Model checking is a powerful approach to verification of distributed systems. The sweep-line method alleviates the inherent state explosion problem in model checking by exploiting progress in the system being verified. Verification with the sweep-line method has until now been restricted to verification of safety and linear-time properties. The contribution of this paper is a new model checking algorithm that enables verification of two common branching time properties. The basic idea is to combine the sweep-line method with on-the-fly computation and inspection of strongly connected components. We experimentally evaluate our algorithm on a communication protocol.


I argue that it is not possible to give an adequate account, within a Scanlon-style contractualist moral theory of the moral duties to reciprocate benefits one has received from others and to compensate harms one has done to others. The problem, very simply put, is that there is no room within such a theory for the fact that the content of these obligations must be proportionate to the value of the actions that bring them into being in the first place. As a consequence, I point to a wider a moral about contractualism. This is that while that doctrine may provide an adequate account of obligations that we have to others on account simply of their status as persons, it cannot handle obligations that arise as a response to actions that these others, or we ourselves, have performed.


Purpose
One of the most important Information Security (IS) concerns nowadays is data theft or data leakage. To mitigate this type of risk, organisations use a solid infrastructure and deploy multiple layers of security protection technology and protocols such as firewalls, VPNs and IPsec VPN. However, these technologies do not guarantee data protection, and especially from insiders. Insider threat is a critical risk that can cause harm to the organisation through data theft. The main purpose of this study was to investigate and identify the threats related to data theft caused by insiders in organisations and explore the efforts made by them to control data leakage.

Design/methodology/approach
The study proposed a conceptual model to protect organisations' data by preventing data theft by malicious insiders. The researchers conducted a comprehensive literature review to achieve the objectives of this study. The collection of the data for this study is based on earlier studies conducted by several researchers from January 2011 to December 2020. All the selected literature is from journal articles, conference articles and conference proceedings using various databases.

Findings
The study revealed three main findings: first, the main risks inherent in data theft are financial fraud, intellectual property theft, and sabotage of IT infrastructure. Second, there are still some organisations that are not considering data theft by insiders as being a severe risk that should be well controlled. Lastly, the main factors motivating the insiders to perform data leakage activities are financial gain, lack of fairness and justice in the workplace, the psychology or characteristics of the insiders, new technologies, lack of education and awareness and lack of management tools for understanding insider threats.

Originality/value
The study provides a holistic view of data theft by insiders, focusing on the problem from an organisational point of view. Organisations can therefore take into consideration our recommendations to reduce the risks of data leakage by their employees.


Abstract We propose firm-level measures of exposures to macroeconomic risks that substantially improve out-of-sample robustness compared to standard estimation approaches. Systematic equity strategies constructed from such measures offer more consistent macro exposures out of sample than strategies that allocate across sectors or equity-style factors. We do not find significant cost to the performance of such systematic strategies in exchange for targeting exposures to macroeconomic risks, such as interest rates, term spread, credit spread, or inflation. Our methodology can be used to construct equity portfolios for investors who have hedging demands or active views regarding macroeconomic conditions.


In managing the patient with valvular heart disease (VHD), three major issues must be addressed: (1) assessment of the severity of disease, (2) the effect the disease is having or is likely to have on the patient and his/her cardiovascular system, and (3) the timing and type of intervention to be used to correct the lesion. Existing guidelines are helpful in addressing these tenets in many cases, often using quantifiable parameters to aid the clinician in making key clinical decisions. Many times these guidelines allow the physician and patient to arrive easily at a management strategy. However, in other cases it may take every piece of available data to develop a management plan that is still only a best guess at the proper course to take. Overall, the indications for intervention in VHD are straightforward: valvotomy (in mitral stenosis), or valve repair or valve replacement is indicated when severe VHD causes symptoms or cardiac dysfunction. In some cases, low-risk intervention such as mitral valve repair may be undertaken in the absence of symptoms or dysfunction when it seems inevitable that deterioration will occur because of markedly severe disease. These assessments are rarely made using one test and usually require the integration of all the clinical acumen that can be summoned to address the issues above. The following will summarize the general approach to the assessment of VHD severity, impact, and timing of intervention, with attention paid to the specifics of each individual disease.


BACKGROUND
Melanoma of the foot is often discussed as an uncommon tumor which, when it occurs, presents in nonwhite races.

STUDY DESIGN
The tumor registry of a 650 bed community teaching hospital and the Connecticut Tumor Registry were retrospectively reviewed for the nine-year period from July 1980 to July 1989. Patient age, race, sex, incidence of misdiagnosis, and delay until definitive therapy were recorded. Tumor location, size, staging, follow-up, recurrence, and disease-free survival rates were also recorded and correlated with initial disease, stage, and misdiagnosis or delay.

RESULTS
Twenty-six cases were identified at Bridgeport Hospital, and 140 cases were identified in the Connecticut Tumor Registry. Significant delay in diagnosis occurred in 68 percent of the cases from the hospital and at least 16 percent of the cases in the state tumor registry. Regardless of stage, melanoma of the foot had a worse prognosis than melanoma of the thigh and lower leg. Delays in diagnosis had no demonstrable effect on clinical outcome.

CONCLUSIONS
Melanoma of the foot is not as rare as commonly suspected, and constituted 3 percent of the 4,562 melanomas reported in the state tumor registry for the nine-year period. The majority were in fair-skinned individuals, and misdiagnosis was common. It is the inherent aggressiveness of the tumor rather than the delay in diagnosis that accounts for the poor clinical outcome.


Cancer is one of the most the gravest problems facing mankind. In 2008, it is estimated that over 7.6 million lives have been claimed by cancer. Early and precise detection plays a key role in treating the disease and improve survivability of patient. Among data classification algorithms, discrete particle swarm optimization (DPSO), a technique based on standard PSO has proved to be competitive in predicting breast cancer, and in this paper, we implement a classifier using DPSO with new rule pruning procedure for detecting lung cancer and breast cancer, which are the most common cancer for men and women. Experiment shows the new pruning method further improves the classification accuracy, and the new approach is effective in making cancer prediction.


A DFT/TDDFT method was applied to explore the geometrical, electronic and photophysical properties of the recently reported oxazoline- and thiazoline-containing iridium(III) complexes [(ppy)2Ir(oz)] (1) and [(ppy)2Ir(thoz)] (2). The calculated absorption and emission wavelengths are in agreement with experimental data. Based on complexes 1 and 2, a series of Ir(III) complexes 3, 4, 5 and 6 with different N^O ligands have been designed. The calculated results reveal that the different ancillary ligands not only affect the absorption spectra properties but also tune the emission colour. Compared with 2, the higher quantum yield of the experimental observation for 1 was explained by its larger MLCT contribution and smaller singlet–triplet splitting energy (ΔES1–T1). From this point of view, the designed complexes 3, 5 and 6 are expected to be potential phosphorescence emitters in OLEDs with high quantum efficiency.


In this thesis, ageing in a commercial pouch cell for vehicle application is investigated through lifetime testing and modelling. The lifetime tests investigate the impact of temperature, current, depth of discharge (DOD) and state of charge (SOC). Results from lifetime tests are used in the development of an empirical ageing model, to study the ageing as a result of different user cases in a vehicle application. The results showed that the battery lifetime in a vehicle application could be prolonged, without interfering with the driving itself, by better planning of the charging. Lifetime test results and ageing analysis of the tested cells are used as guidance for the development of a physics-based ageing model. The model includes capacity loss and resistance increase due to resistive film formation and loss of active material. The lifetime test results showed that for the studied cell, staying below 40% SOC level will improve the lifetime considerably. This was seen in both the calendar ageing tests and the cycling ageing tests. The lifetime tests performed in small SOC intervals at different SOC levels showed that the ageing is separated into two groups, with more pronounced ageing at high SOC and less ageing at low SOC.   The main ageing contribution is the growth of Solid Electrolyte Interphase (SEI), which is also the case seen in the model when using parameters for the SEI growth extracted from calendar ageing data. The more pronounced ageing at higher SOC levels can partly be explained by the SEI growth that is increased at higher SOC level and partly from the contribution of manganese dissolution. This was confirmed by Post Mortem (PM) analysis and successfully captured by the model.


Abstract Objective. Previous studies have revealed distinct features of autism, with higher harm avoidance and lower reward dependence and novelty seeking. It is assumed that high harm avoidance, and low novelty seeking, reward dependence, cooperativeness, and self-directedness are related with the broad autism phenotype, as seen in autistic individuals. Method. This study examined the association between the Temperament and Character Inventory (TCI) and the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ), in parents of children with ASD. Result. There was significant correlation between total AQ and total harm avoidance, cooperativeness, and self-directedness (p < 0.05). In the stepwise analysis, self-directedness and education emerged significantly (F(2,67) = 19.71, p < .005). This model modestly explained 35% of variance (Adjusted R2 = .350). Conclusion. Our findings suggest that self-directedness may be an autistic trait.


The use of low-cost transducers such as piezoelectric diaphragms in structural health monitoring (SHM) applications based on the electromechanical impedance (EMI) method has grown in recent years. Although many studies report the feasibility of such transducers for impedance-based damage detection, the experiments are typically performed on small structures. Therefore, the objective of this work is to perform an experimental analysis of the feasibility of the piezoelectric diaphragms for the detection of damage in large structures. Several tests were carried out on a large aluminum plate in which a diaphragm was attached. The electrical impedance signatures of the transducer were collected and a basic damage index was calculated in order to verify the feasibility of quantifying the size of the damage at different distances from the transducer. The experimental results indicate that the piezoelectric diaphragms have a good sensitivity to provide a damage size classification in large structures. In addition, the sensitivity to damage detection and classification decrease as the distance between the transducer and the damage increases. Therefore, the results reported in this study indicate that low-cost piezoelectric diaphragms are feasible for impedance-based SHM applications in large structures.


Characterization of groundwater contamination sources is a complex inverse problem. This inverse problem becomes complicated, due to the nonlinear nature of the ground‐ water flow and transport processes and the associated natural uncertainties. The math‐ ematical challenges arise due to the nonunique characteristics of this problem resulting from the nonunique response of the aquifer system to a set of stresses and the possibil‐ ity of instead locating only local optimal solutions. The linked simulation‐optimization model is an efficient approach to identifying groundwater contamination source charac‐ teristics. Efficiency and accuracy of the search for optimum solutions of a linked simu‐ lation‐optimization depend on the utilized optimization algorithm. This limited study focuses on the application and efficiency of simulated annealing (SA) as the optimiza‐ tion algorithm for solving the source characterization problem. The advantages in using adaptive simulated algorithm (ASA) as an alternative are then evaluated. The possibility of identifying a local optimal solution rather than a global optimal solution when using SA implies failure to solve the source characterization inverse problem. The cost of such inaccurate characterization may be enormous when a remediation strategy is based on the model inferences. ASA is shown to provide a reliable and acceptable alternative for solving this challenging aquifer contamination problem.


A recent brief in the Journal of the American Medical Association argues that the patient-centered model is gaining international evidence and support. The brief cites a recent international study by the Commonwealth Fund that, every three years, surveys adults with complex medical care needs about their medical experiences. The survey, which includes patients from North America, Europe, Australia and New Zealand, found that patients report greater satisfaction and better coordinated care when their physicians are: accessible,knowledge about the patient's medical history, andinvolved in the coordination of care. Although there is no explicit, consensus definition of patient-centered care, it appears that that the most effective medical care is integrated and coordinated at the level of primary care (whether in a medical home or a physician's office), and is culturally and personally appropriate for the individual patient. Studies like that conducted by the Commonwealth Fund, and from agencies and groups such as the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative, will hopefully build a body of research evidence that can be use as the basis for affordable and effective medical care. Source: Mitka, M (2012). Patient-centered medical homes offer a model for better, cheaper health care. JAMA 307(8): 770-771.


In the context of the rapid development of the cultivation of genetically modified soybeans in Argentina, we conduct a hedonic analysis of agricultural land values. The main objective is to evaluate the impact of land tenure systems and agricultural practices on these values. Data on 338 parcels, located in the Pampas region, are analyzed. The tenure appears to be a particularly important variable. We find that plots rented either by physical persons or by companies are negatively valued in relation to plots owned. Results also highlight the importance, though not to a large degree, of a diversified cropping pattern compared to soybean monoculture. Soil quality, location of the plots, distance to markets, as well as to the nearest city, were also found to affect land values.


Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is highly resistant to conventional chemotherapy. The presence of both cellular and stromal fibronectin (FN) and its interaction with integrins is necessary for PDAC progression. We tested the efficacy of endothelial monocyte-activating polypeptide II (EMAP II) to inhibit PDAC progression and its ability to interfere with FN-integrin angiogenesis signaling. In heterotopic PDAC tumors EMAP II caused a significant reduction (>65%) in tumor growth, accompanied by a >50% and 44% decrease in microvessel density and proliferative activity, respectively. EMAP II therapy caused a 62% and 56% reduction in host and tumor cell FN expression. Cultured PDAC cells expressed aVb3 and a5b1 integrins. In vitro EMAP II had limited antiproliferative effects on ASPC-1, but a pronounced antiproliferative effect on endothellial cells. 3D FN matrices increased ASPC-1 cell proliferation by > 50%, and this induction was significantly blocked by a3, a5, a6 and aV integrin funtional blocking antibodies, while a1, a2 and a4 antibodies had no effect. EMAP II also inhibited 3D FN-matrix induced ASPC-1 proliferation by >43% at 20 mM. These findings suggest that EMAP II demonstrates significant antitumor activity against PDAC cells, and that this effect may be in part mediated through targeted interference with stromal FN-integrin dependent PDAC cell proliferation.


BACKGROUND
In addition to increasing stool weight, supplements of psyllium seed husk produce stools that are slick and gelatinous.

OBJECTIVE
Our purpose was to test the hypothesis that a gel-forming fraction of psyllium escapes microbial fermentation and is responsible for the characteristics that enhance laxation.

DESIGN
Fifteen healthy adults consumed controlled diets for two 7-d periods, one of which included 8.8 g dietary fiber provided by 15 g/d of a psyllium seed husk preparation. All stools were collected and evaluated and diet was monitored throughout.

RESULTS
Psyllium significantly increased the apparent viscosity of an aqueous stool extract, stool moisture, and wet and dry stool weights. A very viscous fraction, not present in low-fiber stool and containing predominantly 2 sugars that are also found in abundance in psyllium husk, was isolated from psyllium stool.

CONCLUSIONS
In contrast with other viscous fibers that are fermented completely in the colon, a component of psyllium is not fermented. This gel provided lubrication that facilitated propulsion of colon contents and produced a stool that was bulkier and more moist than were stools resulting with use of comparable amounts of other bowel-regulating fiber sources.


Proteoglycans were isolated from cartilage by extraction with 4M-guanidinium chloride followed by direct centrifugation in 4M-guanidinium chloride/CsCl at a low starting density, 1.34 g/ml. N-Ethylmaleimide was included in the extraction solvent as a precaution against contamination of proteoglycans with unrelated proteins mediated by disulphide exchange. A novel, discrete, low-buoyant-density proteoglycan (1.40--1.35 g/ml) was demonstrated by sodium dodecyl sulphate/polyacrylamide-gel electrophoresis. Its proteoglycan nature was revealed by the shift in the molecular size observed on gel electrophoresis after treatment with chondroitinase ABC. The core protein was monodisperse. The proteoglycan was further purified by gel chromatography with and without addition of hyaluronate. The proteoglycan constitutes less than 2% (by weight) of the total extracted proteoglycans and is not capable of interacting with hyaluronate. The same proteoglycan was purified in larger quantities by sequential associative and dissociative CsCl-density-gradient centrifugation, zonal rate sedimentation in a sucrose gradient and gel chromatography on Sepharose CL-4B. The pure proteoglycan had a molecular weight of 76 300 determined by sedimentation-equilibrium centrifugation and an apparent partial specific volume of 0.59 ml/g. It contained about 25% protein (of dry weight) and had remarkably high contents of leucine and cysteine as compared with other proteoglycans. The proteoglycan contained two to three large chondroitin sulphate chains and some oligosaccharides.


Summary of findings Younger Americans—those ages 16-29—exhibit a fascinating mix of habits and preferences when it comes to reading, libraries, and technology. Almost all Americans under age 30 are online, and they are more likely than older patrons to use libraries' computer and internet connections; however, they are also still closely bound to print, as three-quarters (75%) of younger Americans say they have read at least one book in print in the past year, compared with 64% of adults ages 30 and older. Similarly, younger Americans' library usage reflect a blend of traditional and technological services. Americans under age 30 are just as likely as older adults to visit the library, and once there they borrow print books and browse the shelves at similar rates. Large majorities of those under age 30 say it is "very important" for libraries to have librarians as well as books for borrowing, and relatively few think that libraries should automate most library services, move most services online, or move print books out of public areas. At the same time, younger library visitors are more likely than older patrons to access the library's internet or computers or use the library's research resources, such as databases. And younger patrons are also significantly more likely than those ages 30 and older to use the library as a study or "hang out" space: 60% of younger patrons say they go to the library to study, sit and read, or watch or listen to media, significantly more than the 45% of older patrons who do this. And a majority of Americans of all age groups say libraries should have more comfortable spaces for reading, working, and relaxing.


The objective of this research is to operate a robot arm via the Internet network, which is called "Telerobot Arm or (TRA)". The robot arm is connected with a server computer via a parallel port and it is controlled by a client computer via the Internet network by the webcam guidance. The server and client computers are located at different campuses with distance of around 20 kilometers. The whole robot arm is made of plastic. Therefore, it has some limitation to hold a heavy object. The experiments are conducted on three different tasks, which are 1) hold a small box and put it into a small basket, 2) push a bottle of water, and 3) hold a bottle of water. The experiments have given a very attractive result.


Objectives: Extensive changes are taking place in working life as organizations adjust to an increasingly competitive climate. The fact that work intensification and job stress may not only affect employee health and well-being but may also have detrimental consequences for the organization has attracted growing recognition in recent years. As a result, many organizations are actively implementing healthy work practices and engage in activities that may make them more socially responsible. Corporate social responsibility activities that are directed at employees often involve issues of personal fulfilment and work-related development. The aim of the present study was to evaluate how employees' perceptions of such practices relate to their work-related attitudes, behaviour, and well-being. Methods: Data are being collected among all 600 employees of an accountant firm that has placed great emphasis on implementing healthy work practices. The data collection is currently being completed and postal questionnaires have been returned by approximately 70 percent of the employees. The survey includes measures on various factors reflecting employees' evaluations of the organization's work practices, in domains such as opportunities for participation, organizational justice evaluations, supportive leadership, employee recognition, and prospects of growth and development at work. The ambition is to supplement the range of self-reported outcome measures (work-related attitudes, behavior, and well-being) with performance and sickness absence data from company records. Results: Preliminary results of multiple regression analysis indicate that employee evaluations of healthy work practices may have important implications for their levels of job satisfaction and commitment to the organization. In addition, the preliminary analyses found healthy work practices to be positively related to work-related behaviour (self-reported performance and intention to remain in the organization) as well as well-being (mental and physical). Implications & Conclusion: Engagement in corporate social responsibility related activities can make an organization more attractive to both current and prospective employees. Employees would rather choose a company that, for example, has good personnel policies and protects employees' health in comparison with a company that does not. These practices also have a positive impact on employee performance and well-being.


UNLABELLED
The aim of the study was to answer the question whether there are differences in the progression of the disease and its morphology, dependent of the patient's age, as well as show colorectal cancer differences between young and elderly patients.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
During the period between 2009 and 2011, 747 patients with rectal carcinoma, and 478 with colon cancer underwent surgery at the Department of General and Colorectal Surgery. The study group comprised patients under the age of 40 years (56 patients) and >80 years (90 patients). The following were subject to analysis: gender, tumor location, percentage of radical and palliative procedures, clinical and histopathological staging, as well the differences in the morphology of the tumor. The χ2 test and Yates' correction were used for statistical analysis. p<0.05 was considered as statistically significant.

RESULTS
A higher incidence of rectal carcinoma was observed in younger patients (p=0.004). Amongst the younger patients 30.3% were diagnosed with stage III cancer, while 35.7% with stage IV. In case of elderly patients 30.6% were diagnosed with stage III cancer, while 30.7% with stage IV. In 53.3% of young patients, local lymph node metastases were observed, while in the elderly 41.8%. No statistically significant difference was observed, considering the total number of lymph nodes metastases. However, in case of stage N2, results were unfavorable for young patients 31.8% vs 17% in case of the elderly. Mucogenic adenocarcinoma incidence was similar in both groups. In case of patients< 40 years we observed a higher incidence of poorly differentiated tumors, as compared to the elderly patients (>80 years).

CONCLUSIONS
1. It is necessary to create appropriate prevention programs for young community, and improvement of public awareness in this age group. 2. Colorectal cancer (CRC) in young patients is often recognized in advanced stage. 3. A high percentage of unresectable tumors in group of elderly patients shows that CRC is still diagnosed too late in Poland.


The erythrocyte receptors for S-fimbriated Escherichia coli, which causes sepsis and meningitis in newborn infants, were investigated. Neuraminidase and trypsin treatments of erythrocytes abolished the hemagglutination ability of the bacteria. To identify the receptor glycoproteins, we separated erythrocyte membrane proteins by gel electrophoresis, blotted them to nitrocellulose, and incubated them with 125I-labeled bacteria. The only bacterium-binding bands identified corresponded to glycophorin A dimer and monomer, and the binding was abolished by neuraminidase treatment of the blot. Radiolabeled bacteria also bound to purified glycophorin A adsorbed to polyvinyl chloride microwells, and the binding was inhibited by other sialoglycoproteins and isolated sialyloligosaccharides containing the NeuAc alpha 2-3Gal sequence. Oligosaccharides which contain the NeuAc alpha 2-3Gal beta 1-3GalNAc and NeuAc alpha 2-3Gal beta 1-3(NeuAc alpha 2-6)GalNAc sequence and which are identical to the O-linked saccharides of glycophorin A were twofold more effective inhibitors of binding than were other oligosaccharides containing the NeuAc alpha 2-3Gal sequence. The replacement of sialic acid in asialoerythrocytes with a purified Gal beta 1-3GalNAc alpha 2-3 sialyltransferase, which forms the O-linked NeuAc alpha 2-3Gal beta 1-3GalNAc sequence in asialoglycophorins, restored bacterial hemagglutination. These results indicated that the major erythrocyte receptor for S-fimbriated E. coli is the NeuAc alpha 2-3Gal beta 1-3GalNAc sequence of the O-linked oligosaccharide chains of glycophorin A.


Delayed seedling emergence can negatively affect plant recruitment. Recent work has shown that some species with innate seasonal requirements for germination can have seedling emergence delayed, depending on the season of fire. The impact of this delay, which is in relation to both resprouters and seedlings of species that emerge independent of season, remains unknown. I assessed delayed emergence and subsequent impacts on post-fire recruitment success of three Leucopogon species, which all display a seasonal emergence pattern related to their physiological dormancy. Intra-population comparisons showed that both small (1–6 months) and much larger (12–15 months) delays of emergence reduced seedling survival and growth, and increased the time taken for plants to reach maturity. Fire season induced delays produced very similar results, with higher mortality and slower growth after winter fires compared with post-summer fire cohorts. Seasonal emergence patterns, associated with seed dormancy and germination cues, may therefore provide a mechanism that determines the variation of recruitment success after fires in different seasons. A better understanding of the relationship between fire season and timing of emergence of physiologically dormant species would be timely considering the forecast widening of the fire season due to climate change.


To realize systematic analysis for electromagnetic susceptibility (EMS), forecast for electromagnetic compatibility (EMC), a modeling method on electromagnetic interference coupling path of digital relay in power system was presented. The simulated model of electromagnetic interference coupling path can be gotten by this method through the system identifying according to the experiment data. A mathematical modeling of the input port of alternate current (AC) signal in digital relay under electrical fast transients (EFT) interference was also been constructed according to the input and output response of this module measured by oscillograph. Good agreements between the simulated result and the measurements demonstrate the validity of this modeling method.


Video traces containing the sizes and (PSNR) qualities of the individual frames of a video encoding are a convenient video representation for the evaluation of video networking mechanisms. These video traces can be used to find the frame loss probabilities of a lossy networking mechanism, but can not give the PSNR video quality after lossy network transport. To date the video quality after lossy network transport could only be determined through experiments with actual video or by approximating the quality of the frames affected by a loss with some low PSNR quality. In this paper we introduce and evaluate offset distortion traces with which the video quality after lossy network transport can be accurately determined without requiring experiments with actual video. We explain how the offset distortion traces can be used by networking researchers without equipment or experience in video signal processing to accurately evaluate video networking mechanisms in terms of the PSNR video quality.


By taking the failure surface as a combination of the arc of a logarithmic spiral and a straight line, passive earth pressure coefficients in the presence of horizontal pseudostatic earthquake body forces have been computed for an inclined wall placed against cohesionless backfill material. The presence of seismic forces induces a considerable reduction in the passive earth resistance. The reduction increases with an increase in the magnitude of the earthquake acceleration. The effect becomes more predominant for loose sands. The obtained results compared well with those reported in the literature using curved failure surfaces. However, the results available in the literature on the basis of a planar failure surface are found to predict comparatively higher passive resistance.


The current struggles over US military bases and territorial sovereignty in the Pacific, wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the phenomenon of globalization, alongside what is being called the "end of the American Century," have pushed interdisciplinary scholars to develop new frameworks for engaging US Empire. The paper attempts to draw out the various figurations of "Philippine Studies" and "US empire" in the papers, which may include analyses of comparative colonialisms, class and participation in social justice movements, as well as the intersections between globalization and imperial conquest. By considering the papers' insights on disciplinary formation and knowledge practices, the present analysis will also attend to their entanglements with contemporary articulations of exceptionalism and containment. The paper is especially interested in how recent incarnations and positionings of Philippine Studies generate insight on notions of the unique, particular, special, and relational that have intellectually and institutionally structured colonial discourse and critique.


Polar magnets are important materials in fundamental science and technology. However, the requirements for a polar nature are generally incompatible with those for magnetism, and thus there are few polar magnets. At the order and disorder boundaries of cations in ABO3 compounds, two polar ferromagnets of ScFeO3 with polar-corundum-type and LiNbO3-type structures were previously prepared by high-pressure synthesis. Here, we prepared a third ScFeO3 polar ferromagnet with an YMnO3-type structure using a heteroepitaxial film technique and characterized its physical properties. The YMnO3-type ScFeO3 film on a perovskite electrode showed a ferroelectric P–E hysteresis loop with Pr ∼ 4.9 μC cm−2. Only YMO-type ScFeO3 has switchable polarization by the external electric field among the three ScFeO3 polar magnets. Magnetic measurements confirmed weak ferromagnetism (TN = 195 K), which is the highest observed in the hexagonal family.


In the literature, a strong preference towards pharmacological management with oral phosphodiesterase type 5 (PDE5) inhibitors has been demonstrated in men with erectile dysfunction (ED) versus other methods. However, following pharmacological management, a large proportion of men with ED discontinue treatment prematurely. Therefore, a better understanding of the expectations from, and demands on modern ED management from both the patients and their partners is needed in order to identify factors that may improve outcomes, patient adherence, and patient satisfaction with therapy. Thus, we will present new findings on patient and partner satisfaction and preferences, and discuss how the current pharmacological armamentarium can answer these needs.


This paper addresses the issue of image segmentation. Image segmentation process is the main basic process or technique used in various image processing problem domains, for example, content based image retrieval; pattern recognition; object recognition; face recognition; medical image processing; fault detection in product industries; etc. Scope of improvement exists in the following areas: Image partitioning; color based feature; texture based feature, searching mechanism for similarity; cluster formation logic; pixel connectivity criterion; intelligent decision making for clustering; processing time; etc. This paper presents the image segmentation mechanism which addresses few of the identified areas where the scope of contribution exists. Presented work basically deals with the development of the mechanism which is divided into three parts first part focuses on the color based image segmentation using k-means clustering methodology. Second part deals with region properties based segmentation. Later, deals with the boundary based segmentation. In all these three approaches, finally the Steiner tree is created to identify the class of the region. For this purpose the Euclidean distance is used. Experimental result justifies the application of the developed mechanism for the image segmentation. Keywords-image segmentation, k-means clustering, steiner tree, region growing


Markov Decision Processes (MDPs) provide an extensive theoretical background for problems of decision-making under uncertainty. In order to maintain computational tractability, however, real-world problems are typically discretized in states and actions as well as in time. Assuming synchronous state transitions and actions at fixed rates may result in models which are not strictly Markovian, or where agents are forced to idle between actions, losing their ability to react to sudden changes in the environment. In this work, we explore the application of Generalized Semi-Markov Decision Processes (GSMDPs) to a realistic multi-robot scenario. A case study will be presented in the domain of cooperative robotics, where real-time reactivity must be preserved, and synchronous discrete-time approaches are therefore sub-optimal. This case study is tested on a team of real robots, and also in realistic simulation. By allowing asynchronous events to be modeled over continuous time, the GSMDP approach is shown to provide greater solution quality than its discrete-time counterparts, while still being approximately solvable by existing methods.


The effects of reaction environments on the radical-scavenging mechanisms of ascorbic acid (AscH2) were investigated using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH•) as a reactivity model of reactive oxygen species. Water-insoluble DPPH• was solubilized by β-cyclodextrin (β-CD) in water. The DPPH•-scavenging rate of AscH2 in methanol (MeOH) was much slower than that in phosphate buffer (0.05 M, pH 7.0). An organic soluble 5,6-isopropylidene-l-ascorbic acid (iAscH2) scavenged DPPH• much slower in acetonitrile (MeCN) than in MeOH. In MeOH, Mg(ClO4)2 significantly decelerated the DPPH•-scavenging reaction by AscH2 and iAscH2, while no effect of Mg(ClO4)2 was observed in MeCN. On the other hand, Mg(ClO4)2 significantly accelerated the reaction between AscH2 and β-CD-solubilized DPPH• (DPPH•/β-CD) in phosphate buffer (0.05 M, pH 6.5), although the addition of 0.05 M Mg(ClO4)2 to the AscH2-DPPH•/β-CD system in phosphate buffer (0.05 M, pH 7.0) resulted in the change in pH of the phosphate buffer to be 6.5. Thus, the DPPH•-scavenging reaction by iAscH2 in MeCN may proceed via a one-step hydrogen-atom transfer, while an electron-transfer pathway is involved in the reaction between AscH2 and DPPH•/β-CD in phosphate buffer solution. These results demonstrate that the DPPH•-scavenging mechanism of AscH2 are affected by the reaction environments.


The number of base station location impacts the network quality of service.A new method is proposed based on immune genetic algorithm for site selection.The mathematical model of multi-objective optimization problem for base station selection and the realization of the process are given.The use of antibody concentration selection ensures the diversity of the antibody and avoiding the premature convergence,and the use of memory cells to store Pareto optimal solution of each generation.A exclusion algorithm of neighboring memory cells on the updating and deleting to ensure the Pareto optimal solution set of the distribution.The experiment results show that the algorithm can effectively find a number of possible base station and provide a solution for the practical engineering application.


Sustainable tourism and rural development are much examined research areas. Within
these, the importance of community-centric approaches is becoming more and more
recognised; however, specific research upon which community-centric development
strategies could be built seems to be lacking. This thesis addresses this research gap
with the aim to explore the nature of co-operative tourism and its potential towards
sustainable rural tourism development in India from a stakeholder perspective.
A literature review demonstrated the benefits of co-operatives as a sustainable
business model, particularly for poor communities of developing countries; however,
a clear gap emerged with regard to investigating tourism and co-operatives in the
same context. This research contributes to filling this gap in knowledge and outlines
the clear theoretical benefits of adopting a co-operative business model as a
community-centric approach to tourism in the context of rural India, while also
pointing out considerable challenges in its practical implementation, such as possible
limitations to the ability for self-help.
Fifty qualitative semi-structured interviews were carried out with stakeholders of a
co-operative tourism project in two states of India: Uttarakhand and West Bengal.
Twenty-six of these were conducted with farmers who are members of the tourism
co-operatives presented in this study, ten with members of the wider community in
which the project took place and fourteen with tourism professional and academics
local to the areas. Focus was put on in-depth exploration of participants' experiences,
implying qualitative methods and a phenomenological research approach.
The findings revealed a clear theoretical advantage of a co-operative approach to
tourism development, which has potential to address and alleviate many of the
challenges associated with tourism and host communities, and which is intensified in
poor peripheral areas. However, there are significant practical challenges, which need
to be addressed in order for this comparative advantage to translate into practice.
These challenges are manifested in a sense of dormancy in the participants, a lack of
skills and significant language difficulties. A limit to the principle of self-help, which
is inherent to co-operative activities, was identified as creating effective marketing
links and hence, requiring ongoing external support.
This research study makes an interdisciplinary contribution to the literature on
sustainable tourism, rural development and co-operative studies. In addition, it
provides a starting point for further empirical research on the co-operative business
model as an approach, which has not yet been sufficiently conceptualised for tourism.
Furthermore, it contributes to the wider debate on sustainable rural development
through tourism. Future research could usefully investigate how the challenges
identified in this study, such as limitations to the principle of self-help, lack of
initiative in participants and creating marketing linkages could be addressed.


Cooperatives have been regarded as one of the main institutional machineries for empowering the economically weak members of the society. Despite the availability of cooperative societies, it appears that a significant proportion of rural women are either unaware of the existence of such co-operative societies or are lacking in the basic socioeconomic characteristics that form the prerequisite for participation in such activities. The study therefore examined the level of participation of women in cooperative organization and its determinants in the study area. The study was conducted in Yewa North Local Government area of Ogun State, south-west rainforest zone of Nigeria in 2011 using two stage sampling techniques to select 180 respondents. Descriptive statistics and Logit regression analysis were used to analyze the data generated. The results showed that pressure from household head, insufficient fund and low membership were found to be the major problems militating against women participation in cooperatives. Logit regression analysis revealed positive and significant relationships between variables such as education, years of business experience and forms of cooperative (producers and credit and thrift) and these variables were the major determinants of participation in cooperative society. Based on the findings of this study, it is recommended that any policy that will further increase the level of education of women would increase their participation in cooperative society.


This paper examines whether multinational banks have a stabilising or a destabilising role during times of financial distress. With a focus on Europe, it looks at how these banks' foreign affiliates have been faring during the recent financial crisis. It finds that retail and corporate lending of hese foreign affiliates has been stable and even increasing between 2007 and 2009. This patterns related to the functioning of the internal capital market through which these banks funnel funds across their units. The internal capital market has been an effective tool to support foreign affiliates in distress and to isolate their lending from the local availability of financial resources, notwithstanding the systemic nature of the recent crisis. This effect has been particularly large within the EU integrated financial market and for the EMU countries, thus showing complementarity between economic integration and multinational banks' internal capital markets. In light of these findings, this paper supports the call for an integration of the European supervisory and regulatory framework overseeing multinational banks. The analysis is based on an analytical framework which derives the main conditions under which the internal capital market can perform this support function under idiosyncratic and systemic stresses. The empirical evidence uses both aggregate evidence on foreign claims worldwide, and firm-level evidence on the behaviour of banking groups' affiliates, compared to standing alone national banks.


Public schools have generated some of the most far reaching cases to come before the Supreme Court. They have involved nearly every major civil right and liberty found in the Bill of Rights. The cases are often reflections of larger societal ills and anxieties, from segregation and immigration to religion and civil discourse over war. In that respect, they go to the core of the nation's values. Yet, constitutional law scholars have largely ignored education law as a distinct area of study and importance.

Justin Driver's book cures that shortcoming, offering a three dimensional view of how the Court's education law jurisprudence as evolved over the past century. The Court, once loath to intervene in school affairs, increasingly recognized that students' constitutional rights do not end at the schoolhouse gate. But that extension has not without been without limitations, pause or controversy. Driver vividly narrates both the Court's internal conversations and those occurring in broader society. Most importantly, Driver helps the reader see how the Court's decisions were not preordained, could have gone a number of different ways, and heavily influenced the history that followed.

The Book Review, however, argues that no account of the Court's education precedent is complete without a detailed examination of how the Court's decisions have affected equal opportunity. The attempt to ensure equal educational opportunity is ultimately the tie that binds so much of the Court's precedent. Unfortunately, the Court's doctrine on this score has not been one of consistent expansion. In fact, too often the Court has limited students' rights and, thus, the educational opportunities they receive. This failure is clearest in two areas: those cases implicating a constitutional right to education and school desegregation.


This study investigates an asynchronous switching state feedback control problem for discrete impulsive switched delay systems with average dwell time. A novel time-varying multi-Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional approach is adopted to establish the control synthesis conditions that guarantee the exponential stability of the closed-loop systems. The relation between the upper bound of asynchronous switching delay and the stability conditions is also explicitly given, and the overall conservativeness of the stability results is improved over the existing results. A numerical example is provided to illustrate the effectiveness of our theoretical results, where the comparison with the existing results demonstrates significant improvement using the proposed method.


Micromanipulation was used to obtain an isolate (BEN 52) of Eikelboom Type 1851 from a bulking activated sludge plant. Its 16S rDNA sequence reveals its closest relative is 'Roseiflexus castenholzii', a member of the phylum 'Chloroflexi', class 'Chloroflexi', previously called the green non-sulfur bacteria. The 16S rRNA targeted oligonucleotide probe designed for fluorescence in situ hybridisation against this sequence successfully identified filamentous bacteria with the morphological features of Type 1851 in activated sludge samples from plants in several countries and different operational configurations.


Clustering algorithms have emerged as an alternative powerful meta-learning tool to accurately analyze the massive volume of data generated by modern applications. In particular, their main goal is to categorize data into clusters such that objects are grouped in the same cluster when they are similar according to specific metrics. There is a vast body of knowledge in the area of clustering and there has been attempts to analyze and categorize them for a larger number of applications. However, one of the major issues in using clustering algorithms for big data that causes confusion amongst practitioners is the lack of consensus in the definition of their properties as well as a lack of formal categorization. With the intention of alleviating these problems, this paper introduces concepts and algorithms related to clustering, a concise survey of existing (clustering) algorithms as well as providing a comparison, both from a theoretical and an empirical perspective. From a theoretical perspective, we developed a categorizing framework based on the main properties pointed out in previous studies. Empirically, we conducted extensive experiments where we compared the most representative algorithm from each of the categories using a large number of real (big) data sets. The effectiveness of the candidate clustering algorithms is measured through a number of internal and external validity metrics, stability, runtime, and scalability tests. In addition, we highlighted the set of clustering algorithms that are the best performing for big data.


Global electronic commerce has flourished following the commercialisation of the Internet. ebXML is a global business-to-business (B2B) electronic commerce standard which addresses not only the formats and vocabularies of electronic business documents exchanged between business partners, but also the choreography of business transactions during a collaborative process. On the other hand, the service-oriented architectures (SOA) together with web services promise a new era for B2B collaboration with dynamically created business partnerships transacting based on published choreographies, for which the ebXML BPSS (Business Process Specification Scheme) is a major specification language. We illustrate the approach with a contract negotiation process.


The Cook-Swartz implantable Doppler probe (Cook Medical(®), Cook Ireland Ltd., Limerick, Ireland) has evolved as a useful option for postoperative free flap monitoring. For placement, the probe either is left unattached around the venous pedicle or is secured. In our experience with over 300 applications, we typically secure the cuff with two small microclips, or use fibrin glue. These techniques require redundant silicone cuff for apposition; however, we have encountered some vessels that are of sufficiently large diameter as to not provide enough cuff to employ these methods. The first technique comprises the application of two interrupted sutures through the cuff ends to mimic the technique of microclips. The sutures can be tightened to the desired tension and can be used in cases where the cuff ends are not in direct apposition. A second technique is to excise a segment of silicone cuff and either clip or suture the excised segment to the cuff ends, effectively elongating the cuff diameter. All four techniques (nonattachment, microclip fixation, suture fixation, silicone cuff elongation) have been used effectively, and none have resulted in any complications. Of note, the technique of nonattachment was associated with an increased rate of false-positive results, as migration away from the vessel was postulated to have occurred. There are a range of techniques for attachment of the implantable Doppler probe, and each contributes to the range of options for cuff attachment in difficult cases, with each technique worthwhile in particular settings.


It is the fourth time that we create a new management school. Every time it was different and every time we have learned a lot from the process of curriculum design in harmony with the voice of the times. In this paper we outline the process of curriculum design through our latest experience in creating the Strategic Partner School in Hungary. Although there are important characteristics of the Middle-East European market for post-experiential business education taken into consideration, the meta-level of the process, i.e. how to identify the relevant characteristics, can be applicable well beyond the area in which this study originated. Naturally, our way is not the only right way of curriculum design but our aim with this study is to stimulate thinking and discussion rather than selling a recipe.


The authors discuss the original paper ("An investigation to identify possible sources of electromagnetic field transients responsible for exposures reported in recent epidemiological studies", P.S. Maruvada et al., see ibid., vol. 15, no. 1, p. 266-71, 2000) and present their observations. The original authors' response to the discussions is also included.


Monoclonal antibody (MAb) B72.3 has been shown to be of potential utility in the management of human carcinoma via its use in (a) the targeting of carcinoma lesions in colorectal and ovarian cancer patients, (b) immunohistochemical analyses of biopsies and effusions, and (c) serum assays to help define the presence of carcinoma. The B72.3-reactive antigen, designated tumor-associated glycoprotein 72 (TAG-72), has been characterized as a high molecular weight glycoprotein with the properties of a mucin. We report here the utilization of MAb B72.3 and 18 second generation MAbs (generated using purified TAG-72 obtained from a colon carcinoma xenograft as immunogen) to construct a serological map of the TAG-72 molecule. The generation and initial characterization of 10 of the second generation MAbs have been described previously; in addition, eight previously unreported MAbs were used. All 19 MAbs produced immune precipitate lines against purified TAG-72 in double immunodiffusion, indicating that each epitope recognized by a single MAb is present at least twice on the TAG-72 molecule. Immunodepletion analyses utilizing 11 of the anti-TAG-72 MAbs indicated that each recognizes the same molecule or population of molecules. Nineteen competition radioimmunoassays were developed and 19 purified competitor immunoglobulins were used in each assay. The patterns of cross-competition indicated the presence of a complex array of tumor-associated epitopes on the TAG-72 molecule. Some of the MAbs recognized epitopes that were structurally or spatially related to one another, but none appeared to recognize identical epitopes. The spectrum of inhibitory reactivities of these MAbs for TAG-72 binding varied from extremely restricted to more broad inhibition. The serological mapping studies reported here provide information as to the range and nature of the epitopes expressed on the TAG-72 molecule, help form the basis for selecting alternative anti-TAG-72 MAbs for use in potential clinical applications, and further define the nature of this oncofetal antigen.


User authentication on publicly exposed terminals with established mechanisms, such as typing the credentials on a virtual keyboard, can be insecure e.g. due to shoulder surfing or due to a hacked terminal. In addition, username and password entry can be time-consuming and thus improvable with relation to usability. As security and comfort are often competing with each other, novel authentication and authorization methods especially for public terminals are desirable. In this paper, we present an approach on a distributed authentication and authorization system, where the user can be easily identified and enabled to use a service with his smartphone. The smartphone (as personal and private device the user is always in control of) can provide a highly secure authentication token that is renewed and exchanged in the background without the user's participation. The claimed improvements were supported by a user survey with an implementation of a digital room management system as an example for a public display. The proposed authentication procedure would increase security and yet enable fast authentication within publicly exposed terminals.


Blockchain has recently driven a financial revolution in the realm of virtual currencies, smart contracts, and escrow services. Over the last year, the technology has also been mentioned as a harbinger of change in real estate transactions and land title research. Speculation about the technology's likely impact in various industries is more warranted in some instances than others. Goldman Sachs, for its part, has suggested that, like other industries which have benefitted from the transparency and efficiency of blockchain technology, the title insurance industry will experience a dramatic boost in the near future. This suggestion, however, fails to recognize both the efficiency already achieved by industry title plants and the extent of legal problems that arise during title research—very few of which blockchain holds promise of mitigating. Public land titling offices, on the other hand, stand to gain significantly by adopting the technology. Because of blockchain's decentralized and unalterable structure, the technology is useful for protecting records from natural disasters and government corruption. This Comment charts the real property legal issues that blockchain likely will and will not address. Developers and investors will find that understanding what blockchain can and cannot do for the real estate industry is crucial, because blockchain hype looms large and, as Bitcoin's recently fluctuating prices prove, the way forward for blockchain investment can be uncertain.


The British Gas Lurgi slagging gasifier is a counter-current
fixed bed gasifier operating at high pressure. Coal
descending the gasifier is pyrolysed to form coke which is
then gasified. Properties of such coke affect the gasifier
in its efficiency of operation. This thesis describes
a) the carbonisation of cokes from coal under simulated
gasifier conditions, b) the characterisation of the
resultant cokes in terms of structure and physical
properties and, c) the formulation of relationships between
coal thermoplasticity and coke properties.
Three high-volatile bituminous coals
Manvers Barnburgh NCB 702, and Gedling
(Manton NCB 502,
NCB 802) were
carbonised in an autoclave under a range of pressures (0.5-
8.0 MPa), using two different heating regimes, shock heating
to 700 °c and slow heating to 700 °c at 5 °C/min. Physical
characterisation of the resultant cokes was carried out
using optical and mechanical techniques.
Optical anisotropy and image analysis were used to determine
coke structure and porosity respectively. Tensile strength,
microstrength and abrasion resistance were measured to
establish the cokes' resistance to various forms of
breakage. High pressure dilatometry and plastometry were
used to measure the effects of pressure and heating rate on
coal thermoplastic properties.
Relationships between coal thermoplastic properties and coke
properties are very complex.
This work has shown that these relationships are highly
dependent on carbonisation
conditions with heating rate rather than pressure being the
more dominant parameter.


In summary, orthomyxo- and paramyxoviruses cause clinically important infections in transplant patients. Patients often develop lower respiratory tract involvement and sometimes respiratory failure, which almost is uniformly fatal. Bone marrow transplant recipients appear to be at higher risk of severe disease than are solid-organ recipients, but well defined criteria to predict those patients who will be severely affected are not available. Factors associated with more severe disease include the type of viral pathogen, with pneumonia occurring more commonly with RSV and PIV infection, and the degree of immunosuppression of the patient, particularly the pre-engraftment phase in bone marrow transplant recipients. Because mortality is associated with development of pneumonia, prompt diagnosis and studies for concurrent infections are essential. Evaluation of fever and upper respiratory tract symptoms in patients in the peritransplant period should include sampling of nasopharyngeal and throat for virus isolation and antigen detection for respiratory viruses. If patients develop lower respiratory tract symptoms, early bronchoscopy with BAL is indicated. No specific antiviral therapy has proved effective in the treatment of established respiratory viral infections of transplant patients. Aerosolized ribavirin or, in the instance of influenza A virus infection, oral rimantadine might be considered as early therapy to prevent severe lower respiratory disease. Intravenous ribavirin, currently available on a compassionate use basis, might be considered for treating measles virus infection. In patients with lower tract disease due to RSV, the addition of immunoglobulin with high neutralizing antibody titers to RSV or intravenous ribavirin are additional considerations to forestall respiratory failure. Controlled studies of these interventions are needed in transplant patients before their use can be recommended routinely.


The formation and evolution of planetary systems impact the primordial accretion disk. HD141569 is the only known pre-main sequence star characterized by a hybrid disk. Observations probed the outer-disk structure showing a complex system of rings and interferometric observations attempted to characterize its inner 5 au region, but derived limited constraints. The goal of this work was to explore with new high-resolution interferometric observations the properties of the dust and gas in the internal regions of HD141569. We observed HD141569 on mas scales with GRAVITY/VLTI in the near-infrared at low and high spectral resolution. We interpreted the visibilities and spectral energy distribution with geometrical models and radiative transfer techniques to constrain the dust emission. We analyzed the high spectral resolution quantities to investigate the properties of the Br-Gamma line emitting region. Thanks to the combination of three different epochs, GRAVITY resolves the inner dusty disk in the K band. Data modeling shows that an IR excess of about 6% is spatially resolved and that the origin of this emission is confined in a ring of material located at a radius of 1 au from the star with a width smaller than 0.3 au. The MCMax modeling suggests that this emission could originate from a small amount of QHPs, while large silicate grain models cannot reproduce at the same time the observational constraints on the properties of near-IR and mid-IR fluxes. The differential phases in the Br-Gamma line clearly show an S-shape that can be best reproduced witha gas disk in Keplerian rotation, confined within 0.09 au. This is also hinted at by the double-peaked Br-Gamma emission line shape. The modeling of the continuum and gas emission shows that the inclination and position angle of these two components are consistent with a system showing relatively coplanar rings on all scales.


Although elderly men and women share many of the same problems as they age, their lives are likely to follow different courses. Women are more likely than men to live into old old-age and are more likely to spend part of their young old-age caring for husbands or parents. By providing this unpaid care women might enter retirement earlier, rather than prolonging their working lives. Because they live longer, but are less likely than men to live with someone who will care for them, women are also more likely than men to require paid care either at home or in a nursing home. Proposals to reduce government spending on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid will thus have different implications for women and men. This paper evaluates changes in these programs, and describes alternative and innovative ways of providing and paying for eldercare in other countries as well as in the United States.


Recombinant protein production in microbial systems is well-established, yet half of these experiments have failed in the expression phase. Failures are expected for 'difficult-to-express' proteins, but for others, codon bias, mRNA folding, avoidance, and G+C content have been suggested to explain observed levels of protein expression. However, determining which of these is the strongest predictor is still an active area of research. We used an ensemble average of energy model for RNA to show that the accessibility of translation initiation sites outperforms other features in predicting the outcomes of 11,430 experiments of recombinant protein production in Escherichia coli. We developed TIsigner and showed that synonymous codon changes within the first nine codons are sufficient to improve the accessibility of translation initiation sites. Our software produces scores for both input and optimised sequences, so that success/failure can be predicted and prevented by PCR cloning of optimised sequences.


In this paper, a bilayer metallic grating with pitch of 1 μm on the flank of a cylindrical plastic optical fiber was proposed as a novel optical sensor. Surface plasmon resonance excited by this structure for refractive index sensing is investigated by finite difference time domain methods. A theoretical sensitivity of 643.75 nm/RIU is obtained, where the wavelength of the resonant sharp dip is obviously shifted from 1.398 μm to 1.501 μm for surrounding refractive index increased from 1.33 to 1.49. Several factors which affect the accuracy of the device, such as the polarization state of the incident light, grating pitch, and refractive index of the sensing medium, are discussed. The successful fabrication of the grating indicates the feasibility of the devices. The sensor is expected to have potential applications in the chemical, biomedical, environmental safety, and food safety industries as well as in many other aspects.


Normative positions are sometimes illustrated in diagrams, in particular in didactic contexts. Traditional examples are the Aristotelian polygons of opposition for deontic modalities (squares, triangles, hexagons, etc.), and the Hohfeldian squares for obligative and potestative concepts. Relying on previous work, we show that Hohfeld's framework can be used as a basis for developing several Aristotelian polygons and more complex diagrams. Then, we illustrate how logical theories of increasing strength can be built based on these diagrams, and how those theories enable us to determine in a computably efficient way whether a set of normative positions can be derived from another set of normative positions.


PURPOSE OF REVIEW
Dose escalation radiation therapy such as those delivered by stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) has shown to improve local disease control in multiple types of malignancies. This requires fiducial placement to improve accuracy of treatment and avoid adverse events to adjacent radiosensitive organs during respiration phases. The purpose of this review is to provide updates of recent high-quality articles related to endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS)-guided fiducial placement for gastrointestinal malignancies, particularly in pancreatic cancer, which is expected to be the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the USA within this decade.

RECENT FINDINGS
A recent systematic review and meta-analysis has shown that EUS-guided fiducial placement for gastrointestinal malignancies has excellent technical success and safety profile. Comparative studies of most commercially available fiducial types via a 22-gauge needle system showed that a 0.035 mm diameter and 10 mm long gold fiducial with coiled configuration, hollow core and external helical design might be favoured due to its most balanced performance of visibility, artifact and migration.

SUMMARY
A fine balance of performance characteristics of fiducials should be discussed with radiation oncologists to select a suitable and preferred type of fiducials. The comparative studies of other newly developed platinum fiducials and liquid fiducial are pending.


BACKGROUND
The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence and sequelae of insomnia, Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), and comorbid OSA and insomnia (COMISA).

METHOD
In the morning, following a shift end, Midwest career firefighters (N = 89) in a midsized city completed an electronic battery of questionnaire to screen for OSA, daytime sleepiness, insomnia, presleep arousal, nightmares, and mental and physical health symptoms, and a one-night sleep diary.

RESULTS
Prevalence of firefighters exceeding screening thresholds: OSA: 54%; insomnia: 30%; COMISA: 17%; four or more nightmares per month: 15%. Firefighters who met criteria for COMISA had shorter total sleep time, less restful and worse sleep quality, higher depression and anxiety symptoms, and pre-sleep arousal symptoms than firefighters without self-reported sleep problems.

CONCLUSION
Many firefighters are at elevated risk of individual behavioral sleep disorders, COMISA, and daytime dysfunction.


Introduction: The aim of this study was to test the repurpose of Artemisia annua Linn. dry leaf therapy (ALT) tablets of var. Sanjeevani and Jeevan Raksha for the control of Tribolium castaneum. Methods: 600 mg ALT tablets and 600 mg ALT + PSP (Piper nigrum seed powder) tablets (ALT powder and PSP in 5:1 proportion) were investigated to assess the survival and growth of T. castaneum feeding on wheat flour. Results: The progeny adults were found to be produced with about 57% and 38% less frequency in the jars containing ALT tablet of var. Sanjeevani and Jeevan Raksha, respectively, as compared to the control jars. Similarly, 12% of the insects died in the presence of ALT var. Jeevan Raksha tablet, the mortality was 18% higher in the presence of ALT var. Sanjeevani tablet. Likewise, 24% of the insects died in the presence of ALT var. Jeevan Raksha + PSP tablet, the mortality was 33% higher in the presence of ALT var. Sanjeevani + PSP tablet. The life cycle of T. castaneum was attenuated by var. Jeevan Raksha ALT and its ALT + PSP tablets in such a way that progeny size was reduced by these treatments as compared to control by 36% and 67%, respectively, whereas, var. Sanjeevani ALT and its ALT + PSP tablets reduced progeny size by 49% and 77%, respectively. Conclusion: It was found that var. Sanjeevani ALT + PSP tablets were more effective than other tablets against growth and survival of T. castaneum insect and thus provide a highly effective and low-cost means of controlling T. castaneum infestation on food materials, especially in an Indian household.


This brief survey analyzes the epistemological implications about the role of observer in the interpretations of Quantum Mechanics. As we know, the goal of most interpretations of quantum mechanics is to avoid the apparent intrusion of the observer into the measurement process. In the same time, there are implicit and hidden assumptions about his role. In fact, most interpretations taking as ontic level one of these fundamental concepts as information, physical law and matter bring us to new problematical questions. We think, that no interpretation of the quantum theory can avoid this intrusion until we do not clarify the nature of observer.


This paper reviews some historical events and progress achieved by UNAI, or its previous names, since its beginning in 1949 and what should be done to achieve its current vision, i.e. to be an excellent university in the fields of Teaching, Research and Community Service in Southern Asia-Pacific Division (SSD) region, based on the Philosophy of Adventist Education, by the year 2020. Originally, Universitas Advent Indonesia was started as a training school which was intended to train gospel workers for the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In 1942, the World War II forced the Church organization to temporarily close the school. After the war the school was reopened in 1948 with a new name, "Indonesian Union Seminary" (IUS) and teacher training was then added. One year later, on August 19, 1949, the school was promoted to a junior college level, a two year program beyond Senior High School. It was the year 1949 considered as the birth date of UNAI, which is now already 66 years old, which makes UNAI become the oldest Adventist higher education in Indonesia. Since its first graduation in 1951, where 5 students of two year diploma in Education were graduated, there have been 10253 students graduated by UNAI. With the current students enrollment of 2000, and with 14 study programs, UNAI is expected to graduate averagely around 500 students every year within the next four years. Although the current number of study programs remains the same, but it is expected that after the next eighth decade the total number of graduate almost doubled than now. Prior to become an excellent Adventist University in 2020, UNAI has to work hard to push its faculty staff to do quality researches and publish them in international journal level, to reduce the problem of student drop out, and some other current problems.


1. Measurements were made with the cell elastimeter on the stiffness of the cell membrane in the unfertilized eggs of five species of sea urchin. Young9s modulus varies in the different species between the values of 0.91 x 10 4 and 2.08 x 10 4 dynes/cm 2 . 2. Experiments on the change of stiffness in hypo- and hypertonic media indicated that there is probably no internal pressure and no membrane tension in the normal egg. If, however, there is an internal pressure, measurements of the minimum shrinkage of the membrane necessary to produce wrinkling showed that this pressure cannot exceed 95 dynes/cm 2 . 3. A drop in temperature of 18.5° C. produced an increase of stiffness by a factor of 2.1. 4. These experiments, together with other evidence, suggest that for mechanical purposes the unfertilized sea-urchin egg can be compared to a hollow sphere filled with fluid and surrounded by a solid elastic wall (the membrane or cortex) about 1.5 µ thick and with an elastic modulus about 1-2 x 10 4 dynes/cm 2 . This degree of rigidity is sufficient to ensure the maintenance of shape of the egg without the presence of an internal pressure or a tension in the membrane. In everyday terms, the egg therefore resembles a tennis ball or a child9s rubber ball, rather than an inflated balloon or an oil drop in water.


In recent years, there has been a huge trend towards running network intensive applications, such as Internet servers and Cloud-based service in virtual environment, where multiple virtual machines (VMs) running on the same machine share the machine's physical and network resources. In such environment, the virtual machine monitor (VMM) virtualizes the machine's resources in terms of CPU, memory, storage, network and I/O devices to allow multiple operating systems running in different VMs to operate and access the network concurrently. A key feature of virtualization is live migration (LM) that allows transfer of virtual machine from one physical server to another without interrupting the services running in virtual machine. Live migration facilitates workload balancing, fault tolerance, online system maintenance, consolidation of virtual machines etc. However, live migration is still in an early stage of implementation and its security is yet to be evaluated. The security concern of live migration is a major factor for its adoption by the IT industry. Therefore, this paper uses the X.805 security standard to investigate attacks on live virtual machine migration. The analysis highlights the main source of threats and suggests approaches to tackle them. The paper also surveys and compares different proposals in the literature to secure the live migration.


The rapid proliferation of mobile phones in India has brought along several new cultures to the country's young users of mobile phones. The culture of mobile phone intimacies that young Indians are seeking through the integration of mobile phone functionalities in their everyday lives requires scholarly attention within the framework of new media modernity. The latter engenders new cultures of intimacies. It also induces moral panics over these new cultures of intimacies. This study demonstrates that the primary and secondary definers of moral panics are gradually scrutinizing the so-called new cultures of young Indians. This paper further shows that the primary location of the moral panic agent is the family. This is where mobile phones and their users encounter the domesticated dimension of cultural politics of mobile phone intimacies. Finally, this study demonstrates that both the moral panic agents and the young users of mobile phones (a.k.a. "folk devils") use simplistic and stereotypical prisms to address their concerns.


The idea of integrating users into the design and production process is a promising strategy for companies being forced to react to the growing individualization of demand. The use of e-business applications has been discussed as a approach for mass customization for over one decade. There is a huge amount of literature on manufacturing and information systems for mass customization. However, there has been little research looking at the role of the customer within the co-design process. Customers face new uncertainties and risks ("mass confusion") when acting as co-designers. We discuss possible risks evolving during the interaction between customers and suppliers. We propose solutions for the "mass confusion" problem, and we challenge the assumption made by most mass customization researchers that offering customized products requires an individual (one-to-one) relationship between the customer and the supplier. We envision a different way of addressing the problem by using communities instead of one-to-one relationships. The objective of our paper is to build and explore the idea of communities for customer co-design.


Background Neurofilament (NF) proteins detection in biological fluids as a by-product of axonal loss is technically challenging and to date relies mostly on cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) measurements. Plasma antibodies against NF proteins and particularly to their soluble light chain (NF-L) could be a more practical surrogate marker for disease staging in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an invariably fatal and clinically heterogeneous neuromuscular disorder. Methodology We have used a recombinant neurofilament light chain (NF-L) protein for the ELISA detection of antibodies against NF proteins in plasma samples from a well-characterised cohort of ALS individuals (n:73). The use of an established functional rating scale and of a recently proposed staging of disease progression allowed stratification of the ALS cohort based on disease stage, site of onset, survival and speed of disease progression. Results Antibody levels to NF proteins in plasma were significantly higher in ALS individuals compared to healthy controls (p<0.001). Higher NF plasma immunoreactivity was seen in advanced ALS cases (stage IVA-B) compared to earlier phases of the disease (p<0.05). There was no difference in anti-NF plasma antibodies between ALS individuals treated with riluzole and untreated patients; although riluzole-treated ALS cases with an earlier age of onset and with a shorter diagnostic delay displayed higher anti-NFL antibody levels compared to untreated ALS patients with similar features. Conclusions Immunoreactivity to plasma NF-L and homologous NF proteins is informative of the stage of disease progression in ALS. The determination of NF antibody levels in plasma could be added to the growing panel of disease-monitoring biomarkers in ALS targeting cytoskeletal antigens.


— To construct the lumped spring-mass model considering the occupants for the offset frontal crash, the SISAME software and the NHTSA test data were used. The data on 56 kph 40% offset frontal vehicle to deformable barrier crash test of a MY2007 Mazda 6 4-door sedan were obtained from NHTSA test database. The overall behaviors of B-pillar and engine of simulation models agreed very well with the test data. The trends of accelerations at the driver and passenger head were similar but big differences in peak values. The differences of peak values caused the large errors of the HIC36 and 3 ms chest g's. To predict well the behaviors of dummies, the spring-mass model for the offset frontal crash needs to be improved.


Session recording is a critical requirement in many communications environments, such as call centers and financial trading organizations. In some of these environments, all calls must be recorded for regulatory, compliance, and consumer protection reasons. The recording of a session is typically performed by sending a copy of a media stream to a recording device. This document describes the metadata model as viewed by the Session Recording Server (SRS) and the recording metadata format.


This thesis considers the character and development of clerical social criticism in England between c.1540 and c.1640. It draws principally on a number of sermons and treatises that offered critiques of the prevailing structures of wealth and power or exhortations to the fulfilment of charitable obligation. The paradigm through which these texts were constructed was that of 'complaint', a genre that was particularly vibrant in medieval discourse and in the sermons and 'commonwealth' tracts of the 1540s. It will be argued that rather than eschewing this tradition, late sixteenth-century preachers appropriated and refashioned its structures, themes and authorial positioning in response to far reaching economic, social and religious change.

Particular aspects of socio-economic change, and of their effects on the clergy in particular, are examined in the introduction. Among the themes that are particularly germane to this thesis are the history of the enclosure movement; increasing commercialisation; and changing attitudes towards the poor. The first chapter assembles a number of printed texts in order to re-examine the trajectory of clerical complaint literature in the context of these developments. The second chapter considers the potential for social and political criticism in sermons preached at the county assizes, a sub-genre of 'occasional' sermons that until recently has received little attention from literary scholars or historians. The latter half of the thesis offers three case studies of selected sermons by three different authors. The intention of these chapters is primarily to examine the interaction between a text and its particular local context, although attention is also paid to broader social, political and discursive developments that help shed light on the historical meaning of these sermons.

It is thus hoped that this study will contribute particularly to the ongoing interdisciplinary work of 'contextualising' the early modern English sermon and of reconstructing the role and status of the parish minister. Rather than a 'voice in the wilderness', it is concluded, the clerical moralist was an active agent in the discursive interpretation of economic change, and in the fashioning and communication of the reputation of powerful individuals.


This is the second part of a two-part paper considering bidirectional relay networks with half-duplex nodes and block fading where the nodes transmit with a fixed transmission rate. In Part I, it was shown that a considerable gain in terms of sum throughput can be obtained by optimally selecting the transmission modes or, equivalently, the states of the nodes, i.e., the transmit, the receive, and the silent states, based on the qualities of the involved links. To enable adaptive transmission mode selection, the relay has to be equipped with two buffers for storage of the data received from the two users. The protocol proposed in Part I was delay unconstrained and provides an upper bound for the performance of practical delay-constrained protocols. In this paper, we propose two heuristic but efficient delay-constrained protocols, which can approach the performance upper bound reported in Part I, even in cases where only a small delay is permitted. The proposed protocols not only consider the instantaneous qualities of the involved links for adaptive mode selection but also take the states of the queues at the buffers into account, i.e., the number of packets in the queues. The average throughput and the average delay of the proposed delay-constrained protocols are evaluated by analyzing the Markov chain of the states of the queues. Numerical results show that the proposed protocols outperform existing bidirectional relaying protocols for delay-constrained transmission.


In the past few years, one deceptively simple concept has come to dominate the international discourse on human rights in North Korea: accountability. On first glance, this seems entirely appropriate, given the severity of the crimes committed by Kim Jong Un and his associates. In this essay, however, I will take a step back, to problematize the concept of accountability. Specifically, I will address five questions that have to date been largely ignored. First: what does accountability mean? Second: why is it desirable? Third: does the emphasis on accountability have any potentially negative consequences? Fourth: when is the right time to focus on accountability? And fifth: who benefits from the turn to accountability? While I do not intend this essay to imply that accountability is undesirable in any way, I do aim to show that it is a more complex principle than is often assumed, and should be the subject of serious thought and discussion, rather than unthinkingly adopted as the core objective for North Korean human rights advocates.


Abstract Waqf plays a very important role in Muslim societies. It has been the main source for various public services provided to communities. It has been marginalized as a mere charity, although it has historically been successful in producing sustainable income and reducing poverty levels in Muslim countries. Traditionally, the creation of Waqf is inculcated in Muslims' culture, and included all walks of life. It has also contributed to the service of man in various areas of development. Nonetheless, in modern times, Waqf has seen a declining role, which raises a number of questions as to what factors actually led to an earlier growth of Waqf, and what was the factor associated with its later decline. This review propagates a historical narrative of Waqf, highlighting the reasons for its decline and the need for reform. The paper concludes that if Muslims have good governments that can manage the funds are transparent, reformulates the laws governing Waqf, and design an integrated network of sciences to monitor issues and problems; they can realistically revive the practice of Waqf. The proper management and disbursement of Waqf can become a great source of revenue for the Ummah.


Distributed processors must balance communication and concurrency. When dividing instructions among the processors, key factors are the available concurrency, criticality of dependence chains, and communication penalties. The amount of concurrency determines the importance of the other factors: if concurrency is high, wider distribution of instructions is likely to tolerate the increased operand routing latencies. If concurrency is low, mapping dependent instructions close to one another is likely to reduce communication costs that contribute to the critical path. This paper explores these tradeoffs for distributed Explicit Dataflow Graph Execution (EDGE) architectures that execute blocks of dataflow instructions atomically. A runtime block mapper assigns instructions from a single thread to distributed hardware resources (cores) based on compiler-assigned instruction identifiers. We explore two approaches: fixed strategies that map all blocks to the same number of cores, and adaptive strategies that vary the number of cores for each block. The results show that best fixed strategy varies, based on the corespsila issue width. A simple adaptive strategy improves performance over the best fixed strategies for single and dual-issue cores, but its benefits decrease as the corespsila issue width increases. These results show that by choosing an appropriate runtime block mapping strategy, average performance can be increased by 18%, while simultaneously reducing average operand communication by 70%, saving energy as well as improving performance. These results indicate that runtime block mapping is a promising mechanism for balancing communication and concurrency in distributed processors.


Association between genetic variations in alcohol‐related enzymes and impaired ethanol biodisposition has not been unambiguously proven, and the effect of many newly described polymorphisms remains to be explored. The aims of this study are to elucidate the influence of genetic factors in alcohol biodisposition and effects. We analyzed alcohol pharmacokinetics and biodisposition after the administration of 0.5 g/kg ethanol; we measured ethanol effects on reaction time and motor time in response to visual and acoustic signals, and we analyzed 13 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNPs) in the genes coding for ADH1B, ADH1C, ALDH2, and CYP2E1 in 250 healthy white individuals. Variability in ethanol pharmacokinetics and biodisposition is related to sex, with women showing a higher area under the curve (AUC) (P = 0.002), maximum concentration (Cmax) (P < 0.001) and metabolic rate (P = 0.001). Four nonsynonymous SNPs are related to decreased alcohol metabolic rates: ADH1B rs6413413 (P = 0.012), ADH1C rs283413 (P < 0.001), rs1693482 (P < 0.001), and rs698 (P < 0.001). Individuals carrying diplotypes combining these mutations display statistically significant decrease in alcohol biodisposition as compared with individuals lacking these mutations. Alcohol effects displayed bimodal distribution independently of sex or pharmacokinetics. Most individuals had significant delays in reaction and motor times at alcohol blood concentrations under 500 mg/L, which are the driving limits for most countries. Conclusion: Besides the identification of new genetic factors related to alcohol biodisposition relevant to whites, this study provides unambiguous identification of diplotypes related to variability in alcohol biodisposition. (HEPATOLOGY 2010;51:491–500.)


ABSTRACT There is increasing interest and belief in applying quality improvement (QI) to help solve our most complex challenges in healthcare, yet little published literature to help leaders develop a business case and evaluate return on investment from QI. This is even more pronounced in fields such as mental health and community health services. This paper presents a framework to help identify, understand and evaluate return on investment from large-scale application of QI in healthcare providers. The framework has been developed at East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT), a provider of predominantly mental health and community health services to a population of 1.5 million people, which has been undertaking QI at scale since 2014. This paper presents case studies and examples from ELFT to illustrate return on investment from QI at multiple levels: improving outcomes for patients and service users, improving the experience of staff, improving productivity and efficiency, avoiding costs, reducing costs and increasing revenue.


It is difficult to balance long travel and high precision, especially in multi-coordinate machining. A stage with nanometer positioning precision is established and the control technologies are studied. Micro-EDM provides the potential feasibility for the nano-scale precision machining. The micro-EDM transmission modular is applied to to complete the discharge process of the servo in the experiment system ,which improves the processing efficiency and the processing quality. The strategy is one part of micro-EDM machine control system, which greatly enhances the positioning accuracy. Results show that the system works well. The system also has many advantages such as quick response, being smooth, ultra low speed and super resolution etc, and meets the needs of micro-EDM control. The research provides a new solution for the design of precision location stages.


Summary Lithospheric stretching can successfully account for the overall evolution of many sedimentary basins, and detached normal faulting the detailed geometry of the upper crust. In an instantaneously stretched, isostatically compensated basin, the equations which describe these two processes can be combined to define a 'notional depth to decollement'. Only at this level can the sole to the normal fault system maintain a constant depth below sea-level during extension. The notional depth to decollement depends primarily on the mean density of the basin fill and for a constant-density basin fill (e.g. sea water) coincides with the level of no vertical motion during stretching. In a sediment-filled basin, the notional depth to decollement will increase with the stretching factor β as early-deposited sediments are compacted and the mean density of the sediment column increases. In general, a physical sole fault will not lie at the notional depth to decollement, and must move vertically to maintain isostatic equilibrium: such movement precludes the use of balanced cross-section techniques to determine the physical depth to decollement. In typical crustal situations, uplift of the sole fault will be more common than subsidence and will in turn cause uplift of any residual, unfaulted basement blocks which rest upon it. Footwall uplift can also be modelled using area-balance constraints, referred to the notional depth to decollement rather than to the physical sole fault. The amount of uplift depends primarily on the initial fault spacing. Three fields can be distinguished: one in which footwalls subside at an increasing rate as β increases, one in which they are uplifted above sea-level then subside below sea-level, and one in which they are uplifted then subside, but always remain above sea-level. Similar relationships exist in an uncompensated basin, where the depth to the physical sole fault replaces the notional depth to decollement. Curves showing uplift and subsidence versus β have been constructed in dimensionless form (referred to depth to decollement) and for a model basin with an exponential sediment compaction relationship. They agree closely with uplift/subsidence histories inferred from seismic and well data for the North Sea, and with published descriptions of other areas (the Armorican margin, the Aegean Sea).