In this study, we develop an automated system that uses a collection of attributes to classify water samples from the Shatt al Arabe River (EC, Cl, Ca, Mg, Na, and SO4). There are three steps to the water categorization system: First and foremost, in this manner From October 2009 to September 2020, water samples were taken monthly from eight locations along the Shatt Al-Arab River in Basra. Qurna, Tubular Bridge, Al Muzairah (station 1), Saad Birdge (station 2), Al-Karma (station 3), Al-Sandbad (station 4), Al-Ashar (station 5), Abo Al-Kasseb (station 6), Al-Seba (station 7) and Al-Foa (station 8) are among these locations (station 8). Second, using established procedures, measured and analyzed chemical elements such as electrical conductivity (Ec), chloride (CL), calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), sodium (Na), and Sulphate (SO4). Finally, there are neural networks with three hidden layers are used for training and testing purposes. The experimental results on the collected database show that the proposed approach achieves high accuracy in automatic water classification (normal and abnormal). The Project is designed by Matlab.


The collective approach toward natural resource management in agriculture is increasingly gaining attention, by both the literature and policy makers. In the thesis I analyse the implementation of collective approaches in rural policies aimed at natural resource management. More specifically, I analyse how two design elements of this type of policies, collective conditionality constraints and subsidy levels, affect the 1) emergence of cooperation among farmers and 2) the distribution of the benefits. In the analyses I address the effect of these policies in a range of situations, namely in case the action subsidized by policy is a public good, a club good, or only a private cost (and thus cooperation is purely linked to the implementation of the policy). The distributional effect is addressed only in the club good case.
The results show that indeed the proper use of collective conditionality constraints associated to subsidies can improve the cooperation of farmers and thus leading to more effective agri-environmental policies.
It seems that the collective approach for natural resource management is a strategy that deserves higher attention and policy effort. However, it should not be taken lightly or naively implemented, as the "sophistication" of mechanisms also increases the scope for unexpected policy outcomes. A more aware implementation of such strategy also requires a greater, inter-disciplinary, effort for research, towards a proper understanding of actual effects of real life policy options and coordination mechanisms.


We investigated dielectric properties of new-type polyethylene polymerized with a single-site catalyst. The new polyethylene has a much higher dielectric strength and a volume resistivity than the conventional low-density polyethylene and linear low-density polyethylene. The increase in the density is considered to be responsible for the increase in dielectric strength. The type of the comonomer and melt flow rate (MFR) scarcely affect the dielectric properties.


Pension practitioners may be subject to several different sets of ethical rules. First, there are the rules governing the practice of the particular profession to which the individual belongs. Second, if the individual practices before the Internal Revenue Service, he or she must meet the standards of practice promulgated by the Treasury Department and IRS. Third, the individual must comply with the ethical rules issued by professional organizations to which he or she belongs. There have been three important recent developments. First, as part of its battle against abusive tax shelters, the IRS has identified several "listed transactions" involving employee benefit plans. Second, the American Jobs Creation Act of 2004 has greatly increased the penalties that may be imposed in connection with abusive tax shelters. Finally, IRS has issued detailed new regulations governing standards of practice. This article discusses each of these issues and focuses on the new regulations, their lack of clarity in several important areas, and the difficulties that pension practitioners will have in understanding their scope and complying with their requirements.


This paper proposed an approach to extract fuzzy candlestick patterns from financial time series and select a set of patterns for investment decision making. The candlestick chart in stock market is a widely used technical analysis model. The investor observes the candlestick chart and makes investment decisions by identifying patterns in the chart. We use fuzzy linguistic variables to model candlestick chart and extract patterns from the chart. A Genetic algorithm based approach is used to select a set of extracted pattern as the background knowledge in the system for investment decision making. The advantage of the proposed approach is the investment knowledge is comprehensible, editable, and visible. The user can set different range of historical financial time series to extract and select different set of patterns. The experimental results shows that the investment decisions based on selected fuzzy patterns have better investment performance than using original non-fuzzy patterns.


Abstract Elderly patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) have a poor prognosis. The authors examined the in vitro and clinical activity of the histone deacetylase inhibitor valproic acid (VA) combined with cytosine arabinoside (AraC) in elderly patients with AML unsuited to intensive therapy. For the in vitro studies, primary AML cells from 11 patients were treated with AraC and VA and analyzed for apoptosis, cytostatic effects, differentiation and acetyl histone H3 induction. VA (alone and with AraC) enhanced apoptosis and induced acetyl histone H3. VA inhibited cell proliferation. For the clinical trial, 15 patients were treated with VA and subcutaneous AraC and assessed for toxicity and response. No complete or partial remissions were achieved. In concusion, VA has in vitro activity against AML and has additional activity with AraC. However, in this study, this combination demonstrated limited clinical activity in elderly patients with AML.


Unconditional Lower Bounds in Complexity Theory Igor Carboni Oliveira This work investigates the hardness of solving natural computational problems according to different complexity measures. Our results and techniques span several areas in theoretical computer science and discrete mathematics. They have in common the following aspects: (i) the results are unconditional, i.e., they rely on no unproven hardness assumption from complexity theory; (ii) the corresponding lower bounds are essentially optimal. Among our contributions, we highlight the following results. • Constraint Satisfaction Problems and Monotone Complexity. We introduce a natural formulation of the satisfiability problem as a monotone function, and prove a nearoptimal 2Ω(n/ logn) lower bound on the size of monotone formulas solving k-SAT on nvariable instances (for a large enough k ∈ N). More generally, we investigate constraint satisfaction problems according to the geometry of their constraints, i.e., as a function of the hypergraph describing which variables appear in each constraint. Our results show in a certain technical sense that the monotone circuit depth complexity of the satisfiability problem is polynomially related to the tree-width of the corresponding graphs. • Interactive Protocols and Communication Complexity. We investigate interactive compression protocols, a hybrid model between computational complexity and communication complexity. We prove that the communication complexity of the Majority function on n-bit inputs with respect to Boolean circuits of size s and depth d extended with modulo p gates is precisely n/ log s, where p is a fixed prime number, and d ∈ N. Further, we establish a strong round-separation theorem for bounded-depth circuits, showing that (r+ 1)-round protocols can be substantially more efficient than r-round protocols, for every r ∈ N. • Negations in Computational Learning Theory. We study the learnability of circuits containing a given number of negation gates, a measure that interpolates between monotone functions, and the class of all functions. Let Ct n be the class of Boolean functions on n input variables that can be computed by Boolean circuits with at most t negations. We prove that any algorithm that learns every f ∈ Ct n with membership queries according to the uniform distribution to accuracy e has query complexity 2Ω(2 tn/e) (for a large range of these parameters). Moreover, we give an algorithm that learns Ct n from random examples only, and with a running time that essentially matches this information-theoretic lower bound. • Negations in Theory of Cryptography. We investigate the power of negation gates in cryptography and related areas, and prove that many basic cryptographic primitives require essentially the maximum number of negations among all Boolean functions. In other words, cryptography is highly non-monotone. Our results rely on a variety of techniques, and give near-optimal lower bounds for pseudorandom functions, error-correcting codes, hardcore predicates, randomness extractors, and small-bias generators. • Algorithms versus Circuit Lower Bounds. We strengthen a few connections between algorithms and circuit lower bounds. We show that the design of faster algorithms in some widely investigated learning models would imply new unconditional lower bounds in complexity theory. In addition, we prove that the existence of non-trivial satisfiability algorithms for certain classes of Boolean circuits of depth d+ 2 leads to lower bounds for the corresponding class of circuits of depth d. These results show that either there are no faster algorithms for some computational tasks, or certain circuit lower bounds hold.


Abstract New fusulinid collections from the Baoshan Block in southwest China necessitate paleobiogeographic reevaluation of the Mid-Permian fusulinids in this region. From Xiaoxinzhai Section in the southern Baoshan Block, 32 fusulinid species of nine genera are described and illustrated. Among them, Eopolydiexodina parva is a new species, and elements of Neoschwagerinidae and Verbeekinidae are confirmed. The studied fusulinids are ascendingly grouped into three biozones: the Schwagerina yunnanensis Range Zone, Eopolydiexodina Abundance Zone, and Sumatrina annae Range Zone. The lower two could be assigned in age to the Murgabian and the uppermost one to the Midian. Midian fusulinids are for the first time reported from the Baoshan Block. In terms of fusulinid paleobiogeography, these three assemblages should belong to the western Tethyan Province A because of the presence of Eopolydiexodina and characteristic Tethyan genera, e.g., Verbeekina, Sumatrina, and Pseudodoliolina. Moreover, these assemblages may occupy a comparatively high latitudinal region within Tethyan Realm, judging from the overall low diversity.


Logical abilities are a ubiquitous ingredient in all those contexts that take into account soft skills, argumentative skills or critical thinking. However, the relationship between logical models and the enhancement of these abilities is rarely explicitly considered. Two aspects of the issue are particularly critical in our opinion, namely: (i) the lack of statistically relevant data concerning these competences; (ii) the absence of reliable indices that might be used to measure and detect the possession of abilities underlying the above-mentioned soft skills. This paper addresses both aspects of this topic by presenting the results of a research that we conducted in between October and December 2020 on students enrolled in various degree courses at the University of Florence. To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest available database on the subject in the Italian University System to date1 . It has been obtained by a three-stage initiative. We started from an "entrance" examination for assessing the students' initial abilities. This test comprised ten questions, each of which was centered on a specific reasoning construct. The results we have collected show that there is a widespread lack of understanding of basic patterns that are common in the everyday way of arguing. Students then underwent a short training course, using formal logic techniques in order to strengthen their abilities, and afterwards took an "exit" examination, replicating the structure and the questions difficulty of the entrance one in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the course. Results show that the training was beneficial.


The aim was to explore and describe how older twins reared apart and reared together experience the twin relationship over a life course. Method: The data consisted of life stories of 30 Swedish older (70+) identical and fraternal twins which were analyzed with qualitative content analysis. Results: The relationship patterns among twins reared apart were related to the time of separation, family upbringing, time spent together after re-union and over the life course. Twins who spent their first years in the biological family and thereafter separated, could continue their relationship over the life course, showing the same kind of relationship patterns that twins reared together. Twins who were separated during their first year after birth and reunited several years later showed a more complex relationship pattern, where some lacked an emotionally close relationship and others gradually developed such a relationship over the years. This challenges popular views on twins reared apart being emotionally close. In comparison to twins reared together the results implies the importance of spending time together in order to develop emotional closeness in the relationship.


This paper attempts to enhance empirical understanding of the effects of
 structural-change variables on economic outcomes. The relationships between
 sectoral shares and (1) the speed of structural change and (2) economic
 growth were examined for a large panel of 111 economies over the period of
 1971-2018. Given the time series properties of the series and the absence of
 a long-run relationship between them, the panel OLS and VAR models were
 employed. The results are largely in line with previous empirical research:
 it was established that a lack of industrialisation effort (manifested in
 the persistence of agriculture as a share of GDP) and ?servicisation? (the
 expansion of the services share of GDP) negatively affect GDP growth rates.
 In contrast, a growth in industry and manufacturing shares positively
 influences economic growth, as does accelerated structural transformation
 (represented by the respective index of structural change).


ASEAN economy has undergone a shift, as has the structure of the global economy. The shift in the economy that occurred was from the main share of the agricultural sector to the industrial sector and the service sector. From year to year, the ASEAN service sector continues to experience positive growth with an increasing contribution beyond that of other sectors. ASEAN's service exports grew higher than ASEAN's goods exports. There are still several ASEAN member countries that experience a trade deficit in services, which is interesting to investigate further. This study aims to analyze the performance of service exports in 10 ASEAN member countries from 2010 to 2019. The results of panel data regression using the WLS fixed effect model show that foreign direct investment, nominal exchange rate, gross domestic product, services value added, gross domestic product, labor force, human capital and communication facilities have a significant effect on ASEAN's service export. The development of communication technology, development of human resources and updating of important policies are considered by the government to improve the performance of service exports of ASEAN member countries.


In pea (Pisum sativum) up to 50 nodulation mutants are known, several of which are affected in the early steps of the symbiotic interaction with Rhizobium sp. bacteria. Here we describe the role of the sym2 gene in nodulation (Nod) factor perception. Our experiments show that the sym2A allele from the wild pea variety Afghanistan confers an arrest in infection-thread growth if the Rhizobium leguminosarum bv viciae strain does not produce Nod factors with a NodX-mediated acetylation at their reducing end. Since the induction of the early nodulin gene ENOD12 in the epidermis and the formation of a nodule primordium in the inner cortex were not affected, we conclude that more than one Nod factor-perception mechanism is active. Furthermore, we show that sym2A-mediated control of infection-thread growth was affected by the bacterial nodulation gene nodO.


Opuntia dillenii (Ker Gawl.) Haw is used as a traditional medical herb to cure a number of diseases such as boils, burns, gastritis, snake bites ... but so far there have been few studies on biological activities, especially those of spine of cactus. Thus, the bioactive survey of spine and initial study of in vitro culture of cactus is necessary. In this study, ethanol extracts of three parts, pul, brak and spine, were examined with antioxidant activity by Yen and Duh method, and antibacterial activity by determination of zone of inhibition method. After that, these extracts were subjected to preliminary phytochemical testing to detect for the presence of different chemical groups of compounds. Results showed that antibacterial and anti-oxidant activites of spine is higher than those of pulp and bark of Opuntia dillenii. All three parts, pul, bark, and spine, contain phenols, quinones, coumarin, flavanon, isoflavones, isoflavanon, auron, steroids, besides spine contains flavones, chalcon, leucoantocyanidin. In addition, this study also had positive results in experiments on the induction of buds, roots and spines of cactus (Opuntia dillenii). The proliferation of the shoots achieved in MS medium supplemented with 1mg/l benzylaminopurine (BA) and 0,1mg/l naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA). Root formation was influenced by the combination of light and indolebutyric acid (IBA), so the optimal medium is 0,5mg/l IBA set in the absence of light bright. With materials from in vitro micro-propagation process, in vitro spine proliferation experiment was conducted using gibberellic acid (GA3).


In the paper, we propose a new accelerated zeroth-order momentum (Acc-ZOM) method to solve the non-convex stochastic mini-optimization problems. We prove that the Acc-ZOM method achieves a lower query complexity of $O(d^{3/4}\epsilon^{-3})$ for finding an $\epsilon$-stationary point, which improves the best known result by a factor of $O(d^{1/4})$ where $d$ denotes the parameter dimension. The Acc-ZOM does not require any batches compared to the large batches required in the existing zeroth-order stochastic algorithms. Further, we extend the Acc-ZOM method to solve the non-convex stochastic minimax-optimization problems and propose an accelerated zeroth-order momentum descent ascent (Acc-ZOMDA) method. We prove that the Acc-ZOMDA method reaches the best know query complexity of $\tilde{O}(\kappa_y^3(d_1+d_2)^{3/2}\epsilon^{-3})$ for finding an $\epsilon$-stationary point, where $d_1$ and $d_2$ denote dimensions of the mini and max optimization parameters respectively and $\kappa_y$ is condition number. In particular, our theoretical result does not rely on large batches required in the existing methods. Moreover, we propose a momentum-based accelerated framework for the minimax-optimization problems. At the same time, we present an accelerated momentum descent ascent (Acc-MDA) method for solving the white-box minimax problems, and prove that it achieves the best known gradient complexity of $\tilde{O}(\kappa_y^3\epsilon^{-3})$ without large batches. Extensive experimental results on the black-box adversarial attack to deep neural networks (DNNs) and poisoning attack demonstrate the efficiency of our algorithms.


Epidemiological features as reflected by 101 patients with unequivocal sea-snake bite received in north-west Malaya are reviewed. Enhydrina schistosa caused over half the bites, including seven of the eight fatal bites. It is the most dangerous sea-snake to man. Over 90 per cent of the victims were male and 80 of the 101 patients were fishermen bitten at their job. Most victims were bitten on the lower limb through treading on the snake, and this resulted in more cases of serious poisoning than upper limb bites (caused through handling nets, sorting fish and so on). Only 14 cathers were bitten (through treading on the sea-snake; no bathers were bitten while swimming). In patients coming to hospital more than six hours after the bite, there was a four-fold increase in serious poisoning compared with patients coming within six hours of the bite. Thus, as time elapses after the bite, the victim is less likely to seek medical help unless poisoning is severe. Despite the lethal toxicity of sea-snake venom, in patients seen during 1957-61 before sea-snake antivenom became available, the mortality was only 10 per cent. Trivial or no poisoning followed in 80 per cent of the bites. On the other hand, of 11 patients (20 per cent) with serious poisoning, over half (six patients) died despite supportive hospital treatment. These epidemiological features observed in Malaya probably apply to most fishing folk along Asian coastlines where sea-snakes abound. If this is so, sea-snake bite must be a common hazard feared by millions of fishing folk, and a common cause of illness and death. But it is unlikely that the extent of this problem will be revealed to orthodox medicine for many decades because most fishing villages are far from medical centres; and even if hospitals or medical centres are available, fishing folk are usually reluctant to attend them. Only one species of sea-snake, Pelamis platurus, extends to the east coasts of Africa and west coasts of the tropical Americas, but for various reasons this species does not appear to constitute much of a hazard to fishing folk in these areas. Although bathers are occasionally bitten along Asian coasts, when they inadvertently tread on a sea-snake, the risk of sea-snake bite in this area is extremely low. The prevention of sea-snake bite and poisoning is considered. Highly effective antivenom is now available for treating victims with serious poisoning; death should not occur provided adequate medical treatment is given within a few hours of the bite. The main problem is provision of adequate medical care at rural medical centres and overcoming the reluctance fishing folk often have in attending these centres. Language: en


Francois Quesnay is best known for the Tableau Economique, the proposition that only agriculture generates a positive 'net product' and that industry is 'sterile'. He recommended a 'single tax' on ground rent and invented the slogan 'laissez faire, laissez passe'. He was the first to found a school of economists called the 'physiocrats' which enjoyed an immense vogue in France for about a decade in the 1750s. The practical programme of the physiocrats was to eliminate the vestiges of medieval tolls and restrictions in the countryside, to rationalize the fiscal system, to amalgamate small-holdings into large-scale agricultural estates, to free the corn trade from all mercantilist restrictions – in short to emulate England. Placed in its historical context these were eminently reasonable views but the attempt to provide these reforms with a watertight theoretical argument produced some forced reasoning and slightly absurd conclusions.


Background The Theoretical Domains Framework (TDF) is an integrative framework developed from a synthesis of psychological theories as a vehicle to help apply theoretical approaches to interventions aimed at behavior change. Purpose This study explores experiences of TDF use by professionals from multiple disciplines across diverse clinical settings. Methods Mixed methods were used to examine experiences, attitudes, and perspectives of health professionals in using the TDF in health care implementation projects. Individual interviews were conducted with ten health care professionals from six disciplines who used the TDF in implementation projects. Deductive content and thematic analysis were used. Results Three main themes and associated subthemes were identified including: 1) reasons for use of the TDF (increased confidence, broader perspective, and theoretical underpinnings); 2) challenges using the TDF (time and resources, operationalization of the TDF) and; 3) future use of the TDF. Conclusion The TDF provided a useful, flexible framework for a diverse group of health professionals working across different clinical settings for the assessment of barriers and targeting resources to influence behavior change for implementation projects. The development of practical tools and training or support is likely to aid the utility of TDF.


Video stabilization is required in digital video cameras as most of them are hand held or mounted on moving platforms (e.g. cars) undergo atmospheric vibrations and also the videos taken by the camera with CMOS sensors undergo rapid vibrations because of rolling shutter which scans an image horizontally or vertically instead of recording the whole image of the scene at same instant. And also the moving cameras cause geometric distortion of the objects in the video because of parallax. A method which handles parallax and rolling shutter effects along with removing the unwanted motion of frames caused by the movement of camera is proposed by modelling the camera motion with bundle of camera paths using bundled camera paths. Bundled camera paths motion model involves dividing the video frames into mesh grid cells, extracting matched features for every two consecutive frames. Having these matched features and grid cell vertices, new vertices are obtained using Bilinear interpolation resulting in image warping of each frame in accordance with the camera motion. Homographies which represent the camera motion for each grid cell are obtained using original vertices and new vertices. For each grid cell, homographies of corresponding grid cell of all the frames of the video are multiplied to get camera path of each grid cell representing the bundle of camera paths. These camera paths are smoothed adaptively. Adaptive smoothing handles cropping. Smoothed homographies are applied to original video to get the stabilized video.


Abstract The hyperbolic conservation laws with relaxation appear in many physical models such as those for gas dynamics with thermo-non-equilibrium, elasticity with memory, flood flow with friction, traffic flow, etc.. The main concern of this article is the long-time effect of the relaxations on the boundary layer behaviors. In this article, we investigate this problem for a simple model of 2×2 systems. Conditions relating the boundary data and far field states are found for the existence of the boundary layers. Also, it is proven that the boundary layers thus obtained are nonlinearly stable.


This paper studies convergence and stability properties of Sjostrom's (1994) mechanism, under the assumption that boundedly rational players find their way to equilibrium using monotonic learning dynamics and best-reply dynamics. This mechanism implements most social choice functions in economic environments using as a solution concept one round of deletion of weakly dominated strategies and one round of deletion of strictly dominated strategies. However, there are other sets of Nash equilibria, whose payoffs may be very different from those desired by the social choice function. With monotonic dynamics, all these sets of equilibria contain limit points of the learning dynamics. Furthermore, even if the dynamics converge to the "right" set of equilibria (i.e. the one which contains the solution of the mechanism), it may converge to an equilibrium which is worse in welfare terms. In contrast with this result, any interior solution of the best-reply dynamics converges to the equilibrium whose outcome the planner desires.


This paper argues that urban agriculture can be transformed from its present underdeveloped status to a thriving sector in African towns, thus contributing to employment creation, income generation and the provision of food. Using three examples from East Africa (Nakuru, Morogoro and Mbeya), first, the present situation is described from a town's perspective, thereby focusing on resource allocation (land and water), the sector's benefits (food, income and employment) as well as its challenges (environment). Second, the question is raised how urban agriculture can be turned into a thriving economic sector, whereby three major themes are dealt with: the creation of a favourable legal and policy setting, the provision of support and education, and the improvement of market conditions. It is concluded that both the government and the private sector can and should take the lead, be it in different spheres.

 Key words: Urban development, urban agriculture, urban environment, East Africa.


The popularity and massive usage of online social networking sites is evident to all. There are a number of online social networks that are being widely used by the academic and non-academic community for entertainment. A new branch of these online social networks has emerged which is known as academic social networking websites (ASNWs). The purpose of ASNWs is entirely different from entertainment, as they specifically target scholars. ASNWs are virtual platforms where researchers can create a research profile and communicate with other members. This study aims to explore the awareness, usage and feelings of CIIT faculty members about the five most famous ASNWs namely; ResearchGate, Acedemia.edu, LinkedIn, Mendeley and Zotero. A structured questionnaire was designed and sent to all faculty members of CIIT via email to get the feedback. Findings show that the majority of faculty members are well aware of these ASNWs for the last three years or so. Most of the respondents are members to more than one academic social network. Faculty members also revealed that they visit ASNWs twice in a week for half an hour. The respondents expressed that they mostly use these platforms for following purposes: interacting with experts, promotion/sharing of their research output, participation in discussions, to get ideas about the latest research trends and to get help in resolving research problems. The feelings of CIIT faculty members about using ASNWs were also found very positive. The highest level of usage was reported for LinkedIn followed by ResearchGate, Acedemia.edu, Mendeley and Zotero, respectively.


The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Rule 415 (shelf registration) allows eligible firms to register securities that they intend to issue in the next two years. Once the registration is declared effective, firms can enter the market instantaneously. Ineligible issuers, however, are required to notify the SEC at least forty-eight hours before entry. Supporters of the shelf rule contend that the rule provides valuable flexibility in timing issues. The authors examine this contention by comparing the market-timing performance of shelf and nonshelf debt issues. The results indicate that the shelf rule does provide valuable market-timing flexibility. Copyright 1989 by the University of Chicago.


Numerous recent work on unsupervised machine translation (UMT) implies that competent unsupervised translations of low-resource and unrelated languages, such as Nepali or Sinhala, are only possible if the model is trained in a massive multilingual environment, where theses low-resource languages are mixed with high-resource counterparts. Nonetheless, while the high-resource languages greatly help kick-start the target low-resource translation tasks, the language discrepancy between them may hinder their further improvement. In this work, we propose a simple refinement procedure to disentangle languages from a pre-trained multilingual UMT model for it to focus on only the target low-resource task. Our method achieves the state of the art in the fully unsupervised translation tasks of English to Nepali, Sinhala, Gujarati, Latvian, Estonian and Kazakh, with BLEU score gains of 3.5, 3.5, 3.3, 4.1, 4.2, and 3.3, respectively. Our codebase is available at github.com/nxphi47/refine_unsup_multilingual_mt


In this paper, we present an optical diagnostic assay consisting of a mixture of environmental-sensitive fluorescent dyes combined with multivariate data analysis for quantitative and qualitative examination of biological and clinical samples. The performance of the assay is based on the analysis of spectrum of the selected fluorescent dyes with the operational principle similar to electronic nose and electronic tongue systems. This approach has been successfully applied for monitoring of growing cell cultures and identification of gastrointestinal diseases in humans.


When measuring group-level psychological properties (e.g., organizational climate, leadership, team motivation), researchers typically aggregate individual perceptions to represent the group. L. R. James provided the groundbreaking insight that, in order to justify aggregating individual perceptions to represent a group-level property, one must first establish that there exist shared perceptions—or shared psychological meaning—within the group. Here we label and describe two distinct theoretical parameters that can both be used to define within-group agreement: (a) ψ W G (i.e., a parameter that defines within-group agreement as Individual True-Score Consensus), which arises from the theoretical work of L. R. James and colleagues in the 1970s, and (b) ρ W G (i.e., a parameter that treats within-group agreement as a Group True-Score Reliability Analog), which forms the theoretical basis for the r W G ( J ) index. We extend the work of L. R. James by offering a systematic comparison of different estimators of the two within-group agreement parameters ( ψ W G and ρ W G ). Recommendations are provided for estimating within-group agreement, to continue the legacy of justified measurement of group-level psychological properties.


Changes in land-use patterns and personal lifestyles, as influenced by motorization, have caused serious problems: decreased usage of public transportation, the decline of city centers, and increased fuel consumption. In developed countries, low-density urban areas are expanding: urban sprawl is continuing because of further urbanization. Results of several studies show that, through better land use and transportation integration, the compact urban layout is effective for reducing gasoline consumption and achieving a sustainable society. The relationship in major world cities between population density and energy consumption has already been analyzed in some studies using crosssection analysis. Furthermore, many studies undertaken since the late 1990s have described sustainable development through usage of a more compact urban layout. Actually, many municipalities have accepted and promote compact urban layout as a policy. However, a basic trend in the relationship between urban layouts and automobile reliance over a prolonged period has not been investigated considering recent time-series data. This study is intended to identify the change in the relationship between automobile usage and urban layout factors, particularly population density, for the purpose of suggesting measures for land use and transport integration. Changes in automobile fuel consumption were calculated using data from Nationwide Person Trip Surveys (conducted in 1987, 1992, 1999, and 2005) for 38 Japanese cities (including local and metropolitan area cities). Subsequently, the relationship between automobile fuel consumption and factors such as city type and public transportation conditions was analyzed using multiple regression models. The results show an increase of low-density cities, in which residents are consuming much automobile fuel, implying that cities of dispersed (not compact) type are increasing. In addition, population density is not the only important factor that influences automobile usage.


XCS constitutes the most deeply investigated classifier system today. It offers strong potentials and comes with inherent capabilities for mastering a variety of different learning tasks. Besides outstanding successes in various classification and regression tasks, XCS also proved very effective in certain multi-step environments from the domain of reinforcement learning. Especially in the latter domain, recent advances have been mainly driven by algorithms which model their policies based on deep neural networks, among which the Deep-Q-Network (DQN) being a prominent representative. Experience Replay (ER) constitutes one of the crucial factors for the DQN's successes, since it facilitates stabilized training of the neural network-based Q-function approximators. Surprisingly, XCS barely takes advantage of similar mechanisms that leverage remembered raw experiences. To bridge this gap, this paper investigates the benefits of extending XCS with ER. We demonstrate that for single-step tasks ER yields strong improvements in terms of sample efficiency. On the downside, however, we reveal that ER might further aggravate well-studied issues not yet solved for XCS when applied to sequential decision problems demanding for long-action-chains.


The brains of 50 adults with supratentorial glioblastoma multiforme were studied post mortem. The cytologic compositions of the neoplasms were examined in each of three sites: (1) in and around the original tumor bed; (2) zones of infiltration of contiguous structures; and (3) implants in the subarachnoid and/or ventricular spaces. For this purpose, six different cell types were defined: small anaplastic cells (SAC), small fibrillated cells (SFC), fibrillated astrocytes (FA), pleomorphic astrocytes (PA), gemistocytic astrocytes (GA), and large bizarre cells (LBC). In 16 cases with marked mass effect in the original tumor bed entirely due to the neoplasm, the cytologic composition of the neoplasm was predominantly SAC (14 cases) and SFC (2 cases). The prevalence of these two cellular types was evident in the infiltrated regions in 36 of 42 cases, and in the metastatic foci of 11 of 13 cases. In 10 of 11 cases in which there was mild or no mass effect, only limited infiltration in the ipsilateral hemisphere, and no metastases, the neoplasms were composed of a combination of FA, PA, GA, and LBC. The observations suggest that, in spite of the glioblastoma's cytologic heterogeneity, the pathologic substrate of aggressiveness in this malignant glioma is related largely to the proliferation of a population of small anaplastic cells. On the basis of this observation, as well as the consideration of certain clinical and therapeutic variables, an outline is presented summarizing the history of the glioblastoma multiforme from treatment until the time of death. Cancer 52:2320‐2333, 1983.


The Open Cluster Chemical Abundances and Mapping (OCCAM) survey aims to constrain key Galactic dynamical and chemical evolution parameters by the construction of a large, comprehensive, uniform, infrared-based spectroscopic data set of hundreds of open clusters. This fourth contribution from the OCCAM survey presents analysis using Sloan Digital Sky Survey/APOGEE DR16 of a sample of 128 open clusters, 71 of which we designate to be "high quality" based on the appearance of their color–magnitude diagram. We find the APOGEE DR16 derived [Fe/H] abundances to be in good agreement with previous high-resolution spectroscopic open cluster abundance studies. Using the high-quality sample, we measure Galactic abundance gradients in 16 elements, and find evolution of some of the [X/Fe] gradients as a function of age. We find an overall Galactic [Fe/H] versus RGC gradient of −0.068 ± 0.001 dex kpc−1 over the range of 6 < RGC < 13.9 kpc; however, we note that this result is sensitive to the distance catalog used, varying as much as 15%. We formally derive the location of a break in the [Fe/H] abundance gradient as a free parameter in the gradient fit for the first time. We also measure significant Galactic gradients in O, Mg, S, Ca, Mn, Cr, Cu, Na, Al, and K, some of which are measured for the first time. Our large sample allows us to examine four well-populated age bins in order to explore the time evolution of gradients for a large number of elements and comment on possible implications for Galactic chemical evolution and radial migration.


This paper highlights Edward Said's ideology for discerning literary texts that followed the colonial period as a post-colonial discourse. Though some scholars disapprove that notion, Said holds the view that literature is a product of contested social and economic relationships. The West attempts to represent the East and consequently dominates it, not only for knowledge but for political power as well. He assures the worldliness of texts and their interferences with disciplines, cultures and history. Thus, the post-colonial critic should consider the post-colonial literature that might take the form of traditional European literature or the role of the migrant writer in portraying the experience of their countries. The pot-colonial theory with its focus on the misrepresentation of the colonized by the colonizer and the former's attitude of resistance, draws new lines for literature and suggests a way of reading which resists imperialist ideologies.


Quorum consensus protocols execute requests in parallel and proceed once K out of N responses are received. The performance of a system depends on the value of K, the distributions of the quorum response delays, and on the use of system resources by the N concurrent requests. An analytic approximation is given for the delay to achieve the quorum, which also accounts for the contention and delay caused by the (N - K) delayed responses. Compared to simulation results, our approximation gives reasonable accuracy; about 5% in most cases. Our method is shown to be rapid and scalable.


Natural products and their derivatives make up a large percentage of all pharmaceuticals on the market. While many purely biological or chemical routes to these molecules do exist, each has certain limitations, depending on the target. More often, a semi-synthetic approach is taken, wherein the natural product is isolated from its native producer and subsequently derivatized chemically. However, as our collective knowledge of biosynthetic pathways grows, other opportunities for structural modification present themselves. One such method, termed precursor-directed biosynthesis, involves the incorporation of chemically synthesized substrates for enzymatic transformations. Other pathway-engineering approaches involve the mutagenesis of enzymes for rapid production of chemically intractable moieties. Herein, we explore the different combinations of biology and chemistry for different natural product classes. These include polyketides, non-ribosomal and ribosomal peptides, terpenes, alkaloids and glycosides. We do this by highlighting important and recent advances in the field of natural product combinatorial biosynthesis.


Manufacturers operating in international markets are faced with complex rules and regulations that must be complied with in order to trade successfully. A general phenomenon among international enterprises is that, when they are conducting business across borders, their internal information systems fail to interface well with systems or platforms built specially for compliance reports. This leads to inventory mismatch and results in other types of problems, such as delay of goods delivery or incorrect duty payment. One of the main difficulties in fully integrating information systems arises from the highly flexible and volatile nature of manufacturing processes, which would need highly customizable and adaptive information systems. Currently, there is a lack of systematic method to monitor compliance within flexible multinational manufacturing processes and supply chains. Moreover, improper operations could hamper compliance even normal business processes. In order to have well integrated systems as well as timely detection and mitigation of compliance faults, data processing tools are needed to identify and diagnose inconsistencies in manufacturing and inventory management. This research aims to innovate accounting information systems by designing a framework with the application of process mining and engineering techniques in computational auditing. An in-depth case study is conducted for research validation.


Adipose tissue is a lipid storage organ characterized by the pronounced accumulation of adipocytes. Although adipose tissues are found in various parts of the vertebrate body, it is unclear whether these tissues have a common ancestral origin or have evolved in several phylogenetic lineages by independent adipocyte accumulation events. To gain insight into the evolutionary history of vertebrate adipose tissues, we determined the distribution of adipocytes by oil red O staining in skeletal muscle of 10 teleost species spanning eight orders: Tetraodontiformes, Pleuronectiformes, Spariformes, Salmoniformes, Clupeiformes, Beloniformes, Osmeriformes, and Cypriniformes. Accumulation of adipocytes in the myoseptum was observed in many species, including red seabream, rainbow trout, Pacific herring, Pacific saury, zebrafish and giant danio. We also found some order-, species-, and swimming mode-specific distribution patterns of adipocytes: 1) almost complete absence of intramuscular adipocytes in the order Tetraodontiformes (torafugu and spotted green pufferfish), 2) clear adipocyte accumulation in the inclinator muscles of fin in Japanese flounder, 3) a large intramuscular adipose tissue at the root of the dorsal fin in ayu, and 4) thick lipid layers consisting of subcutaneous adipose tissue and red muscle lipids in pelagic migratory fish (Pacific herring and Pacific saury). Of note, Pacific herring and Pacific saury are phylogenetically distinct species sharing a similar niche and swimming mode, suggesting that their analogous adipocyte/lipid distribution patterns are the consequence of convergent evolution. The potentially heterogeneous origin of adipose tissues has significant implications for the interpretation of their functional diversity.


Background: Improve the understanding of evaluative characteristics of the NA gene, NA protease active sites, and NA glycosylation sites in H1N1 virus isolated from China during 1995-2012.
Method: A total of 200 NA gene sequences were downloaded from the National Center for Biotechnology Information's GenBank. Phylogenetic analyses, multiple sequence alignment, glyco-sylation sites analyses, and protein structure prediction were conducted with Mega5.05, ClustalW, NetNGlyc1.0 program, and SWISS-MODEL server, respectively.
Results: The NA genes of the Chinese pandemic H1N1 2009 virus were different from those of 1995-2008 seasonal sequences (low similarity of 75.5%-77.1%), but were similar to strains from other countries (high similarity of 99.1%-99.9%). The Chinese resistant strains were close to the wild-type strains but had low similarity from other countries. Six glycosylation sites (44 (NHT), 50 (NQS), 58 (NST), 63 (NHT), 70 (NNT), 434 (NTT), and 455 (NWS)) significantly changed, and four other sites remained stable. A total of 8 and 11 NA sialidase activity and auxiliary sites were conserved, respectively, except for the H275Y substitutions in 11 strains. The most common mutations were R222Q, V234M, D344N, and K254R. H275Y, despite its missing glycosylation sites, can change its 3D structure.
Conclusions: Except for sialidase, some of the antigenic determinants and glycosylation sites from Chinese H1N1 influenza NA genes have changed in the past 20 y, which is related to the periodic outbreak in China.


As novel corona virus (COVID-19) infections has spread throughout the
world, world health organization (WHO) has announced COVID-19 as a pandemic
infection. Henceforth investigators are conducting extensive research to find possible
therapeutic agents against COVID-19. Main protease (Mpro) that plays an
essential role in processing the polyproteins that are translated from the
COVID-19 RNA becomes and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase (RdRp) that catalyzes the
replication of RNA from RNA template as a potential targets for in silico
screening of effective therapeutic compounds to COVID-19. In this study we used
COVID-19 Docking Server to predict potential food bioactive compounds to inhibit
Mpro and RdRp. The results showed that Phycocyanobilin, Riboflavin, Cyanidin, Daidzein, Genistein
are potent inhibitor bioactive compounds to Mpro and RdRp in comparison to antiviral drugs. Though, further in
vitro and/or in vivo research is required to validate the docking results.


In face of the emergence of knowledge-based economy and global competition, countries in the world have actively increased sci-tech resources inputs and accelerate R&D innovation. Medical device industry is the emerging star industry under the time. Medical device industry with higher technology, large market potential, high added value of output products, low pollution, emphasis on scitech integration, and broad application presents higher risks but higher profi ts, is a knowledge intensive industry, and will become a star industry leading global economy. Medical biotechnology industry requires constant innovation that it has long-term invested in large amount of R&D expenses for various patent rights and R&D results to enhance the competitiveness. R&D expenses and patent rights are therefore the key factors in medical biotechnology enterprises maintaining the competitive advantage. The managerial level and employees of medical device companies in Shanghai, as the research object, are distributed 300 copies of questionnaire. Total 232 valid copies are retrieved, with the retrieval rate 77%. The research results show positive relations between R&D expenditure and patent right, patent right and operational performance, and R&D expenditure and operational performance. According to the results, suggestions are eventually proposed, expecting to assist medical device industry in acquiring various patent rights for the R&D inputs and maintaining the competitive advantage.


Background: Observational studies have described how inadequate Menstrual Hygiene Management (MHM) impacts negatively on girls' engagement in school but are yet to confirm if MHM interventions can have an impact. We hypothesise that provision of menstrual health education and re-usable sanitary pads can improve girls' school attendance.

Methods: We conducted a non-blinded delayed control cluster-randomised trial in 40 government primary schools in former Greater Bushenyi District, Western Uganda. A group of 30 girls aged 12-18 from each school was randomly assigned to intervention (menstrual health education and reusable sanitary pads) or control (receiving the intervention at the end of the study) groups. The primary outcome was the mean number of days of school missed per month.

Findings: We randomised 1,170 girls from 20 intervention (582 girls) and 20 control (588 girls) schools. At follow-up, 499 girls from 20 intervention (259 girls) and 19 control (240 girls) were included in the primary analysis. School attendance according to register data was similar in the intervention group compared to the control (-0.22 days, 95% CI: -0.204, 0.644 days, p-value: 0.300). High rates of missing register data and school drop-out meant the trial suffered from substantial missing data. There was a positive non-statistically significant effect on girls' knowledge of menstruation, daily activities during menstruation and self-esteem. No adverse effects were reported.

Interpretation: An MHM intervention consisting of pad distribution and education may not result in sustainable improvements in girls' school engagement. Future work should consider interventions that include behaviour change components . Results should be interpreted in light of issues with the volume of missing data. Work is needed to develop reliable and replicable methods of measuring the impact of MHM interventions on girls' school engagement.

Trial Registration Number: The trial is registered with ClinicalTrials.gov, study ID: NCT02243488.

Funding Statement: The Leverhulme Trust

Declaration of Interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

Ethics Approval Statement: Ethics for this study has been granted by The University of Sheffield's School of Health and Related Research (Ethics reference number: 0677/KW). Ethics approval has been obtained locally from Makerere University School of Public Health and the trial will be registered with The Ugandan National Council for Science and Technology (UNCST). The trial has also been registered with Clinicaltrials.gov and the protocol will be published online on the White Rose Consortium.


Pre-trained BERT contextualized representations have achieved state-of-the-art results on multiple downstream NLP tasks by fine-tuning with task-specific data. While there has been a lot of focus on task-specific fine-tuning, there has been limited work on improving the pre-trained representations. In this paper, we explore ways of improving the pre-trained contextual representations for the task of automatic short answer grading, a critical component of intelligent tutoring systems. We show that the pre-trained BERT model can be improved by augmenting data from the domain-specific resources like textbooks. We also present a new approach to use labeled short answering grading data for further enhancement of the language model. Empirical evaluation on multi-domain datasets shows that task-specific fine-tuning on the enhanced pre-trained language model achieves superior performance for short answer grading.


The impact of the six HMOs studied on rural providers has, to this point, been relatively small. To expand their provider networks in rural areas, the HMOs have been responsive to provider concerns, implementing payment arrangements and utilization management approaches that are acceptable to most rural providers. However, at some sites, changes in HMO and provider relations appear to be on the horizon. These changes include the acceptance of greater financial risk by rural providers and the more aggressive management of costs by the HMOs. With respect to employers, the impact of HMOs have been largely positive. The presence of HMOs in the rural study areas has provided rural employers with new options for structuring health benefits programs. According to some rural employers, health insurance costs have been reduced, or at least constrained, as a result. Rural employers have dealt with employee concerns about access limitations by demanding that HMOs offer broad provider networks and products that permit the use of non-network providers subject to co-payments and deductibles. The impact on rural employees, as evidenced by their responses as well as the views of their employers, has been mixed. Rural employees generally appreciate the broader benefit coverage offered by HMOs as well as reduced paperwork and, sometimes, lower required out-of-pocket contributions toward premiums. However, as with their urban counterparts, rural employees are concerned about restrictions on access to providers of their choice and financial incentives in physician payment arrangements that may discourage the provision of services or the arrangement of referrals.


[1] Using numerical magnetohydrodynamic simulations, we examine the dipole tilt effects on the magnetosphere-ionosphere convection system when the interplanetary magnetic field is oblique northward (BY = 4 nT and BZ = 2 nT). In particular, we clarify the relationship between viscous-driven convection and reconnection-driven convection. The azimuthal locations of the two viscous cell centers in the equatorial plane rotate eastward (westward) when the dipole tilt increases as the Northern Hemisphere turns toward (away from) the Sun. This rotation is associated with nearly the same amount of eastward (westward) rotation of the equatorial crossing point of the dayside separator. The reason for this association is that the viscous cell is spatially confined within the Dungey-type merging cell whose position is controlled by the separator location. The ionospheric convection is basically a round/crescent cell pattern, but the round cell in the winter hemisphere is significantly deformed. Between its central lobe cell portion and its outer Dungey-type merging cell portion, the round cell streamlines are deformed owing to the combined effects of the viscous cell and the hybrid merging cell, the latter of which is driven by both Dungey-type reconnection and lobe-closed reconnection.


With first-principles virtual-crystal approximation calculations, we systematically investigate the geometric and electronic structures as well as the phase transition of lead zirconate titanate (PbZr1−xTixO3 or PZT) as a function of Ti content for the whole range of 0 ≤ xTi ≤ 1. It can be found that, with the increase of the Ti content, the PbZr1−xTixO3 solid solutions undergo a rhombohedral-to-tetragonal phase transition, which is consistent with the experimental results. In addition, we also show the evolution in geometric and electronic structures of rhombohedral and tetragonal PbZr1−xTixO3 with the increasing content of Ti.


For this study, we examined the relationship between counseling experience and college students' academic performance and retention in a sample of 10,009 college freshmen and transfer students. The results indicated that counseling experience is significantly associated with student retention: students receiving counseling services were more likely to stay enrolled in school. However, counseling experience was not related to academic performance when controlling for precollege academic performance (i.e., high school GPA, and verbal and math SAT scores). In addition, students seeking both individual and group counseling showed better academic performance than the students who received other service types.


In this paper, we investigate the downlink transmission for cache-enabled fog radio access networks aiming at maximizing the delivery rate under the constraints of fronthaul capacity, maximum transmit power, and size of files. To reduce the delivery latency and the burden on fronthaul links and make full use of the local cache and baseband signal processing capabilities of enhanced remote radio heads (eRRHs), a two-level transmission scheme including cache-level and network-level transmission is proposed. In cache-level transmission, only requested files cached at the local cache are transmitted to the corresponding users. The duration of cache-level transmission is the delay caused by the transfer between the baseband unit (BBU) and eRRHs as well as the signal processing at the BBU. The remaining requested files are jointly transmitted to the corresponding users at network-level transmission. For cache-level transmission, a centralized optimization algorithm is first presented and then a decentralized optimization algorithm is provided to avoid the exchange of signaling among eRRHs. Meanwhile, another centralized optimization algorithm is presented to tackle the optimization problem for network-level transmission. All presented algorithms are proved to converge to the Karush–Kuhn–Tucker solutions of the problems. Numerical results are provided to validate the effectiveness of the proposed transmission scheme as well as evaluating the system performance.


The integration of energy harvesting technologies with Internet of things (IoTs) leads to the automation of building and homes. The IoT edge devices, which include end user equipment connected to the networks and interact with other networks and devices, may be located in remote locations where the main power is not available or battery replacement is not feasible. The energy harvesting technologies can reduce or eliminate the need of batteries for edge devices by using super capacitors or rechargeable batteries to recharge them in the field. The proposed chapter provides a brief discussion about possible energy harvesting technologies and their potential power densities and techniques to minimize power requirements of edge devices, so that energy harvesting solutions will be sufficient to meet the power requirements.


Prevalent on calcareous soils in the United States and abroad, iron deficiency is among the most common and severe nutritional stresses in plants. In soybean (Glycine max) commercial plantings, the identification and use of iron-efficient genotypes has proven to be the best form of managing this soil-related plant stress. Previous studies conducted in soybean identified a significant iron efficiency quantitative trait locus (QTL) explaining more than 70% of the phenotypic variation for the trait. In this research, we identified candidate genes underlying this QTL through molecular breeding, mapping, and transcriptome sequencing. Introgression mapping was performed using two related near-isogenic lines in which a region located on soybean chromosome 3 required for iron efficiency was identified. The region corresponds to the previously reported iron efficiency QTL. The location was further confirmed through QTL mapping conducted in this study. Transcriptome sequencing and quantitative real-time-polymerase chain reaction identified two genes encoding transcription factors within the region that were significantly induced in soybean roots under iron stress. The two induced transcription factors were identified as homologs of the subgroup lb basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) genes that are known to regulate the strategy I response in Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana). Resequencing of these differentially expressed genes unveiled a significant deletion within a predicted dimerization domain. We hypothesize that this deletion disrupts the Fe-DEFICIENCY-INDUCED TRANSCRIPTION FACTOR (FIT)/bHLH heterodimer that has been shown to induce known iron acquisition genes.


Background: Asthma is a common problem all around the world with variable prevalence ranging from 1%–18% in different age and geographical distribution. There are proximately 300 million affected individuals. There are growing prevalence and morbidity, due to asthma associated with pregnancy. The course of asthma in pregnancy is unpredictable. Methods: 2400 consecutive pregnant women attending the antenatal clinic of S.P. Medical College and AG of Hospitals, Bikaner, were screened using asthma questionnaire translated in Hindi based on the questionnaire developed for International Union against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease. 52 patients diagnosed as asthma were subjected for PFT and classified according to clinical severity as per GINA guidelines, 2006. All subjects were followed till delivery and postpartum charts reviewed to see neonate and maternal outcome. Results: The prevalence of asthma during pregnancy was 2.1%, among them, 25 (48.1%) were categorized as having intermittent asthma, 6 (11.5%) with mild persistent asthma, 10 (19.2%) with moderate persistent asthma and 11 (21.2%) having severe persistent asthma. During the course of pregnancy, 36% had no change in the symptomatology, while (32.5%) experienced improvement and (32.5%) of worsening of asthma. 22 (42.31%) women were newly diagnosed during our study. There was no significant adverse maternal and fetal outcome in asthmatic group compared to control. Conclusions: Asthma is an under diagnosed and under treated disorder, especially during pregnancy and overall morbidity of asthma among women & neonates does not change during pregnancy.


The concept of character education is important one for everyone in our society. The issue of character affects business, schools, law enforcement, and even churches. It is particularly important for families who are trying to raise their children the best they can, and schools which are seeking better means to improve student morals and academic performance. This study sought to determine if a character education program taught to parents would affect family dynamics (measured by three subscales of the PCRI) and student academic achievement (measured by grades in the four core subjects). The sample consisted of second through fifth grade parents of a suburban/rural elementary school in a southeastern state (n = 24 in each group). A quasi-experimental nonequivalent control group design was employed. The character education class was taught at the beginning of the third quarter of the school year. Data was analyzed using one-way between-subjects ANOVA for parent relationship sub-scales at the end of quarter three of the school year. The results did not show a statistically significant difference in the means of the three subscales from pre-test to post-test. For grades, one-way withinsubjects ANOVAs were used. There was no significant difference in the grades for either the control or the experimental group. Future studies should consider increasing the treatment exposure, using different and larger populations, and basing character education programs explicitly based on Christian ideals.


While the building and printing industries flourished in pre-Civil War Columbus, manufacturing languished. The manufacturing base grew and diversified from 1820 to 1850. Few unions emerged, and those that did seldom lasted long. During the Civil War business and manufacturing increased to serve the camps and prisons established in Columbus. When the war ended, Columbus's workers launched the first concerted effort to build a labor movement. In August 1869 the arrival of the first train of the Hocking Valley Railroad introduced a new chapter in the city's industrial history. By World War I, industry had migrated out of the downtown area. Workers were excluded from a major say in city affairs, confined to overcrowded and inadequately served neighborhoods, and trapped in low-paying, dirty, demanding jobs. The characteristic pattern of the labor movement until the 1930s emerged: workers unionized during prosperity and retreated with recessions. World War I stimulated the economy; peace brought a depression. But because of the city's diverse economic base, it did not feel the depression as severely as other locations; nor did it experience the prosperity of the 1920s to the same degree as other communities; hence, increasingly, the word "moderate" described all national trends as they applied to Columbus. World War II had the greatest impact upon Columbus's labor movement. Public employment doubled, and the manufacturing sector expanded dramatically. Curtiss-Wright's air force factory work force was unionized shortly after it began production in 1941. For the past 2 decades, the challenge for organized labor in central Ohio has been to launch new initiatives in the face of a dramatically changing social and economic environment. (Contains 27 related readings.)


The synchronization of cell proliferation and cytodifferentiation between dental epithelial and mesenchymal cells is required for the morphogenesis of teeth with the correct functional shapes and optimum sizes. Epiprofin (Epfn), a transcription factor belonging to the Sp family, regulates dental epithelial cell proliferation and is essential for ameloblast and odontoblast differentiation. Epfn deficiency results in the lack of enamel and ironically the formation of extra teeth. We investigated the mechanism underlying the functions of Epfn in tooth development through the creation of transgenic mice expressing Epfn under the control of an epithelial cell‐specific K5 promoter (K5‐Epfn). We found that these K5‐Epfn mice developed abnormally shaped incisors and molars and formed fewer molars in the mandible. Remarkably, ameloblasts differentiated ectopically and enamel was formed on the lingual side of the K5‐Epfn incisors. By contrast, ameloblasts and enamel were found only on the labial side in wild‐type mice, as Follistatin (Fst) expressed in the lingual side inhibits BMP4 signaling necessary for ameloblast differentiation. We showed that Epfn transfection into the dental epithelial cell line SF2 abrogated the inhibitory activity of Fst and promoted ameloblast differentiation of SF2 cells. We found that Epfn induced FGF9 in dental epithelial cells and this dental epithelial cell‐derived FGF9 promoted dental mesenchymal cell proliferation via the FGF receptor 1c (FGFR1c). Taken together, these results suggest that Epfn preserves the balance between cell proliferation and cytodifferentiation in dental epithelial and mesenchymal cells during normal tooth development and morphogenesis. © 2016 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.


Medical writing is a science not art. It is very systematic and has a defined protocol 1 .There are two types of medical writers, both write under compulsion and both have a phobia of medical writing. The first type is that of researchers, who are involved in some form of research, basic or applied. Every researcher at some stage has to present the work in written form. A person who has done some original work is always willing to present it and remains anxious till the work is published. However it is not necessary that every good researcher is a good writer. The second type is of writers who have to write under compulsion, but have nothing to write about. These are the ones who need publications for promotion or for selection. Be it a post of a registrar in a clinical ward or a promotion to senior professorial appointments, there is a minimum requirement of publications. Everyone is therefore in a rush to publish something. It is this second type mainly that is involved in some sort of fraud. Just about five years back the trend was to insert names into others studies on special requests. Strange combinations of authors from contrasting disciplines were seen in that era. Now a number of authors do not waste time in requesting others for an authorship, nor do they take risk of getting embarrassed by getting their name as author on a paper from some other discipline. The ease in literature review through the net sources has brought a drastic change in the trend. Gone are the days when innovative ideas were published. All what one has to do now is to learn the art of using keywords for a net search. The keywords open the lock of literature. There are abstracts and full text articles available on every discipline and topic. It is very easy to copy an idea or even whole article published in some remote journal of some far flung part of the world, make a few amendments and send it to a journal in some other part of the world. However there is always a risk of being caught. An intelligent person, therefore, collects bits and pieces from different articles to reduce chances of being caught. This amalgam article is even easier to catch as there is no continuity of thoughts. The trend is on the rise. There are a few who are ignorant about the rules for quoting references to other works. These authors are victim to their ignorance about what constitutes the writing and documenting of a paper. 2  Out of this ignorance they copy paragraphs upon paragraphs from other studies, although the recommended method is to write the reference in one's own words and not to copy words of work being referred to. This type of plagiarism is easy to catch as the poor author gives the references of the articles from where the lines have been taken and a good reviewer always can check it. The reputation of medical journals is built over many decades of hard work. The standing depends on the trust of readers. 3  The readers start trusting journals only when they feel that the works published are valid and reliable. The editors therefore try to select the best quality original works. The only tool for high quality selection is high quality peer review. A beginner can learn the style and pattern of medical writing from the articles published in standard journals. All the medical journals publish instructions for the authors that contain detailed information about all the components of a medical paper. The international committee of medical journal editors has displayed a comprehensive document on its website (www.icmje.org) that can help everyone in writing quality articles. Nowadays the editors of medical journals see wonderful works being submitted. The methodology is excellent, the presentation is marvelous and there is very little that a reviewer can object upon. The rejection rate of articles at most of the journals is going down. Every article is like a gem and is difficult to reject on the common grounds of statistical or subject review. A general consensus is developing that the improvement in articles is because of increasing awareness about importance of research methodology, biostatistics and medical writing. In my opinion one of the reasons for this sudden increase in the frequency of quality articles is plagiarism, to be exact 'intelligent plagiarism'. Plagiarism is 'to publish borrowed or copied literary work as original'. Be it 'intelligent' or 'ignorant', plagiarism is a serious ethical violation. Plagiarism can never be eliminated one hundred percent, but the editors and reviewers can reduce it by devising a strategy against it. The manual method is to go through the article carefully. If the author has used 'cut' and 'paste' to create the work then there is no flow of thoughts. This incoherence of thoughts generally raises an alarm in the mind of an experienced reviewer. Such articles must be checked for plagiarism by using proper keywords for net search of matching articles. The net has made plagiarism easy but on the other hand it has made it easy to trace plagiarism. 4 . The same articles and abstracts that were accessible to the 'plagiarist' are also available to the reviewer. It takes extra effort but using good keywords the net based plagiarism can be easily caught, if not at the time of review on some other day, if not by reviewer then by some reader. The example is an interesting analysis based upon Medline search that found and reported many plagiarized articles in 1998. 5 There is an urgent need to recognize the problem of plagiarism in articles submitted to medical journals. The problem is actually bigger than the editors perceive, it is just the tip of iceberg that we are able to see. We have to make decisions at the international level. Peer review has to be revolutionized. We should go beyond checking spellings, methodology, statistical analysis and ethical aspects. There is a need to add relevant points about plagiarism in the checklists for reviewers. There is a need for us to be bold enough to black list authors involved in plagiarism for upto 5 years. There is a need to create a global blacklist that can be displayed at the websites of 'World Association of Medical Editors' (WAME) and 'International committee of medical journal editors' (ICMJE) for reference of all the medical journals in the world. There are a number of softwares being used by universities to catch plagiarism in the students. We must develop software to catch plagiarism in the articles submitted to medical journals. The medical world has already entered into the era of 'Evidence Based Medicine'. The medical journals are the source of evidence. If we the editors do not stop plagiarism right now we will be responsible for 'Plagiarism Based Evidence' in the era of 'Evidence Based Medicine'.


Why do historians so often talk about objectivity, empathy, and fair-mindedness? What roles do such personal qualities play in historical studies? And why does it make sense to call them virtues rather than skills or habits? Historians' Virtues is the first publication to explore these questions in some depth. With case studies from across the centuries, the Element identifies major discontinuities in how and why historians talked about the marks of a good scholar. At the same time, it draws attention to long-term legacies that last until today. Virtues were, and are, invoked in debates over the historian's task. They reveal how historians position themselves vis-à-vis political regimes, religious traditions, or neoliberal university systems. More importantly, they show that historical study not only requires knowledge and technical skills, but also makes demands on the character of its practitioners. This title is also available as Open Access on Cambridge Core.


The purpose of all companies is to create wealth; they are held to ensure a profitability at least equal to the average cost of their capital to be enough with refunding to the loans and remuneration to the shareholders. Those are sometimes faced to a whole of profitable projects where the decision to invest or give up depends closely on the limitation of the financial availabilities. According to their resources, these companies seek to constitute a portfolio of projects which maximizes their incomes. In order to avoid the disadvantages relating to the traditional methods, we apply the modern theory of the wallet. This theory, developped by Harry Mr. Markowitz and intended initially for the financial markets, propose to the company an optimal portfolio ensuring a good combination "value –risk" (maximal value – minimal risk) under specified constraints. This new approach takes account of the risk. As application, we used this theory to constitute an optimal portfolio of 16 E&P projects. And we propose the use of this technique to the projects of exploration of Sonatrach, and in particular to the gas projects of the South-west of Algeria considering their characteristic.


The aim of this thesis was to identify a candidate material for spin-triplet superconductivity with a two-component order parameter. This unconventional superconducting state is thought to allow for exotic quantum states such as Majorana fermions. A wide survey was taken into potential candidate materials, and UAu2 was chosen for in-depth investigation. This little-studied hexagonal heavy fermion compound's unusual resistivity behaviour, combined with a series of interesting features in magnetisation and heat capacity, make it an extremely interesting material to study. The phase diagram of UAu2 was determined with measurements of heat capacity, resistivity, magnetisation and magnetoresistance on the first single crystalline samples of this material. No superconductivity was detected. Instead, a range of magnetic phase transitions were observed, which were further investigated with muon-spin relaxation experiments and time-of-flight neutron powder diffraction. UAu2 was found to undergo a transition to an incommensurate antiferromagnetic state (q1 = (1/3, 1/3, δ)) below TN = 43.5 K, but then develops signatures of weak ferromagnetism below T = 20 K. The ferromagnetism coincides with a 2q magnetic structure, with a coexistence of q1 and q2=(1/3,1/3,0). The magnetic structures of both phases were found to be most likely amplitudemodulated, with moments aligned along the crystallographic c-axis. A transition to a ferromagnetic state was observed in magnetic fields applied parallel to the c-axis. TN was found to remain almost constant in applied magnetic fields up to 9 T, while hydrostatic pressures of up to 6 kbar weakly suppress the antiferromagnetic transition temperature. The field-induced transition was found to be strongly pressure-dependent, shifting to higher applied fields with increasing pressure. The residual resistivity of UAu2 samples prepared by both the Czochralski


Within the related language teaching and learning, various terms have been assigned to Virtual Worlds and similar environments. One of these terms is Second Life. Learning English for EFL learners have been always challenging task. Second Life is a phenomenon raising interest many educators around the world, with many educational and institutions experimenting and offering classes in Second Life for enhancing their students language skills due to its immersive and interactive environment. Its interactive interfaces provide students with realistic experiences and simulated everyday situation in 3D virtual worlds for more authentic and physical practice, students' awareness of the target culture, knowledge construction and learning. On the other hand, its drawbacks can be categorized as financial, technical and user-related once.This paper offers a broad vision of potential benefits and challenges associated with using Second Life as educational tool develop students' language learning. It provides a definition of Second Life as well as demonstrates the affordances that Second Life offers for language learning.


Probabilistic risk assessments were developed in the 1970s as consistent approaches to assessing public health protection by nuclear-facility safety measures. Risk-informed initiatives resulted in the characterization of processes that produce extreme events (hazards) independently from the detrimental effects of such events on people or environment from facility damage (risks), as well as quantifying uncertainties. For example, large dams are designed to perform without uncontrolled reservoir release under seismic motion with 1/10,000 annual frequency. Geologic inputs for seismic hazards include ground motion sources and site response. Probabilistic flood hazards analyses are emerging in response to uncertainty about the effects of climate change, aging flood control structures, and acceptance of probabilistic seismic hazard analyses. Geologic inputs for flood hazard have focused on paleoflood hydrology from slackwater deposits and boulder bars. Procedures are available for calculating probable maximum floods, produced from the most severe combination of meteorological and hydrologic conditions, but not for assessing annual frequencies of such events. Flood routing, the domain of hydrologists and hydraulic engineers, typically stipulates channel stability. What if channels erode during extreme floods, watershed slopes are susceptible to landslides, or landslides reduce channel cross sections? Hydrologists and hydraulic engineers evaluate flood flow and water elevation effects at facilities, whereas engineering geologists need to assess slope response and mobilization of debris under extreme precipitation. Keeping slope assessments consistent with probabilistic approaches is challenging. A real location provides a hypothetical example to illustrate selected aspects of the geological approach and to utilize the results of some available tools.


Abstract The 5th generation new radio (5G NR) standards create both enormous challenges and potential to address the spatio-spectral-temporal agility of wireless transmission. In the framework of a research unit at TU Ilmenau, various concepts were studied, including both approaches toward integrated circuits and distributed receiver front-ends (FEs). We report here on the latter approach, aiming at the proof-of-principle of the constituting FEs suitable for later modular extension. A millimeter-wave agile multi-beam FE with an integrated 4 by 1 antenna array for 5G wireless communications was designed, manufactured, and verified by measurements. The polarization is continuously electronically adjustable and the directions of signal reception are steerable by setting digital phase shifters. On purpose, these functions were realized by analog circuits, and digital signal processing was not applied. The agile polarization is created inside the analog, real-time capable FE in a novel manner and any external circuitry is omitted. The microstrip patch antenna array integrated into this module necessitated elaborate measurements within the scope of FE characterization, as the analog circuit and antenna form a single entity and cannot be assessed separately. Link measurements with broadband signals were successfully performed and analyzed in detail to determine the error vector magnitude contributions of the FE.


The primary purpose of the study is to examine farmers' participation in the Persaluan
Pelani Pemakai Air (P3A) pump irrigation project in Sub-district (Kecamatan)
Haurgeulis of District (Kabupalen) Indramayu in West Java, Indonesia. The specific
objectives are: 1) to study the origin and organisation of the P3A pump irrigation
project; 2) to examine actual participation in the planning and implementation of the
project; 3) to identify factors influencing payment of irrigation service fees; and 4) to
identify the obstacles encountered in encouraging farmers to participate in the project.
This study uses two approaches, qualitative (for Objective One, Two, and Four) and
quantitative (for Objective Tree). Three data collection techniques were applied,
namely: survey, in-depth interview, and direct observation. Survey technique was used
to get representative quantitative data obtained from farmers who were selected
randomly. In-depth interview with farmers was to obtain information on the
implementation of the P3A pump irrigation project including their role in the activities
of the project, while in-depth interview with informants was to get confirmation of
project implementation, in general, and to obtain information related to every agency involved. Direct observation was employed to obtain information on the situation of the
desas including physical description and farmer' behaviour.
The study showed that, in general, farmers' participation in the pump irrigation project
was low both in the planning or implementation stages. In both activities the farmers
did not show strong willingness although there were some bodies that supported them
with loans and technical assistance in running the project. Their participation also
remained low although the YBSD encouraged the farmers to involve them at most
activities. Their participation could not even appear strong despite the emergence of a
mobiliser who struggled to build pump irrigation. Although the initiative to build pump
irrigation came from farmers, they could not commit their wish by not involving
themselves all the way.
There were some reasons why farmers' participation was low. The main reason was
addressed to the existence of some obstacles related to it. There were three sources of
obstacles that impeded farmers' participation, namely those that came from the project
recipients, poor encouragement from local leadership, and the weakness of the
implementing committee. The next reason for low participation was the low education
level of the farmers, since the study found out that the lower the education level the
farmers had, the lower their participation would be. In fact, most farmers were not even
educated. On the other hand, small land farmers were not strong enough to raise
participation although the study results showed that the small farmers had the potential
to do so. This was because the small farmers faced hard challenges to raise their
participation since factors that impeded participation were too strong to overcome.


We report on the first building of an active spectral narrowing mechanism in a pulsed, multiline optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on a novel aperiodically poled lithium niobate (APPLN) device constructed using the aperiodic optical superlattice technique. The APPLN device functions simultaneously in the system as a multi-channel optical parametric down converter (OPDC) and an electro-optic (EO) gain spectral filter working on the corresponding (multiple) signal bands. When the APPLN OPO was installed in a diode pumped Nd:YVO4 laser system, highly narrowed dual-wavelength signal lines (at 1540 and 1550 nm) were observed at the output of the system through EO control of the APPLN. Correspondingly, an enhancement of the power spectral density of the source by a factor of ~7.8 with respect to the system operated in passive mode was found.


Abstract. Palaeoclimate data hold the unique promise of providing a long-term
perspective on climate change and as such can serve as an important
benchmark for climate models. However, palaeoclimate data have generally
been archived with insufficient standardisation and metadata to allow for
transparent and consistent uncertainty assessment in an automated way.
Thanks to improved computation capacity, transient palaeoclimate simulations
are now possible, calling for data products containing multi-parameter time
series rather than information on a single parameter for a single time
slice. Efforts are underway to simulate a complete glacial–interglacial
cycle using general circulation models (https://www.palmod.de/, last access: 6 May 2020), and to confront these
simulations with palaeoclimate data, we have compiled a multi-parameter
marine palaeoclimate data synthesis that contains time series spanning 0 to
130 000 years ago. We present the first version of the data product that
focuses exclusively on time series for which a robust chronology based on
benthic foraminifera δ18O and radiocarbon dating is available.
The product contains 896 time series of eight palaeoclimate parameters from
143 individual sites, each associated with rich metadata, age–depth model
ensembles, and information to refine and update the chronologies. This
version contains 205 time series of benthic foraminifera δ18O;
169 of benthic foraminifera δ13C; 131 of seawater temperature;
174 and 119 of planktonic foraminifera δ18O and δ13C; and 44, 38 and 16 of carbonate, organic carbon and biogenic silica
content, respectively. The data product is available in three formats (R,
LiPD and netCDF) facilitating use across different software and operating
systems and can be downloaded at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.908831 (Jonkers et al., 2019). This
data descriptor presents our data synthesis strategy and describes the
contents and format of the data product in detail. It ends with a set of
recommendations for data archiving.


The main conclusions from the plenary sessions of the Policy Forum can be summarised as follows: 1) Focus must still remain on achieving the MDGs; 2) Developing country ownership of the new framework is essential and the approach must therefore be Southern-led; 3) The obligations of the developed countries towards the achievement of the MDGs need clarification; 4) International income and wealth redistribution should be a 'right' ('automatic' rather than discretionary) including international redistributive taxes; 5) International inequality and its reduction should be given more emphasis; 6) Ethical and moral perspectives need emphasising within a global social justice, rather than a purely indicator-driven, approach; 7) 'Fragile' states and global uncertainty need special treatment; 8) The 'quality' of MDG achievements, rather than 'quantities', needs emphasising; 9) The science and technology capacity of developing countries is critically important; 10) Processes which deliver the quantitative indicators (MDGs) require more emphasis – such as Global Governance. 11) Serious research is needed to ensure the debate is well informed.


Using data from a large U.S. retail employer, we examine how demographic differences between manager and subordinate affect the subordinate's rate of quits, dismissals, and promotions. We distinguish between two effects that demographic differences can produce: (1) the effects of dissimilarity per se, and (2) the effects of role breaking where the differences violate traditional social roles and status norms (e.g., non-whites managing whites). Our results suggest that both dissimilarity and role breaking can have statistically significant effects. Race: Dismissals and Promotions: Blacks and Hispanics with dissimilar managers are much more likely to be fired, and less likely to be promoted. We interpret these as dissimilarity effects. By contrast, white employees with non-white managers are less likely to be dismissed than whites with white managers, and more likely to be promoted. This suggests role breaking leads non-white managers to defer to white employees. Quits: While dissimilarity surprisingly has no effect on black quit rates, it does cause a moderate increase in Hispanic quits. Racial differences also cause a moderate rise in white quit rates. We expected the effect for whites to be larger because it is the sum of dissimilarity and role-breaking effects. Further analysis suggests the effect for whites is suppressed by pre-hire sorting; whites who dislike having non-white managers tend to avoid working for non-whites in the first place. Age: Age dissimilarity per se does not have effects. However, role breaking does; employees who are at least 20 percent older than their managers are much less likely to be dismissed, and more likely to be promoted. Gender: Gender differences have modest, adverse effects on all three employment outcomes.


Generally, dissolved oxygen (DO) and biological oxygen demand (BOD) of waste water sample are determined at a particular temperature by the well known WinklerÂ's volumetric method. The DO of water can also be determined by membrane electrodes (Clarke method), polarographic, galvanic type and luminescent optode methods; and each technique measurement has its own limitations. In the present investigation, we have used new potentiometric technique to determine the DO and BOD of lakes, ponds, rivers and industrialwaste waters. The technique is simple and inexpensive and the results obtained are comparable to any other methods and are highly reproducible; and is need of the day for environmental monitoring of waters.


In these days of reengineering health care and downsizing many health organizations, a great deal of attention is given to means of reducing the work force. Not nearly as much attention is paid to the survivors of a staff reduction and the problems that arise in the wake of a generally demotivating activity. However, it is the survivors--those who remain after downsizing--that will have the greatest influence on the organization's future performance. Therefore, the survivors must be remotivated and reinvigorated. Such is the task of surviving supervisors and middle managers, and their primary tools are communication, education, and people-centered management.


Rigorous monitoring and evaluation of wildlife population performance because of management or disturbance often relies upon the handling and marking of animals. Such studies must assume that marking animals does not affect their behavior or demography. We examined survival of greater sage-grouse Centrocercus urophasianus post wildfire in southeastern Oregon, USA. We observed extremely high mortality rates early in the study and questioned if our global positioning systems (GPS) transmitters were negatively affecting survival of adult greater sage-grouse. Thus, in situ we captured and randomly assigned additional grouse to either a GPS or VHF transmitter and examine patterns of mortality and estimated survival to evaluate if there were in fact transmitter effects on this important vital rate. Our results indicated that regardless of instrument type large wildfire had negative effects on monthly survival the first year after the fire. However, point estimates indicated that greater sage-grouse fitted with GPS transmitters had approximately 5% lower annual survival than VHF tagged birds, but although there was relatively large overlap in confidence limits, likely caused by small sample sizes. Further research is needed to disentangle potential confounding effects of GPS transmitters on survival impacts of grouse in association with large disturbance.


Metabolic and biosynthetic pathways drive cell growth and proliferation in response to nutrients and growth factors. Highly proliferating cells utilize glucose and glutamine to fuel biosynthetic processes. These two nutrients serve as substrates for the glutamine:fructose-6-phosphate amidotransferase (GFAT1), the rate-limiting enzyme in the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway (HBP), which ultimately produces UDP-GlcNAc that is necessary for protein glycosylation. Despite a role for the HBP in insulin resistance and lifespan extension, the mechanisms underlying GFAT1 regulation in vivo has remained elusive. We found mTOR complex 2 (mTORC2) controls flux through the HBP via regulation of GFAT1 expression levels in response to glucose. In the absence of mTORC2, GFAT1 expression is reduced and highly sensitive to glucose starvation. Furthermore, UDP-GlcNAc is highly diminished and glycosylation of specific transmembrane proteins such as CD147 is defective upon mTORC2 disruption. However, mTORC2 is also required for glycolysis and other biosynthetic pathways whose metabolites feed into the HBP. Thus, although exogenous UDP-GlcNAc can partially rescue glycosylation defects, it does not rescue the metabolic deficiencies in the absence of mTORC2. Like GFAT1, key enzymes of biosynthetic pathways have decreased expression in mTORC2-disrupted cells. Thus, by regulating levels of metabolic enzymes, mTORC2 coordinates flux through biosynthetic pathways in response to glucose availability. Our findings have implications for therapeutic targeting of mTORC2 in insulin resistance and cancer metabolism. Citation Format: Estela Jacinto, Joseph Moloughney, Thomas Lynch, Chang-Chih Wu, Olufunmilola Ibironke, Aixa Navia, Po-Chien Chou, Sisi Zhang, Joshua Rabinowitz, Guy Werlen. mTORC2 enhances flux through the hexosamine biosynthetic pathway by regulation of GFAT1 expression. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 1150. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-1150


This article presents the result that fluctuations and higher moments of a state, by themselves, do not imply quantum corrections in structure functions of constrained systems. Moment corrections are isolated from other types of quantum effects, such as factor-ordering choices and regularization, by introducing a new condition with two parts: (i) having a direct (or faithful) quantization of the classical structure functions, (ii) free of factor-ordering ambiguities. In particular, it is assumed that the classical constraints can be quantized in an anomaly free way, so that properties of the resulting constraint algebras can be derived. If the two-part condition is not satisfied, effective constraints can still be evaluated, but quantum effects may be stronger. Consequences for canonical quantum gravity, whose structure functions encode space–time structure, are discussed. In particular, deformed algebras found in models of loop quantum gravity provide reliable information even in the Planck regime.