We present deep 3.8 μm L′ imaging observations of the Trapezium cluster in Orion obtained with the ESO VLT. We use these observations to (1) search for infrared excess emission and evidence for protoplanetary disks associated with the faint, substellar population of this young cluster and (2) investigate the nature and extent of a recently discovered population of deeply embedded sources located in dense molecular gas behind the cluster. We detected 38 L′ sources with substellar luminosities. In addition, we detected 24 L′ sources that were spectroscopically classified as substellar objects in previous studies. Examining the infrared colors of all these sources, we determine an infrared excess fraction of 50% ± 20% from the JHKsL′ colors for both the luminosity-selected and spectroscopically selected substellar samples. This finding confirms the presence of infrared excess, likely due to circumstellar disks, around a significant fraction of the cluster's substellar population, consistent with the indications of earlier observations obtained at shorter (JHKs) wavelengths. Our deep L′ imaging survey also provides new information concerning the deeply embedded population of young objects located in the molecular cloud behind the cluster and revealed in an earlier L-band imaging survey of the region. In particular, our present L′ survey doubles the number of sources in the cluster region known to possess extremely red K-L colors. These objects exhibit K-L′ colors indicative of deeply buried, possibly protostellar, objects that likely mark the site of the most recent and ongoing star formation in the region. We find the surface density distribution of the deeply embedded population to follow that of the background molecular ridge and to be highly structured, consisting of a string of at least five significant subclusters. These subclusters may represent the primordial building blocks out of which the cluster was and perhaps still is being assembled. These observations may thus provide insights into the early stages of cluster formation and appear consistent with recent simulations that suggest that the Trapezium cluster may have formed from numerous but small primordial subclusters.


We compared four methods for determination of glutathione peroxidase (EC 22.214.171.124) activity, using blood samples from 52 healthy volunteers. Two methods depended on direct assay of the amount of glutathione remaining at specific time intervals; the two indirect methods involved measuring the rate of disappearance of NAOPH. We assessed the precision and reproducibility of each method. One of the indirect assays proved to be far superior to the other methods. Results of each of the methods were correlated with one another. We present the normal reference intervals for glutathione peroxidase activity for all four methods.


Several methods have been developed in Dynamic Distributed Constraint Satisfaction Problem (DDisCSP), for solving problems that change continuously over time. These proposed approaches require a batch processing resolution. A group of changes is collected and processed, over a period, after finding a solution or detecting the unsolvability of the initial problem. In contrast, many situations require immediate actions to act within the few
seconds or minutes following the changes (e.g., flight delay management in a distributed air traffic control system). This paper proposes a new approach, called LiveABT, to solve Dynamic Distributed Constraint Satisfaction Problems. This new approach is based on the Asynchronous Backtracking (ABT) algorithm and real-time processing techniques that run the solver immediately against live perturbations. We evaluate our approach and compare it to the Dynamic Asynchronous Backtracking (DynABT), the latest algorithm proposed in the context of DDisCSP, on various problems kinds. The results show that LiveABT outperforms significantly DynABT especially for the problems much more perturbed.


: Routine dental procedures do not generally involve bleeding; consequently, there is no contraindication to routine dental treatment for hemophiliacs. Preventive dentistry is vital to the younger hemophiliac patient world-wide; older hemophiliacs may require extensive treatment to restore mouths that have been neglected. Surgical dental procedures may be performed for hemophiliacs, but they must be judiciously coordinated by the dental and medical team. The facilities and treatment available will determine the feasibility of treating such patients in the hospital or on an outpatient basis.


Assured service has been proposed within the differentiated services architectures to provide relative service differentiation by attempting to allocate bandwidth to different users in a controlled way during periods of network congestion. In this paper, we analyze the assured service scheme by means of a priority queueing system with state-dependent service scheduling based on thresholds. We consider the case of two classes of priority, carry out a mathematical analysis and numerically obtain the average delay endured by packets in each priority class and the loss probability for each class.


We investigate the feasibility of near‐fault ground‐motion predictions based on empirical Green's functions (EGFs) in low‐to‐moderate seismicity areas (i.e., with few available EGFs), and we propose some adjustments to enhance the accuracy of this method. We conduct extended fault ground‐ motion simulations for a large set of azimuths, based on a kinematic model description according to the k−2 method combined with the use of numerical Green's functions. We focus on saturation of the ground‐motion peak values observed in near‐field data for moderate‐to‐large earthquakes, and we seek to identify the physical mechanisms behind this phenomenon. Based on the simulation performed here for a specific magnitude and focal mechanism, we show that the radiation pattern has a major influence on the near‐source ground‐motion saturation effect, and that the saturation effect can be seen more strongly for some azimuths compared to others, due to the orientation of the source. We also show that the depth of the source has a role, as it defines the radiation pattern. Finally, we show that unlike previously thought, geometric and anelastic attenuation adjustments are weak, as are the time‐shift adjustments due travel‐time differences from the different parts of the fault, and these do not account for the near‐fault saturation effect.


In Stieglitz: A Beginning Light, Katherine Hoffman presented an account of the early years of the career of Alfred Stieglitz (1864-1946) and of his European roots. Now, she offers a compelling portrait of his life and art from 1915 to 1946, focusing on his American works, issues of identity, and the rise of modernism in America. Hoffman explores Stieglitz's roles as photographer, editor, writer, and gallery director; how they intersected with his personal life - including his marriage to artist Georgia O'Keeffe - and his place in the cultural milieu of the 20th century. Excerpts from previously unpublished correspondence between Stieglitz and O'Keeffe reveal the fervor and complexity of their relationship as well as his passion for photography and modern art and his ongoing struggle to have photography recognized as an established artistic medium. These letters, along with his work as an editor and writer of short articles, illuminate Stieglitz's literary side, thus giving a new perspective on his total oeuvre. Generously illustrated with 300 images, this intriguing, beautifully written book separates the photographer's true personality from the myths surrounding him and highlights his lasting legacy: the works he left behind.


The solidarity crisis has prompted many initiatives for refugees in Germany, among them quite a few local and state-funded environmental education programs. Many of these initiatives are framed as measures of cultural integration and issue bold statements such as "recycling has become a cultural value in Germany." Media depictions of these programs therefore inadvertently detail the cultural specificity of "environmentalism made in Germany" and reveal institutionalized idiosyncrasies of a long-standing green leader. The news coverage as well as the online self-presentations of these initiatives seem to embody the ideals of Willkommenskultur with glossy images of people of color among their blond neighbors and with captions that feature moments of mutual learning. Yet despite ample evidence of good intentions driving the programs, their feel-good depictions are problematic for many reasons: they are invariably dominated by German voices and specifically German environmental concerns, rendering the (homogenized) refugees and the global dimension of climate change secondary yet somehow responsible. Many of the articles begin with the imagery of trash surrounding refugee housing, seemingly not realizing that these portrayals suggest a linkage between refuse and refuge – between discarded objects and displaced human beings. Largely ignoring pressing issues of asylum housing and employment, it is not always clear whose problems these programs set out to solve, and the more tone-deaf reporting about them brings to light many difficult notions, such as conceiving of German environmentalism as the path to integration (a problematic concept to begin with) and as a universal good despite its apparent localism. This article analyzes available media representations of a set of environmentalist initiatives for refugees, which tell us as much, if not more, about German perceptions of cultural values and related conversations in the publics sphere as about refugees and the environment. Keywords solidarity crisis, refugees, German environmental culture, environmental education, recycling, Will


We provide a new algorithm to determine stuttering equivalence with time complexity O(mlogn), where n is the number of states and m is the number of transitions of a Kripke structure. This algorithm can also be used to determine branching bisimulation in O(m(log |Act| + log n)) time, where Act is the set of actions in a labeled transition system. Theoretically, our algorithm substantially improves upon existing algorithms, which all have time complexity of the form O(mn) at best. Moreover, it has better or equal space complexity. Practical results confirm these findings: they show that our algorithm can outperform existing algorithms by several orders of magnitude, especially when the Kripke structures are large. The importance of our algorithm stretches far beyond stuttering equivalence and branching bisimulation. The known O(mn) algorithms were already far more efficient (both in space and time) than most other algorithms to determine behavioral equivalences (including weak bisimulation), and therefore they were often used as an essential preprocessing step. This new algorithm makes this use of stuttering equivalence and branching bisimulation even more attractive.


Rainwater samples were collected between 2010 and 2013 at Lulin Atmospheric Background Station (LABS) to study the distribution and characteristics of wet mercury (Hg) deposition, and possible driving mechanisms. Sample Hg concentrations ranged from 0.8 to 35.1 ng L–1 with an overall volume-weighted mean (VWM) concentration of 9.2 ng L–1. Annual wet Hg deposition fluxes ranged between 24.4 and 48.9 µg m–2 with a mean value of 32.3 µg m–2. This mean annual wet flux was about 1.5–6.0 times the values measured at 15 sites in the U.S. and 4–16 times the values reported from mountain and high-elevation sites in China. Both rainwater Hg concentration and rainfall amount contributed to this geographical difference, but rainfall amount played a more important role. This indicated that tropical mountains in East and Southeast Asia, especially the windward maritime slopes with abundant rainfall, could be hot spots of wet Hg deposition. Wet Hg deposition flux was high in summer because of elevated rainwater Hg concentrations and high rainfall. The seasonal pattern of rainwater Hg concentrations was different from that of the East Asian air pollutant export, indicating other factors, e.g., rainfall type, were also influencing rainwater Hg concentrations. A clear difference in seasonal frequency distribution of rainfall types was observed, with rain events associated with the Pacific high pressure type (PH) occurring more frequently in summer months. PH rainfall type had the highest VWM Hg concentration (13.5 ng L–1), 2.3–6.2 ng L–1 greater than those of the other rainfall types. Because of intense surface heating under summer PH conditions, precipitation systems usually form locally due to strong convection, resulting in afternoon shower. Therefore, the elevated rainwater Hg levels in summer at LABS were likely due to the scavenging of free tropospheric gaseous oxidized Hg (GOM) by deep convection.


The variation of temporal continuous rainfall properties with spatial scale was investigated by analyses of daily 11.2-year rainfall time series of point values and spatial averages obtained from a network of 161 rain gauges in southern Sweden. The number of series studied ranged from 16 for point values to 1 for 8000 km2, the latter corresponding to the total network area. The analyses included investigations of general descriptive statistics, power spectra, empirical probability distribution functions, and scaling of statistical moments. Two important characteristics of the rainfall process in the region were indicated. The first was that temporal statistical properties related to extreme values qualitatively changed at a spatial scale of ∼2800 km2, whereas properties of the mean process did not. Although this change may partly be related to changes in the sample size, its presence does raise some important questions concerning the transformation between point values and regional scales in hydroclimatological rainfall modeling. The second important characteristic was a temporal scaling behavior between 1 day and 1 month with properties depending on the spatial averaging area. This finding is in agreement with previous investigations where a spatial variation of temporal scaling properties has been found and suggests the possibility of scaling-based time series modeling where the regional parameters are adjusted to take local climatological factors affecting the rainfall process into account.


Novel wine yeast strains have the potential to satisfy customer demand for new sensorial experiences and to ensure that wine producers have strains that can produce wine as efficiently as possible. In this respect, hybrid yeast strains have recently been the subject of intense research, as they are able to combine the favourable characteristics of both parental strains. In this study, two Saccharomyces "Kéknyelű" grape juice isolates were identified by species-specific PCR and PCR-RFLP methods and investigated with respect to their wine fermentation potential. Physiological characterization of the isolated strains was performed and included assessment of ethanol, sulphur dioxide, temperature and glucose (osmotic stress) tolerance, killer-toxin production, glucose fermentation ability at 16 °C and 24 °C, and laboratory-scale fermentation using sterile "Kéknyelű" must. Volatile components of the final product were studied by gas chromatography (GC) and mass spectrometry (MS). One isolate was identified as a S. cerevisiae × S. kudriavzevii hybrid and the other was S. cerevisiae. Both strains were characterized by high ethanol, sulphur dioxide and glucose tolerance, and the S. cerevisiae strain exhibited the killer phenotype. The hybrid isolate showed good glucose fermentation ability and achieved the lowest residual sugar content in wine. The ester production of the hybrid strain was high compared to the control S. cerevisiae starter strain, and this contributed to the fruity aroma of the wine. Both strains have good oenological characteristics, but only the hybrid yeast has the potential for use in wine fermentation.


The conventional sliding window (CSW) method has long been used in video segmentation for its adaptive thresholding technique. A hard cut is detected based on the ratio between the current feature value and its local neighborhood in the sliding window. Yet it has a relatively high rate of false alarm and missed cuts. This paper proposes an improved sliding window method which employs multi adaptive thresholds during the threestep processing of frame-by-frame discontinuity values. The proposal method uses possibility values produced from different thresholds to measure the degree of possibility of a cut's presence. Detecting a cut based on possibility values, the method is more robust to camera/object motions. Experiment results show that our method has better detection accuracy than several other reported methods.


Schobesberger, S., Vaananen, R., Leino, K., Virkkula, A., Backman, J., Pohja, T., Siivola, E., Franchin, A., Mikkila, J., Paramonov, M., Aalto, P.P., Krejci, R., Petaja, T. & Kulmala, M. 2013: Airborne measurements over the boreal forest of southern Finland during new particle formation events in 2009 and 2010. Boreal Env. Res. 18: 145-163. We conducted airborne observations of aerosol physical properties over the southern Finland boreal forest environment. The aim was to investigate the lower tropospheric aerosol (up to 4-km altitude) over an area of 250 by 200 km, in particular during new particle formation (NPF) events, and to address the spatial variability of aerosol number concentration and number size distribution. The regional NPF events, detected both airborne and at the ground, with air masses originating from the Arctic or northern Atlantic Ocean were studied throughout the boundary layer and throughout the area covered. Three suitable case studies are presented in more detail. In two of these studies, the concentrations of nucleation mode particles (3-10 nm in diameter) were found considerably higher (up to a factor of 30) in the upper parts of the planetary boundary layer compared to ground-based measurements during the nucleation events. The observed vertical variation can be connected to boundary layer dynamics and interactions between the boundary layer and the lower free troposphere, likely yielding high concentrations of newly formed aerosol particles. Our results suggest that nucleation does not necessarily occur close to the surface. In one presented case we found evidence of NPF occurring in a limited area above cloud, in the complete absence of a regional NPF event.


A scale-adaptive digital elevation model (S-DEM) method is proposed for multi-scale terrain analysis using a single high-resolution digital elevation model (DEM) database. The motivation is to construct a DEM that is self-adaptive to a given scale of an application, rather than letting the application fit into the built-in scale of the DEM. The method is based on an adaptive compound point extraction (CPE) algorithm that extracts surface 'significant points' from a high-resolution DEM according to their degree of importance (DOI) to the scale of an application. A data structure can be established to match the demand from an application at a coarser scale. Based on the data structure, a triangulated irregular network (TIN) model can be generated to support the terrain analysis at the desired scale. The aim of the S-DEM is to support multi-scale applications in three aspects, namely, 'one database for all scales and scale-adaptive' (i.e. matching any application scale using a single high-resolution DEM), 'consistent measurement' (i.e. delivering more constant measurements of terrain parameters with changing scales), and 'skeleton preservation' (i.e. preserving basic streamlines with changing scales). Compared with the raster resampling algorithm and the maximum z-tolerance algorithm, we find that the proposed method offers better performance, providing values that meet the accuracy requirements set by DEM data standards for different scales, and producing analytical derivatives that retain terrain features with consistent measurements of terrain parameters.


A single-stage flyback driving integrated circuit (IC) for light-emitting diodes (LEDs) is proposed. With an average primary-side current estimation and negative feedback networks, the driver operates in the boundary conduction mode (BCM), while the output current can be derived and regulated precisely. By means of a simple external resistor divider, a compensation voltage is produced on the ISEN pin during the turn-on period of the primary MOSFET to improve the line regulation performance. On the other hand, since the delay time between the time that the secondary diode current reaches zero and the turn-on time of the MOSFET can be automatically adjusted, the MOSFET can always turn on at the valley voltage even if the inductance of the primary winding varies with the output power, resulting in quasi-resonant switching for different primary inductances. The driving IC is fabricated in a Dongbu HiTek's 0.35 μm bipolar-CMOS-DMOS process. An 18 W LED driver is finally built and tested. Results show that the driver has an average efficiency larger than 86%, a power factor larger than 0.97, and works under the universal input voltage (85–265 V) with the LED current variation within ±0.5%.


Phonetic components of vocalic segments are primarily contained in the three lowest formants in speech signals. However, different vocal tracts and speaking habits do show formant pattern differences for different speakers. This study intends to analyze or to separate phonetic and speaker characteristics into a set of orthogonal dimensions. Statistical analysis by a linear transformation of the principle components in the three-formant space is the basis of the study. Experiments on the vocalic segments of a conversational database, and vowel portions of specific digits in a connected digit database are reported. Experimental recognition results and a statistical interpretation are presented. Comparison with a vowel space model is also investigated. It is shown that the distribution of vowels in eigenvector space can be used for speaker identification.


Abstract Albert Barnes was an influential leader among New School Presbyterians in mid-nineteenth-century America. As a beloved pastor of the First Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia and as a biblical scholar whose commentaries are still widely used today, Barnes undertook an exhaustive study of the Bible to address the foremost social issue of his day--slavery. After considering most passages in the Bible being used in the discussion, he realized that a conclusive argument could not be made, which was based exclusively on proof-texts. Barnes challenged those involved in the discussion not to ignore the Bible or its ability to provide answers to life's difficult questions--an error made all too quickly in modern America--but to find an objective way to measure the validity of proposed applications of those proof-texts directly addressing slavery. Barnes' chief contribution to the American slavery discussion was not merely his exhaustive study of the biblical texts directly addressing slavery. His hermeneutical method brought the discussion beyond the texts directly addressing slavery to a principle-driven approach as a necessary supplement to proof-text ethics. By suggesting that the application of proof-texts be measured against the primary principles of scripture, he found one means by which scripture could be objectively applied to the slavery discussion. In the end, Barnes would conclude that the practices essential to the perpetuation of the institution of slavery so greatly conflict with the primary principles of scripture (such as the "golden rule," equality, the brotherhood of God's family, spiritual growth, and God's abhorrence of oppression), that if the sinful practices were to cease, all that would be left would be a toned-down form of employment. Barnes was convinced that if masters only knew and were sensitive to these primary principles of scripture, they would naturally emancipate their slaves. In the conclusion section, suggestions are made for further study on how the Bible can be used as an authoritative source of morality in modern discussions on civil rights and ethical issues such as racism, homosexuality, abortion, and human cloning.


Literature indicates that spatial diversity can be utilized to compensate channel uncertainties such as multipath fading. Therefore, in this paper, spatial diversity is exploited for locating stationary and mobile objects in the indoor environment. First, space diversity technique is introduced for small scale motion and temporal variation compensation of received signal strength and it is demonstrated analytically that it enhances location accuracy. Small scale motion refers to movements of the transmitter and/or the receiver of the order of sub-wavelengths while temporal effects refer to environmental variations with time. A novel metric is introduced for selection combining in order to improve location accuracy through the addition of spatial diversity upon two available location determination schemes. The results are evaluated experimentally against single antenna system for reception by using low cost wireless RF devices such as motes. Alternatively, the impact of the number of location determination devices in a probabilistic WLAN network based on pre-profiling of signal strength is analyzed and it is demonstrated analytically that location accuracy improves with the number of receivers used. Spatial diversity in terms of the antenna spacing of 2lambda is evaluated and shown to provide a reduction in location determination error between 30 and 40% when compared to a single antenna system.


Recently, some authorities have called for a change in direction in health policy on blood cholesterol concentrations,1 while another group considers that current efforts are correct.2 The overviews by Law and colleagues can help us make up our minds regarding which, if either, opinion is correct.*RF 3-5*

Following an old but increasingly popular tradition,6 Law and colleagues corrected the association between cholesterol concentration and risk of ischaemic heart disease for the attenuation (or regression dilution) due to measurement imprecision. Since cholesterol concentrations vary over time, prospective studies relating future risk of ischaemic heart disease to a single measurement will underestimate the true strength of the association. The adjustment is used because few epidemiological studies have obtained repeat measurements. As Spearman noted in 1904,6 however, such adjustments should be used carefully because they are not free of assumptions. They could be misleading if recent levels of a risk factor are more important determinants of disease than earlier levels; if peaks in the level of the risk factor, rather than the usual value, are the important aetiological factor; or if changes in risk factor levels are important.7 Some studies have been able to examine the association of average cholesterol concentration with risk of ischaemic heart disease directly.8,9 These have indicated that although the correction factors may overestimate the strength of the association between usual cholesterol concentration and risk of ischaemic heart disease, repeated cholesterol measurements identify people at increased risk of disease better than a single measurement.

Law et al have introduced an extension of the correction for attenuation, which they called correction for surrogate measurement bias. Since it is the low density lipoprotein component of total cholesterol which is considered to increase the risk of ischaemic heart disease they argue that the association of total …


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Background: A reduced ankle-brachial index (ABI) is a measure of atherosclerosis and is associated with ischemic risk in the general population. Whether this relationship is maintained in peripheral artery disease after lower extremity revascularization (LER), which can modify ABI, is unknown. Methods: The EUCLID (Examining Use of Ticagrelor in Peripheral Artery Disease) enrolled 13 885 patients with symptomatic peripheral artery disease; 57% with prior LER, and 43% with ABI ≤0.80. The primary major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) outcome was a composite of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction, or ischemic stroke. Major adverse limb events (MALE) included acute limb ischemia and major amputation. An adjusted Cox proportional hazards model demonstrated a nonlinear relationship between ABI and outcomes. A restricted cubic spline model with 4 knots was developed to identify the best fitting model to describe the relationship between ABI and MACE and MALE risk. Results: Baseline ABI (mean±SD) was 0.77±0.21 in participants with prior LER and 0.63±0.14 in those without prior LER (P<0.0001). There was no statistical interaction between prior LER and ABI, meaning the shapes of the cubic spline models were similar between groups. In those with prior LER, for every 0.10 unit lower ABI below an ABI of 1.00, the hazard ratio for MACE was 1.08 (95% CI, 1.04–1.12; P<0.0001), below an ABI of 0.80 the hazard ratio for MALE was 1.32 (95% CI, 1.21–1.43; P<0.0001). In patients without prior LER, every 0.10 unit lower ABI below an ABI of 0.70 was associated with increased risk for MACE (hazard ratio, 1.14 [95% CI, 1.06–1.23]; P=0.0004) and MALE (hazard ratio, 1.27 [95% CI, 1.08–1.49]; P=0.003). Conclusions: Patients with established peripheral artery disease, particularly those with prior LER, have an increased risk of MACE and MALE. The ABI remains a strong predictor of MACE and MALE ischemic events with an inverse relationship below an ABI threshold for patients with and without prior LER. Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov; Unique identifier: NCT01732822.


Head Start teachers and their aides (n = 23) were randomly assigned to either the experimental or active control group in this exploratory study of the effectiveness of child–teacher relationship training (CTRT) on 20 economically disadvantaged children exhibiting disruptive behavior. CTRT is based on the principles and procedures of child–parent relationship training (CPRT), a 10-session play based model, which uses parents and caregivers as therapeutic agents of change. Analysis of pre- to mid- to posttests results revealed that, when compared to the active control group, CTRT demonstrated a large treatment effect on reducing children's levels of disruptive behavior. The statistical, practical, and clinical findings of this study provide validation of CTRT as a viable early mental health intervention for preschool children in Head Start exhibiting disruptive behaviors.


Following the introduction of BNF notation by Backus for the Algol 60 report and subsequent notational variants, a metalanguage involving formal "grammars" has developed for discussing structured objects in Computer Science and Mathematical Logic. We refer to this offspring of BNF as Math-BNF or MBNF, to the original BNF and its notational variants just as BNF, and to aspects common to both as BNF-style. MBNF is sometimes called abstract syntax, but we avoid that name because MBNF is in fact a concrete form and has a more abstract form. What all BNF-style notations share is the use of production rules roughly of this form: ◯ ⩴ □₁ | ⋯ | □ₙ Normally, such a rule says "every instance of □ᵢ for i ∈ {1, ..., n} is also an instance of ◯".MBNF is distinct from BNF in the entities and operations it allows. Instead of strings, MBNF builds arrangements of symbols that we call math-text. Sometimes "syntax" is defined by interleaving MBNF production rules and other mathematical definitions that can contain chunks of math-text.There is no clear definition of MBNF. Readers do not have a document which tells them how MBNF is to be read and must learn MBNF through a process of cultural initiation. To the extent that MBNF is defined, it is largely through examples scattered throughout the literature.This paper gives MBNF examples illustrating some of the differences between MBNF and BNF. We propose a definition of syntactic math text (SMT) which handles many (but far from all) uses of math-text and MBNF in the wild. We aim to balance the goal of being accessible and not requiring too much prerequisite knowledge with the conflicting goal of providing a rich mathematical structure that already supports many uses and has possibilities to be extended to support more challenging cases.


This brief review of the Ventrain ventilation system summarizes the main clinical and technical aspects of the device, with special emphasis on its role in the "Cannot Intubate, Cannot Oxygenate" situation and in surgery involving the airway. Animal and bench studies characterizing the performance of the device, which is based on Bernoulli's Principle, are also discussed. It is concluded that as clinical experience is accumulated that this new device will play a special role in clinical airway management.


This study investigated the causal variables (Child, Family, School, Society and Government) and academic performance of secondary school students in Cross River State: A basis for counselling and programme planning. The study adopted the descriptive survey method. It made use of two research questions and population of 850 Senior Secondary School Students. It used a sample of 200 students in SSII randomly selected from 20 public secondary schools. It made use of the five-factor inventory (AP5-F1) consisting of five sub-sectors of twenty items each. Multiple regression statistics was used to analyse the data. The result of question one (Q1) showed that the causal variables combined, impact significantly on academic performance of learners. The result of question two (Q2) showed that the relative effect of the causal variables is insignificant with the exception of the causation resident in the child or learner. A basis for counselling and programme planning was indicated to rejuvenate a good teaching-learning atmosphere in our schools for the benefit of the state and the nation at large.


Urban land cover classification and mapping is an important and ongoing research field in monitoring and managing urban sprawl and terrestrial ecosystems. The changes in land cover largely affect the terrestrial ecosystem, thus information on land cover is important for understanding the ecological environment. Quantification of land cover in urban areas is challenging due to their diversified activities and large spatial and temporal variations. To improve urban land cover classification and mapping, this study presents three new spectral indices and an automated approach to classifying four major urban land types: impervious, bare land, vegetation, and water. A modified normalized difference bare-land index (MNDBI) is proposed to enhance the separation of impervious and bare land. A tasseled cap water and vegetation index (TCWVI) is proposed to enhance the detection of vegetation and water areas. A shadow index (ShDI) is proposed to further improve water detection by separating water from shadows. An approach for optimizing the thresholds of the new indices is also developed. Finally, the optimized thresholds are used to classify land covers using a decision tree algorithm. Using Landsat-8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) data from two study sites (Hong Kong and Dhaka City, Bangladesh) with different urban characteristics, the proposed approach is systematically evaluated. Spectral separability analysis of the new indices is performed and compared with other common indices. The urban land cover classifications achieved by the proposed approach are compared with those of the classic support vector machine (SVM) algorithm. The proposed approach achieves an overall classification accuracy of 94-96%, which is superior to the accuracy of the SVM algorithm.


.— Recent climate change has re-invigorated scientific interest in the dynamics of geographic distributions of organisms. Climate responses and their biogeographical ramifications can be predicted indirectly by studying variation in fitness-related traits across environmental gradients in wide-ranging species. We review evidence for such variation in reptiles. Clinal variation in seasonal timing (onset) of nesting is common but may offer only minor compensation. In contrast, clinal variation in nesting behavior in two wide-ranging species suggests that reptiles can use nest site choice to counter climate differences. We suggest that when range boundaries located at climate extremes are determined by thermal conditions of embryos (vs. the adult stage) they cannot be predicted by the combination of environmental temperatures and thermal tolerances of embryos alone. We propose that nest site choice can reduce or eliminate the environmental variation that would be experienced by embryos in nests selected randomly with respect to temperature or factors influencing temperature. We also hypothesize that this compensation is limited at climate extremes; when temperatures are too cold for behavioral compensation (e.g., due to lack of suitably warm nest sites), reptiles can only invade colder climates by evolving viviparity. Animals with temperature-dependent sex determination (TSD) are more vulnerable to climate change than those with genetic sex determination (GSD) because the complete production of one sex in TSD species would occur before complete embryonic failure in GSD species. Collectively, research on reptiles suggests that range boundaries at climate extremes are determined by: (1) thermal limits and compensatory thermoregulation of free-living adults; (2) thermal limits of embryos; (3) the extent of compensatory nest site choice behavior; (4) mode of in cold (5) viviparity).


The effects of aspirin on melanoma are unclear, with studies reporting conflicting results. Data from two periods of the ASPirin in Reducing Events in the Elderly (ASPREE) study; the randomized placebo-controlled trial period examining daily 100 mg aspirin in older adults with a median follow-up of 4.7 years, and the second period, an additional 2 years of observational follow-up, were utilized in this secondary analysis to examine whether aspirin exposure is associated with a reduced cutaneous melanoma incidence. All melanoma cases were adjudicated and Cox proportional hazards models were used to compare incidence between randomized treatment groups. ASPREE recruited 19,114 participants with a median age of 74 years. During the trial period, 170 individuals (76 aspirin, 94 placebo) developed an invasive melanoma, and no significant effect of aspirin was observed on incident melanoma [HR = 0.81; 95% confidence interval (CI), 0.60-1.10]. Including the additional 2 years of observational follow-up (median follow-up of 6.3 years), 268 individuals (119 aspirin, 149 placebo) developed an invasive melanoma, and similar results were observed (HR = 0.81; 95% CI, 0.63-1.03). A reduced number of events was observed with aspirin among females in a subgroup analysis (HR = 0.65; 95% CI, 0.44-0.92); however, the interaction effect with males (HR = 0.92; 95% CI, 0.68-1.25) was nonsignificant (P = 0.17). Our findings from this randomized trial do not provide strong support that aspirin is associated with a reduced risk of invasive melanoma in older individuals. Additional studies are required to further explore this relationship.

PREVENTION RELEVANCE
Melanoma prevention is an important strategy to improve outcomes and while preventive efforts have largely focused on sun protection, the role of potential chemopreventive agents such as aspirin warrants investigation.


Walter T. Schmid offers the first original interpretation of the "Laches "since Hermann Bonitz in the nineteenth century in the only full-length commentary on the "Laches "available in English.Schmid divides the book into five main discussions: the historical background of the dialogue; the relation of form and content in a Platonic dialogue and specific structural and aesthetic features of the "Laches; "the first half of the dialogue, which introduces the characters and considers the theme of the education of young men; the inquiry with Laches, which examines the traditional Greek conception of military courage; and the inquiry with Nicias in which two nontraditional conceptions of courage are mooted, one closely associated with the sophistic movement in Athens, the other with Socrates himself. Furnishing a detailed paragraph-by-paragraph reading that traces Socrates ongoing quest for virtue and wisdoma wisdom founded in the action of a whole human lifeSchmid conclusively shows how and why the "Laches "fills an important niche in Plato s moral theory."


This article aims to study 1) the meanings and origin of the word bak in the context of Isan dialects, and 2) the way bak is used with other words in distinct contexts in Isan dialects, with the hypothesis that bak is a complete basic word and can be integrated with other words to enhance its meaning in those contexts. This usage is different from that in standard Thai where the word bak usually has a negative meaning. Data were gathered from documents, including books and dictionaries, as well as from voice-recorded interviews of Isan dialect speakers. The results of the study show that, 1) bak is a basic word generally used in Isan dialects; it has various meanings similar to a homonym Standard Thai, including interesting meanings apart from a vulgar meaning, and 2) the word bak is used to construct other words in the form of nouns, verbs, and adverbs in distinct contexts of Isan dialects. The word bak when combined with other words or phrases can become a new idiom in Isan dialects. Therefore, bak is not only a vulgar word, but also has a role as a compound noun, pronoun, and various idioms.


Although trust plays a pivotal role in many aspects of life, very little is known about the manifestation of trust and distrust in everyday life. In this work, we integrated several prior approaches to trust and investigated the prevalence and key determinants of trust (vs. distrust) in people's natural environments, using preregistered experience-sampling methodology. Across more than 4,500 social interactions from a heterogeneous sample of 427 participants, results showed high average levels of trust, but also considerable variability in trust across contexts. This variability was attributable to aspects of trustee perception, social distance, as well as 3 key dimensions of situational interdependence: conflict of interests, information (un)certainty, and power imbalance. At the dispositional level, average everyday trust was shaped by general trust, moral identity, and zero-sum beliefs. The social scope of most trust-related traits, however, was moderated by social distance: Whereas moral identity buffered against distrusting distant targets, high general distrust and low social value orientation amplified trust differences between close vs. distant others. Furthermore, a laboratory-based trust game predicted everyday trust only with regard to more distant but not close interaction partners. Finally, everyday trust was linked to self-disclosure and to cooperation, particularly in situations of high conflict between interaction partners' interests. We conclude that trust can be conceptualized as a relational hub that interconnects the social perception of the trustee, the relational closeness between trustor and trustee, key structural features of situational interdependence, and behavioral response options such as self-disclosure. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).


Schizophrenia is sometimes considered one of the most devastating of mental illnesses because its onset is early in a patient's life and its symptoms can be destructive to the patient, the family, and friends. Schizophrenia affects 1 in 100 people at some point during their lives, and while there is no cure, it is treatable with antipsychotic medications. According to the Clinical Antipsychotic Trials for Interventions Effectiveness (CATIE), about 74% of the patients who have discontinued the first medication prescribed within a year will have a relapse afterward. This shows an enormous need for developing better treatment methods and better ways to manage the disease, since current therapies do not have sufficient impact on negative symptoms, cognitive dysfunction, and compliance to treatment. In this clinical case series, we investigate the efficacy of quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG)-guided neurofeedback (NF) treatment in this population, and whether this method has an effect on concurrent medical treatment and on the patients. Fifty-one participants (25 males and 26 females) ranging from 17 to 54 years of age (mean: 28.82 years and SD: 7.94 years) were included. Signed consent was received from all patients. Most of the participants were previously diagnosed with chronic schizophrenia, and their symptoms did not improve with medication. All 51 patients were evaluated using qEEG, which was recorded at baseline and following treatment. Before recording the qEEG, participants were washed out for up to 7 half-lives of the medication. After Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved Nx-Link Neurometric analysis, qEEGs suggested a diagnosis of chronic schizophrenia for all participants. This was consistent with the clinical judgment of the authors. The participants' symptoms were assessed by means of the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). Besides the PANSS, 33 out of 51 participants were also evaluated by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) and the Test of Variables of Attention (TOVA), both at baseline and following treatment. Each participant was prescribed an NF treatment protocol based on the results of their qEEG neurometric analysis. Each session was 60 minutes in duration, with 1 to 2 sessions per day. When 2 sessions were administered during a single day, a 30-minute rest was given between the sessions. Changes in the PANSS, MMPI, and TOVA were analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of NF treatment. The mean number of sessions completed by the participants was 58.5 sessions within 24 to 91 days. Three dropped out of treatment between 30 and 40 sessions of NF, and one did not show any response. Of the remaining 48 participants 47 showed clinical improvement after NF treatment, based on changes in their PANSS scores. The participants who were able to take the MMPI and the TOVA showed significant improvements in these measures as well. Forty were followed up for more than 22 months, 2 for 1 year, 1 for 9 months, and 3 for between 1 and 3 months after completion of NF. Overall NF was shown to be effective. This study provides the first evidence for positive effects of NF in schizophrenia.


White matter stroke compromises approximately 25% of all strokes and accounts for significant disability by directly damaging myelin and axons. Patients presenting with white matter stroke often worsen clinically during the acute presentation. MRI studies demonstrate that white matter stroke lesions often expand in size over time. In part, this may be due to progressive expansion of infarcts through functional disruption of adjacent axons. The function of myelinated axons is dependent on molecular clustering of voltage-gated sodium channels at nodes of Ranvier. This clustering is partly dependent on the interaction with myelinating oligodendrocytes at axonal regions adjacent to nodes, termed paranodes. Here, we examined 10 autopsy cases of patients with lacunar infarcts and 3 controls for the molecular integrity of axonal microdomains adjacent to stroke. Lacunar infarcts were identified using clinical history and H&E sections. Serial sections were labeled for immunofluorescent markers of nodes and paranodes as well as neurofilaments and myelin basic protein. Compared to controls, there is lengthening of paranodes adjacent to white matter stroke consistent with disrupted axon-oligodendrocyte molecular interactions. In addition, immunolabeling for both voltage-gated sodium channels and their cytoskeletal anchors are disrupted in peri-infarct tissue. These abnormalities of axonal microdomains are present in a region larger than the infarct size as measured by H&E. These results indicate that white matter stroke produces functional disorganization of axons adjacent to the traditional lacune. A white matter stroke peri-infarct marked by molecularly disorganized axons provides a new therapeutic target for the treatment of white matter stroke.


Copyright © 2015 ISCA. Keyword spotting (KWS) for low-resource languages has drawn increasing attention in recent years. The state-of-the-art KWS systems are based on lattices or Confusion Networks (CN) generated by Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems. It has been shown that considerable KWS gains can be obtained by combining the keyword detection results from different forms of ASR systems, e.g., Tandem and Hybrid systems. This paper investigates an alternative combination scheme for KWS using joint decoding. This scheme treats a Tandem system and a Hybrid system as two separate streams, and makes a linear combination of individual acoustic model log-likelihoods. Joint decoding is more efficient as it requires just a single pass of decoding and a single pass of keyword search. Experiments on six Babel OP2 development languages show that joint decoding is capable of providing consistent gains over each individual system. Moreover, it is possible to efficiently rescore the joint decoding lattices with Tandem or Hybrid acoustic models, and further KWS gains can be obtained by merging the detection posting lists from the joint decoding lattices and rescored lattices.


Description: The use of standards to optimize the interoperability of systems has become commonplace in the business world. Though once believed to limit innovation, it has been shown that standardization promotes organizational growth. Through defining norms for given technologies, managers open themselves to new opportunities and developments. Effective Standardization Management in Corporate Settings is a pivotal reference source that assesses the link between standards and efficiency in the business world. This innovative publication addresses the economic importance, global impacts, effective tools, and strategies employable across all levels of an organization. Readers: Ideal for managers, business owners, business students, and IT professionals, this progressive book highlights the best practices and procedures to bring standardization to the forefront of the contemporary business model.


Bayesian optimization is a powerful method for optimizing black-box functions with limited function evaluations. Recent works have shown that optimization in a latent space through deep generative models such as variational autoencoders leads to effective and efficient Bayesian optimization for structured or discrete data. However, as the optimization does not take place in the input space, it leads to an inherent gap that results in potentially suboptimal solutions. To alleviate the discrepancy, we propose Correlated latent space Bayesian Optimization (CoBO), which focuses on learning correlated latent spaces characterized by a strong correlation between the distances in the latent space and the distances within the objective function. Specifically, our method introduces Lipschitz regularization, loss weighting, and trust region recoordination to minimize the inherent gap around the promising areas. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on several optimization tasks in discrete data, such as molecule design and arithmetic expression fitting, and achieve high performance within a small budget.


Diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG) is a rare brainstem tumor which carries a dismal prognosis. To date. there are no effective treatments for DIPG. Transcriptomic studies have shown that DIPGs have a distinct profile compared to hemispheric high-grade pediatric gliomas. These specific genomic features coupled with the younger median age group suggest that DIPG is of developmental origin. There is a major unmet need for novel effective therapeutic approaches for DIPG. Clinical and preclinical studies have expanded our understanding of the molecular pathways in this deadly disease. We have developed a genetically engineered brainstem glioma model harboring the recurrent DIPG mutation, activin A receptor type I (ACVR1)-G328V (mACVR1) using the sleeping beauty transposon system. DIPG neurospheres isolated from the genetically engineered mouse model were implanted into the pons of immune-competent mice to assess the therapeutic efficacy and toxicity of immunostimulatory gene therapy using adenoviruses expressing thymidine kinase (TK) and fms-like tyrosine kinase 3 ligand (Flt3L). Immunostimulatory adenoviral-mediated delivery of TK/Flt3L in mice bearing brainstem gliomas resulted in antitumor immunity, recruitment of antitumor-specific T cells, and improved median survival by stimulating the host antitumor immune response. Therapeutic efficacy of the immunostimulatory gene therapy strategy will be tested in the clinical arena in a Phase I clinical trial. We also discuss immunotherapeutic interventions currently being implemented in DIPG patients and discuss the profound therapeutic implications of immunotherapy for this patient populations.


In this contribution we will show that research in the field of toxicology, pharmacology and physiology is by and large characterised by a pendulum swing of which the amplitudes represent risks and benefits of exposure. As toxicology usually tests at higher levels than the populace routinely is exposed to, it reverts to mostly linear extrapolative models that express the risks of exposure, irrespective of dosages, only. However, as we will explicate in two examples, depending on dosages, it is less easy to separate risks and benefits than current toxicological research and regulatory efforts suggest. The same chemical compound, in the final analysis, is represented within the boundaries of both amplitudes, that is, show a biphasic, hormetic, dose-response. This is notable, as low-level exposures from the food-matrix are progressively more under scrutiny as a result of increasing analytical capabilities. Presence of low-level concentrations of a chemical in food is a regulatory proxy for human health, but in light of this hormetic dose-response objectionable. Moreover, given that an ecological threshold probably holds for most, if not all, man-made (bio)organic chemicals, these will be found to be naturally present in the food matrix. Both aspects require toxicology to close the gap between reductionist models and its extrapolative deficiencies and real-life scenarios.


The development of wafer-scale continuous single-crystal graphene layers is key in view of its prospective applications. To this end, in this paper, we pave the way towards a graphene growth model in the framework of the Langmuir adsorption theory and two-dimensional crystallization. In particular, we model the nucleation and growth of graphene on copper using methane as a carbon precursor. The model leads to the identification of the range of growth parameters (temperature and gas pressures) that uniquely entails the final surface coverage of graphene. This becomes an invaluable tool to address the fundamental problems of continuity of polycrystalline graphene layers and crystalline grain dimensions. The model shows agreement with the existing experimental data in the literature. On the basis of the 'contour map' for graphene growth developed here and existing evidence of optimized growth of large graphene grains, new insights for engineering wafer-scale continuous graphene films are provided.


The adoptive transfer of autologous T cells genetically modified to express a chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) targeting CD19 has shown remarkable activity for patients with B cell malignancies. Using a second- generation CAR signaling through 4-1BB/CD3ζ, (CTL019), over 90% of patients with relapsed or refractory (R/R) acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) will achieve complete remission (Maude, S.L. et. al. New England Journal of Medicine, 2014). Similar therapy can induce long-term remissions for R/R chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL), but only in a subset of patients (Porter, D.L. et. al. Science Transl. Medicine, 2015). The ability to identify individuals most likely to respond will have a dramatic impact on patient selection and provide critical information that may allow immune modification to enhance responses using this approach. We here present updated analyses and functional validation of our previously reported biomarker profiles of CTL019 cells in CLL (Fraietta, J.A. et. al., Blood, 2016). Retrospective samples of clinically manufactured CAR T cells from forty-one patients with advanced, heavily pre-treated and high-risk CLL were evaluated for functional determinants of potency. Transcriptomic analysis of CTL019 cells from subjects who had complete responses (CR) to this therapy revealed enrichment in early memory T cells and IL-6/STAT3 gene signatures, while T cells from non-responding (NR) patients were enriched in genes belonging to known pathways of terminal differentiation, exhaustion, apoptosis and glycolysis. Accordingly, CAR-stimulated T cells from NR relative to CR patents demonstrated an increased uptake of a glucose analog; inhibition of glycolysis using 2-deoxy-D-glucose resulted in the generation of early memory CAR T cells in culture. Furthermore, CTL019 cells that were highly functional in CLL patients had increased levels of phosphorylated STAT3 (pSTAT3) upon activation compared to CAR T cells from NR patients with poor anti-tumor activity. These data were concordant with the highly significant direct correlation between serum IL-6 and the degree of CTL019 proliferative capacity in patients. Increasing pSTAT3 activity by addition of exogenous IL-6 to culture media elevated the absolute numbers of CAR T cells following repeated stimulation with CD19-expressing tumor targets, while pSTAT3 inhibition diminished CTL019 cell growth. Single-cell proteomic analysis of CAR-stimulated CTL019 cells from CLL patients revealed marked heterogeneity in cytokine secretions and enhanced polyfunctional strength in CAR T cells from responding over non-responding patients. There were multiple contributors to CTL019 cell polyfunctional strength, including granzyme B, MIP-1α, IFNg, TNFα, IL-5, IL-8, MIP-1β and perforin. We next performed deep immunophenotyping on the above pre-infusion CAR T cells and, through unbiased computational analysis of the flow cytometry data, defined a single subset (CD8+CD27-PD1-) that segregated CRs from NRs. Importantly, we noted a highly significant association between the likelihood of having a response to CTL019 therapy and the infusion of CTL019 products containing a high dose of CD8+PD1-CD27+ CAR T cells. To confirm that this cell population drives the response to CTL019 therapy, we depleted it from CR patient CTL019 cells and observed loss of tumor control and decreased survival in leukemia-bearing NOD scid gamma (NSG) mice compared to animals treated with subject-matched unmanipulated cellular products. These findings, coupled with our previous results, reveal a functionally relevant T lymphocyte population that can serve as a novel predictive biomarker and a framework for future mechanistic dissection to enhance the efficacy of CAR T cell therapies. Disclosures Fraietta: Novartis: Patents & Royalties: patents, Research Funding. Lacey: Novartis: Research Funding; Genentech: Honoraria. Orlando: Novartis: Employment. Pruteanu: Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation: Employment. OConnor: Novartis: Research Funding. Chen: Novartis: Research Funding. Davis: Novartis: Research Funding. Young: Novartis: Research Funding. Levine: Brammer Bio: Consultancy; Tmunity Therapeutics: Equity Ownership, Research Funding; GE Healthcare: Consultancy; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation: Patents & Royalties, Research Funding. Siegel: Novartis: Research Funding. Zhou: IsoPlexis: Employment, Equity Ownership. Paczkowski: IsoPlexis: Employment, Equity Ownership. Mackay: IsoPlexis: Employment, Equity Ownership, Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees, Patents & Royalties, Speakers Bureau. Brogdon: Novartis: Employment. Bitter: Novartis: Employment. Porter: Incyte: Honoraria; Novartis: Honoraria, Patents & Royalties, Research Funding; Servier: Honoraria, Other: Travel reimbursement; Genentech/Roche: Employment, Other: Family member employment, stock ownship - family member; Immunovative Therapies: Other: Member DSMB. June: Tmunity Therapeutics: Equity Ownership, Research Funding; WIRB/Copernicus Group: Honoraria, Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees; Celldex: Honoraria, Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees; Immune Design: Equity Ownership, Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees; Novartis: Patents & Royalties, Research Funding. Melenhorst: Novartis: Research Funding.


Anatomical, palynological, karyological and morphological seed characters of Silene brevicalyx and S. ozyurtii (Caryophyllaceae) were investigated for the first time. S. brevicalyx grows on serpentine rocky slopes and open forest in Mugla province (southwestern Turkey), while S. ozyurtii is an East Mediterranean element growing on serpentine stony slopes and again open forest. Anatomically, cross-section of root of both species have a periderm as the protective tissue at the outermost layer and locally druse crystals are encountered in cortex layer. Stems have a thick well-developed sclerenchyma layer. The walls of outward sclerenchyma cells are wider than the walls of inward cells. Leaves are equifacial. Pollen are prolate-spheroidal, symmetry radially, polarity apolar, with aperture periporate, ornamentation microechinate-perforate. Seeds of both species are reniform, with surface concave and granulation coarse-medium, hylar zone recessed, dark-brown or fuscous coloured. Somatic chromosome numbers of 2n = 24 were found for both taxa. The karyotypes are analyzed for the first time for S . brevicalyx and S . ozyurtii . Ideograms of these taxa were drawn by use of an Image Analysis System.


The ritual handling of serpents remains an unnoticed cultural form for the explanatory aims and theoretical insights desired by cognitive scientists of religion. In the current article, we introduce the Hood and Williams archives at The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga that contains data culled from Hood's 40-plus year career of studying serpent handlers. The archives contain hundreds of hours of interviews and recordings of speaking in tongues, handling fire, drinking poison, and taking up serpents by different congregants and congregations. The archive remains a rich but untapped source of data for building, testing, and refining cognitive theories of ritual in general, and serpent handling in specific. We connect Hood's work to current cognitive theories and engage critically with research on the social functions of ritual. Finally, we discuss several further reasons to pay more attention to SHS communities and practices in cognitive theories of ritual.


inno.zellmet is a large funded project which aims at the commercialisation of new, non-foam types of cellular metals. The project focuses on porous structures made from metallic short fibers and structures made from metallic hollow spheres, which are both chararacterised by multifunctionality and low specific weight. Six research institutes and 17 partners from industry constitute a local network that jointly develops solutions based on these "constructed materials". Target applications are situated in industrial sectors such as light-weight construction, decentralised energy generation, medical and biotechnology, as well as sound absorption and explosion protection for stationary machinery. inno.zellmet has started in March 2005 and will run for 3 years. During this time, it receives 3.9 Mio. EUR in funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research under the "Unternehmen Region" initiative. This paper highlights some of the results obtained so far.


A visual instrument is an instrument that generates geometrically and aesthetically appealing temporal-spatial patterns if it is skillfully manipulated by a player. We present new types of geometric visual instruments having pinnate forms that are used by rolling one instrument along the other. We designed and fabricated the proposed visual instruments and confirmed that they can be manipulated skillfully and they provide a way to explore new types of manipulative play and performances.


Is activity in prefrontal cortex (PFC) critical for conscious perception? Major theories of consciousness make distinct predictions about the role of PFC, providing an opportunity to arbitrate between these views empirically. Here we address three common misconceptions: (1) PFC lesions do not affect subjective perception; (2) PFC activity does not reflect specific perceptual content; and (3) PFC involvement in studies of perceptual awareness is solely driven by the need to make reports required by the experimental tasks rather than subjective experience per se. These claims are incompatible with empirical findings, unless one focuses only on studies using methods with limited sensitivity. The literature highlights PFC's essential role in enabling the subjective experience in perception, contra the objective capacity to perform visual tasks; conflating the two can also be a source of confusion. Dual Perspectives Companion Paper: Are the Neural Correlates of Consciousness in the Front or in the Back of the Cerebral Cortex? Clinical and Neuroimaging Evidence, by Melanie Boly, Marcello Massimini, Naotsugu Tsuchiya, Bradley R. Postle, Christof Koch, and Giulio Tononi


Background: Back pain has been known since the start of written history, probably the first report of back pain and sciatica can be found in an ancient text, the so-called Edwin Smith Surgical Papyrus presumably written around 1550 B.C.1 Although backache (with or without sciatica) is a benign often self -limiting condition (Macnab). 2 The cost of both time lost from work (with loss of productivity) and medical care, as well as the cost of litigation and disability claims, make back pain an industry unto itself.
Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to evaluate the clinical, radiological outcome of the lumbar disc patients managed surgically and to compare the results of different surgeries performed.
Methods: This study was prospective, non-randomized, cohort study it was carried out in the Department of Orthopaedics, Acharya Vinoba Bhave Rural Hospital, Wardha, between August 2013 – 2015. Patients with more than 18 years were included with persistent bothersome sciatic pain, despite conservative management for a period of 6-12 weeks. All the patients with progressive neurological involvement during a period of conservative treatment. All the patients with cauda equina syndrome or impending cauda equina syndrome.
Results: Out of total 67 patients the mean age was 49.85±8.75 years ranging from 40 to 72 years. Male gender was predominantly forming 66% of the sample size whereas 34% of females. All the patients had radicular pain, 26 out of 67 patients had left sided radiculopathy and right-sided radiculopathy was observed in 21 patients whereas 20 patients had bilateral radiculopathy. After MRI 34 patients had extrusion of disc, whereas 17 patients showed sequestrated disc, protrusion of disc was observed in 12 patients, whereas disc bulge was observed in 4 patients. 42% of patients were operated by laminectomy, 33 % patients were operated by microscopic discectomy and minimum 25% of patients were operated with microendoscopic discectomy. L4-L5 level was the most common level to get involved. Mean Pre operative VAS score for male patients was 6.64 and female patients was 6.78, which was reduced to 3.14 and 3.48 respectively after 6 months of operative management. Mean Pre operative Oswestery score for male patients was observed to be 44.05 and female patients was 44.87, which was reduced to 24.95 and 27.83 respectively after 6 months of operative management.  Complications in all three surgeries were observed.
Conclusion: Minimally invasive techniques in all areas of surgery have gained momentum in recent years. Spinal surgery has been no exception. Unfortunately, minimally invasive techniques have often been equated with minimally effective procedures. We understand that the micro endoscopic discectomy and microscopic discectomy techniques are superior to the standard discectomy technique for the treatment of single level lumbar disc herniation's with regard to pain relief, clinical outcome and functional outcome, volume of blood loss, systemic repercussions, and duration of hospital stay. However, technical expertise and learning curve of the technique could be the limitation. Minimally invasive surgeries are cost-effective treatment for lumbar herniated discs. Results and complications were comparable with those associated with standard discectomy techniques. Patient satisfaction was high, and a cost savings was realized.

Keywords: Degenerative, Lumbar Spine, Disc Surgeries, Microscopic Discectomy, Laminectomy, Decompression


Globally optimal pseudo-triangulations are difficult to be found by deterministic methods as, for most type of criteria, no polynomial algorithm is known. In this work, we consider the Minimum Weight Pseudo-Triangulation (MWPT) problem of a given set of n points in the plane. This paper shows how the Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) metaheuristic can be used to find optimal pseudo-triangulations of minimum weight. For the experimental study presented here we have created a set of instances for MWPT since no reference to benchmarks for these problems were found in the literature. We assess through the experimental evaluation the applicability of the ACO metaheuristic for MWPT.


This paper demonstrates a high-speed, low-noise dynamic comparator, employing self-calibration. The proposed dual-sided, fully-dynamic offset calibration is able to reduce the input-referred offset voltage by a factor of ten compared to the uncalibrated value without any speed or noise penalty and with less than 5% power overhead. Moreover, the implemented multi-stage topology significantly advances the state-of-the-art comparator performance, achieving the highest reported operating frequency, as well as the lowest delay slope and sensitivity to supply and common mode variations compared to existing works, with similar energy/comparison. This makes the proposed self-calibrating comparator an ideal candidate for high resolution (>10 b) multi-GHz Analog-to-Digital Converters (ADCs). The 28 nm bulk CMOS prototype measures an input-referred noise and calibrated offset of 0.82 mV and 0.99 mV, respectively clocked at 11 GHz, consuming only 0.89 mW from a 1 V supply, for an area of 0.00054 mm2, including calibration.


This study used the postclassification change detection approach to identify land use land cover changes in Norman, Oklahoma, between September 1979 and July 1989 using Landsat multispectral scanner and thematic mapper (TM) images. An integration of Markov chain analysis and a cellular automata approach was employed to predict land use land cover of Norman in 2000 using multicriteria decision-making and fuzzy parameter standardization approaches. Accuracy assessment was carried out using a stratified random sampling technique. The identified random sample points were displayed on Landsat enhanced thematic mapper (ETM) image data acquired on 22 May 2000, with the help of local area knowledge, ground information collection, and existing land use maps of Norman to identify the classes. We also directly compared projected results against the classified output of the same Landsat TM image. This study demonstrates the usefulness of Markov and cellular modeling for urban landscape changes. A checklist of the sources of limitation or uncertainty in the application of this approach is also reported.


BACKGROUND
Even though the four international meetings held so far on classification of pancreatitis have helped considerably to further our understanding of the disease, all have serious drawbacks that limit their clinical utility. The main problem with the Marseille classifications is the need for histologic proof, and the Cambridge classification relies on imaging modalities that are not sensitive or specific enough.

RESULTS
Chronic pancreatic inflammation (CP) has been observed in association with several systemic diseases (such as autoimmune diseases), and since the natural history of the pancreatic affliction in these conditions is clearly distinct from that seen in other forms of CP, these need to be classified separately. Furthermore, many clinical/aetiologic forms of chronic calcifying pancreatitis (CCP) exist which differ sufficiently in their clinical features and management to deserve individual recognition.

PROPOSAL
A subclassification of CCP into alcoholic, tropical, hereditary, hypercalcaemic, hyperlipoproteinaemic, drug-induced, and idiopathic is proposed. The staging of chronic alcoholic pancreatitis has been a controversial issue, mainly because of the apparent unpredictability of the course of pain. However, several large follow-up studies in the past decade suggest that recurrent acute exacerbations dominate the clinical picture in the first few years after onset of symptoms, and progressive pancreatic insufficiency is the predominant feature in the late stages of the disease. On the basis of the results of these studies it is proposed that alcoholic chronic pancreatitis be divided into four stages: I) latent or subclinical, II) early, or stage of inflammatory complications, III) late, or stage of severe pancreatic insufficiency, and IV) advanced, or stage of secondary painless pancreatitis.


1. No significant difference was found in the vital-capacity quotients of subjects in the sitting and in the standing position.

2. The loss of height that might be present in a scoliotic patient as the result of the lateral curvature of the spine does not produce enough change in the calculated body surface area of that patient to cause significant changes in the vital-capacity quotient.

3. Subjects with extensive respiratory-muscle paralysis and with a history of having been treated in respirators exhibited vital-capacity quotients significantly lower than those found in normal controls for their age and sex.

4. There was no significant difference in the vital-capacity quotients between normal and non-scoliotic, non-respiratory poliomyelitic male and female subjects.

5. There was no significant difference in the vital-capacity quotients between normal and poliomyelitic scoliotic subjects when the degree of deformity was slight or moderate. However, in severe scoliosis an appreciable reduction in vital-capacity quotients was observed.

6. Non-poliomyelitic scoliotic subjects with either thoracolumbar, primary lumbar, primary thoracic, or primary double curve patterns with angular deformities of less than 45 degrees were found to have vital-capacity quotients which were within normal limits. A significant reduction in vital capacity was found in subjects with the thoracic pattern when the angular deformity exceeded 45 degrees.


Effects of an antiserum against native dynein 1 from sperm flagella of the sea urchin Strongylocentrotus purpuratus were compared with effects of an antiserum previously obtained against an ATPase-active tryptic fragment (fragment 1A) of dynein 1 from sperm flagella of the sea urchin, Anthocidaris crassispina. Both antisera precipitate dynein 1 and do not precipitate dynein 2. Only the fragment 1A antiserum precipitates fragment 1A and produces a measurable inhibition of dynein 1 ATPase activity. Both antisera inhibit the movement and the movement- coupled ATP dephosphorylation of reactivated spermatozoa. The inhibition of movement by the antiserum against dynein 1 is much less than by the antiserum against fragment 1A, suggesting that a specific interference with the active ATPase site may be required for effective inhibition of movement. Both antisera reduce the bend angle as well as the beat frequency of reactivated S. purpuratus spermatozoa, suggesting that the bend angle may depend on the activity of the dynein arms which generate active sliding.


Extracting excellent requirements is one of the challenges that face the software developers. The characteristics of excellent requirements are concise, complete, necessary, unambiguous and consistent. Within a context where there is a lack of common understanding of what must be traced especially in generating consistency requirements, a number of methods have been proposed to software requirements consistency and traceability. Many of these dealing with requirements consistency using inconsistency rules given by software customer which may inadequate. This paper provides a guideline approach based on a visual technique that helps to reduce the degree of inconsistency which may appear by redundancy of tasks in more than one requirements.


ABSTRACT Despite global efforts to increase HIV test uptake among men who have sex with men (MSM), social stigma and negative attitudes toward homosexuality hinder the effectiveness of traditional test promotion campaigns. Increasing HIV test uptake requires greater understanding of the conditions that facilitate decisions to get tested. We conducted an online survey hosted by two of the most highly frequented MSM web portals in China. A generalised ordered logistic regression analysis was conducted to determine factors associated with HIV testing behaviour. Compared to men who had never tested for HIV, men who had tested in the past year were more likely to have never engaged in sex with women, have multiple male sex partners in the past 3 months and have disclosed their sexual orientation to others. MSM found testing at local Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (80.7%), gay men's community-based organisations (80.2%) and public hospitals (70.9%) to be acceptable, while saunas (50.5%) and gay bars (41.8%) were found to be unacceptable testing venues. Our study shows that MSM in China prefer to test at venues that guarantee confidentiality, quality and quick results. Our study also suggests that self-testing may be a feasible approach to increase test uptake.


We propose a technique to construct higher accuracy conservation element and solution element (CE/SE) schemes.A second-order CE/SE scheme is established and its stability condition is examined on the basis of the von Neumann necessary condition. From the viewpoints of accuracy and efficiency, the applied range of the one-order CE/SE scheme and the high-order ones is discussed through some numerical examples.


Li Nationality is the earliest boong in Hainan Province, their history and cultures are listed in The World's and National Intangible cultural Heritage. Li Nationality's dwellings space and model have their peculiar vantages including the ancient wisdom of sustainable environmental protection and respecting natural world. Li Nationality adopted the idea of building a boat to construct houses and organized their own families before 4000 years ago and the houseboats contained typical characteristics of simple, saving materials and making good use of the old boats . However, with the modern cultures influence of Han Nationality, more Li people is giving up their traditional houseboats. The only reserved village which possesses traditional houseboats is Baizha in the Dongfang City of Hainan Province. Hainan Province government and researchers are trying to protect the related cultures and houseboats style architecture by moving them into the scenic area or introduce more tourists to visit village having houseboats to increase the income of Li Nationality and make them adapt themselves to modern economic society based on reserve traditional life-style. Step 1 is digging historical and cultural information in Li Nationality, their fairy stories, religious faith and folk songs, step 2 is applying all those materials to intangible cultural heritage list and getting enough subsidiary funds from governments, step 3 is organizing researchers and architects to visit village, step 4 is attracting more tourists to visit it, reserving this traditional architecture style based on cyclic economy. Keywords: sustainable development, houseboats, Li Nationality


BACKGROUND
Our objective is to help clinicians detect the facial effects of prenatal alcohol exposure by developing computer-based tools for screening facial form.

METHODS
All 415 individuals considered were evaluated by expert dysmorphologists and categorized as (i) healthy control (HC), (ii) fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS), or (iii) heavily prenatally alcohol exposed (HE) but not clinically diagnosable as FAS; 3D facial photographs were used to build models of facial form to support discrimination studies. Surface curvature-based delineations of facial form were introduced.

RESULTS
(i) Facial growth in FAS, HE, and control subgroups is similar in both cohorts. (ii) Cohort consistency of agreement between clinical diagnosis and HC-FAS facial form classification is lower for midline facial regions and higher for nonmidline regions. (iii) Specific HC-FAS differences within and between the cohorts include: for HC, a smoother philtrum in Cape Coloured individuals; for FAS, a smoother philtrum in Caucasians; for control-FAS philtrum difference, greater homogeneity in Caucasians; for control-FAS face difference, greater homogeneity in Cape Coloured individuals. (iv) Curvature changes in facial profile induced by prenatal alcohol exposure are more homogeneous and greater in Cape Coloureds than in Caucasians. (v) The Caucasian HE subset divides into clusters with control-like and FAS-like facial dysmorphism. The Cape Coloured HE subset is similarly divided for nonmidline facial regions but not clearly for midline structures. (vi) The Cape Coloured HE subset with control-like facial dysmorphism shows orbital hypertelorism.

CONCLUSIONS
Facial curvature assists the recognition of the effects of prenatal alcohol exposure and helps explain why different facial regions result in inconsistent control-FAS discrimination rates in disparate ethnic groups. Heavy prenatal alcohol exposure can give rise to orbital hypertelorism, supporting a long-standing suggestion that prenatal alcohol exposure at a particular time causes increased separation of the brain hemispheres with a concomitant increase in orbital separation.


Silk was the most ancient export commodity, and it's the evidence and pride of Chinese civilization. Silk is of noble temperament and deep culture; it is loved by old and young man at home and abroad. The high price of silk depends on its technic, therefore, in the development of silk garment, it is essential to consider high grade sense of silk garment. Silk has a certain high grade sense on texture and sheen, but it still needs to be combined with apparel color and pattern, which can make silk garment possess high grade sense. The paper aims at apparel color and pattern, extracts the key factors of high grade sense through the investigation of the comprehension and cognition of people. The paper is on the basis of the theory of Kansei Engineering. It extracts emotional evaluation factors of garment high grade sense by the way of interview and questionnaire survey, and then the author analyses the survey data by the statistic software of SPSS17.0. Finally the author concludes the different kinds of high grade sense which are understood by people. As a result, they can lead the development of silk garment.


The tectonic evolution of Lake Eğirdir, West Turkey Lake Eğirdir is one of the most important fresh-water lakes of Turkey. It has a tectonics-related origin. The area formed under a roughly N-S compressional tectonic regime during the Middle Miocene. The stresses caused slip faults west and east of Isparta Angle, and the lake formed at the junction of these faults. The area subsided between normal faults, thus creating the topographic condition required for a lake. The lacustrine sediments have fundamentally different lithologies. After the Late Miocene, central Anatolia started to move westwards, but western Anatolia moved in a SW direction along the South-western Anatolian Fault, which we suggest to have a left lateral slip, which caused that the Hoyran Basin moved t7 km towards the SW and rotated 40° counterclockwise relative to Lake Eğirdir.


In this paper, we propose a revocable and decentralized attribute-based encryption (ABE) system that splits the task of decryption key generation across multiple attribute authorities (AAs) without requiring any central party such that it achieves attribute revocation by simply stopping updating of the corresponding private key. In our system, a party can easily behave as an AA by creating a public and private key pair without any global communication except the creation for the common system parameters, under which it can periodically issue/update private key components for users that reflect their attributes, and an AA can freely leave the system once its corresponding attribute is revoked without communication with other AAs. In addition, to revoke a user, those AAs that have issued private keys to this user easily cease the key updating process for the user without affecting other AAs' execution. For the construction of our system, the technical barrier is to make private keys collusion resistant. Since in our system each component of a user's private key at a time period may come from different AAs and there is no coordination between these AAs, traditional technique of binding together different components (issued by different AAs) of a private key by randomization cannot be employed. To overcome this, we tie the key components together and prevent collusion attacks between different users by embedding distinct identifiers and a commonly shared time attribute in these components.


Six years ago when attending a Ciba Symposium on aging in London I had the happy surprise and pleasure of being in the company of Dr. Medawar for a couple of days. This was a most rewarding experience. One of the byproducts of this meeting was that I looked up many of Medawar's published works which ran more to biological than medical themes. I formed a very high regard for his capabilities, his imagination, and by no means least, his brilliant capacity to clarify abstruse ideas in elegant language. He has the ability to crystallize many a biological truth in prose so graceful and lively that one learns willy-nilly. Only afterwards does one realize that such artistry betokens the rigorous discipline of excellence as well as a bountiful array of talent. The six essays included in The Future of Man were the BBC Reith Lectures of 1959. It is singularly


1 Huhn D, Thiel E, Rodt H, Schlixnok G, ThemI H, Rieber P. Subtypes of T-cell chronic lymphatic leukemia. Cancer 1983; 51:1434-47. 2 HoAD, Thaler J, Zittoun R, Stryckmans P. Deoxycoformycin in therapy of refractory lymphoid neoplasms. Onkologie (in press). 3 Ho AD, Ganeshaguru K, Hunstein W, Hoffbrand AV. Biochemical parameters in vitro and in vivo after treatment with desoxycoformycin in T-cell leukemia/lymphoma. Blood 1986; 38(suppl 1):224.


Background Huntington's Disease (HD) is an inherited neurological disorder characterised by loss of motor coordination, cognitive dysfunction and psychiatric disturbances that remains without a cure. Arimoclomol, a compound reported to enhance cellular stress induced heat shock protein response, has been shown to be neuroprotective in a mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Aims To examine whether treatment with arimoclomol would (a) protect against quinolinic acid (QA) mediated excitotoxicity and (b) improve the phenotype of the YAC128 mouse model of HD. Methods 3 month old wild-type (WT) mice were pretreated with PBS or arimoclomol (40 mg/kg, intraperitoneally followed by an intrastriatal injection of QA (20 nmol) 30 min later). Striatal lesion volume in arimoclomol and PBS treated animals was assessed 7 days later. YAC128 and WT mice were treated with 80 mg/kg of arimoclomol administered in the drinking water for 10 months, starting at 2 months of age. YAC128 and WT animals receiving water only served as no treatment controls. Motor function was assessed using the accelerating and fixed speed rotarod tests at 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and 12 months of age. Striatal pathology was assessed using unbiased stereology at 12 months of age. Results In animals that received intrastriatal injections of QA, there was no significant difference in lesion volume between those pretreated with arimoclomol compared with those treated with PBS only. In animals receiving arimoclomol chronically, there was no significant difference between arimoclomol treated and untreated WT animals in motor performance, as assessed by the accelerating and fixed speed rotarod tests. The motor performance of untreated YAC128 HD mice was significantly lower compared with that of untreated WT animals. Treatment with arimoclomol had no effect on motor performance of YAC128 HD animals compared with untreated YAC128 HD animals. Further, brain weight and striatal volume of untreated YAC128 HD animals was significantly lower compared with untreated WT animals. Treatment with arimoclomol had no effect on brain weight or striatal volume of YAC128 HD animals compared with untreated YAC128 HD mice. Conclusions Our findings demonstrate that treatment with arimoclomol does not lead to improvements in motor function or rescue of striatal pathology in YAC128 HD mice.


Because of the "problem of individual causal inefficacy," it has been difficult to explain why a purchase that will make little to no difference to a producer's wrongdoing is itself morally wrong. Some have recently appealed to the concept of complicity in order to support the idea that consumers have a moral reason to avoid purchasing from companies engaged in wrongdoing. In this paper, I contribute to the development of this direction in consumer ethics. First, I explore how we should define moral complicity in such situations. Some have claimed that an individual's purchase makes her complicit, even though it makes no difference to the wrongdoing, because she is still knowingly joining in with the wrong that the company or other consumers are doing. I argue, however, that it is difficult to see making a purchase as a form of joining in a joint or group action. Instead, I respond to the causal inefficacy problem directly. I argue that even when the outcome is massively overdetermined, an individual purchase still makes a causal contribution to the principal wrongdoing and thus a basic condition for an act of moral complicity is met. Yet, this does not resolve the deeper question of whether and why consumers should morally avoid purchases that make them complicit in these cases. The issue is with how small the causal contribution such an individual purchase makes. That is, an individual purchase in such a situation may only make one a little bit complicit. I argue that for the concept of moral complicity to gain traction here, we will have to appeal to normative concerns besides the outcome of the complicit action. Still, even with this account, purchases in such overdetermination cases may not often be all things considered wrong because the reasons against them may be outweighed by other relevant reasons.


Museums are the staging grounds of culture-a close look reveals that museums display much more than artifacts, and this perceptive tour of our collected and catalogued culture affords such a look. This book conducts us through the complex of ideas, values, and symbols that pervade and shape the practice of exhibiting that make the museum a central institution and metaphor in contemporary society. Writing from a broad range of perspectives in history, art history and criticism, critical theory, and sociology, the authors represented here go beyond previous institutional analyses to consider the museum as the intricate amalgam of architecture, history, practices and strategies of display, and pedagogical and other programs, functioning under the aegis of various governing ideologies.

These essays explore the ways in which museums assign meaning to art through various kinds of exhibitions and display strategies and controlling discourses. The authors examine the political implications of these strategies and the forms of knowledge they invoke and construct, their transformations into alternative exhibition forms, and their recent involvement with the spectacular practices of mass-media culture. Certain essays also take up the question of how the museum—going public itself is constructed. Drawing on the history of museums and ranging from Western Europe to the former Soviet Union, Israel, and the United States, this book will interest historians, critics, museum professionals, students of art and critical theory, and all those concerned with our contemporary museum culture.


Cardiography, quantitative measurement of the functioning of the heart, traditionally requires customized obtrusive contact sensors. Using new methods photoplethysmography and ballistocardiography signals can be captured using ubiquitous sensors, such as webcams and accelerometers. However, these signals are not visible to the unaided eye. We present Cardiolens - a mixed reality system that enables real-time, hands-free measurement and visualization of blood flow and vital signs from multiple people. The system combines a front-facing webcam, imaging ballistocardiography, and remote imaging photoplethysmography methods for recovering pulse signals. A heads up display allows users to view their own heart rate whenever they are wearing the device and the heart rate and heart rate variability of another person simply by looking at them. Cardiolens provides the wearer with a new way to understand physiological signals and has applications in human-computer interaction and in the study of social psychology.


The Lebedev integral transform is applied to a class of boundary value problems in the theory of diffraction and antennas, including circular disks, apertures and hollow conical structures. It is found that the conventional Wiener-Hopf technique, together with this transform, does not explicitly solve these problems. Instead, one is led to an infinite system of linear equations for the representation of the unknown transform function.


The Sabatier reaction is a key element of power-to-gas development. For this reason, even though the process is known since more than one century, the Sabatier reaction is currently the object of important research efforts towards the development of new catalysts for performance improvement. However, the industrial exploitation of the Sabatier reaction depends on the development of reactors that match the best catalyst with an appropriate heat management. For this reason, this paper develops a methodology for the contemporary optimization of the reactor concept and the catalysts. It is observed that the reactor can be divided into three sections with contrasting requirements. In the first section, the main requirement concerns the reach of the reaction activation conditions. Hence, an adequate match between catalyst and reactor is needed, for example with an appropriate pre-heater. Once the reaction is activated, a reaction hotspot is formed, so that the cooling becomes determining and the main requirement for the catalyst is the resistance to poisoning and sintering. In the last section of the reactor, the low temperature activity of the catalyst is determining, so that a high-performing catalyst is needed. This paper indicates a strategy for the rational design of this catalyst, based on mechanistic evidences.


The KM3NeT research infrastructure is currently being established. It will consist of a network of deep-sea neutrino detectors to answer fundamental questions both in particle physics and astrophysics. The complexity and volume of the generated datasets is a challenge for analysis and archival of the data, and requires significant computing resources. The KM3NeT collaboration adopts a tier-like computing model for data management. The KM3NeT data management plan and computing model is presented, and plans for public data with open access are discussed.


Egg white (EW) proteins are functional proteins, which possess certain biological activities (antimicrobial, antigenic, and peptidase-inhibitory) that may influence the food processing or vice versa can be affected by processing. This study investigated the behavior of EW proteins within sourdough systems with respect to proteolysis and fermentation parameters, and the ability of EW to build foam structures with sourdoughs. Of the EW proteins, ovotransferrin was hydrolyzed in all sourdoughs (wheat, rye, and germinated-rye), whereas the breakdown of ovalbumin was specific for germinated-rye sourdoughs, with the cysteine endopeptidases being responsible for the hydrolysis. The presence of EW in sourdough fermentations had no influence on the prolamin hydrolysis or the growth of starter culture, indicating that the peptidase-inhibitory and antimicrobial properties of EW play no important role in sourdoughs. EW foams, however, appeared as potential structure builders in sourdough applications and could serve as alternative structural agents in the production of baked goods with low gluten content.


The problem of incompatibility between relational data structures (usually a structured, non-hierarchical and non-redundant) and hierarchical structures (usually XML, which may be redundant and arbitrarily structured) may cause problems in data transformations. A common example of such incompatible transformation is RDBS data to HTML. Such transformation often increases redundancy. This paper studies aspects of the conceptual (entity-relationship) model that break the hierarchical structure and can be mapped into a relational model. The most common example of such aspect is presented - the problem of hierarchy convergence and the M:N relation cardinality usage. To assess the quality of final XML document and schema, a calculation method derived from Shannon's average amount of information is proposed. This method compares two possible directions of problematic data hierarchization. The assessment is based on specific data, helping to validate its own schema.