Presently, the highest level of waste generation is characterized by ferrous metallurgy enterprises, the large-tonnage wastes of which are slags of various industries. Taking into account the negative impact of slags on the environment, the limited opportunities for expanding dump volumes, as well as the depletion of sources of raw mineral raw materials, the aim of research was to develop an alternative method for the utilization of steel-smelting slags of the mining and metallurgical complex. Tthe steel smelting slag of the Novolipetsk metallurgical plant and the sewage sludge of the city water treatment station in Lipetsk were selected as the materials for the study. In the laboratory, the chemical composition of the waste was determined by means of a complex of modern analytical methods, including atomic emission spectrometry with inductively coupled plasma, X-ray fluorescence spectrometry, and atomic absorption spectrometry with electrothermal atomization. The results of the analysis enabled to assess the possibility of sharing waste as a soil additive to improve the quality of the soil. Then, under laboratory conditions, the grass mixture was grown on model soil samples with a soil additive consisting of the investigated waste with a different mass ratio. On the basis of the obtained data on seed germination, the growth of the aerial part of the biomass, the height of the leaves, and also the content of the accumulated metals in the plants, a formulation of an organomineral additive was proposed for poor soils of disturbed lands.


Artificial muscle corrects metalens aberrations on the fly. Focal adjustment and zooming are universal features of cameras and advanced optical systems. Such tuning is usually performed longitudinally along the optical axis by mechanical or electrical control of focal length. However, the recent advent of ultrathin planar lenses based on metasurfaces (metalenses), which opens the door to future drastic miniaturization of mobile devices such as cell phones and wearable displays, mandates fundamentally different forms of tuning based on lateral motion rather than longitudinal motion. Theory shows that the strain field of a metalens substrate can be directly mapped into the outgoing optical wavefront to achieve large diffraction-limited focal length tuning and control of aberrations. We demonstrate electrically tunable large-area metalenses controlled by artificial muscles capable of simultaneously performing focal length tuning (>100%) as well as on-the-fly astigmatism and image shift corrections, which until now were only possible in electron optics. The device thickness is only 30 μm. Our results demonstrate the possibility of future optical microscopes that fully operate electronically, as well as compact optical systems that use the principles of adaptive optics to correct many orders of aberrations simultaneously.


The University of Kentucky Engineering Summer Program (ESP) is an immersive, one-week, residential program incorporating engineering and entrepreneurship curricula for Kentucky's top, rising (to be) high school seniors. The main objectives of the program include: apprising its students of the role of innovation in a global economy, educating them about engineering as an academic major, informing students of the opportunities available to engineering graduates, acquainting them with the business development process, convincing students of the importance of being entrepreneurial, improving their communication and teamwork skills, and recruiting students for further engineering and entrepreneurial pursuits. The goals of the program are accomplished through the use of team building exercises, hands-on engineering labs, company tours, networking opportunities, and a group business venture competition. The program increases the participants' understanding of engineering and entrepreneurship, and is a useful tool for student recruitment. Additionally, it improves the students' attitudes toward engineering by combating stereotypes and demonstrating its expansive relevance in an attempt to increase the participants' likelihood of studying engineering. Demographic data on the program participants, their current academic pursuits, and program assessment results are presented. Details on the program's evolution over its four year execution are provided.


In many fields in computational sustainability, applications of POMDPs are inhibited by the complexity of the optimal solution. One way of delivering simple solutions is to represent the policy with a small number of alpha-vectors. We would like to find the best possible policy that can be expressed using a fixed number N of alpha-vectors. We call this the N-POMDP problem. The existing solver alpha-min approximately solves finite-horizon POMDPs with a controllable number of alpha-vectors. However alpha-min is a greedy algorithm without performance guarantees, and it is rather slow. This paper proposes three new algorithms, based on a general approach that we call alpha-min-2. These three algorithms are able to approximately solve N-POMDPs. Alpha-min-2-fast (heuristic) and alpha-min-2-p (with performance guarantees) are designed to complement an existing POMDP solver, while alpha-min-2-solve (heuristic) is a solver itself. Complexity results are provided for each of the algorithms, and they are tested on well-known benchmarks. These new algorithms will help users to interpret solutions to POMDP problems in computational sustainability.


Stackelberg security games have been widely deployed in recent years to schedule security resources. An assumption in most existing security game models is that one security resource assigned to a target only protects that target. However, in many important real-world security scenarios, when a resource is assigned to a target, it exhibits protection externalities: that is, it also protects other "neighbouring" targets. We investigate such Security Games with Protection Externalities (SPEs). First, we demonstrate that computing a strong Stackelberg equilibrium for an SPE is NP-hard, in contrast with traditional Stackelberg security games which can be solved in polynomial time. On the positive side, we propose a novel column generation based approach—CLASPE—to solve SPEs. CLASPE features the following novelties: 1) a novel mixed-integer linear programming formulation for the slave problem; 2) an extended greedy approach with a constant-factor approximation ratio to speed up the slave problem; and 3) a linear-scale linear programming that efficiently calculates the upper bounds of target-defined subproblems for pruning. Our experimental evaluation demonstrates that CLASPE enable us to scale to realistic-sized SPE problem instances.


SUMMARY

The use of S-wave polarization analysis for constraining high-frequency (>1 Hz) source parameters of large earthquake has been previously illustrated by Bouin & Bernard (1994) and Guatteri & Cocco (1996). In this paper, we show the efficiency of such a methodology applied to a data set in the presence of strong non-linear and liquefaction effects for the particular case of the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu (Kobe) earthquake. The 11 strong-motion recordings from the closest stations to the fault plane have been analysed in the 0.6–2.0 Hz frequency band. We first correct the recorded ground motion data for the effect of shallow crustal anisotropy in the Kobe area, which allows us to remove part of the complexity of the observed S-wave polarigrams. Our results in terms of anisotropy parameters are in good agreement with those of previous studies performed in the same area. They show evidence, far from the faults, of a fast S-wave polarization oriented nearly parallel to the regional compressive stress direction, and, close to the faults, of a fast S-wave polarization oriented parallel to the faults' strikes. The corrected S-wave polarigrams are then interpreted in terms of rupture propagation along an extended fault. We consider three different faulting mechanisms: a pure right-lateral mechanism and two mechanisms with 30 and 50 per cent reverse components. The polarization data and the triggering times at the selected stations allow the identification of a set of subsources, demonstrating the need for a reverse slip component during the rupture of the two high-frequency (2.0 Hz) subevents on the Kobe fault section. The resulting locations of the main subevents in space and time provided an interval of possible values of rupture velocity ranging between 2.65 km s−1 (that is, 80 per cent of the shear wave velocity) and 3.46 km s−1 (that is, the value of the shear wave velocity). This study emphasizes that S-wave polarization can be a useful tool to restrict the number of reliable starting models for iterative waveform inversions.


This paper empirically analyses the effect of direct airline routes on plant-level investment and productivity in Norway. I look at the effects of changes in proximity due to the opening of new direct flight routes between the locations of headquarters and plants. Improvement in proximity leads to lower monitoring costs for the headquarter, and may lower potential agency costs. This is a thoroughly studied topic on arms-length transactions, but little is known on intra-firm proximity. Looking at Norwegian flight information from 2004 to 2014, and financial information on Norwegian headquarters and plants from 2002 to 2012, I find ten new flights opening between ten areas in Norway. This constitutes ten treated destinations with 375 firms having headquarter and plant located at either end of a route. As a control group, I find 667 companies with headquarter and plant located in different parts of Norway, that does not yet have a direct route connecting them. My main analysis is on the difference in plants' return on assets, but I also look at the EBITDA-margin, operating margin, absolute investment from headquarters to plants, and the profitability deriving from that investment. I find through several regional and year-specific analyses that there is strong evidence of increased profitability from proximity. I find that investment from headquarter decreases with proximity, leading to less but better investment overall.


Alkali aggregate reaction, or AAR, is one of the major causes of degradation in older concrete structures. AAR occurs when the hydroxide ions that exist in the cement react with aggregate, often with water acting as a catalyst to speed up this reaction. AAR causes degradation in its parent concrete structure by causing concrete expansion, which in turn creates cracks that expand over time. In order to arrest the rate of expansion caused by the AAR reactions, a 'jacketing' system was developed and/or installed in a number of bridges. These were also designed to limit the exposure of micro cracks to further water ingress. The effect of these jacketing elements were analysed to assess their potential effectiveness using numerical (finite element) methods. Installation of such jacketing elements have had an unintended adverse consequence to the piles by changing the scouring pattern near the base of the piles as the cross sectional area was changed and increased in size. Riverbed scouring has been known to be one of the most common mechanisms to cause bridge failures in the past, and to better understand possible changes to scouring patterns due to jacketing numerical (computational fluid dynamics) analyses were carried out.


Given a multigraph $G$ and a positive integer $t$, the distance-$t$ chromatic index of $G$ is the least number of colours needed for a colouring of the edges so that every pair of distinct edges connected by a path of fewer than $t$ edges must receive different colours. Let $\pi'_t(d)$ and $\tau'_t(d)$ be the largest values of this parameter over the class of planar multigraphs and of (simple) trees, respectively, of maximum degree $d$. We have that $\pi'_t(d)$ is at most and at least a non-trivial constant multiple larger than $\tau'_t(d)$. (We conjecture $\limsup_{d\to\infty}\pi'_2(d)/\tau'_2(d) =9/4$ in particular.) We prove for odd $t$ the existence of a quantity $g$ depending only on $t$ such that the distance-$t$ chromatic index of any planar multigraph of maximum degree $d$ and girth at least $g$ is at most $\tau'_t(d)$ if $d$ is sufficiently large. Such a quantity does not exist for even $t$. We also show a related, similar phenomenon for distance vertex-colouring.


CONTEXT
Acute renal failure is associated with high mortality and morbidity. Diuretic agents continue to be used in this setting despite a lack of evidence supporting their benefit.

OBJECTIVE
To determine whether the use of diuretics is associated with adverse or favorable outcomes in critically ill patients with acute renal failure.

DESIGN
Cohort study conducted from October 1989 to September 1995.

PATIENTS AND SETTING
A total of 552 patients with acute renal failure in intensive care units at 4 academic medical centers affiliated with the University of California. Patients were categorized by the use of diuretics on the day of nephrology consultation and, in companion analyses, by diuretic use at any time during the first week following consultation.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
All-cause hospital mortality, nonrecovery of renal function, and the combined outcome of death or nonrecovery.

RESULTS
Diuretics were used in 326 patients (59%) at the time of nephrology consultation. Patients treated with diuretics on or before the day of consultation were older and more likely to have a history of congestive heart failure, nephrotoxic (rather than ischemic or multifactorial) origin of acute renal failure, acute respiratory failure, and lower serum urea nitrogen concentrations. With adjustment for relevant covariates and propensity scores, diuretic use was associated with a significant increase in the risk of death or nonrecovery of renal function (odds ratio, 1.77; 95% confidence interval, 1.14-2.76). The risk was magnified (odds ratio, 3.12; 95% confidence interval, 1.73-5.62) when patients who died within the first week following consultation were excluded. The increased risk was borne largely by patients who were relatively unresponsive to diuretics.

CONCLUSIONS
The use of diuretics in critically ill patients with acute renal failure was associated with an increased risk of death and nonrecovery of renal function. Although observational data prohibit causal inference, it is unlikely that diuretics afford any material benefit in this clinical setting. In the absence of compelling contradictory data from a randomized, blinded clinical trial, the widespread use of diuretics in critically ill patients with acute renal failure should be discouraged.


This letter proposes an analytical approach to evaluate the performance of MIMO-OFCDM systems with multicode transmission. Assuming zero-forcing successive interference cancellation (ZF-SIC) in the space domain and MMSE detection in the frequency domain, it is shown that at each step of SIC, the error events on multiple code channels are correlated to each other, which make the performance evaluation difficult due to the involvement of a complicated multivariate probability. By approximating the multivariate probability by a series of two-variate probabilities, the proposed analytical approach takes the correlation into account and provides accurate performance estimations. The analytical results are verified by simulations and shown to be more accurate than those where no correlation is considered.


In order to eliminate the friction force of linear motor nc machine tool feed system and improve the machining precision, a new Self Magnetic-Suspension Permanent Magnet Linear Synchronous Motor(PMLSM)is putted forward in this paper, which can generate the suspending power by itself. In this paper, the magnetic field distribution is calculated by means of equivalent magnetizing current and Schwarz-christoffel transformation, and is further analyzed and verified by using Finite Element Method. Furthermore, the method of optimizating the length of the primary iron-cored is adopted to design the motor. The experimental results shows that self magnetic suspension -PMLSM can generate thrust and suspending force separately, and the thrust and suspending force are improved by applying optimized method.


Late Westphalian inversion structures on the Variscan foreland display wide variations in orientation that are the product of the underlying basement grain. The orientation of the major basement lineaments in relation to the direction of maximum shortening also determined the severity of deformation of the inverted basins. NE–SW-trending faults were oriented roughly perpendicular to the NW–SE to NNW–SSE direction of maximum shortening determined from thrust transport directions in the Variscan orogen to the south. As a consequence, NE–SW-trending basins in the Variscan foreland have been strongly inverted, the Silesian post-rift fill has commonly been expelled from the basins and the syn-rift sediments have been deformed by chevron folds (Dublin and Bowland Basins). In contrast, the N–S- and NW–SE-trending faults were oriented more obliquely to the direction of maximum shortening and, as a consequence, display a significant component of oblique slip. This oblique slip component is manifested as en-echelon periclines and flower structures. In general, the N–S- and NW–SE-trending basins were less strongly inverted and the Silesian post-rift fill has been retained.


This paper describes how redevelopment in California came to an end with the California Supreme Court's decision in California Redevelopment Association v. Matosantos and how redevelopment could be resuscitated. The first part of the paper highlights the precipitating events leading up to the case: California's unique property tax history, the successes and drawbacks of redevelopment, how redevelopment is financed, and the text and politics of Proposition 22, the state constitutional predicate for the Court's opinion. The second section describes the arguments and outcome of the case in which the Court upheld a statute dissolving redevelopment agencies (RDAs) and simultaneously struck down a companion bill — a "pay-to-stay" law — that would have enabled cities and counties to preserve their RDAs by pledging local funds to the state. A concluding section proposes that California legislators consider a new redevelopment enabling law, modeled along the lines of Texas's tax increment reinvestment zones (TIRZs). Such a statute would conform to the guidelines for constitutionality from the concluding paragraph of the Court's opinion in Matosantos, and it would be fiscally responsible because it limits the use of tax increment financing.


This article provides empirical evidence on shareholder proposals seeking to restrict nonaudit service (NAS) purchases by public companies from their independent auditors. Our analysis is based on 104 instances of shareholder proposals seeking to restrict NAS provided by independent auditors, received by 94 firms during a unique period from 2001 to 2004 (when the Securities and Exchange Commission [SEC] allowed such proposals to proceed to shareholder votes), and a control sample that did not receive such proposals. We find that firms targeted by shareholders had higher nonaudit fee ratios. We also find that firms receiving such shareholder proposals are likely to have steeper subsequent declines in the nonaudit fee ratio than firms not receiving such proposals. Finally, considering only the subset of firms that have a shareholder vote on proposals seeking to restrict NAS purchases, the subsequent reduction in the nonaudit fee ratio is positively related to the magnitude of the proportion of votes in favor of the shareholder proposal. Our findings suggest that permitting shareholder participation in issues related to the auditor–client relationship can lead to significant changes in the nature of the auditor's relationship with the client, and they call into question recent SEC actions permitting companies to restrict shareholder participation in issues related to auditor selection.


Recently, there are still many cases of voltage collapse incidents occur all around the world. This is due to the reason that most power systems today are being operated very close to their stability limits because of the exponentially growing demands, the desires to obtain maximum economic benefits and environmental constraints. Therefore, this thesis presents novel techniques for voltage stability evaluation and enhancement in power system. Firstly, a new bus voltage stability index named as Voltage Stability Condition Indicator (VSCI) was developed. The competency of VSCI was corroborated in three tasks; weak bus identification, automatic line outage contingency ranking and weak area identification. In addition, a new method to detect weak areas in a system termed as Weak Area Clustering Margin (WACM) was also developed. In the first part of study, all methods were tested on IEEE 30-bus and IEEE 118-bus test system. Secondly, a new voltage stability prediction technique utilising state of the art machine learning, Support Vector Machine (SVM) was developed. At this stage, two popular SVM selection parameter methods, trial and error and cross validation were investigated and compared. The developed technique used VSCI as the voltage stability indicator to be predicted. The performance of SVM was also compared with the performance of Artificial Neural Network (ANN). To enhance the SVM performance, an outstanding hybrid Artificial Immune Least square Support Vector Machine (AILSVM) that integrates SVM with Artificial Immune System (AIS) was introduced in voltage stability prediction. For comparison, another new hybrid algorithm incorporating ANN and AIS called as Artificial Immune Neural Network (AINN) for voltage stability prediction was also developed. It was found that AILSVM has outclassed AINN significantly in terms of prediction accuracy and computation time. Thirdly, new techniques for load margin improvement were developed. Initially, a superior performance of AIS named as Fast Artificial Immune System (FAIS) to estimate the maximum load margin of a system was developed. FAIS offers a better performance of AIS since several available approaches for cloning, mutation and selection have been explored and compared. The combination of these approaches that delivered the best performance in terms of accuracy and time was utilised in FAIS. Later on, another novel technique that incorporates FAIS and AILSVM known as Fast Artificial Immune Support Vector Machine (FAISVM) for maximum load margin improvement via RPP optimisation was developed. The integration of FAIS and AILSVM has resulted to a very fast and accurate prediction of maximum loading point (MLP) as the objective function for Reactive Power Planning (RPP) optimisation. The proposed technique employed the predetermined support vectors from AILSVM. VSCI was used as the indicator for the MLP of load buses. Another new hybrid algorithm that used Evolutionary Programming (EP) termed as Evolutionary Support Vector Machine (ESVM) was also developed for comparative study. The results showed that FAISVM has outperformed ESVM significantly in terms of load margin improvement, prediction accuracy and computation time. For the second and third part of the study, the developed techniques were tested on IEEE 30bus test systems. In conclusion, this thesis has developed a new voltage stability index, VSCI and novel techniques known as AILSVM and FAISVM for voltage stability prediction and maximum load margin improvement that utilised biological optimisation method.


Objective: To describe pharmacy faculty perspectives on participating in a formal mentoring program for student pharmacists.
Methods: This qualitative study used ten, 45 to 60 minute semi-structured interviews conducted in November and December, 2012 with faculty mentors sampled randomly by strata of on-site off-site positions at a single public university college of pharmacy. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. Transcripts were coded using an inductively created consensus code list. The research team iteratively grouped codes into themes, developed summaries, and identified representative quotes.
Results: Analysis of interviews produced three main themes. Mentor interaction was described as having an investigative or responsive orientation, which influenced mentor actions and perspectives for the relationship with the student mentee. Program structure and concerns included a perceived absence of clear program objectives. Mentor response to feedback focused on 3 feedback sources: administrators, peers, and students.
Conclusions: Overall, faculty mentors in this program had different approaches to, expectations for, and experiences in their formal mentoring program participation. These differences are initial descriptions of mentor approaches toward mentoring interactions by faculty in a formal mentoring program. Colleges of pharmacy leaders and administrators may benefit from more clearly specifying and communicating program objectives in order to achieve results for mentees, mentors, and the organization.

Type: Original Research


AIM
The aim of implantation of interspinous device is to unload the facet joints, restore foraminal height and provide stability in order to improve the clinical outcome of surgery.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
After microsurgical decompression, Coflex™ device was applied. Patients were evaluated at a month after surgery and last follow-up using the visual analogue scale (VAS) and Oswestry Disability Index (ODI). Foraminal height and lumbar lordosis angle were recorded.

RESULTS
The mean preoperative VAS was 7.85 and fell to 1.7 a month after surgery (p < 0.0001). At the last follow-up the mean VAS score was 1.65 (p < 0.0001). The mean foraminal heights were measured 19.95 mm preoperatively and 25.05 mm a month after surgery (p < 0.0001). The mean foraminal height was 21.60 mm at the last follow-up (p=0.002). The mean lumbar lordosis were measured 32.05 and 34.3 degrees at preoperative and a month after surgery respectively (p=0.155). The mean lumbar lordosis was 32 (±5.99) degrees at the last follow-up (p=0.974).

CONCLUSION
Using the Coflex device is a minimal invasive, effective and safe procedure. Restoration of the foraminal height may not be a responsible factor for clinical improvement. We think microsurgical decompression looks responsible of the good clinical outcome and using interspinous device is unnecessary. Comparative clinical studies can be informative.


John Randal Baker , who was born at Woodbridge in Suffolk on 23 October 1900, was well provided with genes and memes by both his parents and, as this account of his life unfolds, it will become clear that his interests and the qualities of his character were closely akin to those that had appeared in earlier generations of his family. John was the youngest of the five children, three girls and two boys, of Rear Admiral Julian Alleyne Baker, R. N., and of his wife Geraldine Eugénie, née Alison. On his mother's side, his grandfather was General Sir Archibald Alison, G. C. B., who served in the Crimea, the Indian Mutiny and was second-in-command of the Ashanti expedition in West Africa in 1873. In 1882 it was his leadership of the Highland Brigade at the battle of Tel-el-Kebir that ended in the victory which proved to be the turning point of the Egyptian Campaign of that year. The General was a direct descendant of the Alisons whose family, together with that of the Gregorys, was discussed in Gabon's Hereditary genius (1869) as an example of genius inherited over five generations.


This paper aims to assess the impact of EU energy and climate policy as a response to Russia's war in Ukraine on the EU decarbonization enterprise. It showcases how the Russian invasion was a crunch point that forced the EU to abandon its liberal market dogma and embrace in practice an open strategic autonomy approach. This led to an updated energy and climate policy, with significant changes underpinning its main pillars, interdependence, diversification, and the focus of market regulation and build-up. The reversal of enforced interdependence with Russia and the legislative barrage to support and build-up a domestic clean energy market unlocks significant emission reduction potential, with measures targeting energy efficiency, solar, wind, and hydrogen development; an urban renewable revolution and electricity and carbon market reforms standing out. Such positive decarbonization effects, however, are weakened by source and fuel diversification moves that extend to coal and shale gas, especially when leading to an infrastructure build-up and locking-in gas use in the mid-term. Despite these caveats, the analysis overall vindicates the hypothesis that geopolitics constitutes a facilitator and accelerator of EU energy transition.


Pseudoaneurysms of the sovra-aortic trunks are uncommon lesions that usually have a post-traumatic etiology. The singular case of a patient who developed an innominate artery pseudoaneurysm (IAP) where a stent had been inserted 12 years earlier to manage severe innominate trunk stenosis is described. A chronic and large (8 cm in diameter) IAP was successfully treated in extracorporeal circulation and deep hypothermic circulatory arrest. The distal tract of the ascending aorta and the proximal aortic arch were substituted; total replacement of the innominate trunk with a singular 8-mm Dacron graft was necessary. We reviewed the literature about the reports of IAPs and the management of this singular lesion.


We isolated a novel 22-residue, C-terminally amidated antimicrobial peptide, moronecidin, from the skin and gill of hybrid striped bass. Two isoforms, differing by only one amino acid, are derived from each parental species, white bass (Morone chrysops) and striped bass (Morone saxatilis). Molecular masses (2543 and 2571 Da), amino acid sequences (FFHHIFRGIVHVGKTIH(K/R)LVTGT), cDNA, and genomic DNA sequences were determined for each isoform. A predicted 79-residue moronecidin prepropeptide consists of three domains: a signal peptide (22 amino acids), a mature peptide (22 amino acids), and a C-terminal prodomain (35 amino acids). The synthetic, amidated white bass moronecidin exhibited broad spectrum antimicrobial activity that was retained at high salt concentration. An α-helical structure was confirmed by circular dichroism spectroscopy. The moronecidin gene consists of three introns and four exons. Peptide sequence and gene organization were similar to pleurocidin, an antimicrobial peptide from winter flounder. A TATA box and several consensus-binding motifs for transcription factors were found in the region 5′ to the transcriptional start site. Moronecidin gene expression was detected in gill, skin, intestine, spleen, anterior kidney, and blood cells by kinetic reverse transcription (RT)-PCR. Thus, moronecidin is a new α-helical, broad spectrum antimicrobial peptide isolated from the skin and gills of hybrid striped bass.


This paper is a feminist critique of traditional family therapy considering the cybernetic epistemology underpinning it as a particular way of seeing the family. The political implications of this way of seeing d be considered in tern of structural inequalities with a preference for, the intergroup perspective. There will be a close examination and discussion of the one parent family structure. The discussion will then move one a practical evaluation of the ecosystemic view of helping families, in particular single parent families.


In this paper, we present four purely textile patch antennas for Bluetooth applications in wearable computing using the frequency range around 2.4 GHz. The textile materials and the planar antenna shape provide a smooth integration into clothing while preserving the typical properties of textiles. The four antennas differ in the deployed materials and in the antenna polarization, but all of them feature a microstrip line as antenna feed. We have developed a manufacturing process that guarantees unaffected electrical behavior of the individual materials when composed to an antenna. Thus, the conductive textiles possess a sheet resistance of less than 1Omega/squarein order to keep losses at a minimum. The process also satisfies our requirements in terms of accuracy meeting the Bluetooth specifications. Our investigations not only characterize the performance of the antennas in planar shape, but also under defined bending conditions that resemble those of a worn garment. We show that the antennas can withstand clothing bends down to a radius of 37.5 mm without violating specifications


One indicator of being able to speak is having good pronunciation. Slip of tongue is one factor that is blocking good pronunciation. This research investigates the types of slip of togue which doe by students I prooucig English as a foreign language. There were 5 students of seventh semester at English Education Program academic year 2017/2018 IAIN Sultan Amai Gorontalo, as the subjects of this research. It used qualitative method in order to describe the kinds of error on students' pronunciation, especially when they are in slip of tongue. Audio recording was used to identify the students' pronunciation, data analyzing was done by transcribing their error pronunciation. The result shown from six of eight types of slips of the tongue occurred on students' pronunciation, namely Shift, Anticipation, perseveration, addition, deletion and substitution, the main slip of tongue occurred on students' pronunciation was substitution.


Background: Facial emotion recognition is impaired in addiction and personality disorders. Dysfunctional personality beliefs reflect negative interpersonal schemas that may underpin emotion recognition deficits. We aimed to examine the association between personality beliefs and emotion recognition among participants with cocaine use disorder including those with comorbid personality disorders. Methods: We recruited 70 participants with cocaine use disorder aged between 19 and 52 who had used 14 g of cocaine over 4.8 years on average. Thirty-eight participants had an additional personality disorder (11 Borderline, 7 Histrionic, 5 Antisocial, 10 Avoidant, and 5 Obsessive–Compulsive). Dysfunctional beliefs were indicated with the Personality Belief Questionnaire, and facial emotion recognition was indicated with the Ekman's Test. We applied correlations/multiple regressions to test the relationship between beliefs and emotion recognition. Results: Personality beliefs reflecting paranoid, borderline, and antisocial schemas were negatively associated with emotion recognition. Antisocial beliefs were associated with poorer recognition of fear, and paranoid beliefs with poorer recognition of disgust. Antisocial beliefs were significantly associated with emotion recognition after adjusting for cocaine use. Conclusion: Dysfunctional personality beliefs are associated with poorer emotion recognition in cocaine addiction. Personality-related negative schemas about the self and others can impact social cognition and interaction during cocaine treatment.


The primary goal of Marine Protected Areas is to conserve and protect part or all of a marine environment through legal or other effective means. MPAs are a global phenomenon that has become part of national level ocean policy and practice in such nations as Australia, Canada, and the US.

Marine protected areas depend, for their success, on the development of an informal network of local policy and practice, which varies among communities. They succeed in circumstances where national policy or legal precedent does not dissolve local policy and practice, and where national policy facilitates and can accommodate local arrangements. The collapse of fisheries in the late 20th century in Canada provided the political impetus and policy framework that increased the capacity of the federal government to accommodate local arrangements in marine waters through Canada's Oceans Act 1996.

Two Marine Protected Areas, at Eastport and Gilbert Bay, were designated in Newfoundland and Labrador in 2005 under the Oceans Act, and a third, at Leading Tickles, is in the development stage. Eastport has a research program on lobsters in place, Gilbert Bay has a program on 'golden cod', but no research program existed at Leading Tickles. DFO Oceans began to collect data and worked closely with community members to develop research priorities, carry out research projects and develop management programs for each MPA. The provincial government was involved as members of the MPA steering committees, and local representatives provided input.

Based on the political momentum for Marine Protected Areas, the second objective of this project was to identify internationally significant science questions for research within Newfoundland and Labrador. Recent research conducted by Memorial University at the Gilbert Bay and Eastport MPAs and the Leading Tickles Area of Interest (AOI) has been a mixture of descriptive and causal science directed at local issues arising within each of the three locations (two MPAs and one AOI). Past research helped to define the scope of some of the science problems in an informal way. This report takes the next step, which is to identify questions significant to both local issues and the understanding of coastal ecosystems by the national and international science community.

Sound scientific evidence is needed to identify whether the intended effects are being achieved and to document accompanying effects. The emerging practice is initial science input followed by devolution of monitoring activities to local communities, with guidance from academic scientists. The effectiveness of these scientists would be increased by national initiatives to develop the capacity to guide locally based monitoring efforts. One potential model for science guidance is that used for environmental impact assessment, where monitoring activities are designed as tests of hypotheses concerning effects stated in an impact assessment.


National and state educational initiatives are increasingly prioritizing computer science and computational thinking as valued sets of skills and practices. However, despite ongoing efforts to broaden participation in computing, the field faces increasing underrepresentation of women and other racial and ethnic groups. In this paper, we argue that physical computing can provide rich, varied entryways into computing practices, and that kits that support social or collaborative use may be more compelling for underrepresented groups. We present the design of a scaled-up physical computing kit, called StegaCircuits, which we created to foster more social, exploratory introductions to computing. We present preliminary data collected during user tests at a Maker Faire that suggest StegaCircuits supports social introductions to physical computing through multi-user interaction. Finally, we highlight promising facets of the design that may positively impact cognitive and emotional responses to computing fields.


Learn the basic architectural concepts and step through examples of consuming and creating RESTful web services in PHP. This book targets PHP developers who want to build or make use of RESTful web services, or explore the options available to them in PHP. You will need to know the basics of PHP development, but no knowledge of REST is assumed, nor any knowledge of creating web services generally.


OBJECTIVE: To report two cases of warfarin therapy in which the addition of tolterodine resulted in prolonged international normalized ratios (INRs). CASE SUMMARY: Two patients, each receiving warfarin for stroke prophylaxis in association with chronic atrial fibrillation, developed adverse effects after the initiation of tolterodine for urinary disorders. Other medications for concurrent medical diagnoses had remained unchanged. One patient had an episode of prostatitis, which was treated with levofloxacin immediately prior to tolterodine initiation. The warfarin dosage had remained constant for many weeks in both patients prior to and during the tolterodine trials. In each patient, the initiation of tolterodine was associated with a significant increase in the patient's INR measured 10–14 days later. Thus, tolterodine was ineffective in both patients and was discontinued one to two days before the elevated INRs were determined during routine clinic visits. INRs determined approximately two weeks after tolterodine was discontinued were similar to those obtained during the period before the use of the drug; the warfarin dosage remained unchanged. Rechallenge with tolterodine was not attempted in either patient. DISCUSSION: Several aspects of the reported cases support the validity of a proposed drug interaction when tolterodine is initiated in a patient stabilized on warfarin therapy. The temporal association of the course of tolterodine with an elevated INR, the return to the previous warfarin dose–INR response relationship after tolterodine discontinuation, and the absence of other causes for the elevated INR were factors found in both patients. Possible mechanisms to explain the suggested drug interaction are explored. CONCLUSIONS: Until further data are available, clinicians should be vigilant for a possible drug interaction when tolterodine therapy is initiated in a patient maintained on warfarin therapy.


Located in East-Central Europe, Hungary has often found itself at a crossroads of political influences of greater powers as well as of different cultures. Although Hungary enjoyed independence for centuries in its early history, the experience of foreign domination over the last five centuries is one of the defining features of Hungarian public consciousness. Most notably, Hungary was under the control of the Ottoman Empire in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries the Habsburgs in the eighteenth, nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth centuries and the Soviet Union from 1945 until the regime change in 1989. Therefore, Hungarians had to master the techniques of survival under foreign domination. They learned how to operate informally, under and within formal, rigid rules, which represented the interests of the dominant foreign power. Nonetheless, during its twentieth-century history, Hungary made some genuine albeit short-lived attempts to achieve democracy. First, there was the brief liberal-democratic government of Count Mihaly Karolyi in late 1918. A second attempt was made during the semi-democratic coalition government between 1945 and 1947. Finally, Hungary operated as a democracy for twelve remarkable days during the anti-totalitarian revolution of October 1956. The Hungarian revolution was internally successful but was crushed by the intervention of the Soviet Red Army. These shining moments of recent Hungarian history cannot hide the fact that throughout the twentieth century Hungary enjoyed democracy for one decade only, the 1990s.


The global production of plastics would reach about 227 MT by 2015, with a growth rate increase of about five percent per year. PET is thermoplastic polyester widely used for production of beverage bottles. Plastic bottles made from polyethylene terephthalate (PET) are increasingly used in storage of beverages like soft drinks, mineral water, juices and beer, in comparison to other packaging plastic. PET is considered to be the most inert of polymers with good barrier properties against moisture, oxygen and carbon dioxide with a low migration tendency of its constituents. According to National Association for PET Container Resources (NAPCOR, 2011), among 5,478 million pounds of PET bottles are available for recycling. Different technologies can further enhance PET inherent barrier properties and offer great protection to natural properties of packaged products against oxygen migration and carbon dioxide. Food packed into PET containers is the main source of microorganisms causing diarrhoeal diseases (Figure 1). Hence technology to minimize microbial health hazards is the need of the hour. Therefore barrier enhanced technology such as nanoparticle coatings on PET bottles was tried out in this study.


Aim:To determine the frequency of suicide attempts by the use of drugs in adolescents in a tertiary care hospital and to identify the causes.
Methods:A retrospective and descriptive study was performed considering socioeconomic, cultural and biological issues related to the use of drugs for suicide attempts in adolescents who were attended from January 1995 to March 2005, at the National Institute of Pediatrics, Mexico City.
Results: A total of 141 drug intoxication cases were detected among which 40 were suicide attempts with 22 of them being girls and 18 boys, median age of 13 years. The most frequently used drugs for the suicide attempt cases were analgesics in 18, and antidepressants in 11. In 14 of the cases, parents' divorce and family dysfunction were found to be the risk factors provoking the suicide attempt.
Conclusion: Analgesics and antidepressants are drugs commonly used in suicide attempts. Suicidal behavior in adolescents can be caused by psychological and social factors, which in most cases, is preceded by depressive disorders.


Small birds use cavities for roosting to decrease the thermoregulatory costs during the winter nights. The ability of birds to detect and escape from an approaching predator is impaired during roosting and thus the selection of such cavities should take into account the risk that a predator will find the cavity. Previous evidence suggested that birds in captivity are able to detect predator scent and avoid roosting in nest-boxes containing such predator chemical cues. Here, we tested whether birds also show this avoidance response under natural conditions. We performed three studies in three populations of blue and great tits. We added predator scent, a pungency scent or an odourless control to nest-boxes and compared the use of these nest-boxes for roosting. We found no differences between the scent treatments in the use of nest-boxes. Therefore, chemical cues indicating the potential presence of a predator are not enough for birds to avoid roosting in nest-boxes under natural conditions.


Recently, optical micro-resonators (OMRs) gained noticeable importance due to the bright potential of using them in vital applications, and the simplest and most practical type of micro-fiber resonators are Micro-fiber Loop Resonators (MLRs) because of their simple fabrication process and high sensitivity. In this research, the sensitivity of the optical Micro-fiber Loop Resonators (MLRs) to relative humidity (RH) and Formaldehyde liquid is tested. The MLR is fabricated from the silica optical fiber (SMF-28) by a process of tapering to reduce its waist diameter using a flame brushing technique. The tapered fiber is manually twisted to create the MLR and placed on a movable glass stage. Two experiments are done to test the sensitivity for various fiber diameters based MLRs. The first one, is the test of the MLRs RH sensitivity using fibers with different diameters (3 ?m, 4 ?m, 5 ?m and 7 ?m). Also, the Straight micro-Fiber (SmF) RH sensitivity is tested for comparison purposes. Initially, the whispering gallery modes (WGMs) effect was observed in the MLR. Transmission mode spectra are examined to determine the number of resonated wavelengths and quality factor (Q-factor). The observed Q-factor for the MLRs is equal to > 105 which is good for sensing applications. By changing the RH and observing the MLR resonating behavior, it was concluded that the significant resonating response clearly occurs when the RH value ranges from 35% to 85%. All MLRs show higher stability than SmF when tested for a period of 600 seconds. As the RH increases, the sensitivity also increases, and it is 14 times for MLR based on 7 ?m diameter fibers more than the value for the SmF. The output power decreases form -55.04 dBm to -65 dBm when the RH increase from 35% to 85%. The MLR linearity is found to be 98.80% and its resolution is 0.0344%. The second experiment, is the testing of the MLR Formaldehyde sensitivity using fiber with (7 ?m diameter) and Straight micro-Fiber. The Formaldehyde concentration used in this experiment range from 0% - 5%. The effect of WGMs was observed in the MLR. By examining the Transmission mode spectra, the MLR Q-factor was determined to be > 105 . The MLR shows higher stability for all the formaldehyde concentration levels than the SmF for the 600 seconds testing time. the output power decreases from -36.26 dBm to -19.04 dBm with the increase of the formaldehyde concentration level, A high linearity value of 98.22% was calculated and the good sensitivity level of 0.0259% was observed.


This work describes the fabrication facility (FAB) implementation of a multivariable nonlinear model predictive controller (NMPC) for the regulation of critical dimensions (CD) in photolithography. The controller is based on nonlinear empirical models relating the stepper inputs, exposure dose and focus on the isolated and dense CDs measured by scanning electron microscopy. Since the adjustments are made on the basis of the average value of five measured points in each wafer, this is referred to as average mode control. The optimal structure and parameters of these empirical models were determined by genetic programming, to closely match FAB data. The tuning and testing of the NMPC regulator were facilitated by the use of a simulated photolithography track, using the KLA-Tencor-FINLE PROLITH package, suitably calibrated to match FAB conditions. On implementation in the FAB, the NMPC has been demonstrated to consistently maintain the CDs close to their setpoint values, despite unmeasured disturbances such as shifts in uncontrolled inputs. It was also shown that adopting the multivariable feedback regulatory strategy to regulate the CDs results in significant improvements in the die yield.


Background: Nutritional beliefs play an important role when it comes to food choice. However, little attention has been paid to which foods individuals believe to be comforting when experiencing stress. With increasing health awareness in the general public, this study aims to examine whether the nutritional belief exists that only healthy foods relieve stress. If so, we are interested in its relationship to Orthorexia Nervosa (ON) tendencies. Methods: 175 participants (mean age 28.5 ± 7.8 years, 124 females) completed questionnaires to assess beliefs about stress-relieving foods and ON tendencies. Principal component analysis was used to reduce foods to food groups. Subsequently, a latent profile analysis was performed to identify groups with distinct nutritional beliefs. Results: Among eight distinct groups, one group (8% of the sample) reported the belief that exclusively healthy foods relieve stress. Multinominal logistic regressions showed that higher ON tendencies were associated with that group. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that individuals with stronger ON tendencies believe that, in particular, healthy foods relieve stress. This indicates that nutritional beliefs in ON concern not only the somatic consequences of certain foods, but also psychological consequences, which might also drive orthorexic behaviour. This offers a new target for the diagnosis and treatment of ON.


OBJECTIVE
To assess adverse pregnancy outcome associated with maternal syphilis and congenital syphilis rate based on FTA-ABS-19s-IgM.

DESIGN
Descriptive cross-sectional study.

SETTING
Pumwani Maternity Hospital (PMH), the largest maternity unit in Nairobi, Kenya.

SUBJECTS
Rapid Plasma Reagin reactive women and their live born infants.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Syphilis serology in pregnant women, FTA-ABS-19s-IgM in cord blood and pregnancy outcome.

RESULTS
Three hundred and seventy seven out of 12,414 women (3%) were RPR+. 4.0% of RPR+ and 1.4% of RPR- women delivered a stillbirth (OR 3.0, p<0.001). 19% of RPR+ and 10% of RPR- had low birth weight deliveries (OR 2.1, p<0.001). Mothers untreated for syphilis during pregnancy had significantly more preterm births (18.5% vs 9.2%, OR 2.3, p=0.026), and more stillbirths (5.4% vs 1.0%, OR 6.3, p=0.044). Of the 200 randomly selected cord bloods of RPR+ women, 142 (72%) were TPHA+. Nine (6.3%) of the 142 TPHA+ cords were FTA-ABS-19s-IgM+.

CONCLUSIONS
Stillbirth and low birth weight rates were high in RPR+ untreated pregnant women and treatment significantly improved pregnancy outcome. Based on very stringent laboratory criteria (FTA-ABS-19s-IgM), 6.3% of live born infants with TPHA+ cord blood were considered syphilis infected.


A novel isolated switching capacitor regulator is proposed in this paper. The converter is the combination of a switching capacitor converter and a PWM regulator. The proposed converter has the following advantages: 1) Fast transient response and the output voltage can be regulated as well. 2) The main switches achieve zero-voltage-switching and the rectifier diode realizes zero-current-switching. 3) Self-driven synchronous rectifier can be employed to improve efficiency; 4) Achievement of electrical isolation and multiple-output. A 200W hardware was built to verify the analysis.


This relatively new biennial meeting – the first was in Prague in 2005 – was chaired by Julian Ma (Guy's Hospital, London, UK), with Mario Pezzotti (University of Verona, Italy) as local organizer, and attracted approximately 180 delegates from 25 countries. The theme was 'Plant Expression Systems for Recombinant Pharmacologics': there were 46 talks gathered into two plenaries, 12 themed sessions and 72 posters. Topics covered included publicly funded and commercial developments, innovation, regulation and commercialization, competition with conventional technology, manufacture and new products.


In this work, the performance of 5 representative caching replacement policies was investigated and compared for caching Internet video-on-demand (VoD) in local access networks. Two measured traces of end-user requests were used in the analyses for two typical VoD services: TV-on-demand and user generated content represented by YouTube. The studied policies range from simple least recently used (LRU) and least frequently used (LFU) algorithms to more advanced ones denoted as LFU-dynamic lifespan (LFU-DL), Adaptive replacement cache (ARC) and Greedy-dual size frequency (GDSF). Our results show that the ARC policy always outperforms the other policies due to its adaptive nature and its ability to track changes in the traffic patterns. On the other hand, the simple LRU policy can also achieve a caching performance which is comparable to that of the more advanced ARC policy especially for the TV-on-demand service when the potential caching gain is high. On the contrary, the simple LFU policy always shows the poorest performance. However, by applying a proper lifespan supplement under the LFU-DL policy, the caching performance can be effectively enhanced to the level achievable using ARC and LRU policies. Moreover, the GDSF policy does not outperform simple LRU or LFU-DL, especially for YouTube video clips when the potential caching gain is relatively low. The advantage of GDSF manifested in our analysis is, however, its outstanding cache space usage efficiency among the five studied caching algorithms.


OBJECTIVES
Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may contribute to impaired performance among otherwise healthy active duty military personnel. We used decision analysis to evaluate three approaches to identifying and treating OSA in low-risk populations, which may differ from current standard practice for high-risk populations.

METHODS
We developed a decision tree to compare two simple strategies for diagnosis and management of sleep apnea in a low-risk population. In one strategy, a simple screening inventory was followed by conventional laboratory polysomnography (split-night), whereas the alternative strategy involved performing home testing in all individuals. This allowed us to weigh the costs associated with large-scale diagnostic approaches against the costs of untreated OSA in a small fraction of the population.

RESULTS
We found that the home testing approach was less expensive than the screen-then-test approach across a broad range of other important parameters, including the annual performance cost associated with untreated OSA, the prevalence of OSA, and the duration of active duty.

CONCLUSIONS
Assuming even modest annual performance costs associated with untreated OSA, a population strategy involving large-scale home testing is less expensive than a screening inventory approach. These results may inform either targeted or large-scale investigation of undiagnosed OSA in low-risk populations such as active duty military.


This book takes a tutorial-based and user-friendly approach to covering Python design patterns. Its concise presentation means that in a short space of time, you will get a good introduction to various design patterns. If you are an intermediate level Python user, this book is for you. Prior knowledge of Python programming is essential. Some knowledge of UML is also required to understand the UML diagrams which are used to describe some design patterns.


Single microphone speech enhancement systems have typically shown limited performance, while multiple microphone systems based on a least-squares error criterion have shown encouraging results in some contexts. In this paper we formulate a new approach to multiple microphone speech enhancement. Specifically, we formulate a maximum likelihood (ML) problem for estimating the parameters needed for canceling the noise in a two microphone speech enhancement system. This ML problem is solved via the iterative EM (Estimate-Maximize) technique. The resulting algorithm shows encouraging results when applied to the speech enhancement problem.


The implementation of the support system increases availability of counselling services for drug users, slows down the rate of emerging drug abusers and helps understand new and better ways to help individuals round the world. The use of computers in virtually all aspects of human activities is rapidly expanding. Simplification of activities for both people and organizations alike, by the use of advanced technological procedures and search for various ways to make things easier is fast becoming a norm in this generation. The counselling world is no exception, as various Counselling Support Systems (CSS) can now be found online to provide quality counselling to people via the Internet. In developing countries, the prevalence of drug abusers, lack of adequate counselling professionals, loss/mismanagement of sensitive client records and the un-professional nature of counsellors are some of the reasons why the design of a Counselling Support System (CSS) was designed. In order to achieve all set objectives and fulfil requirements, the Waterfall Model was adopted throughout the phases of development using design tools such as Use Case diagrams to show the functionality of each entity represented in the system and an Entity Relationship Diagram to show the relationship between all entities. The system was implemented using various development tools such as Hypertext Mark-up Language (HTML) for an attractive, yet easy to use Graphical User Interface (GUI), PHP and MySQL for the storage in the database. The counselling support corrects the problems stated earlier by providing a system that is available worldwide 24/7, ensures client confidentiality with adequate security checkpoints in place to promote counselling among drug abusers.


Long (>50km) normal faults bound one or both sides of narrow basins within the East African Rift System, but the dimensions and internal geometry of individual basins vary along its length. We examine basins in N Tanzania that developed in Archaean and Late Proterozoic (Pan-African) crust, and the relationship of Neogene-Recent faulting and volcanism to pre-existing lithospheric structure. In northern Tanzania the c. 50 km-wide Eastern (Gregory) Rift splays into three seismically active arms, with active extension distributed across a 200 km wide zone. We use new gravity and aeromagnetic data, and existing seismic, gravity, heat flow, and geochemical data to model lithospheric structure beneath the Archaean craton and Proterozoic orogenic belts, and its influence on rift development in N Tanzania. Depths to source bodies determined from Euler deconvolution of aeromagnetic data (1 km grid) indicate that c. 40 km wide basins are less than 3.5 km deep, with basin depths decreasing to the south, consistent with depths estimated from gravity anomalies. Asymmetric basins in the Archaean and zone of reworked Archaean and Proterozoic nappes are bounded by unusually long (100 km) border faults associated with seismicity to depths >25 km. Estimates of flexural rigidity, or effective elastic thickness (TJ, suggest that the lithosphere beneath the Tanzania craton, including the western rift arm, is stronger (64 ± 5 km) than that beneath the Proterozoic belt and the transition zone (30 ± 4 km), with the lowest Te values found beneath the central rift arm (23+24km). Heat flow, seismicity, and mantle xenolith data also indicate that the lithosphere beneath the Archaean craton was and is colder and stronger than the post-Archaean lithosphere. Geophysical and geochemical data suggest that (a) pre-existing heterogeneities in the Archaean crust influenced the orientation of border faults bounding basins, and (b) that topography at the base of the lithosphere guided the location of rifting in Tanzania, producing a broader rift zone. These results indicate the persistence of a deep cratonic root despite the impingement of a mantle plume in Cenozoic time.


Background and MethodsTwelve adult male albino rabbits were assigned alternately to normotensive and hypotensive groups to assess the effect of hypovolemic shock on spontaneous correction of dilutional coagulopathy. All animals underwent dilutional exchange transfusion with 200 mL of rabbit RBCs and 5% human albumin. Half the animals were then acutely hemorrhaged and subsequent aliquots of blood removed as needed to maintain the mean arterial pressure at 40 mm Hg. ResultsBy 6 hr after production of dilutional coagulopathy, masses and plasma concentrations of fibrinogen and Factor II had increased modestly but significantly, and Factor VII mass and concentration and in vitro coagulation had returned almost to normal; plasma volume was unchanged in the normotensive animals. In the hypovolemic shock animals, where coagulant mass regeneration was as rapid as in the normotensive animals, a doubling of total plasma volume (p < .01) prevented the concentrations of fibrinogen and Factor II, and hence the coagulation times, from improving. ConclusionsDilutional coagulopathy corrects spontaneously within hours. Normovolemic shock prolongs dilutional coagulopathy not by impairment of factor regeneration but because of further (internal) dilution due to plasma expansion. Rapid correction of dilutional coagulopathy is likely to necessitate cryoprecipitate administration. (Crit Care Med 1991; 19:253)


The scalability port (SP) is a point-to-point cache consistent interface to build scalable shared memory multiprocessors. The SP interface consists of three layers of abstraction: the physical layer, the link layer and the protocol layer. The physical layer uses pin-efficient simultaneous bi-directional signaling and operates at 800 MHz in each direction. The link layer supports virtual channels and provides flow control and reliable transmission. The protocol layer implements cache consistency, TLB consistency, synchronization, and interrupt delivery functions among others. The first implementation of the SP interface is in the Intel/sup /spl reg// E8870 and E9870 chipset for the Intel Itanium/sup /spl reg//2 processor and future generations of the Itanium processor family.


Anyone who has worked on a medium to complex programming project, one that requires more than a few days to complete, knows how difficult and time-consuming it is to test software and find errors. It often requires several times more effort to locate and fix bugs than to design and write the program. At first we blame ourselves, thinking it is our own inadequacies that cause us to make so many mistakes. We soon learn that almost everyone has the same experiences. These realizations have led to studies of the process of developing software, undertaken to find out if there are ways to contain the errors or facilitate their locations and corrections. The current status of this field of study is reviewed in this book, which is Volume 38 of Dekker's extensive series on "Quality and Reliability" edited by E. G. Schilling.


A 14-item questionnaire, MORS-SF, was developed in a previous study to assess mothers' representations of their infants. It was found to have good psychometric properties, being sufficiently reliable and internally valid to enable the further validation of the instrument with additional independently collected datasets. This paper reports the successful validation of MORS-SF against other measures in both the original Hungarian and British samples and also in new samples in both countries, showing predicted relationships with other measures in the original and the independent validation datasets. It is concluded that this is a valid tool, with uses in research and health practice.


In this paper we investigate the feasibility of moving the Earth to reduce global warming in the manner depicted in the Futurama episode "Crimes of the Hot". We determined that using a chemical rocket with either ethanol or hydrogen as the fuel would not be viable, as atleast 6.11% of the mass of the Earth would have to be used as fuel.


Current state-of-the-art approaches for few-shot action recognition achieve promising performance by conducting frame-level matching on learned visual features. However, they generally suffer from two limitations: i) the matching procedure between local frames tends to be inaccurate due to the lack of guidance to force long-range temporal perception; ii) explicit motion learning is usually ignored, leading to partial information loss. To address these issues, we develop a Motion-augmented Long-short Contrastive Learning (MoLo) method that contains two crucial components, including a long-short contrastive objective and a motion autodecoder. Specifically, the long-short contrastive objective is to endow local frame features with long-form temporal awareness by maximizing their agreement with the global token of videos belonging to the same class. The motion autodecoder is a lightweight architecture to reconstruct pixel motions from the differential features, which explicitly embeds the network with motion dynamics. By this means, MoLo can simultaneously learn long-range temporal context and motion cues for comprehensive few-shot matching. To demonstrate the effectiveness, we evaluate MoLo on five standard benchmarks, and the results show that MoLo favorably outperforms recent advanced methods. The source code is available at https://github.com/alibaba-mmai-research/MoLo.


Background and Objectives: Incidence of thyroid carcinoma has been increasing world-wide. In the present study, we evaluated diagnostic accuracy of Fine needle aspiration (FNA) and its efficiency in early detecting neoplastic lesions of thyroid gland over a 3-year period. Methods: Data have been retrieved from pathology files in King Khalid Hospital. For each patient, age, gender, FNA, site & size of nodule and final histopathologic diagnosis were recorded. Results: Study included 490 cases where 419 of them were female and 71 male. Male to female ratio was 1:6. Mean age was 43 years for males and 38 for females. Cases with confirmed histopathology were 131. In 101/131 (77.1%), concordance was found between FNA and histology. In 30/131 (22.9%), there was discrepancy in diagnosis. Total malignant cases were 43, out of which 14 (32.5%) were true positive and 29 (67.44%) were false negative. No false positive cases could be found in our series. Conclusion: FNA could diagnose benign nodules in all cases, however, in malignant cases, ultrasound findings have to be taken into consideration to avoid missing of a microcarcinoma in the contralateral lobe. Keywords—FNA, hail, histopathology, thyroid.


Background: An algorithm for the classification of ambulatory and non-ambulatory activities using the ratio of unfiltered to filtered synthetic acceleration measured with a triaxial accelerometer and predictive models for physical activity intensity (METs) in adults and in elementary school children has been developed. The purpose of the present study was to derive predictive equations for METs with a similar algorithm in young children. Methods: Thirty-seven healthy Japanese children (four- to six-years old) participated in this study. The five non-ambulatory activities including low-intensity activities, and five ambulatory activities were selected. The raw accelerations using a triaxial accelerometer and energy expenditure by indirect calorimetry using the Douglas bag method during each activity were collected. Results: For non-ambulatory activities, especially light-intensity non-ambulatory activities, linear regression equations with a predetermined intercept (0.9) or quadratic equations were a better fit than the linear regression. The equations were different from those for adults and elementary school children. On the other hand, the ratios of unfiltered to filtered synthetic acceleration in non-ambulatory activities were different from those in ambulatory activities, as in adults and elementary school children. Conclusions: Our calibration model for young children could accurately predict intensity of physical activity including low-intensity non-ambulatory activities.


Partial 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid sequences were determined for Campylobacter concisus, Campylobacter fetus subsp. intestinalis, Campylobacter sputorum subsp. bubulus, Wolinella curva, Wolinella recta, Wolinella succinogenes, Bacteroides gracilis, and Bacteroides ureolyticus. These sequences were compared with previously published sequences of Campylobacter laridis, Campylobacter jejuni, Campylobacter coli, Campylobacter pylori, Thiovulum sp., Escherichia coli, and Bacteroides fragilis, and percentages of homology were calculated. With the exception of C. pylori, all of the campylobacters formed a tight phylogenetic cluster. Within this cluster were the following organisms that have been classified as species of Wolinella and Bacteroides: W. curva, W. recta, B. gracilis, and B. ureolyticus. The average level of interspecies homology within this group was 94.4%. W. succinogenes and C. pylori formed a second cluster with a level of interspecies homology of 90.4%. The average level of homology of the W. succinogenes-C. pylori cluster with species of the campylobacter cluster was 85.1%. Thiovulum sp. was only 83% homologous with either of the two clusters. Based upon the sequence data, we suggest that all members of the campylobacter cluster should be placed in the genus Campylobacter. However, formal resolution of the taxonomic status of the campylobacter cluster may require additional information provided by other experimental methods.


Edgebreaker is a simple scheme for compressing the triangle/vertex incidence graphs (sometimes called topology) of threedimensional triangle meshes. Edgebreaker improves upon the worst case and the expected compression ratios of previously reported schemes, most of which require O(nlogn) bits to store the incidence graph of a mesh of n triangles. Edgebreaker requires only 2n bits or less for simple meshes and can also support fully general meshes by using additional storage per handle and hole. EdgebreakerOs compression and decompression processes perform an identical traversal of the mesh from one triangle to an adjacent one. At each stage, compression produces an op-code describing the topological relation between the current triangle and the boundary of the remaining part of the mesh. Decompression uses these op-codes to reconstruct the entire incidence graph. Because EdgebreakerOs compression and decompression are independent of the vertex locations, Edgebreaker may be combined with a variety of vertex-compressing techniques that exploit topological information about the mesh to better estimate vertex locations. Edgebreaker may be used to transfer the entire surface bounding a 3D polyhedron or only a triangulated surface patch, for which the bounding loops are already known and need not be transferred. Its superior compression capabilities, the simplicity of its implementation, and its versatility make Edgebreaker the perfect candidate for the emerging 3D data exchange standards for interactive graphic applications. The paper sets geometric compression in a formal topological framework and offers a new comparative perspective on prior art.


Abstract The Belgian Interministerial Commission for Humanitarian Law was created in 1987 for the purpose of identifying and coordinating national measures for implementing the Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their Additional Protocols of 1977, which Belgium had just ratified. In the first part of this article, the authors describe the Commission's background, composition, missions and structure. They then explain how, through its work, the Commission helps incorporate the rules of international humanitarian law into domestic law, disseminate these rules and promote compliance with them. In the final part of the article, the authors highlight the key factors underpinning the Commission's success in achieving its missions.


The relevance of the Apc+/Min mouse model in the study of human colorectal cancer remains uncertain due to the predominance of small intestinal adenomas and few, if any, colorectal adenomas. A new strain of Apc+/Min mice (Apc+/Min‐FCCC) with significantly greater numbers of colorectal adenomas has been generated and characterized. Male C57BL/6J—Apc+/Min mice (the Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME) were crossed with wild‐type (Apc+/+) C57BL/6J females from an independent colony at this institution (offspring = Apc+/Min‐FCCC) and 233 animals were evaluated over 20 generations. In order to determine the contribution of genetics to the enhanced colorectal adenoma phenotype, breeding pairs (Apc+/Min male × wild type female C57BL/6J) were purchased from the Jackson Laboratory and offspring (Apc+/Min‐JAX) were maintained in our facility under identical conditions (n = 98). Animals were fed Purina Rodent chow (#5013) diet containing 5% fat. The entire intestinal tract was examined histopathologically in both strains. Both the Apc and Pla2g2a (candidate for Mom1) genes were sequenced and found to be identical for both the Apc+/Min‐FCCC and Apc+/Min‐JAX mouse strains. The multiplicity of colorectal adenomas in the Apc+/Min‐FCCC mice was much higher than reported in the literature and significantly greater than the multiplicity of colorectal adenomas in Apc+/Min‐JAX mice maintained in our facility (P = 0.01). Apc+/Min‐FCCC had a significantly greater incidence of rectal prolapse (P = 0.02) and small intestinal adenocarcinomes (P = 0.001), and multiplicity of small intestinal adenocarcinomas (P = 0.001) compared to Apc+/Min‐JAX mice. Male Apc+/Min‐FCCC mice had significantly greater numbers of colorectal adenomas compared to female Apc+/Min‐FCCC mice (P = 0.0002), as did male Apc+/Min‐JAX mice vs. female Apc+/Min‐JAX mice (P < 0.0001). These results allow us to conclude: (1) Apc+/Min‐FCCC mice are unique in that they develop significantly greater numbers of colorectal adenomas and small intestinal cancers, and a significantly greater incidence of small intestinal cancers and rectal prolapse than Apc+/Min‐JAX mice. (2) This study represents the first report of a significant gender difference in multiplicity of colorectal adenomas. (3) Differences between Apc+/Min‐FCCC and Apc+/Min‐JAX mice in currently undefined genetic modifiers may contribute to the enhanced colorectal phenotype. (4) The Apc+/Min‐FCCC strain is highly suited for the investigation of colorectal neoplastic disease and chemoprevention studies. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Credit card delinquencies and personal bankruptcy rates increased during the mid 1990s, despite the strength of the U.S. economy. Even though per capita income rose during that period, household borrowing grew at an even faster pace. The rise in revolving debt-mainly credit card loans-was especially noticeable, and the increase in personal bankruptcy rates was also substantial. This article examines the relationship between consumer credit card borrowing, delinquency rates, and personal bankruptcies. The author looks at developments involving borrowers, the demand side, and lenders, the supply side. ; Credit card loans have been extended to higher-risk consumers over time. Using data collected in the 1998 Survey of Consumer Finances, the author examines the effect of credit card borrowing on consumer payments delinquency and the relationship between credit card debt and the increase in bankruptcy rates. She also tests whether credit card lenders face an adverse selection problem, whereby banks making worse credit card offers attract more risky customers and have higher delinquency and charge-off rates than others. She finds that banks that charge higher interest rates and some fees have higher delinquency rates, but not higher charge-off rates. Moreover, banks that charge higher interest rates were found to have higher net revenues from credit card lending than other issuers.


Modern computing architectures change rapidly and exhibit high levels of
complexity and heterogeneity. For example, the Barcelona Supercomputing
Center (BSC) will have one general purpose cluster and three smaller clusters
with Emerging Technologies like Many Core architecture from Intel, Power from
IBM and ARMv8 from Fujitsu. These are technologies currently being developed
to accelerate the arrival of the new generation of pre-exascale supercomputers.
We have analysed these architectures in order to gain knowledge and experience
to get the best performance possible from them running HPC applications that
exploit the strengths of each architecture.
Additionally, we have run a benchmark suite on each available computer
architecture with the purpose of characterize them. In order to complement the
benchmark results, we have decided to analyse the execution of each benchmark
with a performance analysis tool. There already exist several performance
analysis tools which cover different performance areas like hardware events
counting, performance simulation, traces, etc. However, these tools are
dependent of being ported to modern computing architectures and they
normally have different usages for different architectures.
We propose a solution based on the perf_event interface, which is included
on the Linux kernel, that allows us to analyse the benchmark execution on the
different modern computing architectures and it allows users easily to get
performance information of their applications. The information that we provide
with our solution are a sampling trace of hardware events, a profiling report and
monitoring information of CPU and memory. Our solution enhances the
performance results of other tools with extra features that help a better
understanding of the bottlenecks of applications and/or architectures, and so,
benchmarking. In addition, our proposal can be used in any system with Linux.


Abstract: Terraces are typical artificial landforms on the Loess Plateau, with ecological functions in water and soil conservation, agricultural production, and biodiversity. Recording the spatial distribution of terraces is the basis of monitoring their extent and understanding their ecological effects. The current terrace extraction method mainly relies on high-resolution imagery, but its accuracy is limited due to vegetation coverage distorting the features of terraces in imagery. High-resolution topographic data reflecting the morphology of true terrace surfaces are needed. Terraces extraction on the Loess Plateau is challenging because of the complex terrain and diverse vegetation after the implementation of "vegetation recovery". This study presents an automatic method of extracting terraces based on 1 m resolution digital elevation models (DEMs) and 0.3 m resolution Worldview-3 imagery as auxiliary information used for object-based image analysis (OBIA). A multi-resolution segmentation method was used where slope, positive and negative terrain index (PN), accumulative curvature slope (AC), and slope of slope (SOS) were determined as input layers for image segmentation by correlation analysis and Sheffield entropy method. The main classification features based on DEMs were chosen from the terrain features derived from terrain factors and texture features by gray-level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) analysis; subsequently, these features were determined by the importance analysis on classification and regression tree (CART) analysis. Extraction rules based on DEMs were generated from the classification features with a total classification accuracy of 89.96%. The red band and near-infrared band of images were used to exclude construction land, which is easily confused with small-size terraces. As a result, the total classification accuracy was increased to 94%. The proposed method ensures comprehensive consideration of terrain, texture, shape, and spectrum characteristics, demonstrating huge potential in hilly-gully loess region with similarly complex terrain and diverse vegetation covers.


Relevance: Literature linking body weight loss and maximum respiratory pressures is not consensual.

Purpose: To evaluate the maximum inspiratory pressure (MIP) and the maximum expiratory pressure (MEP) in patients with obesity, before and after gastric bypass surgery, and to compare them to a control group.

Methods: 30 participants with obesity (24F/6M) aged 32±9 yrs and with body mass index (BMI) of 43±4 kg/m2, were evaluated before and one, six and around 36 months after surgery. 30 participants matched by age (31±8 yrs) and sex with normal lung function and BMI of 22±2 kg/m2 were assessed. An analogic manovacuometer was used to measure MIP and MEP. Student's t-test and ANOVA for repeated measures were used for stastical analysis (p < 0.05). This study was approved by the Ethics Committee.

Results: Table 1 summarizes the results.

View this table:

Table 1. MIP and MEP in patients with obesity before and after surgery and a control group

There were no significant differences at baseline between the two groups. MIP increased significantly approximately 36 months after surgery. MEP decreased after one month and increased significantly after 36 months compared with one and six months after surgery.

Conclusion: The results demonstrate a positive influence of gastric bypass surgery on respiratory muscle strength.


While the majority of students for their senior project chose to do so with a senior thesis project, my project was a community service/artistic project. The purpose of this project was to create a series of promotional videos about Relay For Life utilizing still photography, music and voiceovers.The community service portion of this project was designed around creating videos for Relay For Life of UNCP. Relay For Life is an international fundraising event that is held on college campuses and in communities across the world. The purpose of Relay For Life is to raise money and awareness for the American Cancer Society; an organization that works to provide research to help find a cure for cancer and also to provide support for cancer survivors and their families. I have been involved with this charity throughout all four years of college and have served the past two years as the student chair.This project included three different videos focused around different aspects of Relay For Life. As mentioned previously, the videos were created by using a plethora of still photography to illustrate what Relay For Life does on campus. I also worked to ensure the video was branded as much as possible showing campus landmarks, UNCP branding from around campus and Relay for Life/American Cancer Society logos and banners. I am passing on the videos to my successor as chair of the event so that way they can be used as a recruiting/awareness tool for future years.


A soil moisture flux transducer was built and tested in the
laboratory under steady-state conditions in a column of Portneuf
silt loam soil. Initial data indicate that the instrument may
be developed into a useful field research tool. Its principal
advantage is that measurements of moisture flow may be made
without any prior information concerning the unsaturated
hydraulic conductivity of the soil. Rather, one needs to know
only a soil moisture convergence factor which is dependent on
the state of the soil and the design of the transducer. While
this convergence factor is dependent upon the soil moisture
content, the dependence appears to be nearly an order of magnitude
less than the dependence of hydraulic conductivity on
soil moisture content. It may prove possible to develop the
unit for installation in the field to provide continuous measurements
of the unsaturated soil moisture flow in the tensiometer
range with errors no greater than those arising from the natural
heterogeneity of the soil.


The primary task of co-simulation is the synchronization and exchange of data between the subsystems, e.g., FMUs, at certain coupling points. If the FMUs have different step sizes, the synchronization of the FMUs is often at the expense of the simulation duration of the cosimulation. The presented parallel fast scheduling algorithm is an effective approach to couple FMUs with different coupling step sizes. Therefore, synchronization intervals are introduced in which FMUs that finish their coupling step are synchronized. This allows a high performance of the coupling in terms of simulation duration. The higher performance compared to other scheduling algorithms is particularly evident in real-time applications, i.e., HiL simulations. However, the synchronization intervals are defined via a synchronization step size, which can be set independently to the coupling step sizes of the FMUs. This additional step size has a significant impact on the simulation accuracy. An extrapolation measure is introduced, which approximates the impact of the synchronization step size on the extrapolation error and thus on the simulation accuracy. Based on this, an optimization approach is presented, which derives the optimal synchronization step size to minimize the extrapolation measure. parallel scheduling, synchronization step size, optimal


This paper reviews the use of social cost of carbon (SCC) values in regulatory deliberations, using practical examples to reveal potential insights. The paper reports on how the inferred choice of input assumptions, and the method used to pick SCC estimates, affects both the size of SCC values and the uncertainty ranges, and that these implicitly influence policy outcomes. The paper also reviews applications of the SCC in the UK. This reveals the following: (1) There is a potential trade‐off between the use of single SCC estimates to ensure consistency, versus use of a range to reflect uncertainty. (2) SCC values are more influential in some sectors than others, which can make it challenging to introduce consistent policies. (3) In some cases the SCC can act as a switching value on major (nonclimate) policy decisions. (4) SCC literature estimates have changed over time, often dramatically. These changes are difficult to implement and policy makers seem to prefer more stable values, even if this means changing input assumptions or methods. (5) For the analysis of climate policy, the decision framework in which SCC values are used makes a large difference to the outcome. (6) There are complex issues and potential inconsistencies involved in applying global SCC values to national decision frameworks comparing costs and benefits. All of these issues caution against a narrow and over‐simplistic application of SCC values in regulatory deliberations. Nonetheless, with appropriate caution and caveats, the paper reports that SCC values can have a role in helping to inform policy. WIREs Clim Change 2011, 2:886–901. doi: 10.1002/wcc.140


In view of increasing cost pressures, this paper aims to provide guidance to national EU policy-makers faced with the challenge of reconciling financial sustainability of health systems with the safeguarding of the key underlying values of these health systems; namely universal coverage, solidarity in financing, equity, efficiency and quality of care. The paper provides an overview of the current state of health care financing in the European Union, identifying broad trends and evolutions that have occurred since the 1990s. An annex to the paper offers descriptive summaries of healthcare financing in each of the EU member states. The first part of this paper seeks to clarify the nature of the sustainability problem, laying emphasis on the distinction between economic and fiscal sustainability. The second and third parts provide analysis of a variety of current financing arrangements in terms of both their ability to fulfil health financing functions and in terms of their commitment to the "policy goals" or key values considered vital to uphold health systems as developed by the WHO. Identifying the different stages of the healthcare financing process; from the initial collection of funds to pooling to the purchasing of health services and finally coverage of the population, this paper highlights the variables affecting key values at each stage. On the basis of this analysis, it is argued in this paper that public financing of healthcare is superior to private financing on three accounts: in terms of sustainability, contribution to the value of equity and in terms of efficiency. The fourth and final part of the paper provides general policy recommendations drawn from the conclusions of the analysis.


Distributions over discrete sets capture the essential statistics including the high-order correlation among elements. Such information provides powerful insight for decision making across various application domains, e.g. product assortment based on product distribution in shopping carts. While deep generative models trained on pre-collected data can capture existing distributions, such pre-trained models are usually not ca-pable of aligning with a target domain in the presence of distribution shift due to reasons such as temporal shift or the change in the population mix. We develop a general framework to adapt a generative model subject to a (possibly counterfactual) target data distribution with both sampling and computation efficiency. Concretely, instead of re-training a full model from scratch, we reuse the learned modules to preserve the correlations between set elements, while only adjusting corresponding components to align with target marginal constraints. We instantiate the approach for three commonly used forms of discrete set distribution—latent variable, autoregressive, and energy based models—and provide efficient so-lutions for marginal-constrained optimization in either primal or dual forms. Experiments on both synthetic and real-world e-commerce and EHR datasets show that the proposed framework is able to practically align a generative model to match marginal constraints under distribution shift.


Background: Potatoes react very sensitive to drought during growth, and appropriate plant stress responses may affect metabolites associated with the health quality of tubers. Objective: The aim of this study is to determine the effects of drought stress (DS) on soluble sugars, starch, crude protein, minerals, free amino acids (AAs) and fatty acids (FAs). Design: The experiment was carried out on three potato genotypes during two years with four replications. The plants were grown in pots, in a glasshouse with optimal water supply and under drought stress conditions. After harvest, the tubers of these two variants were analyzed for bioactive compounds relevant to non-communicable diseases (NCDs).  Results: Apart from genotypic differences in most parameters, the results revealed that the DS caused a decline in glucose and fructose (P < 0.05, all) in both years, whereas sucrose was increased, especially in the second year with severe stress (P < 0.01). Starch was significantly reduced by moderate stress in the first year (P < 0.01), but less affected in the second year. Crude proteins and total amounts of free amino acids (AAs) were clearly enhanced by the stress in both years (P < 0.05, all), similarly as the minerals magnesium (Mg), potassium (K) and phosphorus (P) (P < 0.05, all), whereas calcium (Ca) declined (P < 0.05). The portion of α-linolenic acid (ALA) on total lipids was elevated in the stress variants (P < 0.01), while oleic acid (OLA), its precursor decreased significantly (P < 0.05), but only in the first year. In the second year, ALA was in general higher and not further induced by the stress. Also OLA was less affected in that year, similarly as all other FAs in both years. Interestingly, Myo -inositol (MI) and lipid acyl hydrolases (LAH) associated with modulation in cell membrane lipids raised by the drought stress in each year (P < 0.01, all). In the second year, MI and LAH data of the drought stressed tubers correlated significantly (r = 0.90, P < 0.01) indicating their joined action within plant stress responses. Conclusions: The biochemical changes induced by DS are not alarming with regard to NCDs. Decline in glucose, fructose and starch, and increase in crude proteins, free AAs, ALA, MI and minerals like Mg, K and P, on the other side, is profitable for the health benefits of tubers. However, a better quality is associated with a decrease in tuber yield. Keywords: potato, drought stress, bioactive compounds, chronic diseases


Herein we report a new series of bifunctional chelators (BFCs) with high affinity for amyloid β aggregates, strong binding affinity towards Cu(II), and favorable lipophilicity for potential blood-brain barrier (BBB) penetration. The alkyl carboxylate ester pendant arms show high binding affinity towards Cu(II). The BFCs form stable 64Cu-radiolabeled complexes and exhibit favorable partition coefficient (log D) values of 0.75-0.95. Among the five compounds tested, 64Cu-YW-1 and 64Cu-YW-13 complexes exhibit significant staining of amyloid plaques in ex vivo autoradiography studies.


Among the problems that prevent free-space optical communication systems from becoming a truly mainstream technology is beam wander, which is especially important for structured light beams since beam misalignment introduces additional crosstalk at the receiver. The paper suggests a recurrent neural network-based (RNN) solution to predict beam wander in free space optics (FSO). The approach uses past beam center of mass positions to predict future movement, significantly outperforming various prediction types. The proposed approach is demonstrated using under-sampled experimental data over a 260 m link as a worst-case and over-sampled simulated data as a best-case scenario. In addition to conventional Gaussian beams, Hermite- and Laguerre-Gaussian beam wander is also investigated. With a 20 to 40% improvement in error over naive and linear predictions, while predicting multiple samples ahead in typical situations and overall matching or outperforming considered predictions across all studied scenarios, this method could help mitigate turbulence-induced fading and has potential applications in intelligent re-transmits, quality of service, optimized error correction, maximum likelihood-type algorithms, and predictive adaptive optics.


A simple method for the description of the coherent electron emission from two H atoms of the H2 molecule induced by particle impact is suggested. The method is based on a formalism that separates the cross section for the electron emission into an atomic part describing the independent emission from the two H atoms, and a factor giving an account of the interference caused by the coherent emission from the two centres. This separability allows the use of a classical ionization theory to determine the atomic part of the cross section. Calculations applying the classical trajectory Monte Carlo (CTMC) theory have been carried out for 68 MeV amu−1 Kr33+ on H2 collisions. A reasonable agreement has been found between the CTMC results and the recent experimental data obtained by Stolterfoht et al.


Pressure vessels are leak proof containers, as the name implies, their main purpose is to contain a given medium under pressure and temperature. Pressure vessels are commonly used in industry to carry both liquid and gases under required pressure and temperature limit. This pressure and temperature comes from an external source or by the application of heat from a direct or indirect source or any combination of them. This project deals with design and analysis of conventional type pressure vessel for industry. This project investigates, failure of conventional jacket type vessel on basis of thermal analysis, the work is carried out by the designing of pressure vessel as per the DIN standard, for given design conditions for various parameters. In that analysis and designing is carried out by ANSYS and CREO software Cite this Article Harshal Patel, Mitul Rana, Divyanshu Rohit et al. Design and analysis of pressure vessel pan (shell) of conventional jacket type. Journal of Modern Chemistry & Chemical Technology. 2017; 8(1): 26–31p.


Sphaeranthus indicus Linn. (Asteraceae) is a branched herb with purple color flowers, distributed in wet places. The present study evaluated the neuropharmacological effects of the hydroalcoholic extract of S. indicus (SIE) in rats and mice. Effect of SIE (100, 200 and 500 mg/kg, p.o.) on spontaneous motor activity, pentobarbital-induced sleeping time, motor coordination, exploratory behaviour and apomorphine-induced stereotypy were investigated in mice. SIE (100, 200 and 500 mg/kg, p.o.) induced catalepsy and effect of SIE on haloperidol induced catalepsy were studied in rats. The SIE showed significant reduction of spontaneous motor activity, exploratory behaviour and prolonged pentobarbital sleeping time in the mice. Neuroleptic potential of SIE was observed by the results in which SIE antagonized apomorphine-induced stereotypy in mice, produced catalepsy and potentiated haloperidol-induced catalepsy in rats. Further, SIE had no effect on motor-coordination as determined by the rota rod test. These results provide evidence that the hydroalcoholic extract of Sphaeranthus indicus may contain psychoactive substances that are sedative in nature with possible neuroleptic properties.