Targeted syntactic evaluation of subject-verb number agreement in English (TSE) evaluates language models' syntactic knowledge using hand-crafted minimal pairs of sentences that differ only in the main verb's conjugation. The method evaluates whether language models rate each grammatical sentence as more likely than its ungrammatical counterpart. We identify two distinct goals for TSE. First, evaluating the systematicity of a language model's syntactic knowledge: given a sentence, can it conjugate arbitrary verbs correctly? Second, evaluating a model's likely behavior: given a sentence, does the model concentrate its probability mass on correctly conjugated verbs, even if only on a subset of the possible verbs? We argue that current implementations of TSE do not directly capture either of these goals, and propose new metrics to capture each goal separately. Under our metrics, we find that TSE overestimates systematicity of language models, but that models score up to 40% better on verbs that they predict are likely in context.


COVID-19 is a disease characterized by damage to the lower respiratory tract, development of the acute respiratory distress syndrome, in severe cases — multiple organ failure, including acute heart failure and cardiomyopathy. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the developed COVID-19 pathogenetic therapy and complications prevention agents using the ex vivo isolated lung and heart models. Isolated organs of white rats were used for the research; the dynamics of functional indicators were analyzed. An amino acid-peptide complex (APC) from a thermally treated milk protein hydrolyzate was used as the experimental COVID-19 pathogenetic therapy and complications prevention agent. Introduction of the APC to the isolated cardiopulmonary complex perfusate slowed down development of pulmonary edema in the experimental group; the organ's weight was 1.5 times less than in the control group (p = 0.0158). We have also registered an airway resistance downtrend. APC supported contractile activity of the isolated myocardium suffering ischemia-reperfusion: the growth of the left ventricular end diastolic pressure was 34% smaller than that registered in the control group (p < 0.05). The APC's cardioprotective effect relies on the endothelium-dependent mechanisms. The ex vivo method is highly informative. It allows assessing reactivity of the isolated organs exposed to biologically active substances and determining the possibilities of compensating for functional changes.


Experienced developers of safety-critical and security-critical systems have long emphasized the importance of applying the highest degree of scrutiny to a system's I/O boundaries. From a safety perspective, input validation is a traditional "best practice." For security-critical architecture and design, identification of the attack surface has emerged as a primary analysis technique. One of our current research focus areas concerns the identification of and mitigation against attacks along that surface, using mathematically-based tools. We are motivated in these efforts by emerging application areas, such as assured autonomy, that feature a high degree of network connectivity, require sophisticated algorithms and data structures, are subject to stringent accreditation/certification, and encourage hardware/software co-design approaches. We have conducted several experiments employing a state-of-the-art toolchain, due to Russinoff and O'Leary, and originally designed for use in floating-point hardware verification, to determine its suitability for the creation of safety-critical/security-critical input filters. We focus first on software implementation, but extending to hardware as well as hardware/software co-designs. We have implemented a high-assurance filter for JSON-formatted data used in an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) application. Our JSON filter is built using a table-driven lexer/parser, supported by mathematically-proven lexer and parser table generation technology, as well as verified data structures. Filter behavior is expressed in a subset of Algorithmic C, which defines a set of C++ header files providing support for hardware design, including the peculiar bit widths utilized in that discipline, and enables compilation to both hardware and software platforms. The Russinoff-O'Leary Restricted Algorithmic C (RAC) toolchain translates Algorithmic C source to the Common Lisp subset supported by the ACL2 theorem prover; once in ACL2, filter behavior can be mathematically verified. We describe how we utilize RAC to translate our JSON filter to ACL2, present proofs of correctness for its associated data types, and describe validation and performance results obtained through the use of concrete test vectors.


Currently over 30% of American adults are obese, more than twice the percentage prevalent in 1980 (American Obesity Association). At the same time, almost 65% adult Americans are said to be overweight. Such high prevalence levels are a major public health concern. Both overweight and obesity are associated with increased health risk for chronic diseases such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, stroke, fatty liver disease and some forms of cancer. In this paper we explore the factors that contribute to increasing rates of obesity and overweight, and study the differences in years 1996 and 2002. We use a multilevel econometric approach to model the four classifications of body mass index (BMI) obese, overweight, healthy and underweight - as a function of individual characteristics, lifestyle indicators and external environment. The results are reasonably consistent within the two years and with findings from previous studies. However, three significant differences are found between the two years at the state-level. Two of them are completely new findings. Higher urban residency is associated with lower rates of overweight and obesity. On the other hand, higher participation in food-stamp programs in the more recent year is associated with increasing prevalence of obesity. Excise tax on cigarettes also has a positive association with obesity only. Previous studies have uses either per-capita sales of restaurants, or price of meals available in fast-food and full-service restaurants. We explored a new variable density of fast-food and full-service restaurants serving meals over a wide price range. Such a variable is used to not only capture the importance of difference between fast-food restaurants and full-service restaurants, but to also distinguish between the effects of lower-priced and higher-priced meals. We find that lower-priced food from fast-food restaurants has positive effect, and higher-priced food from full-service restaurants has negative effect. Three new individual-level lifestyle predictors have been added, and they all seem to be significant in explaining the weight outcomes. Inadequate consumption of fruits and vegetables, irregular or no exercise, and poor self-reported health status are all significantly associated with increasing rates of overweight and obesity.


The President's Commission on Americans Outdoors: A Literature Review. U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 20401. 1986. Various paging. (While supplies last this publication is available from the Business Research Division, Campus Box 420, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309 for postage and handling which is $10). A compendium of literature reviews divided into the following major subject categories: Trends and Demands, Values and Benefits, Natural Resources Management, Special Populations, Motivations and Barriers, Activity Participation Trends, Urban Recreation, Tourism, Information and Communication, and Financing. Readers are encouraged to submit items for inclusion in the Travel Research Bookshelf. All items submitted should include the author, title, source of availability, length, and price. Anyone wishing copies of the materials listed in the Travel Research Bookshelf should write to the source indicated and not to the Journal of Travel Research.


This study was part of an integrated series of investigations conducted at the 6.6 m3/s (150 mgd) City of Phoenix, Arizona, 91st Avenue Wastewater Treatment Plant to improve the chlorination system and optimize chlorine use after the plant was converted to a nitrification– denitrification (NdeN) plant. The objective of this study was to evaluate chlorine breakpoint behavior and assess oxidation–reduction potential (ORP) with different regimes of the breakpoint curve to reflect ORP behavior in a mixed oxidant and reductant environment typical of a chlorine disinfection system in an NdeN plant. The information was also useful for confirming the results of earlier studies on the fate of nitrite‐nitrogen (NO2−–N) in chlorine reactions, the phenomenon of microbreakpoint formation, and the relative competition for chlorine between ammonia and organics and between ammonia and other inorganics including NO2−–N. Laboratory analysis included measurement of the chlorine species (free chlorine and mono‐, di‐, and trichloramines) and NO2−–N, nitrate‐nitrogen, ammonia, pH, dissolved oxygen, and ORP in low‐ammonia effluents (effluents spiked with various amounts of ammonia) after addition of various chlorine doses.
The study indicated that the overall shape of ORP curves follows the pattern of the breakpoint curves. However, the ORP curves were relatively flat at the monochloramine hump region of the curve. Also, ORP increased sharply at the beginning of the monochloramine region and at the beginning of the free chlorine region. The ORP curves eventually flattened again after the initial steep rise. Thus, at the flat portions of the curve, a marginal advantage could be derived with further increases in chlorine dose, and contact time becomes a critical factor in disinfection efficiency. A dip in the ORP curve was invariably observed at the breakpoint even though the dip was of a lesser degree than that of the residual curve. Greater concentrations of dichloramine (which have a greater ORP than monochloramine) expected at the downswing of the breakpoint curve could not sustain the maximum ORP levels observed at the monochloramine region. This suggested that organochloramines may also be a factor in the ORP dip at the breakpoint. Finally, ORP did not vary in direct proportion to total chlorine residual or in direct proportion to the concentration of individual chlorine residual species. Implications of these results are comparatively discussed with reference to the two methods of chlorination control: chlorine‐residual‐based control and ORP‐based control.


The discovery of antibiotics revolutionized medicine by making dangerous bacterial infections and diseases easily treatable. Life expectancies climbed in part due to the ease of treatment for diseases such as tuberculosis and pneumonia, diseases that for centuries were practically a death sentence. Furthermore, antibiotics decreased the risk of post-surgery infections, allowing doctors to develop more sophisticated surgical procedures that extended the average human life expectancy even further. However, these advances are at risk as the pathogens that antibiotics once easily controlled are rapidly evolving resistance to antibiotics due to their widespread overuse and misuse. Antibiotic-resistant infections exact a high price both to human life and to the economy, and experts in medicine, microbiology, economics, and other fields predict that these costs will only increase unless immediate action is taken. This study's purpose is to isolate antibiotic compounds that may be used to create antibiotics to which bacterial pathogens are not resistant. This research cultured on various media the bacteria in soil samples from Church Farm, Ashford, CT. This study utilized morphology to characterize the bacterial isolates and tested them for antibiotic activity against non-pathogenic bacteria.
Faculty Mentor: Barbara Murdoch


Purpose: Cone‐beam computed tomography(CBCT) is an important online imaging modality for image‐guidedradiotherapy(IGRT) as well as other forms of image guided interventions. However, current CBCTimage quality is inferior to that of the diagnostic fan beam CT. We have designed a novel Tetrahedron Beam Computed Tomography (TBCT) imagingsystem that may achieve the same diagnostic quality as helical CT scanners. Method and Materials: The TBCT imagingsystem is comprised of a linear scan x‐ray source and a linear discrete x‐ray detector array. The axis of linear x‐ray tube and the detector array are aligned perpendicular to and within the rotation plane, respectively. The x‐ray beams are narrowly collimated into fan beams and focused to the linear detector.Detector and x‐ray tube rotate slowly while the fan beams scan quickly along the axis. The TBCT reconstruction geometry is similar to CBCT. Approximate and exact reconstruction algorithms can be modified for TBCT reconstruction. Results: TBCT will produce diagnostic quality online images due to its scatter rejection mechanism and the use of high‐performance discrete x‐ray detectors. TBCT also has several other advantages such as larger clearance, ease of performing dynamic field size and mAs controls, etc. Conclusion: TBCT will significantly improve online image quality. Clinical implementation of TBCT would be of importance in IGRT as well as other forms of image guided interventions. This research is partially supported by NCI grant under award number 1R21CA130330‐01A1.


Pancreatitis occurs in up to 7% of patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus who are treated with standard doses of didanosine. Tenofovir disoproxil fumarate increases the plasma levels of didanosine and, thus, the combination of these agents may increase the risk of pancreatitis. Four cases of pancreatitis that occurred during administration of this drug combination are examined, including 1 that resulted in death.


Christine de Pizan, one of the earliest known women authors, wrote the Livre de paix (Book of Peace) between 1412 and 1414, a period of severe corruption and civil unrest in her native France. The book offered Pizan a platform from which to expound her views on contemporary politics and to put forth a strict moral code to which she believed all governments should aspire. The text's intended recipient was the dauphin, Louis of Guyenne; Christine felt that Louis had the political and social influence to fill a void left by years of incompetent leadership. Drawing in equal parts from the Bible and from classical ethical theory, the Livre de paix was revolutionary in its timing, viewpoint, and content.  This volume, edited by Karen Green, Constant J. Mews, and Janice Pinder, boasts the first full English translation of Pizan's work along with the original French text. The editors also place the Livre de paix in historical context, provide a brief biography of Pizan, and offer insight into the translation process.


This book makes concrete macroeconomic policy recommendations for Asian economies aimed at minimizing the impacts of an economic and financial downturn, and setting the stage for an early return to sustainable growth. The focus is on short-term measures related to the cycle. The three main areas addressed are: monetary policy measures to achieve both macroeconomic and financial stability; exchange rate policy and foreign exchange reserve management, including the potential for regional exchange rate cooperation; and ways to ease the constraints on policy resulting from the so-called 'impossible trinity' of fixed exchange rates, open capital accounts and independent monetary policy.


This paper proposes a new method for decoding multicarrier symbols with severe nonlinear distortion. The first part evaluates mutual information expressions for practical nonlinear models and shows the performance bounds for commonly used receiver structures. Then, we derive the maximum-likelihood (ML) sequence estimator, which unfortunately has an exponential complexity due to the nonlinear distortion. This extremely large complexity can be reduced with a simple algorithm that iteratively estimates the nonlinear distortion, thereby reducing the exponential ML to the standard ML without nonlinear distortion. The proposed method can be used to reduce the peak-to-average power ratio of multicarrier signals by clipping the transmit sequence. It can also be used to correct any nonlinear distortion present in transmitter/receiver amplifiers that are operating close to saturation.


The operation of public and semi-public charging infrastructure is often not profitable yet. However, the integration of charging infrastructure in microgrids enables the introduction of innovative business models, e.g. by local renewable energy generation and storage units. Another driver to improve profitability is to adapt the charging infrastructure expansion according to its usage characteristics. This study presents a method to optimize the charging infrastructure expansion. Therefore, a mixed integer linear program with the aim to minimize costs is formulated and applied on real-world data. Via the optimization, different scenarios are developed and the microgrid integration is simulated in an operation optimization algorithm. Different business models such as PV and battery storage integration are computed and the economics of the business models in the different scenarios are evaluated. It can be concluded that microgrid integration can be a significant driver of charging infrastructure operation profitability. Integrating PV generation shortens the payback period in all scenarios. Also, PV generation and battery storage combined improve profitability, but not to the same extent than without storage unit. Furthermore, the optimization of the charging infrastructure expansion leads to a significant improvement of profitability. Combining both the microgrid integration, as well as the expansion optimization, the payback period can be decreased by up until 67 %.


This article examines the long feud between ancient historians Moses Finley and Joseph Vogt on the subject of ancient slavery. Their enmity has often been attributed to differences in character or in political views. However, it is shown here that Finley's attack was above all directed against the tradition of classical Bildung (the German ideal of self-cultivation) and against the corresponding philosophy of history that informed Vogt's work. Because the philosophy of Bildung presupposed a linear and exclusive connection between ancient Greece and modern Germany, Finley argued that it was easily turned into an ideological weapon, most fatally so in Nazi Germany. At a time when the alt-right's political use of classical antiquity resembles Vogt's views, Finley's criticism is not only topical, but it also urges ancient historians to reconsider some of their basic concepts.


This study aims to determine the effect of Job Burnout in the relationship between job crafting, perceived organizational support and job performance. This research was conducted by involving 282 Hotel's frontliners in Purwokerto Banyumas. SEM analisys was carried out to test the hypothesis. According to the data accomplished in the research, it was found out that: (1) The Respondents showed that they did Job Crafting during their works and it made the job performance's level increased. The relationship of the Job Crafting and Job performance was positively significant because the value of C.R is greater than the value of the t table, C.R> t table (2.333> 1.960).  (2)  Meanwhile, the Job Burnout in this study mediates the relationship between POS and job performance. This fact was proven by the value of the t value that was higher than the t table, it was 2.148 > 1,960 by using  = 0,05. After all, it can be summed up that Job Burnout mediates the effect between POS and job performance.


The blind and the visually impaired are in a unique position to appreciate and make functional use of haptic devices. Designing devices for the blind is, however, more arduous than many researchers and inventors expect. It is thus important to fully understand the needs and requirements of that community before attempting to create devices for them. It is also important to learn from past research and development in the application of technology for the blind. This survey provides an overview of current knowledge on blindness and rehabilitation technology relevant for the design of aids for the blind, and more particularly for the use of haptics with the blind. The survey begins with a demystification of blindness and a discussion of the differences between blind and sighted. Follows a broad overview of the many attempts at applying technological solutions to problems encountered by the blind. The survey ends with a discussion of lessons learned from previous failures and successes in rehabilitation technology as well as speculation on the future of haptics and other technologies for people living with blindness. Blindness, Technology and Haptics


Farnesides A and B (1, 2), linear sesquiterpenoids connected by ether links to a ribose dihydrouracil nucleoside, were isolated from a marine-derived Streptomyces sp., strain CNT-372, grown in saline liquid culture. The structures of the new compounds were assigned by comprehensive spectroscopic analysis primarily involving 1D and 2D NMR analysis and by comparison of spectroscopic data to the recently reported ribose nucleoside JBIR-68 (3). The farnesides are only the second example of this exceedingly rare class of microbial terpenoid nucleoside metabolites. Farneside A (1) was found to have modest antimalarial activity against the parasite Plasmodium falciparum.


We present 21 cm H i observations of four Hickson Compact Groups (HCGs) with evidence for a substantial intragroup medium using the Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope (GBT). By mapping H i emission in a region of 25′ × 25′ (140–650 kpc) surrounding each HCG, these observations provide better estimates of H i masses. In particular, we detected 65% more H i than that detected in the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) imaging of HCG 92. We also identify whether the diffuse gas has the same spatial distribution as the high surface brightness (HSB) H i features detected in the VLA maps of these groups by comparing the H i strengths between the observed and modeled masses based on VLA maps. We found that the H i observed with the GBT has a similar spatial distribution to the HSB structures in HCG 31 and HCG 68. Conversely, the observed H i distributions in HCG 44 and HCG 92 were extended and showed significant offsets from the modeled masses. Most of the faint gas in HCG 44 lies to the northeast–southwest region and in HCG 92 lies in the northwest region of their respective groups. The spatial and dynamical similarities between the total (faint+HSB) and the HSB H i indicate that the faint gas is of tidal origin. We found that the gas will survive ionization by the cosmic UV background and the escaping ionizing photons from the star-forming regions and stay primarily neutral for at least 500 Myr.


The error measuring, modeling and compensation techniques for the positioning stage driven by NC linear motors are studied. The error source of the positioning stage is analyzed, the positioning errors are measured by the laser interferometer, and the neural network error model is set up by RBF algorithm. In order to evaluate the accuracy of RBF network prediction method, part of the error samples are used to test. A DSP-core linear motor experimental platform is built up, the error compensation experiments are conducted, the real-time requirement is proved to be met. The simulation and experimental results indicate that the RBF neural network error model trained by samples has a good learning ability and generalization ability, the positioning accuracy is improved significantly, and the effect of random errors on the system is reduced also.


Aim: To investigate the regulatory function of Cox7a2 on steroidogenesis and the mechanism involved in TM3 mouse Leydig cells. Methods: The cDNA of Cox7a2 was cloned from TM3 mouse Leydig cells. It was subcloned to pDsRedExpress-N1 and transfected back into TM3 mouse Leydig cells for Cox7a2 overexpression by transient gene transfection. Steroidogenesis affected by overexpressed Cox7a2 was studied by ELISA. To elicit the mechanism of this effect, expression of steroidogenic acute regulatory (StAR) protein and reactive oxygen species (ROS) were examined by Western blot and fluorometer, respectively. Results: The cDNA of Cox7a2 (249 bp) was cloned from Leydig cells and confirmed by DNA sequencing. After constructed pDsRed-Express-N1-Cox7a2 was transfected back into TM3 mouse Leydig cells, Cox7a2 inhibited not only luteinizing hormone (LH)-induced secretion of testosterone but also the expression of StAR protein. At the same time, Cox7a2 increased the activity of ROS in TM3 mouse Leydig cells. Conclusion: Cox7a2 inhibited LH-induced StAR protein expression, and consequent testosterone production, at least in part, by increasing ROS activity in TM3 mouse Leydig cells. (Asian J Androl 2006 Sep; 8: 589–594)


Promoting excellence in undergraduate STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) education at major research universities is necessary to ensure that we have the STEM-literate workforce and general population required to propel the nation forward into the twenty-first century and beyond. This essay provides a brief contextual history of the Association of American Universities' (AAU) effort to improve the effectiveness of undergraduate STEM education at member campuses and delineates the specific goals of this initiative. The essay then illuminates the essential role of the academic department and department chair in achieving long-lasting change and improving the quality of undergraduate education. It also discusses critical strategies and approaches for promoting the most effective methods for undergraduate STEM teaching and learning, with numerous examples from AAU member universities. The essay concludes with an acknowledgment of key challenges and opportunities that continue to face undergraduate education at research universities.


This research was a quantitative study on the effects of corporate governance mechanisms based on board responsibilities on financial leverage and market value of equity of the three industrial groups listed in the Stock Exchange of Thailand (SET), namely agro & food, property & construction, and technology. The objectives of this study were as follows: (1) to investigate corporate governance affecting financial leverage, (2) to investigate corporate governance affecting the market value of equity, and; (3) to investigate corporate governance affecting market value of equity through financial leverage. Data were collected over the period of 2010-2014 from Form 56-1 (financial statements) and annual reports of the three industrial groups, totaling 161 companies with 805 data entries. The independent variables representing corporate governance were board size, board composition, chief executive director/chair duality, board committees, institutional shareholding, shareholding of board members and board remuneration. Financial leverage and market value of equity were used as intervening and dependent variables respectively. This study then tested the research hypothesis by using Path Analysis, one of the Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) techniques, conducted by AMOS, the statistical program designed for analyzing the level of goodness of fit measures in SEM and to validate the harmony or consistency of the model with the variables. Based on the hypothesis testing results, corporate governance directly and indirectly affected financial leverage and market value of equity, and that corporate governance did not significantly affect market value of equity through financial leverage. Considering the direct and indirect effects, it could be interpreted that corporate governance mechanisms affected market value of equity both directly and indirectly, although the results of the examination of each parameter path line had a significant or insignificant influence.
 Based on the results of this study, it is important to note that the efficient and effective implementation of good corporate governance policy depends on the board's responsibility to balance profitability of the business with the best practices that take into account the interests of all stakeholders. To widely promote the importance and the adoption of corporate governance, further studies should be done with incorporated companies, and small and medium enterprises, using primary data and other tools for measuring the performance of financial markets and market values, such as value added economics, increased cost of market value, and economic profit as well.


Several works have shown unconditional hardness (via integrality gaps) of computing equilibria using strong hierarchies of convex relaxations. Such results however only apply to the problem of computing equilibria that optimize a certain objective function and not to the (arguably more fundamental) task of finding \emph{any} equilibrium.
We present an algorithmic model based on the sum-of-squares (SoS) hierarchy that allows escaping this inherent limitation of integrality gaps. In this model, algorithms access the input game only through a relaxed solution to the natural SoS relaxation for computing equilibria. They can then adaptively construct a list of candidate solutions and invoke a verification oracle to check if any candidate on the list is a solution. This model captures most well-studied approximation algorithms such as those for Max-Cut, Sparsest Cut, and Unique-Games.
The state-of-the-art algorithms for computing exact and approximate equilibria in two-player, n-strategy games are captured in this model and require that at least one of i) size (~ running time) of the SoS relaxation or ii) the size of the list of candidates, be at least $2^{\Omega(n)}$ and $n^{\Omega(\log{(n)})}$ respectively. Our main result shows a lower bound that matches these upper bound up to constant factors in the exponent.
This can be interpreted as an unconditional confirmation, in our restricted algorithmic framework, of Rubinstein's recent conditional hardness \cite{Rub} for computing approximate equilibria.
Our proof strategy involves constructing a family of games that all share a common sum-of-squares solution but every (approximate) equilibrium of one game is far from every (approximate) equilibrium of any other game in the family.


Airborne particulate matter is an important factor in the quality of an indoor environment. In this study, a miniaturized particle sensor was developed to detect submicron-sized aerosols based on number counting. This particle number (PN) sensor was designed and fabricated for real-time measurement of total aerosol number concentration and geometric mean diameter. The sensor (hereafter called as PN1 sensor) comprised a particle-classification unit, a particle-charging unit, and a particle-detection unit. After integrating all the three units, the total number concentration and the geometric mean diameter of test aerosol particles were determined and the results were compared with those obtained using commercial instruments. First, the PN1 sensor was compared with a condensation particle counter (CPC) in lab-test. For this, different groups of monodisperse sodium chloride particles between 20 and 700 nm in diameter were used. Then the PN1 sensor was compared with a scanning mobility particle sizer (SMPS) and an aerodynamic particle sizer (APS). For this, the PN1 sensor data were obtained by varying the combination of two corona voltage and test particles (sodium chloride and polystyrene latex) size distribution. In addition to lab-test, field test was carried out with indoor aerosols in different places. The number concentration and geometric mean diameter of indoor aerosols were measured by PN1 sensor and compared with SMPS data. The number concentration was also compared with the results of CPC and Pegasor AQ Indoor (Pegasor, Finland) measurements.


Both humans and group-living animals associate and behave affiliatively more with some individuals than others. Human friendship has long been acknowledged, and recently scientists studying animal behaviour have started using the term friendship for close social associates in animals. Yet, while biologists describe friends as social tools to enhance fitness, social scientists describe human friendship as unconditional. We investigate whether these different descriptions reflect true differences in human friendship and animal close social associations or are a by-product of different research approaches: namely social scientists focussing on proximate and biologists on ultimate explanations. We first stress the importance of similar measures to determine close social associations, thereafter examine their ultimate benefits and proximate motivations, and discuss the latest findings on the central-neural regulation of social bonds. We conclude that both human friendship and animal close social associations are ultimately beneficial. On the proximate level, motivations for friendship in humans and for close social associations in animals are not necessarily based on benefits and are often unconditional. Moreover, humans share with many animals a similar physiological basis of sociality. Therefore, biologists and social scientist describe the same phenomenon, and the use of the term friendship for animals seems justified.


Some studies indicate that correlations between GDP growth in Japan and in emerging East Asian countries are consistently positive; others claim that such correlations are consistently negative. In this analysis of 10 East Asian countries over 19752002 using quarterly GDP data, a Markov-switching vector autoregressive system with three growth cycle regimes is used to examine to what extent such correlations are sensitive to third-country effects, transmission mechanisms, and the quality of Japanese output data. After controlling for third-country effects, correlations with Japan are found to be almost uniformly negative. When transmission variables are taken into account, however, positive correlations appear during rapid-growth regimes for China, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, and South Korea. When higher-quality Japanese output data are used, shocks in these countries are symmetric with Japan's disturbances in growth-recession and rapid-growth regimes. However, synchronization with Japan is never present in the normal-growth regime. Because these five countries are not fully synchronized with Japan, it is probably premature for them to engage in exchange rate arrangements involving the yen.


Peritoneal adhesion index (PAI) is a score based on appearance and distribution of peritoneal adhesions. The study aims to assess the validity of PAI in order to standardize the definition of peritoneal adhesions. The study includes an expert survey to assess the feasibility of the score and a prospective observational and multicenter trial to assess its validity. 96% of surgeons of the survey consider PAI a useful tool. From January 2013 to March 2015, 205 patients were enrolled to undergo a surgical intervention for bowel obstruction caused by peritoneal adhesions in 21 centers. PAI was significantly higher in the population with previous surgery (P=0.043) and in patients who underwent two previous surgical interventions, if compared to those with only one previous intervention (P=0.012). Length of surgery was significantly longer in patients with higher PAI (P<0.001). Patients with a higher PAI showed a clinically higher risk for early bowel re-obstruction and for early re-intervention. The AUC of the ROC curve for early re-occlusion is 0.8. PAI can be considered a feasible and useful score.


From Brazil to the United Kingdom, 2016 was a critical year in global politics. Heritage, ethics and the way that archaeologists relate to the public were and will all be affected, and it is time to reflect critically on the phenomenon of 'reactionary populism' and how it affects the practice and theory of archaeology. 'Reactionary populism' can be defined as a political form that is anti-liberal in terms of identity politics (e.g. multiculturalism, abortion rights, minority rights, religious freedom), but liberal in economic policies. It is characterised by nationalism, racism and anti-intellectualism, and as Judith Butler states in a recent interview, it wants "to restore an earlier state of society, driven by nostalgia or a perceived loss of privilege" (Soloveitchik 2016). Our intention here is to argue that the liberal, multi-vocal model of the social sciences and the humanities is no longer a viable option. Instead, we ask our colleagues to embrace an archaeology that is ready to intervene in wider public debates not limited to issues of heritage or of local relevance, is not afraid of defending its expert knowledge in the public arena, and is committed to reflective, critical teaching.


Abstract: The PEN & PAD Medical Record model describes a framework for an information model, designed to meet the requirements of an electronic medical record. This model has been successfully tested in a computer-based record system for General Practitioners as part of the PEN & PAD (GP) Project. Experiences of using the model for developing computer-based nursing records are reported. Results show that there are some problems with directly applying the model to the nursing domain. Whilst the main purpose of the nursing record is to document and communicate a patient's care, it has several other, possibly incompatible, roles. Furthermore, the structure and content of the information contained within the nursing record is heavily influenced by the need for the nursing profession to visibly demonstrate the philosophical frameworks underlying their work. By providing new insights into the professional background of nursing records, this work has highlighted the need for nurses to clarify and make explicit their uses of information, and also provided them with some tools to assist in this task.


If γ Dor-type pulsations are driven by the convective blocking mechanism, a convective envelope at a sufficient depth is essential. There are several hot γ Dor and hybrid star candidates in which there should not be an adequate convective envelope to excite the γ Dor-type oscillations. The existence of these hot objects needs an explanation. Therefore, we selected, observed, and studied 24 hot γ Dor and hybrid candidates to investigate their properties. The atmospheric parameters, chemical abundances, and vsin i values of the candidates were obtained using medium-resolution (R  =  46 000) spectra taken with the Fibre-fed Échelle Spectrograph instrument mounted at the Nordic Optical Telescope. We also carried out frequency analyses of the Kepler long- and short-cadence data to determine the exact pulsation contents. We found only five bona fide hot γ Dor and three bona fide hot hybrid stars in our sample. The other 16 stars were found to be normal γ Dor, δ Sct, or hybrid variables. No chemical peculiarity was detected in the spectra of the bona fide hot γ Dor and hybrid stars. We investigated the interplay between rotation and pulsational modes. We also found that the hot γ Dor stars have higher Gaia luminosities and larger radii compared to main-sequence A–F stars.


Fiber-reinforced polymer (FRP) composites are known for their outstanding strength, stiffness, corrosion resistance, and light weight nature, which are used in such fields as aerospace, marine, automotive, and construction industries. Although, FRP composites have many advantages, as compared to metals, defects may occur during the production process or during the service life due of the laminated structure. Therefore, there is a growing demand for nondestructive testing (NDT) approaches that can pre-detect such defects before they become critical and cause failure. Radio frequency (RF) signals are able to penetrate dielectric materials with relatively low loss, which make microwave NDT an attractive solution among the other numerous inspection techniques. This paper presents the theory and development of an ultrawideband (UWB) microwave imaging system, covering 8.2 to 12.4 GHz frequency band, based synthetic aperture radar (SAR) algorithms designed to detect damages and defects within the FRP structures.


We consider a problem of learning a binary classifier only from positive data and unlabeled data (PU learning) and estimating the class-prior in unlabeled data under the case-control scenario. Most of the recent methods of PU learning require an estimate of the class-prior probability in unlabeled data, and it is estimated in advance with another method. However, such a two-step approach which first estimates the class prior and then trains a classifier may not be the optimal approach since the estimation error of the class-prior is not taken into account when a classifier is trained. In this paper, we propose a novel unified approach to estimating the class-prior and training a classifier alternately. Our proposed method is simple to implement and computationally efficient. Through experiments, we demonstrate the practical usefulness of the proposed method.


Data integration has been extensively studied by the data management community and is a core task in the data pre-processing step of ML pipelines. When the integrated data is used for analysis and model training, responsible data science requires addressing concerns about data quality and bias. We present a tutorial on data integration and responsibility, highlighting the existing efforts in responsible data integration along with research opportunities and challenges. In this tutorial, we encourage the community to audit data integration tasks with responsibility measures and develop integration techniques that optimize the requirements of responsible data science. We focus on three critical aspects: (1) the requirements to be considered for evaluating and auditing data integration tasks for quality and bias; (2) the data integration tasks that elicit attention to data responsibility measures and methods to satisfy these requirements; and, (3) techniques, tasks, and open problems in data integration that help achieve data responsibility.


In the world of scientific publication, morals are not completely different than in daily life. There are cases of clear research misconduct. If misconduct occurs, it creates a disruption, not only for the scientific community and their institutions, but for all individuals involved. Journals aspire to select, through peer review,the highest quality science, and their reputations depend on the trust of readers, authors, researchers, and reviewers. This paper analyzes the major categories of ethical violations encountered during submission, review, and publication of scientific articles. The process of peer reviewing of the journals rely on expert and objective review by knowledgeable researchers to ensure the quality of the papers they publish. The review of manuscripts for peer reviewed journals raises many ethical issues and problems. The recommendations of the reviewers make concerning publication and the advice they give to authors set the scientific standards of the discipline. Understanding that some apparent ethical contraventions are the result of confusion or a lack of knowledge, some journals are assuming the responsibility of educating their community about ethical issues in publishing. The goal of this article is to make the guiding ethical principles accessible to all of our readers and contributors. By increasing education and awareness of ethical matters relevant to scientific investigation and publication, deviations from appropriate conduct will be reduced. In the future, authors can anticipate that their submissions will be required to meet an expanding array of ethical standards. Key words: ETHICS, PROFESSIONAL, SCIENTIFIC, PUBLICATIONS, EDITORS


In this paper we investigated the feasibility of the M42 `Fat Man' by considering the recoil felt on a person when firing the $5.5$ kg projectile. It was found that a muzzle velocity of $v = 32.1$ms$^{-1}$ is required to fire the projectile $105$ m when air resistance was taken into account. To achieve this muzzle velocity a pressure of $P = 16.1$x$10^6$ Pa is required in the pneumatic firing system. It was found that the recoil of the system is $p = 188.1$ kgms$^{-1}$. The M42 `Fat Man' was determined to be a feasible weapon system.


A mathematical model of the bathymetry-generated external gravitational field The currently available global geopotential models and the global elevation and bathymetry data allow modelling the topography-corrected and bathymetry stripped reference gravity field to a very high spectral resolution (up to degree 2160 of spherical harmonics) using methods for a spherical harmonic analysis and synthesis of the gravity field. When modelling the topography-corrected and crust-density-contrast stripped reference gravity field, additional stripping corrections are applied due to the ice, sediment and other major known density contrasts within the Earth's crust. The currently available data of global crustal density structures have, however, a very low resolution and accuracy. The compilation of the global crust density contrast stripped gravity field is thus limited to a low spectral resolution, typically up to degree 180 of spherical harmonics. In this study we derive the expressions used in forward modelling of the bathymetry-generated gravitational field quantities and the corresponding bathymetric stripping corrections to gravity field quantities by means of the spherical bathymetric (ocean bottom depth) functions. The expressions for the potential and its radial derivative are formulated for the adopted constant (average) ocean saltwater density contrast and for the spherical approximation of the geoid surface. These newly derived expressions are utilized in numerical examples to compute the gravitational potential and attraction generated by the ocean density contrast. The computation is realized globally on a 1 x 1 arc-deg geographical grid at the Earth's surface.


Infection with Helicobacter pylori strains containing high number of EPIYA-C phosphorylation sites in the CagA is associated with significant gastritis and increased risk of developing pre-malignant gastric lesions and gastric carcinoma. However, these findings have not been reproduced in animal models yet. Therefore, we investigated the effect on the gastric mucosa of Mongolian gerbil (Meriones unguiculatus) infected with CagA-positive H. pylori strains exhibiting one or three EPIYA-C phosphorilation sites. Mongolian gerbils were inoculated with H. pylori clonal isolates containing one or three EPIYA-C phosphorylation sites. Control group was composed by uninfected animals challenged with Brucella broth alone. Gastric fragments were evaluated by the modified Sydney System and digital morphometry. Clonal relatedness between the isolates was considered by the identical RAPD-PCR profiles and sequencing of five housekeeping genes, vacA i/d region and of oipA. The other virulence markers were present in both isolates (vacA s1i1d1m1, iceA2, and intact dupA). CagA of both isolates was translocated and phosphorylated in AGS cells. After 45 days of infection, there was a significant increase in the number of inflammatory cells and in the area of the lamina propria in the infected animals, notably in those infected by the CagA-positive strain with three EPIYA-C phosphorylation sites. After six months of infection, a high number of EPIYA-C phosphorylation sites was associated with progressive increase in the intensity of gastritis and in the area of the lamina propria. Atrophy, intestinal metaplasia, and dysplasia were also observed more frequently in animals infected with the CagA-positive isolate with three EPIYA-C sites. We conclude that infection with H. pylori strain carrying a high number of CagA EPIYA-C phosphorylation sites is associated with more severe gastric lesions in an animal model of H. pylori infection.


Electron-probe microanalyses of natural krennerites and sylvanites, containing no minor elements, have supported previous estimates of silver content using a d-value curve obtained from synthetic samples. The correspondence for the silver content of natural calaverite is not well established. Examples of krennerite and calaverite containing minor elements have been found. Krennerite can incorporate minor Cu in its structure which permits the mineral to have a lower percentage silver than normal krennerite. Calaverite has been found to contain both Cu and Sb in minor amounts permitting the structure to exist with more silver than in the Au-Ag-Te system.


Systems in which vibrational displacements are limited because elastic forces increase practically up to unlimited values, are investigated. Here systems having one degree of freedom are investigated in which vibrations have specific qualities for the case of conservative systems as well as for the case of forced harmonic excitations. Typical expressions for nonlinear stiffness are proposed. Model of a pipe robot with limited values of displacements is presented and investigated. The model has two degrees of freedom: the displacement of the vibrating mass inside the pipe robot and the displacement of the pipe robot itself. Motion of the pipe robot in the negative direction as well as motion of the pipe robot in the positive direction for different parameters of the system is observed. For high amplitude of excitation, the distance travelled by the pipe robot is much greater than for low amplitude of excitation. The obtained results are used in the process of design of pipe robots.


Regulation of cell-matrix adhesion in mouse fibroblasts Simon Thomas Barry Mouse Swiss 3T3 fibroblasts maintained in serum-free medium lose their actin stress fibres and focal adhesions. Addition of serum or lysophosphatidic acid (LPA) to these cells induced the rapid reformation of these structures, and the increased tyrosine phosphorylation of ppl25Fak and paxillin. The formation of focal adhesions and actin stress fibres was shown to require tyrosine phosphorylation; it was blocked by the tyrosine kinase inhibitor genistein, and stimulated by the tyrosine phosphatase inhibitors sodium orthovandate and phenyl arsine oxide. Moreover, the activity of a tyrosine phosphatase directed against ppl25Fak and paxillin was elevated in serum-stai'ved cells. Despite the absence of focal adhesions and actin stress fibres, the adhesion of serumstarved cells was shown to be mediated by integrins, as peptides coiTesponding to the cellbinding motif o f fibronectin caused cell detachment from the extracellular matrix. In addition, the integrin-mediated formation of actin stress fibres and protein tyrosine phosphorylation was blocked by introducing C3 transferase into cells, a result which establishes a role for the small GTP-binding protein rho in signalling via integrins. PKC was also required to maintain adhesion in serum-starved cells as the PKC inhibitor calphostin C caused cell retraction, a process that was accompanied by the formation of actin stress fibres. In contrast, activation of PKC with phorbol esters suppressed the LPAinduced assembly of actin stress fibres and focal adhesions, and caused loss of these structures in cells grown in serum. The results suggest that PKC negatively regulates the formation of actin stress fibres. The proposed role of vinculin phosphorylation in the formation of focal adhesions was found to be inconsistent with the finding that the phosphorylated form of the protein is not associated with the Triton X-100 insoluble fraction in Swiss 3T3 cells. Vinculin was a poor substrate for PKC in vitro, although a cryptic C-terminal phosphorylation site was


The performance of memory-bound commercial applications such as databases is limited by increasing memory latencies. In this paper, we show that exploiting memory-level parallelism (MLP) is an effective approach for improving the performance of these applications and that microarchitecture has a profound impact on achievable MLP. Using the epoch model of MLP, we reason how traditional microarchitecture features such as out-of-order issue and state-of-the-art microarchitecture techniques such as runahead execution affect MLP. Simulation results show that a moderately aggressive out-of-order issue processor improves MLP over an in-order issue processor by 12-30%, and that aggressive handling of loads, branches and serializing instructions is needed to attain the full benefits of large out-of-order instruction windows. The results also show that a processor's issue window and reorder buffer should be decoupled to exploit MLP more efficiently. In addition, we demonstrate that runahead execution is highly effective in enhancing MLP, potentially improving the MLP of the database workload by 82% and its overall performance by 60%. Finally, our limit study shows that there is considerable headroom in improving MLP and overall performance by implementing effective instruction prefetching, more accurate branch prediction and better value prediction in addition to runahead execution.


The paper presents a theoretical development of the optical characteristics of photometers employing lenses. Both in-focus and out-of-focus operation are analyzed in detail for three types of photometers: a photometer employing fixed apertures, a photometer employing a simple lens, and a photometer employing a combination of a simple lens and a fixed aperture. The range of satisfactory operation of such instruments is carefully defined, as well as the gross errors which may occur in special applications.


The energy supply infrastructures construction is the prerequisite and basis for the large-scale promotion and application of electric vehicles (EVs). The characteristics and current construction situation of several EV power supply infrastructures in China such as AC charging spot, charging station and battery swap station are introduced first, and the characteristics of time combination mode and space combination mode for the construction of EV charging facilities are also discussed. Meanwhile, the features of operation mode for EV power supply infrastructures in different developing stage of are analyzed, and the main bodies for EV power supply infrastructures construction are also introduced.


This handbook deals with the asynchronous machine in its close environment. It was born from a reflection on this electromagnetic converter whose integration in industrial environments takes a wide part. Previously this type of motor operated at fixed speed, from now on it has been integrated more and more in processes at variable speed. For this reason it seemed useful, or necessary, to write a handbook on the various aspects from the motor in itself, via the control and while finishing by the diagnosis aspect. Indeed, an asynchronous motor is used nowadays in industry where variation speed and reliability are necessary. We must know permanently for the sensitive systems, the state of process and to inform the operator of the appearance of any anomaly and its severity.


The evaluation of power plant uprates has traditionally been based on the definition of several 'typical' operating modes based on historical data and a — more or less detailed — model of the plant that is compared in current configuration against the same base model including the modifications under consideration. For the economic assessment of the uprate, annual operating hours are allocated to the operating points, and fuel savings and/or additional output predicted by the model due to the modifications are evaluated against the expected investment cost. In this study, the authors demonstrate that this classic approach contains risks in several aspects, in particular:
 • the representativeness of the 'typical' operating modes,
 • the accuracy of the model, and
 • the correctness of the assumptions in the allocation of operating hours.
 Utilizing the example of an actual uprate of a heat recovery steam generator (HRSG) in a large utility plant of an Austrian steel company, a new approach for an evaluation based on 'big data' is presented that uses a full year of operational data in hourly granularity for both, the verification of the accuracy of the plant model, and the evaluation of the effect of the uprate. The authors also provide details of the underlying technologies that allow for both, excellent match of operational data with a fully-fledged heat balance software and fast evaluation of tens of thousands of calculation cases.


A polymorphic Alu element belonging to the young Ya5 subfamily of Alu repeats located in the progesterone receptor gene has been characterized. Using a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based assay, the genetic diversity associated with the PROGINS Alu repeat was determined in a diverse array of human populations. The level of insertion polymorphism associated with PROGINS suggests that it will be a useful marker for the study of human evolution. In addition, we determined the distribution of the PROGINS Alu insertion in two groups of women from greater New Orleans, LA with breast cancer. The PROGINS Alu insertion was not associated with breast cancer in the populations tested. © 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.


We study the entanglement evolution in a weakly coupled bipartite system with a large energy level difference under the influence of spin-star environments. The subsystems can be coupled to a pure state or a thermal equilibrium state spinstar environment. Our results show that, in the case of the coupling strength being less than the energy level difference of the subsystems(weakly coupled), the spin-star environment can always be used to assist the entanglement generation of the bipartite system.


Electronic Health Records (EHR) are rapidly becoming accepted as tools for planning and population health1,2. With the national dialogue around Medicaid expansion12, the role of EHR data has become even more important. For their potential to be fully realized and contribute to these discussions, techniques for creating accurate small area estimates is vital. As such, we examined the efficacy of developing small area estimates for Medicaid patients in two locations, Albuquerque and Chicago, by using a Monte Carlo/Gaussian technique that has worked in accurately locating registered voters in North Carolina11. The Albuquerque data, which includes patient address, will first be used to assess the accuracy of the methodology. Subsequently, it will be combined with the EHR data from Chicago to develop a regression that predicts Medicaid patients by US Block Group. We seek to create a tool that is effective in translating EHR data's potential for population health studies.


ABSTRACT Currently, Latin American cities are seeing simultaneous processes of reinvestment and redevelopment in their historic central areas. These are not just mega-scale interventions like Porto Maravilha in Rio or Puerto Madero in Buenos Aires or the luxury renovations seen in Santa Fé or Nueva Polanco in Mexico City, they also include state-led, piecemeal, high-rise interventions in Santiago, Buenos Aires, Rio de Janeiro, Panamá and Bogotá, all of which are causing the displacement of original populations and thus are forms of gentrification. Until very recently, these processes have been under-conceptualized and little critiqued in Latin America, but they deserve careful scrutiny, along with new forms of neighbourhood organization, activism and resistance. In this introduction, we begin that task, drawing on the work begun in an Urban Studies Foundation-funded workshop on Global Gentrification held in Santiago, Chile in 2012. Our aim is not just to understand these urban changes and conflicts as gentrification, but to empirically test the applicability of a generic understanding of gentrification beyond the usual narratives of/from the global North. From this investigation, we hope to nurture new critical narratives, to engage sensitively with indigenous theoretical narratives and to understand the dialectical interplay between state policies, financial markets, local politics and people. The papers in this special issue deal with the core issues of state power and urban policies (exerted at metropolitan and neighbourhood scales), the enormous influx of financial investment in derelict neighbourhoods that produces exclusion and segregation, the significant loss of urban heritage from rapidly "renewing" neighbourhoods and the institutional arrangements that can enable anti-displacement activism and self-managed social housing production.


Many publications have demonstrated advantages of smart polymer actuators over the traditional electromagnetic transducers. One of the most significant contributions of the polymers might be their soft actuation mechanism. Hence unlike the traditional actuators, there is morphological freedom for actuator construction that benefits production of either small scale complex mechanisms or human-like applications. Although many different actuation paradigms of polymer actuators presented in previous publications, no significant contributions are made for the actual industrial applications. A noble idea for acquiring controllable actuation is antagonistic drive mechanism of dielectric elastomer. The mechanism provides fairly accurate controllable motion and relatively large actuation forces. A strong dependency to pre-strain of the polymer is however one of the major constraints of the actuator driving mechanism. A detailed characterization of pre-strain effects should be done for the successful construction of the actuators. Hence an experimental and theoretical consideration about mutual effects of pre-strain and actuator performance is to be presented in the present work.


A local series expansion of a received signal is proposed for computing direction of arrival (DOA) in sensor arrays. The advantages compared to classical DOA estimation methods include general sensor configurations, ultra-slow sampling, small dimension of the arrays, and that it applies for both narrowband and wideband signals without prior knowledge of the signals. This makes the method well suited for DOA estimation in sensor networks where size and energy consumption have to be small. We generalize the common far-field assumption of the target to also include the near-field, which enables target tracking using a network of sensor arrays in one framework.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the potential of four different strains of white‐rot fungi (Phanerochaete chrysosporium, Phanerochaete sordida, Phlebia brevispora, and Cyathus stercoreus) to degrade 2,4,6‐trinitrotoluene (TNT) in liquid medium. Loss of TNT from the culture medium was determined using high‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), while the mutagenicity of the medium residues was evaluated using the Salmonella/microsome bioassay. The data indicate that within 21 d of incubation, all fungi were able to reduce the TNT concentration (from 90 mg/L) in the liquid medium to below detection limits. In this study, P. sordida showed a relatively high growth rate and the fastest rate of TNT degradation. The fungal treatment also produced a significant reduction of TNT mutagenicity. Treatment with C. stercoreus, P. brevispora, P. sordida, and P. chrysosporium resulted in the elimination of 94%, 90%, 87%, and 67% of the initial TNT‐amended medium mutagenicity, respectively. The data also demonstrate that during incubation, TNT was eliminated from the culture medium two to eight times faster than the reduction in mutagenic potential. These results suggest that TNT disappearance alone cannot be used as the sole criterion in TNT remediation. Chemical analysis revealed that the major metabolites in the initial transformation of TNT were the monoamino‐dinitrotoluenes, which were also degraded by the selected white‐rot fungi. The study demonstrated that the white‐rot fungi are capable of metabolizing and detoxifying TNT under aerobic conditions in nonligninolytic liquid medium.


Although modern sensor technology and control algorithms have enabled in-process regulation of arc welding, classical single-torch actuation methods provide only a few welding conditions that can be modulated in real time to control multiple weld geometry characteristics. To decouple the process dynamics and simultaneously control thermal characteristics of the weld, multiple virtual heat inputs are implemented by rapid periodic reciprocation (time sharing) of the single torch on the weld surface. Dynamic analytical, numerical and linearized experimental process models are developed for the design of adaptive MIMO control systems of both geometrical and thermal characteristics, and their performance is rested in rejecting disturbances and following setpoint changes. To maximize the range of achievable weld features, a continuous heat distribution and temperature monitoring on the entire weld surface is finally adopted. The necessary vector-scanning trajectories of the torch are regulated in real time by a distributed-parameter control strategy, integrated to the weld design software for flexibility in production.<<ETX>>


The scanning electron microscope (SEM) has gone through a tremendous evolution to become indispensable for many and diverse scientific and industrial applications. The first paper in this series, discussed some of the issues related to signal generation in the SEM, instrument calibration, electron beam interactions and the need for physics-based modelling to understand the actual image formation mechanisms. All these were summed together in a discussion of how these issues effect measurements made with the instrument. This second paper discusses another major issue confronting the microscopist which is specimen contamination. Over the years, NIST has done a great deal of research into the issue of sample contamination and its removal and elimination and some of this work is reviewed and discussed here.


Quality function deployment is a management tool that provides the means of translating customer requirements into appropriate technical requirements for each stage of a product or service development. The structure provided by QFD can be of significant benefit to companies, yet it is an extremely under-utilised tool. This article introduces QFD, outlines how it can be used, compares its customary practice around the world and identifies some of its problems and benefits.


Summary
Two enterotoxins formed by enteropathogenic strains of Escherichia coli of pig origin were studied. One of them (LT) was heat-labile and antigenic and the other (ST) was heat-stable and apparently non-antigenic. They were identified by their ability to dilate ligated segments of pig intestine.
The ST component was produced by all of 40 enteropathogenic pig strains examined and the LT component was produced only by those strains that naturally possessed, or had possessed, K88 antigen.
Both enterotoxins were found to be controlled by transmissible plasmids (Ent). In transmission experiments with donor strains that produced both LT and ST, it was not possible to isolate recipient strains that produced only one or other of these two enterotoxins; they all produced both. As a group, strains that had received Ent (Ent+) from donor strains that produced only ST dilated ligated segments to the same extent as did similar strains that had received Ent from donor strains that produced both ST and LT.
The dilating effect of LT was neutralised by antisera prepared against live organisms of strains that produced LT and ST and, when larger doses were used, by antisera prepared against strains that had been shown to produce ST only. None of the antisera examined neutralised ST.
Antisera prepared against living organisms neutralised the dilating effect of these organisms. This neutralising effect was bactericidal, not antitoxic, in character and it appeared to be largely strain-specific.
ST and LT preparations of Ent+ strains produced a similar type of severe diarrhoea when given by mouth to piglets. Similar proparations of the corresponding Ent- strains did not.
It is concluded that LT and ST are probably two forms of essentially the same enterotoxin.


Nowadays, numerical simulation of cutting processes receives considerable interest among the scientific and industrial communities. For that, various numerical codes are used. Nevertheless, there is no uniform standard for the comparison of simulation model with these different software. So, it is often not easy to state if a given code is more pertinent than another. In this framework, the present work deals with various methodologies to simulate orthogonal cutting operation inside two commercial codes Abaqus and Deform. The aim of the present paper is to build a common benchmark model between the two pre-cited codes which can initiate other numerical cutting model comparisons. The study is focused on the typical aeronautical material - Ti-6Al-4V - Titanium alloy. In order to carry out a comparative study between the two codes, some similar conditions concerning geometrical models and cutting parameters were respected. A multi-physic comprehension related to chip formation, cutting forces and temperature evolutions, and surface integrity is presented. Moreover, the numerical results are compared with experimental ones.


Prestressing of lattice shell is realized by cable, and author put forward a new kind of layout: The prestressing has been brought to bear by hoop and radial element of single-layer lattice shell, which avoid cable's effect on architectural purpose. The element has been made to sleeve, and the magnitude of prestressing is dominated by bolt. Article shows an example of K6, K8 single-layer spherical lattice shell, and the prestressing have been exert on partial ribs and hoops. The prestressing has been calculated by element axial force under normal loading. Stability of shells have been studied, and show the deformation satisfy the criteria under normal loading; The ultimate capacity has been improved obviously, loads transfer is rational. The new layout of prestressing is a promising technique.


In response to increasing customer attention to food attributes, agribusinesses are employing novel product differentiation strategies. As an example, we investigate the use of food safety claims on new packaged food products from the food manufacturers' perspective. First, using two product innovation databases, we investigate claim use on labels in seven English-speaking countries over the period from 1980 to 2008. Then, based on manufacturer recommended selling prices and using U.S. data (from 2002 to 2008), we apply parametric and nonparametric hedonic methods to identify supply-side (agribusiness) valuations of chemical and microbiological claims in two food categories. We identify a significant 5 cent premium per ounce for a "preservative free" claim in spoonable yogurts. We do not find a statistically significant impact for "E. coli free" messages on meat and poultry products but find a significant price premium (19.3 cents and 25.7 cents per ounce in the two models) for "antibiotic free" claims in this category.


Social insects provide us with a powerful metaphor to create decentralized systems of simple interacting, and often mobile, agents. The emergent collective intelligence of social insects---swarm intelligence---resides not in complex individual abilities but rather in networks of interactions that exist among individuals and between individuals and their environment. In particular, a recently proposed model of division of labor in a colony of primitively eusocial wasps, based on a simple reinforcement of response thresholds, can be transformed into a decentralized adaptive algorithm of task allocation. An application of such an algorithm is proposed in the context of a mail company, but virtually any type of flexible task allocation can be described within the same framework.


The authors carried out monitoring studies to examine the epizootic process features and the manifestation of clinical signs and pathological changes in Marek's disease in various poultry farms in the Rostov region. The disease was most often in chickens aged 1.5 to 6 months. Two forms of the disease were registered: classical (nervous) 63.3% of cases, and tumor (visceral) 36.7% of cases. There was an unequal manifestation of symptoms of the disease, because of the different state of natural resistance and immunological reactivity of sick birds. The main clinical signs of Marek's disease in chickens included: oppression; loss of appetite; development of paresis and paralysis; violation of movement coordination; cachexia; anemic crest, earrings and visible mucous membranes; change in the shape and constriction of the pupil; depigmentation of the iris of the eyes; partial or complete loss of vision; lameness; damage to the feather follicles; and the formation of tumors on the skin. The mortality rate of birds with nervous lesions was 70%. The surviving birds died within 1–2 months from the development of neoplastic changes in the internal organs. The main pathological changes in Marek's disease were thickening and destructive changes in nerve fibers; and neoplastic changes in the parenchymal organs, lungs, intestinal mesentery, gastrointestinal tract, muscle tissue and skin. Most often, the disease was registered in the personal subsidiary plots of citizens. It manifested itself in massive epizootic outbreaks, usually in a nervous form with a high morbidity and mortality. In poultry farms, the disease was recorded extremely rarely. As a rule, it manifested itself in a tumor-like form, in isolated cases among a small percentage of poultry.


Thyristor rectifiers, inverters grid-tied, and AC voltage regulators are widely used in industry, and on electrified transport, they have a lot in common both in the power circuit and in the control system. They have a common mathematical structure and switching processes. At the same time, the rectifier, but the inverter units and thyristor regulators of alternating voltage are considered separately both theoretically and practically. They are written about in different books as completely different devices. The aim of this work is to combine them into one class based on the unity of the equations describing electromagnetic processes, and then, to show this unity on the mathematical model and experimental setup. Based on research from mathematics to the product, a conclusion is made about the methodology for the rapid conduct of research and experimental design work, preparation for production and serial production of converters with a unified bundle. In recent years, there has been a transition from thyristor circuits and transistor in modular design. Showing the example of thyristor rectifiers and AC voltage regulators, we can conclude that there is a unity of mathematical structures and grid-tied thyristor converters. Keywords—Direct current, alternating current, rectifier, AC voltage regulator, generalized mathematical model.


Abstract The initialization of numerical prediction models usually requires the transformation of variables observed in a p-coordinate system into some other coordinate frame of reference (e.g., α-coordinates or Θ-coordinates). Such transformations require the application of interpolation or curve-fitting techniques. The present study demonstrates that the choice of an appropriate interpolation scheme can become a critical issue for the skill of a low-resolution prediction model. First we show that the interpolation scheme, when applied to more than one meteorological variable, should satisfy the balance requirements that exist between these variables. Not all of the currently used schemes meet this condition. Next we provide evidence indicating that interpolation schemes used to convert p-into α-coordinates, and then back into p-coordinates, do not necessarily replicate the original, observed field distributions of these meteorological variables. Such double transformations usually are required, because ...


VR tools and techniques are rapidly developing in the scientific, engineering, and medical areas. Although traditionally used as input devices to virtual worlds, instrumented gloves may become the tools of choice to measure, monitor, and amplify upper-extremity motion. While we have identified potential clinical applications to VR input devices, many technological challenges must be met before such devices can be made available for patient care. The innovators in medical VR will be called upon to refine technical efficiency and increase physical and psychological comfort and capability, while keeping an eye to reducing costs for health care. The mandate is complex, but like VR technology itself, the possibilities are exciting and promising.


The Kings Mountain shear zone, which marks the boundary between the Inner Piedmont and Kings Mountain belts near the North Carolina–South Carolina state line, is a northeast-striking, steeply to moderately dipping zone of ductile mylonitic deformation and late-stage semibrittle deformation. The zone is at least 60 km long and is no more than a few hundred metres wide. It truncates rock units of both belts. The juxtaposition of two lithologically different terranes suggests that displacement may be considerable, probably on the order of kilometres. Inconclusive evidence suggests that the northwest (Inner Piedmont) side is upthrown. The Kings Mountain zone is one of several in the southern Appalachian Piedmont that were active during a Middle to Late Devonian (Acadian?) deformational event, and it may be part of a regional fault system extending from Alabama to Virginia. The Kings Mountain, Lowndesville, and Towaliga zones may be a single zone more than 550 km long.


This paper is a literature study that seeks to explore the classical literature on the theory of ma'âlât Al-Afâl. This theory is a concept that focuses on efforts to read predictions of what will happen from an action taken, then the prediction will be used as a benchmark in establishing the law between allowed or prohibited. This theory has a high urgency in the contemporary ijtihad fiqih region, because the nature of contemporary jurisprudence itself tends to rely on benefit. It is the benefit prediction that can be used as a legal backing even though the consequences will be to leave the original law contained in the text. Besides mashlahah, there are several factors which require that the concept of ma'âlât Al-Af'âl is recognized in the realm of ijtihad, such as sad Al-Zariah, Al-Dharurah, raf`u Al-Haraj and ta`lil Al-Ahkâm. The conclusion obtained is that this predictive theory is really needed in solving contemporary problems, because the benchmark is the maqâshid syariahah which leads to one word namely "benefit".


In developing countries generally, the incidence of anemia in pregnancy is still a major public health problem. This study aims to analyze the compliance of consuming Iron tablets with the incidence of anemia on pregnant mothers in the third trimester at Bengkulu city. This study used cross-sectional design, samples were third trimester pregnant mothers taken by purposive sampling as many as 106 pregnant mothers. Data analysis was carried out by using chi-square and binary logistic regression test. The results of Chi-square test on factors related to compliance, it was obtained that consumption of iron tablets, ANC services, ANC visits, and availability of iron tablets were significantly relationship with the incidence of anemia (p-value <0.05). While the results of binary logistic test stated that the availability of iron tablets was the most dominant influence on the incidence of anemia (pvalue= 0.023), OR 13.95 (95%CI: 1.438- 135.459). It is expected that the local government must pay more attention to plan the need of Iron tablets based on the estimation number of pregnant mothers.


We describe the design and performance of a handheld actively stabilized tool to increase accuracy in microsurgery or other precision manipulation. It removes involuntary motion, such as tremor, by the actuation of the tip to counteract the effect of the undesired handle motion. The key components are a 3-degree-of-freedom (DOF) piezoelectric manipulator that has a 400-μm range of motion, 1-N force capability, and bandwidth over 100 Hz, and an optical position-measurement subsystem that acquires the tool pose with 4-μm resolution at 2000 samples/s. A control system using these components attenuates hand motion by at least 15 dB (a fivefold reduction). By the consideration of the effect of the frequency response of Micron on the human visual feedback loop, we have developed a filter that reduces unintentional motion, yet preserves the intuitive eye-hand coordination. We evaluated the effectiveness of Micron by measuring the accuracy of the human/machine system in three simple manipulation tasks. Handheld testing by three eye surgeons and three nonsurgeons showed a reduction in the position error of between 32% and 52%, depending on the error metric.


The impressive results of the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge showed that fully autonomous vehicles are technologically feasible with current intelligent vehicle hardware. It is natural to ask how current transportation infrastructure can be improved when most vehicles are driven autonomously in the future. Dresner and Stone proposed a new intersection control mechanism called Autonomous Intersection Management (AIM) and showed in simulation that intersection control can be made more efficient than the traditional control mechanisms such as traffic signals and stop signs. In this paper, we extend the study by examining the relationship between the precision of cars' motion controllers and the efficiency of the intersection controller. We propose a planning-based motion controller that can reduce the chance that autonomous vehicles stop before intersections, and show that this controller can increase the efficiency of the intersection control mechanism.


A large number of diseases/conditions have been found to involve intracellular molecular damage that occurs as a result of hostile, free radical-mediated reactions. Both oxygen and nitrogen-based toxic reactants incessantly mutilate beleaguered, essential molecules, eg, lipids, proteins, DNA, RNA, and so on. The accumulated molecular debris that is a consequence of these reactions could contribute to disease processes and the deteriorative changes of aging. A complex antioxidative defense system has evolved for the purpose of protecting cells from free radicals and the resulting damage. One component of this system is melatonin. This endogenously produced and exogenously acquired (in the diet) indoleamine is a potent direct free radical scavenger and indirect antioxidant (stimulating a variety of antioxidative enzymes). Melatonin has been widely tested to determine its efficacy in protecting against free radical damage in experimental models of heart attack, stroke, Alzheimer disease, Parkinsonism, and others. In these experimental settings, melatonin proved highly effective in reducing molecular damage, cellular death, and tissue loss and, when tested, organismal function was also preserved. In newborn infants with sepsis or respiratory distress syndrome, melatonin was likewise highly effective in limiting the severity of these conditions. Melatonin, which is inexpensive and without significant toxicity, should be considered for more extensive use in humans against free radical-based diseases/conditions.


This article is designed to share the experiences, insights, and strategies utilized by experienced teachers in making their classrooms more effective learning environments. These teachers believe that through the use of these teaching methodologies they have had a positive effect on how their students have learned. For already experienced teachers the ideas expressed within read like a checklist of commonly accepted practices. For such educators this article discusses how they can once again effectively utilize these strategies as they work to implement their teaching goals. To new teachers this article offers sound tips to help them along the path to becoming a good teacher. As a result of exploring such ideas this article provides an excellent foundation for implementing sound teaching strategies that will help students achieve their academic goals. Today, more than ever, the classroom teacher is seen as the primary facilitator for student success. Therefore, educators must possess an ever widening array of skills and talents. In addition to needing the expertise of bureaucrats, accountants, and even counselors, they are also called upon to be knowledgeable, understanding, compassionate, fair, and dedicated educators ultimately accountable for student achievement. As if all of this were not enough, in an ever changing and seemingly apathetic society these everyday individuals are also asked to serve as academic and moral role models. Society often judges them, their students, and the entire educational system itself by how well teachers meet these needs. How can the front line classroom teacher best balance these many demands? Some scholars see the answer in increased teacher training. Others believe the answer lies in more funding. Still others argue for smaller class sizes and more technology. In the final analysis, all are probably correct. Smaller, well equipped classrooms headed by well trained professionals do provide an environment conducive to learning. In the best of all worlds each self contained classroom would have all such advantages, and every student an equal opportunity to succeed. However, in the real world of education, in the day to day reality that spans one hundred and eighty plus days of a school year, this is not often the case. What then do teachers do until education reaches this panacea? The answer is they cope and they make do with what they have. They learn through their experiences, their successes, and especially their failures. They utilize skills and techniques they are able to develop over the years. Most of all, they continue to broaden their repertory of useable ideas that will make them better at what they do. One very effective way to increase their knowledge is by sharing in the experiences and ideas of other successful teachers. These fellow educators can indeed be an invaluable source of expertise and inspiration. This article is designed to share such experiences, insights, and strategies in the hope that they may be of some use to the many classroom teachers who believe that what they do does make a difference in the lives of those children they share their classrooms with each day. Tip Number One: Know Your Students' Names As simple as this may seem, the first real step to creating an effective learning environment is the mastering of students' names. All individuals are unique to some degree and their names house this uniqueness. All creatures, whether they are the family pet, the person next door, or that bright and energetic ten year old sitting in class, respond to the use of their names. "Hey you, in the back," does not elicit the same positive response as "Mary, please pass out these papers for me." When a teacher can address every student by name, that teacher conveys a positive and powerful message to the student. It says that I am interested enough and care enough about you to learn more about you, starting with your name. …


A CFD and UV fluence simulation program has been developed to evaluate the performance of drinking water disinfection reactors. Based on the flow field and the UV intensity field, the UV fluence or dose is obtained by solving the convection-diffusion partial differential equation of the fluence in the reactors. Eight UV-disinfection reactors from four manufacturers were evaluated. The fluence at the reactor outlet was evaluated using a logarithm microbial survival rate function. A calculated reduction equivalence fluence CEF was defined at the outlet and compared with the average fluence. That leads to a definition of a disinfection efficiency of the reactor. It is found that while the accurate prediction of the fluence level is difficult due to the difficulty in obtaining accurate lamp efficiency, quartz transmittance and reactor wall reflection rate etc., the accurate prediction of disinfection efficiency is quite possible because the uncertainties mentioned above have much less influence on efficiency prediction. The reactor's disinfection efficiency is mainly determined by the flow pattern, the lamp number and the lamp locations. These are primarily mechanical design issues for design optimization. Therefore the CFD and fluence modelling method presented in this paper can be useful for reactor design optimization.


Segmentation propagation is the problem of transferring the segmentation of an image to a neighboring image in a sequence. This problem is of particular importance to materials science, where the accurate segmentation of a series of 2D serial-sectioned images of multiple, contiguous 3D structures has important applications. Such structures may have prior-known shape, appearance, and/or topology among the underlying structures which can be considered to improve segmentation accuracy. For example, some materials images may have structures with a specific shape or appearance in each serial section slice, which only changes minimally from slice to slice; and some materials may exhibit specific topology which constrains their structure or neighboring relations. In this work, we develop a framework for materials image segmentation that segments a variety of materials image types by repeatedly propagating a 2D segmentation from one slice to another, and we formulate each step of this propagation as an optimal labeling problem that can be efficiently solved using the graph-cut algorithm. During this propagation, we propose novel strategies to enforce the shape, appearance, and topology of the segmented structures, as well as handling local topology inconsistency. Most recent works on topology-constrained image segmentation focus on binary segmentation, where the topology is often described by the connectivity of both foreground and background. We develop a new multi-labeling approach to enforce topology in multiple-label image segmentation. In this case, we not only require each segment to be a connected region (intra-segment topology), but also require specific adjacency relations between each pair of segments (inter-segment topology). Finally, we integrate an interactive approach into the proposed framework that improves the segmentation by allowing minimal and simplistic human annotations. We justify the effectiveness of the proposed framework by testing it on various 3D materials images, and we compare its performance against several existing image segmentation methods.


Abstract : An attempt is made to present a unified view of modeling. Beginning with the earliest concept of model a brief history of the subject is presented for the period beginning from prehistoric times into the twentieth century. The evolution of the concept of model is discussed in some detail and a taxonomy of the subject is suggested. Special attention is given to the relationship between the concept of model and the prevailing ideas of space, time, and matter. The role of dimensional analysis is reviewed and its relationship to modeling examined at length. Specific types of models which constitute the taxonomy are defined and illustrated with numerous examples. The idea of a Newtonian model is introduced and then extended to cover many physical cases. The new concept of disclosive model and its role is defined and illustrated. Its historical origin is reviewed. Its value in the evolution of generalized modeling is examined at length. In Part II the treatment of the concept model has been greatly extended. In Part I we presented a brief history of the subject from the earliest days of man to the latter part of the twentieth century. Also, a tentative classification of models was suggested. It consisted of what we called the iconic, the analogic, the similitudinous, the Newtonian, the extended Newtonian, and the disclosive models. The latter category was suggested for the first time to our knowledge. In Part II we have explored somewhat at length our understanding of the concept of disclosive model and its ramifications. Also, we found it necessary to distinguish between the use of model in mathematics and mathematical modeling, as applied in the various scientific areas. An important viewpoint is presented in connection with what we call adjectival modifiers.


We present the results from Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array imaging in the [N ii] 205μm fine-structure line (hereafter [N ii]) and the underlying continuum of BRI 1202-0725, an interacting galaxy system at z = 4.7, consisting of a quasi-stellar object (QSO), a submillimeter galaxy (SMG), and two Lyα emitters, all within ∼25 kpc of the QSO. We detect the QSO and SMG in both [N ii] and continuum. At the ∼1″ (or 6.6 kpc) resolution, both the QSO and SMG are resolved in [N ii], with the de-convolved major axes of ∼9 and ∼14 kpc, respectively. In contrast, their continuum emissions are much more compact and unresolved even at an enhanced resolution of ∼0.″7. The ratio of the [N ii] flux to the existing CO(7−6) flux is used to constrain the dust temperature (Tdust) for a more accurate determination of the FIR luminosity LFIR. Our best estimated Tdust equals 43 (±2) K for both galaxies (assuming an emissivity index β = 1.8). The resulting LCO(7−6)/LFIR ratios are statistically consistent with that of local luminous infrared galaxies, confirming that LCO(7−6) traces the star formation (SF) rate (SFR) in these galaxies. We estimate that the ongoing SF of the QSO (SMG) has an SFR of 5.1 (6.9) × 103 M⊙ yr−1 (±30%) assuming Chabrier initial mass function, takes place within a diameter (at half maximum) of 1.3 (1.5) kpc, and will consume the existing 5 (5) × 1011 M⊙ of molecular gas in 10 (7) × 107 years.


This paper aims at examining wage compression in Europe using the publicly available data on wages drawn from the Structure of Earnings Survey 2002. By wage compression, it is meant here that the difference in productivity across workers or firms is only partly reflected by the difference in wages. The paper specifically considers the existence of wage compression both across occupations and levels of education by means of cross-sectional econometric analysis. Looking at wage compression across occupations, robust evidence gives some support to the conventional view that there is a compressed wage distribution in Europe. Wage compression mainly occurs in continental and southern countries, whilst no compression is detected in Anglo-Saxon countries and mixed evidence is found in Northern European countries.


Background: Skin cancers are among the most prevalent malignancies in Iran. According to statistics, it is the most common cancer in the population of Ilam, west of Iran. The present study aimed to assess threat appraisal of skin cancer among rural farmers of Ilam in 2013-2014. Method: In this cross-sectional study, we used multistage random sampling. We collected the data through distribution of a researcher-developed questionnaire among 248 farmers from the rural areas of Ilam in June 2013. The items of the questionnaire were based on the protection motivation theory, and covered components included perceived vulnerability, perceived severity, and rewards. Result: We found a generally lower perceived vulnerability and severity and higher rewards among the farmers; 14.5 and 30.6 of the farmers displayed higher perceived vulnerability and severity, respectively. Only 15.7 of the farmers were low in extrinsic and intrinsic rewards for unprotected behaviours. We found 149 people (60.1) had unacceptable levels of threat appraisal; 2 people (0.8 ) had borderline levels; and 97 people (39.1) had acceptable levels. Also, there was a significant relationship between perceived vulnerability, severity, income, and education level of the participants (P<0.001), but an insignificant relationship was found between family size, threat appraisal (P<0.747), family size and perceived threat (P<0.247). Conclusion: The overall findings of the present study indicated unacceptable levels of psychological perception about skin cancer in farmers, which highlights the importance of designing, implementation, and evaluation of educational interventions related to the issue. © 2013 Iranian Society of Dermatology.


While the global healthcare market of wearable devices has been growing significantly in recent years and is predicted to reach $60 billion by 2028, many important healthcare applications such as seizure monitoring, drowsiness detection, etc. have not been deployed due to the limited battery lifetime, slow response rate, and inadequate biosignal quality. This study proposes PROS, an efficient pattern-driven compressive sensing framework for low-power biopotential-based wearables. PROS eliminates the conventional trade-off between signal quality, response time, and power consumption by introducing tiny pattern recognition primitives and a pattern-driven compressive sensing technique that exploits the sparsity of biosignals. Specifically, we (i) develop tiny machine learning models to eliminate irrelevant biosignal patterns, (ii) efficiently perform compressive sampling of relevant biosignals with appropriate sparse wavelet domains, and (iii) optimize hardware and OS operations to push processing efficiency. PROS also provides an abstraction layer, so the application only needs to care about detected relevant biosignal patterns without knowing the optimizations underneath. We have implemented and evaluated PROS on two open biosignal datasets with 120 subjects and six biosignal patterns. The experimental results on unknown subjects of a practical use case such as epileptic seizure monitoring are very encouraging. PROS can reduce the streaming data rate by 24X while maintaining high fidelity signal. It boosts the power efficiency of the wearable device by more than 1200% and enables the ability to react to critical events immediately on the device. The memory and runtime overheads of PROS are minimal, with a few KBs and 10s of milliseconds for each biosignal pattern, respectively. PROS is currently adopted in research projects in multiple universities and hospitals.