Network I/O workloads are dominating as one of the leading costs for most of the virtualized clouds. One way to improve the inter virtual machine (VM) inefficiency is to build shared memory channels between VMs co-located on the same physical node to by-pass traditional TCP/IP network stack, so that the overhead is reduced by shorter communication path and fewer kernel interactions. However, it is a key challenge for existing work to achieve high performance inter-VM communication while keeping the capability of VM live migration, and most of existing work are neither seamlessly agile in the presence of VM live migration nor transparent to upper users as well as to operating system kernels, which limits the application of current co-location aware shared-memory based approaches. In this paper, we present the design and implementation of XenVMC, an adaptive and transparent inter-VM communication system for high performance network I/O in virtualized clouds. With proposed dynamic co-located VM membership update mechanism, XenVMC is applicable not only to intra-node VM communication, but also to cross-node communication. It also supports adaptive switching between shared-memory based channel and traditional network-based channel in case of VM live migration, with the aid of proposed VM migration perception and handling mechanisms. XenVMC enables efficient data transmission for both TCP and UDP workloads, with multilevel transparency guaranteed. Extensive experiments show that XenVMC achieves better performance for both TCP and UDP workloads with high transparency, compared with both native virtualized environment and representative existing work. Experimental results also show that it is capable of automatically handling VM migration correctly with acceptable latency.


Empirical evidence is limited on whether allopolyploid species combine or merge parental adaptations to broaden habitats. The allopolyploid Arabidopsis kamchatica is a hybrid of the two diploid parents Arabidopsis halleri and Arabidopsis lyrata. A. halleri is a facultative heavy metal hyperaccumulator, and may be found in cadmium (Cd) and zinc (Zn) contaminated environments, as well as non-contaminated environments. A. lyrata is considered non-tolerant to these metals, but can be found in serpentine habitats. Therefore, the parents have adaptation to different environments. Here, we measured heavy metals in soils from native populations of A. kamchatica. We found that soil Zn concentration of nearly half of the sampled 40 sites was higher than the critical toxicity level. Many of the sites were near human construction, suggesting adaptation of A. kamchatica to artificially contaminated soils. Over half of the A. kamchatica populations had >1,000 μg g–1 Zn in leaf tissues. Using hydroponic treatments, most genotypes accumulated >3,000 μg g–1 Zn, with high variability among them, indicating substantial genetic variation in heavy metal accumulation. Genes involved in heavy metal hyperaccumulation showed an expression bias in the A. halleri-derived homeolog in widely distributed plant genotypes. We also found that two populations were found growing on serpentine soils. These data suggest that A. kamchatica can inhabit a range of both natural and artificial soil environments with high levels of ions that either of the parents specializes and that it can accumulate varying amount of heavy metals. Our field and experimental data provide a compelling example of combining genetic toolkits for soil adaptations to expand the habitat of an allopolyploid species.


Boyle and Tian(1999) developed a trinomial lattice method for valuing lookback options and barrier options under the CEV process. In the case of lookback options it turns out that this method produces values which are not quite accurate. In this note we discuss the source of the error and provide corrected numerical values. These revised values were obtained using the recently developed method of Davydov and Linetsky(1999). We also con(cid:12)rmed their results using Monte Carlo simulation. For both standard options and barrier options the Boyle-Tian lattice approach gives correct numerical values under the CEV assumption.


Abstract. In recent years the interest in the forecast and prevention of natural hazards related to hydro-meteorological events has increased the challenge for numerical weather modelling, in particular for limited area models, to improve the quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPF) for hydrological purposes. After the encouraging results obtained in the MAP D-PHASE Project, we decided to devote further analyses to show recent improvements in the operational use of hydro-meteorological chains, and above all to better investigate the key role played by temperature during snowy precipitation. In this study we present a reanalysis simulation of one meteorological event, which occurred in November 2008 in the Piedmont Region. The attention is focused on the key role of air temperature, which is a crucial feature in determining the partitioning of precipitation in solid and liquid phase, influencing the quantitative discharge forecast (QDF) into the Alpine region. This is linked to the basin ipsographic curve and therefore by the total contributing area related to the snow line of the event. In order to assess hydrological predictions affected by meteorological forcing, a sensitivity analysis of the model output was carried out to evaluate different simulation scenarios, considering the forecast effects which can radically modify the discharge forecast. Results show how in real-time systems hydrological forecasters have to consider also the temperature uncertainty in forecasts in order to better understand the snow dynamics and its effect on runoff during a meteorological warning with a crucial snow line over the basin. The hydrological ensemble forecasts are based on the 16 members of the meteorological ensemble system COSMO-LEPS (developed by ARPA-SIMC) based on the non-hydrostatic model COSMO, while the hydrological model used to generate the runoff simulations is the rainfall–runoff distributed FEST-WB model, developed at Politecnico di Milano.


: Enzymun-Test Digoxin was used to analyse model samples. The matrix of the model samples consisted of either phosphate-buffered 0.15 mol/l sodium chloride solution pH 7.2 with addition of albumin or immunoglobulins, or of various ratios of albumin and immunoglobulins, most of which had been characterized immunoelectrophoretically. Increasing amounts of albumin or immunoglobulins in the model samples caused a simulated increase in the measured amount of digoxin. Apparent digoxin values also showed corresponding false increases when immunoglobulins of certain specificities were increased in the model samples, even when total protein was kept constant.


In congested urban conditions, the fuel economy of a vehicle can be highly affected by traffic flow and particularly, the immediately preceding (lead) vehicle. Thus, estimating the future trajectories of the lead vehicle is essential to optimize the following vehicle's maneuvers for its fuel economy. This paper investigates the influence of speed forecasting on the performance of an ecological adaptive cruise control (eco-ACC) strategy for connected autonomous vehicles. The real-time speed predictor proposed in [1] is applied to forecast the future speed profiles of the lead vehicle over a short prediction horizon. Under the assumption that vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications are available, V2V information from multiple lead vehicles is utilized in the prediction process. Eco-ACC is formulated in a model predictive control (MPC) framework to control the connected autonomous vehicle. The influence of the state prediction to the performance of eco-ACC in terms of fuel economy and acceleration is evaluated with different number of connected vehicles.


Automated Driving is expected to contribute to various factors that affect our daily life, while bringing new business and technological challenges for various stakeholders involved. The 5G cellular networks need to be redesigned by optimizing time consuming functions both at the control and the user plane to support the demanding performance requirements that automated driving sets for the communication layer. This paper proposes the evolution of the Radio Access Network, taking into account the localised nature of the vehicular traffic. The concept of local end-to-end data paths over the cellular (Uu) interface is described, while new methods and signaling are introduced at the base station by avoiding the involvement of core network entities. The end-to-end latency for the exchange of data traffic among vehicles is reduced by 45% for unicast communication and 52% for multicast communication due to the proposed localized cellular communication. A substantial reduction of the control plane latency, for radio bearers' establishment and radio paths' formation, in the order of 22.5 ms is also achieved.


21 patients the cause of death was unrelated to mechanical valve failure. All of the patients in whom this phenomenon of triangulation of the aortic root was noted had undergone aortic valve replacement using the Starr-Edwards model No 2320, in which the three cage struts are cloth covered. This model was discontinued in 1976 and the current models use three stellite struts without the cloth covering. While the older models probably had greater potential to cause outflow obstruction with incorporation of the cloth covered struts into the aortic wall, the tendency to cause triangular deformity with this style of valve prosthesis remains. Although the risk of acute failure and the operative mortality associated with artificial heart valves are small, the medium and long term morbidity is not negligible. Current mechanical prostheses may well prove superior to those used previously but they are not trouble free. Conservative valve reconstruction needs to be encouraged.


ABSTRAa Evanescent wave-based fiber-optic immunosensors were studied for the detection of fumonisins and aflatoxins in maize. Two formats, competitive and non-competitive, were used. A competitive format was used to measure fumonisin B1 (FB,) in both spiked and naturally contaminated maize samples. Fumonisin monoclonal antibodies were covalently coupled to an optical fiber and the competition between FB, and FB, labeled with fluorescein (FB,-FIT() for the limited number of binding sites on the fiber was assessed. The signal generated in the assay was inversely proportional to the FB 1 concentration. For samples, the concentration causing an inhibition of binding by 50 % (1(50) was dependent upon the clean-up procedure used. Simple dilution of methanolic maize extracts yielded an assay with an 1(50 equivalent to 25 llg FB 1g-1 maize with a limit of detection of 3.2 119 g-' maize. Affinity column clean-up yielded an assay with an 1(50 equivalent to 5 llg FB 1g-' maize (limit of detection OA1l9 FB 1g-'). An HPL( method and the immunosensor method agreed well for naturally contaminated maize samples except when large amounts of other fumonisins that cross-react with the immunosensor were present. The second sensor format, for the mycotoxin aflatoxin B1 (AFB 1), was a non-competitive assay using the native fluorescence of this mycotoxin. Because the fluorescence of AFB, itself was detected, the response of the sensor was directly proportional to the toxin concentration. The sensor, while capable of detecting as little as 2 ng ml-1 of AFB 1 in solution was technically not an immunosensor, since the attachment of aflatoxin specific antibodies was not required. Sensors of the formats described have the potential to rapidly screen individual maize samples but require coupling with a clean-up technique to be truly effective. Published in 1999 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Numerous attempts have been suggested regarding the structure of First John. The only nearly unanimous agreement amongst commentators is concerning the prologue (1:1–4) and the conclusion (5:13–21). The lack of unanimity can be frustrating for the majority of those who seek to understand the macrostructure of the First Epistle of John. Consequentially, some commentators have opined that it is impossible to determine a notable structure of First John, and the epistle is thus regarded as a relatively imprecise series of various thoughts that were composed on the basis of mere association. Many exegetes have therefore proposed suggested outlines to aid the understanding of First John as opposed to providing genuine efforts to articulate a discernable structure of the epistle. The final part of this exegetical analysis seeks to demonstrate that exegetes need not succumb to such pessimism because there does appear to be a discernable structure to First John. Providing and stating resolve concerning the First John structure is fundamental for understanding the revealed contents of the epistle.


The Green Driver app is a dynamic routing application for GPS-enabled smartphones. Green Driver combines client GPS data with real-time traffic light information provided by cities to determine optimal routes in response to driver route requests. Routes are optimized with respect to travel time, with the intention of saving the driver both time and fuel, and rerouting can occur if warranted. During a routing session, client phones communicate with a centralized server that both collects GPS data and processes route requests. All relevant data are anonymized and saved to databases for analysis; statistics are calculated from the aggregate data and fed back to the routing engine to improve future routing. Analyses can also be performed to discern driver trends: where do drivers tend to go, how long do they stay, when and where does traffic congestion occur, and so on. The system uses a number of techniques from the field of artificial intelligence. We apply a variant of A* search for solving the stochastic shortest path problem in order to find optimal driving routes through a network of roads given light-status information. We also use dynamic programming and hidden Markov models to determine the progress of a driver through a network of roads from GPS data and light-status data. The Green Driver system is currently deployed for testing in Eugene, Oregon, and is scheduled for large-scale deployment in Portland, Oregon, in Spring 2011.


In this paper, we present a maximum likelihood (ML) approach to high-resolution estimation of the shifts of a spectral signal. This spectral signal arises in application of optically based resonant biosensors, where high resolution in the estimation of signal shift is synonymous with high sensitivity to biological interactions. For the particular sensor of interest, the underlying signal is nonuniformly sampled and exhibits Poisson amplitude statistics. Shift estimation accuracies orders of magnitude finer than the sample spacing are sought. The new ML-based formulation leads to a solution approach different from typical resonance shift estimation methods based on polynomial fitting and peak (or null) estimation and tracking.


The influence of positive end-expiratory pressure (PEEP) on the alveolar-arterial O2 tension difference [P(A-a)O2], physiologic right-to-left shunt fraction, physiologic dead space-to-tidal volume ratio, and hemodynamic variables was studied in halothane-anesthetized horses maintained in dorsal recumbency during controlled ventilation. Dobutamine was used to minimize the adverse cardiovascular consequences of PEEP. Six adult horses were anesthetized, using xylazine (2.2 mg/kg of body weight, IM), guaifenesin (50 mg/kg, IV), thiamylal Na (4.4 mg/kg, IV), and halothane (1.5 to 2% inspired) in 100% O2. Mechanical ventilation was controlled to maintain arterial eucapnia for at least 45 minutes during base-line measurements. Hemodynamic and respiratory variables were determined every 15 minutes during equilibration. Each horse was subjected to 4 randomized treatments: 5 cm of H2O PEEP, 10 cm of H2O PEEP, 5 cm of H2O PEEP plus dobutamine (1 microgram/kg/min), and 10 cm of H2O PEEP plus dobutamine (1 microgram/kg/min). Each treatment lasted 15 minutes and immediately followed its predecessor. Although the magnitude of PEEP was randomized with and without dobutamine, PEEP without dobutamine always preceded PEEP with dobutamine. Differences in hemodynamic or respiratory variables among base-line measurements, 5 cm of H2O PEEP, or 10 cm of H2O PEEP were not significant (P greater than 0.05).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Brazil has been the most dynamic country of Latin America and the Caribbean in global services trade in the 1990s and 2000s, but compared to other emerging economies elsewhere it is outperformed by China and India. Brazil's rising share in global services trade reflects mostly its increase in the world trade of other services, which include all services except transport and tourism. Brazilian exports of "other services" are concentrated in architecturalengineering and real estate services. In terms of destinations, the US market accounts for about one half and the European Union for one quarter in total exports, while Latin America is a small but growing export destination. New types of exports are gaining importance, for example financial and legal services. Brazil's dynamic performance is associated with three, interrelated, trends. The first is the internationalization of Brazilian companies, which increases the demand for integrated support services such as finance, information technology and logistics. The second is the rise of inward foreign direct investment in the service sector, which expands Brazil's export capacity. Third, Brazilian investment abroad (in particular within the region) in the service sector has also grown rapidly. The future expansion of service exports requires above all a set of horizontal policies directed at enhancing the qualification of workers, the telecom infrastructure and a legal and regulatory system that favors investment and international trade.""


Background: Clinicians and parents are expected to make medical treatment decisions in the child's best interests. To reach their decisions, clinicians typically apply a principled approach outlined by Beauchamp and Childress. How parents make ethical decisions is an under-researched area. A possible model for parental decision making is the Ethics of Care (EoC) theory. Ethical decision making within this framework aims to preserve the caring relationship. What is right or wrong depends on the circumstances at the time. Objective: To identify the parental ethical values and determine whether parental decision making is consistent with EoC, a systematic review and secondary analysis of qualitative research from England and Wales, the Netherlands, and Germany was performed. As part of a larger project investigating conflicts between parents and clinicians about children's medical treatment, the choice of countries was determined by differences in litigation. Methods: Eight databases were searched for articles published between 2010 and 2020 reporting on at least one medical treatment decision made by parents of a child with any life-limiting condition and analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. Twelve included articles directly addressing advance care planning (ACP) were reanalyzed to investigate whether this specific decision parents are increasingly being asked to make is also consistent with EoC. Results: Forty-three articles were included. Parents use the same 6 ethical values which, consistent with EoC, are mostly in the context of their relationship with the child. All values contributed to the previously identified theme of "being a good parent/person." Analysis of parental decision making in ACP confirmed consistency with EoC. Conclusion: The parental decision-making process is consistent with EoC. That parental decisions aim to maintain the caring relationship and are dependent on the circumstances at the time has implications for parental decision making in ACP and should be reflected in future policies.


The author describes a one-dimensional cloud model designed to investigate the relationships between stratiform downdrafts, congestus outflow, stability, and relative humidity in the tropical lower troposphere. In the tropics, the climatological lapse rate varies with height below the melting level in a way that is inconsistent with the assumptions of either moist pseudoadiabatic or reversible adiabatic ascent. This anomalous variation is referred to as the melting-level stability anomaly (MLSA). It is argued that the MLSA is caused by a transition from static to dynamic downdrafts at the melting level. Above the melting level, evaporation of precipitation cools and moistens the tropical atmosphere but does not generate downdraft parcels with sufficient negative buoyancy to descend between model levels. Below the melting level, the evaporative cooling associated with stratiform precipitation is strong enough to overcome the stability of the atmosphere and generate a convective-scale circulation. The vertical descent within these downdrafts induces a compensatory ascent in the background atmosphere that changes the overall cooling-to-moistening downdraft ratio. The inclusion of this stratiform downdraft circulation brings the modeled lapse rate and relative humidity profiles into simultaneous agreement with observations. The transition from static to dynamic downdrafts is triggered, in the model, by imposed increases in the amount of rain falling outside clouds, in the out-of-cloud rain rate, and in the vertical coherence of the rain shafts. The destabilization of the lower tropical atmosphere triggered by the stratiform circulation affects the development of convective clouds. In particular, the melting-level stability anomaly increases detrainment near the melting level and gives rise to the congestus mode.


Orthoceracone cephalopods and crinoid orientations were studied in middle Silurian Waukeshaw beds in a quarry 1/2 mi. N. of Lemont, Illinois, and between the Sanitary and Ship Canal and the Des Plaines River. Orientation readings on 106 specimens were made to determine in which direction they were lying. Two trends were found, the major, WNW., and the minor, SSW. Crinoid stems were mainly oriented in the same directions. These directions indicate a wind and current from the WNW. Such orientation studies show that it is possible to examine certain ecological measures over essentially "instants" in time.


Sporting societies around the world are being impacted by a variety of contemporary climatic challenges. The sport management literature indicates that these impacts have disrupted sport. Some adaptations have been implemented, but a comprehensive planning framework is absent from the literature. Learning from other industries, thus, was considered, and an examination of the literature from the water and forestry industries was conducted. The examination resulted in the discovery of six key themes offering insights or practical lessons to guide sport organizations in their efforts to organize for adapting to climatic impacts.


Abstract Post- and decolonial theory have contested the idea of historical progress as a Eurocentric, hegemonic, or neocolonialist misconception. Does this imply that we should give up any idea of moral progress? This paper critically examines Allen Buchanan's and Russell Powell's book The Evolution of Moral Progress and their claim that there is still a need for a theory of moral progress. For Buchanan and Powell, such theory should allow and guide a better understanding of what moral progress consists of. Even though they do not claim to already provide us with such a comprehensive theory of moral progress they aim to work out whether and how certain types of moral progress are possible and assess their limits. In doing so they mainly focus on improvements in terms of social participation as an uncontroversial type of moral progress. In the following, I will first discuss the characteristics of the authors' notion of progress and then raise some critical concerns about the example they have chosen of the history of human rights as a history of progress and, particularly, about the history of the rights of people with disabilities.


This paper presents some aspects regarding the usage of the cloud computing platform in the anthropometric study area.The cloud database has the advantage of ensuring high performance with minimal risk of data corruption. The users, different research centers, can run databases by using a virtual machine image.The database used on the cloud will be sql based (mysql database). The positive aspect of using cloud computing is the convert access database in a simple way and enables the access to a variety of mobile devices.
Cloud computing is the use of computing resources (hardware and software) that are delivered as a service over a network. If it is assumed that there are a variety of scanned human bodies inserted into existing databases on different computers anywhere in the world, then these data can be the subject of classification or can be accessed and used quickly and efficiently to achieve optimization of bodies to be used in simulations subsequent.
The fact consists in obtain and manage databases that containing data on antropomorphological populations from different countries. The objectives are to establish the body morfotype classification for different population and ages.These databases will contain information centralized and taken by each country's population by using the 3d scanner. The goals of this motion will be to obtain fast an comparisons between different types of human bodies used in the investigation necessary to establish the appropriate body size that can be used in the structural design of clothing pattern design. This approach is useful both universities with specific profile design patterns for clothing but also for clothing manufacturers.


Hearing disorders are the most prevalent disabling conditions reported all over the world that affect about 10% of the population. It adversely affects physical, cognitive, behavioral, and social functions, as well as the general quality of live. The first electrical hearing instruments was introduced 100 years ago, but only about 20% of those who could benefit from hearing aids wear them, moreover, surveys suggested that about only 50% of hearing aid users are satisfied with their hearing instruments. This indicates hearing technology even today is a prominent research area. This research work involves the design of programmable hearing aid with frequency filters bands to allow the user to tune the amplitudes selectively to a person's particular pattern of hearing loss to be amplified by PGA (Programmable Gain Amplifier) more than the rest. These filters are tested with the standard test input signal and also implemented. The result showed that output of filters bands are in the same phase and flattest group and lesser matching errors.


BACKGROUND
A routine pediatric clinical assessment of body composition is increasingly recommended but has long been hampered by the following 2 factors: a lack of appropriate techniques and a lack of reference data with which to interpret individual measurements. Several techniques have become available, but reference data are needed.

OBJECTIVE
We aimed to provide body-composition reference data for use in clinical practice and research.

DESIGN
Body composition was measured by using a gold standard 4-component model, along with various widely used reference and bedside methods, in a large, representative sample of British children aged from 4 to ≥20 y. Measurements were made of anthropometric variables (weight, height, 4 skinfold thicknesses, and waist girth), dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, body density, bioelectrical impedance, and total body water, and 4-component fat and fat-free masses were calculated. Reference charts and SD scores (SDSs) were constructed for each outcome by using the lambda-mu-sigma method. The same outcomes were generated for the fat-free mass index and fat mass index.

RESULTS
Body-composition growth charts and SDSs for 5-20 y were based on a final sample of 533 individuals. Correlations between SDSs by using different techniques were ≥0.68 for adiposity outcomes and ≥0.80 for fat-free mass outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS
These comprehensive reference data for pediatric body composition can be used across a variety of techniques. Together with advances in measurement technologies, the data should greatly enhance the ability of clinicians to assess and monitor body composition in routine clinical practice and should facilitate the use of body-composition measurements in research studies.


Traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are among the most misdiagnosed and underreported types of head trauma. The potential long‐term impact of undiagnosed or incorrectly identified concussions and other head injuries are potentially devastating, as evidenced by the increasing societal burden exhibited by soldiers returning from combat and athletes in contact sports. Concussions and TBI are notoriously difficult to correctly diagnose and prognosis for these injuries is poorly understood. In order to increase the likelihood of successful diagnosis, treatment, and prediction of outcomes, a definitive differential diagnosis will need to be established. The establishment of a "trauma–specific profile" or a panel of known trauma markers will significantly aid in this goal. Small membrane vesicles called exosomes have been shown to contain proteins and injury‐specific biomarkers. In the future it is possible that they could become an important tool, utilized for their diagnostic and therapeutic potential.


Across the globe most of Public utilities have been underperforming and as a result doesn't meet stakeholder's expectation. In Tanzanian, TANESCO is among public utilities companies monopolized the electricity supply market within the country. The company is responsible for Generation, Transmission and distribution of electricity, under an environment where demand of quality power and quality service is very high. To ensure services are improved TANESCO made a decision of establishing a Market Department and assigned a responsibility of introducing various tools, including market communication. This study was carried out to establish the effectiveness of marketing communication within TANESCO on improving electricity related service delivery. The performance indicators were selected and linked with the tools to determine the performance. A Sample size was also determined from both within (employees) and outside the company for establishing questionnaires and interviews used to collect data and analyze the obtained information. Within the company, especially those working directly within the marketing department are so optimistic about the positive results of the tools; success has already been realized via increment on monthly collection. On the contrary, outside the company the customers' feel that not much impact has been made and therefore feel that the company must do more. These mixed feelings create demand for the company to evaluate the implementation of the tool and do some adjustments to ensure that the intended goal is met.


Fabrication of monolithic protein-doped capillary columns was reported almost 10 years ago. These columns were derived from a diglycerylsilane precursor, however this material is not commercially available, is difficult to produce in large quantities and has very short phase separation and gelation times, which leads to issues with column reproducibility. Herein, we investigate the use of sodium silicate (SS), a commercially available biofriendly sol–gel precursor, for the fabrication of bimodal meso/macroporous protein-doped monolithic silica columns that are suitable for immobilized enzyme reactor (IMER) assays. Using an automated liquid handler and platereader, a hierarchical materials screening approach was applied to ∼1400 formulations, from which we have identified materials with long gelation times that can form robust bimodal meso/macroporous materials suitable for fabrication of monolithic silica columns. A subset of these materials was observed to have good chromatographic behavior (appropriate backpressure and good stability). A secondary screen around lead materials was performed to identify optimal materials for fabrication of IMER columns. These materials were tested for leaching and activity of immobilized acetylcholine esterase to identify an optimal material for IMER column fabrication. The optimal material was formed from 2% (w/v) silica which was combined with 1.25% PEG 600 at pH 6.4 in 100 mM TRIS buffer. Such columns showed reproducible IMER performance and were able to quantitatively measure the inhibition of immobilized AChE by galanthamine with an inhibition constant of 175 ± 5 nM, which is in excellent agreement with the literature value.


Abstract Sai Baba of Shirdi, who died in 1918, was raised as a Muslim but is today revered as a Hindu saint. One of his most important perceived qualities was his ability to provide miraculous cures for his devotees, and this has continued after his death. I argue here that the emphasis in the Hindu tradition on saintly figures healing the sick is a relatively modern phenomenon. Earlier, though such figures were renowned for their miracles, healing played a very minor part in this. Their miracles were generally designed to worst religious rivals and to enable them to speak truth to power. In the modern era, however, such saintly figures can gain a reputation through healing in a way that is presented as beyond the comprehension of modern medical science. Such people are seen to provide living evidence of the superiority of Indian civilization and its religious beliefs. This move became entangled with nationalist sentiments, so that getting the better of the "English" doctor became a means to reveal the limited scope of Western science and culture. Although this appears to suggest that many Indians have rejected the biopolitics associated with Western modernity (as defined by Foucault), I argue that certain elements of such biopolitics are central to this process, and illustrate this through a study of Sai Baba, a village holy man taken up by the Indian middle classes and made into a pan-Indian figure, with a now global presence.


This dissertation explores representations of trauma, healing, and memory in the literature of exile. Traditionally, analyses of this literature adhere to the parameters of ethnicity and national origin; however, I argue that an analytical focus on trauma, healing, and memory rather than ethnicity or national origin reveals discursive strategies that transcend cultural borders. I begin my analysis with a consideration of the representation of rupture from the homeland and its representation in Dreaming in Cuban by Cristina Garcia, America's Dream by Esmeralda Santiago, and Geographies of Home by Loida Maritza Perez. I argue that authors of the literature of exile portray the traumatic experience of rupture from one's homeland through the immediacy of domestic violence. I then turn to the common thread of folk medicine used by Ann Petry in her work The Street and Judith Ortiz Cofer's The Line of the Sun. These traditional faith practices, primarily brought to America through the slave trade, are utilized by the authors as a source of empowerment for the characters in their texts. A consideration across cultural lines reveals that this is a powerful counter-hegemonic strategy prominent in the landscape of exilic survival. Finally, utilizing Marianne Hirsch's framework of postmemory, I consider the prominent use of the photograph in Geographies of Home and Nicole Krauss's History of Love. This analysis demonstrates that whether migrant or immigrant, the search for the American Dream, or at least safe haven, follows discernable patterns of rupture, healing, and challenges of "acculturation." This three-tiered analysis reveals a community of exile portrayed by U.S. women authors and brings transnational and transcultural connections into relief.


This study aims to (1) produce a valid and practical interactive learning media based
Lectora Inspire in a discrete method course, (2) see the effects of the developed
learning media to the students' learning outcome in a discrete method class.
Research and development, which consists of five stages: pre-development,
development, evaluation, field test, and revision, was implemented in this study.
The developed interactive learning media was tested against 23 students of discrete
method class in the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematics and
Natural Science, Sriwijaya University . The results of the analysis are: (1) based on
the evaluation of the experts and the perceptions of the students, the interactive
learning media which has been developed was valid, practical, and highly
recommended to be used as a source of student's self-learning in discrete method
courses, (2) the interactive learning media which has been developed was effective
to increase students' learning outcome.


Behavioral health intervention technology programs (e.g. computer, internet, or tablet) with a positive psychology focus (i.e. resilience training) can have a profound impact on behavioral and physical health. Such programs can increase access to evidence-based behavioral health training (e.g. stress management training) without the need to train clinicians in such approaches and can be confidentially used at a place and time of an individual's choosing without a need to go to a clinician's office, thus improving access to care of those who live remotely, are too busy, or may not want to seek care due to stigma. This paper describes the design considerations, features, and user-experience of a self-guided, computer-based multimedia stress management and resilience training program developed with support from NASA. Such a program may have significant relevance and implications for the broader population and the area of positive psychology.


ABSTRACT In mouse models and humans, Helicobacter pylori is associated with an increase in serum gastrin and gastrin-expressing (G) cells with a concomitant decrease in somatostatin-expressing D cells. Inflammation of the gastric mucosa can progress to metaplastic changes in the stomach and to decreased colonization by H. pylori and increased colonization by non-H. pylori organisms. In addition, about 20% of individuals with chronic gastritis are H. pylori negative, suggesting that other organisms may induce gastritis. Consistent with this hypothesis, we report here that Acinetobacter lwoffii causes the same histologic changes as does H. pylori. Gastric epithelial cells were isolated from the entire stomach by an enzymatic method for quantitation by both flow cytometry and morphometric analysis. Two months after mice were inoculated with H. pylori or A. lwoffii, the mucosal T- and B-cell numbers significantly increased. After 4 months of infection, there was a threefold increase in the number of G cells and a doubling in the number of parietal cells. A threefold decrease in the number of D cells occurred in H. pylori- and A. lwoffii-infected mice. Plasma gastrin levels increased after both H. pylori and A. lwoffii infection. Histology revealed the presence of inflammation in the gastric mucosa with both A. lwoffii and H. pylori infection. A periodic acid-Schiff stain-alcian blue stain revealed mucous gland metaplasia of the corpus. Collectively, the results demonstrate that gastritis and hypergastrinemia are not specific for H. pylori but can be induced by other gram-negative bacteria capable of infecting the mouse stomach.


Last years, the concept of r esistant s tarch (RS) has evoked a new interest in researchers in the context of bioavailability of starch and its use as a source of dietary fiber. Based on clinical and animal research, RS has been proposed to be the most potentially beneficial starch fraction for human health. In this study, the effects of amylose starch as a fraction of RS on development and lifespan of fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster were investigated. In both Canton S and w 1118 strains, the diet with 20% amylose RS delayed fly development, increased triacylglyceride level in the body of adult insects and reduced their lifespan compared to the diet with 4% amylose starch. Thus, our data clearly demonstrate that amylose starch at high concentrations may negatively affect fruit fly.


Wave flume facilities that are primarily designed for engineering studies are often complex and expensive to operate, and hence not ideal for long‐term replicated experiments as commonly used in biology. This study describes a low‐cost small wave flume that can be used for biological purposes using fresh‐ or seawater with or without sediment. The wave flume can be used as a mesocosm to study interactions between wave hydrodynamics and benthic organisms in aquatic ecosystems. The low‐costs wave maker (< 2000 USD) allows for experimental setups which can be easily replicated and used for longer term studies; hence the term wave mesocosm. Waves were generated with a pneumatic piston and wave heights ranged between 3 and 6 cm. Maximum orbital flow velocities ranged between 10 and 50 cm s−1 representing shallow coastal areas with a short fetch. The system can generate both regular waves (i.e., the wave period and orbital velocity remains constant), using a wave absorber, and irregular waves (i.e., varying wave period and orbital velocity) using a fast push and slow pull motion of the wave paddle. This wave mesocosm system is particularly useful in biogeomorphology to quantify interactions between organisms, sediment, and hydrodynamics and for aquatic ecologist aiming to simulate realistic bed shear stress where short‐ and long‐term experiments (weeks–months) can be replicated.


The behaviour of colloids can be controlled effectively by tuning the solvent-mediated interactions among them. An extensively studied example is the temperature-induced aggregation of suspended colloids close to the consolute point of their binary solvent. Here, using mean field theory and Monte Carlo simulations, we study the behaviour of colloids confined to a narrow slit containing a nearly-critical binary liquid mixture. We found that the effective interactions in this system are highly non-additive. In particular, the effective interactions among the colloids can be a few times stronger than the corresponding sum of the effective pair potentials. Inter alia, this non-additivity manifests itself in the phase behaviour of confined colloids, which depends sensitively on the slit width and temperature. In addition, we demonstrate the possibility of a first-order bridging transition between colloids confined to a slit and suspended in a phase-separated fluid well below the critical point of the solvent and at its critical composition in the bulk. This transition is accompanied by a remarkably large hysteresis loop, in which the force between the colloids varies by two orders of magnitude.


Abstract Building teams has a fundamental impact for execution of research and development projects. The teams appointed for the needs of given projects are based on individuals from both inside and outside of the organization. Knowledge is not only a product available on the market but also an intangible resource affecting their internal and external processes. Thus it is vitally important for businesses and scientific research facilities to effectively manage knowledge within project teams. The article presents a proposal to use Fuzzy AHP (Analytic Hierarchy Process ) and ANFIS (Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System) methods in working groups building for R&D projects on the basis of employees skills.


Humans can reason compositionally when presented with new tasks. Previous research shows that appropriate prompting techniques enable large language models (LLMs) to solve artificial compositional generalization tasks such as SCAN. In this work, we identify additional challenges in more realistic semantic parsing tasks with larger vocabulary and refine these prompting techniques to address them. Our best method is based on least-to-most prompting: it decomposes the problem using prompting-based syntactic parsing, then uses this decomposition to select appropriate exemplars and to sequentially generate the semantic parse. This method allows us to set a new state of the art for CFQ while requiring only 1% of the training data used by traditional approaches. Due to the general nature of our approach, we expect similar efforts will lead to new results in other tasks and domains, especially for knowledge-intensive applications.


Background Inappropriate use of revascularization may be potentially harmful to patients and generate unwarranted costs to the health care system. Recently, the members of an expert panel conducted an appropriateness review of common clinical scenarios in which coronary revascularization is frequently considered. Objectives To identify the proportion of inappropriate coronary revascularization procedures –percutaneous (PTCA) and surgical (CABG) – in a cardiovascular tertiary referral center according to appropriateness criterion. Material and Methods We consecutively included all patients referred to our center for coronary angiography from January to May 2009 with a significant coronary stenosis (≥ 70%) who underwent percutaneous or surgical revascularization, and evaluated the rate of inappropriate revascularization according to appropriateness criterion recently published. Results From a total of 568 coronary angiographies, 404 (71.2%) had at least a coronary stenosis ≥70%; 81 patients underwent CABGS (20%) and 295 PTCA (73%). In these 376 revascularized patients, the indication was considered inappropriate in 15 (4%), all of them in the PTCA group (15/295; 5%), while only 2 patients with multivessel disease (n=172, 1.2%) underwent inappropriate revascularization. Conclusions In a cardiovascular tertiary referral center, the proportion of inappropriate coronary revascularization procedures  (percutaneous or surgical) was low. Appropriateness criterion may be an applicable tool for decision-making in patients with coronary artery disease and for quality control in the departments of cardiology.


Here in this paper, we report how the bio-compatible polymer poly ethylene glycol (PEG 20000) controls the size of the magnetite nanoparticles synthesized by the simple cost effective co-precipitation method. The size of the particles calculated by Scherrer formula from the Powder X-ray Diffraction (PXRD) reports clearly depicts this. The Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) studies confirm the bonding of the PEG molecules with the magnetite nanoparticles. The Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and EDAX results confirm the surface morphology and the elemental composition. The saturation magnetization values of the particles also increases as seen from the Vibrating Sample Magnetometer (VSM) results. These particles can be very well used in various biomedical applications.


Poor control of the steam generator water level in the secondary circuit of a nuclear power plant can lead to frequent reactor shutdowns. Such shutdowns are caused by violation of safety limits on the water level and are common at low operating power where the plant exhibits strong nonminimum phase characteristics. This paper presents a framework for addressing this problem based on a new method of predictive control based on fuzzy model. It has been shown that in the case of nonlinear processes, the approach using fuzzy predictive control gives very promising results. The proposed approach is potentially interesting in the case of heat-exchangers and furnaces.


European agricultural production is influenced by the space-time distribution of regional climate. Because regional distributions of temperature and precipitation in Europe are affected by changes in the wintertime atmospheric circulation, this paper aims at identifying the relationships between the wintertime Euro-Atlantic variability and wheat yield for the Member States of the European Union. An empirical orthogonal function (EOF) decomposition of the 500 hPa geopotential height fields is used to describe the wintertime climate variability, associating the leading 4 components of the EOF decomposition into known climatic patterns (such as North Atlantic Oscillation or Eastern Atlantic patterns). Using statistical methods such as ANOVA, linear regression and 'leave-one-out' cross-validation, those patterns are related to time series of wheat yield anomalies. It is shown that, depending on the country, there is a link between wheat yield and modes of winter climate variability, and this link differs from the relationship between temperature and precipitation with the modes. Looking ahead to the improvement of seasonal climate forecasts, it is expected that such meteorological patterns may be predicted with some accuracy, which in turn could improve crop yield forecasts.


Big data and artificial intelligence has revolutionized science in almost every field – from economics to physics. In the area of materials science and computational heterogeneous catalysis, this revolution has led to the development of scientific data repositories, as well as data mining and machine learning tools to investigate the vast materials space. The goal of using these tools is to establish a deeper understanding of the relations between materials properties and activity, selectivity and stability – the important figures of merit in catalysis. Based on these insights, catalyst design principles can be established, which hopefully lead us to discover highly efficient catalysts to solve pressing issues for a sustainable future and the synthesis of highly functional materials, chemicals and pharmaceuticals. The inherent complexity of catalytic reactions quests for machine learning methods to efficiently navigate through the high‐dimensional hyper‐surfaces in structure optimization problems to determine relevant chemical structures and transition states. In this review, we show how cutting edge data infrastructures and machine learning methods are being used to address problems in computational heterogeneous catalysis.


The observation by others of decreased bile flow and death following sulfobromophthalein (BSP) infusion in rats and other laboratory animals suggested that BSP was a possible metabolic toxin and led to studies of its effect on mitochondria respiration. Measurements of oxygen consumption showed that state 3 oxidation of pyruvate, glutamate, succinate, β-hydroxybutyrate, palmitoyl-L-carnitine, and hexanoate by rat liver mitochondria was inhibited at 3 µg of BSP per milligram of mitochondrial protein, inhibition increasing with increased BSP concentration up to 24 µg/mg. Rat heart mitochondrial oxidation of pyruvate was similarly inhibited by BSP. BSP also inhibited incorporation of 32P into ATP during state 3 respiration. Analysis of polarograph tracings indicated that BSP inhibited state 3 respiration without any consistent effect on state 4 or the ADP to oxygen ratio. Synthetic BSP-GSH conjugate did not inhibit mitochondrial oxygen consumption or prevent inhibition by unconjugated BSP. Adding defatted bovine albumin to the incubation medium decreased BSP inhibition of mitochondrial oxygen consumption. In addition, the introduction of albumin to the medium following inhibition by BSP caused a return to normal rates of oxygen consumption. The mechanism of the reversible inhibition of state 3 oxidation was investigated by studying the effect of BSP on some of the isolated steps of oxidative phosphorylation. BSP did not inhibit the succinate, glutamate, or β-hydroxybutyrate dehydrogenases, or the succinate-cytochrome c reductase or NADH oxidase reactions. Succinate oxidase was inhibited in whole mitochondria but not in sonicated submitochondrial particles. This suggested that BSP may act at the mitochondrial inner membrane, possibly by interfering with mitochondrial uptake of the substrates necessary for coupled oxidative phosphorylation. The effect of BSP was therefore measured at various concentrations of the substrates of coupled oxidative phosphorylation. There was no change in inhibition over a 50-fold range of ADP concentration. However, BSP inhibition varied inversely with concentration of Pi in the medium. Similarly, inhibition by BSP varied inversely with the concentration of succinate but was not affected by changing the concentration of the other oxidizable substrates. Since the mitochondrial uptake of succinate has been shown to require Pi, the data are consistent with an effect of BSP on Pi transport across the mitochondrial inner membrane. These studies suggest that BSP is a potent inhibitor of oxidative phosphorylation in vitro. There is no evidence at present, however, that BSP exerts a similar effect in vivo.


On the basis of a digital ethnography and in-depth interviews with Chilean journalists, this study analyzes how news professionals reinterpret and redefine their professional roles on Twitter and Instagram through their practices and discourse, building different digital identities. The results of our analyses show that Twitter and Instagram strengthen and render a more complex construction of journalists' digital selves, allowing them to build a multi-dimensional identity that goes beyond the framework defined by the media in which they work through the performance of emerging and more traditional roles: (1) the service role becomes a resource for creating community-oriented identities and for helping to resolve individuals' everyday challenges; (2) the celebrity role supports the construction of an identity that plays with distances and social status, distinguishing and differentiating the journalist from others; (3) the promoter role allows them to promote their work and that of their media outlets as well as products and services, which generates a material benefit and gives the practices an instrumental meaning; and (4) the joker role allows them to entertain the audience and engage in a playful and critical way of observing the world through humor, irony, and sarcasm. Journalists make these roles compatible and decide which they want to use depending on their target audience and the specific platform used, validating certain practices and media strategies. In the case of Twitter, we observe a reinterpretation of traditional practices, and on Instagram we found a clearer redefinition of journalistic roles.


The 3-D polycrystal magnetic field analysis method by means of coordinate transformation is proposed. The local coordinates are fixed in each crystal grain and the global coordinates are defined in the polycrystal steel. Though it is assumed that each crystal grain has the same magnetized characteristics as those of a single crystal grain, the crystal grain shape and its orientations of alpha, beta, and gamma angles are taken into account. When the proposed model is applied to the real grain oriented (GO) steel with 56 crystal grains in 80-mm × 80-mm, and with 0.35-mm thickness, the calculation results are compared with the grain orientations measured by X-ray diffraction. The GO steel has a higher degree of (110)[001] texture with about 3% silicon. The calculated results of higher magnetic flux density part and lower magnetic flux density part in the real GO steel are explained by the alpha angle distribution. The calculated inclination angle distribution and the measured alpha angle distribution seem to be in good agreement. The calculated normal component of the magnetic flux density reflects the beta angle distribution of the real GO steel. It is concluded that the proposed 3-D polycrystal magnetic field analysis is appropriate.


Sesame (Sesamum indicum L.) known as queen of oil seed crops is mainly grown for its oil of local consumption, sources of income and great contribution for the national economy of Ethiopia. However, there is a low productivity and production due to environments, genotypes, interaction and management variation. Four sesame genotypes were evaluated for their interactions with environments and seed yield stability analysis at three environments during the 2015 main cropping season. The objectives of the study were to estimate the magnitude and nature of GEI and to identify stable and/or high yielding white seeded sesame genotypes in Abergelle Agricultural Research Center mandate areas, Northern Ethiopia. The study was conducted using a randomized complete block design with three replications at each environment. The combined analysis of variance revealed highly significant (P≤0.01) environment (E), genotype (G) and genotype × environment interaction (GEI). Environment explained 79.84% of the total (G + E +GE) variation, whereas G and GE explained 17.21 and 2.95% of the total variation, respectively. The magnitude of the environment was 4.6 times greater than the genotype, implying that most of the variation in seed yield was due to the environment. The significant genotype by environment interaction effects were further partitioned into two significant interaction principal components using the genotype main effect plus genotype x environment interaction (GGE) biplots model. The first two principal components for seed yield stability of the GGE biplot analysis explained 96.81% of the total variation caused by G+GE of PC1 and PC2 accounted for 90.88 and 5.93% sum of squares, respectively, while 3.19% was attributed to noise. Thus, model diagnosis (fitting) showed that the first two PCs were significant and can be taken to interpret this data. The which-won-where biplot identified one winning genotype in one mega environment. The winning genotype across locations was Humera-1. Thus, the GGE (genotype and genotype by environment interaction) biplot analysis indicated that Humera-1 was considered as the most desirable and stable one's, therefore, can be recommended for wider cultivation due to better seed yield and stability performance across the test environments in the dry lowland areas of Southeast and Central zones of Tigray region, Northern Ethiopia.

 Key words: Dry lowland, GEI, GGE biplot, mega environment, S. Indicum L.


The effects of different patient factors and dose levels of chemotherapeutic agents on clinical outcomes in advanced gastric cancer are not as yet fully characterized. We aimed at developing an integrative model that incorporates dose and covariate information to predict tumor growth and patient survival in advanced gastric cancer patients treated with trastuzumab (T), 5-FU(F)/capecitabine (X) (F or X), and cisplatin (P). Sixty-nine patients (training dataset) were used for model building and a separate 86 patients (test dataset) for model validation. A fraction of tumor cells sensitive to each drug was incorporated as a model parameter, and T was assumed as cytostatic and X/F and P as cytotoxic. Cox proportional hazards analyses were performed on model parameters and patient covariates. The model well described the time course of observed tumor size changes, and revealed that the pretreatment tumor growth rate constant kg, which was formulated as a function of pretreatment disease duration and baseline tumor size, was positively correlated with baseline tumor size (p = 0.0084) and histologic grade (p = 0.034), and the efficacy of 5-FU with body weight (p < 2e−16) and that of cisplatin with histologic grade (p = 0.00013). Prior gastrectomy and Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group scores were significant prognostic factors for progression-free survival (PFS). For hazards analysis, a unit increase of kg was associated with a relative risk of 3.19 for PFS (p = 0.00055) and 4.45 for OS (p = 2e−04) in the test dataset, with a similar trend observed in the training dataset. Dose-response simulations showed that, for small baseline tumor size or low histologic grade, a maximum cytotoxic effect was attainable with a dose smaller than the current recommended dose.


This paper describes a method for supporting the exploration of a collection of documents organized as a hypertext by investigating relations between documents along userspecified paths. The approach is demonstrated on a corpus of stories about the World War Two activities of the British Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park. Each story is described by one or more events and annotated in terms of domain ontologies. A pathway in the document space is a sequence of events in which adjacent events share common binding concepts. The criteria for selecting the pathway include a measure of the adherence to the user-specified part of the document space and the mutual information between adjacent documents calculated from their annotations.


ABSTRACT Choi, J.; Roh, M., and Kim, Y.T., 2016. A Laboratory Experiment on beach profile evolution induced by two wave conditions dominated in the Haeundae Coast of Korea. In: Vila-Concejo, A.; Bruce, E.; Kennedy, D.M., and McCarroll, R.J. (eds.), Proceedings of the 14th International Coastal Symposium (Sydney, Australia). Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue, No. 75, pp. 1327 - 1331. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. A laboratory experiment was performed by using the scaled-down conditions (i.e., 1/10) of the two dominant waves (i.e, a storm wave and a normal wave) obtained from the statistical analysis of wave data measured at the Haeundae coast during 3 years. The storm and normal waves did alternately evolve the beach profile from a constant slope and each of the wave conditions was maintained to reach its quasi-equilibrium state. The observation was conducted in the surf zone and the swash zone during the alternation of the 1-hr storm-erosion condition and the 2-hr normal-accretive condition. The storm-erosion condition generated the longshore bar-crest and trough and the steep berm, and the normal-accretion condition reduced the bar and trough. The subsequent quasi-equilibrium beach profile was reasonably agreed to the beach profile of the Haeundae beach.


Consumer trust is widely heralded as an essential element for the success of electronic commerce, yet the concept itself is still clouded in confusion by the numerous definitions and points of view held across multiple disciplines. It is the aim of this paper to synthesise the viewpoints from across the disciplines and bring them together in a multi-dimensional trust model. It is hoped that in doing so, these broad assortment of views will highlight the true underlying nature of trust in the online environment. From these multiple disciplines, three dimensions of trust emerged: dispositional trust, institutional trust and interpersonal trust, each bringing its own influencing factors into the overall intention to trust. From this model emerged the notion that the consumer as an individual is central to the understanding of trust, and in turn that the individual's personality and culture form the foundation for the development of trust.


Electronic or online banking is the newest delivery channel to be offered by the retail banks in many developed countries and there is wide agreement that this channel will have a significant impact on the market. Aims to quantify the current provision of electronic services by major retail banking organisations in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. Additional insight into the banks' adoption of this new channel is gained by exploring two areas important in the analysis of new offerings, that is: an organisation's approach to innovation; and their view of the current and future markets. By use of a mailed questionnaire, it was found that 25 per cent of the banks in the UK and the Republic of Ireland which responded to this survey are already offering online transactional services to consumers in their homes. The largest group of respondents (50 per cent) are those that are currently testing or developing such services, while just 25 per cent of the respondents were in organisations not providing or developing such services. It is also found that the organisation's vision of the future, their prediction of customer acceptance, which tends to be very low, and their organisational culture of innovation are the most important of the suggested factors in their adoption of electronic delivery.


Dendritic spines are specialized, micron-sized post-synaptic compartments that support synaptic function. These actin-based protrusions push the post-synaptic membrane, establish contact with the presynaptic membrane and undergo dynamic changes in morphology during development, as well as in response to synaptic neurotransmission. These processes are propelled by active remodeling of the actin cytoskeleton, which includes polymerization, filament disassembly, and organization of the actin in supramolecular arrays, such as branched networks or bundles. Dendritic spines contain a plethora of adhesion and synaptic receptors, signaling, and cytoskeletal proteins that regulate their formation, maturation and removal. Whereas many of the molecules involved in dendritic spine formation have been identified, their actual roles in spine formation, removal and maturation are not well understood. Using parallels between migrating fibroblasts and dendritic spines, we point to potential mechanisms and approaches for understanding spine development and dynamics.


The delivery efficiency of step and shoot intensity modulated radiotherapy (IMRT) has been improved by the installation of fast-tuning magnetrons into three travelling wave linear accelerators. The IMRT delivery efficiency and the beam start-up performance have been compared before and after installation. Start-up and inter sub-field times were reduced by an average of 3.0 s. A typical start-up time from depression of the start button to beam on is now around 4 s. Delivery efficiency for a variety of clinical and quality control prescriptions was improved by an average of 30.7% (range 7.4–60.9%), depending on a complex combination of the number of sub-fields, distance moved by leaves and dose rate. For the oldest accelerator (7 years old), dosimetric accuracy was significantly improved for low dose sub-fields. The dose output was within 2% for a 1 monitor unit (MU) sub-field and 1% for a 2 MU sub-field. The two newer accelerators displayed similar or better dose characteristics even before fast-tuning magnetron installation. Beam symmetries and flatnesses were acceptable at all energies and dose rates, and showed no obvious degradation in low dose sub-fields. It is recommended that fast-tuning magnetrons are adopted for accelerators of this design performing step and shoot IMRT.


This paper deals with a new catheter operating system for ileus treatment. We developed a highly precise remote control system by using a Master-Slave system. In order to insure the safety of the whole system, we design a simply micro force sensor. Also we expatiate on the design concept of the system and control of the system. We also carried out the operating simulation experiments ldquoin Vitrordquo. The experimental results indicated the proposed catheter operating system works properly, it can be controlled by tele-operation, and it can effectively improve the operability in to aneurysm with force feedback for intravascular neurosurgery.


SiO2 optical fiber preform, the parent material in manufacturing optical fiber, plays an important role in the properties of optical fiber. In this paper, SiO2 dry gel was prepared by Sol-Gel method. According to this method, the gel was formed by hydrolyzing tetraethyl orthosilicate(TEOS) with hydrochloric acid and ammonia water, and the SiO2 dry gel was obtained by heat treatment of the gel at different temperature. The structure of the dry gel as prepared was characterized by X-ray Diffraction(XRD), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy(FT-IR) and Scanning electron microscope(SEM). As a result, amorphous structure is proved. Meanwhile, microscopic cracks are found to be decreased by adding formamide and increased when the heat-treatment temperature is above 75°C.


PURPOSE
Endurance exercise and hypoxia regulate pathways that are crucial to glucose and lipid metabolism. We hypothesized that training under hypoxia results in similar or even greater metabolic improvement compared with exercise under normoxia at a lower workload.

METHODS
We randomly assigned 20 healthy men to single blind training under hypoxia (FiO2 = 15%) or normoxia (FiO2 = 21%). Subjects trained thrice weekly for 60 min over a 4-wk period at a heart rate measured at 3 mmol x L(-1) lactate during pretraining exercise testing. Before and after the training period, we determined body composition, venous blood parameters, oral glucose tolerance, and blood pressure. Furthermore, we assessed oxygen uptake (VO2), lactate, and respiratory quotient, and heart rate (HR) during incremental exercise testing, both in hypoxia and in normoxia. Training workload was 1.39 +/- 0.2 W x kg(-1) in the hypoxia and 1.67 +/- 0.15 W x kg(-1) in the normoxia group (P< 0.001) with an identical training heart rate in both groups.

RESULTS
Exercise capacity improved similarly with both interventions. With hypoxia training, body fat content, triglycerides, HOMA-Index, fasting insulin (P < 0.05), and area under the curve for insulin (P < 0.01) during the oral glucose tolerance test improved more than with the training in normoxia. We did not observe major changes in adipokine measurements.

CONCLUSION
Endurance training in hypoxia over a 4-wk period elicits a similar or even better response in terms of cardiovascular and metabolic risk factors than endurance exercise in normoxia. The fact that workload and, therefore, mechanic strain can be reduced in hypoxia could be particularly beneficial in obese patients and in patients with orthopedic conditions.


Dams play a significant role in altering the spatial pattern of temperature in rivers and contribute to thermal pollution, which greatly affects the river aquatic ecosystems. Understanding the temporal and spatial variation of thermal pollution caused by dams is important to prevent or mitigate its harmful effect. Assessments based on in-situ measurements are often limited in practice because of the inaccessibility of water temperature records and the scarcity of gauges along rivers. By contrast, thermal infrared remote sensing provides an alternative approach to monitor thermal pollution downstream of dams in large rivers, because it can cover a large area and observe the same zone repeatedly. In this study, Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+) thermal infrared imagery were applied to assess the thermal pollution caused by two dams, the Geheyan Dam and the Gaobazhou Dam, located on the Qingjiang River, a tributary of the Yangtze River downstream of the Three Gorges Reservoir in Central China. The spatial and temporal characteristics of thermal pollution were analyzed with water temperatures estimated from 54 cloud-free Landsat ETM+ scenes acquired in the period from 2000 to 2014. The results show that water temperatures downstream of both dams are much cooler than those upstream of both dams in summer, and the water temperature remains stable along the river in winter, showing evident characteristic of the thermal pollution caused by dams. The area affected by the Geheyan Dam reaches beyond 20 km along the downstream river, and that affected by the Gaobazhou Dam extends beyond the point where the Qingjiang River enters the Yangtze River. Considering the long time series and global coverage of Landsat ETM+ imagery, the proposed technique in the current study provides a promising method for globally monitoring the thermal pollution caused by dams in large rivers.


With the increase of the scale and intensity of the parallel I/O workloads generated by those scientific applications running on high performance computing facilities, understanding the I/O dynamics, especially the root cause of the I/O performance variability and degradation in HPC environment, have become extremely critical to the HPC community. In this paper, we run extensive I/O measuring tests on a production leadership-class storage system to capture the performance variabilities of large-scale parallel I/O. Analyzing these results and its statistic correlation revealed some valuable insights into the characteristics of the storage system and the root cause of I/O performance variability. Further, we leverage these findings and propose an I/O middleware design refactoring which can improve the performance of the parallel I/O by optimizing the data striping and placement. Our preliminary evaluation results demonstrate the proposed approach can reduce the average per-process write latency by at least 80% and the maximum per-process write latency by at least 20%.


Pettican, A., Mojsiewicz, K. and Lewis, C. (2015) Brass Art: Shadow Worlds | Writers' Rooms – Freud's House, International 3, Manchester Solo Exhibition, Sept – Oct 2015

Brass Art's new work forms the second chapter of an ongoing project which allows them to enter the domestic spaces that selected authors occupied. Having previously explored the Bronte Parsonage, their most recent project sees Brass Art investigating the Freud Museum, London. The work has been commissioned by University of Salford's Commission to Collect Programme and has been acquired by University of Salford for their collection.

During a period of residency, Brass Art inscribed themselves into the domestic space of Sigmund Freud's former London home. Using Kinect laser-scanning to capture intimate-scaled performances throughout the rooms, staircase and hallway, the artists developed a visual response to the notion of the uncanny using strategies of repetition and simultaneous 'doublings'. They remained open to the unconscious influences that determined their actions, behaviour and movements. During the sojourn in Freud's house, ambient audio was captured simultaneously by electroacoustic composer Monty Adkins who recorded fleeting and involuntary aspects of the performances and coaxed sounds out of long-dormant objects.

The resulting work takes the form of a two-screen 'double' digital video installation. This pixelated and seemingly fragmented re-imagining of Freud's house reveals exactly what is there and what is 'unseen'; the Kinect footage appears to bisect walls and reveal the obverse of the scene. Measuring the space through their bodily presence and a virtual 'peeling back' of the architectural layers, Brass Art create a dynamic exploration of the domestic interior as a site of creativity. Experienced binaurally, the soundscape evokes the intimacy of being in the space itself. This temporal interplay and its creative potential lie at the heart of Brass Art's exploration of Freud's House.

The exhibition is accompanied by a commissioned text written by Dr. Joanne Morra, Reader in Art History and Theory in the School of Art at Central Saint Martins and Founder and Principal Editor of Journal of Visual Culture.

http://www.international3.com/2015/09/brass-art-shadow-worlds-writers-rooms/

The Exhibition was featured in The Guardian Guide and Corridor 8 alongside Contemporary Artists working in the field
http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/sep/18/this-weeks-new-exhibition

http://www.corridor8.co.uk/online/review-brass-art-shadow-worlds-writers-rooms-freuds-house-the-international-3-manchester/


Recorded high up in the Shropshire hills of the Welsh Marches, and inspired by a living landscape and its history, the Chapel of Skins is a fictional story about a ghostly meeting of ways, written and narrated by Paul Evans with wildlife sound recordings by Chris Watson.

High in the hills of the Welsh Marches, a remote crossroads is marked by a telephone kiosk and an old stone chapel. It is a mysterious and beautiful place, steeped in history because of the ancient tracks which cross here like the centre of a compass.

North, south, east, west: each direction is a 'way' ; a path or opening affording passage from one place to another. Along each way of travel comes a way of being; a voice telling a story. Each story is set in a different time but arrives in the same place. These voices have very different histories but are drawn by necessity to the mystical yet sinister Chapel of Skins which reflects the beauty and harshness of Nature at this crossroads.

The drama becomes intense as each character must tell their stories to the listener before the chapel bell tolls midnight on the twelfth day of the twelfth month of the twelfth year. Only at that moment will the chapel door open in a bizarre midnight ritual and the lost souls find sanctuary. So, the Chapel is a way too, a gateway affording passage from one place to another. If they fail to tell their stories, the fate of these restless figures, these voices in the landscape, is to wander the hills for another hundred years.


Protection of designated areas within rangelands is widely considered to be the most effective and the practical way to conserve plant diversity and maintain ecosystem composition and structure. Thus, the effect of protection (two levels of grazing) at two sites in a rangeland was monitored: inside Musawar (enclosure), where the protection level is high, and an open area (outside the Musawar) where human and livestock had unrestricted access to ecosystem resources. Total plant cover, plant density, perennial species cover and their contribution were determined inside and outside the Musawar. The findings revealed considerable positive effects of protection on the scored parameters. However, the results emphasized a negative effect of the long term protection on vegetation dynamics. This was observed by the abundance of a very competitive annual species (Stipa capensis) and the occurrence of crusts on the soil surface (which may constitute an obstacle to water infiltration and seeds germination) inside Al Musawar. Short term protection followed by light grazing was found more sustainable than long term protection of some degraded rangelands in Qatar.


It has been claimed that weak extremely low frequency electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMFs) can affect biochemical reactions and a wide-ranging body of literature is available on this topic. Nevertheless, the physical nature of these effects remains largely unknown. We investigated the influence of ELF-EMF on glutamic acid solutions using Fourier transform infrared-attenuated total reflectance (FTIR-ATR) spectra. Samples were exposed for 10, 20, or 30 min to a weak EMF generated by Helmoltz coils, and then placed in a spectrometer. After exposure, those solutions that had a pH lower than the isoelectric point tended to show a shift toward the deprotonation of the carboxylic group, while solutions having a pH greater than the isoelectric point showed the deprotonation of the residual amine group. Moreover, at low pH values, we also detected a shift of the δantisym band of the amine. The effects lasted a few minutes after exposure before the native configuration was restored. The spectral modifications were observed after each independent exposure to EMFs, and the same effects were seen by varying the frequencies in the range of 0–7 kHz. Therefore, the hypothesis of the existence of a resonant frequency that has been proposed elsewhere cannot be supported by the results of this study. The most surprising characteristic of this effect is the long-lasting nature of the perturbation, which is hard to be explained in terms of short-living excitations in biological matter. Bioelectromagnetics 32:218–225, 2011. © 2010 Wiley-Liss, Inc.


Accessions of Cola acuminata and Cola anomala were analysed based on the variation of free amino acids during germination and seedling growth. These compounds were determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods. In the non-germinated seeds of C. acuminata , arginine (Arg) was the major amino acid found in all six accessions and valine (Val) was the least present, while in C. anomala , gamma ()-aminobutyric acid (GABA) was predominant and isoleucine (Ile) was less abundant. During germination, the seeds of the two species accumulated large amount of GABA and very little tryptophan. Principal component and cluster analyses of Cola sp. categorized the accessions into two groups distinguishing the two Cola species. The differences between the groups were related not only to the absence/presence of histidine (His) and phenylalanine (Phe), but also to amide amino acids asparagine (Asn), glutamine (Gln) and Arg contents. In Cola sp., free amino acids varied significantly during these two processes indicating their high utilization. These metabolites can be considered as crucial in the control of germination. Keywords : Cola sp., amino acids, germination, seedling growth African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 9(35), pp. 5632-5642, 30 August, 2010


Fluid catalytic cracking (FCC) is a refining process for converting heavy oils to valuable products such as gasoline and olefins. Modeling of this process is quite challenging. A common assumption has been that vaporization is instantaneously fast and cracking is negligible in the injection zone. Relaxing this assumption, an approach for quantifying the effect of injection zone cracking on FCC performance is developed. The approach combines a Lagrangian description of the spray behavior with an Eulerian modeling of transport-cracking coupling in the FCC riser. Included in the model are droplet vaporization, a four-lump kinetic network, spray penetration trajectory, solid-fluid and solid-solid collisions, and multispray interactions. Parametric studies show that precracking in the injection zone plays an important role in steering the overall performance of an FCC riser. The model developed here can accommodate a large number of reactions, thus, allowing for composition-based modeling of the FCC process. © 2012 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 59: 1226–1235, 2013


Objective Visual hallucinations are common in Parkinson's disease (PD) and associated with worse outcomes. Large-scale network imbalance is seen in PD-associated hallucinations, but mechanisms remain unclear. As the thalamus is critical in controlling cortical networks, structural thalamic changes could underlie network dysfunction in PD hallucinations. Methods We used whole-brain fixel-based analysis and cortical thickness measures to examine longitudinal white and grey matter changes in 76 patients with PD (15 hallucinators, 61 non-hallucinators) and 26 controls at baseline, and after 18 months. We compared white matter and cortical thickness, adjusting for age, gender, time-between-scans and intracranial volume. To assess thalamic changes, we extracted volumes for 50 thalamic subnuclei (25 each hemisphere) and mean fibre cross-section (FC) for white matter tracts originating in each subnucleus and examined longitudinal change in PD-hallucinators versus non-hallucinators. Results PD hallucinators showed white matter changes within the corpus callosum at baseline and extensive posterior tract involvement over time. Less extensive cortical thickness changes were only seen after follow-up. White matter connections from the right medial mediodorsal magnocellular thalamic nucleus showed reduced FC in PD hallucinators at baseline followed by volume reductions longitudinally. After follow-up, almost all thalamic subnuclei showed tract losses in PD hallucinators compared with non-hallucinators. Interpretation PD hallucinators show white matter loss particularly in posterior connections and in thalamic nuclei, over time with relatively preserved cortical thickness. The right medial mediodorsal thalamic nucleus shows both connectivity and volume loss in PD hallucinations. Our findings provide mechanistic insights into the drivers of network imbalance in PD hallucinations and potential therapeutic targets.


With the deformation reinforcement theory (DRT), numerical simulation of Baihetan arch dam and foundation is carried out. According to the unbalanced forces distribution, fault F18 and shear zone LS3318 are the key reinforcement regions and unbalanced force of each fault is the corresponding optimal reinforcement force which is to maintain a stable state. To verify the validity of the results of numerical simulation, geomechanical model test of Baihetan arch dam is carried out. By analyzing displacement of corresponding measuring point in the overloading process, and observing failure of transverse section at each elevation, the results show that the unbalanced force distribution of each fault is consistent with the damage law of faults in geomechanical model test.


Using the Generations and Gender Survey (GGS) and ordered logistic regression, the relation of intergenerational child care and short-term fertility intentions is explored in the gender-egalitarian Swedish family policy context. Overall, receiving child care help from parents or grandparents does not seem to influence whether women or men with one or two children plan to have another child. The results support the Swedish public child care system's effectiveness in facilitating relatively high fertility and work- and family compatibility, while informal child care is at best complementary. Only women and men aged 18-29 years old with two children were found to be significantly more likely in having another child within three years when receiving intergenerational child care support.


The design, simulation and practical implementation for a bidirectional 1.25 Gbit/s indoor optical wireless communications system has been presented. It is a part of the European community funded hOME Gigabit Access project (OMEGA). The line-of-sight (LOS) system uses angle-diversity transceivers enabling discrete beam steering. Each transceiver uses three transmitting and receiving elements giving an overall field of view of ~25 × 8° and a transmission range of 3 m. Measurement shows that the system can operate at a bit error rate below 10 -9 without channel coding and the handover between cells is <;400<;ns. Detail of a demonstrator of high-definition (HD) video embedded in gigabit ethernet stream using this system is also reported.


At the present time, it is proved that non- protein- coding RNAs(ncRNAs) play very important roles in the cellular process of translation and relates to Human Severe Diseases. From the NONCODE database 15 diseaserelated ncRNA sequences are selected in this paper, which play regulator roles and relate toAlzheimer Disease and Cancer. Based on Z-curve theory, we map and analyze the Z curves of the studied sequences. By comparing the curves, the statistical features of the Z-curve are obtained. We find that there are almost same curves and base content for one kind of ncRNAs playing same roles. And there are differences of Zn-n curve in different organisms. The conclusion is that the Z-curve is connected with the type or function of ncRNA and organisms.


This letter presents a theoretical study on omnidirectional aerial vehicles with body-frame fixed unidirectional thrusters. Omniplus multirotor designs are defined as the ones that allow to exert a total wrench in any direction using positive-only lift force and drag moment (i.e., positive rotational speed) for each rotor blade. Algebraic conditions for a design to be omniplus are derived, a simple necessary condition being the fact that at least seven propellers have to be used. An energy optimal design strategy is then defined as the one minimizing the maximum norm of the input set needed to span a certain wrench ellipsoid for the adopted input allocation strategy. Two corresponding major design criteria are then introduced: first, a minimum allocation-matrix condition number aims at an equal sharing of the effort needed to generate wrenches in any direction; second, imposing a balanced design guarantees an equal sharing of the extra effort needed to keep the input in the nonnegative orthant. We propose a numerical algorithm to solve such optimal design problem and a control algorithm to control any omnidirectional platform. The work is concluded with informative simulation results in nonideal conditions.


ABSTRACT A 13-year-old patient developed severe shock due to administration of a Yersinia enterocolitica-contaminated red blood cell concentrate. Y. enterocolitica (serotype O:9, biotype II) was cultivated from the residual blood in the blood bag and from a stool sample of the blood donor. In the donor's plasma immunoglobulin M (IgM), IgA, and IgG antibodies against Yersinia outer proteins (YopM, -H, -D, and -E) were found. Since the donor remembered a short-lasting, mild diarrhea 14 days prior to blood donation, a transient attack of Yersinia enteritis may be associated with a longer than expected period of asymptomatic bacteremia that causes contamination of donor blood. Serological screening for IgM antibodies against Yersinia outer proteins might offer a way to reduce the risk of transfusion-associated Y. enterocolitica sepsis.


We consider congestion pricing as a mechanism for sharing bandwidth in communication networks, and model the interaction among the users as a game. We propose a decentralized algorithm for the users that is based on the history of the price process, where user response to congestion prices is analogous to "fictitious play" in game theory, and show that this results in convergence to the unique Wardrop equilibrium. We further show that the Wardrop equilibrium coincides with the welfare-maximizing capacity allocation.


Effects of carboxymethyl cellulose from papaya peel (CMCp) on the properties of ceramics were investigated. Cellulose was extracted from papaya peels by NaOH and then it was modified by chloro acetic acid to obtain carboxymethyl cellulose. The prepared CMCp was applied as a binder in ceramic slip in order to increase its viscosity. Sodium silicate was also added into the slip for providing a dispersion of slip and protecting the sedimentation of clay particles. Various concentrations of CMCp and commercial CMC (CMCc) (0.05, 0.1, 0.15, 0.2 and 0.25% w/w of dry weight of clays) were added into the slip. Effect of CMC on viscosity of the slip and the ceramic density were studied. The relationship between the ceramic properties such as, shrinkage, porosity, casting rate and bending strength (both green strength and fired strength), and CMC concentration was also observed. As increasing both CMCp and CMCc, viscosity increased while density decreased. The prepared ceramics (green ware and fired ware) added with CMCp were found to have higher strength and lower in %shrinkage than that of adding with CMCc. The thickness of the ceramic wall adding CMCc increased with increasing CMCc concentration, and time in contrast to that of CMCp as the thickness decreased with increasing CMCp concentration. However, the ceramics with addition of CMCp possessed higher strength than that of the commercial one.


Automation is a trending topic in the 21th century making it play an important role in our daily lives. The main attraction of any automated system is reducing human efforts and time. Our paper presents an idea of microcontroller based voice controlled home automation system using android applications of smartphones. Such a system will enable users to have control over every appliance in his/her home with their voice, all that the user needs is an android Smartphone and a control circuit. The control circuit consists of 8051 microcontroller, which processes the user commands and controls the switching of devices. The connection between the microcontroller and the Smartphone is established via Bluetooth widespread wireless technology used for sharing data.


During genome replication, chromosomes undergo a progressive shortening of their ends. To counteract this loss, a complex named telomerase functions as a reverse transcriptase to elongate telomeres. In Saccharomyces cerevisiae, telomerase contains a non-coding RNA, TLC1, which serves as a scaffold for formation of the telomerase complex and the template for the reverse transcription to elongate the telomeres. Upon its synthesis, TLC1 undergoes a series of nuclear and cytoplasmic maturation steps. Here it has been shown that the TLC1 nuclear export is dependent on the classic mRNA export pathway in addition to the already known Crm1/Xpo1 pathway. The nuclear export defects that occur upon mutation of these pathways impair the formation of the telomerase, as well as its final localisation suggesting an essential role of TLC1 shuttling in telomerase assembly. Consequently, the TLC1 nuclear transport defect leads to telomeric shortening indicating a necessity of the TLC1 shuttling for telomere maintenance. Moreover, the nuclear RNA quality control system, composed of the TRAMP complex and nuclear exosome, might mediate the nuclear maturation of TLC1. Finally, it has also been pointed out that the localisation and maturation of the nuclear quality control system might be regulated by a nuclear importer, Mtr10, which is also involved in TLC1 nuclear import.


The crystal structure of trirubidium citrate has been solved and refined using laboratory X-ray powder diffraction data, and optimized using density functional techniques.


The extensive amount of multimedia information available necessitates content-based video indexing and retrieval methods. Since humans tend to use high-level semantic concepts when querying and browsing multimedia databases, there is an increasing need for semantic video indexing and analysis. For this purpose, we present a unified framework for semantic shot classification in sports video, which has been widely studied due to tremendous commercial potentials. Unlike most existing approaches, which focus on clustering by aggregating shots or key-frames with similar low-level features, the proposed scheme employs supervised learning to perform a top-down video shot classification. Moreover, the supervised learning procedure is constructed on the basis of effective mid-level representations instead of exhaustive low-level features. This framework consists of three main steps: 1) identify video shot classes for each sport; 2) develop a common set of motion, color, shot length-related mid-level representations; and 3) supervised learning of the given sports video shots. It is observed that for each sport we can predefine a small number of semantic shot classes, about 5-10, which covers 90%-95% of broadcast sports video. We employ nonparametric feature space analysis to map low-level features to mid-level semantic video shot attributes such as dominant object (a player) motion, camera motion patterns, and court shape, etc. Based on the fusion of those mid-level shot attributes, we classify video shots into the predefined shot classes, each of which has clear semantic meanings. With this framework we have achieved good classification accuracy of 85%-95% on the game videos of five typical ball type sports (i.e., tennis, basketball, volleyball, soccer, and table tennis) with over 5500 shots of about 8 h. With correctly classified sports video shots, further structural and temporal analysis, such as event detection, highlight extraction, video skimming, and table of content, will be greatly facilitated.


Performance evaluation provides information for lacking organizations and demonstrates how to improve performance for hospitals. Formerly, hospitals had to afford to meet the increased demand of their patients by only decreasing their operational costs. In this parallel most of the hospital was first to cut costs or avoid cases that would likely lose money. However, later health care administrators realized that the appropriate solution to keep their hospitals financially viable was to improve their performance. Efficiency analysis based on optimization techniques and their normative structure creates the benchmark for the hospitals. This is one of the most essential requirements of health care industry today. Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) is a non-parametric linear programming technique that assesses the efficiency frontier by optimizing the weighted outputs to inputs. DEA models can provide the new solutions to increase the efficiency. DEA identifies the optimal ways of efficiency for each of the hospital rather than the averages. Since this is an appropriate way to understand the individual hospital efficiency, DEA provide the significant findings for the improvement process of hospitals. Hospitals can not only find their efficiency level, but also discover the alternative solutions to eliminate the inefficiency causes. The results of this study have also provided meaningful insights into Turkish health care managers' views of the interaction between efficiency and health care expenditures. It is expected that the findings will provide guidance for health care providers. Results also might be beneficial for other researchers in this area.


The references in the following bibliography from the literature on exceptional children are classified as follows: publications concerned with (i) subnormal and backward children, (2) behavior and problem cases, (3) superior and gifted children, (4) the blind and partially seeing, (5) crippled children, (6) deaf and hard-of-hearing children, (7) delicate children, (8) speech defectives, and (9) general references. The references in the first three of these classifications were compiled and annotated by Dr. Hildreth; those in the fourth to the eighth classifications, inclusive, by Dr. Martens. Each of the two compilers supplied general references.


Hypertension is a condition of persistently elevated blood pressure, associated with increased cardiovascular risk. Non-invasive BP measurement using Korotkoff sounds is the most common method of screening for the condition. The possibility of inaccurate readings leading to a false diagnosis of hypertension (pseudo-hypertension) is of concern. Stiffened arteries in the elderly have been proposed as being the primary cause of pseudo-hypertension. Non-invasive detection of pseudo-hypertension remains problematic. This paper reviews clinical literature on pseudo hypertension and approaches to measuring the compressive stiffness of arteries, as well as biomechanical literature regarding models of arterial stiffness and the origin of Korotkoff sounds. Models of the latter show the importance of the relationship between transmural pressure and cross-sectional area (Pt/Csa curve) of the brachial artery as it closes under the influence of the pressure cuff. The review concludes that future research on pseudo-hypertension should include development of new instrumentation to measure the Pt/Csa curve of the brachial artery in vivo using non-invasive techniques suitable for application to an elderly population.