Spatiotemporal dynamics of songbird breeding in arctic-boreal North America Ruth Y. Oliver The high northern latitudes of North America are undergoing rapid climatic change with acute impacts to the ecosystems in which millions of songbirds breed each year. The goal of this dissertation is to improve understanding of how concurrent and interacting changes in environmental and land surface conditions influence annual movements and habitat selections of long distance migratory birds who must navigate the mosaic of changing North American ecosystems. Chapter 1 presents novel automated bioacoustic methods for estimating arrival dates of the songbird community to their arctic breeding grounds. Automated acoustic networks could vastly expand the spatiotemporal coverage of wildlife observations. However, the enormous datasets that autonomous recorders typically generate demand automated analyses that remain largely undeveloped. Chapter 1 demonstrates novel machine learning and signal processing techniques for estimating songbird community arrival dates near Toolik Field Station which agreed well with traditional survey estimates and were strongly related to the landscape's snow free dates. Daily variations in vocal activity were more strongly influenced by environmental conditions prior to egg-laying dates. The success of the approaches presented in Chapter 1 indicate that variation in songbird migratory arrival can be detected autonomously. Widespread deployment of this advance could provide avian monitoring on a scale large enough to enable global-scale understanding of how climate change influences migratory timing of avian species. Chapter 2 examines potential future changes in habitat suitability for for two songbirds breeding throughout North America's high northern latitudes – a tundra-nesting species (Lapland Longspurs (Calcarius lapponicus)) and a shrub-nesting species (White-crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophyrs)). By the late 21 century, models based on both climate and vegetation projected habitat suitability for Lapland Longspurs decreased across nearly all of the study domain (54-96%), while that for White-crowned Sparrows decreased in 69% of North America's high northern latitudes. For both species, currently unsuitable habitats in northern Canada and Alaska are projected to provide suitable breeding habitat in the future. In contrast, models based solely on climate showed more drastic declines in habitat suitability for both species (Lapland Longspur, ~100% and White-crowned Sparrow ~80%). This discrepancy between model projections demonstrates that the future availability of suitable songbird breeding habitat for both species will be strongly dependent on how both the vegetation and climate– as opposed to climate alone of northern ecosystems respond to ongoing climate change. Chapter 3 investigates the environmental and ecological drivers of migratory movements of songbirds breeding at high northern latitudes. For North America alone, there is overwhelming evidence of major shifts in seasonality of meteorological conditions, snow cover, and vegetation phenology. Few studies have focused on how this suite of changes impacts long distance migratory species that annually navigate throughout the spatially and temporally dynamic mosaic of ecosystems because of technological constraints in animal tracking. However, recent advances in GPS technology have generated units small enough to be placed on songbird species. In 2016-2018 a total of 55 American robins (Turdus migratorius) were tracked during their spring migration through the Canadian boreal forest en route to their breeding grounds. We found a significant trend towards earlier arrival of robins to the Canadian boreal forest over the past quarter-century, consistent with advances in spring environmental conditions. Robin stopover timing at our tagging site was delayed in response to later seasonal snowmelt, but triggered by adverse environmental conditions. Individuals breeding in regions with shorter snow-free seasons moved faster than individuals breeding in areas with longer snow-free seasons and selected locations with less favorable environmental conditions. Overall, arrival timing to breeding grounds was negatively related to snow depth and positively related to snowmelt timing. Migratory movements and timing of American robins are highly tied to seasonal environmental dynamics en route to their breeding grounds. Our findings present a unique, mechanistic understanding of how migratory birds navigate highly dynamic ecosystems. In light of rapid global change, the use of multi-disciplinary, spatially explicit approaches similar to the ones used in this dissertation will be critical for understanding how avian taxa breeding at high northern latitudes may respond to ongoing and future change. This is important for investigating both regional and global impacts because species breeding in arctic-boreal zones perform key ecosystem services around the globe.


Facial images are of critical importance in many real-world applications from gaming to surveillance. The current literature on facial image analysis, from face detection to face and facial expression recognition, are mainly performed in either RGB, Depth (D), or both of these modalities. But, such analyzes have rarely included Thermal (T) modality. This paper paves the way for performing such facial analyzes using synchronized RGB-D-T facial images by introducing a database of 51 persons including facial images of different rotations, illuminations, and expressions. Furthermore, a face recognition algorithm has been developed to use these images. The experimental results show that face recognition using such three modalities provides better results compared to face recognition in any of such modalities in most of the cases.


Cardiovascular disease manifests as an intricately complex entity presenting as a derangement of the cardiovascular system. Cardiac or heart failure connotes the pathophysiological state in which deficient cardiac output compromises the body burden and requirements. Protein kinases regulate several pathophysiological processes and are emerging targets for drug lead or discovery. The protein kinases are family members of the serine/threonine phosphatases. Protein kinases and phosphatases are pivotal in the regulatory mechanisms in the reversible phosphorylation of diverse effectors whereby discrete signaling molecules regulate cardiac excitation and contraction. Protein phosphorylation is critical for the sustenance of cardiac functionalities. The two major contributory ingredients to progressive myocardium derangement are dysregulation of Ca2+processes and contemporaneous elevated concentrations of reactive oxygen species, ROS. Certain cardiac abnormalities include cardiac myopathy or hypertrophy due to response in untoward haemodynamic demand with concomitant progressive heart failure. The homeostasis or equilibrium between protein kinases and phosphatases influence cardiac morphology and excitability during pathological and physiological processes of the cardiovascular system.


The physiological relevance of a novel thiol methyltransferase from cabbage, and its possible role in sulphur metabolism have been investigated. The enzyme was absent from the chloroplast, the site of sulphate reduction, and was localized in the cytosol. Potential substrates were initially screened on the basis of their ability to inhibit the methylation of iodide, a previously known substrate for the enzyme. Thiocyanate, 4,4′-thiobisbenzenethiol, thiophenol, and thiosalicylic acid were identified as possible substrates. Methylation of these thiols by the purified enzyme using [Methyl-3H]S-adenosyl- L-methionine confirmed their nature as substrates. The purified enzyme strongly preferred thiocyanate as a methyl acceptor. The enzyme had Km values of 11, 51, 250 and 746 mmol m−3 for thiocyanate, 4,4′-thiobisbenzenethiol, thiophenol and thiosalicylic acid, respectively. The identity of methylthiocyanate as the product of thiocyanate methylation by the purified enzyme was confirmed by mass spectrometry. The enzyme was strictly associated with glucosinolate-containing plants. Thiol substrates of the enzyme are known products of glucosinolate hydrolysis. Our observations indicate that this enzyme could be involved in the detoxification of reactive thiols produced upon glucosinolate degradation in these plants.


Competition between charge recombination and the forward reactions required for water splitting limits the efficiency of metal-oxide photocatalysts. A key requirement for the photochemical oxidation of water on both nanostructured α-Fe(2)O(3) and TiO(2) is the generation of photoholes with lifetimes on the order of milliseconds to seconds. Here we use transient absorption spectroscopy to directly probe the long-lived holes on both nc-TiO(2) and α-Fe(2)O(3) in complete PEC cells, and we investigate the factors controlling this slow hole decay, which can be described as the rate-limiting step in water oxidation. In both cases this rate-limiting step is tentatively assigned to the hole transfer from the metal oxide to a surface-bound water species. We demonstrate that one reason for the slow hole transfer on α-Fe(2)O(3) is the presence of a significant thermal barrier, the magnitude of which is found to be independent of the applied bias at the potentials examined. This is in contrast to nanocrystalline nc-TiO(2), where no distinct thermal barrier to hole transfer is observed.


This book is developed in consultation with Alison Kelly, who is a senior lecturer in education and an early reading specialist from Roehampton University. When a young man finds a golden goose in the forest he has to keep it away from the greedy townsfolk. It is a great value quality hardback with ribbon marker guaranteed to foster pride in book ownership.


The transmission dynamics of many arboviruses in the Amazon Basin region have not been fully elucidated, including the vectors and natural reservoir hosts. Identification of blood meal sources in field-caught mosquitoes could yield information for identifying potential arbovirus vertebrate hosts. We identified blood meal sources in 131 mosquitoes collected from areas endemic for arboviruses in the Peruvian Department of Loreto by sequencing polymerase chain reaction amplicons of the cytochrome b gene. Psorophora (Janthinosoma) albigenu, Psorophora (Grabhamia) cingulata, Mansonia humeralis, Anopheles oswaldoi s.l., and Anopheles benarrochi s.l. had mainly anthropophilic feeding preferences; Aedes (Ochlerotatus) serratus, and Aedes (Ochlerotatus) fulvus had feeding preferences for peridomestic animals; and Culex (Melanoconion) spp. fed on a variety of vertebrates, mainly rodents (spiny rats), birds, and amphibians. On the basis of these feeding preferences, many mosquitoes could be considered as potential enzootic and bridge arbovirus vectors in the Amazon Basin of Peru.


Sustainable development (SD) is one of the main challenges faced by the construction industry, which has acquired global attention. Sustainable performance (SP) of a construction project during its life cycle (LC) is considered crucial to achieve the SD. The aim of this paper is to investigate the factors affecting sustainable performance of construction projects throughout project life cycle phases in the Gaza Strip. A total of 53 sustainable factors (economic, social, and environmental sustainable factors) were identified through extensive literature review and confirmed by experts' interviews and a pilot study. These factors are classified in relation to the project life cycle phases; inception phase, design phase, construction phase, operation phase, and demolition phase. A structured questionnaire survey is employed in this study for primary data collection. A total of 119 questionnaires were distributed randomly to engineers working in construction projects in the Gaza Strip to solicit their views regarding the factors affecting sustainable performance of construction projects throughout project life cycle phases. The results revealed that five factors among the top ten factors that impacting the sustainable performance of construction projects are classified under the construction phase, which confirmed that the construction process has the most effect on the projects SP. Three factors are classified under the inception phase, which assured that the inception of a potential project has a considerable effect projects. In addition, one factor was classified under operation phase and one factor was classified under demolition phase. The most common factors affecting the SP of construction project through the overall sustainability elements: reusable/recyclable element, provision of services, energy consumption, water cost, and water pollution assessment. Further studies are recommended to explore how to integrated sustainability concepts into the whole construction process in order to achieve sustainable construction project.


Replication stress (RS) is a major driver of genomic instability and tumorigenesis. Here, we investigated whether RS induced by the nucleotide analog fludarabine and specific kinase inhibitors [e.g. targeting checkpoint kinase 1 (Chk1) or ataxia telangiectasia and Rad3‐related (ATR)] led to apoptosis or senescence in four cancer cell lines differing in TP53 mutation status and expression of lamin A/C (LA/C). RS resulted in uneven chromatin condensation in all cell types, as evidenced by the presence of metaphasic chromosomes with unrepaired DNA damage, as well as detection of less condensed chromatin in the same nucleus, frequent ultrafine anaphase bridges, and micronuclei. We observed that responses to these chromatin changes may be distinct in individual cell types, suggesting that expression of lamin A/C and lamin B1 (LB1) may play an important role in the transition of damaged cells to senescence. MCF7 mammary carcinoma cells harboring wild‐type p53 (WT‐p53) and LA/C responded to RS by transition to senescence with a significant reduction of lamin B receptor and LB1 proteins. In contrast, a lymphoid cancer cell line WSU‐NHL (WT‐p53) lacking LA/C and expressing low levels of LB1 died after several hours, while lines MEC‐1 and SU‐DHL‐4, both with mutated p53, and SU‐DHL‐4 with mutations in LA/C, died at different rates by apoptosis. Our results show that, in addition to being influenced by p53 mutation status, the response to RS (apoptosis or senescence) may also be influenced by lamin A/C and LB1 status.


PURPOSE
Increasing diagnosis of small renal masses (SRMs) necessitates trainees to be familiar with available therapies. We hypothesized that involvement in conservative treatments (ablation and/or active surveillance) occurs infrequently. Therefore, we evaluated resident exposure and participation in treatments as well as proposed management for SRMs.

METHODS
A survey was distributed to residents of the American Urologic Association and queried exposure to ablation and surveillance for SRMs. Three case scenarios (SRM in a healthy 55-year-old, healthy 75-year-old, and comorbid 75-year-old patient) were presented for management.

RESULTS
Two hundred fifty-seven residents responded to the survey. Two hundred thirty-four (91%) reported ablation was offered at their institution, although only 140 (54%) ever participated in this procedure. Of these, 80 (57%) were involved in fewer than five procedures. Experience with ablation did not increase at higher levels of training (U3-61%, U4-66%, and U5-63%). Two hundred twenty-four (87%) residents noted exposure to surveillance for managing SRMs, increasing from 70% in U1 to 94% in U5. When considering case scenarios, management strategy shifted significantly from extirpation to ablation or surveillance as patient age and comorbidity profile increased. In particular, almost 50% of respondents advocated ablation for SRMs in a comorbid 75-year-old patient.

CONCLUSIONS
Although most residents are adequately exposed to surveillance strategies for SRMs, only 54% participated in an ablative procedure. Nonetheless, almost 50% of residents recommended ablation to manage SRMs in the aging, comorbid patient. This suggests a disconnect between training and future practice pattern.


Abstract: The mesodiencephalic junction is the site of the prenuclear control of vertical eye motion. We measured vertical saccades, smooth pursuit (SP), the vertical vestibulo‐ocular reflex (VOR), and its interactions with vision during active head motion in 21 patients with midbrain lesions causing palsy of vertical saccades, upward, downward, or in both directions. Most patients with limited slow or slowed saccades in one direction on clinical examination had slowed saccades in the opposed direction. SP gain was decreased in both directions in most patients, and decreased upward or downward in few. VOR gain was subnormal in both directions in many patients, and upward only in one; phase lead of the VOR was recorded in 33% of them. Subnormal SP and VOR gains were often dissociated. Visually enhanced VOR gains were subnormal in both directions in many patients. Cancellation of the VOR was impaired in many patients, both upward and downward in most and upward in few patients. Gaze (eye plus head) tracking gain was subnormal in 29% of patients. Defective SP and defective cancellation of the VOR during head free tracking were often dissociated. We conclude that VOR and SP gains are usually subnormal in patients with paresis of vertical saccades. Impairment of pursuit and the VOR are often dissociated. Phase lead of the VOR implicates damage to velocity‐to‐position neural integrator for vertical eye motion. These associations and dissociations of impaired vertical eye motion signify discrete structural and functional effects of supranuclear midbrain damage that are undetected by examination of saccades.


Commercial provisioning of file synchronization services (FSS) relies entirely on protocols that utilize a remote central server that is often located in the cloud to host important files. Updates at user computers are propagated to the central server and from the central server to other sources in need of such updates. Therefore, a synchronization operation between two computers located on the same network often results in file data transmission to and from this local network at least twice. This introduces an unnecessary bandwidth usage on a user's local network and has become an issue, especially since there is an increase in the demands for internet resources. This thesis work presents a new file synchronization protocol towards FSS known as LAPSync (location-aware protocol for remote file synchronization). This paper also proposes a hierarchical synchronization mechanism by utilizing LAPSync. Our proposed solution relies on the ability of LAPSync clients to acquire knowledge about the location of clients participating in the synchronization operation to construct a hierarchical synchronization path. Finally, we implement our protocol into a prototype and conduct experiments to compare with drop-box (a popular file synchronization service). The results obtained show that LAPSync offers a reduction in bandwidth usage when the files to be synchronized exist on the same local network


While substantive EU non-discrimination law has been harmonized in great detail, the enforcement regime for EU non-discrimination law consists merely of a few isolated elements. Thus, the pursuit of unity through harmonization in substantive EU law is accompanied by considerable regulatory autonomy for Member States in securing the efficiency of those laws, reflecting the diversity of national enforcement regimes, and resulting in twenty-seven different national models for enforcing discrimination law in labour markets. This article pursues two connected arguments through a comparison of rules for enforcing non-discrimination law in labour markets in Britain and Italy. First, it argues that enforcing non-discrimination law in labour markets is best achieved when responsive governance, repressive regulation and mainstreaming equality law are combined. Second, the article submits that diversity of national legal orders within the EU is not necessarily detrimental, as it offers opportunities for mutual learning across legal systems. The notion of mutual learning across systems is proposed in order to analyse the transnational migration of legal ideas within the EU. Such migration has been criticized in debates about the 'transplantation' of legal concepts or legal irritation through foreign legal ideas, in particular by comparative labour lawyers. However, EU harmonization policies in the field of non-discrimination law aim to impact on national labour laws. The article develops the notion of mutual learning across legal systems in order to establish conditions for transnational migration of legal ideas, and demonstrates the viability of these concepts by applying them to the field of non-discrimination law.


Since 1963 astronomical observations are conducted at Borowa Gora Geodetic-Geophysical Observatory of the Institute of Geodesy and Cartography with the use of transit instrument. Instrumental, technological and methodical improvements in acquiring and pre-processing of rotational time observations make the time series inconsistent over the whole period of operation of the instrument. The rotational time determined was initially referred to the FK5 catalogue system; starting from the data of 1986 it is also referred to the Hipparcos catalogue system. Data series from last almost 25 years is particularly valuable for the analysis. Complex spectral analysis of a long-standing rotational time data series from 1986.0-2010.6 was performed. A number of periodic terms were separated from the series investigated and the numerical model of the series has been formed. The effects of beat observed in the numerical model were discussed. The existence of a distinguished weekly term in the data investigated has been observed. The results obtained were compared with the spectra of EOP from the analysis of IERS data.


Network slicing is one of the key components allowing to support the envisioned 5G services, which are organized in three different classes: Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB), massive Machine Type Communication (mMTC), and Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communication (URLLC). Network Slicing relies on the concept of Network Softwarization (Software Defined Networking - SDN and Network Functions Virtualization - NFV) to share a common infrastructure and build virtual instances (slices) of the network tailored to the needs of different 5G services. Although it is straightforward to slice and isolate computing and network resources for Core Network (CN) elements, isolating and slicing Radio Access Network (RAN) resources is still challenging. In this paper, we leverage a two-level MAC scheduling architecture and provide a resource sharing algorithm to compute and dynamically adjust the necessary radio resources to be used by each deployed network slice, covering eMBB and URLLC slices. Simulation results clearly indicate the ability of our solution to slice the RAN resources and satisfy the heterogeneous requirements of both types of network slices.


BACKGROUND
Non-attendance at health appointments reduces health service efficiency, is costly to services, and can risk patient health. Reminder systems are widely used to overcome forgetfulness, the most common reason for non-attendance; however, other factors, such as patient demographics and service accessibility, may also affect attendance rates.

AIMS
There is limited primary research on the reasons for patient non-attendance in the Australian healthcare setting, although the success of preventative health initiatives requires ongoing monitoring of patients. This study aims to improve our understanding of the Australian experience by examining staff perspectives.

METHOD
This qualitative study explored staff perspectives of the reasons for non-attendance in a large, regional general practice super clinic, which has a low socioeconomic catchment, and serves a large Aboriginal population.

RESULTS
The practical barriers to attendance of travel, cost, and waiting times had largely been overcome with transport provision, free medical care and responsive appointment times, but paradoxically, these were seen to devalue allocated appointments and reinforce the expectations of "on-demand" health care. For Aboriginal patients specifically, a distrust of authority, combined with poor health literacy was perceived to impact negatively on the uptake of diagnostic tests, filling of prescriptions, health monitoring, and adherence to medication.

CONCLUSION
The results suggest a complex interplay between poor health literacy and low patient self-worth; a funding system that encourages "five-minute medicine and prevents doctors getting to the root cause of patient problems or having the ability to provide health education.


This paper presents a new method of motion command generation for computer controlled multi-axis machines. The method is based on a quintic spline interpolator (QSI) which generates motion commands to trace a set of desired discrete position data via a composite quintic spline (CQS). This CQS is nearly arc length parametrized and has second order continuous at the data points. Consequently, the generated motion trajectories are continuous in both velocity and acceleration throughout the motion. A quick motion command generation scheme is also developed. Compared to the existing linear interpolator (LI), the proposed method takes comparable execution time, but is superior in many other aspects, including position accuracy, speed smoothness, acceleration continuity, torque requirement, and jerk reduction. Compared to the existing cubic spline interpolator (CSI), the proposed method is able to maintain a similarly smooth composite profile, but better speed accuracy. On-line implementation of this interpolator is believed very promising.


ABSTRACT Lipid droplets (LDs) contribute to key pathways important for the physiology and pathophysiology of cells. In a homeostatic view, LDs regulate the storage of neutral lipids, protein sequestration, removal of toxic lipids and cellular communication; however, recent advancements in the field show these organelles as essential for various cellular stress response mechanisms, including inflammation and immunity, with LDs acting as hubs that integrate metabolic and inflammatory processes. The accumulation of LDs has become a hallmark of infection, and is often thought to be virally driven; however, recent evidence is pointing to a role for the upregulation of LDs in the production of a successful immune response to viral infection. The fatty acids housed in LDs are also gaining interest due to the role that these lipid species play during viral infection, and their link to the synthesis of bioactive lipid mediators that have been found to have a very complex role in viral infection. This review explores the role of LDs and their subsequent lipid mediators during viral infections and poses a paradigm shift in thinking in the field, whereby LDs may play pivotal roles in protecting the host against viral infection.


Transit assignment has become an important component of transportation modelling as planners seek to evaluate the passenger demand and fare revenues for improvements to existing and new transit schemes. Transit assignment attempts to solve a complicated problem, with complexities arising from both the transit network definition as well as the human decision-making process. Acknowledged shortcomings in commonly used assignment approaches have been highlighted in the literature. The application of universal traveller decision rules in transit assignment are not necessarily compatible with traveller preference and choice behaviour, especially with the advent of smartphonebased, real-time transit operations information. This paper investigates the potential for transit line patronage distortion in South African metropolitan areas when using standard frequency-based transit assignment based on optimal strategies. These distortions arise from the dense transit networks in metropolitan areas, the high number of competing lines, as well as the behavioural assumptions made in the process. The potential distortions in assigned transit line patronage volumes make link-based passenger volume validation difficult to achieve. Moreover, the use of these models to forecast the demand for new transit schemes could result in misleading estimates of demand and fare revenue. This paper suggests that more advanced transit assignment techniques are required to more accurately reflect traveller choice and demand in dense transit networks. It is proposed that a logit-based trip allocation approach in transit assignment is necessary to achieve satisfactory assignment validation.


: Rats were randomized into splenectomised and sham-splenectomised groups (n = 15 in each). W256 carcinosarcoma cells were implanted in the subcutis of each animal 10 days after splenic operation. T cell subsets of peripheral blood were evaluated serially before and after the operation. The growth rate of implanted tumor and diameter of local tumor in the splenectomised were larger than those of the sham-splenectomised. Simultaneously T cell subsets of peripheral blood presented severe reduction of pan-T and T h/i cells and slight increase of T s/c cells in the splenectomised, all of which still remained at the lower level after tumor inoculation, as compared with the non-tumor and tumor growth in sham-splenectomised (P less than 0.01). From these data, it is evident that splenectomy results in the reduction of T h/i cells and a relative increase of T s/c cells, which shows a close correlation with the rapid growth of the tumor following splenectomy.


The primary objective was to compare reported antimicrobial usage between conventional and organic dairy farms. A secondary objective was to contrast selected management characteristics of conventional and organic dairy herds. A questionnaire was administered on site to selected dairy farmers located in Michigan, Minnesota, New York, and Wisconsin. Organic herds (n = 32) were smaller and produced less milk than conventional herds (n = 99). Lactating cows in organic dairies were more likely to be housed in tie stalls, whereas most conventional dairies housed cows in free stalls and milked in a parlor. Total mixed rations and purchased feeds were used on more conventional dairy farms compared with organic dairy farms. Conventional dairy producers were more likely to use advice from veterinarians for recommendations of treatment, and organic dairy producers were more likely to rely on advice from other farmers. Based on recall of antibiotic usage in the previous 60 d, 5.1, 84.9, 9.1, and 0.9% of farmers with conventional herds reported treatment of none, 1 to 10%, 11 to 25%, and >25% of milk cows, respectively. Most organic farmers (90.6%) reported no antibiotic treatments of milk cows, whereas 9.4% reported treating 1 to 10% of milk cows. Ceftiofur was the most commonly reported antibiotic for both farm types. Milk replacer containing antibiotics was reportedly used on 49.5% of conventional herds but only on one organic herd (3.1%). Antibiotics were used in heifer calves on 74.7% of conventional herds versus 21.9% of organic herds. Antibiotics to treat mastitis were used on 79.8% of conventional herds but on none of the organic herds. Most organic farms were in compliance with standards in advance of implementation of regulations.


Rotor steel 26NiCrMoV145 has been widely employed in aerospace and power industry because of its unique properties. As to this new material that used widely in important places, it is worth studying its machinability. An experiment was carried out to study the cutting forces and tool wear mechanism during high speed dry turning using multilayer Al2O3 coated carbide insert. The orthogonal test was chosen, cutting forces were measured. SEM analysis has been carried out on worn tools to determine the tool wear mechanisms. Crater wear and coating peeling could be found in every cutting speed. Flank face wear appears smooth when cutting speed increases. At last, an optimization of the cutting condition was suggested when considering of material remove rate, cutting forces and tool wear.


The ACTS Collection is a set of software tools that help developers or programmers write high performance parallel codes for their scientific applications. PyACTS is a Python-based interface to some of the tools in the ACTS Collection. The main purpose of developing PyACTS is to provide a uniform easy-to-use external interface to existing ACTS tools, and support ACTS users to rapidly prototype their codes with the tools. In particular, for users who are new to ACTS, they will find PyACTS helpful to test and try the functionality available in the collection. Further, this training will allow users to acquire the necessary experience to develop their own applications. In the current development phase of PyACTS, part of the ScaLAPACK subroutines are being made available. This report illustrates how we develop the idea of wrapping the ACTS Collection with a high level scripting language, like Python, and a status of the development of the Python front-end interface and future plans.


The coding sequence for the entire 200K polyprotein of cowpea mosaic virus (CPMV) B-RNA was expressed in insect cells by using baculovirus expression vectors. The 200K polyprotein, which harbours all virus functions required for RNA replication, is completely cleaved into 170K and 32K products by the 24K protease activity contained within the polyprotein. Further processing of the 170K protein into CPMVspecific products of 60K, 84K, 87K, 110K and 112K occurred to a limited extent, similar to that observed in cowpea cells. Electron microscopy of insect cells in which the 200K protein was produced revealed the presence of membranous vesicles and electron-dense structures which were not seen in cells infected with wild-type baculovirus. Similar cytopathic structures develop in the cytoplasm of CPMV-infected cowpea cells and are thought to be the site of membrane-bound viral RNA replication. The electron-dense structures in insect cells could be preferentially labelled with several CPMV-specific antisera and Protein A-gold. Since electron-dense structures were not observed in cells in which the 170K protein only was produced, it seems that the 32K protein has a role in keeping the B-RNAencoded proteins in these structures together. Membranous vesicles were also observed in insect cells in which the 60K protein only was produced. Use of specific antibodies and Protein A-gold showed that the 60K protein is associated with these vesicles, indicating that the 60K protein may induce the formation of vesicles. Although proteolytic processing of the 200K polyprotein and the induction of cytopathic structures indicate that the CPMV proteins produced in insect cells are functional, it has not been possible to demonstrate RNA polymerase activity in extracts of these cells using an oligo(U)-primed assay. The results indicate that in the assay an additional component is lacking and/or that the CPMV polymerase is not able to start RNA synthesis on an exogenous template.


Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a highly frequent sleep disorder in the middle-aged and older population, and it has been associated with an increased risk of developing cognitive decline and dementia, including mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's disease (AD). In more recent years, a growing number of studies have focused on: 1) the presence of OSA in patients with MCI or AD, 2) the link between OSA and markers of AD pathology, and 3) the role of OSA in accelerating cognitive deterioration in patients with MCI or AD. Moreover, some studies have also assessed the effects of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment on the cognitive trajectory in MCI and AD patients with comorbid OSA. This narrative review summarizes the findings of studies that analyzed OSA as a risk factor for developing MCI and/or AD in the middle-aged and older populations with a special focus on cognition. In addition, it describes the results regarding the effects of CPAP treatment in hampering the progressive cognitive decline in AD and delaying the conversion to AD in MCI patients. Considering the importance of identifying and treating OSA in patients with MCI or AD in order to prevent or reduce the progression of cognitive decline, further larger and adequately powered studies are needed both to support these findings and to set programs for the early recognition of OSA in patients with cognitive impairment.


A histologic, immunofluorescence, and electron microscopic study of the intracellular parasitism of Coxiella burnetii (the Q fever agent) in mouse lungs after intranasal challenge was undertaken. It was shown that this microorganism invades type I and, rarely, type II pneumocytes as well as pulmonary fibroblasts and histiocytes. The infectious process can be described as a focal intra-alveolar inflammation with the macrophages prevailing in the exudate. It is self-limited, with a complete resolution. The inflammation is associated with atelectases and with increased secretory activity by type II pneumocytes. Alveolar macrophages and granulocytes degrade C. burnetii. This degradation is followed by damage to and eventual disintegration of some macrophages and by damage to some bacterium-free pneumocytes and vascular endothelial cells in the vicinity of macrophages degrading organisms. The cell damage might be caused by lipopolysaccharide released from degraded organisms. The infectious process is also associated with the influx of T cells in the pneumonic foci, T-cell attachment to the macrophages degrading organisms, and fusion of some macrophages. These are considered a morphologic expression of cell-mediated immunity involved in the infectious process.


To investigate the method for quantitatively determining chlorogenic acid in Verbena officinalis L. extract; and to determine its content and in-vitro antibacterial activity. Cylinder-plate method and MIC assay were employed to compare the antibacterial activity between different concentrations of Verbena officinalis L. extracts; and to evaluate the antioxidant activity of various extracts in the DPPH radical system, hydroxyl radical system and anti-lipid peroxidation system. Verbena officinalis L. extracts exhibited inhibitory zone diameters all reaching above 15 mm against Escherichia coli, Proteus vulgaris and Bacillus subtilis at a mass concentration of 100 mg/ml, with MICs all ≤ 100 mg/ml. In various radical systems, different concentrations of Verbena officinalis L. extracts all exhibited weak scavenging effect on superoxide anion radicals, but manifested strong effect in scavenging DPPH and hydroxyl radicals and in inhibiting lipid peroxidation. With mass concentration IC50 of sample solution corresponding to a 50% scavenging rate as a comparative index, IC50 of high dose extract for these three free radicals were calculated to be 0.20, 0.15 and 2.69 mg/ml, respectively. Chlorogenic acid content in Verbena officinalis L. extract was 30.23%. The present method is accurate, sensitive and highly specific, which can be used for determination of chlorogenic acid content in Verbena officinalis L. and its extract. Verbena officinalis L. extract has strong antibacterial activity against Gram-negative bacteria, and further study is needed to clarify its antibacterial mechanism. Verbena officinalis L. extract is suitable for in-depth exploitation as a botanical antioxidant.


This paper explores a new research problem of unsupervised transfer learning across multiple spatiotemporal prediction tasks. Unlike most existing transfer learning methods that focus on fixing the discrepancy between supervised tasks, we study how to transfer knowledge from a zoo of unsupervisedly learned models towards another predictive network. Our motivation is that models from different sources are expected to understand the complex spatiotemporal dynamics from different perspectives, thereby effectively supplementing the new task, even if the task has sufficient training samples. Technically, we propose a differentiable framework named transferable memory. It adaptively distills knowledge from a bank of memory states of multiple pretrained RNNs, and applies it to the target network via a novel recurrent structure called the Transferable Memory Unit (TMU). Compared with finetuning, our approach yields significant improvements on three benchmarks for spatiotemporal prediction, and benefits the target task even from less relevant pretext ones.


The aim of this work is to reconstitute the state of a discrete-time nonlinear system representing a dynamical model of a harvested fish population. For this end, we are going to use a numerical method of building an interval observer for the consider discrete-time model fish population. We adapt to this model an algorithm called "Interval Moving Horizon State Estimation" (IMHSE) which gives an estimated interval of the system states. This algorithm is carried out in [8] and work well for a general class of discrete-time systems.


In this paper, the problem of associating reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RISs) to virtual reality (VR) users is studied for a wireless VR network. In particular, this problem is considered within a cellular network that employs terahertz (THz) operated RISs acting as base stations. To provide a seamless VR experience, high data rates and reliable low latency need to be continuously guaranteed. To address these challenges, a novel risk-based framework based on the entropic value-at-risk is proposed for rate optimization and reliability performance. Furthermore, a Lyapunov optimization technique is used to reformulate the problem as a linear weighted function, while ensuring that higher order statistics of the queue length are maintained under a threshold. To address this problem, given the stochastic nature of the channel, a policy-based reinforcement learning (RL) algorithm is proposed. Since the state space is extremely large, the policy is learned through a deep-RL algorithm. In particular, a recurrent neural network (RNN) RL framework is proposed to capture the dynamic channel behavior and improve the speed of conventional RL policy-search algorithms. Simulation results demonstrate that the maximal queue length resulting from the proposed approach is only within 1% of the optimal solution. The results show a high accuracy and fast convergence for the RNN with a validation accuracy of 91.92%.


Attention can be oriented reflexively to a location in space by an abrupt change in the visual scene. In the present study, we investigated the consequences of reflexive attention on the neural processing of visual stimuli. The findings show that reflexively oriented attention produces modulations in early sensory analysis at the same extrastriate neural locus as the earliest effects of voluntarily focused attention. In addition, stimulus processing was found to be enhanced at later stages of analysis, which reflect stimulus relevance. As is the case with behavioral measures of reflexive attention, these physiological enhancement effects are rapidly engaged but short-lived. As time passes between the initial attention-capturing event and subsequent stimuli, the extrastriate effect reverses, and the enhancement of higher order processing subsides. These findings indicate that reflexive attention is able to affect perceptions of the visual world by modulating neural processing as early as extrastriate visual cortex.


Tides propagate through the oceans as shallow water waves and are therefore sensitive
to changes in water depth and areal extent of the ocean. In this thesis the impacts
of climatologically driven sea-level changes and the resulting changes in ocean extent
on the global tidal dynamics are investigated. The large global sea-level adjustments
between the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM, 18,000-21,000 years BP) and the present
are considered; the present day tidal changes are analysed and the impact of future
collapses of the West Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheets on the tides are investigated
using a global tidal model. The 130 m glacio-eustatic sea-level drop during the LGM
had a profound impact on the principal semi-diurnal tide, doubling global dissipation
rates and resulting in 'megatides' in the North Atlantic region. It is shown that the
magnitude of the Atlantic tides is sensitive to the grounding line location of the Antarctic
Ice Sheet. Next, the impacts of the altered dissipation for LGM ocean mixing and
the meridional overturning circulation (MOC) in the glacial ocean are explored using
an intermediate complexity climate model. The importance of tidal mixing for the
global ocean circulation is highlighted. Strong LGM tidal mixing could have provided
a mechanism for sustaining a vigorous LGM MOC. During the deglacial period glacioeustatic
sea-level rose rapidly and large adjustments of the global tides occurred into
the early Holocene. In the late Holocene sea-level adjustments were small and tidal
dynamics remained fairly constant over this period. Tide-gauge records covering the
past decades show global changes in tidal amplitudes occurring in parallel with largescale
sea-level changes which have been attributed to global warming. Using simulations
forced with observed sea-level trends an attempt is made to reproduce the large-scale
change patterns. For M2 the patterns agree well, but for K1 the model is unable to
reproduce the trends, possibly due to the small magnitude of the K1 trends. A number
of recent studies have highlighted an accelerated ice loss from the ice streams draining
the West Antarctic and Greenland Ice Sheet together with widespread grounding line
retreats in West Antarctica. It has been suggested that both ice sheets could undergo
collapses under certain climate warming scenarios leading to increases in global mean
sea-level of 5 m and 7 m, respectively. It is shown that the collapse of a polar ice sheet
would lead to large changes in tidal dynamics and thus changes in sea-level variability.
These changes have further reaching consequences for shelf-sea dynamics, ecosystems,
and open ocean tidal mixing.


Control of the brushless doubly fed machine (BDFM) based on traditional multiple reference frames is complex. To simplify the control scheme, a new and simpler derivation of the dq model of the BDFM is proposed, leading to a unified-reference-frame model. This way, a simple dq model can be established, which could be an interesting tool for control-synthesis tasks. In order to determine the unified reference dq model, restrictions related to BDFM operation, as well as the exact rotor-cage configuration, have been considered. The proposed model has been validated by several experimental results. The work could facilitate future research on improved BDFM field-oriented control strategies.


Biofouling is one of the major means of introducing organisms in to new marine environments. Bryozoans form the major component of the biofouling community. There is dearth of information on their presence in our waters. Therefore, systematic description on existing biofouling species in Sri Lankan coastal region is very essential. This paper describes the composition of bryozoans of the class Gymnolaemata with a description of two new species recorded from coastal waters of Sri Lanka. The study was conducted in Colombo Port, one of the busiest ports in the country as well as in the region with an increased vulnerability for the introduction of geographically distinct species along with increased shipping operations. Monthly samples were collected from eight sampling stations using artificial settlement collectors which consisted of rope backbone supporting a number of horizontal PVC pipe arms that were attached to the settlement surfaces. The collectors were submerged systematically where first level was 1m below the water surface and others setting at 1m intervals. Species were identified microscopically observing fine morphological features. Scoring percentage covered by each bryozoan was determined using a quadrat (400 squares each with 5mm x 5mm area). During the study, seven species of the class Gymnolaemata were recorded namely; Electra bengalensis, Hippoprina indica, Celleporaria volsella, Parasmittina sp., Schiporella errata, Watersipora subtorquata and Sinoflustra annae. According to the One way ANOVA test there is a significant difference (p 0.05) between four sampling depths for species richness and total percentage cover. Two new bryozoans identified were Sinoflustra annae and Electra bengalensis. Percentage cover of S. annae and E. bengalensis ranged from 1-18% and 0.3-40% respectively. Among these, E. bengalensis was recorded in all sampling stations yet S. annae was recorded only in CICT, BQ, OP and UCT. Though, these species are native to India, there are no published literatures for the presence of Sri Lankan coastal waters. Therefore, present finding will be the first record for their presence in Sri Lanka. Keywords: Bryozoans, Species richness, Percentage cover, Colombo Port, Sinoflustra annae, Electra bengalensis


This study examines sentencing outcomes of Justice Reinvestment Initiative (JRI) focused on reducing incarceration by encouraging downward departures to community-based sanctions in presumptive prison cases. The sample includes 3,930 defendants enrolled in the JRI program. Pre-adjudication assessment reports and a judicial settlement conference were used to help the court decide if a case warranted a departure offer. A quasi-experimental design with propensity score matching balanced JRI program defendants to 1,153 historic defendants that would have been eligible in the previous year. Logistic regressions assessed the impact of both program participation and race/ethnicity, controlling for other factors on prison versus probation sentence outcomes and sentence length in prison outcomes. On average, across all racial groups, program participants are 52% less likely to go to prison. The impact of participation on sentencing outcomes was also equitable across the race/ethnicity of defendants. However, the program did not affect sentence length of prison outcomes.


We propose an action-conditional human motion generation method using variational implicit neural representations (INR). The variational formalism enables action-conditional distributions of INRs, from which one can easily sample representations to generate novel human motion sequences. Our method offers variable-length sequence generation by construction because a part of INR is optimized for a whole sequence of arbitrary length with temporal embeddings. In contrast, previous works reported difficulties with modeling variable-length sequences. We confirm that our method with a Transformer decoder outperforms all relevant methods on HumanAct12, NTU-RGBD, and UESTC datasets in terms of realism and diversity of generated motions. Surprisingly, even our method with an MLP decoder consistently outperforms the state-of-the-art Transformer-based auto-encoder. In particular, we show that variable-length motions generated by our method are better than fixed-length motions generated by the state-of-the-art method in terms of realism and diversity. Code at https://github.com/PACerv/ImplicitMotion.


regarded as problems in (finitely) many-valued propositional calculi. The machine has a word length of ten decimal digits, one of which is used as a sign, and it can therefore deal with mvalued propositional calculi for which m g 10. The particular problem discussed in this paper is a timetabling problem which is, as the authors note, similar to that discussed previously by the reviewer (XXVII 250 (4)). The present discussion includes consideration of the time taken by the digital machine to reach a conclusion. ALAN ROSE


A 75-year-old man, who had eaten wild boar and deer repeatedly until November 2006, visited our hospital because of a right pleural effusion on chest X-ray films after he bruised a hip in January 2007. A right thoracocentesis revealed exudative pleural effusion with many neutrophils. Ten days after his first visit, a pleural biopsy specimen suggested the existence of parasite eggs. Twenty-six days after his first visit, he was admitted to our hospital because of leukocytosis, increased systemic inflammatory markers and a right pleural effusion. We found a great number of neutrophils, eggs of the Paragonimus species and gram-positive cocci in the pleural effusion. Streptococcus pneumoniae was also identified in his pleural effusion. In addition, a diagnosis of Paragonimiasis westermani was made serological study. After the continuous drainage of the pleural effusion, the patient was treated with praziquantel and antibiotics, and he gradually improved.


The effects of surface roughness and poroelasticity on the micropolar squeeze film behavior between rectangular plates in general and that of synovial joints in particular are presented in this paper. The modified Reynolds equation, which incorporates the randomized surface roughness structure as well as elastic nature of articular cartilage with micropolar fluid as lubricant, is derived. The load-carrying capacity and time of approach as functions of film thickness during normal articulation of joints are obtained by using Christensen stochastic theory for rough surfaces with the assumption that the roughness asperity heights are to be small compared to the film thickness. It is observed that the effect of surface roughness has considerable effects on lubrication mechanism of synovial joints.


The development of brewing industry in Romania draws to the development of agricultural industries that provide the raw material used in the process of obtaining this drink. One of the raw materials of great importance in this industry is barley. Starting from these considerations, the paper proposes a study of the evolution of production values recorded in some barley varieties under the influence of foliar fertilization products. This study is par of the author's doctoral research and is in progress to public sustaining of the doctoral thesis. The research method that we used involved the placement of experiences in the field and the development of physical and chemical laboratory analysis. Production values were obtained by statistical calculation. The biological material used is composed of several varieties of winter and spring barley. Bellow basic fertilization, foliar treatments were applied using the following products: PlantfertU, MicrofertU and TerraSorb. Have been studied both forms of spring and winter barley. Different physiological needs of both forms of barley have required the separate study of the effect of foliar fertilizer on them. In case of spring barley using the product PlantfertU we achieve the sustainable production of 2842 kg/ha for the Hanca variety and 2722 kg/ha for the Penellope variety. On winter barley best results are obtained using the product TerraSorb on Plaissant variety (5490 kg/ha). Summing up the results we can say that the best results were obtained using the foliar products foliar PlantfertU and TerraSorb, the difference being considerate statistically very significant compared with the results obtained using the product MicrofertU. Research related to the use of foliar fertilizers in barley cultivation have a high degree of novelty, the products that we used being relatively newly introduced and used in Romanian agriculture. This fact gives a touch of originality on present work. The results have great significance in that they come in support of the barley growers who want to use new technological links in order to obtain high yields.


Testing creativity in general has been well researched but little has been reported on the devel-opment of instruments to test scientific creativity among preschool pupils. This study described the development and validation of a Figural Scientific Creativity Test (FSCT) for preschool pupils. The FSCT consisted of six items which were constructed based on Scientific Creativity Structure Model and scored using an adapted Torrence Test of Creative Thinking. The items were developed through three dimensions called the product (scientific knowledge, scientific phenomena and scientific problem), the process (imagination and thinking) and the trait (fluency, originality, elaboration, abstractness of title and resistance to premature closure). All the items were developed and validated through analysis of item response data of 30 six-year-old preschool pupils in Kota Kinabalu district. Item analyses were conducted to check on item discrimination, Cronbach Alpha internal consistency coefficient, item-total correlations, agreement between scorers, construct re-lated validity, content validity, face validity, and acceptability to pupils. All items showed discrim-ination coefficient range from 0.22 to 0.40. The Cronbach Alpha internal consistency coefficient was found to be 0.806. The item-total correlations range was within 0.541 to 0.866. The correlations between scorers varied from 0.780 to 0.933. FSCT was found to have a total of six items on one factor as a result of the exploratory factor analysis. The item analysis suggested that FSCT could be a reliable and valid instrument in assessing scientific creativity of six-year-old preschool pupils in preschool classrooms.


Word embeddings are widely used in natural language processing (NLP) tasks. Most work on word embeddings focuses on monolingual languages with large available datasets. For embeddings to be useful in a multilingual environment, as in South Africa, the training techniques have to be adjusted to cater for a) multiple languages, b) smaller datasets and c) the occurrence of code-switching. One of the biggest roadblocks is to obtain datasets that include examples of natural code-switching, since code switching is generally avoided in written material. A solution to this problem is to use speech recognised data. Embedding packages like Word2Vec and GloVe have default hyper-parameter settings that are usually optimised for training on large datasets and evaluation on analogy tasks. When using embeddings for problems such as text classification in our multilingual environment, the hyper-parameters have to be optimised for the specific data and task. We investigate the importance of optimising relevant hyper-parameters for training word embeddings with speech recognised data, where code-switching occurs, and evaluate against the real-world problem of classifying radio and television recordings with code switching. We compare these models with a bag of words baseline model as well as a pre-trained GloVe model.


This study investigated the effects of hamstring training methods on the passive viscoelastic properties of hamstring and quadriceps muscles and the relationship of these properties to lower extremity power, hamstring flexibility, and agility. A total of forty healthy individuals were recruited for this study. Participants performed Nordic hamstring exercises (n = 14), hamstring curl exercises (n = 14), or received neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES; n = 13) for eight weeks. Measurements were taken both before and one week after the interventions of the viscoelastic properties of hamstring and quadriceps muscles, strength, flexibility, agility, and lower extremity power. Nordic hamstring exercises increased hamstring muscle elasticity while decreasing quadriceps and hamstring muscle stiffness; whereas leg curl exercises increased quadriceps and hamstring muscle stiffness while decreasing quadriceps muscle tone (P < .05). Both strengthening methods increased agility, hamstring flexibility, and vertical jump. NMES produced no noticeable effects. Eccentric and concentric training methods had inverse effects on both hamstring and quadriceps muscles' viscoelastic parameters, but had similar improvements on performance parameters. Since changes in viscoelastic parameters of muscle could affect musculotendinous systems' compliance, clinicians should consider viscoelastic properties over performance parameters, when prescribing concentric or eccentric exercises.


Although computer games are now a form of entertainment, they actually grew out of a series of efforts to develop computer-based methods to represent the natural world, abstract complex activity, and analyze organizational problems. The game of chess quickly captured the attention of early computer researchers. Incorporating computer simulation technology in a competitive, interactive story can command a game player's attention indefinitely


Hyperactivated glucose uptake and glycolytic metabolism are considered as a hallmark of cancer. Berberine, a natural alkaloid with tumor‑selective anticancer effects, has been shown to promote glucose uptake in metabolic tissues and cells. However, whether and how berberine regulates the glucose metabolism of cancer cells are still poorly understood. In the present study, we revealed that berberine, which suppressed the growth of colon cancer cell lines HCT116 and KM12C, greatly inhibited the glucose uptake and the transcription of glucose metabolic genes, GLUT1, LDHA and HK2 in these two cell lines as assessed by RT‑qPCR. A mechanistic study further indicated that the protein expression but not mRNA transcription of HIF‑1α, a well‑known transcription factor critical for dysregulated cancer cell glucose metabolism, was dramatically inhibited in berberine‑treated colon cancer cell lines. Using western blot analysis, this regulation appears to occur via protein synthesis but not protein stability as blockade of HIF‑1α protein degradation by hypoxia mimic desferrioxamine (DFX) or proteasome inhibitor MG132 did not affect berberine's effect. In addition, mTOR signaling previously reported to regulate HIF‑1α protein synthesis was further found to be suppressed by berberine. Taken together, our results indicated that berberine inhibits overactive glucose metabolism of colon cancer cells via suppressing mTOR‑depended HIF‑1α protein synthesis, which provided not only a novel mechanism involved in berberine's tumor‑specific toxicity but also a theoretical basis for the development of berberine for colon cancer treatment.


Surgery of the endolymphatic sac is controversial. Some consider it a placebo and others consider it the surgical treatment of choice in Ménière's disease. We studied the medical records of 87 patients who underwent surgery between 1978 and 1996. Simple decompression was practiced in 89% and a House shunt in 27.6%. The 1-year results were improvement or recovery from vertigo in 65.4%, no improvement in 25%, and reoperation in 9.5%. Tinnitus improved in only 11.9% and hearing loss improved in 9.5% and worsened in 19%. We reviewed the cases of 50 patients with a 5-year follow-up(60%). Vertigo improved in 72%,hearing loss worsened in 72%, and tinnitus remained unchanged in 78%. In view of the good results, scant complications and simplicity of the surgical procedure, we consider endolymphatic saccule surgery to be the first choice in Ménière's disease that is unresponsive to medical treatment.


Experts' views and commentary have been highly respected in every discipline. However, unlike traditional disciplines like medicine, mathematics and engineering, Information System (IS) expertise is difficult to define. This paper attempts to understand the characteristics of IS-expert through a comprehensive literature review of analogous disciplines and then derives a formative research model with three main constructs. Further, this research validates the formative model to identify the characteristics of expertise using data gathered from 220 respondents using a contemporary Information System. Finally this research demonstrates how individuals with different levels of expertise differ in their views in relation to system evaluations.


The present study examined the influence of perceived social approval on moral development in youth sport. The sample consisted of 249 youth basketball players ranging in age from 9 to 15 years. A questionnaire was administered to the players during a team practice session near the end of a 10-week competitive season. Perceptions of significant other (mother, father, coach, teammates) approval of antisocial behavior served as the predictor variables; moral development components (judgment, reason, intent, behavior) served as the criterion variables. Canonical correlation analyses revealed significant overall relationships for both younger children (Grades 4 and 5) and adolescents (Grades 7 and 8). For younger children, lower perceptions of social approval were associated with a higher ability to judge a situation as a moral problem and the intent to exhibit moral behavior. For adolescents, perceived social approval was inversely related to reason, prosocial behavior, and particularly the judgment of a mor...


A 3D-sensitified and strain-enhanced UV wire-photodetector has been fabricated with ZnO NWs grown on an oxidized Ni wire by chemical vapor deposition method. The photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the device shows a sharp UV peak at around 380 nm and a negligible peak at around 520 nm, which proves that the as-prepared ZnO nanowires were well-crystallized. The current-voltage (I-V) and current-time (I-T) characteristics under different rotation angles of the heterojunctions show good rectifying diode behaviors and stability under different angles which make 3D detection possible. The sensitivity of the device is enhanced by strains due to piezotronic effect of ZnO nanowires. These performances of the device demonstrates a promising approach to 3D photodetecting and strain sensing and also provide a prospective application to the development of weaving single wire into fabrics technology.


Background & Aim: Investigating the knowledge and attitude towards reproductive donation procedures is one of the important steps in recognition of infertile problems in couples using assisted reproductive donation procedures as the only therapeutic option. Few studies have been carried out regarding this field; therefore, this study aimed to compare the knowledge and attitude towards reproductive donation procedures between recipient and non-recipient infertile couples at Mashhad Infertility Center. Methods: This descriptive/analytical study carried out on 115 infertile couples referring to Montaserieh Infertility Center in Mashhad through convenience sampling. Data were collected using questionnaire of measurement of attitude and knowledge towards donation procedures, and analyzed using statistical tests. Results: There was a significant difference between attitude and knowledge of two recipients and non-recipients groups (P=0.000), so that female and male recipients had more positive attitude and knowledge towards donation procedures (P=0.000). Moreover, there was a significant difference between attitudes of two groups in terms of the confidentiality of donation process (P=0.015), using donated oocyte (P=0.002) and embryo (P=0.000), surrogacy (P=0.002), public attitudes (P=0.001), importance of childbearing (P=0.010) and genetic bond (P=0.017). Conclusion: According to the findings despite of have more positive knowledge towards donation procedures but their attitude is not influence of knowledge, against non-recipients groups, that show according to special situation of recipient group, their attitude can be influenced by many factors including Socio-cultural belief .It seems that incorporating of these factors into care plans helps to alter the non-recipients couples' attitude and also decrease psychological tension due to selection of these procedures by recipients which in turn could provide appropriate bases for the logical decision in both groups.


Abstract In recent years there has been a rapid increase in the number of Chinese international students on Australian university campuses and in offshore programs. Therefore there is a need to seek a better understanding of their learning styles in order to cater to their needs and support their transition to new academic environments. This study explores the learning style preferences reported by two groups of Chinese students enrolled in two Australian offshore Masters courses. Using the pre- and post-questionnaire method, this study examined the students' self-reported learning style preferences after exposure to Western pedagogical practices. The study revealed limited changes in the students' self-reported learning style preferences after one intensive teaching week. Comparison of the responses was made between the two groups located in different regions in China. The findings contradict the assumption that Chinese learners from different places have homogeneous approaches to learning. The study also critically examined the widely held view that Chinese learners prefer passive and teacher-directed learning. Australian academics should consider international students' learning style preferences and adapt their pedagogical practices to students' needs.


Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are nowadays adapted to the company-specific requirements by customization. Whereas smaller and general feature changes are performed quickly by parameterization, changes of a company's business activities may lead to enormous changes in the system's code. To overcome this problem, we introduce an approach of a flexible ERP system which can be adapted by specific business models for each individual company/tenant by using model engineering techniques. Our approach—REAlist—is built on top of a generic data structure based on the Resource Event Agent (REA) business modeling ontology and provided as a cloud based service. Business models for each company are described by a domain specific language called the REA-DSL. REAlist enables companies to incorporate business activity changes quickly and without extensive code changes.


Lung adenocarcinoma (LUAD) causes severe cancer death worldwide. E2F2 is a canonical transcription factor implicated in transcription regulation, cell cycle and tumorigenesis. The role of E2F2 as well as its transcription regulatory network in LUAD remains obscure. In this study, we constructed a weighted gene co-expression network and identified several key modules and networks overrepresented in LUAD, including the E2F2-centered transcription regulatory network. Function analysis revealed that E2F2 overexpression accelerated cell growth, cell cycle progression and cell motility in LUAD cells whereas E2F2 knockdown inhibited these malignant phenotypes. Mechanistic investigations uncovered various E2F2-regulated downstream genes and oncogenic signaling pathways. Notably, three core transcription factors of E2F2, B-Myb and FOXM1 from the LUAD transcription regulatory network exhibited positive expression correlation, associated with each other, mutually transactivated each other, and regulated similar downstream gene cascades, hence constituting a consolidated core transcription regulatory circuitry. Moreover, E2F2 could promote and was essentially required for LUAD growth in orthotopic mouse models. Prognosis modeling revealed that a two-gene signature of E2F2 and PLK1 from the transcription regulatory circuitry remarkably stratified patients into low- and high-risk groups. Collectively, our results clarified the critical roles of E2F2 and the exquisite core transcription regulatory circuitry of E2F2/B-Myb/FOXM1 in LUAD progression.


The interview was recorded on October 22, 1984. The Interviewer was Leon Gordenker.
 Sir Brian Urquhart, who celebrated his 94th birthday in February 2013, is a living chronicle of a large chunk of 20th century history.

Throughout his four decades of service to the United Nations, starting as one of its very first staff members and ending as an Under-Secretary-General for Special Political Affairs, he also helped shape history-making moments. He was present for the birth of the United Nations in 1945, and was witness to many of the Organization's – and the world's – seminal milestones.

All of these easily amount to a front-row seat on history. But Sir Brian's links to history go even further. As a youth, his experiences include attending a lecture given by Indian independence leader Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi while in primary school and taking part in the coronation of King George VI.


The aim of the present study was to prepare and evaluate floating microspheres consisting of (i) calcium silicate (CS) as porous carrier; (ii) famotidine and (iii) hydroxypropyl methylcellulose (HPMC) and ethylcellulose (EC) as polymers. The floating microspheres were evaluated for particle size, micromeritic properties, percent drug content, in vitro floating behavior, and in vitro drug release. The percentage yield of floating microspheres of formulations (AM1 to AM9) was found to be in the range of 78.21 ± 1.09 to 93.56 ± 2.79 %. Percentage drug content of formulations (AM1 to AM9) were found in the range of 79.89 ± 2.19 % to 87.74 ± 1.24 %. In Vitro Buoyancy percentage of the microspheres was found to be 98.75±3.62 At pH 1.2, drug release from floating microsphere containing amoxicillin formulation AM4 was found to be 98.87 ± 0.67 % at the end of 12 hr. While at pH 7.4, Formulation AM4 released 99.23 ± 0.94 % of drug at 12 hr respectively. The SEM photographs of formulation AM4 showed that the fabricated microspheres were spherical with a smooth surface and exhibited a range of sizes within each batch. The results suggested that Calcium Silicate is a useful carrier for the development of floating and sustained release preparations.


This letter proposes a new distributed arithmetic (DA) algorithm for low-power finite-impulse response (FIR) filter implementation. The characteristic of the proposed algorithm is that the FIR filters using the proposed algorithm do not need to employ two's complement representation in lookup tables as well as multiply-and-accumulation blocks. Thus, the proposed algorithm can minimize the dynamic power consumption of the FIR filters. The experimental results show that the lowpass FIR filter using the proposed algorithm achieves 29% and 26% power consumption reduction compared to that using the conventional algorithm for zero-mean random inputs and speech inputs, respectively.


In this paper, we study deep diagonal circulant neural networks, that is deep neural networks in which weight matrices are the product of diagonal and circulant ones. Besides making a theoretical analysis of their expressivity, we introduced principled techniques for training these models: we devise an initialization scheme and proposed a smart use of non-linearity functions in order to train deep diagonal circulant networks. Furthermore, we show that these networks outperform recently introduced deep networks with other types of structured layers. We conduct a thorough experimental study to compare the performance of deep diagonal circulant networks with state of the art models based on structured matrices and with dense models. We show that our models achieve better accuracy than other structured approaches while required 2x fewer weights as the next best approach. Finally we train deep diagonal circulant networks to build a compact and accurate models on a real world video classification dataset with over 3.8 million training examples.


The early functional mutants of λ, belonging to cistrons N, O, and P, are known to be blocked prior to vegetative multiplication of the λ genome. Superinfection of heteroimmune defective lysogens by these mutants failed to elicit the function required for replication of the superinfecting phage. The mutants among themselves also showed poor cooperation on a nonpermissive host. Studies on the effects of different multiplicities of infection for bacterial lysis showed identical responses for mutants of different cistrons.


In the public space and in the debates among professionals, the new general data protection regulation, which is to be applied from May 25th 2018, is debated more and more conjunctively with the news brought by this European Union legislative act, but especially regarding the new sanctioning regime. We analyse the questions that arise concerning the violations to be sanctioned, the classification of sanctions and their amount, the deliberate nature of the violation and the effective procedural safeguards, in accordance with the general principles of European Union law and the CFSP. During the analysis we identify answers to these questions and, last but not least, underline the competence of the Member States as well as the role of the national supervisory authorities regarding to the sanctioning regime provided for by the Regulation.


The development of Smart Cities worldwide and the increasing issues related to sustainability and to the environment have pushed towards the electrification of transports, promoting a rapid advent of electric vehicles (EV) in the market. EVs are leading polluting emissions in the transport sector on a path towards zero, however, the charging of EVs' battery has an enormous impact on power grids. High penetration of EVs can result in extreme loads that can alter electricity prices and suddenly increase bulk generation, which in turn generate more CO2 emissions if power plants still rely on fossil fuels. Therefore, high penetration without supervision and control strategies pose a threat to the sustainability of distribution networks. At the same time, EVs are not just challenging the sustainability of the power grid, but they are also stimulating and promoting its upgrading, becoming enablers of the Smart Grid. It is true that EVs impose new constraints due to the extra demands they create, but they also generate opportunities thanks to their flexibility as mobile storage devices. If battery charging is properly coordinated, EVs can play a positive role in enhancing the evolution of the smart grid. In a plausible scenario of a smart city where electric vehicles are widely used, Battery Switching Stations (BSS) might replace the current gas stations, as they provide services that allow to extend the traveling time of EVs. Within this context, the present thesis work studies the dimensioning of a BSS system and the possibility to exploit renewable energy sources (RES), particularly solar power, as main resource for the charging of batteries. Using battery to grid (B2G) technology to i achieve high coordination with the grid, the battery switching station could accomplish multiple benefits. In addition to providing EVs users with battery swapping services, the BSS can also serve as an energy storage station or controllable load, becoming an active contributor of the smart grid. The complexity of this study case in terms of number of parameters is such that mathematical modelling did not represent an effective approach. Therefore, a process-based discrete-event simulator was specifically designed to study the object of this thesis. The simulator creates a digital prototype of the BSS and allows to study its performance through notions of queueing theory. Moreover, the BSS simulator can perform hourly comparisons of energy prices with RES generation profiles, with the aim of creating policies that improve the efficiency and management of the grid. By adjusting the charging and discharging times of batteries in coordination with generation from PV panels installed on the BSS, the load fluctuation is reduced and the penetration of renewables is improved as well. This cooperation between RES and BSS could not only benefit the power grid, but also promote the development of renewables industry and electric vehicles industry.


The analysis of the losses in a Fabry-Perot resonator, worked out by Bergstein and Schachter, is considered and commented upon. It is shown that, at large values of the Fresnel number, it yields results in agreement with those of other authors, if the mathematics involved is correctly developed.


Life can be seen as an ongoing process of identity construction, where individuals try to understand herself from the various identity bases to which she is exposed. Here, we focus on the identity construction of women who have started independent schools in Sweden. The independent school sector emerged after a political reform in 1992, allowing privately owned schools to operate with public funding. The women are subject to gendered expectations on how they are supposed to behave, and they are teachers, part of a profession with strong traditions. They have also become entrepreneurs through starting new independent schools. From a narrative analysis of their individual identity construction, we identify four different narrative strategies used to combine identity bases with differing norms and expectations.


Simulation of FEM based grinding process has a lot of advantages in comparison with analytical models. In this paper, firstly, a simulation model of single grit high speed grinding for DIN-41Cr4 and Ti6Al4V by commercial software DEFORM 3D has been described. And then, grinding experiments and microscope observations of the single grit high speed scratch tests on both materials have been carried out. The end results show that the wheel velocity has a positive influence on the strain rate. Additionally, the temperature lag effect will be much more significant under high-strain-rate process condition. In other words, it is the theoretic element of temperature decrease phenomenon on the wheel-workpiece contact area during high speed grinding. Furthermore, it is found that the high strain rate also optimizes the chip formation performance, which makes it possible to machine difficult-to-cut materials, titanium alloy for example, with high efficiency.


Abstract In this paper we analyse cultural processes through an alternative and combined theoretical and methodological framework. We use the distinctive theoretical lens of organizational habitus to explore the negotiation of culture within a sports charity. Our contribution here is to provide analysis borne both out of theoretical novelty and by adopting a practical application of this in context. Ethnographic data collection drew upon several tools which upon a retrospective analysis took place. Findings suggest that the cultural and expressive elements prioritized by the collective of individuals enhance practices which are deemed important, while resisting practices that are deemed to be incompatible with a perceived worldview concerning the operations of the charity. This novel lens, considered from our emic perspective has the potential to enhance our understanding of organizational culture, leading to practical, context-appropriate findings that reveal how sometimes innocuous aspects of organizational life can influence collective action.


: Hyperbaric oxygenation (HBO) was included in the therapeutic complex for 124 patients in the acute stage of ischemic stroke. The effect of HBO on the clinical course was appraised by comparing the dynamics of changes in the clinical symptoms and the frequency of complications in patients exposed to HBO with those in the control group (patients not exposed to HBO). It was established that the depth of unconsciousness and the motor and aphasic disorders decreased during a HBO session, but the effect was usually short-lived. Aggravation of the patients' condition in the first week of the disease, evidently caused by increase of cerebral edema, occurred much less frequently when HBO was included in the complex of therapeutic measures. The number of patients with regression of the neurological symptoms was practically the same with and without the use of HBO, but the regression of the neurological defects was most evident in patients exposed to HBO. HBO prevents the development of recurrent cerebral circulatory disorders in the acute stage of ischemic stroke and reduces the incidence of some complications in this period (pneumonia, pulmonary edema, thromboembolism of the pulmonary artery, etc.).


The focus of this paper is to evaluate if forecast produced by the Central Bank of Sweden (Riksbanken) for the 12 month change in the consumer price index is unbiased? Results shows that for shorter horizons (h < 12) the mean forecast error is unbiased but for longer horizons its negatively biased when inference is done by Maximum entropy bootstrap technique. Can the unbiasedness be improved by strict ap- pliance to econometric methodology? Forecasting with a linear univariate model (seasonal ARIMA) and a multivariate model Vector Error Correction model (VECM) shows that when controlling for the presence of structural breaks VECM outperforms both prediction produced Riksbanken and ARIMA. However Riksbanken had the best precision in their forecast, estimated as MSFE


Background and Purpose— Computed tomographic angiography and conventional angiography provide timely vascular anatomic information in patients with stroke. However, iodinated contrast dye may cause acute kidney injury (AKI). Within a large, biracial population, we examined in-hospital incidence of new or worsening kidney disease in patients with stroke and its association with administration of intravenous dye. Methods— All adult residents of the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky region with acute ischemic stroke or intracerebral hemorrhage who presented to an emergency department in 2010 were included. Prevalence of unsuspected kidney disease at the time of emergency department presentation and the incidence of AKI after admission in 2 groups of patients—those who did and those who did not receive intravenous dye—were determined. Results— In 2010, 2299 patients met inclusion criteria (89% ischemic stroke and 11% intracerebral hemorrhage); mean age 69 years (SD 15), 22% black, and 54% women. Among these patients, 37% had kidney disease at baseline, including 22% (516/2299) in whom this was unsuspected. Two percent (2%; 15/853) of patients with baseline kidney disease developed AKI during the hospital stay. Of those with no baseline kidney disease, 1% (14/14 467) developed AKI. There was no association between dye administration and new or worsening kidney disease. Conclusions— Although 22% of patients in the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky stroke population had unsuspected kidney disease, the incidence of new or worsening kidney disease was low, and AKI was not associated with dye administration. These findings confirm single-center reports that the risk of severe renal complications after contrast dye is small.


Understanding the endwall flow phenomena surrounding low-pressure turbine blades is key to improving performance, as these flow features contribute significantly to loss generation at low Reynolds number cruise. It is well documented that a horseshoe vortex system forms at the junction of the endwall and turbine blade. The vortices develop and gain significant strength in the passage and contribute to total pressure losses. During low Reynolds number conditions, the flow through a low-pressure turbine passage can be greatly impacted by a number of factors, including Reynolds number and incoming turbulence. The focus of this paper is on significant changes to the endwall flow field observed in experimental measurements and an accompanying implicit large-eddy simulation of the flow through a linear cascade of high-lift front loaded low-pressure turbine blades at low Reynolds number. Results show a significant effect on both the time-averaged endwall flow topology and the unsteady vortical flow characteristics when the Reynolds number based on inlet conditions was decreased to 30,000. Various techniques, such as spectral proper orthogonal decomposition, were used to analyze and compare both high-speed particle image velocimetry measurements and numerical results in order to extract the dominant structures and their unsteady behavior. The total pressure loss development through the passage was assessed in order to better understand how the observed changes in endwall flow structures contribute to the overall losses.


In sustainable energy, implementation of nanofluid as a working fluid is a novel method in many engineering and industrial applications. Nanofluid provides superior thermo-physical properties in terms of higher thermal conductivity for outstanding thermal performance of the working fluid. In the present article, numerical investigation of heat transfer and pumping power are performed for TiO2-water nanofluid through wavy corrugated pipe subjected to constant heat flux. The study is carried out for a wide range of Reynolds number 15,000-40,000 and nanoparticles volume concentration 1% to 5%. Finite volume method is applied in order to solve continuity, momentum and energy equations and realizable k-ε model with enhanced wall treatment is chosen for single phase analysis. By the addition of nanoparticles within a preferred volume fraction in base fluid water results higher heat transfer rate and reduced pumping power. Finally the optimum volume fraction of the nanofluid is determined up to which the requirement of pumping power per unit length is lower compared to base fluid.


RNA structures in the untranslated regions (UTRs) of mRNAs influence post-transcriptional regulation of gene expression. Much of the knowledge in this area depends on canonical double-stranded RNA elements. There has been considerable recent advancement of our understanding of guanine(G)-rich nucleic acids sequences that form four-stranded structures, called G-quadruplexes. While much of the research has been focused on DNA G-quadruplexes, there has recently been a rapid emergence of interest in RNA G-quadruplexes, particularly in the 5 0 -UTRs of mRNAs. Collectively, these studies suggest that RNA G-quadruplexes exist in the 5 0 -UTRs of many genes, including genes of clinical interest, and that such structural elements can influence translation. This review features the progresses in the study of 5 0 -UTR RNA G-quadruplex-mediated translational control. It covers computational analysis, cell-free, cellbased and chemical biology studies that have sought to elucidate the roles of RNA Gquadruplexes in both cap-dependent and -independent regulation of mRNA translation. We also discuss protein trans-acting factors that have been implicated and the evidence that such RNA motifs have potential as small molecule target. Finally, we close the review with a perspective on the future challenges in the field of 5 0 -UTR


In a 2017 Virginia Law Review article, "The Untenable Case for Perpetual Dual-Class Stock," Lucian Bebchuk and Kobi Kastiel made the argument that time-based sunset provisions (a forced unification of shares into one share structure with equal voting rights after a certain period of time) should be a mandatory feature of dual class share structures (classes of common stock with unequal voting rights). Their article has recently been used as authority by the Council of Institutional Investors' ("CII") in its petitions to the NASDAQ Stock Market ("NASDAQ") and the New York Stock Exchange ("NYSE") to amend their listing standards. The requested amendments would require companies seeking to go public with dual class shares to include in their certificates of incorporation a time-based sunset provision that must go into effect no more than seven years after the initial public offering (IPO) unless minority shareholders vote to extend up to an additional seven years. This delayed unification based on a shareholder vote is incorporated in Bebchuk and Kastiel's argument.

This Article, which is based on comment letters I sent in response to the CII's petitions, argues that such a mandatory provision would be extremely unwise and harmful to our most important public companies and their shareholders, current as well as future. As a creation of private ordering, the absence of time-based sunset provisions in dual class share structures serves a significant value enhancing purpose. It prevents the risk that a premature and therefore sub-optimal unification of shares may occur. This risk has so far been ignored by those advocating for the implementation of a mandatory time-based sunset provision. As subsequently discussed, this risk has been ignored because of an oversight in their analysis. This oversight being a lack of appreciation for how the positive skewness in stock market returns negatively impacts the value of mandatory time-based sunset provisions.


The nature of the surviving evidence subjects biographers of medieval figures to certain difficulties. As a case in point, my biography of Edward I was more a history of the reign than a study of the king alone, though documents provided clues about his character. Although a number of biographical studies have led to significant advances in understanding the history of medieval England during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the lives of kings and queens, as well as nobles and bishops, dominate the field simply because information about the lives of people in less grandiose positions is severely limited. There is a market for popular books about medieval figures, but these biographies do little more than tell a good story.


We propose a mechanism of ground-state blockade between two $N$-type Rydberg atoms by virtue of the Rydberg-antiblockade effect and the Raman transition. Inspired by the quantum Zeno effect, the strong Rydberg antiblockade interaction plays a role in frequently measuring one ground state of two, leading to a blockade effect for double occupation of the corresponding quantum state. By encoding the logic qubits into the ground states, we efficiently avoid the spontaneous emission of the excited Rydberg state and maintain the nonlinear Rydberg-Rydberg interaction at the same time. As applications, we discuss in detail the feasibility of preparing two-atom and three-atom entanglement with ground-state blockade in closed and open systems, respectively, which shows that a high fidelity of the entangled state can be obtained with current experimental parameters.


Importance Recent studies have observed an increase in the rate of pulmonary artery catheter (PAC) use in heart failure admissions. Little is known about the national trends in other previously common indications for PAC placement, PAC use overall, or outcomes associated with PAC placement. Objective To determine national trends in PAC use overall as well as across sociodemographic groups and key clinical conditions, including acute myocardial infarction, heart failure, and respiratory failure. Design, Setting, and Participants Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services inpatient claims data and International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification codes were used to conduct a serial cross-sectional cohort study between January 1, 1999, and December 31, 2013, identifying hospitalizations during which a PAC was placed. Data analysis was conducted from September 25, 2015, to April 10, 2017. Main Outcomes and Measures Rate of use of a PAC per 1000 admissions, 30-day mortality, and length of stay. Results Among the 68 374 904 unique Medicare beneficiaries in the study, there were 469 582 hospitalizations among 457 193 patients (204 232 women and 252 961 men; mean [SD] age, 76.3 [6.9] years) during which a PAC was placed. There was a 67.8% relative decrease in PAC use (6.28 per 1000 admissions in 1999 to 2.02 per 1000 admissions in 2013; P < .001), with 2 distinct trends: significant year-on-year decreases from 1999 to 2011, followed by stable use through 2013. There was variation in rates of PAC use across race/ethnicity, age, and sex, but use decreased across all subgroups. Although there were sustained decreases in PAC use for acute myocardial infarction (20.0 PACs placed per 1000 admissions in 1999 to 5.2 in 2013 [74.0% reduction]; P < .001 for trend) and respiratory failure (29.9 PACs placed per 1000 admission in 1999 to 2.3 in 2013 [92.3% reduction]; P < .001 for trend) during the study period, there was an initial decrease in PAC use in heart failure, with a nadir in 2009 followed by a subsequent increase (9.1 PACs placed per 1000 admissions in 1999 to 4.0 in 2009 to 5.8 in 2013). In-hospital mortality, 30-day mortality, and length of stay decreased during the study period. Conclusions and Relevance In the wake of mounting evidence suggesting a lack of benefit to the routine use of PACs, there has been a de-adoption of PAC use overall and across sociodemographic groups but heterogeneity in patterns of use across clinical conditions. The clinical outcomes of patients with PACs have significantly improved. These findings raise important questions about the optimal use of PACs and the drivers of the observed trends.


Humans perceive the world by concurrently processing and fusing high-dimensional inputs from multiple modalities such as vision and audio. Machine perception models, in stark contrast, are typically modality-specific and optimised for unimodal benchmarks, and hence late-stage fusion of final representations or predictions from each modality (`late-fusion') is still a dominant paradigm for multimodal video classification. Instead, we introduce a novel transformer based architecture that uses `fusion bottlenecks' for modality fusion at multiple layers. Compared to traditional pairwise self-attention, our model forces information between different modalities to pass through a small number of bottleneck latents, requiring the model to collate and condense the most relevant information in each modality and only share what is necessary. We find that such a strategy improves fusion performance, at the same time reducing computational cost. We conduct thorough ablation studies, and achieve state-of-the-art results on multiple audio-visual classification benchmarks including Audioset, Epic-Kitchens and VGGSound. All code and models will be released.