The segmentation of the retinal vascular tree is the fundamental step for diagnosing ophthalmological diseases and cardiovascular diseases. Most existing vessel segmentation methods based on deep learning give the learned features equal importance. Ignored the highly imbalanced ratio between background and vessels (the majority of vessel pixels belong to the background), the learned features would be dominantly guided by background, and relatively little influence comes from vessels, often leading to low model sensitivity and prediction accuracy. The reduction of model size is also a challenge. We propose a mixed attention mechanism and asymmetric convolution encoder-decoder structure(MAAC) for segmentation in Retinal Vessels to solve these problems. In MAAC, the mixed attention is designed to emphasize the valid features and suppress the invalid features. It not only identifies information that helps retinal vessels recognition but also locates the position of the vessel. All square convolutions are replaced by asymmetric convolutions because it is more robust to rotational distortions and small convolutions are more suitable for extracting vessel features (based on the thin characteristics of vessels). The employment of asymmetric convolution reduces model parameters and improve the recognition of thin vessel. The experiments on public datasets DRIVE, STARE, and CHASE\_DB1 demonstrated that the proposed MAAC could more accurately segment vessels with a global AUC of 98.17$\%$, 98.67$\%$, and 98.53$\%$, respectively. The mixed attention proposed in this study can be applied to other deep learning models for performance improvement without changing the network architectures.


We argue that the mode of reproduction of microorganisms in nature can only be decided by population genetic information. The evidence available indicates that many parasitic protozoa and unicellular fungi have clonal rather than sexual population structures, which has major consequences for medical research and practice. Plasmodium falciparum, the agent of malaria, is a special case: the scarce evidence available is contradictory, some suggesting that uniparental lineages may exist in nature. This is puzzling (because P. falciparum is known to have a sexual stage) and poses a challenge that can be readily settled by ascertaining the frequency distribution of genotypes in natural populations.


Mercury contamination of oceans is prevalent worldwide and methylmercury concentrations in the mesopelagic zone (200–1000 m) are increasing more rapidly than in surface waters. Yet mercury bioaccumulation in mesopelagic predators has been understudied. Northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris) biannually travel thousands of kilometres to forage within coastal and open-ocean regions of the northeast Pacific Ocean. We coupled satellite telemetry, diving behaviour and stable isotopes (carbon and nitrogen) from 77 adult females, and showed that variability among individuals in foraging location, diving depth and δ13C values were correlated with mercury concentrations in blood and muscle. We identified three clusters of foraging strategies, and these resulted in substantially different mercury concentrations: (i) deeper-diving and offshore-foraging seals had the greatest mercury concentrations, (ii) shallower-diving and offshore-foraging seals had intermediate levels, and (iii) coastal and more northerly foraging seals had the lowest mercury concentrations. Additionally, mercury concentrations were lower at the end of the seven-month-long foraging trip (n = 31) than after the two-month- long post-breeding trip (n = 46). Our results indicate that foraging behaviour influences mercury exposure and mesopelagic predators foraging in the northeast Pacific Ocean may be at high risk for mercury bioaccumulation.


Work conditions and requirements of a container stacker are analyzed. Aiming at the disadvantages of hydrodynamic travel system of stacker, a design method for hydraulic chassis of a stacker is presented. With a practical example, its operation performances under the work conditions of stable travel in low-speed are analyzed. New method to design its travel drive system is presented, it contains the hydraulic system design and component selection. It is considered that the manufacture cost for special hydraulic chassis of a stacker is equal to or lower than that of a hydrodynamics chassis, so there is wide application prospect of it.


Abstract Conference interpreting is a professional field that requires specialized knowledge, skills, and ethics, and becoming a professional in the field involves the adoption of a relevant professional identity. To understand how a professional identity begins to emerge among students and what factors influence the process, a case study was conducted involving four participants who were attending a graduate school of interpretation and translation in Korea. Multiple types of data were collected for qualitative analysis. The results show that the students initially tended to connect professional identity primarily with linguistic identity. Over time, the participants began to develop a better understanding of the profession through authentic learning experiences, real-world interpreting experiences, and interactions with the instructors as mentors, all of which contribute to their professional identity formation process.


In this paper, the rationale, statistical methods and results of this study are given. Specifically, it is shown that contact lenses produce clinical effects on the eye which are statistically significant. Moreover, the orthokeratology procedure was found to produce more corneal and refractive change than conventional contact lens wear. Variability and predictability of data are discussed along with pertinent clinical considerations. Certain factors and their influence on corneal change are examined and quantified.


A 43-year-old woman presented in May 1967 with a nine months' classical history of thyrotoxicosis. She had wasting of the proximal muscles of the shoulder and pelvic girdles, but no other evidence of neuromuscular disease was found. She had slight bilateral lid lag but no proptosis (Hertel ophthalmometer readings: right eye 12 mm., left eye 12 mm.). She was treated with carbimazole 15 mg. eight-hourly. After a month, when she was clinically euthyroid, L-thyroxine 0.2 mg./day was added, the dose of carbimazole being reduced subsequently to 10 mg. eight-hourly. At this stage she complained that her eyes felt swollen in the mornings, but the only abnormality found was that the ophthalmometer reading for the right eye had increased to 14 mm. In July she developed periorbital swelling, photophobia, and double vision. Her conjunctivae were injected, and she had a palsy of the right superior rectus and inferior oblique muscles. Exophthalmometer readings were 16 mm. on the right and 13 mm. on the left. No change was made in the drug regimen for the control of her thyrotoxicosis, but on 25 October 1967 she was started on metronidazole 400 mg. three times a day. There was no great benefit from this, for the exophthalmometer recording in the right eye had progressed to 18 mm. by 31 January 1968, though the patient thought that her eyes felt more comfortable. In mid-February she developed numbness and tingling in her arms and legs. There was no trophic skin change, no muscle wasting or weakness, and tendon reflexes were all normal. However, there was loss of all modalities of sensation in a glove and stocking distribution from a point 6 cm. above both knees and from both elbows, though there was heightened deep pain sensation in the Achilles tendons. No other cause for a peripheral neuropathy was found and the metronidazole was stopped. Serial neurological examinations revealed that henceforward there was a steady improvement in her neuropathy. By September 1968 all signs had disappeared from her upper limbs, but the sensory level 7 cm. above her ankles had not altered since June.


We report computer simulations on the oscillatory of CuZr metallic glasses at zero temperature with different shear amplitudes. In small system a homogenous shear deformation is found, while in large system an inhomogeneous shear deformation is found with a shear band formed. Concomitantly, spatial correlation of irreversible displacement exhibits an isotropic and exponential decay in the case of homogeneous deformation, whereas a mixed power-law and exponential decay in the case of anisotropic and inhomogeneous deformation. By projecting the azimuthal-dependent correlation function onto the spherical harmonics, we found a strong polar symmetry that accounts for the emerged shear band, and a weaker quadrupolar symmetry that accounts for the elastic filed generated by Eshelby inclusions. By this, we conclude that the anisotropy and decaying formula of the plastic correlation are dominated by the homogeneity or inhomogeneity for the deformation in the metallic glasses.


Holy Spirit, fulfill in us the work begun by Jesus. Let our prayer on behalf of the whole world be fruitful and unwavering. Hasten the time when each of us will attain a genuine spiritual life. Enliven our work that it may reach all human beings, all who have been redeemed by the Blood of Christ and all His inheritance. Take away our natural presumption and uplift us with a holy humility, with reverence for God and selfless courage. Let no vain attachment impede the work of our state in life, nor personal interest divert us from the demands of justice. May no scheming on our part reduce love to our own petty dimensions. May all be noble in us; the quest and the respect for truth, and the willingness to sacrifice even to the cross and death. And may all be accomplished in accord with the final prayer of the Son to His heavenly Father and in accord with the grace that Father and Son give through You, the Spirit of love, to the Church and to her institutions, to every soul and to all peoples.


Studying the feeding ecology of seabirds is important not only to understand basic aspects of their ecology and threats but also for the conservation of marine ecosystems. In this regard, tropical seabirds have been relatively neglected, and in particular the trophic ecology of tropicbirds is scarcely known. We combined GPS tracking, environmental variables and sampling of regurgi tates during incubation and brooding to understand the feeding ecology of red-billed tropicbirds Phaethon aethereus as well as how foraging strategies may change between 2 contrasting marine envi ron ments: a coastal island in the Canary Current upwelling (Iles de la Madeleine) and an oceanic island in the middle of the south Atlantic (St Helena). Tropicbirds breeding on the Iles de la Madeleine headed west, foraging on and beyond the shelf slope, probably to associate with subsurface predators which bring pelagic fish close to the surface. Birds from St Helena showed a greater foraging effort and a strong attraction to areas with the greatest species richness of Scombridae, possibly due to a greater difficulty in finding prey in the oligotrophic oceanic waters. Tropicbirds ranged much beyond the extension of the protected areas around their colonies, indicating that current protected areas are insufficient for these populations. We found no evidence to suspect direct mortality of tropicbirds in regional fisheries, but overexploitation of small epipelagic fish and tuna may decrease feeding opportunities and lead to competition with fisheries. The substantial differences in foraging behaviour demonstrated by individuals from both colonies indicates that caution should be taken when extrapolating foraging patterns of tropical seabirds breeding in contrasting oceanographic environments.


Surface splatting enables high quality and efficient rendering algorithms for dense point-sampled datasets. However , with increasing data complexity, the need for multiresolution models becomes evident. For triangle meshes, progressive or continuous level of detail hierarchies have proven to be very effective when it comes to (locally) adapt the resolution level of the 3D model to the application-dependent quality requirements. In this paper we transfer this concept to splat-based geometry representations. Our progressive splat decimation procedure uses the standard greedy approach but unlike previous work, it uses the full splat geometry in the decimation criteria and error estimates, not just the splat centers. With two improved error metrics, this new greedy framework offers better approximation quality than other progressive splat decimators. It comes even close to the recently proposed globally optimized single-resolution sub-sampling techniques while being faster by a factor of 3.


The research aimed at identifying the reality of crises management in central administrative bureau in governorates swimming federation from the administrative bureaus' point of view as well as first class referees. The problem of the research lies in answering whether the central or regional administrative bureaus of Iraqi swimming federation are able to administer crises that they face. The researchers used the descriptive method on 85 member and referee who represent Iraqi central swimming federation as well as regional federation. The subjects were (80) members and referees. A scale was designed for crises administrations that was applied on the subject. The data was collected and treated to come up with the conclusions. The researchers concluded that crises administration reality shows great weakness that leads to increasing the effects of these crises that negatively affected the federation.


IPv6 deployment is delayed by the existence of millions of subscriber
network address translators (NATs) that cannot be upgraded to support
IPv6. This document specifies a mechanism for traversal of such NATs.
It is based on an address mapping and on a mechanism whereby suitably
upgraded hosts behind a NAT may obtain IPv6 connectivity via a
stateless server, known as a SAMPLE server, operated by their Internet
Service Provider. SAMPLE is an alternative to the Teredo protocol.


The structured highlight inspection method uses an array of point sources to illuminate a specular object surface. The point sources are scanned, and highlights on the object surface resulting from each source are used to derive local surface orientation information. The extended Gaussian image (EGI) is obtained by placing at each point on a Gaussian sphere a mass proportional to the area of elements on the object surface that have a specific orientation. The EGI summarizes shape properties of the object surface and can be efficiently calculated from structured highlight data without surface reconstruction. Features of the estimated EGI including areas, moments, principal axes, homogeneity measures, and polygonality can be used as the basis for classification and inspection. The structured highlight inspection system (SHINY) has been implemented using a hemisphere of 127 point sources. The SHINY system uses a binary coding scheme to make the scanning of point sources efficient. Experiments have used the SHINY system and EGI features for the inspection and classification of surface-mounted-solder joints. >


Controllers in computer systems have mainly been explored for automating regulative tasks such as admission control or resource supply control. The majority of IT management tasks, however, relies on discrete management states and coordinated transitions between those states. The paper shows how the concept of a feedback system can also be applied to automate operational management tasks. The paper introduces the concept and a realization of an IT management automation controller, which operates on discrete management states expressed as a pair of models for desired and observed state. Models are represented as a special form of place-transition nets (PTN or Petri nets). Controller logic directly executes PTN in order to achieve and maintain alignment between desired and observed state in a managed domain. In contrast to workflow systems, PTN combine the description of state and actions in one model (graph). Three operational database management tasks have been implemented as a proof of concept in a blade server automation infrastructure using the management automation controller.


An algorithm of two-dimensional (2-D) domain decomposition finite-difference time-domain (DD-FDTD) using in sparse multicylinders scattering problem is proposed in this paper. The idea of domain decomposition is introduced to divide the sparse problem domain into several subdomains. All of subdomains are connected by means of the 2-D time domain Green's function. As a result, a great deal of meshes memory between cylinders is removed, especially when the distances between cylinders become large. Furthermore, the coupling between cylinders can be regarded as the equivalent cylindrical wave irradiations. The incident signals of the equivalent cylindrical waves are expressed as cylindrical wave input field array (CWIFA) according to Huygens principle. Then the calculation time is significantly reduced. The near-field to far-field transformation is used to obtain the equivalent cylindrical wave; as a result, the calculation time can be reduced further. The new method has been demonstrated in 2-D multicylinders scattering problem. Numerical results are in good agreement with the results obtained using classical FDTD method and moment of methods (MM).


Irish marine fish roe is generally discarded at sea or processed as low value-added fishmeal and not utilised as nutritious seafood ingredients. Locally sourced pollock roes were salted, air-dried (Mediterranean-style) and compared to similar commercial mullet and cod products for: weight; moisture content; pH; instrumental texture and colour; and sensory attributes. Raw pollock roes averaged 105 g (n = 25). Roes lost on average 3.1% moisture (w/w) after a 2-h salting period and 48.8% weight reduction was observed after an average 105 h air-drying time. The moisture content of pollock was not significantly different to commercial products. Average pH for pollock, mullet and cod products was 5.9, 5.4 and 5.7, respectively (P < 0.05). Pollock and mullet had similar hardness, but cod was significantly harder than both, when measured instrumentally. Total colour difference (∆E*) between the surface of pollock and cod, and that of pollock and mullet was 7.5 and 3.0, respectively. Sensory assessment of sliced and powdered products, using 9-point hedonic and 5-point just-about-right (JAR) scales, was conducted with 38 consumers. Pollock received the highest scores for overall liking and intention to purchase compared to commercial mullet and cod products, averaging 5.6, 5.6 and 4.9, respectively, for sliced roe products, and 6.3, 5.3 and 6.1 for powdered products. Penalty analysis of JAR showed "overall liking" was impacted by the flavour being "too fishy". In conclusion, pollock had similar characteristics and acceptable sensory attributes compared to commercial products presenting opportunities to expand the range of value-added roe products (e.g., trout, salmon) available, while also contributing to waste reduction.


Over the last decade, Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have been employed to cause huge financial and prestige loss to different kinds of e-business. Attackers also target governmental websites using DDoS attacks as a new weapon in the world of cyber war. The importance of the issue has inspired many researchers from academia and the industry to provide solutions to this type of challenging attack. In this study, we simulated DDoS attacks in a virtual lab and then collected firewall logs from the Security Information and Event Management (SIEM) platform of a company in the field of security management solutions. We extracted 14 research features from firewall logs and applied a SMO algorithm to train our data using 10 fold cross-validation. The SMO with PolyKernel was able to create a prediction model without any false alarm. We also tested our model with two different datasets. This research is an ongoing multistep study. Future research will concentrate on online DDoS detection.


The type III interferon (IFN) receptor is preferentially expressed by epithelial cells. It is made of two subunits: IFNLR1, which is specific to IFN-lambda (IFN-λ) and IL10RB, which is shared by other cytokine receptors. Human hepatocytes express IFNLR1 and respond to IFN-λ. In contrast, the IFN-λ response of the mouse liver is very weak and IFNLR1 expression is hardly detectable in this organ. Here we investigated the IFN-λ response at the cellular level in the mouse liver and we tested whether human and mouse hepatocytes truly differ in responsiveness to IFN-λ. When monitoring expression of the IFN-responsive Mx genes by immunohistofluorescence, we observed that the IFN-λ response in mouse livers was restricted to cholangiocytes, which form the bile ducts, and that mouse hepatocytes were indeed not responsive to IFN-λ. The lack of mouse hepatocyte response to IFN-λ was observed in different experimental settings, including the infection with a hepatotropic strain of influenza A virus which triggered a strong local production of IFN-λ. With the help of chimeric mice containing transplanted human hepatocytes, we show that hepatocytes of human origin readily responded to IFN-λ in a murine environment. Thus, our data suggest that human but not mouse hepatocytes are responsive to IFN-λ in vivo. The non-responsiveness is an intrinsic property of mouse hepatocytes and is not due to the mouse liver micro-environment.


We measured the effects of açai oil in the diets of prepartum cows to evaluate health, milk production and quality. Sixteen Holstein cows were divided into two groups: SOY used as control, and AÇAI, test group. Occurred inclusion of 4% soybean or açai oils was provided in the concentrate starting at 20 days prepartum [d -20 to d 0 (partum-day)]. The AÇAI diet increased (P=0.01) milk production (d 10 and 20) and reduced somatic cell count (d 20). In milk, no effects were detected (P≥0.10) for concentration of fat, lactose or protein as well as in terms of serum concentration of calcium, albumin or triglycerides. AÇAI diet tended to increase (P=0.09) serum concentrations of total protein, glutathione transferase (d 4), and total antioxidant capacity (d 4 and 10) and increased (P≤0.05) globulin, gamma-glutamyl transferase, superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase (d 4). Further, AÇAI diet reduced the serum concentration of creatine kinase (P≤0.05) (d 0, 4 and 10), reactive oxygen species (d 0 and 4) and lipoperoxidation (d 0) and tended to reduce aspartate transaminase activity (P=0.07; d 0 and 4). Açai oil in the diets in prepartum cows improved their health as well as milk production and quality.


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES
Very little is known about the role of socioeconomic and psychosocial factors in predicting orthodontic treatment duration. Thus, this study aimed to test whether socioeconomic position (SEP) and psychosocial factors, namely, family environment and resiliency can predict orthodontic treatment duration.

METHODS
Data were analysed from a hospital-based, prospective, longitudinal study that recruited 145 consecutively selected 12- to 16-year-old male and female adolescents. Baseline SEP and psychosocial data were collected by a validated child self-completed questionnaire before the placement of fixed appliances. Linear regression analysis was used.

RESULTS
The response rate was 98.6 per cent and the dropout was 8.2 per cent. Maternal emotional support was an important predictor of orthodontic treatment duration. Adolescents with high levels of maternal emotional support were more likely to have a shorter orthodontic treatment duration (by nearly four months) than those with low levels of maternal emotional support (P = 0.02). Parental SEP, paternal emotional support, maternal and paternal control, as well as resiliency were not significantly associated with orthodontic treatment duration (P > 0.05). The multivariable regression analysis (including age, gender, and malocclusion severity) confirmed the significance of maternal emotional support as a predictor of orthodontic treatment duration.

CONCLUSIONS
Maternal emotional support is an important predictor of orthodontic treatment duration. This may be explained by a higher maternal involvement in the orthodontic treatment, which may have facilitated achieving the required orthodontic treatment outcome in a shorter treatment duration.


Many problems of practical interest can be represented by graphs. In practice, each edge of a graph is associated with some scalar eight denoting the similarity or the relevance between two vertices. However these edge weights might not directly reflect the relative importance'' of edges in maintaining the structure of graphs. The study of edge ranking of graphs is to determine the graph edges by the relative importance under various criteria and is therefore essential for our fundamental understanding of graphs. In this thesis, we study various methods to determine the relative importance of the edges under several graphs models. Then we will use the edge ranking to examine two interrelated problems -- graph sparsification and graph partitioning. First, we study the edge ranking problem in the (usual) graph. We use PageRank vectors to define the edge ranking and give an improved algorithm for computing approximate (personalized) PageRank vectors on a graph of n vertices with tight error bounds which can be as small as O(1/np) for any fixed positive integer p. The improved PageRank algorithm is crucial for computing the quantitative ranking of edges in a given graph. Our graph sparsification algorithm samples edges of a given graph with probabilities proportional to the edge ranking defined by PageRank. It can be used as a preprocess for graph partitioning. The combination of the graph sparsification and the partitioning algorithms using PageRank vectors leads an improved partitioning algorithm. Next, we consider the edge ranking and sparsification in connection graphs. Connection graphs arise in dealing with high-dimensional data sets in which each edge is associated with both a scalar edge weight and a d- dimensional linear transformation. We generalized the PageRank and the effective resistance in the usual graph to their vectorized versions in connection graphs. They can be used as basic tools for organizing and analyzing complex data sets. For example, the generalized PageRank and effective resistance can be utilized to derive and modify diffusion distances for vector diffusion maps in data and image processing. Furthermore, the edge ranking of connection graphs determined by the vectorized PageRank and effective resistance are an essential part of sparsification algorithms which simplify and preserve the global structure of connection graphs. Finally, we further explore the use of the vectorized version of PageRank vector in measuring the (local) consistency or inconsistency of a small area around a vertex in the connection graph. Since a PageRank vector can also be expressed as a geometric sum of random walks with different number of steps, we use the PageRank to define the (local) inconsistency coefficient for measuring the the portion of probability'' vanished in the local random walk process. Furthermore, we develop an algorithm by using vectorized version of PageRank for finding the local consistent area around a vertex


In this paper, we review recent developments in the field of outsourcing and offshoring and the implications for engineering management. We examine three aspects involved in outsourcing and offshoring, namely, sourcing models, coordination, and value extracted from outsourcing projects. We conclude that additional research is needed on recent trends in outsourcing and the impact of such change process on the practice of engineering management.


The reemergence of tuberculosis (TB) throughout urban areas of the global North in the late 1970s and early 1980s prompted illuminating scholarship on the underpinnings of the disease's modern resurgence. While valuable in their own right, these studies failed to elucidate fully the relationship between tuberculosis and public health infrastructure. In response, this thesis unpacks this complex relationship through a detailed case study of New York City, which experienced a profound resurgence of the disease between the late 1970s and its climax in the early 1990s. Principally, this work explores how changes in New York City's public health infrastructure between 1970 and 2006 shaped the return of tuberculosis and influenced the City's subsequent ability to control the disease. More specifically, the study examines if the strength of the public health infrastructure dictates the efficacy of TB control efforts; the pathways through which public health infrastructure and TB may be connected; and which public health infrastructure elements are most important to the City's ability to keep the disease in check. An analytical framework developed by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is adopted and modified, thus organizing this research and atomizing public health infrastructure into four components: workforce capacity and competency, information and data systems, organizational capacity, and fiscal resources. This work charts and critically interrogates the role of these four elements in fluctuating New York City tuberculosis rates. An interdisciplinary approach is employed, which synthesizes insights gained from the medical sciences with analytic methods derived from medical geography, public health, history, and political science. Data comprise semi-structured interviews (with TB policy-makers, researchers, medical workers, and others), coupled with an analysis of public health legislative documents, newspaper articles, time-series tuberculosis rates, and newly uncovered staffing figures and fiscal resource data. Summarily, the thesis finds that public health infrastructure played a decisive role in New York City's resurgence of tuberculosis and the City's subsequent ability to control the disease. Each of the four facets of public health infrastructure proved integral to the success of the TB program. Additionally, interconnections between the four elements are revealed, highlighting the potentially far-reaching effects that changes to one element can cause. The findings of this thesis not only demystify the role of public health infrastructure as it relates to TB, but also bolster the work of past researchers who have proposed moving past bio-medically centric perspectives to include socio-geographic elements in tuberculosis initiatives.


The ability of glaciers to detach and transport bedrock as glaciotectonic rafts is widely observed throughout Quaternary sections. However, the glaciological, hydrological and geological parameters controlling rafting are currently poorly constrained. There is a lack of structural and sedimentary evidence concerning rafting, and therefore the processes driving raft detachment, transport and emplacement are poorly understood. This paper contributes to our understanding by presenting a macro‐ and microstructural study of deformation associated with a chalk raft at West Runton, north Norfolk. Detailed thin‐section analysis reveals several discrete micro‐fabric orientations, representing poly‐phase deformation occurring during raft transport and emplacement. A four‐stage conceptual model for raft transport and emplacement is proposed, with deformation being partitioned into the relatively weaker Happisburgh Till member, the latter forming the host to the raft. Stage 1 is the main transport phase of the chalk raft, and was dominated by easterly (down‐ice) directed ductile shearing. During Stage 2 a narrow ductile shear zone within the Happisburgh Till member propagated upwards through the base of the raft, leading to the detachment of an elongate block of chalk. Attenuated lenses of diamicton in this shear zone possess kinematics recording an easterly directed sense of shear. As deformation progressed, during Stage 3, the detached block impinged on the 'high‐strain' zone wrapping the base of the raft, influencing the style of deformation partitioning and leading to localized, up‐ice‐directed kinematics. Stage 4 represents the final stages of raft emplacement, when the detachment zone at the base of the raft began to 'lock‐up'. These results demonstrate the relative importance of the hydrological controls associated with raft transport and emplacement underneath an actively advancing glacier. Furthermore, the model represents an example of how micromorphological analysis can reveal detailed poly‐phase deformation histories in deformed glacial sediments.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the pattern of fractures in Nyeri and the types of operations done for their treatment.

DESIGN
A simple retrospective descriptive study.

SETTING
Five of the main hospitals in Nyeri metropolis, namely, Central Provincial General Hospital, Mount Kenya Hospital, Nyeri Nursing Home, Jamii Hospital and the Presbyterian Church of East Africa Hospital, Tumutumu.

SUBJECTS
One hundred and twenty patients with 134 fractures who were admitted and operated on by the author at the above hospitals between July 1995 and July 1998.

RESULTS
There were 80 males and 40 females. The youngest patient was a seven year old male and the oldest an 83-year old female. The highest number of fractures involved the femur followed by the tibia. Road traffic accidents accounted for 56.6% of the fractures, falls 31.7% and assault 6.7%. Various forms of plates constituted the commonest implants used followed by Kuntscher nails. The complication rate was 14.2% with a deep infection rate of three per cent. Four deaths were recorded.

CONCLUSION
Operative treatment of fractures can safely be done in our peripheral hospitals. These hospitals should therefore be adequately equipped for this form of treatment.


This essay discusses the Wilsonian concept analysis of the term 'virtual clinical simulation.' It follows the 11 steps of Wilson's method of concept analysis consecutively. The first two steps including identifying and isolating questions of the concept. Thirdly, exemplars are identified and described. Afterwards, the analyst identifies contrary cases that exclude the essential characteristic of the concept. The fifth step discussed is the identification, description, and use of related cases in which the concept may be similar in one way or as the concept occurs in similar texts. Next, borderline cases are to included. Borderline cases have some aspects of the concept but possess obscurity about whether the case belongs to the concept or not. Otherwise, they are difficult to classify because they help further develop the concept. From here invented cases are developed and presented. Finally, the identification of social concepts are identified, followed by sentiments and underlying anxiety related to or generated by the concept. The essay concludes with a recommendation for a single term to be used to describe the phenomenon of virtual clinical simulation.


By studying the intrinsic polyhedral structure of multistage stochastic linear problems (MSLP), we show that a MSLP with an arbitrary cost distribution is equivalent to a MSLP on a finite scenario tree. More precisely, we show that the expected cost-to-go function, at a given stage, is affine on each cell of a chamber complex i.e., on the common refinement of the complexes obtained by projecting the faces of a polyhedron. This chamber complex is independent of the cost distribution. Furthermore, we examine several important special cases of random cost distributions, exponential on a polyhedral cone, or uniform on a polytope, and obtain an explicit description of the supporting hyperplanes of the cost-to-go function, in terms of certain valuations attached to the cones of a normal fan. This leads to fixedparameter tractability results, showing that MSLP can be solved in polynomial time when the number of stages together with certain characteristic dimensions are fixed.


We describe a system devised to overcome the tendency of fungal mycelium grown in continuous cultures to adhere to the walls and hamper the outflow of the fermentation vessel, with resulting difficulties in attainment of true steadystate conditions.


This paper investigates the use and provision of biomedicine among Korean-Australian men on the basis of interview data from all of the eight Korean-speaking doctors practising in the Korean community in Sydney in 1995. From the viewpoint of these general practitioners, an analysis is made of the processes Korean men go through in adjusting to a new country, being involved in constant hard manual work and long working hours, and explores how they make use of all available resources to stay healthy. The Korean men have fully utilized the 'freely' available medical services under government-subsidized Medicare, bearing in mind that health is a capacity to work under the current environment, although illegal migrants restrained themselves from using it until they obtained legal status. Korean-speaking medical practitioners have been able to provide their fellow Koreans with 'culturally appropriate' health care, with the key factor being the absence of a language barrier. The level of patient satisfaction is high, possibly due to the excellent understanding the doctors have of the social aspects of illnesses, although the doctors do not go beyond curative medicine in their practice. However, the increasing number of Korean-speaking doctors in the small Korean community means that there is competition for patients. Consequently, the medical care is highly entrepreneurial. Referral by Korean doctors to practitioners of Korean herbal medicine is also a notable feature of the health care sector of the Korean community, especially as this offers Korean patients 'satisfactory' health relief for problems that are not easily relieved by doctors in the biomedical system.


Power sharing is often purported to lead to civil peace, though its effects are disputed. We identify three types of power sharing—inclusive, dispersive, and constraining—and analyze their mechanisms of power allocation. We argue that constraining arrangements, which limit the power of a party or social group, are most likely to protect vulnerable groups. Constraining power-sharing institutions, such as guarantees of civil liberties and independent judiciaries to protect them, create checks against governmental repression of minority groups and ordinary citizens, whereas other types of power sharing focus on political elites. Constraining power-sharing institutions limit incentives for mass mobilization and raise the costs of conflict, thus reducing the probability of civil war. Drawing on a new global data set, we examine the effects of power sharing on the onset and recurrence of civil war. In contrast to prior findings, our results show that only constraining power-sharing institutions have a pacific effect.


Has the image of Che Guevara lost its power to evoke radical politics in the face of pervasive commodification? The commercialization of this 1960s political icon has called into question the power of the market to shape collective memories. Meanwhile, antisystemic movements of the left continue to erect his image at protest events. In light of this contest over how Che Guevara is remembered, we investigate, using data from a survey of Spanish citizens, who is most likely to recall him. We find qualified support for the theory of generational imprinting—Che is more often recalled by those generations who saw him rise to prominence during their formative years, although prominent as a collective symbol rather than as a living person. Our results also corroborate the claim that historical figures or events are more salient for, and therefore more likely to be remembered by, some subgenerational units than others. Thus, although the younger generations are in general more likely than their elders to recall Che, he is most frequently remembered by the highly educated leftists who espouse postmaterialist and posttraditionalist values and identify more with their local regions than with the nation of Spain. These patterns suggest that, in contrast to the dire predictions of mass culture theorists, the memory of Che Guevara has become increasingly tied to markers of social, ethnic-regional, and political identity.


We present new exact traveling wave solutions of generalized Sharma-Tasso-Olver (STO) with variable coefficients using three different methods, namely the extended F-expansion, the new sub-equations, and generalized Kudryashov expansion. We obtain new solutions with the form of solitons, triangular and rational functions. Computational results indicate that these methods are very useful and easily applicable for solving diverse types of differential equations in nonlinear science.


BACKGROUND
Most human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) point-of-care tests detect antibodies (Ab) but not p24 antigen (Ag) or RNA. In the absence of antibodies, p24 antigen and RNA typically indicate acute HIV infection. We conducted a field evaluation of the Determine® HIV-1/2 Ag/Ab Combo rapid test (Combo RT).

METHODS
The antigen portion of the Combo RT (for acute HIV infection) was compared with a Roche Monitor HIV RNA polymerase chain reaction assay. The antibody portion of Combo RT (for established HIV infection) was compared with rapid test algorithms. Participants were enrolled at a sexually transmitted infection clinic and HIV testing and counseling center in Lilongwe, Malawi. Rapid testing was conducted with parallel testing in the clinic and serial testing in the center. The Combo RT was performed in clinic participants with negative or discordant antibody results and in all center participants.

RESULTS
Of the participants 838 were HIV negative, 163 had established HIV infection, and 8 had acute HIV infection. For detecting acute HIV infection, the antigen portion had a sensitivity of 0.000 and a specificity of 0.983. For detecting established HIV infection, the antibody portion had a sensitivity of 0.994 and a specificity of 0.992.

CONCLUSIONS
Combo RT displayed excellent performance for detecting established HIV infection and poor performance for detecting acute HIV infection. In this setting, Combo RT is no more useful than current algorithms.


The generalized degrees of freedom (GDoF) region of the MIMO Gaussian interference channel (IC) is obtained for the general case of an arbitrary number of antennas at each node and where the signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) and interference-to-noise ratios vary with arbitrary exponents to a nominal SNR. The GDoF-optimal coding scheme involves message splitting and partial interference decoding and consists of linear Gaussian superposition coding of the private and common submessages that can be seen as jointly performing signal-space and signal-level interference alignment. The admissible degree of freedom (DoF)-splits between the private and common messages are also specified. A study of the GDoF region reveals various insights through the joint dependence of optimal interference management techniques at high SNR on the SNR exponents and the numbers of antennas at the four terminals. For instance, it reveals that, unlike in the scalar IC, treating interference as noise is not always GDoF-optimal even in the very weak interference regime. Moreover, while the DoF-optimal strategy that relies just on transmit/receive zero-forcing beamforming and time sharing is not GDoF optimal (and thus has an unbounded gap to capacity), the precise characterization of the very strong interference regime-where single-user DoF performance can be achieved simultaneously for both users-depends on the relative numbers of antennas at the four terminals and thus deviates from what it is in the single-input single-output case. For asymmetric numbers of antennas at the four nodes, the shape of the symmetric GDoF curve can be a "distorted W" curve to the extent that for certain multiple-input multiple-output ICs it is a "V" curve.


Resistance to neoadjuvant chemotherapy in triple-negative breast cancer can be mediated by a reversible chemotherapy-tolerant state. Metabolizing cancer chemoresistance Triple-negative breast cancer is an aggressive malignancy that is not susceptible to hormone inhibition and must therefore be treated with conventional chemotherapy. This includes neoadjuvant chemotherapy, where the treatment is initiated before surgical resection, but unfortunately, patients develop resistance to this intervention, which makes it difficult to fully eradicate their tumors. By tracking individual tumor cell clones and analyzing the genomics of patient-derived xenografts, Echeverria et al. found that this resistance to neoadjuvant therapy can be mediated by a reversible mechanism targetable by a pharmacological inhibitor of mitochondrial metabolism. Eradicating triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) resistant to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NACT) is a critical unmet clinical need. In this study, patient-derived xenograft (PDX) models of treatment-naïve TNBC and serial biopsies from TNBC patients undergoing NACT were used to elucidate mechanisms of chemoresistance in the neoadjuvant setting. Barcode-mediated clonal tracking and genomic sequencing of PDX tumors revealed that residual tumors remaining after treatment with standard frontline chemotherapies, doxorubicin (Adriamycin) combined with cyclophosphamide (AC), maintained the subclonal architecture of untreated tumors, yet their transcriptomes, proteomes, and histologic features were distinct from those of untreated tumors. Once treatment was halted, residual tumors gave rise to AC-sensitive tumors with similar transcriptomes, proteomes, and histological features to those of untreated tumors. Together, these results demonstrated that tumors can adopt a reversible drug-tolerant state that does not involve clonal selection as an AC resistance mechanism. Serial biopsies obtained from patients with TNBC undergoing NACT revealed similar histologic changes and maintenance of stable subclonal architecture, demonstrating that AC-treated PDXs capture molecular features characteristic of human TNBC chemoresistance. Last, pharmacologic inhibition of oxidative phosphorylation using an inhibitor currently in phase 1 clinical development delayed residual tumor regrowth. Thus, AC resistance in treatment-naïve TNBC can be mediated by nonselective mechanisms that confer a reversible chemotherapy-tolerant state with targetable vulnerabilities.


This research is to study the effect of deteriorated level on the ions migration in inhibiting the concrete damaged by ASR using electrochemical technique. Cylindrical concrete specimens made by reactive sandstone with 10 cm diameter and 5 cm height were prepared at the ages of 7, 14, 28, 90, and 180 days curing in a 38°C and 100% R.H. storage environment. The accelerated lithium migration technique (ALMT) was performed using LiOH H2O and Ca(OH)2 as electrolytes for anode and cathode, respectively. 9 A/m2 current density was used to drive lithium ion into and remove sodium ion out of the concrete. The results show that the rates of ions migration increase with increasing the deteriorated level of specimen. Furthermore, a linear relationship exists between the non-steady state migration coefficient of Li+ and the deteriorated level of specimen.


Joseph Stiglitz is one of the world's greatest economists. He has made fundamental contributions to economic theory in areas such as inequality, the implications of imperfect and asymmetric information, and competition, and he has been a major figure in policy making, a leading public intellectual, and a remarkably influential teacher and mentor. This collection of essays influenced by Stiglitz's work celebrates his career as a scholar and teacher and his aspiration to put economic knowledge in the service of creating a fairer world.

 Toward a Just Society brings together a range of essays whose breadth reflects how Stiglitz has shaped modern economics. The contributions to this volume, all penned by high-profile authors who have been guided by or collaborated with Stiglitz over the last five decades, span microeconomics, macroeconomics, inequality, development, law and economics, and public policy. Touching on many of the central debates and discoveries of the field and providing insights on the directions that academic economics could take in the future, Toward a Just Society is an extraordinary celebration of the many paths Stiglitz has opened for economics, politics, and public life.


In recent years, personalized fabrication has attracted much attention due to the greatly improved accessibility of consumer-level 3D printers. However, 3D printers still suffer from the relatively long production time and limited output size, which are undesirable for large-scale rapid-prototyping. Zometool, which is a popular building block system widely used for education and entertainment, is potentially suitable for providing an alternative solution to the aforementioned scenarios. However, even for 3D models of moderate complexity, novice users may still have difficulty in building visually plausible results by themselves. Therefore, the goal of this work is to develop an automatic system to assist users to realize Zometool rapid prototyping with a specified 3D shape. Compared with the previous work [Zimmer and Kobbelt 2014], our method may achieve the ease of assembly and economic usage of building units since we focus on generating the Zometool structures through a higher level of shape abstraction.


To achieve sustainble outcome, organisations require constantly modifying and evolving different aspects of their operation. Human resource is the most important aspect that plays a key role in the organisations success as they manage the most valuable asset of any organization. Human resources are key in achieving organizational goals and objectives. The performance of any employee in the organization depends on many factors such as recruitment and training process of the organization and the employee's skill, competency and values. Thus, identification of factors affecting employee performance is one of the main objectives when considering human resources improvement. In the maritime industry the human resource management thus has a vital role in success of the organisation and in providing job satisfaction to the employees. The purpose of this research is to investigate the effect of factors such as recruitment and training processes of human resources and its impact on the training, skill development and performance of marine pilots. This quantitative study utilized questionnaire, descriptive and inferential statistics, SPSS 22 software and Delphi method to collect and analyze the data. The sample population chosen for the study based on Cochran model calculation was 33. According to the results of this research, the recruitment and training processes of pilots has a positive and significant relationship with the pilots' overall performance.


In order to alleviate development cost, many application-oriented wireless networks make use of the off-the- shelf wireless standards such as the Bluetooth, IEEE802.15.4 (Zigbee), and IEEE802.11, which are originally developed for personal area networks (PAN) and local area networks (LAN). Examples of such applications are medical monitoring and control. These applications do not require data rates as high as these standards, but instead they require higher reliability with lower latency. As a means to meet such requirements based on these standards, we propose an efficient error control technique named embedded forward error control technique (EFECT). This technique enables an additional forward error correction to the existing standards without any additional costs. Some design guidelines based on Reed-Solomon (RS) codes are proposed and, as a specific example, achievable gains by applying the EFECT are studied for the Bluetooth standard.


ABSTRACT The marine bacterium Vibrio fischeri uses two acyl-homoserine lactone (acyl-HSL) quorum-sensing systems. The earlier signal, octanoyl-HSL, produced by AinS, is required for normal colonization of the squid Euprymna scolopes and, in culture, is necessary for a normal growth yield. In examining the latter requirement, we found that during growth in a glycerol/tryptone-based medium, wild-type V. fischeri cells initially excrete acetate but, in a metabolic shift termed the acetate switch, they subsequently utilize the acetate, removing it from the medium. In contrast, an ainS mutant strain grown in this medium does not remove the excreted acetate, which accumulates to lethal levels. The acetate switch is characterized by the induction of acs, the gene encoding acetyl coenzyme A (acetyl-CoA) synthetase, leading to uptake of the excreted acetate. Wild-type cells induce an acs transcriptional reporter 25-fold, coincident with the disappearance of the extracellular acetate; in contrast, the ainS mutant did not display significant induction of the acs reporter. Supplementation of the medium of an ainS mutant with octanoyl-HSL restored normal levels of acs induction and acetate uptake. Additional mutant analyses indicated that acs regulation was accomplished through the regulator LitR but was independent of the LuxIR quorum-signaling pathway. Importantly, the acs mutant of V. fischeri has a competitive defect when colonizing the squid, indicating the importance of proper control of acetate metabolism in the light of organ symbiosis. This is the first report of quorum-sensing control of the acetate switch, and it indicates a metabolic connection between acetate utilization and cell density.


Depression has repeatedly been found to be a risk factor for completed suicide, particularly when coupled with a pervasive sense of hopelessness. The aim of this study was to evaluate depressed older persons' suicidal experiences. Data were collected by means of individual in-depth interviews with nine informants living in two districts of Norway. A hermeneutic analysis was performed. One main theme: Going around in a circle and two themes: being alone without meaning in life and struggling to achieve reconciliation emerged from the analysis. An important implication for mental healthcare practice is the need to develop a person's ability to shape and take control of her/his life. The healthcare organisation must be committed to a plan that sets out strategies enabling suicidal individuals to avoid the negative experience of meaninglessness. It was concluded that suicidal depressed elderly persons need help to escape from their desperate situation. More research is urgently required in order to prevent suicide in depressed elderly persons whose emotional pain is unbearable.


ShangPing ore area locates the anti-connected compound part of the east of east west structure-zone in NanLing and the swelling-zone of new china structure. Region structure belongs to the spinal part of the "mountain" structure in PanGuShan. In the mine area, the structure of buckle and bursting engenders very much and the magma activity is frequent. The geology conditions of becoming ore-deposit are advantageous. This text sets out from history, analyses the conditions of becoming ore-deposit, choices advantageous parts and makes authentic geology evaluation and prospect analysis to the prognostic area in order to guide mine designing and mining better.


Abstract. Knowledge of forest parameters, such as wood volume, is required for a sustainable forest management. Collecting such information in the field is laborious and even not feasible in inaccessible areas. In this study, tree wood volume is estimated utilizing remote sensing techniques, which can facilitate the extraction of relevant information. The study area is the University Forest of Taxiarchis, which is located in central Chalkidiki, Northern Greece and covers an area of 58km2. The tree species under study is the conifer evergreen species P. brutia (Calabrian pine). Three plot surfaces of 10m radius were used. VHR Quickbird-2 images are used in combination with an allometric relationship connecting the Tree Crown with the Diameter at breast height (Dbh), and a volume table developed for Greece. The overall methodology is based on individual tree crown delineation, based on (a) the marker-controlled watershed segmentation approach and (b) the GEographic Object-Based Image Analysis approach. The aim of the first approach is to extract separate segments each of them including a single tree and eventual lower vegetation, shadows, etc. The aim of the second approach is to detect and remove the "noisy" background. In the application of the first approach, the Blue, Green, Red, Infrared and PCA-1 bands are tested separately. In the application of the second approach, NDVI and image brightness thresholds are utilized. The achieved results are evaluated against field plot data. Their observed difference are between -5% to +10%.


This paper considers the experience of embodiment in current and (possible) future virtual reality (VR) applications. A phenomenological perspective is adopted to explore user embodiment in both those VR applications which do and do not include a visual body (re)presentation (virtual body). Embodiment is viewed from the perspective of sensorial immersion where issues of gender, race and culture are all implicated. Accounts of 'disrupted' bodies (for example phantom limb and dissociation of the 'self' from the body, paralysis and objectified bodies) are advanced in order to provide a context for understanding the ways in which embodiment in virtual reality environments may be instantiated. The explicit claim that VR is an embodied experience and can facilitate the radical transfiguration of the body and its sensorial architecture are explored and evaluated.


The parish churches of Lincolnshire are justly celebrated. The spires of Grantham and Louth, and the famous Boston Stump, provide a focal point from the surrounding landscape of fen, wold and marsh. The charms of remote country churches along the byways of the county have been extolled in prose and verse by writers such as Henry Thorold and Sir John Betjeman. Their architecture, their stained glass and sculpture, furniture and fabric, have all been carefully recorded. Yet little is known of the people who served these churches, the rectors and vicars who, in word and sacrament, taught the Christian faith to successive generations of parishioners. This volume forms the first part of a much-needed survey of Lincolnshire parish clergy. The starting point is 1214, when Bishop Hugh of Wells introduced the earliest system of episcopal registration in Western Europe. The magnificent series of Lincoln bishop's registers provides a framework for the parish lists, setting out the succession of rectors or vicars for each church. Brief biographical sketches demonstrate the rich variety of the county's parsons - pastors, scholars, travellers and writers, soldiers and schoolmasters; while some, like John Wycliffe, achieved a wider fame. This biographical register gives to each of them their place in the history of Lincolnshire. Dr Nicholas Bennett is General Editor of the Lincoln Record Society. Prior to retirement, he was Vice-Chancellor and Librarian of Lincoln Cathedral, where he was responsible for the historic collections of books and manuscripts.


The high temperature corrosion behavior of Fe20Cr6Al-Y,Hf steel was studied in the range of temperature 800-1000oC in H2/H2S atmospheres at pS2=10-2 ,10-3 and 10-4 Pa sulphur vapor pressures. Kinetics depend on the temperature and sulphur vapor pressure. After 24 hours the whole specimen was practically consumed because the samples were 0,06 cm thick. Morphology of the scales have been performed by SEM techniques. Phase and chemical composition have been studied by EDX and XRD techniques. It was found that scale formed on Fe20Cr6Al-Y,Hf alloy was built with porosity sulphides layer. EDX analysis of the scale surface show that the any aluminum, hafnium and yttrium sulfides were found in the formed scale layer, however small amounts of Al2S3 was detected in scale/steel interface. Also internal sulphidation was observed. A phase analysis of the formed scale revealed that it is composed mainly of an FeS, Fe7S8 phases and CrS, Cr5S6. Result were compared with data obtained on the pure Fe and Cr samples.


ABSTRACT A preliminary study was conducted to draw a profile of older adults who participate in educational programs on college campuses and to identify those older people who are not being served. The college and university programs surveyed .n this study were drawn from a list of College Centers for Older Learners (CCOL) recently described in a publication issued through the Institute for Lifelong Learning. From 92 CCOLs contacted through a mailed survey, 56 usable surveys were returned (61 percent). The survey form requested data on numbers of participants over 55, their ages, income levels, marital status, housing arrangements, racial or ethnic composition, employment status, status of health, and education. Although not all of the responding centers had data on all of the dimensions surveyed, the results obtained do confirm earlier studies. The older people being served in college programs are usually better educated, retired, in fair to good health, and in the middle to high income brackets. Those individuals not being served by these programs can be characterized as minorities, people in poor or frail health, of low income, poorly educated, and lacking adequate transportation. In an open-ended question at the conclusion of the questionnaire, several respondents stated that many elders do not participate because they are not comfortable on college campuses or are fearful of academic participation. However, one statement summed up many others: although people with little education and near poverty level or who do not feel comfortable in an educational background usually do not enroll, when such people do enroll, most enjoy the experience. (KC)


Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of sucralfate for relieving post-tonsillectomy odynophagia.Study Design: Randomized clinical trial.Place and Duration of study: This study was carried out at department of ENT, Combined Military Hospital Muzaffarabad for 9 month Feb 2017 to Oct 2017.Material and Methods: Sixty patients of different age groups were selected randomly and were divided into two groups with equal gender distribution. Both groups underwent tonsillectomy using bipolar diathermy. Standard post-operative antibiotic and analgesic cover was provided. In addition, Group A was prescribed oral sucralfate syrup, post operatively, 3 times a day for 5 days. Patients were inquired about pain after 5 days. Patients inGroup A showed better pain relief and the difference was statistically significant.Results: The mean age of surgery in our study was 13.75 ± 8.12 years. The mean operative time was 16.12 ± 1.33 minutes. About 83.3% patients in group-A achieved satisfactory pain relief as compared to 43%patients in group-B. This difference was statistically significant with a p value of 0.001Conclusion: Prescription of sucralfate in patients after tonsillectomy resulted in alleviation of post-operative odynophagia. Hence, we advocate the use of this cost-effective, readily available and safe drug after tonsillectomy.


If N is standard Gaussian, the minimum mean square error (MMSE) of estimating a random variable X based on √(snr) X + N vanishes at least as fast as 1/snr as snr → ∞. We define the MMSE dimension of X as the limit as snr → ∞ of the product of snr and the MMSE. MMSE dimension is also shown to be the asymptotic ratio of nonlinear MMSE to linear MMSE. For discrete, absolutely continuous or mixed distribution we show that MMSE dimension equals Rényi's information dimension. However, for a class of self-similar singular X (e.g., Cantor dis tribution), we show that the product of snr and MMSE oscillates around information dimension periodically in snr (dB). We also show that these results extend considerably beyond Gaussian noise under various technical conditions.


Abstract The motivation for the project was the necessity of finding solutions to situations characterized by difficulty in communication, such as trading between different countries, immigrants unable to speak the language, or between hearing and deaf people who use sign language. These and other cases can be solved thanks to interpreting services. Yet because of educational commitments of professionals, organizational time, budget, and locations, it is not always possible to avail of an on-site interpreter. In this context, technology offers a solution through remote interpretation. The present draws inspiration from the research project "VEASYT Live! for conference: linguistic and technological solutions for the supply of video remote interpreting services in conference settings". The work was financed by the European Social Fund and took place between 2016 and 2017 in the Linguistic and Cultural Compared Studies Department of Ca' Foscari University of Venice in partnership with VEASYT srl, a company that developed a video remote interpreting (VRI) service in both vocal languages and Italian Sign Language. The aim of the research is to develop VRI for conference situations such as seminars, conferences and academic lectures.


Students who are enrolled in computer-related courses need to have a fundamental knowledge and application of Boolean expressions. Learning Boolean algebra and digital logic are somehow difficult for students to grasp especially because these disciplines highly require them of critical thinking and logical understanding. To address this need, the researchers designed and developed a mobile application for Android-enabled phones that will assist the teacher in explaining the concepts of Boolean expressions to students. Developmental-experimental designs of research were used. The data gathered from the respondents were analyzed and utilized in the application development where it accepts Boolean expressions and displays the generated simplified expression, truth table, Karnaugh map, and logic circuit diagrams. The application does not require a network connection and runs only on the Android operating system. The researchers used the following tools in the development of the mobile application: Eclipse as editor, Android Software Development Kit (SDK) as a development tool, and SQLite as its database. The mobile application was tested, evaluated, and used by the respondents. Respondents agreed that the application is better than the manual procedures in simplifying Boolean expressions. Thus, this Android-based application is highly recommended as a tool for teaching Boolean expressions. Keywords- Information Technology, Boolean algebra, descriptive-developmental method, Philippines


Aim: The purpose of this study is to develop a tool and assess patient satisfaction with inpatient Nurse Practitioner (NP) care. Design: A 10 item questionnaire was administered to hospital inpatients cared for directly by one of two NP's. Methods: Patients were given a point of care tablet to answer the survey questions with yes or no. The primary outcomes measured were satisfaction with the hospital NP in quality of care, effective communication, and discharge planning. Results: A total of 19 patients participated in this study. 100% of patients felt that nurse practitioners communicated the plan of care effectively, clearly communicated medication information, answered all questions effectively, and knew what to expect when they went home. Between 80-89.5% of patients understood their discharge goals, what they may need after discharge, and understood what signs and symptoms to look for after discharge. Only 36% reported that they had a primary care provider appointment upon discharge. Conclusions: Results of the questionnaire showed a high level of satisfaction with NP care and identified specific discharge barriers among these hospitalized patients. Determining patient satisfaction with NP care can help direct important performance and improvement activities for healthcare institutions.


Quintero's stage 3 was sub-classified into two groups according to visible or non-visible donor bladder; Stage 3 atypical was defined as abnormal Doppler flow in either twin WITH visible donor bladder, Stage 3 classical as abnormal Doppler flow in either twin WITHOUT visible donor bladder. Results: Fifty-five cases (98%) was completed surgery (median gestational age 21.6 weeks and range 16.7 to 25.9, median operating time 85 minutes and range 34 to 210). Median gestational age at delivery was 32.1 weeks (range 18.0 to 38.6) and interval from procedure to delivery was 70 days (range 0 to 123). There were 90 of 112 survivors (80.4%) and 2 of 90 live infants had cystic periventricular leukomalacia (2.2%). There were 2 cases (3.6%) of miscarriage before 22 weeks gestation. Two survivors per mother were 87.5% in Stage 2, 64.9% in Stage 3 and 63.6% in Stage 4, however, 46.7% of two survivors in Stage 3 atypical in contrast to 77.3% in Stage 3 classical. There were 4.5% (1/22) of intrauterine fetal demise of donor in Stage 3 classical comparing to 46.7% (7/15) in Stage 3 atypical (p < 0.01). Conclusions: Our Japanese experience of FLP was almost as equal perinatal mortality and morbidity as previous report. Subclassification of Stage 3 with-/without donor bladder is considered reasonable and proper by means of perinatal outcome.


Eye fixation and gaze fixation patterns in general play an important part when humans interact with each other. Also, gaze fixation patterns of humans are highly determined by the task they perform. Our assumption is that meaningful human–robot interaction with robots having active vision components (such a humanoids) is highly supported if the robot system is able to create task modulated fixation patterns. We present an architecture for a robot active vision system equipped with one manipulator where we demonstrate the generation of task modulated gaze control, meaning that fixation patterns are in accordance with a specific task the robot has to perform. Experiments demonstrate different strategies of multi-modal task modulation for robotic active vision where visual and nonvisual features (tactile feedback) determine gaze fixation patterns. The results are discussed in comparison to purely saliency based strategies toward visual attention and gaze control. The major advantages of our approach to multi-modal task modulation is that the active vision system can generate, first, active avoidance of objects, and second, active engagement with objects. Such behaviors cannot be generated by current approaches of visual attention which are based on saliency models only, but they are important for mimicking human-like gaze fixation patterns.


We present the first finding of the high-pressure mineral coesite in lawsonite-bearing eclogite xenoliths from the Colorado Plateau, United States. The presence of coesite in these xenoliths supports the hypothesis that the eclogite formed in a low-temperature–high-pressure environment such as envisaged inside subducted oceanic lithosphere. Ion-microprobe U-Pb dating of micrometer-scale zircons in the eclogites yields ages ranging from 81 Ma to 33 Ma, the two extremes in age likely indicating the age of crystallization during subduction-related metamorphism and the age of recrystallization by the host magmatic event, respectively. These observations conclusively demonstrate that certain eclogite xenoliths from the Colorado Plateau originated as fragments of the subducted Farallon plate, which had been residing in the upper mantle since the Late Cretaceous. This is the first conclusive evidence that any eclogite xenoliths can be directly linked to a known subducted plate.


Specific monoclonal and polyclonal antisera raised against the starfish SALMFamide peptides S1 and S2, have been used to determine the tissue distribution and cellular localization of these novel neuropeptides in the starfish Asterias rubens. The present study examines the digestive system of this animal using single- and double-labelling optical immunocytochemistry (ICC). The results reveal a widespread neuronal localization for S2 to axons and perikarya throughout the digestive system. Double-labelling revealed a predominantly separate localization for S1 and S2 immunoreactivity. This distribution, in conjunction with previous pharmacological studies implicate a role for this peptide in gut relaxation.


This paper introduces computerized optimization methods used in the commercially available optimization software LS-OPT (Version 2.2, Revision 199) and Hyperstudy (v7.0). The application of these methods is demonstrated with two examples. In the first example the goal is to reduce the mass of a longitudinal member while keeping or improving its properties in a frontal crash scenario. In the second example computerized optimization is used to adjust a simulation model to the corresponding experiment. The simulation models are calculated with the nonlinear finite-element-solver LS-DYNA. In both examples LS-OPT and Hyperstudy are compared regarding calculation time and results obtained. The strategies of the different optimization methods are analysed. There is no recommendation for one or other optimization software. In both cases the advantages and disadvantages are mentioned.


Microcapsules bearing a covalently cross-linked coating have been developed for cellular gene therapy as an improvement on alginate-poly(L-lysine)-alginate (APA) microcapsules that only have ionic cross-linking. In this study, two mutually reactive polyelectrolytes, a polycation (designated C70), poly([2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl]trimethylammonium chloride-co-2-aminoethyl methacrylate hydrochloride) and a polyanion (designated A70), poly(sodium methacrylate-co-2-(methacryloyloxy)ethyl acetoacetate), were used during the microcapsule fabrication. Ca-alginate beads were sequentially laminated with C70, A70, poly(L-lysine) (PLL), and alginate. The A70 reacts with both C70 and PLL to form a approximately 30 microm thick covalently cross-linked interpenetrating polymer network on the surface of the capsules. Confocal images confirmed the location of the C70/A70/PLL network and the stability of the network after 4 weeks implantation in mice. The mechanical and chemical resistance of the capsules was tested with a "stress test" where microcapsules were gently shaken in 0.003% EDTA for 15 min. APA capsules disappeared during this treatment, whereas the modified capsules, even those that had been retrieved from mice after 4-weeks implantation, remained intact. Analysis of solutions passing through model flat membranes showed that the molecular weight cut-off of alginate-C70-A70-PLL-alginate is similar to that of alginate-PLL-alginate. Recombinant cells encapsulated in APA and modified capsules were able to secrete luciferase into culture media. The modified capsules were found to capture some components of regular culture media used during preparation, causing an immune reaction in implanted mice, but use of UltraCulture serum-free medium was found to prevent this immune reaction. In vivo biocompatibility of the new capsules was similar to the APA capsules, with no sign of clinical toxicity on complete blood counts and liver function tests. The increased stability of the covalently modified microcapsules coupled with the acceptable biocompatibility and permeability demonstrated their potential for use as immunoisolation devices in gene therapy.


MHC class II heterodimers bind peptides 12–20 aa in length. The peptide flanking residues (PFRs) of these ligands extend from a central binding core consisting of nine amino acids. Increasing evidence suggests that the PFRs can alter the immunogenicity of T cell epitopes. We have previously noted that eluted peptide pool sequence data derived from an MHC class II Ag reflect patterns of enrichment not only in the core binding region but also in the PFRs. We sought to distinguish whether these enrichments reflect cellular processes or direct MHC-peptide interactions. Using the multiple sclerosis-associated allele HLA-DR2 , pool sequence data from naturally processed ligands were compared with the patterns of enrichment obtained by binding semicombinatorial peptide libraries to empty HLA-DR2 molecules. Naturally processed ligands revealed patterns of enrichment reflecting both the binding motif of HLA-DR2 (position (P)1, aliphatic; P4, bulky hydrophobic; and P6, polar) as well as the nonbound flanking regions, including acidic residues at the N terminus and basic residues at the C terminus. These PFR enrichments were independent of MHC-peptide interactions. Further studies revealed similar patterns in nine other HLA alleles, with the C-terminal basic residues being as highly conserved as the previously described N-terminal prolines of MHC class II ligands. There is evidence that addition of C-terminal basic PFRs to known peptide epitopes is able to enhance both processing as well as T cell activation. Recognition of these allele-transcending patterns in the PFRs may prove useful in epitope identification and vaccine design. The Journal of Immunology, 2001, 166: 6720–6727.


Since its entry into force in 2003, the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety raises debate and controversy, even among signatory countries. The difficulties of risk assessment on biodiversity and human health, disparities in institutional capacity, uncertainty regarding the definition of liability and redress for the damage caused by the transboundary movement of living modified organisms (LMOs) are the most visible controversies. Two other related issues, but less explicit, are added to this chart: first, the relevance of an agreement combining environmental principles and trade provisions and second, the fact that the agreement may be used as a nontariff barrier or any instrument of anticompetitive behaviour by the non-Parties, producers and exporters of LMOs. After the COP-MOP 5 held in Nagoya in October 2010, especially with the adoption of the Suppelementary Protocol on Liability and Redress, the international governance of biosafety still advance in the direction of a hybrid approach between environmental conservation and trade issues, with more emphasis on the role of the companies, the progressively generalized acceptance of biotechnological risks on biodiversity and the need for intervention measures.


The paper deals with the implementation of a suitable technological support to improve the success likelihood of Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) missions. In particular, the adoption of an heterogeneous sensors network for situation awareness and security applications is suggested. The sensor network consists of two types of sensor, mandated, respectively, to through-the-wall radar (TTW) imaging and a vital sign detection (VSD) sensor. Information and measurement data collected by the network are sent to a command and control center for optimal decision making. More specifically, after a brief introduction about the considered network architecture and the TTW radar, the authors present hereinafter a new measurement method, based on Doppler effect and eigenvalue decomposition, for VSD. In particular, thanks to the application of a preliminary demodulation scheme to the received measurement signal, the method is capable of detecting and measuring the phase modulation associated human chest movement. A number of tests, both in simulated and actual measurement conditions, has highlighted satisfying performance in terms of accuracy and reliability, thus suggesting the method as an ideal candidate for the implementation of the VSD sensor.


Mangroves play an important role in pumping carbon from the atmosphere to the ocean and can regulate the concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG). The pressure on this ecosystem has intensified in recent decades, which undertakes the important economic and environmental services they provide. A mangrove forest in Sao Vicente, was used in the calculation of plant biomass in order to determine the amount of carbon stored in trees during the one year period and compare it with the rate of GHG emissions through the exhaust of a popular automobile. Therefore, delimited six plots of 100 square meters, on the right bank of the Boturoca River, which were identified for all the trees of the species Rhizophora mangle, Laguncularia racemosa and Avicennia schaueriana, and measured: circumference at breast height (GBH) and height trees. The results showed that it would take 47 mangrove trees to absorb greenhouse gases emitted by a single car. Considering the current fleet of vehicles in the city of Sao Vicente, the amount of carbon emitted already exceeded the carrying capacity of mangroves to retain this carbon. Keywords Mangroves, biomass, carbon sequestration, emissions from vehicles.


The ability to reversibly control protein structure and function with light would offer high spatiotemporal resolution for investigating biological processes. To confer photoresponsiveness on general proteins, we genetically incorporated a set of photoswitchable click amino acids (PSCaas), which contain both a reversible photoswitch and an additional click functional group for further modifications. Orthogonal tRNA-synthetases were evolved to genetically encode PSCaas bearing azobenzene with an alkene, keto, or benzyl chloride group in E. coli and in mammalian cells. After incorporation into calmodulin, the benzyl chloride PSCaa spontaneously generated a covalent protein bridge by reacting with a nearby cysteine residue through proximity-enabled bioreactivity. The resultant azobenzene bridge isomerized in response to light, thereby changing the conformation of calmodulin. These genetically encodable PSCaas will prove valuable for engineering photoswitchable bridges into proteins for reversible optogenetic regulation.


Considerable changes in the social and built environment contributed to alterations in physical activity, which potentially affect physical fitness. Long-term data on various components of physical fitness with multiple assessments in similar cohorts, however, remains limited. The present study, therefore, examined secular trends in physical fitness between 1975 and 2010 in adolescents living in a rural region in Tyrol, Austria. Data consisted of records from a physical education (PE) teacher that included a total of 2998 cases of male adolescents between 11 and 18 years of age. Fitness assessments included sprint, longjump and an endurance run that were performed annually in 3 to 5 grades during regular PE classes. The results indicated three distinct eras during the observation period. There was an improvement in physical fitness until the mid to late 1980s with a subsequent decline until the mid 1990s and a final period of relatively consistent low physical fitness. Further, it was shown that aerobic fitness started to decline earlier and that the decline was more pronounced than the performance in anaerobic fitness tests. This is of particular concern due to the importance of aerobic fitness for general health and wellbeing. Accordingly, these results along with previous studies highlight the need to promote physical activities that contribute to an improvement of physical fitness in children and adolescents.


Adversarial training has become one of the most effective methods for improving robustness of neural networks. However, it often suffers from poor generalization on both clean and perturbed data. Current robust training method always use a uniformed perturbation strength for every samples to generate adversarial examples during model training for improving adversarial robustness. However, we show it would lead worse training and generalizaiton error and forcing the prediction to match one-hot label.

In this paper, therefore, we propose a new algorithm, named Customized Adversarial Training (CAT), which adaptively customizes the perturbation level and the corresponding label for each training sample in adversarial training. We first show theoretically the CAT scheme improves the generalization. Also, through extensive experiments, we show that the proposed algorithm achieves better clean and robust accuracy than previous adversarial training methods. The full version of this paper is available at https://arxiv.org/abs/2002.06789.


Based on a review of the six paradigms of jouissance in Jacques Lacan, we propose a seventh from the Borromean topology. In it, the surplus or disjunctive logic between jouissance and language is replaced by the ex-sistence logic, which founds an outside that is not a non-inside. In this paradigm, jouissance is a supplement that is left by the operation of tying the knot of three rings (real, imaginary and symbolic) as a treatment of the Other of the Other that does not exist. Lacan proposes a seam between imaginary and unconscious knowledge, tying at the same time the symbolic and the real, producing therefore the sinthome. Its result is the real effect of binding the psychic reality in the form of four rings with the distribution of three forms of jouissance


Increasingly, algorithms play an important role in everyday decision-making processes. Recommender systems, specifically, are algorithms that serve to influence end-users' decision-making (e.g. what to read, who to befriend, who to rent to…). However, the companies that develop and produce these systems are not neutral, but have an economic goal and specific vision on how society should operate. These algorithms should thus never be trusted blindly.
An algorithm consists of collective human practices and consequently warm human and institutional choices. Therefore, they should be perceived as culture. Despite the many academics that are joining the debate to denounce the bias, opaqueness and unfairness often found in these algorithms, little empirical research has invested in treating algorithms in its socio-technical assembly as culture.
To better understand how end-users perceive these algorithmic systems, we strive to understand how they imagine and (dis)trust the different components of the socio-technical assembly. We are demystifying the imagined processes incorporated in these algorithmic systems in the minds of the end-user using a deconstructed version of Buchers' (2017) algorithmic imaginary.
Currently, companies put ever more effort into personalizing news, using news recommender systems (NRS). NRS organize, select and aggregate news to influence the decision-making of an end-user without a transparent explanation on the process. Therefore, we focus our study on the end-users of these NRS.
In this qualitative study, we are interviewing 25 end-users of NRS to understand the assumptions and apprehend the (dis-)trust people have about the different elements of the socio-technical assembly of news recommender systems.


As the nuclear radiation has started to be used in a variety of different fields, it is important to be protected from it, and thus the radiation measurement becomes vital. The quality of the performance of a detection system, used for the energy measurements, is important. It is characterized by the width of the pulse-height distribution, obtained for the particles of the same energy (monoenergetic source). The energy spectrum of a radiation source depends on the type and energy of the incident particle and the type of the detector. In this work the energy resolution of a 3′′ × 3′′ NaI(Tl) detector has been measured for photon energies of 511, 662, 835, 1173, 1275, and 1332 keV, and its variation with the detector-source distance was investigated. The energy resolution of a detector system is obtained from the peak full width at one-half of the maximum height (FWHM) of a single peak (for a particular energy) as a function of detector-source distance. It was found that the energy resolution has decreased with the increasing distance.


Genetic factors, especially numerical chromosome anomalies, play an important role in embryonic loss. Since somatic cell analysis cannot assess the risk of errors arising de novo during germ cell maturation, we investigated, whether the male gametes from couples with habitual abortion (group HA) carry a higher rate of anomalies, than those from donors without reproductive dysfunction (group K). Chromosomes were demonstrated after fusion of sperm with zona-free golden hamster ova. Our results indicate no significant difference between the two groups for the total rates of aneuploidy (HA: 3.6%, K: 2.0%) and structural anomalies (HA: 15.3%, K: 7.0%). However, the levels of chromosome breaks and acentric fragments were significantly higher in the abortion group (5.8% and 8.1%, respectively, vs. 2.4% each in group K). The implications of this fact remain to be investigated.


Objective To prepare molecularly imprinted polymer(MIP) microspheres of α-tocopherol by precipitation polymerization and the conditions optimization, moreover, the products absorption property were evaluated. Methods The MIPs of α-tocopherol were synthesized by precipitation polymerization by using methacrylic acid(MAA) and ethylene glycol dimethacrylate(EGDMA) and acetonitrile as functional monomer, cross-liker and solution, respectively. The morphology of the MIP microspheres was characterized by scanning electron microscope(SEM) and the corresponding effect factors were optimized. Results The optimal conditions were as follows: acetonitrile as solvent; reaction temperature at 60 ℃; 0.20 mmol template molecule(α-tocopherol) and 40 mg initiator(azobisisobutyronitrile, AIBN); and stirring speed at 100 r/min. The absorption property and the binding characteristics of the MIPs were evaluated by equilibrium binding experiment and Scatchard analysis. The results showed that two classes of binding sites were produced in the polymer matrix, their dissociation constant(Kd) and the apparent maximum equilibrium binding capacity(Qmax) were 0.995 mmol/L, 22.420 μmol/g for high affinity binding sites and 0.458 mmol/L, 15.865 μmol/g for low affinity binding sites. Conclusion Under optimal conditions, the α-tocopherol MIPs showed good morphology of microsphere with particle size around 200 nm and good absorption of α-tocopherol.


Meat preservation became essential for transportation of meat for long distances without spoilage of texture, colour and nutritional value after the development and rapid growth of supermarkets. The most ancient methods of preserving meat are drying and fermentation of meat products. Fermented sausage is mostly industrially produced, although not standardized, but it is acceptable to the majority of the population. In this study, the sensory proprieties and chemical characteristics of kulen, a type of dry fermented sausage, were examined. Two groups of kulen sausages had differing percentages of pork meat and sweet and cayenne pepper, while the amount of solid fat tissue and other ingredients added at manufacturing were the same. The results obtained show the ingredients used might have an influence on kulen's sensory properties, in this case especially on odour, taste, cross-section colour and overall acceptability average scores. Chemical analyses showed that kulen group 1 had a higher protein content (24.52%) than kulen group 2, which contained 23.00% meat protein, while the content of collagen in the meat protein was 7.02% (group 1) and 9.16% (group 2). Moisture in all these kulen sausages was less than 35%, while the values of other parameters were similar between the two kulen groups. Therefore, the raw materials and the other ingredients used in the technological production of kulen fermented sausage can influence the final product quality.


In this paper, an X -band low phase-noise voltage-controlled oscillator (VCO) using a novel electronically tunable substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) resonator is proposed and developed for RF/microwave applications on the basis of the substrate integrated circuits concept. In this case, the resonant frequency of the SIW cavity resonator is tuned by different dc-biasing voltages applied over a varactor coupled to the cavity. Measured results show that the tuning range of the resonator is about 630 MHz with an unloaded Q U of 138. Subsequently, a novel reflection-type low phase noise VCO is developed by taking advantage of the proposed tunable resonator. Measured results demonstrate a frequency tuning range of 460 MHz and a phase noise of 88 dBc/Hz at a 100-kHz offset over all oscillation frequencies. The VCO is also able to deliver an output power from 6.5 to 10 dBm. This type of VCO is very suitable for low-cost microwave and millimeter-wave applications.


High performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to monitor the purity of the substrates and to establish the patterns of hydrolysis of ortho- and para-nitrophenylmaltooligosaccharides (2-7 glucose residues) catalysed by human pancreatic and salivary alpha-amylase. Separation of the reaction products from the remaining substrate was performed on a TSK-G-2000 PW or a RP18 column. By measuring the quantitative distribution of products, and assuming a 5-subsite model for the active site of alpha-amylase, differential activities for the hydrolysis of the different glycosidic bonds in the 2 series of substrates were deduced. A highly sensitive coupled continuous assay system is based on the formation of phenyloligosaccharides with 1-4 glucose residues by the action of the amylase under test, coupled to hydrolysis of these products by yeast alpha-glucosidase. The most suitable test substrates were shown to be para-nitrophenyl-alpha-D-maltotetraoside and -pentaoside. Direct production of nitrophenol from ortho-nitrophenyl-alpha-D-maltotrioside is recommended for the measurement of the alpha-amylase activity of pancreatic and salivary gland secretions and extracts.


In mammary epithelial cells (MECs), prolactin‐induced signaling and gene expression requires integrin‐mediated cell adhesion to basement membrane (BM). In the absence of proper cell–BM interactions, for example, culturing cells on collagen‐coated plastic dishes, signal propagation is substantially impaired. Here we demonstrate that the RhoA‐Rok‐myosin II pathway accounts for the ineffectiveness of prolactin signaling in MECs cultured on collagen I. Under these culture conditions, the RhoA pathway is activated, leading to downregulation of prolactin receptor expression and reduced prolactin signaling. Enforced activation of RhoA in MECs cultured on BM suppresses prolactin receptor levels, and prevents prolactin‐induced Stat5 tyrosine phosphorylation and β‐casein expression. Overexpression of dominant negative RhoA in MECs cultured on collagen I, or inhibiting Rok activity, increases prolactin receptor expression, and enhances prolactin signaling. In addition, inhibition of myosin II ATPase activity by blebbistatin also exerts a beneficial effect on prolactin receptor expression and prolactin signaling, suggesting that tension exerted by the collagen substratum, in collaboration with the RhoA‐Rok‐myosin II pathway, contributes to the failure of prolactin signaling. Furthermore, MECs cultured on laminin‐coated plastic have similar morphology and response to prolactin as those cultured on collagen I. They display high levels of RhoA activity and are inefficient in prolactin signaling, stressing the importance of matrix stiffness in signal transduction. Our results reveal that RhoA has a central role in determining the fate decisions of MECs in response to cell–matrix interactions. J. Cell. Physiol. 227: 1553–1560, 2012. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


Intelligent Compaction (IC) technology is an innovation of roller technology that can be used to improve quality control (QC) of the asphalt pavement compaction process. It is increasingly used by the asphalt paving industry in the U.S. Currently, IC is being adopted by many federal and state highway agencies. Asphalt IC technology uses accelerometer-based methods to collect IC measurement values (ICMV) that relate to the stiffness of the compacted materials. Across the U.S., in-place asphalt density measurement is still the de facto method for acceptance as the in-place densities relate to long-term performance of asphalt pavements. Past limited research has not been successful in finding a strong correlation between ICMV and measured in-place density. To accelerate the implementation of IC technology, it is essential to further study the relationship between IC measured data and core density to assess the use of IC measurements beyond QC. This project includes extensive field studies and data analysis and modeling in order to investigate the relationship between ICMV and other IC measurements (such as pass counts, temperatures, vibration frequencies/amplitudes, direction, speed, etc.) and asphalt in-place densities. The pass-by-pass ICMV correlate well with nuclear density gauge measurements during breakdown compaction. As the final ICMV does not correlate well with core densities, the final ICMV data is not recommended to replace cores for acceptance. An IC-based nonlinear panel data model was also developed to reasonably predict asphalt in-place density as an enhanced QC tool. Recommendation are also provided regarding future research and implementation to maximize the potential benefits of IC.


Aims and scope: Computed Tomography (CT) is one of the most efficient clinical diagnostic tools. The main goal of CT is to reproduce an acceptable reconstructed image of an object (either anatomical or functional behaviour) with the help of a limited set of its projections at different angles.

BACKGROUND
To achieve this goal, one of the most commonly iterative reconstruction algorithm called Maximum Likelihood Expectation Maximization (MLEM) is used.

OBJECTIVE
Although the conventional Maximum Likelihood (ML) algorithm can achieve quality images in CT. However, it still suffers from the optimal smoothing as the number of iterations increase.

METHODS
For solving this problem, in this paper present a novel statistical image reconstruction algorithm for CT, which utilizes a nonlocal means fuzzy complex diffusion as a regularization term for noise reduction and edge preservation.

RESULTS
The proposed model was evaluated on four test cases phantoms.

CONCLUSION
Qualitative and quantitative analyses indicate that the proposed technique has higher efficiency for computed tomography. The proposed method yields significant improvements when compare with the state-of-the-art techniques.