This study assesses the feasibility and acceptability of future infant feeding video support after hospital discharge, and investigates general views on the potential of other communication technology in a remote and rural area of Scotland. Mixed survey and qualitative methods were used. A consecutive sample of 403 women were given a questionnaire at discharge from post-natal wards and 91 responded. From the respondents, 20 volunteers were purposively selected for in-depth semi-structured telephone interviews 6–8 weeks after birth. Results demonstrated that two-thirds of survey respondents had access to video communication technology, and 86% supported the availability of an infant feeding video link to the National Health Service, dependent on reassurance that it would be timely, maintain continuity of care and be available from home any time of day or night. However, less than 25% of the survey respondents stated that they would definitely or probably use video via mobile or Internet for advice on breastfeeding problems. When provided with four common post-natal scenarios, the majority preferred face-to-face, followed by telephone support. Rural respondents had reservations about the potential impact of video support on existing face-to-face services, and concerns were raised about ensuring privacy and security. There was no evidence to suggest that support for video link varied depending upon feeding method or experience. No single technology solution suited all women; therefore, any innovations should take account of difference in preference and be multifaceted in terms of encompassing a range of means of communication.


: A social index derived from examinations of prospective first graders is used for health reporting in the Federal State of Brandenburg. The Brandenburg social index consists of data from the medical examinations, which contain social anamnesis questions. Based on parents' education and employment, the social index is computed for each child and finally each child is assigned to a group of lower, middle or higher socioeconomic status. The simply made social index is not only used for analysing health and social inequalities but also for analysing the social situation and trends of young families. Social index data for prospective first graders have ben collected since 1994. Thus, the social index is part of the social reporting in Brandenburg. The present article illustrates with examples how the index is used. Finally, it is mentioned that the Brandenburg government uses the social index to control finances in the language promotion for kindergarteners in day-care centres.


We develop a model of international trade between two symmetric countries that features inter-group inequality between entrepreneurs and workers, and also intra-group inequality within each of those two groups. Individuals in the economy are heterogeneous with respect to their entrepreneurial ability, and firms run by more able entrepreneurs have a higher productivity level and make higher profits. There is rent-sharing at the firm level due to fair wage preferences of workers, and hence firms with higher profits pay higher wages in equilibrium in order to elicit their workers' full effort. We show that in this framework international trade leads to a self-selection of the best firms into export status, and aggregate welfare increases if this selection effect is sufficiently strong. Gains from trade are accompanied by larger inequality along multiple dimensions: Involuntary unemployment and income inequality between entrepreneurs and workers increase, and so does inequality within these two subgroups of individuals, as measured by the respective Gini coefficients. JEL Code: F12, F15, F16.


All organisms consist of cells that are enclosed by a cell membrane containing bipolar lipids and proteins. Glycerophospholipids are important not only as structural and functional components of cellular membrane but also as precursors of various lipid mediators. Polyunsaturated fatty acids comprising arachidonic acid or eicosapentaenoic acid are located at sn-2 position, but not at sn-1 position of glycerophospholipids in an asymmetrical manner. In addition to the asymmetry, the membrane diversity is important for membrane fluidity and curvature. To explain the asymmetrical distribution of fatty acids, the rapid turnover of sn-2 position was proposed in 1958 by Lands [Lands WE (1958) Metabolism of glycerolipides: A comparison of lecithin and triglyceride synthesis. J Biol Chem 231:883–888]. However, the molecular mechanisms and biological significance of the asymmetry remained unknown. Here, we describe a putative enzyme superfamily consisting mainly of three gene families, which catalyzes the transfer of acyl-CoAs to lysophospholipids to produce different classes of phospholipids. Among them, we characterized three important enzymes with different substrate specificities and tissue distributions; one, termed lysophosphatidylcholine acyltransferase-3 (a mammalian homologue of Drosophila nessy critical for embryogenesis), prefers arachidonoyl-CoA, and the other two enzymes incorporate oleoyl-CoAs to lysophosphatidylethanolamine and lysophosphatidylserine. Thus, we propose that the membrane diversity is produced by the concerted and overlapped reactions with multiple enzymes that recognize both the polar head group of glycerophospholipids and various acyl-CoAs. Our findings constitute a critical milestone for our understanding about how membrane diversity and asymmetry are established and their biological significance.


In this paper, the design of the single cuboids cavity model of cavity is on the basis of national defense works and human defense works design specifications, with which to get the distribution of blast load on the wall of typical cavity and the destroy model. In experiment, we added the mass of explosive until the construction is destroyed. Data of pressure-time curve of blast load and acceleration-time curve of the structure wall vibration are used to analyze the distribution of blast load and the destruction form of structure, and to be the basis of further research on other kinds of underground cavity.


The evolution of medical education, from a time-based to a competency-based platform, began nearly 30 years ago and continues to slowly take shape. The development of valid and reproducible assessment tools is the first step. Medical educators across specialties acknowledge the challenges and remain motivated to develop a relevant, generalizable, and measurable system. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) remains committed to its responsibility to the public by assuring that the process and outcome of graduate medical education in the nation's residency programs produce competent, safe, and compassionate doctors. The Milestones Project is the ACGME's current strategy in the evolution to a competency-based system, which allows each specialty to develop its own set of subcompetencies and 5-level progression, or milestones, along a continuum of novice to expert. The education community has now had nearly 5 years of experience with these rubrics. While not perfect, Milestones 1.0 provided important foundational information and insights. The first iteration of the Anesthesiology Milestones highlighted some mismatch between subcompetencies and current and future clinical practices. They have also highlighted challenges with assessment and evaluation of learners, and the need for faculty development tools. Committed to an iterative process, the ACGME assembled representatives from stakeholder groups within the Anesthesiology community to develop the second generation of Milestones. This special article describes the foundational data from Milestones 1.0 that was useful in the development process of Milestones 2.0, the rationale behind the important changes, and the additional tools made available with this iteration.


Botanic gardens in the Arabian Peninsula and adjacent countries, along with institutions such as museums, universities and research centres, have long played a major role in the exploration, identification and conservation of this region's flora and vegetation. The primary aim of botanic gardens in the past was to study the plant world from the horticultural point of view and to cultivate plants of economic or medicinal importance. However, at present, particularly in arid regions such as the Arabian Peninsula, the activities of botanic gardens are focused primarily on (i) the study and exploration of the region's rapidly vanishing flora, thereby safeguarding gene pools of wild species, and (ii) the assessment and preservation of species that may be of importance to humans and animals for food, medicines, fibre and amenity. Recently established botanic gardens in the region, including the proposed King Abdullah International Gardens in Riyadh and Oman Botanic Garden near Muscat, will enhance existing conservation activities concerning the ailing and rapidly vanishing floristic components of the Arabian Peninsula.


Long Island Sound is one of the largest estuaries along the Atlantic coast of the United States. It is a glacially produced, semi-enclosed, northeast-southwest-trending embayment, which is 150 km long and 30 km across at its widest point. Its mean water depth is approximately 24 m. The eastern end of the Sound opens to the Atlantic Ocean through several large passages between islands, whereas the western end is connected to New York Harbor through a narrow tidal strait. Long Island Sound abuts the New York-Connecticut metropolitan area and contains more than 8 million people within its watershed. A study of the modern sedimentary environments on the sea floor within the Long Island Sound estuarine system was undertaken as part of a larger research program by the U.S. Geological Survey (Coastal and Marine Geology Program) conducted in cooperation with the State of Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Knowledge of the bottom sedimentary environments was needed to discern the long-term fate of wastes and contaminants that have been, or potentially will be, introduced into the system and to help understand the distribution of benthic biologic habitats.


OBJECTIVE
To explore an ideal program for acupuncture treatment of Tourette's syndrome (TS).

METHODS
One hundred and two cases of TS were randomly divided into a treatment group of 68 cases and a control group of 34 cases. The treatment group were treated with acupuncture at Taichong (LR 3) and Hegu (LI 4) as main, and the control group with oral administration of heloperidol. Their therapeutic effects were compared, and changes of somatosensory evoked potentials (SEP) before and after treatment were investigated in the treatment group.

RESULTS
After treatment for 3 courses, 56 cases were cured, 10 improved and 2 ineffective with an effective rate of 97.1% in the treatment group; and 15 cases were cured, 11 improved and 8 ineffective with an effective rate of 76.5% in the control group, with a very significant difference in the effective rate between the two groups (P < 0.001); after treatment, the abnormal rate of SEP decreased by 41.1% in the treatment group (P < 0.001).

CONCLUSION
Acupuncture is a very effective therapy for TS and has a certain restoring action on mild abnormal change of SEP.


Energy savings from passive solar design applied to a typical Canadian house were quantified using calibrated whole building energy simulation. A detailed energy simulation model was created for a research house which represents a typical Canadian tract house with basic passive solar measures. The model was calibrated to measured furnace gas consumption data. Eight design scenarios were evaluated for eight climate locations. Design parameters included increased thermal mass, increased south window area, and high performance windows. In addition, an advanced house scenario was evaluated which featured optimized geometry, a further increase in south window area, high thermal mass, advanced glazing, and no north facing windows. For the typical house predicted solar heating fractions ranged from 20% to 34% with basic passive solar measures, and 35% to 52% for more aggressive passive solar measures. For the advanced house predicted solar fractions ranged from 40% to 69%.


Gwinnett County completed a Watershed Impact Assessment and Watershed Protection Plan in 2000 that identified the need for improvements in areas of the County that have been adversely impacted as a result stormwater runoff. To address these conditions, the County began a comprehensive, performance-based Watershed Improvement Planning (WIP) program focused on improving and protecting water quality and conditions in streams. Included in the WIPs are prioritized lists of Capital Improvement Project (CIP) recommendations such as Best Management Practice implementation and stream restoration and stabilization projects. To date we have completed WIPs for approximately 290 square miles, or 2/3 of the County, with Capital Improvement recommendation on the order of $150,000,000. Due to lack of funding, initially about the only means to implement recommended Capital Improvements was to scrounge for leftover funds in unspent budgets or apply for Grants and hope our applications would be successful. As a result of WIP efforts, however, policies and programs have been developed, or have evolved, to fund recommended watershed improvements. The following identifies some of the funding sources being use to implement WIP/CIP recommendations at a number of locations in Gwinnett County.


Summary The non-specific binding of anticoagulantly-active heparin to plasma proteins may influence its anticoagulant effect. We used low affinity heparin (LAH) essentially devoid of anti-factor Xa activity to investigate the extent and possible mechanism of this non-specific binding. The addition of excess LAH to platelet-poor plasma containing a fixed amount of unfractionated heparin doubled the anti-factor Xa activity presumably because it displaces anticoagulantly-active heparin from plasma proteins. Although dextran sulfates of varying molecular weights also increased the anti-factor Xa activity, less sulfated heparin-like polysaccharides had no effect. These findings suggest that the ability to displace active heparin from plasma protein binding sites is related to charge and may be independent of molecular size. In contrast to its effect in plasma containing unfractionated heparin, there was little augmentation in anti-factor Xa activity when LAH was added to plasma containing low molecular weight heparin (LMWH), indicating that LMWH binds less to plasma proteins than unfractionated heparin. This concept is supported by studies comparing the anticoagulant activity of unfractionated heparin and LMWH in plasma with that in buffer containing antithrombin III. The anti-factor Xa activity of unfractionated heparin was 2-fold less in plasma than in the purified system. In contrast, LMWH had identical anti-factor Xa activity in both plasma and buffer, respectively. These findings may be clinically relevant because the recovered anti-factor Xa activity of unfractionated heparin was 33% lower in plasma from patients with suspected venous thrombosis than in plasma from healthy volunteers. The reduced heparin recovery in patient plasma reflects increased heparin binding to plasma proteins because the addition of LAH augmented the anti-factor Xa activity. In contrast to unfractionated heparin, there was complete recovery of LMWH added to patient plasma and little increase of anti-factor Xa activity after the addition of LAH. These findings may explain why LMWH gives a more predictable dose response than unfractionated heparin.


Extracellular fibroblast growth factor 1 (FGF1) acts through cell surface tyrosine kinase receptors, but FGF1 can also act directly in the cell nucleus, as a result of nuclear import of endogenously produced, non-secreted FGF1 or by transport of extracellular FGF1 via endosomes and cytosol into the nucleus. In the nucleus, FGF1 can be phosphorylated by protein kinase C δ (PKCδ), and this event induces nuclear export of FGF1. To identify intracellular targets of FGF1 we performed affinity pull-down assays and identified nucleolin, a nuclear multifunctional protein, as an interaction partner of FGF1. We confirmed a direct nucleolin-FGF1 interaction by surface plasmon resonance and identified residues of FGF1 involved in the binding to be located within the heparin binding site. To assess the biological role of the nucleolin-FGF1 interaction, we studied the intracellular trafficking of FGF1. In nucleolin depleted cells, exogenous FGF1 was endocytosed and translocated to the cytosol and nucleus, but FGF1 was not phosphorylated by PKCδ or exported from the nucleus. Using FGF1 mutants with reduced binding to nucleolin and a FGF1-phosphomimetic mutant, we showed that the nucleolin-FGF1 interaction is critical for the intranuclear phosphorylation of FGF1 by PKCδ and thereby the regulation of nuclear export of FGF1.


This article adopts the asymmetric DCC with one exogenous variable (ADCCX) model developed by Vargas (2008), by updating the concept of 'volatility surprise' to capture cross-market relationships. Current methods for measuring spillovers do not focus on volatility interactions, and neglect cross-effects between the conditional variances. This paper aims to fill this gap. The dataset includes four aggregate indices representing equities, bonds, foreign exchange rates and commodities from 1983 to 2013. The results provide strong evidence of spillover effects coming from the 'volatility surprise' component across markets. Against the background of the recent financial crisis, the aim is to contribute to the literature on the interdependencies of financial markets, both in conditional means and (co)variances. In addition, asset management implications are derived.


The microorganisms responsible for anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) coupled to denitrification have not been clearly elucidated. Three recent publications suggested it can be achieved by a denitrifying bacterium with or without the involvement of anaerobic methanotrophic archaea. A key factor limiting the progress in this research field is the shortage of enrichment cultures performing denitrifying anaerobic methane oxidation (DAMO). In this study, DAMO cultures were enriched from mixed inoculum including sediment from a freshwater lake, anaerobic digester sludge and return activated sludge from a sewage treatment plant. Two reactors, operated at 35°C and at 22°C, respectively, showed simultaneous methane oxidation and nitrate reduction after several months of operation. Analysis of 16S rRNA gene clone libraries from the 35°C enrichment showed the presence of an archaeon closely related to other DAMO archaea and a dominated bacterium belonging to the yet uncultivated NC10 phylum. This culture preferred nitrite to nitrate as the electron acceptor. The present study suggests that the archaea are rather methanotrophs than methanogens. The highest denitrification rate achieved was 2.35 mmol NO3 (-) -N gVSS(-1)  day(-1) . The culture enriched at 22°C contained the same NC10 bacterium observed in the culture enriched at 35°C but no archaea.


In a previous paper, the ogdH gene that encodes 2-oxoglutarate dehydrogenase was isolated from Salmonella typhimurium. The catalytic N-terminal region in the enzyme was found to be very specific for the Salmonella species. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to detect S. typhimurium in food sources using primers designed for OGDH-1 and OGDH-2 which were based on the salmonella-specific region of the ogdH gene. A simple polymerase chain reaction (PCR) detection method was developed to detect low numbers of S. typhimurium in a chicken meat microbial consortium. Using the ogdH-specific primers under stringent amplification conditions and for gene probe analysis, fewer than 100 colony-forming units (CFUs) were detectable when pure cultures were employed. When the PCR assay was run on S. typhimurium-contaminated meat contents, only the positive meat samples containing as few as 200 CFUs reacted to the assay. The method employed for sample processing is simple and it was determined to provide a sensitive means of detecting trace amounts of S. typhimurium-specific sequences in the presence of mixed meat microbial populations. When compared with six representative intestinal gram-negative bacterial strains in foods, including Vibrio parahaemolyticus, V. vulnificus, Enterobacter cloacae, E. coli O157:H7, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and Proteus sp., S. typhimurium had a unique and distinct PCR product (796 bp). In conclusion, the two OGDH primers were found to be rapid and sensitive detectors of Salmonella spp for the PCR method.


The watersports industry is one of the biggest growing sectors in an already massive leisure market. Because of the industry growing at the rate it has been there have been some areas which have not been given the full attention they should. One of these is the area that this report is going to be looking at.
'Guidelines of engine suitability for safety boats' There is a real lack of knowledge within in the structure of RYA (Royal Yachting Association) recognised establishments (such as sailing clubs/centres) on what is the right engine size for the conditions and usage that they give there safety boats.
The main reason for this report coming to light at all was because of a conversation had with a member of the RYA...
Data has been collected through questionnaire and interview on what the industry is using for safety boats and what type of engines they have. This has been pulled together and analysed to produce the second part of the report.
This included carrying out an experiment to help determine to actual power required to tow certain dinghies. Also to produce guidelines on what type of engine suits the relevant types of usage that centres/sailing clubs might require.


Mitochondrial parameters in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) and their relationship with mitochondrially-driven PBMC apoptosis were investigated in a group of HIV-1-infected long-term nonprogressors (LTNP) and compared with untreated asymptomatic HIV-1 infected typical progressors (TP) and uninfected healthy controls (HC). Twenty-six LTNP, 27 TP and 31 HC were evaluated. Studies were performed in PBMCs. Mitochondrial DNA content (mtDNA) was assessed by quantitative real-time PCR. Activities of mitochondrial respiratory chain complexes (MRC) II, III and IV were determined by spectrophotometry. Caspase-3 activity was assessed by fluorimetry, and caspase-9 activation and Bcl-2 levels were assessed by immunoblotting. mtDNA abundance (p<0.05), MRC complex II (p<0.001), complex III (p<0.01) and complex IV (p=0.01) were lower in the TP group than in the HC group. In the LTNP group these parameters were similar to those of the HC group except for complex II, which was decreased (p<0.01). The PBMC of TP showed the highest overall apoptotic activation, since their caspase-3 activity was greater than that of HC (p<0.05) and LTNP. In the case of LTNP, however, the difference was non-significant. Caspase-9 and the caspase-9/Bcl-2 ratio were both over-expressed in TP compared to HC (p<0.01) and LTNP (p<0.05). Both of these measurements indicate that mitochondrially-driven apoptosis in TP is greater than in LTNP and HC. A relationship between mitochondrial damage and apoptotic activation was found in TP. Mitochondrial damage is associated with increased PBMC apoptosis in patients with active HIV-1 replication (TP). These abnormalities are slight or not present in LTNP.


Background Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress has been suggested to play a role in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). The three branches (ATF6, IRE1 and PERK) of the unfolded protein response (UPR) have different roles and are not necessarily activated simultaneously. Methodology/Principal Findings Expression of UPR-related genes was investigated in colonic and ileal biopsies of 23 controls, 15 ulcerative colitis (UC) and 54 Crohn's disease (CD) patients. This expression was confirmed at protein level in colonic and ileal samples of five controls, UC and CD patients. HSPA5, PDIA4 and XBP1s were significantly increased in colonic IBD at mRNA and/or protein levels, indicating activation of the ATF6 and IRE1 branch. Colonic IBD was associated with increased phosphorylation of EIF2A suggesting the activation of the PERK branch, but subsequent induction of GADD34 was not observed. In ileal CD, no differential expression of the UPR-related genes was observed, but our data suggested a higher basal activation of the UPR in the ileal mucosa of controls. This was confirmed by the increased expression of 16 UPR-related genes as 12 of them were significantly more expressed in ileal controls compared to colonic controls. Tunicamycin stimulation of colonic and ileal samples of healthy individuals revealed that although the ileal mucosa is exhibiting this higher basal UPR activation, it is still responsive to ER stress, even more than colonic mucosa. Conclusions/Significance Activation of the three UPR-related arms is seen in colonic IBD-associated inflammation. However, despite EIF2A activation, inflamed colonic tissue did not increase GADD34 expression, which is usually involved in re-establishment of ER homeostasis. This study also implies the presence of a constitutive UPR activation in healthy ileal mucosa, with no further activation during inflammation. Therefore, engagement of the UPR differs between colon and ileum and this could be a factor in the development of ileal or colonic disease.


Background In recent years, an increasing number of users have joined online health communities (OHCs) to obtain information and seek support. Patients often look for information and suggestions to support their health care decision-making. It is important to understand patient decision-making processes and identify the influences that patients receive from OHCs. Objective We aimed to identify the posts in discussion threads that have influence on users who seek help in their decision-making. Methods We proposed a definition of influence relationship of posts in discussion threads. We then developed a framework and a deep learning model for identifying influence relationships. We leveraged the state-of-the-art text relevance measurement methods to generate sparse feature vectors to present text relevance. We modeled the probability of question and action presence in a post as dense features. We then used deep learning techniques to combine the sparse and dense features to learn the influence relationships. Results We evaluated the proposed techniques on discussion threads from a popular cancer survivor OHC. The empirical evaluation demonstrated the effectiveness of our approach. Conclusions It is feasible to identify influence relationships in OHCs. Using the proposed techniques, a significant number of discussions on an OHC were identified to have had influence. Such discussions are more likely to affect user decision-making processes and engage users' participation in OHCs. Studies on those discussions can help improve information quality, user engagement, and user experience.


We present solutions of the transit light curves and transit timing variations (TTVs) analyses of the exoplanets HAT-P-5b, HAT-P-9b and HAT-P-25b. Transit light curves were collected at Canakkale Onsekiz Mart University Observatory and TUBITAK National Observatory. The models were produced by WINFITTER program and stellar, planetary and orbital properties were obtained and discussed. We gave new transit times and generated TTVs with them by appending additional data based on Exoplanet Transit Database (ETD). Significant signals at the TTVs were also investigated.


As a unique and endangered species in the family Salicaceae, Chosenia arbutifolia (Pall.) A. Skv. has great potential for use in ornamental and industrial purposes. Despite its comprehensive importance, the phylogenetic position of C. arbutifolia within Salicaceae is still ambiguous. In the present study, the whole chloroplast genome of C. arbutifolia was sequenced and compared with the genome of other Salicaceae species. A phylogenetic tree was established based on the maximum-likelihood (ML) methods. The de novo assemblies generated 155684 bp in length for the completed cp genome of C. arbutifolia, including a large single-copy region of 84551 bp, a small single-copy region of 16217 bp, and two inverted repeat regions of 27458 bp each. In total, 130 genes were predicted, of which 85 protein-coding genes were annotated in at least one of the five reference databases. In the repeat analysis, 23 forward, 15 palindromic, one complement, one reverse long repeats, and 221 putative SSRs were identified. The results of genome comparison showed that the large single copy region (LSC) region was more divergent than the small single copy region (SSC) and inverted repeated (IR) regions, and a higher divergence occurred in non-coding regions than in coding regions. Significant contractions or expansions were also observed at the IR-LSC/SSC boundaries. Phylogenetic analysis of 20 Salicaceae species confirmed that C. arbutifolia is closely related to Salix species and may therefore be treated as a member of the genus Salix. The complete C. arbutifolia chloroplast genome will provide insight into the chloroplast architecture, function, and evolution of this species and provide additional resources for future research.


Significance In the brain's functional organization, the default mode network (DMN) represents a key architecture, whose dysregulation is involved in a host of major neuropsychiatric disorders. However, insights into the regulation of the DMN remain scarce. Through neural synchrony, the alpha-frequency oscillation represents another key underpinning of the brain's organization and is thought to share an inherent interdependence with the DMN. Here, we demonstrated that transcranial alternating current stimulation of alpha oscillations (α-tACS) not only augmented alpha activity but also strengthened connectivity of the DMN, with the former serving as a mediator of the latter. These findings reveal that alpha oscillations can support DMN functioning. In addition, they identify an effective noninvasive approach to regulate the DMN via α-tACS. The default mode network (DMN) is the most-prominent intrinsic connectivity network, serving as a key architecture of the brain's functional organization. Conversely, dysregulated DMN is characteristic of major neuropsychiatric disorders. However, the field still lacks mechanistic insights into the regulation of the DMN and effective interventions for DMN dysregulation. The current study approached this problem by manipulating neural synchrony, particularly alpha (8 to 12 Hz) oscillations, a dominant intrinsic oscillatory activity that has been increasingly associated with the DMN in both function and physiology. Using high-definition alpha-frequency transcranial alternating current stimulation (α-tACS) to stimulate the cortical source of alpha oscillations, in combination with simultaneous electroencephalography and functional MRI (EEG-fMRI), we demonstrated that α-tACS (versus Sham control) not only augmented EEG alpha oscillations but also strengthened fMRI and (source-level) alpha connectivity within the core of the DMN. Importantly, increase in alpha oscillations mediated the DMN connectivity enhancement. These findings thus identify a mechanistic link between alpha oscillations and DMN functioning. That transcranial alpha modulation can up-regulate the DMN further highlights an effective noninvasive intervention to normalize DMN functioning in various disorders.


OBJECTIVE
This study aimed to investigate the effect of platelet-rich plasma (PRP) and platelet-rich fibrin matrix (PRFM) on the healing of vertical medial meniscal tears in a rabbit model.

METHODS
The study was conducted on 72 New Zealand mature rabbits aged more than 6 months. Rabbits were randomly assigned to six groups: control (C) group, meniscal repair (MR) group, PRP group, PRFM group, MR+PRP group, and MR+PRFM group, with 12 rabbits in each group. A 5-mm full-thickness vertical tear was created in the avascular zone of the medial meniscus corpus in the right knee of all rabbits. The respective treatment for each group was given to the meniscal tear in each rabbit. Histological evaluation of healing was performed 6 and 12 weeks after surgery.

RESULTS
Defect filling and collagen formation remained low in the C group. However, in all other groups, there was no significant difference in the 6th week. In the 12th week, similar results as those obtained in the 6th week were obtained. In the C group, there was a difference in defect filling and cell type. This difference was that the defect filling and collagen formation remained low in the 12th week. No significant difference was observed between MR, MR + PRP and MR + PRFM groups. The MR group significantly differed from the other groups in the defect-filling rate and cell type; however, the use of PRP and PRFM did not provide an obvious benefit.

CONCLUSION
The contradictory results obtained in previous studies emphasize the need for further research on the use of PRP in meniscal recovery and repair. We believe that if surgery is indicated, repair is absolutely necessary to improve the healing of the tissue in meniscal tears. Studies using human meniscal tissue for meniscal injury and those that evaluate clinical applications of PRP are warranted.


Vasculitis is a process caused by inflammation of blood vessel walls and results in a variety of disorders.  Small-vessel vasculitis (vasculitis involving arteries, venules and capillaries) should be suspected in any patient who presents with a multisystem disease that is not caused by an infectious or malignant process. Testing for Antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody (ANCA) is the basis of classification of small vessel vasculitis into ANCA associated and non - ANCA associated vasculitis. Apart from cutaneous manifestations like palpable purpura and vasculitic urticaria, digital gangrene in a patient with evidence of mononeuritis multiplex is highly suggestive of ANCA associated vasculitis (AAV). Clinically most of these vasculitides have overlapping clinical presentations and similar treatment. Early diagnosis and rapid initiation of treatment of AAV is recommended rather than ordering for definitive tests (e.g. histopathology or angiograms) since delay in treatment can result in serious end organ damage (pulmonary or renal).


This Book Review is brought to you for free and open access by the Journals at Scholar Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal by an authorized editor of Scholar Commons. For more information, please contact firstname.lastname@example.com. Recommended Citation Federman, Sarah (2018) "Book Review: Prosecuting Corporations for Genocide," Genocide Studies and Prevention: An International Journal: Vol. 12: Iss. 2: 179-184. DOI: https://doi.org/10.5038/1911-9922.214.171.1240


Worldwide, medical errors occur at an unacceptable rate. Fortunately, various steps can be taken to minimise medical errors, including submitting reports to incident reporting systems, following which incidents can be categorised using error classification systems to inform risk management strategies. To this end, a diverse range of classification systems have been developed for different healthcare settings, but primary care in Malaysia has received limited attention. This study was carried out to develop an error classification system for categorising the type of medical errors in Malaysian primary care by integrating and modifying two primary care error classification systems. The new error classification system comprised of eleven major categories that branched into a total of 60 lower categories. After 107 participants analysed three cases studies, the inter-rater reliability of the 11 major categories were found to be low (Krippendorff's alpha = 0.347). Unsurprisingly, the 60 lower categories had an even lower inter-rater reliability (Krippendorff's alpha = 0.143). The participants then provided feedback about the error classification system by completing a modified questionnaire. Most of the participants viewed the error classification system as easy to use and understand. Furthermore, most of them would be willing to use the error classification system again in the future. In summary, this study successfully developed an error classification system for Malaysian primary care. Nevertheless, its low level of reliability would need to be addressed before the system can be adopted by primary care providers.


A multitude of oral lesions, including unique forms of periodontal disease, have been discovered in individuals infected with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Although the frequency of HIV-associated periodontal diseases appears to be less than previously thought, many researchers agree that an important factor influencing the prevalence of unique periodontal disease in the HIV population is the degree of immunodeficiency. The pathogenesis of HIV-associated periodontal diseases remains unclear, but may be the result of microbiota and/or alterations in the host. HIV-gingivitis, now called linear gingival erythema, and HIV-periodontitis, now called necrotizing ulcerative periodontitis, have microbiology profiles similar to conventional adult periodontitis, although these lesions are quite different clinically. This article reviews clinical signs and symptoms, treatments, and the pathogenesis of HIV-related periodontal findings. It specifically focuses on the immuno-incompetence of HIV disease as a risk factor for periodontal disease. Because the caseload of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome patients will increase significantly in the future, the dental practitioner must be able to recognize and manage the periodontal lesions associated with HIV infection.


The placebo and nocebo effect is believed to be mediated by both cognitive and conditioning mechanisms, although little is known about their role in different circumstances. In this study, we first analyzed the effects of opposing verbal suggestions on experimental ischemic arm pain in healthy volunteers and on motor performance in Parkinsonian patients and found that verbally induced expectations of analgesia/hyperalgesia and motor improvement/worsening antagonized completely the effects of a conditioning procedure. We also measured the effects of opposing verbal suggestions on hormonal secretion and found that verbally induced expectations of increase/decrease of growth hormone (GH) and cortisol did not have any effect on the secretion of these hormones. However, if a preconditioning was performed with sumatriptan, a 5-HT1B/1D agonist that stimulates GH and inhibits cortisol secretion, a significant increase of GH and decrease of cortisol plasma concentrations were found after placebo administration, although opposite verbal suggestions were given. These findings indicate that verbally induced expectations have no effect on hormonal secretion, whereas they affect pain and motor performance. This suggests that placebo responses are mediated by conditioning when unconscious physiological functions such as hormonal secretion are involved, whereas they are mediated by expectation when conscious physiological processes such as pain and motor performance come into play, even though a conditioning procedure is performed.


Four dicarboxylato platinum(II) complexes of the general formula [Pt(R(COO)2)(dmso)(N-donor)], where: R(COO)2 – cyclobutane-1,1-dicarboxylato or malonato, dmso – dimethyl sulfoxide and N-donor – 5,7-dimethyl-1,2,4-triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine (dmtp) or 5,7-diphenyl-1,2,4-triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine (dptp), have been synthesized and structurally characterized using multinuclear magnetic resonance (1H, 13C, 15N, and 195Pt) techniques. The NMR parameters unambiguously confirmed the square-planar geometry of Pt(II) in solution with monodentate N(3)-bonded 5,7-disubstituted-1,2,4-triazolo[1,5-a]pyrimidine, monodentate and S-bonded dimethyl sulfoxide and O,O-chelating dicarboxylate ions. The obtained platinum(II) complexes exhibit (i) higher susceptibility to hydrolysis and (ii) lower toxicity and affinity to glutathione in comparison with cisplatin and carboplatin. Additionally, it is noted that two lipophilic platinum(II) complexes: (3) [Pt(mal)(dmso)(dptp)] and (4) [Pt(CBDC)(dmso)(dptp)] display the most gratifying in vitro antiproliferative activity. Above and beyond, these promising coordination compounds exhibit definitely lower toxicity towards normal cells and anticancer activity comparable to that of cisplatin.


To achieve the Government's milestones for 2018, which means that 50 % of food waste shall be separated from household waste and undergo biological treatment (composting or anaerobic digestion). Hultsfred, Hogsby and Vimmerby are three adjacent municipalities of Kalmar, county Smaland. During 2012 and 2013 analyzes were performed on their household waste to determine its composition. The household waste is currently collected in one fraction. The work, examines how much food waste the household waste contains. From the amount of food waste, the biogas potential is examined - how much food waste biogas generates and how much energy it corresponds to. Food waste is broken down by microorganisms under anaerobic conditions (anaerobic digestion) in a biogas plant. The final product of the digestion of food waste is raw biogas and biofertilizer. The work has only considered biogas production. Biogas potential is chosen to be investigated because no previous studies on this have been made. It provides the actual municipalities with an insight about how much biogas and energy that their food waste could generate if they separated food wastes from their household waste. The results of the survey showed that the biogas potential in the three municipalities comprises 247 000 m3/year, corresponding to an energy value of 1,6 GWh/year. The current biogas production in Sweden is at an energy value of 1 473 GWh, which means that the biogas potential in the municipalities is low.


Ab initio electronic structure theory finds the type of magnetic order of the heavy rare earths to be correlated directly with the a and c lattice parameters of their hexagonal-close-packed crystal lattices. We refine our experimental data and obtain magnetic phase diagrams showing magnetic state and transition temperatures versus a and c for Tb and for the alloy Ho(0.4)Gd(0.6). For both systems we mark out the boundaries in a and c space between incommensurate (helical) antiferromagnetic order and ferromagnetic states and find that these agree very well with the theoretical prediction as well as with each other. These data support the proposition of a universal "crystallomagnetic" phase diagram for the heavy rare earths.


From the combined phylogenetic analysis of multi-locus sequence data of the Lecanoraceae including two nuclear protein-coding markers (RPB2 and RPB1), the internal transcribed spacer and a fragment of the mitochondrial small subunit, found that the originally monotypic eastern Asian genus Verseghya is positioned within the Verseghya-Lecidella-Pyrrhospora clade of the Lecanoraceae and includes one more taxon Verseghya thysanophora widely distributed in Northern Hemisphere. The genus Lecidella forming the Lecidella-Glaucomaria subclade within the same Verseghya-Lecidella-Pyrrhospora clade of the Lecanoraceae found to have tendency to be polyphyletic after including the recently described eastern Asian taxon Lecidella mandshurica into phylogenetic analysis of the Lecanoraceae. It is shown that Lecidella mandshurica was previously recorded from China sub Lecidella aff. elaeochroma. The originally monotypic eastern Asian genus Sedelnikovaea forming a monophyletic branch within the Sedelnikovaea-Lecanoropsis subclade and being in out-position to the Rhizoplaca-Protoparmeliopsis s. str. clade of the Lecanoraceae found to include three more taxa, i.e. Sedelnikovaea marginalis, S. pseudogyrophorica, and S. subdiscrepans. The Eurasian Protoparmeliopsis bolcana, and the eastern Asian P. kopachevskae, are illustrated for the first time as being positioned within the Protopameliopsis branch of the Lecanoraceae, while the South Korean 'Protoparmeliopsis' chejuensis found to be positioned in separate monophyletic branch from all other branches of the Rhizoplaca-Protoparmeliopsis s. l. clade of the Lecanoraceae. The genus Polyozosia A. Massal. as earlier name for the former Myriolecis branch of the Lecanoraceae is accepted as far the type species of the latter genus, i.e. P. poliophaea, found to be positioned within this branch. The Polyozosia robust monophyletic branch is positioned in the outermost position in the Rhizoplaca-Protoparmeliopsis s. str. clade of the Lecanoraceae. Position and species content of the accepted genera Glaucomaria, Lecanoropsis, Omphalodina, Polyozosia, and Straminella are discussed in separate nrITS and mtSSU, and combined phylogeny based on concatenated sequences of nrITS, mtSSU, RPB2 and RPB1 genes. Fourty new combinations are proposed: Glaucomaria bicincta, G. carpinea, G. leptyrodes, G. lojkaeana, G. subcarpinea, G. sulphurea, G. swartzii, G. swartzii subsp. caulescens, G. swartzii subsp. nylanderi, Lecanoropsis anopta, L. macleanii, Omphalodina chrysoleuca, O. huashanensis, O. opiniconensis, O. phaedrophthalma, O. pseudistera, Palicella anakeestiicola, Polyozosia albescens, P. andrewii, P. contractula, P. crenulata, P. dispersa, P. hagenii, P. perpruinosa, P. populicola, P. pruinosa, P. reuteri, P. sambuci, P. semipallida, P. straminea, P. thuleana, Sedelnikovaea marginalis, S. pseudogyrophorica, S. subdiscrepans, Straminella bullata, S. burgaziae, S. conizaeoides, S. densa, S. maheui, S. varia, and Verseghya thysanophora. Validation of one name as Polyozosia perpruinosa Froberg ex S. Y. Kondr. L. Lőkos et Farkas is also proposed.


Three male children were born every 2 years by spontaneous delivery from a mother infected with hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotype 2b, and all have been followed up after birth. The viral load in the serum of the mother was high before their deliveries, and anti-HCV antibody immunoglobulin G, which is allowed to pass through placenta, was positive in the umbilical blood of all the children. Mother-to-child transmission of HCV was confirmed in the second son, who was positive for both anti-HCV antibody and serum HCV RNA when first examined 108 days after birth, but not in the other siblings. Persistent HCV genotype 2b infection with mild elevation of the serum alanine aminotransferase level has been established in the second son for more than 14 years. The interleukin 28B (IL28B) genotype (rs8099917) of the second son showed the TG heterozygote, which is unfavorable for viral clearance, and this may predict persistent HCV infection. Among the three brothers sharing the same delivery conditions with exposure to the same virus, as well as sharing the same environment after birth, HCV infection has not been consistent, and one of them possessing the TG genotype of the IL28B gene (rs8099917) has had chronic HCV infection. These cases suggest that maternal HCV transmission does not occur so often, even among multiple children who are exposed to the same HCV with a high viral load, and that this variation might be attributable to very minor events that can impact on viral exposure in the


Prior to the enactment of the Matrimonial Causes Amendment Act No. 11 of 1987 there were two different sets of divorce laws in Zimbabwe, one applicable to monogamous marriages contracted under the general law and the other to potentially polygamous or polygamous marriages contracted in terms of customary law. Thus the dissolution of monogamous marriages contracted under the Marriage Act, Chapter 37, or under some foreign law look place in terms of Roman-Dutch common law and statute law whereas the dissolution of customary law marriages took place in accordance with customary law.


Variations in the anatomy of the lateral femoral cutaneous nerve (LFCN) have been reported in the literature. LFCN is vulnerable to injury during several surgical operations, therefore any surgeon intervening in the area should be familiar to its topographic variability. Lesion of the nerve leads to a condition known as "meralgia paresthetica". We present a cadaveric case of a variant LFCN where two LFCN branches were encountered arising from the lumbar plexus. In specific the anterior LFCN branch originated from the femoral nerve, whereas at the level of the inguinal ligament, four nerve branches were present. The existence of multiple LFCN branches could lead to diagnostic confusion in case of "meralgia paresthetica", while if the neurosurgeon is not aware of the potential variability during surgical decompression of the nerve, postoperative complications may occur. The supernumerary LFCN branches could be identified by ultrasound imaging and be used as optimum vascularized grafts for sensory nerve repair. KeywOrds: Lateral femoral cutaneous nerve, Multiple branches, Origin, Femoral nerve, Meralgia paresthetica, Nerve grafting


Understanding visual question answering is going to be crucial for numerous human activities. However, it presents major challenges at the heart of the artificial intelligence endeavor. This paper presents an update on the rapid advancements in visual question answering using images that have occurred in the last couple of years. Tremendous growth in research on improving visual question answering system architecture has been published recently, showing the importance of multimodal architectures. Several points on the benefits of visual question answering are mentioned in the review paper by Manmadhan et al. (2020), on which the present article builds, including subsequent updates in the field.


To understand and adapt national healthcare language in Europe to evaluate quality of service provided in wound care.
Methods: A systematic review identifying and exploring relevant United Kingdom (UK) documents relating to quality; aligning to the domains of quality – patient safety, effectiveness and patient experience; tissue viability and its associated services can raise the awareness of the care provided. By giving true and accurate metrics to the domains of quality, tissue viability would be better positioned to ensure future resources and funding for their service.
Results: Patients will be put at the heart of the National Health Service (NHS) through having greater choice and more control of the service provided to them; shared decision making will become the norm, no decision about me without me (DH, 2010). Empowering patients to be involved in the choice of treatment through integrated care can be seen to aid the patient to achieve greater control and self-efficacy over their environment (Wilson, 2010).
Conclusions: The NHS vision for the next 5 years is to achieve "Equity and Excellence" in healthcare (DH, 2010). The UK Government will enable patients to rate hospitals and clinical departments according to the quality of care they receive. There will be a focus on personalised care reflecting individuals" health and care needs, supporting carers and encouraging strong local partnerships. Although this ethos is projected in the UK health care arena, its underpinning philosophy is relevant to the international health care market.


In degraded tropical pastures, active restoration strategies have the potential to facilitate forest regrowth at rates that are faster than natural recovery, enhancing litterfall, and nutrient inputs to the forest floor. We evaluated litterfall and nutrient dynamics under four treatments: plantation (entire area planted), tree islands (planting in six patches of three sizes), control (same age natural regeneration), and young secondary forest (7–9‐yr‐old natural regeneration). Treatments were established in plots of 50 × 50 m at six replicate sites in southern Costa Rica and the annual litterfall production was measured 5 yr after treatment establishment. Planted species included two native timber‐producing hardwoods (Terminalia amazonia and Vochysia guatemalensis) interplanted with two N‐fixing species (Inga edulis and Erythrina poeppigiana). Litter production was highest in secondary forests (7.3 Mg/ha/yr) and plantations (6.3), intermediate in islands (3.5), and lowest in controls (1.4). Secondary forests had higher input of all nutrients except N when compared with the plantation plots. Inga contributed 70 percent of leaffall in the plantations, demonstrating the influence that one species can have on litter quantity and quality. Although tree islands had lower litterfall rates, they were similar to plantations in inputs of Mg, K, P, Zn, and Mn. Tree islands increased litter production and nutrient inputs more quickly than natural regeneration. In addition to being less resource intensive than conventional plantations, this planting design promotes a more rapid increase in litter diversity and more spatial heterogeneity, which can accelerate the rate of nutrient cycling and facilitate forest recovery.


Article history: Received December 28, 2013 Accepted 4 May 2014 Available online May 9 2014 During the past few years, there have been tremendous changes on customer preferences on the architectures and design perspectives. There are many cases where there are big differences between what originally a plan is designed for and what it comes in final stage. Obviously, this may create significant amount of rework, waste and it can increase the cost of building a house, significantly. This paper presents an empirical investigation on factors influencing change in architecture of buildings. The proposed study designs a questionnaire in Likert scale and distributes it among some experts at difference universities in Iran. The study categorizes different factors in terms of "factors reducing change in clients' request", "methods on predicting clients' request", "methods on presenting plans for clients", "Effective parameters on change in plan" and finally "Important actions on change prevention". Using experts' insight, the study ranks various factors in each category. © 2014 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


Scientific computing on grid infrastructures has historically focused on processing vast workloads of independent single-core CPU jobs. Limitations of this approach, however, have motivated a shift towards parallel computing using message passing, multi-core CPUs and computational accelerators, including GPGPUs in particular. Application support for the use of GPGPUs in existing grid infrastructures is still lacking. A model is proposed for the orchestration of GPGPU-enabled applications based on commonly used frameworks such as CUDA and OpenCL. The model makes use of recent advances in remote GPGPU virtualisation, making it possible for an application to access GPGPUs installed on remote hosts. Each physical GPGPU is isolated, creating a pool of virtual GPGPUs that can be allocated independently to jobs. A proof-of-concept Grid supporting virtual GPGPUs has been implemented and tested. It will be shown that users can be provided with a simple yet flexible and powerful mechanism for specifying GPGPU requirements. Furthermore, vGPGPU provision can be fully integrated with existing grid middleware and services. Performance results suggest that improved resource utilisation can compensate for the overhead of remote GPGPU access.


In the present study, efforts were made to assess the awareness level and its correlate with the selected variables among the farmers on World Trade Organization (WTO) issues with special reference to agriculture and also to ascertain the training needs. The study was carried out in the state of Maharashtra and multistage random sampling technique was used for the selection of the respondent farmers. The results revealed that the overall awareness level of farmers on WTO issues related to agriculture was very low. Farmers' education, mass media exposure, social participation and extension contact were found to have positive and significant correlation with their awareness about WTO. Farmers were found to be unaware not only about the structure and functions of WTO, its origin and purpose etc. but also about the provisions under the Agreement on Agriculture and other Intellectual Property Related issues such as the system of plant variety protection in India in general and the Protection of Plant Variety and Farmers Rights Act, 2001 in particular. The present investigation concluded that farmers must be given training on every basic aspects of WTO.


Stick type ignition coil(called a Cigar coil) is a kind of transformer for an automobile modulaized of distributer and electric cable. A material of Cigar coil is PBT GF30% resin. This is an excellent engineering plastic with both mechanical and electrical properties. When we insert an HV terminal into the PBT GF30% resin jacket, it breaks the jacket, because the HV terminal is bigger than the jacket. It is a fatal on durability of a part. In this study, We used ANSYS FEM tool in order to stress analysis by contact in order to automatically estimate possible maximum diameter of an HV terminal, we used an APDL. In the contact part, we considered the relation of the HV terminal's diameter with the amount of stress that occurred. This relation is able to be applied, in part, to the dimensions of the part design.


ABSTRACT The authors provide an overview of what capstone courses do by presenting information from across the field based on materials received from and interviews with technical and professional communication program administrators and faculty. The authors then point to opportunities to improve the course. Finally, the authors argue for sustainable program development as the theoretical framework to perform programmatic work.


Herein, a simple and an environmentally friendly approach is developed to fabricate the novel MnO@C hierarchical structure, derived from Mn-based metal organic frameworks, which is explored as an anode material for lithium ion batteries. Remarkably, the MnO@C microsphere electrode delivers an outstanding, long cycling capacity of 596.3 mA h g−1 at 5C (1C = 765 mA g−1) after 1000 cycles, and an excellent rate performance of 380.1 mA h g−1 at 10C. The overall outstanding properties of the hierarchical MnO@C composite can be attributed to the success of a new strategy for dual structure design, which provides two pathways for effectively alleviating volume changes and enhancing conductivity based on in situ TEM electrochemical experiments and electrochemical impedance spectra. Both the poor conductivity and great volume changes of the MnO electrode material can be effectively improved in two ways: the porous carbon matrix confining the MnO nanoparticles, and the hierarchical nanorod-assembled architecture. The structures herein suggest new design concepts for metal oxide nanoarchitectures for high performance electrode materials in lithium ion batteries.


The number of people age 65 and older in the United States (US) is growing at a significant rate: It is expected that older adults will account for 19% of the population by 20301. Many of the elderly population have chronic diseases and special needs that lead them to live in public housing or nursing homes. The following paper examines the state of emergency preparedness in low-income senior high rises in the City of Pittsburgh and Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. Interviews with residents and housing authority staff revealed well devised emergency plans but a lack of comprehensive implementation of these plans. Emergency preparedness, before a disaster hits, is vital for the survival of older people who reside in senior high-rises. Ensuring that the best possible emergency plans are in place to protect the elderly is an important step toward improving public health in emergency situations.


The field emission of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) synthesized from different sources is investigated. Comparisons are made between graphite with Ni metal as catalyst and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon as precursor in arc discharge. Key parameters are also evaluated to obtain high quality and high yield CNT for application of field emission display. Cathode deposits are examined using SEM and HRTEM to determine microstructure. Raman spectroscopy is also used to study carbon structure. Electron field emission characteristic is measured with the diode method. Microstructural investigation provides evidence that both metal catalyst and precursor not only can be used to synthesize CNTs but also to enhance their production rate. From field emission measurement, the lowest onset field is about 1.0 V/mm and can be attributed to highly sharp tips and high density of CNTs. Based on microstructure characterization and field emission measurement, influence on field emission of CNT synthesized from different sources is discussed.


This work investigates possible methods by which existing potentially available communication bandwidth can be used by communication intensive applications. Presently fiber optic media are available that can provide multiple gigabits of throughput. Unfortunately, because of the computation overhead required to insure that data are reliably transmitted this capacity has not been tapped.
A survey of work toward enabling the use of the potential bandwidth is presented. The parallel paradigm is identified as a strong candidate for providing significant increases in system usable bandwidth. Performing communication processing in parallel, however, presents the developer with several implementation options. These options are considered and categorized. This categorization represents a framework that is used in later analysis to compare different approaches and architectures.
Because the number of options available represents a combinatorial explosion in the number of software and hardware architectures that could be implemented, a sensitivity analysis is performed to exclude obvious failures, as well as to identify those components that need further study and close consideration. Some components are identified as limiters to total throughput obtainable; these components warrant special attention when implementing a parallel communication system.
Building on results obtained through the sensitivity analysis, a testbed was then built and used to obtain performance data for one promising architecture and approach. The results for two and three channels implementations show near linear speedups. These results were then used to verify a model of the system used to calculate throughput values for systems with higher numbers of channels.
In order to more fully examine other promising architectures, a simulation program was developed and exercised. The simulation examined the impact of traditional communication parameters, such as window size and timer length, on performance in a parallel system. Further, the simulation confirmed some of the results of the sensitivity analysis and provided insight to the viability of two algorithms to implement flow control in a parallel environment. Additionally, scheduling algorithms to allocate processors to the communication tasks are examined and performance results are presented.


This paper examines the redactional intentions of MT Jeremiah concerning the Oracles against the Nations (OANs) by comparing the OANs in MT Jeremiah with those in LXX Jeremiah. Since the OANs are the most conspicuous difference between the MT and LXX versions of Jeremiah, this study will contribute to the understanding of the formation and messages of the book of Jeremiah. In light of space limitations, this paper focuses on three major differences: (1) different placement of the OAN block, (2) different ordering of the nations within the OAN block, and (3) the redactions closely related to the OANs in MT Jer 25 (LXX 25:1–13, 32:1–24) and 45 (LXX 51:31–35). The three areas of comparison show that the redactor of MT Jeremiah repositioned, rearranged, and redacted the OANs and relevant chapters in order to promote a more positive outcome at the end of the book and to create the tripartite structure of judgment against Jerusalem (chs. 26–44), then the nations (chs. 45–49), and then Babylon (chs. 50–51). The move toward an emphasis on the judgment of the nations and finally of Babylon, the destroyer of Jerusalem, at the end of the book leads to a hopeful expectation of Judah's restoration. In the positive immediate literary context, the release of King Jehoiachin at the end of the book functions as a more explicit sign of future restoration.


Most companies in the Netherlands can be labeled as family firms (according to the GEEF definition (Mandle, 2008; Floren et al., 2010). The family firm can be regarded as an open system model comprising three overlapping, interacting, and interdependent subsystems: owners, family, and managers (Moores, 2008). This is known as the three-circle model. Tagiuri and Davis (1996) stipulate that family firms have unique resources that create positive and negative outcomes for the firm. This notion has more recently been referred to as the "familiness" of the firm (Sirmon et al., 2003). In this dissertation, the resource-based view (RBV) is adopted as the theoretical foundation for understanding the distinct attributes of a family firm (Habbershon & Williams, 1999). With the RBV as the primary theoretical framework, this dissertation looks at strategic resources in private firms and how those resources are influenced by family involvement. The focus is on the development of tacit knowledge and social capital, as the literature indicates that family involvement may have a strong and positive influence on these components of strategic resources (Arregle et al., 2007a). The need for more empirical research in the field of social capital and tacit knowledge within the context of private firms is made clear by a review of extant empirical research. This review also reveals specific topics of interest: the role of owners, the influence of the family on the development of social capital, the diverse links among the various dimension of social capital, the transfer of tacit knowledge during business successions, and the construct of the tacit knowledge climate. Therefore, the primary research question addressed in this dissertation is: How does family involvement influence the development of components of social capital and tacit knowledge in privately held firms, and to what extent does the development of these strategic resources have an impact on firm performance? The research question is answered on the basis of empirical research presented in this dissertation. All studies rely on a quantitative research method. Chapter 2 examines ownership social capital. The study focuses on a random sample of 708 privately held family and non-family firms with multiple owners. Chapter 3 investigates the relation between ownership social capital and product innovation. Chapter 4 looks at the impact of spousal social capital on the financial performance of copreneurial businesses. Chapter 5 explores the relation between the transfer of tacit knowledge and post-succession continuity


Two-fold and three-fold increases in N application rates above the WINBAN recommended rate of 280 kg ha-1 year-1 increased the potential and harvested yield of bananas at each irrigation level. Although the highest yields were obtained at the highest irrigation and N rates, this was only slightly (and non-significantly) higher than some of the lower N/irrigation combinations. The effects of the different N/irrigation combinations on other growth parameters are also discussed.


Abstract Trace fossils extend the history of early molluscan evolution because they have a higher preservation potential in siliciclastic strata, where body fossils are rare or absent, and also because they better record the activities of soft-bodied animals. The earliest mollusks are recorded by fan-shaped scratch arrays associated with death masks of the Ediacaran animal Kimberella. Cambrian traces––Climactichnites, Musculopodus, Radulichnus––and fecal pellets record giant, but shell-less mollusks that intermittently left the water to graze the biofilms of intertidal sand flats. After the Cambrian, these traces become progressively restricted. Their subsequent disappearance results from closure of a taphonomic window, rather than from extinction of these animals or their grazing behavior. Other Paleozoic groups of shell-less mollusks may have responded to increasing predation pressures by becoming infaunal. Unlike surface trails, their backfilled burrows––Psammichnites, "Aulichnites-Olivellites," Dictyodora––are commonly preserved. These burrows reflect the evolution of sophisticated search programs in shallow-marine as well as deep-sea environments, but none of them continues into the Mesozoic.


Due to the technological advancement in smart buildings and the smart grid, there is increasing desire of managing energy demand in buildings to achieve energy efficiency. In this context, building energy prediction has become an essential approach for measuring building energy performance, assessing energy system efficiency, and developing energy management strategies. In this study, two artificial intelligence techniques (i.e., ANN = artificial neural networks and SVR = support vector regression) are examined and used to predict the peak energy demand to estimate the energy usage for an office building on a university campus based on meteorological and historical energy data. Two-year energy and meteorological data are used, with one year for training and the following year for testing. To investigate the seasonal load trend and the prediction capabilities of the two approaches, two experiments are conducted relying on different scales of training data. In total, 10 prediction models are built, with 8 models implemented on seasonal training datasets and 2 models employed using year-round training data. It is observed that a backpropagation neural network (BPNN) performs better than SVR when dealing with more data, leading to stable generalization and low prediction error. When dealing with less data, it is found that there is no dominance of one approach over another.


More than 65 percent of the geographical area in India comprise the hard rock areas where the recharge of groundwater is meagre (5 to 10% of the rainfall), while the extraction for irrigation has exceeded the recharge in several areas, leading to secular overdraft. Neither the farmers nor the policy makers have paid adequate attention towards sustainable path of extraction. This article is a modest attempt to demonstrate the sustainable path using Pontryagin"s optimal control application in order to impress upon the policy makers the need for groundwater regulation. This study is based on primary data obtained from farmers with groundwater irrigation in hard rock areas of Deccan Plateau. Results indicated that discounted net benefit realized per well at steady state equilibrium on borewell recharge farms was Rs. 97201 ($1620) reached in 25 years; on drip irrigation farms cultivating broad spaced crops was Rs. 163347 ($2722) reached in 17 years. Thus, farmers who recharge borewell on the farm realize the service of borewell for larger number of years realizing sustainable incomes than their counterparts using drip irrigation, without performing on farm recharge. However the economic performance of both types of farms are substantially superior over farms adopting myopic extraction. The study disproved the operation of Jevons paradox.


Though the hepatotoxicity of ethanol has been established, only 8% to 20% of chronic alcoholics develop cirrhosis. The aim of this study was to assess whether being overweight is a risk factor for alcoholic liver disease. One thousand six hundred four alcoholic patients were studied. According to the liver biopsies, 194 patients had a normal liver; 402 had steatosis without fibrosis; 281 presented with fibrosis, with or without steatosis; 119 presented with acute alcoholic hepatitis (AAH) without cirrhosis; 232 indicated cirrhosis without AAH; and 179 presented with cirrhosis with AAH. One hundred ninety‐seven patients had clinically obvious cirrhosis. In the study, five variables were studied as risk factors: age, sex, daily consumption of alcohol during the previous 5 years, the total duration of alcohol abuse, and tendency to be overweight (body mass index [BMI] ≥ 25 in women and ≥ 27 in men). The BMI was calculated according to the minimum weight over the 10 previous years. In the first stepwise logistic regression analysis, age, being overweight for at least 10 years, being of the female sex, and the total duration of alcohol abuse were independently correlated with the presence of cirrhosis. In the second analysis, female sex being overweight were the two independent risk factors of AAH. In the third analysis, being overweight for at least 10 years was the only independent risk factor of steatosis. These results show that the presence of excess weight for at least 10 years is a risk factor for cirrhosis, AAH, and steatosis. Our results suggest that there is a possible potential for the metabolic effects of ethanol ingestion caused by excess weight in patients with alcoholic liver disease.


This, the first comprehensive guide to the subject written in English, opens up a vast and hitherto relatively inaccessible area of fascinating study. Conteh-Morgan first carefully introduces the reader to the broad theoretical, cultural, and historical context, before engaging in a detailed analysis of selected key texts by nine important modern playwrights. In examining both the thematic and theatrical aspects of (mainly) postindependence dramatic activity, he systematically explores its relationship with both colonial and traditional forms. Indeed, the real significance of this work lies in the balance it maintains between literature and theatre, and the consequent breadth of scrutiny it offers. Insightful comment on the plays reveals a new generation of contemporary practitioners addressing, through a primarily performancebased approach, the dilemmas posed by issues of language and accessibility in post-colonial African theatre. Widespread cross-references (all in English) and an extensive bibliography make this book an invaluable source for students of drama, literature, or cultural studies, while the depth of analysis (in the second section particularly) makes it deserving of a place in the library of any serious scholar.


ACS Chemical Biology recorded a special podcast, in which Editor-in-Chief Laura Kiessling (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) interviews CRISPR investigator and former Associate Editor Jennifer Doudna (University of California, Berkeley). Listen to the podcast here . A transcript of the interview, which has been lightly edited, is published here as part of our Special Issue on the Chemical Biology of CRISPR.


The ensemble hypothesis proposes that language is but one of five cognitive capacities that separate human cognition qualitatively from other animal cognition as a result of their interactions. The ensemble consists of an episodic memory capable of mental time travel, mentalizing to augment social cognition, language for overt communication, advanced executive attention for governing working memory, and inner speech for thinking in the form of causal inference. The order in which each of these components arose in hominin evolution is addressed here. It is proposed that the flourishing of symbolic artifacts during the Upper Paleolithic occurred because, for the first time, all five components were in place and interacting in anatomically modern Homo sapiens. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).


Real-time extensions to wormhole routing (WR), with multiple virtual channels, and priority based physical link arbitration and virtual channel (VC) allocation, have been proposed in the literature. With a fixed number of VCs/link, a message can face an unbounded priority inversion, rendering the global priority order ineffective. We propose a new flow control mechanism called preemptive pipelined circuit switching for real-time messages (PPCS-RT) to reduce the priority inversion problem. PPCS-RT outperforms WR with the performance difference being largest with 1 VC/link. The difference in overall miss ratio is over 30% with 1 VC.


A named strain of each of the species Photobacterium phosphoreum, P . fischeri, P . albensis, P . pierantonii, P . splendidurn, P . sepia and P . hameyi, together with a recently isolated strain of each of the first two named species, were studied in an attempt to elucidate their correct generic classification. On the basis of morphology, sensitivity to certain antibiotics and a vibriostatic substance, and method of dissimilation of carbohydrates, it was concluded that P . sepia and P. harveyi should be classified in the genus Aeromonas, and the remainder of the species in the genus Vibrio.


Human trafficking and forced prostitution are a serious problem for the Amsterdam-Amstelland police (the Netherlands). In this paper, we present a method based on Temporal Concept Analysis for detecting and profiling human trafficking suspects. Using traditional Formal Concept Analysis, we first build a lattice with early warning indicators to find persons who are potentially involved in human trafficking. These persons are then subjected to an in-depth investigation and we use Temporal Concept Analysis for constructing visual profiles of these suspects. Finally, the evolution of the social network surrounding these persons is visually analyzed using Temporal Concept Analysis.


Background. The aim of this study was to assess the feasibility, safety, and clinical results in patients treated with intravenous thrombolysis in an acute stroke unit. Results from the first three years with thrombolysis as standard treatment procedure are presented. Material and methods. All patients admitted to our department within 3 hours after an acute ischaemic stroke were considered for thrombolysis. 33 patients with median age 71 years were treated. Results. 16 patients demonstrated early clinical improvement. Six patients demonstrated a substantial but slow clinical improvement. 11 patients did not improve. One patient developed an intracerebral haematoma and two developed a haemorrhagic infarction without clinical deterioration. At follow-up after six months, 16 patients (49 %) had achieved independence [modified Rankin Scale (mRS) 0–2], 12 (36 %) had an unfavourable outcome (mRS 3–5). Five patients (15 %) died, all within the first 3 months. None died due to a treatment complication. Interpretation.This study suggests that thrombolysis can be administered relatively safely in an acute stroke unit without intensive care facilities. The clinical results and safety were similar to those in large randomized studies and clinical series.


Amino acids and peptides of albumin hydrolyzates from the mammary gland and blood serum were studied for lactating and nonlactating (dry, pregnant 1-4.5 and 4.5-9 months) black-and-white cows. Most pronounced difference between the content of certain amino acids of the mammary gland and blood serum albumins are established for lactating cows and least pronounced for nonlactating dry cows. Dactylography detected 55-57 fragments of products resulted from trypsin hydrolysis of the mammary gland and blood serum albumins of the animals under study. Differences are found in the content and mobility of certain peptides.


This paper presents a methodology, based on advanced signal processing, to monitor the damage evolution and to identify the structural failure modes in two composite I-beams. The composite I-beams with different geometrical configuration were subjected to cantilever tests. The I-beams represented the shear web-to-the spar caps connection of a wind rotor blade. Acoustic Emission technique was used to monitor the cantilever tests while Digital Image Correlation technique measured the displacement fields of the bond-lines and shear webs. The aim of the exercise was to investigate the influence of the geometry to the structural failure pattern, failure in the bond-line that connects the shear web to the spar caps and/or buckling of the shear web, and to monitor the failure process.


Received/Geliş: 31.07.2020 Accepted/Kabul: 04.09.2020 Abstract: The research on dilute bismuth containing III-V semiconductor alloys and its applications are studied. These alloys are obtained by incorporating a small amount of Bi in the host semiconductor. The presence of Bi reduced the energy bandgap of the alloys. The bandgap and optical properties of InAs1− Bi , InP1-xBix, and InSb1− Bi alloy systems are investigated for optoelectronic devices. The optical properties of semiconductors are important to change the properties of device performance. The refractive index strongly depends on the direct bandgap of the semiconductor alloys. The bandgap of the In-V-Bi semiconductor layer can be engineered by means of adding bismuth into InAs, InP, InSb. In this work, the refractive indices and the optical parameters of the In-V-Bi alloys are investigated.


In anthropogenic landscapes, the identification of palaeochannels provides an effective opportunity to improve current estimates of flood risk, extending with sediment analysis short instrumental records, and allowing for the definition of possible preferential flood flow dynamics. New remote sensing techniques in the last decades have led to a dramatic increase in terrain information (Tarolli, 2014), offering a new point of view for such type of landform analysis. Published literature includes a lot of applications of lidar data, and this trend is becoming more prominent due to the wider availability and the lower cost of lidar DTMs for the scientific community and environmental agencies. One of the great advances in using high-resolution topography (HRT) derived by lidar is the capability to provide an accurate and detailed recognition of terrain morphologies also under vegetation cover. The aim of this study is to use lidar HRT to automatically identify palaeochannels in the Manawatu river (New Zealand), flowing in a high-urbanized alluvial plain and for which a high-quality laser scanner data is available in addition to soil sample cores subject to sedimentology analysis and 14C-dating. The palaeochannels geomorphic feature recognition techniques considered in this study is based on a statistical analysis of morphometric parameters (Sofia et al. 2014). Further, the different topographic indices have been read along cross-sectional profiles for each extracted features, and this information together with the relative distance to the main river, combined with sediments analysis, were considered for a preliminary analysis of the relative age of the palaeochannels. The collected results highlighted the capability of high-resolution topography in the identification, mapping, and potentially dating of the palaeochannels in urbanized alluvial plains. In a large-scale context, it allowed to narrow down the area of investigation, thus reducing the cost and time involved in the identification of the features. As well, being based on lidar, it allowed the identification of palaeochannels also under vegetation cover, in areas not visible from ortophotos. This will provide the basis for a suitable flood management planning. References Sofia, G., Dalla Fontana, G., Tarolli, P. (2014). High-resolution topography and anthropogenic feature extraction: testing geomorphometric parameters in floodplains. Hydrological Processes, 28, 2046-2061. Tarolli, P. (2014). High-resolution topography for understanding Earth surface processes: opportunities and challenges. Geomorphology, 216, 295-312.


The aorta serves as the systemic outflow tract from the heart and it is subject to anatomical variation in the adult, in part, to a complicated set of temporospatial and morphogenetic interactions. The occurrence of an aberrant right subclavian artery (arteria subclavia dextra lusoria, ARSA) is reported to occur with a frequency of approximately 0.1-25.0%. We report the occurrence of ARSA in a cadaver from a 91-year-old male during a routine dissection of the thorax. Features included a bicarotid trunk, normal left subclavian, but a right subclavian that branched from the terminal portion of the descending aorta. The ARSA was positioned in a retroesophageal and retrotracheal location. However, the person was asymptomatic with respect to the ARSA during his life according to medical records. Animations were generated to demonstrate the spatial relationships of the ARSA in this individual. Additional animations were generated to depict embryological relationships that were likely associated with the formation of ARSA in this cadaver. To our knowledge, this is the first time an animation of ARSA has been presented.


Results of exhaustive ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) measurements performed on amorphous (a-) alloys at temperatures ranging from 10 to 500 K are presented and discussed in the light of existing theoretical models. The peak-to peak FMR linewidth consists of two contributions: one originating from two-magnon and multiple-magnon scattering processes and the other arising from the Laundau - Lifshitz - Gilbert damping mechanism. for the alloys with , as in other re-entrant (RE) systems, increases exponentially as the temperature is lowered through the RE transition temperature . The Landé splitting factor is independent of both temperature and Co concentration, whereas the Gilbert damping parameter is temperature-independent but decreases with increasing x. For all the alloys in question, thermal demagnetization is mainly due to spin-wave (SW) excitations and the SW stiffness coefficient D renormalizes with temperature in accordance with the predictions of the itinerant-electron model. SW modes in the alloys with soften at and D possesses a reduced but finite value in the RE state. Competing interactions present in the parent alloy a- confine the direct exchange interactions (DEIs) to the nearest neighbours only and partial replacement of Fe with Co progressively tilts the balance in favour of ferromagnetic interactions between Fe spins with the result that DEIs now involve next-nearest neighbours too and the divergence in at low temperatures is completely suppressed for x > 4.


Abstract. Three-dimensional (3D) laser scanning is a new advanced technology integrating light, machine, electricity, and computer technologies. It can conduct 3D scanning to the whole shape and form of space objects with high precision. With this technology, you can directly collect the point cloud data of a ground object and create the structure of it for rendering. People use excellent 3D rendering engine to optimize and display the 3D model in order to meet the higher requirements of real time realism rendering and the complexity of the scene. OpenSceneGraph (OSG) is an open source 3D graphics engine. Compared with the current mainstream 3D rendering engine, OSG is practical, economical, and easy to expand. Therefore, OSG is widely used in the fields of virtual simulation, virtual reality, science and engineering visualization. In this paper, a dynamic and interactive ground LiDAR data visualization platform is constructed based on the OSG and the cross-platform C++ application development framework Qt. In view of the point cloud data of .txt format and the triangulation network data file of .obj format, the functions of 3D laser point cloud and triangulation network data display are realized. It is proved by experiments that the platform is of strong practical value as it is easy to operate and provides good interaction.


Supplementary data tml http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/suppl/2010/09/15/rspb.2010.1557.DC1.h "Data Supplement" References http://rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/278/1706/666.full.html#ref-list-1 This article cites 35 articles, 9 of which can be accessed free Subject collections (2389 articles) evolution   Articles on similar topics can be found in the following collections Email alerting service here right-hand corner of the article or click Receive free email alerts when new articles cite this article sign up in the box at the top


We provide an agent-based model of workers protest, informed by Epstein (2002) and its replication model by Wilensky (2004). Game theoretical models have been popular in research on collective behavior, where the free rider problem is a critical issue (e.g. the public goods game as an N-person Prisoner's Dilemma game). The focal agent rationally assesses the expected payoff (or estimate the probability of success), which depends on whether or not she protests and also on how many of the others do so.

Our approach is rather simple: workers have different degrees of grievance depending on the difference between their wage and the local average. They protest with probabilities in proportion to grievance, but are inhibited by the risk of being arrested, which is determined by the ratio of coercive agents to probable rebels existing in the local area. Agents in our model consider expected costs and benefits as in rational choice theory, but they are boundedly rational since their vision is local. Instead of free riders, we can observe agents show deceptive behavior, as in Epstein (2002), depending on the ratio of cops to probable rebels. In this study, we are more interested in crowd dynamics in a broader context, which is not embedded in the game-theoretic strategic interaction setting.

Our focus is on the effect of similarity perception on the dynamics of workers protest. In the proposed model, workers have 'tags' as observable markers (ethnic or cultural ones such as skin color, speech, manner, and so on). They scale the overall similarity to neighboring partners. If workers are surrounded by tolerably similar members ('in-group'), they are more risk-taking; otherwise ('out-group'), more risk-averse. We hypothesize that individual interest and tag-based group membership jointly affect patterns of workers protest: rhythms, frequency, strength, and duration.


A 66-year-old man was admitted due to repeated syncope, and the electrocardiogram showed complete atrioventricular block (CAVB). He had moderate aortic valve stenosis (AS) with a severely calcified valve. This case indicates that if calcification spreads into the cardiac conduction system, it may cause CAVB. Although CAVB is not typically considered a main cause of syncope in AS patients, it should nevertheless be considered in the differential diagnosis.


Proteomic analyses facilitate the interpretation of molecular biomarker probes which are very helpful in diagnosing schizophrenia. In the current study, we attempt to test whether potential differences in plasma protein expressions in schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) are associated with cognitive deficits and their underlying brain structures. 42 plasma proteins of 29 SZ patients, 25 BD patients and 93 non-clinical controls were quantified and analysed using multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) ba sed triple quadrupole mass spectrometry approach. We also computed group comparisons of protei n expressions between patients and controls, and between SZ and BD patients, as wel l. Potential associations of protein levels with cognitive functioning (psychomotor speed, executive functioning, crystallized intelligence) as well as underlying brain volume in the hippocampus were explored, using bivariate correlation analyses. The main finding of this study was that apolipoprotein (ApoC) express ion differed between patients and controls ; and that these alterations in both disease groups were putatively related to cognitive impairments as well as to hippocampus volumes . However, none of the protein level differences were related to clinical symptom severity . In summary, altered apolipoprotein expression in BD and SZ was linked to cognitive decline and underlying morphological changes in both disorders. Our result s suggest that the detection of molecular patterns in association with cognitive perf ormance and its underlying brain morphology is of great importance for understanding of the patholo gica mechanisms of SZ and BD, as well as for supporting the diagnosis and treatment of both disorders.


Introduction: For being one of the procedures mostly performed in our environment, breast plastic surgery involves many technical variations and surgical strategies that provide the plastic surgeon with several options. The objective of this study was to evaluate the use of thin superior flap technique in mammoplasties. Methods: Over a period of 2 years, we selected 30 patients presenting with mammary hypertrophy and/or breast ptosis. A technique based on the inverted-T marking and Ribeiro's type IV inferiorly based flap was carried out. The intervention involved the production of a thin superior flap with a thickness of approximately 2 cm. This comprised 30% of the breast volume, while the inferior flap was responsible for the remaining 70%. Results: Three expert plastic surgeons evaluated the patients. The results showed that 91.5% of the women who underwent this procedure presented with excellent quality outcomes, while 6.9% had a good outcome. Further, a fair outcome was observed only in 1.6% of the patients, while poor outcomes were not obtained. The procedure had a complication rate of 2.6%, which included one case of infection, one of asymmetry, and two of unsightly scars. Conclusion: The thin superior flap proved to be very effective in mammoplasties. ■ ABSTRACT


Woven fabrics are widely used in clothing because of their parallel and interlaced properties, which are formed by weaving. A wide range of applications, from 3D games to textile design, adopt woven fabrics for cloth animation due to the fact that weaving can be immediately shown on the cloth. Today, cloth animation at the macro scale is successfully accomplished using single particle systems, processes of treating the cloths as sheets of single particles interconnected with spring-dampers. However, the existing single particle systems become limited when applied to show the interlaced structures between the yarns. In this paper, we introduce the particle pair system, a dynamics system of particle pairs for woven fabric simulation. It treats the woven fabric as an interlaced crimp network of weft particles and warp particles. Each weave point of the woven fabric is represented as a particle pair rather than a single particle, providing independent behaviors of particles in the weft direction and the warp direction, respectively. The particles are connected dynamically according to a connectivity matrix which allows for tearing. The atom of the system is the particle pair, a flexible representation that can be tessellated to panel quads at the macro scale, interlaced yarn segments at the meso scale and intertwisted fibers at the micro scale, according to the view distance, for fast rendering. The particle pair system can be easily implemented in current graphics pipelines. We can achieve more than 100 frames per second for a 256 × 256 woven fabric. This allows for large-scale physical animation of woven fabrics that maintain the geometric variances of real 3D yarn and fibers.


Optimal power flow (OPF) is a central problem in the operation of electric power systems. An OPF problem optimizes a specified objective function subject to constraints imposed by both the non-linear power flow equations and engineering limits. These constraints can yield non-convex feasible spaces that result in significant computational challenges. Despite these non-convexities, local solution algorithms actually find the global optima of some practical OPF problems. This suggests that OPF problems have a range of difficulty: some problems appear to have convex or "nearly convex" feasible spaces in terms of the voltage magnitudes and power injections, while other problems can exhibit significant non-convexities. Understanding this range of problem difficulty is helpful for creating new test cases for algorithmic benchmarking purposes. Leveraging recently developed computational tools for exploring OPF feasible spaces, this paper first describes an empirical study that aims to characterize non-convexities for small OPF problems. This paper then proposes and analyzes several medium-size test cases that challenge a variety of solution algorithms.


This book is intended to fill the gap between the "ideal precision" digital signal processing (DSP) that is widely taught, and the limited precision implementation skills that are commonly required in fixed-point processors and field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). These skills are often neglected at the university level, particularly for undergraduates. We have attempted to create a resource both for a DSP elective course and for the practicing engineer with a need to understand fixed-point implementation. Although we assume a background in DSP, Chapter 2 contains a review of basic theory and Chapter 3 reviews random processes to support the noise model of quantization error. Chapter 4 details the binary arithmetic that underlies fixed-point processors and then introduces fractional format for binary numbers. Chapter 5 covers the noise model for quantization error and the effects of coefficient quantization in filters. Because of the numerical sensitivity of IIR filters, they are used extensively as an example system in both Chapters 5 and 6. Fortunately, the principles of dealing with limited precision can be applied to a wide variety of numerically sensitive systems, not just IIR filters. Chapter 6 discusses the problems of product roundoff error and various methods of scaling to avoid overflow. Chapter 7 discusses limit cycle effects and a few common methods for minimizing them. There are a number of simple exercises integrated into the text to allow you to test your understanding. Answers to the exercises are included in the footnotes.