Genetic polymorphisms of adrenergic receptors (ARs) have been associated with the development, progression, and prognosis of patients with heart failure (HF), with few data for the Brazilian population. We evaluated the role of the β2-AR Thr164Ile polymorphism at codon 164 on prognosis in a prospective study on 315 adult Brazilian HF patients, predominantly middleaged Caucasian men in functional class I-II, with severe left ventricular systolic dysfunction. Genomic DNA was extracted from peripheral blood and β2-AR164 genotypes were detected by PCR followed by restriction fragment length analysis. During a median follow-up of 3 years, 95 deaths occurred and 57 (60%) were HF-related. Unexpectedly, Ile164 carriers (N = 12) had no HF-related events (log-rank P value = 0.13). Analysis using genotype combination with β1-AR polymorphisms at codons 49 and 389 identified patients with favorable genotypes (Thr164Ile of β2-AR, Gly49Gly of β1-AR and/or Gly389Gly of β1-AR), who had lower HF-related mortality (P = 0.01). In a Cox proportional hazard model adjusted for other clinical characteristics, having any of the favorable genotypes remained as independent predictor of all-cause (hazard ratio (HR): 0.41, 95%CI: 0.17-0.95) and HF-related mortality (HR: 0.12, 95%CI: 0.02-0.90). These data show that the β2-AR Thr164Ile polymorphism had an impact on prognosis in a Brazilian cohort of HF patients. When combined with common β1-AR polymorphisms, a group of patients with a combination of favorable genotypes could be identified.


In "Wild Grass" Pulitzer Prize-winning Ian Johnson describes a China caught between the desire for change percolating up from below and the ossified political structure above. He recounts the stories of three ordinary people who find themselves finding oppression and government corruption, risking imprisonment and even death. A young architecture student, a bereaved daughter, and a peasant legal clerk are the unlikely heroes of these stories, private citizens cast by unexpected circumstances into surprising roles.


Competence building of a corporation is a vital choice for a third-party logistics (TPL) provider for it to face drastic challenges, and the issue of competence building has attracted the attention of both academic and business communities. The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how an appliance maker can build TPL competence, and the research questions of the thesis are as follows: (1) What are the main factors in building the competence of a TPL enterprise? (2) What are the advantages of building logistics-related competence for Haier Logistics? (3) How important is logistics competence for Haier?By applying a qualitative research method, the present study takes Haier Logistics as a case, a subsidiary of the Haier Group, which provides logistics services not only for all the companies within the group but also for other companies as a TPL services enterprise. The study identifies the main factors in building up logistics competence, the advantages of such competence, and the importance of such competence. The authors of the present paper have found out that six factors—namely, the integration capacity, the operation capacity of logistics, the innovation ability of logistics, the operation capacity of information technology, the marketing ability in logistics markets, and the capability of building logistics brand—are vital for Haier Logistics.


In this review we describe lessons learned from the authors' series of patients born with the most complex of congenital anorectal problems, cloacal malformations, with the hope to convey the improved understanding and surgical treatment of the condition's wide spectrum of complexity learned from patients cared for over the last 25 years. This includes a series of 490 patients, 397 of whom underwent primary operations, and 93 who underwent reoperations after attempted repairs at other institutions. With regard to the newborn, we have learned that the clinician must make an accurate neonatal diagnosis, drain a hydrocolpos when present, and create an adequate, totally diverting colostomy, leaving enough distal colon available for the pull-through, and a vaginal replacement if needed. A correct diagnosis will avoid repairing only the rectal component. For the definitive reconstruction, all patients in the series were managed with a posterior sagittal approach; 184 of whom also required a laparotomy. The average length of the common channel was 4.6 cm for patients who required a laparotomy and 2.5 cm for those who did not. Hydrocolpos was present in 139 patients (30%). Vaginal reconstruction involved a vaginal pull-through in 308 patients, a vaginal flap in 44, vaginal switch in 48, and vaginal replacement in 90 (33 with rectum, 15 with colon, and 42 with small bowel). A total of 220 underwent total urogenital mobilization, which was first introduced in 1996. Complications included rectal prolapse in 26, vaginal stricture or atresia in 18, urethrovaginal fistula in 13, and urethral atresia in 6. A total of 53% of all cases have voluntary bowel movements. The others are kept clean with a mechanical daily emptying (an enema) as part of a bowel management program. Indications for reoperations included persistent urogenital sinus after initial repair in 39 patients. Fifty-one had problems such as rectal prolapse, stricture, retraction, dehiscence or atresia, 29 had a mislocated rectum, 34 had vaginal stricture, retraction, dehiscence, atresia, or stenosis, 16 had urethrovaginal or rectovaginal fistulae, and 5 had urethral stricture or atresia. The series was divided into 2 distinct groups of patients where common channel measurement was known (n = 400): group A were those with a common channel < or = 3.0 cm (n = 225, 56%) and group B had a common channel >3 cm (n = 175, 44%). The separation into these 2 groups has important therapeutic and prognostic implications. Patients in Group A can be repaired posterior sagittally with a reproducible operation. Because they represent most patients, most well-trained pediatric surgeons should be able to repair these types of malformations, and the prognosis is good. Patients in Group B (those with a common channel >3 cm), usually require a laparotomy, have a much higher incidence of associated urological problems, and often require special maneuvers for vaginal reconstruction. Surgeons who repair Group B malformations require special training in urology; the operations are prolonged and technically demanding, and the functional results are not as good as in group A.


Observers from a variety of disciplines agree that informal settlements account for the majority of housing in cities of the global South. Urban informal settlements, usually
defined by certain criteria such as self-build housing, sub-standard services, and residents'
low incomes, are often seen as problematic, due to associations with poverty, irregularity
and marginalisation. In particular, despite years of research showing otherwise, policy and
academic discourses continue to emphasise a division between the 'formal' and 'informal'
city, meaning that informal settlements are often treated as outside 'normal' urban
considerations. This thesis argues that the discursive construction of urban informal
settlements in this way may contribute to their marginalisation, with material effects for
residents, including displacement and eviction. Moving beyond static, binary
characterisations of urban informal settlements, it aims to use a place-making approach to
explore the discursive, spatial, social, cultural and political construction of place in this
context, in order to unsettle some of the assumptions underlying these marginalising
discourses. Research was carried out using a qualitative, ethnographic methodology in two
case study neighbourhoods in Xalapa, Mexico.
Mexico offers fertile ground to explore these issues. Despite an extensive regularisation
programme, around 50 per cent of urban dwellers live in colonias populares,
neighbourhoods with informal characteristics. The research found that local discourses
reveal complex and ambivalent views of colonias populares, which both reproduce and
undermine binary categorisations relating to 'informality'. In particular, local policies
construct colonias populares in certain ways which may perpetuate their marginalisation,
but also reveal the complexities of power relations affecting neighbourhoods within the
city. However, it is a focus on residents' own place-making activities that hints at prospects
for rethinking urban informal settlements. By capturing these messy, dynamic and
contextualised processes that construct urban informal settlements as places, the analytical
lens of place-making offers a view of the multiple influences which frame them. Informed
by perspectives from critical social geography which seek to unsettle binaries and capture
the 'ordinary' nature of cities, this thesis suggests imagining urban informal settlements
differently, in order to re-evaluate their potential contribution to the city as a whole.


The effect of different soil types (alluvial, sandy loam, silty clay, black soil, laterite and red soil) on the multiplication of Pratylenchus coffeae and growth of banana plants was studied. The results revealed that maximum shoot length, girth at collar, number of leaves, number of roots, root length and root weight were evident in alluvial soil followed by sandy loam soil, whereas minimum plant growth parameters was recorded in red soil. Maximum root-lesion index was observed in silty clay soil (4.4) and alluvial soil (4.2) whereas minimum infestation was observed in red soil (3.2). The reproduction factor of nematode population based upon root-lesions and final root and soil population was maximum in silty clay soil followed by alluvial while minimum nematode population was recorded in red soil. The multiple regression equations pertaining to the soil physico-chemical properties versus nematode populations in both soils and roots were derived.


This research is initiated based on the desire at Nibag B.V. to professionalize their project management. This follows from the recognized opportunities for quality optimization and need for standardization by company management in the company year-plan. Based on this desire, a practical as well as theoretical study has been conducted. Despite all research and experiences in project management, failure rate of projects in general remains high and tailoring of project management approaches to the project situation was found in literature as a way to reduce this. Application of Project Contingency Theory (PCT) was identified to be a connection between project management and the project situation and extension of this theory contributes also to the theoretical relevance of this research (Howell, Windahl, & Seidel, 2010). By means of semi-structured interviews insights were derived on current approaches to project management, problems with these approaches and the relevant contextual factors on project management. By conducting a systematic literature review on contingency factors, a combination could be made based on theoretical as well as practical insights and a list of 28 relevant factors was constructed. In an online workshop with an innovative software tool, the top 10 of these factors was identified as well as the most important project management activities at Nibag. These elements were then combined in a possibility matrix and the data were derived from the practitioners. This process has lead to the construction of the decision tool with the likelihood of activities under certain circumstances. Next to this tool, a consensus matrix was created in order to visualize the diversity of opinions on this subject. Concerning this diversity the tool should serve well in being the foundation for a practitioners meeting in order to further professionalize project management and development of the tool. Ideas for this process are presented as the implementation guidelines based on brief analysis of change management literature. The described research process lead to the conclusion that the designed artifact is a first step towards a decision aid for practitioners to connect project management activities to the situation of the project and further evaluation, practical as well as theoretical, is necessary. In this development it is concluded that company culture is an important facet and especially the soft aspects of the change process should receive close attention. These conclusions lead to the formulation of the following propositions:  The decision tool should be used by project managers at Nibag, because this matrix provides insights in important activities under specific circumstances of their project. This is relevant, since we recognized the complexity of their decision making and hence support in decision making concerning the project management approach is desirable.  The second recommendation follows from the consensus matrix where it can be concluded that there is a great diversity in opinions on the values of the decision tool. It is therefore recommended to create a task force, consisting of project managers that have a clear image of the work processes, have considerable knowledge on project management and above all have a high social impact in the organization. They should organize a workshop in order to clarify this variety of answers with the other project managers. This is an important step
since the tool is all about the sharing of knowledge and the value of the matrix is based on the experience of the practitioners.  A third recommendation is based on the preliminary state of the design. Since the field of research is in its early days and a new artifact was to be designed, further development is needed. It might be that the selected top 10 of contingency factors will not describe the context to a sufficient extent or that additional information is needed with the matrix in order to be of practical use. Therefore we advise the company to thoroughly test this matrix in a pilot setting.  A fourth recommendation is to extent the matrix with tasks and techniques. This will operationalize the decision tool and makes it of even more practical use for the project managers. Use of new technology, for example an intranet, is crucial to make this knowledge explicit and available for all practitioners.  Fifth recommendation concerns the implementation process of the matrix. As concluded in the chapter on the deployment a holistic view to implementation is advisable. Based on earlier research, soft aspects concerning this type of change yields are often overlooked. It is especially the people that need attention and involvement of the practitioners in the further development of the tool is highly recommended. The task force, with project managers who have a high social impact, is critical in this process.  Finally, in line with recommendations two and five is the company culture. At the moment the culture is far from ideal to optimally conduct knowledge sharing. Momentarily, practitioners are not used to the transfer of knowledge and theoretical thinking on their project management approaches. Although this is gradually improving, attention is advised in order to optimize the company culture. Several techniques are suited to this end and a combination of further development of the matrix and optimizing culture is a possibility to efficiently use time and resources. Concerning the management of Nibag B.V. these propositions have the following consequences:  In order for practitioners to use the decision tool, further development will be necessary. This means that time and resources should be made available in order to further evaluate and conduct the pilot projects.  To increase understanding among practitioners and to higher the value of the tool, meetings should be organized which also implicate that time and resources should be made available.  In order to improve company culture and stimulate knowledge sharing, new initiatives are needed. This means that time and resources should be made available for research in cultural aspects, training and other valuable activities that contribute to the improvement of the company culture. Based on these recommendations this research contributes heavily in professionalizing project management in practice. Project managers are given a language with which they can discuss their approaches more efficiently and this yields optimization of project management at Nibag. Furthermore, the process in which this research was conducted has already helped the project managers in a first change towards a knowledge sharing culture.


Wilbur H. Durborough was an American press photographer employed by the Newspaper Enterprise Association, an agency which supplied feature news stories to the members of its syndicate, providing both pictures and text. After photographing Pancho Villa in Mexico in 1914, Durborough arranged with German authorities to travel to Berlin, eventually gaining permission to record the aftermath of German successes on the eastern front. Durborough returned to the United States and toured with the film in 1915–16. Apparently released under various titles, it proved most popular in the traditionally German-American regions of the mid-west. The National Archives received thirty-three reels of Durborough War Pictures in 1985. The paper examines the history of Durborough's film project, and raises various questions concerning the relationship of the surviving material to the version seen by audiences at the time of the film's release.


This paper presents a True Random Number Generator (TRNG) based on Flip-Flops with violated timing constraints. The proposed circuit has been implemented in a Xilinx Spartan 6 device. The TRNG circuit utilizes the metastability phenomenon as a source of randomness. Therefore, in the paper the influence of timing constraints on the flip-flop metastability proximity is discussed. The metastable range of operation enhances the noise influence on a Flip-Flop behavior. Therefore, the influence of an external stochastic source on the flip-flop operation is also investigated. For this purpose a radioactive source of radiation was used. According to the results shown in the paper the radiation increases the unpredictability of the metastable process of flip-flops operating as the randomness source in the TRNG. The statistical properties of TRNG operating in an increased radiation conditions were verified with the NIST battery of statistical tests.


The reduction in consumption of energy for disintegration of rock can be achieved by change from compressive mechanical crusing to fragmentation by tension. Of the two techniques for tensile disintegration of rock, instant decompression and electrical disintegration (ED), the latter technique has achieved a stage of development sufficient for its commercial implementation. The ED technique offers reduction in energy consumption, in cost of maintenance, and in the capital cost. The tensile character of the failure ensures the efficient liberation of minerals from the rock matrices. The thermal character of the electrical breakdown of rock provides the possibility for continuous contact between electrodes and rock fragments ensuring the tensile disintegration of solids.


Abstract A 65-year old male presented with selective amyotrophy of the right lower limb which, after a progressive course of some months, had stabilized 12 years previously. Physical examination showed amyotrophy involving the gastrocnemius and the quadriceps extensor femoris without sensory impairment. EMG suggested motor neuron disease. This case meets Hirayama and Serratrice's criteria for benign chronic monomelic amyotrophy. We support the hypothesis of a casual vascular factor, as proposed by Hirayama.


Seven cases of peritoneal hydatidosis were reviewed. Of these, one had disseminated primary peritoneal echinococcosis, a rare presentation, whereas the rest were secondary to hepatic or splenic lesions. They were treated with a preoperative course of antihelminthics followed by surgery, which consisted of removal of the peritoneal cysts along with de-roofing and omentoplasty for the hepatic lesions and splenectomy for the splenic hydatid. During follow up, all patients were given a three-month course of albendazole and are doing well.


Callus induction method can be used as tool in producing plant secondary metabolites. One of this compound found in roselle ( Hibiscus sabdariffa L.) is antioxidant agent i.e ascorbic acid and carotenoid. The callus could be induced from any kind of explants in tissue culture. The aims of this experiment is to select explant which can encourage of callus formation beside high level of antioxidant compounds. The treatment of experiment was three kinds of explants i.e section of leaf, petiole and flower sepal. Sterilized explants were planted in MS (Murashige&Skoog) combined with 2 mg/L NAA dan 5 mg/L BAP. This experiment has been conducted by completly randomized design with 5 replicates Growth variable, included fres h weight callus, growth presentation, callus respons and biochemical variable like content of ascorbic acid and carotenoid were analyzed. The data were analyzed by analysis of varian and Duncan's test at 95% significant level. Thed results showed that all kinds of explant dedifferentiated into callus which antioxidant content. Callus from leaf section had the higgest fresh weight with high level ascorbic acid. Whereas the higgest carotenoid level was obtained from callus -derived flower sepals. It conclused that in vitro callus was useful for producing plant biochemical compounds.


The microstructure, high temperature tensile behavior of the DS NiAl-Cr(Mo)-W/Nb alloy have been investigated. The transverse microstructure of the alloy consists typically of eutectic colonies of NiAl and Cr(Mo) phase with white phases segregating at the cell boundaries. The white phase is possibly Cr(Mo) phase containing large amount of Nb and W elements. The longtitudinal microstructure of the alloy is lamellar with the direction basically parallel to the directional solidification direction. The tensile yield strength and ultimate strength of the DS NiAl-Cr(Mo)-W/Nb alloy are much higher than that of the general cast NiAl-Cr(Mo)-W/Nb alloy, and the elongation of the alloy is also higher than that of the general cast alloy. The fracture is debonding along phase boundary and cleavage.


Biking and walking are active commuting, which is considered an opportunity to create healthy habits. Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the main environmental and psychosocial barriers perceived by students, leading to less Active Commuting (AC) to university and to not reaching the Physical Activity (PA) recommendations. Material and Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 1349 university students (637 men and 712 women) were selected. A self-reported questionnaire was applied to assess the mode of commuting, PA level and barriers to the use of the AC. Results: Women presented higher barriers associated with passive commuting than men. The main barriers for women were "involves too much planning" (OR: 5.25; 95% CI: 3.14–8.78), "It takes too much time" (OR: 4.62; 95% CI: 3.05–6.99) and "It takes too much physical effort " (OR: 3.18; 95% CI: 2.05–4.94). In men, the main barriers were "It takes too much time" (OR: 4.22; 95% CI: 2.97–5.99), "involves too much planning" (OR: 2.49; 95% CI: 1.67–3.70) and "too much traffic along the route" (OR: 2.07; 95% CI: 1.47–2.93). Psychosocial barriers were found in both sexes. Conclusions: Psychosocial and personal barriers were more positively associated with passive commuting than environmental barriers. Interventions at the university are necessary to improve the perception of AC and encourage personal organization to travel more actively.


The mode of sterilization (filtration or heat) was found to significantly affect the activity of trypsin solutions. Trypsin activity was substantially reduced in the initial fractions of filtrate passed through asbestos filter pads; heat-sterilized trypsin was satisfactory for transfer of cell cultures grown on glass. Heat-sterilized trypsin may be useful when elimination of filterable organisms is required.


A small-gain approach is presented for analyzing exponential stability of a class of (dynamical) hybrid systems. The systems considered in the paper are composed of finite-dimensional dynamics, represented by a linear ordinary differential equation (ODE), and infinite-dimensional dynamics described by a parabolic partial differential equation (PDE). Exponential stability is established under conditions involving the maximum allowable sampling period (MASP). This new stability result is shown to be useful in the design of sampled-output exponentially convergent observers for linear systems that are described by an ODE–PDE cascade. The new stability result also proves to be useful in designing practical approximate observers involving no PDEs.


The objective of this research was to compare the effectiveness of the GARCH method with machine learning techniques in predicting asset volatility in the main Latin American markets. The daily squared return was utilized as a volatility indicator, and the accuracy of the predictions was assessed using root mean square error (RMSE) and mean absolute error (MAE) metrics. The findings consistently demonstrated that the linear SVR-GARCH models outperformed other approaches, exhibiting the lowest MAE and MSE values across various assets in the test sample. Specifically, the SVR-GARCH RBF model achieved the most accurate results for the IPC asset. It was observed that GARCH models tended to produce higher volatility forecasts during periods of heightened volatility due to their responsiveness to significant past changes. Consequently, this led to larger squared prediction errors for GARCH models compared to SVR models. This suggests that incorporating machine learning techniques can provide improved volatility forecasting capabilities compared to the traditional GARCH models.


This volume takes as its area of study the periphery of the core areas of Hallstatt culture in Baden-Wurttemburg and Bavaria, including the so-called 'princely residences'. Through the use of a Geographic Information System (GIS), a tool well suited to the field of settlement research sites, the author explores the relationship between the inhabitants and their environment, and especially their ability to expoit environmental preconditions. The book (with CD) includes an extensive catalogue of sites and finds.


Objectives A long-term abnormal blood lipid profile increases the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD). A probable protective role may be played by the Mediterranean diet. The aim of this study was to assess prevalence of dyslipidaemia, assess blood lipid status and treatment and examine the association between blood lipids, dyslipidaemia and Mediterranean diet. Methods Data were from the Hellenic National Nutrition and Health Survey (HNNHS). Data from 3775 adults (40.8% males) were obtained by trained personnel and disease status was categorized according to the International Classification of Diseases codes (10th version). Blood lipid measurements were obtained from a subsample (N = 1080, mean age 40.1 years; 37.8% male). The Mediterranean diet score (MedDiet score) was calculated from 24-h recalls. The relationships between higher MedDiet score (>23), lipid levels and status were examined using linearized multiple linear and logistic regressions, respectively. Results In total, 20.7% of the population was dyslipidaemic, with 59.0% (no sex differences) receiving treatment, and 46.6% of the treated having a normal lipid profile. Lipid status awareness was 35.5% (64.5% unaware). Males aged 19–39 had higher total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol and triglycerides, and lower high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels than females (in mg/dl; p for all <0.05); these were significantly higher in overweight and obese individuals in all age groups, except high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (p for all <0.001). Higher MedDiet score was associated with significantly lower low-density lipoprotein cholesterol in the pooled sample (−6.39 mg/dl; 95% confidence interval (CI): −12.60, 0.17), in all males (−10.61 mg/dl; 95% CI: −19.89, −1.34) and in overweight and obese males (−15.6 mg/dl; 95% CI: −29.25, –1.94). Conclusion This study underlines the abnormal lipid profile in the young, mostly male, population who are highly unaware and under-treated.


We report the first evidence of a hot corino in a Bok globule. This is based on ALMA observations in the 1.2 mm band toward the low-mass Class 0 protostar IRAS 19347+0727 in B335. Saturated complex organic molecules (COMs), CH3CHO, HCOOCH3, and NH2CHO, are detected in a compact region within a few 10 au around the protostar. Additionally, CH3OCH3, C2H5OH, C2H5CN, and CH3COCH3 are tentatively detected. Carbon-chain related molecules, CCH and c-C3H2, are also found in this source, whose distributions are extended over a scale of a few 100 au. On the other hand, sulfur-bearing molecules CS, SO, and SO2 have both compact and extended components. Fractional abundances of the COMs relative to H2 are found to be comparable to those in known hot corino sources. Though the COMs lines are as broad as 5–8 km s−1, they do not show obvious rotation motion in the present observation. Thus, the COMs mainly exist in a structure whose distribution is much smaller than the synthesized beam (0.″58 × 0.″52).


Lepidopteran larvae oral secretions and regurgitant (R), which contain a plethora of potential elicitors, are known to dramatically change a plant's wound response. We demonstrate, with a detailed microarray and secondary metabolite analysis, that the two most abundant fatty acid‐amino acid conjugates (FACs) in the R of the specialist herbivore Manduca sexta (Lepidoptera, Sphingidae) can account for all measured direct (trypsin proteinase inhibitor: TPI) and indirect (cis‐α‐bergamotene) defences, the endogenous jasmonic acid burst that elicits them, and 86% of the induced transcriptional changes (89% up and 83% down) in its native host Nicotiana attenuata and hence are necessary and sufficient for the Manduca‐specific modulation of the wound response. FACs were not found in eggs, but detected in larvae of all instars after their first meal. FACs were found in all regions of the alimentary canal and in the frass, but did not occur in salivary or mandibular glands, extracts of which were not active in any assay. Individual larvae differed substantially in their FAC composition and two FAC chemotypes were discernible: N‐linolenoyl‐L‐glutamine biased R and N‐linolenoyl‐L‐glutamate biased R. We created synthetic blends of FACs to mimic these chemical phenotypes and determined whether plants respond differently to the different R chemotypes. Micorarray and TPI analysis revealed that plants do not differentiate. N. attenuata plants use FACs from feeding caterpillars to tailor their wound responses but do not use the variability in FAC ratios to recognize attack from an individual caterpillar.


Objective. To evaluate the correlation between self-report of a prior history of chickenpox and results of varicella-zoster virus (VZV) immunoglobulin (Ig) G serologic test results in an outbreak of VZV infection among Thai healthcare workers (HCWs) and to conduct a cost-benefit analysis of establishing routine VZV immunization as part of an occupational health program on the basis of the outbreak data. Methods. All exposed patients received prophylaxis and the HCWs in our 3 intensive care units (ICUs) were prospectively evaluated. HCWs were assessed for disease history and serologic evidence of VZV IgG. A cost-benefit analysis was performed. Results. After 140 HCWs and 18 ICU patients were exposed to VZV, 10 HCWs (7%) with active VZV infection were relieved from work until skin lesions were crusted. Acyclovir (ACV) was prescribed to all 10 HCWs with active disease, and all 18 exposed patients received prophylaxis with ACV. Of 140 HCWs, 100 consented to longitudinal follow-up. Twenty-three (100%) of the HCWs who reported a history of chickenpox also had serologic test results that were postive for VZV IgG, compared with 30 (39%) of 77 HCWs who reported no prior history of chickenpox, yet had test results that were positive for VZV IgG. Reported history of chickenpox had a sensitivity of 43%, a specificity of 100%, a positive predictive value of 100%, and a negative predictive value of 61% with respect to VZV infection immunity. The total cost estimate for this outbreak investigation was $23,087. Conclusions. An HCWs reported history of chickenpox was a reliable predictor of immunity; a report of no prior history of chickenpox was unreliable. Our cost-benefit analysis suggests that the costs of an occupational health program that included VZV surveillance and immunization for the next 323 HCWs would be approximately equal to the excess costs of $17,227 for the ACV therapy, HCW furloughs, and staff overtime associated with this outbreak.


Background & objectives: Human physical variability has been a subject of interest for the scientists since a very long time. Being a powerful descriptive means of the human face, anthropometric nasal landmarks are used to compare two groups of population. Method: Anthropometric study of nasal parameters of two ethnic groups of Rajasthan state was carried out on 200 native respondents. Hundred were Jats and hundred were Sindhis. The age of subjects ranged from 19-25 years. Nasal height and nasal breadth were taken by using spreading calliper and the nasal index calculated. Results: The data collected was statically analysed and the result shows that mean nasal height for Jats and Sindhis were 56.42±3.70 & 55.84±4.61 respectively. Nasal breadth for Jats and Sindhis were found as 38.42±2.86 & 39.24±3.38 respectively. Conclusion: Thus the Jats fall within Leptorrhine type with nasal index 68.09 and Sindhis fall within the Mesorrhine type with nasal index 70.72 that showed significant relationship. Study is providing a useful baseline and an anthropometric data that will be of clinical and surgical interest.


Exposure of certain strains of mice to ultraviolet radiation (UVR) is known to suppress both local and systemic immune responses, including a reduction in the phagocytic activity of peritoneal macrophages. However, in many instances, the immunological effects have been observed following a single or a limited number of doses of UVR from sources containing a higher proportion of UVB than that emitted by the sun. The first aim of the present study was to establish whether a single exposure of C3H/HeN mice to solar simulated radiation (SSR) suppressed the ability of the peritoneal macrophages to phagocytose opsonised sheep red blood cells. The mice were irradiated with SSR from Cleo Natural lamps and a single dose of 31.9 J cm^−2 was found to be the minimal dose for significant suppression of macrophage phagocytic activity. Such a dose did not modulate the surface expression of I-A^k, CD11b, CD86 or FcγRII/III (CD32/16) on the macrophages. The second aim was to assess whether repeated SSR exposures with a dose below the minimal immunosuppressive dose affected macrophage activity and, if so, to test for photoadaptation by repeated exposures followed by a single, normally immunosuppressive dose of SSR, and then assaying the macrophage activity. Groups of mice were irradiated on each of 2, 10 and 30 days with 14.9 J cm^−2 SSR, followed in some instances by a single additional exposure of 31.9 J cm^−2 on the same day as the last irradiation. The phagocytic activity of the peritoneal macrophages was tested 24 h later. It was reduced by 32%, 18% and 4% respectively after 2, 10 and 30 repeated exposures to SSR, and by 39%, 21% and 7% respectively after 2, 10 and 30 repeated exposures plus the additional higher dose at the end. Thus, although the macrophage activity was initially suppressed by the SSR, photoadaptation of this immune parameter occurred following repeated exposures.


The paper analyses traditional quality control methods for business processes and their efficiency in respect to semi-structured process. We update a classical methodology to handle semistructured processes: improve its execution and operational efficiency in a company. We propose Some new methods: under the Define step – a new method for describing business processes with the help of semantic maps; under the Measure step – a new method for the automated detection of non-random deviations (bottlenecks, errors); under the Analyse step – a new method for automated experts search to identify the root causes of business process problems based on an analysis of the information field.


A six-port circuit centered at 10 GHz based on substrate integrated waveguide (SIW) is proposed. The six-port circuit is composed of one power divider and three 90°-hybrid couplers and fed by microstrips through tapered transition line. The size of six-port circuit is only 17.5⋆6.1cm2. The simulation results have shown the good performance of this integrated structure.


Background: A class of analgesic α-conotoxins potently inhibits N-type calcium channels. Results: The activity of α-conotoxins Vc1.1 and RgIA was reduced following knockdown of GABAB receptor expression in sensory neurons and could be reconstituted in HEK 293 cells expressing human GABAB receptors and Cav2.2. Conclusion: GABAB receptors are needed for inhibition of Cav2.2 by Vc1.1 and RgIA. Significance: These analgesic α-conotoxins activate human GABAB receptors. α-Conotoxins Vc1.1 and RgIA are small peptides isolated from the venom of marine cone snails. They have effective anti-nociceptive actions in rat models of neuropathic pain. Pharmacological studies in rodent dorsal root ganglion (DRG) show their analgesic effect is mediated by inhibition of N-type (Cav2.2) calcium channels via a pathway involving γ-aminobutyric acid type B (GABAB) receptor. However, there is no direct demonstration that functional GABAB receptors are needed for inhibition of the Cav2.2 channel by analgesic α-conotoxins. This study examined the effect of the GABAB agonist baclofen and α-conotoxins Vc1.1 and RgIA on calcium channel currents after transient knockdown of the GABAB receptor using RNA interference. Isolated rat DRG neurons were transfected with small interfering RNAs (siRNA) targeting GABAB subunits R1 and R2. Efficient knockdown of GABAB receptor expression at mRNA and protein levels was confirmed by quantitative real time PCR (qRT-PCR) and immunocytochemical analysis, respectively. Whole-cell patch clamp recordings conducted 2–4 days after transfection showed that inhibition of N-type calcium channels in response to baclofen, Vc1.1 and RgIA was significantly reduced in GABAB receptor knockdown DRG neurons. In contrast, neurons transfected with a scrambled nontargeting siRNA were indistinguishable from untransfected neurons. In the HEK 293 cell heterologous expression system, Vc1.1 and RgIA inhibition of Cav2.2 channels needed functional expression of both human GABAB receptor subunits. Together, these results confirm that GABAB receptors must be activated for the modulation of N-type (Cav2.2) calcium channels by analgesic α-conotoxins Vc1.1 and RgIA.


Aspects of criminological theory are premised on the belief that criminals make poor decisions. There have been suggestions that individual differences in self-control, willpower, impulsivity, time orientation, or more recently, thoughtfully reflective decision making (TRDM) influence choices and, ultimately, deviant outcomes. While much of the literature suggests there are differences among these concepts, they are often used interchangeably or at least noted to share common ground. Using survey data collected from university undergraduate students, this article explores the conceptual and empirical overlap and areas of distinction between key theoretical constructs. Using hypotheses derived from a dual-systems model, findings suggest impulsivity, self-control, temptation, and TRDM are distinct but interrelated constructs. Impulsivity was positively related to intentions to drink and drive in a hypothetical scenario, but temptation, self-control, and TRDM had no significant effect on intentions. Consistent with a dual-systems conceptualization, we found impulsivity and self-control work in tandem, as the risk of drinking and driving was highest for those respondents who were highly impulsive and had low self-control. Future research may seek to use a dual-system model to further reconcile trait-based and decision-based models of criminological theory.


Ludong (Cestraeus plicatilis Valenciennes 1836) has been declared as an endangered species by the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) in the Cagayan River Systems. Thus, BFAR is planning to ban ludong fishing for five years that will be complemented by changes in the current conservation program. This study determined and valued the program features preferred by 282 respondents from eight major ludong fishing and trading sites along the Cagayan River Systems in provinces of Cagayan and Isabela for the BFAR's 5-year proposed revised ludong conservation program using a choice experiment approach. The heterogeneity of the respondent's preferences for these program features was also determined. The respondents had the highest mean willingness to pay (PhP 534.07 per year) for a conservation program that has the lowest negative income impacts to them given their heavy reliance to fishing as income and food source. This program bans only ludong fishing gears from October to December 15, provides income benefits to them during the 2.5 months seasonal ban for ludong and provides information and education about ludong via a medium that is easily and widely accessible to them. The differences of their willingness to pay for these program features are low.


The effects of oleandrin, a cardiac glycoside, were tested on the cardiovascular system of anesthetized dogs with an intact circulation. Oleandrin, administered intravenously, at dosages of 0.01 (Group I), 0.02 (Group II), and 0.05 (Group III) mg/kg, did not affect the mean heart rate significantly in any of the groups of dogs studied. Results were most consistent with 0.05 mg/kg of oleandrin in Group III producing a significant increase in aortic systolic, aortic mean, and left ventricular peak pressures. Oleandrin increased the inotropic state of the heart in all groups of dogs to some extent and the magnitude of change was directly related to the amount of the drug injected. The increased contractility was expressed as a rise in the indices of max dp/dt and max dp/dt/IP, and as a decrease in t-dp/dt. In Group III, with 0.05 mg/kg of oleandrin, left ventricular contractility increased by over 50% as judged from these indices. Oleandrin, in the majority of the dogs, shifted the pressure-velocity curves upward and to the right, increasing both VCE and Vmax. In Group III the increase in Vmax was 32%. The results indicate that oleandrin in the intact, normal dog produced responses that are both qualitatively and quantitatively similar to those seen with the better known cardiac glycosides.


Purpose of tkis section of tke report. As with other content subjects discussed in Chapter V of this report, the teaching of literature, in the more restricted meaning of the term, presents special problems which have to be considered in a survey of reading. Literature has in the past been most often taught by analytic methods supposedly or actually appropriate for reading as study. The chief purpose of this chapter is to present the need for a portion of the school day devoted entirely to recreational, as distinguished from work-type reading. It will include a discussion of the following points: (a) the purposes of literature in the school program; (b) the principles for selecting literature for grades and high schools; and (c) the principles of effective method in teaching literature.


The complex of spliceosomal U1A protein and its cognate SL2 RNA is a prototype system for protein-RNA binding studies. A major question is whether U1A protein alone is capable of undergoing conformational dynamics similar to structural rearrangements upon RNA binding. Using a fast temperature jump and tryptophan fluorescence detection, we uncover a ∼20 μs conformational transition for the Lys22Gln/Phe56Trp-only mutant of U1A, yet a Phe56Trp-only control mutant does not show the transition. To explain this observation, we performed extensive molecular dynamics (MD) simulations. The simulations explain why only the Lys22Gln/Phe56Trp-only mutant shows a fluorescence signal: in the other mutant, the tryptophan probe is not quenched upon structural rearrangement. The simulations support helix C movement as the underlying structural rearrangement, although the simulated time scale is faster than experimentally detected. On the basis of our MD results, we propose a reversible two-pathway three-state transition for the helix C movement and assign T-jump kinetics to a closed to semi-closed transition of the helix. Our result provides a specific example of how alternative protein conformations on the native side of the folding barrier can be functionally important, for example in conformational selection by a binding partner.


Objective: To evaluate the long-term effect of transcatheter renal denervation (TRD) on presence and severity of pathological structural changes of a brain in resistant hypertensive patients (ClinicalTrials.gov number NCT01499810). Design and method: Twenty three resistant hypertensive patients aged between 30–70 years were included in the study. TRD was performed as bilateral endovascular radiofrequency ablation of neural pathways adjacent to renal artery. Detailed clinical investigation, 24-h ABPM and brain MRI were performed in all patients at baseline and 12 months after TRD. Composite presence and severity of leucoaraiosis (LA), liquorodynamic disturbance, lacuna infarcts (LI) and focal white matter lesions (FWML) were scored by integrating index graded 0–8 in all patients. Results: Pathological structural brain changes were detected in 22 patients (96.7%). Periventricular leucoaraiosis was found in 20 (87%) patients (I grade – 17.4%; II grade – 43.5%; III grade - 17.4% and IY grade - 8.7%), liquorodynamic disorder in 21 (91.3%) patients. Lacunae were found in 12 (27.9%) patients and focal white matter lesions - in all patients. According to the changes of systolic blood pressure after TRD all patients were divided in responders (16, 69.6%) and non-responders (7, 30.4%). The severity of LA decreased by 13.5% in responders (p = 0.04). Subarachnoid space of the frontal and parietal areas of the brain decreased by 7–12 %, linear sizes of lateral brain ventricles decreased by 3–7 %, integrating index of structural hypertensive encephalopathy decreased by 13.7% (p = 0.004) while LI and FWML did not change. There was no significantly change in structural brain damages after TRD in non-responders. Conclusions: Our study demonstrates that TRD is associated with a decrease of blood pressure and the severity of leucoaraiosis and liquorodynamic disturbance of the brain for a long time in patients with resistant hypertension.


A novel terbium(III)-radical complex [TbIII(hfac)3(6bpyNO)] (Tb-6bpyNO; 6bpyNO = 2,2′-bipyridin-6-yl tert-butyl nitroxide) was synthesized. The intramolecular antiferromagnetic interaction in Tb-6bpyNO was confirmed by comparison with the magnetic properties of [TbIII(hfac)3(6bpyCO)] (Tb-6bpyCO; 6bpyCO = 2,2′-bipyridin-6-yl tert-butyl ketone) together with [YIII(hfac)3(6bpyNO)]. Tb-6bpyNO showed a hysteresis loop with negligible coersivity below 1.6 K. The dispersion of the magnetic susceptibility with an applied bias field of 2000 Oe gave the energy barrier Ea/kB = 21.1(8) K. In contrast, Tb-6bpyCO did not behave as a single-molecule magnet, despite having practically the same crystal field.


Some approximation procedures are presented for the system of equations arising from the large eddy simulation of turbulent flows. Existence of solutions to the approximate problems is proved. Discrete solutions generate a strongly convergent subsequence whose limit is a weak solution of the original problem. To prove the convergence theorem we use Young measures and related tools. We do not limit ourselves to divergence-free functions and our results are in particular valid for finite element approximations where one usually does not use functions with divergence equal to zero.


Evaluation of off-site mitigation entails comparison of utility changes between two sites. Choice modelling has been used to identify community willingness to trade-off attributes for two different types of stream in New Zealand. Estimated utility functions are used to derive marginal rates of substitution and stream attribute part worths which can be used to design or evaluate both on-site and off-site mitigation policy. Latent class multinomial logit models identified classes of citizens who valued stream attributes quite differently. Significant differences in values for some attributes on different stream types imply heterogeneous mitigation ratios across environmental attributes.


This study analyses how domestic regulation affects trade in services through commercial presence and to what extent regulation, level and heterogeneity, has an impact on the choice of mode of servicing a foreign market for total services, financial services, transport, communication, computer, and other business services. Regulatory heterogeneity is found to have a relatively large impact on trade through commercial presence. If all countries in the sample harmonized or recognized each other's regulation, total services trade through commercial presence could increase by between 13 and 30% depending on the country. The study also assesses what determines services suppliers' choice of mode. Modes of supply are found to be complementary to various degrees. Commercial presence is more dominant the more similar a country pair is as far as regulation and business environment are concerned and countries sharing a common language are more likely to trade through commercial presence. For some sectors it is found that the disadvantage of remoteness is amplified by strict regulation. In most services sectors trade liberalisation generates meaningful market access only if commercial presence is allowed. Furthermore, absence of explicit barriers to trade and investment is not necessarily sufficient to attract foreign investors.


This paper presents the current stock markets' situation of East African markets compared to Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE). The study uses weekly price indices of Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda, South Africa as a performance benchmark for the African market. The period used is from 17th January 2008 to 31st March 2017. The stock indices' returns results show in general that there is relatively moderate-to-low volatility. The Dar-es-Salaam stock index and the Johannesburg stock index show a higher volatility relative to the other stock market indices with the JSE showing the highest return of 0.117089 when compared to the East African market indices. The Vector Autoregressive (VAR) and Granger causality results capture the linear interdependencies among the given markets and illustrate that JSE has a low contributory impact on the returns on the East African markets. Besides, evidence shows that East African markets are independent, thus offering regional diversification benefits. However, integration is still underway.

 Key words: East African stock markets, stock market integration, vector autoregressive, Johannesburg stock exchange, correlation coefficient, volatility.


Background and Objectives: Heparinized plasma can be used for exchange transfusions in neonates and is usually collected by drawing whole blood using heparin as anticoagulant. The heparinized red blood cells and buffy coat cannot be used and are therefore discarded. To collect heparinized plasma more efficiently, a method was developed using an apheresis machine. Materials and Methods: With an MCS3p apheresis machine (Haemonetics), plasma was collected from volunteer donors as anticoagulant, heparin in saline (30,000 IU/l) was added in a 1:9 ratio. The activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) of the donors was measured before and immediately after the procedure, and various parameters were determined in the collected plasma. Results: In 2 collection cycles, an average of 456B52 ml (mean B SD; n = 20) of heparinized plasma was collected, and 504B57 ml (n = 2; donors with a high hemoglobin level) when 3 cycles were performed. The leukocyte and platelet contamination in the plasma (n = 22) was 1.11B0.92E106 and 0.05B0.22E109 per unit, respectively, which conformed to national specifications. Sodium levels were normal, but due to dilution of the plasma with heparin solution, potassium and calcium levels were about 20% lower than the serum levels in the donors. The donor APTT values were slightly longer after the procedure than before, but remained all within normal values. Conclusion: For the collection of heparinized plasma, apheresis has the advantage that (1) high-quality heparinized plasma can be harvested; VoxSanguinis


Pattern recognition techniques have been applied to extract information from electromyographic (EMG) signals that can be used to control electrical powered hand prostheses. In this paper, optimized spatial filters that enhance separation properties of EMG signals are investigated. In particular, different multiclass extensions of the common spatial patterns algorithm are applied to high-density surface EMG signals acquired from the forearms of ten healthy subjects. Visualization of the obtained filter coefficients provides insight into the physiology of the muscles related to the performed contractions. The CSP methods are compared with a commonly used pattern recognition approach in a six-class classification task. Cross-validation results show a significant improvement in performance and a higher robustness against noise than commonly used pattern recognition methods.


Purpose

The plague of unethical practices in global businesses has sparked much research on the role of ethics in today's business and society. One of the most effective tools to understand consumers' motivation and behaviour is segmentation. Hence, the purpose of this study is segment ethical consumers based on consumer-ethics variables (i.e. actively benefiting, passively benefiting, questionable behaviour, no-harm, recycling and doing good).

Design/methodology/approach

Using a sample from the general population in Australia (N = 517), a TwoStep cluster analysis was conducted using baseline consumer ethics psychographic measures. The analysis resulted in three distinct segments: "The Good Samaritans", "The Mainstream Ethical Consumers" and "The Unethical Consumers".

Findings

The results clearly reveal that segments do exist among consumers in regards to their ethical beliefs. The study shows that a large percentage of consumers are ethical, there is also a segment consisting of unethical consumers.

Research limitations/implications

The study shows that only a small percentage of consumers are highly ethical (i.e. The Good Samaritans). This shows an opportunity for educators and public policy makers to push the "Mainstream Ethical Consumers" to become the "Good Samaritans". The Good Samaritans are consumers who will go above and beyond to be ethical and more likely to do good toward the society.

Practical implications

Unethical consumers comprise a unique segment where researchers, educators and public policy makers need to focus on when addressing unethical consumer behaviour in the society.

Originality/value

This is one of the first few studies to segment consumers based on the consumer ethics scales. By understanding different segments within consumers, the results of this study will assist researchers, managers and public policy makers address unethical behaviour in society.


Conditions in James Lake vary from uncontaminated and nearly neutral pH conditions through most of the lake, to extremely low pH conditions (2.1 in places) contaminated with Fe, Al and SO4 adjacent to an abandoned pyrite mine near the lake outlet. Six assemblages representative of distinct arcellacean habitats were recognized in sediment-water interface samples collected in the lake using Q-mode Cluster Analysis. R-Mode analysis of this distributional data corroborates previous results indicating that arcellacean strains from within the same species are useful for discriminating environments. Cucurbitella tricuspis dominates most samples and had to be deleted from analysis to determine benthic faunal relationships. This species is seasonally planktic and thus readily transported; it should not be considered in intralake studies. Arcella vulgaris overwhelmingly dominates extremely hostile low pH environments (5.5) near the old mine site in samples where Shannon Diversity Index values of 1.000 are recorded. The highly variable pH in James Lake permitted the determination of precise boundary conditions for distribution of this species. These results indicate that Difflugia protaeiformis ''claviformis'' is an ideal indicator of industrial contamination under higher pH conditions. The D. protaeiformis ''amphoralis'' and ''acuminata'' strains are more closely linked to uncontaminated muddy substrates characterized by high proportions of diatoms, a probable important food source. The presence of Lesquerasia spiralis seems to be partially linked to substrate type with greater numbers typically found in coarser sediments.


The strong sequential core for two-stage economies with a possibly incomplete set of assets in period zero and trade in commodities in period one consists of those goods allocations that are in the classical core and moreover, after realization of the state of nature, in the core of the economy where executed asset contracts serve as initial endowments. The strong sequential core coincides with the classical core when all possible state-contingent contracts may serve as an asset. For finance economies it is shown that the strong sequential core is generically empty when there is an incomplete set of assets. Outside the setting of finance economies, we show that the strong sequential core can be empty even if there is a complete set of assets. If the set of constrained feasible allocations resulting from trading in assets, is enlarged to include also allocations outside the agents'' consumption sets, then a complete set of assets is sufficient for the equivalence of the resulting semi-strong sequential core and the classical core.


This article investigates an inventory control problem in a single-level multi-component assembly system. In this system, a product with random demand is assembled-to-order from a number of components. The assembler holds inventory at the component levels. We consider a periodic review inventory control system that uses an order-up-to policy for each component. Component safety stock is held to protect against the stock out risk during component replenishment lead times. We develop a linear approximation heuristic to minimise expected holding and backlog costs and show that this heuristic performs well in comparison to a previously proposed heuristic method in the literature called the equal-fractile heuristic.


An intelligent monitoring device is an application which is developed for the security purpose and less storage convenience. The proposed system is applicable in any of the areas, which are needed to be monitored all the time using MAP-V Secucam. By combining the application and MAP-V Secucam we can use this system as an intelligent monitoring device. The MAP-V Secucam is used to catch the live images of the area in which it is being implemented, if any motion is detected, the MAP-V Secucam will be turned to recording mode. The recorded footages are stored in a particular folder. As the device detects the motion, it sends the alerts using web service. In this way the system will provide the security against any misdeed.


Abstract Continuing education platforms are faced with problems such as the aging of online learning platforms and backward technology. The data center network is an essential infrastructure supporting the big data and cloud computing platform continuing education network. It is widely used for data-intensive and massively parallel computing tasks. The paper proposes a continuing education network data center management model based on this research background. At the same time, this paper proposes a real-time encryption method for distributed data in a multi-layer differential continuing education network based on fractional differential mathematical equations. The experimental study found that the fractional differential mathematical equations method can effectively control the stability of data transmission of continuing education receipt networks. This algorithm improves the efficiency of network data operation and controls the cost of encryption. The research results of this paper provide technical support for network education.


Multiplicity, variability and incongruity in the meanings of risk encountered throughout the research process (and beyond) are key foci of inquiry within socio-cultural risk research, which attaches considerable importance to appreciating participants' perspectives, orientations and contextual understandings. These foci are also associated with epistemological and methodological dilemmas since in risk research, as in social science more widely, researchers' theoretical assumptions and problem formulations inevitably serve as key anchor points for the meanings that come to be assigned to phenomena, events and situations under investigation. In this article, we consider the idea of risk framing to explore how issues arising in connection with variability in the meanings of 'risk' are dealt with in three different socio-cultural projects utilising a variety of forms of in-depth qualitative interview and situated, contextual data analysis to investigate risks in intimate relationships, employment/career transitions, and nuclear hazards. The projects share the aim of seeking to understand how risk perceptions play out in people's everyday life situations in order to illuminate how people live with risk. The paper considers the framing of risk at three stages of the research process: constructing the research topic, presenting the research to participants, and interpreting meanings of data. A key argument established through comparative analysis of these projects is that consideration of risk framing is not only theoretically important but a key, reflexive resource for risk researchers.


The family physician today has many families in his/her practice who have decided on divorce and who turn to the family physician for guidance. The effect of divorce for children from infancy to age three years is primarily related to the mother's emotional adjustment to the divorce. Preschool and school aged children are most at risk for personality disturbances because of their emerging sense of identity and need for both parents as figures of identification. The adolescent is initially the most painfully distressed by the divorce but, in fact, is in time the least affected of all the age groups. An intervention aimed at helping reduce the pathological effect on the child's development is outlined, which includes an emphasis on the parents working together for the benefit of the children, the suggestion that the children be allowed as much continuity in their lifestyle as possible, and the need for each parent not to deprecate or blame the other so that the child may have a positive image of both parents.


Joint time–frequency scattering (JTFS) is a convolutional opera-tor in the time–frequency domain which extracts spectrotemporal modulations at various rates and scales. It offers an idealized model of spectrotemporal receptive fields (STRF) in the primary auditory cortex, and thus may serve as a biological plausible surrogate for human perceptual judgments at the scale of isolated audio events. Yet, prior implementations of JTFS and STRF have remained outside of the standard toolkit of perceptual similarity measures and evaluation methods for audio generation. We trace this issue down to three limitations: differentiability, speed, and flexibility. In this paper, we present an implementation of time– frequency scattering in Kymatio 1 , an open-source Python package for scattering transforms. Unlike prior implementations, Kymatio accommodates NumPy and PyTorch as backends and is thus portable on both CPU and GPU. We demonstrate the usefulness of JTFS in Kymatio via three applications: unsupervised manifold learning of spectrotemporal modulations, supervised classification of musical instruments, and texture resynthesis of bioacous-tic sounds.


This paper uses the national accident statistics of Great Britain to evaluate the effectiveness of Electronic Stability Control Systems (ESC) to reduce crash involvement rates. The crash experience of 8,951 cars is analysed and compared to a closely matching set of non-ESC cars using case-control methods. This is one of the largest ESC samples analysed to date. Overall the cars with ESC are involved in 3% fewer crashes although the effectiveness is substantially higher under conditions of adverse road friction. ESC equipped cars are involved in 15% fewer fatal crashes although this reduction represents the combined effect of ESC and passive safety improvements.


If analysts of political and ecological economy take seriously critical trends in environmental degradation and accept social responsibility for contributing to the reversal of such trends, they must go beyond the descriptive and predictive to the prescriptive, beyond marginal environmental improvement to sustainability, beyond cooperation and efficiency to sufficiency. Cooperation and efficiency principles are useful when biophysical underpinnings remain intact. Otherwise, sufficiency principlesrestraint, precaution, polluter pays, zero, reverse onusaddress the defining characteristics of current trends, namely environmental criticality, risk export, and responsibility evasion. They engage overconsumption. They compel decision-makers to ask when too much resource use or too little regeneration risks important values such as ecological integrity and social cohesion, when material gains now preclude material gains in the future, when consumer gratification or investor reward threatens economic security, when benefits internalized depend on costs externalized. Under sufficiency, one necessarily asks what are the risks, not just in the short term and for immediate beneficiaries, but in the longterm and for the under-represented.


The early Buddhist exegetical text, the Nettippakara ṇ a , apparently uniquely, describes the stages of the path as 'transcendental dependent arising' ( lokuttara pa ṭ icca-samuppāda ), in contrast with the twelve nidāna s, called 'worldly dependent arising' ( lokiya pa ṭ icca-samuppāda ). A close reading of the Nettippakara ṇ a in relation to another, related, exegetical text, the Pe ṭ akopadesa , reveals that the latter interprets the same stages of the path in a different way. More broadly, while the Pe ṭ akopadesa takes pa ṭ icca-samuppāda to refer only to the twelve nidāna s, the Nettippakara ṇ a 's exegetical strategy takes pa ṭ icca-samuppāda to refer to an over-arching principle of conditionality, both ' worldly ' and 'transcendental'. This exegesis has proved popular with m odern western Buddhist exegetes.


With the increasing communication between people, many taboo language problems emerge. Although a lot of Chinese scholars studied many aspects about English and Chinese taboos, there remains some margins: 1) the studies on English and Chinese taboo language mostly focus on a few of similar topics; 2) the research method is relatively simple; 3) Taboos are changing continually with time, the contrastive study of taboos between English and Chinese taboo language also needs further exploration. This paper mainly employs the method of comparative analysis to study English and Chinese taboos. After reviewing the basis of domestic and foreign literature on taboo words, and searching for internet resources, materials from TV programs and surveys to collect relevant language corpus, the author makes a systematic comparison between English and Chinese Taboos so as to handle properly the taboo words and facilitate the further understanding of taboos. In the final part, the author gives some suggestions on how to handle taboos of English and Chinese properly, which is helpful in promoting language learning and cross-cultural communication


ABSTRACT This article investigates the problem of matrix completion from the corrupted data, when the additional covariates are available. Despite being seldomly considered in the matrix completion literature, these covariates often provide valuable information for completing the unobserved entries of the high-dimensional target matrix A0. Given a covariate matrix X with its rows representing the row covariates of A0, we consider a column-space-decomposition model A0 = Xβ0 + B0, where β0 is a coefficient matrix and B0 is a low-rank matrix orthogonal to X in terms of column space. This model facilitates a clear separation between the interpretable covariate effects (Xβ0) and the flexible hidden factor effects (B0). Besides, our work allows the probabilities of observation to depend on the covariate matrix, and hence a missing-at-random mechanism is permitted. We propose a novel penalized estimator for A0 by utilizing both Frobenius-norm and nuclear-norm regularizations with an efficient and scalable algorithm. Asymptotic convergence rates of the proposed estimators are studied. The empirical performance of the proposed methodology is illustrated via both numerical experiments and a real data application.


This dissertation reports on a study of the four most widely-used10th grade literature textbooks in terms of the opportunities they provide for students to engage in coherent English language arts curricular units in which the texts, questions, and tasks provide opportunities for students to develop their own text-based interpretations and arguments, engage in focused inquiry about individual texts, and build conceptual understanding of overarching unit or text-specific concepts/questions. Data included the texts, questions, and tasks in two units per textbook, a short story unit and persuasion unit. Data analysis focused on (a) how the texts, questions, and tasks in each unit were structured to provide coherent learning opportunities that allow for students to build conceptual understanding of unit and text-specific concepts/questions, and (b) the extent to which texts and post-reading questions and tasks provide opportunities for students to develop their own text-based interpretations and arguments. The findings from this study show that despite all units including texts, questions, and tasks that cohere around overarching unit or text-specific concepts/questions, units are not structured to provide students with coherent learning opportunities that will allow them to build their conceptual understanding of unit or text-specific concepts/questions. This is due to the plethora of questions and tasks that are unrelated to the unit or text-specific concept/question or to each other. Additionally, findings show that many of the texts, especially in the persuasion units, do not provide opportunities for readers to develop multiple text-based interpretations and arguments about the ideas, arguments, characters, and events. Finally, findings show that the majority of post-reading questions in all four textbooks are recitation questions that have or assume one correct response. The findings from this study suggest that preservice and inservice educators must prepare teachers to use and modify literature textbooks in ways that are shown to improve student learning. Moreover, time must be provided in schools for teachers to work with colleagues to design instructional units that modify rather than rely on textbook units. Finally, findings from this study suggest that research is needed on how teachers use and what teachers learn from textbooks.


Territorial self-governance is an effective conflict resolution tool commonly used in countries where ethnic groups make self-determination demands. The success of territorial self-governance in resolving conflicts, however, largely relies on the way its institutional design is arranged. Power sharing mechanisms, at this point, emerge as central for the success of the design. In the light of these theoretical considerations, this thesis examines in detail the institutional design of Democratic Autonomy -the selfgovernance model proposed by the Kurdish movement in Turkey for the resolution of the Kurdish conflict- and aims to evaluate the extent to which the model can contribute to the resolution at issue. In order to conduct the analysis, Democratic Autonomy model is situated in an analytical framework which can manifest an effective tailor-made institutional design for a territorial self-governance arrangement with essential power sharing mechanisms. In-depth interviews conducted with prominent Kurdish actors and first hand documents obtained from the mainstream Kurdish organizations make up the data utilized for the study. In accordance with the analysis carried out, the thesis argues that Democratic Autonomy is a valuable project for an alternative governance for Turkey. Yet, for the time being, it appears unable to offer a genuine contribution to the resolution of the Kurdish conflict, as its institutional design has serious inadequacies and ambiguities, thus making it unable to manifest an effective governance model. Failing to put forth a strong substantiated design, it appears to remain more rhetorical than concrete.


Integrating recent scientific knowledge into management decisions supports effective natural resource management and can lead to better resource outcomes. However, finding and accessing scientific knowledge can be time consuming and costly. To assist in this process, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) is creating a series of annotated bibliographies on topics of management concern for western lands. Previously published reports introduced a methodology for preparing annotated bibliographies to facilitate the integration of recent, peer-reviewed science into resource management decisions. Therefore, relevant text from those efforts is reproduced here to frame the presentation. Sagebrush ecosystems throughout North America face management challenges including habitat loss and fragmentation. Brachylagus idahoensis (pygmy rabbits) are a sagebrush-obligate species that has experienced population declines and range contraction in recent decades. A disjunct population of pygmy rabbits in the Columbia Basin in Washington was listed as federally endangered in 2003. Due to their specialized habitat requirements and low dispersal ability, pygmy rabbits are a high priority for managers throughout their range. We compiled and summarized peerreviewed journal articles, data products, and formal technical reports (such as U.S. Forest Service General Technical Reports and U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Reports) on pygmy rabbits published between January 1, 1990 and December 31, 2020. We first conducted a structured search of three reference databases and three government databases using the phrase "pygmy rabbit" or "Brachylagus idahoensis." We refined the initial list of products by removing (1) duplicates, (2) products not written in English, (3) publications that were not focused on North America, (4) publications that were not published as research, data products, or scientific review articles in peer-reviewed journals or as formal technical reports, and (5) products for which pygmy rabbits were not a research focus or for which the study did not present new data or findings about pygmy rabbits. We summarized each product using a consistent structure (background, objectives, methods, location, findings, and implications) and identified the management topics (for example, captive breeding, habitat characteristics, and population estimates) addressed by each product. We also noted which publications included new publicly available geospatial data. The review process for this annotated bibliography included an initial internal colleague review of each summary, requesting input on each summary from an author of the original publication, and a formal peer review. Our initial searches resulted in 2,285 total products, of which 105 met our criteria for inclusion. Sensitive/rare wildlife, behavior or demographics, site-scale habitat characteristics, habitat selection, and effects distances or spatial scale were the management topics most commonly addressed. The online version of this bibliography, Science for Resource Managers, will be searchable by topic, location, and year; it will include links to each original publication, where available. The studies compiled and summarized here may inform planning and management actions that seek to maintain and restore sagebrush landscapes and associated native species across the western United States.


This report concerns the clinicopathologic features of 4 patients with CD56/neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM)-positive Langerhans cell sarcoma (LCS). Three of the patients were elderly, between 59 and 62 years of age at presentation, and the other was 35 years old. The presenting symptoms included fever, bone pain, and weakness. The patients shared some clinical findings, such as multiorgan involvement of lymph nodes, skin, lung, bone marrow, and spleen. LCS carries a poor prognosis, and 3 of the patients died of the disease within several years of presentation despite multiagent chemotherapy and radiotherapy. Of special interest is that all of the cases showed CD56 expression on the tumor cells in addition to expression of CD1a, S100β, and langerin, the presence of which suggests derivation from Langerhans cells. For control, CD56 was also examined in 8 cases of Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH), a single-system unifocal or multifocal disease, and the results of staining of the tumor cells were negative. Our findings indicated that CD56 may be a clinically relevant biologic marker for predicting an intractable course of Langerhans cell neoplasms, although it is often difficult to draw a definite morphologically-based distinction between LCS and LCH.


This new eugenics is simply the latest version of the age-old quest to make human beings--in fact, humanity as a whole--the way we want them to be: perfect. It includes our efforts to be rid of unwanted human beings through abortion and euthanasia. It more recently is focusing on our growing ability to understand and manipulate our genetic code, which directs the formation of many aspects of who we are, for better and for worse.


Presents a novel and robust method for leaf-position verification with a multileaf collimator (MLC). On the portal image associated with an MLC-generated treatment field, all true treatment-held-edge lines are either parallel or perpendicular to each other. This unique feature of an MLC treatment field has been fully exploited by the authors' method. Employing a Hough-type transformation as an edge-line-orientation detector and a chamfer-matching method, the authors can find the best matching parameters (including translation, rotation and scaling) adaptively between a prescribed MLC leaf configuration and the actual treatment-held edges generated by the MLC system. This works even if the portal image is partially corrupted by noise or covered by compact bony structures. Comparing these parameters with clinically accepted tolerances, the authors can make a "go-or-no-go" decision quickly.


Provision of safe drinking water, devoid of aetiologies is an all-time challenge due to the usage of unsafe chemicals in most of the water treatment processes. In this regard, proteins of Moringa oleifera (MO) provide most promising solutions, as its crude seed extracts are being used as natural 'water clarifiers' in drinking and wastewater treatments. Among MO seed proteins, a 6.5 kDa coagulant protein (MO coagulant protein; MOCP) has gained importance because of its antimicrobial and water clarification properties. Considering the biomedical and commercial values of the MO plant, in this study, the cDNA coding for MOCP was cloned and over expressed in E. coli BL21 (DE3). After bench-scale experiments, for the first time, the recombinant protein production was scaled up to 7 L bioreactors in Luria Broth supplemented with 1% glucose. About 42 mg of Moringa oleifera coagulating recombinant protein (MOCRP; 6.5 kDa) was purified using superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPION) from 1 litre of the over expressed E. coli cell cultures. The purified MOCRP revealed an efficient coagulation activity (∼66%) even with 0.1 mg L−1; while very good antimicrobial response was recorded against a set of Gram-negative and Gram-positive microorganisms at as low as 10 mg L−1. Thus, we report the over expression and purification of this dual-function protein (MOCRP) from moringa for the first time, using bioreactors with an economical and user-friendly approach for large-scale applications.


We examined the influence of the cytochrome P450 3A5 (CYP3A5) genes in both donors and recipients on the concentration-dosage ratio (C/D) of tacrolimus in Chinese liver transplant patients. Fifty-one adult liver transplant patients who received tacrolimus were included in this study. The CYP3A5 polymorphism in donors and recipients was determined at the time of transplantation, and tacrolimus-based immunosuppressive therapy was started based on each patient's genetic constitution. The relationship between the C/D of tacrolimus for 3 months after surgery and the CYP3A5 genotype was analyzed. A stepwise regression model was used to analyze the relationship between C/D of tacrolimus and genotype, time course, age, and liver weight in liver transplant patients. Three months after liver transplantation, C/D was both affected by the CYP3A5 genotype of both the donors and the recipients. The C/D of tacrolimus in patients with the CYP3A5*1 allele or carrying CYP3A5*1 allele in the liver was lower than that in CYP3A5*3/*3 patients with the CYP3A5*3/*3 genotype in the liver (P < 0.01). The CYP3A5*1 genotype in donors as well as in patients both contributes to interindividual variation in the C/D of tacrolimus in adult liver transplantation.


Structurally complex Pennsylvanian and Permian strata comprise the bulk of the Sangre de Cristo Range between La Veta Pass and Westcliffe in south-central Colorado. They are at least 14,000 feet thick near Crestone in the northern part of the area, and more than 9,000 feet thick at La Veta Pass on the south. The sediments are predominantly arkosic clastics, eroded from Precambrian crystalline rocks of the San Luis-Uncompahgre highland on the West, and rapidly deposited in a narrow, northwest-trending geosyncline. This sector of the Sangre de Cristos is nearly parallel with the geosyncline and situated near its western side. The terrigenous clastics become finer-grained and Desmoinesian limestones become abundant southeastward, reflecting southward decrease in uplift of th highland and a more basinward position of the southern exposures. The Kerber formation (Morrowan ?), oldest Pennsylvanian unit in this area, apparently can be recognized only at Grayback Mountain, west of Huerfano Park; presumably it was partly removed by erosion prior to Atokan deposition. The name Deer Creek formation is proposed for beds previously called Clastic member of the Sandia, from Huerfano River south to the New Mexico border. At its type locality west of Huerfano Park, this formation is late Atokan, 1,119.2 feet thick, and consists of variegated sandstones, siltstones, conglomerates, and shales chiefly of fluvial origin, with interbedded marine limestone and terrigenous clastics in the upper part. The Deer Creek formation is differentiated by its redbeds. The Madera formation contains Fusulina rockymontana (Roth and Skinner) and is of Desmoinesian age. At La Veta Pass it is about 3,068 feet thick and is divided into the lower, Gray limestone member, 533 feet thick; the Arkosic limestone member, 2,369 feet thick; and the upper, Whiskey Creek Pass limestone member, 166 feet thick. The first two members accumulated under alternating marine and fluvial environments. The increasing predominance of continental sediments in the Arkosic limestone member reflects eastward migration of the shoreline. The Whiskey Creek Pass limestone records stability in both depositional and source areas. The Madera grades northward into its stratigraphic equivalent, the Minturn formation. The Minturn is at least 5,000 feet thick and consists chiefly of grayish to greenish sandstones, conglomerates, and shales or siltstones. It is mainly fluvial, but marine sediments occur at several horizons. Near the top, a calcareous zone containing marine fossils is probably equivalent to the Whiskey Creek Pass limestone. Overlying the Madera near La Veta Pass and Pass Creek Pass is a sandstone section about 1,000 feet thick, in fault contact with the overlying Sangre de Cristo formation. It is here named the Pass Creek sandstone. The Sangre de Cristo formation, of late Pennsylvanian (?) and probably Permian (Wolfcamp) age, contains up to 8,000 feet or more of predominantly fluvial strata. It is differentiated from underlying units by its redbeds. Two members are recognized in the northern part of the area: the Lower member, characterized by piedmont cyclothems; and the Crestone conglomerate. The latter, a thick fanglomerate, is the only positive evidence of mountains in the San Luis-Uncompahgre highland, and is the last record of Paleozoic orogeny in this area.


Freezing technology has an important impact on the quality of quick frozen vegetables. In this study, followed blanching at 96.5 °C for 1.03 min, the effects of quick freezing of sword bean (Canavalia gladiate) on its quality were studied to optimize the quick freezing procedure. Electron microscope scanning was used to observe the microstructure, and maximum compressive strength and contents of vitamin C and chlorophyll were detected as well after quick freezing. The results showed that it was the optimized procedure to quick freeze sword bean was at-40 °C for 6.3 min, by which sword bean kept the best quality close to its fresh counterpart.


: Stara planina presents one of the greatest mountains in Balkans spreading from Vrška Čuka to the Black sea where Western part of this mountain range is border between Serbia and Bulgaria. The research site was located at Vidlič in even-aged European beech coppice forest. In investigated stand, plot of 25x25 m area was established with 9 randomly selected where soil respiration was measured during climatically two different vegetation periods in 2013 and 2014. Measurements were performed with portable gas exchange measurement system ADC LCPro+. At the same time, evaporation, soil moisture content, soil temperature and air temperature were measured in order to correlate with soil respiration. Results showed significant impact of soil moisture content driven by climate conditions in two investigated years on soil respiration and evaporation.


Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of training on endothelium-dependent vasodilatation in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) after revascularization and healthy young men. Background: Impaired endothelial function has been observed in patients with CAD and those with CAD risk factors. Studies have shown that exercise can enhance endothelial function. Methods: This experimental cross-sectional study was conducted on patients with CAD (3 months after CABG and PCI) and students of medical school in 2011. Endothelium dependent dilation of the brachial artery was determined by using high-resolution vascular ultrasonography through flow-mediated vasodilatation (FMD) after induction of ischemia, and the data were analyzed using SPSS, dependent t-test and ANCOVA. Findings: The findings showed that at baseline, FMD was reduced in revascularized patients, when compared with healthy young men, after 8 weeks, and exercise training significantly improved FMD in patients underwent training group [from 4.31 ± 1.45 (SD)% to 6.15 ± 0.773 (SD)%, p p ed unchanged, and even after aerobic training, it did not significantly modify the brachial artery diameter in these groups. Conclusion: Our study demonstrates that endothelial dysfunction persisting in CAD patients after revascularization and aerobic training can improve endothelial function in different vascular beds in CAD patients and healthy young men. This may contribute to the benefit of regular exercise in preventing and restricting cardiovascular disease.


In the early nineteenth century China remained almost untouched by British and European powers - but as new technology started to change this balance, foreigners gathered like wolves around the weakening Qing Empire. Would the Chinese suffer the fate of much of the rest of the world, carved into pieces by Europeans? Or could they adapt rapidly enough to maintain their independence? This important and compelling book explains the roots of China's complex relationship with the West by illuminating a dramatic, colourful and sometimes shocking period of the country's history.


A problem was encountered in the application of a moving granular bed filter to the collection of dust contained in the top gas of a blast furnace, where the pressure loss of gas becomes unstable and creates a rapid increase at the elevated gas velocity.The relationship between dust collection and the pressure loss of gas was simulated. Then, using a half-size precise model, the condition in which the medium flows was examined and related to the pressure gradient of gas.The increase in pressure loss was presented schematically in the following process: When the gas velocity was raised and the pressure gradient of gas exceeded the critical value, the flow of medium in the bed stalled along the discharging side of gas. The dust accumulated in the stalled medium raised the pressure gradient of gas further. The sequence of these events accelerated the increase in the pressure loss and finally resulted in a serious increase.


With rapid urbanization, Philippine urban planners and the government face concerns on attaining economic growth and development amidst the growing spatial inequality to social infrastructures, housing imbalances, and inadequate services to urban dwellers. A necessary step to mitigate these issues is to study spatial characteristics with adequate and robust data, which is hardly available in developing countries. In line with this, the paper introduces a framework for measuring geospatial amenity accessibility, using Hansen's gravitation model with the acquired amenities data from OpenStreetMap implemented as Project OHANA (Open-source Heatmap and Analytics for Nationwide Amenities Accessibility in the Philippines). Amenity accessibility findings are discussed for the Philippine regions and disaggregated analysis for the National Capital Region. Validations are made through observations and related literature. To further highlight the applicability of incorporating amenity accessibility data, two use cases were made: (1) on the local government revenue and amenity accessibility relationship, and (2) on concerns to equity of health amenity accessibility across the elderly population. While the findings match with country observations and related literature, the researchers suggest further enhancement of the framework through incorporation of demand and weight factors, and refinements to data inputs and processing to improve the accuracy of analyses.


In this paper we study asymmetric proximity measures on directed graphs, which quantify the relationships between two nodes or two groups of nodes. The measures are useful in several graph mining tasks, including clustering, link prediction and connection subgraph discovery. Our proximity measure is based on the conceptof escape probability. This way, we strive to summarize the multiple facets of nodes-proximity, while avoiding some of the pitfalls to which alternative proximity measures are susceptible. A unique feature of the measures is accounting for the underlying directional information. We put a special emphasis on computational efficiency, and develop fast solutions that are applicable in several settings. Our experimental study shows the usefulness of our proposed direction-aware proximity method for several applications, and that our algorithms achieve a significant speedup (up to 50,000x) over straight forward implementations.


Aim: It is not clear whether elevated serum non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C) levels are a risk factor for cardiovascular disease (CVD) in subjects with chronic kidney disease (CKD) in the general population. Methods: A total of 2,630 community-dwelling Japanese subjects (1,107 men and 1,523 women) without history of CVD and aged ≥ 40 years were prospectively followed up for an average of 19 years, and the association between serum non-HDL-C levels and the incidence of type-specific CVD was estimated using a Cox proportional hazards model. CKD was defined as estimated glomerular filtration rate < 60 mL/min/1.73 m2 or proteinuria (≥ 1 + on dipstick). Results: At baseline, 357 subjects had CKD. During the follow up, 186 coronary heart disease (CHD) and 277 stroke events occurred. The age- and sex-adjusted incidence of CHD was significantly higher in subjects with higher non-HDL-C levels, both in those with and without CKD. In the CKD group, the risk of CHD was significantly higher in those with non-HDL-C levels of 150–189 mg/dL [adjusted hazard ratio (HR), 2.23; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.04–4.77] and those with levels ≥ 190 mg/dL (adjusted HR, 3.20; 95% CI, 1.46–7.03) than in those with levels < 150 mg/dL. In the non-CKD group, the risk of CHD was significantly higher only in those with non-HDL-C levels ≥ 190 mg/dL (adjusted HR, 2.12; 95% CI, 1.33 –3.38). However, no such association was observed for the risk of stroke. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that higher serum non-HDL-C levels are associated with greater risk of CHD in subjects with and without CKD and that this association is greater in subjects with CKD than in those without CKD.


There are obvious flaws in REM sleep suppression paradigms that do not allow any conclusion to be drawn either pro or contra the REM sleep-memory hypothesis. However, less intrusive investigations of REM sleep suggest that this sleep stage or its adjunct neuroendocrine characteristics exert a facilitating influence on certain aspects of ongoing memory formation during sleep. [Nielsen; Vertes & Eastman]


Batch normalization dramatically increases the largest trainable depth of residual networks, and this benefit has been crucial to the empirical success of deep residual networks on a wide range of benchmarks. We show that this key benefit arises because, at initialization, batch normalization downscales the residual branch relative to the skip connection, by a normalizing factor on the order of the square root of the network depth. This ensures that, early in training, the function computed by normalized residual blocks in deep networks is close to the identity function (on average). We use this insight to develop a simple initialization scheme that can train deep residual networks without normalization. We also provide a detailed empirical study of residual networks, which clarifies that, although batch normalized networks can be trained with larger learning rates, this effect is only beneficial in specific compute regimes, and has minimal benefits when the batch size is small.


This paper presents a novel cluster-oriented ensemble classifier. The proposed ensemble classifier is based on original concepts such as learning of cluster boundaries by the base classifiers and mapping of cluster confidences to class decision using a fusion classifier. The categorized data set is characterized into multiple clusters and fed to a number of distinctive base classifiers. The base classifiers learn cluster boundaries and produce cluster confidence vectors. A second level fusion classifier combines the cluster confidences and maps to class decisions. The proposed ensemble classifier modifies the learning domain for the base classifiers and facilitates efficient learning. The proposed approach is evaluated on benchmark data sets from UCI machine learning repository to identify the impact of multicluster boundaries on classifier learning and classification accuracy. The experimental results and two-tailed sign test demonstrate the superiority of the proposed cluster-oriented ensemble classifier over existing ensemble classifiers published in the literature.


EDITOR,-I was interested to read the papers by Rhodes and colleagues concerning mucus synthesis by the human gall bladder, its apparent inhibition by aspirin, and other nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), and the suggestion that aspirin might prevent cholesterol gall stone formation by this action (Gut 1992; 33: 1109-12 and 1113-7). As gall bladder mucus glycoprotein (mucin) is a secretory product, however, estimates of mucin synthesis must take account of secreted mucin as well as tissue mucin concentrations. These papers have reported tissue concentrations only. This is curious, especially as it is the secreted component that is thought to play a part in cholesterol gall stone formation.' It cannot be assumed that secreted mucin necessarily reflects tissue concentrations (it ranges from 30-50% of total mucin synthesis in the prairie dog model). 2 Although aspirin and other NSAIDs reduced mucin concentrations in gall bladder explants in vitro their effects on mucin secretion in vitro were not presented. In the in vivo trial performed by the authors, however, mucin concentrations in the gall bladder bile of patients treated with aspirin were no lower than those in controls. These papers have not shown an effect of aspirin or other NSAIDs on gall bladder mucin synthesis or secretion. The case remains unproved. DANIEL O'LEARY Department ofSurgery, Southmead Hospital, Westbury-on-Trym, Bristol BS1O SNB