Diet of the rare yellow-footed rock wallaby (Petrogale xanthopus) was found by study of faeces along the escarpment of the Coturaundee Range in western New South Wales, Australia. Normally 42 to 52% of the diet (estimated as the occurrence of recognizable particles within a microscope field) was of forbs, mostly small herbaceous ephemeral species. During drought the most important component was browse, 44% of diet. Grass was important. There was considerable overlap of species eaten by the rock wallabies and the introduced goats and rabbits, 75% in the case of goats during drought; rabbits were not seen in the higher parts of the escarpment. There was less competition from the euros (Macropus robustus). Control of introduced herbivores may be essential if the rock wallaby populations are to have a chance of recovery.


A glacial origin for the Mineral Fork Tillite in the Big Cottonwood Canyon area of the Wasatch Range in Utah is reaffirmed. The formation consists of two members: a lower sequence of thick, massive diamictites, with minor lensoid beds of shale-siltstone, sandstone, and conglomerate, and an upper sequence of more abundant shale-siltstone and siltstone that displays prominent bedding. The lower member is interpreted to be a sedimentary pile of tills and outwash deposited by multiple advances of continental glaciers. A grooved, polished, and striated surface marks the basal contact with the Big Cottonwood Formation. The upper member is considered to be of glaciomarine origin, mainly sediments released from icebergs and/or a floating ice shelf, along with rock flour washed from marine-based glacier margins. One major continental to marine cycle of environmental change is indicated as a result of slow but steady subsidence along a continental margin. Evidence cited here strengthens the case for a major glacial event during late Precambrian (Eocambrian) time in western North America.


The World Health Organization definition of palliative care describes palliative care as 'an approach that improves the quality of life of patients and their families facing problems associated with life-threatening illness'. It also states that palliative care 'is applicable early in the course of illness, in conjunction with other therapies that are implemented to prolong life', and in describing palliative care for children that 'It begins when illness is diagnosed, and continues regardless of whether a child receives treatment directed at the disease.'


BACKGROUND
Primary cardiac sarcoma is a rare and atypical clinical entity. We present a patient with long-term remission after primary cardiac sarcoma resection.

CASE REPORT
A 42-year-old previously healthy female presented to the emergency department after an effort-induced 30-minute episode of chest pain and extreme shortness of breath. Physical examination upon admission was remarkable for a pulse of 99/minute; blood pressure was 101/73 mmHg. Transthoracic echocardiography showed a mass measuring 5.5 × 5.6 cm extending from the left septum to the mitral valve anterior leaflet. A multilobulated broad-based 5.5 × 5.6 × 4 cm3 mass invading a large portion of the left septum to the mitral valve anterior leaflet was completely excised in the open heart surgery. Chemotherapy regimen (paclitaxel 175 mg/m2/day on day 1, every 21 days) was started after operation. Full remission was provided. Metastasis and recurrence have not been observed for 5 years of follow-up by PET. We observed during 5 years and used a PET. And the finally we did not see metastasis at the 5 years of follow-up.

CONCLUSIONS
We strongly recommend that a patient-specific multidisciplinary approach involving radical resection, chemotherapy, and radiation therapy in these cases results in patient survival and a significant improvement in quality of life. We also think that it is necessary to perform MRI to exclude other illnesses that are considered to be a myxoma.


Poststroke depression, the second most serious psychosomatic complication after brain stroke, leads to delay of the rehabilitation process and is associated with an increased disability and cognitive impairment along with increase in term mortality. Research into the biochemical changes in depression is still insufficiently described. The aim of our study was therefore to evaluate the possible association between plasma protein oxidative/nitrative damages and the development of poststroke depression. We evaluated oxidative/nitrative modifications of specific proteins by measurement of 3-nitrotyrosine and carbonyl groups levels using ELISA test. Additionally, we checked differences in proteins thiol groups by spectrophotometric assay based on reaction between DTNB and thiols. We also evaluated catalase activity in erythrocytes measured as ability to decompose H2O2. Correlation analysis was performed using Spearman's rank. We observed significant (P < 0.001) differences in all oxidative/nitrative stress parameters in brain stroke patients compared to healthy group. Our research shows that oxidative damage of proteins is correlated with the degree of poststroke depression, while nitrative changes do not show any relationship. We demonstrate a positive correlation between the concentration of carbonyl groups and the Geriatric Depression Scale and a negative correlation between the degree of depression and the concentration of -SH groups or catalase activity.


Groundwater radon contamination is a common occurrence in areas underlain by granite and by granite gneiss and other high grade metamorphic rocks. In a recent study by Dillon (1989), approximately 300 wells in the Athens region of Northeast Georgia were sampled and the groundwater tested for radon gas. The above area covers almost 9,000 square kilometers located to the east and southeast of Atlanta, Georgia. The area is situated in the Inner Piedmont belt and is underlain entirely by igneous and metamorphic rocks. The available measurements exhibit complex spatial variations which preclude error-free deterministic regional estimation and mapping of groundwater radon contamination. In view of this high degree of variation, a non-linear geostatistical tool, known as indicator kriging ~ employed to produce spatial risk maps of radon concentrations. The spatial extent of these high risk areas depend on three factors: (i) observed values; (ii) the desired risk level; and (iii) the pre-determined threshold (safe) value of contamination. Such maps will aid a geohydrologist to determine the areas with high risk of radon contamination and target them for more intensive monitoring, remedial, and/or regulatory actions. All computer works and mapping are conducted using GEO-EAS, which is a public domain microcomputer geostatistical environmental assessment software, developed by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.


Bounding box algorithms are useful in localization of image patterns. Recently, utilization of convolutional neural networks on X-ray images has proven a promising disease prediction technique. However, pattern localization over prediction has always been a challenging task with inconsistent coordinates, sizes, resolution and capture positions of an image. Several model architectures like Fast R-CNN, Faster R-CNN, Histogram of Oriented Gradients (HOG), You only look once (YOLO), Region-based Convolutional Neural Networks (R-CNN), Region-based Fully Convolutional Networks (R-FCN), Single Shot Detector (SSD), etc. are used for object detection and localization in modern-day computer vision applications. SSD and region-based detectors like Fast R-CNN or Faster R-CNN are very similar in design and implementation, but SSD have shown to work efficiently with larger frames per second (FPS) and lower resolution images. In this article, we present a unique approach of SSD with a VGG-16 network as a backbone for feature detection of bounding box algorithm to predict the location of an anomaly within chest X-ray image.


This paper presents an analysis of the interaction of human capital investment and the development of social and political institutions. We find that human capital matters - for growth through its quality dimension; for distributional conflict by raising political aspirations. But human capital does not stand alone either. The level of economic development (output) matters, distributional (instability) conflict as well as the rights dispensation can come to influence human capital investment decisions in their own right. Social, human capital, political as well as economic dimensions are densely interwoven in webs of association.


Knowledge of the health status and potential effect of disease outbreaks among Southern Ocean fauna may be decisive for its conservation. We assessed the exposure and infection of Antarctic fur seals (Arctocephalus gazella, AFS) and Southern elephant seals (Mirounga leonine, SES) to parapoxvirus, Phocid alphaherpesvirus-1 (PhHV-1), smooth Brucella spp. and Toxoplasma gondii. AFS (n = 65) serum and swab samples, and SES (n = 13) serum samples from the sub--Antarctic island of Bouvetoya (54°25'S, 03°22'E) were collected during two austral summers (2014/15, 2017/18). Three polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests amplifying the DNA polymerase, B2L and GIF parapoxvirus genomic regions were performed, investigating DNA from mucosal swab samples. The glycoprotein B gene was targeted to detect PhHV-1 viral DNA. Sera were assayed for T. gondii and smooth Brucella spp. antibodies with indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. Parapoxvirus PCR amplicons of the expected size were generated in two of the 29 AFS pups (nasal swabs, 2014/15), targeting the B2L (n = 2) and DNA polymerase (n = 1) genes, whereas the GIF PCR did not amplify target sequences. The PCR amplicons were sequenced and blasted in GenBank, revealing highest similarity with a seal parapoxvirus, confirming the presence of the virus in AFS for the first time. No PhHV-1 amplicons were generated, and antibodies against T. gondii or smooth Brucella spp. were not detected. Our data indicate that these seals are host for parapoxvirus but are neither exposed to smooth Brucella spp. nor T. gondii. Evidence of PhHV-1 shedding was not detected.


Thermoelectric properties of quasi-one-dimensional TTT(TCNQ)2 organic crystals are investigated in order to appreciate the prospect of using this compound as n–type thermoelectric material. A more complete three-dimensional (3D) physical model is elaborated. It takes into account two the most important interactions of conduction electrons with longitudinal acoustic phonons, the electrons' scattering on neighbor molecular chains, as well as the scattering by impurities and defects. The electrical conductivity, thermopower, the power factor, electronic thermal conductivity and the thermoelectric figure of merit in the direction along conductive molecular chains are calculated numerically for different degrees of crystal purity. It is shown that in stoichiometric compounds the thermoelectric figure of merit ZT remains small even after the increase of crystal perfection degree. The thermoelectric properties may be significantly enhanced by simultaneous increase of crystal perfection and of electron concentration. The latter can be achieved by additional doping with donors. For less pure crystals, the interaction with impurities predominates over the weak interchain interaction and the simpler one-dimensional (1D) physical model is applicable. When the impurity scattering is reduced, the interchain interaction begins to limit the carrier mobility and the application of the 3D physical model is required. The optimal parameters permitting to predict ZT~ 1 are determined.


Within the western understanding of a nuclear family and the idea of good motherhood, the need for grandparental support is commonly viewed as an expression of deficient motherhood. Young mothers are often seen as incapable of maternal practices and as being in need of support from their extended family. An alternative view is that too much support might result in the grandmothers taking on the role of mother. This paper explores research around the ambivalent meanings of grandparental support in young Swedish mothers' narratives. In this research, we identified three repertoires: inhibiting, being-there-no-matter-what and responsibility. Mothers who were following their expected life course achieved a subject position as a "real mother" within a functioning nuclear family. Mothers deviating from their expected life course achieved a subject position as either a "mother in becoming" with a functional and supportive extended family or as a "real mother" with a dysfunctional and non-supportive extended family. In the case of young mothers who are seen as insufficient, motherhood might become negotiable and fluid between the biological mother and the young mother's own mother.


: Paleopathology is the study of human ailments in bygone times of which written records are non-existent or inadequate. Essentially, it is based on osteological findings. Radiologic examination, which reveals the inner structure of the bones, plays an important role. Additional information can be obtained with CT, primarily because there is no superimposition of the bones. The very detailed radiologic demonstration of a periosteal reaction on a tibia in a case of acquired syphilis is illustrated.


This paper introduces a new abstraction to accelerate the read-barriers and write-barriers used by language runtime systems. We exploit the fact that, dynamically, many barrier executions perform checks but no real work -- e.g., in generational garbage collection (GC), frequent checks are needed to detect the creation of inter-generational references, even though such references occur rarely in many workloads. We introduce a form of dynamic filtering that identifies redundant checks by (i) recording checks that have recently been executed, and (ii) detecting when a barrier is repeating one of these checks. We show how this technique can be applied to a variety of algorithms for GC, transactional memory, and language-based security. By supporting dynamic filtering in the instruction set, we show that the fast-paths of these barriers can be streamlined, reducing the impact on the quality of surrounding code. We show how we accelerate the barriers used for generational GC and transactional memory in the Bartok research compiler. With a 2048-entry filter, dynamic filtering eliminates almost all the overhead of the GC write-barriers. Dynamic filtering eliminates around half the overhead of STM over a non-synchronized baseline -- even when used with an STM that is already designed for low overhead, and which employs static analyses to avoid redundant operations.


ABSTRACT: Increasingly, applications of machine learning techniques for digital soil mapping (DSM) are being used for different soil mapping purposes. Considering the variety of models available, it is important to know their performance in relation to soil data and environmental variables involved in soil mapping. This paper investigated the performance of eight machine learning algorithms for soil mapping in a tropical mountainous area of an official rural settlement in the Zona da Mata region in Brazil. Morphometric maps generated from [...]


Mechanisms of Action Hypertension. CARDIZEM CD produces its antihypertensive effect primarily by relaxation of vascular smooth muscle and the resultant decrease in peripheral vascular resistance. The magnitude of blood pressure reduction is related to the degree of hypertension; thus hypertensive individuals experience an antihypertensive effect, whereas there is only a modest fall in blood pressure in normotensives.


The osmolalities of breast milk and of 36 products that may be fed to infants were determined by the freezing-point depression method. A wide range of osmolality was observed among formulas that provide 67 kcal/100 ml, and many have osmolalities greater than 400 mOsm/kg of water. Reconstituted powdered formulas have osmolalities that are widely varied from batch to batch, are greater when prepared by scoop measures when the osmolalities of corresponding ready-to-feed formulas, and are greater than the osmolalities of the formulas prepared by weighed measures from the manufacturer's formulation. The osmolality of products for oral consumption should be considered in the selection of formulas for preterm infants.


Patlak analysis techniques based on linear regression are often applied to positron
emission tomography (PET) images to estimate a number of physiological parameters.
The Patlak equation forms the basis for most extension works regarding graphical
analysis of many tracers in quantitative PET measurements. Patlak analysis is primarily
used to obtain the rate constant Ki, which represents the tracer transfer rate from plasma
to the targeted tissue. One of the most common issues associated with Patlak analysis is
the introduction of statistical noise, adopted originally from the images, that affects the
slope of the graphical plot, leading to bias, and causes errors in the calculation of the
rate constant Ki i. In this thesis, several statistical and noise reduction methods for 2 and
3 dimensional data are proposed and applied to simulated 18F-FDOPA brain images
generated from a PET imaging simulator. The methods were applied to investigate
whether their utilisation could reduce the bias and error caused by noisy images and
improve the accuracy of quantitative measurements. Then, validation step extended to
18F-FDOPA PET images obtained from a clinical trial for Parkinson's disease. The
minimum averaged SE, SSE and the highest averaged reduction of noisy Ki values were
found with the feasible generalised least squares (FGLS) model. Battle-Lemarie wavelet
(BLW) showed significant change in data for the 3D PET images. Savitzky-Golay
filtering (SGF) demonstrated significant change for most of the noise levels applied to
2D data. In clinical 18F-FDOPA images, the mean and standard deviation of standard
error (SE) and sum-squared error (SSE) were significantly reduced in both baseline and
after therapy groups. This work has the potential to be extended to other graphical
analysis in quantitative PET data measurements.


Internet of Things (IoT) aims to bring connectivity to almost every objects, i.e., things, found in the physical space. It extends connectivity to everyday things, however, such increase in the connectivity creates many prominent challenges. Context: Generally, IoT opens the door for new applications for machine-to-machine and human-to-human communications. The current trend of collaborating, distributed teams through the Internet, mobile communications, and autonomous entities, e.g., robots, is the first phase of the IoT to develop and deliver diverse services and applications. However, such collaborations is threatened by the fragmentation that we witness in the industry nowadays as it brings difficulty to integrate the diverse technologies of the various objects found in IoT systems. Diverse technologies induce interoperability issues while designing and developing various services and applications, hence, limiting the possibility of reusing the data, more specifically, the software (including frameworks, firmware, applications programming interfaces, and user interfaces) as well as of facing issues, like security threats and bugs, when developing new services or applications. Different aspects of handling data collection ranging from discovering smart sensors for data collection, integrating and applying reasoning on them must be available to provide interoperability and flexibility to the diverse objects interacting in the system. However, such approaches are bound to be challenged in future IoT scenarios as they bring substantial performance impairments in settings with the very large number of collaborating devices and technologies. Objective: We raise the awareness of the community about the lack of interoperability among technologies developed for IoT and challenges that their integration poses. We also provide guidelines for researchers and practitioners interested in connecting IoT networks and devices to develop services and applications. Method: We apply the methods advocated by the evidence-based software engineering paradigm. This paradigm and its core tool, the systematic literature review (SLR), were introduced to the software-engineering research community early 2004 to help researchers and industry systematically and objectively gather and aggregate evidences about different topics. In this paper, we conduct an SLR of both IoT interoperability issues and the state-of-practice of IoT technologies in the industry, highlighting the integration challenges related to the IoT that have significantly shifted the landscape of Internet-based collaborative services and applications nowadays. Results: Our SLR identifies a number of studies from journals, conferences, and workshops with the highest quality in the field. This SLR reports different trends, including frameworks and technologies, for the IoT for better comprehension of the paradigm and discusses the integration and interoperability challenges across the different layers of this technology while shedding light on the current IoT state-of-practice. It also discusses some future research directions for the community.


Abstract: Patterns of sclerobiont encrustation constitute important data in studies of paleosynecology and autecology, yet methods used to collect this information are not standardized. The variation among different methods may be attributed to the need for uniquely designed methods applied to address a specific question. As a result, comparisons between sclerobiont studies are cumbersome, results are sometimes contradictory, and the interpretive value among published results is low. A comparison of techniques commonly used for computing sclerobiont abundance and distribution upon host substrates revealed that the simplest measure of abundance, numerical abundance, under-reported large colonial organisms and over-reported small colonial and solitary organisms when compared to calculated baseline values obtained from digitized photos in ArcGIS. Spatial abundance methods, also examined, show areal percent coverage estimation over-reports total encrustation, but not substantially. Methods commonly used to determine sclerobiont abundance, including spatial, numerical, and frequency of encrustation techniques, were applied to a sample set of the relatively flat, concavo-convex Ordovician brachiopod Rafinesquina. Spatial estimation was the only method to preserve rank abundance calculated by ArcGIS. Frequency of encrustation ranked nearly half the sclerobionts differently than the calculated values in terms of abundance. Most spatially based grid overlay methods produced different abundance rankings; grid overlays with fewer grid sections better reflected baseline values. Different methods employed in reporting sclerobiont encrustation patterns introduce biases unique to each method. Understanding the biases inherent to each method allows more highly resolved interpretations, and promotes more consistent approaches to sclerobiont analysis.


Abstract This paper presents a simple model of the long-term interest rate. The model represents Keynes's conjecture that the central bank's actions influence the long-term interest rate primarily through the short-term interest rate, while allowing for other important factors. It relies on the geometric Brownian motion to formally model Keynes's conjecture. Geometric Brownian motion has been widely used in modeling interest rate dynamics in quantitative finance. However, it has not been used to represent Keynes's conjecture. Empirical studies in support of the Keynesian perspective and the stylized facts on the dynamics of the long-term interest rate on government bonds suggest that interest rate models based on Keynes's conjecture can be advantageous.


Since the Second Vatican Council (1962-5), the Catholic Church has formally declared the possibility of salvation for atheists: 'those who, without fault, have not yet arrived at an express recognition of God' (Lumen Gentium 16). However, in the very same document, the Council also reiterates the traditional doctrine of the necessity of faith, baptism, and the mediation of Church in order for someone to be saved (Lumen Gentium 14). This monograph explores how these two seemingly contradictory claims may satisfactorily be reconciled. Specifically, it asks - and ultimately answers - the question: How, within the parameters of Catholic dogmatic theology, is it possible for an atheist to be saved? As the first full-length study of this topic since Vatican II, the book discusses crucial foundational issues - the understanding of 'atheist' in Catholic theology; the developing views on both unbelief, and the salvation of non-Christians, in the decades preceding the Council - before tackling the conciliar teaching itself. Considerable attention is then given to the classic solution of imputing an 'implicit' faith to righteous atheists, best known from Karl Rahner's theory of 'anonymous Christians' (though the basic idea was advocated by many other major figures, including Ratzinger, Schillebeeckx, de Lubac, Balthasar, and Kung). After discussing Rahner's specific proposals in detail, this kind of approach is however shown to be untenable. In its place, a new way of understanding Vatican II's optimism for atheists is developed in detail, in light of scripture, tradition, and magisterium. This draws principally on Christ's descent into Hell, a renewed understanding of invincible ignorance, and a literal interpretation of Matthew 25.


Statement of Problem: Numerous different attachments are used to retain overdentures. Hence, there is a need to assess new chairside attachment system based on polyvinylsiloxane (Retention.sil [R.S]) to know its in vitro behavior to be used clinically. Purpose: To assess and compare the retentive force of two female matrix retention system (R.S with a conventional O-ring [OR] attachment system) in tooth-supported overdenture. Materials and Methods: Completely edentulous mandibular model with two canine root-anchored ball attachments for overdentures were fabricated. A total of 30 mandibular dentures were made and divided to form two groups, each with a different attachment design. One group (test) received 5 pairs of R.S attachments while the other group (control) received 15 pairs of ORs. Retention force was measured by subjecting them to 540 cycles of insertion and de-insertion cycles (representing 6 months functional life) in axial direction before and after thermocycling. Results: Statistical analysis comprised Kolmogorov–Smirnov test, Friedman test, and Wilcoxon signed-rank test (α = 0.05). The initial retention of R.S attachments was 5.90 ± 0.77 N and of ball/OR 17.36 ± 3.81 N. The final retention of R.S attachments was 5.41 ± 0.72 N and of ball/OR 12.91 ± 3.18 N. The OR developed higher retentive force as compared to the R.S attachments (P < 0.05). However, no significant changes in retention force were observed for R.S groups after repeated dislodging and thermal undulation. Conclusion: Both systems presented acceptable retention capacities after 540 cycles. The newly developed R.S attachments can provide an alternative to OR attachments for short-term retention. Clinical studies are however required to elucidate the long-term performance of these materials.


Recent trend in the aeronautic industry is to introduce a novel prognostic solution for critical systems in the attempt to increase vehicle availability, reduce costs, and optimize the maintenance policy. Despite this, there is a general lack of literature about prognostics for hydraulic flight control systems, especially looking at helicopter applications. The present research was focused on a preliminary study for an integrated framework of fault detection and failure prognosis tailored for one of the most common architectures for flight control actuation. Starting from a high-fidelity dynamic model of the system, two different faults were studied and described within a dedicated simulation environment: the opening of a crack in the coils of the centering springs of the actuator and the wear of the inner seals. Both failure modes were analyzed through established models available in the literature and their evolution simulated within the model of the actuator. Hence, an in-depth feature selection process was pursued aimed at the definition of signals suitable for both diagnosis and prognosis. Results were then reported through an accuracy-sensitivity plane and used to define a prognostic routine based on particle filtering techniques. The more significant contribution of the present research was that no additional sensors are needed so that the prognostic system can be potentially implemented for in-service platforms.


Abstract Gastric cancer remains the second most common cancer in Korea; however, its mortality has decreased due to earlier diagnosis. In Korea, screening endoscopy has been performed nationwide since 1999. The aim of this study was to elucidate the benefit of screening endoscopy on actual survival in gastric cancer patients and to determine the optimal interval of screening endoscopy. We analyzed 1651 patients diagnosed with gastric adenocarcinoma who underwent surgical treatment between June 2008 and December 2014. Patients were divided into 4 groups according to the interval of screening endoscopy prior to their gastric cancer diagnosis. (Group I = within 1 year, Group II = >1 but <2 years, Group III = more than 2 years, Group IV = no prior endoscopic examination). Patient demographics, clinicopathologic characteristics, and postoperative surgical outcomes including overall survival were compared. The 5-year gastric cancer-specific survival rates of groups I and II were significantly higher than groups III and IV (90.9% vs 85.4%, P = 0.002, respectively). Multivariate analysis showed that screening interval was an independent factor for the diagnosis of advanced gastric cancer. The risk of advanced gastric cancer decreased in group I (odds ratio: 0.515, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.369–0.719; P < 0.001) and group II (odds ratio: 0.678, 95% CI 0.517–0.889, P = 0.005). Screening endoscopy was helpful in increasing the survival of gastric cancer patients. A 2-year endoscopic screening interval is suitable to detect early-stage gastric cancer.


The vast majority of the world's biological resources and traditional knowledge is located in the developing world, yet the vast majority of the world's intellectual property over biotechnology is owned by the developed world. Since the formation of the WTO the developing world has supported the developed world's demands for stronger intellectual property protection. However, as it now seeks the support of the developed world to exploit these resources, it finds that the developed world has only responded with overtures of bilateralism. Furthermore, the expected increases in foreign direct investment have not materialised, yet have continued to flow to China, a country that is the world's largest producer of counterfeit goods. In this paper, Luigi Palombi discusses TRIPS, post-TRIPS bilateralism and patents in the context of biological resources and traditional knowledge and seeks to provide a solution to the present intellectual property deadlock between the developed and developing worlds.


We present all the periodic Green function dyadics that enter a description of a 2D array of emitters at the level that includes the electric dipole, magnetic dipole and electric quadrupole moment of each emitter. We find a concise analytic form for the radiative contributions to the periodic Green function dyadics that give rise to radiation reaction fields, and so our description of the scattered light explicitly satisfies the optical theorem; we give the non-radiative contributions that do not affect energy balance in the form of rapidly converging series. Finally, we present an approximation scheme for evaluating periodic Green function dyadics at long wavelengths that rigorously respects energy conservation. The scheme extends the range of validity of the usual static approximation by the inclusion of a simple dynamic correction.


Abstract This paper (re)tells the story of a sports coach who was accused of emotional abuse of a child athlete and, following an investigation by his club, cleared of the allegation. Accounts of such allegations are rare and no research to date has explored coaches' lived experiences of this. Such stories are 'dangerous' and remain largely unrecognised and undebated as they represent a challenge to the meta-narrative of child protection. Using the stance of a 'storyteller', the coach-participant's story is presented as a monologue crafted using his words and embellished with literary techniques. The story is purposefully largely left open for interpretation in an attempt to encourage readers to engage cognitively and emotionally with it. Telling such a 'dangerous' story aims to add to the narrative repertoires available to those working in this field and expand understandings of child protection in sport.


Background Targeting interleukin (IL)-6 has become a major therapeutic strategy in the treatment of immune-mediated inflammatory disease. Interference with the IL-6 pathway can be directed at the specific receptor using anti-IL-6Rα antibodies or by directly inhibiting the IL-6 cytokine. This paper is an update of a previous consensus document, based on most recent evidence and expert opinion, that aims to inform on the medical use of interfering with the IL-6 pathway. Methods A systematic literature research was performed that focused on IL-6-pathway inhibitors in inflammatory diseases. Evidence was put in context by a large group of international experts and patients in a subsequent consensus process. All were involved in formulating the consensus statements, and in the preparation of this document. Results The consensus process covered relevant aspects of dosing and populations for different indications of IL-6 pathway inhibitors that are approved across the world, including rheumatoid arthritis, polyarticular-course and systemic juvenile idiopathic arthritis, giant cell arteritis, Takayasu arteritis, adult-onset Still's disease, Castleman's disease, chimeric antigen receptor-T-cell-induced cytokine release syndrome, neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder and severe COVID-19. Also addressed were other clinical aspects of the use of IL-6 pathway inhibitors, including pretreatment screening, safety, contraindications and monitoring. Conclusions The document provides a comprehensive consensus on the use of IL-6 inhibition to treat inflammatory disorders to inform healthcare professionals (including researchers), patients, administrators and payers.


Abstract Objectives: The purpose of this study was to identify the clinical characteristics and predictors of serious infections (SIs) in the RemIT-JAV, a nationwide, prospective, inception cohort study for Japanese patients with antineutrophil cytoplasmic antibody-associated vasculitis (AAV). Methods: We analyzed SIs within six months of remission induction therapy in 156 AAV patients. Hazard ratios with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for SIs were calculated using the COX proportional hazard model. Results: Sixty-three SIs in 42 patients were identified. The incidence rate (IR) of SIs was 87.59/100 patient-years. The median length of time to the onset of first SIs was 54 days. Hazard ratios (95%CI) for SIs were 1.97 (0.99–3.95) for age >65 years, 0.47 (0.25–0.89) for female sex, 2.11 (1.05–4.27) for the severe form of AAV, and 2.88 (1.49–5.88) for initial PSL >0.8 mg/kg/day in the first model, and 2.64 (1.39–5.01) for smoking and 3.27 (1.66–6.45) for initial PSL >0.8 mg/kg/day in the second model. Conclusions: Lowering the IR of SIs in Japanese AAV patients is mandatory to improve the vital prognosis of these patients. For remission induction therapy of AAV patients with these risk factors, risk management of immunosuppressive treatment should be carefully considered.


Trait variation across species plays a fundamental role in ecology and evolution, but quantitative analyses of key lifehistory traits under natural conditions generally do not include a large number of species. In a comparative study, we analyzed interspecific variation in adult age as a minimum estimate of the lifespan of 708 vascular plant species along elevational gradients from 263–3175 m a.s.l. and compared this variation with predictions from r-K selection theory and the metabolic theory of ecology (MTE). Age data based on annual ring counts of root collars and rhizomes were combined with a systematic sample of current species distributions in Switzerland (453 plots, each 1 km 2 ). Elevation and temperature trends were investigated by regression analyses of the variation in adult age across species and species assemblages (median adult age) at the landscape level. We included climate, land use and geology as environmental predictors in multiple regressions and considered phylogeny by eigenvector filtering. We found a general increase in adult age towards higher elevations at the level of overall interspecific variation, and this trend was also detectable within individual plant families. Species generally had a shorter lifespan under warmer climates and, in agreement with r-K prediction, in lowland agricultural landscapes. We found an exponential adult age–temperature relationship that is consistent with MTE. The estimate of the MTE parameter 'activation energy' for median adult age in multiple regression was 0.65 eV (95% CI 0.62–0.69 eV) which coincided with the predicted range of 0.60–0.70 eV. Our results imply that climate warming could accelerate species turnover rates by favoring short-lived species over the whole range of life histories and species assemblages. Besides the strong temperature relationship, residual variability and confounding factors demonstrate the need for additional research about interactions between broad-scale constraints and more local drivers of life-history variation.


Chickens sense the bitter taste of structurally different molecules with merely three bitter taste receptors (Gallus gallus taste 2 receptors, ggTas2rs), representing a minimal case of bitter perception. Some bitter compounds like quinine, diphenidol and chlorpheniramine, activate all three ggTas2rs, while others selectively activate one or two of the receptors. We focus on bitter compounds with different selectivity profiles toward the three receptors, to shed light on the molecular recognition complexity in bitter taste. Using homology modeling and induced-fit docking simulations, we investigated the binding modes of ggTas2r agonists. Interestingly, promiscuous compounds are predicted to establish polar interactions with position 6.51 and hydrophobic interactions with positions 3.32 and 5.42 in all ggTas2rs; whereas certain residues are responsible for receptor selectivity. Lys3.29 and Asn3.36 are suggested as ggTas2r1-specificity-conferring residues; Gln6.55 as ggTas2r2-specificity-conferring residue; Ser5.38 and Gln7.42 as ggTas2r7-specificity conferring residues. The selectivity profile of quinine analogs, quinidine, epiquinidine and ethylhydrocupreine, was then characterized by combining calcium-imaging experiments and in silico approaches. ggTas2r models were used to virtually screen BitterDB compounds. ~50% of compounds known to be bitter to human are likely to be bitter to chicken, with 25, 20, 37% predicted to be ggTas2r1, ggTas2r2, ggTas2r7 agonists, respectively. Predicted ggTas2rs agonists can be tested with in vitro and in vivo experiments, contributing to our understanding of bitter taste in chicken and, consequently, to the improvement of chicken feed.


This paper presents an optimal design for an in-plane traveling wave rotary ultrasonic motor with a composite transducer. The structure of the stator was improved to minimize negative influence on vibration modes from the supporter, and a new stator based on it was designed and fabricated. Two operating modal frequencies of new stator have been adjusted to equality by reducing one structural parameter according to sensitivity analysis. The performance experiments of the prototype motor shows that maximum no-load speed is 450rpm and maximum torque achieves 0.04Nm at an exciting voltage of 200Vrms.


A photochemical box model incorporating the Master Chemical Mechanism (v3.2), constrained with a full suite of measurements, was developed to investigate the photochemical reactivity of volatile organic compounds at a semirural site (Mount Tai Mo Shan (TMS)) and an urban site (Tsuen Wan (TW)) in Hong Kong. The levels of ozone (O3) and its precursors, and the magnitudes of the reactivity of O3 precursors, revealed significant differences in the photochemistry at the two sites. Simulated peak hydroperoxyl radical (HO2) mixing ratios were similar at TW and TMS (p = 0.05), while the simulated hydroxyl radical (OH) mixing ratios were much higher at TW (p < 0.05), suggesting different cycling processes between OH and HO2 at the two sites. The higher OH at TW was due to high‐NO mixing ratios, which shifted the HOx (OH + HO2) balance toward OH by the propagation of HO2 and alkyl peroxy radicals (RO2) with NO. HOx production was dominated by O3 photolysis at TMS, but at TW, both HCHO and O3 photolyses were found to be major contributors. By contrast, radical‐radical reactions governed HOx radical losses at TMS, while at TW, the OH + NO2 reaction was found to dominate in the morning and the radical‐radical reactions at noon. Overall, the conversion of NO to NO2 by HO2 dictated the O3 production at the two sites, while O3 destruction was dominated by the OH + NO2 reaction at TW, and at TMS, O3 photolysis and the O3 + HO2 reaction were the major mechanisms. The longer OH chain length at TMS indicated that more O3 was produced for each radical that was generated at this site.


Introduction: Recently, the use of artificial turf has been increased in many parts of the world. However, the effects of artificial turf on the risk of injuries are still debated in literature and published papers have reported contradictory data. Thus, the aim of this study was to compare the risk of injury on artificial turf and natural grass among young Iranian football players Materials and Methods: In this study, 35 teams (980 players) from the youth league of Iran participated. All soccer-related injuries, number of hours of practice sessions and matches, and type of grass during the study period were reported prospectively by the coaches and medical staff. Injuries which occurred during exercise or matches and due to which the player could not take part in the exercise or match of the following day were recorded. The medical team and coaches of both teams were asked to record the players' injuries in the related form. Results: During the 7 months of the study, 26000 hours of player exposure and 118 soccer-related injuries we recorded. Poisson distribution showed that the overall injury rate on natural grass (4.4 injuries/1000 hours) was significantly lower than the overall injury rate on artificial turf (7.64 injuries/1000 hours) (P < 0.05). Knee (P < 0.05) and ankle injuries incidence rates (P < 0.05) on artificial turf were significantly higher than on natural grass. Overuse injuries on artificial turf were twice that on natural grass (P < 0.05). Conclusion: According to the study results, it is suggested that coaches and young players be more careful about the higher incidence of injuries on artificial grass and measures be taken to prevent injuries on artificial turf.


Spark-Plasma Sintering (SPS) involves rapid heating of powder by electric current with simultaneous application of external pressure. Numerous experimental investigations point to the ability of SPS to render highly-dense powder products with the potential of grain size retention. The latter ability is of significance for the consolidation of nano-powder materials where the grain growth is one of the major problems. A model for spark-plasma sintering taking into consideration various mechanisms of material transport is developed. The results of modeling agree satisfactorily with the experimental data in terms of SPS shrinkage kinetics.


Abstract On the basis of the dynamic equations of the Jeffcott rotor–stator model with imbalance, the reliability sensitivity of the rotor–stator systems with rubbing is examined. A statistical fourth moment method is developed to determine the first four moments of system response and state function. The distribution function of the system state function is approximately determined by the standard normal distribution functions using the Edgeworth series technique. The reliability and reliability sensitivity are obtained and the effect on reliability and reliability sensitivity of shaft stiffness and damping, stator stiffness and damping, radial clearance and stator radial stiffness is studied. Numerical results are also presented and discussed.


SummaryThe measurement of house price movements is a vital topic from both academic and practical perspectives and hence has been the focus of much research. There is almost unanimous consensus in the literature that house price indexes should control for the quality of properties; the most widely used methods to attain this aim are the hedonic and repeat sales approaches. The objective of this paper is to compare the Swiss house prices indexes published by the Swiss National Bank (SNB), which are constructed using medians of list prices as published in newspapers and on the internet, to hedonic indexes based on sale prices for the period 1985 to 2006. We find that the list price indexes exhibit quite a different price path than the hedonic indexes during the period. In particular, they appear to overstate price changes in housing markets. We attribute this, at least in part, to changes over time in the composition of the sample of properties on the market.


This paper provides an overview of service level agreements (SLAs) in IP networks. It looks at the typical components of an SLA and identifies three common approaches that are used to satisfy SLAs in IP networks. The implications of using the approaches in the context of a network service provider, a hosting service provider, and an enterprise are examined. While most providers currently offer a static insurance approach toward supporting SLAs, the schemes that can lead to more dynamic approaches are identified.


Uncertainty-based multidisciplinary design optimization (UMDO) is an effective methodology to deal with uncertainties in the engineering system design. In order to shorten the design cycle and improve the design efficiency, the time-consuming computer simulation models are often replaced by metamodels, which consequently introduces metamodeling uncertainty into the UMDO procedure. The optimal solutions may deviate from the true results or even become infeasible if the metamodeling uncertainty is neglected. However, it is difficult to quantify and propagate the metamodeling uncertainty, especially in the UMDO process with feedback-coupled systems since the interdisciplinary consistency needs to be satisfied. In this paper, a new approach is proposed to solve the UMDO problem for the feedback-coupled systems under both parametric and metamodeling uncertainties. This approach adopts the decoupled formulation and it applies the Kriging technique to quantify the metamodeling uncertainty. The polynomial chaos expansion (PCE) technique is applied to propagate the two types of uncertainties and represent the interdisciplinary consistency constraints. In the optimization approach, the proposed method uses the iterative construction of PCE models for response means and variances to satisfy the multidisciplinary consistency at the optimal solution. The proposed approach is verified by a mathematical example and applied to the fire satellite design. The results demonstrate the proposed approach can solve the UMDO problem for coupled systems accurately and efficiently.


OF THESIS A TENDER SPOT: CARE, MEMORY AND PLACE IN CAROLINGIAN MEMORIA MORTUORUM This thesis argues that in the Carolingian period, the rituals for the memory of the dead, or memoria mortuorum, was built on structures that utilized location, space, and architecture as devices for creating mnemonic images for remembering. It also argues for the theological significance of memoria mortuorum, which was heavily debated, and that from Augustine to the Carolingians there is a shift in approaches to the theological aspects of practices including burial ad sanctos and communal prayers. Augustine's work left an unresolved problem: the need to reconcile the theological aspect with the mnemonic function of memory practices for the dead. In the Carolingian period, the process of reconciliation began, but much of the focus is on the relationship between God and the communities of the living and the dead expressed in proper care to be taken after someone passes on.


The popularity of food tourism – tourism in which food is a main motive for travelling – has increased. The food tourist often chooses a destination, because of local food. Not only food tourists, but also other tourists are interested in local food. By focusing on local food, a destination can differentiate itself from other destinations, gain economic advantages, maintain cultural heritage and strengthen its identity. Moreover, food tourism can contribute to extending tourist seasons. We approach local food as a social construct negotiated between various tourism actors. In this review, the focus lies in the question of why tourists are interested in consuming local food. Answers to the question have been searched through existing literature, which shows that there are many reasons for tourists' desire to consume local food. Tourists seek for experiences, authenticity and the possibility to learn about local cultures. Through food choices tourists also construct their identities. Taste, freshness and healthiness are further reasons for consuming local food, as well as a desire to support the local economy and fulfill environmental responsibility. Social motives are also important reasons. For example, eating together with family or friends strengthens bonds between them. Local food also offers possibilities to get to know local people. The touristic attractiveness of local food is, thus, a construction of different meanings attached to the local food by tourists. This should be taken into account in destination development.


Carbon dioxide and ozone emissions from marine diesel engines are contributing to global warming, whilst emissions of sulphur dioxide, nitrous oxide and particulate matter can result in increased incidences of asthma, heart disease and cancer.
Marine diesel engines use a single-pass approach to cylinder lubrication, resulting in increased pollution from the combustion of oil flowing past the piston-rings. Some technological developments – such as common-rail injection systems – have been made to reduce these impacts, but the introduction of new legislation is having a marked effect on operational costs.
One example of new legislation is the designation of sulphur emission control areas. These require a vessel to use fuel with sulphur content below 1.0%. Such fuels are expensive, so away from these areas a fuel with sulphur content around 3.5% is typically used. The switch between fuels complicates the lubrication of the engine since the lubricant is required to correctly balance the acidity of the fuel as well as maintain an adequate oil-film for efficient engine performance. Increased wear and corrosion can result from both too much and too little lubricant being injected.
The paper examines the impact of the shipping industry on the environment and human health, and reviews the issues associated with existing lubrication methods. It is argued that there is a pressing need for feedback control systems that maintain optimum lubricating conditions of piston-rings under all fuelling conditions.


Aromatic end-capped acceptors are important in constructing donor materials and non-fullerene acceptors in organic solar cells. However, their features (such as electron-withdrawing ability and subtle change in planarity) and effects on molecular stacking and photovoltaic performance, lack a systematic study. This manuscript reports four molecules, namely, BT-RCN, BT-BA, BT-RA, and BT-ID, which are terminated by different acceptors in the same backbone. We quantify the molecular planarity through their dipole moment in the Z direction and investigate the effect of the degree of planarity on molecular properties and device performances. The four acceptors are classified into two groups based on acceptor strength: medium-strong and strong acceptors. Molecules based on medium-strong acceptors exhibit excellent efficiencies as follows: 10.1% for BT-ID, 9.6% for BT-RA, and 8.5% for BT-BA. Their decreased efficiency is quite consistent with their lowered hole mobility. Grazing incidence X-ray diffraction results demonstrate the positive relationship between the non-planarity of the acceptors and d-spacing distance in the π–π stacking direction, which are detrimental to mobility. BT-RCN, with a strong acceptor, obtains the lowest efficiency of 6.1%. These findings indicate the importance of matching the electron-donating ability of donor units and electron-withdrawing ability of acceptor units, and the subtle planarity change in molecular properties and aggregation.


Stemming is one of commonly used pre-processing steps in document categorization. Especially when fast and accurate classification of a lot of documents is needed, it is important to have as small number of and as small length roots as possible. This would not only reduce the time it takes to train and test classifiers but also would reduce the storage requirements for each document. In this study, we analyze the performance of classifiers when the longest or shortest roots found by a stemmer are used. We also analyze the effect of using only the consonants in the roots. We use two document data sets, obtained from Milliyet newspaper and Wikipedia to analyze classification accuracy of classifiers when roots obtained under these four conditions are used. We also analyze the classification accuracy when only the first 4, 3 or 2 letters or consonants are used from the roots. Using smaller roots results in smaller number of TF-IDF vectors. Especially for small sized TF-IDF vectors, using only consonants in the roots gives better performance than using all letters in the roots.


The field of software engineering is beginning to emerge as an area of study dealing with the problems and methods involved in producing software systems. Within recent years, it has become apparent that programming is a much harder task than it was once thought to be, especially for large production-oriented systems involving a number of people. This concern has led to the need for educating software engineering specialists to work on the construction of such systems.


Macrosegregation in large steel ingots is a known phenomenon: it corresponds to an uneven distribution of alloying elements in the bulk of the as-solidified ingot, over macroscopic scales, caused by the difference in solubility of these elements in the liquid and solid phases. As the ingot solidifies, these elements (mainly carbon, sulfur and phosphorus) concentrate in the liquid phase and are carried to the top of the ingot by convective currents. This process produces large regions of heterogeneity that can negatively impact the mechanical properties of the resulting steel.
 Westinghouse is in charge of the manufacture of twelve steam generators (SG) for Electricité de France (EDF), for which the main forged parts are made of 20MND5 low alloy steel. Due to the context and concerns in France, and more broadly in the nuclear industry, on carbon macrosegregation in large scale forgings, Westinghouse led studies with the forgemaster The Japan Steel Works (JSW) in order to assess the influence of carbon content on mechanical properties of such forgings.
 The present paper aims at introducing the investigation work carried out by Westinghouse, in partnership with JSW, in order to analyze the effect of increasing carbon on the 20MND5 low-alloy steel tensile and impact toughness properties.
 This work was performed through:
 - A thorough review of the existing literature;
 - The manufacture of forged plates mock-ups, metallurgically representative of the SG channel head, containing various carbon contents (namely 0.18wt.%, 0.21wt.%, 0.26wt.% and 0.29wt.%);
 - The testing of above plates to assess the evolution of tensile (tensile strength Rm, 0.2% yield strength Rp0.2 and percentage elongation after fracture) and impact properties (absorbed energy and transition temperature).


In many animals large size at birth enhances offspring survival, but comparative evidence remains equivocal for birds. Failure to consider asynchronous hatching (ASH) may have confounded previous analyses. We assessed effects of egg size and ASH on growth and survival of common grackle (Quiscalus quiscula) nestlings to test the hypothesis that females adjust the size of last‐laid eggs to modify effects of ASH. Although positive, the effect of egg size on nestling growth and survival was overwhelmed by the effect of ASH, with late‐hatched nestlings being most likely to starve. Egg size did significantly affect growth late in the nestling period, but only because starvation had greatly reduced hatching asynchrony among surviving nestlings. Similarly, in experimentally synchronized nests, egg size and hatching asynchrony both affected offspring growth early in the nestling phase. Our results suggest that there is unlikely to be an adaptive advantage to females from varying the size of last‐laid eggs in species with substantial ASH and that studies to assess the effect of a given maternal effect (e.g., varying egg size) should be done in the context of other maternal effects that may be operating simultaneously (e.g., ASH).


This article analyzes 310 structured note lawsuits in Taiwan between 2000 and 2013 to examine courts' attitude in dealing with claims of misselling retail structured notes. We find that courts were generally not favorable to retail investors. This provides a contrast with the financial regulator's efforts to improve financial consumer protection since 2008. By examining plaintiffs' key arguments and courts' rulings, we find that it was difficult for investors to fulfill their burden of proof and courts were reluctant to award remedies when investors did sign on a contractual document confirming their knowledge on a few matters. While regulators are right to strengthen financial consumer protection, this article argues that Taiwan courts' inactivism to protect retail investors could be justified. However, regulators should pick up from what courts have left to ensure that customers fully comprehend the consequences when they sign on contractual documents, to avoid banks classifying customers as active investors too easily, and to clarify banks' duties toward a customer after a contract is signed. Regulators should also reconsider its regulatory structure to ensure foreign banks would not be able to issue securities to raise funds from local investors by way of a shadow banking system.


The objective of the present study was to develop bi-layer tablets of lornoxicam, a highly potent nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drug with short half-life, that are characterized by initial burst drug release in the stomach and comply with the release requirements of sustained-release products. Each of the proposed bi-layer tablets is composed of an immediate-release layer and a sustained-release layer, anticipating rapid drug release that starts in the stomach to rapidly alleviate the symptoms and continues in the intestine to maintain protracted analgesic effect. Immediate release layer prepared by using dry granulation method in which ac-di sol used as a disintigrant for immediate release of drug, roll compaction of drug with sodium citrate which act as buffering agent and create basic microenvironmental pH inside the tablets favorable to drug release in acidic conditions. Sustained release layer formulated by using HPMC as release retardant, two grades of HPMC that are HPMC K4M and HPMC K100M used to get sustained release profile for 24 hr. various trial batches are taken to get desired release profile. Batch F8 formulate as bilayer tablet in which drug as to sodium citrate ratio taken 1:5 show maximum drug release 24.67 % for 1 hr in immediate release layer and drug release 98 % for 24 hr in sustained release layer is selected as optimized batch of bilayer tablet formulation. All the prepared bilayer tablets showed acceptable physical properties before and after storage.


Objective The role of 18F-fluorodeocyglucose positron emission tomography (PET)/computed tomography (CT) in only PET/CT–positive lymph nodes (LNs) is not well elucidated yet. This study was conducted to evaluate the diagnostic value of only PET/CT–positive LNs without correlating positive findings on conventional imaging modalities (CT, magnetic resonance imaging [MRI], and ultrasound [US]) in patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC). Study Design Case series with chart review. Setting Hallym University School of Medicine. Subjects and Methods From January 2006 to September 2009, 114 patients with HNSCC who underwent CT, MRI, US, and PET/CT before definitive surgery with neck dissection were reviewed. All imaging tests were interpreted on imaging-based nodal classification and were compared with histopathological findings. Results Only PET/CT–positive LNs were found at 48 nodal levels in 33 patients. Thirteen of 48 (27%) nodal levels were true-positive (TP), and 35 of 48 (73%) were false-positive (FP). Fourteen nodal levels were included on N+ necks, and 34 were included on N0 necks. In N0 necks, the FP rate was significantly higher than the TP rate (28 vs 6, P = .034). Eleven only PET/CT–positive nodal levels in 10 patients were found on the contralateral neck side, and FP was significantly more prevalent than TP (8 vs 3, P = .041). No significant difference was observed for mean standardized uptake value and LN sizes between TP and FP. Conclusion Only PET/CT–positive LNs can frequently be found and do not predict LN metastasis, because a high percentage of results were FP. Our results suggest that only PET/CT–positive LNs should be considered negative, especially in N0 and contralateral necks.


Abstract Bibliometric calculations currently used to assess the quality of researchers, articles, and scientific journals have serious structural problems; many authors have noted the weakness of citation counts, because they are purely quantitative and do not differentiate between high- and low-citing papers. If a paper's reputation is simply evaluated according to the number of its citations, then incomplete, incorrect, or controversial articles may be promoted, regardless of their relevancy. Therefore, perverse incentives are generated for researchers who may publish many incorrect or incomplete papers to achieve high impact indexes. It is essential to improve the objective criteria for automatic article-quality assessments. However, to obtain these new criteria, it is necessary to advance the programmed detection of context, polarity, and function of bibliographic references. We present an overview of general concepts and review contributions to the solutions to problems related to these issues, with the purpose of identifying trends and suggesting possible future research directions.


Using data covering 1970–2008 for South Asia, this study investigates the influence of human capital disaggregated by gender, on economic growth. We use an extended version of the Solow growth model with per capita gross domestic product (GDP) a function of the key variables, viz. physical capital accumulation, human capital accumulation, trade openness and capital flows, fiscal policy and financial development. The key contribution of this study is to show that openness when interacted with the human capital stock disaggregated by gender, has differential impacts on economic growth. While the positive impact of male secondary schooling captures the direct skill effect relative to primary schooling, the marginal influence of female primary/secondary schooling fails to show a positive impact on growth at higher levels of openness. An implication stemming from this study is that educational opportunities for females at the secondary level should be increased for South Asia.


My thesis proposes a critical framework for understanding the digital interface in interactive
new media installations. I aim at dispelling the instrumental, cybernetic, "action-reaction"
myth that surrounds the functions of the interface and that constitutes one of the main
limitations in its conceptualization today. I argue that a rethinking of the digital interface in
terms of its aesthetic and cultural properties is essential if we are to take digital interfaces
seriously as devices that inform or even, to some extent, structure our relationship with
technology.

Theorists who work in the interdisciplinary field of interface studies have historically been
preoccupied with the technical and instrumental functions the interface performs –
specifically with how it acts and reacts to pre-programmed information. To do this, they have
predominantly drawn on computer science and engineering perspectives. Thus digital
interfaces have commonly been understood as the symbolic software that enables humans to
use computers. My thesis approaches the digital interface from a different direction,
concentrating on the aesthetic and cultural aspects of the digital interface, and drawing on
scholarship from the fields of art history and media studies. In particular, I focus on critically
examining how various interfaces are defined within art environments and how they
influence the way subjects, objects, and the relationships and processes that exist between
them are understood in these disciplinary fields and practices. Throughout, I propose a more
expansive definition of the digital interface in interactive new media installations, positioning
it as a dynamic, hybrid, aesthetic and cultural process. I thus reformulate the problem of the
digital interface as a problem of making the often invisible aspects of the device legible.

Ultimately, I argue that the interface mediates, thus creates, to an extent, relationships
between viewer/participants, artists and artworks as well as influences the movements and
perceptions of those interacting with it. This reading enables me to conclude that the digital
interface can be seen as an important actor in positioning and (re)shaping specific ways in
which the self relates to technology, to artistic practice and to other human and nonhuman
beings in the current media culture. At the heart of this thesis is the notion that the digital
interface matters and that a critical exploration of it in aesthetic contexts can help us
understand and possibly reconfigure our human relationship with technology.


This study is to investigate the relationship between organization culture and employee performance. Three objectives have been determined in order to achieve the purpose of this study. First is to identify the relationship between competitive culture and employee performance. Second objective is to identify the relationship between entrepreneur culture and employee performance, and the last objective is to identify the relationship between bureaucratic culture and employee performance. The population of this study consists of 300 employees from department of TM Enterprise, while the sample consists of 175 respondents. The data were collected by distribute 175 questionnaires and 175 returned questionnaires were used in the study. The questionnaires designed based on three independent variables that are expected to affect employee performance which are competitive culture, entrepreneur culture and bureaucratic culture. To analyses the data, descriptive, correlation, and regression analyses was used. Hence, the results from this study reveal that there is a positive relationship between all independent variables which are competitive culture, entrepreneur culture and bureaucratic culture towards employee performance. In addition, there are many others factors that may influence employee performance which are not included in this research intend to suggests to include others factors as discuss in chapter 5. The sample of this study only limited to the employee that are working in department of TM Enterprise.


Fiber Bragg gratings are powerful tools for sensing and telecommunication, but applications in spectroscopy (astronomy and biophotonics) and fiber lasers require the use of fibers with increased etendue to guide an increased amount of light. On the other hand, the amount of light that can be guided in an optical fiber is linked to the supported amount of guided modes which changes filtering performance of the Bragg gratings essentially. Additionally, special applications require fibers without Germanium doping. In this case, updated concepts of photosensitivity are required. Therefore, several aspects have to be taken into account when Bragg filters are applied where the amount of guided light is essential.


Video-based 3D human pose and shape estimations are evaluated by intra-frame accuracy and inter-frame smoothness. Although these two metrics are responsible for different ranges of temporal consistency, existing state-of-the-art methods treat them as a unified problem and use monotonous modeling structures (e.g., RNN or attention-based block) to design their networks. However, using a single kind of modeling structure is difficult to balance the learning of short-term and long-term temporal correlations, and may bias the network to one of them, leading to undesirable predictions like global location shift, temporal inconsistency, and insufficient local details. To solve these problems, we propose to structurally decouple the modeling of long-term and short-term correlations in an end-to-end framework, Global-to-Local Transformer (GLoT). First, a global transformer is introduced with a Masked Pose and Shape Estimation strategy for long-term modeling. The strategy stimulates the global transformer to learn more inter-frame correlations by randomly masking the features of several frames. Second, a local transformer is responsible for exploiting local details on the human mesh and interacting with the global transformer by leveraging cross-attention. Moreover, a Hierarchical Spatial Correlation Regressor is further introduced to refine intra-frame estimations by decoupled global-local representation and implicit kinematic constraints. Our GLoT surpasses previous state-of-the-art methods with the lowest model parameters on popular benchmarks, i.e., 3DPW, MPI-INF-3DHP, and Human3.6M. Codes are available at https://github.com/sxl142/GLoT.


The effects of Zr addition on the microstructure and magnetic properties of the sintered NdFeB magnets were investigated by X-ray diffraction (XRD) and BH magnetic tester. The XRD analysis showed that both the Zr-free and Zr-doped samples are composed of main amount of Tetragonal phase Nd2Fe14B (P42/mnm) and trace amount of Nd-rich phase, but adding Zr reduces significantly the values of pole density factor of (004), (006) and (008) crystal faces for the sintered Nd(Fe,Zr)B magnets estimated by Horta-formula. Accordingly, the coercivity of the sample with Zr addition is reduced from 2038 kA/m down to 1951 kA/m. The study of the Kronmüller-plot shows that the nucleation is the dominating mechanism for the magnetization reversal in these two kinds of magnets, and two microstructural parameters of αk and Neff are obtained also.


This study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of urinary renal tubular cell specific enzymes α-Glutathione-s-transferase(α-GST) and Gamma glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) for predicting kidney injury in cisplatin treated cancer patients. The urinary levels of these enzymes, studied in a timely manner may help in identifying patients who may benefit from early interventions. Methods: After obtaining Institutional ethical clearance, venous blood samples were collected from all the patients, before the adminsitration of cisplatin (baseline), and at 12 hours, 24 hours, 48 hours and 20days after cisplatin infusion and a random urine sample was collected before and at 2 hrs , 6 hrs, 12 hrs, 24hrs and 48hrs after cisplatin administration. Serum creatinine was estimated by Jaffe's method using commercial reagent kit. α –GST and GGT was estimated in all the urine samples by colorimetric kinetic assay using NBD-Cl and Glycylglycine respectively. Results: There was a 20.5% incidence of acute kidney injury after cisplatin administration as suggested by a significant rise in the serum creatinine levels(≥0.3mg/dL) within the first 48 hours. The mean urinary α-GST levels at different time intervals show a clear temporal rise, especially from 2hrs after cisplatin administration, till 12hrs and at a slower rate thereafter. The AUC of >0.8 for α-GST in all the timed urine samples after cisplatin administration indicated its good performance in predicting kidney injury. Urinary GGT levels showed a steep increase upto 6 hours before gradually declining over the next 48 hours after cisplatin administration among patients who eventually developed AKI. Conclusion: Urinary levels of proximal tubular enzymes, α-GST and GGT are useful in predicting early kidney injury induced by cisplatin. As the test method is simple and cheaper, the estimation of α-GST in random urine samples may be particularly useful for identifying patients with high risk of AKI.


Study Design. An experimental animal study. Objective. To study if antitumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-&agr;) antibody, which is administered at different times, reduces the pain behavior induced by application of nucleus pulposus (NP) to the nerve root. Summary of Background Data. Treatment with TNF-&agr; inhibitor reduces the pain-related behavior induced by epidural application of NP in rats. Methods. Left L5 partial laminectomy was performed and NP was applied to the L5 nerve root in 24 rats. The rats were divided into 4 groups. In 3 groups, anti-rat TNF-&agr; antibody was intravenously administered immediately after, or 6 or 20 days after NP application. The fourth group was not treated with anti-rat TNF-&agr; antibody (untreated rats). The withdrawal threshold of the plantar surface was determined 1 day before up through 28 days after NP application. Results. The withdrawal threshold of rats that had been treated with anti-rat TNF-&agr; antibody immediately after or 6 days after, but not 20 days after, NP application, was significantly higher than that of the untreated rats. Conclusions. Anti-TNF-&agr; antibody reduced allodynia only when it was administered soon after the onset of allodynia. Late administration of anti-TNF-&agr; antibody did not have an antiallodynic effect.


A large number of students spend more time at school than they do at home. This indicates the need to have comfortable spaces in educational buildings. The quality of an Indoor environment is directly related to students' productivity and well-being, but recent researches mainly focus on the effects of single parameters on human comfort, without examining the other variables, such as thermal, acoustic, and visual. This paper studies the indoor comfort level of university classroms. The objective of this research is investigate the quality of the school environment in relation to comfort by analyzing all the factors (thermal, acoustic, lighting, air quality) which affects the users' wellbeing. Researches have shown that the thermal, acoustical, visual quality in classrooms plays a significant role to students' behaviour and performance. In order to optimize the students' performance in clasrooms, all these variables need to be fully studied and considered. Past literature reviews studying the issue of indoor environmental quality and its comfort, mainly focused on the effects of a single factor. For instance, reviews have been conducted to study the conditions that lead to occupants' satisfaction with the thermal environment or with the acoustic environment. There has been little or no review conducted to summarize the possible effects of different factors, thermal, visual and acoustic conditions as well as indoor air quality on indoor environmental quality. The present literature review was performed to gather more information on this matter. Therefore, this paper focuses on thermal, acoustic, lighting comfort, as significant factors that may have an effect on the students' performance, with regards to attention, comprehension and learning levels. KeywordsThermal comfort, Acoustic, Lighting, University Classrooms, Construct, Air Quality, Indoor Environmental Quality


"Now he belongs to the ages," famously memorialized Secretary of War Edwin Stanton over the just deceased Abraham Lincoln in the back parlor of Petersen's boarding house on April 15, 1865. The prophetic aphorism began the process that took Abraham Lincoln into American memory as one of a small group of national saints. As always in this process, beatification lifted Lincoln from among the conflicts, the complicated connections to others, the mix of character traits that formed the texture of his life. The abstract savior of the nation fogs the sharp vision of complex history. Historians since have struggled to reembody Lincoln in the face of this public iconology. Public understanding of the Lincoln-Douglas debates has shared in this process. On the one hand, the debates exist most familiarly as a democratic imaginative, a free exchange of ideas attended to by the voters of Illinois, and then by a nation beyond, and through which the nation located its ultimate response to slavery. When presidential campaign debates were created in 1960, the standard against which they entered the public imaginary was this idealized view of the Lincoln-Douglas debates. On the other hand, when historians place the debates of the summer and fall of 1858 into their significance and place in history, it is as part of the greater story of the history of the United States coming to terms with the institution of slavery that soiled its birth and remained its moral cancer. In this iconology, the historical reality of citizens of Illinois gathering in towns throughout Illinois in the summer and fall of 1858 is difficult to foreground. What David Zarefsky and I strived to do in this special issue was to re-embody the debates from mythic significance into historical artifact. We wanted to put flesh on the bones of the history and show the debates operating in the organs of democratic politics of the 1850s. In providing this perspective, we sought to present the debates as historically situated moments, shaped by the times, and consequential in their immediate texture. Our vehicle for doing this turned out to be a symposium sponsored by the Lincoln Studies Center of Knox College and managed by Douglas L. Wilson and Rodney O. Davis celebrating the 150th anniversary of the fifth Lincoln-Douglas debate in Galesburg, Illinois, on October 7, 1858. The symposium provided a panel of important Lincoln scholars with a forum during the sesquicentennial celebration in the fall of 2008. The result was a focused consideration of the Galesburg moment in its own right. We believe that this collection of essays will serve to deepen an appreciation for the debates as significant in more complex ways than seeing them only as an illustration of the country coming to terms with slavery. To be sure, that theme is never far from our narrative, but there are more immediate issues at work in these essays and they provide us a richer texture of the place of the platform celebrations of the Democratic and Republican candidates for the United States Senate in Illinois in 1858. Allen Guelzo's essay immediately places the debates into the politics of the 1850s. The result is to make the debates a window into the relationship between parties and candidates in Illinois at the time. His argument is that the parties that supported Lincoln and Douglas in Illinois were engaged in intricate, non-choreographed dances of behind-the-scenes political operatives and ordinary citizens. Examining the thesis of Glenn Altshuler and Stuart Blumin that American parties of the 1850s were governed by small cadres of elites, Guelzo applies that thesis to the Senatorial campaign of 1858 and the preparations for the debates. He tells an alternative story of parties with minimal control of their principals, and debates organized not by a small cadre of elites, but by some very ordinary citizens. Certainly the line between performed theater and spontaneous celebrations shifts notably toward the latter although not entirely so. …


In this paper, the pricing and the transmission power control processes are investigated in a cognitive radio network. In the given network, there are multiple primary service providers (PSPs) which have some amount of unutilised bandwidth, and multiple secondary users (SUs) that require spectrum bands. SUs are assumed to pay the PSPs for short-term usage of their available spectrum bands; which is referred as the spectrum trading. In this multiple-seller and multiple-buyer environment, the proposed framework aims at determining the optimum price values for unit spectrum bands that maximises PSPs profits while protecting the social welfare of their network. Furthermore, the framework considers the power control, especially the effect of transmission power on the profit of PSPs. An effective power management component faces several challenges, such as low power emission and high level of quality of service. A new network element, called Telecommunication Coordinating Authority (TCA), is introduced in the proposed model. The TCA has the responsibility to control the satisfaction of all users in the PSPs' networks by simultaneously limiting interference and maximising cognitive capacity. The pricing process is based on a non-cooperative game, where the PSPs are the players. Simulation results show that the proposed framework allow PSPs to make up to 45–86% of additional profit while preserving the social welfare of the network. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The purpose of this thesis is to present a new paradigm for nanotechnology automation. Therefore, the work provides a computational methodology for control design of nanorobots with an application in medicine. The subject under study concentrates its main focus on the control design of nanorobots for biomolecular assembly manipulation and the use of evolutionary agents as a suitable way to achieve the adaptive features required for the proposed model. Furthermore the work presents the use of neural networks as the most practical technique for the problem of robot motion optimization using a sensor based system. Thus, the author proposes a useful approach within advanced graphics simulation for nano-assembly automation with its focus on an application for nanomedicine. The motivation for such a study is the fact that with the emerging era of molecular engineering, the development of methodologies that facilitate analytical and empirical investigation, should help in the system architecture analysis, improving the evaluation of new approaches for insightful comprehension of nano-worlds. Therefore, it should provide a great impact for effective design of control instrumentation, helping in the development of nanotechnology. The presented nanorobot model is required to survive and interact with a complex environment. Furthermore the nanorobot has to address a pre-defined set of tasks both in a competitive scenario and in a cooperative collective environment. In a three-dimensional environment our nanorobot monitors a determined number of organ inlets' nutritional levels, capturing and assembling new biomolecules into proteins that have to be delivered to the organ inlets with higher priority during each moment of our dynamic simulation. The nanorobot must avoid fuzzy obstacles, and must with proper time and manner react in real time for an environment requiring continuous control. In order to achieve the most appropriate pre-programmed set of behaviours the nanorobot uses a local perception through simulated sensors to effectively interact with the surrounding workspace. Thereby this work addresses distinct aspects of the main techniques required to achieve a consistent nano-planning systems design through the analysis of numerical results. To provide a feasible design for the behaviour of a reactive nanorobot, the computational architecture adopted parallel processing as the natural way to achieve a modular design. This enables a functional orientation focused on each main aspect related to an intelligent sensor-based nanorobot's successful performance. For such an aim, it used feedback evolutionary decision control activation, neural motion control, and real time environment interaction methodologies. The application of stochastic models has provided an appropriate evolutionary agent behaviour, which was shown to be the most effective methodology for any situation when a more specific action description does not attend a large number of complex elements in a dynamic environment. The model includes stochastic techniques, addressing aspects inherent to quantum uncertainties present in the microscopic spaces. We have employed the proposed nanorobot in an evolved physically based simulated environment in a series of task-based non-trivial problems, and have studied the adaptive properties of distinct nanorobot behaviour with a design to address each environment with respective rules to trigger control activation for behavior activation and complexities. Thus the development of new concepts on nanomechatronics and automation theory is focused on the problem of molecular machine systems. A novel adaptive optimal methodology is described and the model validation is demonstrated successfully through the application of nanorobot control design for nanomedicine.


This paper is concerned with the development of reliable real-time systems for use in high integrity applications. It advocates the use of diverse replicated channels, but does not require the dependencies between the channels to be evaluated. Rather it develops and extends the approach of Little wood and Rush by (for general systems) by investigating a two channel system in which one channel, A, is produced to a high level of reliability (i.e. has a very low failure rate), while the other, B, employs various forms of static analysis to sustain an argument that it is perfect (i.e. it will never miss a deadline). The first channel is fully functional, the second contains a more restricted computational model and contains only the critical computations. Potential dependencies between the channels (and their verification) are evaluated in terms of aleatory and epistemic uncertainty. At the aleatory level the events ''A fails" and ''B is imperfect" are independent. Moreover, unlike the general case, independence at the epistemic level is also proposed for common forms of implementation and analysis for real-time systems and their temporal requirements (deadlines). As a result, a systematic approach is advocated that can be applied in a real engineering context to produce highly reliable real-time systems, and to support numerical claims about the level of reliability achieved.


Abstract Mixing of a shear thinning fluid was scaled-up by maintaining equal Reynolds number (Re), tip speed, and power per volume. A standard 45° four-blade pitch blade turbine (PBT) and a modified version of the same impeller (DF-PBT) which provided simultaneous upward and downward flow were used. The impellers were located eccentrically, and the effects of scale-up were determined. The distribution of a tracer solution to evaluate mixing progress, power consumption, and flow fields were analyzed to compare the three different scale-up rules. The same endpoint of mixing was achieved in all cases of PBT with noticeable differences in flow profiles. Higher power consumption and less time were necessary to complete mixing with equal power per volume compared to that with equal Re and tip speed rules. For DF-PBT, only equal Re rule resulted in values similar to that obtained at the small scale. At a scale-up ratio of 2, the selection of scale-up rule should be based on the time and power requirements of the process. As the effects of scale-up on eccentrically located impellers do not differ significantly from those of concentrically located impellers, impellers which have complex dynamics such as DF-PBT require further studies to understand scale-up effects.


Estimates of weight of general refuse generated in this country's major cities vary, but in Harare it is estimated at above 823 000 tonnes, which is mostly land-filled. This paper proposes the incineration of combustible municipal waste to produce 40 MW of electricity and considers its feasibility. This can give a waste reduction to as low as one tenth of the initial volume and is quite effective in killing pathogens. The work involved use of questionnaires, interviews and access to primary data at the Harare City Council. The positive and negative environmental and health impacts, particularly relating to dioxins are discussed and solutions to pollution proposed.


In this article, we present the application of a method for visualizing gameplay patterns observed in log-file data from a geometry game. Using VisCareTrails, a data visualization software system based on the principle of timed word trees, we were able to identify five novel behaviors that informed our understanding of how players were approaching the game. We further utilized these newly identified player behaviors by triangulating them with geometry test scores collected from players outside the game setting. We compared the predictive capacity of these behaviors against five demographic characteristics commonly observed to be associated with educational outcomes: age, gender, ethnicity, mother's education, and attitude toward video games. Two of the novel behaviors we identified, both reflecting inflexible problem-solving strategies, outperformed all demographic variables except age in terms of predicting change in geometry test scores post-gameplay. We believe that this is sound evidence for the utility of VisCareTrails and the timed-word-tree method for identifying pedagogically relevant player behaviors from semi-structured data associated with educational games.


Background: Oxidative stress and adipocytokines are reported to contribute to the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. Though the inhibition of the renin-angiotensin system is known to have beneficial effects on atherosclerosis, the exact mechanisms for this remain to be clarified. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARB) on the oxidative stress and adipocytokines in peritoneal dialysis patients. Methods: Candesartan (8 mg/day), an ARB, was administered for 3 months to 8 nondiabetic patients on peritoneal dialysis. Plasma levels of advanced oxidation protein products (AOPP) and adiponectin were measured before and 3 months after candesartan administration, and 3 months after discontinuation. Results: Plasma AOPP level decreased from 377.5 to 305.6 µmol/l (p < 0.05) following the administration of candesartan and returned to 394.6 µmol/l (p < 0.05) by 3 months after the discontinuation of the drug. Plasma adiponectin level increased from 12.5 to 18.8 µg/ml (p < 0.05) by candesartan and decreased again to 14.4 µg/ml (p < 0.05) after discontinuation. There was a significant inverse relationship between changes in plasma level of adiponectin and AOPP (r = – 0.888, p < 0.01). Conclusion: Candesartan increases plasma adiponectin level in association with the reduction of oxidative stress in peritoneal dialysis patients. Candesartan may be useful in preventing atherosclerosis in peritoneal dialysis patients.


Objective: Apelin is a proinflammatory adipocyte-derived factor. The aim of this study was to evaluate the role and significance of serum apelin as a new sepsis marker in the identification of full-term and preterm new-born infants with early-onset sepsis. Material and Methods: This was a case-control study. We included 80 neonates. The cases were divided into 2 groups; neonates with early-onset sepsis and control group with neonates non-sepsis. Apelin was quantified by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results: There was a significant elevation in the mean values of serum apelin in the early-onset sepsis group (1214.7 ± 273.06 pg/mmol) than in the non-septic neonates 116.27 ± 21.96 pg/mmol (P < .0001). Apelin values were correlated to clinical sepsis and hematological scores as well as C-reactive protein. Serum apelin concentration was significantly higher among culture-positive cases than the culture-negative cases (mean ± SD was 1239.52 ± 268.47 and 929.42 ± 136.97 pg/mmol, respectively, P < .0001). Moreover, the apelin level was higher in non-survivor neonates than in the survivors in the early-onset sepsis group. No significant difference was found between preterm and full-term new-born infants with regard to the apelin values. The best cut-off estimate of apelin to diagnose early sepsis was >178.33 pg/mmol. Conclusion: Apelin may be useful in the diagnosis and prognostic prediction of neonates with early-onset sepsis.


BACKGROUND & HYPOTHESIS
Psychotic disorders are inequitably distributed by race in the United States, although it is not known whether this is due to assessment biases or inequitable distributions of risk factors. Psychotic experiences are subclinical hallucinations and delusions used to study the etiology of psychosis, which are based on self-report and therefore not subject to potential clinician biases. In this study, we test whether the prevalence of psychotic experiences (PE) varies by race and if this variance is explained by socioenvironmental risk factors.

STUDY DESIGN
Data on demographics, PE, and socioenvironmental risk factors were collected through the National Survey of Poly-victimization and Mental Health, a national probability sample of US young adults. Logistic regression analyses were used to determine whether PE prevalence varied by race/ethnicity and, if so, whether this was attenuated with inclusion of indicators of income, education, urban/rural living, discrimination, and trauma exposure.

STUDY RESULTS
Black and Hispanic respondents reported PE at significantly greater rates than White or "other" ethnoracial groups, with hallucinations more commonly reported by Hispanic respondents. PE were significantly associated with police violence exposure, discrimination, adverse childhood experiences, and educational attainment. These factors statistically explained ethnoracial differences in the likelihood of overall PE occurrence and of nearly all PE subtypes.

CONCLUSIONS
Previously observed racial differences in psychosis extend beyond clinical schizophrenia, and therefore, are unlikely to be explained entirely by clinician biases. Instead, racial disparities in PE appear to be driven by features of structural racism, trauma, and discrimination.