Abstract: Background and purpose: Little is known about how elderly people with diabetes (Type 2) in Indonesia respond
 to and live with their disease. In this paper perceptions and actions of some elderly Indonesians in relation to living with
 their disease are reported. Methods: Convenience sampling was used. Elderly people with diabetes who volunteered to
 participate in a diabetes education program (offered as a trial in three community health centers in Indonesia) were
 recruited pre-education to attend a focus group interview and completed a demographic survey. Results: Participants
 (n=45) had a mean (SD) age of 60.78 years; 40% had experienced hospitalization (diabetes related) and 24.4% of
 participants had had hospitalizations because of blood glucose level (hypo/hyperglycemia). The focus group interview
 revealed that symptoms such as weight loss, fatigue and changes in vision had led to health assessments and diagnosis of
 diabetes. Participants reported having limited opportunities post-diagnosis to attend diabetes education programs.
 Because of these limitations and limited health professional support most of the participants had resorted to alternative
 medicine to manage their conditions. Alternative treatments used by the participants included herbal medicines; ion
 therapy, and 'traditional' medications. Conclusion: These findings suggest that there is need for systematic assessment of
 the knowledge and self–treatment strategies that elderly people in Indonesia may be using to manage their diabetes.
 Service gap analysis and the potential benefits of structured diabetes education programs for newly diagnosed elderly
 persons should be assessed.
 Keywords: Diabetes, Elderly, Developing Countries and Health Education Programs


The susceptibility of homozygous BSVS mice to acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADE) has been found to be nutritionally dependent. On a laboratory stock regimen of commercial fox chow pellets, whole wheat bread, and milk this genotype is 100 per cent susceptible to the disease. On a "synthetic" diet, containing a minimal list of vitamins adequate for growth and maintenance, susceptibility was found to be reduced to 15 per cent. Supplementation of the "synthetic" diet with biotin, folic acid, and vitamin B12 restored susceptibility to a frequency of 70 per cent. Increasing the supplements tenfold had no further effect in restoring susceptibility frequencies to the 100 per cent level. In the restoration of susceptibility, folic acid and vitamin B12 were equally effective as single supplements and equivalent to the triple vitamin supplement. The effect of single biotin supplementation was less. An outbreak of fatal pasteurellosis among BSVS mice latently infected with Pasteurella and used in an ADE susceptibility test has been described. The fatal pasteurellosis has been ascribed to a constellation of determinants including (a) diet, (b) sex, (c) inoculation events, and (d) latent infection with Pasteurella. With males the susceptible sex it was possible to avert the fatal pasteurellosis and continue the nutritional experiments by using females exclusively.


A plasmonic infrared (IR) filter was experimentally and theoretically investigated. A localized surface plasmon polariton (LSPP) mode which was angle-independent in almost fully incident angle was observed. Through the use of the LSPP mode, an IR reflection-type notch filter with an ultrahigh immunity for the angular deviation was realized. An angle-independent reflection dip was designed at lambda = 6.2 mum with a full-width at half-maximum of 0.5 mum. The experimental result shows that the position and the line shape of the resonant dip at lambda = 6.2 mum remain the same for an increasing incident angle from 20deg to 60deg. The optical properties can be engineered by tuning thickness of the cavity layer. The proposed notch filter presents a large angular tolerance means that the superior angular stability makes it more feasible as it is put into practical applications.


Janus is a modular, massively parallel, and reconfigurable FPGA-based computing system. Each Janus module has one computational core and one host. Janus is tailored to, but not limited to, the needs of a class of hard scientific applications characterized by regular code structure, unconventional data-manipulation requirements, and a few Megabits database. The authors discuss this configurable system's architecture and focus on its use for Monte Carlo simulations of statistical mechanics, as Janus performs impressively on this class of application.


This paper addresses the problem of locating two straight and parallel road edges in images that are acquired from a stationary millimeter-wave radar platform positioned near ground-level. A fast, robust, and completely data-driven Bayesian solution to this problem is developed, and it has applications in automotive vision enhancement. The method employed in this paper makes use of a deformable template model of the expected road edges, a two-parameter log-normal model of the ground-level millimeter-wave (GLEM) radar imaging process, a maximum a posteriori (MAP) formulation of the straight edge detection problem, and a Monte Carlo algorithm to maximize the posterior density. Experimental results are presented by applying the method on GLEM radar images of actual roads. The performance of the method is assessed against ground truth for a variety of road scenes.


We present in this paper a-posteriori error estimators for multiphase flow with singular well sources. The estimators are fully and locally computable, distinguish the various error components, and target the singular effects of wells. On the basis of these estimators we design an adaptive fully-implicit solver that yields optimal nonlinear iterations and efficient time-stepping, while maintaining the accuracy of the solution. A key point is that the singular nature of the solution in the near-well region is explicitly captured and efficiently estimated using the adequate norms. Numerical experiments illustrate the efficiency of our estimates and the performance of the adaptive algorithm.


Signaling by activin-like ligands is important for induction and patterning of mesoderm and endoderm. We have used an antibody that specifically recognizes the phosphorylated and activated form of Smad2, an intracellular transducer of activin-like ligands, to examine how this signaling pathway patterns the early mesendoderm. In contrast to the simple expectation that activin-like signaling should be highest on the dorsal side of the gastrula stage embryo, we have found that while Smad2 phosphorylation is highest dorsally before gastrulation, signaling is attenuated dorsally and is highest on the ventral side by mid-gastrulation. Early dorsal initiation of Smad2 phosphorylation results from cooperation between the vegetally localized maternal transcription factor VegT and dorsally localized beta-catenin. The subsequent ventral appearance of Smad2 phosphorylation is dependent on VegT, but not on signaling from the dorsal side. Dorsal attenuation of Smad2 phosphorylation during gastrulation is mediated by early dorsal expression of feedback inhibitors of activin-like signals. In addition to regulation of Smad2 phosphorylation by the expression of activin-like ligands and their antagonists, the responsiveness of embryonic cells to activin-like ligands is also temporally regulated. Ectopic Vg1, Xnr1 and derrière all fail to activate Smad2 phosphorylation until after the midblastula transition, and the onset of responsiveness to these ligands is independent of transcription. Furthermore, the timing of cellular responsiveness differs for Xnr1 and derrière, and these distinct temporal patterns of responsiveness can be correlated with their distinctive phenotypic effects. These observations suggest that the timing of endogenous activin-like signaling is a determinant of patterning in the early Xenopus embryo.


BACKGROUND: Incisional hernias (IH) are a frequent complication of midline laparotomies in abdominal surgery. This study was conducted in order to determine the efficacy of mesh placement and assess the optimal fascia closure technique to reduce the IH rate in patients surgically treated after being diagnosed with malignant or borderline ovarian tumors.METHODS: Retrospective data from patients undergoing midline laparotomy for borderline or ovarian cancer in Hospital del Mar, Barcelona, from January 2008 to December 2019 were collected. Patient demographic, preoperative and intraoperative characteristics and risk factors for hernia were reported. The incidence of IH between groups (mesh and non-mesh) and the technique used in fascial closure for each patient (small bites technique vs large tissue bites) was reported. RESULTS: In total, 133 patients with available data for follow-up were included. After clinical and radiological examination, 25 (18.79%) of them showed IH. 18 of 61(29.5%) patients in non-mesh group developed IH, compared with 7 of 72 (9.7%) in mesh group (OR 0.25, 95% CI 0.09-0.66, p<0.005). Patients of large tissue bites group showed higher prevalence of IH compared with small bites technique group without statistical significance (OR 0.46, 95% CI 0.17-1.24, p=0.119). The combination of mesh reinforcement and small bites technique for fascial closure significantly reduce IH risk (p=0.021). CONCLUSION: Incidence of IH is high in patients undergoing midline laparotomy for ovarian cancer or borderline ovarian tumor. The addition of a prophylactic mesh and use of small bites technique may reduce the incidence of IH and potentially minimize the social impact and costs of this complication.


We report first infrared free-electron laser experiments to compare and elucidate the effects of surface-localized vibrational excitation versus bulk vibrational excitation on the ablation of polycrystalline diamond. The measured ablation yield values as a function oflaser intensity indicate the existence oftwo separate thresholds. The lower intensity threshold is identified as the ablation threshold, and the higher intensity threshold is associated with the formation of a plasma plume. The wavelength dependences of both thresholds indicate that the C-H absorption occurring at surfaces and grain boundaries does not play a significant role in the ablation process. However, both thresholds are lower when the laser is resonant with the two-phonon bulk absorption band. These fmdings are consistent with the model that a rapid laser-induced phase transition to graphite is responsible for the low-intensity ablation of diamond at and above the first threshold.


This essay examines changing practices of public anthropology in terms of their relationship to the political economic processes of global capitalism and neoliberalism as well as changes in the position of anthropology within a hierarchy of knowledge-producing disciplines. Examining my own experiences in diff erent historic regimes, I argue that today's call for a public or engaged anthropology partially confl ates two contradictory processes: the drive to raise the value of disciplinary expertise and stake a claim to authority in the world of policy elites located in the state, media and academy; and the drive to use contemporary theories and methods to off er cogent critiques of the very institutions which are gatekeepers for public knowledge. We o en fi nd ourselves examining actors in the same professionalized se ings in which we ourselves are situated and within which we seek more authority. I argue that we should continue to work on two tracks simultaneously with serious analysis of their contradictions. While we conform to dominant public questions, producing knowledge in ways that fi t mainstream formats of communication, we must also invest signifi cant eff ort in fi nding ways to help audiences reframe urgent issues by working to be er convey contextualized understandings of how power and politics work through sociocultural processes. As a result, we will become more mindful of the specifi c structural constraints and cultural processes which work against broadening and reframing popular understandings.


The present study was designed to investigate the effect of plasticizer i.e., triethyl citrate (TEC) on the in vitro drug release kinetics of Rabeprazole sodium from sustained-release pellets. Ammonio-methacrylate copolymer type B (Eudragit RS 100) was used as the release-retarding polymer. The plasticizer was used in different concentrations i.e. 0%, 5%, 10% 15%, and 20% (w/w) of Eudragit 100. Pellets were prepared by powder layering technology and coated with Eudragit RS 100 D using pan coating. Dissolution study was performed by using USP apparatus 2 (paddle type). When dissolution was performed on the pure drug, about 6.28% and 92% drug was dissolved in 2 h in 0.1 N HCl and in 30 min in buffer (pH 7.4), respectively. On comparing all formulations the release of drug in acidic dissolution medium was very negligible except the F1 formulation. It could have resulted due to the nonincorporation of triethyl citrate in Eudragit coating solution. It was observed that in buffer only 62% drug was released after 5 h from enteric coated pellets (F5) containing 20%TEC, thus indicating that Eudragit RS 100 significantly retarded the drug release rate and that drug release was varied according to the amount of plasticizer used. The amount of triethyl citrate in coating formulation significantly affected the drug release profile of the drug.


Abstract Securitisation is an asset management method aimed at issuing securities based on a separate set of claims. With this method, private entities and public entities delivering public tasks can have access to investment financing or operational financial through the capital market, bypassing a credit risk. It is achieved by bringing to a swap of a package of claims due to the entity with cash raised through issuing securities (e.g., bonds) backed by the debt obligations (claims). The paper presents legal and economic rules for organising the debt securitisation process involving a special purpose commercial law company set up to issue securities, which, next to securitisation through a securitisation fund, is one of the two types of securitisation of claims governed by Polish law. This paper was written within the research project financed by the National Science Centre No. DEC-2013/08/A/HS5/00642.


Semantic change is attested commonly in the historical development of lexicons across the world's languages. Extensive research has sought to characterize regularity in semantic change, but existing studies have typically relied on manual approaches or the analysis of a restricted set of languages. We present a large-scale computational analysis to explore regular patterns in word meaning change shared across many languages. We focus on two levels of analysis: (1) regularity in directionality, which we explore by inferring the historical direction of semantic change between a source meaning and a target meaning; (2) regularity in source-target mapping, which we explore by inferring the target meaning given a source meaning. We work with DatSemShift, the world's largest public database of semantic change that records thousands of meaning changes from over hundreds of languages. For directionality inference, we find that concreteness explains directionality in more than 70% of the attested cases of semantic change and is the strongest predictor among the alternatives including frequency and valence. For target inference, we find that a parallelogram-style analogy model based on contextual embeddings predicts the attested source-target mappings substantially better than chance and similarity-based models. Clustering the meaning pairs of semantic change reveals regular meaning shiftings between domains, such as body parts to geological formations. Our study provides an automated approach and large-scale evidence for multifaceted regularity in semantic change across languages.


Copyright law gives a deceased author's surviving spouse the right to terminate a transfer of copyright rights that the author made decades earlier. The spouse who recovers the author's rights can, in many instances, negotiate a new transfer on more favorable terms. Because the statute grants this termination right to a deceased author's widow or widower, copyright law must determine who qualifies as the author's spouse, a question more familiar to family law than copyright law.Copyright's termination provisions, from their enactment in 1978, have treated gay and lesbian authors with same-sex partners less favorably than authors with different-sex partners. The statute's facially neutral language has, in practice, always treated authors with same-sex partners unequally because its marriage recognition rule has incorporated by reference unequal treatment of those couples by state and federal law. This unequal treatment has evolved over time, as some states allowed same-sex couples to marry, as Congress enacted the so-called Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), and as the Supreme Court struck down DOMA's federal marriage recognition provisions in Windsor v. United States. But even after Windsor, copyright law still treats gay and lesbian couples unequally, so that an author with a same-sex spouse must be careful where she lives when she dies - if she is domiciled in a state that does not recognize her marriage, then copyright law will not recognize her surviving spouse.The Supreme Court's decision later this year in Obergefell v. Hodges, challenging state prohibitions on marrying same-sex couples, could perpetuate, reduce, or largely eliminate copyright law's remaining inequality. But even the most favorable Court decision for marriage equality would leave copyright law's unequal treatment in place for authors - American and foreign - who live in most other countries in the world, as long as copyright's statutory marriage recognition rule remains unchanged.


This thesis exploits a multichannel Gabor filters detection algorithm. Analysis filtering images from different orientations and scales, then fuses the multichannel data. Finally, a threshold iterative algorithm and mathematical morphology post-processing is used to achieve the fabric defect detection. The experiment selects five types of fabric defect image. Experimental results suggest that this algorithm can effectively identify blob-shaped, linear and planar defect and has well real-time character.


The response of electromechanical transducers can often be greatly improved by proper electrical termination that compensates for their coil impedance. The results of a detailed analysis are presented for two practical transistor amplifier configurations which produce negative output impedance. A push-pull power amplifier, based on this analysis, uses the bias stabilizing elements of the output stage to obtain the necessary positive current feedback. The three-stage circuit delivers, without a transformer, 12 watts into 8 ohms or 8 watts into 16 ohms. The output impedance is adjustable from plus 1 ohm to either minus 7 or minus 14 ohms. This amplifier has been used successfully in an all-transistor stereophonic high-fidelity system.


In this letter, we introduce the concept of enabling unequal error protection (UEP) with space shift keying (SSK)-type modulation that encodes the source information entirely in the antenna indices. Unique characteristics associated with SSK-type modulation as compared with conventional pulse/quadrature amplitude modulation (PAM/QAM) are discussed in the context of UEP design. Three general design concepts for two-level and three-level UEP are presented. Simulation results confirm the multilevel bit protection capabilities of the proposed hierarchical spatial constellation designs.


Inflammatory breast cancer is an aggressive and infiltrative malignancy that is often misdiagnosed as an infection because of its symptoms and signs of inflammation, delaying proper diagnosis and treatment. We report a case of inflammatory breast cancer showing correlation between dermoscopic and histopathological diagnoses. We highlight the utility of dermoscopy for skin biopsy site selection.


Sprout is an end-to-end transport protocol for interactive applications that desire high throughput and low delay. Sprout works well over cellular wireless networks, where link speeds change dramatically with time, and current protocols build up multi-second queues in network gateways. Sprout does not use TCP-style reactive congestion control; instead the receiver observes the packet arrival times to infer the uncertain dynamics of the network path. This inference is used to forecast how many bytes may be sent by the sender, while bounding the risk that packets will be delayed inside the network for too long. In evaluations on traces from four commercial LTE and 3G networks, Sprout, compared with Skype, reduced self-inflicted end-to-end delay by a factor of 7.9 and achieved 2.2× the transmitted bit rate on average. Compared with Google's Hangout, Sprout reduced delay by a factor of 7.2 while achieving 4.4× the bit rate, and compared with Apple's Facetime, Sprout reduced delay by a factor of 8.7 with 1.9× the bit rate. Although it is end-to-end, Sprout matched or outper-formed TCP Cubic running over the CoDel active queue management algorithm, which requires changes to cellular carrier equipment to deploy. We also tested Sprout as a tunnel to carry competing interactive and bulk traffic (Skype and TCP Cubic), and found that Sprout was able to isolate client application flows from one another.


Due to limited available antifungal agents, searching for new antifungal agents stimulated research on new chemotherapeutic agents in natural products. The current study was carried out to assess the antifungal activity of different Iranian honeys with different botanical origin against some important fungi, such as azoles-resistant Candida species. Seven types of honey samples including Thymus vulgaris, Alfalfa, Citrus, Zizyphus, Astragalus, Chamaemelum nobile and multiflora honey were collected. Minimum inhibitory concentrations microdilution broth method was used for assessing antifungal activity of honeys. The results revealed variations in the antifungal activity of the examined honey samples. Alfalfa and Thymus honeys were significantly more effective than other honeys and Zizyphus and Chamaemelum honeys exhibited lowest antifungal activity. Trichophyton rubrum and C. krusei had the highest and lowest sensitivity to the honey's antifungal activity among fungal species, respectively. No statistically significant differences in susceptibility to honey samples were determined among fluconazole resistance and susceptible Candida species.

Practical Applications

In the present study, the antifungal properties of honeys with different botanical origin against pathogenic fungal species were examined. Furthermore, the inhibitory properties of the honeys against fungal strains resistant to existing antifungal drugs were assessed. Antimicrobial properties of plants which were the origin of honeys in this study were also investigated. Results showed a direct correlation between the type of nectar for honeys and antifungal properties. More importantly, inhibitory effects of honeys against several fungal species and Trichophyton rubrum, particularly resistant Candida species was shown. It seems that appropriate concentrations of honey can be used for controlling and treating of dermatophytosis and dermatomycosis.


Calcia-doped ceria is of potential interest as an ultraviolet (UV) radiation blocking material in personal care products because of its excellent UV light absorption property and low catalytic ability for the oxidation of organic materials superior to undoped ceria. The performance of calcia doped ceria needs more enhancement through further control of its oxidation catalytic activity and improvement of its covering ability. In order to reduce the oxidation catalytic activity further, calcia-doped ceria was coated with amorphous silica by means of seeded polymerization technique. Generally, nanoparticles of calcia doped ceria do not provide a good coverage for human skin because of the agglomeration of the nanoparticles. The platy particles are required to enhance the covering ability of calcia doped ceria. This can be accomplished by synthesis of calcia-doped ceria/plate-like material (e.g., potassium lithium titanate (K0.8Li0.27Ti1.73O4) and mica) nanocomposite with subsequent silica coating. Calcia-doped ceria/plate-like material was prepared by soft chemical method followed by silica coating via seeded polymerization technique. Silica coated calcia-doped ceria/plate-like material nanocomposite was characterized by X-ray diffraction, SEM, TEM, XPS and FT-IR.


Introduction Climate change is altering the reproductive phenology of many organisms, but the factors that influence the timing of gestation in ursids are still poorly understood. Higher temperatures in spring are already causing an earlier den exit in some brown bear populations, and a temporal mismatch between hibernation and reproduction could have dramatic consequences for reproductive success. Therefore, understanding the factors that control the timing of these events is important to forecast the consequences of climate change on population growth rates. Methods In this study, we used abdominal temperature loggers and GPS collars with acceleration sensors on 23 free-ranging pregnant female brown bears living in two areas in Sweden (61°N and 67°N latitude) to pinpoint hibernation and reproductive events. We investigated how intrinsic and extrinsic factors influence the termination of embryonic diapause and parturition, as well as their impact on reproductive success. Results The termination of embryonic diapause was later in the northern area compared to the southern area and occurred earlier when ambient temperature at den entry was higher in both areas. In the southern area, young adults (i.e., females = 7 years old) had a delayed parturition when bilberry abundance was low the year of mating. Additionally, young adults had a lower reproductive success than adults and their probability to reproduce successfully was dependent on bilberry abundance, whereas adult females were not affected by this parameter. Discussion As den exit occurs later in the northern study area, we suggest that a later parturition might ensure that females lactate their cubs in the den for a reasonable amount of time while fasting. Similarly, a later parturition combined with an earlier emergence could allow young adults to spend less time in the den lactating if they could not reach an optimal body condition prior to hibernation. But as a result, their cubs are younger and more vulnerable when they leave the den leading to lower survival rates. Our results suggest that a decreased berry abundance in the fall could impact the reproductive and hibernation phenology of Scandinavian brown bear females and lead to a lower cub survival with potential consequences on the population dynamics.


Abstract It is widely acknowledged that the poorest sections of society bear a disproportionate burden of poor environmental quality, including toxicity and pollution. The struggles to address environmental injustice instigated at grassroots level also place the burden of righting the injustice on those who often have the least resources in terms of time, money and access to decision makers. The unfolding story of BAN Waste's sophisticated challenge to the proposed building of a replacement incinerator in a working-class area of Newcastle demonstrates many of the issues and stages common to struggles for environmental justice. The struggle became proactive and built wider alliances and a broad coalition across the city for change. The eventual success in preventing the incinerator being built and in producing a superior waste strategy counters the popular belief that environmental concerns are predominantly those of the middle class.


Mouse fibroblast 3T6 cells, selected for resistance to hydroxyurea, were shown to overproduce protein M2, one of the two nonidentical subunits of mammalian ribonucleotide reductase. Packed resistant cells gave an EPR signal at 77 K very much resembling the signal given by the tyrosine-free radical of the B2 subunit of Escherichia coli ribonucleotide reductase. Also, the M2-specific free radical was shown to be located at a tyro- sine residue. Of the known tyrosine-free radicals of ribonucleotide reductases from E. coli, bacteriophage T4 infected E. coli and pseudorabies virus infected mouse L cells, the M2-specific EPR signal is most closely similar to the signal of the T4 radical. The small differences in the low temperature EPR signals between these four highly conserved tyrosine-free radical structures can be explained by slightly different angles of the 8-methylene group in relation to the plane of the aromatic ring of tyrosine, reflecting different confor-mations of the polypeptide chain around the tyrosines. The pronounced difference in microwave saturation between the E. coli B2 tyrosine radical EPR signal and the M2 signal could be due to their different interac- tions with unspecific paramagnetic ions or with the antiferromagnetically coupled iron pair, shown to be present in the E. coli enzyme and postulated also for the mammalian enzyme. A difference in the iron-radical center between the bacterial and mammalian ribonucleotide reductase is


Post-socialist Tbilisi is a city with a rich yet rapidly disappearing built heritage. The city's long and layered histories as well as its location at the crossroads between Asia and Europe have shaped its urban and architectural forms to reflect its multicultural and cosmopolitan character. Traditional building types demonstrate the confluence of cultures and the inhabitants' open social ideals, as gradients of privacy blend between private, public, and semiprivate. The Art Nouveau courtyard house embodies these values as its internal composition reveals that the shift toward Art Nouveau accompanied a broader redesign of domestic space at this moment. Further, these buildings were constructed when Georgia was determining its own cultural and national identity during the last years of the Russian Empire and before the country's short-lived independence (1918-1921). They, therefore, offer insights and models for an architectural identity in presentday independent Georgia. This thesis aims to demonstrate how a deep understanding of building history can aid in introducing contemporary design into post-socialist (and post-imperialist) cities with a rich, yet quickly deteriorating, historic urban fabric, preserving their built heritage and cultural identities, and adding fundamental social needs. It intends to challenge the linear trajectory of uncontrolled new development in Tbilisi by analyzing and reinterpreting the spatial composition of the Art Nouveau courtyard house to provide an architectural opportunity for self-determination by Tbilisi residents.


This paper examines how the institutional features of emerging economies (i.e., government ownership, political connections, and market reform) influence CEO pay-dispersion incentives. Consistent with our expectation, we find that CEO pay dispersion generally provides a tournament incentive in China's emerging market, as it is positively associated with firm performance. In addition, tournament incentives are weaker where firms are controlled by the government and where the CEO is politically connected, but it became stronger after the China's split-share structure reforms. Further, we find that in state controlled firms the satisfaction gained by meeting multiple economic and social goals largely reduces the effectiveness of tournament incentives, while the managerial agency problems inherent in private firms might mitigate them.


A chloroplastmimic photovoltaic that is powered by proton motive force and able to generate electricity using only water and photocatalyst is discussed in this paper. The working principle for the proposed photovoltaic is based on Fick's law. A TiO2/carbon nanotube laminated photocatalyst was adopted to enhance the proton motive force; an n-type silicon membrane with nanochannels was implemented as the artificial thylakoid membrane; and a small bias was applied to the artificial thylakoid membrane to analogize the photovoltaic to a multichannel p-channel depletion-type metal-solution FET, such that the flux of the proton can be effectively raised. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed simple chloroplastmimic photovoltaic can produce photocurrent directly from visible light using only pure water and photocatalyst.


Inulin and oligofructose are functional food ingredients which offer a unique combination of nutritional properties and important technological benefits. They are found in many vegetables and fruits and can be industrially obtained from chicory roots. In food formulations, inulin and oligofructose may significantly improve organoleptic characteristics. Their incorporation allows upgrading of both taste and mouthfeel in a wide range of food applications. Oligofructose is highly soluble and possesses technological properties that are closely related to those of sugar and glucose syrups. It is often used in combination with high intensity sweeteners. Inulin has a much lower solubility, improves the stability of foams and emulsions and shows exceptional fat-like characteristics when used under the form of a gel in water. Fat and carbohydrate replacement with chicory inulin and oligofructose offers the advantage of not compromising on taste and texture, while delivering nutritionally enhanced products.


In 2016 and 2017, Black and Pink partnered with students at Northeastern University School of Law in Boston to develop these guides to share with prisoners. These guides are designed to share information with prisoners on their state's policies around grievance procedures (as it relates to the Prison Litigation Reform Act), solitary confinement, transgender specific regulations, and the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA). The guides were designed for specific states where we have the largest prisoner membership. We hope to develop more guides in years to come. Feel free to share these guides with anyone who would be helped by them


Introduced in July, 2011 in a beta test of invited users only, the new social media service Google+ (or G+) quickly spread by word of mouth, and Google leader Larry Page (2011) blogged that within sixteen days it had 10 million users. By August, it had 25 million users (Cashmore, 2011). Even with slower growth ahead (still with no marketing budget), the service looks likely to crest 100 million users perhaps as early as ten months, a feat that took Facebook three years. Other social networks, most notably Facebook and Twitter, have been used increasingly as instructional tools, since they are platforms with which students are already familiar (Maloney, 2007; McLoughlin & Lee, 2007). Selwyn (2009) found that students often eschew official channels for communication in favor of less formal community-based formats such as Facebook, implying a growing need for instructional communication tools that will be used willingly by students. The question is whether Google+ can be used like Twitter or Facebook to augment instruction, or even, perhaps, to improve upon those predecessors for academic purposes.


With the immense growth of online social applications, trust plays a more and more important role in connecting users to each other, sharing their personal information and attracting him to receive recommendations. Therefore, how to obtain trust relationships through mining online social networks became a critical issue. To calculate the level of trust between two users, many computational trust models are proposed which mainly rely on the social network structure, the explicit trust from user to another, the users' behaviors, or the users' similarity, etc. However, the majority of these models ignored the temporal factor. In this paper, we propose a trust relationship detection mechanism from an egocentric social network in order to compute the trust level between an active user and his directed friends. We propose a Level of social Trust model, that we called LoTrust, which is suitable for personalized recommendation purpose. This computational model founded on novel trust metric which is based not only on the users' interests similarity according to their semantic social profiles (RDF/FOAF), but also takes into account the time factor of the users' active interactions (e.g comments, share photo, wall posts, messages). We perform experiments on real life dataset extracted from Facebook. The experimental results demonstrated how our LoTrust model produces satisfactory results than other computational models.


Today a general mood of pessimism surrounds Western efforts to strengthen elections and democracy abroad. If elections are often deeply flawed or even broken in many countries around the world, can anything be done to fix them? To counter the prevailing ethos, Pippa Norris presents new evidence for why programs of international electoral assistance work. She evaluates the effectiveness of several practical remedies, including efforts designed to reform electoral laws, strengthen women's representation, build effective electoral management bodies, promote balanced campaign communications, regulate political money, and improve voter registration. Pippa Norris argues that it would be a tragedy to undermine progress by withdrawing from international engagement. Instead, the international community needs to learn the lessons of what works best to strengthen electoral integrity, to focus activities and resources upon the most effective programs, and to innovate after a quarter century of efforts to strengthen electoral integrity.


The diversity of endophytic bacteria in the sand-fixation plant Caragana microphylla was investigated by amplified rDNA restriction analysis and by sequence and phylogenetic comparisons of the 16S rRNA genes. A total of 24, 19, and 17 operational taxonomic units were identified from 16S rDNA libraries of the plant roots, stems and leaves, respectively. Homology analysis revealed a 92-100% identity of bacterial 16S rDNA sequences compared with those in the GenBank database. The bacteria identified by sequence homology fell into the following groups: α-Proteobacteria, β-Proteobacteria, γ-Proteobacteria, bacilli, and uncultured bacterium. Sequence analysis demonstrated that the roots were colonized predominantly by Bradyrhizobiaceae, while bacteria from Burkholderiaceae and Sphingomonadaceae were predominant in the stems and leaves, respectively. Additionally, the endophytic bacterial community in leaves was more diverse than those in the roots and stems. Overall, the most abundant bacteria in all three tissues analyzed were from the Sphingomonadaceae and Burkholderiaceae families, although many bacterial populations were found in only a single tissue. These results suggest that the bacterial population of C. microphylla is diverse.


This paper concerns the phase transformation induced by heat treatment and cold rolling in duplex stainless steels with different compositions. In the 2205 and 2507 grades, during the isothermal heat treatments, chi-phase precipitates as small particles at the ferrite/austenite boundaries, followed by sigma precipitation. At the lowest temperature the kinetic of chi-phase is favoured, with the increasing of time and temperature a progressive transformation of chi to sigma occurs and the kinetic of sigma is favoured. During continuous cooling, the chi -phase appears at the lowest cooling rates. In the low Ni grades (2101 and 2304) the grain boundaries precipitation of chromium nitrides were detected, but no sigma and chi. In 2101 the austenite transforms to martensite both after cold rolling and quenching


In this paper we address the inevitable problem of aligning a software model with its respective code in such a way that the synchronization between both views of the system can be effectively maintained. In traditional approaches to model-driven software development (MDSD) it is at least necessary to annotate the source code in order to mark its origin for round-trip engineering and to prevent it from being overridden when regenerating code from other models. Instead of just maintaining references to models, we suggest to embed full model semantics into source code. To realize this approach we modify the earlier concept of ViewPoints, so that the necessary configuration of ViewPoints happens inside the source code by using selected constructs of object-oriented programming languages. Our contribution presents the approach to maintain models and source code simultaneously by means of behavioral models.


South Africa waived user fees for primary health care, first in 1994, and again, in 1996. Since the 1994 plan focused on young children and older adults, as well as pregnant and nursing mothers, the 1996 change, which waived fees for the remainder of the population, subject to means tests, can be examined via differences-in-differences (DD). DD is applied to a subsample of children, underpinned by a multinomial logit regression of health-seeking behavior amongst ill and injured children. Although the policy provided free primary care to all at public clinics, the results of the analysis do not support the hypothesis that free primary care significantly increased public clinic visits amongst ill and injured children. However, there is strong evidence that ill and injured children were more likely (by 6%) to seek at least some sort of treatment following the change in policy, implying that the policy was indirectly successful.


A method for Bayesian factor analysis (FA) of large matrices is proposed. It is assumed that a small number of matrix elements are initially observed, and the statistical FA model is employed to actively and sequentially select which new matrix entries would be most informative, in order to estimate the remaining missing entries, i.e., complete the matrix. The model inference and active learning are performed within an online variational Bayes (VB) framework. A fast and provably near-optimal greedy algorithm is used to sequentially maximize the mutual information contribution from new observations, taking advantage of submodularity properties. Additionally, a simple alternative procedure is proposed, in which the posterior parameters learned by the Bayesian approach are directly used. This alternative procedure is shown to achieve slightly higher prediction error, but requires much fewer computational resources. The methods are demonstrated on a very large matrix factorization problem, namely the Yahoo! Music ratings dataset.


The description and study of rhynchonellid brachiopods recently collected from the Lower Devonian of the Ougarta area in western Algerian Sahara permitted the revision of previously described and/or listed taxa, mainly from Morocco. Palaeobiogeographically, the nine identified taxa share many similarities with the rhynchonellid fauna of the Ibarmaghian Domain. Five of the nine identified taxa belong to three genera of the Family Nucinulidae Sartenaer, 2004. Three of these are new taxa, namely Nucinulus orbignyanus crassicostus subsp. nov., Cuninulus ougartaensis sp. nov. and Palinulus saharaensis sp. nov. The four remaining taxa are assigned (one of them questionably) to the genera Lanceomyonia, Stenorhynchia and Glossinulus of the families Hebetoechiidae, Trigonirhynchiidae, and Glossinotoechiidae, respectively.


The effect of Tris on Ca2+ accumulation by microsomal membrane fraction isolated from rat vas deferens was studied. Preincubation with Tris of isolated microsomal membranes caused a dose-dependent inhibition of Ca2+ binding in the absence of ATP at low Ca2+ concentration (20 microM). This inhibitory effect of Tris on Ca2+ binding was not observed at high Ca2+ concentration (1 mM). Preincubation of membranes with Tris also resulted in decreased Ca2+ accumulation in the presence of ATP. Both ionomycin-sensitive and -insensitive components of the ATP-supported Ca2+ accumulation were significantly lower in membrane fraction preincubated with Tris than these in the control membrane fraction not treated with Tris suggesting that both Ca2+ binding and active transport of Ca2+ were affected by Tris. This was further supported by the fact that oxalate-stimulated ATP-supported Ca2- accumulation by the membrane was potently inhibited by Tris. This inhibition was more prominent when the membranes were preincubated with Tris. Efflux of Ca2+ into EGTA containing medium from a preloaded membrane fraction was not significantly different whether or not the membrane fractions were preincubated with Tris indicating that the membrane permeability to Ca2+ may not be altered by Tris. Our results provided direct evidence that Tris altered the Ca2+ binding and transport at the subcellular membrane level and may provide a cellular basis for the alterations of contractile function of vas deferens in the physiological saline solution buffered with Tris.


While school reform has been the subject of much research globally, few studies have examined "on the ground" educational reform in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), especially in relation to the "Tatweer" System, an initiative which purports to transform education and lead educational change within the country. This paper aims to address this knowledge gap and reports on a study which examined female leaders' perceptions and experiences of the system. A qualitative case study of three Tatweer schools was conducted, with data being drawn from one-on-one interviews (n = 16), focus group interviews (n = 4) and documentary analysis. Our findings suggest that the Tatweer system is what can be termed "semi-decentralised", which appears to be linked to issues of accountability, trust, and perceived staff competence. However, at the local level, major breakthroughs seem to have taken place in relation to distributing leadership responsibilities and decision-making processes within these female-led schools.


Objectives: The purpose of this study was to determine the quality of sleep and its relationship with general health of first-and second-year medical residents of various specialties working in teaching centers affiliated with Iran University of Medical Sciences. Methods: This study was a cross-sectional and descriptive-analytical study. Of 1246 first-and second-year medical residents 330 (56.1% male, 43.9% female with mean age of 31.9) were selected randomly to participate in the study. The data collection instruments included a demographic questionnaire and habits of residents, the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and the General Health Questionnaire-28 (GHQ28). The data were analyzed using Pearson's correlation coefficient and multinominal logistic regression analysis. Results: Mean score of PSQI (±SD) of studied individuals was 6.9±0.5, (median 5). In total 200 persons (60.6%) had scores higher than 5 indicating undesirable sleep quality. Sleep quality scores had relatively strong correlation with subscales' scores of anxiety and insomnia; and also with GHQ-28 total score (r<0.6; p<0.001). Of all background variables, 8 to 12 shifts per month (adjusted OR=3.360; 95% CI: 1.750 to 6.451) and more than 12 shifts per month (adjusted OR=2.020; 95% CI: 1.007 to 4.053) compared to fewer than 8 shifts per month, and poor general health in GHQ-28 (adjusted OR=9.141; 95% CI: 4.006 to 20.862) compared to adequate general health were related to higher probability of inadequate sleep quality. Conclusion: More than half of the first-and secondyear residents were experiencing poor sleep quality and sleep quality had significant and inverse correlation with general health status and number of shifts per month.


This paper presents a one-stage stereo algorithm that yields 3D planar surface patches directly from matching image patch intensity information. The method allows an arbitrary rotation and translation between the cameras; it is not limited to parallel-axis, narrow-baseline, or vergent geometries. The key to the approach is to match image patches that have positions, shapes, sizes, orientations, and samplings consistent with a hypothesized surface patch and with each other. The match error then reflects only the mismatch of patch contents and not the mismatch of patch geometries or samplings. The algorithm is quantitatively evaluated against ground truth on real images with difficult viewing geometries, and demonstrates an average accuracy of about 1% in estimating surface depths and 10/spl deg/ in estimating surface normals.


Background. Medical decision making may be influenced by contextual factors. We evaluated whether pathologists are influenced by disease severity of recently observed cases. Methods. Pathologists independently interpreted 60 breast biopsy specimens (one slide per case; 240 total cases in the study) in a prospective randomized observational study. Pathologists interpreted the same cases in 2 phases, separated by a washout period of >6 months. Participants were not informed that the cases were identical in each phase, and the sequence was reordered randomly for each pathologist and between phases. A consensus reference diagnosis was established for each case by 3 experienced breast pathologists. Ordered logit models examined the effect the pathologists' diagnoses on the preceding case or the 5 preceding cases had on their diagnosis for the subsequent index case. Results. Among 152 pathologists, 49 provided interpretive data in both phases I and II, 66 from only phase I, and 37 from phase II only. In phase I, pathologists were more likely to indicate a more severe diagnosis than the reference diagnosis when the preceding case was diagnosed as ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) or invasive cancer (proportional odds ratio [POR], 1.28; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.15–1.42). Results were similar when considering the preceding 5 cases and for the pathologists in phase II who interpreted the same cases in a different order compared with phase I (POR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.05–1.31). Conclusion. Physicians appear to be influenced by the severity of previously interpreted test cases. Understanding types and sources of diagnostic bias may lead to improved assessment of accuracy and better patient care.


This article reports design and development efforts associated with one school-university collaborative partnership project focused on assisting K-12 school community stakeholders struggling with difficult school improvement challenges learn how to reinvent themselves as organizational teams to engage effectively in positive school change and renewal. The project employs an alternative, immersive organizational learning design in conjunction with available multimedia technology to leverage stakeholders' own lived experiences and leadership challenges as opportunities to engage school community participants in a unique organizational case development and team learning adventure. Multimedia case development and production activities involving school community stakeholders in one elementary school are highlighted. Insights derived from the use of multimedia case development as an organizational leading and learning tool for educators and other stakeholders in school communities are discussed.


This paper presents the analysis and modification of near optimum trajectories for robotic manipulators moving along pre-defined paths. Modifications of trajectories are done such that the vibrations due to flexibility of arms and other components of the manipulator are minimized. Ultimately, the productivity of robotic manipulators depends on the speed of the task execution. Higher productivity requires higher speed of operation and in turn better control and trajectory generation algorithms. Today trajectory generation algorithms do not consider the dynamic characteristics of the manipulators. In order to utilize the available capability in the optimum manner the trajectory generation algorithms need to consider the dynamics of the manipulator, actuator constraints, nature of the task, and flexibility of arms and compliance of the joint connections. In the search for an optimal trajectory that will meet all of the above requirements while optimizing some criterion, some simplifying assumptions have to be made and/or some of the requirements have to be kept out of the formulation so that the defined problem can be solved or some feasible solutions obtained. Once the simplified problem is solved, one may consider modifying the original solution in such a way that the excluded requirements are also satisfied to some extent. In this paper the minimum time control solution of a two link flexible arm with actuator constraints is presented. We solved the minimum time problem with no constraints on the flexible modes and show the time improvement due to the use of light-weight arms. The objective is to modify the trajectory, such that flexible vibrations are bounded while changing the solution from the previous one as little as possible. Practical ways of trajectory modifications for flexible arms are discussed.


We report on a pilot study demonstrating a proof of concept for the passive delivery of nanoshells to an orthotopic tumor where they induce a local, confined therapeutic response distinct from that of normal brain resulting in the photo-thermal ablation of canine Transmissible Venereal Tumor (cTVT) in a canine brain model. cTVT fragments grown in SCID mice were successfully inoculated in the parietal lobe of immuno-suppressed, mixed-breed hound dogs. A single dose of near-infrared absorbing, 150 nm nanoshells was infused intravenously and allowed time to passively accumulate in the intracranial tumors which served as a proxy for an orthotopic brain metastasis. The nanoshells accumulated within the intracranial cTVT suggesting that its neo-vasculature represented an interruption of the normal blood-brain barrier. Tumors were thermally ablated by percutaneous, optical fiber-delivered, near-infrared radiation using a 3.5 W average, 3-minute laser dose at 808 nm that selectively elevated the temperature of tumor tissue to 65.8±4.1ºC. Identical laser doses applied to normal white and gray matter on the contralateral side of the brain yielded sub-lethal temperatures of 48.6±1.1ºC. The laser dose was designed to minimize thermal damage to normal brain tissue in the absence of nanoshells and compensate for variability in the accumulation of nanoshells in tumor. Post-mortem histopathology of treated brain sections demonstrated the effectiveness and selectivity of the nanoshell-assisted thermal ablation.


We consider novel wormhole solutions supported by a matter content that minimally violates the null energy condition. More specifically, we consider an equation of state in which the sum of the energy density and radial pressure is proportional to a constant with a value smaller than that of the inverse area characterising the system, i.e., the area of the wormhole mouth. This approach is motivated by a recently proposed cosmological event, denoted "the little sibling of the big rip", where the Hubble rate and the scale factor blow up but the cosmic derivative of the Hubble rate does not [1]. By using the cut-and-paste approach, we match interior spherically symmetric wormhole solutions to an exterior Schwarzschild geometry, and analyse the stability of the thin-shell to linearized spherically symmetric perturbations around static solutions, by choosing suitable properties for the exotic material residing on the junction interface radius. Furthermore, we also consider an inhomogeneous generalization of the equation of state considered above and analyse the respective stability regions. In particular, we obtain a specific wormhole solution with an asymptotic behaviour corresponding to a global monopole.


Japan was struck by an M9.0 megathrust earthquake on March 11, 2011. Synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images from the TerraSAR-X satellite have been used to generate a ground motion map by means of correlation techniques. Geophysical corrections due to solid Earth tide and atmospheric path delay effects have been applied. These corrections can reach up to 20 cm in the radar line of sight. Using this approach, absolute displacements in the radar line of sight and in the satellite flight direction are determined. This letter shows the potential of correlation techniques for ground motion monitoring and a comparison with the interferometric technique. Using multiple scenes, a wide area displacement map is generated and quantitatively compared with GPS data, showing a divergence of about 15 cm.


Abstract Prototyping is an essential activity in the early stages of product development. This activity can provide insight into the learning process that takes place during the implementation of an idea. It can also help to improve the design of a product. This information and the process are useful in design education as they can be used to enhance students' ability to prototype their ideas and develop creative solutions. To observe the activity of prototype development, we conducted a study on students participating in a 7-week course: Principles of Digital Fabrication. During the course, eight teams made prototypes and shared their weekly developments via internet blog posts. The posts contained prototype pictures, descriptions of their ideas, and reflections on activities. The blog documentation of the prototypes developed by the students was done without the researchers' intervention, providing essential data or research. Based on a review of other methods of capturing the prototype development process, we compare existing documentation tools with the method used in the case study and outline the practices and tools related to the effective documentation of prototyping activity.


Background Since the commercial release of Bt cotton in Burkina Faso in 2009, the issue of seed purity in producers' fields has rarely been addressed in an unbiased and objective manner. The potential for contamination of conventional seed varieties with Bt traits and the consequent threat to the continuation of organic cotton production has been documented. However, studies are rare on the varietal purity of Bt cotton seeds, despite the implications for the effectiveness and sustainability of their use. This paper compensates for the lack of research on the varietal purity of cotton seeds in Burkina Faso by reporting the results of Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay tests collected in 2015 on samples of both conventional and Bt varieties from 646 fields. Results According to the conservative criteria used to declare the presence of a Bt gene in a given variety (more than 10% of seeds of conventional variety exhibit Bt traits, and at least 90% of seeds of Bt variety exhibit Bt traits), seed purity was very questionable for both types of variety. For the supposedly conventional variety, the Cry1Ac gene was observed in 63.6% of samples, the Cry2Ab gene was observed in 59.3% of samples, and both genes were detected in 52.2% of the seed samples. Only 29.3% of the seeds that were supposed to be of conventional type contained no Bt genes. Conversely, for the labeled Bt variety, the Cry1Ac gene was found in only 59.6% of samples, the Cry2Ab gene was found in 53.6% of the samples, and both genes were found in 40.4% of the samples. Finally, for the seeds that were supposed to contain both genes (Bollguard 2), both Cry1Ac and Cry2Ab genes were found in only 40.4% of the samples, only one of the genes was found in 32.4% of the samples, and 27.2% of the seeds in the samples contained neither. Two factors are responsible for the severe lack of seed purity. First, conventional varieties are being contaminated with Bt traits because of a failure to revise the seed production scheme in Burkina Faso to prevent cross-pollination. Second, the original Bt seeds provided to Burkina Faso lacked varietal purity. The organic sector plays a very minor role in the cotton sector of Burkina Faso (production of organic cotton totaled 453 t in 2018/2019, out of national cotton production of 183 000 t). Nevertheless, the lack of purity in conventional seed varieties is a threat to efforts to expand certified organic cotton production. The poor presence of Bt proteins in supposed Bt varieties undermines their effectiveness in controlling pests and increases the likelihood of the development of resistance among pest populations. Conclusion Our results show the extent of purity loss when inadequate attention is paid to the preservation of seed purity. Pure conventional seeds could vanish in Burkina Faso, while Bt seeds do not carry the combination of the expected Bt traits. Any country wishing to embark on the use of Bt cotton, or to resume its use, as in the case of Burkina Faso, must first adjust its national seed production scheme to ensure that procedures to preserve varietal purity are enforced. The preservation of varietal purity is necessary to enable the launch or the continuation of identity-cotton production. In addition, the preservation of varietal purity is necessary to ensure the sustainable effectiveness of Bt cotton. In order to ensure that procedures to preserve varietal purity are observed, seed purity must be tested regularly, and test results must be published.


The book is for compiler programmers who are familiar with concepts of compilers and want to indulge in understanding, exploring, and using LLVM infrastructure in a meaningful way in their work. This book is also for programmers who are not directly involved in compiler projects but are often involved in development phases where they write thousands of lines of code. With knowledge of how compilers work, they will be able to code in an optimal way and improve performance with clean code.


Growth of information technology very fast, one of them is World Wide Web or more knowledgeable web. Web represents the program which used as editor and browser in computer.
Basically web represent a corps at hyperlink going to address one to other; similar address by using HTML Language programming ( Hyper Text Markup Language) what collaborated with the Language programming of other. Becoming a web is a group of document written in format
HTML, which can accessing from server web to web browser..
This making Web need some software. Software required by the inclusive of Language programming. A lot of software supporting in this making web. One of them is planning and
making of web study interrupt to use the PHP ( Hyper Text Processor) Language programming and database Mysql ( My Structured Query Language), what is coupled by web server Apache.
PHP used for the processing of script of HTML page, while to program the Mysql used for the system of management of data study interrupt. After making design web and compile the needed database, process hereinafter is connecting web design with the database which have been made by using web server Apache.
In making program the web for the system of study interrupt there are some menu to be used. Service given with the existence of this application [is] containing home [of] information of study semester interrupt in a few year therewith sum up its competitor. Containing Transaction
service of data input in the form of student data in this data will load the student which still be active in lecturing. Besides student data also there is data of tutor and look a lesson. Data of tutor and lesson is also provided by the menu edit and delete of each data. At menu hereinafter is admission filling plan the study interrupt. Having input in the form of year of academics and NIM (Number of Mains student) for input of admission filling plan the study interrupt the. Service hereinafter is processing assess to [enter/include] the value, and also menus for the printing of. For the menu of edit the admin to alter the password and user from previous admin.
Menu Logout used to go out from web page. All existing service can only be controlled by administrator provided with [by] the key of security of user and password.
With the existence of this web is expected to earn can assist the majors in management process the semester administration interrupt. This Web also applicable to earn the processing of data administration swiftly in activity study interrupt. Others also this web can manage the
information to be accommodated in web server accommodating data and give the steward in the form of student data going through study interrupt


The word freedom is used constantly, but little understood; to understand it, it is important to see the State as a civil association of individuals, where different ways of living and purposes coexist. This coexistence depends on a rule of law, which allows individuals to pursue their conception of the good life consistent with the rules of the association. The freedom requires a rule of law, which allows free action and cooperation of individuals in the market and thus benefits the economy.


An overview of the Research Process, which includes information about search strategies, how to choose and refine topics, kinds of resources, and citing sources


In Central Asia, the water deficit and water-energy problem have been one of among the most acute and conflict-ridden challenges for the sustainable development of the region and for regional security. Key trade and investment partners, including Russia and the European Union, could play a considerable role in influencing this issue, due to the long-lasting status quo, the inability to find a solution through intra-regional dialogue and the region's rising dependence on foreign trade. Indeed, water-related interactions between Russia and the EU have been developing in a complementary manner. The EU possesses new technologies and its members have access to long-term capital markets, while Russia carries influence through providing security, regulating migration and holding a favourable political position for offering mediation services to the republics of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.This article examines EU-Russia relations regarding water issues in Central Asia over the medium term. By analyzing cooperative and non-cooperative strategies used by the major stakeholders in the water conflict (the five republics and the third parties of Russia and the EU), it confirms the continuous complementary character of EU and Russian activities in this context. Russia will take responsibility for moderating the principal questions (as with the construction of big dams such as Rogunor Kambarata), as they relate to the provision of security guarantees. The EU will act through providing support for water companies from small and medium-sized enterprises, and promoting the European Water Initiative principles and by developing its investment policy. The intersection of interests is possible when if Russia will attracts an independent arbiter, such as an actor available to provide guarantees related to the values of professional objectivism, human rights support and environment protection. These issues inevitably arise with relation to big infrastructure projects.


The right number of muscular disorders which may be observed clinically in thyroid dysfunction contrast with the paucity of knowledge concerning the mechanisms of action of the thyroid hormones. Those which have been described allowed the following conclusions to be made: 1) The thyroid hormones simultaneously increase the oxydative phosphorylation in mitochondria and the activation of glycogen phosphorylase. 2) They modify the properties of cell membrane without noticiably changing the cytoplasm (light and electron microscopically). These modifications are concommitant with a reduction in resting membrane potential associated with anomalies of Na+ conductance and Ca+ uptake. 3) The appearance and the number of motor units in each muscle is dependant on the hormonal impregnation. However, these diverses actions do not reveal wether the thyroid hormone receptors are in the muscle or if they act via the intermediary of a neuronal trophic factor.


Fibromyalgia is a chronic condition that is characterised by wide-spread pain, fatigue, sleep disturbances, cognitive dysfunctions, increased sensitivity and psychological disorders (White and Harth, 2001). Also, fibromyalgia is typically variable regarding its symptoms and their severity from one day to the next, even from one hour to the next (Wolfe and Walitt, 2013). Globally, between 0.66% and 10.5% of the general population suffer from fibromyalgia (Queiroz, 2013). Wessely (1994) highlights a high representation of students, teachers, medical staff and doctors amongst sufferers of chronic fatigue syndrome, myalgic encephalomyelitis and neurasthenia, illnesses that are all related and co-morbid to fibromyalgia. My research explores how academics make sense of their experiences and how fibromyalgia with all its symptoms impacts academic identity. Although fibromyalgia is often considered as a pain syndrome, my research relates to the impact of fibromyalgia in all its facets, thus includes the influence of cognitive dysfunctions and fatigue on those working in a cognitively demanding profession. The nature of fibromyalgia and the imprecision of words within pain and illness experiences (Scarry, 1985) mean that the traditional narrative approach (McMahon, Murray and Simpson, 2012) may not be best suited to capture the lived experience of an academic suffering from fibromyalgia. Therefore, I use creative data collection methods, visual representations, metaphors and identity boxes. Billot and King (2015) acknowledge the potential of metaphors for academic identity research, but they do not use physical and material representations. My poster contributes to methodological debates relating to research into academic identity. Billot J and King V (2015) Understanding academic identity through metaphor. Teaching in Higher Education 20(8): 833-844. McMahon L, Murray C and Simpson J (2012) The potential benefits of applying a narrative analytic approach for understanding the experience of fibromyalgia: A review. Disability and Rehabilitation 34(13): 1121-1130. Queiroz LP (2013) Worldwide epidemiology of fibromyalgia. Current Pain and Headache Reports 17: 356. Scarry, E (1985) The body in pain: The making and unmaking of the world. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Wessely S (1994) Neurasthenia and chronic fatigue. Transcultural Psychiatric Research Review 31: 173-209. White K and Harth M (2001) Classification, epidemiology, and natural history of fibromyalgia. Current Pain and Headache Reports 5:320-329.


This paper proposes a new improved Genetic Algorithm (GA) by utilizing a Data Mining technique, and demonstrates how it is superior to traditional GA on a popular job shop scheduling problem. GA has long been widely applied to solve complex optimization problems in a good variety of areas. It has advantages of adaptive capability, efficient search, potential to avoid local optimum, etc. In recent literature, researchers have proposed a good number of new GAs by combining basic GA with other techniques, such as heuristic rules, simulated annealing, neural networks, fuzzy sets, and so on, in order to improve the efficiency for various optimization problems. Data mining is a new evolving technology for knowledge extraction, classification, clustering, estimation, etc. The capability of finding frequent patterns in large data set is the key reason why it is integrated with GA in this research. Due to the fundamental concept of GA's randomness during evolution, a traditional GA may become less efficient in search for optimum. By embedding the frequent schemata into the GA evolution process, the new improved GA could reduce the search time by preserving segments of good solutions without accidentally being lost due to random crossover or mutation. The proposed new GA was experimented on a popular 6x6 job shop scheduling problem. The results have shown its better efficiency than traditional GAs and potential for further research works.


Most approaches to cancer chemotherapy have centered around the idea that cytotoxic drugs can be used to eradicate proliferating neoplastic cells. Cytotoxicity is generally thought to evolve from the presence of drug-induced damage to the genetic material, and DNA has served admirably as a primary focus for drug development. Other cellular targets should also be vulnerable, however, and over the past decade the plasma membrane in particular has received considerable attention as a therapeutic locus. In the early stages of this work there were only vague notions as to how membrane disruption could lead to cell death, but recent thinking has coalesced around the idea that cell-surface signal transduction and growth control pathways represent an ideal target for the rational development of new cancer therapies. In this review, we discuss three aspects of signal transduction-phosphoinositide turnover, phosphorylation by protein kinase C, and phosphorylation by protein tyrosine kinases--and summarize the existing evidence that these vital processes can be specifically disrupted, and that such pharmacology offers rich prospects for future therapeutic design.


INTRODUCTION. A new class of soybean-based bio-materials has been presented to the scientific community (patent PCT/GB01/03464) which shows good mechanical properties and an intrinsic anti-inflammatory potential, probably related to the phyto-hormone Genistein. This plant isoflavone is also reported to inhibit osteo-clastic activity.

MATERIALS AND METHODS. De-fatted soybean curd was prepared into granules which were subsequently implanted in a cylindrical cavity drilled into the femural canal of New Zealand White rabbits. Retrieved femurs were embedded in poly-methyl-meta-acrylate and samples were analyzed by back-scattered electron microscopy (BSEM).

RESULTS. Retrieved operated femurs showed a macroscopic appearance similar to the non-operated controls. BSEM showed that granules were still present at the site of implantation after 8 weeks, but a clear progressive degradation took place from the periphery to the centre of the femural canal already after 3 weeks. The degradation of the granule was accompanied by the production of new trabeculae apposed to the surface of the material.

CONCLUSIONS. It can be hyothesised that the released Genistein shifts the metabolic balance towards bone production by inhibiting the macrophagic and osteo-clastic activities and that the material degrading surface supports the apposition and mineralization of the newly-formed bone.


Recently, we are seeing the emergence of plan- and goal-recognition algorithms which are based on the principle of rationality. These avoid the use of a plan library that compactly encodes all possible observable plans, and instead generate plans dynamically to match the observations. However, recent experiments by Berkovitz (Berkovitz, The effect of spatial cognition and context on robot movement legibility in human-robot collaboration, 2018) show that in many cases, humans seem to have reached quick (correct) decisions when observing motions which were far from rational (optimal), while optimal motions were slower to be recognized. Intrigued by these findings, we experimented with a variety of rationality-based recognition algorithms on the same data. The results clearly show that none of the algorithms reported in the literature accounts for human subject decisions, even in this simple task. This is our first contribution. We hypothesize that humans utilize plan-recognition in service of goal recognition, i.e., match observations to known plans, and use the set of recognized plans to conclude as to the likely goals. To test this hypothesis, a second contribution in this paper is the introduction of a novel offline recognition algorithm. While preliminary, the algorithm accounts for the results reported by Berkovitz significantly better than the existing algorithms. Moreover, the proposed algorithm marries rationality-based and plan-library based methods seamlessly.


Focusing on the way-predicting cache with sub-block placement, we propose a new cache scheme that uses the valid bits from data memory to pre-decide disabling the unnecessary tag-subarrays and data-subarrays. By valid-bit pre-decision, it significantly helps in improving the average energy saving of the conventional way-predicting cache without valid-bit pre-decision, especially for with large associativity and small sub-block size. Moreover, the proposed way-predicting cache can be applied to the parallel architecture systems to reduce the overall power consumption.


Objective: To evaluate prospective surveillance and targeted physiotherapy (PSTP) compared to education (EDU) on the prevalence of arm morbidity and describe the associated program cost. Design: Pilot randomized single-blinded controlled trial. Setting: Urban with assessments and treatment delivered in hospitals. Participants: Women scheduled for breast cancer surgery. Interventions: Participants were randomly assigned (1:1) to PSTP (n = 21) or EDU (n = 20) and assessed presurgery and 12 months postsurgery. All participants received usual care, namely, preoperative education and provision of an education booklet with postsurgical exercises. The PSTP group was monitored for arm morbidity every three months and referred for physiotherapy if arm morbidity was identified. The EDU group received three education sessions on nutrition, stress and fatigue management. Main outcome measures: Arm morbidity was based on changes in the surgical arm(s) from presurgery in four domains: (1) shoulder range of motion, (2) strength, (3) volume, and (4) upper body function. Complex arm morbidity indicated ≥2 domains impaired. Second, the cost of the PSTP program was described. Results: At 12 months, 18 (49%) participants (10 PSTP and 8 EDU) had arm morbidity, with EDU participants presenting more complex arm morbidity compared to PSTP participants. PSTP participants attended 4.4 of 5 assessments with 90% retention. The PSTP program cost was $150 covered by the Health Care Provider and the Patient Out-of-Pocket Travel cost was CAN$40. Conclusion: Our results suggest that PSTP is feasible among women with breast cancer for early identification of arm morbidity. A larger study is needed to determine the cost and effectiveness benefits.


Interest in the topic of animal welfare continues to grow as knowledge about the quality of life of food animals evolves. Improving management practices that enhance welfare conditions for livestock requires tools that allow livestock caretakers to assess and address animal welfare conditions effectively and practically on farms. Over the past several years, Elanco Animal Health has developed analytical resources for beef cattle and swine producers to inform them on trends associated with finished cattle mobility and mortality, and transport losses in marketed swine. This presentation will share findings from Elanco's databases and the published literature to inform and foster discussion important to livestock welfare advancements. Relative to finished cattle mobility, data captured from 11.5 M head (2015–2019) demonstrate that cattle mobility continues to trend positively with approximately 90% of cattle observed with normal mobility conditions at packing plants (Edwards-Callaway et al., 2017); however, mortality trends and veterinary medical charges are higher over the past 5 years (2014–2018) when closeout data from 41.8 M head of beef cattle are evaluated across U.S. feedlots. Relative to market weight pig transport losses, an industry survey of 310 M pigs (2012–2015) indicate that averages for total dead pigs, non-ambulatory pigs, and total losses were 0.26%, 0.63%, and 0.88%, respectively (Yoder et al., 2017), which is similar to reported values in the literature (Ritter et al., 2009). Collectively, this information is important for measuring continuous improvement and determining where opportunities exist to evaluate management practices associated with herd health protocols, seasonal impacts, handling, and transport conditions. Animal welfare challenges are a non-compete issue for the livestock industry, and tools to assess these welfare topics are key to the enhancement of current practices and development of novel approaches to positively impact the role that livestock caretakers have on animal welfare.


Human resources are one of the most valuable resources of an organization and indeed an organization is nothing without human resources. This applies to companies, educational Institutions and widely used in all of the business circles. Getting and keeping good people is critical to the success of every organization. Maintaining employees is about providing working conditions that are worker friendly, involvement in decision making, good salaries, recognition for good performance and so forth. Many institutions are increasingly finding it difficult to retain employees.

Turnover is becoming a serious problem in today's corporate environment. Turnover costs for many organizations are very high and can significantly affect financial performance of an institution. This study focused on Presidential Trust Fund and its main objective was to assess the causes of employees' turnover in microfinance institutions in Tanzania.

The study used a sample size of 35 employees of PTF. Purposeful sampling was used to select two respondents from each of the fifteen branches while snowball sampling was used to obtain five respondents who have resigned from the institution. The study used interview and questionnaires to collect data; they were administered to the respondents at their offices and to those respondents from upcountry branches were mailed. Data was analyzed using statistical package for social sciences (SPSS) and frequency distribution tables were used.

The study established that the main causes of employee turnover at the Presidential Trust Fund were lack of compensation procedures, less recognition and no clear employees' involvement in decision making. These result to poor productivity, poor institutional image
and low motivation for the workers. The study further revealed that 99% of the respondents felt the company is not doing enough to reduce the effects of labour turnover.
The study came up with many recommendations which includes; The management should introduce better technique on compensation package, the management of PTF should involve workers in decision making/planning, review its training policy and opportunities for growth be put in place in order to retain its workforce and should implement the findings of employees' turnover in order to reduce its effects, the management should implement worker friendly leadership styles to be used by all managers in the company for instance democratic style.


Kappa Opioid Peptide Receptor (KOPr) activation produces analgesic, psychotomimetic, diuretic and antipruritic effects. KOPr ligands are investigated for their potential roles in the treatment of addiction, depression, feeding behavior, psychosis and schizophrenia. In this study the methanolic extracts of a number of Salvia species which are native to Turkey (S. tomentosa, S. tchihatcheffii, S. rosifolia, S. dichroantha and S. sclarea) were tested for their potential binding to opioid receptors in rat brain membranes and Chinese Hamster Ovary Cells expressing human KOPr (CHO-KOPh). [H]Diprenorphine, an unselective opioid antagonist, was utilized in the radioligand receptor binding assays. All extracts (0.11 mg/mL) inhibited the [H]Diprenorphine binding with ranging KOPr binding affinities. More than 50% inhibition of diprenorphine binding was shown only with Salvia dichroantha and Salvia sclarea both in rat brain membranes and CHO-KOPh membranes. Among them Salvia sclarea deserves further investigation for its active component(s) and its pharmacological characterization. This study clearly demonstrates the potential opioid receptor binding activities of several Turkish Salvia species. This work constitutes the first study on in vitro opioid receptor binding activities of Salvia species from the Turkish flora.


Capstone Project, Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for
the Master of Education Degree in the College of Education and Human Service Professions, May 2018.


Background : Gastric ulcer is disruption of gastric mucosal integrity due to lack of smaller defensive factors (e.g. mucus levels) than gastric aggressive factors. Centella asiatica is a traditional medicine that contains triterpenoids and flavonoids. The objective of this study was to analyze the effect of ethanol extract of Centell aasiatica leaves for preventing gastric mucus level reduction of aspirin-induced gastric ulcer model in rats and compared it to misoprostol. Methods : An experimental laboratory study using 24 rats that were divided into 4 groups. Group I (negative control) received carboxymethy cellulose (CMC) solution, group II (positive control) received CMC and aspirin 450mg/kg, group III (tested group) received Centella asiatica 400 mg/kg and aspirin 450 mg/kg, group IV (compared group) received misoprostol 72μg/kg and aspirin 450mg/kg for three days. Then the rats were laparatomied and their gastric mucus levels were measured. The results were statistically analyzed by Independent T-test. Results : The mean levels of gastric mucus of group I, II, III, IV, respectively were 0.112; 0.035; 0.537; 0.455 optical densities per gram of tissue. The statistical test suggested a significant difference between the positive control group and tested group. Moreover there is no significant difference between the tested group and compared group. Conclusions : Centella asiatica leaves can prevent gastric mucus level reduction of aspirin-induced gastric ulcer model in rats and has similar effect in gastric mucus level with misoprostol. Keywords : Centella asiatica, gastric mucus, gastric ulcer, misoprostol DOI : 10.15850/amj.v2n1.444


John Milton is regarded as the greatest English poet after Shakespeare. Yet for sublimity and philosophical grandeur, Milton stands almost alone in world literature. His peers are Homer, Virgil, Dante, Wordsworth, and Goethe: poets who achieve a total ethical and spiritual vision of the world. In this panoramic interpretation, the distinguished Milton scholar Gordon Teskey shows how the poet s changing commitments are subordinated to an aesthetic that joins beauty to truth and value to ethics. The art of poetry is rediscovered by Milton as a way of thinking in the world as it is, and for the world as it can be.Milton s early poems include the heroic Nativity Ode; the seductive paired poems L Allegro and Il Penseroso; the mythological pageant "Comus," with its comically diabolical enchanter and its serious debate on the human use of nature; and Lycidas, perhaps the greatest short poem in English and a prophecy of vast human displacements in the modern world. Teskey follows Milton s creative development in three phases, from the idealistic transcendence of the poems written in his twenties to the political engagement of the gritty, hard-hitting poems of his middle years. The third phase is that of transcendental engagement, in the heaven-storming epic "Paradise Lost," and the great works that followed it: the intense intellectual debate "Paradise Regained, " and the tragedy "Samson Agonistes.""


The Pinaleno Mountains and adjacent Safford Basin are a landscape defined by the extensional tectonics of the Basin and Range physiographic province. However, over the last ∼4 m.y., this coupled basin and range have been actively degrading in the absence of widespread regional extension. While rates of relief generation and upland erosion during active subsidence ca. 12–5 Ma are reflected in the geometry of the basin's structure and the stratigraphy it contains, rates of post-tectonic landscape evolution from the Pliocene to the present have been heretofore unknown. We combined topographic analyses of the Pinaleno Mountains with cosmogenic nuclide–derived catchment-averaged erosion rates and burial dates of axial and piedmont deposits to quantify rates of post-tectonic landscape evolution and define a chronology for the last stages of deposition and subsequent incision in Safford Basin. In addition to constraining the timing of a deposit's formation, cosmogenic nuclide burial dates provide paleo-upland erosion rates at the time of deposition. Erosion rates in the Pinaleno Mountains have been generally moderate over the past 4 m.y., ranging between ∼30 and 60 m/m.y. with no strong relationship to the drainage basins' modern topography. A potential acceleration of erosion rates to 100–250 m/m.y. between 3.5 and 2 Ma correlates with an inferred period of enhanced precipitation as well as the arrival from upstream of the Gila River in Safford Basin sometime shortly before 2.8 Ma. Widespread incision of Safford Basin was under way by ca. 2 Ma, as recorded by the dissection of piedmont basin highstand deposits (Frye Mesa) and two intermediate Gila River terraces on the northeast margin of Safford Basin (dated to 1.8 Ma and 0.64 Ma). Gila River incision rates have ranged from 30 to 60 m/m.y. over the past 3 m.y. Paleo-upland erosion rates and modern millennial-scale upland erosion rates fall within the same range as incision rates of the Gila River in Safford Basin, suggesting that upland erosion rates are predominantly a function of base-level fall driven by axial incision. However, based on similarities between catchment-averaged erosion rates and topography from basins draining into the integrated Safford Basin and the still internally drained Sulphur Springs Basin to the south, it appears that upland erosion rates during the Quaternary are not being driven exclusively by regional incision rates.


Introduction The translation of discoveries to drugs, devices, and behavioral interventions requires well-prepared study teams. Execution of clinical trials remains suboptimal due to varied quality in design, execution, analysis, and reporting. A critical impediment is inconsistent, or even absent, competency-based training for clinical trial personnel. Methods In 2014, the National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) funded the project, Enhancing Clinical Research Professionals' Training and Qualifications (ECRPTQ), aimed at addressing this deficit. The goal was to ensure all personnel are competent to execute clinical trials. A phased structure was utilized. Results This paper focuses on training recommendations in Good Clinical Practice (GCP). Leveraging input from all Clinical and Translational Science Award hubs, the following was recommended to NCATS: all investigators and study coordinators executing a clinical trial should understand GCP principles and undergo training every 3 years, with the training method meeting the minimum criteria identified by the International Conference on Harmonisation GCP. Conclusions We anticipate that industry sponsors will acknowledge such training, eliminating redundant training requests. We proposed metrics to be tracked that required further study. A separate task force was composed to define recommendations for metrics to be reported to NCATS.


Changes in numbers of alpha 1- and alpha 2-adrenergic receptors in the plasma membranes of hepatocytes from female Donryu rats given feed containing 0.06% of the carcinogen 3'-methyl-4-dimethylaminoazobenzene (3'-MeDAB), were examined. alpha 1-Adrenergic receptors, measured in terms of [3H]prazosin binding, decreased to half of the control 2 weeks after the start of this diet, then gradually decreased for the next 22 weeks. alpha 2-Adrenergic receptors, measured in terms of [3H]clonidine binding, transiently increased 3-fold over the control at 2 weeks. These changes in the early period of the 3'-MeDAB diet intake may be related to hepatocarcinogenesis.


Carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have been extensively interested due to their unique mechanical and electrical properties. Owning to their outstanding electronic, thermal, structural properties, chemical stability, low density, high mechanical strength, large surface area, high modulus and high conductivity, CNTs are desired for a broad range of applications in many fields such as energy storage, molecular electronics, nanoprobes, sensors, composite materials and templates. To enhance the performance of titanium dioxide (TiO2) nanotubes for future applications, single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWNTs) were chosen for making the composite material with TiO2. In this work, a simple, rapid and effective wet spinning methodology has been conducted and successfully applied to fabricate the (TiO2) composites fibres. The (TiO2) nanorods were dispersed with SWNTs using biopolymer as a dispersant. By employing the wet spinning technique and choosing an appropriate coagulant, the stable suspension of TiO2. and (TiO2) composite were directly injected into the coagulation bath to produce fibres. These fibres were characterized using atomic force microscopy (AFM), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), conductivity measurement, and Raman spectroscopy. Moreover, the AFM results indicated the samples characteristics according to SWNTs at various concentrations in (TiO2) suspension. This study also suggested that different concentration of SWNTs affected the RMS roughness value. The Raman spectra showed peaks which corresponded to their characteristic peaks of (TiO2) and SWNTs. The SEM results revealed that the bundles of SWNTs connecting with 2 points of the TiO2 surface was clearly seen whereas some aggregations obtaining from either TiO2 or a dispersant were found. The compounds were identified mainly by comparing their Raman spectra with those of bare TiO2. and SWNTs. In addition, the combination between CNTs and (TiO2) has been studied to improve the properties of these composite fibres. The mechanical and electrical properties along with surface morphology and electrochemistry of the resulting fibres were also investigated. The presence of SWNTs clearly improved the electrical properties of the composite fibres compared to bare (TiO2) The application of the TiO2/SWNTs composites will be further investigated.


Abstract Veterans with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) report more aggression than civilians with PTSD. Because emotion regulation difficulties mediated the relationship between PTSD symptoms and impulsive aggression in veterans, we developed an intervention to increase emotion regulation skills. This pilot study tested the feasibility and acceptability of a three-session treatment, Manage Emotions to Reduce Aggression (MERA), and examined its effectiveness at reducing aggression and emotion dysregulation. Male combat veterans with PTSD and impulsive aggression completed assessments before and 4 weeks after MERA. Overt Aggression Scale measured frequency of aggression; Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale assessed emotion dysregulation. Most veterans (95%) who completed MERA and the posttreatment assessment (n = 20) reported MERA was helpful. Veterans in the intent-to-treat sample demonstrated a significant decrease in their frequency of aggression (Cohen's d = −0.55) and emotion dysregulation (Cohen's d = −0.55). MERA may be an innovative treatment that helps veterans reduce aggression.


Memory approximation techniques are commonly limited in scope, targeting individual levels of the memory hierarchy. Existing approximation techniques for a full memory hierarchy determine optimal configurations at design-time provided a goal and application. Such policies are rigid: they cannot adapt to unknown workloads and must be redesigned for different memory configurations and technologies. We propose SEAMS: the first self-optimizing runtime manager for coordinating configurable approximation knobs across all levels of the memory hierarchy. SEAMS continuously updates and optimizes its approximation management policy throughout runtime for diverse workloads. SEAMS optimizes the approximate memory configuration to minimize energy consumption without compromising the quality threshold specified by application developers. SEAMS can (1) learn a policy at runtime to manage variable application quality of service (QoS) constraints, (2) automatically optimize for a target metric within those constraints, and (3) coordinate runtime decisions for interdependent knobs and subsystems. We demonstrate SEAMS' ability to efficiently provide functions (1)–(3) on a RISC-V Linux platform with approximate memory segments in the on-chip cache and main memory. We demonstrate SEAMS' ability to save up to 37% energy in the memory subsystem without any designtime overhead. We show SEAMS' ability to reduce QoS violations by 75% with < 5% additional energy.


'The Stealth Corporation' was a conception by the writer and journalist Bidisha. The art and literary publication was formulated as an A3 boxed set of two A4 magazines with an accompanying poster.

Commissioned to produce all front cover imagery, Fernandes devised a narrative inspired by the provoking, Channel 4 documentary 'Beneath The Veil,' June 2001. The programme's documentation of the socio-political motivations of the anti-Taliban, feminist group RAWA (Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan), compelled him to fabricate a series of images that challenged the notions of the veil; its significance as an item of doctrine, and a symbol of protection.

By combining contemporary fashion pieces by recent graduates of Central Saint Martins and The Royal College Of Art, with customised military surplus, and items specific to eastern culture, Fernandes originated a styling that incorporated issues around the emerging factions of 'suicide bombing,' photographed in external, urban locations in Bethnal Green, London. Taking place two months prior to the 9/11 events, the narrative communicated in two ways; firstly, to highlight the modern day brutality towards women in Afghanistan, and secondly, as a fictional portrayal of RAWA evolving into a faction adapted to eradicate their fundamentalist opposition with equivalent levels of organisation and militancy. By representing the veil as an item of concealment and revelation, forbidden attributes of lipstick, nail varnish and jewellery became incongruous symbols of warfare, wounding and resistance.

Published in October 2001, The Stealth Corporation was sold in London at Tate Modern bookshop, Zwemmers Design and Artwords in London, with further distribution in Paris, Tokyo and New York.