The airborne passive location has the characteristics of good mobility and scope range is wide. The location accuracy of traditional angle-measure only passive location is low and the location time is long. Passive location that use phase change rate as observation information can overcome these shortcomings noticed above. Research the process of filtering principle of MVEKF algorithm and its application in airborne single passive location. Come up with the principle of phase change rate location method, and from simulation results, using MVEKF algorithm in airborne single passive location can reach the result that positioning precisely and convergence rapidly.


Dancing the Data and its interrelated CD-ROM, Dancing the Data Too, show the ways in which educational research and the visual and performing arts can embrace each other to engender a culture of feeling and meaning and in so doing evoke new ways of knowing, learning, and teaching. It draws on the artistic mediums of dance, collage, poetry, music, and drama, and invites the reader to engage with the educational research endeavors of the contributors as they seek to move beyond the traditions of established approaches to represent and reflect on their work in artistic forms. Dancing the Data seeks to open up conversational beginnings with teachers, researchers, and students, and to tempt them to discuss and reflect on the ways in which established methodological and pedagogical boundaries might be crossed and new ways of seeing and doing valued and explored.


Nontuberculous or environmental mycobacterial disease in children has been increasingly recognized over the last decade. We present four patients who were diagnosed in the year 2000. The children were aged between 2 and 8 years. Three patients presented involvement of the cervical lymph nodes and one presented involvement of the inguinal nodes. Three of the children were treated with a combination of surgery and chemotherapy and one was treated with chemotherapy alone. We describe the clinical characteristics, laboratory findings, therapeutic management and complications of nontuberculous mycobacterial lymphadenitis in children.


As the number of worldwide cellular subscriptions approaches the world's population, the negative effects of cell phone disruption have become increasingly apparent. In recent years, mobile phones have become advanced enough to moderate interruptions based on whether or not the user would want an interruption. Research into the area of interruption management has provided models and architecture for the creation of such an application. However, to our knowledge, there are no interruption management systems currently available in the Android or iPhone app stores using a probabilistic model to moderate cell phone interruptions. A probabilistic model would be an improvement over current binary decision models, which either lack accuracy, or require the user to predetermine every possible outcome. In this project, we have employed a probabilistic model to implement an interruption management system for Android OS 4.0 that uses five contexts: schedule, time of day, location, caller relationship and driving. Our system intercepts the call, calculates the probability an interruption is desirable, and then changes the phone's audio profile to vibrate, silent, or ring based on our model. A missed notification service has also been implemented to alert the user, at an appropriate time, that he has missed notifications.


Background: Despite being preventable, cervical cancer is the third most common cancer in India, accounting for the highest number of cancer deaths. India has made limited progress toward introducing the safe and effective vaccine to prevent human papilloma virus (HPV) infections, which has been available for a decade. Aim: Using qualitative research, we examined opportunities for comprehensive cervical cancer prevention, including HPV vaccination in two Indian states - Tamil Nadu (TN) and Karnataka (KA). Methods: We used a socio-ecological framework to identify and map key stakeholders and structures that create the ecosystem for comprehensive cervical cancer prevention. Data were collected through semistructured in-depth interviews and focus group discussions. Key stakeholders included women and men (30-45 years) residing in selected slums/villages, community influencers (village government, self-help group members), district and state-level government health and education officials, specialist doctors, frontline health workers, staff of cancer-related nongovernmental organizations, and journalists. Results: As neither state had initiated public provision of the HPV vaccine, discussions focused on stakeholders' knowledge about the vaccine and factors that could inform a policy decision and facilitate or pose barriers to roll-out. Government officials and specialists in both states were aware of HPV vaccination for primary prevention of cervical cancer. Officials in KA noted concerns about the vaccine's safety and efficacy more emphatically than officials in TN. Specialists, particularly those in leadership positions in the Federation of Obstetrics and Gynecology Societies of India and the Indian Academy of Pediatrics were strong advocates of vaccination. Several specialists contrasted the numerous implementation challenges of cervical cancer screening with India's successes in routine immunization. However, a few specialists also expressed concerns regarding safety of the HPV vaccine. Community members lacked awareness about the vaccine and raised concerns on its safety, side effects and benefits as they would have for any new vaccine. All stakeholders highlighted cost as a major barrier to public provision of the vaccine. Government officials were concerned about how a vaccine program could be financed and sustained. The consensus, particularly in TN, was that the HPV vaccine would need to be introduced through the Universal Immunization Program as a partnership between the health and education departments to ensure widespread access. Conclusion: State-level implementation of comprehensive cervical cancer prevention hinges on the inclusion of HPV vaccination in the national immunization program. Cultivating vaccine champions and identifying appropriate financing mechanisms to implement and sustain comprehensive cervical cancer prevention along with careful planning and implementation has the potential to save the lives of many women.


Computerized information systems use in material management is expected to increase over the next decade. The goal of computerization is to improve information and productivity. However, without a through understanding of materiel management inventory control techniques implemented through the software, meeting this goal is questionable at best. Using computerized information systems inefficiently by ignoring a significant number of the system's recommendations, using inaccurate data, circumventing procedures or using the wrong set of inventory control techniques can create a poor environment for decision-making. Material managers need to understand each inventory control technique available through their computerized system, their associated underlying assumptions and the implications of each on the quality and usefulness of information generated.


We study the problem of maximizing a non-monotone, non-negative submodular function subject to a matroid constraint. The prior best-known deterministic approximation ratio for this problem is $\frac{1}{4}-\epsilon$ under $\mathcal{O}(({n^4}/{\epsilon})\log n)$ time complexity. We show that this deterministic ratio can be improved to $\frac{1}{4}$ under $\mathcal{O}(nr)$ time complexity, and then present a more practical algorithm dubbed TwinGreedyFast which achieves $\frac{1}{4}-\epsilon$ deterministic ratio in nearly-linear running time of $\mathcal{O}(\frac{n}{\epsilon}\log\frac{r}{\epsilon})$. Our approach is based on a novel algorithmic framework of simultaneously constructing two candidate solution sets through greedy search, which enables us to get improved performance bounds by fully exploiting the properties of independence systems. As a byproduct of this framework, we also show that TwinGreedyFast achieves $\frac{1}{2p+2}-\epsilon$ deterministic ratio under a $p$-set system constraint with the same time complexity. To showcase the practicality of our approach, we empirically evaluated the performance of TwinGreedyFast on two network applications, and observed that it outperforms the state-of-the-art deterministic and randomized algorithms with efficient implementations for our problem.


Muon-based accelerators have the potential to enable facilities at both the Intensity and the Energy Frontiers. Muon storage rings can serve as high precision neutrino sources, and a muon collider is an ideal technology for a TeV or multi-TeV collider. Progress in muon accelerator designs has advanced steadily in recent years. In regard to 6D muon cooling, detailed and realistic designs now exist that provide more than 5 order-of-magnitude emittance reduction. Furthermore, detector performance studies indicate that with suitable pixelation and timing resolution, backgrounds in the collider detectors can be significantly reduced thus enabling high quality physics results. Thanks to these and other advances in design and simulation of muon systems, technology development, and systems demonstrations, muon storage-ring-based neutrino sources and a muon collider appear more feasible than ever before. A muon collider is now arguably among the most compelling approaches to a multi-TeV lepton collider and an S-Channel Higgs Channel.


The heat transfer performance of a microtube was experimentally investigated to verify its suitability as a temperature control device for supercritical water (SCW) reactions under high-pressure and high-temperature conditions (pressure: 23–45 MPa, temperature: 673–773 K, flow rate: 0.6–4.6 kg/h). The microtube was made of Ni-base alloy 625 and had a microchannel with an internal diameter (ID) of 0.258 mm. Ohmic heating was employed for elevating the temperature of the microtube. Using purified water as the operating fluid for thermal performance evaluation, rapid and effective fluid heating from room temperature to 673 K within 0.05 s was achieved inside the heater and heat exchanger, respectively. The electrical power input was converted to fluid enthalpy by the microtube heater with a thermal efficiency of 75–95%, heating rate of 104–105 K/s, and an overall heat transfer coefficient of 4950–35400 W/(m2 K). Experimental results indicate that the microtube is useful as a temperature control device, and the rapid and effective turbulent heat and mass transfer in the microchannel is suitable for the high-speed temperature control required for SCW reactions.


It has been argued that the British National Health Service (NHS) has moved from a hierarchical and bureaucratic organization to a market and, more recently, towards a network. The authors believe that this view is too simplistic: the three organizational forms have co-existed and continue to do so. It is more accurate to view moves over time as a changing mix between quasi-hierarchies, quasi-markets and quasi-networks.


SUMMARY Giant cells induced by root-knot nematodes are highly specialized cells which function as transfer cells and provide nutrients to support the growth and reproduction of the nematode. Changes in the overall pattern of gene expression in giant cells occur during the formation and maintenance of the nematode feeding cells. Differential display analysis has been carried out to detect changes in gene expression in giant cells induced in tomato roots by Meloidogyne javanica, using mRNA isolated directly from mature giant cell cytoplasm, compared to non-infected root tissue. Eighty-one differential displayed bands were generated, and of these, 73 were up-regulated and 8 were down-regulated. Twenty-seven sequences were obtained by direct sequencing of the bands, and 16 fragments were further analysed by real-time quantitative RT-PCR. The most highly up-regulated transcript increased 56-fold in giant cells, and the greatest down-regulation was 11-fold. A time course of expression of the highest and lowest expressed transcripts was also undertaken by quantitative RT-PCR using giant cell enriched tissue. These showed similar changes in expression, but values were dramatically reduced. This result shows the importance of analysing giant cell cytoplasm directly, rather than starting with giant cell enriched tissue, to obtain accurate information on changes in gene expression in nematode feeding cells. Sequenced transcripts showed significant homology to mitogen-activated protein kinase, S-adenosylmethionine decarboxylase, cysteine synthase, cytochrome c reductase subunit, and ribosomal proteins. The expression analysed reflects the high metabolic rate in mature giant cells rather than processes of giant cell induction.


Cladonia verticillaris (Raddi) Fr. is a lichen species that grows on sandy soil of tablelands coexisting with savannah-like vegetation in Brazil. This species produces different lichen phenolics that are leached to the soil by the rainwater and exhibit several biological activities that could affect the habitat. The effect of soil moisture in the retention and percolation of proteins, protocetraric acid (PRO) and fumarprotocetraric acid (FUM), the main phenolics produced from C. verticillaris, was analyzed in this work. Proteins were retained in dry soil but they percolated when the soil was water-saturated. FUM was strongly retained in this kind of acidic soils and transformed into PRO by spontaneous hydrolysis when the soil moisture increased. This study demonstrates that proteins, PRO and FUM that were effectively leached to the soil, retained, transformed or percolated to deeper soil layers depending on the amount of previous rainfall. This fact must be taken into account in order to consider the biological effects of these substances on the vegetation of coastal tableland Brazil.


In this paper, a planar miniaturized arbitrary phase-difference coupler with arbitrary coupling coefficients is proposed. The proposed coupler consists of three coupled-line sections which achieves a compact circuit layout in microstrip implementation. The circuit parameters of this novel coupler can be easily determined by the derived closed-form equations and the corresponding performance analysis in terms of the bandwidth and miniaturization requirement is provided. Two prototypes with this proposed structure, operating at 2 GHz, have been designed and implemented using microstrip technology. One has a 45° phase difference with - 3-dB coupling coefficient and the other demonstrates a 60° phase difference with - 4.77-dB coupling coefficient. In addition, over 20% fractional bandwidth, which is defined as 5° phase error and 0.5-dB magnitude imbalance, is obtained in both of the two prototypes.


Purpose: To determine the expression of corticotropin-releasing hormone (CRH) in psoriasis and normal skin biopsy samples, and to correlate the expression of CRH with the expression of CRHBP and inflammatory cytokines IL-8 and IL-33. Methods: Psoriasis and normal skin biopsy samples were obtained from three psoriatic and three normal healthy patients. The mRNA expression was examined by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (qRT-PCR). Protein expression analysis was carried out by western blotting and then further validated by immunohistochemistry. Results: The results revealed that the expression of CRH was highly significantly (p < 0.0001) in psoriatic skin samples compared to normal skin samples. The increase of CRH in psoriatic samples ranged from 2.7to 3.5-fold. Expression of CRH was associated with concomitant downregulation of CRHBP in all the psoriatic skin biopsy samples. Expression of CRHBP was 3to 6.2-fold lower in psoriatic samples compared to normal skin samples. Analysis of mRNA expression of IL-8 and IL-33, revealed that expression of both IL-8 and IL-33 was significantly (p < 0.0001) upregulated in psoriatic skin samples. Expression of IL-8 and IL-33 was approximately 4.1 and 3.2-fold higher in psoriatic skin samples than in normal skin samples. Expression of CRHBP, IL-8 and IL-33 was further confirmed by western blotting and immunohistochemistry which the findings from quantitative RT-PCR. Conclusion: Taken together, the results confirm that the expression of CRH is associated with suppression of CRHBP and upregulation of IL-8 and IL-33.


Eight kinds of self-catalyzed poly(ortho-esters) (POEs) are used to fabricate bovine serum albumin (BSA)-containing microspheres using a W/O/W double-emulsion solvent extraction/evaporation method. All eight kinds of POE polymers used in this study are shown able to form microspheres under proposed fabrication conditions. The surface morphology and inner structure of the microspheres are analyzed using scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The microspheres have a size range from 64.7 to 120.2 μm. POE with a higher viscosity leads to bigger microspheres. It was found that the POE composition has a significant effect on BSA release profiles. POEs, which are more hydrophilic and contain a greater amount of glycolide or lactate (latent acid), yield higher BSA release rates. Specifically, POE containing 1,6-hexanediol diglycolide (HD-diGL) microspheres have the highest BSA release rate after a 20-day test through a combination of surface erosion and diffusion mechanisms. POE containing a high percentage of the trans-cyclohexanedimethanol (CDM) segment tends to yield microspheres with a lower release rate because of its hydrophobic nature. It was also found that the BSA release rate is more rapid at 37°C than at 22°C because of faster polymer degradation and water penetration at 37°C. Experimental results suggest that various protein release rates can be achieved by using different compositions of POEs. © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 80: 1630–1642, 2001


The Higgs Machine Learning Challenge was an open data analysis competition that took place between May and September 2014. Samples of simulated data from the ATLAS Experiment at the LHC corresponding to signal events with Higgs bosons decaying to τ+τ– together with background events were made available to the public through the website of the data science organization Kaggle (kaggle.com). Participants attempted to identify the search region in a space of 30 kinematic variables that would maximize the expected discovery significance of the signal process. One of the primary goals of the Challenge was to promote communication of new ideas between the Machine Learning (ML) and HEP communities. In this regard it was a resounding success, with almost 2,000 participants from HEP, ML and other areas. The process of understanding and integrating the new ideas, particularly from ML into HEP, is currently underway.


ABSTRACT Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) has caused millions of deaths, posing a substantial threat to global public health. Viruses evolve different strategies to antagonize or evade host immune responses. While ectopic expression of SARS-CoV-2 accessory protein ORF6 blocks interferon (IFN) production and downstream IFN signaling, the role of ORF6 in IFN signaling during bona fide viral infection of respiratory cells is unclear. By comparing wild-type (WT) and ORF6-deleted (ΔORF6) SARS-CoV-2 infection and IFN signaling in respiratory cells, we found that ΔORF6 SARS-CoV-2 replicates more efficiently than WT virus and, thus, stimulates more robust immune signaling. Loss of ORF6 does not alter innate signaling in infected cells: both WT and ΔORF6 virus induce delayed IFN responses only in bystander cells. Moreover, expression of ORF6 in the context of SARS-CoV-2 infection has no effect on Sendai virus-stimulated IFN induction: robust translocation of IRF3 is observed in both SARS-CoV-2 infected and bystander cells. Furthermore, IFN pretreatment potently blocks WT and ΔORF6 virus replication similarly, and both viruses fail to suppress the induction of interferon-stimulated genes (ISGs) upon IFN-β treatment. However, upon treatment with IFN-β, only bystander cells induce STAT1 translocation during infection with WT virus, whereas ΔORF6 virus-infected cells now show translocation. This suggests that under conditions of high IFN activation, ORF6 can attenuate STAT1 activation. These data provide evidence that ORF6 is not sufficient to antagonize IFN production or IFN signaling in SARS-CoV-2-infected respiratory cells but may impact the efficacy of therapeutics that stimulate innate immune pathways. IMPORTANCE Previous studies identified several SARS-CoV-2 proteins, including ORF6, that antagonize host innate immune responses in the context of overexpression of viral proteins in non-respiratory cells. We set out to determine the role of ORF6 in IFN responses during SARS-CoV-2 infection of respiratory cells. Using a deletion strain, we observed no reduction of infection and no difference in evasion of IFN signaling, with responses limited to bystander cells. Moreover, stimulation of Sendai virus-induced IFN production or IFN-β-stimulated ISG expression was comparable between SARS-CoV-2 virus and SARS-CoV-2 lacking ORF6 virus, suggesting that ORF6 is not sufficient to counteract IFN induction or IFN signaling during viral infection. Previous studies identified several SARS-CoV-2 proteins, including ORF6, that antagonize host innate immune responses in the context of overexpression of viral proteins in non-respiratory cells. We set out to determine the role of ORF6 in IFN responses during SARS-CoV-2 infection of respiratory cells. Using a deletion strain, we observed no reduction of infection and no difference in evasion of IFN signaling, with responses limited to bystander cells. Moreover, stimulation of Sendai virus-induced IFN production or IFN-β-stimulated ISG expression was comparable between SARS-CoV-2 virus and SARS-CoV-2 lacking ORF6 virus, suggesting that ORF6 is not sufficient to counteract IFN induction or IFN signaling during viral infection.


This article focuses on the expanding role of multinational corporations (MNCs) in developing countries, within the context of globalization and free trade. It demonstrates that the current state of globalization does not conform to the conventional notion of free trade. Therefore, given the prevailing circumstances, MNCs have an unfair advantage in expropriating a greater share of gains from efficiency and productivity from international trade than would be possible if labor had greater mobility or more equitable bargaining power. The article presents evidence that the arguments advanced by MNCs in defense of their position are factually incorrect and logically flawed. Next, the article examines the efforts made by MNCs to ameliorate some of the adverse conditions arising from their overseas manufacturing and sourcing operations. The findings show that most of these efforts are more rhetorical than substantive. Finally, it outlines a framework that allows multinationals to undertake meaningful actions that would both minimize the adverse consequences of, and enhance the positive benefits emanating from their overseas operations. These actions must be independently verifiable and transparent if MNCs are to gain credibility and public trust. A failure to undertake meaningful reforms will retard or even reverse the process of globalization, thus depriving all concerned of globalization's attendant benefits. Even more ominously, such a failure would seriously undermine democratic values and erode the very foundations of political and economic freedom in large parts of the world that sustain private enterprise, property rights, respect for individual freedom, and protection of human rights.


With the help of an extended mapping approach, a new type of variable separation excitation with three arbitrary functions of the (2+1)-dimensional dispersive long-water wave system (DLW) is derived. Based on the derived variable separation excitation, abundant non-propagating solitons such as dromion, ring, peakon, and compacton etc. are revealed by selecting appropriate functions in this paper.


In this report, Willis argues that tax law should pay more, not less, deference to accounting principles. This contrasts with opinion offered in an earlier Tax Notes article. He demonstrates that accrual method taxpayers subject to the Schlude requirement of income recognition on receipt suffer: They effectively pay higher taxes than are economically justified. He suggests that the same analysis holds for accrual taxpayers affected by section 461(h), dealing with the economic performance requirement for deductions. While careful planning can reduce these adverse impacts, the author suggests a change in law.One approach, deferral accounting, would solve much of the problem, although not all of it. Ideally, according to Willis, accrual taxpayers should be taxed on the economic substance of the transaction, which involves both deferral accounting plus application of time value of money principles, particularly those dealing with discount loans. But both approaches, he concludes, are far preferable to current law which distinguishes between taxpayers who borrow from their customers as opposed to those who seek capital elsewhere. This artificial distinction, argues Willis, is poor tax policy and results in unnecessary economic distortions.


With the increasing number and variety of clinical trials and observational data analyses, producers and consumers of clinical research must have a working knowledge of an array of statistical methods. Our goal with this body of work is to highlight common types of data and analyses in clinical research. We provide a brief, yet comprehensive overview of common data types in clinical research and appropriate statistical methods for analyses. These include continuous data, binary data, count data, multinomial data, and time-to-event data. We include references for further studies and real-world examples of the application of these methods. In summary, we review common continuous and discrete data, summary statistics for said data, common hypothesis tests and appropriate statistical tests, and underlying assumption for the statistical tests. This information is summarized in tabular format, for additional accessibility.


Patients with naturally occurring lesions involving the anterior cingulate cortex are rare and there thus exist very few reports of focal lesions in this area. We report a longitudinal study of a new case of selective anterior cingulate damage due to the presence of an angiocavernoma at the junction of the anterior third with the middle third of the right gyrus cinguli. Before surgery, the results of several, different tests suggested a significant impairment of executive functions, including deficits in planning, monitoring of ongoing behavior, and strategy shifting, as well as an exaggerated susceptibility to retroactive interference. Most of these symptoms disappeared completely or almost completely after the surgical removal of the angiocavernoma, although exaggerated susceptibility to interference was found to persist four months after surgery.


Given dense image feature correspondences of a non-rigidly moving object across multiple frames, this paper proposes an algorithm to estimate its 3D shape for each frame. To solve this problem accurately, the recent state-of-the-art algorithm reduces this task to set of local linear subspace reconstruction and clustering problem using Grassmann manifold representation [34]. Unfortunately, their method missed on some of the critical issues associated with the modeling of surface deformations, for e.g., the dependence of a local surface deformation on its neighbors. Furthermore, their representation to group high dimensional data points inevitably introduce the drawbacks of categorizing samples on the high-dimensional Grassmann manifold [32, 31]. Hence, to deal with such limitations with [34], we propose an algorithm that jointly exploits the benefit of high-dimensional Grassmann manifold to perform reconstruction, and its equivalent lower-dimensional representation to infer suitable clusters. To accomplish this, we project each Grassmannians onto a lower-dimensional Grassmann manifold which preserves and respects the deformation of the structure w.r.t its neighbors. These Grassmann points in the lower-dimension then act as a representative for the selection of high-dimensional Grassmann samples to perform each local reconstruction. In practice, our algorithm provides a geometrically efficient way to solve dense NRSfM by switching between manifolds based on its benefit and usage. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is very effective in handling noise with reconstruction accuracy as good as or better than the competing methods.


Today's smartphone application (hereinafter 'app') markets miss a key piece of information, power consumption of apps. This causes a severe problem for continuous sensing apps as they consume significant power without users' awareness. Users have no choice but to repeatedly install one app after another and experience their power use. To break such an exhaustive cycle, we propose PowerForecaster, a system that provides users with power use of sensing apps at pre-installation time. Such advanced power estimation is extremely challenging since the power cost of a sensing app largely varies with users' physical activities and phone use patterns. We observe that the time for active sensing and processing of an app can vary up to three times with 27 people's sensor traces collected over three weeks. PowerForecaster adopts a novel power emulator that emulates the power use of a sensing app while reproducing users' physical activities and phone use patterns, achieving accurate, personalized power estimation. Our experiments with three commercial apps and two research prototypes show that PowerForecaster achieves 93.4% accuracy under 20 use cases. Also, we optimize the system to accelerate emulation speed and reduce overheads, and show the effectiveness of such optimization techniques.


The poster presents, in a visual and graphic format, an overview of the Communist International (Comintern) and the challenge to British India in the years between the First and Second World Wars. The Comintern, composed of world communist parties, but directed by Moscow and subject to the shifting line of the Soviet leadership's foreign policy priorities, formulated an anti-imperial and colonial policy at its 2nd Congress in 1920. As a policy it remained one of the more consistent aspects of Comintern policy, largely as it focused on parts of the world beyond Europe. The poster will display aspects of this policy with respect to the situation in India, the 'jewel in the crown' of the British Empire, including the parties involved, Moscow's approach to India, and the perceptions of the British Government. The poster will fit with the meeting's theme of 'society and the sacred', engaging with questions surrounding the sanctity of India as a part of the British Empire, and how the Comintern sought to undermine it. The Comintern challenge to British India presents us with an interesting story relating to the national struggle for freedom from colonial rule in the 20th Century. Although India did achieve independence from Britain, it did not follow the direction that the Comintern had mapped out for it. Ideology became compromised, and debates arose concerning methods for achieving freedom from Britain (chiefly surrounding the issue of violence), religion, and the nature of a potential communist society dominated by a Soviet style dictatorship (in this it mirrors some aspects of discussions on the left in the Spanish Civil War). So too, we are met with issues on the side of the British about how they understood the challenge to India made by the Comintern in terms of how they identified it, and perceived and misperceived the threat. The poster will reflect the multi-dimensional aspect of the topic, and will clearly display some of its complexities. The Comintern's challenge to British India involved not only the Communist Party of India, whose leadership were instrumental in the formulation of the Theses on the National and Colonial Question, and the maintenance of the Comintern's anti-colonial and anti-imperial line, but also the Communist Party of Great Britain, which challenged British imperialism, gave support to Indian communists, and had senior figures who were themselves Indian. This two-pronged approach has made the topic difficult to grasp at times, with multiple discussions taking place at the same time, not always understanding issues in the same way. The poster will draw these threads together, and make it clear how they functioned alongside each other, showing a clear picture of the nature of the Comintern's challenge to British India between the two World Wars.


This study introduces a general methodology to process sparse floating car data, reconstruct the routes followed by the drivers, and cluster them to achieve suitable choice sets of significantly different routes for calibrating behavioural models. This methodology is applied to a large set of floating car data collected in Rome in 2010. Results underlined that routes assigned to different clusters are actually very different to each other. Nevertheless, as expected according to Wardrop's principle, the clusters belonging to the same origin-destination have rather similar average route travel times, even if there is a large range between their minimum and maximum values. A focus on drivers' behaviour highlighted their propensity to follow the same route to their usual destination, though the 12% of the drivers switched to an alternative route. However, the analysis conducted over the 1 month of observations did not reveal the existence of any systematic correlation between neither the change of route nor the change of departure time and the travel time experienced the day before.


Watershed health, including the natural environment, hydrology, water quality, and aquatic ecology, is assessed for the Han River basin (34 148 km2) in South Korea by using the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT). The evaluation procedures follow those of the Healthy Watersheds Assessment by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Six components of the watershed landscape are examined to evaluate the watershed health (basin natural capacity): stream geomorphology, hydrology, water quality, aquatic habitat condition, and biological condition. In particular, the SWAT is applied to the study basin for the hydrology and water-quality components, including 237 subwatersheds (within a standard watershed on the Korea Hydrologic Unit Map) along with three multipurpose dams, one hydroelectric dam, and three multifunction weirs. The SWAT is calibrated (2005–2009) and validated (2010–2014) by using each dam and weir operation, the flux-tower evapotranspiration, the time-domain reflectometry (TDR) soil moisture, and groundwater-level data for the hydrology assessment, and by using sediment, total phosphorus, and total nitrogen data for the water-quality assessment. The water balance, which considers the surface–groundwater interactions and variations in the stream-water quality, is quantified according to the sub-watershed-scale relationship between the watershed hydrologic cycle and stream-water quality. We assess the integrated watershed health according to the U.S. EPA evaluation process based on the vulnerability levels of the natural environment, water resources, water quality, and ecosystem components. The results indicate that the watershed's health declined during the most recent 10-year period of 2005–2014, as indicated by the worse results for the surface process metric and soil water dynamics compared to those of the 1995–2004 period. The integrated watershed health tended to decrease farther downstream within the watershed.


With the increments number of population nowadays, one of the most essential problems in rural areas is the number of students in each school which exceed the school capacity. Thus, it is important to increase the number of schools and to determine the suitable location of them. The aim of this study is to determine the most suitable sites for school using Geographic Information System (GIS 10.2) (ModelBildur)in Husseiniya district, Karbala province.  Land classification, slope, distance from the single schools, proximity to the inflated schools, work buffer 100 meters around the main roads and railways and removing them from the map, represent the main criteria used to evaluate the location suitability and the most crowded school. Schools with high number of students are calculated and evaluated (above 1000) used point density tool to calculate the largest schools inflated from students. The weighted overlay tool is also employed to weight the criteria. The results demonstrate that the developed GIS 10.2 is successfully able to determine the best school location in Husseiniya district depending on the criteria with high efficiency. The excellent performance of the developed program shows its high efficiency for best locations detection in various applications such as, Popular clinics and police stations.


SUMMARY

A new selective medium containing pentachloronitrobenzene and 2-aminobutane (the PAB medium) was developed for soil-dilution plate enumeration of fungal propagules of Fusarium solani var. coeruleum and F. sulphureum from field soil. Growth of 'weed-fungi' was less on the PAB medium than on the previously developed F. solani var. coeruleum isolation medium (the PM70 medium) and significantly more propagules of F. solani var. coeruleum were detected.

Propagule counts (x) of F. solani var. coeruleum and F. sulphureum from the PAB medium, after log10 (x/10 + 1) transformation, were linearly related to the angular transformation of measurements of soil infectivity from the tuber bait method using the susceptible cv. Catriona. Slopes from disease-inoculum regressions for F. solani var. coeruleum and F. sulphureum in November and May were similar and this suggests that the mode of pathogenic action of F. solani var. coeruleum and F. sulphureum was similar. Recently harvested tubers, inoculated in November, however, were more resistant to infection by both pathogens than stored tubers inoculated in May. Storage of air dry soil at 4°C for 6 months reduced the population of F. sulphureum but not the population of F. solani var. coeruleum.

Whereas the PAB medium is recommended primarily for use in the isolation of F. solani var. coeruleum and F. sulphureum from field soil, the PM70 medium appears to be more suitable for recovery of these pathogens and others, including Phoma exigua var. foveata from diseased tuber tissue.


Author(s): Badrani, Jana Hicham | Advisor(s): Doherty, Taylor A | Abstract: Type 2 immune responses, such as asthma, occur after exposure to allergens and are characterized by the release of cytokines that include IL4, IL5, IL9, IL10, and IL13 (Spellberg et al. 2000). Until the last decade, these cytokines were thought to be produced by conventional CD4+ Th2 cells only and thus, were identified as Th2 cytokines. However, it was recently discovered that Type 2 Innate Lymphoid cells (ILC2s) also potently produce Th2 cytokines and play a role in Type 2 immune responses. Previous research has also demonstrated that the protein, RNA Binding Motif 3 (RBM3), is one of ten highly expressed genes that contributes to airway hyperresponsiveness in an animal model of asthma. Our preliminary data has revealed that sorted ILC2s from mice challenged with the fungal allergen Alternaria have demonstrated higher expression of RBM3 when compared to PBS challenged controls. Thus, this study serves to determine the role of RBM3 in regulating ILC2 Th2 cytokine production and its contributions to type 2 inflammation. It was originally postulated that RBM3 serves to aide in cytokine production via Th2 cytokine mRNA stability; however, data acquired provides evidence of a different potential relationship between RBM3 and Th2 cytokine production. Utilizing a 7-day Alternaria model, wild-type and RBM3KO mice were challenged with Alternaria to induce asthmatic-like responses. RBM3KO mice expressed higher cell counts and percentages of eosinophils, IL5 expressing ILC2s, and IL13 expressing ILC2s than wild-type controls. In vitro data preliminarily supports that ILC2s lacking RBM3 are more active compared to WT ILC2s. These data suggest that RBM3 may be a negative regulator of ILC2 responses. This work may provide novel avenues for therapeutic approaches to asthma.


Recently, the use of a ferromagnetic material in a soft‐heating method has garnered much attention as a novel method for cancer treatment. By concurrently using this material as a thermal probe, we are currently developing a minimally invasive heating and wireless temperature measurement system. To make the approach feasible in a clinical setting, it is vital to overcome the key challenge of heating the local tumor at a constant temperature. In previous conventional approaches, it was necessary to switch the induction‐heating power supply on/off after the target tumor temperature was reached. However, it cannot determine the temperature of the material during the power‐off period. Therefore, we changed this approach and found that by adjusting the distance between the heating coil and the material while maintaining a constant current flow in heating coil, the drift problem, which happened just after power is supplied during the on/off operation, did not occur any longer. Accordingly, it was not required to use multiple sensors to reduce the drift, thereby minimizing the cost. This study verifies the validity of our wireless thermometry approach while performing rotary scanning and proposes a technique for determining achievement of the target temperature. This knowledge complements other approaches for cancer treatment utilizing hyperthermia. © 2015 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Abstract The rise of atypical forms of employment invites us to scrutinize unemployment benefit provision. Unlike the modern world of employment, based on "standard employment contract," wage-earners in the performing arts advocate for the highly flexible regime of "intermittent" employment. Through the study of the effects of a deregulated market on careers, status and meaning of work, shared by atypical wage-earners, our aim is to understand the informal role of this compensation policy for their self-conception.


In this paper I attempt to introduce Reinhold Niebuhr's 1952 book The Irony of American History to the reader of 2013, as though for a new edition. I argue that Niebuhr's warnings to Cold War-era policy-makers apply to two new audiences today: first, to those crafting policies for economic liberalization and global growth, and second, to an entire population of individual consumers in the developed world. In his book, Niebuhr describes the nature of American power, and the ironies embedded in the precipitous rise to power of a country that is, in principle, dedicated to the limitation of power. In my introduction, I point out three new levels of irony which characterize American power today. First, our position is ironic because while we aggressively promote neoliberal economic policies to the rest of the world, we achieve justice at home to the extent that we violate our own neoliberal creed. Second, our global power is ironic because we insist that, rather than wielding power or establishing control, we are deferring to a greater and more just source of organization—the free market. Third, promoting growth based on the free-market model will actually lead to our demise, first by debilitating markets themselves, then by rendering the world increasingly hostile to human life by degrading the environment. Niebuhr illuminates underlying sources for the exceptionalism and individualism which contributed to our ironic situation, both in the Cold War and today. His 1952 observations have proven prescient warnings regarding the "monstrous consequences of moral complacency about the relation of dubious means to supposedly good ends." (5) But Niebuhr could not have foreseen the dimensions that such consequences would reach, since his pessimism was tempered by his religious faith.


In this paper, we consider progressive image transmission over differentially space-time coded orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) systems and treat the problem as one of optimal joint source-channel coding (JSCC) in the form of unequal error protection (UEP), as necessitated by embedded source coding (e.g., SPIHT and JPEG 2000). We adopt a product channel code structure that is proven to provide powerful error protection and employ low-complexity decision-feedback decoding for differentially space-time coded OFDM without assuming channel state information. For a given SNR, the BER performance of the differentially space-time coded OFDM system is treated as the channel condition in the JSCC/UEP design via a fast product code optimization algorithm so that the end-to-end quality of reconstructed images is optimized in the average minimum MSE sense. Extensive image transmission experiments show that SNR/BER improvements can be translated into quality gains in reconstructed images. Moreover, compared to another non-coherent detection algorithm, i.e., the iterative receiver based on expectation-maximization algorithm for the space-time coded OFDM systems, differentially space-time coded OFDM systems suffer some quality loss in reconstructed images. With the efficiency and simplicity of decision-feedback differential decoding, differentially space-time coded OFDM is thus a feasible modulation scheme for applications such as wireless image over mobile devices (e.g., cell phones). Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This paper describes the process and outcomes of a project aimed at promoting community based multidisciplinary coordinated palliative care services in rural Australia. In preliminary health service needs assessment in rural Tasmania, key health workers appealed for additional information, support and education in palliative care. They expressed a preference for this education to be delivered locally to strengthen existing knowledge in communities and to take into account contextual factors. The project aimed to enhance skills available in rural communities by involving key stakeholders including formal and informal carers, volunteers, clergy, pharmacists, community nurses and general practitioners. The project objective was to strengthen existing expertise and commitment in rural communities, enabling service providers to respond to community needs in a sustainable way. This was achieved by facilitating options for sustainable linkages and ongoing support and through outreach programs from urban Palliative Care Units. An important element in this was the Tasmanian Telehealth network, which harnesses videoconferencing, digital diagnostic equipment and image transmission technologies to offer access to healthcare services to Tasmania's rural and isolated communities. The process centred on workshops facilitated by a multidisciplinary team, which provided information about the core components of palliative care. The paper reports on the responses of health professionals and community participants to the workshops.


Two new techniques for measuring the electrophoretic mobility of red cells and ghosts are described. In the first, the mobilities are measured in a vertical electrophoresis cell in which they are seen by phase contrast. This enables mobilities to be measured even when ghosts contain so little Hb as to be invisible with the ordinary microscope. The second method uses an Antweiler electrophoresis apparatus to give measurements of the mobility of moving boundaries between columns of red cells or ghosts and the suspension medium.

It can be shown by these methods that the usual statement that the mobilities of ghosts are the same as those of the red cells is an over-simplification. The mobilities, under comparable conditions, are more generally dependent on the method used to prepare the ghosts and on the time which has elapsed after lysis.

The statement that the isoelectric point of watery ghosts is as low as pH 2.0 or even less is confirmed, as is also the general shape of the pH-mobility dependence.

This investigation was carried out under Army Contract No. DA-49-007-MD-458.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the existing research on industrial divestment in order to identify the reasons for it, the process whereby it is achieved, and the outcomes of industrial sell-offs and closures. The study reports the main findings that have gained acceptance in the literature, gaps in the research and potential directions for future research.

Design/methodology/approach
A three stage systematic literature review protocol was used to conduct this review. The results are organized according to an "Antecedents – Process – Outcomes" framework.

Findings
The traditional accounts of industrial divestment have been framed in terms of firms' weak performance and over-diversification as antecedents to divestment, leading to corporate governance issues. However, the list of antecedents of industrial divestment is more extensive. There is no consensus over the impact of some factors on divestments, as is the case of firm and unit size. The results are not conclusive as to whether firm performance improves after divesting.

Research limitations/implications
Future research should analyze the relationship between the antecedents of investment and divestment. The divestment process is not well studied and more studies that engage in theory building are needed, namely, on primary data and examining the short-term and long-term impacts of divestment on performance.

Practical implications
This review offers a comprehensive synthesis of the antecedents, the process and outcomes of divestment through sell-offs and closures. Factors such as environmental conditions and the entry mode strategy are important in determining the divestment of subsidiaries. Divestments may be positively or negatively regarded by shareholders, depending on the context of the firm. Promoting managerial changes facilitates divestment.

Originality/value
This paper synthesizes knowledge of the main reasons as to why firms completely dispose of their assets, contributing to this under-researched field.


The stock price has long been an essential issue in stock market analysis, while rarely had any relevant study covered the relational effect of the bidder factor on stock price. Hereby we try to find an association between bid and transaction price time series. The fluctuation of pattern ratios embedded in the bid series affects the fluctuation of transaction price. That means when there is small changed amplitude of pattern occupancy ratio, there is a possibility that small fluctuation of transaction price will occur. And when there is a large changed amplify of pattern occupancy ratio, there is a possibility that large fluctuation of transaction price will occur. Also, we find the boundary value of changed amplify of pattern occupancy ratio which may lead to the relatively large fluctuation in transaction price. The finding contributes to provide reference information for the decision making of trading stock data. Additionally, we propose a new pattern-matching scheme called Visually and Practically Important Point (VPIP), which take the characteristic of the stock data into account. This scheme contributes that more valuable points can be remained in the stock time series after extracting the large number stock time series to small ones. Encouraging experiment is reported from the tests that there is an association between the bid sequence and transaction price time series of selected Chicago Stock Exchange, by using our pattern-matching scheme.


Diagnosis of pure ocular mucous membrane pemphigoid (OMMP) is based on the demonstration of linear depositions of IgG, IgA, C3 or combinations thereof alongside the epithelial basal membrane zone with direct immunofluorescence (DIF) or immunoperoxidase (DIP) analysis of a freeze biopsy of the conjunctiva in patients with cicatrizing kerato-conjunctivitis. The aims of this study were: 1) to investigate whether the direct immunoperoxidase method is more sensitive than direct immunofluorescence; 2) to analyse whether circulating antibodies against basement membrane autoantigens can be detected in DIF positive and DIF negative patients and which method is the most sensitive for this. In 11 patients with exclusively cicatrizing keratoconjunctivitis, biopsies were evaluated with DIF and DIP. Serum was investigated with indirect immunofluorescence and immunoblot. Immunofluorescence analysis revealed linear IgG and/or IgA depositions in five out of 11 conjunctival biopsies. These depositions were less intense with immunoperoxidase analysis. Serum immunofluorescence analysis was positive in only one case (20%); immunoblot analysis for circulating antibodies was positive in 4 of 5 patients (80%) with pure OMMP. With the methods used in this study: a) the immunoperoxidase analysis was no more sensitive than direct immunofluorescence, and b) the immunoblot was more sensitive in demonstrating circulating antibodies than indirect immunofluorescence.


In this study, we report the fabrication and characterization of a novel nanohetero junction structure (NHJ) UV photodetectors (PDs) on flexible polyethylene terephthalate (PET). The ZnO nanowires (NWs) were grown by 2-step hydrothermal growth (HTG) onto p-type nickel oxide (p-NiO) film deposited PET flexible substrate. For enhancing the quality and reliability of the fabricated UV PDs, the PET substrate was treated with a beforehand thermosetting process to refine its toughness and flatness. By switching the illumination UV light "on" and "off", the fabricated UV PDs biased under-5 V have an on-off current ratio of 16. After over 100 times 90o bend, the transient measurement almost has the same reversibility but on-off current ratio reducing to 10. These results suggest that the proposed n-ZnO-NWs/p-NiO NHJs on PET flexible PET substrate not only have a fairly good response to UV light but also have good endurance within suitable bend. The present optoelectronic UV sensor would provide an effective and simple way for future developments of flexible optoelectronic devices.


Summary We assayed serum thrombopoietin (TPO) levels in amegakaryocytic thrombocytopenia (AMT) and immune thrombocytopenic purpura (ITP) patients by using a newly established enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). TPO levels in AMT patients were quite high (mean ± SD = 13.7 ± 11.2 fmoles/ml, n = 4), whereas those in ITP patients were only slightly higher (1.25 ± 0.39, n = 12) than those of the healthy donors (0.55 ± 0.2, n = 20). Furthermore, in ITP patients no correlation was observed between platelet counts and serum TPO levels (correlation coefficient = 0.14). We further assayed serum TPO levels sequentially during steroid treatment in patients with AMT and ITP. In one AMT patient serum TPO levels started to decrease in accordance with the increase of megakaryocyte counts, which preceded the increase in platelet counts. However, in ITP patients serum TPO levels did not change significantly throughout the course of the treatment despite the recovery of platelet counts. Based on these findings, we conclude that serum TPO levels may be regulated at least in part by megakaryocyte counts.


Architecture, urban planning and design professions use new information technologies, established with a set of tools for digitization and visualization of design solutions and proposals. Next to this operational function, new types of data representation and visualization in different media formats including drawing materials, maps, photographs, graphics, animations, video content and other hypertext materials, enhance the communication and interaction abilities as well. With the use of data visualization tools in urban and architectural history, perception of exhibited materials in digital collections, similarly increases the skills on narrating history via graphical and visual expressions for related professions. This paper aims to discuss digital representation and multimedia uses in narrating urban and architectural history through an exhibition case, which enlarges such opportunities with a methodological experiment for interpreting historical context of four different cities, individually. Narrating urban history by overlaying different media formats from selected archives, this exhibition "Urban Intermedia: City, Archive, Narrative" presents its experiment in a methodology of combining professional practices from architecture, urban studies, and graphical design. Media used in the exhibition and entire information content may help visitors to follow urban, social, political and ecological processes through changes in professional networks, crucial for understanding with their historical background.


In line with target of the European Project "Shape Adaptive Blades for Rotorcraft Efficiency-SABRE", that is to say, to mitigate the environmental impact of the rotorcraft, a Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) morphing twist systems was developed and related performance and impact predicted. At first, the specifications of the system were generated for the reference rotorcraft. Secondly, the layout was selected basing on the capability of transferring twist. Thirdly, an advanced analysis was addressed to predict architecture performance its operational limit from a structural point of view. Then, the prototyping task was faced: a laboratory prototype was realized and tested. At this point, a review of the design and of the experimental outcomes was organized. On its basis two demonstrators were built: the former for tests in wind tunnel, the latter for validation in whirl tower. In parallel numerical investigations were addressed, to identify the optimal distribution of the SMA twist on the blade, in terms of aerodynamic-power benefits and acoustic impact of the selected solution.
 The promising outcomes of the demonstration campaign and the novel contents of the concept, jointly to the favorable advice of the European Community, led CIRA to organize a dedicated exploitation strategy and to address its intellectual protection at European level.


The influence of nitriding time and applied load in the friction-wear behaviour of an H13 steel has been studied. Weakly ionised plasma unit and a postdischarge plasma reactor were used for nitriding the H13 die steel with variations of nitriding time from 5h to 9h (at 500 oC). Optical microscopy and microhardness deep profiles of the nitrided layer were obtained for each nitriding time. Standard pin-on-disc wear test were conducted at ambient temperature (18-23 oC) and dry sliding. It was observed that the higher the nitriding time, the lower the friction coefficient variations and wear rate varied as a function of the applied load. Plastic deformation and abrasion wear resulted to be the main wear mechanism for short sliding distances, while for long sliding distances plastic deformation dominated the wear mechanism and to some extent oxidative wear. The compound layer (white layer) was central for wear and load capacity.


We show that a simple transformation between the regular lattices (the square, the triangular, and the honeycomb) belonging to the same dimensionality can explain in a natural way the universality of the critical exponents found in phase transitions and critical phenomena. It suffices that the Hamiltonian and the lattice present similar writing forms. In addition, it appears that if a property can be calculated for a given lattice then it can be extrapolated simply to any other lattice belonging to the same dimensionality. In this study, we have restricted ourselves on the spectral power amplification (SPA), we note that the SPA does not have an effect on the critical exponents but does have an effect by the criticality temperature of the lattice; the generalisation to other lattice could be shown according to the containment principle. Keywords—Ising model, phase transitions, critical temperature, critical exponent, spectral power amplification.


Research on changes in design has mainly focused on the product domain, which is the manifestation of the design process. This article investigates changes in the process domain, which describes the execution of coordinated and concurrent design activities through interdisciplinary teams. More specifically, this article focuses on changes in the iterative behavior of activities as one of the key levers determining the performance of complex concurrent design processes. In activity network–based models of design processes, the occurrence of such behavior is often expressed probabilistically through iteration-likelihoods. First, the impact of iteration-likelihood changes on the effort and duration of both individual activities and the overall design process is examined through stochastic analysis. Consequently, a method for the investigation of such changes is developed, which grounds on an experimental approach using Monte Carlo simulation of activity network–based process models. The method is applied to the design process of a high-speed machining device for the manufacturing of planetary-ball-bearing housings. This analysis results in a two-dimensional criticality ranking of potential iteration-likelihood changes and in the identification of the most affected individual activities. The article concludes with managerial implications for process planning and improvement and discusses which design activities need to be targeted by project management to prevent and react to critical iteration-likelihood changes.


Gambling is ancient leisure pursuit. In Asia, the practice of casino gaming is spreading in recent years. Now, even the idea of a casino in the sky is becoming a reality as passenger aeroplanes become fully fitted casinos.
Casual, recreational gambling can become a compulsive and pathological activity. Gambling addicts live a chaotic life, using an average of 25 credit cards by the time they declare bankruptcy. Their families are disrupted, with many members developing stress-related health problems. The social problems that accompany compulsive gambling include loss of time and productivity in the workplace, theft and embezzlement.
This article looks at how Singaporean legislation has introduced new measures not only to deal with the law and order aspects of casino operations but also to contain social problems by imposing corporate social responsibility on casino operators.


The high silica content of wheat straw is an important limiting factor for straw pulping. High silica content complicates processing and black liquor recovery, wears out factory installations, and lowers paper quality. Each section of wheat straw has different cells and chemical compositions and thus different silica content. In this work, the silica content of balled straw samples were examined according to their physical components, including internodes, nodes, leaves (sheath and blade), rachis, grain, other plant bodies, and other plant spikes. Mass distribution of silica was determined by a dry ashing method. Half (50.90%) of the silica comes from leaves, and its mechanical separation will reduce the silica content in wheat straw pulp significantly. Destroying silica bodies by sonication will increase the strength properties of straw pulp.


The aim of this study was to investigate the feasibility of using fluorine based magnetic resonance to measure accurately hepatic heating from a focused ultrasound transducer in rats. This new method uses the temperature dependence of the difference in fluorine chemical shifts within a single molecule to provide internal compensation for complicating physiological effects. Female Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to 5 minutes of CW irradiation at 1.37 MHz from a focused transducer. Theoretical calculations based on the monopole source solution to the bio-heat transfer equation gave a volume-averaged temperature rise of 2.1/spl deg/C. Preliminary experiments using protein encapsulated perfluorooctylbromide targeted to the liver gave an empirical rise of 2.0/spl plusmn/0.4/spl deg/C.


Randomised controlled trials are considered the gold standard study design, as random treatment assignment provides balance in prognosis between treatment arms and protects against selection bias. When trials are subject to departures from randomised treatment, however, simple but naive statistical methods that purport to estimate treatment efficacy, such as per protocol or as treated analyses, fail to respect this randomisation balance and typically introduce selection bias. This bias occurs because departure from randomised treatment is often clinically indicated, resulting in systematic differences between patients who do and do not adhere to their assigned intervention.
There exist more appropriate statistical methods to adjust for departure from randomised treatment but, as demonstrated by a review of published trials, these are rarely employed, primarily due to their complexity and unfamiliarity. The focus of this research has been to explore, explain, demonstrate and compare the use of causal methodologies in the analysis of trials, in order to increase the accessibility and comprehensibility by non-specialist analysts of the available, but somewhat technical, statistical methods to adjust for treatment deviations.
An overview of such methods is presented, intended as an aid to researchers new to the field of causal inference, with an emphasis on practical considerations necessary to ensure appropriate implementation of techniques, and complemented by a number of guidance tools summarising the necessary clinical and statistical considerations when carrying out such analyses. Practical demonstrations of causal analysis techniques are then presented, with existing methods extended and adapted to allow for complexities arising from the trial scenarios.
A particular application from epilepsy demonstrates the impact of various statistical factors when adjusting for skewed time-varying confounders and different reasons for treatment changes on a complicated time to event outcome, including choice of model (pooled logistic regression versus Cox models for inverse probability of censoring weighting methods, compared with a rank-preserving structural failure time model), time interval (for creating panel data for time-varying confounders and outcome), confidence interval estimation method (standard versus bootstrapped) and the considerations regarding use of spline variables to estimate underlying risk in pooled logistic regression.
In this example, the structural failure time model is severely limited by its restriction on the types of treatment changes that can be adjusted for; as such, the majority of treatment changes are necessarily censored, introducing bias similar to that in a per protocol analysis. With inverse probability weighting adjustment, as more treatment changes and confounders are accounted for, treatment effects are observed to move further away from the null. Generally, Cox models seemed to be more susceptible to changes in modelling factors (confidence interval estimation, time interval and confounder adjustment) and displayed greater fluctuations in treatment effect than corresponding pooled logistic regression models. This apparent greater stability of logistic regression, even when subject to severe overfitting, represents a major advantage over Cox modelling in this context, countering the inherent complications relating to the fitting of spline variables.
This novel application of complex methods in a complicated trial scenario provides a useful example for discussion of typical analysis issues and limitations, as it addresses challenges that are likely to be common in trials featuring problems with nonadherence. Recommendations are provided for analysts when considering which of these analysis methods should be applied in a given trial setting.


To further the advances in Human Computer Intelligent Interaction (HCII), we employ approach to integrate two modes of humancomputer communication to control a virtual environment. By using auditory and visual modes in the form of speech and gesture recognition, we outline the control of a task specific virtual environment without the need for traditional large scale virtual reality (VR) interfaces such a wand, mouse, or keyboard. By using features from both speech and gesture, a unique interface is created where different modalities complements each other in a more "human" communication style.


The four profitability measures recommended by the Farm Financial Standards Task Force have limitations for examining wealth creation. Non-farm corporations, by contrast, have started to use Economic Value Added (EVA) to measure wealth creation. EVA has some advantages over other financial ratios because it fully accounts for the resources used on the farm and it includes both realized and unrealized capital gains in the calculation. This article examines the EVA metric for three years of farm financial data to determine if it provides additional information about wealth creation and profitability than do the other four ratios. Factors that help predict EVA are also examined.


1. The activity in identified motor units supplying the coxal levator and depressor muscles of the cockroach have been recorded in intact freely walking animals and in preparations after removal of all sensory input from leg receptors. 2. Reciprocal activity in levator and depressor motoneurones can be evoked, or occurs spontaneously, in the partially de-afferented preparations, thus indicating the existence of a central locomotory rhythm generator. 3. The reciprocal activity patterns recorded in the same motoneurones in intact freely moving animals are not identical to those recorded in partially de-afferented preparations. Thus, the production of normal rhythmic leg movements depends to some extent on sensory input from leg receptors, this input probably exerting tonic and phasic effects on the central rhythm generator. 4. An increase in the resistance to leg retraction during normal walking results in an increase in discharge rate of the levator and depressor motoneurones. This observation further demonstrates that rhythmic leg movements are not exclusively centrally controlled. The receptors responsible for this reflex effect are probably the trochanteral campaniform sensilla.


We have studied InGaN single-quantum-well (SQW) films using atomic force microscopy (AFM) and cathodoluminescence (CL) spectroscopy. It has been found that a screw dislocations (SDs) distribution in the height image by AFM is well correlated with images of the CL spectra at about 440nm assigned to the spontaneous emission from the InGaN SQW. These results at least mean an existence of non-radiative recombination centers within the InGaN SQW films. It has been also found that the average period of the peak-intensity and the FWHM change is smaller than that of the peak-wavelength change assigned to InN mole fluctuations. These results suggest that the exciton diffusion length of the spontaneous emission at about 440nm is not larger than the average period of InN mole fluctuations in the InGaN SQW.


A new method of sorptional detoxication (hemosorption) was used in the treatment of schizophrenia. The method consisted in blood perfusion through activated carbon. In all, 13 sessions of hemosorption were performed in 9 patients with different forms of schizophrenia. The preliminary data indicate that detoxicational hemosorption facilitates rapid disappearance of psychotic symptomatology, permits the doses of psychopharmacological drugs and the duration of hospital treatment to be significantly reduced.


Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to analyze the impact of applying alternative Shariah screens on the resulting universe of halal assets and to show that Shariah screening procedures currently used in practice are inconsistent with respect to discriminating between halal and haram. Design/methodology/approach - An empirical data analysis of the different asset universes obtained when applying the criteria specified by the most prominent Shariah-compliant funds and indexes to a common standard asset universe, the assets contained in the S&P 500 index. Findings - Analysis reveals that the asset universes are significantly different in size as well as constituents, i.e. for every index there is a substantial number of assets which are specified as halal or haram but classified the opposite way for other indexes. This indicates that, so far, there is no universal or generally accepted understanding of how to transform the descriptive Shariah rules into a system of checkable investment guidelines. Research limitations/implications - The results presented in this paper could motivate the development of a standardized screening framework which, taking into account the existing Shariah guidelines, produces a controlled, unified and understandable classification of assets, by which the credibility and consistency of Islamic equity products is enriched. Practical implications - Islamic institutions and Shariah scholars are guided to set up a common and standardized Shariah screening norm based on which computer-based management systems for Shariah compatible portfolios could be developed. Originality/value - This paper is believed to be the first empirical comparative analysis identifying the impact of using different Shariah screens on the composition of the compliant asset universe. The sensitization of Shariah scholars, fund managers and Islamic investors for the consequences of this so far undiscovered relation will certainly contribute to an enrichment of the credibility and consistency of Islamic equity products.


Early multi-label classification of time series, the assignment of a label set to a time series before the series is entirely observed, is critical for time-sensitive domains such as healthcare. In such cases, waiting too long to classify can render predictions useless, regardless of their accuracy, while predicting prematurely can result in potentially costly erroneous results. When predicting multiple labels (for example, types of infections), dependencies between labels can be learned and leveraged to improve overall accuracy. Together, reliably predicting the correct label set of a time series while observing as few timesteps as possible is challenging because these goals are contradictory in that fewer timesteps often means worse accuracy. To achieve early yet sufficiently accurate predictions, correlations between labels must be accounted for since direct evidence of some labels may only appear late in the series. We design an effective solution to this open problem, the Recurrent Halting Chain (RHC), that for the first time integrates key innovations in both Early and Multi-label Classification into one multi-objective model. RHC uses a recurrent neural network to jointly model raw time series as well as correlations between labels, resulting in a novel order-free classifier chain that tackles this time-sensitive multi-label learning task. Further, RHC employs a reinforcement learning-based halting network to decide at each timestep which, if any, classes should be predicted, learning to build the label set over time. Using two real-world time-sensitive datasets and popular multi-label metrics, we show that RHC outperforms recent alternatives by predicting more-accurate label sets earlier.


ANANT R. KUKRETI, Ph.D., is Director for Engineering Outreach and Professor in the Department of Biomedical, Chemical and Environmental Engineering at the University of Cincinnati (UC), Cincinnati Ohio, USA. He joined UC on 8/15/00 and before that worked 22 years at University of Oklahoma. He teaches structural mechanics, with research in steel structures, seismic analysis and design, and engineering education. He has won five major university teaching awards, two Professorships, two national ASEE teaching awards, and is internationally recognized in his primary research field.


This paper focuses on a novel mechanism for market segmentation and price discrimination based on consumers' use of online infomediaries. Using the auto-retailing context as the setting for our study we address the following question: Can online infomediaries serve as a viable mechanism for market segmentation and price discrimination for traditional dealers and manufacturers? We draw upon a unique and extensive dataset of consumers who report on their information retrieval patterns as well as their online buying services (OBS) usage patterns in their new vehicle purchase process. The analysis of information retrieval patterns shows that consumers who obtain price information pay lower prices (for the same vehicle) compared to consumers who obtain product information. While this points to the existence of consumer segments with significantly different willingness-to-pay for the same product, this knowledge is of limited value without a viable mechanism that enables firms to specifically identify and target these customer-segments. Based on consumer usage patterns of OBSs, we then uncover distinct OBS clusters and empirically demonstrate that the usage of these different clusters is associated with predicted differences in consumer outcomes. We also show that the differential use of online infomediaries (OBS clusters) is systematically related to underlying consumer characteristics. We discuss the relevance of our findings for auto-dealers and manufacturers as well as for other industries where online infomediaries have established a significant presence.


A scale and orientation adaptive mean shift tracking (SOAMST) algorithm is proposed in this study to address the problem of how to estimate the scale and orientation changes of the target under the mean shift tracking framework. In the original mean shift tracking algorithm, the position of the target can be well estimated, whereas the scale and orientation changes cannot be adaptively estimated. Considering that the weight image derived from the target model and the candidate model can represent the possibility that a pixel belongs to the target, the authors show that the original mean shift tracking algorithm can be derived using the zeroth- and the first-order moments of the weight image. With the zeroth-order moment and the Bhattacharyya coefficient between the target model and candidate model, a simple and effective method is proposed to estimate the scale of target. Then an approach, which utilises the estimated area and the second-order centre moment, is proposed to adaptively estimate the width, height and orientation changes of the target. Extensive experiments are performed to testify the proposed method and validate its robustness to the scale and orientation changes of the target.


The mammalian auditory nerve represents both the informational output of the ear and the input to the brain. Hallowell Davis was one of the pioneers in recording the electrical manifestations of auditory‐nerve activity. He and his colleagues carried such studies from their virtual inception to eventual success in recording from single fibers and in so doing built a theoretical framework upon which to interpret data. Since his efforts, some of the physiological data have been expanded or corrected, new anatomical results have been incorporated and major revisions in theory have been proposed. Some of these advances have changed our understanding of how auditory‐nerve responses arise and others have improved our understanding of what information is available to the central nervous system. This paper will review such progress including topics such as feedback mechanisms, comparative aspects, developmental ideas, and practical implications. Far from being an exhausted area for research, the auditory nerve continues to challenge experimentalists and theoreticians alike in posing problems that Davis foresaw but still remain unsolved.The mammalian auditory nerve represents both the informational output of the ear and the input to the brain. Hallowell Davis was one of the pioneers in recording the electrical manifestations of auditory‐nerve activity. He and his colleagues carried such studies from their virtual inception to eventual success in recording from single fibers and in so doing built a theoretical framework upon which to interpret data. Since his efforts, some of the physiological data have been expanded or corrected, new anatomical results have been incorporated and major revisions in theory have been proposed. Some of these advances have changed our understanding of how auditory‐nerve responses arise and others have improved our understanding of what information is available to the central nervous system. This paper will review such progress including topics such as feedback mechanisms, comparative aspects, developmental ideas, and practical implications. Far from being an exhausted area for research, the auditory nerve con...


OF THESIS Fabrication and Simulation of Perovskite Solar Cells Since the dawning of the industrial revolution, the world has had a need for mass energy production. In the 1950s silicon solar panels were invented. Silicon solar panels have been the main source of solar energy production. They have set the standard for power conversion efficiency for subsequent generations of photovoltaic technology. Solar panels utilize light's ability to generate an electron hole pair. By creating a PN Junction in the photovoltaic semiconductor, the electron and hole are directed in opposing layers of the solar panel generating the electric current. Second generation solar panels utilized different thin film materials to fabricate solar panels. Materials such as Cadmium Telluride, Copper Indium Gallium Selenide, and amorphous silicon. This technology is now seen commercially available around the world. In the research community a third generation of solar panel technology is being developed. Perovskites are an emerging third generation solar panel technology. Perovskites' power conversion efficiency have increased from 3.8% to 24.2% over the span of a decade. Perovskite crystals have desirable optical properties such has a high absorption coefficient, long carrier diffusion length, and high photoluminescence. The most prominent types of perovskites for solar cell research are organic metal halide perovskites. These perovskites utilize the desirable properties of organic electronics. Electrochemical techniques such as additives, catalysts, excess of particular chemicals, and variations in antisolvents impact the electronic properties of the perovskite crystal. The perovskite is however on layer of the device. Solar cell devices incorporate multiple layers. The materials for the electron transport layer, hole transport material, and choice of metal electrode have an impact on device performance and the current voltage relationship. Current silicon photovoltaic devices are more expensive than conventional fossil fuel. Modeling perovskite solar cells in a simulated environment is critical for data analytics, real fabrication behavior projection, and quantum mechanics of the semiconductor device. Photovoltaic semiconductors are diodes which produce a current when exposed to light. The ideality factor is a parameter which tells how closely a semiconductor behaves to an ideal diode. In an ideal diode, the only mechanism for hole electron recombination is direct bimolecular recombination. Because there are multiple mechanisms of recombination, there are no real devices with a perfect ideality factor. The types of recombination occurring within a device can be inferred by its ideality factor. In this research. Analyzing fabricated perovskite solar cells using their ideality factor can indicate which type of recombination is dominant in the device. The interaction between the perovskite crystal and transport layers is of high interest as differentials in energy level bands can hinder overall power conversion efficiency and act as a site for nonradiative recombination loss. In addition, the use of Machine Learning (ML) to research and predict the opto-electronic properties of perovskite can greatly accelerate the development of this technology. ML techniques such as Linear Regression (LR), Support Vector Regression (SVR), and Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) can greatly improve the chemical processing and manufacturing techniques. Such tools used to improve this technology have major impacts for the further proliferation of solar energy on a national scale. These tools can also be used to optimize power conversion efficiency of perovskites, This optimization is critical for commercial use of perovskite solar panel technology. Various electrochemical and fabrication strategies are currently being researched in order to optimize power conversion efficiency and minimize energy loss. There are current results which suggest the addition of particular ions in the perovskite crystal have a positive impact on the power conversion efficiency. The qualities of the cell such as crystallinity, defects, and grain size play important roles in the electrical properties of the cell. Along with the quality of the perovskite crystal, its interfacing with the transport layers plays a critical role in the operation of the device. In this thesis, perovskite solar cells are fabricated and simulated to research their optoelectronic properties. The optoelectronic behavior of simulated solar cells is manipulated to match that or cells. By researching this new optoelectronic material in a virtual environment, applicability and plausibility are demonstrated. This legitimizes the continued research of this third-generation solar panel material.


Climate fluctuations at geological timescales control the capacity of rivers to transport sediment with consequences
on geochemical cycles, sedimentary basins dynamics and sedimentation/tectonics interactions. While the impact
of differential friction generated by riparian vegetation has been studied for individual flood events, its impact
on the long-term sediment transport capacity of rivers, modulated by the frequency of floods remains unknown.
Here, we investigate this effect on a simplified river-floodplain configuration obeying observed hydraulic scaling
laws. We numerically integrate the full-frequency magnitude distribution of discharge events and its impact on the
transport capacity of bedload and suspended material for various level of vegetation-linked differential friction.
We demonstrate that riparian vegetation by acting as a virtual confinement of the flow i) increases significantly the
instantaneous transport capacity of the river independently of the transport mode and ii) increases the long term
bedload transport rates as a function of discharge variability. Our results expose the dominance of flood frequency
rather than riparian vegetation on the long term sediment transport capacity. Therefore, flood frequency has to be
considered when evaluating long-term bedload transport capacity while floodplain vegetation is important only in
high discharge variability regimes.
By comparing the transport capacity of unconfined alluvial rivers and confined bedrock gorges, we demonstrate
that the latter always presents the highest long term transport capacity at equivalent width and slope. The loss
of confinement at the transition between bedrock and alluvial river must be compensated by a widening or a
steepening of the alluvial channel to avoid infinite storage. Because steepening is never observed in natural system,
we compute the alluvial widening factor value that varies between 3 to 11 times the width of the bedrock channel
depending on riparian vegetation and discharge variability. This result is well supported by measurements made
in natural river systems in different worldwide locations (Taiwan, Himalayas and New Zealand). Although bank
cohesion is often invoked to as a property that sets alluvial river width, we propose unconfinement as another
important control factor.


Science museums with hands-on and interactive exhibits are on the rise. As museums grow, the need arises to have an online platform to allow visitors to continue their experience beyond a day visit. In this paper, we first provide a brief survey of techniques for building scalable cloud native software frameworks. In order to achieve low cost and persist user data, we built a django application using Heroku and postgres. This platform can be scaled horizontally on-demand to handle highly variant user traffic for augmenting the museum experience. With a focus on educational experiences, a participant's progress on activities at the museum are saved through an API we built and can be viewed on a website. Different activities at the museum generate data for the API which can be viewed anywhere. Simulated data was loaded into our framework to validate the efficacy of our solution. Future testing is outlined in collaboration with the Fleischmann Planetarium through a trial experiment with museum visitors.


The nanostructure was obtained in a duplex stainless steel (DSS) by means of equal channel angular pressing. The mechanical properties were characterized by uniaxial tensile tests, while the microstructure was investigated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). It was shown that the yield strength in a deformed nanostructure increased significantly from 402 MPa to 1461 MPa as compared to its coarse-grained counterpart. In contrast, the uniform elongation decreased significant to only 2% together with elongation to failure of 9.8%, much lower than those of 25.4% and 42.6%. After annealing at 700°C for 10 minute, however, uniform elongation increases to 5.3% with the yield strength of 1200 MPa. TEM observation exhibited that deformation twins prevail in the austenite phase whereas the dislocations of high density present in ferrite. The plastic behavior in both phases was analyzed based on the deformation twinning and the presence of dislocation. Finally, the effect of the microstructure on mechanical properties was discussed.


A series of 1ʹ-acetoxychavicol acetate analogues were synthesised and evaluated for their antimicrobial activity against methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) using broth microdilution technique. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was used to determine whether the compounds had potential as inhibitory agents against the MRSA ATCC 43300, and the compounds with antimicrobial potential (<2000 μg ml–1) were tested for minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). Based on this assay, compound 1 exhibited potent antimicrobial activity with MIC value of 250 μg ml–1. Meanwhile, compounds 2 and 13 showed the moderate activity with MIC values of 500 μg ml–1, respectively.


Ambient obscurance (AO) produces perceptually important illumination effects such as darkened corners, cracks, and wrinkles; proximity darkening; and contact shadows. We present the AO algorithm from the Alchemy engine used at Vicarious Visions in commercial games. It is based on a new derivation of screen-space obscurance for robustness, and the insight that a falloff function can cancel terms in a visibility integral to favor efficient operations. Alchemy creates contact shadows that conform to surfaces, captures obscurance from geometry of varying scale, and provides four intuitive appearance parameters: world-space radius and bias, and aesthetic intensity and contrast.
 The algorithm estimates obscurance at a pixel from sample points read from depth and normal buffers. It processes dynamic scenes at HD 720p resolution in about 4.5 ms on Xbox 360 and 3 ms on NVIDIA GeForce580.


Background: Meconium is not only a potential sign of fetal hypoxia but is also a potential toxin if the fetus aspirates particulate matters with a gasping breath in utero or when it takes its first breaths following birth. In addition to this the condition of the mother who gives birth in such circumstances is a concern. Methods: A hospital based cross-sectional descriptive study was carried out on labouring mothers with meconium stained amniotic fluid who delivered in the labor ward of Jimma University Specialized Hospital during October1, 2012 to December 30, 2012. All labouring mothers with meconium stained amniotic fluid (MSAF) during the study period were included. Data on history of the patient, patient specific demographics and obstetric information was collected using pretested structured questionnaire. Relevant data was abstracted from the neonatal chart and the logbook in the neonatology ward. Statistical tests of association using SPSS (version 16.0, IBM Corporation) were employed at the level of significance of 5%. Results: The overall rate of meconium stained amniotic fluid was 15.4% (151/979) and 74.8% of the cases had moderate to thick meconium stained amniotic fluid. Mode of delivery in 70.2% of cases was operative delivery; and those mothers with a grade three meconium stained liquor had about 5 times increased risk of operative delivery when compared with mothers with grade 1 staining (OR=4.66, 95%CI:1.52-14.30). First minute Apgar score was less than 7 in 88% of the new born while it was less than 4 in 15% of the cases. However, there was no statistically significant association between the thickness of meconium and low first minute Apgar score. Those babies who were delivered with operative delivery had 16 times increased risk of low 5th minute Apgar score. Among the 27.1% of new born sent to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, 71.4% (19.9% of the total) were diagnosed to have Meconium Aspiration Syndrome with clinical examination alone. Those new-borns with first minute Apgar score<7 had three times increased risk of MAS (95% CI: 1.087-10.668) and the presence of meconium stained secretion in the oropharynx of a new born resulted in 9 times increased risk of Meconium Aspiration Syndrome. Conclusion: The study revealed that Moderate to thick meconium stained amniotic fluid was associated with increased risk of operative delivery, low 5th minute Apgar score and Meconium Aspiration Syndrome. Shortening the threshold for intervention for labor with fetal heart rate abnormalities in the presence of meconium stained amniotic fluid and introducing further fetal evaluation methods like fetal scalp PH analysis are recommended.


This paper describes the underlying principles of a computer model, CHREST+, which learns to solve problems using diagrammatic representations. Although earlier work has determined that experts store domain-specific information within schemata, no substantive model has been proposed for learning such representations. We describe the different strategies used by subjects in constructing a diagrammatic representation of an electric circuit known as an AVOW diagram, and explain how these strategies fit a theory for the learnt representations. Then we describe CHREST+, an extended version of an established model of human perceptual memory. The extension enables the model to relate information learnt about circuits with that about their associated AVOW diagrams, and use this information as a schema to improve its efficiency at problem solving.


Risks and communication surrounding risks must be interpreted and responded to by employees in a way that honors the organization's health and safety (H&S) goals. This chapter integrates sensemaking theory and organizational risk management processes. In doing so, information is gleaned about gaps in risk communication messaging and dissemination. This proposed model has the potential to enhance the organizational and communication processes necessary to support the cognitive, motivation, and social coordination components in risk communication messaging that underlie H&S decision making.


Graphene oxide (GO) is employed as a hole conductor in inverted planar heterojunction perovskite solar cells, and the devices with CH₃NH₃PbI₃-xClx as absorber achieve an efficiency of over 12%. The perovskite film grown on GO exhibits enhanced crystallization, high surface coverage ratio as well as preferred in-plane orientation of the (110) plane. Efficient hole extraction from the perovskite to GO is demonstrated.


Providing intraarticular analgesia with a continuous infusion of local anesthetic via a disposable infusion pump has gained popularity. Despite the prevalence of this technique, data comparing this method of analgesia to conventional regional anesthesia are not available. We present a prospective study that compared a single-dose interscalene block with a single-dose interscalene block plus continuous intraarticular infusion of local anesthetic. Forty patients scheduled for shoulder arthroscopy were entered in this prospective, double-blinded study. All patients received an interscalene brachial plexus block as their primary anesthetic. Patients were randomly assigned to 1 of 2 groups: 1. interscalene block with 1.5% mepivacaine (40 mL) followed by a postoperative intraarticular infusion of 0.5% ropivacaine at 2 mL/h, or 2. interscalene block with 0.5% ropivacaine (40 mL) followed by a postoperative intraarticular infusion of 0.9% saline (placebo) at 2 mL/h. Postoperative infusions were maintained for 48 h. Visual analog scale pain scores and postoperative oxycodone consumption were measured for 48 h. Visual analog scale scores at rest and with ambulation in the Mepivacaine/Intraarticular Ropivacaine group were reduced when compared with the Ropivacaine/Saline group (rest:P = 0.003, ambulation:P = 0.006). Oxycodone consumption was also decreased (28 ± 21 mg vs 44 ± 28 mg, P = 0.046), respectively. We conclude that a brachial plexus block with 1.5% mepivacaine and a continuous intraarticular infusion of 0.5% ropivacaine at 2 mL/h provides improved analgesia for minor surgery at 24 and 48 h versus a single-injection interscalene block with 0.5% ropivacaine.