The Mg-5Li-3Al-1.5Zn-2RE (LaPrCe) alloy was prepared by hot-chamber extrusion process after casting. The alloy consists of α-Mg solid solution and intermetallic phases (Al11RE3 phase and Al2RE phase). The microstructural analysis of the alloy reveals the correlation between microstructure and creep properties. The stress exponent of n varies from 4.25 to 6.23, and the activation energy varies from 104 to 134 kJ/mol. There is a transition between dislocations climb dominated creep mechanism and dislocation creep controlled by non-basal planes slip. Tensile creep tests were combined with detailed transmission electron microscopy in order to characterize the Al11RE3 phase, which had thermal stability at 448K during the creep test. The dislocations pinned and cross-slip dislocations were observed.


For higher power density of power electronics converters, the integration of passive into the printed circuit board (PCB) is a low cost and integral manufacturing approach. The passive substrate concept for power electronics is proposed in this paper. Based on it, the converter level packaging can be implemented. The commercially available ferrite materials with low high frequency loss can be embedded in the PCB. Thus, transformers and inductors can be entirely integrated in the PCB. The configuration and manufacturing processes of the embedded passive substrate are described. Accordingly, the synchronous full-bridge bus converter with 12 V/26 A output is designed and manufactured using the passive substrate. The electrical and thermal characteristics of the passive substrate are illustrated. The thin converter, better thermal performance and high power density can be achieved.


The article touches on various areas through which the concept of design, its theoretical and practical components can be examined, what is the designer's thinking from the point of view of philosophy and aesthetics by the example of the real creative life of famous artistic and aesthetic fi gures. Identity, chaos, expediency — those are the defi ning terms, whose subtleties are based on the scholarly works of Vladimir F. Sidorenko (Professor of the Moscow Textile Academy, member of the Artists' Union, member of the Designers' Union, Doctor of Art History, Laureate of the State Prize in Literature and Art). The article discloses the features of the aesthetics of expediency, the application of the abbreviation of this term. The time period from the 1920 to the 1880 of the last century suffi ces for explaining the foundations of the aesthetics of expediency, since it is during this time period that we can observe a surge of the most striking movements in art which infl uenced the design style. The world of design and the people of the design culture in it, imitation of nature and retreating from it — all of this is, undoubtedly, relevant for our time. In the decade of the 2020s, when many trends in art are arriving at a dead end, and sometimes even to their logical conclusion, it is important to go one century back, to the sources, to learn from the experience of our predecessors in the artistic fi eld. It is useful for contemporary artists to study what the contemporaries of the past years arrived at earlier in order to achieve their artistic success and remain in the history of design for all times.


This paper follows two aims. First it intends to give an overview of the contextual database of the Generations and Gender Program and how it is linked to the Generations and Gender Survey. Secondly, it provides a documentation of the approaches taken towards the conceptual definition and construction of the database. The document consists of two parts. The first gives a brief description of the underlying ideas of the database and the approach taken in order to develop its conceptual framework and construct the database. The second part is a note on the link between the Generations and Gender Survey and the contextual database. Starting from the GGS questionnaire, the main interfaces between micro data and contextual domains are investigated.


Background Visit‐to‐visit variability of systolic blood pressure (SBP) has been shown to contribute to cardiovascular events and all‐cause mortality. However, little is known about its long‐term effect on renal function. We aim to examine the relationship between visit‐to‐visit blood pressure variability (BPV) and decline in renal function in patients with hypertension and to determine the level of systolic BPV that is associated with significant renal function decline. Methods and Results This is a 15‐year retrospective cohort study of 825 hypertensive patients. Blood pressure readings every 3 months were retrieved from the 15 years of clinic visits. We used SD and coefficient of variation as a measure of systolic BPV. Serum creatinine was captured and estimated glomerular filtration rate was calculated at baseline, 5, 10, and 15 years. The mean SD of SBP was 14.2±3.1 mm Hg and coefficient of variation of SBP was 10.2±2%. Mean for estimated glomerular filtration rate slope was −1.0±1.5 mL/min per 1.73 m2 per year. There was a significant relationship between BPV and slope of estimated glomerular filtration rate (SD: r=−0.16, P<0.001; coefficient of variation: r=−0.14, P<0.001, Pearson's correlation). BPV of SBP for each individual was significantly associated with slope of estimated glomerular filtration rate after adjustment for mean SBP and other confounders. The cutoff values estimated by the receiver operating characteristic curve for the onset of chronic kidney disease for SD of SBP was 13.5 mm Hg and coefficient of variation of SBP was 9.74%. Conclusions Long‐term visit‐to‐visit variability of SBP is an independent determinant of renal deterioration in patients with hypertension. Hence, every effort should be made to reduce BPV in order to slow down the decline of renal function.


The biotechnology sector attracts a wide range of interested actors with some getting entangled in the development of requisite regulatory systems as experts in the virtue of being knowledge suppliers and innovation drivers. However, questions have arisen as to whether experts enhance or constrain the evolution of regulatory structures for management of biotechnology as part of its broader governance. This has direct impact on biotechnology development based on the roles played by different governance actors. Using a dynamic case study of Kenya in its effort to institute a viable regulatory system to govern biotechnology, this paper explores the role of experts in regulating innovations. It draws insights from the Kenyan experience with a view of evaluating how the role of experts, in particular the scientific community can spur positive contributions towards pro-innovation and pro-poor biotechnology policy processes. This recontextualised role of experts is explored from the perspective of knowledge use and how it is linked to development. This is because of the tension between undisputed role of biotechnology as an economic driver and the political nature of biotechnology regulation in the African context. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Thank you for taking the time to review this paper. Your review approaches the paper as if it is a collection of separate technical notes: one for a model, another for a method, and a third for a set of concepts and definitions. You then robustly criticize each note on the basis that its contents is not fit for purpose in general RR modelling (along the lines that the model does not have advantages relative to existing models, the method is poorer than existing methods, and the definitions and concepts are redundant).


To maintain high trigger efficiencies and stable rates during significant changes to beam conditions throughout 2017, the CMS Level-1 calorimeter trigger required dynamic and flexible operation. Successfully running since 2015, utilising Xilinx Virtex 7 690 FPGAs and 10 Gbps optical links, the versatile design has enabled quick adaption to improve algorithms to mitigate large rates from high pileup and changes in detector response, and as the LHC responded to a number of unexpected challenges. Operational experience and lessons learned will be discussed, and how they will inform important decisions in the design and implementation of the Phase-2 trigger upgrade.


Amongst the various means for information communication are available, satellite based internet communication found very efficient, accurate, quick and somewhat cheaper in the field of disseminating the information from research system to farmers. Internet communication has touched almost all the district in our country and is mainly down up to the village levels. Internet offers a means for bridging the gap between developmental professional, rural people and agricultural producers through the initiation of interaction and dialogue. Keeping all the views in mind it was decided to study the expectations and opinion of the farmers regarding internet facility. Most of the respondents was expected the Community Internet Center (CIC) facilities at panchayat office of the village. The information on farmers' related sites was expected by most of the farmers in local (Gujarati) language that too in the audio-visual form. The major purposes to have CIC explained by the respondents were to collect agricultural information, government's programmes, and market prices. Majority of the respondents expressed their desire to use Internet daily or twice in a week by their own. All of them expressed positive response to have proper training about the use of Internet facility through government agency, at CIC. The results showed that majority of the farmers understood that internet is a rich source to collect world wide information on agriculture and it is the fastest way to exchange information in shortest time'. Majority farmers completely or to a certain degree felt that though internet is costly affair for the farmers but it is the best mean to collect information on market prices of agricultural products. It was concluded that Education, Land holding, Contact with NRI's, Experience of internet use and Mass media exposure are significantly and positively correlated with the opinion of the farmers about the use of Internet for farming community.


The paper reviews the extent of the income inequality decline that took place in Latin America in 2002-10 and then focuses on the factors that may explain such decline. These include a lowered skill premium following an expansion of secondary education among the poor, and the adoption of more equalizing tax, labour market subsidies and macro policies by a growing number of progressive governments. Finally, the paper reviews the changes in inequality during 2009-12 and discusses whether and how the recent decline can be sustained over the next decade in the context of sluggish world growth.


We determine the power of population monitoring in source or sink habitat to detect declining reproductive success in source habitat using a stochastic population model. The relative power to detect a trend in the source by monitoring either the source or the sink Varies with life history parameters, environmental stochasticity, and observation uncertainty. The power to detect a decline monitoring either source or sink habitat is maximized when the reproductive surplus in the source is low. The power to detect a decline by monitoring the sink increases with increasing reproductive deficit in the sink. If environmental stochasticity in the source increases, the power in the sink goes down due to a lower signal-to-noise ratio. However, the power in the sink increases if environmental stochasticity is increased further, because increasing stochasticity reduces the geometric mean growth rate in the source. Intriguingly, it is often most efficient to monitor the sink even though the actual reproductive decline occurs in the source. If reproductive success is declining in both habitats, censusing the sink will always have higher power. However, the probability of Type 1 error is always higher in the sink. Our results clearly have implications for optimal population monitoring in source-sink landscapes.


We have rigorously proved that an odd-order causal Lagrange-type variable fractional-delay (VFD) digital filter can be implemented as the Farrow structure with symmetric or antisymmetric subfilters through utilizing matrix transformation. This paper reveals a numerical problem that occurs in the matrix transformation due to the so-called catastrophic cancellation in numerical computation. Our computer simulations have verified that utilizing the matrix transformation can get numerically stable solutions for the VFD filter whose order N is below about 20, but fails for higher order cases. To solve this problem, we present a robust approach to the structure transformation for both even- and odd-order causal Lagrange-type VFD filters, which does not rely on matrix operations and, thus, can yield numerically stable solutions even for high-order cases. Moreover, the symmetry and antisymmetry of the subfilter coefficients after the robust structure transformation are also rigorously proved. Numerical examples are included to illustrate the robustness of the proposed structure transformation and show the coefficient symmetries.


The aim of this thesis is to examine how the Filipino children are affected when either one or both of their parents are living and working abroad based from a teacher's point of view. Focus is directed towards influences on the daily life of children. The study is based on qualitative interviews with six high school teachers, from two different schools. Their statements have been analyzed by using the theory of attachment and sentence categorization. The teachers described that they think it is a common thought that left-behind children tend to have a bad behavior. However, none of these teachers described the children that they are teaching in that manner but in fact, they described them as responsible, independent and good students. Conclusion of the study is that the cultural context and the environment affect how the children are able to cope with their situation. It was also found that the role of the mother has a significant importance for these children. There is also great need of a motherly and fatherly figure, even though it is not the biological parents of the children.


The purpose of this study was to examine the psychometric properties (test-retest and interrater reliability, criterion concurrent validity) of 3 verbal pain-assessment tools (Faces Pain Scale, Numerical Rating Scale, Present Pain Intensity Scale) and a behavioural pain-assessment scale for use with an elderly population. The study used a repeated-measures design to examine the reliability and validity of the tools across 4 groups of participants with varying levels of cognitive impairment using a non-random stratified sample of 130 elderly long-term-care residents. The findings support the test-retest and interrater reliability of the behavioural pain-assessment tool across all levels of cognitive impairment, whereas the same measures of reliability for the verbal-report tools decreased with increasing cognitive impairment; however, the majority of elderly with mild to moderate cognitive impairment were able to complete at least 1 of these tools. The findings are discussed in relation to their clinical and research implications.


The modern security landscape affecting grid and cloud sites is constantly evolving, with threats being seen from a range of avenues, including social engineering as well as more direct approaches. It is vital to build up operational security capabilities across the Worldwide LHC Computing Grid (WLCG) in order to improve the defence of the community as a whole. As reported at ISGC 2017 and 2018, the WLCG Security Operations Centres (SOC) Working Group (WG) has been working with sites across the WLCG to develop a model for a Security Operations Centre reference design. We present the current status of a minimum viable SOC design applicable to a range of different WLCG sites, centred around a few key components.

The design uses the Zeek Network Intrusion Detection System for monitoring what is happening at the network level in strategic locations: for example at border between the local cluster and external networks, the border between different local network domains or at core infrastructure nodes. The MISP Open Source Threat Intelligence Platform is used to share information regarding relevant security events and the associated Indicators of Compromise (IoCs). By feeding IoCs from MISP into Zeek we have a platform that allows the community to share threat intelligence that is immediately actionable across the entire grid.

The logs produced by Zeek are processed using the Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana (Elastic) stack for real time indexing and visualisation. This provides sites with a powerful tool for incident response and network forensics. The alerts raised by Zeek are further aggregated, correlated and enriched by an advanced notification processing engine. This ensures that most false positives are automatically whitelisted while at the same time reducing the total number of raised alerts that need to be managed by the computer security team of each site. By enriching these alerts and adding context of what happened around the moment the malicious activity was detected, the time needed to handle these alerts is greatly reduced.

We present possible deployment strategies for all these components in a grid context as well as the integration between them. We also report on the current status of work on integrating other sources of data, in particular using netflow / sflow, into this model.

Lastly we discuss how making use of these SOC capabilities distributed across the participating sites can lead to increasing the operational security across the entire grid.


Extensive research into circadian rhythms and their influence on biological systems has given rise to the science of chronobiology and subsequently chronotherapy, the science of delivering drugs in synchrony with biological rhythms. The field of chronotherapeutics paves the way for advances and complexities in current drug delivery technology. The ultimate goal of current chronopharmaceutical research strives to design ideal chronotherapeutic drug delivery systems that respond to such therapeutic needs. Considering the fact that physiological events such as heart rate, blood pressure, plasma concentration of hormones, plasma proteins and enzymes display constancy over time, drug delivery systems with constant release profiles have thus been favored. However, due to circadian rhythms, the conventional paradigm of constant drug delivery may not be what is needed. Instead, precisely timed drug delivery systems are required in order to correlate drug delivery with circadian rhythms to provide maximum therapeutic efficacy for chronotherapeutic diseases when most needed. The aim of this review paper is to outline the concepts in designing chronopharmaceuticals from a clinical viewpoint of major chronotherapeutic diseases such as asthma, allergic rhinitis, cardiovascular disorders, rheumatoid arthritis and cancer as well as relatively minor niche areas of interest such as in glaucoma, diabetes, immunity, pain, gastric ulcers, epilepsy and even HIV/AIDS that would require chronotherapy. In addition this review paper attempts to concisely assimilate and explicate the role of circadian rhythms in these various disease states and provide a focused overview of the current state-of-the-art in designing strategies for chronopharmaceutical formulations employed for treating chronotherapeutic diseases.


Asexual species are thought to suffer more from coevolving parasites than related sexuals. Yet, this prediction may be modulated by the fact that closely related sexuals and asexuals often differ in respects other than reproductive mode. Here, we follow the frequency dynamics of sexual and asexual Daphnia pulex in a natural pond that was initially dominated by sexuals. However, coinciding with an epidemic of a microsporidian parasite infecting both sexuals and asexuals, the pond was rapidly taken over by the initially rare asexuals. We experimentally confirm that asexuals are less susceptible and also suffer less from the parasite once infected. These results show the ecological replacement of a sexual taxon by a closely related asexual taxon, as driven by parasites. We suggest that this replacement is, however, not directly connected with the reproductive mode, but rather due to the recent introduction and invasive nature of the asexuals studied.


The effect of coiling temperature on the microstructure and mechanical properties of a Nb-V microalloyed steel was investigated. Controlled rolling followed by accelerated cooling and coiling was simulated by means of both, uniaxial compression, using a quenching and deformation dilatometer, and torsion. Specimens were reheated at 1250º for 5-10 min, then deformed at 1150°C, =0.3, and subsequently at 900°C, =0.4, followed by rapid cooling to a temperature between 450 and 700°C where coiling was simulated by holding the specimen for one hour at the selected temperature followed by a slow cooling to room temperature. Mechanical characterization was performed by means of hardness measurements and tensile tests, using tubular specimens machined from the torsion samples. It was found that decreasing the coiling temperature the ferrite-pearlite microstructure changed to ferrite-bainite, with a hardness peak reached for coiling at 600°C-650°C.


Ion shower doping with a main ion source of P2Hx using a source gas mixture of PH3/H2 was conducted on excimer-laser-annealed (ELA) poly-Si. The amount of as-implanted damage was observed to increase with acceleration voltage. The measured values of as-implanted damage using a UV-transmittance was found to correlate well with the ones calculated using TRIM-code simulation. After activation annealing the sheet resistance generally decreases as the acceleration voltage increases. It, however, increases as the acceleration voltage increases under the conditions of severe doping and low temperature annealing. Results of UV-transmission Spectroscopy and Hall measurements revealed that uncured damage seems to be responsible for the rise in sheet resistance.


This paper proposes a novel efficient admission control (AC) algorithm, which guarantees quality of service (QoS) for new users while maintaining QoS for existing users and also increases the number of users admitted in to the system. To guarantee the QoS, a Markov based modeling of the queue in the MAC layer is done by considering the effects of adaptive modulation and coding (AMC) in the physical layer. Using the Markov model, the number of resources required by the new user is predicted by taking the QoS requirements of the user application and channel parameters into consideration. The proposed AC algorithm is based on mean resource calculation, where the mean number of resources used by the existing users is calculated taking in to account the buffer conditions of users. The efficiency of AC algorithm is measured w.r.t number of users admitted in the system. The AC algorithm is verified on a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system and simulations show a 10% increase in the number of users and a decrease in the dropping probability.


The mechanism of heme oxygenase-1 gene (ho-1) activation by heme in immortalized rat proximal tubular epithelial cells was examined. Analysis of the ho-1 promoter identified the heme-responsive sequences as the stress-response element (StRE), multiple copies of which are present in two enhancer regions, E1 and E2. Electrophoretic mobility shift assays identified Nrf2, MafG, ATF3, and Jun and Fos family members as StRE-binding proteins; binding of Nrf2, MafG, and ATF3 was increased in response to heme. Dominant-negative mutants of Nrf2 and Maf, but not of c-Fos and c-Jun, inhibited basal and heme-induced expression of an E1-controlled luciferase gene. Heme did not affect the transcription activity of Nrf2, dimerization between Nrf2 and MafG, or the level of MafG, but did stimulate expression of Nrf2. Heme did not influence the level of Nrf2 mRNA but increased the half-life of Nrf2 protein from approximately 10 min to nearly 110 min. These results indicate that heme promotes stabilization of Nrf2, leading to accumulation of Nrf2. MafG dimers that bind to StREs to activate the ho-1 gene.


Access control models describe frameworks that dictate how subjects (e.g. users) access resources. In the Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) model access to resources is based on the role the user holds within the organization. RBAC is a rigid model where access control decisions have only two output options: Grant or Deny. Break The Glass (BTG) policies on the other hand are flexible and allow users to break or override the access controls in a controlled and justifiable manner. The main objective of this paper is to integrate BTG within the NIST/ANSI RBAC model in a transparent and secure way so that it can be adopted generically in any domain where unanticipated or emergency situations may occur. The new proposed model, called BTG-RBAC, provides a third decision option BTG, which grants authorized users permission to break the glass rather than be denied access. This can easily be implemented in any application without major changes to either the application code or the RBAC authorization infrastructure, apart from the decision engine. Finally, in order to validate the model, we discuss how the BTG-RBAC model is being introduced within a Portuguese healthcare institution where the legislation requires that genetic information must be accessed by a restricted group of healthcare professionals. These professionals, advised by the ethical committee, have required and asked for the implementation of the BTG concept in order to comply with the said legislation.


Pessimists on globalization claim that liberalization of markets allows multinational corporations free reign, constraining local autonomy and precipitating a "race to the bottom" that will endanger recent democratic gains. The optimists see the end of dirigiste economic models as favorable for political liberalization, envisioning foreign direct investment (FDI) as one way in which to transfer wealth to poor societies, leading to democracy. The most recent literature assesses this debate using FDI flows. We believe that FDI stocks is a superior variable, and captures the underlying idea of "saturation point" better. We create models of democracy and use estimates of FDI stock for 107-120 countries over the 1970-2000 time period as a principal control variable. We find that FDI Granger-causes democracy to a greater degree than the other way around. Cross-sectional time-series results show FDI's effect on democracy to be robust, independent of trade, income, urbanization, and historical and institutional factors. Trade is positively, but weakly, associated with democracy as well. It seems that poor countries stand to gain much from interdependence with the rich. The problem with globalization may be that it has not gone far enough.


The gross nutritional profile of 34 seaweed species from three sites (Mkomani, Kibuyuni and Mtwapa) in coastal Kenya were studied. The crude fat, crude protein, crude fibre and crude ash were determined by the standard AOAC methods while the nitrogen-free extract (NFE) was calculated by weight difference of the chemical components. The chemical constituents of the seaweeds varied significantly among the algal divisions, species, months and sites (p<0.05). The major chemical components was the NFE with a mean value of 42.09 ± 0.83% dry weight (DW) followed by crude ash (31.94 ± 0.78% DW), crude fibre (14.08 ± 0.26% DW), crude protein (10.09 ± 0.26% DW), whereas the least component was crude fat with a mean value of 1.81 ± 0.04% DW (p<0.05). The crude protein levels were positively correlated with nitrogen content and in crude fibre and negatively with NFE, crude fat and crude ash (p<0.05). The findings on the gross nutritional profile of the seaweeds in this study could be used as a basis for more advanced research on nutritional information guideline and as potential resources for seaweed-based products for improved human and animal nutrition.


In this article, Dr. Naheed Dosani, the founder of the Palliative Education and Care for the Homeless (PEACH) program, shares his insight on topics ranging from integrating structural vulnerability into clinical practice to engendering changes within the community through translation of an idea into a real-world program. PEACH is a community-based organization that aims to provide high-quality and easily accessible palliative care to individuals that are homeless. We explore key tenants of palliative care such as harm reduction and trauma- informed care and their applicability for homeless or transiently housed patients. Dr. Dosani describes the unique elements of PEACH and the Journey Home Hospice (JHH), including accepting referrals from care workers, and the practical logistics of building this successful program in just a few short years.


We present results of an intensive 2 month campaign of approximately daily spectrophotometric monitoring of the narrow-line Seyfert 1 galaxy (NLS1) Ark 564 with the Hubble Space Telescope. The fractional variability amplitude of the continuum variations between 1365 and 3000 Å is ~6%, about a factor of 3 less than that found in typical Seyfert 1 galaxies over a similar period of time. However, large-amplitude, short timescale flaring behavior is evident, with trough-to-peak flux changes of about 18% in approximately 3 days. We present evidence for wavelength-dependent continuum time delays, with the variations at 3000 Å lagging behind those at 1365 Å by about 1 day. These delays may be interpreted as evidence for a stratified continuum reprocessing region, possibly an accretion disk structure. The Lyα λ1216 emission line exhibits flux variations of about 1% amplitude. These variations lag those at 1365 Å by ≲3 days, and combining this with the line width yields a virial black hole mass limit of ≲ 8 × 106 M☉ . We caution that the low-amplitude Lyα λ1216 variations may indicate the bulk of the emission region is at larger radii. This scenario affects the veracity of our black hole mass upper limit in an uncertain manner owing to the unknown nature of the gas velocity field. Our mass estimate is thus unreliable; however, it is consistent with the independent estimate M ~ 1 × 107 M☉ of Pounds et al. based on a fluctuation power spectrum analysis of X-ray variability in Ark 564. The black hole mass and 5100 Å luminosity of Ark 564 are consistent with the hypothesis that, relative to Seyfert 1 galaxies, NLS1s have lower black hole masses and higher accretion rates. Other strong emission lines (e.g., C IV λ1549 and He II λ1640) are constrained to vary with amplitudes of less than 5%. This low level of emission-line variability is different from most Seyfert 1 galaxies, which characteristically display variations of ~10% on similar timescales.


We report the use of the extrusion technique at highest temperatures to date (975 °C - 1000 °C) for the fabrication of suspended core fibers (SCFs) from glass with molar composition 65 SiO2-20 Al2O3-15 La2O3 (SAL65). Through adjusting die design and fabrication conditions, extruded preforms for fibers with two different core sizes (1.2 µm and 3.1 µm) were successfully produced. Cross-sectional microstructure and material loss of these fibers highlight the potential of the extrusion technique for fabrication of microstructured optical fibers from glasses with high softening temperature and thus high thermal and mechanical stability.


The concept of coherent states for a quantum system has been generalized in many different ways. One elegant way is the dynamical group approach. The subject of this thesis is the physical application of some dynamical group methods in quantum optics and Bose-Einstein Condensation(BEC) and their use in generalizing some quantum optical states and BEC states. We start by generalizing squeezed coherent states to the displaced squeezed phase number states and studying the signal-to-quantum noise ratio for these states. Following a review of the properties of Kerr states and the basic theory of the deformation of the boson algebra, we present an algebraic approach to Kerr states and generalize them to the squeezed states of the q-parametrized harmonic oscillator. Using the eigenstates of a nonlinear density-dependent annihilation operator of the deformed boson algebra, we propose general time covariant coherent states for any time-independent quantum system. Using the ladder operator approach similar to that of binomial states, we construct interpolating number-coherent states, intermediate states which are generalizations of some fundamental states in quantum optics. Salient statistical properties and non-classical features of these interpolating numbercoherent states are investigated and the interaction with an atomic system in the framework of the Jaynes-Cummings model and the scheme to produce these states are also studied in detail. After briefly reviewing the realization of Bose-Einstein Condensates and relevant theoretical research using mean-field theory, we present a dynamical group approach to Bose-Einstein condensation and the atomic tunnelling between two condensates which interact via a minimal coupling term. First we consider the spectrum of one Bose-Einstein condensate and show that the mean-field dynamics is characterised by the semi-direct product of the 8U(1,1) and Heisenberg-Weyl groups.We then construct a generalized version of the BEC ground states and weakly excited states. It is shown that our states for BEC provide better fits to the experimental results. Then we investigate the tunnelling between the excitations in two condensates which interact via a minimal coupling term. The dynamics of the two interacting Bose systems is characterised by the 80(3,2) group, which leads to an exactly solvable model. Further we describe the dynamics of the tunnelling of the two coupled condensates in terms of the semi-direct product of 80(3,2) and two independent Heisenberg-Weyl groups. From this we obtain the energy spectrum and eigenstates for the two interacting Bose-Einstein condensates, as well as the Josephson current between the two coupled condensates.


The main factor of rubber fatigue was stress field. But the way is not sensitive in many cases. To clarify which factors were the main for predict the locations of fatigue crack, we analyzed the factors of stress field and strain field of rubber joint, and relations between the factors and the locations of fatigue crack, using 3D FE simulation. The result showed stress concentration was not sensitive to predict the locations of fatigue crack. The locations are close to strain concentration of rubber joint. In this paper we propose the approach of using strain concentration to predict the fatigue crack locations for rubber joint. This result is significant for the rubber joint design and the study of fatigue strength theoretic.


Objective: This systematic review assesses the causal relationship between Mycobac-terium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) and Crohn's disease (CD). Methods: A systematic review and meat-analysis of some impressive PCR based stud-ies is provided aimed to answer among other questions the following question. Is there a cause effect relationship between Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis and Crohn's disease? The method of the conditio per quam relationship was used to proof the hypothesis whether the presence of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis guarantees the presence of Crohn's disease. In other words, if Crohn's disease is present, then Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis is present too. The mathematical formula of the causal relationship k was used to proof the hypothesis, whether there is a cause effect relationship between Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis and Crohn's disease. Significance was indicated by a p-value of less than 0.05. Result: The studies analyzed (number of cases and controls N=1076) were able to pro-vide evidence that Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis is a necessary condition (a conditio sine qua non) and sufficicent conditions of Crohn's disease. Furthermore, the studies analyzed provide impressive evidence of a cause-effect relation-ship between Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis and Crohn's disease. Conclusion: Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis is the cause of Crohn's disease


The Chicago Eight trial (September 1969–February 1970) concerns eight people accused of conspiracy after the summer 1969 riots that broke out during the Democratic National Convention in a context of increasing unrest due to the war led by the United States in Vietnam. Attorneys William Kustler and Leonard Weinglass had to fight on several fronts throughout the trial. While having to assume their roles as law experts and making sure that legal proceedings should be respected in spite of several instances of power abuse by Judge Julius Hoffman, they stressed the political character of justice and of their clients' actions. They needed to deconstruct the criminal image and public enemy portrait brushed of their clients by the prosecution and media alike while at the same time attempting to requalify a criminal trial as a political trial. Several means were used to establish the political character of the trial. The attorneys notably anchored their clients' actions in a tradition of riot that stemmed from the very foundations of the United States. The way W. Kustler conceived his role as "lawyer of the antiwar movement" and his questioning of the judicial system were far from popular within legal circles however. Both attorneys also led a constant fight against the suspicious means used by the prosecution, which went against the most elementary laws of the judicial system (such as manipulating the jury for example). In several ways, the trial contributed to the evolution of the attorneys' practice of the law, the latter being liable to suffer from the judge's sanctions.


PurposeThis paper aims at from the perspective of the social exchange theory (SET) gaining an understanding of how promotion of halal concept in Sweden is perceived by Swedish hoteliers.Design/methodology/approachA mixed-methods approach has been used consisting of 62 completed surveys with closed-ended and open-ended questions, follow-up comments and five in-depth interviews with hoteliers in the mid-Sweden region. Content analysis has been employed.FindingsThree categories of meanings are the main findings: general perception, safeguarding Swedish secular values and financially unjustifiable have been discovered. Most of the respondents have been sceptical towards halal and Muslim-friendly hotel concepts due to financial and cultural challenges these two concepts have for the Swedish tourism and hotel industries. Based on the SET, this entails more costs than benefits and is especially at odds with Swedish-rooted secular values.Practical implicationsThis study provides practical implications and increased knowledge for tourism stakeholders including hotels in Sweden.Originality/valueThis is one of the very few studies on halal tourism in Scandinavia and the first Scandinavian study on hoteliers' attitudes towards halal tourism.


Journal of Neurosciences in Rural Practice | January March 2017 | Vol 8 | Issue 1 147 The paper conducted by Ding and Furneaux[1] is of high interest and shows great feasibility of the given approach. Personally, I used the transcortical approach to the third ventricle through the foramen of Monro. When patients had an external ventricular drainage, we followed route of the drainage and used two retractors along the drainage canal. The approach to the third ventricle takes us about 3 min in such cases. Despite fears of postsurgical seizures and increasing risk of intracerebral bleeding such a risk could not be seen in 33 patients, which were evaluated retrospectively (data not published). The transcortical approach keeps away the fornices and the internal cerebral vein and in my opinion, is a safe and highly efficient approach.


According to the state-of-the-art in health psychology and psycho-oncology, a cancerous disease, as well as the accompanying medical treatments, is a source ofintense emotional stress. As feelings of insecurity and anxiety are likely to induce negative effects on immune defences, those effects may overlap with the cancerous disease and complicate its evolution. As arts therapies tend to favour the imaginary and symbolic elaboration of the tensions of daily life, as well as the re appropriation of one's body and personal history, different artistic mediations may occupy an important function in the psychological follow-up of the patient. Following an exploratory study in a hospital, we carried out an action-research in an out-patient setting during six moths. The arts therapeutic treatment comprehended alternatively drawing and writing sessions while listening to music, opening tracks for a thorough verbal elaboration. The evaluation was based on psychometric scales (HADS and MDBF), rating scales for the pictorial and literary production and a semi-structured interview. According to the results of the quantitative analyses, based on non parametric statistical procedures for small groups and non metric data, as well as to the qualitative content analyses, arts therapies could become a valuable treating measure within a multidisciplinary bio-psycho-social approach.


Two nasopharyngeal carcinomas of the lymphoepithelioma type and two Burkitt's lymphomas with the characteristic histopathologic features developed in three siblings and one first-degree cousin in a large French-Canadian family. Epstein-Barr virus antibody titres in the two lymphoepithelioma cases but not in the Burkitt's lymphoma cases were, as expected, greatly elevated. HLA typing of the family members failed to disclose HLA antigens A2 and B Sin-2, which have been associated with lymphoepithelioma in Asia. The occurrence, however, of a plasmacytoma in one other first-degree cousin and low serum IgA values in several siblings and cousins suggests the possibility of a genetically determined predisposing B-cell dysfunction in the development of these tumours.


The reliability of puncture biopsy of the breast is 65%. The procedure is not safe since it does not assure ablasticity. Puncture biopsy should be performed immediately before the start of treatment at institutions equipped for cytological, surgical and radiation treatment. The use of the procedure should be confined to cases in whom morphologic data are decisive for choosing therapeutic modality.


The chemotactic migration in vitro of peripheral blood, intestinal mucosal, and mesenteric lymph node mononuclear cells has been assessed in patients with colorectal carcinoma. Peripheral blood mononuclear cells of patients exhibited normal chemotaxis. For control patients with non-malignant, non-inflammatory intestinal disease, the chemotaxis of mucosal mononuclear cells was similar to that of autologous peripheral blood mononuclear cells. The chemotactic migration of mucosal mononuclear cells, however, isolated distant from a colon cancer was less than that of autologous peripheral blood mononuclear cells. Chemotactic migration was progressively impaired with increasing closeness to the tumour itself. Chemotaxis of mucosal mononuclear cell was independent of the site of tumour and the Dukes' grading. Mononuclear cells from mesenteric lymph nodes, however, exhibited impaired migration only in patients with Dukes' C tumours. Supernatants of the collagenase digestion of either tumour or adjacent mucosa contained macrophage directed inhibitors of chemotaxis and these inhibitors were not produced by tumour mononuclear cells. The presence of such inhibitors in the digestion supernatants and the demonstration that proximity to the tumour was associated with impaired mononuclear cell motility suggest that the production of macrophage directed chemotactic inhibitors is by colon cancer cells and that this may be occurring in vivo.


Infection of a susceptible host with the blood fluke Schistosoma mansoni results in the formation of periovular granulomas and subsequent fibrosis in the target organs. Granulomogenesis and fibrogenesis are mediated by immunological events which require cell-cell and cell-matrix interactions. In this review, the role of adhesion and co-stimulatory molecules in the genesis of the schistosomal pathology (granulomogenesis and fibrogenesis) is outlined. These molecules provide essential immunological interactions not only for the initiation of granuloma formation but also for the maintenance and modulation of the schistosomal granuloma during chronic infection. Furthermore, the role of secreted soluble adhesion molecules in the different clinical forms and in the modulation of the schistosomal granuloma is discussed. Recent new insights into the role of adhesion molecules for the induction of pathology by other developmental stages of the parasite (other than eggs) will be presented.


When stationary phase batch cultures of Campylobacter jejuni were stored in sealed flasks under static conditions, viable numbers declined from 2 x 10(9) c.f.u. ml-1 to around 10(3)-10(6) c.f.u. ml-1 within 4-6 weeks. When the aged cultures were sparged with a microaerobic gas mixture, there was a rapid increase in viable numbers accompanied by a change from predominantly coccoid to vibrioid morphology. The most probable number (MPN) technique was used to distinguish resuscitation of injured or dormant cells from multiplication of residual viable cells. MPN estimates using fresh Brucella broth containing 0.2% mucin revealed that plate counts underestimated the true viable count by up to 23-fold. The experiments clearly demonstrated that a proportion of surviving cells in aged cultures were in an injured or latent state that prevented growth on agar plates. It is possible that the size of this fraction is greater than was demonstrated and that much higher recoveries would be obtained under other recovery conditions. Nevertheless, from presently available evidence, it must be concluded that the size of the latent fraction is quite small and that most of the increase in count that occurs on regassing a spent culture comes from multiplication of residual viable cells.


The hemostatic properties of platelets to a large degree determine the activity of metabolic processes that have great biological significance especially in early ontogeny. This study was conducted on 43 calves of the Holstein breed during the phase of milk-vegetable diet. It was found during the observation period that the indicators were stable in the calves between 31 and 60 days of life, and the platelet aggregation weakened. In the blood of the calves of the Holstein breed there was a slight increase in the number of discocytes. The total number of active thrombocytes in calves observed after stability between 31-60 days of life decreased during the follow-up observation. The levels of circulating platelet aggregates of small and large sizes decreased between 60 and 90 days by 66.7% and 2.5 times, respectively. This contributed to a weakening of the calves' platelet synthesis of thromboxane, a decrease in the content of adenosinfosfatom, and to inhibition of their secretion. During the observation period, the number of actin and myosin in the platelets of the animals also decreased, which reduced the overall platelet activity. In the second part of the phase of lacto-vegetarian nutrition, the synthesis of actin and myosin in the exposed aggregate platelets weakened in the calves. The stability of the hemostatic platelet counts of the Holstein calves at the age of 31-60 days was typical, which changed their physiologically acceptable weakening by the end of observation.


A considerable literature has been devoted to the study of Islamic activism. By contrast, Nadje Al-Ali's book explores the anthropological and political significance of secular-oriented activism by focusing on the women's movement in Egypt. In so doing, it challenges stereotypical images of Arab women as passive victims and demonstrates how they fight for their rights and confront conservative forces. Al-Ali's book also takes issue with prevailing constructions of 'the West' and its perceived dichotomous relation to 'the East'. The argument is constructed around interviews which afford fascinating insights into the history of the women's movement in Egypt, notions about secularism and how Islamist constituencies have impacted on women's activism generally. The balance between the empirical and conceptual material is adeptly handled. The author frames her work in the context of current theoretical debates in Middle Eastern and post-colonial scholarship: while some of the ideas are complex, her lucid style means they are always comprehensible; the book will therefore appeal to students, as well as to scholars in the field.


Grid-wide monitoring of utility assets is essential for maintaining a healthy and reliable power grid. Electric current is an important parameter for grid monitoring. Expensive and large current sensors that require field calibration inhibit utilities from implementing an intelligent monitoring infrastructure. This paper introduces a novel technique and algorithm for current sensing using small, low-cost "stick-on" current sensors that do not require clamping around the utility conductor. Thus, the proposed sensor can be used for monitoring many different utility conductors (not just overhead-conductors). The challenge pertaining to error in current measurement due to the presence of other current carrying assets in proximity has been tackled. The new current sensing technique is shown to discriminate far magnetic fields from the near-field of interest; eliminate expensive calibration requirements for the sensor, and provide accurate current measurements in a noisy magnetic field environment. Simulation and experimental results are presented to validate the proposed concept. The proposed technique for current sensing promises development of low-cost smart sensors that will be an integral part of the future smart grid.


This Note examines Maryland's preempted statute and the United States District Court case that granted its opponents declaratory relief. After reviewing the Fair Share Act, the federal ERISA statute, and the significant changes in Supreme Court jurisprudence towards ERISA preemption in the past decade, this Note will offer new approaches through which states can modify the analytical framework outlined by the Fair Share Act to achieve improvements in the state-financing of Medicaid through large private employers. The goal of this Note is to analyze ways to fit future fair share legislation within the non-preempted confines of ERISA. The proposed modifications include: (1) rewriting fair share laws as unequivocal, non-regulatory Medicaid taxes from which compliant employers may become exempt; (2) dulling the sharp edge of the FSA's punitive texture through decreasing the 100% shortfall tax to 35-50%; (3) expanding the options that employers have as outlets for meeting the 8% health expenditure benchmark, such as through an increase in non-medical fringe benefits, thus giving the statute a less coercive feel; (4) a total package benefits approach analogous to unpreempted ERISA prevailing wage cases; and (5) a state-initiated higher minimum wage for very large employers, with an incentivized exemption provision stating that an employer can revert back to the state or federal government's general minimum wage if the employer spends a certain percentage of payroll wages on employee health insurance.


In a globalized digital world, it is essential that persons and entities have a recognized and unambiguous electronic identity that will allow them to communicate with each other. The demand for electronic identity has grown as a result of governments promotion of e-Government, in which the citizen-public administration relationship often has a strictly personal nature and requires digital identification systems that are univocal, secure, and global. In particular, the European Union (EU) in 1995 launched the Interchange of Data between Administrations (IDA) program [20], as well as Interoperable Delivery of European eGovernment Services to Public Administrations, Businesses, and Citizens (IDABC) [11], and Interoperability Solutions for European Public Administrations (ISA) [14]. These European Union programs seek to foster initiatives to achieve global interoperability between European public administrations in order to offer cross-border services.


Formation of ATMC program was executed using the developed economics and mathematics model in which manufacturing and special structure of the Oil and Gas complex was determinated. Basic condition of determination of the optimization task and development of the appropriate model was mutual discussion of the following structure elements of ATMC: deposits of hydrocarbon resources in the land and in the shelf; plant on manufacturing of the ice-resistant platforms providing mining in the shelf; steel structures plant production of which is necessary for manufacturing ice resistant platforms; complex supply bases for sea deposits; construction and installation organizations; aggregated objects of the construction materials industry; power plants and power transmission lines; sectors of pipeline and railroad transportation; enterprises on processing of the hydrocarbon resources, labor resources and population; water resources; total of other objects of Sakhalin economics. In process of solution it was required to determine the dynamics of oil, gas and condensate mining, scales and order of mining og the sea oil, gas and condensate deposits, to compose schemes of distribution of hydrocarbon resources for processing, scheme of placement of the manufacturing objects and objects oriented to maintenance of the oil and gas complex, placement of the elements of manufacturing infra of areawide level with following the conditions below: - following the volumes of oil mining in ATMC; following the industrial restrictions on change of oil mining in land in terms of the alloted periods of prognosis periods and areals ; providing the requirements of the other industrial objects places in the alloted areas , services of infra of ther areawide scale and territory resources; This model helped to make calculations taking into account the selected strategy of development of the sea oil and gas resources depending on fixed intensity of the deposit development in the island. It is clear that the prognosis could be made with taking into account the functioning of the state enterprises. Search of opportunities of use of the above model in the situation when private enterprises and enterprises with foreign investments work caused the additional calculations. These calculations meant economical effectiveness of the investments for development of the deposits and forming the whole complex. Analysis of influence of several factors on economical effectiveness was made. The factors are prices for hydrocarbon resources, volumes of mining, scales of investments. As the condition of realization of the Sakhalin projects, in which foreign companies participated, was Law Agreement about Division of the Product, so author composed the model of coordination of the interests of development participators. In process of decision profit ratio of the profit obtained by Russia and foreign companies based on project economics and royalty was determined.


: The principles are presented of genetic counselling for families with carrier state of reciprocal chromosome translocations (RCT). RCTs are the risk factor for the occurrence of reproduction disturbances, such as infertility, spontaneous abortion, congenital anomalies in the offsprings, and the degree of risk depends to a large extent on which chromosome segments are in the state of imbalance in the offsprings, due to various mechanisms of abnormal meiotic segregation. The uniqueness of chromosome translocations with respect to the type of chromosomes involved in translocations, and the location of breaking sites is the reason for the necessity of construing large pedigrees for the evaluation of the degree of risk. The newest Stene and Stengel-Rutkowski model makes possible the combination of smaller pedigrees in translocation groups of the so-called single risk of imbalance and determination of the individual risk of birth of children with anomalies. A number of psychological determinants are important for the possibility of genetic investigations in the affected families, and the decision about procreation may be influenced by a number of determinants other than the result of genetic counsel.


Objectives: To study the efficacy of recombinant HCG (rHCG) compared to urinary HCG (uHCG) for triggering of ovulation and stimulation of final Oocyte maturation in advanced age woman with the poor ovarian response that underwent ovarian stimulation and ICSI.
Design: This study was an observational study performed in Medcare Fertility Centre, DUBAI, UAE between April 2016 to July 2017. This study was reviewed and approved by the institutional review board and Ethics Committee of Medcare Fertility Centre.
Patients: Sub fertile couples undergoing triggering of ovulation as part of an assisted reproductive cycle using either recombinant HCG versus urinary HCG.
Interventions: rHCG preparations versus uHCG for triggering of ovulation. Dose, route and schedule of rHCG and uHCG injected were considered.
Primary outcomes: Measure the numbers of oocytes retrieved per number of aspirated follicles and determines the Oocytes/follicles ratio. Secondary outcomes measures were the total number of oocytes retrieved, the number of mature oocytes.
Results: The primary outcome indicated that uHCG was more effective than rHCG in regards to the number of follicles retrieved. The ratios of oocytes retrieved per follicle and total matured oocyte per oocyte retrieved is also greater for Pregnyl (uHCG).
Conclusion: The two types of HCG ( uHCG and rHCG), both medicines have effect on triggering ovulation and stimulation of maturation of oocytes. But with advanced maternal age there is a clear significant effect on the ratio of total matured oocyte per oocyte retrieved which is greater for Pregnyl (uHCG).
Pregnyl therefore has more effect on triggering ovulation and oocyte maturation in comparison with rHCG. For antagonist protocol was the preferred medicine is Ovitrelle® (rHCG) while, for Long Agonist, the preferred triggering medicine is Pregnyl® (uHCG).


Abstract This study assessed the effect of deficit irrigation and ion deposition in the substrate for pepper plants (Capsicum annuum L.). The results indicated that development of plants in the control treatment can substitute for those plants exposed to severe water deficit (I0.25). Five irrigation regimes were applied: I1.0, I0.75 (well-watered and leaching fraction [LF]  =  0.42, LF  =  0.29, in turn), I0.50 (moderate stress and LF  =  0.07), and I0.25 (severe stress and not including leaching water). In the control treatment, only the full evapotranspiration demand of the plants was provided throughout the whole growing season, but percolation did not exist, causing soluble ions to increase. The values of the crop water stress index (CWSI) were determined for all treatments. The degree of water deficit and ion deposition in the substrate had significant effects on the growth and yield of peppers. Salt deposition restricted plant development, and plants remained small, similar to the plants growing under severe water deficit in the I0.25 treatment. Proper irrigation water management is essential for areas where a shortage of good quality water exists. Therefore, leaching water within the irrigation water plays a critical role in minimizing negative irrigation-caused impacts on plant development and the environment. In dealing with a major salinity problem for peppers, the leaching fraction should be at least 0.29 to maintain an acceptable yield. For CWSI to be less than 0.22, seasonal irrigation water should be at least 664 mm. The results presented have important implications for maintaining plant quality and yield, and show the need to adjust the irrigation schedule to avoid salt accumulation in the root zone.


Injectable bone substitutes are generally composite materials capable of being extruded through a device; they consist of a solid phase inside a matrix that allows the easy movement of particles. Injectable bone substitutes have the advantage of allowing its application in situ without the need of invasive surgical techniques, guaranteeing a good recovery; for this reason, they are a promising alternative to replace conventional techniques to repair bone defects. Conventional techniques include the use of allografts and autografts, which often cause adverse reactions, and are disadvantageous for both the patient and the doctor. Furthermore, there are no reports regarding bone substitute development in Colombia, creating the necessity to research composite materials that could become injectable bone substitutes. In this study, we manufactured injectable bone substitutes with hydroxyapatite and calcium phosphate, which is most similar to bone tissue, and synthesized them in nanorods with shape and size similar to the natural hydroxyapatite found inside the body. Additionally, we used extracted silk fibroin from silkworm cocoons of Bombyx mori , a natural polymer of protein nature with high mechanical properties and excellent biocompatibility. For the materials manufactured, we evaluated degradation, in a simulated body fluid (SBF) at normal body temperature, water uptake, injectability and mechanical strength. The manufactured bone substitutes showed good degradation and water uptake properties, an approximate 97% injectability, and low mechanical resistance, indicating promising properties to be used as an injectable bone substitute.


Thermally activated delayed fluorescence (TADF) is a phenomenon that relies on the upconversion of triplet excitons to singlet excitons by means of reverse intersystem crossing (rISC). It has been shown both experimentally and theoretically that the TADF mechanism depends on the interplay between charge transfer and local excitations. However, the difference between the diabatic and adiabatic character of the involved excited states is rarely discussed in the literature. Here, we develop a diabatization procedure to implement a 4-state model Hamiltonian to a set of TADF molecules. We provide physical interpretation for the Hamiltonian elements and show their dependence on the electronic state of the equilibrium geometry. We also demonstrate how vibrations affect TADF efficiency by modifying the diabatic decomposition of the molecule. Finally, we provide a simple model that connects the diabatic Hamiltonian to the electronic properties relevant to TADF and show how such relationship translates into different optimization strategies for rISC, fluorescence and overall TADF performance.


Objective: This paper aimed to discuss how blockchain technology would incorporate several changes in the fishery supply chains, in order to make them more reliable and sustainable. Method: This is a qualitative study, using an exploratory method with descriptive approach. In addition, the literature review in this study presents theoretical contributions regarding utility. Main Results: The study highlights the importance of incorporating blockchain features into seafood supply chains, which are currently fragmented and lack of real-time information, focusing on its traceability potential to leveraging fishery supply chains operations and outcomes. It identifies a sequence of strategic checkpoints that provide real-time information by using blockchain in fishery supply chains. Relevance / Originality: This manuscript presents a diagram of a seafood supply chain considering how blockchain allows the data gathering in each stage in order to provide traceability to the supply chain. Hence, the study serves as a map, as well as a model, for upcoming research on how to understand the incorporation of technology into supply chains stages. Theoretical / Methodological Contributions: Supply chains support international business operations. Furthermore, as digital revolution moves aggressively forward, supply chains need to adapt to it in order to fit for the new stakeholders' expectations. This study uses sustainable supply chain management and blockchain technology as positioning literature. Management Contributions: The study provides an overview of how fishery supply chains would work by incorporating blockchain technology, which extends the literature about sustainable supply chain management and proposes paths for actions for policymakers in order to make them improve the business ecosystem. This study implies a practical contribution to global value chain perspective and the discipline of business.


A common assumption in choice response time modelling is that after evidence accumulation reaches a certain decision threshold, the choice is categorically communicated to the motor system that then executes the response. However, neurophysiological findings suggest that motor preparation partly overlaps with evidence accumulation, and is not independent from stimulus difficulty level. We propose to model this entanglement by changing the nature of the decision criterion from a simple threshold to an actual process. More specifically, we propose a secondary, motor preparation related, leaky accumulation process that takes the accumulated evidence of the original decision process as a continuous input, and triggers the actual response when it reaches its own threshold. We analytically develop this Leaky Integrating Threshold (LIT), applying it to a simple constant drift diffusion model, and show how its parameters can be estimated with the D*Mmethod. Reanalyzing three different datasets, the LIT extension is shown to outperform a standard drift diffusion model using multiple statistical approaches. Further, the LIT leak parameter is shown to be better at explaining the speed/accuracy trade-off manipulation than the commonly used boundary separation parameter. These improvements can also be verified using traditional diffusion model analyses, for which the LIT predicts the violation of several common selective parameter influence assumptions. These predictions are consistent with what is found in the data and with what is reported experimentally in the literature. Crucially, this work offers a new benchmark against which to compare neural data to offer neurobiological validation for the proposed processes.


We present a coherent neural net based framework for solving various signal processing problems. It relies on the assertion that time-lagged recurrent networks possess the necessary representational capabilities to act as universal approximators of nonlinear dynamical systems. This applies to system identification, time-series prediction, nonlinear filtering, adaptive filtering, and temporal pattern classification. We address the development of models of nonlinear dynamical systems, in the form of time-lagged recurrent neural nets, which can be used without further training. We employ a weight update procedure based on the extended Kalman filter (EKF). Against the tendency for a net to forget earlier learning as it processes new examples, we develop a technique called multistream training. We demonstrate our framework by applying it to 4 problems. First, we show that a single time-lagged recurrent net can be trained to produce excellent one-time-step predictions for two different time series and also to be robust to severe errors in the input sequence. Second, we model stably a complex system containing significant process noise. The remaining two problems are drawn from real-world automotive applications. One involves input-output modeling of the dynamic behavior of a catalyst-sensor system which is exposed to an operating engine's exhaust stream, the other the real-time and continuous detection of engine misfire.


Objective To characterize the prevalence and prognostic significance of major driver molecular alterations in adult midline diffuse gliomas (MLG). Methods Adults with histologically proven MLG diagnosed between 1996 and 2017 were identified from our tumor bank, systematically reviewed, and reclassified according to WHO 2016. Targeted sequencing was performed, including determination of H3F3A, HIST1H3B, TERTp, IDH1/2, FGFR1, p16/CDKN2A, and EGFR status. Results A total of 116 adult patients (M/F 71/45, median age 46.5 years) with MLG (17 cerebellar, 8 spinal, 30 brainstem, 57 thalamic, and 4 diencephalic nonthalamic) were identified. Most patients had high-grade disease at presentation (grade II: 11%, grade III: 15%, grade IV: 75%). Median overall survival was 17.3 months (14.5–23.8 months). Main molecular alterations observed were TERT promoter, H3F3A, and hotspot FGFR1 (N546 and K656) mutations, in 37%, 34%, and 18% of patients, respectively. IDH1 mutations only affected brainstem gliomas (6/24 vs 0/78; p = 7.5 × 10−5), were mostly non-R132H (contrasting with hemispheric gliomas, p = 0.0001), and were associated with longer survival (54 vs 12 months). TERT promoter mutation (9.1 vs 24.2 months), CDKN2A deletion (9.9 vs 23.8 months), and EGFR amplification (4.3 vs 23.8 months) were associated with shorter survival. Of interest, in contrast with pediatric MLG, H3K27M mutations were not associated with worse prognosis (23 vs 15 months). Conclusions Patients with adult MLG present with unique clinical and molecular characteristics, differing from their pediatric counterparts. The identification of potentially actionable FGFR1 mutations in a subset of adult MLG highlights the importance of comprehensive genomic analysis in this rare affection.


We perform a systematic numerical investigation of the nanosecond-pulsed surface dielectric-barrier-discharge evolution under different electrode polarities. For both positive and negative electrode polarities, two discharge strokes take place corresponding to the leading edge and the trailing edge of the nanosecond voltage pulse. During the first discharge stroke, the positive streamer propagates along the dielectric surface accompanying a thin plasma sheath layer, while the negative streamer stays attached to the dielectric surface. The resultant propagation velocity of the positive streamer is found to be faster than that of the negative streamer. During the second discharge stroke, a plasma sheath layer forms between the negative streamer and the dielectric surface due to the electrons drifting away from the near-surface region, while the sheath layer between the positive streamer and the dielectric surface fades away due to the electrons drifting toward the dielectric surface. For both positive and negative electrode polarities, it is revealed that a strong downstream body force is generated when the plasma sheath layer exists, due to the high net charge density and strong electric field in the near-surface sheath layer.


Nitrous oxide (N2O) emission factors (EFs) were calculated from measurements of emissions from livestock manures applied to UK arable crops and grassland as part of a wider research programme to reduce uncertainty in the UK national agricultural N2O inventory and to enhance regional inventory reporting through increased understanding of processes and factors controlling emissions. Field studies were undertaken between 2011 and 2013 at 3 arable and 3 grassland sites in the UK. Nitrous oxide emissions were measured following the autumn and spring application of different manures (pig slurry, cattle slurry, cattle farmyard manure (FYM), pig FYM, poultry layer manure, and broiler litter) at typical rates, using representative manure application and soil incorporation methods. In addition, ammonia emissions and nitrate leaching losses (1 site on a light sandy soil) were measured to calculate indirect N2O losses. IPCC comparable, direct N2O EFs ranged from −0.05 to 2.30% of total nitrogen applied, with the variability driven by a range of factors including differences in manure composition, application method, incorporation and climatic conditions. When data from the autumn applications were pooled, the mean N2O EF from poultry manure (1.52%) was found to be greater (P < 0.001) than from FYM (0.37%) and slurry (0.72%), with no difference found (P = 0.784) in the EF for bandspread compared with surface broadcast slurry application, and no effect (P = 0.328) of the nitrification inhibitor, Dicyandiamide (DCD). For the spring applications, the mean N2O EF for bandspread slurry (0.56%) was greater (P = 0.028) than from surface broadcast slurry (0.31%), but there were no differences (P = 0.212) in the mean N2O EFs from poultry manure (0.52%), slurry (0.44%), and FYM (0.22%). The study did confirm, however, that DCD reduced N2O emissions from slurries applied in the spring by 45%. EF data from this project have been used in the derivation of robust Tier 2 country specific EFs for inclusion in the UK national agriculture greenhouse gas inventory.


Neurodegenerative disorders involve complexities of the pathologies, characterized by the progressive loss of neuronal viability, leading to severe physical and cognitive impairments in affected patients. These disorders although may differ in clinical outcomes yet they share common features such as aggregation of neurotoxic metabolites and perturbed cellular and neuronal homeostasis. Mitochondrion is an indispensable organelle for neuronal survival, and its role and place have become critical in research arena of aging and neurodegenaration. The accumulation of damaged mitochondria has been linked to normal aging and multiple age-related disorders including Alzheimer's disease (AD). Survival and proper function of mitochondria depend on several attributes that include mitochondrial biogenesis and fusion and fission. Mitophagy is an utmost requirement for degradation and removal of damaged mitochondria where the target mitochondria are identified by the autophagosomes and delivered to the lysosome for degradation. Mitophagy plays important roles in mitochondrial homeostasis, neuroprotection, and resistance to neurodegeneration. AD besides other characteristic features involves mitochondrial dysfunctional, bioenergetic deficit, and altered mitophagy. The autophagy/lysosome pathway that removes damaged mitochondria (mitophagy) is compromised in AD, resulting in the accumulation of dysfunctional mitochondria that contribute to synaptic dysfunction and cognitive deficits by triggering Aβ and Tau accumulation through increases in oxidative damage and cellular energy deficits. The present work reviews the various implications of mitophagy in relevance to the pathology of AD.


The rapid increase in the development of land, the exploitation of minerals, and the related accelerated environmental impacts have caused an explosion of demand for information that can be used as a guide to land use decision-making. "Environmental Geology Mapping" was the topic of an engineering geology symposium at the 1972 annual meeting of The Geological Society of America; natural resources planning and the roles and interrelations of geology and geologists, planning and planners were discussed. This book presents the coverage of those subjects because of their continuing timeliness and the need for a reminder that we must provide data that are relevant and usable for interdisciplinary considerations in natural resources planning. The authors express their ideas on how to translate professionally the traditional, basic earth-science data into forms that are adaptable to interdisciplinary solutions of environmental problems. They unanimously state that this conversion of data has to result in a viable input for decision-making, and it must also stand the scrutiny of the real world; that is, it must receive public endorsement and support.


Different essential radiographic parameters were studied in order to assess radiographic image quality ensuring reduction of radiation exposure in some diagnostic X-ray facilities of Bangladesh. Different parameters for developing and fixing liquid were investigated in order to eliminate improper film processing techniques. General information about intensifying screen, radiography and mammography film was also collected. X-ray tube voltage, output radiation dose and exposure time for diagnostic X-ray machines were tested to achieve significant dose reduction without loss of diagnostic information. It is found that output radiation dose varies in different diagnostic X-ray installations. 70% X-ray installations achieve the recommended value for tube voltage while 87.5% measure the exposure time appropriately. Radiation dose level at patient waiting room, dark room and around control panel was also measured. About 92.5, 85 and 77.5% installations show their results within the acceptance limit at these positions respectively which provide radiation safety for patients, workers and public in diagnostic radiology. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/jbas.v35i1.7967 Journal of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences, Vol.35, No.1, 7-17, 2011


In 2013, the Rudd Labor Government introduced a new version of the 'Pacific Solution' to Australia's 'problem' with increasing numbers of asylum-seekers arriving by boat. The new version not only included the transfer of asylum-seekers to Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea, it crucially involved the resettlement in these Pacific Island countries of those found to be refugees and introduces long-term detention for those who are not successful and who do not decide to return to their original countries. Following the 2013 election, the Abbott Coalition Government fully embraced the new 'Pacific Solution'. This deeper level of incorporation of Papua New Guinea and Nauru in Australia's asylum-seeker policy raises a range of issues not only for these two Pacific Island countries but also for the broader Pacific islands region whose name is invoked in the 'Pacific Solution'.


This guide is intended to assist NWCCD students with research and retrieval of quality sources in the field of music.


Abstract The scarcity of comprehensive up-to-date studies on evaluation metrics for text summarization and the lack of consensus regarding evaluation protocols continue to inhibit progress. We address the existing shortcomings of summarization evaluation methods along five dimensions: 1) we re-evaluate 14 automatic evaluation metrics in a comprehensive and consistent fashion using neural summarization model outputs along with expert and crowd-sourced human annotations; 2) we consistently benchmark 23 recent summarization models using the aforementioned automatic evaluation metrics; 3) we assemble the largest collection of summaries generated by models trained on the CNN/DailyMail news dataset and share it in a unified format; 4) we implement and share a toolkit that provides an extensible and unified API for evaluating summarization models across a broad range of automatic metrics; and 5) we assemble and share the largest and most diverse, in terms of model types, collection of human judgments of model-generated summaries on the CNN/Daily Mail dataset annotated by both expert judges and crowd-source workers. We hope that this work will help promote a more complete evaluation protocol for text summarization as well as advance research in developing evaluation metrics that better correlate with human judgments.


The corporeal experience of the divine in the corporeal vision of the deifying light ( theourgon phos ) is a main subject in the philosophical system of Palamas. He states that the experience of the divine culminates in the vision of light, following several ascetic practices like the psycho-physic method and the exercitation of intellect. This divine light is neither material nor natural; however it can be perceived with corporeal eyes. What is the ontological character of this light? About this problem there are some approaches by contemporary scholars. For instances, Clucas (1975) states that the theory of light of Palamas is a manipulation of patristic sources and an arrangement of incongruences to escape from the accusation of messalianism. Beck (1961) holds that whenever Palamas is compelled to defend his notion of light he hides himself in the antinomies. I argue that theosis by the theourgon phos can be understood as a new metaphysics of light that combines concepts like energeia, ousia, phos, photismos, metechein . In this metaphysics God is not understood as lux and the creatures as lumen , as in a scheme of Neoplatonist inspiration, as is the case of Grossesteste. In the metaphysics of light of Palamas the divine is understood as deifying light not in its essence, but in its energy, and the creatures will be that light because they will participate (the body too) in that light without losing their individuality.


Despite two decades of research, the major function of FBP-family KH domain proteins during animal development remains controversial. The literature is divided between RNA processing and transcriptional functions for these single stranded nucleic acid binding proteins. Using Drosophila, where the three mammalian FBP proteins (FBP1-3) are represented by one ortholog, Psi, we demonstrate the primary developmental role is control of cell and tissue growth. Co-IP-mass spectrometry positioned Psi in an interactome predominantly comprised of RNA Polymerase II (RNA Pol II) transcriptional machinery and we demonstrate Psi is a potent transcriptional activator. The most striking interaction was between Psi and the transcriptional mediator (MED) complex, a known sensor of signaling inputs. Moreover, genetic manipulation of MED activity modified Psi-dependent growth, which suggests Psi interacts with MED to integrate developmental growth signals. Our data suggest the key target of the Psi/MED network in controlling developmentally regulated tissue growth is the transcription factor MYC. As FBP1 has been implicated in controlling expression of the MYC oncogene, we predict interaction between MED and FBP1 might also have implications for cancer initiation and progression.


The distribution pattern of Hirneola auricula-judae in the Netherlands is discussed. At first this pattern was thought to be mainly determined by the average daily minimum temperatures in winter; high population densities correlating with high winter temperatures. The curve which best fits the data is so steep, that it would mean the virtual exclusion of Hirneola auriculajudae from regions with winter temperatures only a few degrees lower than in the Netherlands. Nevertheless the species is reported as not uncommon in the northern U.S.A. and southern Canada, as well as in Central Europe. From the literature it appears that 'H. auricula-judae' in North America is not conspecific with the taxon so named in Europe, but specimens from Central Europe were found to be morphologically inseparable from specimens from Western Europe. Revaluation of the data on the distribution of the species in the Netherlands in relation to plant geographical districts showed that coexistent with the positive correlation of high population density with high winter temperatures is another one with alcaline soils. The corrected gradient of the correlation between population density and winter temperatures is less steep than originally calculated and consequently the relatively high population density in Central Europe is no longer inconsistent with the distribution pattern of the species in the Netherlands.


siRNA is currently the most widely studied form of RNAi, and it has promising therapeutic potential not just in cancer but also in other diseases such as autoimmune and infectious diseases. However, efficient delivery of siRNA to target cells is being limited by lack of an effective delivery system that ensures efficient transfection into cells while protecting the encapsulated siRNA from nuclease. We hypothesized that a hybrid nanoparticle system composed of human IgG and poloxamer-188, a stealth polymer, will efficiently deliver mutated KRAS siRNA to A549 cells, leading to an efficient knockdown of mutated siRNA while protecting the siRNA from serum nuclease. We also hypothesized that the nanoparticles will not elicit an immunostimulatory effect in murine macrophages and also avoid clearance by macrophages. These nanoparticles were found to efficiently deliver siRNA to the cytoplasm and nuclease of A549 cells in a controlled and sustained manner while avoiding recycling by endosomes. An effective knockdown of mutated KRAS was achieved, which subsequently led to an increased sensitivity to erlotinib. These nanoparticles successfully avoided uptake by murine macrophages and reduced immune responses normally associated with siRNA/nanoparticle therapy. These results demonstrate that the novel hybrid nanoparticles could potentially serve as a platform for efficient delivery of siRNA to cells for stable gene knockdown.


We tend to take for granted that the United States Supreme Court has the discretionary power, through its use of the writ of certiorari, to select the cases it wishes to decide. The Court, however, has not always possessed this discretion. Professor Hartnett traces the history of certiorari in the Court, paying particular attention to the unprecedented efforts of Chief Justice William Howard Taft to promote the landmark Judges' Bill of 1925, and the uncritical deference to the Court shown by Congress in enacting it. After describing ways in which the Court asserted even broader discretion than Congress provided, Professor Hartnett questions whether certiorari is consistent with the traditional conceptions of judicial review, the nature of judicial power, and the rule of law. While questioning certiorari, he emphasizes its importance not only in encouraging Supreme Court Justices to think of themselves as final arbiters of controversial questions, but also in shaping substantive constitutional law.


Employing Irish Census microdata, we analyze trends in educational homogamy and heterogamy between 1991 and 2016 and examine how they can be explained by concurrent trends in three theoretically relevant socio-demographic components - (a) educational attainment, (b) the educational gradient in marriage, and (c) educational assortative mating (i.e., non-random matching). Our study proposes a novel counterfactual decomposition method to estimate the contribution of each component to changing sorting outcomes in marriages. Findings indicate rising educational homogamy, an increase in non-traditional unions in which women partner 'down' in education, and a decline in traditional unions. Decomposition results suggest that these trends are predominantly attributable to changes in women's and men's educational attainment. Furthermore, changes in the educational gradient in marrying contributed to rising homogamy and the decline in traditional unions, a fact largely overlooked in previous research. Although assortative mating has also undergone changes, they barely contribute to trends in sorting outcomes.


Continued serial brain-to-brain passage of strains of W.E.E. virus in mice has yielded variants which kill mice with increased rapidity. Their rate of multiplication in the mouse brain has been found to be correspondingly increased. At 1 hour after intracerebral inoculation of various amounts of W.E.E. virus, only 3.5 to 10 per cent of the expected amount of virus was recovered from the infected brains. In infected mouse brains, the period of active viral multiplication was preceded by a latent phase which lasted a considerably shorter time in the case of a "fast" than in that of a "slow" variant. In brains inoculated with various amounts in excess of minimal lethal doses the rates of multiplication tended to converge with the result that the maximum titer was reached after about the same period of time. After inoculation of smaller amounts, the rates of viral multiplication tended to parallel each other. Vaccinated mice may be fully resistant to maximal intracerebral doses of a slowly multiplying strain while they are not at all or only partly protected against a rapidly multiplying one derived from it. This difference is demonstrable even though fast and slow variants are, as far as can be tested, serologically identical. The difference in response may be masked if animals are immunized with relatively large doses of vaccine. The bearing of these findings on certain practical problems has been pointed out.


This document contains a specification of three YANG modules and one
submodule. Together they form the core routing data model that serves
as a framework for configuring and managing a routing subsystem. It is
expected that these modules will be augmented by additional YANG
modules defining data models for control-plane protocols, route
filters, and other functions. The core routing data model provides
common building blocks for such extensions -- routes, Routing
Information Bases (RIBs), and control-plane protocols.


It has been shown that with the use of ultra-wideband (UWB) electromagnetic signal and time of arrival (ToA) principle, it is possible to locate medical implants given the permittivity distribution of the body. We propose a new imaging modality using the reverse process to acquire permittivity distributions as a surrogate of human anatomy. In the proposed systems, the locations of the signal source, receiver, and signal shapes are assumed to be known exactly. The measured data is recorded as the time it takes for the signal to travel from the signal source to the signal receiver. The finite-difference-time-domain (FDTD) method is used for the modeling of signal propagation within the phantom, which is used for both simulation and image reconstruction. Image reconstruction is achieved using linear regression on the training pairs, which includes randomly generated images and its corresponding arrival times generated using the FDTD approach. The linear weights of the training images are generated to minimize the difference between the arrival time of the reconstruction image and the measured arrival time. A simulation study using UWB signal with the central frequency of 300 MHz and the Shepp-Logan phantom was carried out. Ten-picosecond timing resolution is used for the simulation and image reconstruction. The quantitative difference between the arrival times of the phantom and the reconstructed image reduced with an increased iteration number. The quantitative error of the reconstructed image reached below 10% after 900 iterations, and 8.4% after 1200 iterations. With additional post-smoothing to suppress the introduced noise pattern through reconstruction, 6.5% error was achieved. In this paper, an approach that utilizes the ToA principle to achieve transmission imaging with radio waves is proposed and validated using a simulation study.


Aims To evaluate the incidence of GC-DM among patients with immunoglobulin A nephropathy (IgAN) and to confirm the risk factors for the development of GC-DM. Methods The medical records of patients with IgAN newly treated with the protocol of tonsillectomy combined with steroid pulse therapy were reviewed. The primary outcome was the development of GC-DM within the hospitalization period and during one year of follow-up. Results During hospitalization, 19 of the 95 patients developed GC-DM (20.0%), and the patients with GC-DM were significantly older and had a higher rate of family history of diabetes and higher HbA1c levels. The prevalence of hypertension was higher and the eGFR was numerically lower in patients with GC-DM than in those without. Older age (≥45 years) and a family history of diabetes emerged as independent risk factors for the development of GC-DM (odds ratio [OR], 6.3 and 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.6–27.6; OR, 4.4 and 95% CI, 1.2–16.6, respectively). No patients were newly diagnosed with GC-DM during 1-year observation period at out-patient clinic. Conclusions Among the patients with IgAN, 20% developed GC-DM during the hospitalization period, confirming the family history of diabetes is clinically necessary before starting GC therapy.


In this paper, we summarize the evolution of the plant biotechnology industry in Europe and discuss relevant competitive issues. We also comment on the rise of public opposition to the use of genetically modified organisms ( GMOs) in agriculture in Europe, and conclude by highlighting key aspects of the emerging European policy on GMOs, and its political economy.


Cryo electron microscopy (cryo-EM) allows high-resolution 3D reconstruction of biomolecular structures from highly noisy 2D parallel-beam projection images containing tens of thousands of copies of the same macromolecular complex but at different random orientations and positions. However, biomolecular complexes are not rigid but flexible entities that change their conformations gradually (continuous transition with many intermediate states) to accomplish biological functions (e.g., DNA replication, protein synthesis, etc.). The determination of the full distribution of conformations (conformational space or landscape) from cryo-EM images is challenging but could provide insights into working mechanisms of the complexes. In this paper, we present a method for conformational space determination, which uses deep learning in combination with cryo-EM image analysis and normal mode analysis (molecular mechanics simulation), where the amplitudes of normal modes are used as parameters of the elastic 3D shapes of complexes (the parameters determining the conformation). We show the performance of this new method using synthetic cryo-EM data.


Catastrophic thrombotic syndromes are characterized by rapid onset of multiple thromboembolic occlusions affecting diverse vascular beds. Patients may have multiple events on presentation, or develop them rapidly over days to weeks. Several disorders can present with this extreme clinical phenotype, including catastrophic antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), atypical presentations of thrombotic thrombocytopenic purpura (TTP) or heparin-induced thrombocytopenia (HIT), and Trousseau syndrome, but some patients present with multiple thrombotic events in the absence of associated prothrombotic disorders. Diagnostic workup must rapidly determine which, if any, of these syndromes are present because therapeutic management is driven by the underlying disorder. With the exception of atypical presentations of TTP, which are treated with plasma exchange, anticoagulation is the most important therapeutic intervention in these patients. Effective anticoagulation may require laboratory confirmation with anti–factor Xa levels in patients treated with heparin, especially if the baseline (pretreatment) activated partial thromboplastin time is prolonged. PatientswithcatastrophicAPSalsobenefit from immunosuppressive therapy and/or plasma exchange, whereas patients with HIT need an alternative anticoagulant to replace heparin. Progressive thrombotic events despite therapeutic anticoagulation may necessitate an alternative therapeutic strategy. If the thrombotic process can be controlled, these patients can recover, but indefinite anticoagulant therapy may be appropriate to prevent recurrent events. (Blood. 2015;126(11):1285-1293)


A convex form of degree larger than one is always nonnegative since it vanishes together with its gradient at the origin. In 2007, Parrilo asked if convex forms are always sums of squares. A few years later, Blekherman answered the question in the negative by showing through volume arguments that for high enough number of variables, there must be convex forms of degree as low as 4 that are not sums of squares. Remarkably, no examples are known to date. In this paper, we show that all convex forms in 4 variables and of degree 4 are sums of squares. We also show that if a conjecture of Blekherman related to the so-called Cayley-Bacharach relations is true, then the same statement holds for convex forms in 3 variables and of degree 6. These are the two minimal cases where one would have any hope of seeing convex forms that are not sums of squares (due to known obstructions). A main ingredient of the proof is the derivation of certain "generalized Cauchy-Schwarz inequalities" which could be of independent interest.


Anarrow duplicated internal auditory canal (IAC) is a very rare congenital inner ear malformation, with only 5 cases (to our knowledge) reported in the literature. 1-5 A 14-year-old girl with unilateral sensorineural hearing loss (SNHL) showed 2 narrow 1 mm) bony canals in the inner ear portion of the left temporal bone on computed tomograms (CTs). The anterior canal continued to the bony canal of the facial nerve, and the posterior canal continued to the cochlea. Other than a lack of development of the canal for the cochlear nerve, the cochlea was normal. High-resolution magnetic resonance images (MRIs) revealed a single thin cranial nerve located in the anterior canal. However, a cranial nerve was not found in the posterior canal. Therefore, a diagnosis of a unilateral narrow duplicated IAC with a hypoplastic vestibulocochlear nerve and vestibular-semicircular canal malformation was made. Computed tomography plays an important role in the evaluation of the bony structure; however, assessment of the neural contents on MRIs is important for the appropriate diagnosis and treatment of patients with a narrow duplicated IAC. We report a case of a unilateral narrow duplicated IAC, with a particular emphasis on the imaging findings of thin-slice high-resolution CTs and MRIs.