s | 13 Speaker 3: Se Hyun Kim, Republic of Korea Title: Targeted profiling for the metabolic syndrome Abstract Translational researches in schizophrenia have revealed the many aspects of biological evidence for schizophrenia. To find the intracellular signaling pathway responsible for antipsychotic medications, metabolic adverse events induced by atypical antipsychotics can provide a window to look for the novel molecular target mediating the therapeutic action of antipsychotics. Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is master switch regulating protein translation through sensing cellular energy state. Akt and mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways cooperatively regulate mTOR signal pathway. In addition, AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), another major metabolic sensor maintaining metabolic homeostasis, interacts with mTOR to regulate the cellular response to various stimuli. Recent studies have suggested that mTOR signal pathway is involved in mood and psychotomimetic behavioral changes as well as epileptogenesis. In this talk, involvement of mTOR and AMPK signal pathways in the therapeutic and pathogenetic mechanisms of psychotic disorders will be reviewed and discussed based on the recent findings.Translational researches in schizophrenia have revealed the many aspects of biological evidence for schizophrenia. To find the intracellular signaling pathway responsible for antipsychotic medications, metabolic adverse events induced by atypical antipsychotics can provide a window to look for the novel molecular target mediating the therapeutic action of antipsychotics. Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) is master switch regulating protein translation through sensing cellular energy state. Akt and mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways cooperatively regulate mTOR signal pathway. In addition, AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), another major metabolic sensor maintaining metabolic homeostasis, interacts with mTOR to regulate the cellular response to various stimuli. Recent studies have suggested that mTOR signal pathway is involved in mood and psychotomimetic behavioral changes as well as epileptogenesis. In this talk, involvement of mTOR and AMPK signal pathways in the therapeutic and pathogenetic mechanisms of psychotic disorders will be reviewed and discussed based on the recent findings. Speaker 4: Hans-Jürgen Möller, Germany Title: Signatures from neuroimaging studies predict transition to psychosis Möller HJ, Koutsouleris N, Meisenzahl EM, Falkai P Abstract Currently in the field of schizophrenia research the early detection of at risk mental states for psychosis is an important topic of clinical research. Beside clinical and neuropsychological parameters structual MRI related parameters in focus. Using support vector machine learning and pattern detection analysis, we demonstrate that the different kinds of at risk states (early at risk state, versus late at risk state) are associated with different kinds of brain alterations. It is possible to predict the risk of transition to psychosis on an individual level with high sensivity and specivity. This pattern recognition analyses proved also to be useful to differentiate between schizophrenia and depression (MDD) using brain aging as intermediate parameter. Corresponding author: Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Möller, Department of Psychiatry Ludwig-Maximilians-University München Nussbaumstrasse 7, 80336 Munich, Germany Tel:  +49 89 5160 5514, E-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com in the field of schizophrenia research the early detection of at risk mental states for psychosis is an important topic of clinical research. Beside clinical and neuropsychological parameters structual MRI related parameters in focus. Using support vector machine learning and pattern detection analysis, we demonstrate that the different kinds of at risk states (early at risk state, versus late at risk state) are associated with different kinds of brain alterations. It is possible to predict the risk of transition to psychosis on an individual level with high sensivity and specivity. This pattern recognition analyses proved also to be useful to differentiate between schizophrenia and depression (MDD) using brain aging as intermediate parameter. Corresponding author: Prof. Dr. Hans-Jürgen Möller, Department of Psychiatry Ludwig-Maximilians-University München Nussbaumstrasse 7, 80336 Munich, Germany Tel:  +49 89 5160 5514, E-mail: email@example.com S9: Novel neuromoduation-based approaches for neuropsychiatric disorders Chair: Daniel Javitt, USA Co-Chair: Chan-Hyung Kim, Republic of Korea Speaker 1: Andre Brunoni, Brazil Title: Perspectives of tDCS in the treatment of affective disorders Abstract Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is an incapacitating condition associated with significant personal, social and economic impairment. Nearly 30% of patients present drug refractoriness, reinforcing the need to develop novel therapeutic strategies for MDD. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) might be an alternative for these patients considering its tolerability, portability and ease of use. The tDCS technique alters neuronal resting membrane potentials to facilitate (anodal) and inhibit (cathodal) neuronal firing rates. The antidepressant effects of tDCS are based on neuroimaging studies, which have shown that, in depression, the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is hypoactive and the right DLPFC is hyperactive. To achieve antidepressant effects, anodal tDCS is delivered over the left region for depolarization and cathodal tDCS is delivered over the right DLPFC for hyperpolarization. In this presentation, we review putative tDCS antidepressant mechanisms as well as clinical evidence based on recent controlled studies and meta-analyses evaluating tDCS efficacy and predictors of response for MDD. Present evidence indicates that tDCS may be an effective treatment strategy for MDD. There are no studies specifically examining the efficacy of tDCS in bipolar depression and mania, which are urgently needed in order to address tDCS effectiveness for bipolar disorder. In addition, there are reports of hypomania/mania after or during tDCS treatment; this risk should be prospectively investigated in further studies.Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is an incapacitating condition associated with significant personal, social and economic impairment. Nearly 30% of patients present drug refractoriness, reinforcing the need to develop novel therapeutic strategies for MDD. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) might be an alternative for these patients considering its tolerability, portability and ease of use. The tDCS technique alters neuronal resting membrane potentials to facilitate (anodal) and inhibit (cathodal) neuronal firing rates. The antidepressant effects of tDCS are based on neuroimaging studies, which have shown that, in depression, the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is hypoactive and the right DLPFC is hyperactive. To achieve antidepressant effects, anodal tDCS is delivered over the left region for depolarization and cathodal tDCS is delivered over the right DLPFC for hyperpolarization. In this presentation, we review putative tDCS antidepressant mechanisms as well as clinical evidence based on recent controlled studies and meta-analyses evaluating tDCS efficacy and predictors of response for MDD. Present evidence indicates that tDCS may be an effective treatment strategy for MDD. There are no studies specifically examining the efficacy of tDCS in bipolar depression and mania, which are urgently needed in order to address tDCS effectiveness for bipolar disorder. In addition, there are reports of hypomania/mania after or during tDCS treatment; this risk should be prospectively investigated in further studies. Speaker 2: Tae Young Lee, Republic of Korea Title: Transcranial direct current stimulation in schizophrenia: a systemic review and meta-analysis Abstract Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been proposed as a novel treatment options for in patients with schizophrenia. Several studies have investigate regarding the efficacy of tDCS intervention, but results were inconsistent. Therefore, meta-analytic conclusion is needed to evaluate the prospectives of this new intervention. Oline literature retrieval was conducted using Pubmed, Web of Science and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials databases from January 2003 to October 2015.


Co-creation is considered a 'near perfect strategy' for resolving complex and unruly public problems, such as climate change. Based on data collected among small Scandinavian towns, this article investigates the role of co-creation in the urban governance of climate- and sustainability responses by looking at their vertical and horizontal integration in the wider polycentric governance framework. The article has a two-fold aim. First, it develops an analytical framework for investigating how small towns and municipalities navigate in a range of governance contexts based on two strains of theories on collaborative governance and urban climate governance. Second, it applies this framework to a comparative study of small towns to analyse how co-creation plays a strategic role across types and scales of governance in relation to an evolving climate agenda. The article finds that new forms of public leadership in each of the three municipalities and towns is a main factor in the 'remaking' of collaborative planning arenas, triple helix partnerships, business alliances, city networks and collaborative pilot projects, much in a similar manner as observed in global cities. Co-creation is extensively employed as a proactive policy- and leadership instrument. However, the nature of response is uneven across the cases compared. A co-creation paradox is suggested: limited municipal politico-administrative leadership and capacity correspond to a low level of ability to engage in co-creation of solutions. This implies that those organisations with the most need for co-creation may have the least capacity to do so.


Lexical decision, pronunciation, and category verification response times (RTs) to natural object and trait hierarchies were measured. Prime and target words consisted of both superordinate and subordinate object and trait category members. Trait words were categorized as desirable and undesirable (Hampson, et al., 1986). Subjects' RTs to object and undesirable trait words displayed similar patterns. In all experiments, RTs to natural-object subordinate target words were significantly more rapid compared to superordinate words. This same pattern was also true for the undesirable traits, but reached significance in only the lexical decision task. The facilitation effect of the prime reached significance for the natural-objects in the category verification experiment and for the undesirable traits in the lexical decision experiment. This pattern of facilitation by the prime were consistent for natural-objects and undesirable traits across all experiments. In each experiment the opposite pattern of results were found for desirable traits. In the pronunciation and lexical decision experiments RTs to desirable superordinate trait words were significantly more rapid compared to desirable subordinate trait words. In all experiments the facilitation by desirable superordinate trait word primes was significantly greater compared to undesirable superordinate trait words. Post-experiment questionnaires indicated that subjects' judgment of the logical hierarchy entailment asymmetries were highly consistent with the norms. Regression analysis of subjects' judgments of the logical entailment between category stimulus pairs indicated no significant systematic relationship. Implications for research on attribution, category memory, and clinical research on cognitive assessment are discussed.


A t,n secret sharing scheme SS enables a dealer to divide a secret into n shares in such a way that i the secret can be recovered successfully with t or more than t shares, and ii the secret cannot be recovered with fewer than t shares. A verifiable secret sharing scheme VSS has been proposed to allow shareholders to verify that their shares are generated by the dealer consistently without compromising the secrecy of both shares and the secret. So far, there is only one secure Chinese remainder theorem-based VSS using the RSA assumption. We propose a Chinese remainder theorem-based VSS scheme without making any computational assumptions, which is a simple extension of Azimuth-Bloom t,n SS. Just like the most well-known Shamir's SS, the proposed VSS is unconditionally secure. We use a linear combination of both the secret and the verification secret to protect the secrecy of both the secret and shares in the verification. In addition, we show that no information is leaked when there are fewer than t shares in the secret reconstruction. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


OBJECTIVE
To study sensitivity and specificity of real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) in bronchial washing for diagnostic pulmonary tuberculosis at Maharat Nakhorn Ratchasima Hospital.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
A retrospective study of performed bronchial washing (BW) specimens for RT-PCR TB, AFB stain, and culture TB by conventional technique from 430 patients who had undergone bronchoscopic examination due to symptomatic abnormal CXR or Chest-CT with sputum samples negative or no sputum for AFB by the authors between December 1, 2008 and September 31, 2011. TB culture was gold standard in category A. Final diagnoses was confirmed with microbiological, clinicopathological finding and response to anti-TB treatment in category B. They were analyzed to study sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value (PPV), negative predictive value (NPV), positive and negative likelihood ratios of BWRT-PCR TB on diagnostic tool for detecting pulmonary TB. Statistical analysis of the data was described as percentage.

RESULTS
Four hundred thirty patients were included in the presented study. Age range, sex, hemoptysis, smoking, CXR, and bronchoscope finding were not significant different between pulmonary TB and not pulmonary TB. The sensitivity, specificity, PPV NPV positive and likelihood ratios of bronchial washing for PCR-TB when applied to category A for diagnosing smear-negative pulmonary TB were 65.7%, 90.4%, 37.7%, 96.7%, 6.8, and 0.37 respectively. Category B were 43.2%, 93.3%, 62.3%, 86.4%, 6.4, and 0.6 respectively. After combination with BW AFB stain (bAFB), sensitivity was higher but specificity was less in both categories.

CONCLUSION
The low sensitivity of RT-PCR method might be low prevalence of active pulmonary TB in cases of the presented, the type of transfer and duration time (all of them were sent to a laboratory outside the hospital), the DNA extraction procedure, primer the concentration of bronchial washing for DNA amplified, DNA extraction, and reproducible technique. However, BW RT-PCR should be done in a highly suspicious case due to rapid detection. False positive should be concerned in case of treated or old lesion from pulmonary TB.


Action of aortic cathepsin D on low density lipoproteins /LDL/ from human serum was studied by means of analytical ultracentrifugation. Cathepsin D intensively hydrolysed LDL, leading to decrease in the sedimentation coefficients of the product formed. The product of degradation of LDL possessing a sedimentation coefficient of 4.5 S /in 0,04 M KBr; 0,042 M NaCl, 2 mM EDTA, 6 mM Tris, pH 7.3 /contained apparently the minimal amount of proteins, which could still maintain the stability of partially hydrolysed LDL. When the degree of hydrolysis reached 40%, a heterogenous mixure, containing the flotating and slowly sedimenting products, was formed. These products gradually lost their solubility. The data obtained suggest that the insoluble products of the proteolysis may be formed in aortic wall some disorders of the lipoprotein metabolism.


The authors consider the impact of the granularity on scheduling task graphs. Scheduling consists of two parts, the processors assignment of tasks, also called clustering, and the ordering of tasks for execution in each processor. The authors introduce two types of clusterings: nonlinear and linear clusterings. A clustering is nonlinear if two parallel tasks are mapped in the same cluster otherwise it is linear. Linear clustering fully exploits the natural parallelism of a given directed acyclic task graph (DAG) while nonlinear clustering sequentializes independent tasks to reduce parallelism. The authors also introduce a new quantification of the granularity of a DAG and define a coarse grain DAG as the one whose granularity is greater than one. It is proved that every nonlinear clustering of a coarse grain DAG can be transformed into a linear clustering that has less or equal parallel time than the nonlinear one. This result is used to prove the optimality of some important linear clusterings used in parallel numerical computing. >


The rising success of cancer immunotherapy has produced immense interest in defining the clinical contexts that may benefit from this therapeutic approach. To this end, there is a need to ascertain how the therapeutic modulation of intrinsic cancer cell programs influences the anticancer immune response. For example, the role of autophagy as a tumor cell survival and metabolic fitness pathway is being therapeutically targeted in ongoing clinical trials that combine cancer therapies with antimalarial drugs for the treatment of a broad spectrum of cancers, many of which will likely benefit from immunotherapy. However, our current understanding of the interplay between autophagy and the immune response remains incomplete. Here, we have evaluated how autophagy inhibition impacts the antitumor immune response in immune-competent mouse models of melanoma and mammary cancer. We observed equivalent levels of T cell infiltration and function within autophagy-competent and -deficient tumors, even upon treatment with the anthracycline chemotherapeutic doxorubicin. Similarly, we found equivalent T cell responses upon systemic treatment of tumor-bearing mice with antimalarial drugs. Our findings demonstrate that antitumor adaptive immunity is not adversely impaired by autophagy inhibition in these models, allowing for the future possibility of combining autophagy inhibitors with immunotherapy in certain clinical contexts.


We have characterized a transgenic mouse line in which enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) is expressed under the control of multimerized LEF‐1 responsive elements. In embryos, EGFP was detected in known sites of Wnt activation, including the primitive streak, mesoderm, neural tube, somites, heart, limb buds, mammary placodes, and whisker follicles. In vitro cultured transgenic embryonic fibroblasts upregulated EGFP expression in response to activation of Wnt signaling by GSK3β inhibition. Mammary tumor cell lines derived from female LEF‐EGFP transgenic mice treated with the carcinogen 7, 12‐dimethylbenz[a]anthracene (DMBA) also express EGFP. Thus, this transgenic line is useful for ex vivo and in vitro studies of Wnt signaling in development and cancer. genesis 48:183–194, 2010. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Abstract Surfactants are a group of compounds with specific physico-chemical properties and therefore they are used in many spheres of human activity. Surface-active substances undergo various physico-chemical transformations, what enables their migration between different elements of the environment and may lead to its pollution. Selected anionic surfactants were determined in samples of water from the Klodnica river (25 samples) and bottom sediments (25 samples). In most samples the presence of anionic analytes was confirmed. The determined concentration levels were in the range of up to 0.2105±0.0023 mg/dm3 or 0.207±0.010 μg/kg (surface water and bottom sediment samples, respectively). Comparing the concentrations of certain analytes found in liquid and solid environmental samples, it can be noticed that the surfactants containing a shorter alkyl chain in a molecule were present in higher concentrations in liquid samples (hydrophobicity increasing with the increasing length of the chain) and the other way round.


Background: Prevalence of malnutrition among the children from developing countries has reached unprecedented level which can be evaluated by body mass index. Aim: This study was designed to determine the prevalence of malnutrition among the Mising children of Northeast India using four different sets of Body Mass Index references. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional study was performed on a population representative sample of 511 Mising children. Four different sets of Body Mass Index reference were used to define thinness as well as overweight cases. Results: With the use of different references the prevalence of thinness varies from 17.18% to 27.73% among the boys and from 19.21% to 28.23% among the girls. On the other hand the prevalence of overweight varies from 1.95% to 7.81% among the boys and 1.96% to 9.41% among the girls. Reference based on United States (1971-74) survey detects sex difference in overweight. The calculated kappa values indicated a fair to almost perfect agreement between various references. Conclusion: Considerable prevalence of overweight despite a persistently high burden of thinness suggests existence of nutrition transition among the Mising population. Prevalence of malnutrition differs with the application of different references which warrants application of international references carefully for any potential misclassification of children.


Background and Objectives Elevated blood lipids during childhood are predictive of dyslipidemia in adults. Although obese and inactive children have elevated values, any potentially protective role of elementary school physical education is unknown. Our objective was to determine the effect of a modern elementary school physical education (PE) program on the blood lipid concentrations in community-based children. Methods In this cluster-randomized controlled trial, 708 healthy children (8.1±0.3 years, 367 boys) in 29 schools were allocated to either a 4-year intervention program of specialist-taught PE (13 schools) or to a control group of the currently practiced PE conducted by generalist classroom teachers. Fasting blood lipids were measured at ages 8, 10, and 12 years and intervention and control class activities were recorded. Results Intervention classes included more fitness work and more moderate and vigorous physical activity than control classes (both p<0.001). With no group differences at baseline, the percentage of 12 year-old boys and girls with elevated low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C, >3.36mmol.L−1,130 mg/dL) was lower in the intervention than control group (14% vs. 23%, p = 0.02). There was also an intervention effect on mean LDL-C across all boys (reduction of 9.6% for intervention v 2.8% control, p = 0.02), but not girls (p = 0.2). The intervention effect on total cholesterol mirrored LDL-C, but there were no detectable 4-year intervention effects on high-density lipoprotein cholesterol or triglycerides. Conclusions The PE program delivered by specialist teachers over four years in elementary school reduced the incidence of elevated LDL-C in boys and girls, and provides a means by which early preventative practices can be offered to all children. Trial Registration Australia New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry ANZRN12612000027819 https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=347799.


This article expands on the discussion of social and cultural factors for refugees' feelings of belonging in the receiving society and assesses democratic, civic, and moral values as predictors of belonging. On the one hand, existing research considers shared values between refugees and the receiving society as hallmarks of integration. From this perspective, shared values (or value consensus) are considered predictors of refugees' feelings of belonging and the formation of social bonds with host-country citizens. On the other hand, values are seen as part of refugees' cultural capital. From this perspective, liberal and civic value contents, in particular, may promote feelings of belonging, irrespective of whether these values are widely shared with citizens of the host society. This article investigates these contrasting hypotheses, using data from a representative panel of refugees in Germany. Results show that refugees holding liberal democratic values are more likely to experience feelings of welcome in the receiving society. When operationalizing belonging also in terms of refugees spending time with host-country citizens, shared democratic and secular values become more important. Finally, this article suggests that the effect of value consensus on refugees' feelings of welcome is mediated by how much time refugees spend with host-country citizens members. Taken together, our findings emphasize that in the context of international migration, values are important hallmarks of social integration, although this should not be reduced to popular calls for shared values between immigrants and host-country citizens.


The corrosion of iron and aluminium has been investigated in 0.1 Μ HCl acidic solutions in the presence of different concentrations of SDBS at different temperatures (303, 318, and 333 K). With this aim, the corrosion rate of iron and aluminum was determined by using gravimetric and potentiostatic methods. Semi-logarithmic current potential curves were drawn by potentiostatic measurements at different temperatures. By using these curves, the electrochemical parameters (lcorr, Ecorr, Rp) were calculated. The activation energy (Ea) was calculated with the Arrhenius equation at different concentrations of inhibitor. The adsorption of SDBS on metal surface has been carried out with Langmuir adsorption isotherm and the curves of isotherm have been obtained. According to experimental results, SDBS is more effective in inhibiting aluminium corrosion. The inhibition effect of SDBS decreases with an increase of temperature. K e y w o r d s : organic inhibitors, iron and aluminium corrosion, acidic solutions * Corresponding author: S. Zor Email: email@example.com or szor2001 @yahoo.com


Automatic polyp recognition in endoscopic images is challenging because of the low contrast between polyps and the surrounding area, the fuzzy and irregular polyp borders, and varying imaging light conditions. In this article, we propose a novel densely connected convolutional network with "unbalanced discriminant (UD)" loss and "category sensitive (CS)" loss (DenseNet-UDCS) for the task. We first utilize densely connected convolutional network (DenseNet) as the basic framework to conduct end-to-end polyp recognition task. Then, the proposed dual constraints, UD loss and CS loss, are simultaneously incorporated into the DenseNet model to calculate discriminative and suitable image features. The UD loss in our network effectively captures classification errors from both majority and minority categories to deal with the strong data imbalance of polyp images and normal ones. The CS loss imposes the ratio of intraclass and interclass variations in the deep feature learning process to enable features with large interclass variation and small intraclass compactness. With the joint supervision of UD loss and CS loss, a robust DenseNet-UDCS model is trained to recognize polyps from endoscopic images. The experimental results achieved polyp recognition accuracy of 93.19%, showing that the proposed DenseNet-UDCS can accurately characterize the endoscopic images and recognize polyps from the images. In addition, our DenseNet-UDCS model is superior in detection accuracy in comparison with state-of-the-art polyp recognition methods. Note to Practitioners—Wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) is a crucial diagnostic tool for polyp detection and therapeutic monitoring, thanks to its noninvasive, user-friendly, and nonpainful properties. A challenge in harnessing the enormous potential of the WCE to benefit the gastrointestinal (GI) patients is that it requires clinicians to analyze a huge number of images (about 50 000 images for each patient). We propose a novel automatic polyp recognition scheme, namely, DenseNet-UDCS model, by addressing practical image unbalanced problem and small interclass variances and large intraclass differences in the data set. The comprehensive experimental results demonstrate superior reliability and robustness of the proposed model compared to the other polyp recognition approaches. Our DenseNet-UDCS model can be further applied in the clinical practice to provide valuable diagnosis information for GI disease recognition and precision medicine.


BACKGROUND
High levels of control over working time and low variability in working hours have been associated with improved health-related outcomes. The potential mechanisms for this association remain unclear.

AIMS
To examine how work-time control and variability of working times are associated with fatigue recovery, sleep quality, work-life balance, and 'near misses' at work.

METHODS
Manufacturing sector employees completed a questionnaire that assessed work-time control, work-time variability, fatigue recovery, sleep quality, work-life balance and the frequency of near misses in the past 6 months. Mixed model analysis of covariance and multiple logistic regression analysis tested the main effects of work-time control and variability and their interaction, while adjusting for age, sex, work schedules, and overtime work in the past month. Subscales of work-time control were also investigated (control over daily working hours and over days off).

RESULTS
One thousand three hundred and seventy-two completed questionnaires were returned, a response rate of 69%. A significantly higher quality of sleep and better work-life balance were found in the 'high control with low variability' reference group than in the other groups. Significantly better recovery of fatigue was also observed in the group having control over days off with low variability. While near misses were more frequent in the group with high control over daily working hours coupled with high variability compared with the reference group this was not significant.

CONCLUSIONS
High work-time control and low variability were associated with favourable outcomes of health and work-life balance. This combined effect was not observed for the safety outcome addressed here.


We present a novel framework named PlaneMVS for 3D plane reconstruction from multiple input views with known camera poses. Most previous learning-based plane reconstruction methods reconstruct 3D planes from single images, which highly rely on single-view regression and suffer from depth scale ambiguity. In contrast, we reconstruct 3D planes with a multi-view-stereo (MVS) pipeline that takes advantage of multi-view geometry. We decouple plane reconstruction into a semantic plane detection branch and a plane MVS branch. The semantic plane detection branch is based on a single-view plane detection framework but with differences. The plane MVS branch adopts a set of slanted plane hypotheses to replace conventional depth hypotheses to perform plane sweeping strategy and finally learns pixel-level plane parameters and its planar depth map. We present how the two branches are learned in a balanced way, and propose a soft-pooling loss to associate the outputs of the two branches and make them benefit from each other. Extensive experiments on various indoor datasets show that PlaneMVS significantly outperforms state-of-the-art (SOTA) single-view plane reconstruction methods on both plane detection and 3D geometry metrics. Our method even outperforms a set of SOTA learning-based MVS methods thanks to the learned plane priors. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work on 3D plane reconstruction within an end-to-end MVS framework.


Frequent deletions or mutations of the INK4 gene, which encodes the cyclin-dependent kinase 4 inhibitor p16INK4a, have been documented in various human cancers, but little is known about the role of this tumor suppressor gene in primary breast cancer. We examined p16INK4a mRNA expression and its relationship with cyclin D1 and estrogen receptor (ER) expression in 314 primary breast cancers using Northern blots probed with a p16 exon 1alpha-specific cDNA. Tumor samples overexpressing p16INK4a were predominantly ER negative with low levels of cyclin D1. Cyclin D1 and ER mRNA levels in the high p16INK4a expressers were significantly lower than those in the remainder of the population (P = 0.0001). Furthermore, the mean p16INK4a mRNA level in the ER-negative tumors was significantly higher than that in the ER-positive group (P = 0.0001). Because the INK4 gene is frequently inactivated by de novo methylation, we investigated the frequency of INK4a exon 1alpha methylation in a subset of 120 primary breast cancers using methylation-specific PCR; 24 of these were methylated. These findings indicate that high expression of p16INK4a and reduced expression due to de novo INK4a methylation are frequent events in primary breast cancer. In a subset of 217 patients for whom detailed clinical data were available, high p16INK4a mRNA expression was associated with high tumor grade (P = 0.006), > or = 4 axillary lymph node involvement (P = 0.004), ER negativity (P = 0.0001), and increased risk of relapse (P = 0.006). The significant negative correlation between p16INK4a and ER gene expression raises issues regarding their functional interrelationships and whether high p16INK4a expression may be associated with a lack of hormone responsiveness in breast cancer.


Open Educational Resources (OER) are open licensed documents and textbooks that are useful for distance learning, teaching, and research purposes.


Interleukin-23 ( IL-23) is a cytokine that belongs to the IL-12 cytokine family that is produced mainly by antigen-presenting cells. IL-23 receptor is expressed by various innate and adaptive immune cells, including group 3 innate lymphoid cells (ILC3), neutrophils, γδ T cells, Th17 and natural killer T (NKT) cells. IL-23 regulates various functions of the responding cells critical for host protective responses but is also implicated in many chronic inflammatory diseases including inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). IL-23 receptor signaling components and downstream effector cytokines IL-17A/F, interferon-gamma (IFN-γ), IL-22, granulocyte macrophage colony– stimulating factor (GMCSF) have been shown to impact IBD-like disease development in various animal models; therapeutic approaches targeting the IL-23 pathway in IBD are in clinical trials. In this chapter, we attempt to review the literature on IL-23– mediated IBD pathogenesis. We did this by gathering the current information about the individual IL-23–producing and IL-23–responsive cells as to how they contribute to IBD pathology through various inflammatory mediators.


The constant changing of batteries in wireless computer mice is an endless problem that plagues both computer enthusiasts and the general public alike. We explore the idea of having a dynamo built into a wireless mouse and seeing if it is able to offset the battery usage of the mouse. We calculated that the dynamo would need an emf of 0.0018V to maintain the battery charge. We took 0.050T as the point where components would be damaged by the magnetic field, and from this we saw that the dynamo would only be viable to gamers and not the general public.


The simplicity and inherent robustness of the Philips 3D-LCD, both in manufacturing and usage, make it highly suitable for a cost effective, mass-market autostereoscopic display For successful adoption in a wide range of applications, efficient 3D image preparation is very important. A generic expression for the relation between LCD pixels and the multiple perspective views is derived that can be used in the image preparation for different 3D-LCD systems. This paper then describes two approaches to 3D image preparation. One is an intuitive graphical user interface and the second is at source code programming level as an extension to the existing OpenGL 3D graphics API. Using the latter we examine the computer overhead of the 3D image preparation process.


In this study, effect of social traffic behavior on rate of traffic violation of Tehran citizens becomes a model from the viewpoint of Sociology. Creation of model in this study has been done by questionnaire from 215 persons who refer the Police+10 (the organization of local police) to obtain their vehicle violation ticket. In this study, social traffic behavior defined as drivers' obligation measure to traffic laws that includes social and cultural aspects. Social Anomie, social capital and social assurance are social index aspect. Model shaping effect of mass media and social-cultural station of persons considered as cultural aspects. Conceptual model shows that elements, which studied in research as one part of elements, which is related to humans, are only 42 percent effective in traffic violation. Results of research shows elements like sexuality and education are main elements, inefficient laws component and lack of social justice are elements of social Anomie in social aspect, social-cultural station index and component of primary groups affected by model shaping in cultural aspect index have a great connection with traffic violation in Tehran city.


Abstract. Hydrology and remote-sensing communities have made use of dense rain-gauge networks for studying rainfall uncertainty and variability. However, in most regions, these dense networks are only available at sub-pixel scales and over short periods of time. Just a few studies have applied a similar approach, employing dense gauge networks, to local-scale areas, which limits the verification of their results in other regions. Using 10-year rainfall measurements from a network of 150 rain gauges, we assess spatial uncertainty in observed heavy rainfall events. The network is located in southeastern Austria over an area of 20 km × 15 km with no significant orography. First, the spatial variability of rainfall in the region was characterised using a correlogram at daily and sub-daily scales. Differences in the spatial structure of rainfall events between wet and dry seasons are apparent and we selected heavy rainfall events, the upper 10 % of wettest days during the wet season, for further analyses because of their high potential for causing hazard risk. Secondly, we investigated uncertainty in estimating mean areal rainfall arising from a limited gauge density. The number of gauges required to obtain areal rainfall with > 20 % accuracy tends to increase roughly following a power law as time scale decreases. Lastly, the impact of spatial aggregation on extreme rainfall was examined using gridded rainfall data with horizontal grid spacings from 0.1° to 0.01°. The spatial scale dependence was clearly observed at high intensity thresholds and high temporal resolutions. Quantitative uncertainty information from this study can guide both data users and producers to estimate uncertainty in their own observational datasets, consequently leading to the rational use of the data in relevant applications. Our findings are generalisable to other plain regions in mid-latitudes, however the degree of uncertainty could be affected by regional variations, like rainfall type or topography.


Identity formation and development has been a fundamental goal of the all-around educational work from children's very early age. The importance of a curriculum founded on a value system in which identity as a value occupies one of the most significant places has been recognized in the Croatian national curriculum at all levels, especially in early and pre-school education and in the primary school. In the development of identity, literature plays a particular role, encouraging the reader to identify with the characters, and then to assume their attitudes, values, behaviour in short, to imitate the identities of literary heroes. The paper acknowledges the importance of the Croatian children's novel, which, by its rich identity distribution, becomes an encouragement and inspiration to young readers.


PM2.5, or fine particulate matter, is a category of air pollutant consisting of particles with effective aerodynamic diameter equal to or less than 2.5 μm. These particles have been linked to human health impacts as well as regional haze, visibility, and climate change issues. Due to cost and space restrictions, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency monitoring network remains spatially sparse. To increase the spatial resolution of monitoring, previous studies have used satellite data to estimate ground‐level PM concentrations, despite these estimates being associated with moderate to large uncertainties when relating a column measure of aerosol (aerosol optical depth) with surface measurements. To this end, we discuss a low‐cost air quality monitor (LCAQM) network deployed in California. In this study, we present an application of LCAQM and satellite data for quantifying the impact of wildfires in California during October 2017. The impacts of fires on PM2.5 concentration at varying temporal (hourly, daily, and weekly) and spatial (local to regional) scales have been evaluated. Comparison between low‐cost air quality sensors and reference‐grade air quality instruments shows expected performance with moderate to high uncertainties. The LCAQM measurements, in the absence of federal equivalent method data, were also found to be very useful in developing statistical models to convert aerosol optical depth into PM2.5 with performance of satellite‐derived PM2.5, similar to that obtained using the federal equivalent method data. This paper also highlights challenges associated with both LCAQM and satellite‐based PM2.5 measurements, which require further investigation and research.


Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disorder characterized by bone loss, which leads to impaired bone strength and an increased risk of fractures. Two million fractures are attributed to osteoporosis annually in the United States and they are associated with serious morbidity and mortality. Bisphosphonates reduce the risk of fracture by suppressing bone resorption and increasing bone strength, and they have been widely used for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis. However, the use of these drugs for the management of osteoporosis remains a clinical challenge. There are several important considerations including appropriate patient selection, pretreatment evaluation, potential adverse effects, patient preferences, and adherence. This review will discuss the evidence informing the clinical strategy for using bisphosphonates in patients with osteoporosis and those at high risk of fracture, focusing on the benefits and risks of treatment. We will also consider issues related to the monitoring and duration of treatment.


Digital image forensics is a young but maturing field, encompassing key areas such as camera identification, detection of forged images, and steganalysis. However, large gaps exist between academic results and applications used by practicing forensic analysts. To move academic discoveries closer to real-world implementations, it is important to use data that represent "in the wild" scenarios. For detection of stego images created from steganography apps, images generated from those apps are ideal to use. In this paper, we present our work to perform steg detection on images from mobile apps using two different approaches: "signature" detection, and machine learning methods. A principal challenge of the ML task is to create a great many of stego images from different apps with certain embedding rates. One of our main contributions is a procedure for generating a large image database by using Android emulators and reverse engineering techniques, the first time ever done. We develop algorithms and tools for signature detection on stego apps, and provide solutions to issues encountered when creating ML classifiers.


This study was conducted with the aim of finding humic acid and crop
residues effects on soil and wheat nitrogen at New Development Farm, University of Agriculture, Peshawar,
Pakistan during winter 2009-2010. The experiment was laid out in RCB design
having four replications. Different levels (1, 1.5, 2 and 2.5 kg ha-1)
of Humic acid were applied at sowing time. Mungbean (5 tons ha-1),
wheat straw (10 tons ha-1) and mungbean (2.5 tons ha-1) +
wheat straw (5 tons ha-1) were incorporated 30 days before sowing.
Our results showed higher mineral and total nitrogen (7.32 and 0.43,
respectively) mg kg-1 in soil and also higher nitrogen in stem,
leaves and grains (2.3, 4.6 and 21.1, respectively) mg kg-1 at
maturity in those plots in which 2.5 kg ha-1 of humic acid was applied.
Higher mineral and total nitrogen (7.04 and 0.5, respectively) mg kg-1 in soil and also higher nitrogen in leaves (5.5) mg kg-1 at
pre-anthesis, while at maturity stage in stem, leaves and grain (5.5, 2.1, 4.2
and 20.8) g kg-1 was recorded in those plots in which 5 tons ha-1 mung bean was incorporated. Our experimental results suggest the use of 5 tons
ha-1 of mungbean residues with 2.5 kg ha-1 of humic acid
to improve soil fertility availability of more nitrogen in wheat plants to increase
the crop yield and grains quality.


An important element of understanding the genotype–phenotype link in psychiatric disorders lies in identifying the psychological mechanisms through which genetic variation impacts mental health. Here we examined whether emotional inertia, the tendency for a person's emotions to carry over from 1 moment to the next and a prospective predictor of the development of depression, is associated with a known genetic risk factor for emotional dysregulation, a polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene (5-HTTLPR). Two hundred thirty-six adolescents recorded their positive and negative emotions in daily life 9 times a day for 6 consecutive days using smartphones, completed a depression questionnaire, and were genotyped for the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism. Carriers of the short 5-HTTLPR were characterized by higher inertia for negative emotions, even after controlling for depressive symptoms. These findings suggest a possible psychological pathway how the serotonin transporter gene contributes to risk for depression.


Acantholimon anatolicum Dogan & Akaydin sp. nov. (Plumbaginaceae) is described and illustrated. The species grows on deep gypsum-rich sandy soil on eroded mountain slopes between Cayirhan and Nallihan in Ankara. Diagnostic morphological characters that discern it from closely related species are discussed and its conservation status is indicated. A revised key to Acantholimon species with ± dense terminal spikes and excurrent scapes is given for the species found in Turkey. (c)The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2002, 140, 443–448.


Computational workloads that run out of work need some way to signal the intent to be inactive. With a proper inactivity signaling, the battery life can be extended, cloud costs can be reduced and the performance can be improved. In this paper, we study some properties of the inactivity signaling capabilities on virtualized platforms. The main contribution of the paper is a presentation of the inner workings of Spurg-Bench - a benchmarking tool developed by the author. The Spurg-Bench generates a load consisting of computation and inactivity. A secondary contribution is a small study on the inactivity behaviour of two different operating system (OS) kernels. Spurg-Bench generates a specified load on a system according to the utilization of the operations per second (OPS). By using the utilization notion of the load, Spurg-Bench generates a load occupying a fraction of the available processor time without any throughput guarantees. With the OPS notion, the generated load has a given throughput but has no guarantees on how much processor time it uses. Spurg-Bench generates load in cycles by executing an operation repeatedly and becoming inactive for a while. The parameters of a cycle in Spurg-Bench are the number of the operations and the duration of the inactivity. To achieve the desired load, the parameters of Spurg-Bench are dynamically adjusted using a control algorithm which minimizes the difference between the current load and the specified load. Spurg-Bench differs from similar tools by running the workload in the same loop as the control algorithm. The in-loop approach is crucial to the inactivity benchmarking because it enables a full control over the duration and the starting time of the inactivity periods.


This study was conducted to test whether the psychological counseling process, including the religious dimension, is effective in eliminating the psychopathological levels of university students. The research was conducted with fifteen students studying at undergraduate level at different departments of Mardin Artuklu University. Seven of these students were applied individual psychological counseling; and eight individuals were applied psychological counseling including religious dimension. Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) was used to select subjects and to measure the effectiveness of the application. The BSI was administered to counselors immediately before the psychological counseling intervention, immediately after the intervention period was over, and 6 months after the last test was administered. The data collected to test the psychological counseling intervention on the psychopathological levels of the clients were analyzed using the SPSS 21.0 package program and the Mann-Whitney U and Wilcoxon Marked Ranks tests were used. As a result of the research, it was determined that the individual psychological counseling application which included the religious dimension had a permanent effect on the decrease of the psychopathology levels of the university students, and that it was more effective than the individual psychological counseling without lowering the general psychopathology level with somatization, obsessive-compulsive thoughts, depression and anxiety sub-dimensions.


The application of nanotechnology in the field of drug delivery has attracted much attention in the latest decades. Recent breakthroughs on the morphology control and surface functionalization of inorganic-based delivery vehicles, such as mesoporous silica nanoparticles (MSNs), have brought new possibilities to this burgeoning area of research. The ability to functionalize the surface of mesoporous-silica-based nanocarriers with stimuli-responsive groups, nanoparticles, polymers, and proteins that work as caps and gatekeepers for controlled release of various cargos is just one of the exciting results reported in the literature that highlights MSNs as a promising platform for various biotechnological and biomedical applications. This review focuses on the most recent progresses in the application of MSNs for intracellular drug delivery. The latest research on the pathways of entry into live mammalian and plant cells together with intracellular trafficking are described. One of the main areas of interest in this field is the development of site-specific drug delivery vehicles; the contribution of MSNs toward this topic is also summarized. In addition, the current research progress on the biocompatibility of this material in vitro and in vivo is discussed. Finally, the latest breakthroughs for intracellular controlled drug release using stimuli-responsive mesoporous-silica-based systems are described.


Coral reefs are constructed by calcifying coral animals that engage in a symbiosis with dinoflagellate microalgae harboured in their tissue. The symbiosis takes place in the presence of steep and dynamic gradients of light, temperature and chemical species that are affected by the structural and optical properties of the coral and their interaction with incident irradiance and water flow. Microenvironmental analyses have enabled quantification of such gradients and bulk coral tissue and skeleton optical properties, but the multi-layered nature of corals and its implications for the optical, thermal and chemical microenvironment remains to be studied in more detail. Here, we present a multiphysics modelling approach, where three-dimensional Monte Carlo simulations of the light field in a simple coral slab morphology with multiple tissue layers were used as input for modelling the heat dissipation and photosynthetic oxygen production driven by photon absorption. By coupling photon, heat and mass transfer, the model predicts light, temperature and O2 gradients in the coral tissue and skeleton, under environmental conditions simulating, for example, tissue contraction/expansion, symbiont loss via coral bleaching or different distributions of coral host pigments. The model reveals basic structure–function mechanisms that shape the microenvironment and ecophysiology of the coral symbiosis in response to environmental change.


The laser cladding process consists in adding a molten blown powder to a partially melted substrate. this in order to change the substrate properties. The aim of this paper is to present different experimental set-up associated with different image processes in order to characterize the powder stream in the laser cladding process. Information such as the particle speed, the powder distribution in function of the nozzle distance are presented. The used algorithms as well as the experimental set-up arc presented and detailed.


Bacterial infections are an important public health issue, especially those difficult to treat due to antibiotic resistance. Besides the antibiotic resistance, the majority of bacterial strains have the ability of forming specific multicellular communities, named biofilms, which have an increased tolerance to all known antimicrobial substances, and also to the host protection mechanisms. This study had as objective the analysis of the antibiotic susceptibility, adherence capacity and biofilm development, as well as producing of soluble virulence factors, with an important role in the progression of an infectious process for Staphylococcus spp. strains used to obtain bacterial autologous vaccines.
Most bacteria were resistant to penicillin, erythromycin, fusidic acid and clindamycin. All tested strains, particularly Staphylococcus epidermidis ones, produced biofilm and adhered to cell cultures in vitro. They also had the ability to produce various soluble virulence factors (i.e., protease, pore forming toxins etc.).
In some cases, the treatment of pathogens involved in bacterial infections requires a personalized therapy, depending on the virulence particularities and resistance of the infective agent, in order to be effective, and at the same time, to have minimal side effects, both on normal microbiota and host tissues.


Pediatric dentistry has been associated with lots of fear and anxiety shown by children toward dental personnel and to dental procedures. Therefore, the stress factor is high in children visiting dentists, and this stress may increase or decrease in the subsequent visits that follow dependent on to what they are exposed to during these visits, especially treatments like pulp therapies. This study was designed to evaluate the salivary cortisol levels in children undergoing endodontic treatment. The salivary cortisol levels were investigated in 60 children who were divided into two groups: one study group and one control group. Pulp therapies were performed on the study group in four scheduled appointments. The control group was not subjected to any procedure. Saliva samples were collected from both the groups. Salivary cortisol levels were evaluated using the Salivary Cortisol Enzyme Immunoassay Kit. The results indicated that the salivary cortisol levels increased in the study group when compared with the children in the control group ( P < 0.001). The study concludes that the salivary cortisol levels increased in children who were subjected to endodontic treatment when compared with the children who were not subjected to any such procedures.


Performing Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of turbulence on large-scale systems (offering more than 1024 cores) has become a challenge in high performance computing. The computer power increase allows now to solve flow problems on
large grids (with close to 10^9 nodes). Moreover these large scale simulations can be performed on non-homogeneous turbulent flows. A reasonable amount of time is needed to converge statistics if the large grid size is combined with a large number of cores. To this end we developed a Navier-Stokes solver, dedicated to situations where only one direction is heterogeneous, and particularly suitable for massive parallel architecture. Based on an hybrid approach spectral/finite-difference, we use a volumetric decomposition of the domain to extend the FFTs computation to a large number of cores. Scalability tests using up to 32K cores as well as preliminary results of a full simulation are presented.


Book synopsis: Beyond the Rhetoric of Pain presents a fresh, interdisciplinary approach to the current research on pain from a variety of scholarly angles within Literature, Film and Media, Game Studies, Art History, Hispanic Studies, Memory Studies, Anthropology, Sociology, Philosophy, and Law. Through the combination of these perspectives, this volume goesbeyond the existing structures within and across these disciplines framing new concepts of pain in attitude, practice, language, and ethics of response to pain.

Comprised of fourteen unique essays, Beyond the Rhetoric of Pain maintains a common thread of analysis using a historical and cultural lens to explore the rhetoric of pain. Considering various methodologies, this volumequestions the ethical, social and political demands pain makes upon those who feel, watch or speak it. Arranged to move from historical cases and relevance of pain in history towards the contemporary movement, topics include pain as a social figure, rhetorical tool, artistic metaphor, and political representation in jurisprudence.


An ultimate goal of periodontal therapy is predictable regeneration of a periodontium at the site of a previous marginal periodontitis. Current clinical therapeutic techniques result in repair, and not regeneration with formation of a new connective tissue attachment. Studies have indicated that surface demineralization of dentin from root surfaces predisposes toward a new connective tissue attachment, and this attachment may take place in an environment lacking periodontal progenitor cell populations. The rôle of the root surface is considered regarding inhibition and facilitation of these various connective tissue responses.


Problem As of 2005, there was only one Seventh-day Adventist church within the Pennsylvania Conference that was providing consistent youth ministry. Many of the churches have seemed to have had difficulty finding individuals who have both the experience and the necessary training to lead a local church youth program. Due to the absence of local church youth ministry, the needs of the youth are being unmet and many are leaving the church. Method The method used to address this problem began in 2005. Training sessions were provided to potential leaders within the churches in the Pennsylvania Conference. There were five major training session weekends in which the foundational youth ministry elements of mentoring, missions, and meetings were used to help the local leaders develop a youth ministry at their church. In addition to these training sessions, the local leaders were given the opportunity to be mentored by the youth director for a period of one year. This project will evaluate the effectiveness of this local church youth leader development program. Eight youth leadership teams that were established as a result of this program filled out a twelve-question questionnaire that was used to retrieve date and measure results. Results The results showed the positive effect that this youth leader development program had on individuals from local churches who had a desire to have youth ministry in their church. Attendance from the training sessions showed that ten out of twelve churches that sent individuals to these trainings now have sustained local church youth ministries. Data received from the questionnaires revealed that many of the youth ministries are utilizing the areas of mentoring, missions, and meetings as foundational elements of their programs. The questionnaires also revealed that many of the youth ministries have not yet implemented all three foundations into their youth ministries. Conclusions This youth leader development paradigm is an effective program in developing youth leaders for the local small church who are capable in developing and sustaining a youth ministry program. The success of this program lies in more than just implementing programming based in mentoring, missions, and meetings. The training sessions and mentoring by the youth director empowered the adults to initiate a youth ministry program based in relationships.


This work seeks to solve one of the basic problems in chemistry learning: understanding the chemical bond as a dynamic equilibrium between attractive and repulsive forces. This force-based model is difficult to grasp, as there are no analogues from everyday life for both attractions and repulsions happening simultaneously. In addition, current teaching approaches often mislead by using mainly the 'octet rule' heuristic. As a result, students construct naïve models of the chemical bond, usually viewing atoms as solid balls that are attached to each other in order to "achieve an octet." To represent the force-based dynamics of the bond, we designed the ELI-Chem learning environment. This environment enables interaction as an atom with another atom while observing the underlying forces and the potential energy curve. Our theoretical framework is based on Embodied Learning theory by relating conceptual learning to bodily experiences. The study uses qualitative and quantitative methods with 21 high school chemistry students in a pretest–intervention–posttest design. During a 40 minute activity with the ELI-Chem simulation, students were prompted to discover the underlying forces of bonding and relate them to energy changes. Findings show that learning with the ELI-Chem simulation supports students in gaining the knowledge elements that are required to build the dynamic force-based mental model of chemical bonding, and to conceptualize chemical energy as due to forces. Finally, the design principles of the ELI-Chem environment are discussed. Aligned with science standards, attending to students' difficulties, and using the advantages of a computer simulation, the ELI-Chem environment provides an appropriate representation of chemical bonding, which is more valid scientifically yet makes the abstract concept accessible.


In this study, the vibration mixing technology is researched, and the effect of the vibration on the performance of recycled concrete is investigated. Through the analysis of the strengthened mechanism on the recycled concrete adopting vibration mixing, the vibration could increase of collision numbers between aggregates so as to purify the surface of recycled aggregates, and improve the interface between the recycled aggregates and cement pastes, and realize the macroscopic and microscopic uniformity of recycled concrete to improve the performance of recycled concrete. The performance of recycled concrete mixed by ordinary forced mixing and vibration mixing respectively, was compared experimentally. And the results indicate that the vibration could increase the air contents of recycled concrete, improve the mechanical performance of the recycled concrete, provide a favorable environment in order to enhance the microscopic structure and strengthen the recycled concrete.


We study the nonequilibrium aspects of the kinetics of a mixed spin-1 and spin-5/2 Ising system, including the biquadratic nearest-neighbor pair interaction (K) and the crystal-field interaction (D), under the presence of a time-dependent oscillating external magnetic field within a mean-field approach. The set of mean-field dynamic equations is obtained by employing the Glauber transition rates. We investigate the time variations of the average order parameters to find the phases in the system. We also study the thermal behavior of the dynamic order parameters to characterize the nature (continuous or discontinuous) of the phase transitions and to obtain the dynamic phase transition (DPT) points. The dynamic phase diagrams are presented in three dierent planes. The phase diagrams are discussed, and a comparison is made with the results of other kinetic mixed spin Ising systems.


A series of ten photographs made by Robin Collyer subtly responds to a private commission in memory of someone who has died. These views show various New Brunswick landscapes that recall both archetypes and a daily reality that is more or less common to those who live in the region. The views of a potato field and the facade of an office evoke the place where a specific family lives, whose story is attached to the site. View could be the portrait of someone contemplating the landscape, perpetuating the association between it and the gaze, between the landscape represented and the landscape shaped by human beings.


We propose a hybrid method to reconstruct a physically‐based spatially varying BRDF from a single high resolution picture of an outdoor surface captured under natural lighting conditions with any kind of camera device. Relying on both deep learning and explicit processing, our PBR material acquisition handles the removal of shades, projected shadows and specular highlights present when capturing a highly irregular surface and enables to properly retrieve the underlying geometry. To achieve this, we train two cascaded U‐Nets on physically‐based materials, rendered under various lighting conditions, to infer the spatially‐varying albedo and normal maps. Our network processes relatively small image tiles (512 × 512 pixels) and we propose a solution to handle larger image resolutions by solving a Poisson system across these tiles. We complete this pipeline with analytical solutions to reconstruct height, roughness and ambient occlusion.


Legislative decree n. 68/2011, implementing law n. 42/2009 on fiscal federalism,defines standard costs and standard financial needs in the Italian health sector and introduces significant innovations with respect to the previous resources allocation system of Essential Levels of Assistance (LEA) among regions, in force from the nineties. By downgrading the weighted capitation formula the resources allocation will now depend only on two criteria: the age groups of the population and the identification of some benchmark regions. The first criteria aims to relieve the Italian North-South conflict regarding the weights used in the capitation formula; the second has no influence on resources allocation given that the overall fund is determined exogenously. However, the new rules contain important ambiguities: if the estimated financial needs were lower than the overall financing fund, the new resources allocation process could produce benefits in favor of some regions with more contained weighted per capita expenditure. The paper sustains that the new system of resources distribution is based on an approximate methodology, without the capacity to appropriately address financial needs and inefficiencies. As a result, it appears to be riskier, the more standard costs and standard financial needs become the reference point used to calculate the full financing of health care expenditure.


Binocular stereo measurement system can obtain accurate three-dimensional information from two-dimensional images. It has been widely applied in many fields such as vehicle tracking, robot navigating, automatic crane lifting, as well as other fields. The crucial step of binocular stereo measurement is image matching. For the image matching, it is a great challenge to ensure both real-time and matching accuracy simultaneously. The image matching algorithm has a great influence on the image matching time and accuracy. In this paper, a real-time image matching algorithm for binocular stereo measurement system is proposed based on Speedup Robust Features (SURF) algorithm. In the proposed algorithm, firstly, the key feature points are identified by the original SURF algorithm method. Secondly, the main direction of the key feature point is determined by intensity centroid method. Then, the feature descriptor is calculated by the BRIEF binary method so that the time of feature description can be shortened. Finally, RANSAC (Random Sample Consensus) method is adopted to remove mismatching points. The experiments results show that the proposed algorithm can shorten image matching time obviously and improve the accuracy of matching points.


Clouds of ionized gas located inside our Galaxy provide a major supply of matter for fueling ongoing star formation. Without a source of new gas, our Galaxy would exhaust its supply of gas through the formation of stars. Ionized gas clouds observed at high velocity may be a reservoir of such gas, but their distances are key for placing them in the galactic halo and unraveling their role. We have used the Hubble Space Telescope to blindly search for ionized high-velocity clouds (iHVCs) in the foreground of galactic stars. We show that iHVCs with 90 ≤ |vLSR| ≲ 170 kilometers per second (where vLSR is the velocity in the local standard of rest frame) are within one galactic radius of the Sun and have enough mass to maintain star formation, whereas iHVCs with |vLSR| ≳ 170 kilometers per second are at larger distances. These may be the next wave of infalling material.


ABSTRACT The goal of this project was to protect children while parents work in agriculture by improving off-farm services for children of migrant and seasonal farm workers. Large agricultural enterprises have policies forbidding children in the worksite. At the same time, their employees, who are trying to generate income, seek as many work hours as possible but often lack viable options for childcare services. As employers strive to increase their labor pool, and workers seek off-farm childcare, there is mutual interest in improving access to childcare services in agricultural regions dependent on large numbers of full-time and seasonal workers. This report describes the employers' perspectives on childcare needs of hired farm workers' families and their barriers and motivators to facilitating off-farm childcare services. Using descriptive survey research methodology, data were collected from a convenience sample of 102 agribusiness owners and Human Resource directors attending an agricultural conference regarding labor laws or personnel management. Results revealed significant differences for those companies employing more than 25 workers compared to their counterparts. Primary motivators for offering childcare as an employment benefit were improved employee morale, enhanced company reputation, and a more stable workforce. A major barrier was that half of large-scale enterprises lack guidance on how to provide childcare options for their workers. Survey results are being used to facilitate collaboration among employers, farm workers, and childcare providers to offer a safe, nurturing environment for children while their parents work in agriculture.


The cytokine oncostatin M (OM) activates human low density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR) gene transcription through a sterol-independent mechanism. Previous studies conducted in our laboratory have narrowed the OM-responsive element to promoter region −52 to +13, which contains the repeat 3 and two TATA-like sequences. We now identify LDLR promoter region −17 to −1 as a sterol-independent regulatory element (SIRE) that is critically involved in OM-, transcription factor CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein (C/EBP)-, and second messenger cAMP-mediated activation of LDLR transcription. The SIRE sequence overlaps the previously described TATA-like element and consists of an active C/EBP-binding site (−17 to −9) and a functional cAMP-responsive element (CRE) (−8 to −1). We demonstrate that (a) mutations within either the C/EBP or CRE site have no impact on basal or cholesterol-mediated repression of LDLR transcription, but they completely abolish OM-mediated activation of LDLR transcription; (b) replacing the repeat 3 sequence that contains the Sp1-binding site with a yeast transcription factor GAL4-binding site in the LDLR promoter construct does not affect OM inducibility, thereby demonstrating that OM induction is mediated through the SIRE sequence in conjunction with a strong activator bound to the repeat 3 sequence; (c) electrophoretic mobility shift and supershift assays confirm the specific binding of transcription factors C/EBP and cAMP-responsive element-binding protein to the SIRE; (d) cotransfection of a human C/EBPβ expression vector (pEF-NFIL6) with the LDLR promoter construct pLDLR234 increases LDLR promoter activity; and (e) OM and dibutyryl cAMP synergistically activate LDLR transcription through this regulatory element. This study identifies, for the first time, acis-acting regulatory element in the LDLR promoter that is responsible for sterol-independent regulation of LDLR transcription.


It is known that in the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) problem when a robot's orientation is known, an estimation of the history of its poses can be formulated as a standard linear least squares problem. In this letter, we exploit this property of SLAM to develop a robust pose-graph SLAM framework that uses absolute orientation sensing. Our contribution are as follows: 1) we show that absolute orientation can be estimated using local structural cues; and 2) we develop a method to incorporate absolute orientation measurements in both the front and back-end of pose-graph SLAM. We also demonstrate our approach through extensive simulations and a physical real-world demonstration along with comparisons against existing state-of-the-art solvers that do not use absolute orientation.


The development of congenic mouse strains, strains which differ from their inbred partner strains by only a single selected character, was described; and three a examples of important finding made possible by the use of such strains were given. The first example showed how a gene in a major histocompatibility complex influences susceptibility to spontaneous leukemia. The second example illustrated how a particular constellation of genes in a congenic hybrid may lead to autoimmune disease that does not occur in either parental strain. The third example was concerned with function of major histocompatibility genes as identification markers which enable individual mice to recognize one an other by scent.


Quantification of flooding risk in urban areas is necessary as a decision-making support to stakeholders and policy-makers. It can also be effective in reducing the gap between perceived and quantified risk, in short- and long-term. The present work focuses on long-term flood risk assessment in urban areas in meso- and micro-scale. The meso-scale assessment may address an entire city; meanwhile, the micro-scale assessment covers smaller areas such as a neighborhood. This Ph.D. thesis is developed in line with the progress of the European FP7 project Climate Change and Urban Vulnerability in Africa (CLUVA). The flood risk assessment procedure is developed specifically for risk assessment in the African urban context. In the micro-scale, special attention is given to risk assessment for the informal settlements (i.e., non engineered construction). The informal settlements, which can be viewed as a direct product of rapid and un-programmed urbanization, are particularly vulnerable to flooding. They are often located in potentially flood-prone areas and are constructed without formal engineering criteria. The application of the methods adopted and developed in this work is demonstrated for various urban contexts in Africa. Meso-scale applications are presented for cities of Addis Ababa (Ethiopia), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania) and Ouagadougou (Burkina Faso). Detailed micro-scale flood risk assessment has been carried out for the urban informal settlements in the neighborhood of Suna in Dar es Salaam. A micro-scale flood hazard assessment has been performed also for the informal settlements located in the neighborhood of Little Akaki in Ethiopia.

The flood risk assessment problem can be sub-divided into three main components, namely, hazard, vulnerability and exposure. Two different approaches are adopted herein for flood risk assessment in the micro- and meso-scale, respectively.

The micro-scale flood hazard assessment procedure leads to the calculation of the inundation profiles --maximum flood height and velocity for each node within a lattice covering the zone of interest-- for different return periods. This is done, herein, based on both historical rainfall data and future climate projections for the precipitation. The relationship between flood height and velocity at a given point is approximated by a power-law relation. This way, only the flood height is going to be used as an interface variable for calculating flooding risk. Meso-scale flood hazard assessment in this work is based on a geo-spatial dataset of potentially flood prone urban areas, called the Topographic Wetness Index (TWI) map. In this approach, the flood-prone areas are identified by a TWI larger than a certain threshold. A GIS-based Bayesian parameter-estimation method is developed herein in order to estimate the TWI threshold based on the inundation profiles calculated for one or more micro-scale spatial windows. This Bayesian method is also used to estimate the TWI threshold based on the areal extent and delineation of flooding in previous flooding events.

Flood vulnerability assessment can be regarded as the back-bone of this work. An efficient Bayesian and simulation-based algorithm is developed for the assessment of the vulnerability of a class of buildings to flooding. This Bayesian algorithm is based on assigning prescribed analytic uni- and bi-modal probability distributions for characterizing the structural fragility functions. This allows for efficient calculation of structural fragility based on a small number of (around 20-50) Monte Carlo simulations. The fragility calculations, for each of the three limit state defined in the procedure, are performed on a bi-dimensional finite-element structural model considering the openings (door and windows) constructed using the open-source software Opensees. This vulnerability assessment procedure takes into account the various sources of uncertainty due to building-to-building variability in construction geometry and detailing, and lack of complete knowledge about material mechanical properties and about characteristics of flood action (loading). The uncertain parameters considered in this work are classified into, discrete binary variables (logical statements) and continuous uncertain variables. The uncertain parameters are characterized by employing various data acquisition tools and methods, such as, orthophoto recognition, building survey, laboratory tests for material mechanical properties and literature survey. Vulnerability of the class of buildings to flooding is represented herein through the robust fragility curves, calculated as the statistics (16th, 50th and 84th percentiles) of the set of plausible fragility curves, calculated by considering the above-mentioned sources of uncertainty.

Flood risk assessment in this work is developed both in meso- and micro-scale. The meso-scale flood risk assessment leads to the identification of urban flooding hot spots and the evaluation of exposure to risk. Arguably, identifying the urban flooding hot spots is one of the first steps in an integrated methodology for urban flood risk assessment and mitigation. In this work, three GIS-based datasets are employed for identifying the urban flooding hot spots for residential buildings and urban corridors (i.e., urban roads wider than 15 m). This is done by overlaying a map of potentially flood prone areas (Topographic Wetness Index, TWI), a map of residential areas and urban corridors (extracted from a city-wide assessment of urban morphology types (UMT)), and a geo-spatial Census dataset. For different statistics of the TWI threshold (e.g. MLE estimate, 16th percentile, 50th percentile), the map of the potentially flood prone areas is overlaid with the map of urban morphology units identified as residential and urban corridors in order to delineate the urban hot spots for both urban morphology types. Moreover, information related to population density is integrated by overlaying geo-spatial Census datasets in order to estimate the number of people affected by flooding. Differences in exposure characteristics are also assessed for a range of different residential types.

In the micro-scale, flood risk assessment for a single-class portfolio of buildings is performed by point-wise integration of flooding hazard and the robust fragility curves. Various risk metrics are adopted in this work, namely, the mean annual frequency of exceeding a specific limit state, the annual probability of exceeding a limit state, expected number of casualties and expected replacement/reconstruction costs. The micro-scale flood risk assessment approach can be viewed as a linear and modular path starting from precipitation data (based on historical data/climate projections), to flood hazard assessment based on analysis of the hydrographic basin, to simulation-based portfolio (class) vulnerability assessment, finally leading to the assessment of flooding risk.

A GIS-compatible computer platform with Matlab®-based graphical user interface is developed in this work: VISK, "Visual Vulnerability & Risk", flooding module. VISK basically mirrors the procedure for micro-scale flood risk assessment developed in this thesis. This is done by performing detailed (micro-scale) flood risk assessment for building stock with more-or-less similar characteristics. The GIS compatibility allows for graphical processing of both input and output to the program, providing an efficient visualization of flooding risk. The results can be visualized both in a detailed building-to-building scale (of potential interest to single house-holds) or as overall estimates for the entire area (of interest to policy makers).


This paper presents an efficient partial shape matching method based on the Smith-Waterman algorithm. For two contours of m and n points respectively, the complexity of our method to find similar parts is only O(mn). In addition to this improvement in efficiency, we also obtain comparable accurate matching with fewer shape descriptors. Also, in contrast to arbitrary distance functions that are used by previous methods, we use a probabilistic similarity measurement, p-value, to evaluate the similarity of two shapes. Our experiments on several public shape databases indicate that our method outperforms state-of-the-art global and partial shape matching algorithms in various scenarios.


This thesis investigates the role of optimization in two areas of Computer Science: Computer Vision and Machine Learning. Specifically, we consider two well-known problems in Computer Vision, namely motion segmentation and object category specific image segmentation, and a fundamental problem in Machine Learning, known as maximum a posteriori (map) estimation of discrete probabilistic models. In order to address the problem of motion segmentation, we propose a novel probabilistic model which is suitable for this application. Our model includes the effects of occlusion, lighting changes and motion blur. The segmentation of a given video is obtained by performing efficient inference on the probabilistic model in two stages: (i) In the first stage, an initial estimate of the model is obtained using a novel coarse-to-fine technique which reduces the time and memory required by the sum-product belief propagation algorithm; and (ii) In the second stage, the initial estimate is refined using the observation that the energy of the model can be efficiently reduced using the αβ-swap and α-expansion algorithms. For object category specific image segmentation, we extend the probabilistic model used in previous approaches. Specifically, we incorporate it with an object category model which provides top-down information about the shape of the object. Given an image, its segmentation is determined using two new algorithmic contributions: (i) We propose efficient methods for obtaining samples of the object category models of our choice by matching them to the given image; and (ii) We make the (not obvious) observation that these samples can be quickly marginalized within the em framework using one st-mincut operation. We compare our method with the state of the art approaches and demonstrate significant improvement. Next, we present a theoretical analysis of previously proposed algorithms for map estimation which are based on convex relaxations. In particular, we show that a widely used linear programming (lp) relaxation strictly dominates (i.e. provides a better approximation than) some recently proposed Quadratic Programming (qp) and Second Order Cone Programming (socp) relaxations. We generalize this result to show that, despite the flexibility in the form of objective function and constraints offered by qp and socp, the lp relaxation dominates a large class of qp and socp relaxations. As a consequence of our analysis, we obtain two new socp relaxations which dominate the previous approaches. Finally, we consider the problem of efficiently solving the new socp relaxations. To this end, we build upon the tree reweighted message passing framework. We propose convergent algorithms which iteratively optimize the Lagrangian dual of the socp relaxations. These algorithms allow us to empirically verify our theoretical analysis using both synthetic and real data.


that ships can be kept free from rats by the judicious use of sulphur fumes, applied at suitable intervals. This need entail neither great trouble nor expense worth mention, nor important interference with the course of trade. Much would be done to prevent interchange between ship and shore rats if the slight precautions in mooring vessels prescribed by the regulations of the Board of Health were universally taken.


In 2011, Rio Tinto Alcan, one of the world's largest producers of aluminium, announced the closure of the smelter at Lynemouth, Northumberland, north-east England. The plant, a major local employer, finally closed in March 2013. This article examines global concerns about environmental emission standards and the costs of compliance. This plant's closure is a success in green terms. However, where closure is officially considered a compliance option, costs to deprived communities are high. From a (green) victimological perspective, the article contemplates the hidden costs of closure on already deprived local and regional communities. The discussion focuses on how green crime and green compliance creates victimization and reflects on the moral and ethical challenges this presents for a green criminology.


Poly(γ-benzyl-L-glutamate) (PBLG), a synthetic polypeptide, is soluble in organic solvents. Conformations and aggregation of PBLG were studied by vibrational circular dichroism spectroscopy (VCD) at various concentrations or acidities. In some solvents PBLG exhibits an α--helical conformation. The aggregation of PBLG was followed in CDCl3, CHCl3, C6D6 and C6D5NO2. A decrease in aggregation was observed in 5 or 10 vol.% solutions of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) in CHCl3. The polyproline II conformation of PBLG was observed in 15 or 20 vol.% TFA solution in CHCl3. In other solvents such as benzene, PBLG strongly aggregates; the formation of cholesteric liquid crystals was observed at concentrations higher than 50 g l−1. These highly ordered structures were characterized by VCD signals that are about 100 times stronger than for PBLG in CDCl3.


BACKGROUND
Bacterial infections occurring during labour, childbirth, and the puerperium may be associated with considerable maternal and perinatal morbidity and mortality. Antibiotic prophylaxis might reduce wound infection incidence after an episiotomy, particularly in situations associated with a higher risk of postpartum perineal infection, such as midline episiotomy, extension of the incision, or in settings where the baseline risk of infection after vaginal birth is high. However, available evidence is unclear concerning the role of prophylactic antibiotics in preventing infections after an episiotomy.

OBJECTIVES
To assess whether routine antibiotic prophylaxis before or immediately after incision or repair of episiotomy for women with an uncomplicated vaginal birth, compared with either placebo or no antibiotic prophylaxis, prevents maternal infectious morbidities and improves outcomes.

SEARCH METHODS
We searched the Cochrane Pregnancy and Childbirth's Trials Register, LILACS, ClinicalTrials.gov, and the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform (ICTRP) on 24 July 2017, and screened reference lists of retrieved studies.

SELECTION CRITERIA
We considered randomised controlled trials, quasi-randomised trials, and cluster-randomised trials that compared the use of routine antibiotic prophylaxis for incision or repair of an episiotomy for women with otherwise normal vaginal births, compared with either placebo or no antibiotic prophylaxis.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two review authors independently assessed trials for inclusion and risk of bias, extracted data, and checked them for accuracy. We only found one quasi-randomised trial that met the inclusion criteria and was included in the analysis, therefore, we did not perform a meta-analysis.

MAIN RESULTS
We included one quasi-RCT (with data from 73 women) in the review. The trial, which was conducted in a public hospital in Brazil, compared oral chloramphenicol 500 mg four times daily for 72 hours after episiotomy repair (N = 34) and no treatment (N = 39). We assessed most of the domains at high risk of bias because women were randomised according to even and odd numbers, allocation concealment was based on protocol number, there was no treatment or placebo administered in the control group, we were unclear about the blinding of outcome assessments, and outcomes were incompletely reported. We considered the other domains to be at low risk of bias. We downgraded the quality of the evidence for very serious design limitations (related to lack of random sequence generation, allocation concealment, and blinding) and imprecision of effect estimates (small sample sizes and wide confidence intervals (CI) of effect estimates).We found very low-quality evidence, from one trial of 73 women, that there was no clear indication that prophylactic antibiotics reduced the incidence of episiotomy wound dehiscence with infection (risk ratio (RR) 0.13, 95% CI 0.01 to 2.28), or without infection (RR 0.82, 95% CI 0.29 to 2.34). No cases of other puerperal infections (e.g. endometritis) were reported in either the antibiotic or control group.The trial did not report on any of the secondary outcomes of interest for this review, including severe maternal infectious morbidity, discomfort or pain at the episiotomy wound site, sexual function postpartum, adverse effects of antibiotics, costs of care, women's satisfaction with care, and individual antimicrobial resistance.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
There was insufficient evidence to assess the clinical benefits or harms of routine antibiotic prophylaxis for episiotomy repair after normal birth. The only trial included in this review had several methodological limitations, with very serious limitations in design, and imprecision of effect estimates. In addition, the trial tested an antibiotic with limited application in current clinical practice. There is a need for a careful and rigorous assessment of the comparative benefits and harms of prophylactic antibiotics on infection morbidity after episiotomy, in well-designed randomised controlled trials, using common antibiotics and regimens in current obstetric practice.


This paper presents an investigation into student perceptions of the cloud assessment learning environment. The cloud assessment learning environment is a unique learning environment made possible by the recent advent of cloud computing and the associated technologies. The research questions addressed in this focus on how students engage with the environment, the factors of the environment that students perceive as either positive or negative, and also the conceptual change in student understanding of the environment. In order to investigate student perceptions of the cloud assessment learning environment a multi-method ethnographic case study approach was utilised for the study. Findings are presented on a number of key features of the cloud assessment learning environment, these include: lecturer monitoring, google docs as a tool, the feedback mechanism, cloud storage, and technology preference. In addition, findings relating to how students engage with the environment are also presented.


Unbiased understanding of molecular distributions in a disk/envelope system of a low-mass protostellar source is crucial for investigating physical and chemical evolution processes. We have observed 23 molecular lines toward the Class 0 protostellar source L483 with ALMA and have performed principal component analysis (PCA) for their cube data (PCA-3D) to characterize their distributions and velocity structures in the vicinity of the protostar. The sum of the contributions of the first three components is 63.1%. Most oxygen-bearing complex organic molecule lines have a large correlation with the first principal component (PC1), representing the overall structure of the disk/envelope system around the protostar. Contrary, the C18O and SiO emissions show small and negative correlations with PC1. The NH2CHO lines stand out conspicuously at the second principal component (PC2), revealing more compact distribution. The HNCO lines and the high-excitation line of CH3OH have a similar trend for PC2 to NH2CHO. On the other hand, C18O is well correlated with the third principal component (PC3). Thus, PCA-3D enables us to elucidate the similarities and the differences of the distributions and the velocity structures among molecular lines simultaneously, so that the chemical differentiation between the oxygen-bearing complex organic molecules and the nitrogen-bearing ones is revealed in this source. We have also conducted PCA for the moment 0 maps (PCA-2D) and that for the spectral line profiles (PCA-1D). While they can extract part of characteristics of the molecular line data, PCA-3D is essential for comprehensive understandings. Characteristic features of the molecular line distributions are discussed on NH2CHO.


When developing an aircraft, one of several important aspects is to predict and properly design the dynamic behaviour of the aircraft. This holds for manned aircraft as well as for UAVs. The optimal dynamic behaviour for an aircraft depends on the mission or purpose: for a certain use an aircraft should be agile, other may require a more stable one. In aeronautics, the properties that describe the aircraft ecacy with respect to some task are known as ying qualities, and our goal is to study their dependence on some design parameters. As a test model we use an existing UAV. After deriving its 6-DOF dynamic model and assessing its baseline characteristics, we perform parametric studies. The strategy followed is divided in two steps: the rst consists on analyzing ying qualities sensitivity to changes in model parameters. The second step studies how specific design changes affect model parameters. Because the rst step only depends on the dynamic model form, we verify, by testing two other dierent aircrafts, that conclusions drawn from this step are valid to other congurations. Finally we show how results from parametric studies can be used to improve the UAV ying qualities regarding a certain mission, through the introduction of slight modications on baseline design.


We have been unable to document a benefit of a combination of aminoglycosides with betalactam or carbapenem antibiotics in nosocomial meningitis. This was similar to the cases of sepsis, where survival of patients did not improve with combination therapy. Combination therapy did not increase the chance of appropriateness of the therapy. 30% of those on combination therapy were considered as inappropriately treated in comparison to 2.8% of those on monotherapy (p<0.01).


Person re-identification has been usually solved as either the matching of single-image representation (SIR) or the classification of cross-image representation (CIR). In this work, we exploit the connection between these two categories of methods, and propose a joint learning frame-work to unify SIR and CIR using convolutional neural network (CNN). Specifically, our deep architecture contains one shared sub-network together with two sub-networks that extract the SIRs of given images and the CIRs of given image pairs, respectively. The SIR sub-network is required to be computed once for each image (in both the probe and gallery sets), and the depth of the CIR sub-network is required to be minimal to reduce computational burden. Therefore, the two types of representation can be jointly optimized for pursuing better matching accuracy with moderate computational cost. Furthermore, the representations learned with pairwise comparison and triplet comparison objectives can be combined to improve matching performance. Experiments on the CUHK03, CUHK01 and VIPeR datasets show that the proposed method can achieve favorable accuracy while compared with state-of-the-arts.