Rare earth elements (REEs) have been analysed from fossil vertebrate microremains (thelodont scales) from the Vesiku Bone Bed, Saaremaa, Estonia, using in situ microsampling by laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS). Well-preserved scales of three species of the genus Thelodus (T. carinatus, T. laevis and Thelodus sp.) show very uniform REE patterns with slightly lower overall REE concentrations in enameloid than in dentine, with enrichment in middle REEs, depletion in heavy REEs and pronounced negative europium anomaly, but no cerium anomaly. The results of this study suggest a similar diagenetic history and possibly contemporaneous habitats for all three Thelodus species, as well as possible suboxic to anoxic conditions of the bottom and pore waters during the formation of the Vesiku Bone Bed.


The development of customised aluminium alloys for welding and additive manufacturing (AM) is proposed to solve several quality issues and to enhance the mechanical integrity of components. The introduction of ceramic grain refining agents shows great potential as alloy addition as to limit cracking susceptibility and increase the strength. Thus, a versatile solid-state manufacturing route for nanoparticle reinforced aluminium wires has been developed based on the metal screw extrusion principle. In fact, the Al-Si alloy AA4043 mixed with 1 wt.% TiC nanoparticles has been manufactured as a wire. The accumulated strain on the material during metal screw extrusion has been estimated, classifying the process as a severe plastic deformation (SPD) method. A chemical reaction between silicon and TiC particles after metal screw extrusion was found, possibly limiting the grain refining effect. Electric arc bead-on-plate deposition was performed with metal screw extruded and commercial material. The addition of TiC induced a grain morphology transition from columnar to equiaxed after electric arc deposition, and increased the hardness. A high amount of porosity was found in the AA4043-TiC material, probably arising from hydrogen contamination on TiC surfaces prior to metal screw extrusion. The results are encouraging as a new direction for aluminium alloy development for additive manufacturing.


Face recognition has made extraordinary progress owing to the advancement of deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs). The central task of face recognition, including face verification and identification, involves face feature discrimination. However, the traditional softmax loss of deep CNNs usually lacks the power of discrimination. To address this problem, recently several loss functions such as center loss, large margin softmax loss, and angular softmax loss have been proposed. All these improved losses share the same idea: maximizing inter-class variance and minimizing intra-class variance. In this paper, we propose a novel loss function, namely large margin cosine loss (LMCL), to realize this idea from a different perspective. More specifically, we reformulate the softmax loss as a cosine loss by L2 normalizing both features and weight vectors to remove radial variations, based on which a cosine margin term is introduced to further maximize the decision margin in the angular space. As a result, minimum intra-class variance and maximum inter-class variance are achieved by virtue of normalization and cosine decision margin maximization. We refer to our model trained with LMCL as CosFace. Extensive experimental evaluations are conducted on the most popular public-domain face recognition datasets such as MegaFace Challenge, Youtube Faces (YTF) and Labeled Face in the Wild (LFW). We achieve the state-of-the-art performance on these benchmarks, which confirms the effectiveness of our proposed approach.


THE PHENOMENON of monocular diplopia (or binocular triplopia) which is observed in some patients with concomitant strabismus consists essentially of the simultaneous localization of a single physical stimulus, reaching one eye, in two different subjective visual directions, one normal and one abnormal. As a consequence, patients who display this phenomenon have triplopia when observing with both eyes. Binocular triplopia is rare as a spontaneous occurrence.1This is not surprising in view of the special conditions required for its appearance. Modern investigations with major amblyoscopes of patients with concomitant strabismus have shown, however, that one can relatively frequently elicit it artificially (Cass2). Indeed, Walraven3has developed a special orthoptic technique for the treatment of anomalous correspondence which utilizes monocular diplopia as a starting point. The interest in this fascinating phenomenon has, therefore, increased considerably of late; it has been taken out of the realm of purely academic problems,


The results from a numerical investigation of inertial viscoelastic flow past a circular cylinder are presented which illustrate the significant effect that dilute concentrations of polymer additives have on complex flows. In particular, effects of polymer extensibility are studied as well as the role of viscoelasticity during three-dimensional cylinder wake transition. Simulations at two distinct Reynolds numbers (Re = 100 and Re = 300) revealed dramatic differences based on the choice of the polymer extensibility (L2 in the FENE-P model), as well as a stabilizing tendency of viscoelasticity. For the Re = 100 case, attention was focused on the effects of increasing polymer extensibility, which included a lengthening of the recirculation region immediately behind the cylinder and a sharp increase in average drag when compared to both the low extensibility and Newtonian cases. For Re = 300, a suppression of the three-dimensional Newtonian mode B instability was observed. This effect is more pronounced for higher polymer extensibilities where all three-dimensional structure is eliminated, and mechanisms for this stabilization are described in the context of roll-up instability inhibition in a viscoelastic shear layer.


Simon Leys is a Renaissance man for the era of globalization. A distinguished scholar of classical Chinese art and literature and one of the first Westerners to recognize the appalling toll of Mao's Cultural Revolution, Leys also writes with unfailing intelligence, seriousness, and bite about European art, literature, history, and politics and is an unflinching observer of the way we live now. The Hall of Uselessness is the most extensive collection of Leys's essays to be published to date. In it, he addresses subjects ranging from the Chinese attitude to the past to the mysteries of Belgium and Belgitude; offers portraits of Andre Gide and Zhou Enlai; takes on Roland Barthes and Christopher Hitchens; broods on the Cambodian genocide; reflects on the spell of the sea; and writes with keen appreciation about writers as different as Victor Hugo, Evelyn Waugh, and Georges Simenon.Throughout, The Hall of Uselessness is marked with the deep knowledge, skeptical intelligence, and passionate conviction that have made Simon Leys one of the most powerful essayists of our time. The Hall of Uselessness is an illuminating compendium from a brilliant and quirky writer and an exemplary global voice.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
Although the prevalence of e-cigarette use among adolescents and young adults has caught up to or eclipsed that of combustible cigarette use, there is relatively little known about (a) the link between e-cigarettes and other substances and (b) the reasons underlying this increase in e-cigarette use. To address this gap in knowledge, the current study examined associations between e-cigarette use and other substances and identified motives for e-cigarette use among young adults.

METHODS
Participants included an ethnically diverse sample of African American, White, and Hispanic young adults (N = 662; 61% female) who were participating in an ongoing survey-based longitudinal study of health and risky behaviors.

RESULTS
Hispanic, White, and male young adults reported significantly greater past year e-cigarette use compared to their African American and female counterparts. Bivariate correlations showed that use of e-cigarettes was positively associated with use of combustible cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, inhalants, hallucinogens, ecstasy, and misuse of over-the-counter and prescription medications. Furthermore, e-cigarette users reported a higher prevalence of substance use relative to those who did not use e-cigarettes. The taste of e-cigarettes was identified as an important motive for use.

CONCLUSIONS AND SIGNIFICANCE
Although the potential harm associated with e-cigarettes remains largely unknown, e-cigarettes appear to be a risk marker for the use of substances that are known to pose substantial health problems. Health care providers should screen for e-cigarette use, and youth substance use prevention programs should target the reduction of e-cigarette use with particular attention to addressing their taste appeal. (Am J Addict 2017;26:343-348).


2 Abstract: Reversible computation is an emerging area of research, having applications in nanotechnology, low power design and quantum computing. It is proved that reversible logic has zero internal power dissipation. Multiplication plays an important role in the processors. It is one of the basic arithmetic operations and it requires more hardware resources and processing time than the other arithmetic operations. Vedic mathematic is the ancient Indian system of mathematic. It has a unique technique of calculations based on 16 Sutras. The multiplication sutra between these 16 sutras is the Urdhva Tiryakbhyam sutra which means vertical and crosswise. In this paper it is used for designing a low latency and reduced resources 4*4 Vedic multiplier. The important parameters in designing reversible logic circuits like no of flipflops,no of LUT's , Total Equivalent gate count for design are estimated and reported for our proposed reversible Vedic multiplier.


In recent years, advances in computational power have led to an increase in attempts to model the behaviour of wildland fires and to simulate their spread across landscape. The present series of articles endeavours to comprehensively survey and precis all types of surface fire spread models developed during the period 1990–2007. The present paper surveys models of a simulation or mathematical analogue nature. Most simulation models are implementations of existing empirical or quasi-empirical models and their primary function is to convert these generally one-dimensional models to two dimensions and then simulate the propagation of a fire perimeter across a modelled landscape. Mathematical analogue models are those that are based on some mathematical concept (rather than a physical representation of fire spread) that coincidentally represents the spread of fire. Other papers in the series survey models of a physical or quasi-physical nature, and empirical or quasi-empirical nature. Many models are extensions or refinements of models developed before 1990. Where this is the case, these models are also discussed but much less comprehensively.


In this paper, we develop an adaptive scheduling framework for changing the processor shares of tasks - a process called reweighting - on real-time multiprocessor platforms. Our particular focus is adaptive frameworks that are deployed in environments in which tasks may frequently require significant share changes. Prior work on enabling real-time adaptivity on multiprocessors has focused exclusively on scheduling algorithms that can enact needed adaptations. The algorithm proposed in this paper uses both feedback and optimization techniques to determine at runtime which adaptations are needed.


Can investors improve their investment opportunity sets by adding a real estate investment trust (REIT) portfolio to benchmark portfolios sorted by firm size and book-to-market ratio? According to U.S. REIT performance data over 1980–2002, REITs after 1986 improve the mean-variance frontier set. Equity REITs appear to be non-redundant financial assets, which helps to enhance the completeness of the financial market. Mortgage REITs provide no diversification benefits in the sample period.


Hyaluronan (HA), a glycosaminoglycan with important medical applications, is commercially produced from pathogenic microbial sources. The metabolism of HA-producing recombinant generally regarded as safe (GRAS) systems needs to be more strategically engineered to achieve yields higher than native producers. Here, we use a genome-scale model (GEM) to account for the entire metabolic network of the cell while predicting strategies to improve HA production. We analyze the metabolic network of Lactococcus lactis adapted to produce HA and identify non-conventional strategies to enhance HA flux. We also show experimental verification of one of the predicted strategies. We thus identified an alternate route for enhancement of HA synthesis, originating from the nucleoside inosine, that can function in parallel with the traditionally known route from glucose. Adopting this strategy resulted in a 2.8-fold increase in HA yield. The strategies identified and the experimental results show that the cell is capable of involving a larger subset of metabolic pathways in HA production. Apart from being the first report to use a nucleoside to improve HA production, we demonstrate the role of experimental validation in model refinement and strategy improvisation. Overall, we point out that well-constructed GEMs could be used to derive efficient strategies to improve the biosynthesis of high-value products.


Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. OBJECTIVES: Lung- and diaphragm-protective ventilation is a novel concept that aims to limit the detrimental effects of mechanical ventilation on the diaphragm while remaining within limits of lung-protective ventilation. The premise is that low breathing effort under mechanical ventilation causes diaphragm atrophy, whereas excessive breathing effort induces diaphragm and lung injury. In a proof-of-concept study, we aimed to assess whether titration of inspiratory support based on diaphragm effort increases the time that patients have effort in a predefined "diaphragm-protective" range, without compromising lung-protective ventilation. DESIGN: Randomized clinical trial. SETTING: Mixed medical-surgical ICU in a tertiary academic hospital in the Netherlands. PATIENTS: Patients (n = 40) with respiratory failure ventilated in a partially-supported mode. INTERVENTIONS: In the intervention group, inspiratory support was titrated hourly to obtain transdiaphragmatic pressure swings in the predefined "diaphragm-protective" range (3–12 cm H2O). The control group received standard-of-care. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Transdiaphragmatic pressure, transpulmonary pressure, and tidal volume were monitored continuously for 24 hours in both groups. In the intervention group, more breaths were within "diaphragm-protective" range compared with the control group (median 81%; interquartile range [64–86%] vs 35% [16–60%], respectively; p < 0.001). Dynamic transpulmonary pressures (20.5 ± 7.1 vs 18.5 ± 7.0 cm H2O; p = 0.321) and tidal volumes (7.56 ± 1.47 vs 7.54 ± 1.22 mL/kg; p = 0.961) were not different in the intervention and control group, respectively. CONCLUSIONS: Titration of inspiratory support based on patient breathing effort greatly increased the time that patients had diaphragm effort in the predefined "diaphragm-protective" range without compromising tidal volumes and transpulmonary pressures. This study provides a strong rationale for further studies powered on patient-centered outcomes.


The tension of the main cables in a suspension bridge is influencing critically the stiffness of the whole structural system and can be indirectly measured through the survey of its configuration. Since previously published shape-finding analysis methods or results are mostly based on the idealized structural system adopted during design, need is to pay particular attention on the exploitation of field-measured data when establishing or updating the analysis model for maintenance purpose of the bridge in service. This study intends to propose an analytic model for an actual 3-span suspension bridge with main span of 500m using the measurement resulting from its configuration survey. Based on the shape-finding analysis results relative to the dead loads, a linearized finite displacement FE model is proposed and, an attempt to extend the measurement-based shape-finding analysis method from conventional methods by reflecting progressively the measured configuration and temperature is presented. Analysis results reveal that the current configuration of the bridge in service corresponds fairly with the target configuration. This study proposes a model updating method which could provide theoretical basis for the establishment of analysis model for suspension bridges based on various maintenance data.


In the south central Andes, archaeologists have long debated the extent of Tiwanaku colonization during the Middle Horizon (AD 500-1000). We tested the hypotheses regarding the nature of Tiwanaku influence using strontium isotope, trace element concentration, and oxygen isotope data from archaeological human tooth enamel and bone from Tiwanaku- and Chiribaya-affiliated sites in the south central Andes. Strontium isotope analysis of 25 individuals buried at the Tiwanaku-affiliated Moquegua Valley site of Chen Chen demonstrates that it was likely a Tiwanaku colony. In contrast, no immigrants from the Lake Titicaca Basin were present in 27 individuals analyzed from the San Pedro de Atacama cemeteries of Coyo Oriental, Coyo-3, and Solcor-3; it is likely that these sites represent economic and religious alliances, but not colonies. However, strontium isotope analysis alone cannot distinguish movement between the Tiwanaku- and Chiribaya-affiliated sites in the Moquegua and Ilo Valleys of southern Peru. Analyzing oxygen isotope and trace element concentration data and comparing it with strontium isotope data from the same individuals provides a more detailed picture of residential mobility in the Tiwanaku and Chiribaya polities. In addition to monitoring diagenetic contamination, trace element concentration data identified movement during adulthood for certain individuals. However, these data could not distinguish movement between the Moquegua and Ilo Valleys. While oxygen isotope data could clearly distinguish the high-altitude sites from others, more data is needed to characterize the local oxygen isotope ratios of these regions. These data demonstrate the potential for archaeological reconstruction of residential mobility through multiple lines of evidence.


Bauhinia forficate Link (Cesalpinionidea), is a common tree of the sub-tropical region of South America, and is heavily utilized as an urban shade tree. Among many of the phytophagous insects associated with this species is the polyphagous Aethalion reticulatum (L.). This sap sucking bug forms colonies on small branches or the base of flowers and developing seed pods. Colonies are tended by at least 6 species of ants in Rio Claro, SP, Brazil, with the most prevalent being Camponotus rufipes (Fabncius). Through manipulative experiments, it was established that colonies of A. reticulatum depend upon ant care for survivorship, and that leaves, flowers and seed pods suffered significantly less herbivory when associated with A. reticulatim colonies, although pre-dispersa1 bruchid seed predation was not affected. Colonies of A. reticulatum may be more beneficia1 than detrimental to the plant, and pattems are similar to benefits reported for extrafloral nectaries.


We use cross-state business registrations to track the geographic movement of startups with high growth potential. In their first five years, 6.6% percent of these startups move across state borders. Though startup births are concentrated geographically, hubs like Silicon Valley and Boston on net lose startups to entrepreneurial migration. A revealed preference approach nonparametrically identifies the average utility of cities to migrant founders. University towns and startup hubs have low relative utility. This pattern is due neither to vertical sorting nor industrial specialization. The higher-quality startups move to lower-tax, business-friendly cities, while less growth-oriented startups move to low-tax, high-amenity cities.


The authors deal with two major issues to exploit inter-operator parallelism within a multijoin query: join sequence scheduling and processor allocation. For the first issue, they propose and evaluate by simulation several methods to determine the general join sequences, or the bush execution trees. Despite their simplicity, the proposed heuristics can lead to the general join sequences which significantly outperform the optimal sequential join sequence. In addition, several heuristics to determine the processor allocation, categorized by bottom-up and top-down approaches, were derived and evaluated by simulation. As confirmed by the simulation, by first using the join sequence heuristics to build a busy tree and then applying the concept of synchronous execution time to the busy tree for processor allocation, an efficient two-step approach to schedule and execute multijoin queries in a multiprocessor system can be obtained.<<ETX>>


It is frequently asserted that the views of patients or service users should inform the structure and delivery of health and social care services. In the UK, patient participation, the expertise of service users and user involvement in the design and outcomes of research have been repeatedly emphasized as producing services which are more responsive, better coordinated and less stigmatizing. The NHS has highlighted the importance of involving service users in education and training. This article reports on user and carer views about learning disability nursing. Data were collected as part of a larger project considering the changing roles and education of learning disability nurses in England. The article concludes with a series of challenges for future educational and service development.


Eco-gastronmy can be explained as a process that all social, psychological, cultural and political elements contain production, selling and consumption of agriculture and food. As a project of Slow Food, Earth Markets are international market networks which are suitable for good, clean, fair policy of Slow Food in Earth Markets. Furthermore, attention is paid for the prices will be attainable. Eco-gastronmy supports the production of agriculture and food; prevents the nongeniine production; increases attractiveness; strengthens the local community and local pride; constructs the identity and brand based on food experimentation. Additionally, eco- gastronomy covers the subjects of local food production, keeping alive grocery stones, cherishing the production of home cooking, giving children the flavors education, ensuring the happiness and diversity rights, providing the positive effect of gastronomic tourism on prosperity of the community. Moreover, according to eco-gastronomy, it is important to buy local product, support the local farmers and the stream of the local economy, provide job opportunities, strengthen the relationship between agriculture and tourism empower the local agriculture and food industry, present the local brands and products. As shown, the place of Earth Markets in eco-gastronomy is quite big. This study aims at analyzing the place and importance of the Earth Markets in eco-gastronomy. There are 33 Earth Markets in the world readily and Foca Earth Market is one them. For this reason, Foca Earth Market is examplified. In the research part of this study, the method will be face to face interviews with the authorities of Foca Earth Market, representatives of Slow Food and local government.


Perinatal exposure to pesticides was linked to changes in neurobehavioral development of rat offspring. This study aimed to evaluate the behavior of rat offspring exposed to fipronil during the perinatal period associated with laboratory findings. For this, pregnant Wistar rats were divided into five groups (n=15) namely: control (Ct) and exposed - gestation (G), lactation (L), gestation more lactation (G+L) 7-14, and gestation more lactation (G+L) 1-21. The behavioral parameters evaluated were anxiety, aggressiveness, motor coordination, exploration and locomotion. Parameters related to physical and sensory-motor development, organ/animal weight ratio, biochemistry, histology, blood cortisol levels and Fipronil and its metabolites (sulfone and dessulfinil) in offspring brains of different groups were also assessed. Results showed an increase in anxiety and aggression and a decrease in motor coordination. The negative effects caused by pesticides appear to be dependent on their presence in brain tissue. It was observed a decrease in time to eruption of incisors, an increased weight of the offspring liver; increased serum cortisol and histological changes in the liver; fipronil and fipronil sulfone were detected in the brain of offspring. In conclusion perinatal exposure to fipronil increased the aggression and anxiety, confirming its toxicity on neurodevelopment of rat offspring. Fipronil caused decreased motor coordination in the offspring, suggesting toxicity on motor nerves. The results confirm the toxicity of fipronil on rat offspring exposed during the perinatal period.


Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a very common manifestation of atherosclerosis and is associated with a high risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Despite the magnitude of the problem, PAD is often under-recognized in clinical practice until its limb manifestations are severe or heart attack or stroke supervene. The PAD Awareness, Risk and Treatment: New Resources for Survival (PARTNERS) program, recently completed in the USA, had five aims: (1) creation of a method for detection of PAD in primary care practice; (2) assessment of the awareness of the PAD diagnosis in both patients and physicians; (3) assessment of the magnitude of the atherosclerotic risk factor burden and intensity of treatment of atherosclerotic risk factors in PAD patients; (4) assessment of the disease-specific and general quality of life of PAD patients in their communities; and (5) provision of an educational intervention to foster improved community-prescribed medical interventions for patients with PAD. Lack of public and physician interest in PAD contrasts with the high prevalence and poor medical prognosis of PAD. The intention of PARTNERS was to create a community-based program to measure current rates of PAD awareness, physician recognition and treatment intensity. Data obtained will form the basis of future clinical investigations to improve clinical care for PAD patients in the USA.


In The Day of the Locust, Nathanael West adopts a cinematic motif to enhance his criticism of the culture that developed around the Hollywood film industry. West invokes images suggestive of James Whale's 1931 film Frankenstein to comment on the indistinct boundaries between cinematic illusion and Hollywood life. West's most obvious use of Whale's Frankenstein motif is in his development of Homer Simpson, but he also draws on incongruous elements of the film that parallel the Hollywood he observes. In commenting on the Hollywood community and employing a motif in his novel, West offers more than simple criticism of the superficial aspects of Hollywood culture: he reveals the social disorder that occurs when a body of people adopt the artifice of film and integrate it into their lives as a representation of reality. West intermittently lived and worked in Hollywood during a period when the horror film achieved wide popularity. He lived there while employed by Columbia Pictures from July to December of 1933, and returned in 1935, eventually working at Republic Studios from 1936 to 1938, and briefly at R.K.O. in 1938.1 West began his work on The Day of the Locust in 1935 and 1936. It was accepted for publication by Random House in May 1938 (Martin 203-89). Through both his personal experience with Hollywood and his own interest in popular culture, West would have been familiar with the wide appeal of the Frankenstein films and the imagery associated with them.2 The horror picture enjoyed popularity beginning in 1931 with Whale's film. As an avid observer of popular culture, West would have certainly been familiar with Frankenstein and with its sequel, The Bride of Frankenstein, which was released in 1935 (Florescu 193). These films were initially so successful that in 1938, Universal Studios re-released such films as Dracula and Frankenstein, and produced new films intended to exploit their popularity (Dardis 175). The cinematic Frankenstein motif is most apparent in West's development of Homer Simpson. West provides an oblique clue to the film influence late in the novel during a scene in which Homer is introduced to the child, Adore Loomis. Adore's mother observes that he "thinks he's the Frankenstein monster" when Adore twists his face into a caricature of the monster made famous by Boris Karloff. Adore, in turn, redirects our attention back to the character at whom he is "making faces": Homer (140). This clue introduces a new perspective on earlier descriptions of Homer, which, in retrospect, reveal a striking physical parallel to the monster. Tod Hackett's first view of Homer Simpson in Chapter 6 is of a man with "fever eyes and unruly hands" (79). This is only an introduction to the bizarre figure that will emerge in Chapter 8. Therein, West reveals his own composite creation in Homer as he awakens from a nap: ... he began to work laboriously toward consciousness. The struggle was a hard one. His head trembled and his feet shot out. Finally his eyes opened, then widened... He lay stretched out on the bed, collecting his senses and testing the different parts of his body. Every part was awake but his hands. They still slept. He was not surprised. They demanded special attention, had always demanded it. When he had been a child, he used to stick pins into them and once had even thrust them into a fire. Now he used only cold water. He got out of the bed in sections, like a poorly made automaton, and carried his hands into the bathroom. He turned on the cold water. When the basin was full, he plunged his hands in up to the wrist. They lay quietly on the bottom like a pair of strange aquatic animals. When they were thoroughly chilled and began to crawl about he lifted them out and hid them in a towel. (82) Homer does not awaken from sleep, but comes to life, much like Mary Shelley's monster, who quickens with a "convulsive motion." 3 His individual physical components are disassociated from one another, often functioning independent of any control he may attempt to exert over them. …


Many neuromorphic chips now include on-chip, digitally programmable bias generator circuits. So far, precision of these generated biases has been designed by transistor sizing and circuit design to ensure tolerable statistical variance due to threshold mismatch. This paper reports the use of an integrated measurement circuit based on spiking neuron and a scheme for calibrating each chip set of biases against the smallest of all the biases from that chip. That way, the averaging across individual biases improves overall matching both within a chip and across chips. This paper includes measurements of generated biases, the method for remapping bias values towards more uniform values, and measurements across 5 sample chips. With the method presented in this paper, 1s mismatch of subthreshold currents is decreased by at least a factor of 3. The firmware implementation completes calibration in about a minute and uses about 1kB of flash storage of calibration data.


Aragonite and prehnite are widely associated in low-grade sedimentary, volcanic, and metaplutonic rocks of the San Juan Islands, Washington. The abundance of prehnite and the apparent absence of the high-pressure mineral lawsonite were thought to indicate that the aragonite had formed metastably. Our work now shows that lawsonite, commonly turbid and with a fibrous habit, also occurs in some of these rocks. The discovery of lawsonite indicates that the San Juan aragonite is probably a stable phase that indicates high-pressure metamorphism. The association of aragonite and prehnite also implies that the stability range of prehnite may extend to pressures above those of the calcite-aragonite transition. The occurrence of lawsonite is compatible with the interpretation that the bed rock of some of the San Juan Islands was subjected to deep and rapid tectonic burial by subduction at a convergent plate boundary.


: Genetics similarity and diversity of five cultured carp fishes collected from Abbassa area (CLAR) in Sharkia, Egypt, were examined. SDS-PAGE for muscle protein and native-PAGE for some isozymes, such as esterases and malate dehydrogenase were studied on ten fish specimens of each species. To discriminate isozymes variation among carp species, different synthetic esterases substrates; α , β -naphthyl acetate and α - naphthyl propionate were tested. The results indicated that the soluble muscle protein patterns it may be conducted that each population had a unique banding pattern. Close relationship was noticed between bighead and black carp with similarity coefficient value of (94%). Silver carp had a different banding pattern and branched out as subgroup from each of bighead and black. The results of α , β naphthyl esterase showed perfect similarity within silver individuals. The average similarity values among the five carp species resulted from cluster analysis of α , β esterase isozymes data showed a close relationship between grass and silver carp (95%). High similarity in black, mirror carp, and grass carp while bighead and silver carp showed rear polymorphism with propionate esterase. Also the result showed that the variation in malate dehydrogenase was limited and restricted on silver and mirror carp, while bighead, black and grass carp showed no variation within their populations. The final data of this work showed close relationship between bighead and black carp (85%). Moreover, quite close relationship was also noticed between each of black and silver carp followed by bighead and silver carp.


Popular music has often talked about themes of relevance to legal scholars, issues such as criminality and social justice. To date, academic legal work has not tended to focus on popular music though, little moving beyond using lyrics to add colour to a dull journal paper or perk up a title. As such, it is fair to say that popular music has not been taken seriously, which is in some contrast to works of literature such as novels or plays. There is a buoyant law and literature movement using such texts to inform legal writing. This paper argues that popular music could and should be considered in a similar light. In so doing, it provides an illustrative case study of music where there are themes that could be of interest to legal scholars and may help inform academic debate: murder ballads and the way these might be used to reach a greater understanding of provocation in the criminal law.


This phenomenological qualitative study employed relational cultural theory and feminist social constructionist theory as epistemologies to examine the role of multiple intersecting identities in the cultural transitioning of Jewish Argentinean immigrants into a range of relational and social contexts. Results indicated that identity salience across different relational contexts was strongly influenced by the emergence of the immigrant identity and the resulting interpersonal challenges. Implications for future research and counselling are discussed.


Coding HTML and CSS is a great practical guide to the basics of HTML and CSS coding. It will help with starting small and medium projects, such as customising your blog or making your own website, and give practical examples of techniques that will aid you. Additionally you will be taken through the steps of adding images and video to your website, along with a troubleshooting guide for any problems that crop up and step-by-step guides to make coding easy.


Feedback-related negativity (FRN) is a negative deflection that appears around 250 ms after the gain or loss of feedback to chosen alternatives in a gambling task in frontocentral regions following outcomes. Few studies have reported FRN enhancement in adolescents compared with adults in a gambling task without probabilistic reinforcement learning, despite the fact that learning from positive or negative consequences is crucial for decision-making during adolescence. Therefore, the aim of the present research was to identify differences in FRN amplitude and latency between adolescents and adults on a gambling task with favorable and unfavorable probabilistic reinforcement learning conditions, in addition to a nonlearning condition with monetary gains and losses. Higher rate scores of high-magnitude choices during the final 30 trials compared with the first 30 trials were observed during the favorable condition, whereas lower rates were observed during the unfavorable condition in both groups. Higher FRN amplitude in all conditions and longer latency in the nonlearning condition were observed in adolescents compared with adults and in relation to losses. Results indicate that both the adolescents and the adults improved their performance in relation to positive and negative feedback. However, the FRN findings suggest an increased sensitivity to external feedback to losses in adolescents compared with adults, irrespective of the presence or absence of probabilistic reinforcement learning. These results reflect processing differences on the neural monitoring system and provide new perspectives on the dynamic development of an adolescent's brain.


Large fluctuations in the sediment transport rate are observed in rivers, particularly in mountain streams at intermediate flow rates (Ancey, 2006). These fluctuations seem to be, to some degree, correlated with the evolution of morphologies in the stream. Today the central question remains how to understand and acco unt for the strong bedload variability. In this presentation, new experimental results give some ideas about the link between channel bed evolution and intermittency in bedload transport.


In previous laboratory experiments Fenton's Reagent (FR) was successfully used as the source of hydroxyl radicals (OH*) for chemical treatment of low concentrations of methyl tert-butyl ether (MTBE) in water. Although under certain conditions MTBE degradation levels as high as 99.99% were achieved, none of these experiments resulted in complete MTBE mineralization. In all cases, these experiments applied FR as an equimolar concentration of ferrous iron (Fe2+) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). The present study investigates the effect of H2O2/Fe2+ molar ratio on the extent of degradation of MTBE and intermediate products in water at pH = 3.0. The initial concentration of MTBE studied was 0.0227 mM (approximately 2 mg/L). Initially, the dose of Fe2+ was kept constant at a Fe2+/MTBE molar ratio of 10:1 and the dose of H2O2 was varied to achieve different H2O2/Fe2+ molar ratios. The results revealed that higher degradation efficiency was achieved when FR was used as an equimolar mixture (H2O2/Fe2+ molar ratio = 1.0). The extent of MTBE degradation decreased when the H2O2/Fe2+ molar ratio was changed to values higher or lower than 1.0. These results suggest that a stoichiometric relationship (1:1) between the FR components optimizes the degradation process for this reactant system. It is hypothesized that an excess of H2O2 enhances the effect of reactions that scavenge OH*, while a decreased amount of H2O2 would be a limiting factor for the Fenton Reaction.


Diagnostic criteria for bacterial suppurative arthritis include the demonstration of an inflammatory exudate by aspiration of synovial fluid and the isolation of bacteria from cultures of synovial fluid and/or blood. Clinical manifestations include joint effusion, swelling, tenderness, and pain, with or without redness of the overlying skin. Management consists of antimicrobial therapy, measures designed to relieve symptoms, surgical drainage of infected fluid, and physical therapy. Studies of new anti-infective therapy should be limited to cases of bacterial origin. Prospective, randomized, double-blind, or evaluator-blinded, active-control comparative clinical trials should be performed. Clinical response is characterized as success (cure), failure, or indeterminate outcome. The most common successful microbiological outcome is presumptive eradication. Follow-up should continue for 1 year before the final assessment.


In this work, we introduce Log(v) 3LPF, a linear power flow solver for unbalanced three-phase distribution systems. Log(v) 3LPF uses a logarithmic transform of the voltage phasor to linearize the AC power flow equations around the balanced case. We incorporate the modeling of ZIP loads, transformers, capacitor banks, switches and their corresponding controls and express the network equations in matrix-vector form. With scalability in mind, special attention is given to the computation of the inverse of the system admittance matrix, Ybus. We use the Sherman-Morrison-Woodbury identity for an efficient computation of the inverse of a rank-k corrected matrix and compare the performance of this method with traditional LU decomposition methods using Big-$\mathcal {O}$ notation. We showcase the solver for a variety of network sizes, ranging from tens to thousands of nodes, and compare the Log(v) 3LPF with commercial-grade software, such as OpenDSS.


Polycomb repressive complex 2 (PRC2) consists of three core subunits, EZH2, EED and SUZ12 and plays pivotal roles in transcriptional regulation through its histone H3K27 methyltransferase activity. Dysregulation of PRC2 is observed in multiple human cancers, for example, the catalytic subunit EZH2 is overexpressed in a wide range of human cancers and gain-of-function mutations of EZH2 within its catalytic site have been reported in human B-cell lymphoma, parathyroid carcinoma and melanoma. Small molecule inhibitors that compete with the cofactor S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) have been reported and showed anti-lymphoma efficacy in pre-clinical studies. EED within the PRC2 complex allosterically activate the enzymatic activity by binding to tri-methylated H3K27 (H3K27me3). Here we report the discovery of EED226, a potent and selective PRC2 inhibitor directly binding to the H3K27me3 binding pocket of EED. EED226 induces conformational change upon binding EED leading to loss of PRC2 activity. EED226 shows similar activity as SAM-competitive inhibitors in blocking H3K27 methylation of PRC2 target genes and inducing regression of human lymphoma xenograft tumors. Interestingly, EED226 also effectively inhibits PRC2 containing mutant EZH2 protein resistant to SAM-competitive inhibitors. Together, we show EED226 inhibits PRC2 activity via an allosteric mechanism and offers opportunity for treatment of PRC2-dependent cancers. Citation Format: Wei Qi, Kehao Zhao, Justin Gu, Ying Huang, Youzhen Wang, Hailong Zhang, Man Zhang, Jeff Zhang, Zhengtian Yu, Ling Li, Lin Teng, Shannon Chuai, Chao Zhang, Mengxi Zhao, HoMan Chan, Zijun Chen, Douglas Fang, Fei Qi, Leying Feng, Lijian Feng, Yuan Gao, Hui Ge, Xinjian Ge, Andreas Lingel, Guobin Li, Ying Lin, Yueqin Liu, Fangjun Luo, Minlong Shi, Long Wang, Zhaofu Wang, Yanyan Yu, Jue Zeng, Chenhui Zeng, Lijun Zhang, Qiong Zhang, Shaolian Zhou, Counde Oyang, Peter Atadja, En Li. An allosteric PRC2 inhibitor targeting the H3K27me3 binding pocket of EED [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-288. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-LB-288


Self-assembly is one of the most fascinating phenomena in nature and is one key component in the formation of hierarchical structures. The formation of structures depends critically on the interaction between the different constituents, and therefore the link between these interactions and the resulting structure is fundamental for the understanding of materials. We have realized a two-dimensional system of colloidal particles with tunable magnetic dipole forces. The phase formation is studied by transmission optical microscopy and a phase diagram is constructed. We report a phase transition from hexagonal to random and square arrangements when the magnetic interaction between the individual particles is tuned from antiferromagnetic to ferrimagnetic.


Death, grief and bereavement all look different in the current COVID‐19 pandemic. Patients and families are suffering as a result of COVID‐19 itself, and the measures required to contain it. As a result, health professionals need to be aware of potential for additional psychological distress, as well as the risk of prolonged grief disorder.


The authors' intent is to provide a practical manual for students and practitioners for diagnosing skin diseases. In the preface, it is recognized that the reader will, at times, need to consult a larger text for more detailed information. With this in mind, I think this book will serve its intended purpose. To aid in the diagnostic process, the book's organizational approach is clinical rather than etiologic. The book is divided into two parts. The first, entitled "General Principles," includes very clear and well-written chapters on anatomy, physiology, allergy, and sexually transmitted diseases. A chapter on etiology, appearing early in the book, covers a variety of factors, but perhaps lists too many examples, without explanation, of diseases that may not yet be familiar to the reader. Also, in my view, there is a disproportionate amount of space devoted to parasitic infestations, including some rare entities that probably could be omitted


This study investigated what criteria online vendors use to select parcel delivery carriers and examines what bearing they have on the development and maintenance of mutually beneficial partnerships. The selection attributes are identified via the logistical transport literature and then grouped according to their influence on online vendors. Seven distinct factors pertaining to the selection of carriers were identified, the two most important of which are ' 'on-time, tracking and quick response'* and ' fare rate and freight loss.'' Considerable interpenetration is discernible between these factors and the e-commerce business model, average monetary transaction and shipment frequency. Online transactions reply on a distribution service that ensures physical goods reach intended customers. Since service requirements fluctuate over time, selection attri butes identified in previous studies are likely to be of limited utility. An expanding online market affords more distribution service opportunities, which makes it imperative that key factors affecting the selection of carriers by online vendors are amenable to empirical verification.


Here, we examined how repetition under midazolam, a benzodiazepine that prevents the storage of novel associations, affects cued-recall performance of paired-associates. We contrasted word pairs that were initially studied and tested repeatedly without any successful recall prior to the midazolam injection, with other pairs that were studied for the first time after the injection of midazolam. According to our SAC (Source of Activation Confusion) memory model, repetition leads to strengthening existing memory traces rather than creating multiple traces for each repetition. As such, it predicts that repetition under midazolam should benefit only pairs that were originally studied prior to the midazolam injection. This prediction was confirmed. The results suggest that memory traces for pairs studied prior to the midazolam injection were strengthened under midazolam. However, word pairs that had not been studied prior to the injection were not bound in long-term memory because midazolam prevents the formation of new associations.


When Charles Darwin published his theory of evolution of species by natural selection, in 1859, he already foresaw a great debate, but not its radiance and longevity.
At the beginning, the consequences for the sciences, the faith in God and the moral concepts were at the forefront. Soon, considerations of society, politics, international relations and interventions down to the level of the individual and his genetic material, his genes, were added. Social Darwinism, eugenics, and racism were regarded as scientifically legitimate areas of discussion and politics. Fears of a supposed decline can still be scientifically and objectively substantiated in the face of the biologization of thought. At present the controversies are even more diverse, involve far more people than in the late 19th century, have far more serious effects.
The authors from eleven countries draw the facets of an exciting and up-to-the-minute debate from various disciplinary perspectives and ask about the future of the "Evolution Evolution".


We introduce an automated procedure of coarse-grained molecular dynamic simulation for DNA nanostructure that has great potential for realizing molecular robotics. As DNA origami is now a standardized technology to fabricate DNA nanostructures with high precision, various computer-aided design software has been developed. For example, a design tool called caDNAno with a simple and intuitive interface is widely used for designing DNA origami structures. Further, a simulation tool called oxDNA is used to predict the behavior of such nanostructures based on coarse-grained molecular dynamics. These tools, however, are not linked directly; thus, repeating the cycle of design and simulation is cumbersome to the user. Moreover, the computer skills required to setup, launch, and run an oxDNA simulation are a potential barrier for non-experts. In our proposal, oxDNA simulation can be launched on a web server simply by providing a caDNAno file; the web server then analyzes the simulation results and provides a visual response. The validity of the proposal is demonstrated using an example. The advantages of our proposed method compared with other conventional methods are also described. This simple-to-use interface for user-friendly simulation of DNA origami eliminates stress to users and accelerates the design process of complicated DNA nanostructures such as wireframe architecture.


Student course evaluations are important tools for direct evaluation of student appreciation of courses. At Chalmers they are traditionally executed in terms of mid meeting with students and teachers followed by a written student questionnaire and the follow up meeting with students, student centre representatives and teachers where recommendations for future development can/will be suggested. The written questionnaire is considered as the hard and true facts about the perception of the course quality from a student point of view. The year 2010 we tried to take a footprint on the questionnaire responses before the examination and compare that with the responses after the examination. Preliminary results indicate that the response for the course questionnaire show significant differences indicating that the examination for somewhat reason has changed the perception of the teacher's pedagogic ability and general perception of the course. This paper will show the interesting results on this but also show how to use repeated questions to check if the student opinion also changes during the filling of the questionnaire. Chalmers has in many ways a very good way of evaluating courses and programs but here will suggestions for further improvement and quality assurance of the courses be suggested. The aim of this paper is not to provide solutions but to discuss problems and opportunities with written questionnaires as one important source for quality assurance of courses.


How cells count and regulate organelle number is a fundamental question in cell biology. For example, most cells restrict centrioles to two in number and assemble one cilium; however, multiciliated cells (MCCs) synthesize hundreds of centrioles to assemble multiple cilia. Aberration in centriole/cilia number impairs MCC function and can lead to pathological outcomes. Yet how MCCs control centriole number remains unknown. Using Xenopus, we demonstrate that centriole number scales with apical area over a remarkable 40-fold change in size. We find that tensile forces that shape the apical area also trigger centriole amplification based on both cell stretching experiments and disruption of embryonic elongation. Unexpectedly, Piezo1, a mechanosensitive ion channel, localizes near each centriole suggesting a potential role in centriole amplification. Indeed, depletion of Piezo1 affects centriole amplification and disrupts its correlation with the apical area in a tension-dependent manner. Thus, mechanical forces calibrate cilia/centriole number to the MCC apical area via Piezo1. Our results provide new perspectives to study organelle number control essential for optimal cell function.


Reliable transmission is a challenging task over wireless LANs since wireless links are known to be susceptible to errors. Although the current IEEE802.11 standard ARQ error control protocol performs relatively well over channels with very low bit error rates (BERs), this performance deteriorates rapidly as the BER increases. This paper investigates the problem of reliable transmission in a contention free wireless LAN and introduces a packet embedded error control (PEEC) protocol, which employs packet-embedded parity symbols instead of ARQ-based retransmission for error recovery. Specifically, depending on receiver feedback, PEEC adaptively estimates channel conditions and administers the transmission of (data and parity) symbols within a packet. This enables successful recovery of both new data and old unrecovered data from prior transmissions. In addition to theoretically analyzing PEEC, the performance of the proposed scheme is extensively analyzed over real channel traces collected on 802.11b WLANs. We compare PEEC performance with the performance of the IEEE802.il standard ARQ protocol as well as contemporary protocols such as enhanced ARQ and the hybrid ARQ/FEC. Our analysis and experimental simulations show that PEEC outperforms all three competing protocols over a wide range of actual 802.11b WLAN collected traces. Finally, the design and implementation of PEEC using an adaptive low-density-parity-check (A-LDPC) decoder is presented.


The development of a strong national response involving multiple sectors—including civil society—is an essential aspect of the social management of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The goals of this response are to control the epidemic and improve the quality of life for people living with HIV/AIDS; this includes combating stigma and discrimination, as well as ensuring due compliance with the law. Cuba has a national program to prevent and control HIV/AIDS. Since 2003 Cuba's national program has received material and financial support from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Program evaluation is carried out by an independent team at ENSAP (National School of Public Health). This paper reports on results of one part of that evaluation: an assessment of the agencies and sectors who made up the organized social and national response to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The evaluation primarily used qualitative analyses of the activities and tasks proposed by sectors in their 2006-2008 work plans. Visits were made to the provinces of Ciudad de la Habana, Matanzas, and Holguin. Qualitative techniques included in-depth interviews, semi-structured interviews, observation, and review of documentary evidence of all kinds (videos, reports, minutes, protocols, results of social research, and radio broadcast messages) and varied depending on the particular features of each sector. We noted improvements in multi-sector participation in the prevention and response to the national HIV/AIDS epidemic. Conscious of their role, sectors generally carried out their programmed activities and had improved their organization, planning, and systematization; integration among the sectors was also better. These local initiatives provided evidence of a multi-sector response characterized by autonomy, emotional involvement, and an identification with the goals of the project; this went beyond simply meeting targets. Cross-sector work showed a marked increase and a qualitative leap in management compared with the previous evaluation. Interviewees from different sectors all considered discrimination and stigmatization of people living with HIV to have decreased, both within their organizations and in the general population.


The recently re-discovered interest in N6-methyl adenosine (m6A) - one of more than a hundred modifications found on eukaryotic mRNA (known as epi-transcriptomic codes) - is currently one of the most topical areas in science. The m6A methylation impacts on all aspects of cellular RNA metabolism and several physiological processes. Although less abundant than the m6A epitranscriptomic mark, the m1A methylation has recently also attracted interest due to its dynamic nature in response to physiological changes. We investigated the role of the YTH domain-containing m6A reader protein family and the m1A eraser ALKBH3 on the expression of a transgene in mammalian cells. We present the first evidence that expression of a transgene is subjected to co-ordinated regulation by both m6A and m1A regulators. In addition, we provide genetic data implicating that the m6A reader YTHDF2 can read m1A site. Furthermore, we show that the m1A eraser ALKBH3 is a target of m1A methylation.


ABSTRACT Oxalic acid occurs extensively in nature and plays diverse roles, especially in pathological processes. Due to its highly oxidizing effects, hyperabsorption or abnormal synthesis of oxalate can cause serious acute disorders in mammals and can be lethal in extreme cases. Intestinal oxalate-degrading bacteria could therefore be pivotal in maintaining oxalate homeostasis and reducing the risk of kidney stone development. In this study, the oxalate-degrading activities of 14 bifidobacterial strains were measured by a capillary electrophoresis technique. The oxc gene, encoding oxalyl-coenzyme A (CoA) decarboxylase, a key enzyme in oxalate catabolism, was isolated by probing a genomic library of Bifidobacterium animalis subsp. lactis BI07, which was one of the most active strains in the preliminary screening. The genetic and transcriptional organization of oxc flanking regions was determined, unraveling the presence of two other independently transcribed open reading frames, potentially responsible for the ability of B. animalis subsp. lactis to degrade oxalate. pH-controlled batch fermentations revealed that acidic conditions were a prerequisite for a significant oxalate degradation rate, which dramatically increased in cells first adapted to subinhibitory concentrations of oxalate and then exposed to pH 4.5. Oxalate-preadapted cells also showed a strong induction of the genes potentially involved in oxalate catabolism, as demonstrated by a transcriptional analysis using quantitative real-time reverse transcription-PCR. These findings provide new insights into the characterization of oxalate-degrading probiotic bacteria and may support the use of B. animalis subsp. lactis as a promising adjunct for the prophylaxis and management of oxalate-related kidney disease.


The use of enhanced recovery pathways within elective surgery has increased in recent years but uptake outside of specialist centres is still slow, despite the growing evidence base to support their introduction. This article will briefly outline what is meant by an enhanced recovery pathway (ERP) and outline the central characteristics and features which make up an ERP. The procedural details and results of an orthopaedic ERP which has been used in 2391 consecutive hip and knee joint replacement patients at a NHS district general hospital within the United Kingdom will then be outlined. The results of this unit illustrate that when a standardised, multi-disciplinary pathway is implemented and managed correctly, dramatic reductions to length of stay can be achieved. In combination, high levels of both staff and patient satisfaction are achieved along with good clinical outcomes. It is proposed that if such ways of working are implemented in other hospitals major economic and capacity savings could be realised at the same time as improving patient care. 2010 Published by Elsevier Ltd. 79 80 E


Adversarial attacks can make deep neural network (DNN) models predict incorrect output labels, such as misclassified traffic signs, for autonomous vehicle (AV) perception modules. Resilience against adversarial attacks can help AVs navigate safely on the road by avoiding misclassication of signs or objects. This DNN-based study develops a resilient traffic sign classifier for AVs that uses a hybrid defense method. We use transfer learning to retrain the Inception-V3 and Resnet-152 models as traffic sign classifiers. This method also utilizes a combination of three different strategies: random filtering, ensembling, and local feature mapping. We use the random cropping and resizing technique for random filtering, plurality voting as ensembling strategy and an optical character recognition model as a local feature mapper. This DNN-based hybrid defense method has been tested for the no attack scenario and against well-known untargeted adversarial attacks (e.g., Projected Gradient Descent or PGD, Fast Gradient Sign Method or FGSM, Momentum Iterative Method or MIM attack, and Carlini and Wagner or C&W). We find that our hybrid defense method achieves 99% average traffic sign classification accuracy for the no attack scenario and 88% average traffic sign classification accuracy for all attack scenarios. Moreover, the hybrid defense method, presented in this study, improves the accuracy for traffic sign classification compared to the traditional defense methods (i.e., JPEG filtering, feature squeezing, binary filtering, and random filtering) up to 6%, 50%, and 55% for FGSM, MIM, and PGD attacks, respectively.


The hearing function in 32 patients with various forms of disseminated sclerosis was measured. Their hearing sensitivity, loudness and discrimination as well as spatial hearing and ability to localize sound sources were determined. In the absence of changes in hearing sensitivity, loudness and discrimination all the patients displayed marked disorders or complete loss of their capability to localize sound sources in the vertical plane but retained their capability to localize sound sources in the horizontal plane. Therefore, in contrast to the widely recognized concept that the hearing function in patients with disseminated sclerosis remains intact, spatial hearing impairment should be viewed as a pathognomonic symptom which is very important for diagnosing it at all stages of its development, including the earliest stages.


It is as simple to biopsy around the nail as it is at any other site, and there are multiple lesions that deserve biopsy. Biopsy of the nail bed or nail matrix is avoided unless there is possible malignant change. Biopsy sites in the nail bed usually heal satisfactorily, but biopsy of the matrix is more likely to produce permanent deformity.


This studY is an investigg-ation of the spectral and temporal
characteristics of the sounds of the Egyptian dialect of Arabic,
mainly as revealed by acoustic spectrography.
The consonant sounds of Arabic speech are divided into groups
according to their manner of articulation and are studied in separate chapters accordingly.
Each chapter is divided into two main parts. In the first part we look into the articulatory mechanism for the production of the
consonant under study, as well as at its acoustic theory of production.
I. We also report the results of the acoustic analyses of sounds produced with the same mechanism in other languages as well as the results of
synthetic speech experiments.
In the second part of each chapter we report the results of the acoustic analysis of the Arabic consonant under investigation. In
this part we study the temporal and spectral characteristics of the
particular consonant in different word positions. We also study its
effect on the direction and extent of the second-formant transitions
of the adjacent vowels, as well as the effect of the adjacent vowel on
the frequency positions of the components of the consonant spectrum.
This part is then followed by a concluding section in which we
provide an overall view of the specifics of the acoustics of that
consonant and discuss the relevance of our findins on its -acoustics
to the general theories of speech production and perception.


There is a paradigm shift in the nature of employee –employer bonding in the present dynamic business context. It is moving from a strong long term relationship to an
instable short term association. This change is primarily observed among highly skilled knowledge workers of the information technology industry as they seek the best
organizational environment that will suit their needs. In the present operating business environment where organizational growth is an outcome of innovative and technological progressions, human capital has emerged as one of the most valued assets of the organization. Skilled human capital can be a source of competitive advantage to companies and be a significant antecedent to its success. The challenge for the information technology industry is therefore to design a work environment that not only attracts but retains such talented human capital. Hence, it is imperative for the companies to explore the attributes
that such skilled talent expect and operationalise them to effective employer branding strategies. This study is an attempt to explore the important attributes that IT specialists aspire in an organization of interest which will be beneficial design employer branding strategies.


This study aims to explain the function of Givu as customary law as well as an identity that is able to regulate social life in the Tau Taa Wana Tribe community. The research approach used is descriptive qualitative. There were 13 informants who were selected by purposive sampling. The data used include primary and secondary data through qualitative observations, in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, documentation and document studies. Data analysis is a qualitative analysis through an interactive model, namely data reduction, data presentation; and levers. The results of the study show that Givu is a customary law that is sourced from noble abstract values and rules so that it becomes a guide for social behavior that is able to support social structures. The application of Givu is regulated through institutions such as regulating economic, political and social needs. Close relationship with Mogombo (deliberation) for customary law decisions against a disturbance that maintains the spirit of collectivity and is able to strengthen a participatory culture. The importance of external recognition and respect for Givu customary law as well as state recognition and protection for the existence of the Tau Taa Wana Tribe.


I n may, the colombian senate began deliberations on a draft law that would grant pardons to former paramilitaries, including those who had committed massacres. Moreover, it would allow them to run for public office, become public employees, or enter into government contracts. Those who have committed serious crimes could "receive full political rehabilitation and get more benefits than are normally given in laws governing amnesties and pardons," warned Jaime Castro, a former Colombian government minister, speaking to Miami's El Nuevo Herald. The reform was championed by Fabio Valencia Cossio, minister of the Interior and Justice, whose older brother happens to be on trial for belonging to the Bloque Élmer Cárdenas, a militia unit of the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), once the country's largest paramilitary organization. Such a brazen attempt at not only granting paramilitaries impunity but making them over as legitimate political actors bespeaks the extent to which these violent groups have infiltrated the Colombian body politic. As the sociologist Jasmin Hristsov explains in this issue's opening piece, the government of President Álvaro Uribe began a "peace process" with the AUC in 2002 that, although farcical, has played an important role in creating the illusion of a paramilitary "demobilization" that in fact represents "the final, definitive incorporation of paramilitarism into the Colombian state and economy": coercion incorporated. Since their inception, Colombian paramilitaries have served as an extension of the Colombian state coercive apparatus, and this relationship has only grown stronger since the implementation of Plan Colombia, the U.S.-sponsored military aid program, in 2000. The United States also provided an initial $3 million for the phony peace process, which has served above all to perpetuate the state-paramilitary nexus by guaranteeing near total impunity for confessed paramilitaries. Trials carried out under the Justice and Peace Law have characteristically involved mock confessions and the disappearance of evidence, while top paramilitary chiefs, many of them guilty of crimes against humanity, have been extradited to the United States, ensuring that the only thing they will be tried for is drug trafficking. Paramilitaries, Hristov emphasizes, have been crucial to processes of capital accumulation in Colombia, as they violently secure the land and strategic resources necessary for enriching themselves and those they serve. Anthropologist Lesley Gill offers a case study of this in her description of how a local paramilitary state, or "parastate," emerged in Barrancabermeja, an oil-refining center in the Magdalena Medio region. Paramilitaries began invading the city in 2000, serving as the shock troops of neoliberalism, terrorizing their way to local hegemony. Today, Gill reports, "new forms of rent extraction and 'flexible' labor relationships now form part of illegal networks and organizations that are beyond the reach of the official state, and they are maintained by fierce coercion." The remaining three authors in this issue, all of them journalists, explore how policies pursued by the Colombian government, in collusion with its paramilitary extension, affect different communities in the country. Mario Murillo highlights the murder in December of an indigenous activist from the department of Cauca, emphasizing both state and paramilitary violence as a backlash against an indigenous rights movement that is growing ever more powerful. Garry Leech reports on the deleterious impact that the African oil palm industry has had on Afro-Colombian communities, many of which have been coerced in various ways into growing the cash crop. Lina Britto explores the international dimension, focusing on the Colombian military's incursion into Ecuadoran territory on March 1, 2008, which cannot be properly understood without taking into account the Uribe administration's "push to the south," meaning the extension of the parastate into strategic territory once held by guerrillas. Grappling with these difficult realities is an important task for those of us in the United States, where the good news about the paramilitary "demobilization" has figured heavily in mainstream media coverage of Colombia, even as the U.S. government continues to generously fund the Colombian state and its security forces—and therefore the unofficial paramilitary system as well. 1


Manufacturing a DRAM chip involves multiple steps. External impurities, faulty deposition, or manufacturing errors in any of these steps could generate chips with faulty memory cells, rendering the chip unusable. To overcome these faulty memory cells, redundancies are included in the memory, allowing mapping of faulty memory cells to these redundant cells. The process of mapping faulty cells to redundant cells is called Redundancy Analysis (RA). Different RA algorithms have been developed and are often tested on randomly generated defect to test their efficiency and execution time. But in real life, the defect pattern of a chip is not completely random, it follows a distribution pattern and the algorithms should be tested on chips with similar error distribution patterns. So, in this paper, we propose a Statistical Error and Redundancy Analysis Simulator to generate defects on the chips similar to defects on the manufacturing line. These chips are tested with existing RA algorithms to analyze their performance. The simulated errors on the chips are based on statistical models derived from real data. After generating defects on the chip, execution, comparison and benchmarking of algorithms based on yield and execution time is done. The simulator gives insights on algorithm behavior with different kinds of memory architectures and defect patterns. This allows designers of memory architecture and RA algorithm to simulate and predict wafer yield for different RA algorithm designs and memory architectures before manufacturing a new memory device.


Building general-purpose conversation agents is a very challenging task, but necessary on the road toward intelligent agents that can interact with humans in natural language. Neural conversation models -- purely data-driven systems trained end-to-end on dialogue corpora -- have shown great promise recently, yet they often produce short and generic responses. This work presents new training and decoding methods that improve the quality, coherence, and diversity of long responses generated using sequence-to-sequence models. Our approach adds self-attention to the decoder to maintain coherence in longer responses, and we propose a practical approach, called the glimpse-model, for scaling to large datasets. We introduce a stochastic beam-search algorithm with segment-by-segment reranking which lets us inject diversity earlier in the generation process. We trained on a combined data set of over 2.3B conversation messages mined from the web. In human evaluation studies, our method produces longer responses overall, with a higher proportion rated as acceptable and excellent as length increases, compared to baseline sequence-to-sequence models with explicit length-promotion. A back-off strategy produces better responses overall, in the full spectrum of lengths.


Abstract The aim of the present study was to perform quantitative and qualitative evaluations of developing blood cells in the head kidney of European chub, Squalius cephalus (L.). Twenty-one types of hematopoietic precursors and mature cells were identified in head kidneys isolated from ten juvenile fish. The lymphoid lineage was the most abundant, followed by granuloid, erythroid, thrombocytoid, blast, and monocytoid cells. The lymphocyte was the most frequently occurring cell in the kidney and the most numerous of the lymphoid cells. The neutrophilic lineage was the most numerous among the granuloid cells. The erythropoietic series comprised five stages (erythroblasts: basophilic, polychromatic, orthochromatic; young and mature erythrocytes), more than the numbers of developmental stages of any other lineages. Juvenile cells were more abundant than mature stages in the head kidney. Only mature eosinophils and thrombocytes were found in chub hematopoietic tissue. The cellular composition in chub hematopoietic tissue was similar to that in other fish species.


Spatial hearing is critical for communication in everyday sound-rich environments. It is important to gain an understanding of how well users of bilateral hearing devices function in these conditions. The purpose of this work was to evaluate a Virtual Acoustics (VA) version of the Spatial Speech in Noise (SSiN) test, the SSiN-VA. This implementation uses relatively inexpensive equipment and can be performed outside the clinic, allowing for regular monitoring of spatial-hearing performance. The SSiN-VA simultaneously assesses speech discrimination and relative localization with changing source locations in the presence of noise. The use of simultaneous tasks increases the cognitive load to better represent the difficulties faced by listeners in noisy real-world environments. Current clinical assessments may require costly equipment which has a large footprint. Consequently, spatial-hearing assessments may not be conducted at all. Additionally, as patients take greater control of their healthcare outcomes and a greater number of clinical appointments are conducted remotely, outcome measures that allow patients to carry out assessments at home are becoming more relevant. The SSiN-VA was implemented using the 3D Tune-In Toolkit, simulating seven loudspeaker locations spaced at 30° intervals with azimuths between −90° and +90°, and rendered for headphone playback using the binaural spatialization technique. Twelve normal-hearing participants were assessed to evaluate if SSiN-VA produced patterns of responses for relative localization and speech discrimination as a function of azimuth similar to those previously obtained using loudspeaker arrays. Additionally, the effect of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), the direction of the shift from target to reference, and the target phonetic contrast on performance were investigated. SSiN-VA led to similar patterns of performance as a function of spatial location compared to loudspeaker setups for both relative localization and speech discrimination. Performance for relative localization was significantly better at the highest SNR than at the lowest SNR tested, and a target shift to the right was associated with an increased likelihood of a correct response. For word discrimination, there was an interaction between SNR and word group. Overall, these outcomes support the use of virtual audio for speech discrimination and relative localization testing in noise.


We study the stability of a planar travelling wave in the two-dimensional NEF-combustion model when the reduced Lewis number is equal to zero. The functional analytic setting consists of spaces of suitably exponentially weighted Ḧ older continuous functions. By exploiting the appearance of the integrated Burgers equation in the equations for perturbations of the wave we avoid the usual assumption that the perturbation must be localized in the lateral space coordinate.


to the hair root to destroy it before lifting out the hair. While it might be possible to gain some practice on a clearly visible site on the leg, the sheer physical impossibility of probing, on the face and neck, into a tiny follicle which may point in any direction and, in a situation where the operative hand must prevent vision of the site in the prerequisite mirror, must deny any claim to ease or safety. The things likely to have permanence will be the multiple pitted scars due to extra follicular burning and infection and, of course, the hirsutism which the gadgets are claimed to cure. As with the many unskilled purveyors of short-wave faradic electrolysis, these manufacturers can safely bank on the fact that distressed, embarrassed, and scarred women and girls will never face the possibility of litigation. What is worse, perhaps, from the aspect of medical responsibility, or lack of it, is that these firms may be able to produce a sheaf of certificates signed by doctors, largely in general practice, if, as commonly haopens, completion of such a certificate is required by them prior to their effecting a sale to a young person. The B.M.A. Dermatologists Group Committee condemns these articles as unsafe, even in trained hands, and begs its medical colleagues nei-ther to recommend them nor tacitly to encourage their sale to young girls by signing any required certificates.-I am, etc., IAN W. CALDWELL Chairman, B.M.A. Dermatologists Group Committee


Purpose: This paper is part of an on-going project relating to why and how to increase collaboration between food micro-producers. In this work we look at barriers perceived by independent farmers in Mexico (Sinaloa) during the development of their farming and commercial activities. Such barriers are often linked to the level of organisation among farmers, and we explore if this is a pertinent observation.
Research Approach: Secondary data from a Mexican rural census are used. Such data are compared, by means of scatter diagrams, to recognise patterns between barriers perceived by farmers, level of organisation, access to support and training, and access to credit. This comparison is done at the municipality level in order to recognise if there is a geographical propensity to collaborate. Initial insights reflect the need for complementary research approaches, particularly when studying the impact of individual preferences in the sustainability of supply chains involving rural communities.
Findings and Originality: Findings suggest (a) strong correlation between level of organisation among producers and additional access to resources (support, training and credit), and (b) not so strong correlation between frequency of perceived barriers and organisation or access to resources. This suggests that external funding is not enough to achieve farmers' satisfaction in rural communities. Other drivers involve the social dimension of sustainable supply chains, something that has been discussed only tangentially in supply chains literature. Accordingly, the main contribution of this paper is that we shows specific examples were links between barriers' perception among farmers and their level of organisation cannot be generalised; by doing so, we indicate the need for complementary research approaches when dealing with individuals' preferences and expectations.
Research Impact: Evidences are presented about how organisation between farmers may contribute to improve individual and collective performances. The research approach draws links between supply and value chains literature and the social dimension of sustainable development. The research procedure indicates the need for additional data in the census, but also limitations in this procedure to trigger change. A complementary approach seems also to be in need, as better economic performance does not seem to reduce the perception of barriers among farmers.
Practical Impact: This on-going research suggests that in order to support organisation between farmers in rural communities, there is a need for complementary approaches to design public policy making. These approaches shall involve looking at individual actions and their contribution to collective development rather than the traditional approach focused on investing external resources.


Abrasive Water jet cutting (AWJ) is a process used to cut materials using a jet of pressurized water. These water jets are capable of cutting a variety of materials like superalloys, titanium alloys, stainless steel, tool steels, ceramics, armor tool and granite. In the present study an attempt has been made to investigate microstructural changes taking place in the sub-surface as a result of AWJ cutting using cross-sectional Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM). TEM analysis shows that the sub-surface of the AWJ machined sample surface experienced severe deformations. The surface microstructure is observed to contain extremely fine sized grains, going down from sub-micrometer to nanometer range. The selected area diffraction pattern analysis also confirms the presence of extremely fine grained microstructure.


This article introduces a new approach to program theory evaluation called theory-based stakeholder evaluation or the TSE model for short. Most theory-based approaches are program theory driven and some are stakeholder oriented as well. Practically, all of the latter fuse the program perceptions of the various stakeholder groups into one unitary program theory. The TSE model keeps the program theories of the diverse stakeholder groups apart from each other and from the program theory embedded in the institutionalized intervention itself. This represents, the authors argue, an important clarification and extension of the standard theory-based evaluation. The TSE model is elaborated to enhance theory-based evaluation of interventions characterized by conflicts and competing program theories. The authors argue that especially in evaluations of complex and complicated multilevel and multisite interventions, the presence of competing theories is likely and the TSE model may prove useful.


Situation awareness (SA) is a cognitive skill which has been studied extensively in military and industrial settings. Recent studies have shown that errors in SA commonly underpin adverse incidents in healthcare but there is little data to improve our understanding of how to measure or improve SA in clinical settings. The aim of this thesis was to draw attention to the importance of SA in healthcare and to provide insights into how we might better train multidisciplinary teams in acute care settings. Error in healthcare and research into SA were reviewed and a novel, holistic method for the analysis of the role of SA in the evolution of error in an acute care setting was devised. A systematic review of tools for the measurement of non-technical skills (NTS) was undertaken and this informed a study to assess the reliability and usability of such tools in the measurement of SA. The final study involved the analysis of a variety of different techniques for the measurement of SA in teams from adult intensive care (AICU). The results revealed that SA errors were present in 96% of serious incidents in a large teaching hospital in the NHS. Challenges were highlighted in the measurement of NTS in healthcare including: 76 measurement tools, revealed by the systematic review, with great variability in quality of design and psychometric testing; low levels of reliability amongst expert raters using these tools and limited evidence of validity for direct and indirect measures of SA in simulated scenarios for teams from AICU. This work has revealed that SA errors are common in acute care settings and that there are significant challenges in the reliable measurement of SA. Future work should focus on improving measurement of SA and intelligent targeting of teamwork training which highlights the importance of SA and forms part of a system wide safety strategy in the NHS.


This essay explores the mobilization of the migrant day laborers' movement in search of lessons to inform a critical theory of cosmopolitan politics. In the course of the movement's rise to national prominence in US immigrant politics, have day labor groups also developed forms of political consciousness and action that move beyond the narrow limits inscribed by the system of sovereign nation-states? How might considering the circumstances of day laborers influence the way theorists conceive of cosmopolitanism and, in turn, what aspects of the day labor movement stand out most sharply when viewed through the lens of cosmopolitan theory? The first part of this essay formulates a theory of cosmopolitan politics that reflects attentiveness to migrant workers' everyday lives. According to this vision, cosmopolitanism should oppose neoliberalism, resist domestication by liberal legalism even as it pursues a politics of rights, deploy threads of connection across political terrains at multiple geographical levels, respond to subalternity with the dialogical commitments of popular education and through disruptions of the sensible order, and combat of the global deportation regime. In the second part of the article, we tell the story of the day labor movement's origins and growth into both a national force in US politics and a participant in transnational alliances, following its beginnings as an assortment of dispersed struggles to improve local conditions for migrant workers. Throughout this history, the day labor movement gradually has come to demonstrate more and more of the features we argue should characterize a radical conception of cosmopolitan politics.


This article discusses recent scientific advances in the study of individual differences in human brain development. Focusing on structural neuroimaging measures of brain morphology and tissue properties, two kinds of variability are related and explored: differences across individuals of the same age and differences across age as a result of development. A recent multidimensional modeling study is explained, which was able to use brain measures to predict an individual's chronological age within about one year on average, in children, adolescents, and young adults between 3 and 20 years old. These findings reveal great regularity in the sequence of the aggregate brain state across different ages and phases of development, despite the pronounced individual differences people show on any single brain measure at any given age. Future research is suggested, incorporating additional measures of brain activity and function. WIREs Cogn Sci 2017, 8:e1389. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1389 For further resources related to this article, please visit the WIREs website.


The ATLAS silicon tracker community foresees an upgrade from the present octafluoropropane (C3F8) evaporative cooling fluid — to a composite fluid with a probable 10–20% admixture of hexafluoroethane (C2F6). Such a fluid will allow a lower evaporation temperature and will afford the tracker silicon substrates a better safety margin against leakage current-induced thermal runaway caused by cumulative radiation damage as the luminosity profile at the CERN Large Hadron Collider increases. Central to the use of this new fluid is a new custom-developed speed-of-sound instrument for continuous real-time measurement of the C3F8/C2F6 mixture ratio and flow. An acoustic vapour mixture analyzer/flow meter with new custom electronics allowing ultrasonic frequency transmission through gas mixtures has been developed for this application. Synchronous with the emission of an ultrasound 'chirp' from an acoustic transmitter, a fast readout clock (40 MHz) is started. The clock is stopped on receipt of an above threshold sound pulse at the receiver. Sound is alternately transmitted parallel and anti-parallel with the vapour flow for volume flow measurement from transducers that can serve as acoustic transmitters or receivers. In the development version, continuous real-time measurement of C3F8/C2F6 flow and calculation of the mixture ratio is performed within a graphical user interface developed in PVSS-II, the Supervisory, Control and Data Acquisition standard chosen for LHC and its experiments at CERN. The described instrument has numerous potential applications — including refrigerant leak detection, the analysis of hydrocarbons, vapour mixtures for semiconductor manufacture and anesthetic gas mixtures.


Despite the widespread belief that the world grows increasingly violent, Steven Pinker's 2011 volume The Better Angels of Our Nature convincingly argues that the opposite is true. Tracing the history of humanity from its origins to the present day, Pinker shows how violence has declined, and that strong, stable government is the principal reason for this happening. The book briefly touches on the way literature may play a part in the reduction of violence through the transmission of empathy – the way in which stories about other people, even fictional people, teach us to comprehend more closely our fellow human beings. This article expands on Pinker's assertion and suggests that violence has also declined in literature, or become increasingly unacceptable to the point of rejection.


INTRODUCTION: Maternal premenstrual dysphoric disorder (PMDD) is a severe variant of premenstrual syndrome in which mood swings is the most disturbing and debilitating symptom, affecting the quality of life of women of reproductive age. The objective of this study was to identify the main physical and emotional manifestations of PMDD among undergraduate students of Physical Therapy. METHODS: A cross-sectional, descriptive, analytical study was carried between August and December 2008, with 259 undergraduate students. The following instruments were used: a questionnaire covering social and economic data; the Menstrual Symptom Questionnaire (MSQ); Steiner's self-rated premenstrual syndrome questionnaire; and the Hamilton Self-Rating Depression Questionnaire. Descriptive and analytical statistical analysis was performed using the chi-square test or Fisher's exact test. Significance was set at 5%. RESULTS: A high prevalence of physical and emotional symptoms was found. Among the signs and symptoms assessed by MSQ, only depression showed a significant correlation with PMDD (p = 0.048). Other symptoms, such as anxiety, mood lability, physical symptoms, the ability to perform daily tasks, and pain, were not correlated with PMDD. CONCLUSION: PMDD caused physical and emotional distress among the women assessed and was significantly correlated with depression. These findings suggest that PMDD should be classified as a clinical manifestation of mood disorders.


Sustainability is key to any long term eco-tourism development and particular performance indicators may be developed and applied to monitor the sustainable development of unique eco-tourism attractions. Jeram Linang Amenity Forest is unique in its scenic waterfalls, flora and fauna, and elevated river flows. This study examined the level of sustainable development of this Kelantan's eco-tourism resource based on visitors' perceptions of sustainable indicators set by the World Tourism Organisation (WTO). A total of 140 respondents participated in this study. The study found waste dumping as a major problem in this amenity forest where the littering by irresponsible visitors had lead to the destruction of its beautiful scenery. Open burning within the area vicinity was also found to be undermining the pristine state of the forest despite its being a protected area under the jurisdiction of Ulu Sat Forest Reserve. All this point to the imperative of well planned and well executed remedial actions involving all stakeholders. Keywords: recreational forest, sustainability indicators, sustainable tourism, sustainability monitoring, tourist perception, World Tourism Organisation


Chomsky's notions of 'knowledge' and 'ability' are discussed, and are distinguished from the notion 'performance'. 'Knowledge' is taken to refer to the native speaker's abstract knowledge of the language system, 'ability' is taken to refer to the (no less abstract) processing mechanisms underlying speech production and perception, whereas 'performance' is used for referring to the actual linguistic behavior at some particular moment, in some particular situation. Subsequently, a case-study of the development of language and speech during the third year is presented. Twelve hours of spontaneous speech, produced by one child at ages 2:4, 2:6, 2:7, 2:8, 2:9, and 2:11 are analyzed (two hours per period). The development of sentence structure over periods suggests that the child is differentiating function words and content words as separate word classes (development of 'knowledge'). Also, there is a temporary increase of disfluencies and production errors in the periods 2:7 to 2:9 (development of 'performance'). It is argued that these changes in knowledge on the one hand and performance on the other are related, and that this relation is mediated by changes in 'ability', i.e., in the processing mechanism underlying speech production. Two kinds of 'effort' displayed by this mechanism are distinguished: 'syntactic' or planning effort, which is investigated by analyzing developmental changes in the child's peak performances (his longest, most complex sentences in each of the six periods), and 'articulatory' effort, which is investigated by analyzing developmental changes in the way in which the words of sentences that are immediate and complete self-repetitions are articulated, as compared to the way in which these same words were articulated in the preceding instance of the sentence. In his syntactic effort, the child appears to become increasingly concerned with producing function words; at age 2:7 (the start of the temporary increase in disfluencies) there is a significant increase in the relative number of function words per sentence, and this is especially clear in the longest sentences. At the same time however, the child seems to concentrate his articulatory effort on content words; from age 2:7 onward content words tend to be articulated more accurately in the repetition of an utterance than in its first production, whereas the same does not hold for function words. In the Discussion it is suggested that the differentiation of function and content words ('knowledge') causes a certain imbalance within the developing production mechanism ('ability'), in that function words and content words start 'competing' for effort, each at a different processing level. This, in its turn, might play a role in the observed temporary increase of disfluencies and production errors ('performance').


This paper gives im overview of how simulation modeling techniques can be employed in the design and analysis of advanced manufacturing systems. The reasons for the complexities of these systems, as well as the uses of simulation software packages, are discussed. Finally, examples of simulation models of advanced manufacturing systems, as developed by the authors, are presented.


The performance of a health system hinges upon effective and efficient allocation of resources. The nature of governance within the health system, including critical components such as purchasing mechanism of health care services, also determines the health status of program beneficiaries. This article investigates an existing purchasing mechanism of a state-funded health care scheme through the lens of governance. We applied framework method on an adapted version of a tool developed by the World Health Organization (WHO), Organizational Assessment for Improving and Strengthening Health Financing (OASIS), to draw four themes to study the status of purchasing mechanism in Madhya Pradesh (MP), India. We used purposive sampling to select subjects from the state, district, and block levels and conducted 32 in-depth interviews. Subjects from the district and block levels were drawn from a sample of three out of 51 districts in MP. We found that although the scheme is functional, it has immense scope for improvement, thereby bettering the health outcomes of its beneficiaries.