To the Editor:—We read with interest the study by van Zundert et al. regarding performance characteristics of three disposable extraglottic airways. van Zundert found that the CobraPLA (Engineered Medical Systems, Indianapolis, IN) was more difficult to insert and caused more mucosal trauma than either the LMA-UniqueTM (LMA North America Inc., San Diego, CA) or the Soft Seal laryngeal mask (Portex Ltd., Hythe, United Kingdom), noting that this finding is in contrast to previous studies conducted by Gaitini et al. and Akca et al. He attributes this difference, in part, to the fact that the patients in Akca's study were paralyzed. However, Akca's patients were not relaxed before insertion of the devices studied. As an alternative, we suggest that van Zundert's more precisely defined ease of insertion (3/2/1/0 vs. difficult/not difficult), along with a greater number of patients studied (105 patients vs. 40 patients studied each by Gaitini and Akca) might have allowed a statistical difference to emerge. Although the CobraPLA has a flexible tip to aid insertion at the back of the throat, we believe that CobraPLA's straight breathing tube might have contributed to the insertion difficulty (fig. 1A). As a result of our own experience using the CobraPLA in several hundred patients and at our suggestion, the manufacturer (Engineered Medical Systems) has modified the basic design of the device to incorporate a distal bend in the breathing tube on both the standard CobraPLA and the newly introduced CobraPLUS (figs. 1B and C) while leaving the other features of the airway (e.g., flexible tip, circumferential cuff) unchanged. The decision to accomplish this design change was driven in part by discussions with Dr. van Zundert while his study was in progress (although actual results were not known) regarding how the device might logically be improved to aid insertion. As a result of this modification, the specific product studied by van Zundert is no longer being manufactured. We believe the curved distal end greatly facilitates insertion and minimizes trauma because it now conforms to the shape of the anatomy it must traverse, and initial reports with its use have been encouraging (Xavier Marquez, M.D., Instituto Urologico, Caracas, Venezuela, personal communication, April 2006). The fact that the basic design of the CobraPLA studied by van Zundert is no longer being manufactured in no way diminishes the importance of his study. Rather, we believe it validates how respected researchers can help to drive product design for improved patient safety. The improved performance characteristics of the newly changed CobraPLA, require validation by additional research. We have sent the newly designed CobraPLA to Dr. van Zundert and would be interested to learn his initial impressions.


nCompensation has an important role for the company, because compensation reflects the company to maintain and improve the welfare of employees. If compensations is inadequate, it can reduce work performance, motivation to work, and the satisfaction of the employee's work can even lead to a potential out of the company. Based on the results of these studies can be concluded that components of compensation in the company are financial compensation with direct payment such as wages remain, incentives, allowances area, allowances position,n and allowancesf pulses. Financial compensation with indirect payment such as health insurance, contributions to retirement, the aid money off, and the holiday allowance. The compensation for the financial as the position promotion sport facilities.
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Keywords: Benefit, Compensation, Staff.


Background Obesity is a heterogeneous condition in terms of metabolic status. Different obesity phenotypes have various health risks. The aim of this work was to define different subtypes of obesity and investigate their relationship with inflammatory-cardiometabolic abnormalities among Chinese adult twins. Methods The analyses used data from 1113 adult twins in 4 provinces (Shandong, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Sichuan) from Chinese National Twin Registry (CNTR) which collected detailed information. We defined those with 0 or 1 metabolic syndrome (MetS) components excluding waist circumference as metabolically healthy, and those with waist circumference ≥90 cm (for men) and ≥85 cm (for women) as obese. The two-category obesity status and metabolic states are combined to generate four metabolic/obesity phenotypes. High sensitivity C reactive protein (hsCRP) was measured to assess underlying inflammation and homeostasis model assessment of insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) was calculated as surrogate measure of insulin resistance. Mixed-effect linear regression models and fixed-effect linear regression models were used to analyse the correlation between HOMA-IR, hsCRP and different metabolic/obesity phenotypes. Results In cross-sectional analyses of 1113 individuals (mean [SD] age, 46.6 [12.9] years; 463 obese [41.6%]), 20.3% obese twins were metabolic healthy and 64.2% non-obese twins were metabolic unhealthy. Serum HOMA-IR level was higher in metabolically unhealthy non-obesity (MUNO) (β=0.42, 95% CI: 0.21–0.64), metabolically healthy obesity (MHO) (β=0.68, 95% CI: 0.36–1.00) and metabolically unhealthy obesity (MUO) (β=0.69, 95% CI: 0.46–0.91) twins, compared with their metabolically healthy non-obesity (MHNO) counterparts. HsCRP was similar between MHO and MUO, which differed significantly to metabolic healthy non-obesity (MHNO). Conclusion MHO and MUNO phenotypes were common in Chinese twin population. Both phenotypes were associated with elevated IR and hsCRP which may not be benign and need to be concerned.


Nerilla is an Archiannelid, with a prostomium, a pygidium, and nine trunk segments bearing parapodia. There are three cirri on the prostomium, two on the pygidium, and one on each parapodium except the last. The cirri are slender, hollow, jointed processes, with sensory hairs. A ventral ciliated groove extends from mouth to anus ; ciliated rings occur on the prostomium and on the trunk segments, and there is a ciliated patch on each side of each segment. The first parapodium bears one bundle, and the other parapodia two bundles of simple cliEetas. The cirrus is placed between the bundles. The central nervous system, throughout closely connected with the epidermis, consists of a brain and two ventral, nerve-cords without ganglionic swellings. The prostomium carries four eyes and two nuchal organs. The alimentary canal consists of an oesophagus, stomach, intestine and short rectum, all ciliated, and a ventral muscular pharynx. Unicellular glands open into the buccal cavity, and gland-cells are greatly developed on either side of the stomach. The cœlomic is well developed; but some of the septa are very incomplete. Cœlomic corpuscles are very rare; a delicate network of cœlenchyme extends throughout the body-cavity. A simple vascular system is present. The nephridia have open funnels, a slightly coiled lumen, and vacnoles containing one refringent concretion. Nephridia are present in segments 2, 5 and 9 of the male, and in segments 2, 5, (5 and 8 of the female. The male has three genital segments, 5, 6, and 7. In the first only do the testes produce spermatozoa ; in the second and third the testes appear to be degenerate and to produce granular cells, with small granules in segment 6, and large granules in segment 7. Three pairs of similar ducts correspond to these three segments. The six sperm-ducts open into a common median ventral genital atrium, which leads to a median pore with a small copulatory process on each side. Special epidermal gland-cells open into the genital atrium. Two ovaries are present in the sixth segment of the female. Each ovary becomes enclosed in an ovisac, lined by nutritive epithelium ; the ovisacs are asymmetrically developed. Full-grown ova escape from the sacs into the cœlom of the sixth segment, and are retained for a long time in the parent, passing forwards or more often backwards along each side of the gut. Here they undergo the preliminary stages of maturation. It is possible, but not yet certain, that fertilisation is internal. A pocket, containing deeply staining cells, is found on the inner side of encli ovisac. Two oviducts arc present, leading from the sixth segment to paired genital pores on the seventh segment. Epidermal glands converge towards the pores. The eggs are laid in transparent capsules, development is direct, and the young emerge as small worms with only one median tentacle and about five segments. Nerilla combines primitive with specialised characters. The parapodia, chfette, ccelom, and number of the gonads and their ducts have become progressively reduced in the Archiiinnelids. They are probably modified forms descended from Chaetopod ancestors. The genital ducts appear to be either cœlomostomes, or cœlomostomes combined with nephridia (nephronixia). Nerilla preserves many Chaetopod characters, but has affinities with several genera, more especially perhaps with Histriobdella and Dinophilus.


This paper deals with the consensus problem under communication network inducing delays. It is well-known that introducing a delay leads in general to a reduction of the performance or to instability due to the fact that time-delay systems are infinite dimensional. For instance, the set of initial conditions of a time-delay system is not a vector but a function taken in an interval. Therefore, investigating the effect of time-delays in the consensus problem is an important issue. In the present paper, we assume that each agent receives instantaneously its own state information but receives the state information from its neighbors after a constant delay. Two stability criteria are provided based on the frequency approach and on Lyapunov-Krasovskii techniques given in terms of LMI. An analytic expression of the consensus equilibrium which depends on the delay and on the initial conditions taken in an interval is derived. The efficiency of the method is tested for different network communication schemes.


Schedules for production of antisera to pure influenza A virus hemagglutinin (H3) in rats and rabbits are described. The antisera prepared in rats were shown to be better than rabbit sera as they had low levels of inhibitors readily eliminated by heating. The best sera were obtained by immunizations of rats into the tail. Both rat and rabbit antisera, in addition to the HI test, can be used satisfactorily in the immunodiffusion test and in radioimmunoassay.


Background: Subclinical thyroid disorders usually do not produce symptoms of thyroid disease until they turn into over thyroid disease. Thyroid disease is more common in people with diabetes mellitus than in the general population and it is important to detect thyroid disorder before its clinical manifestation. Subclinical hypothyroidism (SCH) can produce dyslipidemia, obesity thus resulting increased predisposition to coronary artery disease. Subclinical hyperthyroidism can aggravate hyperglycemia and impair blood sugar control. Objectives: Our objective is to determine the prevalence of subclinical thyroid disorders in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) and to analyze the clinical and metabolic profile of patients with this dual endocrine disorder. Methods and Results: One hundred consecutive type 2 diabetic patients without clinical manifestations of thyroid disorders were screened for SCH and subclinical hyperthyroidism using serum free T 3 , free T 4 and thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) levels. Individuals of subclinical thyroid disease were further screened for thyroperoxidase (TPO) antibodies. SCH was detected in 13% of type 2 diabetic patients and none had subclinical hyperthyroidism in our study. SCH was common among females with type 2 diabetes (84.6%). Elevated TPO antibody levels were present in 84.6% SCH patients. Diabetic retinopathy among SCH patients showed significant association with higher serum TSH levels. Left ventricular diastolic dysfunction was present in 30.8% of SCH patients. Conclusion: SCH is common among type 2 diabetic patients, especially in females. It is most commonly secondary to autoimmune thyroid disease. Microvascular complications are commonly observed in this group of patients with dual endocrinal disorder and treating physician should be aware of the impact and should routinely screen SCH to prevent complications.


Genetic modification techniques, in particular novel gene editing technologies, hold the yet unfulfilled promise of altering genetic traits in farm animals more efficiently than by crossbreeding, allowing for a more rapid development of new cattle breeds with distinct traits. Gene editing technologies allow for the directed alteration of specific traits and thereby have the potential to enhance, for instance, disease resilience, production yield and the production of desired substances in milk. The potential implications of these technological advancements, which are often combined with animal cloning methods, are discussed both for animal health and for consumer safety, also with consideration of available methods for the detection and identification of the related products in the food supply chain. Finally, an overview is provided of current regulatory approaches in the EU and major countries exporting beef to the EU, for products from animals bred through established practices as well as modern biotechnologies.


The translation/interpretation of sacred texts is a thorny issue in translation studies as this type of translation involves dealing with words that represent real beliefs whose conveyance should be done accurately and adequately. The interpretation of the Holy Quran, which is the literal word of Allah, is no exception. This paper discusses the problematic issues and challenges in translating/interpreting sacred euphemistic expressions in the Holy Quran. It examines and analyzes these problems in terms of accuracy and quality. The data selected for this study comes from two different interpretations of two suras: Al-Nisa and Al-A'raf by Mustafa Khattab and Muhammad Mahmud Ghali. The taxonomy of translation techniques proposed by Vinay and Darbelnet (1995) is used as a theoretical framework in the current study. The study revealed that there were some interventional strategies used by the translators to transfer Quranic euphemistic expressions into English. These strategies include literal translation, modulation, equivalence, and adaptation. It is also found that literal translation was the most used technique, followed by modulation and equivalence. In some cases, literal translation of Euphemism in some Quranic verses didn't work because the intended meaning couldn't be achieved in the TL. The study contributes to our understanding of the problems posed by euphemistic expressions in religious texts and the possible strategies that can be adopted to solve these problems.

         Keywords: adequacy, euphemism, Holy Quran, translatability, Vinay and Darbelnet.


The effect of cadmium, with and without selenium, on breeding hens and cocks and their offspring up to 7 days of age was studied. In adult birds, the body weight, mortality rate, pathological changes and cadmium level were determined. In chicks, the mortality rate and level of cadmium were evaluated. Cadmium as cadmium chloride was orally administered to the hens at three dosages: 3 ppm, 20 ppm and 30 ppm + 4 ppm of selenium. Cadmium levels in the muscles, liver and kidneys of laying hens analysed after 60 days and those of chicks after 30 and 60 days of the experiment. Cd determinations were conducted by the method of electrothermic atomization, using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Body weight in laying hens was maintained at the control level, while in cocks it slightly increased in all experimental groups. In the adult birds, no mortality occurred while 0.25 - 1.11% mortality was observed in chicks. The results showed a variability in cadmium levels in hens, according to the dosage applied. These levels were high in the kidneys and liver, and lower in the muscles. A non-significant increase of cadmium level was found in the liver and kidneys of chicks after the first month of application. The addition of selenium resulted in a reduction of cadmium level in the liver and kidneys of laying hens but not in the muscles. Gross pathological and histological changes in the kidneys and liver were observed in groups fed 20 ppm and 30 ppm of cadmium.


Introduction Traditional news media play an important, yet notoriously complex role in vaccination communication. News media remain a common source of information about vaccines and potentially influence individual decisions to choose vaccination or not. In Denmark, Human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination rates remained relatively high until suspected adverse reactions began to receive extensive coverage in the news. Existing research studies associate the decline in HPV vaccination rates with misleading or negative news stories. Methods We probed Danish media coverage beyond dichotomies such as misleading vs. informative, or negative vs. positive. We combined quantitative and qualitative approaches to media coverage of the Danish HPV vaccination crisis and recovery. Our research design focused on six national newspapers and allowed us to identify 865 articles published in periods of peak media coverage from 2008 to 2018 (extracted from a total sample of 1,437 articles published between 1991 and 2019). We used qualitative content analysis to discern the main topics covered, and we analyzed contextual factors that affected the meanings of our main topics. Results Our results confirm the rise of suspected adverse reactions as the dominant main topic in 2015. However, we find that news stories about adverse reactions were diverse and closely related to other main topics such as conflicts of interests and debate among experts and other stakeholders. In 2017, the media began downplaying suspected adverse reactions when concerns about declining vaccination rates and misinformation by the media were voiced. Discussion Our findings suggest that controversial media messages about vaccination are hard to classify as either negative or positive but must be interpreted carefully in context of what is known about the controversy. Learning from past media controversies remains important to understanding the media's role in the social construction of risks and benefits associated with vaccination.


Basal stem rot (BSR) is a fatal fungal (Ganoderma) disease in oil palm plantations which has a significant impact on palm oil production in Malaysia. Since there is no effective treatment to control this disease,early detection of BSR is vital for sustainable disease management. Current method of detection includes periodic visual inspection based on the symptoms of the disease which often shows up at the later stage of the disease infection and consequent laboratory analysis for confirmation. The limitations of current detection technique have led to an interest in developing alternative field-based methods that can be used for rapid diagnosis of this disease. The ultimate goal of this study was to develop an appropriate spectroscopic technique that can be used for an early and accurate detection and differentiation of Ganoderma disease with different severities. The short term goal was to evaluate the possibility of using visible (VIS) and near-infrared (NIR), and mid-infrared (MIR) spectroscopy as possible techniques for the above mentioned ultimate goal. Reflectance spectroscopy analysis ranging from visible to nearinfrared region (325-1075 nm) and mid-infrared region (2.55-25.05 μm/3921-399 cm-1) was used to analyze oil palm leaf and trunk samples of healthy (G0), mildly-infected (G1), moderately-infected (G2) and heavilyinfected (G3) trees in order to detect and quantify Ganoderma disease at different infection levels. Reflectance spectra were pre-processed and principal component analysis (PCA) was performed to obtain PC scores as input features used in different pattern recognition algorithms in order to select the best learning model of Ganoderma discrimination. Linear discriminant analysis (LDA), quadratic discriminant analysis (QDA), k-nearest neighbor (kNN), Naive-Bayes (NB), artificial neural networks (ANNs) and support vector machines (SVMs) classification techniques, were tested to classify the leaf and trunk samples into four levels of disease severity. The applicability of using band combinations extracted from mid-infrared spectroscopy (2.55-25.05 μm) for the detection of BSR disease in oil palm leaves was investigated using optimum index factor (OIF) and analysis of variance (ANOVA). The results indicated that LDA-based model resulted in high average overall classification accuracies of 92% (leaf samples) and 94% (trunk samples) when mid-infrared absorbance spectra were analyzed. The analysis of VIS-NIR leaf reflectance spectra, in both field and laboratory conditions, showed that kNN-based model predicted the disease with high overall average classification accuracies of 99% and 90%, respectively. Comparing the results achieved from analyzing the reflectance spectra (VIS-NIR and MIR) of leaf and trunk samples with SVM and NNclassifiers demonstrated that mid-infrared absorbance data of trunk samples with the average overall classification accuracies of 97% (standard deviation = 1%) for SVM and 97% (standard deviation = 3%)for NN resulted in better performance in classifying four classes of Ganderma infestation. Moreover, among different ratio indices resulted from band combinations method, A13.10/A9.90 could differentiate between four different classes of healthiness more accurately. Results confirmed the usefulness and efficiency of spectra-based classification approach for fast screening of BSR.


A section in the Millepore Oolite on the Hull and Barnsley Railway, close to South Cave Station, and on the south side of the line, was described in 1883 by Keeping and Middlemiss* as follows:—

"The cutting now entered is twelve feet in the highest part and 792 feet long. The rock is uniform in character—being a characteristic well-bedded Oolite, quite like the Millepore Oolite of the Howardian Hills. Oolite grains form the mass of the rock."

The beds of this cutting have been recently excavated on an extensive scale by The Grey Stone Company, Ltd., and the quarrying back of the limestone has revealed some unexpected features.

The most important of these is the occurrence of an irregular band of flinty and chalky rubble-drift, beneath a mass of displaced Millepore limestone, partly shattered, but in some places maintaining its original bedding, so that except for the evidence of the section it might have been regarded as in situ.

The Millepore Oolite and Estuarine Sands.

In working back into the hill, the section rapidly increased in. height, and the sands of the Estuarine Oolite and Kellaways Rock,† normally overlying the Millepore in this district, set in at the top, and in some parts of the section rapidly attained as much as 14 feet in thickness. The sands appeared to be disturbed, and were unevenly distributed, in some places occupying hollows in the underlying Millepore, apparently due to displacement of some kind. The Millepore Limestone itself shewed unmistakable signs of …


The Gram matrix allows to compute a lower bound of the minimum of a form via an LMI (linear matrix inequality) optimization by exploiting SOS (sum of squares) relaxations. This paper introduces and characterizes the Gram-tight forms, i.e. forms whose minimum coincides with this lower bound. In particular, it is shown that one can establish that a form is Gram-tight just by checking whether the dimension of the null space of the matrix returned by the LMI solver belongs to a certain range. This fact is not only theoretically interesting but has also useful applications as shown by examples with uncertain systems and nonlinear systems.


The myelodysplastic syndromes (MDS) are a very heterogeneous group of myeloid disorders characterized by peripheral blood cytopenias and increased risk of transformation to acute myelogenous leukemia (AML). MDS occurs more frequently in older males and in individuals with prior exposure to cytotoxic therapy.


ABSTRACT Although observational instruments are considered to be the gold standard for measuring toddler childcare quality, large-scale studies often have to rely on interviews or questionnaires. However, it remains unclear whether such reports can serve as reliable indicators for childcare quality. The present study used the ITERS and FCCERS to examine how far staff-reported and observed quality coincide in 65 centre-based and 47 family-based childcare facilities; moreover, data on 414 two-year-olds were taken from the German National Educational Panel Study to determine whether reported childcare quality predicts children's developmental status at the age of two years. Results indicated that up to 43% of the variance in toddler childcare quality could be explained by staff-reported quality via questionnaires. But with cross-sectional analysis, children's developmental status could not be explained sufficiently by reported quality. Results and implications for future research are discussed.


Steam gasification is a well-known technology, which is used to produce a high quality product of gas, especially for power generation applications. The gas composition, gas quality and the purity has a great role to play depending on the end application. Hence the bio mass steam gasification process was studied using the Computational Particle Fluid Dynamics (CPFD) simulation tool, 'Barracuda VRTM'. The software is well suited for simulating dense particle laden fluids due to its numerical solving methods for both the particles and the fluid. Both the experiments and simulations were carried out for a cylindrical isothermal fluidized bed reactor without chemistry, to compare the deviations of simulation results from the experimental results. The simulation results were agreed with the experimental results and they confirmed the same minimum fluidization velocity. Three dimensional simulations were carried out for a cylindrical geometry to study energy, and momentum transport within a simplified dual fluidized bed steam gasification reactor and the important chemistry were included. According to the simulation results, the product gas mainly consisted of CO and the amount of H2 was less in comparison to the higher amounts of CH4.The cumulative production of combustible gasses (CO, CH4 and H2) was estimated as 280 Sm 3 /day based on the simulation results.


Securing a safety-critical system is a challenging task, because safety requirements have to be considered alongside security controls. We report on our experience to develop a security architecture for railway signalling systems starting from the bare safety-critical system that requires protection. We use a threat-based approach to determine security risk acceptance criteria and derive security requirements. We discuss the executed process and make suggestions for improvements. Based on the security requirements, we develop a security architecture. The architecture is based on a hardware platform that provides the resources required for safety as well as security applications and is able to run these applications of mixed-criticality (safety-critical applications and other applications run on the same device). To achieve this, we apply the MILS approach, a separation-based high-assurance security architecture to simplify the safety case and security case of our approach. We describe the assurance requirements of the separation kernel subcomponent, which represents the key component of the MILS architecture. We further discuss the security measures of our architecture that are included to protect the safety-critical application from cyberattacks.


: The surgical corrective result of complete blepharoptosis is often uncertain. With suspension by Frontalis aponeurosis flap under the brow, the author treated 73 cases satisfactorily, the results conforming to Fox's criteria of a normal eyelid. The incision is made in the skin and Orbicularis oculi at the double-fold of the eyelid, and a muscle flap 2 cm wide is separated from under the Orbicularis oculi at the brow in the conjunction of Orbicularis oculi and Frontalis. The flap is fixed to the tarsus, and a strip of redundant skin 2-3 mm wide excised. The incision is closed with intermittent sutures.


The aim of the study was to compare the radiological findings of wrist arthrogram with wrist arthroscopy. This allowed us to establish the accuracy (sensitivity, specificity) of MRI arthrogram as a diagnostic tool. Thirty patients (20 female and 10 male) have undergone both wrist MRI arthrogram and wrist arthroscopy over the last 3 years at a District General Hospital. The mean age at arthrogram was 42.4 years with an average 6.7 month interval between the two procedures. The MRI arthrogram was reported by a consultant radiologist with an interest in musculoskeletal imaging and the arthroscopies performed by two upper limb surgeons. Patients who underwent both procedures were identified. The arthrogram reports and operation notes were examined for correlation. Three main areas of pathology were consistently examined: TFCC (triangular fibrocartilage complex), scapholunate and lunotriquetral ligament tears. The sensitivity and specificity of arthrogram was calculated for each. Other areas of pathology were also noted. In the case of TFCC tears MRI arthrogram had 90% sensitivity and 75% specificity. The lunotriquetral ligament examination with this technique was 100% sensitivity and specificity. However for scapholunate ligament tears it only had 91% sensitivity and 88% specificity. Wrist arthrogram and arthroscopy are both invasive techniques. In cost terms the arthrogram remains cheaper but is superseded by arthroscopy as it is both diagnostic and therapeutic.


Emoji, a set of pictographic Unicode characters, have seen strong uptake over the last couple of years. All common mobile platforms and many desktop systems now support emoji entry, and users have embraced their use. Yet, we currently know very little about what makes for good emoji entry. While soft keyboards for text entry are well optimized, based on language and touch models, no such information exists to guide the design of emoji keyboards. In this article, we investigate of the problem of emoji entry, starting with a study of the current state of the emoji keyboard implementation in Android. To enable moving forward to novel emoji keyboard designs, we then explore a model for emoji similarity that is able to inform such designs. This semantic model is based on data from 21 million collected tweets containing emoji. We compare this model against a solely description-based model of emoji in a crowdsourced study. Our model shows good perfor mance in capturing detailed relationships between emoji.


As a lignocellulosic biomass material, rice straw consists of cellulose, hemicelluloses, and lignin. Lignin might cover cellulose and hemicelluloses from chemical or biological treatment. Therefore, delignification process is needed to remove lignin from lignocellulosic biomass structures and increase the productivity of cellulose and hemicelluloses conversion. Many researchers were trying to have a better method for delignification by using many chemical in various conditions, such as sulphuric acid, NaOH, Ca(OH)2, NH4OH, NMMO, etc. In this study, delignification was carried out in mixture solution from ammonia and sodium hydroxide at ambient temperature for various time of pretreatment (0.5, 1, 2, 5, 24, 48 hrs, 7 and 14 days). Rice straw is mainly consisting of 33 wt% cellulose, 26 wt% hemicelluloses, and 18 wt% lignin, respectively. The results indicate that about 90 wt% lignin was removed with the mix solution in 24 hrs, compared to 28% with water, 55% with sodium hydroxide and 69% with ammonia only. As a linier correlation, the sodium hydroxide and ammonia mixture solution shown the better result also for enzymatic digestibility compare to use them separately. Keywords— delignification process, rice straw, ambient temperature, mixture solution, enzymatic digestibility


This paper investigates the kinetics and mechanism of loss of the two major proteoglycan species from cultures of bovine collateral ligament. Following incubation of ligament with [35S]sulfate after 6 days in culture, the rate of loss of the predominant proteoglycan species, decorin, from the matrix was shown to be much slower (t1/2 approximately 18 days) than that of the large chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan (t1/2 approximately 1.4 days). Analysis of 35S-labeled proteoglycans released into the medium between Days 11 and 15 of the culture period on a column of Sepharose CL-4B revealed that these macromolecules constituted mainly decorin of similar hydrodynamic size to that present in the matrix. Furthermore, analysis of core proteins using gel electrophoresis followed by fluorography or immunodetection with LF-94, an antibody directed against the amino-terminal region of decorin, indicated that the core proteins of decorin released into the medium and those remaining in the matrix of ligament cultures had a similar molecular mass (approximately 49 kDa). Analysis of both the 35S-labeled and endogenous macromolecules using 5/6/3-B-3, an antibody directed against terminal unsaturated chondroitin-6-sulfate disaccharides, revealed that three core proteins with molecular masses greater than approximately 200 kDa were present in the matrix. Four additional core proteins (range approximately 80-200 kDa) derived from the large proteoglycan were detected in the medium of ligament cultures. These findings indicate that, unlike decorin, the loss of the large chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan from the matrix of ligament cultures involved proteolytic cleavage of its core protein. No difference in the hydrodynamic size of the 35S-labeled glycosaminoglycan chains derived from either proteoglycan species remaining in the matrix or released into the medium of ligament cultures was observed.


Trans In America is a 3-part verite documentary series produced by Lindsey Dryden with the American Civil Liberties Union. It was broadcast on Conde Nast's new LGBTQ+ digital platform 'them.', and current viewing figures for the films are over 1.3 million. Dryden worked on the series for over a year, leading every element as the senior producer in close collaboration with the ACLU and with her production company Little By Little Films. Each film is directed by an LGBTQ+ filmmaker, produced by an inclusive and majority-LGBTQ+ production team, and informed by a panel of transgender advisors. The ACLU and Dryden selected directors Cary Cronenwett and Daresha Kyi. The 3 films in the series tell the intimate personal stories of 3 transgender individuals in the United States as they battle for their civil rights in their daily lives: 7-year-old Kai in Texas whose religious mother has to reject her community's beliefs as Kai navigates life at school, where she's been banned from the girls' bathroom; Eisha in Chicago, who was incarcerated in a men's jail after acting in self-defense. Now, as she rebuilds her life and continues to process the impact of her incarceration, she faces the challenge of trying to get a steady job as an out trans woman with a criminal record; and Jennifer, who lost her job after telling her employer she is transgender. She sued for discrimination but years later, having won a national victory in a case that will protect trans people across the nation, she finds herself alienated from her industry, and unable to make a living. The films directly connect to Dryden's key research interests around embodiment, sexuality and the so-called 'deviant body'; producing this series fed into her research on how society treats those with bodily experiences that are rebellious and non-conforming. The film team created unusual work practices, to try to enact their values in the filmmaking process as well as in the stories told and impact intended. They created bespoke contracts that allow the film subjects and directors a gratis license to use the footage for their own purposes (e.g. to make longer films or promote themselves), and bespoke release forms that promise to share any financial profits with the film subjects, should the series win awards money, for example. Monetary profit is unusual in short documentary, but they wanted to create this option in case of future gains, because film subjects should benefit from telling their stories. These practices are a work in progress, and underpinned by goals of progressiveness, equality and transparency for documentary production.


Standardized business documents, data definitions, item description and identification, and business processes have been seen as key to effective interorganizational commerce since the 1980s, when electronic data interchange (EDI) became the technology of choice for business-to-business coordination. Vertical information systems (VIS) standards are designed to promote communication and coordination among the organizations comprising a particular industry sector. Unfortunately, despite much promotion, EDI standards achieved only limited adoption; an estimated 2% of the world's businesses, including just 300,000 US companies have adopted EDI. Low penetration of electronic interconnection standards, particularly around business semantics, is believed to hinder electronic business and supply-chain integration.


With the increased metabolic diversity and adaptability, microorganisms are capable of living in diverse environmental conditions. Various microorganisms present in natural environment are resistant to some of the current antibiotics that has lead to discovery of new antibiotic compounds. Soil organisms have been paid a great attention and are recognized as a good source of antibiotic compounds. Actinomycetes are well known for their importance as bioactive metabolites in different sectors. Present study was carried out via isolation of actinomycetes from rhizospheric soil from four different locations of Rajasthan and the isolation was performed on Actinomycetes Isolation Agar (AIA) medium. In this study AIA10 isolate was screened for their antimicrobial potential against five selected microbial pathogens viz . Staphyloccocus aureus , Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Klebsiella pneumonia , Proteus vulgaris and Bacillus subtilis. After Solvent extraction, crude extracts of benzene and ethyl acetate were tested for antibacterial activity. GC-MS technique identified the presence of major components like Heptadecane at retention time (RT) - 18.131 (5.07 %), Heneicosane at RT - 20.935 (14.63 %), Hexadecanoic acid, Butyl ester at RT - 25.611 (4.92 %), Eicosanoic acid, 2,3-Bis(Acetyloxy)Propyl ester at RT - 32.509 (8.15 %), 9-Octadecenoic acid (Z)-, 2,3-Bis(Acetyloxy)Propyl ester at RT - 34.978 (34.32 %) in benzene crude extract. In ethyl acetate extract major compounds identified were, Pentadecanoic acid at RT - 6.25 (21.251 %), N-Hexadecanoic acid at RT - 22.527 (12.79 %), Eicosanoic acid at RT - 23.788 (14.18 %), Hexadecanoic acid, 2-Hydroxy-1-(Hydroxymethyl) Ethyl ester at RT - 29.593 (5.59 %), Octadecanoic acid, 2,3-Dihydroxypropyl ester at RT - 33.182 (3.50 %) and 5,11,17, 23-Tetratert Butyl pentacyclo [22.214.171.124~3,7~.1~9,13~.1~15,19~]Octacosa1(25),3(28),4,6,9(27),10,12,15(26),16,18,21, 23-Dodecaene-25,26,27,28 Tetrol at RT - 54.152 (9.92 %). Primary screening was tested and the activity was observed against S. aureus and P. vulgaris. In secondary screening, benzene and ethyl acetate extract was found active against S. aureus , at inhibition zone IZ = 10 and 20 mm, respectively. The study conducted proposes these actinomycetes as a potent source for antimicrobial metabolites.


Background: The satisfaction of external jobs and education, which can be substituted for those of child-rearing, have a significant impact on women's working status, which is inversely associated with fertility. The aim of this study is to find out the factors influencing the number of children of working women. Methods: This study examined a total of 18861 working women in Bangladesh, using a nationally representative survey. This study considered working women and the number of children as the dependent variable and various respondents and their husband education, age at first marriage, wealth index, contraceptive use, place of residence and religion were considered as the independent variable. Multiple classification analysis with the number of children is the dependent variable and a set of independent variables was used to determine the influential factors on working women. Results: The number of children is most influenced by the respondent's education and another influence is the age of the first marriage and wealth index. Rural women have greater fertility than urban women, and Muslim respondents had a higher number of births than non-Muslim respondents. The number of children is significantly negative effects on both respondents and their husband education, age at first marriage and wealth index in both three models. Conclusion: Greater involvement of women in working/employment/ labor force is not the main reason for fertility decline in Bangladesh. These findings illustrate how important it is to consider women's education, husband education, age at first marriage and wealth index should be influential factors of the number of children of working women. Finally, it may conclude that improving the educational status of both wife and husband and reducing early marriage and same time marriageable age should be increased for both males and females.


Evolutionary Robotics seeks to use evolutionary techniques to create both physical and physically simulated robots capable of exhibiting characteristics commonly associated with living organisms. Typically, biologically inspired artificial neural networks are evolved to act as sensorimotor control systems. These networks include; GasNets, Continuous Time Recurrent Neural Networks (CTRNNs) and Plastic Neural Networks (PNNs). This paper seeks to compare the performance of such networks in solving the problem of locomotion in a physically simulated quadruped. The results in this paper, taken together with those of other studies (summarized in this paper) help us to assess the relative strengths and weaknesses of the these three different approaches.


This thesis explores how dimensions of workplace learning are influenced by organisational practices and the features of organisations where workplace learning is perceived to be effective. Its particular focus is higher education workplace learning programmes that are tailored to meet organisational needs.

The thesis considers the literature that surrounds workplace learning and notes the breadth of definitions relating to it, including learning which is work related, learning which takes place within work or learning where the curriculum is devised around work. Key authors included in the conceptual framework are Billett (2000, 2001, 2004, 2006a, 2006b, 2008) in relation to affordances, Fuller and Unwin (2003, 2004, 2006) in relation to the expansiveness and restrictiveness of the organisation with regard to workplace learning and Eraut (2004, 2007) in relation to informal learning in the workplace. Literature examining the relationship between organisational and individual learning is also considered.

The research is qualitative in nature, a social constructionist approach having a predominant influence. Two case studies are used in the research project: a multinational logistics company and a regional public sector emergency service. Managers who were undertaking higher education workplace learning programmes and representatives within their employing organisations who commissioned workplace learning programmes participated in semi-structured interviews.

The findings of the research indicated that there are two major factors which impact on manager participants' perceptions of effective workplace learning:
1) Their experiences of workplace learning are closely linked to their perceptions of the time, autonomy and support they are afforded (or not) in order to engage in workplace learning activities.
2) For this particular group, effectiveness is also related to the level of synergy they feel exists between the workplace learning programme, the organisation and themselves.


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Background: The physiological and neurochemical changes that accompany brain death are not well described. Materials and Methods: A retrospective observational study of patients with acute brain injury who underwent intracranial multimodality neuromonitoring between October 2015 and June 2018. Patients were included for analysis either if brain death was diagnosed or refractory intracranial hypertension with persistent equalization of intracranial pressure (ICP) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) developed. Results: Of 114 patients who underwent invasive neuromonitoring, 11 cases with MAP/ICP equalization were identified. Of those, 9 were declared brain dead based on accepted national and institutional criteria. An additional 2 cases with MAP/ICP equalization who died after withdrawal of life-sustaining therapies were identified. Of the 11 identified patients, 10 had continuous monitoring data available for analysis. Cerebral microdialysis data were available for 4 patients. In the 10 cases with available continuous data, ICP/MAP equalization was associated with marked reduction of cerebral blood flow and brain tissue oxygen tension to near zero levels as well as a significant decrease in brain temperature compared with body temperature. In the 4 patients with microdialysis monitoring, ICP/MAP equalization resulted in a near complete depletion of cerebral glucose and pyruvate, as well as a marked rise in cerebral glycerol. Finally, ICP/MAP equalization was accompanied by complete loss of cerebrovascular pressure reactivity, decrease in intracranial pulse pressure, and a paradoxical improvement of ICP waveform morphology. Conclusions: A characteristic set of changes in cerebrovascular physiology and neurochemistry occurs during brain death. These changes can be identified by intracranial neuromonitoring.


Surrogacy arrangements defy traditional definitions of parenthood and pose challenges in determining who should be recognised as legal parents. This is exacerbated by the use of assisted reproductive techniques which allow for the separation of genetic, gestational and intentional parenthood, creating questions about the comparative value of these contributions. This paper identifies that New Zealand legislation dealing with parentage in surrogacy, primarily the Adoption Act 1955 and the Status of Children Act 1969, never contemplated surrogacy arrangements and requires strained interpretation to avoid perverse results. The paper critiques two proposals for reform: the Law Commission's recommendations in the 2005 New Issues in Legal Parenthood Report, and the framework suggested in the Care of Children (Adoption and Surrogacy Law Reform) Amendment Bill. This paper concludes that the proposed Amendment Bill shows promise, however should incorporate the Law Commission's 2005 recommendations to provide a truly comprehensive framework. This framework should focus on giving effect to the intentions of parties to a surrogacy arrangement, while ensuring the interests of the surrogate are protected and the arrangement is carried out in accordance with recognised ethical principles. It is additionally important that children have an opportunity to know their genetic and/or biological background.


In 2 studies the authors examined knowledge and social information-processing mechanisms as 2 distinct sources of influence on child aggression. Data were collected from 387 boys and girls of diverse ethnicity in 3 successive years. In Study 1, confirmatory factor analyses demonstrated the discriminant validity of the knowledge construct of aggression beliefs and the processing constructs of hostile intent attributions, accessing of aggressive responses, and positive evaluation of aggressive outcomes. In Study 2, structural equation modeling analyses were used to test the mediation hypothesis that aggression beliefs would influence child aggression through the effects of deviant processing. A stronger belief that aggressive retaliation is acceptable predicted more deviant processing 1 year later and more aggression 2 years later. However, this latter effect was substantially accounted for by the intervening effects of deviant processing on aggression.


Search applications in which queries are dependent on their context are becoming increasingly relevant in today's online applications. For example, the context may be the location of the user in location-aware search or the social network of the query initiator in social-aware search. Processing such queries efficiently is inherently difficult, and requires techniques that go beyond the existing, context-agnostic ones. A promising direction for efficient, online answering -- especially in the case of top-k queries -- is the one of materializing and exploiting results of previous queries (views). We consider in this paper such an approach for query optimization based on cached results, focusing on two important sub-problems. First, the use of precomputed results in context-aware search requires adapted algorithms for top-$k$ query processing, in which only uncertain scores or score ranges are given, instead of exact ones. This is also the case when, for the sake of efficiency, classic top-k algorithms (e.g., NRA) are allowed to stop early - when the final result is reached -- without giving exact scores and ranks within this result. Second, in the presence of cached queries, we need adapted list selection techniques, which can leverage both the descriptions of queries and statistics over their results. We present novel algorithms that address these two problems, and exemplify their use in two important application scenarios: location-aware search and social-aware search. We validate our approaches via extensive experiments, using both synthetic and real-world datasets.


Chitin, which is widely distributed among life forms, is well documented in the coelenterate class Hydrozoa and is contained in one member of class Scyphozoa. In class Anthozoa, hard corals synthesize it but soft corals do not. Chitin was identified by infrared spectrophotometry in the trochoid shell of the actinian Stylobates. It constitutes 1.7 percent of the shell by weight, the rest probably being protein. The ability of sea anemones to synthesize chitin is there by confirmed.


Highly active antiretroviral therapy has produced dramatic reductions in morbidity and mortality rates associated with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection in the United States [1,2]. However, the improved survival rate has lead to long-term complications in comorbid conditions with viral hepatitis and drug toxicities associated with highly active antiretroviral therapy. As a result, the incidence and prevalence of patients infected with HIV+ suffering from end-stage liver disease have markedly increased [3]. Since 1996, hospital admissions secondary to chronic viral hepatitis in HIV+ patients have increased from 9 to 16%, while mortality in HIV+ patients with end-stage liver disease have also increased, 9 to 45% [3]. Currently the most common cause of death in HIV+ patients is related to complications with end-stage liver disease [4]. The management of end-stage liver disease is often limited to orthotopic liver transplantation, of which is considered a relative or absolute contraindication in HIV+ patients [5]. Orthotopic liver transplantation is considered a standard therapeutic modality for the management of nearly all end-stage liver diseases, but not HIV+ patients. Many biased exclusionary reasons such as fear of consequential disease progression as related to pharmacological therapy and disease progression, funding and insurer denials, and organ donor shortages often preclude HIV+ candidates from this life saving treatment. Despite these exclusionary alibis, the United Network for Organ Sharing reports 40 cases of HIV+ orthotopic liver transplantation done in the past 3 years. Many of these cases are not reported in the literature. In this review we will evaluate the medical and ethical aspects of liver transplantation in the population infected with HIV+ suffering from end stage liver disease.We report the results of a series of patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) coinfected with hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C virus and decompensated cirrhosis receiving orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Seven HIV+ patients with decompensated cirrhosis coinfected with hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C virus were listed for orthotopic liver transplantation according to United Network for Organ Sharing criteria. The patient demographics include: five male and two female patients ranging from 43 to 52 years with an average age of 49 years, 3/6 with hepatitis B virus, 3/6 patients with hepatitis C virus. Highly active antiretroviral therapy regimen was administered to 6/7 patients. Viral loads were less than 50 copies in six patients, and CD 4 counts were higher than 100. One patient presented with fulminant hepatitic failure. Six patients successfully received orthotopic liver transplantation while one patient succumbed to sepsis awaiting orthotopic liver transplantation. Three patients suffered acute rejection and were successfully treated with steroids, one of which required OKT-3. Tacrolimus toxicity associated with highly active antiretroviral therapy regimen, protease inhibitor related, developed in two patients. All patients were treated with highly active antiretroviral therapy regimens with undetectable viral loads and CD 4 counts higher than 400. There are no developments of opportunistic infections amongst this group of patients. The survival rates range from 10 to 39 months. Although these results are preliminary, they suggest that HIV+ patients coinfected with hepatitis B virus or hepatitis C virus suffering from end stage liver disease are suitable candidates for orthotopic liver transplantation.


High birefringence and low viscosity isothiocyanates liquid crystal single compounds and eutectic mixtures, based solely on laterally fluorinated aromatic rigid core structures, are reported. Extraordinarily high values of figure-of-merit were observed at room temperature and also elevated temperatures for the nematic mixtures we formulated. Potential applications of such mixtures for laser beam steering at lambda=1.55 mum using optical phased arrays are emphasized


Based on newly available and extensive archival evidence, this book traces the history of international news agencies and associations around the world from 1848 to 1947. Jonathan Silberstein-Loeb argues that newspaper publishers formed news associations and patronized news agencies to cut the costs of news collection and exclude competitors from gaining access to the news. In this way, cooperation facilitated the distribution of news. The extent to which state regulation permitted cooperation, or prohibited exclusivity, determined the benefit newspaper publishers derived from these organizations. This book revises our understanding of the operation and organization of the Associated Press, the BBC, the Press Association, Reuters, and the United Press. It also sheds light on the history of competition policy respecting the press, intellectual property, and the regulation of telecommunications.


The purpose of this research was to evaluate the success of sanitation facilities which generate biogas in Kenyan schools. The Development Assistance Committee (DAC) criteria was used to assess the success, considering the relevance, effectiveness, efficiency, impact and sustainability of the sanitation project. The results of this analysis offered lessons learnt and recommendations to enable successful implementation of sanitation in schools. The research involved six schools, three in Kibera, Nairobi and three in rural Kenya. Each school was visited in March and October 2019. It was found that sanitation had improved at each school compared to the original sanitation and waste management behaviour had improved. Furthermore, evidence of cleaning procedures was in place. However, the reliance on donor funding and on the NGO to continually support the operation of the sanitation were identified. This highlighted risks to the sustainability of the biogas sanitation in Kenya's schools.


The possibility of autonomous-machine-caused harm generates doctrinal and theoretical challenges for assigning tort liability. With emergent capabilities, autonomous machines disrupt the structure of interpersonal rights and duties in tort law, framed by conditions of foreseeability and proximate causation. Where algorithmic processes are unintelligible, self-modifying, and unpredictable, the concern goes, algorithmic harms will be untraceable to tortious human agency. As a result, their costs will simply lie where they fall—on faultless victims. This outcome would be unfair and objectionable: A failure of tort's mechanisms of corrective justice means faultless victims would disproportionately bear the accident costs of autonomous machines. This article suggests that the doctrinal form of vicarious liability is a promising strategy to ground tort liability for autonomous-machine-caused harm. Human or corporate deployers should be held liable for tortious harm caused by autonomous machines in the course of deployment. In this account, autonomous machines constitute a novel legal category as pure legal agents without legal personhood. In reconceiving vicarious liability—and the legal classification of autonomous machines—the article seeks to promote commonsensical liability outcomes for autonomous-machinecaused harm, consistent with tort's doctrinal and theoretical structure of corrective justice. Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License. This article is available in Osgoode Hall Law Journal: https://digitalcommons.osgoode.yorku.ca/ohlj/vol58/iss2/1


In this paper I explore the complex economies of violence that circulate through the US military's enactments of battlefield capture and military detainment. I highlight the ways in which these practices relate to the humanitarian objective of carrying out warfare both for and with humanity. I first outline the emergence of an explicitly protective custody within the landscape of war, describing the broad historical contours of war prisoner treatment. I then detail the ways in which humanitarian law's call to care for detained enemy bodies has itself become linked with highly specific forms of political and bodily violence. Next, I argue that this copractice of care and violence in the camps is underpinned by a relational understanding of humanitarianism. Finally, I turn my attention to the ways in which the battlefield encounter has become an increasingly technical enterprise, one in which questions surrounding the ethical treatment of prisoners are subsumed into an evolving assemblage of spaces, means of data collection, and discursive performances that reframe the limits of military violence and generate new vulnerabilities.


According to the analysis of the characteristics of the biomass straw in its pneumatic drying process, some reasonable assumptions concerning the pneumatic drying are made and the mathematical model of heat and mass transfer in the biomass straw's pneumatic drying process in the horizontal straight tube. Besides, the numerical method is adopted to solve the model and the analog simulation concerning the moisture content, temperature and the speed changes of the material and the air is conducted. Meanwhile influence of the gas-solid ratio and the air flow's initial temperature on the drying effect is the analog simulated and the reason for this phenomenon is also analyzed.


The study investigates, by way of comparison, the performance level in GSE English Courses, offered by students majoring in Language Combinations and those majoring in Vocational and Technical Education combinations. These GSE English courses are otherwise known as "Use of English" in most tertiary institutions in Nigeria. In Colleges of Education, they are referred to as 'General English I, II, III, IV and V. The study sets out to affirm whether field of study and duration of course do impact positively or otherwise in student's learning outcome. Raw percentage scores of the same sets of 120 students who sat for the GSE English courses in 2012/2013 and 2013/2014 were proportionally and purposively sampled in every course combinations in the Schools of Languages and Vocational and Technical Education at the Lanlate Campus of Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, Oyo. The data was subjected to t-test analysis at 0.05 significant level and the results from the two tested hypotheses indicate that there is a significant difference in the performance level of the two groups in the 13/14/sessionally offered GSE English courses but was not so for 12/13 sessional courses. It was therefore recommended among others that lecturers teaching GSE English courses should vary their approaches and methods of teaching to suit students who do not major in Languages, especially, as they transit from one level to another.


Intense public and regulatory pressure following revelations of Russian interference in the US 2016 election led social media platforms to develop new policies to demonstrate how they had addressed the troll-shaped blind spot in their content moderation practices. This moment also gave rise to new transparency regimes that endure to this day and have unique characteristics, notably: the release of regular public reports of enforcement measures; the provision of underlying data to external stakeholders and, sometimes, the public; and collaboration across industry and with government. Despite these positive features, platform policies and transparency regimes related to information operations remain poorly understood. Underappreciated ambiguities and inconsistencies in platforms' work in this area create perverse incentives for enforcement and distort public understanding of information operations. Highlighting these weaknesses is important as platforms expand content moderation practices in ways that build on the methods used in this domain. As platforms expand these practices, they are not continuing to invest in their transparency regimes, and the early promise and momentum behind the creation of these pockets of transparency are being lost as public and regulatory focus turns to other areas of content moderation.


In this paper, we document that mortgage-backed securities (MBS) held by the Federal Reserve exhibit faster principal prepayment rates than MBS held by the rest of the market. Next, we show that this stylized fact persists even when controlling for factors that affect prepayment behavior, and thus determine the MBS that are delivered to the Federal Reserve. After ruling out several potential explanations for this result, we provide evidence that points to an agency problem in the secondary market for MBS, which has not previously been documented, as the most likely explanation for the abnormal prepayment behavior of Federal Reserve-held MBS. This agency problem--a key feature of the MBS market--arises when originators of mortgages that underlie the MBS no longer share in the prepayment risk of the securities, thereby increasing incentives to solicit refinancing activity. Therefore, Federal Reserve MBS holdings acquired from originators as a result of large-scale asset purchases can help stimulate economic activity through a so-called "solicited refinancing channel." Finally, we provide an estimate of the additional refinancing activity resulting from the solicited refinancing channel in the years after the Federal Reserve's first MBS purchase program, demonstrating that this channel conveyed savings on monthly mortgage payments to homeowners.


Aim: The aim of this study was to investigate the hypothesis that the opioid system is involved in the development of hepatic fibrosis. Methods: The effect of naltrexone (an opioid receptor antagonist) on hepatic fibrosis in bile duct ligated (BDL) or sham rats was assessed by histology and hepatic hydroxyproline levels. Liver matrix metalloproteinase 2 (MMP-2) was measured by zymography, and α smooth muscle actin (α-SMA) and CD45 (leucocyte common antigen) by immunohistochemistry. The redox state of the liver was assessed by hepatic glutathione (GSH)/oxidised glutathione (GSSG) and S-nitrosothiol levels. Subtypes of opioid receptors in cultured hepatic stellate cells (HSCs) were characterised by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction, and the effects of selective δ opioid receptor agonists on cellular proliferation, tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase 1 (TIMP-1), and procollagen I expression in HSCs determined. Results: Naltrexone markedly attenuated the development of hepatic fibrosis as well as MMP-2 activity (p<0.01), and decreased the number of activated HSCs in BDL rats (p<0.05). The development of biliary cirrhosis altered the redox state with a decreased hepatic GSH/GSSG ratio and increased concentrations of hepatic S-nitrosothiols, which were partially or completely normalised by treatment with naltrexone, respectively. Activated rat HSCs exhibited expression of δ1 receptors, with increased procollagen I expression, and increased TIMP-1 expression in response to δ1 and δ2 agonists, respectively. Conclusions: This is the first study to demonstrate that administration of an opioid antagonist prevents the development of hepatic fibrosis in cirrhosis. Opioids can influence liver fibrogenesis directly via the effect on HSCs and regulation of the redox sensitive mechanisms in the liver.


Summary
A bovine enterovirus (serotype VG-5-27) was grown in BHK 21 cells and purified using gel filtration and sedimentation. A minor component which sedimented at 145S, relative to 165S virus particles, was purified by repeated sedimentation on sucrose density gradients. The 145S particles contained RNA of the same size as virus RNA. Five types of polypeptides were present corresponding to 30 VP0, 60 VP1, 30 VP2, 60 VP3 and 30 VP4 chains, in contrast to 165S virus particles which contain 60 VP1, 60 VP2, 60 VP3 and 30 VP4 chains. The particles appeared to be non-infective but could be isolated from early passages of plaque purified clones of the virus. Iodination of the polypeptides of the 145S component differed considerably from that for mature virus particles. We suggest that the particle may be an intermediate in the maturation of the virus particle.


We present a simulation study of pattern formation in an ensemble of chemotactic run-and-tumble bacteria, focussing on the effect of spatial confinement, either within traps or inside a maze. These geometries are inspired by previous experiments probing pattern formation in chemotactic strains of E. coli under these conditions. Our main result is that a microscopic model of chemotactic run-and-tumble particles which themselves secrete a chemoattractant is able to reproduce the main experimental observations, namely the formation of bacterial aggregates within traps and in dead ends of a maze. Our simulations also demonstrate that stochasticity plays a key role and leads to a hysteretic response when the chemotactic sensitivity is varied. We compare the results of run-and-tumble particles with simulations performed with a simplified version of the model where the active particles are smooth swimmers which respond to chemotactic gradients by rotating towards the source of chemoattractant. This class of models leads again to aggregation, but with quantitative and qualitative differences in, for instance, the size and shape of clusters.


In statistical word alignment for machine translation, function words usually cause poor aligning performance because they do not have clear correspondence between different languages. This paper proposes a novel approach to improve word alignment by pruning alignments of function words from an existing alignment model with high precision and recall. Based on monolingual and bilingual frequency characteristics, a language-independent function word recognition algorithm is first proposed. Then a group of carefully defined syntactic structures combined with content word alignments are used for further function word alignment pruning. The experimental results show that the proposed approach improves both the quality of word alignment and the performance of statistical machine translation on Chinese-to-English, German-to-English and French-to-English language pairs.


This paper examines factors of change in post-national law, particularly the effects of globalization on the international legal order. The end of the cold enabled the strengthening of international law through new legal norms and the emergence of post-national law. Among the principal factors accelerating the internationalization of law has been the emergence of a multipolar political and economic order. In the political realm, the end of the bipolar system between the United States and the Soviet Union allowed the emergence of various actors and made possible the construction of power in the international sphere through legal rules. Economically, a number of powers have ascended, including the European Union, Japan, and China, as well as less important ones, such as Brazil, India, and Russia and various non-state actors. Meanwhile, multinational corporations, which control a growing portion of the global market of goods and services — and are interested in the global standardization of business practices — have grown in importance. But so have decentralized networks of economic actors organized in transnational production chains. In civil society non-governmental organizations are ascending, with resources and knowledge that influence the consolidation of political regimes. In the scientific realm greater importance is placed on experts, specialists, and scientists who define the paths and expand the limits of human possibility. Technological change brings cultures together, enables economic interaction, and, through new systems of communication, alters the relationship between time and space. Revolutionary methods of communication such as the Internet, the proliferation of satellites, and near-universal access to cellular telephones have drastically reduced physical and psychological distances among domestic and international actors. While this new context brings numerous positive effects, it also imposes a reality of crises and necessitates an involuntary community of states to address common risks. Crises likewise occur in different branches of law and facilitate its internationalization. Transnational and multinational crimes, including terrorism, have intensified. The increased number of environmental catastrophes can only be managed through the cooperative effort of states. This paper highlights several key forces that push the legal system toward internationalization and impose new perceptions and outcomes in its relationship with foreign and international systems. This paper shows the international law is much more complex than it used to be. There are multiple networks that influence international order and the very idea of sources and subjects of international law must be reconsidered.


Evacuation assistants are expected to spread the escape route information and lead evacuees toward the exit as quickly as possible. Their leading behavior influences the evacuees? movement directly, which is confirmed to be a decisive factor of the evacuation efficiency. The transmission process of escape information and its function on the evacuees? movement are accurately presented by the proposed extended dynamic communication field model. For evacuation assistants and evacuees, their sensitivity parameter of static floor field (SFF), , and , are fully discussed. The simulation results indicate that the appropriate is associated with the maximum of evacuees. The optimal combinations of and were found to reach the highest evacuation efficiency. There also exists an optimal value for evacuation assistants? information transmission radius.


Lymphedema of the extremity has been managed in 14 patients by staged excisions of the edematous subcutaneous tissue beneath skin flaps. Six patients have been followed for 4 to 6 years. This method has been successful in dealing with the symptoms of this condition. No episodes of postoperative celluitis have occurred in these patients. Normal function of the extremity has been achieved, and the contour has been preserved. It appears at this time that excision of the subcutaneous tissue is the most important aspect of the surgical management of lymphedema.


Controlling for selection and confounding biases are two of the most challenging problems in the empirical sciences as well as in artificial intelligence tasks. Covariate adjustment (or, Backdoor Adjustment) is the most pervasive technique used for controlling confounding bias, but the same is oblivious to issues of sampling selection. In this paper, we introduce a generalized version of covariate adjustment that simultaneously controls for both confounding and selection biases. We first derive a sufficient and necessary condition for recovering causal effects using covariate adjustment from an observational distribution collected under preferential selection. We then relax this setting to consider cases when additional, unbiased measurements over a set of covariates are available for use (e.g., the age and gender distribution obtained from census data). Finally, we present a complete algorithm with polynomial delay to find all sets of admissible covariates for adjustment when confounding and selection biases are simultaneously present and unbiased data is available.


Appropriate diagnosis is the key factor for treatment of viral diseases. Time is the most important factor in rapidly developing and epidemiologically dangerous diseases, such as influenza, Ebola and SARS. Chronic viral diseases such as HIV-1 or HCV are asymptomatic or oligosymptomatic and the therapeutic success mainly depends on early detection of the infective agent. Over the last years, aptamer technology has been used in a wide range of diagnostic and therapeutic applications and, concretely, several strategies are currently being explored using aptamers against virus proteins. From a diagnostics point of view, aptamers are being designed as a bio-recognition element in diagnostic systems to detect viral proteins either in the blood (serum or plasma) or into infected cells. Another potential use of aptamers is for therapeutics of viral infections, interfering in the interaction between the virus and the host using aptamers targeting host-cell matrix receptors, or attacking the virus intracellularly, targeting proteins implicated in the viral replication cycle. In this paper, we review how aptamers working against viral proteins are discovered, with a focus on recent advances that improve the aptamers' properties as a real tool for viral infection detection and treatment.


A method is discussed for measuring the tt cross section from tau + jets events in early ATLAS data. Multivariant techniques were avoided in favour of simple cuts and the analysis was applied to 26.4pb\(^-\)\(^1\)of 2010 data. A cut and count technique was used to estimate the number of tt events in a window around the hadronic top mass peak. Subtraction of QCD background from data was performed by scaling events from a QCD enriched sample by the ratio of events in a sideband region. With the current dataset a statistical error is expected of the order of 400% and a measurement is not feasible at this stage. The systematic error on the tt selection eciency was estimated to be 50%. Simple luminosity scaling established that a measurement should become possible within the 2011-2013 LHC run. Once ATLAS has collected between 1 fb\(^-\)\(^1\) and 3 fb\(^-\)\(^1\) of data a fractional error of 20% on the expected number of signal events could be achieved. Suggestions are made for reducing the systematic uncertainty on the tt eciency.


. Tis study explored the efects of Hugan Buzure (HBR) on cell apoptosis and autophagy in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and the molecular mechanisms of the PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway. HepG2 and Huh7 cell viability was detected by the tetramethylazolium salt colorimetric (MTT) method. Cell proliferation was measured using the colony formation method. Hoechst 33258 staining and fow cytometry were employed to detect apoptosis. In addition, immunofuorescence was carried out to evaluate the expression of LC3. Western blot was performed to detect the expression of Bcl-2, Bax, Caspase-3, LC3, Beclin1, p62 (SQSTM1), and PI3K/Akt/mTOR signal pathway-related proteins in HCC cells. Tis work verifed that HBR reduced HepG2 and Huh7 cell proliferation in a concentration-dependent manner. Treatment with HBR caused an obvious improvement of the apoptosis rate, accompanied by the increase in Bax/Bcl2, Caspase3, LC3II, and Beclin1 levels, respectively. Furthermore, HBR downregulated the expression of p62, p-PI3K, p-Akt, and p-mTOR proteins. HBR combined with HCQ enhanced HBR-induced apoptosis. In conclusion, HBR induced autophagy and apoptosis through PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway, leading to HCC cell death. Tis research preliminarily suggested the potential role of HBR in the treatment of HCC.


Background: The concept of an "entourage" effect in the cannabis and cannabinoids' field was first introduced in the late 1990s, during a period when most research on medical cannabinoids focused on the effects of isolated cannabinoids, such as cannabidiol and Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol. Over the past decade, however, with the increased understanding of the endocannabinoid system, the discovery of other phytocannabinoids and their potential therapeutic uses, the term has gained widespread use in scientific reviews and marketing campaigns. Objective: Critically review the application of the term "entourage effect (EE)" in the literature and its endorsement by certain sectors of the cannabis market. Also, explore the perspectives for further interpretation and elaboration of the term based on current evidence, aiming to contribute to a more nuanced understanding of the concept and its implications for cannabinoid-based medicine. Methods: A comprehensive review of the literature was conducted to evaluate the current state of knowledge regarding the entourage effect. Relevant studies and scientific reviews were analyzed to assess the evidence of clinical efficacy and safety, as well as the regulation of cannabinoid-containing product production. Results: The EE is now recognized as a synergistic phenomenon in which multiple components of cannabis interact to modulate the therapeutic actions of the plant. However, the literature provides limited evidence to support it as a stable and predictable phenomenon. Hence, there is also limited evidence to support clinical efficacy, safety, and appropriate regulation for cannabinoid-containing products based on a "entourage" hypothesis. Conclusion: The EE has significant implications for the medical use of cannabinoid-containing products and their prescription. Nevertheless, a critical evaluation of the term's application is necessary. Further research and evidence are needed to establish the clinical efficacy, safety, and regulatory framework for these products. It's crucial that regulators, the pharmaceutical industry, the media, and health care providers exercise caution and avoid prematurely promoting the entourage effect hypothesis as a scientific proven phenomenon for cannabinoids and other cannabis-derived compound combinations.


The establishment of non-native species is commonly described as occurring in three phases: arrival, establishment, and dispersal. Both arrival and dispersal by the Asian longhorned beetle (Anoplophora glabripennis Motschulsky), a xylophagous Cerambycid native to China and the Korean peninsula, has been documented for multiple locations in both North America and Europe, however the transitional phase, establishment, is not well understood for this species due to the need to rapidly remove populations to prevent dispersal and assist eradication, and the evident variation in the behavior of populations. Here we describe the dynamics of an establishment event for the Asian longhorned beetle in a small, isolated population within the regulated quarantine zone near Worcester, Massachusetts, USA. These data were collected during an opportunity afforded by logistical limits on the Cooperative Asian Longhorned Beetle Eradication Program administered by state, federal, and local government partners. Seventy-one infested red maple (Acer rubrum) trees and 456 interspersed un-infested trees were surveyed in an isolated, recently established population within a ~0.29 ha stand in a suburban wetland conservation area in which nearly 90% of the trees were host species, and nearly 80% were Acer rubrum. Tree-ring analyses show that within this establishing population, Asian longhorned beetles initially infested one or two A. rubrum, before moving through the stand to infest additional A. rubrum based not on distance or direction, but on tree size, with infestation biased towards trees with larger trunk diameters. Survey data from the larger landscape suggest this population may have generated long-distance dispersers (~1400 m), and that these dispersal events occurred before the originally infested host trees were fully exploited by the beetle. The distribution and intensity of damage documented in this population suggest dispersal here may have been spatially more rapid and diffuse than in other documented infestations. Dispersal at these larger spatial scales also implies that when beetles move beyond the closed canopy of the stand, the direction of dispersal may be linked to prevailing winds.


Recent debates about the impact of climate change in Southeast Asia and beyond have refocused attention on the linkages between the environment and migration in the region. 'Environmental migration' is becoming a key theme in the climate change research agenda, following pronouncements that future environmental change will lead to mass displacement of populations from locations vulnerable to climate change effects (Myers 2002, Stern 2007). In Southeast Asia, the region's heavily populated delta areas are identified as particular 'hot spots', taking in low-lying metropolitan regions such as Bangkok, Metro Manila, Jakarta and its neighbouring cities, Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi (Asian Development Bank 2011, Bardsley and Hugo, 2010; McGranahan et al., 2007, Fuchs et al., 2011, World Bank 2010). Drawing the link between environment and migration by focusing on mass displacement in this way tends to view migration in largely negative terms, seeing mobility as a failure of adaptation to a changing environment. In common with other sedentarist approaches to governance in Southeast Asia, both transborder and internal population mobility is framed as a security issue (Bardsley and Hugo, 2010, see also De Koninck 2000, Scott 2009). As this framing is translated into policy, it runs the risk of creating new forms of vulnerability, as strong measures to regulate and limit population movement serve to undermine livelihoods in very specific and frequently unjust ways (Tacoli 2009, Black et al., 2011, Geddes et al. 2012).


of real-time B-scanning (dynamic image scanning) for the diagnosis of intracranial haemorrhage and anomalies and have applied this technique in 107 neonates born at the Los Angeles, California, and University of Southern California Medical Center. Sixteen of 57 (28%) term infants delivered either vaginally or abdominally were found to have either subarachnoid haemorrhage, intraventricular haemorrhage, or both. Half of these babies were symptomless and scanned as controls. Positive scans were confirmed with either computed tomography scan or lumbar puncture. These findings suggest that, irrespective of the route of delivery, intracranial haemorrhage may develop at any gestational age. Anticoagulation may play a contributory but not a necessary role. These data further suggest that following an intracranial bleed brain atrophy or necrosis develops more commonly than does hydrocephalus. This has not, to our knowledge, been reported in the literature. Furthermore, posthaemorrhagic hydrocephalus is more likely to be a consequence of intraventricular haemorrhage than subdural haemorrhage. Should the diagnosis of hydrocephalus prevail in this case, it may have resulted from a small intraventricular haemorrhage not appreciated at necropsy. MARC R LEBED LAWRENCE D PLATT BARRY S SCHIFRIN MAURFEN SIMS CINDY AFRIAT


Dynamic reconfiguration is important for reconfigurable platforms. Parallel reconfigurable computing (PRC) architecture consists of multiple dynamic reconfigurable computing (DRC) units. Thus, for a circuit to be implemented on a parallel reconfiguration system, it needs to be partitioned such that each sub-circuit can be executed to the DRC units in a PRC system. For high performance, this paper proposes a greedy algorithm that maximizes data parallelism for task scheduling of parallel reconfigurable architectures with unlimited resources. The proposed algorithm generates an optimal solution in polynomial time O(n3), where n is the total number of the tasks. After obtaining a depth optimal solution, we reduce the resources without decreasing performance by the duplication packing operations whose time complexity is O(n3). To demonstrate the performance of the proposed algorithm, we not only compare the existing methods with standard benchmarks but also implement on physical systems, like DSP, FIR, and JPEG. The experimental results show that the proposed algorithms satisfy the requirements of the performance-oriented systems with limited resources. Hence, we have sufficient reason to believe that the runtime must be reasonable for general applications.


BackgroundConsiderable variability in mortality risk exists among patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI). Complex multivariable models identify independent predictors and quantify their relative contribution to mortality risk but are too cumbersome to be readily applied in clinical practice. Methods and ResultsWe developed and evaluated a convenient bedside clinical risk score for predicting 30-day mortality at presentation of fibrinolytic-eligible patients with STEMI. The Thrombolysis in Myocardial Infarction ( TIMI) risk score for STEMI was created as the simple arithmetic sum of independent predictors of mortality weighted according to the adjusted odds ratios from logistic regression analysis in the Intravenous nPA for Treatment of Infarcting Myocardium Early II trial (n=14 114). Mean 30-day mortality was 6.7%. Ten baseline variables, accounting for 97% of the predictive capacity of the multivariate model, constituted the TIMI risk score. The risk score showed a >40-fold graded increase in mortality, with scores ranging from 0 to >8 (P <0.0001); mortality was <1% among patients with a score of 0. The prognostic discriminatory capacity of the TIMI risk score was comparable to the full multivariable model (c statistic 0.779 versus 0.784). The prognostic performance of the risk score was stable over multiple time points (1 to 365 days). External validation in the TIMI 9 trial showed similar prognostic capacity (c statistic 0.746). ConclusionsThe TIMI risk score for STEMI captures the majority of prognostic information offered by a full logistic regression model but is more readily used at the bedside. This risk assessment tool is likely to be clinically useful in the triage and management of fibrinolytic-eligible patients with STEMI.


: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a progressive condition characterized by the presence of chronic obstruction and incomplete airflow reversibility. It is a disease with increasing prevalence and high sociosanitary cost. Hyponutrition and muscle dysfunction are two determinant factors of clinical severity and disease prognosis. The close relationship between weight loss or hyponutrition and mortality has been known for several years. Today we know that muscle mass is better predictor than weight of survival in patients with moderate to severe COPD. Several factors are implicated in the development of hyponutrition and deterioration of muscle structure and function. Slowing "muscle wasting" in COPD patients requires designing new integrated therapeutic strategies. Health care programs for COPD patients include multidisciplinary care of the main areas involved in the course of the disease. The main lines address: cigarette smoking cessation, pharmacotherapy, oxygen therapy, rehabilitation, nutritional support, surgery, travels, intercurrent periods, and palliative care. Pulmonary rehabilitation (PR) should be seen as part of a multidisciplinary program in individualized care of each COPD patient, aiming at optimizing his/her physical and social autonomy. Physical training, psychosocial intervention, patient education, and support groups for patients and relatives and friends, smoking cessation, oxygen therapy, appropriate oral feeding, and nutritional support are part of that therapeutic strategy allowing for an integral approach of muscle dysfunction in COPD patients.


Nowadays, in the EU a lot of project concerning broadband access to the Internet for end users is being developed. The aim of those projects is to support the creation of access communication networks that can meet defined performance criteria for providing the broadband services. Such networks are in general called Next Generation Access. One of the first tasks is to identify appropriate transmission technologies that could meet the required performance criteria. For each transmission technology, it is necessary to carry out a detailed performance analysis of the transmission depending on certain transmission conditions. To perform a detailed analysis means to carry out modelling of transmission's specific conditions for each technology. This article, specifically, discusses hybrid optical networks, which in conjunction with digital subscriber lines are one of the possible solutions for Next Generation Access. In the access network topology that combines copper and optical cables, it is necessary to optimize the mutual ratio of both infrastructure's length. Therefore, the article also describes this issue that refers to a certain technology for the Next Generation Access. Specific performance criteria of transmission for access network in the Czech Republic are considered and the optimized location of the external node digital line access multiplexer is discussed.


Cognitive radio networks are supposed to be capable of sensing their operating environment (with little or no prior information) and learning to adapt their behavior accordingly. We note that such a cognitive process is inherent in human behavior as well. One application of these networks is in dynamic spectrum access. Human beings evolve by learning to interact with each other for survival, common good, economic gain, and so on. Can models for these interactive behaviors be used by nodes in a cognitive radio network? Will we then see cognitive radio networks evolve into some human societies? Will we observe previously unseen societal behaviors emerge as a result of random perturbations due to fading, mobility, and sensory failures? We also note that some shortcomings (e.g., inability to address irrational behavior) in using microeconomic game theory and Nash equilibrium to study interacting cognitive radio nodes may be overcome by using anthropological models.


Conformal prediction is a theoretically grounded framework for constructing predictive intervals. We study conformal prediction with missing values in the covariates -- a setting that brings new challenges to uncertainty quantification. We first show that the marginal coverage guarantee of conformal prediction holds on imputed data for any missingness distribution and almost all imputation functions. However, we emphasize that the average coverage varies depending on the pattern of missing values: conformal methods tend to construct prediction intervals that under-cover the response conditionally to some missing patterns. This motivates our novel generalized conformalized quantile regression framework, missing data augmentation, which yields prediction intervals that are valid conditionally to the patterns of missing values, despite their exponential number. We then show that a universally consistent quantile regression algorithm trained on the imputed data is Bayes optimal for the pinball risk, thus achieving valid coverage conditionally to any given data point. Moreover, we examine the case of a linear model, which demonstrates the importance of our proposal in overcoming the heteroskedasticity induced by missing values. Using synthetic and data from critical care, we corroborate our theory and report improved performance of our methods.


A virtual machine (VM) is a software abstraction of a real, physical machine. Virtualization has been around for almost 50 years, beginning with IBM's pioneering work in the 1960s. However, recent years have seen a significant surge in the interest and use of virtualization, driven by better hardware support, increasing power costs and low resource utilizations. Server consolidation is by far the most common application for virtualization—by aggregating multiple services on a single physical machine, organizations can reduce costs and increase the utilization of their infrastructure. While server consolidation remains a powerful driving force, virtualization is now becoming even more compelling for the innovative applications it enables, such as to support legacy software, for disaster recovery and backup, and for intrusion detection and malware analysis, to name a few.
The key premise of this dissertation is that the ability to efficiently multiplex virtual machines is critical to realizing the benefits of virtualization, not just for existing applications such as server consolidation, but also in enabling some fundamentally new applications. An inevitable consequence of conventional mechanisms for multiplexing is resource partitioning: individual VMs can only use a fraction of the actual physical resources. This partitioning limits not only the resources available for a single VM, but also the total number of VMs that the hardware can support. Here we hit a fundamental barrier— the aggregate resources available to the VMs are bounded by the capacity of the underlying hardware. This dissertation describes mechanisms to work around this barrier to increase the perceived resource capacity of individual VMs, as well as to increase the total number of VMs that can be created.
First, we present "time dilation," a technique that allows the perceived aggregate capacity of the VMs to exceed the capacity of the underlying hardware. Time dilation also enables many interesting experiments, such as predicting application behavior and protocol performance in resource-rich environments. Next, we use time dilation to build a framework and methodology called DieCast for accurate testing of large systems using a much smaller infrastructure. Finally, we present Difference Engine, a system that exploits fine-grained similarities in memory among VMs to extract twice as much memory savings as the current state of the art, thus freeing memory for additional VMs. Together, our contributions make significant advances in making virtual machine multiplexing more scalable.


—The Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) group "IPv6 over the TSCH mode of IEEE 802.15.4e" (6TiSCH) introduced a protocol, utilizing Time-Slotted Channel Hopping (TSCH) from IEEE802.15.4e due to its high reliability and time-deterministic characteristic, that achieves industrial performance requirements while offering the benefits of IP connectivity. This work proposes the addition of a second radio interface in 6TiSCH devices to operate a parallel network in sub-GHz, introducing transmit diversity while benefiting from decreased path-loss and reduced interference. Simulation results show an improvement of 20% in Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) and close to 31% in latency in different 6TiSCH networks scenarios.


ABSTRACT Because of the aged binder properties, high Reclaimed Asphalt Pavement (RAP) content asphalt mixtures are more susceptible to cracking failures than virgin mixtures. Thus the production of recycled Hot Mix Asphalt (HMA) for cold climate regions, in which asphalt pavement is subjected to severe thermal stresses, needs more considerations. The present paper deals with three recycling agents for producing recycled HMA with standard quality for paving applications in cold climate regions. These additives were three eco-friendly bio-based materials from which two of them were derived from Amine and Oleic acid reaction and the third was a solid compound of Furanone. As a complete study, the research plan consisted of both binder and mixture-phase tests investigating the efficiency of the additives as a recycling agent, particularly for cold region HMA paving applications. In the binder phase, the additives were investigated in two different scenarios: (I) first the reference asphalt binder was aged then the additives were added (2) first the additive was added to the virgin binder then the compounds were aged. This was mainly for investigating the efficiency of the additives as a softening agent. Considering the goal of this research, all the tests were carried out following the testing methods of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the obtained tests' results were compared to the requirements of its technical specifications.