Many studies have been conducted to analyze the effect of stricter Employment Protection Legislation (EPL). However, almost all of them has focused on an ex-post impact; leaving aside a second but equally important channel: expectations. This paper aims to analyze the role of expectations on peruvian formal and informal labor market; using news as our identification variable. We use the monthly number of news related to the approval of the General Labor Law (GLL), a proposal entailing future stronger labor rigidities, from January 2001 to May 2012. Using the Permanent Employment Survey (EPE), we find a negative relation between expectations towards a stricter labor market and both employment and average income. News mainly affect formal occupied EAP, arousing a substitution effect from formal to informal employment. We also discover that the effect of expectations differs in periods with higher versus lower GDP growth. Finally, we find some evidence supporting news having a cumulative effect: the larger the previous stock of news, the weaker the effect.


It was Thomas Jefferson who envisioned the United States as a great empire of liberty. This paradoxical phrase may be the key to the American saga: How could the anti-empire of 1776 became the worlds greatest superpower? And how did the country that offered unmatched liberty nevertheless found its prosperity on slavery and the dispossession of Native Americans? In this new single-volume history spanning the entire course of US historyfrom 1776 through the election of Barack Obamaprize-winning historian David Reynolds explains how tensions between empire and liberty have often been resolved by faithboth the evangelical Protestantism that has energized American politics for centuries and the larger faith in American righteousness that has driven the countrys expansion. Written with verve and insight, Empire of Liberty brilliantly depicts America in all of its many contradictions.


Experimental measurements of the etch rate and ion flux distributions on the wafer are combined with modeling to elucidate the effects of reactor wall conditions on Cl concentration and polysilicon etch rate uniformity inan inductively coupled plasma etching reactor. The spatially averaged etch rate across the wafer increases with time as etch products react with residual oxygen in the chamber and coat the reactor walls with a thin layer of silicon oxychloride film. Chlorine concentration in the plasma and the Si etch rate increase due to lower recombination probability of Cl on this film as compared to the "clean" anodized aluminum wall surface. Etch rate is highest at the wafer center when the walls are maintained in the clean state. In contrast, the etch rate peaks at the wafer edges when the walls are coated with the silicon oxychloride film. The drift in etch rate and uniformity is primarily due to a drift in Cl concentration and its spatial distribution. As the reactor walls are coated, the etch rate distribution changes from a center-fast profile to an edge-fast profile due to a change in the dominant Cl depletion mechanism from wall recombination to recombination on the wafer surface.


Raters of corporations play an important role in assessing domains ranging from sustainability to corporate governance to best workplaces. Scholars increasingly rely on these ratings to test theories about corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate governance and the influence of stakeholders. Though these raters frequently develop sophisticated methodologies, we find they often diverge in their ratings of the same firm, creating uncertainty for managers and stakeholders, and also posing challenges for researchers. We document the surprising lack of convergence of social ratings for the first time using six well-established socially responsible investing (SRI) raters, with comparisons of overlap, correlations, and regression analysis. Our results suggest that scholars should interpret empirical results with caution and at least use multiple ratings schemes in studies of CSR and governance.


Aim/Purpose: The aim of this study was to examine the factors that may influence the use of virtual classrooms.

Background: The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic has affected and interrupted several aspects of our lives, including education. Most educational institutes and universities have changed their teaching mode from being face-to-face or fixable learning to 'emergency remote education'. As a result, virtual classrooms were utilised in most of these universities to keep the continuity of teaching and delivering education to their students

Methodology: Through an online survey, data was collected from 235 of the teaching staff at the University of Ha'il, Saudi Arabia. Structural equation modelling (SEM) using AMOS was applied to analyse the data and testing the hypothesis of the proposed model.

Contribution: The study findings have a theoretical, methodological, and practical contribution in the area of virtual classrooms. In terms of its theoretical contribution, this research has enriched the literature on virtual classrooms. Most of previous studies used the basic UTAUT model or other models for different technology, such as LMS, Mobile Cloud Learning and social websites. Few studies have focused on virtual classrooms, and, based on the best knowledge of the researcher, this study is the first study that has extended and modified the UTAUT model by adding an external factor (mobility) with virtual classrooms technology. Thus, it contributes theoretically to IS acceptance literature in general, and to UTAUT models specifically.

In terms of methodological contribution, this study assessed all latent constructs in the model in a different context (Saudi Arabia), and tested them through an advanced analysis technique, which some call a second-generation multivariate, by applying a two-step rule in AMOS (CFA and SEM). The CFA has shown solid results that can measure all constructs in the model after deleting a few items that show a low factor loading to the construct. According to Awang (2015), examining the construct, convergent and discriminant validities is essential during the CFA before moving on a step and analysing data using SEM. Thus, this study has validated all constructs and its items using CFA which can be further used in a different culture, specifically in an Arab culture, such as Saudi Arabia.

Findings: The results showed that effort expectancy and performance expectancy are significant predictors of behaviour intention toward the use of virtual classrooms. However, in contrast of our expectation, social influence, facilitating condition and mobility were insignificant factors and had no influence on teaching staff's behaviour intention toward the use of virtual classrooms.

Recommendations for Practitioners: This research has made a practical contribution. The findings of this study showed which factors can determine the use of virtual classrooms. Decision makers and university organizations and administration can improve their virtual classrooms services based on the factors that determine their use. Taking care of that will lead to an increased use of virtual classrooms and lead to a successful use of virtual classrooms, which will result in huge benefits in applying virtual classrooms in the teaching process.

Recommendation for Researchers: Researchers may develop different models and examine other factors to assess their influence on the usage of different technologies. Understanding the factors that may influence the usage of a technology leads to an increase in its usage and adoption.

Impact on Society: This study may increase the usage of virtual classrooms among teaching staff by understanding and examining the factors that might determine the use of virtual classrooms.

Future Research: Future studies could examine the moderation variables to establish their impact. This study relied on only a purely quantitative design study. Future research might employ a mixed method using both quantitative and qualitative designs to apply an interview after the quantitative study for a better insight and deeper knowledge as well as confirming the quantitative results.


Karst aquifers are abundant, but vulnerable water resources. Therefore, a deeper understanding of possible mechanisms that determine the properties of karst springs is crucial. In this work, we present an example of Unica Spring and Malni Spring, the two main outlets of a large karst system in the Notranjska karst region, Slovenia. Although the two springs share same catchment area, the flow distribution between them shows an interesting behaviour: At low-flow conditions, Malni Spring is the main outlet, while Unica spring receives almost no water. During high water events, discharge of Malni Spring stays limited and Unica Spring becomes the main outlet. We relate these observations to the local geometry of the channels and breakdowns in the remote part of the Planinska Jama (Planina Cave), called Mysterious Lake. There, waters from Rakov Škocjan and Javorniki aquifer merge and further diverge to both springs. At low water conditions, the outflow towards the Unica Spring is restricted by the breakdown, so that most of the inflow is directed towards the Malni Spring. With increasing recharge, the level in Mysterious Lake rises until the water starts to flow over the breakdown along a system of large channels (Rak Branch of Planinska Jama) to the Unica Spring. The breakdown level keeps the hydraulic head and the flow towards Malni Spring limited. To verify this scenario, a hydraulic conduit model was made based on the known and predicted channels, and inflows calculated from the historical data of discharge measurements at related springs and ponors. An inversion procedure was used to obtain a satisfactory fit to the observed discharge data and to constrain the selected model parameters. The model accurately reproduced the observed discharge behaviour under low- andhigh-flow conditions.


Abstract. In this work, we studied the effects of background plasma density fluctuations on the relaxation of electron beams. For the study, we assumed that the level of fluctuations was so high that the majority of Langmuir waves generated as a result of beam-plasma instability were trapped inside density depletions. The system can be considered as a good model for describing beam-plasma interactions in the solar wind. Here we show that due to the effect of wave trapping, beam relaxation slows significantly. As a result, the length of relaxation for the electron beam in such an inhomogeneous plasma is much longer than in a homogeneous plasma. Additionally, for sufficiently narrow beams, the process of relaxation is accompanied by transformation of significant part of the beam kinetic energy to energy of accelerated particles. They form the tail of the distribution and can carry up to 50% of the initial beam energy flux.


Risk-taking behavior affects many aspects of life, including maladaptive behaviors such as illicit substance use, unsafe driving, and risky sexual behavior. Risk-taking has been measured using both self-report measures and behavioral tasks designed for the purpose, but there is little consensus in the associations among measures and our understanding of the latent constructs underlying different forms of risk is limited. In the present study we examined the construct of risk using data from over 1000 young adults who completed measures of risk-taking, including self-reports of perception of risk, propensity to engage in risky behaviors and performance on behavioral tasks designed to measure risk. To examine the latent structure of risk preferences, we conducted a principal component analysis (PCA). The PCA revealed a latent structure of three distinct components of risk-taking behavior: "Lifestyle Risk Sensitivity", "Financial Risk Sensitivity", and "Behavioral Risk Sensitivity", which consisted only of the Balloon Analogue Risk Task (BART; Lejuez et al., 2002). As expected, risk-taking and perception of risk differed in men and women. Yet, the PCA components were similar in men and women. Future work utilizing additional measures of risk-taking behavior in more heterogeneous samples will help to identify the true biobehavioral constructs underlying these behaviors.


With the erosion of the average selling price and shrinking profit margins of the semiconductor industry, yield improvement has been elevated to new levels. Through Integrated Yield Management Team (IYM) efforts, it was discovered that the photolithography area was the major contributor to unusually high defect density levels. Using a team approach, individuals were selected and charged with the task of lowering these levels in record time. Identifying and quickly correcting sources of defects were done in parallel and around the clock. Because the photolithography room is the hub of any wafer fabrication facility, it is essential that it be a series of clean operations; daily product monitoring ensures that interactions between individual processes and equipment remains constant, and defect excursions are recognized immediately. Of equal importance, is the monitoring of individual tools. With this paper, it will be shown that using a team approach to problem solving, the defect density was effectively reduced, and an improvement was made in the operation of the fab.


Following the European colonizer arrived at and invades Canada, the Aboriginal people-who are considered as the natives, have been oppressed for many centuries. Their land was taken by the settlers and their economy become too sluggish and subsistence; they were marginalized in the social, economic, cultural and political arenas. This paper is aimed to assess the root causes of conflict between the aboriginals and settlers and to identify measures taken by the government to address the problems. We used intensive secondary data through reviewing different books and international journals. Lose of land ownership, deterioration of health and economic development, worst assimilation of Aboriginal People to the main stream culture, Political marginalization such under representation of them under government office, Economic exploitation of Aboriginal People are some of the real causes of conflict between Aboriginal and non- Aboriginal People. Besides, they are not also allowed to run their own business activities, exercise their cultural ways of life, improve and develop their culture and traditions. Federalism, multiculturalism, empowering Supreme Court and the constitution act of 1982 were of the institutional arrangement recognized typically to deal with the existing real conflict and to accommodate diversity. Some of possible measures taken by the government are- the recognition of the right to land title; the right to self-government on their internal matters, to develop their culture, language and identities. It also allowed developing laws like laws on customary marriage for their people though subject to the approval of the minister responsible for their affairs have also been recognized to exercise.


. Most applications consist of separated modules. Optimization of such applications during building in the traditional way "compiling-linking" is reduced to a single module optimization. However, in spite of support of cross-module optimizations by many compilers full optimizations are often unacceptable for large applications because of significant time and memory consumption. Compiler frameworks that could solve these problems with regard to hardware capabilities and user demands are called scalable cross-module optimization frameworks. In this article, we aim to consider all the different approaches to the problem of scalability of with respect to resources consumed rather than inter-procedural or cross-module optimizations or their effectivenesses because of their independence of used framework. The possibility of parallelization of various stages of whole program compilation as well as ways to save memory consumed by cross-module analysis are of interest. This overview observes several compiler frameworks for general-purpose programming languages like C, C++ and Fortran. Although, quite often these frameworks are able to optimize other languages in case of existence of corresponding front-ends.


BACKGROUND
Both a prolonged QT interval and increased QT interval dispersion (QTD) have been proposed as surface ECG markers of vulnerability to ventricular arrhythmias and potential predictors of mortality.

METHODS AND RESULTS
The predictive values of QT prolongation and QTD were assessed in 1839 participants in the Strong Heart Study, a prospective study of cardiovascular disease in American Indians. ECGs were acquired at 250 Hz; QT intervals were measured by computer in all 12 leads and corrected for heart rate (QTc) by use of Bazett's formula. QTD was calculated as the difference between the maximum and minimum QTc. After a mean follow-up of 3.7+/-0.9 years, there were 188 deaths from all causes, including 55 cardiovascular deaths. In univariate Cox analyses, prolonged QTc and increased QTD were significant predictors of all-cause mortality (chi(2)=53.0, P<0.0001; chi(2)=11.3, P=0.0008) and cardiovascular mortality (chi(2)=14.7, P=0.0001; chi(2)=26.5, P<0.0001). In multivariate Cox regression analyses controlling for risk factors, QTc remained a strong predictor of all-cause mortality (chi(2)=16.5, P<0.0001) and a weaker predictor of cardiovascular mortality (chi(2)=5.8, P=0.016); QTD remained a significant predictor of cardiovascular mortality only (chi(2)=12.5, P=0.0004).

CONCLUSIONS
These findings support the value of computerized measurements of QTc and QTD in noninvasive risk stratification and suggest that these surface ECG variables may reflect different underlying abnormalities of ventricular repolarization.


Air-coupled ultrasonic testing (ACUT) has experienced rapid growth within the last years. It is especially well suited to inspection of lightweight structures consisting of composite materials and adhesive joints. Uniform coupling and easy maintenance are its advantages compared to contact technique. However, the impedance mismatch between the transducer and air poses a major challenge to the development of ACUT transducers. Commercially available air-coupled transducers consist of a piezocomposite material and matching layers. Their fabrication is difficult in handling and their signal-to-noise ratio sometimes not sufficient for various testing requirements. However, there are several innovative approaches using other materials and other physical principles to transmit and receive an ultrasonic pulse. We present a review of the latest advances in research on air-coupled transducers for non-destructive testing, including previously unpublished results. We recognize two major directions as most promising: ferroelectrets and thermoacoustic transducers. Ferroelectrets are charged cellular polymers exhibiting piezoelectric properties. Their small acoustic impedance is matched to air better than matching layers applied in conventional air-coupled transducers. Applying bias voltage to a ferroelectret receiver is the latest development in this field, which increased the received signal by 12 to 15 dB. Thermoacoustic transducers use heat to initiate an ultrasonic wave, acting as transmitters. The working principle is known from nature as thunder and lightning: thermal energy of an electrically heated material, which can also be air, is converted into acoustic energy. Some thermoacoustic transmitters consist of a conductive layer with a thickness in the nanometer range deposited on a solid substrate. Another possibility is to use an electric spark. For the first time, measurements of the sound field of an electric spark up to 500 kHz were performed. Thermoacoustic transducers enable excitation of extremely broadband pulses while producing high pressure levels, which opens new possibilities for advanced signal processing.


In every country, state symbols such as the national flag, emblem, and national anthems represent the independence and sovereignty of the state. In the Soviet Union as well as in other autocratic states symbols also played an important role in propaganda, influencing peoples' attitudes to the actions of the state at all levels. These symbols could also be found, together with powerful imagery in posters, on buildings, monuments and many other things visible and incorporated in the routine life the people. Ukraine has huge historical heritage of symbolism and propaganda from when the country was a major part of the USSR. After the creation of the USSR a political, socio-economic, cultural and spiritual experiment on the construction of a communist society, which in the case of Ukraine was unprecedented in scale and tragedy, began. The collectivization of the village is one of the most tragic pages in the history of Ukraine. As the most important grain-growing region of the country at the time its production was vital to feed the growing cities and industrialisation. The forced collectivisation led to starvation in the 1930s and millions of people died. In order to counter this most public information showed people another side of collectivization. Propaganda was used, such as posters and slogans, to persuade the peasants to join the collective farms and to promote the real or fictitious results of the workers, and, conversely, to attack people who did not want to believe in the "bright future" of the USSR and to denounce "kulaks" and "saboteurs". Materials from archives and published sources show many examples of Ukrainian images and symbols of that time which shed a light on the way the collectivisation process was portrayed and promoted.


The paper draws on the philosophy of higher education and existing codes of professional values as a basis for analysing the distinctive ethical challenges of teaching in higher education. For those who teach in higher education there are many values that they share with colleagues in schools and colleges, including respect for learners, collegiality, scholarship and a commitment to reflective practice. Additionally, however, they face a number of ethical challenges that, to some extent, distinguish them from teachers in other settings. These include protecting the academic freedom of students stemming from the goal of promoting student criticality; ensuring respect for learners derived from the concept of adulthood and the principle of andragogy; and accommodating a series of 'dual' roles which define academic identity. While the character of these challenges may vary between countries, arguably they are of international concern in higher education forming a distinctive basis for the identification of universal, professional values.


Many freshwater turtle species can spend the winter submerged in ice-covered lakes by lowering their metabolism, and it has been proposed that such severe metabolic depression render these turtles comatose. This raises the question of how they can detect the arrival of spring and respond in a sensible way to sensory information during hibernation. Using evoked potentials from cold or hypoxic turtles exposed to vibration and light, we show that hibernating turtles maintain neural responsiveness to light stimuli during prolonged hypoxia. Furthermore, turtles held under hibernation conditions for 14 days increase their activity when exposed to light or elevated temperatures, but not to vibration or increased oxygen. It is concluded that hibernating turtles are not comatose, but remain vigilant during overwintering in cold hypoxia, allowing them to respond to the coming of spring and to adjust their behaviour to specific sensory inputs.


Trust negotiation supports authentication and access control across multiple security domains by allowing parties to use non-forgeable digital credentials to establish trust. By their nature trust negotiation systems are used in environments that are not always reliable. In particular, it is important not only to protect negotiations against malicious attacks, but also against failures and crashes of the parties or of the communication means. To address the problem of failures and crashes, we propose an efficient and secure recovery mechanism. The mechanism includes two recovery protocols, one for each of the two main negotiation phases. In fact, because of the requirements that both services and credentials have to be protected on the basis of the associated disclosure policies, most approaches distinguish between a phase of disclosure policy evaluation from a phase devoted to actual credentials exchange. We prove that the protocols, besides being efficient, are secure with respect to integrity, and confidentiality and are idempotent. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first effort for achieving robustness and fault tolerance of trust negotiation systems.


: Immunological status, levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines of non-specific resistance and tumor expression factor have been studied in patients with cervical dysplasia or cancer versus stage. Slight and moderate dysplasia involved virtually no changes in interleukin-8 (Il-8) and tumor necrotic factor TNF-alpha concentrations whereas those of Il-1 alpha and Il-1 beta were 5 times as high. Monocyte-dependent expression of tissue factor was similar to that in healthy women. In cases of advanced dysplasia and cervical carcinoma, monocyte-dependent expression of tissue factor and production of Il-1 alpha, Il-1 beta, Il-8 and TNF-alpha were significantly enhanced. Patients with cervical carcinoma stage II and III revealed signs of depression of the cellular component of immunity as well as non-specific resistance. Hence, increased concentrations of cytokines induce monocyte-dependent expression of tissue factor in advanced dysplasia and cervical carcinoma by triggering-on of hypercoaggulation.


All engineering designs involve uncertainties to some degree. Such uncertainties may arise due to incomplete or inconsistent input information or non-representative analysis procedures used in the design. The input information typically includes design parameters such as material properties and applied loads. Uncertainties in the estimation of material properties can result from material variability or deficiencies in the test procedures used to determine them. Similarly, uncertainties in the determination of the design loads can result from their random variability. The approach which has been traditionally used in engineering designs to incorporate such uncertainties involve the use of "Factors of Safety". In this approach, no attempt is made to quantify the variabilities or uncertainties involved. Instead, the choice of an appropriate factor of safety is made subjectively depending on the degree of uncertainties involved. In other words, the greater the uncertainties in design input information, the larger the selected factor of safety will be.

An alternative and a more rational approach to incorporate uncertainties in engineering design involve the concepts of reliability. Reliability is defined as the probability that the structure will not fail during its intended service life. The concept of reliability has been widely used in the fields of aerospace engineering, industrial engineering and mechanical engineering over several decades. Its advent to the geotechnical engineering is more recent. However, it is apparent that in the last two decades geotechnical engineers have developed an interest in the use of probabilistic and statistical approach to solve problems in soil mechanics. Within geotechnical engineering the probabilistic concepts have been used to investigate a variety of problems: slope stability by Christian et al. (1992) and Vanmarcke (1977), pile foundation design and mudslope failure potential by Lee et al. (1992) and most recently to compacted soil liners for hazardous waste containing facilities by Bogardi and Kelly (1990) and Benson (1994).


W. M. Reynolds's 1850s Gothic serial, Wagner the Wehr-Wolf, reimagines the werewolf as a figure of religious hypocrisy. The serial follows the eponymous Wagner, who gains eternal youth, beauty and wealth through a satanic pact which curses him with lycanthropy; his rapid disenchantment with his immortal state propels him to find a cure amidst the religious upheaval of Inquisition-torn sixteenth-century Italy. Despite Wagner the Wehr-Wolf's dubious literary status today, Reynolds's rhetoric expresses a profound engagement with religious doctrine through his understanding of the Gothic morphology embedded in Victorian culture. As with the witch, the werewolf was once considered an enemy of the Church; despite this persecution, Reynolds hypothesises that both the institution and the creature are inherently congruent, their natures committed to generating guilt, violence and a schism from the Godly. His discourse uses the Church's own rhetoric on and severe treatment of suspected werewolves against itself, theorising that the Church both creates and becomes the very beasts it tortures. Reynolds dissects both Church and creature from a Protestant Victorian perspective, reifying Gothic literature's standard practice of associating Catholicism with a regrettable, historical Other and reducing the religion to a collection of terrifying superstitions—much like the myth of the werewolf itself.


ABSTRACT The Puente Formation is a Middle-Upper Miocene clastic unit lying unconformably on the Lower-Middle Miocene El Modeno Volcanics and Topanga Group, in the Los Angeles basin. The Puente Formation, about 3900 m thick, is composed of conglomerate, sandstone, and mudrock deposited as a submarine fan at bathyal depths. Several intrabasinal discordances suggest tectonic activity during deposition. The succession consists of two main upward-thickening and - coarsening megacycles, reflecting submarine-fan progradation. The Puente Formation is characterized up-section by: (1) thin-bedded sandstone and shale (La Vida Member) grading to thick-bedded sandstone and conglomerate (Soquel Member); (2) thin-bedded mudrock and sandstone (Yorba Member) grading to thick- to very thick bedded sandstone and conglomerate (Sycamore Canyon Member). Sandstones of the Puente Formation are quartzofeldspathic (Qm35F54Lt11); their compositions suggest local provenance from the plutonic, volcanic, and metamorphic rocks of the San Gabriel Mountains and surrounding areas. Petrologic parameters, however, suggest variable contribution of these source rocks through time. Four petrofacies, with distinctive parameters, coincide with the lithostratigraphic subdivisions. Coarse-grained plutonic rock fragments are abundant throughout the succession and consist of plagioclase-rich plutonic rocks, probably sourced, in part, from the Lowe Granodiorite. Lathwork, microlitic to felsitic volcanic lithic grains are also present in the lower and middle part. In the La Vida petrofacies, there is also an intrabasinal cont ibution (intraclasts and bioclasts) from shelfal areas. In the Yorba petrofacies there is a local increase of volcanic detritus (Lv/L = 0.81), represented by coarser volcanic lithics and abundant volcaniclastic matrix. Metamorphic detritus is not very abundant. The Sycamore Canyon petrofacies is dominantly plutoniclastic (Rg/R = 0.90; hornblende-bearing plutonic rock fragments), including very abundant hornblende grains. The plutonic detritus is dominantly plagioclase-orthoclase-biotite-bearing in the lower part, and hornblende-bearing in the upper part, suggesting unroofing of the Lowe Granodiorite Complex as a key element of uplift of the San Gabriel Mountains. Other Neogene sandstones deposited in the Los Angeles Basin also consist dominantly of plutoniclastic detritus related to the unroofing of arc-related plutonic rocks (dissected magmatic arc). For example, the up-section increase in plutonic detritus is consistent with the composition of the Upper Miocene-Lower Pliocene Capistrano Formation (Qm50F47Lt3), which has a composition identical to the Sycamore Canyon petrofacies. There is consistent provenance signal in spite of complex transrotational tectonics, responsible for opening of the Los Angeles Basin, and later transpressional processes, which are still active. Detailed provenance study of the Puente Formation and related units provides important constraints on paleogeographic and paleotectonic reco structions of southern California basins and uplifts.


The sea and inland hinterland of Baltic Europe form a unique macro-regional unit. Strong collaboration links, and competition in the Baltic Sea region, are an inherent feature of the region from the beginning of its civilization development. Since 2004, the Baltic Sea has become an internal sea of the European Union. This fact no doubt strengthened the cooperation of the countries in the region. In many spheres, these ties take the form of networking. The EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region is an important stimulus for further integrations. The objective of the article is to identify changing trends and the structural transformation in the Baltic integration process instigated by the implementation of this strategy. The document contains common goals, which strengthen cooperation and draw on the Baltic Sea potential. Three main pillars are outlined in the Strategy: marine protection, better interconnection of the region and growing prosperity. The essence of cooperation involves joint development plans on various levels: governmental, regional and local with the participation of research institutions, regional cooperation infrastructure, operational programmes, as well as the private sector. Political stabilisation and economic development may transform, in a longer time span, the emerging transnational Baltic Europe into a new economic and cultural European centre. The choice of research methodology applied in the study derives from the nature of collected data, i.e. literature regarding scientific accomplishments in the Baltic cooperation, analysis of working documents and reports drawn up by public institutions, the European Commission, and EU national and regional strategic documents.


Recent clinical trials on patients with glioblastoma revealed that O(6)-Methylguanine-DNA methyltransferase (MGMT) methylation status significantly predicts patient's response to alkylating agents. In this study, we sought to develop and validate a quantitative MGMT methylation assay using pyrosequencing on glioblastoma. We quantified promoter methylation of MGMT using pyrosequencing on paraffin-embedded fine needle aspiration biopsy tissues from 43 glioblastoma. Using a 10% cutoff, MGMT methylation was identified in 37% cases of glioblastoma and 0% of the non-neoplastic epileptic tissue. Methylation of any individual CpG island in MGMT promoter ranged between 33% and 95%, with a mean of 65%. By a serial dilution of genomic DNA of a homogenously methylated cancer cell line with an unmethylated cell line, the analytical sensitivity is at 5% for pyrosequencing to detect MGMT methylation. The minimal amount of genomic DNA required is 100 ng (approximately 3,000 cells) in small fine needle biopsy specimens. Compared with methylation-specific PCR, pyrosequencing is comparably sensitive, relatively specific, and also provides quantitative information for each CpG methylation.


A 61-year-old HIV + male presented to an infectious disease clinic with a complaint of sore throat. A painless ulcerated mass was discovered on the right tonsil resulting in further evaluation with a CT scan of the neck. Imaging confirmed the presence of a mass centered on the palatine tonsil and associated lymphadenopathy. A presumptive diagnosis of HPV-related squamous cell carcinoma was made due to patient risk factors. However, multiple biopsies found no evidence of carcinoma, but instead revealed the presence of spirochetes that stained positive for T Pallidum . Soon after, the patient developed the characteristic copper-red maculopapular rash of secondary syphilis, indicating that the tonsillar mass was, in fact, a primary chancre. Since such chancres are most often found externally in the genital or anal region, they are seldom radiographically characterized, placing them low on the differential diagnosis for most radiologists. A high index of suspicion could aid future radiologists in placing primary syphilis higher on the differential diagnosis in similar cases in which the patient has appropriate risk factors, such as a known history of genital-oral sexually transmitted infections or an immunocompromised state. Prompt recognition of the nature of a primary syphilitic lesion can lead to rapid resolution of symptoms following treatment with intramuscular benzathine penicillin G, as eventually occurred in this


Poor stakeholder engagement in advance care planning Background: (ACP) poses national and international challenges, preventing maximisation of its potential benefits. Conceptualisation of advance care planning as a health behaviour highlights the need to design innovative, evidence-based strategies that will facilitate meaningful end-of-life care decision-making. To review systematically and synthesise quantitative and qualitative Aim: evidence on barriers and facilitators to stakeholders` engagement in ACP for older adults (≥ 50 years old) in a community setting. A hybrid systematic review will be conducted, identifying studies Methods: for consideration in two phases. First, databases will be searched from inception to identify relevant prior systematic reviews, and assess all studies included in those reviews against eligibility criteria (Phase 1). Second, databases will be searched systematically for individual studies falling outside the timeframe of those reviews (Phase 2). A modified SPIDER framework informed eligibility criteria. A study will be considered if it (a) included relevant adult stakeholders; (b) explored engagement in ACP among older adults (≥50 years old); (c) employed any type of design; (d) identified enablers and/or barriers to events specified in the Organising Framework of ACP Outcomes; (e) used either quantitative, qualitative, or mixed methods methodology; and (f) evaluated phenomena of interest in a community setting (e.g., primary care or community healthcare centres). Screening, selection, bias assessment, and data extraction will be completed independently by two reviewers. Integrated methodologies will be employed and quantitative and qualitative data will be combined into a single mixed method synthesis. The Behaviour Change Wheel will be used as an overarching analytical framework and to facilitate interpretation of findings. The Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI) Reviewers` Manual and 1 2 1,3 4


Little is known about the payoffs to apprenticeship training in the German speaking countries for the participants. OLS estimates suggest that the returns are similar to those of other types of schooling. However, there is a lot of heterogeneity in the quality of apprenticeships offered, and institutional descriptions suggest that there might be an important element of selection in who obtains an apprenticeship, and what type. In order to overcome the resulting ability bias we estimate returns to apprenticeship training for apprentices in small firms in Austria, which cease to operate. When a firm fails, current apprentices cannot complete their training in this firm. Because apprentices will be at different stages in their apprenticeship at that time, the failure of a firm will manipulate the length of the apprenticeship period completed for some apprentices. The time to the firm failure therefore serves as an instrument for the length of the apprenticeship completed both at the original firm and at other firms. We find instrumental variables returns which are similar or larger than the OLS returns in our sample, indicating relatively little selection.


This article uses panel data estimation techniques to examine the relation between the number of federal court civil filings by inmates and jail and state prison populations (and, hence, the relation between jail and prison inmate filing rates) both before and after the effective date, in 1996, of the Prison Litigation Reform Act (PLRA). The research issue matters for several reasons. First, the amount of litigation by inmates is a crucial component of the regulatory regime governing jails and prisons and thus what factors drive filings, and by how much, deserves close attention and assessment. In addition, the PLRA was a major congressional attempt to control and ration litigation; understanding its effects in finer gauge seems itself worthwhile. Finally, we hope to show, methodologically, how research about litigation rates can be carried out sensitively, even if the litigation results from case filings by two separate populations. We make three major findings. (1) As expected, inmate filings vary positively with prison population. However, the relationship with jail population is less secure. (2) As the prison proportion of inmates in a particular state increases, so too does the number of filings. (3) The PLRA's passage has significantly lessened but not eliminated this prison proportion effect.


Component-Based Software Engineering considers off-the-shelf software component reuse as its cornerstone. In previous work, we proposed Dedal, a three level Architecture Description Language. It supports a novel modeling approach that aims at describing the specification, the implemented configuration and the running assembly of the software. This eases reuse by guiding the search for existing components. In this paper, we propose a formal approach that states the rules for component reuse and interoperability among Dedal models. The use of B, a specifi- cation language providing model-checking capabilities, enables the automatic verification of Dedal architecture descriptions. The approach is illustrated using the example of a home automation software.


Want/omdat X and the fluidity of linguistic categories In this article, I set out to demonstrate the inadequateness of traditional linguistic categories in light of ongoing language change. As a case in point, I analyse some of the syntactic properties of the Dutch want/omdat X construction. The erstwhile coordinating conjunction want 'because' and the subordinating conjunction omdat 'because' not only take clauses as complements, but nouns, adjectives, verbs, adverbs, interjections, direct speech, and emoticons as well. I discuss three proposed analyses of the aforementioned constructions: an ellipsis, a preposition, or a category sui generis. Against the backdrop of these diverging proposals, I emphasise the need to understand linguistic categories such as parts of speech as intrinsically vague and prototypical. Moreover, I also briefly sketch the diachrony of want/omdat X and show that, contrary to frequent claims, it is not a recent innovation since its precursors can be found as early as in the 1960s.


The author studied concentration of gastrin and holecistokinin in 68 adolescent with functional disease of the digestive system and vegetative dysfunctions. Considerable increase was established in the level of blood plasma gastrin in patients with gastroesophageal reflux and functional dyspepsia associated with increased motor function of the stomach. There is direct interrelation between the level of blood hormones and rate of vegetative dysfunctions and it testifies the role of the neuroendocrine system in the development of diseases of gastrointestinal system in adolescents.


The role of insulin in the regulation of the thermogenic activity and capacity (uncoupling protein content) of brown adipose tissue (BAT) has been investigated using mice made diabetic with streptozotocin and then subsequently infused with different doses of insulin. After 12 days of diabetes, the animals received either 0, 8, 16, or 32 units of insulin.kg body wt-1.day-1 delivered by osmotic minipumps implanted subcutaneously for 12 days. After 12 days of diabetes, body weight, interscapular BAT, and epididymal white adipose tissue weights were each reduced. In BAT, significant decreases (P less than 0.05) in the mitochondrial protein content (63%), cytochrome oxidase activity (79%), mitochondrial GDP binding (51%), and the specific mitochondrial concentration and total tissue content of uncoupling protein (71 and 89%, respectively) were obtained, indicating that the thermogenic activity and capacity of the tissue were reduced in diabetes. The infusion of insulin at a dose of 8 units.kg-1.day-1 normalized mitochondrial GDP binding and doubled the concentration of uncoupling protein. Body weight, epididymal white adipose tissue weight, and the mitochondrial protein content of BAT were restored with 16 units of insulin.kg-1.day-1. Higher doses of insulin did not further increase the specific mitochondrial concentration of uncoupling protein, but the mitochondrial content (and thereby the total uncoupling protein content) of BAT was increased and blood glucose normalized. There was a significant correlation between the dose of insulin replacement and several of the parameters measured in BAT: mitochondrial protein content (r = 0.68, P less than 0.001), cytochrome oxidase activity (r = 0.54, P less than 0.001), and total uncoupling protein content (r = 0.68, P less than 0.001).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


[eng] Gas sensors can be found in many activities ranging from environment protection, risk prevention, agriculture and even in food, chemical, and petrochemical industries. There exist different technologies for gas sensors depending on the transduction mechanism: mass-sensitive, optical, calorimetric, magnetic, electrochemical and conductometric. In this work, conductometric (or resistive) gas sensors are studied. Conductometric devices base its operating principle on the variation of the electrical conductivity (resistivity) or conductance (resistance) of a reactive (active) material interacting with gas. A chemical reaction between the active material (surface or bulk) and the gas occurs. This reaction induces a variation on some electrical property of the material resulting in a change on the electrical signal (conductivity or resistivity of the active material) of the sensor. Therefore, the sensor material should be compatible with the mentioned properties above. A carbon based material was chosen to be the reactive compound for the conductometric sensors. This material, a specific type of carbon nanofibers (CNFs), shares some suitable properties with other trendy carbon based materials such as carbon nanotubes or graphene. Conductometric gas sensors usually are composed of two main parts: the already mentioned reactive material and the heater device. The heater is required in order to stabilize the temperature of operation and to activate a desired chemical reaction. Unfortunately, despite the efforts to improve the heater technology, this component is still the most power demanding part of the overall device. The here studied sensors have been characterized with a heater device, but also alternative energy sources and other sensing strategies have been tested in order to reduce the energy cost. Among these, the use of ultraviolet and visible light sources were tested in order to modulate the sensor properties. In addition, another non-common strategy was used to operate the sensor: the so called self-heating effect (or Joule effect). To obtain the electrical signal of a sensor, the reactive material have to be scanned, usually a current (or voltage) is applied to the sensor, then, the voltage (or current) is read. If the probing magnitude is increased, the power dissipation through the sensing material, and its temperature, also increases. Therefore, the sensor could be operated without a heater device with a considerable reduction of its power consumption. Moreover, the self-heating also allows reducing the fabrication complexity, as there is no need of the heater element. In summary, the main objective of this work was to characterize the CNFs as a reactive material for conductometric sensors for low cost applications. First, the CNFs properties (electrical, mechanical, response to light and gases) were screened with the aim to assess the applicability of the sensing material (O. Monereo et al., 2013, Flexible sensor based on carbon nanofibers with multifunctional sensing features). Then, the sensor was tested with the use of temperature modulation (S. Claramunt et al., 2013, Flexible gas sensor array with an embedded heater based on metal decorated carbon nanofibres). At this point, a more detailed characterization of the gas sensing properties with O2, H2O, NO2 and NH3 was conducted. Then, the use of continuous self-heating operation (O. Monereo et al., 2015, Self-heating effects in large arrangements of randomly oriented carbon nanofibers: Application to gas sensors) and pulsed self-heating application (O. Monereo et al., 2016, Self-heating in pulsed mode for signal quality improvement: application to carbon nanostructures-based sensors) were found to be efficient methodologies to modulate the sensing characteristics of sensor devices, based on large arrays of nanostructures. Among the benefits achieved, the sensor presented improvements on stability, specificity, the detection time modulation, all along the simplification of device fabrication and the reduction of the power consumption. Finally, the phenomenon of self-heating in carbon nanofibers and its origin was studied (O. Monereo et al., 2016, Localized self-heating in large arrays of 1D nanostructures). In addition, the use of ultraviolet and visible light as alternative energy sources was also assessed and compared with the self-heating operation. Finally, the applicability of self-heating was also tested in graphene based (reduced graphene oxide) and metal oxide based (ZnO) devices to test the applicability of self-heating in other relevant sensing materials. [spa] El objetivo principal de esta tesis es la caracterizacion de las nanofibras de carbono (CNFs) como material reactivo para sensores resistivos de gas para aplicaciones de bajo consumo. Primero, las propiedades electricas, mecanicas y respuesta a luz y gases de las CNFs fueron evaluadas para comprobar la aplicabilidad del material sensor (O. Monereo et al., 2013, Flexible sensor based on carbon nanofibers with multifunctional sensing features). Posteriormente, la respuesta del sensor a gases fue estudiada con modulacion de temperatura (S. Claramunt et al., 2013, Flexible gas sensor array with an embedded heater based on metal decorated carbon nanofibres). En este punto, una caracteritzacion mas detallada de la respuesta del sensor a gases modulados con temperatura se realizo con O2, H2O, NO2 y NH3. A continuacion, el uso de la metodologia de auto-calentamiento continuo (O. Monereo et al., 2015, Self-heating effects in large arrangements of randomly oriented carbon nanofibers: Application to gas sensors) y pulsado (O. Monereo et al., 2016, Self-heating in pulsed mode for signal quality improvement: application to carbon nanostructures-based sensors) han sido probados como formas energeticamente eficientes para modular la respuesta de sensores basados en grandes matrices de CNFs. Entre los beneficios encontrados, consta una mejora de la estabilidad, especificidad, la modulacion del tiempo de deteccion; todo anadiendo la simplificacion de la fabricacion. Finalmente, el origen del fenomeno de auto-calentamiento en CNFs fue estudiado en detalle (O. Monereo et al., 2016, Localized self-heating in large arrays of 1D nanostructures). Ademas, la aplicabilidad de la metodologia fue tambien probada en nanotubos de carbono, oxido de grafeno reducido y nanohilos de oxido de zinc. Finalmente, el uso de luz ultraviolada y visible ha sido estudiado como a energias alternativas para la modulacion de los sensores de gases de CNFs.


Portland cement can be used as soil stabilizer, but poses some problems such as dust pollution, consumption of fossil energy and relatively large amounts of calcium-rich raw materials. Enzyme as a soil enzymatic stabilizer is a natural organic compound and promising material to reduce the application of Portland cement. Perma-Zyme is one type of enzyme. The results of the study showed that soil type and curing method significantly affected the effectiveness of the treatments with Perma-Zyme and Composite Portland cement. Under the air-dry conditions, the unconfined compressive strengths of soils stabilized with Composite Portland cement were lower than those treated with Perma-Zyme at each age. In sealed glass containers, the unconfined compressive strengths of soils treated with Composite Portland cement were higher than those treated with Perma-Zyme. These results indicate that after compaction, the surface of soil stabilized with Portland cement should be moistened with a spray of some water or cover with materials (such as plastic sheet),but the surface of soil stabilized with Perma-Zyme need not spray water and cover with materials in the actual project construction.


Time for Britain to follow the Netherlands, New Zealand, and Sweden's lead and get serious

There is always the danger of assuming that the NHS's problems are unique: that they reflect either the special characteristics of Britain's health care system or the government's niggardliness in funding it. The issue of priority setting--or, more emotively, rationing--is a case in point. This is not some peculiar British obsession. All health care systems have to grapple with the problem of how best to allocate scarce resources. The real difference is between how different health care systems have tried to address this issue: between those countries that, like Britain, tend to diffuse responsibility and those that have sought to develop a national framework for the decisions of health authorities and clinicians.

Britain's Department of Health issues an annual set of priorities, but these are largely a shopping list reflecting the department's current concerns. In contrast, other countries have sought to develop explicit criteria for guiding decisions about allocating resources. While Britain relies (as usual) on pragmatic incrementalism, with policy emerging almost as a byproduct of individual decisions, others have sought to devise a set of principles designed to shape those individual decisions. So which is the right way forward? Should policy be guided by pragmatism or principle? And, in making this choice, what can be learnt from other countries?

In trying to answer these questions we can now draw on the experience of three attempts by governments to devise national criteria for priority setting. In 1992 the Dutch government's Committee on Choices in Health Care produced what has since become known as the Dunning report, named after its chairman.1 The same year …


Rho GTPases are overexpressed and hyperactivated in many cancers, including breast cancer. Rho proteins, as well as their regulators and effectors, have been implicated in mitosis, and their altered expression promotes mitotic defects and aneuploidy. Previously, we demonstrated that p190B Rho GTPase activating protein (RhoGAP) deficiency inhibits ErbB2-induced mammary tumor formation in mice. Here we describe a novel role for p190B as a regulator of mitosis. We found that p190B localized to centrosomes during interphase and mitosis, and that it is differentially phosphorylated during mitosis. Knockdown of p190B expression in MCF-7 and Hela cells increased the incidence of aberrant microtubule-kinetochore attachments at metaphase, lagging chromosomes at anaphase, and micronucleation, all of which are indicative of aneuploidy. Cell cycle analysis of p190B deficient MCF-7 cells revealed a significant increase in apoptotic cells with a concomitant decrease in cells in G1 and S phase, suggesting that p190B deficient cells die at the G1 to S transition. Chemical inhibition of the Rac GTPase during mitosis reduced the incidence of lagging chromosomes in p190B knockdown cells to levels detected in control cells, suggesting that aberrant Rac activity in the absence of p190B promotes chromosome segregation defects. Taken together, these data suggest that p190B regulates chromosome segregation and apoptosis in cancer cells. We propose that disruption of mitosis may be one mechanism by which p190B deficiency inhibits tumorigenesis.


Visual anomaly detection plays a crucial role in not only manufacturing inspection to find defects of products during manufacturing processes, but also maintenance inspection to keep equipment in optimum working condition particularly outdoors. Due to the scarcity of the defective samples, unsupervised anomaly detection has attracted great attention in recent years. However, existing datasets for unsupervised anomaly detection are biased towards manufacturing inspection, not considering maintenance inspection which is usually conducted under outdoor uncontrolled environment such as varying camera viewpoints, messy background and degradation of object surface after long-term working. We focus on outdoor maintenance inspection and contribute a comprehensive Maintenance Inspection Anomaly Detection (MIAD) dataset which contains more than 100K high-resolution color images in various outdoor industrial scenarios. This dataset is generated by a 3D graphics software and covers both surface and logical anomalies with pixel-precise ground truth. Extensive evaluations of representative algorithms for unsupervised anomaly detection are conducted, and we expect MIAD and corresponding experimental results can inspire research community in outdoor unsupervised anomaly detection tasks. Worthwhile and related future work can be spawned from our new dataset.


PURPOSE
Does a physiologically plausible model of the retinal ganglion cell (RGC) receptive field (RF) predict the spatial tuning properties of the Hermann Grid Illusion (HGI)?

METHODS
The spatial tuning of a single intersection HGI was measured psychophysically in normal observers using a nulling technique at different vertical grid line luminances. We used a model based upon a standard RGC RF, balanced to produce zero response under uniform illumination, to predict the response of the model cell to the equivalent range of stimulus conditions when placed in either the 'street' or the 'intersection' of a single element of a Hermann grid. We determined the equivalent of the nulling luminance required to balance these responses and minimise the HGI.

RESULTS
The model and the psychophysical data demonstrated broad spatial tuning with similarly shaped tuning profiles and similar strengths of illusion. The line width at the peak of the model tuning function was around twice the model RGC RF centre size. Modelling the psychophysical functions gave RF centre sizes smaller than expected from human anatomical evidence but similar to that suggested by primate physiological evidence. In the model and psychophysically the strength of the illusion varied with the luminance of the vertical grid line when HGI strength was expressed as a Michelson nulling contrast, but this effect was smaller when HGI strength was expressed as a nulling luminance.

CONCLUSIONS
The shape, width, height and position of the spatial tuning function of the HGI can be well modelled by a RGC RF based model. The broad tuning of these functions does not appear to require a broad range of different cell sizes either in the retina or later in the visual pathway.


The purpose of the study was to analyze the technical and tactical aspects of high level Kickboxing matches. A total of 45 matches (135 rounds) from the World Championship 2009 and 2011 of male kickboxers were analyzed using notational analysis system to determine the technical and tactical aspects (i.e., offensive, defensive techniques and combined actions) considering combat rounds, weight divisions and match outcome. Kickboxers were engaged in offensive actions more than defensive ones (P<0.001). The most used techniques were straight punches, roundhouse kick, block/parry and foot defense (P<0.001), while punch combinations were the most used combination type. Winners used more offensive (i.e., hook punches), defensive techniques (i.e., foot defense and clinch) and punch combinations than losers. Significant interation effect of weight category, match outcome and rounds were found on offensive and defensive techniques. The activity in international kickboxing competitions was modulated by weight categories with a significant effect of combat stage. Winners applied more offensives and defensives techniques than defeated athletes. Our findings suggest that to win a match, athletes should be motivated by developing the most used offensives techniques and coaches should structure specific training to maintain a high rate of techniques 'delivery during the combat.


The article describes the design of the dehydrator of moisture-containing waste paper production, methods and results of its experimental studies. An adequate statistical expression has been obtained for the mutual influence of voltage by the electrodes, processing time, amount of moisture removed, humidity, current strength by electrodes, required power and energy. Upon reaching the lead, the efficiency of the liquid treatment with the dehydrator decreases sharply. The duration of waste treatment at a dehydrator for 28 V is 0.75 hours, and with a voltage drop of up to 4 V increases to 5 hours. Age less than 10 V. After 1.5 hours of operation at constant tension, the amount of energy supplied does not change. The cause of this dependency is fading work. The most economical mode corresponds to the highest voltage. Depending on the congestion conditions of the technological section of waste processing. Regression models determined the technologically permissible minimum voltage for the interval of change in the amount of waste. The obtained regression models allow us to determine the current strength, power consumption and energy consumption by 70 kg.


Session of Tuesday, December 29 President Henry Fairfield Osborn called the general session of the Society to order at 2 o'clock, December 29, in the library of the Philadelphia Academy of Sciences. After some introductory remarks by the President, the business session of the Society was opened with the reading of the report of the Council by the Secretary. REPORT OF THE COUNCIL To the Paleontological Society in Sixth Annual Meeting assembled: The first meeting of this year's Council was held at Princeton, New Jersey, January 1, 1914, immediately following the adjournment of the Society on that day. Routine business, such as the suggestion of a ticket for the following year and the consideration of new nominations for membership, was considered then; but since this meeting all business of the Society has been arranged by correspondence. A resume of administration for the Society's sixth year is presented in the following . . .


A range of levels of sodium molybdate was applied to existing clover pastures at Boyup Brook and at Bakers Hill in south-western Australia. In the three subsequent years, further levels of molybdate were applied to some of the sites to assess the residual value of the initial application. The effect of the molybdate application on the molybdenum concentration in clover tops was measured. Plots of molybdenum concentration in tops versus molybdate applied curved upwards at first as each additional increment provided an increased response in concentration. However, at high concentrations of molybdate in clover tops the plots curved to the right at three out of four sites as each additional increment produced a decreased response. That is, overall, the curves were sigmoid. Increases in molybdate concentration were greatest on soils with least ability to retain molybdate as measured in the laboratory. Molybdate applied one year previously was about half as effective as currently applied molybdate. After two and three years it was about 20% as effective. A single application of rnolybdate remains effective for a long period on a soil of low ability to retain molybdate because the initial application is super-abundant - rather than because of large differences between soils in the rate of decline of effectiveness.


Recent advances in Natural Language Processing (NLP), and specifically automated Question Answering (QA) systems, have demonstrated both impressive linguistic fluency and a pernicious tendency to reflect social biases. In this study, we introduce Q-Pain, a dataset for assessing bias in medical QA in the context of pain management, one of the most challenging forms of clinical decision-making. Along with the dataset, we propose a new, rigorous framework, including a sample experimental design, to measure the potential biases present when making treatment decisions. We demonstrate its use by assessing two reference Question-Answering systems, GPT-2 and GPT-3, and find statistically significant differences in treatment between intersectional race-gender subgroups, thus reaffirming the risks posed by AI in medical settings, and the need for datasets like ours to ensure safety before medical AI applications are deployed.


In current bio informatics, the prediction of transcriptional regulatory elements (TREs) is one of the major challenges. It is a key step toward deciphering entire genetic regulatory networks. The goal of this study is to predict TREs associated with four classes of developmentally regulated genes in dictyostelium discoideum (Dd). Applying a pattern recognition method to 5' untranscribed region of Dd sequences, the evaluation score (E-score) for each candidate TRE is calculated. Based on these E-scores and the proposed selection criteria, putative class-specific TREs are predicted in each developmentally regulated class of Dd


Kaḷarippayaṟṟ˘ developed as an intertwined martial and medical system in various styles across South India. While its final śāstric authority resides in the body and practice of a gurukkaḷ ("lineage-holder"), in contrast to haṭhayoga contexts, a kaḷarippayaṟṟ ̆ gurukkaḷ safeguards, consults and transmits his lineage's manuscripts and thus this relationship between practice and text offers potential insight into traditions where that connection is either lost or never existed. Like yogis, practitioners of kaḷarippayaṟṟ ̆ conceive it as a form where the gross physical body is employed to activate and affect a subtler inner body with which it is fundamentally interconnected. Focussing on the CVN lineage of "northern style" or "Malabar" kaḷarippayaṟṟ ̆ and drawing on both its practices and manuscripts, this chapter examines how vaṭiv ̆ ("posture") relates to the inner kaḷari body and how the foundational principle of cuvaṭ ̆, the action of the feet, initiates the circulation of vāyu, a subtle inner wind that gives virtuosity in kaḷarippayaṟṟ ̆. I also consider how this lineage differentiates the control of vāyu in kaḷarippayaṟṟ ̆ with what is perceived to be the deeper prāṇa accessed by the more static āsanas of haṭhayoga.


The General Antiparticle Spectrometer (GAPS) is an Antarctic balloon-borne mission to indirectly search for dark matter through sensitive observation of cosmic antiparticles. The first flight is planned for late 2021. GAPS is the first experiment optimized specifically for detection of low-energy (< 0.25 GeV/n) antideuterons, which are recognized as distinctive signals from dark matter annihilation or decay in the Galactic halo. To achieve high sensitivity to cosmic antinuclei in this low-energy range, GAPS uses a novel particle identification method based on exotic atom capture and decay.
The GAPS instrument consists of ten planes of 1440 10 cm-diameter, 2.5 mm-thick, 8-strip lithium drifted silicon (Si(Li)) detectors, which constitutes the tracker, surrounded by a plastic scintillator time-of-flight system. A new fabrication technique has been developed to satisfy the stringent requirements of the mission.
In this contribution, we describe the front-end electronics of the tracker of GAPS. The system is composed of front-end ASICs and power supplies. The ASICs provide readout and digitization of the signal (with an 11-bit ADC) in a wide dynamic range (10 keV - 100 MeV). Every ASIC has 32 channels and performs the readout for 4 detectors, for a total amount of 11520 channels. The ASIC analog front-end is based on a dynamic compression technique to handle a large range of signal amplitudes and features a low noise performance, achieving the required 4 keV resolution at low energies. The power system supplies both bias voltages for the Si(Li) detectors and low voltages for the electronics.


The problem of adaptive hybrid controller design for constrained roots with the consideration of computational efficiency is addressed. Two efficient control schemes based, respectively, on Lagrange and Newton-Euler dynamics formulation are presented. Detailed analyses on tracking properties of joint positions, velocities, and constrained forces are derived for both the Lagrange approach and the Newton-Euler approach. Although control laws in these two approaches are developed independently, a tight connection between them is found, indicating a possible bridge between general adaptive approaches based, respectively, on the two dynamics formulations. >


Mycoflora of sundried plantain chips during storage and the effects of these fungi on the nutrient composition of chips were determined. Eight fungi: Aspergillus niger, A. flavus, A. fumigatus, Mucor sp., Neurospora sp., Fusarium sp., Rhizopus sp., and Penicillum sp were found associated with the sundried plantain chips in storage while the freshly prepared chip harbored A. niger, A. flavus, Mucor sp.and Fusarium sp. The various fungi were isolated using washing, direct and dilution methods. The fungal count was found to increase as the time of storage of increased. Moreover, the carbohydrate, crude protein, crude fat and crude fibre of the freshly prepared plantain chips were significantly higher than those of the stored ones. The moisture content, ash and Phosphorus content of the stored sundried plantain chips were significantly higher than the freshly prepared plantain chips. The increase in moisture content and the ash content with storage time may be due to the degradative activities of the fungi present on (and or in) the samples. All the minerals (Na, K, Ca, Mg, Zn, Fe, Mn, Co, Cu and P) assessed were found to be in high concentrations, in the freshly prepared plantain chips than in the stored samples except Phosphorus.

 Key words: Fungi, plantain chips, stored product, minerals, proximate analysis.


The purpose of this discussion is to provide a better understanding of the conflicting perceptions regarding cougar (Puma concolor) management in northern Ontario, Canada. Despite two alleged puma attacks, numerous cougar sightings throughout the region and the recent confirmation of the puma's existence in Ontario through DNA analysis, the existence of these animals in the north-east of Canada and the USA remains largely contentious. Findings derived from interviews conducted in northern Ontario and content analysis of media sources in Canada and the USA suggest that the ongoing debate over the existence of pumas in this region of Canada can be attributed to current wildlife management largely predicated on the grand narrative of the wildlife expert. This centralised, bureaucratic approach decreases the opportunity for constructive dialogue between stakeholders and mitigates the implementation of community-based wildlife management approaches. While this analysis largely focuses in Ontario, Canada, the debate provides insights into the human dimensions of wildlife management, especially elusive wildlife, in North America and elsewhere.


Abstract The African-American sociologist and civil rights activist W. E. B. Du Bois (1868–1963) travels to Germany in 1936 for a five-month research stay. In his weekly column in the "Pittsburgh Courier," he reports on the Olympic Games in Berlin, the Wagner Festival in Bayreuth, and vocational training at Siemens. In the last articles, which appeared after he had left the country, he presents his analysis of National Socialist society. He observes life in the totalitarian dictatorship "along the color line," from a postcolonial perspective. To his own surprise, he finds that he himself experienced no discrimination, while the persecution of the Jews, which cannot be grasped with the category of "skin color," surpasses in popular cruelty and government policy the racism he himself experienced and criticized in the United States. The essay discusses Du Bois's reports from the German dictatorship on the basis of their first German-language edition and in the context of the debate about anti-Semitism versus colonial racism and "multidirectional memory."


Jet grouting is a ground improvement technique that has become widely adopted over the past three decades, yet relatively little data has been published about performance characteristics of mixes under adverse conditions, such as the inclusion of clay lenses. This paper presents an experimental investigation on the impact of clay on the strength of jet grouting. A total of 150 grout samples were subjected to 0-10% levels of Kaolinite and Bentonite inclusion. While the Bentonite was introduced as a pre-hydrated slurry, the Kaolinite was mixed in two ways: in a pulverized condition and as large chunks. Sample strength and stiffness were measured at multiple dates within the first 28 days. With 10% clay inclusion all samples exhibited significant strength and stiffness losses. With some, substantial losses began with as little as 4% clay inclusion. Even a 1% clay inclusion tended to decrease strength and stiffness between one-quarter and one-third of the control sample. Depending upon clay type and inclusion method, results differed significantly with respect to strength and stiffness development and failure mechanism. Petrographic analysis was used to provide further insights as to apparently divergent behaviors.


This paper focuses on applications to a solar energy collecting (hereafter referred to as suncatcher) system for the increase of solar radiant energy intensity and daylighting performance in the north surface of building. This suncatcher system uses the same principle as concentrating collectors and 'Le four solaire d' Odello' of French. This paper performs its fundamental study through the simplified numerical model. Preliminary results indicate the suncatcher system could provide profitable conditions for solar energy collection of the north surface in all climates. As a passive device, application of suncatcher baffle outside the north surface in building could significantly increase the level of solar radiant energy intensity and daylighting effect on a sunny day. Consequently, the suncatcher system is proved to be an effective device for the improvement of environment performance in the north surface. An additional study is required to establish the complete suncatcher system on the basis of this research. This approach could have implications for energy efficiency and conservation, effectively utilizing the free resource of solar radiation.


The hydrogen atom perturbed by sufficiently small homogeneous static electric and magnetic fields of arbitrary mutual alignment is a specific perturbation of the Kepler system with three degrees of freedom and three parameters. Normalization of the Keplerian symmetry reveals that the parameter space is stratified into resonant zones of systems, each zone with an internal dynamical stratification of its own (Efstathiou, Sadovski, and Zhilinski, 2007, Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A 463, 1771). Based on the fully integrable approximation, the bundle of invariant tori of individual systems within zones is characterized globally and the qualitative dynamical stratification is uncovered. The techniques involved in this analysis are illustrated with the example of the 1:1 resonance zone (near orthogonal fields) whose structure is known at present. Applications in the corresponding quantum system are also described.


This article discusses the evolution of the common law concerning the phenomenon of transsexualism while seeking to identity the place occupied in that process by the decision of Justice Richard Chisholm (as he then was) in Re Kevin : Validity of Marriage of Transsexual [2001] FamCA 1074 (' Re Kevin ') and the affirming decision of the Full Court of Family Court of Australia in respect of the appeal of that decision in The Attorney-General for the Commonwealth v "Kevin and Jennifer" and Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission [2003] FamCA 94 (' Re Kevin-Full Court '); collectively referred to as ' the Re Kevin decisions '. The article examines the phenomenon of transsexualism, associated language, terminology and causation issues as well as discussing the legal rights of young people in respect of medical treatment for transsexualism aided by a critique of the Australian decision Re Alex – Hormonal Treatment for Gender Identity Dysphoria [2004] FamCA 297.


We report a 79-year-old male patient presenting with progressive memory loss associated with anxiety and muscular pain. An extensive biochemical control revealed high serum calcium and parathormone levels, and normal thyroid hormones. Cognitive assessment prior to surgery was compatible with mild cognitive impairment, showing significant improvement two months after parathyroidectomy. Our case suggests that, although rare, primary hyperparathyroidism should be considered as a possible cause of cognitive decline in the elderly.


The objective of this research is to analyse food consumption patterns in Slovenia for households segmented by quartile income levels and for whole Slovenian population. Food items are divided into seven commodity groups. Cross-sectional household data from Household Budget Survey 2001 were used. We apply the linearly approximated Almost Ideal Demand System (LA/AIDS). Empirical results show positive expenditure elasticities being close to one where in general demands for dairy products and for vegetables have expenditure elasticities higher than unity. All Marshallian and Hicksian own price elasticities are negative and less than one. Demand for meat and fish is quite price inelastic whereas demand for vegetables is pretty sensitive to its own price changes. Results indicate that Slovenia is losing consumption characteristics typical for countries in transition however, some unique food habits persists.


ABSTRACT Railway level crossings (RLCs) are critical elements of both railway and road networks, where accidents mostly result in severe and fatal injuries. In the Czech Republic, most accidents occur on RLCs with flashing lights only. In order to provide insight into safety performance of this RLC category, specific risk factors need to be identified and their overall safety impact quantified. In this regards, the paper describes the application of a multivariate assessment, based on disaggregated safety performance function, developed on a level of sight triangles. The results proved the safety impacts of traffic volumes, as well as speeding and individual sight distances. In addition, this relationship may change based on a distance from RLC: while approaching sight distances were associated with reduction of accident frequency, the opposite trend was found for stopping sight distances. Next, RLC inconspicuousness and potential short storage space were found to be influential risk factors.


Objective To estimate the budget impact of portable wide-field digital imaging incorporation on screening neonatal causes of childhood blindness and visual impairment in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Design Budget impact analysis. Setting Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Primary and secondary outcome measures The primary outcome was the direct cost of indirect binocular ophthalmoscopy, red reflex test and portable wide-field digital image screening comprising all babies born in Rio de Janeiro's government maternity wards. The secondary outcome was the budget impact of implementing portable wide-field digital image screening in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Results Considering 100% coverage of maternity wards, the total budget impact between 2020 and 2024 would be US$3 820 706.04, ranging from US$3 139 844.34 to US$6 099 510.35. The additional cost would be US$3 124 457.28, ranging from US$2 714 492.26 to US$4 880 608.63. Conclusion The cost of universal digital imaging screening corresponds to less than 1% of the government health budget of the city of Rio de Janeiro. The information provided in this study may help government decision-makers evaluate the feasibility of implementing this new strategy in the municipal setting. Further health economic evaluations should be performed to verify the affordability of the implementation of this screening strategy in the Brazilian scenario, taking into account scarce human resources.


Hysteresis characteristics is highly nonlinear, has memory and is common in engineering systems. Its presence introduces uncertainties and nonlinearity in dynamic modelling and thus difficulties in achieving a good control design. This paper studies the suitability of iterative learning control (ILC) to compensate hysteresis uncertainties for a class of continuous-time dynamic systems. We examine dynamic systems with Preisach model hysteresis nonlinearity. It is shown that this class of systems possess properties of continuity and repeatability which are required for ILC. Furthermore, anticipatory iterative learning control (or A-type ILC) is applied to overcome the uncertainties and nonlinearity introduced by hysteresis. Simulation results are presented to validate the effectiveness of ILC laws to eliminate tracking error due to hysteresis uncertainties.


ABSTRACT Technology upgrading is essential for emerging countries to catch up. Yet, little is known about how countries are upgrading their technologies. In this paper, we first explore the patterns of biotechnology upgrading in China and examine the specialization feature from both technological and organizational perspectives. Our results show that China has specialized in the industrial-biotech sub-field, and firms have played a key role in the development of biotech in this field. Secondly, we investigate the knowledge bases for technology upgrading. From the perspective of scientific knowledge bases, we find that there is a scientific backup for biotechnology; and that biotechnology goes hand in hand with bioscience. From the perspective of technical knowledge bases, by disaggregating the knowledge sources by countries, we find that local knowledge has become an increasingly important resource for the development of new biotechnologies in China. The increasing importance of local knowledge in the development of new biotechnologies shows that China is moving on a path from imitative to indigenous innovation.


Agricultural by-products are an important component of livestock feed. In Scotland, distillery by-products are protein rich and traditionally cost competitive feed ingredients in cattle production. However, during recent years, distilleries in the UK (including Scotch whisky producers) have started to use the by-products also as a source of renewable energy, in order to reduce the carbon footprint of alcohol production. In this study, a systems-based material and energy flow analysis was performed to calculate the life-cycle greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of whisky production for two scenarios where distillery by-products were used either (1) as beef cattle feed to replace other protein sources (namely soya bean meal and rapeseed meal); or (2) as anaerobic digester (AD) feedstock in order to generate renewable energy (heat and electricity). System expansion was used to quantitatively handle the by-products in the analysis. The results show that considerable reductions in GHG emissions could be achieved by either replacing feed crops with by-products or by using the by-products in AD plants to generate bio-energy. The biggest reductions in the GHG emissions were achieved when by-products were used to replace soya meal in animal feed. However, the results are highly sensitive to methodological choices, including the accounting method of the land use change emissions arising from soya production.


Most descriptions treat the cerebellum as a uniform structure, and the possibility of important regional heterogeneities in either chemistry or physiology is rarely considered. However, it is now clear that such an assumption is inappropriate. Instead, there is substantial evidence that the cerebellum is composed of hundreds of distinct modules, each with a precise pattern of inputs and outputs, and expressing a range of molecular signatures. By screening a monoclonal antibody library against cerebellar polypeptides we have identified antigens--zebrins--that reveal some of the cerebellum's covert heterogeneity. This article reviews some of these findings, relates them to the patterns of afferent connectivity, and considers some possible mechanisms through which the modular organization may arise.


Firemaster® 550 (FM 550), a fire‐retardant mixture used in foam‐based products, was recently identified as a common contaminant in household dust. The chemical structures of its principle components suggest they have endocrine disrupting activity, but nothing is known about their physiological effects at environmentally relevant exposure levels. The goal of this exploratory study was to evaluate accumulation, metabolism and endocrine disrupting effects of FM 550 in rats exposed to 100 or 1000 µg/day across gestation and lactation. FM 550 components accumulated in tissues of exposed dams and offspring and induced phenotypic hallmarks associated with metabolic syndrome in the offspring. Effects included increased serum thyroxine levels and reduced hepatic carboxylesterease activity in dams, and advanced female puberty, weight gain, male cardiac hypertrophy, and altered exploratory behaviors in offspring. Results of this study are the first to implicate FM 550 as an endocrine disruptor and an obesogen at environmentally relevant levels. #x000A9; 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J BiochemMol Toxicol 27:124‐136, 2013; View this article online at wileyonlinelibrary.com. DOI 10.1002/jbt.21439


Abstract Introduction: Exotic dance clubs (EDCs) can play pivotal roles in the production of drug-related risks for female exotic dancers (FED). We aimed to characterize the structural and occupational factors associated with new drug initiation post-EDC entry among new FED (N = 117) in Baltimore, Maryland. Materials and Methods: Logistic regression models tested the associations of new drug uptake, measured as initiating any illicit drug (including non-prescribed and diverted prescription narcotics) not used prior to EDC employment, with structural (e.g. debt sources, housing instability) and occupational (e.g. sex work, dancing as sole income source) vulnerabilities. Results: Most FED were younger than 24 years-old (60%), identified as Black/African American (61%), and did not complete high school (56%). Twenty-nine (25%) reported using any new drug post-EDC entry, with cocaine (34%) cited most frequently among newly initiated substances. In multivariable analysis, drug initiation was significantly associated with cumulative debt sources (Adjusted Odds Ratio [AOR] = 1.82, 95% Confidence Interval [CI]: 1.19–2.77), dancing as only income source (AOR = 4.21, CI: 1.29–13.71), and sex work (AOR = 9.26, CI: 2.74–31.32). Conclusions: Our findings implicate co-occurring structural and occupational factors in FED's initiation of illicit drugs proceeding EDC employment. Results demonstrate the coping role of drug use for FED in stressful working environments and the multiple vulnerabilities associated with illicit drug uptake. The study reinforces a need for harm reduction interventions (i.e. debt relief, employment connections, increased hourly pay) that consider the contribution of overlapping financial insecurities to the production of occupational risks motivating drug uptake.


The effects of globalization have resulted in many firms exploring beyond their national boundaries in search of a better business performance. Resulting therefrom, increasing efforts have been made by researchers in the recent past in order to determine the antecedents of export venture performance of firms in addition to defining the appropriate dimensions of export performance. The objectives of this study are: (i) to explore the possible dimensions of export performance including its relationship between one dimension and another, (ii) to identify the main antecedent variable to export performance, (iii) to analyze the relationships between one antecedent variable and another, and (iv) to analyze the moderating effects of the 4 moderators on five critical links. Data were collected from 55 participating firms which were drawn from the Malaysian Construction Professional Consultants specifically those which are construction, total of 205 usable questionnaires were returned. Data analyses were conducted by a process of multivariate analysis using structural equation modelling (SEM) via AMOS (Analysis of Moment Structures) software package Version 21.0. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) were performed to validate the scales. The results of the structural modelling revealed that for the direct relationships, 13 out of 20 hypotheses tested were supported whereas the remaining 7 were rejected. Only one hypothesis on the mediating variable was supported whereas out of 20 sub-hypotheses on the 4 moderators tested, all were supported except for 2 which were rejected. The results provide evidence that management factors are important antecedent towards shaping up the necessary resources, products/services characteristics of the firm and the export market strategy of the firm. On the most crucial outcome of export financial performance, the study revealed that it is dependent upon the degree of internationalisation of the firm and the export market strategy that the firm is pursuing. Additionally, capabilities were found to have a mediating effect on the relationship between management characteristics and the degree of internationalisation. The four moderators were found to have significant effects on several relationship links. Hence, it is proven by this study that the traditional model of export performance applied to manufactured goods comprising the same variables can be applied to describe the antecedents of export performance of service firms as validated. On the relationship between the two main dimensions of export performance and export non-financial performance, it was established in this study, for the first time to the best of the researcher's knowledge, that strategic export performance is positively linked to economic export performance. This study also contributes towards empirical research in export performance in a full-service firm setting from an emerging economy and in particular within the context of Malaysia.


Background and aims: Respirators are widely employed as the only measure against respiratory hazards. However, it is well known that unless workers wear respiratory continuously and properly, its efficacy will be very low. The purpose of this study was to determine the risk perception and effective factors on proper use of respirators among workers exposed to chemical containments in a petrochemical industry. Method : In this cross-sectional study a structural questionnaire was administrated to 81 randomly selected workers in a petrochemical industry and collected data were analyzed by SPSS package with descriptive statistics and Chi-Square test. Results: This study showed that only 8.6% of employees claimed to wear respiratory protectors all the time when they exposed to chemicals. The most common cause for not always wearing respirators was being uncomfortable. In this study there was a significant relationship between use of respirators and worker's risk perception (p < 0.05). While the relationship between worker's risk perception and Proper Use of Respirator Index (PURI) wasn't statistically significant (p> 0.05). Also the relationship between age and experience with use of respirators wasn't statistically significant (p> 0.05). Conclusion: The results of the study showed that for promoting the proper use of respirators , the company should remove the barriers to compliance respirators by workers (Such as their uncomfortably) and promote the workers' risk perception about respiratory hazard and also training workers about effective factors of proper use of respirators. To achieve these purposes, implementing of Respiratory Protection Program (RPP) was suggested to the company.


CONTEXT: Chemoresistance is a major issue in patients with locally advanced oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of melatonin in conjunction with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NC) on hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) expression and clinical response in locally advanced OSCC patients. AIMS: To study the effects of melatonin on HIF-1α expression and its effect on the clinical response of patients with locally advanced OSCC. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: A randomized controlled trial was conducted, wherein patients were recruited from several hospitals in Jakarta, Indonesia. Patients were randomized into two groups using computerized block randomization. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: Both groups were given NC, with treatment group receiving melatonin. Outcomes measured in this study were HIF-1α expression from tissue samples and clinical response based on the RECIST 1.1 criteria. Twenty-five patients completed the study protocol and were included in the data analysis. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS USED: Shapiro–Wilk test was used to test the data normality. For data with normal distribution, we conducted an independent t-test to compare between the two groups. Data with abnormal distribution were analyzed using Mann–Whitney U-test. The mean difference between the two groups was analyzed using Shapiro–Wilk normality test. RESULTS: Our study showed a significant decrease in HIF-1α expression in the melatonin group compared to the placebo group (P < 0.05, relative risk 3.08). However, the degree of reduction of HIF-1α expression in the melatonin group did not differ significantly (P = 0.301). CONCLUSIONS: Our study showed that melatonin administered at 20 mg/day could reduce the expression of HIF-1α and residual tumor percentage, but did not affect the clinical response in OSCC patients.


There is an increasing need to promote more environmentally sustainable agriculture and small-scaled farm business in the NCP. This paper adopts two key environmental indicators to improve scientific understanding of environmental impact of summer maize and winter wheat production system and explain distinct performance results from farmer's management aspect. This paper highlights farm management diverseness and its impact on environmental performance of crop production. The farm households are grouped into three categories based on similarity on environmental impact results. The cluster analysis shows that input intensification often results in poor performance environmental damage. To realize shift from high input intensive agriculture to sustainable agriculture, multi-scale and system approaches with sufficient reference to local specificities needs to be implemented to achieve more environmental sustainable agriculture in the NCP.


In this paper, we explore how network centrality and network entropy can be used to identify a bifurcation network event. A bifurcation often occurs when a network undergoes a qualitative change in its structure as a response to internal changes or external signals. In this paper, we show that network centrality allows us to capture important topological properties of dynamic networks. By extracting multiple centrality features from a network for dimensionality reduction, we are able to track the network dynamics underlying an intrinsic low-dimensional manifold. Moreover, we employ von Neumann graph entropy (VNGE) to measure the information divergence between networks over time. In particular, we propose an asymptotically consistent estimator of VNGE so that the cubic complexity of VNGE is reduced to quadratic complexity that scales more gracefully with network size. Finally, the effectiveness of our approaches is demonstrated through a real-life application of cyber intrusion detection.


A rank method is presented for estimating regression parameters in the linear model when observations are correlated. This correlation is accounted for by including a random effect term in the linear model. A method is proposed that makes few assumptions about the random effect and error distribution. The main goal of this article is to determine the distributions for which this method performs well relative to existing methods.


. We introduce a class of acquisition functions for sample selection that leads to faster convergence in applications related to Bayesian experimental design and uncertainty quantification. The approach follows the paradigm of active learning, whereby existing samples of a black-box function are utilized to optimize the next most informative sample. The proposed method aims to take advantage of the fact that some input directions of the black-box function have a larger impact on the output than others, which is important especially for systems exhibiting rare and extreme events. The acquisition functions introduced in this work leverage the properties of the likelihood ratio, a quantity that acts as a probabilistic sampling weight and guides the active-learning algorithm towards regions of the input space that are deemed most relevant. We demonstrate superiority of the proposed approach in the uncertainty quantification of a hydrological system as well as the probabilistic quantification of rare events in dynamical systems and the identification of their precursors.