Electronic business surely represents the new development perspective for world-wide trade. Together with the idea of ebusiness, and the exigency to exchange business messages between trading partners, the concept of business-to-business (B2B) integration arouse. B2B integration is becoming necessary to allow partners to communicate and exchange business documents, like catalogues, purchase orders, reports and invoices, overcoming architectural, applicative, and semantic differences, according to the business processes implemented by each enterprise. Business relationships can be very heterogeneous, and consequently there are variousways to integrate enterprises with each other. Moreover nowadays not only large enterprises, but also the small- and medium- enterprises are moving towards ebusiness: more than two-thirds of Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) use the Internet as a business tool. One of the business areas which is actively facing the interoperability problem is that related with the supply chain management. In order to really allow the SMEs to improve their business and to fully exploit ICT technologies in their business transactions, there are three main players that must be considered and
joined: the new emerging ICT technologies, the scenario and the requirements of the enterprises and the world of standards and standardisation bodies. This thesis presents the definition and the development of an interoperability framework (and the bounded standardisation intiatives) to provide the Textile/Clothing sectorwith a shared set of
business documents and protocols for electronic transactions. Considering also some limitations, the thesis proposes a ontology-based approach to improve the functionalities of the developed framework and, exploiting the technologies of the semantic web, to improve the standardisation life-cycle, intended as the development, dissemination and adoption of B2B protocols for specific
business domain. The use of ontologies allows the semantic modellisation of knowledge domains, upon which it is possible to develop a set of components for a better management of B2B protocols, and to ease their comprehension and adoption for the target users.


Background: Cisplatin-based chemoradiotherapy (CRT) has been a standard treatment for patients with locally advanced esophageal cancer. However, cisplatin is associated with significant toxicity. We conducted a phase II clinical trial of concurrent paclitaxel, carboplatin, and radiation with or without surgery as an alternative to the standard cisplatin-based CRT for localized and metastatic esophageal cancer. Methods: Fifty patients with esophageal cancer were enrolled: 16 patients with stage II, eight patients with stage III, and 26 patients with stage IV disease. Two thirds (67%) of patients had adenocarcinoma and one third (33%) with squamous histology. Patients with resectable disease were treated with paclitaxel 30 mg/m2, twice weekly for 10 doses, carboplatin AUC (area under the curve) 1.5 weekly for five doses; and concurrent radiation, 1.8 Gy/day, for a total of 45 Gy, followed by esophagectomy. Without surgery, patients received an additional dose each of paclitaxel and carboplatin with concurrent radiation for a total of 50.4 Gy, followed by two consolidation cycles of paclitaxel (200 mg/m2) and carboplatin (AUC 6). Results: During CRT, common stage III/IV toxicities included nausea/emesis (19%), esophagitis (9%), and neutropenia (4%). For consolidation chemotherapy, neutropenia (23%), neuropathy (8%) and nausea/emesis (4%) were the most common stage III/IV side effects. After CRT, 26% had a complete response, 17% had a partial response, and 41% had stable disease. Ninety-one percent of patients had clinical improvement of dysphagia. With a median follow-up of 32 months, the median survival was 12 months for patients with metastatic disease, 44 months for localized disease treated with esophagectomy, and >44 months for localized disease treated with definitive CRT. Conclusions: The regimen of paclitaxel, carboplatin, and radiation with or without surgery is well tolerated with promising efficacy for patients with esophageal cancer.


Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) rarely occurs in individuals under the age of 30, and genetic causes of early-onset FTD are largely unknown. The current report follows a 27 year-old patient with no significant past medical history presenting with two years of progressive changes in behavior, rushed speech, verbal aggression, and social withdrawal. MRI and FDG-PET imaging of the brain revealed changes maximally in the frontal and temporal lobes, which along with the clinical features, are consistent with behavioral variant FTD. Next generation sequencing of a panel of 28 genes associated with dementia and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) initially revealed a duplication of exon 15 in Matrin-3 (MATR3). Whole genome sequencing determined that this genetic anomaly was, in fact, a sequence corresponding with full-length MATR3 variant 5 inserted into chromosome 12, indicating retrotransposition from a messenger RNA intermediate. To our knowledge, this is a novel mutation of MATR3, as the majority of mutations in MATR3 linked to FTD-ALS are point mutations. Genomic DNA analysis revealed that this mutation is also present in one unaffected first-degree relative and one unaffected second-degree relative. This suggests that the mutation is either a disease-causing mutation with incomplete penetrance, which has been observed in heritable FTD, or a benign variant. Retrotransposons are not often implicated in neurodegenerative diseases; thus, it is crucial to clarify the potential role of this MATR3 variant 5 retrotransposition in early-onset FTD.


Hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are expected to play an important role in the future and thus have improved significantly over the past years. Hydrogen fuel cell motorcycles with a small container for compressed hydrogen gas have been developed in Japan along with related regulations. As a result, national regulations have been established in Japan after discussions with Japanese motorcycle companies, stakeholders, and experts. The concept of Japanese regulations was proposed internationally, and a new international regulation on hydrogen-fueled motorcycles incorporating compressed hydrogen storage systems based on this concept are also established as United Nations Regulation No. 146. In this paper, several technical regulations on hydrogen safety specific to fuel cell motorcycles incorporating compressed hydrogen storage systems are summarized. The unique characteristics of these motorcycles, e.g., small body, light weight, and tendency to overturn easily, are considered in these regulations.


The works described herein have augmented existing research by generating new knowledge on microvascular haemodynamics. Meaningful data has been produced and published, with the ultimate aim of contributing to reduction in free-flap failure rates secondary to anastomotic thrombosis.
Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and Finite Element Analysis (FEA) simulations have been combined with in vivo flow data to create increasingly realistic anastomotic models, verified using analytic and numeric techniques. Both hand-sutured and mechanically coupled vessels have been compared, with focus placed on suture positioning and its affect on local haemodynamics. As Shear Strain Rate (SSR) influences thrombus formation, areas of high SSR were targeted throughout. Computational simulations investigated approximations of anastomotic SSR for steady-state and transient flows, using Newtonian and non-Newtonian rheological models, with both compliant and rigid vessel walls.
This body of research has generated several novel findings. Notably, it has developed and verified the first computational microarterial anastomosis simulation
demonstrating realistic sutures, and incorporating a measured human arterial pulse. Of relevance to clinicians, it has demonstrated that the presence of sutures, and extremes of suture orientation and spacing, significantly influences approximations of anastomotic SSR. This may increase anastomotic thrombus risk. Coupled arterial anastomosis simulations were found to demonstrate more favourable haemodynamic properties, almost equivalent to those seen in pristine vessels. This provides some evidence, not only in favour of arterial coupling, but also for alternative non-suture methods of performing microarterial anastomoses.
It has been demonstrated that steady-state CFD simulations underestimate SSR predictions when compared with a realistic pulsatile waveform.
Investigating the influence of rheological models has shown that each non-Newtonian constitutive model predicts similar values of SSR at the vessel wall, as they approximate a Newtonian case. In addition, for compliant vessel walls, it has been demonstrated that the maximum principal strain in a sutured anastomosis is greater than that seen in both pristine vessels and coupled anastomoses. Finally, simulating sutured anastomoses using FEA in the way described herein is representative of the clinical picture immediately following surgery.
Improvements in surgical techniques and patient outcomes are the ultimate goals of this work. Whilst this will take considerable further time and research to impact the surgical community as a whole, the author has already adapted his microsurgical technique based on the findings herein, and is disseminating these best practices directly to trainees. Importantly, the simulations performed and data gathered within the published work goes some way to fill pre-existing voids in the literature.


This article contains a study of international and national measures dealing with the potential threat of pollution and the introduction of alien species that may come from the discharge of improperly treated ballast water. Ballast water management policy, law and coastal biosecurity strategies are considered. There are challenges to achieving the ideals of ballast water laws, as correctly pointed out by President Denholm of the Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO), such as the cost of achieving these measures in today9s economic climate; however, this article emphasizes the long-term effects of ignoring proper ballast water management. This article encourages a sustained commitment to strategies aimed at dealing with pollution and the harm that may be caused by marine invasive species that often find their way around the world as a result of ballast water discharges. With the imminent implementation of international law on ballast water and a federal court of appeals in the United States ordering the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to rewrite a portion of its ballast water dumping rules, ballast water policy justly deserves unrelenting global attention.


This paper is concerned with the application of marketing and management science to some of the problems involved in managing a series of performing arts presentations. Although some of the decisions are largely "artistic" and not subject to formal analytic procedures, many other decisions can be aided by model-based procedures. This paper describes some of the analytic procedures which are being used by the management of one performing arts series. The starting point for ARTS PLAN is dummy variable regression analysis of historical data which leads to a prediction of attendance at future performances. This prediction can be overridden by the manager if he or she disagrees with the forecast The forecast is then embedded in an interactive model which can be used for planning a season or for deciding which events to promote in a season already planned.


Due to the over-smoothing issue, most existing graph neural networks can only capture limited dependencies with their inherently finite aggregation layers. To overcome this limitation, we propose a new kind of graph convolution, called Graph Implicit Nonlinear Diffusion (GIND), which implicitly has access to infinite hops of neighbors while adaptively aggregating features with nonlinear diffusion to prevent over-smoothing. Notably, we show that the learned representation can be formalized as the minimizer of an explicit convex optimization objective. With this property, we can theoretically characterize the equilibrium of our GIND from an optimization perspective. More interestingly, we can induce new structural variants by modifying the corresponding optimization objective. To be specific, we can embed prior properties to the equilibrium, as well as introducing skip connections to promote training stability. Extensive experiments show that GIND is good at capturing long-range dependencies, and performs well on both homophilic and heterophilic graphs with nonlinear diffusion. Moreover, we show that the optimization-induced variants of our models can boost the performance and improve training stability and efficiency as well. As a result, our GIND obtains significant improvements on both node-level and graph-level tasks.


Food deserts are demarcated areas characterized by limited food access, often defined by geographical distance from grocery stores. Literature suggests that food deserts are produced through uneven development, but also racial bias in the location of grocery stores. Socio-economic inequalities thus intersect with racialized landscapes, and this suggests that food deserts are both culturally and economically produced. Research on food desert solutions often emphasize narrow spatial analyses that privilege geographic solutions, as well as incorporate whitened understandings of access to food. We assert that food access is shaped by the racialized construction of places, and that small-scale grocery stores, which are understudied in food desert research, may be useful places to study how access to food is culturally produced. Using intercept interviews inside and outside of two small-scale grocery stores, we examined the production of social exclusion around food access in a USDA classified food desert in a small Southern city. We conclude that economic development that integrates community organizing and place-making activities are keys to mitigating social exclusion in food deserts, and call for further research on in the role of place in shaping access to food.


Extended Heim Theory (EHT) suggests two additional gravity-like fundamental forces and proposes the possibility of propellant-less propulsion for space flight. If sufficiently safe and cost effective, technology spinoffs may prove to be disruptive for terrestrial applications. Applications based upon advancements in this field could have far-reaching implications for transportation, architecture, urban planning and industry. Coupled with promising distributed energy technologies of sufficiently high specific energy, the impact upon local economies, social systems and even representational democracies may be a challenge to future generations.


At a time of complex change in the provision of higher education by Institutes of Technology (IOTs)
in Ireland, this qualitative study provides significant insights into the factors which have
impact on academic creativity and innovation inside higher education institutions (HEIs). Curriculum development processes were examined in four Irish IOTs and
one university, employing a constructivist grounded theory case study methodology.
Interviews were conducted to gather experiences of 20 Irish academics. Five rounds of data analysis
were processed with QSR NVivo software.

A creativity paradox was uncovered: contemporary Higher Education (HE) policies promote cultures
of creativity and innovation, yet, in practice, academics feel restricted in New Programme
Development and Validation (NPDV) by greater regulatory compliance and sector
rationalisation. However, despite increasingly complex HE controls, study findings show the
significant impact of leadership within the HEI, and that a climate for academic
creativity and innovation can exist, if the organisational climate conditions of effective
leadership; trust; transparency; managerial and innovation process support are in place.
Where present, these conditions have a positive impact on progress in the development of
creative new programmes of learning and on the wider climate for creativity and
innovation in the IOT. The in-depth interrogation of curriculum development and validation
processes in Irish HEIs is the first of two primary contributions to knowledge of this research.

Though state level regulatory compliance legacies represent a significant bureaucratic load on
the IOTs, the impetus for HEI regulatory policies in Ireland increasingly originates from
European Union (EU) HE agendas. Within the literature, there are criticisms of an EU creativity
and innovation agenda for HE which is not sufficiently broad based and is heavily focused on
servicing industry interests (Duff, 2011; MacLaren, 2012; Moutsios, 2013). Benefits of
this creativity agenda are acknowledged, but a counterbalanced, more holistic approach
to creativity development in HE, represented by the Humboldtian higher education ideal is
advocated.

A synthesis of findings led to the development of the three-level model for organisational
creativity and innovation in higher education, the second primary contribution to knowledge
of this research. The model illustrates the HEI climate factors, experienced by academics to have
impact on creativity and innovation in Irish HEIs. Factors emerged at three
levels: individual/team; organisational and meta-organisational. The findings of this study were
found to align at individual/team and organisational levels, with Amabile's (1988) componential
model for organisational creativity and innovation.

The development of this three-level model is timely, given the change impetus in the
IOT sector towards the development of technological universities in Ireland, in addition to
the financial, technological and global competitiveness challenges currently facing the institutes. The model will serve as a comprehensive tool, informing HEI senior management and policy
developers of the factors which must be addressed, to develop an authentic HE climate conducive to
creativity and innovation. To this end, HEI policymakers are encouraged to think creativity
first when considering implementation of new HE regulatory policies and practices. The findings
in this study will contribute to the ongoing policy discourse about the future of the IOTs during a
period of significant change in the sector.


The use of 'support-verbs' is not specifically limited to Modern French. Old French displays some striking similarities on this point with further development of the French language. This is what emerges from the study of the verb doner {donner) throughout a corpus regrouping the works of Chretien de Troyes. In many cases the relation shows both a morphological connection and a semantic equivalence, e.g. doner consoillconseillier {i.e. to advise). But the semantic equivalence may appear regularly without any morphological connection, e.g. doner cop/ferir {i.e. to strike). A large selection of substitutes for cop (blow), hyponyma of the head-noun, offer a rich variety of possible expressions. Such pairs tend to form semantically related groups. The structure base on the 'support-verb' yields less ambiguity than the one using the derived verb. Several verbs in Old French including bailler, which is partly synonymous with doner, may imply the meaning of "recevoir" as much as that of "donner". This construction falls within the scope of general linguistics and constitutes a permanent feature, which is noticeable throughout the different stages of the evolution of the French language.


Transaction processing systems are commonly employed in a wide range of applications, such as travel booking, financial trading, and online games. Typically, these applications are used by thousands of users simultaneously, and many a times, users attempt to coordinate on data values. In this dissertation, we argue that the current support for coordination in such systems is ad-hoc and not scalable. We propose simple, efficient, and scalable abstractions for coordination in transaction processing systems.
This dissertation comprises of three papers—Scalability in Virtual Environments, Declarative Data-driven Coordination, and Entangled Transactions. In each of these papers, we look at scalability of coordinated transaction management from a unique perspective that can remarkably alter the manner in which coordination is perceived by both the users and developers of the aforementioned applications.
In the first paper, we address scalability in virtual environments. Virtual environments are software systems in which users interact with each other in real-time within some shared environment. Current virtual environments, however, are unable to support a large number active users. The scalability problems arise in part because of the need to maintain consistency between all the players. In this paper, we propose a protocol that actively replicates actions, and show that replicating actions, as opposed to techniques that replicate data, allows for highly scalable virtual environments. We also propose an optimization of the AB-protocol that guarantees minimal execution at client machines.
In the second paper, we explore declarative data-driven coordination. We propose Entangled Queries, a novel abstraction for coordination in databases. Entangled Queries provides the user with a simple but powerful declarative method to coordinate with other users. In addition to introducing Entangled Queries, we propose an efficiently enforceable syntactic safety condition that we argue is at the sweet spot of expressiveness and application requirements.
In the last paper of this dissertation, we introduce entangled transactions. Entangled Transactions are units of work performed within a database management system against a database. Although such transactions look similar to classical transactions, they do not run in isolation and communicate with each other via entangled queries. In this paper, we look at an abstract model for Entangled Transactions and investigate interesting system issues that arise in their implementation.


Cell-free protein synthesis (CFPS) systems enable easy in vitro expression of proteins with many scientific, industrial, and therapeutic applications. Here we present an optimized, highly efficient human cell-free translation system that bypasses many limitations of currently used in vitro systems. This CFPS system is based on extracts from human HEK293T cells engineered to endogenously express GADD34 and K3L proteins, which suppress phosphorylation of translation initiation factor eIF2α. Overexpression of GADD34 and K3L proteins in human cells before cell lysate preparation significantly simplifies lysate preparation. We find that expression of the GADD34 and K3L accessory proteins before cell lysis maintains low levels of phosphorylation of eIF2α in the extracts. During in vitro translation reactions, eIF2α phosphorylation increases moderately in a GCN2-dependent fashion that can be inhibited by GCN2 kinase inhibitors. This new CFPS system should be useful for exploring human translation mechanisms in more physiological conditions outside the cell.


In the modular linguistic theory assumed by many generative linguists, phonology and syntax are interconnected but fundamentally independent components of grammar. The effects of syntax on phonology are mediated by prosodic structure, a representation of prosodic constituents calculated from syntactic structure but not isomorphic to it. Within this overall architecture, I investigate the placement of weak pronouns in the Austronesian language Chamorro. Certain Chamorro pronominals can be realized as prosodically deficient weak pronouns that typically occur right after the predicate. I showthat these pronouns are second-position clitics whose placement is determined not syntactically, but prosodically: they occur after the leftmost phonological phrase of their intonational phrase. My analysis of these clitics assumes that lexical insertion is late and can affect and be affected by prosodic phrase formation-assumptions consistent with the view that the mutual interaction of phonology and syntax is confined to the postsyntactic operations that translate syntactic structure into prosodic structure.


The sybil problem is a fundamental problem in distributed systems and online social networks (OSNs). The basic problem is that an attacker can easily create multiple identities in a distributed or open online system. Popular and effective sybil defenses are usually based on properties of the network structure. However, most defenses assume that it is hard for the attacker to make many connections to honest users. However, this assumption can be invalid in real OSNs which decreases the effectiveness of many sybil defenses. We propose a graph transformation, the strong link graph, to mitigate such attacks by reducing the effect ofa large number of attack edges. Our preliminary experiments show indeed that when the attacker has many attack edges, existing algorithms such as SybilLimit, SybilRank and Gatekeeper are ineffective. After the strong link graph is applied, it deletes many of the attack edges, restoring the effectiveness of the sybil defenses.


Research indicates that deceitful videos tend to spread rapidly online and influence people's opinions and ideas. Because of this, video misinformation via deepfake video manipulation poses a significant online threat. This study aims to discover what factors can influence viewers' capability of distinguishing deepfake videos from genuine video footage. This work focuses on exploring deepfake videos' potential use for deception and misinformation by exploring people's ability to determine whether videos are deepfakes in a survey consisting of deepfake videos and original unedited videos. The participants viewed a set of four videos and were asked to judge whether the videos shown were deepfakes or originals. The survey varied the familiarity that the viewers had with the subjects of the videos. Also, the number of videos shown at one time was manipulated. This survey showed that familiarity of subjects has a statistically significant impact on how well people can determine a deepfake. Notably, however, almost two thirds of study participants (102 out of 154, or 66.23%) were unable to correctly identify a sequence of just four videos as either genuine or deepfake. Overall, the study provides insights into possible methods for countering disinformation and deception resulting from the misuse of deepfakes.


Gravity drainage of brine through liquid brine channels is the dominant mechanism for the desalination of growing sea ice. We describe and determine mathematically the essential physics of this process, elucidating the connection between downward flow in brine channels and a convective upward flow in the rest of the porous ice, which we show has a vertically linear structure and strength proportional to a Rayleigh number. Our simple dynamical model of this process is used to interpret the exponential propagation of dye fronts in laboratory experiments. We propose that using our new, derived parameterization for gravity drainage in sea ice in terms of two unknown parameters could lead to computationally feasible improvements to thermodynamic sea‐ice models.


The green strength of a powder compact results from the mechanical interlocking of the irregularities on the particle surfaces. During compaction, particle rearrangement, plastic deformation and particularly surface deformation of powders occur. Titanium powder is susceptible to interstitial element contamination, which may lead to solid solution strengthening of the particles and/or the formation of non-metallic compounds on the surface. However, the influence of these various impurities, namely oxygen and nitrogen, on the green strength has not been investigated. This work investigates and quantitatively evaluates the factors influencing the green strength of the powder compacts. The indirect tensile test was applied for the determination of the green strength of the powder compacts, and test results were compared to that of a more conventional 3-point bending test. The substantial dependence of green strength on both the amount of impurity element in the core of the powder particles and the compaction pressure is demonstrated. The effect of the surface condition of the powder particles on green strength is also reported.


A one-step controlled hydrothermal method was described to prepare highly fluorescent polymer dots (PDs) by using polyethylene glycol as the carbon source. The synthesized PDs with an average diameter of 2.5 nm exhibit strong blue fluorescence with high quantum yields (QYs, up to 19%). Further modification of these PDs with glutathione (GSH) endows the resultant GSH–PDs with bi-functional fluorescence responses to temperature and Fe3+. Interestingly, the fluorescence signal of the GSH–PDs is reversibly responsive to the environmental temperature in the range of 20–75 °C. As the GSH–PDs exhibit good biocompatibility, they can pervade the MC3T3-E1 cells and enable the measurement of temperature over the physiological range of 20–45 °C using the confocal fluorescence imaging method. The GSH–PDs were also explored as a fluorescent probe for Fe3+ ion detection, and the linear response range in 0.1–10 μM was observed with a detection limit of 3.7 nM. Thus, the bi-functional measurement of temperature and Fe3+ ions was achieved by the fluorescent PD chemosensor.


We present a detailed analysis of the modal properties, dispersive behavior, and nonlinear mode coupling in graded-index multimode fibers (GIMFs), and lay out a simplified form of a generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equation, which can be used to explore the rich nonlinear dynamics related to the propagation and interaction of light pulses in GIMFs in a tractable manner. We also briefly discuss an application of the presented formalism in the study of four-wave mixing in these fibers. While the reported formalism is fairly general, our presentation is mainly targeted at device applications in which short segments of GIMFs are used.


In this letter, we propose a novel method to solve the problem of detecting geospatial objects present in high-resolution remote sensing images automatically. Each image is represented as a segmentation tree by applying a multiscale segmentation algorithm at first, and all of the tree nodes are described as coherent groups instead of binary classified values. The trees are matched to select the maximally matched subtrees, denoted as common subcategories. Then, we organize these subcategories to learn the embedded taxonomic semantics of objects categories, which allow categories to be defined recursively, and express both explicit and implicit spatial configuration of categories. Detection, recognition, and segmentation of the geospatial objects in a new image can be simultaneously conducted by using the learned taxonomic semantics. This procedure also provides a meaningful explanation for image understanding. Experiments for complex and compound objects demonstrate the precision, robustness, and effectiveness of the proposed method.


Background: This study investigates the effects of vertical off-centring, localiser direction, tube voltage, and phantom positioning (supine and prone) on computed tomography (CT) numbers and radiation dose. Methods: An anthropomorphic phantom was scanned using a Discovery CT750 HD—128 slice (GE Healthcare) scanner at different tube voltages (80, 120, and 140 kVp). Images employing 0° and 180° localisers were acquired in supine and prone positions for each vertical off-centring (±100, ±60, and ±30 mm from the iso-centre). CT numbers and displayed volume CT dose index (CTDIvol) were recorded. The relationship between dose variation and CT number was investigated. Results: The maximum changes in CT number between the two phantom positions as a function of vertical-off-centring were for the upper thorax 34 HU (0° localiser, 120 kVp), mid thorax 43 HU (180° localiser, 80 kVp), and for the abdominal section 31 HU (0° localiser, 80 kVp) in the prone position. A strong positive correlation was reported between the variation in dose and CT number (r = 0.969, p < 0.001); 95% CI (0.93, 0.99). Conclusions: Patient positioning demands an approach with a high degree of accuracy, especially in cases where clinical decisions depend on CT number accuracy for tissue lesion characterisation.


Purpose: To describe a novel computer-based image analysis method that is being developed to assist and automate the diagnosis of retinal disease. Methods: Content-based image retrieval is the process of retrieving related images from large database collections using their pictorial content. The content feature list becomes the index for storage, search, and retrieval of related images from a library based upon specific visual characteristics. Low-level analyses use feature description models and higher-level analyses use perceptual organization and spatial relationships, including clinical metadata, to extract semantic information. Results: We defined, extracted, and tested a large number of region- and lesion-based features from a dataset of 395 retinal images. Using a statistical hold-one-out method, independent queries for each image were submitted to the system and a diagnostic prediction was formulated. The diagnostic sensitivity for all stratified levels of age-related macular degeneration ranged from 75% to 100%. Similarly, the sensitivity of detection and accuracy for proliferative diabetic retinopathy ranged from 75% to 91.7% and for nonproliferative diabetic retinopathy, ranged from 75% to 94.7%. The overall purity of the diagnosis (specificity) for all disease states in the dataset was 91.3%. Conclusions: The probabilistic nature of content-based image retrieval permits us to make statistically relevant predictions regarding the presence, severity, and manifestations of common retinal diseases from digital images in an automated and deterministic manner.


This paper is the first of a larger project aimed at exploring, among other things, whether Europe has a consistent innovation policy in the context of EU economic law (competition policy, intellectual property law, sector regulation). As such, its primary aim is to present our approach for answering this question and outline the anticipated contributions of the project. Part I of the paper sets forth the theoretical foundations of the project--namely an integrated approach to economic law that moves beyond apparent conflicts and assumes innovation as the starting point. Taking this as the foundation, the two primary components of the project are described. First, a theoretical component involving the development of an analytical grid to be used to identify ways in which economic law impacts innovation, and second an applied component that explores observable instances where choices, both implicit and explicit, are made regarding innovation in economic law. Part II of the paper builds on this and offers a preliminary illustration of the proposed analysis in the context of pharmaceuticals, specifically drug reformulation regulatory gaming.


The overall objectives of the IPCS are to establish the scientific basis for assessment of the risk to human health and the environment from exposure to chemicals, through international peer review processes, as a prerequisite for the promotion of chemical safety, and to provide technical assistance in strengthening national capacities for the sound management of chemicals. recommendations made by the 1992 UN Conference on Environment and Development to strengthen cooperation and increase coordination in the field of chemical safety. The purpose of the IOMC is to promote coordination of the policies and activities pursued by the Participating Organizations, jointly or separately, to achieve the sound management of chemicals in relation to human health and the environment. WHO Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data Principles of characterizing and applying human exposure models. Requests for permission to reproduce or translate WHO publications — whether for sale or for noncommercial distribution — should be addressed to WHO Press, at the above address (fax: +41 22 791 4806; email: email@example.com). The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the World Health Organization concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. Dotted lines on maps represent approximate border lines for which there may not yet be full agreement. The mention of specific companies or of certain manufacturers' products does not imply that they are endorsed or recommended by the World Health Organization in preference to others of a similar nature that are not mentioned. Errors and omissions excepted, the names of proprietary products are distinguished by initial capital letters. All reasonable precautions have been taken by the World Health Organization to verify the information contained in this publication. However, the published material is being distributed without warranty of any kind, either express or implied. The responsibility for the interpretation and use of the material lies with the reader. In no event shall the World Health Organization be liable for damages arising from its use.


This report analyzes the macroeconomic conditions for 15 OECD European countries for the second half of the 1980's. The study methodology begins by comparing Europe's aggregate economic performance against that of the United States and Japan for the 1985-89 period. A concentrated effort is made to analyze and explain the factors causing the comparatively high European unemployment rates. The report also reviews various political and economic sources to document the recent trends of 1985, 1986, and three quarters of 1987 for each of the following 15 European countries: Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, West Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, and United Kingdom (U.K.). It then extrapolates the 1988 major occurrences and macroeconomic movements. The report concludes that European economic growth has kept pace with growth in the United States and Japan in the 1980's. However, behavior in the unemployment pattern in Europe has been different for post-1986 than it was prior to 1986. In the post-1986 period, the unemployment in Europe has been declining in a way that is consistent with the macroeconomic theory, while prior to 1986, the European unemployment had been rising. Macroeconomic explanations were inadequate to account for the pre-1986 pattern. ABSTRACT ii PREFACE VI ii PREFACE VI


Objective: To establish a quantitative three-dimensional method based on intraoral scan and apply it to evaluation of the facial soft tissue contour alterations following single immediate implant and immediate provisionalization (IIPP) in central incisor via intraoral scanning. Methods: This study was a prospective clinical study. The trial was conducted at Department of Implantology, Peking University School and Hospital of Stomatology, from January 2016 to September 2017. Twenty-nine eligible consecutive patients (15 women, 14 men) with a mean age of (34.3±12.0) were included and received immediate replacement of the failure maxillary single central incisor. A screw-retained immediate restoration was delivered for each patient. At 6-month follow-up, impression was taken and a screw-retained permanent restoration was performed for each patient. The anterior maxillary region was scanned by an intraoral scanning system at pre-surgery and 1-year follow-up. The Standard Tessellation Language (STL) files were output to a dedicated software and superimposed. Mid-facial recession and gingival zenith symmetry at 1-year follow-up were measured in the digital models. Three-dimensional configurations of the contour change volume were calculated and reconstructed for visual analysis. Furthermore, the following parameters were used to analyze the reconstructed volume: mean contour change in thickness (△d), mesio-distal width (D(W)), coronal-apical height (D(H)), contour change at 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 mm apical to the free gingival margin on the implant site. Results: Twenty-seven out of twenty-nine enrolled patients were finally available for analysis. At 1-year follow-up, the mid-facial mucosa level at implant site was (0.23±0.39) mm apical to the gingival zenith of the contralateral tooth. In general, a contour collapse was found in every patient. △d, D(W) and D(H) of the collapsed volume were (0.62±0.22), (11.03±1.74) and (6.82±1.52) mm, respectively. Contour change at 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 mm apical to the free gingival margin on the implant site were (0.54±0.48), (0.87±0.62), (1.03±0.46), (0.96±0.52), (0.90±0.52), (0.89±0.57) mm. Conclusions: The described quantitative measurement based on intraoral scan can be an effective method for assessment of soft tissue contour changes. At 1 year following single IIPP treatment in maxillary incisor, free gingival margin is stable, with only mild recession. The mean level of the facial soft tissue contour collapse is 0.62 mm.


Phantom limb syndrome, the ability to feel sensations and even
pain in a limb or limbs that no longer exist. Phantom limb pain
(PLP) is characterized by both nonpainful and painful sensations.
Nonpainful sensations can be divided into the
perception of movement and the perception of
external sensations (exteroception), including
touch, temperature, pressure, vibration, and itch.
PLP occurs in 50%−80% of limb amputees and is
known to be highly fluctuant, the pain sensations
range from burning and shooting pains to feelings
of tingling "pins and needles." While phantom
limb syndrome occurs only in amputees, phantom
sensations may be perceived in people who have
survived strokes but lost function of certain body
parts or who have spinal cord injury or peripheral
nerve injury


The increasing trend of obesity is suggested to have contributed to the increasing hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) incidence rates in the United States. However, no studies have examined whether the association between obesity and HCC differs across racial/ethnic groups. We examined body mass index (BMI) in relation to HCC risk in two large prospective cohort studies: the Multiethnic Cohort (MEC) and the Southern Community Cohort Study (SCCS). Between the two cohorts, a total of 637 incident HCC cases (86 Whites, 165 Blacks, 36 Native Hawaiians, 177 Japanese Americans, and 173 Latinos) were identified. BMI and other known HCC risk factor information were assessed from the baseline questionnaire (MEC: 1993-1996; SCCS: 2002-2009). The association between BMI and HCC incidence was examined using a nested case-control approach with four matched controls per case (MEC: 536 cases/2,131 controls; SCCS: 101 cases/404 controls). Conditional logistic regression, accounting for the matching factors was used to calculate multivariable odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for incident HCC in relation to BMI ( 2 , or per 5 kg/m 2 ) in each racial/ethnic group. Additional covariates such as smoking status, diabetes, and alcohol intake were included in the models. Increasing BMI was associated with an elevated HCC risk in Japanese Americans (OR per 5 kg/m 2 increase in BMI=1.69; 95% CI: 1.31, 2.16), Whites (OR=1.34; 95% CI: 0.98, 1.82), Native Hawaiians, (OR=1.23; 95% CI: 0.80, 1.89), and Latinos (OR=1.15; 95% CI: 0.95, 1.40), but not in Blacks in the MEC (OR=0.92; 95% CI: 0.70, 1.22) or in the SCCS (OR =0.93; 95% CI: 0.75, 1.15). The combined OR for Blacks across the two cohorts was 0.93 (95% CI: 0.78, 1.10; P heterogeneity=0.95). The association of BMI with HCC differed significantly across racial/ethnic groups (P heterogeneity=0.003). Our results suggest that the association of obesity, as measured by BMI, with HCC incidence varies across racial/ethnic groups. The null association in Blacks is particularly interesting and warrants further investigation. Citation Format: Veronica Wendy Setiawan, Loren Lipworth, Lynne R. Wilkens, Loic Le Marchand, William J. Blot, Brian E. Henderson. Racial/ethnic differences in the association of obesity with hepatocellular carcinoma risk. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Seventh AACR Conference on The Science of Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; Nov 9-12, 2014; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2015;24(10 Suppl):Abstract nr B28.


Nd:YAG laser systems, coupled to silica fibers, have shown great benefits as surgical tools. Using the laser system with a bare silica fiber, laser surgeons can photocoagulate tissue to depths of 4 to 5 mm in a non-contact mode. In a contact mode, incision and cauterization of the nearby tissue can be achieved. Although these two capabilities provide powerful tools for hemostatic procedures, research performed at Iowa State University has shown that the silica fiber tips undergo extensive damage when in contact with tissue. Chemical and thermal degradation of the silica glass surface plays a key role. Damaged fibers do not transmit a significant fraction of the laser light launched down them. Instead, essentially all of the laser energy is converted to heat at the contact point. The tip can then be used only to incise tissue. We report here on the development and characterization of a new optical fiber that offers improved chemical resistance and also high temperature resistance. The new fibers were pulled from glass rods with a composition of 92.5 wt.% SiO2 and 7.5 wt.% TiO2 and then cladded with a fluorinated hard polymer. The new fibers effectively deliver energy even after the fiber comes into contact with tissue while the silica fiber tips undergo catastrophic damage. Also, preliminary clinical testing of the new fibers has demonstrated the stability of the fibers in contact with tissue during gynecological surgical procedures.


Previous research has demonstrated that greater levels of legal central bank independence produce favorable macroeconomic outcomes in the developed countries. This article expands the literature's focus on institutions to include a measure of conceptual complexity designed to capture individual-level variations in the cognitive style of central bankers themselves. I argue that the interaction of the cognitive style of central bankers with their respective institutional environments provides a more comprehensive account of the variation in achieving price stability across countries than the institutional measure alone. This hypothesis is tested in the context of the Asian Crisis as its effects diffused to the developed world between 1997 and 1999. The analysis demonstrates that different types of individuals working within different types of institutions achieved different levels of success in attaining price stability during the Asian Crisis. The most successful outcomes were achieved by conceptually complex central bankers working within legally independent central banks. The findings suggest that more research is needed concerning the individual level of analysis in the study of international political economy.


Density estimation is an important technique for characterizing distributions given observations. Much existing research on density estimation has focused on cases wherein the data lies in a Euclidean space. However, some kinds of data are not well-modeled by supposing that their underlying geometry is Euclidean. Instead, it can be useful to model such data as lying on a {\it manifold} with some known structure. For instance, some kinds of data may be known to lie on the surface of a sphere. We study the problem of estimating densities on manifolds. We propose a method, inspired by the literature on"dequantization,"which we interpret through the lens of a coordinate transformation of an ambient Euclidean space and a smooth manifold of interest. Using methods from normalizing flows, we apply this method to the dequantization of smooth manifold structures in order to model densities on the sphere, tori, and the orthogonal group.


Background: Social media may offer a means to engage students, facilitate collaborative learning, and tailor educational delivery for diverse learning styles. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to characterize social media awareness among pharmacy students and determine perceptions toward integrating these tools in education. Methods: A 23-item survey was administered to 1st-year students at a multicampus college of pharmacy. Results: Students (95% response rate; N = 196) most commonly used wikis (97%), social networking (91%), and videosharing (84%). Tools reported as never used or unknown included social bookmarking (89%), collaborative writing (84%), and RSS readers (73%). Respondents indicated that educational integration of social media would impact their ability to learn in a positive/very positive manner (75%) and make them feel connected/very connected (68%). Conclusions: Selectively targeting social media for educational integration and instructing pharmacy students how to employ a subset of these tools may be useful in engaging them and encouraging lifelong learning.


English writing research on L2 and EFL learners have been of enormous interest among researchers and teaching practitioners. This study has focused on the frequent-used dimension of syntactic complexity to study EFL learners' writing performance, nevertheless it does a corpus-based qualitative analysis on an academic depicting writing task, which has less been researched before. The article reports the findings that 1) syntactic complexity could be a significant valid measurement of learners' writing performance and English proficiency; 2) pitifully yet not surprisingly, language proficiency stronger learners tended to create more essay-like and argumentation-like products in responding to and performing in the academic depicting writing task, hence failed in producing the typical feature and essential texts of that genre; 3) learners have generally poor knowledge of different genres and chances are that they may mix them in task performance. Following the qualitative reports and discussions on major syntactic and minor discursive evaluations of sample texts, it ends with pedagogical implications on future L2 and EFL teaching and researching.


Despite the importance of visual categorization for interpreting sensory experiences, little is known about the neural representations that mediate categorical decisions in the human brain. Here, we used psychophysics and pattern classification for the analysis of functional magnetic resonance imaging data to predict the features critical for categorical decisions from brain activity when observers categorized the same stimuli using different rules. Although a large network of cortical and subcortical areas contain information about visual categories, we show that only a subset of these areas shape their selectivity to reflect the behaviorally relevant features rather than simply physical similarity between stimuli. Specifically, temporal and parietal areas show selectivity for the perceived form and motion similarity, respectively. In contrast, frontal areas and the striatum represent the conjunction of spatiotemporal features critical for complex and adaptive categorization tasks and potentially modulate selectivity in temporal and parietal areas. These findings provide novel evidence for flexible neural coding in the human brain that translates sensory experiences to categorical decisions by shaping neural representations across a network of areas with dissociable functional roles in visual categorization.


Injuries occurring to the posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) of the knee often occur with associated damage to the structures of the posterolateral corner, specifically the popliteus tendon (POP) and the popliteofibular ligament (PFL). During PCL reconstruction, it is often necessary to concurrently repair damage to the POP or PFL, with the intent of reducing external rotation of the tibia. This biomechanical study compared the efficacy of POP and PFL reconstructions in reducing external rotation and also compared differences in graft tensioning protocols when reconstructing these structures. Using a fresh frozen human cadaveric knee, external rotation in response to an external tibial torque and PCL graft tension forces were measured during a full range of motion. Both POP and PFL reconstructions were performed on the knee and compared individually with respect to external rotation in the same knee with the POP and PFL sectioned. Additionally, both the POP and PFL were reconstructed using two protocols: tensioning at 30 degrees of flexion allowing the knee to rotate freely and tensioning at 30 degrees with the knee locked in neutral rotation. We found the following: First, the POP and PFL reconstructions each were found to reduce the external rotation of the knee when compared to the knee without these structures intact. Second, both POP and PFL reconstructions produced similar reductions in external rotation. Finally, the two different tensioning protocols led to no significant differences in tension forces experienced by the PCL, but tensioning the graft in locked neutral rotation led to a greater amount of external rotation over the full range of motion.


The differential energy spectra of cosmic-ray protons and He nuclei have been measured at energies up to 315 MeV/nucleon using balloon- and satellite-borne instruments. These spectra are presented for solar quiet times for the years 1966 through 1970. The data analysis is verified by extensive accelerator calibrations of the detector systems and by calculations and measurements of the production of secondary protons in the atmosphere. The spectra of protons and He nuclei in this energy range are dominated by the solar modulation of the local interstellar spectra. The transport equation governing this process includes as parameters the solar-wind velocity, V, and a diffusion coefficient, K(r,R), which is assumed to be a scalar function of heliocentric radius, r, and magnetic rigidity, R. The interstellar spectra, jD, enter as boundary conditions on the solutions to the transport equation. Solutions to the transport equation have been calculated for a broad range of assumed values for K(r,R) and jD and have been compared with the measured spectra. It is found that the solutions may be characterized in terms of a dimensionless parameter,
ψ(r,R) = ∞∫r V dr'/(K(r',R).
The amount of modulation is roughly proportional to ψ. At high energies or far from the Sun, where the modulation is weak, the solution is determined primarily by the value of ψ (and the interstellar spectrum) and is not sensitive to the radial dependence of the diffusion coefficient. At low energies and for small r, where the effects of adiabatic deceleration are found to be large, the spectra are largely determined by the radial dependence of the diffusion coefficient and are not very sensitive to the magnitude of ψ or to the interstellar spectra. This lack of sensitivity to jD implies that the shape of the spectra at Earth cannot be used to determine the interstellar intensities at low energies. Values of ψ determined from electron data were used to calculate the spectra of protons and He nuclei near Earth. Interstellar spectra of the form jD α (W - 0.25m)-2.65 for both protons and He nuclei were found to yield the best fits to the measured spectra for these values of ψ, where W is the total energy and m is the rest energy. A simple model for the diffusion coefficient was used in which the radial and rigidity dependence are separable and K is independent of radius inside a modulation region which has a boundary at a distance D. Good agreement was found between the measured and calculated spectra for the years 1965 through 1968, using typical boundary distances of 2.7 and 6.1 A.U. The proton spectra observed in 1969 and 1970 were flatter than in previous years. This flattening could be explained in part by an increase in D, but also seemed to require that a noticeable fraction of the observed protons at energies as high at 50 to 100 MeV be attributed to quiet-time solar emission. The turnup in the spectra at low energies observed in all years was also attributed to solar emission. The diffusion coefficient used to fit the 1965 spectra is in reasonable agreement with that determined from the power spectra of the interplanetary magnetic field (Jokipii and Coleman, 1968). We find a factor of roughly 3 increase in ψ from 1965 to 1970, corresponding to the roughly order of magnitude decrease in the proton intensity at 250 MeV. The change in ψ might be attributed to a decrease in the diffusion coefficient, or, if the diffusion coefficient is essentially unchanged over that period (Mathews et al., 1971), might be
attributed to an increase in the boundary distance, D.


Immigrant college student populations continue to grow, but the complexity of their unique needs and issues remain relatively unknown. To gain a better understanding of the multiple contextual factors impacting immigrant students from a systemsbased approach, I applied Bronfenbrenner's (1977) human ecology framework to the study. Students interact with the environment, including exchanges with academic advisors, that influence student development, success, and retention. In this theory-based essay, I contend that the philosophy of a developmental ecology approach parallels the foundational tenets of developmental academic advising, mainly through an emphasis on context and working with the whole student. I offer strategies for practice and ideas for future application as well as use an adapted humanecological model to illustrate immigrant issues.


Hold-mode feed-through is an important design problem, which plagues the classical switched-buffer track-and-hold amplifier (THA) topologies. The cross-coupled capacitor technique is a simple way of reducing hold-mode feed-through. However, the reduction in hold-mode feed-through is dependent on the matching between the cross-coupled capacitors and the inherent feed-forward capacitors. A double-switching switched-buffer THA is proposed, which has a switching input buffer. The proposed technique results in exceptional hold-mode isolation without the usage of the cross-coupled capacitor technique. Under Nyquist-rate sampling, 62 dB spurious-free-dynamic-range (SFDR), and 10 bit accuracy are achieved with input frequencies up to 800 MHz and 600 MHz respectively. Two prototype chips are designed in a 0.18 mum CMOS process. To maximize speed and dynamic range, the THA makes use of both 3.3 and 1.8 V devices, and uses 3.3 V analog supply voltage. Where necessary, 3.3 V devices cascode the 1.8 V devices for safe operation. The performance of the THA is comparable to most bipolar designs, both in speed and accuracy.


In this paper, we investigate the boundary non-crossing probabilities of a fractional Brownian motion considering some general deterministic trend function. We derive bounds for non-crossing probabilities and discuss the case of a large trend function. As a by-product, we solve a minimization problem related to the norm of the trend function.


The tissue localization of the G-protein gamma-subunit, G gamma 8, that is specifically expressed in the olfactory and vomeronasal neurons, was studied in rats at different ages: embryonic day 16, postnatal days 1, 7, 14 and 35, and adult. G8 appears to be a specific marker of the immature olfactory and vomeronasal neurons. Its distribution differs from that of Golf alpha, a G-protein alpha-subunit which is predominantly expressed in mature olfactory neurons. G8 immunoreactivity indicates that an undifferentiated organization of the olfactory epithelium persists up to 3 weeks of age, though neonates possess a functional sense of smell. G gamma 8 accumulates at the highest levels in the axons of the developing olfactory neurons 2 weeks after birth (postnatal day 14). Moreover, up to postnatal day 14, G gamma 8-positive neurons are present in the region of the olfactory and vomeronasal epithelium, where they are not observed in later life. In the olfactory epithelium and in the bulb, G gamma 8 expression becomes weaker and patchy with increasing age, suggesting that the process of continuous regeneration of olfactory neurons occurs in discrete areas. G8-enhanced expression following axotomy indicates that this system is potentially active throughout life. Conversely, in the vomeronasal epithelium G gamma 8 expression persists virtually unmodified in the adult. This indicates that the degree of differentiation may differ between olfactory and vomeronasal neurons.


We use recent X-ray observations of the intracluster medium (ICM) of the galaxy group NGC 5813 to confront theoretical studies of ICM thermal evolution with the newly derived ICM properties. We argue that the ICM of the cooling flow galaxy group NGC 5813 is more likely to be heated by mixing of post-shock jets' gas residing in hot bubbles with the ICM, than by shocks or turbulent-heating. Shocks thermalize only a small fraction of their energy in the inner regions of the cooling flow; in order to adequately heat the inner part of the ICM, they would overheat the outer regions by a large factor, leading to its ejection from the group. Heating by mixing, that was found to be much more efficient than turbulent-heating and shocks-heating, hence, rescues the outer ICM of NGC 5813 from its predestined fate according to cooling flow feedback scenarios that are based on heating by shocks.


During the last 25 years, clinical autoantibody determinations have changed dramatically. Old and slow techniques with high diagnostic specificity have been replaced with automated and faster techniques that most often have a higher diagnostic sensitivity at the expense of a lower diagnostic specificity. Newer techniques are mostly quantitative, allowing for follow-up of autoantibody levels. Whereas the older procedures utilized autoantigens in soluble and native states, most modern techniques rely on autoantigens attached to surfaces, with the risk of exposure of denatured epitopes. Comparisons between antibody measurement techniques can be obtained from the results of external quality assessment programs. As the main objective for external quality assessment is the monitoring of clinical laboratories, they cannot focus on the kind of low-level and often polyreactive sera, which are common in the real world and in which a single definite target response cannot be easily defined. Such common sera are very useful, however, for analysis of differences between autoantibody measurement techniques. The European Consensus Finding Study Group on Autoantibodies has been working with this approach for 28 years.


Despite the omnipresence of clay brick as construction material since thousands of years, fundamental knowledge about the link between composition, microstructure, and mechanical performance is still scarce. In this paper, we use a variety of advanced techniques of experimental mechanics and material characterization for extruded clay brick for masonry, that range from scanning electron microscopy (SEM) coupled with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, mercury intrusion porosimetry, to instrumented nanoindentation and macroscopic strength and durability tests. We find that extruded clay brick possesses a hierarchical microstructure: depending on the firing temperature, a "glassy" matrix phase, which manifests itself at submicrometer scales in form of neo-crystals of mullite, spinel-type phase, and other accessory minerals, forms either a granular or a continuum matrix phase that hosts at submillimeter scale the porosity. This porous composite forms the backbone for macroscopic material performance of extruded brick, including anisotropic strength, elasticity, and water absorption behavior.


TapWriters: Connecting the High Street through Internet-connected objects

We have built the world's smallest social network. It's a network of small till-roll printers that are connected to the web powered by the amazing Electric Imp. We're calling them TapWriters.


Robot based incremental sheet metal forming (Roboforming)is a new dieless forming process, which is suitable for cost-effective manufacture of prototype parts and small batch sizes.The principle of Roboforming is based on flexible shaping through a freely programmable path-synchronous movement of two industrial robots. These two robots, which are connected to a cooperating robot system, hold respectively a forming and a supporting tool. Similar to other incremental forming methods, the final shape is produced bythe movement of the forming toolalongthe lateral direction and its gradual infeed in the depth direction. In Roboforming, there are twodifferent strategies for the synchronous movement of the supporting tool, eitheralong the outer contour onbacksideof the sheet or directly opposed to the forming tool building a forming gap.The second strategy can be combined with a force controlled method to increase the surface quality and geometricaccuracy. MThe most existing CAM systems used in numerous incremental forming approaches are only applicable for milling machines. In this paper, with the use of self-programmed postprocessors and an Application Programming Interface (API) in a CAM system, movement programs for two cooperating robots can be generated for both forming strategies to produce sheet metal parts with different sizes and complex freeform structures. This CAM-solution for Roboforming is validated bythe forming experiments.


Within a public perspective on land policies, land banking of regional authorities is a very special instrument, as it links spatial policymaking directly to its implementation. Therewith, it is greatly increasing the effectiveness of spatial policymaking. Yet, its effectiveness also depends upon its specific context. It will be made clear that the potential of land banking for the implementation of regional spatial policies is enormous, especially in the Netherlands, for it adds a powerful instrument, rooted in private law, to the regional spatial planning toolkit. Traditionally, the Dutch provinces played an important role in regional spatial developments, using instruments based on public law. Nowadays, however, they are also getting more and more involved as an active (private) player on regional land markets as well. Analytically, these two roles create many controversies as public and private interests of provinces tend to mix. This results in controversies in terms of effectiveness (including efficiency) and legitimacy. Both theoretically as well as empirically, the controversies can be reduced into three tension areas, concerning (1) rationales for regional land policies, (2) conflicts of interests with municipalities, and (3) inflation of land prices.


The goal of this paper is twofold. Firstly, we present a way of extracting interactions between objects and enclosing them by using multiparty interactions. In a multiparty interaction, several executing threads somehow \come together" to produce an intermediate and temporary combined state, use this state to execute some activity, and then leave this interaction and continue their normal execution. This kind of approach has been considered in several papers but all of them have failed to describe how failures in one or more participants of the multiparty interaction can be dealt with. In this paper, general object-oriented schemes for constructing dependable multiparty interactions (DMIs) in a distributed environment are presented. Secondly, we show how one of these schemes can be used to program a system in which mul-tiparty interactions are more than simple synchronisations or communications. We have designed and implemented a controlling software for a fault-tolerant production cell model developed by Forschungszentrum Informatik, Karlsruhe, Germany.


In recent years, there are many methanol poisoned cases. Methanol poisoned cause of blindness, CNS problem, and metabolic acidosis. Folic acid is the one of many medicinal treatment for methanol poisoned. Folic acid has important role on methanol metabolism in our body. The aim of the study was to known the effect of addition folic acid on retina damage level of methanol poisoned. The method is experimental laboratories (true experiment design) with post test only control group design. The study included 5 separate test. The subject were mice which in 2 3 months age and had weight about 25 35 gr. There were 5 groups subject in the study. There were control group which given usual meals for mice and aquadest, negative control group which given methanol 7gr/ kgBW, treatment group 1,2, and 3 were given methanol 7gr/kgBW and folic acid 1 mg/kg BW, 3mg/kgBW, and 5 mg/kgBW. The treatment was given about 24 hours, then the eyes of the mice were taken to made blood smear. Damage of eyes were evaluated based score determined before. It can be concluded that addition folic acid can reduce retina damage level of metanol poisoned.


This FIW Special International Economics takes a long term perspective on international merchandise trade and tracks specialisation patterns of 19 world regions over the period 1980 to 2009. The data reveals that the path of trade specialisation is not predetermined: globalisation may intensify initial specialisations or may induce technological upgrading leading to new specialisation patterns. The emergence of the highly successful East Asian electronics cluster is easily discernible from our analysis as is the catch-up process of Eastern Europe. The experience of these dynamic regions contrasts with that of the African regions, West Asia and to some extent South America, whose primary role in the world economy is still that of oil and raw material suppliers. We also show that international trade in technology intensive industries has broadened geographically. High income countries in Europe, Japan and the US which dominated trade in high tech manufactures until the 1980s have suffered a considerable loss of market shares to the benefit of emerging East Asian countries causing a lot of concern about the EU's export performance in high technology industries among European policy makers. R&D policy has become a major component of Europe's industrial policy which is intended to support the continuous process of technological upgrading high income countries need to remain competitive in world markets. European high income regions have been successful in this respect in the sense that their export structures continue to shift towards more technology intensive industries despite the losses of global market shares which must be seen as a consequence of a broader participation in world trade. We read the major shifts in global world trade over the past decades and in particular the 'rise of Asia' as evidence that active trade and industrial policies can ignite and support the industrialisation process and technological upgrading within the manufacturing sector. At the same time Eastern Europe showed that a technological catch-up process can also be achieved by relying on foreign direct investment and deep trade integration with more advanced trading partners in the region. In contrast, the policies pursued by South American countries after the debt-crisis of the 1980s did not seem to have fostered significant technological upgrading. Given the undetermacy of trade specialisation over time and the multiple paths to technological upgrading we believe that international trade rules should ensure – more than they do now – that all countries have the required policy space to implement policies that foster structural changes in their economies.


--This paper presents a filter for restoration of Dental images that are highly corrupted by salt and pepper noise and speckle noise, Poisson noise. After detecting and correcting the noisy pixel, the proposed filter is able to suppress noise level. In this paper for each noise proposed different type of filter and compare these three types of filter with their PSNR value and MSE value and SNR value. After filtering stage maximum detected noise pixels will be filtered and simulation results show the filtered image.


From the 1930s to the 1970s the contraction of the coal mining industry in County Durham in northern England was followed closely by plans to abolish many of the settlements that had supported the mining population. This article examines the development of the policies that were used to classify villages for demolition, the local resistance that developed in defence of the villages and the justifications provided in support of this policy. The bulk of the research is based on archived contemporary newspaper reporting of the events as they happened. Through this approach it is possible to document the course of popular opposition to planning policies. The policy was wide ranging, with 121 villages designated as category 'D', meaning that they were to be demolished. This paper examines the local response in specific case study localities, showing that the main tensions were between the economic concerns and aesthetic appraisal of policy makers and community‐based perceptions of social relations and the envi...


Increased understanding of the neurobiology of alcohol dependence has led to studies of pharmacologic agents that modify drinking behavior. Because alcoholism is a heterogeneous disease involving multiple neurotransmitter and receptor systems, it is likely that a variety of pharmacologic agents will be required to have the greatest impact on outcomes across individuals. Several medications have been approved for the management of alcohol dependence. In addition, several drugs currently used for other indications have been studied for use in alcohol dependence, and some of these drugs show promise. For example, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors have been shown to reduce drinking in subgroups of alcoholic patients, including those with comorbid depression and those with later-onset alcohol dependence. Ondansetron, a selective 5-hydroxytryptamine 3 receptor antagonist, may attenuate the urge to drink and thus increase abstinence. The anticonvulsant agent topiramate also has significantly reduced drinking behavior in early clinical studies. Baclofen, a γ-aminobutyric acid B agonist, has been shown to decrease drinking in animal models and in 1 small, placebo-controlled trial in humans. Rimonabant, a cannabinoid CB 1 receptor antagonist, has been shown to help nicotine dependence in humans, and in animal studies, to reduce alcohol consumption; no clinical trials in alcoholism have been published. Dopamine antagonists, including clozapine and the newer atypical antipsychotics, may have value in the treatment of alcoholism but require further study. Corticotropin-releasing factor 1 receptor antagonists and neuropeptide Y 1 receptor antagonists have been shown to reduce drinking behavior in animals but have not undergone clinical trials.


Abstract Iron is involved in many types of metabolism, including oxygen transport in hemoglobin. Iron deficiency (ID), ie a decrease in circulating iron, can have severe consequences. We provide an update on iron metabolism and ID, highlighting the particularities in older adults (OAs). There are three iron compartments in the human body: 1) the functional compartment, which consists of heme proteins including hemoglobin, myoglobin and respiratory enzymes; 2) iron reserves (IR), which consist mainly of liver stocks and are stored as ferritin; and 3) transferrin. There are two types of ID. Absolute ID is characterized by a decrease in IR. Its main pathophysiological mechanism is bleeding, which is often digestive and can be due to neoplasia, frequent in OAs. Biological assessment shows low serum ferritin and transferrin saturation (TS) levels. Furthermore, hypochromic microcytic anemia is frequent, and the serum-soluble transferrin receptor (sTfR) level is high. Functional ID, in which IR are high or normal, is due to inflammation, which is also frequent in OAs, particularly in its chronic form. Biological assessments show high serum ferritin, normal or low TS, and normal sTfR levels. Moreover, C-reactive protein is elevated, and there is moderate non-regenerative non-macrocytic anemia. The main characteristics of iron metabolism anomalies in the elderly are the high frequency of ID (20% of ID with anemia in adults ≥85 years) and the severity of its consequences, which include cognitive impairment in case of ID or iron overload and decrease of physical activity in case of ID. In conclusion, causes of ID are frequently intertwined in OAs as a result of the polymorbidity that characterizes them. ID can have dramatic consequences, especially in frail OAs. Thus, measuring the appropriate biological markers prevents errors in the positive diagnosis of ID type, clarifies etiology, and informs treatment-related decision-making.


Type 2 diabetes (T2D) is characterized by hyperglycemia and insulin resistance. Cocoa may slow T2D development and progression. This study employed male and female BTBR.Cg-Lepob/ob/WiscJ (ob/ob) and wild type (WT) controls to assess the potential for cocoa to ameliorate progressive T2D and compare responses between sexes. Mice received diet without (WT, ob/ob) or with cocoa extract (ob/ob + c) for 10 weeks. Acute cocoa reduced fasting hyperglycemia in females, but not males, after 2 weeks. Chronic cocoa supplementation (6-10 weeks) ameliorated hyperinsulinemia in males and worsened hyperlipidemia and hyperinsulinemia in females, yet also preserved and enhanced beta cell survival in females. The underlying mechanisms of these differences warrant further study. If sex differences are apparent in subsequent preclinical studies, clinical studies will be warranted to establish whether these differences are relevant in humans. Sex differences may need to be considered when designing human dietary interventions for T2D.


Background: Assuring quality care is critical to the well-being and recovery of individuals receiving inpatient psychiatric treatment, yet a comprehensive map of quality inpatient care does not exist. Aims: To isolate and describe quality elements of inpatient psychiatric treatment. Methods: A survey queried psychiatric inpatient nursing leaders on what they considered to be critical elements of quality. The survey was emailed to 40 American Psychiatric Nurses Association members, and 39 individuals responded. In the survey, participants were asked to comment on the importance of six dimensions of quality as well as quality indicators used on their units. Results: Data from this survey indicate how thought leaders conceptualized quality of inpatient care. A unifying philosophy of care was endorsed as a quality element as was structure that affords staff available time on the unit—engaging with patients. While staffing levels were viewed as important, the respondents commented on the nuances between staffing and quality. Participants endorsed the importance of involving individuals in their treatment planning as well as tapping into patients' perspectives on the treatment experience. Conclusions: The participants' responses compliment the quality literature and reinforce the need to develop a comprehensive map of quality elements. These elements interact in complex way, for instance, staffing, engagement, and teamwork is tied to the organizational structure and philosophy of care, which in turn facilitates consumer involvement in care. Thus, gauging the impact of quality on outcomes will demand consideration of the interaction of factors not just the linear relationship of one element to an outcome.


We provide additional evidence of tectonic tremor in Cuba triggered by the 2010 Mw 8.8 Maule, Chile, and the 2011 Mw 9.0 Tohoku-Oki, Japan, earthquakes. The high-frequency tremor signals are modulated by long-period surface waves, sim- ilar to triggered tremors observed in other tectonically active regions. We are able to locate two tremor sources triggered by the Tohoku-Oki earthquake near the east-west trending Oriente fault around Guantanamo Bay. The tremor around Guantanamo Bay was triggered primarily by a Love wave of the Maule mainshock, and by both Love and Rayleigh waves of the Tohoku-Oki mainshock. This is consistent with frictional failures at a vertical strike-slip fault under a Coulomb failure criterion. Online Material: Figure of envelope functions of tremor records, and movies of spectogram and tremor correlation.


In a country like Ghana where Tilapia is the most preferred and cheapest source of animal protein, closer attention must be paid to the supply chain of such a product. This paper examines the major issues and problems in Tilapia supply chain and logistics in Ghana, and it suggests the intervention of the new and disruptive technology of blockchain.  Blockchain technology can have the potential to revolutionize the supply chain of Tilapia in Ghana and bring many advantages to the flow of Tilapia from farmers till the end consumers. Besides, it highlights the role of blockchain in ensuring food safety and in rebuilding a trustful network of Tilapia distribution between producers and customers. A model of Tilapia supply chain based on blockchain technology will be exhibited and explained to provide relative solutions to supply chain management processes of Tilapia.


In the contribution we present a problem of shape optimization of the cooling cavity of a plunger that is used in the forming process in the glass industry. A rotationally symmetric system of the mould, the glass piece, the plunger and the plunger cavity is considered. The state problem is given as a stationary heat conduction process. The system includes a heat source representing the glass piece that is cooled from inside by water flowing through the plunger cavity and from outside by the environment surrounding the mould. The design variable is the shape of the inner surface of the plunger cavity. The cost functional is defined as the squared L r norm of the difference between a prescribed constant and the temperature on the outward boundary of the plunger.


We designed, fabricated and tested a novel three-dimensional flexible microprobe to record neural signals of a lateral giant nerve fiber of the escape circuit of an American crayfish. An electrostatic actuation folded planar probes into three-dimensional neural probes with arbitrary orientations for neuroscientific applications. A batch assembly based on electrostatic forces simplified the fabrication and was non-toxic. A novel fabrication for these three-dimensional flexible probes used SU-8 and Parylene technology. The mechanical strength of the neural probe was great enough to penetrate into a bio-gel. A flexible probe both decreased the micromotion and alleviated tissue encapsulation of the implant caused by chronic inflammation of tissue when an animal breathes or moves. The cortex consisted of six horizontal layers, and the neurons of the cortex were arranged in vertical structures; the three-dimensional microelectrode arrays were suitable to investigate the cooperative activity for neurons in horizontal separate layers and in vertical cortical columns. With this flexible probe we recorded neural signals of a lateral giant cell from an American crayfish. The response amplitude of action potentials was about 343 µV during 1 ms period; the average recorded data had a ratio of signal to noise as great as 30.22 ± 3.58 dB. The improved performance of this electrode made feasible the separation of neural signals according to their distinct shapes. The cytotoxicity indicated a satisfactory biocompatibility and non-toxicity of the flexible device fabricated in this work.


This paper studies a vendor-managed-inventory (VMI) supply chain where a manufacturer, as a vendor, procures a type of nondeteriorating raw material to produce a deteriorating product, and distribute it to multiple retailers. The price of the product offered by one retailer is also influenced by the prices offered by other retailers because consumers can choose the product from any of the retailers. This paper is one of the first papers that propose an integrated model to study the influence of pricing and deterioration on the profit of such a VMI system. A hybrid approach combining genetic algorithms and an analytical method is developed for efficiently determining the optimal price of the product of each retailer, the inventory policies of the product and the raw material. Our results of a detailed numerical study show that parameters related to the market and deterioration have significant influences on the profit of the VMI system. However, different from common intuition, we find that an increase in the substitution elasticity of the product among different retailers can bring an increase in the retail prices of the product, while the increase of the market scale can reduce the retail prices.


The direct shear tests were conducted with undisturbed and reconstituted soft clay, then the structural influence on shear strength was studied, and the laws were got. No matter shear strength of slow shear or consolidated quick shear on undisturbed and reconstituted soil have not peak values, strength line of reconstituted soil is a slash, but the shear strength line of undisturbed soil is obviously a broken line. The internal friction angle of undisturbed and reconstituted soil is basically the same. There are good linear relationship between internal friction angle and plastic index of clayey soil. The amplitude of internal friction angle of reconstituted soil decreasing with plastic index increasing is less than that of undisturbed soil. From wf-lgp curve can be seen, with the increasing of vertical stress, water content of shear failure decrease gradually, and linear correlation of each curve is very good.


A filter-based wide-range programmable sinusoidal wave synthesizer for electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurement is proposed. The adopted filter is implemented with switched-capacitor circuits, so its corner frequency is accurate and adjustable by changing its switching frequency. The proposed sine wave synthesizer is implemented by using a 0.35 μm 2P4M 3.3 V mixed-signal polycide process. According to the measured results, the output frequency of the proposed synthesizer is 40 mHz-40 kHz . The measured total harmonic distortion is 0.073% at 10 Hz and 0.075% at 10 kHz, both of which are better than that of a typical function generator.


The WEDUSEA project is a €19.6 million European wide joint venture between 14 partners spanning industry and academia from Ireland, the UK, France, Germany, and Spain that will culminate with a two-year, grid connected deployment of a 1MW rated oscillating water column (OWC) wave energy converter (WEC) at the EMEC test site in Orkney, Scotland, UK.
The WEDUSEA project will incorporate a number of novel systems and control strategies to improve device performance, annual power production, and grid integration. During the initial planning and design phases of the project, a wave-to-wire numerical model has been created to investigate the impact these new systems will have on device performance and allow for the testing and development of the control strategies necessary to operate the 1MW power take-off (PTO) system as efficiently as possible. This paper will detail the novel systems added to the OWC, the control strategies developed for the new additions, and the modelled performance of the OWC.
The WEDUSEA OWC will rely on a Wells turbine for the pneumatic-to-mechanical conversion. As Wells turbines are susceptible to aerodynamic stall, a flow control system using 4 bypass valves of varying size will be added, and it will allow for up to 16 different variations for flow control. The performance of the valves will be tested via CFD and MATLAB-Simulink modelling.
The nature of WECs result in fluctuations in the power delivered to the grid, and this can lead to undesirable impacts on the grid. To mitigate these power fluctuations, the WEDUSEA OWC electrical system will include a controllable super capacitor energy storage system that will be used to improve the power quality of the electricity delivered. The objective will be to absorb power peaks and use that stored energy to minimise energy troughs. The power output is aimed to be levelized by mitigating fluctuations in a certain frequency range. The ability of the super capacitor to improve power delivery to the grid may also facilitate improved performance and increased annual power production by the mechanical PTO by enhancing the turbine-generator control system flexibility.
To incorporate the bypass valves and the super capacitor into the WEDUSEA OWC, more complex algorithms will need to be created for control of the mechanical and electrical components of the PTO. These algorithms will be tested and sharpened through testing using the wave-to-wire model developed using MATLAB Simulink and Simscape. The MATLAB-Simulink software simulations will allow for in-depth analysis of the impact the bypass valves will have on the behaviour of the pneumatic-to-mechanical section of the PTO. The Simscape Electrical software will allow for thorough modelling and evaluation of the electrical system and the impact the control strategies will have on the output power quality. The full model will allow for estimations of annual power production, and with improved kWh/yr, the LCOE could see significant reductions. The model testing and control development performed during this early stage of the project will help to maximise the deployment phase of the project and estimate annual power production.


The rise in mass incarceration, as well as its unequal distribution across the population, may widen inequalities among individuals and families. In this manuscript, I use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, a data source uniquely situated to understand the collateral consequences of incarceration, to consider the consequences of paternal incarceration for an overlooked aspect of family life: maternal parenting (measured by neglect, psychological aggression, and physical aggression). Results show that, among parents living together prior to paternal incarceration, confinement has modest, positive associations with maternal neglect and physical aggression, and that changes in family life (including relationship characteristics, economic insecurity, and mental health) following incarceration explain some of these associations. Additionally, there is some evidence that the consequences of paternal incarceration for neglect are strongest among mothers with a low propensity for sharing a child with a recently incarcerated father. Taken together, these results suggest that incarceration—given its concentration among disadvantaged families and, at least in one domain, its most consequential effects for the most advantaged of these disadvantaged families—has complicated and countervailing implications for inequalities in family life.


As a part of a comprehensive women's health needs assessment performed in Missouri, two focus groups were conducted with urban-dwelling African-American women. Ten African-American women 18 to 39 years of age comprised one group and 10 African-American women 40 to 74 years of age comprised the other group. Participants discussed major health concerns and issues related to service access. Although similar responses occurred between groups, major concerns such as reproductive issues in the younger women and chronic diseases in the older women, were clearly age-related. Participants commented on impediments to health care and adequacy of services. The Missouri Department of Health will use these findings in planning group-specific health interventions and services.


Data replication is one of the main techniques by which database systems can hope to meet the stringent temporal constraints of current time-critical applications, especially Web based directory and electronic commerce services. A pre-requisite for realizing the benefits of replication, however is the development of high performance concurrency control mechanisms. We present MIRROR (Managing Isolation in Replicated Real-time Object Repositories), a concurrency control protocol specifically designed for firm deadline applications operating on replicated real time databases. MIRROR augments the optimistic two-phase locking (O2PL) algorithm developed for non real time databases with a novel and simple to implement state based conflict resolution mechanism to fine tune real time performance. Using a detailed simulation model, we compare MIRROR's performance against the real time versions of a representative set of classical protocols for a range of transaction workloads and system configurations. Our performance studies show that: (a) the relative performance characteristics of replica concurrency control algorithms in the real time environment could be significantly different from their performance in a traditional (non real time) database system; (b) MIRROR provides the best performance in both fully and partially replicated environments for real time applications with low to moderate update frequencies; and (c) MIRROR's conflict resolution mechanism works almost as well as more sophisticated (and difficult to implement) strategies.


The National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE), in August 2010, published the Transient Loss of Consciousness guideline1 which dealt with the assessment, diagnosis and specialist referral of adults and young people (aged 16 and older), who had experienced transient loss of consciousness (TLoC), also commonly described in the UK as a 'blackout'. The guideline defines TLoC as spontaneous loss of consciousness with complete recovery, implying full recovery of consciousness without any residual neurological deficit. This first ever to be published guideline in the UK dealt with a very common condition which has a lifetime incidence of up to 50%.2 Transient loss of consciousness is a symptom with several causes, with cardiovascular causes (syncope) being the most common. Other common causes of TLoC include neurological conditions, principally epilepsy and psychogenic attacks. Syncope, in turn, has many causes, ranging from those with a benign prognosis, for example, vasovagal syncope, to those which can be life threatening and hence associated with an adverse long term prognosis, for example, cardiac syncope.3

There were a number of reasons why it was felt that such guidance was necessary. Review of the scientific literature suggested that the diagnosis of the underlying cause of TLoC is often inaccurate, inefficient and delayed. There is huge variation in the management of TLoC. Some people have expensive and inappropriate tests or inappropriate specialist referral; others with potentially dangerous conditions may not receive appropriate assessment, diagnosis and treatment. People experiencing TLoC may be treated by a range of clinicians—general physicians, care of the elderly physicians, cardiologists, neurologists etc and the lack of a clear pathway may contribute to misdiagnosis and inappropriate treatment. While there was some existing guidance related to TLoC, for example epilepsy,4 falls,5 dual chamber pacemakers6 and implantable cardioverter defibrillators,7 guidelines which defined …


System optimization techniques are widely used to improve energy efficiency as well as overall performance. Dynamic voltage scaling (DVS) is well studied and known to be successful in reducing processor energy consumption. Due to the increasing significance of the memory subsystem's energy consumption, dynamic cache reconfiguration (DCR) techniques are recently proposed at the aim of improving cache subsystem's energy efficiency. As the manufacturing technology scales into the order of nanometers, leakage current, which leads to static power consumption, becomes a significant contributor in the overall power dissipation. In this paper, we consider various system components and study their impact on system-wide energy consumption under different processor voltage levels as well as cache configurations. Based on the observation, we efficiently integrate DVS and DCR techniques together to make decisions judiciously so that the total energy consumption is minimized. Our studies show that considering only DVS or DCR and ignoring the impact from other system components may lead to incorrect conclusions in overall energy savings. Experimental results demonstrate that our approach outperforms existing leakage-aware DVS techniques by 47.6% and leakage-oblivious DVS + DCR technique by up to 23.5%.


Unnecessary repeated codes, also known as code clones, have not been well documented and are difficult to maintain. Code clones may become an important problem in the software development cycle, since any detected error must be fixed in all occurrences. This condition significantly increases software maintenance costs and requires effort/duration for understanding the code. This research introduces a novel methodology to minimize or prevent the code cloning problem in software projects. In particular, this manuscript is focused on the detection of structural code clones, which are defined as similarity in software structure such as design patterns. Our proposed methodology provides a solution to the class-level structural code clone detection problem. We introduce a novel software architecture that provides unification of different software quality analysis tools that take measurements for software metrics for structural code clone detection. We present an empirical evaluation of our approach and investigate its practical usefulness. We conduct a user study using human judges to detect structural code clones in three different open-source software projects. We apply our methodology to the same projects and compare results. The results show that our proposed solution is able to show high consistency compared with the results reached by the human judges. The outcome of this study also indicates that a uniform structural code clone detection system can be built on top of different software quality tools, where each tool takes measurements of different object-oriented software metrics.