The proximate compositions and fatty acid profiles of Antarctic toothfish Dissostichus mawsoni that was caught in the southern Ross Sea (J, L) of the Antarctic Ocean were studied. The lipid contents of samples from J and L were 18.2 and 21.1%, respectively. The protein and ash contents were similar for samples J and L. The prominent fatty acids in the total lipids of the fish muscle were 18:1n-9, 16:1n-7, 16:0, 14:0, 18:1n-7, 20:5n-3 (eicosapentaenoic acid, EPA), and 22:6n-3 (docosahexaenoic acid, DHA). In addition, the total fatty acids of bycatch products in the toothfish stomachs (Pleuragramma antarcticum, Gerlachea australis, Pasiphaea sp., Trematomus eulepidotus, Chionodraco hamatus, Chionodraco myersi, and Neopagetopsis ionah) were determined. The prominent fatty acids in those species were 18:1n-9, 16:0, 14:0, DHA, EPA, and 18:1n-7.


As electronics and appliances in the home continue to evolve, wireless networks that can monitor and control these are becoming more prevalent. Development platforms for technologies like RF4CE and ZigBee are becoming more available but can still be costly for a complete platform that supports interoperable devices with public ZigBee profiles. This paper details the design and implementation of a ZigBee Home Automation network using free tools on a low cost ZigBee development platform. The platform utilizes a dedicated processor for the ZigBee stack with SPI, UART, and USB interface, allowing the application code that was developed to be integrated into a wide variety of environments.


This paper presents a fully documented rare case of school bullying in which one of bullies has suffered traumatic injuries which were incompatible with life. The authors present judicial, social, clinical, morphological, somatic and mental medical data. The data from specialized literature of high scientific quality is analyzed, the aim being to improve the prediction and prophylaxis of the phenomenon.


The supply of water for human consumption starts with the abstraction of 'raw' water from various sources. Most of these facilities convey raw water by pumping it directly from rivers via lateral channels to nearby water treatment plants, but this is badly affected by debris and sediment clogging at the intake structures. Lateral intakes are actually special cases of river bifurcations, where the channel naturally divides into two different branches, each carrying part of the flow and sediment. Many researchers have completed studies on bifurcations/diversions to understand the behaviour of water flow and sediment transport. However, a complete understanding of the phenomenon, especially in relation to secondary flows and vortices, is lacking up to this day. In fact, if this can be overcome, it will greatly contribute to the fundamental study of hydrodynamics at asymmetric fluvial bifurcations as well as in optimal design of diversions. Thus, the distribution of water flow in both main and lateral channels requires further detailed investigation. A review of the current state of research is discussed in this paper, with the objective of identifying the grey areas and gaps specifically in the investigation of complex turbulent behaviour of flow structures in open channels with lateral diversions.


Uniform lime incorporation into sewage sludge is critical for biosolid lime stabilization processes. There is no class B biosolids regulation for lime incorporation. The slurry method is currently used to evaluate the pH of limed biosolids, but this method homogenizes the biosolids and potentially masks poor lime mixing. In this study, a flat-surface pH electrode was used in bench-scale and full-scale experiments to measure the pH of lime-stabilized biosolids without creating slurries. The standard deviation of 15 pH measurements at different locations in a biosolid sample was used to assess mixing quality. The bench-scale experimental study showed that well-mixed limed biosolids had consistently high pHs (approximately 12) with low standard deviations (< 0.5 pH units), whereas poorly mixed biosolids had areas with low pH (< 10) and high standard deviations (> 2 pH units). Poorly mixed biosolids exhibited rapid and marked pH reduction, as well as offensive odor generation, whereas well-mixed biosolids resisted pH reduction and offensive odor generation. The full-scale study aimed at improving lime incorporation and biosolids quality confirmed the use of a flat surface pH electrode to capture low pH regions in biosolids that were masked by the current slurry method.


We study the two-dimensional dynamics of a droplet on an inclined, nonisothermal solid substrate. We use lubrication theory to obtain a single evolution equation for the interface, which accounts for gravity, capillarity, and thermo-capillarity, brought about by the dependence of the surface tension on temperature. The contact line motion is modeled using a relation that couples the contact line speed to the difference between the dynamic and equilibrium contact angles. The latter are allowed to vary dynamically during the droplet motion through the dependence of the liquid-gas, liquid-solid, and solid-gas surface tensions on the local contact line temperature, thereby altering the local substrate wettability at the two edges of the drop. This is an important feature of our model, which distinguishes it from previous work wherein the contact angle was kept constant. We use finite-elements for the discretization of all spatial derivatives and the implicit Euler method to advance the solution in time. A full parametric study is carried out in order to investigate the interplay between Marangoni stresses, induced by thermo-capillarity, gravity, and contact line dynamics in the presence of local wettability variations. Our results, which are generated for constant substrate temperature gradients, demonstrate that temperature-induced variations of the equilibrium contact angle give rise to complex dynamics. This includes enhanced spreading rates, nonmonotonic dependence of the contact line speed on the applied substrate temperature gradient, as well as "stick-slip" behavior. The mechanisms underlying this dynamics are elucidated herein.


, Over the past decade, refinements in laser technology as well as advances in laser techniques have enabled dermatologic surgeons to define the most appropriate lasers to use for different scar types without the adverse sequelae and recurrence rates noted with older surgical revision techniques and continuous wave laser systems.


Relief defendants are nominal, innocent parties who hold funds traceable to the receivership but have no legitimate claim or ownership interest in them. These nominal parties, as opposed to full or primary defendants, have no cause of action asserted against them, and if they show no legitimate claim to the funds traced to the receivership, the funds are disgorged - generally at summary judgment. This seemingly simple relief defendant tool is used by receivers and regulatory agencies to quickly recover receivership funds for ultimate distribution to creditors. Recently, however, conflict has arisen in federal courts concerning the meaning of "legitimate claim or ownership interest." Where courts fail to uphold the plain meaning of those words, confusion and unpredictability ensue, leading to enormous costs for creditors as receivers, on the receivership's dime, attempt to claw back funds from relief defendants. I illustrate these costs using the recent case of Janvey v. Adams, an ancillary suit to SEC v. Stanford International Bank. To prevent such unnecessary costs in the future, the plain meaning of "legitimate claim or ownership interest" must be reinforced to protect, at minimum, the amount of investors' returned principal and the amount of employees' reasonable compensation.


Study about the effect of hydrocarbon-polluted seawater on the cell density of microalgae Scenedesmus vacuolatus has been done. Hydrocarbon pollution derived from oil in the sea can inhibit photosynthesis process of microalgaes. This might impact the density of microalgae cells. The purposes of this study are to determine the effect of the concentration of hydrocarbon-polluted seawater on the density of Scenedesmus vacuolatus microalgae cells and to determine the optimum treatment to reduce total petroleum hydrocarbons (TPH) levels. Sampling of hydrocarbon-polluted seawater was taken at Kali Adem port, Jakarta. The treatment done in this research used Walne medium with the addition of 25% hydrocarbon-polluted seawater (A), 50% (B), 75% (C), and 100% (D). Control is Walne medium with sterile seawater that was not from the Kali Adem port. The results showed the highest average density of Scenedesmus vacuolatus cells was in the control sample. This can be seen from the results of the average cell density at peak time of 29.48 x 105 cells / mL, as well as the log phase length of Scenedesmus vacuolatus. Measurement of TPH levels showed decreases of TPH in all treatments. The optimum treatment to reduce TPH levels is on treatment B with reduction percentage of 70.62%.
Key words: Kali Adem port, Scenedesmus vacuolatus, total petroleum hydrocarbon (TPH), Walne medium


Edge detection is a considerably important factor in image or video processing. Detecting the edges of an image play a significant role in image segmentation, data compression, well matching, and image reconstruction. There are several approaches available to detect the edges of an image. In this paper we focus on Sobel edge detection using contract-time anytime algorithm in CUDA. To reduce the computational complexity we implemented our proposed edge detection method using an NVIDIA GPU. In the experimental setup we have used NVIDIA GTX 550Ti GPU along with AMD FX8150 Processor and 8 GB RAM. Finally, we measure speedup as well as quick, moderate and final (3steps of contract) of our proposed parallel implemented model. Comparing with conventional serial CPU based edge detection we have experienced maximum 4X speedup of proposed implementation for 16 block dimension.


BACKGROUND
Aging, chronic inflammation and/or many chronic conditions may result in loss of bone, loss of muscle and increased adiposity, manifested either overtly (overweight) or furtively as fat infiltration into bone and muscle. This combined condition has been identified as osteosarcopenic obesity. Micronutrients are required, not just to prevent deficiency diseases, but for optimal health and metabolic homeostasis. Further, micronutrients have multifunctional roles in the body. However, it is unknown if the micronutrient intake of the Western diet contributes to bone and muscle loss, increased adiposity, and ultimately osteosarcopenic obesity.

OBJECTIVE
The aim of this review is to examine the micronutrient intake using US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data, and explore if the insufficiencies, or excesses present contribute to the development of osteosarcopenic obesity in aging.

METHOD
First NHANES food intake data from 2002-2012 were obtained and transposed to Microsoft Excel for analysis. A literature search of PubMed and Medline for human data using combinations and synonyms of osteoporosis, sarcopenia and obesity, and each mineral and vitamin indicated as insufficient by NHANES.

RESULTS
NHANES data suggested phosphorus, calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, and vitamins B6/B12/C/A/D/E and K were candidates for further evaluation. 170 articles were included.

CONCLUSION
While chronic single/multiple micronutrient insufficiency/excess is not studied in clinical trials, NHANES data suggest that they have existed for at least a decade. Examining the status and roles of those nutrients may be important to understanding the health issues associated with Western-type diets, including development of osteosarcopenic obesity.


A prominent topic is whether visual or motor expertise makes greater contribution to expert visual anticipation in sport. This stems from psychological theories, such as common coding theory, which predicts perception and action can inform each other in a bidirectional manner. This paper reviews the literature that has investigated visual and motor expertise contributions to expert visual anticipation in sport. First, psychological theories are discussed that predict visual and motor contributions to perceptual–motor behaviour. Second, classifications of motor skills and studies are presented to evaluate the literature reviewed. Third, literature is reviewed with reference to performance, learning, and transfer of visual anticipation, which are all vital for successful sports performance. The review aims to stimulate thought about mechanisms underpinning visual and motor expertise relative to performance, learning, and transfer of anticipation skill, which can better guide the practitioner to improve skill.


As the human body ages, skeletal muscle loses its mass and strength. It is estimated that in 10% of individuals over the age of 60, this muscle frailty has progressed to sarcopenia. Biomarkers of sarcopenia include increases in inflammatory markers and oxidative stress markers and decreases in muscle anabolic markers. Whey is a high-quality, easily digested dairy protein which is widely used in the sports industry. This review explores the evidence that whey protein, hydrolysates or peptides may have beneficial effects on sarcopenic biomarkers in myoblast cell lines, in aged rodents and in human dietary intervention trials with the older consumer. A daily dietary supplementation of 35 g of whey is likely to improve sarcopenic biomarkers in frail or sarcopenia individuals. Whey supplementation, consumed by an older, healthy adult certainly improves muscle mTOR signaling, but exercise appears to have the greatest benefit to older muscle. In vitro cellular assays are central for bioactive and bioavailable peptide identification and to determine their mechanism of action on ageing muscle.


Author(s): Hsu, Anna Shan Chun | Advisor(s): Chen, Chuansheng | Abstract: Childhood and adolescent overweight and obesity have been a global health concern in recent years with many negative implications for children's health and development. Previous research has suggested that as compared to normal weight children, children who are overweight or obese perform worse academically (Falkner et al., 2001), have more emotional problems (Storch et al., 2007; Zavodny, 2013), and encounter more problems in their interpersonal relationships with peers (Gable et al., 2012). These findings, however, are not always consistent. Three major limitations in the literature can be identified. First, many studies of the associations between children's and adolescents' weight or BMI and developmental outcomes have relied on BMI from a single-time point without considering the trajectory of children's and adolescents' weight development. To study the cumulative effects of overweight and obesity, it is important to examine children's and adolescents' weight patterns and to address questions such as whether children and adolescents who are consistently overweight are at higher risk for negative outcomes than are children and adolescents who become overweight over time. Second, most studies did not have nationally representative samples that would allow for an examination of ethnic differences. Third, no study has examined the protective (moderating) role of parenting when investigating the influence of children's and adolescents' weight trajectories on developmental outcomes. To overcome the above limitations of previous research, I used data from a nationally representative subsample of children in the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten 1998-99 cohort (ECLS-K). First, I identified adolescents' different BMI trajectories across kindergarten to eighth grade by using Nagin a Land's (1993, 2012) group-based trajectory modeling (GBTM). Second, because previous research had shown ethnic and gender differences in the rates of childhood overweight as well as varying patterns of weight development, the influence of gender and ethnicity on weight trajectory membership was examined. Third, I examined the associations between different BMI trajectories and academic achievement, emotional outcomes, and peer relationships in eighth grade. Fourth, I explored the effects of parental warmth and parental involvement on these associations. I focused on parental warmth and involvement because previous research (e.g., Rohner's Parental Acceptance-Rejection Theory and Epstein's Framework of Six Types of Parental Involvement) had shown these as positive aspects of parenting practices that were associated with favorable academic achievement, emotional outcomes, and peer relationships. These parenting practices may serve as protective factors against negative developmental outcomes for adolescents in the higher risk BMI trajectory groups. Fifth, I examined whether the protective effects of parental factors varied by gender. Due to limited sample sizes for ethnic minority groups' various BMI trajectory groups, this question was not examined for ethnicity. I identified three distinct BMI trajectories for the total sample as well as for boys and girls separately: consistently low to normal BMI group (~64-66%), gradually increasing BMI group (~27-29%), and consistently higher BMI group (~6-7%). Although there were no gender differences in trajectory group membership, there were ethnic differences in trajectory group membership. White and Asian adolescents were more likely than were Black and Hispanic adolescents to be in the consistently low to normal BMI trajectory group, whereas the latter two groups were more likely than the former two groups to be in the gradually increasing BMI trajectory group and consistently higher BMI trajectory group. Adolescents in the gradually increasing BMI group and consistently higher BMI group were shown to have less favorable academic achievement, emotional outcomes, and peer relationships compared to adolescents in the consistently low to normal BMI group. In terms of the protective role of parental warmth, the most consistent results were that parental warmth in eighth grade played a protective role for girls, but not for boys, suggesting important gender differences in the influence of parental warmth on adolescents' school achievement in the context of overweight and obesity. Parental involvement showed complex and mixed results. These results suggest that the protective and non-protective effects of parenting factors depend on the gender of the child, type of parenting factors, and specific outcome in the context of adolescent overweight and obesity.


. EvolutionWorks supports exploratory browsing of the academic paper citation network with an animated and zoom-able visualization that helps researchers explore the conceptual space that emerges from the relationships between academic papers. Metaphorically speaking, a researcher starts out with the seed of an idea that will grow into an unwieldy set of potentially useful papers that the researcher must prune into a final reading list. Accordingly, EvolutionWorks provides novel affordances to explore the citation network based on this seed-grow-prune model. First, kinetic layering represents abstract document properties as physical properties in a force-directed layout. Second, a unified layout shows the network graph and documents in a single view. Third, the focus-context-focus hop is a way to change focus from paper to paper that keeps researchers aware of the immediate context. Finally, if there is a tight cluster of papers, the system automatically creates cluster summary titles that are easier to read.


Aim To evaluate the effect of a residential retreat on promoting lifestyle modification for the healthrelated quality of life (HRQOL) of people with multiple sclerosis (MS). Methods A longitudinal cohort study of adults with self-reported MS who voluntarily attended a five-day residential retreat in rural Victoria, Australia. Participants were asked to complete the MSQOL-54 questionnaire just prior to the retreat, and at one year and 2.5 years post-retreat. Results Of 188 participants 109 (58%) completed the questionnaire. The cohort showed a significant improvement in HRQOL at one year and 2.5 year follow-up. After one year, overall quality of life (QOL) domain had increased from 73.4 to 81.7 (P<0.001), physical health composite from 66.2 to 76.4 (P=0.001) and mental health composite from 73.7 to 83.6 (P<0.001) in the subset of 76 with data at both time points. After 2.5 years, overall QOLhad increased from 68.4 to 71.7 (P=0.03), physical health 59.7 to 70.0 (P=0.01), and mental health 66.9 to 76.6 (P<0.01) in the subset of 44 with data at both time points. Conclusions HRQOL usually deteriorates over time in people with MS. Attendance at a residential retreat promoting lifestyle modification appears to have a significant short–medium term positive effect on QOL for people with MS. General practitioners caring for people withMS should consider the potential benefits of this approach in overall management.


Promoted selective non-catalytic reduction (SNCR) of nitric oxide (No) has been studied experimentally by injecting aqueous urea solution with and with;ut additive in a pilot-scale diesel-fired tunnel furnace at 3-4 % excess oxygen level and with low ppm of baseline NO, ranging from 65 to 75 ppm within the investigated temperature range. The tests were carried out using commercial grade urea as NO -reducing agent and commercial grade sodium carbonate (NazCO) as additive. The f~rnace simulated the small-scale combustion systems where (a) operating temperatures are usually within 973-1,323 K and (b) NO,-emission level remains below 100 ppm. In the SNCR process with 5% urea solution, at normalized stoichiometric ratio (NSR) of 4, as much as 54% reduction was achieved at 1,128 K; while in the promoted SNCR process using NazC03 additive, NO, reduction improved to as much as 69% at 1,093 K In addition, the effective temperature window as well as peak temperature of NO, reduction shifted towards lower temperatures in promoted SNCR These results were significant especially for the investigated level of baseline NO.. The ammonia slip measurements showed that in both cases the slip was below 16 ppm at an NSR of 4 and an optimum temperature of NO, reduction. The investigations demonstrated that urea-based promoted SNCR may be used for small-scale combustion applications and that commercial grade NazC03 is a potential additive.


In this study, we propose the design methodology for monitoring the earthquake and for detecting and tracking micro-seismic changes in the earthquake prediction system. The alert device includes these sensors will be drastically different from current early warnings using the dozens of seismometers network across seismically active regions for measurement of small acceleration signals directly and, as the first, low-noise stage of the instruments measuring low-noise velocity signals. Strain develops over considerable time in the overlying stratum at right angle to the applied shearing (max) stress, obeying the internal friction of the stratum, available seismic energy and law of stress–strain relationship. Using estimated energy (seismic), stress accumulation, the addition or subtraction in the strain rate due to stress developed can be analyzed for a seismic event. This concept may lead to better understanding of stress generation; build up, transfer and final drop. Then we propose a methodology to identify type of data can be used for the spectral analysis in earthquake seismology and what type of instrument can be used for the spectral analysis in for data acquisition.


"Songs and Sonnets" (1557), the first printed anthology of English poetry, was immensely influential in Tudor England, and inspired major Elizabethan writers including Shakespeare. Collected by pioneering publisher Richard Tottel, it brought poems of the aristocracy - verses of friendship, war, politics, death and above all of love - into wide common readership for the first time. The major poets of Henry VIII's court, Sir Thomas Wyatt and Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, were first printed in the volume. Wyatt's intimate poem about lost love which begins 'They flee from me, that sometime did me seke', and Surrey's passionate sonnet 'Complaint of a lover rebuked' are joined in the miscellany by a large collection of diverse, intriguingly anonymous poems both moral and erotic, intimate and universal.


Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC

Cancer is characterized in part by dysregulation of cell survival and cell death signals. In particular, many tumors show upregulated PI3K/Akt activity, leading to sustained cell survival and suppressed cell death. Here we report the identification of the apoptosis signal-regulating kinase 1 (ASK1) as a downstream effector of the PI3K/Akt survival signaling pathway. ASK1 can be suppressed by PI3K/Akt signaling, leading to inhibition of apoptotic signaling. ASK1 normally functions as a mitogen activated protein kinase kinase kinase (MAP3K) that, when activated by stress signals, can evoke a signaling cascade leading to activation of the MAPKs JNK and p38. This activation can result in many cellular responses, but ASK1 is most notably known for its role as a critical regulator of apoptosis. Because of its crucial role in the balance between survival and death, ASK1 activity is tightly controlled. In particular, 14-3-3 can bind ASK1 and inhibit its activity when the kinase is phosphorylated at serine 967. However, the signals that regulate this phosphorylation event are currently unknown. Recent evidence suggests that PI3K/Akt mediated pathways may be involved in phosphorylation of serine 967 and, subsequently, inhibition of ASK1. Specifically, treatment of cells with growth factors including IGF-1 and PDGF increased phosphorylation of serine 967, as did overexpression of a constitutively active Akt mutant. In addition, expression of a kinase dead Akt mutant blocked growth factor induced serine 967 phosphorylation, indicating that Akt plays a role in mediating survival signals leading to inhibition of ASK1. In support of this notion, treatment with the inhibitors of Akt and PI3K also reduced serine 967 phosphorylation. Interestingly, treatment of cells with IGF-1 or overexpression of Akt was also able to protect serine 967 from H2O2 induced dephosphorylation. Taken together, our study reveals a novel effector site in ASK1 for the action of PI3K/Akt, which may offer a potential target for cancer therapeutic development. This work was supported by the NIH Pharmacological Sciences Training Grant T32 GM008602 and NIH/NCI Grant PO1CA116676 and USAMRMC05075002 to FRK and HF.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1201.


As countries continue to invest in quality improvement (QI) initiatives in health facilities, it is important to acknowledge the role of context in implementation. We conducted a qualitative study between February 2019 and January 2020 to explore how a QI initiative was adapted to enable implementation in three facility types: primary health centres, public hospitals and private facilities in Lagos State, Nigeria. Despite a common theory of change, implementation of the initiative needed to be adapted to accommodate the local needs, priorities and organisational culture of each facility type. Across facility types, inadequate human and capital resources constrained implementation and necessitated an extension of the initiative's duration. In public facilities, the local governance structure was adapted to facilitate coordination, but similar adaptations to governance were not possible for private facilities. Our findings highlight the importance of anticipating and planning for the local adaptation of QI initiatives according to implementation environment.


The inv(16)(p13q22) and t(16;16)(p13;q22) cytogenetic abnormalities occur commonly in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), typically associated with French-American-British (FAB) AML-M4Eo subtype. Reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) techniques have been recently developed to detect the presence of several variants of the resultant CBFB-MYH11 fusion gene that encodes a CBFbeta-smooth muscle myosin heavy chain (SMMHC) fusion protein. We have now determined the clinical use of a polyclonal antibody [anti-inv(16) Ab] directed against a junctional epitope of the most common type of CBFbeta-SMMHC fusion protein (type A), which is present in 90% of inv(16)/t(16;16) AML cases. Using flow cytometry, reproducible methods were developed for detection of CBFbeta-SMMHC proteins in permeabilized cells; flow cytometric results were then correlated with cytogenetics and RT-PCR detection methods. In an analysis of 42 leukemia cases with various cytogenetic abnormalities and several normal controls, the anti-inv(16) Ab specifically detected all 23 cases that were cytogenetically positive for inv(16) or t(16;16), including a single AML case that was RT-PCR-negative. In addition to detecting all type A fusions, the anti-inv(16) Ab also unexpectedly identified the type C and type D CBFbeta-SMMHC fusion proteins. Molecular characterization of one RT-PCR-positive and Ab-positive t(16;16) case with a non-type A product showed a novel previously unreported CBFB-MYH11 fusion (CBFB nt 455-MYH11 nt 1893). Flow cytometric results were analyzed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov statistic D-value and the median value for positive samples was 0.65 (range, 0.35 to 0.77) versus 0.07 (range, -0.21 to 0.18) in the negative group (P < .0001). The overall concordance between cytogenetics and RT-PCR was 97%, whereas the concordance between flow cytometry and cytogenetics was 100%. Thus, using the anti-inv(16) Ab, all cytogenetically positive and RT-PCR-positive AML cases with inv(16) or t(16;16) could be rapidly identified. This study demonstrates the use of this antibody as an investigational tool in inv(16)/t(16;16) AML and suggests that the development of such reagents may have potential clinical diagnostic use.


We analysed human sewage located in Florianopolis (Santa Catalina, Brazil) from late October until the Brazil lockdown on early March. We detected SARS-CoV-2 in two samples collected independently on 27th November 2019 (5.49 {+/-} 0.02 log genome copies/L). Subsequent samplings were positive until 4th March 2020 (coinciding with the first COVID-19 case reported in Santa Catalina), with a SARS-CoV-2 RNA increase of one log (6.68 {+/-} 0.02 log genome copies/L). Our results show that SARS-CoV-2 has been circulating in Brazil since late November 2019, much earlier than the first reported case in the Americas (21st January 2020, USA).


MPI collective operations are a critical and frequently used part of most MPI-based large-scale scientific applications. In previous work, we have enabled the Rensselaer Optimistic Simulation System (ROSS) to predict the performance of MPI point-to-point messaging on high-fidelity million-node network simulations of torus and dragonfly interconnects. The main contribution of this work is an extension of these torus and dragonfly network models to support MPI collective communication operations using the optimistic event scheduling capability of ROSS. We demonstrate that both small- and large-scale ROSS collective communication models can execute efficiency on massively parallel architectures. We validate the results of our collective communication model against the measurements from IBM Blue Gene/Q and Cray XC30 platforms using a data-driven approach on our network simulations. We also perform experiments to explore the impact of tree degree on the performance of collective communication operations in large-scale network models.


We discuss the numerical solution of eigenvalue problems for matrix polynomials, where the coefficient matrices are alternating symmetric and skew symmetric or Hamiltonian and skew Hamiltonian. We discuss several applications that lead to such structures. Matrix polynomials of this type have a symmetry in the spectrum that is the same as that of Hamiltonian matrices or skew-Hamiltonian/Hamiltonian pencils. The numerical methods that we derive are designed to preserve this eigenvalue symmetry. We also discuss linearization techniques that transform the polynomial into a skew-Hamiltonian/Hamiltonian linear eigenvalue problem with a specific substructure. For this linear eigenvalue problem we discuss special factorizations that are useful in shift- and-invert Krylov subspace methods for the solution of the eigenvalue problem. We present a numerical example that demonstrates the effectiveness of our approach.


Continuous word representation (aka word embedding) is a basic building block in many neural network-based models used in natural language processing tasks. Although it is widely accepted that words with similar semantics should be close to each other in the embedding space, we find that word embeddings learned in several tasks are biased towards word frequency: the embeddings of high-frequency and low-frequency words lie in different subregions of the embedding space, and the embedding of a rare word and a popular word can be far from each other even if they are semantically similar. This makes learned word embeddings ineffective, especially for rare words, and consequently limits the performance of these neural network models. In this paper, we develop a neat, simple yet effective way to learn \emph{FRequency-AGnostic word Embedding} (FRAGE) using adversarial training. We conducted comprehensive studies on ten datasets across four natural language processing tasks, including word similarity, language modeling, machine translation and text classification. Results show that with FRAGE, we achieve higher performance than the baselines in all tasks.


Phylogenies with extensive taxon sampling have become indispensable for many types of ecological and evolutionary studies. Many large-scale trees are based on a "supermatrix" approach, which involves amalgamating thousands of published sequences for a group. Constructing up-to-date supermatrices can be challenging, especially as new sequences may become available almost constantly. However, few tools exist for assembling large-scale, high-quality supermatrices (and other large datasets) for phylogenetic analysis. Here we present SuperCRUNCH, a Python toolkit for assembling large phylogenetic datasets. It can be applied to GenBank sequences, unpublished sequences, or combinations of GenBank and unpublished data. SuperCRUNCH constructs local databases and uses them to conduct rapid searches for user-specified sets of taxa and loci. Sequences are parsed into putative loci and passed through rigorous filtering steps. A post-filtering step allows for selection of one sequence per taxon (i.e. species-level supermatrix) or retention of all sequences per taxon (i.e. population-level dataset). Importantly, SuperCRUNCH can generate "vouchered" population-level datasets, in which voucher information is used to generate multi-locus phylogeographic datasets. Additionally, SuperCRUNCH offers many options for taxonomy resolution, similarity filtering, sequence selection, alignment, and file manipulation. We demonstrate the range of features available in SuperCRUNCH by generating a variety of phylogenetic datasets. We provide examples using GenBank data, and combinations of GenBank and unpublished data. Output datasets include traditional species-level supermatrices, large-scale phylogenomic matrices, and phylogeographic datasets. Finally, we briefly compare the ability of SuperCRUNCH to construct species-level supermatrices to alternative approaches. SuperCRUNCH generated a large-scale supermatrix (1,400 taxa and 66 loci) from 16GB of GenBank data in ∼1.5 hours, and generated population-level datasets (<350 samples, <10 loci) in<1 minute. It also outperformed alternative methods for supermatrix construction in terms of taxa, loci, and sequences recovered. SuperCRUNCH is a flexible bioinformatics toolkit that can be used to assemble datasets for any taxonomic group and scale (kingdoms to individuals). It allows rapid construction of supermatrices, greatly simplifying the process of updating large phylogenies with new data. It is also designed to produce population-level datasets. SuperCRUNCH streamlines the major tasks required to process phylogenetic data, including filtering, alignment, trimming, and formatting. SuperCRUNCH is open-source, documented, and freely available at https://github.com/dportik/SuperCRUNCH, with example analyses available at https://osf.io/bpt94/.


The 2500 x 700 km Mongolian plateau (average elevation 2000 m) is situated between the Altai orogen and the Siberian craton and occupies much of Mongolia and Transbaikalia in Russia. The plateau is characterized by (1) basin and range topography and two major domes(Hentai, 600 x 300 km, and Hangai, 800 x 550 km), where altitudes reach 3905 m; (2) lithosphere that is thinner than adjacent areas (minimum ∼50 km); (3) elevated heat flow (up to 120 mW/m2); (4) dominantly alkaline basaltic volcanism in the form of cones, lava fields, and volcanic plateaus mostly of Miocene-Quaternary age, and (5) rifts, including Baikal (main evolution in the Pliocene-Quaternary), Tunka (Oligocene-early Miocene), and Hobsogol (Pliocene-Quaternary). Existing models explain these features in terms of diapiric upwelling of a mantle asthenolith below the main rifts and/or as a long-distance effect of the India-Asia collision. We propose that the late Cenozoic uplift of the whole Mongolian plateau and associated rifting, magmatism, high heat flow, and lithospherec thinning are not externally driven by the India-Asia collision, but are the expression of the interaction of a mantle plume with overlying lithosphere. Some rifts link and interact with major strike-slip faults, such as the Bolnai. Such faults may be the major expression of the India-Asia collision in this region.


This paper presents our approach to improve video captioning by integrating audio and video features. Video captioning is the task of generating a textual description to describe the content of a video. State-of-the-art approaches to video captioning are based on sequence-to-sequence models, in which a single neural network accepts sequential images and audio data, and outputs a sequence of words that best describe the input data in natural language. The network thus learns to encode the video input into an intermediate semantic representation, which can be useful in applications such as multimedia indexing, automatic narration, and audio-visual question answering. In our prior work, we proposed an attention-based multi-modal fusion mechanism to integrate image, motion, and audio features, where the multiple features are integrated in the network. Here, we apply hypothesis-level integration based on minimum Bayes-risk (MBR) decoding to further improve the caption quality, focusing on well-known evaluation metrics (BLEU and METEOR scores). Experiments with the YouTube2Text and MSR-VTT datasets demonstrate that combinations of early and late integration of multimodal features significantly improve the audio-visual semantic representation, as measured by the resulting caption quality. In addition, we compared the performance of our method using two different types of audio features: MFCC features, and the audio features extracted using SoundNet, which was trained to recognize objects and scenes from videos using only the audio signals.


The article presents the results of the archaeological excavations at an extra muros church, situated on the northern slope of the Sarnena Gora Mountain, not far from the village of Buzovgrad, Kazanlak region (Figs. 1–3). Built in the early 6th century, the church was robbed at the end of the century. Most probably, it was temporarily occupied by the same military squad, which had desecrated it. This occupation is evidenced by remains of fire, pottery shards and animal bones found on the floor as well as some specific artifacts (Figs. 4–7).
A handmade ceramic jar found in a layer of destructions in the narthex (Fig. 8) provides evidence for another period of occupation. The jar is related to the early period of the Slavic occupation on the Balkans in the late 6th and the early 7th century. Several fragments of discarded and overturned medieval ceramics indicate the time when the church was used as a quarry for construction materials (7th – 9th century) (Fig. 9).
The archaeological record in the church in the Cherkovishtata site reveals the turbulent history of the East Roman Empire in the late 6th and early 7th century and the establishment of the new early medieval world. Future excavations will shed light on the history of the Buzovo Kale fortress situated nearby.


The different numerical data that form the chronographic tradition of Archilochus could be reconnected to few elements of biographical and anecdotical tradition of the poet. In particular, the foundation of Thasos in 15th or 18th Olympiad and the floruit of Archilochus in 23th or, on the other hand, after 26th Olympiad are due to the connection of the poet with the Lydian king Gyges, mentioned in Archilochean poetry, and are results of olympiadic conversion of different relationships: the foundation of Thasos is synchronized with the start of the reign of Gyges; the floruit in 23th is an approximation of the middle of the reign; the floruit in 26th brings to the end of the reign and so seems to be calculated in comparison with other historical data (Cimmerian invasions, start of the reign of Ardys). The floruit in 29th Olympiad is due probably to an error of the Eusebian tradition. The chronographic traditions of the other iambic poets (above all Semonides and Hipponax) are constructed on the grounds of two deductive methods: some data are fixed - as well as in Archilochean tradition - in connection with historical people mentioned in Semonidean (maybe) or Hipponactean poetry; some data, on the contrary, are due to the literary relationship with the major iambic poet and depend on the creation of poetical canons and series of poets involved in the development of poetic traditions.


The workshop is intended to stimulate discussion regarding the problems faced by staff dealing with the increasing number of overseas students from different cultures and varying educational backgrounds. It is expected that the session will begin with a short presentation outlining our experiences when dealing with a mix of overseas students and the problems inherited/imposed by educational "systems" designed to address an intake of students with UK educational backgrounds.

There will be an outline of initiatives introduced by the facilitators as a means to establish a level playing field for overseas students and the effects of such initiatives had on student performance.

It is expected the workshop will encourage participants to exchange their experiences and share ideas and that we could conclude with a range of suggestions that could be passed to the University to form a framework that will allow use to address issues before they develop into significant problems.


A new strip shaper is developed to avoid the scratch of the strip surface due to different thermal expansion of the traditional detection roller measuring unit effectively. The signal transmission form which is different form the international popular dry slip ring is put forward; the spray wet slip ring is developed to improve the measuring precision and the service life. The signal processing form which is different form the international popular gathering card is put forward and the embedded DSP shape signal processing hardware system is developed to improve the measuring precision and the anti-interference ability. The shape signal processing software system whose function contains error compensation, pattern recognition, establishment of the target shape and the close-loop control calculation is built to implement the intelligentized shape meter. The shape meter has been test chronically on the 1250 mm cold strip mill of Angang Steel Company Limited and the test result indicates that the measuring signal is stable and reliable and the closed-loop control of shape is implemented.


Expectations for training programmes today are very different from expectations for training programmes in the past, because today's audiences are not only multigenerational, but the younger generations learn in distinctly different ways from older, more traditional audiences. To meet the needs of these multigenerational audiences, the Auburn University Food Systems Institute (AUFSI) has developed on-demand, online courses that offer a variety of ways for learners to interact with training materials. For example, a typical course may offer not only traditional text, but audio, video, simulations, and more. In addition, AUFSI has developed supporting educational tools such as interactive virtual tours and video games. This approach to creating courses is a response to the  different levels of experiences of the generations as well as different expectations of how materials should be delivered. In order to be effective, training materials need to be designed to appeal to this multigenerational audience. Traditionalists (born before 1946) prefer face-to-face training programmes. Baby Boomers (born 1946-1964) are more accepting of technology. Generations X (born 1965-1980), Y (born 1981- 2000) and C (born after 2000), however, expect to receive training at their convenience, to have it delivered electronically, and to be entertained as well as educated.


The introduction of domestic livestock to the Kalahari has been accompanied by significant changes in the rangeland ecology, reflected most obviously in a shift from herbaceous to woody plant species. The exact mechanisms behind this remain unclear, and it remains uncertain whether the vegetation changes are a direct response to increased grazing pressure, or whether they reflect more fundamental changes in ecosystem function. Despite this uncertainty, it is common in the literature to see 'bush encroachment' used interchangeably with the more general terms 'land degradation' and 'desertification.' Whether or not this usage is always intentional, it is almost certainly misleading. Most recent definitions of land degradation (e.g. UNEP 1992) suggest that degradation is the result of irreversible changes, reflecting loss of ecosystem resilience. The use of forage quality as a single surrogate for land degradation is therefore questionable. On their own vegetation changes are poor indicators of damage to resilience (indeed many see the co-adaptation of vegetative communities and land use as evidence that resilience is intact), although in Botswana they are usually assumed to be symptomatic of loss of resilience. In reality resilience is seldom at stake unless the vegetation changes are accompanied by soil degradation. In this paper we explore the links between grazing, ecological change and land degradation for a heavily grazed area in the Kalahari. In particular, we examine the relationship between ecological conditions and soil properties and processes. The results are striking. Data for soil nutrient dynamics and soil water redistribution show that basic soil processes are relatively unaffected by grazing pressure, with ungrazed and heavily grazed sites showing essentially similar characteristics. Certainly there is no evidence to suggest grazing leads to soil degradation, and as such links between cattle and 'land degradation' should treated with care.


Motivated by the physics of spin-orbital liquids, we study a model of interacting Dirac fermions on a bilayer honeycomb lattice at half filling, featuring an explicit global SO(3)×U(1) symmetry. Using large-scale auxiliary-field quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) simulations, we locate two zero-temperature phase transitions as function of increasing interaction strength. First, we observe a continuous transition from the weakly interacting semimetal to a different semimetallic phase in which the SO(3) symmetry is spontaneously broken and where two out of three Dirac cones acquire a mass gap. The associated quantum critical point can be understood in terms of a Gross-Neveu-SO(3) theory. Second, we subsequently observe a transition toward an insulating phase in which the SO(3) symmetry is restored and the U(1) symmetry is spontaneously broken. While strongly first order at the mean-field level, the QMC data are consistent with a direct and continuous transition. It is thus a candidate for a new type of deconfined quantum critical point that features gapless fermionic degrees of freedom.


We study consolidation via mergers and acquisitions in the global asset management industry, using a world-wide sample of asset managers over the period 2000-2013. The merging fund management companies benefit from the merger via two channels: access to new markets and to new investment expertise. While the performance of acquiror-affiliated funds deteriorates during the merger process (mainly driven by declining returns in the main areas of expertise of the acquiror), the target company's funds' performance improves. Following the deal, acquiror and target companies shift the relative intensity of new fund launches towards new distribution markets (countries in which they did not have a strong presence prior to the merger), generating higher flows in new funds launched there. In addition, both acquiror- and target-affiliated funds converge in their portfolio compositions after gaining a common affiliation, consistent with the merging companies exchanging information that is valuable for investment decisions. This interpretation is supported by the way portfolio convergence takes place. In particular, acquiror funds begin investing in areas where the target used to invest prior to the merger; the reverse holds for the target funds. Furthermore, both acquiror and target funds generate their best performance in sub-portfolios associated with those newly-entered investments. Taken together, our results indicate that mergers allow acquirors to address their deteriorating performance because they allow acquirors to capture new investment flows both directly (via target distribution channels) and indirectly (via learning about new investment areas). In addition, they point to the management company's organizational structure, and changes therein, as an important driver of learning and information acquisition for fund managers.


While the levelized cost of energy (LCOE) is generally emphasized when assessing the economic viability of renewable energy systems, the other benefits such as the operational and capacity value are often ignored. Concentrating solar power with thermal energy storage (CSP-TES) can be dispatched similarly to conventional thermal generation, which may lead to incorrect economic comparisons between CSP-TES and variable renewable generation technologies such as wind and photovoltaics (PV). However, unlike most conventional thermal power plants, CSP-TES plants are energy limited, meaning that their response might be restricted by solar availability. Therefore, the use of this limited solar energy must be optimally scheduled to provide the greatest value to the power system. The timing of CSP-TES dispatch depends on a variety of factors, including electricity demand patterns, the penetration of variable generation sources, and the configuration of the CSP-TES plant itself. We use an established CSP-TES modeling framework in a commercially available production cost model to study the dispatch and value of a molten salt tower CSP-TES plant in a test system simulating the Colorado grid. We examine a range of configuration parameters by varying the relative sizes of three separate but interrelated parts of the CSP-TES plant: the solar collection field, the power block, and the thermal storage tank. Firstly, we observe that increasing the thermal energy storage capacity of a plant reduces spilled energy and increases the ability to deploy thermal energy to displace the most costly forms of conventional generation. Additional storage, however, shows only marginal benefit beyond 6–9 hours of rated plant capacity. Secondly, we observe that reducing the ratio of solar collection field size to power block capacity (a design parameter often called the solar multiple [SM]) provides the most benefit to this test system per unit of energy produced. A large solar collection field size, relative to the rated capacity of the power block, forces some solar energy to be stored during the periods when conventional generation is most costly. The stored solar energy must then be used during off-peak hours to displace less costly fossil generation. The relative value of CSP-TES presented here is dependent on many system variables, including existing solar energy penetration. Future work must examine the impact of capital cost on the overall value proposition of these configurations of CSP-TES, since the upfront cost is not considered here.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


Background Sickness absence and presenteeism become a concern on workplaces (Suzuki et al., 2015). Presentism is the presence of employees at work even when they are sick (Paschoalin et al., 2013). Among nurses, presenteeism prejudices patients, since nurses can't perform job tasks with their entire capacities (Santos, 2014). As a multifactorial phenomenon, presenteeism associates with burnout (Ferreira & Martinez, 2012). However, engagement can be a protective factor, since it is opposed to burnout (Bakker et al., 2014). Aims To identify presenteeism, burnout and engagement levels among nurses, to analyse the correlation between these three variables searching burnout and engagement as predictors of presenteeism, and to verify their variations according socio-demographic and professional characteristics. Method A study was realised, using nursing professionals from Portugal, Spain and Brazil. Preliminary results from 299 Portuguese nurses (67% from hospitals, 64% working by shifts; 67% with a definitive job contract, mean age of 34.5 years, mean job experience of 11.2 years, 77% female) were collected using anonymous questionnaires composed by Portuguese versions of SPS6 (Koopman et al., 2002; Ferreira et al., 2010), MBI and UWES (Maslach & Jackson, 1997; Schaufeli & Bakker, 2003; Marques-Pinto & Picado, 2011). Results Job was considered stressful by 78%; presenteeism was moderated (M = 3.4 on 1–5 scale); moderated emotional exhaustion (M = 2.7 on 0–6 scale), low depersonalization (M = 1.0), high personal accomplishment (M = 4.5); engagement dimensions were high (vM = 4.3, dedication M = 4.4, absorption M = 4.1 on 0–6 scale). Differences of presenteeism, burnout and engagement were found, according sex, shifts, job place and job stress perception. Correlations were found and presenteeism was predicted by 21% of burnout, and 6% of job characteristics. Individual characteristics and engagement are not significand predictors. Conclusions These results support the need to implement continuous improvement programs promoting workers' safety and "well-"being. Occupational health services have an important role to disseminate prevention programs. The INT-SO project alerts for this phenomenon among nurses on Portugal, Spain and Brazil.


The paper develops a novel decentralized charging control strategy for large populations of plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs). We consider the situation where PEV agents are rational and weakly coupled via their operation costs. At an established Nash equilibrium, each of the PEV agents reacts optimally with respect to the average charging strategy of all the PEV agents. Each of the average charging strategies can be approximated by an infinite population limit which is the solution of a fixed point problem. The control objective is to minimize electricity generation costs by establishing a PEV charging schedule that fills the overnight demand valley. The paper shows that under certain mild conditions, there exists a unique Nash equilibrium that almost satisfies that goal. Moreover, the paper establishes a sufficient condition under which the system converges to the unique Nash equilibrium. The theoretical results are illustrated through various numerical examples.


ABSTRACT This article examines the "climate gap" in the Southwest US (Arizona and New Mexico), referring to the "disproportionate and unequal implications of climate change and climate change mitigation" for "people of color and the poor" [Shonkoff, S.B., et al., 2011. The climate gap: environmental health and equity implications of climate change mitigation policies in California. Climatic Change, 109 (Suppl. 1), S485–S503]. The climate and poverty relationship is examined using multi-scaled analysis across three indicators of climate vulnerability, focusing on connections to health, food, and energy during the period 2010–2012. We provide an overview of climate-related social vulnerability in the Southwest based on available federal, state, and county-level census data. We then summarise the results from a stakeholder workshop and in-depth interviews about climate vulnerabilities with social service providers in southern Arizona. We identify a significant Southwest climate gap based on census data and interview findings about climate vulnerability especially relating to high levels of poverty, health disparities, and increasing costs for energy, water, and food. We find that grassroots and community organisations have mobilised to respond to climate and social vulnerability, yet resources for mitigation and adaptation are insufficient given the high level of need. Confronting a changing climate that is projected to be hotter, drier, and with the potential to reach new thresholds, we suggest that more research needs to be done to understand the social and spatial characteristics of climate risk and how low-income populations embody and experience climate risk, and adapt to a changing climate.


PURPOSE
To examine how formal (i.e., employed) caregivers' use verbal and nonverbal communication strategies while assisting individuals with moderate to severe Alzheimer's disease (AD) during the successful completion of an activity of daily living (ADL). Based on the literature, the authors hypothesized that caregivers' use of 1 proposition, closed-ended questions, and repetition would be of most benefit.

METHOD
Twelve caregiver-AD dyads participated in this observational study. Each dyad was videorecorded on 6 separate occasions while completing handwashing. Handwashing sessions were transcribed and systematically coded for the use of communication strategies during completion of the ADL.

RESULTS
Caregiver-AD dyads successfully completed 90% of all handwashing sessions, and caregivers employed a variety of communication strategies. Consistent with our hypotheses, during successful task completion, caregivers most frequently provided individuals with AD with 1 direction or idea (i.e., proposition) at a time, closed-ended questions, and paraphrased repetition. Caregivers also frequently used encouraging comments and the resident's name during the task; however, use of these strategies was not correlated to task success rate.

CONCLUSION
This study adds to the limited body of evidence supporting the use of specific communication strategies by caregivers assisting individuals with moderate to severe AD during successful completion of ADLs.


RNA interference is a cellular mechanism by which small molecules of double stranded RNA modulate gene expression acting on the concentration and/or availability of a given messenger RNA. Almost 10 years after Fire and Mello received the Nobel Prize for the discovery of this mechanism in flat worms, RNA interference is on the edge of becoming a new class of therapeutics. With various phase III studies underway, the following years will determine whether RNAi-therapeutics can rise up to the challenge and become mainstream medicines. The present review gives a thorough overview of the current status of this technology focusing on the path to the clinic of this new class of compounds.


It is increasingly important to study labour market outcomes for people who are not in employment, education, or training (NEET). Where most studies focus solely on young people, the purpose of this paper is to include both younger and older NEETs to find out if there is any long-term scarring effect, and if the effect is different between these two groups.,This study uses a twin-based estimation method for the first time to measure the long-term effect of economic inactivity on income. The analysis is based on biological twins, in order to control for individuals' unobservable heterogeneity. It is assumed that twins are similar to each other and the only unobservable heterogeneity is at the family level. Register-based data from Statistics Sweden is used.,The result indicates a significant negative income effect for those who have been in NEET, and is larger for those who have been in NEET for several consecutive periods of time. Individuals who were in NEET during 2001-2003 had on average 62 per cent lower income compared with their twin in 2011. The corresponding number for individuals who were in NEET for just one period was 33 per cent. Hence, time in NEET reduces income. The results show that the long-term scarring effect is not affected by age.,This study utilises for the first time a twin-based estimation method to measure the long-term effect of inactivity. Most studies focus solely on young people, but the authors also include an older group of people.


This policy brief reports on the main conclusions from an international conference held at Wolfson College, Oxford on 18–20 April 2016, at which representatives from seven governments, ombudsmen, and academic experts assessed efforts to implement new dispute resolution mechanisms across EU Member States.

The briefing also assesses the levels of trust the public holds in ombudsmen, and what drives this trust. It finds a number of mechanisms under development, and makes a range of recommendations for future approaches.


Dense motion of image points over many video frames can provide important information about the world. However, occlusions and drift make it impossible to compute long motion paths by merely concatenating optical flow vectors between consecutive frames. Instead, we solve for entire paths directly, and flag the frames in which each is visible. As in previous work, we anchor each path to a unique pixel which guarantees an even spatial distribution of paths. Unlike earlier methods, we allow paths to be anchored in any frame. By explicitly requiring that at least one visible path passes within a small neighborhood of every pixel, we guarantee complete coverage of all visible points in all frames. We achieve state-of-the-art results on real sequences including both rigid and non-rigid motions with significant occlusions.


In the aim of shedding a new light on the classical black hole evaporation conjecture stating that a static brane-localized black hole (BH) larger than the bulk curvature scale does not exist in Randall-Sundrum II (RS-II) model, we investigate time-symmetric initial data with a brane-localized apparent horizon (AH) and analyzed its properties. We find that a three-parameter family of such initial data can be constructed by simply placing a brane on a constant time surface of Schwarzschild anti-de Sitter space. By this method, we unambiguously confirm that initial data with an arbitrarily large AH area do exist. We compare the ADM mass and the horizon area of our initial data with that of the black string (BS) solution. If there is a sequence of static brane-localized BH solutions, such solutions should be contained in the time-symmetric initial data. Moreover, if they are stable, it will have a smaller mass compared with the BS solution with the same horizon area. However, we find that any initial data constructed by this method do not have a smaller mass than the BS solution when the horizon area is larger than the size determined by the bulk curvature scale. We further investigate what kind of configuration realizes the minimum mass for the same AH area. The configuration that realizes the smallest mass turns out to be the one close to the BS truncated by a cap. One may think that this indicates the existence of a static brane-localized BH solution. However, since our three-parameter family of initial data does not include the configuration resembling the BS solution, this minimum of mass may just reflect the expected minimum of mass corresponding to the BS solution. We also demonstrate that the same method applies to construct initial data in (3+1)-dimensional RS-II brane world. In this case an exact solution of a brane-localized BH exists but BS solution does not. Nevertheless, the behavior of the initial data is quite similar in both cases. We find that the known exact solution always has a smaller mass than our initial data with the same horizon area. This result enforces the standard belief that the exact BH solution is the most stable black object in the four-dimensional RS-II model. These results are all consistent with the classical BH evaporation conjecture, but unfortunately it turns out that they do not provide a strong support of it.


A ban on using Antimicrobic Growth Promoters (AGPs) in the poultry sector has recently come into force in accordance with European Union norms. This innovation of the institutional environment greatly influences the technology in use. This study conceptualizes the poultry industry in terms of technological paradigm and technological trajectory and suggests that the expected changes are costly to achieve due to the scarcity of technological opportunities. The idea proposed is that the interactions among agents along the supply chain may contribute to the solution of the emerging issues. The empirical outcomes map the skill creation in the existing networks of technicians and growers supporting the exchange of information and knowledge. These also suggest that some opportunities exist to enhance technological knowledge and contribute to the solution of emerging issues depending on the interaction among growers and processor technicians.


This paper is a project report on the ongoing European project NEXES, running from 2008-2011. The project overall vision is improved quality of care for the chronically ill and elderly, through more active follow-up of the patient in his/hers own home and improved collaboration processes between primary and secondary care services. A series of randomized clinical trials, to be carried out at three different sites, in Barcelona; Spain, Athens; Greece and Trondheim; Norway are at the heart of the project, and deployment and evaluation of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in the trials is a core objective. The project will contribute to standardised clinical pathways for chronically ill and produce requirements and guidelines on ICT deployment in such processes. The project has adopted the Business Process Modelling Notation (BPMN) standard as a tool for development of the clinical pathways. This standard seems well suited in that it provides a common view for all care stakeholders, and aids in clarifying core issues regarding collaboration and information flow. Regarding the issue of ICT, the technology evaluation processes to be carried out in the project will constitute an important set requirements for future development of dedicated ICT solutions for chronic care processes.


Background : Openings of hepatic veins into the retrohepatic surface of the inferior vena cava (ostia venae hepatica) play a part in controlling hepatic circulation by acting as collateral channels in obstruction. Their topography and distribution
must be taken into account during catheterization and liver transplantation. This anatomy is however little known among Kenyans.
Objectives: To study the position, number and distribution of ostia venae hepatica in a selected Kenyan population
Materials and methods: Eighty fresh postmortem liver specimens were obtained from the Chiromo Mortuary. The hepatic IVC was
isolated from the lower border of caudate lobe to the diaphragmatic opening, with the liver in position. The vein was opened posteriorly by a vertical incision along its whole length and the lateral flaps reflected laterally. The topography
of the ostia was studied using the Sahni model. The number and patterns of the ostia were also studied. The patterns of openings of the left, right and middle hepatic veins were studied as well as the distances between them.
Results : A total of 584 ostia were identified, an average of 7.3 per liver. The ostia were distributed on the lateral portions of the vein, with an avascular plane at the centre. Major veins terminated in the upper third of the hepatic inferior vena cava, with little extraparenchymal course. The mean distance
between the right hepatic vein and middle hepatic vein was 1.7cm
Conclusion : The numerous ostia venae hepatica identified in these subjects offer collateral flow channels during hepatic venous obstruction in Budd-Chiari syndrome. The topography and patterns of distribution of the openings suggest the
advantage of an avascular virtual plane, which is a safe dissecting path for hepatovascular surgeons.


ABSTRACT Policymakers are considering initiatives to reduce potential harms of pornography, including educational and legislative approaches. In determining the appropriateness of policies, however, it is important to consider community attitudes. We conducted an online survey with a convenience sample of 1272 young people aged 15–29 in Australia, recruited via social media. Seventy-four per cent reported having watched pornography in the past year. Participants were asked whether they believed that pornography was harmful, and whether they supported or opposed five different kinds of initiatives. Most (65%) believed that pornography was 'harmful for some people but not everyone', 11% believed it was 'harmful for everyone', 7% harmful for children only, and 17% believed it was not harmful. Eighty-five per cent supported school-based pornography education, 57% supported national education campaigns about pornography, 22% supported a national filter to block all access to pornography, 63% supported requiring condom use in all pornography, and 66% supported banning violence in pornography. Extended responses demonstrated that despite general support for policies, many participants were concerned about how these would be implemented, for example, with respect to the content of education and definitions of violence. Participants wanted initiatives to be implemented in a way that did not introduce harm or shame pornography users.


This study was carried out to determine which system of milkings and sampling methodology presenting chemical composition results safer and lower variation of the results. In Properties I and II, the fresh milk samples were collected in 40 ml flasks containing bronopol in order to compare the chemical composition of the milk, as adopting two sample collection methods, that is two and three milkings. In order to compare the chemical composition of milk and SCC, between two sampling methodologies, in two daily milkings (Property I) and three daily milkings (Property II), fresh milk samples were collected randomly totaling 300 samples on the property I and 312 samples on the property II. The milk chemical components were determined through analytical principle that is based on differential absorption of infrared waves by components of the milk. By analyzing the treatments, experimental design was used entirely randomized and averages were compared by Tukey test using the statistical program SISVAR (statistical analysis system). When evaluating the data obtained through variation coefficient (VC), the occurrence of experimental was observed, since most results showed low variation. However the distinct procedures for sampling of the fresh milk may present varied levels of the chemical composition and SCC, therefore overestimating or underestimating the values of the milk composition, when samples are collected at different times of the day and different number of milkings.

 Key words: Cows of high production, isolates samples, period, pool, sampling methodology.


The natural circulation loop (NCL) is widely used where the safe and economic heat transfer device is desired. However, the instability associated with the regular change in fluid flow behavior due to the imbalance between friction and buoyant forces is a major disadvantage. One of the erudite solutions to overcome this is to tilt the entire loop by a certain angle, with an inherent penalty in heat transfer and pressure drop. In the present study, experimental studies have been carried out on two-phase carbon dioxide (CO2) based NCL, which has gained popularity because of its compactness and higher heat transfer rate. Pressure drop and heat transfer performance of the loop for various tilt angles (0 deg, 30 deg, and 45 deg) in different planes (XY and YZ planes) have been investigated. Methanol is used as the external fluid in cold and hot heat exchangers in order to maintain low operating temperature in the loop. Results show that the tilting of the loop causes a marginal drop in the heat transfer rate of two-phase CO2 based NCL. Hence, tilting of the loop could be a solution to instability problem without conceding the performance of the loop.


Glypican-3 (GPC3) is a cell surface glypican that serves as a co-receptor for Wnt. Our laboratory has generated two high affinity antibodies targeting GPC3, HN3 and YP7. The HN3 human nanobody recognizes the N-lobe of GPC3, whereas the YP7 antibody recognizes the C-lobe of GPC3. Mutating residue F41 on the N-lobe of GPC3 inhibits binding of Wnt and the HN3 nanobody and inhibits activation of β-catenin. Both antibodies are fused to a fragment of Pseudomonas exotoxin A (PE38) to create recombinant immunotoxins. Interestingly, the HN3-derived immunotoxin (HN3-PE38) has superior antitumor activity as compared with the YP7-derived immunotoxin (YP7-PE38). Intravenous administration of HN3-PE38 causes regression of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) tumor xenografts in mice. Our study establishes GPC3 as a promising target for immunotoxin-based liver cancer therapy and demonstrates immunotoxin-induced tumor regression via dual mechanisms: inactivation of Wnt signaling via the HN3 nanobody and inhibition of protein synthesis via the PE bacteria toxin. However, immunogenicity and a short serum half-life may limit the ability of immunotoxins to transition to the clinic. To address these issues, we have recently engineered HN3-based immunotoxins to contain various deimmunized PE toxins. These new immunotoxins include HN3-T20, which is modified to remove domain II of the PE toxin and six T-cell epitopes. All of our immunotoxins display high affinity to human GPC3, with HN3-T20 having a KD value of 7.4 nM. A real-time cell growth inhibition assay demonstrates that a single dose of HN3-T20 at 1.6 nM is capable of inhibiting nearly all cell proliferation during the 10-day experiment. To enhance HN3-T20's serum retention, we further engineer the HN3-T20 by adding a streptococcal albumin binding domain (ABD) and a llama single-domain antibody fragment (ALB1) specific for serum albumin. For the detection of immunotoxin in mouse serum, we develop a highly sensitive ELISA and find that HN3-ABD-T20 has a 45-fold higher serum half-life than HN3-T20 (326 min vs 7.3 minutes); consequently, HN3-ABD-T20 shows the best serum retention and remains detectible even after a 24-hour period in mice. Furthermore, addition of an albumin binding domain results in HN3-ABD-T20 mediated tumor regression in mice at a low dose (1 mg/kg). These data show that the albumin binding deimmunized immunotoxins are high potency therapeutics ready to be evaluated in clinical trials for the treatment of liver cancer. Citation Format: Mitchell Ho, Bryan D Fleming, Tim F Greten, Ira Pastan. Immunotoxins targeting GPC3 for liver cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference on Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2019 Oct 26-30; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2019;18(12 Suppl):Abstract nr CN07-02. doi:10.1158/1535-7163.TARG-19-CN07-02


The utility of platinum nanoparticles on titania (PtNP@TiO2) as a heterogeneous photoredox catalyst is evaluated using a series of reductive transformations. In comparison to TiO2 alone, TiO2 decorated with 0.2% PtNP shows enhanced efficiency, attributed to the NPs ability to both enhance light absorption and inhibit electron-hole pair recombination. Herein, we demonstrate that under an inert atmosphere and UVA/visible light irradiation a system consisting of our PtNP@TiO2 catalyst in conjunction with a sacrificial electron donor [diisopropylethylamine, (i-Pr)2NEt] can promote a variety of different reductive dehalogenations and cyclizations in moderate to excellent yields. In addition, the catalytic system is tolerant of many different functionalities and, due to its heterogeneous nature, holds the advantage of easy catalyst removal.


Centaurus A (Cen A), powered by a 55 million solar mass supermassive black hole, has been intensively monitored in all accessible wavelength ranges of the electromagnetic spectrum. However, its gamma-ray flux, both in the H.E.S.S. very-high and the Fermi-LAT high-energy gamma-ray regimes, is relatively faint, hampering lightcurve analyses. Yet, the extensive long-term light curve data from Fermi-LAT and Swift-BAT (hard X-rays) allows for cross-correlation studies. We find a hint that X-ray emission from Cen A precedes the gamma rays by 25 days. If this lag is real and related to a gamma-gamma absorption effect in the broad-line region (BLR) around the central source, then we can constrain the size of the BLR using light-travel time arguments. These are first results of extended light curve correlation studies between high-energy gamma rays and X-rays from Cen A.


This paper presents an efficient technique for evaluating Green's functions associated to layered media, when formulated as Sommerfeld integrals in the space domain. The key step in the formulation is that Sommerfeld integrals are computed choosing a suitable integration path which is closed through the imaginary axis of the complex spectral plane. It is shown that with this original choice of the integration contour, the numerical effort usually involved in the evaluation of Sommerfeld integrals can be greatly reduced, specially when large source-observer distances are involved. One asset of this technique is that it can be easily incorporated into integral equation based CAD packages for the efficient analysis of complex printed microwave circuit and antennas. In addition, the theoretical developments needed to set up the numerical algorithm throw a new light on the asymptotic behavior of the layered media Green's functions for large source-observer distances.


Linguistic strategies have been widely utilized to function as a tool for persuasion. The present study aims to investigate linguistic deviation in advertisements in Pakistani print media. There are different manifestations of linguistic deviation such as morphological, orthographic, semantic, and syntactic. Data were collected from different national and international advertisements. The data were analyzed using the contents analysis technique of data analysis. In the analysis of linguistic data taken from advertisements, the linguistic deviations have been highlighted and their functions have been identified. The result of the study says that seven types of linguistics deviation have been employed by advertisers in Pakistani print and electronic media and the purpose of deviation is to attract the attention of the readers/viewers (customers).


Background: In today's knowledge-based economy corporations have an increasing need for employees with appropriate competencies, and customized e-learning can be a means to cover some of this need. Higher education institutions (HEIs) can take part in this market by offering e-learning-based training and education customized to the needs of the corporate clients. There is, however, a variety of needs that should be taken into account to form sustainable e-learning courses and related training services for the students, and this implies that it is challenging to design e-learning deliverables customized for corporate clients. To succeed in developing holistic e-learning designs which cover most relevant requirements, participants representing different roles such as customer representatives, domain experts, pedagogues, technical experts, economists and market people, students, and people from the administration should be present in the design phase. Furthermore, these stakeholders should utilize modern computersupported cooperation, while they strive to produce high quality results in a time and cost effective manner. Concurrent design is an approach used to solve complex and interdisciplinary design issues in which interactions between different disciplines is essential to achieve optimal and comprehensive solution. This thesis considers the use of a concurrent design approach, when customized e-learning deliverables are designed and developed for corporate clients. It is a paper-based thesis which includes six scientific and peer-reviewed papers, besides four secondary papers that are not included in their entirety but only where general information is described.Aim: The overall research aim was to contribute with basic motivation, implementation experience, and requirements for practical realization, regarding methodological approaches for concurrent design of e-learning deliverables for corporate clients. The following research questions were answered:1. Why should HEIs apply a concurrent design approach when they aim to deliver e-learning to corporate clients?2. How should a concurrent design approach for the development of customized e-learning for corporate clients be materialized? That is to say, how should this approach initially be described, and how should it eventually be tested and evaluated?3. What are the key requirements for a concurrent design approach to the design of customized e-learning for corporate clients?Methods: This study was inspired by design-based research, and various research methods that were suitable to answer the research questions faced as the project progressed, were utilized. This includes literature reviews, questionnaires, interviews, design science, action research, besides qualitative data analysis and coding of collected data.Contributions: The main contribution of this thesis is the concurrent design inspired methodological approach to the design of new e-learning solutions for corporate clients, which are customized to the current context and the project in question. The following contributions were identified:1. Detected motivation and conditions for applying a concurrent design approach to the design of customized e-learning for corporate clients.2. The concurrent e-learning design method; which includes a description of processes, roles, models, tools, a concurrent design facility, and an appropriate infrastructure.3. Experience from using action research as a means of introducing new artifacts at higher education institutions.4. Requirements and guidelines for concurrent design of customized corporate e-learning; which includes 16 principles of concurrent e-learning design and some additional prescriptive approaches that should be considered for distributed workspaces.Conclusions: It is the e-learning design processes and the corporate use of e-learning provided by higher education institutions, that forms the basis for this doctoral project. In this context, a concurrent design approach to the design of customized corporate e-learning is materialized. To a large extent this also concerns computer-supported cooperative work on a more general level. This thesis is thus a contribution in instructional design, which also provides experience regarding how technological solutions should be used and what requirements shall apply to solutions that support computer-supported cooperation in interdisciplinary design processes.


Background: Patients with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) are associated with increased morbidity, mortality, and increased healthcare expenditures as they are at high risk for developing cardiovascular disease (CVD). Carotid intimal medial thickness (CIMT) has been found to correlate with atherosclerosis major risk factors of CVD. Method: This was a prospective case control study of carotid intimal medial thickness in patients of CKD. A total of 150 patients of CKD and equal number of age and sex matched controls were enrolled. Bilateral assessment of intimal medial thickness was done in common carotid artery. Statistical analysis was done by using descriptive and inferential statistics using the Chi square test, z-test for difference between two means, Pearson's Correlation coefficient and Multiple Regression Analysis and software used in the analysis were the SPSS 22.0 version. Results: Out of total 300 cases, 114 (76%) patients of CKD and 113 (75.33%) control were male. CIMT in CKD patients was between 0.80 ± 0.28 mm and 0.64 ± 0.16 in control p=0.0001. CKD patients with diabetes were having mean CIMT 1.09 ± 0.22 mm in comparison to controls with diabetes having mean CIMT 0.63 ± 0.16 mm, p=0.0001. CKD patients with hypertension were having mean CIMT 0.76 ± 0.27 mm in comparison to controls having mean CIMT 0.62 ± 0.18 mm, p=0.0001. Conclusion: Mean CIMT was increased in all stages of CKD and there was no significant difference in CIMT in different stages of CKD. Patients having hypertension was having higher mean CIMT in comparison to patients having normal blood pressure, patient with diabetes had high mean CIMT as compared to mean CIMT of controls having diabetes.


It seems particularly fitting that the annual lectureship established by the Section on Practice of Medicine should commemorate the name of Dr. Frank Billings. His eminent leadership influenced in a large measure the development of this and other scientific sections of the Association. Furthermore, in the field of medical education and as a builder of medical schools, hospitals and research institutes he left an enduring impress on American medicine. Of his many contributions to clinical medicine the most outstanding is the modern concept of focal infection as related to chronic systemic disease, which was first presented in his classic article1entitled "Chronic Focal Infections and their Etiological Relations to Arthritis and Nephritis." In the passing of a quarter of a century the many implications of this concept, some rather controversial, have been widely discussed, so that it appears timely to attempt an evaluation or survey of focal infection at


The dissertation deals with the infant mortality decline in Iceland during the 19th and early 20th Century. It shows that despite its low degree of urbanization, pre-transitional Iceland displayed higher infant mortality rates than most other European countries. Levels are only comparable with a few areas in Europe, all of whom were known for a tradition of artificial feeding of newborns. In the Icelandic case, infants were either not breastfed at all or were weaned at a very young age.Another characteristic of infant mortality in Iceland were huge fluctuations during epidemics. Because of the isolation of the country, several diseases that had become endemie in other societies, such as measles, became dangerous epidemics in Iceland and affected all age groups. After 1850 the effects of epidemics declined and 20 years later there was a steep decline in infant mortality. By the beginning of the 20th Century infant mortality in Iceland was lower than in most other societies.Although epidemics often had important temporary consequences upon infant mortality level in pretransitional Iceland, being breastfed or not was without doubt the most important determinant of infant survival. There were huge differences in infant mortality levels between areas where breastfeeding was common and those where newborns were artificially fed. Towards the turn of the 20th Century significant changes occurred. Even though there were still differences in infant mortality between those babies who were breastfed and those who were not, infant survival had improved greatly and survival chances of Icelandic newborns that were fed artificially became in an international perspective relatively good.Midwives played a central role in the infant mortality decline in Iceland. Growing secularization during the second part of the 19th Century improved educational opportunities for women and also changed the content of education. Improved educational opportunities were reflected in changes in the education of midwives. At the same time there was growth in the publication of books that directly dealt with the issue of infant health. The increase in the number of educated midwives was a factor of central importance. The interaction between midwives and a literate population was most likely the key to infant survival in the Nordic countries. This study shows that that the custom to breastfeed spread earlier in areas with higher literacy. Not only is it plausible that the interest in changing prevailing traditions was directly related to literaey levels of individuai mothers, it is also shown that midwives had the best education in areas where literacy rates were high. On the other hand, the remarkable improvements in infant survival obtained towards the end of the 19th Century were scarcely linked to changes in the economic structure. Those factors only started to play an important role in the 20th Century. In its initial stages, changes in infant feeding and improvements in personal hygiene were more important


The problem of accurately setting up patients has been understood for some time, and it is now common practice to take portal films during a course of external beam radiotherapy as part of a complete quality assurance programme. A method for registration of digitized portal and simulator films was developed based on the identification of anatomical fiducial points on a simulator image and its corresponding portal image to provide a method of patient position verification. Experiments conducted on pelvic phantom images to check the consistency and accuracy of the registration process indicate that single intra-user accuracy was 0.5◦ for rotations and 1mm for shifts. Multiple inter-user variation was also examined and found to be 1◦ for rotations and 1.2mm for shifts. The technique appears to be suitable as a portal image verification system for radiotherapy treatment.


The clearance volume between the piston, the cylinder and the top compression ring in an internal combustion engine has a significant effect on the unburned hydrocarbon concentration. The high heat transfer from the burning mixture to the cylinder surface extinguishes the flame front, and this is the main reason for increased unburned hydrocarbon concentrations. The heat transfer between the mixture and the clearance volume surface is affected by the ratio of coolant surface to the clearance volume. In this study the effect of the ratio of the coolant surface to the clearance volume on the unburned hydrocarbon concentration was investigated using three different purpose-built pistons. A decrease of this ratio reduced the unburned hydrocarbon concentration by 40%.


Decapod crustacean hearts are suspended by a three-dimensional array of alary ligaments. These ligaments are stretched during systole; diastolic filling via the ostia occurs as the ventricle is stretched by ligamental elastic recoil. There is no direct venous return to the hearts in these animals. In the present study, an isolated heart preparation with intact ligaments, hereafter called in situ, was used to evaluate the effects of artificially induced stretch on heart rate. Strongly beating in situ neurogenic hearts of the crab Carcinus maenas responded to direct perfusion of the ventricle with oxygenated saline and the attendant augmentation of natural stretch with a small increase in heart rate (fh); however, fh was well maintained for up to 15 min after eliminating stretch by cutting the alary ligaments. In contrast to crabs, high rates of artificial perfusion usually depressed fh in crayfish hearts. Crab heart rate falls during hypoxia and this is readily reversed by even low rates of perfusion with oxygenated saline. It is concluded that the gradual decline in fh of totally isolated in vitro hearts arises from the deepening intraventricular hypoxia experienced by the cardiac ganglion.


Current-induced switching in heterojunctions such as Fe/Vac/Fe and Fe/Ge/Fe, including in the latter case homogeneous and inhomogeneous chemical disorder caused by holes (vacuum), is described theoretically in terms of a multi-scale approach based on ab initio calculations using the fully relativistic screened Korringa–Kohn–Rostoker method and the Landau–Lifshitz–Gilbert equation. It is found that (1) the presence of tunnelling can be a function of the relative angle between the orientations of the magnetization in the magnetic slabs; and (2) disorder is responsible for the occurrence of non-collinear magnetic ground states. Furthermore, it is found that the first terms in the expansion of the twisting energy in a power series in the cosine of this relative angle, namely the interlayer exchange energy term and the anisotropy term, can be used for a qualitative scheme not only to characterize the occurrence of non-collinear ground states, but also for the critical current needed to induce switching.


Abstract The glmS ribozyme is the first known example of a natural ribozyme that has evolved to require binding of an exogenous small molecule for activity. In Gram-positive bacteria, this RNA domain is part of the messenger RNA (mRNA) encoding the essential enzyme that synthesizes glucosamine-6-phosphate (GlcN6P). When present at physiologic concentration, this small molecule binds to the glmS ribozyme and uncovers a latent self-cleavage activity that ultimately leads to degradation of the mRNA. Biochemical and structural studies reveal that the RNA adopts a rigid fold stabilized by three pseudoknots and the packing of a peripheral domain against the ribozyme core. GlcN6P binding to this pre-organized RNA does not induce conformational changes; rather, the small molecule functions as a coenzyme, providing a catalytically essential amine group to the active site. The ribozyme is not a passive player, however. Active site functional groups are essential for catalysis, even in the presence of GlcN6P. In addition to being a superb experimental system with which to analyze how RNA catalysts can exploit small molecule coenzymes to broaden their chemical versatility, the presence of the glmS ribozyme in numerous pathogenic bacteria make this RNA an attractive target for the development of new antibiotics and antibacterial strategies.


The rapid increase of connected devices and the major advances in information and communication technologies have led to great emergence in the Internet of Things (IoT). IoT devices require software adaptation as they are in continuous transition. Multi-agent based solutions offer adaptable composition for IoT systems. Mobile agents can also be used to enable interoperability and global intelligence with smart objects in the Internet of Things. The use of agents carrying personal data and the rapid increasing number of connected IoT devices require the use of security protocols to secure the user data. Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) Algorithm has emerged as an attractive and efficient public-key cryptosystem. We recommend the use of ECC in the proposed Broadcast based Secure Mobile Agent Protocol (BROSMAP) which is one of the most secure protocols that provides confidentiality, authentication, authorization, accountability, integrity and non-repudiation. We provide a methodology to improve BROSMAP to fulfill the needs of Multi-agent based IoT Systems in general. The new BROSMAP performs better than its predecessor and provides the same security requirements. We have formally verified ECC-BROSMAP using Scyther and compared it with BROSMAP in terms of execution time and computational cost. The effect of varying the key size on BROSMAP is also presented. A new ECC-based BROSMAP takes half the time of Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) 2048 BROSMAP and 4 times better than its equivalent RSA 3072 version. The computational cost was found in favor of ECC-BROSMAP which is more efficient by a factor of 561 as compared to the RSA-BROSMAP.


The outwardly directed cell wall and associated plasma membrane of epidermal cells represent the first layers of plant defense against intruding pathogens. Cell wall modifications and the formation of defense structures at sites of attempted pathogen penetration are decisive for plant defense. A precise isolation of these stress-induced structures would allow a specific analysis of regulatory mechanism and cell wall adaption. However, methods for large-scale epidermal tissue preparation from the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, which would allow proteome and cell wall analysis of complete, laser-microdissected epidermal defense structures, have not been provided. We developed the adhesive tape – liquid cover glass technique (ACT) for simple leaf epidermis preparation from A. thaliana, which is also applicable on grass leaves. This method is compatible with subsequent staining techniques to visualize stress-related cell wall structures, which were precisely isolated from the epidermal tissue layer by laser microdissection (LM) coupled to laser pressure catapulting. We successfully demonstrated that these specific epidermal tissue samples could be used for quantitative downstream proteome and cell wall analysis. The development of the ACT for simple leaf epidermis preparation and the compatibility to LM and downstream quantitative analysis opens new possibilities in the precise examination of stress- and pathogen-related cell wall structures in epidermal cells. Because the developed tissue processing is also applicable on A. thaliana, well-established, model pathosystems that include the interaction with powdery mildews can be studied to determine principal regulatory mechanisms in plant–microbe interaction with their potential outreach into crop breeding.