We describe an implementation of the Communication-Avoiding QR (CAQR) factorization that runs entirely on a single graphics processor (GPU). We show that the reduction in memory traffic provided by CAQR allows us to outperform existing parallel GPU implementations of QR for a large class of tall-skinny matrices. Other GPU implementations of QR handle panel factorizations by either sending the work to a general-purpose processor or using entirely bandwidth-bound operations, incurring data transfer overheads. In contrast, our QR is done entirely on the GPU using compute-bound kernels, meaning performance is good regardless of the width of the matrix. As a result, we outperform CULA, a parallel linear algebra library for GPUs by up to 17x for tall-skinny matrices and Intel's Math Kernel Library (MKL) by up to 12x. We also discuss stationary video background subtraction as a motivating application. We apply a recent statistical approach, which requires many iterations of computing the singular value decomposition of a tall-skinny matrix. Using CAQR as a first step to getting the singular value decomposition, we are able to get the answer 3x faster than if we use a traditional bandwidth-bound GPU QR factorization tuned specifically for that matrix size, and 30x faster than if we use Intel's Math Kernel Library (MKL) singular value decomposition routine on a multicore CPU.


BACKGROUND
Studies of infiltrating cells from acutely rejecting renal allografts show that a high proportion of these cells are macrophages, and early macrophage infiltration is a poor prognostic sign for transplant survival. Macrophage colony-stimulating factor (M-CSF), produced by tubular and mesangial cells, has been associated with macrophage infiltration and proliferation in experimental and human kidney diseases. We investigated the expression of M-CSF in a model of acute rejection.

METHODS
Lewis rats underwent bilateral nephrectomies and received an orthotopic Dark Agouti allograft or Lewis isograft. Animals received cyclosporine (10 mg/kg/day) from day 0 to day 3 and were killed at days 4, 8, or 14 after transplantation. Macrophages (ED1+) and T cells (W3-13+) were identified by immunohistochemistry, and M-CSF expression was identified by Northern blotting and in situ hybridization.

RESULTS
Isografts had normal renal function without histological evidence of rejection. Allografts exhibited a moderate infiltrate at day 4 but progressed to severe rejection at day 14, with elevated serum creatinine level and severe tubulointerstitial damage. Macrophages and T cells were present in equal proportion in the infiltrate at day 4. At day 14, the number of macrophages increased fivefold (2580/mm2), although T cells were unchanged (380/mm2). Proliferating macrophages (ED1+, BrdU+) increased from day 4 (4%) to day 14 (10%). M-CSF mRNA expression was strongly up-regulated in allografts compared with isografts and normal rat. In situ hybridization demonstrated M-CSF expression by resident and infiltrating cells. Renal tubular expression was minimally increased at day 4 but strongly up-regulated at day 14 (more than 50% of tubules positive), particularly in areas of tubular damage. Tubular M-CSF expression colocalized with areas of intense macrophage infiltration and proliferation. Serial sections with double labeling demonstrated that T cells were the dominant source of M-CSF at day 4, yet later in the rejection (day 14) the predominant sites of production were both renal tubular cells and interstitial macrophages.

CONCLUSIONS
Renal production of M-CSF by graft-infiltrating (macrophages and T lymphocytes) and resident (tubular) cells was up-regulated during acute rejection. M-CSF promotes macrophage recruitment and proliferation and may thereby play a pathogenic role in acute rejection. The kinetics of M-CSF production during acute rejection suggest that local macrophage proliferation may be initiated by T cells and perpetuated by both renal tubular and autocrine release.


This is a case study on a small to mid-size private equity firm that deals with real estate development as well as investment to find out the financial feasibility of LEED certified buildings in today's building climate. Interviews with two investment analysts at this firm who are versed in LEED certification about how it is looked at in their company as well as the broader industry will give insights into the feasibility of developing or investing in environmentally friendly buildings. This impacts the real estate and construction industries due to the fact that developers and investors are often times a large part of the clientele for contractors. This paper will look to industry professionals to find out some of the conditions that are needed in order to make capital investments in LEED buildings, such as geographic location, tenant motivation, and large institutional sized products. The findings of this study were that for medium to small sized investors and developers focused on maximizing rate of return through short hold periods, there are little incentives to invest in LEED certified buildings, however the analysts acknowledge that there are benefits and could be effectively implemented in long term hold approaches or for very large institutional investments.


Whole genome sequencing (WGS) becomes increasingly important for advancing personalized cancer care, driving not only basic science studies but also entering into clinical applications. Translating raw WGS data into the right clinical decision requires high accuracy of somatic variant detection, therefore novel data analysis methods have to be carefully evaluated. In this work we tested the performance of well-established somatic variant detection workflows: GATK, CPG-WGS, DRAGEN and Strelka2. By utilizing both real data, with well-defined mutations, and synthetic mutations spiked-in into real data, we were able to assess sensitivity and precision of each workflow, for various coverage and tumor purity levels. Individual tools excelled in different evaluation approaches, however the results demonstrated that DRAGEN has the highest overall performance when sensitivity is preferred over precision, and the opposite is true for CGP-WGS. The differences in results obtained using synthetic and real datasets, indicate that benchmarks based only on a single reference set may provide an incomplete picture.


Social networks are a communicational phenomenon that invade all the activities the individual does. We believe it is important that the information units have a presence in them.
First, we must do a previous analysis to find out which is the user´s favorite social network. We have to notice that social network are a good marketing tool to atract users, as well as an effective intern communication channel


The Program for Public Consultation seeks to improve democratic governance by helping governments consult their citizenry on the key public policy issues the government faces. Unlike standard polls, in public consultations respondents are presented information that helps simulate the issues and tradeoffs faced by policymakers. PPC has been established to develop the methods and theory of public consultation and to conduct public consultations. PPC is a joint program of the Center on Policy Attitudes and the School of Public Policy at the University of Maryland The Center on Policy Attitudes (COPA) was established in 1992 with the purpose of giving public opinion a greater voice in the public policy process. COPA conducts in-depth studies of public opinion that include polls, focus groups and interviews. It integrates its findings together with those of other organizations. In addition to PPC, COPA has a joint program with the Center for International and Security Studies at the University of Maryland called the Program on International Policy Attitudes. (College Park) is one of the nation's leading graduate programs devoted to the study of public policy, management and international affairs. It is the only policy school in the Washington area that is embedded in a major research university and combines both domestic and international policy studies under one roof. Knowledge Networks is a polling, social science, and market research firm based in Menlo Park, California. Knowledge Networks uses a large-scale nationwide research panel which is randomly selected from the national population of households having telephones and is subsequently provided internet access for the completion of surveys (and thus is not limited to those who already have internet access). Acknowledgements Abe Medoff managed the production of the report, with contributions from Erin Hassey and Kristin Halsing.


Objective: Military vascular injuries are complex limb and life-threatening wounds which pose significant difficulties in pre-hospital and surgical management. Our aim was to provide a comprehensive description of the epidemiology, treatment and outcome of vascular injury amongst service personnel deployed on operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. Method: Analysis of the British Military Trauma Registry was combined with hospital record and post-mortem review of all cases of vascular trauma in deployed service personnel over a 5-year period ending in January 2008. Results: Of 1203 trauma patients, 121 sustained injuries to named vessels. Seventy-seven of 121 died prior to any opportunity for surgical intervention. All 19 patients who sustained an injury to a named vessel in the abdomen or thorax died; 18 did not survive to undergo surgery, one in extremis casualty underwent a thoracotomy and died. Six out of 15 patients with cervical vascular injuries survived to surgical intervention; two died following surgery. Of 87 patients with extremity vascular injuries, 37 survived to surgery with two postoperative deaths. Interventions on 38 limbs included 19 damage control (15 primary amputations, four vessel ligations) and 19 definitive limb revascularisation procedures (11 interposition vein grafts, eight direct repairs) of which four failed, necessitating three amputations. Conclusion: In operable patients with extremity injury, amputation or ligation is often required for damage control and preservation of life, but favourable limb salvage rates are achievable in casualties able to withstand revascularisation. Despite marked progress in contemporary battle-field trauma care, torso vascular injury is usually not amenable to surgical intervention.


We present a novel interactive learning‐based method for curating datasets using user‐defined criteria for training and refining Generative Adversarial Networks. We employ a novel batch‐mode active learning strategy to progressively select small batches of candidate exemplars for which the user is asked to indicate whether they match the, possibly subjective, selection criteria. After each batch, a classifier that models the user's intent is refined and subsequently used to select the next batch of candidates. After the selection process ends, the final classifier, trained with limited but adaptively selected training data, is used to sift through the large collection of input exemplars to extract a sufficiently large subset for training or refining the generative model that matches the user's selection criteria. A key distinguishing feature of our system is that we do not assume that the user can always make a firm binary decision (i.e., "meets" or "does not meet" the selection criteria) for each candidate exemplar, and we allow the user to label an exemplar as "undecided". We rely on a non‐binary query‐by‐committee strategy to distinguish between the user's uncertainty and the trained classifier's uncertainty, and develop a novel disagreement distance metric to encourage a diverse candidate set. In addition, a number of optimization strategies are employed to achieve an interactive experience. We demonstrate our interactive curation system on several applications related to training or refining generative models: training a Generative Adversarial Network that meets a user‐defined criteria, adjusting the output distribution of an existing generative model, and removing unwanted samples from a generative model.


One major issue in designing image processors is to design a memory system that supports parallel access with a simple interconnection network. This paper presents an efficient memory allocation to minimize the number of memory modules and processing elements with a parallel access capability when multiple windows with arbitrary shapes are specified. This paper also presents an efficient search method based on regularity of window-type image processing. We give some practical examples including a stereo-matching processor for acquiring 3-D information, and an optical-flow processor for motion estimation. These examples show that the numbers of memory modules are reduced to 2.7% and 10%, respectively, in comparison with a basic approach. It is also shown that the search time is less than 1 ms for practical image sizes and window sizes.


Employment for people with disability (PWD) is a challenging issue. It is common for PWD to experiencing severe economic deprivation and social disadvantages. To acknowledge and ensure their employment right, almost all the governments of all countries in the world has managed to bring in policies relating to PWD.These have been reflected in the enactments, laws, regulations, schemes, and also institutions established for the development and wellbeing of PWD. Consequently, there have been positive changes in the society towards PWD.This paper discusses the employment of PWD in Malaysia by looking at the policies and their implementation.Using a qualitative approach, a number of respondents who deal with the policies and PWD were interviewed to understand the issues, problems and experiences of PWD.The study found that the government has shown a great effort
by introducing various policies and laws, holding programmes as well as proposing initiatives to support rights and enhance life of PWD in Malaysia.Yet, when it comes to employment, further improvements are expected particularly in terms of the implementation together with the understanding
and cooperation from the employers.


Background Influenza vaccine containing an oil-in-water emulsion adjuvant (MF-59) may lead to greater immunogenicity in organ transplant recipients. However, alloimmunization may be a concern with adjuvanted vaccines. Methods We conducted a randomized trial comparing the safety and immunogenicity of adjuvanted versus nonadjuvanted influenza vaccine in adult kidney transplant patients. Patients were randomized 1:1 to receive 2012 to 2013 influenza vaccine with or without MF59 adjuvant. Preimmunization and postimmunization sera underwent strain-specific hemagglutination inhibition assay. HLA alloantibody was determined by Luminex single-antigen bead assay. Results We randomized 68 patients and 60 (29 nonadjuvanted; 31 adjuvanted) had complete samples available at follow-up. Seroconversion to at least 1 of 3 influenza antigens was present in 71.0% versus 55.2% in adjuvanted versus nonadjuvanted vaccine respectively (P = 0.21). Geometric mean titers and seroprotection rates were similar between groups. Seroconversion rates were especially low in those on MMF of 2 g or greater daily (44.4% vs 71.4%; P = 0.047). In the subgroup of patients 18 to 64 years old, seroconversion was significantly greater with adjuvanted vaccine (odds ratio, 6.10; 95% confidence interval, 1.25-28.6). There were no increases in HLA alloantibodies in patients who received adjuvanted vaccine. Conclusions Adjuvanted vaccine was safe and had similar immunogenicity to standard vaccine in the overall transplant cohort but did show a potential immunogenicity benefit for the 18 to 64 years age group.


Abstract American Crow (Corvus brachyrhynchos) populations are increasing across North America, often at high rates in urban areas. A monthly survey of American Crows in the Seattle Christmas Bird Count (CBC) circle suggested that winter counts reflected American Crow abundance at other times of the year, so we used CBC results for American Crows as a measure of population trend. In the Seattle area, local survival and fecundity appear unable to account for exponential population growth. We tested the hypothesis that juvenile dispersal from outlying suburban and exurban areas contributes to growth in the urban population by radiotagging 56 juveniles 5–46 km away from the central business district of Seattle and tracking their movements. Juvenile American Crows' centers of activity were 0.2–22.2 km away from their natal territory during the first 3–12 months after fledging. An estimated 45% survived one year. Movements of dispersing American Crows varied in their consistency with simulated random-walk paths; the data suggested that, at the population level, American Crows were not drawn into urban areas, though some individuals may have been. Movements of dispersers produced a net influx into the city, because of greater reproductive success outside the city than in it. Simulations of urban population growth that included immigrants and emigrants accounted for most of the observed growth, which indicates the importance of distant suburban and exurban breeding pairs to urban population dynamics. La Dispersión de Juveniles de Corvus brachyrhynchos Influencia la Dinámica Poblacional a lo Largo de un Gradiente de Urbanización


This paper proposes a method for composing user network operation services, using Web service composition techniques. We define two types of common operation services (COSs) for user network resources. Atomic COSs do not rely on other COSs, and each of them is provided by an elemental function of each piece of network equipment. Composite COSs are composed of other atomic or composite COSs, and provide users with practical operation services. Network resources and COSs are described in semantic languages such as OWL and OWL-S, which realize Web service composition, and composite COSs are composed based on those descriptions and composition rules. Examples of composite COSs are services for QoS control between each gateway and end points, which are composed of atomic COSs for control of each piece of network equipment. This approach provides users with automatic composition of practical network operation services in accordance with each user network configuration.


Irregularities of the menstrual cycle, including abnormal genital bleeding, can occur throughout a woman's life cycle. An understanding of the normal menstrual cycle is necessary before evaluation and management of an irregular cycle. Several disorders are defined and described, including appropriate evaluation and management protocols.


A new boundary integral operator is introduced for the solution of the soundsoft acoustic scattering problem, i.e., for the exterior problem for the Helmholtz equation with Dirichlet boundary conditions. We prove that this integral operator is coercive in L2(Γ) (where Γ is the surface of the scatterer) for all Lipschitz star‐shaped domains. Moreover, the coercivity is uniform in the wavenumber k = ω/c, where ω is the frequency and c is the speed of sound. The new boundary integral operator, which we call the "star‐combined" potential operator, is a slight modification of the standard combined potential operator, and is shown to be as easy to implement as the standard one. Additionally, to the authors' knowledge, it is the only second‐kind integral operator for which convergence of the Galerkin method in L2(Γ) is proved without smoothness assumptions on Γ except that it is Lipschitz. The coercivity of the star‐combined operator implies frequency‐explicit error bounds for the Galerkin method for any approximation space. In particular, these error estimates apply to several hybrid asymptoticnumerical methods developed recently that provide robust approximations in the high‐frequency case. The proof of coercivity of the star‐combined operator critically relies on an identity first introduced by Morawetz and Ludwig in 1968, supplemented further by more recent harmonic analysis techniques for Lipschitz domains. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Introduction: The microbiome of a lung in a patient with obstructive airway is hitherto not defined. Conventional bacterial cultures have always shown that the lower respiratory tract is sterile. Potentially pathogenic bacteria when inhaled in a plume of inhaled medication, could infect the airways and cause an infective exacerbation of airway diseases. Aim: To identify bacterial species growing on the inside of a holding chamber. Methods: 52 patients with chronic stable obstructive airway disease using a metered dose inhaler with a spacer, attending our outpatient clinic were recruited. With all aseptic precautions a swab was taken and gram staining, microscopy and plate culture were performed. RESULTS: The surfaces of 59.61% (31/52) spacers were sterile. 28.84% (15/52) had growth of the environmentally ubiquitous micrococci on the surface. 5.77% (3/52) had growth of Staphylococcus aureus of which 1 was Methicillin Resistant S. aureus (MRSA). Pseudomonas aeroginosa, Escherichia coli and Acinetobater were found on 1.9% (1/52) devices. Conclusion: Most spacer surface are sterile or have presence of non-pathogenic micrococci. These potentially pathogenic bacteria are not a part of the microbiome in normal healthy individuals less so in those with airway diseases. Inhalation of these bacteria increases risk of infective exacerbation. Each exacerbation permanently reduces lung functions. Prevention of infections will limit loss of airway function and achieve better control of the disease. Hence, we propose frequent cleansing, minimal handling, use of alcohol wipes to clean the inner surface of a spacer at least once a week and frequent replacement of the device.


BACKGROUND AND AIM
This article provides a practical review to undertaking safe endoscopic ampullectomy and highlights some of the common difficulties with this technique as well as offering strategies to deal with these challenges.

METHODS
We conducted a review of studies regarding endoscopic ampullectomy for ampullary neoplasms with special focus on techniques.

RESULTS
Accurate preoperative diagnosis and staging of ampullary tumors is imperative for predicting prognosis and determining the most appropriate therapeutic approach. The optimal technique for endoscopic ampullectomy is dependent on the lesions size. En bloc resection is recommended for lesions confined to the papilla. There is no significant evidence to support the submucosal injection before ampullectomy. There is no consensus regarding the optimal current and power output for endoscopic ampulectomy. The benefits of a thermal adjunctive therapy remain controversial. A prophylactic pancreatic stent reduces the incidence and severity of pancreatitis post-ampullectomy.

CONCLUSIONS
Endoscopic ampullectomy is a safe and efficacious therapeutic procedure for papillary adenomas in experienced endoscopist and it can avoid the need for surgical intervention.


A 4-month trial involving 2,563 routine clinical specimens was conducted to compare the improved BACTEC TB system (12B medium) with the conventional Lowenstein-Jensen (LJ) media for the isolation, identification, and susceptibility testing of mycobacteria. One hundred sixty-two mycobacterial isolates were recovered, 147 (91%) with BACTEC and 118 (73%) with LJ media. Of these, 62 were Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex strains, 59 (95%) of which were isolated with BACTEC and 54 (87%) of which were isolated with LJ media. Of the remaining 100 isolates, which were mycobacteria other than tuberculosis (MOTT), BACTEC and LJ media detected 88 and 64%, respectively. The contamination rate was significantly higher in BACTEC (5%) than in LJ media (3.3%). The mean isolation time for M. tuberculosis complex with BACTEC was 15.5 days, compared with 25.6 days with LJ. For MOTT, the mean isolation times were 5.8 and 21.4 days, respectively. Identification of 32 M. tuberculosis complex isolates and 38 isolates of MOTT by the BACTEC NAP (p-nitro-alpha-acetylamino-beta-hydroxypropiophenone) inhibition test gave 100% agreement with conventional biochemical identifications. The results of susceptibility testing of 18 M. tuberculosis complex isolates with BACTEC agreed completely with those obtained by the resistance ratio method.


Abstract Since the last decades, natural disturbances in forests including protected areas have intensified. They have the potential to impact visual quality and safety of visitors as well as spread beyond protected area boundaries. While economic and ecological impacts are well studied, there is still a lack of work focused on human dimensions and social aspects. This study examines visitor perceptions towards bark beetle infestation in Tatra National Park, Poland. The findings, based on visitor surveys collected during the summer of 2014, indicate the significance of different factors influencing visitor attitudes towards the bark beetle. Age of visitors and importance of the bark beetle issue for them (based on subjective ratings of importance of bark beetle issue for respondents) are the most prominent variables. Also place of origin and environmental worldview were recognized as significantly important variables in accordance with similar studies. Results suggest management implications for park authorities including public relations and environmental education in order to increase knowledge and support for natural disturbance and ecological integrity policies in the national park.


A city is considered as a complex system. It consists of numerous interactive sub-systems and is affected by various factors including governmental land policies, population growth, and transportation infrastructure. Land use and transport are considered as the most important factors determining the urban form and its structure. Vellore district is one of the 32 districts in the Tamil Nadu state of India. Vellore City is the headquarters of this district. As of 2011 it was the third most populous district of Tamil Nadu (out of 30), after Chennai and Kanchipuram. The Gudiyattam and Vaniyambadi were the two urban agglomerations of the Vellore district with the population of 1,89,681 and 1,36,548 respectively. As per the UDPFI guidelines, these two urban agglomerations are classified under the medium city. In order to regulate the growth of the study area in an orderly manner for the present and the foreseeable future, this paper make an attempt to study and appreciate the development trends in study area and to suggest the strategies to plan city towards sustainability. For Gudiyattam, the population is restricted to achieve the population below 500,000 so that the city will be under the medium city itself. The land available for the development is minimum so the vicinity area like Peranampattu and Pallikonda could be development to improve the quality of life. For Vaniyambadi, the population is about 4,42,879 and available land area is 957.21 hectares. The area under industrial use is 49.33 hectareswhich constitutes about 11.06% of the industrial area. Tanneries occupy the maximum area under industrial use. As per the records, there are 77 tanneries, 9 flourmills, 2 engineering industries in Vaniyambadi. The land area available is maximum but the residential area is minimum where people are not willing to settle in Vaniyambadi. The analysis results predict that the Gudiyattam and Vaniyambadi are not capable to become the large cities. The boundary of vicinity area gets increase Gudiyattam may able to become large city in future. In case of Vaniyambadi, the residential area should be planned in such a way that it should be free from industrial area to improve the quality of life.


Karyotypic analysis of 54 malignant human gliomas (5 anaplastic asina-)tomas, 43 glioblastoma multiformes, 3 gliosarcomas, 2 giant cell glioblastomas, 1 anaplastic mixed glioma) has demonstrated that 12 tumors contained normal stemlines or only lacked one sex chromosome. The 42 tumors with abnormal karyotypes included 38 tumors which could be completely analyzed. Six of these 38 cases had near-triploid or near-tetraploid stemlines and 32 had near-diploid stemlines. Statistically significant numerical deviations in the near-diploid group were gains of chromosome 7 (26 of 32; P < 0.001), and losses of chromosome 10 (19 of 32; P < 0.001). Double minutes occurred in 18 of 32 near diploid rumors. The distribution of structural abnormalities was analyzed statis tically by comparing the incidence of breakpoints in each chromosomal arm to the expected value based on chromosomal arm length. This analysis demonstrated that structural abnormalities of 9p and 19q were significant statistically (P < 0.005 and P = 0.02, respectively). Although chromosome 1, 6p, the centromeric region of chromosome 11, 13q, and 15q were also frequently involved in structural abnormalities, the inci dence of these breaks did not reach statistical significance. This demon stration of specific chromosomal abnormalities in near-diploid gliomas provides the basis for the investigation of genes which may be quantita tively or qualitatively altered in these neoplasms.


Today GnRH-Analogues are the most effective substances for the regression of endometriosis and endometriosis related complaints. In combination with add-back medication the treatment is effective with only few tolerable side effects. The different types of GnRH-Analogues are equally effective, but depot preparation have the best compliance. The tailored application of GnRH-Analogues preoperatively, postoperatively or instead of surgery is dependent on the individual situation of the patient and dependent on the proliferative activity, localisation, type and stage of the disease.


When I became a student of the M A in Ritual Chant and Song at the Irish World Academy of Music and Dance (2015-2016) I did not have any previous formal music education or any academic Gregorian chant background. Therefore, I offer here a description of the experience that reveals the moments when I started to embody and recognize through practice the basic modal elements of western chant. The paper begins with a literature review that informs the reader about Hildegard von Bingen's life, her theology of music and her cycle of songs, Symphonia armonie celestium revelatorium. Then, I depict the auto ethnographic exploration of understanding theory through practice and, finally, I present my conclusions.


We return to a classic problem of structural optimization whose solution requires microstructure. It is well‐known that perimeter penalization assures the existence of an optimal design. We are interested in the regime where the perimeter penalization is weak; i.e., in the effect of perimeter as a selection mechanism in structural optimization. To explore this topic in a simple yet challenging example, we focus on a two‐dimensional elastic shape optimization problem involving the optimal removal of material from a rectangular region loaded in shear. We consider the minimization of a weighted sum of volume, perimeter, and compliance (i.e., the work done by the load), focusing on the behavior as the weight ɛ of the perimeter term tends to 0. Our main result concerns the scaling of the optimal value with respect to ɛ. Our analysis combines an upper bound and a lower bound. The upper bound is proved by finding a near‐optimal structure, which resembles a rank‐2 laminate except that the approximate interfaces are replaced by branching constructions. The lower bound, which shows that no other microstructure can be much better, uses arguments based on the Hashin‐Shtrikman variational principle. The regime being considered here is particularly difficult to explore numerically due to the intrinsic nonconvexity of structural optimization and the spatial complexity of the optimal structures. While perimeter has been considered as a selection mechanism in other problems involving microstructure, the example considered here is novel because optimality seems to require the use of two well‐separated length scales.© 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


This research aimed at large-scale mixed-use facility. It divided the function of the large-scale mixed-use facility into 4 types according to the occupancy and analyzed how 4 types have changed according to an environment. As research method, the cluster analysis was conducted for the classification of types toward the functional mixed-use characteristics of the mixed-use facility. For the analysis, one-way ANOVA were conducted. In addition, in order to analyze the effect on the extent of the mix, Multiple Linear Regression Model was used. In this research, the mixed-use facility was classified into 4 clusters; 'Residence centered cluster-type', 'Transportation centered cluster-type', 'Task centered cluster-type', and 'Marketplace cluster-type' according to the occupancy of function. There are some factors affecting the degree of the mix that demonstrates the various functions of the mixed-use facility. As the total area was large, various functions were mixed. As the commercial population was small, various contents such as culture, leisure, and etc besides the existing residence, a task, and the commercial function were developed in order to allure customers. In addition, in case of being developed by the private sector, it is revealed that specific functions which hold the profitability rather than various functions were mixed and developed.


Fuzzing is a popular dynamic program analysis technique used to find vulnerabilities in complex software. Fuzzing involves presenting a target program with crafted malicious input designed to cause crashes, buffer overflows, memory errors, and exceptions. Crafting malicious inputs in an efficient manner is a difficult open problem and often the best approach to generating such inputs is through applying uniform random mutations to pre-existing valid inputs (seed files). We present a learning technique that uses neural networks to learn patterns in the input files from past fuzzing explorations to guide future fuzzing explorations. In particular, the neural models learn a function to predict good (and bad) locations in input files to perform fuzzing mutations based on the past mutations and corresponding code coverage information. We implement several neural models including LSTMs and sequence-to-sequence models that can encode variable length input files. We incorporate our models in the state-of-the-art AFL (American Fuzzy Lop) fuzzer and show significant improvements in terms of code coverage, unique code paths, and crashes for various input formats including ELF, PNG, PDF, and XML.


Objectives To evaluate factors associated with recurrence and survival after RRH for CC. Methods Pts with early stage CC who underwent RRH(4/2007–12/2017) were evaluated. Inclusion criteria: >one year follow up, adenocarcinoma or squamous carcinoma, stage IA2 or IB1(FIGO 2014 guidelines), and pathologic tumor size(TS) of ≤4 cm. The first 10 learning curve cases per surgeon (A) were compared to all subsequent cases (B). Results 144 RRH pts were identified and 90 met inclusion criteria. There were 40 A and 50 B patients. Median follow up was 61± 34.3 months (A=71.5, B=52.5). There were 7(7.8%) recurrences with median DFS of 12±8.3 months. Recurrence in A(n=6,15%) exceeded B(n=1,2%) (p=0.025). DSDR was 10% A v 2% B(p= 0.184). The 4.5 yr DFS was 84.8%(95 CI±7%) in A v 98%(95 CI ±3%) in B. Positive vaginal margin status(A=10% v B=0%, p=0.034) was the only difference. All recurrences had TS ≥2cm. Of the 42 TS ≥2cm, 5/14(36%) adenocarcinoma recurred compared to 2/28(7%) squamous (p=0.057). Three recurrences had carcinomatosis with mean DFS and OS of 5.3 ±2.3(95% CI ±4.5) and 28.3±30.9(95% CI ±60) months compared to 17.8±6.3(95% CI ±13) and 80.6±48.6(95% CI ±95.2) months for cases with local/pulmonary metastasis(n=4) (p=0.014). Using a multiple logistic regression model, adenocarcinoma(p=.024) and first 10 experience cases(p=0.048) remained significant for recurrence. Abstract 16 Table 1 Conclusions Early stage CC treated with RRH has a unique pattern of recurrence with carcinomatosis that results in shortened DFS. Recurrences were associated with adenocarcinoma and first 10 cases of surgeon experience.


Management systems have a strong impact on the level of innovation and on production operations. Understanding this impact sheds light on how firms function. This article examines the relationship between a firm's approach to environmental management and the nature of the pollution prevention activities or practices that it undertakes. We differentiate pollution prevention activities according to (i) four functional characteristics and (ii) visibility to consumers. We find that the application of the total quality management (TQM) approaches on pollution prevention has a stronger effect for practices that involve procedural changes or are of a customized nature. These are indeed the type of practices where one would expect TQM to have a disproportionate impact in decision-making effectiveness. There seems to be no corresponding effect on the adoption of practices that are visible to consumers. Our results corroborate the notion that a well-designed management system can help stimulate innovation, but only for specific types. They also help identify the types of firms that are more likely to benefit from adoption of TQM principles.


Electrical noise measurements are reported on two devices of the disordered semiconductor hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H). The material is applied in sandwich structures and in thin-film transistors (TFTs). In a sandwich configuration of an intrinsic layer and two thin doped layers, the observed 1/f resistance noise can be attributed to a distribution of energy levels in the system. Two candidates which eventually could explain the origin of the energy distribution are investigated: generation-recombination noise and long-range potential fluctuations. A simulation program was applied to fit the current-voltage characteristics and resolves the defect density, the energy position and width of the Gaussian distributions of deep defects.
Generation-recombination (g-r) is calculated for a one-dimensional semiconductor device with traps, taking the transport of local fluctuations into account. Although the times characterizing capture and emission for deep defects are in the right (ms) range, the calculated noise intensity is five to six orders of magnitude below the measured noise level. Another noise source must cause the 1/f noise in a-Si:H.
The alternative is provided by the theory of long-range potential fluctuations. The timescale of the fluctuations is again the capture or emission time for deep defects. When an electron is emitted or captured, the charge state of a deep defect fluctuates. As a result, the potential around that defect will fluctuate, being screened by the surrounding defects. Free electrons will instantaneously adjust to the local potential. The adjustment causes a resistance fluctuation, which is measured as a voltage fluctuation in presence of a constant current. The theory predicts the noise intensity accurately, without any adjustable parameters. Unlike the intensity, the spectral shape is fitted by adjustment of two parameters of the potential landscape. The complete temperature dependence of the noise spectra is consistently described by a Gaussian distribution of potential barriers, located 0.27 eV above the conduction band edge, with a halfwidth of 0.09 eV. A large number of experiments is explained by the theory of long-range potential fluctuations: the thickness dependence, the absence of an isotope effect and the analogous results for oppositely doped devices. From these experiments, it is concluded that a universal potential landscape exists in undoped a-Si:H.
Further, the relation between degradation upon prolonged light-soaking and noise is studied. After degradation, the curvature of noise spectra is unaffected, while the intensity increases slightly. These observations are consistent with the theoretical predictions using the observed increase of the defect density. It seems that the potential landscape does not change significantly upon degradation.
Noise measurements in the sub-threshold regime of a-Si:H TFTs turn out to yield diffusion noise. Diffusion of electrons through the one-dimensional channel is identified as the source of the noise. The drift mobility extracted from the combined noise and conduction data is below the value that characterizes the on-state. The number of free electrons as determined from combined noise and conduction measurements are in quantitative agreement with an alternative determination from conduction measurements only.


There is a growing need for dedicated endovascular devices to treat pathologies affecting the venous system. However, because of a lack of research into venous diseases and treatments, the optimal design, material, and mechanical properties of venous stents remain unknown. Development of the ideal venous stent should be based on a thorough understanding of the underlying venous pathology. There are multiple venous diseases that differ from each other depending on their location (iliocaval, superior vena cava), mechanism (thrombotic versus nonthrombotic lesions), and chronicity. Thus, it is likely that stent material, design, and features should differ according to each underlying disease. From a mechanical point of view, the success of a venous stent hinges on its ability to resist crushing (which requires high global and local radial rigidity) and to match with the compliant implant environment (which requires high flexibility). Device oversizing, textile coverage, and drug coating are additional features that should be considered in the context of venous diseases rather than directly translated from the arterial world. This review examines the unique forces affecting venous stents, the problems with using arterial devices to treat venous pathologies, preliminary results of a study comparing crush resistance of commercially available laser-cut stents with a novel braided stent design, and its applicability to venous interventions.


Due to the huge bandwidth of ultra-wide-band (UWB) systems, in-band narrow-band interference (NBI) may hinder receiver performance. Sources of potential NBI that lie within the IEEE 802.15.3a UWB bandwidth are presented. To combat interference in multi-band orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (MB-OFDM) UWB systems, an analog notch filter is designed to be included in the UWB receive chain. The filter's architecture is based on feedforward subtraction of the interference, and includes a least-mean-square (LMS) tuning scheme to match amplitudes of the two paths. An 8-bit discrete control is used to adjust the filter's center frequency across the UWB baseband. It was fabricated in TSMC's 0.18-mum process, and experimental results are provided


Purpose - This study investigates how the implementation of quality management practices will impact on the performance and growth of small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in a developing country, Ghana. Design/methodology/approach - The quantitative approach and the survey method of collecting data was used. The questionnaire was administered through the face-to-face interview. A sample of 200 small firms that employ not more than 50 workers within the metropolis of the capital, Accra was selected and interviewed. Findings – The results have established that if firms implement quality management practices, it will have a tremendous impact on the performance and growth of SMEs in Ghana. The study also finds support for the argument that quality management practices improve organizational performance both in large and small businesses and in any part of the world.


Key Points Question How do reported incidence, knowledge, and behaviors regarding coronavirus disease 2019 vary across sociodemographic characteristics in the US? Findings In this survey study, the largest differences in coronavirus disease 2019–related knowledge and behaviors were associated with race/ethnicity, sex, and age. African American participants, men, and people younger than 55 years were less likely to know how the disease is spread, were less likely to know the symptoms of coronavirus disease 2019, washed their hands less frequently, and left the home more often. Meaning These findings suggest that more effort is needed to increase accurate information and encourage appropriate behaviors among minority communities, men, and younger people.


List of Figures. Symbols and Abbreviations. 1 Introduction. 2 Image Processing. 2.1 Color Models. 2.2 Filtering. 2.3 Morphological Image Processing. 2.4 Edge Detection. 2.5 Skeleton Procedure. 2.6 The Segmentation of Image Regions. 2.7 Threshold. 3 Navigation. 3.1 Coordinate Systems. 3.2 Representation Forms. 3.3 Path Planning. 3.4 The Architecture of a Multilevel Map Representation. 3.5 Self-localization. 4 Vision Systems. 4.1 The Human Visual Apparatus. 4.2 The Human Visual Apparatus as Model for Technical Vision Systems. 4.3 Camera Types. 5 CAD. 5.1 Constructive Solid Geometry. 5.2 Boundary-representation Schema (B-rep). 5.3 Approximate Models. 5.4 Hybrid Models. 5.5 Procedures to Convert the Models. 5.6 The Use of CAD in Computer Vision. 5.7 Three-dimensional Reconstruction with Alternative Approaches. 6 Stereo Vision. 6.1 Stereo Geometry. 6.2 The Projection of the Scene Point. 6.3 The Relative Motion of the Camera. 6.4 The Estimation of the Fundamental Matrix B. 6.5 Image Rectification. 6.6 Ego-motion Estimation. 6.7 Three-dimensional Reconstruction by Known Internal Parameters. 6.8 Three-dimensional Reconstruction by Unknown Internal and External Parameters. 6.9 Stereo Correspondence. 6.10 Image-sequence Analysis. 6.11 Three-dimensional Reconstruction from Image Sequences with the Kalman Filter. 7 Camera Calibration. 7.1 The Calibration of One Camera from a Known Scene. 7.2 Calibration of Cameras in Robot-vision Systems. 8 Self-learning Algorithms. 8.1 Semantic Maps. 8.2 Classificators for Self-organizing Neural Networks. 9 OCR. 10 Redundancy in Robot-vision Scenarios. 10.1 Redundant Programs for Robot-vision Applications. 10.2 The Program. 10.3 The Program Flow. 10.4 Experiment. 10.5 Conclusion. 11 Algorithm Evaluation of Robot-vision Systems for Autonomous Robots. 11.1 Algorithms for Indoor Exploration. 11.2 Experiments. 11.3 Conclusion. 12 Calibration for Autonomous Video-based Robot Systems. 12.1 Camera Calibration for Indoor Exploration. 12.2 Simple Calibration with SICAST. 12.3 Experiments. 12.4 Conclusion. 13 Redundant Robot-vision Program for CAD Modeling. 13.1 New CAD Modeling Method for Robot-vision Applications. 13.2 Experiment. 13.3 Conclusion. Bibliography. Index.


Given a database and a target attribute of interest, how can we tell whether there exists a functional, or approximately functional dependence of the target on any set of other attributes in the data? How can we reliably, without bias to sample size or dimensionality, measure the strength of such a dependence? And, how can we efficiently discover the optimal or α-approximate top-k dependencies? These are exactly the questions we answer in this paper. As we want to be agnostic on the form of the dependence, we adopt an information-theoretic approach, and construct a reliable, bias correcting score that can be efficiently computed. Moreover, we give an effective optimistic estimator of this score, by which for the first time we can mine the approximate functional dependencies from data with guarantees of optimality. Empirical evaluation shows that the derived score achieves a good bias for variance trade-off, can be used within an efficient discovery algorithm, and indeed discovers meaningful dependencies. Most important, it remains reliable in the face of data sparsity.


We study inference in structural models with a jump in the conditional density, where location and size of the jump are described by regression curves. Two prominent examples are auction models, where the bid density jumps from zero to a positive value at the lowest cost, and equilibrium job-search models, where the wage density jumps from one positive level to another at the reservation wage. General inference in such models remained a long-standing, unresolved problem, primarily due to nonregularities and computational difficulties caused by discontinuous likelihood functions. Copyright The Econometric Society 2004.


This paper attempts to show that a sustainable supply of qualified teachers required to provide quality education for all children in Africa faces very serious challenges which have not been met by the conventional approaches to teacher education. The current need in the supply of teachers has arisen from the upsurge in school enrolments since the 1990s as a result of the commitment by many countries to meet EFA goals, contributing to the recruitment of high percentages of untrained teachers. Compounding the low teacher numbers is the high toll on the teaching force by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. All these factors have a contributing role in the low levels of pupil achievement and low rates for pupil completion of primary schooling in many parts of the continent. It has therefore become increasingly evident that if Africa has to meet the challenge in the supply of adequate teachers required to provide quality education for all the children, it has to emphasise a shift in the conventional approaches to teacher education to distance teacher education which will reach larger numbers of student teachers. There is need for governments to adopt implementation strategies in line with their national policy on education to set up pre-tertiary distance education institutions to increase access to educational programs. The development of national DE policy frameworks is a crucial step in teacher training/retraining in the light of the changing challenges of distance education, the rise of civil societies and the expansion of trans-national education. Donor funded DE programmes need to ensure their sustainability by being made time-bound and are institutionalized. Furthermore, they ought to be carefully planned to meet urgent demands and need to begin with the necessary initial investment in infrastructure or building capacity through the system rather than operating in a crisis mode. Key terms: Distance teacher education and increasing supply of primary school teachers


This article explores how higher education institutions in England engage with research in their access agreements. Through an analysis of access agreements from 2014-15 to 2016-17, a picture of how research is understood, undertaken and documented emerges. A lexical analysis of the texts was used to establish the different ways research is being referred to or funded as part of the access agreement process. The analysis shows a productive relationship between national policy and institutional activity. But there appears to be a lack of infrastructure at an institutional and sector level to join up sustained and rigorous research with widening participation activity and policy. This means that, even after ten years of access agreements, widening participation is not fully embedded into the academic practice of higher education. We argue that research undertaken as part of the access agreement process can provide much needed evidence of impact and situate activity within an institution-wide context. However, we also suggest that widening participation research has the potential to offer productive troubling ideas to dominant rhetoric and, in so doing, shape new ways of thinking about, and doing, widening participation within institutions and across the sector.


In today's highly competitive industrial environment, machine health management systems become a crucial factor for sustainability and success. The traditional feature extraction methods to reveal the health condition of the machine are labor-extensive. They usually depend on engineered design features, which require an expert knowledge level. Inspired by the successful results of deep learning approaches that redefine representation learning from raw data, we propose moving averaged features-based on Long-Short Term Memory (MaF-LSTM) networks. It is a hybrid approach that combines engineered features design with self-feature learning for the purpose of machine condition monitoring. First, features from overlapped sliding windows of the input time-series signals are extracted. Then, a moving average filter is applied on the top of the generated features to enhance the feature's condition indicter's content. Next, a bidirectional LSTM is applied to learn the features representation from the moving averaged features. Two experiments, namely, bearing fault diagnosis and hydraulic accumulator fault detection, are implemented to verify the effectiveness of the proposed MaF-LSTM. The experimental results demonstrated that the proposed method outperforms all traditional condition monitoring methods in both use cases.


Historically, in France, students with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) have been segregated from their peers and excluded from general school system (Philip, 2012). Actually, even if school inclusion for children with ASD is always a controversial topic (Hammel, 2012), there is an increasing trend to include these children in mainstream school settings (Rousseau & al., 2013). Researches showed that school inclusion is beneficial for these children when specific strategies for facilitating their inclusion are applied (Corneau & al., 2014 ; Ferraioli & Harris, 2011). So, this study take place in this new context in France and examined whether children with ASD receiving intensive educational intervention in mainstream school setting would make significant gains after height month of treatment.
Participants were 8 children with ASD (7 male and 1 female) aged 5 to 9 years at intake. They attending an innovative special needs classroom that is located in a general school setting. Teacher collaborates with psychologist and educators to provide intensive educational intervention. Depending on their needs and individual characteristics, children can also be included in regular classes with their typical peers. Outcome measures comprised three developmental assessment: the Psychoeducational Profile-Third Edition (PEP-3 ; Schopler & al., 2005), the Social Cognitive Evaluation Battery (SCEB ; Adrien, 2007) and the french version of the Snijders-Oomen Nonverbal Intelligence Test – Revisited (SON-R 21/2 – 7 ; Tellegen, Laros & Kiat, 2009). All measures were administered at two time point (on entry to the study and again after 8 months). We hypothesized that children with ASD would make significant gains on a range of skills in both the social as well as cognitive domains.
Results could lead to a generalization of this innovative unit on the French territory, especially for children who couldn't be at full-time in general classroom. In this study, the developmental trajectories of children with ASD will also be analyzed at the individual level. In this way, several patterns of cognitive, communicative or social development will be identified and described.
Conclusion: Implications of these findings will be discussed at both theoretical and practical level. Indeed, they will help us not only to better understand the developmental pathways of children with ASD (both pace and timing of change) but also to improve treatment.


The action of an enzyme essential for tryptophan biosynthesis is inhibited by tryptophan and also by an analog of tryptophan. Similarly, histidine and one of its analogs inhibit the action of an enzyme essential for histidine biosynthesis. A mutant resistant to the histidine analog produces an apparently altered enzyme which is insensitive to both the analog and histidine.


Free-radical retrograde precipitation polymerization process in the past has shown excellent control characteristics over reaction rate, molecular weight, and in the entrapment of live radicals for the generation of block copolymers. The same principle has now been extended to study the reaction confinement to a nanoscale region. Nanosized polymer particles have been reported to form from block copolymers, conventional precipitation polymerization methods, or through emulsion polymerization approaches. In this work, we present a new method of generating nanosized polymer particles by polymerizing the monomer in an environment that precipitates the polymer above the lower critical solution temperature. The nanoparticles have been characterized by both tapping-mode atomic force microscopy observations and in situ synchrotron time-resolved small-angle X-ray scattering analysis. The results from both the techniques showed the formation of nanoparticles in the size range of 15-30 nm, directly from the polymerization process.


The hop powdery mildew fungus Podosphaera macularis persists from season to season in the Pacific Northwestern United States through infection of crown buds because only one of the mating types needed to produce the ascigerous stage is presently found in this region. Bud infection and successful overwintering of the fungus leads to the emergence of heavily infected shoots in early spring (termed flag shoots). Historical data of flag shoot occurrence and incidence in Oregon and Washington State during 2000 to 2017 were analyzed to identify their association with the incidence of powdery mildew, growers' use of fungicides, autumn and winter temperature, and other production factors. During this period, flag shoots were found on 0.05% of plants evaluated in Oregon and 0.57% in Washington. In Oregon, the incidence of powdery mildew on leaves was most severe and the number of fungicide applications made by growers greatest in yards where flag shoots were found in spring. Similarly, the incidence of plants with powdery mildew in Washington was significantly associated with the number of flag shoots present in early spring, although the number of fungicide applications made was independent of flag shoot occurrence. The occurrence of flag shoots was associated with prior occurrence of flag shoots in a yard, the incidence of foliar powdery mildew in the previous year, grower pruning method, and, in Washington, winter temperature. A census of hop yards in the eastern extent of the Oregon production region during 2014 to 2017 found flag shoots in 27 of 489 yards evaluated. In yards without flag shoots, 338 yards (73.2%) were chemically pruning or not pruned, whereas the remaining 124 (26.8%) were mechanically pruned. Of the 27 yards with flag shoots, 22 were either chemically pruned or not pruned and 4 were mechanically pruned in mid-April, well after the initial emergence of flag shoots. The prevalence of yards with flag shoots also was related to thoroughness of pruning in spring (8.1% of yards with incomplete pruning versus 1.9% of yards with thorough pruning). A Bayesian logistic regression model was fit to the data from the intensively assessed yards in Oregon, with binary risk factors for occurrence of a flag shoot in the previous year, occurrence of foliar mildew in the previous year, and thoroughness of pruning in spring. The model indicated that the median and 95% highest posterior density interval of the probability of flag shoot occurrence was 0.0008 (0.0000 to 0.0053) when a yard had no risk factors but risk increased to 0.0065 (0.0000 to 0.0283) to 0.43 (0.175 to 0.709) when one to all three of the risk factors were present. The entirety of this research indicates that P. macularis appears to persist in a subset of chronically affected hop yards, particularly yards where spring pruning is conducted poorly. Targeted management of the disease in a subset of fields most at risk for producing flag shoots could potentially influence powdery mildew development regionwide.


ABSTRACT We use the three-waves panel data for households in rural Nigeria from the General Household Surveys (GHS), which is part of the World Bank Living Standards Measurement Study – Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA), to investigate how informal associations help households that are exposed to adverse shocks in smoothing their food consumption. We find that informal associations help to improve the percentage of food expenditure and dietary diversity of households who are members compared to those non-member households. Moreover, we investigate potential mechanisms through which these relationships hold, and we find that households are able to borrow from both the association and other individuals who may be members of similar networks. Our results are robust to different specifications.


The Mycobacterium tuberculosis early secreted Ag of 6 kDa (ESAT-6) is a potent Ag for human T cells and is a putative vaccine candidate. However, ESAT-6 also contributes to virulence in animal models, mediates cellular cytolysis, and inhibits IL-12 production by mononuclear phagocytes. We evaluated the effects of ESAT-6 and its molecular chaperone, culture filtrate protein of 10 kDa (CFP10), on the capacity of human T cells to produce IFN-γ and proliferate in response to TCR activation. Recombinant ESAT-6, but not CFP10, markedly inhibited IFN-γ production by T cells stimulated with M. tuberculosis or with the combination of anti-CD3 and anti-CD28, in a dose-dependent manner. ESAT-6 also inhibited T cell production of IL-17 and TNF-α but not IL-2. Preincubation of ESAT-6 with CFP10 under conditions that favor dimer formation did not affect inhibition of IFN-γ. ESAT-6 decreased IFN-γ transcription and reduced expression of the transcription factors, ATF-2 and c-Jun, which normally bind to the IFN-γ proximal promoter and stimulate mRNA expression. ESAT-6 inhibited T cell IFN-γ secretion through mechanisms that did not involve cellular cytotoxicity or apoptosis. ESAT-6, but not CFP10, bound to T cells and inhibited expression of early activation markers without reducing activation of ZAP70. We conclude that ESAT-6 directly inhibits human T cell responses to mycobacterial Ags by affecting TCR signaling pathways downstream of ZAP70.


Since the advent of the twentieth century, several severe virus outbreaks have occurred—H1N1 (1918), H2N2 (1957), H3N2 (1968), H1N1 (2009) and recently COVID-19 (2019)—all of which have posed serious challenges to public health. Therefore, rapid identification of efficacious antiviral medications is of ongoing paramount importance in combating such outbreaks. Due to the long cycle of drug development, not only in the development of a "safe" medication but also in mandated and extensive (pre)clinical trials before a drug can be safely licensed for use, it is difficult to access effective and safe novel antivirals. This is of particular importance in addressing infectious disease in appropriately short period of time to limit stress to ever more interlinked societal infrastructures; including interruptions to economic activity, supply routes as well as the immediate impact on health care. Screening approved drugs or drug candidates for antiviral activity to address emergent diseases (i.e. repurposing) provides an elegant and effective strategy to circumvent this problem. As such treatments (in the main) have already received approval for their use in humans, many of their limitations and contraindications are well known, although efficacy against new diseases must be shown in appropriate laboratory trials and clinical studies. A clear in this approach in the case of antivirals is the "relative" simplicity and a high degree of conservation of the molecular mechanisms that support viral replication—which improves the chances for a functional antiviral to inhibit replication in a related viral species. However, recent experiences have shown that while repurposing has the potential to identify such cases, great care must be taken to ensure a rigourous scientific underpinning for repurposing proposals. Here, we present a brief explanation of drug repurposing and its approaches, followed by an overview of recent viral outbreaks and associated drug development. We show how drug repurposing and combination approaches have been used in viral infectious diseases, highlighting successful cases. Special emphasis has been placed on the recent COVID-19 outbreak, and its molecular mechanisms and the role repurposing can/has play(ed) in the discovery of a treatment.


The water quality of a river can be considered a function of its surrounding landscape. Understanding the relationship between landscape patterns and river water quality is essential for optimizing landscape patterns to reduce watershed pollution and has not yet been solved. A multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) model was used to explore the associations between the landscape patterns and water quality. Our results showed that landscape metrics have varied relationships with the water quality across spatial scales in different seasons. The strongest independent influencing variable for NO3–-N, NH4+-N, and TN was tea gardens, residential land, and varied seasonally, respectively. The impacts of the landscape metrics on the TP were relatively weak throughout the year at the watershed scale. The influence of landscape metrics on NO3–-N was more significant during the flood season, whereas that on NH4+-N was more notable during the non-flood season. Seasonal changes in the influencing landscape metrics of TN were not regular. Although landscape composition more significantly influenced water quality than configuration, the Shannon's diversity index and patch density were important configuration indices that significantly impacted water quality. Therefore, with limited land availability, it is essential to optimize the landscape spatial configuration without changing the composition of the watershed to reduce the risk of river pollution. This study further indicated that the MGWR model can well quantify the effects of landscape pattern on water quality at the watershed scale.


This thesis argues that the aesthetic character of some conceptual works of art can be determined by the possession of essential aesthetic properties. By discussing Peter Lamarque's account of individual aesthetic essentialism one can suggest that conceptual
works can be aesthetically investigated. Chapter I introduces the concept of the aesthetic and discusses Frank Sibley's account of aesthetic concepts. Chapter II analyses in detail Sibley's two fold relational character of aesthetic properties. Chapter III introduces Lamarque's concept of aesthetic properties and it also insists on a distinction between artistic and aesthetic properties. Chapter IV introduces a general account of essentialism and then discusses Lamarque's new object theory. Chapter V investigates Lamarque's weaker version
of individual aesthetic essentialism and analyses the distinction between essential and inessential aesthetic properties. Finally, Chapter VI considers the aesthetics of conceptual art and argues that some conceptual pieces have essential aesthetic properties. The philosophical
discussions are supported by appeal to many different works of art, from traditional works to contemporary works. I conclude that all conceptual works have aesthetic properties but mostly there are inessential properties. My suggestion at the end of this thesis is more radical. A close analysis identified essential aesthetic properties in some conceptual works of art and
this contribute to the aesthetic character and value of these works.


1 Abstract Introduction: Trigeminal neuralgia (TN) is one of the most excruciating pain conditions. Mirror therapy (MT) is effective in several chronic pain conditions and with a reversing set-up has been described as effective for facial pain with ongoing benefit five years later. Case presentation: a middle-aged lady was offered MT for her long-standing TN. She experienced pain relief repeatedly and reliably after 10 minutes of massage applied by others and subsequently also on self-application of the massage. However, after several self- applications, which entailed significant strain of the massaging arm, MT suddenly and completely ceased to show effect. Discussion: The significant and on occasions complete pain relief, albeit only temporary, with no side effects experienced, is promising. Whether the reported pain relief is reproducible in further patients, and whether a spoilt illusion can be restored, needs to be investigated. Conclusion: The reliable pain reduction seen here suggests further use of MT for TN. The benefit of the illusion appears to have been lost through the strain or the vision of the self- administering arm on the pain-free side of the mirror reflection. Therefore self-administration should be avoided. If this treatment proves effective, a breakthrough in pain relief for chronic unilateral facial pain may be achieved.


Optimization of micro-mixing components is vital for efficient micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) and lab-on-a-chips. In this area, it is ideal to have a universal micro-mixer design for general purpose multiple-phase fluidic mixing. Numerical methods to compute and analyze the mixing process in the spiral micro-mixer design are presented. This spiral design has also been found to be efficient for intra-droplet mixing as well as continuous particle separation by utilizing its attributing Dean flows. Analysis on the mixing performance of this design serves to present Archimedes' spiral as a robust solution and exemplifies the effects of minute yet effective alterations to the design.


A general method based on the Laplace expansion for determining the transfer function of a wide variety of linear electronic circuits is discussed. The technique developed requires only the calculation of a number of driving-point resistances to specify the coefficients of the transfer function. Dominant-pole techniques are used and extended, making the procedure useful in both analysis and design. As computation only involves resistance networks, complex arithmetic is not required in determination of the response.


This paper considers the problem of assigning mobile data users to base stations and modulating their transmit powers according to their respective channel gains in order to maximize the total system throughput. We consider two scenarios of time-invariant and time-varying channel behaviors. We show that the base station assignment problem is NP complete and propose sub-optimal polynomial time algorithms and bound their performance. When the channel gains are time-varying, we present an iterative algorithm to compute the assignment and power control functions according to the probability distribution of the channel gains. This algorithm is shown to converge to the optimal allocation in the special cases of a single user or a single base station. Simulation results demonstrate the performance of our algorithms, which are especially significant under asymmetric loading of the network


Abstract We compared the floristic composition and structure of restoration areas of eucalypt woodland with untreated pasture (control) and remnant vegetation (reference) in western Sydney. The restored areas comprised over 1,000 ha of abandoned pasture, which had been treated to reduce weeds and planted with seedlings of 26 native plant species raised from seed obtained locally from remnant vegetation. Plantings were carried out 0–9 years ago. Floristic composition was measured in quadrats using frequency scores and cover abundance. As far as possible treatments and restoration ages were replicated across sites. Ordination and analyses of similarity failed to distinguish the composition of restored vegetation from that of untreated pasture, which were both significantly different from that of remnant vegetation. There was a weak compositional trend with age of restored vegetation, but this was not in the direction of increasing resemblance to remnant vegetation. There was some evidence for convergence in structural features of restored with remnant vegetation, but this was at least partly attributed to plant growth. Subject to constraints imposed by the sampling design, environmental factors, and spatial variation were discounted as explanations for the results. The results therefore suggest either failure of restoration treatments or a restoration trajectory that is too slow to detect within 10 years of establishment. Our conclusions agree with those of similar studies in other ecosystems and support: (1) the need to monitor restoration projects against ecological criteria with rigorous sampling designs and analytical methods, (2) further development of restoration methods, and (3) regulatory approaches that seek to prevent damage to ecosystems rather than those predicated on replacing losses with reconstructed ecosystems.


Midazolam and sufentanil are commonly used for sedation. Cerebrovascular effects of low-dose midazolam have not been studied previously, and cerebrovascular effects of sufentanil remain controversial. Forty ASA I and II patients were studied preoperatively. These patients were given midazolam (20 or 40 micrograms/kg) or sufentanil (0.1 or 0.2 micrograms/kg) i.v. Transcranial Doppler recordings of middle cerebral artery mean blood flow velocity (Vm) were recorded before administration of the study drug and for the 5-min investigation period. Mean arterial pressure, heart rate, and end-tidal CO2 remained constant during the investigation and did not vary between treatment groups. Vm decreased 17 to 21% with both midazolam doses (p < 0.05), returning to baseline within 5 min. Vm did not change with either sufentanil dose. These results suggest that midazolam decreases cerebral blood flow (CBF) by increasing cerebral vascular resistance (CVR). The low sedative doses of sufentanil used in this study did not affect Vm over 5 min in unanesthetized patients.


The classical Hlawka inequality possesses deep connections with zonotopes and zonoids in convex geometry, and has been related to Minkowski space. We introduce Hlawka Type-1 and Type-2 quantities, and establish a Hlawka-type relation between them, which connects a vast number of strikingly different variants of the Hlawka inequalities, such as Serre's reverse Hlawka inequality in the future cone of the Minkowski space, the Hlawka inequality for subadditive function on abelian group by Ressel, and the integral analogs by Takahasi et al. Besides, we announce several en-hanced results, such as the Hlawka inequality for the power of measure function. Particularly, we give a complete study of the Hlawka inequality for quadratic form which relates to a work of Serre.


The protocols described in this unit were developed to monitor membrane traffic in cultured cell monolayers that display hepatic polarity. In general, the assays are designed to visualize and/or quantitate membrane trafficking by monitoring the fates of antibodies bound to specific membrane proteins. We first describe how to infect cells with recombinant adenovirus, the preferred method for introducing exogenous genes into hepatic cells. We next provide a morphological assay to monitor basolateral to apical transcytosis. In a supporting protocol, we describe how to visualize apical recycling and/or retention. In an additional supporting protocol, we provide a semi‐quantitative method to measure the relative extents of apical delivery. Finally, we describe quantitative assays to measure basolateral internalization and recycling. The methods presented in this unit provide a relatively simple, yet powerful approach to examining hepatic membrane traffic. Curr. Protoc. Cell Biol. 54:15.17.1‐15.17.19. © 2012 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


We analyze the classic problem of sustaining trust when cheating and leaving trading partners is easy, and outside enforcement is difficult. We construct equilibria where individuals are loyal to smaller groups – communities - that allow repeated interaction. Hierarchies provide incentives for loyalty and allow individuals to trust agents to extent that the agents are actually trustworthy. We contrast these with other plausible institutions for engendering loyalty that require inefficient withholding of trust to support group norms, and are not robust to coalitional deviations. In communities whose members randomly match, we show that social mobility within hierarchies falls as temptations to cheat rise. In communities where individuals can concentrate their trading with pre-selected members, hierarchies where senior members are favored for trade sustain trust even in the presence of proximate non-hierarchical communities. We link these results to the emergence of trust in new market environments and early human societies


A primary chondrosarcoma was found in the epiglottis of a 6-year-old, neutered, male Boxer cross-breed dog. Clinically, there was upper respiratory noise, and a 3.2 cm × 2.8 cm × 2.7 cm, ovoid mass involving the epiglottis was observed. No abnormalities were detected upon radiographic examinations (X-ray) of the chest or abdomen. Grossly, the excised mass was hard. On cut section, it displayed a lobular pattern of translucent gray-white color (interpreted as cartilage). Histologically, the epiglottal submucosa contained a non-encapsulated, fairly demarcated multi-nodular neoplasm composed of streams of cells admixed with moderate to abundant amounts of a pale amphophilic to eosinophilic matrix (chondroid). The neoplastic cells stained were immunohistochemically positive for vimentin and S-100 protein, and negative for pancytokeratin. The matrix stained deeply with Alcian Blue (pH 2.5)-periodic acid Schiff, which often separated cells into individual lacunae. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of extra-skeletal chondrosarcoma primarily arising in the epiglottis of a dog.


In the optimisation process of radiographic imaging, factorial designed experiments can be applied. The parameters (factors) are varied together instead of one at a time, making it possible to discover interactions between the factors as well as main influences of them on the result variable. A 2k design implies having k number of factors each one set to two different levels (low and high). A computer program, CoCIQ, designed to automatically analyse and evaluate test images of a contrast-detail phantom, was evaluated and adjusted to clinical situations using a flat panel detector. The program gives a quantified measurement of image quality by calculating an Image Quality Figure (IQF) for the X-ray image. It was shown that the program produces IQF with small variations. It was also found that there was a strong linear statistical relation between the computerised evaluation and the evaluation performed by human observers. 2k factorial experiments were evaluated by investigating the influence of tube potential, tube loading, focus size and filtration on the result variables IQF, Kerma Area Product (KAP) and effective dose using a flat panel detector. It was found that the result variables were mainly influenced by tube loading, tube potential and filtration. Interactions between tube potential and filtration as well as between tube loading and filtration were observed, too. This work demonstrates that accepted knowledge was reproduced and that the effects of interactions between parameters were revealed. Extended 2k experiments were then applied at three different optimisation procedures. Two studies were performed using a flat panel detector for lumbar spine radiography. The aim was to find optimal settings for tube potential, system sensitivity and filtration for different sized patients and, in a separate study, to investigate the effect of the image post processing parameters and the possibility for dose reduction by adjusting these. The parameters are ROI (Region Of Interest) density, gamma, detail contrast enhancement, unsharp masking, kernel size and noise compensation. After determining the optimal settings from these experiments, X-ray images of the lumbar spine of an Alderson phantom were acquired and evaluated in a visual grading analysis (VGA). The results illustrated that the image quality was maintained at a lower effective dose by operating with a reduced tube potential and increased sensitivity of the X-ray system. The experiments on image post process parameters revealed their influence on image quality and indicated that image quality could be improved by changing the settings of the process parameters. Factorial experiments were also performed, using a multislice CT scanner to investigate the possibility for dose reduction at paediatric head examinations. An anthropomorphic phantom simulating a one-year-old child was scanned using different settings of tube potential, tube loading and reconstruction filter. The study showed that a 25 % reduction of dose was possible with maintained image quality by reducing the tube loading. Factorial designed experiments provide an effective method to simultaneously predict the influence of various parameters on image quality and radiation dose in the optimisation in diagnostic radiology.


Learning to rank is a relatively new field of study, aiming to learn a ranking function from a set of training data with relevancy labels. The ranking algorithms are often evaluated using information retrieval measures, such as Normalized Discounted Cumulative Gain (NDCG) [1] and Mean Average Precision (MAP) [2]. Until recently, most learning to rank algorithms were not using a loss function related to the above mentioned evaluation measures. The main difficulty in direct optimization of these measures is that they depend on the ranks of documents, not the numerical values output by the ranking function. We propose a probabilistic framework that addresses this challenge by optimizing the expectation of NDCG over all the possible permutations of documents. A relaxation strategy is used to approximate the average of NDCG over the space of permutation, and a bound optimization approach is proposed to make the computation efficient. Extensive experiments show that the proposed algorithm outperforms state-of-the-art ranking algorithms on several benchmark data sets.


Two previous Research News and Comment articles in Educational Researcher have examined the potential impact of the World Wide Web (web) in education. Owston (1997) offers a optimistic view of potential benefits of the today's web, utilizing a framework that emphasizes: (a) making learning more accessible; (b) promoting improved learning; and (c) containing costs. Fetterman (1998) reviews the tools currently available on the web (such as search, video conferencing, and file sharing) and suggests potential uses among educational researchers. Although these articles offer valuable advice about today's web capabilities, both authors acknowledge that the web is changing rapidly. They do not provide a sense of where the web is going, and how its trajectory of development may more fully meet educational needs. Such prospective information about emerging web technologies is important for the educational research community, and it is our intention to briefly highlight key trajectories of web development for learning communities. We recently hosted a workshop on "Tools for Learning Communities" under the auspices of the NSF-funded Center for Innovative Learning Technologies (CILT, which is pronounced like "silt"), bringing together 125 leading researchers and developers from a balanced mix of 50 institutions, including universities, nonprofit organizations, corporations and schools. For example, corporate participants included IBM Global Education, Apple Computer, Netscape, Coopers-Lybrand, NetSchools, and Electric Schoolhouse, LLC as well as many smaller firms. Academic and non-profit participants included researchers from the four CILT partner institutions, SRI International, UC Berkeley, Vanderbilt University, and Concord Consortium, as well as organizations, universities and high schools from all over North America. The innovative format of this workshop encouraged rapid information exchange, followed by brainstorming about educational issues and opportunities, and concluded with the formation of cross-institutional teams to seek joint innovation. Over the course of two days, the participants generated a wealth of ideas about the limitations of today's web, its near-term trajectories, and


We read with interest the paper by Stirnemann et al.1 evaluating the utility of the CHOP (Children's Hospital of Philadelphia) cardiovascular score for twin–twin transfusion syndrome (TTTS) as a predictor of outcome following laser photocoagulation of placental vessels. They found the CHOP score not to be predictive of survival. In an accompanying Opinion, Quintero, amongst a number of other points, questioned the role of fetal echocardiography in the evaluation of TTTS patients2. In developing the CHOP score, our intent was not to develop a tool to predict survival after laser therapy, nor to replace the Quintero staging system, but rather to add an additional layer of understanding to the evaluation, utilizing an analysis scheme specific to the cardiovascular system3. Cardiovascular abnormalities are prevalent in TTTS and contribute to the origins and foundation of the disease. Some of these abnormalities are subtle, and some are not so subtle, but they are readily evident to those who look. The CHOP score provides a means of characterizing and quantifying the degree of cardiovascular disease burden present in a systematic and logical manner, tailored to our current understanding of the mechanisms of the disease. It provides a sense of scale to the physiological aberration present that is not adequately provided by the Quintero staging system. We have learned much since our initial description of the CHOP score in 2007. We find it is most helpful when utilized as a continuous variable with points ranging from 0 to 20, and not as a categorical variable divided into quartiles or 'cardiac stages' as evaluated in part by Stirnemann et al.1. We have found it to be a tool that provides the capacity to improve our understanding of the physiological impact of laser photocoagulation therapy. At the 2010 ISUOG World Congress we present data in an abstract4 looking at the CHOP score in a serial manner, before and after therapy. We found no change in CHOP score at 24 hours, but noted a significant reduction at 1 week after laser photocoagulation. Furthermore, assessment of change in the individual elements of the CHOP score provides insight into the physiological effects of therapy, as diastolic elements such as filling properties of the ventricle improve well in advance of systolic elements such as atrioventricular valve regurgitation. Is there value in assessment of the cardiovascular system in TTTS? Stirnemann et al.1 did not find the CHOP score to be predictive of outcome as defined by survival; however, as most fetuses are now expected to survive, it has become more important to look at other outcome variables, such as cardiovascular morbidity. Such morbidity, if present, also demands scrutiny and serial follow-up during the course of gestation. Development of right-sided outflow tract obstruction continues to plague 10–20% of recipient fetuses3. Persistent ventricular dysfunction or valvular regurgitation in laser treatment survivors may require intervention in the neonatal period. Furthermore, ongoing gestation and development within the inhospitable physiological storm of TTTS may impact negatively on postnatal cardiovascular health in childhood and later adult life5. The means to measure this degree of cardiovascular derangement by utilization of the CHOP score at initial diagnosis, after therapy and in a serial manner throughout gestation provides a way with which to assess continued disease manifestations and correlate these findings with longterm outcome – a role not fulfilled by the Quintero staging system. TTTS is a multidimensional disease and as such it demands a multidimensional approach to evaluation. Both the Quintero staging system and the CHOP score are tools to be wielded in the battle against TTTS. But perhaps the perspective needs to be broadened beyond simple fetal survival. The objective in the current era should be to optimize outcome and provide the best quality of life, free of residual disease. This, undoubtedly, is the goal.


Design, study, and control of mixed animals-robots societies is the field of scientific exploration that can bring new opportunities for study and control of groups of social animals. In the Chicken Robot project we develop a mobile robot, socially acceptable by chicks and able to interact with them using appropriate communication channels. For interaction purposes the robot has to know positions of all birds in an experimental area and detect those uttering calls. In this paper, we present an audio-visual approach to locate the chicks on a scene and detect their calling activity in real-time. The visual tracking is provided by a marker-based tracker with a help of an overhead camera. Sound localization is achieved by the beamforming approach using an array of sixteen microphones. Visual and sound information are probabilistically mixed to detect the calling activity. The experiments using the e-puck robots instead of the real chicks demonstrate that our system is capable to detect the sound emission activity with more than 90% probability.


The focus of this article is twofold. The first part is centred around the historical development of the Danish training and education system for people in employment, while the second draws on the results of a recently conducted survey in order to discuss the role of skill needs analyses and the determinants of enterprise-sponsored training. A major issue that emerges in an analysis of the historical development to the present is that the introduction in 2001 of the latest changes in the legal framework of CVT signalled changes in the established ways of viewing CVT in Denmark. These changes constituted a shift in financial responsibility away from the state and towards the social partners. Furthermore, they indicated diminished state responsibility for CVT activities and a move towards more market-oriented/demand-led CVT. An important conclusion reached in the part of the paper dealing with analyses of skill needs is that motivation for sponsoring CVT should not be analysed as a simple causal relation where a qualification need leads to sponsored CVT. Instead, sponsoring of CVT should be seen as an enterprise's way of dealing with external as well as internal challenges of varying nature. The conclusions drawn are based on the view that personnel policy consists of four elements: recruitment, retainment, development and outflow. Applying this perspective paves the way for a more comprehensive picture of CVT activity and acknowledges the multifaceted motives behind enterprise-sponsored CVT.


On occasion Charles Darwin can seem our scientific contemporary, for the subjects he engaged remain engaging today, but in his role as author he belongs to the past. It is not customary today for scientists to write book after book, as Darwin did, or for these books to serve as the primary vehicle of scientific communication. For Darwin, however, the book was central. He wrote at least eighteen, depending on what one counts; in his Autobiography he entitled the section describing his most important work 'An account how several books arose'; and in his personal Journal, begun in August 1838 after he had come to a mature sense of himself, he organized entries around his books. A characteristic entry is that for 1846: 'Oct. 1st. Finished last proof of my Geolog. Observ. on S. America; This volume, including Paper in Geolog. Journal on the Falkland Islands took me 18 & 1/2 months:–'. Further, almost always he had a book under way: when one was complete, the next was begun. He called them the milestones to his life.


The increase of cocoa production faces many problems such as black pod disease caused by Phytophthora palmivora . The disease may reduce the production of cocoa up to 44%. Control of the disease by chemical fungicides is costly and creates negative impact to humans and environment. Utilizing plant material which is resistant to black pod disease is an alternative to overcome this problem.  It is also a long-term solution, which require information on the mechanism of cocoa resistance. Mechanism of plant resistance to diseases determined by structural and biochemical mechanism that work on the entire cycle of disease, both before penetration and after infection. Distribution activity of inoculum of P. palmivora in the disease cycle is influenced by the morphological characters of cocoa pod as a deposition of  inoculum pre-penetration and inoculum penetration ability into the fruit tissue. Cocoa varieties in Indonesia resistant to black pod disease are ICCRI3, ICCRI 4, Sca 6, Sca 12 dan DRC 16. Key words : cocoa, mechanism of resistance, Phytophthora  palmivora Butl.


ABSTRACT:Summary: Sustaining a reputation and delivering on a range of financial and community objectives remain an important goal for all organisations. Managers have the responsibility for making considered and informed decisions that contribute to realising organisational goals. In this context this paper positions meditation as a practice that has the potential to support managers and organisations in meeting their objectives. This paper presents a conceptual model that develops seven propositions highlighting the role of meditation in relation to positive leadership and task performance. It uses meditation as a moderator and flow as a mediator while positive leadership is the independent variable and task performance is the dependent variable. The paper suggests that the conceptualisation developed will be able to throw light upon interrelationships between the four constructs. From the model the article suggests future areas for research to examine and evaluate the effectiveness of meditation in supporting organisational development. Literature Review: The discussion builds on positive psychology and leadership literature, narrowing down to interrelationships between positive leadership, flow, task performance, mindfulness and meditation ultimately identifying four key constructs - positive leadership, flow, task performance and meditation. The literature is drawn from Arch and Craske (2006), Baccarani, Mascherpa and Minozzo (2013), Csikszentmihalyi (2002), Cullen (2011), Demerouti (2006), Elo et al. (2014), Fredrickson and Losada (2005), Fry and Slocum (2008), Kabat-Zinn (2013), Lewis (2011), Luthans and Avolio (2009), Martin (2005), Porkess (2012), Sethi (2009), Seligman and Csikszentmihalyi (2000), Smith, Koppes Bryan and Vodanovich (2012), Van Gordon et al. (2014), and Zbierowski and Gora (2014). The review justifies the need for further studies on these inter-relationships through five rationales. However, the review lacks critical analysis and the model is yet to be tested.


The control problem of the multi-robots with different actuation capabilities has caught the attention of the robotics researchers over the last years. The algorithm proposed in the paper not only makes use of the energy-efficient coverage optimal control scheme but also utilizes Hopfield Neural Networks (HNN) in order to perform collaboration among the agents according to their different actuation performances without knowing them beforehand. The agents estimate their own performances by using HNN estimator and calculate the Power Voronoi Diagram (PVD or PD) weights for each agent. The robots achieve the optimal coverage configuration autonomously. The algorithm can assign the regions from the workspace and in resultant configuration, the robots with strong actuators obtain wider areas allocated from the workspace while the weaker robots obtain smaller areas. Also, by making use of the energy-efficient optimal coverage control scheme, a trade-off between the coverage time and energy consumption of the agents can be made. The MATLAB simulation and experimental results regarding the proposed online and distributed algorithm are given. The novelty of this work lies in the using of HNN-based multi-robot coverage collaboration according to the different actuation capabilities and energy-efficient coverage control laws at the same time. Significant improvements compared with the method utilized in (Pierson et al., 2017) have been observed.


Abstract A new small twiglike anthaspidellid sponge, Virgaspongiella ramosa new genus and species, and an incrusting lithistid sponge have been recovered from silicified residues of etched limestone blocks from the Middle Permian Franson Member of the Park City Formation in western Wyoming. Virgaspongiella n. gen. has a skeleton of upwardly and outwardly divergent trabs formed of merged tips of runglike dendroclone spicules in ladderlike series. One to a few oxeas function as coring spicules in the trabs and project as fine spines from the dermal surface, and other monaxial spicules project from pores of the canals. The incrusting sponge, Incrustatospongia superficiala new genus and species, forms a distinct, thin, uniform lithistid skeletal layer, composed largely of X-shaped dendroclones, incrusted on both the inner and outer surfaces of productoid brachiopod valves. Separated monaxial spicules locally protrude from the sponge's dermal surface apparently as spinose defensive elements.


If deliveries by planned Cesarean section and deliveries following induced labor are excluded, 872 twin pairs remain, where 28.6% were MMP, 44.6% were MFP and 26.8% were FFP. Mean GA at delivery was 246.8 days (SD 20.4) for MMP, 245.5 days (SD 21.8) for MFP and 246.2 days (SD 21.2) for FFP (p>0.05). The distribution of preterm and very preterm births was similar in the three groups. Conclusions: Mean GA at birth does not seem to be correlated to fetal gender in twin pregnancies.


Governments are starting to ease restrictions to economic activity. The risks of easing these measures too soon, or in misguided ways, are obvious, not only for public health but also for the economy. A world with no lockdown and a [Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)] pandemic spreading rapidly through the population does not make for a healthy economy; nor, in all likelihood, does a world in which containment measures have to be repeatedly reinstated after being eased prematurely or in suboptimal ways. We discuss some key economic issues that the UK government needs to face when thinking about how best to get people back into work: we assemble some basic empirical evidence, identify some challenges that policymakers will need to confront, and discuss some policy considerations.