Incremental Sheet Metal Forming (ISMF) is an innovative manufacturing technique for producing prototypes and manufacturing of complex shaped sheet metal parts. Manufacturing of implants and prosthesis for biomedical applications is a challenging task, because it demands the fabrication of complex intricate structures replicating the shapes of human body parts. An attempt has been made to clearly describe the capabilities and limitations of a new manufacturing technology to fabricate low cost, specific design medical implants. This study aims to fabricate an implant for medial tibial condyle using single point incremental forming and thereby improve the suitability of the single point incremental forming process. This investigation reports the fundamental knowledge on mechanical behavior of titanium grade 2 sheet metal to design and fabrication of knee implants with rigid hemispherical and roller ball forming tools by means of single point incremental forming process. Influence of major process parameters such as forming force, deformation of sheet, sheet thickness and profile accuracy of part have been identified by experimental work and Finite Element (FE) simulations. The result has shown that surface finish of the part formed by the roller ball forming tool is better than hemispherical rigid tool.


The first assessment of another person's trustworthiness may depend on several factors, such as previous experiences, education, cultural context, and prejudices, but also on the physical attributes and appearance of the person. We hypothesized that different physical traits would affect teenagers' initial trust of an unknown person and that they would give greater trust to women and people of similar ethnicity. To test this hypothesis, we developed a survey to determine the sets of physical characteristics that affect a person's trustworthiness, including gender, skin color/ethnicity, and facial expressions by asking teenagers to select pictures of young adults presented in pairs based on their physical appearance. For this, 52 teenage volunteers answered this survey in which each of the questions displayed two computer-generated images of people that represented hypothetical Uber drivers of the same age with different physical characteristics. The participants selected the person they preferred to have as an Uber driver based only on the images shown. Results indicated that female participants preferred women drivers, but male participants had no preference for the driver´s gender. Mexican drivers were selected less than white or black drivers, and participants trusted a smiling expression over neutral expressions. We concluded that gender and expression were the main physical traits associated with how trustworthy an individual looks, while ethnicity was also important.


The resource portal is intended to provide resources in support of the educational program development and implementation towards social determinants of health (SDOH).


Energy efficiency in all aspects of human life has become a major concern, due to its significant environmental impact as well as its economic importance. Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plays a dual role in this; not only does it constitute a major consumer itself (estimated 2-10% of the global consumption), but is also expected to enable global energy efficiency through new technologies tightly dependent on networks (smart grid, smart homes, cloud computing etc.). To this purpose, this research-work studies the problem of sustainable use of electric energy in cloud computing. As this subject has recently become very active in the research community, there is parallel research towards several research directions. In this work, the problem is being examined from its foundations and a solid analytical approach is presented. Cloud computing promises a new era of service delivery and deployment in such a way that every person can access any kind of services like storage, application, operating system and so on from anywhere any time using any device having internet connection. Cloud computing opens new possibilities approaching sustainable solutions to deploy and advance their services upon that platform. Sustainability of Cloud computing is to be addressed in terms of environmental and economic effects. In recent years, there have been two major trends in the ICT industry: green computing and cloud computing. Green computing implies that the ICT industry has become a significant energy consumer and consequently, a major source of CO2 emissions. Cloud computing makes it possible to purchase IT resources as a service without upfront costs. In this research, the combination of these two trends, green cloud computing, will first be evaluated based on existing research findings, which indicate that private clouds are the most green option to offer services. Case studies of state-of-the-art companies offering green hosting services are presented and incentives affecting their energy-efficiency development are analyzed. The results reveal that currently there is no demand in the market for green hosting services, because the only incentive for companies is low costs. Presently, massive energy consumption in cloud data center tends to be an escalating threat to the environment. In this research work we explore the energy efficient approaches inside data centres from the site and IT infrastructure perspective incorporating Cloud networking from the access network technologies and network equipment point of view to give a comprehensive prospect toward achieving energy efficiency of Cloud computing. Traditional and Cloud data centres would by compared to figure out which one is more recommended to be deployed. Virtualization as heart of energy efficient Cloud computing that can integrates some technologies like consolidation and resource utilization has been introduced to prepare a background for implementation part. Finally approaches for Cloud computing data centres at operating system and especially data centre level are presented and Green Cloud architecture as the most suitable green approach is described in details. In the experiment segment we modelled and simulated system and studied the behaviour in terms of cost and performance and energy consumption to reach a most appropriate solution.


When drawing causal inferences about the effects of multiple treatments on clustered survival outcomes using observational data, we need to address implications of the multilevel data structure, multiple treatments, censoring, and unmeasured confounding for causal analyses. Few off‐the‐shelf causal inference tools are available to simultaneously tackle these issues. We develop a flexible random‐intercept accelerated failure time model, in which we use Bayesian additive regression trees to capture arbitrarily complex relationships between censored survival times and pre‐treatment covariates and use the random intercepts to capture cluster‐specific main effects. We develop an efficient Markov chain Monte Carlo algorithm to draw posterior inferences about the population survival effects of multiple treatments and examine the variability in cluster‐level effects. We further propose an interpretable sensitivity analysis approach to evaluate the sensitivity of drawn causal inferences about treatment effect to the potential magnitude of departure from the causal assumption of no unmeasured confounding. Expansive simulations empirically validate and demonstrate good practical operating characteristics of our proposed methods. Applying the proposed methods to a dataset on older high‐risk localized prostate cancer patients drawn from the National Cancer Database, we evaluate the comparative effects of three treatment approaches on patient survival, and assess the ramifications of potential unmeasured confounding. The methods developed in this work are readily available in the R$$ \mathsf{R}\kern.15em $$ package riAFTBART$$ \mathsf{riAFTBART} $$ .


: Fluorine is a nutritionally essential trace element. Fluoride concentration in drinking water of West Germany is very low, with rare exceptions. Fluoride intake with food therefore is inadequate. Consequently, for maintenance of normal dental health, fluoride has to be supplemented by some way. A number of methods of fluoride supplementation are being discussed in this paper and compared to drinking waster fluoridation.


We report on a multi-band variability and correlation study of the TeV blazar Mrk 421 during an exceptional flaring activity observed from 2013 April 11 to 2013 April 19. The study uses, among others, data from GASP-WEBT, Swift , NuSTAR , Fermi -LAT, VERITAS, and MAGIC. The large blazar activity, and the 43 hours of simultaneous NuSTAR and MAGIC/VERITAS observations, permitted variability studies on 15 minute time bins, and over three X-ray bands (3–7 keV, 7–30 keV and 30–80 keV) and three very-high-energy ( > 0.1 TeV, hereafter VHE) gamma-ray bands (0.2–0.4 TeV, 0.4–0.8 TeV and > 0.8 TeV). We detected substantial flux variations on multi-hour and sub-hour timescales in all the X-ray and VHE gamma-ray bands. The characteristics of the sub-hour flux variations are essentially energy-independent, while the multi-hour flux variations can have a strong dependence on the energy of the X-ray and the VHE gamma rays. The three VHE bands and the three X-ray bands are positively correlated with no time-lag, but the strength and the characteristics of the correlation changes substantially over time and across energy bands. Our findings favour multi-zone scenarios for explaining the achromatic/chromatic variability of the fast/slow components of the light curves, as well as the changes in the flux-flux correlation on day-long timescales. We interpret these results within a magnetic reconnection scenario, where the multi-hour flux variations are dominated by the combined emission from various plasmoids of different sizes and velocities, while the sub-hour flux variations are dominated by the emission from a single small plasmoid moving across the magnetic reconnection layer.


In this paper, we propose a method for training control policies for human-robot interactions such as handshakes or hand claps via Deep Reinforcement Learning. The policy controls a humanoid Shadow Dexterous Hand, attached to a robot arm. We propose a parameterizable multi-objective reward function that allows learning of a variety of interactions without changing the reward structure. The parameters of the reward function are estimated directly from motion capture data of human-human interactions in order to produce policies that are perceived as being natural and human-like by observers. We evaluate our method on three significantly different hand interactions: handshake, hand clap and finger touch. We provide detailed analysis of the proposed reward function and the resulting policies and conduct a large-scale user study, indicating that our policy produces natural looking motions.


Abstract : Aim A: To determine if the immunologic bias in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) confers greater risk for co-occurring depression than severity of ASD. If depression severity is associated with increased cytokine levels (reported in non-ASD adults), this would support the notion that depression is a valid clinical syndrome within the ASD clinical phenotype, but not necessarily the same disorder as in neurotypical populations. Aim B: To determine if depression symptoms are associated with clinical features similar to previous research about depression in neurotypical adults (e.g., brain activation in response to social stress and correlation with cytokine levels and depression severity). If findings are consistent, this would support the notion that depression may be a true co-morbidity. Method: Participants will be men (N=50) 18-45 years old with IQ greater than or equal to 80 and ASD diagnosis, no previous head trauma, no seizure or autoimmune disorder, and no current immunologic medication. Participants will be complete diagnostic and psychosocial assessments and a blood draw. A significant other will also complete emotion symptom measures. Individuals with low and high depression symptoms will be selected for participation the imaging phase. Functional scans will be acquired during a social acceptance/rejection task (Cyberball), followed by an exploratory hedonic reward task, Monitory Incentive Delay. The research is in progress with no results to report to date.


Environmental issues dominate media headlines today and are
forcing many people to re-evaluate their day-to-day practices as
citizens, as workers, as parents and as members of communities. So,
too, concern about the environment is now starting to have greater
resonance within the criminal justice field, albeit in a still fairly
modest fashion. Within this context of social and professional concern
about environmental matters we have also seen in recent years the
emergence of a distinctly 'green' criminology. The aim of this book is to consider the key concerns, concepts and
conundrums of environmental or green criminology. The intention is
to explore and to question, to initiate and to summarise, to provoke
and to stimulate. The book as a whole is meant to develop further
this particular approach to criminological study. The book is based on work undertaken specifically on environmental
crime over the last fifteen years or so. It incorporates current research
and scholarship that spans diverse disciplines and fields. It is also
based on an appreciation that there are pressing issues that ought to
be of more central concern to criminologists. Hence the book offers
something 'old', something 'new', and a guide to that which still
requires critical scrutiny and practical action. The book deals with specific issues that pertain to the nature of
and responses to environmental harm. These particular crimes against
nature include a wide variety of transgressions against humans,
against environments, and against nonhuman animals. The book also
deals with broad agendas, in the sense of trying to apply and generate
conceptual understandings of harm, victimisation, law enforcement
and social regulation that are relevant for a criminological approach
to environmental issues. The combination of, and dialectic between,
practical example and theoretical conceptualisation is essential to
mapping out the terrain occupied by green criminology.


: A procedure is proposed to search for acupuncture points and channels (APC) by space-sensitive recording of optical radiation diffusely reflected by surface (dermal and hypodermal) tissues of the body. For this purpose, the body surface is probed by low-intensity infrared radiation from a laser or noncoherent (light-emitting diodes) source by using a fiber-optic multichannel sensor. It is shown that it is most advisable to apply sources at wavelengths of 840-850 and 1260-1300 nm.


Soil degradation, caused by land misuse and soil mismanagement, has plagued humanity since the dawn of settled agriculture. Many once thriving civilizations collapsed due to erosion, salinization, nutrient depletion and other soil degradation processes. The Green Revolution of the 1960s and 1970s, that saved hundreds of millions from starvation in Asia and elsewhere, by-passed Sub-Saharan Africa. This remains the only region in the world where the number of hungry and food-insecure populations will still be on the increase even by 2020. The serious technological and political challenges are being exacerbated by the rising energy costs. Resource-poor and small-size land-holders can neither afford the expensive input nor are they sure of their effectiveness because of degraded soils and the harsh, changing climate. Consequently, crop yields are adversely impacted by accelerated erosion, and depletion of soil organic matter (SOM) and nutrients because of the extractive farming practices. Low crop yields, despite growing improved varieties, are due to the severe soil degradation, especially the low SOM reserves and poor soil structure that aggravate drought stress. Components of recommended technology include: no-till; residue mulch and cover crops; integrated nutrient management; and biochar used in conjunction with improved crops (genetically modified, biotechnology) and cropping systems, and energy plantation for biofuel production. However, its low acceptance, e.g. for no-till farming, is due to a range of biophysical, social and economic factors. Competing uses of crop residues for other needs is among numerous factors limiting the adoption of no-till farming. Creating another income stream for resource-poor farmers, through payments for ecosystem services, e.g., C sequestration in terrestrial ecosystems, is an important strategy for promoting the adoption of recommended technologies. Adoption of improved soil management practices is essential to adapt to the changing climate, and meeting the needs of growing populations for food, fodder, fuel and fabrics. Soil restoration and sustainable management are essential to achieving food security, and global peace and stability. food security / soil restoration / sustainable development / soil degradation / conservation agriculture / no-till farming / biochar / integrated nutrient management


Abstract Background: Inappropriate prescribing (IP) is prevalent among elderly people in aged care facilities. Little has been published on the effect of pharmacists performing residential medication management reviews (RMMRs) in aged care on the appropriateness of prescribing. RMMRs represents a key strategy for achieving quality use of medicines, by assisting residents in aged care facilities and their carers to better manage their medicines. However, the structure of RMMR has moved from annual to every two years for each resident. Objectives: The primary objective of this study was to investigate the impact of pharmacists performing RMMRs on medication use appropriateness, as measured by the Medication Appropriateness Index (MAI). Methods: Retrospective analysis of RMMRs pertaining to 223 aged care residents aged ≥65 years in Sydney, Australia. The MAI was applied on two RMMR cohorts; newer cohort (n = 111, 2015) i.e. following the recent changes to the RMMR funding and older cohort (n = 112, 2012) at baseline, after pharmacists' recommendations (assuming all pharmacists' recommendations were accepted by the General Practitioner [GP]), and after the actual uptake of pharmacists' recommendations by the GP. Differences in inappropriate prescribing were measured using the Wilcoxon sign rank test. Results: Overall, all patients in the study (n = 223) had at least one inappropriate rating at baseline (median MAI score of 26 for the old cohort and 27 for the newer cohort). The median cumulative MAI scores were significantly lower after the RMMRs by pharmacists (15.5 and 20 for the old and new cohort respectively, p < .001) and following the uptake of recommendations by the GP, indicating an increased appropriateness of drug regimen after the medication review (20 and 22 for the old and new cohort respectively, p < .001). Conclusion: This study shows that pharmacist-led medication reviews are effective in reducing inappropriate prescribing among aged care residents, as demonstrated by the reduction in MAI scores. Future studies should focus on the impact of such a decrease on patient outcomes.


A descriptive-correlational study was conducted to find the characteristics associated with the attitudes of first-year tertiary students regarding secondary agricultural education in Swaziland. The reasons for attending the present program of study and institution were also elicited. Positive, and moderate to strong attitudes by respondents toward selected aspects of senior secondary agriculture were associated with better parents' occupational status; increased maturity when the student decided to attend present college; exposure to recruitment to college; practice of agriculture in everyday living; high number of youth organizations joined; and residence in a rural area. Important reasons for pursuing the program of study were professional and financial in nature. The influential reasons for enrolling in the present tertiary institution were mainly senior secondary curriculum and academic achievement related, though professionals in tertiary institutions and guidance counselors had a positive influence on students' choices. Implications of the findings for senior secondary agricultural education and recruitment practices to programs and colleges were suggested.


VU University Press VU University Press This thesis addresses the topic of spirituality at the end of life in Dutch Nursing homes. It aims to contribute to the understanding of 'spirituality at the end of life' by introducing a model on the topic. It also describes the daily practice of spiritual caregiving at the end of life to nursing home residents in a Dutch nursing home. Further, the elderly care physicians' perspective on spirituality and on their role in spiritual caregiving to nursing home residents at the end of life is explored. And finally, it presents facilitators for spiritual caregiving in nursing home residents with dementia.


ABSTRACT The yeast Cth2 protein is a CX8CX5CX3H tandem zinc finger protein that binds AU-rich element (ARE)-containing transcripts to enhance their decay in response to iron (Fe) deficiency. Mammalian members of this family of proteins are known to undergo nucleocytoplasmic shuttling, but little is known about the role of shuttling in the mechanism of ARE-dependent mRNA decay. Here we demonstrate that, like its mammalian homologues, Cth2 is a nucleocytoplasmic shuttling protein whose nuclear export depends on mRNA transport to the cytosol. The nuclear import information of Cth2 is contained within its tandem zinc finger domain, but it is independent of mRNA-binding function. Moreover, we also demonstrate that nucleocytoplasmic shuttling of Cth2 requires active transcription and that disruption of shuttling leads to defects in Cth2 function in mRNA decay under Fe deficiency. Taken together, our data suggest that under conditions of Fe deficiency Cth2 travels into the nucleus to recruit target mRNAs, perhaps cotranscriptionally, that are destined for cytosolic degradation as part of the mechanism of adaptation to growth under Fe limitation. These data also suggest an important role for nucleocytoplasmic shuttling in this conserved family of proteins in the mechanism of ARE-mediated mRNA decay.


In response to the rise of authoritarianism in Poland and Hungary, several prominent scholars have called upon the EU to intervene in order to protect its constitutional values. One of the strongest albeit controversial arguments in favour of an intervention is that the EU is a form of transnational 'militant democracy'. This chapter partly agrees with this assessment. The post-WWII European 'constitutional imagination' is shaped by the interwar collapse of the European legal and political order. This led to the development of a new form of post-fascist constitutionalism founded upon a 'fear of the people'. Within post-fascist constitutionalism, 'Europe' promises to save the European peoples from themselves. Nevertheless, this type of constitutionalism is not dominant in all the Member States. At least two other varieties of constitutionalism influence the EU Member States – 'evolutionary constitutionalism' and 'post-communist constitutionalism' – both of which have an ambiguous, yet intimate, relationship to the project of European integration.


High Ionisation Potential (IP) amorphous conjugated polymers are very practical semiconductors and promising candidates for printing applications as they exhibit 1) high air-stability due to the high IP, and 2) reproducible electrical performance due to the uniformity of amorphous morphology. However they generally exhibit low mobilities on the order of 10-3 cm2/Vs and below. This work is based mainly on two high-IP amorphous conjugated polymers poly(indenofluorene-triarylamine) (PIFTAA) and poly(indenofluorene-phenanthrene) (PIFPA). The long term ambient stability of PIFTAA and PIFPA with IPs of 5. 45 eV and 5. 79 eV respectively is characterised in Field-Effect Transistors (FETs) over a period of 4 and 2 months respectively. FET parameters such as the turn-on voltage and subthreshold slope are found to be generally stable, and the charge carrier mobility is found to degrade at an approximate rate of 10% per month, which is amongst the lowest reported values for organic semiconductors. PIFTAA and particularly PIFPA exhibit high field-effect saturation mobilities of 0. 03 - 0. 04 cm2/Vs and 0. 2 - 0. 3 cm2/Vs respectively, which are unusually high for amorphous conjugated polymers. The morphologies are examined by atomic force microscopy, grazing incidence wide angle x-ray scattering, and differential scanning calorimetry, and no evidence of crystallinity is detected, suggesting that the conjugated polymers are indeed amorphous. To investigate charge transport in PIFTAA and PIFPA, FETs of multiple channel lengths are fabricated, providing mobility data for multiple electric fields, and measured over a range of temperatures. In addition to PIFTAA and PIFPA, the measurements are performed on typical amorphous conjugated polymers poly(triarylamine) (PTAA) and poly(indenofluorene-triarylamine-triarylamine) (PIFTAATAA), with mobilities of 0. 003 cm2/Vs and 0. 004 cm2/Vs respectively. The gate voltage dependence of the mobility extracted from FET measurements, as well as the 1/T2 fit of the mobility with temperature is consistent with a Gaussian Density of States. The indenofluorene copolymers PIFTAA, PIFTAATAA, and PIFPA exhibit clear negative electric field dependence of the mobility, signature of high spatial disorder in the polymer films. The temperature dependence of the mobility is fed into the Gaussian Disorder Model, which indicates that the source of the high mobility for PIFPA is mainly strong intermolecular coupling indicated by the high pre-factor mobility as well as low energetic disorder along the path of charge flow. These results challenge the widely accepted concept that high crystallinity is a requirement for mobility exceeding 0. 1 cm2/Vs in organic semiconductors. Finally, a new type of contact-limited transistor is demonstrated with conjugated polymers. Source-Gated Transistors (SGTs) have a similar structure to FETs, and the main difference is the Schottky source/drain-semiconductor contact, which results in depletion of the near-source region of the semiconductor. Consequently, the behaviour of the transistor changes significantly as compared to FETs. SGTs are demonstrated with several electrodeconjugated polymer combinations. SGTs saturate at significantly lower voltages than FETs, and saturation is not lost for short channels and thick insulators. Also, evidence of independence of the current from channel length is observed, which is consistent with contact-based modulation as opposed to FET channel-based modulation. These advantages come at a cost of output current of at least one order of magnitude, while the intrinsic voltage gain is mostly maintained.


INTRODUCTION The primary aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that muscle ischemic preconditioning (MIP) reduces feedback from group III and IV muscle afferents measured indirectly by muscle metaboreflex. The second aim was to investigate whether the hypothesized reduction in afferent feedback (Crisafulli et al, 2011) causes a reduction of rating of perceived exertion (RPE) as predicted by the afferent feedback model of PE (Marcora, 2009) MATERIAL AND METHODS Nine healthy subjects visited the laboratory three times in a single-blind, randomized and counterbalanced experimental design. In a preliminary day they underwent a one leg incremental test up to exhaustion to detect Wmax then an experimental (EXP) and control (SHAM) session in separated days. To test muscle afferent activity, two post-exercise muscle ischemia (PEMI) were executed. PEMI involved: 3 min of baseline, 3 min of exercise at 70% of Wmax, 3 min of thigh occlusion followed by 3 min of recovery. MIP treatment during EXP or SHAM was executed between the two PEMI sessions. MIP involved 3 cycles of occlusion of 5 min at 220 mmHg separated by 5 min of reperfusion. During the SHAM session, occlusion was 20 mmHg. Cardiac output (CO), mean arterial pressure (MAP) and RPE during exercise were monitored during both PEMI sessions. RESULTS CO and MAP responses were significantly reduced after MIP (CO = 6.92 ± 1.81 vs 5.79 ± 1.39 l•min-1 and MAP= 109.25 ± 9.85 vs 103.70 ±10.43 mmHg). RPE was not affected by MIP (15.67 ± 1.87 vs 15.56 ± 2.07). None of the parameters reported any statistical changes in the SHAM condition. DISCUSSION This study shows for the first time that MIP reduces feedback from group III and IV muscle afferents as indicated by a significant reduction in muscle metabo-reflex. Despite this reduced afferent feedback, RPE was unchanged. This finding provides further experimental evidence that feedback from III and IV muscle afferents is not a sensory signal for PE. REFERENCES Crisafulli A. et al J Appl Physiol. 2011 Aug;111(2):530-6. Marcora S. J Appl Physiol. 2009 Jun;106(6):2060-2.


Prospects for the global quality and future of global supply chains, shipping and seaports have never seemed so uncertain. These face significant commercial challenges to facilitate trade, ensure profit maximisation, cost recovery, environmental sustainability and securitisation against increasing disruption risks throughout all stages from producer to consumer. Significant legal, environmental, commercial, political, social and physical risks all threaten the quality of maritime trade's existing quality and other key stakeholder requirements. Whilst existing supply chain stakeholders, journals and methods have prioritised disruptions, from strikes, inventory disruptions, port congestion, financial crises, terrorism to accidents, this conceptual paper's research contribution in a critical literature review establishes the failure of conventional risk management theory, methods and standards to protect maritime supply chains, especially current research journals' failure to guide policy stakeholders and academics, to prioritise increasingly uncertain disruption risks associated with climate change. Its originality and value proposes revisions to risk management theory, as the first paper to specifically consider defining an entire maritime supply chain's conceptual framework, its nature and characteristics. Its findings identify existing climate change disruption risks and impact costs, conceptualising adaptation strategies across maritime supply chain systematically, from a stakeholder requirement perspective, rather than isolated adaptation efforts for individual stakeholders and stages in current literature. Findings establish risk management fails to protect supply chains sufficiently from climate change uncertainty in not appearing as a risk concern/priority in established journals with limited stakeholder awareness, no consistent definition, method, equations, strategies in existing methods and no existing case studies with empirical probabilities of climate change risks occurring or calculated impact costs to assist stakeholders and researchers. It identifies how existing risk management methods not only ignore and underestimate these risks/impacts but fail to protect maritime supply chains and stakeholders, especially developing nations incurring significant geographical, resources and other constraints to effective, conventional risk management. These findings aim to reduce maladaptation costs through proposing an integrated risk-vulnerability, impact cost analysis method and theory through means of a physical Pacific, maritime supply chain case study to direct future research. This aims to overcome current risk management theory failure to prioritise a significant emerging risk to the future of maritime supply chains.


The mechanisation of the dairy industry in New South Wales has proceeded gradually over the past fifty years; however, the rate of increase in the use of mechanised equipment during that period has been far from uniform. The introduction of milking machines at the turn of the century resulted in the first significant use of machinery in the dairy industry. Prior to 1900 the quantity and value of machinery on dairy farms was almost negligible, but by 1920 dairy machinery was valued at almost £1 million, the value having doubled between 1900 and 1910, while between 1910 and 1920 it almost doubled again. Nevertheless, during the twenties the use of machinery did not continue to expand at such a rapid rate as during the years prior to 1920, and with the onset of the depression of the early thirties there was a distinct falling off in new machinery purchases by dairy farmers. In some years of the early and mid-thirties the total value of machinery on dairy farms showed a fall, largely due, no doubt. to the fact that normal replacements were not being made owing to the depressed state of the industry. However, with the outbreak of World War II another period of rapid mechanised expansion began, and still continues. While milk and butter prices remain high and dairy farmers continue to enjoy the present relatively prosperous conditions it is likely that the use of machinery will continue to expand at a rapid rate. The two periods of rapidly increasing mechanisation differ, however, in at least one important respect. In the early part of the century the increased use of machinery was due primarily to the introduction of the milking machine. The present period of expansion is due in part to a further significant increase in the use of milking machines, and again this is the main factor, but also to a significant, and economically important, increase in the use of tractors by coastal dairy farmers. Prior to World War II the ownership of a tractor by the dairy farmer was rare; to-day it has become relatively common.


The theory of the patch test was original with Jadassohn, 1 but the method did not come into general use until 1929, when Bloch 2 published a description of the technic. In the United States, Sulzberger and his associates 3 have made it the basis of much study. The test is considered to be of definite value to dermatologists in the investigation of dermatitis due to contact with industrial materials, especially cosmetics, textiles and a variety of chemicals. The technics now commonly in use were developed in order to determine the reactivity of the skin to a substance held in contact with it over a given period. The substance to be tested is placed on the skin and covered by rubber tissue or cellophane, and this in turn is strapped tightly to the skin with adhesive plaster. A modification of the usual method was used by Hansen 4 in Copenhagen,


The integration-responsiveness (IR) framework is a leading analytical tool of global strategy but it is less valuable in explaining the heterogeneity of strategic choice for subsidiaries within an MNE. We propose an IRE framework of subsidiary strategy that complements the IR framework for the subsidiary level with a third dimension—selling to local versus export markets (E). Resource-based considerations suggest that subsidiary strategies must fit the resources both the parent MNE and the local context. We examine how our three dimensions of subsidiary strategy are locally contingent. We suggest that local resource endowments, local competition, and the distance between the home and host country influence the use of responsiveness and exporting strategies, but influence integration strategies only to a small degree. We find empirical support for hypotheses developed from these arguments using survey data from MNE subsidiaries in two Central and Eastern European economies.


The diverse chemical functionalities and wide availability of biomolecules make them essential and cost-effective resources for the fabrication of zero-dimensional quantum dots (QDs, also known as bio-dots) with extraordinary properties, such as high photoluminescence quantum yield, tunable emission, photo and chemical stability, excellent aqueous solubility, scalability, and biocompatibility. The additional advantages of scalability, tunable optical features and presence of heteroatoms make them suitable alternatives to conventional metal-based semiconductor QDs in the field of bioimaging, biosensing, drug delivery, solar cells, photocatalysis, and light-emitting devices. Furthermore, a recent focus of the scientific community has been on QD-based sustainable optoelectronics due to the primary concern of partially mitigating the current energy demand without affecting the environment. Hence, it is noteworthy to focus on the sustainable optoelectronic applications of biomolecule-derived QDs, which have tunable optical features, biocompatibility and the scope of scalability. This review addresses the recent advances in the synthesis, properties, and optoelectronic applications of biomolecule-derived QDs (especially, carbon- and graphene-based QDs (C-QDs and G-QDs, respectively)) and discloses their merits and disadvantages, challenges and future prospects in the field of sustainable optoelectronics. In brief, the current review focuses on two major issues: (i) the advantages of two families of carbon nanomaterials (i.e. C-QDs and G-QDs) derived from biomolecules of various categories, for instance (a) plant extracts including fruits, flowers, leaves, seeds, peels, and vegetables; (b) simple sugars and polysaccharides; (c) different amino acids and proteins; (d) nucleic acids, bacteria and fungi; and (e) biomasses and their waste and (ii) their applications as light-emitting diodes (LEDs), display systems, solar cells, photocatalysts and photo detectors. This review will not only bring a new paradigm towards the construction of advanced, sustainable and environment-friendly optoelectronic devices using natural resources and waste, but also provides critical insights to inspire researchers ranging from material chemists and chemical engineers to biotechnologists to search for exciting developments of this field and consequently make an advance step towards future bio-optoelectronics.


Evolution of an arbitrary initial distribution of a quantum-mechanical particle in a uniform molecular chain is simulated by a system of coupled quantum- classical dynamical equations with dissipation. Stability of a uniform distribution of the particle over the chain is studied. An asymptotical expression is obtained for the time in which a localized state is formed. The validity of the expression is checked by direct computational experiments. It is shown that the time of soliton and multisoliton type states formation depends strongly on the initial phase of the particle's wave function. It is shown that in multisoliton states objects with a fractional electron charge which can be observed experimentally are realized. The results obtained are applied to synthetic uniform polynucleotide molecular chains.


We report on a young adult with a foreign body lodged in the right main bronchus for at least 5 days, with no alleged recollection of aspiration despite the size and shape of the object, which was removed successfully by rigid bronchoscopy.


Machine learning methods are widely used for a variety of prediction problems. \emph{Prediction as a service} is a paradigm in which service providers with technological expertise and computational resources may perform predictions for clients. However, data privacy severely restricts the applicability of such services, unless measures to keep client data private (even from the service provider) are designed. Equally important is to minimize the amount of computation and communication required between client and server. Fully homomorphic encryption offers a possible way out, whereby clients may encrypt their data, and on which the server may perform arithmetic computations. The main drawback of using fully homomorphic encryption is the amount of time required to evaluate large machine learning models on encrypted data. We combine ideas from the machine learning literature, particularly work on binarization and sparsification of neural networks, together with algorithmic tools to speed-up and parallelize computation using encrypted data.


The analytical performances of a lateral flow immunoassay (AFLA-V AQUA™, Vicam a Waters Business) for the determination of aflatoxins in maize were evaluated according to Commission Regulation (EU) No. 519/2014. This case study showed how a critical evaluation of validation results can provide a quite informative picture of kit performances for its use for different purposes. The validation study, performed at aflatoxin B1 levels encompassing EU maximum permitted levels (up to 8 μg kg−1), provided information on the method precision profile, cut off values, and false suspect and false negative rates. The total precision expressed as relative standard deviation varied from 14 to 29% for contaminated samples. Cut off values calculated considering 2 μg kg−1 or 4 μg kg−1 as the screening target concentration were 1.24 and 2.18 μg kg−1, respectively, whereas the resultant false suspect rate for blanks was 42% and 8%, respectively. The false negative rate for samples containing the analyte at higher concentrations was found to be lower than 1%. Analysis of naturally contaminated maize samples performed by the lateral flow immunoassay and the AOAC official method revealed a good correlation (parameters of the linear regression: r = 0.97, slope = 0.96) between the obtained results. A satisfactory agreement between reference values and test results was also obtained in the analysis of reference materials. Finally, a QC protocol based on guidelines suggested in the EU regulation was designed to verify kit performances over time and in new production lots.


Abstract In this article we offer a single case study using an action research method for gathering and analysing data offering insights valuable to both design and research supervision practice. We do not attempt to generalise from this single case, but offer it as an instance that can improve our understanding of research supervision practice. We question the conventional 'dyadic' models of research supervision and outline a more collaborative model, based on the signature pedagogy of architecture: the design studio. A novel approach to the supervision of creatively oriented postgraduate students is proposed, including new approaches to design methods and participatory supervision that draw on established design studio practices. This model collapses the distance between design and research activities. Our case study involving Master's Research Students supervision in the discipline of Architecture, shows how 'connected learning' emerges from this approach. This type of learning builds strong elements of creativity and fun, which promote and enhance student engagement. The results of our action research suggest that students learn to research more easily in such an environment and supervisory practices are enhanced when we apply the techniques and characteristics of design studio pedagogy to the more conventional research pedagogies imported from the humanities. We believe that other creative disciplines can apply similar tactics to enrich both the creative practice of research and the supervision of HDR students.


plays in the management of endometrial cancer. Material and Methods: Between 1997 and 2001 a number of 33 patients diagnosed with endometrial cancer were subject to vaginal hysterectomy and bilateral adnexectomy, 18 of which had the indication for vaginal way due to the increased anaesthetic and surgical risk (elderness, obesity, hypertension, complicated diabetes mellitus). 14 out of these 18 patients were diagnosed in clinical stage I; in 2 cases the operationwas imposed by severe hemorrhage. In the remaining 2, who have had encephaloid tumours, we performed colpohisterectomy via combined vaginal-abdominal route. 15 patients had lowrisk clinical stage I. endometrial cancer. No intraoperatory incidents or postoperative complicationswere registered. From thegroupwith high anaesthetic risk, 3 were subject to laparoscopic lymphadenectomy and subsequent pelvic irradiation. Two of the patients, with cervicalisthmic neoplastic invasion, received brachitherapy. To one of the 15 patients evaluated to have low-risk endometrial cancer the pathological findings infirmed this preoperative evaluation. In this case, we performed laparoscopic pelvic lymphadenectomy (with positive results) and pelvic irradiation. Results: Median follow-up period was of 24 months (12—52 months). There were 2 vaginal recurrences in the high anaesthetic and surgical risk group (CUSA citoreduction in these cases). We have had no deaths due to the disease after 24 months of follow-up. Conclusion: Vaginal hysterectomy with bilateral adnexectomy may be a viable alternative in patients with endometrial cancer and high anaesthetic and surgical risk, and in patients with low-risk endometrial cancer.


This paper takes seriously the idea that the coefficients of a VAR and the variance of shocks may be time-varying and so employs a Markov regime-switching VAR model to describe and analyse the time-varying credibility of Hong Kong's currency board system. The endogenously estimated discrete regime shifts are made dependent on macroeconomic fundamentals. This enables us to determine which changes in macroeconomic variables can trigger switches between the low and high credibility regimes. We carry out extensive testing to search for the most appropriate specification of the Markov regime-switching model. We find strong evidence of regime switching behaviour that portrays the timevarying nature of credibility in the historical data. Our own conditional volatility index provides anticipatory signals and amplifies the regime-switching transition probabilities. Publication keywords: Markov regime-switching VAR, exchange rate regime credibility, Hong Kong


Background The need to develop a standardised triage system to prioritise clinical urgency of women when unscheduled pregnancy related attendances occur has been identified.1 We have developed, implemented and evaluated a uniform system, similar to those used in Accident and Emergency2 departments. This involves a standardised initial triage assessment (within 15 min15 minutes of arrival) to identify level of clinical urgency and provision of standardised immediate care and investigations. Method To investigate midwives' views and experiences of the implementation of BSOTS two focus group interviews were held with midwives (12) and a questionnaire sent to midwives working in triage in autumn 2013. Ethical permission was obtained from the University of Birmingham Ethics Committee. Thematic analysis of the focus group data was used to develop a questionnaire. The response rate was 53/79 (67%) and data was analysed using descriptive statistics. Results The midwives felt the introduction of the new system had gone well and helped them manage and organise the department. Midwives reported the safety of the woman and baby had been improved and the system allowed them to continue to use their clinical judgment, despite it being standardised. The evaluation identified midwives' concerns about the use of a validated pain score which affected their use of the system. As a result this has been replaced with assessment of pain being based solely on clinical judgement. Practical changes to the paperwork have also been made. Conclusion The results from this study demonstrate the benefit of involving clinicians' in service improvement. References Centre for Maternal and Child Enquiries (CMACE). Saving Mothers' Lives: reviewing maternal deaths to make motherhood safer: 2006–08. The Eighth Report on Confidential Enquiries into Maternal Deaths in the UK. BJOG 2011; 118 (Suppl. 1):1–203 Mackway-Jones K. Emergency Triage: Manchester Triage Group. London: BMJ Publishing Group, London, UK, 1997


Appendiceal adenocarcinoma (AACa) is a rare tumour which represents 0.5% of all gastrointestinal malignancies. The prognosis is poor, because it is usually found at an advanced stage, that in turn, is partly due to a low threshold of suspicion and difficulties in diagnosis prior to surgery. It may occasionally demonstrate ovarian metastases that are large and which dominate the clinical and radiological presentations, leading to a misdiagnosis of an ovarian primary malignancy. We are reporting a case of an occult AACa which manifested clinically as a primary ovarian cancer which was at an advanced stage. Staging laparatomy revealed large bilateral ovarian tumours of clinical FIGO Stage III, with presumed appendiceal implants. Histological examination revealed a mucinous adenocarcinoma with a signet ring component, which involved bilateral ovaries and the appendix transmurally. Immunophenotypic analysis revealed a positive expression of CK 20 and CDX 2 and absence of CK 7 staining, which was compatible with appendiceal primary and ovarian metastases. The diagnosis was subsequently revised to AACa with Krukenberg's metastasis, Stage IV. Although AACas are uncommon, they should be considered in the differential diagnosis of intraabdominal masses and the distinction between ovarian and appendiceal primary malignancies is critical, as the treatment modalities vary.


Trypanosoma brucei's mitochondrial genome, kinetoplast DNA (kDNA), is a giant network of catenated DNA rings. The network consists of a few thousand 1 kb minicircles and several dozen 23 kb maxicircles. Here we report that TbPIF5, one of T. brucei's six mitochondrial proteins related to Saccharomyces cerevisiae mitochondrial DNA helicase ScPIF1, is involved in minicircle lagging strand synthesis. Like its yeast homolog, TbPIF5 is a 5′ to 3′ DNA helicase. Together with other enzymes thought to be involved in Okazaki fragment processing, TbPIF5 localizes in vivo to the antipodal sites flanking the kDNA. Minicircles in wild type cells replicate unidirectionally as theta-structures and are unusual in that Okazaki fragments are not joined until after the progeny minicircles have segregated. We now report that overexpression of TbPIF5 causes premature removal of RNA primers and joining of Okazaki fragments on theta structures. Further elongation of the lagging strand is blocked, but the leading strand is completed and the minicircle progeny, one with a truncated H strand (ranging from 0.1 to 1 kb), are segregated. The minicircles with a truncated H strand electrophorese on an agarose gel as a smear. This replication defect is associated with kinetoplast shrinkage and eventual slowing of cell growth. We propose that TbPIF5 unwinds RNA primers after lagging strand synthesis, thus facilitating processing of Okazaki fragments.


This paper presents a nano-precision high aspect-ratio poly- and single-crystal silicon DRIE plus wet-etching fabrication platform, also known as HARPSS+, which enables single-chip integration and wafer-level-packaging of robust high-frequency timing and inertial sensors. The HARPSS+ platform is the first highly developed process providing scalable deep submicron gaps in vertical, horizontal, and 54°-slanted orientations for efficient transduction and dynamic control of high-ß single crystalline silicon resonators. The platform also provides wafer-level-packaging of MEMS devices in cavities with different cavity pressures in a single bonding step. Single-chip timing and inertial measurement units (TIMU) are fabricated with high yield through the HARPSS+ platform, which features 3-axis high-frequency resonant gyroscopes with complete quadrature cancellation enabled by the slanted electrodes. High-bandwidth 3-axis accelerometers are used on the TIMU with high sensitivity provided by the nano-gaps. A high-Q BAW resonator is included as internal frequency reference for self-contained timing and inertial measurement, along with on-chip heaters for ovenization capability. Each device is packaged in cavities with different pressure levels ranging from atmosphere to sub-10Torr for optimized operation through one single bonding step. The nano-gap-enabled high-frequency devices have high environmental robustness and small form-factor with the overall TIMU being 4.5mm×5.5mm×1mm. Fabricated TIMU demonstrates high-performance with sub-10°/h gyroscopes and sub-100μg accelerometers. Low power chip-level ovenization is achievable with on-chip heaters owing to small size and vacuum packaging.


Nowadays, virtually all spheres of human life including commerce, government, academics, hospitals, crime prevention, surveillance, engineering and historical research use information as images, so the volume of digital data is increasing rapidly. These images and their data are categorized and stored on computers and the problem appears when retrieving these images from storage media. Thus, Content based image retrieval from large resources has become an area of wide interest in recent years especially in the last decade. In this thesis we present an efficient general-purpose CBIR system that uses color, texture and shape as visual features to describe the content of an image. The main contribution of this thesis is of four directions. First, we extract the color feature of the image by calculating the color moments which they are unique and invariant to rotation and scaling. Second, we use Gabor filters to extract texture features from arbitrary shaped regions separated from an image after segmentation to increase the system effectiveness. Third, to further increase the efficiency of the proposed system, edge histogram features that include five categories are used as shape descriptor which are invariant to rotation and scaling. Fourth, to improve the efficiency of the proposed system we assign different weights to each feature. These weights are optimized using genetic algorithm (GA) with a k-means accuracy as a fitness function to select optimum weights for features. Furthermore, to speed up retrieval and similarity computation of the proposed system, the database images are clustered using k-means clustering algorithm according to their weighted feature vectors. We perform GA and clustering algorithm on the database as an offline step before query processing, therefore to answer a query, the system does not need to search the entire database images; instead just a number of candidate images are required to be searched for image similarity. The experimental evaluation of the proposed system is based on the WANG color image database that is widely used for CBIR performance evaluation. From the experimental results, it is evident that the proposed system surpassed its counterpart, other existing systems, in terms of precision, recall and retrieval time. The average precision increased from 78.1% to 88.2%, the average recall increased from 50.4% to 69.9% and an average reduction in time that equal to 6.21 seconds. Thus, the experimental results confirm that the proposed CBIR system architecture attains better solution for image retrieval. Furthermore, at our knowledge, the proposed model represents one of the first models in which combine different concepts and techniques to build general purpose CBIR system.


ABSTRACT The tourism industry thrives on the notion that holiday travel improves well-being. However, scientific evidence that holiday travel is more beneficial than spending free time at home is lacking. Using the Effort-Recovery and the Limited Resources model as theoretical basis, this study investigates whether workers behave, think, and feel differently during travel than during leisure time spent at home. In a five-week longitudinal field study, we followed 24 workers during free evenings after work, a free weekend at home, and on a free weekend of domestic travel. Within-person differences were investigated between these three occasions in behavior, cognition, and emotions. During travel, employees slept more, engaged more in physical and social activities and less in obligatory activities than during free evenings after work. Hedonic well-being was higher and ruminative thinking lower during travel than during free evenings after work. Physical distance from home and work was related to engagement in resource-providing rather than resource-consuming activities and seems to translate into mental distance from everyday worries. Differences between holiday travel and weekends at home were small. Still, the findings suggest that travel may provide feelings of remoteness in places with novel and fascinating qualities, free of chores.


Apparent viscosity was determined in vertical glass tubes (ID 30.2-132.3 microns) with suspensions of human red cells in A) serum, B) saline containing 0.5 g/100 ml albumin, C) plasma, and D) plasma containing Dextran 250 at a feed hematocrit of 0.45. Pressure-flow relationships were obtained in a range of pseudo-shear rates (mu) between 0.15 and 250 s-1. Relative viscosities in the nonaggregating suspensions (A and B) were found to increase monotonically with decreasing mu. The Fahraeus-Lindqvist effect was present in the entire range of mu. In the two aggregating suspensions (C and D), viscosities increased initially in larger but not small tubes with declining mu and fell in all tubes at some characteristic mu (usually below 10 s-1). Viscosity reduction was greater in the larger tubes and in suspensions with greater aggregation tendency. With suspension D, the Fahraeus-Lindqvist effect was eliminated in the lowermost shear-rate range. The cell-free marginal zone increased in width (to a maximum of approximately 40% of tube radius) as viscosity declined. Measurements of viscosity and cell-free marginal zone were also performed with suspension C in tubes mounted in horizontal position. In contrast to vertical tubes, a monotonic increase in viscosity was found with decreasing mu, associated with cell sedimentation and development of a cell-free layer only in the upper portion of the tubes.


Coverage of any breaking news event today often includes footage captured by eyewitnesses and uploaded to the social web. This has changed how journalists and news organizations not only report and produce news, but also how they engage with sources and audiences. In addition to social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, chat apps such as WhatsApp and WeChat are a rapidly growing source of information about newsworthy events and an essential link between participants and reporters covering those events.
To look at how journalists at major news organizations use chat apps for newsgathering during political unrest, we focus on a case study of foreign correspondents based in Hong Kong and China during and since the 2014 Umbrella Movement Hong Kong protests. Political unrest in Hong Kong and China often centers around civic rights and government corruption. The Umbrella Movement involved large-scale, sit-in street protests, rejecting proposed changes to Hong Kong's electoral laws and demanding voting rights for all Hong Kong citizens.
Through a combination of observation and interviews with foreign correspondents, this report explores technology's implications for reporting political unrest: how and why the protesters and official sources used chat apps, and the ways foreign reporters used chat apps (which are typically closed platforms) for newsgathering, internal coordination, and information sharing.


Under the standard real options approach to investment under uncertainty, agents formulate optimal exercise strategies in isolation and ignore competitive interactions. However, in many real-world asset markets, exercise strategies cannot be determined separately, but must be formed as part of a strategic equilibrium. This article provides a tractable approach for deriving equilibrium investment strategies in a continuous-time Cournot--Nash framework. The impact of competition on exercise strategies is dramatic. For example, while standard real options models emphasize that a valuable "option to wait" leads firms to invest only at large positive net present values, the impact of competition drastically erodes the value of the option to wait and leads to investment at very near the zero net present value threshold. Copyright 2002, Oxford University Press.


This study aims to determine the effect of diabetic foot gymnastics on the value of Ankle Brachial Index (ABI) in Type II Diabetes Mellitus patients in the Cipondoh Health Center, Tangerang City. The design used is Quasi experiment with a pre–test–post–test approach. The population of this study was 42 dm type II patients in the puskesmas work area in Tangerang city. Samples were taken using purposive sampling techniques and divided into 2 groups, 20 people in intervention groups and 22 control groups. The average ABI before diabetic foot exercises of the intervention group was 0.87 and the average ABI after diabetic foot exercises were 0.93. The results of statistical analysis showed that there was a significant difference in ABI values between the intervention and control groups after diabetic foot exercises (p-value = 0.003). It was concluded that implementing diabetic foot exercises could increase the value of ABI in type II DM patients. This study recommends that diabetic foot exercises are expected to be performed for type II DM patients and ABI examinations can be used as additional examinations, especially in DM patients who go to the Health Center.


Introduction: Drug addiction is one of the most prominent problems in many countries in transition, including Bosnia and Herzegovina. Age limit of drug addiction is shifted to the younger age groups, especially is troubling the increase in number of injection drug users. Our study was aimed to investigate the habits, attitudes and practices related to drug use among young people from the area of Sarajevo city. We can still feel the effects of the war, among which are the most important life without closest relatives, banishment and various types of war and post-war trauma. Goals: To determine the frequency of substance abuse among adolescents; Identify potentially relevant biological, psychological and socio economic characteristics of the adolescents; To explore adolescents attitudes towards drug use; Examine the general level of knowledge of adolescents about drugs and their effects. Material and Methods: The study was conducted on randomized sample of 502 students in two primary and three secondary schools in Sarajevo and Gracanica. To study used survey method. Survey instrument was a self-made questionnaire with the research variables. The obtained data were processed by a computer and statistically correlated. The study is of combined, retrospective, prospective and transversal type. Results: To the question "How many times have you consumed cannabis in the last 30 days" about 6% of the respondents have tried once or twice, while 1.5% use it daily, ecstasy have tried one or two times 2.25%, while 0.5% have daily use. Based on the obtained results it can be concluded that students at schools in Sarajevo consumed drugs 50% more than the children in Gracanica. Analyzing the age at which the subjects consumed the drug for the first time, we came to the conclusion that in the third year of high school only 8% of adolescents have tried any drugs before they turned 15 years. This percentage among eighth graders is about three times higher. Conclusion: Presented research results clearly suggest a strong contamination of the living environment of young people with different types of psychoactive substances. Offer of drugs is extensive and distribution network covers all the places where young people visits, including schools. It is clear that today's teenagers sooner or later hear about drugs, see, get in touch with a "junkie" and have a chance to take the drugs if they want to. From our research, we found that the following factors: Marital status of parents, employment of parents, the number of family members, type of school and satisfaction with oneself are not crucial for the eventual drug use among young people. While, the biological status of the parents, educational status of parents, financial status of parents, the tendency of parents tobacco and alcohol use, adolescents' attitude to parents, the harmony of relationships between parents, school performance, positive attitude toward the so-called light drugs, represent significant risk factors for adolescent populations.


Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is finding increasing use in studies of plasma and lipoproteins in health and disease, including cancer. Analysis of the NMR data is not straightforward due to complex systems and also partly unknown underlying biochemistry. Here we demonstrate how artificial neural networks can be utilised in biomedical NMR. Their quantification power is illustrated by establishing lipoprotein lipid quantification directly from plasma 1H NMR data. The biochemical rationale for this example is elucidated on the basis of the relative weights of the spectral inputs in a trained network. A novel application of a Kohonen-type network architecture to classify plasma 1H NMR spectra is also presented.


Data mining techniques have an important implication in social and biological network analysis, were we're interested in finding related complexes and communities. A modern paradigm for solving this problem involves finding densely connected interacting members such as bound proteins in a PPI. It's important to also consider the properties of members. In the context of social networks, we might be interested in finding groups of friends of similar age and sharing common interests. This information can lead to better targeting for advertising and suggestions. In this paper, we introduce an algorithm that can be applied to mining entityrelationship networks. Our approach discovers relevant subnetworks by considering density among entities as well as their similar attribute properties. We apply two distinct methods of forming subnetworks in order to find as many relevant complexes as possible. In addition, we supply techniques for summarization and reduction of nearly-redundant subnetworks in the results.


Abstract It is highly important that social work practice be guided by scientific research and the resultant practices introduced to the literature. Social work research in Turkey is carried out by social work academics and practitioners. This dual position they occupy has not been thoroughly investigated in recent years; therefore, the aim of this research was to scrutinize the relationship social workers take when completing research in Turkey. Within the scope of this research, data were collected by conducting an online survey of 365 social workers. Results of the study show that 45.8% of the social workers have conducted research before. Nonetheless, 93.7% of the social work practitioners do feel the need to carry out scientific research in order to shape their professional practices. Considering these results, future research should concentrate on social work practitioners' problems taking into account their dual position as both the producer and consumer of the research.


We present a new proximal bundle method for Maximum-A-Posteriori (MAP) inference in structured energy minimization problems. The method optimizes a Lagrangean relaxation of the original energy minimization problem using a multi plane block-coordinate Frank-Wolfe method that takes advantage of the specific structure of the Lagrangean decomposition. We show empirically that our method outperforms state-of-the-art Lagrangean decomposition based algorithms on some challenging Markov Random Field, multi-label discrete tomography and graph matching problems.


This paper empirically investigates the effects of patent thickets. One unique feature of our study is to identify two sources of patent thickets: (1) complementarity as measured by the number of the patents to be used jointly with the focal patent in commercialization, and (2) ownership fragmentation as measured by the number of firms whose patents are cited by an examiner for the granting of the focal patent. There are three major findings. First, there is a significant difference between complex industry sectors and discrete ones regarding complementarity, while the difference regarding fragmentation at the patent level is small. Second, more complementarity is significantly associated with the importance of first mover advantage in research and development (R&D) and (less significantly) with that in commercialization, while fragmentation has little effect on them. Consistent with this finding, complementarity is associated with high patent value. Third, cross licensing motivation significantly accounts for patenting propensity while blocking motivation does not. Complementarity is significantly associated with more patenting for cross licensing, which facilitates both combining the inventions of different firms and preventing the risk of being held up. Furthermore, it does not invite patenting for blocking. Thus, we do not see significantly negative consequences of patent thickets on R&D, as seen by incumbents. At the same time, it is important to pay focus on policy to avoid granting patents to low quality inventions and to facilitate the mechanism of ex-ante contracting in complex industry sectors where patenting motivations are high.


Out of all the different types of neoplasms affecting the stomach, gastric carcinomas with Osteoclast-like Giant Cells (OGC) is one of the most uncommon. Although OGC are typically found in osseous neoplasms and tumors of the tendon sheath, few cases of extra-skeletal neoplasms with OGC have been documented. These typically involve organs such as the pancreas, gall-bladder, kidney, and breast. Even though the role of OGC in histogenesis of such tumors still remains unclear, their presence in extra-osseous neoplasms may indicate a certain level of immune reaction of the host towards the neoplastic transformation of normal tissue. We report a case of a 70-year-old Caucasian female hospitalized for evaluation of epigastric pain. Further examinations including endoscopy and biopsy of the stomach revealed gastric adenocarcinoma with OGC. This report also provides a brief insight into the possible immune reaction in such neoplasms


Peroxisomes are ubiquitous cell organelles particularly enriched in the mammalian liver and kidney. They contain oxidases producing hydrogen peroxide and catalase, which degrades it. The majority of 60 enzymes, so far, localised to mammalian peroxisomes is involved in lipid metabolism. However, they catalyse via β-oxidation the degradation of saturated and unsaturated long and very long-chain fatty acids and fatty acid derivatives including complex lipids, such as bile acids, leucotrienes and prostaglandins. On the other, they are engaged in the biosynthesis of lipids, such as polyunsaturated fatty acids, ether glycerolipids and polyisoprenoids. The essential metabolic role of peroxisomes in humans is shown quite plainly by inherited disorders, the so-called peroxisomopathies, which are partly associated with severe peroxisomal dysfunctions. Commonly, peroxisomes are isolated by classical density gradient centrifugation. Meanwhile, however, advanced alternatives have been established, for example, immunochemical techniques as well as zonal free-flow electrophoresis.

Key Concepts:

Peroxisomes are multipurpose organelles playing a pivotal metabolic role in humans as is revealed by a variety of inherited peroxisomal disorders.

They display a remarkable plasticity in both morphology and biochemistry not only between species and tissues but also regarding different regions of the same organ.

In mammalian and wild-type yeast cells, peroxisomes are considered commonly to multiply by growth and division and usually do not form de novo. There is, however, growing evidence that peroxisomes can also arise de novo from the ER, and even new perspectives are provided on the potential contribution of the mitochondria to peroxisomal biogenesis.

The overall heterogeneity of peroxisomes and the consistency in the buoyant density of the subpopulations with other cell organelles hamper their purification by classic cell fractionation methods, inevitably calling for adequate techniques based upon alternative physicochemical traits.

Keywords:

density gradient centrifugation;
immunomagnetic sorting;
immune free-flow electrophoresis;
zonal free-flow electrophoresis;
mammalian peroxisomes;
liver;
rodents


Although controversy surrounds the definition and measurement of narcissism, the claim that pathological grandiosity is central to the construct generates little disagreement. Yet representations of pathological grandiosity vary across measures of narcissism, leading to conceptual confusion in the literature. The validity of a DSM-based measure of pathological narcissism, the Personality Diagnostic Questionnaire–4 Narcissistic Personality Disorder scale (PDQ–4 NPD), was evaluated in 1 clinical and 3 nonclinical samples (total N = 2,391) for its ability to measure pathological grandiosity. Findings were generally supportive: average scores were higher in the clinical than nonclinical samples and the PDQ–4 NPD scale correlated most strongly with (a) other measures of NPD; (b) other DSM Cluster B personality disorders; (c) traits involving antagonism, hostility, and assertiveness; and (d) interpersonal distress and disaffiliative dominance. However, the low internal consistency of the PDQ–4 NPD scale and unexpected associations with Cluster A and obsessive–compulsive features point to potential psychometric weaknesses with this instrument. These findings are useful for evaluating the PDQ–4 NPD scale and for informing ongoing debates regarding how to define and assess pathological narcissism.


Down syndrome (DS) is the most common chromosomal aberration and genetically determined cause of intellectual disability. DS patients often present with some congenital defects and chronic diseases, including early onset dementia, which affects 70% of DS patients over 55 years of age and has a clinical presentation similar to Alzheimer disease (AD). The symptoms of DS originate from excessive genetic material within the "critical region" of the 21st chromosome. The "critical region" encompasses genes potentially associated with increase risk of dementia, e.g. the APP gene (amyloid beta precursor protein) which leads to excessive amyloid beta production. Post-mortem studies of DS patients' brains revealed diffuse deposition of the insoluble form of amyloid beta (Aβ), which is a characteristic feature of AD. Moreover, those changes were commonly observed in subjects > 31 years old. The pathomechanisms of AD have not been fully elucidated and scientists are still searching for new risk factors that may contribute to the development of this common illness. Recent research proved that lipid disturbance, especially disorders in the metabolism of HDL (high density lipoprotein) may play a crucial role in this pathogenic process. There are many studies examining lipid and lipoprotein concentration in the DS population, but up to now there are insufficient studies comparing these parameters with memory impairment, which may be a useful model for better understanding of the dementia pathomechanism.


This paper presents guidelines for students writing their first patent in the field of computer science and electronic/computer engineering. The set of guidelines is comprehensive and presents a step-by-step approach that allows beginners to produce the text description for their first patent. The proposed methodology is used to teach invention abstraction and claiming to both graduate and undergraduate students.


Plants employ cell-surface localized receptor-like kinase (RLK) and receptor-like protein (RLP)-type pattern recognition receptors to monitor their surroundings for the presence of infectious pathogens. RLPs interact with the SUPPRESSOR OF BIR1-1 (SOBIR1) RLK for stability and signaling, but it is unclear how signaling is activated. Here, I reveal that the SERK3 RLK is recruited to the tomato Cf-4 RLP upon activation by the Cladosporium fulvum effector Avr4, followed by Cf-4-SOBIR1 co-internalization into late endosomes/multivesicular bodies (LE/MVBs). This extends known RLK-type early activation mechanisms and subcellular localization changes to RLP-SOBIR1-based detection systems, pointing at a widely generalisable mechanism for receptor turnover. Secretory and endocytic membrane trafficking pathways underlie the potentiation and execution of defence. Membrane-associated Rab GTPases are critical regulators of specific pathways, and accumulate at pathogen infection sites, yet their roles in immunity are poorly understood. Here, proteomic analysis of the secretory ARA5/RABD2a complex upon elicitation with bacterial flagellin revealed increased secretion of several uncharacterized RLKs and modules of cell-surface based chemical defences. Comparison between proteomic changes on ARA5/RABD2a and the endocytic ARA7/RABF2b points at flagellin-induced turnover of cell-surface proteins that monitor cell wall integrity and function in processes involving reactive oxygen species. ARA7/RABF2b concentrated under bacterial infection sites, and upon flagellin elicitation recruited the atypical resistance proteins TIR-NBS3 (TN3) and HOMOLOG OF RPW8 4 (HR4). TN3 and HR4 were required for immunity against non-adapted powdery mildew and could be monitoring Rab GTPase-mediated endosomal activity in plant defence.


This Forum addresses the role of mitochondrial dysfunction in the multifactorial nature of diabetic cardiomyopathy (DCM) from multiple angles. Contributors deliver a diverse and in-depth view of the state-of-the-art in DCM, from bench to bedside. What emerges is a picture of mitochondrial dysfunction as a central upstream defect, inflicted on the heart by diabetes. Collectively, the authors pinpoint high-value knowledge gaps, propose new conceptual frameworks, and highlight understudied, but promising, research themes.


Longissimus dorsi muscles were removed from the carcasses of 60 Charolais-cross steers in order to examine the relationship between five feeding systems and collagen solubility values obtained by two different methods (warm and cold extractions). Steers were provided with either a 75% concentrate diet, 50% concentrate diet, corn silage diet, corn silage to 400 kg live weight followed by the 75% concentrate diet or alfalfa silage fed to 400 kg live weight followed by the 75% concentrate diet. Steers on the 75% concentrate diet throughout the feeding period required the least time on feed, had the lowest slaughter and carcass weights and produced meat with the highest warm collagen solubility values. Steers fed corn silage continuously needed the longest time on feed, had the lowest daily rates of gain and produced meat with the lowest warm collagen solubility values. Despite being on feed for a longer length of time, steers fed corn silage or alfalfa silage prior to finishing on the 75% concentrate diet produced meat with warm collagen solubility values similar to those continuously fed the 50% concentrate diet. Steers fed the 75% concentrate diet subsequent to forage feeding exhibited greater rates of gain before slaughter while those fed the 75% concentrate diet continuously showed a rapid decline in rate of gain with increasing body weight. Total collagen and cold collagen values were similar among feeding systems. These results indicated that plane of nutrition before slaughter and days on feed both exerted an influence on the properties of intramuscular collagen.


The world population growth has increased demand for traditional protein sources but an alternative protein source was sought due to limited land. Edible insects containing all the essential amino acids in a healthy diet are sustainable and promising alternative protein source. The protein content of insects varies in a wide range depending on the type of insect and the stage of development (13%-77%). Some edible insects are currently consumed by two billion people worldwide. In the literature, more than 2100 insect species have been recorded as edible. The sensory attributes of edible insects are an important factor that can accelerate their acceptance by consumers. Generally, the taste of insects is described as nutty and largely depends on the cooking technique. Potential food safety risks of edible insects can be microbiological, parasitological and allergenic. This review has been shown to be a healthy food source with high protein content, lipids, vitamins, minerals and fiber, the nutritional composition and functionality are compared between different insect species, and information on the sensory quality and risks of insect eating is presented.


Combining black feminist theory, philosophy, and performance studies, Sarah Jane Cervenak ruminates on the significance of physical and mental roaming for black freedom. She is particularly interested in the power of wandering or daydreaming for those whose mobility has been under severe constraint, from the slave era to the present. Since the Enlightenment, wandering has been considered dangerous and even criminal when associated with people of color. Cervenak engages artist-philosophers who focus on wayward movement and daydreaming, or mental travel, that transcend state-imposed limitations on physical, geographic movement. From Sojourner Truth's spiritual and physical roaming to the rambling protagonist of Gayl Jones's novel Mosquito , Cervenak highlights modes of wandering that subvert Enlightenment-based protocols of rationality, composure, and upstanding comportment. Turning to the artists Pope.L (William Pope.L), Adrian Piper, and Carrie Mae Weems, Cervenak argues that their work produces an otherworldly movement, an errant kinesis that exceeds locomotive constraints, resisting the straightening-out processes of post-Enlightenment, white-supremacist, capitalist, sexist, and heteronormative modernity. Their roaming animates another terrain, one where free, black movement is not necessarily connected to that which can be seen, touched, known, and materially valued.


ABSTRACT Together with the income, education and knowledge improvement in several societies of Indonesia, agriculture product starts to emerge. The agricultural development in Indonesia could be the alternative fulfillment of food necessities in a long term. While the country geographically supports the agriculture section, many people generate dependence into it. Agricultural products are not only just fruits, vegetables and crops. The establishing trends currently showing in Sengonan village Kecamatan Bumiaji in Batu is the agriculture with product of flowers that become one alternative for the society in the middle of a hard circumstances of fruit and other food farming. Flowers have become one of the agricultural fields favored by some of the people in Sengonan village Kecamatan Bumiaji in Batu. The challenges of life have become harder and harder to faced, so the farmers in Sengonan village starts to choose flowers to become their main occupation. Many farmers have change their preference into flowers cultivation, which of course after seeing other flowers cultivator succeeding their business. By seeing their success, many farmer starts to abandon their traditional farming. Flowers cultivation becomes favorites in the society of Sengonan village just by using a simple instrument and it could improve their earnings. Flower cultivation trends in Indonesia finally affected Sengonan village. Efforts from Sengonan villagers to answer the challenge in fulfilling the need of apple cultivation would determine by the many of flower cultivation. Sengonan village in Batu at first was known as the apple producers but at this moment the apple industry in Sengonan village has weak market value, and it is accompany with more production cost in apple cultivation. One of the efforts to maximize the potential of Sengonan village is by improving welfare of both economically and socially by changing farming into flower cultivation. The condition in Sengonan village which still needs management from the government since there is lack of production capital in agricultural field and flower cultivation so that they cannot directly receiving information from local agriculture office, weakness in the function of farmer groups so that the information has not yet spread over among farmers and their families, and also there is lack of farmer's capital. All of those factors can become hinder factors of apple farming progress in Sengonan village. Those circumstances has made farmers of apple and other fruits think of an initiative to search for a new farming fields that has more promising benefit. The farmers in Sengonan village tend to choose becoming a flower cultivator because it is not as complexes as if they were doing fruit farming. The farmers has consider that flower cultivator has great benefit, because it is easy to be done, easier treatment, and they don't have to worried about bad harvest, rotting or if the harvest cannot be sold in the market so that it could brought financial loss for the farmers. As a flower cultivator, all you need to do is take a good care of the flowers, giving it fertilizer and other treatment such as pesticide to prevent any pest attack on the flowers. By the year of 2005, certain flower could be sold very expensively. This has attracted interest from the society of Sengonan village, and it is no longer surprising that every yards and terrace of houses and fields is so full with flowers. Flower treatment started from looking for seedling until harvesting is easy, farmers doesn't have to study more through books, all they need to do is just asking another flower cultivator and sometimes they already has the knowledge to do the cultivation for generations. Industrialization according to N.J Smelser is a process marked by the changing use of human power into machine power. While according to Collin Clark and Simon Kuznet, industrialization is a process marked by production growth that usually relies on agriculture section has shifting into industrial section. From both statements above, it can conclude that industrialization is a changing process from society based on agriculture toward industrial by the use of modern technology. This experiment is qualitative descriptive type. While the sample derived using purposive sampling technique. The experiment is conduct in Sengonan village Kecamatan Bumiaji in Batu. Data collection techniques are using observation, depth interview and documentation. Data analysis technique is descriptive, in which analyze is done by actual event in the experiment, collected, analyzed and then interpreted by using words or questions list. Flower industrial system is an easy system and provides many benefits for farmers in Sengonan village. Since it is easy then it can be done by any farmer. The changing occur in Sumbergondo village because of flower industry system has consist of two things, in the kind of employment and society structure in Sumbergondo village. The changing in kind of employment is happening from apple farming into flower cultivation. This changing has caused by flower industrial system that provide many benefit, low cost of flower treatment, easy treatment, and potential market in the society. Basically, by this system, it could bring three kind of farmer type in Sumbergondo village. Those three are apple and vegetables farmer that change their preference and into cultivating trend flowers, flowers cultivator that cultivate the flowers and sold them in the market, and flowers cultivator that only sell the flowers in the market. This system also has caused changing in the societal structure. If the top of the social class was the great land-owner, now the situation has changed. Top of social class is not only for the great land-owner but also the flowers industrial managers. With this system, it made the top of the class consist of two parties, which are the great land-owner and the successful flower cultivator.


BACKGROUND
The association of dietary pattern with the risk of basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is little understood and has scarcely been investigated.

OBJECTIVES
We assessed the association of several complete dietary patterns [Mediterranean, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), and Pro-vegetarian dietary pattern] with the risk of BCC, conducting a nested case-control study (4 controls for each case).

METHODS
Cases and controls were selected from the SUN (Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra) cohort using risk set sampling. Cases were identified among subjects free of skin cancer at baseline but who later reported a physician-made BCC diagnosis during the follow-up period. In the cohort we identified 101 incident cases of BCC.

RESULTS
In multivariable-adjusted conditional logistic regression analyses, better adherence to the Mediterranean diet (highest compared with lowest quintile) was associated with a 72% relative reduction in the odds of BCC (OR: 0.28; 95% CI: 0.10, 0.77; Ptrend = 0.014); the DASH diet was associated with a 68% RR reduction (OR: 0.32; 95% CI: 0.14, 0.76; Ptrend = 0.013) for the comparison between extreme quintiles. No association was found between a Pro-vegetarian dietary pattern and BCC. Higher fruit consumption (highest compared with lowest quintile, OR: 0.27; 95% CI: 0.11, 0.64; Ptrend < 0.001) and low-fat dairy products (OR: 0.39; 95% CI: 0.16, 0.92; Ptrend = 0.014) were associated with a lower BCC risk.

CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that Mediterranean and DASH dietary patterns may be associated with a lower risk of BCC, but confirmatory studies are required.


In this paper, the problem of Oscillatory Failure Case (OFC) detection in aircraft servo-loop control surfaces is addressed. OFC leads to strong interactions with loads and aeroelasticity and consequently must be detected as quick as possible. This paper proposes a hybrid monitoring scheme developed during ADDSAFE project for robust and early detection of such unauthorized oscillatory events. More precisely, a hybrid robust non-homogeneous finite-time differentiator is firstly used to provide bounded and accurate derivatives in noisy environment. Fault reconstruction is next made by solving on-line a nonlinear equation using a gradient descent method. The detection is finally done by the decision making rules currently used for in-service Airbus A380 airplane. Robustness and performance of the proposed scheme are tested using a high fidelity benchmark and intensive Monte Carlo simulations based on several flight scenarios specified in ADDSAFE. The performance indicators highlight that the proposed scheme can be a viable solution for realistic issues. Note that the term "viable" covers some important aspects which are often under-estimated (or missing) in the classical academic publications: tuning, complexity of the design, real time capability, etc.


While the outcome of in-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest has been studied extensively, the clinical antecedents of arrest are less well defined. We studied a group of consecutive general hospital ward patients developing cardiopulmonary arrest. Prospectively determined definitions of underlying pathophysiology, severity of underlying disease, patient complaints, and clinical observations were used to determine common clinical features. Sixty-four patients arrested 161 +/- 26 hours following hospital admission. Pathophysiologic alterations preceding arrest were classified as respiratory in 24 patients (38 percent), metabolic in 7 (11 percent), cardiac in 6 (9 percent), neurologic in 4 (6 percent), multiple in 17 (27 percent), and unclassified in 6 (9 percent). Patients with multiple disturbances had mainly respiratory (39 percent) and metabolic (44 percent) disorders. Fifty-four patients (84 percent) had documented observations of clinical deterioration or new complaints within eight hours of arrest. Seventy percent of all patients had either deterioration of respiratory or mental function observed during this time. Routine laboratory tests obtained before arrest showed no consistent abnormalities, but vital signs showed a mean respiratory rate of 29 +/- 1 breaths per minute. The prognoses of patients' underlying diseases were classified as ultimately fatal in 26 (41 percent), nonfatal in 23 (36 percent), and rapidly fatal in 15 (23 percent). Five patients (8 percent) survived to hospital discharge. Patients developing arrest on the general hospital ward services have predominantly respiratory and metabolic derangements immediately preceding their arrests. Their underlying diseases are generally not rapidly fatal. Arrest is frequently preceded by a clinical deterioration involving either respiratory or mental function. These features and the high mortality associated with arrest suggest that efforts to predict and prevent arrest might prove beneficial.


This chapter examines the effects of the digital revolution and new information and communication technologies on peacekeeping and peacebuilding. The chapter is concerned with how digital and web-based information and communication technologies can be used to prevent and manage armed violence, foster inclusive societies, and ensure a durable and high-quality peace. The UN is increasingly adopting new technologies, particularly within the field of peacekeeping. To increase situational awareness, UN peacekeeping staff have crowdsourced information and used drones and satellite imagery. In addition, the analysis of peacekeeping data holds great potential for early warning. New technological tools can help foster collaboration, transform attitudes, and give a stronger voice to local communities. Online platforms have been used to monitor elections, document human rights abuses, and facilitate communication between members of different sides in a conflict. However, since one cannot simply assume that technology will change everything for the better, it is crucial to be aware of the ethical implications of the use of new peace technologies. The UN needs to be careful that early warning is translated into early action. Peacekeepers and peacebuilders should also be vigilant when it comes to mitigating the possible abuse and negative side effects of the use of peace technologies. The chapter concludes that peace technologies significantly influence the prospects for peacekeeping and peacebuilding, particularly when the use of technology helps peacekeepers and peacebuilders be more people-centric.


Which topics spark the most heated debates in social media? Identifying these topics is a first step towards creating systems which pierce echo chambers. In this paper, we perform a systematic methodological study of controversy detection using social media network structure and content. Unlike previous work, rather than identifying controversy in a single hand-picked topic and use domain-specific knowledge, we focus on comparing topics in any domain. Our approach to quantifying controversy is a graph-based three-stage pipeline, which involves (i) building a conversation graph about a topic, which represents alignment of opinion among users; (ii) partitioning the conversation graph to identify potential sides of the controversy; and (iii)measuring the amount of controversy from characteristics of the~graph. We perform an extensive comparison of controversy measures, as well as graph building approaches and data sources. We use both controversial and non-controversial topics on Twitter, as well as other external datasets. We find that our new random-walk-based measure outperforms existing ones in capturing the intuitive notion of controversy, and show that content features are vastly less helpful in this task.


We study the dynamics of the entanglement structure of a multipartite system experiencing a dissipative evolution. We characterize the processes leading to a particular form of output-system entanglement and provide a recipe for their identification via concatenations of particular linear maps with entanglement-breaking operations. We illustrate the applicability of our approach by considering local and global depolarizing noises acting on general multiqubit states. A difference in the typical entanglement behavior of systems subjected to these noises is observed: the originally genuine entanglement dissociates by splitting off particles one by one in the case of local noise, whereas intermediate stages of entanglement clustering are present in the case of global noise. We also analyze the definitive phase of evolution when the annihilation of the entanglement compound finally takes place.


—Memory corruption attacks against unsafe pro- gramming languages like C/C++ have been a major threat to computer systems for multiple decades. Various sanitizers and runtime exploit mitigation techniques have been shown to only provide partial protection at best. Recently developed 'safe' programming languages such as Rust and Go hold the promise to change this paradigm by preventing memory corruption bugs using a strong type system and proper compile-time and runtime checks. Gradual deployment of these languages has been touted as a way of improving the security of existing applications before entire applications can be developed in safe languages. This is notable in popular applications such as Firefox and Tor. In this paper, we systematically analyze the security of multi-language applications. We show that because language safety checks in safe languages and exploit mitigation techniques applied to unsafe languages ( e.g., Control-Flow Integrity) break different stages of an exploit to prevent control hijacking attacks, an attacker can carefully maneuver between the languages to mount a successful attack. In essence, we illustrate that the incompatible set of assumptions made in various languages enables attacks that are not possible in each language alone. We study different variants of these attacks and analyze Firefox to illustrate the feasibility and extent of this problem. Our findings show that gradual deployment of safe programming languages, if not done with extreme care, can indeed be detrimental to security.