Author(s): Morin, Olivier | Advisor(s): Pouliot, Jean | Abstract: External beam radiation therapy has now the ability to deliver doses that conform tightly to a tumor volume. The steep dose gradients planned in these treatments make it increasingly important to reproduce the patient position and anatomy at each treatment fraction. For this reason, considerable research now focuses on in-room three-dimensional imaging. This thesis describes the first clinical megavoltage cone beam computed tomography (MVCBCT) system, which utilizes a conventional linear accelerator equipped with an amorphous silicon flat panel detector. The document covers the system development and investigation of its clinical applications over the last 4-5 years. The physical performance of the system was evaluated and optimized for soft-tissue contrast resolution leading to recommendations of imaging protocols to use for specific clinical applications and body sites. MVCBCT images can resolve differences of 5% in electron density for a mean dose of 9 cGy. Hence, the image quality of this system is sufficient to differentiate some soft-tissue structures. The absolute positioning accuracy with MVCBCT is better than 1 mm. The accuracy of isodose lines calculated using MVCBCT images of head and neck patients is within 3% and 3 mm. The system shows excellent stability in image quality, CT# calibration, radiation exposure and absolute positioning over a period of 8 months. A procedure for MVCBCT quality assurance was developed. In our clinic, MVCBCT has been used to detect head and neck set-up errors, to position a patient with a paraspinous tumor close to metallic hardware, to position prostate cancer patients using gold markers or soft-tissue landmarks, to monitor head and neck anatomical changes and their dosimetric consequences, and for treatment planning contouring in presence of metallic implants. MVCBCT imaging is changing the clinical practice of our department by increasingly revealing patient-specific localization and/or anatomy variation errors. New verification protocols are being developed to minimize those errors thus moving the practice of radiation therapy one step closer to personalized medicine.


The study investigates how agreement between leaders' and their team's perceptions influence intervention outcomes in a leadership-training intervention aimed at improving organizational learning. Agreement, i.e. perceptual distance was calculated for the organizational learning dimensions at baseline. Changes in the dimensions from pre-intervention to post-intervention were evaluated using polynomial regression analysis with response surface analysis. The general pattern of the results indicated that the organizational learning improved when leaders and their teams agreed on the level of organizational learning prior to the intervention. The improvement was greatest when the leader's and the team's perceptions at baseline were aligned and high rather than aligned and low. The least beneficial scenario was when the leader's perceptions were higher than the team's perceptions. These results give insights into the importance of comparing leaders' and their team's perceptions in intervention research. Polynomial regression analyses with response surface methodology allow three-dimensional examination of relationship between two predictor variables and an outcome. This contributes with knowledge on how combination of predictor variables may affect outcome and allows studies of potential non-linearity relating to the outcome. Future studies could use these methods in process evaluation of interventions. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The BNL electron gun will incorporate a laser-driven photocathode in the wall of a 1/sup 1///sub 2/ cell RF cavity operated at a peak field of 100 MV/m. Pulses of 4.5-MeV energy, 5-ps width, and 1-nC charge will be produced with very little emittance growth due to the effects of space-charge and nonlinear RF fields. The design of the gun was aided by extensive computer simulation. >


Management Consultancy is the definitive reference guide for all management consultants. Covering all aspects of the management consultant's role, this essential handbook covers everything you need to know. This book provides: guidelines on best practice, expert contributions, helpful case studies, and a complete overview of the industry. Management Consultancy also explores the principles behind the application of specialized management techniques to the consultancy process. This book also seeks to promote an understanding of the dynamics of the client-consultant relationship. Comprehensive in its coverage and full of practical advice, techniques and useful information, Management Consultancy is of equal value to the MBA student, sole practitioner or professional in a large multi-national consultancy. This title is also the recommended reading for students on the MSc in Management Consultancy. The book is recommended by the Institute of Management Consultancy and the Management Consultancies Association. The book is also endorsed by the Association of MBAs.


The objective was to evaluate the activity against Haemonchus contortus by foliage taken from three tanniferous tree species and fed to Creole male kids experimentally infected with a dose of 350 larvae of H. contortus (L3) kg−1 body weight (BW). Twenty Creole kids weighing 12 ± 2.0 kg were randomly distributed in four treatments: T1 = control without foliage, and the addition of fresh foliage (10 % of the dry matter of the total diet) of Guazuma ulmifolia (T2), Pithecellobium dulce (T3) and Acacia cochliacantha (T4). For sixty days, the activity of the foliage against H. contortus was evaluated by quantifying the reduction in the excretion of eggs per gram of feces; also, the excretion of eggs was associated with the concentration of the blood cell pack, dry matter intake and weight change in animals. The data of the evaluated variables were analyzed in a completely randomized design and a Tukey test was carried out for comparison of means (p < 0.05). The secondary compounds of P. dulce and A. cochliacanta foliage were more e ective (p < 0.04) in the control of H. contortus with minor excretion of eggs (1.48 and 1.18 Log g−1 of feces), respectively. The hematocrit was di erent (p < 0.005) mainly in hemoglobin, erythrocytes, lymphocytes and eosinophils; dry matter intake (p < 0.05) and changes in total body weight (p < 0.01) were higher in kids which received P. dulce foliage (T3) with 621.5 g d−1 and 2.4 kg, respectively. It was concluded that the secondary compounds of fresh P. dulce and A. cochliacantha foliage have the potential to control H. contortus without a ecting the health and productive response in kids.


Strength training is a critical component of rehabilitation for adults with anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) injury. Programming of acute programme variables (APV; e.g. sets, repetitions (reps), load, tempo, rest period (RP)) in rehabilitation strength training (RST) for ACL injury will impact physiological responses to training and resolution of impairments, activity limitations, and participation restrictions, as well as influence short-/long-term outcomes. Evidence-based practice (EBP) in RST for ACL injury depends on whether APVs are adequately reported in the scientific literature for readers to replicate interventions in day-to-day clinical practice. The purpose of this systematic review (SR) was to determine the extent to which RST APVs are reported in studies for adults with ACL injury. This SR was part of a wider SR registered on PROSPERO; PRISMA guidelines were followed. Medical (PubMed, MEDLINE), allied health (PEDro, CINHAL), and sports (Sport DISCUS) databases were comprehensively searched using pre-defined keywords. Descriptive, observational, and experimental studies that used RST with an external mass of known magnitude for adults with ACL injury were included from 2006–2016. Case-studies, elastic/hydraulic/pneumatic resistance studies, mixed-modality studies, and paediatric studies were excluded. A study needed to report an APV for ≥51% of all its RST exercises to be counted and included for that specific APV in this SR. Proportions (%) were then calculated: (number of studies with a specific APV reported total number of studies in SR) × 100. A total of 298 records were identified. After removal of duplicates, 139 records were screened and 19 were eligible for full-text review (FTR). After FTR, 13 studies were included for final quantitative synthesis. Of the 13 studies, 0%–85% reported specific APVs (e.g. sets 85%, reps 77%, load 39%, tempo 8%, RP 31%). Most studies reported sets and reps. Less than 40% of studies reported load, tempo, and RP, which threatens large variation in application of RST due to readers' attempts to interpolate omitted APVs Translation and replication of recent ACL RST studies to clinical practice is limited because of inadequate reporting of APVs Future ACL RST studies should present detailed reports of APVs to facilitate better transfer of research to practice.


In the different types of pipe network, the running performances of the variable flow pump were calculated, using pipe valve control, the number of units control and the frequency control to adjust water flow of system, and the impacts of pipeline types on energy consumption of variable flow pump were discussed. The relationships between performance of the pipe network and pump operating condition were analyzed, including the relationship between various flow control methods and pump energy consumption. The calculated results show that the pipe characteristic produces a great impact on energy consumption of variable flow pump. The adjusting flow of system by increasing pipe resistance can also reduce pump's energy consumption, and the amount of energy reduced is greater in closed circulation pipeline than in open type pipeline. The variable frequency drive mode has big and different impacts on energy consumption between closed circulation and open type pipeline, the greater the static pressure value, the smaller the energy saving effect. The number control and the frequency control for pump are two effective methods of energy adjustment in the loop pipe networks, the change rates of power and flow do not meet the similarity law dew to the pipe network changed.


Integrated inversion of production history data and 4D seismic data for reservoir model characterization leads to a nonlinear inverse problem that is usually cumbersome to solve : the associated forward problem based, on one hand, on fluid flow simulation in the reservoir for production data modeling, and on the other hand, on a petro-elastic model for 4D time lapse seismic data modeling, is usually computationally time consuming, the number of measurements to be inverted is large (up to 500 000), the number of model parameters to be determined is up to 100. Moreover, all the derivatives of the modeled data with respect to those parameters are usually not available. We propose an optimization method based on a Sequential Quadratic Programming algorithm which uses gradient approximation coupled with a BFGS approximation of the Hessian. In addition, the proposed method allows to handle equality and inequality nonlinear constraints. Some realistic applications are presented to illustrate the efficiency of the method.


In the maintenance of immunological tolerance important role belongs to the recently discovered population of regulatory T-cells CD4 + CD25 + FoxP3 +. These cells have potential in suppressing pathologic immune responses observed at various autoimmune diseases including multiple sclerosis. We have shown a reduction in the number and functional activity of T-reg in peripheral blood of patients with multiple sclerosis in the acute stage, the increase in their number during remission, duration of the relationship of the autoimmune process and the degree of disability of patients with the contents of T-reg. The possibility of using the grown ex vivo T-reg for the correction of immunopathological process in multiple sclerosis.


One of the main factors affecting blood flow conditions in stenotic arteries is plaque geometry. Plaques can be deformed by the internal pressure, and hence plaque behavior varies depending on its stiffness. Blood flow pattern around a plaque is complicated by plaque behavior, and these complications may lead to growth of the plaque itself. Thus, we can say that geometry and mechanical properties of a plaque, and blood flow will affect each other.To understand the relationship between plaque stiffness and flow pattern, flow measurement using elastic models, which mimic the mechanical properties of blood vessels, is required. Flow patterns with steady flows and a range of hydrostatic pressures were observed by particle image velocimetry. The results show that the model is deformed by hydrostatic pressures. Furthermore, flow patterns are also changed as the results of model deformation, especially at reattachment points. Simultaneously, we performed a numerical simulation for finding a critical parameter of the flow patterns. These results show that the reattachment length increases in the model with high stenosis severity and in a vertically oriented parent artery. In conclusion, a parent artery and plaque can deform because of internal pressure, and these deformation will affect blood flow patterns.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


Problem The problem of the paper is the structure and characteristics of the interior door market in Sweden. Purpose The purpose of the paper is to provide the possibly deepest research of the Swedish market of interior door. Method The research constitutes of several parts. The theoretical framework derives from dependable literature, namely books, articles and journals. The data about the focal company is mostly of the primary type, gathered through series of interviews with Classen Pol's vice-chairman and a questionnaire filled in by the marketing manager of the company. Result The result of this paper is a description of the interior doors market in Sweden. Existing producers, distributors, sellers and importers are presented. Moreover, the author presents the optimal distribution for Classen Pol to pursue while entering Sweden.


Several members of the Rubiaceae and Violaceae families produce a series of cyclotides or macrocyclic peptides of 29–31 amino acids with an embedded cystine knot. We aim to understand the mechanism of synthesis of cyclic peptides in plants and have isolated a cDNA clone that encodes the cyclotide kalata B1 as well as three other clones for related cyclotides from the African plant Oldenlandia affinis. The cDNA clones encode prepropeptides with a 20-aa signal sequence, an N-terminal prosequence of 46–68 amino acids and one, two, or three cyclotide domains separated by regions of about 25 aa. The corresponding cyclotides have been isolated from plant material, indicating that the cyclotide domains are excised and cyclized from all four predicted precursor proteins. The exact processing site is likely to lie on the N-terminal side of the strongly conserved GlyLeuPro or SerLeuPro sequence that flanks both sides of the cyclotide domain. Cyclotides have previously been assigned an antimicrobial function; here we describe a potent inhibitory effect on the growth and development of larvae from the Lepidopteran species Helicoverpa punctigera.


Effective identification of traditional medicine is essential for the development of medical industry. Identification in different parts (rhizome head, lateral root, main root and skin) of Panax quinquefolius L. root (American ginseng) is limited by the lack of efficient differentiation methods. In this study, proteomic technologies were used to establish an advanced protocol suitable for the identification of different parts of P. quinquefolius L. root. Proteins were extracted from four different parts of a 4-year old quinquefolius L. root using optimized sonication and trichloroacetic acid [TCA]/acetone precipitation methods and separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE). Then 2-DE patterns were matched and analyzed with Image Master 2D Platinum Version 6.0 software. Eight groups of different abundant proteins and 6 specific proteins were inspected (totaling 38 protein spots in all). Further, these proteins were extensively identified by MALDI-TOF-TOF analysis. According to the biological functions, a total of 24 successfully identified proteins could be divided into 5 groups, which were stress response related proteins, energy metabolism related proteins, storage related proteins, hypothesis proteins and unknown proteins. From these results it was concluded that proteomic analysis method was an effective way to identify the different parts of quinquefolius L. root. These findings may contribute to further understanding of the physiological mechanisms of quinquefolius L. Key words: Panax quinquefolius L. root, different parts, two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE).


Peer-to-peer (P2P) systems are distributed systems based on the concept of resource sharing by direct exchange between peer nodes (i.e., nodes having same role and responsibility). Complex Adaptive Systems (CAS) can be a new programming paradigm for P2P applications. In the CAS framework, a system consists of a large number of relatively simple autonomous computing units, or agents. From a P2P perspective, CAS offers several attractive properties, including total lack of centralized control. In this paper we present a load balancing framework which effectively balances the workloads of the jobs distributed among interconnected nests with the help of information carrying autonomous agents called ANTs. The ants helps to effectively balance the loads as it wanders via the interconnection network to find a pair of under loaded and over loaded nests (collection of nodes). The load transfer from overloaded to underloaded nests is performed by direct downloading between the two nests thereby avoiding large amount of data transfer across the network. The algorithm developed improves the response time of the user submitted jobs and the overall execution time required for the completion of the submitted jobs is found to decrease. It is found that the agents wander about randomly when the load is uniformly distributed among the interconnected nests and they move rapidly towards the regions of the network with highly imbalanced loads.


The focus of this study is the optoelectronic integration of a micro-optical displacement detection architecture with a biomimetic MEMS microphone membrane based on the directional hearing mechanism of the parasitic fly Ormia Ochracea. The micromachined microphones feature optical interferometric displacement detection achieved using a commercially available Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting Laser (VCSEL) coupled with a custom designed silicon photodiode array. This design is shown to have significant advantages over conventional hearing aid microphones, which employ capacitive detection.

A Multi-Chip Module (MCM) optoelectronic package is designed to integrate the biomimetic membrane with the optical displacement detection electronics in order to produce a fully integrated acoustic sensor. The modular package components, which are fabricated using high resolution stereolithography apparatus (SLA) equipment, provide accurate optical alignment of the optoelectronic components and allow complete device integration in a package with a total volume under 0.5cc.
Characterization of the integrated microphones is described in detail, including measurements of sensitivity, noise floor and directivity. A displacement resolution of 3.5x10⁻¹³ m/√Hz was measured between 4kHz and 16kHz in an anechoic test chamber, corresponding to a dynamic range of 115dB for the optical detection architecture. The total noise SPL of the device is 35.9dBA. Unlike capacitive microphones with similar noise levels, the device developed in this work exhibits first order dipole directivity patterns between 250Hz-1kHz, with an ideal Directivity Index of 4.8dB @ 1kHz and directional attenuation exceeding 25dB. With these results the optoelectronic package presented in this work demonstrates the viability of the integrated optical biomimetic microphones in compact, low power applications, specifically directional hearing aids.


An influential theory attributes developmental disorders of language and literacy to low‐level auditory perceptual difficulties. However, evidence to date has been inconsistent and contradictory. We investigated whether this mixed picture could be explained in terms of heterogeneity in the language‐impaired population. In Experiment 1, the behavioural responses of 16 people with specific language impairment (SLI) and 16 control listeners (aged 10 to 19 years) to auditory backward recognition masking (ABRM) stimuli and unmasked tones indicated that a subgroup of people with SLI are less able to discriminate between the frequencies of sounds regardless of their rate of presentation. Further, these people tended to be the younger participants, and were characterised by relatively poor nonword reading. In Experiment 2, the auditory event‐related potentials (ERPs) of the same groups to unmasked tones were measured. Listeners with SLI tended to have age‐inappropriate waveforms in the N1‐P2‐N2 region, regardless of their auditory discrimination scores in Experiment 1. Together, these results suggest that SLI may be characterised by immature development of auditory cortex, such that adult‐level frequency discrimination performance is attained several years later than normal.


Research on differential deterrability suggests increasingly that the size of a potential sanction risk effect is conditional on characteristics of the person and properties of the setting. Whether the moral context of young people's action settings shapes adolescents' responsiveness to deterrent cues has been a neglected issue, however. Since youths spend much time in the company of their peers, close friends' stance toward crime may serve as a measure of the moral makeup of the immediate environment in which young people make behavioral choices. Based on a longitudinal adolescent self-report survey, we test whether the impact of an individual's sanction certainty perceptions varies according to the level of his or her best friends' moral beliefs regarding selected acts of rule-breaking. Lagged negative binomial regression analyses provide mixed support for the hypothesis that perceived sanction risk matters more for adolescents whose close friends encourage criminal activity. These findings have wider implications for perceptual deterrence research: They suggest that efforts to specify the conditions under which sanction certainty perceptions are related to offending should concentrate on the presence of criminogenic factors.


Sir We read with interest the recent Case Report by Messrs McMillan and Watt (Br J Surg 1993; 80: 915). We have previously reported the complication of small bowel herniation through the umbilical wound from a 10-mm port, resulting in obstruction that required small bowel resection'. In this case the gallbladder had also been removed through the epigastric cannula, suggesting that a wound of 10 mm is sufficient for this problem to arise. We believe that the complication has not been encountered following gynaecological laparoscopy as nearly all procedures use 5or 8-mm cannulas. We had attempted closure of the defect with a 2/0 polyglactin suture, and feel this illustrates the difficulties encountered in closure of the fascial layer through such a small incision. We have found the use of a J shaped needle facilitates closure of the wound. The report of small bowel obstruction secondary to suturing of the small bowel to the abdominal wall demonstrates the need for adequate exposure for the placement of sutures under direct vision'. Although the wounds are small and some believe closure to be unnecessary, further reports of this nature may help settle the debate of whether to close fascial defects after laparoscopic surgery.


Oral P2Y12 inhibitors are commonly prescribed for cardiovascular disease and include clopidogrel, prasugrel, and ticagrelor. Each of these drugs has its strengths and weaknesses. Prasugrel and ticagrelor are more potent inhibitors of platelet aggregation and were shown to be superior to clopidogrel in preventing major adverse cardiovascular events after an acute coronary syndrome and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in the absence of genotyping. However, both are associated with an increased risk for non‐coronary artery bypass‐related bleeding. Clopidogrel is a prodrug requiring bioactivation, primarily via the CYP2C19 enzyme. Approximately 30% of individuals have a CYP2C19 no function allele and decreased or no CYP2C19 enzyme activity. Clopidogrel‐treated carriers of a CYP2C19 no function allele have decreased exposure to the clopidogrel active metabolite and lesser inhibition of platelet aggregation, which likely contributed to reduced clopidogrel efficacy in clinical trials. The pharmacogenetic data for clopidogrel are most robust in the setting of PCI, but evidence is accumulating for other indications. Guidance is available from expert consensus groups and regulatory agencies to assist with integrating genetic information into P2Y12 inhibitor prescribing decisions, and CYP2C19 genotype‐guided antiplatelet therapy after PCI is one of the most common examples of clinical pharmacogenetic implementation. Herein, we review the evidence for pharmacogenetic associations with clopidogrel response and outcomes with genotype‐guided P2Y12 inhibitor selection and describe guidance to assist with pharmacogenetic implementation. We also describe processes for applying genotype data for P2Y12 inhibitor therapy selection and remaining gaps in the field. Ultimately, consideration of both clinical and genetic factors may guide selection of P2Y12 inhibitor therapy that optimally balances the atherothrombotic and bleeding risks.


The global population of the world is on an exponential increase, expected to surpass 9 billion by the year 2050. This places a huge demand on food securities and the need to address the challenges facing food security. Sensor-based techniques [e.g., Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy] have enhanced the understanding and diagnosis of several disease conditions, including cancers and are increasingly being applied to answer research questions in other areas including agriculture. Methods employed are relatively non-destructive, rendering samples reusable to be analyzed by more conventional approaches as well as allow the fingerprinting of biological samples based on the vibrational modes of the molecules within the sample. Spectra are derived consisting of wavenumber-absorbance intensities within a typical biological experiment and a complex dataset is quickly generated. Biological samples ranging from biofluids to cytology to tissue sections derived from human or sentinel organism sources including plants can easily be observed using this technique. Using a reference range of a designated normal state, anything lying outside this is judged as potentially atypical. Discriminating chemical entities can be identified using computational approaches, which allow one to minimize within-category confounding factors. Technologies involving sensor-based approaches provide a sensitive, cost effective technique for biological and agricultural research. Sensor-based techniques allow the characterization of biological material based on its biochemical-cell fingerprint and could enhance the study of plant species in agricultural research.

 Key words: Biochemical-cell fingerprint, biospectroscopy, computational analysis, Fourier-transform infrared, infrared spectra, fluted pumpkin, Telfairia occidentalis.


At 32 nm node and beyond, one of the most critical processes is the holes patterning due to the Depth of Focus (DOF) that becomes rapidly limited. Thus the use of Sub Resolution Assist Features (SRAF) becomes mandatory to keep DOF at a sufficient level through pitch. SRAF are generally generated using Rule Based OPC with a different cleaning step to avoid risk of SRAF printing or conflict with main feature. One of the key challenges of using such a technique is the ability of placing SRAF in random holes features. The rule based approach cannot treat all the configurations resulting in non-optimal SRAF placement for certain main feature. On the other hand, Inverse Lithography has shown the ability of generating SRAF at the ideal size and position (theoretically) 1 and interest of this technique has been proven experimentally 2,3. Nevertheless, this kind of technique is not yet ready for maskshop due to MRC limitation caused by the pixelated SRAF output, and the important mask writing time due to the shotcount 4. In this paper we propose to make a comparison of the two approaches on random 2D features. We will see that Inverse Lithography permits to keep a sufficient DOF on 2D features configurations where Rule based appears to be limited. Simulated and experimental results will be presented comparing Rule based, Ideal and MRC constraint SRAF in terms of DOF and Runtime performance for hole patterning


Abstract Much has changed during Israel's 40 years of occupation of Palestinian territory. Within the past six years Israel has, on average, killed more Palestinians per year than it killed during the first 20 years of occupation. Those who help manufacture public opinion within Israel claim that the dramatic increase in Palestinian deaths results from the fact that the Palestinians have changed the methods of violence they employ against Israel, and that Israel, in turn, has also begun using more violent means. Palestinians might invert this argument, claiming that they have altered their methods of resistance in response to Israel's use of more lethal violence. While such explanations no doubt contain a grain of truth, they are symptomatic accounts, and do little to reveal the root causes underlying the processes leading to the substantial increase in human deaths. A different approach is therefore needed, one that takes into account the structural dimension of Israel's military rule and tracks the two major principles that have informed the occupation over the past four decades: the colonisation principle and the separation principle. By the colonisation principle I mean a form of government whereby the coloniser attempts to manage the lives of the colonised inhabitants while exploiting the captured territory's resources. By the separation principle I do not mean a withdrawal of Israeli power from the Occupied Territories, but rather the reorganisation of power in the territories in order to continue controlling the resources. The major difference, then, between the colonisation and the separation principles is that, under the first principle there is an effort to manage the population and its resources, even though the two are separated. With the adoption of the separation principle Israel looses all interest in the lives of the Palestinian inhabitants and focuses solely on the occupied resources. Such a reorganisation of power helps explain the change in the repertoires of violence and the dramatic increase in the number of Palestinian deaths.


In this study, we report the preparation of two structurally different shape‐memory polymer foams by thermally induced phase separation (TIPS) from amorphous polyetherurethanes. Foams with either a homogeneous, monomodal, or with a hierarchically structured, bimodal, pore size distribution are obtained by adoption of the cooling protocol. The shape‐memory properties have been investigated for both foam structures by cyclic, thermomechanical experiments, while the morphological changes on the micro scale (pore level) have been compared to the macro scale by an in situ micro compression device experiment. The results show that the hierarchically structured foam achieves higher shape‐recovery rates and a higher total recovery as compared to the homogeneous foam, which is due to an increased energy storage capability by micro scale bending of the hierarchically structured foam compared to pure compression of the homogeneous foam.


Reliability and scalability of an application is dependent on how its application state is managed. To run applications at massive scale requires one to operate datastores that can scale to operate seamlessly across thousands of servers and can deal with various failure modes such as server failures, datacenter failures and network partitions. The goal of Amazon DynamoDB is to eliminate this complexity and operational overhead for our customers by offering a seamlessly scalable database service. In this talk, I will talk about how developers can build applications on DynamoDB without having to deal with the complexity of operating a large scale database.


Plant roots are the main supplier of carbon (C) to the soil, the largest terrestrial C reservoir. Soil pore structure drives root growth, yet how it affects belowground C inputs remains a critical knowledge gap. By combining X-ray computed tomography with 14 C plant labelling, we identified root-soil contact as a previously unrecognised influence on belowground plant C allocations and on the fate of plant-derived C in the soil. Greater contact with the surrounding soil, when the growing root encounters a pore structure dominated by small (< 40 μm Ø) pores, results in strong rhizodeposition but in areas of high microbial activity. The root system of Rudbeckia hirta revealed high plasticity and thus maintained high root-soil contact. This led to greater C inputs across a wide range of soil pore structures. The root-soil contact Panicum virgatum, a promising bioenergy feedstock crop, was sensitive to the encountered structure. Pore structure built by a polyculture, for example, restored prairie, can be particularly effective in promoting lateral root growth and thus root-soil contact and associated C benefits. The findings suggest that the interaction of pore structure with roots is an important, previously unrecognised, stimulus of soil C gains.


PurposeThe purpose of the study is to assess the implementation of integrated information systems in UK higher education institutions (HEIs) via multiple internal stakeholders.Design/methodology/approachThe approach analyses the implementation strategy of two HEIs and assesses the impact of new systems on working practices. This involves interviews with various stakeholder groups from the HEIs, capturing 35 interviews.FindingsResults indicate that growth of alternative power bases emerge within both HEIs, as well as new roles and responsibilities for administrative staff, and different working practices for academics. Varying levels of importance are given to people and culture, management support, user involvement and clarity of communication and systems' requirements at project pre-implementation, implementation and post-implementation stages.Practical implicationsThis study provides lessons of HEIs planning to undertake significant change by implementing integrated information systems. Challenges emerge around fit, complexity, training, communication and consultation. Benefits gained and emerging challenges show some commonality between the two case HEIs, pointing the way forward for other "large" (student number determined) HEIs embarking on similar change.Originality/valueThe UK HEI sector is experiencing major change emphasising cost reduction and operational efficiency. Understanding challenges relating to significant systems change in complex settings with varying stakeholder demands has considerable sectoral value.


Objectives: One of the major challenges in treating patients with coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is predicting the severity of disease. Natural killer (NK) cells are innate lymphocytes that respond to viral infection and might relate to COVID-19 disease severity. Therefore, we aimed to develop a new predictive score for progression from mild/moderate to severe COVID-19 based on NK cells information. Method: In total, 239 hospitalized patients with COVID-19 from two medical center in China were retrospectively included. The prognostic effects of variables, including clinical data and laboratory findings from the electronic medical records of each hospital, were analyzed using Cox proportional hazards model and Kaplan-Meier methods. A prognostic score was developed to predict progression from mild/moderate to severe COVID-19. Results: Among the 239 patients, 216 (90.38%) patients had mild/moderate disease and 23 (9.62%) progressed to severe disease. After adjusting multiple confounding factors, pulmonary disease, age >75, IgM, CD16+/CD56+ NK cells and aspartate aminotransferase were independently predictors of progression to severe COVID-19. Based on these five factors, a new predictive score (the 'PAINT score') was established and showed a high predictive value (C-index = 0.91, 0.902 ± 0.021, p<0.001). The PAINT score was validated using nomogram, bootstrap internal validations, calibration curves, decision curves and clinical impact curve, all of which confirmed its high predictive value. Conclusions: The PAINT score for progression from mild/moderate to severe COVID-19 based on NK cell information may be helpful to identify patients at high risk of progression. Trial registration: None


Free Press. Paperback. Condition: New. 240 pages. Dimensions: 8.9in. x 5.8in. x 0.6in.The new wave of organizational innovations involves new types of arrangements between individuals and corporations. It is likely to continue to produce new organizational forms, spanning the entire range of combinations of markets and hierarchies and involving complex, sometimes protracted negotiation processes between individuals and corporate entities. Such negotiation processes, we believe, will be an increasingly pervasive aspect of corporate life and an important mechanism for facilitating the...


: Differential effects of propylthiouracil (PTU), methimazole (MMI) and thyroidectomy (Tx) on liver and plasma proteins have been studied in rats, some of which have been simultaneously treated with L-thyroxine (T4). Although the absolute liver weights were lower in all hypothyroid groups, the relative liver weights (g/100 g) were significantly higher in PTU and MMI groups, while in Tx group they were lower. T4 administration raised the absolute liver weights in all groups, even though there was no significant difference between relative weights in PTU and MMI groups. In Tx group, however, the relative weight was restored to control level. One of the constituents responsible for the increased relative liver weight was liver protein. The increased liver protein concentration (mg/g) was, however, not reflected in the synthesis rate which was uniformly low in all groups inspite of T4 therapy. Plasma albumin concentration was raised in hypothyroid rats which did not respond to T4 therapy. On the other hand, increased total plasma protein level was restored to normal. Relative 14C-glycine incorporation into albumin, fibrinogen, seromucoids and total proteins was reduced from 14 to 30%, 5.2 to 19% and 13 to 23% of control in PTU, MMI and Tx groups, respectively. Of these, only MMI and Tx groups appeared to be responsive to T4 therapy. Of all the protein fractions, fibrinogen synthesis was least affected by various treatments. To some extent these observations may be explained on the basis of altered general endocrine status and specific extra-thyroidal effects, rather than on the basis of thyroid status alone.


We investigate the assembly of colloidal ellipsoids in ac electric fields. Polystyrene latex ellipsoids with aspect ratios 3.0, 4.3, and 7.6 orient with the applied field and, at sufficient field strengths, interact to form particle chains at an angle with respect to the field. The characteristic chain angle decreases with increasing aspect ratio. The angled chains combine laterally to form an open centered rectangular two-dimensional structures belonging to the c2mm plane group. This chaining and assembly behavior is explained based on calculations of the particle pair interactions explicitly accounting for the electric field and shape of the ellipsoids.


Tobacco use, a well known cause of death, represents a preventable disease related to many health problems. Epidemiological studies estimate a prevalence of 1,100 million tobacco dependent people. Nicotine addiction depends on multiple factors; studies have reported that the central nervous system plays an important role through the stimulation of neuronal dopaminergic nicotine receptors. The main dopamine synthesis sites are located in the neurons of the substantia nigra and the ventral tegmental area of the mesencephalus, which are projected towards the basal ganglia and accumbens nuclei. In vivo studies suggest that the dopaminergic cistern is highly implicated in nicotine dependence, showing that the neurotoxic lesions of the mesolimbic system or the systemic administration of nicotine receptor blockers reduce the quantity of nicotine administered. Nevertheless, these studies have been carried out in animal models; thus, such findings can not be confirmed in humans due to methodological limitations (i.e. it is unethical to produce toxic or vascular damage of the mesencephalic dopaminergic tracts). It could be possible to carry out such a study in patients with mesencephalic injuries secondary to stroke. Palabras clave: Adiccion, dependencia, dopamina, mesencefalo, nicotina, tabaquismo.


Abstract It is widely recognized that different regions of a genome often have different evolutionary histories and that ignoring this variation when estimating phylogenies can be misleading. However, the extent to which this is also true for morphological data is still largely unknown. Discordance among morphological traits might plausibly arise due to either variable convergent selection pressures or else phenomena such as hemiplasy. Here, we investigate patterns of discordance among 282 morphological characters, which we scored for 50 bee species particularly targeting corbiculate bees, a group that includes the well-known eusocial honeybees and bumblebees. As a starting point for selecting the most meaningful partitions in the data, we grouped characters as morphological modules, highly integrated trait complexes that as a result of developmental constraints or coordinated selection we expect to share an evolutionary history and trajectory. In order to assess conflict and coherence across and within these morphological modules, we used recently developed approaches for computing Bayesian phylogenetic information allied with model comparisons using Bayes factors. We found that despite considerable conflict among morphological complexes, accounting for among-character and among-partition rate variation with individual gamma distributions, rate multipliers, and linked branch lengths can lead to coherent phylogenetic inference using morphological data. We suggest that evaluating information content and dissonance among partitions is a useful step in estimating phylogenies from morphological data, just as it is with molecular data. Furthermore, we argue that adopting emerging approaches for investigating dissonance in genomic datasets may provide new insights into the integration and evolution of anatomical complexes. [Apidae; entropy; morphological modules; phenotypic integration; phylogenetic information.]


There is growing demand for satellite swarms and constellations for global positioning, remote sensing and relay communication in higher LEO orbits. This will result in many obsolete, damaged and abandoned satellites that will remain on-orbit beyond 25 years. These abandoned satellites and space debris maybe economically valuable orbital real-estate and resources that can be reused, repaired or upgraded for future use. Space traffic management is critical to repair damaged satellites, divert satellites into warehouse orbits and effectively de-orbit satellites and space debris that are beyond repair and salvage. Current methods for on-orbit capture, servicing and repair require a large service satellite. However, by accessing abandoned satellites and space debris, there is an inherent heightened risk of damage to a servicing spacecraft. Sending multiple small-robots with each robot specialized in a specific task is a credible alternative, as the system is simple and cost-effective and where loss of one or more robots does not end the mission. In this work, we outline an end to end multirobot system to capture damaged and abandoned spacecraft for salvaging, repair and for de-orbiting. We analyze the feasibility of sending multiple, decentralized robots that can work cooperatively to perform capture of the target satellite as a first step, followed by crawling onto damage satellites to perform detailed mapping. After obtaining a detailed map of the satellite, the robots will proceed to either repair and replace or dismantle components for salvage operations. Finally, the remaining components will be packaged with a de-orbit device for accelerated de-orbit.


Drinking water regulations focus on the absence of indicator microorganisms in drinking water supplied to the end consumers to avoid the spread of potential diseases to members of the community. However, low counts of total heterotrophic bacteria are permissible. In general, total heterotrophic plate counts (HPC) may be used to represent the general hygiene of water where high HPC could indicate the presence of pathogenic bacteria, e.g. coliforms. Almost all of the standard methods for testing drinking water samples are culture-dependent methods that only detect microorganisms capable of utilizing standard microbiological culture media. However, the presence of viable but not culturable (unculturable) microorganisms (VBNC) makes it extremely important to employ techniques capable of detecting this fraction of water-borne microorganisms. Thus, the aim of the current study was to compare the outcome of applying traditional and molecular techniques for drinking water analysis. Results demonstrated the presence of VBNC bacteria such as Salmonella enterica, Corynebacterium glutamicum, Brachybacterium faecium, Clostridium phytofermentans, Enterobacter sp., Beutenbergia cavernae, Saccharomonospora viridis, Bacillus subtilis, Fervidobacterium nodosum in some water samples, which were not detected by traditional techniques. This suggested that, molecular techniques are inevitable and more reliable than traditional methods.


Previous studies have confirmed the interdisciplinary nature of the field of public administration (Mosher 1956; Ventriss 1991; Forrester 1996; Rodgers and Rodgers 2000; Schroeder et al. 2004) and encouraged the exploration of one important indicator of interdisciplinarity: research collaboration. One way that collaboration patterns are explored is through the study of co-authorship among faculty members (Smart and Bayer 1986; Forrester 1996; Katz and Martin 1997). In the field of public administration, studies on co-authorship and productivity of scholars are sparse. In this article, we use bibliometric data to explore collaboration patterns as they relate to productivity levels and quality of publications within the field of public administration. Our study finds that more productive scholars, as well as those with the highest impact, are less likely to collaborate than their colleagues. Our results also indicate that there are gender differences in collaboration patterns and productivity within the field of public administration.


Hepatic tuberculosis is uncommon, lack of specific clinical manifestations and imaging features, so it can easily be misdiagnosed in clinical. Herein, we discuss variety of its forms and summarize the diagnosis and treatment of hepatic tuberculosis in this paper. Five cases of hepatic tuberculosis are described. The diagnosis, treatment and outcome of the patients are discussed. Image examination associated with image-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy is the best diagnostic method. In our center, three patients underwent needle biopsy and con- firmed hepatic tuberculosis. In addition, two patients preoperative misdiagnosed as cholangiocarcinoma were con - firmed hepatic tuberculosis by postoperative pathology. Three patients underwent surgical procedures along with anti-tubercular drug therapy, two patients received only anti-tubercular drug therapy. The renal post-transplantation patient with hepatic tuberculosis eventually died of multiple organ failure (MODS). The other four patients were fol- lowed for 48~120 months, yielding no recurrence of hepatic tuberculosis. In conclusion, hepatic tuberculosis usu- ally associated with atypical clinical manifestations. Image examination associated with image-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy is the best diagnostic method. Anti-TB treatment is effective in most of cases. However, if there are indications for surgery or difficult to diagnose, surgical procedures along with anti-tubercular drug therapy could be adopted.


The work in this thesis is based on setting up equipment and establishing a testing procedure for core sample measurements of capillary entry pressure in shale. The industry faces often stability problems regarding drilling through water-wet shale, and a preferred solution have been the utilization of oil-based drilling fluid, which due to capillary forces enables the well bore pressure to be higher than the pore pressure. However, if the well bore pressure gets adequate higher than the pore pressure, the capillary forces are defeated and the drilling fluid will enter the formation causing stability problems. In order to control the drilling process, it is of considerable interest to know how much higher the well bore pressure can be before penetration occurs. Within this framework of thesis, measurement of capillary entry pressure have been examined and a testing procedure have been proposed. The capillary entry pressure was measured to be 0.38MPa for Pierre shale subjected to mineral oil. The testing procedure, which includes a saturation part, a consolidation part and a capillary entry pressure part, was tested and optimized by continuously analyzing the results and adding adjustments to the design of the next test. Mathematical formulas were developed in order to perform the saturation and the consolidation on the sample when it was subjected to oil on one side and pore fluid on the other. An important finding was the reduction of the time required to saturate the sample, which was achieved by increasing the pressure difference between the confining pressure and the upstream pressure.


A 28-yr old female patient admitted to our clinic because of dyspnea and chest pain. Her transesophageal echocardiography demonstrated a huge mass on the anterolateral wall of the left ventricle causing dysfunction of the myocardium. Coronary angiography demonstrated left anterior descending artery fistula draining into the pericardial cystic mass. Hydatlc cyst was suspected and ELISA and hemagglutinin tests were both negative for Echinococcus granulosus. Magnetic resonance image of the heart showed a mass thought to be a hematoma inside the cyst. She underwent surgery. The cystic lesion with a pure hematoma inside. was excised. and the fistula between left anterior descending artery and the mass was ligated without any complications. To our knOWledge. this is the first case of a pericardial hematoma due to a coronary artery fistula. in the English literature. © 2001 The International Society for Cardiovascular Surgery. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved


A full biphasic insulin response is the most sensitive index for well-coupled β-cell signal transduction. While first-phase insulin response is extremely sensitive to potentiating and inhibiting modulations, full expression of second-phase response requires near maximally activated β-cell fuel metabolism. In the isolated rat pancreas, accelerated calcium entry or activation of protein kinase (PK)-A or PKC result in no insulin response in the absence of fuel metabolism. At submaximal levels of β-cell fuel secretagogue, arginine (which promotes calcium entry) or glucagon (which activates PKA) produces a small first-phase insulin response but minimal or no second-phase response; carbachol (which activates PKC and promotes calcium entry) generates biphasic insulin response in the presence of minimal fuel (3.3 mmol/l glucose). Glucagon produces full biphasic response in the presence of 10.0 mmol/l glucose, whereas arginine requires near-maximal stimulatory glucose (16.7 mmol) to produce full biphasic insulin response. Thus, PKA and PKC signal pathways potentiate primary signals generated by fuel secretagogues to induce full biphasic insulin response, while calcium recruitment alone is insufficient to potentiate primary signals generated at low levels of fuel secretagogue. We suggest that three families of PKs (calmodulin-dependent PK [CaMK], PKA, and PKC) function as distal amplifiers for stimulus–secretion coupling signals originating from fuel metabolism, as well as from incretins acting through membrane receptors, adenylate cyclase, and phospholipase C. Several isoenzymes of PKA and PKC are present in pancreatic β-cells, but the specific function of most is still undefined. Each PK isoenzyme is activated and subsequently phosphorylates its specific effector protein by binding to a highly specific anchoring protein. Some diabetes-related β-cell derangements may be linked to abnormal function of one or more PK isoenzymes. Identification and characterization of the specific function of the individual PK isoenzymes may provide the tool to improve the insulin response of the diabetic patient.


Background Aspects of fertility history such as early childbearing and high parity are associated with womens' poorer later life physical and mental health. Few studies on the topic address health change longitudinally so little is known about whether health decline is accelerated for particular groups of mothers. Additionally most previous studies were based on single populations; cross-country comparisons are rare. This study aims to investigate associations between early childbearing and high parity and changes in physical and mental health over a 2–3 year interval among women aged 50–79 years in Europe. Methods We used data from eight countries for 5,762 women who participated in waves 1–3 of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE). Poor physical health at follow-up was measured by self-reports of having less than good self-rated health (SRH), functional limitations, and chronic illness. Poor mental health was indicated by having depressive symptoms, and being in the bottom quintile for cognitive functioning (mean of z-scores for word recall, delayed word list recall, verbal fluency and numeracy). Multivariable models were fitted for the health outcomes at follow-up while adjusting for baseline levels, with the main exposures being early childbearing (<20 years) and parity. The models were adjusted for age, country fixed-effects, childhood deprivation, education, and adult factors measured at baseline including marital status, socio-economic position and health behaviours. Results Between baseline and follow-up, the proportion with functional limitations, chronic disease and low cognition increased, whereas the proportion with depression and less than good SRH decreased. Adjusted multivariable models showed that women who had been teenage mothers had higher odds of worse SRH (OR 1.74, 95% CI 1.40–2.17), and increased odds of functional limitations (OR 1.48 95% CI 1.06–2.06), chronic illness (OR 1.29 95% CI 1.03–1.61), and depressive symptoms (OR 1.39 95% CI 1.11–1.74) after 2–3 years of follow-up, compared to women who had delayed childbearing. High parity was not associated with changes in health. Adjustment for childhood and adult life factors reduced the associations with early childbearing but they remained statistically significant. There was no evidence that the effect of fertility history on health varied by region. Conclusion Early childbearing is associated with higher likelihood of physical and mental health decline among women 50–79 years in Western, Northern and Southern European countries. Further research could try to estimate the causal effect of fertility on health net of unobserved factors and to explore health declines over a longer period.


Poultry meat-processing industry produces considerably large amounts of by-products (such as chicken skins, heads, feathers, viscera, bones and legs) containing significant volumes of proteins, particularly collagen. One of the possibilities of advantageous utilization of these under-used by-products can be their application as a raw material rich in collagen for preparation of gelatine, a partial hydrolysate of collagen. In the present study, chicken skins obtained as a by-product from the chicken-breast processing were purified from non-collagen proteins, pigments and fats. Collagen was treated with proteolytic enzymes and the gelatine extraction was performed in distilled water at temperatures of 40, 50, 60, 70 and 80 °C during the constant extraction time of 60 min. The influence of the technological conditions on gelatine functional properties including viscosity, clarity, water holding and fat binding capacity, emulsifying and foaming properties was explored. Certain functional properties of prepared gelatines were significantly affected by the extraction temperature, while on some other properties the extraction temperature had no significant effect. Viscosity of prepared chicken skin gelatines was in the range from 3 to 5.7 mPa.s, clarity from 1.5 to 2%, water holding capacity from 3.8 to 5.6 mL.g-1, fat binding capacity from 0.9 to 1.3 mL.g-1, emulsion capacity from 35 to 50%, emulsion stability from 73 to 88%, foaming capacity from 18 to 61% and finally foaming stability was from 4 to 39%. Chicken skin gelatines were compared with commercial food grade pork and beef gelatines. Prepared chicken skin gelatines showed better viscosity, fat binding capacity and foaming stability than mammalian gelatines, while water holding capacity, emulsifying stability and foaming capacity were not as good as in beef and pork gelatines. Emulsifying capacity was comparable with commercial gelatines. Therefore, chicken skin gelatine has the potential as an alternative to traditional gelatines from mammalian sources, such as pork or beef bones and skins.


This mixed-method study evaluates P–12 principals' and district officials' experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic amid the abrupt change to virtual leadership. Professional learning needs are identified in relation to the three domains of leadership as seen in literature: school management, instructional leadership, and program administration. The quantitative study instrument, which included an online survey given to 270 principals and district officials in South Carolina, allowed principals and superintendents to rank order their professional development needs to be better prepared for the virtual principalship. The top need expressed across all races, genders, and school settings was virtual instructional leadership. The qualitative measure includes interviews of 10 principals/district officials, and five major themes were identified as administrative struggles/priorities in the virtual principalship during the pandemic: increased presence and communication; projecting calm during uncertainty; displaying flexibility, empathy, and patience; knowledge of technological capabilities; and a systems approach to sustained instructional leadership. The study showed a heightened need for soft skills development.


Abstract. Many Cultural Heritage (CH) monuments are destroyed in the past and they are often lost forever. If there is no contemporary metric documentation of the historic objects available, the monument and the information about this monument could be disappeared and forgotten forever. The Siegesburg (also known as Segeberg castle) located on the "Kalkberg" (Chalk Mountain) in Bad Segeberg in Northern Germany, is a typical example for such a monument, which was destroyed by Swedish troops at the end of the Thirty Years' War in 1644. This important monument was only documented by a few historic isometric maps, but the castle and even the later castle ruin were totally destructed and demolished over the last centuries and disappeared forever. Furthermore, this significant memorial is even forgotten in many people's mind. This contribution describes the physical and virtual return of the Siegesburg by 3D reconstruction using historic sources. The laboratory for Photogrammetry & Laser Scanning of the HafenCity University Hamburg conducted this project in co-operation with the museum Alt-Segeberger Burgerhaus (Old-Segeberg town house). The process of the 3D reconstruction and visualisation of both the Kalkberg and the castle is presented in this paper.


General Santos City is a top producer and exporter of quality livestock such as hogs (100,769 slaughtered), cattle (4,018), and poultry (10,659,413). Hence, this study identified the factors significantly affecting consumers' purchase behavior, preferred meat, and place of purchase. In this study, 190 respondents were identified and data was gathered through a structured survey questionnaire. Results reveal that most of the consumers have sources of income to purchase meat products, they chose to consume chicken, and they purchase meat for household consumption. The respondents mostly buy beef and chicken at supermarkets and pork at meat shops. The study shows that for beef, the gender, age, household size, number of employed household members, number of children, and household income were significant factors affecting consumer purchase behavior. For chicken, age is the only variable that significantly affect the decision of the consumers. Lastly, for pork, religion is found to significantly affect the decision of the consumers. Hence, it is recommended that sellers of meat products should also offer meat products classified as Halal since there is a demand. Vendors must maintain the quality and freshness of their meat products and its sanitation.


Complete information regarding transcriptional and posttranscriptional gene regulation in stem cells is necessary to understand the regulation of self-renewal and differentiation. Alternative splicing is a prevalent mode of posttranscriptional regulation, and occurs in approximately one half of all mammalian genes. The frequency and functional impact of alternative splicing in stem cells are yet to be determined. In this study we combine computational and experimental methods to identify splice variants in embryonic and hematopoietic stem cells on a genome-wide scale. Using EST collections derived from stem cells, we detect alternative splicing in >1,000 genes. Systematic RT-PCR and sequencing studies show confirmation of computational predictions at a level of 80%. We find that alternative splicing can modify multiple components of signaling pathways important for stem cell function. We also analyze the distribution of splice variants across different classes of genes. We find that tissue-specific genes have a higher tendency to undergo alternative splicing than ubiquitously expressed genes. Furthermore, the patterns of alternative splicing are only weakly conserved between orthologous genes in human and mouse. Our studies reveal extensive modification of the stem cell molecular repertoire by alternative splicing and provide insights into its overall role as a mechanism of generating genomic diversity.


In this study, the authors present an energy-efficient data compression protocol for data collection in wireless sensor networks (WSNs). WSNs are essentially constrained by motes' limited battery power and networks bandwidth. The authors focus on data compression algorithms and protocol development to effectively support data compression for data gathering in WSNs. Their design of compressed data-stream protocol (CDP) is generic in the sense that other lossless or lossy compression algorithms can be easily 'plugged' into the proposed protocol system without any changes to the rest of the CDP. This design intends to support various different WSN applications where users may prefer more specific compression algorithms, tailored to the sensing data characteristics in question, to their general algorithm. CDP is not only able to significantly reduce energy consumptions of data gathering in multi-hop WSNs, but also able to reduce sensor network traffic and thus avoid congestion accordingly. The proposed CDP is implemented on the tinyOS platform using the nesC programming language. To evaluate their work, the authors conduct simulations via TOSSIM and PowerTOSSIM-z with real-world sensor data. The results demonstrate the significance of CDP.


This research explores university students' use of the Internet in order to understand in what ways, if any, Internet use might be considered a contributory factor in the process of democratisation in China. The research topic is situated within broader debates about the extent to which the Internet might 'democratise' authoritarian regimes in general and China in particular. China is a country with a long history of authoritarian rule, yet some propose that the process of reform post 1978 demonstrates a gradual transition to a more open and democratically accountable system of government; a process that has arguably intensified since the development of the Internet. However the development and expansion of the Internet since the early 2000s, along with its penetration into Chinese life thereafter, has meant that the Chinese authorities have sought to control the purported liberalising tendencies that Internet technologies bring. Systems of censorship and filtering have been a major component in China's strategy of managing the impact of the Internet. Principally censorship has been undertaken because of perceived challenges to the legitimacy and authority of the Chinese system of government, a perspective not historically divorced from student activism in China. University students in particular have arguably played an important role in protests and social movements in China. Not only therefore are university students of particular concern to the Chinese authorities, they are also technologically savvy and among the largest group of Internet users in China. Such users are also of course central to China's future as they fuel economic growth into the twenty first century and will no-doubt contribute to the country's economic and political stability in the future. In attempting to understand the democratic implications of Internet use amongst university students the research takes a grounded theory approach based upon six face-to-face in-depth interviews, one focus group, search and analysis of web content, and digital auto-ethnography. A total of twelve participants were recruited from three universities in the City of Chongqing, in the southwest of China. This thesis provides an original contribution to our understanding of how Chinese university students view the Internet in relation to politics. It produces a number of original findings that will be of interest to the broader community of scholars researching China's Internet in particular and scholars who study the influence of ICTs on emergence and consolidation of democracy in general. These findings include how university students disengage from political activities for both practical reasons such as a lack of opportunity, or lack of interest and ideological concerns, for example, a revolutionary view of democratisation that democratisation has to necessarily be a radical, revolutionary process, and that individuals are powerless to bring such a revolution about. It reveals patterns of how different Internet applications are employed by an individual to achieve one goal and how a politically sensitive message travels through different platforms online. More importantly, it discovers that seemingly trivial online exchanges may nevertheless contribute to a changing social and political environment, albeit in ways that interviewees may not themselves describe as 'democratising'. Provided with certain conditions, online entertainment and political disengagement can be a way to liberate, given its potential to distract individuals from the party-state propaganda, to create a plural ideational climate, and to increase discontent with the current system through facilitating social comparison. Participants' joining and organising associations at private level online is found to cast influence on the real world and provides opportunities to practice skills of democratic citizenship. Those associations thus function as an emerging civil society.


The effect of bloturbation by the lugworni Arenicola marina on uptake and distribution of cadnxum in sediment was assessed using laboratory sediment cores. Carner-free ""d was added to the water phase each day. Bioturbation (irrigation) was measured using bromide (Br-) as a tracer for water movement. In cores without lugworms all Cd was found in the surface sediment where it continued to build up over 16 d of exposure. In cores containing lugworms a distinct peak of Cd was found both at the sediment surface and, after a few days, at the feeding pocket of the worm (10 to 15 cm depth). During the 16 d of exposure this subsurface: peak broadened and eventually Cd was found in all depths from top to feeding depth of the indiv~dual worm. Compared to sediment cores without worms, the presence of lugxeorms more than doubled the rate of removal of Cd from water to sediment. Thls was attributed to an ~ncreased turnover of sediment (due to feeding activity), an increased sediment surface area (due to fecal casts, head shaft, tube and irrigation of the whole burrow) and an increased contact of Cd-labelled water with potential binding sites in the sediment due to irrigation Exposure to 1 ppm Cd reduced the fract~onal ratcl at which lugworms removed Cd from the water (as 'F" of Cd in the water). The total Cd flux to the sediment, however, was much greater due to the h g h e r Cd concentrations in the water Water fluxes estimated using Bras a solute tracer revealed a 10to 20fold increase in water exchange of the sediments when lugworms were present. This enhanced water flux was not affected by exposure of lugworms to 1 ppm Cd. The results indicate that the presence of bioturbating infauna influences both the uptake rates of trace metals in near-shore sediments and the distribution of those metals.


IMPORTANCE
Evidence-based treatments for major depressive disorder (MDD) are not very successful in improving functional and health outcomes. Attention has increasingly been focused on the prevention of MDD.

OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effectiveness of a web-based guided self-help intervention for the prevention of MDD.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Two-group randomized clinical trial conducted between March 1, 2013, and March 4, 2015. Participants were recruited in Germany from the general population via a large statutory health insurance company (ie, insurance funded by joint employer-employee contributions). Participants included 406 self-selected adults with subthreshold depression (Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale score ≥16, no current MDD according to Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders [Fourth Edition, Text Revision] criteria).

INTERVENTIONS
All participants had unrestricted access to usual care (visits to the primary care clinician) and were randomized to either a web-based guided self-help intervention (cognitive-behavioral and problem-solving therapy supported by an online trainer; n = 202) or a web-based psychoeducation program (n = 204).

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
The primary outcome was time to onset of MDD in the intervention group relative to the control group over a 12-month follow-up period as assessed by blinded diagnostic raters using the telephone-administered Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis Disorders at 6- and 12-month follow-up, covering the period to the previous assessment.

RESULTS
Among 406 randomized patients (mean age, 45 years; 73.9% women), 335 (82%) completed the telephone follow-up at 12 months. Fifty-five participants (27%) in the intervention group experienced MDD compared with 84 participants (41%) in the control group. Cox regression analyses controlling for baseline depressive symptom severity revealed a hazard ratio of 0.59 (95% CI, 0.42-0.82; P = .002) at 12-month follow-up. The number needed to treat to avoid 1 new case of MDD was 5.9 (95% CI, 3.9-14.6).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Among patients with subthreshold depression, the use of a web-based guided self-help intervention compared with enhanced usual care reduced the incidence of MDD over 12 months. Further research is needed to understand whether the effects are generalizable to both first onset of depression and depression recurrence as well as efficacy without the use of an online trainer.

TRIAL REGISTRATION
German Clinical Trial Registry Identifier: DRKS00004709.


Large consumer markets, such as the market for handheld, portable electronic devices and the market for automobiles, rely on new technologies to meet more demanding goals for cost, performance, size, weight and power. The role of both MEMS and nano technology in these large markets will be described. MEMS technology is already a mature technology in the automotive field, but new MEMS devices, as well as new nano sensors show promise to revolutionize automotive technology by making possible the measurement of new physical quantities that have never been directly measured in the automotive field before. For automotive applications, the primary factors are cost and performance. For handheld, portable electronic devices, both MEMS and nano technology will be used for increasing the functionality of the wireless communication, but then be applied to providing additional functionality. For these electronic applications, the primary factors are performance, size and power. A wide variety of examples will be given as the overall trends in these markets are described and illustrated.


The present study tested 121 middle-aged and elderly community-dwelling individuals on the computer-based Subtle Cognitive Impairment Test (SCIT) and compared their performance with that on several neuropsychological tests. The SCIT had excellent internal consistency, as demonstrated by a high split-half reliability measure (0.88–0.93). Performance on the SCIT was unaffected by the confounding factors of sex, education level, and mood state. Many participants demonstrated impaired performance on one or more of the neuropsychological tests (Controlled Oral Word Association Task, Rey Auditory and Verbal Learning Task, Grooved Pegboard [GP], Complex Figures). Performance on SCIT subtests correlated significantly with performance on many of the neuropsychological subtests, and the best and worst performing quartiles on the SCIT subtest discriminated between good and poor performers on other subtests, collectively indicating concurrent validity of the SCIT. Principal components analysis indicated that SCIT performance does not cluster with performance on most of the other cognitive tests, and instead is associated with decision-making efficacy, and processing speed and efficiency. Thus, the SCIT is responsive to the processes that underpin multiple cognitive domains, rather than being specific for a single domain. Since the SCIT is quick and easy to administer, and is well tolerated by the elderly, it may have utility as a screening tool for detecting cognitive impairment in middle-aged and elderly populations.


Research Purposes: Multiple studies have quantified the direct and indirect costs of cancer care; however, there is little attention to how concerns about costs impact the emotional health of family caregivers. The purpose of this study, using the Pittsburgh Mind Body Center Model, was to evaluate how perceptions of economic hardship influence burden, anxiety, and depressive symptoms in caregivers of persons with a primary malignant brain tumor.Methods: Data were from an ongoing, longitudinal study (NCI R01CA118711). Caregiver (CG)/care recipient (CR) dyads (n=33) were recruited within a month of the CR's diagnosis; data were collected at the point of diagnosis and 4 months later. CRs were questioned using the Neurocognitive Status Exam (NCSE) and CGs completed questionnaires to determine perceptions of economic hardship, burden (Caregiver Reaction Assessment), anxiety (POMS), and depressive symptoms (CES-D). Linear regression was used to examine relationships among variables.Results: Perceived economic hardship had a significant effect on two CG burden subscales: feelings that providing care negatively affected one's schedule, and feelings of abandonment. Economic hardship did not predict CG burden due to schedule at baseline, but did significantly (p<.01) predict burden 4 months later. Alternately, economic hardship predicted burden due to feelings of abandonment at the time of diagnosis (p<.01), but not 4 months into the care situation. CG depression was predicted by economic hardship 4 months after diagnosis (p=.05), but not at the initial interview. Economic hardship predicted CG anxiety at both the time of diagnosis and at the second interview (p<.01).Conclusions: Results suggest that caregivers' perception of economic hardship may be an important yet variable aspect of the burden, anxiety, and depression caregivers feel at the time of diagnosis and throughout the care situation.Public Health Significance: Caregivers of persons with a chronic disease such as cancer face financial pressure that may have negative emotional consequences. Although it may not be feasible to alleviate economic hardship, interventions may be effective in decreasing associated feelings of burden and anxiety during the care situation, and preventing the escalation of depressive symptoms.


Despite the ongoing financial reforms undertaken in many developing countries, the majority
of smallholder farmers still report limited access to formal credit. It is often argued that
women are particularly more credit constrained than men. Various studies conducted in many
developing countries suggest that access to credit is influenced by both institutional factors as
well as by household socio-economic characteristics. However, most of these studies have generalized
the effect without the concern of gender.
This study was therefore conducted in order to determine the gender characteristics of the determinants
of rural households' access to credit in the formal credit markets. The specific research
question addressed is whether factors that influence rural household access to credit differ
by gender or not. In conducting this study, both primary and secondary data were collected.
The data collection took place between May and June, 2006, covering the five districts of
Unguja and Pemba islands. In total, 750 households were surveyed.
The analysis of the data collected was done using SPSS 17.0 computer software. Both descriptive
and econometric statistics were analyzed and discussed. The econometric analysis was
meant to determine the gender characteristics of the determinants of credit-constrained households,
focusing on the formal credit market by using a Probit model with Heckman procedures.
The results of the Probit model show that male and female heads being credit constrained
are influenced by different set of factors. For male heads, the degree of market integration
as well as the wealth and risk-bearing indicators (value of productive assets owned and
household income level) are significant indicators in determining whether a household is credit
constrained. For female heads, only the household income level was found to be a significant
factor for a household being credit constrained.
The results from the second equation (Heckman Procedure) further suggest that human capital
(education) and wealth and risk-bearing factors (keeping financial records, value of productive
assets owned, household income level) are significant factors in determining the intensity
of use of formal credit among male heads. On the other hand, the value of productive assets
owned and the leadership status are factors that significantly influence the intensity of
using formal credit among female heads. Generally, these findings suggest the need to develop
gender-specific interventions to enhance access to credit in the formal credit markets.


One of any company's major assets is information and there is no information without data. In this regard, there are numerous market solutions for maintenance data records. At times, data quality is not satisfactory and this prevents obtaining information, thus jeopardizing reliability of the assets, affecting efficacy of a company's management decisions and causing serious problems.This article aims to explain the use of the six sigma methodology to improve quality in maintenance records in the Natural Gas Department of Transpetro. To this end, the Maintenance Record Improvement Project was created, which involved plotting the execution process and maintenance records, development of portable tools for field records, redefining execution and management of routine maintenance processes, workforce training and cultural change. The article demonstrates how improvement opportunities were identified, mapping and measuring gaps, analysis of needs jointly with ways for treating them and preparing the action plan to prioritize the correction of deviations.In order to control the process, an indicator was developed to monitor progress in the quality of completing the records in the diverse Work Centers in the Transpetro Natural Gas Department (DGN) maintenance area.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


In this essay, I shall argue that in Chronicles Maacah is not simply deposed because she is an idolater. Rather, in an important sense Maacah's act of producing an idol for the goddess Asherah threatens patrilineal, patriarchal social order itself, as it is constructed and understood in Chronicles. Specifically, her act undermines the dominant (unconscious) phantasy at work in Chronicles: that of masculine, monosexual (re)production. To sustain itself, this phantasy requires the 'silence' or non-representation of the maternal body. In other words, it is not simply Maacah's idolatry that sees her punished; it is her daring production of the feminine divine and the associated female genealogy it evokes (the goddess/mother, worshipper/daughter) – the repressed of patriarchal discourses according to Luce Irigaray – that such a creative act effects. I wish to show that Maacah's productive, creative act may be considered as visual and tactile maternal 'speech'. When read alongside the naming speech of Jabez' mother in 1 Chr. 4:9, and the murderous speech of Athaliah in 2 Chr 22:10, Maacah's 'speech' is more than just a transgression of the law against the image. Maacah's act may be read as a threat to the continuity of partilineal succession and patriarchal social order. Attempting to represent the maternal body as divine arrests, even perhaps 'clots,' the 'fluidity' of this masculine order of representation because it contradicts what constitutes the 'reality' of this masculine discourse: a world of (self-producing) men.


There has been much interest in applying noise to feedforward neural networks in order to observe their effect on network performance. We extend these results by introduc- ing and analyzing various methods of injecting synaptic noise into dynamically driven recurrent networks during training. We present theoretical results which show that applying a controlled amount of noise during training may improve convergence and generalization performance. In addition, we analyze the effects of various noise parameters (additive versus multiplicative, cu- mulative versus noncumulative, per time step vs. per string) and predict that best overall performance can be achieved by injecting additive noise at each time step. Noise contributes a second-order gradient term to the error function which can be viewed as an anticipatory agent to aid convergence. This term appears to find promising regions of weight space in the beginning stages of training when the training error is large and should improve convergence on error surfaces with local minima. The first-order term can be interpreted as a regularization term that can improve generalization. Specifically, this term can encourage internal representations where the state nodes operate in the saturated regions of the sigmoid discriminant function. While this effect can improve performance on automata inference problems with binary inputs and target outputs, it is unclear what effect it will have on other types of problems. To substantiate these predictions, we present simulations on learning the dual parity grammar from temporal strings for all noise models, and present simulations on learning a randomly generated six-state grammar using the predicted best noise model.


Although of the success of Direct Acting Antivirals (DAAs) in the treatment of Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) there is still a room for further research and development aiming to: Discovery of more potent pan-genotypic DAA to reduce the duration of treatment, discovery of DAA with high threshold to develop resistance to allow mono therapy and not to lose the therapeutic action throughout the treatment period, expand the genotypic coverage to include GT3 which was found to be one of the hardest to treat genotypes using DAA and to develop safer DAA suitable for the treatment of HCV in children. This study describes novel small molecules that inhibit the growth of HCV in replicon assays. Several compounds showed median Effective Concentration (EC50s) in the low picomolar range and were of median cytotoxicity CC50s in the micromolar range, leading to median selectivity indices more than six orders of magnitude, which indicate their safety. Several compounds were more active than the clinically used candidate Dacaltasvir against several genotypes including GT1b, GT3 and GT4 and with lower tendency to develop resistance even after 15 weeks of continuous treatment.


This paper presents the design of hydram, basic concepts of hydram and analytical calculation using individual head losses of hydram with the related search. The study specifies individual head losses influencing the efficiency of the hydram. These are based on a systematic study of the all parameters affecting the hydram.


Most in-service teachers find curriculum modules difficult to understand when they are studying for a part-time degree in education. In teaching in-service teachers about curriculum, the author first encountered difficulty in catering for their different needs arising from their diversified backgrounds. The condition gradually improved when cooperative learning was used as the main teaching strategy. In this paper, the author attempts to share his experience of using Jigsaw II to teach in-service teachers. The successful implementation of Jigsaw II is discussed, including skilful handling of participants' requests, clearing their misunderstanding of the concept of Jigsaw II, and allowing time for the participants to appreciate the beauty of Jigsaw II.


The author reviews the malaria research program in Sucre State, Venezuela, taking an ecosystem approach. The goal was to determine which methods could have been introduced at the onset that would have made the study more ecological and interdisciplinary. Neither an ecosystem approach nor integrated disease control were in place at the time of the study. This study began to introduce an ecosystem approach when two contrasting ecosystems in Sucre State were selected for study and vector control methods were implemented based on research results. The need to have a health policy in place with an eco-health approach is crucial to the success of research and control. The review suggests that sustainability is low when not all the stakeholders are involved in the design and implementation of the research and control strategy development. The lack of community involvement makes sustainability doubtful. The author concludes that there were two interdependent challenges for malaria control: development of an ecosystem approach for malaria research and control, and the implementation of an integrated disease control strategy, with malaria as one of the important health issues.


Agent-based modeling holds great potential as an analytical tool. Agent-based models (ABMs) are, however, also vulnerable to critique, as they often employ stylized social worlds, with little connection to the actual environment in question. Given these concerns, there has been a recent call to more fully incorporate empirical data into ABMs. This article falls in this tradition, exploring the benefits of using sampled ego network data in ABMs of cultural diffusion. Thus, instead of relying on full network data, which can be difficult and costly to collect, or no empirical network data, which is convenient but not empirically grounded, we offer a middle-ground, one combining ABMs with recent work on network sampling. The main question is whether this approach is effective. We provide a test of the approach using six complete networks; the test also includes a range of diffusion models (where actors follow different rules of adoption). For each network, we take a random ego network sample and use that sample to infer the full network structure. We then run a diffusion model through the known, complete networks, as well as the inferred networks, and compare the results. The results, on the whole, are quite strong: Across all analyses, the diffusion curves based on the sampled data are very similar to the curves based on the true, complete network. This suggests that ego network sampling can, in fact, offer a practical means of incorporating empirical data into an agent-based model.


THE purpose of this article is to provide a theory of the deferred giving of gifts by altruistic donors.' In particular, I address the following questions. First, why do altruistic donors frequently wish to defer giving gifts? (If they wish to give gifts, why do they not do so immediately?) Second, presuming that they wish to defer giving gifts, why do altruistic donors often announce their intentions to donees in advance? Third, why do such donors sometimes desire to be legally bound to give gifts? Fourth, what are the effects of a legal rule that renders donors bound to give gifts if they state their intentions and donees rely on their statements? In Section I, I consider these questions using a model of donor and donee behavior that I analyze formally in Section II. In Section III, I offer several concluding observations.


Displacement mapping is a powerful mechanism for adding fine to medium geometric details over a 3D surface using a 2D map encoding them. While GPU rasterization supports it through the hardware tessellation unit, ray tracing surface meshes textured with high quality displacement requires a significant amount of memory. More precisely, the input surface needs to be pre-tessellated at the displacement map resolution before being enriched with its mandatory acceleration data structure. Consequently, designing displacement maps interactively while enjoying a full physically-based rendering is often impossible, as simply tiling multiple times the map quickly saturates the graphics memory. In this work we introduce a new tessellation-free displacement mapping approach for ray tracing. Our key insight is to decouple the displacement from its base domain by mapping a displacement-specific acceleration structures directly on the mesh. As a result, our method shows low memory footprint and fast high resolution displacement rendering, making interactive displacement editing possible.


The outcome of treatment of nonmetastatic high-grade osteosarcoma in the distal part of the femur was studied in 227 patients from twenty-six institutions. Eight of the seventy-three patients who had had a limb-salvage procedure and nine of the 115 patients who had had an above-the-knee amputation had a local recurrence, but there was no local recurrence in the thirty-nine patients who had had a disarticulation at the hip. There were no significant differences in the rate of survival or in the duration of the postoperative disease-free period between the three groups. One hundred and nine patients (48 per cent) were alive at an average of eleven years after the operation, and ninety patients (40 per cent) remained continuously disease-free. An additional operation on the limb was necessary more often for patients who had had a limb-salvage procedure than for those who had had an amputation. Function in seventy-eight living patients was assessed with the system of the Musculoskeletal Tumor Society for evaluation of function and by the functional assessment portion of the 1989 scoring system of the Knee Society; the scores were higher for the patients who had had a limb-salvage procedure than for the two groups of patients who had had an amputation. No difference was identified between the groups with regard to the patient's acceptance of the postoperative state, the ability to walk, or the amount of pain. The quality of life was evaluated for twenty-nine patients with a series of complex questionnaires.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


We examine a future distribution system capable of solving problems caused by the connection of numerous distributed generators. A supervisory-control-and-data-acquisition (SCADA) system for this distribution system should be economical, flexible, and reliable, and should execute a real-time process. In this paper, we propose a SCADA system using mobile agents for flexibility. In addition, we show two types of communication protocols that make agent migration more fault-tolerant, and perform experiments where the SCADA system executes earth fault protection within the required time. These results indicate that the SCADA system based on our proposed technologies should be capable of fulfilling the real-time processing requirement.


Extensive research on both human alcoholics and in animal models of alcoholism has implicated the release of endogenous opioids in the consumption of ethanol. Various experiments using opioid antagonists have indicated that these drugs cause both humans and animals to decrease their consumption of ethanol. However, it remains unclear exactly which of the endogenous opioids mediates the rewarding effects of ethanol. The present experiment used intravenous self-administration of ethanol to determine whether beta-endorphin (BE)-deficient mice differed from wild-type (WT) mice in ethanol self-administration. The BE-deficient mice completely lack BE, but are otherwise similar to the WT mice. By using intravenous self-administration, we were able to rule out any ability of BE to mediate differences in ethanol consumption via palatability factors alone. Both types of mice were 7 generations backcrossed onto a C57BL/6J inbred strain background. During nine daily, 2-hr free-operant sessions, 14 BE-deficient and 17 WT mice could nosepoke for 75 mg/kg ethanol infusions delivered intravenously on an fixed-ratio 3 schedule with a 2-sec time-out after each reinforcer delivery. Reinforcer delivery occurred following nosepokes in only one of two holes. Contrary to what was expected, BE-deficient mice acquired selective operant responding for ethanol, whereas WT mice did not. Although the two genotypes did not differ in either operant or locomotor behavior during the first session, by the end of the nine sessions, BE deficient mice were reliably nosepoking for ethanol, whereas WT mice were not. These findings may indicate that BE is not essential for the postingestive reinforcing effects of ethanol in these animals.


Over the last two decades, many attempts have been made to computerize the management of patient records using advanced computing and networking facilities across healthcare providers such as hospitals, clinics, and clearing agencies. In addition to this transition from a disparate and paper-based infrastructure to a consolidated and digital medium-based one, we have been confronted with privacy and security requirements since the advent of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA). The problem we seek to address in this paper is to provide authentication of individual identity in the context of accessing critical information in Web-based e-health systems including secure transmission of data across the Internet. These problems have technical solutions that are well known, but the solutions in general are strongly biased toward a single individual interacting with a single application. In this paper, we propose a scalable token-based authentication architecture and demonstrate how we can implement this architecture using commercial-off-the-set technologies. Our approach focuses on vendor-neutral specifications. The proof-of-concept prototype has been implemented so that the pilot testing may be conducted at various sites.


An integrated approach based on genetic algorithm (GA) and an artificial neural network (ANN) is presented for structural optimization of a high power density magneto-gel brake. For this method, the GA method is employed for obtaining the optimal configuration of the brake by minimizing the dimensions of the brake. Subsequently, a two-layer BP neural network model is trained to obtain the correlation between main design parameters and performance of the brake, and then it is used to predict the performance of the magnetic gel brake with high power density. The coupled method incorporating the ANN with GA can reduce substantially the computation time during optimizing brake performance. Meanwhile, the proposed method's validity is demonstrated by comparisons between the experiment and existing data.