The combination of dwindling petroleum reserves and population growth make the development of renewable energy and chemical resources more pressing than ever before. Plant biomass is the most abundant renewable source of energy and chemicals. Enzymes can selectively convert the polysaccharides in plant biomass into simple sugars which can then be upgraded to liquid fuels and platform chemicals using biological and/or chemical processes. Pretreatment is essential for efficient enzymatic saccharification of plant biomass and this article provides an overview of how organic solvent (organosolv) pretreatments affect the structure and chemistry of plant biomass, and how these changes enhance enzymatic saccharification. A comparison between organosolv pretreatments utilizing broadly different classes of solvents (i.e., low boiling point, high boiling point, and biphasic) is presented, with a focus on solvent recovery and formation of by-products. The reaction mechanisms that give rise to these by-products are investigated and strategies to minimize by-product formation are suggested. Finally, process simulations of organosolv pretreatments are compared and contrasted, and discussed in the context of an industrial-scale plant biomass to fermentable sugar process.


ABSTRACT Influenza virus entry is mediated by the acidic-pH-induced activation of hemagglutinin (HA) protein. Here, we investigated how a decrease in the HA activation pH (an increase in acid stability) influences the properties of highly pathogenic H5N1 influenza virus in mammalian hosts. We generated isogenic A/Vietnam/1203/2004 (H5N1) (VN1203) viruses containing either wild-type HA protein (activation pH 6.0) or an HA2-K58I point mutation (K to I at position 58) (activation pH 5.5). The VN1203-HA2-K58I virus had replication kinetics similar to those of wild-type VN1203 in MDCK and normal human bronchial epithelial cells and yet had reduced growth in human alveolar A549 cells, which were found to have a higher endosomal pH than MDCK cells. Wild-type and HA2-K58I viruses promoted similar levels of morbidity and mortality in C57BL/6J mice and ferrets, and neither virus transmitted efficiently to naive contact cage-mate ferrets. The acid-stabilizing HA2-K58I mutation, which diminishes H5N1 replication and transmission in ducks, increased the virus load in the ferret nasal cavity early during infection while simultaneously reducing the virus load in the lungs. Overall, a single, acid-stabilizing mutation was found to enhance the growth of an H5N1 influenza virus in the mammalian upper respiratory tract, and yet it was insufficient to enable contact transmission in ferrets in the absence of additional mutations that confer α(2,6) receptor binding specificity and remove a critical N-linked glycosylation site. The information provided here on the contribution of HA acid stability to H5N1 influenza virus fitness and transmissibility in mammals in the background of a non-laboratory-adapted virus provides essential information for the surveillance and assessment of the pandemic potential of currently circulating H5N1 viruses.


Human ideas and emotions are buried deeply in the bottom of the world of imagination. Within the process of communication, human being could express the curiousity of translating emotion that is never silent and bringing out the new idea invention that never stops. At certain chances, human expression is reflected in the form of poetry. This literary work is assumed to have flexibility to represent the translation of ideas and emotions. The lyrical poem of poetry is furthermore compiled and played together in the sway of the beats as a song. The song is an amazing and unique way to express human feeling and emotion. Based on the explanation above, the writer conducts a study to dig both general and detailed meaning and the messages found in Savage Garden's "The Animal Song" of the AFFIRMATION album on reason that music has become more favourable as a unique way to express thought, feeling and emotions. Moreover, Savage Garden is one of the most interesting music bands whose lyrical poems is kind of wise thought of idealism as critical sympathy and empathy for social life all around the world.
The research design of this study is descriptive qualitative because there is no quantity of available data and obtained information that will be presented. Meanwhile, the approach of this study is objective approach to interpret the core of Savage Garden's "The Animal Song" based only on the writer's personal view toward the literary work without any consideration of the relationship of the song to either the writer's or the band's experience and social cultural background when or where the song was written. Beside, in the process of data collection, library research is the most appropriate instrument due to the problem of study.
The result of this study revealed that the whole lyrical poems of Savage Garden's "The Animal Song" tell very deeply about the recent world where peace and harmony of heavenly life start to vanish and fade away. The rules and principles of life to keep the world in the continuum of peace and harmony had left prohibited, infringed, and violated. The sense of sympathy, empathy and the nature of humanity are being excluded from attitudes toward the effort of keeping such mutual life of peace and harmony out of the manner of violence and destruction. The messages of the whole lyrical poems tell that modern world has turned wicked, struggle, hard and severe; and also sympathy, empathy and humanity. Savage Garden's "The Animal Song" is furthermore a metaphor for the expectation of the only living creature who could, should and would maintain the continuum of beautiful life.


Floods are considered to be one of the most destructive natural hazards on Earth. Apart from precipitation as the main driving factor for flood occurrence, there is increased recognition that human activities also largely influence the occurrence and impacts of floods. The Wei River Basin in China has suffered from floods for decades due to its monsoon climate with intensive summer rainfall. With the rapid development of the economy and population growth, land use and the water cycle have been altered due to the demands for resources redistribution. Consequently, the Wei River Basis is under pressure from both climate and anthropogenic changes. This thesis aims to bring a comprehensive understanding of the factors causing flood occurrence in the basin and propose an integrated management tool for flood analysis under the complex environment in the Wei River Basin. Chapter 1 describes the general factors and processes leading to flood occurrence with respect to meteorological, biophysical and anthropogenic aspects. Chapter 2 starts with the introduction of a framework approach for understanding these factors and their importance regarding contribution to flood occurrence in the Wei River Basin, and then presents the results of our application of this approach. The framework approach uses a set of methods to answer the questions why, where, when, and how flooding occurs and includes Conditional Inference Tree (CIT), cross correlation and double mass curves analyses. The results revealed that the dam construction period was the most important factor (why), and the Western upstream regions of the Wei River contributed the most to the flooding of the downstream floodplain (where). The effect of the periods of dam construction on the time lag change (when) and the precipitation-discharge relationship (how) were also analysed by the cross-correlation analysis and double mass curves analysis, respectively. Being able to bring both numeric and non-numeric factors into the analyses, the CIT analysis proved to be a powerful tool for unravelling complex causes leading to flood occurrence. The insights gained in this chapter can be further applied to understanding of flooding schemes in other regions and to derive targeted flood mitigation measures in the Wei River Basin. LISFLOOD modelling was then calibrated and validated, the results of which are presented in Chapter 3. The urgent need for the development of an integrated approach to evaluating the impacts of climate change, land use change and river alteration as well on the occurrence of hydrological extreme events drove us to choose a physically-based distributed hydrological model as a solid base for accurate discharge simulation. Using globally available land cover, soil, vegetation as well as geographical datasets, combined with local observed meteorological gauging data as input, the application of the LISFLOOD model performed well in simulating the discharge at the outlet station on the floodplain. Being a distributed model, LISFLOOD enabled prediction of discharge at the outlets of 17 tributaries draining into the main river. The simulated discharge from these outlets were analysed regarding their contribution to the total runoff as well as for individual flood events. This study is the first application of the LISFLOOD model for a semi-arid region in China for flood discharge analysis, and has shown to be a sophisticated and reliable tool for catchment scale land and water management planning related to flood occurrence and dynamics. Chapter 4 reports on the evaluation of the usability of various freely available datasets for discharge simulation with LISFLOOD. The quality of the meteorological data inputs into the hydrological model is of vital importance for understanding the hydrological regime as well as for analysis and prediction of hydrological extremes. Many efforts have been made to develop globally freely available meteorological reanalyses data especially for data scarce regions. We evaluated ten globally freely available datasets for discharge simulation by using them as input for the LISFLOOD model and comparing results between and with observed meteorological data and discharge in Chapter 3. The result was rather disappointing and suggested that none of the evaluated datasets can be applied directly for daily discharge simulation by the LISFLOOD model. This is unfortunate as accurate simulation of discharge is essential for flood analysis under climate change circumstances. An in-depth analysis of the performance of precipitation and temperature data against the observations was then conducted in an attempt to improve the simulation of the datasets. In Chapter 5 the impact of anthropogenic changes in the basin on flood peak discharge is investigated. It is increasingly recognized that the effects of flood events are greatly influenced by the changes that humans have imposed on the environment and river systems. In the Wei River Basin of China there have been tremendous changes including land use and soil and water alterations under the pressure of population growth and water resource scarcity. To investigate the potential of LISFLOOD for assessing the effects of anthropogenic activities on base flow and peak flow, three categories of scenarios regarding human intervention in the basin were evaluated against a business as usual scenario using the simulated discharge from the LISFLOOD model: 1) natural conditions of the basin, 2) additional reservoirs constructed in different sub-catchments, and 3) water transfer from an adjacent catchment via a pipeline providing a fixed daily inflow. The results of the scenarios are presented for three strategically important cities located on the floodplain. Compared to the business as usual case, the minimum base flow at the three cities increased 54 fold on average with additional dam/reservoir construction, and 41 fold with the pipeline scenario, while with the 1980 land use scenario minimum base flow decreased by 0.8 times. Regarding peak flows, additional reservoirs could reduce them and the water transfer plan would not increase them. The results for the scenarios with the application of the LISFLOOD model cross validated the feasibility of using a modelling approach for catchment flood discharge management as well as providing insight for future policymaking processes. Last but not the least, Chapter 6 concludes the whole thesis with discussion of the findings from different perspectives as well as provision of outlooks and recommendations regarding the application of hydrological modelling for evaluation of scenarios for regional flood mitigations and related societal impacts. This thesis has increased knowledge and furthered the science regarding flood analysis in the Wei River Basin and how to address the increasing pressure from both climate and anthropogenic changes.


textabstractEarlier studies by Van 't Hoeft et al. (85, 160), in our
laboratory, mainly focussed upon the catabolism of HDL apolipoproteins
A-I and E. They found that the kidneys were an important
organ involved in the catabolism of these proteins together with
the liver. The present thesis mainly deals with HDL apo A-IV.
Until very recently, apo A-IV metabolism was relatively unknown.
This was due to the fact that, during isolation of HDL particles
by density ultracentrifugation, apo A-IV was readily "stripped"
and recovered in the "bottom" fraction, together with the bulk of
the serum protein. Better isolation procedures enabled us to
investigate the behaviour of apo A-IV in the rat, leading to
expansion of our knowledge of lipoprotein metabolism in general.
The first part (Chapter 2) outlines a sensitive electroimmunoassay
for the determination of apo A-I, apo E, and apo A-IV in
diluted samples. This method has been successfully used to analyse
the distribution of these proteins in rat mesenteric lymph
(Chapter 3) and rat serum (Chapter 4), following their fractionation
by molecular sieve chromatography on agarose gels. The
latter procedure was employed to obviate the well known problem
of particle protein stripping which occurs during ultracentrifugation
(60, 86-88). Chapter 4 describes the results of a study
designed to compare the effects of gel filtration and ul tracentrifugation
on HDL particle composition. Chapters 5 and 6 describe
our studies on the catabolic sites of apolipoprotein A-IV containing
lipoproteins. The final paper (Chapter 7) describes the
analysis of HDL subclasses using specific immunoprecipitation.


Layered double hydroxides (LDHs) of MgM3+ (M3+=Al and Cr) were synthesized by coprecipitation method to form Mg/Al and Mg/Cr LDHs. The materials were applied as adsorbents of malachite green in aqueous solution. The physical properties of Mg/Al and Mg/Cr were analyzed using XRD, FTIR, BET and TGDTA characterizations. The XRD pattern shows the characteristic of LDHs which has diffraction at 11.470 (003) and at 34.690 (012) for Mg/Al and 12.450 (003) and at 380 (012) for Mg/Cr. The interlayer spaces of Mg/Al and Mg/Cr LDHs were 7.71 Å and 7.62 Å, respectively. The surface area of Mg/Al was higher than Mg/Cr. The FTIR spectra confirm that the intense peak at 1385 cm-1 denotes vibration of nitrate bond and M-O band in under 1000 cm-1. Thus the Mg/Al and Mg/Cr LDHs were applied as adsorbents to remove malachite green in aqueous solution. The results of malachite green adsorption showed that malachite green was adsorbed onto Mg/Al and Mg/Cr followed pseudo second order and Langmuir adsorption parameter. The adsorption capacity of malachite green for Mg/Al and Mg/Cr was 44.444 mg/g and 33.784 mg/g, respectively. The thermodynamic study showed that the adsorption process was spontaneous, endothermic and favored in high temperature. The regeneration process showed that Mg/Al and Mg/Cr LDHs has high stability structure toward reusability of adsorbent until three cycles adsorption process.


We study parametric instability of compact axion dark matter structures decaying to radiophotons. Corresponding objects - Bose (axion) stars, their clusters, and clouds of diffuse axions - form abundantly in the postinflationary Peccei-Quinn scenario. We develop general description of parametric resonance incorporating finite-volume effects, backreaction, axion velocities and their (in)coherence. With additional coarse-graining, our formalism reproduces kinetic equation for virialized axions interacting with photons. We derive conditions for the parametric instability in each of the above objects, as well as in collapsing axion stars, evaluate photon resonance modes and their growth exponents. As a by-product, we calculate stimulated emission of Bose stars and diffuse axions, arguing that the former can give larger contribution into the radiobackground. In the case of QCD axions, the Bose stars glow and collapsing stars radioburst if the axion-photon coupling exceeds the original KSVZ value by two orders of magnitude. The latter constraint is alleviated for several nearby axion stars in resonance and absent for axion-like particles. Our results show that the parametric effect may reveal itself in observations, from FRB to excess radiobackground.


Amphoterin has been suggested to regulate invasive process extension and cell migration in tumor cells and embryonic neurons through binding to receptor for advanced glycation end products (RAGE), a multiligand transmembrane receptor belonging to the immunoglobulin superfamily. In this study, we identify a COOH-terminal motif in amphoterin (amino acids 150–183) that is responsible for RAGE binding. We show that as a surface-bound ligand, this part of amphoterin is sufficient to induce RAGE-dependent process extension, suggesting a role in the regulation of cell motility. When applied in solution, the RAGE-binding COOH-terminal motif of amphoterin efficiently inhibits process extension and transendothelial migration of tumor cells. Furthermore, in an in vivo model, the corresponding synthetic peptide significantly suppresses formation of lung metastases. Taken together, these results suggest that amphoterin binds to RAGE through a COOH-terminal motif that can be used as an efficient inhibitor to block invasive migration of tumor cells.


Social traps are examples of social dilemma situations, where an individual acts for personal advantage that is damaging the group as a whole. Traps can be avoided, nevertheless, by the proper cooperation between the group members. A laboratory analog of social traps was implemented by Brechner in the 1970's. We built a a Second Life analog for Brechner's experiment to explore social traps and how coordination takes place in a 3D virtual world. While some of the groups that were not allowed to communicate succeeded in avoiding the trap, communication had a significant effect on how the participants regulated their resource. We observed very similar response patterns compared to the original experiment. That, in turn, shows a great potential for using virtual worlds as collaborative tools. We also analyzed the social traps experiment using game theory and the results of the experiments match the game theory predictions.


Hydro Power plant (HPP), being one of the most convenient options for power generation, has been modelled considering very wide aspects of their application. A model is simply a mathematical representation of a system and it may serve different purposes like dynamic simulation of hydro power, energy systems modelling involving policy making, condition monitoring, etc. The purpose of modelling HPPs may lead to various kind of models for a single Hydropower. This paper aims at reviewing hydropower models developed using different methods along with the purpose for modelling them. This will provide brief insights about state of the art on hydropower modelling and its emerging techniques. Furthermore, this paper presents in more detail about tracking the advancements in dynamic models for classical and variable speed hydropower plants highlighting the need for the development of more accurate models. The work mainly involves narrative review of published works on hydro power modelling techniques. Also, it includes systematic reviews about dynamic representation of hydropower plants. As this paper aims at presentation of hydro power models in a classified manner based on purpose of modelling, the areas of improvement in each type of model have been discussed. Models for control can be made to be more accurate by including more realistic featured like penstock dynamics, uncertainties, etc which further help in design of advanced control systems. There are several potential benefits of HPP modelling, such as optimizing plant performance, improving control, reducing maintenance costs, and enhancing overall system efficiency and reliability.


We analyze a finite horizon periodic review joint pricing and inventory management model for a firm that replenishes and sells a product under the scarcity effect of inventory. The demand distribution in each period depends negatively on the sales price and customer-accessible inventory level at the beginning of the period. The firm can withhold or dispose of its on-hand inventory to deal with the scarcity effect. We show that a customer-accessible-inventory-dependent order-up-to/dispose-down-to/display-up-to list-price policy is optimal. Moreover, the optimal order-up-to/display-up-to and list-price levels are decreasing in the customer-accessible inventory level. When the scarcity effect of inventory is sufficiently strong, the firm should display no positive inventory and deliberately make every customer wait. The analysis of two important special cases wherein the firm cannot withhold or dispose of inventory delivers sharper insights showing that the inventory-dependent demand drives both optimal prices and order-up-to levels down. In addition, we demonstrate that an increase in the operational flexibility e.g., a higher salvage value or the inventory withholding opportunity mitigates the demand loss caused by high excess inventory and increases the optimal order-up-to levels and sales prices. We also generalize our model by incorporating responsive inventory reallocation after demand realizes. Finally, we perform extensive numerical studies to demonstrate that both the profit loss of ignoring the scarcity effect and the value of dynamic pricing under the scarcity effect are significant.


1. Climate change represents a major challenge for conservation in the future and undermines protection within reserve boundaries. Freshwater biodiversity is still under-represented within reserves world-wide, and connectivity among reserves will become increasingly crucial if species are to persist under climate change. 2. We tested the likely benefits of including predicted species distributions in systematic reserve design for rivers under climate change and the impact of varying connectivity requirements on future representation. 3. We used the modelled distribution of 126 east Australian Odonata to identify reserve networks using data for current or future (2055 and 2085) distributions either by filling gaps additively, or as separate targets in a single solution. We then assessed the potential improvements to species representation in the future using different types of connectivity penalties that emphasized either longitudinal riverine connections or connections to all neighbouring subcatchments. 4. Solutions that did not include future distributions in the planning stages were 16 to 30% less likely to protect the same species by 2055 and 2085, respectively. Inclusion of species' future distributions in the design phase leads to short-term increases in cost, but in the longer term fewer additional areas are required to meet targets and this strategy is likely to be significantly more efficient than implementing systematic design in stages. In addition, solely targeting riverine connectivity was significantly less likely to protect current species in the future than if cross-catchment connections were included. 5. Synthesis and applications. Where protected areas can be expanded to assist species adaptation to climate change, significant gains in efficiency are possible if longer term goals are considered when selecting sites. Furthermore, to improve the representation of species under future climates, reserve selection should consider inter-catchment connectivity, although the nature of optimal solutions will depend heavily on the range of taxa included, their dispersal capacity, and the availability of climatic refugia.


We present a further development in the technology of sequencing by hybridization to oligonucleotide microchips (SHOM) and its application to diagnostics for genetic diseases. A robot has been constructed to manufacture sequencing "microchips." The microchip is an array of oligonucleotides immobilized into gel elements fixed on a glass plate. Hybridization of the microchip with fluorescently labeled DNA was monitored in real time simultaneously for all microchip elements with a two-wavelength fluorescent microscope equipped with a charge-coupled device camera. SHOM has been used to detect f3-thalassemia mutations in patients by hybridizing PCR-amplified DNA with the microchips. A contiguous stacking hybridization technique has been applied for the detection of mutations; it can simplify medical diagnostics and enhance its reliability. The use of multicolor monitoring of contiguous stacking hybridization is suggested for large-scale diagnostics and gene polymorphism studies. Other applications of the SHOM technology are discussed.


The present pilot study compared the effects of cognitive and non-cognitive approaches on the development of Japanese learners' knowledge about the different degrees of sureness attached to certain, probable, and possible items. The results showed that the cognitive approach group outperformed the non-cognitive approach and control groups in writing and comparison judgment tests, and that both the cognitive and non-cognitive approach groups performed better than the control group in the categorization judgment test. These results suggest that the cognitive approach with 3D image content through computers can promote L2 language learning because it may have made the target structures more salient and also enabled the participants to connect spatial concepts with different degrees of sureness attached to the certain, probable, and possible items, thereby facilitating deep processing of form-meaning pairings.


AIMS
To investigate age, period and cohort effects on time trends of alcohol-related mortality in countries with different drinking habits and alcohol policies.

DESIGN AND SETTING
Age-period-cohort (APC) analyses on alcohol-related mortality were conducted in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, France and Germany.

PARTICIPANTS
Cases included alcohol-related deaths in the age range 20-84 years between 1980 and 2009.

MEASUREMENTS
Mortality data were taken from national causes of death registries and covered the ICD codes alcoholic psychosis, alcohol use disorders, alcoholic liver disease and toxic effect of alcohol.

FINDINGS
In all countries changes across age, period and cohort were found to be significant for both genders [effect value with confidence interval (CI) shown in Supporting information, Table S1]. Period effects pointed to an increase in alcohol-related mortality in Denmark, Finland and Germany and a slightly decreasing trend in Sweden, while in Norway an inverse U-shaped curve and in France a U-shaped curve was found. Compared with the cohorts born before 1960, the risk of alcohol-related mortality declined substantially in cohorts born in the 1960s and later. Pairwise between-country comparisons revealed more statistically significant differences for period (P < 0.001 for all 15 comparisons by gender) than for age [P < 0.001 in seven (men) and four (women) of 15 comparisons] or cohort [P < 0.01 in two (men) and three (women) of 15 comparisons].

CONCLUSIONS
Strong period effects suggest that temporal changes in alcohol-related mortality in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, France and Germany between 1980 and 2009 were related to secular differences affecting the whole population and that these effects differed across countries.


Healthcare is a major industry in the Smarter Planet initiative of IBM and a key area where analytics can have a substantial impact by improving disease prediction and treatment. To facilitate healthcare analytics, patient data usually need to be widely disseminated. This, however, may risk the disclosure of private and sensitive patient information. In this paper, we illustrate the importance of preserving medical data privacy and the inapplicability of several popular techniques to preserve the privacy of structured medical data. Subsequently, we review a privacy-preserving approach for the dissemination of patient records. This approach involves patient record de-identification, anonymization of diagnosis codes contained in the records, and a method for balancing data utility with privacy. This approach is practical in that it allows healthcare data providers to specify fine-grained privacy and utility requirements, and it is able to construct anonymized data with a desired balance between utility and privacy. The effectiveness of the approach is demonstrated through a case study using electronic medical records. We conclude this paper with a roadmap for future trends in medical data privacy.


To address the scarcity of polymers that degrade upon absorption of near infrared (NIR) light, we introduce a new polymer containing moieties in its backbone capable of highly efficient NIR-triggered photocleavage. The polymer rapidly undergoes backbone scission in response to both UV-Vis and near infrared light via two-photon absorption, as revealed by gel permeation chromatography. Cleavage of photosensitive groups from the backbone is confirmed by 1H NMR. These polymers were successfully formulated into particles encapsulating a dye that was released upon irradiation with UV-Vis and NIR light, as indicated by changes in fluorescence characteristic of increased solvent interaction with cargo. Thus, this new polymer is readily photocleaved by UV-Vis and NIR light, giving it a variety of potential applications in photopatterning and on-demand release.


We prove that the minimally displaced set of a relatively irreducible automorphism of a free splitting, situated in a deformation space, is uniformly locally finite. The minimally displaced set coincides with the train track points for an irreducible automorphism. We develop the theory in a general setting of deformation spaces of free products, having in mind the study of the action of reducible automorphisms of a free group on the simplicial bordification of Outer Space. For instance, a reducible automorphism will have invariant free factors, act on the corresponding stratum of the bordification, and in that deformation space it may be irreducible (sometimes this is referred as relative irreducibility).


This collection of critical essays by the Polish aesthetician Morawski is impressive in its scope and scholarly detail. He offers richly comprehensive investigations of a considerable range of theoretical issues in aesthetics, informed by an enlightened and flexible Marxist historicism. Some explore basic, highly abstract problems that concern philosophers of art, such as the nature of a work of art, criteria of value and of the evaluation of art, the objectivity of aesthetic judgment, expression in art and the significance of mimesis and realism in the arts. Other essays ponder more specific problems with a strong social and historical component, as in the last third of the book the author examines such matters as the history of the theroetical basis of Socialist Realism, art and society, the functions of art in conditions of alienation, the use of quotation in art and questions of pornography and obscenity in art. The thoroughness with which the author discusses these matters is fully equal to their scope and importance without, as he often observes, entirely exhausting their complexity. Morawski proceeds as on a broad canvas. He characteristically offers a comprehensive typology for the problem under discussion, elucidating each category with numerous clearly described examples, patiently shaping and clarifying the discussion until his own position emerges as a carefully considered, balanced, yet independent stance on the issue. While his predilections are clearly drawn, they appear as tolerant, undogmatic conclusions, responsive to the complexity of the issues and to the history of the arts. He thus effectively avoids slipping into the pitfall of aestheticians of all ideologies and cultures-legislating for artists. Indeed, the breadth of his acquaintance with the arts, including recent and contemporary artists and movements, is outstanding. To treat briefly here specific ideas from a work of such scope and detail would be as much misleading as a disservice. For this reason, some overall observations must suffice. One may note, in general, that the very comprehensiveness of the author's treatment has the tendency to obscure the effective alternatives in many issues. At times the scaffolding of categories he erects to scale a problem takes on a certain unwieldiness. For example, Morawski's classification of the principal functions of art by using the characters of Orpheus, Prometheus and Philoctetes from Greek mythology seems arbitrary and unclear, both in the categories themselves and in the characters employed to represent them. More basic is his acceptance of the customary division of the aesthetic field into the distinct and separate elements of artist, art object and perceiver, and his insistence on the necessity for distancing art and keeping the aesthetic clearly demarcated from its practical and cultural interconnections. This leads him necessarily to assign a high degree of autonomy to works of art and, thus, to encounter difficulties with certain contemporary movements that work directly from the denial of these discontinuities. Indeed, one may claim that the special challenge of present-day aesthetics lies in exposing the many subtle, ineradicable and necessary intertwinings of social, technological and cultural strands amongst the aesthetic. And, indeed, a view of art thoroughly integrated with its surrounding culture requires a theory that will expose and develop those continuities without sacrificing its aesthetic identity. For a scholar as sensitive as Morawski to the social and historical influences on the arts, such a theory would seem to be of particular necessity. Yet, unlike many commentators, he is thoroughly aware of these interconnections and, in opting for an enlightened but essentially traditional aesthetics, he is nonetheless flexible and aware of its inadequacies. Finally, Morawski has a remarkable command of language, but the complexity of his subject matter i s matched by the intricacy of his style. This, joined with the excessively personal intrusion of the author into his material, is an inessential difficulty in a work whose substance and scope demand that it be taken seriously.


Part One: PREHOSPITAL CARE Prehospital care: Trauma scoring systems and trauma triage (Ronald Roth) Online medical command (Jon R. Krohmer) Controversies in prehospital trauma care (David P. Thomson) Air-medical transport (Theodore R. Delbridge) Prehospital approach to common difficult scenarios (Jon Apfelbaum) Part Two: RESUSCITATION Priorities in resuscitation and diagnosis (Stephen A. Colucciello and Peter C. Ferrera) Airway management in the trauma setting (Robert E. O'Connor and Brian J. Levine) Resuscitation: management of shock (Susan A. Stern and Eileen M.K. Bobek) Emergency department monitoring of trauma patients (Jay L. Falk, Patric N. Anderson, and Kevin C. Meyer) Management of pain and anxiety in the severely injured patient (James B. Jones and William H. Cordell) Part Three: MANAGEMENT OF SPECIFIC INJURIES Traumatic brain injury (Brian Zink and Patricia Lanter) Spinal cord injuries (Peter C. Ferrera and David B. Markowitz) Vertebral injuries (Stacy Weeks Jandreau) Maxillofacial trauma (Jennifer L. Isenhour and Stephen A. Colucciello) Ocular trauma (William H. Shoff and Suzanne M. Shepherd) Neck injury (Robert M. Duchynski) Blunt chest trauma (Carlo L. Rosen and Richard E. Wolfe) Penetrating chest trauma (Vincent N. Mosesso, Jr.) Blunt abdominal trauma (Peter C. Ferrera) Penetrating abdominal trauma (Peter C. Ferrera) Retroperitoneal and genitourinary injuries (Michael A. Gibbs and Robert Schneider) Pelvic ring fractures (Michael A. Gibbs and Michael J. Bosse) Shoulder trauma (Mohamud Daya) Elbow and forearm injuries (Eric Ossman) Hand and wrist injuries (Vince P. Verdile and James G. Adams) Proximal and mid-shaft femur fractures and hip dislocations (James E. Gruber) Knee injuries (Daniel M. Roberts) Leg injuries: tibia and fibula (E. Parker Hays, Jr.) Ankle and foot injuries (E. Parker Hays, Jr.) Penetrating extremity trauma and peripheral vascular injury (Michael A, Gibbs, William S. Miles, and Joseph Messick) Soft tissue injuries (Joel M. Bartfield and Ronald L. Stram) Trauma in pregnancy (Lawrence E. Kass and Jean T. Abbott) Pediatric trauma (Alfred D. Sacchetti, Robert Belfer, and Edward Doolin) Geriatric trauma (Carl C. DAndrea) Part Four: MECHANISMS OF INJURIES Burns (Thomas J. Russell) Domestic Violence (Maria Pelucio) Motor vehicle accidents (B. Tilman Jolly) Falls (Nestor R. Zenarosa) Drowning (Jayne J. Batts) Gunshot wounds (Richard Boland and Vincent N. Mosesso, Jr.) Stab wounds (Peter C. Ferrera) Part Five: ADMINISTRATIVE ISSUES Injury control (John D. Broderick and Dennis P. McKenna) Total quality management for trauma care (Vivek Tayal) Preparing patient for transfer (Michael A. Gibbs, Michael H. Thomason, John A. Marx, Stephen A. Colucciello) Legal Requirements for Transferring Trauma Patients (Robert A. Bitterman) Cost Effective Trauma Care (Andrew W. Asimos) Medicolegal issues: brain death, organ and tissue transplantation, consent, confidentiality and restraints (Christine Milosis and Robert E. OConnor) Legal issues concerning informed consent in trauma care (Robert A. Bitterman) Trauma team response: Management and leadership (Thom A. Mayer) Myths in trauma (D. Matthew Sullivan) Part Six: PROCEDURES Procedures in the trauma patient (Susan M. Dunmire) APPENDICES Prehospital Triage Criteria Tetanus Immunizations Revised Trauma Score Glasgow Coma Score Pediatric Trauma Score


Photoassisted electrocatalysis (P-EC) emerges as a rising star for hydrogen production by embedding photoactive species in electrocatalysts, for which the interfacial structure design and charge transfer kinetics of the multifunctional catalysts remain a great challenge. Herein, Zn-AgIn5S8 quantum dots (ZAIS QDs) were embedded into 2D NiFe layered double hydroxide nanosheets through a simple hydrothermal treatment to form 0D/2D composite catalysts for P-EC. With evidence from transient photovoltage spectroscopy, we acquired a clear and fundamental understanding on the kinetics of charge extraction time and extraction amount in the 0D/2D heterojunctions that was proved to play a key role in P-EC. Upon light illumination, for HER, the optimized NiFe-ZAIS exhibits obviously reduced overpotentials of 129 and 242 mV at current densities of 10 and 50 mA cm-2, which are 22 and 33 mV lower than those of dark electrocatalysis, respectively. For OER, the NiFe-ZAIS electrode also shows low overpotentials of 220 and 268 mV at current densities of 10 and 50 mA cm-2, respectively, under light illumination, which were able to almost double the intrinsic activity. Finally, with NF@NiFe-ZAIS as both the cathode and the anode, the assembled electrolyzer only requires 1.62 V to reach the overall water splitting current density of 10 mA cm-2 under P-EC. This work provides a useful example for the profound understanding of the design and the kinetics study of multifunctional P-EC catalysts.


Abstract In this study, we examined the glycaemic and fuel oxidation responses to alterations in the timing of a low glycaemic index carbohydrate and 75% reduced insulin dose, prior to running, in type 1 diabetes individuals. After carbohydrate (75 g isomaltulose) and insulin administration, the seven participants rested for 30 min, 60 min, 90 min or 120 min (conditions 30MIN, 60MIN, 90MIN, and 120MIN, respectively) before completing 45 min of running at 70% peak oxygen uptake. Carbohydrate and lipid oxidation rates were monitored during exercise and blood glucose and insulin were measured before and for 3 h after exercise. Data were analysed using repeated-measures analysis of variance. Pre-exercise blood glucose concentrations were lower for 30MIN compared with 120MIN (P < 0.05), but insulin concentrations were similar. Exercising carbohydrate and lipid oxidation rates were lower and greater, respectively, for 30MIN compared with 120MIN (P < 0.05). The drop in blood glucose during exercise was less for 30MIN (3.7 mmol · l−1, s[xbar] = 0.4) compared with 120MIN (6.4 mmol · l−1, s[xbar] = 0.3) (P = 0.02). For 60 min post-exercise, blood glucose concentrations were higher for 30MIN compared with 120MIN (P < 0.05). There were no cases of hypoglycaemia in the 30MIN condition, one case in the 60MIN condition, two in the 90MIN condition, and five in the 120MIN condition. In conclusion, a low glycaemic index carbohydrate and reduced insulin dose administered 30 min before running improves pre- and post-exercise blood glucose responses in type 1 diabetes.


We study two coarser approximations on top of a Kronecker factorization (K-FAC) of the Fisher Information Matrix, to scale up Natural Gradient to deep and wide Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). The first considers the feature maps as spatially uncorrelated while the second considers only correlations among groups of channels. Both variants yield a further block-diagonal approximation tailored for CNNs, which is much more efficient to compute and invert. Experiments on the VGG11 and ResNet50 architectures show the technique can substantially speed up both K-FAC and a baseline with Batch Normalization in wall-clock time, yielding faster convergence to similar or better generalization error.


The design of multivalent glycoclusters requires the conjugation of biologically relevant carbohydrate epitopes functionalized with linker arms to multivalent core scaffolds. The multigram-scale syntheses of three structurally modified triethyleneglycol analogues that incorporate amide moiety(ies) and/or a phenyl ring offer convenient access to a series of carbohydrate probes with different water solubilities and rigidities. Evaluation of flexibility and determination of preferred conformations were performed by conformational analysis. Conjugation of the azido-functionalized carbohydrates with tetra-propargylated core scaffolds afforded a library of 18 tetravalent glycoclusters, in high yields, by Cu(I)-catalyzed azide-alkyne cycloaddition (CuAAC). The compounds were evaluated for their ability to bind to PA-IL (the LecA lectin from the opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa). Biochemical evaluation through inhibition of hemagglutination assays (HIA), enzyme-linked lectin assays (ELLA), surface plasmon resonance (SPR), and isothermal titration microcalorimetry (ITC) revealed improved and unprecedented affinities for one of the monovalent probes (K(d)=5.8 μM) and also for a number of the tetravalent compounds that provide several new nanomolar ligands for this tetrameric lectin.


Aims: To evaluate indications and histopathological diagnoses of endometrial samplings in our clinic.Materials-Methods: Seven hundred and fourty four subjects who required endometrial biopsy to be taken for any indication other than pregnancy between January 2013 and January 2014 were included in the study. Data collected retrospectively from Dumlupinar University Evliya Celebi Training and Research Hospital obstetrics and gynecology clinic database and pathology clinic. Statistical analysis of data was performed using SPSS for Windows 13 package programme.Results: Mean age of the subjects was 43.6 ± 8.3. Indications of endometrial sampling were menorrhagia/menometrorrhagia (87%), myoma uteri (1.6%), postmenopausal bleeding (9.5%), cervical polyp (1.9%). Histopathologic diagnoses were as follows: secretory/proliferative endometrium in 72.8%, atrophic endometrium in 3.5%, simple atypical endometrial hyperplasia in 0.7%, simple typical endometrial hyperplasia in 7.9%, complex atypical endometrial hyperplasia in 0.3%, complex typical endometrial hyperplasia in 0.3%, atrophic endometrium in 3.5%, endometrium cancer in 0.8%, and endometrial polyp in 9.5%. Insufficient sampling material was reported in 0.9%. Endometrium cancer was detected in 5.6% of postmenopausal group.Conclusion: The most common endometrial sampling indication was menorrhagia/menometrorrhagia, while endometrium cancer was detected most commonly in patients with postmenopausal bleeding. Our results emphasize that endometrial sampling is warranted especially in peri/postmenopausal women with abnormal uterine bleeding. Endometrial evaluation is needed in patients with cervical polyp.


The architectural concept of the John Hope Gateway is that of a floating timber canopy over the entrance to the Royal Botanic Garden, Edinburgh. This paper presents the Engineering challenges encountered and the bespoke solutions that were generated, which include a diagrid of tapering glulam beams at roof level and the use of cross-laminated timber floors and walls. Slim cruciform steel columns are used to emphasise the elegance of the supported timber structure. The building is on two storeys with an overall dimension of approximately 100 metres × 50 metres. Spans between columns vary between 8 and 6 metres. It uses 2750 square metres of cross-laminated timber slabs, 226mm thick on the first floor and 146mm at roof level. Although timber is becoming used more and more regularly for structures in Scotland, this building is not only very high profile, but also it is also structurally demanding. Amongst the issues discussed in the paper are: Connection details at the tops of the column heads, where the roof is carried on thin steel rods; the manufacturing challenges relating to tolerances in fabrication and erection; the use of large areas of exposed cross-laminated timber in a building with public access; fire resistance and the use of timber in an external environment.


This ground-breaking study examines changes in the values and related practices within community mental health that occurred between 1984 and 1998. During this period, a distinct shift in policy coincided with a new emphasis on mental health reform. Consumer/survivors and other mental health claims-makers played an active role in shaping mental health policy during this time and influenced the trend of consumer/survivor and family participation and empowerment in the policy and planning process. This unique two-and-a-half year study examined one community in depth by looking at the changes that occurred for individuals, organisations, and policy. While the three organizations under study followed their own unique path toward change, the authors contend that there were also common elements in the journey toward the .empowerment community-integration. paradigm. Central to this shift was the emphasis on building an organization based on consensually defined values and a vision for the future. Shifting The Paradigm in Community Mental Health is itself a valuable guide for future research and for the consumers and administrators within the mental health community as well as in other areas of human services. This is an important guide for anyone interested in innovation and social change.


Recent technology advances in the field of ride-by-wire technology for motorcycle (namely active braking and full electronic throttle) open the way to the design of innovative control strategies to improve two-wheeled vehicles stability. As such, it is of growing importance to devise control oriented models of the bike dynamics to be employed for control design purposes. This paper proposes an analytical model of a two-wheeled vehicle tuned to capture the coupling between longitudinal variables (i.e. traction and braking torque) and out-of-plane modes. The model is derived from first principles. The model parameters are identified from a complete multi-body simulator. The proposed model offers a good tradeoff between complexity and accuracy.


Background Overweight and obesity increase the risk of elevated blood pressure; most of the studies that serve as a background for the debates on the optimal obesity index cut-off values used cross-sectional samples. The aim of this study was to determine the cut-off values of anthropometric markers for detecting hypertension in Chinese adults with data from prospective cohort. Methods This study determines the best cut-off values for the obesity indices that represent elevated incidence of hypertension in 18–65-year-old Chinese adults using data from the China Health and Nutrition Survey (CHNS) 2006–2011 prospective cohort. Individual body mass index (BMI), waist circumference (WC), waist:hip ratio (WHR) and waist:stature ratio (WSR) were assessed. ROC curves for these obesity indices were plotted to estimate and compare the usefulness of these obesity indices and the corresponding values for the maximum of the Youden indices were considered the optimal cut-off values. Results Five-year cumulative incidences of hypertension were 21.5% (95% CI: 19.4–23.6) in men and 16.5% (95% CI: 14.7–18.2) in women, and there was a significant trend of increased incidence of hypertension with an increase in BMI, WC, WHR or WSR (P for trend < 0.001) in both men and women. The Youden index indicated that the optimal BMI, WC, WHR, WSR cut-off values were 23.53 kg/m2, 83.7 cm, 0.90, and 0.51 among men. The optimal BMI, WC, WHR, WSR cut-off values were 24.25 kg/m2, 79.9 cm, 0.85 and 0.52 among women. Conclusions Our study supported the hypothesis that the cut-off values for BMI and WC that were recently developed by the Working Group on Obesity in China (WGOC), the cut-off values for WHR that were developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), and a global WSR cut-off value of 0.50 may be the appropriate upper limits for Chinese adults.


. Cnidarians have extracellular matrix, or mesoglea, situated between an outer epidermis and an inner gastrodermis. In this article, we describe the ultrastructure of the mesoglea of polyps of Nematostella vectensis during development and regeneration. The column wall of recently metamorphosed polyps had basal laminae composed of a meshwork of thin filaments underlying each epithelium and a network of unstriated thick (20–25 nm in diameter) and thin fibrils (∼5 nm) decorated with particulate matter. In juvenile polyps with eight tentacles, the system of thick fibrils was concentrated near the gastrodermis. In the column wall and mesenteries of the adult there were bundles of thick fibrils that ran parallel to the myonemes. In regenerating polyps 2 days after transection, the network of thin fibrils and particulate material as well as the basal lamina largely disappeared in the healing part of the oral, but not aboral, half. In the regenerating portion of the aboral half 1 and 2 days after transection, the bundles of thick fibrils were smaller and less organized, and the basal laminae were thicker than in the column wall of untransected polyps. In both regenerating halves, the general organization of the mesoglea of normal polyps was reattained by 5 days after transection. At all stages the mesoglea contained cellular processes that may belong to amebocytes; nucleated amebocytes with a range of shapes were present in the mesoglea of the column wall and mesenteries of adult polyps. Certain features of the mesoglea of members of N. vectensis and Hydra are similar, especially the ultrastructure of the basal laminae, but the fibrillar systems of these two model cnidarians are different. Temporal and spatial differences in the composition of the mesoglea of N. vectensis point to different roles for its components during development and regeneration.


KARL DURR. Lewis and the history of symbolic logic. The philosophy of C. I. Lewis, edited by Paul Arthur Schilpp, The library of living philosophers, vol. 13, Open Court, La Salle, 111., and Cambridge University Press, London, 1968, pp. 89-114. This paper is essentially a summary of Lewis's accounts of the history of symbolic logic, in particular the account set out in chapter I of 2159. Among points which Durr considers important in Lewis's discussion are the distinction between the (somewhat abortive) development of the intensional elements in Leibniz's logic in the period immediately succeeding him and the more successful development of the extensional side in the later period which began with Boole. Diirr's concluding comment (p. 114) is: "Lewis succeeded in presenting a summary of the entire field by explicating the historical development of symbolic logic from its foundation by Leibniz to the present. In the presentation of the history of symbolic logic which he gave us can be seen the ways in which the development proceeded; an insight is given into the varied difficulties that were overcome. Through Lewis' interpretation of the logical theories handed down to us by historical documents from the standpoint of modern logic, he brought historical studies into a living and fruitful relationship with the study of modern logic."


Resource-constrained Edge Devices (EDs), e.g., IoT sensors and microcontroller units, are expected to make intelligent decisions using Deep Learning (DL) inference at the edge of the network. Toward this end, developing tinyML models is an area of active research - DL models with reduced computation and memory storage requirements - that can be embedded on these devices. However, tinyML models have lower inference accuracy. On a different front, DNN partitioning and inference offloading techniques were studied for distributed DL inference between EDs and Edge Servers (ESs). In this paper, we explore Hierarchical Inference (HI), a novel approach proposed in [19] for performing distributed DL inference at the edge. Under HI, for each data sample, an ED first uses a local algorithm (e.g., a tinyML model) for inference. Depending on the application, if the inference provided by the local algorithm is incorrect or further assistance is required from large DL models on edge or cloud, only then the ED offloads the data sample. At the outset, HI seems infeasible as the ED, in general, cannot know if the local inference is sufficient or not. Nevertheless, we present the feasibility of implementing HI for image classification applications. We demonstrate its benefits using quantitative analysis and show that HI provides a better trade-off between offloading cost, throughput, and inference accuracy compared to alternate approaches.


Abstract. With COVID-19's prevalence and government efforts to curb its spread, urban travel behaviour has significantly altered, resulting in a significant shift in traffic congestion. Rather than predicting traffic congestion based on historical data, we aim to model the correlation between travel behaviour and external mobility-related urban features and use Dublin in Ireland as a case study. This study incorporates four categories of urban data, including 1) Mobility-based features, including the government's interventions and mobility pattern changes in different locations, 2) Environmental features such as weather and urban street-waste, 3) COVID-19- related features such as the positivity and vaccination rates, and 4) Time-related features such as public holidays. First, we examine the impact of COVID-19 on traffic congestion and street-waste to understand the city's dynamic. Then, multiple machine learning (ML) models, such as random forests, support vector regression, light gradient boosting machine, and multiple linear regression are trained, and their performance optimized to predict traffic congestion changes. We compare the outcomes of the models with several evaluation metrics and interpret the best performing model. The results indicate that mobility changes in grocery and pharmacy, retail and recreation, workplaces sectors, and the amount of urban street-waste significantly contribute to the model outcomes. Findings could predict traffic dynamics in times of crisis and allow authorities to comprehend the effects of their intervention measures on mobility, which would ultimately benefit developing smart cities and intelligent transportation systems.


Living with Traumatic Brain Injury: The Case of Ireland Aim: This study is principally focused on the experiences of survivors of Traumatic Brain Injury (T81) in Ireland and family members. Literature: The literature draws mainly from the discIpline of sociology and the following sub-disciplines: the sociology of health and illness, the sociology of organisations, disability, illness narratives and family theory. Conceptual Framework: The ovcrarching analytical framework utilises and builds on the traditional biomedical model ofTB1, acknowledging that the biomedical model has much to infonn with regard to T81. However, this study examined the wider implications of T81 on individuals, families. health professionals, government and society. Therefore, an holistic model is appropriate to supplement the traditional approach. This was found to be useful for considering TBI in the Irish context and allowed for the inclusion of social aspects of interest. Methods: This research utilised a mixed methods approach. A retrospective study which involved a quantitative data gathering exercise resulted in the development of substantial dala sets of admissions to the only two specialised neurosurgical units in Ireland: these were Beaumont Hospital, Dublin and Cork University Hospital. Qualitative interviews with survivors and family members were conducted. The purposive sample selection of survivors and family members was drawn from the hospital datasets referred to above. Findings: Key findings focus on the considerable adjustment necessary for many of the survivors ofTBI. The chaos that entered people's lives, the shift from independence to dependence, the loss of friends, jobs and previous routines influenced their experience of recovery. Lack of public awareness regarding brain injury and the reaction of others to disability had a profound effect on how survivors managed everyday encounters and social interactions. Survivors reported being 'written olT by health and social care providers. lIowever, survivors in this study had definite goals and aspirations and many staled they fclt ' lucky 10 be alive'. The theme 'lucky to be alive' and the perspectives of survivors otTer an alternative argument 10 the often widely held societal belief that the survivor 'would be belter ofT dead' than brain damaged and disabled for life. Key findings from family members ofTBl survivors focus on the adaptation required. Parents not being able to retire and spouses having 10 become 'breadwinners', as well as carers, arc unexpected changes. Family encounters with healthcare providers wcre sometimes problematic. Some participants reported being told to remove their loved ones from acute hospitals because they were 'bed-blocking'. Family members and TBI survivors shared the view thaI rehabilitation and post-rehabilitation supports and services in Ireland remain fragmented and poorly resourced. Key conclusions are drawn from the research findings and recommendations developed to improve rccovery processes and quality of life for TBI survivors and their families.


Abstract Objective: To investigate if markers of exposure to foodborne and orofecal microbes versus airborne viruses are associated with atopy and respiratory allergies. Design: Retrospective case-control study. Participants: 240 atopic cases and 240 non-atopic controls from a population sample of 1659 participants, all Italian male cadets aged 17-24. Setting: Air force school in Caserta, Italy. Main outcome measures: Serology for Toxoplasma gondii, Helicobacter pylori, hepatitis A virus, measles, mumps, rubella, chickenpox, cytomegalovirus, and herpes simplex virus type 1; skin sensitisation and IgE antibodies to relevant airborne allergens; total IgE concentration; and diagnosis of allergic asthma or rhinitis. Results: Compared with controls there was a lower prevalence of T gondii (26% v 18%, P=0.027), hepatitis A virus (30% v 16%, P=0.004), and H pylori (18%v 15%, P=0.325) in atopic participants. Adjusted odds ratios of atopy decreased with a gradient of exposure to H pylori, T gondii, and hepatitis A virus (none, odds ratio 1; one, 0.70; two or three, 0.37; P for trend=0.000045) but not with cumulative exposure to the other viruses. Conversely, total IgE concentration was not independently associated with any infection. Allergic asthma was rare (1/245, 0.4%) and allergic rhinitis infrequent (16/245, 7%) among the participants (245/1659) exposed to at least two orofecal and foodborne infections (H pylori, T gondii, hepatitis A virus). Conclusion: Respiratory allergy is less frequent in people heavily exposed to orofecal and foodborne microbes. Hygiene and a westernised, semisterile diet may facilitate atopy by influencing the overall pattern of commensals and pathogens that stimulate the gut associated lymphoid tissue thus contributing to the epidemic of allergic asthma and rhinitis in developed countries.


We present the design of E-kernel, an embedding kernel on the Victor V256 message-passing partitionable multiprocessor, developed for the support of program mapping and network reconfiguration. E-kernel supports the embedding of a new network topology onto Victor's 2D mesh and also the embedding of a task graph onto the 2D mesh network or the reconfigured network. In the current implementation, the reconfigured network can be a line or an even-size ring, and the task graphs meshes or tori of a variety of dimensions and shapes or graphs with similar topologies. For application programs having these task graph topologies and that are designed according to the communication model of E-kernel, they can be run without any change on partitions connected by the 2D mesh, line, or ring. Further, E-kernel attempts the communication optimization of these programs on the different networks automatically, thus making both the network topology and the communication optimization attempt completely transparent to the application programs. Many of the embeddings used in E-kernel are optimal or asymptotically optimal (with respect to minimum dilation cost). The implementation of E-kernel translated some of the many theoretical results in graph embeddings into practical tools for program mapping and network reconfiguration in a parallel system. E-kernel is functional on Victor V256. Measurements of E-kernel's performance on V256 are also included. >


BACKGROUND
Premature death in men is known to be significantly associated with coronary heart disease (CHD). More and more studies are pointing toward a possible association between periodontal disease and increased risk of cardiovascular disease. The association of poor oral hygiene and atherosclerosis can be explained by the effect of chronic inflammatory disease on blood rheology. The purpose of the present study was to assess the relationship between CHD and periodontal disease.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
The study population included 1094 Israeli army service men aged 26-53 years (mean: 39+/-5 years). The study group comprised 151 subjects classified as having coronary heart disease CHD, i.e., myocardial infarction, and or anginal syndrome with angiographic evidence of significant coronary disease, or suffer from atherosclerotic risk factors, i.e., diabetes (fasting glucose) and HTN according to strict, well-established criteria. Blood levels of cholesterol and triglycerides were also determined. The severity of periodontal disease was assessed by the aid of CPITN. The control group comprised 943 healthy subjects. Statistical analysis was performed with chi2 test.

RESULTS
Statistical analysis showed a significant association of CPITN score 4 with hypercholesterolemia and a possible association with CHD.

CONCLUSIONS
The generation of higher cholesterol blood levels is proposed as a possible link between chronic periodontal inflammation and atherosclerosis.


A 54-year-old man presented with worsening bilateral rashes on legs and arms 7 days after receiving his BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 (Pfizer) vaccine booster. He developed burning on his palms about 5 days after receiving the booster. On day 6, he observed significant edema on his fingers and palms in addition to thin erythematous papules on his forearms. On day 7, he developed edema on his bilateral dorsal feet, and thin erythematous plaques on his shins. He stated that the rashes were pruritic. He had no rashes following the first two doses of the Pfizer vaccine. He denied having any history of skin disease, autoimmune disease, or allergies. Physical examination revealed multiple thin erythematous papules coalescing into thin plaques on his flexor forearms, and thin erythematous plaques on his dorsal feet (Figure 1). Three 4-mm punch biopsies were performed on his left flexor forearm. The biopsies were carried out at papules present for different lengths of time. Papules at biopsy sites "A," "B," and "C" were present for approximately 24-36 hours, 12-18 hours, and 3-6 hours, respectively (Figure 1).


Osteoporosis is a disease characterized by low bone mass and alterations of bone microarchitecture, with an increased risk of fractures. It is a multifactorial disorder that is more frequent in postmenopausal women but can be associated to other diseases (inflammatory and metabolic diseases). At present, several options are available to treat osteoporosis trying to block bone reabsorption and reduce the risk of fracture. Anyway, these drugs have safety and tolerance problems in long-term treatment. Recently, gut microbiota has been highlighted to have strong influence on bone metabolism, becoming a potential new target to modify bone mineral density. Such evidences are mainly based on mouse models, showing an involvement in modulating the interaction between the immune system and bone cells. Germ-free mice represent a basic model to understand the interaction between microbiota, immune system, and bone cells, even though data are controversial. Anyway, such models have unequivocally demonstrated a connection between such systems, even if the mechanism is unclear. Gut microbiota is a complex system that influences calcium and vitamin D absorption and modulates gut permeability, hormonal secretion, and immune response. A key role is played by the T helper 17 lymphocytes, TNF, interleukin 17, and RANK ligand system. Other important pathways include NOD1, NOD2, and Toll-like receptor 5. Prebiotics and probiotics are a wide range of substances and germs that can influence and modify microbiota. Several studies demonstrated actions by different prebiotics and probiotics in different animals, differing according to sex, age, and hormonal status. Data on the effects on humans are poor and controversial. Gut microbiota manipulation appears a possible strategy to prevent and treat osteopenia and/or osteoporosis as well as other possible bone alterations, even though further clinical studies are necessary to identify correct procedures in humans.


Languages with rich morphology often introduce sparsity in language processing tasks. While morphological analyzers can reduce this sparsity by providing morpheme-level analyses for words, they will often introduce ambiguity by returning multiple analyses for the same surface form. The problem of disambiguating between these morphological parses is further complicated by the fact that a correct parse for a word is not only be dependent on the surface form but also on other words in its context. In this paper, we present a language-agnostic approach to morphological disambiguation. We address the problem of using context in morphological disambiguation by presenting several LSTM-based neural architectures that encode long-range surface-level and analysis-level contextual dependencies. We applied our approach to Turkish, Russian, and Arabic to compare effectiveness across languages, matching state-of-the-art results in two of the three languages. Our results also demonstrate that while context plays a role in learning how to disambiguate, the type and amount of context needed varies between languages.


Xp11.2 translocation renal cell carcinoma (TRCC) is a rare and aggressive variant of renal cell carcinoma (RCC) when presenting in adults. We report a case of a man in his early 40s who was diagnosed with stage III Xp11.2 TRCC and underwent radical nephrectomy. Seven months following the surgery, an adrenal nodule and bilateral pulmonary nodules were discovered. He underwent cryoablation of the adrenal nodule and systemic treatment with daily pazopanib. He displayed stable disease for approximately 6 years. Following this period, multiple hospitalisations interrupted daily pazopanib therapy resulting in progression of disease. His regimen was then changed to ipilimumab and nivolumab, followed by current daily therapy with axitinib. The patient now shows stable disease in his 10th year after diagnosis. This case study demonstrates the efficacy of pazopanib for metastatic Xp11.2 TRCC and warrants further investigation to supplement the guidelines regarding the use of targeted therapy for TRCC.


In order to investigate the influence of vanadium on aging dynamics of Cu-Ni-Si alloy, the microstructure, hardness and electrical conductivity of the cold rolled Cu-Ni-Si alloys with varying V content were systematically studied. The results show that V can postpone the recovery and accelerate the precipitation with (NiV)2Si compound. Consequently, V can increase hardness obviously. However, because of the precipitation during the hot rolling procedure, V addtion has a little harmed to electrical conductivity.


Target output, extended output and moderate output  are compared for selected construction projects  in some selected sites in Nigeria. The objective of this study is to examine the attributes of extended and moderate output, setting of benchmarks for purpose of  analysis of worker productivity, determination of derivable benefits, with a view to identifying if the effect are the same for both methods. The study procures the primary data used in this study through the use of questionnaires designed in Likert scale 1 to 5, which are sent to clients, builders and consultants. In all, 120 questionnaires were sent to these respondents who recently completed their housing projects based on the two methods. Results of the study indicate that there is  significant difference between both methods in terms of risks of value for money, guaranteed sense of self accomplishment, while a significant difference exists between both methods in job burnt- out effect, timely completion of project, and exhaustion, Moderate target output method demonstrates less risk of timely completion of project than the extended target output.  This study concludes that there are various types of risks inherent in use of both methods in housing projects. The study displays characteristics of early completion of project and prospects of getting good value for money. Recommendations of the study are that clients, contractors and consultants should use Moderate target output for execution of their future housing projects job allocations, and also they are at liberty to use any of the two methods as they best satisfy their requirements. Implications of this study to policy makers and other stakeholders in the construction industry is that  Moderate labour output method should be explored for use in large and complex projects as  considerable cost savings can be achieved, timely delivery of project and good value for money are equally derivable benefits of the method.  The outcome of this study serves as a watershed to other peculiar issues inn site productivity and job beats' allocations. Keywords: Moderate Output, Extended Output, Productivity, Target


The potential for Artificial Intelligence is widely proclaimed. Yet, in everyday educational settings the use of this technology is limited. Particularly, if we consider smart systems that actually interact with learners in a knowledgeable way and as such support the learning process. It illustrates the fact that teaching professionally is a complex challenge that is beyond the capabilities of current autonomous robots. On the other hand, dedicated forms of Artificial Intelligence can be very good at certain things. For example, computers are excellent chess players and automated route planners easily outperform humans. To deploy this potential, experts argue for a hybrid approach in which humans and smart systems collaboratively accomplish goals. How to realize this for education? What does it entail in practice? In this contribution, we investigate the idea of a hybrid approach in secondary education. As a case-study, we focus on learners acquiring systems thinking skills and our recently for this purpose developed pedagogical approach. Particularly, we discuss the kind of Artificial Intelligence that is needed in this situation, as well as which tasks the software can perform well and which tasks are better, or necessarily, left with the teacher.


At Galena Creek, the ice/debris system has alternated between rock glacier and debris-covered glacier modes due to changes in the size of the accumulation area. In the rock glacier mode, coarse debris is concentrated at the base of couloirs along the lower edge of a small, steep accumulation area where it becomes part of the surface debris mantle of the rock glacier. In the debris-covered glacier mode, debris is primarily incorporated englacially within an expanded accumulation area. Englacial debris originating on the sides of the cirque is concentrated at the margins of the glacier; debris originating from the cirque headwall is concentrated where it emerges in the ablation area and forms a debris cover. As the equilibrium line rises during warm periods, the debris-covered glacier is transformed into a rock glacier. The marginal englacial debris is exposed progressively up-glacier resulting in ice-cored debris ridges which extend into the cirque and are analogous to the ice-cored lateral moraines of many subpolar alpine glaciers. The debris-covered terminus continues to flow as a rock glacier lobe. The debris ridges/lateral moraines record previous positions of a debris-covered glacier margin and can be used to map past accumulation areas and to infer the position of the associated glacier terminus. At least three of these features are cross-cut by the rock glacier. Age estimates for three glacial advances are made using reasonable surface velocities and the distance between a rock glacier lobe and the inferred position of its associated glacier terminus. The estimated ages correlate with regional alpine glacier chronologies. These observations, which are not unique to the Absaroka Range, have general utility for understanding how changes in the relative flux of ice and debris control the morphology of the resulting deposits and for placing rock glacier deposits within alpine glacier chronologies.


Understanding the implicit bias of training algorithms is of crucial importance in order to explain the success of overparametrised neural networks. In this paper, we study the dynamics of stochastic gradient descent over diagonal linear networks through its continuous time version, namely stochastic gradient flow. We explicitly characterise the solution chosen by the stochastic flow and prove that it always enjoys better generalisation properties than that of gradient flow. Quite surprisingly, we show that the convergence speed of the training loss controls the magnitude of the biasing effect: the slower the convergence, the better the bias. To fully complete our analysis, we provide convergence guarantees for the dynamics. We also give experimental results which support our theoretical claims. Our findings highlight the fact that structured noise can induce better generalisation and they help explain the greater performances observed in practice of stochastic gradient descent over gradient descent.


The Spatial Data Infrastructure (SDI) is a platform to coordinate the exchanging and sharing of the spatial data between several actors producing or using data with spatial reference. In Morocco, massive spatial data is produced and several government agencies are feeling the urgent need for a data exchange mechanism to optimize their efforts and avoid redundant production. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate a state of the art on the SDI to illustrate the good practices and study their role in implementing a platform for sharing spatial information in Morocco. The approach consists of describing and highlighting the concept of SDI through an analysis of the existing literature. A Benchmarking study on the construction of SDI at national and international level will be conducted. Through this study, it was found that the national context presents advantages for the implementation of a Spatial Data Infrastructure and that the initiatives in progress will allow the setting up of an observatory facilitating the implementation of an SDI in Morocco.


The composition of planktonic eukaryotes in the size fraction 3-20 µm of 10 maritime Antarctic lakes was studied by denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE). Microscopic obser- vations were also carried out to compare the results obtained by this molecular fingerprinting tech- nique with morphological data. Six lakes from Hope Bay (Antarctic Peninsula) and 4 from the Potter Peninsula (King George Island) were sampled during the austral summer of 2003. These lakes were of different trophic status and covered a wide range of limnological features. Previous studies of the planktonic communities of these lakes revealed high nanoflagellate abundance and biomass, but their taxonomic identification was usually uncertain due to their similarity in size and shape. Here, the application of DGGE allowed both a comparison of the structure of the nanoplanktonic commu- nities and an identification of the dominant populations through sequencing of the most prominent DGGE bands. The most important organisms in these lakes were the Chrysophyceae, represented in the DGGE gel by 5 different band positions and identified by microscopy in 5 different morphotypes, including uniflagellated and biflagellated naked organisms: 1 sequence belonged to the Chryso- sphaerales, 2 closely related bands (likely 2 species from the same genus) belonged probably to the Ochromonadales (unicellular biflagellates), while the other 2 bands could not be assigned to any defined chrysophyte group. Sequences related to Chlorophyceae, Bacillariophyceae and probably Cercozoa were also retrieved. A Dictyochophyceae belonging to the order Pedinellales is reported for the first time in freshwater Antarctic ecosystems. Microscopic observations suggest that this phyto- planktonic organism most likely corresponds to Pseudopedinella. Most of the lakes shared several common sequences, such as 2 chrysophyte bands, which suggests the existence of well-adapted nanoplanktonic species dispersed throughout the Antarctic lakes. However, some sequences appeared exclusively in specific lakes, which seems to be related to the trophic status of the water bodies and probably also to the local conditions of the maritime Antarctic regions sampled.


Acute and chronic excessive intracellular increase of reactive oxygen species (ROS) is involved in the development and progression of cardiovascular diseases. ROS are by-products of various oxidative physiological and biochemical processes. Sources of ROS are mitochondrial respiration, NADH/NADPH oxidase, xanthine oxidoreductase or the uncoupling of nitric oxide synthase (NOS) in vascular cells. ROS mediate various signaling pathways that underlie cardiovascular pathophysiology. The delicate equilibrium between free-radical generation and antioxidant defense is altered in favor of the former, thus leading to redox imbalance, oxidative stress, and increased cellular injury. An understanding of the pathophysiological mechanisms mediated by oxidative stress is crucial to the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular diseases.


Fairness-aware learning aims at satisfying various fairness constraints in addition to the usual performance criteria via data-driven machine learning techniques. Most of the research in fairness-aware learning employs the setting of fair-supervised learning. However, many dynamic real-world applications can be better modeled using sequential decision-making problems and fair reinforcement learning provides a more suitable alternative for addressing these problems. In this article, we provide an extensive overview of fairness approaches that have been implemented via a reinforcement learning (RL) framework. We discuss various practical applications in which RL methods have been applied to achieve a fair solution with high accuracy. We further include various facets of the theory of fair reinforcement learning, organizing them into single-agent RL, multi-agent RL, long-term fairness via RL, and offline learning. Moreover, we highlight a few major issues to explore in order to advance the field of fair-RL, namely - i) correcting societal biases, ii) feasibility of group fairness or individual fairness, and iii) explainability in RL. Our work is beneficial for both researchers and practitioners as we discuss articles providing mathematical guarantees as well as articles with empirical studies on real-world problems.


Assuring the microbiological safety of fresh produce can present a huge challenge for food
producers. Organic acid washes, are commonly used as antimicrobial treatments. However,
our understanding of how foodborne pathogens interact with these acids is limited. Bacteria
have evolved a variety of mechanisms to promote survival under acidic conditions presented
in various environments (e.g. animal stomach). These mechanisms contribute to maintaining
a tolerable intracellular pH when the organism is presented with an acidic challenge.
This work explores the effect of weak organic acids notably fumarate on the inhibition of
amino acid decarboxylase systems which are the most potent acid resistance mechanisms. We
demonstrate that sodium fumarate reduces survival in planktonic cultures and biofilms of E.
coli, L. monocytogenes and Salmonella under acidic conditions. This effect stems from
effects on glutamate amino acid decarboxylase system function or transcription. In E. coli
fumarate inhibited the glutamate decarboxylase (GAD) activity and output resulting in lower
survival. In L. monocytogenes it also inhibited GAD activity although the organism
responded by gadD2 upregulation resulting in higher GABA export, suggesting that possible
effects on intracellular GAD activity or other systems might be responsible. In Salmonella,
fumarate inhibited the activity of the lysine decarboxylase (LDAR) system under acidic stress
resulting in reduced survival.
Subsequently, an examination of the possible usage of fumarate in decontamination
procedures on fresh produce. Fumarate significantly improved the efficacy of a commercial
acidic disinfectant, which was also significantly higher than that of chlorine.
Furthermore, with the use of the phenotypic microarrays we explored the effect of significant
stress genes (e.g. sigB) in carbon source utilisation and osmotic tolerance of
L. monocytogenes. The work demonstrated for first time a self-preservation
and nutritional competence (SPANC) balance in a Gram-positive bacterium particularly in
the absence of sigB, which enhanced carbon source utilisation in expense to lower stress
tolerance.


The possibility of theacrine electrochemical determination, assisted by cubic nanoparticles of CoSn(OH)6 has been evaluated from the theoretical point of view. The correspondent mechanism has been suggested, and the correspondent model, developed and analyzed by means of linear stability theory and bifurcation analysis. It was verified that theacrine may be electrochemically detected in neutral or lightly alkaline media over CoSn(OH)6. The analytical signal has to be clear and easily interpreted. The possibility of oscillatory and monotonic instabilities has also been verified.


Numerous studies have shown that people are adept at learning novel object dynamics, linking applied force and motion, when performing reaching movements with hand-held objects. Here we investigated whether the control of rapid corrective arm responses, elicited in response to visual perturbations, has access to such newly acquired knowledge of object dynamics. Participants first learned to make reaching movements while grasping an object subjected to complex load forces that depended on the distance and angle of the hand from the start position. During a subsequent test phase, we examined grip and load force coordination during corrective arm movements elicited (within ∼150 ms) in response to viewed sudden lateral shifts (1.5 cm) in target or object position. We hypothesized that, if knowledge of object dynamics is incorporated in the control of the corrective responses, grip force changes would anticipate the unusual load force changes associated with the corrective arm movements so as to support grasp stability. Indeed, we found that the participants generated grip force adjustments tightly coupled, both spatially and temporally, to the load force changes associated with the arm movement corrections. We submit that recently learned novel object dynamics are effectively integrated into sensorimotor control policies that support rapid visually driven arm corrective actions during transport of hand held objects. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Previous studies have demonstrated that the motor system can learn, and make use of, internal models of object dynamics to generate feedforward motor commands. However, it is not known whether such internal models are incorporated into rapid, automatic arm movement corrections that compensate for errors that arise during movement. Here we demonstrate, for the first time, that internal models of novel object dynamics are integrated into rapid corrective arm movements made in response to visuomotor perturbations that, importantly, do not directly perturb the object.


Information retrieval using probabilistic techniques has attracted significant attention on the part of researchers in information and computer science over the past few decades. In the 1980s, knowledge-based techniques also made an impressive contribution to intelligent information retrieval and indexing. More recently, information science researchers have turned to other newer inductive learning techniques including symbolic learning, genetic algorithms, and simulated annealing. These newer techniques, which are grounded in diverse paradigms, have provided great opportunities for researchers to enhance the information processing and retrieval capabilities of current information systems. In this article, we first provide an overview of these newer techniques and their use in information retrieval research. In order to familiarize readers with the techniques, we present three promising methods: The symbolic ID3 algorithm, evolution-based genetic algorithms, and simulated annealing. We discuss their knowledge representations and algorithms in the unique context of information retrieval. An experiment using a 8000-record COMPEN database was performed to examine the performances of these inductive query-by-example techniques in comparison with the performance of the conventional relevance feedback method. The machine learning techniques were shown to be able to help identify new documents which are similar to documents initially suggested by users, and documents which contain similar concepts to each other. Genetic algorithms, in particular, were found to out-perform relevance feedback in both document recall and precision. We believe these inductive machine learning techniques hold promise for the ability to analyze users' preferred documents (or records), identify users' underlying information needs, and also suggest alternatives for search for database management systems and Internet applications.


23 24 Mirror neurons were first discovered in area F5 of macaque monkeys. In humans, 25 non-invasive studies have demonstrated an increased BOLD signal in homologous 26 motor areas during action observation. One approach to demonstrating that this 27 indicates the existence of mirror neurons in humans has been to employ fMRI 28 adaptation to test whether the same population of neurons is active during both 29 observation and execution conditions. Although a number of human studies have 30 reported fMRI adaptation in these areas a recent study has shown that macaque mirror 31 neurons do not attenuate their firing rate with two repetitions. Here we investigated 32 whether mirror neurons modulate their firing rate when monkeys observed the same 33 repeated natural action multiple times. We recorded from 67 mirror neurons in area 34 F5 of two macaque monkeys while they observed an experimenter perform a reach-to-35 grasp action on a small food reward using a precision grip. Although no changes were 36 detectable for the first two repetitions, we show that both the firing rate and the 37 latency at which mirror neurons discharged during observation were subtly modulated 38 by the repetition of the observed action over 7-10 trials. Significant adaption was 39 mostly found in the period immediately before the grasp was performed. We also 40 found that the local field potential activity in F5 (beta frequency range, 16-23 Hz), 41 that is attenuated during action observation, also showed systematic changes with 42 repeated observation. These LFP changes occurred well in advance of the mirror 43 neuron adaptation. We conclude that macaque mirror neurons can show intra-modal 44


Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the prevalence of depression and cognitive impairment, in addi-tion to investigate the relation between these disorders and sociodemographic variables in 55 years of age and older population of Trabzon city. Methods: There has been interviewed with the aged of 55 and over 3093 people who represented Trabzon province. In the study, sociodemographic data form, the Standardized Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) form, Geriatric Depression Scale forms were administered. Results: The prevalence of the depression was found to be 13.6% and the prevalence of the cognitive impairment was detected as 17.1% in the 55 years and over aged group in the province of Trabzon. The presence of depression was detected significantly in females and in those with cognitive impairment. The rate of occurring depression has increased significantly with age. Female gender, ageing, to be widowed, low educational level, hypertension, smoking, a history of head trauma, myocardial infarction, cerebrovascular accident (CVA), Parkinson\'s disease, a history of rheumatic dis-ease, left-handedness were determined as the possible risks for depression. Increased MMSE score, male gender, longer educational period, smoking was found out as reduce the risk of depression. The risk factors for cognitive impairment include; female gender, ageing, being single, being uneducated, head injury, CVA, Parkin-son\'s disease, a history of rheumatic disease and depression. Male gender, increased educational level, being married, alcohol and tobacco use was found to decrease the risk for cognitive impairment. The number of indivi-duals with cognitive impairment and the level of cognitive impairment increase with age. Conclusion: Depres-sion and cognitive impairment are common in in 55 years of age and older population, and increase with age progression and seem to be related to each other. Women are under greater risk for both disorders. Improving education and physical health protection may be protective for both disorders.


A consultant plastic surgeon faces a possible libel action for questioning the effectiveness of a £125 (€146; $200) cream that its makers claim will increase a woman's breast size.

The comments by Dalia Nield of the London Clinic were quoted by the Daily Mail in an article about Rodial's Boob Job cream, which the manufacturers say can boost breast size by 2.5 cm.

Mrs Nield was quoted as saying that it was "highly unlikely" that the cream would make breasts bigger and adding that the company had not provided a full analysis of tests on it. If …


Next Generation Wireless Networks (NGWNs) will be the convergence of fixed and mobile networking technologies, e.g., Ethernet, Wireless LAN, 2G/3G/4G, etc. This united ubiquitous network will consist of billions of mobile devices, each with multiple networking interfaces. These interfaces may belong to a set of diverse link layer technologies. Internet Protocol (IP) shall potentially be used as the inter-networking protocol to bridge this diversity in the underlying wireless link-layer similar to the present wired Internet architecture. However, the traditional IP was not designed for wireless environments and, hence, faces several issues in mobility, multihoming, user path selection, etc. The basis of most of these issues lies in the problem of contextual overloading of IP addresses to serve as both locators and identifiers. The ID/Locator Split concept is a well-known approach to overcome this problem. Mobile IPv6 can be considered as an example of an ID/Locator Split mechanism in which the home address is used as the identity of the mobile node and its care-of-addresses (CoAs) are used as locators. Cellular networking standards organizations, e.g., the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), have adopted the Mobile IP concept for next generation cellular networks to maintain the mobility in an all-IP network framework. Mobile IPv6 and its optimizations can achieve full mobility and deployability. Currently, Mobile IPv6 allows features such as multiple CoA registrations and flow binding options. Apart from mobility, these extensions provide a solution for user-multihoming. However, there is no standard mechanism to select the proper interfaces or to map CoAs underneath. In this paper, we propose a policy-based QoS framework for users to choose the best N interfaces that suit the requirements of their specific applications.


Juvenile Helix aspersa (1 month, 1 g) were exposed for 4 weeks to food contaminated with copper, zinc, lead, and pentachlorophenol. At concentrations observed in contaminated soils, two essential metals at low levels (Cu and Zn) had a dose-dependent sublethal action on growth. Copper inhibited growth dose-dependently between 1000 and 2000 microg small middle dotg(-1) (EC(50)=1200 microg small middle dotg(-1)), whereas zinc had a toxic effect from 4000 microg small middle dotg(-1) (EC(50)=5500 microg small middle dotg(-1)) on. Lead, a nonessential metal, had no negative effect on growth, unlike cadmium (EC(50)=140 microg small middle dotg(-1)), as reported previously. Pentachlorophenol inhibited growth at a concentration of 500 microg small middle dotg(-1) from the fourth week and 1000 microg small middle dotg(-1) from the first week on. The results obtained with these key organisms in the food chain (consumers) complement those obtained with other land invertebrates (earthworms, springtails, wood-lice, etc.). The findings of the present study and those of earlier studies indicate that juvenile snails are useful organisms for testing the sublethal toxicity of chemicals acting via the food, i.e., the main route of toxicant uptake in land animals.


The subjectively assessed quality of photographs taken with a 48 in lens has been compared with the MTF of the lens measured in the same image planes. The image quality and associated MTF were varied by the through focus technique, using a range of image planes on both sides of the optimum. The photographs have been examined to ascertain the change in MTF, at the various levels, resulting in a just detectable difference in image quality, and whether a "reduced" MTF could be used which would sensitively indicate the changes. The results will be used to provide MTF production tolerances for lenses used in aerial photography. The subject matter of the photography was vehicles as photographed from a vertical range of 40,000 ft, giving a scale of 1:10,000. Actual photography from an aircraft introduces uncontrollable factors such as vibration and atmospheric turbulence which degrade the image, so the situation was simulated using two stages of ground photography. The first produced a diapositive of vehicle models, using a high quality 35 mm lens and film which caused minimal reduction in the spatial frequency content of the original scene. This diapositive was photographed with the test lens, on to the film most often used in aerial reconnaissance operations, in conjunction with a collimator to provide the infinite conjugate condition and final correct image scale. EROS 200 equipment, employing crossed slits and a rotating grating was used to measure the MTF and the techniques employed to ensure that the image and MTF were recorded in the same plane are described. The spectral bandwidth of the illuminant was restricted to ensure that the same spectral conditions applied during the photography and MTF measurement. This enhanced the performance of the lens and broadened the scope of the experiment. Results indicate that for a combination of this lens with FP3 Aerial Film there are two useful indicators of image quality. (1) The area between the lens MTF (scaled to a maximum input modulation of 0.2) and the film threshold curve. (2) The cut-off spatial frequency. The two indicators are linked geometrically.