Reason(s) for writing and research problem(s) : The paper examines processes leading to police participation in ethnic violence. This is often taken for granted and under-explored in criminological literature which assumes that police, as part of the state monopoly of violence, are inevitable partners in ethnic violence. The paper also contributes to a growing body of work using the rich resources provided by the ICTY and other courts dealing with atrocity crime (Buss 2014; Becirevic 2014; Komar 2008; Mullins 2009). The methodological implications of using these sources are rarely discussed. This paper addresses that gap. Aims of the paper (scientific and/or social): The scientific aims of the paper are firstly to offer a robust description of police violence in the Bosnian Krajina during the early stages of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. This provides a foundation for building an explanatory framework, exploring an untested assumption in criminological work. The paper also seeks to add to the written history of the war in Bosnia, contributing to the understanding of the origins of the conflict and the way it took place. Methodology/Design: The paper adopts a qualitative research design based on a purposive sample of two cases heard at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (Prosecutor v Brđanin, Prosecutor v Stanisic and Župljanin). Over 50,000 pages of court transcripts and 3,000 pieces of evidence were subjected to a coding process using computer aided qualitative data analysis software (NVivo). Research/paper limitations: The paper is limited to a study of one narrow region, the Bosnian Krajina, and one authority, the emerging Serb Republic. Further comparative work is required to establish variation and common features across regions and authorities within Bosnia and Herzegovina and across other Yugoslav republics experiencing violence in the 1990s and 2000s. The paper adopts a top down approach and so does not focus on individual motivation of the front line police engaged in atrocities. Results/Findings: The paper establishes that the police in the Krajina region were politicised, deprofessionalised and militarised and played a central role in ethnic violence and ethnic cleansing. This process is rooted in various legacy features of BiH as a republic of Yugoslavia (local defence structures, relationship between police and military, ethnically based allocation of key positions for parity) combined with specific dimensions of democratisation (ethnically based political parties, power sharing agreements). General conclusion: By identifying the particular historical conditions behind the participation of Serb police in the Bosnian Krajina in ethnically targeted violence, the paper finds that the criminological assumption that this is inevitable leaves important local contextual factors unexamined. Research/paper validity: The conclusions concur with and expand upon existing criminological work.


Rationale: Lymphatic vasculature constitutes a second vascular system essential for immune surveillance and tissue fluid homeostasis. Maturation of the hierarchical vascular structure, with a highly branched network of capillaries and ducts, is crucial for its function. Environmental cues mediate the remodeling process, but the mechanism that underlies this process is largely unknown. Objective: Polydom (also called Svep1) is an extracellular matrix protein identified as a high-affinity ligand for integrin &agr;9&bgr;1. However, its physiological function is unclear. Here, we investigated the role of Polydom in lymphatic development. Methods and Results: We generated Polydom-deficient mice. Polydom−/− mice showed severe edema and died immediately after birth because of respiratory failure. We found that although a primitive lymphatic plexus was formed, it failed to undergo remodeling in Polydom−/− embryos, including sprouting of new capillaries and formation of collecting lymphatic vessels. Impaired lymphatic development was also observed after knockdown/knockout of polydom in zebrafish. Polydom was deposited around lymphatic vessels, but secreted from surrounding mesenchymal cells. Expression of Foxc2 (forkhead box protein c2), a transcription factor involved in lymphatic remodeling, was decreased in Polydom−/− mice. Polydom bound to the lymphangiogenic factor Ang-2 (angiopoietin-2), which was found to upregulate Foxc2 expression in cultured lymphatic endothelial cells. Expressions of Tie1/Tie2 receptors for angiopoietins were also decreased in Polydom−/− mice. Conclusions: Polydom affects remodeling of lymphatic vessels in both mouse and zebrafish. Polydom deposited around lymphatic vessels seems to ensure Foxc2 upregulation in lymphatic endothelial cells, possibly via the Ang-2 and Tie1/Tie2 receptor system.


Stabilization is still a somewhat controversial issue concerning its very existence and also the precise conditions for its occurrence. The key quantity to settle these questions is the ionization probability, for which hitherto no computational method exists which is entirely agreed upon. It is therefore very useful to provide various consistency criteria which have to be satisfied by this quantity, whose discussion is the main objective of this contribution. We show how the scaling behavior of the space leads to a symmetry in the ionization probability, which can be exploited in the mentioned sense. Furthermore, we discuss how upper and lower bounds may be used for the same purpose. Rather than concentrating on particular analytical expressions we obtained elsewhere for these bounds, we focus in our discussion on the general principles of this method. We illustrate the precise working of this procedure, its advantages, shortcomings and range of applicability. We show that besides constraining possible values for the ionization probability these bounds, like the scaling behavior, also lead to definite statements concerning the physical outcome. The pulse shape properties which have to be satisfied for the existence of asymptotical stabilization is the vanishing of the total classical momentum transfer and the total classical displacement and not smoothly switched on and off pulses. Alternatively we support our results by general considerations in the Gordon-Volkov perturbation theory and explicit studies of various pulse shapes and potentials including in particular the Coulomb- and the delta potential.


This thesis puts forward a sociocultural approach to the learning of visual practices for designers and suggests communication tools to help educators and students to engage with practice. It is concerned with the question of how designers' visual practices are developed and fostered. From prior research in this area it was assumed that designers learn through a linguistic visual literacy approach or, at best, through a critique-based process. However, this study found that learning happens through social interactions and dialogues, which enables reflection on visual practices, informing future visual inquiry. It was found, through the provision of communication tools that externalise visual practices, that students develop into active learners, who can take greater control over their learning. Therefore, the presentation of a sociocultural approach explicitly develops knowledge of visual development, but also offers a more effective learning theory upon which to ground visual pedagogy in design. The study employed a qualitative approach and a strategy of design-based research to externalise the underlying attributes and processes of developing and fostering visual practices through the designing, and testing, of teaching-learning artefacts. This strategy led to the employment of two research phases: design experiments with design students and user testing with design educators. A review of the literature relating to a sociocultural approach led to a design framework (a sociocultural approach, shared understanding, reflective articulation, and critical questioning of visual practices) that informed both the designing and testing during both phases of the research. The design framework was adopted to analyse and code the data gained in two stages: descriptive and pattern coding. Through the discourse of the identified patterns, theoretical descriptions of developmental learning attributes and processes of fostering designers' visual practices were formed. These descriptions were then interpreted and contextualised in design education, to present a sociocultural approach and characteristics (a shared understanding of, constructive reflection on, and critical evaluation of, visual practices), in the process outlining theoretical and practical knowledge of developing and fostering designers' visual practices. Through the presentation of this knowledge, this study outlines opportunities to develop new directions in design education; moving from a critique-based process guided by design educators fostering individual development, to a general dialogue facilitated in collaboration with the learning community.


DIAS, A. A. L. Psychosocial experiences of patients who completed the Treatment of Tuberculosis in the country of the state of São Paulo: A clinical-qualitative study. 2011. 94 f. Dissertation (Master's degree) – Nursing Post gradutation Program of the Federal Universit of São Carlos – SP, 2011. Tuberculosis (TB) is a curable disease, however, is still a stigmatized disease. People with TB suffer from the disease, not only by clinical manifestations, but also with prejudice, embarrassing situations and even a self-discrimination that contribute to social isolation. This study aimed to analyze the psychosocial experiences of patients who were treated for TB in São Carlos SP. A clinical-qualitative methodology was used as it seeks the meanings assigned by subject. 15 people who had completed TB treatment were studied as participants, the definition of the sample is given by the criteria of saturation. A data collection method, semi-directed interviews recorded on digital media were and were later transcribed and analyzed. Data analysis was based on the method of thematic content analysis as proposed by Bardin. Two thematic units were determined: Obstacles to cure TB and Psychosocial Experiences from the treatment. In the first thematic unit sub-categories that were listed: difficulties in diagnosis and supervised treatment. In the second thematic unity sub-categories that were listed: suffering in the face of disease, the impact on family and social context, the support of the health service and its effects after treatment. There is the thematic unity "obstacles to cure TB" that patients have difficulties in identifying the disease and health services sojourn until this diagnosis, patients suffer from adverse drug reactions; supervised treatment was identified as a facilitator for the completion of treatment, because they feel taken care of by the team and also as an obstacle to change the daily routine due to frequent displacement of health facilities. In the unit "Living resulting psychosocial treatment" found that the disease still causes distress to patients for fear of transmission, they are also victims of prejudice and fear of death. Suffering is also caused by stigmatizing, prejudicial actions in society. Family and health team offer support to patients and were essential to the completion of treatment. However, friends and colleagues keep away from them because of the fear of contagion and / or prejudice. The lack of knowledge about the disease and its mode of transmission are present in the statements of interviewees, which can still reproduce the stigma of the disease. The absence from work during treatment may be due to health conditions and also to minimize the constraints. It is concluded that health professionals should be aware of the repercussions that the treatment of TB leads the patient to minimize the obstacles that the disease causes in the patient's life. For this to happen the professional should allow sharing moments of anguish, suffering, psychosocial and biological changes so that the treatment is completed with fewer obstacles.


This paper considers the problem of communicating correlated information from multiple source nodes over a network of noiseless channels to multiple destination nodes, where each destination node wants to recover all sources. The problem involves a joint consideration of distributed compression and network information relaying. Although the optimal rate region has been theoretically characterized, it was not clear how to design practical communication schemes with low complexity. This work provides a partial solution to this problem by proposing a low-complexity scheme for the special case with two sources whose correlation is characterized by a binary symmetric channel. Our scheme is based on a careful combination of linear syndrome-based Slepian-Wolf coding and random linear mixing (network coding). It is in general suboptimal; however, its low complexity and robustness to network dynamics make it suitable for practical implementation.


Despite possessing a rather generalised postcranial skeleton, rodents are on average capable of a wide variety of locomotory behaviours, such as swimming, digging and climbing (Nowak, 1999). Particularly, rodents belonging to Ctenohystrica (sensu Huchon et al., 2002, and Fabre et al., 2012: Ctenodactylidae, Diatomyidae and Hystricognathi) display a diversity of locomotory styles and encompass a large range in body mass from approximately 50 g for the naked mole-rat Heterocephalus glaber to around 60 kg for the largest living rodent, the capybara Hydrochoerus hydrochaeris, consequently filling many different ecological niches (e.g. MacDonald, 2009; Wilson and Sanchez-Villagra, 2009, 2010). Moreover, this diversity is greatly expanded by the inclusion of giant extinct members such as Phoberomys, Arazamys and Josephoartigasia that reached body masses at least seven or eight times that of the capybara (Sanchez-Villagra et al., 2003; Rinderknecht and Blanco, 2008; Rinderknecht and Bostelmann, 2011). The adaptive diversity that characterises the evolution of Ctenohystrica, and particularly the Caviomorpha, a group that dispersed from Africa to colonise South America (Poux et al., 2006; Rowe et al., 2010) and evolved on that continent during a period of splendid isolation in the Cenozoic, has been the subject of numerous morpho-functional and evolutionary studies (e.g. Verzi et al., 2010; Wilson et al., 2010; Alvarez et al., 2011a, b; Hautier et al., 2011, 2012; Cox et al., 2012; Geiger et al., 2013; Wilson, 2013).
The interplay between form and function has been studied in the postcranial skeleton of a number of mammals (e.g. Kappelman, 19; Anemone, 1990;White, 1993; Vizcaino and Milne, 2002; Kley and Kearney, 2007; Meachen-Samuels, 2010), and studies of Ctenohystrica have, for example, examined individual bones (e.g. Seckel and Janis, 2008; Morgan, 2009; Steiner-Souza et al., 2010; Elissamburu and De Santis, 2011), long bones (Biknevicius, 1993; Elissamburu and Vizcaino, 2004; Samuels and Van Valkenburgh, 2008; Morgan and Alvarez, 2013) and the autopodial skeleton (e.g. Weisbecker and Schmid, 2007; Morgan and Verzi, 2011). These studies have used morphological traits, described as ratios or quantified using biomechanical indices or geometric morphometric descriptors of shape, to identify functional specialisations and instances of adaptive convergence underpinned by shared function and/or ecology.


The Ahiara Declaration was a speech made by Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu, the head of state of the secessionist Republic of Biafra, on June 1, 1969, in the town of Ahiara. It was issued in the final year of the war between Nigeria and Biafra, also known as the Nigerian Civil War. The Eastern Region of Nigeria seceded from Nigeria as the Republic of Biafra in May 1967 following a series of mass killings of easterners, especially members of the Igbo ethnic group, in northern Nigeria the previous year. In his address, Ojukwu gave a partisan account of the war and the events leading up to it, rallied Biafrans to continue the fight, and set out a political philosophy that would guide Biafra from that point on. It was written by a committee of Biafran intellectuals, most notably the novelist and poet Chinua Achebe. The declaration had multiple meanings: it was both ideology and propaganda, and it served both proscriptive and descriptive purposes. Its influences included the broader intellectual currents of black internationalism, a novel theory of radical anticolonialism, and the idea of "African Socialism"—a communitarian philosophy that emerged in distinction to socialist thought in other regions of the world. The Ahiara Declaration was not meaningfully implemented, both due to limited resources and to the fact that Biafra was defeated six months later. Nonetheless, the declaration is an important source for Nigeria's history, and for the broader study of political philosophy in postcolonial Africa.


The structures and optical response of helical clusters ("Bernal spirals") with compositions Ag12Cu1(+) and Ag1Cu12(+) are calculated within Kohn-Sham density functional theory and the configuration interaction singles variant of time dependent density functional theory. The effects of dopant position within the cluster on the vertical excitation spectrum are investigated according to the underlying electronic structure of the major transitions. The roles of symmetry and geometry are investigated by calculating the optical response of helical, icosahedral and nanorod-like clusters of Ag13(+), finding local structure to be significant in driving the resultant optical response at the subnanometre scale. Further, it is noted that helical clusters have optical properties which are quite distinct from those of nanorods of similar dimensions. The effect of multiple doping is studied by introducing copper atoms into the centre of the silver helix, over the composition range Ag13(+) to Ag6Cu7(+). There is a complex variation of the major plasmon-like peak over this range, attributed to subtle variations in the influence of the copper 3d band on the excitations and charge transfer for different sites within the cluster. This work suggests that coinage metal nanohelices have unusual, tunable electronic properties, which in addition to their inherent chirality makes them interesting systems to study for chiral catalysis and optoelectronics.


The need to track inventory and material transfers in processing plants is almost universal. That is part of the reason we were asked to participate in this conference. Because, most of our experience is in industries other than citrus processing. We agreed to write this paper expecting that the experience of other processing industries could be useful. Someone called this a cross pollination experiment.A common denominator in industry, indeed life, is money. We may confuse each other with terms such as Brix, degrees API, yield, etc., but dollars we understand. The need to know how many pounds of juice produced and stored is analogous to measuring the gallons of gasoline produced and stored. In both cases we ultimately need to know the value of product produced per dollar of raw materials consumed and the value of the current product inventory.We will review the need for flow and inventory measurements, the current citrus industry practices and potential opportunities for improved measurements by using currently available proven technology.Paper published with permission.Compilation Copyright © 2018 ASME


A hybrid magnet needs a large amount of liquid helium for operation. In order to make an easy-to-operate hybrid magnet system, we constructed a cryocooled 28 T hybrid magnet, consisting of an outer cryocooled 10 T superconducting magnet and an inner traditional water-cooled 19 T resistive magnet. As a performance test, the cryocooled hybrid magnet generated 27.5 T in a 32 mm room temperature experimental bore. As long as Nb3Sn superconducting wires are employed, the expected maximum high field generation in the cryocooled superconducting magnet will be 17 T at 5 K. We adopted the high temperature superconducting insert coil, employing Ag-sheathed Bi2Sr2Ca2Cu3O10superconducting tape. In combination with the low temperature 16.5 T back-up coil with a 174 mm cold bore, the cryocooled high temperature superconducting magnet successfully generated the total central field of 18.1 T in a 52 mm room temperature bore. As a next step, we start the collaboration with the National Institute for Materials Science for the new developmental works of a 30 T high temperature superconducting magnet and a 50 T-class hybrid magnet.


In the DS-CDMA (direct-sequence code-division multiple-access) cellular system, a call admission control (CAC) mechanism is needed to determine whether a new arrival user shall be accepted while the transmission quality of existing users can be guaranteed Furthermore, a handoff call shall have a higher priority than a new arriving call. Most of existing CAC mechanisms in the literature reserve a certain number of channels for handoff calls statistically. In this paper, the number of reserved channel should be adaptive to arrival rates of new calls and handoff calls, moving speed of user, call holding time, as well as the system capacity is shown. Therefore, in this paper, a CAC mechanism with adaptive channel reservation for handoff calls based on the Markov decision processes (MDP) is proposed. Simulation results show that the proposed scheme achieves better grade of service (GOS) of the system under various configurations.


Abstract
 Two new diatom species of the genus Aneumastus are described, A. laosica sp. nov. and A. genkalii sp. nov., based on light and scanning electron microscope observations. These species were found in Laos, and this is first finding of this genus from Southeast Asia. Almost all species from this genus were described and exist in Holarctic. Many species have restricted distributions and are known from fossil deposits, North America, Mongolia or local endemics of ancient lakes such as Baikal, Prespa and Ohrid. Diversity of Aneumastus species from these ancient lakes is higher than from waterbodies of the Holarctic region taken together. A few reports of this genus are from the southern Hemisphere (e.g. New Caledonia, Australia, Lake Tanganyika in Africa), but these taxon records are represented by a single valve only from every region and they require additional taxonomical investigation and verification to understand the full extent of the distribution of the genus.


This research is framed in the field of laboratories citizens, especially those who are driven by private institutions of higher education. The variables are going to study the interaction of participants of laboratories, the use of technology and how to participate in a working group when different disciplines are integrated. The main objective is to analyze how the collaborative knowledge construction is achieved when you have a common problem or social impact. Since the mixed paradigm is to enrich the information to be retrieved and analyzed to answer the research question. The instruments are designed questionnaires, in-depth interviews, non-participant observation and analysis of the productions of the participants. This project seeks to find information to know in depth the mechanisms of collaborative knowledge construction. Such construction will be used as input for participants to be active in the ways of responding to societal challenges.


In unanaestheized cats the vooked potentials to various tones and clicks er simultaneosly recorded at 7 auditory and 1-2 somatosensory cortical points. The comparions of the evoked potentials to pure tones of equal lodness ranging from 250 to 7000 Hz showed no common cortical tonotpic distribuion. However there is an individual dependence of the potential components on the soung pitch and location of the recording point in the auditory cortex. The knonwn evoked poteintial dependence on sound intensity was confirmed and more developed regularity of this relation was revelead. With a change in sound intensity the absoulte and relative mangnitude alterations in all the potential components were observed...


The effects of somatostatin on the release of tritiated dopamine (DA) formed continuously from tritiated tyrosine were studied in vitro in superfused striatal slices and in vivo in both caudate nuclei and both substantiae nigrae of halothane-anesthetized cats using a push-pull cannula technique. Somatostatin (3 X 10(-10) to 3 X 10(-7) M) increased the spontaneous tritiated dopamine release from rat striatal slices. This effect was dose dependent and was completely prevented by tetrodotoxin (5 X 10(-7) M). When applied for 30 min in one cat caudate nucleus, somatostatin (10(-7) M) immediately increased the local release of tritiated DA, while a gradual inhibition of the tritiated amine's efflux was observed in the contralateral caudate nucleus. No changes in tritiated dopamine were seen in either substantia nigra during or after the peptide's application in the caudate nucleus. These results suggest that somatostatin in the striatum may play a role in the local and the distal control of dopamine release from the terminals of dopaminergic nigrostriatal neurons.


The espins are actin-binding and -bundling proteins localized to parallel actin bundles. The 837-amino-acid "espin" of Sertoli cell-spermatid junctions (ectoplasmic specializations) and the 253-amino-acid "small espin" of brush border microvilli are splice isoforms that share a C-terminal 116-amino-acid actin-bundling module but contain different N termini. To investigate the roles of espin and its extended N terminus, we examined the actin-binding and -bundling properties of espin constructs and the stoichiometry and developmental accumulation of espin within the ectoplasmic specialization. An espin construct bound to F-actin with an approximately threefold higher affinity (K(d) = approximately 70 nM) than small espin and was approximately 2.5 times more efficient at forming bundles. The increased affinity appeared to be due to an additional actin-binding site in the N terminus of espin. This additional actin-binding site bound to F-actin with a K(d) of approximately 1 microM, decorated actin stress fiber-like structures in transfected cells, and was mapped to a peptide between the two proline-rich peptides in the N terminus of espin. Espin was detected at approximately 4-5 x 10(6) copies per ectoplasmic specialization, or approximately 1 espin per 20 actin monomers and accumulated there coincident with the formation of parallel actin bundles during spermiogenesis. These results suggest that espin is a major actin-bundling protein of the Sertoli cell-spermatid ectoplasmic specialization.


P‐glycoprotein (Pgp) is a small family of plasma membrane proteins, which are capable of transporting substrates across cell membranes. Class I and II Pgp are able to transport drugs and have been shown to mediate multidrug resistance (MDR). Class III Pgp is a long chain phospholipid transporter and does not mediate MDR. The regulation of all three Pgp genes is still poorly understood. For instance, it is not clear if the three Pgp genes are co‐regulated or differentially regulated by external stimuli. This study examined the effect of drugs and collagen sandwich system on expression and transcription of all the three Pgp genes in primary rat hepatocytes. Consistent with previous findings, dramatic overexpression (25‐fold) of Class II Pgp mRNA was seen, upon culturing of hepatocytes onto a single layered collagen gel. Hepatocytes sandwiched between two layers of collagen gel exhibited decreased (4.5‐fold) Class II Pgp mRNA expression as compared to the single layer system. Treatment of hepatocytes cultured on the single layer collagen system with cytoskeletal disrupting (cytochalasin D, colchicine) but not cytoskeletal stabilizing (phalloidin, taxol) drugs, suppressed Class II Pgp expression. In all cases, no change in Class II Pgp transcription was observed as demonstrated by nuclear run‐on studies. This suggests that collagen configuration and drugs affect Class II Pgp mRNA expression predominantly through post‐transcriptional mechanisms. In contrast, parallel increases in mRNA expression and transcription of Class I Pgp gene were observed upon culturing of hepatocytes, in the collagen sandwich system, and treatment with some drugs (cytochalasin D, colchicine, and phalloidin). This suggests that Class I Pgp gene is regulated primarily via transcriptional mechanisms by these stimuli. On the other hand, Class III Pgp gene appears to be post‐transcriptionally co‐regulated with Class II Pgp gene by treatment with the drugs, while collagen configuration affected both transcription and post‐transcription of Class III Pgp gene. Finally, dose‐dependent studies using cycloheximide provided further evidence that the two MDR‐associated genes are not co‐regulated. This study has implications for future studies on the molecular mechanisms of Pgp gene regulation. J. Cell. Biochem. 86: 12–20, 2002. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Sediment cores from the Polar North Atlantic provide evidence of six periods of sea-ice breakup during isotope stages 4, 3, and 2, probably caused by inflow of North Atlantic surface water into the Polar North Atlantic. These periods are characterized by having a high number of foraminifera/g; they last from 2000 to >10000 yr, and constitute ≈ 50% of the total time span. These periods of sea-ice breakup correlate temporarily to the Heinrich events and the early temperature maximum in the Bond cycles of the North Atlantic and Greenland ice record. Our hypothesis is that massive iceberg discharges that flooded the North Atlantic during each Heinrich event probably triggered an oceanographic regime that gave a much more vigorous surface circulation pattern in the Polar North Atlantic, which contributed to the breakup of the sea-ice cover. Open-water conditions in the Polar North Atlantic are inversely related to terrestrial interstadials of coastal Norway, suggesting ice-sheet starvation during the cold periods and ice-sheet growth when an open-water surface circulation existed in the Polar North Atlantic. Our data document synchronous variations on a October 1900 yr time scale between Arctic oceanic climate, Northern Hemisphere ice-sheet dynamics, and ocean-atmosphere temperature changes.


The analysis of nonstationary time series is of great importance in many scientific fields such as physics and neuroscience. In recent years, Gaussian process regression has attracted substantial attention as a robust and powerful method for analyzing time series. In this paper, we introduce a new framework for analyzing nonstationary time series using locally stationary Gaussian process analysis with parameters that are coupled through a hidden Markov model. The main advantage of this framework is that arbitrary complex nonstationary covariance functions can be obtained by combining simpler stationary building blocks whose hidden parameters can be estimated in closed-form. We demonstrate the flexibility of the method by analyzing two examples of synthetic nonstationary signals: oscillations with time varying frequency and time series with two dynamical states. Finally, we report an example application on real magnetoencephalographic measurements of brain activity.


Meju, a type of fermented soybean paste, is used as a starter in the preparation of various Korean traditional soybean-based foods. In this study, we performed Illumina-MiSeq paired-end sequencing for microbial communities and mass spectrometry analysis for metabolite profiling to investigate the differences between 11 traditional meju products from different regions across Korea. Even though the bacterial and fungal communities showed remarkable variety, major genera including Bacillus, Enterococcus, Variovorax, Pediococcus, Weissella, and Aspergillus were detected in every sample of meju. The metabolite profile patterns of the 11 samples were clustered into two main groups: group I (M1-5) and group II (M6-11). The metabolite analysis indicated a relatively higher amino acid content in group I, while group II exhibited higher isoflavone, soyasaponin, and lysophospholipid contents. The bioactivity analysis proved that the ABTS (2,2'-azino-bis (3- ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid)) radical-scavenging activity was higher in group II and the FRAP (ferric reducing antioxidant power) activity was higher in group I. The correlation analysis revealed that the ABTS activity was isoflavonoid, lipid, and soyasaponin related, whereas the FRAP activity was amino acid and flavonoid related. These results suggest that the antioxidant activities of meju are critically influenced by the microbiome and metabolite dynamics.


We describe DCU's participation in the NTCIR-8 IR4QA
task [16]. This task is a cross-language information retrieval(CLIR) task from English to Simplified Chinese which seeks to provide relevant documents for later cross language question answering (CLQA) tasks. For the IR4QA task, we submitted 5 official runs including two monolingual runs and three CLIR runs. For the monolingual retrieval we tested two information retrieval models. The results show that the KL-Divergence language model method performs better than the Okapi BM25 model for the Simplified Chinese retrieval task. This agrees with our previous CLIR experimental results at NTCIR-5. For the CLIR task, we compare query translation and document translation methods. In the query translation based runs, we tested a method for query expansion from external resource (QEE) before query translation. Our result for this run is slightly lower than the run without QEE. Our results show that the document translation method achieves 68.24% MAP performance compared to our best query translation run. For the document translation method, we found that the main issue is the lack of named entity translation in the documents since we do not have a suitable parallel corpus for training data for the statistical machine translation system. Our best CLIR run comes from the combination of query translation using Google translate and the KL-Divergence language model retrieval method. It achieves 79.94% MAP relative to our best monolingual run.


Integration of a plethora of genomic and biochemical data enables large-scale prediction of cellular functions Cellular functions result from biochemical interactions among thousands of components within the cell. The growing availability of annotated genome sequences and a plethora of biochemical data allow these interactions to be assembled on a genome scale for model microorganisms. This detailed biochemical information can be converted into a computational model—a genome-scale model, or GEM (1)—that allows phenotypic functions to be predicted. Both environmental and genetic parameters are explicitly accounted for in GEMs, enabling increasingly accurate predictions of the genotype-phenotype relationship in a given environment.


Radix Polygoni multiflori is a herb used effectively to prevent graying and treat skin depigmentation diseases in traditional Chinese medicine but its active ingredients have not been discovered yet. In this investigation, we tested six compounds isolated from Radix Polygoni multiflori, to discover the active component on melanogenesis. Three experiments were performed in the present investigation: mushroom tyrosinase activity, melanin content B16 cell proliferation assay. Among all the six components tested, THSG showed the most potent effects on tyrosinase activation and melanogenesis; it was shown to be a potent tyrosinase activator and a melanogenesis stimulator in this study. On the other hand, we found that gallic acid significantly inhibited tyrosinase and, in addition, anthraquinones were cytotoxic to melanoma cells. They were both harmful to melanogenesis. Therefore, we propose that THSG acts as the active ingredient of Radix Polygoni multiflori on melanogenesis.


Abstract Terrorists are using social media for the mass dissemination of terrorism-supporting messages. Activating the "long arm of the law" mechanism over media corporations, similar to that in the financial sector, will help to eradicate this phenomenon. The article describes the structure of a holistic framework that expands legal liability for the publication of terrorism-supporting content so that it applies to the entire chain of participants facilitating its distribution: the corporation, the platform, the Web-user publishing the content, and the Web-user viewing the content. The article proposes an adaptation of criminal legal tools at the state and international levels, as well as tools from the field of civil law; finally, the article argues that civil society also has the power to generate social change and to shape a mindset that imposes corporate liability on user content.


Undoubtedly, such factors as different cultural background affects 'the shape' of economy. The impact of cultural factors on the economy, as well as its specific fields (particularly accounting), has been studied by, among others, Mueller, Hofstede and Gray. Reflections on the topic were also conducted in Polish literature, although relatively late. One of the cultural factors is, beyond doubt, religion, forming some ethical attitudes through the transfer of certain values, which become a guide to individual actions, and exerting an obvious influence on the applicable standards in a society. The author does not pretend to consider the relations between religion and ethics, in the article only issues concerning possible to demonstrate influence of religious norms on accounting are raised. The aim is briefly to discuss the impact of Christianity, Islam and Confucianism on accounting systems and practices, based on literature studies. In conclusion, the question arises about the sense of the convergence of accounting standards, at least in the context of the current efforts undertaken in this field.


The changes such as increases in urban dwellers and demand for high quality and safe products being witnessed in agrifood systems around the world present opportunities for farmers to orient production to meet the emerging needs. To this end, governments in SubSaharan Africa have been reconstituting new trading policies. In Kenya, banana farming is a prospective activity through which small-scale farmers could exploit the emerging opportunities. This study examines the banana value chain in Meru County in order to determine the constraints and opportunities therein and the farmers' responses. Although agricultural value chain studies are strongly recommended as possible intervention strategies of increasing the farmers' competitive position in their activities, past studies on banana farming in Kenya mainly focused either on production or marketing. This study focused on the following objectives; profiling the demographic-socio-economic characteristics of farmers and traders, determining the constraints and opportunities in banana value chain, and evaluating the spatio-temporal distribution of periodic banana markets. A survey design and mixed method approach were used in data collection. Research instruments included: (i) Questionnaires administered to 384 farmers and 384 traders who were purposively selected. (ii) Interview guide used for 8 key informants. (iii) Focus group discussion guide used for 2 groups. Data processing and analysis was done using excel and SPSS. Quantitative data was analysed using analysis of variance, t test, Pearson correlation coefficient and nearest neighbour index. Qualitative data analysis was guided by SWOT and Scoring cards. Results showed that: women dominated production (52.6%) and marketing (57.6 %); a significant (p < .000) difference existed between earnings by men (Ksh 16,770) and women (Ksh 14,249) farmers; farms were small (1.9 acres) and significantly (p = .032) different in size across the sub counties; and 177stools were harvested monthly but significantly (p < .001) varied across locations. Wholesalers dominated banana trading. Pests and diseases (23.2 %), and high marketing costs (24.2 %) were the leading constraints. Opportunities included; short distances (3.3 kilometres) between farms and markets which significantly (p < .000) varied with locations, and unmet demand for bananas and high prospects for value additions. Markets with a closer time dimension did not have a wide spatial distance and vice versa (r = -0.530, p = .076); and the banana markets were not uniformly distributed (Rn = 0.31). The study concluded that: (i) some demographic-socio-economic characteristics of farmers and traders influenced their activities in the chain. (ii) The chain is characterized by several interdependent constraints (iii) Banana value chain has enormous potential to benefit farmers (iv) Markets do not meet the needs of the farmers equally. It is therefore recommended that: (i) community training on production and entrepreneurship targeting women to be conducted. (ii) Meru County government to partner with private firms in helping farmers address constraints and exploit existing opportunities. (iii) Banana traders to curve out a niche market in order to promote banana value addition, and (iv) the County government to either reorganise market in synchronised way or establish new ones in areas not optimally served.


This study investigates the influence of the source of R&D funds and management ownership on R&D productivity. The lagged effect of the source of R&D funds on R&D output is investigated for a sample of US manufacturing firms in five industries over the 1996-99 period. Estimates based on 779 firm-years show that R&D productivity increases with the proportion of stock held by managers and directors of firms primarily in the Other Electronics industry. The estimates also show that recipients of government-sponsored R&D funds in the Chemicals industry have lower levels of output (sales) for each dollar committed to R&D. In addition, output for firms in the Chemicals industry worsens as management stockholding increases, implying an agency cost rationale for the observed difference in output. The implication is that firms with high manager-owner content are less productive with government-sponsored R&D than with company-financed R&D. The reported results suggest that potential agency costs should be incorporated in government-sponsored R&D contracts. It also suggests that the source of R&D funds should be disclosed and incorporated into the valuation of intangible assets attributable to research and development.


The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of hearing loss among people aged 65 years and over and to offer hearing aids where necessary. The study was carried out in a large health centre practice in Birmingham with a computerized record system. All patients aged 65 years, and a 20% random sample of patients aged 66 years and over were invited for interview. They were questioned about hearing loss and examined audiometrically. All patients with a hearing loss in the better ear of 35 decibels or more over the speech frequencies (0.5-4 kHz) were offered a hearing aid. A total of 322 patients attended (72% of those invited) and of these 34 patients already had a hearing aid. A further 142 patients were identified for whom an aid was recommended and 69 of these accepted. The acceptance rate was higher among men than women (57% compared with 43%). Sixty one patients (19% of those screened) had an asymmetrical hearing loss and of these 24 required consultant assessment; none had serious underlying pathology. There is a large unmet need for hearing aid provision. Simple audiometric assessment in health centres provides an opportunity to meet this need.


Build Your Own Database-Driven Website Using PHP & MySQL is a practical guide for first-time users of PHP & MySQL that teaches readers by creating a fully working Content Management System, Shopping Cart and other real-world applications. There has been a marked increase in the adoption of PHP, most notably in the beginning to intermediate levels. PHP now boasts over 30% of the server side scripting market (Source: http://www.php.weblogs.com). The previous edition sold over 17,000 copies exclusively through http://www.sitepoint.com alone. With the release of PHP 5, SitePoint have updated this bestseller to reflect best practice web development using PHP 5 and MySQL 4. The 3rd Edition includes more code examples and also a new bonus chapter on structured PHP Programming which introduces techniques for organizing real world PHP applications to avoid code duplication and ensure code is manageable and maintainable. The chapter introduces features like include files, user-defined function libraries and constants, which are combined to produce a fully functional access control system suitable for use on any PHP Website.


British officials initially had difficulty persuading the indigenous Fijians to accept the prospect of self‐government, so crucial in their eyes was the colonial state for their security. By the late 1960s, however, the officials were preparing to accede to a Fijian demand for political control provoked by a militant Fiji Indian campaign for the replacement of communal representation with the common franchise. The Fijians' stance was soon tempered by the Indian leaders' new strategy of conciliation which led to a bi‐partisan proposal to move to Independence under the leadership of the Fijian chief minister, Ratu Mara. The rapprochement, less than 18 months after a dangerous crisis of ethnic conflict, was facilitated by the death of A.D. Patel, staunchest campaigner for a common electoral roll. The paper highlights the changing importance of international and domestic arenas of political action, and the part ironically played by the Government of India in moderating United Nations pressure on Britain to introduce the common roll.


While the existence of social inequality in health in childhood as well as among adults is well established, research of mechanisms underlying this inequality is still sparse. The study aim was to report on the development of self-rated health and depressive symptoms from age 15 to18 years in a cohort study of Danish adolescents. Methods: The cohort comprised 3,681 individuals born in 1989, 3058 individuals answered the baseline questionnaire in 2004, and 2400 responded to a follow-up questionnaire in 2007, with 2181 individuals participating in both rounds (59% of the original cohort). Social background information of the participants was derived from a national register. For the analysis two variables indicating change in the two health indicators was computed by subtracting the 2007 levels of the variables from the levels experienced in 2004. Results: After 3 years, mean self-rated health (SRH) deteriorated slightly in adolescents (-0.24; 95% CI = -0.28 to -0.19) across all socioeconomic status (SES) groups and depressive symptoms increased (0.64; 95% CI = 0.52 to 0.75). High household income was protective for decrease in SRH (0.62; 0.43 - 0.91). Negative lifestyle changes were associated with poorer SRH and more depressive symptoms. Conclusions: Self-rated health and depressive symptoms changed to the worse among Danish adolescents from age 15 to 18 years. Negative changes in several lifestyle factors were found to accompany the deterioration of health. This result stresses the intrinsic relationship between lifestyle changes and health and the possible positive effect of maintaining and enhancing positive lifestyle factors.


Some of the fields of research that have captured the persistent interest of both scientists and the general public are meteor phenomena. The main goal in the study of meteoroid impacts into Earth's atmosphere is the recovery of the remnant matter after the ablation in the form of meteorites. This is a complementary approach, yet cheap alternative, to a sample return mission. Meteoroids are messengers since the time of the formation of the solar system due to the fact that they have preserved the same composition. The study of meteorites provides information regarding the chemical composition from which the planets formed. The increasing number of all-sky camera networks in recent years has resulted in a large set of events available for study. Thus, it is very important to use a method that determines whether the meteoroid could produce a meteorite or not. In this paper we study the meteors detected by the FRIPON network in Romania with the use of all-sky cameras. We focus on the events with noticeable deceleration (V f /V 0 < 0.8). We determine the ballistic coefficient α and the mass-loss parameter β for the selected sample. Based on this analysis the events are classified in three categories: (1) meteoroids that are likely to produce meteorites; (2) meteoroids that can possibly produce meteorites; (3) meteoroids that are unlikely to produce meteorites. The entry and final mass are determined for each event. From the recorded fireballs, we identified one possible meteorite dropper, and we analyzed its dynamical evolution.


Focused on the phenomenon of doubling, understood both as a constant anthropological structure and as a sign of modernity, a psychic obsession and literary figure, procedure or motive, this study, composed " in (the) canon" , embraces fourteen interpretations of narrative and dramatic works by foreign and Croatian authors said to be " canonical" . It unites authors as varied as Dante, Marivaux and Wilde, Tommaseo, Poe and Krleža, Marin Držic, Virginia Woolf and Samuel Beckett, Molie re, Milan Begovic and Umberto Saba, all writers taking part in a literary lineage that Pirandello, also one of the authors analysed here, would call " humoristic" – that is, devoted to internal reflection and fissure, to doubling of its instances and structures, of its ontology as well as of its apparently exclusive belonging to the medium of language. The aim of the introduction to the book (" The double: from theme to method" ) is to dissociate " the double" from its typical destiny in either historically or thematically oriented studies in which it figures as a primary topic, most often in its explicitly anthropomorphic form – that is, the form of a doubled character. Here, the double is treated as a disincarnating designation, in its paradoxical and " anasemic" capacity: the double simultaneously signifies and suspends what it signifies, just as fiction itself and its essentially inessential optical and acoustic components – images and rhythms. That is why the discussions of particular " pretexts" of the book are organised around certain recurrent interests, articulated in five interdependent sections. The first one, entitled " Word and image, doubles of each other" , contains chapters dedicated to the examination of metapoetic dimensions envisaged y procedures of exchange and transposition – for instance, figure of hypotyposis, dramatisation, hybridisation of genres, illustration – between narrative discourse and painting, novel and theatre, short story and drawing. The doubling of one aesthetic medium or genre by another one enables the work of art, through the confrontation with its other, to discern in its interior the borders of its own delimitation or definition: the double serves as a measure of the performative reciprocity between the verbal and the visual. The second section, " The double' s identity" , unites studies that explore problems posed by the construction of identity, whether the identity of the human individual (as semantic axis and performative product of narrative or dramatic texts), or the one of texts themselves. The fixation-fiction of identity, human or textual, relies on the essence and totality presumed by the interpretation, whereas here it is conceived as a provisory double always open to the abyss of the language. The next section, " Woman spectator/ reader/ actress" deals with sexual difference in order to penetrate more deeply into the same issues of identity-fiction, of the always uncertain and different character of reading, of the compulsive iterability of pre-constituted models that govern each approach to the " text" – or to the dream, the film, the invention – in an endeavour to reach its singularity. However, it never stops behaving as a double, an actor or an extra with respect to what one is searching for: the question is how to know whether there is a " core" under the " outside" , a referential reality under the signifying surface of the " screen" , or whether the interpretation – in criticism or in the intra-diegetic commentary – while trying to destroy the mendacious appearances, continues to fabricate new ones. The haunting of the model, the schema, the pattern, the prototext, the involuntary imitation, that menaces the freedom of choice and the thirst for integrity, is put to test by the fourth section, " Life according to the double" : the obscure force of repetition which duplicates, which one feels pressured to fight against, the mortal enemy of individuality, is finally revealed to be its very original. The concluding section, " Double, rival, fellow sufferer" interrogates mirroring effects of actual or ideal twin-relationships, as well as complications provoked by the ambivalences of order and disorder of the symmetry: the rivalry between doubles does not pertain only to the anthropomorphic actors in diegetic worlds, whether fictional or " real" ones ; it can appear between the mythical idea of the original and the conquering representation which destroys its uniqueness. Beyond these thematic groupings, and the variety, whether of texts dealt with or methodological instruments borrowed from the vast spectre of theoretical fields – philosophy of language, Freudian and Lacanian psychoanalysis, Girardian anthropology, semiotics, Greenblatt' s New historicism, gender studies, performance studies, visual studies, Jakobson' s structural poetics, Derrida' s thought on iterability or Ricoeur' s on narrative identity, etc. – all the studies contained in this book follow or intertwine a number of problematic threads, constituted by the curiosity for mirroring structures of texts and their internal chiasms ; for the mirroring realised between the diverse instances of narrative discourse (narrator – character – reader) or dramatic discourse (performance – character/actor/ actress – spectator) ; for the theme, place, function, direction and codification of the look, for its proprietor, its visual field and its own visibility ; for the desired and undesirable correlations between literary texts and paratexts, biographical texts and their models ; for the " fraternal rivalries" between characters, authors, texts and their meta- and inter- texts ; for the doublings implying the inversion of sexes – of authors, characters, actors, readers ; for the affiliations between media – between the narrative discourse and the dramatic discourse, between narration and painting, between theatre and cinema ; for the ontological doubling of fiction.


Red Palm Weevil (RPW, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus Olivier) threatens most palm species worldwide. Until now, no studies have analyzed the gene regulatory networks of Phoenix canariensis (Chabaud) in response to RPW attacks. The aim of this study was to fill this knowledge gap. Providing this basic knowledge is very important to improve its management. Results: A deep transcriptome analysis was performed on fully expanded leaves of healthy non-infested trees and attacked trees at two symptom stages (middle and late infestation). A total of 54 genes were significantly regulated during middle stage. Pathway enrichment analysis showed that phenylpropanoid-related pathways were induced at this stage. More than 3300 genes were affected during late stage of attacks. Higher transcript abundances were observed for lipid fatty acid metabolism (fatty acid and glycerolipids), tryptophan metabolism, phenylpropanoid metabolism. Key RPW-modulated genes involved in innate response mediated by hormone crosstalk were observed belonging to auxin, jasmonate and salicylic acid (SA) pathways. Among transcription factors, some WRKYs were clearly induced. qRT-PCR validation confirmed the upregulation of key genes chosen as validation of transcriptomic analysis. Conclusion: A subset of these genes may be further analyzed in future studies to confirm their specificity to be induced by RPW infestations.


Griller-type chickens are broilers slaughtered between27and 29 days old weighing 1.3 to 1.5 kg and sold as a whole carcasses. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the growth performance, carcass traits, and meat quality of female broilers of four genetic lines reared for the production of griller-type chickens. A total of 960 broiler chicks was allotted in a randomized block design with four treatments and eight replicates of 30 birds per experimental plot. Each experimental treatment consisted of four different commercial lines, identified as A, B, C and D. The analyzed parameters were weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, livability, production efficiency index, carcass and cut yields, and meat quality according to breast meat color (L*, a*, b*), water-holding capacity (WHC), cooking losses, and shear force. Weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion ratio, and livability were different (p<0.05) among the lines; however, no differences were observed for the production efficiency index. Results show that lines presented similar performance; however, lines A, B, and C had a better carcass and breast yield, and line A, the best meat quality. Therefore, line A would be the most suitable for the production of griller-type chickens.


An eight-camera Optitrack motion capture system was evaluated by performing static, linear dynamic, and angular dynamic calibrations using marker distances associated with upper and lower extremity gait and wheelchair models. Data were analyzed to determine accuracy and resolution within a defined capture volume using a standard Cartesian reference system. Two additional cameras along with AMASS and Visual3D (C-Motion, Inc., Germantown, MD) biomechanical modeling software were used to determine joint kinematics at the pelvis, hip, knee, and ankle of ten control subjects (mean age 21.5 ± 1.65 years). The same data were processed through Nexus (Vicon Motion Systems, Oxford, England) modeling software. The joint angle data was statistically compared between the two systems using a variance components model which determined the variability between maximum, minimum, and range values. Static accuracy ranged from 99.31% to 99.90%. Static resolution ranged from 0.04 ± 0.15 mm to 0.63 ± 0.15 mm at the 0.05 level of significance. The dynamic accuracy ranged from 94.82% to 99.77 %, and dynamic resolution ranged from 0.09 ± 0.26 mm to 0.61 ± 0.31 mm at the 0.05 level of significance. These values are comparable to those reported for a standard Vicon 524 (Vicon Motion Systems, Oxford, England) motion analysis system. Gait cycle maximum, minimum, and range values showed no significant difference when comparing Visual3D and Nexus at the pelvis, hip, and knee. Significant differences were seen at the tibia (rotation) and foot due to foot model variations between the two systems. The results support application of the lower cost Optitrack cameras and Visual3D software for 3D kinematic assessment of lower extremity motion during gait. Additional potential applications supported by these findings include other lower extremity models, assisted ambulation, and wheelchair mobility.


We describe a statistical model of the power gain patterns of a set of planar antennas, randomly generated from a starting parameterized design. It is first based on a spherical harmonics and double Fourier series expansion for each antenna pattern, followed by the statistical model of the expansion coefficients over the full set. This double compression method results in only a few tens of parameters to reconstruct all patterns. The method fails at the poles when it is applied to a polarization component of the pattern but this does not appear to be a critical problem.


The poem Khosrow va Sirin by Neuami(12th century) tells the tale of the love between the Sasanian sovereign Khosrow II Parviz (590-628 A. D.) and the beautiful Sirin. It is a difficult amorous relationship in which, although the protagonists do nothing but talk, they do not understand each other. In the story the friction between the two lovers surfaces from the very beginning: Khosrow desires Sirin, and Sirin's desire is equally strong; she concedes favours but then pulls back, thus increasing the young prince's desire. The problem is heightened by their two different concepts of love: Khosrow represents the voice of nature, of carpe diem (or rather carpe florem); Sirin, on the other hand, represents the voice of wisdom and reason. Before giving herself to him, only after the celebration of a lawful wedding, she wants Khosrow to regain his kingdom, which is threatened by a usurper. Khosrow flees to Byzantium where he marries – for purely political motives – Maryam, the daughter of the Byzantine emperor, and with the help of the latter wins back his kingdom. But even after the death of Maryam, when Sirin expects to be called to court and married with all due ceremony, Khosrow tries to possess Sirin outside the bonds of marriage. The problem of a lawful wedding is a crucial point in the plot of the poem. Khosrow's constant efforts to elude marriage to Sirin are due to interference of the historical sources. Indeed Sirin too is a historic character: she was Khosrow's influential Christian wife. In NeUAmi's poem, Sirin's Christian faith is concealed; but Khosrow's resistance to marriage with her is probably an echo of the opposition that their union encountered in court circles and among the artistocracy, since Sirin was a woman of humble origins, as well as being Christian. The way she defends her reputation and her good name can be seen as a reaction against the bad light in which she was portrayed in the historical sources. Neuami has skilfully made use of these sources in order to voice his concept of love, of passionate love, as a source of suffering and incomprehension between lovers but also as a cosmic force which permeates every aspect of life, and the most important experience in the poet's life. At the same time he gives a thorough psychological analysis of the characters, unimaginable for those times.


Livestock is a main perturbation for the riparian zones of streams in the Buenos Aires province. Our goal is to compare the vegetation's and soil's characteristics of two almost contiguous reaches of the Nutrias stream, an affluent to the Reconquista river. One reach has been closed to cattle for 2 years, and the other -500m downstream- has kept livestock along the whole period. For each stream margin, six 10m transects were sampled for species cover and 3 soil samples were drawn for organic matter, phosphorus, pH, conductivity and apparent density determination. The vegetation's canopy hight, cover, and the amphibious macrophytes' abundance were higher in the closed reach; instead, species number was higher in the reach opened to cattle. Eleocharis bonariensis (19%), Paspalum distichum (17%) y Cynodon dactylon (15%) were dominant within the closure, while the exotic grass C. dactylon dominated (63%) in the grazed reach. Regarding the soil variables, a PCA distinguishes the two reaches in the first component (35% of the total variance), and the two margins of the closed reach are separated along the 2nd axis (25%). This separation of the reaches and the margins is consistent with the ordination analysis (NMDS) performed among the species. In this case study, the observed changes in the community structure after two years of closure may enhance the riparian zone's capability to regulate the exchanges between land and watercourse.


The need to consider a number of different alternatives at an early stage in design has been well established. It is hypothesized that providing a tool for automatically modeling and analyzing devices and relating individual component characteristics to device behavior would aid the conceptual designer by facilitating the consideration of more varied alternatives. In this paper we identify the characteristics of conceptual mechanical design that must be accommodated in any tool to aid designers at this stage. The role of natural interface, modularity and numerous types of flexibility requirements have been established and addressed in a prototypical design environment. The nature of automated modeling and issues pertaining to modeling relevance and model simplification and analysis techniques are also briefly discussed in the context of a design-analysis tool for automatic formulation and analysis of dynamic system models.


This paper is an attempt at constructing a simple and effective macroprudential tool for policymakers. By integrating the joint occurrences of the main financial markets in Colombia into a single Financial Conditions Index (FCI), we hope to synthesize the information embedded in them regarding possible future economic outcomes. To do this, we use monthly data on 21 variables for the period comprised between July, 1991 - June, 2010 and apply PCA on their correlation matrix. On the one hand, we evaluate the predictive capacity of the FCI in forecasting GDP growth at different time horizons and find that it performs better as a leading indicator of real activity than other individual financial variables and an autoregressive model of GDP growth. Additionally, we are interested in testing the FCI's long-term capability to correctly anticipate periods of distress in the economy, and find that the index could be used as an effective early-warning indicator. Hence, our FCI seems to represent a useful instrument for both financial stability and macroprudential supervision purposes.


The influence of socioeconomic and other household characteristics on the productivity of smallholder farmers supplying cassava to the major commercial starch processors in Nigeria were examined. A multi-stage random sampling technique was used to select 96 farmers working in clusters in selected eight cassava producing states. Data were analyzed using a combination of descriptive and inferential statistics, and multivariate regression techniques. Results revealed the calculated average yield to be 12.39 t/ha thereby leaving an average yield-gap of 7.61 t/ha when compared with an average of 20 t/ha being promoted for farmers under the project. Use of improved varieties (p<0.01) and full-time farming (p<0.05) had significant positive influence on productivity. Also, training, credit use and marital status of farmers influenced productivity positivity at p<0.10 levels. Productivity increased with increase in the variables, but the degree of responsiveness was inelastic in each case. Together the included variables explained 72.1% of the variation in the productivity model. The use of improved cuttings should be accompanied by rigorous but appropriate capacity enhancement programmes to update farmers on modern issues on cassava production and farm management. Empowerment of farmers through linkage to sources of soft loan and other microcredit facilities was recommended, but such efforts should be targeted more on the married and full-time farmers for greater impact.


Bit interleaved Coded Modulation with iterative decoding is known to provide excellent performance over both Gaussian and fading channels. However a complete analysis of the iterative demodulation is still missing. In this paper, the iterative decoding is analyzed from a game-theoretic point of view in order to explain the good performance of turbo-decoding. It is shown that iterative decoding is a game seeking a solution to an optimization problem obtained from parallel approximations of the maximum likelihood decoding. Surprisingly, the decoder and demapper are not antagonist players. They are involved in a cooperative process in which n selfish players attempt to optimize their own bit-marginals. An interpretation is given in terms of pure Nash Equilibrium and social welfare. The approximate criterion of the sub-optimal problem is the social welfare of the game and is also a performance rating on the distributed optimization process. The convergence is analysed and it is proved that it always exists a convergent iterative sequence leading to a Nash equilibrium of the game. Experimental results are provided in the particular case of BICM decoding.


Human beings in their lives undergo an endless process and are constantly developing, from the prenatal period to old age. In the final phase or the elderly, some parents experience a period when they will be abandoned by their children for college, work or family, called the empty nest syndrome. This syndrome is closely linked to sadness, even though humans really want to find happiness in life. The purpose of this study is to understand and describe the meaning of happiness felt by parents with empty nest syndrome. The informants in this study are parents who live alone or alone with a partner
The research method used in this study is a qualitative research method. The data collection method used in this study is to use an open questionnaire according to which informants are free to answer questions freely, according to their own understanding, logic, terms and language style. The informants in this study were taken by reasoned sample. The informants in this study were parents who experienced empty nest syndrome. 30 The analysis of the data in this study used triangulation. The results showed that the happiness of parents who experience the empty nest syndrome is more family-based, can come together, receive love, attention and prayer. The people who play the biggest role in happiness are the essential families such as spouses, children and grandchildren


Managed health care (MHC) has emerged in South Africa as an alternative system to control the cost of health care. Fears, negative perceptions and much uncertainty have surrounded this issue since its introduction in South Africa. The purpose of this study was to assess the understanding, perceptions and opinions of dentists residing in the Gauteng province about the emergence, benefits, impact, and future of MHC in South Africa. Eighty-six dentists (21.5%) out of the sample population of 400 responded to the questionnaire. The majority (66.7%) of the respondents perceived MHC to be a threat to their practices, with most feeling that MHC will interfere with the doctor-patient relationship. Forty-two per cent of the respondents were of the opinion that MHC will not succeed in South Africa. The results suggest that this sample of dentists do not consider MHC to be an alternative to the existing fee-for-service system. The introduction of MHC in South Africa is mostly based on models used in the USA, which might not be appropriate in the unique South African environment.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the predictive value of Soluble Suppression of Tumorigenicity 2 (sST2), a decoy receptor of IL-33 involved in several inflammatory and immune diseases, for death in HIV infection.

DESIGN
Patients enrolled in the ANRS CO3 Aquitaine Cohort, a prospective hospital-based cohort of HIV-1-infected patients, who had a plasma sample available in the bio-bank were systematically eligible.

METHODS
sST2, sCD14 and IL6 were measured using Luminex® multiplex bead-based technology (R&D Systems) and a Bio-Plex 200 instrument (BioRad). Predictive capacities of sST2, sCD14, IL6 and of the Veteran Aging Cohort Study (VACS) clinical score at baseline on overall mortality were compared using multivariable Cox proportional hazards models.

RESULTS
During a median follow-up of 7.2 years (IQR: 6.0; 7.9), 93 deaths from all causes (incidence rate 9.9 per 1000 patient-years; 95% confidence interval 7.9; 11.9) were reported in 1,414 patients. The median sST2 baseline concentration was 22.9 ng/mL (IQR: 17.7; 30.3) and was higher (30.8 ng/mL, IQR: 21.5; 42.1) in patients who died as compared to those who stayed alive (22.6 ng/mL; IQR: 17.5; 29.6) (p < 10). An increased risk of death of 21% for a concentration 10.0 ng/mL higher of sST2 remained after adjustment for sCD14, IL6 and VACS score (adjusted hazard ratio: 1.21; p < 10). The predictive capacity of sST2 was confirmed in a validation cohort (n = 386, 31 deaths) with an improved area c-index from 0.804 without sST2 to 0.811 with sST2.

CONCLUSION
sST2 is a new valuable biomarker to evaluate the risk of all-cause mortality in HIV disease.


The effects of talker variability were examined for spoken word recall. In this study, a serial word recall paradigm was used, with talker variability manipulated using single‐ and multiple‐talker lists and with presentation rate varied using fast and slow conditions. In addition, memory rehearsal processes were examined via a continuous distractor task. Under no‐distractor conditions, the results showed that primacy recall performance was better for single‐talker lists compared to multiple‐talker lists. Under distractor conditions, when presentation rate was fast, this difference remained. However, when presentation rate was slow, there was little difference in recall for single‐talker versus multiple‐talker lists. These results will be discussed in terms of the roles of rehearsal and encoding processes in the transfer of voice information to episodic memory for spoken words. [Work supported by NIH Grant No. DCO1667‐03.]


Hospitalized acutely ill patients face high risk for venous thromboembolism (VTE) unless appropriate thromboprophylaxis is applied. This study aimed to determine VTE prophylaxis practices for inpatients in Turkey and to evaluate the impact of physicians' training via a modified "Standard Medical Patients' VTE Risk Assessment Model (MERAM)." A total of 607 inpatients included in this national multicenter noninterventional observational registry were evaluated in terms of demographics, VTE risk, and preventive measures at 2 consecutive cross-sectional visits. Physicians were asked to complete a questionnaire on current VTE method risk assessment and other models including MERAM. The VTE prophylaxis rates significantly increased from 49.4% to 62.4% between visits (P < .05). The lack of risk evaluation decreased from 74.6% to 19.5% (P < .001). Percentage of physicians using prophylaxis and use of MERAM increased between visits. Physician training proved effective for providing general "awareness" of VTE prophylaxis and led to higher rates of risk assessment model-based appropriate VTE prophylaxis.


It is shown that the dicode pulse position modulation (DiPPM) scheme, presented in this study, demonstrates several key advantages in comparison with other existing PPM schemes, because of the compact structure and efficient recovery process of the clock signal. An error corrector for the DiPPM scheme is presented, where experimental results prove the theoretical expectations of a previous publication. Thus, it is demonstrated that DiPPM with the use of a maximum likelihood sequence detector (MLSD) error corrector, significantly reduces or eliminates errors incurred during the transmission. Comparison of and discussion on the outcomes of a DiPPM system with and without the error corrector are included.


Abstract. Whether uptake of rainwater can increase plant water consumption in response to rainfall pulses requires investigation to evaluate the plant adaptability, especially in water limited regions where rainwater is the only replenishable soil water source. In this study, the water sources from rainwater and three soil layers, predawn (Ψpd), midday (Ψm) and gradient (Ψpd−Ψm) of leaf water potential, and water consumption in response to rainfall pulses were analyzed for two dominant tree species, Hippophae rhamnoides and Populus davidiana, in pure and mixed plantations during the growing period (June–September). In pure plantations, the relative response of daily normalized sap flow (SFR) was significantly affected by rainwater uptake proportion (RUP) and Ψpd−Ψm for H. rhamnoides, and was only significantly influenced by Ψpd−Ψm for P. davidiana (P < 0.05). Meanwhile, the large Ψpd−Ψm was consistent with high SFR for H. rhamnoides, and the small Ψpd−Ψm was consistent with the low SFR for P. davidiana, in response to rainfall pulses. Therefore, H. rhamnoides and P. davidiana exhibited sensitive and insensitive responses to rainfall pulses, respectively. Furthermore, mixed afforestation significantly enhanced RUP, SFR, and reduced the water source proportion from the deep soil layer (100–200 cm) for both species (P < 0.05). The SFR was significantly influenced by RUP and Ψpd−Ψm for both species in the mixed plantation. Lower Ψm and higher Ψpd were adopted by H. rhamnoides and P. davidiana in mixed plantation, respectively, to enlarge Ψpd−Ψm, enhance rainwater uptake, and decrease water source competition from the deep soil layer. These results indicate that mixed afforestation enhanced the influence of rainwater uptake to water consumption after rainfall pulse, regardless of sensitivity to rainfall pulses. This study provides insights into suitable plantation species selection and management considering the link between rainwater uptake and consumption in water limited regions.


Abstract Mega-tsunami have affected much of the coastline of Australia over the past millennium. Such catastrophic waves have left an imprint consisting predominently of bedrock sculpturing of the rocky coastline and deposition of marine sediments to elevations reaching 130 m above sea level. One of the largest of these events occurred in eastern Australia in the fifteenth century. This event may be related to the Mahuika impact crater found at 48.3 S, 166.4 E on the continental shelf 250 km south of New Zealand. A comet at least 500 m in diameter formed the crater. Maori and Aboriginal legends allude to significant cosmogenic events in the region, while Aboriginal legends about tsunami are common along the eastern Australian coast. Evidence for legends that could describe the impact of a cosmogenic tsunami also exists in NW Australia. Here geological evidence of a single mega-tsunami as recent as in the seventeenth century covers 1500 km of coastline. We term this event Wandjina after the artwork related to the legends. More attention should be given to oral traditions in searching globally for other sites of significant mega-tsunami.


515-294-Abstract This paper evaluates the implications of corporate restrictions on production agriculture using the case of the Nebraska hog industry. Corporate farming restrictions prohibit the acquisition or operation of agricultural land by nonfamily farm or ranch corporations. A partial adjustment model with a variable coefficient of adjustment is used to study the policy change. The results of the study support the hypothesis that the corporate farming restrictions in Nebraska have reduced the Nebraska hog industry's ability to adjust its inventory to target levels. A significant shift in inventory adjustment behavior is shown to coincide with the enactment of the corporate restrictions.


The squareness factor γ used to evaluates for criterion allowing quick estimation of the quality of NdFeB melt-spun powders on Stoner–Wohlfarth model. For the powder compaction of 6.4 g/cm3 mass density, the measured value γ=0.48 serves the evidence of the Stoner – Wohlfarth behaviour of the powder grains and the preparation conditions are optimal for producing Stoner – Wohlfarth particles. For the powder compaction of given mass densities the calibration curve of the squareness factor γ is presented. We can observe one more thing that for the ideal, full dense compaction of NdFeB Stoner – Wohlfarth particle the squareness factor γ can not be large than 0.53.


Hepcidin, a key liver peptide hormone, is essential to the regulation of bioavailable iron and erythropoiesis. Activin-like kinase receptor 2 (ALK2) signaling, via SMAD transcription factors, plays an important part in the regulation of hepcidin expression induced by pro-inflammatory cytokines. In chronic inflammatory conditions, such as rheumatoid arthritis, chronic kidney disease, colitis, and in some forms of cancer, hepcidin expression is induced. This induction of hepcidin expression results in lower levels of bioavailable iron, ultimately leading to the onset of anemia. Hepcidin regulates bioavailable iron levels by binding to and inhibiting the cellular iron pump, ferroportin. Ferroportin is important to macrophage-based iron recycling and dietary iron absorption. Several reports have suggested that lowering hepcidin provides a novel approach for targeting the clinical challenge of anemia. Currently approved approaches for these patients rely on transfusions and the use of erythropoietin-based therapies. Unfortunately, neither of these approaches address the underlying chronic inflammation or hepcidin induction and resulting anemia. In this report, we validate our small molecule inhibitor of ALK2, TP-0184, for the treatment of hepcidin-driven anemia of chronic diseases. Biochemical assays demonstrate that TP-0184 inhibits of the kinase activity of ALK2 with an IC50 of 5 nM. In vitro, TP-0184 is effective at targeting hepcidin expression with an EC50 lower than 100 nM in HepG2 cells. Three in vivo models were also explored for our validation of TP-0184. In our first study, turpentine oil TO was injected into the intrascapular fat pad of C57BL/6 mice to induce an acute inflammatory response that results in hepcidin-driven anemia. The animals were dosed with TP-0184 1 hour prior to TO treatment and once again 8 hours later. The TO-mediated acute inflammatory response in mice resulted in a 14-fold increase in liver hepcidin levels. Two oral doses of TP-0184 at 100 mg/kg, separated by 8 hours, reversed the induction of hepcidin that followed TO treatment. TP-0184 was tested at multiple doses in which efficacy was observed. In our second in vivo model, we induced anemia via intraperitoneal injection with heat-inactivated Brucella abortus. The mice were treated daily with TP-0184 for 3-7 days, after which, whole blood, plasma and livers were collected, from which liver and plasma hepcidin, plasma iron, and complete blood counts were assessed. Treatment with 100 mg/kg TP-0184 completely abrogated the Brucella abortus-induced reduction of hemoglobin and total red blood cell counts. In our third in vivo study, TP-0184 was also evaluated in the TC-1 lung cancer model for cancer-induced anemia. TC-1 tumor-bearing animals exhibited a 3-fold increase in liver hepcidin levels, which was reversed by dosing with 25 mg/kg TP-0184. From these experiments, we conclude that TP-0184 is a potent and selective inhibitor of ALK2 with demonstrated activity in multiple preclinical models of anemia associated with inflammation. TP-0184 also demonstrates favorable pharmacokinetic properties as well as good drug-like qualities, making it a strong candidate molecule with which to move into IND-enabling studies and formal clinical development. The current study supports a clinical development approach focused on anemia of chronic disease where an erythropoietin-sparing approach might offer significant clinical benefit to patients. Disclosures Peterson:Tolero Pharmaceuticals: Employment. Soh:Tolero Pharmaceuticals: Employment. Lee:Tolero Pharmaceuticals: Employment. Kim:Tolero Pharmaceuticals: Employment. Whatcott:Tolero Pharmaceuticals: Employment. Siddiqui-Jain:Tolero Pharmaceuticals: Employment. Bearss:Tolero Pharmaceuticals: Employment. Warner:Tolero Pharmaceuticals: Employment.


Educational researchers have increasingly drawn attention to how students develop computational thinking (CT) skills, including in science, math, and literacy contexts. A key component of CT is the process of abstraction, a particularly challenging concept for novice programmers, but one vital to problem solving. We propose a framework based on situated cognition that can be used to document how instructors and students communicate about abstractions during the problem solving process. We develop this framework in a multimodal interaction analysis of a 32-minute long excerpt of a middle school student working in the PixelBots JavaScript programming environment at a two-week summer programming workshop taught by undergraduate CS majors. Through a microgenetic analysis of the process of teaching and learning about abstraction in this excerpt, we document the extemporaneous prioritization of subgoals and the back-and-forth coordination of problem solving phases. In our case study, we identify that (a) problem solving phases are nested with several instances of context-switching within a single phase; (b) the introduction of new ideas and information creates bridges or opportunities to move between different problem solving phases; (c) planning to solve a problem is a non-linear process; and (d) pedagogical moves such as modeling and prompting highlight situated resources and advance problem solving. Future research should address how to help students structure subgoals and reflect on connections between problem solving phases, and how to help instructors reflect on their routes to supporting students in the problem solving process.


AbstractThe processes regulating the climatology and annual cycle of the tropical tropopause layer (TTL) and cold point are not fully understood. Three main drivers have been identified: planetary-scale equatorial waves excited by tropical convection, planetary-scale extratropical waves associated with the deep Brewer–Dobson circulation, and synoptic-scale waves associated with the midlatitude storm tracks. In both observations and comprehensive atmospheric models, all three coexist, making it difficult to separate their contributions. Here, a new intermediate-complexity atmospheric model is developed. Simple modification of the model's lower boundary allows detailed study of the three processes key to the TTL, both in isolation and together.The model shows that tropical planetary waves are most critical for regulating the mean TTL, setting the depth and temperature of the cold point. The annual cycle of the TTL, which is coldest (warmest) in boreal winter (summer), however, depends critically on the stro...


Recently the New York Times reported that President Obama is threatening to strip the insurance industries' exemption to the antitrust laws because the insurance industry is using "deceptive and dishonest" advertisements to derail his health insurance reform. At the same time, the Senate Judiciary Committee is conducting hearings on the antitrust exemption for insurance companies. Senate Bill S.1681 has been introduced in the Senate to prevent insurance industry price fixing, bid rigging and market allocation.


The warp device is commonly applied as a design feature within videogames. It allows the player's avatar to be transported through the gameworld changing the relationship with the gamespace. Moving the avatar through the gameworld can be seen as a response to the player's actions and its location acts as a way of working through and understanding relationships within game spaces. This article analyses how warps and portals function and how they can affect the position of the avatar in the gameworld. The space of the videogame is defined through the notion of paths and tracks to understand how players can swap between roles of interaction and observation as they make their way through various levels and scenarios of gameplay. Warps and portals are categorized as to their use within game design in first-person and third-person games and how this impacts on the player's experience of the avatar.


The author reports a case of complication of chemoembolization of the kidney arterial bed used in the treatment of kidney carcinoma. The female patient died on the second day after the manipulation because of embolism of the small branches of the pulmonary artery by the particles of the embolisation mixture. The presence of the arterial-venous shunts in the tumor overlooked at the stage of angiography became the most probable cause of the embolism.


For a natural number k > 1 and a ring A with free additive structure, we realize two different constructions of arbitrarily large ﬡ_k-free A-modules which are separable as abelian groups. The main tool to construct these modules is a new variant of Shelah's Black Box principle, which is provable in ZFC. In the first case, we take A = Z and construct an ﬡ_k-free abelian group G with no epimorphisms onto a free abelian group of countably infinite rank. In the second case, we take A to be a separably realizable ring and construct an ﬡ_k-free A-module G with the prescribed endomorphism ring End G = A \oplus Fin G, where Fin G is the ideal of all endomorphisms of G whose images have finite rank.


A multi-case study approach was used in this study to investigate how parents and children collaborated with each other when they learned to program in MSWLogo together. Three parent-child pairs were observed directly in a five-day computer camp. Each pair was assigned a total of 33 programming tasks to work on. The observation focused on how parents interacted with their children while they tried to solve the tasks together. Findings from this study indicated that, despite different patterns of interactions exhibited in the three pairs, parent-child collaboration in programming naturally fell into a special form of "pair programming" in which the parent and the child in each pair took the roles of "the reviewer" and "the driver" respectively. As such, children wrote programs in a more systematic and disciplined manner instead of resorting to trial-and-error and tinkering; children spent more time on analysis and design which were considered essential to successful problem solving; the programs they produced were more compact, well-structured, and contained fewer errors. Moreover, children tended to reflect on their solutions more often than if they learned alone. The interviews conducted after the camp revealed that the participating parents and children alike found great pleasure in learning to program collaboratively. In addition, the parents felt that the collaboration enabled them to gain a better understanding of their children and develop a closer parent-child relationship.


The non-destructive structure characterisation of surface layers for various kinds of ball bearings can be a powerful method in surface characterization and in quality control. The ball bearings were made of 100Cr6 steel and they were superfinished and mechanically burnished. An application of classical X-ray diffraction sin2ψ method and classical Bragg-Brentano diffraction geometry in these kinds of surface examinations make some problems in term of X-ray real depth of penetration. An application of methods based on grazing angle X-ray diffraction geometry, made possible to get real value of residual macro-stresses, retained austenite and additionally could be suitable in estimation of their gradient-like distribution versus depth under surface. An application of this geometry to X-ray diffraction phase analysis enabled to get phase contents versus thickness under surface in non-destructive way as well. The results are not infected by gradient-like distribution. The X-ray quantitative phase analysis was used to establish volume fraction of transformed retained austenite. Theoretical calculation of residual macro-stresses due to volume fraction of transformed austenite in ball bearings and following measurements of residual stresses were curried out as well. The mechanical burnishing of ball bearings caused big compressive residual stresses about – 1000 MPa and phase transformation of austenite in thin surface layer. These factors can influence on properties of following exploitation and durability.


The present paper evaluates whether the adaptive market hypothesis provides a better description of the behavior of Indian stock market using daily values of Sensex and Nifty, the two major indices of India from January 1991 to April 2013. We employed linear and nonlinear methods to evaluate the hypothesis empirically. The linear tests show a cyclical pattern in linear dependence suggesting that the Indian stock market switched between periods of efficiency and inefficiency. However, the results from nonlinear tests reveal a strong evidence of nonlinearity in returns throughout the sample period with a sign of the taping magnitude of nonlinear dependence in the recent period. The findings suggest that Indian stock market is still in the first stage of AMH and hence calls for an active portfolio management for excess returns.


The study of distribution testing has become ubiquitous in the area of property testing, both for its theoretical appeal, as well as for its applications in other fields of Computer Science. The original distribution testing model relies on samples drawn independently from the distribution to be tested. However, when testing distributions over the $n$-dimensional Hamming cube $\left\{0,1\right\}^{n}$ for a large $n$, even reading a few samples is infeasible. To address this, Goldreich and Ron [ITCS 2022] have defined a model called the huge object model, in which the samples may only be queried in a few places. In this work, we initiate a study of a general class of properties in the huge object model, those that are invariant under a permutation of the indices of the vectors in $\left\{0,1\right\}^{n}$, while still not being necessarily fully symmetric as per the definition used in traditional distribution testing. We prove that every index-invariant property satisfying a bounded VC-dimension restriction admits a property tester with a number of queries independent of n. To complement this result, we argue that satisfying only index-invariance or only a VC-dimension bound is insufficient to guarantee a tester whose query complexity is independent of n. Moreover, we prove that the dependency of sample and query complexities of our tester on the VC-dimension is tight. As a second part of this work, we address the question of the number of queries required for non-adaptive testing. We show that it can be at most quadratic in the number of queries required for an adaptive tester of index-invariant properties. This is in contrast with the tight exponential gap for general non-index-invariant properties. Finally, we provide an index-invariant property for which the quadratic gap between adaptive and non-adaptive query complexities for testing is almost tight.


We propose a new auditory inspired feature extraction technique for automatic speech recognition (ASR). Features are extracted by filtering the temporal trajectory of spectral energies in each critical band of speech by a bank of finite impulse response (FIR) filters. Impulse responses of these filters are derived from a modified Gabor envelope in order to emulate asymmetries of the temporal receptive field (TRF) profiles observed in higher level auditory neurons. We obtain $11.4% $ relative improvement in word error rate on OGI-Digits database and, $3.2%$ relative improvement in phoneme error rate on TIMIT database over the MRASTA technique.


Integrative simulations are based on a calculated bre orientation from which the local material properties can be derived in several ways. For instance the micro-mechanical model proposed by Tandon and Weng may be used coupled with an orientation averaging approach to include the bre orientation. This approach then gives the elastic properties of the bre matrix compound with a strong dependency, of e.g. the elastic modulus, on the bre orientation. Modeling failure for nite element simulations, e.g. crash, also requires knowledge of the bre orientation, because the failure strains and energy dissipation also depend on the orientation of the bres [1, 2]. The accuracy of the calculated bre orientation depends on several simulation input parameters, which are not necessarily physical properties. The most important example is the bre interaction coe cient ( c). This parameter allows the user to modify the calculated bre orientation from isotropic to transversely isotropic [3]. In this paper a new experimental method to determine the bre interaction coe cient is presented. The classical approach to validate the calculated bre orientation would be the usage of optical microscope images of cut surfaces of the specimen and the calculation of the bre orientation by measuring the cut ellipsis dimensions. This method is very time consuming and with respective to the necessary magni cation not very accurate, because not all bres can be accounted for. The new method is using a model based algorithm to analyze three-dimensional micro computer tomography measurements. This enables the identi cation of up to 90% of the bres within the specimen and calculate a second order orientation tensor and the bre length distribution in any arbitrary space. Due to the fact that a model based algorithm is used, the bre detection can also be performed, if the density of the matrix polymer is near to the density of the bre material. This is a novelty to existing bre orientation measurements with computer tomography. To obtain reliable data which can be directly compared with injection moulding simulations, several steps had to be taken. First of all a representative volume must be de ned, in which the bre orientation will be evaluated. This representative volume must be the same in the injection moulding simulation and the μCT measurement. As the injection moulding model is already discretized, the representative volume is set as a stack of nite elements over the part thickness. To calculate the second order orientation tensor in exactly the same geometrical space and the same coordinate system as in the injection moulding simulation, it was necessary to develop a method which allows a reconstruction of the original part from which the μCT specimen was taken. A special painting and evaluation procedure were implemented into the existing method to recalculate the original position and orientation of the specimen, enabling us to achieve the desired measurements. At the moment the determination of the bre interaction coe cient requires still many injection moulding simulations, which then are compared to the measured values. This allows for a more