It has been known for decades that suppression of spontaneous scalp electroencephalographic activity occurs during ischaemia. Trend analysis for such suppression was found useful for intraoperative monitoring during carotid endarterectomy, or as a screening tool to detect delayed cerebral ischaemia after aneurismal subarachnoid haemorrhage. Nevertheless, pathogenesis of such suppression of activity has remained unclear. In five patients with aneurismal subarachnoid haemorrhage and four patients with decompressive hemicraniectomy after malignant hemispheric stroke due to middle cerebral artery occlusion, we here performed simultaneously full-band direct and alternating current electroencephalography at the scalp and direct and alternating current electrocorticography at the cortical surface. After subarachnoid haemorrhage, 275 slow potential changes, identifying spreading depolarizations, were recorded electrocorticographically over 694 h. Visual inspection of time-compressed scalp electroencephalography identified 193 (70.2%) slow potential changes [amplitude: −272 (−174, −375) µV (median quartiles), duration: 5.4 (4.0, 7.1) min, electrocorticography–electroencephalography delay: 1.8 (0.8, 3.5) min]. Intervals between successive spreading depolarizations were significantly shorter for depolarizations with electroencephalographically identified slow potential change [33.0 (27.0, 76.5) versus 53.0 (28.0, 130.5) min, P = 0.009]. Electroencephalography was thus more likely to display slow potential changes of clustered than isolated spreading depolarizations. In contrast to electrocorticography, no spread of electroencephalographic slow potential changes was seen, presumably due to superposition of volume-conducted electroencephalographic signals from widespread cortical generators. In two of five patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage, serial magnetic resonance imaging revealed large delayed infarcts at the recording site, while electrocorticography showed clusters of spreading depolarizations with persistent depression of spontaneous activity. Alternating current electroencephalography similarly displayed persistent depression of spontaneous activity, and direct current electroencephalography slow potential changes riding on a shallow negative ultraslow potential. Isolated spreading depolarizations with depression of both spontaneous electrocorticographic and electroencephalographic activity displayed significantly longer intervals between successive spreading depolarizations than isolated depolarizations with only depression of electrocorticographic activity [44.0 (28.0, 132.0) min, n = 96, versus 30.0 (26.5, 51.5) min, n = 109, P = 0.001]. This suggests fusion of electroencephalographic depression periods at high depolarization frequency. No propagation of electroencephalographic depression was seen between scalp electrodes. Durations/magnitudes of isolated electroencephalographic and corresponding electrocorticographic depression periods correlated significantly. Fewer spreading depolarizations were recorded in patients with malignant hemispheric stroke but characteristics were similar to those after subarachnoid haemorrhage. In conclusion, spreading depolarizations and depressions of spontaneous activity display correlates in time-compressed human scalp direct and alternating current electroencephalography that may serve for their non-invasive detection.


Background: Vitamin D deficiency is involved in a broad spectrum of diseases including chronic kidney disease (CKD). Objectives: This study was designed to assess serum vitamin D, renal biomarkers, protein profile, and electrolytes in CKD patients with a clinical trial of vitamin D therapy. Methods: This case-control follow-up interventional study comprised 42 CKD patients and 42 apparently healthy controls. Patients and controls were matched for age and gender. Patients were assigned to receive, a weekly oral dose of vitamin D3 (50000 IU) for 3 successive months. The follow-up therapy was conducted under direct and full physician supervision. Results: Vitamin D was significantly lower in CKD patients compared to controls (29.6±12.4 versus 35.2±9.9 ng/dL, P=0.033). Significant increases were shown in the urea, creatinine, and uric acid in patients compared to controls whereas glomerular filtration rate (GFR), total protein, albumin, and calcium were significantly lower in patients. A significant improvement was noted for vitamin D and calcium where they registered mean values of 43.8±9.1 ng/dL and 9.65±0.70 mg/dL at the end of the therapeutic period compared to 29.6±12.4 ng/dL and 8.61±0.77 mg/dL in patients before vitamin D therapy (P=0.028 and P=0.033, respectively). Conclusion: General amelioration of the metabolic profile of CKD patients in response to vitamin D therapy has been shown. Besides a significant improvement in vitamin D and calcium. Consequently, vitamin D is a useful candidate in clinical settings for the improvement of renal function and controlling of CKD, and more importantly its complications.


Topping is a precommercial thinning (PCT) method where secondary stems are cut higher above the ground compared to conventional PCT. The secondary stems continue to live for a period and are supposed to compete with the main stems and promote their quality.The objective of the study was to compare the effect of PCT on height and diameter growth between topping and conventional PCT. The study also analysed the relationship between height and diameter growth and the number of stems after PCT.Nine topped stands and six conventional precommercially thinned stands were visited between February 28th and March 5. One sample plot per hectare was laid out in the investigated stands. In every sample plot the number of stems was counted and five main stems were measured for height, height growth since PCT, diameter and diameter growth since PCT.The results showed significantly higher effect on height growth after topping as compared to conventional PCT but no significant difference in the effect of diameter growth between topping and conventional PCT. After PCT the H/D quote (height/diameter quote) was higher (less taper) in topped stands and lower (larger taper) in conventional PCT.


Realizing the need for improvement in Nigeria by 2020 requires the introduction of reforms in all sectors. This reform can be achieved with good and efficient policies as well as strengthening and enforcing the existing policies. The urge to evaluate the Information Technology (IT) Policy of Nigeria which is believed to be the 'bedrock for national survival and development' raises the question on: the process of formulating the policy and how the implementation of the IT policy in Nigeria has fared since 2001? This paper presents issues bothering on the awareness, acceptance and adoption of the IT policy gotten from the result of the analysis of the process of formulating the IT policy in Nigeria. This report is a segment of an on-going policy implementation evaluation study by the researcher. The study utilized instruments that are applied across selected sectors and sub-sectors in Nigeria in organizations and institutions. Analysis was performed using a uniform methodology called "result-based management policy evaluation method" and descriptive statistics. The study identified some general factors which are characteristic of the process of design and formulation of the policy. This includes among others: (1) Existence of clear goals / objectives and a mandate for the implementing agency; (2) In-active involvement of stakeholders through lack of adequate awareness of policy; (3) Ability of government to balance and synchronize visions, flexibility and continuity of implementing institutions; (4) Ability of organizations to adapt to and integrate adjacent policies or develop consistent policy packages; and (5) Lack of adequate support for policy implementation and take-offs. Recommendations were made to enhance the process of policy design and formulation in the country especially towards achieving economic development.

 Key words: Awareness, acceptance, adoption, analysis, economic sectors, information technology, Nigeria, policy process, implementation.


Objective: This study investigated the distribution of second-formant (F2) slopes in a relatively large number of speakers with dysarthria associated with two different underlying diseases. Patients and Methods: Forty speakers with dysarthria (20 with Parkinson's disease, PD; 20 with stroke) and 5 control speakers without a history of neurological disease were asked to repeat six words (coat, hail, sigh, shoot, row and wax) 10 times. Acoustic analysis was performed to derive F2 slope, and speech intelligibility data were collected using a direct magnitude estimate technique to examine its relationship to F2 slope. Results: Statistical analysis revealed that both clinical groups showed significantly reduced F2 slopes compared to healthy speakers for all words but row. No group difference was found between speakers with PD and stroke; however, different words showed varying sensitivity to the speech motor control problems. The F2 slopes of only two words, shoot and wax, were significantly correlated with scaled speech intelligibility. Conclusion: The findings support the idea that distributional characteristics of acoustic variables, such as F2 slope, could be used to develop a quantitative metric of severity of speech motor control deficits in dysarthria, when the materials are appropriately selected and additional distributional characteristics are studied.


A scenario is used to illustrate the capabilities of a proposed Design Apprentice, focussing on the area of detailed, low-level design. Given a specification, the Design Apprentice will be able to make many of the design decisions needed to synthesize the required program. The Design Apprentice will also be able to detect various kinds of contradictions and omissions in a specification.


SummaryAlthough morphological and functional kidney lesions are well known to occur in rheumatoid arthritis (RA), there appear to be no previous reports on reversible acute renal failure. That interstitial nephritis plays a part in acute renal failure is clinically documented but the pathophysiology is obscure. The role of raised interstitial pressure has often been discussed but convincing evidence is still lacking.Two patients with classical RA complicated by reversible oliguria and impaired kidney function are presented. Renal biopsies revealed no glomerular, tubular or amyloid lesions. The only light microscopic finding was greatly increased interstitial edema, which stained metachromatically with toluidine blue and was hyaluronidase-sensitive.It is supposed that the abnormal concentration of interstitial hyaluronic acid and its high water-binding capacity leads to an increase of interstitial pressure, which is followed by renal insufficiency. The mucinous edema of the kidneys is assumed to be an acut...


To succeed in the graphics controllers market, it is important to take advantage of embedded DRAMs, which provide low power consumption, low electromagnetic interference (EMI), smaller board space, and frame memory flexibility (capacity, access speed, and bandwidth). These capabilities benefit portable PC applications in which board space and power consumption are serious considerations. The MSM7680 accelerator is ideally suited for a compact multimedia system because of its smaller, embedded DRAM capacity. The MSM7680 provides high performance and/or a one-chip solution for many graphics display systems. It also integrates the frame buffer with graphics controller functions such as a 2D drawing engine, MPEG-1 decoder, digital/analog converter for RGB analog output, and a clock generator phase-locked loop. The MSM7680 multimedia accelerator uses a 256-bit data bus with embedded 1.25-Mbyte DRAM to increase the rate of data transfers and decrease power consumption.


Tightly-controlled cell division is of critical importance for multicellular organisms to be able to grow and survive over long periods of time. The most demanding step in this process is the faithful replication of the genome. If a cell fails to copy its DNA molecule in an error-free manner, the genetic changes in the DNA can lead to cell death or, in the worst case, to uncontrolled cell division, resulting in genome instability and cancer.
The DNA is constantly challenged by exogenous and endogenous damaging agents, such as UV irradiation, water or reactive oxygen species that threaten the integrity of DNA. The resulting lesions are addressed by base excision repair (BER) and mismatch repair (MMR). The cell's repair pathways are, however, not only needed to correct damage in the DNA and mistakes arising during replication, but they are also essential for many physiological processes. BER and MMR were shown to play a role in antibody diversification during adaptive immune response and BER is implicated in DNA methylation dynamics to control gene expression.
In the first part of the thesis, we set out to investigate the role of BER and MMR in class switch recombination (CSR), a process that enables B-cells to produce antibodies with different effector functions. Using DNA substrates containing defined nicks and uracils, we mimicked the intermediates arising during CSR by the action of activation induced cytidine deaminase (AID). We found that the creation of DNA double strand breaks, a step that is essential for CSR, heavily depends on the BER enzyme uracil DNA glycosylase (UNG) and on the MMR protein MutSα.
In the second part of the thesis, I aimed to gain insights into the dynamic metabolism of DNA modifications that control gene expression by investigating the chromatin dynamics at the vitellogenin (VTG) gene regulatory region. The VTG gene represents a valuable model to study the events on chromatin leading to expression of the gene, as it is well-characterized and inducible by estradiol treatment. Demethylation events have been observed in the enhancer region in rooster DNA upon hormone treatment. In our cell line system, we saw no demethylation, but an increase in 5-hydroxymethylation, a product of oxidation mediated by the Ten-eleven Translocation proteins, implicated in DNA demethylation. In addition, the estrogen receptor α binding to its response element in the VTG enhancer was not altered by the presence of 5mC or 5hmC, but a shift of a methylation-sensitive factor was observed in nuclear extracts. In vitro methylation of a reporter plasmid under the control of the VTG regulatory region inhibited transcription, confirming an important role of methylation dynamics in the control of VTG expression. We found evidence that a CpG residing outside of the estrogen response element in an E-box in the VTG promoter is responsible for the methylation-sensitivity.
The data presented in this thesis illustrate the diverse functions of eukaryotic repair pathways. They show the great potential of these versatile mechanisms, but also point out the danger they pose to cells and multicellular organisms. If they are not processed correctly, the DNA modifications and rearrangements can lead to tumorigenesis, highlighting the importance of a deep understanding of the mechanisms involved.


In recent years, the intensification of drought and unsustainable management and use of water resources have caused a significant decline in the water level of the Urmia Lake in the northwest of Iran. This condition has affected the lake, approaching an irreversible point such that many projects have been implemented and are being implemented to save the natural condition of the Urmia Lake, among which the inter-basin water transfer (IBWT) project from the Zab River to the lake could be considered an important project. The main aim of this research is the evaluation of the IBWT project effects on the Gadar destination basin. Simulations of the geometrical properties of the river, including the bed and flow, have been performed, and the land cover and flood map were overlapped in order to specify the areas prone to flood after implementing the IBWT project. The results showed that with the implementation of this project, the discharge of the Gadar River was approximately tripled and the water level of the river rose 1 m above the average. In April, May, and June, about 952.92, 1458.36, and 731.43 ha of land adjacent to the river (floodplain) will be inundated by flood, respectively. Results also indicated that UNESCO's criteria No. 3 ("a comprehensive environmental impact assessment must indicate that the project will not substantially degrade the environmental quality within the area of origin or the area of delivery") and No. 5 ("the net benefits from the transfer must be shared equitably between the area of origin and the area of water delivery") have been violated by implementing this project in the study area. The findings could help the local government and other decision-makers to better understand the effects of the IBWT projects on the physical and hydrodynamic processes of the Gadar River as a destination basin.


Mount Elgon is a transboundary East African montane ecosystem that harbors unique biological diversity and provides critical goods and services to the surrounding densely populated communities. As a key water tower, the effectiveness of forest- and land-management policies has direct impacts on agriculture, hydropower, fisheries and other sectors across large watersheds in Uganda and Kenya (and onward to the whole Nile River basin). The Uganda Wildlife Authority (UWA), the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) and the Kenya Forest Service (KFS) have developed a range of exclusionary protected area and partial-access participatory forest management approaches to enforce national conservation mandates in different portions of the Mount Elgon. The future resilience of forest assemblages will be challenged as climate change and increased variability in weather patterns interact that with societal interventions that may enable the introduction of exotic species, the expansion of diseases. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of different forest governance regimes on forest structure and composition over time (1997-2014). Two study sites in Uganda (Kapkwai and Bufuma) and Kenya (Chorlem and Kimothon) under differing forest governance arrangements were monitored from 1997 to 2014 using the International Forestry Resources and Institutions (IFRI) methodology. Each forest unit was sampled three to four times (1997, 2001/2, 2008, 2013/14), at 30 randomly established sample plots. Data was collected on seedlings (counts), saplings and shrubs (diameter at breast height [DBH] and height), trees (DBH and height) and forest use. This analysis of forest structure and composition included density, basal area, dominant species, species richness and the Shannon-Wiener species diversity index. When comparing the outcomes for participatory forest management and centralized forest management in Uganda versus Kenya, the results defy dogmatic generalizations as the outcomes differed in the two countries. Furthermore, this study highlighted the fragility of certain improvements in forest resilience. In this respect, recent declines in forest cover mean that these forest management regimes will need to continue improving their engagement with local communities in order to address both internal socioeconomic and urban-/private sector-driven deterioration of Mount Elgon's forests. This study also highlights the need for greater integration of development (climate-change adaptation) and conservation (climate-change mitigation) policies.


UNLABELLED
Objectives. Walking is poorly represented in memory, making it difficult to measure using self-report and even harder to predict. To circumvent this, we used the affective priming paradigm (Fazio, Sanbonmatsu, Powell, & Kardes, 1986) to assess implicit attitudes towards walking.

METHODS
Royal Air Force trainee aircraftsmen (N=188) wore pedometers for 1 week prior to completing the affective priming paradigm, questionnaire and interview. The affective priming paradigm involved a computer-based response latency task containing physical activity words as primes followed by adjectives as targets to be evaluated. Targets were drawn from two bipolar dichotomies, good-bad (the original Fazio et al. items) and happy-sad (mood).

RESULTS
Priming for mood items was related to levels of physical activity with high frequency participants priming for the positive (happy) pole and low frequency participants priming for the negative (sad). Both groups primed for the negative element of the Fazio (good-bad) dichotomy. Regarding walking and running, there was no differentiation on the basis of participation level. Instead, facilitated responses to happy targets contrasted with inhibited responses to sad targets for both types of locomotion. There was weak evidence that intentions to run were associated with priming of positive target items, irrespective of category.

CONCLUSIONS
The relationship between implicit attitudes and behaviour is complex. Whereas implicit attitudes were related to overall exercise participation, they were not related to the specific activity of walking, despite the behaviour being mainly under automatic control.


Pharmacological stress testing may be used in the diagnosis of coronary artery disease when there are contra-indications to the use of conventional exercise protocols. The responses to such testing using arbutamine and to conventional treadmill exercise were compared in eight patients. Respiratory gas analysis and cardiovascular observations were performed during both tests. For an equivalent increment in heart rate, both protocols increased systolic blood pressure and serum lactate. Minute ventilation and oxygen consumption also rose during both protocols, but much more so with exercise. The end-tidal partial pressure of CO(2) [35.1 (S.D. 3. 1) to 30.8 (6.6) mmHg] and the dead space/tidal volume ratio (V(D)/V(T)) [0.37 (0.09) to 0.33 (0.08)] fell significantly during arbutamine infusion, but the respiratory exchange ratio did not change during either protocol. Oxygen pulse, a marker of stroke volume, did not change significantly after arbutamine, but rose markedly after exercise [arbutamine, 3.9 (1.1) to 3.37 (0.7) ml. min(-1).beat(-1); exercise, 4.7 (1.4) to 16.1 (4.6) ml.min(-1). beat(-1) (P<0.0001 compared with baseline); difference between peak responses: P<0.0001]. We conclude that arbutamine simulates some of the physiological responses to exercise, although a number of these responses are less marked than during conventional exercise, in particular cardiac output (oxygen pulse). An increase in ventilation is produced, possibly due to direct stimulation of arterial chemoreceptors. These data suggest that the main action of arbutamine is to increase central drive rather than to establish peripheral demand.


Legume plants have evolved the ability to form a mutualistic symbiosis with nitrogen-fixing bacteria known as rhizobia. Studies using mutant Medicago truncatula and Lotus japonicus have identified many genes that are necessary for this mutualism. Some of these genes have also been shown to be necessary for symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhiza fungi (AMF). These common genes make up part of a signalling pathway known as the common symbiosis pathway (CSP) which serves to prepare the plant for the entry of the symbiont into the root. Although the core members of this signalling pathway are known there are still large gaps, and many of the genes involved in the infection process haven't yet been identified. Using the Medicago Gene Expression Atlas (MtGEA) and in-house gene expression data three family Receptor-like Cytoplasmic Kinase (RLCK) genes were identified in M. truncatula which were differentially regulated during rhizobial and AMF colonisation. Analysis of Tnt1 insertion mutants for the one of these genes, named RLCK3 due to similarity to the rice gene family RLCK-OS3, revealed an apparently novel mycorrhizal phenotype with stunted arbuscule development. However, segregation analysis showed the phenotype was not linked to RLCK3; as such the locus was named SCOOBY. The other genes identified were similar to the rice gene family RLCK-XV and so named RLCK1 and RLCK2. Both RLCK1 and RLCK2 encode soluble RD kinases with high homology to each other. Promoter-GUS analysis showed RLCK1 and RLCK2 expression associated with entry and accommodation of the symbionts. rlck1 and rlck2 mutants had a low level of arbusculation and misshaped arbuscules. rlck1 was hyperinfected by rhizobia and had a significant reduction in nodule number. RNAi knockdown of rlck1/rlck2 had a significantly reduced nodule number compared to the empty vector control. RLCK1 and RLCK2 possibly have partially redundant or synergistic roles during rhizobial and arbuscular mycorrhizal symbioses.


The sperm cell has a characteristic polarized morphology and its surface is also highly differentiated into different membrane domains. Junctional protein ring structures seal the surface of the mid-piece from the head and the tail respectively and probably prevent random diffusion of membrane molecules over the protein rings. Despite the absence of such lateral diffusion-preventing structures, the sperm head surface is also highly heterogeneous. Furthermore, lipid and membrane protein ordering is subjected to changes when sperm become capacitated. The forces that maintain the lateral polarity of membrane molecules over the sperm surface, as well as those that cause their dynamic redistribution, are only poorly understood. Nevertheless, it is known that each of the sperm head surface regions has specific roles to allow sperm to fertilize the oocyte: a specific region is devoted to zona pellucida binding, a larger area of the sperm head surface is involved in the acrosome reaction (intracellular fusion), while yet another region is involved in egg plasma membrane binding and fertilization fusion (intercellular membrane fusion). All three events occur in the area of the sperm head where the plasma membrane covers the acrosome. Recently, lipid ordered microdomains (lipid rafts) were discovered in membranes of many biological specimens including sperm. In this review, we cover the latest insights about sperm lipid raft research and discuss how sperm lipid raft dynamics may relate to sperm-zona binding and the zona-induced acrosome reaction.


Newen and Vetter (2016) argue that cognitive penetration (CP) of perceptual experience is the most possible account of the evidence. They target both the weak impenetrability thesis that only some early visual processes are cognitively impenetrable (CI), and the strong impenetrability thesis that all perceptual processes are CI. Since I agree that perceptual processing as a whole is CP, I will concentrate on their arguments against the weak CI thesis. In attacking weak CI, the authors take aim at Raftopoulos' arguments supporting the CI of early vision. Their main argument comes from studies that, Newen and Vetter think, show that early vision is CP by demonstrating the existence of cognitive effects on early vision. I examine the same empirical evidence that Newen and Vatter discuss and argue this same evidence strongly supports the view that early vision is CI.


The exercise of modelling the risk and volatility of corporate bonds is undertaken through credit spreads analysis, a practice normally used in bond pricing and risk management. Despite the rapid growth of the Malaysian bond market, very few studies on the behaviour of credit spreads, and whether its volatility is influenced by external shocks have been conducted. This paper aims to unveil the trends and behaviour of credit spreads during the 2007/2008 global financial crisis. It examines the credit spreads of the Malaysian bond market by modelling the conditional variance and asymmetric response to past shocks of the long and short term investment and non-investment grade papers. A generalised autoregressive conditional heteroscedasticity (GARCH) is applied to 10 different ratings and maturity over the period ranging from 1 August 2005 to 31 December 2011. More specifically, modelling the asymmetry via the threshold GARCH (TARCH) and exponential GARCH (EGARCH) models meets the aim of this paper which examines the asymmetric response to past shocks of the Malaysian bond market during the 2007/2008 global financial crisis. The empirical analysis of this paper provides evidence of strong time-varying conditional variance of the Malaysian bond credit spreads with the expectation of future rate being the main determinant for credit spreads. Additionally, the evidence also indicates that past news or shocks as well as forecast variance are important in explaining the volatility of the spreads. The insignificant TARCH and EGARCH coefficients, nonetheless, indicate that there is no evidence of asymmetric response to past shocks in the volatility of bond spreads.Keywords: Credit Spreads Analysis, EGARCH, GARCH, Malaysian Bond Market, TARCH, VolatilityJEL Classification: C58, G01, G12


This book examines the international legal regime covering trade in legal services. While legal services are a vital component of the economies of many developed and emerging countries, they remain poorly liberalized with numerous restrictions undermining market access for foreign suppliers. Although some modern bilateral and regional trade agreements have begun to address barriers to trade in legal services, few go beyond the basic commitments of non-discrimination and transparency contained in the WTO GATS. This book approaches the pressing need to open the global market for trade in legal services across the four modes of supply: cross border, consumption abroad, commercial presence and temporary movement of natural persons. It considers changes under way within the legal profession brought about by alternative business structures and technology. Both underscore the importance of reconceptualizing trade in legal services as one that should be as open as possible with a view to maximizing competition while safeguarding the needs of clients.


Governments and companies often use consent to justify the use of facial recognition technologies for surveillance. Many proposals for regulating facial recognition technology incorporate consent rules as a way to protect those faces that are being tagged and tracked. But consent is a broken regulatory mechanism for facial surveillance. The individual risks of facial surveillance are impossibly opaque, and our collective autonomy and obscurity interests aren't captured or served by individual decisions.

In this article, we argue that facial recognition technologies have a massive and likely fatal consent problem. We reconstruct some of Nancy Kim's fundamental claims in Consentability: Consent and Its Limits, emphasizing how her consentability framework grants foundational priority to individual and social autonomy, integrates empirical insights into cognitive limitations that significantly impact the quality of human decision-making when granting consent, and identifies social, psychological, and legal impediments that allow the pace and negative consequences of innovation to outstrip the protections of legal regulation.

We also expand upon Kim's analysis by arguing that valid consent cannot be given for face surveillance. Even if valid individual consent to face surveillance was possible, permission for such surveillance is in irresolvable conflict with our collective autonomy and obscurity interests. Additionally, there is good reason to be skeptical of consent as the justification for any use of facial recognition technology, including facial characterization, verification, and identification.


Currently, TU/e campus is going through a reconstruction phase, in the process towards a more sustainable and compact campus. To keep up with the improvement pace governing the area, old buildings with poor functionality are to be upgraded. The Matrix building, located in the south part of the campus, is one of the old buildings which has a low occupancy rate and poor daylight performance. This study proposed a renovation plan for the Matrix building in which the daylight performance of the building is improved in order to increase the visual comfort of the occupants, enhance the space usability and decrease electricity consumption on electric lighting. Two quantitative methods are used to evaluate the daylight performance of the Matrix building. The occupants' opinion is used through a questionnaire to distinguish the most effective direction of the renovation and Radiance simulation software is used to compare different design scenarios. The application of four atriums distributed over the floor plan of the Matrix building is proposed in which (comparing to the current design), 1) the proportion of daylight available to the internal area is increased considerably, 2) the daylight is distributed more evenly over the floor plans, 3) the visual comfort and health of the occupants is enhanced, 4) the more high quality space (day-lit with the view to outside) is available to use, 5) the dependency on electric lighting is decreased, and 6) the more possibilities are brought to the layout design. A business case is developed for the proposed design. The total cost of the complete renovation is estimated around 11 million Euro's. The benefit of increasing the number of workplaces is €523.992 and the lecture rooms is € 182.000. Around €11.130 can be saved every year on electricity for electric lighting. The payback time of the initial investment is estimated after 14 years. By the 20th year (which is the estimated life span of the building), 6 million positive cash flow is obtained.


: Background: Considering the high number of cataract surgery and the posterior capsular opacity as its complication which needs laser capsulotomy and also the rising of intraocular pressure (IOP) after such surgeries, the purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare the effects of apraclonidine and timolol separately in decreasing IOP after laser capsulotomy in Matini hospital of Kashan during 2010-11. Materials and Methods: In this clinical trial study, 200 eyes of patients with posterior capsular opacity were randomly divided into two groups and each group treated by timolol or apraclonidine before YAG laser capsulotomy. Then, the tonometer was used to record the intraocular pressure, 1 hour before, 6 and 24 hours after the capsulotomy. Results: One-hundred forty (70%) of the patients were women and 60 (30%) men. The interaction between the two drugs and time was not significant ( P =0.104). There was no significant difference between the two groups for mean IOP at any time. ( P =0.738). Therefore, apraclonidine and timolol are similar in their effects on reducing IOP after laser capsulotomy. In addition, mean IOP in three consecutive measurements were significantly different ( P =0.001). Moreover, the differences between paired comparisons of time were also significant in all three measurements. Conclusion: The efficacy of apraclonidine in reducing IOP in patients underwent the posterior capsulotomy is established and it is similar to timolol in mechanism.


Reservoir fluid characterization is crucial for the success of field exploration and development phases. Early detection of hydrocarbon allows accurate determination of reservoir fluid properties and plays a key role in reducing uncertainty in reservoir evaluation and future field development strategies. Advanced Mud Gas logging (AMG) system and wireline downhole fluid analysis are among the important means available in the oil and gas industry for such analyses. Each method has its limitations and advantages, therefore developing an integrated approach and workflow that combine these two different methods are important for the success of fluid sampling and for better reservoir characterization. The aim of this integration work is to improve reservoir fluid evaluation during the entire well starting from the early stage of drilling. This can be done by having reliable early hydrocarbon detection from mud logging which allows optimizing formation PVT sampling program, and helps to develop correlations for the benefit of fluid evaluation in future wells. This work presents a successful integration of mud logging and downhole formation fluid analysis for better reservoir fluid characterization in an offshore Malaysia field. Advanced Mud Gas logging was run to provide early formation fluid evaluation, which was utilized to design and optimize formation fluid sampling, PVT lab work and further DST requirement. By using AMG, it was possible to identify the significant changes observed on fluid composition (C1-C5, C6-C8 range) and also to distinguish potentially fine variations within the possibly same fluid type. Based on these results detailed fluid evaluations and sampling points were suggested. In addition several potential hydrocarbon/water contacts were identified. Wireline formation tester (WFT) was also run for downhole fluid identification (DFA) and to acquire representative fluid samples in addition to reservoir pressure and fluid mobility. This paper also presents strategies used for fluid analysis and sampling to provide accurate fluid characterization in a challenging environment. The methodology, workflow, analysis, and applications of this field study are presented in this work.


Mixed complexes of acetylene-ethylene are studied using vacuum-ultraviolet (VUV) photoionization mass spectrometry and theoretical calculations. These complexes are produced and ionized at different distances from the exit of a continuous nozzle followed by reflectron time-of-flight mass spectrometry detection. Acetylene, with a higher ionization energy (11.4 eV) than ethylene (10.6 eV), allows for tuning the VUV energy and initializing reactions either from a C2H2(+) or a C2H4(+) cation. Pure acetylene and ethylene expansions are separately carried out to compare, contrast, and hence identify products from the mixed expansion: these are C3H3(+) (m/z = 39), C4H5(+) (m/z = 53), and C5H5(+) (m/z = 65). Intensity distributions of C2H2, C2H4, their dimers and reactions products are plotted as a function of ionization distance. These distributions suggest that association mechanisms play a crucial role in product formation closer to the nozzle. Photoionization efficiency (PIE) curves of the mixed complexes demonstrate rising edges closer to both ethylene and acetylene ionization energies. We use density functional theory (ωB97X-V/aug-cc-pVTZ) to study the structures of the neutral and ionized dimers, calculate their adiabatic and vertical ionization energies, as well as the energetics of different isomers on the potential energy surface (PES). Upon ionization, vibrationally excited clusters can use the extra energy to access different isomers on the PES. At farther ionization distances from the nozzle, where the number densities are lower, unimolecular decay is expected to be the dominant mechanism. We discuss the possible decay pathways from the different isomers on the PES and examine the ones that are energetically accessible.


It is important to consider both the soil-structure interaction and nonlinear effects to accurately estimate the behavior of buildings during severe earthquakes. In addition, three dimensional (3D) models are needed to express the complex shape of buildings, basements, and piles. In recent years, large scale 3D time history nonlinear analyses using the finite element method (FEM) have been performed. Although the soil has a semi-infinite extent, a soil model needs to be generated as a finite region model in FEM analyses. Therefore, artificial wave boundary models are needed. Currently, simple models such as the cyclic boundary or the viscous boundary are often used mainly as the side wave boundary model. These simple models are simple to use but do not provide high accuracy. As a result, the wave boundary cannot be placed close to the analysis object, and the analysis modeling domain size and analysis load are enlarged. For this reason, it is desirable to improve the wave boundary accuracy and reduce the analysis domain size. Although the energy transmitting boundary is accurate and efficient for FEM earthquake response analysis, it can only be applied in the frequency domain. The author proposed the time domain transmitting boundary by applying a new method that can transform the frequency dependent function into the time domain. By using this time domain transmitting boundary, time domain analysis became possible. In this method, the analysis model can be divided into three parts: the inner field, the outer field, and the boundary itself. In the first paper, two in-plane problems were proposed. In the study, only the inner field can be treated as a nonlinear system. In the next study, the outer field and the boundary itself can be treated as a nonlinear system. In addition, a model was also proposed. In a previous study, this technique was expanded for 3D problems. The inner field is supposed to be hexahedron-shaped and the approximate time domain boundary was set around it. The boundary comprised two parts. One was the 2D in-plane time domain boundary and the other was the anti-plane time domain boundary. The efficiency of the proposed method was confirmed using some example problems. In this paper, based on these studies, 3D energy transmitting boundaries for nonlinear analyses are studied. First, an outline of the 3D transmitting boundary is provided. Then, improvements of the boundary for nonlinear problems are also explained. The efficiency of the proposed method was studied by comparison with a conventional viscous boundary. As a result, the efficiency of the proposed method was confirmed.


Ectopic expression of telomerase results in an immortal phenotype in various types of normal cells, including primary human fibroblasts. In addition to its role in telomere lengthening, telomerase has now been found to have various functions, including the control of DNA repair, chromatin modification, and the control of expression of genes involved in cell cycle regulation. The investigations on the long-term effects of telomerase expression in normal human fibroblast highlighted that these cells show low frequencies of chromosomal aberrations. In this paper, we describe the karyotypic stability of human fibroblasts immortalized by expression of hTERT. The ectopic overexpression of telomerase is associated with unusual spontaneous as well as radiation-induced chromosome stability. In addition, we found that irradiation did not enhance plasmid integration in cells expressing hTERT, as has been reported for other cell types. Long-term studies illustrated that human fibroblasts immortalized by telomerase show an unusual stability for chromosomes and for plasmid integration sites, both with and without exposure to ionizing radiation. These results confirm a role for telomerase in genome stabilisation by a telomere-independent mechanism and point to the possibility for utilizing hTERT-immortalized normal human cells for the study of gene targeting.


The linear ordering problem (LOP) is one of the classical NP-Hard combinatorial optimization problems. Motivated by the difficulty of solving it up to optimality, in recent decades a great number of heuristic and meta-heuristic algorithms have been proposed. Despite the continuous work on this problem, there is still room nowadays for designing strategies that beat the state-of-the-art algorithms, and take a step forward in terms of the quality of the obtained solutions.In this paper, two novel schemes are presented. The first algorithm consists of an iterated local search algorithm that carries out an organized exploration of the search space. The second scheme is an extension of the previous algorithm that, based on the properties of the LOP, proposes an exact procedure that allows us to improve the quality of the solutions systematically. Conducted experiments on one of the hardest LOP benchmarks (xLOLIB) show that 77 new best results were found out of 78 instances. The described strategies also provide innovative ideas for developing more advanced algorithms for solving the LOP.


During summer months, dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations in the lower Hudson estuary were usually lower than atmospheric equilibrium values. Distributions of DO along the axis of the estuary can be described by three general characteristics. Firstly, surface and bottom values lie on a single trend when plotted against salinity. Secondly, maximum DO concentrations were observed 50--75 km upstream of Manhattan at salinities off 5--15 ppt. Thirdly, the lowest DO concentrations were observed near Manhattan, New York, at salinities of 15--25 ppt and vary systematically with freshwater discharge rate. Minimum DO concentrations during times of similar freshwater discharge were substantially lower for water samples collected between 1978 and 1984 than for those collected between 1989 and 1993. These two periods were also distinguished by occurrences of intense phytoplankton blooms that produced supersaturated DO concentrations at salinities of 5--15 ppt for the period of 1989 to 1993. The increase in the minimum DO concentration in the water near Manhattan is probably in response to improved wastewater treatment at Passaic Valley, NJ; North River, NY; and other wastewater-treatment facilities.


A new optimal update method for the correlation of dynamic structural finite element models with modal data is presented. The method computes a minimum-rank solution for the perturbations of the elemental stiffness parameters while constraining the connectivity of the global stiffness matrix. The resulting model contains a more accurate representation of the dynamics of the test structure. The changes between the original model and the updated model can be interpreted as modeling errors or as changes in the structure resulting from damage. The motivation for the method is presented in the context of existing optimal matrix update procedures. The method is demonstrated numerically on a spring-mass system and is also applied to experimental data from the NASA Langley 8-bay truss damage detection experiment. The results demonstrate that the proposed procedure may be useful for updating elemental stiffness parameters in the context of damage detection and model refinement.


Mice of 23 BXD recombinant inbred strains derived from the cross of C57BL/6J and DBA/2J were typed for the presence of a public idiotype found in the antibodies against the hapten phenyloxazolone (phOx) produced by DBA/2 mice. The marker is under the control of an immunoglobulin heavy-chain variable region gene, Igh-Ox. Eleven out of the 23 BXK strains shared the public idiotype with the DBA/2 progenitor, while 12 other BXD strains were negative, like the C57BL/6 progenitor. The Igh-Ox marker was inherited concordantly with allotype in all BXD strains except BXD-27, which carries the Igh-1c allotype of DBA/2 but lacks the Igh-Ox idiotype. The Igh-Ox marker was inherited concordantly with 4 other Igh-V markers (Igh-Np, Igh-Nb, Igh-Bgl, and Igh-Gte) in all BXD strains except BXD-20, which has the DBA/2 alleles at Igh-1 and Igh-Ox but resembles C57BL/6 at the other 4 markers. On the basis of these results the Igh-Ox marker is tentatively placed between Igh-C and the rest of the Igh-V markers.


With increased internationalization comes the necessity for individuals to become global citizens, to be more aware of world events, and to be more culturally aware and sensitive. It is important for universities to create an academic culture that promotes and supports study abroad opportunities as a means of exposing students to the world outside their home countries. More specifically, it is important for universities to prepare their business students for careers in the global marketplace.

In order to understand the perceived impact of a study abroad experience on job marketability, comparisons were drawn between business students' expectations and values prior to studying abroad and their perceived outcomes and values afterward. Cross-cultural, gender, and generational comparisons were also drawn.

The Magellan Exchange, a non-profit consortium of universities worldwide, facilitates student and faculty exchanges. More than 1,400 students have studied abroad through The Magellan Exchange, and approximately 90 percent of those have been business students. Past business participants were invited to complete an online survey, which was based upon the questionnaires of two prior studies. The questionnaire included questions addressing pre-experience values and expectations as well as post-experience values and perceived outcomes; it also questioned basic demographics and key components of the study abroad program, measuring the personal, academic, and career impact of a foreign study experience.

The conceptual framework of the study allowed for the investigation of participants' original values and expectations, which are influenced by family, friends, gender, culture, previous experiences, and the environment, prior to studying abroad. It also takes into consideration the effect of external factors (i.e., environmental, economic, social, cultural, and demographic) on the learning experience (i.e., the study abroad experience), which in turn impacts perceived outcomes and values after the international experience as well as the post-experience career-related outcomes.

Factor analysis revealed the latent factors of expectations of Adventure, Intrepidness, Career Preparation, Money and Self-Actualization as well as the values of Adventure, Intrepidness, Career Preparation, Money and Self-Actualization. Analysis revealed significant differences between respondents' expectations and perceived outcomes on all five factors, as well as between the values assigned to those expectations and perceived outcomes.

Cross-cultural comparisons indicated that U.S. and European respondents differed in their expectation and perceived outcome of Adventure, as well as in the value of Adventure and Money before the experience and the value of Adventure, Intrepidness and Money after the experience. In addition to the cultural impact, the study revealed generational and gender differences between respondents.

The career implications of study abroad are becoming more apparent and more important with increased internationalization. Understanding the goals and expectations of study abroad, as well as the values associated with them, in addition to what participants perceive as outcomes and how they value them, affords an opportunity for universities to better market foreign study programs to prospective participants, thus improving participation rates and better preparing business graduates for the competitive global workplace.


Recent research in artificial intelligence has developed computational theories of agents' involvements in their environments. Although inspired by a great diversity of formalisms and architectures, these research projects are unified by a common concern: using principled characterizations of agents' interactions with their environments to guide analysis of living agents and design of artificial ones. This article offers a conceptual framework for such theories, surveys several other fields of research that hold the potential for dialogue with these new computational projects, and summarizes the principal contributions of the articles in this special double volume. It also briefly describes a case study in these ideas-a computer program called Toast that acts as a short-order breakfast cook. Because its designers have discovered useful structures in the world it inhabits, Toast can employ an extremely simple mechanism to decide what to do next.


Several studies indicate that local immunoregulation and associated cytokines have a putative role in the development of cancer. There is evidence that pro-inflammatory cytokines such as interleukin-1 (IL-1) are critically involved with tumour progression. IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) is known to down-regulate and limit the inflammatory response. Therefore we attempted to examine the influence of the known polymorphism of the IL-1Ra gene on the development of human colorectal cancer (CRC). The study included 125 patients with CRC and 134 controls. Variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) polymorphism in intron 2 of the IL-Ra gene was analysed by the polymerase chain reaction method. There was a significant difference in genotype distribution between CRC patients and controls (P=0.025) and also in allelic frequencies (P=0.012). In detail the carriage rate of allele 3 in CRC patients was significantly increased compared with controls (P=0.007). We also found that the allelic distribution differs significantly between colon and rectum (P=0.041) and that allele 3 was overabundant in colon. The frequency of allele 1 in CRC patients with localized disease (Dukes A+B) was higher compared with disseminated disease (Dukes C+D), (P=0.035). These findings therefore suggest that the IL-1Ra polymorphism is associated with colorectal carcinogenesis.


The material in this chapter is supported in part by the National Science Foundation under CAREER grant CCF-0844796. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recomendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the


Online selective sampling algorithms learn to perform binary classification, and additionally they decided whether to ask, or query, for a label of any given example. We introduce two stochastic linear algorithms and analyze them in the worst-case mistake-bound framework. Even though stochastic, for some inputs, our algorithms query with probability 1 and make an update even if there is no mistake, yet the margin is small, hence they are doubly aggressive. We prove bounds in the worst-case settings, which may be lower than previous bounds in some settings. Experiments with 33 document classification datasets, some with 100Ks examples, show the superiority of doubly-aggressive algorithms both in performance and number of queries.


The results of a Finite Volume Coastal Ocean Model of a narrow inlet were used to determine three potential deployment locations for an array of killowattscale cross-flow tidal turbines. A single day vessel-based acoustic Doppler current profiler survey was then conducted to more finely resolve differences in power and deployment suitability for each of the sites. Substantial variation in kinetic power density exists between the locations, separated by no more than 300 m, due to complex bathymetry of the site. Both the model and survey indicate the same location as most suitable for deployment. Average relative error in speed magnitude between the model and measurements is less than 10%.


The influence of hydrogen (H2) loading on optical and surface characteristics of nanometric palladium films was studied. Pd films were deposited on silicon substrates by electroless method. H2 loading was realized by annealing the Pd films in H2 atmosphere at 585 Torr over the temperature range of 200-500°C. Pd films with initial thickness under 40 nm were chosen to observe incomplete covering effects. Refractive index measurement was used to monitor the H2 loading. Changes on refractive index and surface morphology are related to the existence of a and b phases in Pd-H system.


In this paper, reinforcement learning (RL) for network slicing is considered in next generation (NextG) radio access networks, where the base station (gNodeB) allocates resource blocks (RBs) to the requests of user equipments and aims to maximize the total reward of accepted requests over time. Based on adversarial machine learning, a novel over-the-air attack is introduced to manipulate the RL algorithm and disrupt NextG network slicing. The adversary observes the spectrum and builds its own RL based surrogate model that selects which RBs to jam subject to an energy budget with the objective of maximizing the number of failed requests due to jammed RBs. By jamming the RBs, the adversary reduces the RL algorithm's reward. As this reward is used as the input to update the RL algorithm, the performance does not recover even after the adversary stops jamming. This attack is evaluated in terms of both the recovery time and the (maximum and total) reward loss, and it is shown to be much more effective than benchmark (random and myopic) jamming attacks. Different reactive and proactive defense schemes such as suspending the RL algorithm's update once an attack is detected, introducing randomness to the decision process in RL to mislead the learning process of the adversary, or manipulating the feedback (NACK) mechanism such that the adversary may not obtain reliable information are introduced to show that it is viable to defend NextG network slicing against this attack, in terms of improving the RL algorithm's reward.


Authoritarian liberalism captures the combination of politically authoritarian forms of governing in defence and pursuit of economically liberal ends. It is a phenomenon often associated with periods of economic crisis, such as the recent Euro-crisis. This paper suggests, however, that authoritarian liberalism is less exceptional than normal. This is more generally missed if the constitutional focus is on the relation between democracy and political liberalism rather than between democracy and capitalism. Whilst authoritarian forms of governing are more manifest in the exceptional response to economic crisis, authoritarian liberalism characterises the deep structure of the post-war constitutional settlement in Europe. This was based on a fear of democracy and popular sovereignty, in significant part due to the threat they were perceived to pose to a liberal economic order.


OBJECTIVE
To elucidate whether long non-coding RNA cancer susceptibility candidate 11 (lncRNA CASC11) could participate in the development of lung cancer through targeting microRNA-302/CDK1 axis.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Expression levels of CASC11, microRNA-302 and CDK1 in lung cancer tissues and paracancerous tissues were determined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). CASC11 expression in lung cancer cell lines was also determined. The regulatory effect of CASC11 on proliferative potential of lung cancer cells was accessed by cell counting kit-8 (CCK-8) and colony formation assay. The binding condition between microRNA-302 to CASC11 and CDK1 was evaluated by dual-luciferase reporter gene assay. CDK1 expression in lung cancer cells with CASC11 or microRNA-302 knockdown was detected by Western blot. The proliferation of lung cancer cells was determined after transfection of microRNA-302 inhibitor or co-transfection of microRNA-302 inhibitor and si-CASC11.

RESULTS
CASC11 and CDK1 were highly expressed, whereas microRNA-302 was lowly expressed in lung cancer tissues. Identically, CASC11 was highly expressed in lung cancer cell lines (A547, H157 and SPC-A-1) than controls as well. CASC11 knockdown attenuated proliferative capacity of lung cancer cells. The opposite trend was observed by microRNA-302 knockdown. Dual-luciferase reporter gene assay verified that CASC11 could bind to microRNA-302 and microRNA-302 could bind to CDK1. CDK1 expression in lung cancer cells was negatively regulated by CASC11. MicroRNA-302 knockdown reversed the inhibitory effect of CASC11 on CDK1 expression. The proliferation of lung cancer cells co-transfected with microRNA-302 inhibitor and si-CASC11 decreased compared with those transfected with microRNA-302 inhibitor.

CONCLUSIONS
High expression of CASC11 promotes the development of lung cancer through upregulating CDK1 expression by binding to microRNA-302.


Circadian rhythms control aspects of physiological events, including lipid metabolism, showing rhythmic fluctuation over 24 h. Therefore, it is not sufficient to evaluate thoroughly how dietary components regulate lipid metabolism with a single time-point assay. In the present study, a time-course study was performed to analyze the effect of sea cucumber saponin echinoside A (EA) on lipid metabolism over 24 h. Results showed that EA lowered the levels of TC and TG in both serum and liver at most time-points during the 24 h. Activities of hepatic lipogenic enzymes and lipolytic enzymes were inhibited and elevated respectively by EA to varied degrees at different time-points. Meanwhile, parallel variation trends of gene expression involved in fatty acid synthesis and β-oxidation were observed accordingly. The interaction between EA and lipid metabolism showed a time-dependent effect. Overall, EA impaired fatty acid synthesis and enhanced mitochondrial fatty acid β-oxidation in ad libitum feeding over 24 h.


Health is one of the most important non-material assets and thus also has an enormous influence on material values, since treating and preventing diseases is expensive. The number one cause of death worldwide today originates in cardiovascular diseases. For these reasons the aim of understanding the functions and the interactions of the cardiovascular system is and has been a major research topic throughout various disciplines for more than a hundred years. The purpose of most of today's research is to get as much information as possible with the lowest possible effort and the least discomfort for the subject or patient, e.g. via non-invasive measurements. A family of tools whose importance has been growing during the last years is known under the headline of coupling measures. The rationale for this kind of analysis is to identify the structure of interactions in a system of multiple components. Important information lies for example in the coupling direction, the coupling strength, and occurring time lags. In this work, we will, after a brief general introduction covering the development of cardiovascular time series analysis, introduce, explain and review some of the most important coupling measures and classify them according to their origin and capabilities in the light of physiological analyses. We will begin with classical correlation measures, go via Granger-causality-based tools, entropy-based techniques (e.g. momentary information transfer), nonlinear prediction measures (e.g. mutual prediction) to symbolic dynamics (e.g. symbolic coupling traces). All these methods have contributed important insights into physiological interactions like cardiorespiratory coupling, neuro-cardio-coupling and many more. Furthermore, we will cover tools to detect and analyze synchronization and coordination (e.g. synchrogram and coordigram). As a last point we will address time dependent couplings as identified using a recent approach employing ensembles of time series. The scope of this review, as opposed to various other excellent reviews like (Hlaváčková-Schindler et al Phys. Rep. 441 1–46, Kramer et al 2004 Phys. Rev. E 70 1–10, Lombardi 2000 Circulation 101 8–10, Porta et al 2000 Am. J. Physiol.: Heart and Circulatory Physiol. 279 H2558–67, Schelter et al 2006 J. Neurosci. Methods 152 210–9), is to give a broader overview over existing coupling measures and where to look to find the most appropriate tool for a given situation. The review will comprise a test of one representative of the most important coupling measure groups using a simple toy model to illustrate some essential features of the tools. At the end we will summarise the performance of each measure and offer some advice on when to use which method.


Ensemble forecasts are run operationally to determine the forecast uncertainty arising from initial condition, model physics and boundary condition uncertainty. However, global configuration ensembles, which use a convection parametrization scheme, may miss uncertainty because of the misrepresentation of intense convection by such schemes. Here, the impacts of the misrepresentation of mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) on downstream ensemble forecast skill and evolution are determined for a case study. MCS perturbations (calculated‐15 from the difference between outputs from convection‐parametrizing and convection‐permitting Met Office model configurations) are added to six members of a global configuration ensemble created by downscaling forecasts from the global version of the Met Office Global and Regional Ensemble Prediction System. For the first 36 hours, differences grow on the convective scale related to the MCSs, leading to systematic deepening of a developing UK cyclone, although there is damping of the perturbations found in root mean square difference calculations between the forecasts with and without the perturbations (particularly in mean sea level pressure). Subsequently, differences grow rapidly to the synoptic scale, and by five days impact the entire Northern Hemisphere. The MCS perturbations can have systematic effects on ensemble forecasts (e.g., a systematic displacement of a downstream cyclone is found), but, for this case, there is no discernible change in forecast skill as measured by the root mean square error of the ensemble means and the effects of the MCS perturbations are smaller than those generated by the initial condition perturbations. The spread of the combined ensemble (the two ensembles with and without the MCS perturbations) is larger than that of the individual ensembles. Thus, perturbing convection‐parametrizing models to include potential vorticity anomalies associated with MCSs represented in convection‐permitting forecasts, or idealized representations of them, produces alternative realizations from those generated by initial condition perturbations and has the potential to be useful operationally.


Objective: There are various studies that have been published indicating that reactive oxygen species are produced in large quantities in post-ischemic reperfusion and this oxidative burst mediates the severity of the damage. It has been previously suggested that monoamine oxidase (MAO) is a potential source of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) in early reperfusion; and mitochondrial hydroxyl radicals generated from H 2 O 2 during MAO metabolism serve as a contributor to tissue injury. The aim of this study was to investigate the possible contribution of elevated activities of MAO isoforms to the generation of reactive oxygen species and lipid peroxidation in hepatic ischemia-reperfusion injury in mice. Methods: After 45 minutes of partial ischemia followed by 5 hours of reperfusion performed on mouse liver. Serum lactate dehydrogenase and transaminase activities were measured as indices of hepatic injury. Lipid peroxidation, glutathione content and redox state, antioxidant enzyme activities, total MAO, MAO-A and -B activities and MAO-dependent H2O2 release in liver tissue were determined. Results: MAO-A and -B activities, lipid peroxidation, oxidized glutathione content and H 2 O 2 release were found to be increased, while reduced glutathione content, reduced/oxidized glutathione ratio as indice of redox state and antioxidant enzyme activities were decreased in liver tissues of ischemia-reperfusion group when compared to those of control group. A strong positive correlation was found between MAO isoform activities and H 2 O 2 release in ischemia-reperfusion group, suggesting that MAO is a potential source of H2O2 generation during ischemia-reperfusion. Conclusion: Our study suggests that both MAO isoforms may contribute to reactive oxygen species generation during ischemia-reperfusion, and MAO inhibitors may be used against liver ischemia-reperfusion injury.


This study examined diagnostic and therapeutic roles of electrophysiological testing and long‐term clinical outcome after out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest due to idiopathic ventricular fibrillation. This is defined as ventricular fibrillation occurring in the absence of detectable underlying heart disease or metabolic or electrolyte disturbance. Out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest resulting from idiopathic ventricular fibrillation is uncommon. Records of all patients who underwent electrophysiological testing between June 1979 and June 1992 were reviewed. Patients with out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest due to idiopathic ventricular fibrillation were identified. Follow‐up information was obtained by telephone interview in June 1992. Of 194 patients who underwent electrophysiological study after out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest not associated with acute myocardial infarction, only six (4 male and 2 female) had idiopathic ventricular fibrillation. It was induced in only two patients by programmed ventricular stimulation. No sustained ventricular arrhythmias were induced in the remaining four patients. Four patients received implantable cardioverter defibrillators, one was treated with a β‐adrenergic blocker, and one received no treatment. All patients were alive at a mean follow‐up of 50 months. Two of the four patients without inducible sustained ventricular arrhythmias had events during follow‐up. Of the two patients with inducible ventricular fibrillation, one experienced a cardiac arrest and documented ventricular fibrillation at 41 months after the index event and the other had had no recurrence at 15‐month follow‐up. All four patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators were alive at last follow‐up, and two had device discharges. In survivors of out‐of‐hospital cardiac arrest due to idiopathic ventricular fibrillation: (1) programmed electrical stimulation is of limited value for evaluating cause and guiding therapy; (2) a high rate of recurrent events is observed (50%); and (3) an implantable cardioverter defibrillator is effective for preventing a fatal outcome.


The Conceptual Framework offers an approach to understanding and managing reporting choices and their regulation. Qualitative characteristics of the underlying information, in terms of an unrelenting focus on relevance and reliability to the exclusion of particular interests or transaction motives, is a cornerstone of the Framework. We argue that the focus on qualitative characteristics precludes a focus on first‐order economic fundamentals and, in the process, invites a static view of reporting standards, as opposed to one based on anticipation of their effect.


The usefulness of Dewey's conception of a public for contemporary International Relations (IR) theory lies in its explication of an expanding network of problem-solving communities (`deliberative democracy'). The idea of a weak and deliberative public endowed with growing moral influence fits well with the globalisation of communicative media and attention to human rights. Still, inclusive discussion and deliberation combined with political protest movements do not amount to egalitarian democracy. The latter presupposes not only the right to free expression but also constitutional access to processes of representation and decision making. Against the emerging background of global law, this article investigates the question of whether global society has a constitution, and gives a twofold answer. While global society can be said to have a constitution with respect to constitutive core elements of equal rights, it lacks a strong public as well as a democratic constitution. However, the existing global weak public can be optimistically interpreted as a `strong public in the making'. This interpretation corrects the institutional and legal weakness of Deweyan pragmatism, lending his notion of a public some new relevance for IR.


Marechera made an immediate impact with the publication of The House of Hunger. The novella and nine short stories, most of them set in Zimbabwe, symbolise both home and country as the 'house of hunger', the place of madness and violence and despair. Marechera describes a world in which tenderness has long given way to the tactics of survival, and he does so in a style at once explosive and loaded with angry humour.


Background Catheter-related thrombosis (CRT) of the upper extremities is a frequent complication among cancer patients that carry a central venous catheter (CVC) and may lead to pulmonary embolism (PE) and loss of CVC function. Despite its clinical impact, no anticoagulant treatment scheme has been rigorously evaluated in these patients. In addition, there is no proven evidence that direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) are efficacious and safe in this setting because cancer patients with CRT of the upper extremities were not included in the clinical trials that led to the approval of DOACs for the treatment of cancer-associated venous thromboembolism (VTE). Methods We performed a single center retrospective cohort study on women with gynecologic or breast cancer treated with either low-molecular-weight heparin, fondaparinux, or DOACs for CRT of the upper extremities. Only patients who received anticoagulation at the proper therapeutic dose and for at least 3 months were included in the analysis. Effectiveness was evaluated in terms of preservation of line function, residual thrombosis, and recurrence of VTE (including PE). Safety was evaluated in terms of death, major bleeding (MB), and clinically relevant non-major bleeding (CRNMB). Results We identified 74 women who fulfilled the criteria to be included in the analysis. Of these, 31 (41.9%) had been treated with fondaparinux, 21 (28.4%) with enoxaparin, and 22 (29.7%) with the DOAC edoxaban. We found no differences between patients treated with the three different therapeutic approaches, in terms of preservation of line function, incidence of residual thrombosis, and VTE recurrence (including PE). Safety was similar as well, with no MBs recorded in any treatment group. Conclusion These results, although retrospective and based on a relatively small sample size, indicate that, in women with gynecologic or breast cancer, CRT of the upper extremities may be treated with similar effectiveness and safety with fondaparinux, enoxaparin, and edoxaban. Further studies are needed to substantiate these findings.


Metal implants such as hip prostheses and dental fillings produce streak and star artifacts in the reconstructed computed tomography (CT) images. Due to these artifacts, the CT image may not be diagnostically usable. A new reconstruction procedure is proposed that reduces the streak artifacts and that might improve the diagnostic value of the CT images. The procedure starts with a maximum a posteriori (MAP) reconstruction using an iterative reconstruction algorithm and a multimodal prior. This produces an artifact-free constrained image. This constrained image is the basis for an image-based projection completion procedure. The algorithm was validated on simulations, phantom and patient data, and compared with other metal artifact reduction algorithms.


This paper examines the problem of assigning values, or utilities, to separate consequences in decision analytic models of medical screening, diagnosis, and treatment. Several important issues related to this problem are studied, and a number of methodologies proposed for various applications are reviewed in relation to these issues. Finally, suggestions for future research in this area are proposed.


We have mainly four global issues, in which they are Population, Food, Energy and Environment named Global Tetralemma by the author almost 20 years ago. It should be notified that those four issues are mutually related each other along the ecological  order starting from the dominant presence of human beings. Two issues of energy and environment we are facing now are the results mainly caused by human economic activity. It can easily guessed that the food issue will be coming soon next considering the real fact of rapidly growing human population at the rate of 80 million per year. Human beings should be responsible for making action to find and cover the issues we facing and the one to be encountered. The following shows the contents of the paper.  1) Maximum human population capacity of Earth;  2) Total required amount of food production to feed the increasing world population;  3) Overview of world human population change in recent years;  4) Food production including security, safety and product liability; 5) What and how we can do for ASEAN Economic Community establishment. The answers are: a) Asian Food / Rice Project can be introduced and proposed under mutual collaboration & competition among the nations between resource oriented and technology oriented ones. b) In the proposed project what crop should be focused is discussed for what purpose or reason why. c) The process to the final goal is shown as follows. d) First is to make Asia as Food Giant. e) Final goal is to create a new Asian brand of food for Asian economic promotion and stability. f) Low cost and high quality production by smart agriculture technology application. g) Higher possibility of pre-harvest technology than post harvest one for loss reduction


The authors use punctuated equilibrium theory as a framework to help explain potential differences in the export sales management arrangements between firms that adopt an export market expansion strategy of either market concentration or market spreading. On the basis of a thorough review of the extant literature, the authors identify certain export sales managers' characteristics and behavior, export sales behavioral control, and satisfaction with export sales territory design as potential discriminators between these two groups of direct exporting firms. Consistent with the hypotheses, in general, the authors find that the tenets of punctuated equilibrium theory hold for the sample of small and medium-sized U.K. exporters. In addition, the results indicate that export market expansion strategy has important implications for a firm's export sales management arrangements. The authors discuss the findings and outline implications for business practitioners and further research.


School-community interactions facilitate connections between schools and their local surroundings; however, these relationships are subject not only to local political, economic, and social influences but also to broader political and institutional forces. Educational administrators' decisions about programming and partnering can be considered in light of who influences these decisions and why, as well as why administrators make these decisions. Leaders make partnering decisions using either or both local input and institutional level beliefs (Arum, 2000). Why educational leaders make decisions, like with whom and why to partner, is often related to regulations, norms, or deep-seated beliefs in the school or local culture (Scott, 2001). Data from case studies of five rural school districts in New York State provides a window onto the decision-making process surrounding the implementation, maintenance, and partnering involved in the implementation of a new statewide Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) program. Contrary to arguments that non-local professional influences are displacing local influences, out findings suggest that the local and normative forces are strong while the non-local and regulative influences are weak. Implications for the politics of education, institutional theory, state and national UPK policy, and the practice of educational administrators in rural communities are discussed.


A series of aromatic hyperbranched polyethers have been synthesized from cyanuric chloride and diols by using nucleophilic displacement polymerization technique. The synthesized sulfur containing polyether was blended with commercially available low density polyethylene (LDPE) and plasticized poly(vinyl chloride) separately to improve the flame retardant property of those linear polymers. The flame retardancy of blends at different dose levels of the hyperbranched polyether with those linear polymers was investigated by measurement of limiting oxygen index (LOI) value and thermogravimetric analysis. The LOI values and TG analysis of these blends indicated that the hyperbranched polyether act as flame retardant additive.


ABSTRACT Due to the importance of ion–polymer interactions in many technological applications, systematic measurements have been investigated on a variety of ionic poly(N,N-dimethylacrylamide) (PDMAAm) hydrogels and cryogels to determine the effect of mono- and multivalent ions on their dynamic properties. Using uniaxial compression, the influence of counter-ion valency on flexibility of charged polymer chains was investigated and the results were discussed as a function of ionic comonomer. To estimate the general swelling features, diffusion process and oscillating swelling–deswelling kinetics of ionic PDMAAm gels in salt solutions have been explained by model equations using early-time approximation as a function of characteristic response time. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT


CONTEXT
Molecular genetic analyses have been predicted to improve the diagnostic accuracy of fine-needle aspiration of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the value of routine molecular genetic assays, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH), in the diagnosis of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma by fine-needle aspiration (FNA).

DESIGN
A multiparametric method, including cytology, flow cytometry, PCR, and FISH, was prospectively evaluated in the diagnosis of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma by FNA. Aspirates from 30 consecutive patients with suspected hematolymphoid malignancies were collected. All aspirates were triaged through a uniform program including cell-size analysis, B- and T-cell clonality studies, flow cytometric immunophenotyping, and bcl-1 and bcl-2 gene rearrangements by PCR and FISH. After completion of FNA evaluations, FNA results were compared with diagnoses from prior or subsequent surgical biopsies.

RESULTS
Monoclonal B-cell populations were detected in 18 of 20 B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas by flow cytometry and PCR. bcl-1 gene rearrangement was detected in 2 of 2 cases of mantle cell lymphoma. bcl-2 rearrangement was detected in 5 cases including 4 of 4 low-grade follicular lymphomas and 1 transformed follicular lymphoma. By incorporating the results of molecular genetic and ancillary diagnostics, a definitive classification was reached in 12 cases of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma by FNA, including all cases of low-grade follicular lymphoma (4/4) and mantle cell lymphoma (2/2) and approximately 50% of small lymphocytic lymphoma (2/4) and large B-cell lymphoma (4/8). Ten of the 12 cases with a final classification reached by FNA had either prior or follow-up surgical biopsies, and all 10 cases showed agreement between the diagnoses rendered on FNA and surgical biopsies.

CONCLUSIONS
With proper handling and management of specimens, FNA can routinely provide samples adequate for molecular genetic studies, in addition to cytomorphology and flow cytometry, making it possible to consistently render accurate and definitive diagnoses in a subset of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphomas. By incorporating FISH and PCR methods, FNA may assume an expanded role for the primary diagnosis of B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma.


In digital imaging, evaluating the visual quality of images is a crucial requirement for most image-processing systems. For such an image quality assessment, mainly objective assessments are employed which automatically predict image quality by a computer algorithm. The vast majority of objective assessments are so-called image difference metrics which predict the perceived difference between a distorted image and a reference. Due to the limited understanding of the human visual system, image quality assessment is not straightforward and still an open research field.
The majority of image-difference metrics disregard color information which allows for faster computation. Even though their performance is sufficient for many applications, they are not able to correctly predict the quality for a variety of color distortions. Furthermore, many image-difference metrics do not account for viewing conditions which may have a large impact on the perceived image quality (e.g., a large display in an office compared with a small mobile device in the bright sunlight).
The main goal of my research was the development of a new image difference metric called improved Color-Image-Difference (iCID) which normalizes images to standard viewing conditions and extracts chromatic features. The new metric was then used as objective function to improve gamut mapping as well as tone mapping. Both methods represent essential transformations for the reproduction of color images.
The performance of the proposed metric was verified by visual experiments as well as by comparisons with human judgments. The visual experiments reveal significant improvements over state-of-the-art gamut-mapping and tone-mapping transformations. For gamut-mapping distortions, iCID exhibits the significantly highest correlation to human judgments and for conventional distortions (e.g., noise, blur, and compression artifacts), iCID outperforms almost all state-of-the-art metrics.


Effective doctor–patient communication is essential for establishing a successful doctor–patient relationship and implementing high-quality health care. In this study, a novel urinary system-simulating physical model was designed and fabricated, and its content validity for improving doctor–patient communication was examined by conducting a randomized controlled trial in which this system was compared with photographs. A total of 240 inpatients were randomly selected and assigned to six doctors for treatment. After primary diagnosis and treatment had been determined, these patients were randomly divided into the experimental group and the control group. Patients in the experimental group participated in model-based doctor–patient communication, whereas control group patients received picture-based communication. Within 30 min after this communication, a Demographic Information Survey Scale and a Medical Interview Satisfaction Scale (MISS) were distributed to investigate patients' demographic characteristics and their assessments of total satisfaction, distress relief, communication comfort, rapport, and compliance intent. The study results demonstrated that the individual groups were comparable with respect to demographic variables but that relative to patients in the picture-based communication group, patients in the model-based communication group had significantly higher total satisfaction scores and higher ratings for distress relief, communication comfort, rapport, and compliance intent. These results indicate that the physical model is more effective than the pictures at improving doctor–patient communication and patient outcomes. The application of the physical model in doctor–patient communication is helpful and valuable and therefore merits widespread clinical popularization.


This article presents an algorithm for integrated timing-driven latch placement and cloning. Given a circuit placement, the proposed algorithm relocates some latches while circuit timing is improved. Some latches are replicated to further improve the timing; the number of replicated latches along with their locations are automatically determined. After latch cloning, each of the replicated latches is set to drive a subset of the fanouts that have been driven by the original single latch. The proposed algorithm is then extended such that relocation and cloning are applied to some latches together with their neighbor logic gates. Experimental results demonstrate that the worst negative slack and the total negative slack are improved by 24% and 59%, respectively, on average of test circuits. The negative impacts on circuit area and power consumption are both marginal, at 0.7% and 1.9% respectively.


We present a method for training a regression network from image pixels to 3D morphable model coordinates using only unlabeled photographs. The training loss is based on features from a facial recognition network, computed on-the-fly by rendering the predicted faces with a differentiable renderer. To make training from features feasible and avoid network fooling effects, we introduce three objectives: a batch distribution loss that encourages the output distribution to match the distribution of the morphable model, a loopback loss that ensures the network can correctly reinterpret its own output, and a multi-view identity loss that compares the features of the predicted 3D face and the input photograph from multiple viewing angles. We train a regression network using these objectives, a set of unlabeled photographs, and the morphable model itself, and demonstrate state-of-the-art results.


Recent studies show significant progress in image-to-image translation task, especially facilitated by Generative Adversarial Networks. They can synthesize highly realistic images and alter the attribute labels for the images. However, these works employ attribute vectors to specify the target domain which diminishes image-level attribute diversity. In this paper, we propose a novel model formulating disentangled representations by projecting images to latent units, grouped feature channels of Convolutional Neural Network, to disassemble the information between different attributes. Thanks to disentangled representation, we can transfer attributes according to the attribute labels and moreover retain the diversity beyond the labels, namely, the styles inside each image. This is achieved by specifying some attributes and swapping the corresponding latent units to "swap" the attributes appearance, or applying channel-wise interpolation to blend different attributes. To verify the motivation of our proposed model, we train and evaluate our model on face dataset CelebA. Furthermore, the evaluation of another facial expression dataset RaFD demonstrates the generalizability of our proposed model.


ABSTRACT Objective: Several studies have shown septic shock developing later during the hospital stay is associated with higher mortality. However, the precise point at which time from hospital admission to the onset of septic shock (admission-shock-onset-time) becomes an independent prognostic marker of mortality remains unknown. This study evaluated the association between admission-shock-onset-time and in-hospital mortality among patients with septic shock and the optimal cutoff period to categorize early- and late-onset septic shock. Method: We conducted a single-center retrospective, observational cohort study at a quaternary academic hospital comprising adult patients with septic shock admitted to a medical intensive care unit (ICU) from January 2011 to December 2020. A multivariable additive logistic regression model was developed to assess if log-transformed admission-shock-onset-time was associated with in-hospital mortality. The thin plate spline function was used to describe the nonlinear relationship between the log-transformed admission-shock-onset-time and in-hospital mortality. The primary outcome was in-hospital mortality, and the secondary outcome was ICU mortality. Results: Two thousand five hundred twenty patients met the inclusion criteria with an overall in-hospital mortality of 37.3%. The log-transformed admission-shock-onset-time was associated with higher in-hospital and ICU mortality even after adjusting for clinical variables. The odds ratio for in-hospital mortality continued to increase throughout the observation period. The adjusted odds ratio exceeded 2 in between 20.1 and 54.6 h, and it surpassed 3 in between 54.6 and 148.4 h of the time from the hospital admission to shock onset. Conclusion: In-hospital mortality continued to rise as admission-shock-onset-time increased in patients with septic shock. No clear dichotomization between early and late septic shock could be ascertained, and this categorization may limit our understanding of the temporal relationship of shock onset to mortality.


Background: To assess the value of transvaginal sonography (TVS) in detecting ovarian pathology in first trimester pregnant women and to map out the natural history of such pathology. Methods: Prospective study. 3000 consecutive pregnant women, up until 14 weeks gestation, underwent TVS. Each woman had both ovaries visualised at initial visit. Women with simple cyst with maximum diameter ≥ 25 mm and women with complex cyst, regardless of size, were included. They were followed throughout their pregnancy until resolution occurred or intervention required. Women with persistent ovarian cyst at 20 weeks gestation had repeat TVS 6 weeks postnatally. Results: 182/3000 (6.1%) women had ovarian cysts. 21 cases lost to follow up. 161 (5.4%) women with total of 166 cysts included for analysis. 119 (71.7%) resolved spontaneously, 40 (24.1%) persisted and 7 (4.2%) required intervention. Mean maximum cyst diameter 48 mm (range 12–115 mm). Ultrasonographic features of cysts included: 117 anechoic, 21 haemorrhagic, 16 mixed echogenicity, 2 low level echoes, 7 ground glass appearance and 3 solid/cystic with papillary projections. Presumed cyst diagnosis was 120 physiological, 16 benign teratoma, 2 mucinous cystadenoma, 18 serous cystadenoma, 7 endometrioma and 3 borderline tumours. Cysts that resolved spontaneously were presumed to be physiological. Intervention was required in 7 cases – 4 of these as an emergency. Conclusions: In view of the fact that there were no cases of ovarian malignancy and only 0.13% (1.3/1000) women required acute intervention, we conclude that examining the ovaries in the first trimester is of limited value.


Background: Seprevalence of Hepatitis B and C viruses among the healthy adults is important helps to knowabout the disease burden. Objective: This study was conducted to find out the seroprevalence of hepatitis B and hepatitis C infection, and risk perception among healthy young adult population in the this Region. Methods: Blood samples were analyzed for the presence of HBsAg and HCV antibodies by ELISA at Western Regional Blood Transfusion Service. Perceived risk of HBV and HCV was measured by Likert-type scale: 'no risk', 'little', 'moderate', 'high' and 'very high' risk, ranging from 1 to 5. Proportions, chi-square test and independent samples t-test were used. Results: Seroprevalence of HBV, HCV and co-infection of HBV and HCV among 2032 healthy participants were found 0.7%, 0.4% and 0%, respectively. Seroprevalence of HBV was slightly higher among females, the respondents aged 30 years and below, married, having had multiple sexual partners. Seroprevalence of HCV was higher among males, respondents aged 18-29 years, married, participants having made tattoo. However, there was not statistically significant association of HCV seropositivity except with age group. About two-fifth of the respondent perceived moderate to very high risk of contracting HBV and HCV in their life time. Mean risk perception was 2.74 and 2.68 of HBV and HCV, respectively. There was statistically significant association of risk perception of HBV and HCV with sex, age group and marital status. Conclusion: seroprevalence of HBV is more than of HCV, and risk perception of both is moderate among healthy looking general population.


We proposed a simple method, a thermally purified solution (TPS) process, to lower the fabrication temperature of solution-processed hafnium oxide (HfOx) gate insulator films. The TPS process is proceeded by transferring thermal energy to the HfOx precursor solution 'BEFORE' film formation. The TPS process could induce chemical reactions including pre-hydrolysis by thermal energy in the HfOx precursor solution. These chemical reactions reduce the required thermal energy for forming a solution-processed HfOx film and improve the film quality. As a result, the HfOx film fabricated via the TPS process has satisfactory dielectric characteristics: a breakdown electric field of ∼6 MV cm−1, a leakage current density of ∼10−9 A cm−2, and a dielectric constant of 10.23 at low temperatures, i.e., below 200 °C. Solution-processed indium oxide (In2O3) thin film transistors with a HfOx gate insulator fabricated via the TPS process exhibit a field effect mobility of 3.67 cm2 V−1 s−1, an on/off current ratio of 9.8 × 106, and a subthreshold swing of 0.18 V dec−1.


Interaction with virtual deformable models is common in several haptic contexts, such as in medical training simulators. This paper presents a methodological procedure for the creation of such virtual models from their real-life counterparts. Both the surface geometry and the elastic parametrization of an object are reconstructed from position/force readings during an operator-assisted exploration of the object. A 3D mesh model is then generated from the surface contact points. The internal elastic modulus is found using the 3D finite element method. This modeling method is compared with two common 1D elastic models, namely Kelvin-Voigt and Hunt-Crossley. Results using three deformable homogeneous silicone samples show successful geometry reconstruction. 1D model parameterizations exhibit high variation dependent on geometry and contact location. In contrast, elastic modulus reconstruction yields a global model parameterization independent of geometry. Elastic moduli estimated in experiments correlated with their known values, and were shown to be reproducible among samples with different geometries.


Two Ni-Fe-Cr ternary alloys have been oxidized in simulated pressurized water reactor primary water at 360°C for 1000 h. The chemical composition of those alloys were chosen in order to be representative of the one of chromium depleted areas under the oxide scale of industrial alloys (e.g. alloy 600) exposed in the same conditions. The resulting oxidized structures (corrosion scale and underlying metal) were characterized using complementary analytical methods (FEG-SEM, TEM, SIMS, optical microscopy). On the one hand, the characterized external oxide layer is very close to the one observed on industrial nickel-base alloys, hence validating the use of such model alloys. On the other hand, both free oxygen and oxides have been detected at grain boundaries several micrometers under the metal/oxide interface. Implications of such a finding on the involved transport mechanisms for oxygen and the intergranular stress corrosion cracking resistance of nickel-base alloys are then discussed.