Abstract In this research, a novel dual-model system, one-dimensional stratiform cold cloud model (1DSC) coupled to Weather Research and Forecast (WRF) model (WRF-IDSC for short), was employed to investigate the effects of cloud seeding by silver iodide (Agl) on rain enhancement. Driven by changing environmental conditions extracted from the WRF model, WRF-IDSC could be used to assess the cloud seeding effects quantitatively. The employment of WRF-IDSC, in place of a one-dimensional two-moment cloud seeding model applied to a three-dimensional mesoscale cloud-resolving model, was found to result in massive reduction of computational resources. Numerical experiments with WRF-IDSC were conducted for a real stratiform precipitation event observed on 4–5 July 2004, in Northeast China. A good agreement between the observed and modeled cloud system ensured the ability of WRF-IDSC to simulate the observed precipitation process efficiently. Sensitivity tests were performed with different seeding times, locations, and amounts. Experimental results showed that the optimum seeding effect (defined as the percentage of rain enhancement or rain enhancement rate) could be achieved through proper seeding at locations of maximum cloud water content when the updraft was strong. The optimum seeding effect was found to increase by 5.61% when the cloud was seeded at 5.5 km above ground level around 2300 UTC 4 July 2004, with the maximum Agl mixing ratio (Xs) equaling 15 ng kg-1. On the other hand, for an overseeded cloud, a significant reduction occurred in the accumulated precipitation (12.42%) as Xs reached 100 ng kg-1. This study demonstrates the potential of WRFIDSC in determining the optimal Agl seeding strategy in practical operations of precipitation enhancement.


Background: Lumbar discectomy is a common surgical procedure in middle-aged adults. However, outcomes of lumbar discectomy among older adults are unclear. Methods: Lumbar discectomy patients with an annular defect ≥6 mm width were randomized to receive additional implantation with a bone-anchored annular closure device (ACD, n=272) or no additional implantation (controls, n=278). Over 3 years follow-up, main outcomes were symptomatic reherniation, reoperation, and the percentage of patients who achieved the minimum clinically important difference (MCID) without a reoperation for leg pain, Oswestry Disability Index (ODI), SF-36 Physical Component Summary (PCS) score, and SF-36 Mental Component Summary (MCS) score. Results were compared between older (≥60 years) and younger (<60 years) patients. We additionally analyzed data from two postmarket ACD registries to determine consistency of outcomes between the randomized trial and postmarket, real-world results. Results: Among all patients, older patients suffered from crippling or bed-bound preoperative disability more frequently than younger patients (57.9% vs 39.1%, p=0.03). Among controls, female sex, higher preoperative ODI, and current smoking status, but not age, were associated with greater risk of reherniation and reoperation. Compared to controls, the ACD group had lower risk of symptomatic reherniation (HR=0.45, p<0.001) and reoperation (HR=0.54, p=0.008), with risk reductions comparable in older vs younger patients. The percentage of patients achieving the MCID without a reoperation was higher in the ACD group for leg pain (81% vs 72%, p=0.04), ODI (82% vs 73%, p=0.03), PCS (85% vs 75%, p=0.01), and MCS (59% vs 46%, p=0.007), and this benefit was comparable in older versus younger patients. Comparable benefits in older patients were observed in the postmarket ACD registries. Conclusion: Outcomes with lumbar discectomy and additional bone-anchored ACD are superior to lumbar discectomy alone. Older patients derived similar benefits with additional bone-anchored ACD implantation as younger patients.


This study deals with evaporative heat transfer characteristics of vertically upward flows in single-channel plate-fin heat exchangers. R-134a was used as the refrigerant. The refrigerant channel was sandwiched by two water channels with the same channel shape. The refrigerant was heated by hot water from the both side. In this experiment, pressure of the working fluid was maintained at 0.665MPa (saturation temperature 25 oC). Subcooled liquid with the subcooling of 5 and 10 K, or wet vapor with the quality of 0.1 was supplied to evaporator. Two kind of offset fin, Fin A and Fin B, whose fin pitch were 1.95 and 3.175 mm, respectively, were used. The channel hydraulic diameter with Fin A and Fin B were 1.78 and 2.89 mm, respectively. Effects of the fin pitch and flow direction of the heating water, such as counter and parallel flow arrangements, on the heat transfer rate, pressure drop, and wall temperature distribution on the outside of the water channel were examined. The wall temperature was visualized by an IR camera. As the results, it was shown that the effects of the water and the fin pitch on the heat transfer rate were a little due to a dryout in the refrigerant flows. However, a large difference in the wall temperature distribution between the counter and parallel flow was observed. The difference might be caused by the phase distribution of refrigerant, and lead to the increase in the pressure drop for the parallel flow. For the parallel flow arrangement, the temperature on the right side with the water inlet port was quite higher than the right side. The temperature distribution was kept over the heat exchanger. The tendency was weaker for Fin B with the lager fin pitch due to phase separation caused by gravity.


Religion plays an important part in the lives of many immigrants. The second generation is assumed to have a higher level of integration into the host society and lower religious and ethnic identification. This assumption, however, views acculturation as an essentialist process producing common outcomes for all groups. Yet such an assumption needs to be tested with different ethnic groups. This chapter, therefore, explores the cases of second generation Pakistani and Indian immigrant youth in Hong Kong. The findings indicate that it is not possible to generalise across these groups. Indian youth seem to have acculturated with a lower sense of religious and ethnic identification. Pakistani youth, on the other hand, reported relatively strong religious affiliation and sense of belonging to their heritage culture. This suggests that acculturation is a more nuanced process than is often portrayed and is strongly context dependent, influenced by group values, commitments and practices


A root is a fundamental minimal unit in words. Some languages do not allow their roots to appear on their own, as in the Semitic languages where roots consist of consonant clusters that become stems or words by virtue of vowel insertion. Other languages appear to allow roots to surface without any additional morphology, as in English car. Roots are typically distinguished from affixes in that affixes need a host, although this varies within different theories.
 Traditionally roots have belonged to the domain of morphology. More recently, though, new theories have emerged according to which words are decomposed and subject to the same principles as sentences. That makes roots a fundamental building block of sentences, unlike words. Contemporary syntactic theories of roots hold that they have little if any grammatical information, which raises the question of how they acquire their seemingly grammatical properties. A central issue has revolved around whether roots have a lexical category inherently or whether they are given a lexical category in some other way. Two main theories are distributed morphology and the exoskeletal approach to grammar. The former holds that roots merge with categorizers in the grammar: a root combined with a nominal categorizer becomes a noun, and a root combined with a verbal categorizer becomes a verb. On the latter approach, it is argued that roots are inserted into syntactic structures which carry the relevant category, meaning that the syntactic environment is created before roots are inserted into the structure. The two views make different predictions and differ in particular in their view of the status of empty categorizers.


In this chapter, we first discuss the basic features and recent issues of the SDN control plane, notably the controller element. Then, we present feasible ideas to address the SDN controller-related problems using Big Data analytics techniques. Accordingly, we propose that Big Data can help various aspects of the SDN controller to address scalability issue and resiliency problem. Furthermore, we proposed six applicable scenarios for optimizing the SDN controller using the Big Data analytics: (i) controller scale-up/out against network traffic concentration, (ii) controller scale-in for reduced energy usage, (iii) backup controller placement for fault tolerance and high availability, (iv) creating backup paths to improve fault tolerance, (v) controller placement for low latency between controllers and switches, and (vi) flow rule aggregation to reduce the SDN controller's traffic. Although real-world practices on optimizing SDN controllers using Big Data are absent in the literature, we expect scenarios we highlighted in this chapter to be highly applicable to optimize the SDN controller in the future.


Symmetric Searchable Encryption (SSE) schemes enable keyword searches over encrypted documents. To obtain efficiency, SSE schemes incur a certain amount of leakage. The vast majority of the literature on SSE considers only leakage from one component of the overall SSE system, the encrypted search index. This component is used to identify which documents to return in response to a keyword query. The actual fetching of the documents is left to another component, usually left unspecified in the literature, but generally envisioned as a simple storage system matching document identifiers to encrypted documents.This raises the question: do SSE schemes actually protect the security of data and queries when considered from a system-wide viewpoint? We answer this question in the negative. We do this by introducing a new inference attack that achieves practically efficient, highly scalable, accurate query reconstruction against end-to-end SSE systems. In particular, our attack works even when the SSE schemes are built in the natural way using the state-of-the-art techniques (namely, volume-hiding encrypted multi-maps) designed to suppress leakage and protect against previous generations of attack.A second question is whether the state-of-the-art leakage suppression techniques can instead be applied on a system-wide basis, to protect both the encrypted search index and the encrypted document store, to produce efficient SSE systems. We also answer this question in the negative. To do so, we implement SSE systems using those state-of-the-art leakage suppression methods, and evaluate their performance. We show that storage overheads range from 100× to 800× while bandwidth overheads range from 20× to100×, as compared to a naïve baseline system.Our results motivate the design of new SSE systems that are designed with system-wide security in mind from the outset. In this regard, we show that one such SSE system due to Chen et al. (IEEE INFOCOM 2018), with provable security guarantees based on differential privacy, is also vulnerable to our new attack.In totality, our results force a re-evaluation of how to build end-to-end SSE systems that offer both security and efficiency.


In this article, we demonstrate how concepts of time and the future inform processes of resilience among Indigenous adolescents within an urban Canadian context. This study employed a modified grounded theory methodology by conducting 38 qualitative interviews with 28 Indigenous youth (ages 15–25) over the course of 1 year. The analysis revealed complex processes of and navigations between moments of distress and strategies for resilience. The distressing contexts in which Indigenous youth often find themselves can impact the development of their concepts of time and limit their abilities to conceptualize a future. A future time orientation (FTO) emerged as central to processes of resilience and was supported by (a) nurturing a sense of belonging, (b) developing self-mastery, and (c) fostering cultural continuity.


Introduction Admission hyponatremia, frequent in patients hospitalized for COVID-19, has been associated with increased mortality. However, although euvolemic hyponatremia secondary to the Syndrome of Inappropriate Antidiuresis (SIAD) is the single most common cause of hyponatremia in community-acquired pneumonia (CAP), a thorough and rigorous assessment of the volemia of hyponatremic COVID-19 subjects has yet to be described. We sought to identify factors contributing to mortality and hospital length-of-stay (LOS) in hospitalized COVID-19 patients admitted with hyponatremia, taking volemia into account. Method Retrospective study of 247 patients admitted with COVID-19 to a tertiary hospital in Madrid, Spain from March 1st through March 30th, 2020, with a glycemia-corrected serum sodium level (SNa) < 135 mmol/L. Variables were collected at admission, at 2nd-3rd day of hospitalization, and ensuing days when hyponatremia persisted. Admission volemia (based on both physical and analytical parameters), therapy, and its adequacy as a function of volemia, were determined. Results Age: 68 years [56-81]; 39.9% were female. Median admission SNa was 133 mmol/L [131- 134]. Hyponatremia was mild (SNa 131-134 mmol/L) in 188/247 (76%). Volemia was available in 208/247 patients; 57.2% were euvolemic and the rest (42.8%) hypovolemic. Hyponatremia was left untreated in 154/247 (62.3%) patients. Admission therapy was not concordant with volemia in 43/84 (51.2%). In fact, the majority of treated euvolemic patients received incorrect therapy with isotonic saline (37/41, 90.2%), whereas hypovolemics did not (p=0.001). The latter showed higher mortality rates than those receiving adequate or no therapy (36.7% vs. 19% respectively, p=0.023). The administration of isotonic saline to euvolemic hyponatremic subjects was independently associated with an elevation of in-hospital mortality (Odds Ratio: 3.877, 95%; Confidence Interval: 1.25-12.03). Conclusion Hyponatremia in COVID-19 is predominantly euvolemic. Isotonic saline infusion therapy in euvolemic hyponatremic COVID-19 patients can lead to an increased mortality rate. Thus, an exhaustive and precise volemic assessment of the hyponatremic patient with CAP, particularly when due to COVID-19, is mandatory before instauration of therapy, even when hyponatremia is mild.


Articles 7 and 8 of the WTO Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) are entitled 'Objectives' and 'Principles' respectively. These provisions occupy a prominent position within the text of the Agreement, yet have figured sparingly in the legal reasoning of the WTO Dispute Settlement Body (DSB). The illogical nature of this discrepancy is accentuated when considered in light of four key factors. First, the pioneering step taken by the negotiators of the TRIPS Agreement to include broad declarations of intent within the legally operative text. Second, the 2001 reinforcement given to the authority of these provisions through the Doha Ministerial Declaration and the Declaration on TRIPS and Public Health. Third, the verbatim replication of these provisions within other intellectual property instruments, notably, the Intellectual Property chapter of the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and the WIPO Development Agenda. Finally, the continued use of Articles 7 and 8 to influence political discourse on matters relating to intellectual property regulation. While it may be premature to suggest that Articles 7 and 8 are a customary part of the international IP system, the above information provides compelling evidence for greater investigation into their meaning in order to facilitate future recognition by the DSB. This article aims to contribute to this enquiry by exposing the individual elements of each provision to a detailed textual analysis. Dissecting the text into its various components adds precision to the study and supports comparisons with existing rules, principles and legal expectations. As will be demonstrated, necessity, reasonableness, consistency and good faith are principles found within Articles 7 and 8 that can be given substantive or interpretative force by drawing upon analogous legal reasoning arising both within and beyond the WTO system. Nevertheless, Articles 7 and 8, taken together, recognises a pivotal legal principle – that of national regulatory autonomy. This includes, but goes beyond, deference to national policy choices in several key areas, to recognising that the 'Objectives' and 'Principles' express a state-centric method of calibration that must guide the general application of TRIPS and any other agreement within which they are incorporated.


Congenital infantile fibrosarcoma (CIFS) is a rare tumour of childhood accounting for less than 1% of malignant tumours in children. Reports from sub-Saharan Africa are particularly rare and the occurrence in the sacral region mimicking a sacrococcygeal teratoma has not been reported in Africa to the best of our knowledge. The poor predilection of the tumour for distant metastases may contribute to its above average prognosis, but the rarity of systemic antenatal detection of congenital conditions in most parts of Africa may mitigate this good fortune. We report the very rare case of a 9-month-old female infant who presented with a progressively increasing painless sacral mass from birth which was thought to be a sacrococcygeal teratoma clinically but histopathological assessment revealed a CIFS.


The current investigation is centered on the thermal decomposition of iron(II) acetyl acetonate, Fe(C5H7O2)2, in a closed cell at 700 degrees C, which is conducted under a magnetic field (MF) of 10 T. The product is compared with a similar reaction that was carried out without a MF. This article shows how the reaction without a MF produces spherical Fe3O4 particles coated with carbon. The same reaction in the presence of a 10 T MF causes the rejection of the carbon from the surface of pyramid-shaped Fe3O4 particles, increases the Fe3O4 particle diameter, forms separate carbon particles, and leads to the formation of an anisotropic (long cigarlike) orientation of Fe3O4 pyramids and C sheets. The macroscopic orientation of Fe3O4 pyramids+C sheets is stable even after the removal of an external MF. The suggested process can be used to fabricate large arrays of uniform wires comprised of some magnetic nanoparticles, and to improve the magnetic properties of nanoscale magnetic materials. The probable mechanism is developed for the growth and assembly behavior of magnetic Fe3O4 pyramids+C sheets under an external MF. The effect of an applied MF to synthesize morphologically different, but structurally the same, products with mesoscopic organization is the key theme of the present paper.


LS-DYNA 970.5424 simulations of metal-forming with thermal effects due to plastic heating are presented. Standard and element free Galerkin (EFG) elements are used. The results are compared to implicit solutions where possible. The EFG simulation demands higher computation time and shows a slightly softer behaviour. The EFG method does not introduce non-physical energy in the system to control hourglass modes and shows the potential for more accurate calculations in the future.


It is an important means in management of improving both the quality and quantity of cultivated land to monitor grade changes in cultivated land quality. How to deploy monitoring network system and its point reasonably and roundly are the key to the technology of monitoring grade changes in cultivated land quality by monitoring grade changes in cultivated land quality dynamically in order to obtain the information to the index of cultivated land quality and its changes based on the existing achievements of farmland classification and grading. Spatial analysis method is used to demarcate monitoring area and deploy monitoring point according to ARCGIS, of which the result can meet the demand for monitoring grade changes in cultivated land.


This study examines the nature and evolution of European supranationalism and its
relationship to European identity formation, together with the factors promoting and
inhibiting the development of such an identity. The central proposition of the study is that
there exist certain conditions for the emergence of an European identity. This identity is
developing, in accordance with a 'civic' model based on a common sense of European
belonging rooted in constitutionalism, participative citizenship, civil and humanitarian
rights and shared democratic institutions.
The question of how political communities, increasingly ethnically heterogeneous,
socially fragmented and territorially dispersed, yet institutionally and functionally linked,
can aid a common consciousness and a sense of identity is addressed. This work
predicates that there is a relationship between supranational institutional development and
the development of European identity. It explores how supranational institutions
developed within post-war Europe and demonstrates how such institutions affect
communal European identity formation.
The study establishes that in common with the historical experience of European state
formation in early modernity, that enlarged polities are closely and causally linked to the
rise of broad identification amongst their named populations. We demonstrate that as
European supranational institutions have become politically and socially entrenched that
the appropriate conditions for the creation of European identity have emerged. Such an
identity, necessarily civic in nature, is inclusive of, and sympathetic to, the diverse range
of pre-existing European ethnonational identifications.
The study utilises an analytical framework which allows for the examination of European
identification from a variety of perspectives. Utilising a typology of communal identity
synthesised from sociology, social psychology and political science the study
demonstrates that communal identity is a multdimentional phenomena. It is made up not
only of shared feeling of community and belonging, but is further exhibited in collective
self-description, shared values, collective attachment to common symbols, common
actions and a common cognitive boundary separating `us' from the 'other'.
The study demonstrates that there is a viable European identity. It finds that such an
identity exists concurrently with pre-existing national, regional and local identities.
European identity is found to exist, in part, as a result of the institutional recognition and
securing of such pre-existent identities. The study concludes that it is from the
construction of a dense and socially inclusive European civil society that European
identity emerges.


Abstract The New Deal led to unprecedented involvement by the federal government in the provision of relief. Although New Deal officials argued that they sought to be nondiscriminatory in providing access to programs, various scholars have suggested that blacks received fewer benefits than whites. One method for testing the effectiveness of the New Deal at reaching households with low incomes is to examine its impact on infant mortality. In this paper we use county-level data from three subperiods during the 1930s to examine the relationship between several New Deal spending programs and black and white infant mortality in the South. Some New Deal programs contributed to a reduction in infant mortality, but other factors may have been strong contributors to a long-term secular decline in infant mortality. Meanwhile, some of the New Deal programs appear to have been nondiscriminatory or even more beneficial for blacks than for whites, while others appear to have had differential effects that favored whites.


Maintaining good ratings increases the profits of sellers on online platforms. We analyze the role of strategic pricing for ratings management in a setting where a monopolist sells a good of unknown quality. Higher prices reduce the value for money, which on average worsens reviews. However, higher prices also induce only those consumers with a strong taste for the product to purchase, which on average improves reviews. We provide conditions under which the latter effect dominates so that ratings management leads to an upward pressure on prices. This upward pressure increases in the sensitivity of the aggregate rating to incoming reviews. As a consequence, recent changes to rating systems may have harmed consumers by increasing long-run price levels.


It has been suggested that carbohydrate mouth rinse (CHO-MR) effects short duration, high intensity exercise by activation of sensory receptors on the tongue (Carter et al., 2004: Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, 36, 2107–2111). Research has predominately focused on the effects of CHO-MR on the performance of cycling and running time trials (Painelli et al., 2010: Nutritional Journal, 9, 1-4). Limited research has been conducted on the effectiveness of a CHO-MR on intermittent high-intensity field-based sports performance. The aim of this study was to analyse the effects of a CHO mouth rinse on performance of the Yo-yo Intermittent Recovery Level 1 Test (IR1T) with female University standard hockey players. Following ethical approval, twelve members (mean age 20 ± 0.98 years, stature 167 ± 7.09 cm, and body mass 64.7 ± 4.96 kg) of the University of Lincoln's female 1st team volunteered for the study. The study used a single-blind counter-balanced design with repeated measures on two treatment conditions: 1) a CHO-MR, and 2) a placebo mouth rinse (PL-MR). Participants were instructed to maintain a normal diet and fasted for 12hr prior to testing. After a familiarisation test, twelve participants completed the IR1T twice, one week apart; rinsing with either a CHO-MR or PL-MR. Administration occurred before (20min prior) the IR1T and during the 10s active recovery periods, at intervals (IV) which corresponded to five level increments in speed (IV1-13.5km/h, IV2-14km/h, IV3-14.5km/h, IV4-15km/h, IV5-15km/h). At these points, rate of perceived exertion (RPE) was recorded using the traditional Borg scale. Total distance (m) achieved was recorded as the performance measure. A dependent t-test did not detect any performance improvement (P = >0.05) between CHO-MR (1060 ± 273m) and PL-MR (1127 ± 402m) trials. Multiple dependent t-tests revealed that at the first IV (SL 12.1), RPE scores were significantly different (P = 0.006) between CHO-MR (10.9 ± 0.79) and PL-MR (11.4 ± 1.08) trials. No differences were detected between CHO-MR and PL-MR trials during the rest of the protocol (IV2-5, all P = >0.05). A CHO-MR had no effect on IR1T test performance with female university level hockey players compared to a PL-MR. The participants did not experience any differences in the feeling of exertion between the two conditions as the IR1T progressed. Further research needs to illuminate any possible performance effects from CHO-MR with intermittent high intensity activity, revealing any plausible physiological mechanisms of action.


How can rapidly expanding information in medicine be disseminated with speed? The monograph may represent the less than impartial views of the author, and may be biased by selection of patients, availability of special investigations, and geographical variations in the nature and distribution of the pathology of the condition. The international symposium is ideal. Distinguished experts discuss the topic in depth, and at the end of the day a balanced picture emerges and unsolved areas are defined. But not everyone can attend the meeting, it takes a long time for the proceedings to be published, and, perhaps above all, experts cannot be expected to spend all their lives jetting from one meeting to another. Sir Rodney Smith attempts in this new series to reproduce the symposium atmosphere on paper. A subject is chosen, acknowledged experts present their views, then each comments on the chapter of his colleagues and highlights both the areas of concord and discord. In this volume a number of important aspects of gastric surgery are considered. The aetiology of gastric and duodenal ulcer is magnificently reviewed by Professor Du Plessis, of Johannesburg; selection of patients for surgery and the surgery for the patient by Iain Gillespie, of Manchester; the metabolic complications of surgery by Ivan Johnston, of Newcastle; and cancer of the stomach by Ian Burn and Richard Welbourn, of London. This is a book which will appeal to everyone who wishes to keep abreast with current thoughts in these important fields. The text is fully up to date, the bibliography exhaustive, and the contents are stimulating, particularly the comments of the other contributors after each chapter. Perhaps in future volumes the debate could be taken one stage further. I would be fascinated to read the rejoinders of the authors to their critics. Knowing them well, I can just imagine how the pages would sizzle.


Three experiments examined the role of eye and limb movements in the maintenance of information in spatial working memory. In Experiment 1, reflexive saccades interfered with memory span for spatial locations but did not interfere with memory span for letters. In Experiment 2, three different types of eye movements (reflexive saccades, pro-saccades, and anti-saccades) interfered with working memory to the same extent. In all three cases, spatial working memory was much more affected than verbal working memory. The results of these two experiments suggest that eye movements interfere with spatial working memory primarily by disrupting processes localised in the visuospatial sketchpad. In Experiment 3, limb movements performed while maintaining fixation produced as much interference with spatial working memory as reflexive saccades. These results suggest that the interference produced by eye movements is not the result of their visual consequences. Rather, all spatially directed movements appear to have similar effects on visuospatial working memory.


Abstract: Hornbills are important dispersers of a wide range of tree species. Many of these species bear fruits with large, lipid-rich seeds that could attract terrestrial rodents. Rodents have multiple effects on seed fates, many of which remain poorly understood in the Palaeotropics. The role of terrestrial rodents was investigated by tracking seed fate of five hornbill-dispersed tree species in a tropical forest in north-east India. Seeds were marked inside and outside of exclosures below 6–12 parent fruiting trees (undispersed seed rain) and six hornbill nest trees (a post-dispersal site). Rodent visitors and seed removal were monitored using camera traps. Our findings suggest that several rodent species, especially two species of porcupine were major on-site seed predators. Scatter-hoarding was rare (1.4%). Seeds at hornbill nest trees had lower survival compared with parent fruiting trees, indicating that clumped dispersal by hornbills may not necessarily improve seed survival. Seed survival in the presence and absence of rodents varied with tree species. Some species (e.g. Polyalthia simiarum) showed no difference, others (e.g. Dysoxylum binectariferum) experienced up to a 64% decrease in survival in the presence of rodents. The differing magnitude of seed predation by rodents can have significant consequences at the seed establishment stage.


Background: Clinical pharmacists and their training programs can play a key role in helping to address social determinants of health (SDoH) by transforming healthcare beyond the traditional clinical approaches. Pharmacists' knowledge of SDoH in post-graduate residency programs are key skills necessary for creating an impact in healthcare outcomes. Purpose: The purpose of this project was to assess U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) post-graduate residency program directors' and residents' knowledge about SDoH. Methods: An IRB exempt questionnaire was created via Survey Monkey (TM) and administered to postgraduate pharmacy residents (N = 618) and residency program directors (RPDs) (N = 235) employed by VA Medical Centers. Results: Sixteen percent (n = 100 of 618) of pharmacy residents and 24% (n = 58 of 235) of RPDs completed the survey. Population health was part of didactic work in pharmacy school for 46% of residents and 8% of RPDs. Nine percent (9%) of residents and 7% of RPDs were very familiar with Healthy People 2020. One percent (1%) of residents and 4% of RPDs had training in Healthy People 2020 in their residency program. None of the residents and only 4% of responding RPDs asked patients about food insecurity, a critical social determinant of health. Discussion: Pharmacy Residency training and RPD's experience with SDoH is limited. Residency Programs should expand curriculum and incorporate training to address SDoH (such as food insecurity) in chronic care management.


Not all topics are equally "flammable" in terms of toxicity: a calm discussion of turtles or fishing less often fuels inappropriate toxic dialogues than a discussion of politics or sexual minorities. We define a set of sensitive topics that can yield inappropriate and toxic messages and describe the methodology of collecting and labelling a dataset for appropriateness. While toxicity in user-generated data is well-studied, we aim at defining a more fine-grained notion of inappropriateness. The core of inappropriateness is that it can harm the reputation of a speaker. This is different from toxicity in two respects: (i) inappropriateness is topic-related, and (ii) inappropriate message is not toxic but still unacceptable. We collect and release two datasets for Russian: a topic-labelled dataset and an appropriateness-labelled dataset. We also release pre-trained classification models trained on this data.


Despite the outstanding auditory capabilities of dolphins, there is only limited information available on the cytology of the auditory brain stem nuclei in these animals. Here, we investigated the cochlear nuclei (CN) of five brains of common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) and La Plata dolphins (Pontoporia blainvillei) using cell and fiber stain microslide series representing the three main anatomical planes. In general, the CN in dolphins comprise the same set of subnuclei as in other mammals. However, the volume ratio of the dorsal cochlear nucleus (DCN) in relation to the ventral cochlear nucleus (VCN) of dolphins represents a minimum among the mammals examined so far. Because, for example, in cats the DCN is necessary for reflexive orientation of the head and pinnae towards a sound source, the massive restrictions in head movability in dolphins and the absence of outer ears may be correlated with the reduction of the DCN. Moreover, the same set of main neuron types were found in the dolphin CN as in other mammals, including octopus and multipolar cells. Because the latter two types of neurons are thought to be involved in the recognition of complex sounds, including speech, we suggest that, in dolphins, they may be involved in the processing of their communication signals. Comparison of the toothed whale species studied here revealed that large spherical cells were present in the La Plata dolphin but absent in the common dolphin. These neurons are known to be engaged in the processing of low‐frequency sounds in terrestrial mammals. Accordingly, in the common dolphin, the absence of large spherical cells seems to be correlated with a shift of its auditory spectrum into the high‐frequency range above 20 kHz. The existence of large spherical cells in the VCN of the La Plata dolphin, however, is enigmatic asthis species uses frequencies around 130 kHz. J. Morphol. 2011. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


In large mountainous catchments, shallow unconfined alluvial aquifers play an important role in conveying subsurface runoff to the foreland. Their relatively small extent poses a serious problem for ground water flow models on the river basin scale. River basin scale models describing the entire water cycle are necessary in integrated water resources management and to study the impact of global climate change on ground water resources. Integrated regional‐scale models must use a coarse, fixed discretization to keep computational demands low and to facilitate model coupling. This can lead to discrepancies between model discretization and the geometrical properties of natural systems. Here, an approach to overcome this discrepancy is discussed using the example of the German‐Austrian Upper Danube catchment, where a coarse ground water flow model was developed using MODFLOW. The method developed uses a modified concept from a hydrological catchment drainage analysis in order to adapt the aquifer geometry such that it respects the numerical requirements of the chosen discretization, that is, the width and the thickness of cells as well as gradients and connectivity of the catchment. In order to show the efficiency of the developed method, it was tested and compared to a finely discretized ground water model of the Ammer subcatchment. The results of the analysis prove the applicability of the new approach and contribute to the idea of using physically based ground water models in large catchments.


A study conducted in 1995 and repeated in 1996 determined the effects of repeated BA applications and subsequent repeated removals on yields of offsets in Hosta Tratt. (Funkia K. Spreng; Niobe Salisb.) stock plants. Two hosta cultivars, 'Francee' and 'Francis Williams', received zero, one,two,three, or four foliar applications of benzyladenine (BA) at 3000 mg.L -1 . Plants receiving multiple applications were retreated at 30-day intervals following offset removal from all plants. A single BA application stimulated offset formation in both cultivars in both years, but repeated applications were necessary for a continued response following offset removal. Total offset yield increased linearly as the number of BA applications increased. At 120 days after the first treatment in 1995, 'Francee' plants receiving four applications had produced an average of 22 offsets, and 'Francis Williams' plants 18 offsets, whereas control plants produced 9.8 and 0 offsets, respectively. Similar data for 1996 were 31.2 offsets for 'Francee' and 22.4 offsets for 'Francis Williams,' whereas control plants produced 6.8 and 2.6 offsets, respectively. Offset stage of development, as indicated by leaf number, and growth index generally were not affected by BA treatment. No phytotoxicity was observed, and plant appearance was enhanced due to the outgrowth of BA-stimulated lateral buds. Chemical name used: N-(phenylmethyl)-1H-purin-6-amine (benzyladenine, BA).


The application of genetic technology seems to threaten what is considered natural in elite sport. This paper explores the role of genetic technology in elite sport and questions the significance of dichotomizing between the natural and artificial element. How do shifts in technology affect the attribution of the human element in athletic performance? To explore the attribution of human agency we compare the genetic enhancement of athletes with two other shifts of the 'natural performance' in sport: first, the introduction of a revolutionary high jump technique, the Fosbury flop, in 1968; and, second, the introduction of the klapskate in speed skating in 1997. The three cases show that artificiality as such can hardly be a criterion for evaluating processes of innovation. The context of elite sport is itself highly artificial. Boundaries between the natural body and the enhanced body are the outcome of institutional processes of boundary work. When discussing new technologies in sport it is better to ask if athletes are still playing the same game and whether or not there are equal opportunities and an equal distribution of means for playing the game. The introduction of gene technology may result in inequalities, with great impact on the outcome of the game. This outcome may be considered irrelevant for the inequalities that the game is supposed to produce and measure. Genetic enhancement may also threaten the public view of athletes as moral agents and possibly change the appreciation for human performance.


Purpose - – This study explores the factors that impede the growth of the voluntary adoption of independent corporate social responsibilities assurance (CSRA) practices among manufacturing companies in Malaysia. Despite the argument that independent CSRA appraisals would improve the credibility of information disclosed, the majority of CSR reports in Malaysia are still not independently assured. The aim of this study is to understand the factors that impede CSRA practices among public-listed manufacturing companies in Malaysia. The theory of reasoned action was used to underpin arguments on the reluctance of managers to undertake CSRA. Design/methodology/approach - – Online questionnaire surveys were employed to obtain respondents' perceptions on the factors that hinder CSRA practices. The target respondents comprised of CSR managers, corporate communications executives and customer relations personnel. Findings - – This study provides evidence that the behavioural reluctance of managers to undertake CSRA was due to their attitudes and subjective norms towards independence assurance. The subjective norms due to the risk towards corporate reputation and the exposure to public scrutiny were the main factors that impede CSRA practices among manufacturing companies in Malaysia. The managers' attitude towards cost, data management systems and the uncertainty of the merits of CSRA were also compelling factors that hinder independent CSRA. These factors seemed to override incentives to provide credible information to stakeholders. Research limitations/implications - – The findings of the study are limited to the perceptions of CSR managers, corporate communications executives and customer relations personnel responsible for CSR activities of the manufacturing industries in Malaysia. The results of the study suggest that further initiatives or pressure from stakeholders or regulatory authorities may be needed to convince the companies of the benefits of undertaking third-party assurance practices as such actions would provide a platform for the companies to enhance the credibility of their CSR reporting. Practical implications - – The findings gleaned from this study would be of interest to the relevant corporate bodies and regulatory authorities with a view to formulating strategies to improve CSRA practices among organisations in Malaysia. Originality/value - – The findings from the study offer initial insights into the impediments to CSRA practices in an emerging economy. It adds substantially to the existing literature that focuses mainly on CSRA practices in developed countries.


This research investigated the effect of organization development interventions (ODI) using three modalities namely: Whole Brain Literacy (WBL), Experiential Learning Theory, and Appreciative Inquiry (AI) in enhancing the 21st Century Life Skills of undergraduate students in Assumption University of Thailand. An action research was conducted in three phases; pre-ODI, ODI, and post-ODI where both quantitative and qualitative research methods were used to explore, assess and gather the data to enhance the life skills of students which included thinking skills, action-related skills, creativity skills, relationship skills, and self-management skills. The quantitative data were collected by using the same set of questionnaire which has been developed from relevant sources on life skills development during before and after OD interventions to measure life skills with close-ended questions while the qualitative data were collected from an interview, observation, and group discussion. The Design of the Action Research used two groups of 30 students each, the first group went through Organization Development Interventions (ODI) and the second group of 30 was the control group without the ODI. The participants were selected by using Purposive sampling technique. The quantitative data was analyzed by using Paired Sample T-Test and the content analysis was used for the qualitative data. The findings reveal that OD interventions helped enhance the confidence level of life skills of the students involved in the study. As a recommendation, a new model for enhancing the life skills of students called "Life Skills Enhancement Model for Students: the Processes of Learning and Living on Purpose was developed.


An organism responds to the invading pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, protozoans, and fungi by engaging innate and adaptive immune system, which functions by activating various signal transduction pathways. As invertebrate organisms (such as sponges, worms, cnidarians, molluscs, crustaceans, insects, and echinoderms) are devoid of an adaptive immune system, and their defense mechanisms solely rely on innate immune system components. Investigating the immune response in such organisms helps to elucidate the immune mechanisms that vertebrates have inherited or evolved from invertebrates. Planarians are non-parasitic invertebrates from the phylum Platyhelminthes and are being investigated for several decades for understanding the whole-body regeneration process. However, recent findings have emerged planarians as a useful model for studying innate immunity as they are resistant to a broad spectrum of bacteria. This review intends to highlight the research findings on various antimicrobial resistance genes, signaling pathways involved in innate immune recognition, immune-related memory and immune cells in planarian flatworms.


The success of deep convolutional neural networks builds on top of the learning of effective convolution operations, capturing a hierarchy of structured features via filtering, activation, and pooling. However, the explicit structured features, e.g. object parts, are not expressive in the existing CNN frameworks. In this paper, we tackle the few-shot learning problem and make an effort to enhance structured features by expanding CNNs with a constellation model, which performs cell feature clustering and encoding with a dense part representation; the relationships among the cell features are further modeled by an attention mechanism. With the additional constellation branch to increase the awareness of object parts, our method is able to attain the advantages of the CNNs while making the overall internal representations more robust in the few-shot learning setting. Our approach attains a significant improvement over the existing methods in few-shot learning on the CIFAR-FS, FC100, and mini-ImageNet benchmarks.


Modern privacy regulations, including the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union, aim to control user tracking activities in websites and mobile applications. These privacy rules typically contain specific provisions and strict requirements for websites that provide sensitive material to end users such as sexual, religious, and health services. However, little is known about the privacy risks that users face when visiting such websites, and about their regulatory compliance. In this paper, we present the first comprehensive and large-scale analysis of 6,843 pornographic websites. We provide an exhaustive behavioral analysis of the use of tracking methods by these websites, and their lack of regulatory compliance, including the absence of age-verification mechanisms and methods to obtain informed user consent. The results indicate that, as in the regular web, tracking is prevalent across pornographic sites: 72% of the websites use third-party cookies and 5% leverage advanced user fingerprinting technologies. Yet, our analysis reveals a third-party tracking ecosystem semi-decoupled from the regular web in which various analytics and advertising services track users across, and outside, pornographic websites. We complete the paper with a regulatory compliance analysis in the context of the EU GDPR, and newer legal requirements to implement verifiable access control mechanisms (e.g., UK's Digital Economy Act). We find that only 16% of the analyzed websites have an accessible privacy policy and only 4% provide a cookie consent banner. The use of verifiable access control mechanisms is limited to prominent pornographic websites.


The lack of observed transition discs with inner gas holes of radii greater than ~50AU implies that protoplanetary discs dispersed from the inside out must remove gas from the outer regions rapidly. We investigate the role of photoevaporation in the final clearing of gas from low mass discs with inner holes. In particular, we study the so-called "thermal sweeping" mechanism which results in rapid clearing of the disc. Thermal sweeping was originally thought to arise when the radial and vertical pressure scale lengths at the X-ray heated inner edge of the disc match. We demonstrate that this criterion is not fundamental. Rather, thermal sweeping occurs when the pressure maximum at the inner edge of the dust heated disc falls below the maximum possible pressure of X-ray heated gas (which depends on the local X-ray flux). We derive new critical peak volume and surface density estimates for rapid radiative clearing which, in general, result in rapid dispersal happening less readily than in previous estimates. This less efficient clearing of discs by X-ray driven thermal sweeping leaves open the issue of what mechanism can clear gas from the outer disc sufficiently quickly to explain the non-detection of cold gas around weak line T Tauri stars.


The presence of entrepreneurs has been proven to bring benefits to the economic growth of a country. To grow new entrepreneurs, there is a need to improve the quality of human resources through entrepreneurship training, business motivation, and individual commitment. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of entrepreneurial training, business motivation, and individual commitment toward the business performance in the City of Parepare. This study uses a quantitative method approach. The population in this study was 150 small-scale entrepreneurs who had received entrepreneurship assistance and training in the city of Parepare and determined the number of samples based on Slovin formula as many as 109 respondents, and were taken by proportional random sampling. Data collection was done using a questionnaire and analyzed by SEM analysis. The results of the study show that (1) entrepreneurship training and individual commitment directly influence business Fakmotivation, (2) training, individual commitment, and motivation to work directly influence business performance, and (3) entrepreneurship training and indirect commitment of influential individuals on business performance through business motivation


This paper presents a detailed description of the application of a formal verification methodology to an ARM processor. The processor, a hybrid between the ARM7 and the StrongARM processors, uses features such as a 5-stage instruction pipeline, predicated execution, forwarding logic and multi-cycle instructions. The instruction set of the processor was defined as a set of abstract assertions. An implementation mapping was used to relate the abstract states in these assertions to detailed circuit states in the gate-level implementation of the processor. Symbolic Trajectory Evaluation was used to verify that the circuit fulfills each abstract assertion under the implementation mapping. The verification was done concurrently with the design implementation of the processor. Our verification did uncover 4 bugs that were reported back to the designer.


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
DNA vaccine against macrophage colony-stimulating factor receptor (M-CSFR) has shown both protective and therapeutic effects. In this study, we explore the possibility of using DNA vaccines against both M-CSFR and membrane-bound macrophage colony-stimulating factor (mM-CSF) to achieve better effects.

DESIGN AND METHODS
Three plasmids were constructed by inserting either extracellular and transmembrane region of mM-CSF (pM), or extracellular region of M-CSFR (pR), or extracellular region of M-CSFR linked with extracellular and transmembrane regions of mM-CSF by a (Gly Gly Ser)2 flexible linker (pF), into pcDNA3.1. A SP2/0 cell line stably expressing pF (SP2/0-F) was established to evaluate humoral and cytotoxic immune responses as well as therapeutic and preventive effects induced by pM, pR, pF or pM+pR vaccination in BALB/c mice. The mechanisms of these vaccinations were also studied by monitoring the release of interleukin (IL)-4 and interferon (IFN)-g by splenocytes upon activation.

RESULTS
Vaccination against two epitopes had better effects than against a single epitope while vaccination by pM+pR had the greatest effects on inducing humoral and cytotoxic immune responses, prolonging survival of mice challenged with SP2/0-F, and inducing IL-4 and IFN-g release by splenocytes.

INTERPRETATION AND CONCLUSIONS
Our results suggest that co-immunization of M-CSFR and mM-CSF DNA vaccines is better than M-CSFR-mM-CSF fusion DNA vaccine.


In this paper, the calculation formulas of the asperity's deformation related with the surface contact pressure are deduced by using the simplified contact model. Firstly, we assume that the rough surface is composed of a set of cones as asperities, and the cones are arranged in different ways along two directions. Secondly, according to the mechanical analysis of a rigid conical punch on a half-space, the theoretical relationship between the average pressure of the micro contact area and the property parameters of a conical punch is obtained. Meanwhile, the calculation formula of the average pressure is given under the reasonable assumptions, which is related with the asperity's deformation and the contact pressure. Finally, combining two theoretical relationships above, the quantitative analysis method for micro asperity's deformation of two rough surfaces in contact is provided by using the average pressure as a connection bridge.


Several studies examining the role of social capital on children's well-being reveal that social capital at different levels exerts an important influence on children's lives. However, limited empirical attempts have been made to examine the influence of social capital on children's health behaviour. This study attempts to address this gap by examining - to what extent family, community and school social capital influence the health behaviour of 9-year-old children in Ireland. Using wave one data set of the nine-year cohort of Growing Up in Ireland survey – a national longitudinal study commissioned by the Irish government. This paper used bivariate and regression analyses, to examine the relationship between children's health behaviour and social capital in the family, community and school. Children's quality of diet and level of physical activity were taken as indicators of health behaviour. The study found that social capitals in family, community, and school have a significant influence on children's health behaviour in Ireland.


SULFHEMOGLOBIN is a rare cause of cyanosis that is usually drug induced. The effects of sulfhemoglobin on pulse oximetry have not been reported widely. We present the case of a 48-yr-old woman who was scheduled to undergo palliative surgery. Before anesthesia, she had an oxygen saturation, measured by pulse oximetry (SpO2), of 85%. This apparent desaturation subsequently was discovered to be the result of a blood sulfhemoglobin concentration of 28%. She had been prescribed metoclopramide daily for more than 1 yr. Long-term ingestion of metoclopramide is a cause of drug-induced sulfhemoglobinemia.


l-theanine (γ-glutamylethylamide), an amino acid in green tea, has been shown to affect brain functions by relieving stress disorders, improving mood, and maintaining normal sleep. However, the cognitive functions for which theanine is effective are unclear. This study aimed to clarify which cognitive functions are positively affected by intake of l-theanine. A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study was conducted. The subjects were Japanese men and women aged 50–69 years. Mini Mental State Examination-Japanese version score was 24 or higher. Cognitrax was used as a test battery for cognitive function. Evaluations were performed before the intervention, after a single dose of l-theanine, and after 12 weeks of regular intake. The single dose of l-theanine reduced the reaction time to attention tasks (Stroop test, Part 1), and it increased the number of correct answers and decreased the number of omission errors in working memory tasks (4-Part continuous performance test, Part 4). In conclusion, our study indicated that l-theanine may contribute to improving attention, thus enhancing working memory and executive functions. Clinical Trial No.: UMIN000033812.


For problems involving induction motors other than the usual balanced winding type operating under steady-state conditions, a general method of analysis is necessary. In this paper, a general analysis is presented, and in particular, its use in short-circuit problems is described. The comparison between tests and calculated results indicates that the method does properly describe induction motor phenomena.


The purpose of this study was to further our understanding of the use of Twitter for promoting reflective learning. Specifically, this study investigated how students participate in Twitter-supported activities, what type of knowledge are manifested when Twitter is used to reflect on the course readings, and how students perceive the Twitter-supported activities. The data showed that Twitter was successful in keeping the learners engaged in the reflective discussion activities for a prolonged period compared to Blackboard. Students overall had a positive perception towards the integration of Twitter to support reflection and discussion along with active participation. Twitter was effective in increasing perceived learner-content and learner-learner interactivity along with engagement. We also provide recommendations for educational practitioners and direction for future research.


The theory of strict deformation quantization of the two sphere $S^2\subset\mathbb{R}^3$ is used to prove the existence of the classical limit of mean-field quantum spin chains, whose ensuing Hamiltonians are denoted by $H_N$ and where $N$ indicates the number of sites. Indeed, since the fibers $A_{1/N}=M_{N+1}(\mathbb{C})$ and $A_0=C(S^2)$ form a continuous bundle of $C^*$-algebras over the base space $I=\{0\}\cup 1/\mathbb{N}^*\subset[0,1]$, one can define a strict deformation quantization of $A_0$ where quantization is specified by certain quantization maps $Q_{1/N}: \tilde{A}_0 \rightarrow A_{1/N}$, with $\tilde{A}_0$ a dense Poisson subalgebra of $A_0$. Given now a sequence of such $H_N$, we show that under some assumptions a sequence of eigenvectors $\psi_N$ of $H_N$ has a classical limit in the sense that $\omega_0(f):=\lim_{N\to\infty}\langle\psi_N,Q_{1/N}(f)\psi_N\rangle$ exists as a state on $A_0$ given by $\omega_0(f)=\frac{1}{n}\sum_{i=1}^nf(\Omega_i)$, where $n$ is some natural number. We give an application regarding spontaneous symmetry breaking (SSB) and moreover we show that the spectrum of such a mean-field quantum spin system converges to the range of some polynomial in three real variables restricted to the sphere $S^2$.


The Chern-Simons-Kodama (CSK) state is an exact, non-perturbative wave function in the Ashtekar formulation of classical General Relativity. In this work, we find a generalized fermionic CSK state by solving the extended gravitational and fermionic Hamiltonian constraints of the Wheeler-DeWitt equation exactly. We show that this new state reduces to the original Kodama state upon symmetry reduction to FRW coordinates with perturbative fermionic corrections, making contact with the Hartle-Hawking and Vilenkin wave functions of the universe in cosmology. We also find that when both torsion and fermions are non-vanishing, the wave function possesses a finite amplitude to evade the Big Bang curvature singularity.


This paper presents some recent advances on the numerical solution of the classical Germain-Lagrange equation for plate bending of thin elastic plates. A meshless strategy using the Generalized Finite Difference Method (GFDM) is proposed upon substitution of the original fourth-order differential equation by a system composed of two second-order partial differential equations. Mixed boundary conditions, variable nodal density and curved contours are some of the explored aspects. Simulations using very dense clouds and parallel processing scheme for efficient neighbor selection are also presented. Numerical experiments are performed for arbitrary plates and compared with analytical and Finite Element Method solutions. Finally, an overview of the procedure is presented, including a discussion of some future development.


The overall aim of this work was to study the defrosting performance of functionalized heat transfer surfaces containing a novel, silica nanosprings coating combined with preferential microstructural roughness. In doing this, differences in drainage rates and defrosting effectiveness were explored both on patterned and non-patterned surfaces. To date, ten different surfaces have been examined— an uncoated, untreated aluminum plate (S1), plates containing a silica nanospring (SN) coating of varying thickness (S2-S6), a plate containing evenly-spaced microchannels both with and without the SN surface coating (S7, S8), and then finally a plate containing a microstructural roughness gradient both with and without the SN surface coating (S9, S10). Cyclical tests containing both frosting and defrosting periods were conducted on each sample. For these experiments, the frost layer was grown inside a controlled environmental test chamber where the relative humidity (RH) was held constant (i.e. 60%, 80%) while the temperature of the ambient air inside the enclosure was monitored to ensure consistency. The surface temperature of the plate was fixed using a thermoelectric cooler (TEC) typically at -8C, -10C or -12C. The TEC unit was placed on an electronic balance within the test chamber, which permitted the frost mass to be recorded continuously during testing. Overall, the defrosting effectiveness varied from 56-96% across all the surfaces depending on the test conditions. For the tests performed at 60% RH, the uncoated baseline surfaces tended to have defrosting efficiencies in the range of 59-75%, while the nanospring-coated surfaces tended to have defrosting efficiencies in the range of 66-96%. Different nanospring mat thicknesses were also explored as part of this work, which showed that an optimum thickness likely exists with shorter overall mat thicknesses being preferred. The microstructural surface gradient pattern included in this work was designed to create "preferential lanes" on the surface for drainage. The surface which yielded the highest overall defrosting efficiency during testing was the surface with the uniformly-spaced microchannels and nanospring coating (S8), while the gradient surface design with nanospring coating (S10) also generally performed well versus the baseline surface, especially at lower plate temperatures (i.e. Tw = -10 and -12C).


Introduction: The first phase of LIFE (Lifecycle Information For E-Literature) made a major contribution to
understanding the long-term costs of digital preservation; an essential step in helping institutions
plan for the future. The LIFE work models the digital lifecycle and calculates the costs of
preserving digital information for future years. Organisations can apply this process in order
to understand costs and plan effectively for the preservation of their digital collections
The second phase of the LIFE Project, LIFE2, has refined the LIFE Model adding three new
exemplar Case Studies to further build upon LIFE1. LIFE2 is an 18-month JISC-funded project
between UCL (University College London) and The British Library (BL), supported by the
LIBER Access and Preservation Divisions. LIFE1 was completed in April 2006. LIFE2 started
in March 2007, and was completed in August 2008.
This summary aims to give an overview of the LIFE Project, summarising some of the key outputs.
There are four main areas discussed:
1 From LIFE1 to LIFE2 outlines some of the key findings from the first phase of the project
as well as summarising the motivation behind this second phase.
2 The LIFE Model describes the current version of the model (version 2) which has been
thoroughly updated from the first phase.
3 LIFE2 Case Studies describes the three new Case Studies for LIFE2. It does not include the
results from the Case Studies (these are available in the overall LIFE2 Report), but offers
some background on each of the studies as well as discussion of why they were chosen.
4 Findings and Conclusions outlines all of the findings and outputs from the entire project.


Conventional wisdom in marketing holds that (1) retailer forward buying is a consequence of manufacturer trade promotions and (2) stockpiling units helps the retailer but hurts the manufacturer. This article provides a deeper understanding of forward buying by analyzing it within the context of manufacturer trade promotions, competition, and demand uncertainty. The authors find that regardless of whether the manufacturer offers a trade promotion, allowing the retailer to forward buy and hold inventory for the future can, under certain conditions, be beneficial for both parties. Disallowing forward buying by the retailer may lead the manufacturer to lower merchandising requirements and change the depth of the promotion. In competitive environments, there are situations in which retailers engage in forward buying because of competitive pressures in a prisoner's-dilemma situation. Finally, when the authors consider the case of uncertain demand, they find further evidence of strategic forward buying. In particular, the authors find cases in which the retailer orders a quantity that is higher than what it expects to sell in even the most optimistic demand scenario.


The paper will successively establish why national museums in the past generally constructed the image of Napoleon as a "Grand homme", a heroic leader and patron of the arts, providing a more unified, consensual vision and tendentiously hagiographic presentation of Napoleon than the more divided domain of general written historiography. It will also show how permanent presentations and temporary exhibits in the last two decades have attempted to revise different aspects of the museum's master narratives of Napoleon by desacralizing the representation of his physical body, underlining his role in one of Europe's most horrific wars and examining from a political point of view the artistic productions of his time and thus moving towards a more dualistic narrative. These recent museographical reinterpretations of Napoleon's role in exhibitions held across Europe seem to have allowed him to incarnate many ambiguous aspects of the European idea and the sometimes-contradictory nature of its history as his memorial role as moved from the national to a more European paradigm.


Recent work has suggested a high level of congruence between normative personality, most typically represented by the "big five" factors, and abnormal personality traits. In 2,293 Norwegian adult twins ascertained from a population-based registry, the authors evaluated the degree of sharing of genetic and environmental influences on normative personality, assessed by the Big Five Inventory (BFI), and personality disorder traits (PDTs), assessed by the Personality Inventory for DSM-5-Norwegian Brief Form (PID-5-NBF). For four of the five BFI dimensions, the strongest genetic correlation was observed with the expected PID-5-NBF dimension (e.g., neuroticism with negative affectivity [+], conscientiousness with disinhibition [-]). However, neuroticism, conscientiousness, and agreeableness had substantial genetic correlations with other PID-5-NBF dimensions (e.g., neuroticism with compulsivity [+], agreeableness with detachment [-]). Openness had no substantial genetic correlations with any PID-5-NBF dimension. The proportion of genetic risk factors shared in aggregate between the BFI traits and the PID-5-NBF dimensions was quite high for conscientiousness and neuroticism, relatively robust for extraversion and agreeableness, but quite low for openness. Of the six PID-5-NBF dimensions, three (negative affectivity, detachment, and disinhibition) shared, in aggregate, most of their genetic risk factors with normative personality traits. Genetic factors underlying psychoticism, antagonism, and compulsivity were shared to a lesser extent, suggesting that they are influenced by etiological factors not well indexed by the BFI.


BACKGROUND
Smoking and exposure to secondhand smoke are leading causes of disease and premature death in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), where over 80% of smokers live. Over 152 LMICs, including Thailand, have passed laws designating that indoor and outdoor public spaces should be smoke-free. Throughout LMICs, implementation of laws has been a persistent problem. We identified one activist in Thailand who developed his own highly effective strategy for ensuring implementation of smoke-free laws, and whose approach has potential for being a model for implementation activists in other LMICs.

OBJECTIVES
We set out to describe the implementation activist's strategy and impact, and to explore his perspective and motivations.

METHODS
We conducted in-depth interviews with the activist, reviewed video recordings and transcripts, and used narrative analysis to identify key themes and illuminating statements.

FINDINGS
In the implementation activist's assessment, administrators and officials were not being held accountable for their responsibilities to enforce laws, resulting in low public compliance. The activist developed his strategy to first identify public places where no-smoking signs were not posted and/or where people were smoking; take photographs of violations and make notes; and file citizen's complaints at police stations, submitting his photographs as evidence. The implementation activist documented over 5,100 violations of smoke-free laws throughout Thailand and reported violations to police. Often, police officers were unsure how to deal with his complaints, but when he educated them about the law, most undertook enforcement actions. The activist's work has contributed substantially to creating smoke-free schools, sports facilities and parks.

CONCLUSION
This implementation activist's approach can be a model for preventing youth from using tobacco/nicotine, and preventing exposures to secondhand smoke and e-cigarette emissions. Based on his successes, we provide a list of elements that implementation activists can use to be effective, along with recommendations for policy and practice.


This paper analyses the usefulness of direct measures of consumers' perceptions and expectations of inflation for monetary policy and investigates the degree to which these variables are anchored. We inter alia seek to xplore whether there is a difference in reaction of consumers in countries with more credible central banks and those from countries with less credible central banks. We moreover investigate whether the introduction of euro coins and banknotes in 2002, that can be interpreted as a structural shock, has significantly affected the inflation rate as perceived by consumers. We find that European inflation expectations are relatively robust to sudden changes in inflation or monetary policy surprises, regardless of the credibility of the central bank. The introduction of the euro, however, significantly affected the inflation perception of European consumers.


The well-studied dipeptide fluorenylmethyloxycarbonyl-di-phenylalanine (FmocFF) forms a rigid hydrogel upon dissolving in dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO) and dilution in H2O. Here, we explored the pre-aggregation of the peptide in pure DMSO by vibrational spectroscopies, X-ray powder diffraction and dynamic light scattering. Our results show an equilibrium between a dominant population of amorphous oligomers (on a length scale of 2 nm) and a small number of protofibrils/fibrils (on a length scale of 30 nm in the centimolar and of 200 nm in the sub-molar region). To probe the mechanism underlying the formation of these protofilaments, we measured the 1H-NMR, IR and visible Raman spectra of DMSO containing different FmocFF concentrations, ranging between 10 and 300 mM. Our data reveal that interpeptide hydrogen bonding leads to the self-assembly of FmocFF in the centimolar region, while π-π stacking between Fmoc-groups is observed above 100 mM. The high 3J(HNHCα) coupling constant of the N-terminal amide proton indicates that the Fmoc end-cap of the peptide locks the N-terminal residue into a conformational ensemble centered at a φ-value of ca. -120°, which corresponds to a parallel β-sheet type conformation. The 3J(HNHCα) coupling constant of the C-terminal residue is indicative of a polyproline II (pPII)/βt mixture. Our results suggest that the gelation of FmocFF caused by the addition of a small amount of water to DMSO mixtures is facilitated by the formation of disordered protofibrils in pure DMSO.


Displacement fundamental equations of the moderately thick cylindrical shallow shells concerning five independent variables, i.e. five middle surface displacements are established based on the displacement fundamental equations of the moderately thick shells by transverse shearing deformation and basic hypothesis on shallow shells. Three assistant displacement functions are introduced to solve the equations, which are tenth-order differential equations with variable coefficient; and then five second-order differential equations are converted into a second-order differential equation and two fourth-order transition differential equations using the Cauchy-Riemann condition, afterwards another assistant displacement function is introduced to build its decoupled governing differential equations, finally five displacement components through four assistant displacement functions are obtained.


Since December 2019, when the first case of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) was identified in the city of Wuhan in the Hubei Province of China, the epidemic has generated tens of thousands of cases throughout China. As of February 28, 2020, the cumulative number of reported deaths in China was 2,858. We estimated the time-delay adjusted risk for death from COVID-19 in Wuhan, as well as for China excluding Wuhan, to assess the severity of the epidemic in the country. Our estimates of the risk for death in Wuhan reached values as high as 12% in the epicenter of the epidemic and ≈1% in other, more mildly affected areas. The elevated death risk estimates are probably associated with a breakdown of the healthcare system, indicating that enhanced public health interventions, including social distancing and movement restrictions, should be implemented to bring the COVID-19 epidemic under control.


Introduction: The present study was carried out to evaluate the effects of creatine and carnitine supplementation on oxidative stress and inflammation in athletes. Methods: In this single-blind randomized clinical trial 45 sportsmen were studied selected from Velayat Sports Complex (in Shiraz) in this single-blind randomized clinical trial. Then they were randomly divided into four groups supplemented with: a) Creatine, b) Carnitine, c) Creatine and Carnitine and d) placebo for 28 days. Before and after the intervention, blood samples were taken for measurement of oxidative stress (MDA and GSHPx) and inflammation markers. Data were analyzed using SPSS/PC statistical package (version 18). Paired t-test and ANOVA were used to compare mean values of each groups. Results: No statistically significant difference were found between the IL-6 and MDA mean levels of the intervention groups and placebo group (P>0.05). Furthermore, no statistically significant difference was noted in GSHPx mean values before and after supplementation as well as in comparison to placebo group. Conclusion: Based on the defined dose and duration of supplementation in the present study, creatine and carnitine supplementation showed no effects on oxidative stress and inflammation conditions either separately or simultaneously. Furthermore, no negative and side effects were observed.


We tackle the problem of unsupervised visual descriptors compression, which is a key ingredient of large-scale image retrieval systems. While the deep learning machinery has benefited literally all computer vision pipelines, the existing state-of-the-art compression methods employ shallow architectures, and we aim to close this gap by our paper. In more detail, we introduce a DNN architecture for the unsupervised compressed-domain retrieval, based on multi-codebook quantization. The proposed architecture is designed to incorporate both fast data encoding and efficient distances computation via lookup tables. We demonstrate the exceptional advantage of our scheme over existing quantization approaches on several datasets of visual descriptors via outperforming the previous state-of-the-art by a large margin.


Along with the increase of population and the dispersion of habitation, the use of private cars has been increasing drastically. More and more vehicles on the road have caused significant traffic congestion, noise, and energy waste. Car pooling, which is based on the idea that sets of car owners having the same travel destination share their vehicles, has emerged to be a viable possibility for reducing private car usage around the world. This paper describes a clustering ant colony algorithm for solving the long-term car pooling problem. Computational results are given to show the superiority of the authors' approach compared with other metaheuristics.


Results: 57 women were diagnosed with VP; 28 before screening was implemented, and 29 afterwards. Baseline characteristics were similar, as were pregnancy outcomes (table 1). Antepartum admission was more common in the pre-screening group (18% vs. 7%) but stays tended to be shorter (2 vs. 16 days). There were no neonatal intensive care admissions. Screening TVUS represented an increased cost of 448 USD, without added value. Conclusions: TVUS should be done for risk factors for VP, such as velamentous cord insert or accessory lobe. However, there is no added benefit (and some additional cost) of screening TVUS solely for identification of VP. A larger sample could clarify aspects of antepartum admission, uncommon neonatal outcomes, and the impact of secular trends.


Thick target yields of α particles emitted in the 6Li(d,α)4He and 7Li(p,α)4He reactions were measured for Li target in the solid and liquid phase. Observed reaction rates for the liquid Li are always larger than those for the solid. This suggests that the stopping power of hydrogen ion in the liquid Li metal might be smaller than in the solid. Using the empirically obtained stopping power for the liquid Li, we have deduced the screening potentials of the Li+p and Li+d reactions in both phases. The deduced screening potential for the liquid Li is about 500 eV larger than for the solid. This difference is attributed to the effect of liquefied Li+ ions. It is concluded that the ionic screening is much stronger than the electronic screening in a low‐temperature dense plasmas.


OBJECTIVEIntracranial hypertension and impaired cerebral autoregulation are common causes of secondary injuries in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). The primary outcome of this study was to assess whether a noninvasive method to estimate intracranial pressure (ICP) based on the ultrasonography of the optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) measured at the time of neurocritical care unit (NCCU) admission is correlated with the mean ICP during NCCU stay. Secondary outcomes were to assess whether ONSD is correlated with the dose of ICP > 20 mm Hg and impaired autoregulation during NCCU stay and with instantaneous ICP and whether ONSD is associated with NCCU mortality.METHODSThis prospective observational monocentric study included adults with severe TBI. ONSD was measured at NCCU admission, immediately after invasive ICP insertion. ONSD-predicted noninvasive ICP (nICPONSD) was calculated according the formula: nICPONSD = 5 × ONSD - 14 (nICPONSD in mm Hg, ONSD in mm). Autoregulation was measured using the pressure reactivity index (PRx).RESULTSIn total, 100 patients were included in this study. ONSD was significantly correlated with mean ICP (r = 0.46, p < 0.0001), with mean PRx (r = 0.21, p = 0.04), and with the dose of ICP > 20 mm Hg during NCCU stay (r = 0.49, p < 0.0001). Admission nICPONSD was shown to be significantly correlated with instantaneous ICP (r = 0.85, p < 0.001). ONSD at admission was significantly correlated with NCCU mortality (p = 0.02).CONCLUSIONSONSD measured at NCCU admission can give important information about patients at risk of developing intracranial hypertension and impaired autoregulation. ONSD examination could be useful to screen patients at admission to determine who would benefit from further invasive ICP monitoring.


Aesthetics and persuasion: Reading the poster based on posters by Rafał Olbiński The article discusses the art of the poster: its characteristics, beginnings, development, materials, goals, interpretations, and connections with other arts. With reference to the opinions of R. Barthes, U. Eco and S. Wysłouch, the author presents the poster as a two-code text, which connects the signs of the primary verbal language with the signs of the secondary iconic system. The process of creating the meanings of a poster has also been described: the conversion of a poster's denotative perceptional form into a connotative cultural one, and the creation of visual metaphors and symbols. Theoretical aspects have been illustrated with interpretations of posters made by Rafał Olbiński. The conclusion discusses a three-variant model of reading posters, which reflects various research perspectives concerning the signs of poster forms.


Abstract. The East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) is an important part of the
global climate system and plays a vital role in the Asian climate. Its
seasonal predictability is a long-standing issue within the monsoon scientist
community. In this study, we analyse the seasonal (the leading time is at
least 6 months) prediction skill of the EASM rainfall and its associated
general circulation in non-initialised and initialised simulations for the
years 1979–2005, which are performed by six prediction systems (i.e. the
BCC-CSM1-1, the CanCM4, the GFDL-CM2p1, the HadCM3, the MIROC5, and the
MPI-ESM-LR) from the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project phase 5 (CMIP 5).
We find that most prediction systems of simulated zonal wind over 850 and 200 hPa
are significantly improved in the initialised simulations compared to
non-initialised simulations. Based on the knowledge that zonal wind indices
can be used as potential predictors for the EASM, we select an EASM index
based upon the zonal wind over 850 hPa for further analysis. This assessment
shows that the GFDL-CM2p1 and the MIROC5 added prediction skill in simulating
the EASM index with initialisation, the BCC-CSM1-1, the CanCM4, and the
MPI-ESM-LR changed the skill insignificantly, and the HadCM3 indicates a
decreased skill score. The different responses to initialisation can be
traced back to the ability of the models to capture the ENSO (El
Niño–Southern Oscillation) and EASM coupled mode, particularly the Southern
Oscillation–EASM coupled mode. As is known from observation studies, this
mode links the oceanic circulation and the EASM rainfall. Overall, the
GFDL-CM2p1 and the MIROC5 are capable of predicting the EASM on a seasonal
timescale under the current initialisation strategy.


Travel Optimization is a method to find the best route to be followed for a journey between two points. This optimization can be based on factors one considers important while traveling. The work presented deals with the design of a multi-criteria based traffic network evaluation technique, using a variety of methods to calculate the cost of the feasible set of solutions, and then to decide which path is most desirable for a given requirement domain. Subsequently, various forms of the desired results e.g. the global depths of all the nodes in a given road network are extracted and presented; and compared by implementing the different methods of cost calculation: a weight based method and a Fuzzy Logic based mechanism. Both methods used are explained and compared through a case study to show that the aims are met in a useful way. Also among the aims of this research is to work out some way of solving the multi objective optimization problem of finding the shortest path using some optimization methods for given multiple objectives. The phenomenon of multiple criterions tells about the nature of the problem where increasing one or more objectives reduce effect of the rest of the criteria or criterions, which effectively, makes the solution more complex but comes out with better results and provides more knowledge of the problem itself.


This research project focuses on the music industry in China, to discuss proper business models through which revenue can be generated and maintained with a shifting demographic audience base, where an increasing number of people are consuming music online and in the cloud. The first part of the thesis provides a socio-legal analysis of the development of Chinese copyright law with a focus on the music industry. I take a historical approach and provide much neglected evidence of the autonomous development of Chinese copyright law. I aim to address the paradox between the weak copyright regime in China and its recent seemingly positive development in the music industry, particularly in the online digital sector. This part will lay the foundation for the discussion of policy implications and specific recommendations facing the third amendment of Chinese copyright law. It also generates relevant themes which will guide the analysis in Part II of this thesis in addressing the research questions about potential business models, strategies and tactics, with an aim to get artists and creators fairly compensated. In Part II, I will first investigate the traditional model, then focus on recent changes in the music industry which might bring a paradigm shift in the future, namely the renegade model and the platform ecosystem model in the digital platform economy. I argue that these models are not substitutes for each other; rather they will co-exist and evolve within the creative industry ecology. Inspired by social entrepreneurship theories, policy makers, practitioners and businesses can be selective and choose their own models based on their respective visions, recourses, and expertise to leverage their own strength. The dual approach of copyright protection (litigation strategy) and business model innovation reflects the complexity of the music industries, where maintaining fair compensation for artists by copyright law and adjusting business models in light of changing technologies and social network markets become two competitive and complementary narratives. Policy implications and recommendations, with regard to specific provisions of copyright law in China, will be articulated in the conclusion chapter.


Changed hydrological regimes, sea-level rise, and accelerated subsidence are all putting river deltas at risk across the globe. Deltas may respond to these stressors through the mechanism of avulsion. Decades of delta avulsion studies have resulted in conflicting hypotheses that avulsion frequency and location are upstream (water and sediment discharge) or downstream (backwater and sea-level rise) controlled. In this study, we use Delft3D morphodynamic simulations to investigate the main controls over delta avulsion. Avulsion timing and location were recorded in six scenarios modelled over a 400-year period with varying alluvial slopes upstream of a delta slope break (1.13x10-4 to 3.04x10-3) within a range representative global deltas. We measure several independent morphometric variables including avulsion length, delta lobe width, channel width at avulsion, delta topset slope and sediment load. Correlating these variables with the avulsion timescales observed in our model shows that avulsion timescale is mostly controlled by sediment load, which in turn is controlled by the alluvial slope upstream of a delta slope break. With higher stream power index in steeper alluvial slopes, more sediment can be carried within a channel, resulting in more frequent avulsions. Our results are consistent with the avulsion timescale derived from an analytical solution, 19 natural deltas and downscaled physical laboratory deltas. These results help mitigate delta avulsion risk by focusing management efforts on variables that primarily control avulsion in a river delta, but also induce further debate over whether sea-level rise may, or may not, trigger more avulsions in river deltas.


Sprawling urban development and high levels of car dependency in New Zealand have resulted in a range of adverse impacts, including increased greenhouse gas emissions and air pollution. Car sharing can support compact development and sustainable transport patterns by providing a potential alternative to car ownership. Despite the increasing popularity of car sharing overseas, it is still in the early stages of development in New Zealand. There is a growing body of international literature about car sharing; however, very little has been written about car sharing in the New Zealand context. This thesis contributes to the literature by exploring car sharing in Wellington. This study has adopted a mixed method approach, surveying Wellington residents about car sharing and interviewing car share stakeholders. The findings from this research indicate that car sharing is a transport innovation which offers Wellington significant benefits. Perhaps most importantly, car sharing can reduce car ownership and usage, which in turn can help reduce congestion, demand for parking and greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, this study provides evidence that the people most interested in car sharing in Wellington have similar characteristics to car share members overseas. This includes younger people, apartment dwellers, households without children, and people who use a car occasionally but do not necessarily own one. This thesis also highlights that car sharing is complementary to alternative modes of transport, and underlines the close connection between car sharing and modern technologies such as automated booking. The findings from this research indicate that car share providers face a range of barriers, including access to public parking and financial assistance. Progress has already been made to remove barriers facing car sharing but more support for car sharing could allow Wellington to take full advantage of its benefits.


Terpenoids, or isoprenoids, are a family of compounds with great structural diversity which are essential for all living organisms. In cyanobacteria, they are synthesized from the methylerythritol-phosphate (MEP) pathway, using glyceraldehyde 3-phosphate and pyruvate produced by photosynthesis as substrates. The products of the MEP pathway are the isomeric five-carbon compounds isopentenyl diphosphate and dimethylallyl diphosphate, which in turn form the basic building blocks for formation of all terpenoids. Many terpenoid compounds have useful properties and are of interest in the fields of pharmaceuticals and nutrition, and even potentially as future biofuels. The MEP pathway, its function and regulation, and the subsequent formation of terpenoids have not been fully elucidated in cyanobacteria, despite its relevance for biotechnological applications. In this review, we summarize the present knowledge about cyanobacterial terpenoid biosynthesis, both regarding the native metabolism and regarding metabolic engineering of cyanobacteria for heterologous production of non-native terpenoids.


Psoriasis is a common chronic skin disease in which T lymphocytes are thought to play a vital pathogenic role. Evidence shows that these are activated memory skin-homing T cells which induce characteristic disease features via cytokine production. Understanding the mechanisms of T cell accumulation in skin and mediation of psoriasis is critical to designing immunotherapy for this distressing disease.


In 1968 Illsley and Gill examined the rise in illegitimacy in the decade 1955-65 and showed that this rise, unlike rises in the first and second world wars, had not been accompanied by a fall in prenuptial conceptions but by a rise. Statistics from 1970 to 1975 have been examined and a third parameter, legal abortion, added. After a period characterised by an apparent rise in the total of extramarital conceptions there has since 1972 been a decline; and in the age group 20-24 this fall dates from 1971. Improved contraceptive practice is probably the reason.


We address the solution of convex-constrained nonlinear systems of equations where the Jacobian matrix is unavailable or its computation/storage is burdensome. In order to efficiently solve such problems, we propose a new class of algorithms which are "derivativefree" both in the computation of the search direction and in the selection of the steplength. Search directions comprise the residuals and Quasi-Newton directions while the steplength is determined by using a new linesearch strategy based on a nonmonotone approximate norm descent property of the merit function. We provide a theoretical analysis of the proposed algorithm and we discuss several conditions ensuring convergence to a solution of the constrained nonlinear system. Finally, we illustrate its numerical behaviour also in comparison with existing approaches.


Performance in a dual task is typically worse than performance in a single task due to the sharing of limited cognitive capacity. The present study found the opposite results when the task involved postural control in non-typical standing. Thirtysix children aged 4-9 years stood on a force plate for 10 seconds with a normal or heel-to-toe stance. In the dual-task condition, they also performed an auditory or a visuospatial task. They were instructed to achieve high accuracy on the concurrent task while maintaining balance. Standing balance, expressed in terms of the velocity and the trajectory of the center of pressure on the force plate, was significantly better in the dual-task than in the single-task condition. Performances on the concurrent tasks were also better in the dual-task condition. The overall dual-task benefits are attributed to the increased deployment of cognitive capacity specially called for by the balance challenge in non-typical standing.


We give an algorithmic approach to the approximative solution of operator Lyapunov equations for controllability. Motivated by the successfully applied alternating direction implicit (ADI) iteration for matrix Lyapunov equations, we consider this method for the determination of Gramian operators of infinite-dimensional control systems. In the case where the input space is finite-dimensional, this method provides approximative solutions of finite rank. Under the assumption of infinite-time admissibility and boundedness of the semigroup, we analyze convergence in several operator norms. We show that under a mild assumption on the shift parameters, convergence to the Gramian is obtained. Particular emphasis is placed on systems governed by a heat equation with boundary control. We present that ADI iteration for the heat equation consists of solving a sequence of Helmholtz equations. Two numerical examples are presented; the first showing the benefit of adaptive finite elements and the second illustrating con...


Insulin resistance refers to reduced insulin action in peripheral tissues and impaired suppression of endogenous glucose production, a state which is critical for maintaining normal glucose homeostasis. Insulin resistance is partly explained by genetic factors and is strongly influenced by the individual's habitual lifestyle. Investigating factors that may influence the development of insulin resistance and their mechanisms of action is of huge importance; one such factor is the dietary fat. Both quantitative and qualitative terms of dietary fat have been known to play an important role in the development of insulin resistance, though the mechanism underlying this effect is not fully understood. In this regard, the classical view has been that dietary fat quality mainly affects cell membrane fatty acid composition and consequently the membrane function. Recently, the relationship between dietary fat and insulin resistance has entered an advanced level by the discovery that different fatty acids can regulate gene expression, transcriptional activity and adipocytokines secretion. In essence, this provides new mechanisms by which fatty acids exert their cellular effects. The present review critically assesses the effect of dietary fat quality on the development of insulin resistance in relation to the adipocytokine, leptin and the activation of the transcription factor, peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ). It is evident that fat quality influences the development of insulin resistance and has more important role than quantity. Leptin and PPARγ prove to be potential candidates linking dietary fat with insulin resistance. However, the exact role or mechanism of action of various types of dietary fat in the development of insulin resistance is still uncertain. Further well-controlled studies in humans are needed to be able to establish better evidence-based dietary fat recommendations for diabetes prevention and its clinical management. Keywords: dietary fat, insulin resistance, diabetes, PPARγ activation, leptin.