When heterogeneous congestion control protocols that react to different pricing signals share the same network, the current theory based on utility maximization fails to predict the network behavior. The pricing signals can be different types of signals such as packet loss, queueing delay, etc, or different values of the same type of signal such as different ECN marking values based on the same actual link congestion level. Unlike in a homogeneous network, the bandwidth allocation now depends on router parameters and flow arrival patterns. It can be non-unique, suboptimal and unstable. In Tang et al. ("Equilibrium of heterogeneous congestion control: Existence and uniqueness," IEEE/ACM Trans. Netw., vol. 15, no. 4, pp. 824-837, Aug. 2007), existence and uniqueness of equilibrium of heterogeneous protocols are investigated. This paper extends the study with two objectives: analyzing the optimality and stability of such networks and designing control schemes to improve those properties. First, we demonstrate the intricate behavior of a heterogeneous network through simulations and present a framework to help understand its equilibrium properties. Second, we propose a simple source-based algorithm to decouple bandwidth allocation from router parameters and flow arrival patterns by only updating a linear parameter in the sources' algorithms on a slow timescale. It steers a network to the unique optimal equilibrium. The scheme can be deployed incrementally as the existing protocol needs no change and only new protocols need to adopt the slow timescale adaptation.


Susceptibility testing of Haemophilus species and Moraxella catarrhalis is medium and inoculum dependent. Seven oral agents, ampicillin, amoxicillin-clavulanic acid, cefaclor, loracarbef, cefuroxime-axetil, cefixime, and erythromycin, were tested against 400 beta-lactamase-positive and -negative clinically significant respiratory strains of Haemophilus species and 100 strains of M. catarrhalis. Sources of the strains included teaching and regional hospitals and a private laboratory. All strains were tested by broth microdilution and disk diffusion in haemophilus test medium for Haemophilus species and Mueller-Hinton broth and agar for M. catarrhalis. Appropriate National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS) standards were followed. For Haemophilus species, by disk diffusion and broth microdilution, respectively, 27 and 27% of strains were resistant to ampicillin, 37 and 5% were resistant to erythromycin, 3 and 0.5% were resistant to cefaclor, 2 and 0.5% were resistant to loracarbef, and 0% were resistant to cefuroxime-axetil, cefixime, and amoxicillin-clavulanic acid. beta-Lactamase-negative ampicillin-resistant strains were not observed. Of M. catarrhalis strains, 56% were resistant to ampicillin by disk diffusion and 95% were resistant by broth microdilution. This species was susceptible to all other agents tested by either method. The disagreements between disk diffusion results and MICs for cefaclor, ampicillin, cefuroxime, and loracarbef that occurred with use of the 1990 NCCLS tables were resolved when the 1992 NCCLS tables were used.


OBJECTIVE
To compare obstetrical management and birth outcomes between patients with health maintenance organization (HMO) insurance and those with private commercial insurance.

DESIGN
Retrospective population-based cohort study.

SETTING
King County, Washington.

PATIENTS
Among newborns delivered in 1992 and 1993, a random sample of 4000 birth records listing HMO insurance for prenatal care was compared with a random sample of 4000 birth records listing private commercial insurance as the primary coverage.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Use of ultrasonography and amniocentesis; rate of primary cesarean section performed; adequacy of prenatal care; incidence of maternal medical complications, low birth weight, and congenital malformations; and length of hospital stay.

RESULTS
Women covered by HMO compared with commercial insurance were more likely to undergo ultrasonography (relative risk [RR], 1.4; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.3-1.4). Inadequate prenatal care was less frequent among HMO-insured patients (RR, 0.6; 95% CI, 0.5-0.7), as was the incidence of birth weight below 2500 g (RR, 0.7; 95% CI, 0.6-0.9). No differences in rates of cesarean section and congenital anomalies were observed. Among women without obstetrical risk factors, HMO-insured mothers were at an increased risk of labor and delivery complications (RR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.3-1.5); their infants were at an increased risk of infant distress (RR, 1.8; 95% CI, 1.5-2.2).

CONCLUSIONS
Patients with HMO insurance have improved access to prenatal care and screening when compared with privately insured patients. The reasons for increased risks of abnormal maternal and infant outcomes observed among a subset of HMO-insured patients are unclear. A study with more detailed prospective data collection is warranted.


By combining the experiment results of R. Margaria (Atti Accad. Naz. Lincei Memorie 7: 299-368, 1938), regarding the metabolic cost of gradient locomotion, together with recent insights on gait biomechanics, a prediction about the most economical gradient of mountain paths (approximately 25%) is obtained and interpreted. The pendulum-like mechanism of walking produces a waste of mechanical work against gravity within the gradient range of up to 15% (the overall efficiency is dominated by the low transmission efficiency), whereas for steeper values only the muscular efficiency is responsible for the (slight) metabolic change (per meter of vertical displacement) with respect to gradient. The speeds at the optimum gradient turned out to be approximately 0.65 m/s (+0.16 m/s vertical) and 1.50 m/s (-0.36 m/s vertical), for uphill and downhill walking, respectively, and the ascensional energy expenditure was 0.4 and 2.0 ml O2.kg body mass-1.vertical m-1 climbed or descended. When the metabolic power becomes a burden, as in high-altitude mountaineering, the optimum gradient should be reduced. A sample of real mountain path gradients, experimentally measured, mimics the obtained predictions.


Previous observations of cannibalism have been made in the aphid Acyrthosiphon pisum (L.): this article seeks to quantify factors contributing to such behaviors. We observed and quantified the responses of a number of clones and life stages to varying levels of starvation, in the form of increasingly desiccated Vica faba L. plants (receiving 50, 25, or 10 mL every second day) or a complete absence of host plant. We found that, while the longest incidences of cannibalism are carried out by juveniles (F = 3.45, P = 0.019, df = 3) and targeted at adults, the starvation treatments had the most significant effect on the prevalence of cannibalism in mature A. pisum (F = 2.24, P = 0.025, df = 9). Furthermore, there was no difference between the prevalence or duration of cannibalistic activities within and between different clones (P ≥ 0.05 in all cases), though juveniles were more likely to target unrelated aphids (V = 6 112, P = 0.011), and spent more time feeding on aphids from the same culture (V = 6 062, P = 0.018).


Introduction: decisions in connection with the end of life are frequent in the context of nephrology. In spite of their arising in different contexts, only suspension of chronic dialysis has been quantified, accounting for 7% of deaths in dialysis. Objective: to learn about attitudes and criteria of Uruguayan nephrologists upon the making of decisions in connection with the suspension of treatment or failing to include patients in chronic dialysis. Method: online anonymous and volunteer survey among Uruguayan nephrologists. The following questions were made on three clinical situations: What would you do? and Who would you consult in each one of the cases?. The study explored demographic data, professional expertise, knowledge about legal provisions and degree of perceived skills to face such situations. Results: sixty five nephrologists participated in the survey: 77% women, 84% of them with over ten years of practice as an expert. When asked: "one of your patients on dialysis has evolved into a severe and permanent dementia", 66% answered "I probably decide suspension of dialysis". Upon a competent patient who requests the suspension of dialysis, 86% of doctors try to continue with treatment. If "a request is made to initiate chronic dialysis in a patient under persistent vegetative state"; 100% answered: "I would probably not start dialysis". Upon all situations described, they would consult the patient/family and other experts in the team. Twenty four out of 63 believe they are "prepared" or "very well prepared" to make these decisions. Knowledge about legal provisions proved to be scarce and they ignore protocols that provide guidelines for the making of these decisions. Conclusions: Uruguayan nephrologists adopt rather uniform criteria for the treatment of patients on dialysis in severe or irreversible situations, and they act in agreement with family members and other professionals. We need guidelines with medical, ethical and legal criteria to approach these situations.


This thesis explores the experience of the historical and contemporary commercial manager, its rise and fall as an expert occupation and its rise again as potentially a new organisational profession in the project-led organisation. Despite their importance in such organisations, commercial managers often report not seeing their work as a site for innovation and being viewed as being impediments to the experience of other functions in cross-functional teams. Their main association, the IACCM, intends to improve the status of commercial managers through ?professionalisation?. However, historically, the commercial manager was of considerable status, in the firms of the late Industrial Revolution. They have been lost to the principal histories of British management, until now. How was the status of the occupation lost? This thesis considers the historical structuring of the occupation through analysis and interpretation of historical employment archives and the novel use of historical actor?s own situations wanted advertising to reconstruct the experience of the historical commercial manager.The lived experience of contemporary commercial managers was investigated using Critical Incident Technique and phenomenological content analysis of first-person accounts of commercial managers successfully and unsuccessfully attempting to innovate within their routine work. The conflicts and scarcities of their position are key elements amongst the antecedents of insight that lead to commercial innovation. This thesis responds to Rickard?s (2003) call for more realistic research into innovation and practical models of the actual practices of innovating people. Past and present are unified by an analysis of trait and ideological theories of professionalism. Through development of a framework for assessing progress in professional mobility projects, conditions for the fall of historical commercial managers are theorised and the status of modern commercial managers is analysed. Several key debates are also considered, such the rate of vertical integration in British firms.The limitation of the study in both its historical and contemporary parts is the availability of data and interpretive approach taken to it. Although the method by which data types were elicited and analysed is clear and repeatable, there is a limitation in the degree to which the data is representative, in terms of the degree of participation of commercial managers and the physical limits of the archive; interpretation can only be carried out on the data that actually survives. Further work is proposed and recommendations are made for supporting the professional mobility of modern commercial managers. Once again, commercial managers find themselves as a response to the concerns of capital and enterprise, yet will their putative institution be able to create the kind of collective mobility that was impossible for their historical forebears?


Age stereotypes are common in the workplace and can include the belief that older adults are unable or unwilling to effectively adapt to changing workplace technology (Ryan, Szechtman, & Bodkin, 1992). Using an experimental design, the current study examined young adults' perceptions of younger and older coworkers who were either willing or unwilling to learn and adapt to new technology in the workplace. Participants read a scenario about a 25- or 75-year-old coworker who was willing or unwilling to adapt to a new workplace technological system. Participants then reported their perceptions of the coworker's personality characteristics and coworker's workplace performance. For coworkers described as un willing to adapt to technology, the younger coworker's personality characteristics and workplace performance were perceived more negatively than the older coworker. For coworkers described as willing to adapt to technology, the personality characteristics and workplace performance of the younger and older coworkers were perceived equally as favorably. Results suggest individuals hold more negative attitudes toward younger workers, not older workers, who are un willing to adapt to technology. Young adults' expectations that their age-relevant colleagues will learn and adapt to new technological advances provide novel directions for future research.


The diaphragm in the thorax is called the thoracic diaphragm and serves as an important anatomical landmark that separates the thorax, or chest, from the abdomen. It functions during breathing when it contracts to enlarge the thoracic cavity and reduce the intrathoracic pressure so that lungs may expand and fill their alveoli with air. It is a dome-shaped muscle and tendon that functions as the main muscle of respiration and is essential to the breathing process. It is a fibromuscular sheet that has a convex upper surface that forms the floor of the thoracic cavity and a concave under surface to form the roof of the abdominal cavity. The esophagus, phrenic, and vagus nerves, descending aorta, and inferior vena cava pass through the diaphragm between the thoracic and abdominal cavities. The diaphragm is asymmetric with the left side slightly more inferior than the right, chiefly because of the presence of the liver located on the right. The left side may also be partially inferiorly located because of the push by the heart.,


We used supernetworks with datasets of nuclear gene sequences and novel markers detecting retrotransposon insertions in ribosomal DNA loci to reassess the evolutionary relationships among tetraploid wheats. We show that domesticated emmer has a reticulated genetic ancestry, sharing phylogenetic signals with wild populations from all parts of the wild range. The extent of the genetic reticulation cannot be explained by post-domestication gene flow between cultivated emmer and wild plants, and the phylogenetic relationships among tetraploid wheats are incompatible with simple linear descent of the domesticates from a single wild population. A more parsimonious explanation of the data is that domesticated emmer originates from a hybridized population of different wild lineages. The observed diversity and reticulation patterns indicate that wild emmer evolved in the southern Levant, and that the wild emmer populations in south-eastern Turkey and the Zagros Mountains are relatively recent reticulate descendants of a subset of the Levantine wild populations. Based on our results we propose a new model for the emergence of domesticated emmer. During a pre-domestication period, diverse wild populations were collected from a large area west of the Euphrates and cultivated in mixed stands. Within these cultivated stands, hybridization gave rise to lineages displaying reticulated genealogical relationships with their ancestral populations. Gradual movement of early farmers out of the Levant introduced the pre-domesticated reticulated lineages to the northern and eastern parts of the Fertile Crescent, giving rise to the local wild populations but also facilitating fixation of domestication traits. Our model is consistent with the protracted and dispersed transition to agriculture indicated by the archaeobotanical evidence, and also with previous genetic data affiliating domesticated emmer with the wild populations in southeast Turkey. Unlike other protracted models, we assume that humans played an intuitive role throughout the process.


A new Be(d, p)Be transfer reaction experiment was carried out in inverse kinematics at 26.9A MeV, with special efforts devoted to the determination of the deuteron target thickness and of the required optical potentials from the present elastic scattering data. In addition a direct measurement of the cross section for the 0+2 state was realized by applying an isomer-tagging technique. The s-wave spectroscopic factors of 0.20 −0.04 and 0.41 +0.11 −0.11 were extracted for the 0+1 and 0 + 2 states, respectively, in Be. Using the ratio of these spectroscopic factors, together with the previously reported results for the p-wave components, the single-particle component intensities in the bound 0 states of Be were deduced, allowing a direct comparison with the theoretical predictions. It is evidenced that the ground-state configuration of Be is dominated by the d-wave intruder, exhibiting a dramatic evolution of the intruding mechanism from Be to Be, with a persistence of the N = 8 magic number broken.


This paper explores how and why collaboration with different types of partners and the position within a research network can affect firms' innovative performance in terms of product innovations. A detailed empirical analysis is carried out in the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry. This industry is characterized by a rapidly developing, complex, and dispersed knowledge base, where one would expect positive benefits from collaboration and the position within a network for innovative output. The paper uses a unique dataset in pharmaceutical cancer research based on scientific co-publications and new drug approvals. We apply social network analysis and count data regressions. We observe that collaboration with a diverse set of partners from academia and the network position in terms of eigenvector centrality is positively related to product innovation. However, we do not find a general positive association between collaboration, particularly with biotechnology companies, and product innovation or between central network positions and product innovation. Therefore, these results require a re-assessment of the role of scientific collaboration and biotechnology companies in the development of the pharmaceutical industry.


OBJECTIVE
Several studies have looked at the appropriateness of red blood cell transfusions, using retrospective chart reviews to assess compliance with guidelines. The goal of this study was to determine the quality of medical chart documentation, and assess the validity and the feasibility of using retrospective chart review data as part of a quality improvement (QI) program, to evaluate the appropriateness of peri-operative transfusions.

DESIGN
The charts of 188 patients admitted for elective orthopedic surgery were reviewed. Both intra-operative and post-operative transfusion events (n = 353) were analyzed.

RESULTS
Only 68% of post-operative transfusion events on the day of surgery and 35% of transfusion events on days after surgery were accompanied by documentation of blood loss and/or change in vital signs. Symptoms were recorded in only 10% of post-operative transfusion events. The rationale for transfusion was recorded in only 16% of post-operative transfusion events on the day of surgery, in 27% on post-operative days and in 95% of intra-operative transfusions. The documentation of rationale was not different for transfusion events involving autologous blood (31%) or allogeneic blood (32%). This study provided information on transfusion practices. Single unit transfusions occurred in only 47 and 34% of patients receiving autologous and allogeneic blood, respectively. Only 19% of patients transfused with more than one allogeneic blood units, were clinically reassessed between blood units, compared to 34% of patients receiving more than one autologous blood unit. We conclude that retrospective chart reviews are limited by inadequate documentation and may not be the optimal source of information to determine the appropriateness of a transfusion. Improved methods (e.g. prospective reviews, or other system-level data collection methods) are needed for QI programs to influence practice. Despite its limitations, the information obtained suggests that current practice could be improved.


Vast quantities of published and archival information on Native American/First Nation visual arts, crafts, and material culture exist. Researchers must be knowledgeable about numerous disciplines if they are is to perform a minimally adequate job when working on specific research problems. Professional works appear under the aegis of several disciplines such as anthropology, Native American studies, art history, history, economics, geography, American studies, folklore, and regional studies. In addition, articles are found in semi-professional and popular journals and in difficult-to-find exhibition catalogues. Scholars find it difficult to locate relevant sources due to the sheer number of references and their scattered nature. In this brief paper I analyze this increasingly serious problem from the researcher's point of view by discussing the central tasks involved in conducting research, especially with regard to available bibliographic and reference sources. Examples will be drawn from my own experience in constructing an annotated bibliography for Southwest Native American arts, crafts, and material culture. It is hoped that the suggested strategies will assist future studies with library research.


This article discusses in detail disputes resolved by the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (hereinafter referred to as the WTO DSB) in the field of state subsidies to support the use of renewable energy sources (hereinafter referred to as the RES). Since 2010, eight cases have been filed with the WTO DSB in relation to RES subsidy programs. The author analyzes the case and shows the impact of increasing the number of such trade disputes on further development of renewable energy in the whole world, and in separate states. The author pays special attention to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal 7, which were approved by the UN for 2016-2030, in the context of the spread of RES in the context of the conditions of WTO DSB case practice.


Continuous Tow Shearing (CTS) is a novel form of fibre steering technology which can produce optimised laminated composite structures with improved buckling capacity and lower mass. The distribution of fibre orientation and mass across the width of these laminates that results from optimisation produces regions of high stress near supports. These regions, which are vital to the integrity of the CTS laminate, are at risk of reduction in compressive strength as a consequence of Barely Visible Impact Damage (BVID). In this paper straight fibre coupons, representing the high stiffness regions of the CTS laminate, are subject to compression testing to shed light on the intra-ply failure seen in the compression after impact testing of CTS laminates. A Tsai-Wu first ply failure analysis predicts experimental failure stress to within 14% for an undamaged coupon. This increases to 41% for damaged coupons where damage has seeded intra-ply cracking.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Phenylketonuria (PKU) is the most prevalent inborn error of amino acid metabolism in the world and its incidence rate is increasing in Iran. The aim of the present study was to assess the efficiency of HRM technique as a fast and suitable method in identifying common mutations of phenylalanine hydroxylase gene including IVS10-11G>A and P281L in order to improve the early detection of the disease to prevent the occurrence of it. METHODS: In this case-control study, 20 DNA samples including one sample with IVS10-11G>A mutation , one sample with P281L mutation and 18 control samples were extracted from peripheral blood collected in Medical Genetic Center of Isfahan and were genotyped with HRM technique. To validate the mutations, the mutant samples were genotyped using sequencing. Bioinformatic analyses were used for determining structural and functional effects of P281L mutation on the of PAH protein. FINDINGS: HRM analysis identified IVS10-11G>A and P281L mutations with a sensitivity and specificity of 100% and the mutant and normal samples differentiated well in normalized and difference plots. Bioinformatic analyses demonstrated instability and pathological effects of PAH protein containing P281L mutation. CONCLUSION: HRM is a simple and fast technique detecting the two IVS10-11G>A and P281L mutations with 100% sensitivity and specificity.


This work proposes a novel resistor-floating-resistor-string digital-to-analog converter (RFR-DAC) architecture with a 10-bit resolution for liquid crystal display (LCD) driver applications. The proposed architecture improves the linearity of DAC, unifies its channel performance, and achieves a 10-bit resolution with a compact die size smaller than those of the state-of-the-art 10-bit DACs. The proposed RFR-DAC combines a 6-bit RDAC and a 4-bit FR-DAC (floating-resistor-string DAC) to offer unique two-voltage-selection and one-voltage-selection schemes without the need of unity-gain buffers to isolate parallel-connected resistor strings. A stacked floating class-AB control is also devised to bias the last output buffer stage. The 10-bit RFR-DAC prototypes are implemented using 0.35-μm/0.5-μm CMOS technology with the worst DNL/INL = 0.11/0.92 LSB via a two-voltage-selection scheme; and 1.37/1.45 LSB via a one-voltage-selection scheme.


This data brief describes the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC). Detailed data on income and taxes are collected, as well as information on material deprivation, labour, housing, childcare, health, access to and use of services, and education. Although primarily a social policy instrument that addresses the information needs of policymakers and is used for social monitoring at the European level, EU-SILC is also closely geared to the needs of researchers and provides an excellent database for evidence-based research on a wide variety of aspects of income, income poverty, material poverty, health, and well-being in Europe. EU-SILC is composed of national probability sample surveys and is conducted annually. The target population comprises private households. Observation units are households and all current household members. EU-SILC provides cross-sectional and longitudinal data. The data are composed of a fixed core module, and annually changing ad-hoc modules. Launched in 2003 and revised with effect from 2021, EU-SILC is currently implemented in all EU Member States and in 11 non-EU countries. During the revision process, many suggestions from the research community were incorporated.


Purpose: Using CJLAT, a chimeric herpes simplex virus (HSV-1) that produces a high incidence of herpes stromal keratitis (HSK) in latently infected rabbits, and in vivo confocal microscopy (CM), we characterized the cellular events that precede the development of HSK. Methods: Thirty days after infection, in vivo CM was performed daily for 10 days and then weekly for up to 80 days after infection. Results: We detected 3 types of subclinical corneal lesions before HSK was clinically apparent: (1) small epithelial erosions; (2) regenerating epithelium overlying small cell infiltrates within the basal epithelial cell layer; and (3) dendritic-like cells within the basal epithelial layer overlying stromal foci containing infiltrating cells. Sequential in vivo CM observations suggested that subclinical foci resolved over time but were larger and more abundant with CJLAT than with wild-type HSV-1 McKrae. Active HSK was observed only with CJLAT and was initially associated with a large epithelial lesion overlying stromal immune cell infiltrates. Conclusions: These results suggest that replication in the cornea of reactivated virus from the trigeminal ganglia produces epithelial lesions, which recruit immune cell infiltrates into the basal epithelial layer and anterior stroma. The virus is usually cleared rapidly eliminating viral antigens before the arrival of the immune cells, which disperse. However, if the virus is not cleared rapidly, or if an additional reactivation results in an additional round of virus at the same site before the immune cells disperse, then the immune cells are stimulated and may induce an immunopathological response leading to the development of HSK.


Spin transistors are a new concept device that unites an ordinary transistor with the useful functions of a spin (magnetoresistive) device. They are expected to be a building block for novel integrated circuits employing spin degrees of freedom. The interesting features of spin transistors are nonvolatile information storage and reconfigurable output characteristics: these are very useful and suitable functional- ities for various new integrated circuit architectures that are inaccessible to ordinary transistor circuits. This article reviews the current status and outlook of spin transistors from the viewpoint of integrated circuit applications. The device struc- ture, operating principle, performance, and features of various spin transistors are discussed. The fundamental and key phenomena/technologies for spin injection, transport, and manipulation in semiconductors and the integrated circuit applications of spin transistors to nonvolatile logic and reconfigurable logic are also described.


This study addresses male sexual victimization as that which is both invisible and incomprehensible. Forensic interviews with young men following reports of suspected sexual assault reveal patterns of heteronormative scripts appropriated to make sense of sexual victimization. These scripts show that victimhood is largely incompatible with dominant notions of masculinity. Sexual coercion and assault embodied threat to boys' (hetero)gendered selves, as they described feelings of shame and embarrassment, disempowerment, and emasculation. These masks of masculinity create barriers to disclosure and help to explain the serious underreporting of male sexual victimization. Questions of coercion and consent are addressed, as it relates to matters of legitimacy, sexuality, and power. With few exceptions, boys' constructions of sexual violence have received little attention. This study adds the voices of young men to the developing empirical and theoretical research on male victims of sexual assault.


Even though cinnamon oil (CO) has functional and health effects in humans because of the presence of the antioxidant cinnamaldehyde (CIA), its food applications have been limited due to its poor water solubility. Encapsulation of CO in stable nanodroplets is a unique strategy to enhance the stability and bioavailability of hydrophobic molecules in the CO structure. A literature review has been conducted on the formation of stable nanoscale droplets using lowand high-energy nanoemulsification methods, physicochemical and antimicrobial characterization, and the food application efficiency of CO micro/nanoemulsions. Although high-energy emulsification technologies are more commonly used to produce CO nanoemulsions, there is considerable interest in the fabrication of these delivery systems using the low-energy techniques of spontaneous emulsification and phase-inversion temperature. Processing and formulation (oil phase composition and surfactant content) variables were optimized to produce the smallest droplet size and slowest CIA release rate. Cinnamon and CIA nanoemulsions can effectively control pathogens in functional foods during processing and storage. A strong inhibitory effect on many microorganisms can also be exerted by small nanodroplets encapsulating these bioactive compounds into edible films to significantly decrease the synthetic preservative content. The antibacterial and antifungal activity, nutritional value and physicochemical quality of foods can be improved by adding CO-enriched nanoemulsions.


The objective of the study is to focus on the application of the artificial neural network to configure a heat-radiating model for cooling towers within the parameters of fluctuating in air flow or cooling water flow. To achieve the objective, a cooling tower heat balancing equation have been used to instill the correlations between a cooling tower cooling load to the four predefined parameters. Based on the premise established, the parameters of a cooling tower's air flow and cooling water flow in a modulated process are utilized in an experimental system for collecting relevant operating data. Lastly, the artificial neural network tool derived from the Matlab software is utilized to define the input parameters being – the cooling water temperature, ambient web-bulb temperature, cooling tower air flow, and cooling water flow, with an objective set to instilling a cooling tower model for defining a cooling tower cooling load. In addition, the tested figures are compared to the simulated figures for verifying the cooling tower model. By utilizing the method derived from the model, the mean error of between 0.72 and 2.13% is obtained, with R2 value rated at between 0.97 and 0.99. The experiment findings show a relatively high reliability that can be achieved for configuring a model by using the artificial neural network. With the support of an optimized computation method, the model can be applied as an optimization operating strategy for an air-conditioning system's cooling water loop.


In an era of big data, harms caused by data technologies can no longer be effectively addressed under the predominant regulatory paradigm of individual empowerment. Even a sophisticated consumer cannot fully protect herself against collective harms triggered by others' privacy choices or by technologies creating competitive harm without processing personal data or targeting individuals. While data protection and competition law can be applied more proactively to address such harms, difficulties are likely to remain. We therefore submit that stronger regulatory interventions are required to target collective, and sometimes competitive, harm from technologies like pervasive advertising, facial recognition, deepfakes and spyproducts.
Big data, individual rights, societal harms, exploitative abuse, enforcement priorities, blacklists, pervasive advertising, facial recognition, deepfakes, spyproducts


The authors report on investigations of the doping, lattice mismatch, and interface quality for the molecular beam epitaxial growth of ZnCdSe/ZnCdMgSe/InP quantum cascade structures with improved electrical, structural, and spectral properties. An improved doping strategy, the control of the lattice mismatch to less than 0.25%, and the incorporation of growth interruptions have led to quantum cascade structures with good I–V characteristics and electroluminescence emission up to room temperature, with an emission energy of 230 meV (5.4 μm) and a full-width at half maximum of 41 meV at 80 K, the best device properties reported so far for this material system. It is expected that the addition of waveguide layers in the structure will lead to the observation of lasing.


This paper examines various impacts of COVID-19 on Educational Institutions and demonstrates the results of their counter measures. In particular, it focuses on their online educational counter measure strategies and critically analyzes the system in terms of their numerous advantages, disadvantages and information security loopholes. It considers the advent of COVID-19 as a trigger for the improvement of educational approaches and foresees the continuous role of online education even after COVID-19. It demonstrates how a natural blend of online and traditional educational approach can improve both educational quality, its user oriented flexibility as well as reduce the adverse impacts of limited resources. While showing its conveniences, various economic and educational benefits, it also examines associated numerous security risks. It identifies security loopholes of online education as the main obstacle for its successful continuous adoption and provides necessary guidelines for its counter measures at various levels.


Fluvoxamine, a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor, was investigated in a 6-week double-blind study among severely ill inpatients with DSM-III major depression. All but 1 patient also fulfilled criteria for melancholia. Following a 3-day placebo wash-out patients were randomly assigned to fluvoxamine, imipramine or placebo. Sixty of 81 patients completed at least 2 weeks following wash-out and were evaluated for efficacy. Analysis of covariance (controlling for baseline scores) showed significant (p less than 0.05) differences on CGI severity and BPRS total and a similar trend (p = 0.08) on the Hamilton Depression Scale. Fluvoxamine was superior (p less than or equal to 0.02) to both placebo and imipramine on these measures. Fluvoxamine's most common adverse effects were nausea and agitation. The number of fluvoxamine patients withdrawn for side-effects was less than imipramine and not significantly different than placebo. Fluvoxamine was not associated with significant changes in vital signs, ECG or laboratory tests. The results therefore indicate that fluvoxamine is a safe and highly effective treatment for hospitalized patients with major depression.


During the study on the Alternaria species from potato fields of West Azerbaijan province, foliage and stems that had suspected infections with Alternaria fungi were collected. Totally, 141 isolates belonging to the genus Alternaria were isolated and purified. Based on macro and micomorphological characters of the isolates, 9 species viz.: A. alternata, A. broussonetiae, A. destruens, A. dumosa, A. interrupta, A. rhadina, A. solani, A. soliaegyptiacae and A. tenuissima were identified. Among the identified species, 5 species: A. alternata, A. dumosa, A. interrupta, A. solani and A. tenuissima were reported previously from potato, but three species: A. broussonetiae, A. rhadina and A. soliaegyptiaca are new to mycoflora of Iran and are reported for the first time from potato plants (matrix nova). Also, potato is matrix nova for A. destruens. Pathogenicity studies on isolates of identified species were done on potato cultivar Agria and their pathogenicity were confirmed based on Koch s postulates. All the studied isolates were pathogenic, although the degree of pathogenicity based on diameter of necrotic area varied among different species. A. tenuissima had the highest frequency and A. solani and A. tenuissima had the highest degree of pathogenicity among the studied Alternaria isolates.


Water management requires, among other information, the proper identification of drought events and their characteristics: duration and severity. In this paper we compute standardized runoff index (SRI), which is an index based on runoff but computed following the same methodology as standardized precipitation index, over the Rio Grande basin. The runoff values were generated from the Noah land surface model. The drought duration and severity for each year were extracted and copula was used to produce the joint probabilities of drought severity and duration. Four copulas were tested and the Gumbel-Hougaard (GH) copula was deemed most appropriate for this dataset. The conditional probability distributions for severity given duration thresholds and duration given severity thresholds were also computed. This information can help water managers assess water availability and plan for extreme events accordingly.


Different approaches are known for the introduction of the classical Chebyshev polynomials. Although mostly they are introduced in connection with trigonometric identities or defined as orthogonal polynomials or a solution of a particular differential equation, we take extremality as a defining property. We discuss the current computer tools which make the exploration of extremal polynomials possibly more easy and enjoyable. Finally we investigate ways to generalize the notion of classical Chebyshev polynomials as extremal polynomials which are less known. The author used the general computer algebra system Mathematica for the development, but other systems can be also suitbale for the exploration: a part of a GeoGebra book as an illustrative example is also included.


This study investigated the effect of basic fibroblast growth factor (bFGF) in healing patellar tendon through a delivery system of alginate gel. Male SD rats were divided into five groups. A gap wound sized 1/spl times/4 mm was created in the mid patellar tendon. In the growth factor groups, a slab of alginate gel, loaded with either 0.4, 0.8 or 1.0 /spl mu/g of bFGF, was implanted into the wound at the time of injury. Alginate gel only was used in the vehicle control while no treatment was performed in the natural healing control. Tendons were harvested at 1 week post-injury. Three in each group were stained with proliferating cells and collagen type III. The rest were assessed for ultimate stress, total collagen and pyridinoline. One microgram of bFGF stimulated the expression of nuclear cyclin and collagen III, but induced a 36% decrease in pyridinoline and 59% in ultimate stress comparing with the control (p<0.05). The current study demonstrated that bFGF stimulated both cellular and extracellular changes. Besides, alginate was a valid model of delivering bioactive factors into the wound. However, it impaired the tensile properties that may be associated to a decrease in pyridinoline crosslink and an increase in immature type III collagen.


Life in contemporary society is riddled by the word "markets". This word is not only used in popular media, but also emerges as a key term in several scientific disciplines. However, this terms is rarely defined and explained. Marketing can be understood as the scientific discipline most concerned with markets. As a discipline, marketing is characterized as ostensive
rather than descriptive, meaning that it forms definitions through practice. I argue that this ostensive approach to marketing results in a dualistic approach to categorizing actors, i.e. in terms of consumers and the environment surrounding these consumers. These dualistic categories enable the illusion that relevant actors can be understood as stable entities in the world. I refer to this problem as "the maze of the market". To further explore this maze, my primary research question is:
'what are markets in society and what do markets do to societies'. I respond to this question with an extensive literature review. In this, I construct three major conceptual angles and numerous conceptual tools using Actor-network approaches
and hermeneutic phenomenology. The first conceptual angle allows for a description of markets as groups of actors forming
distinct social relations surrounding a calculative device, using the actor-network approach (ANT). The second conceptual angle explores the yield of viewing markets as, in themselves, technologies, using insights from phenomenology. In
questioning the role of technology in the being of markets, a third conceptual angle appears, concerning the individual actors
and their relation to technological devices. This is explored through the lens of postphenomenology. Together, these three angles form a description of what markets are and do. I illustrate the three conceptual angles and their respective tools
through application to the Dutch PV market. The case describes both the collecting and stabilizing of a society of producers, consumers and other actors surrounding a technological artefact (PV systems) and the effects these artefacts on the actors.
The findings of the case yield several implications for each of the disciplines employed in the thesis. First, it brings together three major approaches in different disciplines, allowing for communication of ideas and a broader discussion of what
markets do in society. Second, the conceptual framework encourages the study of technologies in marketing by placing technological artefacts as central to market understanding. Lastly, the conceptual tools allow for questioning of how humans act and perceive the world using calculative market devices.


Since the Great Recession of 2007–09, states have devoted even less money to public education and state courts have become even more hostile to structural reform litigation that has sought to challenge education funding and quality. Yet the current model of education federalism (dual federalism) leaves these matters largely to the states. As a result, state-level legislative inaction, executive acquiescence, and judicial abdication can combine to create a situation in which the quality of traditional public schools declines sharply. This is the case in Michigan, which is an unusually important state not only because the dynamics that are emerging in some other states are mature in Michigan but also because Michigan is the home state of Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who has influenced the state's education policy substantially. Glaring gaps in educational quality like those in Michigan are not the federal government's problem, and in some ways the federal government's hands are tied when it comes to being part of the solution. This must change. Dual federalism does not reflect the current reality of many federal-state-local relationships, and it is sorely outdated in the context of public education. Accordingly, I argue for a larger, though by no means exclusive, federal role in K-12 public education with the goal of establishing a floor of educational quality for students across the country. In addition to proposing legislative and agency-based changes, I advance the novel litigation strategy of pairing a minimal educational quality right via Substantive Due Process with rational basis with bite review under the Equal Protection Clause. In these ways and others, we must move to a new model of federalism in education—cooperative federalism. Without this shift, a floor of educational quality will continue to be uneven both among and within states, and in more and more places like Michigan, the floor will rot and students will fall through.


Spin angular momentum transfer, or spin-transfer, describes the transfer of spin angular momentum between a spin-polarized current and a ferromagnetic conductor. The angular momentum transfer exerts a torque (spin-current induced torque, or spin-torque) on the ferromagnetic conductor. When its dimensions are reduced to less than 100 nm, the spin-torque can become comparable to the magnetic damping torque at a spin-polarized current of high current density (above 106 A/cm2), giving rise to a new set of current-induced dynamic excitation and magnetic switching phenomena. This has now been definitively observed in sub-100-nm current-perpendicular spin-valves and magnetic tunnel junctions, and appears promising as a basis for direct write-address of a nanomagnetic bit when the lateral bit size is reduced to well below 100 nm. An overview is presented in this paper of spin-transfer phenomena. The first part of the paper contains a brief introduction to spin-transfer, especially the characteristic dynamics associated with spin-torque. In the second part, several representative experiments are described. In the third part, a set of basic phenomenological models are introduced that describe experimental observations. The models also serve as a bridge for quantitative comparison between experiments and first-principles spin-polarized transport theory. In the last part of the paper, some device concepts based on spin-transfer-induced magnetic excitation and magnetic reversal are described.


Chromism focuses on the phenomena of color change, and the studies in the related area have conventionally been centered on organic dyes. In recent decades, noble metal nanostructures, featured with rich optical properties arising from their characteristic localized surface plasmon resonances, have emerged as an alternative family of color-rendering agents, and have therefore been introducing new trends into the research realm of chromisms. Here in this review we summarize the related studies on noble metal plasmonic nanostructure related chromisms, which are sorted into four major categories, namely, solvatochromism, sorptiochromism, aggregachromism and chronochromism. For each category, the basic principles (some with comparison to those for dye-related systems) are delineated, followed with examples illustrating the performances and utilizations of representative systems. Of note, we put particular emphasis on the category of chronochromism, which, in our opinion, has not received as much deserved attention yet promises great potential in practical applications. In the final section, we discuss the challenges that plasmonic nanostructures are currently facing, and outlook the opportunities that may emerge in the near future.


When free of surface water in air or liquid paraffin, the antarctic nematode Panagrolaimus davidi is freezing intolerant but avoids freezing by supercooling. Survival of long-term exposure is enhanced by sub-zero temperatures compared with controls maintained at 99% relative humidity and 15°C. In water the nematodes are seeded by exogenous ice nucleation and a proportion are freezing tolerant. Ice formation appears to be restricted to the pseudocbel. The degree of freezing tolerance is dependent upon the age of the culture and its thermal history. P. davidi is freezing tolerant when exposed to sub-zero temperatures in water and freezing intolerant when free of surface water and able to supercool. These two strategies are not mutually exclusive as they are often thought to be in arthropods.


Event Detection (ED) is the task of identifying and classifying trigger words of event mentions in text. Despite considerable research efforts in recent years for English text, the task of ED in other languages has been significantly less explored. Switching to non-English languages, important research questions for ED include how well existing ED models perform on different languages, how challenging ED is in other languages, and how well ED knowledge and annotation can be transferred across languages. To answer those questions, it is crucial to obtain multilingual ED datasets that provide consistent event annotation for multiple languages. There exist some multilingual ED datasets; however, they tend to cover a handful of languages and mainly focus on popular ones. Many languages are not covered in existing multilingual ED datasets. In addition, the current datasets are often small and not accessible to the public. To overcome those shortcomings, we introduce a new large-scale multilingual dataset for ED (called MINION) that consistently annotates events for 8 different languages; 5 of them have not been supported by existing multilingual datasets. We also perform extensive experiments and analysis to demonstrate the challenges and transferability of ED across languages in MINION that in all call for more research effort in this area. We will release the dataset to promote future research on multilingual ED.


Rayner et al. (2007) argued that our corpus-analytic evidence for distributed processing during reading should not be accepted, because (1) there might be problems of multicollinearity, (2) the distinction between content and function words and the skipping status of neighboring words was ignored, and (3) there are inconsistencies with experimental results. Re-analyses with linear-mixed effect models demonstrate that (1) regression coefficients are stable across nine samples, (2) lexical status and skipping status (and their interactions) are highly significant but do not account for the effects of word frequency for content and for function words, and (3) there is strong evidence for lexical processing of content words while fixating function words to the left of them. A critical result about fixation durations prior to skipped words is replicated in an experiment. The distinction between "correlational analyses" and "well- controlled" experiments and questions about generalizability of results are discussed. I argue for a complementary role of corpus analysis, computational modeling, and experiments in reading research. DOI: 10.1037/0096-34126.96.36.1990 Journal of Experimental Psychology: General


Hyperoxaluria can cause not only nephrolithiasis and nephrocalcinosis, but also renal parenchymal disease histologically characterized by deposition of calcium oxalate crystals throughout the renal parenchyma, profound tubular damage and interstitial inflammation and fibrosis. Hyperoxaluric nephropathy presents clinically as acute or chronic renal failure that may progress to end-stage renal disease (ESRD). This sequence of events, well recognized in the past in primary and enteric hyperoxalurias, has also been documented in a few cases of dietary hyperoxaluria. Estimates of oxalate intake in patients with chronic dietary hyperoxaluria who developed chronic kidney disease or ESRD were comparable to the reported average oxalate content of the diets of certain populations worldwide, thus raising the question whether dietary hyperoxaluria is a primary cause of ESRD in these regions. Studies addressing this question have the potential of improving population health and should be undertaken, alongside ongoing studies which are yielding fresh insights into the mechanisms of intestinal absorption and renal excretion of oxalate, and into the mechanisms of development of oxalate-induced renal parenchymal disease. Novel preventive and therapeutic strategies for treating all types of hyperoxaluria are expected to develop from these studies.


The Leeuwin Current is the dominant circulation feature in the eastern Indian Ocean, transporting tropical and subtropical water southward. While it is known that the Leeuwin Current draws its water from a multitude of sources, existing Indian Ocean circulation schematics have never quantified the fluxes of tropical and subtropical source water flowing into the Leeuwin Current. This paper uses virtual Lagrangian particles to quantify the transport of these sources along the Leeuwin Current's mean pathway. Here the pathways and exchange of Leeuwin Current source waters across six coastally bound sectors on the south-west Australian coast are analyzed. This constitutes the first quantitative assessment of Leeuwin Current pathways within an offline, 50 year integration time, eddy-resolving global ocean model simulation. Along the Leeuwin Current's pathway, we find a mean poleward transport of 3.7 Sv in which the tropical sources account for 60-78% of the transport. While the net transport is small, we see large transports flowing in and out of all the offshore boundaries of the Leeuwin Current sectors. Along the Leeuwin Current's pathway, we find that water from the Indonesian Throughflow contributes 50-66% of the seasonal signal. By applying conditions on the routes particles take entering the Leeuwin Current, we find particles are more likely to travel offshore north of 30°S, while south of 30°S, particles are more likely to continue downstream. We find a 0.2 Sv pathway of water from the Leeuwin Current's source regions, flowing through the entire Leeuwin Current pathway into the Great Australian Bight.


This paper develops a dynamic model to examine the ex-ante and ex-post implications of five policy options for resolving bank failures when the authorities cannot observe the level of non-performing loans (NPLs) held by individual banks. Under asymmetric information, we show that the first-best outcome is achievable when the authorities can close all banks that fail to raise a minimum level of new capital. But when the authorities cannot close banks and must rely on financial incentives to induce banks to liquidate their NPLs, recapitalisation using equity (Tier 1 capital) would be the second-best policy, whereas recapitalisation using subordinated debt (Tier 2 capital) is suboptimal. If the authorities do not wish to hold an equity stake in a bank, they should subsidise the liquidation of non-performing loans rather than inject subordinated debt. We also show that the cost of this subsidy can be reduced if it is offered in a menu that includes equity injection.


In the present work, which is the second part in a series of two, multi-phase, multi-component equilibrium calculations were used to study the chemistry and deposition behavior of lead and zinc in the combustion of recovered waste wood (RWW). Particular attention was paid to the deposition behavior in different parts of the boiler under varying flue gas and material temperature conditions. In addition, the influence of fuel composition was considered by studying three different fuel compositions. The results from the calculations were compared to experimental results from two measurement campaigns, whose goal was to experimentally determine the distribution and speciation of zinc and lead compounds in aerosol particles and deposits in the fluidized-bed combustion of RWW. The results from the experimental work are presented in part 1 (10.1021/ef101478n) of this work.


In modern and future parallel and distributed processing, a large part of computation overhead comes from communication. This can be minimized if the network protocol offers the user services that are aimed at specific types of communication used in these applications. Other important properties of distributed processing applications are time-deterministic latency and guarantees to meet deadlines. Moreover, an important trend is to implement distributed real-time applications on top of standard Ethernet based networks. Therefore, in this thesis, we focus on developing and analyzing how to efficiently support real-time communication services for distributed computing applications over switched Ethernet. The network architecture currently assumed is a switched Ethernet network with only one switch. The work has resulted in proposed Switched Ethernet networks that offer additional features for parallel and distributed real-time processing. An active Ethernet switch concept is proposed to provide efficient support for different user services, including many-to-many communication and other group communication services with high traffic volumes of short messages. Meanwhile, the real-time support for these special communication patterns is addressed by incorporating deadline-based scheduling in the switch and the end nodes. Moreover, this thesis addresses real-time services by proposing an alternative solution. In this proposal, the Earliest Deadline First (EDF) algorithm is only used in the source nodes to support real-time traffic with a guaranteed bit rate and end-to-end worst-case delay bound. The thesis also reports a feasibility analysis for hard real-time traffic, which also produces figures on the minimum buffer sizes in the switch to be able to guarantee real-time demands. Meanwhile, differentiation of heterogeneous traffic is considered in the proposed system by placing traffic into several priority classes with distinctly different QoS levels. The performance of the proposed methods is evaluated in simulations and calculations. It is shown that the different Ethernet extensions, in many cases, are efficient choices for distributed computing systems.


A long-standing hypothesis in subterranean biology posits that organisms living in poor resource subsurface habitats can withstand long periods of bioenergetic shortages due to an innate reduced metabolic rate when compared to their epigean counterparts. However, previous studies have proposed that caves with ample energy resources may not evolve organisms with reduced metabolic rate. The equivocal nature of previous findings suggests that there is a need to compare food deprivation responses of subterranean and surface species in order to elucidate whether there are widespread adaptations to low energy systems in subterranean taxa. The purpose of the study was to examine patterns in basal metabolism and the effects of food deprivation in closely related subterraneanand epigeanamphipods, Stygobromus pecki and Synurella sp. from central and east Texas, USA, respectively. Basal metabolic rates (measured as O2 consumption) differed between species, with S. pecki having substantially lower rates than Synurella. Individuals of both species were food deprived for a pre-determined time interval and changes in total body protein, lipids, and carbohydrates were measured throughout food deprivation experiments. Stygobromus pecki had larger initial energy stores than Synurella and were more conservative in the use of energetic reserves over a prolonged period of food deprivation. Thus, it appears that although S. pecki are currently found in shallow phreatic and spring opening environments, they have maintained more efficient metabolic adaptations to deal with prolonged periods of food deprivation.


Silicon carbide (SiC) has become the substrate of choice for III-N epilayers applied to electronic devices due to the lack of a native III-N substrate. This is particularly true for high power applications, since the thermal conductivity of the substrate enhances device performance. Although the GaN lattice match is slightly better for SiC than for sapphire, the dislocation densities that result are still very high (generally in the high 108 cm-2 range) and often deleterious to device performance. Screw-component dislocations are especially critical since they serve as leakage paths in vertically conducting III-N devices. In this paper efforts to reduce the extended defect density in III-N films grown on SiC will be reviewed. Details on recent efforts to use step-free SiC mesa surfaces arrayed on commercial 4HSiC substrates will then be highlighted showing dramatic reductions in extended defect densities and the virtual elimination of critical defects for vertically conducting devices. In these experiments, SiC surfaces that are homoepitaxially grown step-free or of very low step density have been used as growth templates for thin (<3 μm) GaN films deposited on a novel 1000 Å AlN nucleation layer characterized by a total dislocation density two orders of magnitude lower than the previous state-of-the-art, and with no evidence of screw-component dislocations.


The relationship of polyoma (parotid tumor) virus infection to spontaneous and x-ray induced lymphocytic neoplasms (leukemia) in mice has been studied in two sublines of the high leukemic AKR strain, in the high leukemic C58 strain and in the x-ray responsive C3Hf/Bi strain. There was found to be no correlation of hemagglutination-inhibiting (HI) antibody with leukemia appearing at various times throughout life, and there was no evidence of increased risk of developing leukemia in mice with prior antibody to polyoma virus. Virus isolation experiments accomplished with AKR leukemic mice showed that HI antibody status of these mice had the same significance with regard to presence or absence of detectable virus as was previously observed for non-leukemic mice from infected colonies. The results of this study were interpreted as supporting the concept that the repeated association of polyoma virus and experimental transmission of leukemia is fortuitous.


Major rain events erode coastal catchments, and muddy plumes of terrigenous sediment can extend far offshore. Surface waters gradually clear as terrigenous sediments sink, although near- bed turbidity may remain high due to resuspension by waves and tides. This may adversely affect large suspension-feeding benthic epifauna, structurally and functionally important organisms in coastal marine systems, by clogging their filtration structures and decreasing their feeding efficiency. While terrigenous sediment concentrations likely decrease with distance from the coast, sensitivities of suspension feeders to this stressor may increase. We tested this hypothesis using controlled addi- tions of terrigenous sediment at estuarine and coastal sites in northern New Zealand. None of the large, solitary suspension feeders (pinnid bivalves Atrina zelandica, sponges Aaptos spp., and ascid- ians Styela plicata) were completely buried or killed by experimental deposition of terrigenous sediment. However, after living in the deposits for 3 wk, the condition of all 3 taxa declined relative to controls, and clearance rates of A. zelandica and Aaptos spp. were reduced (averaging about 40% less). A. zelandica outside the estuary (Site MI, coarse ambient sediment) were more sensitive to terrigenous material than A. zelandica inside the harbour (Site TK, fine ambient sediment), which was probably related to the greater background suspended sediment concentrations at TK to which the A. zelandica were accustomed. Impacts to large, structure-forming species such as A. zelandica, Aaptos spp., and S. plicata may eventually affect ecosystem structure and function, particularly if the frequency or magnitude of terrigenous sediment loading and resuspension increases.


We introduce a general framework for several information extraction tasks that share span representations using dynamically constructed span graphs. The graphs are dynamically constructed by selecting the most confident entity spans and linking these nodes with confidence-weighted relation types and coreferences. The dynamic span graph allow coreference and relation type confidences to propagate through the graph to iteratively refine the span representations. This is unlike previous multi-task frameworks for information extraction in which the only interaction between tasks is in the shared first-layer LSTM. Our framework significantly outperforms state-of-the-art on multiple information extraction tasks across multiple datasets reflecting different domains. We further observe that the span enumeration approach is good at detecting nested span entities, with significant F1 score improvement on the ACE dataset.


This Paper uses a new data set drawn from official earnings records kept by the French national statistical agency, INSEE, and builds a time series on various mobility indices for the first time. Using six mobility concepts, we chart wage mobility trends for the working population and compare mobility rates in various population subgroups differentiated by gender, and education. We then compare mobility trends over time for each population subgroup. Next, we relate the extent of mobility using each of these concepts to measures of macroeconomic conditions including GNP growth, unemployment, inflation, and change in the minimum wage. The results show that the answers to even the most fundamental of mobility questions depend on the mobility concept used. Specifically, we find: over time, income mobility in France has risen for some concepts and fallen for others; comparing genders, women have higher income mobility for some concepts and lower income mobility for others; looking across educational groups, for some mobility concepts it is the best-educated workers who have the highest mobility, while for other concepts, it is the least-educated; in general, the indices are affected by demographic variables, macroeconomic conditions, and changes in employment composition, but these patterns are not uniform across the different concepts; changes in ranks track only imperfectly changes in francs, and the relationships are far from linear. The implication is that before labour economists 'do a mobility study,' they need to be very clear about the mobility concept or concepts they wish to study. As our work shows, the choice can and does make a vital difference.


ABSTRACT This study investigates the impact of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) on economic growth (gross domestic product) for member countries of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) using annual data for the period 1990–2014. The study has employed augmented Cobb–Douglas production function by incorporating ICT along with capital and labor. We have taken teledensity (number of fixed and mobile phones per 10,000 people) as the proxy of ICT. This study has included only four SAARC countries (Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan) due to data constraints. Our findings reveal a positive and statistically significant effect of ICT on economic growth using panel data techniques. However, the impact of ICT on economic growth is highest for India followed by Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Pakistan respectively. This study has crucial policy implications for SAARC countries as they have started giving due significance to the issues related to ICT these years.


Estimating regional income inequality in Africa has been challenging due to the lack of reliable and consistent sub-national income data. I employ night lights data to circumvent this limitation. I find significant and positive associations between regional inequality visible through night lights and income in Africa. Thus, in the absence of income data, we can construct regional inequality proxies using night lights data. Further investigation on the night lights-based regional inequality trends reveals two main findings: first, increasing regional inequality trends between 1992 and 2003; and second, declining regional inequality trends between 2004 and 2012.


I. INTRODUCTION "The best laid schemes o' mice an' men .... "(1) When the poet Robert Bums wrote this now-famous line, he obviously had not considered the natural resource/land use plans for the national forests developed pursuant to the National Forest Management Act of 1976 (NFMA).(2) These plans dictate the uses, often competing and seemingly incompatible, to which the national forests may be put, such as commercial timber harvesting and wildlife protection. In passing the NFMA, Congress included a well-intentioned provision, 16 U.S.C. [sections] 1604(g)(3)(B), which sought to protect the diversity of plant and animal life in the forests,(3) yet did not specify the means of doing so. Part I of this article introduces the main issues involving the diversity of species provision, while Part II provides an overview of the NFMA in general and the diversity provision in particular, addressing the case law and regulations which interpret it. Part III analyzes the case law specifically interpreting the diversity of species provision, and Part IV provides a conclusion. This article focuses on diversity(4) cases from 1991 through 1996, a six-year period that ushered in a remarkable series of decisions addressing [sections] 1604(g)(3)(B). Although several details of note remain to be resolved, the jurisprudence concerning this provision has apparently settled, with the Ninth Circuit in one camp and an other circuits in the other. Only now, after this six-year period, has the importance of the NFMA diversity requirement become clear. Although we cannot know exactly how far Congress wanted to extend diversity protection, this article will show that Congress has nonetheless provided a goal which the forest planners must reach. However, the means by which to maintain diversity in the forests have become increasingly clear, much to the chagrin of the timber industry and the United States Forest Service (USFS).(5) First, late-successional (old growth) forests must be preserved in order to meet the diversity mandate; second, controversial clearcutting harvest methods may stiff be used, but only where they protect diversity and are economically efficient (i.e. the benefits outweigh the costs). The courts have shown that these means are indeed necessary for preserving diversity. The judicial system has specified the measures that the USFS must take to protect diversity, developing a standard that affords more protection to plants and wildlife than the "back against the wall" absolute limits(6) that trigger when a species is listed under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).(7) Although the USFS has drawn frequent criticism for apparently favoring timber sales over other resource uses, in all fairness, the agency usually has attempted to protect wildlife and plant diversity (the most prominent exception being in the northern spotted owl litigation). The main points of contention are a matter of degree (i.e. whether more must be done to protect diversity, specifically by preserving old growth forests) and over the continued reliance on clearcutting as a primary cutting method. II. OVERVIEW With the passage of the NFMA, Congress sought to reduce the unbridled discretion which the Forest Service historically had possessed in managing national forests.(8) The chief instrument Congress decided to use to guide the USFS was the Land Resource Management Plan (LRMP), a comprehensive document the Forest Service develops for each national forest in the nation.(9) The LRMPs bind the Service to a specific schedule of how to utilize the forest over a ten-to-fifteen-year period. These plans are taken seriously by the Service, because they strictly bind its actions in a particular national forest.(10) For the Forest Service to act in a way that "significantly" departs from the plan, it must follow a formal amendment process.(11) The NFMA is a remarkable statute in all that it seeks to achieve and in its consideration of several other touchstone environmental laws. …


AIM
To compare the performance of two groups of pre-registration nursing students exposed to two different methods of simulation as a teaching strategy, with the aim of providing an evidence base to assist in the selection of appropriate teaching methods, and to inform resource allocation with regard to teaching clinical skills.

METHOD
A longitudinal, comparative quasi-experimental design, including a validated and piloted assessment tool, was used to evaluate students' performance within three domains: cognitive (knowledge and decision making), motor and affective. Students also completed self-assessments of confidence and anxiety levels. Data were statistically and thematically analysed.

RESULTS
Students who had been exposed to different forms of simulated teaching, showed no significant difference in performance within the cognitive and motor domains. However, one form of simulation was more effective in enabling students' learning in the affective domain (students' interpersonal, communication and professional nursing skills). An unexpected finding was students' inability to measure vital signs manually.

CONCLUSION
Simulation as a teaching strategy contributes to students' learning. Education providers and clinicians need to recognise that overuse of automated equipment may potentially de-skill future generations of nurses.


The increasing demand for more computing power and data storage capacity in many fields of business, research, engineering, medical and science has raised the emergence of Grid Computing. Grid computing facilitates the environment where computers are interconnected with each other in such a manner that for making the execution faster of their tasks they can utilize the unused processing power of other idle systems. The applications of grid demand the secure access to the computational resources in the distributed environment. The secure and uniform access to resources is provided by Grid Middleware. In this paper, I have presented some of the middleware and Toolkits having some advantages and


Introduction Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) negatively affects both the structure and function of the small intestine leading to a number of acute and chronic symptoms. The lactulose hydrogen breath test (LHBT) is commonly used to detect SIBO. However, little is known to what extent the diagnosis made by this method can affect the patient's clinical state. The aim of this study was to assess whether patients diagnosed with SIBO using LHBT respond clinically to SIBO treatment. Methods All the patients who were diagnosed with SIBO by LHBT within the last 12 months prior to December 2016 were retrospectively contacted. A visual analogue scale (VAS) on a scale of 0–10 was used to score the severity of their top 3 symptoms pre and post treatment. 0 being the lowest and 10 being the highest severity of each symptom. Positive LHBT was considered as raise of hydrogen >12 ppm against baseline within the first 60 min of the study. A paired t-test was conducted to evaluate the significance of the differences; P value <0.05 was considered as significant. Results 17 patients were included (10 female, median age 40.5, age range 26–70). All these patients were prescribed antibiotics (AB). Reduction of the symptom 1 and 2 were significant pre vs post treatment but not the symptom 3 (P values respectively: <0.006, <0.009, and <0.1). Comparing the total symptom counts also showed significant reduction in the severity of the symptoms (P <).0001). Analysis of the severity of individual types of symptoms, significant improvement was found in bloating (p < 0.0967), flatulence (p < 0.0247), abdominal discomfort/pain (p < 0.0279) and diarrhoea (p < 0.042). Conclusion The findings of this study suggest that patients diagnosed with SIBO using LHBT effectively respond to treatment (i.e. AB). Using raise of hydrogen >12 ppm against baseline within the first 60 min of the study is a reliable criteria to diagnose SIBO. Further studies with larger number of patients is required to confirm the findings of this study. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


The paper describes the design, performance and illustrative spectroscopic applications of a high power, pulsed, injection seeded, narrow bandwidth and continuously tuneable optical parametric oscillator (OPO) based on two β-barium borate (BBO) nonlinear crystals. A ring cavity OPO was injection seeded with an external cavity diode laser in the spectral range 755–855 nm. The OPO generated high power transform limited nanosecond light pulses in this range and, simultaneously, at 606–667 nm. Spectral parameters of the OPO were investigated as a function of pump power for two different cavity lengths. A bandwidth of ∼120 MHz (0.004 cm-1) in the visible has been achieved with a 40-cm-long cavity. The potential of the OPO system is demonstrated by recording high resolution sub-Doppler spectra in the UV of PF and C3 radicals in a pulsed supersonic jet expansion.


Thanks to the low weight, magnesium alloys feature high specific strength and stiffness properties. Thus they prove to be promising materials for todays ambitious automotive light weight construction efforts. Due to their comparative low formability at room temperature the process of magnesium sheet hydroforming can be improved at temperatures higher than 200 °C by the activation of additional sliding planes. This paper illustrates the determination of mechanical properties for the hydroforming of magnesium sheets at elevated temperature. In particular the mechanical behavior at elevated temperature was investigated by means of the tensile test and of the hydraulic bulge test. For the determination of the strains an optical measurement system was introduced into the experimental set-up. The exact knowledge of the strain condition in the area of diffuse necking enabled the determination of the flow curve in the tensile test also beyond the uniform elongation. The influence of temperature and strain rate was analyzed as well as the influence of uni- and biaxial stress state on the flow curve. Using circular and elliptic dies with different aspect ratio the hydraulic bulge test served to determinate the forming limit curves at three different elevated temperatures.


The Northern Apennines (NA) are a characteristic example of foreland fold-and-thrust belt progressively migrating towards its foreland. Their tectonic evolution has been quite tightly constrained in time by microfossil biostratigraphy applied to syn-orogenic deposits within foreland basins. This makes the NA well suited to test the reliability of K-Ar illite dating of Neogene deformation affecting siliciclastic sequences. We sampled two top-to-the-ENE thrusts, whose well defined cores are defined by scaly gouge formed at the expense of the pelitic component of the host rock. X-ray diffraction (XRD) and K-Ar isotopic analysis of multiple grain-size fractions of the gouge, allowed us to discriminate between syn-kinematic and inherited illite crystals in the fault rocks. Illite age analysis (IAA) constrains fault slip along the thrusts to 15.2 ± 7.6 Ma and 15.4 ± 16.6 Ma. The results, in spite of their analytical uncertainty, are fully consistent with the local evolution of the NA as constrained by the independent biostratigraphic studies and confirm the general suitability of this geochronological approach to Neogene deformation.


We test the consistency of 108 estimates of skewness (a measure of asymmetry that depends on the orientation of lithospheric magnetization) of magnetic anomaly 32 from the Pacific plate with a model for spreading-rate–dependent anomalous skewness formulated for data in the Arctic, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans. In a prior study, a chron 32 (71.6–73.0 Ma) paleomagnetic pole was determined that best fit these 108 skewness estimates while simultaneously solving for a third parameter, anomalous skewness, assumed to be independent of spreading rate. An analysis of the residuals in skewness was previously used to test for any dependence on spreading rate and indicated an increase in residual skewness with increasing spreading rate, which is opposite in trend to that observed in other ocean basins. In contrast with the prior analysis of residuals, we find the data to be consistent with anomalous skewness increasing with decreasing spreading half rate less than 50 mm yr −1 . Thus, the spreading-rate dependence of anomalous skewness in the Pacific is consistent with that found in other ocean basins and with the model for spreading-rate–dependent anomalous skewness. The resulting revised paleomagnetic pole lies only 1.2° from the prior pole. The revised pole, as was the case for the original pole, shows that the Hawaiian hotspot has shifted southward relative to the spin axis by 13° since ca. 72 Ma.


An imaging system, in general, consists of a capturing system (i.e., a camera), a signal transmission process, and an output device (display and/or printing systems). When capturing a picture, colors are captured by an imaging sensor on a camera, whose spectral responses are, in general, highly different from the color matching functions of CIE 1931. Such cameras show non-colorimetric response and provides inaccurate color information of a captured object. Additionally, when storing data, different digital cameras generate different signals in red, green, and blue (RGB), whose reproduction is highly dependent each device. Then, a display device applies its own color conversion based on RGB format. As a result, no colors are correctly captured and reproduced. A severe miscommunication happens between capturing and displaying systems as far as using device-dependent imaging systems. In order to really reproduce images of high-fidelity colors on a display, it is essential for the imaging system to adopt colorimetric method not only in displaying and but also in capturing images. Therefore, we propose a device-independent imaging system which can accurately capture colors and faithfully reproduce colors.


We read conspecifics' social cues effortlessly, but little is known about our abilities to understand social gestures of other species. To investigate the neural underpinnings of such skills, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study the brain activity of experts and non-experts of dog behavior while they observed humans or dogs either interacting with, or facing away from a conspecific. The posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) of both subject groups dissociated humans facing toward each other from humans facing away, and in dog experts, a distinction also occurred for dogs facing toward vs. away in a bilateral area extending from the pSTS to the inferior temporo-occipital cortex: the dissociation of dog behavior was significantly stronger in expert than control group. Furthermore, the control group had stronger pSTS responses to humans than dogs facing toward a conspecific, whereas in dog experts, the responses were of similar magnitude. These findings suggest that dog experts' brains distinguish socially relevant body postures similarly in dogs and humans.


Region proposal mechanisms are essential for existing deep learning approaches to object detection in images. Although they can generally achieve a good detection performance under normal circumstances, their recall in a scene with extreme cases is unacceptably low. This is mainly because bounding box annotations contain much environment noise information, and non-maximum suppression (NMS) is required to select target boxes. Therefore, in this paper, we propose the first anchor-free and NMS-free object detection model called weakly supervised multimodal annotation segmentation (WSMA-Seg), which utilizes segmentation models to achieve an accurate and robust object detection without NMS. In WSMA-Seg, multimodal annotations are proposed to achieve an instance-aware segmentation using weakly supervised bounding boxes; we also develop a run-data-based following algorithm to trace contours of objects. In addition, we propose a multi-scale pooling segmentation (MSP-Seg) as the underlying segmentation model of WSMA-Seg to achieve a more accurate segmentation and to enhance the detection accuracy of WSMA-Seg. Experimental results on multiple datasets show that the proposed WSMA-Seg approach outperforms the state-of-the-art detectors.


We propose a new approach for vision based longitudinal and lateral vehicle control. The novel feature of this approach is the use of binocular vision. We integrated two modules consisting of a new, domain-specific binocular stereo algorithm, and a lane marker detection algorithm, and show that the integration results in improved performance for each of the modules. Longitudinal control is supported by detecting and measuring the distances to leading vehicles using binocular stereo. The knowledge of the camera geometry with respect to the locally planar road is used to map the images of the road plane in the two camera views into alignment. This allows us to separate image features into those lying in the road plane, e.g. lane markers, and those due to other objects which are dynamically integrated into an obstacle map. Therefore, in contrast with the previous work, we can cope with the difficulties arising from occlusion of lane markers by other vehicles. Detected vehicles are then tracked in time using a vehicle centered coordinate system. Multiple cameras can be integrated to provide full surround awareness. The detection and measurement of the lane markers provides us with the positional parameters and the road curvature which are needed for lateral vehicle control. Moreover, this information is also used to update the camera geometry with respect to the road, therefore allowing us to cope with the problem of vibrations and road inclination to obtain consistent results from binocular stereo.


The phase transformation behavior of 9Cr–3W–3Co–VNb steels with boron contents of 47 and 130 ppm has been investigated using differential thermal analysis (DTA). In our DTA experiments, disk-shaped samples were normalized and then tempered at temperatures between 10 and −50 °C from the ferrite-to-austenite transformation temperature (Ac1) at a rate of 30 °C/min. The measured Ac1 temperatures for 47 ppm B steel and 130 ppm B steel were 878 and 884 °C, respectively. The general features of the phase transformation behavior and the changes in hardness with tempering temperature for these boron containing steels were almost identical, irrespective of the boron content. In the DTA cooling curves during tempering at temperatures between −30 and 10 °C from the Ac1 temperatures, an exothermic peak due to the formation of fresh martensite was observed and the peak area increased with increasing tempering temperature. The Vickers hardness values measured after the DTA experiments decreased gradually with increasing tempering temperature, reaching a minimum value of about 180 HV around Ac1−40 °C, and then increased markedly, reaching a value of about 350 HV at Ac1+10 °C.


Ground-state energies are investigated in a many-quark model with pairing interactions, which has the su(4)-algebraic structure. Exact eigenstates in the boson realization method are constructed by imposing a color-singlet condition developed in the previous paper. An interaction term breaking the su(4)-dynamical symmetry plays an important role to determine the ground state. As a result, a quark-pairing state or a quark-triplet state as a nucleon is realized with a certain value of a variable which is regarded as an order parameter. In addition to the parameter regions in which these ground states are realized, it is shown that there are two transition regions between the quark-pairing and the quark-triplet states with different values of the order parameter.


This paper presents a new formulation for control of spatial rigid bodies. After revealing the geometric structure of dual quaternions, logarithmic feedback are utilized to derive control laws in both kinematic design and dynamic design. The regulation problem and the tracking problem are tackled respectively. Comparison with conventional methods together with simulation results are given to show the effectiveness of the new method.


The implementation of the European integrated marine policy poses many scientific challenges. Among them, the knowledge and understanding of interactions between anthropogenic pressures and ecological components is an important issue, particularly to help define Good Environmental Status, environmental targets and monitoring programs of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (2008, MSFD). Assessment of cumulative effects of different pressures is a particularly complex issue requiring modeling tools and methods, as well as accurate data sets on human activities, anthropogenic pressures and ecological components. The results of these assessments are also uncertain and highly dependent on the calculation methods and assumptions, as well as on the data sets used. Within this context, we developed a technical and methodological approach to map the risk of cumulative effects of different pressures on benthic habitats. These developments were initiated as part of the implementation of the MSFD in France to contribute to the diagnosis of the marine environment. Here we provide a demonstrator to illustrate the feasibility for mapping the risk of cumulative effects of different pressures on benthic habitats, as well as the confidence index and the variability associated with this analysis. The method is based on a spatial analysis using a mapping of benthic habitats and their sensitivity to pressures, as well as the distribution and intensity of human activities and associated pressures. We collected and prepared relatively accurate and consistent data sets to describe human activities and benthic habitats. Data sets are embedded into a grid that facilitates the management and analysis of the data and exploitation of the results. The demonstrator consists of a relational database using the Spatial Query Language (SQL) language as well as data analysis scripts using the R language. The first demonstrator operations validated the main methodological and technical choices and helped to identify future developments needed to facilitate the appropriation and integration of these approaches in the implementation of public policies for the management of the marine environment.


BACKGROUND
There is currently a need to develop and test in vitro systems for predicting the toxicity of nanoparticles. One challenge is to determine the actual cellular dose of nanoparticles after exposure.

METHODS
In this study, human epithelial lung cells (A549) were exposed to airborne Cu particles at the air-liquid interface (ALI). The cellular dose was determined for two different particle sizes at different deposition conditions, including constant and pulsed Cu aerosol flow.

RESULTS
Airborne polydisperse particles with a geometric mean diameter (GMD) of 180 nm [geometric standard deviation (GSD) 1.5, concentration 10(5) particles/mL] deposited at the ALI yielded a cellular dose of 0.4-2.6 μg/cm(2) at pulsed flow and 1.6-7.6 μg/cm(2) at constant flow. Smaller polydisperse particles in the nanoregime (GMD 80 nm, GSD 1.5, concentration 10(7) particles/mL) resulted in a lower cellular dose of 0.01-0.05 μg/cm(2) at pulsed flow, whereas no deposition was observed at constant flow. Exposure experiments with and without cells showed that the Cu particles were partly dissolved upon deposition on cells and in contact with medium.

CONCLUSIONS
Different cellular doses were obtained for the different Cu particle sizes (generated with different methods). Furthermore, the cellular doses were affected by the flow conditions in the cell exposure system and the solubility of Cu. The cellular doses of Cu presented here are the amount of Cu that remained on the cells after completion of an experiment. As Cu particles were partly dissolved, Cu (a nonnegligible contribution) was, in addition, present and analyzed in the nourishing medium present beneath the cells. This study presents cellular doses induced by Cu particles and demonstrates difficulties with deposition of nanoparticles at the ALI and of partially soluble particles.


With a view of achieving up-scaled nutrition-driven biomimetic assembly of gold nanoparticles, the self-assembly of glutamate- or chitosan stabilized colloidal gold was attempted using viable microbial cells as templates in nutrient rich or poor assembly environment. The likelihood of achieving self-assembly given the type of microbial template, nanoparticle stabilization and predominant biochemical conditions is discussed. While the realization of industrially useful microcomponents from the assembly route maybe technically remote as yet, it was found that present nanoparticles and suitable assembly environment find immediate application in conventional microscopy or as contrast enhancers in the routine study of microbial cell morphology.


The present thesis concerns communicative and language skills in Swedish children and the instruments designed to measure those skills. The primary focus of the paper is on findings related to the field of communicative and language skills and on important methodological issues. The introductory section of the thesis introduces the reader to the field of communication and language in children, with references to its long history, influential ideas, recent approaches, and areas designated worthy of research. Special attention is given to methodological issues. The thesis is composed of five empirical studies in communicative and language development. Study I concerns the validity and reliability of the instrument Swedish Early Communicative Development Inventories (SECDI). Study II-IV includes representative samples of Swedish children 8-16 months old, 16-28 months old, and children with Down syndrome 1-5 years old. Study V relates to characteristics of a new instrument specifically designed to measure natural speech. The results highlight the developmental trends and individual variation in the communicative development of children. The relation between gestures, vocabulary comprehension, and vocabulary production is discussed, as well as patterns in the development of different skills and the kind of growth functions that represent early development. Also gender differences in early communicative skills and several other issues related to communicative development are examined. The methodological discussion primarily bears on the disadvantages and limitations of parental reports, validity, the adaptation of an American instrument to Swedish problems, and sampling and missing data. The unique difficulties and prospects in using recordings and transcriptions are also outlined. The clinical implications emphasize the need to see language problems from a contextual perspective and to use a family centered approach for any intervention. Key words: Child, language, communication, parental reports, SECDI, natural speech, PLUS-3, Down syndrome, methodological issues, clinical implications


Highly ordered and stable micelles formed from both symmetric and asymmetric block copolymers of polystyrene-block-poly(2-vinylpyridine) (PS-b-P2VP) at the Si-ionic liquid (IL) interface have been investigated by scanning force microscopy (SFM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium trifluoromethanesulfonate IL, a selective and temperature-tunable solvent for the P2VP block, was used and gave rise to block copolymer micelles having different morphologies that strongly depended on the annealing temperature. The effects of film thickness, molecular weight of block copolymers, and experimental conditions, such as preannealing, rinsing, and substrate properties, on the morphologies of block copolymer micelles were also studied. In addition, spherical micelles consisting of PS core and P2VP shell could also be obtained by core-corona inversion by annealing the as-coated micellar film in the IL at high temperatures. The possible mechanism for micelle formation is discussed.


The widespread use of mobile devices and location-based services has generated a large number of mobility databases. While processing these data is highly valuable, privacy issues can occur if personal information is revealed. The prior art has investigated ways to protect mobility data by providing a wide range of Location Privacy Protection Mechanisms (LPPMs). However, the privacy level of the protected data significantly varies depending on the protection mechanism used, its configuration and on the characteristics of the mobility data. Meanwhile, the protected data still needs to enable some useful processing. To tackle these issues, we present PULP, a framework that finds the suitable protection mechanism and automatically configures it for each user in order to achieve user-defined objectives in terms of both privacy and utility. PULP uses nonlinear models to capture the impact of each LPPM on data privacy and utility levels. Evaluation of our framework is carried out with two protection mechanisms from the literature and four real-world mobility datasets. Results show the efficiency of PULP, its robustness and adaptability. Comparisons between LPPMs' configurators and the state of the art further illustrate that PULP better realizes users' objectives, and its computation time is in orders of magnitude faster.