Nerve growth factor (NGF) has many effects on sympathetic and sensory neurons, but the mechanisms by which NGF exerts its actions are unknown. We have determined the localization of bound and internalized 125I-NGF by light and electron microscopic radioautography on a cell line derived from a rat pheochromocytoma (PC12). In response to NGF, PC12 cells cease mitosis and develop neuron-like processes. We have localized 125I-NGF (5 ng/ml) in cells without previous exposure to NGF (naive) after a continuous incubation with 125I-NGF for 2 min, 1 hr, 6 hr, 1 day and 1 week, as well as in cells that were grown with NGF (50 ng/ml) for 1 week (primed) and then exposed to 125I-NGF for 15 min, 1 hr, 6 hr, and 1 day. Examination of whole mount radioautographs revealed that all cells were labeled and that the distribution of grains was homogeneous. Primed cells were labeled on neurites and growth cones, as well as on cell bodies, and also had a greater density of labeling than naive cells. These patterns were identical for all time points studied, with the exception that "hot spots" of radioactivity appeared along neurites following a long incubation with 126I-NGF (longer than 6 hr). Electron microscopic radioautography revealed that these "hot spots" correspond to accumulation of grains in aggregates of lysosomes. The binding of 125I-NGF was specific, since control cultures (excess nonradioactive NGF) exhibited only background levels of grains. Quantification of electron microscopic radioautographs revealed that 70 to 95% of the grains were internalized after 15 min. The only cellular components labeled above random distribution levels were the plasma membrane, lysosomes, and the nuclear membrane. Each of these structures exhibited "down-regulation" of specific binding in naive cells after 6 hr of incubation. The cytosol, polyribosomes, dense cored granules, heterochromatin, and euchromatin showed labeling at or below the levels expected from random distribution of grains within the cell. The distribution of grains about the nuclear membrane also suggested an association with 125I-NGF. These data indicate that a large proportion of NGF "bound" to target cells is in fact internalized, and are consistent with some, but not other models for NGF's mechanism of action.


Constraint Programming (CP) is the study of solving problems by stating constraints on the solution to be found. Many computer science problems can be viewed as a special case of the constraint problem. In this thesis, we focus on using CP solvers for solving two distinct problems. First, we develop and implement a framework for an automatic generation of models that satisfy a program in LogicQL, a high-level database query language. We show that our system gives immediate feedback to the user and can be used for incremental development of LogicQL programs. Second, we consider a system resilience problem that is important in many application domains. We present the design and implementation of SR-solver, a novel integrated tool for evaluating system resilience. The SR-solver supports a graphical representation of the system, thus making the evaluation of system resilience accessible to general users.


The Nicaraguan women's movement has remobilised through the severe loss that the total ban on abortion in 2006 implied. The women active within the movement face a shrinking political space, lack of resources, repression and threats, still they continue to struggle for the right to abortion. This field study explores the determinants of the survival of the Nicaraguan women's movement analysing the activists' perceptions of loss and the mechanisms of activist retention. The results of the study points to the importance of the ideology and collective identity for the feminist women within the movement, concluding that it would seem that no matter of negative perceptions of defeat, the costs of activism or how unreachable the goals are perceived to be, the activists will continue to struggle for women's equal rights to life.


Agile is a relatively recent methodology used in the development process of a project. Therefore, it is important to share new emerging knowledge with researchers and professionals interested in adopting an agile mindset.Emerging Innovations in Agile Software Development focuses on the use of agile methodologies to manage, design, develop, test and maintain software projects. Emphasizing research-based solutions for contemporary software development, this publication is designed for use by software developers, researchers, and graduate-level students in software engineering and project management programs.


Acousto-optical tomography is modeled by using a linear integral equation and an inverse problem involving a diffusion equation in n spatial dimensions, n = 2, 3. Based on measured data, the optical absorption coefficient µ is reconstructed inside a given domain. We make a two-step mathematical model. First, we solve a linear integral equation. Assuming the energy fluence rate has been recovered from the previous equation, we then reconstruct the absorption coefficient µ by solving an inverse problem. Numerical experiments are presented for the case n = 2. We used the level set method for the numerical experiments. At the end, the advantages and the disadvantages of those two methods are mentioned.


The Small Hive Beetle, Aethina tumida (Coleoptera: Nitidulidae) is a parasite for honey bee colonies, Apis mellifera, and was recently introduced to the European continent, accidentally. Based on the literature, a model was developed by using regional meteorological variables (daily values of minimum, maximum and mean air temperature as well as mean soil temperature at 50 mm depth) to calculate the time-point of hive invasion by A. tumida in springtime, the development duration of pupae as well as the number of generations of A. tumida per year. Luxembourg was used as a test region for our model for 2005 to 2013. The model output indicates a successful surviving of the Small Hive Beetle in Luxembourg with two up to three generations per year. Additionally, based on our meteorological data sets a first migration of SHB to apiaries can be expected from mid of March up to April. Our approach can be transferred easily to other countries to estimate the risk potential for a successful introduction and spreading of A. tumida in Western Europe. Keywords—Aethina tumida, air temperature, larval development, soil temperature.


Architects play a critical role in reducing building material toxicity and protecting occupants' health. This paper reviews the metrics used by third-party rating systems, such as LEED, LBC, and WELL, which have traditionally relied on differing testing requirements, but are increasingly aligned with each other. Reducing the exposure to toxic chemicals can best be accomplished by utilizing databases and material certifications, such as Declare, HPDs, and EPDs to identify toxin-free products as well as using specifications in defining desirable attributes, testing requirements, and certifications for building materials. This article also outlines strategies for setting clear goals, developing firm-wide policies, and participating in cross-industry dialogue leading to improved building material quality and reduced occupant exposure to VOCs and other toxins.


Statistical information is one of the most important forms of government publication. Librarians receive some training in how to locate and use government statistical information in reference or government documents classes, but the coverage is usually cursory and most librarians could use more education. This paper reviews the literature and available print and electronic statistical resources and outlines a course for librarians in government statistics, suggesting classroom or self-study instructional methods; identifying key information on search strategies, ready reference sources, and detailed topical statistical sources; and suggesting issues for librarians to be aware of in helping their patrons locate and use statistics.


It is not possible to view a computer operating in the real world, including the possibility of Trojan horse programs and computer viruses, as simply a finite realisation of a Turing machine. We consider the actions of Trojan horses and viruses in real computer systems and suggest a minimal framework for an adequate formal understanding of the phenomena. Some conventional approaches, including biological metaphors, are shown to be inadequate; some suggestions are made towards constructing virally-resistant systems.


The logical and effective discovery of macrolactams, structurally unique natural molecules with diverse biological activities, has been limited by a lack of targeted search methods. Herein, a targeted discovery method for natural macrolactams was devised by coupling genomic signature-based PCR screening of a bacterial DNA library with spectroscopic signature-based early identification of macrolactams. DNA library screening facilitated the efficient selection of 43 potential macrolactam-producing strains (3.6% of 1,188 strains screened). The PCR amplicons of the amine-deprotecting enzyme-coding genes were analyzed to predict the macrolactam type (α-methyl, α-alkyl, or β-methyl) produced by the hit strains. 1H-15N HSQC-TOCSY NMR analysis of 15N-labeled culture extracts enabled macrolactam detection and structural type assignment without any purification steps. This method identified a high-titer Micromonospora strain producing salinilactam (1), a previously reported α-methyl macrolactam, and two Streptomyces strains producing new α-alkyl and β-methyl macrolactams. Subsequent purification and spectroscopic analysis led to the structural revision of 1 and the discovery of muanlactam (2), an α-alkyl macrolactam with diene amide and tetraene chromophores, and concolactam (3), a β-methyl macrolactam with a [16,6,6]-tricyclic skeleton. Detailed genomic analysis of the strains producing 1-3 identified putative biosynthetic gene clusters and pathways. Compound 2 displayed significant cytotoxicity against various cancer cell lines (IC50 = 1.58 μM against HCT116), whereas 3 showed inhibitory activity against Staphylococcus aureus sortase A. This genomic and spectroscopic signature-based method provides an efficient search strategy for new natural macrolactams and will be generally applicable for the discovery of nitrogen-bearing natural products.


In the manufacturing process of industrial robots, the defect detection of raw materials includes two types of tasks, which makes the defect detection guarantee its accuracy. It also makes the defect detection task challenging in practical work. In analyzing the disadvantages of the existing defect detection task methods, such as low precision and low generalization ability, a detection method on the basis of attention mechanism and dilated convolution module is proposed. In order to effectively extract features, a two-stage detection framework is chosen by applying Resnet50 as the pre-training network of our model. With this foundation, the attention mechanism and dilated convolution are utilized. With the attention mechanism, the network can focus on the features of effective regions and suppress the invalid regions during detection. With dilated convolution, the receptive field of the model can be increased without increasing the calculation amount of the model. As a result, it can achieve a larger receptive field, which will obtain more dense data and improve the detection effect of small target defects. Finally, great experiments are conducted on the NEU-DET dataset. Compared with the baseline network, the proposed method in this paper achieves 81.79% mAP, which are better results.


This book provides a fresh examination of the cosmopolitan project of post-war Europe from a variety of perspectives. It explores the ways in which European cosmopolitanism can be theorized differently if we take into account histories which have rarely been at the forefront of such understandings. It also uses neglected historical resources to draw out new and unexpected entanglements and connections between understandings of European cosmopolitanism both in Europe and elsewhere. The final part of the book places European cosmopolitanism in tension with contemporary postcolonial configurations around diaspora, migration, and austerity. Overall, it seeks to draw attention to the ways in which Europe's posited others have always been very much a part of Europe's colonial histories and its postcolonial present.


Optical implementation of a three-dimensional (3-D) Fourier transform is proposed and demonstrated. A spatial 3-D object, as seen from the paraxial zone, is transformed to the 3-D spatial frequency space. Based on the new procedure, a 3-D joint transform correlator is described that is capable of recognizing targets in the 3-D space.


Diagnosing a heating system may turn out to be necessary even for an ordinary customer, like a residential building owner or a facility manager. The need is usually triggered by a technical problem in the system. The customer wants to know how to solve or handle the problem. This paper presents a Web-based information system, called WebDia, which is designed to assist customers with such heating problems. WebDia is a prototype system, constructed for district heating substations and oil heating systems. WebDia incorporates a Web server integrated with a back-end database, accessible from a browser of a PC, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) or a Wireless Application Protocol (WAP) mobile phone. The general idea behind the development is that the server computer shares its resources and knowledge with the user. Besides fault diagnosis, instructions for servicing and operating the heating system are also essential topics. The information content is gathered from various publications, material provided by manufacturers and interviews with experts. A great deal of the professional information also comes from the fourteen co-operating companies assisting in the system development. WebDia is a collection of dynamic HyperText Markup Language (HTML) pages, but it also includes pictures, photographs, video and audio recordings, and animations. Most of the pages are created using server-side scripting based on Active Server Pages (ASP) technology, but Java applets are also used. Building a system like WebDia turns out to be a tedious process, which requires knowledge and expertise from several disciplines in addition to modern Web authoring and multimedia tools.


Objective: To examine whether the outcomes of diabetic patients after successful percutaneous coronary revascularization are influenced by the modality of treatment for hyperglycemia at the time of percutaneous coronary revascularization. Design: Retrospective analysis of the Mayo Clinic PTCA Registry. Material and Methods: We examined whether the modality of treatment of diabetes mellitus (diet alone vs. oral hypoglycemics vs. insulin) impacted on the occurrence of death and death/myocardial infarction among diabetic patients after successful percutaneous coronary revascularization from January 1, 1995 through December 1998. Results: Of the 821 diabetic patients with known treatment status, 129 received diet alone, 370 oral agents, and 322 insulin. The clinical success rates of percutaneous coronary revascularization were similarly high among the groups (>90%). The adjusted risk of suffering either death or death/myocardial infarction after successful percutaneous coronary revascularization was greater for insulin-treated patients (vs. non-insulin): relative risk (95% confidence intervals) of 1.65 (0.99, 2.72) and 1.65 (1.20, 2.27), respectively. Patients treated with oral agents had lower risk of suffering death or death/myocardial infarction than insulin-treated patients (0.59 [0.36, 0.99] and 0.57 [0.38, 0.84], respectively), with a similar trend for patients on diet alone (0.96 [0.48, 1.99] and 0.65 [0.36, 1.16], respectively). Conclusions: Although the clinical success rates of PCR were similar for insulin- and non-insulin-treated diabetic patients, insulin-treated patients had worse long-term outcomes after successful percutaneous coronary revascularization.


ON a busy day it would be easy to skim the contents of Veterinary Record and pass over an article on cadmium and feline hypertension. That would be a pity as the article by Finch and others (2011), summarised on p 125 in this week's Veterinary Record , is an introduction to an intriguing area of pathophysiology. It also reminds us of the very interesting biological molecules that are the metallothioneins and alerts us to a much larger body of excellent recent research on feline hypertension (Finch 2011).

Metallothioneins are ubiquitous, small, cysteine-rich proteins that readily bind zinc, cadmium and copper; they occur in plants as well as animals (Hassinen and others 2011). They function as intracellular metal 'buffers' or 'metallochaperones', important in zinc and copper homeostasis and protecting against heavy metal toxicity and oxidative damage (Sutherland and Stillman 2011). There are four metallothioneins (MT1, 2, 3 and 4) of which MT1 and MT2 are inducible by a wide range of stimuli including metals, drugs and inflammatory mediators. Together with MT3 they may also have an important role in …


In 1982 Alan Moore resurrected the long-forgotten superhero Marvelman for the British comic anthology Warrior. Marvelman's previous incarnation from 1954 to 1963 (published through Fawcett Comics) as a revamped Captain Marvel provided source material for Moore's work in Warrior. However, given Moore's revisionist project (arguably starting with Marvelman, continuing through Swamp Thing, Watchmen and his work for ABC comics amongst many others), the original Fawcett incarnation becomes re-read in the 80s as part of a subconscious fantasy forced upon the Marvel family (Marvelman, Young Marvelman and Kid Marvelman) as part of their induction within a British military arms project after the Second World War. As such the 50s incarnation of the Marvel family is contextualised by Moore as fantasy, in relation to the revisionist 80s narrative that foregrounds 'reality' and contemporary commentary.

This article seeks to understand the mechanisms by which Moore is able to relegate one narrative arc within another that holds a greater status of reality. In other words, how is Moore's Marvelman more 'real' than Mick Anglo's 50s version? These mechanisms are centred around contemporary concepts of reality, concepts that are further expounded in the late 1980s through titles such as Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns (Miller) and others, and through the process of 'adaptation' within formats, rather than adaptation between formats. The legitimisation of one narrative arc over another is considered to be not only a response to changing attitudes brought to bear on superhero narratives, particularly in Moore's work, but also through alternate modes of reification brought to bear upon comic formats themselves that arguably commence in the UK with Moore's work in Warrior magazine.


Circular-dichroism and fluorescence studies indicate that the 5-dimethylaminonaphthalene-1-sulphonyl and phenylmethanesulphonyl derivatives of subtilisin DY have three-dimensional structure closely similar to that of native enzyme. The single tryptophan residue is largely accessible to the aqueous solvent, and is not directly involved in the enzyme-substrate interactions, since its photochemical modification causes only a partial inhibition of the enzyme activity. It appears very likely that the location of the single tryptophan residue in the three-dimensional structure of subtilisin DY is similar to that of the single tryptophan residue in subtilisin Carlsberg. Fluorescence-quenching experiments further indicate that the 14 tyrosine residues are also largely accessible to the aqueous solvent, and probably interact with hydrated peptide carbonyl groups. The charge environment for tryptophan and tyrosine residues in subtilisin DY, as deduced by quenching experiments with ionic species, is also discussed. In general, subtilisin DY displays strong similarities to subtilisin Carlsberg, as suggested by a comparative analysis of the amino acid composition and fluorescence properties.


From a genomic library of Serratia liquefaciens, a cloned DNA fragment comprising a two-gene operon was isolated and expressed in Escherichia coli. One of the gene products was identified as a phospholipase Al, and the enzyme was found to be excreted to the outer environment from S. liquefaciens as well as from E. coli. Both genes were sequenced, and the relationship between open reading frames in the DNA sequence and in vitro-expressed polypeptides was established. The length of the phospholipase polypeptide was found to be 319 amino acids. In the amino-terminal end of the coding sequence was a stretch of about 20 hydrophobic amino acids, but, in contrast to consensus signal peptides, no basic residues were present. The length of the second polypeptide was 227 amino acids. It was found that expression of the phospholipase gene in both E. coli and S. liquefaciens was growth phase regulated (late expression).


It was a thrill to watch Hal manipulate stimulus parameters and recording instruments to encourage the guinea pig cochlea to reveal more of its secrets. He did not swerve from his conviction that alterations in the fields of electrical activity would reflect states of disorder in cochlear morphology and function that would one day have useful clinical applications. Hal was content, however, to allow others to struggle with the diagnostic and surgical challenges of otologic practice. I have no doubt that he could have been an outstanding clinical otologist but he felt rightly that for him a more useful contribution could be made to clinical medicine through research. By elucidating the bioelectric potentials of the auditory system he provided the basis for the development of the auditory evoked response (AER) test. The method differentiates cochlear from retrocochlear lesions with a high degree of accuracy. The use of AER to detect deafness in neonates has led to a more effective early management of profoundly deaf infants. Other devices that have benefited otology and can be attributed in part to discoveries and implementation by Hal Davis are electrocochleography, audiometry, and design and standardization of hearing aids.


The soybean endosymbiont Bradyrhizobium japonicum is able to scavenge the greenhouse gas N2O through the N2O reductase (Nos). In previous research, N2O emission from soybean rhizosphere was mitigated by B. japonicum Nos(++) strains (mutants with increased Nos activity). Here, we report the mechanism underlying the Nos(++) phenotype. Comparative analysis of Nos(++) mutant genomes showed that mutation of bll4572 resulted in Nos(++) phenotype. bll4572 encodes NasS, the nitrate (NO3(-))-sensor of the two-component NasST regulatory system. Transcriptional analyses of nosZ (encoding Nos) and other genes from the denitrification process in nasS and nasST mutants showed that, in the absence of NO3(-) , nasS mutation induces nosZ and nap (periplasmic nitrate reductase) via nasT. NO3(-) addition dissociated the NasS-NasT complex in vitro, suggesting the release of the activator NasT. Disruption of nasT led to a marked decrease in nosZ and nap transcription in cells incubated in the presence of NO3(-). Thus, although NasST is known to regulate the NO3(-)-mediated response of NO3(-) assimilation genes in bacteria, our results show that NasST regulates the NO3(-) -mediated response of nosZ and napE genes, from the dissimilatory denitrification pathway, in B. japonicum.


We present a dynamic quantity setting game, where players may continuously adjust their quantity targets, but incur convex adjustment costs when they do so. These costs allow players to use quantity targets as a partial commitment device. We show that the equilibrium path of such a game is hump-shaped and that the final equilibrium outcome is more competitive than its static analog. We then test the theory using monthly production targets of the Big Three U.S. auto manufacturers during 1965-1995 and show that the hump-shaped dynamic pattern is present in the data. Initially, production targets steadily increase until they peak about 2-3 months before production. Then, they gradually decline to eventual production levels. This qualitative pattern is fairly robust across a range of similar exercises. We conclude that strategic considerations play a role in the planning phase in the auto industry, and that static models may therefore under-estimate the industry's competitiveness.


This study aimed to evaluate the pace of curing process and body weight recovery of pulmonary tuberculosis (Tb) patients receiving propolis supplementation. This study was a randomized controlled trial conducted on 50 pulmonary Tb patients that were assigned into three groups as follows: receiving standard-dose antituberculosis drugs (ATDs) + 20 drops of placebo propolis (P0); receiving standard-dose ATDs + 20 drops of propolis with concentration of 6% (P1); and receiving standard-dose ATDs + 20 drops of propolis with concentration of 30% (P2). The results showed that the mean time ratio needed for sputum smear conversion to negative present of acid resitant bacteria in P0, P1 and P2 groups were weeks 10, 8 and 5, respectively. In the second week, mean body weight of P0 and P1 groups decreased by 2.4% and 0.2%, respectively. In contrast, the mean body weight in P2 group increased by 1.5% (p<0.05; Mann-Whitney test). In the same week, mean body mass index (BMI) of P0 and P1 groups decreased by 1.6 and 0.1, respectively. Conversely, the mean BMI of P2 group increased by 0.3. The changes were significantly different (p<0.05). The results conclusively indicated that supplementation of 20 drops of propolis with a concentration of 30% as an adjuvant to standard ATDs for the treatment of pulmonary Tb patients was beneficial to accelerate treatment effect and body weight recovery.


A list of doctoral dissertations in progress in the field of history is annually issued by the Department of Historical Research of the Carnegie Institution, and a similar list for political economy is annually published, the list of dissertations in political economy for 1911 appearing in the American Economic Review for March, 1911. In one or the other of these lists may be found most of the dissertations of interest to students of political science, but a number of political science dissertations are included in neither of these lists. On this account it has been thought well to publish the following list, which has been compiled partly from responses received from the several universities, and partly from the published lists of historical and economic dissertations. A date where given after the dissertation title indicates the probable date of completion. For the year 1910 a list similar to that given below appeared in the August, 1910, number of this REVIEW. (Vol. IV, p. 421.)


Significant numbers of homes within the UK are at risk of flooding. Although community level flood protection schemes are the first line of defence for mitigating flood risk, not all properties are protectable. Property-Level Flood Protection (PLFP) provides those unprotected homeowners with an approach for protecting their homes from flooding. This study sought to establish why property-level flood protection is needed and secondly assess the extent of take up using Worcester as the study area. An exploratory questionnaire survey was conducted to achieve these objectives. After consultation of available literature it was established that the introduction of PLFP protection provided numerous benefits including limiting the health & psychological effects flooding poses, the direct financial benefits and also the possible influence on gaining flood insurance. Despite the benefits and the recognition given to PLFP by the government it was found that the overall take up of the measures was low, findings which were further backed up by data collected in the study area of Worcester with only 23% of the sample having introduced PLFP measures. Reasoning for the low take up numbers typically included; unawareness of the measures, low risk of flood event, installation costs and inability to introduce due to tenancy. Age was noted as a significant impacting factor in the study area with none of the respondents under 25 suggesting they had "a good amount of knowledge of PLFP measures" even when they claimed their properties to be at risk of flooding. Guidance and support is especially recommended to those who are unable to manage their own flood risk for e.g. social housing/rental tenants.


Labelling is a contentious issue within the fields of psychology and education
and is influenced by the predominant medical and social models of disability
labelling. Previous research has explored the views of children and parents in
relation to the labels used to describe literacy difficulties. However, such
research has neglected the views of children's mainstream teachers within the
UK educational context. Drawing on an ecological perspective, this exploratory
study investigated the views of four children aged 8 to 11 who had a dual
placement at a centre for children with specific learning differences, their
parents and their mainstream teachers. A qualitative methodology which utilised
semi-structured interviews as a means of data collection investigated
participants' views regarding the labels used to describe literacy difficulties, their
perceived purpose and the meanings ascribed to them.
Data was analysed using a hybrid approach of thematic analysis. Themes from
the three data sets were collapsed allowing comparisons to be made. Findings
indicated that there was variation in the labels used to describe the children's
literacy difficulties although their meaning remained relatively constant. Labels
were found to be transferable in nature, with adults not necessarily using those
written in reports, where most of the labels originated. Adults perceived a need
for collaboration in order to 'diagnose' dyslexia, with the role of the educational
psychologist (EP) being central to this. Contrasting views regarding the purpose
of a label, especially in relation to the support it could bring were found and
although participants recognised that labels could provide an explanation, the
visual signs of such difficulties were perceived as being important for the
children interviewed.
The findings are especially relevant to the role of the EP particularly since new
recommendations have been proposed to the government regarding the
identification of dyslexia (Rose, 2009). EPs are ideally placed to work with
children, their parents and teachers and can draw on their skills in consultation
and mediation with the aim of developing a shared understanding of the child's
difficulties whichever label is used.


The work presented in this thesis focuses on the development of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assays for diagnosis and differentiation of equid herpes viruses-1 and -4 (EHV-1 and EHV-4) infections in suspected field cases and contact animals and in experimentally infected specific-pathogen-free (SPF) foals. The technique has been applied to study the pathogenesis of EHV-1 and EHV-4 infections in these foals. Further, the effect of homologous (EHV-1:EHV-1) challenge on nasal virus excretion and duration of viremia has been studied. Studies on heterologous (EHV-4:EHV-1) challenge have also been conducted with one objective being to determine whether challenge virus could reactivate virus inoculated to produce primary infection (reactivation of EHV-4 by EHV-1 in this instance). Following secondary challenge (homologous or heterologous), dexamethasone administration was performed in order to reactivate latent virus(es). The chapterwise details of the thesis are as follows: Chapter 1 describes the general features the family Herpesviridae structure of herpesvirion, genomes of herpesviruses, classification of herpesviruses, their replicative cycles and latency. A brief account of various equid herpesviruses (equid herpesviruses-1 to -8) is given and the literature on various aspects of EHV-1 and EHV-4 has been reviewed comprehensively. The general materials and methods used throughout the course of study are described in Chapter 2. Chapter 3 gives an account of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and its application in various fields of science. The EHV-1/EHV-4 PCR assay is detailed. Type common primers derived from the conserved regions of homologues of HSV genes encoding glycoproteins gH and gC and a nested set comprising a primer derived from thymidine kinase (tk) gene and three from the gH gene have been used to amplify specific regions of EHV-1 and EHV-4. The targets for amplification in the PCR assays were; tissue culture supernatants from EHV-1 and EHV-4 infected cultures and recombinant plasmic DNAs containing EHV-1 and EHV-4 target. The amplified products could be distinguished by type-specific probes selected from the divergent regions of the genes and internal to the primers. Reaction conditions were optimised and assay sensitivity assessed. Chapter 4 describes the use of PCR techniques to the detection of EHV-1 or EHV-4- specific DNA in nasopharyngeal swab samples from suspected field cases and their in-contacts. The primers used in the PCR assay were: inner gH, nested set and gC. The assays were conducted blind and later decoded and compared with virus isolation data. Of 98 samples, 91 of which were EHV-1 and EHV-4-negative and 7 positive, all 7 positives were confirmed by PCR and 5 virus-negative were PCR-positive. The results indicated that PCR is a sensitive and rapid technique for the diagnosis of EHV-1 and EHV-4 infections. The studies on the experimental infections of specific-pathogen-free (SPF) foals are described in Chapter 5. The experiment was conducted in three phases: primary infection, secondary infection/challenge and reactivation. Two groups of two SPF foals were infected by inoculating 107 pfu of EHV-1 strain Ab4 or EHV-4 strain MD intranasally. Nasal secretions and peripheral blood leucocytes (PBMCs) were collected at days -2, 1, 3, 5, 8, 11 and 18 post-infection (p.i.) and analysed by PCR. Results were compared with the virus isolation and co-cultivation data. The latter work was carried out by research group at Cambridge led by Dr Hugh Field. Rectal temperatures as high as 106F were recorded in EHV-1 infected foals and classical signs of EHV-1 induced disease were observed. The EHV-4 infected foals exhibited a mild disease. EHV-1 specific DNA was detected in the nasal secretions of the EHV-1 infected foals til day 18 post-infection, the day of last sampling. In the PBMCs of EHV-1 infected foals, EHV-1 specific DNA was detectable till day 11 p.i. At the peak of infection at day 5 in one foal and at day 8 in another foal. 5 x 10+ and 5 x 104 PBMCs respectively gave a positive signal in PCR assay. Nasal virus excretion by virus isolation was demonstrable till day 11 p.i. in both the EHV-1 infected foals. EHV-1 viraemia was observed by infectious centre assay at days 3, 5 and 11 in one foal and at day 11 post infection in another. The EHV-4-specific DNA in EHV-4 infected group was detectable till day 18 and 15 respectively in the nasal secretions of the two foals. EHV-4 specific DNA was detectable till day 15 p.i.; the infection was mild throughout as 5 x 105 cells gave a positive signal in PCR assay. In another foal, EHV-4 specific DNA was detectable till day 11 p.i. in the PBMCs, the peak of infection observed at day 11 when 5 x 104 cells gave a positive signal. No infectious centre was demonstrated in co-cultivation studies of leucocytes of EHV-4 infected foals indicating thereby that the assay is less sensitive as compared to PCR. Our studies provide definitive evidence of EHV-1 and EHV-4 specific DNA sequences in PBMCs of foals infected under specific pathogen-free conditions, following primary infection with EHV-1 and EHV-4. (Abstract shortened by ProQuest.).


We consider an OFDM system employing bit-interleaved coded-modulation (BICM) and investigate the problem of reliable data detection in the presence of narrowband interference (NBI). Such a scenario may arise in many practical contexts, including cellular applications and wireless transmissions over unlicensed frequency bands. It is known that conventional BICM decoding strategies suffer from significant performance degradation when the received signal is plagued by NBI. To overcome this difficulty, in the present work we model the interference power on each subcarrier as a nuisance parameter which is averaged out from the likelihood function. This approach results into a novel bit-metric that makes use of a suitable estimate of the NBI power obtained from previous data decisions. Numerical simulations indicate that the error rate performance of the proposed scheme is close to that of a maximum likelihood (ML) Viterbi decoder having perfect knowledge of the NBI power across the signal spectrum.


Teacher preparation for inclusive education of students with significant disabilities requires an understanding of the requisite skills and dispositions to be taught during the teacher preparation period. Given the relative scarcity of inclusive placements for this population, as well as limited research-based teacher preparation practices to promote inclusive education, a Delphi study was completed to query expert faculty on the priority skills and activities used in teacher preparation. Consensus emerged through the Delphi study over three rounds of surveys to faculty, centering on essential skills of special education teachers, practices used by faculty to teach and evaluate these skills, and conditions that support and constrain teacher development of these essential skills. Although faculty largely supported research-based practices, new areas emerged, including teacher leadership skills. Implications for research and practice are included.


Clostridium perfringens is one of the most important causes of intestinal disease in animals and humans. Its virulence is attributed to the several toxins it can produce, including the beta2 toxin encoded by cpb2. In this thesis we studied the role of the beta2 toxin produced by C. perfringens in the development of intestinal disease. Results described in this thesis demonstrate that a possible role for beta2 toxin in the development of intestinal disease is still disputable. The development of a new primer set which recognizes both alleles of cpb2 and the development of a new test strategy for application of the newly developed PCR on fecal samples improved test sensitivity for the presence of cpb2. However, a relationship between cpb2-harbouring C. perfringens, beta2 toxin,and intestinal disease could not be proven in chickens and roe deer. Although cpb2-positive C. perfringens was abundantly present in the intestinal tract of roe deer, only two isolated strains were able to produce the beta2 toxin in vitro and the beta2 toxin was not demonstrated in the intestinal tract by immunohistochemistry in any of the animals. C. perfringens was isolated from both healthy and diseased laying hens with a newly described form of subclinical necrotic enteritis. No relationship could be determined between intestinal disease and the presence of beta2 toxin producing C. perfringens. However, focal necrotic lesions were only found in the intestinal tract of laying hens with a high watery intestinal content which may have played a predisposing factor in the development of disease providing substrate for beta2 toxin production by C. perfringens. A significant role for the beta2 toxin in the development of intestinal disease could not be established in an in vitro model in which the cytotoxic effect of supernatant of cpb2-positive C. perfringens cultures with and without beta2 toxin were compared. A proven role for the beta2 toxin in the development of intestinal disease or reproduction of the disease by other infection models has not been achieved yet. Therefore the role of the beta2 toxin in the development of intestinal disease remains at least questionable. Other virulence factors, the intestinal microbiota, and environmental circumstances might influence the significance of the intestinal presence of cpb2-harbouring C. perfringens in the development of intestinal disease. This hypothesis was supported by the finding of a reducing effect of Lactobacillus fermentum on beta2 toxin production by cpb2-harbouring C. perfringens. A lower transcription of cpb2 and a lower production of beta2 toxin were demonstrated with the presence of L. fermentum while the viability of C. perfringens was not affected. In this way, environmental influences might increase the role of cpb2-harbouring C. perfringens in the development of intestinal disease too. Articles on predisposing factors for the development of C. perfringens-associated intestinal disease in animals and human beings were reviewed and discussed. In vivo studies investigating both beta2 toxin and predisposing factors are necessary to definitely determine or exclude a potential role for beta2 toxin in the development of intestinal disease.


Modern multicore processors for the embedded market are often heterogeneous in nature. One feature often available are multiple sleep states with varying transition cost for entering and leaving said sleep states. This research effort explores the energy efficient task-mapping on such a heterogeneous multicore platform to reduce overall energy consumption of the system. This is performed in the context of a partitioned scheduling approach and a realistic power model, which improves over some of the simplifying assumptions often made in the state-of-the-art. The developed heuristic consists of two phases, in the first phase, tasks are allocated to minimise their active energy consumption, while the second phase trades off a higher active energy consumption for an increased ability to exploit savings through more efficient sleep states. Extensive simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the approach.


The aim of this article is to shed light on the nature and behaviour of Spanish Discourse Markers of Reformulation by looking into the scope of the reformulator and their distributional properties. Taking previous research on English reformulators (Del Saz 2003; Del Saz 2005, in press; Del Saz and Fraser, in press) as a framework of analysis, I have analyzed a set of Spanish reformulators using the two parameters above in order to complement the research already carried out on Spanish markers of Reformulation. Outlining the scope of the reformulator has proved useful to discriminate between the uses of these markers. Likewise, looking into co-occurrence of markers of the same and/or different types has allowed me to identify the basic instructions they convey. The results outlined here seem to support the view that these markers display multifunctionality and are insightful with regard to the level of prototypicality that each marker displays.


The key for Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) to implement target pursuit is to design high performance guidance law. The globose reference frame is adopted, and equations for 3-D relative motion between AUV and the target are built. Then the H∞ theory is used, and a new AUV nonlinear H∞ guidance law is obtained by solving Hamilton-Jacobi inequation. Simulation is taken on to verify the performance of H∞ guidance law. And the results show that the H∞ guidance law can help AUV overtake the target in less time, and the azimuth and pitching angle of the target line of sight are always staying at the initial numerical values. Furthermore, the normal load decreases to zero gradually. So the guidance law is effective for AUV to pursuit target.


As of 2019 August, among the more than 4000 confirmed exoplanets, only one has been detected in a globular cluster (GC) M4. The scarce of exoplanet detections motivates us to employ direct N-body simulations to investigate the dynamical stability of planets in young massive clusters (YMC), which are potentially the progenitors of GCs. In an N = 128 k cluster of virial radius 1.7 pc (comparable to Westerlund-1), our simulations show that most wide-orbit planets (a ≥ 20 au) will be ejected within a time-scale of 10 Myr. Interestingly, more than $70{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of planets with a < 5 au survive in the 100 Myr simulations. Ignoring planet–planet scattering and tidal damping, the survivability at t Myr as a function of initial semimajor axis a0 in au in such a YMC can be described as fsurv(a0, t) = −0.33log10(a0)(1 − e−0.0482t) + 1. Upon ejection, about $28.8{{\ \rm per\ cent}}$ of free-floating planets (FFPs) have sufficient speeds to escape from the host cluster at a crossing time-scale. The other FFPs will remain bound to the cluster potential, but the subsequent dynamical evolution of the stellar system can result in the delayed ejection of FFPs from the host cluster. Although a full investigation of planet population in GCs requires extending the simulations to multiGyr, our results suggest that wide-orbit planets and free-floating planets are unlikely to be found in GCs.


Heavy-ion collisions create deformed quark-gluon plasma (QGP) fireballs which explode anisotropically. The viscosity of the fireball matter determines its ability to convert the initial spatial deformation into momentum anisotropies that can be measured in the final hadron spectra. A quantitatively precise empirical extraction of the QGP viscosity thus requires a good understanding of the initial fireball deformation. This deformation fluctuates from event to event, and so does the finally observed momentum anisotropy. We present a harmonic decomposition of the initial fluctuations in shape and orientation of the fireball and perform event-by-event (2 + 1)-dimensional ideal fluid dynamical simulations to extract the resulting fluctuations in the magnitude and direction of the corresponding harmonic components of the final anisotropic flow at midrapidity. The final harmonic flow coefficients are found to depend nonlinearly on the initial harmonic eccentricity coefficients. We show that, on average, initial density fluctuations suppress the buildup of elliptic flow relative to what one obtains from a smooth initial profile of the same eccentricity and discuss implications for the phenomenological extraction of the QGP shear viscosity from experimental elliptic flow data.


It is often said, and at present it is probably true that famine and poverty in some parts of the world are a problem of distribution rather than one of production of the necessities of life. The improvement of our distribution system, however, does not only solve an acute problem of regional deprivation, but also creates regional interdependence. Thus, with present day transcontinental trade the questions related to sustainability become global issues. The whole world is an interconnected network. Is there some "invisible hand" which guides local actions in a direction beneficial to the whole or does this connectedness necessitate deliberate global planning?A similar question arises when we look far ahead in time. Many people have a blind trust in the future and are unconcerned with questions of long term sustainability of human civilization. Those who believe in science and technology respond to warnings of global sustenance problems: "The engineers will invent something that will solve our problems." Those with a religious bent say: "Why worry about tomorrow? 'He' who has provided for us in the past will do so in the future." How useful is this fatalistic stance today? Given the knowledge we possess, are we not responsible for irreversible damages to the Planet which will burden future generations? Is mankind capable of consciously choosing its future path?This paper analyses the state of the World and the stability of the processes in it. We take a global and long term perspective. The basic tool used is a balance equation for material, cultural, biological, social and ecological substances. Conditions for sustainable, dynamic equilibria are derived and presented in per capita values in order to facilitate intuitive comprehension. Possible contributions to sustainability of the natural sciences and engineering and of the social sciences and the humanities are outlined. In conclusion some desirable and some accidental paths to sustainability are given.


We have used NMR spectroscopy to test the direct in vitro effects of ethanol and its metabolite acetaldehyde on a human leukemic T cell line (Molt-4) and normal murine spleen cells. The metabolic status of phosphate metabolites (phosphomonoesters including sugar phosphate, inorganic phosphate and ATP's) in cell suspension was monitored by 31P NMR spectroscopy. Spectral changes were observed in the intensity of inorganic phosphate and ATP. Addition of high concentrations of ethanol (400-1600 mM) to Molt-4 cells resulted in very little spectral change. However, the addition of 40 microM acetaldehyde resulted in substantially increased inorganic phosphate (Pi) signals, and decreased phosphomonoesters and ATP signals. Similar changes, but to a lesser degree, were observed with normal mouse spleen cells.


Geomorphology, the study of landscape form and change, is at a crossroad. Quantification of patterns on Earth's surface has revealed surprising and robust order. Transport equations rooted in physics that relate material flux of sediment to environmental drivers have been derived and are capable of simulating realistic-looking topography [Dietrich et al., 2003]. Yet despite this rapid progress and an explosion of interest in the field, scientists are unable to predict sediment transport rates in rivers to better than an order of magnitude—they can only qualitatively anticipate the response of landscapes to land use or climatic changes. In addition, some argue that the sedimentary archive of landscape evolution is dominated by randomness [Sadler and Strauss, 1990], calling into question researchers' ability to reconstruct environmental change from the rock record.


Because artificial brain associative memory neural networks have property of nonlinear mapping, fault-tolerance power and learning capability, they have especial advantages for fault-tolerance control. This paper proposes an associative memory neural network of artificial brain's controllable fault-tolerant field, which can be used as fault-tolerance apparatus for model signals of intelligent control system. The model signal fault-tolerance apparatus differs from other ones and can design proper fault-tolerant fields for signals based on the fault-tolerance request of intelligent control system. The fault-tolerance of the control system can be heightened when the fault-tolerance apparatus is embedded in a right control system.


Superconducting digital systems based on Josephson junctions have generally used a synchronous timing strategy. A master clock signal is used to delimit a data window during which the system changes state and data is transferred from one block to the next. The temporal stability of the clock signal has a profound effect on the performance of rapid single flux quantum (RSFQ) digital systems. In particular, short-term clock fluctuations, or clock jitter, can degrade system performance due to the hazard of timing constraint violations. The successful development of large-scale RSFQ digital systems will require highly stable multigigahertz on-chip clock sources. To meet this need, methods for characterizing and measuring the short-term stability of such sources are required. We identify the relevant figure of merit to characterize and compare various clocks: the cycle-to-cycle standard deviation of the clock periods. We present experimental techniques for the measurement of this figure of merit and apply them to the measurement of jitter in a clock generator used often in RSFQ systems, the ring oscillator. High-frequency phase noise measurements found the jitter of a 9.6-GHz clock to be in the range from 0.6% to 0.36% of the clock period. The measured values of clock jitter fell within the 95% confidence interval of our stochastic circuit simulations. This was sufficient evidence to conclude that thermal noise from the resistors in the circuit may be the dominant source of jitter in the ring oscillator.


- Distributed flexibility of the links is a severe obstacle for the endpoint position control of lightweight manipulators. In order to accomplish with satisfactory performance certain tasks involving a controlled interaction of the tip of the robot with the worksurfaces, a combined control of the motion and the contact forces can provide some advantages, as it is now recognized for rigid robots. This paper presents a model of a flexible robot interacting with a rigid environment, together with a control scheme designed to achieve the simultaneous control of both the motion of the end effector and the forces at the contact. The time scale separation of the control actions, deriving from singular perturbation theory, is exploited in the design of the controller, which is made up by modular and easy-to-tune components. Simulation results obtained on a detailed nonlinear model of an existing 2 d.o.f. flexible arm are also given.


Objectives: The purpose ofthisstudy wasto investigate the bond strength ofmedicinal biomaterial fiber post with canal wall using different types of cement. Methods: Thirty sound maxillary canines, each canal was prepared using #55 K-file and was obturated according to manufacturer instruction. After that, fiber post was cemented in the canal for each one. Specimens were divided into three groups according to types of the cements that were used for cementation: [(G1:Relay X U200), (G2:RelyX Luting), and G3:(GC lining cement)]. After cementation, all roots were stored at 100% humidity till testing. Each Sample was investigated using pushout test by placed them in a universal testing machine at a crosshead speed of 0.5 mm/min. Results: The highest Bonding strength wasshown in G2 cervical level, while the lowest was shown in G3 in middle level. Results: the highest bond strength was shown in cervical level for all cements type, while the lowest was shown in the middle level. Conclusion: Thehighestbonding strengthwasobservedinRely XU200while the lowest was seen in lining cement G3. G1 has higher bonding strength than Conventional G3 due to micromechanical retention.


PURPOSE
Pain is prevalent in cancer patients, appearing to be moderate to severe in more than one third of them. Despite the fact that fentanyl is widely used with effective analgesic results, some patients do not correspond to treatment, resulting in opioid change.

METHODS
This is a cohort study, performed in Greek patients with cancer. Its scope was to identify potential reasons responsible for opioid change, due to transdermal-fentanyl intolerance, resulting from inadequate analgesia (pain relief<33% in 1week) and/or unacceptable adverse-events (grade≥3 at Common Terminology Criteria-v4.0). The final sample included 289 participants. To investigate responsible reasons for transdermal-fentanyl intolerance we studied its relation with patients' history, haematology, biochemistry, body-mass-index, demographic and disease related characteristics. The Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status scale, the Mini Mental State Examination questionnaire, the M.D.Anderson Symptom Inventory and the Greek Brief Pain Inventory were also used to measure performance status and quality-of-life for the same reason.

RESULTS
Almost one third of the patients had to change to an alternative opioid oral-morphine in order to achieve adequate analgesia or/and avoid adverse-events. The most common adverse-events observed were nausea/vomiting and sleepiness. Statistical analysis demonstrated that younger age (OR=0.976) and obesity (OR=0.29 against underweight, OR=0.39 against normal, OR=0.48 against pre-obese) had a higher possibility to contribute to modification of the analgesic treatment. Furthermore, a higher impact of symptoms in patient's life (OR=1.184) and chemotherapy (OR=2.109) could also contribute to the need of change of the opioid analgesic medication.

CONCLUSION
This study found significant variables for transdermal-fentanyl intolerance. This knowledge may help person-center care in moderate to severe cancer pain. This article is open to POST-PUBLICATION REVIEW. Registered readers (see "For Readers") may comment by clicking on ABSTRACT on the issue's contents page.


A novel fibre optic sensor system has been developed for detection of acoustic emission. The sensor design was based on a 2×2 fused tapered optical fibre coupler configuration. Given the intended use of this sensor for the detection of acoustic emission in smart materials and structures, its lightweight, compatibility with composite material and immunity from electromagnetic interference are great advantages. Apart from the performance specification and reliability, the overall cost of the sensor system is a major factor in their adoption by end-users. The manufacturing of this sensor is low-cost and the signal output from the sensor system developed can be directly fed to the commercial AE acquisition system. The demonstration of acoustic emission detection was conducted using fibre coupler-based AE sensors in different materials and structures. The AE sources are various and depend on the different applications. In the current paper, we report on the use of the fibre optic AE sensor system for concrete damage monitoring. An experiment on damage detection on a composite plate with this fibre optical AE sensor is also reported in the paper.


In modern construction, a piled-raft foundation is a composite construction which consists of piles and raft is one of the alternatives over conventional pile or raft foundations. It is used not only for reducing the settlement of soil, but also can handle large eccentric loading. The analysis of piled raft foundation is very tough and the design of piled raft with soil interaction effect is one of the major problem as the behavior of a structure is highly affected not only by the response of the superstructure, but also by the behaviour of the foundation and the soil as well. In this study, the piled raft foundation is analyzed using ANSYS (2D analysis), a popular finite element software to study the load displacement response in a sand medium of various relative densities (loose, medium dense and dense) with interaction effects. Three different pile spacing 3d, 4d and 5d were considered for the study (where d is the pile diameter) with three different pile configuration (3x3, 4x4 and 5x5) with an objective of finding the optimum number of piles and pile spacing for various relative densities of sand. The results show that the ultimate load and settlement corresponding to ultimate load increases with the relative density. Lesser settlement is observed when the frictional angle of the sand is increased and increases when the number of piles are increasing. The rate of settlement decreases with the increase in relative density of the soil. The load settlement response of medium and dense sand is almost identical. The performance of a 4 x 4 pile group is observed to optimum.


In 14 bakeries we tested the effect of different messages associated with a fundraising solicitation. An opaque moneybox was placed near the cash register with a message explaining on a first line that the solicitation was for a humanitarian project for African children conducted by students. On the second line the words "DONATING = LOVING" (loving condition), "DONATING = HELPING" (helping condition), or no inscription (control) appeared. The second line was changed each day and for each bakery according to a random distribution. Results showed that more donations were made in the loving condition compared to the two others, whereas there was no difference between the helping and the control conditions. The results are explained using the spreading activation theory.


Background Repeated access to the circulation is essential to perform adequate maintenance hemodialysis. Dysfunction of fistulas is the most common reason for secondary intervention and recurrent hospitalization. Aim The aim of this study was to report our experience regarding incidence, diagnosis, and different modalities of treatment of complications of arteriovenous fistula. Patients and methods This study was conducted prospectively on 239 end-stage renal disease patients who presented to the Department of Vascular Surgery of Assiut University Hospital with complicated arteriovenous (AV) accesses from January 2014 to January 2015. All patients underwent detailed history taking, and data were collected on age, sex, cardiovascular risk factors, history of previous accesses, and any complications that developed since the use of the access. Patients were further evaluated using clinical examination, duplex ultrasound, and fistulography if needed. Results There were 137 (42.7%) males and 102 (42.7%) females with a mean age of 57 ± 4 years. Hypertension was the risk factor in 103 (43.1%) patients, whereas diabetes mellitus was present in 45 patients. Of the 239 patients, 57 (23.8%) presented with infected AV access, 42 (17.6%) with thrombosed AV accesses, 33 (13.8%) with bleeding, and 31 (12.9%) with pseudoaneurysms. Venous hypertension was the presenting complication in 26 (10.9%) patients, whereas aneurysmal dilatation, hematoma, and ischemic steal were the presenting complications in 25 (10.5%), 20 (8.4%), and 5 (2.1%) patients, respectively. Conclusion Complications of hemodialysis access create significant problems for nephrologists and the healthcare system. Access interventions are often costly, challenging, and may require specialized surgical expertise. Management of complications associated with AV access is an integral part of planning individual hemoaccess procedures.


Suberoylanilide hydroxamic acid (SAHA) is a histone deacetylase inhibitor, which has been widely utilized throughout the cancer research field. SAHA-induced radiosensitization in normal human fibroblasts AG1522 and lung carcinoma cells A549 were evaluated with a combination of γ-rays, proton, and carbon ion exposure. Growth delay was observed in both cell lines during SAHA treatment; 2 μM SAHA treatment decreased clonogenicity and induced cell cycle block in G1 phase but 0.2 μM SAHA treatment did not show either of them. Low LET (Linear Energy Transfer) irradiated A549 cells showed radiosensitization effects on cell killing in cycling and G1 phase with 0.2 or 2 μM SAHA pretreatment. In contrast, minimal sensitization was observed in normal human cells after low and high LET radiation exposure. The potentially lethal damage repair was not affected by SAHA treatment. SAHA treatment reduced the rate of γ-H2AX foci disappearance and suppressed RAD51 and RPA (Replication Protein A) focus formation. Suppression of DNA double strand break repair by SAHA did not result in the differences of SAHA-induced radiosensitization between human cancer cells and normal cells. In conclusion, our results suggest SAHA treatment will sensitize cancer cells to low and high LET radiation with minimum effects to normal cells.


A growing body of sociological research on elites is done at close quarters, using interviews and ethnography. This article draws on interviews with the 'super rich' in Australia to examine the motives of elites in granting access to their lives and stories. The respondents of this study were largely indifferent to social science. In agreeing to be interviewed and engaging with the interview process, they drew upon two familiar points of reference — the media and therapy — as cognitive models or 'templates' for making sense of the process. The media template was outward looking, directed towards public relations and legitimacy. The therapeutic template was inward looking, directed towards families, peers and small world concerns. In turn, respondents were apparently motivated by contradictory considerations: on the one hand, wanting to promote their concerns to a wider audience and, on the other, wanting to reflect upon their predicaments in confidence. Yet respondents understood that neither template encapsulated the interview situation, causing respondents to shift between templates and motives in the course of interviews. This ambiguity meant that interviews demanded continuous negotiation and recalibration. It also enriched interviews, highlighting a reconfiguration of public and private worlds among elite communities.


Editors' Summary: When the CAA was amended in 1977, the U.S. Congress imposed pollution control requirements on new stationary sources of air pollution, called new source review (NSR), but exempted existing facilities from such requirements. By creating a more favorable regulatory environment for existing facilities than for new ones, "grandfathering" creates an incentive to keep old facilities up and running. Moreover, as a command-and control program, requiring capital expenditures for pollution control equipment makes the capital sluggishness problem worse. Combined with often confusing EPA policies and a changing political environment, NSR has resulted in a running battle between the regulated community, environmentalists, and regulators over just how much work can be done on existing sources before they become "new" sources subject to expensive pollution control requirements. In this Article, Shi-Ling Hsu examines these issues and argues for an entirely new paradigm of pollution regulation—Pigouvian taxes and/or emissions trading. Although these two concepts are also controversial, Hsu argues that they are far better than the drag on capital turnover created by grandfathering and will be advantageous for environmentalists and industry alike by eliminating perverse incentives for keeping outdated stationary sources online to the disadvantage of newer, cleaner sources.


New technologies such as virtual reality (VR) and mobile apps are increasingly being developed and trialled therapeutically to help treat anxiety disorders. Despite this increasing market, there is little research on how the public perceive the incorporation of these innovative technologies in anxiety treatment. This study aimed to describe knowledge, awareness and perceptions of VR and mobile apps for the treatment of anxiety. To do this, a survey was disseminated to those aged 18 to 35 with no current or previous mental illness via social media and poster advertisements, and 57 individuals participated. Results demonstrated that most individuals had limited knowledge on the use of VR and mobile apps in mental health, but overall demonstrated positive perceptions and high optimism regarding its potential use. Neither treatment modality was perceived as being as effective as standard treatment; however, participants were willing to use either modality if recommended by a therapist and use both in conjunction with standard treatment. Participants demonstrated a willingness to use a mobile app as a first point of contact. These findings have implications for the way in which these technologies are rolled out to the public.


This paper describes an adaptable system which is able to perform manipulation operations (such as Peg-in-Hole or Laying-Down actions) with flexible objects. As such objects easily change their shape significantly during the execution of an action, traditional strategies, e.g, for solve path-planning problems, are often not applicable. It is therefore required to integrate visual tracking and shape reconstruction with a physical modeling of the materials and their deformations as well as action learning techniques. All these different submodules have been integrated into a demonstration platform, operating in real-time. Simulations have been used to bootstrap the learning of optimal actions, which are subsequently improved through real-world executions. To achieve reproducible results, we demonstrate this for casted silicone test objects of regular shape. Note to Practitioners - The aim of this work was to facilitate the setup of robot-based automation of delicate handling of flexible objects consisting of a uniform material. As examples, we have considered how to optimally maneuver flexible objects through a hole without colliding and how to place flexible objects on a flat surface with minimal introduction of internal stresses in the object. Given the material properties of the object, we have demonstrated in these two applications how the system can be programmed with minimal requirements of human intervention. Rather than being an integrated system with the drawbacks in terms of lacking flexibility, our system should be viewed as a library of new technologies that have been proven to work in close to industrial conditions. As a rather basic, but necessary part, we provide a technology for determining the shape of the object when passing on, e.g., a conveyor belt prior to being handled. The main technologies applicable for the manipulated objects are: A method for real-time tracking of the flexible objects during manipulation, a method for model-based offline prediction of the static deformation of grasped, flexible objects and, finally, a method for optimizing specific tasks based on both simulated and real-world executions.


Pair programming is a style of programming in which two programmers work side-by-side at one computer, continuously collaborating on the same de sign, algorithm, code, or test. In industry, the pr actice of pair programming has been shown to improve product quality, improve team spirit, aid in knowledge management, and reduce product risk. In software industry, pair pro gramming also improves associate's morale, helps associates to be more successful, and improves associates retention in an information technology major. Project efficie ncy of pairs in program design and implementation tasks is identifi ed by using pair programming concept. Pair programming involves two developers simultaneously collaboratin g with each other on the same programming task to d esign and code a solution. Programming aptitude tests (PATs) have been shown to correlate with programming performance. In this paper we will measure time productivity usi ng pair programming, in two important ways: One is elapsed time to complete the task and the other is the total eff ort/time of the programmers completing the task. Us ing Programmer Ranker Algorithm (PRA) we will generate pair and Rank will be provided to each pair of Junior, Senior of industry. After providing rank the best pair can be allocated to Embedded Software project type, Semi detached Software project type and Organic Software project type resp ectively.


This paper presents a stereo object matching method that exploits both 2D contextual information from images as well as 3D object-level information. Unlike existing stereo matching methods that exclusively focus on the pixel-level correspondence between stereo images within a volumetric space (i.e., cost volume), we exploit this volumetric structure in a different manner. The cost volume explicitly encompasses 3D information along its disparity axis, therefore it is a privileged structure that can encapsulate the 3D contextual information from objects. However, it is not straightforward since the disparity values map the 3D metric space in a non-linear fashion. Thus, we present two novel strategies to handle 3D objectness in the cost volume space: selective sampling (RoISelect) and 2D-3D fusion (fusion-by-occupancy), which allow us to seamlessly incorporate 3D object-level information and achieve accurate depth performance near the object boundary regions. Our depth estimation achieves competitive performance in the KITTI dataset and the Virtual-KITTI 2.0 dataset.


OBJECTIVERecurrent aneurysms after coil embolization remain a challenging issue. The goal of the present study was to report the authors' experience with recurrent aneurysms after coil embolization and to discuss the radiographic classification scheme and recommended management strategy.METHODSAneurysm treatments from a single institution over a 6-year period were retrospectively reviewed. Ninety-seven aneurysms that recurred after initial coiling were managed during the study period. Recurrent aneurysms were classified into the following 5 types based on their angiographic characteristics: I, pure recanalization inside the aneurysm sac; II, pure coil compaction without aneurysm growth; III, new aneurysm neck formed without coil compaction; IV, new aneurysm neck formed with coil compaction; and V, newly formed aneurysm neck and sac.RESULTSAneurysm recurrences resulted in rehemorrhages in 6 cases (6.2%) of type III-V aneurysms, but in none of type I-II aneurysms. There was a significantly higher proportion of ophthalmic artery aneurysms and complex internal carotid artery aneurysms presenting as types I and II than presented as the other 3 types (63.3% vs 16.4%, p < 0.001). In contrast, for posterior communicating artery aneurysms and anterior communicating artery aneurysms, a higher proportion of type III-V aneurysms was observed than for the other 2 types, but without a significant difference in the multivariate model (56.7% vs 23.3%). In addition, giant (> 25 mm) aneurysms were more common among type I and II lesions than among type III and IV aneurysms (36.7% vs 9.0%, p = 0.001), which exhibited a higher proportion of small (< 10 mm) lesions (65.7% vs 13.3%, p < 0.001). A single reembolization procedure was sufficient to occlude 80.0% of type I recurrences and 83.3% of type II recurrences from coil compaction but only 65.6% of type III-V recurrences from aneurysm regrowth.CONCLUSIONSAneurysm size and location represent the determining factors of the angiographic recurrence types. Type I and II recurrences were safely treated by reembolization, whereas type III-V recurrences may be best managed surgically when technically feasible.


Mixed cropping might be seen as an alternative to monocultures by better protecting biodiversity and improving ecosystem services and resources. In the presented study, we tested the genetic and ecological effects of pure and mixed propagation of different poplar hybrids planted together with black locust trees. Poplar (Populus) hybrids are widely used for bioenergy in monoculture systems due to their rapid and high biomass production. Black locust (Robinia pseudoacacia L.) is a species with the ability to fix nitrogen and seen as a promising candidate for mixed cultivation. Eight different poplar hybrids and black locust trees from three provenances planted in two study sites with different environmental conditions were tested in varying combinations in pure and mixed stands to observe effects of the different hybrids and genotypes, site conditions and the mixed growing on the performance of poplar and its gene expression. Transcriptome analyses of leaves from four poplar clones selected according to their divergent growth performance were conducted to study differential gene expression that can be an important indicator of differences in growing conditions and success. Differences in gene expression were most pronounced among hybrids and different genotypes of the same hybrid, followed by the study site influence, and were least pronounced between mixed and pure stands. The genotypes of the same hybrid were clearly separated from each other. Clear separation between the study sites for all clones was also observed. Only a few genes were differently expressed in pure vs. mixed stand comparisons for each clone, but there were no common genes that were differently expressed in pure vs. mixed stands in all clones. In total, 199 genes showed differential expression between the study sites regardless of poplar clone or type of stands. The analysis suggested that plant genotypes and environmental conditions were more important at the early stage of stand development than pure or mixed cultivation.


Prospective approaches for large‐scale greenhouse gas removal (GGR) are now central to the post‐2020 international commitment to pursue efforts to limit the global temperature increase to 1.5°C. However, the feasibility of large‐scale GGR has been repeatedly questioned. Most systematic analyses focus only on the physical, technical, and economic challenges of deploying it at scale. However, social and political dimensions will be just as important, if not more so, to how possible futures play out. We conduct one of the first reviews of the international peer‐reviewed literature pertaining to the social and political dimensions of large‐scale GGR, with a specific focus on two predominant approaches: Biomass energy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) and afforestation/reforestation (AR). Our analysis of 78 studies proposes two important insights. First, it shows how six key social and political dimensions of GGR feasibility–namely economics and incentives; innovation; societal engagement; governance; complexity and uncertainty; and ethics, equity, and justice–are identifiable and are emphasized to varying degrees in the literature. Second, there are three contested ways in which BECCS and AR and their feasibility are being framed in the literature: (a) a techno‐economic framing; (b) a social and political acceptability framing; and (c) a responsible development framing. We suggest this third frame will, and indeed should, become increasingly pertinent to the assessment, innovation, and governance of climate futures.


In Bosnia, the Middle East, Haiti, and other situations central to the U.S. post-Cold War foreign policy, success or failure has turned on America's ability to promote hope and opportunity as the by-products of intervention. In the wake of war, violence, and civil unrest, providing jobs, homes, basic services, and capital has been the strategy for subduing opposition and building political will as U.S. and allied troops wind down their limited missions. At the same time, dwindling aid budgets, differences with other donors, institutional gaps, congressional opposition, and conflicting objectives have compromised the effectiveness of economic recovery programs worldwide. This book is built around a detailed analysis of U.S. efforts in Bosnia-Herzegovina, in the Palestinian Territories, and in the Republic of Haiti. It assesses the effectiveness of U.S. strategic planning and the implementation of American economic plans in each of these situations, identifying areas where new approaches and programs may be needed to enhance the likelihood of success in the future. With the resolution of regional conflicts looming as an increasingly important component of U.S. foreign policy and the concurrent unwillingness to expose U. S. forces to prolonged risk in these situations, post-conflict initiatives will prove to be more important than ever before. This book offers crucial insights into the challenges of promoting stability through the restoration of hope and opportunity to the victims of crises and provides a forward-looking assessment of the future demands and opportunities created in conjunction with the economic dimensions of peacekeeping.


We were interested in the recent report by Schubert and Cracco El] of rectal (and other) pain triggering a painful reaction with autonomic changes and tonic posturing. In a remarkably similar case [2f, we were impressed by a unilateral color change with perspiration leading to the term "half and half seizures." The attacks in our case also began at 2 days of age, occurred first after hard bowel movements, and later .after sudden unexpected painful stimuli. Our patient complained of spreading pain, screamed, but retained consciousness. H e maintained a rigid posture with limbs extended and head in opisthotonos. The electroencephalogram (EEG) at this time was normal. Unlike Schubert and Cracco's cases El), our patient had no family history. Like Schubert and Cracco Cl), we considered this illness to be a form of reflex epilepsy. However, there is also a resemblance to paroxysmal dystonic choreoathetosis. In both conditions the attacks may be precipitated by sudden stimuli, there are extrapyramidal signs, the EEG may be normal, and antiepileptic drugs may be effective. Pain-triggered "seizures" are probably not as rare as may be indicated from the sparse literature, one of us (P.R.D.) having seen 4 other such cases since our 1969 report.


Since robotic-assisted thoracic surgery (RVATS) very beginning, cost was a concern when deciding whether or not to offer this new technique to our patients. As it happens to every newly developed technique cost tend to soften throughout time as new equipment providers appear, spreading out RVATS to new and previously unexplored frontiers. When compared to Thoracotomy, RVATS is extremely cost effective. That is not exactly true when the comparison is made with video-assisted thoracic surgery (VATS). We evaluated the total hospital costs, direct and indirect, associated with RVATS as compared to VATS Lobectomy in our first 4 cases as a business plan to support the implementation of our robotic program. In our initial cases our costs for RVATS outnumbered VATS costs by USD 1,320.79.


Postcard from Rose Chamberlin to Junia Osterhout discussing daily life and local news. The front of the postcard contains two photos labeled at the bottom as "West Texas Freight Trains, San Angelo, Texas." In the upper image, a line of cattle are roped together, leading a covered wagon; a man is standing behind them holding a whip. In the lower image, a series of covered wagons are being pulled by teams of horses. Text in the center of the image says "Copyright 1907 by Ragsdale" and there are handwritten notes below the image.


We study a closed economy featuring endogenous growth and overlapping generations of finitely-lived agents. Individuals differ in their health type and thereby their mortality profile. We show that if health status is private information then a pooling equilibrium emerges in the annuity market. Healthy agents receive a better than actuarially fair return while the unhealthy individuals get less than they are entitled to. This gives an incentive to unhealthy agents to borrow money in the last stages of their life. However, they will instead impose a voluntary borrowing constraint on themselves in order not to reveal their health status. For a plausibly parameterized version of the model the welfare loss of having a pooling equilibrium instead of a fair separating equilibrium is small, while the welfare gain relative to the total absence of annuities is much larger.


We measured dilute Gd1-xYx single crystals (x < 0.1) samples using an a.c. magnetoresistance technique. This technique consists in applying a constant current to the sample and measuring the temperature dependent a.c. voltage under a time modulated external magnetic field (f = 333 Hz). The a.c. voltage signal is decomposed in real and imaginary components or, alternatively, in amplitude and phase signals relative to the a.c. magnetic field. This technique proved to be extremely sensitive and effective to display all the magnetic phase transitions revealed by the previous d.c. transport measurements, plus an additional spectrum of other critical features.


Methylphenidate (MPH) is a first line drug for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), yet the neuronal mechanisms underlying the condition and the treatment are still not fully understood. Previous EEG studies on the effect of MPH in ADHD found changes in evoked response potential (ERP) components that were inconsistent between studies. These inconsistencies highlight the need for a well-designed study which includes multiple baseline sessions and controls for possible fatigue, learning effects and between-days variability. To this end, we employ a double-blind placebo-controlled cross-over study and explore the effect of MPH on the ERP response of subjects with ADHD during a Go/No-Go cognitive task. Our ERP analysis revealed significant differences in ADHD subjects between the placebo and MPH conditions in the frontal-parietal region at 250ms-400ms post stimulus (P3). Additionally, a decrease in the late 650ms-800ms ERP component (LC) is observed in frontal electrodes of ADHD subjects compared to controls. The standard deviation of response time of ADHD subjects was significantly smaller in the MPH condition compared to placebo and correlated with the increased P3 ERP response in the frontoparietal electrodes. We suggest that mental fatigue plays a role in the decrease of the P3 response in the placebo condition compared to pre-placebo, a phenomenon that is significant in ADHD subjects but not in controls, and which is interestingly rectified by MPH.


Screening 34 carbapenem non-susceptible Enterobacteriaceae recovered in Abu Dhabi hospitals identified an Enterobacter cloacae strain carrying bla(VIM-4) , bla(CMY-4) and bla(CTX-M-15) . It was isolated from the urine of an Egyptian patient repeatedly hospitalized and treated with broad-spectrum antibiotics, including carbapenems, in the United Arab Emirates. The bla(VIM-4) coding class I integron, highly similar to In416, was carried on a 175-kilobase non-conjugative incA/C type plasmid also hybridizing with the bla(CMY-4) probe. This is the first detailed report on the isolation of a Verona integron-encoded metallo-β-lactamase (VIM) -producing enteric bacterium in the Arabian Peninsula with characteristics suggestive of spreading from the Mediterranean region.


Unusual cytoplasmic inclusions were consistently observed in photoreceptor cells of explants of embryonic mouse retina maintained in culture for 21 days or longer. The inclusions were chiefly spherical (some appeared to be short cylinders) and about 76 nm in diameter. They consisted of a granular/amorphous electron-dense periphery and an electron-lucent core and were usually in clusters, often close to the Golgi apparatus or plasma membrane. They were also commonly present in photoreceptor cell synaptic terminals in the outer plexiform layer. They displayed close relationships with cisterns and tubules of the endoplasmic reticulum and many were located within dilated sacs of reticulum. Narrow, smooth-surfaced tubules appeared to run into or through the cores of some of the inclusion bodies linking them to others. Similar inclusions were not seen in any other cell types in the explants and have not been reported in previous in vivo and in vitro studies of developing or adult mouse retina. The possibility that these inclusions represent Type A retrovirus particles is considered.


Gated cameras hold promise as an alternative to scanning LiDAR sensors with high-resolution 3D depth that is robust to back-scatter in fog, snow, and rain. Instead of sequentially scanning a scene and directly recording depth via the photon time-of-flight, as in pulsed LiDAR sensors, gated imagers encode depth in the relative intensity of a handful of gated slices, captured at megapixel resolution. Although existing methods have shown that it is possible to decode high-resolution depth from such measurements, these methods require synchronized and calibrated LiDAR to supervise the gated depth decoder - prohibiting fast adoption across geographies, training on large unpaired datasets, and exploring alternative applications outside of automotive use cases. In this work, propose an entirely self-supervised depth estimation method that uses gated in-tensity profiles and temporal consistency as a training signal. The proposed model is trained end-to-end from gated video sequences, does not require LiDAR or RGB data, and learns to estimate absolute depth values. We take gated slices as input and disentangle the estimation of the scene albedo, depth, and ambient light, which are then used to learn to reconstruct the input slices through a cyclic loss. We rely on temporal consistency between a given frame and neighboring gated slices to estimate depth in regions with shadows and reflections. We experimentally validate that the proposed approach outperforms existing super-vised and self-supervised depth estimation methods based on monocular RGB and stereo images, as well as super-vised methods based on gated images. Code is available at https://github.com/princeton-computational-imaging/Gated2Gated.


Extracting knowledge and useful information from huge amount of data is one of the biggest issues currently in the world of computer science. Data mining is one essential step in the knowledge discovery process due to the importance of its contribution in extracting this knowledge. One of the most famous mining techniques is Clustering, which is a widely used approach in data mining. Clustering is the process of partitioning a group of objects into smaller sets called clusters, in which similar objects are assigned to the same cluster, and dissimilar objects are assigned to different clusters. K-Means, DBSCAN, and OPTICS are three of the most popular clustering algorithms which are used to group similar data into clusters. Each of these algorithms requires input parameters. The difficulty of knowing these input parameters in advance is the flaw of these algorithms. Many previous approaches were introduced which provide a prediction of these parameters. However, different problems emerged while using these approaches, such as a long overall runtime to achieve predicted parameter values, since the clustering algorithm is applied multiple times with varying parameters to identify the best parameter configuration. This thesis introduces a new approach for predicting the input parameters. The proposed approach is called PROD (Position-Based Prediction Using Voronoi Diagrams). PROD overcomes the problems which emerged in previous approaches. The prediction of the input parameters is performed by this new approach through using space partitioning approaches and subsequently exploiting their properties. PROD is evaluated on various data sets. Regarding K-Means algorithm; PROD provides a prediction of number of clusters as well as a prediction of the initial centroids. The experimental results unveil, that PROD is (a) more accurate and (b) faster by a factor of 26.5 in contrast to previously best existing approaches. Additionally, the results of the evaluations show that it can be used either as a prediction approach for the amount of clusters or as a standalone clustering algorithm. Despite the effectiveness of the prediction made by PROD with regard to the K-Means parameters, the results of the experiments show that this novel approach needs further improvement to make the prediction of DBSCAN and OPTICS parameters work. More clearly, changing some aspects of PROD might lead to a better prediction with regard to these two algorithms.


On February 20, 2020, a patient in his 30s admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) in Codogno Hospital (Lodi, Lombardy, Italy) tested positive for a new coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). He had a history of atypical pneumonia that was not responding to treatment, but he was not considered at risk for COVID-19 infection.1 The positive result was immediately reported to the Lombardy health care system and governmental offices. During the next 24 hours, the number of reported positive cases increased to 36. This situation was considered a serious development for several reasons: the patient ("patient 1") was healthy and young; in less than 24 hours, 36 additional cases were identified, without links to patient 1 or previously identified positive cases already in the country; it was not possible to identify with certainty the source of transmission to patient 1 at the time; and, because patient 1 was in the ICU and there were already 36 cases by day 2, chances were that a cluster of unknown magnitude was present and additional spread was likely. On February 21, an emergency task force was formed by the Government of Lombardy and local health authorities to lead the response to the outbreak. This Viewpoint provides a summary of the response of the COVID-19 Lombardy ICU network and a forecast of estimated ICU demand over the coming weeks (projected to March 20, 2020).


Gamification, which is defined as the use of game design elements in non-game contexts, is put forward as a solution to low motivation and is suggested for the creation of a sustainable learning ecology in open and distance learning (ODL). The overall purpose of the present study was to examine the distribution of the Hexad gamification user types and the correlations of gamification experience, game mode, and gender with the user types' scores within the context of an ODL system. The researchers adapted quantitative cross-sectional survey design to seek answers in this study. The Hexad user types of distance learners were determined based on the online "Gamification User Types Hexad Scale." Findings revealed that the most common user types in the ODL environment were Philanthropists, Achievers, and Free Spirits, followed by Socializers and Players with a lower mean, while the least common user type was Disruptors. Women tended to score higher than men on the Disruptor user type. Achievers, Socializers, Philanthropists, and Players preferred multiplayer game modes, while the game mode had little influence on Free Spirits and Disruptors. Regarding the gamification experience, Players and Free Spirits seemed to have more experience of gamified applications. This study provides insights to learning designers in developing gamified ODL systems to engage the different Hexad user types.


The growing presence of the software in the products and services consumed daily by the society demands a level of completely dependent quality not only of technology, but of its development process and of the involved professionals. By focusing on the professionals responsible for quality assurance, as the Test Engineer, the skills and competences of these need to be developed on basis of a vision very critical and detailed of the problem. The Test Engineer needs to be an "explorer" of the solution, discovering hidden bugs and looking to elimination of defects of the applications. In this context, this article proposes an approach of teaching focuses on training of "test" discipline that make use of problembased learning to develop real skills required, supported by processes of planning and continuous assessment, in a computer aided software factory. To prove the applicability of this proposal, an empirical study was developed with positive results in teaching the discipline of "exploratory testing".


– The purpose of this paper is to explore the links between entrepreneurial behavior and success factors in a developing country context., – A case study approach was selected to analyze real‐life situations in order to gain an insight about entrepreneurial cognition and action related to success factors. Drawing from the behavioral theory of entrepreneurship, this paper presents a conceptual model which shows that entrepreneurial cognitions about success factors may lead toward entrepreneurial actions. The data were collected through face‐to‐face interviews. Three entrepreneurs were asked to outline responses to identified success factors such as start‐up planning, managing risk, learning, networking, managing human resource, and managing finances., – The results suggest that many behavioral patterns exhibited by the case study entrepreneurs were similar to entrepreneurs' behavior in more developed regions. The similarities include: preparation of business plan, ability cognition for start‐up planning, overconfidence and representativeness heuristics for managing risk, obtaining professional outsider assistance for learning, developing business relationships with suppliers for networking and favorable credit policies, and employing owner‐related and delaying‐payment methods of bootstrapping for managing finances., – For the first time in Pakistan this study explores entrepreneurial cognition and action in managing success factors. The findings of the research will potentially help practitioners and policy makers in nurturing entrepreneurial initiatives in a developing country context.


Nearest neighbor searches in high-dimensional space have many important applications in domains such as data mining, and multimedia databases. The problem is challenging due to the phenomenon called "curse of dimensionality". An alternative solution is to consider algorithms that returns a c-approximate nearest neighbor (c-ANN) with guaranteed probabilities. Locality Sensitive Hashing (LSH) is among the most widely adopted method, and it achieves high efficiency both in theory and practice. However, it is known to require an extremely high amount of space for indexing, hence limiting its scalability.

In this paper, we propose several surprisingly simple methods to answer c-ANN queries with theoretical guarantees requiring only a single tiny index. Our methods are highly flexible and support a variety of functionalities, such as finding the exact nearest neighbor with any given probability. In the experiment, our methods demonstrate superior performance against the state-of-the-art LSH-based methods, and scale up well to 1 billion high-dimensional points on a single commodity PC.


In the production of solid recovered fuel (SRF), certain waste components have excessive influence on the quality of product. The proportion of rubber, plastic (hard) and certain textiles was found to be critical as to the elemental quality of SRF. The mass flow of rubber, plastic (hard) and textiles (to certain extent, especially synthetic textile) components from input waste stream into the output streams of SRF production was found to play the decisive role in defining the elemental quality of SRF. This paper presents the mass flow of polluting and potentially toxic elements (PTEs) in SRF production. The SRF was produced from municipal solid waste (MSW) through mechanical treatment (MT). The results showed that of the total input chlorine content to process, 55% was found in the SRF and 30% in reject material. Of the total input arsenic content, 30% was found in the SRF and 45% in fine fraction. In case of cadmium, lead and mercury, of their total input content to the process, 62%, 38% and 30%, respectively, was found in the SRF. Among the components of MSW, rubber material was identified as potential source of chlorine, containing 8.0 wt.% of chlorine. Plastic (hard) and textile components contained 1.6 and 1.1. wt.% of chlorine, respectively. Plastic (hard) contained higher lead and cadmium content compared with other waste components, i.e. 500 mg kg−1 and 9.0 mg kg−1, respectively.