A pair of non-empty subsets $(W,W')$ in an abelian group $G$ is a complement pair if $W+W'=G$. $W'$ is said to be minimal to $W$ if $W+(W'\setminus \{w'\}) \neq G, \forall \,w'\in W'$. In general, given an arbitrary subset in a group, the existence of minimal complement(s) depends on its structure. The dual problem asks that given such a set, if it is a minimal complement to some subset. We study tightness property of complement pairs $(W,W')$ such that both $W$ and $W'$ are minimal to each other. These are termed co-minimal pairs and we show that any non-empty finite set in an arbitrary free abelian group belongs to some co-minimal pair. We also construct infinite sets forming co-minimal pairs. Finally, we remark that a result of Kwon on the existence of minimal self-complements in $\mathbb{Z}$, also holds in any abelian group.


Objectives: This study aimed to investigate the effect of Tecar therapy on neuropathy symptoms and tibial nerve conduction velocity in individuals with diabetes. Patients and methods: The single-blind, randomized, sham-controlled clinical trial was conducted between January 2019 and October 2019. Twenty-four type 2 diabetics (8 males, 16 females; mean age: 60.4±8.9 years; range, 40 to 78 years) with peripheral neuropathy were randomly allocated to control (n=12) and study (n=12) groups. The study group received the capacitive Tecar therapy with 10 to 30% intensity and infrared radiation in 10 sessions. The controls received the same protocol with zero intensity. The neuropathy symptoms and nerve conduction velocity were evaluated at baseline, after 10 sessions, and six weeks after the end of sessions. Results: There were no significant differences in variables (p>0.05). In this way, the homogeneity of the data variables was confirmed. Moreover, the results of two-way mixed analysis of variance showed that improvement of neuropathy symptoms in the study group was significantly more than controls in all stages (p<0.001). After 10 sessions, the results of post hoc analysis showed that the neuropathy symptoms and tibial nerve conduction velocity were significantly improved in both groups (p<0.001). The improvements were still present at six weeks in the study group (p<0.05). However, there was no change in these outcomes after six weeks in the control group (p>0.05). Conclusion: Tecar therapy could improve neuropathy symptoms and tibial nerve conduction velocity in diabetic individuals with peripheral neuropathy. Therefore, the use of this method to control the symptoms of diabetic patients can be recommended.


Separation of instrument sounds from polyphonic music recordings is a desirable signal processing functionality with a wide variety of applications in music production, music video games and music information retrieval. In general, sound source separation algorithms attempt to exploit those characteristics of audio signals that differentiate one from the other. Many algorithms have studied spectral magnitude as a means for separation tasks. Here we propose the exploration of phase information of musical instrument signals as an alternative dimension in discriminating sound signals originating from different sources. Three cases are presented: (1) Phase contours of musical instruments notes as potential separation features. (2) Resolving overlapping harmonics using phase coupling properties of musical instruments. (3) Harmonic percussive decomposition using calculated radian ranges for each frequency bin.


Objective: Previous research has suggested that metabolic syndrome is more prevalent among patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Given the scarcity of comparative research on these disorders, this study aims to compare the prevalence of metabolic syndrome in two diagnostic groups and to identify sociodemographic or clinical factors related to metabolic syndrome. Methods: A total of 235 patients diagnosed with schizophrenia (n=160) and bipolar disorder (n=75) and were being followed up by a metabolic monitoring program in a specialized outpatient clinic and using antipsychotic therapy for at least eight weeks have participated in this cross-sectional study. Patients were diagnosed with metabolic syndrome according to National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel-III (NCEP ATP-III) criteria. Sociodemographic and clinical data including metabolic records were collected retrospectively by reviewing the patients' medical records. Results: The overall prevalence of meta-bolic syndrome was 32.3% and waist circumference was the most frequent individual component with a prevalence of 60%. There were no differences in the prevalence of metabolic syndrome between schizophrenia and bipolar patients. Age, body mass index (BMI), and use of certain types of atypical antipsychotics were found related to metabolic syndrome. Conclusion: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome and its components among patients with severe mental illness is alarming irrespective of their diagnoses. Thus, metabolic screening is crucial especially for high-risk groups.


The raison d'etre of the present paper is to identify, from the point of view primarily of practitioners, the principal problems of effectiveness affecting the work of the Court with a view to offer practical and realistic solutions intended to improve upon the quality, cost and expeditiousness of ICC proceedings. The following recommendations are made in order to enhance the effectiveness of the Court while, at the same time, preserving the fairness of the proceedings. This study is also intended to serve a spurring function by moving the debate over the performance of the ICC to a place where shortcomings affecting the Court are called by their name and where fresh ideas and possible solutions are being discussed openly and candidly to try to resolve those challenges. The difficulties affecting the Court's effective fulfillment of its mandate are of different types. The present paper has focused on those thought to have the greatest prejudicial effect on the ability of the Court to operate at the level expected of a permanent international criminal court. These primary areas of concern have been identified by clusters as follows: Investigations at the ICC; The Confirmation Process; Disclosure at the ICC; Presentation and Admission of Evidence; Interlocutory Appeals; Orality; Victim's Participation before the ICC; Defense before the ICC and Issues of Effectiveness; Institution Building and Administration; and Cooperation and Witness Protection.


Two-dimensional principle component analysis (2DPCA) has been widely used for face image representation and recognition. But it is sensitive to the presence of outliers. To alleviate this problem, we propose a novel robust 2DPCA, namely 2DPCA with F-norm minimization (F-2DPCA), which is intuitive and directly derived from 2DPCA. In F-2DPCA, distance in spatial dimensions (attribute dimensions) is measured in F-norm, while the summation over different data points uses 1-norm. Thus it is robust to outliers and rotational invariant as well. To solve F-2DPCA, we propose a fast iterative algorithm, which has a closed-form solution in each iteration, and prove its convergence. Experimental results on face image databases illustrate its effectiveness and advantages.


This article, written by Special Publications Editor Adam Wilson, contains highlights of paper OTC 27987, "Subsea-Fiber Wet-Mate Connectors: Achieving the Balance Between Consistent Optical Performance, Product Cost, and Compact Size," by Elaine Saxton and Helyson Parente, SPE, Siemens Subsea, prepared for the 2017 Offshore Technology Conference Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, 24–26 October. The paper has not been peer reviewed. Copyright 2017 Offshore Technology Conference. Reproduced by permission.
 As the hunger for data grows, long stepouts become more common, and fiber communication becomes standard, the use of fiber in subsea oil and gas fields is set to increase. While optical loss along fiber itself is low and data-collection possibilities are high, these applications will only be fully realized if wet-mate fiber connectors can achieve high optical performance consistently. Excellent results are achieved with compact design, a modular approach, and an emphasis on cleanliness.
 Introduction
 Wet-mate fiber connectors have been on the market for years and are used increasingly in the subsea oil and gas industry. While they have been moderately successful, the technical challenges should not be underestimated. Industry specifications demand high levels of optical performance and extensive qualification programs. The balance between performance and cost of the finished product has always been difficult to achieve.
 Subsea fields are seeing longer stepouts, which are suited to using fiber as the key communication network. Furthermore, the subsea industry is seeing an ongoing drive to use fiber sensors in downhole systems (e.g., distributed temperature sensing), allowing greater amounts of data to be transmitted topside. Other applications such as direct-current and fiber-optic distribution and pipe-in-pipe heating are also emerging. For reasons of flexibility and practicality, the wet-mate fiber connector plays an important role in all of these.
 Technical Challenges
 The key technical challenges are a mixture of mechanical design, operation and maintenance, and operational environment.
 Mechanical Design. The core of a standard single-mode fiber is 9 µm, and it must be completely aligned in every dimension for optical performance to be achieved.
 Manufacturing, Operation, and Maintenance. Cleanliness of the optical ferrule faces on every single mate is crucial. Without it, performance is degraded or lost. In the worst case, permanent damage is transferred by a dirty ferrule face mating with a clean one.
 Operational Environment. A wet-mate connector is a sealed, oil-filled, pressure-balanced mechanical device that will be handled in harsh topside conditions in extreme temperatures before being deployed to sea depths of up to 4,000 m.
 Operation and Maintenance. High optical performance is required on all lines for up to 1,000 mates. Subsea connectors typically are mated only a few times in deployment and lifetime operation, but the same connectors are used for testing topside where they see many more mates.
 Compact Size. Space on subsea equipment structures is always at a premium, and designs always need to be as efficient with space as possible.


Atopic dermatitis (AD), or atopic eczema, is the most common, chronic inflammatory disease among children in industrialized countries. We still lack knowledge of its pathophysiology and in particular the role of allergy as both an eliciting factor for disease expression and for disease activity. This article describes the clinical symptoms of the disease and its qualitatively different aspects. AD cannot be understood as being induced by one factor only, e.g. allergy, and this is important when planning treatment strategies. It is also important to realize the very wide range of disease intensity: from subclinical, or latent AD, in which only a few symptoms are present and thus which prevents a clear diagnosis of AD, to its most severe forms including erythroderma. It's unknown aetiology, the wide range in symptomatology, and the fluctuating course (including the many eliciting factors) form the background for our diagnostic and therapeutic difficulties of atopic eczema. AD is prevalent in childhood, but the atopic trait continues, not only for later respiratory allergies, but also for skin diseases in adulthood (such as AD itself or the frequent irritant contact dermatitis of the hands). A child with an acute and first attack of AD is therefore a challenge to the child, its parents and – certainly − to the doctor. However, after stressing the chronicity of the disease, it is equally important to assure the parents that this disease is, in most cases, controllable through correct treatment and that it has a good prognosis: It is not a 'life sentence', but a controllable disease in an otherwise healthy child.


This is a report on recent progress concerning the interactions between derived algebraic geometry and deformation quantization. We present the notion of derived algebraic stacks, of shifted symplectic and Poisson structures, as well as the construction of deformation quantization of shifted Poisson structures. As an application we propose a general construction of the quantization of the moduli space of G-bundles on an oriented space of arbitrary dimension.


This book unveils the inheritance of a fascinating city. Christened "Constantinople" by Constantine the Great, the city successively served as the capital of the Byzantine and Ottoman empires and commanded a key position between Occident and Orient for more than sixteen centuries. The wealth of cultural treasures that characterize the face of Istanbul today reflects this rich history. The Hagia Sophia stems from the early Christian era; the Middle Ages bequeathed us churches and monasteries rich in mosaics as well as illuminated manuscripts and icons; and the cultural renaissance following the conquest of the city by Mehmed II in 1453 brought magnificent palaces and mosques, calligraphic treasures, and book and miniature paintings inspired by Persian and Arabic forms. The buildings of the Ottoman baroque period and nineteenth-century architecture complete the exceptional cityscape Istanbul boasts today. Richly illustrated and studded with selected literary documents, this book conveys a living experience of Constantinople in all its various aspects.


Events in the wake of the 'credit crunch' can be understood only against institutional structures within which interdependent monetary and fiscal policy are administered. In the Eurozone, the attempt to keep a central monetary authority (together with its associated national central banks) independent from 17 diverse fiscal authorities was flawed. When sovereign debt approaches unmanageable levels, the Maastricht Treaty presents austerity as the single option. In the UK, the electorate has an opportunity to choose between monetary financing (inflation) and fiscal consolidation (austerity). Policy choices within the Eurozone and the UK are set against Keynes's focus on unemployment and more recent concerns to retain (or restore) price and/or financial stability.


Background: The objective of this study was to evaluate the association between growing up barefoot or shod and the development of motor performance during childhood and adolescence. Methods: Habitual barefoot and shod children and adolescents between 6 and 18 years were recruited in South Africa and Germany. Participants completed balance, standing long jump and 20 m sprint tests in barefoot and shod conditions. Outcomes were analyzed in separate mixed-effects linear regressions for three age groups according to stages of development (6–10, 11–14, and 15–18 years). All models were adjusted for confounders: sex, ethnicity, BMI, PAQ score and order of tests (barefoot vs. shod). Results: Three hundred and eight-five habitually barefoot and 425 habitually shod children participated. Significant age by footwear effects were found for the jump (p = 0.032) and sprint test (p = 0.041). Habitually barefoot children aged 6–10 years scored higher in the balance test (p = 0.015) and standing long jump (p = 0.005) whereas habitually shod children sprinted faster (p < 0.001). Faster sprint times were found for habitually shod participants between 11 and 14 years (p < 0.001). Habitually barefoot adolescents between 15 and 18 years of age showed a greater long jump distance (p < 0.001) but slower sprint times (p = 0.014) than shod adolescents. Conclusions: The results emphasize the importance of footwear habits for the development of motor skills during childhood and adolescence. Regular physical activities without footwear may be beneficial for the development of jumping and balance skills, especially in the age of 6 to 10 years.


We documented distribution and diversity of ant genera in four of the six level III ecoregions across Nebraska. We sampled ants using bait cards, pitfall traps, and by opportunistic sampling, including direct collection and in carrion-baited pitfall traps. We identified 22 genera from five subfamilies, which were further classified into six functional groups. In common with other Great Plains states, Formica Linnaeus and Lasius Fabricius occurred most frequently in our samples, and overall ant genus- level richness was comparable to surrounding states. We compared genera similarity using Jaccard's similarity index within and between the High Plains (western-most) and Western Corn Belt Plains (eastern-most) ecoregions. We found higher mean similarity index values within the ecoregions than between the two ecoregions. Comparisons of ant genera and functional groups indicate similar patterns in estimating diversity and identifying assemblage differences across habitats. Taxonomic sufficiency is less when using functional group rather than ant genus because identification to subgenus is needed for some functional group designations. Our study provides baseline information useful for developing protocols for monitoring or assessing habitat changes and contributes the first list of ant genera across the state of Nebraska.


Near-infrared (NIR) fluorescent quantum dots (QDs) are ideal platforms to fabricate multifunctional contrast agents for multimodal imaging. Herein, second near-infrared window fluorescent (NIR-II) Ag2Se QDs were coupled with gadopentetate dimeglumine injection (Gd-DTPA) for dual-modality T1-weighted magnetic resonance (MR) imaging and fluorescence imaging. In vitro experiments suggested that the prepared Ag2Se-Gd QDs exhibit low cytotoxicity, remarkable T1-weighted MR imaging, and fluorescence imaging contrast properties. In vivo experiment results showed that Ag2Se-Gd QDs were the preferred contrast agents for dual-modality T1-weighted MR imaging and fluorescence imaging with high spatial resolution. Moreover, excellent temporal resolution and high tissue penetration depth were also achieved by fluorescence imaging. These results indicate the potential of Ag2Se-Gd QDs as multifunctional contrast agents for multimodal imaging in clinical diagnosis and research.


Native isolation of proteins in high yield and purity is a major bottleneck for analysis of their three- dimensional structure, function, and interactome. Here, we present a streamlined workflow for the rapid production of proteins or protein complexes using lentiviral transduction of human suspension cells, combined with highly-specific nanobody-mediated purification and proteolytic elution. (1) First, generation of a plasmid coding for a protein of interest fused to an N- or C- terminal GFP or ALFA peptide tag is rapidly achieved using the lentiviral plasmid toolkit we have designed. (2) Human suspension cell lines stably expressing the tagged fusion protein can be generated in <5 days using lentiviral transduction. (3) Leveraging the picomolar affinity of the GFP and ALFA nanobodies for their respective tags, proteins expressed even at low levels can be specifically captured from the resulting cell lysate in a variety of conditions, including detergents and mild denaturants. (4) Finally, rapid and specific elution of tagged or untagged proteins under native conditions is achieved within minutes at 4°C using an engineered SUMO protease. We demonstrate the wide applicability of the method by purifying multiple challenging soluble and membrane protein complexes to high purity from human cells. Our strategy is also directly compatible with many widely used GFP expression plasmids, cell lines and transgenic model organisms; is faster than alternative approaches, requiring ∼8 days from cloning to purification; and results in substantially improved yields and purity.


Rheological properties of blend spinning solution of sodium alginate and carbon black (SA/CB) were investigated. The results reported that blend spinning solutions were non-newtonian fluids. The apparent viscosity and structural viscosity index increased with increasing CB content in SA spinning solution, but the non-newtonian index decreased, both demonstrated the blend solution was sensitive to shear rates. Blend spinning solution with 6% CB had large flow activation energy (Eη), so the temperature must be controlled exactly in spinning. Temperature had similar impact on sample spinning solutions: the apparent viscosity decreased when it increased. Study on dynamic rheological behavior shows SA/CB blend spinning solutions had greater die swell ratio and worse flowability than pure SA solution, but the flowability of blend solutions could be regulated by changing temperature.


After house jobs, Dennis Mackay Jones embarked on a career in pathology, specialising in medical microbiology. He joined the Public Health Laboratory Service (PHLS) and trained in the Manchester laboratory at Withington Hospital, south Manchester. He was a founder member of the Royal College of Pathologists in 1965 and proceeded to a fellowship in 1977. In 1964 he was appointed consultant microbiologist to Withington and Christie hospitals and honorary consultant microbiologist in the PHLS.

Dennis succeeded John Tobin as director of the regional public health laboratory in Manchester in 1975; a post he held until his retirement in 1995. He was an honorary lecturer in bacteriology and medical microbiology at the University of Manchester for more than 27 years, where he had a crucial influence in the training of overseas students on the diploma in bacteriology course.

Dennis wore several hats: he was a respected clinical microbiologist, whose opinion was frequently sought after by consultant colleagues; as an epidemiologist, he led outbreak investigations both in hospitals and in the …


This is the third edition of The World Bank Legal Review. The rule of law is not just a set of rules and their judicial application. As the third volume of the World Bank legal review makes clear in its subtitle, International Financial Institutions and Global Legal Governance, the law is also about policy making, institutional frameworks, international politics, development, and ultimately-freedom. The law broadens the scope of the questions that people ask, and so helps policy makers find solutions to complex, multifaceted problems. To do that effectively, however, legal research and legal practitioners must focus on how the law can support innovative and pragmatic responses to development challenges. The law also has a role to play at the micro level of community-driven development. Ethiopia, for example, has used intellectual property tools to renegotiate the distribution and selling arrangements of its coffee production with multinational enterprises. The results have benefited both local farmers and traders.


Legal sub-fields aren't just collections of cases and doctrines. They are each animated by a set of commitments, shared among practitioners and academics, that might be described as a kind of legal culture.
The culture of class action law is under assault from an unlikely rebel: Wal-Mart. The retailer is the target of the largest certified class action in history: Dukes v. Wal-Mart, a case consisting of two million punitive damages claims filed under Title VII. While it has lost at each stage in the lower courts, Wal-Mart has litigated the case with an eye to Supreme Court review, by arguing, at each juncture, that the Constitution forbids certifying a punitive damages class action of such an unwieldy size.
Wal-Mart's innovative constitutional argument is significant because it implicitly challenges two under-examined commitments at the heart of class action culture: (1) that class actions, as a form of remedy, stand outside the scope of serious due process scrutiny, and (2) that Congress has delegated courts special quasi-legislative powers in the class context.
In this nine page magazine article, I use Dukes as a backdrop to briefly critique these two commitments and show how they have obscured some broader constitutional arguments against large-scale public policy class actions. A successful Wal-Mart appeal in Dukes, I suggest, just might shake the faith of class action "culture" in both commitments - with potentially far-reaching, and welcome, results for class action law.


We present VerX, the first automated verifier able to prove functional properties of Ethereum smart contracts. VerX addresses an important problem as all real-world contracts must satisfy custom functional specifications.VerX is based on a careful combination of three techniques, enabling it to automatically verify temporal properties of infinite- state smart contracts: (i) reduction of temporal property verification to reachability checking, (ii) a new symbolic execution engine for the Ethereum Virtual Machine that is precise and efficient for a practical fragment of Ethereum contracts, and (iii) delayed predicate abstraction which uses symbolic execution during transactions and abstraction at transaction boundaries.Our extensive experimental evaluation on 83 temporal properties and 12 real-world projects, including popular crowdsales and libraries, demonstrates that VerX is practically effective.


: Mucin hypersecretion in the gallbladder is thought to be a key factor in the nucleation of cholesterol gallstones. In this study, we evaluated the effect of several oxygen radical-generating systems on glycoprotein release from guinea pig gallbladder explants. Hydroxyl radicals (OH.) released by hypoxanthine-xanthine oxidase or FeCl3-ascorbate caused a significant increase in glycoprotein secretion from gallbladder explants pre-incubated with [3H] glucosamine. Human neutrophils activated with f-Met-Leu-Phe, a chemotactic peptide, released oxygen radicals that also stimulated gallbladder glycoprotein release. The mechanism of this effect is most probably related to perturbation of lipid membrane structure by the oxygen radicals with subsequent activation of glycoprotein release.


Love's Work is at once a memoir and a book of philosophy. Written by the English philosopher Gillian Rose as she was dying of cancer, it is a book about both the fallibility and endurance of love, love that becomes real and endures through an ongoing reckoning with its own limitations. Rose looks back on her childhood, the complications of her parents' divorce and her dyslexia, and her deep and divided feelings about what it means to be Jewish. She tells the stories of several friends also laboring under the sentence of death. From the sometimes conflicting vantage points of her own and her friends' tales, she seeks to work out (seeks, because the work can never be complete-to be alive means to be incomplete) a distinctive outlook on life, one that will do justice to our yearning both for autonomy and for connection to others. With droll self-knowledge ("I am highly qualified in unhappy love affairs," Rose writes. "My earliest unhappy love affair was with Roy Rogers") and with unsettling wisdom ("To live, to love, is to be failed"), Rose has written a beautiful, tender, tough, and intricately wrought survival kit packed with necessary but unanswerable questions.


In 10 female and eight male Danish elite middle- and long-distance runners, haematological status, including blood volume, was examined. Haemoglobin, haematocrit and serum (s)-ferritin concentrations were all within the normal range. In both men and women, blood volume, plasma volume and erythrocyte volume were increased in relation to various reference values. However, the runners had a low body weight due to a reduced fat level, 9.5% (7.3-15.1%) fat for the women, 5.9% (5.0-8.8%) fat (median and ranges) for the men, measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scanning. When the runners' body weights were 'normalized' to a reference population (25% fat for women, 15% fat for men), only plasma volume remained increased in relation to body weight for the women, whereas all the volumes remained increased for the men. This confirms that endurance training induces a true increased plasma volume. The lower erythrocyte volume in the women compared with the men could be a consequence of the generally poorer iron status in the women, indicating that a combination of haemolysis, menstruation and low caloric (iron) intake makes it difficult for trained women to obtain optimal effects on erythrocyte volume equal to those obtained by trained men. Furthermore, the study emphasizes the importance of taking body composition into consideration when comparing well-trained athletes with a reference population.


A dielectrophoretic barrier is generated with two layers of microelectrode structures so called paired electrode array (PEA) constructing face to face on the top and bottom sides of a microchannel. The barrier is designed to control the movement of particles in combination with a fluid flow. Depending on the relative strength of the DEP force and hydrodynamic force, microparticles or cells carrying by a laminar flow can either penetrate the barrier or be deflected from there. The threshold velocity at which the barrier firstly fails to hold back the particles is a significant parameter to validate the performance of the device. This paper presents an experimental study on the performance of the microfabricated paired electrode array. The electrodes were fabricated with conventional microfabrication techniques. Micron-sized latex beads were used in the investigation. The holding capacity was defined by measuring the threshold velocity of the system. The results provide crucial information for the design of the dielectrophoretic barrier for microparticle manipulation and separation.


We study the problem of learning constitutive features for the effective representation of graph signals, which can be considered as observations collected on different graph topologies. We propose to learn graph atoms and build graph dictionaries that provide sparse representations for classes of signals, which share common spectral characteristics but reside on the vertices of different graphs. In particular, we concentrate on graph atoms that are constructed on polynomials of the graph Laplacian. Such a design permits to abstract from the precise graph topology and to design dictionaries that can be trained and eventually used on different graphs. We cast the dictionary learning problem as an alternating optimization problem where the dictionary and the sparse representations of training signals are updated iteratively. Experimental results on synthetic graph signals representing common processes on graphs show that our dictionaries are able to capture the important components in graph signals. Further experiments on traffic data confirm the benefits of our dictionaries in the sparse approximation of signals capturing traffic bottlenecks.


The Family Planning Association of London started a clinical trial to assess the efficacy and acceptability of C-Film as a sole method of contraception. 63 subjects were instructed to use 1 C-Film for each act of intercourse to use no other contraceptive and to keep a monthly record card on dates of menstruation days of intercourse which partner used C-Film if any and the presence of vaginal symptoms. 18 of the 63 were not included in the analysis because 3 never cards. 9 of the 45 included in the analysis experienced involuntary pregnancy during a total of 175 person-months representing a use-effectiveness pregnancy rate of 62/100 woman-years. Only 1 woman admitted to having an unprotected intercourse. A further 25 women withdrew from the trial because of side effects difficulties with the method or reasons not connected with the method. Due to the unacceptably high failure rate this study was terminated and the C-Film was not recommended as a sole method of contraception.


Abstract The importance of the quantitative description of protein unfolding and aggregation for the rational design of stability or understanding the molecular basis of protein misfolding diseases is well established. Protein thermostability is typically assessed by calorimetric or spectroscopic techniques that monitor different complementary signals during unfolding. The CalFitter webserver has already proved integral to deriving invaluable energy parameters by global data analysis. Here, we introduce CalFitter 2.0, which newly incorporates singular value decomposition (SVD) of multi-wavelength spectral datasets into the global fitting pipeline. Processed time- or temperature-evolved SVD components can now be fitted together with other experimental data types. Moreover, deconvoluted basis spectra provide spectral fingerprints of relevant macrostates populated during unfolding, which greatly enriches the information gains of the CalFitter output. The SVD analysis is fully automated in a highly interactive module, providing access to the results to users without any prior knowledge of the underlying mathematics. Additionally, a novel data uploading wizard has been implemented to facilitate rapid and easy uploading of multiple datasets. Together, the newly introduced changes significantly improve the user experience, making this software a unique, robust, and interactive platform for the analysis of protein thermal denaturation data. The webserver is freely accessible at https://loschmidt.chemi.muni.cz/calfitter.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the outcome of radical treatment for patients with stage IV squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity.

METHODS
Using head and neck tumor database, 57 patients with stage IV non-metastatic invasive squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity treated with curative intent at King Faisal Specialist Hospital and Research Center, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, between July 1992 and June 1998, were identified and retrospectively reviewed.

RESULTS
Our cohort of patients consisted of 33 males and 24 females, with a median age of 65 years. The primary sites were alveolus (26), tongue (22), buccal mucosa (6), floor of mouth (2) and retromolar trigone (one). Definitive radiotherapy was used in 7 patients, surgery in 17 and combined modality in 33. With a median follow-up for surviving patients of 53-months, the actuarial 5-year overall survival and relapse free survival was 20% and 14%. Tumors arising from the alveolus showed a better outcome as compared to the rest of oral cavity sites with an overall survival and relapse free survival of 32% and 26% compared to 8% and 4% (p value=0.0057 and 0.0038).

CONCLUSION
Advanced oral cavity tumors are aggressive neoplasms with a poor outcome to conventional treatment modalities. New approaches like neoadjuvant or concurrent chemoradiotherapy with or without surgery need to be considered and evaluated in prospective studies.


It is common knowledge today that honey bees are important insects in the natural world, and also highly beneficial for mankind. Nectar and pollen in the flowers provide bees with their food. Attracted by the colour or scent of blossoms, the bees pollinate flowers and thus start the seed-setting process, which is often associated with a fruit or berry. In addition to the bees' service to nature—and to farming since many commercial crops depend on bees for pollination—beekeepers harvest honey and wax from them.


Purpose: Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) determines patient management and is a standard part of cardiac imaging evaluation. Intermodality comparisons are useful in determining whether modalities are interchangeable. Multidetector Computed tomography (CT) and single photon emission CT (SPECT) myocardial perfusion imaging (MPI) have been compared in only a few cohorts. We compared these modalities in a sex-balanced group. Materials and Methods: Sixty outpatients (30 women 30 men) referred for MPI underwent CT on the same day. We calculated LVEF, end-diastolic volume (EDV), and end-systolic volume (ESV) from CT and MPI datasets using a commercially available, semi-automated routine and quantitative gated SPECT (QGS) respectively. Correlations, t-tests and Bland-Altman plots were performed for ESV, EDV, and LVEF. Bivariate and multiple regression analyses for LVEF were performed for both modalities. The subgroups for men and women were analyzed. Results: Computed tomography showed moderate to high correlations with SPECT for LVEF (0.62), EDV (0.70), and ESV (0.63). End-diastolic volume and LVEF were significantly higher on CT as compared to SPECT (P < 0.001 each). Multiple regression analysis showed a significant relationship between sex and LVEF (P < 0.0001) on SPECT but not on CT. In men, there were significantly higher EDV (P = 0.014) and LVEF (P < 0.001) on CT compared with SPECT, but there was no difference in ESV. For women, there were significantly higher EDV and ESV on CT (P < 0.001 each), but no difference in LVEF. Conclusions: Left ventricular volumes and LVEF differed significantly on CT compared with SPECT and varied according to sex. Therefore, left ventricular volumes and LVEF values on CT and SPECT are not interchangeable.


Despite the recent visually-pleasing results achieved, the massive computational cost has been a long-standing flaw for diffusion probabilistic models (DPMs), which, in turn, greatly limits their applications on resource-limited platforms. Prior methods towards efficient DPM, however, have largely focused on accelerating the testing yet overlooked their huge complexity and sizes. In this paper, we make a dedicated attempt to lighten DPM while striving to preserve its favourable performance. We start by training a small-sized latent diffusion model (LDM) from scratch, but observe a significant fidelity drop in the synthetic images. Through a thorough assessment, we find that DPM is intrinsically biased against high-frequency generation, and learns to recover different frequency components at different time-steps. These properties make compact networks unable to represent frequency dynamics with accurate high-frequency estimation. Towards this end, we introduce a customized design for slim DPM, which we term as Spectral Diffusion (SD), for light-weight image synthesis. SD incorporates wavelet gating in its architecture to enable frequency dynamic feature extraction at every reverse step, and conducts spectrum-aware distillation to promote high-frequency recovery by inverse weighting the objective based on spectrum magnitude. Experimental results demonstrate that, SD achieves 8–18 × computational complexity reduction as compared to the latent diffusion models on a series of conditional and unconditional image generation tasks while retaining competitive image fidelity.


Graphene is a new two-dimensional material with interesting electronic properties and a wide range of applications. Graphene epitaxially grown on the Si-terminated surface of SiC is a good candidate to replace semiconductors in field-effect transistors. In this work we investigate the properties of epitaxial monolayer and bilayer graphene and develop a theoretical model used to describe the charge transfer between graphene and donors in SiC substrate. This model is then used to describe the behaviour of an epitaxial graphene-based transistor and the conditions for its operation. We also apply our model to understand the successful application of epitaxial graphene in quantum resistance metrology and to describe the effect of bilayer patches on the resistance quantization. Finally, we study how the ordering of adatoms on top of mechanically exfoliated graphene due to RKKY interaction affects the transport properties of graphene.


In this paper we present data on flows in the labour market for the period 1980 - 2010, which have been constructed using various sources. The focus of our analysis is on four labour market states within the working age population of age 15 - 64: Employment, Unemployment, Not working and Disabled. A comparison is provided with the earlier studies of Broersma and den Butter (1994) and Kock (1998), and with the data published by the CBS from the labour force survey (EBB). The latter comparison is also used to indicate the presence of the time aggregation bias in the CBS data.


This study was performed to determine effect of oral health behavior and influencing factor of oral health behavior, and variables of theory of planned behavior before and after oral health education in hospitalized–alcoholic patients. The survey was administered to 32 male patients and was conducted on the structured self-administered questionnaires and oral health education. To analysis data, the covariance structure analysis was conducted. With the analysis of covariance structure, oral health behavior was influenced with explanatory powers of before (60.3%) and after (96.6%) by oral health education by variables of theory of planned behavior. It was indicated more strong relationship by oral health education. The effect was strongly increased according to oral health education. Therefore the effective oral health education program requires improving of the oral health for subjects with poor oral environment and low management capacity.


A novel broadband waveguide-to-substrate integrated waveguide transition is presented. The transition is realised by using a fin line probe inserted into a rectangular metal waveguide. A single back-to-back transition covering the KA band is designed, fabricated and tested. Measured results show that good agreement with simulation, an insertion loss less than 1.4 dB and a return loss better than 15 dB at 25 40 GHz are obtained for a back-to-back structure. This broadband transition between the rectangular waveguide and substrate integrated waveguide can be used widely in microwave and millimetre-wave circuits and systems.


Background: Maternal perception of fetal movement is one of the first signs of fetal life and is regarded as a manifestation of fetal wellbeing. Aims: To evaluate reduced fetal movement as an effective predictor for the assessment of fetal condition and to improve fetal outcome by early detection of fetal hypoxia. Study Design and setting: A Co relational study carried out for a period of two years from Dec. 2010 Dec. 2012 at Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of Al Yarmouk teaching hospital \ Baghdad \ Iraq. Patients and Methods: 200 patients with history of sluggish fetal movements from 32-41weeks gestation were admitted to the Obstetric ward during the study time for clinical evaluation and their biophysical profile score was recorded and were followed till delivery, the mode of delivery and neonatal outcome were recorded including APGAR score of newborn which was noted at one and five minutes and those having poor APGAR score were resuscitated and admitted to neonatal care unit. Results: During this study 200 patients were evaluated, 58 patients were primigravidas and 142 were multigravidas. Among 200 patients non reactive fetal heart was found in 64 cases. 120 patients had a biophysical profile score of 10/10, 44 patients had a score of 8/10 and 32 patients had a score of 6/10. In 4 patients with 4/10 score emergency caesarean section led to the delivery of neonates with low APGAR score. Majority of patients with normal biophysical profile score of 8-10/10 had good APGAR score. The rate of caesarean section was 34%. Concerning fetal outcome 70% of cases with good outcome, low APGAR score at five minutes (<6\10) in 14% of cases, meconium staining in 9% of cases, birth asphyxia in 6% and endotracheal intubation in 1% of cases. Conclusions: reduced fetal movement appears to be a serious complaint that should be further evaluated and is associated with a significant fetal compromise. Date Submitted: 10.10.2012 Date Accepted: 01.04.2013 Address for Correspondence: Dr. Ban Hadi Hameed


This paper presents the design and implementation of three System-on-Chip (SoC) cores, which implement the Digital Signal Processing (DSP) functions: Finite Impulse Response (FIR) filter, Infinite Impulse Response (IIR) filter and Fast Fourier Transform (FFT). The FIR-filter core is based on the symmetrical realization form, the IIRfilter core is based on the Second Order Sections (SOS) architecture and the FFT core is based on the Radix 2 2 Single Delay Feedback (R2 2 SDF) architecture. The three cores are compatible with the Wishbone SoC bus, and they were described using generic and structural VHDL. In-system hardware verification was performed by using an OpenRisc-based SoC synthesized on an Altera FPGA. Tests showed that the designed DSP cores are suitable for building SoC based on the OpenRisc processor and the Wishbone bus.


Abstract We update our previous insights into COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and hesitancy in Finland. Vaccine acceptance increased from 64% (November/December 2020) to 74% (April 2021). However, there was a group of participants that were preferring to wait to get vaccinated ranging from 6% of over-64-years-olds to 29% of under-30-years-olds. The previously identified enablers convenience (below-50-years-olds), worry about severe disease and protection for oneself (above-50-years-olds) were no longer significantly associated with increased vaccine acceptance. Understanding barriers and enablers behind vaccine acceptance is decisive in ensuring a successful implementation of COVID-19 vaccination programs, which will be key to ending the pandemic.


PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to identify relationships of resilience, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder(PTSD), and quality of life of breast cancer patients. The findings from this study would provide baseline data needed for nursing intervention.

METHODS
A sample of 129 breast cancer patients was recruited from three hospitals in J and C cities in Korea. The survey was conducted with participants by utilizing self-reported questionnaires.

RESULTS
Quality of life showed statistically significant differences on religion (t=2.11, p=.033) and hobby (t=2.79, p=.006). Resilience and PTSD had a negative correlation (r=-.22, p=.010). Resilience and quality of life of the participants had a positive correlation (r=.58, p<.001), whereas PTSD and quality of life had a negative correlation (r=-.45, p<.001). Significant predictors of quality of life were resilience and PTSD. These variables explained 44.9% of the variance in quality of life.

CONCLUSION
Findings indicate that as resilience of breast cancer patients rose higher and PTSD got lower, their quality of life increased. Based on these results, nursing interventions directed towards improving resilience and relieving PTSD is proposed.


After incubation of four of ten strains of multi-drug resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MDRP) with the healthy human serum for one hour, the bacteria lysed and the viable cell count decreased with the disappearance of the C3 complement. Over 99% of IgG was deleted from the serum by passing the serum through a Protein G Sepharose column. In such IgG-deleted serum, the bactericidal activity on P. aeruginosa was cancelled. The bactericidal activity recovered by adding human intravenous immunoglobulin preparation (IVIG) at the concentration of 2-4 mg/mL to the serum. Moreover, a strong bactericidal activity was shown in the case of some strains that the antibody titers of IVIG were high. It was thought that specific antibodies to some of P aeruginosa are contained in IVIG and activated the classical pathway of complement system; as a result, the bacterial lyses had been caused. Sera from healthy persons contain antibodies to P aeruginosa as well as complement components. Since the complement-mediated bactericidal activity disappeared by removing IgG in this study. These results suggest that the IVIG therapy in bacterial infections is expected to recover the immune function so as complement-mediated bactericidal activity as well as opsonic activity against P aeruginosa, especially in the patient with neutropenia.


A new cryostat cooled by a closed-cycle Cryomech GB-37 cryocooler for superconductor measurements at temperatures down to 20 K is described. The sample is conductively coupled to the cold stage so as to minimize vibration and thermal stresses. AC losses have been measured calorimetrically in several HTSC coils that have been wound to simulate sub-scale transformer winding pairs. Stable temperatures down to 20 K were reached on these coils, allowing measurements at practical levels of ac current and Ic. By using short ac current pulses, losses on individual turns could be resolved. Results are reported mainly to showcase the apparatus, measurement procedure and analytical approach.


The practice of Model-based Systems Engineering is becoming more widely adopted in industry, academia and commerce and, as the use of modelling matures in the real world, so the need for more guidance on how to model effectively and efficiently becomes more prominent. This book describes a number of systems-level 'patterns' (pre-defined, reusable sets of views) that may be applied using the systems modelling language SysML for the development of any number of different applications and as the foundations for a system model. Topics covered include: what is a pattern? Interface definition pattern; traceability pattern; test pattern; epoch pattern; life cycle pattern; evidence pattern; description pattern; context pattern; analysis pattern; model maturity pattern; requirements modelling; expanded requirements modelling; process modelling; competence modelling; life cycle modelling; defining patterns; and using patterns for model assessment, model definition and for model retro-fitting. This book forms a companion volume to both 'SysML for Systems Engineering - a model-based approach' and 'Model-based Requirements Engineering', both published by the IET. Whereas the previous volumes presented the case for modelling and provided an in-depth overview of SysML, this book focusses on a set of 'patterns' as the basis of an MBSE model and their use in today's systems engineering community.


AAL technologies constitute a new paradigm that promises quality of life enhancements in chronic care patients and elderly people. From a communication perspective, they involve heterogeneous deployments of body and ambient sensors in complex multihop topologies. Such networks can significantly benefit from the application of cooperative schemes based on network coding, where random linear combinations of the original data packets are transmitted in order to exploit diversity. Nevertheless, network coordination is sometimes required to obtain the full potential of these schemes, especially in the presence of channel errors, requiring the design of efficient, reliable, and versatile MAC protocols. Motivated by the recent advances in cloud computing, we investigate the possibility of transferring the network coordination to the cloud while maintaining the data exchange and storage at a local data plane. Hence, we design a general framework for the development of cloudassisted protocols for AAL applications and propose a high-performance and error-resilient MAC scheme with cloud capabilities.


Regarding evidentiary protection for apologies, this note seeks to strike a balance by advocating for the approach adopted by a majority of states: evidentiary protection for some, but not all apologies. Such an approach, while not perfect, aligns the competing interests of encouraging the legal, psychological, and emotional benefits that accompany apologies with preserving a plaintiff's right to utilize probative evidence. By way of introduction, section one of this note briefly discusses the current legal treatment of apologies in United States jurisdictions. Section two compares the advantages of excluding apologetic statements from evidence with the disadvantages of such evidentiary protection and further describes how a balance may be achieved between these two positions. Section three seeks to incorporate this balance into the Federal Rules of Evidence by proposing an amendment to specifically grant evidentiary protection for certain apologies.


Year by year, the interest for new technologies and how to bring them effectively in the classroom increased, even if we think from the teacher's perspective or from the students' perspective. The use of ICT in school partnerships is well supported by the European initiatives and programs, as Erasmus+ and eTwinning, and through political strategies as Education and Training 2020 initiative.
The educational projects and activities that are implemented at European level are effective tools that schools can use in order to innovate practices, to successfully and actively involve students in their learning and to diversify the teaching practices in order to a meet the current need of leaners and to integrate new technologies in learning and teaching.
During 2017, at European level, 5900 eTwinners declared that eTwinning had a significant impact on the development of individual teachers' skills and teaching practices, as well as on student's motivation and learning practices, confirming that eTwinning is an important tool to promote innovation in schools.
European eTwinning projects have demonstrated during the last 12 years their pedagogical value through the innovation of teaching practices, encouraging group / partnership work and peer learning, the use of new information and communication technologies (ICT) to support the teaching process, involving students in teaching-learning-evaluation activities, diversification of learning activities by valorisation of projects in the formal curriculum, etc.
The article explores the development of the eTwinning Action and its impact reported by teachers involved in eTwinning online school projects, trying to underline the added value of this type of projects in terms of innovation of educational practices and making learning more attractive.


Introduction : Applying Pulsed Electromagnetic Field (PEMF) on the primary osteoporotic women have been effective in increasing the bone synthesis biomarkers and decreasing of the amplitude and velocity of center of pressure. In the present study, in order to investigate the possible effect of PEMF on the neuromuscular responses, the acute effect of PEMF on the lumbopelvic area in the postmenopausal women with Osteoporosis was studied by recording the soleus and gastrocnemius recruitment curves. Materials and Methods : For investigating the acute effect of PEMF, 22 postmenopausal women with osteoporosis (age 48-65) voluntarily entered in the study and randomly participated in two separately sessions applying PEMF and placebo (magnet device off). PEMF was applied on the lumbopelvic area with frequency of 30Hz and intensity of 40G for 45 min. One-week interval was considered between placebo and PEMF sessions. Before and after each session, H- reflex recruitment curve was recorded for soleus and gastrocnemius muscles and then amplitude, intensity of stimulation and latency of threshold, maximum and final H-reflex were determined. Results : After application of 45 min PEMF, the mean stimulus intensity for recording of initial H-reflex was decreased significantly, in soleus and gastrocnemius muscles (0.48 and 0.55 mA respectively). The latency of this H threshold was decreased significantly also in both muscles (2.01 and 1.67 ms, respectively). The peak to peak amplitude of maximum H response increased significantly, in both muscles compared to the placebo session (p<0.05). Conclusion : Immediately after applying of PEMF, facilitation in H-reflex response was observed in both soleus and gastrocnemius as a slow and fast twitch muscle. In both muscles, after applying PEMF, recruitment curves shifted to the left side by decreasing the stimulus intensity of initial and maximum H-responses and also their latencies. Conlusivly, this may be caused by the facilitation in the activities of alpha motoneurons in the spinal cord level.


A new supportive method of centrifugal left heart bypass with oxygenation was performed in 25 patients and compared with standard left heart bypass in 45 patients. Femoro-femoral bypass was selected in another 6 patients because of the presence of a left atrial adhesion. Intraoperative complications related to standard left heart bypass, hypoxia, hypothermia, and ventricular fibrillation, were eliminated by using this method. This supportive method maintained good hemodynamics and improved the surgical result of extended thoracoabdominal aortic replacement. Hospital deaths decreased from 6.7% to 3.2%.


The concept of the national is often perceived, both in public and academic discourse as the central obstacle for the realization of cosmopolitan orientations. Consequently, debates about the nation tend to revolve around its persistence or its demise. We depart from this either-or perspective by investigating the formation of the 'cosmopolitan nation' as a facet of world risk society. Modern collectivities are increasingly preoccupied with debating, preventing and managing risks. However, unlike earlier manifestations of risk characterized by daring actions or predictability models, global risks can no longer be calculated or forecast. Accordingly, more influence accrues to the perception of risk, largely constructed by media representations. Cosmopolitanized risk collectivities are engendered through the anticipation of endangered futures which are, for the most part, communicated through an increasingly global media scape. While global media events produce shared exposure, risk conceptions retain distinctive political-cultural features as their respective meanings are prefigured by path-dependent pasts. Nevertheless, the promulgation of risk societies, we argue, results in a reimagination of nationhood which takes place in the context of: global norms (e.g. human rights); globalized markets; transnational migrations; global generations and their embeddedness in civil society movements; and the local interpenetration of world religions to name but a few of the global backdrops shaping new associational intersections. We develop our argument in four interrelated steps. Contrary to essentialized notions of nationalism or universal versions of cosmopolitanism, we address the cosmopolitan reconfiguration of nationhood by differentiating between presumptions of thick belonging and the actual proliferation of cosmopolitan affiliations. In a second step we overcome the territorial fixation of the social sciences by shifting our attention to temporal dimensions, with a particular focus on competing conceptions of the future. In a third step we demonstrate how these cosmopolitan transformations of nationhood are taking place in the context of a world risk society regime that marshals a set of cosmopolitan imperatives situating the global other in our midst. In a fourth step we illustrate these developments by exploring how the mediatization of risk, and concomitant notions of the future, contribute to the reimagination of cosmopolitan risk collectivities.


FeCl(3)·6H(2)O-catalyzed efficient C3-alkenylation of indoles was realized through the condensation of aldehydes and indole derivatives in the presence of 2 equiv of ethanol at ambient temperature, forming 3-vinylindoles in up to 93% yields. Ethanol promoted formation of the desired products. An obvious solvent effect was observed, and bisindoles were identified as the reaction intermediates.


Modern dentistry aims to return patients to normal oral health and function in a predictable fashion. The selection of the available therapy has a substantial influence on the level of quality with which this objective can be met. Satisfying a completely edentulous patient is always considered a difficult task. Various treatment options for rehabilitation of the completely edentulous patient are available: conventional complete denture, overdenture, implant-supported overdenture and full-arch fixed implant-supported prostheses. The patient's function while wearing a complete denture may be reduced to 60% compared with that previously experienced with natural dentition; however, implant prosthesis may return the function to near normal limits. This clinical report presents rehabilitation of a completely edentulous patient who was not satisfied with his existing conventional complete dentures. The patient was rehabilitated using full-arch implant-supported fixed ceramometal prostheses. The final treatment result provided the patient with esthetically and functionally efficient prostheses.


The effect of alterations in the quality and quantity of dietary fat on 1,2-dimethylhydrazine-induced colon cancer in rats was studied. Weanling Sprague-Dawley rats were fed semipurified diets containing 24% beef fat, 24% corn oil, 24% Crisco, or the three fats in equal parts to make a total of 5% fat with other macronutrients and micronutrients adjusted to balance the ratios of nutrient to calorie. After 4 weeks of dietary treatment, all rats, except vehicle-treated animals, received 1,2-dimethylhydrazine (15 mg/kg) by gavage, once a week for 5 weeks. The animals were fed the experimental diets until intestinal tumors developed, and surviving animals were sacrificed at 60 weeks. There was no effect of any of the high-fat diets tested on intestinal tumor incidence, latency, size, or frequency. All groups contained the same proportion of adenomas (less than 3%) as well as adenocarcinomas classified as mucinous. In the group fed 24% Crisco, tumors occurred with greater frequency in the proximal section of the colon than in lower segments, but the distribution was approximately uniform in the other groups. Cumulative probability of death with colon carcinoma was lowest in the 24% Crisco group, but the other high-fat groups did not differ significantly from the 5% mixed fat group nor from one another.


Date Presented 04/06/19
 Initial development of the Scale of Parental Playfulness Attitude during the co-occupation of play (PaPA, or Escala AJugar in Spanish) will be detailed. The PaPA is the first self-report measure, developed with the purpose of evaluating whether the approach of parents playing with their children between 2.5 and 6 years 11 months, reflects a playful attitude. It is expected to serve as a useful tool for professionals working on play with families of children with developmental challenges.
 Primary Author and Speaker: Rosa Roman-Oyola
 Additional Authors and Speakers: Chastiti Vazquez-Gual
 Contributing Authors: Itzamar Dasta-Valentin, Graciela Diaz-Lazzarini, Glorian Collazo-Aguilar, Coraly Yambo-Martinez, Anita Bundy, Shelly Lane, Victor Bonilla-Rodriguez


Objective . To compare and assess the efficacy and the safety of both oral and local prostaglandins for induction of labour (IOL). Materials and Methods . This was a single-centre prospective cohort study, conducted at San Filippo Neri Hospital. Data were collected through a clinical panel we developed. 164 women at term were recruited between November 2021 and August 2022; 93 of them underwent IOL through either oral or local prostaglandins alone. 73 women received oral prostaglandins (misoprostol). 20 received vaginal prostaglandins (dinoprostone). Bishop score was unfavourable in both groups (< 4). The primary outcome measured was caesarean deliveries. Secondary outcomes were time from induction to vaginal delivery and measures of maternal and neonatal safety. Results . Oral and local prostaglandins showed similar efficacy and safety. The overall cesarean section rate was 19% for the first group and 25% for the second. Mean time from induction to vaginal delivery was 15 h for both groups. Maternal complications were detected in 4 patients of the first group: 2 PPH, 2 retained placenta. No fetal complications occurred during our study: Apgar score was > 7 in all newborns and intensive care treatment was never required. The major indication for caesarian section following IOL was non-reassuring CTG. Conclusions . Overall, both oral and local prostaglandins proved to be safe IOL, and their efficacy can be considered comparable. Even though


Vegetation metrics, such as leaf area (LA), leaf area density (LAD), and vertical leaf area profile, are essential measures of tree-scale biophysical processes associated with photosynthetic capacity, and canopy geometry. However, there are limited published investigations of their use for horticultural tree crops. This study evaluated the ability of light detection and ranging (LiDAR) for measuring LA, LAD, and vertical leaf area profile across two mango, macadamia and avocado trees using discrete return data from a RIEGL VZ-400 Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) system. These data were collected multiple times for individual trees to align with key growth stages, essential management practices, and following a severe storm. The first return of each laser pulse was extracted for each individual tree and classified as foliage or wood based on TLS point cloud geometry. LAD at a side length of 25 cm voxels, LA at the canopy level and vertical leaf area profile were calculated to analyse tree crown changes. These changes included: (1) pre-pruning vs. post-pruning for mango trees; (2) pre-pruning vs. post-pruning for macadamia trees; (3) pre-storm vs. post-storm for macadamia trees; and (4) tree leaf growth over a year for two young avocado trees. Decreases of 34.13 m2 and 8.34 m2 in LA of mango tree crowns occurred due to pruning. Pruning for the high vigour mango tree was mostly identified between 1.25 m and 3 m. Decreases of 38.03 m2 and 16.91 m2 in LA of a healthy and unhealthy macadamia tree occurred due to pruning. After flowering and spring flush of the same macadamia trees, storm effects caused a 9.65 m2 decrease in LA for the unhealthy tree, while an increase of 34.19 m2 occurred for the healthy tree. The tree height increased from 11.13 m to 11.66 m, and leaf loss was mainly observed between 1.5 m and 4.5 m for the unhealthy macadamia tree. Annual increases in LA of 82.59 m2 and 59.97 m2 were observed for two three-year-old avocado trees. Our results show that TLS is a useful tool to quantify changes in the LA, LAD, and vertical leaf area profiles of horticultural trees over time, which can be used as a general indicator of tree health, as well as assist growers with improved pruning, irrigation, and fertilisation application decisions.


Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is characterised by increased oxidative stress. Dietary factors, such as ample consumption of foods rich in antioxidants, such as fruit and vegetables, might have beneficial effects in COPD patients. The association between dietary shift to foods rich in antioxidants and lung function in COPD was investigated in a 3-yr prospective study. A total of 120 COPD patients were randomised to follow either a diet based on increased consumption of fresh fruit and vegetables (intervention group (IG)) or a free diet (control group (CG)). The mean consumption of foods containing antioxidants was higher in the IG than in the CG throughout the study period (p<0.05). The relationship between consumption of foods rich in antioxidants and percentage predicted forced expiratory volume in 1 s was assessed using a general linear model for repeated measures; the two groups overall were different in time (p = 0.03), with the IG showing a better outcome. In investigating the effect of several confounders (sex, age, smoking status, comorbid conditions and exacerbation) of group response over time, nonsignificant interactions were found between confounders, group and time. These findings suggest that a dietary shift to higher-antioxidant food intake may be associated with improvement in lung function, and, in this respect, dietary interventions might be considered in COPD management.


Container Terminal Scheduling System is a random, dynamic, nonlinear complex systems. How to schedule in order to achieve MES seamless connectivity for management system and control system, which is reseach focus of MES currently. Aiming at the production process and production management features for container terminal, a thorough research on CIMS of container terminal enterprise is taken, the relationships of information exchange that among the plan layer, the execution layer and control layer are analyzed. On the basis of control theory and system engineering theory, and viewpoint of process control, a closed MES control system is build. It is established step by step to achieve seamless integration MES by intelligent modeling and control compensation of scheduling. A new and original way for realizing accurate and transparency management in the production process and production optimization is provided.


We describe the design and preliminary testing of a novel pump designed for cardiac assist. It is a valveless rotary pump that can generate pulsatile or nonpulsatile output. The basis of the pump design is a cylindrical cavity swept by a vane sliding in a rotating disc. During rotation, rollers at the ends of the vane are in constant contact with the internal wall of the cavity so that a fluid-containing space is swept around the cavity from the inflow to the outflow ports. Bench tests showed that the output was relatively independent of the outflow resistance at pressures up to 100 mm Hg. In tests in dogs, the pump performed satisfactorily as a left ventricular assist device and as a pump for total cardiopulmonary bypass. We believe that this simple pump design has potential as a left ventricular assist device or total artificial heart and merits further investigation.


BACKGROUND
Medical Assistance in Dying (MAiD) was legalized in Canada in June 2016. There are no documented experiences of MAiD provision within a home palliative care program. The majority of palliative care physicians in Canada object to MAiD. As one of the largest home-based palliative care providers in Canada, the Temmy Latner Centre for Palliative Care (TLCPC) developed processes to implement MAiD provision within a home palliative care team with diverse attitudes toward MAiD.

OBJECTIVE
To demonstrate the feasibility of providing MAiD within a home palliative care setting and describe the population that received MAiD in the first year of legalization.

DESIGN
A retrospective chart review identified patients who received or were assessed for MAiD and had a known outcome between June 17, 2016 and June 30, 2017.

SETTING/SUBJECTS
Patients receiving home-based palliative care.

MEASUREMENTS
Data extracted included age, gender, primary diagnosis, length of time receiving home-based palliative care, and final clinical outcome.

RESULTS
Of the 45 patients who were assessed for MAiD, 27 (60%) received MAiD and 18 (40%) did not. The mean age was 74 (range 20-95), 24 (53%) were male, and 33 (73%) had cancer as a primary diagnosis. These 27 patients represent 1.2% of our total patient population during this time period.

CONCLUSIONS
MAiD was accessed by 1.2% of the patients within a home palliative care center in the first year of legalization. Patient demographics were consistent with those documented elsewhere. The TLCPC process accommodates the diverse viewpoints of clinicians and emphasizes continuity of palliative care provision.


To investigate the molecular basis for the distinct neuronopathic phenotypes of Gaucher disease, acid beta-glucosidases expressed from mutant DNAs in Gaucher disease type 2 (acute) and type 3 (subacute) patients were characterized in fibroblasts and with the baculovirus expression system in insect cells. Expression of the mutant DNA encoding a proline-for-leucine substitution at amino acid 444 (L444P) resulted in a catalytically defective, unstable acid beta-glucosidase in either fibroblasts from L444P/L444P homozygotes or in insect cells. This mutation was found to be homoallelic in subacute neuronopathic (type 3) Gaucher disease. In comparison, expression of the mutant cDNA encoding an arginine-for-proline substitution at amino acid 415 (P415R) resulted in an inactive and unstable protein in insect cells. This allele was found only in a type 2 patient with the L444P/P415R genotype. The substantial variation in the type 3 phenotype (L444P homozygotes) suggests the complex nature of the molecular basis of phenotypic variation in Gaucher disease. Yet, the association of neuronopathic phenotypes with alleles producing severely compromised (L444P) or functionally null (P415R) enzymes indicates that the effective level of residual activity at the lysosome is likely to be a major determinant of the severity of Gaucher disease.


Activation of epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) is important for malignant tumor progression exhibiting migratory and invasive properties. UHRF1 (ubiquitin-like, with PHD and RING finger domains 1), as an epigenetic regulator, plays a crucial role in DNA CpG methylation, chromatin remodeling and gene expression. Many studies demonstrated that UHRF1 is aberrantly expressed in various types of human cancer. However, the precise role of UHRF1 in human cancers remains highly controversial. In the present study, we found that downregulation of UHRF1 enhances the migratory and invasive properties of human cancer cells by inducing EMT, and that the CXCR4 signaling pathway is strictly necessary for UHRF1 deficiency-mediated induction of EMT. Downregulation of UHRF1 induced the expression of the EMT-regulating transcription factors, Zeb1, Slug and Snail and then led to decreased protein level of E-cadherin, and increased protein level of N-cadherin and vimentin, including increased migratory and invasive properties of human cancer cells. In addition, siRNA targeting of Zeb1 or Snail effectively attenuated UHRF1 deficiency-induced EMT, but siRNA targeting of Slug did not, indicating that Zeb1 and Snail play key roles in this event. Moreover, downregulation of UHRF1 induced the expression of CXCR4 in HepG2 cells. siRNA targeting of CXCR4 greatly suppressed the UHRF1 deficiency-induced EMT, as evidenced by a reversal of expression patterns of Snail and Zeb1, and by reduced migratory and invasive properties of HepG2 cells. In conclusion, our results demonstrate that downregulation of UHRF1 contributes to the induction of EMT in human cancer cells via the activation of CXCR4 signaling pathway. Our observation also suggests that UHRF1 may play a pivotal role in suppressing the malignant alteration of cancer cells.


Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB) Systems are becoming important to increase traffic safety. Test procedures in testing for consumer information, manufacturer self-certification and technical regulations are used to ensure a certain minimum performance of these systems. Consequently, test robustness, test efficiency and finally test cost become increasingly important. The key driver for testing effort and test costs is the required repeatable accuracy in a test design - the higher the accuracy, the higher effort and test costs. On the other hand, the performance of active safety systems depends on time discretization in the environment perception and other sub-systems: for instance, typical sensors supply information with a cycle time of 50 - 150 ms. Time discretization results in an inherent spread of system performance, even if the test conditions are perfectly equal. The proposed paper shows a methodology to derive requirements for a test setup (e.g. test repeats, use of driving robots, ...) as function of AEB system generation and rating method (e.g. Euro New Car Assessment Program (NCAP) points awarded, pass/fail, ...). While the methodology itself is applicable to AEB pedestrian and AEB Car-Car scenarios, due to the lack of sufficient test data for AEB Car-Car, the focus of this paper is on AEB pedestrian scenarios. A simulation model for the performance of AEB Pedestrian systems allows for the systematic variation of the discretization time as well as test condition accuracy. This model is calibrated with test results of 4 production vehicles for AEB Pedestrian, all fully tested by BASt according to current Euro NCAP test protocols. Selected parameters to observe the accuracy of the test setup in case of pedestrian AEB is the calculated impact position of pedestrian on the vehicle front (as if no braking would have occurred), and the test vehicle speed accuracy. These variable was shown in real tests to be repeatable in the range of ± 5 cm and ± 0,25 km/h, respectively, with a fully robotized state of the art test setup. The sensitivity of AEB performance (measured in achieved speed reduction as well as overall rating result according to current Euro NCAP rating methods) towards discretization and the sensitivity of performance towards test accuracy then is compared to identify economic yet robust test concepts. These comparisons show that the available repeatability accuracy of current test setups is more than sufficient for today's AEB system capabilities. Time discretization problems dominate the performance spread especially in test scenarios with a limited pedestrian dummy reveal time (e.g. child behind obstruction, running adult scenarios with low car speeds). This would allow to increase test tolerances to decrease test cost. A methodology which allows to derive the required tolerances in active safety tests might be valuable especially for NCAPs of emerging countries that do not have the necessary equipment (e.g. driving robots, positioning units) available for the full-scale and high tolerance EuroNCAP active safety procedures yet still want to rate active safety systems, thus improving the global safety.


Young rats maintained on an iron-deficient diet developed severe anemia and had large decreases in the levels of the iron-containing flavoproteins and cytochromes of the mitochondrial respiratory chain in skeletal muscle. In contrast, the levels of a number of mitochondrial matrix marker enzymes, including citrate synthase, isocitrate dehydrogenase, 3-hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase, 3-ketoacid-CoA transferase, and aspartate aminotransferase, increased in red skeletal muscle but not in white muscle. Phosphocreatine concentration was decreased and inorganic phosphate concentration was increased in soleus muscle frozen in situ. We hypothesize that the increase in mitochondrial matrix enzymes reflects a stimulus to mitochondrial biogenesis in posture-maintaining and weight-bearing red muscle fibers in severely iron-deficient rats. It is our working hypothesis that this stimulus to mitochondrial biogenesis arises from mild activity of the red fibers and is due to the same perturbation in cellular homeostasis that is normally caused by vigorous exercise or hypoxia. In iron deficiency, the stimulus to mitochondrial biogenesis can induce an increase in only those enzymes not prevented from increasing by iron deficiency, resulting in formation of mitochondria of grossly abnormal composition.


We propose a multiagent distributed actor-critic algorithm for multitask reinforcement learning (MRL), named Diff-DAC. The agents are connected, forming a (possibly sparse) network. Each agent is assigned a task and has access to data from this local task only. During the learning process, the agents are able to communicate some parameters to their neighbors. Since the agents incorporate their neighbors' parameters into their own learning rules, the information is diffused across the network, and they can learn a common policy that generalizes well across all tasks. Diff-DAC is scalable since the computational complexity and communication overhead per agent grow with the number of neighbors, rather than with the total number of agents. Moreover, the algorithm is fully distributed in the sense that agents self-organize, with no need for coordinator node. Diff-DAC follows an actorcritic scheme where the value function and the policy are approximated with deep neural networks, being able to learn expressive policies from raw data. As a by-product of DiffDAC's derivation from duality theory, we provide novel insights into the standard actor-critic framework, showing that it is actually an instance of the dual ascent method to approximate the solution of a linear program. Experiments illustrate the performance of the algorithm in the cart-pole, inverted pendulum, and swing-up cart-pole environments.


Website translation is a kind of translation evolving in recent years along with the advancement in information technology. The realization of decision making in the translation process of web content of www.ayodyapala.com is actually a process of problem solving in communication involving Bahasa Indonesia as the source language (SL) and English as the target language (TL). This study aims to identify a number of translation techniques used by the translator to translate the content of www.ayodyapala.com and also describe the translation process of it. This research is descriptive-qualitative and process-oriented in the field of translation. The data used in this study are linguistic elements including words, phrases, and sentences provided in the www.ayodyapala.com. The sampling technique applied was purposive sampling and the technique of data collection was content analysis. The analysis results demonstrate that first, there are 14 translation techniques used in translating the content of www.ayodyapala.com, namely literal translation, transposition, borrowing, established equivalence, modulation, reduction, adaptation, amplification, particularization, generalization, linguistic compression, discursive creation, linguistic amplification, and calque. Second, the translation process of www.ayodyapala.com is reflected through translation procedures consisting of transposition, modulation, naturalization, contextual conditioning, and notes. Keywords : Translation technique, translation process, web content, source language,target language.


Drawing on a wide range of major literary voices, including Richard Wright, Ralph Ellison, and Toni Morrison, as well as lesser-known writers such as William Attaway (Blood on the Forge) and Dorothy West (The Living Is Easy), Rodgers conducts a kind of literary archaeology of the Great Migration. He mines the writers' biographical connections to migration and teases apart the ways in which individual novels relate to one another, to the historical situation of black America, and to African-American literature as a whole. In reading migration novels in relation to African-American literary texts such as slave narratives, folk tales, and urban fiction, Rodgers affirms the southern folk roots of African-American culture and argues for a need to stem the erosion of southern memory.


Austria has a long tradition of gender equality policy measures in science, academia and research. Since the 1980s, a mix of measures has been successively introduced to promote excellent female scientists and academics, establish women's and gender studies and remove the structural barriers for women. Accordingly, an increase in the share of women in all areas and functions in science, academia and research and the inclusion of gender studies in an increasing number of disciplines has been achieved in recent years. Despite this, the notion of the "scientific ideal" has remained almost unchanged, i.e. is still based on a typically male scientific career. This notion essentially considers a "good" scientist to be one who can devote his life totally to science and has no other restrictions on his time or commitments outside science. The question now is, what – and where – can we add to the existing policy mix to change this situation, i.e. to revise this notion of the "ideal". At a series of workshops, researchers, academics and other experts used creative methods to develop their visions of a gender-neutral landscape in science, academia and research in 2025. These visions were then used to identify relevant fields of action for initiating cultural change. This paper summarises the results of this discursive process and outlines how the process that began with this project could now be continued.


Computed tomographic (CT) scanning is effective to show cerebrovascular lesions causing the symptoms and signs of a stroke. However, CT scanning may not change stroke morbidity or mortality. A retrospective medical chart review compared 93 patients with cerebral infarctions treated before CT scanning was available with 92 patients who had undergone scanning. The two groups showed no difference in type of treatment given or in subsequent severity of disability, mortality, or discharge destination. However, the post-CT group had a significant reduction in the total number of neurodiagnostic procedures, but estimated total charges for all diagnostic procedures were not significantly reduced. Computed tomographic scanning may not be beneficial for stroke patients who have a clear history of acute onset, are alert, and have no findings indicating an intracranial mass.


On average, Portuguese-Canadians have a lower educational attainment than other ethnicities. With the exception of the Toronto School Board, this issue has been relatively ignored across Canada. I attempt to fill this gap by -focussing on Portuguese-Canadians in British Columbia, specifically in Vancouver, using Census data to provide a statistical profile, and conducting focus groups to identify some of the key challenges participants faced throughout school. Analysing these two data sources brings out a number of alternatives that have been divided into two categories, community and formal school system. On the whole, these alternatives are relatively low cost in comparison to the current level of funding on education and work mainly within the community to foster an interest and growth in educational attainment. Finally, the conclusion recommends the best course of action and role for public policy over time.


Water conflicts unfolding around the world present the need for accurate economic models of groundwater use which couple traditional producer theory with hydrological science. We present a static optimization problem of individual producer rents, given groundwater as a variable input to production. In a break with previous literature, the model allows for the possibility of binding constraints on well capacity which occur due to the finite lateral speed at which water can move underground. The theoretical model predicts that when well yield constraints bind, producers maximize profit by extracting as much water as possible. Therefore, if producers are constrained, regions with more available water should consume more of it. We test this hypothesis empirically by modelling the effect of well yields on crop cover and water usage data. Our empirical results reveal that areas with higher average well capacities tend to plant a more water intensive mix of crops, and use more groundwater. This straightforward result comes in contrast to previous economic models of groundwater use, which have assumed an interior solution to the irrigators' profit maximization problem. This research provides important inroads to understanding what really drives irrigators' behavior on the High Plains; a crucial step towards conserving this precious resource.


This study was carried out to observe prescription pattern of anti depressants as well as other psychotropic medications for the treatment of depression. A sample of 100 adult patients was selected to participate in the study. First five patients of depression (with or without psychotic symptoms) from twenty out patient departments (OPDs) of various consultant psychiatrists of Department of Psychiatry, C. S. M. Medical University, Lucknow, were included with the sample. It was found that a large number of patients (84%) were co-prescribed Clonazepam. It was observed that 16% of the patients were prescribed a combination of two antidepressants. 19% of the patients were co-prescribed antipsychotics for the treatment of their psychotic symptoms. Duloxetine was found to be the most frequently prescribed anti depressant while Paroxetine was the least frequently prescribed antidepressant.

 Key words: Antidepressants, depression, prescription pattern.


Polyaniline(PANI) nanofibers were firstly prepared by rapid mixture method, EP/PANI nanocomposite was obtained by in-situ adding the PANI nanofibers to epoxy resin(EP). Thermal degradation behavior of PANI and kinetic analysis of thermal decomposition of EP/PANI nanocomposites were investigated in detail by using thermogravimetric analyser (TGA) in inert atmosphere. Typical three step decomposition profiles of PANI were obtained. On the basis of isoconversional analysis by the methods of Kissinger-Akahira-Sunose method(KAS method) and Flynn-Wall-Ozawa method(FWO method), it was found that the value of the activation energy of EP/PANI nanocomposites is higher than that of pure EP, which proves that PANI nanofibers obviously improve the thermal stability of pure EP.


The kidney responds to periods of ischemia with vasoconstriction and a decrease in glomerular filtration rate (GFR) on reperfusion. The mediators of this response have not been fully identified. In this study, we examined the contribution of angiotensin II (AII), thromboxane A2 (TXA2) and the interaction between them to this response. Anesthetized dogs were subjected to 30 min of clamping of both renal arteries. Renal hemodynamics and function were followed from 60 min before and for 105 min after clamping. Dogs were divided into salt-depleted (AII-stimulated) and captopril-treated (AII-inhibited) groups. Each group included dogs that received either the TXA2 synthase inhibitor CGS 13080 or its vehicle (controls) starting 30 min before renal artery clamping and lasting to the end of the experiment. In captopril-treated control dogs, 30 min of ischemia induced a 25% fall in renal blood flow (RBF). GFR initially fell by 75%, but recovered to 64% of base-line value 60 to 90 min after release of the clamp. In captopril-treated dogs, CGS 13080 prevented the fall in RBF, but the GFR response was similar to vehicle-treated dogs. In control dogs, both GFR and RBF responses were enhanced in salt-depleted compared with captopril-treated dogs; the decrease in RBF (44%) was greater, and the recovery in GFR, which fell by 89%, less. In salt-depleted, CGS 13080-treated dogs, the 30% fall in RBF was less than its control, but greater than dogs treated with captopril and CGS 13080. The change in GFR was similar to the other groups.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Video super-resolution has recently become one of the most important mobile-related problems due to the rise of video communication and streaming services. While many solutions have been proposed for this task, the majority of them are too computationally expensive to run on portable devices with limited hardware resources. To address this problem, we introduce the first Mobile AI challenge, where the target is to develop an end-to-end deep learning-based video super-resolution solutions that can achieve a real-time performance on mobile GPUs. The participants were provided with the REDS dataset and trained their models to do an efficient 4X video upscaling. The runtime of all models was evaluated on the OPPO Find X2 smartphone with the Snapdragon 865 SoC capable of accelerating floating-point networks on its Adreno GPU. The proposed solutions are fully compatible with any mobile GPU and can upscale videos to HD resolution at up to 80 FPS while demonstrating high fidelity results. A detailed description of all models developed in the challenge is provided in this paper.


Strontium migration from the oxygen electrode to the interface between the electrolyte and interlayer was investigated in solid oxide cells in fuel cell (SOFC) and electrolysis (SOEC) modes. Four samples were imaged by focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) serial sectioning. After reconstruction, the spatial distribution of the strontium zirconate secondary phase was examined by measuring the volume fractions, phase size distributions, interfacial surface areas and the shape of each detected distinct inclusion. The analysis shows that the accumulation lingers during operation. The results also suggest that the inclusions tend to propagate towards the GDC/YSZ interface. The detrimental effect on the performance was assessed using 3-D finite element transport analysis, by comparing the effective conductivity computed with and without the presence of the secondary phase. The operation in SOFC mode caused a limited decrease of the conductivity, while the effects on the performance are more significant for SOEC operation.


Flavonoids are most commonly conjugated with various sugar moieties by UDP-sugar:glycosyltransferases (UGTs) in a lineage-specific manner. Generally, the phylogenetics and regiospecificity of flavonoid UGTs are correlated, indicating that the regiospecificity of UGT differentiated prior to speciation. By contrast, it is unclear how the sugar donor specificity of UGTs evolved. Here, we report the biochemical, homology-modeled, and phylogenetic characterization of flavonoid 7-O-glucuronosyltransferases (F7GAT), which is responsible for producing specialized metabolites in Lamiales plants. All of the Lamiales F7GATs were found to be members of the UGT88-related cluster and specifically used UDP-glucuronic acid (UDPGA). We identified an Arg residue that is specifically conserved in the PSPG box in the Lamiales F7GATs. Substitution of this Arg with Trp was sufficient to convert the sugar donor specificity of the Lamiales F7GATs from UDPGA to UDP-glucose. Homology modeling of the Lamiales F7GAT suggested that the Arg residue plays a critical role in the specific recognition of anionic carboxylate of the glucuronic acid moiety of UDPGA with its cationic guanidinium moiety. These results support the hypothesis that differentiation of sugar donor specificity of UGTs occurred locally, in specific plant lineages, after establishment of general regiospecificity for the sugar acceptor. Thus, the plasticity of sugar donor specificity explains, in part, the extraordinary structural diversification of phytochemicals.


Micro Air Vehicles (MAVs) are a new type of aircraft maturing every year. The first mission-capable MAVs are already available on the market. Similarly to larger UAVs, MAVs may be used in a variety of applications, both military and civilian, such as situational awareness, reconnaissance, data relay, air sampling etc. This study describes the development of a method for rapid design and optimization based on some basic preliminary design parameters.

Low aspect ratio (LAR) wing theory and experimental data by Mueller and Torres have been used to analytically predict the performance of the MAV. This has also been validated by the author's wind tunnel experiments, also described in this thesis. The results of the wind tunnel experiments are presented. Performance of the propulsion system (motor, propeller, battery, speed controller) was evaluated using other commercially available tools.

The design optimization concerns the wing geometry under certain constraints applied by the user. The design optimization code, which is based on Genetic Algorithms, was written in MATLAB.

As a conclusion to the project, a prototype was built and successfully test flown, which proved the feasibility of the developed method. A detailed description of the manufacture and testing of the prototype is also included in this thesis.


The Huns, invading through Dariali Gorge on the modern-day border between Russia and Georgia in AD 395 and 515, spread terror across the late antique world. Was this the prelude to the apocalypse? Prophecies foresaw a future Hunnic onslaught, via the same mountain pass, bringing about the end of the world. Humanity's fate depended on a gated barrier deep in Europe's highest and most forbidding mountain chain. Centuries before the emergence of such apocalyptic beliefs, the gorge had reached world fame. It was the target of a planned military expedition by the Emperor Nero. Chained to the dramatic sheer cliffs, framing the narrow passage, the mythical fire-thief Prometheus suffered severe punishment, his liver devoured by an eagle. It was known under multiple names, most commonly the Caspian or Alan Gates. Featuring in the works of literary giants, no other mountain pass in the ancient and medieval world matches Dariali's fame. Yet little was known about the materiality of this mythical place. A team of archaeologists has now shed much new light on the major gorge-blocking fort and a barrier wall on a steep rocky ridge further north. The walls still standing today were built around the time of the first major Hunnic invasion in the late fourth century – when the Caucasus defences feature increasingly prominently in negotiations between the Great Powers of Persia and Rome. In its endeavour to strongly fortify the strategic mountain pass through the Central Caucasus, the workforce erased most traces of earlier occupation. The Persian-built bastion saw heavy occupation for 600 years. Its multi-faith medieval garrison controlled Trans-Caucasian traffic. Everyday objects and human remains reveal harsh living conditions and close connections to the Muslim South, as well as the steppe world of the north. The Caspian Gates explains how a highly strategic rock has played a pivotal role in world history from Classical Antiquity into the twentieth century.


Graph convolutional networks (GCNs) is a class of artificial neural networks for processing data that can be represented as graphs. Since financial transactions can naturally be constructed as graphs, GCNs are widely applied in the financial industry, especially for financial fraud detection. In this paper, we focus on fraud detection on cryptocurrency truct networks. In the literature, most works focus on static networks. Whereas in this study, we consider the evolving nature of cryptocurrency networks, and use local structural as well as the balance theory to guide the training process. More specifically, we compute motif matrices to capture the local topological information, then use them in the GCN aggregation process. The generated embedding at each snapshot is a weighted average of embeddings within a time window, where the weights are learnable parameters. Since the trust networks is signed on each edge, balance theory is used to guide the training process. Experimental results on bitcoin-alpha and bitcoin-otc datasets show that the proposed model outperforms those in the literature.