Purpose To identify the disease locus for autosomal recessive congenital cataracts in a consanguineous Pakistani family. Methods All affected individuals underwent a detailed ophthalmologic examination. Blood samples were collected and genomic DNA was extracted. A genome-wide scan was completed with fluorescently-labeled microsatellite markers on genomic DNA from affected and unaffected family members. Logarithms of odds (LOD) scores were calculated under a fully penetrant autosomal recessive model of inheritance. Results Ophthalmic examination suggested that affected individuals have bilateral cataracts. Linkage analysis localized the critical interval to chromosome 8p with LOD scores of 3.19, and 3.08 at θ=0, obtained with markers D8S549 and D8S550, respectively. Haplotype analyses refined the critical interval to 37.92 cM (16.28 Mb) region, flanked by markers, D8S277 proximally and D8S1734 distally. Conclusions Here, we report a new locus for autosomal recessive congenital cataract mapped to chromosome 8p in a consanguineous Pakistani family.


In this paper, a new decoy state scheme for quantum key distribution with parametric down-conversion source is proposed. We use both three-intensity decoy states and their triggered and nontriggered components to estimate the fraction of single-photon counts and the quantum bit-error rate of single-photon pulses, and then deduce a more accurate value of the key generation rate. The final key rate over transmission distance is simulated, which shows that we can obtain a higher key rate than that of the existing methods, including our own earlier work.


Do disadvantaged ethnic groups favor violent over nonviolent conflict tactics? To understand when and why civil war breaks out, we need to study violent and nonviolent forms of conflict together, using analytical tools that can account for the choice between them. Yet, most large-N analyses of the causes of civil war do not account for nonviolent conflict, and vice versa. Because the mechanisms held to link horizontal inequalities to civil war closely resemble those used to explain largely nonviolent social movements, this article studies group disadvantages, political violence and nonviolent resistance together. To reduce concerns about selection bias in horizontal inequality research, it extends the analysis to socially as well as politically relevant groups around the world. A consensus is emerging that politically disadvantaged ethnic groups shun nonviolent tactics, because they lack ties to people close to the regime and its institutions. This article challenges the consensus, by showing that political group disadvantages predict nonviolent as well as violent forms of conflict. Groups' economic status helps explain tactical choices. Among economically advantaged groups, political disadvantages increase the risk of nonviolent conflict. Among the economically disadvantaged, they facilitate violence. This pattern is strongest in situations where no policies are in place to remedy group disadvantages, in authoritarian and less economically open societies, and in analyses that account for conflicts of low intensity, to capture onsets early. The results point to the importance of economic and other forms of leverage, which have been largely overlooked in the econometric literature.


BACKGROUND
Population-based cancer registration data in 2012 from all available cancer registries were collected by the National Central Cancer Registry (NCCR). NCCR estimated the numbers of new cancer cases and cancer deaths in China with compiled cancer incidence and mortality rates.

METHODS
In 2015, there were 261 cancer registries submitted cancer incidence and deaths occurred in 2012. All the data were checked and evaluated based on the NCCR criteria of data quality. Qualified data from 193 registries were used for cancer statistics analysis as national estimation. The pooled data were stratified by area (urban/rural), gender, age group [0, 1-4, 5-9, 10-14, …, 85+] and cancer type. New cancer cases and deaths were estimated using age-specific rates and corresponding national population in 2012. The Chinese census data in 2000 and Segi's population were applied for age-standardized rates. All the rates were expressed per 100,000 person-year.

RESULTS
Qualified 193 cancer registries (74 urban and 119 rural registries) covered 198,060,406 populations (100,450,109 in urban and 97,610,297 in rural areas). The percentage of cases morphologically verified (MV%) and death certificate-only cases (DCO%) were 69.13% and 2.38%, respectively, and the mortality to incidence rate ratio (M/I) was 0.62. A total of 3,586,200 new cancer cases and 2,186,600 cancer deaths were estimated in China in 2012. The incidence rate was 264.85/100,000 (289.30/100,000 in males, 239.15/100,000 in females), the age-standardized incidence rates by Chinese standard population (ASIRC) and by world standard population (ASIRW) were 191.89/100,000 and 187.83/100,000 with the cumulative incidence rate (0-74 age years old) of 21.82%. The cancer incidence, ASIRC and ASIRW in urban areas were 277.17/100,000, 195.56/100,000 and 190.88/100,000 compared to 251.20/100,000, 187.10/100,000 and 183.91/100,000 in rural areas, respectively. The cancer mortality was 161.49/100,000 (198.99/100,000 in males, 122.06/100,000 in females), the age-standardized mortality rates by Chinese standard population (ASMRC) and by world standard population (ASMRW) were 112.34/100,000 and 111.25/100,000, and the cumulative mortality rate (0-74 years old) was 12.61%. The cancer mortality, ASMRC and ASMRW were 159.00/100,000, 107.231/100,000 and 106.13/100,000 in urban areas, 164.24/100,000, 118.22/100,000 and 117.06/100,000 in rural areas, respectively. Cancers of lung, stomach, liver, colorectum, esophagus, female breast, thyroid cervix, brain tumor and pancreas were the most common cancers, accounting for about 77.4% of all cancer new cases. Lung cancer, liver cancer, stomach cancer, esophageal cancer, colorectal cancer, pancreatic cancer, female breast cancer, brain tumor, leukemia and lymphoma were the leading causes of cancer death, accounting for about 84.5% of all cancer deaths. The cancer spectrum showed difference between urban and rural, males and females both in incidence and mortality rates.

CONCLUSIONS
Cancer surveillance information in China is making great progress with the increasing number of cancer registries, population coverage and the improving data quality. Cancer registration plays a fundamental role in cancer control by providing basic information on population-based cancer incidence, mortality, survival and time trend. The disease burden of cancer is serious in China, so that, cancer prevention and control, including health education, health promotion, cancer screening and cancer care services in China, should be enhanced.


The Endoplasmic Reticulum (ER) plays a pivotal role in cellular functioning. Proteins undergo modifications in the ER. The cell monitors protein folding and has a quality control. The incorrectly folded proteins are tagged for degradation or sent back to the refolding cycle. Upon accumulation of incorrectly folded proteins in the cell, due to any alterations in the cellular homeostasis, cellular stress is created. This leads to a cascade of events, termed the Unfolded Protein Response (UPR). Cellular stresses range from hypoxia, nutrient deprivation to external stimulus such as heat or radiation. It is vital to understand the complexities involved in this system, to predict the role of UPR in cancer, diabetes and other diseases associated with misfolded proteins. In the current study, we have created an initial model of the UPR. This model is based on mass action kinetics. We solve this model deterministically, to look at the concentration profiles of the proteins and protein complexes, upon UPR induction. This kind of study, along with the mathematical and statistical tools developed in the Varner lab provide tools to identify fragile elements of the UPR network. These fragile components of the system become targets for intervention by drugs and inform the development of experiments to discover new pharmaceutical treatments.


Engineers need to be practical, but potential litigation, cost and logistics all act to frustrate efforts to provide undergraduate student engineers with practical experience of industrial facilities. The long timeframes of major engineering projects also mean that students often see only a snapshot of the entire project life cycle. A partial solution is to attempt to bring industry into the classroom through virtual learning environments. This study aims to measure student perceptions of the effectiveness of virtual reality environments in enhancing their understanding of the design and operation of industrial facilities. The six virtual learning environments developed by the authors to date are briefly described. They are all created around a linked collection of high-resolution spherical photographs, and the plants include an oil refinery, a water recycling plant and a tank farm. Significantly, three of the environments are 4D, meaning that they capture some aspect of the evolution of the plant over time. The typical activities that students undertake within the learning environments are discussed and linked to CDIO attributes. Qualitative and quantitative assessment techniques were used to measure student perceptions of the usefulness of the virtual environments in two chemical engineering subjects, 2 nd year Process Heat Transfer and 4 th year Risk Management. In Risk Management, a pre/post test showed that students identified significantly more hazards when using the virtual environment compared to an engineering drawing. For both subjects, students gave very positive responses, 85% agreement or above, about the usefulness of the environment in enhancing their knowledge of industrial plants, having a helpful effect on learning, and enriching their learning through linking plant images with corresponding technical diagrams. Significant differences in the perceptions of the two student groups were observed for the ease of use, enjoyment, and ability to visualise the size and positioning of industrial equipment. Analysis of free text comments identified areas in need of further development.


A new model was developed to predict transmembrane water transport and diffusion-limited ice formation in cells during freezing without the ideal-solution assumption that has been used in previous models. The model was applied to predict cell dehydration and intracellular ice formation (IIF) during cryopreservation of mouse oocytes and bovine carotid artery endothelial cells in aqueous sodium chloride (NaCl) solution with glycerol as the cryoprotectant or cryoprotective agent. A comparison of the predictions between the present model and the previously reported models indicated that the ideal-solution assumption results in under-prediction of the amount of intracellular ice at slow cooling rates (<50 K/min). In addition, the lower critical cooling rates for IIF that is lethal to cells predicted by the present model were much lower than those estimated with the ideal-solution assumption. This study represents the first investigation on how accounting for solution nonideality in modeling water transport across the cell membrane could affect the prediction of diffusion-limited ice formation in biological cells during freezing. Future studies are warranted to look at other assumptions alongside nonideality to further develop the model as a useful tool for optimizing the protocol of cell cryopreservation for practical applications.


With the rapid development of signed social networks in which therelationships between two nodes can be either positive (indicatingrelations such as like) or negative (indicating relations such asdislike), producing a personalized ranking list with positive linkson the top and negative links at the bottom is becoming anincreasingly important task. To accomplish it, we propose ageneralized AUC (GAUC) to quantify the ranking performance ofpotential links (including positive, negative, and unknown statuslinks) in partially observed signed social networks. In addition, wedevelop a novel link recommendation algorithm by directly optimizingthe GAUC loss. We conduct experimental studies based upon Wikipedia,MovieLens, and Slashdot; our results demonstrate the effectivenessand the efficiency of the proposed approach.


The Fundamentals of Survival and Event History Analysis Introduction: What Is Survival and Event History Analysis? Key Concepts and Terminology Censoring and Truncation Mathematical Expression and Relation of Basic Statistical Functions How Do the Survivor, Density and Hazard Function Relate? Why Use Survival and Event History Analysis? Overview of Survival and Event History Models Exercises Using R and Other Computer Programs for Survival and Event History Analysis Introduction: Computer Programs for Survival and Event History Analysis Conducting Serious Data Analysis: Life Lessons Why Use R? Downloading R on Your Personal Computer Add-On Packages Running R Determining and Setting your Working Directory Help and Documentation Importing Data Into R Working With Data: Opening and Accessing Variables from a Data Frame Saving Output as File, Workspace and History and Quitting R Exercises Your First Session: Using the Survival Package and Exploring Data Via Descriptive Statistics and Graphs Your First Session Using the 'Survival' Package In F Loading and Examining the Survival Package and Rcmdrplugin.Survival Plug-In Opening and Examining Data The Surv Object: Packaging the 'Survival Variable' Basic Descriptive Statistics Descriptive Data Exploration with Graphs Exercises Data and Data Reconstruction Introduction: Why Discuss Data and Data Preparation? Sources of Event History Data Single-Episode Data for Single Transition Analyses Multi-Episode Data for Recurrent Event and Frailty Analyses Subject-(Person)-Period Data for Discrete-Time Hazard Models The Counting Process and Episode Splitting A Note on Dates Exercises Non-Parametric Methods: Estimating and Comparing Survival Curves Using the Kaplan-Meier Estimator Introduction The Kaplan-Meier Estimator Producing Kaplan-Meier Estimates Plotting the Kaplan-Meier Survival Curve Testing Differences Between Two Groups Using Survdiff Stratifying the Analysis by a Covariate Exercises The Cox Proportional-Hazards Regression Introduction: Why is The Cox Model So Popular? The Cox Regression Model Estimating and Interpreting The Cox Model with Fixed Covariates The Cox Regression Model with Time-Varying Covariates Exercises Parametric Models Introduction: What are Parametric Models and Why Use Them? Proportional Hazards (Ph) Versus Accelerated Failure Time (Aft) Models The Path to Choosing a Model Estimating and Interpreting Parametric Survival Models Exponential and Piecewise Constant Exponential Model Weibull Model Log-Logistic and Log-Normal Models Additional Parametric Models Finding the Best Fitting Parametric Model Exercises Model Building and Diagnostics Introduction Model Building and Selection of Covariates Assessing the Overall Goodness of Fit of Your Model What is Residual Analysis? Testing Overall Model Adequacy: Cox-Snell Residuals Testing the Proportional Hazards Assumption: Schoenfeld Residuals Checking For Influential Observations: Score Residuals (Dfbeta Statistics) Assessing Nonlinearity: Martingale Residual and Component-Plus-Residual Plots Exercises Correlated and Discrete-Time Survival Data: Frailty, Recurrent Events and Discrete-Time Models Introduction Shared Frailty: Modeling Recurrent Events and Clustering In Groups Other Frailty Models: Unshared, Nested, Joint and Additive Models Estimating Frailty Models in R Example of Frailty Model Estimation and Interpretation Discrete-Time and Count Models Exercises Multiple Events and Entire Histories: Competing Risk, Multistate Models and Sequence Analysis Introduction Competing Risk Models Multistate Models Sequence Analysis: Modeling Entire Histories Exercises Appendix : Datasets Used in this Book


Of recent, the government of Nigeria has been keen in changing the narrative of rice production viz. striving to make the country self-sufficient in rice production. To achieve this, various efforts viz. import ban, credit support programmes etc were embarked upon to boost domestic production in order to meet its demand and possibly engage in exportation soonest. It is in view of this that this research was conceptualized to see whether this goal is feasible or the country would remain a net importer. Time series data which spanned for a period of 58 years (1961-2018) and covered production, area, yield and producer prices were used. The data source was FAO data bank and the collected data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The empirical evidence showed that growth rate in the production of rice through the economic reform periods was driven majorly by area expansion with technological effect been marginal. In addition, the current acreage allocation was governed by price, area and institutional factors. Furthermore, rice production has been marked by virulent instability across all the reform periods, thus the country's rice production has not been in the comfort zone. In addition, the empirical evidence showed area risk and uncertainty-climate change to be the major factors responsible for production variability across the reform periods. Besides, area effect predominates in determining the production growth of rice throughout the economic periods. The future food security of rice in the decade ahead is not promising given that the production trend of rice would be fluctuating, thus a threat to the country's economic viz. rice food security and foreign reserve. Therefore, realistic and holistic policies are needed to change the future narrative of the country's rice food security; otherwise the country will remained a net importer.


Report on Criminal Cases in the Children's Court of Western Australia 2008/09 to 2012/13 Table of Contents Criminal Case Lodgments 1 Criminal Charge Lodgments 3 Criminal Case Finalisations 5 Sentencing 6 Custodial Sentences 7 Arrest Warrants Issued 9 Arrest Warrants Returned 10 Bail Refusals for Initial Court Appearance 11 Appendix One--ABS Method of Finalisation 12 Appendix Two--Australian and New Zealand Standard Offence Classification (ANZSOC) 2008 13 About this Report The purpose of this report is to provide information about the work carried out by the Children's Court of Western Australia


Many organizations are in a perpetual state of change. Changing markets, changing competition, changing organization structures, total quality initiatives, and reengineering are often the rule rather than the exception. Often these initiatives fail to yield the desired results or, in the extreme, fail entirely. The reasons for this failure, of course, can be many and multiple. However, one that often stands out is the lack of change in the performance measurement system as the needs for measurement change.


Single-channel speech enhancement algorithms have seen great improvements over the past few years. Despite these improvements, they still lack the efficiency of the auditory system in extracting attended auditory information in the presence of competing speakers. Recently, it has been shown that the attended auditory information can be decoded from the brain activity of the listener. In this paper, we propose two novel deep learning methods referred to as the Brain Enhanced Speech Denoiser (BESD) and the U-shaped Brain Enhanced Speech Denoiser (U-BESD) respectively, that take advantage of this fact to denoise a multi-talker speech mixture. We use a Feature-wise Linear Modulation (FiLM) between the brain activity and the sound mixture, to better extract the features of the attended speaker to perform speech enhancement. We show, using electroencephalography (EEG) signals recorded from the listener, that U-BESD outperforms a current autoencoder approach in enhancing a speech mixture as well as a speech separation approach that uses brain activity. Moreover, we show that both BESD and U-BESD successfully extract the attended speaker without any prior information about this speaker. This makes both algorithms great candidates for realistic applications where no prior information about the attended speaker is available, such as hearing aids, cellphones, or noise cancelling headphones. All procedures were performed in accordance with the Declaration of Helsinki and were approved by the Ethics Committees of the School of Psychology at Trinity College Dublin, and the Health Sciences Faculty at Trinity College Dublin.


The women presented here were all between the ages of thirty and thirty-nine at the time of the interview and come from a wide variety of racial, ethnic and economic backgrounds. Taken together these life narratives reveal a changing landscape of feminist activism. Far more of these activists were trained in women's studies programs, which, by the late 1990s and early 2000s had become more prevalent in educational settings. Several discuss the complexities of reproductive justice frameworks that are starting to supplant a focus on reproductive rights. Street harassment is a major topic of activism. They reflect on the impact of 9/11 and the economic crash of 2008 on their lives, on the impact of social media on older feminist organizations, and on the fractiousness of the online feminist community. Several of these women live in the Twin Cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota, and their interlocking stories reveal both the connections and the fractures within that vibrant feminist community. As this generation of activists seeks to make change, one theme that emerges in several of their stories is their sense that we need to change hearts and minds, and behaviors, not just laws.This conviction was forged at least in part through the horrors of police violence unfolding during the time of these interviews, and the Black Lives Matter movement that was taking shape in response.


: Twenty patients with resistant and relapsed Hodgkin's disease were included into this investigation. The treatment effectiveness and regimen-related toxicity of BEAM-protocol were evaluated. Stem cell transplantation (SCT) was carried out either as bone marrow transplantation (BMT) in 11 patients or peripheral blood stem cell transplantation (PBSCT) in 9 patients. A comparison of the results pointed to a significant decrease in neutropenia duration, fewer blood transfusions needed and shorter stay in hospital in the PBSCT group. Complete remission was observed in 90% of patients of the SCT group, 91%-in BMT and 89%-PBSCT groups. It was found that high-dose chemotherapy followed by SCT is more effective in the treatment of resistant and relapsed Hodgkin's disease and, in certain situations, it is a treatment of choice. As to the toxicity of BEAM-protocol, it does not exceed those of the other chemotherapy modalities used in SCT.


BACKGROUND
While the use of angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors for patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) is supported by the results of clinical trials and expert guidelines, national physician practices are unknown.

METHODS
We analyzed 1529 physician office visits by patients with CHF available from the 1989 through 1994 National Ambulatory Medical Care Surveys. We examined changes over time in the use of ACE inhibitors and use of other medications for CHF. Potential clinical and nonclinical predictors of use of ACE inhibitors were evaluated using multiple logistic regression.

RESULTS
The prevalence of CHF increased from 0.9% of all office visits in 1989 to 1.1% in 1994. Use of ACE inhibitors increased from 24% in visits by patients with CHF in 1989 to 31% in 1994 (P = .02). From 1989 through 1994, use of ACE inhibitors was more likely in visits to cardiologists (46% vs 22% for all other physicians), in the Midwest (31% vs 24% in all other regions), in whites (27% vs 21% in nonwhites), in privately insured patients (31% vs 24% in all others), and in men (29% vs 23% in women). Multiple logistic regression analysis showed independent effects of specialty, region, and sex. Other medications commonly used for patients with CHF included diuretics (62% of visits for 1989-1994), digoxin (38%), and calcium channel antagonists (15%). Use of diuretics showed no significant trend between 1989 and 1994, whereas use of digoxin decreased significantly.

CONCLUSION
The low rates of use of ACE inhibitors in patients with CHF and the wide variations in their use suggest a need to move beyond clinical trials and focus attention on modifying physician practices.


The glycoprotein (G protein) of VSV was purified from the intact virion by Triton X-100 extraction. The isolated G protein has been shown to be a T cell-independent, B lymphocyte mitogen and polyclonal activator. Neither G protein nor the intact virion are stimulatory for murine T lymphocytes. The greater the density of G protein in lipid vesicles or the degree of aggregation of isolated G protein, the more highly stimulatory it is for murine splenocytes. As G protein is spread out in artificial vesicles, it becomes less mitogenic. It is probable that other viral components are also stimulatory since the Triton-insoluble pellet and VSV from which the G protein has been enzymatically removed retain mitogenic activity. To out knowledge, this is the first time a purified viral component has been demonstrated to be lymphocyte mitogen.


Researchers have proposed formal definitions of quantitative information flow based on information theoretic notions such as the Shannon entropy, the min entropy, the guessing entropy, and channel capacity. This paper investigates the hardness and possibilities of precisely checking and inferring quantitative information flow according to such definitions. We prove that, even for just comparing two programs on which has the larger flow, none of the definitions is a k-safety property for any k, and therefore is not amenable to the self-composition technique that has been successfully applied to precisely checking non-interference. We also show a complexity theoretic gap with non-interference by proving that, for loop-free boolean programs whose non-interference is coNP-complete, the comparison problem is #P-hard for all of the definitions. For positive results, we show that universally quantifying the distribution in the comparison problem, that is, comparing two programs according to the entropy based definitions on which has the larger flow for all distributions, is a 2-safety problem in general and is coNP-complete when restricted for loop-free boolean programs. We prove this by showing that the problem is equivalent to a simple relation naturally expressing the fact that one program is more secure than the other. We prove that the relation also refines the channel-capacity based definition, and that it can be precisely checked via the self-composition as well as the "interleaved" self-composition technique.


Understanding the nature of selection against deleterious alleles is central to determining how populations are affected by the constant influx of new mutations. Important progress has been made in estimating basic attributes of the distribution of selection coefficients and gene interaction effects (epistasis). Although most aspects of selection are likely to be context dependent, little is known about the effect of stress on selection and epistasis at the level of individual genes, especially in multicellular organisms. Using Drosophila melanogaster, we measure how selection on 20 mutant alleles is affected by direct and indirect genetic factors across two environments. We find that environmental stress increases selection against individual mutations but reduces selection against combinations of mutations (i.e., epistasis becomes more positive). In addition, we find a high incidence of indirect genetic effects whereby the strength of selection against the alleles carried by offspring is dependent on the genotypes of their parents.


Bromate formation in ozone-based advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) was investigated by laboratory experiments in combination with kinetic modeling. Oxidant concentrations were monitored during the experiments, which allows us to account for the relative contributions of ozone and OH radical pathways. It has been shown by gamma-irradiation of bromide-containing solutions in the pH range 6-8 that bromate can be formed by a pure OH radical mechanism and that hypobromous acid/hypobromite (HOBr/ OBr-) is a requisite intermediate in bromate formation. The presence of hydrogen peroxide (H2O2), as in H2O2-based AOPs, leads to a reduction of HOBr/OBr- and therefore becomes a key reaction for the control of bromate formation. The steady-state concentration of OH radicals in AOPs is usually not high enough to compensate for this reduction reaction. Therefore, in gamma-irradiation experiments, no bromate was formed in the presence of H2O2 because OH radicals were the only possible oxidants to further oxidize HOBr/OBr-. However, in ozone-based AOPs at pH 7, where ozone is present in combination with H2O2, bromate was still formed. This was attributed to the oxidation of Br-. by O-3, which was investigated at pH 7. Our experimental findings could be best explained by a corresponding second-order rate constant k = 1.5 x 10(8) M-1 s(-1).


Objective: To evaluate two types of concentrate (homemade and commercial), in laying percentage (LP, %), weight (EW, g), and egg mass (EM, g bird-1 d-1), among hens in a cage-free system.
Methodology: Sixty hens aged 37 weeks (Rhode Island Red and Barred Plymouth Rock) were assigned two treatments: COM, 150 g of commercial concentrate bird-1 d-1and CAS, 150 g of homemade concentrate bird-1 d-1. The birds were managed in a cage-free system with access to a meadow of white clover (Trifolium repens L.). LP, EW and EM were evaluated for 11 weeks.
Results: LP was different between treatments (P<0.05) in the last four weeks of observation. In this time, the COM birds laid 17 to 24% more than CAS birds. The EW produced by birds from the COM group (59.1 to 60.7 g) was greater (P<0.05) than that of the CAS birds (55.0 to 57.0 g). In the second half of the study period, a lower EM (P<0.05) was observed in the CAS treatment (24.7 to 31.8 g bird-1 d-1) compared to the COM treatment (39.7 to. 41.8 bird-1 d-1).
Study Implications: The results obtained are only valid for the types of concentrate evaluated and under the specified experimental conditions.
Conclusions: The homemade concentrate reduces the productive performance of hens in a cage-free system in terms of LP, EW, and EM, when compared to the commercial concentrate.


The performance of sensorless controlled induction motors is poor at very low speed. The reasons are the limited accuracy of stator voltage acquisition and the presence of offset and drift components in the acquired signals. To overcome these problems, a pure integrator is employed for stator flux estimation. The time-variable DC offset voltage is estimated from the flux drift in a parallel stator model and used to eliminate the offset by feedforward control. Residual high-frequency disturbances are compensated by feedback flux amplitude control. A linearization of the PWM inverter transfer function and an improved stator resistance estimation scheme further enhance the system performance. Experiments demonstrate high dynamic performance of sensorless control at extreme low speed and zero stator frequency.


Integrity evaluation methods for nuclear Reactor Pressure Vessels (RPVs) under Pressurised Thermal Shock (PTS) loading are applied by French Utility. They are based on the analysis of the behaviour of cracks under PTS loading conditions due to the emergency cooling during PTS transient like SBLOCA. This paper explains the Research and Development program started at Electricite De France about the cooling phenomena of a PWR vessel after a Pressurised Thermal Shock. The numerical results are obtained with the E.D.F ThermalHydraulic code (Code_Saturne) coupled with the thermal-solid code SYRTHES to take into account the conjugate heat transfer on the cooling of the vessel. We first explain the global methodology with a progress report on the state of the art of the tools available to simulate the different scenari displayed within the frame of the plant life project in order to reassess the integrity of the RPV, taking into account the evolution of some input data, such as the new value of end of life (EOL) fluence, the feedback results of surveillance program and the evolution of the functional requirements. The main results are presented and are related to the evaluation of the RPV integrity during a Small Break Loss Of Coolant Accident transient for 900 and 1300 MWe nuclear plant. On the whole, the main purpose of the numerical CFD studies is to accurately estimate the distribution of fluid temperature in the down comer and the heat transfer coefficients on the inner RPV surface for a fracture mechanics computation which will subsequently assess the associated RPV safety margins. In a second time, a new analysis is performed to assess an accurate temperature distribution in the RPV. Indeed, from a physical phenomena point of view, the EDF thermalhydraulic tool Code_Saturne is now qualified in order to assess single phase transient but in the case where the cold legs are partially filled with steam, it becomes a two-phase problem and new important effects occur, such as condensation due to the emergency core cooling injections of sub-cooled water. Thus, an advanced prediction of RPV thermal loading during these transients requires sophisticated two-phase, local scale, 3D codes. In that purpose, a program has been set up to extend the capabilities of the Neptune_CFD two-phase solver which is the tool able to solve two phase flow configuration. In a same time, A simplified approach has showed that for a type of transient weakly uncovered, a free surface calculation was sufficient to respect the necessary criteria of safety. A Qualification study was carried out on the Hybiscus experimental E.D.F facility, representing a cold leg with ECC injection and a third down comer. Temperature profiles have been compared and are presented and analysed here, showing encouraging results.Copyright © 2007 by ASME


Aims: To characterise KIT-negative gastrointestinal stromal tumours (GISTs) clinically, pathologically, immunohistochemically and genetically, and to establish the usefulness of protein kinase C theta (PKCθ) as a diagnostic marker in KIT-negative GIST. Methods: 252 consecutive cases of GIST were evaluated for clinicopathological characteristics and immunostained for various antibodies. Mutational analyses of KIT and platelet-derived growth factor receptor α (PDGFRA) were also performed in 62 cases. Results: 20 (7.9%) GISTs showed negative immunostaining for KIT. KIT-negative GISTs were more likely to originate from omentum or peritoneum, have an epithelioid histology, and be classified as high risk. The overall survival rate of patients with KIT-negative GISTs (5-year survival rate 68.7% (SD 10.7%)) was lower than that of patients with KIT-positive GISTs (5-year survival rate, 79.9% (3.0%)) (p = 0.042, log-rank test). Negative KIT expression was an independent prognostic factor in multivariate Cox regression analysis when the risk of aggressive behaviour and the status of imatinib treatment were adopted as covariates. KIT-negative GISTs also showed lower expression rates of CD34, Bcl-2, and PKCθ than KIT-positive GISTs; mutational analysis revealed that 30% of KIT-negative GISTs harboured a PDGFRA exon 18 mutation. Immunostaining on PKCθ showed that 93.9% of all GISTs expressed PKCθ protein. However, 21.9% of 64 mesenchymal tumours other than GIST also showed positivity on PKCθ. Conclusions: KIT-negative GISTs had characteristics that differ from those of KIT-positive GISTs, and negative KIT expression was an independent prognostic indicator for overall survival of patients. Although PKCθ is a sensitive diagnostic marker for GIST, its usefulness is limited because of low sensitivity and low specificity in KIT-negative GISTs.


This paper proposes an improved generalized knowledge distillation framework with multiple dissimilar teacher networks, each of which is specialized for a specific domain, to make a deployable student network more robust to challenging acoustic environments. In this paper, we first address a method to partition the training data for constructing ensembles of the teachers from unsupervised neural clustering with features based on context-dependent phonemes representing each acoustic domain. Second, we illustrate how a single student network designed from partitioned data is effectively trained with multiple specialized teachers. During the training step, the weights of the student network are updated using a composite two-part cross entropy loss obtained from a pair consisting of a specialized teacher corresponding to input speech and a generalized teacher trained with a balanced data set. Unlike system combination methods, we aim to incorporate the benefits from multiple models into a single student network via knowledge distillation that does not increase any computational costs during the decoding time. The improvement of the proposed technique is shown on acoustically diverse signals contaminated by challenging practical noises.


Recurrent aphthous stomatitis (RAS) is known as the most common chronic disease of the oral cavity, which affects a range of 5-25% of the population. RAS appears to be associated with some human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II alleles and haplotypes. This study attempts to survey the distribution of HLA-DRB and -DQB alleles among Iranian RAS patients and healthy controls. In order to evaluate the association of HLA-DR and DQ alleles and haplotypes, 54 patients with RAS and 100 unrelated healthy subjects as control group were investigated. Our data indicated that DRB1*13:17, DRB1*15:01, and DRB5*01 were significantly more frequent in RAS patients in comparison to controls. However, DRB3:01allele frequency was higher in the controls compared to the patients. The significantly frequent allele in the patients compared with the healthy subjects was HLA-DQB1*03:02. However, both HLA-DQB1*02:01 and HLA-DQB1*03:01 alleles were most frequent in the healthy individuals rather than the patients. The DRB*04/DQB1*03:01 and DRB*01:01/DQB1*02:01 haplotypes were significantly distributed in healthy subjects compared with patients. However, DRB*07:01/DQB1*03:02 haplotype was found to be significantly frequent in patients than controls. In respect of HLA genes, factors are involved in the incidence of RAS; various HLA-DRB and HLA-DQB1 alleles and the related haplotypes are suggested to be the three main RAS susceptibility factors in our population study.


Oystercatchers Haematopus ostralegus and cockles Cerastoderma edule were studied with the aim of understanding the behaviour of predators and the consequences which this behaviour has on the cockle population. At Traeth Melynog, Anglesey, the cockle density declined down the shore and those at the bottom were larger, older and heavier than those at the top. This pattern was caused by the spat settling at the top of the shore combined with downshore movement of some cockles. As a consequence, both flesh content and size were correlated with prey density. The profitability (flesh eaten per minute handling time) of cockles increased with their size. According to optimal foraging theory, these larger ones should therefore have been preferred, and this proved to be so. The rate at which oystercatchers ate cockles followed a type II functional response. The plateau was not caused solely by handling time, nor were satiation or interference important. Analysis of the functional responses of other birds feeding on one prey species showed that in each case the behaviour also conformed with a type II distribution yet neither handling time nor satiation appeared responsible. To account for this, a theoretical model was developed which generates type II functional responses from optimal foraging theory. Another model was developed which predicts the aggregative numerical response for a given level of interference. Because of correlations between density, size and flesh content within the cockle population at I Traeth Melynog, this model could not be directly applied to the data. But the basic assumption of the model - that oystercatchers obeyed the ideal free distribution - could be tested. It gave a poor fit to the data. There was little measurable interference between oystercatchers feeding on cockles. The number of oystercatchers on the Ribble fluctuated in parallel with the cockle population. Much of this change appeared to be due to an influx of young birds. This suggests that young birds seek a suitable estuary whilst adults tend to return to the one found whilst young. Thus the change in oystercatcher numbers was an aggregative numerical response rather than a population numerical response. Due to correlations within the cockle population at Traeth Melynog, profitability reached a maximum value at 25-100 cockles per m2. Therefore the oystercatchers concentrated their feeding at these relatively low cockle densities. As a result, cockle mortality due to predation by oystercatchers was inversely density dependent over most of the range of densities. However, since cockle movement took place, this pattern of mortality could not be detected in the cockle population.


The chromosome translocation forming the hybrid bcr‐abl gene is thought to be the initiating event in chronic myeloid leukaemia (CML) and some cases of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. To assess the impact of bcr‐abl upon haemopoiesis, lethally irradiated mice were reconstituted with bone marrow cells enriched for cycling stem cells and infected with a bcr‐abl bearing retrovirus. The mice developed several fatal diseases with abnormal accumulations of macrophage, erythroid, mast and lymphoid cells, and marked strain differences in disease distribution and kinetics. Some mice exhibited more than one neoplastic cell type and, in some instances, these were clonally related, indicating that a progenitor or stem cell had been transformed. While classical CML was not observed, the macrophage tumours were accompanied by a mild CML‐like syndrome, probably due to myeloid growth factor production by tumour cells. The erythroid and mast cell diseases were rarely transplantable, in contrast to the macrophage tumours and lymphomas, but all disease types displayed limited clonality. These results establish that bcr‐abl confers a proliferative advantage on diverse haemopoietic cells but complete transformation probably involves additional genetic changes.


BACKGROUND
 Improvements in parenting practices can positively mediate the outcomes of treatment for adolescent substance use disorder. Given the high rates of release among adolescents (ie, 60% within three months and 85% within one year), there is a critical need for interventions focused on helping parents achieve and maintain effective parenting practices posttreatment. Yet, research suggests that engaging parents in aftercare services is difficult, partly due to systemic-structural and personal barriers. One way to increase parent use of aftercare services may be to offer mobile health interventions, given the potential for wide availability and on-demand access. However, it remains unclear whether mobile phone–based aftercare support for caregivers of substance-using teens is feasible or desired. Therefore, formative work in this area is needed.

 OBJECTIVE
 This study aims to determine the feasibility and acceptability of mobile phone–based aftercare support in a population of caregivers with teens in treatment for substance use.

 METHODS
 Upon enrollment in a treatment program, 103 caregivers completed a mobile phone use survey, providing information about mobile phone ownership, access, and use. Caregivers also provided a response to items assessing desire for aftercare services, in general; desire for mobile phone–based aftercare services specifically; and desire for parenting specific content as part of aftercare services. Research assistants also monitored clinic calls made to caregivers' mobile phones to provide an objective measure of the reliability of phone service.

 RESULTS
 Most participants were mothers (76.7%) and self-identified as Hispanic (73.8%). The average age was 42.60 (SD 9.28) years. A total of 94% of caregivers owned a mobile phone. Most had pay-as-you-go phone service (67%), and objective data suggest this did not impede accessibility. Older caregivers more frequently had a yearly mobile contract. Further, older caregivers and caregivers of adolescent girls had fewer disconnections. Bilingual caregivers used text messaging less often; however, caregivers of adolescent girls used text messaging more often. Although 72% of caregivers reported that aftercare was needed, 91% of caregivers endorsed a desire for mobile phone–based aftercare support in parenting areas that are targets of evidence-based treatments.

 CONCLUSIONS
 The results suggest that mobile phones are feasible and desired to deliver treatments that provide support to caregivers of teens discharged from substance use treatment. Consideration should be given to the age of caregivers when designing these programs. Additional research is needed to better understand mobile phone use patterns based on a child's gender and among bilingual caregivers.


As it becomes increasingly difficult for users to satisfy their information needs due to the rapid expansion of the Web, it is also becoming progressively impractical for users to consult a wide range of sources to satisfy an information query. Consequently, it is of growing importance that users are able to search multiple distributed heterogeneous digital repositories simultaneously. With such a wide variety of resources available, however, the feasibility of achieving interoperability between them is gradually diminishing. Not only do services employ different technical standards, indexing practices, search facilities and algorithms, but also the basic language on which retrieval systems are founded differs widely. It is no longer sufficient for users to make decisions on whether to use keyword or phrase searching, employ Boolean operators, or try their luck with truncation, they must also now give consideration to the terminology they use. Problems relating to disparate terminology use have been an impediment to information retrieval for many years, but the growth of Web, associated heterogeneous digital repositories, and the need for distributed searching within multi-scheme information environments (such as the JISC IE) has recently drawn the issue into sharp focus. The HILT project, which is now in phase IV, aims to research, investigate and develop pilot solutions for problems pertaining to cross-searching multi-subject scheme information environments, as well as providing a variety of other terminological searching aids.


Understanding how people choose to travel is essential for intelligent transportation planning and related smart services. Recent advances in deep learning, coupled with the increasing market penetration of GPS devices, have paved the way for novel travel mode identification methods based on GPS data mining. While many have shown promising results, most methods have often relied heavily on the few available labeled data, leaving large amounts of unlabeled ones unused. To address this issue, we propose MultiMix, a semi-supervised multi-task learning framework for travel mode identification. Our framework trains a deep autoencoder using batches of labeled, unlabeled, and synthetic data by simultaneously optimizing three corresponding objective functions. We show that MultiMix outperforms several fully-and semi-supervised baselines, achieving a classification accuracy of 66.2% on Geolife using just 1% of labeled data, with accuracy reaching 84.8% when incorporating all available labels. We also verify the necessity of its components through an ablation study designed to provide insights into the proposed approach.


: Big Data enables higher educational institutions the ability to efficiently use the information technology resources to enhance the effectiveness of education and performance. This research explores the characteristics of big data applicable to educational institutions, identifies the factors that affect the adoption of big data approach in higher education institutions, especially for strategic management purposes and aims to examine the challenges of adopting big data in higher education institutions. The literature references sources are from journals on scientific studies and articles, plus research papers. To achieve all of the objectives, the researcher uses qualitative research methodology for interviewing and analyzing the data from fifteen identified organisations, including authority, consulting firm, public and private universities. This research is expected to conclude the most important determinants, which is evincing the fact that big data management is essential for providing higher education institutions with enhance educational quality and to guide students, colleges and universities to better experience.


We compare two different tests of quantum nonlocality, both in theoretical terms and with respect to a possible implementation in a mesoscopic circuit: Hardy's test [L. Hardy, Phys. Rev. Lett. 68, 2981 (1992)] and the Clauser-Horne-Shimony-Holt (CHSH) test, the latter including a recently discovered inequality relevant for experiments with three possible outcomes [D. Collins and N. Gisin, J. Phys. A 37, 1775 (2004)]. We clarify the geometry of the correlations defined by Hardy's equations with respect to the polytope of causal correlations, and show that these equations generalize to the CHSH inequality if the slightest imperfections in the setup need to be taken into account. We propose a mesoscopic circuit consisting of two interacting Mach-Zehnder interferometers in a Hall bar system for which both Hardy's test and the CHSH test can be realized with a simple change of gate voltages, and evaluate the robustness of the two tests in the case of fluctuating experimental parameters. The proposed setup is remarkably robust and should work for fluctuations of beam splitter angles or phases up to the order of 1 radian, or single particle loss rates up to about 15%.


how to choose the objects to be imitated correctly. The creative activity of the poet consists in giving sense and order to that which he represents. To this extent he is a genuine creator, but he operates in the wrong sphere, that of the world of appearances only. It would seem to follow that the true poet, for Plato, would be the dialectician, and true poetry would be the writing of philosophy. The book is well set out and easy to use, but there are many mistakes in the printing of Greek words and phrases.


On 20 January 2001, Republican George W. Bush [6] was sworn in as the forty-third president of the United States, replacing Democrat William J. Clinton. During his eight years in office, Bush issued many executive orders, often altering previous policy. By signing Order 13435 on 22 June 2007, he changed how stem cell research would be performed in America. The Bush administration was influenced by its commitments to conservative ethical values when constructing this executive order; its goal was to expand stem cell research, but only in ways that did not involve the creation of, or damage to, a human embryo or fetus [7]. This order was developed with the belief that pluripotent stem cells [8] could be researched while still being respectful to human dignity and life. The four sections of Order 13435 provided strict guidelines for future stem cell research.


Potato leafroll virus (PLRV) (genus Polerovirus, family Luteoviridae) is of great economic importance. It has a very narrow host range consisting of only 21 known species, 14 of which are Solanaceae. Ten aphid species transmit PLRV in a persistent manner, but the green peach aphid (Myzus persicae Sulzer) is by far the most important vector and the only important vector in the Columbia Basin of the Pacific Northwest (3). Solanum sarrachoides (Sendtner) may be especially important in the epidemiology of PLRV because it is a predominant weed in potatoes (S. tuberosum L.), other annual crops, and waste areas of the Columbia Basin (1), and herbicides available for potato are relatively ineffective against this weed (2). Since our research began in 1974, we have routinely observed many S. sarrachoides plants throughout the Columbia Basin that acquired an abnormal erect stiff appearance in middle to late summer. Their leaflets curled upward at the margins and expressed interveinal chlorosis and necrosis and a reddened or purple color on abaxial surfaces. The presence of PLRV in symptomatic plants was routinely detected by double-antibody sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay and by density gradient sedimentation and light absorbance properties of the purified virus when we evaluated the host as a source of purified PLRV in 1980. A systematic study to satisfy the requirements of Koch's postulates to prove that PLRV causes the disease in S. sarrachoides was conducted in 1998. The virus produced typical PLRV symptoms on three young Physalis floridana, Datura stramonium, and potato plants when transmitted by the green peach aphid from each of four symptomatic S. sarrachoides collected from widely spaced potato fields in the Columbia Basin and from purified virus preparations from these plants. Back-transmission from each of these hosts and from purified preparations to S. sarrachoides plants observed the same symptoms. The green peach aphid readily colonized S. sarrachoides in the field, and populations on this host were typically higher than on adjacent potato plants in potato fields. The concentration of PLRV was approximately equal in infected S. sarrachoides and P. floridana plants, as was the efficiency of virus transmission from these hosts by individual green peach aphids. The aphids used in transmission efficacy assays were all the same clone and were reared on the host species assayed. The incidence of PLRV infection among S. sarrachoides in potato fields was typically higher than in the potato crop. Only two other summer annual hosts of PLRV, Amaranthus caudatus and S. nigrum, occur sporadically in potato fields of the Columbia Basin (1). The virus rarely infected these species. To our knowledge, this is the first report that S. sarrachoides is highly susceptible to PLRV and may play an important role in PLRV epidemiology in the Columbia Basin. References: (1) A. G. Ogg, Jr. and B. S. Rogers. Rev. Weed Sci. 4:25, 1989. (2) L. S. Quakenbush and R. N. Anderson. Weed Sci. 33:386, 1985. (3) P. E. Thomas et al. Plant Dis. 81:1311, 1997.


Taking CRISPR technology further CRISPR techniques are allowing the development of technologies for nucleic acid detection (see the Perspective by Chertow). Taking advantages of the distinctive enzymatic properties of CRISPR enzymes, Gootenberg et al. developed an improved nucleic acid detection technology for multiplexed quantitative and highly sensitive detection, combined with lateral flow for visual readout. Myhrvold et al. added a sample preparation protocol to create a field-deployable viral diagnostic platform for rapid detection of specific strains of pathogens in clinical samples. Cas12a (also known as Cpf1), a type V CRISPR protein, cleaves double-stranded DNA and has been adapted for genome editing. Chen et al. discovered that Cas12a also processes single-stranded DNA threading activity. A technology platform based on this activity detected human papillomavirus in patient samples with high sensitivity. Science, this issue p. 439, p. 444, p. 436; see also p. 381 A nucleic acid detection platform enables sensitive pathogen genotyping and cancer mutation monitoring with visual readout. Rapid detection of nucleic acids is integral for clinical diagnostics and biotechnological applications. We recently developed a platform termed SHERLOCK (specific high-sensitivity enzymatic reporter unlocking) that combines isothermal preamplification with Cas13 to detect single molecules of RNA or DNA. Through characterization of CRISPR enzymology and application development, we report here four advances integrated into SHERLOCK version 2 (SHERLOCKv2) (i) four-channel single-reaction multiplexing with orthogonal CRISPR enzymes; (ii) quantitative measurement of input as low as 2 attomolar; (iii) 3.5-fold increase in signal sensitivity by combining Cas13 with Csm6, an auxiliary CRISPR-associated enzyme; and (iv) lateral-flow readout. SHERLOCKv2 can detect Dengue or Zika virus single-stranded RNA as well as mutations in patient liquid biopsy samples via lateral flow, highlighting its potential as a multiplexable, portable, rapid, and quantitative detection platform of nucleic acids.


: The abnormality most often found at physical examination of the heart is a systolic murmur. Aortic valve stenosis is a feared cause of systolic murmurs, which is also well evaluated with respect to the predictive value of physical diagnostic findings. Auscultatory characteristics of the murmur and palpatory findings of the carotid arteries show an acceptable predictive value and can be used by the general practitioner in the referral or reassurance of individuals with a systolic murmur. The different forms of the systolic murmur can be heard on the Internet address of this journal (http:@appendix.niwi. knaw.nl).


Risk analysts are often concerned with identifying key safety drivers, that is, the systems, structures, and components (SSCs) that matter the most to safety. SSCs importance is assessed both in the design phase (i.e., before a system is built) and in the implementation phase (i.e., when the system has been built) using the same importance measures. However, in a design phase, it would be necessary to appreciate whether the failure/success of a given SSC can cause the overall decision to change from accept to reject (decision significance). This work addresses the search for the conditions under which SSCs that are safety significant are also decision significant. To address this issue, the work proposes the notion of a θ‐importance measure. We study in detail the relationships among risk importance measures to determine which properties guarantee that the ranking of SSCs does not change before and after the decision is made. An application to a probabilistic safety assessment model developed at NASA illustrates the risk management implications of our work.


Abstract
A paramyxovirus isolated from a fruit-eating bat, Rousettus leschenaulti, was identified as a new animal virus within the parainfluenza type-2 group. The RNA-containing virus is pleomorphic, 90 to 120 mµ in size, and has a 16 mµ inner ribonucleoprotein helix. It is susceptible to lipid solvents, hemagglutinates mammalian or avian cells, is heat and acid labile, and contains a receptor-destroying enzyme. Serologically, the virus was proved to be related to, but distinct from, SV41.


Abstract. Aerosol black carbon is a unique primary tracer for combustion emissions. It affects the optical properties of the atmosphere and is recognized as the second most important anthropogenic forcing agent for climate change. It is the primary tracer for adverse health effects caused by air pollution. For the accurate determination of mass equivalent black carbon concentrations in the air and for source apportionment of the concentrations, optical measurements by filter-based absorption photometers must take into account the "filter loading effect". We present a new real-time loading effect compensation algorithm based on a two parallel spot measurement of optical absorption. This algorithm has been incorporated into the new Aethalometer model AE33. Intercomparison studies show excellent reproducibility of the AE33 measurements and very good agreement with post-processed data obtained using earlier Aethalometer models and other filter-based absorption photometers. The real-time loading effect compensation algorithm provides the high-quality data necessary for real-time source apportionment and for determination of the temporal variation of the compensation parameter k.


China's rural land rights are incomplete in structure of land rights and functions due to status restriction. Settling dispute and problem of status in rural land right and function structure is of great significance for determining and guaranteeing subjects of rural land rights. The point connecting and solving rural land circulation issue is demonstration and settlement of status. Separating the status right from rural land property right, namely the secondary separation of right, is to realize such purpose. Currently, China's rural land right is a bundle of rights, not the right described in property pedigree in strict sense. Using theory of rights of Hohfeld, this paper discussed and analyzed legal relationship of secondary separation of China's rural land rights, in the hope of realizing real return from practice to theory and to practice again.


Abstract. Desert dust over the arid regions of Africa is detected using the Infrared Difference Dust Index (IDDI) derived from the thermal infrared (TIR) channel of METEOSAT. However, the comparison with photometric aerosol optical thickness (AOT) of this dust index reveals some discrepancies. Using an instrumented site in Sahel where aerosol properties and meteorological conditions were monitored daily during the dry season, we performed radiative transfer computations with the MODTRAN 4.1 code to develop a method to improve the IDDI usefulness. We found that discrepancies between AOT and IDDI variations mostly come from changes in the surface temperature ( T s ), which is an important parameter for radiative transfer computations in the TIR. We show that this temperature varies from day to day with the surface wind speed and during the course of the season with the solar elevation, and that it is possible, for the site considered, to correct T s from these combined effect using a simple parameterization. We also observe that the dust layer itself has an impact on T s by reducing the amount of solar radiation at the surface, and that this phenomenon can also be accounted for by adding an AOT-dependence to the above parameterization of T s . We show that this parameterization allows improving the agreement between the IDDI and the photometric AOT.


The aim of this paper is to examine the acoustic characteristics of Arabic vowels as produced by Palestinian Arabic-speaking Broca's aphasics compared to normal speakers. Five subjects diagnosed with Broca's aphasia and five normal speakers residing in the West Bank participated in this study. The subjects produced 240 vowel tokens of the eight Arabic vowels (/i:/, /i/, /e:/, /a:/, /a/, /o:/, /u:/ and /u/,). The samples were analyzed using PRAAT and the formants F1 and F2 of the eight Arabic vowels were measured. F1 and F2 values were compared to the data in the literature. Comparisons among speakers of Palestinian Arabic indicated that Broca's aphasics' formant frequencies were significantly different to those of normal speakers, showing that formant frequencies of F1 and F2 are generally higher among Broca's aphasics compared to the control group. Furthermore, the findings reveal that the acoustic vowel space of Broca's aphasics is more centralized compared to the control subjects. The results also indicate that Broca's aphasics were able to maintain the phonemic contrast between the long and short vowels. In general, the results may contribute to neurolinguistic research across different languages, especially given that Palestinian Arabic is studied significantly less than other Arabic dialects. Furthermore, the results may have clinical applications when evaluating and/or treating Palestinian Arabic-speaking Broca's aphasics.


Modality-independent elastography (MIE) is a method of elastography that reconstructs the elastic properties of tissue using images acquired under different loading conditions and a biomechanical model. Boundary conditions are a critical input to the algorithm and are often determined by time-consuming point correspondence methods requiring manual user input. This study presents a novel method of automatically generating boundary conditions by nonrigidly registering two image sets with a demons diffusion-based registration algorithm. The use of this method was successfully performed in silico using magnetic resonance and X-ray-computed tomography image data with known boundary conditions. These preliminary results produced boundary conditions with an accuracy of up to 80% compared to the known conditions. Demons-based boundary conditions were utilized within a 3-D MIE reconstruction to determine an elasticity contrast ratio between tumor and normal tissue. Two phantom experiments were then conducted to further test the accuracy of the demons boundary conditions and the MIE reconstruction arising from the use of these conditions. Preliminary results show a reasonable characterization of the material properties on this first attempt and a significant improvement in the automation level and viability of the method.


By employing photoluminescence (PL) spectroscopy under dual-wavelength optical excitation, we uncover the presence of deep-level hole traps in Ga(In)NP alloys grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE). The energy level positions of the traps are determined to be at 0.56 eV and 0.78 eV above the top of the valance band. We show that photo-excitation of the holes from the traps, by a secondary light source with a photon energy below the bandgap energy, can lead to a strong enhancement (up to 25%) of the PL emissions from the alloys under a primary optical excitation above the bandgap energy. We further demonstrate that the same hole traps can be found in various MBE-grown Ga(In)NP alloys, regardless of their growth temperatures, chemical compositions, and strain. The extent of the PL enhancement induced by the hole de-trapping is shown to vary between different alloys, however, likely reflecting their different trap concentrations. The absence of theses traps in the GaNP alloy grown by vapor phase epitaxy suggests that their incorporation could be associated with a contaminant accompanied by the N plasma source employed in the MBE growth, possibly a Cu impurity.


Background and purpose: Urinary tract infections (UTI) are one of the most common complications of diabetes. Asymptomatic bacteriuria or frequent symptomatic urinary tract infection are common in diabetic patients. Study of bacterial factors of UTI in these patients and the antibiotic resistance pattern and resistant strains are necessary. Materials and methods: In this descriptive cross-sectional study, 302 urine samples of diabetic patients attending Sari diabetes clinic (in 2015) were used. The specimens were cultured in Blood agar and McConkey and incubated at 37° C for 24 hours. Biochemical tests were done to identify the pathogenic bacteria and antibiotic susceptibility test was carried out by Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion. Results: Among the samples, 22.5% were positive for urinary tract infections including 76.4% of the females' samples and 32.6% of males' samples. The most prevalent bacteria isolated were group B Streptococcus (25%). According to antibiogram testing, the most sensitive antibiotic was chloramphenicol (70%) while cefotaxime, ceftazidime, and ciprofloxacin were found to be highly resistant. Conclusion: The study showed that the third generations of cephalosporins commonly used in treatment of UTI are not appropriate in diabetic patients. So, Chloramphenicol is recommended for treatment of these patients.


© 2016 Deputy of Research and Technology of Baqiyatallah Hospital Abstract One of the most important parts of the hospital is emergency department which is faced with various problems. One of the most important problems is patients crowding. Overcrowding is a multifactorial and significant variable. Among causes of overcrowding we can mention lack of staffing, structural and demographic causes, and cultural reasons. The consequences of emergency department overcrowding include: reduced level of patient safety, reduced cost benefit and dissatisfaction of the health care system. Multiple manners have been proposed to solve this problem, including the control of ambulances destinations, adding personnel, referring of non-emergency cases, developing primary care units, increasing hospital beds, and expansion of environment in emergency department. But in between, there are simple, effective manners such as regular checking of files by nurses, specialization, and simplification of patients transfer to other wards, which could be administered.


Demands to accommodate religious diversity in the public sphere have recently intensified. The debates surrounding the Islamic headscarf (hijab) in Europe vividly illustrate this trend. We also find a new challenge on the horizon: namely, the request to "privatize diversity" through alternative dispute resolution processes that permit parties to move their disputes from public courthouses into the domain of religious or customary sources of law and authority. The recent controversies in Canada and England related to the so-called Shari'a tribunals demonstrate the potential force of the storm to come. In this Article, I offer an alternative to the presently popular vision of private diversity. This alternative is based on a deep commitment to women's identity and membership interests as well as their dignity and equality. Women's legal dilemmas often arise (at least in the family arena) from their allegiance to various overlapping systems of identification, authority and belief: in this case, those arising from religious and secular law. I argue that only recognition of women's multiple affiliations, and the subtle interactions among them, can help resolve these dilemmas. The recognition of multiple legal affiliations does not sit well with the traditional view that a clear line can be drawn between public and private, official and unofficial, secular and religious, or positive law and traditional practice. Instead, to recognize multiple affiliations is to require greater access to, and coordination among, these once competing sources of law and identity. Once we conceive of citizenship more richly, it becomes apparent that individuals and families should not be forced to choose between the rights of citizenship and group membership: instead, they should be afforded the opportunity to express their commitment to both. I offer a vision of how such an alternative might be realized.


Leukoplakia of the esophagus rarely receives clinical recognition, although many excellent studies (most recently that of Schaer) have shown this process to be commonly found at autopsy. There is, however, little in the literature concerning its significance. It is our hope that with the increasing application of esophagoscopy, clinical observation,and biopsy, material may be accumulated to show that leukoplakia of the esophagus is a process similar to leukoplakia involving other mucous membranes of the body and that for the same reasons it constitutes a precancerous lesion. Leukoplakia has been known under various names since 1818, when it was first described by Alibert (1) in a case rep0l't of general ichthyosis which involved extensively the cutaneous surfaces of the body and the oral mucosa. It was not until the latter part of the nineteenth century, however, that leukoplakia of the esophagus was first described by Bucher (3) and Rothmann (10), who recognized it as a process similar to that found on the mucous membranes of the mouth. Since that time work has been confined to the pathologic histology of leukoplakia and except for its recognition as a clinical entity by Jackson and others, there are no clinical data on this subject.


This paper examines the impact of Objective 1 funding in Europe in reducing country and regional disparities in gross value added per capita by presenting a critical review of both empirical studies and end-of-term programme reports. In practice, it is very difficult to establish impact effects because it is hard to establish the counterfactual. This difficulty arises as a consequence of different theoretical predictions as to what would happen in the absence of intervention, overlapping funding streams, and the regional impact of other policies such as European integration. There are also evaluation problems caused by data inadequacies and noise. Even so, the balance of evidence suggests that Objective 1 funding has had remarkably little demonstrable impact and there is, therefore, a strong case for reform.


The aim of this study was to document the effect of tramadol as an opioid on individual fibers of rat sciatic nerve. To accomplish this objective, compound action potentials (CAPs) were recorded from isolated nerves treated with tramadol from five different concentration levels. Then recorded CAPs and the control group were analyzed by numerical methods namely Conduction Velocity Distribution (CVD) and Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). The results show that the area under CAP and the time derivative of CAP curves decreases, and the excitability of the nerve trunk falls as well (rheobase and chronaxie increases) with increasing tramadol concentration. CVD deduced by model study was divided into subgroups as SLOW (8-26 m/s), MODERATE (26-44 m/s), MEDIUM (44-60 m/s) and FAST (60-78 m/s). The decrement in percentage relative contribution of these conduction velocity groups starts with a concentration of 0.25 mM tramadol, especially in the subgroup named FAST. The power spectrum shifts from higher frequency region to lower frequency region as the tramadol concentration increases. These findings show that fast conducting fibers are more susceptible to tramadol than medium and moderate groups and tramadol possibly acts on channel activity rather than passive properties (such as space and time constant) of nerve fibers.


The purpose of this study was to explain and predict creative and effective teaching behaviors of university instructors, as perceived by students, in a college of agriculture. Creative teaching behaviors were examined using an instrument developed from creativity theories of divergent thinking. Effective teaching behaviors were evaluated using the principles of effective teaching developed by Rosenshine and Furst (1971). The study utilized two populations: undergraduate students and their instructors. Results indicated that students believe their instructors demonstrated creative teaching behaviors. In addition, the study found a very high, positive, and significant correlation between instructors' creative teaching behaviors and effectiveness of teaching behaviors, as perceived by students. There was also a significant relationship between creative teaching behaviors of experienced and inexperienced instructors when evaluated by students.


The current Philippine economic crisis has led to a series of policies designed for short-run stabilization as well as long run structural adjustment. Currently, the policymakers' major concern is the achievement of external balance while maintaining price stability through changes in macroeconomic policies, production structures and international trade and distribution. This study is carried out in the context of a growing need for policy options to minimize the adverse effects of the stabilization and structural adjustment policies on employment. In particular, the study reviews the Community Employment Development Program, the Tariff Liberalization Program, the reform of the industrial incentives legislation and the production incentives policy.


Today's corporations use complex IT systems fabrics to control and manage their businesses, maintain linkages with clients and customers and synchronize their operations with suppliers and partners. In doing so, corporate employees have to master their IT environment. User support automation, which is defined as the process of discovery of user self-support chores, is introduced here to address the issue of the TCO (Total Cost of Ownership) reduction. This paper will briefly describe our experiences gained during deployment of the pilot self-support system within Hewlett-Packard Corporation.


: The purpose of this study is to examine the perception of Islamic Education preservice teachers in Universiti Sultan ZainalAbidin (UniSZA), Terengganu, Malaysia on their practicum experience from the very important aspects of teacher education which include positive attitudes andprofessional skills development. This study also tried to scrutinize the potential problems encountered during their practicum. This quantitative study used questionaireedited and approved by a team of experts in the field as an instrument for collecting data and involved all final year students (n=55) from Bachelor in Islamic Education who were engaged in the practicum at 19 schools for 4 months. The data was then analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 12.0. The "Realibility Analysis-Scale Alpha" test was carried out on all items in the questionnaire with a result of 0.86 which indicates a high level of reliability. The results showed that all the respondents were of the opinion that the practicum experience had successfully developed their positive attitudes as well as increased their professional skills. The study also found that the respondents did not encounter any significant problems during their practicum. Hence, this study suggests that UniSZA can carry on with its effort to train prospective Islamic Education teachers and share its expertise with other teacher training agencies in order to fullfil the nation's requirements.


Saudi Arabia has seen an enormous growth in Internet usage over the past few years. With increasing adoption of this technology has come a rise in cybercrime, often enabled through use of social engineering. Phishing is a prime example, aiming to deceive users into revealing personal data. The paper describes efforts to understand individuals' responses to phishing attacks through application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour (TPB). It reports a survey that considers three common social engineering persuading strategies, Authority, Social Proof and Scarcity. Results show correlations between these strategies and TPB. In particular, between attitude and intention to respond under the Authority strategy; subjective norms and intention to respond under the Social Proof strategy; and subjective norms and intention to respond under the Scarcity strategy.


In direct interconnection networks, the collective communication operation one to all, which is usually referred to as broadcasting, can be generalized to allow one source node to send a message to a rectangular region of nodes, rather than to all nodes. Most of the proposed routing algorithms for direct mesh and torus networks use a broadcast tree of unicast messages. The minimum spanning tree-based region broadcasting is not deadlock free, unless the network is partitioned into many virtual sub-networks, where the number of virtual channels grows exponentially with the dimension of the network [3]. This paper proposes two versions of the minimum spanning tree regionbroadcasting algorithm that are based on the idea of starting always at a corner of a region. The first algorithm uses always a fixed corner, while the second one uses the nearest corner. The two proposed algorithms are deadlock free and use virtual cut through for buffering blocked packets. Both broadcast algorithms can be safely mixed with unicast routing algorithms.


In the context of this work, a computer program is developed for the simulation of the interference fringe patterns of laboratory-scale pool-fires of organic fuels. With the help of this simulation tool, the formation as well as the dynamics of typical structural components in the interference fringe patterns in the flame neck and the flame plume are modelled. A model conception for the formation of the interference fringe patterns in the flame plume is developed. The temperature field is modelled as a relatively cold convection column, into which a large amount of statistically distributed hot volume elements with gaussian temperature distribution is inserted. The simulation with this model conception shows the typical structure of the measured interference fringe patterns in the flame plume with good congruence. The physical meaning of the velocity of the interference fringe pattern shift within the areas of the flame neck and the flame plume is examined. It is shown in particular that the temporally averaged shifting velocity in vertical direction in the flame neck can be identified as a temporally averaged ascent rate of the flame gases within the region of the thermal boundary layer. For the flame plume, the shifting velocity can be interpreted as a flow velocity averaged over time and the line of sight.


This paper deploys movement-related cortical potential (MRCP), an electroencephalogram (EEG)-derived time-domain pattern, to assess the effect of robot-assisted motor training in seven post-stroke patients with hand impairment. Patients are divided into two groups of four subjects with supratentorial lesions and a group of three subjects with infratentorial lesions. Both groups participate in multiple-session motor training for their affected hand with an AMADEO rehabilitation robot. During pre- and post-training periods, three assessment procedures which include EEG signals derived from eight specific electrodes, hand-kinematic parameters, and clinical tests are performed. After four weeks of training, the negative peak of the MRCP signals shows a decrease across all electrodes and reaches significance in seven out of the eight electrodes for the first group according to paired t-test ( $p < 0.05$ ). Whereas for the second group, the MRCP signal shows a decrease in its negative peak across all electrodes and reaches significance in two of the eight electrodes (paired t-test, $p < 0.05$ ) after eight weeks. Moreover, these MRCP changes show a positive association with improvements in kinematic parameters and clinical test results for both groups. Hence, this study shows that improvement of clinical outcomes in robot-assisted training is associated with a reduction in the amplitude of the MRCP signal. Furthermore, infratentorial stroke patients show a slower clinical improvement and require longer rehabilitation to produce significant changes in MRCP compared to subjects with supratentorial stroke.


Four hundred and one children living in rural areas with a high level of poverty were assessed for ear and hearing disorders in their second year of schooling. Overall, only 40.3% of these children had both normal-appearing ear drums and normal hearing thresholds bilaterally; 14% had obstructing wax plugs; 17% had evidence of past acute otitis media with scarring or progression to chronicity--6% having perforations; 31% had middle-ear effusions and/or their sequelae; and 33% had some impairment of hearing but, if the effect of testing in the classroom environment is considered, there was probably only significant impairment in 9%. It is suggested that the prevalence of chronic ear disorders is a useful marker of the quality of primary care in rural communities.


The digestive tract anatomy of 14 blackbucks (Antilope cervicapra) and seven Arabian sand gazelles (Gazella subgutturosa marica) was quantified by dimensions, area and weight. Data from the two small‐sized antilopinae were evaluated against a larger comparative data set from other ruminants classified as having either a 'cattle‐type' or 'moose‐type' digestive system. The digestive anatomy of the blackbuck resembled that of 'cattle‐type' ruminants, which corresponds to their feeding ecology and previous studies of solute and particle retention time; however, a surprising exception was the remarkably small omasum in this species, which makes the blackbuck stand out from the general rule of a relatively large omasum in grazing ruminants. Sand gazelles had morphological features that corresponded more to the 'moose type' or an intermediate position, although previous studies of solute and particle retention time had led to the expectation of a more 'cattle‐type' anatomy. The results show that outliers to general morphological trends exist, that findings on physiology and anatomy do not always match completely and that differences in the digestive morphology among ruminant species are more difficult to demonstrate at the lower end of the body mass range.


This paper deals with the joint consideration of production scheduling and maintenance planning in manufacturing systems. Most studies on production scheduling deals with this problem by optimizing one criterion related to production but requirements of maintenance aspect are taken as constraints of the problem. This approach is commonly called "scheduling with availability constraints" in the literature [11][12]. In that approach, a few unavailability periods of machines are known and fixed in advance then the production jobs are scheduled according to these periods. However, maintenance and production's objectives should be considered with the same level of importance. However, performance criteria of production and maintenance are generally antagonist. Hence a solution of the joint production and maintenance problem should be a trade-off between their conflicting objectives. In this paper, a new bi objective methods based on artificial immune system is proposed where production jobs and maintenance activities are flexible and not fixed in advance.


In this article, a novel InGaP/GaAs pnp δ-doped heterojunction bipolar transistor is first demonstrated. Though the valence band discontinuity at InGaP/GaAs heterojunction is relatively large, the addition of a δ-doped sheet between two spacer layers at the emitter-base junction effectively eliminates the potential spike and increases the confined barrier for electrons, simultaneously. Experimentally, a high current gain of 25 and an offset voltage of 100 mV are achieved. The offset voltage is much smaller than the conventional InGaP/GaAs pnp HBT. The proposed device could be used for linear amplifiers and low-power complementary integrated circuit applications.


Mass detection sensitivity and measuring accuracy of resonant mass sensors are mainly dependent on the analyte position, the resonant frequency, and the effective mass of the cantilever. For measuring concentrated masses or particles, a novel mass sensor incorporating V-shaped cross section cantilever was proposed by locating the analyte at predefined positions for both improving the mass detecting sensitivity and reducing the measuring deviation. The theoretical model for analyzing the mass detection sensitivity was established. With the same geometric dimension, the proposed sensor's sensitivities obtained theoretically and experimentally are 6.75×104 and 6.34×104 Hz/g, which are nearly 2.20 times as great as that of the custom made cantilever with a rectangular cross section. Thus, the feasibility of the proposed sensitivity improving method was adequately validated.


OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the cervical length in the second trimester by digital, transabdominal and transvaginal ultrasonography; to find the agreement between
measurements and to decide which one accurately predicts preterm labour.
METHOD: Two hundred pregnant women were enrolled in this prospective study. Each woman underwent digital assessment and ultrasound examination (both transabdominal
and transvaginal) of cervix at 18 – 22 weeks of gestation. Agreements between the measurements were assessed by using methods described by Bland and Altman. The best cut-off points were decided for each parameter using ROC curve analysis. Sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive values of these cut-off values
were compared to decide which parameter predicts preterm delivery with maximum accuracy.
RESULT: Neither digital nor transabdominal method correlate well with transvaginal ultrasonography. Digital assessment of cervix underestimated transvaginally measured cervical length by 0.65 cm; where as transabdominal ultrasound overestimated the same by 0.75 cm. Transvaginal ultrasonographic cervical length measurements of term and
preterm deliveries showed a statistically significant difference (P
0.05). At a cut-off point of 2.5 cm, transvaginal cervical length showed sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive values of 77%, 95%, 56%
and 98% respectively and was far superior to other two methods of assessment.
CONCLUSION: Neither digital assessment nor transabdominal ultrasonography should substitute transvaginal cervical ultrasonography for assessment of cervical length in the
second trimester for prediction of spontaneous preterm delivery.


Author(s): Hunter, Wayne B.; Reese, Justin; International Psyllid Genome Consortium, The | Abstract: The Asian citrus psyllid, Diaphorina citri (Hemiptera), is an important pest of citrus because it vectors bacteria responsible for huanglongbing, which is one of the most serious diseases of citrus worldwide. The first genome draft of D. citri (DIACI_1.0) was completed in 2011 (ARS, Ft. Pierce, FL), however, gaps in the assembly prompted additional sequencing using the long run PacBio system at the Los Alamos National Lab, NM. The revised draft genome (DIACI_1.1) was assembled using the new software PB-Jelly, with an improved N50 of 38 kb (up from 25 kb) and an increase by over 10 million in the number of resolved bases. The genome and transcriptome have been submitted into the public domain at the National Center for Biotechnology Information, NCBI, and the genome is currently being submitted to be processed and made available for access by the larger research community [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/genome?LinkName=bioproject_genomeafrom_uid=29447]. The psyllid transcriptome identified over 25,600 predicted genes, and is supported by an additional 19,598 previous EST's. Life-stage specific transcripts were identified for adults, nymphs and eggs. BlastX analyses showed that the psyllid genome has the most similarity to the Pea Aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum, another hemipteran. The transcriptome data was provided to the Innocentive® Challenge Program in 2011 to advance efforts for RNAi development against psyllids. Other researchers are also using these data to develop strategies to suppress psyllid populations. Efforts are now focused on annotation of the psyllid genome which will provide more information on the genetic basis of psyllid biology. Free Downloads of the most recent datasets can be found at: http://www.psyllid.org/node/10 which includes the transcriptome and predicted protein files in FASTA format, and the gene locations on the DIACI_1.1 Genome assembly (GFF3 format).


AIM
The aim of this study was to systematically review evidence relating to clinical supervision for nurses, midwives and allied health professionals.

BACKGROUND
Since 1902 statutory supervision has been a requirement for UK midwives, but this is due to change. Evidence relating to clinical supervision for nurses and allied health professions could inform a new model of clinical supervision for midwives.

DESIGN
A systematic review with a contingent design, comprising a broad map of research relating to clinical supervision and two focussed syntheses answering specific review questions.

DATA SOURCES
Electronic databases were searched from 2005 - September 2015, limited to English-language peer-reviewed publications.

REVIEW METHODS
Systematic reviews evaluating the effectiveness of clinical supervision were included in Synthesis 1. Primary research studies including a description of a clinical supervision intervention were included in Synthesis 2. Quality of reviews were judged using a risk of bias tool and review results summarized in tables. Data describing the key components of clinical supervision interventions were extracted from studies included in Synthesis 2, categorized using a reporting framework and a narrative account provided.

RESULTS
Ten reviews were included in Synthesis 1; these demonstrated an absence of convincing empirical evidence and lack of agreement over the nature of clinical supervision. Nineteen primary studies were included in Synthesis 2; these highlighted a lack of consistency and large variations between delivered interventions.

CONCLUSION
Despite insufficient evidence to directly inform the selection and implementation of a framework, the limited available evidence can inform the design of a new model of clinical supervision for UK-based midwives.


Scaffolding is a process of transferring learned skills to new and more complex tasks through arranged experience in open-ended development. In this paper, we propose a developmental learning architecture that enables a robot to transfer skills acquired in early learning settings to later more complex task settings. We show that a basic mechanism that enables this transfer is sequential priming combined with attention, which is also the driving mechanism for classical conditioning, secondary conditioning, and instrumental conditioning in animal learning. A major challenge of this work is that training and testing must be conducted in the same program operational mode through online, real-time interactions between the agent and the trainers. In contrast with former modeling studies, the proposed architecture does not require the programmer to know the tasks to be learned and the environment is uncontrolled. All possible perceptions and actions, including the actual number of classes, are not available until the programming is finished and the robot starts to learn in the real world. Thus, a predesigned task-specific symbolic representation is not suited for such an open-ended developmental process. Experimental results on a robot are reported in which the trainer shaped the behaviors of the agent interactively, continuously, and incrementally through verbal commands and other sensory signals so that the robot learns new and more complex sensorimotor tasks by transferring sensorimotor skills learned in earlier periods of open-ended development


A key problem in appearance-based vision is understanding how to use a set of labeled images to classify new images. Systems that model human performance, or that use robust image matching methods, often use nonmetric similarity judgments; but when the triangle inequality is not obeyed, most pattern recognition techniques are not applicable. Exemplar-based (nearest-neighbor) methods can be applied to a wide class of nonmetric similarity functions. The key issue, however, is to find methods for choosing good representatives of a class that accurately characterize it. We show that existing condensing techniques are ill-suited to deal with nonmetric dataspaces. We develop techniques for solving this problem, emphasizing two points: First, we show that the distance between images is not a good measure of how well one image can represent another in nonmetric spaces. Instead, we use the vector correlation between the distances from each image to other previously seen images. Second, we show that in nonmetric spaces, boundary points are less significant for capturing the structure of a class than in Euclidean spaces. We suggest that atypical points may be more important in describing classes. We demonstrate the importance of these ideas to learning that generalizes from experience by improving performance. We also suggest ways of applying parametric techniques to supervised learning problems that involve a specific nonmetric distance functions, showing how to generalize the idea of linear discriminant functions in a way that may be more useful in nonmetric spaces.


Under the production approach to markup estimation, any exible input should recover the markup. I test this implication using manufacturing datasets from Chile, Colombia, India, Indonesia, the US, and Southern Europe, as well as store-level data from a major US retailer, and overwhelmingly reject that markups estimated using labor and materials have the same distribution. For every dataset, markups estimated using labor are negatively correlated with markups estimated using materials, exhibit greater dispersion, and have opposite time trends. I continue to find stark differences in markups estimated using energy and non-energy raw materials. Non-neutral pro-ductivity differences across firms can explain these findings.


Mozart is creative, brilliant and charming. But is he also a thief! Making his way to Prague for the opening of Don Giovanni, the great composer, playfully tries to steal an orange from a Bohemian family's garden. But no sooner has he taken the fruit than he is caught by a furious gardener. Desperate to escape, Mozart frantically scrawls an apologetic note to the owners of the tree. Soon, he finds himself not only forgiven but welcomed by a family who have adored the beauty of his music and are stunned to find the celebrity wandering lost in their orangery. And when they reveal it is their daughter's wedding, there can only be one guest of honour: the musical genius Amadeus.


Bosco is a software project developed by the Open Science Grid to help scientists better utilize their on-campus computing resources. Instead of submitting jobs through a dedicated gatekeeper, as most remote submission mechanisms use, it uses the built-in SSH protocol to gain access to the cluster. By using a common access method, SSH, we are able to simplify the interaction with the cluster, making the submission process more user friendly. Additionally, it does not add any extra software to be installed on the cluster making Bosco an attractive option for the cluster administrator. In this paper, we will describe Bosco, the personal supercomputing assistant, and how Bosco is used by researchers across the U.S. to manage their computing workflows. In addition, we will also talk about how researchers are using it, including an unique use of Bosco to submit CMS reconstruction jobs to an opportunistic XSEDE resource.