The prevalence of visual impairment around the world is rapidly increasing, causing large numbers of people to wear glasses. Glasses are generally considered an important noise source in iris recognition; under objective metrics, they have recently been shown to deteriorate the sample quality of near-infrared (NIR) ocular images (consequently impairing the segmentation accuracy and biometric performance). Automatically and robustly detecting glasses in ocular images is therefore one of the prerequisites for the acquisition of high quality iris samples. While this issue has recently been addressed for NIR ocular images, it remains an open issue in the visible wavelength (VW) spectrum. As the popularity of VW iris recognition increases (due to e.g. deployment of iris recognition in consumer grade mobile devices and general improvements in VW recognition algorithms), it becomes a matter of interest to quantitatively evaluate the impact of glasses on such systems, as well as develop methods for automatic detection of glasses in VW ocular images. In this paper, the impact of glasses on VW iris segmentation performance is investigated using the UBIRISv2 and MobBIO iris databases. It is shown that the presence of glasses significantly degrades the accuracy of iris segmentation. In addition, a state-of-the-art iris segmentation method which can perform a semantic segmentation of ocular images (including the segmentation of glasses) is employed for the purpose of glasses detection. On the used databases, correct classification rates (CCRs) of 98.57% and 83.62% are obtained, respectively.


In this study, has been carried out to investigate some growth features of the red mullet ( Mullus barbatusLinnaeus, 1758) which is the important commercially species of the North Aegean Sea. Have been examined: Sex distrubution, growth in lenght and weight,condition factor, diet regimes and spawning period. The percentage of females was 68.78 % and males 31.22 % out of 474 specimens which ranged between age group I - IV. The lenght and weight differences between females and males were not statistictically significant. The lenght- weight relationship and growth equations were estimated as follows, respectively: W =0.0157 L 2.9811 , Lt = 26.08 (1-e -0.127(t+3.5354) ) and Wt = 274.28 (1-e -0.127(t+3.5354) ) 2.9811 ; The average condition factor of population was determined as 1.4996 ± 0.0116. According to findings; Crustacea, Mollusca, Polychaeta and Echinodermataare taken as food. It has been determined that spawning period occurs during march and september, and sexual maturity occurs at the age of one year.


Corruption still thrives in the country, if we listen to the news certainly no news about corruption in the bureaucracy in this country, reporting on corruption makes sad because it turns out the culprit educated and have a certain position in the structure of government, but so far the efforts of law enforcement do KPK to catch the perpetrators of corruption have yielded results, there are some major corruption cases were successfully handled by the KPK, the key to the success of the Commission in uncovering cases of corruption is the result of tapping , by tapping the Commission can uncover cases of corruption in the country. The Act authorizes the Commission to conduct wiretaps, as stipulated in article 12 paragraph (1) of Law No. 30 of 2002 on the Corruption Eradication Commission, through the authority of KPK tapping it makes corruption can be prosecuted Legally. However, on one hand, tapping Authority, has given the assumption that the wiretapping conducted by the Commission can be considered to violate human rights that violates a person's privacy. This study wants to answer: Does the wiretapping conducted by the Commission can be regarded as a violation of human rights? Does the eavesdropping law enforcement can be implemented by the Commission? Purpose of this study was to determine whether the wiretapping can be categorized can violate human rights, and Do by tapping enforcement efforts could implement by the Commission. The method used in this research is descriptive qualitative. This study concluded that the Authority Tapping the Commission do not constitute a violation of human rights, as is the procedure to conduct wiretaps are in accordance with the legal instruments in force, and besides tapping is done to satisfy the justice of the people who suffer as a result of behaviors corruption, by tapping also KPK can dismantle the big cases, so every year since the Commission established, there are cases of corruption revealed by the Commission, it is thus the rule of law for the perpetrators of corruption can be implemented. Keywords:Wiretapping Authority Commission, Law Enforcement, Human Rights


Much applied research into musical performance requires a method of quantifying differences and changes between performances; for this purpose, researchers have commonly used performance assessment schemes taken from educational contexts. This article considers some conceptual and practical problems with using judgments of performance quality as a research tool. To illustrate some of these, data are reported from a study in which three experienced evaluators watched performances given by students at the Royal College of Music, London, and assessed them according to a marking scheme based on that of the Associated Board of the Royal Schools of Music. Correlations between evaluators were only moderate, and some evidence of bias according to the evaluators9 own instrumental experience was found. Strong positive correlations were found between items on the assessment scheme, indicating an extremely limited range of discrimination between categories. Implications for the use of similar assessment systems as dependent measures in empirical work are discussed, and suggestions are made for developing scales with greater utility in such work.


Air humidity may significantly influence the behaviour in oxidation at high temperature of the refractory metallic alloys. To study the effect of water vapour on the oxidation phenomena in thermal cycling conditions in the case of nickel-based alloys a Ni-25Cr binary alloy was considered. It was subjected to oxidation at four high temperatures, 1000, 1100, 1200 and 1300°C for 48 hours in dry air and in a humidified air. The heating parts of the thermogravimetry curves were exploited to specify the temperatures of oxidation start and the amount of oxide mass formed during heating. By comparison with dry air, the water concentration tried in this work induced an earlier oxidation during heatingwith a good reproducibility of temperature start.


This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the 13th International Symposium on Practical Aspects of Declarative Languages, PADL 2011, held in Austin, TX, USA, in January 2011, co-located with POPL 2011, the Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages. The 17 revised full papers presented together with one application paper were carefully reviewed and selected from 40 submissions. The volume features a variety of contributions ranging from message-passing and mobile networks, concurrent and parallel programming, event processing and reactive programming, profiling and portability in Prolog, constraint programming, grammar combinators, belief set merging and work on new language extensions and tools


We describe a method for determination of cyanide in whole blood, erythrocytes, and plasma after stabilization of cyanide by addition of silver ions. The cyanide is then transferred from the acidified sample, by aeration, into sodium hydroxide and quantified by the König reaction, with sodium hypochlorite as the chlorinating agent. A rapid loss of measurable cyanide found when cyanide was added to plasma in the absence of silver ions was attributed to a reaction with serum albumin. Cyanide added to whole blood was bound to a saturable component in erythrocytes, which we identified as methemoglobin.


Digital action mechanism of machining error propagation has been a hot research topic in recent years. A complicated machining system usually contains multiple stages. Basing on analyzing digital behaviors of machining process flow, a methodology of machining error monitoring and control is put forward, which is based on dynamic programming. Under this framework, state of machining feature is described with vector matrices, and then differential transition matrices are used to represent the influences of error sources on machining feature quality of workpiece. Basing on this, a general error propagation equation is derived. At last, an example of a three-stage machining processes is presented to illustrate the proposed methodology.


A disputable problem is discussed, which cavity in the Amniota embryo corresponds to blastocoele. General morphophysiological characteristics of the embryos at the blastula stage are presented. Basing on comparative survey of the data on origin, functions and fate of the blastocoele in development of vertebrate embryos, the notion is substantiated that the subembryonal cavity corresponds to blastocoele in Amniota. A critical analysis is given to another interpretation, according to which blastocoele in Amniota is a cleft between epi- and hypoblast. Ideas on homology criteria are explained, with a reference to initial stages of the embryonal development. Since prospective importance of blastocoele in low Chordata (convertion into gastrocoele) is different, a conclusion is made about incomplete homology of blastocoele in the animals mentioned. A hypothesis is put forward on pathways of changes of prospective importance of blastocoele in the vertebrate phylogenesis, in connection with their transition to meroblastic development. The problem on changes in assimilation of yolk by the vertebrate embryo at transition from holoblastic to meroblastic development is discussed from comparative point of view, as well as on nature of yolk entoderm in Amniota and Anamnia.


The present paper describes the system design for the Clear Vision auto defog system and the improvements made to the Integrated Dew Point and Glass Temperature (IDGT) sensor. The Clear Vision auto defog system has been implemented on a 2000 Cadillac DeVille. Preliminary validation tests demonstrate satisfactory performance.


In this paper we consider non-separable Gabor schemes for discrete-time signals. We show that three different interpretations of a non-separable lattice lead to three different types of implementation. First, a non-separable lattice can be seen as a union of rectangular lattices, which leads to a filter bank implementation. Secondly, a rectangular lattice can be obtained by shearing a non-separable lattice. As a direct consequence, conventional algorithms developed for rectangular lattices can be re-used for the non-separable case. And finally, interpreting the non-separable lattice as a sub-lattice of a denser rectangular lattice allows the use of the Zak transformation.


If this is so, convergence insufficiency is not a rare condition. The term means that the convergence abilityor "fitness"is insufficient for the particular ocular requirements and comfort of an individual, and does not suggest an organic ocular problem. Binocular viewing of a test target 2 em from the eyes (ie, to the extreme) is a widely used assessment of convergence ability. In other words, it is a measure of convergence reserve, or "fitness". Fitness of any muscle function would seem important for prolonged muscle tasks. Perhaps that is why athletes exercise to the extreme. To my knowledge, for the past 24 years hundreds of students and clerical workers have found relief from ocular symptoms by increasing the convergence ability to the extreme. Usingthis exercise, ocular fatigueobviously becomes much less of a problem. It seems somewhat unscientific to assume that orthoptic treatment of a large section of the population has been nothing more than "pseudo-psychotherapy", as is suggested by Dr Pittar. YDU operators, and all workers required to fix their eyes at a near position for prolonged periods of the day, are at risk to suffer ocular fatigue or convergence insufficiency. The National Health and Medical Research Council has set out guidelines for YDU operators, stating that "muscular visual fatigue is a consequence of undue (excessive) use of the ocular muscles which produce convergence", I suggest that convergence ability to the extreme isessential for comfortable, prolonged use of the eyes for near fixation. Ann Stephens Orthoptist Sydney Eye Hospital Woolloomooloo. NSW 2011


We propose a new software architecture based on the stakeholder analysis of a space endeavour. The information system architectures currently in consideration in the space area are mostly atomized and do not take into account the relevant role of the stakeholders that create value and momentum to the space activities. We first propose that the value chain vector should be considered, in order to identify which stakeholders are most relevant to any space endeavor. We state that from a strategic point of view, the identification and analysis of stakeholders adding value to the process should be the core of the design process.
Exploration missions require that people involved in these areas make flow the benefit, tangible or intangible that emerges from the space activity. In the process of creating a value flow model framework, a number of decisions have to be made in order to simplify the value loops, and make the model easily understood. Value loops are defined as value chains that return to the starting stakeholder. Simplification of this map is a non-standard procedure, and is dependent on the level of detail needed in the reengineering. The overall system is then redesigned in order to help the value chain grow, and to lessen interferences and expenditure of resources on to areas that do not really add value in the process. Some metrics can be defined and characterized within the model: individuals, companies, Gross Domestic Product created, public awareness, capital flow, etc. The software is able then to simulate the process of industry development and growth, providing clues on which are the optimal stakeholders' architecture for maximizing the overall benefits for all partners. .The implementation of such simulation is done via a neural network that is integrated in the software, with an easy user-friendly interface. Results from different scenarios simulation show consistent findings with what are the recent developments in the space sectors due to the appearance of more private companies in the space exploration field. Results are provided in the paper for different space mission scenarios, private and public ones, with conclusions and recommendations, regarding the optimal organization of the different stakeholders involved. In conclusion, our system shows to be capable of predicting the optimal way to efficiently process knowledge through a complex information system, including a stakeholders' diversity, as we usually find in an international public-private space endeavour.


The problem of eco-driving is analyzed for an urban traffic network in presence of signalized intersections. It is assumed that the traffic lights timings are known and available to the vehicles via infrastructure-to-vehicle (I2V) communication. This work provides a solution to the energy consumption minimization, while traveling through a sequence of signalized intersections and always catching a green light. The optimal control problem is non-convex due to the constraints coming from the traffic lights, therefore a sub-optimal strategy to restore the convexity and solve the problem is proposed. Firstly, a pruning algorithm aims at reducing the optimization domain, by considering only the portions of the traffic lights green phases that allow to drive in compliance with the city speed limits. Then, a graph is created in the feasible region, in order to approximate the energy consumption associated with each available path in the driving horizon. Lastly, after the problem convexity is recovered, a simple optimization problem is solved on the selected path to calculate the optimal crossing times at each intersection. The optimal speeds are then suggested to the driver. The proposed sub-optimal strategy is compared to the optimal solution provided by Dynamic Programming, for validation purposes. It is also shown that the low computational load of the presented approach enables robustness properties, and results very appealing for online use.


Abstract  Background: With improved survival following renal transplantation, the number of patients undergoing cardiac surgery has increased. The purpose of this study was to review the morbidity, mortality, and allograft function in renal transplant patients undergoing major cardiac surgery. Methods: Retrospective database review of consecutive renal transplant patients undergoing cardiac surgery from 1987 to 2002. Patients requiring dialysis (D) before cardiac surgery versus those with stable renal transplants (ND) were compared. Results: Cardiac surgery was performed in 46 patients during the study period. Twenty patients (42%) required dialysis (D) before surgery while 26 (58%) had stable allograft function (ND). Among patients who had stable allograft function prior to surgery, there was no allograft loss. In the ND group, preoperative and discharge creatinine levels were 2.17 ± 1.0 and 2.4 ± 1.5 mg/dL, respectively. All operative deaths occurred in the dialysis dependent group. The 30‐day and 3‐year survival, respectively was 80% and 20% in the D group compared to 100% and 69% amongst the ND group (p ≤ 0.01). Infectious complications consisted of pneumonia and sepsis each in 8.5% and of deep sternal wound infection in 4.3% of the entire group. Conclusions: (1) Morbidity and mortality of cardiac surgery in renal transplant patients with stable allograft function is low and stable allograft function can be maintained without allograft loss. (2) Mortality following cardiac surgery is significantly higher among renal transplant patients who become dialysis dependent and intermediate‐term survival is poor.


It has been verified that adipose tissue was the major source of circulating microRNAs (miRNA), which could target downstream genes in distant organs such as liver. Here we show that brown adipose tissue (BAT) transplantation from healthy mice donor could reactivate endogenous BAT activity of diabetic mice induced by high fat diet (HFD) and streptozotocin (STZ) injection. BAT activation increased circulating miR-30b level and significantly improved diabetic nephropathy. In vitro, miR-30b was significantly downregulated by TGF β1 in HK-2 cells. In vivo, agomiR-30b was directly administered to the BAT of diabetic mice (0.25nmol/g body weight) twice per week for 4 consecutive weeks. Over-expressing miR-30b markedly decreased fibronectin expression, coupled with downregulated Runt-related transcription factor 1(Runx1) and snail family zinc finger 1 (Snail1) in the kidney of diabetic mice, while silencing of miR-30b displayed the opposite features. Next, knockdown or overpression of Runx1 both in vitro by using siRUNX1 or pCMV-RUNX1, and in vivo by AAV-U6-shRunx1 or AAV-EF1a-Runx1 respectively, could mimic the above phenotype of miR-30b mimic and inhibitor treatment respectively. Moreover, Runx1 promoted TGFβ1-induced fibrosis through upregulating PI3K pathway. These results suggest that BAT transplantation ameliorates diabetic nephropathy in mice through reactivating endogenous BAT and increasing circulating miR-30b level, which subsequently target renal Runx1 and Snail1, to improve renal fibrosis. BAT-original miRNAs might be a promising target for kidney protection in diabetes mellitus. Disclosure M. Guan: None. Funding National Natural Science Foundation of China (81870612, 81628004, 31400992, 81470047); Guangdong Science and Technology Project (2019A1515011997)


Forty-three patients were examined three months after implantation of a multifocal or bifocal intraocular lens following cataract extraction. With far vision correction, simultaneous bifocal function with far acuity better than 0.5 and near acuity better than Nieden 3 was achieved in 95.4% of these cases. Glare sensitivity was tested with the BAT and mesopic visual acuity was examined with the Ocutrast. No statistical differences were found between these patients and a control group with monofocal IOLs.


We prove a theorem about the stability of action variables for Gevrey quasi-convex near-integrable Hamiltonian systems and construct in that context a system with an unstable orbit whose mean speed of drift allows us to check the optimality of the stability theorem. Our stability result generalizes those by Lochak-Neishtadt and Pöschel, which give precise exponents of stability in the Nekhoroshev Theorem for the quasi-convex case, to the situation in which the Hamiltonian function is only assumed to belong to some Gevrey class instead of being real-analytic. For n degrees of freedom and Gevrey-α Hamiltonians, α ≥ 1, we prove that one can choose a = 1/2nα as an exponent for the time of stability and b = 1/2n as an exponent for the radius of confinement of the action variables, with refinements for the orbits which start close to a resonant surface (we thus recover the result for the real-analytic case by setting α = 1). On the other hand, for α > 1, the existence of compact-supported Gevrey functions allows us to exhibit for each n ≥ 3 a sequence of Hamiltonian systems with wandering points, whose limit is a quasi-convex integrable system, and where the speed of drift is characterized by the exponent 1/2(n − 2)α. This exponent is optimal for the kind of wandering points we consider, inasmuch as the initial condition is located close to a doubly-resonant surface and the stability result holds with precisely that exponent for such an initial condition. We also discuss the relationship between our example of instability, which relies on a specific construction of a perturbation of a discrete integrable system, and Arnold's mechanism of instability, whose main features (partially hyperbolic tori, heteroclinic connections) are indeed present in our system. CONTENTS


The introduction of motorway tolls would be expected to cause some traffic to cease use of motorways, and transfer to alternative non-tolled routes. The MCONTRM model was used to estimate the effects on congestion in terms of delays and queues in two areas: the motorway box round Birmingham, and the M2/M20 corridor in Kent. Queues and delays increased on the all-purpose roads and delays decreased on the motorways. There was evidence of some increase in queueing on motorway off ramps, but estimates of the levels of queueing to be expected would require more extensive modelling of all-purpose roads, especially for the Birmingham area. (A) (Published on the TRL CD-ROM entitled "Research on road user charging 1995-1998"). For the covering abstract see IRRD 491340.


Pruritus is a frequent complication (40%-100%) of intrathecal (IT) fentanyl 25 [micro sign]g (F) for labor analgesia. The addition of IT bupivacaine 2.5 mg (B) to F has been reported in a nonrandomized series to have a 17.3% incidence of pruritus. This study prospectively evaluated the incidence and distribution of pruritus in laboring parturients receiving IT F + B. Sixty-five laboring parturients were randomly assigned to receive IT F, B, or F + B as part of a combined spinal-epidural technique. Visual analog scores, sensory level, motor strength, and pruritus were recorded before injection and at intervals thereafter. When present, the distribution of pruritus was evaluated. The duration of analgesia was determined as the time from IT drug administration until the patient requested supplemental analgesia. The median duration of analgesia in the F, B, and F + B groups was 62.5, 55.0, and 94.5 min, respectively. Compared with F alone, the combination of F + B led to a decreased frequency of pruritus (36.4% vs 95%). The incidence of facial pruritus (25%) was same in the F + B and F groups; however, the occurrence of pruritus distributed over the rest of the body was significantly more frequent in the F compared with the F + B group. The combination of F + B prolongs the duration of labor analgesia compared with IT F or B alone. F + B also leads to a decreased incidence of pruritus, except in the facial region. Implications: When administered intrathecally with fentanyl 25 [micro sign]g in laboring parturients, bupivacaine 2.5 mg attenuates the frequency of pruritus on all parts of the body except the face. This combination also results in a rapid onset and prolonged duration of labor analgesia compared with either drug alone. (Anesth Analg 1998;87:1309-15)


CONNECT Action (Cognitive Decline in Nephro-Neurology European Cooperative Target) ABSTRACT Neuropeptide Y (NPY) is a 36-amino-acid peptide member of a family also including peptide YY and pancreatic polypeptide which are all ligands to Gi/Go coupled receptors. NPY regulates several fundamental biologic functions including appetite/satiety, sex and reproduction, learning and memory, cardiovascular and renal function and the immune function. The mesenteric circulation is a major source of NPY in the blood in man and this peptide is considered a key regulator of the gut-brain cross-talk. A progressive rise in circulating NPY accompanies the progression of CKD toward kidney failure and NPY robustly predicts cardiovascular events in this population. Furthermore, NPY is suspected as a possible player in the accelerated cognitive function decline and dementia in patients with CKD and in dialysis patients. In theory, Interfering with the NPY system has relevant potential for the treatment of diverse diseases from cardiovascular and renal diseases to diseases of the central nervous system. Pharmaceutical formulations for effective drug delivery and cost as well as the complexity of diseases potentially addressable by NPY/NPY antagonists have been a problem until now. This in part explains the slow progress of knowledge about the NPY system in the clinical arena. There is now a renewed research interest on the NPY system in psycho pharmacology and in pharmacology in general and new studies and a new breed of clinical trials may eventually bring the expected benefits in human health by drugs interfering with this system.


This article explores whether, and to what extent, local knowledge features in research on the role of ICTs in statebuilding and peacebuilding in Africa, with a particular focus on neighboring Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia. We question whether the claims of the transformative power of ICTs are backed by 'evidence' and whether local knowledge – e.g., traditional mechanisms for conflict resolution – is taken into consideration by ICT-based development initiatives. To assess this, we systematically reviewed literature in the region, focusing on academic outputs as well as research published by non-governmental and governmental organizations. Several key findings emerged, including: 1) empirical evidence on the successful use of ICTs to promote peacebuilding and statebuilding is thin; 2) few differences exist between scholar ship emanating from the Global North and from Africa; and 3) overall, the literature exhibits a simplistic assumption that ICTs will drive democratic development without sufficient consideration of how ICTs are actually used by the public.


Keratosis obturans (KO) is a rare disease involving the bony external auditory canal due to hyperkeratosis of epidermis and disturbance in the epithelial migration process resulting in deafness, otalgia, and inflammation of the ear canal skin. Complications are extremely rare. Here, we present a case of KO in an elderly female presenting as a postauricular abscess, an unreported occurrence first of its kind in the literature. A 67-year-old female patient presented with complaints of dull aching pain and decreased hearing in the left ear for 1 month and swelling behind and above the left ear for 2 weeks. On examination, there was impacted wax in the left external auditory canal and the tympanic membrane was not visualized. A high-resolution computed tomography of the temporal bone reported left otitis externa with soft-tissue density with fat strands in the left postauricular region. The patient underwent examination under microscope, followed by debridement and a subsequent cortical mastoidectomy. Histopathology confirmed the diagnosis of KO. KO is an uncommon condition caused due to occlusion of external auditory canal by desquamated keratinous plug. It is important to differentiate it with other common conditions, including necrotizing otitis externa, canal cholesteatoma, osteoradionecrosis of the external auditory meatus, and tumors of the external auditory meatus. Extracranial complications are rare, including extensive bony erosion and automastoidectomy with no intracranial complications reported till date. KO is a relatively rare condition more commonly seen in the younger age group, and postauricular abscess as a complication of KO has not been reported till date. We thus highlight the importance of awareness of such rare conditions of the external auditory canal, promoting early diagnosis, prompt treatment, and successful prevention of complications.


Post-translational modification represents an important mechanism to regulate protein function in cardiac cells. Ubiquitin (Ub) and ubiquitin-like proteins (UBLs) are a family of protein modifiers that share a certain extent of sequence and structure similarity. Conjugation of Ub or UBLs to target proteins is dynamically regulated by a set of UBL-specific enzymes and modulates the physical and physiological properties of protein substrates. Ub and UBLs control a strikingly wide spectrum of cellular processes and not surprisingly are involved in the development of multiple human diseases including cardiac diseases. Further identification of novel UBL targets will expand our understanding of the functional diversity of UBL pathways in physiology and pathology. Here we review recent findings on the mechanisms, proteome and functions of a subset of UBLs and highlight their potential impacts on the development and progression of various forms of cardiac diseases.


This study evaluates the removal of nitrogen compounds from wastewater in modified, small diameter gravity slope (SDGS) pipes during its conveyance. A 13-meter long, closed loop, wastewater collection network was designed and built at laboratory scale. The modified SDGS consists of Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC) tubes with perforated plastic netting fixed to the inner surfaces, to enhance biofilm attachment and growth under gravity flow. The system was operated at constant temperature using synthetic wastewater similar to municipal wastewater. The efficiency of ammoniacal nitrogen (NH 3 -N) removal at initial chemical oxygen demand (COD) concentrations of 340, 570, and 860 mg/L was studied. The NH 3 -N batch concentrations tested were 4.58, 6.32, and 9.48 mg/L, respectively. The results showed that nitrogen loss under aerobic conditions may have been due to simultaneous nitrification and denitrification, which began to operate when the biofilm was between 2.5 and 5.5 mm thick. A maximum NH 3 -N removal efficiency of 75% was achieved following 10 hours9 circulation period, at a COD concentration of 570 mg/L.


The Seoul National University Bundang Hospital Digital Mammographic Database - with Individual MC Annotations (SNUBH-MDB-mCi) See also our webpage at http://cv.snu.ac.kr/research/cascade-mc-detector15/index.html for updated information. For questions regarding data, e-mail: email@example.com INFORMATION: 1) The size of all images are 1914 pixels x 2294 pixels. 2) This zip-file contains 49 mammograms with micro-calcifications (μCs) and corresponding annotations for individual μCs and μC clusters. - The files named as '****_i.txt' are annotation files for individual μCs and list (x,y) coordinates of each μC. - The files named as '****_c.txt' are annotation files for μC clusters and list bounding boxes of each μC cluster. A bounding box is represented as two (x,y) coordinates, upper left corner and lower right corner. - Coordinate system origin is the upper-left corner.


AIMS
To compare the effectiveness and safety of standard-dose rivaroxaban (20 mg o.d.) and warfarin in non-valvular atrial fibrillation (NVAF) patients with a non-sex-related CHA2DS2-VASc score of 1.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Analysis of United States Truven MarketScan claims from November 2011 to December 2016 for anticoagulant-naïve NVAF patients with a single non-sex-related stroke risk factor assigned 1-point in the CHA2DS2-VASc score and ≥12-months of continuous medical/prescription insurance coverage prior to the qualifying oral anticoagulant dispensing. Standard-dose rivaroxaban users were 1:1 propensity score-matched to warfarin users. Patients were followed until outcome occurrence, insurance disenrollment, or end of data availability. Primary outcomes included stroke or systemic embolism and major bleeding and were compared using Cox regression and reported as hazard ratios (HRs) with 95% confidence intervals (CIs). In all, 3319 rivaroxaban users were 1:1 propensity score-matched to 3319 warfarin users. Median (interquartile range) duration of follow-up was 1.6 (0.7, 2) years and the most common qualifying stroke risk factor was hypertension (n = 4532, 68.3%). Rivaroxaban was associated with a significant reduction in the 1-year stroke or systemic embolism vs. warfarin (HR 0.41, 95% CI 0.17-0.98), with no significant difference in overall major bleeding (HR 0.74, 95% CI 0.44-1.26) or major bleeding subtypes (HR ranging from 0.33 to 0.78, P > 0.05 for all). Similar results were seen after extending follow-up to 2 years.

CONCLUSIONS
Rivaroxaban may lower the rate of stroke or systemic embolism vs. warfarin in NVAF patients with a non-sex-related CHA2DS2-VASc score of 1 without impacting major bleeding.


Author(s): Romero, Adam P; Rosky, Clifford J; Badgett, M.V. Lee; Gates, Gary J | Abstract: Using data from the U.S. Census Bureau, this report provides demographic and economic information about same-sex couples and same-sex couples raising children in Indiana. We compare same-sex "unmarried partners," which the Census Bureau defines as an unmarried couple who "shares living quarters and has a close personal relationship," to different-sex married couples in Indiana.In many ways, the almost 16,000 same-sex couples living in Indiana are similar to married couples. According to Census 2000, they live throughout the State, are racially and ethnically diverse, have partners who depend upon one another financially, and actively participate in Indiana's economy. Census data also show that 23% of same-sex couples in Indiana are raising children. However, same-sex couples have fewer economic resources to provide for their families than married couples: they have lower household incomes and lower rates of homeownership.


The variations in shape compared to the initial project affect the performance and the appearance of any mechanical assembly. There are many commercial software that allow to conduct an analysis of tolerances but most of these are based on the assumption that the elements analyzed are rigid. This assumption is not found in many industrial processes. This is the typical case of the automotive industry, which widely uses assemblies of sheet metal elements, which are flexible. The major concern is how much variation (the output) of the assembly will be, as "staked-up" from possible sources of variation (the input). The sources of variation in the assembly process include parts variation, tooling variation, and their interactions. For clarity, only part variation is considered as the input in this paper. The present work aims to perform analyses of tolerances in presence of flexible elements; the analyses involve the finite element method.


Abstract. Standardized precipitation index (SPI) was computed with CRU TS3.0 gridded 0.5 × 0.5° monthly precipitation dataset for each of the 14 mainland agroclimatic zones (ACZs) of India for individual months (June, July, August and September) and season (JJAS) of summer monsoon for 56 yr (1951–2006). Mann Kendall Trend Test with the representative SPI of the ACZs shows that only six out of 14 mainland ACZs have a significant trend during summer monsoon. Trans-Gangetic plain significantly gains wetness during the month of June. West coast plain and hill has a typical feature of significant increasing trend of wetness during June and increasing dryness during July. In general Upper Gangetic plain, Middle Gangetic plain, Central plateau and hill and Eastern plateau and hill have a significantly increasing drying trend during the whole duration of summer monsoon season.


There is an opinion among Western scholars that the institution of waqf could not any longer perform its economic role in the present times. Instead of being a vital institution as it truly played at the pre-modern era, waqf nowadays seems to be an impediment to the development in Muslim countries. This paper therefore is meant to refute such an opinion and attempts to point out the economic impacts of waqf for Muslim society in the context of the present economy. In the last part, the paper also brings about several necessary prerequisites for the revitalization of waqf in the current days.


Historical Archaeology of the African Diaspora in the Americas urges for interdisciplinary, collaborative, and intercultural approaches to shed light on how the material culture reflects conditions of enslavement and racialization, but also process of resistance and historical reparation. This investigation is organized in five articles connected around the topic of the cultural construction of the African Diaspora identities in the Afro-Ecuadorian Ancestral Territory of the Chota-Mira Valley from the perspective of historical, collaborative, de-colonizing archaeology and anthropology. One article involves archaeological and historical analysis of ceramics associated with household contexts of enslaved people in the 18th century Jesuit Andean Hacienda of La Concepcion to reconstruct creativity in production/consumptions of ceramics. Two articles articulate the historical narratives and politics of memory of the Afro-Ecuadorians, mainly from AfroEcuadorian Women. The last article focuses on a collaborative approach to reconstructan 18th
 century cemetery. Furthermore, this study involves a collaborative project with the African descendant community of La Concepcion and CONAMUNE-Carchi (Coordinadora Nacional de Mujeres Negras / National Coordinating Committee of Black Women)


Introduction: Exercise "snacking" and Tai-chi 'snacking' protocols are designed to overcome typical barriers to older adults' participation in muscle strength and balance exercise, using short bouts of home-based exercise. This study aimed to investigate the acceptability of homebred exercise- and Tai-chi snacking in British and Taiwanese older adults of high and low physical function. Methods: Thirty-three British and Thirty Taiwanese older adults took part in semi-structured interviews, after trying 1-week of exercise- and Tai-chi snacking. The interview schedule and deductive framework analysis was based on the seven components of the Theoretical Framework of Acceptability (TFA). Differences between the Taiwanese and United Kingdom participants and those considered high versus low physical function were also analysed. Results: Both snacking regimes were found to be convenient and easy to implement. Participants reported that no activity had to be given up, and considered the programmes would be beneficial to their physical and mental health. Interestingly, more UK-based participants preferred the elegant and relaxing movements of Tai-chi snacking, yet participants with low physical function experienced difficulties when mastering Tai-chi movements. A few high physical function participants perceived exercise snacking to be tedious. Discussion: Overall, the snacking exercise was found to be acceptable and useful. Personal affective attitude and different cultural backgrounds may affect exercise participation. Nevertheless, it is important to consider individuals' physical function when designing exercise regime. The findings indicate that making Tai-chi snacking easier to master initially, building in progression and adding some upper body movements in the exercise snacking may further enhance acceptability.


Photosynthetic microorganisms are able to produce a diverse array of renewable biochemical commodities. Although promising platforms for the accumulation of targeted products, these organisms must be optimized in solar energy conversion, carbon capture and utilization, and the partitioning of metabolic flux to the requisite biosynthetic pathways. Metabolic engineering efforts are systematically addressing these obstacles and demonstrate the potential to develop consolidated bioprocessing organisms that are able to efficiently transform the energy in sunlight directly to refined chemicals of economic value. Particularly intriguing are mechanisms to synthesize and secrete bioproducts of interest from cyanobacteria, thereby eliminating the need to dewater and process cellular biomass. Significant advances in more classical approaches to triacylglycerol and carbohydrate accumulation in algae have also recently been realized. Importantly, genetic tools and sequenced genomes are emerging for some of the most biotechnologically relevant strains. © 2013 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Environ Prog, 32: 989–1001, 2013


Paradigm shift is on the way in the financial market and economics theory. Evidence against the previously prevailing assumptions of rationality and market efficiency has become abundant and new models, that are rapidly becoming the main stream, are based on the actual investor behavior that can be empirically observed and provide better fit to the data. The contrast between the old and the new schools of thought serves as a background for this study, and reviewing some contemporary theories and studies of topics such as enhanced value investing and contextual fundamental analysis justifies its results which under the efficient market hypothesis would be anomalous. The first objective of this study is to test in the Nordic markets (Finland, Sweden, Norway and Denmark) Joel Greenblatt's investment formula (GF) that he published in his 2005 book: "The Little Book that Beats the Market". His method aims to buy good stocks when they are cheap and has provided during period 1988-2004 an average 30.8% p.a. return in the U.S. stock market while the S&P 500 index yielded 12.4% annually. Although the average return performance is stellar, the selection rule also accepts some stocks that will be deeply in loss thus making the whole portfolio to suffer periods of underperformance. This undermines the formula's exploitability especially in professional fund management setting. Second objective in this study is to improve GF by developing a model that can filter out the loss producing stocks ex ante using information set that is available at the time of investment. To accomplish the first goal a program that simulates GF investment rule was developed and run with the result of 29.4% p.a net investment return after taxes and trading costs during the research period 2000-2011 while the relevant reference stock index (FTSE Nordic Value Index) returned 7.6% p.a. To develop a model for the second stage, data mining methods were applied in variable and model selection phase. The produced logistic regression model with constant and 8 additional terms (single variables and interactions) was able to predict with 80-90% accuracy the predefined holding period return category for the cases in the research data. Sample data was divided into training, testing and validation partitions to ensure the out-of-sample performance of the models. When this model was applied as a filter in the stock selection phase the annual return for the period increased to 43.8 % p.a.


Ants, like many other animals, use visual memory to follow extended routes through complex environments, but it is unknown how their small brains implement this capability. The mushroom body neuropils have been identified as a crucial memory circuit in the insect brain, but their function has mostly been explored for simple olfactory association tasks. We show that a spiking neural model of this circuit originally developed to describe fruitfly (Drosophila melanogaster) olfactory association, can also account for the ability of desert ants (Cataglyphis velox) to rapidly learn visual routes through complex natural environments. We further demonstrate that abstracting the key computational principles of this circuit, which include one-shot learning of sparse codes, enables the theoretical storage capacity of the ant mushroom body to be estimated at hundreds of independent images.


Technological innovations in the agri-food sector raise the issue of their acceptability by consumers and their market entry in Europe. Recent research on perceptions of nanotechnology in food enables to understand and anticipate potential consumer reactions before the introduction of new products. One survey highlights indifference among German and French consumers as regards nanotechnologies, as well as a form of pessimism towards these products. An experimental economics study carried out in a laboratory shows a mistrustful attitude from French and German consumers and a low acceptance for nano-food or food nano-packaging. In the present state of knowledge and taking into account consumer attitudes towards this technology, possibilities for developing nano-products in the agri-food sector currently appear to be limited.


We studied natriuresis during central hypervolaemia by immersing eight normal subjects and eight patients with uncomplicated essential hypertension up to the neck in water, either in the absence (study 1) or presence (study 2) of dopamine blockade by metoclopramide. Water immersion without metoclopramide induced an exaggerated natriuresis in hypertensives compared with normotensives (P less than 0.001). This occurred in the presence of identical hormonal (plasma renin activity, plasma aldosterone and prolactin), renal (creatinine clearance) and pressor responses in both groups (study 1). The marked natriuresis seen during water immersion alone in normotensives was significantly blunted (P less than 0.02) but not abolished during water immersion with addition of metoclopramide. On the other hand, the exaggerated natriuresis found in hypertensives during water immersion alone was completely abolished during water immersion plus dopamine blockade by metoclopramide (study 2). Similar hormonal, renal and pressor changes were detected in both normotensive and hypertensive subjects during water immersion plus metoclopramide administration. Our data demonstrate that metoclopramide abolishes the exaggerated natriuretic response seen in hypertensives during volume expansion produced by water immersion, and suggest that dopamine may play a critical role in mediating the hypernatriuresis of essential hypertension.


A novel approach to the problem of computing the direction of arrival (DOA) of a sound source using a two‐element microphone array is presented. Typically, the DOA is computed by peak picking from the resulting cross‐correlation function. In order to improve such estimates it is usually desirable to pre‐filter the signals prior to cross correlation. However, proper selection of these pre‐filters is often problematic. The proposed algorithm adapts the filters during an initial training session to directly minimize the number of location estimation errors. The only information provided is the signal DOA, no explicit knowledge of the signal or noise spectra are required. It is assumed however that the overall signal/noise statistics are long term stationary over the training and subsequent testing. Examples of both linear and nonlinear filter design are presented for a talker location identification task.


Working Group. Any opinions expressed are his own and do not represent the opinions of the CO DoW or Meridian Institute. Executive Summary/Abstract: The state of Colorado expects recovering and dispersing wolf (Canis lupus and C. l. baileyi) populations to reach the state in the near future. Likewise, the western Distinct Population Segment of recovering gray wolves may be delisted soon. In preparation for this eventuality, the Colorado Division of Wildlife (CDOW) has initiated the development of a state wolf management plan in an effort to deal with the many controversial issues surrounding this topic, which includes the possible depredation upon livestock and other domestic animals by wolves. This paper deals specifically with cow-calf and sheep depredation and examines the actual threat to Colorado's livestock industry as well as the threat to individual ranchers should wolves establish packs in the state. I found that while wolves prefer wild game and are less likely to depredate livestock when game is available, wolves are opportunistic and will depredate livestock. Such depredations will not likely have any detectable negative effect on overall livestock production in the state but individual ranchers could experience significant losses through surplus killing or chronic depredations, with sheep producers more likely to experience such losses. If Colorado desires to monitor the effects of depredations by wolves, qualified staff must be employed and depredation trends monitored to evaluate the impacts. I also found that management of threats to livestock through the development of long-term strategies and identification of threat inducing factors are important for determining future allocations of resources in the application of combinations of wolf management tools to minimize risks to livestock producers. Such strategies will need to be employed along with active wolf management by USDA Wildlife Services or CDOW, White Paper Livestock Depredation by Wolves This white paper was prepared by Michael Francis at the request of CO DoW to assist the deliberations of the CO Wolf Management Working Group. Any opinions expressed are his own and do not represent the opinions of the CO DoW or Meridian Institute. particularly in areas where chronic depredations and conflicts do arise (assuming eventual de-listing of the gray wolf from Endangered Species Act protections). General livestock depredation information: Wild predators make impacts upon the livelihoods of farmers and ranchers around the globe (Moberly et al 2003; Cozza et al 1996; Wolf Trust 2004a) and likewise the expansion of human activities …


Abstract: Why are Chinese university graduates, who in the past avoided socio-economically backward rural areas, willing to start their careers in such areas today? This research argues that the Chinese authorities have promoted "grassroots employment" for university graduates through preferential policies together with the values of "socialist citizenship". However, the preferential policies actually reflect a different value of "instrumental utilitarianism" which resonates well with the dominant youth culture. This article examines the promotional strategies of four "grassroots employment" programmes in order to determine whether the popularity of the four programmes is due to the success of "socialist citizenship" or to the preferential policies. The benefits, difficulties and prospects of achieving the objectives of these "grassroots employment" programmes are briefly evaluated. The main conclusions are that the authorities have used "socialist citizenship" as a camouflage and that the preferential policies have accentuated youths' enthusiasm to join the programmes.


Risk factors of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) include overweight, hormonal changes, previous GDM, a family history of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and polycystic ovarian syndrome (1,2). In approximately 90% of women, metabolic perturbations are transient (1,2). However, some women progress to T2DM post-partum, with ongoing endothelial inflammation, early atherosclerosis, increased coagulation, insulin resistance, central adiposity, metabolic syndrome (MetS), atherogenic dyslipidaemia and cardiovascular (CV) complications (3-7).


Background: Adolescents' sexuality is topical in public health discussions owing to its ability to increase the risk of HIV infection and other sexually transmitted diseases. Research shows that adolescents' sexual behavior, psychosocial distress, and exposure to sexually explicit material(SEM) are interconnected in that they need collective health interventions for adolescents. Although mental health factors, such as psychological distress, are common in developing and middle-income countries, including Tanzania, these factors are less considered in HIV research. Thus, there is a need to raise awareness on the role of mental health factors in HIV epidemic. This study is, therefore, a response to this requirement by examining the contribution of psychosocial distress and exposure to sexually explicit materials on sexual intercourse among adolescents in Dodoma Region of Tanzania.Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in five villages of Chamwino District from April to June 2017 among 1,226 adolescents of 10-19 years' age. A stratified random sampling technique was used to select the respondents. A weighted logistic regression model was used to examine the independent contribution of psychosocial distress and exposure to sexually explicit materials on sexual intercourse while accounting for study design.Results: The overall lifetime prevalence of adolescent sexuality was 20.38%. The prevalence was observed to be higher among males (32.15%) as compared to females (10.92%). Adolescent sexuality was significantly associated with both psychosocial distress and exposure to sexually explicit materials. The odds ratios showed that adolescents reported psychosocially distressed (AOR=1.61, 95 %CI: 1.32- 1.96) and those exposed to sexually explicit materials (AOR=4.26, 95% CI: 3.65- 4.97) were at higher risk of having sexual intercourse. Other variables associated with sexual intercourse were age, sex, alcohol use, and current schooling status.Conclusion: The analysis made through this study came to the conclusion that as HIV risk continues to be a serious concern among adolescents, adolescent sexuality, psychosocial distress, and exposure to sexually explicit materials are interconnected. This calls for upfront interventions on school health education and services, particularly on the ventures to lower psychosocial distress and avert exposure on sexually explicit materials to prevent the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases.


For the past fifty years literary studies and criticism have been dominated by formalist, structural and text-centered approaches. The editor of this volume, Jerome J. McGann, has been arguing in recent years for more expansive and contextual procedures. In this collection of essays he has brought together a group of distinguished collaborators including Terry Eagleton, Marilyn Butler, Cecil Lang, and Sandra Gilbert whose work emphasizes the importance of social and historical methodologies for the study of literary texts. Representing a variety of viewpoints and critical strategies, these critics together demonstrate the sociohistorical dimensions of literary works, provide examples of how studies of such literary works might be pursued, and suggest some central areas of investigation. The resulting effort to reconstitute some vital and neglected critical approaches will engage students and scholars of literature, and move them to reassess current critical assumptions. Fundamental to this collection is the sense that literary texts are more than self-enclosed verbal constructs. In his introduction to the essays, editor McGann examines how and why the concept of referentiality fell into disfavor with modern literary schools. The antihistorical bias of the New Critics, Structuralists, and Deconstructionists, he argues, ultimately limit their critical vision. For literature, McGann stresses, has various points of reference to a larger world of social interactions and historical influence; only by recognizing and reconstructing that world can we mine the full meaning, and communicative potential, of a fictional work."


Abstract. Quantifying the intensity of spatial connections has been a crucial topic in many research fields, such as urban transportation, migration, and trade. Researchers have proposed various models, such as the gravity model and the radiation model, to quantify the magnitude of spatial connections. Traditionally, modeling the connections (relatedness) between spatial entities is limited to the physical space, but with the rapid growth of information technologies, the scope of spatial connections extends to the virtual space. However, one topic that has not been fully studied is how spatial scale may impact spatial connections in the virtual space and how this influence can be reflected in spatial decay models. In this study, we used two types of datasets (mass media and social media data) to explore the impact of scale on fitting the distance decay coefficient. The results confirmed that spatial scale can impact the magnitude of spatial decay effects in datasets with different characteristics.


Abstract Equations that predict intensity as a function of magnitude and distance are useful tools for hazard and risk assessment, and in interpretation of both contemporary and historical earthquake information. The intensity prediction equations of Atkinson and Wald (2007; hereafter AW07) have been remarkably successful in describing the level and intensity of motions reported under the "Did You Feel It?" (DYFI) program over the last several years. Examination of the performance of AW07 for North American earthquakes, evaluated using an extensive compiled database of DYFI observations from 2000 to 2013, suggests that there is little statistical basis for revising these equations. However, a problem with the AW07 equations is that they predict unrealistically large median intensities for large events ( M >6) at close distances. In this study, we revise AW07 to improve the intensity scaling at large magnitudes and close distances, by reconciling intensity equations with ground‐motion prediction equations.


Three experiments demonstrated learners' abilities to adaptively and qualitatively accommodate their encoding strategies to the demands of an upcoming test. Stimuli were word pairs. In Experiment 1, test expectancy was induced for either cued recall (of targets given cues) or free recall (of targets only) across 4 study-test cycles of the same test format, followed by a final critical cycle featuring either the expected or the unexpected test format. For final tests of both cued and free recall, participants who had expected that test format outperformed those who had not. This disordinal interaction, supported by recognition and self-report data, demonstrated not mere differences in effort based on anticipated test difficulty, but rather qualitative and appropriate differences in encoding strategies based on expected task demands. Participants also came to appropriately modulate metacognitive monitoring (Experiment 2) and study-time allocation (Experiment 3) across study-test cycles. Item and associative recognition performance, as well as self-report data, revealed shifts in encoding strategies across trials; these results were used to characterize and evaluate the different strategies that participants employed for cued versus free recall and to assess the optimality of participants' metacognitive control of encoding strategies. Taken together, these data illustrate a sophisticated form of metacognitive control, in which learners qualitatively shift encoding strategies to match the demands of anticipated tests.


The Bureau of Mines has developed a unique new mine design procedure to determine the changing static load distributions imposed on underground support structures during the mining cycle. The procedure reduces the complexities associated with analyzing a three-dimensional problem. A combination of the multiple-seam displacement-discontinuity model and a two-dimensional finite-element window model produces refined results for a specific area of interest by assuming displacement compatability between models. Input to the procedure includes the geometry of mined-out areas in up to two adjacent seams, the rock mass characteristics of the surrounding geology, the in situ stress conditions, and the mining sequence. The displacement-discontinuity program calculates expected loadings for mine structures affected by the mining cycle and/or by overlying or underlying seams. Pseudoelastic finite-element analysis using a yield-factor approach determines the stability of coal pillars by simulating the degree and extent of progressive rib failure and subsequent load transfer. Application of the procedure is demonstrated on a field problem. Induced stress changes predicted from the numerical model analysis are in reasonably good agreement with stress measurements obtained from an instrumented chain pillar affected by remnant workings in an upper seam.


The movement of sediment such as sand, silt or gravel by flowing water is of interest to a wide range of engineering disciplines. This study is aimed at developing models, which can be used to predict the magnitude and levels of sediment concentration in Ogbese and Owena Rivers in Ondo State S.W. Nigeria for engineering design purposes. Data were collected from field investigations conducted at the respective sampling stations on the two rivers. The live bed concept used was derived from Liu – Hwang (1954) resistance equations and that of Einstein-Brown (1981) sediment transport concept. The problem was reduced to that of a power law relationship. These data ere fitted into the power relationship to obtain the predicted model of the form: F1Q = k2k1, where the parameters F1Q is the dimensionless sediment discharge,  is the dimensionless bed shear stress, k1 and k2 are sediments transport coefficients. Calibrating the models yielded the values of k1 and k2 for Ogbese river as 0.592 and 0.865 and for Owena river as 0.335 and 1.197 respectively. When tested the predicted models for Ogbese and Owena rivers performed well in comparison with the established models such as Ackers and White (1973), Engleund and Hansen (1967), Yang (1973) a\and Karim (1998). It is concluded that the models developed would be useful for engineering design purposes for Ogbese and Owena rivers.


In a situation where customers end locations and its central infrastructure servers are connected over service provider MPLS (Multi Protocol Label Switching) network infrastructure, each customer site, including the central one is one MPLS connection. To ensure redundancy for the central location where the customer servers are located, most companies use two MPLS connections so that if one fails other will take over the traffic. For various reasons, some companies have not implemented a dynamic routing protocol, and all of their routing decisions are based on static routes, which is not a good solution. Such companies for purposes of routing redundancy choose to use FHRP (First Hop Redundancy Protocols) protocols in combination with interface tracking in both directions to ensure failover when needed. This combination is used to ensure redundant two-way communication that is resistant to one link or one device failure. In this paper, we describe the method of implementing VRRP (Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol) protocol in combination with interface tracking mechanism to ensure the availability of key elements of customer networks and present shortcomings of this model on the availability of customer infrastructure. Also, we will compare this solution with the conventional solution using a dynamic routing protocol.


Background & objectives: Resistant microbial strains are a serious threat to public health in different societies. Among the extended-spectrum β-lactamases (ESBL) producing strains the Enterobacteriaceae family which is considered as the main factors producing urinary tract infections, have created many problems in treatment of this kind of infections. This study was conducted to determine the frequency of β-lactamase TEM-1 gene in Enterobacteriaceae isolated from urine samples in Ardabil city. Methods: Within 6 months, 400 urinary isolates of Enterobacteriaceae of inpatients and outpatients were collected in Ardabil hospitals and were identified by standard methods. Antimicrobial susceptibility of isolates was tested by disk diffusion method, and ESBL producer confirmatory test was conducted using combined disk. Finally, the frequency of βlactamase TEM-1 gene in producing extended-spectrum β-lactamases strains was investigated using PCR. Results: From 400 isolates of Enterobacteriaceae, 150 cases (37.5%) were ESBL producing. PCR results showed presence of the TEM-1 gene in 69 cases (46%). The frequency of this gene in isolates of Enterobacter (Aerogenes, Cloacae), Klebsiella (Pneumoniae, Oxytoca) and E. coli was obtained to be 62.5%, 54.5% and 44.8%, respectively. Proteus mirabilis and Serratia marcescens strains were lacking these genotypes. Conclusion: As regards the presence of TEM-1 gene, there is also increasing in other members of the Enterobacteriaceae family including Klebsiella and Enterobacter in addition to E. coli, therefore sufficient identification of this strains is necessary to prescribe the right medicine.


Abstract Integrated processes as models for time series data have proved to be an important component of the highly flexible class of ARIMA(p, d, q) models. Determining the amount of differencing, d, has been a difficult task: too little and the process is not yet second-order stationary; too much and the process is more variable than it need be. It is shown that by introducing the notion of generalized covariances, developed by Matheron (1973) for spatial processes, the amount of differencing needed can be read easily from a sequence of graphs showing averages of squares of primary data increments. Formal inference to determine if the last difference really is necessary can then be carried out. Time series data are analyzed in this way and compared with the hypothesis-testing approach illustrated by Dickey, Bell, and Miller (1986). Once the order of differencing has been diagnosed, either the differenced time series can be analyzed or the generalized covariance of the undifferenced series can be estimated.


What do you do? As a lawyer (or prospective lawyer), I mean – what do you do (or what will you do) in exchange for a salary or hourly fee? You will probably be expecting a lot of money for your services; so what, exactly, is it that you will do to justify that payment? The answer, of course, is varied because lawyers do lots of different things. And, among these activities, there are some things that only lawyers can do. Chief among those is suing people. Suing people is something that only lawyers do because states do not generally permit non-lawyers to appear in court or file pleadings. Accordingly, doing so – whether in pursuit of injunctive relief, declaratory relief, or a monetary remedy – is a significant part of the current legal market. Indeed, it is the professional focus of the many lawyers who practice commercial litigation or who perform collections work. In these areas of the law, lawyers sue people in an attempt to validate their clients' rights and causes of actions with a money judgment.So what you do very likely comes down to getting money. This is not novel, of course: many people spend their time arguing about, dealing with, or negotiating over money. What is somewhat unique, however, is just how clean and abrupt a lawyer's role is in this context: your job is (or will be) to take property belonging to someone else and convert it into property belonging to your client – in other words, to create a property interest for your client.Creditors have a unique ability in our legal system to acquire property rights in assets belonging to debtors. This paper examines these "creditor property rights," in general, and those granted to creditors of debtors that own interests in partnerships, limited partnerships, and limited liability companies, in particular. More specifically, this paper examines charging orders – the redress granted to a creditor vis-a-vis a debtor's interest in a partnership entity – and argues that this remedy is a much more significant, useful, and choate right than is generally acknowledged by either the academy or the bar.Part I begins this examination by looking at the history of creditor property rights and the manner in which they have developed over the years, culminating in our current system, which allows creditors to "convert" debtor property to creditor property via execution. This redress represents the ultimate creditor right, but it does not stand alone. Rather, the courts have fashioned a number of remedies that grant to creditors a "partial" property right. Of chief interest here is the charging order, which is reviewed in detail in Part II. Therein, the function, history, and evolution of this remedy from its inception is explained. The charging order initially developed in the partnership context, in response to a perceived unfairness existing when a creditor gained unfettered rights in the partnership interest of a debtor-partner and the partnership's underlying assets. Based on this inequity, the courts granted creditors a provisional right in partnership property (a "quasi" property right) by permitting the creditor to intercept certain distributions that would otherwise flow from the partnership to the partner but prohibiting any interference with the partnership itself. The remedy quickly spread to limited partnerships and was incorporated into LLC law from its inception. This is particularly important given the explosive popularity of the LLC over the last thirty-five years and the fact that the charging order – and its attendant limitation on creditors (whether real or perceived) – has had an enormous effect on planning, on transactional work, and on litigation in general.Part III expands upon Part II's examination of the charging order remedy and argues that that creditors of partnership entity owners are not as limited as is widely believed and that the perception of the charging order as an effective barrier to collection is exaggerated. Part III focuses on the underlying purpose of creditor property rights and charging orders and analyzes the language of some of the statutes that create the charging order remedy. By placing charging orders in their proper context (as a type of creditor property interest) and by focusing on actual statutory language, this Part highlights the options available to holders charging orders. These options are substantial and should be more aggressively utilized by courts and lawyers. If that occurs, the charging order will assume a more rightful place in the hierarchy of creditor rights and afford much greater creditor protection than they presently do. The Article concludes, then, that most lawyers' belief that a charging order effectively precludes creditor recovery is significantly overstated and that, given the extraordinary prevalence of partnership entities today, this is an important point that lawyers, teachers, and students overlook at their own peril.


With the widespread adoption of wavefield continuation methods for prestack migration, the concept of operator aliasing warrants revisiting. While zero-offset migration is unaffected, prestack migrations reintroduce the issue. Some situations where this problem arises include subsampling the shot-axes to save shot-profile migration costs and limited cross-line shot locations due to acquisition strategies. These problems are overcome in this treatment with the use of an appropriate source function or band-limiting the energy contributing to the image. We detail a synthetic experiment that shows the ramifications of subsampling the shot axis and the efficacy of addressing the problems introduced with our two approaches. Further, we explain how these methods can be tailored in some situations to include useful energy residing outside of the Nyquist limits.


Decades into our future, a brilliant nanotechnologist named John Percival Hackworth has just broken the rigorous moral code of his tribe, the powerful Neo-Victorians. He's made an illicit copy of a state-of-the-art interactive device called a young lady's illustrated primer, designed to raise a girl capable of thinking for herself. Unfortunately, for Hackworth, he loses his smuggled copy to a gang of street urchins in a mugging. One of the young thugs presents the primer to his little sister, Nell and suddenly her life - and perhaps the whole future of humanity - is about to be decoded and reprogrammed...vividly imagined, stunningly prophetic, and epic in scope, "The Diamond Age" is a major novel from one of the most visionary writers of our time.


Over time, as humans have come together to survive and thrive, the places they settled became a reflection of physical topography and climate, as well as the activities of the people living there. Within a region there may be similarities among places, but also slight differences. Further away, in different geographical circumstances settlements might be quite different.
Such rich cultural history provides us an identity, but also lessons for how to live sustainably into the future. New Traditional Architecture MMXX recognizes the importance of our cultural and built tradition and explores these larger themes.
Alejandro Garcia Hermida (ed.). Nueva Arquitectura Tradicional - New Traditional Architecture MMXX. INTBAU Espana, 2020.


Aerobic bacterial flora in the intestines of seabream (Sparus aurata) larvae and juveniles, in diets they were fed (rotifers, brine shrimp, artificial diet), and in their rearing water were analyzed. Fish fed live feeds had a higher bacterial count than the fish fed the artificial diet. In rotifers, the total bacteria count was 8.7 x 106 and Pseudomonas dominated the flora (60.2%). In larvae fed rotifers, the bacteria count was 9.8 x 102, with Pseudomonas (48.4%) and Vibrio (28.3%) dominating. In brine shrimp, the bacterial count was 1.7-3.5 x 107 cfu/g and Vibrio (73.7-81.3%) was more prevalent than Pseudomonas (10.2-15.5%). In larvae fed brine shrimp, the bacterial count was 5.3 x 104-1.8 x 105 and Vibrio (61.2-70.1%) dominated. The count for the artificial feed was 1.2 x 104 with Pseudomonas slightly dominating while for juveniles fed artificial feed the count was 2.3 x 104, with Vibrio slightly dominating. Bacterial microflora in the rearing water ranged from 1.3 x 102 to 3.2 x 103 cfu/ml. The study showed that the microflora of fish feeds quantitatively and qualitatively affect the intestinal microflora of seabream larvae and juveniles.


Much of the theoretical work on strategic voting makes strong assumptions about what voters know about the voting situation. A strategizing voter is typically assumed to know how other voters will vote and to know the rules of the voting method. A growing body of literature explores strategic voting when there is uncertainty about how others will vote. In this paper, we study strategic voting when there is uncertainty about the voting method. We introduce three notions of manipulability for a set of voting methods: sure, safe, and expected manipulability. With the help of a computer program, we identify voting scenarios in which uncertainty about the voting method may reduce or even eliminate a voter's incentive to misrepresent her preferences. Thus, it may be in the interest of an election designer who wishes to reduce strategic voting to leave voters uncertain about which of several reasonable voting methods will be used to determine the winners of an election.


Among patients with lung cancers, the proportion of those with small cell lung cancer (SCLC) has decreased over the last decade. SCLC is staged as limited-stage disease and extensive-stage disease. Standard staging procedures for SCLC include CT scans of the chest and abdomen, bone scan, and CT scan or MRI of the brain. The role for positron emission tomography scanning in the staging of SCLC has yet to be defined. Limited-stage disease is treated with curative intent with chemotherapy and radiation therapy, with approximately 20% of patients achieving a cure. The median survival time for patients with limited-stage disease is approximately 18 months. Extensive-stage disease is treated primarily with chemotherapy, with a high initial response rate of 60 to 70% and a complete response rate of 20 to 30%, but with a median survival time of approximately 9 months. Patients achieving a complete remission should be offered prophylactic cranial irradiation. Currently, there is no role for maintenance treatment or bone marrow transplantation in the treatment of patients with SCLC. Relapsed or refractory SCLC has a uniformly poor prognosis. In this section, evidence-based guidelines for the staging and treatment of SCLC are outlined.


Objective. Signaling lymphocytic activation molecule (SLAM) has been related to the pathology of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) through regulation of T cell-dependent humoral immune responses. We investigated the functional associations of the −262A/T and −188A/G polymorphisms of SLAM in Chinese patients with SLE. Methods. Genotyping of −262A/T (rs2295614) and −188A/G (rs2295613) in SLAM was carried out in 248 cases and 278 controls. Promoter activities of haplotypes on the SLAM gene were evaluated with the dual-luciferase reporter system. The mRNA expressions of SLAM on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of SLE patients with different genotypes were determined by real-time polymerase chain reaction. Results. Frequencies of −262A allele and −188G allele were significantly higher in SLE patients than in controls. Haplotype analysis and multifactorial logistic regression analysis showed that individuals with the AG/AG haplotype had increased susceptibility to SLE (p = 0.002, OR 1.478, 95% CI 1.152–1.897). In response to PHA stimulation, the SLAM mRNA expression on PBMC of SLE patients was significantly higher in −262A-188G haplotype homozygotes compared with −262A-188G heterozygotes and individuals with other genotypes. Conclusion. Our findings suggest that −262A-188G haplotype in the SLAM gene promoter contributes to the risk of SLE by increasing the expression of SLAM.


Betalains are soluble pigments found only in the suborder Chenopodiniae, while in all other Angiospermae they are replaced by anthocyanins. The convergent evolution of the presence of anthocyanins and betalains in vegetative tissues supports the hypothesis of a similar function, based on the absorption properties of these pigments. The screening effect of anthocyanins results in the reduction of the amount of photoinhibition. Betalains, being the anthocyanin counterpart in most families of Caryophyllales, were also suggested to have a screening role. This study is aimed at identifying in which Cactaceae stem tissues betacyanins, reddish to violet betalain pigments, accumulate. Stem accumulation of betacyanins was observed in cacti both in their natural habitat and in cultivation. The localization of betacyanins was assessed by light microscope studies on tubercle transverse sections. During 2 field trips in distinct years to the Mexican plateau in March, many cactus species, belonging to different genera, were observed displaying a reddish stem. Light microscope studies on cultivated plants showed that betacyanins accumulate in the hypodermis and in the outer layers of the chlorenchyma, where they may act as a screen, thus protecting the photosystems present in the underlying chlorenchyma, and have a possible antioxidant function in the cortex.


The study in this paper presents a one-dimensional convolutional neural network (1DCNN) model, designed for the automated detection of obstructive Sleep Apnoea (OSA) captured from single-channel electrocardiogram (ECG) signals. The system provides mechanisms in clinical practice that help diagnose patients suffering with OSA. Using the state-of-the-art in 1DCNNs, a model is constructed using convolutional, max pooling layers and a fully connected Multilayer Perceptron (MLP) consisting of a hidden layer and SoftMax output for classification. The 1DCNN extracts prominent features, which are used to train an MLP. The model is trained using segmented ECG signals grouped into 5 unique datasets of set window sizes. 35 ECG signal recordings were selected from an annotated database containing 70 night-time ECG recordings. (Group A – a01 to a20 (Apnoea breathing), Group B – b01 to b05 (moderate), and Group C – c01 to c10 (normal). A total of 6514 minutes of Apnoea was recorded. Evaluation of the model is performed using a set of standard metrics which show the proposed model achieves high classification results in both training and validation using our windowing strategy, particularly W=500 (Sensitivity=0.9705, Specificity=0.9725, F1_Score=0.9717, Kappa_Score=0.9430, Log_Loss=0.0836, ROCAUC=0.9945). This demonstrates the model can identify the presence of Apnoea with a high degree of accuracy.


Drawing on perspectives from administrative law as well as the study of law and development, this article analyzes three important transitions in American law and society since the Chicago Haymarket Square Riot of 1886. First, between the Haymarket Square Riot and 1950, the United States made great strides in the use and capacity of its institutions. At the outset, Americans lived in what could be reasonably described as a developing country constrained by violent labor conflicts, fragile institutions, and economic uncertainty. By the end of this period the United States was a preeminent global power making routine use of courts and agencies to resolve societal disputes. Second, in the latter half of the twentieth century and the early twenty-first century, Americans saw their country experience major demographic changes arising from the United States' distinctive approach to immigration. To implement its approach to immigration following the 1965 Immigration and Nationality Act amendments, the United States relied on an elaborate mechanism for administrative adjudication and enforcement on a massive scale, as well as a more decentralized arrangement of regionally-based integration that could further both social cohesion and geopolitical aims. And third, the United States now faces emerging governance and regulatory challenges as technological developments involving networked computers and so-called "artificial intelligence" increasingly affect society and the nature of work. Once associated with the public contracting infrastructure used to support defense-related research and development, this transition is now catalyzing interest in regulatory and liability-related frameworks to govern the division of responsibility between human decision-makers and machine intelligence.
I reflect on some of the similarities and differences associated with these transitions. I place them in the context of related legal developments, and assess what they reveal about the United States' historical legacies and arrangements for pluralist governance. Ultimately, an understanding of these transitions provides not only indispensable context for the United States' early twenty-first century institutional dilemmas, but also an appreciation of how a pivotal geopolitical power adapted to forge –– however imperfectly –– legal arrangements incorporating norms of non-arbitrariness in different settings where law affects development.


Plant growth promoting bacteria (PGPB) enhances the growth of their hosts and can protect them from biotic and abiotic stresses. Bacterial inoculants contain one or more of these beneficial strains in a carrier material, which must be able to maintain the viability of the cells during the time of storage, and also guarantee the biological activity of the strains once applied in the soil. These inoculants can be solid, liquid, gel or oil-based, depending on the characteristics of the strains and the shelf life expected by the producers. In this study, we used a method of accelerated degradation to select a polymer and a concentration to maintain cell stability of a liquid inoculant based on the strain C16 Azospirillum brasilense . A screening at 45°C was made to compare the protectant effect of five polymers on the viability of the strain (p/v): carrageenan (1.5%), sodium alginate (1%), trehalose (10 mM), polyvinylpyrrolidone (2%), glycerol (10 mM) and phosphate saline buffer as control. Carrageenan and sodium alginate showed significant differences in cell viability over the use of other polymers (P < 0.05). We evaluated cell viability with these two polymers at three concentrations and three different temperatures (4, 28 and 45°C) for 60 days and determined the bacterial degradation rates. Based on the Arrhenius thermodynamic model, we calculated the time required to reduce cell concentration in three log units, and observed that the protectant activity of each polymer and each concentration depends on the temperature of storage. Cell viability was best preserved in all treatments at 4°C. In general, alginate prolonged cell viability at 28°C, and carrageenan at 45°C. Alginate at 1% and  carrageenan at 0.75% showed a stable behavior (superior to the control) in the three evaluated temperatures, so we conclude that they can be used for a  formulation of a liquid inoculant based on the strain C16 of A. brasilense. Key words : Energy of activation, degradation, cell death, kinetics, formulation.


Background: The surgical management of giant omphalocele is a surgical challenge with high mortality and morbidity in our country due to the absence of neonatal resuscitation. This study evaluates conservative management of giant omphalocele with dissodic 2% aqueous eosin. Materials and Methods: In the period from January 1997 to December 2012, giant omphaloceles were treated with dissodic 2% aqueous eosin. The procedure consisted of twice a day application of dissodic 2% aqueous eosin (sterile solution for topical application) on the omphalocele sac. The procedure was taught to the mother to continue at home with an outpatient follow-up to assess epithelialization. We studied the duration of the hospital stay, the learning curve of the procedure by the mother, the complications, the duration and the percentage of complete epithelialization and the mortality. Results: A total of 173 giant omphaloceles had a conservative treatment with dissodic 2% aqueous eosin. The average hospital stay was 21 ± 6 days. The learning curve by the mother of the procedure was 10 ± 3 days. Complications of treatment were intestinal functional occlusion 22% and omphalocele sac infection 18%. The complete epithelialization of the omphaloceles sac after application of dissodic 2% aqueous eosin was 68.5%. Mortality was observed in 25.5%. Conclusion: Conservative treatment of giant omphaloceles by dissodic 2% aqueous eosin is a simple, efficient and a good alternative to surgery. The mother can easily learn its procedure which reduces the duration of hospital stay.


The fundamental question addressed by this research is how larger organisations embark
upon electronic commerce (E-commerce) projects in order to identify best practice which
increase the likelihood of success. For the purpose of this thesis, electronic commerce is
defined as any interaction between an organisation and its trading community undertaken
in an electronic manner.

In addition, the research also considers the opportunities for achieving competitive
advantage through the use of electronic commerce; and being such a relatively new
discipline it explores the origins/scope of electronic commerce and the reasons for its
popularity.

Despite evidence to confirm that larger organisations have a critical dependency upon IT
applications, the research concludes that few organisations have internal planning
processes in place that examine the strategic nature of IT projects under development.

The main research outcome has been the identified trend by larger organisations to
consolidate and reduce the variety of IT technologies in use, giving rise to the concept of a 'thick architecture'. The researcher has developed a 'six layer model' to illustrate the thick architecture concept and to explain the interplay between business and IT strategies.

In this context, open Internet technologies are emerging as the preferred choice on which to
base such a thick architecture. The research concludes that Internet commerce (an
evolution of electronic commerce) is offering exciting new IT application opportunities for
organisations to achieve competitive advantage.

Finally, recommendations are made on best practices to be adopted when embarking upon
electronic commerce programmes.


The peculiar shape and dimensions of nanowires (NWs) have opened the way to their exploitation in thermoelectric applications. In general, the parameters entering into the thermoelectric figure of merit are strongly interdependent, which makes it difficult to realize an optimal thermoelectric material. In NWs, instead, the power factor can be increased and the thermal conductivity reduced, thus boosting the thermoelectric efficiency compared to bulk materials. However, the assessment of all the thermoelectric properties of a NW is experimentally very challenging. Here, we focus on InSb NWs, which have proved to be promising thermoelectric materials. The figure of merit is accurately determined by using a novel method based on a combination of Raman spectroscopy and electrical measurements. Remarkably, this type of experiment provides a powerful approach allowing us to neglect the role played by thermal contact resistance. Furthermore, we compare the thermal conductivity determined by this novel method to the one determined on the same sample by the thermal bridge method. In this latter approach, the thermal contact resistance is a non-negligible parameter, especially in NWs with large diameters. We provide experimental evidence of the crucial role played by thermal contact resistance in the assessment of the thermal properties of nanostructures, using two different measurement methods of the thermal conductivity.


Steel reinforced concrete is one of the most durable and cost effective construction materials but it can suffer in high chloride environments from corrosion due to chloride induced break down of the normal passive layer protection. One way of protection embedded steel reinforcement from chloride induced corrosion is by the addition of corrosion inhibiting admixtures (CIA) to the concrete mixes. In this paper, the effectiveness of various corrosion inhibiting admixtures (CIA), namely calcium nitrite and sodium benzoate, admixed with OPC mortar ingredients on fresh parameters (initial flowability and rate of flowability loss), microstructure related properties (cement-phase composition, capillary porosity and permeation) and reinforcement corrosion activity was extensively investigated. The role of these CIA on the mechanical properties (such as compressive, tensile and bond strength) of OPC matrix was also studied. Therefore, various 0.50 w/c OPC mortars made with 0, 2, 4 and 5% of either calcium nitrite or sodium benzoate were prepared and then assessed using mortar flow table, thermogravimetric analysis de-sorption test, initial surface absorption test and half-cell apparatus. The results emphasized that the beneficial role of corrosion inhibiting admixtures on enhancing the resistance of reinforcement against corrosion is significantly dependent on the modifications occur to the microstructure of OPC matrix as a result of inclusion of CIA. The use of calcium nitrite and sodium benzoate has led to reducing the capillary porosity and rate of water flow into OPC matrix and increasing the amount of C-S-H. The amount of enhancement in the microstructure related properties is generally increased with CIA content. Also, the tensile and bond strength are significantly improved as a result of admixing calcium nitrite in OPC mix, while, all studied mechanical properties (compressive, tensile and bond strength) have been degraded when sodium benzoate was utilized.


The techniques of biopsy and polypectomy are essential skills for a primary care endoscopist because lesions requiring these interventions are common. This article reviews common and uncommon lesions, electrosurgical principles, traditional, and novel techniques.


In this paper we ask: How is motherhood being represented in the British media, especially in relation to choice, age and fertility? Do media discourses reflect a redefinition or transformation of 'motherhood' in the twenty‐first century, and what implications do they have for feminist research into maternal identity and motherhood? As three Ph.D. students from The Open University, all working on different aspects of motherhood, we examine and discuss the significant debates around motherhood, fertility and choice taking place recently in the British media. In the context of increasing divergence from traditional family forms, advances in medical technology such as assisted reproductive techniques, and changing attitudes to sexual behaviour and marriage over the past few decades, motherhood and parenting remain contested sites in the public domain. The availability of contraception and of abortion has given rise to increased choice, and yet women's fertility choices are increasingly subject to scrutiny and criticism. In particular, media debate in the UK has focused on challenges to traditional motherhood and the implication that the family is 'in crisis'. This is particularly evident in the coverage of teenage mothers, older mothers and women who delay motherhood. Such media representations of older and younger mothers and those women who 'leave it too late' reveal significant insights into the social construction of motherhood.


Rosacea is a common condition that affects people of all races. In addition to the visible aspects of this disease, it can have a psychosocial impact that must be evaluated when considering the treatment options. More aggressive and innovative uses of existing oral agents have resulted in novel therapeutic approaches, which can provide long-term therapy and sustained remission.


This essay examines the position of political science as a discipline during the Marcos dictatorship. It explores the variations in political scientists' approach to Marcos. Some approved and justified authoritarian rule, while others tried to elevate the political events to the level of "theory." There was hardly any critique of the dictatorship in part because political scientists' interpretation of the world did not dovetail with realities on the ground. Studies critical of martial law came from somewhere else, spearheaded by former political detainees who dabbled in dependency theory and did field research, leaving the discipline catching up with these nonpolitical scientists until the end of martial law.


Submodular function maximization is one of the key problems that arise in many machine learning tasks. Greedy selection algorithms are the proven choice to solve such problems, where prior theoretical work guarantees (1 - 1/e) approximation ratio. However, it has been empirically observed that greedy selection provides almost optimal solutions in practice. The main goal of this paper is to explore and answer why the greedy selection does significantly better than the theoretical guarantee of (1 - 1/e). Applications include, but are not limited to, sensor selection tasks which use both entropy and mutual information as a maximization criteria. We give a theoretical justification for the nearly optimal approximation ratio via detailed analysis of the curvature of these objective functions for Gaussian RBF kernels.


There is significant potential for the use of unmanned remote control vehicles in sampling andmeasuring radiological events. No attempt to standardise sampling and measurement methods usingthese types of vehicles has been made so far. Common standards would simplify the use of remotecontrol vehicles in an emergency scenario and would thus be very valuable in critical infrastructureprotection. The main advantage of using unmanned systems in radiological events is the protection ofthe involved human personnel.This document focuses on possible scenarios for remote control radiation measurements and samplingusing unmanned systems. We identified scenarios that can be separated in two categories. First, thereare prevention scenarios where unmanned systems can be used to prevent incidents involvingradioactive material and deterrence. Second, there are response scenarios where unmanned systemscan be used to gather information after incidents with radioactive material have occurred. We furthercondensed three main tasks (spatial mapping, search of sources and sampling) for unmanned systemsin the identified scenarios.In addition, this report summarises possible standards for unmanned systems. A very widelyrecognised standard collection of software frameworks for robot software development is the robotoperating system. Further important standards concerning communication with robots and control ofunmanned systems are battle management language, interoperability profile and joint architecture forunmanned systems.