Face recognition is nowadays one of the most challenging biometric modalities for the identification of individuals. In the last two decades several experimental as well as commercial systems have been developed exploiting different physical properties of the face image. Either being based on processing 2D or 3D information all these methods perform a face classification of the individuals based on some relevant features extracted from the raw image data. The data acquisition, preprocessing and the feature extraction/selection are all topics of the greatest importance to design a good performing recognition system. At the same time, the right choice of the features to be used as the basis for the face representation, which must be based on the uniqueness of such features, as well as most advanced issues such as the incorporation of quality information and the cope for ageing effects, are all of paramount importance. The tutorial will consists of two sessions (half day of total duration) devoted to the description of both the basic and most advanced techniques related to face recognition. The lectures will provide a comprehensive outline of face- based biometrics, its relation to biological systems (the psychophysics of the human visual system), including the existing applications and commercial systems. The lectures will provide an in-depth analysis of the state-of-the-art algorithms for face-image analysis including: face detection and tracking, landmark localization, feature extraction, face representation and classification. The lectures will mainly explore the image processing aspects of the recognition process. As for classification, machine learning algorithms will be also presented, including kernel methods as related to learning and the approximation theory. The most relevant issues and problems will be raised, providing practical solutions and algorithms responding to them. Particular attention will be given to the most advanced and new techniques for face representation and classification, as well as the current approaches presented in the literature. Attention will be also given to the performance evaluation of face recognition systems providing some examples and results from recent competitions and public evaluation contests. Finally, the tutorial will present three relevant and novel issues: the use of face image sequences for exploiting the time domain, the extension to 3D face analysis, and the how to cope with ageing and data quality.


In the process of examining fraudulent documents ink analysis is a small but important part of the operation of forensic laboratories. Systematic approaches to ink comparison and identification have been performed by optical methods and various chromatographic techniques. Capillary electrophoresis (CE), a relatively new separation technique with very high resolution power, and Particle Induced X-Ray Emission (PIXE) were used for the analysis of ball point pen inks. In comparison to water soluble fountain pen inks, ball point inks are less soluble or insoluble in water and these inks contain only few components. The study focused on the optimization of the separation of ink extracts from paper material of commercially available inks with respect to resolution and analysis time. During the method development process different buffers, organic modifiers, and surfactants were tested. Good results were obtained with a 50 mM borate buffer pH 9.0 containing 50% acetonitrile. Reproducible extraction procedures as well as separations enables one to perform the quantification of the ink peaks within 1–8% standard deviation for parallel extractions of the same ink. Electropherograms of 20 inks of various origin showed patterns which were in most cases distinctly different from each other. PIXE measurements with an external proton beam were used to determine the metal composition. The ratio of the peak areas for copper and zinc as well as differences in the elemental composition could be used to distinguished between the samples. No coincidence was observed between samples hardly distinguishable by electrophoretic separations and by PIXE-measurements. Samples with nearly identical metal composition showed different peak pattern in the electropherograms, and nearly identical electrophoretic behavior of two or more samples was accompanied by quite different copper/zinc-ratios or supplementary metals identified by PIXE.


BACKGROUND: Group B streptococcus (GBS) is one of the principal agents of early onset neonatal sepsis, pneumonia and meningitis with significant morbidity for newborns and parturients. AIM: This study was done to determine the prevalence of vaginal group B streptococcus amongst parturients in FMC Owerri. It also aimed to elucidate the antibiotic sensitivity of the strains of GBS isolated while comparing the sensitivity of antigen detection tests of GBS to culture. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This cross-sectional study was done at the labour ward and lying-in units of the Federal Medical Center, Owerri,from February 2015 to October, 2015. It involved one hundred and eighty (180) women recruited systematically. Two swab samples, high vaginal and rectal were collected from the parturients intrapartum and cultured. The babies were examined and weighed immediately after delivery, seen on the second and tenth days after delivery for features of fever or any other complaints. RESULTS: The overall prevalence of GBS amongst parturients was found to be 6.1%. Prevalence of vaginal colonization was 3.3% and that of the rectum was 2.8%, ( =0.1282, df=1,p=0.502). Neonates with colonized mothers all had complaints of 2c fever postpartum which was statistically significant (=55.86, df=1, p<0.001). All the microbes showed 100% sensitivity to penicillin G, erythromycin, gentamycin and ceftriaxone. Antibiotic resistance was discovered in augmentin (67%), Cloxacillin (55.6%) and ofloxacin (33.3%). Antigen detection tests gave Sensitivity=100%, specificity=96.4%, positive predictive value (PPV) = 64.7%, negative predictive value (NPV) =100%. Detection in both vaginal (=60.290,p=0.000) and rectal (=50.799,p=0.000) samples were statistically significant. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of GBS in parturients in the Centre is low. Strains of GBS isolated amongst the sampled rd population in FMC Owerri had a high sensitivity to penicillin G, erythromycin, gentamycin and 3 generation cephalosporins. Antigen detection method for screening of GBS though very sensitive is however not specific with a significant false positive detection rate due to antigen cross reaction. It is however recommended that antigen detection be employed as intrapartum measure in high risk cases to reduce turnover time whilst supported by culture results later. There was associated significant neonatal sequaelae and further research to establish causal relationship will be advised.


This article responds to two detailed critiques by Brian Langille and Francis Maupain of an article dealing with the "transformation of the international labour rights regime" which followed the adoption by the ILO of the 1998 Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. The author argues that the ILO does, in fact, play a central role in the process of defining core labour standards and that its approach is invoked by a wide range of actors seeking legitimacy for their own approaches to such standards, whether in the context of bilateral free trade agreements or of private voluntary initiatives. For these reasons it is important to understand clearly the role played by the ILO, to acknowledge the extent to which the Declaration has become detached from the existing jurisprudence of labour rights, and to seek to ensure that the ILO adopts a more balanced approach which does not unduly privilege a limited range of procedural rights at the expense of equally important substantive social rights. The article concludes by outlining the steps which the ILO ought to take in order to ensure that it remains a relevant and influential actor in efforts to protect the basic rights of workers in the twenty-first century.


Policy portfolios that include tradable green certificates have been introduced in several European countries to foster market-driven penetration of renewable energy sources. Another widely analysed type of market-based instrument in the energy sector is the tradable emission allowance. Recently tradable certificates for energy savings as a tool to stimulate energy efficiency investments and deliver energy savings have attracted the attention of policy makers. While such schemes have been introduced in different forms in Italy and the Great Britain and considered in other European countries, there is an ongoing debate over their effectiveness and applicability. The paper describes the concept and main elements of schemes that involve tradable certificates for energy savings (TCES) and how these have been put into practice in Italy and the Great Britain. It then compares TCES schemes with energy taxation and mandatory demand-side management (DSM) programs using a set of four criteria. Integration with green certificates and CO2 emissions trading schemes is examined and some possibilities for practical implementation are outlined.


The structural origin of the remarkable performance of the metal–organic framework Fe2(BPEB)3 as a CO2 adsorbent (40.5% of the host weight at 298 K and 10 bar) was investigated by combining advanced experimental and computational tools. In situ and operando high-resolution and high-energy powder X-ray diffraction experiments were carried out at 273 and 298 K dosing CO2 in the pressure range of 0–9 bar and 0–21 bar, respectively. Juxtaposing a conventional approach for structural determination and refinement with total scattering analysis enabled us to unveil the adsorption sites occupied by the gaseous probe and the host–guest interactions at 298 K and all the assayed pressures. These studies were complemented by molecular dynamics simulations to support the location of the guest molecules inside the host channels and characterize the energetics of the host–guest and guest–guest interactions. Our molecular-level insight into the nature of the host–guest interactions in Fe2(BPEB)3, a rigid host without exposed metal sites or functional groups with particular affinity to CO2 on the ligand, provides key information on a debated topic, namely the chemical and structural properties a host should possess for efficient CO2 adsorption under rather mild conditions.


This study was conducted to know how teachers use integrated approach in teaching EFL to learners at senior high schools in Ternate. Integrated approach requires that teachers encourage learners in becoming content literate by making connections between the content they teach and language processes that learners need in order to make learning meaningful.
Traditional approach is believed to be one of the problems of learners' failure to learn English.It placed the students in a passive role and passive language learning. Integrated approach is a concept taken from the theory of constructivist philosophy of teaching.With the development of teaching EFL, schools in Ternate need more qualified teachers to improve the quality of English.The assumption is that improving teacher practice by introducing constructivists-based, integrated approach which is believed to be more effective for foreign language learning than the former one.
The study adopted descriptive research design as it is the most appropriate when the purpose of the study is to know a detailed description of a phenomenon. The actual size used in the study was 30 teachers that purposefully sampled. The participants were teachers of English at senior high schools. The data were analyzed by Likert scale.Data were tabulated and classified according to the given score range.
The finding of this study, suggested that the integrated approach should be included in the school program. It reveals the benefits of using integrated approach in school classes, as it can potentially sharpen the students understanding of the various subjects.In term of conclusion Integrated approach as an extremely effective approach, helping students to develop various expertise and grasp the important role interrelationship can play in the real world. In line with the finding, some recommendations for teachers, policy makers, and syllabus designers in order to move from traditional approach to more innovative ways of teaching.

Key Words: Integrated Approach, Teaching EFL.


Introduction: Cancer patients often have concurrent physical and psychological symptoms. These problems may become barriers towards the healing process. Antidepressants seem to be beneficial for the purpose of palliative care in this type of patients. One of the useful medications is mirtazapine, which is known as noradrenergic and specific serotonergic antidepressant (NaSSA). This paper examines the use of mirtazapine in physical and psychological symptoms of cancer patients. Methods: Literature search was done on PubMed (from inception to January 2017) by matching the key terms: 'noradrenergic and specific serotonergic antidepressants' or 'NaSSA' 'mirtazapine' AND 'cancer' or 'oncol*' or 'malignancy' or 'carcinoma'. Eligible papers were screened at the title and abstract level. Various types of study included in this review, according to certain criteria. Additional papers were also identified by screening of reference lists. Results: A total of twelve papers were reviewed and summarized. Positive findings obtained for the use of mirtazapine in cancer patients associated with various symptoms, including depression, anxiety, cachexia, nausea, hot flashes, and pruritus. Some rare side effects are reported, including constipation, myalgia sedation, dry mouth, stimulation of appetite and weight gain. Conclusion: Mirtazapine has the potential to be beneficial for cancer patients suffering from these physical and psychological symptoms. However, more research studies with sufficient power are warranted to validate the findings. Please click PDF below to download the full paper...


In model-based survey sampling hierarchical Bayesian (HB) methods have gained immense popularity. One of the major reasons for this popularity remains the convenience in implementation of HB models using MCMC methods even when the models are complex. An inevitable part of this approach is the elicitation of priors for the parameters involved in the model. Authentic expert information can be incorporated by assigning suitable subjective prior distribution to the parameters. In Bayesian analysis nonsubjective or objective priors are assigned to the parameters when reliable subjective information is unavailable. In survey sampling, situations often arise when subjective prior information is unavailable; in such situations noninformative or objective Bayesian methods have great relevance. In this dissertation we study various noninformative HB models which combine information from multiple sources. These models are extensively used in small area estimation. In the first chapter we discuss the outline of the dissertation. In the next two chapters we provide robust small area estimation models which account for possible presence of outliers under two different scenarios. In the fourth chapter we develop robust Bayesian predictors of small area means which account for the possibility when random small area effects are not present for some small areas. In the fifth chapter we develop various HB methods which combine information from different surveys. The methods proposed in this dissertation involve improper priors. We have analytically shown that the posterior distributions based on these priors are proper under mild conditions. Index words: Combining Surveys, Hierarchical Bayes, Mixture Models, Objective Priors, Outliers, Small Area Estimation. Hierarchical Bayesian Methods for Survey Sampling and Other Applications


Information communication technology is spreading fast and wide. Driven by convenience, it enables people to undertake personal tasks and make decisions more easily and efficiently. Convenience enjoys an air of liberation as well as self-expression affecting all areas of life. The industry for children's toys is a major economic market becoming ever more tech-related and drawn into the battle for convenience. Like any other tech-related industry, this battle is about industry dominance and, currently, that involves networked toys. Networked toys aim to enhance convenience for children and parents alike. Increasingly difficult to resist, these convenient networked devices are also a societal game changer. Neatly nestled in a lacuna juris and surrounded by a lack of clinical evidence, networked toys raise complex ethical issues concerning human development. This article lays bare the regulatory nexus for networked toys and invites ethical thinking to fill the gap to ensure sufficient protection for all human developmental stages. Networked toys not only affect but also might interfere with child development. Therefore, the article initially summarises the four key psychological stages through which the neurological development of the human brain processes. Each of these stages involves vital windows for human development in cognitive, emotional and social dimensions. Missing any of these developmental windows changes an individual human for life. The article then takes a look at the two main legal frameworks protecting the stages of human development which are applicable to networked toys: First, the examination of the human rights framework with its major segments emanating from the fundamental rights to privacy for family and home, to a child's education as well as to personal data reveals the use of current networked toys as a shielded part of parenting which tends to be at odds with privacy and data protection requirements. Second, the product liability framework for toy manufacturers requires evidence-based causality for putting a child's safety at risk. Unfortunately, these legal frameworks fail to offer sufficient protection of the human developmental stages. There is a lacuna juris. Although networked toys involve the risk of negatively impacting human development in every dimension, clinical psychological studies are impossible to acquire as court evidence for product liability because they take too long to provide reliable data while exposing several generations of children to the examined risk in the process. Meanwhile the temptation of convenience continues to drive the industry and consumers of networked toys and devices, which are already impacting children of all age groups. Accepting this phenomenon as an element of cognitive dissonance in society and in science falls far short of an appropriate ethical balance. The need for creating such an ethical balance concerning networked toys is all the more imperative because even if the networked toy industry managed to eliminate all psychological risks for human development and every legal conflict with privacy and security, significant ethical and societal risks of networked toys remain due to inevitable technological bias. Against these mounting changes, it is suggested that only an ethical approach of interdisciplinary research and learning seems most promising to develop an appropriate equilibrium between the complex challenges posed by networked toys and the societal values at stake.


In Japan, 437 pancreas transplantations (PTx) were carried out between 2000 and 2019. Clinical data for all PTx cases are registered in the Japan Pancreas Transplant Registry of the Japan Society for Pancreas and Islet Transplantation. Here we analyzed the registry data to describe the current status of PTx in Japan. The 437 PTx included 410 from deceased donors (407 from brain‐dead and 3 from non‐heart‐beating donors) and 27 from living donors. We investigated the clinical characteristics of the 410 PTx from deceased donors. The rate of marginal donors using expanded donor criteria was higher in Japan than in other countries. At 1/5/10 years post‐PTx, the overall survival rates were 95.8%/94.2%/88.7%, and the graft survival rates were 85.9%/76.2%/67.4% for pancreas and 93.2%/90.8%/78.2% for kidney (non‐censored for death). These rates were comparable to those in other countries. When stratified by PTx category, survival was significantly better following simultaneous pancreas‐kidney transplantation (SPK) compared to pancreas‐after‐kidney transplantation (PAK) or PTx alone (PTA). Immunological rejection was more frequently the cause of graft loss in PAK/PTA cases than in SPK cases, potentially contributing to the poorer survival in PAK/PTA. These outcomes highlight two main concerns: substantial incidence of pancreas graft loss, and inferior outcomes after PAK/PTA. Overall, PTx outcome is favorable in Japan, despite the high rate of marginal donors. To improve outcomes, it is important to prevent and manage each cause of pancreas graft loss. Overcoming the poorer survival in PAK/PTA may require new immunosuppressive protocols or allogenic islet transplantation.


The classification and grading of papillary urothelial neoplasms has been a long‐standing subject of controversy. Previously, numerous diverse grading schemes for bladder tumor, including the 1973 World Health Organization (WHO) classification, existed whereby one of the major limitations was poor inter‐observer reproducibility among pathologists. The WHO/International Society of Urological Pathology (ISUP) consensus classification system of urothelial neoplasms of the urinary bladder was developed in 1998 and was revised most recently in 2003 (published in 2004). Importantly, the current classification system provides detailed histological criteria for papillary urothelial lesions and allows for designation of a lesion (papillary urothelial neoplasm of low malignant potential) with a negligible risk of progression. Thus, the latest system is designed to be a universally acceptable one for bladder tumors that not only could be effectively used by pathologists, urologists, and oncologists, but also stratifies the tumors into prognostically significant categories. This article outlines the 2004 WHO/ISUP classification system regarding the specific histological criteria for non‐invasive papillary urothelial neoplasms and the clinical significance of each category.


Appreciable advances have been made in recent years in raising climate change awareness and enhancing support for climate and energy policies. There also has been considerable progress in understanding of how to effectively communicate climate change. This progress raises questions about the future directions of communication research and practice. What more is there to say? Through a selective literature review, focused on contributions since a similar stock‐taking exercise in 2010,1 the article delineates significant advances, emerging trends and topics, and tries to chart critical needs and opportunities going forward. It describes the climate communication landscape midway through the second decade of the 21st century to contextualize the challenges faced by climate change communication as a scientific field. Despite the important progress made on key scientific challenges laid out in 2010, persistent challenges remain (superficial public understanding of climate change, transitioning from awareness and concern to action, communicating in deeply politicized and polarized environments, and dealing with the growing sense of overwhelm and hopelessness). In addition, new challenges and topics have emerged that communication researchers and practitioners now face. The study reflects on the crucial need to improve the interaction between climate communication research and practice, and calls for dedicated science‐practice boundary work focused on climate change communication. A set of new charges to climate communicators and researchers are offered in hopes to move climate change communication to a new place—at once more humble yet also more ambitious than ever before, befitting to the crucial role it could play in the cultural work humanity faces with climate change. WIREs Clim Change 2016, 7:345–369. doi: 10.1002/wcc.403


"LA ILUSTRE FREGONA" is a strikingly hybrid composition when it is judged by contemporary standards of generic consistency. Building upon the well-worn literary and dramatic themes of long-lost daughters and rebellious sons, and explicitly basing its secondary hero on a real-life Spanish social type, that of the runaway son of nobles who happily settles in the depraved, semi-criminal world of the Andalusian almadrabas, it amalgamates and, on the level of moral characterisation, literally blends the heroic, sentimental, idealist genre that we now call "romance" with picaresque and the entremes tradition. (1) Its crucial source of inspiration as a synthesis of contrasting genres is likely to be the anti-Classical comedia. The latter's influence is clearly detectable in the more polarised forms of romance/comedy hybridism and particularly in the gracioso-like role of Carriazo hijo, the lover of the almadrabas and friend and semi-comic foil of the enamoured Avendano. (2) One of the things that seem to me to distance the novela from the typical anti-Classical comedia is its narrowing of the traditional sensibility gap between representations of secular life (obras humanas) and their biblical and hagiological counterparts (obras divinas). Although it is not stridently so, when judged by the ideological standards of narrative and dramatic treatments of aristocratic adventure and love, "La ilustre fregona" is unusually theological in conception. It is basically a work that brings together idealism in a romance mode that has been modified by asceticism with the kind of realist outlook on life that informs Aleman's Guzman. It superimposes a Christian perspective on ideal love and matrimony that transcends the idealistic range of both Spanish drama and the romance tradition on a human realism that is anchored ideologically in the doctrine of Original Sin, therefore stressing the negative meaning of moral humanitas. This it does in a self-consistent, logically reserved way that subordinates the idealistic to a realist sense of verisimilitude and does not gamble on a readership that identifies unanimously with the author's conception of what constitutes the ideal. The amatory ideal is gently debunked, the corresponding matrimonial ideal is presented very coyly, and both are distanced from the certain facts of the tale. The novela's internal harmony--its structural "decorum," in neo-Classical language--is Christian and basically realist. The continuity that the novela lacks when viewed from the perspective of Classical decorum and native traditions may be found in the thematic focus on sin, the conceptual association of sin with the realm of the Flesh (materialism, whose lower forms are sensual), the idealisation of spiritual values, and the subordination of literary idealism to realistic constraints. The fundamental thematic importance of the doctrine of Original Sin in "La ilustre fregona" is increasingly detectable in criticak studies that have appeared in the last twenty years. Whilst Kartchner is more strongly inclined than other critics to regard the novela as a tragic tale, it is, now, widely agreed that "La ilustre fregona" modifies romance traditions in characterisation and does not produce a happy ending that fully conforms to conventional idealistic standards of literary decorum. The rebellious ingredients are normally regarded as forms of social criticism. Whilst not dwelling on the socio-critical vein to be found in previous interpretations, Boyd reflects the broad consensus when he describes the novela as a tale of loss and providential restoration in whose ending there are "troubling shadows." He briefly identifies most of the things that have repeatedly troubled critics. Carriazo padre expresses no contrition for committing rape. Carriazo hijo is not contrite for deceiving his parents, and is not taken to task for almost beating a boy to death in Toledo. Costanza's "wrench with her previous existence, and especially the pain of her departure from the innkeeper's wife, is movingly emphasized," and it is a safe assumption that the foster-parents "will rarely, if ever again, see the girl they brought up as their daughter. …


Simulation is a research method that abstracts real-world phenomena into laboratory experiments, through computational modeling. Despite its widespread adoption in natural sciences, simulation is less prevalent in social sciences, and rare in Information Systems (IS). To facilitate IS simulation research, this study conducts a literature review through content analysis, focusing on the use of simulation methods in IS. Coding schemes are developed to characterize literature from the AIS basket-of-eight plus Information & Management. Results demonstrate the adoption of simulation method is limited in IS, in amount, geographic range, topic-spread, and techniques employed. At the same time, findings too suggest strong simulation research into certain topics and in multilevel theorizing.


Monitoring of the health of water-based coolant used for machining requires measurement of various parameters of the coolant, including refractive index, temperature, pH, and turbidity. One of the primary parameters that is used to determine the concentration of the coolant is the refractive index, which is typically measured manually by an operator at regular intervals during machine operation. This paper describes the conceptualization and preliminary design of a coolant health monitoring system that will automatically measure the refractive index of the coolant and will digitize the resulting measurement for communication to a factory supervisory control and data acquisition (SCADA) system. To enable rapid integration into a factory's network architecture, the coolant concentration measurement will be transmitted by the monitoring system using the MTConnect format. Having an MTConnect-enabled sensor will allow the data to be remotely aggregated and compared to other machine data to help give a better understanding of overall machine health. The economical approach to its design allows the coolant health monitor to be realizable for both small manufacturing enterprises (SMEs) and large manufacturers alike. This widespread implementation will further benefit industry's movement toward Internet-of-Things (IoT)-equipped manufacturing facilities.


At the heart of the legal battle between Epic Games and Apple is a set of restrictions Apple imposes on app developers. For instance, Apple prohibits the distribution of iOS apps outside of the App Store, which Apple fully controls. Apple similarly requires developers to exclusively use its own in-app payment system for app purchases and in-app purchases for digital content. Through this system, Apple automatically collects a 30% commission on all such transactions. Dissatisfied with these policies, Epic Games tried to use its flagship game Fortnite as leverage to convince Apple to open up its closed platform. After Apple refused, Epic Games violated the App Store rules by enabling its own payment method in the Fortnite iOS app on August 13, 2020. That same day, Apple removed Fortnite from the App Store and Epic Games filed an antitrust suit in a federal district court in California. Apple soon thereafter countersued for breach of contract. A yearlong trial ensued, the result of which is a 185-page decision, which was handed down by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers on September 10, 2021. This summary condenses the Epic Games v. Apple decision into a six-page overview covering all the main parts of the decision. Part I of the summary covers the findings of fact, which includes the Court's factual findings on the different product and geographic markets proposed by Epic Games and Apple, on the anticompetitive effects alleged by Epic Games, and on the business justifications put forward by Apple. Part II covers the application of the facts to the law and includes the Court's legal market definition and market power assessment, its findings under federal antitrust law (Sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act) and state antitrust law (California's Cartwright Act and Unfair Competition Law), and its breach of contract findings.


Background Folic acid is recommended to reproductive-aged women to prevent birth defects, though little is known about the effects of dietary intake on other reproductive outcomes. Improved pregnancy rates have been documented after folic acid supplement use, suggesting a possible link with ovulation, however research is limited. Our objective was to evaluate the association between dietary folate intake, hormone levels, and sporadic anovulation in healthy, regularly menstruating women. Methodology/Principal Findings The BioCycle study (2005–2007) prospectively followed 259 healthy women aged 18–44 years from the western New York region for up to 2 menstrual cycles. Total folate and specific sources of folate were assessed up to 4 times per cycle by 24-hour recall. Estradiol, progesterone, luteinizing hormone, and follicle-stimulating hormone were measured in serum up to 8 times per cycle, timed using fertility monitors. Anovulation was defined as a cycle with peak progesterone concentration ≤5 ng/mL and no LH peak in the mid/late luteal phase. Higher intake of dietary folate (in dietary equivalents) across tertiles had a marginally significant association with greater luteal progesterone levels (P trend 0.08). Higher intake of synthetic folate was significantly associated with higher luteal progesterone levels (P trend 0.05). Specifically, women in the 3rd tertile of synthetic folate intake had, on average, 16.0% (95% CI, 0.5–33.8%) higher luteal progesterone levels compared to women in the 1st tertile. Moreover, consumption of synthetic folate was significantly and inversely associated with anovulation such that women in the 3rd tertile had a 64% (95% CI, 8–86%) decreased odds of anovulation compared to the women in the 1st tertile (P trend 0.03). Conclusions/Significance These findings suggest that a diet high in synthetic folate may be associated with increased progesterone levels and lower risk of sporadic anovulation. Further study of the effect of dietary folate and folic acid supplement use on reproductive health is warranted.


Message flooding has been extensively used in wireless mobile ad hoc networks for activities such as route and resource discovery. This can potentially lead to high channel contention, causing redundant retransmissions and thus excessive packet collisions in the network. Such a phenomenon has been shown to greatly increase the network communication overhead and end-to-end delay. In this paper, we propose a probabilistic method of flooding that adjusts the forwarding probability at a node using its local topological characteristics. Our simulation analysis reveals that equipping a routing protocol with the proposed adjusted probabilistic flooding for route discovery can result in a significant reduction of routing control overhead while achieving good throughput.


: The objective of the investigation was to study the hemostatic system in patients with antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). The study enrolled 72 subjects (26 patients with APS (mean age 45.5 +/- 10.2 years) and their 46 relatives, including 37 and 9 first- and- second-degree relatives, respectively; mean age 29.5 +/- 16.4 years) from 26 families. A battery of standardized tests was used to evaluate the hemostatic system. At the examination, most relatives were found to have signs of thrombophilia: activated intravascular coagulation and suppressed fibrinolysis. The high detection rate for lupus anticoagulant (LA) amongst the relatives of patients with APS (39.1%) is likely to suggest its heritability. Logistic regression analysis showed the prognostic value of thrombocytic aggregatory disorders in the development of hemorrhagic manifestations, as well as an association of LA and thrombocytopenia.


"High risk high return" is a general rule in the overall industry; however, high-risk projects in the construction industry frequently fail to yield a high return. In order to achieve a sustainable business in the international construction market, contractors require an average to high return yield under high-risk conditions. This study aims to reveal what risk factors and risk management performance enables high-risk projects to yield high returns. The study investigated 124 international construction projects by Korean contractors and classified them into four groups: high-risk high-return (HH), high-risk low-return (HL), low-risk high-return (LH), and low-risk low-return (LL). The study found that risk assessment accuracy was the most important trigger in discriminating between high return projects (HH, LH) and low return projects (HL, LL), whereas risk mitigation performance showed little difference between high return and low return projects. In addition, the contingency amount did not significantly affect project return in HL, LH, and LL projects, but HH projects showed a positive relation between contingency and predicted risk amount. This article contributes to recognizing the differences between high return and low return projects and provides insights for practitioners into the relation between risk management performance and high returns in different risk conditions.


In multi-agent learning, agents must coordinate with each other in order to succeed. For humans, this coordination is typically accomplished through the use of language. In this work we perform a controlled study of human language use in a competitive team-based game, and search for useful lessons for structuring communication protocol between autonomous agents. We construct Pow-Wow, a new dataset for studying situated goal-directed human communication. Using the Pommerman game environment, we enlisted teams of humans to play against teams of AI agents, recording their observations, actions, and communications. We analyze the types of communications which result in effective game strategies, annotate them accordingly, and present corpus-level statistical analysis of how trends in communications affect game outcomes. Based on this analysis, we design a communication policy for learning agents, and show that agents which utilize communication achieve higher win-rates against baseline systems than those which do not.


The goal for this study is to examine cerebral autoregulation in response to a repeated sit-stand maneuver using both diffuse functional Near Infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and Transcranial Doppler sonography (TCD). While fNIRS can provide transient changes in hemodynamic response to such a physical action, TCD is a noninvasive transcranial method to detect the flow velocities in the basal or middle cerebral arteries (MCA). The initial phase of this study was to measure fNIRS signals from the forehead of subjects during the repeated sit-stand protocol and to understand the corresponding meaning of the detected signals. Also, we acquired preliminary data from simultaneous measurements of fNIRS and TCD during the sit-stand protocol so as to explore the technical difficulty of such an approach. Specifically, ten healthy adult subjects were enrolled to perform the planned protocol, and the fNIRS array probes with 4 sources and 10 detectors were placed on the subject's forehead to detect hemodynamic signal changes from the prefrontal cortex. The fNIRS results show that the oscillations of hemoglobin concentration were spatially global and temporally dynamic across the entire region of subject's forehead. The oscillation patterns in both hemoglobin concentrations and blood flow velocity seemed to follow one another; changes in oxy-hemoglobin concentration were much larger than those in deoxyhemoglobin concentration. These preliminary findings provide us with evidence that fNIRS is an appropriate means readily for studying cerebral hemodynamics and autoregulation during sit-stand maneuvers.


Abstract There are many dimensions to a look at ethics in climate change, the underlying science and the responses to societal challenges. The rapid changes occurring in the Earth's climate are impacting every part of our lives, economically, culturally and physically, and these are driving concerns about vulnerability, equity and justice. The good news is that the science is providing a clear message – climate change is one of the most important issues facing humanity and our planet. There is basically no debate about this conclusion any longer within the science community; this understanding is data-driven, based on extensive observations and associated analyses using many different research tools. Science shows that human influence has been the dominant cause of observed warming and other major changes in the Earth's climate since at least the mid-twentieth century. However, that doesn't keep misinformation and overstatement of remaining uncertainties from appearing in the news, social media or in various blogs, but to do so requires distortions and misrepresentations of the science, or refutation of the underlying premises for basic physics. Denial of climate change and why it is occurring adds its own ethical dimension. Finally, there are major ethical dilemmas complicating the debate of how to respond to the continuing changes in climate. How do we balance the rights and responsibilities of the developed and developing nations of our planet? How do we sort out the possible use of geoengineering approaches that are being proposed to reduce or reverse climate change and/or its adverse societal impacts? How do we assess our responsibility to future generations for the actions we take today and the resulting changes in climate they must live with? These are complex considerations requiring solutions that meet the needs of humanity across its many dimensions.


Sakya Paṇḍita (Sa-paṇ) (1182–1251), one of Tibet's most revered and influential philosophers, often complained about the inadequacies of his Tibetan rivals. This essay analyzes two passages from Sa-paṇ's Treasury of Reasoning (Tshad ma rigs pa'i gter) to display his belief that his contemporaries had adopted non-Buddhist approaches to the philosophy of language, and to explicate his attempts to return Tibetans to positions more reminiscent of Vasubandhu and Dharmakīrti. The first passage treated is Sa-pan. 's discussion of "appearance" (snang ba), in which he critiques the idea of granting "perceptual" status to what he deems conceptual constructions. The second passage contains Sa-paṇ's own view of the linguistic "signified" (brjod bya) and his karmically grounded causal theory of linguistic signification. Sa-paṇ's analyses help to illuminate the depths of a traditional Buddhist approach to language by refusing to cede its core assumptions in the face of more moderate, commonsense views.


Density Functional Theory (DFT) and the Conductor-like Screening Model (COSMO) have been employed to investigate the structural geometry and thermodynamical properties for the condensation reactions of aluminosilicates in the prenucleation of forming aluminosilicate zeolites. We report the relative structures and energies of clusters containing between one and six Si/Al atoms and the effect on them of the interplay of the Na+ ions and intramolecular hydrogen bonds. Our result reveals that with the exception of the dimer, "Lowensteinian" clusters (without the Al-O-Al linkage) are more energetically favourable than "non-Lowensteinian" clusters (which contain such bridges) in the gas phase. The stability of aluminosilicate clusters is strongly affected by the COSMO solvation, with the solvent influencing their conformations. In COSMO solvation, all the most stable clusters follow not only Lowenstein's rule, but also Dempsey's rule. The condensation reactions are involved key aluminosilicate species: the Si(OH)4 or Al(OH)4Na monomers and AlSiO(OH)6Na dimer, where we investigate reactions with the four, six, double four and double six rings to form a series of fused rings in both the gas phase and COSMO solvation. Our calculations suggests that the Al(OH)4Na monomer does not participate in these condensation reactions as such participation would generate structures that contradict Lowenstein's rule; in contrast, on the basis of our results we propose that the condensation reactions occur via the AlSiO(OH)6Na dimer. As a result, employing the AlSiO(OH)6Na dimer, which could be responsible for forming aluminosilicate aggregates studies the nucleation mechanism of zeolite A. the rational mechanism for nucleated self-assembly for zeolite A is that the double four ring, which is probably the main initial ring in the nucleation stage could be formed by the successive condensation reactions of the AlSiO(OH)6Na dimer, tetramer, four ring, four-four ring, tri-four ring, and open double four ring. Furthermore, to consider the alkalinity in the nucleation and crystal growth of aluminosilicate zeolites, our supposition is that the AlSiO2(OH)5Na2 dimer would play the key role in the relative condensation reactions for deprotonated open clusters (the dimers, trimers and tetramers) and rings (the four rings).


The study ascertained the determinants of catfish production in Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria having ascertained from literature that greater improvement in catfish production can be achieved with a proper analysis that will lead to knowledge of the profitability of catfish production in the country. Ascertaining the factors influencing catfish production in Akwa Ibom State of Nigeria was done based on this line of thinking. Data obtained from one hundred and twenty catfish farmers in Akwa Ibom State using multi-stage sampling procedure were analysed using descriptive statistics, budgeting technique and multiple regression. Findings reveal that 79.17% of the respondents were males, with an average age of 41 years; and 80% of them having formal education. The average monthly income of the respondents was N 32, 500.50 and their average year of fishing experience was four years. Results show that catfish production was profitable in the study area yielding a net income of N 18,539,760.00. The costs of fingerlings, pond construction, feed/chemicals, as well as fishing experience and amount spent on salary/labour were the significant factors influencing catfish production in the study area. It is recommended, among others, that catfish farmers in the study area be encouraged to form co-operatives to enhance their ability to access necessary inputs such as feed/chemicals at a subsidized rate. This will lead to an increase in the total revenue earned from catfish production.


Abstract. Relative to inorganic nitrogen, concentrations of dissolved organic nitrogen (DON) are often high, even in regions believed to be nitrogen-limited. The persistence of these high concentrations led to the view that the DON pool was largely refractory and therefore unimportant to plankton nutrition. Any DON that was utilized was believed to fuel bacterial production. More recent work, however, indicates that fluxes into and out of the DON pool can be large, and that the constancy in concentration is a function of tightly coupled production and consumption processes. Evidence is also accumulating which indicates that phytoplankton, including a number of harmful species, may obtain a substantial part of their nitrogen nutrition from organic compounds. Ongoing research includes ways to discriminate between autotrophic and heterotrophic utilization, as well as a number of mechanisms, such as cell surface enzymes and photochemical decomposition, that could facilitate phytoplankton use of DON components.


Guillaume Du Fay's Nuper rosarum flores (1436) has been subject to symbolic interpretation ever since Charles Warren suggested that the structure of the motet reflects the architectural proportions of the cathedral of Florence. More recent analyses have accepted the premise that the motet's form has extramusical meaning, in particular, that mensural and architectural proportions can be directly analogized. These tantalizing connections have led scholars to canonize this motet, now a mainstay of music history textbooks. The extent and specificity of the extramusical associations Nuper rosarum flores enjoys—an occasion, a place, and a secure attribution—are rare in the fifteenth century. This fact alone makes the motet appear to be exceptional. But reading Nuper rosarum flores alongside the norms of genre and notation and against the grain of the work's modern historiography suggests that it isn't all that special—or at least that it is no more special than Du Fay's other ceremonial motets. The interpretive history of Nuper rosarum flores exemplifies what I call "false exceptionalism," which relates to a more general problem in music studies—the alluring but often elusive relationship between musical form and social meaning.


A series of model magnets is being constructed and tested at Fermilab in order to verify the design of high gradient quadrupole magnets for the LHC interaction region inner triplets. The 2 m models are being built in order to refine the mechanical and magnetic design, optimize fabrication and assembly tooling, and ensure adequate quench performance. This has been carried out using a complementary combination of analytical and FEA modeling, empirical tests on 0.4 m mechanical assemblies and testing of model magnets during fabrication and under cryogenic conditions. The results of these tests and studies have led to improvements in the design of the magnet end restraints, to a preferred choice in coil end part material, and to a better understanding of factors affecting coil stress throughout the fabrication and operational stages.


In this paper, we present a systematic methodology for realizing desired sheet impedances of printable metasurfaces. This methodology allows independent control of the sheet reactance (capacitance and series inductance) and its resistance, even if the conductor properties as well as the dielectric substrate thickness and permittivity are fixed due to manufacturing process restrictions. The derived analytical formulas allow us to easily find the physical dimensions of conductive patterns, which implement the required surface impedance. Numerical verification of the method shows excellent agreement with the analytical predictions, allowing the design of an arbitrary impedance without any optimization process. The method can be applied for designing lossy and low-loss metasurfaces, which can be used for absorption and wavefront manipulation of electromagnetic waves. As a representative example, the design of thin perfect absorbers has been approached using the developed method. The results demonstrate that the methodology adapts various material sheet resistivity, opening new possibilities for the design of printable metasurfaces, where the sheet resistivity of conductor strongly depends on the specific printing method. Finally, an experimental validation of absorbers designed for millimeter waves and printed using reverse-offset techniques is presented. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time when reverse-offset printing has been used to provide well-working devices for short millimeter waves.


Background: Emotional intelligence (El1) is a relatively new construct
with varying models and conceptualisations. The main models are
cognitive 'Ability models' and non- cognitive 'Mixed models' (Mayer,
Roberts & Barsade, 2008). Criticism has been levelled at this new
construct including its associations with the construct of intelligence, and
measurement of the construct (Waterhouse, 2006a). Despite these
concerns El shows much potential as an intelligence related to social
interaction and one which can be improved upon as part of life- long
learning (Mayer, Salovey & Caruso, 2008). El has been linked to success
in life and academic performance (Jordan & Troth, 2004). Its relevance
has also been noted in Higher Education (HE) and a few research papers
exist in other disciplines exploring how to incorporate El into the HE
curriculum (e.g. Vandervoort, 2006). There is currently no research
available exploring the experiences of recently qualified Educational
Psychologists (EPs2) on training received in the area of El and on the
subsequent impact of this training on EP practice. There are currently no
published studies exploring the experiences and perceptions of trainee
EPs using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA3) research
methodology. Aims: The aim of the current study was to explore the training
experiences of recently qualified EPs in the area of EL The study aimed
to capture the individual experiences of EPs and the meaning they
attached to these experiences using IPA methodology (Smith, 2004).
Participants were encouraged to reflect fully on their experiences in
training and their subsequent experiences in the work place.
The Research Questions focused on: the perceptions and experiences of
recently qualified EPs on the usefulness of the construct El; their
perceptions of the training they received in this area; the perceived
influences of training received on subsequent practice and work with
schools; and their perceptions and experiences of current efforts going on
in the work place to develop emotional intelligence (El) and Emotional
Literacy (EL 4 ).
Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10
recently qualified EPs from a range of training courses. The verbatim
transcripts resulting from the interviews were then analysed using IPA
(Smith, 2004). Results: The analysis produced six Master themes. These were:
'Meaning making of the construct EF; 'Applying psychology to promote
Emotional intelligence'; 'Working with schools to promote EF;
'Developing and applying therapeutic skills'; 'Evidence based research'
and 'Experience of El in training received'.
Conclusions: The study produced an insight into the experiences of
recently qualified EPs on MSc courses in Educational Psychology of
training received in the area of EL These findings can be used to inform
the work of EPs in devising interventions and strategies in schools in this
area as well as offering suggestions on how to incorporate El into the
Doctoral training curriculum and other HE courses. Recommendations
are offered and areas for further study are identified.
Keywords: emotions; intelligences; emotional intelligence; emotional
literacy; emotional learning; interpretative phenomenological analysis
1 Emotional Intelligence will be referred to as El throughout this thesis
2 Educational Psychologists will be referred to as EPs throughout this thesis
3 Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis will be referred to as IPA throughout this thesis
4 Emotional Literacy will be referred as EL throughout the thesis


Movement impairments can significantly reduce a person quality of life. Simple tasks as eating, opening doorknobs or bathing represent some of the activities that are affected by this kind of disorders. The targeted group is represented by individuals that suffered a stroke and other neuromotor disabilities.

To regain partially or complete functionality of a limb, the rehabilitation is based on kinesiotherapy. Unfortunately, the growth of life expectancy and the number of population are the factors that make these methods insufficient for the current situation. The benefits of the therapy depend heavily on the settled objectives, duration and intensity of the training. Objectives are strongly connected with patient's health condition, resistance to effort and if the attention capability is affected. The main procedure is the intense repetitions of a certain type of exercises training regarding the relearning of the effective command, to increase physical condition or to reduce spasticity. The therapy can last from half an hour to 5 hours per day. In this conditions, having a therapist allocated per patient, cannot represent a viable solution.

There are a number of eLearning solutions that represent a viable approach for the current situation, complementary with classical therapy. At this point, the market has different solutions that vary in price and functionalities. In this study, the focus will be on the realizations, limits and future tendencies related with the utilization of these specialized devices. They are connected with complex technologies as functional electrical stimulation (FES), neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES), electromyography (EMG) and brain computer interface (BCI).

In conclusion, considering the number of devices described in literature, only a small number proved to be effective or available for usage for the large consumer market, as the majority of them have a high price and they are present only in specialized clinics. The analysis has as main purpose the identification of the drawbacks and advantages in current solutions to help developers create a device that can overcome those problems and to be available at an accessible price.


The reaction of [FeII(tpa)(OTf)2] (tpa=tris(2-pyridylmethyl)amine) and its related 5-Me3-tpa complex with hydrogen peroxide affords spectroscopically distinct iron(III)-peroxo intermediates in CH3CN and acetone. The reaction in acetonitrile at -40 degrees C results in the formation of the previously reported Fe(III)-OOH intermediate, the end-on hydroperoxo coordination mode of which is established in this paper by detailed resonance Raman isotope-labeling experiments. On the other hand, the reaction in acetone below -40 degrees C leads to the observation of a different peroxo intermediate identified by resonance Raman spectroscopy to be an FeIII-OOC (CH3)2OH species; this represents the first example of an intermediate derived from the adduct of H2O2 and acetone. The peroxoacetone intermediate decays more rapidly than the corresponding FeIII-OOH species and converts to an FeIV=O species by O-O bond homolysis. This decay process is analogous to that observed for [FeIII(tpa)(OOtBu)]2+ and in fact exhibits a comparable enthalpy of activation of 54(3) kJ mol(-1). Thus, with respect to their physical properties at low temperature, the peroxoacetone intermediate resembles [FeIII(tpa)(OOtBu)]2+ more than the corresponding FeIII-OOH species. At room temperature, however, the behavior of the Fe(tpa)/H2O2 combination in acetone in catalytic hydrocarbon oxidations differs significantly from that of the Fe(tpa)/tBuOOH combination and more closely matches that of the Fe(tpa)/H2O2 combination in CH3CN. Like the latter, the Fe(tpa)/H2O2 combination in acetone catalyzes the hydroxylation of cis-1,2-dimethylcyclohexane to its tertiary alcohol with high stereoselectivity and carries out the epoxidation and cis-dihydroxylation of olefins. These results demonstrate the subtle complexity of the Fe(tpa)/H2O2 reaction surface.


In 1993 Charles Bigelow and Kris Holmes published The design of a Unicode font. It was one of the first scholarly discussions of type design for multiple scripts, and likely coined the term harmonised design. Bigelow and Holmes defined the concept thus: 'By "harmonization", we mean that the basic weights and alignments of disparate alphabets are regularized and tuned to work together, so that their inessential differences are minimized, but their essential, meaningful differences preserved.' In 1993 the introduction of the Unicode standard provided the technological background which allowed this novel approach as fonts could now contain many thousands of characters. And just as Unicode aspired to be the single, universal encoding standard of the world, now it became tangible to create typefaces with unified typographic representations of many of the world's scripts. Harmonised type design was soon widely embraced, copied and promoted, and was received with little, if any, critique. Bigelow and Holmes' assertion that 'harmonization seems like a desirable goal' appears to have been a view which was widely shared in the trade, and harmonisation became an established concept. This article revisits the notion of harmonised type design 20 years after its inception. It critically assesses the origin of the concept, identifies its parallels to modernist design ideas, and queries its applicability in different typographic scenarios. Some limits of the concept of harmonised type design are discussed and different interpretations of designing type for multiple scripts are briefly mentioned.


During the 150th anniversary celebrations of the American Civil War, the Emancipation Proclamation, and 13th Amendment to the United States Constitution, it is fitting to focus attention on the life of Harriet Tubman, New Yorker by choice, self-liberated former slave, religious evangelical Underground Railroad conductor, and Civil War scout and nurse. However, we may never know who the real Harriet Tubman was. There is even debate over her signature achievement as a conductor on the Underground Railroad leading enslaved Africans to freedom in the North and Canada. The number of trips she made to the South is not well documented and estimates range between seven and nineteen, although fourteen is probably the more accurate figure. Similarly, there is disagreement about the number of people she rescued on these trips, from sixty to almost four hundred. (2) The highly regarded Black Abolitionist Papers credit Tubman with "at least nine during the 1850s to lead some 180 slaves to freedom ..." (3) Tubman's star as a major historical actor has risen and fallen in the past 150 years. (4) In 1994, the heavily maligned National Council for History proposed U.S. History standards, overwhelmingly rejected by a vote of the U.S. Senate, that included six references to Harriet Tubman but none for Paul Revere, Thomas Edison, Alexander Graham Bell, or the Wright blothers. (5) However, in 2006, when Atlantic magazine asked a panel of ten eminent historians to identify the 100 most influential figures in American history, Harriet Tubman did not make a list that included ten other women, four white abolitionists, and eight African Americans. On this list, Bell ranked as the 24th most influential American, the Wright brothers 23rd, and Thomas Edison 9th. (6) One reason we may never know who the real Harriet Tubman was is because her life has been reconstructed based on limited historical evidence to make what are essentially political points. I find it is useful to compare her tale to accounts of the life of Malcolm X. There is Ossie Davis' noble Black Prince, (7) the changeling portrayed by Alex Haley in Malcolm's "autobiography," (8) Spike Lee and Denzel Washington's much cooler and composed movie version, (9) and the Malcolm buried beneath a mountain of information in Manning Marable's definitive and encyclopedic biography. (10) Similarly, Harriet Tubman has been depicted in messianic terms as the Moses of her people and the Black Joan of Arc, portrayed as the noble Queen of the Underground Railroad, described using military parlance as General Tubman, and been presented as a much simpler and maternal Mother Tubman or Aunt Harriet. (11) One of the most power iterations of Harriet Tubman is a painting by Jacob Lawrence with a youthful looking, strong, upright, and barefoot Harriet wearing a red blouse and white skirt while holding a pistol in her hand as she pushes and leads a band of fugitive slaves to freedom. (12) Surviving photographs provide us with very different images Tubman. One photograph historian Kale Clifford Larson dates to 1887 or 1888 (other accounts differ), show her with a group of African Americans, three children, two adult males, and an elderly woman. (13) Tubman, to the far left in the picture, is hunched over, her shoulders facing inward. She holds a washing bowl in front of her and wears a long simple dress and a round-brimmed hat. This is certainly not the ferocious heroine portrayed by Lawrence. There also survive a posed headshot of Tubman and at least five full-length portraits, two standing, and three sitting, as well as a widely-circulated woodcut from the first edition of the Sarah Bradford biography. Tubman portrayed as a Civil War scout carrying a rifle. (14) One of the full-length portraits shows Tubman dressed in plain but formal dress with a neck scarf. This picture probably was intended as a publicity shot for books. The most intriguing photograph, circa 1895, shows Tubman wearing a headscarf and looking much more like a veteran of the anti-slavery campaigns and the Civil War. …


The Cox process is a stochastic process which generalises the Poisson process by letting the underlying intensity function itself be a stochastic process. In this paper we present a fast Bayesian inference scheme for the permanental process, a Cox process under which the square root of the intensity is a Gaussian process. In particular we exploit connections with reproducing kernel Hilbert spaces, to derive efficient approximate Bayesian inference algorithms based on the Laplace approximation to the predictive distribution and marginal likelihood. We obtain a simple algorithm which we apply to toy and real-world problems, obtaining orders of magnitude speed improvements over previous work.


Abstract The Upper Cretaceous Alderson Member (Lea Park Formation) of Western Canada produces prolific amounts of biogenic gas from what is dominantly a fine-grained, low-permeability interval. This production has been thought to depend on the presence of laminated and bedded sandstones. However, several bioturbated intervals contain abundant silt and sand-filled burrows and likely contribute to the overall reservoir. A case study from the Hatton gas field area of southwest Saskatchewan documents the depositional setting of the Alderson Member and clarifies the contribution of biogenic permeability to production in an overall tight-gas play. In the study area, the Alderson Member encompasses eight facies, the numbering of which follows that of previous workers in the region: Facies 2A (Phycosiphon-dominated sandy mudstone); Facies 2B (sandy mudstone bearing a mixed-ethology assemblage); Facies 2C (burrow-mottled sandy mudstone); Facies 3A (interlaminated fine-grained sandstone, siltstone and mudstone); Facies 3B (bioturbated heterolithic bedding); Facies 4 (low-angle cross-stratified sandstone); Facies 5 (massive-appearing sandy shale); and, Facies 6 (conglomerate/massive medium- to coarse-grained sandstone). Facies successions are consistent with deposition in mud-rich, shallow offshore (shore-margin) and deltaic coastline settings. Shore-margin deposits comprise subtly upward coarsening and shallowing successions that, in ascending order, comprise organic-rich, bioturbated mud (F2A), heterolithic bedding (F3 and F4), and potentially root-bearing sandy mudstone (F5). Delta-margin successions record a gradual vertical increase in organic matter content, sedimentation rates, and wave influence as Phycosiphon-dominated sandy mudstone (F2A) grade vertically into interlaminated mudstone and sandstone (F3A), bioturbated heterolithic bedding (F3B), and thin intervals of low-angle, cross-stratified fine-grained sandstone (F4). Facies 4, 5 and 6 exhibit low permeabilities and are not likely contributors to overall gas production. The highest permeability values are associated with sand-dominated Facies 3 (2 to 7 × 101 md), and slight permeability enhancement was observed in Facies 2A (2 × 10−1 to greater than 1 md). Due to the local 3-D morphology of the dominant trace fossil (Phycosiphon), the bioturbated units constitute a comparably isotropic flow media. At the reservoir scale, these beds are likely variable in thickness (decimetre- to metre-scale) and dominantly planiform. The burrowed media can be characterized as a dual-porosity unit in which the large total surface area of burrows interacts extensively with gas-bearing matrix and likely contributes to overall gas deliverability.


An increasing amount of polysomnographic studies are performed in early infancy. Complete pediatric sleep laboratory systems are commercially available and provide fast and exhaustive results if operated by trained personnel. Experience in evaluation is necessary, because a broad range of possible diagnostic findings exists, and artifacts are common. Based on longitudinal studies in 31 healthy infants, we present reference values for several polysomnographic parameters. Aberrant results must be interpreted in the context of patient's history, clinical state, and additional laboratory findings. In presence of a clearly defmed indication for polysomnographic testing, clear therapeutic and interventional strategies can be derived. Possible consequences include the stimulation of the respiratory drive by drugs with subsequent polysomnographic control of therapeutic effect, a transfusion, the prescription of a home monitor, and the recommendation of further diagnostics or of control polysomnographies. In conclusion, infant polysomnography is an important diagnostic tool in pediatrics.


The study was aimed at investigating the morphology of capillaries in four skin and muscle biopsy specimens obtained from CADASIL patients. In all cases diagnosis confirmed at the ultrastructural level, and additionally in three cases, the genetic test revealed the Notch3 gene mutations. Using histological and immunohistochemical (IHC) markers for components of capillary vessel wall we showed the reduction and loss of pericytes and and fibrous vessel wall including the thickened basement membrane. The thorough ultrastructural study revealed the presence of widespread GOM deposits in capillary wall, but less numerous than in arterioles. They were located in the vicinity of pericytes and also in pericyte infolding like vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMC) in arterioles. Sometimes GOM deposits were observed near endothelial cells. The endothelial cells, damaged but not lost, were also observed while most of capillaries revealed only residual pericytes. The destruction and loss of pericytes in capillary wall, like those of VSMC in arteriole wall, was the main vascular pathology in our the examined cases consistent to that pericytes functionally correspondent to VSMC. The Notch3 receptor is expressed on VSMC and pericytes, the results of our study confirm that in capillaries devoid of VSMC, pericytes are the primary morphological target of the Notch3 gene mutation. It should be indicated that in diagnostic ultrastructural examinations of skin and/or skeletal muscle biopsies, not only arterioles but also capillaries, occurring in a larger amount, should be thoroughly analysed, because such an approach may facilitate the detection of GOM deposits - the pathognomonic feature of CADASIL.


In this paper, a high-conversion-ratio bidirectional dc–dc converter with coupled inductor is proposed. In the boost mode, two capacitors are parallel charged and series discharged by the coupled inductor. Thus, high step-up voltage gain can be achieved with an appropriate duty ratio. The voltage stress on the main switch is reduced by a passive clamp circuit. Therefore, the low resistance RDS(ON) of the main switch can be adopted to reduce conduction loss. In the buckmode, two capacitors are series charged and parallel discharged by the coupled inductor. The bidirectional converter can have high step-down gain. Aside from that, all of the switches achieve zero voltage-switching turn-on, and the switching loss can be improved. Due to two active clamp circuits, the energy of the leakage inductor of the coupled inductor is recycled. The efficiency can be further improved. The operating principle and the steady-state analyses of the voltage gain are discussed. Finally, a 24-V-input-voltage, 400-V-output-voltage, and 200-W-output-power prototype circuit is implemented in the laboratory to verify the performance.


In this paper, we study the effects of EU economic integration on the financial characteristics of French, German, and U.K. manufacturing firms by using the MANOVA (Multivariate Analysis of Variance) technique. Our cross-sectional test results for the December 31, 1990-December 31, 1994 and December 31, 2000-December 31, 2004 periods indicate that the differences between the financial characteristics of manufacturing firms in different EU member countries are decreasing. The asset and equity returns of manufacturing firms in different member countries are becoming similar due to economic integration and increased competition over time.


This paper presents a novel concept of distributed energy resource and consumption management, which proposes to design a networked and embedded platform for realizing a dynamic energy mix and optimizing the energy consumption dynamically. Based on heterogeneous wireless sensor networks and a local Web of Things platform, the environmental parameters and energy data can be acquired and processed in a distributed manner in real time. In order to improve understanding on how different environmental factors and user behaviors influence the end use of energy, we propose a User Profiling module to investigate the characterization of user's goals and behaviors in terms of energy consumption. Besides the wireless sensor networks, the User Profiling module acquires data also from a questionnaire which mainly concerns four categories, i.e. characteristics of the residents, electrical appliances, attitudes towards energy and building structural information. Furthermore, based on the real-time information from the sensor network platform and the user profiling module, an embedded Resource and Consumption Controller will then adapt automatically for instance the regulation processes of energy consumption in a household locally for the users, so that the costs of all energy resources will not exceed the predetermined budget and be regulated in a user-preferred way.


The antilipolytic effects of N6-phenylisopropyladenosine and of prostaglandin E2 were studied with adipocytes of obese volunteers before and after 4 weeks of severe energy restriction [1250 kJ (300 cal)/day] in the presence and absence of adenosine deaminase (1.6 micrograms/ml, corresponding to 320 m-units/ml). The studies were undertaken to define more clearly the role that local modulators might play in adaptation of lipid mobilization to starvation in humans. Starvation was associated with an approx. 3-fold increase in non-stimulated lipolysis. Removal of endogenous adenosine resulted in a similar increase in basal glycerol release under both conditions, averaging 2 and 2.2 mumol/180 min per 10(6) cells respectively. The sensitivity of the cells to N6-phenylisopropyladenosine and to prostaglandin E2 was not changed by starvation in the presence of adenosine deaminase. These results are discussed in terms of the possible role that local regulators might play during dietary adaption in human fat-cells in vitro.


A series of 20 women with a previous ventral (incisional) hernia repair underwent successful hysterectomy by the vaginal route and 17 of them also underwent prophylactic oophorectomy or salpingo-oophorectomy, all without laparoscopic assistance. There was no trauma to the bladder or the rectum and the hernia repair remained intact. They were adequately counselled on the possibility of a switch to laparotomy or laparoscopic assistance.


This paper mainly investigate the accuracy of the computed drag on the DLR-F6 Wing-Body configuration, and analyze effect of grid and the turbulence models including the Spalart-Allmaras model, Wilcox's k-ω model and Menter shear-stress transport model on aerodynamic forces for wing-body configuration. The computed results show that grid refinement has little effect on the pressure distributions, significant effect on drag. The turbulence models have certain effects on the pressure distributions, especially positions of the shock wave. They have obvious effects on drag, particularly friction drag. This study shows that performing the CFD calculation at the same angle-of-attack as experiment resulted in good comparisons with wing surface pressures.


This paper addresses the significantly importance of quality assurance system in the distance higher education. The quality assurance system for distance higher education has long been set up and perfected in U.S. and U.K focusing on quality accreditation and learning supportive services. By means of comparison, this paper points out some problems of distance higher education in China such as: low recognition of learning quality, poor management system, dislocation of evaluation bodies, inexplicit standards of quality assurance and weak learning supportive services. The paper suggests that the higher educational institutions in China should be more open to the world and join in the international quality accreditation, based on the learner-centered teaching model, to establish a distance quality assurance system that is suitable to China.


Preface The Goal of This Book: With-It-Ness for All Teachers Who This Book Is For What With-It-Ness Is Not Overview of the Contents Special Features of This Book Acknowledgments About the Author Introduction The "Big Idea" of 3 + 3 = 33 How to "Coach" Motivated and Attentive Students The Research Support for 3 +3 = 33 Definitions You Need to Know How the With-It Teachers Were Identified How With-It Teachers Teach Acronyms You Need to Know What's Ahead? 1. Creating Spaces for Teaching and Learning The Challenges of Creating a Supportive Learning Environment How to Allocate, Arrange, and Use Classroom Space How, Where, and With Whom Your Students Sit With-It Teachers' Roundtable: Classroom Seating What's Ahead? 2. Creating Walls That Work With-It Teachers Roundtable: Using Your Walls Wisely How With-It Teachers Use Their Walls to Support Learning What's Ahead? 3. How to Teach the 3Rs: Routines, Rubrics, and Rules How to Maximize Academic Learning Time How to Become a With-It Teacher How With-It Teachers Teach the 3Rs With-It Teachers' Roundtable: Teaching the 3Rs How With-It Teacher Choose Their Teaching Models How With-It Teachers Use the Teaching Moves What's Ahead? 4. Routines That Develop Self-Discipline Organizational Routines With-It Teachers' Roundtable: Organizational Routines Academic Routines Social Routines What's Ahead? 5. Rubrics That Raise Expectations and Achievement What Is a Rubric? What Is a Checklist? What Is a Rating Scale? How With-It Teachers Use Rubrics How With-It Teachers Use Checklists How With-It Teachers Use Rating Scales Using a Rubric, Checklist, or Rating Scale to Motivate Student Performance What's Ahead? 6. Rules and Rewards That Build Character and Motivation The Challenge of Choosing the Third R: Rules (and Rewards) The Basics Approaches to Discipline What Works and What Doesn't? With-It Teachers Roundtable: Rules and Rewards What's Ahead? 7. How to Develop a 3 + 3 = 33 Plan Step 1: Get Organized Step 2: Answer Questions and Write a Reflective Essay Step 3: Arrange Your Space and Choose a Seating Plan Step 4: Design Your Walls Step 5: Choose and Analyze Your Routines, Rubrics, and Rules Step 6: Develop Lesson Plans Step 7: Write a Detailed Lesson Plan for the First Day of School What's Ahead? Resource A: With-It Teacher's List Attention Getters for Off-Task Students Attention Getters for Whole Group Instruction Bulletin Board List Ways to Check for Understanding Homework Helpers for Upper Grade and Secondary Teachers Noise Breakers Signals That Silence Students Time-Savers for Every Teacher Time-Savers for Elementary Teachers Time-Savers for Secondary Teachers Organizational Routines for Elementary Teachers Organizational Routines for Secondary Teachers Rewards (Tangible But Not Edible) Rewards (Intangible) Rewards (Low-Sugar or No-Sugar Treats) Social Routines Resource B: With-It Teacher Questionnaire Introduction Directions for Completing the Questionnaire Resource C: Respondents References Index


Positive communication is communication that is able to develop its positive potency of children. Positive communication is built to form the fabric of a child's personality that will also be established between parents and children. It can cultivate emotional intelligence. Of course, these two things will make a valuable provision for children's development in the future. While missed communication would cause them uneducated and ignorant. Failure in communicating would normally make a child called weird or crazy. Actually there are a few tips to succeed in realizing the potency of the child's qualified personality, such as provide exemplary son, make the house as a science park, provides a vehicle for creativity, avoid negative emotions and always pray for children to be always given a good personality and mental health. Later in the development potency of the child's personality can also be affected by a variety of factors. One of them is the positive communication patterns of parents towards their children (get them to always communicate in a positive environment). If the communication patterns of parents are bad, the negative impact will be felt by the child as well.


Background The use of the technologies in the everyday life brings benefits and risks, being a lot of them in home. According to the World Health Organisation, 90% of injuries to young children occur in or around home. Burns being in this place, the most frequent injury in Mexico. Methods Multidimensional unfolding is a technique that maps ranking data into a low-multidimensional space that allows for a visual comprehension of the data. 28 parents of Guadalajara, Mexico (15 mothers, 13 fathers), were asked about frequency of use of technologies; involving cooking equipment, light, and heat sources. Then they sorted them in a series of cards, by three different criteria: perceived risk, benefits and the necessity for law implementation in their use. Results The most used technologies were gas stove, lighter, water heater, iron, matches and microwave. The least used technologies were oil lamp, fireworks, wood stove, gas grill and electric grill. The three perceptual maps obtained have two dimensions, which show two sets of objects each: the subjects (the sample of 28 parents) as numbers, and the objects (each technology) as labels. Parents perceived: more risks from fireworks and wood stove; most benefits from gas stove, water heater, and microwave; and the need of laws for fireworks. Conclusions Laws are one of the most efficient ways to get people to adopt safe behaviours. Although it is important to consider that, people are more willing to accept laws for those things that they do not use or perceive as beneficial. In this case, parents did not use fireworks and also perceived them as risky without benefit and with the necessity of laws. Unlike the gas stove, being the most used, perceived with more benefits; without risks, and no need for laws. This is the first exploration in Mexico about the theme. An overwhelming majority of burns occur in house and kitchen; it requires further research about overconfidence and optimism bias around technologies.


A wireless sensor network (WSN) comprises a large number of wireless sensor nodes. Wireless sensor nodes are battery-powered devices with limited processing and transmission power. Therefore, energy consumption is a critical issue in system designs of WSNs. In-network data fusion and clustering have been shown to be effective techniques in reducing energy consumption in WSNs. However, clustering can introduce bottlenecks to a network, which causes extra delays in a data aggregation process. The problem will be more severe when in-network data fusion does not yield any size reduction in outgoing data. Such problems can be greatly alleviated by modifying the network structure. In this paper, a delay-aware network structure for WSNs with in-network data fusion is proposed. The proposed structure organizes sensor nodes into clusters of different sizes so that each cluster can communicate with the fusion center in an interleaved manner. An optimization process is proposed to optimize intra-cluster communication distance. Simulation results show that, when compared with other existing aggregation structures, the proposed network structure can reduce delays in data aggregation processes and keep the total energy consumption at low levels provided that data are only partially fusible.


Nowadays firms have to react quickly to changing markets creating a need for accurate forecasts of demand and supply. In a data-rich environment as it is within the field of supply chain management, much information needs to be stored, processed, and transformed for decision making. To deal with the increasing amounts of data, firms must be aware of chances in supply chain management such as supply chain analytic capabilities to stay agile, flexible, and make use of (complex) data. Supply chain analytics can predict patterns and trends, even in high velocity markets in real-time supporting decision making by using supply chain analytic tools based on data. The benefits of successfully implementing supply chain analytic processes are enormous and result in competitive advantages for companies such as lowering costs while increasing revenues. As many companies fail to apply supply chain analytic processes and tools, this paper examines the challenges, benefits, and factors for the introduction of supply chain analytics using the input-output model


The selection of Jatropha curcasfor drought tolerance is one of the key points prior to growing the species extensively on marginal lands. The objective of this study was to determine drought tolerant genotypes based on morphological and physiological characters. The research consisted of two experiments. The first experiment was aimed at determining the moisture content of the media to generate drought stress. The experiment was arranged in a split-plot design with moisture content as the main plot and genotypes as sub-plot. Four level of moisture contents were tested, i.e. 22-23%, 27-28%, 32-33%, and 37-38%. The genotypes tested (9) were Dompu-1, Gunung Tambora, Bima (representing genotypes from dry areas); Aceh Besar, IP-2P, Komering (representing genotypes from wet areas); and IP-1M, Papua, Yogyakarta (representing genotypes from moderately dry areas). The result showed that 22-23% moisture content of the media was suitable for drought tolerance test in Jatropha curcas. The second experiment was screening of genotypes using the suitable media moisture content from first experiment. Twenty three genotypes were screened for drought tolerance under 22-23% media moisture content. The result show that Dompu-2, Indralaya and China were tolerant to drought; Sukabumi-1, Sukabumi-2, Pidi, Lahat, Kupang, Lampung-2, Lampung-3, Sumba, IP-2M, and IP-2A genotypes were moderately tolerant; Curup, Bogor-1, Bogor-2, Bogor-3, Pontianak, Pagar Alam, Palembang, Saweli, Jeneponto, and Medan genotypes were sensitive to drought. Plant height, leaf water content, leaf area and percentage of plant survival can be used as indicators of drought tolerance for seedling selection using a non-destructive method. Keywords: drought tolerance, genotypes, Jatropha curcas, screening


This manuscript examines the patterns of information communication technology (ICT) use with friends and family outside of the home during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the associations among ICT use and psychological (i.e., loneliness; stress) and social (i.e., social needs; relationship maintenance) wellbeing. In early May 2020, a representative panel of American adults was surveyed (N = 1,947). Results suggest that despite 90% of the sample complying with shelter-in-place (SIP) orders, face-to-face contact with friends and family outside of the home was the primary predictor of getting one's social needs met and mitigating loneliness. In contrast with predictions drawn from media richness theory, voice calls were associated with less stress, loneliness, and relationship maintenance difficulties, while video chat was positively associated with all three. Moderation analyses suggested that other factors (i.e., SIP, age) influenced the strength of association between modalities (i.e., face-to-face, email, social media) and outcomes. The theoretical implications for MRT and the practical implications for mediated sociality during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic are discussed.


Deep graph learning has achieved remarkable progresses in both business and scientific areas ranging from finance and e-commerce, to drug and advanced material discovery. Despite these progresses, how to ensure various deep graph learning algorithms behave in a socially responsible manner and meet regulatory compliance requirements becomes an emerging problem, especially in risk-sensitive domains. Trustworthy graph learning (TwGL) aims to solve the above problems from a technical viewpoint. In contrast to conventional graph learning research which mainly cares about model performance, TwGL considers various reliability and safety aspects of the graph learning framework including but not limited to robustness, explainability, and privacy. In this survey, we provide a comprehensive review of recent leading approaches in the TwGL field from three dimensions, namely, reliability, explainability, and privacy protection. We give a general categorization for existing work and review typical work for each category. To give further insights for TwGL research, we provide a unified view to inspect previous works and build the connection between them. We also point out some important open problems remaining to be solved in the future developments of TwGL.


This paper presents an analysis on the free vibration of a shell structure of rectangular cross-section. The shell of rectangular cross-section is modeled by four rectangular panels elastically connected at right angles under general boundary conditions. With the general boundary and coupling conditions accounted for several groups of linear springs, the double series solutions for both flexural and in-plane vibrations are obtained by employing the Rayleigh-Ritz method and the validation of the calculations is proved by comparing the eigenpairs with the Finite Element Method results. It is shown that the mode shapes of the rigidly coupled model perform a symmetrical feature.


A definition of network entropy is presented, and as an example, the relationship between the value of network entropy of ER network model and the connect probability p as well as the total nodes N is discussed. The theoretical result and the simulation result based on the network entropy of the ER network are in agreement well with each other. The result indicated that different from the other network entropy reported before, the network entropy defined here has an obvious difference from different type of random networks or networks having different total nodes. Thus, this network entropy may portray the characters of complex networks better. It is also pointed out that, with the aid of network entropy defined, the concept of equilibrium networks and the concept of non-equilibrium networks may be introduced, and a quantitative measurement to describe the deviation to equilibrium state of a complex network is carried out.


Biodiesel is one of the promising renewable sources to fulfill the future energy demand of the world. Sustainable feedstock for biodiesel production is one of the major criteria to ensure the process of renewability. Chicken fat is an encouraging feedstock for biodiesel. In this study, waste chicken fat was converted to biodiesel via catalysed transesterification. Optimised process parameters were recorded at 1:4 oil-to-methanol volume ratio and 0.5 wt% KOH catalyst concentration with a biodiesel yield of 96%. The FT-IR spectral analysis of chicken fat and chicken fat biodiesel confirmed the conversion of chicken fats into biodiesel. The physico-chemical properties of biodiesel were tested in accordance with ASTM D6751 and EN 14214 biodiesel standards. The specific fuel properties of chicken fat biodiesel that include calorific value, viscosity and acid value were found to be lower than that of petrodiesel. The diesel engine performance tests confirmed that the biodiesel blends performance was similar to petrodiesel.  It is noted that while the brake horsepower increased with the increase of biodiesel blending percentage, the engine power output was found to decrease. Specific fuel consumption also increased along with the biodiesel blending percentage.


Treatment of cultured oligodendrocytes (OLGs) with micromolar quantities of myelin basic protein (MBP) caused a rapid, MBP‐dose dependent cell death. In contrast, a 72‐hr incubation of OLGs with MBP peptides (1–44, 47–87, 88–151, or 152–167) at comparable concentrations had no effect on cell viability. MBP and MBP peptides (1–44 and 88–151) have been shown to interact with ganglioside GM1 (Tzeng et al.: J Neurochem Res: 42:758–767, 1995). This interaction has been reported to increase calcium influx. Therefore, using the fluorescent dye Indo‐1 and an ACAS laser cytometer, we examined the level of intracellular calcium in OLGs after MBP treatment. MBP was shown to provoke a rapid, dramatic, and sustained rise of intracellular calcium in most OLGs. The levels of elevated intracellular calcium were sustained and did not return to baseline even after 10 min. This increase of intracellular calcium was suppressed in the presence of EGTA, indicating that the [Ca2+]i rise was due to the entry of extracellular calcium. Incubation of cultured OLGs with MBP peptides (1–44 or 88–151) caused a modest and transitory elevation of intracellular calcium ions in a lower percentage of OLGs. The potent OLG cytotoxicity of intact MBP and the loss of potency after proteolysis raise the possibility that MBP proteolysis during demyelination protects OLGs from death. ©1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Cardiovascular disease continues to be the leading cause of morbidity and mortality among the postmenopausal women. Several randomized clinical trials to determine whether hormone replacement therapy (HRT) has a cardioprotective role and several others are currently underway. The results' however were controversial. During the past 3 years, a number of randomized clinical trials have investigated the role of HRT in primary and secondary prevention of clinical and anatomical manifestations of atherosclerosis and the clinical results suggest that HRT can not decrease cardiovascular events or slow down the development of atherosclerosis in women with established coronary heart disease (CHD). In contrast, HRT has been showed to possibly effective in women without CHD as primary prevention.


Multicomputer cache simulation results derived from address traces collected from an Intel iPSC/2 hypercube multicomponent are presented. The primary emphasis is on examining how increasing the number of processor nodes executing a parallel application affects the overall multicomputer cache performance. The effects on multicomputer direct-mapped cache performance of application-specific data partitioning, data access patterns, communication distribution, and communication frequency are illustrated. The effects of system accesses on total cache performance are explored, as well as the reasons for application-specific differences in cache behavior for system and user accesses. Comparing user code results with full user and system code analysis reveals the significant effect of system accesses, and this effect increases with multicomputer size. The time distribution of an application's message-passing operations is found to more strongly affect cache performance than the total amount of time spent in message-passing code. >


Long-period magnetotelluric data acquired in the Iberian Massif and the Betic Cordillera arched orogen provide the first evidence of electrical anisotropy in the upper mantle of the Mediterranean region. Strike analysis at different periods reveals preferred structure orientation related to olivine elongation in the mantle, and points to a heterogeneous anisotropy pattern. At deep levels (periods ≥104 s), all the sites show a common north-south geoelectrical strike (∼N170°E), which may represent a low-intensity deformation, possibly related to "frozen" prealpine plate tectonics. For periods between 10 and 103 s, a north-south constant strike (∼N180°E) at the Betic Cordillera sites contrasts with the east-west strike (∼N85°E) in the Iberian Massif. An increase in the magnitude of the induction arrows from the Iberian Massif to the inner part of the Betic Cordillera probably reflects higher deformation toward the axis of the Eurasian-African plate boundary. The integration of electrical anisotropy data with seismic anisotropy allows us to discuss mantle deformation patterns produced by delamination and subduction, suggesting that the latter mechanism may be more suitable for the alpine evolution of the western Gibraltar Arc.


The authors have studied the evolution of serum transferrin concentration in relation with age (newborn child, infant, adult). The mean concentration of serum transferrin is the lowest for neonates (2.15 g/l). At 10 months, it increases to reach a value of about 3.10 g/l then reduces at 24 (3.0 g/l) and 48 months (2.8 g/l). By the 4 to 18 years subjects, serum transferrin is approaching that of 10 months children (3.15 g/l). At last it doesn't support any modification during all the adult life. The diversity of the obtained results dependent of the used technique and/or of the laboratory, justifies that each one defines his own reference values.