Modern smartphones have extensive capabilities and connectivities, comparable to those of personal computers (PCs). As the number of smartphone features increases, smartphone boot time also increases, since all features must be initialized during the boot time. Many fast boot techniques have focused on optimizing the booting sequence. However, it is difficult to obtain quick boot time (under 5 seconds) using the fast boot techniques, and many parts of the software platform require additional optimization. An intuitive way to obtain instant boot times, while avoiding these issues, is to boot directly from hibernation. We apply hibernation-based techniques to a Linux-based smartphone, and thereby overcome two major obstacles: long loading times for snapshot image and maintenance costs related to hardware change. We propose two mechanisms, based on hibernation, to obtain outstanding reductions in boot time. First, minimize the size of snapshot image via page reclamation, which reduces the load time of image. Snapshot is split into two major segments: essential-snapshot-image and supplementary-snapshot-image. The essential snapshot image is a minimally-sized image used to run the Linux kernel and idle screen, and the supplementary-snapshotimage contains the remained that could be restored on demand. Second, we add additional device information to the essential-snapshot-image, which is used when the the device is reactivated upon booting up. As a result, our mechanism omits some time-consuming jobs related to device re-initialization and software state recovery. In addition to quick boot times, our solution is low maintenance. That is, while the snapshot boot[3] is implemented in the bootloader, our solution utilizes the kernel infrastructure because it is implemented in the kernel. Therefore, there is little effort required, even when the target hardware is changed. We prototyped our quick boot solution using a S5PC110[17]-based smartphone. The results of our experiments indicate that we can obtain get dramatic gain in performance in a practical manner using this quick boot solution.


CO2 ice is present on the trailing hemisphere of Ariel but is mostly absent from its leading hemisphere. The leading/trailing hemispherical asymmetry in the distribution of CO2 ice is consistent with radiolytic production of CO2, formed by charged particle bombardment of H2O ice and carbonaceous material in Ariel's regolith. This longitudinal distribution of CO2 on Ariel was previously characterized using 13 near-infrared reflectance spectra collected at "low" sub-observer latitudes between 30°S and 30°N. Here we investigated the distribution of CO2 ice on Ariel using 18 new spectra: 2 collected over low sub-observer latitudes, 5 collected at "mid" sub-observer latitudes (31°N–44°N), and 11 collected over "high" sub-observer latitudes (45°N–51°N). Analysis of these data indicates that CO2 ice is primarily concentrated on Ariel's trailing hemisphere. However, CO2 ice band strengths are diminished in the spectra collected over mid and high sub-observer latitudes. This sub-observer latitudinal trend may result from radiolytic production of CO2 molecules at high latitudes and subsequent migration of this constituent to low-latitude cold traps. We detected a subtle feature near 2.13 μm in two spectra collected over high sub-observer latitudes, which might result from a "forbidden" transition mode of CO2 ice that is substantially stronger in well-mixed substrates composed of CO2 and H2O ice, consistent with regolith-mixed CO2 ice grains formed by radiolysis. Additionally, we detected a 2.35 μm feature in some low sub-observer latitude spectra, which might result from CO formed as part of a CO2 radiolytic production cycle.


The characterizations of CuO and ZnO pockets which had formed in (Na0.5K0.5)NbO3 (NKN) matrix sintered at 920 °C with CuO of 1.5 mol % and ZnO of 1.5 and 3.0 mol % as the additives were investigated from a microstructural point of view using transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Two types of pockets, composed of CuO and ZnO as a dominant component, were observed in the microstructure as new microstructure constituents. The abnormal grain growth has occurred by the liquid phase sintering. The pockets were melted partially or completely by the interactions with element Na in the matrix which has formed a eutectic compound whose melting point is lower than the sintering temperature. The reaction starts at the interfaces between the pocket and matrix and the kinetics depends not only on the size of the pocket but also on the environments where the pockets are located. When the additive content of ZnO was increased to 3.0 mol %, there are interactions between CuO and ZnO and both elements are found in the compound pocket. The sintering kinetics was much enhanced by the presence of both additives.


This article examines the concept of ethos and its application in contemporary persuasive legal writing. In particular, the article looks at a dichotomy in the concept of ethos that dates back to its origins in classical Greek rhetoric - a dichotomy between possession and appearance. Aristotle regarded ethos as persuasion by means of one's character, one of the three available artistic means of persuasion. The question is whether one needs to actually possess the character traits that would make the speaker or writer seem persuasive. For one of Aristotle's rhetorical predecessors, Isocrates, the answer was yes; one would need to actually possess those character traits. But in his Rhetoric, Aristotle indicates that the character traits are more an artifact of the speech (or writing), a matter of it appearing that the speaker or writer possessed those traits.After discussing this dichotomy in classical rhetoric, the article turns to its persistence in discussions of contemporary legal persuasion. The article then offers the concept of the discoursal self as one way of addressing the dichotomy, using selected judicial writings by two Supreme Court justices to illustrate how ethos-as-discoursal-self might work.


This article presents a study of the influence of chemical mechanisms and turbulence models on Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) simulations of the CH4/H2/N2-air turbulent diffusion flame, i.e., the so-called DLR-A flame. The first part of this study is focused on the assessment of the influence of four chemical models on predicted profiles of the DLR-A flame. The chemical mechanisms considered are as follows: (i) a C2 compact skeletal mechanism, which is derived from the GRI3.0 mechanism using an improved multistage reduction method, (ii) a C1 skeletal mechanism containing 41 elementary reactions amongst 16 species, (iii) the global mechanism by Jones and Lindstedt, (iv) and a global scheme consisting of the overall reactions of methane and dihydrogen. RANS numerical results (e.g., velocities, temperature, species, or the heat production rate profiles) obtained running the reactingFOAM solver with the four chemical mechanisms as well as the standard k − ɛ model, the partially stirred reactor (PaSR) combustion model, and the P − 1 radiation model indicate that the C2 skeletal mechanism yields the best agreement with measurements. In the second part of this study, four turbulence models, namely, the standard k − ɛ model, the renormalization group (RNG) k − ɛ model, realizable k − ɛ model, and the k − ω shear stress transport (SST) model, are considered to evaluate their effects on the DLR-A flame simulation results obtained with the C2 skeletal mechanism. Results reveal that the predictions obtained with the standard k − ɛ and the RNG k − ɛ models are in very good agreement with the experimental data. Hence, for simple jet flame with moderately high Reynolds number such as the DLR-A flame, the standard k-epsilon can model the turbulence with a very good accuracy.


The current study investigates the impacts of television crime shows on the attitude of viewers. The researcher employed a quantitative approach and the survey method is used to collect the data. A structured questionnaire with close-ended research items was circulated among 100 respondents chosen through stratified sampling in Lahore because Lahore is the capital city with a heterogamous population. The respondents were university students below the age of 25 years. The findings of the study revealed that people feel fearful, vulnerable, and insecure after watching crime shows. These shows increase overthinking and aggression among the viewers. This study depicts that crime shows play a pivotal role to develop criminality in society. These crime shows tend to develop criminal minds to fulfil their needs through illegitimate means. The social construction of criminality is more prevalent than the representation of safety and security in these crime shows. The Cultivation Theory is applied to investigate the influence of television crime shows on heavy viewers as well as light viewers.


We report the behavior of particle-stabilized bubbles (armored bubbles) when exposed to various classes and concentrations of surfactants. The bubbles are nonspherical, which is a signature of the jamming of the particles on the interface, and are stable to dissolution prior to the addition of surfactant. Armored bubbles exposed to surfactants, dissolve, and exhibit distinct morphological, microstructural, and lifetime changes, which correlate with the concentration of surfactant employed. For low concentrations of surfactant, an armored bubble remains nonspherical while dissolving, whereas for concentrations close to and above the surfactant cmc a bubble reverts to a spherical shape before dissolving. We propose a microstructural interpretation, supported by our experimental observations of particle dynamics on the bubble interface, that recognizes the role of interfacial jamming and stresses in particle-stabilization and surfactant-mediated destabilization of armored bubbles.


Integration of symbolic and sub-symbolic approaches is rapidly emerging as an Artificial Intelligence (AI) paradigm. This paper presents a proof-of-concept approach towards an unsupervised learning method, based on Restricted Boltzmann Machines (RBMs), for extracting semantic associations among prominent entities within data. Validation of the approach is performed in two datasets that connect language and vision, namely Visual Genome and GQA. A methodology to formally structure the extracted knowledge for subsequent use through reasoning engines is also offered.


The Ambiguous Scenarios Test for Depression in Adolescents (AST-DA) is a 20-item measure of depressive interpretation bias. It has good face and construct validity and discriminates between clinical and non-clinical samples. However, a shorter measure would reduce burden on young people and make the instrument more useful in clinical settings. The aim of this study was to develop a valid and reliable short-form of the AST-DA. Adolescents recruited from the community (N = 206) completed the 20 item measure. Based on theoretical considerations and statistical analyses we selected 9 items to create a short form of the AST. This 9-item version was tested on a clinical sample of 69 young people referred for depression to a child and adolescent mental health service in the UK. The validity and internal reliability of the Short-AST-DA were confirmed. These data suggest that the Short-AST-DA is a robust measure of depressive interpretation bias in young people. Future work should investigate the measure's test-retest reliability, sensitivity to change and convergent validity.


Amyloid-beta (Aβ) and hyperphosphorylated tau are hallmark lesions of Alzheimer's disease (AD). However, the loss of synapses and dysfunctions of neurotransmission are more directly tied to disease severity. The role of these lesions in the pathoetiological progression of the disease remains contested. Biochemical, cellular, molecular, and pathological studies provided several lines of evidence and improved our understanding of how Aβ and hyperphosphorylated tau accumulation may directly harm synapses and alter neurotransmission. In vitro evidence suggests that Aβ and hyperphosphorylated tau have both direct and indirect cytotoxic effects that affect neurotransmission, axonal transport, signaling cascades, organelle function, and immune response in ways that lead to synaptic loss and dysfunctions in neurotransmitter release. Observations in preclinical models and autopsy studies support these findings, suggesting that while the pathoetiology of positive lesions remains elusive, their removal may reduce disease severity and progression. The purpose of this article is to highlight the need for further investigation of the role of tau in disease progression and its interactions with Aβ and neurotransmitters alike.


Both academic researchers and policymakers posit a unique role for the US in the inter-national financial system. This paper investigates the characteristics and determinants of US cross-border financial flows and examines how these contrast with those of the rest of the world. We analyse the relative importance of US, country-specific, and global variables as determinants of aggregate and bilateral US financial flows and as determinants of country-level cross-border financial flows excluding those directly involving the US. Our results indicate that variation in US variables – notably the VIX and US dollar exchange rate – has a quantitatively important influence on global financial flows, but mostly via US cross-border flows. Global and national risk indicators perform better in explaining "rest of the world" flows. Moreover, we find that the correlation between US and rest of the world flows peaks in periods of elevated uncertainty. We interpret our findings as evidence for the existence of a global financial cycle, only some of which is driven by policies and events in the US. JEL Classification: F15, F21, F36, F42, G15


50 Estimation of Aflatoxin M1 Levels in Some Dairy Products Manufactured from Raw Milk Experimentally Inoculated with Toxin  H. S. Alnaemi  Department of Veterinary Public Health , College of Veterinary Medicine, Mosul University, Iraq.  firstname.lastname@example.com : mail E  Received: 5/3/2019 Accepted: 13/5/2019 Publishing: 04/08/2019 Summary  Fate of AflatoxinM1 in soft white cheese and its by-product (whey) and in yogurt locally made from raw sheep's and goat's milk experimentally inoculated with 0.05 and 0.5 μg/l AflatoxinM1 were investigated using ELISA technique. Results reported that AflatoxinM1 was concentrated in cheese at levels significantly higher than that recorded in the raw milk that used for its processing, with a significant decrease in AflatoxinM1 levels in its by-product (whey) comparable to the raw milk used in manufacturing at both inoculated levels. Yogurt produced from raw sheep's milk at second inoculated level exerted AflatoxinM1concentration significantly lower than that present in the milk. Significant differences in AflatoxinM1distribution in cheese and whey produced from sheep's milk comparable to their counterparts produced from goat's milk were recorded. Finally, results revealed the efficacious role of the various dairy manufacturing processes in AflatoxinM1 distribution and the necessity to issue of local legislations concerning the maximum permissible limits for AflatoxinM1 in milk in order to stay within the universal permissible levels for AflatoxinM1 in dairy products to provide greater protection for consumer health.


The Law of Popular Participation (LPP) in Bolivia can be seen as the first significant attempt by policy makers in the region to mainstream gender into a national development initiative. The LPP seeks to devolve power and resources from the national to the local level. It is the first Bolivian law to be explicitly couched in gendered terms, and aims to increase the prominence of women in local political and development spheres. However, as I suggest in this article, in some respects the LPP has actually had the effect of displacing women from the very site of their traditional forms of political activism, at community level. As greater status, power, and resources have been devolved to politics at this level, men have become more prominent in this previously neglected, 'feminised' sphere. The article argues that, to some extent, the goal of mainstreaming gender into national development via the LPP was missed. Reasons include a lack of effective and systematic gendered analysis of the structural barriers to women's participation, and the failure to support gender mainstreaming, and women's participation, through capacity building at all levels.

This article is hosted by our co-publisher Taylor & Francis. For the full table of contents for this and previous issues of this journal, please visit the Gender and Development website.


Parvovirus is a very serious disease, often fatal, produced by one of the smallest viruses from Parvoviridae family. Parvovirus is a hemorrhagic gastroenteritis given by a virus and is the most serious disease of canine youth. The disease begins with diarrhea, which in a few hours is accompanied by blood and vomit. The age at which a dog can get sick of parvovirus starts at 5 weeks. The actual form is a new "transformation" of this mutation, which is called CPV-2b, for which there is a vaccine. Canine parvovirus is not dangerous to humans, or for cats, because each of these species has its own form of virus.


A case of fingernail infection by Fusarium is presented. This nondermatophytic mold is an infrequent cause of onychomycosis, more typically involving the great toenail. Characteristic histologic features including the presence of hyphae and chlamydoconia are helpful in rapid diagnosis and selection of appropriate antifungal therapy. Although Fusarium has shown resistance to most antifungal medications in vitro, intermittent therapy with fluconazole led to improvement in this patient.


This demonstration showcases ProvSQL, an open-source module for the PostgreSQL database management system that adds support for computation of provenance and probabilities of query results. A large range of provenance formalisms are supported, including all those captured by provenance semirings, provenance semirings with monus, as well as where-provenance. Probabilistic query evaluation is made possible through the use of knowledge compilation tools, in addition to standard approaches such as enumeration of possible worlds and Monte-Carlo sampling. ProvSQL supports a large subset of non-aggregate SQL queries.


Human life so frequently depends upon the tying of a ligature, the use of one more suture, the perfection of an operation in every minute detail, that the subject of peritoneal drainage, which is, perhaps. the most vital of all questions connected with the always grave procedure of opening the peritoneum, should never become too trite to demand careful consideration, even though much has already been written on this subject, and every phase of the question thoroughly discussed. Viewing my failures retrospectively, I am forced to the confession that no one feature of my work has given so much cause for regret as that of insufficient drainage. It is idle to say that drainage is needed only when the work has been carelessly done. However perfect the technique may be, it is still a fact known to every operator, that there are cases whose recovery depends entirely on the drainage


PURPOSE
The hexosamine biosynthetic pathway is one of the possible mechanisms involved in diabetic keratopathy. The purpose of this study was to examine the role of O-glycoside-linked N-acetylglucosamine (O-GlcNAc) modification of proteins in the pathogenesis of diabetic keratopathy in the Goto-Kakizaki (GK) rat, which has spontaneous development of diabetes.

METHODS
An anti-O-GlcNAc antibody, an anti-O-GlcNAc transferase antibody, and digoxigenin (DIG)-labeled cRNA probes were used to examine the localization of O-GlcNAc-modified proteins, O-GlcNAc transferase protein and mRNA in the corneas of diabetic GK rats and in those of nondiabetic Wistar rats. The corneas from Wistar rats were organ cultured in control medium or in medium containing 100 micro M O-(2-acetamide-2-deoxy-D-glucopyranosylidene) amino-N-phenyl-carbamate (PUGNAc), an inhibitor of O-GlcNAcase, the enzyme that removes O-GlcNAc from proteins. The morphologic changes were examined by electron microscopy.

RESULTS
In normal corneas, immunoreactive O-GlcNAc and O-GlcNAc transferase were observed in the epithelial, endothelial, and stromal cells. In the diabetic corneas, their immunoreactivities in the epithelium were increased in intensity. Morphologically, the number of hemidesmosomes in the epithelial basal cells was lower than that in those cells from the nondiabetic rats. In some areas, the basement membrane had detached from the epithelial basal cells. The PUGNAc treatment of Wistar rat corneas increased the level of O-GlcNAc immunoreactivity and caused a decrease in the number of hemidesmosomes and the detachment of corneal epithelial cells from the basement membrane.

CONCLUSIONS
The elevated expression of O-GlcNAc-modified proteins and O-GlcNAc transferase may play a causative role in the corneal epithelial disorders of diabetic GK rats.


Building and maintaining modern transportation infrastructure demands considerable expenditure for any nation. These terrestrial route corridor zones include road, rail and to a lesser extent waterways. Road networks range from the large highways and motorways covering hundreds of kilometres down to smaller street networks that may only be few hundred meters in length. These route networks attract their own unique set of spatial information requirements in terms of overall management. These include transportation planning, engineering and operation. High quality, timely spatial information is required of the entire route corridor which now extends past the narrow confines of the road surface and includes the area adjacent to the road edge as well as areas above and below the road surface. Comprehensive 3D spatial information is required, not only, of the network itself but also objects occurring along these route corridors. This information can be used to address the day to day engineering problems as well as more strategic issues such as road safety, congestions management and noise modelling. LiDAR systems are widely available and now used to record data from both aerial and terrestrial survey platforms. LiDAR outputs X,Y,Z points enabling reliable 3-D measurements as well as 2.5-D geometric surface to be produced. High quality imagery is also collected from similar airborne and terrestrial mobile mapping platforms. This paper examines the integration of road survey imagery and airborne LiDAR data-streams within a GIS in order to satisfy these spatial information requirements.


We report the synthesis of new cryptophane derivatives 1-4 bearing nine (1, 2) and twelve (3, 4) methoxy substituents. These compounds represent the first examples of cryptophane derivatives bearing more than six substituents attached on the benzene rings. The preparation of these highly substituted cryptophanes was achieved due to the synthesis of a new cyclotrisyringyl derivative obtained from the reaction of a protected syringyl alcohol in the presence of a catalytic amount of scandium triflate Sc(OTf)3. This reaction also provides the protected cyclotetrasyringyl derivative in low yield (7%), which was fully characterized by (1)H NMR, IR, and X-ray crystallography. In contrast to what is observed for the cryptophane-A congener, the synthesis of these highly substituted cryptophanes gives rise to the two anti- and syn-diastereomers. These compounds have been fully characterized, and their X-ray structures have been obtained to ascertain the stereochemistry of these new cryptophane derivatives.


The amount recovered in default is as important as default probability for estimating expected losses on risky assets and for determining fair credit spreads, yet recovery value has been much less well studied than default. Recent research has increased substantially information about recovery value in default. From those studies, principles have emerged regarding the influence of collateral, credit cycle, seniority, industry sector, credit quality, and geography on loss given default. This article presents a decision-tree model that embeds known determinants of recovery value. Simulations of historical default rates and correlated defaults using the model generate distributions of recovery values that replicate well the statistical properties of recovery values reported in the literature.


Guide to the Libraries' licensed collections of streaming video and other sources. The collections provide access to thousands of educational videos, documentaries and feature films on a variety of subjects.


The research community has addressed the need to improve the flexibility of robot systems. Two particular concepts that have resulted from this research are off-line programming and modular tooling. These concepts are directed at allowing the robot system to be used to perform a variety of tasks with minimal setup time and to allow easy replication of an application. Both of these concepts require that the robot system have the ability to measure the position and orientation of features in the workspace. These measurements can then be used to perform coordinate transformations on each of the task data points. These modified task data points then, theoretically, facilitate the performance of the task by the robot system without human intervention.<<ETX>>


The Haemophilus-Actinobacillus-Pasteurella (HAP) group of bacteria contains a number of important veterinary and human pathogens. Although each species has specific characteristics and host range, most share the general property of being resistant to cellular defense mechanisms. In some cases (e.g. Pasteurella multocida, Pasteurella haemolytica and Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae) resistance results in part from the presence of an antiphagocytic capsule that protects the bacilli against ingestion by neutrophils and macrophages. In other instances the bacteria aggressively attack mononuclear and polymorphonuclear phagocytes. For example, P. haemolytica, A. pleuro-pneumoniae and Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans each produce a leukotoxin that functionally impairs, and ultimately kills, leukocytes from cattle, pigs and human beings, respectively. Components of Pasteurella multocida and Haemophilus somnus have also been reported to adversely affect leukocyte functions. Another important area of research that is just emerging concerns the ability of lipopolysaccharide and other components of HAP bacteria to stimulate or modulate macrophage release of inflammatory mediators such as interleukin-1. In this paper, we provide an overview of the interactions of HAP bacteria with phagocytes and identify some of the common strategies by which they evade cellular defenses.


This guide is for Chemistry. Use the resources and information on this guide to help with research. For assistance, please contact your librarian.


Growth in international trade has led to considerable expansion of the scope of matters capable of settlement by arbitration. In spite of sustained scholarly activity on arbitrability, the question of what is arbitrable remains controversial but relevant in many regions of the world, including Africa. Arbitrability has the potential to affect the validity of an arbitration agreement, strip an arbitrator of jurisdiction, or derail enforcement of an award. Given the significance of the concept, it is vital that entities involved in international transactions do not speciously extrapolate knowledge of what pertains in Europe and America across all jurisdictions and regions of the world. This study draws a comparison between arbitrability and its relationship with public policy in Europe and America on one hand, and the trend in Africa in an attempt to critically investigate the extent to which African states are willing to extend the scope of arbitrable subject matters. A number of trends on arbitrability are discernible. Most commercial disputes are arbitrable and this observation generally aligns with practice in Europe and America. Beyond this, there are three significant differences in the areas of scope of subject matter, approaches to arbitrability regulation and the role of public policy.


Coyote is easily the most popular character in the stories of Indian tribes from Canada to Mexico. This volume contains seventeen coyote tales collected and translated by Father Berard Haile, O.F.M., more than half a century ago. The original Navajo transcriptions are included, along with notes. The tales show Coyote as a warrior, a shaman, a trickster; a lecher, a thief; a sacrificial victim, and always as the indomitable force of life. He is the paradoxical hero and scamp whose adventures inspire laughter or awe, depending upon what shape he takes in a given story. In his introduction to Navajo Coyote Tales, Karl W. Luckert considers Coyote mythology in a theoretical and historical framework. Luckert is a professor of religious studies at Southwest Missouri State University. "Navajo Coyote Tales is a valuable book for the casual student of Navajo culture, religion, or mythology as well as for the scholar. The tales themselves provide delightful reading in addition to the contribution they make to the available body of Navajo coyote literature, while the introductory analysis and the Navajo language texts provide analytical depth for the scholar". (American Indian Quarterly).


Visual tracking has emerged as an important component of systems in several application areas including vision-based control, human-computer interfaces, surveillance, agricultural automation, medical imaging and visual reconstruction. The central challenge in visual tracking is to keep track of the pose and location of one or more objects through a sequence of frames. Implicit algebraic 2D curves and 3D surfaces are among the most powerful representations and have proven very useful in many model-based applications in the past two decades. With this approach, objects in 2D images are described by their silhouettes and then represented by 2D implicit polynomial curves. In our work, we tried different approaches in order to efficiently apply the powerful implicit algebraic 2D curve representation to the phenomenon of visual tracking. Through the proposed concepts and algorithms, we tried to reduce the computational burden of fitting algorithms. Besides showing the usage of this representation on boundary data simulations, use of the implicit polynomial as a representative of the target region is also experimented on real videos.


Native bees provide essential pollination services in both natural and managed ecosystems. However, declines in native bee species highlight the need for increased understanding of land management methods that can promote healthy, persistent populations and diverse communities. This can be challenging and costly using traditional scientific methods, but citizen science can overcome many limitations. In this study, we examined the distribution and abundance of an agriculturally important wild bee species, the squash bee (Eucera (Peponapis) pruinosa, Hymenoptera: Apidae). They are ground nesting, specialist bees that depend on cultivated varieties of Cucurbita (squash, pumpkins, gourds). The intimate relationship between squash bees and their host plants suggests that they are likely sensitive to farm management practices, particularly those that disturb the soil. In this study, citizen scientists across Michigan used a survey to submit field management and bee observation data. Survey results indicated that squash bees occupy a wide geographic range and are more abundant in farms with reduced soil disturbance. Citizen science provided an inexpensive and effective method for examining impacts of farm management practices on squash bees and could be a valuable tool for monitoring and conserving other native pollinators.


Currently Australian pre-service teachers' levels of personal numeracy are under a great deal of scrutiny. There are calls for universities to raise entry standards into teaching degrees and counter-calls that the output of universities should be gauged rather than inputs. In 2015, doubts about the ability of graduate teachers to convey the desired skills, knowledge and attitudes in mathematics led the Australian Government to mandate the introduction of the Literacy and Numeracy Test for Initial Teacher Education Students. From 2017, all pre-service teachers in Australia will be required to pass prior to graduation. The present research sought to identify specific areas of support that may be needed by first year primary education students in order to meet the anticipated numeracy requirements of the test. Students' understandings were inferred from the analysis of the examination scripts of 471 first year primary education students. Common errors were identified and coded to reveal aspects of students' mathematical content knowledge requiring further attention. The results suggested that students would benefit from further support in areas such as operations with fractions, order of operations, line symmetry, converting fractions to decimals, and metric conversions. The results were used to inform the development of a series of online numeracy support videos. The perceived efficacy of these resources was examined in a series of focus group interviews conducted with students, leading to recommendations for the subsequent development and deployment of online numeracy support resources.


During the 1990/91 heating season, the Massachusetts Division of Energy Resources (DOER) participated in a joint data collection program between several state energy offices and the federal Department of Energy`s (DOE) Energy Information Administration (EIA). The purpose of the program was to collect and monitor retail and wholesale heating oil and propane prices and inventories from October 1990 through March 1991. This final report begins with an overview of the unique events which had an impact on the reporting period. Next, the report summarizes the results from the residential heating oil and propane price surveys conducted by DOER over the 1990/91 heating season. The report also incorporates the wholesale heating oil and propane prices and inventories collected by the EIA and distributed to the states.


We provide estimates of GDP growth in Greater Yangon between 1992 and 2013 by exploiting nightlights data. Subnational estimates were derived by calculating the elasticity of luminosity with respect to GDP for Myanmar as a whole using time series luminosity and GDP data and then converting observed luminosity values for Yangon in GDP by applying the national level elasticity estimates. The results suggest that Yangon's GDP grew at an average annual rate of 4.45 percent between 1992 and 2013 and by 11.17 percent per annum during the reform period beginning in 2008. This method may be useful for monitoring urban economic growth in other low and middle income countries.


Activity modelling and unusual event detection in a network of cameras is challenging particularly when the camera views are not overlapped. We show that it is possible to detect unusual events in multiple disjoint cameras as context-incoherent patterns, through incremental learning of time delayed dependencies between distributed local activities observed within and across camera views. Specifically, we model multi-camera activities using a Time Delayed Probabilistic Graphical Model (TD-PGM) with different nodes representing activities in different decomposed regions from different views and the directed links between nodes encoding their time delayed dependencies. To deal with visual context changes, we formulate a novel incremental learning method for modelling time delayed dependencies that change over time. We validate the effectiveness of the proposed approach using a synthetic dataset and videos captured from a camera network installed at a busy underground station.


Research problem: This study provides insight into practitioners' reasons for choosing a particular language (English versus the local language) in the genre of job ads in countries where English is a foreign language (EFL countries). Scholarly publications and public discourse have suggested reasons for language choice, but these were not based on the perspectives of practitioners. Research questions: (1) What reasons do Dutch job ad writers give for using all-English, all-Dutch, or partly English ads and what genre factors inform these reasons? (2) To what extent do the reasons given by Dutch job ad makers for using all-English,P all-Dutch, or partly English ads complement reasons mentioned in publications on job ads? Literature review: Genre theory identifies three factors as important determinants of genre: contextual factors (such as characteristics of the organization and the sector in which the genre is produced), reader-writer factors (characteristics of the genre's target audience and author), and textual factors (the genre's content, structure, and wording). The reasons mentioned for the use of all-English job ads are that English is the organization's corporate language and that the organization is looking for English-speaking candidates. The reasons given for the use of job ads in the local language are that English is less clear than the local language and that English words are strange and exaggerated compared to equivalents in the local language. Among the reasons mentioned for the use of partly English job ads are that English words attract more attention than equivalents in the local language and that English job titles sound more modern and have more status than equivalent job titles in the local language. Methodology: In this qualitative study, we conducted 25 interviews with practitioners who designed job ads in the Netherlands, selected because they had recently placed an all-English, an all-Dutch, or a partly English job ad in a Dutch newspaper. They were asked an open-ended question about their reasons behind the language used in the job ad they placed. Interview data were labelled and categorized; subsequently, patterns were identified across categories. Results and conclusions: The interviews showed that all three types of genre factors-contextual, reader-writer, and textual-underlie practitioners' language choices. Practitioners mentioned the same types of factors that were mentioned in publications on job ads, but gave a greater variety of reasons for language choice. Of the reasons mentioned by the practitioners, the large majority were not given in publications. These findings underline the importance of obtaining text producers' perspectives and can be used to sensitize both novice and experienced professional Human Resources writers to the relevance of genre factors in language choice. A limitation of the present study is that the desired effects of language choice mentioned by the respondents were not verified with the target group of the job ads. Therefore, future research on language choice in workplace writing should test whether particular language choices in job ads actually achieve the recruitment effects Human Resource Manager professionals expect.


Abstract This article scrutinizes the negotiations with, and discursive refashioning of, Hong Kong identity during and after the Umbrella Movement (2014–16). I argue that these discursive experimentations borne out of the Umbrella Movement bring to light Hong Kong's uniquely cultural formulations of democratic self-determination that exceed the traditional analytic framework of Hong Kong cultural studies. The article analyses literary works as a hitherto neglected facet of the 'Umbrella culture' that, as a whole, acts as a discursive laboratory for multiple reflexive theorizations of Hong Kong identity and democratic subjectivity to be devised and debated. Cases studied here include the protesters' on-site cultural expressions and two major Hong Kong literary authors: Dung Kai-cheung and Wong Bik-wan. This article examines social-movements artworks and literary works in terms of their performative and ethnographic dimensions, arguing that they are important intellectual and cultural-political processes to produce new knowledge about collective identity. This article first demonstrates how the Umbrella artworks repurpose the performative and the ethnographic strategies in Saisai's canonical novel, My City (1975), often cited as the ur-text of Hong Kong identity, to proclaim themselves as 'we the Hong Kong people'. After reading Dung's and Wong's Umbrella-related works, I then show in this article that the performative and the ethnographic can open up spaces to reconfigure collective identity beyond its existent discourses. Putting theories of performativity into dialogue with critical ethnography, I consider the politics of negotiating and debating cultural identity in literature and protest arts as integral to postcolonial democratic action.


An increase in the permeability of the outer mitochondrial membrane is central to apoptotic cell death, since it leads to the release of several apoptogenic factors, such as cytochrome c and Smac/Diablo, into the cytoplasm that activate downstream death programs. During apoptosis, the mitochondria also release AIF and endonuclease G, both of which are translocated to the nucleus and are implicated in apoptotic nuclear changes that occur in a caspase‐independent manner. Mitochondrial membrane permeability is directly controlled by the major apoptosis regulator, i.e., the Bcl‐2 family of proteins, mainly through regulation of the formation of apoptotic protein‐conducting pores in the outer mitochondrial membrane, although the precise molecular mechanisms are still not completely understood. Here, I focus on the mechanisms by which Bcl‐2 family members control the permeability of mitochondrial membrane during apoptosis. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Recent research has shown that 82% of adolescent pregnancies are unintended. Social marketing has potential to reduce unintended adolescent pregnancy but its effectiveness in this area has not been thoroughly evaluated. This arti- cle reviews the literature on social marketing and assesses its potential to reduce unintended adolescent pregnancy. We identified five communication principles as relevant to adolescent reproductive health messaging: Countermarketing, making credible and likeable "arguments" for behavior change, use of theory-based models, social modeling and behav- ioral alternatives, and risk communication when the behavioral choices are clear. We examine studies of social marketing on other health risk behaviors and a case study of a recent campaign to promote parent-child communication about wait- ing to have sex. Findings suggest that to reduce unintended pregnancy and improve reproductive health outcomes among adolescents, there is a need for targeted prevention messages and social marketing approaches.


Predictive data mining typically relies on labeled data without exploiting a much larger amount of available unlabeled data. We show that using unlabeled data can be beneficial in a range of important prediction problems and therefore should be an integral part of the learning process. Given an unlabeled dataset representative of the underlying distribution and a K-class labeled sample that might be biased, our approach is to learn K contrast classifiers each trained to discriminate a certain class of labeled data from the unlabeled population. We illustrate that contrast classifiers can be useful in one-class classification, outlier detection, density estimation, and learning from biased data. The advantages of the proposed approach are demonstrated by an extensive evaluation on synthetic data followed by real-life bioinformatics applications for (1) ranking PubMed articles by their relevance to protein disorder and (2) cost-effective enlargement of a disordered protein database.


OBJECTIVE
Recent studies have discovered that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) play an important role in the development of malignant tumors. The aim of this work was to investigate the exact role of lncRNA LINP1 in the development of Wilms' tumor and to explore the possible underlying mechanism.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
The expression of lncRNA in non-homologous end joining pathway 1 (LINP1) in tissue samples of Wilms' tumor was detected by Real Time-quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-qPCR). The relationship between the expression of lung cancer associated transcript 1 (LUCAT1) and patients' overall survival time was analyzed. Subsequent functional experiments were conducted to identify the changes in biological behaviors of Wilms' tumor cells after the gain or loss of LINP1. Moreover, the underlying mechanism of LINP1 function was explored.

RESULTS
QRT-PCR results showed that LINP1 expression level in Wilms' tumor tissues was significantly higher than that of adjacent tissues. LINP1 expression was negatively associated with the overall survival time of patients with Wilms' tumor. Cell growth ability was markedly inhibited and promoted after down-regulation and overexpression of LINP1 in vitro, respectively. Moreover, after the loss and gain of LINP1 in vitro, cell migration and invasion abilities were remarkably repressed and promoted, respectively. Furthermore, the loss of LINP1 in vitro could significantly decrease the expressions of targeted proteins in the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. However, the expressions of targeted proteins in the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway were remarkably up-regulated after over-expression of LINP1.

CONCLUSIONS
LINP1 could enhance cell metastasis and proliferation via inducing the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway. Our findings might provide a new prospect for the diagnosis and therapy of Wilms' tumor.


From November 16–19, 2014, twin researchers of the world will descend on the lovely city of Budapest, Hungary for the 3rd World Congress on Twin Pregnancy, held in conjunction with the 15th Congress of the International Society of Twin Studies (ISTS). It is the first time a Central and Eastern European country will host the congress. On this occasion, we were honored by the request from the editor of Twin Research and Human Genetics, Nick Martin, to put together a special issue highlighting twin research conducted in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE).


An iterative Monte Carlo thickness-varying strategy is presented and used to optimize normal-incidence thin-film multilayer designs and demonstrated for a variety of circumstances. The technique does not get trapped in local minima and, in principle, can home in on the best global design.


Slow and regular breathing can make beneficial effects on cardiovascular system and autonomic nerve system. Many researches studied the cardiovascular variabilities under paced breathing rate of 0.25 Hz and 0.1 Hz, but few quantitative data are available describing the relationships between the cardiovascular variables during the slow and regular breathing procedure, and mechanism of the beneficial effects behind the slow breathing is still unclear. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationships between the cardiovascular variables with a gradually paced breathing rate from 14BPM to 7BPM. 13 of 16 volunteer's experiment data were analyzed. RR and PWTT interval, baseline changes of RR interval and PWTT, Respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA), and cross-correlation function between PWTT and RR were calculated. With the breathing rate from 14BPM to 7BPM gradually, RR interval changed from 170(170 46) ms to 261(261 93) ms, PWTT changed from 11(11 5) ms to 23 (23 7) ms, RSA changed from 103(103 37) ms to 202(202 97) ms, the baseline changes in RR interval ranged from 865(865 94) ms to 868(868 92) ms, the baseline changes in PWTT ranged from 160(160 16) ms to 167(167 13) ms, The mean correlation function r ranged from 0.70 to 0.78 with a maximum amplitude of r = +0.78, with the offset in RR changes leading (– PWTT) changes by quarter-beat as the breathing rate below 11BPM. We conclude that cardiovascular variabilities get increased during this gradually paced breathing with breathing rate from 14BPM to 7BPM and the baseline of PWTT gets enhanced with the breathing rate getting lowed, but the baseline of RR interval changes little. Gradually paced breathing from 14BPM to 7BPM can make effect on the baseline change of PWTT, the baseline changes of PWTT can be regarded as an effective parameter to evaluate the cardiovascular reaction to slow and regular breathing practice. Keywordsgradually paced breathing; RR interval; pulse wave transit time; Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia;


Abstract. Excess nutrients in surface waters, such as phosphorus (P) from agriculture, result in poor water quality, with adverse effects on ecological health and costs for remediation. However, understanding and prediction of P transfers in catchments have been limited by inadequate data and over-parameterised models with high uncertainty. We show that, with high temporal resolution data, we are able to identify simple dynamic models that capture the P load dynamics in three contrasting agricultural catchments in the UK. For a flashy catchment, a linear, second-order (two pathways) model for discharge gave high simulation efficiencies for short-term storm sequences and was useful in highlighting uncertainties in out-of-bank flows. A model with non-linear rainfall input was appropriate for predicting seasonal or annual cumulative P loads where antecedent conditions affected the catchment response. For second-order models, the time constant for the fast pathway varied between 2 and 15 h for all three catchments and for both discharge and P, confirming that high temporal resolution data are necessary to capture the dynamic responses in small catchments (10–50 km2). The models led to a better understanding of the dominant nutrient transfer modes, which will be helpful in determining phosphorus transfers following changes in precipitation patterns in the future.


Types of employment have become more and more diversified in Japan recently, but regular employment still plays a dominant role. More than 55 percent of all employed workers are regular employees. The number of self-employed has drastically decreased because agriculture has continued to decline since the end of World War II. More recently, production bases have been transferred to China, and the regulation of the distribution sector has forced small retailers out of business. At the same time, more attention has been paid to the growth of economically dependent self-employed – such as telework or franchising – but so far such "disguised dependence" (Scheinselbstandigkeit) has not been investigated. Outsourcing has also increased. The number of employees of outsourced firms in production is estimated to be about one million. This is the result of prohibitions against laying off workers in the industrial sector. According to the Labor Standards Law of Japan, an employee is defined as someone with "personal dependency" (personliche Abhangigkeit), but the law is broader in scope than German labor laws. In Japan it is not only the duty of a contract worker to obey the orders of his consignor, but economic factors, such as whether workers possess tools of their own or own the organization, are also considered in determining whether the worker in question is an employee or is self-employed. The definition of an employee has not fundamentally changed, but the recent judgment of the High Court of Tokyo, which recognized a freelance cameraman as an employee, shows that, to some extent, labor laws are necessary to protect the economically dependent self-employed. Since the 1990s, the depression has created job insecurity, especially for older and younger workers. Now the growth of "freeters", who do not obtain regular jobs after graduation from universities or high schools, has become a serious problem. In Japan the expectations of long-term employment from both parties of an employment contract are becoming lower. Long-term employment means that a firm recruits new graduates every April, gives them on-the-job training, makes them compete against each other, and demands that they pledge their loyalty to the firm. In return the firm gives them job security until retirement age (usually age 60). With the recent depression and global competition, such job security cannot be taken for granted. However, Japanese employment practices and labor laws are still based on this system of long-term employment. The most important characteristic is the great difference in the terms of employment between regular and non-regular employees. The average wage of part-time employees is less than 60 percent that of regular employees. Non-regular employees are usually part-time and/or fixed-term workers, but there are many non-regular employees who do the same work and work the same hours as regular employees. This is known as "quasi-part-time" (giji-pâto). In 1996 the District Court of Nagano Ueda branch decided that when the wage of non-regular workers is less than 80 percent that of regular workers performing the same work, the permissible extent of wage differences has been exceeded and contravenes public order and good morals. This judgment was epochal and, in 2002, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare announced a policy for the fair treatment of part-time workers. However, in the same year, the District Court of Osaka decided that the 30 per cent disparity of wages between regular and non-regular truck drivers was legal. Once graduates fail to obtain regular employment, they risk losing opportunities for career development and obtaining a respectable social status. For this reason, job insecurity among the young is a very serious problem in Japan. In 2003 the provisions for laying off workers and fixed-term contracts were deregulated. Now the prohibition against dispatching in the production sector has been abolished. The upper limit for a fixed-term employment contract and a dispatching contract between a worker-dispatching agency and a client company is now three years. With this deregulation, one can expect that in this economically difficult environment better employment opportunities will be offered to graduates as a bridge to more regular employment. However, the concern for the growth of insecure employment is still valid.


Interstitial implantation is invaluable in the management of patients with extensive or large volume gynecologic malignancies, significant anatomical distortion, or recurrent disease. Such techniques are necessary components of the brachytherapy services available to patients with gynecologic malignancies giving superior results in terms of local tumor control and survival compared to those achieved with external beam alone or inadequate intracavitary applications. Local tumor control with an acceptable risk of complications can be achieved for these challenging disease presentations if these techniques are implemented skillfully through the joint efforts of the radiation oncologist and gynecologic surgeon.


Introduction Studies suggest an increased risk of lung cancer in the hard metal industry. This issue is under study in an international cohort study. An Austrian plant participates in the study. Here we focus on four questions: (1) Can we estimate cumulative exposures among cohort members from routine industrial health (IH) data? (2) Are the IH data supported by urine data? (3) What is the relation between cobalt in the air and in urine? (4) Can we estimate temporal trends in exposure so that gaps in IH measurements in earlier years can be closed? Methods Work histories were collected from all workers hired since 1.1.1950. IH data of dust, tungsten, and cobalt in air and of cobalt in urine were obtained. Air data were log-transformed and entered into multiple logistic regression models as dependent variables. Log-Levels of dust, cobalt and tungsten were explained by a linear time trend, by analytical method, and department. This regression model allowed predicting exposures at other times as well. Predicted exposures of cobalt were entered as explanatory variable for urine values in a second regression model. Results Overall, work histories were collected from 1969 workers. Repeated urine tests were available from 253 workers from the years 2008–2014. Air measurements of dust (n = 130), tungsten (n = 141) and cobalt (n = 147) exist for the years 1985 to 2012. For all substances a significant decrease over the years is detectable. The air and urine values of cobalt correlate with each other: One mg/m³ cobalt in the air leads to an excretion of 200 µg/l cobalt in urine. Conclusion The available data allow an initial assessment of the inhalation exposure of these workers cohort. The Austrian occupational limit value for cobalt (0.5 mg/m³) is too lenient compared to the limit in urine (10 µg/l).


CONTEXT
Understanding how women's preferences for certain attributes of contraceptive methods relate to their method choice can inform the content of contraceptive counseling.

METHODS
Data from 715 women aged 18-29 who had ever used contraceptives were drawn from the 2009 National Survey of Reproductive and Contraceptive Knowledge. Chi-square tests and multivariable logistic regression analyses were used to examine how women's preferences for specific contraceptive attributes were related to their social and demographic characteristics and their current contraceptive choice.

RESULTS
The majority of women considered it extremely important for a method to be very effective at preventing pregnancy (79%) and to be effective at preventing HIV and STDs (67%); fewer than one-quarter felt similarly about a method's being hormone-free (22%). Women who felt it was quite or extremely important for a method to be very effective at preventing pregnancy were not more likely to use the most effective methods than were women who considered this attribute not at all or only slightly important. Women who considered it quite or extremely important for a method to be hormone-free were less likely than others to use hormonal methods (odds ratio, 0.4), and women who considered STD protection quite or extremely important had elevated odds of relying on condoms alone, rather than on an effective contraceptive method alone (3.6).

CONCLUSIONS
Most women desire a very effective method for pregnancy prevention, but it is unclear how this translates to their contraceptive use. The associations between women's preferred contraceptive attributes and method choice warrant further attention.


A novel and facile method on the Al2O3 nanopore fabrication is proposed for DNA molecule detection based on atomic layer deposition (ALD) technique. We prepare three Al2O3 nanopores by using the focused ion beam (FIB) for the reduction of the thick layer and formation of the nanopore. To prove its feasibility and efficiency, experimental investigation is conducted on characterization of the λ-DNA translocation. As compared with the previously made Si3N4 nanopore, blockade current and time of translocation events are similar, but the signal-to-noise ration is improved.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Purpose of review Aspirin-exacerbated respiratory disease (AERD) is a progressive inflammatory disease of the upper and lower airways characterized by marked eosinophilic nasal polyposis, asthma, and respiratory reactions to medications that inhibit the cyclooxygenase pathway. Aspirin desensitization has proven to be an effective tool in the management of this disease when used in a multidisciplinary setting. The purpose of this article is to review the current literature regarding AERD, aspirin desensitization, and share our opinion regarding the most optimal multidisciplinary approach to these complex patients. Recent findings Numerous studies, including randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials, have demonstrated the therapeutic effectiveness of aspirin desensitization with significant improvement in number of sinus infections per year, olfactory scores, nasal symptom scores, asthma symptom scores, sinus operations, hospitalizations, emergency room visits, and oral steroid use. Furthermore, the role of surgery is becoming increasingly important for recalcitrant sinus disease with recent studies showing comprehensive surgery as more beneficial to disease management. Summary Aspirin desensitization is an effective therapeutic tool in the management of AERD. A multidisciplinary approach is critical between the otorhinolaryngologist and allergist to provide the most optimal care for this complex patient population.


Ensembles of learnt models constitute one of the main current directions in machine learning and data mining. Ensembles allow us to achieve higher accuracy, which is often not achievable with single models. It was shown theoretically and experimentally that in order for an ensemble to be effective, it should consist of high-accuracy base classifiers that should have high diversity in their predictions. One technique, which proved to be effective for constructing an ensemble of accurate and diverse base classifiers, is to use different feature subsets, or so-called ensemble feature selection. Many ensemble feature selection strategies incorporate diversity as a component of the fitness function in the search for the best collection of feature subsets. There are known a number of ways to quantify diversity in ensembles of classifiers, and little research has been done about their appropriateness to ensemble feature selection. In this paper, we compare seven measures of diversity with regard to their possible use in ensemble feature selection. We conduct experiments on 21 data sets from the UCI machine learning repository, comparing the ensemble accuracy and other characteristics for the ensembles built with ensemble feature selection based on the considered measures of diversity. We consider five search strategies for ensemble feature selection: simple random subsampling, genetic search, hill-climbing, ensemble forward and backward sequential selection. In the experiments, we show that, in some cases, the ensemble feature selection process can be sensitive to the choice of the diversity measure, and that the question of the superiority of a particular measure depends on the context of the use of diversity and on the data being processed.


Xenopus eggs are laid arrested at second metaphase of meiosis lacking a functional centrosome. Upon fertilization, the sperm provides the active centrosome that is required for cleavage to occur. The injection of purified centrosomes mimics fertilization and leads to tadpole formation (parthenogenesis). In this work we show that the parthenogenetic activity of centrosomes is inactivated by urea concentrations higher than 2 M. The loss of activity is correlated with a progressive destruction of the centriolar cylinder and extraction of proteins. This shows that centrosomes are relatively sensitive to urea since complete protein unfolding and solubilization of proteins normally occurs at urea concentrations as high as 8-10 M. When present, the parthenogenetic activity is always associated with a pelletable fraction showing that it cannot be solubilized by urea. The parthenogenetic activity is progressively inactivated by salt concentrations higher than 2 M (NaCl or KCl). However, only a few proteins are extracted by these treatments and the centrosome ultrastructure is not affected. This shows that both parthenogenetic activity and centrosomal structure are resistant to relatively high ionic strength. Indeed, most protein structures held by electrostatic forces are dissociated by 2 M salt. The loss of parthenogenetic activity produced at higher salt concentrations, while the structure of the centrosome is unaffected, is an apparent paradox. We interpret this result as meaning that the native state of centrosomes is held together by forces that favor functional denaturation by high ionic strength. The respective effects of urea and salts on centrosomal structure and activity suggest that the centrosome is mainly held together by hydrogen and hydrophobic bonds. The in vitro microtubule nucleating activity of centrosomes can be inactivated at salt or urea concentrations that do not affect the parthenogenetic activity. Since egg cleavage requires the formation of microtubule asters, we conclude that the extracted or denatured microtubule nucleating activity of centrosomes can be complemented by components present in the egg cytoplasm. Both parthenogenetic and microtubule nucleating activities are abolished by protease treatments but resist nuclease action. Since we find no RNA in centrosomes treated by RNase, they probably do not contain a protected RNA. Taken together, these results are consistent with the idea that the whole or part of the centrosome structure acts as a seed to start the centrosome duplication cycle in Xenopus eggs.


In this paper, we present the Q-learning method for adaptive traffic signal control on the basis of multi-agent technology. The structure is composed of sixphase agents and one intersection agent. Wireless communication network provides the possibility of the cooperation of agents. As one kind of reinforcement learning, Q-learning is adopted as the algorithm of the control mechanism, which can acquire optical control strategies from delayed reward; furthermore, we adopt dynamic learning method instead of static method, which is more practical. Simulation result indicates that it is more effective than traditional signal system.


Machine learning has been applied to many problems related to scene interpretation. It has become clear from these studies that it is important to develop or choose learning procedures appropriate for the types of data models involved in a given problem formulation. We focus on this issue of learning with respect to different data structures and consider, in particular, problems related to the learning of relational structures in visual data. Finally, we discuss problems related to rule evaluation in multi-object complex scenes and introduce some new techniques to solve them.


: A pressure increase up to 101 ata led to 17.8% and 50% increase of the electrical potential difference and short-circuited current, resp., as well as to a 22% decrease of electrical resistance in the isolated frog skin. The changes were due to a high hydrostatic pressure and the increase of the solution temperature by 2.8 +/- 0.14 degrees C. At 100 ata, the ability of amiloride to block Na-channels in the cell membranes of the frog skin was preserved, and inspite of the intense increase in the work of the sodium active transport system, the kinetics of inhibition of the Na-pump by strophanthin K remained the same as in case of normal pressure.


We show that consistent nonlinear partially massless models cannot be obtained starting from "f-g" massive gravity, with "f" the embedding de Sitter space. The obstruction, which is also the source of f-g acausality, is the very same fifth constraint that removes the notorious sixth ghost excitation. Here, however, it blocks extension of the gauge invariance (appearing for mass to de Sitter cosmological constant tunings) that removed the helicity-zero mode at linear level. Separately, our methods allow us to almost complete the proof that all f-g models are acausal.


More than 100 attendees from Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, China, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States convened in Singapore for the 2019 ISMRM‐sponsored workshop on MRI of Obesity and Metabolic Disorders. The scientific program brought together a multidisciplinary group of researchers, trainees, and clinicians and included sessions in diabetes and insulin resistance; an update on recent advances in water–fat MRI acquisition and reconstruction methods; with applications in skeletal muscle, bone marrow, and adipose tissue quantification; a summary of recent findings in brown adipose tissue; new developments in imaging fat in the fetus, placenta, and neonates; the utility of liver elastography in obesity studies; and the emerging role of radiomics in population‐based "big data" studies. The workshop featured keynote presentations on nutrition, epidemiology, genetics, and exercise physiology. Forty‐four proffered scientific abstracts were also presented, covering the topics of brown adipose tissue, quantitative liver analysis from multiparametric data, disease prevalence and population health, technical and methodological developments in data acquisition and reconstruction, newfound applications of machine learning and neural networks, standardization of proton density fat fraction measurements, and X‐nuclei applications. The purpose of this article is to summarize the scientific highlights from the workshop and identify future directions of work.


Color difference used to test the quality of printing products is one of the most important factors in the printing industry. Many new color difference formulae such as CIEDE2000, CIEDE94, CMC(l:c) etc were developed to improve the uniformity. In this paper the color difference formulae have been compared throughout their weighting functions SL, SC, and SH to the CIELAB components , , . In order to test which color difference formula has the better performance in the printing industry they are evaluated by our own data sets. First of all, we developed a printing data set for evaluating color difference with psychophysical methods. And the visual color differences of every pairs were obtained. After that the color difference formula mentioned before were evaluated using the data set with the standardized residual sum of squares (STRESS) methods which has better mathematical properties to evaluate the performance of color difference formulae using ΔV and ΔE than PF/3 that cannot indicate the statistical significance of the difference between two color-difference formulae. The result shows that CIEDE2000 and CIE94 color difference formulae are better than CIELAB and CMC. Finally we recommend that the national standards and occupation standards should be updated and CIEDE2000 should be popularized in the printing industry.


Aims and Objectives: Aim of this study is to create interest in medical students towards the subject of biochemistry and making them understand the clinical topics in biochemistry better. Objective of this study is to incorporate CBL teaching in "schedule time limit" assigned to teach a topic in biochemistry and assess the perception of student and faculty after teaching them a clinical topic in CBL mode. Materials and Methods: After getting inform written consent total 64 students enrolled for the study. Total 4 days were allotted to teach "Calcium and Iron metabolism" as per curriculum plan of Biochemistry. Didactic lecture was delivered on Tues/Wed /Thu. One CBL module was given to each group students were motivated to do self-directed learning (SDL). On consecutive Monday one student from each group was randomly selected to present the CBL in 10 minutes. Faculty then asked relevant question regarding the topic of CBL and all students were encouraged to respond. Each CBL was thus presented turn wise and faculty guided the discussion as to stream line the thought process of students. Next to presentation and discussion feedback form were distributed and were collected after 5 minutes. Data analysis was done. Result: Majority of students were of opinion that teaching biochemistry in CBL mode is more interesting and more satisfying. They feel more confident and motivated to do SDL. Even faculty were of opinion that student participation was more in CBL mode of teaching. Lesser percentage of faculty felt that extra effort and time required for implementing CBL in routine teaching. Conclusion: Large majority of students found that incorporation of CBL is an interesting approach to learn biochemistry Faculty found that CBL can be introduced for certain selective topics and felt that students will be more oriented towards the subjects. It can be very well incorporated in teaching biochemistry within the specified time limit and can be quite effective as shown in this study. Keyword: Case Based Learning, Biochemistry, Medical Education.


These experiments were performed to determine the patterns of substrate utilization for energy production in tumors in vitro . A method is described for the growth of "tissue isolated" rat tumors. Implants of transplantable tumors are attached to a surgically prepared vascular pedicle composed of the superficial epigastric artery and vein. The vascular pedicle and tumor implant are enclosed in a parafilm envelope and placed in the inguinal fossa, and the skin incision is closed. Subsequent tumor growth is contained within the envelope, and vascularization of the tumor is entirely via the vascular pedicle. Tumors (1 to 6 g, wet weight) are harvested within 1 week to 2 months, depending on the growth rate. Blood samples may be collected by catheter from the tumor vein (superficial epigastric and femoral) and the carotid artery, or the tumor and pedicle may be removed and perfused. The overall success rate of the method, that is, tumor implants brought to successful blood sampling, is about 50%.

Arteriovenous differences for whole-blood amino acids, glucose, and lactic acid were measured in vitvo in Morris hepatomas 5123C, 7777, and 7288CTCF and Walker carcinosarcoma 256 grown by this method. Most whole-blood amino acids were utilized with mean utilization rates of 5 nmol/min/g tumor, wet weight, or less. Glutamine, the most abundant whole-blood amino acid, was also the most extensively utilized (mean utilization rates were 4 to 10 nmol/min/g). Ammonia was released into the venous blood by all tumors. The glucose utilization rate was directly proportional to the rate of glucose supply. Lactic acid was either produced or utilized, depending on the arterial blood lactic acid concentration. Lactate production occurred at arterial blood concentrations less than 2 to 3 mm, and utilization occurred at higher concentrations. The results show that new information on tumor-host organ inter-relationships and on the energy metabolism of tumors in vivo can be obtained using these techniques.


This paper summarizes the work of the exploratory phase of a Joint Industry Project (JIP) investigating operational instabilities and 'no flow' events observed in a large number of Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) wells produced with ESPs, where, while the ESP is operating, flow to surface suddenly stops. The impact of these events to the SAGD operations has included lost production due to downtime and reduced drawdown, additional stresses to the ESP due to operating without flow for extended periods and repeated shut-downs and restarts and some system failures. The primary objectives of this exploratory phase were to better understand the mechanisms and key factors responsible for these no flow events, to identify possible mitigation actions, which may be in the wellbore trajectory, ESP landing position, ESP system component designs, or operating practices.
 This work was structured as a series of progressive, inter-related tasks, using a combination of analytical models and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), to systematically examine the components of an ESP completion and to narrow-in on the primary contributing factors. The approach was adopted in an effort to assess if the instabilities were due to flow conditions upstream of the ESP, past the ESP, through the intake or in the initial stages of the pump. For each step of the analysis, the output boundary conditions of an upstream analysis became the input boundary conditions of the corresponding downstream assessment.
 First, a combination of one-dimensional (1D) multiphase flow and multiphase CFD models were used to characterize the fluid conditions and flow behaviour in the lateral and heel of the well below the ESP. Second, flow past the ESP motor was examined using CFD models to examine the impact of motor heating on subcool reduction and steam vapour generation. CFD simulations were also used to examine fluid separation and flow into a bottom feeder ESP intake to assess the amount of non-condensable gas (NCG) entering the ESP and if the pressure drop through the intake was sufficient to cause significant steam vapour flashing. Finally, a representative SAGD ESP stage was analyzed using both a broad suite of analytical surge models to assess the stability of the pump given the gas-liquid fraction entering the pump, as well as CFD simulations of the rotating stage. The focus of the CFD assessment within the entrance and first stage of the pump was to determine whether vapour flashing was occurring within the ESP stage and the apparent impact on the stage's ability to generate head.
 The results from this exploratory phase of the JIP indicated that vapour flashing within the ESP impeller due to insufficient required Net Positive Suction Head (NPSHr) appeared to be one of the dominant mechanisms causing no flow events, as opposed to NCG or steam entering the pump from the intake. Future work for this JIP includes validation of the CFD results using lab test data, further CFD simulations of other ESP stage designs and at a wider range of operating conditions, and examination of alternate ESP designs that may allow for production at lower subcool and lower NPSHr values.


This work addresses the issue of interference generated by co-channel users in downlink multi-antenna multicarrier systems with frequency-packed faster-than-Nyquist (FTN) signaling. The resulting interference stems from an aggressive strategy for enhancing the throughput via frequency reuse across different users and the squeezing of signals in the time-frequency plane beyond the Nyquist limit. The spectral efficiency is proved to be increasing with the frequency packing and FTN acceleration factors. The lower bound for the FTN sampling period that guarantees information losslesness is derived as a function of the transmitting-filter roll-off factor, the frequency-packing factor, and the number of subcarriers. Space-time-frequency symbol-level precoders (SLPs) that trade off constructive and destructive interblock interference (IBI) at the single-antenna user terminals are proposed. Redundant elements are added as guard interval to cope with vestigial destructive IBI effects. The proposals can handle channels with delay spread longer than the multicarrier-symbol duration. The receiver architecture is simple, for it does not require digital multicarrier demodulation. Simulations indicate that the proposed SLP outperforms zero-forcing precoding and achieves a target balance between spectral and energy efficiencies by controlling the amount of added redundancy from zero (full IBI) to half (destructive IBI-free) the group delay of the equivalent channel.


Nowadays, many industries are focusing on automation in manufacturing for high production and good quality to meet the needs of customers in a short period of time. This trend has produced a forward shift in technology in the form of advancement, which ultimately increases energy demand. For that reason, researchers have started working on sustainable development associated with cleaner-energy policies to avoid increasing energy consumption for enhanced manufacturing technology in developed countries. The other important issue affecting our world is global warming, which is the result of greenhouse gas emissions. That is the reason, renewable energies like solar energy have dramatically increased during recent years to compensate for the energy demand and reduced carbon footprint for cleaner production. This paper considers a supply chain management of automobile part manufacturing industry with suppliers to optimize the production quantity with multiple objectives i.e., minimizing the total cost of production including minimum quantity lubrication is a first objective, reduction of the carbon footprint is the second, and minimizing the cost of energy considering renewable energy is the last objective. This study considers a situation, where imperfect quality items are managed and controlled by the suppliers as outsourcing operations. A weighted goal programming methodology is utilized to solve the proposed mathematical model including sustainable suppliers. Sensitivity analysis of the model is performed for different scenarios with respect to the energy utilization. The optimal result of minimum production cost and carbon emissions is the evidence of successful pragmatic application in automobile industry. The results validate the model to provide the basis for sustainability in supply chain environment considering manufacturer and suppliers.


Background: To date, no study has assessed fulfillment of patients' expectations after foot and ankle surgery. This study aimed to validate a method of assessing expectation fulfillment in foot/ankle patients postoperatively. Methods: Preoperatively, patients completed the expectations survey, consisting of 23 questions for domains including pain, ambulation, daily function, exercise, and shoe wear. At 2 years postoperatively, patients answered how much improvement they received for each item cited preoperatively. A fulfillment proportion (FP) was calculated as the amount of improvement received versus the amount of improvement expected. The FP ranges from 0 (no expectations fulfilled), to between 0 and 1 (expectations partially fulfilled), to 1 (expectations met), to greater than 1 (expectations surpassed). Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and areas under the curve (AUCs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were used to compare the expectations survey to other outcome surveys, including Foot and Ankle Outcome Score, improvement, overall fulfillment, Delighted-Terrible scale, and satisfaction. Results: Of the 271 patients (mean age 55.4 years, mean BMI 27.5, 65% female), 34% had expectations surpassed (FP >1), 4% had expectations met, 58% had expectations partially fulfilled (FP between 0 and 1), and 5% had no expectations met. The mean FP was 0.84 ± 0.41 (range 0-3.13), indicating partially fulfilled expectations. FP correlated significantly with all outcome measures (P ≤ .007). FP was associated most closely with satisfaction (r = 0.66 [95% CI 0.57-0.75]; AUC = 0.92 [95% CI 0.88-0.96]; P < .001) and improvement (r = 0.73 [95% CI 0.64-0.81]; AUC = 0.94 [95% CI 0.91-0.96]; P < .001). Based on the associations with satisfaction and improvement outcomes, a clinically important proportion of expectations fulfilled is 0.68, with sensitivity 0.85-0.90 and specificity 0.84-0.86. Conclusion: The proportion of expectations fulfilled is a novel patient-centered outcome that correlated with validated outcome measures. The expectations survey may be used by surgeons to counsel patients preoperatively and also to assess patients' results postoperatively. Level of Evidence: Level II, prospective comparative series.


This paper explores the considerable military and technological developments which took place within the French army during the opening stages of this engagement at the regimental level. The research suggests that these developments were a part of the global evolution of infantry tactics in general. Using the 153e Regiment d'Infanterie as a case study, the author will display how even during the first three months of the confrontation, there were significant doctrinal and organizational changes which affected the lowest levels of the French Army. Through the analysis and comparison of the official regimental diaries, personal memoirs, and official military doctrine dictated by French High Command, we see not only how the 153e was indicative of a greater trend within the French Army, but how effective these changes were in combating their equally dynamic adversary. In particular, the addition of a third machinegun company, as well as the usage of intentional low-level tactical withdrawals at Froideterre from February 26–March 12, and at Cote 304 from April 5–13, 1916, give a powerful window into their rapidly changing methods. Through this study of primary materials, the tactical and technological innovations undertaken by the French infantry during the Great War will be evaluated in an effort to display the dynamism that is so often overshadowed by their Anglo-American Allies and German enemies.


Some paleopathological studies suggest that rheumatoid arthritis originated in the New World (among ancient Native Americans in Tennessee and neighbouring areas, 5000–500 BC); only after the discovery of America was the origin of the disease attributed to the Old World.1 In 1996, under the floors of the San Francisco church (Arezzo, Italy), a female mummy was discovered. This 50–55-year-old woman, re-named the "Braids Lady", died at the end of the 16th century. Several diagnostic examinations disclosed distinctive rheumatoid arthritis skeletal deformities due to rheumatoid arthritis in her body: large erosions of the metacarpophalangeal joints of the left hand; lateral deviation of all the fingers, with a typical "Z" deformation of the first …


BACKGROUND
The posmenopausal women has higher cardiovascular risks, since their concentrations of glucose, insulin, total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, triacilglycerides and lipoproteins are bigger, while their HDL-cholesterol decreases; this factors increases the risk of suffering metabolic syndrome.

OBJECTIVE
To describe the nutritional status and cardiovascular risk of Mexican posmenopausal women with metabolic syndrome.

METHODS
In a cross-sectional study, we assessed the nutritional status and cardiovascular risk factors of Mexican women (n = 93) with overweight or obesity and metabolic syndrome.

RESULTS
The three most frequent met criteria for metabolic syndrome were abdominal obesity, hypertriglyceridemia and low HDL-cholesterol levels. Without considering abdominal obesity, the most common alterations during initial assessment were high LDL cholesterol levels, low HDL cholesterol levels and hypertriglyceridemia. Women with a body mass index up to 35 did not appear to have higher values than overweight and obese grade I women. We did not find differences in metabolic variables among older women or in those using hormone therapy. A high carbohydrate and saturated fat intake was observed, as well as high fat dairy and frequent non healthy cooking methods. On the other hand, intake of fruits, vegetables, and high fiber carbohydrates was low. Average physical activity was reported to be only 30 minutes a week.

CONCLUSIONS
The observed dietary pattern in these women, and their inactivity level could be exacerbating their cardiovascular risk factors. The promotion of a cardioprotective dietary pattern in these women is essential and urgent.


A framework that integrates past research in the area of software reliability measurement and analysis for application in the C2 / C3 I arena is presented. The framework centers upon a matrix for classifying software systems according to their size, technology life cycle, and objective requirements based in their operational context. Once categorized in the schema, a system can be compared with others and particular reliability problems, alternate measurement and analysis strategies, and possible trade-offs can be more easily identified. The matrix simplifies past checklist approaches to reliability measurement and analysis, honing in on key factors for the effective choice of reliability methods and procedures. The presentation of the matrix is followed by its application to the SDI battle management system. The SDI software needs are described for each of the dimensions of the matrix. Other c2 systems are compared briefly with the SDI findings, providing an initial baseline for further analyses using the framework.


Sclerotization of insect cuticle is an extremely important biochemical process for the successful survival of most insects. N-Acetyldopamine and N-beta-alanyldopamine are two widely used sclerotizing precursors. N-Acetyldopamine is converted by phenoloxidase, quinone isomerase, and quinone methide isomerase to generate the reactive intermediates quinone, quinone methide, and quinone methide imine amide for use in quinone tanning, quinone methide sclerotization, and alpha,beta-sclerotization, respectively. N-beta-Alanyldopamine has been claimed to be used only by phenoloxidase and quinone isomerase for quinone tanning and quinone methide sclerotization thereby attributing biochemical diversity to the coloration and strength of different cuticles. However, we demonstrate here that cuticular enzymes isolated from the larvae of Calliphora possess the capacity to generate 1,2-dehydro-N-beta-alanyldopamine from N-beta-alanyldopamine. Chemical synthesis of 1,2-dehydro-N-beta-alanyldopamine and its further oxidation are reported for the first time. Comparative biochemical studies confirm that both the sclerotizing precursors, N-acetyldopamine and N-beta-alanyldopamine, are used by all three different mechanisms of the unified theory of sclerotization.


The poster describes the results of an outreach project at the Medical Library at Uppsala University library. During one year many different approaches were tested to increase the knowledge of the hospital staff's needs, and to create new ways to communicate with them. Activities tried include lunch-time information meetings, "info point", reference group discussions, Facebook and 15 minutes – short presentations for clinic meetings. The activities were evaluated and some will become a part of the regular library workflow. The poster highlights the fact that libraries can test many different approaches on a small scale, to see which are suitable for their library.


The cytostatic effect of some semi-synthetic derivative of rubomycin, an antitumor antibiotic, was studied with two methods, i.e. the method of spectrophotometric determination of the increase of the total amount of nucleic acids and the radiometric method based on measuring the intensity of incorporation of labeled thymidine. The results obtained with the two methods were similar. 9 semi-synthetic derivatives of rubomycin were studied with respect to the tumor cells NK/Li. The cytostatic effect of 8 out of these derivatives was 2-170 times lowers than that of rubomycin. The cytostatic effect of N-ethylrubomycin was equal to that of the initial antibiotic.


This paper presents a risk management matrix for effective planning of industrial projects. A schematic view of the project environment has been suggested to systematically identify the effects of various project environments, and thereby take a holistic view of risks arising out of immediate and external environments. Various subfactors within each risk element are presented. A process to quantify the immediate and external risks for industrial projects using a weighted probability method is proposed. To derive a useful interpretation, a risk management matrix is also proposed. The results of empirical validation of the model in two recently concluded large industrial projects are also presented. The risk management matrix model can be used to identify a number of policy alternatives at the planning stage.


LARGE BLOOD vessels lie in sheltered positions in the body and are infrequently injured in civilian life. Most surgeons see relatively few fresh injuries of large blood vessels in their lifetime; however, any surgeon who is particularly interested in vascular problems will encounter an appalling number of disabling complications, amputations, and even deaths resulting from inadequate and improper treatment of vascular injuries. 1 Most of these catastrophes could be avoided if a few principles of management were better understood and more widely practiced. It is therefore appropriate to review, clarify, and augment these principles from time to time. A blood vessel may be compressed, contused, partially severed, or completely severed. Compression usually results from angulation of a fractured bone, hemorrhage or swelling within an unyielding fascial compartment, or injudicious use of a tourniquet. It is easy to detect if one is aware of the danger and remembers to palpate the


A novel method is presented for producing dead-bea response in a lightly-damped oscillatory feedback system. Complete transient response times of the order of a fraction of the natural oscillatory period can be obtained. Excellent waveshape reproduction is achieved through a linear phase lag with frequency. The method consists of exciting several transient oscillations, at closely spaced times, with magnitudes and phases so adjusted that the resultant sum of the transient oscillation phasors is zero. The steady-state output is the arithmetic sum of the excitation magnitudes. When a step input transient is divided into two spaced excitations, one-half cycle response is obtainable. When the input transient is divided into three excitations, one-fourth period or faster transient times are realizable, depending upon the available dynamic range or signal-to-noise ratio. The principle of design is to adjust a system to the maximum possible resonant frequency, independent of the damping factor, but stable, and then to apply the Posicast control to completely remove the oscillatory component in the output. In an electrical feedback control system, the additional hardware consists of one or two artificial transmission lines.


ARTICLE HISTORY: Received 11 June 2017 Accepted 04 July 2017 Due to the growing demand for higher bandwidth, employing optical devices instead of electronic devices in data transmission systems has attracted much attention in recent years. Optical switches, modulators and wavelength converters are a few examples of the required optical devices. CMOS compatible fabrication of these devices, leads to much more growing of this technology. Optical pulse compression, is required for generating ultra-short pulses for high bandwidth optical transmission systems. In this work, we present a CMOS fabrication process compatible, integrated optical pulse compressor. A Silicon waveguide coated by MoS2 for nonlinearity enhancement is used for self-phase modulation and a chirped Bragg grating utilizing corrugated silicon waveguides is employed to achieve the required anomalous dispersion. Low power and high compression ratio were considered in this work. We achieved a compression ratio of 3.5 by using a relatively low power optical pulse of 8W and a short waveguide length of 1mm.


The morphology of polymer/nanofibrillated cellulose (NFC) composite sheets produced using different techniques and its influence on low strain stiffness were assessed by optical and transmission electron microscopy. Solvent processing led to relatively homogeneous NFC dispersions and significant reinforcement of the in-plane Young's modulus. The continuous cellular networks obtained by wet-comingling of PLA powder or latex with NFC also provided efficient and essentially scale-independent reinforcement, in spite of the extensive agglomeration of the NFC. However, the irreversible nature of these networks is incompatible with low pressure thermoplastic processing routes such as physical foaming, and while they may be broken up by e.g. extrusion, this led to substantial loss in reinforcement, particularly above Tg, consistent with the observation of isolated low aspect ratio NFC aggregates in the extruded specimens.


. Dissipation coefficients are calculated in the adiabatic, near thermal equilibrium regime for a large class of renormalizable interaction configurations involving a two-stage mechanism, where a background scalar field is coupled to heavy intermediate scalar or fermion fields which in turn are coupled to light scalar or fermion radiation fields. These interactions are typical of warm inflation microscopic model building. Two perturbative regimes are shown where well defined approximations for the spectral functions apply. One regime is at high temperature, when the masses of both intermediate and radiation fields are less than the temperature scale and where the poles of the spectral functions dominate. The other regime is at low temperature, when the intermediate field masses are much bigger than the temperature and where the low energy and low three-momentum regime dominate the spectral functions. The dissipation coefficients in these two regimes are derived. However, due to resummation issues for the high temperature case, only phenomenological approximate estimates are provided for the dissipation in this regime. application of our results to cosmological phase transitions is also discussed.


This study explores temporal and age-related variation of anthropometric, physiological, and radiographic data collected in 1986–1990 in fi ve rural Mongolian populations (four Khalkha and one Khoton) living in different natural environments and practicing a traditional lifestyle. The sample includes 970 adult men and women aged 18–80. In Khalkha Mongols, the impact of climate and other environmental characteristics on anthropometric traits is negligible. These groups demonstrate temporal stability of anthropometric traits over the last 40 years and, if published data are considered, since the late 1800s. Age changes in hand skeleton are low to moderate. Sexual maturation in females is slow, the average age at menarche is 15.8 years, and no secular trend has been detected. The respective age in Khoton females is even higher––16.8 years. Unlike Khalkha females, Khoton females show a secular trend in body size, whereas the tempo of sexual maturation and skeletal ageing is accelerating. The totality of biological parameters indicates successful environmental adaptation in Khalkha Mongols. The Khoton migrants tend toward the adaptive norm typical of the native population.