Research about stress management has traditionally focused on reducing possible stressors. However, more recent studies have highlighted the importance of renewal as an antidote to stress. The purpose of this paper is to provide a theoretical explanation of how renewal activities can invoke a psycho-physiological response that enhances personal sustainability. By drawing upon recent evidence from the fields of medicine, psychology, and management, we developed a conceptual understanding of how renewal activities are characterized by the movement of the individual from a negative to a positive psycho-physiological state. Such a transition happens over a tipping point, which people can enact in themselves and in others through emotional and social intelligence competencies. We illustrate this proposition with the specific case of ideal self-based coaching in the workplace that can enhance personal sustainability among both leaders and their team members.


Technology is recognized for its potential to implement exploration tasks. The ease and speed with which it becomes possible to observe many cases of a situation, allows the development of conjectures and brings conviction about their veracity. Mathematical proof, assumed as the essence of Mathematics, tends to appear to the students as something dispensable. Based on KTMT – Knowledge for Teaching Mathematics with Technology model, this study intends to understand the impact of the teachers' knowledge on mathematical proof in a context of technology integration. The study adopts a qualitative and interpretative methodology, based on case study, analyzing the practice of one teacher. The conclusions emphasize the relevance of the teacher's MTK – Mathematics and Technology Knowledge, and TLTK – Teaching and Learning and Technology Knowledge. The teacher's MTK guides her decisions, leading her to focus on helping students understand the meaning of conjecture and proof, valuing, at the same time, the relevance of algebraic manipulations. However, the teacher's TLTK guides her practice, where the knowledge about the students is determinant. The study provides evidence about the difficulty of articulating proof and technology, but it also clarifies the relevance of this articulation and of how the teacher's KTMT can impact the teacher's decisions.


State on state conflicts are being replaced by hybrid wars and asymmetric conflicts in which there is no clear cut distinction between soldiers and civilians and between organised violence, terror, crime and war. Given the enormous changes in Australia's security environment, it is time to rethink our defence strategy which has four major failings. It is based on a misplaced geographical determinism that ignores the diverse and globalised nature of modern conflict. It has shaped the Australian Defence Force for the wrong wars. It gives insufficient weight to the transnational threats that confront us. And it fails to recognise that modern defence forces must win the peace as well as the war. Australia needs a strategy for the future not the past and a transformed defence force structured for the very different security challenges of the 21 st century.


The principal aim of this dissertation is empirically todevelop and test a collaboration model for how to operatesystematically with the work environment at school. Ontheoretical grounds, a case is made that collaboration betweendifferent groups (various professions and pupils) should beinvestigated despite different conditions, qualifications andages."School Environment 2000"is a model for theongoing monitoring of the work environment at school. It isdesigned for integration into school-based activities, and itsmaterial offers an opportunity for any stakeholder involved toparticipate in activities concerning conditions at school. The"School Environment 2000"have been used by pupilsand personnel (totally 2,383) at 36 schools in 8 municipalitiesin Sweden. Three of the four studies are follow-up studies; thefourth study had matched control schools. All studies usedquestionnaires; the fourth were completed with other methods asdiaries, observations and interviews. The result showed that amajority of pupils specified both sickness-related andpsychosocial reasons for absence from school. The second(pupils) and third (personnel) study show associations betweenthe work environment and ill-health, especially by females.Among women, all the items describing self-reported complaintscorrelated significantly with the Work at school index and Workclimate index. In the fourth study, in which a work environmentintervention was tested, the participants adopted a morelimited concept than that contained in School Environment2000-questionnaire. A clear desire was expressed, for morestructure and order in school work. The participants attainedin the intervention program, compared with the controller, weremore engaged in greater collaboration with others, had becomemore active in managing problems and conflicts, had greaterinternal effectiveness and perceivedfacilitating factors inwork for change as depending less on personal attributes andbehaviours of personnel. The discussion focus the need forfollowup changes and their effects on health; collaboration topromote objective and subjective scope for action; andcollaboration for goal fulfilment. Special care must beconsidered pupils work environment. The school situation is agood time for learning how to create a good work environmentand to prevent ill-health.Key Words:Work Environment Management, collaboration,school, pupil, employee, participation, evaluation, health,stress.


Relationship between Japan and Mongolia has been expanding since Mongolia abandoned its socialist system in 1990. Then, how do the Japanese feel about this "new" neighbor? And what are the factors associated with it? To answer these questions, the author examined favorability of Mongolia and made a comparative analysis with other East Asian countries and region (South Korea, North Korea, China and Taiwan), using JGSS-2006 data. The results are the following: First, favorability of Mongolia is the second highest after Taiwan. Second, amount of reading books has significant positive effect on the favorability, which might reflect the popularity of Japanese literatures featuring Mongolia or Mongolian figures. Third, males are more likely to have favorable feeling toward Mongolia than females are. Fourth, Mongolia makes favorable impression residents in especially in Kanto area. JGSS-2006 is virtually the first social survey which asks favorability of Mongolia to the Japanese, and the results of analysis shown in this article are expected to deepen mutual understanding between Japan and Mongolia.


Over time, the fields of economics and ethics have become more distinct with economics focusing on the rationality of actors, the incentives they face, and the outcomes of interacting within an amoral market setting. However, in the real world, economics and ethics are more interconnected. Humans are social and ethical beings regardless of setting. Recent studies have shown that individuals reward trustworthiness, punish dishonesty, and can develop meaningful social bonds within markets. Economists, seeking to better understand the world, should incorporate ethics into their economics. We argue that Adam Smith is an exemplar of pursuing a fuller approach to social science, and utilize his arguments on both economics and ethics to advance a study of ethical markets.


A Dissertation Submitted to the University of Gezira in Partial Fulfillment of the
 Requirements for the Award of the Degree of Master of Science
in Mathematics, Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Mathematical and Computer Sciences, June, 2015


High strength concrete (HSC) farther than high compressive strength, possesses uniform high density and very low impermeability, endowing itself with excellent resistance to aggressive environments and disintegrating agencies. But HSC has low flextural strength. Studies have shown that the lack of enough flextural strength of high strength concrete can be compensated by adding steel fibers to the concrete mixture. On the other hand one of the most important environmental problems is the majority of waste spiral steel chips, collected in industrial poles. In this study waste spiral steel chips have been used as steel fibers to reinforced high strength concrete. Also the properties of mixture have been studied. The main properties in this study are including slump of fresh concrete, density, compressive and bending strength of 28-days old specimens. The chips are classified into three different groups according to their shapes and three different categories of test are performed according to percentage of fibers in the mixture. The test results show that any increase in percentage of fibers, will increase the density of specimens and will decreases the slump of mixtures but it will result different behavior of their compressive and bending strength.


A survey was conducted in order to evaluate the levels of available (DTPA extractable) Cd in salt affected and normal soils of Halastra − Kalohori area, located in N. Greece. In this area, phosphogypsum (PG) (a byproduct of P fertilizer industry, occasionally enriched with Cd) has been used as amendment for the salt affected soils, for at least 20 years until 2000. The area is about 6300 ha, and 4500 ha were cultivated with rice. Soil samples were collected from 632 points and four depths (0 − 25, 25 − 50, 50 − 75, 75 − 100 cm), during 2003 and 2004. All soil samples were analyzed for particle size distribution, pH in the paste, electrical conductivity of the saturation extract (EC e ), water soluble Na, Ca and Mg, cation exchange capacity (CEC) and exchangeable Na. The sodium absorption ratio (SAR) and exchangeable sodium percentage (ESP) were calculated. The 632 soils were characterized as salt affected (saline, saline − sodic, sodic) or normal, using the values of EC, SAR and ESP, and pH. In addition, the soil samples collected from the 0 − 25 and 25 − 50 cm depths were analyzed for DTPA extractable Cd and Olsen P. All soils were alkaline in reaction. In most of the cases, concentrations of DTPA extractable Cd in the 0 − 25 cm depth were higher than in the 25 − 50 cm depth and the mean values differed significantly ( p < 0.001). For both depths, concentrations of DTPA extractable Cd were higher for salt affected than normal soils and the mean values within each depth differed significantly ( p < 0.001). This could be attributed to the use of PG as soil amendment. In addition, a significant and positive relationship was obtained for DTPA extractable Cd and EC e (r = 0.31, p < 0.001). However, DTPA extractable Cd ranged at levels similar or lower to those reported in the literature for cultivated soils with high P fertilization, in almost all cases. This is something to be expected since 80 % of all soils were sufficient or over − fertilized with P (Olsen P > 15 mg kg − 1 ). A significant and positive relationship, obtained for DTPA extractable Cd and Olsen P (r = 0.47, p < 0.001), supported the conclusion that the source of DTPA extractable Cd could also be traced to the long − term P fertilization. Concentrations of DTPA extractable Cd were significantly ( p < 0.001) correlated with certain soil properties that affect Cd availability to plants, such as pH (r = − 0.26), clay content (r = 0.22) and CEC (r = 0.26).


Our senses define our view of the world. They allow us to adapt to environmental stimuli and are essential for communication and social behaviour. For most humans, seeing and hearing are central senses for their daily life. Our eyes and ears respond to an extraordinary broad range of stimuli covering about 12 log units of light intensity or acoustic power, respectively. The cellular basis is represented by sensory cells (photoreceptors in the retina and inner hair cells in the cochlea) that convert sensory inputs into electrical signals. Photoreceptors and inner hair cells have developed a specific pre-synaptic structure, termed synaptic ribbon, that is decorated with numerous vesicles filled with the excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate. At these ribbon synapses, glutamatergic signal transduction is guided by distinct sets of metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluRs). MGluRs belong to group II and III of the receptor classification can inhibit neuronal activity, thus protecting neurons from overstimulation and subsequent degeneration. Consequently, dysfunction of mGluRs is associated with vision and hearing disorders. In this review, we introduce the principle characteristics of ribbon synapses and describe group II and III mGluRs in these fascinating structures in the retina and cochlea.


In the hope of finding a less toxic analogue of nitrogen mustard, Haddow replaced the methyl groups in the nitrogen mustard molecule with various aromatic radicals. The compounds which were synthesized were not as effective as nitrogen mustard. Since the effect of nitrogen mustards is thought to be related to its ability to alkylate (i. e., exchange its halogen radical for some unknown body constituent), Timmis substituted another alkylating radical, sulfonic acid ester, for the halogen group. He synthesized a series of disulfonic ester molecules having various carbon chains. The four and five carbon chains were found to be most effective against the Walker rat carcinoma 256.1 Galton first reported the effects of 1,4-bis (methylsulfonoxy) butane (Myleran) in human leukemia.* After two years of experience in 19 patients with chronic granulo- cytic leukemia he reported clinical improvement similar to that obtained with x-ray therapy. Myleran was not found to


According to report produced by the Blacksmith institute (2013), Lead poisoning contributes 0.9 per cent of developing countries" disease burden. The main purpose of the study was to estimate the WTP for the improved water supply and sanitation services in Kabwe lead polluted areas in order to determine if the improved irrigation water supply project was viable. This was done using a contingent valuation method with a double bounded dichotomous choice question format. The study surveyed 485 randomly selected households using structured questionnaire face to face interview schedule in high lead endemic residential townships of Makululu, Chowa, Katondo and Kasanda. The sample included respondents aged 17-72 years old. Quantitative data was analysed using STATA computer software package. Analytical tools used included descriptive statistics and econometric Logit regression model. The results revealed that 75.05% of the rural smallholder farm households in the high lead affected areas were willing to pay for the improved irrigation water supply. Data sources originated from primary and secondary sources. The study findings have shown that the majority of the sample households were affected by lead water pollution problems. Furthermore, results reveal that there is a positive WTP for improved irrigation water supply in Kabwe city. The response obtained from hypothetical market scenario indicates that households convey their WTP with a mean value of 50.072 Kwacha/household/month (US$7.58 /household/month) (US$1= K6.60) and the total WTP in the Kabwe city command areas is estimated to be 14,958,970 Kwacha/month (US$2,266,420.) for the whole population (300,000). Moreover, the study identified household income, age, education level; household size, gender, pollution control training, pollution experience, water source distance, first bid, and irrigated garden space are the main factors having a substantial effect on households' WTP of improved water supply. The study underlines that more attention should be given by government and other stakeholders for the implementation of irrigation water management practices in order to supply reliable irrigation water to the farmers. Furthermore, policy makers should develop and provide proper irrigation water pricing system, strengthen the existing soil and water conservation efforts and ensuring better soil and water conservation practices to manage the lead pollution problems in the catchment. Lastly, government and policy makers should consider the significant variables which have an impact in determining households' WTP.


An independent judiciary with the power to constrain the executive and legislative branches is commonly thought to be the foundation of government under the rule of law. However, it is not obvious why those with political power would ever tolerate the constraints imposed by an independent court. I offer an explanation for independent judicial review that is based on ongoing political competition between risk‐averse parties. An independent judiciary is a mechanism through which these political competitors can enforce mutual restraint. But support for independent judicial review is sustainable only when (1) the political system is sufficiently competitive, (2) judicial doctrine is sufficiently moderate, and (3) parties are both sufficiently risk averse and forward looking. I employ a simple formal model to show how these variables influence the political sustainability of independent judicial review, and I also present the results of a preliminary empirical test that confirms the central hypotheses.


Logging and auditing is an important system facility for monitoring correct system operation and for detecting potential security problems. We present an architecture for implementing user-level auditing monitors which: (i) does not require superuser privileges; (ii) makes it simple to create user defined monitors which are transparent; and (iii) provides security guarantees such as mandatory and reliable monitoring while maintaining confidentiality of setuid processes. We avoid problems of self-referential monitoring. Monitor use policies can be specified to increase flexibility. We show that our framework can be tailored so that it is very efficient with low overhead on macro and micro benchmarks. This demonstrates that it is feasible to make use of arbitrary and programmable user-level monitors for system security and auditing applications


Studies of women's experiences of being overweight and pregnant are limited in the literature. Given the increasing rates of obesity in pregnant women, and the impact of being overweight on the health of the mother and the child, this qualitative descriptive study aimed to explore the perceptions and experiences of overweight pregnant women attending two maternity units in Sydney, Australia. Fourteen women aged between 25 and 42 years with a body mass index greater than 30 kg/m(2) participated in a face-to-face interview in their third trimester of pregnancy or in the early post-natal period. All interviews were recorded and transcribed. Field notes were also recorded following each interview. Data were analysed using thematic analysis. Four themes were identified in the data: 'being overweight and pregnant', 'being on a continuum of change', 'get alongside us' and finally 'wanting the same treatment as everyone else'. Most women recognised their weight as an issue both for their own health and well-being and for its impact on the baby. Women believed health professionals should address the issue of obesity with them but do so in a supportive and positive way that recognised their individual needs and expectations. Health professionals need to consider new approaches or models of care for overweight women that give them support and enable individual needs and expectations to be met. Culturally specific programs may also need to be developed.


A two-dimenstional lightweight cantilever structure is studied, comprising 40 rigidly joined beams, of which the geometry is optimized to reduce vibration transmission over a given bandwidth. In this paper, the optimization is achieved by using genetic algorithms. Ten optimized design candidates were archieved for each of three cases resulting from minimizing an objective function (the vibration transmission between two points on the structure) which is calculated (i) using a single frequecny, (ii) the frequency average over a narrow bandwidth, and (iii) the frequency average over a broad frequency range. All the candidates show performance improvements and normally the best performance is taken to be the best candidate. This paper then considers the sensitivity of each optimal candidate to small changes in the geometry of the structure. If the performance of a structure is too sensitive to perturbations its practical application is limited or may not be realizable in practice. The robustness of the optimized candidates is studied in order to find those candidates which are least sensitive to changing design parameters. This is achieved by perturbing the positions of the joints by an ensemble of sets of random numbers. The statistical effect on the objective function is investigated, and some candidates are seen to be more robust to such perturbations than others and generally the greater the bandwidth over which the structure is optimized the more robust the design. A selection criterion is then applied which enables the best candidates to be identified on grounds of both nominal optimized performance and robustness. Finally, the advantage of using genetic algorithms over traditional 'hill-climbing' optimization methods is shown, on the grounds of both nominal performance and robustness.


This paper aims to determine and compare the vignetting effect (luminance radial falloff) of two identical SIGMA lenses mounted on two identical cameras (same manufacturers, models and references). For the largest aperture (f/2.8), the average luminance loss of the two devices is 66%, at the periphery of the fisheye, with a difference of loss of 0.5%. For each aperture, the difference between root mean square errors (RMSE) of vignetting curve of each device is always less than 0.7%. Vignetting effect is thus similar for the two devices.


The shear force created by non-uniform loading on the asphalt and concrete surface is the main reason why bridge deck pavement is damaged extensively. Multi-function asphalt mixture shear apparatus is designed for dealing with this problem. After studying the composition of mechanical system and data acquisition system, design and develop the program of the system. During the study, the actual prototype is produced, and used in the asphalt mixture shear experiment. The experimental parameters can help the design of asphalt mixture and the prevention of the damage of asphalt concrete pavement.


Objectives To explore medical trainees' experiences of leadership and followership in the interprofessional healthcare workplace. Design A qualitative approach using narrative interviewing techniques in 11 group and 19 individual interviews with UK medical trainees. Setting Multisite study across four UK health boards. Participants Through maximum variation sampling, 65 medical trainees were recruited from a range of specialties and at various stages of training. Participants shared stories about their experiences of leadership and followership in the healthcare workplace. Methods Data were analysed using thematic and narrative analysis. Results We identified 171 personal incident narratives about leadership and followership. Participants most often narrated experiences from the position of follower. Their narratives illustrated many factors that facilitate or inhibit developing leadership identities; that traditional medical and interprofessional hierarchies persist within the healthcare workplace; and that wider healthcare systems can act as barriers to distributed leadership practices. Conclusions This paper provides new understandings of the multiple ways in which leadership and followership is experienced in the healthcare workplace and sets out recommendations for future leadership educational practices and research.


Background Growing individualization within the past decades has been described as a fundamental shift in society. Studies have reported how the digital age promotes new forms of individualism with self-tracking technologies and self-presentation in social networks. Potential harmful effects on the mental health of young adults have already been at the forefront of research. However, 2 questions that remain unanswered are how emotional experiences and expressions of self-relatedness differ among generations in their usage of the internet and social media, and if an increasing individualism can be observed by this. Objective The aim of this study is to examine whether the use of the internet and social media has led people to be more concerned about themselves than former generations. The potential consequences of mental and emotional distress among different age groups are analyzed. Methods A focus-group approach was chosen to study the following age groups: Baby Boomers (those born in 1950-1965), Generation X (those born in 1966-1980), and Digital Natives (those born in 1981-2000). We organized 6 focus groups with 36 participants who discussed their private usage of the internet and social media, different devices, platforms and functions, communication behavior, and self-tracking. We applied inductive category formation and followed the Standards for Reporting Qualitative Research (SRQR) checklist. Results We found differences in the 3 studied generations regarding the reasons for their use of the internet and social media, the effects of this use, personal feelings and experiences, expressions of self-relatedness, and social relationships. The Baby Boomers voiced a wish to stay autonomous while being in contact with their personal network. Generation X included enthusiastic members who appreciate self-tracking for curiosity and fascination, as well as people who felt fears about data surveillance. The Digital Natives reported a wish to optimize their own body by self-tracking while being faced with norms and expectations that were communicated via the internet and social media. Conclusions All generations expressed self-relatedness, yet by different means. The Baby Boomers expressed less individualism than Generation X and the Digital Natives, who felt the highest strain due to social comparisons. However, all generations reported specific, potentially problematic consequences for their mental health. Age-specific coping strategies are necessary to promote a mentally healthy way of using the internet and social media.


Possibilities to enhance potato productivity in the Sahel region of Tunisia have been the domain of active investigation during the last several years. Many field experiments were carried out on the potential of using different plating depths to grow profitable potato crops. In the research station of the higher institute of agronomy of Chott-Mariem in the Sahel region of Tunisia, two varieties of potato: Alaska and Safrane, were mechanically planted at two different depths: 10 and 15 cm in a sandy loam soil. After three months of growth, the effect of planting depth was determined using fresh and dry weights of the above and below ground biomass as well as tuber yield. The results showed that in a light textured soil, plants of two potato varieties planted at 15 cm depth outperformed those planted at a 10 cm depth. In addition, for tuber yield, the Alaska variety was more productive than the Safrane variety with increasing yield of tubers than 2% for depths of 15 cm and 11, 9% for depths of 10 cm.

 Key words: Potato, planting depth, light soil, agronomic parameters, Tunisia.


Background: The global environment is gradually deteriorating, environmental problems are beginning to attract attention, urban green area and water surface area is getting smaller and smaller, but the roof as a side of the building is often neglected, is a piece of space environment in the city has not been fully developed. The form of green roof can take into account the architectural landscape, extend the life of the building, and also improve the urban ecological environment. Based on the consideration of ecological environment and development space, the roof of the School of Mechanical Engineering at Jiangsu University of Science and Technology Changshan Campus, which will be officially opened in 2020, can be used as a rooftop garden to create an activity space for teachers and students that optimizes the rooftop environment and extends the life of the building.Research Objective: This paper is designed from the needs of the audience, combining ergonomics for space partitioning and proposing design priorities. By analyzing the audience's needs for different functional partitions, the way of interaction between the audience and the environment in the space is designed to solve the problem of sustainable utilization of rooftop resources.Research Methodology: This paper establishes a theoretical knowledge system by studying the development history of rooftop gardens and basic knowledge such as design principles, analyzes the environment and audience population, and combines ergonomics to focus on functional design and related details. A questionnaire survey was conducted among school teachers and students. 90.1% of the audience considered the aesthetic appearance of the rooftop garden to be the most important, followed by function and quality. 96.9% of the audience wanted a suitable space for rest and conversation in the rooftop garden, followed by a reading and learning space and a viewing platform.Findings: The design takes into account roof safety, ergonomics, and the usage needs of campus students and faculty, and divides the roof plan into five zones to create a spatial environment with different functions. Finally, based on ergonomics, the design of tables and chairs for the roof garden, the design of interactive landscape facilities and the design of rainwater retention performance are combined with suitable human size parameters to create a sustainable roof space with both aesthetics and multifunctionality around the above design focus. Specific design elements are as follows.(1) The table and chair area provides an open space for people to rest and study. It is made in the form of a tree table. The shape is transformed from a gear form to a more rounded and gentle organic form. The shape of the table and chairs match the physiological curve of the human body, which is ergonomic and feels natural and comfortable in the hand, and the size of the chairs reach 90% and 95% of the population size data.(2) The interactive landscape installation in the entrance area is a circular gravity-sensitive swing, with curves that fit the human body and sensing lights that allow teachers and students to visualize the flow of people in the garden. It makes the interaction between people and the environment more intimate, allowing users to generate and transmit emotions, and improving fun and playability.(3) Design three water storage tanks for storing water, with specifications set at 1 m×1 m×0.5 m. The storage tanks and control boxes are set on the top outdoor ground and designed as an automatic irrigation system that can collect, purify and reuse rainwater, allowing the roof to solve the problem of rainwater resource utilization while improving ecology.Significance of the study: The rooftop garden is significant in that it makes use of the space resources that have been set aside to green the campus and improve the ecological environment on the one hand; on the other hand, it provides space for teachers and students to engage in leisure activities, regulates people's psychological state and improves their quality of life. It improves the quality and value of the building and the ecological environment of the city at the same time.


Prior research assumes that high-status actors have greater organizational influence than lowerstatus ones, that is, it is easier for the former to get their ideas and initiatives adopted by the organization than it is for the latter. Drawing from the literature on ideology, we posit that the status-influence link is contingent on actors' ideological position. Specifically, status confers organizational influence to the degree that the focal actor is ideologically mainstream. The more an actor's ideology deviates from the mainstream the less will her status translate into increased organizational influence. We find support for this hypothesis using data on the work of legislators in the House of Representatives in the U.S. Congress. By illuminating how and under what conditions status leads to increased influence, this study qualifies and extends current understandings of the role of status in organizations.


Consumers require increasing data rates and therefore it is important to develop techniques that increase the spectrum efficiency. MIMO OFDM is a fundamental technology for high data rate wireless systems. Correlation among the different spatial streams is the main factor limiting the spectral efficiency. All practical MIMO OFDM wireless systems use cyclic prefix (CP). In this paper we propose a novel prefix for MIMO OFDM wireless systems, referred to as generalized prefix. This generalized prefix provides additional degree of freedom, which can be optimized and provides improved performance for correlated MIMO channels.


Polarization among US political parties, media and elites is a widely studied topic. Prominent lines of prior research across multiple disciplines have observed and analyzed growing polarization in social media. In this paper, we present a new methodology that offers a fresh perspective on interpreting polarization through the lens of machine translation. With a novel proposition that two sub-communities are speaking in two different "languages", we demonstrate that modern machine translation methods can provide a simple yet powerful and interpretable framework to understand the differences between two (or more) large-scale social media discussion data sets at the granularity of words. Via a substantial corpus of 86.6 million comments by 6.5 million users on over 200,000 news videos hosted by YouTube channels of four prominent US news networks, we demonstrate that simple word-level and phrase-level translation pairs can reveal deep insights into the current political divide -- what is "black lives matter" to one can be "all lives matter" to the other.


Although the fundamental relationships for stereology, the foundation of quantitative metallography, have been known for some time, implementation of these concepts has been restricted when performed manually due to the tremendous effort required. Further, while humans are quite good with pattern recognition, as in the identification of complex structures, they are less satisfactory for repetitive counting. Many years ago, George Moore (1) and members of ASTM Committee E-4 on Metallography conducted a simple counting experiment. About 400 people were asked to count the number of times the letter ―e‖ appeared in a paragraph without striking out the letters as they counted. The correct answer was obtained by only 3.8% of the people. Results were not Gaussian, however, as only 4.3% had higher values while 92% had lower values, some much lower. The standard deviation was 12.28. This experiment revealed a basic problem with manual ratings. In this case the subject was one very familiar to the test subjects, yet only 3.8% obtained the correct count. What degree of counting accuracy can be expected when the subject is less familiar, such as microstructural features? Image analyzers, on the other hand, are quite good at counting but not as competent at recognizing features of interest. Fortunately, there has been tremendous progress in the development of powerful, user-friendly image analyzers over the past two decades.


Heart Failure is the result of heterogeneous structural heart diseases, especially ischemic disease, and is becoming increasingly common in all Western countries. Many patients continue to be symptomatic in spite of progress in pharmacological therapy, and the risk of mortality remains high in the most advanced functional classes. Cardiac resynchronization therapy can be used as a therapeutic strategy for alleviating symptoms and reducing mortality in a considerable percentage of patients with heart failure.Cardiac resynchronization therapy provides both immediate and medium/long-term results. The immediate results are the reduced QRS duration, the synchrony restoration between the ventricles and between the lateral and septal walls of the left ventricle, the reduced mitral regurgitation and the increased stroke volume. In the medium/long term, left ventricular reverse remodeling occurs and left ventricular ejection fraction is increased. Several trials have documented both increased functional capacity and improvements in quality of life and New York Heart Association class. Moreover, cardiac resynchronization therapy has been seen to reduce HF hospitalizations and mortality and the total number of days of hospitalization. In order to reduce the percentage of non-responders to cardiac resynchronization therapy, it is necessary to optimize the prognostic stratification of candidates for implantation through multi-parameter evaluations and to ensure correct device programming with periodic updates which are widely recommended but not so often performed. Whether indications should be extended will need to be evaluated in view of the known complications mainly associated with lead implantation.


Author(s): Amenta, Nina; Choi, Sunghee; Jump, Maria E.; Kolluri, Ravi Krishna; Wahl, Thomas | Abstract: We consider a problem which is part of the process of determining the three-dimensional structure of a protein molecule using X-ray crystallography: given an estimated map of the electron density of the molecule as a function on three-dimensional space, we identify regions which are likely to belong to a-helices. Our approach is to compute a new kind of skeleton - the power shape - and then identify the helical substructures within the power shape with a variant of geometric hashing.


As an essential function of computerized ergonomic evaluation models based on digital human models, realistic simulation or prediction of human reach profiles is of great importance. Although several human‐modeling efforts have been made to provide the capability of reach simulation, most studies have been limited to the reach of a single extremity. A variety of activities of human operators, however, frequently involve simultaneous positioning of two or more extremities to different target positions. Such a multiple reach problem cannot be satisfactorily resolved by means of conventional single‐extremity reach models because formulation of the problem as a series of single reaches rarely yields accurate trajectory of human‐reach profiles due to interactions of multiple extremities. In this research, a two‐handed reach prediction model was developed. The human upper body was modeled as a seven‐link system with 13 degrees of freedom, being regarded as a redundant open kinematic chain with two end‐effectors. As a way of solving the two‐handed reach problem, the resolved motion method was adopted among several inverse kinematics methods as the technique is fit for real‐time redundancy control. The method is also capable of incorporating the joint range availability criterion as a cost function to minimize excessive deviations of body joints from their neutral positions. Real human‐reach profiles were compared to those obtained from the prediction model and were found to be statistically similar. The methodology is expected to be applicable to the reach simulation of both upper and lower extremities without algorithmic difficulties. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


BIOMETRICS is the measurement of biological data. The term biometrics is commonly used today to refer to the authentication of a person by analyzing physical characteristics, such as fingerprints, or behavioral characteristics, such as signatures. Since many physical and behavioral characteristics are unique to an individual, biometrics provides a more reliable system of authentication than ID cards, keys, passwords, or other traditional systems. The word biometrics comes from two Greek words and means life measure. To provide a comprehensive survey, we not only categorize existing boimetric techniques but also present detailed of representative methods within each category. Any characteristic can be used as a biometric identifier if (1) every person possesses the characteristic, (2) it varies from person to person, (3) its properties do not change considerably over time, and (4) it can be measured manually or automatically. Physical characteristics commonly used in biometric authentication include face, fingerprints, handprints, eyes, and voice. Biometric authentication can be used to control the security of computer networks, electronic commerce and banking transactions, and restricted areas in office buildings and factories. It can help prevent fraud by verifying identities of voters and holders of driver's license or visas. In authentication, a sensor captures a digital image of the characteristic being used to verify the user's identity. A computer program extracts a pattern of distinguishing features from the digital image. Another program compares this pattern with the one representing the user that was recorded earlier and stored in the system database. If the patterns match well enough, the biometric system will conclude that the person is who he or she claims to be.


Gasification is process conversion solid material into fuel gas. This study were carried on updraft fixed bed gasifier. Commercial application for updraft gasifier is used in Asphalt Mixing Plant at Ngawi with the capacity 1 ton/hour. Palm shell was used as feedstock in this study with air as gasifying agent. Feeding conducted as batch and intermittent (0.5 kg every 12 minute in certain time). Gasification process also produced an undesirable product called tar. The analysis of tar measurement and gas composition was performed by impinger bottle method and GC-TCD respectively. Gasification performance observed includes flare ignition, temperature progress, tar quantity, and specific gasification rate. Biomass with high moisture content produces producer gases that will be difficult to burnt because producer gases carried moisture content from biomass. Flare ignition on biomass with moisture content 7,01% would be slower 2 minutes than moisture content 4%. Flammable producer gases when net calorific value more than 3500 kJ/Nm3. Temperature progress with intermittent feeding increase faster than batch feeding. However, temperatur progress decreases when biomass was fed into the reactor. Tar content with high temperature on intermittent feeding (4.8 mg/Nm3) was smaller than batch feeding (14 mg/Nm3). In this study, spesific gasification rate (SGR) about 47.7 - 65.4 kg/m2h.


Abstract.Accounts of economic change recognize that markets create selective pressures for the adaptation of technologies in the direction of customer needs and production efficiencies. However, non-adaptational bases for technological change are rarely highlighted, despite their pervasiveness in the history of technical and economic change. In this paper the concept of exaptation -a feature co-opted for its present role from some other origin - is proposed as a characteristic element of technological change, and an important mechanism by which new markets for products and services are created by entrepreneurs. Exaptation is a missing but central concept linking the evolution of technology with the entrepreneurial creation of new markets and the concept of Knightian uncertainty.


The article presents the results of assessing the stability of the ambulance vehicle to lateral and longitudinal rolls regarding them as parameters affecting the quality of health care to the transported victim. The authors present the results of a road testing aimed at assessing the vehicle resistance to such rolls under conditions of imitation of a seriously ill patient`s delivery to a medical institution. The tests were carried out on ambulances equipped on the basis of Ford Transit vehicles, using various types of damping elements in the suspension, namely, two variants of two-tube hydraulic shock absorbers; one-tube hydro-pneumatic shock absorbers; air suspension. As the estimated parameters, there were used the values of actual angular acceleration of the passenger compartment rolls in comparison with the values admissible for medical indicators. It is shown that from the standpoint of providing the best comfort for the patient and the medical crew of ambulance, it is preferable to use in the vehicle suspension the single-tube hydro-pneumatic shock absorbers, the installation of which is permissible under conditions of operational modernization of the vehicle.


We have previously documented the decline of the Common Kestrel Falco tinnunculus over a 23-year period in a large coniferous forest in northern England. Kestrels fed predominantly on Field Voles Microtus agrestis , which were most abundant in young plantations (1‐11 years old). Over the 23 years, voles remained abundant in the study area, but their numbers fluctuated cyclically. Here we consider whether the decline of Kestrels was linked to predation by Northern Goshawk Accipiter gentilis . Goshawks first bred in the study area in 1973 and increased until 1989, after which numbers stabilized. We use a number of approaches to explore the role of Goshawk predation, all of which are correlative, but independent. First, there was a significant negative relationship between Kestrel and Goshawk numbers after controlling for a decline in vole habitat. Short-eared Owls Asio flammeus , which also hunt by day, declined over the same period as Kestrels. Second, numbers of Tawny Owl Strix aluco and Long-eared Owl Asio otus did not decline as Goshawk numbers increased. These two species are also vole-dependent, but active by night, and less vulnerable to Goshawk attack. Third, six species of raptor comprised 4.5% of 5445 Goshawk prey items during the breeding season, but more Kestrels were killed than the combined total of all other raptors. Goshawks not only killed many adult Kestrels in early spring, prior to breeding, when it would have most impact on population levels, but there was also a temporal trend for predation on Kestrels to be inversely density-dependent. Finally, we estimated that Goshawks removed more Kestrels than were recorded each spring in the study area. We interpreted this as indicating that immigrant Kestrels were being removed continually, mostly before they could breed. We conclude that the decline of Kestrels (and possibly Short-eared Owls) was mainly due to predation by Goshawks. This study provides some of the strongest evidence yet of the role of predation in the hierarchical structuring of raptor communities.


This study examines the role of individual characteristics, occupation, industry, region, and workplace characteristics in accounting for differences in hourly earnings between men and women in full and part-time jobs in Britain. A four-way gender-working time split (male full-timers, male part-timers, female full-timers and female part-timers) is considered, and allowance is explicitly made for the possibility of both workplace and occupational segregation across each group. Individual and workplace characteristics are shown to explain much of the earnings gaps examined. Within gender groups, the striking difference between full and part-time employees is that full-timers work in higher paying occupations than do part-timers. Also, occupational segregation makes a significant contribution to the earnings gap between male and female part-time employees but not for full-time workers. A further new result is that female workplace segregation contributes significantly to the full/part time earnings gap of both males and females. Part-time employees work in more feminised workplaces and their earnings are lower. By contrast, occupational segregation has little impact on the full-time/part-time earnings gap of either males or females. There remains, moreover, a substantial residual gender effect between male and female employees.


Analytical studies were made on effect of size and location of a weld defect on fatigue life for argon-arc welded titanium alloy joint. In the analyses, a weld defect was assumed as an initial crack, and the crack growth life was taken as total fatigue life. By using the Isida and Noguchi's stress intensity factor solution for a plate containing an embedded elliptical subsurface crack under tension, the life prediction code FASTRAN3.9 was revised. A small crack methodology based on the plasticity-induced crack-closure concept and the effective stress intensity factor range, Keff , was used to predict the total fatigue life of welded joint, and to study the effect of the size and location of weld defect on fatigue life by means of the revised FASTRAN3.9 code. Limited amounts of experimental data were used to make comparison with the predictions. The predicted fatigue lives are in reasonable agreement with experiments, and the effect of both the size and location of the weld defect on fatigue life was found to be significant.


Major types of chemical concrete degradation such as carbonation, leaching and acid attacks are strongly associated with decreasing internal or external pH. Thus a precise determination of the latter is crucial for the assessment regarding the degree of corrosion and corresponding development of prevention strategies. Conventional pH measure methods for concrete, such as phenolphthalein indicator, pore solution extractions and flat surface electrodes have proven to contain significant limitations and inadequacies. This contribution presents the application of sensor foils based on luminescent pH sensitive dyes entrapped in a polymeric hydrogel matrix, to quantify and image the distribution of surface pH of concrete based construction materials. An imaging technique called time-domain dual lifetime referencing (t-DLR) was used, which suppresses artifacts from scattering of the background and other light inhomogeneities. Using this methodology high-resolution pH profiles of concrete samples exposed to carbonation and biogenic acid corrosion


Climate change is having multiple impacts on marine species characterized by sedentary adult and pelagic larval phases, from increasing adult mortality to changes in larval duration and ocean currents. Recent studies have shown impacts of climate change on species persistence through direct effects on individual survival and development, but few have considered the indirect effects mediated by ocean currents and species traits such as pelagic larval duration. We used a density-dependent and stochastic metapopulation model to predict how changes in adult mortality and dynamic connectivity can affect marine metapopulation stability. We analyzed our model with connectivity data simulated from a biophysical ocean model of the northeast Pacific coast forced under current (1998-2007) and future (2068-2077) climate scenarios in combination with scenarios of increasing adult mortality and decreasing larval duration. Our results predict that changes of ocean currents and larval duration mediated by climate change interact in complex and opposing directions to shape local mortality and metapopulation connectivity with synergistic effects on regional metapopulation stability: while species with short larval duration are most sensitive to temperature-driven reduction in larval duration, the response of species with longer larval duration are mostly mediated by changes in both the mean and variance of larval connectivity driven by ocean currents. Our results emphasize the importance of considering the spatiotemporal structure of connectivity in order to predict how the multiple effects of climate change will impact marine populations.


We should begin our reply to Paul Warwick by stating how very flattered we are by the diligent attention that he has given to our work on government formation. In particular, we are delighted that he has taken up and applied the simulation technology that we suggested as a way to explore cabinet stability, a matter on which we were beginning to feel like voices wailing in the wilderness. This is not the place to bore readers of the Journal with detailed points of issue between us, of which there are obviously many. We want here to concentrate upon some larger issues provoked by Warwick's critique. These involve a debate on cabinet stability and duration between a school of thought, in Warwick's corner, that is essentially empiricist in its outlook and a school of thought, in ours, that takes analytical modelling as being more fundamental. This is a theme touched upon by Kaare Strom in his recent review essay on parliamentary democracy.


In 2000-2001 a review was produced on the topic "Organic food and human health", (http://www.agrsci.dk/foejo/DK/sider/pub/fojorap.html ).
The review evaluated a large number of studies comparing the constituents of organic and conventional foods, as well as feeding studies comparing reproduction and health of animals fed with organic or conventional feed. Additionally studies on the connection between consumer values and food production systems were reviewed.
The results showed that organic plant foods consistently contain more vitamin C, natural pesticides and higher dry weight percentage, less b-carotene, pesticide residues and protein, but the protein has a higher percentage of essential amino acids than in conventional plants. Organic animal products contain more conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and unsaturated fatty acid, and less bacteria with resistance to antibiotics, and organic processed products are made with less additives and shorter shelf life, when compared with similar conventional products.
However, on this basis it is not possible to conclude that one or the other type of food is better for health, mainly because the general knowledge of the connection between food and health is not sufficiently detailed to allow such an estimate. Also because whenever a risk is associated with a pesticide or food additive, the substance is withdrawn from the market, making estimates about the present and future situation impossible and some prior studies obsolete.
Animal studies generally showed little difference between the two types of feed, although most of the published studies showed that a small proportion of the measured characteristics differed significantly, in most of these cases indicating better health after the organic feed treatment. The greatest effect overall was on mortality, where 3 of 7 studies showed less mortality with organic feed, while 4 found no difference. However, most studies are outdated, due to changing practices in both organic and conventional agriculture, many have methodological flaws, and under-reporting of inconclusive results is very likely. So these studies can not be taken as evidence for any differential effects of present day organic or conventional food on health of humans.
Consumer surveys show that consumers who consistently prefer organic food are the ones most concerned with food related risks, such as pesticides and bacteria, so it is possible, but not tested, that the availability of organic food provides some consumers with greater well-being through a perception of better safety.
Conclusion: There are consistent differences between organic and conventional foods on several characteristics, but the data are insufficient to conclude if or how this could affect human health.
More knowledge must be gained on the connection between food composition and human health in general, and on which aspects of the production systems that are responsible for the observed differences. This will both allow definitive estimates of the effects of existing production systems on human health, and, equally importantly, enable positive effects to be retained or even improved during future developments of both organic and conventional agriculture.


Background: Obstetric fistula although is eliminated in high income countries, it remains prevalent and debilitating condition in many parts of the developing world leaving women with the immediate consequences, such as leakage of urine or feces or both and has been observed since women first began delivering children despite of the fact that it is completely preventable if high quality basic and comprehensive maternal health services are available to all woman during pregnancy and childbirth by a well-trained and knowledgeable skilled birth attendants. Objective: The objective of this study was to assess knowledge and practice on prevention of Obstetric Fistula among skilled birth attendants in public Health Centers in Addis Ababa. Methods: Institutional based Quantitative Cross sectional study was undertaken in public health centers in Addis Ababa. A multi staged systematic random sampling technique was implemented to select a total of 548 skilled birth attendants. The data was collected by using self-administered questionnaire prepared in English language from March–April 2016 after ensuring that all requirement of Ethical consideration is fulfilled. The collected data was cleaned, entered and analyzed using SPSS Version 20 statistical software. A logistic regression statistical model was used for analysis. Descriptive statistics with frequency and percentages, table's graphs and cross-tabulations was used. Results: This study revealed that 67% of skilled birth attendants had good knowledge on prevention of obstetric fistula and in-service training related to obstetric fistula (p-value, 0.03), resource availability (p-value, 0.002) and service year (p-value, 0.006) were significantly associated. About 66.2% of skilled birth attendants had good practice and pre-service training (p-value, 0.0001), in-service training (p-value, 0.028), resource availability (p-value, 0.003), qualification (p-value, 0.001) and knowledge (p-value, 0.001) were factors independently associated with practice on prevention of obstetric fistula. Conclusion: In conclusion majority of skilled birth attendants were found to have good knowledge and good practice towards prevention of obstetric fistula.


In this paper, a new approach based on artificial neural networks to solve the robot motion planning problem is presented. For this purpose, a Hopfield neural network is used in a certain constraint satisfaction problem of the robot motion planning in conjunction with fuzzy modeling of the real robot's environment so that the energy of a state can be interpreted as the extent to which a hypothesis fit the underlying neural formulation model. Thus, low energy values indicate a good level of constraint satisfaction of the problem. Finally, since the obtained answer by the Hopfield neural network is not optimal, some algorithms are designed to optimize and generate the final answer.


practice of premarital intercourse. Such people seem to generate considerable anxiety in their initial sexual life and so certain patterns become established. In this unit the treatment consists in relaxation under thiopentone sodium, instruction in sexual techniques and temporary abstinence from intercourse. In fact most of my patients improve with 8 to 10 sessions directed towards crystallizing their concept of sex, explaining the physiological processes involved and helping them to regain their self confidence. Small doses of thioridazine are helpful. Psychogenic impotence needs intensive treatment and here again I prefer thiopentone sodium. As to the question whether "¿ a relationship might exist between decreased frequency of micturition and the increase in the duration of erection―, the answer seems clear. Anxiety is the basic cause, producing both frequency of micturition and premature ejaculation or shorter duration of erection. S. HARO0N AHMED. Neuropsychiatric Unit, Jinnah PostgraduateMedical Centre, Karachi. REFERENcES


A three-dimensional incompressible two phase flow model of vertical centrifugal casting is proposed to simulate the fluid flow of mould filling process accurately and effectively. The Projection method is adopted to solve the govern equation of the flow field, and the Level Set method is used to capture the free surface. The mold filling of a complex part with thin-wall is simulated. The numerical result shows that the Projection-Level Set method could simulate centrifugal casting effectively. The present study has a guiding significance to the production of vertical centrifugal casting.


Objective: to describe the patients experience of being under mechanic ventilation without continuous sedation effects in the Intensive Care Units (ICU).
Methodology: qualitative study with phenomenological focus, performed during the year of 2006 in the city of Rionegro Antioquia, Colombia. Depth interviews were conducted to six men and three women who had all the physical and mental conditions to participate in the study aging between 24 and 48 years old.
Results: not being under sedation during the ICU stance was  associated by the patients with a lower severity of the disease and death risk: being awake allowed them to participate in their own disease process and help with the treatment.
Conclusion: the participant patients valued positively the experience of being under mechanicventilation without the sedation effects.


The advancements in wireless communication have dictated the need of wireless sensor network (WSN) with infrastructure free support to intervene with hostile environment. The principal deliberation of WSN has been to save energy and to enhance the lifetime of the network. The data transmitted from the sensor nodes is highly vulnerable to error in a wireless environment which increases the transmit power. Error control coding (ECC) schemes can perk up the system performance and has an impact on energy consumption. In addition, a proper node deployment scheme minimizes the number of interfering nodes in the network. Moreover, channel fading and interference which increases the energy consumption of sensor nodes are mitigated by employing diversity techniques. Virtual multiple input multiple output (VMIMO) schemes that provide diversity gain are used to reduce the retransmission probability so as to improve energy savings. In this paper, an attempt has been made to develop a game theoretic framework considering ECC in hexagonally deployed VMIMO WSN.


Background/Purpose Ethanol coadministered with immediate-release dl-methylphenidate (dl-MPH) or dexmethylphenidate (d-MPH) significantly increases the geomean maximum plasma concentration (Cmax) of d-MPH 22% and 15%, respectively, and elevates overall drug exposure and psychostimulant effects. We asked the question: Are these ethanol-MPH interactions based more fundamentally on (1) inhibition of postabsorption d-MPH metabolism or (2) acceleration of MPH formulation gastric dissolution by ethanol in the stomach? This was investigated using the pulsatile, distinctly biphasic, spheroidal oral drug absorption systems of dl-MPH and d-MPH. Methods In a randomized, 4-way crossover study, 14 healthy subjects received pulsatile dl-MPH (40 mg) or d-MPH (20 mg), with or without ethanol (0.6 g/kg), dosed 4 hours later. These 4 hours allowed the delayed-release second MPH pulse to reach a more distal region of the gut to preclude gastric biopharmaceutical influences. Plasma was analyzed using a highly sensitive chiral method. Subjective/physiological effects were recorded. Findings/Results Ethanol increased the second pulse of d-MPH Cmax for dl-MPH by 35% (P < 0.01) and the partial area under the plasma concentration curve from 4 to 8 hours by 25% (P < 0.05). The respective values for enantiopure d-MPH were 27% (P = 0.001) and 20% (P < 0.01). The carboxylesterase 1–mediated transesterification metabolite ethylphenidate served as a biomarker for coexposure. Ethanol significantly potentiated stimulant responses to either formulation. Implications/Conclusions These findings support drug dispositional interactions between ethanol and MPH as dominant over potential biopharmaceutical considerations. Understanding the pharmacology underlying the frequent coabuse of MPH-ethanol provides rational guidance in the selection of first-line pharmacotherapy for comorbid attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder–alcohol use disorder.


Background Previous cross-sectional and longitudinal research suggests that HD clinical progression and striatal atrophy occur at a faster rate in individuals with higher CAG repeat lengths. This has led to discussion regarding the possibility that individuals with higher CAG repeat lengths might make good candidates for clinical trials, as disease-slowing effects of treatment could be more quickly demonstrated in individuals whose natural rate of progression is faster. Aims The current study was designed to determine whether the relationship between CAG repeat length and rate of atrophy in caudate and putamen is linear, with rates of progression continuing to increase as CAG repeat lengths increase. Methods Participants were 990 gene-expanded individuals from the PREDICT-HD study with 39 to 50 CAG repeats (mean CAG = 42.5; mean age = 39.9 years, mean years in study = 4.8). For each participant, the slope of caudate and putamen volume change (corrected for intracranial volume) was calculated, using all longitudinal data available for that subject. Linear mixed models were used, controlling for age, with particular interest in the analysis of slope changes as a non-linear (quadratic) function of CAG. Results Consistent with previous studies, correlations between CAG repeat length and longitudinal rate of change were significant for caudate and putamen volumes. Furthermore, results indicated a highly significant interaction for Year × CAG2for putamen, indicating that the putamen slope increases with higher CAG repeat length, but that this increase ceases to escalate for CAG lengths in the higher range (˜46+). The Year × CAG2interaction showed a trend toward significance for caudate. Conclusions Results of this study suggest that inclusion of individuals with higher CAG repeat length in clinical trials may be a good strategy, but efforts to enrich the sample with very high CAG repeat lengths (> 46) will not further increase the efficiency of clinical trials.


The authors have presented previously a new analytical static hysteresis model for rolling direction of grain oriented SiFe sheet. This model is based on physical meanings and an analogy between the electronic transformation of the material and a chemical reaction. In this paper, authors go on the work and adapt their theory for the transverse axis.


The Shared Task on Natural Language Premise Selection (NLPS) asks participants to retrieve the set of premises that are most likely to be useful for proving a given mathematical statement from a supporting knowledge base. While previous editions of the TextGraphs shared tasks series targeted multi-hop inference for explanation regeneration in the context of science questions (Thayaparan et al., 2021; Jansen and Ustalov, 2020, 2019), NLPS aims to assess the ability of state-of-the-art approaches to operate on a mixture of natural and mathematical language and model complex multi-hop reasoning dependencies between statements. To this end, this edition of the shared task makes use of a large set of approximately 21k mathematical statements extracted from the PS-ProofWiki dataset (Ferreira and Freitas, 2020a). In this summary paper, we present the results of the 1st edition of the NLPS task, providing a description of the evaluation data, and the participating systems. Additionally, we perform a detailed analysis of the results, evaluating various aspects involved in mathematical language processing and multi-hop inference. The best-performing system achieved a MAP of 15.39, improving the performance of a TF-IDF baseline by approximately 3.0 MAP.


Pneumatosis intestinalis (PI) was first described by DuVernou in 1730. Since then, there have been reports of a benign form of PI occurring in both children and adults. Pneumatosis has been associated with a great many diseases, but to our knowledge there are no reports of pneumatosis in patients with acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). In this paper we report the incidental finding of PI in an AIDS patient. With ever-increasing numbers of AIDS patients, this entity may be seen more often, and clinicians should be aware of its clinical significance.


Objective To evaluate Arizona's arboviral syndromic surveillance protocol in Maricopa County. Introduction Timely identification of arboviral disease is key to prevent transmission in the community, but traditional surveillance may take up to 14 days between specimen collection and health department notification. Arizona state and county health agencies began monitoring National Syndromic Surveillance Program BioSense 2.0 data for patients infected with West Nile virus (WNV), St. Louis encephalitis virus (SLEV), chikungunya, or dengue virus in August 2015. Zika virus was added in April 2016. Our novel methods were presented at the International Society for Disease Surveillance 2015 Annual Conference. [1] Twice per week, we queried patient records from 15 Maricopa County BioSense-enrolled emergency department and inpatient hospitals for chief complaint keywords and discharge diagnosis codes. Our "Case Investigation Decision Tree" helped us determine whether records had a high or low degree of evidence for arboviral disease and necessitated further investigation. This study evaluated how Arizona's protocol for conducting syndromic surveillance compared to traditional arboviral surveillance in terms of accuracy and timeliness in Maricopa County from August 2015 through December 2016. Methods We followed guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to evaluate two major attributes of the protocol: accuracy [measured as positive predictive value (PPV) and sensitivity] and timeliness. [2] Arizona's Medical Electronic Disease Surveillance Intelligence System (MEDSIS) was considered the "gold standard" system and BioSense was the test system. PPV was calculated as the proportion of records identified by BioSense that were reported to MEDSIS, regardless of final case classification. Sensitivity was the proportion of confirmed or probable cases in MEDSIS identified by BioSense. Though not all MEDSIS cases were seen at BioSense-reporting facilities, the sensitivity demonstrates how each query contributed to arboviral surveillance overall. We assessed timeliness in two ways: (1) the difference between the date when keywords or diagnosis codes were first identified by BioSense and the date the same patient was first reported to MEDSIS; and (2) the difference between the date the BioSense record was first reviewed by the Maricopa County Department of Public Health (MCDPH) syndromic surveillance team and the date the same patient was first investigated through MEDSIS by the MCDPH disease investigators. We assessed whether timeliness was affected by the method in which a record was identified in BioSense (i.e., chief complaint keyword or discharge diagnosis code). Results The arboviral syndromic surveillance queries identified 62 records during the evaluation period (Table). For each arboviral query, the proportion of BioSense records that were also reported through MEDSIS ranged from 25.0% to 32.4%, except chikungunya, which had a PPV of 0%. BioSense records that had a high degree of evidence for arboviral disease tended to have a higher PPV compared to those with low evidence. BioSense records that were not already reported to MEDSIS met neither clinical nor exposure criteria for the arboviral diseases and were not deemed a public health risk. The sensitivities of the WNV and Zika queries to detect confirmed or probable cases in MEDSIS were 8.2% and 5.6%, respectively, while SLEV, chikungunya, and dengue queries were 0%. On average, patients were reported to MEDSIS 7 days prior to BioSense identifying keywords or diagnosis codes. In addition, MEDSIS cases were investigated by MCDPH disease investigators 10 days prior to MCDPH syndromic surveillance team review of BioSense records, on average. The average time between MEDSIS report date and BioSense identification date was shorter for BioSense records identified by chief complaint keywords than by diagnosis codes (4 and 8 days after MEDSIS, respectively). Conclusions Arizona's arboviral syndromic surveillance protocol provided MCDPH with situational awareness, but BioSense data were not available more quickly than traditional mandated reporting. Through this process, we reviewed patient records that mentioned arboviral diseases and confirmed that these reportable conditions were captured in our traditional surveillance system. The decision tree was effective at prioritizing records for further investigation. Timeliness may be improved by updating the queries to include more chief complaint keywords and reviewing BioSense more than twice per week. MCDPH plans to evaluate Arizona's updated arboviral syndromic surveillance protocol, which was adapted for BioSense Platform's Electronic Surveillance System for Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics (ESSENCE). References 1. White, J. R., Imholte, S., & Collier, K. (2016). Using Syndromic Surveillance to Enhance Arboviral Surveillance in Arizona. Online J Public Health Inform, 8 (1), e81. 2. German, R. R., et al. (2001). Updated guidelines for evaluating public health surveillance systems: recommendations from the Guidelines Working Group. MMWR Recomm Rep, 50 (RR-13), 1-35.


In comparison with the traditional way of trading, the Internet
business companies have greater growth potential. This is true
for as long as they are able to recognize and expand efficient
marketing activities within the ever changing boundaries of
ecommerce. For Internet shops this implies the ability to
design an attractive purchase conditions and propositions. It
is for this reason that this paper researches the advantages
and disadvantages of Internet shopping as perceived by
customers. The main objectives are to find out the strength of
the perceived advantages and disadvantages and to consequently
define some recommendations for Internet shops. At the same
time, the research sought to identify significant clusters of
customers according to their identically perceived advantages
of Internet shopping. Significant clusters are then described.
For this purpose, an extensive survey was conducted in the form
of an electronic survey. In addition to methods of statistical
description, cluster analysis, including classification trees,
was used to search for and identify significant segmentation
criteria. The most strongly perceived advantages and
disadvantages are identified, recommendations for value
co-creation are formulated and new potential segmentation
criterion is created. The results of this research should be
helpful to Internet business companies to keep and strengthen
their market position compared to conventional shops.


Thermal compression tests of AZ61 magnesium alloy was performed at deformation temperature 150-400°C and strain rates ranged from 0.01s-1 to 10s-1, and the microstructure were observed for deformation specimens. The result shows that dynamic recrystallization (DRX) was happened under the center warm deformation condition for AZ61 alloy. The values of stress peak decrease when the deformation temperature increase, the grain size grows up at the same time. On the other hand, the critical strain increase and the grain size get smaller with the strain ratio increasing. Therefore temperature and strain ratio can make a great effect on the microstructure and mechanical properties of AZ61 alloy, but temperature is a more important factor.


We report and compare two projects investigating speech interfaces and augmented cognition. We performed an exploratory study to examine the effects of speech-enabled input on an imagery analysis and annotation task. We hypothesized that speech recognition could be a cognition-enabling technology by reducing the mental load of instrument manipulation and freeing up resources. Results indicate that people did identify images more efficiently and could potentially annotate images faster with speech. However, people did not annotate better with speech (precision was lower, and recall was significantly lower). We also developed a personal digital assistant capable of controlling a search-and-rescue robot. The PDA displayed a map and video feed of the robot's camera and permitted both stylus and speech input. We note differences between speech input in the robot control task and in the imagery annotation experiment. We conclude that speech may be helpful if the cognitive cost of speech recognition delays and errors is outweighed by the cognitive benefit of reducing instrument manipulation.


TiNiCu shape memory alloys have superior properties as compared with NITINOL due to their greater ductility, reduced hysteresis temperature range, and quick actuation response. The present article investigates the surface and subsurface modifications occurring due to wire electro discharge machining of Ti50Ni50-xCux shape memory alloy. The machining experiments were performed considering the pulse on time, pulse off time, and servo voltage as the process parameters. The influence of these parameters was studied on the material removal rate, surface roughness, recast layer thickness, microhardness, and phase changes in the machined surface. Longer pulse on time causes greater discharge energy, hence leading to higher material removal rate, surface roughness, and recast layer thickness. The machined surface hardness increased up to 900 Hv, which is about 59% increase with respect to the base material for longer pulse on time due to the recast layer thickness and the formation of oxides. A phase change on the machined surface was observed to cause the shape recoverability of the alloy. The microstructure, composition through EDAX, and the phase changes of the machined surface are also discussed in the article.


The number of students who are English language learners (ELL) is increasing significantly across the United States. As this number increases, so does the number of students who are ELL and being identified as having disabilities. The intersection of English language instruction and special education is an emerging field of scholarship, and it is important that special education teacher preparation programs incorporate theoretical frameworks and evidence-based practice for students who are ELL into their teacher preparation programs. Indeed, there are several topics and techniques that can be incorporated into special education teacher preparation coursework that have natural connections to topics typically addressed. This article provides a framework to support the inclusion of these strategies as well as specific examples of activities that could be incorporated in coursework to strengthen the preparation of special educators to meet the needs of students who are ELL.


This paper aims to examine the differences in consumers' attitudes towards domestic and foreign retailers in Croatia. It segments the consumers based on their attitudes, and examines the differences among the attitude segments relative to their retail patronage behaviour, consumer spending and consumer attitudes towards buying Croatian-made products. The empirical analysis is based on data obtained from consumer survey. The data were analyzed using t-test, chi-square test and ANOVA. The results show that consumers perceive domestic retailers as being similar to foreign retailers on three out of four store attribute factors. Cluster analysis produced three consumer segments: (1) consumers who prefer domestic retailers (28%); (2) consumers who prefer foreign retailers (17%); and (3) indifferent consumers (55%). The significant differences across segments exist in retail patronage, but not in consumer spending behaviour and the attitudes towards buying Croatian-made products. It may be concluded that consumers' attitudes towards domestic and foreign retailers might predict retail patronage behaviour. When designing retail strategy, managers should take into consideration both consumer attitudes and consumer segments.


Cities throughout the world have implemented bike-share systems as a strategy for expanding mobility options and improving the sustainability of the urban transportation system. These systems have attracted substantial ridership, even in the U.S., but the impact on overall levels of bicycling and other modes of travel have not been well documented. The purpose of this project is to document the impacts of a bike-share system to be launched by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG) in 2018. The project uses a before-and-after methodology to directly measure the impact of the bike-share system on levels of bicycling, transit use, and vehicle-miles of travel as well as attitudes towards bicycling in the area served by the system. This report summarizes the method and results for the first phase of the study, the "before" survey implemented in April 2016.


Endothelium is an important regulator of vascular tone via release of various endothelium- derived substances. Several studies have reported that endothelium may decrease the release of noradrenaline from vascular postganglionic sympathetic nerves and thus neuro- genic vasoconstriction. Endothelium derived-mediators (adenosine and NO) can modify vascular sympathetic neurotransmission and are relevant for vascular homeostasis. This is a relevant issue in terms of vascular homeostasis and, any modification, may lead to a deregulation process and to pathologies. Focus on NO-mediated effects on vascular sym- pathetic transmission will be done, discriminating the effects ascribed to NO generated by NO synthases located in the different vascular layers. A comparison between mesenteric/ tail arteries will also be explored, particularly the relevance of the transsynaptic modulation on noradrenaline release mediated by endothelial NO and adenosine in normotensive/ hypertensive vascular tissues. Adenosinergic system, namely adenosine, nucleoside transporters and adenosine receptors, can be influenced by endothelium mediators, namely by NO, causing alterations on the way these players interact with each other. In conditions where endothelium is compromised, a deregulation occurs with an increase in vascular sympathetic neurotransmission (as a consequence of adenosinergic system dynamic alter-ation). In summary, the impact of endothelial dysfunction on vascular neurotransmission is debated with particular focus on adenosinergic and nitroxidergic system dynamics.


Progressive-edge-growth (PEG) algorithm is one of the best known methods for constructing LDPC codes at short and intermediate block lengths, however, the codes directly designed by such algorithm has high encoding complexity, especially for q-ary LDPC codes, encoding complexity increases with the increase of q value rapidly, which hinder the development of q-ary LDPC code's implementation seriously. To such problem, the paper presents a improved method based on PEG algorithm which can be encoded by the iterative encoding algorithm with the liner operation complexity. The simulation results indicate: Though the error correcting capability of irregular q-ary LDPC codes constructed by the proposed methods in the paper is basically identical with the codes constructed by the PEG algorithm, but the powerful advantage makes it be easily implemented by the hardware .


trends in field of wireless networks is setting up Wireless Sensor Networks that, senses specified parameter(s) related to environment; processes sensed data and wirelessly communicates it to a base station. Such networks open up a whole new range of applications, including precision agriculture, monitoring and tracking vehicles, animals and humans, battle-field surveillance, civil structural monitoring etc. All these applications require extended network lifetime, scalability, and traffic balancing among nodes in the network. Clustering is one of the effectual techniques for achieving these requirements. In clustering, geographically adjacent nodes are organized into virtual groups called clusters. One of the cluster node acts as a cluster head and rest as cluster members. This paper presents Cluster Head selection protocol using Fuzzy Logic (CHUFL). It uses node's parameters like: residual energy, reachability from its neighborhood, quality of communication link with its neighborhood and distance from base station as fuzzy input variables for cluster head selection. A comparative analysis of CHUFL with cluster head selection mechanism using fuzzy logic by Indranil et. al.; Cluster Head Election mechanism using Fuzzy logic (CHEF) by Kim et. al. and cluster head selection method for wireless sensor networks based on fuzzy logic by J. Anno et. al. shows that CHUFL is up to 20 % more energy efficient and sends 72% more packets to base station compared to protocol by J. Anno et. al., one of the energy efficient clustering protocol.


Urban spatial expansion in the Quanzhou region of southeastern China has been accelerated over the past 20 years. This has caused land cover changes and, thus, has significant impacts on the local ecosystem and climate. To study the urban expansion and heat island dynamics of the region over the past 20 years, multitemporal Landsat TM images of 1987, 1996, and 2006 were used. The estimation of the urban expansion was assisted by the index-based built-up index (IBI) through enhancing built-up land features in the images. The urban-heat-island (UHI) effect was assessed using the urban-heat-island ratio index (URI). Multitemporal analysis indicates that the great increase in urban area has resulted in the development of UHIs in the region. Regression statistics reveal that built-up land has a positive exponential relationship with land surface temperature (LST). Therefore, the increase in built-up land percentage can exponentially accelerate the rise of LST.


Green communications have emerged as a demanding concept for improving the network energy efficiency (EE). In this paper, a pricing-based approach is investigated to achieve energy-efficient power allocation in relay-assisted multiuser networks. We introduce a network price to the power consumption as a penalty for the achievable sum rate, and study its impact on the tradeoff between the EE and the spectral efficiency (SE). It is hard to directly solve the problem as it is non-convex, and thus a concave lower bound on the pricing-based utility is applied to transform the problem into a convex one. Through dual decomposition, a q-price algorithm is proposed for iteratively tightening the lower bound and finding the optimal solution. In addition, an optimal price that enables green power allocation is defined and found from the viewpoint of maximizing EE. We further analyze the optimal power allocation strategies of the pricing-based approach in a two-user case under different noise operating regimes, yielding on-off, water-filling, and channel-reversal approaches, etc. Finally, the performance of the proposed approach is evaluated by computer simulations, and we characterize the interaction between the EE and SE for various network parameters when the network is designed from the energy-efficient perspective.


Progress is constantly being made in almost all areas of life, including medicine. For this reason, various measures are being introdu-ced to make any work done more efficient, easier, more productive. Music can be used in medicine, especially in the operating room, as its effect on the members of the operating team is extremely positive. And while this is acknowledged, there is not much research on this topic – the impact of music on members of the operating team.Object – is the influence of music on work performance during joint replacement, from the point of view of surgical team members.Problem – is whether music during endoprosthesis surgery can increase the productivity of surgical team members?Aim – to analyze the influence of music on the performance of work during endoprosthesis operations, from the point of view of the members of the operating team – was aimed at implementing the research objectives:1) to review the peculiarities of joint endoprosthesis operations;
2) to reveal the influence of music on work in the operating room from the point of view of team members;3) to study the influence of music on the quality of work during joint arthroplasty.Methods: The method of questionnaire survey was chosen to study the attitude of the members of the operating team to the influence of music on the work productivity in the operating room. The questionnaire is considered to be the most appropriate method for explaining people's opinions and behavior, and it is based on reliability.This was related to the aims of this study - to analyze the impact of music on performance during endoprosthesis operations. The study was conducted by submitting questionnaires to 100 members of the operating team (surgeon-operator, anesthesiologist, resuscitator, anesthesiologist, resident, anesthesia and intensive care nurse, operating nurse, and operating assistant) working in health care facilities. It should be noted that during the data collection, the members of the operational team filled in the questionnaires remotely - links to the online uploaded questionnaire were sent to each respondent. This method of conducting the study was chosen due to the current situation in Lithuania - the COVID-19 pande-mic.Results of the study. The study revealed that joint replacement surgery is seen as a complicated procedure, which is complicated by team changes, because it often increases tension, affects everyone's joint work, feels general discomfort, becomes more difficult to concentrate, increa-ses the likelihood of errors. In order to make teamwork smoother, attention should be paid to the organization of work, the fostering of interperso-nal relationships, the assessment of one's own characteristics and peculiarities of communication, and the stronger fostering of the work envi-ronment. Music can be an effective and valuable tool for making a positive impact on operational team members. Music can help reduce anxiety, encourage relaxation, suppress the response to stressful situations, and increase the effectiveness of actions. It is very important that the music is selected in the right genre to suit the members of the operating team.


Abstract. The paper deals with Damaging Hydrogeological Events (DHEs), defined as periods of severe weather affecting wide regions for several days, and during which landslides and floods cause economic damage and there are victims. The great variability of DHEs in both space and time is the cause of one of the main problems to solve in performing analyses of these events. Dealing with events affecting wide areas for several days, it is problematic to isolate the rainy days that can be considered as factors triggering the observed damaging phenomena. We develop a methodological approach aiming to select and analyse rainfall events that triggered damage. The analysis allows the highlighting of some seasonal characteristics of Calabrian DHEs. The approach can be used for an in-depth analysis leading to the identification of both rainfall thresholds for DHE triggering and rain/damage relationships.


This paper examines the transformation of the Iranian economy through the twentieth century within a global context. At the start of that century, the Iranian economy had long remained stagnant, poor, and largely agrarian, with a marginal role in the world economy. By the turn of the twenty-first century, Iran had transformed into a complex and relatively large economy with important consequences for the economies of the Middle East and other parts of the world. While the initial conditions and the evolution of domestic institutions and resources played major roles in the pace and nature of that transformation, relations with the rest of the world had crucial influences as well. This paper focuses on the latter forces, while taking account of their interactions with domestic factors in shaping the particular form of economic development in Iran. We study the ways in which the development of the Iranian economy has been affected by international price movements and by the ebbs and flows of trade, investment, and economic growth in the rest of the world. In considering these effects, we also analyze the role of domestic political economy factors and policies in enhancing or hindering the ability of domestic producers to respond to external challenges and opportunities.


The authors describe an optimized implementation of a set of scan (also called all-prefix-sums) primitives on a single processor of a CRAY Y-MP, and demonstrate that their use leads to greatly improved performance for several applications that cannot be vectorized with existing computer technology. The algorithm used to implement the scans is based on an algorithm for parallel computers. A set of segmented versions of these scans is only marginally more expensive than the unsegmented versions. The authors describe a radix sorting routine based on the scans that is 13 times faster than a Fortran version and within 20% of a highly optimized library sort routine, three operations on trees that are between 10 to 20 times faster than the corresponding C versions, and a connectionist learning algorithm that is 10 times faster than the corresponding C version for sparse and irregular networks.<<ETX>>


We examine recent observations of water mass distribution and circulation schemes at different depths of the South Atlantic Ocean to propose a layered, qualitative representation of the mean distribution of flow in this region. This furthers the simple upper layer geostrophic flow estimates of Peterson and Stramma [1991]. In addition, we assess how well ocean general circulation models (GCMs) capture the overall structure of flow in the South Atlantic in this regard. The South Atlantic Central Water (SACW) is of South Atlantic origin in the subtropical gyre, while the SACW in the tropical region in part originates from the South Indian Ocean. The Antarctic Intermediate Water in the South Atlantic originates from a surface region of the circumpolar layer, especially in the northern Drake Passage and the Falkland Current loop, but also receives some water from the Indian Ocean. The subtropical South Atlantic above the North Atlantic Deep Water and north of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC) is dominated by the anticyclonic subtropical gyre. In the eastern tropical South Atlantic the cyclonic Angola Gyre exists, embedded in a large tropical cyclonic gyre. The equatorial part of the South Atlantic shows several depth-dependent zonal current bands besides the Angola Gyre. Ocean GCMs have difficulty capturing this detailed zonal circulation structure, even at eddy-permitting resolution. The northward extent of the subtropical gyre reduces with increasing depth, located near Brazil at 16°S in the near-surface layer and at 26°S in the Antarctic Intermediate Water layer, while the tropical cyclonic gyre progresses southward. The southward shift of the northern part of the subtropical gyre is well resolved in global ocean GCMs. However, high horizontal resolution is required to capture the South Atlantic Current north of the ACC. The North Atlantic Deep Water in the South Atlantic progresses mainly southward in the Deep Western Boundary Current, but some water also moves southward at the eastern boundary.


Measurements of gas contained in drilling mud are derived routinely during the drilling of boreholes. Gas data are obtained to identify changes in saturation, particularly when free hydrocarbon gases may be present, and to support safety control measures. Hence, the gas data are a subsurface signature and may be used for predicting lithology, permeability and fluid composition. Because gas data are acquired continuously during drilling, they can potentially be used to derive real-time estimates of subsurface characteristics. Our research investigates this potential and the potential for incorporating real-time drilling data, in the prediction of formation characteristics while drilling. The conventional method of wireline logging in formation evaluation is an expensive, time consuming process in oil and gas exploration. Current research proposes an alternate inexpensive way of formation evaluation, which can be used alongside/instead of conventional methods. The current research focuses on predicting the fundamental elements of formation evaluation such as porosity and permeability using the available gas data and mass spectrometer data. The research has developed synthetic wireline logs in real-time, using advanced mathematical techniques, which can be interpreted analogous to conventional logs for formation evaluation. The validation of current methodology is demonstrated using North Sea test case wells.


With the growing global demand of green energy, the conversion of renewable energy sources into useful DC or AC power for residential and industrial applications is becoming more popular. To design and develop economic, high-efficient, compact and light weight power conversion systems is still a subject of research.Now-a-days, Power Electronic devices of smaller size are inevitable, which causes the switching frequency to jump from KHz to MHz range. The switching devices are made to turn on and turn off at high di/dt for the entire load current, and also to withstand high voltage stress across them. Due to these two effects, there occur increased power losses in the converters thus it reduces the efficiency significantly. In this paper a soft-switched low stress zero-voltage transition (ZVT) pulse width modulated (PWM) buck converter is proposed. Its operation modes are identified and analyzed. The developed converter can reduce the high voltage and high current stresses caused by the high input voltage across the resonant capacitor in the Zero Current Switching(ZCS) and Zero Voltage Switching (ZVS) converters. The proposed converter simulated in PSIM software and simulation results and waveforms for the proposed converter are presented. In addition, the proposed ZVT buck converter is compared with ZVS resonant buck-converter and the switching losses are compared under the same operating conditions and results are presented.