to what extent should we--rely on altruism to provide for the needy? That is the overarching question of a provocative book published in 1970 by British social scientist Richard M. Titmuss. Recently restored to print in a revised edition, 1 The Gift Relationship: From Human Blood to Social Policy approaches this issue through a painstaking and critical investigation of American methods of collecting blood for transfusion. Titmuss contrasted the American practice, in which recipients paid for blood, some of which was purchased from donors, with British practice, in which blood was freely given to patients and received from altruistic donors. He argued that more blood was wasted in America than in Britain, that American hospitals frequently ran short of blood, and that blood purchased from American donors was less safe and more likely to spread hepatitis among its recipients.


Introduction Some patients who have stable cirrhosis require regular therapeutic paracentesis. In our hospital these patients would be admitted directly to the Gastroenterology ward for treatment. Given the pressure on inpatient beds we established a nurse led treatment unit on the Gastroenterology ward to avoid admissions and improve efficiency. Method A ward administrative area was converted into a day unit containing two trolley beds. A paracentesis pathway including competency based training was developed and a band 6 specialist nurse position was established. Between May 2016 and December 2016 data was prospectively collected for all day case paracentesis procedures including demographics, length of stay, volume of ascites drained and complications. A retrospective review of electronic patient records was performed to calculate the length of stay (LoS) for those patients who had been previously admitted for elective paracentesis prior to the initiation of the nurse led service. National data for cost per bed day was used to estimate cost savings. Results Fifty six day case paracentesis procedures were performed in the nurse led treatment unit between May 2016 and December 2016. Male:Female ratio was 54:2, mean age was 52 (range ). The mean volume drained was 9100mls (range 1,600–20 200,200mls). 54 (96%) of patient were discharged the same day following paracentesis. Two patients were admitted to the Gastroenterology ward, 1 patient was diagnosed with spontaneous bacterial peritonitis, 1 patient was found to have renal dysfunction. Mean LoS for patients admitted for elective therapeutic paracentesis was 4 days. We calculate that the nurse led treatment unit has saved 216 bed days. Assuming a cost of £400/bed day1 this equates to a cost saving of £86 400 over a 9 month period. Conclusion A protocol driven, nurse led day case paracentesis service is safe, avoids hospital admissions, reduces demand on inpatient beds and saves money. This model of care is easy to establish, requires minimal investment and can have a significant impact in reducing bed days. We plan to expand the treatments offered in the nurse led treatment unit to support new ambulatory treatment pathways. Reference . Department of Health (2015). Data Requests: NHS Hospital Stay. Available at: https://data.gov.uk/data-request/nhs-hospital-stay. [Accessed 24th Feb 2017]. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


The GIVE Challenge is a recent shared task in which NLG systems are evaluated over the Internet. In this paper, we validate this novel NLG evaluation methodology by comparing the Internet-based results with results we collected in a lab experiment. We find that the results delivered by both methods are consistent, but the Internet-based approach offers the statistical power necessary for more fine-grained evaluations and is cheaper to carry out.


Introduction Previous reports have revealed that excitation of human pharyngeal motor cortex can be induced by pharyngeal electrical stimulation (PES)1 and swallowing carbonated water (CW).2 This study is aimed to investigate whether synchronously combining PES with swallowing (of still water, SW or CW) can potentiate this excitation in pharyngeal cortical area and brainstem. Our hypothesis was that combining inputs would potentiate cortico-pharyngeal excitability compared to each alone which would be more advantageous in the rehabilitation of dysphagic patients. For the evaluation of the excitation in pharyngeal cortex or brainstem, Transcranial or transcutaneous Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) was used to stimulate the corticobulbar and craniobulbar neural networks. Methods Fourteen healthy volunteers (4 females, age range 19–35 yrs) participated and were intubated with an intraluminal catheter for delivering PES and recording pharyngeal electromyography. Each participants underwent the baseline corticobulbar, craniobulbar and hand motor evoked potential (MEP) measurements with TMS. Subjects were then randomised to receive one of four 10 minute interventions (PES only, ShamPES+CW, PES+CW and PES+SW). Corticobulbar, craniobulbar and hand MEPs were then re-measured for up to 60 minutes. Data were analysed using ANOVA and post hoc t-tests. Results Two way rmANOVA comparing pharyngeal MEP amplitude changes in the dominant hemisphere for Interventions×Time showed a significant interaction, F(15, 195) =2.826, P < 0.01. One-way ANOVA for each Interventions indicated significant changes for PES only (P < 0.01) and Sham PES+CW (P < 0.05) but not for PES+CW or PES+SW over time. Subsequent post hoc t-tests with Bonferroni correction showed the main increase took place at the immediate follow-up for Sham PES+CW (**P < 0.01) and at 45 and 60 minutes for the PES only intervention (*P < 0.05) (Fig). One-way ANOVA for each interventions comparing excitability in the brainstem circutry indicated significant amplitude changes only for PES+CW (P < 0.05).Abstract PTU-140 Figure 1 Conclusion Of the interventions applied, only PES alone was able to induce sustained changes in pharyngeal cortical excitability that built up over time. By contrast, combination stimuli were less effective in promoting enhanced cortical excitability. Of interest, combination stimuli did produce short-term increases in excitability in brain stem reflexes. Our data suggest that PES alone may be most advantageous in dysphagic patients who have a difficulty in performing voluntary swallows. References 1 Fraser, et al. Neuron 2002; 34:831–40. 2 Elshukri, et al. J Appl Physiol 2016; 15;120:408–15. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


We develop an uncooled infrared imaging device that contains a SiN–Au bimaterial micro-cantilever arrays detector and an optical read-out section. The detector converts the incident infrared radiation to the cantilever inclination angles, and the optical read-out section converts these angles directly to a visible image through an optical filtering operation to the spectra of the cantilever arrays with a knife-edge filter. The present results with the 140×98 cantilever arrays and the 8-bit A/D quantizer suggest that the objects at the temperature of 250°C at the distance as far as 1 m can be detected and the noise-equivalent temperature difference (NETD) of the device is about 10 K. The further improvement of NETD is expected to approach about 14 mK with the optimized cantilever design and 12-bit quantizer.


Abstract. The aerosol size-segregated chemical composition was analyzed at an urban (Bologna) and a rural (San Pietro Capofiume) site in the Po Valley, Italy, during June and July 2012, by ion-chromatography (major water-soluble ions and organic acids) and evolved gas analysis (total and water-soluble carbon), to investigate sources and mechanisms of secondary aerosol formation during the summer. A significant enhancement of secondary organic and inorganic aerosol mass was observed under anticyclonic conditions with recirculation of planetary boundary layer air but with substantial differences between the urban and the rural site. The data analysis, including a principal component analysis (PCA) on the size-resolved dataset of chemical concentrations, indicated that the photochemical oxidation of inorganic and organic gaseous precursors was an important mechanism of secondary aerosol formation at both sites. In addition, at the rural site a second formation process, explaining the largest fraction (22 %) of the total variance, was active at nighttime, especially under stagnant conditions. Nocturnal chemistry in the rural Po Valley was associated with the formation of ammonium nitrate in large accumulation-mode (0.42–1.2 µm) aerosols favored by local thermodynamic conditions (higher relative humidity and lower temperature compared to the urban site). Nocturnal concentrations of fine nitrate were, in fact, on average 5 times higher at the rural site than in Bologna. The water uptake by this highly hygroscopic compound under high RH conditions provided the medium for increased nocturnal aerosol uptake of water-soluble organic gases and possibly also for aqueous chemistry, as revealed by the shifting of peak concentrations of secondary compounds (water-soluble organic carbon (WSOC) and sulfate) toward the large accumulation mode (0.42–1.2 µm). Contrarily, the diurnal production of WSOC (proxy for secondary organic aerosol) by photochemistry was similar at the two sites but mostly affected the small accumulation mode of particles (0.14–0.42 µm) in Bologna, while a shift to larger accumulation mode was observed at the rural site. A significant increment in carbonaceous aerosol concentration (for both WSOC and water-insoluble carbon) at the urban site was recorded mainly in the quasi-ultrafine fraction (size range 0.05–0.14 µm), indicating a direct influence of traffic emissions on the mass concentrations of this range of particles.


Regulatory regimes designed to ensure transparency often struggle to ensure that transparency is meaningful in practice. This challenge is particularly great when coupled with the widespread usage of dark patterns --- design techniques used to manipulate users. The following article analyses the implementation of the transparency provisions of the German Network Enforcement Act (NetzDG) by Facebook and Twitter, as well as the consequences of these implementations for the effective regulation of online platforms. This question of effective regulation is particularly salient, due to an enforcement action in 2019 by Germany's Federal Office of Justice (BfJ) against Facebook for what the BfJ claim were insufficient compliance with transparency requirements, under NetzDG. This article provides an overview of the transparency requirements of NetzDG and contrasts these with the transparency requirements of other relevant regulations. It will then discuss how transparency concerns not only providing data, but also how the visibility of the data that is made transparent is managed, by deciding how the data is provided and is framed. We will then provide an empirical analysis of the design choices made by Facebook and Twitter, to assess the ways in which their implementations differ. The consequences of these two divergent implementations on interface design and user behaviour are then discussed, through a comparison of the transparency reports and reporting mechanisms used by Facebook and Twitter. As a next step, we will discuss the BfJ's consideration of the design of Facebook's content reporting mechanisms, and what this reveals about their respective interpretations of NetzDG's scope. Finally, in recognising that this situation is one in which a regulator is considering design as part of their action - we develop a wider argument on the potential for regulatory enforcement around dark patterns, and design practices more generally, for which this case is an early, indicative example.


Abstract The author discusses the tourism geography research which has been undertaken at Lomonosov State University in Moscow over many years. This academic institution is one of the most famous research centres dealing with spatial recreation systems. At first (from the 1960's), research was mainly on geographical and technical issues, but the research area was gradually enlarged for example to include social and humanistic elements. The best known research has been done on 'spatial recreation systems', 'polarized landscapes', the 'recreational economy spatial complex', and the 'environmental model of a spatial system'


Major advances in the genetics of vertebrate limb development have been obtained in recent years. However, the nature of the signals which trigger differentiation of the mesoderm to form the limb skeleton remains elusive. Previously, we have obtained evidence for a role of TGFbeta2 in digit formation. Here, we show that activins A and B and/or AB are also signals involved in digit skeletogenesis. activin betaA gene expression correlates with the initiation of digit chondrogenesis while activin betaB is expressed coincidently with the formation of the last phalanx of each digit. Exogenous administration of activins A, B or AB into the interdigital regions induces the formation of extra digits. follistatin, a natural antagonist of activins, is expressed, under the control of activin, peripherally to the digit chondrogenic aggregates marking the prospective tendinous blastemas. Exogenous application of follistatin blocks physiological and activin-induced digit formation. Evidence for a close interaction between activins and other signalling molecules, such as BMPs and FGFs, operating at the distal tip of the limb at these stages is also provided. Chondrogenesis by activins is mediated by BMPs through the regulation of the BMP receptor bmpR-1b and in turn activin expression is upregulated by BMP signalling. In addition, AER hyperactivity secondary to Wnt3A misexpression or local administration of FGFs, inhibits activin expression. In correlation with the restricted expression of activins in the course of digit formation, neither activin nor follistatin treatment affects the development of the skeletal components of the stylopod or zeugopod indicating that the formation of the limb skeleton is regulated by segment-specific chondrogenic signals.


This thesis imagines an ecological future for the post-industrial landscape of Govan Graving Docks, situated on the banks of the River Clyde in inner city Glasgow. The research is framed by a context of urban renewal and at times violent change in early 21st century Glasgow which has seen the city's riverside transformed, with centres for culture, tourism and entertainment built on its infilled docks and sites of dereliction. Prompted by the development priorities of this change, and the nostalgia for an industrial past that has become a 'way of seeing' the river, this research seeks to better know the material life of this landscape. On Govan Graving Docks - an abandoned ship repair and fitting facility that remains as yet 'unresolved' - this thesis unearths the agencies, temporalities, ecologies and material legacies of a less familiar elemental landscape, and considers how these expressions could be tended and extended in a vision for a different future, focused on fostering new kinds of environmental engagement.

The research themes draw insight from emerging theories in new materialism and the environmental humanities, particularly those that are responding to the matter of the Anthropocenic landscape, and they are explored through a repertoire of creative and collaborative field methods crafted with the site of study; variations on ecological performance, landscape and ecological survey work, public consultation, material imagining and sitewriting. These methods are founded on openness and attentiveness, they are opportunist and affirmative in nature, they are practiced on site and taken into the wider estuarine landscape, and they enrol many others beyond the researcher. These methods are first used to explore the expressions of life and vitality that can be found in the Graving Docks' new ecologies, material memory and more-than-human publics, and then to imagine the creative capacities of these agencies in new configurations of shared possibility. The researcher is another site of investigation: a distributive understanding of agency informs the emergence of an ecological sensibility through material engagement, which has implications both for the design process and the imagined landscape. These resources are used to imagine an alternative future for Govan Graving Docks: it is a vision that works with ruination, re-wilding, and the liquid dynamics of the city; a vision that honours both natural and industrial histories; a vision that is both challenging and necessary, where new experiences of 'worlding' in the city are made possible. Through this process of investigation and conjecture, the Clyde imaginary emerges as a space for critical and creative thought; a discursive space where the challenges facing this ecological landscape and its future are explored.

This thesis is both a product of, and contribution towards, cultural geographical enquiry, but it also has an interdisciplinary reach both theoretically and methodologically speaking, which enables the research to contribute to a wider debate about environmental futures that is currently taking place across the sciences and humanities. It can be defined as 'interdisciplinary in practice' for the way that it brings a wider range or perspectives to bear on a precarious urban wilderness and its associated communities, and seeks to develop a broader repertoire of research methods capable of exploring it's diverse material world, and the multiple expressions of value that exist therein. Written in a style that has been highly affected by this kind of open and inclusive style of research engagement, the emotive environmental story that is contained within this thesis is open to a wider audience. This thesis identifies the productive role that cultural geography can play in larger environmental debates concerned with the current state and play of 'life on earth', and by enacting and engaging ideas related to the cultural landscape, place-based identities/communities/values, and landscape practices, it also identifies the particular conceptual and methodological resources that make cultural geography's contribution both unique and necessary to these debates.


BACKGROUND & AIMS
This randomized controlled trial compared variceal band ligation (VBL), propranolol (PPL), and isosorbide-5-mononitrate (ISMN) in the prevention of first esophageal variceal bleed.

METHODS
Over a 6-year period, 172 patients with cirrhosis, grade II or III esophageal varices that had never bled, were recruited; 44 into VBL, 66 into PPL, and 62 into ISMN. Baseline patient characteristics: age, 55 +/- 11 years; Child-Pugh score, 8 +/- 2; 65% alcohol-induced cirrhosis; follow-up period, 19.7 +/- 17.6 months (range, 0.13-72.1 months), were comparable in the 3 groups.

RESULTS
On intention-to-treat analysis, variceal bleeding occurred in 7% of patients randomized to VBL, 14% to PPL, and 23% to ISMN. The 2-year actuarial risks for first variceal bleed were 6.2% (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.0%-15.0%) for VBL, 19.4% (95% CI, 0.1%-32.4%) for PPL, and 27.7% (95% CI, 14.2%-41.2%) for ISMN. A significant number of patients reported side effects with drug treatment (45% PPL and 42% ISMN vs. 2% VBL; P = 0.00), resulting in withdrawal from treatment in 30% of PPL and 21% of ISMN patients. There were no statistically significant differences in mortality rates in the 3 groups. In as-treated analysis, there was a statistically significant difference in actuarial risk for bleeding at 2 years between VBL and ISMN (7.5%, 95% CI, 2.5%-10.6% vs. 33.0%, 95% CI, 15%-49%, respectively, log rank test P = 0.03) but not between VBL and PPL.

CONCLUSIONS
VBL was equivalent to PPL and superior to ISMN in preventing first variceal bleed. The side-effect profile for pharmacotherapy was considerable.


In this article I point to some common pitfalls and particular challenges in research on human trafficking. I start out by presenting some of the challenges in identifying observable populations and behaviours, arguing that primary data collection in the trafficking field should focus on former victims, and not current victims or persons at risk. Thereafter I discuss some of the factors that have inhibited the development and use of explicit operational definitions of trafficking. Third, I present some of the challenges in identification of trafficking victims, when the victims themselves do not want to identify with the trafficking label. Finally, the usefulness of different research strategies in the trafficking fields for the current knowledge-needs is discussed.

The article concludes that there will always be some limitations and biases in empirical research in the trafficking field. However, as long as we acknowledge these limitations and make them explicit in our research, sound empirical research that enhances our knowledge in this field is possible. The best potential for good quality research lies in small-scale, thematically focused empirical studies, while attempts to describe worldwide trafficking across regions and arenas is less likely to be successful.


Objective: The aim of this study is to show that the Gini coefficient used in economics, particularly in exposing inequality in income levels can also be used in the field of health, especially for measuring inequality specific to any issue of concern. Based on life tables, this study uses the Gini coefficient in measuring the extent of inequality in years lived and shows the level of these inequalities in Turkey for the period 1990-2008. Material and Methods: Lorenz Curves were constructed by using data from life tables pertaining to years 1990, 2000, 2006 and 2008 as given by WHO database, Gini coefficients were calculated in measuring variability in length of life expectancies in general, for the male and female population and then used in examining reducing inequality over time. Results: Taking 1990 as the base year, life expectancy at birth has increased by 9.3 years by 2008 and inequality has decreased from 0.188 to 0.114 (by 39%) in the same period. Conclusion: In addition to the target of increasing life expectancy, the assessment of success in ensuring all individuals live up to average life expectancy should be conducted by using this measure of inequality.


Tumor necrosis factor-α converting enzyme (TACE) and matrix metalloproteinases (MMP-2 and MMP-13) inhibition activities of α- and β-sulfone piperidine hydroxamic acid derivatives have been quantitatively analyzed in terms of chemometric descriptors. The identified descriptors, have highlighted the role of the weaker forces (polarization or van der Waals types) and the electronic effect for inhibition of the TACE. The flexibility in a compound and presence of certain structural fragments are prerequisite for inhibition of the MMP-2 while the atom centered fragments, in addition to some structural moieties are responsible for inhibition of the MMP-13. PLS analysis has further confirmed the dominance of the CP‐MLR identified descriptors. Applicability domain analysis revealed that the suggested models have acceptable predictability. Except one outlier compound predicted for MMP-2 activity, all the compounds were within the applicability domain of the proposed models of TACE, MMP-13 and MMP-2 activities and were evaluated correctly. The guidelines provided may be helpful in exploring more potential analogues of the series. The in vivo inhibition activities for LPS-stimulated TNF production in Raw Cells and human whole blood (HWB), reported for a few compounds, have also been correlated with such descriptors. The descriptors for inhibition of Raw Cells have emphasized the significance of lag 2 and lag 3 of autocorrelations weighted, respectively, by atomic van der Waals volumes and atomic Sanderson electronegativities. The electronic and polarizability weighted descriptors, on the other hand, have exhibited their importance in the inhibition of HWB.


The interaction of pancreatic RNase with 5'-deoxyribodinucleotide alkylating derivative, 4-(N-2-chloroethyl-N-methylamino)benzylamide of d(pTpA) d[(ClRCH2NH)pTpA], was studied. The unreactive oxyanalogue d[(HORCH2NH)pTpA] was shown to act as competitive inhibitor of cCMP hydrolysis by RNase. d[(ClRCH2NH)pTpA] irreversibly inactivated RNase. A protective effect was exerted by d(pTpA) and d[(HORCH2NH)pTpA]. The modification, although having an affinity character, was not accompanied by total inactivation of the enzyme. It was supposed that covalent bonding between the reagent and enzyme induced the dinucleotide displacement from the recognition site. The formation of four RNase monolabeled forms retaining the activity in the hydrolysis of cCMP and poly(U) was demonstrated.


In this paper, the feasibility of the implementation of microwave components in groove gap waveguide technology by glide-symmetry holey EBG is discussed. Using this technology, microwave components and antennas which were previously designed for hollow metallic waveguides can be manufactured in a cost-effective way at high frequencies. To show the viability of the proposed solution a phase shifter and a mode converter are designed as examples of typical components for antenna systems.


The Open Educational Resources (OER) movement has gained momentum in the past few years. With this new drive towards making knowledge open and accessible, a large number of OER repositories have been established and made available online throughout the globe. However, despite the fact that these repositories hold a large number of high quality material, the use and re-use of OER has not taken off as anticipated due to various geographic, socio and technological limitations. One such technological limitation is the present day inability to effectively search and locate OER materials which are specific and relevant to a particular academic domain. As a first step towards a possible solution to this issue, this research paper discusses the design and development of a clustering algorithm which accurately clusters text based OER materials by building a Keyword-Document Matrix (KDM) using autonomously identified domain specific keywords. This algorithm is the first phase of a larger technology framework named "OERScout" which is a potentially new methodology for effectively searching and locating desirable OER for academic use.


Seeds of Corchorus capsularis contained cardiac glycosides, corchorin, corchortoxin helveticoside, corchoroside A and B, biosides, olitoriside, erysimoside, strophantidol glycosides, oliogosaccaride and olitoriside; while leaves contained flavonoids, triterpenes, saponins, glucoside, capsularin steroids and many other secondary metabolites. The pharmacological studied revealed that te plant possessed cardiac, antioxidant, antiinflammmatory, analgesic, antipyretic, antimicrobial, insecticidal and many other pharmacological effects. This review was designed to highlight the chemical constituents and pharmacological effects of Corchorus capsularis


Mechanical milling using a high energy ball mill was applied to a commercial pure iron powder to introduce a large deformation strain into the matrix. Microstructural changes during deformation and annealing were investigated for the mechanically milled powder, by means of X-ray diffractometry, transmission electron microscopy and hardness testing, in order to clarify the work-hardening mechanism of iron during super-heavy plastic deformation. Through the mechanical milling of 360 ks, nanocrystalline grains of 20-50 nm were formed within the powder, and the resultant powder was work-hardened to Hv950. Hardness of the mechanically milled powder mainly depends on the crystallite size(d); the size of dislocation cells, subgrains and nanocrystalline grains. In the mechanically milled powder, a linear relationship was confirmed between hardness and the reciprocal of crystallite size (d -1 ), supporting the strain hardening to Hv500. While it was also confirmed that the work-hardening mechanism of iron gradually changes from strain hardening to grain refining strengthening in the hardness range of around Hv600, where crystalline grains are refined less than 100 nm through heavy deformation. In the hardness range above Hv600, the Hall-Petch relationship was realized to the crystalline grain size.


™ Executive Summary InfiniBand is a powerful new architecture designed to support I/O connectivity for the Internet infrastructure. InfiniBand is supported by all the major OEM server vendors as a means to expand beyond and create the next generation I/O interconnect standard in servers. For the first time, a high volume, industry standard I/O interconnect extends the role of traditional " in the box " busses. InfiniBand is unique in providing both, an " in the box " backplane solution, an external interconnect, and " Bandwidth Out of the box " , thus it provides connectivity in a way previously reserved only for traditional networking interconnects. This unification of I/O and system area networking requires a new architecture that supports the needs of these two previously separate domains. Underlying this major I/O transition is InfiniBand's ability to support the Internet's requirement for RAS: reliability, availability, and serviceability. This white paper discusses the features and capabilities which demonstrate InfiniBand's superior abilities to support RAS relative to the legacy PCI bus and other proprietary switch fabric and I/O solutions. Further, it provides an overview of how the InfiniBand architecture supports a comprehensive silicon, software, and system solution. The comprehensive nature of the architecture is illustrated by providing an overview of the major sections of the InfiniBand 1.1 specification. The scope of the 1.1 specification ranges from industry standard electrical interfaces and mechanical connectors to well defined software and management interfaces. The paper is divided into four sections. The introduction sets the stage for InfiniBand and illustrates why all the major server vendors have made the decision to embrace this new standard. The next section reviews the effect Infini-Band will have on various markets that are currently being addressed by legacy technologies. The third section provides a comparison between switch fabrics and bus architecture in general and then delves into details comparing InfiniBand to PCI and other proprietary solutions. The final section goes into details about the architecture, reviewing at a high level the most important features of InfiniBand.


This paper evaluates the possible use of liquid preservation methods for rhizobia long term conservation under ambient temperature conditions. Saline solution (sterile distilled water + NaCl), glycerol and carboxymethycellulose (CMC) were evaluated for preservation of Rhizobium tropici and Bradyrhizobium japonicum cultures up to 180 days and regarding their capacity to promote common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris [L.]) and soybean (Glycine max [L.]) nodulation. The total population was determined after 0; 1; 7; 15; 21; 30; 60; 90; 120; 150 and 180 days of conservation and conserved bacteria were evaluated for symbiotic characteristics after 15, 60 and 120 days of conservation. Although there were significant species x conservation method interactions, both saline solution and CMC may be used for short storage terms, allowing the production of inoculant for field experiments, and its test for purity and concentration before field establishment. The utilized techniques have low cost and easier usage as inoculants, compared to the traditional turf-based products, and if determined feasible by further research it could be a low cost addition to the standard microbiological techniques, particularly as working culture preservation media.


Many complex diseases are thought to be caused by multiple genetic variants. Recent advances in genotyping technology allowed investigators of a complex disease to obtain data for a massive number of candidate genetic variants. Typically each candidate variant is tested individually for an association with the disease. We approach the problem as one of model selection for high dimensional data. We propose a method whereby penalised maximum likelihood estimation provides a reasonably sized set of variants for inclusion in our model. We then perform stepwise regression on this set of variants to arrive at our model. Penalised maximum likelihood estimation is performed with both the lasso and a more recently developed method known as the hyperlasso, with smoothing parameters chosen by cross-validation. The hyperlasso has a penalty function that favours sparser solutions but with less shrinkage of those variables that are included in the model, when compared to the lasso; however, this comes at extra computational cost. We apply the above method to a large genomic data set from a previously published mice obesity study and use resample model averaging to assess model performance.

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We propose an efficient and unified framework, namely ThiNet, to simultaneously accelerate and compress CNN models in both training and inference stages. We focus on the filter level pruning, i.e., the whole filter would be discarded if it is less important. Our method does not change the original network structure, thus it can be perfectly supported by any off-the-shelf deep learning libraries. We formally establish filter pruning as an optimization problem, and reveal that we need to prune filters based on statistics information computed from its next layer, not the current layer, which differentiates ThiNet from existing methods. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of this strategy, which has advanced the state-of-the-art. We also show the performance of ThiNet on ILSVRC-12 benchmark. ThiNet achieves 3.31 x FLOPs reduction and 16.63× compression on VGG-16, with only 0.52% top-5 accuracy drop. Similar experiments with ResNet-50 reveal that even for a compact network, ThiNet can also reduce more than half of the parameters and FLOPs, at the cost of roughly 1% top-5 accuracy drop. Moreover, the original VGG-16 model can be further pruned into a very small model with only 5.05MB model size, preserving AlexNet level accuracy but showing much stronger generalization ability.


The credit value-at-risk model underpinning the internal ratings-based approach of Basel II and III assumes that idiosyncratic risk has been fully diversified in the portfolio, so that economic capital depends only on systematic risk contributions. We propose a simple granularity adjustment (GA) for approximating the effect of undiversified idiosyncratic risk on required capital. To mitigate operational burden in implementation, we derive upper and lower bounds on the GA under incomplete information on the portfolio. We assess the magnitude and accuracy of the proposed GA on a set of bank portfolios drawn from the German credit register.


The main focal point of this work is to provide an enhanced indoor air quality (IAQ) using natural ventilation system called wind-catcher and also to cut the energy consumed by mechanical HVAC systems. This paper looks into the operation of two patterns of wind-catcher in a semienclosed courtyard on the top level of the engineering school at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman. The wind speed, direction and roughness length in the region of SQU were used as the inlet and boundary conditions. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) analysis was performed using ANSYS FLUENT with a standard k-epsilon model to generate a homogenous neutral ABL at the inlet. This study provides a comparison of airflow distribution inside the courtyard with two modified wind-catcher designs to provide better indoor air quality. The primary focus is on the air stream distribution. The best possible flow rate of 6056 L/s was achieved for reference velocity 4 m/s at reference height 50m. This rate is more eminent than the minimum requirement suggested by ASHRAE standard 62.1-2013. Also air change per hour (ACH) for the same condition was around 108.


Distributed acoustic emission sensors are used in structural health monitoring (SHM) for the detection of impacts and/or strain, in real time. Secondary damage may result from the initial impact or strain. This damage may include surface pitting, erosion, or cracking. This type of damage may not be detectable by the SHM system, specifically in passive fiber optic based sensing systems. The integration of non-destructive evaluation (NDE) by robots into SHM enables the detection and monitoring of a wider variety of damage. Communicating via acoustic transmissions represents a wireless communications method for use by NDE inspection robots to communicate with an integrated SHM system that does not require any additional hardware, as piezoelectric transducers are commonly used in the NDE of materials. In this paper, we demonstrate the detection of both acoustic emissions and transmissions with a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensor. The acoustic communications channel comprises of a piezoelectric transmitter, an aluminum panel as the transmission medium, and a FBG receiver. Phase Shift Keying was used to encode the acoustic transmissions. Results for the frequency and transient response of the channel are presented.


Members of U. S. Institute for Textile Research desiring complete copies of articles abstracted may avail themselves of any or all of the following services by addressing the Secretary: 1.—Address of publishers of the periodical abstracted. 2.—Domestic libraries where the abstracted periodical may be referred to. 3.—Domestic libraries which will furnish photostat copies of the complete article. 4.—Mimeograph or photostat copies of complete articles from abstracted periodicals that are on file in U. S. Institute's library, or in other Boston and Cambridge libraries. These are furnished at cost: Photostat negatives (white text, black background) up to 8½ x 13", 35 cents per copy. Address C. H. Clark, Sec., 65 Franklin St., Boston, Mass.


We study the impact of learning-by-doing with spillovers in competitive markets with free market entry. Within a two period model, we consider first the case where fixed costs are incurred only once, and entry is once and for all. In the second case fixed costs are incurred in each period, and both market exit after the first period and late entry in the second period is possible. For the first case first best allocations can only be decentralized by subsidizing output in the first period and additionally paying an entry premium. If exit and late entry are possible and if market exit by some firms is socially optimal, the optimal policy scheme requires a nonlinear output subsidy which serves to discriminate between exiting and staying firms. We further investigate the comparative statics effects of the different policy instruments.


Cross-sectional population studies provide valuable information for nutrition surveillance and planning intervention strategies. The enKid Study is the largest nutrition survey on the child and adolescent Spanish population to date. In the present paper, nutrition risks in children and young people of the Basque country based on the enKid Study subsample for the Basque region are presented. Dietary assessment was completed by means of a 24 h recall and a food frequency questionnaire completed in an interview with the mother or caregiver for children under 13 years. A second 24 h recall was completed on 25 % of the sample. Body weight, height and circumference were measured on each individual. Overweight and obesity were defined using Cole et al. cut-offs. Fat intake supplied 40 % of energy intake and saturated fats 13·8 %. Overall, 80 % of the sample had intakes of fat above 35 %. Main food sources of fats were added fats (32 %), meat (20 %) and milk products (20 %). Buns, cakes and pastry supplied 11 % of total fat intake. The nutrients showing the highest proportion of people who did not reach one third (33 %) of the Spanish dietary reference intake levels were vitamin D, vitamin E, vitamin A and folate. Prevailing food pattern showed a high consumption of meat and meat products, milk, dairy products and cereals. Conversely, consumption of fruit, vegetables and fish was low; in fact, 89 % of the sample had a normal consumption of fruit and vegetables below five portions a day. Prevalence of obesity was estimated at 3·94 %, and 17·85 % of the sample was classified as overweight.


Foreign direct investment (FDI) is argued to play a pivotal role in accelerating economic growth (EG) of a host country especially in developing and Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. The papers reviewed have a good representation of diverse empirical works of over three decades. It examines the relationship between FDI and EG from 1980 up to 2018. The result is mixed but heavily skewed towards significantly positive effect, but in some cases it is negative or even null of FDI on EG. We also find market size, economic freedom, availability of internet as very important determinants for FDI location and for it to create positive impact on overall EG.


This thesis studies discrete choice demand models for vertically differentiated alternatives
in oligopoly market settings and focuses on identification in discrete choice
models motivated by demand. A cross-sectional discrete choice demand model is developed,
where individuals choose the product that maximizes their utility, from a set
of vertically differentiated alternatives offered by a set of horizontally differentiated
brands. This allows the model to capture important features of individual substitution
patterns when both kinds of differentiation are present. The unordered-ordered discrete
nature of the two dimensions of the individual decision problem typically results
in set identification of model parameters. The cross-sectional model is then extended
to cover panel data settings, where individuals are observed for a number of periods.
In many settings the choices individuals make in different periods are correlated such
that current and future choices depend on past choices. For example, when individuals
make purchasing decisions, they may form consumption habits and base their purchasing
decisions on past firms' behaviour. Ignoring the dynamic behaviour in individuals'
choices would result in inconsistent estimates of regression coefficients. This thesis
studies discrete choice panel data models and extends the work on semiparametric
identification of static binary panel data to static ordered panel data models, as well
as to dynamic binary and ordered choice models. Set identification of the regression
coefficients is achieved by differencing out the additively separable unobserved heterogeneity
as in the case of linear panel data models.


Frictions between China's institutional legacies of the planned economy and the new trends of marketization, urbanization, and migration have shaped institutional change in social protection. Focusing on health and pension insurance, this study identifies a gradual process of functional integration, which overcomes the frictions and facilitates a dualization of benefits.


Globalization in the 21st century provides fresh opportunities for new institutions to establish themselves.  Through globalization, academic professionals, technological advancements, and capital can move across borders on a grand scale with greater ease. Many emerging societies have capitalized on this rapid economic development to build world-class, comprehensive research universities. Incidentally, these research universities often involve competing goals, such as the demand for practical labor market training, the need to incorporate the German research-university model, the desire for a liberal arts education, and the call for cultivating global-minded citizenship. With these goals posing distinctive demands, higher education institutions are often laden with tensions and contradictions. This paper conceptualizes the developmental process of higher education institutions by juxtaposing four sets of inter-related contradictions: research versus teaching; looking outward versus inward; quantity versus quality; and egalitarianism versus hierarchy . Such contradictions are examined in the context of higher education institution's developmental priority to achieve world-class status. Our analysis raises questions about the long-term sustainability of such a strategy. Although the issues identified in this paper are prevalent in the global south, i.e. universities at the periphery of knowledge production vis-a-vis those in North America and Europe, we believe they are common themes with repercussions for institutions elsewhere.


Hardness of electronless Ni-P alloy plating which have five different phosphorus content were investigated with HX-1000 type microscopic Vickers hardness tester, respectively. Phosphorus content of Ni-P platings were investigated by Quanta 200 type scanning electron microscope and Oxford Energy Disperse Spectroscopy Heat treatment temperature and time of the different platings were optimized and analysed by Uniform Design method, respectively. The results show that correlation consist between maximum hardness of the Ni-P alloy plating and heat treatment temperature, not heat treatment time under the experimental condition which the heat treatment time is between one hour and five hours, and maximal value of the plating hardness appears when the heat treatment temperature is 400-430 Celsius degree. Maximal hardness value of the electronless Ni-P alloy plating increases with increase of their phosphorus content under heat treatment condition.


We study the transport of a slurry of heavier-than-liquid circular particles in a plane pressure-driven flow in a direct simulation. The flow is calculated in a periodic domain containing 300 circular particles. The study leads to the concept of fluidization by lift in which all the particles are suspended by lift forces against gravity perpendicular to the flow. The study is framed as an initial-value problem in which a closely packed cubic array of particles resting on the bottom of the channel is lifted into suspension. All the details of the flow are resolved numerically without model assumptions. The fluidization of circular particles first involves bed inflation in which liquid is driven into the bed by high pressure at the front and low pressure at the back of each circle in the top row. This kind of bed inflation occurs even at very low Reynolds numbers but it takes more time for the bed to inflate as the Reynolds number is reduced. It appears that the bed will not inflate if the shear Reynolds number is below the critical value for single particle lift-off. The flows with a single particle are completely determined by a shear Reynolds number and a gravity parameter when the density ratio and aspect ratio parameters are specified. In the multi-particle case, the volume fraction and distribution also matters. The transition to a fully fluidized slurry by waves is discussed. An analytical model of the steady motion of a single particle dragged forward in a Poiseuille flow is derived and compared with a simulation. The undisturbed fluid velocity is always larger than the particle velocity, producing a fluid hold-up. The effect of the hold-up in the many particle case is to greatly reduce the velocity of the mixture which may be described by a two-fluid model in which the solid laden mixture is regarded as a second fluid with effective properties.


Ruta chalepensis is a rich source of important secondary metabolites such as furanocoumarins and alkaloids. Besides, it is a medicinal plant and still used in traditional medicine. For that reason, its chemical composition, medicinal properties, and uses were reviewed in this article.


The luminous region of the plasma cloud surrounding deuterium pellets injected into a tokamak is studied spectroscopically. At the time of peak luminosity the electron density is 2.4 x 10/sup 17/ cm/sup -3/ to within 30% and the temperature is at most 2.0 eV. The intensity ratio of the Balmer-alpha and -beta light from the pellets, the total number of emitted photons, and the apparent size of the radiating region are consistent with local thermodynamic equilibrium at this temperature and density.


Streamflow depends on the soil moisture of a river catchment and can be measured with relatively high accuracy. The soil moisture in the root zone influences the latent heat flux and, hence, the quantity and spatial distribution of atmospheric water vapour and precipitation. As numerical weather forecast and climate models require a proper soil moisture initialization for their land surface models, we enhanced an Ensemble Kalman Filter to assimilate streamflow time series into the multi-layer land surface model TERRAML of the regional weather forecast model COSMO. The impact of streamflow assimilation was studied by an observing system simulation experiment in the Enz River catchment (located at the downwind side of the northern Black Forest in Germany). The results demonstrate a clear improvement of the soil moisture field in the catchment. We illustrate the potential of streamflow data assimilation for weather forecasting and discuss its spatial and temporal requirements for a corresponding, automated river gauging network.


This book provides a comprehensive overview of Hispanic applied linguistics, allowing students to understand the field from a variety of perspectives and offering insight into the ever-growing number of professional opportunies afforded to Spanish language program graduates. The goal of this book is to re-contextualize the notion of applied linguistics as simply the application of theoretical linguistic concepts to practical settings and to consider it as its own field that addresses language-based issues and problems in a real-world context. The book is organized into five parts: 1) perspectives on learning Spanish 2) issues and environments in Spanish teaching 3) Spanish in the professions 4) the discourses of Spanish and 5) social and political contexts for Spanish. The book�s all-inclusive coverage gives students the theoretical and sociocultural context for study in Hispanic applied linguistics while offering practical information on its application in the professional sector.


Background: Studies from developed countries have shown that home monitoring and follow up of heart failure (HF) patients by use of phone calls is cost-effective as it reduces re-admission and improves patients' clinical status. This intervention has however not been tested in resource poor countries including Tanzania, and there are questions as to whether it is applicable in such situations. This study was carried out to determine the applicability of structured telephone monitoring of HF patients discharged from Muhimbili National Hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Methods: All heart failure patients admitted at the hospital's Cardiovascular Medicine Department between August and December 2014 were consecutively recruited. Information on their clinical and demographic characteristics was collected and their mobile phone numbers recorded. Patients were then contacted through their phones on day 7, 14 and 30 post discharge and inquiry on their clinical status was made. Results: A total of 164 HF patients were admitted during the study period, of these 4 declined to participate, 3 could not establish a phone number and 26 died before discharge leaving 131 (79.9%) for follow-up. The mean age was 45±19 years and 56.5% were women. The proportion of patients that could be contacted through mobile phones were 96.2%, 94.7% and 93.9% on day 7, 14 and 30 post discharge, respectively. Over 90% of the contacted patients gave valuable information regarding their clinical status. Conclusion: Majority of HF patients can be contacted and provide valuable clinical information through mobile phones within a month post discharge from the national hospital in Tanzania. Structured telephone monitoring could be used as a tool to follow up HF patients in a resource-poor country like Tanzania.


Abstract—Health-related policy and its implementation into everyday practice is complex. The key challenge facing contemporary healthcare is to nurture cultures through effective leadership that continually improve high quality, safe and compassionate care. In the role as guardians of patient safety and quality, clinical nurse leaders are ideally situated to influence the performance of nursing teams through positive leadership qualities, strategies and behaviors. Leaders are effective when they are confident and competent, aware of their own behaviours, strengths, areas for development. Effective leaders can establish positive relationships between individuals helping them to make sense of change, implications for poor performance, successes and the future. This present study focuses on clinical leadership and nursing teams and involves a synthesis of findings from qualitative studies to gain further insight into key characteristics of leadership and the reasons why nursing teams are functional or dysfunctional. Using a systematic framework for qualitative data analysis, three distinct themes were revealed. These relate to factors involving individual aspects of leaders, team members and the working environment for clinical teams. The dominant theme was the characteristics of the clinical leader and the impact these have in relation to effectiveness of clinical nursing teams and the culture of the working environment. Clinical leaders demonstrating positive characteristics were described as being 'authentic,' 'inspirational' and 'transforming' leaders for the team. These characteristics were regarded as being the essence of effective leadership. In contrast, others were described as being 'toxic' or 'poor' leaders. 'Toxic' leaders displayed negative personal characteristics, behaviours and conduct which were destructive to the culture and damaging for teams. 'Poor' leaders did not display the required knowledge, ability or characteristics. Findings contributed to current evidence that key characteristics of teams include commitment, coordination, communication, cohesion, decision making, conflict management, social relationships and performance feedback. The effectiveness or ineffectiveness of nusing leadership was strongly associated with the impact it had on individuals and teams, their performance and on the culture of the working environment which could have long-lasting effects.


Due to the recent nuclear disaster and the concern on climate change, the interest for developing of hydropower is booming. The promise to cut the power generator from fusil fuel and nuclear powerplant has encouraged more renewable energy production especially in European countries. In this situation, it is likely the time to introduce new era of small hydropower development in Norway. At the moment, there are more 100 of small hydropower projects have been submitted and waiting to get license from NVE. On the other hand, Norwegian government have adopted green certificate subsidy in order to promote the renewable energy production. This green certificate is expected to start operating in January 2012. This thesis work, it focuses on planning and optimization of a small hydropower project in middle region of Norway which is the committed project for development. The main task is to do more detailed studied of all available solution including detailed cost estimated for every item in order to find the optimum design of structure and units. The goal of this thesis is to find the most feasible alternative for project development. Furthermore,the benefit from green certificate subsidy has been included in economic analysis to show the developer of project's competence to the existing cheap hydropower and other energy sources. The report was divided in two volumes. Volume 1 is screening alternative. Four different alternatives of project had been proposed. Alternative 1 and alternative 4 were recognized as the good alternatives which have been taken to do detailed study in second stage. Volume 2 is the detail study report of selected alternatives. Alternative 1 and alternative 4 have been optimize with many aspects such installed capacity, reservoir volume, tunnel, penstock and the units of generation. After the economic analysis assessment, it was indicated that alternative 1 with 1 unit of generation(alter1-1) is the best. The install capacity was 5.14 MW which can generate 15.5 GWh annually with the optimum design discharge of 7.17 m3/s (Q250% of Qmean). The project was estimated with construction cost of 72.71 million kroner and will give 31.21million kroner as NPV. The development rate was 4.68 Kr/kWh/Year and the levelised unit cost was 0.46Kr/kWh. It is expected that the green certificate subsidy will give between 11.6 and 46.5 million kroner tothe project as additional profit with the subsidy rate between 5 Ore/kWh and 20 Ore/ kWh for 15 years of operation. Based on preliminary assessment of environmental impact, the project is expected to have smalland medium negative impact on fish, recreation, landscape and biodiversity. Overall, the project is technically and economically feasible and environmental manageable. In addition, this project will provide its energy production supply to the middle region of Norway's grid that recently suffering with the lack of power supply and high electricity price.


The interaction mechanism, between soil and U-shaped Subway tunnel, is studied by numerical simulation in the environment of ground fissures. The Subway Line 2 through the ground fissures in Xi'an. The analysis results show that the soil mass influenced by the relative displacement and the vertical displacement gradually increases with the relative displacement increasing of ground fissures movement. The deformation area of tunnel lies in the two sides of presupposed ground fissure, and the area enlarge with vertical relative displacement increasing. The tunnel structure damages at the ground fissures when the relative displacement reaches to 100mm. The footwall part is in tension and the hanging wall part is under pressure on the top of tunnel structure at the ground fissure. The footwall part is under pressure and the hanging wall part is in tension on the bottom of tunnel structure at the ground fissure. In the practical projects, the sectional type tunnel should be employed when the Subway tunnel through the ground fissures.


ABSTRACT This research first develops a conceptual model to link relevant concepts in psychology and tourism research to each stage of the long-term memory (LTM) system. It combines insights from mindfulness, positive affect, and quality of conscious experience to understand how tourists encode information; research in short-term memory and working memory as well as social identity to address the consolidation of information; and concepts of remembering, false memory, and storytelling to highlight information retrieval. Next, focus groups were conducted to examine how practitioners are helping tourists encode, consolidate, and retrieve their memories in the context of this model (Study 1). Finally, in-depth interviews were conducted to complement the practitioner's perspective by reflecting the tourist's voice that is relevant in each stage of the LTM system (Study 2). Overall, this research connects findings from the practitioner's viewpoint with the tourist's voice to present a framework of memory management and tourism experiences.


This paper's objective is to describe a simple, economical and fast method to replace a single tooth. Utilizing an indirectly fabricated composite resin framework reinforced with polyethylene fiber and the existing tooth as pontic. This tooth can be the natural tooth or the restorative crown. In addition, this particular design allows for exact repositioning of the coronal part of the extracted tooth in its original intra-oral 3-dimensional position. This chairside technique does not require laboratory involvement.


There is a perceptible gap between present-day historians and those of classical antiquity in their understanding of inter-cultural connections. While ancient historians tended to conceptualize inter-cultural connections in terms of common descent, present-day historians focus mainly on concrete materialist processes such as trade networks and 'actual' moments of diplomatic contact. While the current neglect of mythic kinships is arguably justifiable given their largely fictitious nature, this paper argues that these sources are still very much relevant to the study of ancient global history as an 'archive' of cross-cultural interactions. Being discourses created to ideologically justify existing relationships within other societies and cultures, myths of ethnic origins constitute an important form of ancient diplomacy. This makes it extremely important for us to consider myths of ethnic origins as a mode of ancient cross-cultural interaction when writing a global history of the ancient world. In order to demonstrate how exactly myths of ethnic origins might be read as an 'archive' of ancient cross-cultural interactions, this paper will engage in a brief philological study of some of the various mythic kinships that mediated relations between  the Indic and Hellenistic worlds after Alexander the Great invaded India in 326 BC. Reading the myths told by each side as discursive strategies with a diplomatic imperative, I not only hope to emphasize the role played by myths of ethnic origins in Indo-Greek relations but also to develop a cohesive framework for a more complete and nuanced understanding of ancient cross-cultural interactions.


Development of the number of internet users due to the presence of an everincreasing technological development. Users of internet services have been utilized by anyoneand anywhere. One of them is education, utilization of internet technology has been felt directlyby the education which can improve the process and results of the work to be more optimal. Butwith a large number of users can affect the speed of access if it is not coupled with the additionof a technology that can cope with costs that can be minimal. Based on this research internetaccess barriers suggested the necessity of installing a proxy server using squid on Ubuntuoperating system 10.10. The purpose of this research is to design and implement a proxy serverusing squid so it can speed up access to the internet. With faster internet access then it canimprove the performance of both parts of the academic or administrative section.
Keywords: proxy server, squid, squid stable, squid common, squid lang-pack, ubuntu 10.10
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In the present work, we propose a deterministic numerical solver for the homogeneous Boltzmann equation based on Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods. The weak form of the collision operator is approximated by a quadratic form in linear algebra setting. We employ the property of "shifting symmetry" in the weight matrix to reduce the computing complexity from theoretical O(N3) down to O(N2), with N the total number of freedom for d-dimensional velocity space. In addition, the sparsity is also explored to further reduce the storage complexity. To apply lower order polynomials and resolve loss of conserved quantities, we invoke the conservation routine at every time step to enforce the conservation of desired moments (mass, momentum and/or energy), with only linear complexity. Due to the locality of the DG schemes, the whole computing process is well parallelized using hybrid OpenMP and MPI. The current work only considers integrable angular cross-sections under elastic and/or inelastic interaction laws. Nume...


The natriuretic peptides (NPs) B-type NP and N-terminal (BNP and NT-proBNP, respectively) are peptides derived from proBNP (1). Originally reported to be useful diagnostic and monitoring tools for heart failure (HF), as recommended by international guidelines (2), plasma concentrations of NPs have been revealed to be strong predictor of increased risk for death in patients with acute coronary syndromes in the short and long-term period (3-6). Although NPs have been shown to be associated with no only survival of patients in a broad spectrum of cardiac or non-cardiac diseases [e.g., sepsis, diabetes mellitus, coronary artery disease, pulmonary embolism and renal dysfunction (7-9)], but also that in the general population (10), some important questions remain unresolved.


The main research question concerned the identification of changes in the COVID-19 epidemiological situation using fuzzy clustering methods. This research used cross-sectional time series data obtained from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The identification of country types in terms of epidemiological risk was carried out using the fuzzy c-means clustering method. We also used the entropy index to measure the degree of fuzziness in the classification and evaluate the uncertainty of epidemiological states. The proposed approach allowed us to identify countries' epidemic states. Moreover, it also made it possible to determine the time of transition from one state to another, as well as to observe fluctuations during changes of state. Three COVID-19 epidemic states were identified in Europe, i.e., stabilisation, destabilisation, and expansion. The methodology is universal and can also be useful for other countries, as well as the research results being important for governments, politicians and other policy-makers working to mitigate the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.


Abstract. A computationally efficient module to describe organic aerosol (OA) partitioning and chemical aging has been developed and implemented into the EMAC atmospheric chemistry–climate model. The model simulates the formation of secondary organic aerosol (SOA) from semivolatile (SVOCs), intermediate-volatility (IVOCs), and volatile organic compounds (VOCs). It distinguishes SVOCs from biomass burning and all other combustion sources using two surrogate species for each source category with an effective saturation concentration at 298 K of C* = 0.1 and 10 μg m−3. Two additional surrogate species with C* = 103 and 105 μg m−3 are used for the IVOCs emitted by the above source categories. Gas-phase photochemical reactions that change the volatility of the organics are taken into account. The oxidation products (SOA-sv, SOA-iv, and SOA-v) of each group of precursors (SVOCs, IVOCs, and VOCs) are simulated separately to keep track of their origin. ORACLE efficiently describes the OA composition and evolution in the atmosphere and can be used to (i) estimate the relative contributions of SOA and primary organic aerosol (POA) to total OA, (ii) determine how SOA concentrations are affected by biogenic and anthropogenic emissions, and (iii) evaluate the effects of photochemical aging and long-range transport on the OA budget. We estimate that the global average near-surface OA concentration is 1.5 μg m−3 and consists of 7% POA from fuel combustion, 11% POA from biomass burning, 2% SOA-sv from fuel combustion, 3% SOA-sv from biomass burning, 15% SOA-iv from fuel combustion, 28% SOA-iv from biomass burning, 19% biogenic SOA-v, and 15% anthropogenic SOA-v. The modeled tropospheric burden of OA components is 0.23 Tg POA, 0.16 Tg SOA-sv, 1.41 Tg SOA-iv, and 1.2 Tg SOA-v.


Radio detection of cosmic-ray air showers requires time synchronization of detectors on a nanosecond level, especially for advanced reconstruction algorithms based on the wavefront curvature and for interferometric analysis approaches. At the Auger Engineering Radio Array, the distributed, autonomous detector stations are time-synchronized via the Global Positioning System which, however, does not provide sufficient timing accuracy. We thus employ a dedicated beacon reference transmitter to correct for eventby-event clock drifts in our offline data analysis. In an independent cross-check of this "beacon correction" using radio pulses emitted by commercial airplanes, we have shown that the combined timing accuracy of the two methods is better than 2 nanoseconds.


Aims: We describe types of polydrug use among school students across Europe and explore differences between high, medium and low drug prevalence countries. Method: Analysis is based on survey data from over 70,000 15- to 16-year-old school students in 22 European countries. Polydrug use (defined as the use of two or more listed substances during the last 30 days) is compared across three country clusters based on drug prevalences by hierarchical cluster analysis. Affinity between substances is measured by pairwise associations and regression analysis was used to assess the differences in rate ratio across the country clusters. Results: A third of all school students had consumed two or more substances. The most common combinations were: alcohol and cigarettes, followed by alcohol or cigarettes combined with cannabis, followed by alcohol or cigarettes, cannabis and at least one other illegal drug. Pairwise associations show that cannabis and cocaine users are more likely to use illegal drugs than the general student populations but least likely to do so in countries with high prevalence levels (p < 0.0005). Conclusion: Consideration of country differences and objective measures for the concept of normalization could help to inform more holistic prevention initiatives that respond to country-specific contexts.


This paper estimates price and food expenditure elasticities of demand for twelve food groups in Tanzania by applying the linearized Almost Ideal Demand system to the latest household survey data. In estimation, particular attention is paid to the presence of zero expenditure and the effects of demographic characteristics on food demand patterns. The results indicate that maize, rice, other cereals, pulses, sugar, edible oils, fish, starch, fruits and vegetables, meat, and other foods are price inelastic while milk and dairy products have unitary elasticity of demand. Most of the food groups are income elastic. The results also reveal that household income and family size have significant effects on food demand patterns. Main policy implications of the results include inter alia (a) income oriented policies will have a greater effect on promoting food consumption than price related policies, (2) a significant price decline associated with increased production of maize and rice will benefit a majority of households since the two commodities have high budget shares and low own-price elasticities of demand, and (3) meat was found to be inelastic with respect to the expenditure on food.


The problems of agro-waste disposal and energy crisis in is increasing day-by-day. There is a pressing demand to find method for its disposal Orange peel has been used as alternate fuel in place of pet coke in the production of clinker. Various ratios of orange peel were mixed with pet coke and used as alternate fuel. It was observed that clinker produced was not affected adversely, rather sulfur contents were lower in these cases. This improves the quality of clinker and /or cement.


Cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) has become an indispensable clinical tool for the assessment of morphology, function and structure of the heart muscle. By exploiting quantification of the effective transverse relaxation time (T2*) CMR also affords myocardial tissue characterization and probing of cardiac physiology, both being in the focus of ongoing research. These developments are fueled by the move to ultrahigh magnetic field strengths, which permits enhanced sensitivity and spatial resolution that help to overcome limitations of current clinical MR systems with the goal to contribute to a better understanding of myocardial (patho)physiology in vivo. In this context, the aim of this report is to introduce myocardial T2* mapping at ultrahigh magnetic fields as a promising technique to non-invasively assess myocardial (patho)physiology. For this purpose the basic principles of T2* assessment, the biophysical mechanisms determining T2* and (pre)clinical applications of myocardial T2* mapping are presented. Technological challenges and solutions for T2* sensitized CMR at ultrahigh magnetic field strengths are discussed followed by a review of acquisition techniques and post processing approaches. Preliminary results derived from myocardial T2* mapping in healthy subjects and cardiac patients at 7.0 Tesla are presented. A concluding section discusses remaining questions and challenges and provides an outlook on future developments and potential clinical applications.


Abstract This study identifies the deep seismic bedrock in the Kanto sedimentary basin of Japan based on the nonstationary ray decomposition method. The reflections of SH waves can be observed from the local maxima of instantaneous power at the intersections of the upcoming and downgoing rays, namely the major boundaries of a multilayer sedimentary bedrock structure. In particular, the depth of the seismic bedrock can be clearly identified because the greatest instantaneous power appears at the top of the seismic bedrock, where the impedance contrast is the highest. Strong-motion data recorded at 12 KiK-net observatory stations in the Kanto area are used to identify the depth of the seismic bedrock. The velocity structures of these 12 sites have previously been investigated by the vertical seismic profiling (VSP) method up to the depth where the observation well could penetrate. The VSP method revealed the velocity structures up to the seismic bedrock at three sites, while for the remaining sites the seismic bedrock was not reachable. The method presented in this paper performs well on identifying deep subsurface structure and gives travel times of the SH wave to the seismic bedrock at the 12 sites, even at sites with extremely deep seismic bedrock, where the VSP method could not reach. Furthermore, assuming that the shear-wave velocity is constant from the bottom of the observation well to the top of the seismic bedrock, the depths of the seismic bedrock at the nine stations are obtained.


In his preface, the editor states that this is essentially a surgical primer for physicians and for those surgeons not primarily concerned with arthritis. As such it is very well done, with sections on individual joints, rather than different types of joint pathology, each written by an eminent surgeon with a particular interest in this topic. The aim has been to present current concepts of surgical management of the arthritides as they effect the different joints of the body. From the first superb chapter on the tempero-mandibular joint, through those on the spine and the girdle and limb joints, a very high standard of presentation and selection persists so as to present concisely the current methods of operative treatment. The references supplied at the end of each chapter are a valuable aid to further, more detailed, study. Some of the diagrams could be improved and editing of grammatical errors would improve the text,but these are minor criticisms of a book which is well produced, concise and informative. It must prove valuable to physician and surgeon alike.


In recent years, the emphasis in corporate governance has shifted from board composition, independent directors, separating the position of chairperson and CEO, and establishing board committees to "being in control�? and risk management issues. However, the corporate law perspective of internal control and risks management does not match up to the multidisciplinary perspective of these themes. This paper analyses the dichotomy between the US and the EU corporate law approaches to internal control and risk management. Lawmakers from the US, the EU, and the EU member states reacted to the scandals between 2000 and 2003 with provisions requiring public companies to have internal control and risk management systems in order to restore public confidence, but the substance of their responses differed. A regulatory framework is put forward in order to address the steps to be taken in establishing an operational internal control and risk management framework and to address the role of the different parties involved from a corporate law perspective. The above mentioned steps are: (1) initiate and identify, (2) assess and operate, (3) monitor, and (4) report on the systems relating to the companies' risks and uncertainties, strategy, financial reporting, and operations. The parties legally involved include: (1) senior management, (2) board, (3) audit committee, and (4) auditor. The US and the EU regulatory frameworks indicate not only that their corporate law approaches to internal control and risk management are different, but also that both approaches are incomplete – but not necessarily insufficient – in several areas.


The authors have withdrawn their manuscript. While attempting to reproduce the data on the alternative splicing of exon 2 of U2AF2, they observed that the proposed splicing mechanism could not give rise to a functional U2AF2 protein. In addition, they observed evidence of manipulation in the electropherogram of the splicing junction between exons 1 and 3 and in the primary data on which this electropherogram was based, which were deposited in Mendeley by the first author. These observations raise questions on the integrity of the reported results. In light of this information, the authors have no confidence in the key findings of the paper, and therefore, do not wish it to be cited. If you have any questions, please contact the corresponding author.


The in
uence of segregation on shell-core selective oxidation catalysts has been investigated
in this thesis in three main areas. Novel shell-core catalysts, namely VOx/Fe2O3
catalysts, are selective to formaldehyde during reaction with methanol, indicating that
the core Fe2O3 is sufficiently segregated, while VOx remains at the surface. Significant
structural understanding has been gained, suggesting VO4 tetrahedra constitute the active
site at the surface. With the soundness of the shell-core model further confirmed by
VOx/Fe2O3, other reactions of interest can be investigated with shell-core catalysts.
While VOx and MoOx/Fe2O3 function well as shell-core catalysts, benefitting from
greater surface area and amenability to analysis, NbOx/Fe2O3 catalysts are unable to
achieve the necessary segregation during calcination, resulting in exposed Fe2O3 at the
surface, worsening their selectivity. This is attributed to the notably higher Tamman
temperature of NbOx which is never reached during calcination, preventing the spreading
of the NbOx across the Fe2O3 required for shell-core formation.
The properties of Al dopants in Fe2O3 cores have also been examined. The addition of
up to 20 wt% Al in Fe2O3 can increase surface area fourfold, enhancing catalytic activity
in turn; however, detrimental effects on catalyst selectivity are seen for higher Al loadings,
indicating a degree of structural disruption. It is now known that Al can only occupy sites
in the Fe2O3 structure at low Al loadings, above which the impetus to phase separate
increases.
Magnetocatalysis has also been investigated using shell-core catalysts based on zincdoped
cobalt ferrite. Clear evidence of selectivity manipulation by applying an external
field during reaction has been obtained. Additionally, strong indications of internal magnetocatalytic
effects have been observed, which are those effects on selectivity caused by
magnetisation changes in the ferrite support.
Overall, these studies have further emphasised the importance of multicomponent catalysts,
and the need to carefully control catalyst speciation.


Abstract:Futile or nonbeneficial treatment is often a source of contention between care teams and family members of ICU patients. This narrative describes such a case at a cancer center. In the midst of the COVID-19 crisis, the psychosocial team had to act as a bridge between a patient's surrogate decision maker and the care team. In light of COVID-19 visitor restrictions, the psychosocial team, the surrogate/family, and the care team had to respectfully work towards what was best for the patient.


It has been almost three years since the eruption of the civil war in Yemen by March 2015, leading to high political instability and severe humanitarian crisis. This article elaborates on the civil war in Yemen by focusing on the interests of main actors, who are involved in the ongoing conflict. The article also evaluates the nature of civil war in Yemen, mainly questioning the liability of describing the tension as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. In recent years, there has been a tendency to explain Yemeni conflict through the lens of a religious struggle between Sunni Saudi Arabia and Shi'a Iran in order to reinforce their control over the region. It is argued in this study that it would be misleading to call Yemen's ongoing crisis as a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. The tension did not emerge as a result of clash of interests by these two countries. Rather it would be fair to suggest that involvement of Saudi Arabia and Iran in Yemen's civil war further triggered and complicated the already existing tensions in the country. The outcome is a complex pattern of conflict which the author of this article argues is indeed different from a proxy war.


From deep space missions to low-earth orbit satellites, the natural radiation of space proves to be a hostile environment for electronics. Memory elements in particular are highly susceptible to radiation charge that if latched can cause single-event upsets (SEU, bit-flips) which lead to data corruption and even mission critical failures. On Earth, SDRAM devices are widely used as a cost-effective, high performance storage elements in almost every computer system. However, their physical design makes them highly susceptible to SEUs. Thus, their usage in space application is limited and usually avoided, requiring the use of radiation hardened components which are generally a few generations older and often much more expensive than COTS. In this paper, an off-chip SEU/MBU mitigation mechanism is presented that aims to drastically reduce the probability of data corruption inside a commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) synchronous dynamic random access memory (SDRAM) using a triple modular redundant (TMR) scheme for data and periodic scrubbing. The proposed mitigation technique is implemented in a novel controller that will be used by the single-event upset detector (SEUD) experiment aboard the KTH MInature STudent (MIST) satellite project.


Skin face detection in photo imaging, is an important component of systems for detecting similarities in visual perception, tracing faces through illumination and metamerism. This paper presents an evaluation of the skin perception under standardized conditions of varied light sources: cool-white fluorescent "store light", 6500K fluorescent "daylight", and incandescent "home light", Led light 6500 K, 2700K, 4000K CCT. In cases where the discrepancy is large, the resulting index of metamerism can be misleading. A small index of metamerism and a large change of color under illuminant metamerism has a different interpretation than what is perceived. This has been demonstrated through small colour variations in print through CMYK colors. The implication is that particular indices of metameric should only account for a limited range under different light conditions. The method used in this paper is based on visual perception, which aim to work with a wide variety of individuals, under varying lighting conditions under the influence of standard daylight, but in this case we also used the Led light 6500K correlated colour temperature, and variations of skin color tones, comparing the illuminant metamerism of visual perception based on different reflectance power distributions (SPDs).


We study the problem of linear regression where both covariates and responses are potentially (i) heavy-tailed and (ii) adversarially contaminated. Several computationally efficient estimators have been proposed for the simpler setting where the covariates are sub-Gaussian and uncontaminated; however, these estimators may fail when the covariates are either heavy-tailed or contain outliers. In this work, we show how to modify the Huber regression, least trimmed squares, and least absolute deviation estimators to obtain estimators which are simultaneously computationally and statistically efficient in the stronger contamination model. Our approach is quite simple, and consists of applying a filtering algorithm to the covariates, and then applying the classical robust regression estimators to the remaining data. We show that the Huber regression estimator achieves near-optimal error rates in this setting, whereas the least trimmed squares and least absolute deviation estimators can be made to achieve near-optimal error after applying a postprocessing step.


The effect of laser surface treatment parameters on the residual strength of titanium alloy has been investigated. The influence of the laser surface treatment on the bonding strength between the titanium and poly-ether-ketone-ketone (PEKK) surfaces was also evaluated and compared to those offered by titanium foils without surface treatment to optimize the laser parameters. Material characterization using an optical microscope was carried out to study the microstructure and to measure the mean roughness value of the titanium surface. The results showed that the surface roughness shows a significant dependency on the laser power parameters in which surface roughness increases with the laser power increment. Moreover, the results of the tensile tests have shown that there is no significant dropping in tensile strength for the treated samples comparing to the virgin ones. In order to optimize the laser parameter as well as the corresponding surface roughness, single-lap shear tests were conducted on pairs of the laser treated titanium stripes. The results showed that the bonding shear strength between titanium alloy and PEKK film increased with the surface roughness increment to a specific limit. After this point, it is interesting to note that there was no significant effect for the laser parameter on the bonding strength. This evidence suggests that it is not necessary to use very high power of laser to treat titanium surface to achieve a good bonding strength between titanium alloy and the PEKK film. Keywords—Bonding strength, laser surface treatment, PEKK, titanium alloy.


Early-onset (pediatric and adolescent) multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic autoimmune and neurodegenerative disorder of the central nervous system, which accounts for 3–5% of all MS cases. The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) with its polymorphisms has been the genetic locus with the most robust association with adult MS, since its first discovery in the 1970s. Nowadays, human leukocyte antigen (HLA) typing studies and genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have tried to provide insight into the genetics of early-onset MS and their role in disease diagnosis, prognosis, and therapeutic decisionmaking. Fundamental genetic similarities have emerged, supporting the assumption that MS shares similar genetic variants and biological processes in all age groups. In this chapter, we considered it useful to collect all the available data concerning the HLA distribution in early-onset MS, given the absence of a review paper with such an approach. We additionally aimed toward the summarization of the association of the HLA frequencies in early-onset MS and the main acquired demyelinating disorders that are considered in differential diagnosis of early-onset MS, like ADEM, NMO/NMOSD, and anti-MOG encephalopathy, for further understanding and current or future research in this promising field.


We present two searches for supersymmetric particles using proton-proton collision data collected by the CMS experiment at √s = 13 TeV. The searches use razor kinematic variables for signal discrimination and target the pair production of heavy gluinos and squarks in R-parity conserving supersymmetry. The first search is performed on 2.3 fb−1 of data collected by CMS in 2015. Two complete, independent background predictions are made: one based on fits using a parameterized functional form, and the other based on Monte Carlo simulation corrected via control samples in data. The second search is an expanded version of the first search, and is performed using the Monte Carlo-based background prediction method on 35.9 fb−1 of data collected in 2016. Both searches obtain results compatible with standard model background expectations. The null results are interpreted as limits on the masses and cross sections of gluinos, squarks, and higgsinos in the context of simplified models of supersymmetry. We discuss the outlook for the fit-based search strategy and explore how the technique of gaussian process regression may be useful as a tool to combat the challenges of this analysis methodology. We also describe a new paradigm for trigger-level collider data analysis, which we refer to as data scouting. In this paradigm, searches for new physics are performed using event information reconstructed within the experiment's trigger software. This circumvents traditional event rate constraints, such as disk space and the latency of offline reconstruction. We provide details on the implementation of a framework for data scouting in the CMS High-Level Trigger system and its successful use in Run II of the LHC. We discuss the impact of scouting on the physics program of CMS and demonstrate that it enables searches for new physics that would not otherwise be possible due to trigger constraints, such as hadronic resonance searches at low mass and searches for leptonic decays of dark photons.


: To isolate transferrin and additional amounts of albumin the parameters are developed for subfractionating with the alcohol-rivanol method fraction IV (according to Cohn) of plasma proteins (waste of albumin production from plasma of donor blood). The suggested method for fraction IV subfractionating makes it possible to obtain true albumin and transferrin. In all series the yield of wet and dry sediments of transferrin is constant. To remove alcohol from albumin and transferrin half-finished products the regimes of sublimation drying are worked out at which protein is not denaturated. Albumin obtained from fraction IV satisfies all the requirements of MPTY-42 N 3500-67 for the albumin preparation from donor blood. The developed method for subfractioning fraction IV of plasma proteins is easily reproduced on an industrial scale, permits a 8% increase in albumin yield from 1 1 of plasma and a simultaneous obtaining of transferrin which may be a basis for medicinal preparation.


To develop a protein-based biosensor measuring the pro-oxidant activities of phenolic compounds, egg white proteins were precipitated with calcium chloride to obtain an insoluble calcium proteinate complex. This biosensor was used for the determination of Cu(II)-induced pro-oxidant activity of antioxidants such as gallic acid, catechin, epicatechin, quercetin, chlorogenic acid and myricetin, and ascorbic acid. This assay involved the reduction of Cu(II) ions to Cu(I) by antioxidant compounds (simultaneously giving rise to reactive oxygen species) and binding of the formed Cu(I) to the solid biosensor. The protein-bound Cu(I), an indicator of pro-oxidant activity of antioxidants on proteins, was colorimetrically determined at 450 nm with neocuproine (Nc). The method was applied to synthetic mixtures and herbal (sage, green tea, mint, and marjoram) infusions, and its findings were compared to those of a modified carbonyl detection assay. This low-cost biosensor can be prepared in large quantities and used for a long time.


This study is an exploration of several aspects of performance in Lars von Trier's Breaking the Waves and The Idiots , focusing especially on the seemingly oppositional concepts of realism and excess. The emphasis here is on the new form of filmmaking that Lars von Trier, together with Thomas Vinterberg, initiated by writing the Dogma Manifesto as a set of filmmaking "rules" in 1995. A close analysis of Emily Watson and Bodil Jorgensen's performances in these two films illuminates the filmmaker's unique approach to performance and also demonstrates the strong impact this new kind of a cinema had on the actor's craft. Through an investigation of the use of performance, von Trier's filmmaking will be placed within the context of Scandinavian theatrical and filmic traditions. The study examines how von Trier's films show the prominent influence of the late nineteenth century Scandinavian theatrical tradition that is most fully embodied by Ibsen and Strindberg; this obvious influence aligns von Trier with other Scandinavian filmmakers like Dreyer and Bergman, whose work also shows the influence of modernist theatre. Von Trier's films, especially through the use of performance, redefine the traditional Scandinavian approach to cinema. This analysis of performance leads to a consideration of the significance of contextualizing performance culturally, historically and socially.