Despite the continued rapid advance in computing speed and memory the increase in the complexity of models used by engineers persists in outpacing them. Even where there is access to the latest hardware, simulations are often extremely computationally intensive and time-consuming when full-blown models are under consideration. The need to reduce the computational cost involved when dealing with high-order/many-degree-of-freedom models can be offset by adroit computation. In this light, model-reduction methods have become a major goal of simulation and modeling research. Model reduction can also ameliorate problems in the correlation of widely used finite-element analyses and test analysis models produced by excessive system complexity. Model Order Reduction Techniques explains and compares such methods focusing mainly on recent work in dynamic condensation techniques: - Compares the effectiveness of static, exact, dynamic, SEREP and iterative-dynamic condensation techniques in producing valid reduced-order models; - Shows how frequency shifting and the number of degrees of freedom affect the desirability and accuracy of using dynamic condensation; - Answers the challenges involved in dealing with undamped and non-classically damped models; - Requires little more than first-engineering-degree mathematics and highlights important points with instructive examples. Academics working in research on structural dynamics, MEMS, vibration, finite elements and other computational methods in mechanical, aerospace and structural engineering will find Model Order Reduction Techniques of great interest while it is also an excellent resource for researchers working on commercial finite-element-related software such as ANSYS and Nastran.


Circles of Support and Accountability (COSA) are an innovative, volunteer-based means of supervising sex offenders, usually upon release from prison, which were 'transplanted' from Canada to England and Wales at the turn of the 21st century. The Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), and the Lucy Faithful Foundation, were concerned with both the extreme demonisation of sex offenders in the press, and with the need to find better ways of safeguarding children from sexual abuse. The Home Office was simultaneously developing new mechanisms of public protection and funded three COSA pilot schemes between 2002 and 2005. The processes of development and implementation were essentially informal and improvised, crucially dependent on the choices, decisions, energy, status and reputations of particular individuals in particular places and networks. Circles flourished at the intersection of a nascent official concern with public protection, and the determination of faith-based professional activists (and others) to reaffirm the redeemability of sex offenders, but there was never a 'structural logic' which made the emergence of COSA inevitable. Drawing on information from the key players, this paper details the processes by which they came into being.


The growing competition for FDI is certain to have an impact on the course of economic development of economies and encourage the pursuit of continued reforms to improve the investment climate and attract greater foreign investment. Many countries especially among developing countries are in need of FDI. In order to attract FDI in their economies, countries have ensured there exist appropriate structural development record to assure the foreign investors of business success. The objective of this study was to establish the effect of economic growth on foreign direct investment in Kenya. This study adopted a descriptive research design which generally describes the characteristics of a particular situation, event or case. The study used secondary data. The population of this
study included all sectors of the Kenyan economy, for data relating to economic growth and foreign direct investment (FDI) inflows. The two main variables of this study are economic growth and FDI. The study conducted a multiple regression analysis and used analysis of variance (ANOVA) in the analysis of experimental data to test the variables for statistical significance. The study established that a relationship exists between economic growth and foreign direct investments. A positive relationship exists between the GDP growth, exchange rates with the foreign direct investments. Therefore, increments of these macroeconomic variables boost foreign direct investments in the country. The study recommended that policymakers should formulate policies and strategies that are geared towards achieving better economic growth in Kenya. Small and emerging sectors such as jua kali and other small and medium enterprises should be accorded the necessary support since they employ a majority of the Kenyan population
thus making important contributions towards GDP growth. The government ought to readily support informal sectors since these sectors are key to economic growth that has an impact on foreign direct investment. The study recommends that the Kenyan legal system should be strengthened in order to protect investors thus creating a conducive business environment for foreign investments. The interference by government agencies in judicial operations undermines fair rulings thus causing multinational investors to go to
countries with high judicial credibility


The internet and social media have been a huge force for change in our society, transforming the way we communicate and seek information. However, the unprecedented volumes of data have created a unique set of challenges: misinformation, polarization and online conflict. Misinformation can be particularly detrimental to society, democracy and public health. As a result, there is a growing area of research into countermeasures against online misinformation. However, much of this research is conducted in small scale experiments and cannot predict the macro-level impact. This paper demonstrates that agent-based modelling can be a useful tool for policy-makers to evaluate these countermeasures at scale before implementing them on a social media platform. This research has the following contributions: (i) Development of an agent-based model of the spread of information on a social media network, based on Twitter. (ii) Calibration and validation of the proposed model by Twitter data following fake and true news stories. (iii) Using agent-based modelling to evaluate the impact of countermeasures on the spread of fake news and on general information sharing.


To induce flower color mutants in Grasspea ( Lathyrus sativus Linn.) variety "Pusa-24", the fresh seeds were exposed to 4 different doses of gamma radiation as physical mutagens (100, 200, 300 and 400 Gy) and treated with 4 different concentration of Ethyl Methanesulphonate as chemical mutagen (5, 10, 15 and 20 mM ) and also combination of both mutagens. Due to mutagenesis broad range of flower color mutants in M 2 , M 3 and M 4 were obtained. Various unique and different flower color mutations like pink, purple, white and yellow detected against blue which is natural color in control progenies. Maximum flower color frequency was recorded in EMS treated seeds (20 mM) in 4th generation and lowest mutation frequency in 2nd generation was obtained in gamma rays (100 Gy) treated seeds. The results showed more flower color mutations happened in more dose /concentration of mutagens in every generation


Although the efficacy of prostate-specific antigen (PSA) screening for prostate cancer has not been established, it is widely used. However, despite the overall controversy regarding PSA screening, there has been general agreement that elderly men (i.e., those aged 75 years or older) should not be screened. By using a nationally representative sample of 7889 men who participated in the 2000 National Health Interview Survey, we found that the rate of PSA screening among men aged 75 or older was 32.5% (95% confidence interval [CI] = 28.8% to 36.1%), which was greater than that of fecal occult blood screening among men of the same age (22.8%, 95% CI = 19.2% to 26.4%) and was comparable with that of annual Pap smear screening among women aged 75 years or older (29.0%, 95% CI = 26.6% to 31.3%). Among screened elderly men, 88.4% (95% CI = 82.3% to 92.6%) reported that their doctor first suggested screening and 66.5% (95% CI = 59.7% to 73.3%) reported that the risks and benefits of screening were discussed before screening. We conclude that strategies are needed to increase understanding of the risks and benefits of PSA screening among elderly men.


Nd and Sr isotope systematics may provide important constraints on the location of major thrust systems that separate lithologically similar sedimentary sequences. The potential of the technique is illustrated by this isotopic study of the Main Central thrust system of the Himalaya. Nd isotope data from the Garhwal Himalaya indicate that metasedimentary rocks from the Vaikrita Group (Nd = –14 to –19) correlate closely with those from the High Himalayan Crystalline Series, which constitutes the hanging-wall lithologies of the Main Central thrust. In contrast, metasedimentary rocks from the Munsiari Group (Nd = –23 to –28) show marked similarities to the Lesser Himalayan Series in the footwall of the Main Central thrust. Sr isotopes support the correlations in that the Vaikrita Group shows partial reequilibration at 500 Ma, whereas the Munsiari Group has not undergone Sr isotope homogenization since 1800 Ma. Thus, the Vaikrita thrust that juxtaposes these two formations is recognized as the Main Central thrust in Garhwal Himalaya. The thrust coincides, approximately, with the location of the kyanite isograd, confirming that inverted metamorphism is characteristic of both hanging wall and footwall of the Main Central thrust.

Along the Tons thrust (known locally as the Srinagar thrust) 50 km south of the Main Central thrust, low-grade quartzarenites with Nd-Sr isotope and trace element characteristics typical of Lesser Himalayan formations have been emplaced on phyllites and siltstones with geochemical characteristics of the High Himalayan Crystalline Series. The field relationships most probably result from out-of-sequence thrusting in which Lesser Himalayan Series rocks to the north were emplaced over low-grade equivalents of the High Himalayan Crystalline Series preserved in the external part of the orogen. This study establishes the value of isotope data for lithostratigraphic correlations within orogenic belts.


Ting Jia, a Zhi Zeng,* H. Q. Lin, Yuhua Duan d and Paul Ohodnicki The electronic, optical and thermodynamic properties of ABO3 (A 1⁄4 La,Sr, B 1⁄4 Fe,Co) perovskites are investigated using first-principles calculations. The obtained results indicate that SrCoO3 and SrFeO3 are metals, while LaCoO3 and LaFeO3 are insulators and all of them exhibit strong hybridization of the Fe/ Co-3d and O-2p orbitals. By correlating the energy band structures with the peaks of the imaginary part of the dielectric function, we obtained the origin of each electron excitation to provide information about the active bands for the corresponding optical transitions observed in the experiment. Moreover, the Debye temperatures qD obtained from the phonon frequencies are comparable to the available data. Finally, the thermodynamic properties of the Helmholtz free energy F, entropy S, and constant-volume heat capacity Cv are investigated based on the phonon spectra.


The advanced numerical analysis of liquefaction pro blems is discussed in this paper. The ability of su ch analysis to accurately simulate behaviour during ea rthquakes depends on the ability of the constitutiv e model to represent real soil behaviour. Key require ments for constitutive models targeting liquefactio n problems are discussed, and the use of the state co ncept approach for modelling cyclic behaviour of so ils is described. Seismic analysis of two case studies and physical model tests are used to illustrate the application of the seismic effective stress analysi s and to demonstrate both its enormous potential an d areas where further improvements are needed.


ABSTRACT
Acute pancreatitis (AP), resulting from inflammation of the pancreas, accounts for more than 300,000 US hospital discharges per year. Although glucose intolerance has been known as a complication of severe AP, this effect was thought to be transient. Recently, cohort studies and meta-analysis of 24 published studies of 1100 patients who survived one or more episodes of AP revealed that 30% to 40% of patients developed diabetes or impaired glucose tolerance within 3 to 4 years of even a single episode of AP. The National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases funded the Type 1 Diabetes in Acute Pancreatitis Consortium (T1DAPC) to undertake a prospective observational study of the occurrence of diabetes during an AP episode or subsequently, with emphasis on type 1 diabetes. Key factors for funding T1DAPC are the increasing incidence and prevalence of AP, its association with the development of type 1 diabetes and other forms of diabetes after AP, its complications, and associated health care cost. The T1DAPC structure, governance, and research objectives are described in this article. The DREAM (Diabetes RElated to Acute pancreatitis and its Mechanisms) studies to be undertaken by the T1DAPC are described in other articles in this journal's issue.


Flaviviruses including DENV and ZIKV encode a unique two-component NS2B-NS3 protease essential for maturation/infectivity, thus representing a key target for designing anti-flavivirus drugs. Here for the first time, by NMR and molecular docking, we reveal that Curcumin allosterically inhibits the Dengue protease by binding to a cavity with no overlap with the active site. Further molecular dynamics (MD) simulations decode that the binding of Curcumin leads to unfolding/displacing the characteristic β-hairpin of the C-terminal NS2B and consequently disrupting the closed (active) conformation of the protease. Our study identified a cavity most likely conserved in all flaviviral NS2B-NS3 proteases, which could thus serve as a therapeutic target for discovery/design of small molecule allosteric inhibitors. Moreover, as Curcumin has been used as a food additive for thousands of years in many counties, it can be directly utilized to fight the flaviviral infections and as a promising starting for further design of potent allosteric inhibitors.


LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) is a routinely employed technology as a 3-D data collection technique for topographic mapping. Conventional workflows for analyzing LiDAR data require the ground to be determined prior to extracting other features of interest. Filtering the terrain points is one of the fundamental processes to acquire higher-level information from unstructured LiDAR point data. There are many ground-filtering algorithms in literature, spanning several broad categories regarding their strategies. Most of the earlier algorithms examine only the local characteristics of the points or grids, such as the slope, and elevation discontinuities. Since considering only the local properties restricts the filtering performance due to the complexity of the terrain and the features, some recent methods utilize global properties of the terrain as well. This paper presents a new ground filtering method, Min-cut Based Filtering (MBF), which takes both local and global properties of the points into account. MBF considers ground filtering as a labeling task. First, an energy function is designed on a graph, where LiDAR points are considered as the nodes on the graph that are connected to each other as well as to two auxiliary nodes representing ground and off-ground labels. The graph is constructed such that the data costs are assigned to the edges connecting the points to the auxiliary nodes, and the smoothness costs to the edges between points. Data and smoothness terms of the energy function are formulated using point elevations and approximate ground information. The data term conducts the likelihood of the points being ground or off-ground while the smoothness term enforces spatial coherence between neighboring points. The energy function is optimized by finding the minimum-cut on the graph via the alpha-expansion algorithm. The resulting graph-cut provides the labeling of the point cloud as ground and off-ground points. Evaluation of the proposed method on the ISPRS test dataset for ground filtering demonstrates that the results are comparable with most current existing methods. An overall average filtering accuracy for the 15 ISPRS test areas is 91.3%.


Recent surveys have shown that asthma management is still not optimal. The aim of this study was to determine the degree of utilization of the corticosteroids and others antiasthmatic medications in asthmatic children who were treated in the emergency room (ER). The study sample comprised of 230 children, who were seen in the emergency room of Assir Central Hospital and received treatment for their asthma during the time period of August 1996 to 31 June 2003. Information, regarding the previous medications which had been received prior to the emergency room's visit and the treatment which had been given at the emergency room, were collected from the records. Only asthmatic children with age of one year to twelve years and who were treated and discharged from the emergency room were included in this study. The striking findings of this study were that, less than one tenth of the patients were given intravenous corticoids (steroids), four patients were given oral steroids and none of them was given intramuscular steroids at the emergency room. Also, more than half of the patients had received anti- cough medications, and two thirds of the patients were given antibiotics. The under use of steroids and the over use of others medications for patients with acute asthma provided clear results in this study. Therefore, specific educational programs focusing on the need for increasing the rate of prescription rate and the adherence to steroids, will improve the overall degree of asthma control.


Classical swine fever (CSF, hog cholera) has reemerged in Japan after 26 years and affected domestic pigs and wild boars. CSF was reported in Gifu prefecture on September 2018. Approximately 90,000 breeding domestic pigs were sacrificed by farmers of Gifu and Aichi prefectures to prevent expansion of CSF outbreak. In mid September 2019, CSF outbreaks have occurred in 8 prefectures in central Japan. African swine fever (ASF) is another viral infectious disease that affects domestic pigs and wild boars, although the etiologic agent is different from that of CSF. Both CSF and ASF affect pig farmers because of their intense infectivity to domesticated pigs. Fortunately, the causative agents are not pathogenic to human. However, an enteric bacterium Salmonella enterica serovar Choleraesuis is pathogenic to pigs and humans. As Salmonella Choleraesuis causes food poisoning in humans, the infection is monitored by "Food Sanitation Law" in Japan. CSF, ASF, and Salmonella enterica serovar Choleraesuis salmonellosis are translated in Japanese as "ton-korera," "afurika ton-korera," and "buta-korera," respectively, wherein "ton" and "buta" both mean pig or hog. Therefore the above Japanese words mean hog cholera.


Background: Rapid response teams (RRTs) are a critical care resource that review deteriorating patients within the hospital. We aimed to describe demographic, preoperative, surgical, anesthetic, and postoperative characteristics of patients who required RRT activation after major hip surgery. We also sought to assess whether these characteristics where associated with mortality during the index hospital admission.Methods: We reviewed an RRT database of adult patients undergoing orthopedic surgery at a university teaching hospital. We then retrospectively reviewed the medical records to extract a priori–defined patient, preoperative, surgical, anesthetic, and postoperative data of major hip surgery admissions between September 2014 and December 2017. Patients who survived the index hospital stay were compared to those who died.Results: Overall, 187 patients had postoperative RRT activations. Median (interquartile range) age was 84.0 (78-90) years; 125 (67%) were female, and most patients had at least one significant comorbidity, median Charlson Comorbidity Index (CCI) 5.0 (4.0-7.0). The majority of patients were frail (68%), American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status Class 3 or greater (91%), and underwent nonelective surgery (88%). Median (interquartile range) time from surgery to RRT activation was 29.4 (11.3–75.0) hours, and 25 (13%) patients had unplanned admissions to intensive care or high dependency units. Compared to patients who survived RRT activation, those who died displayed higher mean CCI (6.5 [1.8] vs. 5.5 [2.1], p = 0.02), were more frail (80.1% vs. 56.5%, OR = 3.2, 95% CI: 1.2,8.1; p = 0.03), and received less intraoperative opioids (intravenous morphine equi-analgesia: median = 5.8 (0.1–8.20 vs. 11.7 (3.7–19.0) mg, p = 0.03). They were also more likely to have received an urgent medical review prior to RRT activation (62% vs. 40%, OR = 2.4, 95% CI: 1.1, 5.6); p = 0.05.Conclusions: Death after RRT activation occurred in 1 in 7 patients undergoing major hip surgery. Common patient characteristics included advanced age (> 82 years), frailty, high CCI, and emergency surgery. Further studies investigating perioperative surveillance teams in the identification of the high-risk patients before surgery and deteriorating patients after major hip surgery are warranted.


This paper presents a new table based algorithm for overcurrent relay with inverse-time characteristic. The algorithm is based on loading the adequate time vector through which inverse-time characteristic is modeled. It uses samples of the current and calculates rms value. The rms current represents an input value for the index estimation what determines corresponding element from already loaded time vector. Since the calculations used in this algorithm are based on simple mathematical operations, short processing time is achieved. Performances of the algorithm are tested by several computer-generated signals. Furthermore, comparative analyses showed indisputably that suggested procedure possesses significant advantages compared to other solutions: simplicity, high speed of operation and accuracy. K e y w o r d s: digital relaying, overcurrent protection, inverse-time characteristic, overcurrent relay


In ceramic tile manufacturing industry, the wet process including wet grinding and spray drying, is widely used for preparing granule. However, due to the high energy consumption for the water evaporation in spray dryer, it has become a major problem in wet process. In recent years, there have been vast amount of researches for developing of dry granulation processes in that granule size distributions cause quality problems in the final products.In this research, it is aimed to develop a new production system, called as Semi-Wet Process. The new system consists of a horizontal dryer, dry ball mill, separator and an additional high speed mixture. The raw-materials having low humidity are ground to the required fineness in dry size reduction process. The other components of recipe, that are prepared in conventional wet process, are mixed with the dry prepared powder in the mixing slurry tank. The addition of dry powder reduces the water ratio of final suspension. Hence, the natural gas consumption of the water evaporation in spray dryer is reduced substantially.The industrial application of the developed Semi Wet System was carried out in Kaleseramik Factory in Turkey, where 28% reduction on gas consumption has been achieved.


Bio-stimulators are organic products that have been found to enhance crop growth and productivity through mitigating against biotic and abiotic stresses. Four Cowpea varieties namely K80, M66, KVU 27-1 and Kenya Kunde; commercially released and adopted by local households for vegetable production were used to evaluate the impact of bio-stimulators on growth and leaf yield of cowpea in Juja and Katumani from May to July, 2013. The treatments were arranged in a factorial structure, laid out in an RCBD, which were combination of 9 levels of bio-stimulators, with the 4 cowpea varieties planted per site, and giving a total of 36 treatments for each site replicated 3 times. The plots measured 2.5m by 2.5m with spacing of 60 cm by 20 cm. Parameters under investigation included germination rate, days to germination, plant height, and number of leaves produced and number of nodules formed. Cultural practices such as weeding and pest control were done as need arose. The results showed that there were significant differences in days to germination, germination rate, plant population, chlorophyll levels, leaf weight, plant height and leaf area but not in leaf area between Juja and Katumani. Earliest germination and highest leaf weight were in Katumai whereas highest plant population, germination rate and chlorophyll levels and leaf area were in Juja. Humates improved germination rate, plant height, leaf weight and nodule development in Juja while seaweed extracts improved days to germination, germination rate, plant height, leaf yield, leaf weight and nodule formation in Katumani. Interaction between site and bio-stimulators was recorded in germination rate, days to germination, plant population and in number of leaves produced. Therefore, bio-stimulators should be adopted in production of cowpea leaves particularly offseason for food and nutritional security and increasing household incomes in Kenya


Games User Research (GUR) is an area of evaluative player research and human-computer interaction (HCI) that aims to improve games, focused on a player's understanding and on their experience when playing games. In this field, techniques are available to measure and understand user experience. These techniques each have their own strengths and weaknesses. To improve and extend GUR methodology, this thesis explores ways that electroencephalography (EEG) can be used as an evaluative measure as part of a mixed methodology. The thesis aims to improve the accuracy and richness of GUR results obtained using EEG. Hemispheric Frontal Alpha Asymmetry (HFAA) is reviewed in depth as a useful EEG technique to measure arousal in real time. HFAA, the EEG methodology proposed in this thesis is used in several experimental studies reported here to show new insights into the social and cognitive factors of gaming. The research presented in this thesis shows that player experience related to the social environment of a game does not necessarily arise from gameplay, but instead relies more on the expectations of a player than the current literature suggests. Additionally, the thesis introduces a new way to investigate player understanding and learning in games, using real-time data about the player's brain state. This is particularly useful for game designers creating introductory tutorial mechanisms for their games. The result of this research is useful for both researchers investigating the human brain immersed in the virtual world of a video game and game designers wanting to use real-time user feedback to build their games.


This article deals with the impact of legislation in the seed sector on incentives for variety creation. Two categories of rules interact. The first category consists in intellectual property rights and is intended to address a problem of sequential innovation and R&D investments by the private sector. The second category concerns commercial rules that are intended to correct a problem of adverse selection on the seed market. We propose a dynamic model of market equilibrium with vertical product differentiation that enables us to take into account the economic consequences of imposing either Plant Breeders' Rights (PBRs) or patents as IPRs. We simultaneously examine two kinds of commercial legislation: compulsory registration in a catalogue and minimum standards for commercialisation. Analytical results are completed by numerical simulations. The main result is that the combination between minimum standards and PBRs provides higher incentives for sequential innovation and may be preferred by a public regulator to maximise the expected and discounted total surplus when sunk investment costs are low or when they are medium and the probability of R&D success is sufficiently high. This solution differs from the combination of IPRs and commercialisation rules used in both the US and Europe. Otherwise, PBRs have to be replaced by patents, which yields a configuration close to that observed in the US. The catalogue commercialisation rule is seldom preferred to minimum standards, so that the combination of IPRs and commercialisation rules that prevails in Europe is not supported by our model.


The present investigation was prompted by the need to find a simple, rapid, reliable and low-cost method for the routine identification of urease producing bacteria. This method uses Nessler's reagent as an indicator of the presence of volatile ammonia produced by organisms which possess urease. The proposed method is comparable to the conventional Christensen's agar method, but is simpler and more rapid to perform.


Abstract. This paper reports results from a critical discourse analysis of Annual Reports for Corrections Corporation of America and Geo Group, Inc. (formerly Wackenhut), the two largest private prison firms currently operating in the United States. Considerable geographic scholarship has analyzed privatization, on the one hand, and imprisonment, on the other. However, geographers have paid less attention to explicitly for-profit imprisonment. In particular, geographers have overlooked or ignored the emergence of bedspace, a concept that now pervades penal discourse. Rather than continuing conventional public-versus-private prison debates, this paper identifies bedspace as the discursive common ground upon which private prison industrialists and the state actually converge. Applying Henri Lefebvre's theorization of "abstract space" to imprisonment, I argue that the discursive creation of bedspace produces a nondialectical representation of space that is fully commodified and bureaucratized. However, the paper concludes that this nondialectical space problematically severs the immanently human geography of imprisonment, which is a "messy" space that is always lived and experienced in particular ways, from its inanimate architectural infrastructure (i.e., beds). Beyond the potential ethical and empirical challenges raised by the production of such an abstract space, bedspace signals the discursive and material convergence of state punishment with capital flows that build and often move beyond prison boundaries while obscuring violent geographies.


OBJECTIVE To assess the role of ultrasonographic measurement of the upper and lower uterine segments wall thickness in predicting the progress of preterm labour in patients presenting with preterm labour pains. STUDY DESIGN Fifty pregnant women presenting at Obstetrics Department - Suez Canal University, Egypt with regular lower abdominal pains and diagnosed as having preterm labour were enrolled in the study. MATERIALS AND METHODS Measurements of the upper and lower uterine segments wall thickness by transabdominal ultrasonography in-between contractions and with full bladder were taken. The upper/lower uterine wall thickness ratio was calculated and correlated to the progress of the preterm labour and to the response to tocolytics. RESULTS The ultrasonographic upper/lower uterine wall thickness ratio was directly related to the progress of preterm delivery (PTD). The change in this ratio is correlated inversely with the response to tocolysis. Using the ROC curve, when the upper/lower uterine wall thickness ratio was ≤ 1.26 the sensitivity was 94.74 and the specificity was 100.00, and when the ratio was ≤ 1.52 the sensitivity was 100.00 and the specificity was 83.33. CONCLUSIONS These data may serve as a baseline ultrasonographic reference values for further studies in prediction the progress of preterm labour in patients presenting with preterm labour pains.


The purpose of an intelligent alarm analysis system is to provide complete and manageable information to a central alarm station operator by applying alarm processing and fusion techniques to sensor information. The paper discusses the sensor fusion approach taken to perform intelligent alarm analysis for the Advanced Exterior Sensor (AES). The AES is an intrusion detection and assessment system designed for wide area coverage, quick deployment, low false/nuisance alarm operation, and immediate visual assessment. It combines three sensor technologies (visible, infrared, and millimeter wave radar) collocated on a compact and portable remote sensor module. The remote sensor module rotates at a rate of 1 revolution per second to detect and track motion and provide assessment in a continuous 360° field-of-regard. Sensor fusion techniques are used to correlate and integrate the track data from these three sensors into a single track for operator observation. Additional inputs to the fusion process include environmental data, knowledge of sensor performance under certain weather conditions, sensor priority, and recent operator feedback. A confidence value is assigned to the track as a result of the fusion process. This helps to reduce nuisance alarms and to increase operator confidence in the system while reducing the workload of the operator


Abstract Zipf's law is a striking regularity in the field of urban economics that states that the sizes of cities should follow the rank-size distribution. Rank-size distribution, or the rank-size rule, is a commonly observed statistical relationship between the population size and population rank of a nations' cities. The goal of this paper is to test Zipf's law as applied to data for settlements and cities in Croatia using the Census of Population Survey for the year 2011. The results of the analysis have shown that Zipf's law for settlements in Croatia holds true for the majority of the settlement sizes. However, the rank-size distribution does not hold true for extremely small and extremely large settlement sizes. When city proper and urban agglomeration of 127 Croatian cities were examined, Zipf's law was found to hold true only for urban agglomerations. The results of the study are discussed in terms of regional development.


Abstract Horizontal‐component response spectra data for ground motions recorded on hard‐rock sites in eastern North America (ENA) are used to explore the aleatory and epistemic uncertainty in ground‐motion prediction equations (GMPEs). An all‐station sigma, expressing the total calculated scatter of values about a GMPE, ranges from 0.25 to 0.29log 10 unit. Single‐station sigmas, in which the scatter is evaluated station by station relative to a regional GMPE, average in the range of 0.23–0.28. The scatter of observations about site‐specific GMPEs (GMPEs developed from multiple events recorded at a single station), which comes the closest to measuring the actual aleatory variability, has average values of 0.22–0.26. Overall, aleatory variability of ground motions in ENA is no larger than that for California, at least for moderate events recorded on hard‐rock sites. Epistemic uncertainty is considered by looking at the standard deviation of GMPEs developed separately for each station (i.e., the scatter of predictions rather than the scatter of observations). This exercise suggests that the overall epistemic uncertainty in ENAGMPEs should be at least 0.15 log unit (as a standard deviation of the median GMPEs) in the magnitude–distance range in which the prediction equations can be anchored by empirical data (magnitude 50  km). It should be larger than 0.15 unit at large magnitudes and close distances.


The possibility of transformation of energy of fast and epithermal neutrons to energy of coherent photon radiation at the expense of a neutron pumping of the active medium formed by nucleus with long-living isomerous states is theoretically described. The channel of the nucleus formation in isomeric state as a daughter nucleus resulting from the nuclear reaction of neutron capture by a lighter nucleus is taken into consideration for the first time. The analysis of cross sections dependence of radiative neutron capture by the nuclei of gadolinium isotopes Gd155 and Gd156 is performed. As a result, it is stated that the speed of Gd156 nuclei formation exceeds the speed of their "burnup" in the neutron flux. It is provided by a unique combination of absorbing properties of two isotopes of gadolinium Gd155 and Gd156 in both thermal and resonance regions of neutron energy. The possibility of excess energy accumulation in the participating medium created by the nuclei of the pair of gadolinium isotopes Gd155 and Gd156 due to formation and storage of nuclei in isomeric state at radiative neutron capture by the nuclei of the stable isotope with a smaller mass is shown. It is concluded that when the active medium created by gadolinium nuclei is pumped by neutrons with the flux density of the order of 1013 cm-2·s-1, the condition of levels population inversion can be achieved in a few tens of seconds. The wave length of the radiation generated by the medium is 0.0006 nm.


Abstract The distribution of the Near Threatened Caucasian grouse Tetrao mlokosiewiczi, endemic to the Caucasus, was examined to model the species' nesting habitat, and thus facilitate its conservation and the identification of Key Biodiversity Areas in the Caucasus. The species' occurrence was defined by field surveys and radio-telemetry. Data were managed and analysed using a geographical information system and various modelling techniques. Grouse locations were divided into training and testing datasets. Habitat variables measured at training locations were used to develop models, and testing locations were used to validate the models. The final best-fit model suggested that Caucasian grouse prefer open habitat, and the most important independent variables accounting for the species' distribution were annual mean temperature, mean temperature of warmest quarter, precipitation seasonality and proximity to deciduous broad-leaf forest. The incorporation of human disturbance and ruggedness into the final model significantly increased its predictive power. This model provides a tool to improve search effectiveness for Caucasian grouse in the Caucasus and for the conservation and management of the species. The model can predict the probable distribution of Caucasian grouse and the corridors between known populations. Threatened and endemic species are often used as species for setting site-based conservation priorities, and this habitat model could help to identify new Key Biodiversity Areas for protection in the Caucasus. The Ministry of Environmental Protection and Natural Resources of Georgia is going to use the results of this study to reshape existing protected areas and identify new ones.


Protecting patients with IBS from the risks and costs of unnecessary surgery

Surgery has no role in treating irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), the prototypic functional bowel disorder.1 Nevertheless, since Ryle2 reported a high appendectomy rate in such patients nearly 80 years ago, descriptive case series, population-based studies and comparisons of patients with IBS with subjects without IBS and patients with inflammatory bowel disease3–8 have shown that patients with IBS are predisposed to surgery. In two large groups of patients with IBS, cholecystectomy and hysterectomy, which are mainly elective procedures, were increased threefold and twofold, respectively, and the primarily emergency operation, appendectomy, was also increased twofold.5,7 Other abdominopelvic operations, especially colon resection, are also increased,7 as is back surgery.5 Much of this increased surgery must be unnecessary, and high surgical rates have been reported from the UK, Western Europe, Scandinavia, North America, Latin America and South Africa. The association of IBS with normal appendiceal pathology after urgent appendectomy, as reported by investigators from Taiwan in this issue,9 ( see page 655 ) further emphasises the worldwide importance of avoiding unnecessary surgery in IBS.

How much surgery is unnecessary on patients with IBS and the reasons for this problem are difficult to ascertain from studies that are retrospective and lack information on surgical pathology. Furthermore, unlike appendicitis, gallstones and uterine pathology are often asymptomatic and are not life threatening, so their documentation does not necessarily mean that surgery was needed. If hysterectomy is performed for dysfunctional uterine bleeding and chronic pelvic pain (CPP), consistent elimination of bleeding with variable pain relief complicates assessment of the overall benefit. Nevertheless, the available data identify preoperative misdiagnosis of the aetiology of pain as a major reason for increased abdominopelvic surgery in patients with IBS. The prospective study by …


Background: Allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT) is a potentially cure for acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Patients who undergone HSCT are at increased risk of infection due to impaired immunity. Objective: To evaluate the rate of bacterial, viral and fungal infection and its relationship with 2-year overall survival of AML patients who had undergone HSCT. Methods: This was a retrospective cross-sectional study of 49 patients who underwent allogenic bone marrow transplantation (BMT) from full-matched donors at BMT Center, Imam Khomeini Hospital Complex, Tehran, Iran, from 2006 to 2013. All autologous transplantations and promyelocytic leukemia (PML) transplantations were excluded. Results: All patients, except for one, had fever for a mean of 7 days post-transplantation and received broad-spectrum antibiotic. The rate of severe sepsis was 6.1%. None of the patients developed fungal infection during admission. The rate of admission due to sepsis after discharge was 27% in the alive group (mean onset of 54 days), and 73% in the deceased group (mean onset of 52 days) (p<0.05). The most common site of infection was lung (70%). The rate of cytomegalovirus (CMV) antigenemia (positive PP65) was 20% during the 2-year period after HSCT. Conclusion: The rate of infection was a negative prognostic factor for 2-year overall survival. The rate of CMV antigenemia is less than similar studies (51%), which could be due to full-matched donor-recipients requiring less immunosuppression.


We use the Monte Carlo method to study an antiferromagnetical Ising spin system on a centred honeycomb lattice, which is composed of two kinds of 1/2 spin particles A and B. There exist two different bond energies JA–A and JA–B in this lattice. Our study is focused on how the ratio of JA–B to JA–A influences the critical behaviour of this system by analysing the physical quantities, such as the energy, the order parameter, the specific heat, susceptibility, etc each as a function of temperature for a given ratio of JA–B to JA–A. Using these results together with the finite-size scaling method, we obtain a phase diagram for the ratio JA–B/JA–A. This work is helpful for studying the phase transition problem of crystals composed of compounds.


This paper provides new causal evidence on the effects of gender congruence in the student-adviser relationship on three key student outcomes: (i) retention; (ii) grades; and (iii) post-graduation career outcomes. In so doing, we use unique administrative data from a selective liberal arts university which includes detailed longitudinal records on all students. Our identification strategy is based on the University's first-year faculty adviser assignment policy which produces randomness in whether a student has a same-gender faculty adviser. First, we find that gender congruence in the student-adviser relationship has a positive and significant effect on the odds of retention (gender congruence effect on the extensive margin) and on cumulate GPA upon graduation (gender congruence effect on the intensive margin).Second, we uncover that much of the gender congruence effect on the extensive margin tends to be concentrated in the freshman and sophomore years, while the gender congruence effect on the intensive margin is less immediate and shows up only in cumulative GPA upon graduation. The results are found to change little when we account for unobserved adviser characteristics by using adviser fixed effects. Finally, student-adviser gender congruence is found to work differently for students with different backgrounds and interests. Most notably we find that gender congruence in the student-adviser relationship is particularly helpful for academically weak students and students without STEM-orientation.


Despite pneumothoraces being described in medical literature as far back as 15th century (1), the optimal way the remove air from the pleural cavity has not yet been ascertained, nor indeed have we determine whether it is necessary to do so at all. The well conducted randomised control trial by Thelle et al . (2) has added to the evidence base concerning one of the fundamental questions: whether needle aspiration (NA) or chest tube drainages (CTD) is superior in evacuating a pneumothorax.


Hydrophobicity is a prime determinant of the structure and function of
proteins. It is the driving force behind the folding of soluble proteins, and
when exposed on the surface, it is frequently involved in recognition and
binding of ligands and other proteins. The energetic cost of exposing
hydrophobic surface is proportional to its area, and the question arises to
what extent proteins can tolerate large hydrophobic patches on their
surfaces. The current thesis is a study into such patches. Chapter 1
provides a general introduction into protein surface hydrophobicity. Chapter
2 describes a numerical algorithm for calculating the solvent accessible
surface area. It samples the protein surface in Shrake & Rupley fashion:
representing atoms as spherical distributions of points and summing the
points that are not buried by any atoms. A number of optimization strategies
is applied, yielding an exceptionally fast method. The quality of spherical
point distributions is assessed, and a novel, optimal tessellation of the
unit sphere is found. The accessible surface calculation method developed in
Chapter 2 forms the basis of the hydrophobic patch detection algorithm called
QUILT, presented in Chapter 3. The assumption is that hydrophobic surface
area is synonymous with solvent accessible carbon and sulfur
atoms. Connecting contiguous apolar atoms is not enough to delineate
hydrophobic patches, because the relatively strong hydrophobicity of the
protein surface (around 60%) results in one large hydrophobic surface. This
surface spans the entire protein, and is dotted with polar 'islands' formed
by the hydrophilic atoms, with hydrophobic connections through variously
sized 'channels' between these islands. To delineate the hydrophobic patches,
the channels are closed off by temporarily expanding the solvent-accessible
polar atoms. This way, the hydrophobic surface neatly divides into proper
patches which are subsequently identified, and adjacent surface area lost due
to the polar expansion is added back to the patches thus obtained. Only the
largest patches, having sizes exceeding expectation (based on randomizing the
protein's surface), are deemed meaningful. The method is applied to a small
number of structures to demonstrate the validity and utility of the method.
In Chapter 4, the QUILT method is applied to a large sample of monomeric
proteins, in order to survey general trends in the distribution of patch
sizes on proteins. The largest patch on each individual protein averages
around 400 A2, but can range from 200 to 1200 A2. Interestingly, these areas
do not correlate with the sizes of the proteins, and only weakly with their
apolar surface fraction. Trends regarding patch size distribution, amino
acid composition and preference, sequential vicinity, secondary structure and
mobility are discussed as well. Chapter 5 is devoted to a survey similar to
that described in Chapter 4, but here, the interfaces of obligate oligomeric
proteins are studied. As before, trends regarding amino acid composition and
preference and patch size distribution are described. The largest or second
largest patch on the accessible surface of the entire subunit was involved in
multimeric interfaces in 90% of the cases, in agreement with interfaces being
generally more hydrophobic than the rest of the protein surface. However,
hydrophobic patches are not complementary: they are not preferentially in
contact across associating subunits. This is perhaps surprising, but is to be
expected, because the free energy of subunit association, as far as the
hydrophobic patches are concerned, is largely due to the shielding of apolar
area from the solvent, rather than from gaining hydrophobic contacts. To
gain insight into the dynamic behaviour of hydrophobic patches, QUILT is
applied to molecular dynamics simulations of three different protein
structures. This is the subject of Chapter 6. The analysis requires an
additional method to relate QUILT-patches across time frames of the
trajectory, which is described as well. The resulting patch runs show that
the area fluctuations are considerable, at around 25% of their size. The most
frequently occurring mean patch size is approximately 50 A2, but can reach
around 400 A2. An uninterrupted patch run can last up to 150 picoseconds,
but, owing to protein mobility, is generally much shorter at around 4
ps. There is no clear relation between patch run durations and their average
size, but long-lasting patch runs have smaller fluctuations. Although the
formalism would allow this, the patches do not 'wander' over the protein
surface, indicating that they are genuine surface features. When the patch
runs are clustered, the truly persistent patches called recurrent patches are
obtained. Only about 25% of them have a strong 'liveness', that is, are
represented by an actual patch run most of the time. In amicyanin, the method
detects the hydrophobic patch known to be involved in the binding of
methylamine dehydrogenase. In phospholipase A2, a large persistent patch
consisting of Leu58 and Phe94 is found, the likely functional relevance of
which appears to be novel.


Natural fault damage zones (FDZs) are often composed of complex arrays containing many thin faults. To account for FDZs in large‐scale models, it is necessary to represent the flow effects of these many small faults by some form of upscaling. The explicit discretization of the geometry and topology of these thin faults and of the rock matrix typically leads to meshes comprising large numbers of elements, making it difficult to solve the flow equations efficiently. This paper proposes a practical technique based on the mixed finite element method (MFEM), permitting the permeability upscaling in two‐dimensional fault damage zones that contain thin and isotropic low‐permeability faults. This technique utilizes an implicit discretization scheme that is similar in principle to those used for discrete fracture networks. The scheme described here treats flow across faults accurately, but, unlike the schemes used for fractures, it neglects the flow along the faults because intrafault volumetric flow in thin faults is very small. This approach allows for a simpler numerical discretization and a reduction in numerical calculation effort. The scheme can be readily implemented in a standard mixed finite element code. Compared with the same MFEM based on an explicit discretization scheme, the two techniques are shown to produce results that agree closely. The implicit technique is shown to be more efficient than the explicit technique for a typical fault damage zone model. This technique is readily extendable to three dimensions.


The Quantum Double Delta Swarm (QDDS) Algorithm is a networked, fully-connected novel metaheuristic optimization algorithm inspired by the convergence mechanism to the center of potential generated within a single well of a spatially colocated double–delta well setup. It mimics the wave nature of candidate positions in solution spaces and draws upon quantum mechanical interpretations much like other quantum-inspired computational intelligence paradigms. In this work, we introduce a Chebyshev map driven chaotic perturbation in the optimization phase of the algorithm to diversify weights placed on contemporary and historical, socially-optimal agents' solutions. We follow this up with a characterization of solution quality on a suite of 23 single–objective functions and carry out a comparative analysis with eight other related nature–inspired approaches. By comparing solution quality and successful runs over dynamic solution ranges, insights about the nature of convergence are obtained. A two-tailed t-test establishes the statistical significance of the solution data whereas Cohen's d and Hedge's g values provide a measure of effect sizes. We trace the trajectory of the fittest pseudo-agent over all iterations to comment on the dynamics of the system and prove that the proposed algorithm is theoretically globally convergent under the assumptions adopted for proofs of other closely-related random search algorithms.


This paper concerns biomimetic exploration of the leaf rib layout problem. Biological venation of organisms is observed to be similar to reinforced plate/shell systems. Similarity analysis makes it clear that dicotyledonous leaves are an ideal research subject. In this paper, global and local regularities are summarized and existing theories on venation morphogenesis are discussed and compared. An energy hypothesis is proposed to cater for interdisciplinary applications. A venation growing model was then used to construct a two-dimensional reinforcement layout model. The biomechanical expressions developed can be an alternative to describe rib-in-plate or fibre-in-composite materials.


The mitigation measures (e.g., lockdown policies) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic impacted food systems in unprecedented ways, in both scope and immediacy. Food retail, for example, changed fundamentally in the United States, as access to nutritious food became limited, supply chain shortages were common, and mandatory public health measures led to behavior changes among customers and employees. In the present case study, we hypothesized that these changes led to food purchasing shifts of grocery store consumers. Such shifts are seen as an outcome of both endogenous factors at the individual level and exogenous factors at the government/policy level. Our case study sought to better understand how the pandemic and associated regulations shaped consumer food choices during the "hard" lockdown period in Montana during 2020. We selected 112 food products based on the highest sales in a Gallatin County, Montana, grocery store. They were analyzed by predefined food groups aligned to the Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2020. All purchases were processed for each selected food item during March and April 2019 (before the pandemic) and March and April 2020 (during the lockdown in Montana). To further describe the pandemic experiences qualitatively, we conducted semi-structured interviews with managers and employees from two stores in Gallatin County. Overall, we found that consumers increased purchases in most food groups during the pandemic, including nutrient-dense and energy-dense products, most outstandingly for starchy vegetables, legumes, and convenience food. Products with long shelf-life and that required preparation at home were preferred. Endogenous causes, specifically panic and rushing, were likely stronger drivers of consumer behavior and food choices than regulations. Nonetheless, lockdown policies impacted consumer food purchases. We present a series of policy and practice recommendations based on our findings and the emerging literature on this topic.


Abstract Darrellhenryite, Na(LiAl2)Al6(BO3)3Si6O18(OH)3O, a new member of the tourmaline supergroup (related to the alkali-subgroup 4), is a new Li-bearing tourmaline species, which is closely related to elbaite through the substitution YAlW 0.5O1YLiW -0.5(OH)-1. It occurs in a complex (Li-bearing) petalite-subtype pegmatite with common lepidolite, Li-bearing tourmalines, and amblygonite at Nová Ves near Český Krumlov, southern Bohemia, Moldanubian Zone, Czech Republic. This zoned pegmatite dike cross-cuts a serpentinite body enclosed in leucocratic granulites. Pink darrellhenryite forms columnar crystals (sometimes in parallel arrangement) up to 3 cm long and up 2 cm thick, associated with albite (var. cleavelandite), minor quartz, K-feldspar, petalite, rare polylithionite, and locally rare pollucite. The optical properties and the single-crystal structure study (R1 = 0.019) of darrellhenryite are consistent with trigonal symmetry, w = 1.636(2), e = 1.619(2), birefringence: 0.017, space group R3m, a = 15.809(2), c = 7.089(1) Å, V = 1534.4(4) Å3, and Z = 3. The chemical analysis, in combination with the results from the single-crystal structure refinement, gives the formula X(Na0.58Ca0.01□0.41)1.00Y(Li1.05Al1.95)3.00ZAl6 (BO3)3T(Si6O18) V(OH)3W(O0.66F0.34)1.00, which can be simplified to an ideal formula of Na(LiAl2) Al6(BO3)3Si6O18(OH)3O. The strongest lines of the powder pattern [d in Å (I, hkl)] are 4.180 (39, 211), 3.952 (54, 220), 3.431 (73, 012), 2.925 (100, 122), 2.555 (90, 051), 2.326 (42, 511), 2.029 (42, 223), 2.021 (42, 152), 1.901 (50, 342), 1.643 (49, 603). The density is Dmeas = 3.03(3) g/cm3, Dcalc = 3.038 g/ cm3. Darrellhenryite is considered to have crystallized in Li- and B-rich but F-moderate environments in complex pegmatites; no influence of higher activity of O on the darrellhenryite formation is implied from its mineral assemblage. The name is for Darrell J. Henry, Professor of Geology at the Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, U.S.A., an expert on the mineralogy, petrology, crystal chemistry, and nomenclature of tourmaline-supergroup minerals.


This paper explores the experience of police recruits as they move from the classroom experience to learning on the job. The research presented forms part of a larger study of newcomers to the policing profession. The study is contextualized within the NSW Police Force where recruits undertake university education with the final year of their university study coinciding with their role as a probationary constable in the field of policing. During the period in the field the recruits are developing their professional practice and identity through a process of socialization and situated learning. This paper will present findings, using case studies, of the initial experience of new recruits in the policing world to better understand the effectiveness of university–industry partnerships and pedagogical practices in the development of early‐career professionals. (Journal of Cooperative Education & Internships, 2009, 43(1), 55‐63).


PURYEAR, MARGARET W. P. Observations and Modeling of Evapotranspiration across North Carolina. (Under the direction of Dr. Sethu Raman) Evapotranspiration (ET) is measured at 14 stations in North Carolina using an ET gage, which allows distilled water to evaporate through a waterproof surface acting as the reference crop alfalfa. These stations are part of the State Climate Office of North Carolina's Environment and Climate Observing Network (ECONet) and are distributed throughout the state's three broad climate regions: mountains, Piedmont and coastal plain. Observations from the ET gage at Lake Wheeler were compared with the gradient method to show that the ET gage observations are accurate and reliable. Averages of reference evapotranspiration, precipitation, soil moisture and temperature are analyzed for spatial trends. Daily reference evapotranspiration values are also compared with precipitation, soil moisture, temperature and humidity at one location in each of the three climate regions. Evapotranspiration decreases initially when precipitation occurs. This is due to the increase in atmospheric humidity and decrease in temperature. After precipitation ends, evapotranspiration increases due to the increase in the water supply. Daily pan evaporation values at two sites from years 2003 and 2004 were compared with evapotranspiration at the same locations. Effective precipitation was calculated for 2004 at each of the 14 evapotranspiration measuring stations. Two different empirical methods for estimating evapotranspiration were used for comparison with observations: Priestley-Taylor and Penman-Monteith. An appropriate value for the Priestley-Taylor parameter was estimated. Estimates of ET from these empirical methods indicated that the Penman-Monteith method overestimated ET as compared to observations and the Priestley-Taylor method gave better results. A mesoscale numerical simulation was performed for the period, 00Z July 18, 2004 to 00Z July 24, 2004 using the MM5 model with a domain centered over North Carolina. Spatial distribution of evapotranspiration was obtained and comparisons made between model predictions and observations of latent heat flux, soil moisture, soil temperature, wind speed, and air temperature. Latent heat flux was estimated using model parameters and empirical methods and compared with observations. A special focus on the simulations of days July 21 through July 24 included one day prior to a precipitation event, two days during the event, and one day after the precipitation ended. The model has a tendency to overestimate the latent heat flux in the coastal plain and eastern Piedmont, due to the overestimation of precipitation in this area. The mountains had the highest latent heat flux predicted by the model. Across the state, the PriestleyTaylor method using simulated parameters performed better than the Penman-Monteith method. Observations and Modeling of Evapotranspiration across North Carolina


The rapid enhancement of the thermoelectric (TE) figure‐of‐merit (zT) in the past decade has opened opportunities for developing and transitioning solid state waste heat recovery systems. Here, a segmented TE device architecture is demonstrated in conjunction with heterogeneous material integration that results in high unicouple‐level conversion efficiency of 12% under a temperature difference of 584 K. This breakthrough is the result of success in fabricating bismuth telluride/half‐Heusler segmented TE unicouple modules using a "hot‐to‐cold" fabrication technique that provides significantly reduced electrical and thermal contact resistance. Extensive analytical and finite element modeling is conducted to provide an understanding of the nature of thermal transport and contributions arising from various thermal and physical parameters. Bismuth telluride/half‐Heusler based segmented thermoelectric generators (TEGs) can provide higher practical temperature difference with optimum average zT across the whole operating range. These results will have immediate impact on the design and development of TEGs and in the general design of devices based upon heterostructures that take advantage of gradients in the figure of merit.


leader, the 'seventh enemy' the folly and insensitivity of mankind itself. The latter part of the book considers this final threat in some detail and points, however tentatively, to ways of postponing or reducing a final catastrophe. Some readers may consider this section rather eclectic and uncorrelated but Mr Higgins' emphasis on the need for 'inclusive sensibility' is impressive. He stresses both the political and personal aspects of the problem. He regards our current view of man as over-rationalized and lacking in imaginativeness. Without taking a theistic stance, he feels towards a challenging, balanced ethic of the transcendent. The book is beautifully written and abounds in crisp quotable statements of fact and insight. For preachers it could lead to greater knowledge, awareness, urgency and humility. The qualifications of the writer are unusual. After tutoring in Oxford, serving in the Diplomatic Service and working for eight years with the Observer, he is highly qualified to express his concern. The book includes a fascinating prologue which interprets politically and morally events of recent decades in which he has been


Abstract. Mass–dimension (m–D) relationships determining bulk
microphysical properties such as total water content (TWC) and radar
reflectivity factor (Z) from particle size distributions are used in both
numerical models and remote sensing retrievals. The a and b coefficients
representing m=aDb relationships, however, can vary significantly
depending on meteorological conditions, particle habits, the definition of
particle maximum dimension, the probes used to obtain the data, techniques
used to process the cloud probe data, and other unknown reasons. Thus,
considering a range of a,b coefficients may be more applicable for use in
numerical models and remote sensing retrievals. Microphysical data collected
by two-dimensional optical array probes (OAPs) installed on the University of
North Dakota (UND) Citation aircraft during the Mid-latitude Continental Convective
Clouds Experiment (MC3E) were used in conjunction with TWC data from a
Nevzorov probe and ground-based S-band radar data to determine a and b
using a technique that minimizes the chi-square difference between the TWC and
Z derived from the OAPs and those directly measured by a TWC probe and
radar. All a and b values within a specified tolerance were regarded as equally
plausible solutions. Of the 16 near-constant-temperature flight legs analyzed
during the 25 April, 20 May, and 23 May 2011 events, the derived surfaces of
solutions on the first 2 days where the aircraft-sampled stratiform cloud
had a larger range in a and b for lower temperature environments that
correspond to less variability in N(D), TWC, and Z for a flight leg.
Because different regions of the storm were sampled on 23 May, differences in
the variability in N(D), TWC, and Z influenced the distribution of
chi-square values in the (a,b) phase space and the specified tolerance in a
way that yielded 2.8 times fewer plausible solutions compared to the flight
legs on the other dates. These findings show the importance of representing
the variability in a,b coefficients for numerical modeling and remote
sensing studies, rather than assuming fixed values, as well as the need to
further explore how these surfaces depend on environmental conditions in
clouds containing ice hydrometeors.


The academic writing module for electrical engineering students, offered at the University of Bath, is the result of collaboration between the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering (EEE) and the English Language Centre (ELC) and is currently designed to deliver academic writing support to undergraduate students embarking on their engineering studies at Bath. The need for the course arose from subject tutor recognition of the studentsA¢â'¬â"¢ lack of awareness of the genre within which they were expected to write, suggesting that not only the subject content but also the expression of that content needed input and support. This paper presents details of the academic writing input provided by the University of Bath English Language Centre, the background to the module and ongoing development based on feedback from students, academic staff and EAP (English for Academic Purposes) tutors. Feedback indicates that the course succeeds in supporting students in their writing. The principal direction for future development lies in tailoring the course to fit the modular nature of studentsA¢â'¬â"¢ degrees, addressing issues connected to language proficiency and the nature of assessment.


: A 52-year-old man presented with a history of chronic lymphocytic leukemia and Kaposi's sarcoma. Three days after admission for clinical sepsis, yeast forms were noted within monocytes and neutrophils on a routine peripheral blood smear. Blood cultures yielded a pure culture of Candida parapsilosis. Despite antifungal therapy, the patient died 22 days after admission. This case represents the first reported instance of C parapsilosis sepsis diagnosed through a peripheral blood smear.


We extend our analysis on the Oldroyd-B model in Barrett and Boyaval [1] to consider the finite element approximation of the FENE-P system of equations, which models a dilute polymeric fluid, in a bounded domain $D ⊂ R d , d = 2 or 3$, subject to no flow boundary conditions. Our schemes are based on approximating the pressure and the symmetric conforma-tion tensor by either (a) piecewise constants or (b) continuous piecewise linears. In case (a) the velocity field is approximated by continuous piecewise quadratics ($d = 2$) or a reduced version, where the tangential component on each simplicial edge ($d = 2$) or face ($d = 3$) is linear. In case (b) the velocity field is approximated by continuous piecewise quadratics or the mini-element. We show that both of these types of schemes, based on the backward Euler type time discretiza-tion, satisfy a free energy bound, which involves the logarithm of both the conformation tensor and a linear function of its trace, without any constraint on the time step. Furthermore, for our approximation (b) in the presence of an additional dissipative term in the stress equation, the so-called FENE-P model with stress diffusion, we show (subsequence) convergence in the case $d = 2$, as the spatial and temporal discretization parameters tend to zero, towards global-in-time weak solutions of this FENE-P system. Hence, we prove existence of global-in-time weak solutions to the FENE-P model with stress diffusion in two spatial dimensions.


Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) and left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) commonly coexist; increasing morbidity and mortality among patients. The aim of this study is to detect the correlation between the glycemic status of patients presenting by acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and left ventricular global and regional systolic function.
Method: The study included 510 patients presenting by ACS and referred for coronary angiography. In addition to routine laboratory tests, Glycated hemoglobin (HbA1C) level, as a marker of chronic glycemic status, was measured. Every patient was subjected to transthoracic echocardiographic study with accurate evaluation of left ventricular systolic function by both m-mode and biplane Simpson's method, in addition to calculation of regional wall motion score index (RWMSI). The whole study population was divided into two groups; diabetic and non-diabetic based on cutoff point of HbA1C value 6.5%. The non-diabetic group was subdivided into two groups; high risk and low risk based on cutoff point of HbA1C value 5.7%
Results: Sixty four percent of the studied population had DM. The mean HbA1C level was 7.6 ± 2.2%. The mean left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) was 54 ± 11 and mean RWMSI was 1.3 ± 0.3. There was significant negative correlation between the HbA1C level and the LVEF (r = -0.101, p < 0.022). There was significant positive correlation between HbA1C level and RWMSI (r = 0.109, p < 0.014). The non-diabetic high risk group had lower LVEF and higher RWMSI than the low risk group (p < 0.041 and p < 0.002 respectively).
Conclusion: Chronic hyperglycemia in patients with uncontrolled DM may be a risk factor for developing LVSD in patients presenting by ACS. Glycated hemoglobin level may predict LVSD in patients with ACS. Non-diabetic patients who are at higher risk of developing DM have higher incidence of LVSD.


Abstract. The strong winds prevalent in high altitude and arctic environments heavily redistribute the snow cover, causing a small-scale pattern of highly variable snow depths. This has profound implications for the ground thermal regime, resulting in highly variable near-surface ground temperatures on the metre scale. Due to asymmetric snow distributions combined with the nonlinear insulating effect of snow, the spatial average ground temperature in a 1 km2 area cannot be determined based on the average snow cover for that area. Land surface or permafrost models employing a coarsely classified average snow depth will therefore not yield a realistic representation of ground temperatures. In this study we employ statistically derived snow distributions within 1 km2 grid cells as input to a regional permafrost model in order to represent sub-grid variability of ground temperatures. This improves the representation of both the average and the total range of ground temperatures. The model reproduces observed sub-grid ground temperature variations of up to 6 °C, and 98 % of borehole observations match the modelled temperature range. The mean modelled temperature of the grid cell reproduces the observations with an accuracy of 1.5 °C or better. The observed sub-grid variations in ground surface temperatures from two field sites are very well reproduced, with estimated fractions of sub-zero mean annual ground surface temperatures within p10 %. We also find that snow distributions within areas of 1 km2 in Norwegian mountain environments are closer to a gamma than to a lognormal theoretical distribution. The modelled permafrost distribution seems to be more sensitive to the choice of distribution function than to the fine-tuning of the coefficient of variation. When incorporating the small-scale variation of snow, the modelled total permafrost area of mainland Norway is nearly twice as large compared to the area obtained with grid-cell average snow depths without a sub-grid approach.


BACKGROUND: A major focus of neurodegeneration research involves the characterization of how the enzyme Cu, Zn superoxide dismutase is involved in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). Despite a wealth of structural and biochemical knowledge, the mechanism by which SOD mutations promote ALS remains controversial. METHODS: GENEMANIA software was used to highlight genetic interactions of SOD1. SOD1 was investigated in dbSNP/NCBI database in May 2015. SOD1 had of 2123 SNPs; 622 were identified in human, of which 29 were in the coding region, 8 were non-synonymous SNPs (nsSNPs), 22 were in the 3'un-translated region, and 75 SNPs at 5'un-translated region. Only nsSNPs and 3'UTR SNPs were selected for analysis. Predictions of deleterious nsSNPs was performed by SIFT and Polyphen softwares. The functional impact of the deleterious SNPS was analyzed by project hope. Chimera and project hope softwares were used to highlight the changes occurred as a result of the deleterious SNPs at level of protein 3D structure. The SNPS at 3UTR region were analyzed by Polymirt software. RESULTS : Genamania revealed possible role for SoD1 in epidermal cell growth through interaction with NME2 (MIM 156491) and NCOA3 (MIM 601937) genes. Two SNPs were found to be deleterious in both SIFT and Polyphen, whereas one SNP was found deleterious in SIFT and not Polyphen. The SNPs predicted to be deleterious in both SIFT and Polyphen are rs11556621 and rs11556620. They cause change from the amino acid in position 29 from proline to glutamine, and in amino acid number 87 from asparagine to serine respectively. Both SNPs affect an amino acid at the interpro domain named Superoxide dismutase, copper/zinc binding domain (IPR001424) whose function is metal ion binding. The SNP rs1804450 effect was found to be a controversial that involves a change in amino acid in position 40 from threonine to isoleucine. Although this residue is part of the Superoxide dismutase, copper/zinc binding domain (IPR001424), its site is not conserved. Eight SNPs predicted to induce disruption or creation of mirRNA binding site. CONCLUSION: SNPs that affect metal binding domain of superoxide dismutase are the main SNPs that significantly affect enzyme structure and function.


2003 AWRA (American Water Resources Association) Spring Specialty Conference Agricultural Hydrology and Water Quality Marriott Hotel, Kansas City, Missouri 12–14 May 2003 Hosted by The Agricultural Hydrology Technical Committee of the American Water Resources Association Contact: Ramesh Kanwar, Conference Chair, Professor and Chair Department of Agricultural and Biosystems Engineering, Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa The Third International Symposium on Water Resources in Karst and Hard Formations Esfahan, Iran Mid‐May 2003 First circular now published, abstracts are requested by the end of this year Details available from: The National Karst Study and Research Center, Tehran E‐mail: email@example.com Isotope Hydrology and Integrated Resources Management 40th Anniversary International Symposium Vienna, Austria 19–23 May 2003 P. K. Aggarwal Isotope Hydrology Section International Atomic Energy Agency Wagramer Strasse 5, P.O. Box 100, Vienna A‐1400, Austria Tel: +43 1 2600 21736 Fax: +43 1 26007 E‐mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Chapman Conference: Ecosystem Interactions with Land Use Change Sante Fe, New Mexico, USA 14–18 June 2003 Sponsor: AGU Contact: A Singer, AGU, 2000 Florida Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20009 USA Tel: +1 202 777 7340 Fax: +1 202 328 0566 E‐mail: firstname.lastname@example.com Website: www.agu.org/meetings/cc03acall.html Abstract deadline: 4 March 2003 AWRA 2003 International Water Congress: Watershed Management for Water Supply Systems Millenium Hotel, New York Broadway, New York 29 June ‐ 2 July 3003 Sponsor: AWRA American Water Resources Association The objective of this International Congress will be to consider technical, operational and educational research and management issues concerning water supply watersheds and ground water recharge areas. Call for papers: Deadline 22 November Contact: Peter E Black, Organizing Chair, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Syracuse, NY 13210 USA E‐mail: email@example.com or email@example.com Tel: +1 315 470 6571 MODSIM 2003 Townsville, Queensland, Australia 14–17 July 2003 Sponsors: Modelling and Simulation Society of Australia and New Zealand, CSIRO Land and Water, James Cook University Contact: D. Post, CSIRO Land and Water, PMB PO Aitkenvale, Townsville, Queensland, 4814 Australia Tel: +61‐7‐4753‐8605; Fax: +61‐7‐4753‐8650 Website: mssanz.cres.anu.edu.au/modsim2003.html E‐mail: firstname.lastname@example.com This meeting will cover a broad range of topics within the theme of integrative modelling of biophysical, social and economic systems for resource management solutions. These topics include water resources, oceanography, climate and the atomosphere global change, ecology, agriculture, forestry and fisheries socio‐economic systems, demography, business and tourism econometrics, economics, statistics, risk and uncertainty information systems, decision analysis and computing industrial, mining and operation research, medical research, public health and epidemiology, and general aspects of modelling and simulation. The XVI INQUA Congress Reno Hilton Resort & Conference Center, Reno, Nevada USA 23–30 July 2003 Held every four years, the INQUA Congress is the largest gathering of scientists studying the Quaternary period, the last 2.6 million years of Earth's history. The theme for this Congress is "Shaping the Earth: A Quaternary Perspective." A printable Congress Poster is available to download in PDF format. Please feel free to print this flier and post it in your organization. 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INFO: Jiri Krasny E‐mail: email@example.com Web: http://www.natur.cuni.cz/gwfr2003 Download INFO Update Modflow and More 2003: Understanding through Modeling Golden, CO, USA 17–19 September 2003 Abstracts due: 20 April 2003 Notification of Acceptance: 20 May 2003 Manuscripts due: 20 July 2003 Ice‐Breaker Evening: 16 September 2003 Organisers: IGWMC Tel: 303/273 3103 Fax: 303/384 2037 E‐mail: firstname.lastname@example.com 2003 IAH‐CNC/CGS Conference Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada The 4th annual IAH‐CNC/CGS Groundwater Speciality Conference will be held in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada from Sept 29–Oct 1, 2003. Speciality sessions will be held on Groundwater Management and Protection, Radioactive Waste Management and Prairie Hydrogeology. The Geological Society of America, Annual Conference 2003 Washington State Convention and Trade Centre, Seattle, Washington, USA 2–5 November 2003 Contact: Seattle Technical Program Chair, Dave Bush E‐mail: firstname.lastname@example.com AGU (American Geophysical Union) 2003 Fall Meeting San Francisco, California, USA 8–12 December 2003 Sponsor: AGU Contact: E Terry, AGU Meetings Department, 2000 Florida Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20009, USA Tel: +1 202 777 7335 Fax: +1 202 328 0566 E‐mail: email@example.com or email@example.com Website: www.agu.org/meetings AGI 2004 Ocean Sciences Meeting Portland, Oregon, USA 26–30 January 2004 Sponsor: AGU Contact: A Singer, AGU, 2000 Florida Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20009, USA Tel: +1 202 777 7340 Fax: +1 202 328 0566 E‐mail: email@example.com Website: agu.org/meetings/


The AML1/ETO protein derived from the t(8;21) translocation retains the DNA binding domain of AML1, the runt homology domain (RHD), and nearly the complete ETO protein with its four nervy homology regions (NHR1-4). To analyze which domains of AML1/ETO are responsible for its intranuclear transport and its subnuclear distribution, AML1/ETO deletion constructs tagged with green fluorescence protein were expressed transiently in 293 cells. The subcellular distribution was analyzed by confocal laser scanning microscopy. The nuclear localization signal (NLS) of AML1/ETO was mapped to a region encoded by the carboxy-terminal part of NHR1 and the sequences following up to NHR2 corresponding to the amino acids 304-489 of the AML1/ETO protein. A speckled subnuclear distribution was found with those constructs containing the NHR2 and/or the NHR3 and NHR4 domains. Co-localization with AML1/ETO was complete with constructs containing the NHR2 domain, indicating that NHR2 has a crucial role in the subnuclear distribution of AML1/ETO. Co-localization with AML1 seems to be supported by RHD, whereas the NHR3 and NHR4 regions possibly counterbalance this effect. Finally, AML1/ETO could not be co-localized with PML and SUMO-1, indicating that AML1/ETO is not part of the nuclear bodies and probably not SUMOylated.


Key term: Sociolinguistics, Language Variation, Buyer, Seller, Kliwon Market.

In society the primary of means for communication is language. Because between language and society has relation. It means that language and society cannot be separated. Each society has a special characteristic of different language. The certain characteristics of differences from one group to another group are showed by using language to communicate in the society.
The buyers and sellers in Kliwon market are the members of speech community who have their own language style in communicating to one another. They have some special words to make the communication simple and easy.
This study focuses on Javanese dialect used by buyers and sellers at Kliwon market and the context of social. The descriptive qualitative is used to support this study. The writer takes informants as the source data to show what the special words being used among them. To get the data, the writer does the observation and informal interview. Then, classifying them in certain situation and the social context of each expression began the analysis.
Some related literatures are used in this research. They are for underlying the opinion of the writer. Without the endorsement from the opinion from those literatures, this research means nothing for everyone.
The result of this research concludes some question and purpose of this research. It concludes that there are many special words used by buyers and sellers in Kliwon market. Such as: Itawa, Pe ek, Jowo jawi, Semental and Lemosin.
There are some reasons that make buyers and sellers at Kliwon market used these words. Actually, the reason is order to make the conversation in their communication runs well and easy. It also makes the communication has practical purpose among one another. By using these words, they are more familiar in communicating to one another that have the same knowledge about goat and cow.
From the result of this research, it is concluded that the language used by buyers and sellers at Kliwon market is one of the speech communities whose special words in their communication. Even though, they usually use the some of the same words and expression in daily communication means that in outside of market activities. However, those words have certain meanings according to the buyers and sellers at Kliwon market. Those words are used to create a familiarity.


In our study, we undertake a relative efficiency analysis of hospitals providing inpatient care, which play a key role in the Hungarian health care system. According to the Competitiveness Report 2020 of the Hungarian National Bank, the Hungarian health care system has a number of reserves, and the sustainability of the system can be improved by using these reserves. In the 2015-2019 period, particular attention has been paid to the identification of achievable and meaningful indicators in the sector under review. The relative effectiveness analysis (DEA) method can be used to address this challenge. The units of our analysis are state-owned institutions in Hungary, typologised by the total number of beds. General profile hospitals with a bed count between 600 and 1200 beds were included in the analysis. The results of running the programme have clearly shown that there are some institutions that do not operate as efficiently as the majority of the organisations included in the study, but further research and refinement of the indicators is needed to determine the practical application of the pilot studies.


Abstract : The rapidly expanding fields of digital control and advanced power electronic circuitry enable researchers and designers to investigate novel approaches of providing shipboard service power requirements. The Shipboard More-Electric concept is based on using high efficiency DC-DC PWM converter modules in place of existing low efficiency high maintenance power distribution systems in the future generation Navy combatant design. This thesis describes the design and implementation of a reduced-order model of a Primary Ship Service Converter Module (PSSCM). Using the Advanced Continuous Simulation Language (ACSL), the PSSCM is simulated to predict performance and stability. Various voltage sources, loads and controllers are studied to ensure the suitability and reliability of the system.


Scholars have debated Pope Pius XII's role in the Holocaust since the 1960s. Did he do everything he could and should have done to save Jews? His critics say no because of antisemitism rooted in the traditional Catholic views. His defenders say yes and deny that he was an antisemite. In my thesis, I shall assess the arguments on both sides in terms of the available evidence. I shall focus both on what Pius XII did do and what he did not do and on the degree to which he can be held responsible for the actions of low-level clergy. Some Catholic clergy helped Jews survive the Holocaust while others helped Nazis escape to South America after the defeat of the Third Reich. The very notion of "evidence" will be of central importance in my thesis. To what extent can we compare the use of evidence by scholars (especially historians) to the use of evidence by lawyers in a courtroom. Bearing in mind important differences, including higher burden of proof for court conviction, I shall construct my thesis in a trial format with arguments by the defense and prosecution. I shall show how facts can be interpreted very differently depending upon their context. That said, I will argue that the evidence suggests that Pope Pius XII, while not "Hitler's Pope" as John Cornwell alleged, did not do all he could have to save Jews and that antisemitism does appear to have been among the reasons for this.


A new system for the detection and continuous monitoring of GPS signal anomalies is presented. The anomaly detection system is based on the High Rate Tracking Receiver (HRTR) software-defined radio (SDR) receiver platform, which provides a multi-channel tracking capability for all civil GPS signals on the L1, L2 and L5 frequencies. The current focus of the system is for detection of excursions in the carrier phase transmitted by GPS satellites. High rate post-correlation and tracking data from the HRTR are combined to detect carrier phase variations at a rate of up to 1 kHz. This data is used to calculate a metric based upon the Modified Allan Variance to detect step-like carrier phase anomalies typical of GPS satellite transmissions. Upon detection, information about the anomaly is recorded and ultimately archived in a database, which can be used for long-term analysis of anomaly behavior; additionally a short sample of raw data is recorded for each anomaly to aid post-analysis. The design of the anomaly detection system as well as the detection processing approach are described. Results from one year of operation of the system are presented. This includes summary statistics of anomaly behavior across the GPS constellation as well as multiple examples of detected anomalies. Results and discussion are also provided regarding the impact of these anomalies on traditional GPS receivers.


Concurrent Big Data applications often require high-performance storage, as well as ACID (Atomicity, Consistency, Isolation, Durability) transaction support. Although blobs (binary large objects) are an increasingly popular storage model for such applications, state-of-the-art blob storage systems offer no transaction semantics. This demands users to coordinate data access carefully in order to avoid race conditions, inconsistent writes, overwrites and other problems that cause erratic behavior. We argue there is a gap between existing storage solutions and application requirements, which limits the design of transactionoriented applications. We introduce T?yr, the first blob storage system to provide built-in, multiblob transactions, while retaining sequential consistency and high throughput under heavy access concurrency. T?yr offers fine-grained random write access to data and in-place atomic operations. Large-scale experiments with a production application from CERN LHC show T?yr throughput outperforming state-of-the-art solutions by more than 75%.


[reaction: see text] A convergent strategy for synthesizing long contiguous PNA by a native chemical ligation-like technique of PNA segment couplings is presented. This approach required the synthesis of a new PNA-monomer featuring a 1-amino-2-thiol group. It is shown that the additional mercaptomethyl group leaves the hybridization properties of PNA ligation products unaffected. Furthermore, rapid and efficient fluorescence labeling of the ligation products is demonstrated.


The anisotropy of tensile properties and charpy impact fracture toughness and its relationship with UOE pipe forming has been study on X80 micro alloy steel. All samples selected from 90º and 180º of pipes in transverse and longitudinal orientations after UOE forming. The steel was supplied as a hot rolled plate with accelerated cooling. Microstructure of the micro alloy steel was various combinations of acicular ferrite, granular ferrite and M/A phases. Charpy impact fracture toughness tests were carried out in -50 °C to 0 °C. Minimum and maximum yield strength appears in the 180º and 90º of pipe in longitudinal and transverse orientations respectively. Increasing in the yield strength related to minimum amount was about 5.8 % after UOE forming. Comparison between yield strength after and before forming appears increased about 6.9 % due to forming. With decreasing in the test temperature from -50 °C to 0 °C, fracture energy decrease up to 0.9 % that it's very little and relinquishment. However for samples that fractured in the temperature of -50 °C difference between highest and lowest energy was about 5.9 %. Charpy test results appear that fine M/A phase not a major factor on decrease of upper shelf energy, if homogenize distributed in the acicular ferrite matrix.


Background Antiplatelet use is common during endovascular treatment of cerebral aneurysms as it prevents thromboembolic complications. P2Y12 receptor antagonist, Clopidogrel, as well as cyclooxygenase inhibitor, aspirin are used in combination for patients undergoing stent coiling or flow diversion. Periprocedural hemorrhage with the use of dual antiplatelets continues to be of significant concern and is reported to occur in 2–24% of patients undergoing endovascular occlusion of cerebral aneurysms. We have utilized dual antiplatelets (aspirin and clopidogrel) for all patients undergoing endovascular treatment of unruptured cerebral aneurysms. We aim to report the rate of periprocedural hemorrhage for patients undergoing endovascular treatment of unruptured aneurysms and its relation to platelet function analysis based upon aspirin and clopidogrel (P2Y12) assays performed preoperatively. Methods We conducted a retrospective review of patients who underwent elective intracranial aneurysm coiling between January 2005 and August 2014. These patients were either placed on dual antiplatelet agents for 6 months in instances where stents were used or the clopidogrel was discontinued postoperatively and the aspirin continued indefinitely in cases of uneventful coil embolization. The primary outcome of interest was the occurrence of a clinically significant hemorrhagic event from the periprocedural time period up to 6 months post treatment. We also evaluated other risk factors which contributed to hemorrhagic complications in our population including the role of super therapeutic (aspirin VerifyNow 50%) platelet inhibition as measured with VerifyNow assays. Results During the study period, 412 patients underwent elective aneurysm coiling and had been placed on dual antiplatelets. Among this population, 24 (2%) systemic hemorrhage events and 5 (1%) CNS hemorrhage events occurred. Super therapeutic platelet inhibition was present in 8 of the 24 patients with systemic hemorrhages and 2 of the 5 patients with central nervous system (CNS) hemorrhages (p = 0.68). Nine (2.2%) patients were identified as clopidogrel non responders and placed on prasugrel. Of these 9 patients one presented with systemic hemorrhage. In the 148 patients who had dual antiplatelet therapy continued for 6 months after placement of a stent, 10 patients had systemic hemorrhage events and 4 had CNS hemorrhage events. All five patients with CNS hemorrhage had a decline in clinical functioning with 2 patients at mRS 2 and three patients were deceased (mRS 6). Conclusions Use of dual antiplatelets did not lead to a high incidence of hemorrhages and hemorrhagic complications were not related to super therapeutic platelet inhibition. Those patients with CNS hemorrhagic complications did have significant decline in clinical functioning. Disclosures R. Shastri: None. A. Pandey: None. T. Wilson: None. W. Stetler: None. D. Giles: None. M. Davis: None. N. Chaudhary: None. J. Gemmete: None. B. Thompson: None.