The major obstacles to successful outcome after allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) for leukemia remain graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and leukemic relapse. Improved survival after BMT therefore requires more effective GVHD prophylaxis that does not impair graft-versus-leukemia (GVL) effects. We studied the administration of human recombinant keratinocyte growth factor (KGF) in a well- characterized murine BMT model for its effects on GVHD. KGF administration from day -3 to +7 significantly reduced GVHD mortality and the severity of GVHD in the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, reducing serum lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)alpha levels, but preserving donor T-cell responses (cytotoxic T lymphocyte [CTL] activity, proliferation, and interleukin [IL]-2 production) to host antigens. When mice received lethal doses of P815 leukemia cells at the time of BMT, KGF treatment significantly decreased acute GVHD compared with control-treated allogeneic mice and resulted in a significantly improved leukemia-free survival (42% v 4%, P <.001). KGF administration thus offers a novel approach to the separation of GVL effects from GVHD.


Radiation tolerant fiber optic transmission links are desired for their potential use in future thermonuclear fusion reactors and other harsh radiation fields. As part of it, we design and test a radiation opto-electronic transmitter based on vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers (VCSELs) and dedicated driver electronics consisting of discrete components. VCSELs have already demonstrated their high radiation acceptance level. We confirm this by on-line irradiation experiments on such devices up to 10 MGy total dose. For the design of the driver circuit, we rely on discrete commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) bipolar transistors. When the radiation induced degradation of these components is considered within the time design of the circuits, total dose levels larger than 1 MGy can be tolerated. The driver uses standard TTL input signals and delivers a forward current of 12 mA to a pigtailed 840 nm VCSEL. SPICE simulations show that the driver still delivers a sufficient forward current to the VCSEL, in spite of the radiation induced degradation of the Hfe and VCEsat values of the transistors. These simulations are verified by our experiments. At a total dose of 1 MGy, the measured decrease of the forward current is only about 8%. This induces an optical output power decrease that can still be tolerated with irradiated VCSELs, as shown by our experiments. We conclude that a high total dose hardened optical transmitter for use in nuclear instrumentation systems can be fabricated using discrete COTS bipolar transistors, COTS vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers and COTS optical fiber.


Due to the sensitivity of mammalian cell cultures, understanding the influence of operating conditions during a tissue generation procedure is crucial. In this regard, a detailed study of scaffold based cell culture under a perfusion flow is presented with the aid of mathematical modelling and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). With respect to the complexity of the case study, this work focuses solely on the effect of nutrient and metabolite concentrations, and the possible influence of fluid-induced shear stress on a targeted cell (cartilage) culture. The simulation set up gives the possibility of predicting the cell culture behavior under various operating conditions and scaffold designs. Thereby, the exploitation of the predictive simulation into a newly developed stochastic routine provides the opportunity of exploring improved scaffold geometry designs. This approach was applied on a common type of fibrous structure in order to increase the process efficiencies compared with the regular used formats. The suggested topology supplies a larger effective surface for cell attachment compared to the reference design while the level of shear stress is kept at the positive range of effect. Moreover, significant improvement of mass transfer is predicted for the suggested topology.


Mushroom toxicosis is rarely diagnosed in dogs and is poorly reported in the veterinary literature. This report suggests that mushroom toxicosis is a potentially under-diagnosed condition in first opinion practice in the UK. Nine dogs with clinical signs consistent with mushroom toxicosis were identified from the records of an out-of-hours emergency service between August 2010 and January 2011. Four dogs were later excluded because of clinical inconsistencies. Clinical signs included acute profuse ptyalism (5/5), diarrhoea (5/5), vomiting (4/5), hypovolaemia (4/5), stuporous (3/5) or obtunded mentation (1/5), miosis (2/5) and hypothermia (2/5). Serum lipase activity was elevated in 4/4 dogs; canine-specific pancreatic lipase was elevated in the remaining dog. Four dogs recovered with aggressive intravenous fluid therapy, analgesia and supportive care; the remaining dog was euthanased due to severe clinical signs and financial constraints. Mushroom toxicosis is an important differential diagnosis for acute gastroenteritis and one possible cause of some cases of "Seasonal Canine Illness". Affected dogs may demonstrate elevated pancreatic enzymes and mushroom toxicosis should be considered in cases of elevated lipase or abnormal semi-quantitative canine-specific pancreatic lipase activities.


This study was conducted to determine which of the natural food preservatives could lengthen the shelf life and acceptability of instant "ginataang manok". The preservatives used were Vit C, Vit E, and salt. Freshly cooked ginataang manok was prepared as a basis for comparison. The treatments were laid out in a completely randomized design replicated thrice. Five female staff from HRD and the same number of male professors from the College of Engineering of CPU were requested to evaluate the products for ten weeks. Results showed that instant "ginataang manok" treated with Vit C had significantly (p<0.01) the lowest shrinkage after pressure-cooking while those with salt had significantly (p<0.01) the highest meat to bone ratio. The processed product with Vit E had the lowest (p<0.01) percent moisture extracted after oven drying. Processed products can be stored under room temperature for ten weeks. The appearance, color, odor, flavor, texture, and over-all acceptability of processed products with different natural preservatives were liked moderately by the majority of the taste panelists. Those treated with salt were P2.00 lower in production cost than those in the other treatments.


Mixed immunodeficiency diseases are intrinsic defects of the immune system affecting both B and T cells and thus the adaptive immune system. Mixed or combined immune deficiencies may also be associated with or secondary to other diseases. Patients have severe symptoms and the condition can be fatal unless properly treated. Early and reliable diagnosis is in many instances crucial for the efficient treatment of these diseases as delayed diagnosis and management can cause severe and irreversible complications, even the death of the patient. Combined immunodeficiencies, which are a heterogeneous disease group, appear throughout the immune system and affect several crucial genes and proteins. The symptoms and signs vary significantly between the different forms of combined immunodeficiencies. Despite variations in single factors, both B- and T-cell responses are affected in these diseases.

Key Concepts

Combined immunodeficiency affects both B and T cells.
Lymphocytes are white blood cells including B and T cells.
Haematopoietic stem cell transplantation, the intravenous infusion of autologous or allogeneic stem cells collected from bone marrow, peripheral blood or umbilical cord blood, re-establishes haematopoietic function in patients.
V(D)J recombination is genetic recombination which randomly selects and assembles segments of genes encoding specific proteins in the immune system.

Keywords:

adaptive immunity;
immunodeficiency;
immune system;
B cell;
T cell;
severe combined immune deficiency


Background and Hypothesis: Tranexamic acid (TXA) decreases blood loss in total knee arthroplasty (TKA). However, TXA evoked pain in rats by inhibiting GABA and glycine receptors in the spinal dorsal horn, and caused cellular death in ex vivo and in vitro human periarticular tissues exposed to clinical concentrations of TXA. We evaluated inpatient postoperative pain and blood loss in TKA performed with and without TXA.
Project Methods: 105 consecutive cemented TKAs without TXA were compared to 72 consecutive cemented TKAs with TXA. Procedures were performed by a single surgeon using identical perioperative medical and pain-control protocols. Outcomes included: average of q2-4 hour pain scores during the first 24 hours after PACU discharge, average pain during remainder of stay, final pain score prior to discharge, time in minutes to first opioid after PACU discharge, total opioids in morphine equivalents (MEQs) during the first 24 hours after PACU discharge, average MEQs per remaining days of stay, and mean g/dL pre- to postoperative decrease in hemoglobin. Multivariate analyses accounted for 15 demographics and covariates.
Results: The sex (p=0.393), age (p=0.784), and BMI (p=0.930) of the two cohorts were similar. Mean pain during the first 24 hours was greater (4.1 vs. 3.2, p=0.001), MEQs consumed during the first 24 hours were greater (45 vs. 37, p=0.069), and time to first opioid medication was shorter (326 vs. 414, p=0.023) in patients who received TXA. The decrease in hemoglobin was less in patients who received TXA (-2.2 vs. -2.7, p<0.001).
Conclusion and Potential Impact: Our hypothesis based on animal and laboratory studies that TXA may increase early postoperative pain was confirmed by three metrics. Consistent with the effective life of TXA, pain and opioid consumption after 24 hours did not differ based on TXA use. Further work is warranted to investigate the nature consequences associated with TXA, relative to its demonstrated benefits for blood conservation.


The high cost and limited availability of commercial ultra-high performance concrete (UHPC) products have motivated researchers and several state departments of transportation to develop non-proprietary UHPC mixes using locally available materials. Several non-proprietary mixes following different mixing and curing regimens have been developed in different geographic locations across the United States. Although these existing mixes can be utilized as starting points for developing suitable UHPC mix design for a project, fine-tuning localized mix designs is still a cost, labor, and time intensive task. A limited number of studies in the existing literature have utilized machine learning techniques to predict strength of inputted UHPC mixes. However, practitioners typically determine the concrete mix design after selecting the target performance criteria such as compressive strength, and workability for the project. To address this need, this study is a first step towards utilizing machine learning techniques for reverse-engineering UHPC mix proportions based on selected performance criteria and incorporating readily available materials. A database of 215 UHPC mixes extracted from 24 published manuscripts is compiled. This database is used to train ensemble learning algorithms such as Random Forest, Support Vector Machine (SVM), and Gradient Boosting. A comparative assessment on the most promising ML models trained with selected mix design parameters is presented. The tool developed in this study will be beneficial for practitioners to establish a locally sourced non-proprietary mix design of UHPC based on the required attributes.


Although the increased incidence of type 2 diabetes since the 1950s is thought to be primarily due to coincident alterations in lifestyle factors, another potential contributing factor in industrialized countries is exposure of the population to environmental pollutants and industrial chemicals. Exposure levels of many environmental toxicants have risen in the same time-frame as the disease incidence. Of particular interest in this regard is the metal lead. Although overall lead exposure levels have diminished in recent decades, there is an under-recognized but persistent occurrence of lead exposure in poor underserved urban populations. Although the neural developmental pathologies induced by lead exposures have been well documented, very little is known about the effect of lead exposure on the incidence of chronic metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes. Although our understanding of the metabolic health effects of lead exposure is incomplete, there are studies in model systems and a small amount of epidemiological data that together suggest a deleterious effect of environmental lead exposure on metabolic health. This article reviews the human, animal and in vitro studies that have examined the effects of lead exposure on the development of diabetes and related metabolic conditions.


The European Center for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) has recently released its most advanced reanalysis product, the ERA5 dataset. It was designed and generated with methods giving it multiple advantages over the previous release, the ERA-Interim reanalysis product. Notably, it has a finer spatial resolution, is archived at the hourly time step, uses a more advanced assimilation system and includes more sources of data. This paper aims to evaluate the ERA5 reanalysis as a potential reference dataset for hydrological modelling by considering the ERA5 precipitation and 10 temperatures as proxies for observations in the hydrological modelling process, using two lumped hydrological models over 3138 North-American catchments. This study shows that ERA5-based hydrological modeling performance is equivalent to using observations over most of North-America, with the exception of the Eastern half of the US, where observations lead to consistently better performance. ERA5 temperature and precipitation biases are consistently reduced compared to ERA-Interim and systematically more accurate for hydrological modelling. Differences between ERA5, 15 ERA-Interim and observation datasets are mostly linked to precipitation, as temperature only marginally influences the hydrological simulation outcomes.


Stimulation of tentacle-specific cell differentiation by the neuropeptide head activator was investigated in Hydra magnipapillata. Tentacle-specific sensory nerve cells were identified by a monoclonal antibody, NV1. Treatment of hydra with 1pM head activator for 18h stimulated differentiation of NV1+ nerve cells and tentacle epithelial cells in tissue from the distal gastric region. Head tissue and tissue from the proximal gastric region did not respond to head activator treatment with increased NV1+ differentiation. Hence the distal gastric region appears to be the site of tentacle formation in hydra. Tentacle precursors in head tissue seem to be committed since they fail to respond to head activator or to changes in tissue size with altered amounts of tentacle formation. We suggest that NV1 precursors form a complex with tentacle epithelial cell precursors, which then moves distally through the head region into the tentacles. The signal for NV1+ differentiation appears to be formation of this complex.


This paper presents the results of development of a NDGPS/INS navigation system based on artificial vision. The proposed NDGPS/INS system was tested in the dynamic environment of a ground and flight vehicle. The results have shown the significant advantages in position accuracy and situation awareness. Accuracy meets the CAT-I precision approach and landing using NDGPS/INS integrations. Also we can confirm advantages of situation awareness using artificial vision. This system would be useful when we have to operate at night, in bad weather condition and military purpose using by 3D navigation guidance display based on artificial image.


This dissertation explores staying with the trouble through design as a design theory of intimacy and intimate technology. To research and design with the subject of intimacy is to trouble and to ask for trouble, and by staying with the trouble of intimacy, to paraphrase Donna Haraway, I articulate and perform a way of designing not as a way out of trouble, but as a way of making trouble and staying with the trouble. I argue that by staying with the trouble, designers may learn to be "truly present" and respond to social, cultural and political issues of intimate technology. The methodology interweaves design research, feminist technoscience, critical theory and software studies into a critical-feminist design methodology. As a response to design and designing intimate technology I have engaged in Donna Haraway's "Staying with the Trouble" (Donna J. Haraway 2016) and solutionism as a critique of technology development, as well as feminist theories on fantasies of "the good life" and gender and technology, and critical theories on the role of intimacy in digital culture. Within the field of interaction design research, this dissertation's contribution can be divided into three parts: 1) an exploration of the role of intimate technologies in our everyday lives and ways of being, 2) a critical and feminist design methodology of staying with the trouble through design, and 3) design proposals that stay with the trouble of designing with intimacy. My design research has evolved through four design projects that interweave different intimate topics and technologies through varied design practices: 1. PeriodShare: an internet-connected menstrual cup. 2. Marcelle: a wearable sex toy reacting on wifi-activity. 3. Ingrid: a woman living with electromagnetic hypersensitivity. And 4. Intimate Futures: two digital personal assistants where one is pushing back on sexual harassment and the other is assisting with hormone level tracking. The main contribution of the dissertation is the design methodology staying with the trouble through design , which is an anti-solutionist approach to design that interweaves the situated, personal and political role of design. By responding to/with trouble, rather than designing solutions to problems, staying with the trouble through design aims to better understand the conflicts and responsibilities involved in complex social, cultural and political issues, in order to imagine and design still possible futures. The design methodology interweaves three practices that unfold the self-reflective, ethnographic and collaborative process of staying with the trouble through design . The first practice, the willful practice of Staying with the Wrong , is a continuous process of becoming a feminist designer and it includes actively learning to be present; question the given as given, stay with the feelings you wish would go away, continuously practice self-reflection on own positionality and using feminist humour when designing with taboos. The second practice, Curious Visiting , encourages the designer to go beyond their own positionality, by listening to stories of pleasure and pain and visiting ongoing pasts and alternatives nows. This challenges the designer's notion of the present by interweaving fact and fiction, and it highlights that this practice is never innocent but involves risks. Lastly, the third practice Collective Imagining highlights how design by proposing future change can respond to and/or with trouble and how we collectively can engage with futures to rewrite collective imaginings and tell other possible stories within and across social and cultural contexts. Together, these three interwoven practices propose a way of staying with the trouble through design, as a feminist contribution to current critical approaches within interaction design.


The hard axis magnetic field distribution within the uniaxial magnetic film element of a thin film memory device is calculated. In the memory device considered, the driving stripline and magnetic film are located between a magnetic keeper and a conducting ground plane. The difficulty encountered in the keeper-ground plane problem arises from the requirement of satisfying boundary conditions at the keeper and ground plane surfaces simultaneously, or in other words, from considering an infinite set of film and stripline images. A method of solution using Fourier transforms proves satisfactory. The dependence of the magnetic field distribution on the relative position of the elements and on variations in material properties is assessed.


This paper investigates the subsurface deformation of two types of aluminium alloys with differing nature; A2124 (precipitation-hardened) and A5056 (work-hardened), sliding against an M2 tool steel slider. With block-on-ring configuration, the wear test was carried out at different loads ranging from 23 - 140N, in a dry sliding condition. Detailed secondary electron microscopy (SEM) performed on the longitudinal cross sections of the worn alloys indicates that the subsurface deformed layer beneath the worn surfaces is composed of a number of distinct layers like the mechanically mixed layer (MML), the shear deformed and bulk layers with increased hardness as the surface was approached. Deformation below the MML followed the expected behaviour of an exponential decay of strain with depth. In contrast to other studies in the literature, a linear relationship between depth of deformation and specific wear rate was not found for both alloys. This was believed to a result of the MML, which occupied a great proportion of the total depth of deformation. The relationship between the characteristics of the MMLs especially on the work hardening as a function of alloy type is also discussed.


Platinum and palladium surface doped tin nanoparticles have been obtained by decomposition of [Pt2(dba)3] and [Pd(dba)2] organometallic precursors, respectively, in a colloidal suspension of tin/tin oxide core–shell nanoparticles of uniform size (≈13 nm), in anisole under 1 bar of carbon monoxide at room temperature. The particles can be isolated as pure solids and present effective doping ratios [Pt]/[Sn] and [Pd]/[Sn] of 2.5 and 3.1%, respectively. These nanomaterials have been characterized by means of transmission electron and high-resolution transmission electron microscopies (TEM and HRTEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (EXAFS and XANES). The TEM micrographs show spherical nanoparticles whose size and size distribution are essentially similar to those of the initial Sn/SnOx material. HRTEM, EDX, XPS and X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) studies at the Pd and/or Sn-K edge show the conservation of the composite nature of the particles that consist of a tin(0) core covered with a layer of tin oxides on which the doping element is deposited under the form of crystalline metallic platelets of size near 2 nm. The thermal oxidation of these Pt- or Pd-doped tin materials yields nanoparticles of crystallized SnO2 covered with crystallites of Pt or Pd oxides, as demonstrated by XRD, XPS and XAS experiments, without coalescence or size change. In the oxidised Pd-doped material, EXAFS analysis combined with HRTEM, point towards the formation of two main Pd disordered oxide phases: a rather pure oxopalladate Pd3.5O4-type phase at the surface of the particle and a mixed Pd/Sn phase having a PdO structure-type at the interface Pd oxide/Sn oxide. The thermal oxidation process can be easily achieved onto the silicon platform of a micro-machined device after integration of the Pt- or Pd-doped Sn/SnOx colloidal suspension by drop deposition. The first electrical measurements indicate remarkable behaviours of the as-obtained microsensors when exposed to traces of carbon monoxide. In addition to the expected large increase of sensitivity of the doped relatively to the undoped sensitive layer measured in humid atmosphere, a surprising and unprecedented inversion of sensitivity from undoped to Pt- and Pd-doped sensors has been observed in dry atmosphere.


In Brown v. Board of Education the Supreme Court held that separate educational facilities for blacks and whites were inherently unequal. Since Brown, those seeking to avoid desegregation have found a powerful weapon in school vouchers, which enable parents to practice private discrimination with public dollars. The prevailing Supreme Court interpretation of the First Amendment's Establishment Clause permits the government to support parochial schools so long as it does not effectively establish a state religion or express a preference for one religion over another. Earlier, the Supreme Court in Griffin v. County School Board of Prince Edward County and Green v. County School Board of New Kent County required that states abandon devices like vouchers and tuition assistance when they are used to promote segregation. More recently, though, a line of cases from Board of Education of Central School District No. 1 v. Allen to Zelman v. Simmons-Harris has paved the way for the establishment of voucher programs by allowing government support for religious educational institutions where such support does not have the effect of advancing or inhibiting religion and the assistance is given to a broad class of private individuals whose allocation of the funds is determined by personal choice. The Supreme Court's approval of such tuition assistance programs portends a new regime of aid to private and religious schools, contributing to the resegregation of American education.


Knowledge of sex ratio and spatial distribution of males and females of dioecious species is both of evolutionary interest and of crucial importance for biological conservation. Eurycorymbus cavaleriei, the only species in the genus Eurycorymbus (Sapindaceae), is a dioecious tree endemic to subtropical montane forest in South China. Sex ratios were investigated in 15 natural populations for the two defined ages (young and old). Spatial distribution of males and females was further studied in six large populations occurring in different habitats (fragmented and continuous). The study revealed a slight trend of male-biased sex ratio in both ages of E. cavaleriei, but sex ratio of most populations (13 out of 15) did not display statistically significant deviation from equality. All of the four significantly male-biased populations in the young class shifted to equality or even female-biased. The Ripley's K analysis of the distribution of males with respect to females suggested that individuals of the opposite sexes were more randomly distributed rather than spatially structured. These results suggest that the male-biased sex ratio in E. cavaleriei may result from the precocity of males and habitat heterogeneity. The sex ratio and the sex spatial distribution pattern are unlikely to constitute a serious threat to the survival of the species.


This paper is an examination of the threat of global terrorism and the associated challenges and opportunities in determining the most viable risk management solutions. Terrorism risk poses unprecedented challenges - conceptual, technical, and operational - for the insurance industry. The effects of terrorist events can be enduring, incurring virtually limitless costs and consequences to the economy. Through analysis of the nature of terrorism risk, issues with insurability become apparent. Despite offering coverage for such events, insurers face difficulties in measuring and quantifying terrorism risk to underwrite it profitably. With the current political environment, the uncertainty of the government's role is a concern for insurers, risk managers, and lawmakers. The future of managing terrorism risk is reliant on the industry adopting a solution that is not only feasible in implementation, but also economically sustainable.


Microstructure analysis of ice cores is vital to understand the processes controlling the flow of ice on the microscale. To quantify the microstructural variability (and thus occurring processes) on centimeter, meter and kilometer scale along deep polar ice cores, a large number of sections has to be analyzed. In the last decade, two different methods have been applied: On the one hand, transmission optical microscopy of thin sections between crossed polarizers yields information on the distribution of crystal c-axes. On the other hand, reflection optical microscopy of polished and controlled sublimated section surfaces allows to characterize the high resolution properties of a single grain boundary, e.g. its length, shape or curvature.

Based on a polar and an alpine ice core we applied both methods to the same set of sections. This enables us to combine all information on crystal orientation and (sub-)grain boundaries. In this contribution we introduce the method of combined transmission-polarization and reflection microscopy as well as an image processing framework for processing and matching both image types [T. Binder et al., 2013, Journal of Microscopy, in press]. The information content of both analysis methods is limited and influenced by different types of artifacts. It is exemplary shown how the combination allows to compensate for deficiencies of one method.

The gray values in images of the grain boundaries on polished ice core sections are influenced by the duration of surface sublimation and the energy/misorientation of the grain boundaries in the section. By combining these gray values with the misorientation obtained from the corresponding thin section imaged between crossed polarizers we try to validate the information content of gray values on the basis of large data sets. This approach is compared to X-ray Laue diffraction measurements (yielding full crystallographic orientation) which validated the sensitivity of the surface sublimation method [I. Weikusat et al., 2011, Journal of Glaciology, 57, 111-120].

As microscopy in transmission mode acquires volume information and microscopy in reflection mode gains information on the surface, an "optimal" matching of both images contains displacements of grain boundary sites. We try to quantify this inaccuracy which can also be interpreted as orientation of the grain boundary surface in 3D.


Many important organic contaminants present particular analytical difficulties on account of their polarity and water solubility. Performance test data for two of the most promising approaches: solid phase extraction (SPE) and solid phase microextraction (SPME) are presented. SPE, used in a batch mode, offers a potentially powerful tool as a routine screening method. SPME is probably more useful as a technique to be deployed rapidly in an emergency, particularly when gas chromatography mass spectrometry (GC-MS) general survey screening is to be used.


Aims Obesity is major risk factor for liver health. This study aimed to clarify whether specific health behaviors were associated with liver function in obese adolescents in Korea. Methods Based on national school health examination data from 2009 to 2014, 25,142 obese or overweight students were examined for aspartate transaminase and alanine transaminase levels, and health behaviors. Multiple logistic regression was used to calculate the odds ratio for liver enzyme elevation. Results Subjects who thought of themselves as "very fat" had a 1.6 times higher odds ratio for liver enzyme elevations than those who thought of themselves as "normal." Those who consumed fast food 3 to 5 times weekly had 1.3 times higher odds ratio (OR = 1.27, 95% confidence interval = 1.05–1.54) for the elevation of ALT than those who did not consume fast food. Those who took sugar-sweetened beverage 3 to 5 times weekly had 1.2 times higher odds ratio (OR = 1.24, 95% confidence interval = 1.07–1.42) for the elevation of ALT than those who did not take it. Those who played computer game more than 2 hours a day showed 1.1 times higher odds ratio (OR = 1.10, 95% confidence interval = 1.01–1.21) for the elevation of ALT than those who did not. Conclusions Specific food item and its frequency of consumption were identified for the positive and negative association with the elevation of liver enzymes. Self-image of body shape, sleeping time and need of help for alcohol or smoking problems also showed substantial association with the elevation.


Background: The need of supportive care is a care to be given in order to enhance the life quality of the patients with a serious life-threatening disease such as breast cancer. Generally, the patients are really worried and have severe anxiety related to their disease. The quality of life becomes really important in curing the breast cancer. The life quality is the ability to have normal life in accordance with the individual perception about the objective and hope of the breast cancer patients.
Method: Thisis anobservationalresearchwithcross-sectionalstudydesign.Thestudywasconducted in 2019 and required as many as 40 respondents. The samples were selected by using purposive sampling technique. The data were gathered by questionnaire then processed by SPSS and analyzed by statistical test of Chi-square with the significance degree of 95% (α=0,05).
Result: The result showed that there was significant correlation between the need of supportive care (p<0,000) and the life quality of the breast cancer patients.
Conclusion: There was association of the supportive careandthelifequalityofthebreastcancerpatientswiththevalueofp=0,000


Scaling probabilistic models to large realistic problems and datasets is a key challenge in machine learning. Central to this effort is the development of tractable probabilistic models (TPMs): models whose structure guarantees efficient probabilistic inference algorithms. The current landscape of TPMs is fragmented: there exist various kinds of TPMs with different strengths and weaknesses. Two of the most prominent classes of TPMs are determinantal point processes (DPPs) and probabilistic circuits (PCs). This paper provides the first systematic study of their relationship. We propose a unified analysis and shared language for discussing DPPs and PCs. Then we establish theoretical barriers for the unification of these two families, and prove that there are cases where DPPs have no compact representation as a class of PCs. We close with a perspective on the central problem of unifying these tractable models.


The initial discontinuity state (IDS) concept was developed just several years ago in an attempt to describe the as-manufactured or as-produced state of material. As a geometric and material characteristic, IDS is the major parameter of holistic life assessment methodology which establishes the initial analysis condition. In this paper, a number of IDS values were determined for several types of smooth specimens. A crack growth analysis software was used to develop the IDS. The results obtained indicate that the calculated IDS values scatter widely. A statistical analysis shows that the distribution of the calculated IDS values fit well with Weibull distribution.


The emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to the publication of many scientific papers. The goal of the present research was to analyse these papers using the Altmetric Attention Score (AAS). Statistics for 100 publications with high AAS scores were selected and exported from the Dimension database on May 22nd 2020. The major findings were that these publications were published in 34 different journals or preprint repositories. More than one-third of the total of 657, 350 posts were collected from the Twitter platform. The top contributing countries were China, followed by the USA. The paper "The proximal origin of SARS-CoV-2" by Andersen, Kristian G., etal., 2020 had the highest AAS (33 514. These findings may help others to design studies of the AAS in Covid-19 literature and compare them with traditional citations.


Mannan is a kind of polysaccharide that shaped from mannose and glucose with molar ratio 3:2. Sum of total mannan have a variation rate, influenced by the age, kind of plant, beginning treatment before drying and many other reason. This kind of carbohydrate is important for the plant, it self, and for human, it can be used for many industries. This polysaccharide produced most by a tuber like iles-iles (Amorphophallus muelleri Blume.) mannan polymer has a special character which have an attitude between cellulose and galactomannan, so have and ability to crystallize and shaping soft patterns. Besides Amorphophallus, mannan can be found in a small number of another plant, like Ivory nut, and some of Orchidaceae and some in subdivision Gymnosperm. The way to isolate can be in physically and chemically. And the benefits are for the development of many industries, like food, medical, paper, laboratory, etc.


With a view of exploring the potential use of natural recourses, we made an attempt to fabricate sisal fibre polymer composites by hand lay-up method. Natural fiber composites are renewable, cheap and biodegradable. Their easy availability, lower density, higher specific properties, lower cost, satisfactory mechanical and thermal properties, non-corrosive nature, makes them an attractive ecological alternative to glass, carbon or other man-made synthetic fibers. In this work, the effect of SiC on mechanical and thermal properties of natural sisal fiber composites are investigated. The composite has been made with and without SiC incorporating natural sisal fiber with polyester as bonding material. The experimental outcomes exhibited that the tensile strength of composite with 10%SiC 2.53 times greater than that of composite without SiC. The impact strength of composite with 10% SiC is 1.73 times greater than that of composite without SiC plain polyester. Thermal properties studied include thermal conductivity, specific heat capacity, thermal diffusivity, thermal degradation and stability. Three different samples with 0%, 5%, 10% SiC powder are considered. With the addition of SiC filler powder, thermal conductivity increases, specific heat capacity gradually increases then decreases, thermal diffusivity increases and thermal stability improves with Sic powder.


Six novel E-32-aryl substituted chlorins (5a–5f) were synthesized via improved regioselective bromination and Suzuki–Miyaura cross-coupling reactions with chlorin e6 (1) as a starting material. All the π-extension photosensitizers 5a–5f exhibited significant bathochromic-shifts (ca. 10 nm) in the far red part of the spectrum called the phototherapeutic window and decreased photobleaching under irradiation of 660 nm light. Moreover, 5a–5f possessed higher phototoxicity in vitro against HepG2 cells (IC50 = 0.73 ± 0.04, 2.33 ± 0.22, 0.78 ± 0.05, 0.50 ± 0.04, 2.25 ± 0.16 and 0.65 ± 0.11 μM, respectively) compared with chlorin e6 (IC50 = 28.9 ± 1.2 μM). The enhanced cellular uptake and reactive oxygen species (ROS) production of modified chlorins were found to be responsible for their increased in vitro phototoxicity.


This paper focuses on the choice of the optimal pore size and the effect of pore size dispersion, which is important for the rational design of nanoporous supercapacitors. Optimization of the pore size of nanoporous carbon electrodes is discussed in terms of the maximal stored energy density. By applying a previously developed theory, and supporting it by newly performed experiments, we find that the energy density is a non-monotonic function of the pore size of monodisperse porous electrodes. The 'optimal' pore size that provides the maximal energy density increases with increasing operating voltage and saturates at high voltages. We also analyse how the pore size distribution affects the voltage dependent capacitance and the stored energy density, and show that the latter is maximized for monodisperse electrodes.


Based on the structural risk minimization principle, the linear SVM aiming at finding the linear decision plane with the maximal margin in the input space has gained increasing popularity due to its generalizability, efficiency and acceptable performance. However, rarely training data are evenly distributed in the input space [1], which leads to a high global VC confidence [4], downgrading the performance of the linear SVM classifier. Partitioning the input space in tandem with local learning may alleviate the unevenly data distribution problem. However, the extra model complexity introduced by partitioning frequently leads to overfitting. To solve this problem, we proposed a new supervised learning algorithm, Randomized Support Vector Forest (RSVF): Many partitions of the input space are constructed with partitioning regions amenable to the corresponding linear SVMs. The randomness of the partitions is injected through random feature selection and bagging. This partition randomness prevents the overfitting introduced by the over-complicated partitioning. We extensively evaluate the performance of the RSVF on several benchmark datasets, originated from various vision applications, including the four UCI datasets, the letter dataset, the KTH and the UCF sports dataset, and the Scene-15 dataset. The proposed RSVF outperforms linear SVM , kernel SVM, Random Forests (RF), and a local learning algorithm, SVM-KNN, on all of the evaluated datasets. The classification speed of the RSVF is comparable to linear SVM.


An attempt was made to outline a program of intensive care on the basis of experience with 396 patients with hematologic diseases admitted in a critical condition (shock of various genesis, mainly bacterial, acute liver and renal insufficiency, spontaneous hemorrhage, etc.) taking into account the characteristic signs of such patients. The percentage of patients transferred to the hematology department rose from 36.2 to 47.9% as a result of 14-year experience. A conclusion was made of the appropriateness of such a department in each major inpatient hematologic clinic.


Romantic relationships are often fraught with challenges for individuals post-release. Yet, few relationships-focused services are offered during this important and complex transitional period. Using pre- and post-test survey data, this pilot study of 63 men living in a residential substance treatment facility post release evaluated the impact of a 20-h individual-oriented relationship education (RE) program (Within My Reach) on attitudes toward intimate partner violence (IPV), sexist beliefs, attitudes toward infidelity, relational efficacy, and relationship decision making. Results showed a significant decrease in support of IPV at pre- and post-test even after controlling for education, number of children, and relationship status.


If the possible ends of art criticism are taken to include not only the
provision of a detailed evaluation of the artwork, but, cognately, an elaboration
upon how one has been, or believes oneself to have been, changed by a
particular artistic encounter, then the very praxis of art criticism stands to benefit
from a theoretical elucidation of the possible nature of the subjective
transformations that may flow from the critical appreciation of art. We are
entitled to enquire, in particular, into the conditions under which, and indeed the
extent to which, such putative change at the personal level can be explicated in
moral epistemological terms. It is pertinent in this context also to investigate the
phenomenal character of the experiences that have been operative and their
essential structures; to enquire, in short, into the phenomenology of the
transformative artistic encounter. In this thesis, the bearing, in particular, of
intersubjectivity upon the content and modalities of disclosure in a literary
context will be investigated. It will be shown how an understanding of the
relevance of intersubjectivity to the phenomenology of literary experience can
inform an assessment of the claims of literary aesthetic moral cognitivism.
Yet the intention to clarify the connection between literary experience
and intersubjectivity also requires reflection upon what it is in the first place to
encounter someone else, and to apperceive a foreign subjectivity and its
motivations. For this reason, the contributions of Edmund Husserl and Edith
Stein to the investigation of the phenomenology of empathy will be discussed
and evaluated. This discussion will in turn be shown to be of assistance in
clarifying the role of the imagination in the apperception and comprehension of
another person's mental life. The thought of Jean Starobinski will prove to
elucidate the question of why the insights of the phenomenological tradition are
highly pertinent to the investigation of literary experience, and to the
development, in particular, of a conception of an imagined 'Other' who is (in a
sense that will be clarified) embedded within the literary text, a person, that is, to
whom one might coherently refer as the "implied author".
For reasons which will emerge in the course of this study, it will be
argued that authentic empathy, in its fulfilling explication (in the Steinian sense),
is given to the empathising consciousness in the manner of a semblance, and,
consonantly, that the phenomenological structure of authentic empathy is
characterised in its mature phases by an homological relation to pictureconsciousness.
The epistemological significance of literature's capacities for
moral suggestion will be explicated principally in terms of the unfolding of
values within the human personality, and in terms of the disclosure of the
phenomenal character and structures of virtuous experience. It will be explained
why the structure of empathy has implications for the aesthetic value of
literature. The question of the relation between aesthetic and ethical value will
be clarified. In this context, it will be argued on phenomenological grounds that
the appresentation of moral virtue in an implied author could contribute to the
aesthetic value of a literary work, although it will also be shown that implied
authorial moral virtue could conflict irremediably with other qualities like moral
doubt and uncertainty, which may themselves be important sources of aesthetic
value. For this reason, the thesis will conclude by challenging the ethicist view
that an aesthetically relevant ethical flaw in a literary work must count as an
aesthetic flaw.


Polyamide 12 were studied as the laser sintering materials for the three-dimensional duplicator equipment of selective laser sintering process. Though polymer powders had a similar chemical structure, there were some differences in thermal properties, particle size and distribution, and shape. These variations had a close relation with the processibility of laser sintering. As far as the particle shape approached a spherical shape, the processibility was improved. The particle size distribution played an important role in the precision of fabrication. The polymer powders with uniform size and higher bulk density were successfully prepared by controlling several finely-controlled steps, such as dissolution, nucleation, propagation and crystallization, in wet process. Several additives were added to improve the thermal, rheological, and flow properties further.


The Tracker Control System (TCS) is a distributed control software to operate about 2000 power supplies for the silicon modules of the CMS Tracker and monitor its environmental sensors. TCS must thus be able to handle about 104 power supply parameters, about 103 environmental probes from the Programmable Logic Controllers of the Tracker Safety System (TSS), about 105 parameters read via DAQ from the DCUs in all front end hybrids and from CCUs in all control groups. TCS is built on top of an industrial SCADA program (PVSS) extended with a framework developed at CERN (JCOP) and used by all LHC experiments. The logical partitioning of the detector is reflected in the hierarchical structure of the TCS, where commands move down to the individual hardware devices, while states are reported up to the root which is interfaced to the broader CMS control system. The system computes and continuously monitors the mean and maximum values of critical parameters and updates the percentage of currently operating hardware. Automatic procedures switch off selected parts of the detector using detailed granularity and avoiding widespread TSS intervention.


Collective behavior forms and spreads through social contact. This thesis introduces a framework for understanding how the structure of social ties may impact the evolution of bribery. We represent relationships as highly clustered networks with small characteristic path lengths (i.e., small-world models having "local" and "long-range" contacts). Based on a principal-agent-client formulation, our model focuses on the effects of clustering on an equilibrium of persistent bribery. Collective outcomes depend on decision-making mechanisms that rely on sensitivity functions, which capture the level of influence between local contacts. Moreover, we represent the evolution of the network as a system of differential equations and identify its region of parameters for which the equilibrium of persistent bribery is stable. Our results show that an increase in clustering tends to decrease the levels of bribery. A more sensitive response to the behavior of neighbors, on the other hand, tends to increase bribery, but only up to a certain point. Beyond this threshold, the expected level of bribery remains constant, despite variations in the structural properties of the network.


Overwhelming clinical evidence supports the use of minimally invasive liver surgery (MILS), at least in case of minor hepatectomy, given its benefits in perioperative outcome measures and postoperative recovery (1,2). Conceptually, these findings make sense in resections where the volume of the liver remnant is large enough to not expect significant post-hepatectomy liver insufficiency and reconvalescence is mostly dependent on the surgical incision.


When jejunal ulcers 1 began to appear as complications of gastroenterostomy, nonabsorbable sutures sometimes were discovered in their bases. This quickly led to the assumption of a cause and effect relationship between the foreign material and the unwelcome sequel. Many papers were written on the subject, but the clinical evidence resolved itself almost exclusively to the association of the ulcer with a thread still retained. Sometimes the suture has been partially cast off but was still adherent in the region of the ulcer, or at other times a strand of thread or a knot was exposed in the base of the ulcer. But on the other hand, the retained suture frequently had no connection with the ulcer; in over one half of the cases the ulcer was away from the suture line. 2 The discovery of such a foreign body in the base of a jejunal ulcer was so dramatic


A new experimental set up for measuring the breakdown strength of gas media in weakly non-uniform electric field at cryogenic temperatures and high pressures is described. Measure of breakdown strength of helium gas at 77 K and 293 K in a non-uniform electric field with a field efficiency factor 62.5% are presented. The results suggest that the breakdown strength in weakly non-uniform electric field relate to that of uniform electric field by the field efficiency factor, η. This relationship holds good for both 293 K and 77 K data. This observation expands our previously reported systematics of dielectric strength in uniform electric field to the weakly non-uniform electric field conditions, which is important for designing HTS power applications. The established relationship eliminates the need for costly experiments for measuring the dielectric strength at a specific operating temperature and pressure and in the required non-uniformity of the electric field.


RFID is an up-and-coming technology holding promise of closing information gaps in the supply chain. Information is probably the biggest driver of performance in supply chains today and information control is seen as a huge advantage in management. This report addresses how RFID may contribute to improve management and supply chain within warehouse management. By doing a case study of three Norwegian businesses the report finds processes in management and logistics. An evaluation of where a theoretical RFID implementation may impact show that RFID increases data and data collection in almost all identified processes. Both management and logistics in general have the potential of automating several processes and collected data results in increased information sharing. When businesses handle identified challenges in the technology RFID have huge possibilities in improving warehouse management and the supply chain in general.


Aggressive behavior is defined as that in which an individual aims to harm another person, with the intent to physically or psychologically wound or kill. Aggression – whether unprimed or primed – is thus a trait of interest in both criminal behavior and every day mood management. Previous research (using the established intruder-scenario model) has reported high levels of serotonin and dopamine in the nucleus accumbens of adult male rats, both during and after aggressive bouts. Since the intruder-scenario could have a priming effect on aggression, this study for the first time investigated aggression in a neutral cage, only "priming" with the serotonergic agonist sumatriptan in an attempt to establish a potential connection between levels of nucleus accumbens serotonin and aggressive behavior. Thus, a total of eight male rats were randomly split into four pairs and tested for aggressive behaviors in a single 30-minute session. The pairs each consisted of one saline-infused rat versus one sumatriptan-infused rat. While the results showed non-significant effects of sumatriptan for some aggressive behaviors, sumatriptan-infused rats showed significantly higher occurrences of chasing and clinch attacking as compared to saline controls. Interestingly, both of these behaviors occur towards the beginning of an aggressive bout, suggesting that sumatriptan may influence the initiation of aggressive behavior. More research is necessary to confirm and expand these initial findings.


BACKGROUND: Atrophic scars are commonly faced. The common feature of these scars is their bottom, which is located below the level of the surrounding tissue. Scar revision can be a complex process that requires a careful assessment, technical expertise, recognition of the psychosocial issues if a satisfactory outcome is to be achieved. OBJECTIVE: The application of the dermal tube technique was first used by Mallucci et al. for the treatment of atrophic tethered scars. PATIENTS AND METHODS: Between January 2017 to April 2018, 16 patients presented to us with atrophic tethered scars. Their ages ranged between (4 -40) years and they included seven females and nine males. The locations of the scars were in the face; (5) patients, in the neck; (2) patients, in the forearm; (3) patients, in the arm; (1) patient, in the back; (1) patient, in the abdomen; (2) patients, in the buttocks; (1) patient, and in the leg; (1) patient. The average history of scar was one and a half year. All scars were treated surgically using dermal tube technique. RESULTS: Sixteen patients with tethered atrophic scars at different sites and due to different etiologies were treated surgically with scar revision by the dermal tube technique. Patients results were evaluated subjectively by the visual analogue scale for the post-surgical results. The average value of the visual analogue scale was 7.8 with excellent improvement of the contour of the atrophic scar, and a near normal skin texture with no recurrence of the deformity during the follow up period. Three of our sixteen patients were unsatisfied with their results. CONCLUSION: dermal tube technique is an effective method to correct tethered atrophic scars. It is a simple and single stage operation can be performed under local anesthesia ,with good results regarding scar appearance and minimal recurrence of the deformity


OBJECT
Spinal column metastatic disease clinically affects thousands of cancer patients every year. Local chemotherapy represents a new option in the treatment of metastatic disease of the spine. Despite the clinical impact of metastatic spine disease, the literature currently lacks an accurate animal model for the effective dosing of local chemotherapeutic agents within the vertebral column.

METHODS
Female Fischer 344 rats, weighing 150 to 200 g each, were used in this study. After induction of anesthesia, a transabdominal approach to the ventral vertebral body of L-6 was performed. A small hole was drilled and 5 microL of ReGel (blank polymer), OncoGel (paclitaxel and ReGel) 1.5%, OncoGel 3.0%, or OncoGel 6.0% were immediately injected to determine drug toxicity. Based on these results, efficacy studies were performed by intratumoral injection of 5 microL of ReGel, OncoGel 3.0%, and OncoGel 6.0% on Day 6 in a CRL- 1666 breast adenocarcinoma metastatic spine tumor model. Hind limb function was tested pre- and postoperatively using the Basso-Beattie-Bresnahan rating scale. Histological analysis of the spinal cord and vertebral column was performed when the animal died or was killed.

RESULTS
There were no signs of toxicity observed in association with any of the agents under study. No increased benefit was seen in the blank polymer group compared with the control group (tumor only). OncoGel 3.0% and OncoGel 6.0% were effective in delaying the onset of paralysis in the respective study groups.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings demonstrate the potential benefit of OncoGel in cases of subtotal resections of metastatic spinal column tumors. OncoGel 6.0% is the most efficacious drug concentration and offers the best therapeutic option in this experimental model. These results provide promise for the development of local chemotherapeutic means to treat spinal metastases.


The development of supercomputers has successfully helped us to carry on complicated simulation with exploded size of dataset. For visualizing such kind of large-scale dataset, reducing the data size by using compression methods is one of the most useful approach. Moreover, parallelization of compression algorithm can greatly improve the efficiency and resolve the limitation of memory size. However, in parallel compression algorithm, interprocessor communication is indispensable, while it is also a bottleneck problem, especially for the general cases that the number of processors is not power-of-two. Parallel POD (proper orthogonal decomposition) compression algorithm is such an example, the number of time steps must be power-of-two for the binary swap scheme. A method that can fully resolve this problem with low computational cost will be very popular. In this paper, we proposed such an approach called 2-3-4 combination approach, which can be simply implemented and also reach high performance of parallel computing algorithms. Furthermore, our method can obtain the best balance among all parallel computing processors. This is achieved by transferring the non-power-of-two problem into power-of-two problem to fully use the best balance feature of binary swap method. We evaluate our approach through applying it to the parallel POD compression algorithm on the K computer.


The functional organisation of the epididymis has been studied in 20 adult albino rats. The gross divisions of Caput or head, Corpus or body, and Cauda or lower end show distinctive features which indicate functional specialisation. The Caput epididymis has strikingly tall columnar cells with a mean height of 124 mu, but little muscle tissue. It seems to be adapted as a distensible low-pressure reservoir to accomodate the testicular outflow and modify it by absorption and secretion; the prominent stereocilia (or microvilli) would favour this absorptive function. The Cauda, on the other hand, shows abundant muscle tissue around the widening duct and provides the mechanism for rapid delivery of sperms during ejaculation. The Corpus or middle part is peculiarly long and slender, accomodating only 2 or 3 ductules side-by-side. It might serve to separate the two functionally different upper and lower parts and protect the testis against any undue back-pressure. The epididymis weighed 67% of the corresponding testis, on an average. The capacity of the testis to tolerate any obstruction of the outflow tract might be related to the size and capacity of the epididymis in that species.


Collecting taxes and fighting against tax fraud and tax evasion are competences of EU Member States. In a globalised world, with globalised actors, Member States would often need more global means to collect taxes due. The European Union provides a framework and offers instruments to handle cross-border tax issues including potential tax evasion. On 2 March 2012, the European Council called on the Council and the Commission to rapidly develop concrete ways to improve the fight against tax fraud and tax evasion, including in relation to third countries and to report by June 2012. In April the European Parliament adopted a resolution echoing the urgent need for action in this area.


In the face of growing levels of congestion and persistent air quality problems, planners increasingly see community design as a way of reducing automobile dependence. Because of growing levels of obesity and the attendant health problems, public health officials have also turned to community design as a way of increasing physical activity. Proponents from both camps argue that higher population and employment densities, greater mixes of land uses, more gridlike street networks, and better transit service contribute to lower levels of driving and higher levels of walking, and they cite numerous studies to support their cases. But most studies focus on the population as a whole, and few studies so far consider the ways in which the effect of community design might differ for particular segments of the population given their particular travel needs. As evidence of the complexity of women's travel accumulates, researchers have begun to explore what community design means for women, both the possibility that community design adds to their travel burden and the possibility that it can help to ease that burden. Women face significant concerns related to family, health, and safety that complicate their daily lives; these concerns contribute to their need for travel and to the constraints they face in attempting to meet those needs. Communities designed so that women must drive long distances to work, to daycare, to shopping, or to medical appointments add to the time and cost of meeting their personal and household needs. In contrast, communities designed for shorter driving distances and for modes other than driving may offer women the option of reducing the time and money they spend on travel. At this time, few questions have been answered and many questions remain, not only about the implications of community design for the travel of women but also about the relationship between community design and travel behavior more generally. As a step toward building a research agenda on the implications for women of the relationship between community design and travel behavior, the available literature is reviewed here, original data analysis is presented, and outstanding issues are discussed for the following questions: * What is community design? * How does community design affect travel behavior? * How might these effects differ for women? * Where do we go from here?


This document considers the consequences of moving the underlying
network architecture from the current Internet to an Information-
Centric Networking (ICN) architecture on video distribution. As most
of the traffic in future networks is expected to be video, we consider
how to modify the existing video streaming mechanisms. Several
important topics related to video distribution over ICN are presented.
The wide range of scenarios covered includes the following: evolving
Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH) to work over ICN and
leverage the recent ISO/IEC Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG)
standard, layering encoding over ICN, introducing distinct
requirements for video using Peer-to-Peer (P2P) mechanisms, adapting
the Peer-to-Peer Streaming Protocol (PPSP) for ICN, creating more
stringent requirements over ICN because of delay constraints added by
Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), and managing digital rights in
ICN. Finally, in addition to considering how existing mechanisms would
be impacted by ICN, this document lists some research issues to design
ICN-specific video streaming mechanisms.


A double blind randomized cross-over study was conducted to analyze antiarrhythmic activity of the new Soviet drugs allapinin , ethacizine in comparison with mexitil. Altogether 33 patients with ventricular disorders of cardiac rhythm of high gradations after Lown B. were investigated including patients with paroxysmal ventricular tachycardia. The authors managed to establish and compare the group antiarrhythmic efficacy and safety of each drug, and to assess a degree of selective efficacy of each of them.


Digital images from computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance (MR) scanners can be used to create computer models of anatomical shapes. These models are typically used in biomedical applications for the purpose of physical simulation and visualization. In this thesis, we describe new algorithms for creating models from 2D and 3D binary digital images. Our models are meshes of 2D shapes represented by 2D binary digital images, and meshes of the surface of 3D shapes represented by 3D binary digital images. More specifically, this thesis contains the following two contributions:
First, we give an algorithm for converting constrained triangular meshes of polygonal domains into constrained and strictly convex quadrilateral meshes of the same domain. Our algorithm has linear time in the number of triangles of the input triangular mesh, produces a bounded number of quadrilaterals, offers better bounds than similar algorithms that also produce strictly convex quadrilateral meshes of bounded size, and tends to preserve the grading of the input triangular mesh. We also present examples to demonstrate that our algorithm can be successfully used to create quadrilateral meshes from 2D binary digital images of anatomical shapes, such as the human brain.
Second, we provide a new algorithm for generating simplicial surface meshes that approximate the boundary of 3D shapes represented by 3D binary digital images. Our algorithm is based on a simplified version of one of two known algorithms for generating provably good quality simplicial approximations of smooth, implicit surfaces. Provably good quality simplicial surfaces are very desirable for visualization purposes, and the main advantage of our algorithm is to offer this provable quality guarantee.


Electrocardiogram (ECG), a non-stationary signal, is extensively used to measure the rate and regularity of heartbeats. Comparison of overall ECG waveform pattern and shape enables doctors to diagnose possible diseases. Currently there is computer based analysis which employs certain signal processing to diagnose a patient based on ECG recording. Noise severely limits the utility of the recorded ECG and thus needs to be removed for better clinical evaluation. ECG feature extraction is also required because it plays a significant role in diagnosing most of the cardiac diseases. One cardiac cycle in an ECG signal consists of the P-QRS-T waves. The feature extraction scheme determines the amplitudes and intervals in the ECG signal or any other features of it for subsequent analysis. Recently, numerous research and techniques have been developed for analyzing the ECG signal. This proposed paper discusses various techniques and transformations proposed earlier in literature for feature extraction and analysis of ECG signals and makes comparison among them.


Abstract This article traces current and emerging themes from Buddhist philosophy and psychology that have increasingly appeared in western cognitive psychotherapeutic practices. We argue that this interest has occurred within the context of post-modernist, relativistic thinking patterns first exemplified by the constructivistic movement within cognitive psychotherapy. This in turn has arisen from a world-wide clash of cultures in which western cognitive psychotherapies have been forced to reconsider some of their own tacit assumptions. Ideas for the future development of cognitive psychotherapies using Buddhist and Eastern ways of thinking are presented. Key words: cognitive-behavior therapy, Buddhism. INTRODUCTION The purpose of this article is to trace the development of cognitive psychotherapy as it has increasingly incorporated constructivistist and relativistic themes which are based in part on Eastern ways of thinking. First, we examine the role that Culture - our own and that of others - plays in the cognitive psychotherapy process. Second, we examine the theoretical and practical influence of Buddhist concepts on Western cognitive psychotherapy, and end with some recommendations for further incorporation of Buddhist concepts and practices. INTEGRATIONS OF COGNITIVE THERAPIES AND BUDDHISM The Role of Culture in Cognitive Psychotherapy Cognitive psychotherapy, like other forms of therapy, is deeply embedded in the culture in which it has developed and uses existing cultural metaphors to explain its interventions and anticipated outcomes. Because these metaphors were developed within Western ways of thinking, they included certain cultural tacit assumptions and concepts and excluded others. The great error in the creation of all systems of therapy has been to postulate universals where there are really cultural specifics. Thus Freud's world view was a product of the 19th century Central European culture with its suppression and channeling of sexual activities, and its use of the principles of hydraulics and mechanics in developing such concepts as drive reduction and symptom substitution. Later, Carl Rogers's (1961) client-centered therapy can be seen as reflecting two powerful cultural aspects of mid-20th century American life: the increasing egalitarianism that reduced the exalted status of the therapist and the increasing affluence in material goods as well as the reduced hours of work that permitted the leisurely exploration of the client's inner mental life. Heinz Kohut (1985), who developed self psychology, thought the ideal type of individual identity was the autonomous self, characterized by self-esteem and self-confidence. Cushman (1995) refers to this as the creation of the "masterful, bounded, feeling Self" of the post-World War II Western era. The central role of the therapist for Kohut was building, maintaining, and enhancing the patient's self-identity, separate from that of others. But Cushman sees this as an "empty self" that must be filled by consuming material possessions. Behavior therapy's guiding metaphor can be seen as that of the machine and a mechanized view of therapy, with one early article even referring to the behavior therapist as a "reinforcement machine." Early cognitive psychotherapy (broadly considered) appears to have been based on an information processing metaphor, with the tacit assumption that reality is fixed and the objective of therapy is to change dysfunctional, unrealistic cognitions into more adaptive, realistic ones. With the exception of client-centered therapy, there is little room in these cultural assumptions for such Buddhist concepts as compassion except at the most basic level of trying to help people. The therapist is a change agent, not a caring agent. Tacit cultural assumptions change, sometimes rapidly, when a culture comes in close contact with, and often in opposition to, another culture. This has been especially true in recent years with increasingly rapid communication and transportation around the world. …


Scientists have long used laser light to move atoms and molecules. But researchers are now using light to control the motion of larger humanmade objects built of materials like glass or silicon. A device must be both a fine "optical cavity" that rings with light and an outstanding "mechanical resonator" that, like a pitchfork, vibrates readily at a precise frequency. Researchers can then use light to control vibrations or vice versa. Such "cavity optomechanics" might be used to coax vibrating machines to hum to the odd rules of quantum mechanics, which ordinarily govern the realm of atoms and molecules. More practically, optomechanical widgets might process optical signals or serve as frequency standards. One team has even used them to make a kind of laser for vibrations. Other exciting results are sure to come, researchers say.


This guide includes information about how to find books, articles, and websites that focus on the legal analysis of terrorism.


The dUTPase enzyme family plays an essential role in maintaining the genome integrity and are represented by two distinct classes of proteins; the β-pleated homotrimeric and the all-α homodimeric dUTPases. Representatives of both trimeric and dimeric dUTPases are encoded by Staphylococcus aureus phage genomes and have been shown to interact with the Stl repressor protein of S. aureus pathogenicity island SaPIbov1. In the present work we set out to characterize the interactions between these proteins based on a range of biochemical and biophysical methods and shed light on the binding mechanism of the dimeric φNM1 phage dUTPase and Stl. Using hydrogen deuterium exchange mass spectrometry, we also characterize the protein regions involved in the dUTPase:Stl interactions. Based on these results we provide reasonable explanation for the enzyme inhibitory effect of Stl observed in both types of complexes. Our experiments reveal that Stl employs different peptide segments and stoichiometry for the two different phage dUTPases which allows us to propose a functional plasticity of Stl. The malleable character of Stl serves as a basis for the inhibition of both dimeric and trimeric dUTPases.


Recent trends and advances in hydrogen/air Proton Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells (PEMFC) are incorporated into a dynamic control oriented model. This type of model is important for development of control systems for PEMFC powered transportation where unpredictable and widely varying changes in power demand can be expected. Self humidification and low pressure operation are the two major changes to past systems. As a result, a high pressure air compressor, air cooler, and inlet gas humidifiers are no longer required. Also, the likelihood of cathode flooding is reduced. The overall fuel cell model consists of four basic sub-models: anode, cathode, fuel cell body, and cooling. Additionally, the oxidant supply blower, cooling pump, and cooling fan are explicitly incorporated. Mass and energy conservation are applied to each using a lumped parameter control volume approach. Empirical modeling is minimized as much as possible, however it is necessary for model manageability in a control context. Interactions between each subsystem and balance of plant components are clearly defined. The overall model is capable of capturing the transient behavior of the flows, pressures, and temperatures as well as net output power. The influence of the charge double layer effect on transient performance is also explored. Numerical simulations of the system are presented which illustrate the usefulness of the model. Finally, future control work is described.Copyright © 2006 by ASME


In this study, a methodology for optimal sizing of waste heat recovery (WHR) systems is presented. It deals with dynamic engine conditions. This study focuses on Euro-VI truck applications with a mechanically coupled Organic Rankine Cycle-based WHR system. An alternating optimization architecture is developed for optimal system sizing and control of the WHR system. The sizing problem is formulated as a fuel consumption and system cost optimization problem using a newly developed, scalable WHR system model. Constraints related to safe WHR operation and system mass are included in this methodology. The components scaled in this study are the expander and the EGR and exhaust gas evaporators. The WHR system size is optimized over a hot World Harmonized Transient Cycle (WHTC), which consists of urban, rural and highway driving conditions. The optimal component sizes are found to vary for these different driving conditions. By implementing a switching model predictive control (MPC) strategy on the optimally sized WHR system, its performance is validated. The net fuel consumption is found to be reduced by 1.1% as compared to the originally sized WHR system over the total WHTC.


Background: Axillary LNR (Lymph Node Ratio) is increasingly been contended as an important prognostic factor in breast cancer with varying results. The purpose of this study was to evaluate LNR with respect to both local recurrences and deaths.
Objective: To examine the value of the Lymph Node Ratio (LNR) in predicting local recurrence and death in breast cancer patients with lymph nodal involvement.
Methods: This is a retrospective study on 150 patients treated for node-positive breast cancer in the University health board between 2013 and 2014. The LNR was defined as the number of positive Lymph Nodes (LNs) over the total number of LNs removed. The LNR-risk groups were defined as low-risk, 0.01-0.2; intermediate-risk, 0.21-0.65 and high- risk LNR>0.65.
Results: The mean follow-up time was 3.6 y and mean age of diagnosis was 57 y. Moderate- and highrisk LNR was significantly associated with pN2 and pN3 classification, pT3 classification and grade 2 tumours compared to low-risk LNR. There were a total of 9 (6%) breast cancer local recurrences and 17 (11.3%) breast cancer deaths; grouped together as 26 (17.3%) 'Incidents' (recurrences/deaths). We found no significant difference between the incident rate and LNR group, pT classification, pN classification or age.
Conclusion: Higher LNR-risk groups were associated with higher pN and pT classification; however LNR was not a good indicator of breast cancer recurrence and death.


Android privacy control is an important but difficult problem to solve. Previously, there was much research effort either focusing on extending the Android permission model with better policies or modifying the Android framework for fine-grained access control. In this work, we take an integral approach by designing and implementing SweetDroid, a calling-context-sensitive privacy policy enforcement framework. SweetDroid combines automated policy generation with automated policy enforcement. The automatically generated policies in SweetDroid are based on the calling contexts of privacy sensitive APIs; hence, SweetDroid is able to tell whether a particular API (e.g., getLastKnownLocation) under a certain execution path is leaking private information. The policy enforcement in SweetDroid is also fine-grained - it is at the individual API level, not at the permission level. We implement and evaluate the system based on thousands of Android apps, including those from a third-party market and malicious apps from VirusTotal. Our experiment results show that SweetDroid can successfully distinguish and enforce different privacy policies based on calling contexts, and the current design is both developer hassle-free and user transparent. SweetDroid is also efficient because it only introduces small storage and computational overhead.


Abstract The aim of the paper is to discuss the links between modern livestock production, including its techniques and concentration, with animal welfare requirements. Modern livestock production is related to modern facilities, precise livestock production, as well as intensive and high stocking density. At the same time, it requires providing the animals with minimal living conditions, i.e. the welfare set out in the relevant regulations. This in turn should guarantee a good quality of raw livestock materials and products.


The article is devoted to the study of the effect of silicone as an adjuvant on the development of autoimmune complications of mammoplasty and the development of autoimmune syndrome induced by adjuvants "ASIA". This controlled cohort prospective non-randomized research is based on analysis of clinical observations of 121 patients undergoing plastic surgery on the mammary glands for aesthetic purposes, as well for reconstructive and oncological indications, both with and without silicone implants. To obtain preliminary results and evaluate the study, 27 blood serum samples were randomly selected, in which the dynamics of prolactin levels and autoantibody profiles towards 7 common autoantigens were studied before and after 3 and 6 months post-surgery. It was found that 5 out of 27 patients after mammoplasty showed an increase in 2 types of autoantibodies (against modified citrullinated vimentin and annexin V). Patient in need for mammoplasty have increased serum levels of prolactin at the day of operation. After surgery on the mammary gland, the level of prolactin decreases to normal range within 3 months, even if it was significantly higher than normal before surgery. Both of these facts require additional research and analysis on a wider cohorts of patients.


Selective photoreduction, using the semiconductor TiO2 under UV irradiation, has been investigated as a possible recovery and/or separation method for the PGM's rhodium, palladium and platinum. The effect qf pH value and concentration of the sacrificial reducing agent (ethanol) on the rate of reducion of Rh(Ill), Pd(ll) and Pt(IV) ions have been determined separately for these ions as well as for some mixtures. Conditions favourable for the reduction and adsorption (or precipitation) on TiO2 have been established. It has been found that already deposited Pt or Pd metal promotes reduction of Rh(IlI) ions at a pH value where it would not otherwise be reduced. A method for the separation of a mixture comprising Rh(IlI), Pd(II) and Pt (IV), based on photoreduction and adsorption on the TiO2, is proposed.


Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) plants subjected to water deficit, sodium chloride (NaCl), or abscisic acid treatments were shown to exhibit a significant increase in the amount of leaf cuticular lipids. These stress treatments led to increases in cuticular wax amount per unit area of 32% to 80%, due primarily to 29% to 98% increases in wax alkanes. Of these treatments, only water deficit increased the total cutin monomer amount (by 65%), whereas both water deficit and NaCl altered the proportional amounts of cutin monomers. Abscisic acid had little effect on cutin composition. Water deficit, but not NaCl, increased leaf cuticle thickness (by 49%). Electron micrographs revealed that both water-deprived and NaCl-treated plants had elevated osmium accumulation in their cuticles. The abundance of cuticle-associated gene transcripts in leaves was altered by all treatments, including those performed in both pot-grown and in vitro conditions. Notably, the abundance of the ECERIFERUM1 gene transcript, predicted to function in alkane synthesis, was highly induced by all treatments, results consistent with the elevated alkane amounts observed in all treatments. Further, this induction of cuticle lipids was associated with reduced cuticle permeability and may be important for plant acclimation to subsequent water-limited conditions. Taken together, these results show that Arabidopsis provides an excellent model system to study the role of the cuticle in plant response to drought and related stresses, and its associated genetic and cellular regulation.


Objective: Small-cell lung carcinoma (SCLC) and limbic encephalitis are recognized γ-aminobutyric acid-B receptor (GABABR) autoantibody accompaniments. We sought to determine in a diagnostic serology laboratory the frequency and accompaniments (neurologic, oncologic, and serologic) of GABABR–immunoglobulin G (IgG). Methods: We tested stored serum and CSF specimens from 3 patient groups for GABABR-IgG by indirect immunofluorescence on mouse brain tissue and transfected HEK293 cells. Group 1 included 3,989 patients tested for GABABR-IgG in service evaluation for suspected autoimmune encephalopathy. Group 2 included 49 patients with an unclassified CNS synaptic IgG detected (antedating descriptions of GABABR autoantibody). Group 3 included 384 patients in whom ≥1 SCLC-predictive autoantibodies had been detected. Results: GABABR-specific IgG was detected in 17 patients (serum, 14; CSF, 11). N-type calcium channel antibody coexisted with GABABR-IgG in all seropositive patients of groups 1 and 2. In group 1, 7 of 3,989 patients were positive (0.2%). All had limbic encephalitis; 5 had SCLC. Four patients received immunotherapy and improved neurologically. In group 2, 5 of 49 patients were positive (10%). Three had limbic encephalitis, 1 had rapidly progressive encephalomyelopathy, and 1 had cerebellar ataxia. Two patients had SCLC and 1 had multiple myeloma. In group 3, 5 of 384 patients were positive (1.3%); titers were low (detected only by transfected cell assay). The neurologic presentations were diverse and attributable to coexisting T-cell-mediated autoimmunity (indicated by CRMP-5 IgG [2], ANNA-1 [2], and ANNA-3 [2]), rather than to GABABR-IgG. Conclusion: GABABR autoantibody is a marker of an uncommon but treatable paraneoplastic neurologic disorder, usually occurring in the setting of limbic encephalitis and SCLC.


This research is a case study analysis of the 2008 national elections in Zimbabwe. The elections are considered crucial in the history of the country because long-time President Robert Mugabe suffered an unprecedented defeat at the hands of opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai in the first of the two rounds of voting. This study presupposes the view that as digital technologies become more accessible and affordable, more people are able to easily coordinate, organise and advance their interests. It aims to critically examine the overall role played by the Internet in propelling democratic reforms in Zimbabwe, specifically focusing on its role during the 2008 elections. The major question in the research pertains to the assumed use of new media technologies by Zimbabwean exiles to channel pro-opposition information into the country, effectively leading to President Mugabe's losing .


Abstract Many parts of the world are currently suffering water shortages. Few areas, however, have as little precipitation and groundwater available to alleviate the problem as does the northern coast of Chile. The historical background of the attempts to collect water directly from the coastal stratocumulus decks is reviewed in this paper as are the meteorological and geographical considerations important to the collection of the cloud water. Calculations of water availability and cost indicate that this may well be an important source of water for some coastal regions. A combined research and applied project to study the properties of high-elevation fogs and their use as a water supply will be conducted by Chilean and Canadian agencies from late 1987 to the end of 1988.


This study in order to evaluate the effect of using Compost leachate on the density of soil iron in form of a statistical pattern called ''Split Plot'' by using two main treatments, one subsidiary treatment and three repetitions of the pattern in a three month period. The main N treatments include: irrigation using well water as a blank treatments and the main I treatments include: irrigation using leachate and well water concurrently. Some subsidiary treatments were DI (Drop Irrigation) and SDI (Sub Drop Irrigation). Then in the established plots, 36 biannual pine and cypress shrubs were randomly grown. Two months later the treatment begins. The results revealed that there was a significant variation between the main treatment and the instance regarding pH decline in the soil which was related to the amount of leachate injected into the soil. After some time and using leachate the pH level fell, as much as 0.46 and also increased due to the great amounts of leachate. The underneath drop irrigation ends in better results than sub drop irrigation since it keeps the soil texture fixed.


Unlike humans, who are capable of continual learning over their lifetimes, artificial neural networks have long been known to suffer from a phenomenon known as catastrophic forgetting, whereby new learning can lead to abrupt erasure of previously acquired knowledge. Whereas in a neural network the parameters are typically modelled as scalar values, an individual synapse in the brain comprises a complex network of interacting biochemical components that evolve at different timescales. In this paper, we show that by equipping tabular and deep reinforcement learning agents with a synaptic model that incorporates this biological complexity (Benna & Fusi, 2016), catastrophic forgetting can be mitigated at multiple timescales. In particular, we find that as well as enabling continual learning across sequential training of two simple tasks, it can also be used to overcome within-task forgetting by reducing the need for an experience replay database.


Finding security vulnerabilities in the source code as early as possible is becoming more and more essential. In this respect, vulnerability prediction models have the potential to help the security assurance activities by identifying code locations that deserve the most attention. In this paper, we investigate whether prediction models behave like milk (i.e., they turn with time) or wine (i.e., the improve with time) when used to predict future vulnerabilities. Our findings indicate that the recall values are largely in favor of predictors based on older versions. However, the better recall comes at the price of much higher file inspection ratio values.


ABSTRACT A study was conducted to identify, describe, and analyze the visual displays accompanying *nstruct'sonal texts in basal reading series. Specifically, the study reviewed 1,884 displays from the student textbooks, major workbooks, and teachers' editions of six series used from grades four through eight to answer (1) descriptive questions about the location, original data source, specific knowledge domains, types, and formats of the displays; and (2) instructional questions about the purposes for completing a visual display task, the number and types of questions about displays given to students, whether instruction was provided along with the displays, whether characteristics of displays were taught, and whether enrichment activities were offered. The results suggest that while visual displays can be used to enhance higher order comprehension tasks, they most often do not in basal texts. Visual displays were wore likely to be used for drill and practice or with specialized skills sections in students' workbooks. There was a paucity of higher level questions that required students to interpret and evaluate displays. (FL)


The ability to manipulate light in subwavelength photonic and plasmonic structures has shown great potentials in revolutionizing how information is generated, transformed and processed. Chemically synthesized nanowires, in particular, offers a unique toolbox not only for highly compact and integrated photonic modules and devices, including coherent and incoherent light sources, waveguides, photodetectors and photovoltaics, but also for new types of nanoscopic bio-probes for spot cargo delivery and in-situ single cell endoscopy and sensing. Such nanowire probes would enable us to carry out intracellular imaging and probing with high spatial resolution, monitor in-vivo biological processes within single living cells and greatly improve our fundamental understanding of cell functions, intracellular physiological processes, and cellular signal pathways. My work is aimed at developing a material and instrumental platform for such single nanowire probe. Successful optical integration of Ag nanowire plasmonic waveguides, which offers deep subwavelength mode confinement, and conventional photonic waveguides was demonstrated on a single nanowire level. The highest plasmonic-photonic coupling efficiency coupling was found at small coupling angles and low input frequencies. The frequency dependent propagation loss was observed in Ag nanowire and was confirmed by quantitative measurement and in agreement with theoretical expectations. Rational integration of dielectric and Ag nanowire waveguide components into hybrid optical-plasmonic routing devices has been demonstrated. This capability is essential for incorporating sub-100nm Ag nanowire waveguides into optical fiber based nanoprobes for single cell endoscopy. The nanoprobe system based on single nanowire waveguides was demonstrated by optically coupling semiconductor or metal nanowire with an optical fiber with tapered tip. This nanoprobe design requires minimal instrumentation which makes it cost efficient and readily adaptable to average bio-lab environment. These probes are mechanically robust and flexible and can withstand repeated bending and deformation without significant deterioration in optical performance, which offers an ideal instrumental platform for out subsequent effort of using these nanoprobes in chemical sensing as well as single cell endoscopy and spot delivery. Parameters affecting the coupling efficiency and output power of the nanoprobe were studied and chemical etched of single mode fiber with small cone angle was established to be optimized for highly effective optical nanoprobes. The versatility of the nanoprobe design was first tested by transforming the nanowire probe into a pH sensor with near-field photopolymerization of a copolymer containing pH sensitive dye on the tip of the nanowire. The pH-sensitive nanoprobe was able to report the pH difference in micro-droplets containing buffer solution with the excitation of light waveguided on the nanoprobe with internal calibration, fast response time and good photostability and reversibility. Such nanoprobe sensors are ideal for high definition spatial and temporal sensing of concentration profile, especially for the kinetic processes in single cell studies for which chemical probes of minute sizes and fast response are desired. The nanoprobe was then applied into spot cargo delivery and in-situ single cell endoscopy. It was demonstrated that nanowire-based optical probe can deliver payloads into the cell with a high spatiotemporal precision, guide and confine visible light into intracellular compartments selectively and detect optical signals from the subcellular regions with high spatial resolution. The nanoprobe was proven to be biocompatible and non-invasive. The effective optical coupling between the fiber optics and the nanowire enables highly localized excitation and detection, limiting the probe volume to the close proximity of the nanowire. None the less, this versatile technique does not rely on any expensive or bulky instrumentation, and relies only on micromanipulator and optical microscope that are readily available in most biological labs. The different functions can be further integrated to make the whole nanoprobe system more compact and even portable. In addition, my research also includes the first demonstration of the synthesis of the longitudinal heterostructured SiO2/Al2O3 nanotubes and the nanofluidic diode device based on the discontinuity of their internal surface charge. Comprehensive characterization shows that the nanotubes has heterostructured inner tube walls, as well as a discontinuity of surface charge. The ionic transport through these nanotube heterojunctions exhibits clear current rectification, a signature of ionic diode behavior. The development of such nanofluidic devices would enable the modulation of ionic and molecular transport at a more sophisticated level, and lead to large-scale integrated nanofluidic networks and logic circuits.


This research was conducted to identify tourists' perception on the safety and security of Davao City as evaluated in terms of the peace and order, crime rate, and tourists' level of perception on the safety and security of Davao City. One hundred respondents were chosen and the results were carefully analysed and computed using mean, standard deviation, frequency, percentage distribution, and t-test. The result showed that there is a significant relationship on tourist level of perception on the safety and security of Davao City in terms of peace and order, crime rate. However, there is no significant difference on the tourist level of perception when grouped according to sex and type of tourist. Thus, a conclusion has been drawn that the local government of Davao City shall continue maintaining the safety and security of the place to have a continuous good perception by the tourist.


An experimental, finite-element analysis framework is utilized to estimate the deformation state in a modified version of the picture frame test. During the analysis, the effect of fiber misalignment and the deformation heterogeneity in the tested fabric, a 2 × 2 PP/E-Glass twill, is accounted for and a force prediction model is presented. Using an equivalent stress–strain normalization scheme, the comparison of the modified test with the conventional (original) picture frame and bias-extension tests is also made, and results reveal similarities and differences that should receive attention in the identification of constitutive models of woven fabrics using these basic tests. Ideally, the trellising behavior should not change from one test to another but results show that in the presence of fiber misalignment, the modified picture frame test yields a behavior closer to that of the bias-extension test, while the general form of the test's repeatability, measured by a signal-to-noise metric, remains similar to the original picture frame test. POLYM. COMPOS., 2010. © 2009 Society of Plastics Engineers