the tool for external communication.


We present a high performance stereo image coding scheme using wavelet transform. As for most stereo image coding techniques, we use block-based disparity estimation and compensation to decorrelate the dependence between the left and the right images. The wavelet transform and corresponding coding scheme are then applied to the stereo images. By using context-based arithmetic coding and rate-distortion optimization techniques, our coder outperforms others published in the literature by more than 3 dB.