Advanced Placement (AP) Studio Art is an influential force in secondary art education as is evident in the 31,800 portfolios submitted for review in 2008 (A. Sims-Gunzenhauser, personal communication, August 11, 2008). From the perspectives of a high school educator and AP Reader, I have observed how the constraints of the AP program can be used to generate support for high school art programs and opportunities for large numbers of students to be seriously engaged with art learning. The AP portfolio can function as an "enabling constraint" for secondary art education. An enabling constraint creates structure and coherence by constraining a domain while simultaneously engendering unanticipated, imaginative, and divergent outcomes or responses (Davis, Sumara, & Luce- Kapler, 2008). The AP Studio Art program also shapes student artmaking, primarily through the constraints of the portfolio assessment. The character of these constraints and whether they enable desirable outcomes are worth considering in the context of recurring questions about what constitutes foundational knowledge in studio art.The AP program can be an effective means to advocate for high school art programs because AP participation is highly valued by parents, school leaders, and colleges (Freedman & Krugman, 2001). Although the degree to which colleges accept AP courses for credit or advanced placement varies, participation in AP courses is viewed favorably by colleges and successful performance in AP courses correlates positively with success in college courses (Dougherty, Mellor, & Jian, 2005; Geiser & Santelices, 2004). The College Board has established educational policies that support high school art teachers, equitable access to its programs, collaboration among college and secondary faculty, and curricula that are analogous with some college foundation courses.Although certain schools reserve advanced art classes for an elite handful of students, I have observed many other schools that extend the program to a wide and diverse range of students. These schools recruit students who might not otherwise enroll in AP courses by reducing enrollment barriers and preparing students within a broad array of courses prior to their junior or senior years. This is consistent with the College Board's policy of open access to AP courses (Freedman & Krugman, 2001). While equitable access remains a challenge, initiatives such as College Board start up grants designed to give traditionally underrepresented students access to AP courses have successfully involved significantly more students in the program (College Board, 2008). In the schools where I have worked, active recruitment, open enrollment, and expansion of the program to include photography and digital media encouraged many more students to enroll in AP Studio Art. The enormous variety of skill, experience, and content that is evident in the portfolios at the annual AP Reading supports the inference that students with a broad range of art experience are participating in the program.However, a large-scale assessment such as the AP portfolio runs the risk of breaking down the complex relationships among process, context, and culture into discrete and formalist parts, particularly when the evaluation focuses on the artifacts of student production taken out of context (Boughton, 2004). Springgay (2006) argued that authentic assessment is impossible without considering curriculum, teaching, and assessment as part of an inseparable relational dynamic. Can an evaluation that removes artistic production from the context of its creation properly support the complexities of artistic practice and ways of knowing? The AP portfolio requirements enable the art teacher to develop a curriculum of relatively unstructured tasks that encompass a wide variety of media and conceptual approaches, allowing students freedom in solving each section of the portfolio. The concentration section of the portfolio, in particular, emphasizes individual investigation of ideas and relationships between form and meaning. …


K-Ras is a frequently mutated oncogene in human malignancies, and the development of inhibitors targeting various oncogenic K-Ras mutant proteins is a major challenge in targeted cancer therapy, especially K-Ras(G12C) is the most common mutant, which occurs in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), colorectal cancer (CRC) and other highly prevalent malignancies. In recent years, significant progress has been made in developing small molecule covalent inhibitors targeting K-Ras(G12C), thanks to the production of nucleophilic cysteine by the G12C mutant, breaking the "spell" that K-Ras protein cannot be used as a drug target. With the successful launch of sotorasib and adagrasib, the development of small molecule inhibitors targeting various K-Ras mutants has continued to gain momentum. In recent years, with the popularization of highly sensitive surface plasmon resonance (SPR) technology, fragment-based drug design strategies have shown great potential in the development of small molecule inhibitors targeting K-Ras(G12C), but with the increasing number of clinically reported acquired drug resistance, addressing inhibitor resistance has gradually become the focus of this field, indirectly indicating that such small molecule inhibitors still the potential for the development of these small molecule inhibitors are also indirectly indicated. This paper traces the development of small molecule covalent inhibitors targeting K-Ras(G12C), highlighting and analyzing the structural evolution and optimization process of each series of inhibitors and the previous inhibitor design methods and strategies, as well as their common problems and general solutions, in order to provide inspiration and help to the subsequent researchers.


Flow in a differentially heated two dimensional rectangular cavity, partitioned in the centre by an infinitely conducting vertical wall, has been examined with numerical simulations over Rayleigh numbers around $10^{10}$ at Prandtl number $7.5$. The configuration is an idealised version of a flow which occurs commonly in engineering settings and is of fundamental importance. Heat is transferred between both sides of the cavity through the conducting wall with natural convection boundary layers forming on all vertical surfaces. We show for the first time that the flow becomes oscillatory above Rayleigh number $1.2\times 10^{10}$ for cavity height to width ratio of two, and above Rayleigh number $1.4\times 10^{10}$ for cavity height to width ratio of one. The results indicate that the instability is a convective boundary layer instability which becomes absolutely unstable as a result of the thermal coupling across the partition wall.

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In this paper we present a 2D/3D high order accurate finite volume scheme in the context of direct Arbitrary-Lagrangian-Eulerian algorithms for general hyperbolic systems of partial differential equations with non-conservative products and stiff source terms. This scheme is constructed with a single stencil polynomial reconstruction operator, a one-step space-time ADER integration which is suitably designed for dealing even with stiff sources, a nodal solver with relaxation to determine the mesh motion, a path-conservative integration technique for the treatment of non-conservative products and an a posteriori stabilization procedure derived from the so-called Multidimensional Optimal Order Detection (MOOD) paradigm. In this work we consider the seven equation Baer-Nunziato model of compressible multi-phase flows as a representative model involving non-conservative products as well as relaxation source terms which are allowed to become stiff. The new scheme is validated against a set of test cases on 2D/3D unstructured moving meshes on parallel machines and the high order of accuracy achieved by the method is demonstrated by performing a numerical convergence study. Classical Riemann problems and explosion problems with exact solutions are simulated in 2D and 3D. The overall numerical code is also profiled to provide an estimate of the computational cost required by each component of the whole algorithm.


In this study, the author examines the development of Michio Namekawa's philosophy on reading guidance, dokusho shido, which has been since the late 1940s one of the two pillars of school library philosophy in Japan. Namekawa is recognized as one of the key persons to cultivate the practice and philosophy of reading guidance in post-war Japan. To conduct the research, the author collects and examines all of Namekawa's historical documents from the pre- to early post- WWII periods, when he developed his theory of reading guidance. The author finds that Namekawa's philosophy can partially be traced back to the war period at which time a children's cultural improvement movement occurred. Then, under the occupation after the war, the CIE Education Division led Namekawa to shape his philosophy and curriculum more concretely. Around 1949, he found important components of the concept of integrating reading guidance into a students' personal life-Guidance, which Namekawa maintained  throughout the post-war period.


A study of ready-to-eat pre-cut fruit, sprouted seeds, and unpasteurised fruit and vegetable juices from retail and production premises was undertaken in the UK to determine the microbiological quality of these products, and to verify the application of hazard analysis and critical control points (HACCP) procedures by food operators. Almost all (99%; 2,075/2,096) samples were of satisfactory/acceptable microbiological quality. Two (0.1%) samples (melon, beansprouts) were of unacceptable quality due to the presence of Listeria monocytogenes at 102 cfu/g or more while a further 19 (0.9%) were unsatisfactory due to Escherichia coli levels in the range of 102 to 106 cfu/g. Neither Salmonella spp. nor E. coli O157 were detected in samples examined. A hazard analysis system was in place in most (85%) premises visited, and in 80% it was documented. Most managers (83%) had received some form of food hygiene training. Minimally processed produce is exposed to a range of conditions during production and distribution, and this may increase the potential for microbial contamination, highlighting the need of applying good hygiene practices from farm to fork to prevent contamination and/or bacterial growth. Such products should be stored and displayed at or below 8 degrees C.


The transient impulse features caused by rolling bearing faults are often present in the resonance frequency band which is closely related to the dynamic characteristics of the machine structure. Informative frequency band identification is a crucial prerequisite for envelope analysis and thereby accurate fault diagnosis of rolling bearings. In this paper, based on the ratio of quasi-arithmetic means and Gini index, improved Gini indices (IGIs) are proposed to quantify the transient impulse features of a signal, and their effectiveness and advantages in sparse quantification are confirmed by simulation analysis and comparisons with traditional sparsity measures. Furthermore, an IGI-based envelope analysis method named IGIgram is developed for fault diagnosis of rolling bearings. In the new method, an IGI-based indicator is constructed to evaluate the impulsiveness and cyclostationarity of the narrow-band filtered signal simultaneously, and then a frequency band with abundant fault information is adaptively determined for extracting bearing fault features. The performance of the IGIgram method is verified on the simulation signal and railway bearing experimental signals and compared with typical sparsity measures-based envelope analysis methods and log-cycligram. The results demonstrate that the proposed IGIs are efficient in quantifying bearing fault-induced transient features and the IGIgram method with appropriate power exponent can effectively achieve the diagnostics of different axle-box bearing faults.


The Graphical User Interface (GUI) has created an efficient work environment for many applications. However, when users are confined by keyboards and mice, they lose the ability to interact with the virtual world using habits from the real world. Our research examine how emerging modes of authorship, such as wikis, can be used to generate new possibilities for bringing atoms and bits together for digital annotation. Our goal is to combine the everyday habits in reading books with emerging digital possibilities.
 In this paper, we present a prototype system called WikiTUI, which brings digital media to physical paper books. This system allows readers to access the digital world through fingertip interactions on books, and enables them to share information with other readers using wiki technology. WikiTUI not only bridges the gap between the digital and the physical worlds, but also facilitates multiple contributions to a reference base spanning across these worlds. We present user evaluations of the WikiTUI prototype and discuss research implications.


In two experiments we examined the effects of human contact and vagal regulation on newborns' pain reactivity and visual attention. Baseline cardiac vagal tone was measured during quiet sleep and during the experiment, and vagal withdrawal was indexed as change in vagal tone from baseline to pain (study 1) or attention (study 2). In study 1, 62 healthy newborns were videotaped during a heel-prick procedure and pain reactivity was assessed from micro-level coding of facial expressions, cry behavior, and body movements. Infants were randomly assigned to a contact condition, held by a female assistant, or a no contact condition, on an infant-seat in a similar angle. In study 2, 62 additional healthy newborns, randomly assigned to contact and noncontact conditions, were presented with 2 visual stimuli for a 60 s familiarization period, which were then paired with a novel stimulus. Visual interest, alertness, and novelty preference were coded. Human contact had no effect on the newborns' pain response. Visual attention increased with human contact and newborns in the contact condition looked at the stimuli more frequently, with higher alertness, for longer durations, and had a higher novelty preference. Autonomic reactivity-as indexed by vagal withdrawal-differentiated newborns with intense and mild pain response. Discussion focused on proximity to conspecifics as a contributor to emerging regulatory and adaptive functioning in the human infant.


Working memory training improves performance on trained and untrained working memory tasks, but there is little consistent evidence that these gains benefit everyday tasks that rely on working memory. Evidence has shown that transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) may be an effective tool for enhancing cognitive training and promoting transfer. In the first study, participants completed Cogmed working memory training with either active or sham transcranial random noise stimulation (tRNS). Training was associated with substantial gains on the training activities and on transfer measures of working memory with common processing and storage demands to the training tasks. tRNS did not enhance gains on trained or untrained activities. The second study systematically investigated the boundary conditions to training transfer by testing whether gains following backward digit recall (BDR) training transferred withinand across-paradigm to untrained backward recall and n-back tasks with varying degrees of overlap with the training activity. A further aim was to test whether transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) enhanced training and transfer. Participants were allocated to one of three conditions: (i) BDR training with active tDCS, (ii) BDR training with sham tDCS, or (iii) visual search control training with sham tDCS. The results indicated that training transfer is constrained by paradigm, but not by stimulus domain or stimulus materials. There was no evidence that tDCS enhanced performance on the training or transfer tasks. The results of Study 1 and Study 2 provide no evidence that tES enhances the benefits of working memory training. The absence of transfer between backward recall training and n-back in Study 2 suggested the tasks might tap into distinct aspects of working memory. Consequently, the final study used a latent variable approach to explore the degree of overlap between different forms of backward recall and n-back tasks containing digits, letters, or spatial locations as stimuli. The best-fitting factor model included two distinct but related (r = .68) constructs corresponding to backward recall and n-back. Both categories of task were linked to a separate fluid reasoning construct, providing evidence that both are valid measures of higher-order complex cognition. Overall, the experiments in this thesis suggest that working memory tasks tap into separate processes and that training may be targeting and improving these distinct processes, explaining the absence of cross-paradigm transfer.


There is great attention to develop hardware accelerator with better energy efficiency, as well as throughput, than GPUs for convolutional neural network (CNN). The existing solutions have relatively limited parallelism as well as large power consumption (including leakage power). In this paper, we present a resistive random access memory (ReRAM)-accelerated CNN that can achieve significantly higher throughput and energy efficiency when the CNN is trained with binary constraints on both weights and activations, and is further mapped on a digital ReRAM-crossbar. We propose an optimized accelerator architecture tailored for bitwise convolution that features massive parallelism with high energy efficiency. Numerical experiment results show that the binary CNN accelerator on a digital ReRAM-crossbar achieves a peak throughput of 792 GOPS at the power consumption of 4.5 mW, which is 1.61 times faster and 296 times more energy-efficient than a high-end GPU.


The wave of poliomyelitis which swept over the United States last summer helped to clear up some obscure and disputed points in its epidemiology. From the standpoint of preventive medicine, a knowledge of the mode of contact, transmission and communicability is essential in order to control the spread of disease. The material on which this paper is based was obtained from a study of 4,186 cases reported to the New York State Department of Health from June to December, 1916. This does not include the cases occurring in the city of New York. The age incidence in the state differed somewhat from that in the city, as 55 per cent. of the cases occurred in children under 5 years of age, as compared with 90 per cent. in New York City. Poliomyelitis was almost entirely a disease of childhood in the city of New York, where there were only 1.7


Most of the water pipe infrastructure is outdated; therefore, frequent maintenance and repair works are required. To speed up the rehabilitation work and to have a more sustainable and efficient approach, trenchless methodologies have been developed in the last decades. One of the most cost-effective trenchless methods is the so-called Cured in Place Pipeline (CIPP) method, in which a resin-impregnated liner is pulled or inverted inside the host pipe and, when cured, it restores the old pipe structural and mechanical integrity. The aim of this study is to analyse the effects of the presence of a CIPP liner in a deteriorated pipe during unsteady flow for compressible fluids. In particular, the paper deals with a new formulation to compute the celerity of the wave which produces the overpressures, when the pipe wall is composed of both the host (old) pipe and the new liner, whose thickness depends on the required mechanical characteristics. The problem is strictly dependent on the mechanical properties of the liner. In order to obtain the new formula for celerity, the linear elastic problem for multi-layered pipes has been solved. The theoretical results have been validated by performing numerical simulation analysis using a Boundary Element model, with the software BEASYTM. The resulting circumferential strain is integrated in the continuity equation, deriving the new formula to compute the wave celerity. The values of the celerity are dependent on the thickness and on the elastic properties of the liner. The behaviour of several combinations of thickness of the liner and Young's modulus values has been studied and the results have been critically shown in the paper.


We present an unsupervised technique for visual target modeling which is based on density estimation in high-dimensional spaces using an eigenspace decomposition. A computationally efficient and optimal estimator for a multivariate Gaussian distribution is derived. This density estimate is then used to formulate a maximum likelihood estimation framework for visual search and target detection. Our learning technique is applied to the probabilistic visual modeling and subsequent detection of facial features and is shown to be superior to matched filtering.


In the last decade, Answer Set Programming (ASP) and Satisfiability (SAT) have been used to solve combinatorial search problems and practical applications in which they arise. In each of these formalisms, a tool called a solver is used to solve problems. A solver takes as input a specification of the problem – a logic program in the case of ASP, and a CNF theory for SAT – and produces as output a solution to the problem. Designing fast solvers is important for the success of this general-purpose approach to solving search problems. Classes of instances that pose challenges to solvers can help in this task.
In this dissertation we create challenging yet simple benchmarks for existing solvers in ASP and SAT. We do so by providing models of simple logic programs as well as models of simple CNF theories. We then randomly generate logic programs as well as CNF theories from these models. Our experimental results show that computing answer sets of random logic programs as well as models of random CNF theories with carefully chosen parameters is hard for existing solvers.
We generate random logic programs with 2-literals, and our experiments show that it is hard for ASP solvers to obtain answer sets of purely negative and constraint-free programs, indicating the importance of these programs in the development of ASP solvers. An easy-hard-easy pattern emerges as we compute the average number of choice points generated by ASP solvers on randomly generated 2-literal programs with an increasing number of rules. We provide an explanation for the emergence of this pattern in these programs. We also theoretically study the probability of existence of an answer set for sparse and dense 2-literal programs.
We consider simple classes of mixed Horn formulas with purely positive 2- literal clauses and purely negated Horn clauses. First we consider a class of mixed Horn formulas wherein each formula has m 2-literal clauses and k-literal negated Horn clauses. We show that formulas that are generated from the phase transition region of this class are hard for complete SAT solvers. The second class of Mixed Horn Formulas we consider are obtained from completion of a certain class of random logic programs. We show the appearance of an easy-hard-easy pattern as we generate formulas from this class with increasing numbers of clauses, and that the formulas generated in the hard region can be used as benchmarks for testing incomplete SAT solvers.


Sesame Creditis the gamified Chinese social credit. It aims at monitoring and controlling the behavior of more than a billion citizens until 2020. Basing itself on the distribution of rewards and punishments to individuals, upon scoring based on the compliance of the aforementioned citizens towards laws and government interests. The present study probes Sesame Credit from data collected from academic papers, Chinese government official documents, as well as media articles.An interpretative analysis is conducted based on the Octalysismethod of gamification and the motivational method known as the Self-Determination Theory. Residing as main conclusions: a) the efficiency of the Sesame Credit depends on extensive and continual monitoring of the population by the Chinese government; b) despite the coercive aspects, such gamification is observed to be as popular in China, due to a millenary tradition of people's compliance to the social and those of authority obedience


The dimensionless universal coefficient ξ defines the ratio of the unitary fermions energy density to that for the ideal non-interacting ones in the non-relativistic limit with T = 0. The classical Thomson problem is taken as a nonperturbative quantum many-body arm to address the ground state energy including the low energy nonlinear quantum fluctuation/correlation effects. With the relativistic Dirac continuum field theory formalism, the concise expression for the energy density functional of the strongly interacting limit fermions at both finite temperature and density is obtained. Analytically, the universal factor is calculated to be ξ = 4/9. The energy gap is Δ = (5/18)kf2/(2m).


This paper discusses the potential for lenders' capital requirements to be used as 'automatic stabilisers' of the business cycle in New Zealand. The procyclicality of lending, and its importance for cyclical developments, motivates the consideration of regulation of lending for cycle-stabilisation purposes. This application of lenders' capital requirements is distinct from, but complements, the prudential reasons for capital adequacy requirements. I set out a putative capital requirement on housing lending intended to have cycle-stabilising properties. I explore the likely degree of cycle stabilisation that could be expected from feasible calibrations of such a requirement. I conclude that the putative cycle-stabilising capital requirement might have some impact on the cycle at the margin, and that this impact is most likely on the downside of cycles. However, the highlydeveloped and open nature of New Zealand's housing lending markets is likely to limit the degree of cycle stabilisation that can be achieved with this approach.


Background: Accumulating evidence has revealed that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients may be complicated with myocardial injury during hospitalization. However, data regarding persistent cardiac involvement in patients who recovered from COVID-19 are limited. Our goal is to further explore the sustained impact of COVID-19 during follow-up, focusing on the cardiac involvement in the recovered patients. Methods: In this prospective observational follow-up study, we enrolled a total of 40 COVID-19 patients (20 with and 20 without cardiac injury during hospitalization) who were discharged from Zhongnan Hospital of Wuhan University for more than 6 months, and 27 patients (13 with and 14 without cardiac injury during hospitalization) were finally included in the analysis. Clinical information including self-reported symptoms, medications, laboratory findings, Short Form 36-item scores, 6-min walk test, clinical events, electrocardiogram assessment, echocardiography measurement, and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging was collected and analyzed. Results: Among 27 patients finally included, none of patients reported any obvious cardiopulmonary symptoms at the 6-month follow-up. There were no statistically significant differences in terms of the quality of life and exercise capacity between the patients with and without cardiac injury. No significant abnormalities were detected in electrocardiogram manifestations in both groups, except for nonspecific ST-T changes, premature beats, sinus tachycardia/bradycardia, PR interval prolongation, and bundle-branch block. All patients showed normal cardiac structure and function, without any statistical differences between patients with and without cardiac injury by echocardiography. Compared with patients without cardiac injury, patients with cardiac injury exhibited a significantly higher positive proportion in late gadolinium enhancement sequences [7/13 (53.8%) vs. 1/14 (7.1%), p = 0.013], accompanied by the elevation of circulating ST2 level [median (interquartile range) = 16.6 (12.1, 22.5) vs. 12.5 (9.5, 16.7); p = 0.044]. Patients with cardiac injury presented higher levels of aspartate aminotransferase, creatinine, high-sensitivity troponin I, lactate dehydrogenase, and N-terminal pro–B-type natriuretic peptide than those without cardiac injury, although these indexes were within the normal range for all recovered patients at the 6-month follow-up. Among patients with cardiac injury, patients with positive late gadolinium enhancement presented higher cardiac biomarker (high-sensitivity troponin I) and inflammatory factor (high-sensitivity C-reactive protein) on admission than the late gadolinium enhancement–negative subgroup. Conclusions: Our preliminary 6-month follow-up study with a limited number of patients revealed persistent cardiac involvement in 29.6% (8/27) of recovered patients from COVID-19 after discharge. Patients with cardiac injury during hospitalization were more prone to develop cardiac fibrosis during their recovery. Among patients with cardiac injury, those with relatively higher cardiac biomarkers and inflammatory factors on admission appeared more likely to have cardiac involvement in the convalescence phase.


Dynamic cerebral studies were carried out in 21 patients with cerebral abnormalities. Thirteen had tumours and eight showed vascular abnormalities. In most cases the diagnosis was confirmed by histology, but occasionally by angiography or by computed tomography and the clinical course. Dynamic cerebral studies were performed, involving the production of concentration-time curves following bolus injection of ordinary contrast medium. The type of contrast enhancement gave a better indication of the nature of the lesion. The method can be used together with the more common type of investigations, such as plain scans and contrast scans. The small number of patients requires further studies with larger numbers; for this a multi-centric study would be suitable.


On January 16, 2016, China officially opened the Asia Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) for business, representing what might be a seismic shift in economic power from the United States to China and the culmination of what had been a diplomatic disaster for the United States. The AIIB creates a challenge to the U.S. dominated World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF), two venerable international financial institutions created at the end of the Second World War. The World Bank lends money to developing countries to promote infrastructure and economic development, but these loans come with conditions called the Washington Consensus. The United States uses the Washington Consensus to promote its policies throughout the developing world. These policies are designed to promote the use of private markets, protect the environment, protect human and workers' rights, and foster non-corruption in government, among other values. While the United States dominates both the World Bank and IMF, the United States also limits China to a minor role in these institutions, even though China has the world's second largest economy. Efforts to increase China's role in the IMF were blocked by the United States, which has also excluded China from the negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a vast free trade agreement covering most of Asia. Faced with this shoddy treatment by the United States, China created the AIIB as an alternative bank in which China will play a dominant role in international lending to developing countries. The AIIB represents not only a rival to the World Bank and IMF but a challenge to the way the United States has conducted international trade for the past seventy years. Unlike the United States, which imposes a set of western style policies as a condition for receiving loans from the World Bank, China believes in a doctrine of non-interference with the internal affairs of other countries. China's doctrine of non-interference is a direct challenge to the United States' doctrine of conditionality. China's stance led the United States to argue that the AIIB would place few restrictions on its loans and would not tie its loans to responsible policies concerning the environment, workers' rights, and corruption. Not only did the United States refuse to join the AIIB, the United States also attempted to dissuade its closest allies from joining. Despite U.S. entreaties, all of the United States' closest allies (except Japan) jointed the AIIB, even Britain, causing a political embarrassment for the United States. The battle over the AIIB represents a challenge by China to the leading role of the United States in writing the rules for international trade. Loans by the AIIB will likely have fewer conditions and will promote the policies of the Chinese Communist Party. While the United States has been the underwriter of the world financial system for at least the past seven decades, the rise of the AIIB, could be the first indication that China will succeed in its quest to displace the United States as the final arbiter of the rules of international trade in the twenty first century.


Neurodegenerative diseases are incurable, heterogeneous, and age-dependent disorders that challenge modern medicine. A deeper understanding of the pathogenesis underlying neurodegenerative diseases is necessary to solve the unmet need for new diagnostic biomarkers and disease-modifying therapy and reduce these diseases' burden. Specifically, post-translational modifications (PTMs) play a significant role in neurodegeneration. Due to its proximity to the brain parenchyma, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) has long been used as an indirect way to measure changes in the brain. Mass spectrometry (MS) analysis in neurodegenerative diseases focusing on PTMs and in the context of biomarker discovery has improved and opened venues for analyzing more complex matrices such as brain tissue and blood. Notably, phosphorylated tau protein, truncated α-synuclein, APP and TDP-43, and many other modifications were extensively characterized by MS. Great potential is underlying specific pathological PTM-signatures for clinical application. This review focuses on PTM-modified proteins involved in neurodegenerative diseases and highlights the most important and recent breakthroughs in MS-based biomarker discovery.


The author discusses her experiences as an artist and synesthete. She describes her synesthetic perceptionsher experiences of touch, sound and other sensory input in the form of often strikingly colorful visions. She explains the development of her awareness of her synesthesia and of methods and preferred techniques for communicating these experiences through painting and sculpture, thus allowing her to express what would otherwise not be fully expressible. The author finds that art inspired by synesthesia may convey information of significance to everyone, observing that more general aspects of perception may be illuminated by the study of synesthesia.


BACKGROUND
Routine oocyte cryopreservation remains an elusive technique in the wide range of assisted reproductive technologies available. This study examines the effect of a cryopreservation protocol on the spindle and chromosome configurations of human oocytes cryopreserved at the germinal vesicle (GV) and metaphase II (MII) stage.

METHODS
GV oocytes were randomly assigned to one of three groups: (i) control oocytes matured in vitro to MII stage (n = 156); (ii) oocytes cryopreserved at the GV stage and then matured in vitro (n = 90); (iii) oocytes cryopreserved at the MII stage (n = 147). Following cryopreservation and in-vitro maturation, immunostaining of tubulin and chromatin was performed, before visualization using confocal microscopy.

RESULTS
A statistically significant increase was observed in the survival rate in group 2 (73.3%, 66/90) compared to group 3 (55.7%, 82/147) (P < 0.007). Exposure of oocytes to the cryoprotective solutions without freezing had no effect on the structure of their second meiotic spindle. However, statistically significant differences were observed on both spindle and chromosome configurations of oocytes from group 2 (5.2 and 5.2% respectively) and group 3 (16.2 and 18.8% respectively) compared with group 1 oocytes (71.6 and 82.0% respectively) (P < 0.001 in all cases).

CONCLUSIONS
The protocol followed results in high rates of survival and potential for in-vitro maturation, but has a deleterious effect on the organization of the meiotic spindle of human oocytes cryopreserved at both the GV and MII stages.


Cooke et al (2007) claim that there is no compelling empirical evidence to support the conclusion that antisocial behaviour is a central feature of psychopathy. However, in the same issue of the Journal Viding et al (2007) report a common genetic component to callous–unemotional traits and antisocial tendencies. Other studies cited by Viding et al report similar results. Moreover, Larsson et al (2007) reported that the same general four factors present in our four-factor model of psychopathy (Vitacco et al, 2005) all loaded onto a single genetic factor. Longitudinal research (not cited by Cooke et al) indicates that antisocial tendencies are significantly linked to the longitudinal stability of psychopathic traits (Frick et al, 2003). Cooke et al refer to the work of Cleckley (1988) to support their position, but in Cleckley's accounts of psychopathy antisocial behaviours play an important role. As Patrick (2006: p. 608) noted, 'There is no question that Cleckley considered persistent antisocial deviance to be characteristic of psychopaths. Without exception, all the individuals represented in his case histories engage in repeated violations of the law – including truancy, vandalism, theft, fraud, forgery, fire-setting, drunkenness and disorderly conduct, assault, reckless driving, drug offences, prostitution, and escape.' As Blackburn (2007: p. 145) recently put it, 'Contra Cooke, . . . antisocial behavior, conceived broadly, is a characteristic feature of psychopathy.' In our paper based on a very large sample (Vitacco et al, 2005), we demonstrated the conceptual errors and flaws in modelling that went into the development of Cooke's model and provided evidence for the four-factor model. Interestingly, Cooke et al did not cite this large study but rather chose to cite our small preliminary studies, although they are in line with our larger study. We do not view criminality as central to psychopathy. Indeed, the Psychopathy Checklist – Screening Version (PCL–SV) contains two items that refer to antisocial behaviour and that can be scored without evidence of criminality. The PCL–R and PCL–SV are virtually identical psychometrically, as noted previously by Cooke et al (1999).


Electrical Impedance Spectroscopy (EIS) sensing surgical instruments could provide valuable and real-time feedback to surgeons about hidden tissue boundaries, therefore reducing the risk of iatrogenic injuries. In this paper, we present an EIS sensing surgical drill as an example instrument and introduce a strategy to optimize the mono-polar electrode geometry using a finite element method (FEM)-based computational model and experimental validation. An empirical contact impedance model and an adaptive mesh refinement protocol were developed to accurately preserve the behaviour of sensing electrodes as they approach high impedance boundaries. Specifically, experiments with drill-bit, cylinder, and conical geometries suggested a 15%–35% increase in resistance as the sensing electrode approached a high impedance boundary. Simulations achieved a maximum mean experiment-to-simulation mismatch of +1.7% for the drill-bit and +/−11% range for other electrode geometries. The simulations preserved the increase in resistance behaviour near the high impedance boundary. This highly accurate simulation framework allows us a mechanism for optimizing sensor geometry without costly experimental evaluation.


This paper analyzes the economic impacts of changes in water availability due to climate change. We develop a new modeling approach as an alternative to include water as a production factor within a global CGE model. We tailor the structure of the ICES model to characterize the key features of the world economy with a detailed representation of the agricultural sector. In order to reach this objective, a new database has been built to explicitly consider water endowments, precipitation changes, and unitary irrigation costs. Results suggest different economic consequences of climate change depending on the specific region. Impacts are related to change in crop production, endowment demands, and international trade.


Due to its simplicity, Proportional-Integral (PI) controller still remains as the widely used controller for motor speed control system. However, PI controller exhibits windup phenomenon when the motor operates in a saturated state, which may cause degradation to the control system. In order to overcome the windup phenomenon, many researches have introduced various types of anti-windup methods such as the Conditioning Technique (CI), Tracking Back Calculation (TBC), Integral State Prediction (ISP), Steady-state Integral Proportional Integral Controller-01 (SIPIC01) and Steady-state Integral Proportional Integral Controller-02 (SIPIC02). These are anti-windup techniques with integral control switching mechanism, coupling of proportional gain, k p , and integral gain, k i . Due to the coupled k p and k i , tuning motor performance is a difficult task with short settling time without experiencing overshoot. SIPIC01 and SIPIC02 are robust anti-windup methods without a switching mechanism and exhibit decoupling feature. SIPIC01 and SIPIC02 have shown better dynamic performance compared to CI, TBC and ISP. However, SIPIC01 has not been compared to SIPIC02 in terms of their decoupling effect flexibility and dynamic performance. The decoupling effect was verified using MATLAB simulation, while the performance analysis was verified through hardware simulation and testing by using Scilab. The results obtained from the simulation showed that both SIPIC01 and SIPIC02 consist of decoupling features that allow a performance with coexistence of zero or minimum overshoot with short settling time. However, SIPIC02 consists of longer rise and settling time as compared to SIPIC01. Therefore, it can be concluded that SIPIC01 is better than SIPIC02 in term of dynamic performance.


The red palm weevil (RPW; Rhynchophorus ferrugineus) is spreading worldwide and severely harming many palm species. However, most studies on RPW focused on insect biology, and little information is available about the plant response to the attack. In the present experiment, we used metabolomics to study the alteration of the leaf metabolome of Phoenix canariensis at initial (1st stage) or advanced (2nd stage) attack by RPW compared with healthy (unattacked) plants. The leaf metabolome significantly varied among treatments. At the 1st stage of attack, plants showed a reprogramming of carbohydrate and organic acid metabolism; in contrast, peptides and lipid metabolic pathways underwent more changes during the 2nd than 1st stage of attack. Enrichment metabolomics analysis indicated that RPW attack mostly affected a particular group of compounds rather than rearranging plant metabolic pathways. Some compounds selectively affected during the 1st rather than 2nd stage (e.g. phenylalanine; tryptophan; cellobiose; xylose; quinate; xylonite; idonate; and iso-threonate; cellobiotol and arbutine) are upstream events in the phenylpropanoid, terpenoid and alkaloid biosynthesis. These compounds could be designated as potential markers of initial RPW attack. However, further investigation is needed to determine efficient early screening methods of RPW attack based on the concentrations of these molecules.


Natural rubber has a good potential to be used as a material for the development of wave energy converters (WECs). Generally, rubber has the ability to withstand very large strains without permanent deformation or fracture and is not much affected by exposure to water. This makes it ideal for applications related to wave energy converter (WECs). However, there is a need to predict the efficiency of performance over the full lifetime of such an application given that WECs will represent large, expensive and novel products that must remain operational in an at-sea environment for 10-15 years. Pertaining to that criterion, fracture mechanics of rubber is an important aspect as well as strain-history and environmental effects. The objective of this study is to gain a fundamental understanding of several factors that contribute to service lifetime: the effect of ozone and oxidation, stress-strain behaviour including hysteresis, set, and cyclic stress relaxation, mechanical fatigue and the possible role of poorly dispersed filler agglomerates in nucleating failure. The work includes studies of the effect of protective coating layers and of naturally aged rubber artefacts using a mathematical model for diffusion limited oxidation. A literature review has been performed to address rubber science and associated technology, including, the durability of rubber. Experiments encompassing the effect of ozone, cyclic stress-strain behaviour and crack growth & fatigue of rubber were performed to interpret the relevant properties for the consideration of the development of wave energy converters. New parameters for characterizing macro dispersion in rubber are introduced in an attempt to seek a correlation with the life span of rubbers. All these observations and outcomes give an opportunity to enhance our understanding of the factors that determine long-term mechanical properties of rubber, to the general benefit of rubber science and technology.


Technology integration in education has a great potential to transform learning paths, to overcome barriers and increase meaningful interactions among students, teachers, and the environment. Phygital learning is an emerging approach that balances the innovative technology-driven experience content with the traditional and physical one. In the context of Inclusive Education, this approach is particularly promising for enhancing the learning domains (cognitive, affective, and psychomotor) of children with disabilities. Recognized as integrators in multidisciplinary teams, characterized by a broad vision on users' needs and experience, and familiar with the creative problemsolving process, designers can have an active role in developing new learning activities. This paper describes the development of Magika, an interactive Multisensory Environment, that supports inclusive education via playful phygital (physical + digital) activities for children with and without disabilities. 30 specialists, among product and interior designers, electronic, materials and mechanical engineers, primary educators, therapist, and caregivers, were involved in a co-design process to define the educational and therapeutic objectives of phygital activities, according to the Italian primary school education system. Keywords


Purpose: In order to select the most appropriate donor and minimize psychological and physical complications in the kidney donors, it is of high importance to prepare the donor meticulously. The essential respective items are reviewed in this study. Materials and Methods: The available published literature and papers presented in Medline from 1983 to 2003 were reviewed. Results: One the sources of sources of kidney donation is the live donor which is mostly used in Iran. Similarly, due to long waiting lists of kidney recipients, live donor kidney transplantation have been increasingly used in developed countries. Consequently, several aspects of this issue have been considered and specific recommendations have been discussed; anatomy of the donor's kidney, age, ABO blood group, viral infections, weight, HLA type compatibility, psychological status, and diseases such as diabetes, ADPKD, and Alport syndrome should be evaluated in donation candidates. Conclusion: Live donor kidney donation has the advantage of elective and programmed transplantation over cadaveric transplantation. However, removal of an intact organ from the body of a normal individual may lead to complications, as it may so in any other major surgical operation. Thus, it is strongly recommended to select the most appropriate donor patiently by a series of accurate evaluations.


INPHO is foreign professional digital photogrammetry software, including aerial triangulation encryption, digital terrain model matching, the digital orthophoto rectification and image mosaic series modules. This paper, taking DMC image as a case study, according to production practice, states the method of making Digital Orthophoto Map (DOM) using all relevant modules of INPHO, and further points out several notes in the process of making DOM. Practice shows that making DOM using INPHO series software and paying attention to the mentioned precautions can speed up production rate, improve production efficiency, while its mode of operation is also greatly simplified compared with the normal mode of operation. It is a good way of making DOM.


The period after 9/11 can be characterised as the terrorism moment in world history. Every actor in international relations—the state, regional, continental and international as well as civil society organisations—has been mobilised to combat what, apparently has been conceived as a common security threat to humanity. The transformation of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) into the African Union (AU) was a divine coincidence at a time when multilateralism and international cooperation were being challenged by the threat of terrorism. In the post-9/11 period, the main concern of the Union has been to reinforce and implement existing counter-terrorism instruments adopted at the continental level in coordination with states and regional organisations. This article discusses and appraises the endeavours undertaken by the AU and its precursor organisation, the OAU, in tackling and dealing with the threat of terrorism despite limitations to its human and financial resources. In recognition of the nature of the states in Africa and the challenges facing the Union, we argue that the role of the AU remains critical in order to fill the gaps where its member states or regional mechanisms are lacking. In this regard, we stress that the role of the AU should be complementary and serve as an interface between the continent and the international community, including the United Nations.


Three hundred and eighteen cases of ossiculoplasty using autografts and 3 types of ceramic ossicular prostheses, CORP, APACERAM and cartilage connecting APACERAM in 123 ears with chronic otitis media and 164 ears with middle ear cholesteatoma were evaluated. The recurrence of inflammation, splippage and extrusion of the materials used for ossiculoplasty and hearing success rate were analyzed. The hearing results were classified as successful when the postoperative hearing level met at least one of these three conditions: 1) air bone gap less than 15dB, 2) hearing gain more than 15dB, 3) hearing level above 30dB. Recurrence of inflammation was not related to the materials used for ossiculoplasty. Prosthetic extrusion was observed in 7.4% of CORP, 8.7% of CORP with cartilage composite graft and 16.7% of APACERAM prostheses and slippage was found in 23.5% of CORP, 21.7% of CORP with cartilage composite graft and 5.6% of APACERAM, while only 4.0% of ears using cartilage connecting APACERAM demonstrated extrusion or migration of columellae. In type IV tympanoplasty, there was no significant difference in the postoperative hearing results between the materials for ossiculoplasty. In type III tympanoplasty, success rates for ossiculoplasty using bony tissue, cartilage, CORP, CORP with cartilage composite graft, APACERAM and cartilage connecting APACERAM were 61.1%, 50.0%,56.4%, 37.5%, 70.6% and 88.2% respectively. The good result in ossiculoplasty using cartilage connecting APACERAM might be explained by that the cartilage connecting APACERAM was tightly attached with a reconstructed tympanic membrane and superstructure of stapes without extrusion and migration.


Bipolar disorder (BD) is associated with signs of widespread disruption of white matter (WM) integrity. A polymorphism in the promoter of the serotonin transporter (5‐HTTLPR) influenced functional cortico‐limbic connectivity in healthy subjects and course of illness in BD, with the short (s) allele being associated with lower functional connectivity, and with earlier onset of illness and poor response to treatment. We tested the effects of 5‐HTTLPR on diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) measures of WM microstructure in 140 inpatients, affected by a major depressive episode in course of BD, of Italian descent. We used whole brain tract‐based spatial statistics in the WM skeleton with threshold‐free cluster enhancement of DTI measures of WM microstructure: axial, radial and mean diffusivity and fractional anisotropy. Compared with l/l homozygotes, 5‐HTTLPR*s carriers showed significantly increased radial and mean diffusivity in several brain WM tracts, including corpus callosum, cingulum bundle, uncinate fasciculus, corona radiata, thalamic radiation, inferior and superior longitudinal fasciculus and inferior fronto‐occipital fasciculus. An increase of mean and radial diffusivity, perpendicular to the main axis of the WM tract, is thought to signify increased space between fibers, thus suggesting demyelination or dysmyelination, or loss of bundle coherence. The effects of 5‐HTTLPR on the anomalous emotional processing in BD might be mediated by changes of WM microstructure in key WM tracts contributing to the functional integrity of the brain.


Providing rich data collaboration services in conferencing system is vital to the success of SIP-based communication system. It not only presents design and implementation challenges, but also gives an opportunity to develop rich and innovative collaboration services conveniently to provide users with novel communication experience. In this paper we present an extended data collaboration mechanism for XCON conferencing system over IP network. It includes uniform media description, media negotiation and media delivery processes. The mechanism adopts the extended SDP and offer/answer model as media description and negotiation mechanism. And it uses RTP/RTCP and extended MSRP as the media transport control protocols respectively for audio/video and various TCP-based data collaboration applications. In this paper, the design principle and concrete implementation details is presented and analyzed in detail. We have developed a prototype implementation to prove our architecture's feasibility and scalability.


This study examined the influence of experiences of racism, homophobia, and anti-immigrant discrimination on depressive symptoms and HIV risk among a sample of Asian and Pacific Islander (A&PI) gay men (N = 192). In addition, the potential protective influences of conversations about discrimination with gay friends and with family were explored. These men reported high rates of depressive symptoms (45% above the clinical cutoff on the Center for Epidemiological Studies-Depression scale) as well as HIV risk behavior (31% reporting at least one episode of unprotected anal intercourse (UAI) in the last 3 months). Controlling for income, ethnicity, age, and relationship status, experiences of racism were associated with higher levels of depressive symptoms, and experiences of anti-immigrant discrimination were associated with higher rates of secondary-partner UAI. Conversations about discrimination with gay friends and with family were associated with lower levels of primary-partner UAI. The combination of low levels of discussion with family about discrimination with high levels of experienced discrimination (of all three types) was associated with higher rates of UAI. Implications for mental health and HIV prevention interventions for A&PI gay men are discussed.


Abstract
 We compute the spherically averaged power spectrum from four seasons of data obtained for the Epoch of Reionization (EoR) project observed with the Murchison Widefield Array (MWA). We measure the EoR power spectrum over k = 0.07–3.0 h Mpc−1 at redshifts $z$ = 6.5–8.7. The largest aggregation of 110 h on EoR0 high band (3340 observations), yields a lowest measurement of (43 mK)2 = 1.8 × 103 mK2 at k  = 0.14 h Mpc−1 and $z$ = 6.5 (2σ thermal noise plus sample variance). Using the Real-Time System to calibrate and the CHIPS pipeline to estimate power spectra, we select the best observations from the central five pointings within the 2013–2016 observing seasons, observing three independent fields and in two frequency bands. This yields 13 591 2-min snapshots (453 h), based on a quality assurance metric that measures ionospheric activity. We perform another cut to remove poorly calibrated data, based on power in the foreground-dominated and EoR-dominated regions of the two-dimensional power spectrum, reducing the set to 12 569 observations (419 h). These data are processed in groups of 20 observations, to retain the capacity to identify poor data, and used to analyse the evolution and structure of the data over field, frequency, and data quality. We subsequently choose the cleanest 8935 observations (298 h of data) to form integrated power spectra over the different fields, pointings, and redshift ranges.


Scientists and practitioners have for decades attempted to find methods to forecast movements in the capital markets, thereby trying to find a way to outperform the market. The origins of forecasting literature investigated traditional financial and accounting ratios such as the dividend yield (D/P) and the earnings yield (E/P). A more recent development in the literature is an investigation of the information content inherent in the relationship between bond yields and equity yields. Based on the belief that government bonds and stocks are seen as competing assets by investors, a model known as the Bond Equity Yield Ratio has evolved. The BEYR compares the yields of the two assets and thus signals when the yield of one asset might be overpriced in relation to the yield of the other.The existing stream of literature has focused its attention towards mainly two capital markets, the US and the UK. Previous studies have often examined the forecasting ability by applying regression approaches or looking at extreme thresholds of the BEYR distribution, providing mixed results. Following the objectivistic path of ontology and the positivistic epistemology, the purpose of this study is to extend the existing knowledge laid out in the preceding literature. By examining the information content provided by the BEYR in the capital markets of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden further evidence of its forecasting ability will be provided. Using historical data to compute the BEYR and following the switching signals provided, the performance of actively managed portfolios containing bonds or stocks will be compared to the market portfolio. Hence, this study tests the weak form of the efficient market hypothesis in Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden, via a deductive approach.The findings presented in this paper show that during the observation period, following a BEYR strategy would have led to excess return over the market portfolio in all four markets. Additionally, the BEYR portfolios had greater Sharpe ratios than those of the market portfolio, indicating better risk adjusted returns and thus a sounder relationship between risk and return. However, failing to be statistically significant, these results are only indications of potential positive effects of utilizing a BEYR strategy. Consequently, the weak form of the efficient market hypothesis seems to hold in the capital markets of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden.


[1] Surface temperatures derived from thermal infrared measurements provide a means of understanding the physical properties of the lunar surface. The contrasting thermophysical properties between rocks and regolith fines cause multiple temperatures to be present within the field of view of nighttime multispectral data returned from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Diviner Radiometer between 60°N/S latitudes. Regolith temperatures are influenced by the presence of rocks in addition to factors such as the thermophysical properties of the regolith fines, latitude and local slopes, and radiative heating from adjacent crater walls. Preliminary comparisons of derived rock concentrations with LRO Camera images show both qualitative and quantitative agreement. Although comparisons of derived rock concentrations with circular polarization ratio radar data sets display general similarities, there are clear differences between the two data sets in the relative magnitude and areal extent of rocky signatures. Several surface units can be distinguished based on their regolith temperature and rock concentration values and distributions including maria and highlands surfaces, rocky impact craters, rilles, and wrinkle ridges, dark mantled deposits, and isolated cold surfaces. Rock concentrations are correlated with crater age and rocks are only preserved on the youngest surfaces or where steep slopes occur and mass wasting prevents mantling with fines. The presence of rocky surfaces excavated by young impacts allows for the estimation of minimum regolith thickness from the size of the impact. The derived rock concentrations confirm the presence of thicker regolith cover in the highlands and in locations of radar-dark haloes.


Abstract. Fadhilah QG, Santoso I, Yasman. 2021. The antagonistic activity of marine actinomycetes from mangrove ecosystem against phytopathogenic fungi Colletotrichum sp. KA. Biodiversitas 22: 642-649.  Marine actinomycetes from mangrove ecosystems are known to be potential antifungal-producing isolates against phytopathogenic fungi. The aim of this research was to obtain potential marine actinomycetes isolates against the phytopathogenic fungi Colletotrichum sp. KA. Screening of 15 marine actinomycetes isolates using a dual culture method with a plug technique showed that 80% of isolates have antagonistic activity, represented as a percentage of growth inhibition range from 47.96% to 84.94%. Among 12 potential isolates, six isolates (SM4, SM11, SM14, SM15, SM18, and SM20) were evaluated for delayed antagonistic activity with incubation periods of 6, 9, and 12 days using the plug and streak techniques. The results showed that the percentage of growth inhibition of selected isolates inclined to increase along with the incubation period prior to inoculation of Colletotrichum sp. KA. Delayed antagonist assays using the streak technique resulted in higher inhibition results compared to the plug technique. Furthermore, the non-delayed assays of the two selected isolates, SM11 and SM15, also inhibited Colletotrichum sp. KA 57.99% and 59.88%, respectively. The delayed antagonist assay with a shorter incubation period of the two selected isolates also showed an increased percentage of growth inhibition of Colletotrichum sp. KA. According to our research, the delayed antagonistic assay of marine actinomycetes isolates with a 12-day incubation period using a plug technique was representative to evaluate the percentage of growth inhibition.


A review of the Tasmanian puerulus program undertaken in 2008 involving government, industry and an external review identified that the current puerulus collectors were all on the East Coast (with the exception of King Island); despite the southern and western regions supporting the largest catches in the fishery. The review identified as a priority to "investigate options for collection on the west coast using boat-based collection and using the commercial fleet to reduce cost of collection".
In phase 1 of this project a design for a deep water collector was developed through consultation with industry and prototypes of this design were constructed and tested in aquaria with captured pueruli, on the seafloor adjacent to an existing inshore shallow collector site on the east coast of Tasmania, and in deep water on the south and southwest coasts of Tasmania. The prototype collectors were successfully deployed, retrieved and serviced by vessels in the commercial lobster fleet and vessel masters reported that the design facilitated safe and efficient handling on deck. The prototypes collected significantly more puerulus than adjacent routine collectors in deployments at the shallow site and collected puerulus for the first time on the deeper and more exposed southwest coast of Tasmania.
This phase 2 of the project saw deployment of a refined collector design onto reefs around Tasmania over 2 puerulus settlement seasons and provided evidence that; (1) puerulus settle in larger numbers in shallow inshore waters; (2) puerulus settlement in deeper water varies in space, time and depth around the Tasmanian coast (eg. Puerulus settlement was higher on the south coast than on the east coast in the 2016/2017 settlement season and puerulus settlement in waters deeper than 100m appears to be very low).
When deployed alongside traditional diver based collectors, the fisher-serviced puerulus collector captures and retains more puerulus than traditional diver-based methods and is more cost-effective per collector. However, refinements to the design would be required for its use in inshore puerulus monitoring due to siltation issues from mobile sediments in exposed inshore locations.
Despite experiencing lower catch rates than inshore settlement monitoring, the number and consistence of settlement on offshore deeper water collectors enabled similar temporal patterns of settlement to be determined. The deep water collectors also retained puerulus for similar periods to the traditional collectors. Consequently, deep water puerulus collection is a feasible alternative to costly inshore diver-serviced monitoring programs and would be expected to indicate similar trends in recruitment. Industry involvement in servicing offshore collectors during routine fishing operations greatly increases the cost-
effectiveness of this approach; particularly if this support was provided without the requirement for financial compensation.


The article analyzes actions for the prevention of cervical and breast cancer in public, private, and employment-based health services and in non-governmental organizations in the city of Buenos Aires. The article seeks to reflect on the reach and limitations of the approaches implemented in the three subsectors of the health care system and the community to prevent women from suffering or eventually dying as a consequence of these diseases, in the fragmented context of a health system with great heterogeneity in access and deep social inequalities in the use of preventive actions. The study utilizes a broad definition of prevention which integrates education, awareness-building and early detection of pre-carcinogenic and carcinogenic lesions, among other medical and non-medical components. The results were obtained using semi-structured interviews with subjects from public hospitals, employment-based health care services, private medical companies and non-governmental organizations with work in cancer prevention. These results show that contrary to a comprehensive approach, each institution limits its actions to only one aspect of prevention, implementing predominately isolated or disconnected actions inadequate to generate an autonomous and well-informed demand for treatment and health care among women.


The exact analysis of the higher-order statistics of the channel capacity (i.e., higher-order ergodic capacity) often leads to complicated expressions involving advanced special functions. In this paper, we provide a generic framework for the computation of the higher-order statistics of the channel capacity over generalized fading channels. As such, this novel framework for the higher-order statistics results in simple, closed-form expressions which are shown to be asymptotically tight bounds in the high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) regime of a variety of fading environment. In addition, it reveals the existence of differences (i.e., constant capacity gaps in log-domain) among different fading environments. By asymptotically tight bound we mean that the high SNR limit of the difference between the actual higher-order statistics of the channel capacity and its asymptotic bound (i.e., lower bound) tends to zero. The mathematical formalism is illustrated with some selected numerical examples that validate the correctness of our newly derived results.


When assessing the thermal condition of the building and the parameters of the microclimate of the premises, the main factors influencing its thermal inertia were identified and taken into account. An assessment of the influence of the resistance of enclosing structures on the efficiency of the heating system, taking into account the influence of external and internal climatic parameters in the dynamic mode. It is shown that the time factor and depth of regulation, as well as the outdoor air temperature are important factors. Researches are carried out and the expediency of introduction of a duty mode of heating of buildings of HIGH SCHOOLS is estimated. The given algorithm of control of process of heat release (especially in the presence of a point of "breaking" - average (them) on the schedule) in addition increases accuracy of the decisions of the specified problems and reduces a temperature deviation by 4 ÷ 6 ° C in comparison with usual ("linear") dependence that allows to correct more precisely release of the heat carrier in system of heating of a structure at introduction of a standby mode. It was found that it took about 6.5 hours to achieve normalized air temperature and space heating in the forced (after a long stay on duty). It is shown that the heat consumption of the system in such conditions of its operation compared to the nominal mode increased by 25% (taking into account the limit value of the specific allowance from table H1 DBN B.2.5-67: 2013 "Heating, ventilation and air conditioning"), but for the entire period the action of the standby mode savings amounted to about 6-8% of energy consumed. Taking into account the design of the outer walls of the object of study, the temperature graph of the heating system was adjusted taking into account the value of the internal heat capacity of the building when implementing on-duty heating, which, according to preliminary estimates, will: improve comfort in the room; to reduce heating costs of the educational and administrative building of NULES of Ukraine by 10-12% for the heating period. Key words: enclosing structure, humidity conditions, dew point, partial pressure, water vapor


In the last twenty-five years (1990-2014), algorithmic advances in integer optimization combined with hardware improvements have resulted in an astonishing 200 billion factor speedup in solving Mixed Integer Optimization (MIO) problems. We present a MIO approach for solving the classical best subset selection problem of choosing $k$ out of $p$ features in linear regression given $n$ observations. We develop a discrete extension of modern first order continuous optimization methods to find high quality feasible solutions that we use as warm starts to a MIO solver that finds provably optimal solutions. The resulting algorithm (a) provides a solution with a guarantee on its suboptimality even if we terminate the algorithm early, (b) can accommodate side constraints on the coefficients of the linear regression and (c) extends to finding best subset solutions for the least absolute deviation loss function. Using a wide variety of synthetic and real datasets, we demonstrate that our approach solves problems with $n$ in the 1000s and $p$ in the 100s in minutes to provable optimality, and finds near optimal solutions for $n$ in the 100s and $p$ in the 1000s in minutes. We also establish via numerical experiments that the MIO approach performs better than {\texttt {Lasso}} and other popularly used sparse learning procedures, in terms of achieving sparse solutions with good predictive power.


— Fractional Calculus (FC) goes back to the beginning of the theory of differential calculus. Nevertheless, the application of FC just emerged in the last two decades, due to the progress in the area of chaos that revealed subtle relationships with the FC concepts. In the field of dynamical systems theory some work has been carried out but the proposed models and algorithms are still in a preliminary stage of establishment. Having these ideas in mind, the paper discusses a FC perspective in the study of the dynamics and control of some distributed parameter systems. PhD degree in 1989 in Budapest, Hungary. His research focuses on the adaptive control of very inaccurately modelled, dynamically coupled, non-linear systems.


This paper aims at augmenting the frameworks proposed by Rifkin in 1996 to distinguish between target-oriented and empowerment approaches to participation in community-based health interventions. In her paper, Rifkin defined three criteria: who makes decisions on resource allocation, expected outcome and outcome assessment. We propose five additional criteria: the definition of community, the characteristics of the capacity-building process, the leadership characteristics, the documentation process, and ethical issues regarding participation. Derived from our analysis of a community-based project, the proposed criteria are discussed in the light of the principles of Popular Education and other literature on community participation. The augmented frameworks are intended to assist health professionals and planners interested in the empowerment approach of community participation to consciously sharpen their practice.


Background: To study the potentially avoidable decision-making delay in acute myocardial infarction (AMI) adults male with different psychological characteristics a nationwide multicentre study was conducted in Italy by the 118 Coronary Care Units (CCUs). Method: 929 AMI patients consecutively presented to the CCU in a conscious condition less than two hours, 2-6 hours, 6-12 hours, and more than 12 hours after symptom onset and completing the Disease Distress Questionnaire (DDQ) were enrolled in a multicentre case-control study. The DDQ collects information regarding the decision time to seek help, and includes a set of items assessing psychological factors and pain-related symptoms. The relationship between the perceived threat and the delay due to decision-making was evaluated by means of a multivariate model using LISREL 8 structural equation modelling. Results: The delay significantly correlated with perceived threat, which was mainly related to somatic awareness. It was only slightly related to pain and was not associated with any of the other variables. Perceived threat was also related to psychological upset, fear and health worries, the first of which was considerably influenced by emotional instability. Conclusion: Somatic awareness is the main dimension affecting perceived threat, but subjective pain intensity affects the delay both directly and indirectly. The core of the model is the relationship between perceived threat and the delay due to decision-making. The importance of subjective pain intensity is well documented, but it is still not clear how subjective and objective pain interact.


Due to the harsh environment and energy limitation, maintaining efficient communication is crucial to the lifetime of Underwater Sensor Networks (UWSN). Named Data Networking (NDN), one of future network architectures, begins to be applied to UWSN. Although Underwater Named Data Networking (UNDN) performs well in data transmission, it still faces some security threats, such as the Denial-of-Service (DoS) attacks caused by Interest Flooding Attacks (IFAs). In this paper, we present a new type of DoS attacks, named as Synergetic Denial-of-Service (SDoS). Attackers synergize with each other, taking turns to reply to malicious interests as late as possible. SDoS attacks will damage the Pending Interest Table, Content Store, and Forwarding Information Base in routers with high concealment. Simulation results demonstrate that the SDoS attacks quadruple the increased network traffic compared with normal IFAs and the existing IFA detection algorithm in UNDN is completely invalid to SDoS attacks. In addition, we analyze the infection problem in UNDN and propose a defense method Trident based on carefully designed adaptive threshold, burst traffic detection, and attacker identification. Experiment results illustrate that Trident can effectively detect and resist both SDoS attacks and normal IFAs. Meanwhile, Trident can robustly undertake burst traffic and congestion.


This publication, produced in the context of the Regional Programme for West African Marine and Coastal Conservation (PRCM), is a successor to a 2005 volume entitled "Environmental management of offshore oil exploitation and maritime oil transport." The book helped us to better understand the environmental and socio-economic issues and options created by the emerging offshore oil and gas industry. This new edition takes things a step further, by making positive propositions as to how the offshore oil and gas industry could contribute to sustainable development in our region. This book provides an overview of what has gone right and wrong with oil and gas development worldwide, with particular emphasis on the West African regional situation and national energy and sustainable development plans. It is designed to help governments and civil societies of the WAMER to reconcile issues associated with oil and gas development with national development priorities.


In this modification of the schlieren apparatus the knife-edge is replaced by a radial-rainbow filter with a transparent center and opaque surround. Consequently, refractive-index inhomogeneities in the test section appear varicolored, whereas uniformities appear white. The rainbow schlieren is simple, is easy to use, and accentuates detail regarding inhomogeneities more than the ordinary schlieren. The rainbow schlieren permits quantitative evaluation of certain refractive-index distributions, including turbulence, by simple calculations from observations of hue rather than irradiance.


Objective: The morphological and biochemical impact of a short-period of starvation on Japanese quail was investigated. Materials and Methods: Ten adult male Japanese quail were divided into two groups; control fed and starved. The control-fed group was offered food and water ad libitum and the starved group was subjected to a short-period of food deprivation. After 2.5 days, the serum was obtained and different parameters including the total protein, AST, ALT, triglyceride, HDL, LDL, creatinine and urea were assessed. Gastrointestinal tract, stomach and liver were excised and their masses were estimated. Paraffin and resin embedded sections from the proventriculus, gizzard, liver, duodenum, kidney and pancreas were examined with a light microscopy. Results: Significant decreases in the masses of body, gastrointestinal tract, stomach and liver of the starved group were recorded. The liver and duodenum were the most affected organs. The liver showed depletion of glycogen, vacuolation, hyperemia and cellular infiltrations. Duodenal villi showed degenerative changes in lamina epithelialis and cellular infiltrations in the lamina propria. Biochemical analysis revealed a decreased level of total protein, AST and ALT, increased cholesterol, triglycerides and LDL and unchanged HDL, urea and creatinine by starvation. Conclusion: The current study described in details the effect of short time starvation on quail organs. Time-point adaptive responses of male quail to starvation and refeeding will be investigated in future studies.


Many have argued that thought should constitute per se unpatentable subject matter, and some have even suggested that any patent claim that includes a mental step should lie outside patentability. Many courts have long disagreed with such a draconian rule, and have instead upheld myriad patent claims that include mental steps. Recently there has been renewed interest in the venerable Mental Steps Doctrine, and in patents claiming thoughts or aspects of thoughts, by the courts, including, most notably, the Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit and the United States Supreme Court. Insights from neurobiology about how to differentiate categories of thought can offer useful criteria for deciding between patentable and unpatentable mental steps, and for setting more coherent and defensible boundaries on the patenting of thought. In particular, this article argues that thoughts subject to "executive control" should be situated more towards the patentable end of the spectrum, whereas "default thoughts" should be situated closer to the unpatentable end of the spectrum. This schema represents somewhat of a departure from the traditional view that First Amendment interests should privilege sophisticated, expressive thought by protecting it from patentability. Nevertheless, it accords well with Thirteenth Amendment interests, privileging thoughts that cannot be avoided by protecting them from patentability, and thus preventing the iniquity of involuntary patent servitude.


Baseball has increasingly turned to analytics in order to evaluate players and teams within the league. The latest statistic to become popular is Wins-Above-Replacement, abbreviated WAR. WAR takes into account all factors of a player's contribution to a team, including pitching, batting, base-running, and fielding, and combines them to produce a single number which approximates how many games the team has won by utilizing this player as compared to a replacementlevel or minor league level player at the same position. The WAR statistic has become widely used as a way to compare players, even players playing different positions or in different time periods. However, current versions of WAR all have one serious drawback: there is no publicly available, standardized formula or process to calculate it. Instead, separate organizations have formulated their own versions of the statistic using proprietary data, rendering the statistic both difficult to understand and difficult to replicate. In this project we create a standardized WAR statistic that accurately indicates the value of a player using only publicly available data, and show that our new WAR statistic strongly correlates with WAR statistics which use proprietary data. This approach has the potential to create a standard WAR formula that an average baseball fan can use and understand in the future as they evaluate a baseball player's value. We call it SHU-WAR.


Background: Unacceptable high maternal mortality rates remain a major challenge in many low-income countries. Early detection and management of antenatal risk factors and good preparation for birth and emergencies are critical for improved maternal and infant outcomes. The aim of this study was to understand the pattern and level of knowledge on obstetric and newborn danger signs, Individual Birth Preparedness and Complication Readiness (IBPACR) among pregnant women in Dodoma Municipal. Methods: A quantitative cross sectional study was carried out between February and June 2018. A random selection of participants was employed to achieve a sample size of 450 pregnant women. A standard semi-structure questionnaire was used to collect data and descriptive analysis was carried out by using SPSS software to see the pattern and level of knowledge on obstetric danger signs and individual birth preparedness. Results: The mean age of participants was 25.6 years ranging from 16 to 48 years and majority 326 (72.4%) had 2 to 4 pregnancies. Only 203(45.1%) of the pregnant women were able to tell 8 and above danger signs with at least 1 from each of the 4 phases, with the most known obstetric danger signs being vagina bleeding during pregnancy 287(63.8), labour and delivery 234(52.0%), after delivery 278 (61.8) . 164 (36.4%) of the participants reported fever and difficult in feeding 182 (40.4%) as danger signs in newborn. Furthermore, only 75(16.7%) of the participants reported to be prepared for birth and complications. The most known component of birth preparedness was preparing important supply which are needed during birth 283 (62.9%). Conclusion: Results of this study showed a low level of knowledge on obstetric and newborn danger signs as well as poor individual birth preparedness and complication readiness. Important predictors of knowledge level and birth preparedness were found to be age, education level, gestation age at first visit and husband involvement in Antenatal visit and care.


To investigate the potential effects of maternal infection during lactation on breast-milk quantity and composition, we examined low-income Peruvian women who had an acute febrile infection and were exclusively breast-feeding a child from 1 to 6 mo of age (n = 36). Women who were not ill (n = 38) served as controls; all women had body mass indexes (in kg/m2) > 19.5. Blood and milk samples were collected on days 1, 7, and 14 after identification of the episode of illness. C-reactive protein in maternal serum was significantly elevated by infection, whereas two other acute-phase reactants, ceruloplasmin and alpha 2-macroglobulin, showed no change. Serum zinc concentrations were significantly lower in ill women than in women who were not ill, whereas serum copper concentrations were elevated initially in ill women. Serum iron concentrations increased significantly with time, but there was no significant difference between groups. Milk intake, as assessed by 12-h test-weighing, was not affected by the infection. Concentrations of milk total protein, casein, and whey proteins were similar in the two groups and there was no significant effect of illness on milk trace element concentrations. Thus, acute maternal infections during established lactation did not affect milk volume, milk protein, or trace element concentrations, despite expected changes in serum protein and trace element concentrations.


This paper presents a novel method to distill knowledge from a deep pose regressor network for efficient Visual Odometry (VO). Standard distillation relies on ''dark knowledge'' for successful knowledge transfer. As this knowledge is not available in pose regression and the teacher prediction is not always accurate, we propose to emphasize the knowledge transfer only when we trust the teacher. We achieve this by using teacher loss as a confidence score which places variable relative importance on the teacher prediction. We inject this confidence score to the main training task via Attentive Imitation Loss (AIL) and when learning the intermediate representation of the teacher through Attentive Hint Training (AHT) approach. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first work which successfully distill the knowledge from a deep pose regression network. Our evaluation on the KITTI and Malaga dataset shows that we can keep the student prediction close to the teacher with up to 92.95% parameter reduction and 2.12x faster in computation time.


Prolonged series of specially selected contrast fragments of classic music has a positive effects on heart rate variability and circadian dynamics of heart rhythm. The benefit depends on the status of heart rate control mechanisms before the music influence.


The work reported here is an initial attempt to find an alternative method by which the safety of live-attenuated Newcastle disease virus (NDV) vaccines for the respiratory tract of young chickens can be assessed. The current recommended methods involve either the subjective assessment of respiratory signs, or raise ethical concerns, as in the case of the intracerebral pathogenicity index. The two methods considered here were the use of tracheal organ cultures to assess the level of ciliostasis which the vaccines caused to the ciliated epithelium of the trachea and the incorporation of a pathogenic strain of Escherichia coli in the inoculum in order to induce colibacillosis. Both methods were successful in confirming the safety of the two vaccines. However, these results are only preliminary and more studies need to be performed to determine whether one or both methods have potential, either to replace the existing statutory tests, or provide a test which might be useful during the development stages of a new live-attenuated NDV vaccine.


Objective Scavenging is a source of income for most unskilled people in the developing countries. The present study investigated the perception of scavengers on scavenging and related health hazards from the Onderstepoort waste dumpsite in Pretoria, South Africa. Methods Primary data were obtained through observation and implementation of a questionnaire to a total number of 53 scavengers (27 females and 26 males). The questionnaire was structured to extract information that included perceptions of scavengers about their activities, health implications of scavenging, monthly income, and behavioural norms. Results Educated scavengers had high school education. The period of scavenging ranged from 10 to 15 years. The majority of scavengers did not use protective clothing. However, few used gloves and boots picked from the dumpsite. Common health issues reported included back pain, headache, diarrhoea, and shortness of breath. Some sustained injuries from sharp objects. Scavengers stored food among the waste; food could be either brought from home or bought from the vendors who cook at the dumpsite. Some drank bottled water picked from the waste. Eighty-five percent of females cleaned themselves immediately after work in temporary shacks at the dumpsite, while all males bathed at home. The average monthly income from scavenging was approximately R1372 (approximately $91 (US)). Women scavengers liked their job despite associated health risks. Conclusion Scavengers would benefit if government and nongovernmental organisations educate them on the significance of protective clothing and good hygiene. Policymakers should assist the scavengers by providing necessary workshops on-site that will assist them to change their behaviour.


A survey of the major textbooks of psychiatry showed that seant attention was paid to the psychoneuroses occurring in old age. The literature contains adequate prevalence assessments, and shows that these conditions have a high occurrence rate in the over sixty age group. It seemed worth while to embark on an exploratory study in this area, firstly because of the outstanding lack of factual information available, and secondly, because this age group may prove to be the crucial one, on which the theory of the childhood psychogenesis of the neuroses, could stand or fall. By definition, any study on a periatric problem must separate the effects of the ageing process from those of the variable under examination. This was done In the first phase of this study, allowing the second phase to concentrate on the clinical aspects of the problem. The Information gathered was grouped in ways which allowed it to be treated statistically, and efforts were made to keep any subjective Judgments "blind". It was shown that neither age nor the brain damage commonly associated with age, affected the extent of the neurotic tendencies shown by the subjects. Clinical differences were found between old people with mild affective symptoms and those with other neurotic symptoms. Affective symptoms seemed to be the main criterion deciding If these patients should be admitted to hospital but the neurotics In general shoved little in the way of social correlates, either cause or effect. A validation study of two measures of "neuroticism" was performed simultaneously, and the findings suggested subtelties of clinical interpretation of scores on these tests. The work advances factual knowledge both in the clinical and psychometric problem of the psychoneuroses of the elderly. It gives theoretical reasons for treating the mild affective illnesses as an autonomous group. It presents the first factual account of the natural history of neurosis in old age. Most important, by separating brain damage effects from neurotic symptom production in the elderly, it prepared the way for a fresh, optimistic approach to the treatment of these symptoms.


Human performance enhancing drugs (PEDs), frequently used in sport competitions, are strictly prohibited by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Biological samples collected from athletes and regular patients are continuously tested regarding the identification and/or quantification of the banned substances. Current work is focused on the application of a new analytical method, molecularly imprinted nanoparticles (nanoMIPs), to detect and determine concentrations of certain prohibited drugs, such as β-blockers, in water and human urine samples. These medications are used in the treatment of cardiovascular conditions, negative effects of adrenaline (helping to relief stress), and hypertension (slowing down the pulse and softening the arteries). They can also significantly increase muscle relaxation and improve heart efficiency. The new method of the detection and quantification of β-blockers is based on synthesis, characterization, and implementation of nanoMIPs (so-called plastic antibodies). It offers numerous advantages over the traditional methods, including high binding capacity, affinity, and selectivity for target molecules. Additionally, the whole process is less complicated, cheaper, and better controlled. The size and shape of the nanoMIPs is evaluated by dynamic light scattering (DLS) and transmission electron microscope (TEM). The affinity and selectivity of the nanoparticles are investigated by competitive pseudo enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (pseudo-ELISA) similar to common immunoassays employing natural antibodies. To provide reliable results towards either doping detection or therapeutic monitoring using the minimal invasive method, the qualitative and quantitative analysis of these drugs is performed in water and human urine samples. It is demonstrated that the assay can detect β-blockers in water within the linear range 1 nmol·L−1–1 mmol·L−1 for atenolol with the detection limit 50.6 ng mL−1, and the linear range 1 mmol·L−1–10 mmol·L−1 for labetalol with the detection limit of 90.5 ng·mL−1. In human urine samples, the linear range is recorded in the concentration range 0.1 mmol·L−1–10 nmol·L−1 for atenolol and 1 mmol·L−1–10 nmol·L−1 for labetalol with a detection limit of 61.0 ng·mL−1 for atenolol and 99.4 ng·mL−1 for labetalol.


The development of and access to freshwater resources is fundamental if East Africa aims to achieve its goal of increased economic growth. Following vision documents for regional development and working together with local stakeholders, we developed water scenarios up to 2050 that inform the hydro-economic modelling analysis for the extended Lake Victoria Basin, the headwaters of the Nile River. Results indicate a 4-5 fold increase in water demand, especially for expanding irrigation and domestic water needs. Together with climate and land use change, the discharge and flow regime of the Nile will remain relatively stable. However, if this is to be achieved, while sufficient water is preserved for environmental needs, a large fraction of future water infrastructure must rely on advanced, often costly, technological, and management options. The interconnected analysis, between up-stream and down-stream water resources and sectoral water demand, guided by co-developed scenarios, supports planning of sustainable water pathways.