Sufficient number of linear and noisy measurements for exact and approximate sparsity pattern/support set recovery in the high dimensional setting is derived. Although this problem as been addressed in the recent literature, there is still considerable gaps between those results and the exact limits of the perfect support set recovery. To reduce this gap, in this paper, the sufficient condition is enhanced. A specific form of a Joint Typicality decoder is used for the support recovery task. Two performance metrics are considered for the recovery validation; one, which considers exact support recovery, and the other which seeks partial support recovery. First, an upper bound is obtained on the error probability of the sparsity pattern recovery. Next, using the mentioned upper bound, sufficient number of measurements for reliable support recovery is derived. It is shown that the sufficient condition for reliable support recovery depends on three key parameters of the problem; the noise variance, the minimum nonzero entry of the unknown sparse vector and the sparsity level. Simulations are performed for different sparsity rate, different noise variances, and different distortion levels. The results show that for all the mentioned cases the proposed methodology increases convergence rate of upper bound of the error probability of support recovery significantly which leads to a lower error probability bound compared with previously proposed bounds.


Purpose of review As male genital corrective surgery is becoming increasingly requested by patients, the need to reach a general consensus on indications and techniques is now imperative. This review of published data provides an overview concerning patient selection modalities, benefits/risks and expected outcomes of surgery. Finally, the article focuses on ethical issues caused by the growing aesthetic nature of this surgery. Recent findings Interest has been sparked by animal studies, the description of innovative techniques for lengthening and girth enhancement techniques, reconstructive phalloplasty and penile implant surgery. Data suggest that better objective surgical outcomes are possible, though in many cases long-term data and patient-rated satisfaction details are lacking. Most importantly, studies show the importance of having a multidisciplinary team in charge of patient selection. Summary Although more long-term data are required before a general consensus can be reached, recent findings point to the absolute need for a thorough psychological assessment of men requesting penile enhancement surgery. Urologists should work in very close collaboration with psychologists or psychosexologists both during the preoperative phase (to verify eligibility for surgery) and afterwards (to provide counselling).


The relationship between social media and luxury brands was started with hesitations due to different characteristics. Nevertheless, the huge opportunities brought by social media are something to be considered. It enables luxury brands to interact wider without time and distance barrier while the best platform for engagement is Instagram. Consequently, many luxury brands are trying to have their own Instagram accounts. However, there are no sufficient literatures that have discussed how things work specifically among the luxury watch brands. This research intends to find out how luxury watch brands should use Instagram and its effect on customer relationship and purchase intention. Researcher explores luxury watch brands' social media attributes (entertainment, customisation, interaction, word-of-mouth, and trend) and values (functional, hedonic, symbolic, financial, and relational) adopted from related journals. Then, this research will use PLS-SEM analysis to evaluate the relationship. Content analysis towards Instagram's practice of five luxury watch brands will also be conducted to gain insights for suggesting recommendation. Result indicates that there is a positive relationship between social media marketing, customer relationship, and purchase intention. Also, symbolic and hedonic value appears as the most engaging contents while relational shows potential though it has not been implemented frequently.


The development of immediate hypersensitivity is process strictly specific for given allergen. The reaction with fatal outcome in guinea pigs is reproduced by 80-100%. However, the work has been published recently in which an opportunity to influence the effect of antigen by non-ionizing physical factors was considered. In experiments with 230 guinea pigs the model anaphylactic shock was used. Animals were subjected to infrasound of 10 Hz frequency and 155-160 dB intensity for ten minutes just before antigen introduction. About 50-60% of animals were wrecked under combined sensitizer and infrasound influence. At the same time in control experiments 80-100% of animals were wrecked three minutes after introduction of permitted dose of sensitizer. The experiments under changed conditions as well as series with passive sensitization have shown that the infrasound effect is due to deviations (rejections) in specific part of anaphylactic shock.


Optical spectroscopic properties of Er3+-doped alkaline-earth metal modified fluoropho sphate glasses have been investigated experimentally for developing broadband fiber and planar amplifiers. The results show a strong correlation between the alkaline-earth metal content and the spectroscopic parameters such as absorption and emission cross sections, full widths at half-maximum and Judd-Ofelt intensity parameters. It is found that strontium ions could have more influences on the Judd-Ofelt intensity parameters and the absorption and emission cross sections than other alkaline-earth metal ions such as Mg2+, Ca2+, Ba2+. The sample containing 23 mol% strontium fluoride exhibits the maximum emission cross section of 7.58 × 10-21 cm2, the broadest full width at half-maximum of 65 nm and the longer lifetime of 8.6 ms among the alkaline-earth metal modified fluorophosphates glasses studied. The Judd-Ofelt intensity parameter W6s, the emission cross sections and the full widths at half-maximum in the Er3+-doped fluorophosphate glasses studied are larger than in the silicate and phosphate glasses.


This paper studies Bayesian filtering techniques applied to the design of advanced delay/phase tracking loops in GNSS receivers, which estimate not only direct path parameters but those of multipath. The analysis includes trade-off among realistic propagation channel models and the use of a realistic simulation framework. The proposed filtering technique implements Rao-Blackwellization of linear states and a particle filter for the nonlinear partition. Computer simulations highlight the superior performance of such method when compared to traditional DLL/PLL based schemes, approaching theoretical limits.


! We report an unusual cause of prolonged chylothorax drainage after Norwood stage one reconstruction. This 1-month-old girl ' s chylous drainage was refractory to medical treatment. Echocardiography revealed thrombosis of the superior vena cava. Upon sternotomy to remove the thrombus, we were surprised to find the ePTFE (expanded polytetrafluoroethylene) tube previously used for selective cerebral perfusion compressing the innomi-nate vein and the pericardium-based aortic arch. We performed a superior vena cava thrombectomy and shortened the ePTFE tube. Her chylothorax subsided gradually. We suggest that exter-nal compression of the venous drainage system should be considered in patients with prolonged chylothorax drainage. Once medical treatment fails, early surgical exploration may be helpful to stop the chylothorax.


BACKGROUND AND AIMS
Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) affects patients and their family members, but most reviews have focused only on patients themselves. This review synthesises evidence on the impact of IBD on family members.

METHODS
A systematic review was undertaken, searching six bibliographic databases, focusing on the impact of IBD on family members, coping strategies, and interventions. A narrative synthesis was conducted. This review was reported following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews (PRISMA).

RESULTS
3258 records were identified; 33 papers (2748 participants) were included. Three themes were identified: impact of IBD on family members; coping strategies for family members to overcome the impact of IBD; and the support needed by family members. IBD affects family members' well-being in many ways, including their emotional well-being, relationship with the patient, social life, work and finances, and leisure time and travel. Family members use adaptive coping patterns such as acceptance, developing resilience, and emotional support from others. Maladaptive coping patterns such as denial of diagnosis, self-distraction, and self-blame were also evident. Family members reported that they needed better information about IBD, support groups, and better access to a counsellor or psychologist. No studies assessed interventions to relieve family members' burden.

CONCLUSIONS
Family members of IBD patients require psychosocial support to facilitate better family function, cohesion, and enhanced coping strategies. Healthcare services should adopt a multidisciplinary care model with a bio-psycho-social approach including an IBD nurse, family therapist, and psychologist, to improve quality of life for patients and their families.


Stroke remains a leading cause of long-term disability and mortality worldwide, yet no viable treatment is readily available to the majority of stroke patients. New effective strategies for therapy are therefore urgently required to aid in limiting brain injury and/or promoting functional recovery after stroke. The experiments described in this Thesis have used models of stroke in vivo and in vitro to explore and identify some of the novel therapeutic targets against ischemic stroke. In Chapter 3, we demonstrated for the first time that direct stimulation of angiotensin II type 2 receptors (AT₂R) using a selective agonist, CGP42112, exerts neuroprotection in mice following cerebral ischemia in vitro and in vivo. We found that CGP42112 can directly protect neurons from injury following glucose deprivation. Furthermore, administration of CGP42112 reduced infarct volume and improved behavioural outcomes at 24 h after stroke. Interestingly, we also found that CGP42112 treatment in vivo enhanced regional cerebral blood flow during reperfusion and reduced cleaved/activated caspase 3 immunoreactivity in the ischemic hemisphere compared to vehicle-treated mice suggesting that the protective effect may be associated with enhanced vasodilatation and reduced neuronal apoptosis. In Chapter 4, we examined the effect of direct Mas receptor (MasR) activation using AVE0991, a selective MasR agonist, in our in vitro and in vivo models of stroke. In this study, we showed for the first time that AVE0991 can directly protect neurons subjected to glucose deprivation in vitro, but this protective effect failed to successfully translate to our in vivo model of stroke. In Chapter 5, we tested whether targeting a broad spectrum of chemokines using a novel type of chemokine binding protein (CBP) can reduce infiltration of leukocytes into the brain and improve stroke outcomes. We found that intravenous administration of CBP can effectively block increases in plasma levels of chemokines CCL2/MCP-1 and CXCL2/MIP-2 for at least the first 48 h after stroke. We also found that CBP treatment attenuated leukocyte infiltration into brain, neurological deficit and infarct volume at 24 h, but CBP was no longer protective at 48 h after stroke. These findings suggest that post-stroke CBP treatment exert temporary neuroprotection by retarding but not preventing leukocyte infiltration into the brain, thereby delaying infarct development and neurological deficits. In Chapter 6, we examined changes in the brain expression of numerous miRNA and their target genes after stroke, and particularly focused on changes in miR-367 following ischemia with or without reperfusion. Our main findings reveal miR-367 as a critical player in mediating gene expression and regulation that are associated with neuronal activation and oxidative stress. Interestingly, the study also demonstrated for the first time that miR-367 may play an important role in chemerin-signaling network after stroke. However, the underlying mechanism and clinical relevance remain unclear. Collectively, the findings of this Thesis provide novel insights into some mechanisms of injury and potential therapeutic targets in the ischemic brain, revealing new strategies that could be developed for use in combination with vessel recanalization.


Cytomegalovirus (CMV) reactivation is one of the most frequent complication after hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (HSCT). Pre-transplant CMV-positive recipient serostatus is the most significant independent variable for viral reactivation.

Oral valgancyclovir (VGCV) is a prodrug of intravenous gancyclovir (GCV) and is an effective and safety alternative for the management of CMV reactivation prophylaxis and preemptive therapy. However, VGCV at standard dose (900 mg twice a day) increases risk of myelosuppression in HSCT recipients.

The efficacy of low dose (LD, 450 mg daily) oral VGCV was retrospectively evaluated in 30 allogeneic HLA-matched related patients and 2 unrelated, with a median age of 40 years (range, 18-59) and a median follow-up of 30 months (range, 3-56). Primary diseases were acute myeloid leukemia (AML, n=19), acute lymphoblastic leukemia (n=4), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (n=3), multiple myeloma (n=3) and myelodysplastic syndrome (n=3). Seventeen of twenty-three acute leukemia (AL) patients were transplanted in first complete remission (CR), while the remaining (n=6) were transplanted in 2nd CR. Five patients suffered from AML secondary to long-lasting MDS (n=3) or Hodgkin disease and breast cancer (n=2).

Based upon CMV serostatus (D/R, donor/recipient), thirty (94%) of HSCT recipients were classified as high risk (D-/R+ = 3 and D+/R+ = 27) for CMV reactivation and only 6% as low risk (D-/R- = 2); none of the patients was in the intermediate risk group (D+/R-).

Fifteen and 17 patients received a myeloablative and RIC regimens, respectively. Twenty-one patients received GvHD prophylaxis with cyclosporin A (CsA, 1 mg/kg intravenously from day -1 to +21, then 8 mg/kg orally for at least 6 months) and short-course methotrexate (MTX, 10 mg/kg on days +1, +3, +6 and +11). The others (n=11) received CsA with MTX and antithymocyte globulin (ATG, as a part of the conditioning regimen at 10 mg/kg at days -3, -2 and -1). According to the Glucksberg scoring system, thirteen patients experienced grade I-II and two grade III-IV acute GvHD, while 7 patients developed limited (n=6, 18%) and extensive (n=3, 10%) chronic GvHD.

Starting from time of engraftment, LD oral VGCV was given prophylactically for at least 6 months. CMV infection was monitored weekly using polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in high risk seropositive recipients and we started preemptive therapy when the peak viral load exceeding 1000 copies/mL in two consecutive plasma samples.

Six patients (4 early and 2 late) developed a positive PCR after a mean of 59 days post-HSCT successfully treated with 900 mg of VGCV twice a day for at least when PCR negative (in a median of 12 days). Only one patient developed late fatal gastrointestinal CMV disease. Indeed, asymptomatic early and late CMV-DNA PCR reactivation occurred only in 17% (n=5) of high risk seropositive HSCT recipients, in contrast to 37% and 18% of early and late CMV reactivation observed in matched gender, disease phase, graft source and CMV serostatus cohort of 32 HSCT recipients treated prophylactically with oral acyclovir (ACV, 15 mg/kg daily) and high dose intravenous immunoglobulins (IVIG, 0.4 gr/kg weekly for at least 6 months) .

Seven patients presented hematological toxicity do not requiring drug discontinuation. The rate of non CMV-related infections was 25% and was similar in both groups with and without CMV reactivation. At the end of the follow-up, 18 of 32 (56%) patients were alive with a median follow-up of 31 months (range, 2-56). Relapsed-related mortality was 20%, transplant-related mortality was 9% and did not differ between group with and without CMV reactivation.

Our data provide evidence that LD-VGCV is safe and effective as CMV reactivation prophylaxis in allogeneic HSCT recipients. These results require further validation in randomized studies.

Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


varies directly with the temperature, a change of one degree in the latter producing a change of o.oi8 in the former. Besides, the setting increased systematically about o.oio a month. 6. The reading of the nadir-point varies { ¿SSiy \ as temperature for circle a temperature change of one degree producing a. change of o".i5 in the reading of the nadir-point. 7. The flexure is quite constant, its mean value being + o".i6 dz 0".02Ó. 8. Cold and moist weather causes a separation of the piers ; dry and hot weather, the reverse. Armin O. Leuschner. Lick Observatory, March, 1890.


The contrast is a major factor influencing the image quality; therefore, image contrast enhancement technique is more and more widely applied in the field of image processing. In this paper, a new fuzzy rule-based contrast enhancement method using the two-steps automatic clustering algorithm is proposed. Specifically, based on the Automatic clustering algorithm, a state-of-art method in cluster analysis and data mining, this paper proposes a two-steps Automatic clustering method to determine the number of fuzzy sets and locate the critical point in membership functions so that they are suitable for the distribution of pixel intensity values. The experiments on the "Lena" image and other natural images demonstrate that the new method can effectively enhance the contrast of the images and meet the demands of human eyes perception at the same time.This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium provided the original work is properly cited.


The effect of random height variations associated with a conducting surface upon the characteristics of reflected wave energy is ascertained by the methods of physical optics. Average received powers its variance, angular and frequency power spectra, and the field correlation pattern are determined in terms of the statistical parameters of the surface. Volume type problems are treated by ascertaining the effect of refractive index fluctuations within a slab upon an emergent wavefront, and then generalizing to a continuous medium. The results are applied to various problems encountered in tropospheric and ionospheric wave propagation.


Brucella is one of the major zoonotic pathogens worldwide, and it is responsible for enormous economic losses as well as considerable human morbidity in endemic areas. The organism infects animals such as swine, cattle, goat, sheep, and dogs. Humans can become infected indirectly through contact with infected animals or by animal products consumption. Brucellosis occurs worldwide, but it is well controlled in most developed countries. The disease is rare in industrialized nations because of routine screening of domestic livestock and animal vaccination programmes. Clinical disease is still common in the Middle East, Asia, Africa, South and Central America, the Mediterranean Basin, and the Caribbean. This review article aims to describe the prevalence of brucellosis in some countries where data are available around different regions of world, and risk factors associated infections according regression models.


present a chronological development of Husserl's philosophical system, Volumes V--IX are devoted to the correspondence partners in philosophy. The last volume consists of an extensive Introduction and a variety of indexes to all volumes in the set.


Human osteosarcomas frequently show loss of alÃ-eleson chromosome 17 as well as those on chromosome 13 that harbors the retinoblastoma gene, indicating concerted operation of another tumor-suppressing gene on chromosome 17. To assign the affected gene to a defined region of chromosome 17, we performed mitotic recombination/deletion mapping by the use of 10 polymorphic loci on chromosome 17. Of 37 tumors studied, 28 (75.7%) showed loss of heterozygosity on chromosome 17. The affected regions varied among tumors, ranging in extent from a whole chromosome to a distal segment of the short arm. However, alÃ-eleloss in one region, notably in 17pl3 between D17S1 and D17S30, was common to all 28 tumors, suggesting the presence of a tumor-suppressing gene in this defined region.


This paper analyzes two alternative under bump metallurgy (UBM) structures: sputtered TiW/Ni and electroless Ni/immersion Au (ENIG), with and without Pd. Wafers were fabricated with these UBM structures, solder applied with C4NP, and chip level stressing performed to determine the robustness of these alternative stack-ups. Microelectronic packaging continues the migration from wire bond to flip chip first level interconnect (FLI) to meet aggressive requirements for improved electrical performance, reduced size and weight. Analysis of these structures following multiple reflows and thermal cycling is presented.


The Engine cylinder is one of the major automobile components, which is subjected to high temperature variations and thermal stresses. In order to cool the cylinder, fins are provided on the cylinder to increase the rate of heat transfer. By doing thermal analysis on the engine cylinder fins, it is helpful to know the heat dissipation inside the cylinder. The principle implemented in this project is to increase the heat dissipation rate by using the invisible working fluid, nothing but air. We know that, by increasing the surface area we can increase the heat dissipation rate, so designing such a large complex engine is very difficult. The main purpose of using these cooling fins is to cool the engine cylinder by any air A parametric model of piston bore fins has been developed to predict the transient thermal behavior. The parametric model is created in 3D modeling software Pro/Engineer. Thermal analysis is done on the fins to determine variation temperature distribution over time. The analysis is done using ANSYS. Analysis is conducted by varying material. Presently Material used for manufacturing fin body is Cast Iron. In this thesis, it is replaced by aluminum alloy. Transient thermal analysis is for above two materials to validate the better material for fin body. The die is prepared by first modeling the part, extracting core & cavity and generating CNC program. Die is designed in this thesis according to HASCO Standards.


The Journal of Maksipreneur (JMP) is a periodical scientific journal published by the Faculty of Economics, Universitas Proklamasi 45 (UP45) Yogyakarta, Indonesia, twice a year. This journal is intended to collect any summary of research results, scientific development writings, book reviews, as well as original ideas are fresh and challenging related to the study of development in management, cooperatives, and entrepreneurship. The editors invite academicians, researchers, and practitioners who have a great interest in the development of scholarship in these fields to submit their best work.


: Beginning in 1973, all available laboratory and field strains of bluetongue virus (BTV) from the United States were serotyped. Of the viral strains serotyped, 27 were collected from 1953 through 1972; 173 were collected from 1973 through 1977. Although 20 BTV serotypes have been found worldwide, only BTV serotypes 10, 11, 13, and 17 have been found in the United States. Since 1973, serotypes 11 and 17 have been the prevalent serotypes. Samples were collected over a 24-year period in the United States and represent a wide geographic area and diverse host sources (sheep, cattle, wild ruminants, and insect vectors). The collection was not a statistical sampling.


This study evaluated the impact of a virtual version of the Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) on healthcare utilization and costs in a Medicare Advantage population. The program was offered during 2015 to a random sample of 9,497 individuals who had metabolic syndrome or prediabetes. Program enrollees (n=501) received a 12-month virtual DPP including a wireless scale, pedometer, nutrition tracker, educational lessons, health coaching, and peer group support through an online platform. Participants with available administrative claims data during the 12 months before and 24 months following program start (n=495, mean age=69 years; 64% female; 85% white) were propensity-score matched on demographic, behavioral, and clinical factors in a ratio of 1:1 to a comparison group (n=495, selected from 6,490; mean age=69 years; 58% female; 87% white) who did not receive the DPP. In the 24 months following DPP enrollment, participants averaged 0.2 inpatient admissions, 0.3 emergency department visits, and 12.2 physician visits, compared to 0.2, 0.4, and 12.0 for controls. While the utilization values do not show a large change, a difference-in-differences regression analysis of total medical and pharmacy cost for 24 months following program start showed cost savings. The adjusted difference-in-differences effect on average cumulative cost difference was $1,110 per participant, or $46.25/month. Medical and pharmacy costs were consistently lower for participants in the post-program year. Pharmacy savings were statistically significant during the last 6 months, with a 24-month cumulative adjusted savings of $408. These cost estimates do not include the cost of the program. Results suggest that a virtual DPP can change the pattern of utilization and reduce costs in a Medicare population. Disclosure V. Chiguluri: None. D. Barthold: None. R. Gumpina: None. C. Castro Sweet: Employee; Self; Omada Health, Inc.. J. Pieratt: None. T.A. Cordier: Employee; Self; Humana Inc.. Stock/Shareholder; Self; Humana Inc.. R. Matanich: None. A. Renda: None. T.G. Prewitt: None.


In the frame of optimization process in industrial framework, where numerical simulation is used at some stage, the same problem, modeled with partial differential equations depending on a parameter has to be solved many times for different sets of parameters. The reduced basis method may be successful in this frame and recent progress have permitted to make the computations reliable thanks to a posteriori estimators and to extend the method to non linear problems thanks to the "magic points" interpolation. However, it may not always be possible to use the code (for example of finite element type that allows for evaluating the elements of the reduced basis) to perform all the "off-line" computations required for an efficient performance of the reduced basis method. We propose here an alternating approach based on a coarse grid finite element the convergence of which is accelerated through the reduced basis and an improved post processing.


The purpose of this study was to compare the backward two and one half somersault dive in a tuck position (205C) performed by females (n = 22) and the backward two and one half somersault dive in a pike position (205B) performed by males (n = 27) and by females (n = 6) to determine changes required by females to successfully perform 205B. Video data of the dives performed at the 1999 FINA World Diving Cup were captured and digitised to obtain times and postures of the divers at specific events including maximum depression, takeoff, and entry. Estimates of mass-normalised work done on the springboard were obtained from flight times. Males performed 31% more mass-normalised work on the springboard to gain height than females. Based on the dive scores and the short time to extend and prepare for entry it was concluded that females are not yet able to perform 205B with the same quality as they perform 205C. Females performing backward dives need to adjust their techniques to allow increased work on the springboard to generate height and rotation. Also, faster contraction of the hip flexors may allow them to achieve the tightest position more quickly to complete rotations with more time to prepare for entry.


Life exists in water as universal solvent, and cells need to deal with its influx and efflux. Nature has accomplished the almost impossible, creating membrane channels with both a high flux and a high specificity for water. The first water channel was discovered in red blood cell membranes. Today known as aquaporin-1, this channel was found to be closely related to the major integral protein (MIP)1 of the eye lens. Cloning and sequencing of numerous related proteins of the MIP family revealed the widespread occurrence of such channels, suggesting an essential physiological function. Their structures hold the clues to the remarkable water channel activity, as well as to the arrangement of transmembrane segments in general. Recent medium-resolution three-dimensional electron microscopic studies determined a tetrameric complex with six tilted transmembrane helices per monomer. The helices within each monomer surround a central density formed by two interhelical loops implicated by mutagenesis in the water channel function. A combination of sequence analysis and assignment of the observed densities to predicted helices provides a basis for speculation on the nature of the water course through the protein. In particular, four highly conserved polar residues, E142-N192-N76-E17, are proposed to form a chain of key groups involved in the pathway of water flow through the channel.


Pseudomonas fluorescens PICF7, an indigenous inhabitant of olive roots, displays an endophytic lifestyle in this woody crop and exerts biocontrol against the fungal phytopathogen Verticillium dahliae Here we report microscopy evidence that the strain PICF7 is also able to colonize and persist on or in wheat and barley root tissues. Root colonization of both cereal species followed a similar pattern to that previously reported in olive, including inner colonization of the root hairs. This demonstrates that strain PICF7 can colonize root systems of distant botanical species. Barley plants germinated from PICF7-treated seeds showed enhanced vegetative growth. Moreover, significant increases in the number of grains (up to 19.5%) and grain weight (up to 20.5%) per plant were scored in this species. In contrast, growth and yield were not significantly affected in wheat plants by the presence of PICF7. Proteomics analysis of the root systems revealed that different proteins were exclusively found depending on the presence or absence of PICF7 and only one protein with hydrogen ion transmembrane transporter activity was exclusively found in both PICF7-inoculated barley and wheat plants but not in the controls.


The Asymmetry consists of two claims. (A) That a possible person's life would be abjectly miserable –less than worth living – counts against bringing that person into existence. But (B) that a distinct possible person's life would be worth living or even well worth living does not count in favour of bringing that person into existence. In recent years, the view that the two halves of the Asymmetry are jointly untenable has become increasingly entrenched. If we say all persons matter morally whether they exist or not and on that basis try to explain the first half of the Asymmetry, we lose the second half of the Asymmetry. If we say that some persons do not matter morally and some do and on that basis try to explain the second half of the Asymmetry, we lose the first half of the Asymmetry – or else find ourselves with a principle that is either inconsistent or otherwise deeply troubled in some way that has nothing to do with the content of the Asymmetry itself. In this article, I propose an alternative approach to the Asymmetry which I will call Variabilism. By understanding each and every person, whether existing or not, to matter morally but variably– such that the moral significance of any loss incurred by any person is considered to depend, not on who incurs that loss and whether that person matters morally, but rather on where that loss is incurred in relation to the person who incurs it – we can both nicely ground the two halves of the Asymmetry and avoid the conceptual difficulties that have plagued competing approaches.


This chapter explores how copyright protection of photographs is shaped by the dual nature of photography as both creative expression and a system of recording reality. Starting with the Supreme Court's 1884 Burrow-Giles Lithographic Co. v. Sarony opinion, the chapter explains how under American copyright law a photograph will have copyright protection only if it has original expression; that original expression can take the form of composition, selection of background, lighting, angle, shading, positioning of subjects, and a whole variety of "inputs" in the process of creating the photograph. Indeed, reading court decisions carefully it is clear that courts look for creativity less in the final photographs and more in the process of photography (including choice of camera, filters, lenses, and processing techniques, both analog and digital).

The chapter describes how we can generally organize the recognized sources of copyrightable expression in a photograph into three categories:

[a] creative choices in constructing the scene;

[b] creative choices in initial image capture, and

[c] creative choices in manipulating the image.

The chapter then explores what this legal framework means for modern practices, concluding that many photographic and audiovisual records do not merit copyright protection; that photojournalists will often have only "thin" copyright protection over their work; that copyright law is only a very limited tool against "deep fakes;" and that most selfies do get at least some copyright protection.

The chapter concludes with a discussion of the fair use doctrine and how the emergence of "transformative use" analysis threatens the work of freelance photographers far more than other creative professionals. Fortunately, it appears that appellate courts have recognized that concern and have appropriately dialed back "transformative use" analysis as it applies to photography.


A new voltage source converter control approach is presented, based on multivariable z-domain control techniques. Using time-averaging theory in the synchronous reference frame, a linear time-varying model of the converter is developed. The new model may be directly employed as an efficient simulation tool and used as a basis for developing discrete time inverter controls. Application of digital control techniques results in current step tracking in one switching period, with zero overshoot. While DC load fluctuations are rapidly compensated through nonlinear feedforward, AC system voltage disturbances are rejected through a positive and negative sequence bias estimation scheme. As a result, the converter may operate at its current limit under even severe AC voltage unbalance and only a balanced AC current will flow, thus ensuring full protection of the semiconductor devices in all three converter legs. Experimental results validate both the time-varying simulation model as well as the proposed control design.


Abstract Objective: The objective of this retrospective study was to describe the health status of children with type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) in foster care. Research design and methods: A retrospective chart review of children with T1DM in foster care at the Children's Hospital at Montefiore (CHAM) in Bronx, NY, USA, was performed. Results: All patients were either African American or Hispanic and raised by single mothers. The majority of referrals were for medical neglect. The time spent in foster care ranged from 1 to 7 years, with 1–12 placements. Only two children were reunified with their biological mothers. Extensive financial burdens on the health-care system for children with diabetes including prolonged hospitalizations awaiting placement, frequent hospital admissions, and support services were noted. Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first report on children with T1DM in foster care. Poor glycemic control and suboptimal social outcomes were noted in the children we report in our case series. Programs geared to improve and reform foster care for children with diabetes are needed.


The remarkable sensitivity of depleted silicon to ionizing radiation is a nuisance to astronomers. 'Cosmic rays' degrade images because of struck pixels, leading to modified observing strategies and the development of algorithms to remove the unwanted artifacts. In the new-generation CCD's with thick sensitive regions, cosmic-ray muons make recognizable straight tracks and there is enhanced sensitivity to ambient gamma radiation via Compton-scattered electrons ('worms'). Beta emitters inside the dewar, for example high-potassium glasses such as BK7 , also produce worm-like tracks. The cosmic-ray muon rate is irreducible and increases with altitude. The gamma rays are mostly by- products of 40K decay and the U and Th decay chains; these elements commonly appear as traces in concrete and other materials. The Compton recoil event rate can be reduced significantly by the choice of materials in the environment and dewar and by careful shielding. Telescope domes appear to have significantly lower rates than basement laboratories and Coude spectrograph rooms. Radiation sources inside the dewar can be eliminated by judicious choice of materials. Cosmogenic activation during high-altitude fights does not appear to be a problem. Our conclusion are supported by tests at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory low-level counting facilities in Berkeley and at Oroville, California (180 m underground).


There are a large number of metadata standards and initiatives that have relevance to digital preservation, e.g. those designed to support the work of national and research libraries, archives and digitization initiatives. This paper introduces some of these, noting that the developers of some have acknowledged the importance of maintaining or re-using existing metadata. It is argued here that the implementation of metadata registries as part of a digital preservation system may assist repositories in enabling the management and re-use of this metadata and may also help interoperability, namely the exchange of metadata and information packages between repositories.


European Union (EU) programs envisage local strategies of development as a crucial element for development. EU funds can be supplemented and cannot be the only source of financing of local development. EU policies can have substantial impact on local development particularly in peripheral/less developed areas. The EU pre-enlargement supports and instruments are completed in 2006. Among the new EU sources for local development are structural funds, European Social Fund and European Regional Development Fund. Besides regional programs, there are opportunities from other EU programs such as EQUAL, Leader+ and Urban II. Territorial administrative regional/sub-regional levels are important for EU policies, economic development on the territory and supports for regional development. The use of regions provides opportunities for access to EU funds and cooperation with regional institutions. Up to 2006 Slovenia is eligible for funds of Objective 1 from European structural and cohesion policies. It is unclear whether Slovenia is eligible for these funds EU during financial perspective 2007-2013. The Slovenian level of GDP per capita is greater than the benchmark of the 75% of the EU average. The implications can be for north-eastern parts of Slovenia vis-a-vis the cross-border areas in Hungary and probably in Croatia.


Objective: This study aims to assess the health-related quality of life (HRQoL) of patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD) at a charity in Salgueiro, Brazil, in order to support the design of public policies that improve the quality of life. life. Method: Methodologically, it is a descriptive quantitative study, with a prospective transversal cohort approach. The instrument used was the Health Utilities Index (HUI), in which patients on hemodialysis self-evaluated and had their health status assessed by the responsible physicians. Theoretical basis: There are few studies evaluating the impact of medical treatment on the HRQoL of patients in Brazil, mainly in relation to CKD. In this way, this study was based on several works that approach the subject, such as Romão Junior (2004), Furlong et al. (2001), Rodrigues (2011), Del Nero (2002), Sesso et al. (2016), Carvalho (2012) and Melo et al. (2000). Results: The results showed that the majority of patients and doctors considered that the treatment impaired health-related quality of life. Conclusions/contributions: The results of the research suggest that managers of basic public health policies can launch measures that aim to make the community aware of the problems that most cause CKD, such as hypertension and diabetes.


Introduction The UN estimates 200 million women and girls worldwide are living with the effects of female genital mutilation (FGM), with 137,000 victims in England and Wales. Following the introduction of the amended FGM Act 2003 in October 2015, I reported that 1385 new cases were identified in England in the quarter before the new law and 1316 in the quarter following. In keeping with my aim, I have reviewed the data from the year following the new legislation, to determine its effect. Methods Using hscic and NHS digital data, combined with reports from UN and WHO, I analysed the 12 months following the legislation change. I also searched Ministry of Justice reports to study how many FGM protection orders (FGMPOs) and convictions have been made. Results Data revealed similar numbers of new cases of FGM reported in each 3-month period since October 2015 (1242, 1293 and 1204 respectively). However, there are large gaps in the data. Since July 2015, there have been 97 applications for FGMPOs and 79 orders. There have still been no FGM related convictions in the UK, despite 32 cases being reported to have happened in the UK between January and September 2016. Discussion The results are disappointing and we are yet to see substantial change. £4million has been spent and 22,000 FGM training sessions have been delivered but we are still failing to report properly and prosecute offenders. To achieve 2015's Sustainable Development Goals, the UK must play its part to help end FGM.


The impact of a jet of droplets upon surfaces of varying hydrophobicity is studied via high-speed imaging. Microstructures on silicone surfaces consisting of cylindrical pillars of varying sizes and spacings are utilized to enhance hydrophobicity. Comparison of droplet motion after impact with these microstructured surfaces is contrasted with that noted for plain glass (hydrophilic) and flat silicone surfaces. Fluid dynamics videos are captured at 6000 fps and played back at 30 fps over a field of view of 1.35 cm (height) X 2.7 cm (width) that is back-illuminated with an LED array for 800-micron diameter droplets impinging the surfaces at 2.5 m/s with an angle of incidence of 38 degrees (relative to the surface). Bouncing of droplets after impact is not apparent for the glass and unstructured silicone cases, though many droplets were observed to roll along the surface in the latter case which is consistent with its slightly hydrophobic nature. In contrast, droplets were found to both skip and bounce upon impacting the microstructured surfaces which indicates a significant enhancement in hydrophobicity due to these surface features.


This dissertation explores novel data security and privacy problems in the emerging smart grid. The need for data security and privacy spans the whole life cycle of the data in the smart grid, across the phases of data acquisition, local processing and archiving, collaborative processing, and finally sharing and archiving. The first two phases happen in the private domains of an individual utility company, where data are collected from the power system and processed at the local facilities. When data are being acquired and processed in the private domain, data security is the most critical concern. The key question is how to ensure the data availability and integrity for their uses in the private domain and later in the public space. Hence, we devote Chapter 2 to the vulnerability assessment of the phasor network, which deals with the data security in the private domain. After the initial two phases, some of the data enter the public space. In the public space, data privacy is another challenging requirement on top of data security. We select three aspects of data privacy issues in the smart grid to illustrate the how the new technologies like cloud computing, homomorphic encryption, and advanced cryptography can form a synergy to solve these problems. Chapter 3 introduces a solution of secure outsourcing of dynamic simulations leveraging cloud computing; Chapter 4 presents a multiparty privacy-preserving spectrum estimation; Chapter 5 put forward a new mechanism for secure storage and sharing of power flow data for situational awareness.


In this paper, we consider the Gaussian process (GP) bandit optimization problem in a non-stationary environment. To capture external changes, the black-box function is allowed to be time-varying within a reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS). To this end, we develop WGP-UCB, a novel UCB-type algorithm based on weighted Gaussian process regression. A key challenge is how to cope with infinite-dimensional feature maps. To that end, we leverage kernel approximation techniques to prove a sublinear regret bound, which is the first (frequentist) sublinear regret guarantee on weighted time-varying bandits with general nonlinear rewards. This result generalizes both non-stationary linear bandits and standard GP-UCB algorithms. Further, a novel concentration inequality is achieved for weighted Gaussian process regression with general weights. We also provide universal upper bounds and weight-dependent upper bounds for weighted maximum information gains. These results are of independent interest for applications such as news ranking and adaptive pricing, where weights can be adopted to capture the importance or quality of data. Finally, we conduct experiments to highlight the favorable gains of the proposed algorithm in many cases when compared to existing methods.


Cdc2, a catalytic subunit of cyclin-dependent kinases, is required for both the G1-to-S and G2-to-M transitions in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe. Cdc13, a B-type cyclin, is required for the M-phase induction function of Cd2. Two additional B-type cyclins, Cig1 and Cig2, have been identified in S. pombe, but none of the B-type cyclins are individually required for the onset of S. We report that Cdc13 is important for DNA replication in a strain lacking Cig2. Unlike deltacdc13 cells, double-mutant deltacdc13 deltacig2 cells are defective in undergoing multiple rounds of DNA replication. The conclusion that Cig2 promotes S is further supported by the finding that Cig2 protein and Cig2-associated kinase activity appear soon after the completion of M and peak during S, as well as the observation that S is delayed in deltacig2 cells as they recover from a G1 arrest induced by nitrogen starvation. These studies indicate that Cig2 is the primary S-phase-promoting cyclin in S. pombe but that Cdc13 can effectively substitute for Cig2 in deltacig2 cells. These observations also suggest that the gradual increase in the activity of Cdc2-Cdc13 kinase can be sufficient for the correct temporal ordering of S and M phases in deltacig2 cells.


This article studies the usages of texture analysis methods to classify ultrasonic rotator cuff images into the different disease groups that are normal, tendon inflammation, calcific tendonitis and tendon tear. The adopted texture analysis methods include the texture feature coding method, gray-level co-occurrence matrix, fractal dimension and texture spectrum. The texture features of the four methods are used to analyze the tissue characteristic of supraspinatus tendon. The mutual information feature selection and F-scoring feature ranking method are independently used to select powerful features from the four texture analysis methods. Furthermore, the trained radial basis function network is used to classify the test images into the ones of four disease group. Experimental results tested on 85 images reveal that the classification accuracy of proposed system can achieves 84%.


The recent rapid growth of algorithmic high‐frequency trading strategies makes it a very interesting time to revisit the long‐standing debates about the efficiency of stock prices and the best way to model the actions of market participants. To evaluate the evolution of stock price predictability at the millisecond timeframe and to examine whether it is consistent with the newly formed adaptive market hypothesis, we develop three artificial stock markets using a strongly typed genetic programming (STGP) trading algorithm. We simulate real‐life trading by applying STGP to millisecond data of the three highest capitalized stocks: Apple, Exxon Mobil, and Google and observe that profit opportunities at the millisecond time frame are better modelled through an evolutionary process involving natural selection, adaptation, learning, and dynamic evolution than by using conventional analytical techniques. We use combinations of forecasting techniques as benchmarks to demonstrate that different heuristics enable artificial traders to be ecologically rational, making adaptive decisions that combine forecasting accuracy with speed.


A currently discussed approach to increase efficiency during task execution, inter alia to reduce error rates and execution times, is the utilization of headset-based augmented reality systems (HARS). Additional to direct task support, HARSes can offer workflow management and control functions. However, these are only covered very limitedly by existing design-oriented approaches. Thus, users have to resort to additional devices, decreasing efficiency, and usability. Based on a three-step systematic literature analysis and two focus groups, we present a novel tentative design theory for HARSes supporting the full range of workflow management and control functions. Our design theory consists of four design requirements and nine design principles and is the basis for a software artifact prototype. Both our tentative design theory and software artifact are formatively evaluated by a third focus group. Our contributions add to the prescriptive knowledge base of the community and may be adapted by researchers and practitioners.


Abstract. We present an architecture-portable and performant implementation of the atmospheric dynamical core (HOMME) of the Energy Exascale Earth System Model (E3SM). The original Fortran implementation is highly performant and scalable on conventional architectures using MPI and OpenMP. We rewrite the model in C++ and use the Kokkos library to express on-node parallelism in a largely architecture-independent implementation. Kokkos provides an abstraction of a compute node or device, layout-polymorphic multidimensional arrays, and parallel execution constructs. The new implementation achieves the same or better performance on conventional multicore computers and is portable to GPUs. We present performance data for the original and new implementations on multiple platforms, on up to 5400 compute nodes, and study several aspects of the single- and multi-node performance characteristics of the new implementation on conventional CPU, Intel Xeon Phi Knights Landing, and Nvidia V100 GPU.


This article provides the contribution of private forest to household income. Private forest has the ecological and economic functions. One of the ecological functions is hydro-orological function, while the economic function is as one of the income source for the owner.  This article used the secondary data from the survey of Upper Cimanuk Watershed Management at 1996. The results of the research indicate that the contributions of private forest to the total income of household are different: for upper zone (31,5%), middle zone (5,6%) and lower zone (10,2%). Those differences are highly correlated with the extent degree of land fertility.


To address the problem of customer churn in CRM in manufacturing industry, this paper proposes a prediction model based on Support Vector Machine (SVM). Considering the large-scale and imbalanced churn data, principal component analysis (PCA) is adopted to reduce dimensions and eliminate redundant information, which makes the sample space for SVM more compact and reasonable. An improved SVM is used to predict customer churn. Firstly, PCA is adopted to process 17 dimensional feature vectors of customer churn data, and then the application in manufacturing industry verifies that this model based on both PCA and SVM performs better than the model based on SVM only and other traditional models.


The interobserver reliability of lumbar spinal signs is low for many signs but little has been published on the ability of training to improve this. This small study describes the interobserver reliability of some common lumbar spinal signs and the effect of a brief training intervention on this reliability. Four subjects with low back pain underwent a lumbar spinal examination by four doctors. Posture, pain on movement, leg length inequality and tenderness was tested. After a 40 minute session comparing findings an d examination techniques, the four doctors examined a different four subjects with low back pain. Kappa coefficients of agreement on the eight subjects' findings were moderate for scoliosis, poor for iliac crest height and only fair for the forwards flexion test. Agreement was substantial to almost perfect for pain ion movement tests. Agreement for tests of leg length inequality was slight to moderate and was moderate to substantial for regional tenderness. Agreement was essentially unchanged before and after training for fourteen of the eighteen tests. However, agreement decreased after training for forward flexion test, pain on flexion, left iliac crest tenderness and left buttock tenderness. These decreases may have resulted from small sample sizes and differences in the subjects between sessions. Nonetheless, the results suggest that far more than 40 minutes training is required to improve agreement between doctors examining the lumbar spine. (author abstract)


In this manuscript, we report our investigation of anode materials for Li-ion batteries based on silicon-graphene oxide composites. Previous reports in the literature on silicon-graphene oxide (GO) composites as anodes have shown a large discrepancy between the electrochemical properties, mainly capacity and coulombic efficiency. In our research, the surface chemistry of Si nanoparticles has been functionalized to yield a chemical bond between the Si and GO, a further annealing step yields a Si-reduced GO (Si-rGO) composite while controlled experiments have been carried on mechanical mixing of GO and Si. For all samples, including a simple mixing of Si nanoparticles and GO, a high specific capacity of 2000 mA h g(Si)(-1) can be achieved for 50 cycles. The main difference between the samples can be observed in terms of coulombic efficiency, which will determine the future of these composites in full Li-ion cells. The Si-rGO composite shows a very low capacity fading and a coulombic efficiency above 99%. Furthermore, the Si-rGO composite can be cycled at very high rate to 20 C (charge in 3 minutes).


We consider the problem of checking whether a partial implementation can (still) be extended to a complete design which is equivalent to a given full specification. Several algorithms trading off accuracy and computational resources are presented: starting with a simple 0,1,X-based simulation, which allows approximate solutions, but is not able to find all errors in the partial implementation, we consider more and more exact methods finally covering all errors detectable in the partial implementation. The exact algorithm reports no error if and only if the current partial implementation conforms to the specification, i.e. it can be extended to a full implementation which is equivalent to the specification. We give a series of experimental results demonstrating the effectiveness and feasibility of the methods presented.


Drilling tubulars typically function under large static and dynamic axial loads. The axial load causes curvature in the tubing and when loads are excessive, sections of tubing are forced in contact with the borehole wall. This causes excessive wear and fatigue and leads to failure of the tubing. The feasibility of inferring the incidence of curvature in the tubing and the increase in the attenuation level due to wall contact was investigated with pulse propagation tests on sections of drill tubing. Propagation speed and attenuation as a function of frequency were estimated from impulse response data using a nonlinear least‐squares inversion technique. The changes in dispersion of phase speed and attenuation levels were used to identify changes in wall contact condition. Further, attenuation levels were also used to identify the presence of tubing curvature through the resultant coupling between axial and bending waves.


Asmaradana short story has one face, but exists on two worlds. In one side, it show postmodern world and on the other side show its feminism thread. This short story justified being had one face because between postmodernism and feminism offer critic that deep and extensive reach to philosophy and its correlation with broaden culture. Both try to develop new paradigm of social critic, which not based on traditional philosophical basis. This short story exists on two worlds because postmodernism community offers complex and complicated critics to foundationalism and essentialism. However, their social critic's conception tends to have weak power. The existence of Asmaradana short story between postmodernism and feminism theme making this short story have liminal character


Summary This paper makes a critical review of some of the many previous attempts at identifying and classifying tills from morainicand associated landforms and comments on the deficiencies of these as a basis for an engineering classification system. A new approach to the classification of till is suggested, which it is claimed, is suitable for both engineering and some geological purposes. This new system is then applied to a number of tills from the West Highlands of Scotland and some reported gradings of tills from other countries.


Deep neural networks obtained by standard training have been constantly plagued by adversarial examples. Although adversarial training demonstrates its capability to defend against adversarial examples, unfortunately, it leads to an inevitable drop in the natural generalization. To address the issue, we decouple the natural generalization and the robust generalization from joint training and formulate different training strategies for each one. Specifically, instead of minimizing a global loss on the expectation over these two generalization errors, we propose a hi-expert framework called Generalist where we simultaneously train base learners with task-aware strategies so that they can specialize in their own fields. The parameters of base learners are collected and combined to form a global learner at intervals during the training process. The global learner is then distributed to the base learners as initialized parameters for continued training. Theoretically, we prove that the risks of Generalist will get lower once the base learners are well trained. Extensive experiments verify the applicability of Generalist to achieve high accuracy on natural examples while maintaining considerable robustness to adversarial ones. Code is available at https://github.com/PKU-ML/Generalist.


Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is the most frequent primary neoplasm of the liver, and is the fourth most common malignancy worldwide. It is also the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Most cases of HCC develop on a pre-existing chronic liver disease, usually due to hepatitis C virus (HCV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), or alcohol. However, between 15% and 50% of HCC develops in the absence of a known etiology of liver disease, and different lines of evidence identify in non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) a possible relevant risk factor for occurrence of HCC. Insulin resistance (IR), steatosis, oxidative stress and imbalances in adipokine/cytokine interplay, the most important factors involved in NAFLD pathogenesis and progression, could also have a determinant role in liver carcinogenesis by promoting cellular growth and DNA damage. Recently, behavioral therapy and various insulin sensitizing agents have been tested in the treatment of NAFLD. A number of studies suggest that these approaches improve IR and reduce steatosis, necroinflammation and fibrosis. A potential role of these therapeutic strategies in the prevention of hepatocarcinogenesis can thus be envisaged.


Material characteristics and input-field specifics limit controllability of nonlinear electromagnetic-field interactions. As these nonlinear interactions could be exploited to create strongly localized bright and dark waves, such as nonlinear surface polaritons, ameliorating this limitation is important. We present our approach to amelioration, which is based on a surface-polaritonic waveguide reconfiguration that enables excitation, propagation and coherent control of coupled dark rogue waves having orthogonal polarizations. Our control mechanism is achieved by finely tuning laser-field intensities and their respective detuning at the interface between the atomic medium and the metamaterial layer. In particular, we utilize controllable electromagnetically induced transparency windows commensurate with surface-polaritonic polarization-modulation instability to create symmetric and asymmetric polaritonic frequency combs associated with dark localized waves. Our method takes advantage of an atomic self-defocusing nonlinearity and dark rogue-wave propagation to obtain a sufficient condition for generating phase singularities. Underpinning this method is our theory which incorporates dissipation and dispersion due to the atomic medium being coupled to nonlinear surface-polaritonic waves. Consequently, our waveguide configuration acts as a bimodal polaritonic frequency-comb generator and high-speed phase rotator, thereby opening prospects for phase singularities in nanophotonic and quantum communication devices.


The authors describe the successful treatment of a 17-year-old female with comorbid type 1 diabetes mellitus and anorexia nervosa within the context of a residential program in a tertiary care facility. Assessment and treatment of the complex combinations of the psychological and medical symptoms involved in this patient required the interaction of medical, psychological, and nutritional services. Diagnostic and treatment challenges are discussed.


Abstract. Design and experimental realization of C-band superfluorescent fiber sources using a well-designed high reflector/filter of fiber Bragg grating (FBG) in three configurations, namely double-pass forward (DPF), double-pass backward (DPB), and DPF+DPB, is realized. Using a numerical method, the optimum length and peak absorption coefficient of erbium-doped fiber as well as the optimum specifications of FBG, i.e., its 3-dB bandwidth and central wavelength, are calculated. Our numerical calculations illustrate that an appropriate design may result in a flattened amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) output spectrum with a 3-dB bandwidth of about 22 nm and a central wavelength of 1550 nm. Furthermore, the peak power of the flattened ASE spectrum is 16 dBm larger than the power at a wavelength of 1530 nm that is beneficial for increasing the 3-dB bandwidth. The experimental results show that using an optimum design, there are negligible differences between ASE output spectra acquired by different double-pass configurations. However, the DPB configuration has a higher efficiency as compared with other configurations and can provide a C-band superfluorescent fiber source with a simultaneously good spectral flatness, <0.73  dB, high output power of 12 dBm, and maximum 3-dB bandwidth of about 22 nm.


Elementary mathematical functions are pervasively used in many applications such as electronic calculators, computer simulations, or critical embedded systems. Their evaluation is always an approximation, which usually makes use of mathematical properties, precomputed tabulated values, and polynomial approximations. Each step generally combines error of approximation and error of evaluation on finite-precision arithmetic. When they are used, tabulated values generally embed rounding error inherent to the transcendence of elementary functions. In this article, we propose a general method to use error-free values that is worthy when two or more terms have to be tabulated in each table row. For the trigonometric and hyperbolic functions, we show that Pythagorean triples can lead to such tables in little time and memory usage. When targeting correct rounding in double precision for the same functions, we also show that this method saves memory and floating-point operations by up to 29 and 42 percent, respectively.


Although cancer in pregnancy is uncommon, several types of cancer were encountered. These include malignant melanoma, breast cancer, carcinoma of the cervix, bladder cancer, renal cancer, lymphomas, thyroid cancer, brain tumours, ovarian cancer, gastric and pancreatic cancer and colorectal cancer. Due to the uncommon incidence of the disease and therefore the limited experience coupled with the complexity of the situation which could affect the wellbeing of the foetus and mother, then the management of the pregnant woman with cancer might result in achieving less than the expected optimum. However, from the experience of single case reports and short reviews a reasonable management approach could be reached through multidisciplinary speciality collaboration. The author had encountered two pregnant women with colon cancer, both of them were symptomatic, and one of them had bowel obstruction. Their clinical presentation, diagnosis and management are described followed by a concise review of the literature.


Platelet Derived Growth Factor (PDGF) plays a key role in the development of fibrotic processes in several tissues. Accordingly, the PDGFβ receptor is abundantly present in these fibrotic tissues. Specific targeting to this receptor is established for a series of compounds in different animal models, all sharing the same targeting moiety, i.e. the cyclic peptide pPB. One of those compounds is pPB-HSA, which might function as carrier vehicle that binds to the PDGFβ-receptor without eliciting an intracellular response itself. When formulated as a solution for parenteral administration, targeting of fibrosis with this proteinaceous construct would involve long-term or even lifelong daily injections, which may jeopardize patient compliance. Therefore, the aim of this study was to develop a solid formulation for the sustained release of pPB-HSA and assess the delivery of the intact protein construct in vivo. pPB-HSA was encapsulated in biodegradable polymeric microspheres using a W/O/W emulsification process. Various mixtures of two semi-crystalline block copolymers consisting of poly e-caprolactone, poly ethylene glycol and poly L-lactic acid of different block ratios were used to tailor the release characteristics. The delivery and targeting of the protein construct was evaluated in vivo using a mouse unilateral ureteral obstruction (UUO) kidney fibrosis model. By varying the ratio of the two polymers, the release of the model protein HSA from the microspheres could be tailored from 7 days to 2 months without burst release. To fit the design of the in vivo study, the microsphere formulation with a 50:50 ratio of the polymers, showing a sustained first order release of 14 days, was selected for further optimization. The optimized production process resulted in an encapsulation efficiency of 83% and an in vitro release of >90% after 14 days for the final pPB-HSA formulation. The median particle size of these microspheres was 25 μm, which makes them injectable with a 21G needle. All mice were sacrificed 7 days after ureteral obstruction and microsphere administration. The obstructed kidneys developed fibrosis and showed increased PDGFβ-receptor expression. The plasma concentration of pPB-HSA in the pPB-HSA treated mice (n=3) was 15 ± 4 ng/mL. Immunohistochemical staining and western blot analysis showed the presence of pPB-HSA in the fibrotic kidney of these mice, while the sham operated kidney was negative for pPB-HSA. In conclusion, the pPB-HSA construct was successfully formulated in polymeric microspheres produced by a W/O/W method, which showed a first order release profile in vitro. Furthermore, pPB-HSA was released from these microspheres in vivo. In addition, pPB- HSA was specifically localized in fibrotic tissue, where the target receptor, the PDGFβ receptor, is abundantly present. The delivery and site specific targeting of pPB-HSA for polymeric microspheres is thus confirmed in this study. Future studies include a pharmacokinetic in vivo study of the pPB-HSA microspheres in a mouse liver fibrosis model.


Dynamically controllable simple temporal networks with uncertainty (STNU) are widely used to represent temporal plans or schedules with uncertainty and execution flexibility. While the problem of testing an STNU for dynamic controllability is well studied, many use cases — for example, problem relaxation or schedule robustness analysis — require optimising a function over STNU time bounds subject to the constraint that the network is dynamically controllable. We present a disjunctive linear constraint model of dynamic controllability, show how it can be used to formulate a range of applications, and compare a mixed-integer, a non-linear programming, and a conflict-directed search solver on the resulting optimisation problems. Our model also provides the first solution to the problem of optimisation over a probabilistic STN subject to dynamic controllability and chance constraints.


A predominant inward rectifier and a small outward potassium current were obtained in whole-cell patch-clamp recordings from cultured bovine pulmonary arterial endothelial cells. Application of endothelial-1 (ET-1; 10-100 nmol/l) inhibited the inward rectifier. Washout with bath solution did not recover the current decreased by ET-1. In cell-attached studies, ET-1 (1 nmol/l) inhibited single-channel activity of the inward rectifier and in some patches enhanced activity of the outward potassium current without change of conductance. A non-specific cation current which is permeable to calcium was identified in cell-attached patches in cultured human umbilical vein endothelial cells. ET-1 (1 nmol/l) increased activity of the nonspecific cation channel. ET-1 may increase calcium influx into endothelial cells and promote synthase and release of endothelium-derived factors.


Genetic Use Restriction Technologies (GURTs) have attracted intense international debate, as many public interest groups and developing country governments have concerns about the role of technology in locking up the benefits and undermining concerns over biodiversity, biosafety, intellectual property rights, traditional knowledge, food security, health, and economic dependence. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) established a technical expert group to examine the potential impacts of GURTs on indigenous and small farming communities. Areas of concern about GURTs include: 1) Farmers' Rights per article 9 of the 2001 International Treaty on Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture; 2) the increased accommodation of traditional knowledge under the CBD; 3) the burgeoning international momentum on the concept of indigenous intellectual property rights; and 4) the public domain considerations as a key theoretical plank of intellectual property rights concept. The CBD's expert group to which the author was appointed will be significant in shaping the future direction of these sensitive issues.


SUMMARY: Eight strains of bronchiseptica, six strains of parapertussis and fifteen strains of pertussis were examined for their minimal nutritional requirements in defined media. All strains showed an absolute requirement for nicotinic acid and no other vitamin was required for growth. Amino acids were essential for parapertussis and pertussis, but bronchiseptica would grow in either a mixture of amino acids, or lactate or citrate. Two old laboratory strains were exceptional in that they could utilize either glutamic acid, α-ketoglutaric acid, citrate, lactate, succinate or pyruvate. The amino acid requirements of the three species were relatively simple and showed some similarities. Bronchiseptica would grow in a mixture of glutamic acid, proline and leucine, while parapertussis required added cystine and methionine, and pertussis required in addition alanine, asparagine and serine. In simple amino acid mixtures glutamic acid was essential, but was replaceable by α-ketoglutaric acid. Nutritionally the species are very similar, but are quite different from the Haemophilus influenzae-parainfluenzae-canis, or the Brucella abortus-suis-melitensis groups of organisms. The nutritional evidence supports the already impressive evidence on other grounds that these three groups should be classified separately. If generic status is given to one group it should be given to all three. Lopez (1952) has proposed a new genus Bordetella, consisting of the species B. pertussis, B. parapertussis and B. bronchiseptica, and this seems a reasonable solution to the present anomalous position. The three species can be differentiated by tests for inhibition. Thus B. bronchiseptica is the only species not inhibited by 20% citrate and B. pertussis the only species inhibited by colloidal copper sulphide.


: The evaluation of myocardial performance requires an understanding of the contributions of loading conditions (preload and afterload), heart rate, and contractility. Although the measurement of these parameters often requires specialized techniques, more easily performed invasive evaluation can take place applying the principles derived from an understanding of the factors affecting cardiac performance. The construction of ventricular function curves permits the evaluation of the influence of preload on the work of the heart. Changes in afterload and/or myocardial contractility can produce a series of such function curves. Construction of pressure-volume loops and the examination of end-systolic pressure-volume relationships offer insights into the status of myocardial contractility apart from loading conditions, as well as into the response of the heart to acute and chronic alteration in loading conditions. Ventricular function curves can be obtained during exercise, pacing, and pharmacologic intervention in order to detect subtle cardiac dysfunction, to assess the severity of dysfunction, and to gauge the response to therapy.


The calibration of complex models of biological systems requires numerical simulation and optimization procedures to infer undetermined parameters and fit measured data. The optimization step typically employs heuristic global optimization algorithms, but due to measurement noise and the many degrees of freedom, it is not guaranteed that the identified single optimum is also the most meaningful parameter set. Multimodal optimization allows for identifying multiple optima in parallel. We consider high-dimensional benchmark functions and a realistic metabolic network model from systems biology to compare evolutionary and swarm-based multimodal methods. We show that an extended swarm based niching algorithm is able to find a considerable set of solutions in parallel, which have significantly more explanatory power. As an outline of the information gain, the variations in the set of high-quality solutions are contrasted to a state-of-the-art global sensitivity analysis.


The photodissociation dynamics of a collinear model of the van der Waals cluster Xe–HI is used as a testing ground for time‐dependent self‐consistent field (TDSCF) approximations. In this study, the quantum‐mechanical TDSCF and a combined classical/quantal TDSCF (in which the light atom is treated quantum mechanically, the heavy atoms are treated classically) are compared to numerically exact wave packet calculations. Very good agreement is found between the TDSCF approximations and the exact result over the entire subpicosecond time duration of the process. In particular, all the properties related to the quantal degree of freedom in the combined quantal/classical TDSCF method reproduce almost perfectly the exact results. However, the classical mode in the hybrid approximation is somewhat less well described due to insufficient representation of energy transfer between the modes. The conclusions are very promising as to the applicability of TDSCF methods, in particular the hybrid quantal/classical scheme...


Lexical frequency effects on word accent processing in SwedishSeveral studies have investigated the neurophysiological underpinnings of the Swedish word accents, "accent 1" and "accent 2" ([1]-[5]), which are known to have a strong association with morphology ([6]-[8]). For example, if the singular noun suffix -en is attached to the word stem bil ('car'), the resulting word is bil1-en ('the car') where the subscript indicates which word accent is attached. However, if the plural suffix -ar is attached to the stem, the word will be associated with accent 2 (bil2-ar, 'cars'). The same is true for loan words: the word chatt 'chat room' takes accent 1 together with the singular suffix (chatt1-en) and accent 2 with the plural suffix (chatt2-ar). Furthermore, in Central Swedish, accent 2 is associated with compound words. Compounding is highly productive in Swedish, allowing the formation of novel compounds such as tradkrig2 ('tree war') or forskningsministerskola2 ('research minister school'). Even if all constituents making up a compound would individually be accent 1 words, the compound will still have accent 2. For example, although neder1 'downwards' and landerna1 'the lands' are accent 1 words, the compound Nederlanderna2 ('the Netherlands', example taken from [12]) has accent 2. What is interesting from the point of view of predictive models of language processing is that initial word stems with accent 2 (as opposed to stems with accent 1) could then potentially cue related accent 2 suffixes (e.g. plural, past tense) as well as a potentially infinite number of compounds. Investigations using the electroencephalography/event-related potentials (EEG/ERP) technique have found that words with accent 1 stems elicit larger ERP negativity effects as compared to accent 2 stems. This effect has previously been viewed as a positivity effect driven by accent 2's prosodic salience ([1]). However, recent investigations have shown that accent 1 stems lead to increased neural activity, meaning that the ERP effect is more likely to be driven by some feature associated with accent 1 stems instead ([4]-[5]). We propose that the accent 1 stem negativity reflects a process by which upcoming suffixes are pre-activated by the word accent. Furthermore, evidence ([3]-[4]) now indicates that accent 1 stems pre-activate their associated suffixes more strongly than accent 2 stems. In the present contribution, we present results that suggest that the stem negativity is modulated by both the token and type frequency of lexical items that are possible continuations of a particular stem.ReferencesM. Roll, M. Horne and M. Lindgren, "Word accents and morphology—ERPs of Swedish word processing," Brain Research, vol. 1330, pp. 114–123, 2010.M. Roll, P. Soderstrom and M. Horne, "Word-stem tones cue suffixes in the brain." Brain Research, vol. 1520, pp. 116–120, 2013. P. Soderstrom, M. Horne and M. Roll, "Stem tones pre-activate suffixes in the brain," (submitted).M. Roll, P. Soderstrom, P. Mannfolk, Y. Shtyrov, M. Johansson, D. van Westen and M. Horne, "Word tones cueing morphosyntactic structure: neuroanatomical substrates and activation time course assessed by EEG and fMRI," Brain & Language, vol. 150, pp. 14–21, 2015.M. Roll, "A neurolinguistic study of South Swedish word accents: Electrical brain potentials in nouns and verbs," Nordic Journal of Linguistics, vol. 38, no. 2, pp. 149–162, 2015.G. Bruce, Swedish word accents in sentence perspective. Lund: Gleerup, 1977.T. Riad, The Phonology of Swedish. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2014.J. Rischel, "Morphemic Tone and Word Tone in Eastern Norwegian," Phonetica, vol. 10, no. 3–4, pp. 154–164, 1963.


Summary The UEFA EURO 2020 football tournament was one of the largest Sporting Mega Events (SMEs) to take place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Mitigating the risk of virus transmission requires a multi-layered approach for any large event, more so in this case due to staging the tournament across eleven host countries. Yet, little is known about COVID-19 risks and mitigation from attending an event of this scale and nature. We examined the implementation of mitigation and messaging at EURO 2020 matches hosted at venues in the UK. The tournament was postponed from the summer of 2020 and played in June and July of 2021. Structured observations were conducted by 11 trained fieldwork-supporters at 10 matches played at Wembley Stadium, London, or Hampden Park, Glasgow. Fieldwork-supporters observed one-way systems and signage, and hand sanitizing stations inside the stadia, but reported significant variation in the implementation of staggered timeslots, testing upon entry, and procedures for exit. Adherence to planned measures by ticket holders and implementation by stewards waned as the tournament progressed culminating in an absence of enforced measures at the final. The non-compliance with COVID-19 mitigation measures was likely to have led to a significantly increased risk of transmission. Future events should consider how COVID-19 mitigation measures could become 'new norms' of fan behaviour, learning from what is already known about football fandom. Tournament organizers of SMEs can use these findings to promote clearer messaging on pandemic-driven changes in fan behaviour and best practices in mitigating risk at future sporting and cultural events.


People with learning disabilities experience limited self-determination and
have very little opportunity to take control and make choices affecting their
own lives (Stancliffe and Wehmeyer, 1998). In recognition of this,
government policy emphasises the importance of empowering people with
learning disabilities to take more control and make choices that influence
their own lives (DoH 2001, 2009). In order to meet the values set out in
policy, the interactions between people with learning disabilities and the staff
who support them is of particular importance. This study focuses on the
interpersonal construction of self-determination between service users with
learning disabilities and front line staff.
Discourse analysis, informed by principles of discursive psychology, was
used to examine naturalistic data from video recorded interactions.
Secondary data was generated through the use of a recall session where staff
and service users met separately with the researcher to watch the recording
and comment on parts of the video they felt were important.
The analysis revealed a number of actions present within the talk that served
to facilitate or limit self-determination. Staff frequently occupied a position of
power in influencing the available opportunities for self-determination.
Actions used within the talk included but were not limited to: recruitment of
parental view, colluding to enable choice, coaching, using constructions of
competence and incompetence. Repertories of incompetence and
competence, protection and independence were identified. Ideological
dilemmas around protecting service users vs encouraging self-determination
and autonomy were also found.
The research is discussed in relation to the wider literature concerning
empowerment and self-determination. The findings suggest that the policy
goals of facilitating choice, control and enhancing service user's self-determination are complex in practice and difficult for frontline staff to
achieve. A number of clinical implications are identified including the use of
video material as an effective training tool for interventions aimed at
developing staff confidence and competence in empowering practices.


This book examines Irish socialist republicanism in the early part of the 20th century. Previous studies of the subject have pointed to the left wing of the IRA as the prime instigator of the movement. Here, socialist republicanism is examined in detail from the perspective of the Labour movement alongside the IRA and other republican groups for the first time. The result is an enlightening account of the many connections and alliances that existed between republicans, socialists, communists and others. The reader is provided with a narrative that explains the many twists and turns in both mainstream and radical Irish politics in the period.


Abstract Amphiboles were synthesized at 750 °C, 1 kbar (H2O) on the binary joins (nickel, magnesium)-richterite and (magnesium, cobalt)-richterite. Structural variations and site occupancies were characterized by Rietveld structure refinement, with final RBragg indices in the range 4-9%, and by powder infrared spectroscopy in the principal OH-stretching region. Site-occupancy refinement of Ni-Mg and Mg-Co distributions give the partition coefficients over M1,3 and M2 where KM2+ = (M2+/Mg)M1,3/(M2+/Mg)M2, and M2+ = Ni2+ or Co2+, KdNi = 2.98 ± 0.37 and KdCo = 1.34 ± 0.31. Both Kd values are greater than 1.0, whereas [6]r(Ni2+) < [6]r(Mg) < [6]r(Co2+); this indicates that cation size is not the primary factor affecting the ordering of Ni-Mg and Mg-Co over the octahedral sites. The infrared spectra of intermediate binary compositions show fine structure caused by ordering of Ni- Mg or Mg-Co over the M1,3 sites and by ordering of Na and ⃞ (vacancy) at the A site; thus intermediate compositions show an eight-band spectrum in the principal OH stretching region. Precise band intensities were derived by nonlinear least-squares fitting of Gaussian band shapes to the observed spectra. The relative observed intensities of the combinations of bands 3I₀A + 2I₀B + I₀C and I₀B + 2I₀C + 3I₀D are in accord with the equations of Burns and Strens (1966), indicating that there is no significant variation in molar absorptivity with frequency (energy) for individual bands within a single sample (spectrum). Combined with the results of Skogby and Rossman (1991) on polarized single-crystal infrared spectra of amphiboles, this result suggests that different local configurations of M1,3 cations in amphiboles couple such that the transition probabilities of the associated OH groups are equal.


The development of increasingly advanced technology has a vital role in all sectors of management, which includes the processing of data. Moreover, with the development of the internet is so fast these days that requires every person to obtain information quickly and accurately. Associated with it then there is a game that has grown rapidly with variations of each preparation This application uses the software Construct 2 as editor. Multimedia Development Life Cycle used as methodology for developing this game. Stages of research method, namely literature, game design, game implementation, testing, and analysis. User applications can execute all the menus contained in the application "Belajar Angka dan Huruf Hijaiyah". With this application android-based user can exercise anytime and anywhere, and this application can run well when tested using black-box and got positive results when tested to application user.


In 2006, the Russian state sought to rein in nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) by passing a law restricting their activities. This legislation drew considerable criticism at home and within the international community with regard to the development of civil society in Russia. In this article, we assess the impact of the NGO law on organizations that have received relatively little attention in the literature: Russian health and educational NGOs. The data suggest that these NGOs have acquiesced to the demands of this legislation, which undermines their independence and is currently stalling the further development of Russia's civil society. Our findings also illustrate that these legislative changes have not resulted in the predicted effects.


The interactive effects between retinol and various hepatotoxicants (allyl alcohol, acetaminophen, carbon tetrachloride, D-galactosamine, and phalloidin) were studied in the male Swiss Webster mouse. The mice were administered retinol at 75 mg/kg/day (or the vehicle of retinol) by oral gavage for 7 days. Hepatoxicity produced by the chemicals was determined by plasma alanine aminotransferase (ALT) activity and histopathology. After 7 days of retinol pretreatment, the hepatotoxicities of allyl alcohol, acetaminophen, and galactosamine were potentiated. Interestingly, the hepatotoxicity of carbon tetrachloride and phalloidin was protected by identical retinol pretreatment. Microscopic examination of histologic liver sections demonstrated the specific hepatic necrosis associated with each individual chemical and confirmed the ALT values obtained. Once an interaction between retinol and the five hepatotoxicants was established, the duration of retinol pretreatment necessary to elicit an interaction was determined for each hepatotoxicant. Results demonstrated that the duration of retinol pretreatment was specific for each hepatotoxicant. The accumulation of retinoids in the liver during retinol pretreatment was determined using high-performance liquid chromatography analysis. Significant increases in the basal liver levels of retinol and retinyl palmitate were seen within 1 to 3 days of retinol treatment compared to control. Retinol pretreatment resulted in potentiation or protection of specific hepatotoxicant-induced liver damage. Currently, studies are being conducted which probe into the mechanisms of these interactions.


Human-induced changes to natural landscapes have been identified as some of the greatest threats to freshwater resources. The change from natural forest cover to agricultural and pastoral activities is rampant especially in the upper Mara River catchment (water tower), as well as along the course of the Mara River. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of land use change on the physico-chemical properties of soil (bulk density, carbon, nitrogen, phosphorus and pH) along the course of the Mara River. Five major land uses (agricultural lands, livestock/pastoral lands, forested lands, conservancy/game reserves, and natural wetland) were explored. Results revealed that the mean soil bulk density was 0.956 g/cm3 and differed significantly between sites (p < 0.001). Live biomass values differed significantly between sampling sites (land use types) within the Mara River Basin (F(4, 147) = 8.57, p < 0.001). The mean infiltration over a period of 150 minutes differed, not only among sampling sites, but also between different sides of the river (left and right) within the same sampling site. Soil pH was generally acidic across the five sites and varied significantly (F(4, 63) = 19.26, p < 0.0001) between sites along the Mara River Basin. The mean percentage soil nitrogen across all sampling blocks was 4.87%, with significant differences observed in percentage soil nitrogen (F (4, 63) = 3.26, p < 0.006) between sampling sites. The results indicated that the five land use types affected land degradation differently along the Mara River, while adjacent land degradation affected water physico-chemical properties. These results point to the need to have focused policies on integrated land and water resource management strategies in the Mara River Basin.


ABSTRACT An expanding aging population has placed increased demands on health care resources in many countries. Enhancing community aged care support workers' role to support greater client self-management and reablement is therefore timely. This article presents perceptions of the impact of an Australian practice change initiative designed to enhance knowledge, skills, and confidence of support workers to support behavior change in clients with complex health care needs. A comprehensive training program was delivered in 2013. Methods included thematic analysis of interviews with clients, focus groups with support workers and coordinators, and collection of case studies of client/support worker behavior change interactions. Client, support worker, and coordinator responses were highly positive, reporting improvement in the quality of interactions with clients, client health outcomes, care coordination, communication, and teamwork. Mental health literacy remained the biggest knowledge gap. This research showed that support workers are ideally placed to be more actively involved in motivating clients to achieve behavior change goals.


Rhizosphere soils of some fruit and spice plants from the Hill Agricultural Research Station, Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Raikhali, Rangamati were collected during 2011-12 and 2012-13 for counting Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (AM) spore population, determining colonization (%) in their roots and studying AM structure. Assessment of spore population was done by following the Wet Sieving and Decanting Method. The percentage of AM infection was estimated by root slide technique. The spore number of 100g rhizosphere soil was recorded ranging from 120 in rhizosphere soil of Malta plant to a maximum of 410 in Atafal and Sofeda plants during 2011-12 and from 75 in rhizosphere soil of Phalsa plant to a maximum of 327 in Amlaki plant during 2012-13. Different fruit and spice plants showed different percentages of root colonization by AM fungi. Among the fruit and spice plants, the highest colonization (40%) was found in Jabotica, Phalsa and Sofeda plant, and the lowest colonization (6.6%) was found in Rambutan plant during 2011-12, but in 2012-13 the highest (61.3%) was result was observed in Bilatigab plant and the lowest (18.7%) was in Misti lebu, Malta and Tetul plant. The AM fungal structure in the root system of the selected fruit and spice plants varied in irrespective of fruit and spice species. Some plants had vesicles. Hyphae were present in most of the plants. Some plant species recorded Arbuscules. Both oval and spherical shape vesicles were found in this study. Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 42(2): 221-232, June 2017