Abstract Context: Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death worldwide and the consumption of red cabbage (Brassica oleracea var. capitata f. rubra DC. – Brassicaceae) has been linked with the reduction risk of chronic diseases. Objective: The present study assesses the bioactive metabolites and hypolipidemic effect of red cabbage on rats. Materials and methods: The content of total phenols, flavonoids, anthocyanins, carotenoids, ascorbic acid and antioxidant capacity were assessed, while individual phenolic acids and flavonoids were detected using reverse phase-high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis. Acute hypolipidemic activity of aqueous extract of red cabbage (RC – 125, 250 and 500 mg/kg) was investigated using a Triton WR-1339 (400 mg/kg) induced hyperlipidemic Wistar rats compared to fenofibrate (65 mg/kg). Results: The HPLC analysis of extracts revealed eight phenolic acids, gallic, protocatechuic, p-hydroxybenzoic, m-coumaric, syringic, caffeic, cinnamic, dicaffeoylquinic and three flavonoids, epicatechin, epigallocatechin, gallocatechin. Furthermore, the aqueous extract showed higher amounts of total phenolics (116.00 mg/g), flavonoids (161.32 μg/g) and, antioxidant activity (87.19%) than the hydromethanolic (89.33 mg/g, 123.34 μg/g and 75.07%), respectively. The RC significantly (p < 0.001) ameliorated the levels of cholesterol, triglycerides and lipoproteins alterations in hyperlipidemic rats without toxicity. Discussion and conclusion: Herein, the RC presented the higher amounts of phenolics and flavonoids comparing with the hydromethanolic extract. Additionally, the RC showed as the majority compounds, dicaffeoylquinic and cinnamic acids, and the flavonoids epicatechin and gallocatechin. Furthermore, the RC demonstrated a beneficial effect against hypercholesterolemia and hypertriglyceridemia, demonstrating its potential therapeutic effect on these risk factors of cardiovascular diseases.


As consumers embrace Electric Vehicle (EV) technology, the automotive industry is moving quickly into replacing internal combustion engines (ICE) and traditional transmissions. The change to electrically driven vehicles offers new challenges to the gear manufacturing world, and most importantly new specifications to heat treat these gears - specifically quieter gear sets and higher torque ratings. Today's EVs have a much lower tolerance for noise from the gear set to power the vehicle; therefore, this continues the need for even quieter and stronger gears. This technical presentation will illustrate the heat treat and distortion specifications for these new gears, along with answering the "why" of selecting low pressure vacuum carburizing (LPC) for new programs around the world.


This article explores the place of civil war in recent debates on political iconography. It begins with two recent theoretical and curatorial interventions into art history, by T. J. Clark and Georges Didi-Huberman, which orbit around the question of the tragic, probing the limits of tragedy as a frame to think the politics of images and contrasting Clark and Didi-Huberman's analyses with Carlo Ginzburg's recent re-reading of Picasso's Guernica . The article then takes the theme of civil war to the origins of modern political thought, through a critical exploration of some recent readings of the frontispiece to Hobbes's Leviathan , chief among them the one proposed by Giorgio Agamben in his book on the paradigm of civil war. The article concludes with a reflection on a negative political icon that came to both crystallise and condemn, in the eyes of many, the insurrectionary movements of Italy's late 1970s.


The Brushless Doubly-Fed Reluctance Generator (BDFRG) is a potential alternative to the Doubly Fed Induction Generator (DFIG) in wind power applications owing to its reasonable cost, competitive performance, and high reliability. In comparison with the Brushless Doubly-Fed Induction Generator (BDFIG), the BDFRG is more efficient and easier to control owing to the cage-less rotor. One of the most preferable advantages of BDFRG over DFIG is the inherently better performance under unbalanced grid conditions. The study conducted in this paper showed that conventional vector control of the BDFRG results in excessive oscillations of the primary active/reactive power, electromagnetic torque, and primary/secondary currents in this case. In order to address such limitations, this paper presented a new control strategy for the unbalanced operation of BDFRG-based wind generation systems. A modified vector control scheme was proposed with the capability to control the positive and the negative sequences of the secondary currents independently, thus greatly reducing the adverse implications of the unbalanced supply. The controller performance has been validated by simulations using a 1.5 MW BDFRG dynamical model built upon the positive and negative sequence equations. The main benefits of the new control strategy are quantified in comparison with conventional PI current control design.


The inconvenience and cost of utilising existing task assignment approaches to resolve dynamical mobile task allocation. For such new domain, we first propose a method, called dynamical-sequential task allocation and reallocation, by implementing multi-round negotiation and body expansion behaviour. Every former half time step, robots negotiate sequentially and select tasks to perform, and declare the information to other robots. When all robots have finished first time selection, then the remaining unselected robots choose the remaining unassigned tasks again sequentially at the latter half time step. We set two distance thresholds for robot decision-making to apply body expansion behaviour. The advantages of our methodology are demonstrated by comparison with existing algorithms, simulation results demonstrate that the efficiency for whole system to accomplish given tasks is improved by utilising our approach. Moreover, it is more conducive to reduce the numerous computational time and communication compared with existing investigated task assignment methods.


A novel mechanical frequency-up convertor for energy harvesting using low frequency ambient vibration based on overlapping capacitive comb has been proposed in this paper. Centrally clamped bistable beam is used to frequency-up conversion which is similar to pre-buckled structure and makes a large acceleration to induce initial displacement. We have achieved more average power from the proposed system by excitation at the low frequencies so improved power density.


Cryptosystems are essential for computer and communication security, e.g., RSA or ECDSA in PGP Email clients and AES in full disk encryption. In practice, the cryptographic keys are loaded and stored in RAM as plain-text, and therefore vulnerable to cold-boot attacks exploiting the remanence effect of RAM chips to directly read memory data. To tackle this problem, we propose Copker, a cryptographic engine that implements asymmetric cryptosystems entirely within the CPU, without storing any plain-text sensitive data in RAM. Copker supports the popular asymmetric cryptosystems (i.e., RSA and ECDSA), and deterministic random bit generators (DRBGs) used in ECDSA signing. In its active mode, Copker stores kilobytes of sensitive data, including the private key, the DRBG seed and intermediate states, only in on-chip CPU caches (and registers). Decryption/signing operations are performed without storing any sensitive information in RAM. In the suspend mode, Copker stores symmetrically-encrypted private keys and DRBG seeds in memory, while employs existing solutions to keep the key-encryption key securely in CPU registers. Hence, Copker releases the system resources in the suspend mode. We implement Copker with the support of multiple private keys. With security analyses and intensive experiments, we demonstrate that Copker provides cryptographic services that are secure against cold-boot attacks and introduce reasonable overhead.


BACKGROUND
phonological awareness, rapid naming, reading and writing in students with learning difficulties of a municipal public school.

AIM
to characterize and compare the performance of students from public schools with and without learning difficulties in phonological awareness, rapid naming, reading and writing.

METHOD
participants were 60 students from the 2nd to the 4th grades of municipal public schools divided into 6 groups. Each group was composed by 10 students, being 3 groups of students without learning difficulties and 3 groups with students with learning difficulties. As testing procedure phonological awareness, rapid automatized naming, oral reading and writing under dictation assessments were used.

RESULTS
the results highlighted the better performance of students with no learning difficulties. Students with learning difficulties presented a higher ratios considering time/speed in rapid naming tasks and, consequently, lower production in activities of phonological awareness and reading and writing, when compared to students without learning difficulties.

CONCLUSION
students with learning difficulties presented deficits when considering the relationship between naming and automatization skills, and among lexical access, visual discrimination, stimulus frequency use and competition in using less time for code naming, i.e. necessary for the phoneme-grapheme conversion process required in the reading and writing alphabetic system like the Portuguese language.


Manuscript type: Research paperResearch aims: The purpose of this paper is to examine the impactof open market share repurchases on stock liquidity of listedcompanies in Thailand.Design/ Methodology/ Approach: The sample includes 3,055 actualshare repurchases made by 75 listed firms in the Stock Exchange ofThailand (SET) over a period of 13 years from 2002 to 2014. Multipleregressions are used to examine linear and non-linear relationshipsbetween actual share repurchases and liquidity measures.Research findings: Results show that actual share repurchasesgenerally have beneficial impacts on liquidity. This is indicatedby narrower bid-ask spreads and smaller price impact as firmsrepurchase more shares. Nonetheless, the impact of sharerepurchases on stock liquidity of Thai listed firms tends to be nonlinear.At low level share repurchases, repurchasing more sharesincreases liquidity but at high level share repurchases, acquiringmore shares impair liquidity.Theoretical contributions/ Originality: The findings of thispaper shed some light on the long debate regarding the impact ofshare repurchases on liquidity by showing that the relationshipbetween stock repurchases and liquidity is non-linear. It is foundthat share repurchases have a positive effect on stock liquidityif firms repurchase small number of shares per day (pricesupport hypothesis). However, share repurchases may have adetrimental effect on stock liquidity if firms buy back sharesaggressively (information asymmetry hypothesis).
Practitioner/ Policy implications: The study has demonstrated thata share repurchase programme can be used as an effective tool toenhance stock liquidity if it is implemented properly.Research limitations/ Implications: Since the findings of this studymay be applicable only to listed companies in Thailand, futureresearch should try to extend the analysis to other emerging markets.Keywords: Liquidity, Share Repurchases, ThailandJEL Classification: G14, G32, G35


The parameters necessary for equidistant equal-time optimum operation of a Fabry-Perot spectrometer with a spherical etalon have been determined. For least uncertainty determinations of winds (temperatures) the etalon normalized width a+ is 0.072 (0.035); the normalized source width dg+ is 0.16 (0.11), and the normalized etalon aperture f+ is 0.14 (0.065). The corresponding reflectivity and finesse are 0.80 (0.89) and 14.0 (28.6), respectively. From these results, a gain factor for a spherical etalon spectrometer, relative to a plane etalon spectrometer, has been found to be G ≃ 4.75ds2D−2, where ds is the gap of the spherical etalon, and D is the diameter of the plane etalon. Thus a spherical etalon spectrometer with a gap ≥6.87 cm is a more powerful spectrometer than a plane etalon device with a 15-cm diam aperture.


The seismic prevention of damage is a challenge for the third millennium. In spite of the tremendous work on analytical and experimental studies to reduce seismic risk, many cities in the world are prone to seismic risk and the dead and loose are increasing exponentially in the past century. The scientific, social and political awareness of Italian community leads the Italian Department of Civil Protection to funding the Research Project on earthquake damage scenarios for a high risk area in the Mediterranean. The area chosen was the mid-sized city of Catania, located in the Sicily island, situated in the central part of the Mediterranean area. The road map for the evaluation of seismic prevention of damage follows the subsequent parts: the earthquake-source characterisation and seismic action evaluation at the bedrock for the scenario earthquakes (section 2); the site effects evaluation (section 3); the vulnerability analysis of physical environment for evaluating the risk related to cavities, landslides and liquefaction (section 4); the soil-structure interaction analysis for shallow foundation and retaining walls (section 5); the vulnerability analysis of monuments and r.c. buildings (section 6); the seismic structural improvement of r.c. buildings (section 7); vulnerability analysis of urban road and infrastructures (section 8). The road map followed for the seismic prevention of damage could be considered a pilot project for detailed earthquake scenarios analyses and for seismic prevention of damage in many cities, characterised as the city of Catania by severe site amplification phenomena, landslides, liquefaction, presence of cavities, presence of many monuments and buildings not designed to resist against earthquakes. The seismic structural improvement of these buildings must be based on site dependent response spectra, evaluated from the characterisation of the earthquake source. The seismic structural improvement is needed for the sustainable development of many cities prone to seismic risk.


Objectives: To focus on the benefits of focal resection of the lower uterine segment as compared to obstetric hysterectomy in patients with morbidly adherent placenta.Study Design: Quasi-experimental study.Place and Duration of Study: Combined Military Hospital Okara, Oct 2019 to Nov 2020.Methodology: Fifty-two women between 34 to 38 weeks of gestation were operated for morbidly adherent placenta. Group-I women (focal resection of the lower uterine segment) and Group-II (obstetric hysterectomy) were twenty-six each. In Group-I, hemostasis was secured by a figure of 8 sutures, purse-string sutures or continuous sutures. In Group-II, hemostasis was secured, and internal iliac artery ligation was done as required.
Results: Group-I undergoing focal resection of lower uterine segment hemostasis was addressed by the figure of 8 sutures in 21 (80%) women and purse-string sutures in 7 women (27%). Hemostasis of the posterior uterine wall was done in 12 (47%) women. Balloon tamponade was used in 10 (40%) women and B-Lynch suture in 5 (20%) women. Internal iliac artery ligation was done in 4 (11%) women, and the bladder was injured in 10 (40%) women. Group-II undergoing obstetric hysterectomy hemostasis was secured for leftover placental tissue in 5 (18%) women, and internal iliac artery ligation was done in 9 (35%) women. Bladder repair was done in 12 (47%) cases. Conclusion: Although time-consuming, focal resection of the lower uterine segment and hemostasis are associated with less morbidity.


This thesis aims to examine the parametrisation of coarse-grained models for the simulation of soft matter systems. The strengths and weaknesses of a range of methods are examined, and suggestions for improvements are made.
Initially, two bottom-up methods, iterative Boltzmann inversion (IBI) and hybrid force matching (HFM) are applied to a liquid octane/benzene mixture and compared to a top-down model based on a version of statistical associating fluid theory, the SAFT-γ Mie equation of state. These models are tested for their ability to represent the structure and thermodynamics of the underlying atomistic system, as well as their transferability between temperatures and concentrations. Attempts are then made to address the poor transferability of the bottom-up models using a variant of IBI, multi-state IBI (MS-IBI). MS-IBI allows concentration transferable potentials to be generated but is not successful in improving temperature transferability. The state-point dependence of pair potentials is identified as the cause of poor temperature transferability, and initial attempts to address this are discussed.
A range of coarse-grained models of the non-ionic liquid crystal TP6EO2M is examined. HFM is able to give a structurally accurate coarse-grained model; however, the difficulty of sampling all relevant configurations within an atomistic reference system appear to cause problems with calculating accurate association free energies. The new MARTINI 3 top-down force field is shown to improve upon the structural and thermodynamic properties of MARTINI 2, allowing larger system sizes to be studied. The nematic and hexagonal columnar chromonic phases are observed, and the concentration dependence seen in the experimental phase diagram is reproduced. This represents the first simulations of chromonic liquid crystal phases using systematic coarse graining.


The proportion of elderly people in the population has increased rapidly in the last century and consequently "healthy aging" is expected to become a critical area of research in neuroscience. Evidence reveals how healthy aging depends on three main behavioral factors: social lifestyle, cognitive activity, and physical activity. In this study, we focused on the role of cognitive activity, concentrating specifically on educational and occupational attainment factors, which were considered two of the main pillars of cognitive reserve (CR). Twenty-one subjects with similar rates of social lifestyle, physical and cognitive activity were selected from a sample of 55 healthy adults. These subjects were divided into two groups according to their level of CR; one group comprised subjects with high CR (9 members) and the other one contained those with low CR (12 members). To evaluate the cortical brain connectivity network, all participants were recorded by Magnetoencephalography (MEG) while they performed a memory task (modified version of the Sternberg's Task). We then applied two algorithms [Phase Locking Value (PLV) and Phase Lag Index (PLI)] to study the dynamics of functional connectivity. In response to the same task, the subjects with lower CR presented higher functional connectivity than those with higher CR. These results may indicate that participants with low CR needed a greater "effort" than those with high CR to achieve the same level of cognitive performance. Therefore, we conclude that CR contributes to the modulation of the functional connectivity patterns of the aging brain.


ABSTRACT Detailed examination of Neogene strata in cliffs 25-35 m high along the western shore of Chesapeake Bay, Maryland, reveals the complexity of the surviving record of siliciclastic sequences 150 km inland of the structural hinge zone of the Atlantic passive margin. Previous study of the lower to middle Miocene Calvert (Plum Point Member) and Choptank Formations documented a series of third-order sequences 7-10 m thick in which lowstand deposits are entirely lacking, transgressive tracts comprise a mosaic of condensed bioclastic facies, and regressive (highstand) tracts are present but partially truncated by the next sequence boundary; smaller-scale (fourth-order) cyclic units could not be resolved. Together, these sequences constitute t e transgressive and early highstand tracts of a larger (second-order Miocene) composite sequence. The present paper documents stratigraphic relations higher in the Calvert Cliffs succession, including the upper Miocene St. Marys Formation, which represents late highstand marine deposits of the Miocene second-order sequence, and younger Neogene fluvial and tidal-inlet deposits representing incised-valley deposits of the succeeding second-order cycle. The St. Marys Formation consists of a series of tabular units 2-5 m thick, each with an exclusively transgressive array of facies and bounded by stranding surfaces of abrupt shallowing. These units, which are opposite to the flooding-surface-bounded regressive facies arrays of model parasequences, are best characterized as shaved sequences in which only the transgressive tract survives, and are stacked into larger transgressive, highstand, and forced-regression sets. Biostratigraphic analyses by others indicate that this onshore record contains the same number of third-order ( 1 my duration) units as present offshore, and so thinning landward of the hinge zone was accomplished not by omission or erosion of entire cycles of deposition, but instead by omission of some subsidiary elements (e.g., lowstand tracts), by erosional shaving of sequence tops (removing the entire regressive tract in some sequences), by a reduced number of component high-order cycles surviving per larger set, and by qualitative changes in the anatomy or composition of elements (e.g., condensed transgressive tracts; shaved sequences rather than parasequences). All of these differences can be attributed to limited accommodation, ut preservation of an onshore record of each baselevel cycle was probably also favored by the large amplitude and rapidity of eustatic fluctuations during the Miocene.


The aphid Aphis gossypii Glover is a vector of Cotton Vein Mosaic Virus (V.M.N.), which can cause reduced or null yields in cotton crops. The objective of this study was to identify cotton cultivars resistant to V.M.N. when exposed to the action of aphids. The experiments were conducted at the experimental farm of the Instituto Agronomico do Parana, IAPAR, in Londrina, PR, Brazil, in a randomized blocks statistical design. The cultivars compared were: Delta Opal, Deltapine A90, CNPA ITA 90, Coodetec 401, IAC 22, IPR 95, IPR 96, and IPR 94. Twenty-five plants were selected for evaluation; the presence of aphids and V.M.N. symptoms were recorded. Two experiments were conducted under the same conditions; in one of them, insecticides were applied to control aphids when their presence was detected on 10% of the plants. The other experiment received no insecticides for aphid control. The vector was present on the plants from all cultivars. High V.M.N. rates occurred in cultivar CNPA ITA 90 even under lower aphid infestations, with a yield reduction of 68% when compared with Delta Opal. The cultivars Delta Opal and Coodetec 401 proved very resistant to V.M.N. based on the absence of plants with symptoms; IAC 22 was susceptible, while Deltapine A90 and CNPA ITA 90 were very susceptible. The insecticides provided reasonable protection against the action of the vector, but data allowed to infer that in areas with high levels of V.M.N. infection, the most suitable control method would be the adoption of cultivars resistant to the disease, such as Delta Opal and Coodetec 401.


Background: 5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is one of the most commonly used chemotherapy drugs for the treatment of colorectal cancer in the adjuvant and metastatic disease settings. One of the main targets of 5-FU is the enzyme thymidylate synthase (TS). High expression levels of TS in colorectal tumors removed from patients have been associated with drug resistance. The Forkhead box transcription factor M1 (FOXM1) has been demonstrated to regulate several aspects in cancer cells including: cell cycle progression, apoptosis, and cell survival. FOXM1 is over expressed in many types of cancers, including colorectal, and has been implicated in drug resistance in breast cancer. Thiostrepton is a thiazole antibiotic which selectively inhibits FOXM1. The relationship between FOXM1/TS and 5-FU resistance has not previously been established and may present a new treatment strategy. Purpose: In this study we sought to determine 1) the role of FOXM1 in regulation of TS, 2) whether inhibition of FOXM1 using thiostrepton or transient knockdown using a small interfering RNA would inhibit the TS expression in colorectal cancer cells, 3) whether combined therapy with 5-FU and thiostrepton would have a synergistic effect on cell survival, and 4) the effect of treatment with thiostrepton/ 5-FU/ combined thiostrepton and 5-FU on cellular migration and colony formation. Methods and results: HCT116, DLD1, and HT29 cells were treated with 0.5ug/ml 5-FU. TS and FOXM1 protein and mRNA expression were determined using Western blot and RTPCR. 5-FU treatment resulted in an initial increase (6h) followed by a decrease (48h) of both TS and FOXM1 in p53 wild type HCT116 cells, in p53 mutant DLD1 and HT29 cells whilst an initial increase was observed in both FOXM1 and TS there was no subsequent decrease. SRB assay was used to quantify the IC50 of 5-FU in HCT116, DLD1 and HT29 and was found to be 0.67±.23, 0.68±.22 and 3.09±.39 respectively. Transient knockdown of FOXM1 led to a significant decrease of TS in mRNA but not protein in HCT116 cells. For thiostrepton the IC50 was found to be 0.60uM, 1.07uM, and 3.54uM, in HCT116, DLD1 and HT29 cells, respectively. Combination of 5-FU and thiostrepton showed synergistic effects in all 3 colon cancer cell lines. Chromatin immunoprecipitation (ChIP) was performed in HCT116 and DLD1 cell lines to determine if FOXM1 binds to the TS promoter region (0 - 2000bp upstream of the TS transcription start site). 3 negative primers were designed further to 2000bp upstream region. ChIP data revealed enrichment for FOXM1 at the TS promoter (0-1500 bp upstream) and no enrichment observed in the negative control. Inhibition of FOXM1 by thiostrepton led to a drop in enrichment in the TS promoter region. These results confirmed the role of FOXM1 in TS regulation. Chip Sequencing (ChIP-seq) was then performed to study further FOXM1 targets and binding sites of FOXM1 to other well-known 5-FU targets such as thymidine phosphorylase (TP) and thymidine kinase 1 (TK-1). The FOXM1 specific ChIP-seq libraries and corresponding input controls were sequenced on the Illumina Hi Seq 2000. ChIP-seq confirmed that FOXM1 significantly binds to both these factors. FOXM1 binding to cell cycle regulatory genes E2F2 and E2F3 was also shown in both cell lines. Combination treatment of 5-FU and thiostrepton significantly decreases colony formation in HCT116, DLD1 and HT29 cell lines. 5-FU and thiostrepton combination also decreases migration in HCT116 cells. Conclusion: FOXM1 regulates the 5-FU target gene TS, and inhibition of FOXM1 acts enhances the cytotoxic effect of 5-FU in colorectal cancer cells and warrants further investigation as a new treatment strategy. Citation Format: Vidhya Varghese, Luca Magnani, Narumi Harada, Lam W. Eric, Laura Kenny. Inhibition of FOXM1 by thiostrepton increases sensitivity to 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) by downregulating thymidylate synthase (TS) in colorectal cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR Precision Medicine Series: Drug Sensitivity and Resistance: Improving Cancer Therapy; Jun 18-21, 2014; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Clin Cancer Res 2015;21(4 Suppl): Abstract nr A54.


Internet and Web technologies are widely available, making it easier for companies to conduct business and transfer information to customers. Moreover, they speed up financial transactions efficiently, reducing the transaction costs of commercial activities that businesses would normally incur. So, Internet business has created a competitive environment, a successful company wanting to survive and gain a competitive advantage must provide an acceptable bundle of customized services that satisfy customers' needs. Despite the Internet's obvious benefits as a new communication medium its advertising gives the same advertising messages to all customers and so has suffered from poor responses. To raise a Web ad's effectiveness, we propose a Web ad selector that personalizes advertising messages for customers based on their preferences and interests. The Web ad selection system divides Web site customers with similar preferences into several segments through Web usage mining. It uses fuzzy rules that express customer segments' surfing patterns on the basis of expert advice, and recommends appropriate ads by fuzzy inference.


This work demonstrates the feasibility of Photoacoustic tomography (PAT) and real-time photoacoustic (PA) monitoring using a single transducer prototype system to detect and/or monitor tumour growth using low absorbing targets embedded in turbid phantom and thermal lesions in tissue. A single transducer PA prototype system is build utilizing a laser system producing light in the near infra-red while untrasonic transducers detects the PA pressure waves generated. The ability to image tissue using PAT is initially demonstrated using gelatin phantoms with targets of similar optical properties to native and coagulated prostate tissue. Next, lesions in bovine muscle tissue and bovine liver are also imaged demonstrating the effectiveness of PAT tp detect lesions during thermal therapy (TT). Selective imaging is shown by varying the optical wavelength to preferentially absorb light and target specific structures which in turn produce high contrast after image reconstruction. Finally, the capability of using PA to monitor TT is explored by measuring the changes in the optical and mechanical properties of tissue equivalent albumen phantoms as a function of thermal dose on PA signals, thereby demonstrating the real time capability of this modality to monitor TT.


Accretion in young stellar objects (YSOs) is at least partially episodic, i.e. periods with high accretion rates ('bursts') are interspersed by quiescent phases. These bursts manifest themselves as eruptive variability. Here we presenta systematic survey for eruptive YSOs aiming to constrain the frequency of accretion bursts. We compare mid-infrared photometry from Spitzer and WISE separated by ~5 yr for two samples of YSOs, in nearby star-forming regions and in the Galactic plane, each comprising about 4000 young sources. All objects for which the brightness at 3.6 and 4.5 I¼m is increased by at least 1 mag between the two epochs may be eruptive variables and burst candidates. For these objects, we carry out follow-up observations in the near-infrared. We discover two new eruptive variables in the Galactic plane which could be FU Ori-type objects, with K-band amplitudes of more than 1.5 mag. One object known to undergo an accretion burst, V2492 Cyg, is recovered by our search as well. In addition, the young star ISO-Oph-50, previously suspected to be an eruptive object, is found to be better explained by a disc with varying circumstellar obscuration. In total, the number of burst events in a sample of 4000 YSOs is 1-4. Assuming that all YSOs undergo episodic accretion, this constraint can be used to show that phases of strong accretion (>10-6Mâ?? yr-1) occur in intervals of about 104 yr, most likely between 5000 and 50 000 yr. This is consistent with the dynamical time-scales for outflows, but not with the separations of emission knots in outflows, indicating that episodic accretion could either trigger or stop collimated large-scale outflows. © 2013 The Authors. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Royal Astronomical Society.


A study has been undertaken to investigate different solver and shell element performances for curved bridge finite-element analysis. Three sparse solvers were implemented into a bridge finite-element analysis code, and the solution times and memory requirements for typical bridges were compared. In addition, the use of four-node and nine-node shell elements in modeling was investigated for different mesh densities. Based on the comparative studies performed, modeling guidelines for practicing engineers have been developed and are presented herein.


Gas absorption largely intends to separate acid impurities from the gas stream. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is an acid gas which is a harmful impurity in industrial process. Chemical absorption using aqueous solution of potassium carbonate and amine as a promotor is one of the separation method that is widely used in chemical industries to separate CO2 from the gas stream. This process is known as the Benfield process. CO2 solubility data are required for rational design and optimal operation of CO2 absorption column in chemical industries. The objective of this study is to obtain CO2 solubility data at varied CO2 concentration in the feed gas 10, 15, and 20% with 30% of potassium carbonate (K2CO3) as a solvent and variation of weight percent of Methyldiethanolamine (MDEA) as a promotor 0, 2, 5, 8, and 10% at 30oC and atmospheric pressure using the wetted wall column. The data obtained from experiment were correlated using the Electrolyte Non-Random Two Liquid (ENRTL) model. The deviation of correlated CO2 partial pressure with the experimental data is 12.5%. The binary interaction parameters of E-NRTL model for CO2-K2CO3-MDEA-H2O system were also obtained using Least Square method. The results of this study indicated that CO2 loading increased with the increase of weight percent of MDEA at the same partial pressure of CO2. The increase of CO2 partial pressure can enhance CO2 loading. Moreover the addition of MDEA increased the amount of CO2 reacted and CO2 dissolved.


Sir The choice ofjournal to which an original paper should be submitted is a matter of importance for surgeons, clinicians and scientists alike. In many cases this choice is easily made on the basis of subject matter, country of origin, or affiliation of the journal with a particular association or research group. For surgeons wishing to publish an article in a non-specialist surgical periodical, however, it may also be the speed with which papers appear in print that ultimately determines the journal of choice. We appreciate that most authors will be at least vaguely aware of some variation in publication lag-time amongst journals. However, we felt it would be of some considerable interest to provide a clearer insight into the current speed of publication of the most generally available nonspecialist surgical journals. We therefore collected information available from nine monthly publications during the period January-August 1987. In order to obtain data from at least the 6 most recent issues in which 'original articles' were published, and to ensure that a minimum of 50 articles was included, it was necessary in some journals to extend the search back as far as August 1986. Time from acceptance and/or submission was obtained from the dates quoted by the journal, taking information only from papers variously designated 'original articles', 'research papers', 'original communications', etc. and ignoring those articles whose appearance was based on a paper read at a previous association meeting, or whose content was in the form of a 'case report', 'brief communication', 'clinical note', etc. In addition, similar information was collected from one specialist surgical periodical ( J Thor Cardiouasc Surg) and one specialist medical/surgical journal (Gut), as well as from one general medical periodical (Br Med J). Seven of the general surgical journals provided information about date of acceptance or submission, with one (Acta Chir Scand) giving both. There were two journals which did not supply information (Am J Surg and Surg Gynecol Obstet). It is interesting to note that only in the most recent issue of Ann R Coll Surg Engl (bimonthly) has any indication been given about publication lag-time; of the other three bimonthly periodicals examined, Can J Surg did, while World J Surg and J R Coll Surg Edinb did not, provide appropriate information. The detailed results of the search are illustrated in Table 1 .


ABSTRACT We develop an Identity and Access Management (IAM) process maturity model and provide a first assessment of four organizations in Germany's financial industry. We find that the assessed organizations show merely average IAM maturity levels, and especially lack maturity and compliance in user registration and logging and tracking. Information technology (IT) managers, consultants, and auditors can use the model to (self)-audit, compare, or benchmark IAM process maturity, or identify weaknesses in organizations' IAM processes.


Abstract. In 2001, the CORE Group Polio Project (CGPP) began to support polio eradication initiatives in hard-to-reach pastoralist and semi-pastoralist high-risk border areas of Ethiopia by training and supporting community volunteers (CVs) for immunization promotion and community-based surveillance activities. This article describes the development and current status of the CGPP CV network in Ethiopia. It also reports the results of a 2016 survey of CVs. Community volunteers are selected jointly by the local community, local government officials, and local health facility staff. They work closely with the health extension worker in their area and are responsible for 50–100 households. More than 12,000 CVs have been trained and have reached six million people. They make routine home visits to 1) provide education on vaccine-preventable diseases, 2) promote healthy behaviors, 3) inform parents on how to access immunization services, and 4) report cases of acute flaccid paralysis, neonatal tetanus, and measles as well as births. The 2016 survey of 675 CVs demonstrated that 84.1% had conducted home visits in the previous month to 1) identify and register pregnant mothers and newborns, 2) provide health education, 3) conduct disease surveillance, and 4) search for and register immunization defaulters. Of the CVs, 98.2% reported that their work had led to improvements in the community. Knowledge of CVs about vaccine-preventable diseases was suboptimal. CVs expressed a desire for more training. Community volunteers have made notable contributions to polio eradication efforts in high-risk areas of Ethiopia as well as to immunization promotion and disease control more broadly.


by James E. Goggin and Eileen Brockman-Goggin. West Lafayette, Indiana: Purdue University Press, 2001. 242 pp. $32.95.Psychologists James and Eileen Goggin argue that psychoanalysis was destroyed in Nazi Germany. Such destruction by the Nazis of what they condemned as just another "Jewish science" might seem self-evident. Freud's books, after all, were among those burned by brownshirts in 1933, and the universal humanist values inherent in psychoanalytic theory and practice were of course anathema to Hitler's regime. But the Goggins, to their credit, are aware that the story is more complicated than the sudden termination of all psychoanalytic thought and praxis in 1933. To cite the (horribly naive) words spoken by Paul Henreid in the 1943 film Casablanca: "Even Nazis can't kill that fast." Psychoanalysis was well established in Germany, its first institute and clinic having been founded in Berlin in 1920. And it was the Berlin Psychoanalytic Institute that in 1936 formed the physical basis for the new German Institute for Psychological Research and Psychotherapy under the direction of Matthias Heinrich Goring, a cousin of Nazi bigwig Hermann Goring. While Jewish practitioners and patients were banished in 1938, psychoanalysis was one of the three "schools" of psychotherapy, along with the Adlerians and Jungians, that were represented in the membership of the new institute. This institute was generously funded by agencies of the Nazi party, the Reich government, private industry, and the military until its destruction during the battle for Berlin in 1945.So the theory and practice of psychoanalysis actually survived under official protection and even promotion during the Third Reich. The Goggins maintain, however, that the history of psychoanalysis -- for a history, it turns out, there was -- represents a severe discontinuity in the history of the discipline. For the Goggins, the totalitarian nature of the Nazi regime meant that the values inherent in psychoanalysis could not survive, that the moral integrity of its practitioners was destroyed by the exclusion, among others, of Jewish colleagues and patients, that the practice of psychoanalysis was rendered impossible by the Nazi erasure of the conditions of trust necessary between analyst and analysand, and that the autonomy of psychoanalysis as an especially rigorous means of self-examination was compromised through its association with other, lesser, forms of psychotherapy which were ostensibly being forged by the so-called "Guring Insitute" into a "new German psychotherapy" in line with Nazi racial ideals.While the Goggins are surely correct that the independent psychoanalytic movement in Germany -- and, later, in Europe -- suffered a catastrophe from which it has only relatively recently begun to recover, they ignore important historical contexts that make the story of psychoanalysis in Nazi Germany even more complicated than they allow. …


The cytosolic delivery of various substrates in 3D multicellular spheroids by thiol-mediated uptake is reported. This is important because most orthodox systems, including polycationic cell-penetrating peptides, fail to deliver efficiently into deep tissue. The grand principles of supramolecular chemistry, that is the pH dependence of dynamic covalent disulfide exchange with known thiols on the transferrin receptor, are proposed to account for transcytosis into deep tissue, while the known but elusive exchange cascades along the same or other partners assure cytosolic delivery in kinetic competition. For quantitative detection in the cytosol, the 2D chloroalkane penetration assay (CAPA) is translated to 3D deep tissue. The targeted delivery of quantum dots, otherwise already troublesome in 2D culture, and the controlled release of mechanophores are realized to exemplify the power of thiol-mediated uptake into spheroids. As transporters, dithiolane quartets on streptavidin templates are introduced as modular motifs. Built from two amino acids only, the varied stereochemistry and peptide sequence are shown to cover maximal functional space with minimal structural change, i.e., constitutional isomers. Reviving a classic in peptide chemistry, this templated assembly of β quartets promises to expand streptavidin biotechnology in new directions, while the discovery of general cytosolic delivery in deep tissue as an intrinsic advantage further enhances the significance and usefulness of thiol-mediated uptake.


With the growth of natural gas as an energy source, upgrading CO2-contaminated supplies has become increasingly important. Here we develop a single metric that captures how well an adsorbent performs the separation of CH4 and CO2, and we then use this metric to computationally screen tens of thousands of all-silica zeolites. We show that the most important predictors of separation performance are the CO2 heat of adsorption (Qst,CO2) and the CO2 saturation loading capacity. We find that a higher-performing material results when the absolute value of the CH4 heat of adsorption (Qst,CH4) is decreased independently of Qst,CO2, but a correlation that exists between Qst,CH4 and Qst,CO2 in all-silica zeolites leads to incongruity between the objectives of optimizing Qst,CO2 and minimizing Qst,CH4, rendering Qst,CH4 nonpredictive of separation performance. We also conduct a large-scale analysis of ideal adsorbed solution theory (IAST) by comparing results obtained using directly-generated mixture isotherms to those obtained using IAST; IAST appears adequate for the purposes of establishing performance trends and structure–property relationships in a high-throughput manner, but it must be tested for validity when analyzing individual adsorbents in detail since it can produce significant errors for materials in which there is site segregation of the adsorbate species.


The objective of this study was to examine the symbolic elements of the statue and memorial plaques in honor of Anna Nery offered by the Brazilian Red Cross, as a symbolic effect on society. The documentary analysis was performed mainly through institutional press records and images, which were interpreted by means of the notions of object representation and object bodyly hexis. Results showed that the object representations in the statue of Anna Nery lacked a representation of her articulated to her bodyly hexis, which led to the interpretation of the monument--both the statue and the four narrative plaques--as a tribute to the Brazilian woman.


Background: Effect of obesity on response to controlled ovarian hyperstimulation (COH) in assisted reproductive technologies has yielded conflicting results in numerous studies. Obesity may be associated with longer durations and increased amounts of gonadotropin stimulation. Objective: To assess the effect of body mass index (BMI) towards duration of COH in patients undergoing in vitro fertilization (IVF). Methods: Cross-sectional study with data obtained retrospectively among patients undergoing IVF procedure in Yasmin IVF Clinic, Cipto Mangunkusumo General Hospital, Jakarta, Indonesia during 2016. BMI and duration of COH was obtained from medical record. Statistical analysis including comparison and correlation were assessed to reveal significances. Results: Two hundred and eighteen subjects were included in the study with mean of age, BMI, and duration of COH were 35.57 (±4.82) years old, 23.89 (±3.83) kg/m2, and 11.43 (±2.33) days, respectively. Obese patient were found in 72 subjects (33%). There was no significant difference in duration of COH between obese and non-obese subjects (p = 0.495). Moreover, correlation between BMI and duration of ovarian stimulation revealed no significant association (p = 0.129). Conclusions: There was no significant difference in duration of COH between obese and non-obese subjects. BMI was not associated with duration of COH in patients underwent IVF.


Communicating science is hard. This is particularly true for a lot of structural science concepts which are inherently three dimensional in nature such as molecular geometry, symmetry, intermolecular interactions and the packing of crystal structures. One of the most effective ways to get around this difficulty is to use physical 3D models for communication, whether it is in an outreach setting, through classroom education or even presenting research results at a conference. Recent studies have shown how to generate instruction files to 3D print experimentally accurate models. Here we present for the first time how scientists can do this from any standard structural model file (incl. MOL2, XYZ, SDF, PDB, CIF, RES) easily using the well-known, freely available structure visualisation program, Mercury.


Only around half of doctors and other healthcare professionals are putting their names to payments and benefits they receive from drug companies in the register managed by the industry's trade association—far fewer than previously claimed.

A new analysis of data submitted to the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry's Disclosure UK database (www.disclosureuk.org.uk) has found that just 55% of doctors and other healthcare professionals are allowing their names to appear alongside the fees and expenses they receive from drug companies, not the 70% that was claimed in June 2016 when the scheme launched.1

The database lists details of the fees and benefits in kind paid by the industry to doctors, pharmacists, nurses, and healthcare organisations. Only those that consent to be identified are named, and the remainder of the information is published in aggregate form.

Mike Thompson, chief executive officer …


Data is a set of values of quantitative variable information. Data deduplication means that the data compression technique for eliminating duplicate copies of repeating data. In the deduplication process, unique types of data, or byte patterns or images, which are identified and stored during a process of analysis Data deduplication is increasingly accepted as a technique to reduce storage costs. In cloud computing system the data deduplication acts as a special role. The Cloud computing is a type of Internet-based computing, that provides shared computer processing that means data to computers and other devices on demand. The example of cloud services are computer networks, servers, storage, applications and in these most commonly using cloud service is data storage. The data are often stored in cloud in an encrypted form. One application of cryptographic splitting is to provide security for cloud computing. However encrypted data introduce new problems arise in cloud data deduplication, which is big data storage and processing. Existing system suffer from security weakness. They cannot flexibly support data access control and revocation. The cloud-based storage example such as Drop box, Google Drive, and Mozy can save on storage costs via deduplication. We make a data will be secure using a user key before he store in to the cloud. But common encryption modes are randomized. People upload personal or confidential data to the data center of a Cloud Service Provider (CSP) but it is do not give fully secure for the data because the data holders may not be always online or available for such a management, which could cause storage delay. And also create the Dekey is secure in terms of the definitions specified in the proposed security model.


Abstract This article brings into focus three emerging problems facing our aging urban population: 1. The struggle that frail elderly and their family caregivers have making a decision about where loved ones can live with self-respect and care in their later years; 2. The growing gap between the cost of housing and the income levels of care providers and cared-for; 3. The disconnect between existing housing design options and housing design options appropriate to home-based caregiving. The authors propose that long-term care managers, executives, and investors work with teams of professionals and community representatives to create residences conducive to home-based businesses for caregivers who choose to live in the same home or in the same community as their loved ones. To address the caregivers' housing crisis, a group decision-making process is presented and recommendations are provided for constructing residences that are designed to support caregivers' needs for affordable home-based businesses. Introduction Why Are New Housing Options Needed? The need for new housing options that are appropriate to home-based caregivers is urgent since the incidence of home- based caregiving is increasing dramatically. In the United States today, driven by economic and societal forces, the need for housing and caregiving have reached a crisis point for many urban families. A 2003 study shows that 20% of U.S. households provided care to relatives and friends. Of this population, 70% lived in the home or nearby (National Alliance for Caregiving St AARP, 2004). With one in three households expected to provide caregiving by 2020 (McQueen, 2006), the question is not if, but where and how, caregiving support will be provided. What concerns us is what the research (and our own experience) shows regarding obstacles to those who would like to provide in-home caregiving. One survey conducted in 2003 by the National Association for Caregiving asked, "Have you made modifications in the house or apartment where your (charge) lives to make things easier for your (charge)?" Survey responses indicate that 39% of the caregivers had made such modifications (National Association of Caregivers Survey, 2003). Many caregivers, in our experience, cannot afford to make desired changes (i.e., in bathrooms or kitchens) and instead simply make the best of a poor environment. Today's workers have the problem of both how to adapt housing for aging loved ones and how to find affordable housing for caregiving. History of Caregiving In the first half of the 20th century, most families and communities took care of their elderly. Frail older adults would live with members of their own families or with other relatives. The authors grew up in the mid1950s, an era when many families "lived above the store." The family business would house multigenerations in a single (affordable) structure. One of the author's grandfather lived with her aunt's family in Massachusetts after his wife died. Grandpa was the primary caregiver for his grandson during the day, preparing his lunch and watching over him after school while the boy's mother worked as an elementary school teacher, until he passed away in his mid 80s. The other author grew up across the country in San Francisco. He recalls children playing in the shop or in the kitchen. As with his East Coast colleague, he experienced aging parents caring for young children and being cared for by their adult children. Communication technology was simple. "No cell phones or pagers," he recalls, "we just shouted out the window or down the stairs for immediate results." It was not perfect, but based on the caregiving options of the time, the available live-work options made economic sense. Today's Dilemma For those who live in extended families, relationships can become complex. The old style of caregiving described above is not always possible. …


abstract:Cognitive science-based enactive theories of perception afford surprising insight onto a less examined component of perceptual experience: perceptual entrainment through the embodied encounter with tools. My analysis of the body/tool/perception nexus in Neal Stephenson's Snow Crash (1992) introduces the concept of perceptual entrainment in two steps: first I explain Alva Noë's claim that perception is virtual—that it takes place as an active process of environmental investigation rather than through computer-processing-like brain activity. I then take Noë's approach to perception a step further by examining how tool use directs and amplifies our perceptual focus. I argue that in Snow Crash, tools contain within them ideologies of repression that emerge precisely at the "technological interface," moments when characters in the novel engage with tools that interpellate them, enable them to wield power, or blur the boundaries between control and abjection. This article analyzes the novel's computational anxiety—the fear of loss of self identity via an informational/mathematical determinism mapped by the tool that entrains our perception.


Cluster randomized trials (CRT), in which whole clusters instead of individuals are assigned to conditions, are not uncommon in the social, behavioral, educational, medical and organizational sciences. Though the assignment of individuals to treatment conditions is more efficient, this may not always be feasible due to ethical, financial or organizational reasons. Using a CRT has consequences with respect to the sample size and data analysis technique. The sample size should be increased to reach the same level of efficiency as with subject-level randomization and the data should be analyzed with a technique like multilevel analysis that accounts for the dependency of subjects within the same cluster. The intracluster correlation coefficient (ICC) is a measure for this dependency, but may also be seen as the proportion cluster level variance of the total variance. Thanks to extensive literature, most researchers are aware of the forenamed consequences of application of a CRT and take them into account when designing a CRT and analyzing the resulting data. However, various issues concerning design and robustness remained unclear so far and some of these issues have been covered by this thesis. In the design phase of a CRT the researcher has to determine the optimal allocation of units at the cluster and at the subject level for detecting the treatment effect -if existing- with the highest precision. The optimal allocation depends, among other things, on the magnitude of the ICC. In advance this value is unknown and the researcher has to make an educated guess. It is shown that the design is rather robust against incorrect 'initial' ICC estimates. The performance of multilevel structural equation modeling applied to a 2111 mediation model is investigated. It is shown that the mediation effect itself is estimated seemingly accurately. However, the parameters that determine the mediation effect are often biased, even with large sample sizes. Three different incorrect model specifications are investigated; heteroscedasticity, ignoring partially nesting, and ignoring inequality of within-cluster and contextual effects. In a CRT the variance in the experimental condition may differ from the variance in the control condition. This phenomenon is called heteroscedasticity and may be due to the treatment. When in a CRT one of the conditions consists of clusters, while the other condition consists of non-clustered individuals, the resulting data has a partially nested structure. In case a subject level covariate is taken into account, the multilevel model gives a single estimate for its effect, since the model assumes that there is no between-cluster effect. In practice the within-cluster and contextual effect may differ and when not modeled this difference is ignored. It is shown that within the framework of a CRT it is advisable to model the design specific issues appropriately when the researcher wishes to have a complete and correct view of the various effects and relations between the variables in the model. However, it is also shown that the estimation of the treatment effect and its standard error is rather robust.


27 Scanning microscopes that would be based on microchannel filters and advanced electronic image sensors and that utilize x-ray illumination have been proposed. Because the finest resolution attainable in a microscope is determined by the wavelength of the illumination, the xray illumination in the proposed microscopes would make it possible, in principle, to achieve resolutions of the order of nanometers — about a thousand times as fine as the resolution of a visible-light microscope. Heretofore, it has been necessary to use scanning electron microscopes to obtain such fine resolution. In comparison with scanning electron microscopes, the proposed microscopes would likely be smaller, less massive, and less expensive. Moreover, unlike in scanning electron microscopes, it would not be necessary to place specimens under vacuum. The proposed microscopes are closely related to the ones described in several prior NASA Tech Briefs articles; namely, "Miniature Microscope Without Lenses" (NPO-20218), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 22, No. 8 (August 1998), page 43; and "Reflective Variants of Miniature Microscope Without Lenses" (NPO-20610), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 26, No. 9 (September 2002) page 6a. In all of these microscopes, the basic principle of design and operation is the same: The focusing optics of a conventional visible-light microscope are replaced by a combination of a microchannel filter and a charge-coupled-device (CCD) image detector. A microchannel plate containing parallel, microscopic-cross-section holes much longer than they are wide is placed between a specimen and an image sensor, which is typically the CCD. The microchannel plate must be made of a material that absorbs the illuminating radiation reflected or scattered from the specimen. The microchannels must be positioned and dimensioned so that each one is registered with a pixel on the image sensor. Because most of the radiation incident on the microchannel walls becomes absorbed, the radiation that reaches the image sensor consists predominantly of radiation that was launched along the longitudinal direction of the microchannels. Therefore, most of the radiation arriving at each pixel on the sensor must have traveled along a straight line from a corresponding location on the specimen. Thus, there is a one-to-one mapping from a point on a specimen to a pixel in the image sensor, so that the output of the image sensor contains image information equivalent to that from a microscope. The upper part of the figure depicts a one-pixel portion of a proposed scanning microchannel-type microscope that would utilize x-ray illumination. The lower part of the figure shows a simple square pixel pattern. The CCD could be coated with a phosphor to increase its response to x-ray photons. Provided that the Diameter of Microchannel


A number of papers have been published on the concatenation of an outer code with a partial response (PR) channel, where the outer code is a turbo code, a convolutional code, or a low-density parity-check code. This paper deals with the second case, assuming EPR4 and modified extended EPR4 (MEEPR4) partial response (PR) targets. The goals in this work include (1) the joint optimization of interleaver and precoder for a fixed outer convolutional code and PR target, (2) the choice of optimal code rate for both PR targets assuming a Lorentzian model, and (3) an assessment of the performance of these codes in the presence of thermal asperities. We introduce mathematical and algorithmic tools for accomplishing these goals and present simulation results that support our approach. Among the positive results is the ability to lower the well-known error rate floor of these concatenated schemes for arbitrary PR channels.


Of 2081 high-risk pregnancy patients who underwent antepartum fetal surveillance tests, 72 (3.5%) patients demonstrated evidence of polyhydramnios using the amniotic fluid index to assess the amniotic fluid volume. In these patients, an increased incidence of fetal macrosomia, premature births, non-reactive nonstress tests, perinatal morbidity, and fetal anomalies was observed. These data suggest that if polyhydramnios is encountered during an ultrasound evaluation, consideration should be given to the possibility of latent or uncontrolled diabetes mellitus or fetal macrosomia or anomaly; fetal surveillance and genetic evaluation also should be considered.


This paper represents an empirical study investigatingone of the most common issues namely the inter-linguistic and the cross-linguistic influence of the L1 in learning L2 grammar in general, and specifically the acquisition of the simple past tense in the context of Arab Learners of English (ALEs) as postgraduate learners . This study is an extension to a previous one which was run on undergraduate learners of English (Mourssi, 2013c). The researcher believes that the simple past tense forms produced by learners sometimes appear to have originated in L1, sometimes in L2, and sometimes in L1 and L2 at the same time. This case study was conducted on 30 Arab Learners of English (ALEs) which lasted thirteen weeks. A detailed analysis was made on the simple past tense forms in 90 written texts produced by ALEs enrolled in foundation course Level Two. Written texts were collected from each subject at three stages in the experiment (after the first week, after six weeks and after twelve weeks). Quantitative and qualitative analyses show the c ross-linguistic influence of L1 (Arabic) and Inter-linguistic influence of the target language in acquiring the linguistic items of L2 (English) in general and in acquiring the simple past in particular.


During the last decade, Nigeria has witnessed significant growth in corporate mergers and acquisitions. Reasons behind mergers and acquisitions are to syntheses and enhance the corporate tenacity (synergy). In the existing study, an attempt has been on the study of the impact of mergers and acquisitions on the shareholders wealth. The study specifically on companies which have undergone merger during the period 2001 to 2010. There are about 20 consolidated banking industries in Nigeria during the above mentioned period and we have considered all for the study to examine pre and post merger and acquisition performance of the specified banks. The result suggested that shareholders value creation is highly dependent on operating expenses, profit margin, return on Capital Employed (TOCE) and Expenses ratio. The inter-company and intra-industry analysis results indicate that there is marginal positive impact of mergers and acquisitions on shareholders value creation.


Background: "Hypertrophic scars" are excessive scars with thick fibrous tissue that does not extend beyond the margins of the initial wound or incision. They're usually broader than they need to be for regular wound healing. Following excision, intraoperative and postoperative intralesional steroid treatment has been proven to minimise recurrence to less than 50%. Materials and Methods: This is a prospective and single centre study conducted in the Department of General Surgery, Maheshwara Medical College & Hospital from 1 st September 2020 to 4 th September 2021. Males and females in the age group between 18 and 60 years were included in this study. The split thickness skin graft was harvested from a normal thigh where no skin graft had been harvested earlier. Indications for skin grafting were both elective and emergency. Results: In our study, male was predominant 72.5% and remaining was 27.5%. Among the study group, 67.5% were post burn contracture raw areas, 30% posttraumatic raw areas and 3% post infective raw areas. Among 40 donor site steroid injection sites 9 are hyperpigmented (dark), 9 are hypo pigmented and 20 are similar in colour with surrounding skin compared to 20 (hyper), 13 (hypo), 7 (iso) respectively at donor site control areas. Mean value of normal skin thickness is 1.70, test site skin thickness is 2.30 and at control site skin thickness is 2.70. In our study57.5% cases have mild pain at test site, 42.5% cases have no pain at test site and 45% have moderate pain at control site in the post-operative period. Conclusion: Reduced scar diameters, height, scar texture, colour match, and symptomatic relief were found in our investigation, with little dose-related druginduced adverse effects. With regard to pigmentation and thickness, employing post operational intra lesional triamcinolone acetate injection after harvesting skin grafting resulted in a superior cosmetic and symptomatic outcome in skin grafting donor locations.


INTRODUCTION
In the past, positron emission tomography (PET) has played a relatively limited role in prostate cancer imaging. However, in recent years, several new PET tracers have emerged, offering potential improvements in diagnostic performance for both the detection of prostate cancer metastases at initial staging and the localization of recurrent disease.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
We reviewed the literature for prostate cancer PET tracers that are either being used for patient management or being evaluated in clinical research trials. For each tracer, we compiled clinically relevant background information and evidence supporting clinical use, with the intention of providing a high-yield primer for urologists managing patients with prostate cancer.

RESULTS
18F-FDG, 18F-NaF, ¹¹C-choline, and 18F-fluciclovine have all proven useful for prostate cancer imaging, though the utility of each of these tracers is limited to targeted management questions and particular clinical settings. In contrast, the newer prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) agents may prove useful as general purpose PET tracers for prostate cancer imaging. Numerous other novel PET tracers have shown promising results in pre-clinical studies.

CONCLUSION
Basic knowledge of these PET tracers, specifically their strengths, weaknesses, and indications for use, is essential to urologists and other physicians caring for patients with prostate cancer.


A persistent theme in the study of dark energy is the question of whether it really exists or not. It is often claimed that we are mis-calculating the cosmological model by neglecting the effects associated with averaging over large-scale structures. In the Newtonian approximation this is clear: there is no effect. Within the full relativistic picture this remains an important open question, owing to the complex mathematics involved. We study this issue using numerical N-body simulations which account for all relevant relativistic effects without any problems from shell crossing. In this context we show for the first time that the backreaction from structure can differ by many orders of magnitude depending upon the slicing of spacetime one chooses to average over. In the worst case, where smoothing is carried out in synchronous spatial surfaces, the corrections can reach ten percent and more. However, when smoothing on the constant time hypersurface of the Newtonian gauge, backreaction contributions remain 3–5 orders of magnitude smaller.


This paper presents a general equilibrium assignment model of workers to tasks with endogenous human capital formation and multidimensionality of skills. The model has 2 key features. First, skills are endogenous and multidimensional. Second, two types of assignment occur, workers self-select their education and firms assign workers to tasks/machines. This assignment model yields two functions mapping skills of each type to tasks. Equilibrium is characterized by different wage functions for each type of skills, so that the wage distributions generally overlap. This model offers a unique framework to analyze changes in the wage structure within and between skills groups of workers and distinguishes between technological change that is related to machines (the technical factor) or related to workers (the human factor). I show both theoretically and through simulations that the model can reproduce simultaneously i) the overlap in the wage distributions of college and high-school graduates, ii) the rise in the college-premium, iii) the rise in within wage inequality iv) the differential behavior of the between and within wage inequality in the 60s and 70s and, v) the decline of the wage at the first decile of the overall wage distribution. A family of closed form solutions for the wage functions is proposed. In this family, the output of worker-task pairs is Cobb-Douglas, tasks are distributed according to a Beta distribution and the mapping functions have a logistic form.


In recent years, educational issues have been of greater importance in economic analysis. Many papers suggest that education is essential for economic growth as well as an important tool to achieve better equality. These effects have been discussed and confirmed by several researchers, whose papers delineate evidence that education promotes growth, adoption of technologies, increased wages, and additional positive externalities (LANGE and TOPEL; ACEMOGLU and ANGRIST, 2000). As a result, education is primarily considered by governments as a social policy tool. Some of these social policy tools are associated with affirmative action, because their goal is to promote equality by affording better conditions to groups that are initially experiencing worse conditions. The Brazilian case consists of the designation of some proportion of vacancies in university to blacks, native Indians and low-income people. We can number two main reasons commonly used in Brazil to justify affirmative action policy in higher education: a form of historical reparation for blacks, given that Brazil was the largest slave country in the world; and the small share of blacks, Indians and low-income individuals in higher education. This paper intends to contribute to the debate regarding the impact of quotas (social and racial) in the Brazilian higher education system, estimating their impacts on student grades as measured by a specific test ? ENADE ? or the National Survey of Student Performance. We use ENADE 2008 as the main source of data, which comprised 59 courses and surveyed more than 74,000 students. Within the theoretical discussion, we present Su?s Job Reservation Model (2005) and Bishop?s Effort Decision Model (2006); these models include factors such as degree, coursework selection, future wages, and quality of peers, as factors that affect the degree of effort and the human capital accumulation. We use a difference-in-differences (DD) method combined with the propensity score matching (PSM), where the main goal is to control unobservable characteristics that are related to the performance and some selection biases related to the treated group. The results demonstrate that the implementation of quotas negatively and significantly affected majors such as Pedagogy, History and Physics, and positively and significantly affected only Agronomy course.


abstract:  During surveys of helminth parasites of marine fishes from the Pacific coast of the Guerrero State in Mexico, 2 undescribed species of Haliotrema Johnston and Tiegs, 1922 (sensu Young, 1968) (Dactylogyridae) were found infecting the gills of the giant hawkfish Cirrhitus rivulatus Valenciennes, 1846 (Perciformes, Cirrhitidae), i.e., Haliotrema cirrhitusi n. sp. and Haliotrema pollexinus n. sp. The new species are similar with respect to the morphology of the anchors with base–shaft junction crazed, hinged, or both; dorsal anchors with an elongate superficial root; a tubular male copulatory organ (MCO) with a cylinder-shaped base diagonally opening; and a membranous accessory piece, shaped like a vane, encircling MCO to form 2 complete spirals from the anterior margin of base to the terminal portion of the MCO. While H. cirrhitusi and H. pollexinus differ from all other species of the genus in the general morphology of the copulatory complex, only H. pollexinus notably differs from all these species in having a superficial, blade-like projection from the inner surface on the distal shaft of anchors. Haliotrema cirrhitusi and H. pollexinus are the only members of the genus recorded in the Mexican Pacific and from a cirrhitid host.


In this paper, we study the problem of minimizing the H/sub 2/ norm of a given transfer function subject to time-domain constraints on the time response of a different transfer function to a given test signal. The main result of this paper shows that this problem admits a minimizing solution in R~H~/sub 2/. Moreover, rational solutions with performance arbitrarily close to optimal can be found by constructing families of approximating problems. Each one of these problems entails solving a finite-dimensional quadratic programming problem whose dimension can be determined before hand. These results are illustrated and experimentally validated by designing a controller for an active vision application.


This article describes the design, implementation, and results of the latest installment of the dermoscopic image analysis benchmark challenge. The goal is to support research and development of algorithms for automated diagnosis of melanoma, the most lethal skin cancer. The challenge was divided into 3 tasks: lesion segmentation, feature detection, and disease classification. Participation involved 593 registrations, 81 pre-submissions, 46 finalized submissions (including a 4-page manuscript), and approximately 50 attendees, making this the largest standardized and comparative study in this field to date. While the official challenge duration and ranking of participants has concluded, the dataset snapshots remain available for further research and development.


Paraoxonase 1 (PON1) is a High Density Lipoprotein (HDL) associated enzyme which contributes to the antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties of HDL. It also stimulates cholesterol efflux mediated by HDL. The purpose of this study is to determine the mechanism by which PON1 regulates this antiatherogenic activity of HDL. The oxidized phospholipids hydrolysis by PON1 results in the formation of Lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC). The phospholipase PON1 activity effect on the cholesterol efflux and the gene and protein expression were determined in vitro on J774 macrophages cells and was also determined in vivo on C57/BL6 male mice.

Our results show that due to its phospholipase activity, PON1 hydrolyzes oxidized LDL (oxLDL) and contributes to the formation of LPC, which stimulates cholesterol efflux from macrophages. Our results show that PON1 induced the expression of ABCA1 cholesterol transporters. Western blot as well as qPCR analysis show that PON1 stimulate PPARγ and LXRα nuclear receptors expression. Moreover, the use of ABCA1, PPARγ and LXRα inhibitors (respectively DIDS, GGPP and GW9662) affects the capacity of PON1 to stimulate cholesterol efflux, in particular by decreasing the proteins expression of interest (ABCA1, PPARγ and LXRα). Incubation of macrophages with purified LPC with macrophages induces a high expression of PPARγ-LXRα-ABCA1 pathway. Incubation of macrophages with PON1-oxLDL mixture and their injection to mice increase significantly the reverse cholesterol transport. Our results show that tPON1 stimulate both cholesterol efflux and RCT. via the regulation of the PPARγ-LXRα-ABCA1 pathway. This effect is attributed to the phospholipase activity of PON1 which mediates the hydrolysis of ox-LDL to form LPC.


Clear criteria for the identity of dispositions are still lacking, and this has been presented as one of the main challenge raised by such entities. It is of prime importance to identify or distinguish dispositions such as diseases or risks. This article first introduces conventional ways to refer to a disposition (such as "fragility") and canonical ways (such as "disposition to break in case of a strong shock"). This raises the issue of how should exactly be defined a "disposition d to R when TR", where R is a realization specification and TR a trigger specification. Two ontological frameworks are distinguished. The first framework, which has been largely used so far in the literature on dispositions, interprets d as a disposition which can only be triggered by instances of TR, and can only be realized by instances of R. The second, new framework introduces the notion of "minimal trigger" and "maximal realization", and interprets TR as a parent class of a class of processes that have as part a minimal trigger, and R as a parent class of a class of processes that are parts of a maximal realization. We then discuss several criteria of identity, including the criterion according to which two dispositions are identical iff they have the same categorical basis, the same class of minimal triggers and the same class of maximal realizations. We show on several examples that the second framework avoids the disposition multiplicativism that is introduced by the first framework.


Abstract Amblygonite–montebrasite series and lacroixite from Nagatare Li–Cs–Ta (LCT) pegmatite, Fukuoka Prefecture, Japan, were investigated by powder X-ray diffraction (XRD), electron microprobe analyses, and transmission electron microscope (TEM)/scanning transmission electron microscope (STEM) analyses. Scattered patchy or lamellar lacroixite was contained in montebrasite and amblygonite in all observed specimens. TEM/STEM observations revealed that the patchy and lamellar texture comprised lacroixite and low-fluorine montebrasite having same crystal orientations as that of host montebrasite and the boundaries corresponded to well-developed {110} planes. The observed microtexture was newly discovered, and it is an important evidence of the exsolution process. In XRD experiments conducted at high temperature, the unit-cell parameters of amblygonite were closer to that of monoclinic structures such as lacroixite with increasing temperature. Results suggested that scattered patches or lamellae of lacroixite were exsolution textures from a high-temperature phase. Montebrasite and amblygonite specimens from other localities involved varying textures corresponding to their occurrence. The amblygonite–montebrasite series from petalite-bearing pegmatite included low to high lacroixite contents and that from lower-temperature pegmatite with spodumene either did not possess or involved low lacroixite contents. Gem-quality montebrasite from drusy vugs formed at low temperature did not include any exsolution texture or lacroixite. The variety of texture of the amblygonite–montebrasite series indicated in this study generated new possibilities as the indicator of pegmatite-forming process.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Many low- and middle-income countries are experiencing profound health care workforce shortages. Surgical subspecialists generally practice in large urban centers but are in high demand in rural areas. These subspecialists must be trained through sustainable programs to address this disparity. We quantitatively compared the relative effectiveness of 2 unique training models to advance neurosurgical skills in resource-poor settings where formally trained neurosurgeons are unavailable.

METHODS
Neurosurgical procedure data were collected from 2 hospitals in Tanzania (Haydom Lutheran Hospital [HLH] and Bugando Medical Centre [BMC]), where 2 distinct training models ("Train Forward" and "Back-to-Back," respectively) were incorporated between 2005 and 2012.

RESULTS
The most common procedures performed were ventriculoperitoneal shunt (BMC: 559, HLH: 72), spina bifida repair (BMC: 187, HLH: 54), craniotomy (BMC: 61, HLH: 19), bone elevation (BMC: 42, HLH: 32), and craniotomy and evacuation (BMC: 18, HLH: 34). The number of annual procedures at BMC increased from 148 in 2008 to 357 in 2012; at HLH, they increased from 18 in 2005 to 80 in 2010. Postoperative complications over time decreased or did not significantly change at both sites as the diversity of procedures increased.

CONCLUSION
The Train Forward and Back-to-Back training models were associated with increased surgical volume and complexity without increased complications. However, only the Train Forward model resulted in local, autonomous training of surgical subspecialists after completion of the initial training period. Incorporating the Train Forward method into existing training programs in low- and middle-income countries may provide unique benefits over historic training practices.


Instrumented field trials of Longitudinally Grooved Suppression (LGS) VIV suppression buoyancy modules have been completed on deep water drilling risers in the Gulf of Mexico. The field trials were used to validate the performance of the technology, which had previously been evaluated using prototype scale model tests. The measured riser responses over two drilling campaigns spanning more than six months were compared with each other and the outputs of computational riser modeling to validate the hydrodynamic parameter set derived through scale model tests and provide validated assessments of the suppression technology performance.
 The measured response of drilling risers equipped with LGS buoyancy has been compared with a publicly available dataset for the VIV response of a conventionally buoyed riser, showing reduced VIV response in agreement with model test results. Measured flex joint angles, current profiles and riser accelerations were used to validate the hydrodynamic parameters used in numerical riser analysis. Using the validated hydrodynamic parameters, the VIV and drag suppression performance was demonstrated by comparison with the model predictions for risers equipped with conventional buoyancy modules. Eddy current occurrence statistics for a location in the Gulf of Mexico were used to calculate the expected annual operability performance for both configurations.
 For the base case parameters, 12 days of annual operability improvement was predicted when using LGS buoyancy modules. A sensitivity study determined the effect of varying analysis assumptions on the predicted operability improvements. Measured current data from 2014 was also used to determine the operability benefits which could be realized within a year in which severe eddy current activity occurred.
 The analysis performed serves to validate the previous laboratory tests as well as answer questions about the applicability of high Reynolds Number test results to VIV suppression devices in the field. The use of previously validated testing and analysis methods is shown to provide reliable estimates of suppression technology performance which are borne out by testing in the field. This paper presents the first published field trial of shaped buoyancy type VIV suppression, a group of technologies which have until now only been demonstrated using scale model tests and Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations.


In this work, we develop a spatial nearest-neighbor analysis methodology to investigate the spatial distribution (pattern) of filaments (or Breakdown (BD) spots) obtained by various physical experimental measurements, such as recently developed Photon Emission Microscopy (PEM) for ReRAM [1], Scanning Tunneling Microscopy (STM) [2], and IR-thermography [3]. For non-uniform spatial distributions of BD spots, a spatial clustering model is successfully used to explain the experimental data. For filament formation, found in ReRAM devices, a Gibbs process model using a Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo (MCMC) approach is developed to successfully account for the inhibitory and attractive interaction among filaments with a generalized Morse potential.


ABSTRACT A comparative analysis of Islamic extremism post-9/11 to 2015 and the effectiveness of the counterterrorism (CT) authorities to counter it in both Western Europe and the United States was conducted. Four measures of effectiveness revealed that 2010–2015 saw a gradual increase in jihadi attacks and in casualties emanating from these attacks, and more jihadists, foreign fighters, and material supporters. Additionally, 2013–2015 saw a 22 percent reduction both in Western Europe and the U.S. CT agencies' ability to counter Islamic extremism. We are losing the War on Terror and our citizens are less safe than they were six years ago. Further analysis revealed that singleton jihadists: (1) were much harder than group-based jihadists to uncover, (2) have been increasing since 2009, and (3) have generated over 70 percent of all jihadi violence. Finally, numerous similarities exist between Western Europe and the United States with respect to jihadism in their homelands and their respective CT effectiveness, indicating close cross-Atlantic CT collaboration since 9/11. This in-depth analysis provides essential threat/hazard information to security, law enforcement, intelligence, and policymaking personnel and the greater homeland security communities.


Equal channel angular extrusion (ECAE) was used before and after artificial aging to investigate the effect of heat treatment on formability of bulk nanostructure of commercially available aluminum alloy of AA6061 in the present study. In the ECAE, route A was applied up to four or eight passes by using the split dies set-up. The three-stage bolt forming using the ultra-fine grained specimens was carried out to check formability of the material. In the present experiments, the bolt forming was successful with the specimen prepared by the ECAE after artificial aging whilst it was not successful with the specimen prepared by a reverse process sequence. The strength increase was confirmed by the tension and microhardness tests and compared to the result of conventional AA2024 bolt made by the conventionally heat treated specimen. It was found that the strength was comparable to the level of the heat treated conventional one although the actual value was a little bit lower. In addition, it was demonstrated that the heat treatment sequence is important to achieve proper formability of the ultra-fine grained material to manufacture the high strength bolt.


Brewer's yeast was grown on a defined medium containing tracer SICr with or without added chromium. The two batches of yeast contained 10 pg/g (high-Cr) or 80 ng/g (low-Cr). Extracts were prepared and fractionated. A third batch of yeast (third batch) was grown with added Cr, and fractionated. Rats were reared on either rat cubes (normal diet) or on a low-Cr diet (low-Cr), or on rat cubes with added cholestyramine (cholestyramine diet). Preparations of rat liver, both cell-free and intact hepatocytes, incorporated acetate-carbon into fatty acids and cholesterol. These processes were inhibited by a yeast fraction containing small, neutral, water-soluble compounds. The degree of inhibition was the same whether the liver came from normal rats or rats fed on the low-Cr diet. Similarly the inhibitory effect was found with identical amounts of extracts from lowor high-Cr yeasts. Therefore, Cr compounds do not appear to account for the inhibitory effects of brewer's yeast. Use of other substrates indicated that the site of inhibition of sterol synthesis was apparently between acetyl-CoA and mevalonate. One inhibitory substance was isolated from yeast and was found to be nicotinamide riboside. This may have been produced from NAD(P) during the preparation of yeast extracts, and it may be produced from dietary yeast supplements during digestion in vivo. Nicotinamide riboside may be partly responsible for the reported effects of yeast supplements on plasma lipids in humans.


The operational results for the Cryospheric Environment Simulator (CES) of the National Research Institute for Earth Science and Disaster Resilience (NIED) compiled over a 20-year period from October 1997 to March 2017, during which a total of 598 projects were conducted, are reported herein. These projects were instigated by four types of institutions: official institutes, universities, companies, and the NIED itself. In terms of international cooperative use, 12 institutes or universities from 9 countries have conducted various investigations using the CES. The present specifications, performances, and operations of CES are described herein; some of the scientific results and future considerations are also presented.


A unidirectional coupling scheme is investigated in double scroll type chaotic oscillators that reveal interesting multiscroll dynamics. Instead of using self-oscillatory systems, in this scheme, double scroll chaos from one oscillator is forced into another similar oscillator in a resting state. This coupling scheme is explored in the Chua oscillator, a modified Chua oscillator and the Lorenz oscillator. We have modified the Chua oscillator by simply changing its piecewise linear function slightly, thereby deriving a new 3-scroll attractor. We have observed 4-scroll, 6-scroll attractors in the driven Chua oscillator and the modified Chua oscillator respectively in an intermittency regime of weaker coupling. We have extended the coupling scheme to the Lorenz system when even more interesting multiscroll dynamics (3-, 4-, 5-, 6-scroll) is observed with decreasing coupling strength. It appears as if a hidden multiscroll structure unfolds with weakening coupling interactions. One after another, additional scrolls appear in the driven Lorenz system when the coupling strength is gradually decreased in the weaker coupling regime. The origin of such multiscroll dynamics is explained using eigenvalue analysis and a bifurcation diagram. A schematic diagram of the multiscroll trajectories is presented to further elucidate the evolution of the scrolls. Experimental evidence is also presented using the Chua circuit and an electronic analog of the Lorenz system.


The survival of enteric pathogens in the multi-nutrient environment involves interaction with other organisms. The fact that competition for nutrient resources has shaped the networking of metabolic pathways is well known. The cAMP receptor protein i.e. CRP is a keystone regulatory protein, connecting various metabolic pathways. Our aim was to study the importance of CRP in nutrient uptake and utilization in Salmonella Typhimurium under intra-species and inter-species nutritive competition. The crp gene knockout (Δcrp) was co-cultured with the wild-type or other pathogens. The Δcrp failed to compete with the wild-type Salmonella Typhimurium, Escherichia coli, Vibrio cholerae and Staphylococcus aureus in nutrient intensive media. However, the survival of the co-cultured Δcrp was unaffected in nutrient-poor media. These results suggest that CRP is necessary for the effective acquisition of readily available nutrients as found in rich media in co-culture. The role of released antimicrobials or surface proteins of the co-cultured strains was also overruled by culturing the mutant in the supernatant of these organisms and separating the cultures in the same media respectively. The co-cultured Δcrp showed an enhanced survival when overall metabolism was reduced with low temperature and antibiotics like chloramphenicol. A circumstantial evidence that CRP manages the global and limits the futile metabolism is provided by this study. The absence of CRP doesn't affect the survival of the standalone culture. However, the role of this protein becomes obvious in a bacterial community setup. Therefore, CRP is crucial for Salmonella to survive in an intestinal and external environment.


With increasing amounts of data available on the web and a diverse range of users interested in programmatically accessing that data, web automation must become easier. Automation helps users complete many tedious interactions, such as scraping data, completing forms, or transferring data between websites. However, writing web automation scripts typically requires an expert programmer because the writer must be able to reverse engineer the target webpage. We have built a record and replay tool, Ringer, that makes web automation accessible to non-coders. Ringer takes a user demonstration as input and creates a script that interacts with the page as a user would. This approach makes Ringer scripts more robust to webpage changes because user-facing interfaces remain relatively stable compared to the underlying webpage implementations. We evaluated our approach on benchmarks recorded on real webpages and found that it replayed 4x more benchmarks than a state-of-the-art replay tool.


This case report draws attention to the potential relevance of undetected autism spectrum symptoms in a bipolar patient with high work functioning showing a peculiar addictive profile with impulsive and antisocial behaviors. A 23-year-old man with a diagnosis of Bipolar Disorder (BD) and Substance Use Disorder (SUD) was hospitalized at the Psychiatric Clinic of the University of Pisa for diuretics and β-2 adrenergic agonist abuse in a remission phase of benzodiazepines and substance abuse. He reported a history of behavioral addictions in the framework of a global high work functioning with particular skills in computer science. When assessed for adult autism spectrum symptoms, despite not fulfilling a DSM-5 diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), he reported a score of 93/240 at the Ritvo Autism and Asperger Diagnostic Scale (RAADS-r) and of 88/160 at the Adult Autism Subthreshold Spectrum (AdAS Spectrum), both indicative of ASD. We argue the possible role of adult subthreshold autism spectrum features, generally disregarded in adult psychiatry, in the peculiar addictive profile developed by this patient with BD that may deserve appropriate treatment.


Due to the evolution of technology and the diffusion of digital television, many researchers are studying more efficient transmission and reception methods. This fact occurs because of the demand of transmitting videos with better quality using new standards such 8K SUPER Hi-VISION. In this scenario, modulation techniques such as Filter Bank Multi Carrier, associated with advanced coding and synchronization methods, are being applied, aiming to achieve the desired data rate to support ultra-high definition videos. Simultaneously, it is also important to investigate ways of channel estimation that enable a better reception of the transmitted signal. This task is not always trivial, depending on the characteristics of the channel. Thus, the use of artificial intelligence can contribute to estimate the channel frequency response, from the transmitted pilots. A classical algorithm called Back-propagation Training can be applied to find the channel equalizer coefficients, making possible the correct reception of TV signals. Therefore, this work presents a method of channel estimation that uses neural network techniques to obtain the channel response in the Brazilian Digital System Television, called ISDB-TB, using Filter Bank Multi Carrier.


Given ongoing economic, political and social transformation, skill formation systems are under pressure to change. This is acknowledged in European declarations – Bologna for higher education and Copenhagen for vocational training – and various national reform processes. The omnipresent convergence hypothesis is that these international pressures will result in national skill formation systems becoming more similar. However, if these systems throughout Europe are to match the dominant anglophone models, which value general higher education more than specific vocational training, those countries with strong apprenticeship traditions are especially challenged. Due to countries' differential starting points, the convergence hypothesis needs to be tested, taking the shifting complementary and competitive relationship between the two organizational fields of higher education and vocational training into account. Ideational internationalization, and normative and regulative Europeanization, as manifest in the Bologna and Copenhagen processes, require analysis as factors driving institutional change in post‐secondary higher and vocational educational systems. Key questions are: will common trends and challenges lead to cross‐national convergence of skill formation systems? Or do national responses instead indicate that adaptations are mainly consistent with specific cultural and structural characteristics? This article discusses why, in order to answer such questions adequately, in‐depth comparative research should overcome the persistent division in research on these two sectors by examining the nexus of higher education and vocational training.