The novel Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread quickly across the globe. Here, we evaluated the role of climate (temperature and precipitation), region-specific susceptibility (BCG vaccination, malaria infection, and elderly population) and international traveller population (human mobility) in shaping the geographical patterns of COVID-19 cases across 1,055 countries/regions, and examined the sequential shift of multiple drivers of the accumulated cases from December, 2019 to April 12, 2020. The accumulated numbers of COVID-19 cases (per 1 million population) were well explained by a simple regression model. The explanatory power (R2) of the model increased up to > 70% in April 2020 as the COVID-19 spread progressed. Climate, host mobility, and host susceptibility largely explained the variance of the COVID-19 cases (per 1 million population), and their explanatory power improved as the pandemic progressed; the relative importance of host mobility and host susceptibility have been greater than that of climate. The number of days from outbreak onset showed greater explanatory power in the earlier stages of COVID-19 spread but rapidly lost its influence. Our findings demonstrate that the COVID-19 pandemic is deterministically driven by climate suitability, cross-border human mobility, and region-specific susceptibility. The present distribution of COVID-19 cases has not reached an equilibrium and is changing daily, especially in the Southern Hemisphere. Nevertheless, the present results, based on mapping the spread of COVID-19 and identifying multiple drivers of this outbreak trajectory, may contribute to a better understanding of the COVID-19 disease transmission risk and the measures against long-term epidemic.


Background ALX-0061 is a monovalent IL-6R targeting Nanobody, inhibiting signaling via soluble and membrane IL-6R. The safety, tolerability, efficacy, pharmacokinetics, and pharmacodynamics of ALX-0061 was assessed in a Phase I/II study in patients (pts) with active rheumatoid arthritis (RA) on stable methotrexate (MTX) therapy (1). Objectives Since remission is the recommended treatment target in the management of RA, the purpose of this post-hoc analysis was to assess induction and maintenance of remission during ALX-0061 treatment. In addition, the impact of disease remission on physical function following 24-week treatment with ALX-0061 was also assessed. Methods Data were obtained from the multi-center, randomized, double-blind, placebo (PBO) controlled, dose escalation, Phase I/II study (1). During the first 12 weeks (wks) of the multiple ascending dose period, 37 pts received PBO (n=6) or ALX-0061 IV (n=31) at 1 or 3 mg/kg Q4W, or 6 mg/kg Q8W. Patients received stable doses of MTX ranging from 10-25 mg/week. In the second 12 wks period, pts with insufficient EULAR response had the ALX-0061 dose increased or switched from PBO to ALX-0061. 24 pts continued on their originally-assigned ALX-0061 IV dose (8 pts in 1 mg/kg arm, 8 pts in 3 mg/kg arm, and 8 pts in 6 mg/kg arm), 4 pts changed their dosing regimen, and 3 pts switched from PBO to ALX-0061. This post-hoc analysis utilized data from pts whose originally assigned ALX-0061 dose remained unmodified. Clinical remission as defined by both DAS28<2.6 and the ACR/EULAR Boolean-based definition was evaluated at the time points 12, 16, 20, and 24 wks. Patient functional status was assessed using the Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) with HAQ ≤0.5 defining normal physical function. An improvement in HAQ score ≥0.25 was considered to be clinically meaningful. Results At week 24, 62.5% (15/24) of pts treated with ALX-0061 achieved DAS28<2.6 remission, while remission using the more stringent Boolean criteria was observed in 29.2% (7/24) of the pts. Looking at maintenance of remission between 12 and 24 wks, approximately one third, i.e. 37.5% and 29.2%, of pts treated with ALX-0061 remained in DAS28 remission during the last 3 (at wks 16, 20, and 24) and 4 (at wks 12, 16, 20, and 24) consecutive time points, respectively. Maintenance of remission based on the Boolean criteria was also observed, being 20.8 and 16.7% of the pts for up to the last 3 or 4 successive time points. At week 24, clinically meaningful improvement in HAQ was observed in 66.7% (16/24) of the pts treated with ALX-0061. Compared to pts not in remission, more pts in DAS28 remission at week 24 achieved normal physical function (86.7% vs. 22.2%). Moreover, normal physical function was observed in 100% (7/7) of pts in Boolean remission at week 24. Conclusions In this study in pts with established RA, ALX-0061 induced and maintained remission as assessed by both DAS28 and the more stringent Boolean remission definition. Control of disease activity was also important in regaining normal physical function, supporting treat-to-target management of RA as reflected in the EULAR recommendations. References Ann Rheum Dis 2013;72(Suppl3):64 Disclosure of Interest K. Van Beneden Shareholder of: Ablynx, Employee of: Ablynx, K. Verschueren Shareholder of: Ablynx, Employee of: Ablynx, W. Willems Shareholder of: Ablynx, Employee of: Ablynx, H. Wouters Shareholder of: Ablynx, Employee of: Ablynx, J. D'Artois Shareholder of: Ablynx, Employee of: Ablynx, K. De Swert Shareholder of: Ablynx, Employee of: Ablynx, G. Arold: None declared, S. De Bruyn Shareholder of: Ablynx, Employee of: Ablynx DOI 10.1136/annrheumdis-2014-eular.2875


This study proposes a new design of circular polarised (CP), microstrip (patch) antenna using a set of slits and slots to effectively reduce the area of patch by 67% compared with the conventional, corner truncated, circular polarised square patch. The antenna is designed to operate at 2.45%GHz in the Industrial-Scientific-Medical (ISM) band and has many applications in short-range data communications such as in wireless sensors, radio frequency identification and personal area networking. The proposed antenna has been simulated using HFSS. The design has been fabricated and an extensive measurement campaign has confirmed simulation results. The proposed antenna has a low bore-sight axial ratio of 0.77 dB and a 10 dB bandwidth of 70 MHz. The overall antenna size is 19.6 mm x 19.6 mm on a substrate of thickness 1.59 mm. A second design with a more complex network of slots and slits achieves similar performance in simulation with an overall side length of 13.2 mm, but at the cost of a much larger input impedance.


COVID-19 has spread globally, affecting almost 160 million individuals.
Elderly and pre-existing patients (such as diabetes, heart disease and
asthma), seems more susceptible to serious illness with COVID-19.
Roflumilast was licensed for usage in the European Union in July 2010 as
a phosphodiesterase-4 (PDE4) inhibitor. Roflumilast has been shown to
decrease bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis, lung hydroxyproline, right
heart thickning in animal prophylactic. The current study reviewed
existing data that the PDE-4 inhibitor protects not just renal tissues
but also other major organ systems after COVID-19 infection by
decreasing immune cell infiltration. These immune-balancing effects of
roflumilast were related with a decrease in oxidative and inflammatory
burden, caspase-3 suppression, and increased PKA/cAMP levels in renal
and other organ tissue.


Purpose: Radiochromic plastics have recently emerged which can yield 3D dose information over clinical volumes in high resolution. These dosimeters require a fast, accurate read‐out, and broad beam optical‐Computed‐Tomography (optical‐CT) systems have shown promise, but can be sensitive to stray light artifacts. Here we present and evaluate a new method to correct for stray light artifacts in optical‐CT by deconvolving a measured, spatially invariant, point spread function (PSF). Methods: The correction was developed for the DLOS telecentric scanner (Duke Large field of view Optical‐CT Scanner). The PSF was constructed from a series of varying sized apertureimages. The spatial invariance and robustness of the PSF is key to implementation, and was thoroughly investigated, including with/without the presence of an irradiated/unirradiated dosimeter, and across the field of view. The efficacy of the correction was evaluated both on individual projection images, containing known OD variations, and onknown 3D dose distributions. Results: The dominant source of stray light in this telecentric system was determined to originate in the imaging lens. Corrections of up to 3% required for heavily dosed dosimeters. Slight variations in PSF were observed under wide conditions, but this corresponded to small uncertainty in the correction (<1%). Accounting for stray light extended the dynamic range of the system from ∼30dB to ∼60dB giving significantly better potential for CNR. Conclusions: The method is shown to accurately account for stray light artifacts. The telecentric nature of the DLOS system brings two major advantages over non‐telecentric systems. First, the general amount of stray light in the projections is much less, due to removal through the telecentric imaging lens. Second, the remaining stray light appears to behave such that the PSF is spatially invariant and robust under a variety of conditions. The latter fact enables elegant accurate stray light correction using deconvolution.


ABSTRACT The locus of knowledge externalities and the cost of knowledge. Regional Studies. This paper provides an extended Crépon–Duguet–Mairesse (CDM) approach to analyse jointly the simultaneous effects of knowledge spillovers in the knowledge-generation and technology production functions. It introduces the distinction between imitation and knowledge externalities and articulates the hypothesis that spillovers yield their effects via three well-distinct mechanisms: (1) knowledge externalities that exert positive and direct effects on the knowledge-production function and (2) indirect effects on the technology-production function via their effects on the cost of knowledge; and (3) imitation externalities that exert direct and positive effects on productivity in the technology-production function. We test our hypotheses on a large panel of Italian companies distributed in NUTS-2 regions for the period 2005–09. The econometric analysis consists of a model comprising a system of equations that test the simultaneous role of spillovers in the knowledge-generation and technology-production functions with the inclusion of endogenous knowledge costs. The results confirm that the access to external knowledge – as an input in the knowledge-generation function – plays a key role in increasing the knowledge output and – as an input in the technology-production function – has positive indirect and direct effects on the productivity of firms.


Neural architectures and hardware accelerators have been two driving forces for the progress in deep learning. Previous works typically attempt to optimize hardware given a fixed model architecture or model architecture given fixed hardware. And the dominant hardware architecture explored in this prior work is FPGAs. In our work, we target the optimization of hardware and software configurations on an industry-standard edge accelerator. We systematically study the importance and strategies of co-designing neural architectures and hardware accelerators. We make three observations: 1) the software search space has to be customized to fully leverage the targeted hardware architecture, 2) the search for the model architecture and hardware architecture should be done jointly to achieve the best of both worlds, and 3) different use cases lead to very different search outcomes. Our experiments show that the joint search method consistently outperforms previous platform-aware neural architecture search, manually crafted models, and the state-of-the-art EfficientNet on all latency targets by around 1% on ImageNet top-1 accuracy. Our method can reduce energy consumption of an edge accelerator by up to 2x under the same accuracy constraint, when co-adapting the model architecture and hardware accelerator configurations.


In this study we have addressed the relationship between the stock market, the measure of real economic activity (represented by the real GDP), the economic sentiment indicator, and real interest rate for the five European countries: Germany, France, Italy, the Netherlands, and the UK. We find that even when accounting for expectations, represented by the economic sentiment indicator, the stock market has certain predictive content for the real economic activity. At the same time, the relationship between the economic sentiment indicator and the real activity seems to be more articulated than that between the latter variable and the stock market. We also have shown that the developments in the national stock markets are explained by the common factor shared by all of them. The greater relative importance of the economic sentiment indicator for the real GDP when compared to that of the stock market can be traced to the fact that the real economic activity is still shaped more by the domestic shocks rather than the global ones, i.e. those reflected in the stock market.


This article was aimed to answer the question of whether local energy communities have a sufficient energy surplus for storage purposes, including hydrogen production. The article presents an innovative approach to current research and a discussion of the concepts of the collective prosumer and virtual prosumer that have been implemented in the legal order and further amended in the law. From this perspective, it was of utmost importance to analyze the model of functioning of an energy cluster consisting of energy consumers, energy producers, and hydrogen storage, whose goal is to maximize the obtained benefits, assuming the coopetitive nature of the relationship. The announced and clear perspective of the planned benefits will provide the cluster members a measurable basis for participation in such an energy community. However, the catalogue of benefits will be conditioned by the fulfillment of several requirements related to both the scale of covering energy demand from own sources and the need to store surplus energy. As part of the article, the results of analyses together with a functional model based on real data of the local energy community are presented.


The literature on radiation-induced swelling and hardening in copper and its alloy is reviewed. Void formation does not occur during irradiation of copper unless suitable impurity atoms such as oxygen or helium are present. Void formation occurs for neutron irradiation temperatures of 180 to 550{degree}C, with peak swelling occurring at {approximately}320{degree}C for irradiation at a damage rate of 2 {times} 10{sup {minus}7} dpa/s. The post-transient swelling rate has been measured to be {approximately}0.5%/dpa at temperatures near 400{degree}C. Dispersion-strengthened copper has been found to be very resistant to void swelling due to the high sink density associated with the dispersion-stabilized dislocation structure. Irradiation of copper at temperatures below 400{degree}C generally causes an increase in strength due to the formation of defect clusters which inhibit dislocation motion. The radiation hardening can be adequately described by Seeger's dispersed barrier model, with a barrier strength for small defect clusters of {alpha} {approx} 0.2. The radiation hardening apparently saturates for fluences greater than {approximately}10{sup 24} n/m{sup 2} during irradiation at room temperature due to a saturation of the defect cluster density. Grain boundaries can modify the hardening behavior by blocking the transmission of dislocation slip bands, leading to a radiation- modified Hall-Petch relation between yieldmore » strength and grain size. Radiation-enhanced recrystallization can lead to softening of cold-worked copper alloys at temperatures above 300{degree}C.« less


Of the handful of neurotransmitters modulating taste response, norepinephrine (NE) may be the least understood. Although the physiological role of NE has been tested, it is still unclear whether the rat taste bud may serve as an endogenous source of neurotransmitter or if it must be taken up from outside the taste bud. Immunocytochemical analysis of DBH has shown that DBH-LIR is present in taste cells of the rat circumvallate papillae. Specifically, DBH-LIR is present in a subset of Type II taste cells. Nearly all (98%) DBH-LIR cells express PLCβ2-LIR, and about half (41%) of PLCβ2-LIR cells express DBH-LIR. DBH-LIR does not co-localize with NCAM, and thus, is not present in Type III cells. NET-LIR is present in the taste cells of the rat circumvallate papillae. Double labeling of NET-LIR and IP3R3-LIR indicates that NET is present in Type II taste cells. A large proportion (77%) of NET-LIR cells express IP3R3-LIR and all (100%) IP3R3-LIR cells express NET-LIR. A small proportion (7.8%) of NET-LIR cells also express syntaxin-1-LIR in Type III cells. About a third (32.8%) of syntaxin-1-LIR cells express NET-LIR.


Agrobiodiversity conservation includes strategies and actions to be taken to prevent landrace loss, a worldwide problem. Landraces are local varieties that have agricultural, cultural, and historical value but most of these are not studied yet. This research aimed to study the nutritional and phytochemical characteristics of the "Copafam" bean. In addition, the sensory properties and consumers' hedonic ratings in a model food formulation (biscuits) made by this landrace have been examined. The results show that "Copafam" had a high dietary fiber content (34.83 ± 2.48 g/100 g dw) and it resulted in a great source of secondary metabolites as polyphenols (121.36 ± 5.31 mg GAE/g dw), flavonoids (6.51 ± 0.17 mg/kg dw), and anthocyanins (28.11 ± 0.16 mg Cy3 G/kg dw), having remarkable antioxidant activity too. Biscuits made from "Copafam" bean flour were characterized by a darker color and crunchy texture, and it was considered acceptable by consumers. All these characteristics make it a resource of great interest for innovative forms of consumption like fortified foods. This research showed that landraces can represent a great resource for an innovative food industry aiming to preserve agrobiodiversity and promote the sustainable development of mountain areas.


This paper starts from the observation that firms are increasingly engaging in collaborations with their input suppliers, even as they are reducing the extent to which they are vertically integrated with those suppliers. This fact seems incompatible with traditional theories of the firm, which argue that integration is necessary to avoid the potential for hold-up created when non-contractible investments are made. Our view is that pragmatist mechanisms such as benchmarking, simultaneous engineering, and "root cause" error detection and correction make possible "learning by monitoring"--a relationship in which firms and their collaborators continuously improve their joint products and processes without the need for a clear division of property rights. We provide several examples of such relationships in the automotive industry, both current and historical. Data from recent surveys of automotive suppliers reveal a proliferation of communications and knowledge transfer activities characteristic of the new collaborative arrangements. We also provide new evidence showing that the famous Fisher Body-GM merger of 1926 (the canonical example in discussions of theories of the firm) was motivated more by considerations of promoting learning than of avoiding hold-up. We then elaborate our comparison of the "standard" and "non-standard" firm, first at the level of ongoing operational activities and then at the level of strategic direction and corporate governance. We argue that the pragmatist mechanisms crucial to the operations of the non-standard firm have "learning by monitoring" analogues that are applied to strategy-making and governance decisions.


Airborne Laser Scanning (ALS) data hold a great deal of promise in monitoring the reduction of single trees and forests with high accuracy. In the literature, the canopy height model (CHM) is the main input used frequently for forest change detection. ALS also has the key capability of delivering 3D point clouds, not only from the top canopy surface, but also from the entire canopy profile and also from the terrain. We investigated the use of two additional parameters, which exploit these capabilities for assessing the reduction of wooded area: Slope-adapted echo ratio (sER) and Sigma0. In this study, two ALS point cloud data sets (2005 and 2011) were used to calculate Digital Surface Model (DSM), sER, and Sigma0 in 1.5 km2 forest area in Vorarlberg, Austria. Image differencing was applied to indicate the change in the three difference models individually and in their combinations. Decision trees were used to classify the area of removed trees with the minimum mapping unit of 13 m2. The final results were evaluated by a knowledge-based manual digitization using completeness and correctness measures. The best result is achieved using the combination of sER and DSM, namely a correctness of 92% and a completeness of 85%.


A new type of computing architecture called ePUMA is under development by the ePUMA Research Team at the Department of Electrical Engineering at Linkoping University in Linkoping. This contains several single instruction multiple data (SIMD) cores, which are called SIMD Units, where up to 64 computations can be done in parallel. The goal with the architecture is to create a low-power chip with good performance for embedded applications. One possible application is video games. In this work we have studied a selected set of video game related algorithms, including a Pseudo-Random Number Generator, Clipping and Rasterization & Fragment Processing, analyzing how well they fit the ePUMA platform.


It's very difficult to get high precision measuring result using contact torquemeter because of very low signal-to-noise ratio. To overcome this defect, a wireless torque measuring system is designed based on CC2500. This system uses strain gauge torque sensor to measure the surface principal stress of the transmission shaft, and get the maximum shearing stress, and then the torque that the transmission shaft bears. The weak output signal of torque sensor is magnified by the instrumentation amplifier AD623, and sent to the analog-to-digital convertor. These digital data are transmited to the portable receiving terminal by the wireless transceiver chip CC2500. The dynamic wireless torque measurement is realized by this system.


Cells expressing the influenza hemagglutinin protein were fused to planar lipid bilayers containing the viral receptor GD1a at pH 5.0. An amphiphile known to alter membrane properties is lipophosphoglycan (LPG). This glycoconjugate was added from aqueous solution to either the cis or the trans monolayer to examine its effects on the fusion process. LPG markedly inhibited the formation of fusion pores when present in the cis monolayer but LPG in the trans monolayer had no effect on the parameters of pore formation or on the properties of the pores. The N-terminal segment of the HA2 subunit of the influenza hemagglutinin protein is important for membrane fusion. The effect of LPG on the conformation and membrane insertion of a synthetic 20-amino-acid peptide, corresponding to the influenza fusion peptide, was examined at pH 5.0 by attenuated total reflection Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and by the fluorescence properties of the Trp residues of this peptide. It was found that cis LPG did not prevent insertion of the peptide into the membrane but it did alter the conformation of the membrane-inserted peptide from alpha-helix to beta-structure. The beta-structure was oriented along the bilayer normal. The effect of cis LPG on the conformation of the fusion peptide probably contributes to the observed inhibition of pore formation and lipid mixing. In contrast, trans LPG has no effect on the conformation or angle of membrane insertion of the peptide, nor does it affect pore formation by HA-expressing cells. The ineffectiveness of trans LPG, despite it having strong positive curvature-promoting properties, may be a consequence of the size of this amphiphile being too large to enter a fusion pore.


To investigate the response of Bambara groundnut landraces to pre-sowing hydration, three experiments were conducted on three bambara groundnut landraces; OM1, Diphiri cream (DC) and Gaborone cream (GC) in the greenhouse at Botswana College of Agriculture, Botswana, in 2011. The experimental designs were completely randomized design (CRD) with 5 pre-sowing hydration; (6, 12, 24, 48, 72 hrs) and the control, each replicated four times. Increasing hydration time from 12 to 72 hrs significantly (p≤0.01) increased the final germination for GC up to 87% and significantly increased OM1 germination up to 57% at 24 hrs. However, there was a significant decrease in final germination for DC. There were significant (p≤0.01) differences within and across the landraces for seedling emergence; GC had the highest emergence of up to 100% at 24 hrs. Across the three landraces GC and DC significantly (p≤0.05) increased stem dry diameter at 6, 12 and 24 hrs pre-sowing hydration. Moreover, pre-sowing hydration treatments had significant (p≤0.01) effect within the three Bambara landraces root dry matters and no significant (p>0.05) effect on GC and DC leaf dry matter. Hydrating seeds for 24 hrs improved germination, seedling emergence, leaf and stem dry matter accumulation of bambara groundnut landraces


Thanks to the definition of the new IEEE 802.11bf standard, the development of Wi-Fi sensing applications is gaining momentum in the research community. In this regard, several studies have shown that learning-based approaches that leverage the frequency response of the Wi-Fi channel in the sub-7 GHz bands can reach high accuracy in different classification tasks, such as activity recognition, or person identification. Instead, more fine-grained applications – e.g., human localization and tracking, or respiration and heartbeat monitoring – require implementing model-based approaches to estimate the Wi-Fi multi-path parameters and analyze the time evolution of the paths associated with specific targets (the human body or chest). In this paper, we investigate the performance of six super-resolution algorithms for sub-7 GHz multi-path parameter estimation. Our extensive evaluation indicates that the estimation accuracy that can be achieved through commercial devices allows implementing human localization and tracking strategies but is insufficient to effectively design human vital signs monitoring applications due to the limited frequency and spatial diversity. We pledge to release our implementations for further investigations.1


Ten described and two undescribed Coptoformica MÜLLER, 1923 species (Hymenoptera: Formicidae, genus Formica) are currently known from the Palaearctic Region. Three of them – Formica exsecta NYLANDER, 1846 et mesasiatica DLUSSKY, 1964, F. pressilabris NYLANDER, 1846, and F. forsslundi LOHMANDER, 1949 – are distributed in both the West and East Palaearctic. Formica exsecta et mesasiatica has the widest distribution of all Coptoformica species. We have chosen this composite name to avoid executing here a formal synonymisation of F. mesasiatica under F. exsecta. A thorough argumentation in favour of this synonymy, using morphological, chorological and genetic evidence will be presented elsewhere (B. Seifert & A. Goropashnaya, unpubl.). Six species are restricted to the West Palaearctic: Formica bruni KUTTER, 1967, F. fennica SEIFERT, 2000, F. foreli BONDROIT, 1918, F. suecica ADLERZ, 1902, and two undescribed species. Formica bruni and F. foreli extend east directly to the Johansen Line. Formica fennica is known from Finland and the Caucasus. Formica suecica has been found in Fennoscandia, the Alps and West Siberia. Not much is known about the distribution of the two undescribed species. Three species are East Palaearctic: Formica fukaii WHEELER, 1914, is endemic to the Japanese islands; F. manchu WHEELER, 1929 and F. pisarskii DLUSSKY, 1964 are of more or less Central Asian distribution. Formica manchu and F. pisarskii, probably with the same basic type of distribution, inhabit the forest-steppe zone of Russia between the Altai Mountains and Lena River, Mongolia, Manchuria and, in the case of F. manchu, also Tibet. This contribution provides an overview of the known locations of the Coptoformica species and attempts to construct patterns of distribution.


This paper examines the ongoing social exclusion and marginalization of Roma migrants living in Scotland in a context of European Union enlargement eastwards and the development of National Action Plans for Social Inclusion at the level of national and regional government which have as their stated aim the extension of opportunity and social justice to all citizens of Europe. It argues that so long as primary legislation dictates that A8 migrants will have 'no recourse to public funds', Roma families will continue to be excluded from mainstream society and prevented from making a sustained and valued contribution to public life. Moreover, the evidence suggests that this structural barrier to inclusion, coupled with racism, discrimination and exploitation at the local level, work to hinder regional policy makers and local service providers where they are working to meet the welfare needs of one of the most excluded sections of their community and facilitate wider community cohesion.


The current consensus is that arterial baroreceptors are vitally important in the short term (seconds to minutes) control of mean arterial pressure (MAP) but are unimportant in determining the long‐term level of MAP. The latter statement is based primarily on two observations: first, that baroreceptors rapidly reset to the prevailing level of MAP and second, that total baroreceptor denervation has no lasting effect on the average daily MAP, although the variability of MAP is increased dramatically. However, recent studies in intact experimental animals have produced results that suggest baroreceptor resetting may not be as rapid or complete as previously thought. Furthermore, reconsideration of the responses to baroreceptor denervation suggest that the condition may accurately represent responses to short‐term baroreceptor unloading but not long‐term unloading. Results obtained using a new model of chronic baroreceptor unloading indicate that the condition results in a sustained increase in MAP. These results strongly suggest that the role of baroreceptors in the long term control of MAP needs to be revisited.


ABSTRACT Background: Depression and anxiety are common among long-term care residents, yet both appear to be under-recognized and under-treated. In our survey of 164 geriatric health care professionals from 34 U.S. states, 96% of respondents reported that a new instrument that rapidly assesses both depression and anxiety is needed. The Brief Anxiety and Depression Scale (BADS) is a new screening tool that can identify possible major depressive episodes (MDE) and generalized anxiety disorders (GAD) in long-term care residents. Methods: The psychometric properties of the BADS were investigated in a sample of 224 U.S. long-term care residents (aged 80.52 ± 9.07). Participants completed a battery of several individually administered mood and cognitive tests, including the BADS. MDE and GAD were diagnosed based on the DSM-IV-TR criteria. Results: Adequate internal consistency and construct validity were found. A principle component analysis (PCA) revealed an Anxiety Factor and a Depression Factor, which explained 50.26% of the total variance. The Anxiety Factor had a sensitivity of 0.73 and specificity of 0.81 for identifying GAD (PPV = 0.69, NPV = 0.84). The Depression Factor had a sensitivity of 0.76 and a specificity of 0.73 for identifying MDE (PPV = 0.77, NPV = 0.72). Conclusions: The BADS appears to be a reliable and valid screening instrument for MDE and GAD in long-term residents. The BADS can be rapidly administered, is sensitive to mood diagnoses in both patients without dementia and with dementia, and produces separate depression and anxiety factor scores that can be used clinically to identify probable mood diagnoses.


The problem of speaker and channel adaptation in deep neural network (DNN) based automatic speech recognition (ASR) systems is of substantial interest in advancing the performance of these systems. Recently, the speaker identity vectors (i-vectors) have shown improvements for ASR systems in matched conditions. In this paper, we propose the application of the general factor analysis framework for noisy speech recognition tasks. Several methods for deriving speaker and channel factors are explored including joint factor analysis (JFA) and i-vectors derived from DNN posteriors instead of the traditional Universal background model (UBM) approach. We also experiment with the late fusion of i-vector features with bottleneck (BN) features obtained from a previously trained convolutional neural network (CNN) system. The ASR experiments are performed on the Aspire challenge test data which contains noisy far-field speech while the acoustic models are trained with conversational telephone speech (CTS) data from the Fisher corpus. In these experiments, we show that the factor analysis based methods provide significant improvements in the word error rate (relative improvements of about 11% compared to the baseline DNN system trained with speaker adapted features).


The effect of Ge and oxygen content on microstructural formation and mechanical properties of Ti-Nb alloys were investigated in order to design a desirable Ti based alloy through casting process. Three phase mixtures consisting of bcc-structured β phase, orthorhombic structured α" phase and intermediate ω phase were found depending on Nb, Ge, oxygen content in the present alloy system. The volume fraction of α" phase and ω phase decreased with increasing Ge or oxygen content. This microstructural information may indicate that both Ge and oxygen act to increase the stability of β phase rather than α" phase in metastable β-Ti based alloys prepared by water quenching. Elastic modulus values were sensitive to phase stability of constituent phases.


: A specific deficit in individuals with developmental dyslexia has been repeatedly found in many tasks that had one aspect in common, that was, the processing of multiple visual elements in parallel. This skill is regarded as the visual attention span. This paper reviews the relevant literature about the visual attention span of the dyslexics in the contexts of alphabetic languages and Chinese. Currently, the relevant findings have been still in debate, and the inconsistent results may be attributed to the differences in orthographic depth of the background language and the participants' ages. Future studies can further explore the relationship between visual attention span and reading disability through the methods of the intervention study and cross-language comparison; meanwhile the neural mechanisms underlying the visual attention span of Chinese individuals with dyslexia could be investigated by the neuroimaging techniques.


Within the northern Lesser Antilles, the island of Saint Martin, including the Dutch part (St. Maarten, a constituent country of The Netherlands) and the French part (the Collectivity of Saint Martin), is considered the main hub for established non-native reptiles, currently numbering ten species (Table 1) (Dewynter et al. 2022; Thorpe 2022). The islands of Saba and St. Eustatius are special municipalities of The Netherlands and frequently trade with St. Maarten. During the last five years, several new non-native reptile species have been reported on Saba and St. Eustatius, which originate from the non-native populations already present on Saint Martin: the Green Iguana, Iguana iguana (van den Burg et al. 2018, 2022) on St. Eustatius, and the Brahminy Blindsnake, Indotyphlops braminus (van den Burg et al. 2021) and Smooth-scaled Tegulet, Gymnophthalmus underwoodi on Saba (van den Burg et al. 2021). It is believed that these newly established populations have been facilitated by poor biosecurity between the islands. Here, we describe the establishment of two species, G. underwoodi and the Common House Gecko, Hemidactylus frenatus, on St. Eustatius.


Semi-solid processing of metals is becoming popular as a new potential manufacturing technology for parts and components in automobile, electronic and machine industries.Up to now semisolid welding technology have not been used in industrial applications. A new process of semisolid metals welding is proposed; the process shows excellent formability and joining ability of semisolid metals, and differs from the process of melt welding or mechanical joining with screws or nails. In the process, semisolid 2A14 aluminum alloy was joint together and was rapidly solidified under pressure. The heat affected zone of the joint was decreased and the grain size of the joint was become small. The application range of the process is wide, i.e., from the electronic industry to arts. The advantages of this new semisolid welding process are (1) ease of joining, (2) good joining microstructure, and (3) ease of carrying out mass production.


Several small and medium-size contractors store bid day data regarding potential projects creating large datasets of bid day information without meaningful utilization. Many of these companies fail to leverage the archived bid day data because of their format or lack of effort to use historical data. Thus, most conceptual estimates are done using personal judgment and experience with little to no historical data support. Because of this approach, many small and medium-sized companies lack a data-driven approach to develop conceptual estimates. As such, this study aims at leveraging historical bid data to build a data-driven approach for creating conceptual estimates. This objective is achieved by presenting a framework for one company's historical bid day data to develop a conceptual cost estimating model. The framework uses bid day data for the past 45 years to build a data-driven conceptual estimating model using a case-based reasoning approach. The model allows estimators to retrieve the most similar projects from a historical database to create an informed conceptual estimate for potential projects. It is expected that this research will help many small and medium-size contractors leverage their historical bid data by utilizing it.


A survey is given of the Weierstrass representations of surfaces in three- and four-dimensional spaces, their applications to the theory of the Willmore functional, and related problems in the spectral theory of the two-dimensional Dirac operator with periodic coefficients.


This paper summarizes activities and results from the quality assessment project ITQ, "Quality certification of IT support at work", which was performed by Swedish researchers in close co-operation with trade unions in 1999-2002. The ITQ project is part of a network, UsersAward, which continues to work for the goal to develop and maintain a strategy for good software products on the work floor through strong user influence. A main result from ITQ is the first (2002) version of a user satisfaction based certification method, User Certified 2002, which is described in some detail. Other, parallel activities, large surveys of IT use in work places, user conferences, pilot projects, and a yearly IT Prize contest, are described more briefly. Finally implications and plans for the future, especially international spread of the activities, and further development of the certification process, are described and discussed.


Focused ultrasound (FUS) disruption of the blood-brain barrier (BBB) is an increasingly investigated technique for circumventing the BBB(1-5). The BBB is a significant obstacle to pharmaceutical treatments of brain disorders as it limits the passage of molecules from the vasculature into the brain tissue to molecules less than approximately 500 Da in size(6). FUS induced BBB disruption (BBBD) is temporary and reversible(4) and has an advantage over chemical means of inducing BBBD by being highly localized. FUS induced BBBD provides a means for investigating the effects of a wide range of therapeutic agents on the brain, which would not otherwise be deliverable to the tissue in sufficient concentration. While a wide range of ultrasound parameters have proven successful at disrupting the BBB(2,5,7), there are several critical steps in the experimental procedure to ensure successful disruption with accurate targeting. This protocol outlines how to achieve MRI-guided FUS induced BBBD in a rat model, with a focus on the critical animal preparation and microbubble handling steps of the experiment.


To circumvent the major threats of low blood volume and low blood pressure, animals need powerful mechanisms for salt and water conservation, which is renin–angiotensin system (RAS). Activation of RAS is therefore a useful response in many demanding situations. However, an increased activity of the RAS, especially in combination with other cardiovascular risk factors, may lead to a cascade of deleterious effects such as hypertension, atherosclerosis, myocardial remodeling, heart failure, ischemic stroke, and diabetes mellitus. Many of these pathophysiological actions of angiotensin II (Ang II) may still be viewed as being homeostatic in principle but harmful if carried to excess. Numerous experimental studies have indicated that angiotensin-converting enzyme II (ACE II) efficiently hydrolyzes the potent vasoconstrictor Ang II to Ang 1–7. Thus, the axis formed by ACE II/Ang 1–7/Mas appears to represent an endogenous counter-regulatory pathway within the RAS, the actions of which are in opposition to the vasoconstrictor/proliferative arm of the RAS consisting of ACE, Ang II, and Ang II Type 1 receptor (AT1R). Although most of the well-known cardiovascular and renal effects of RAS are attributed to ACE, an important enzyme in the generation of Ang II, much less is known about the functions of ACE II. This review summarizes recently published data on the basic properties of ACE II and Ang 1–7 and a summary of the evidence from experimental and clinical studies of various pathological conditions related to the biological roles of ACE II/Ang 1–7/Mas in the heart.


We present results on resonance production by the NA49 and CERES col- laborations. The measurement of the differential yields and spectral distributions of the K ∗ (892), Δ(1232), ρ, φ and Λ(1520) resonances from their leptonic and hadronic decay channels at different C.M.S. energies and for various colliding systems allows us to study in-medium modifications of the resonance mass, width and yield and constrains the prop- erties of the hadronic phase. For K ∗ (892) 0 , a strong system size dependence of the yield relative to kaon production is found. The production of the Δ(1232) resonance is consis- tent with thermal model expectations. φ meson spectra and yields reconstructed in the leptonic and hadronic decay channels are in agreement. Low-mass dilepton spectra indi- cate significant regeneration of the ρ meson and a strong modification of the ρ spectral function.


This article posits border abolition as a radical alternative to the Anthropocene. It convenes a group of eleven activists, organizers, scholars, practitioners, educators, and storytellers to discuss their work building cross-border solidarities along the US-Mexico border and in US immigration detention, Puerto Rico, Ghana, and the Bengal Delta. Participants provide critical analysis of the origins of environmental injustice and border violence and discuss how a confluence of ecological crisis, environmental racism, and border militarization since the 1980s disproportionately impacts BIPOC and queer/trans communities and exacerbates migrant precarity and displacement worldwide. Participants share ways they have built alternatives to border and ecological violence through migrant accompaniment, legal and policy advocacy, divestment activism, storytelling, education, and sustainability projects. The discussion is organized around three key themes: environmental injustice, racism, and borders; strategies adopted by organizers to build environmental and migrant justice; and visions of border abolition.


Pulmonary hypertension (PH) is characterized by increased pulmonary vascular resistance, pulmonary vascular remodeling, and increased pulmonary vascular pressures that often result in right ventricular dysfunction, leading to right heart failure. Evidence suggests that reactive oxygen species (ROS) contribute to PH pathogenesis by altering pulmonary vascular cell proliferation and intracellular signaling pathways. However, the role of mitochondrial antioxidants and oxidant-derived stress signaling in the development of hypoxia-induced PH is largely unknown. Therefore, we examined the role of the major mitochondrial redox regulator thioredoxin 2 (Trx2). Levels of Trx2 mRNA and protein were examined in human pulmonary arterial endothelial cells (HPAECs) and smooth muscle cells (HPASMCs) exposed to hypoxia, a common stimulus for PH, for 72 h. Hypoxia decreased Trx2 mRNA and protein levels. In vitro overexpression of Trx2 reduced hypoxia-induced H2O2 production. The effects of increased Trx2 protein level were examined in transgenic mice expressing human Trx2 (TghTrx2) that were exposed to hypoxia (10% O2) for 3 wk. TghTrx2 mice exposed to hypoxia had exacerbated increases in right ventricular systolic pressures, right ventricular hypertrophy, and increased ROS in the lung tissue. Trx2 overexpression did not attenuate hypoxia-induced increases in Trx2 oxidation or Nox4 expression. Expression of a dominant negative C93S Trx2 mutant that mimics Trx2 oxidation exacerbated hypoxia-induced increases in HPASMC H2O2 levels and cell proliferation. In conclusion, Trx2 overexpression failed to attenuate hypoxia-induced HPASMC proliferation in vitro or hypoxia-induced PH in vivo. These findings indicate that strategies to enhance Trx2 expression are unlikely to exert therapeutic effects in PH pathogenesis.


Asthma is a prevalent chronic heterogeneous inflammatory disease of the airways, leading to reversible airway obstruction, in which various inflammatory responses can be observed. Mild to moderate asthma patients often present with a Th2-mediated eosinophilic inflammation whereas in severe asthma patients, a Th17-associated neutrophilic or combined Th2 and Th17-mediated eosinophilic/neutrophilic inflammation is observed. The differentiation of these effector Th2 and Th17-cells is induced by allergen-exposed dendritic cells (DCs) that migrate toward the lung draining lymph node. The DC lineage comprises conventional DCs (cDCs) and plasmacytoid DCs (pDCs), of which the cDC lineage consists of type 1 cDCs (cDC1s) and cDC2s. During inflammation, also monocytes can differentiate into so-called monocyte-derived DCs (moDCs). These DC subsets differ both in ontogeny, localization, and in their functional properties. New identification tools and the availability of transgenic mice targeting specific DC subsets enable the investigation of how these different DC subsets contribute to or suppress asthma pathogenesis. In this review, we will discuss mechanisms used by different DC subsets to elicit or hamper the pathogenesis of both Th2-mediated eosinophilic asthma and more severe Th17-mediated neutrophilic inflammation.


The objective was to evaluate the correctness of the inhalation technique in a nationwide sample of patients and medical personnel, in order to define targeted educational goals. A total of 1,640 volunteers (746 patients, 466 nurses and 428 physicians) were evaluated. Only 9% of patients, 15% of nurses and 28% of physicians showed a correct inhalation technique. Physicians performed significantly better (mean score 77 ± 23) than nurses (71 ± 22) and patients (62 ± 26). Scores in general practitioners and pediatricians were significantly lower than those of chest physicians and allergists. In conclusion, proper use of metered dose inhalers (MDI) in patients and medical personnel is still faulty. Despite the physician's awareness of the importance of a correct inhalation technique in the use of MDI, this study shows severe deficiencies, showing the need for substantial changes in educational efforts, and particularly addressed to general practitioners.


The effect of rigid inclusions on the densification during isothermal sintering of glass matrix composites was investigated. Mixtures containing borosilicate glass powder and 0, 5, 10 and 25 vol. % alumina (Al2O3) particles were prepared and powder compacts isostatically pressed at 200 MPa have been used. The sintering behaviour of the samples heated at 800°C during various times was investigated through density measurement, axial and radial shrinkage measurements. The microstructure was analysed by SEM and the crystalline phases present in the sintered composites were identified by XRD. The relative density of the isothermally treated borosilicate glass-Al2O3 composites decreased significantly with the increase in Al2O3 content because the presence of rigid inclusions retarded the densification of the compacts. The borosilicate glass exhibited anisotropic shrinkage behaviour, showing a radial shrinkage higher than the axial shrinkage and isotropic shrinkage was favoured by Al2O3 additions. Sintered glass showed a dense microstructure with some spherical closed pores. The microstructure of composites with 5 vol. % Al2O3 revealed that most of the pores were filled by capillary flow of the glass. The microstructure of composites with higher Al2O3 additions showed dense areas together with interconnected pores, which appeared at the sites of large glass particles in the green compacts.


This paper details some significant findings on the use of the fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors for structural health monitoring (SHM) in aerospace fiber reinforced polymer (FRP) structures. A diminutive sensor provides a capability of imbedding inside FRP structures to monitor vital locations of damage. Some practical problems associated with the implementation of FBG based SHM systems in the aerospace FRP structures such as the difficulty of embedding FBG sensors during the manufacturing process and interrelation of distortion to FBG spectra due to internal damage, and other independent effects will be thoroughly studied. An innovative method to interpret FBG signals for identifying damage inside the structures will also be discussed.


Much has been said and written about the marketing concept. In brief, the marketing concept stresses customer satisfaction as a means of attaining high performance. Past studies have shown that there has been a considerable interest in the marketing concept both in academic circles and in the business world. In spite of its popularity, little effort has been devoted to examining the validity of the marketing concept, i.e., to testing the proposition that the adoption and implementation of the marketing concept will lead to high performance, be it in domestic or export operations. Previous studies of the marketing concept were mainly focused on whether or not firms have adopted and implemented it. A handful of studies has examined the more fundamental question of the link between the marketing concept and corporate performance. However, for different reasons, the findings of these studies are limited. Given this background, the objective of this study was twofold: to develop and empirically test a model of marketing orientation and export performance that can be applied in many settings, and then to identify which aspects of marketing orientation correlate with export performance. The New Zealand manufacturing industry was selected as the empirical setting. A single industry was chosen so as to have a control over industrial differences. Specifically, the manufacturing industry was chosen because of its increased importance to the New Zealand economy as evidenced by the industry's contribution in areas such as export earnings, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employment. A model of marketing orientation and export performance was developed. It contained three major components: the measures of marketing orientation, of export performance, and the control variables. It was hypothesized that marketing orientation would be positively related to export performance. The data were collected through a mail survey of 356 manufacturing firms throughout New Zealand. The survey produced a net response rate of 47.6 percent. Scales were developed to measure each of the three components of the model. Cronbach alpha and factor analysis were used to test the internal consistency of the measures. The measures were also subjected to convergent, discriminant, nomological and predictive validity tests. The results showed that the measures employed in this research are both reliable and valid. Furthermore, a test for normality was administered on the dependent variable (export performance) and the results showed that the dependent variable is normally distributed. It is therefore suitable for parametric statistical analyses. Multiple regression techniques were employed to analyse the data The analysis was done at two main levels. At the first level the relationship between marketing orientation and export performance was explored without controlling the exogenous variables. At the second level, the same process was repeated but the exogenous variables were controlled. At both levels of analysis the results gave support to the hypothesis that there is a positive relationship between marketing orientation and export performance.


Abstract. Describing the population trends of threatened species over time is central to their management and conservation. The green and golden bell frog (Litoria aurea) is a formerly common species of south-eastern Australia that has declined to ∼40 populations in New South Wales, and experienced a substantial contraction of its geographic range. We aimed to determine whether an unmanaged population at the northern end of its range had declined across a 17-year period. We estimated population size at the beginning and end of this period, using several population models to fully characterise this population. Different modelling approaches gave different population estimates. Based on a similar number of survey occasions the adult male segment of the population was estimated using the Popan model at 112.0 (±13.5, s.e.; 95% CI: 85.5–138.8) in 1998/99 and 95.2 (±17.6; 60.8–129.7) in 2015/16. With the inclusion of maturing subadults following the practice of earlier studies, the population was estimated at 163.6 (±25.9; 112.8–214.5) males in 2015/16. These estimates represent an index of a larger population because the largest wetland was subsampled. Our data provide no evidence of a declining population. Our study highlights the need to understand the implications of using different population models and two age-classes to estimate population parameters.


Constructing a fine 3D geomodel for complex giant reservoir is a crucial task for hydrocarbon volume assessment and guiding for optimal development. The case under study is Mishrif reservoir of Halfaya oil field, which is an Iraqi giant carbonate reservoir. Mishrif mainly consists of limestone rocks which belong to Late Cenomanian age. The average gross thickness of formation is about 400m. In this paper, a high-resolution 3D geological model has been built using Petrel software that can be utilized as input for dynamic simulation. The model is constructed based on geological, geophysical, pertophysical and engineering data from about 60 available wells to characterize the structural, stratigraphic, and properties distribution along the reservoir. Fourteen geological surfaces for all Mishrif units have been generated based on well tops data and top Mishrif structural map. The reservoir has been divided into 163 sublayers through the vertical direction and 160*383 grid cells in x-y direction with 9,988,640 total grid cells. A scale up process are performed for well log data, then, Sequential Gaussian Simulation algorithm are applied to fill 3D grid cells with properties values in areas away from wells. Pertophysical properties distribution for all reservoir zones are analyzed. The estimated initial oil in place of Mishrif through this model is close to that calculated in other previous studies.


Chinese hamster DDN cells have been exposed to low doses of X-irradiation (< 15 Gy). These doses have been shown to induce significant levels of repair replication. Levels of activity of DNA polymerase were subsequently measured in cells exposed in G1 phase of mitosis to 7.5 Gy of X-rays. Following exposure, the activity of this enzyme was observed to rise to a peak within 15 min post-irradiation, then decline and then rise again over a long period. The initial rise at least was found to be sensitive to inhibition by N-ethylmaleimide, a known inhibitor of DNA polymerase-alpha and DNA polymerase-gamma at the concentration used. It is therefore suggested that repair of X-ray-induced damage in these DON cells was at least in part dependent upon induced DNA polymerase activity and this may involve DNA polymerase-alpha or DNA polymerase-gamma, or both.


4 UNEP World Conservation Monitoring Centre, Cambridge, UK Abstract. Protected areas are one of the cornerstones for conserving the world's re- maining biodiversity, most of which occurs in tropical forests. We use multiple sources of satellite data to estimate the extent of forest habitat and loss over the last 20 years within and surrounding 198 of the most highly protected areas (IUCN status 1 and 2) located throughout the world's tropical forests. In the early 1980s, surrounding habitat in the 50- km unprotected or less highly protected ''buffers'' enhanced the protected areas' effective size and their capacity to conserve richness of forest-obligate species above the hypothetical case of complete isolation. However, in nearly 70% of the surrounding buffers, the area of forest habitat declined during the last 20 years, while 25% experienced declines within their administrative boundaries. The loss of habitat occurred in all tropical regions, but protected areas in South and Southeast Asia were most severely affected because of rela- tively low surrounding forest habitat in the early 1980s and high subsequent loss, particularly in dry tropical forests. The future ability of protected areas to maintain current species richness depends on integrating reserve management within the land use dynamics of their larger regional settings.


Granulocyte extravasation from the blood into tissues is a prerequisite for a proper inflammatory response. It is regulated by a multistep adhesion cascade consisting of successive contacts between leukocyte surface receptors and their endothelial ligands on vessels. Vascular adhesion protein 1 (VAP‐1) is an endothelial surface glycoprotein with two functions. It is an enzyme (monoamine oxidase) and an adhesion molecule for lymphocytes. Its function in binding of granulocytes or in leukocyte trafficking into sites of inflammation in vivo has remained unknown. Here we show that treatment of rabbits with anti‐VAP‐1 monoclonal antibodies abrogates ~70% of granulocyte extravasation into a site of an experimental inflammation. Using intravital microscopy, VAP‐1 blockade is shown to increase the velocity of the rolling granulocytes and the frequency of their jerky skippings during the rolling. In addition, the number of firmly bound leukocytes decreased by 44% when VAP‐1 was rendered nonfunctional. Our results suggest that VAP‐1 functions as a molecular brake early in the adhesion cascade and consequently decreases the firm adherence;it may also directly influence the transmigration step. These data elucidate a new interplayer in the granulocyte extravasation process and provide a novel physiological function for a member of the monoamine oxidase family.—Tohka, S., Laukkanen, M.‐L., Jalkanen, S., Salmi, M. Vascular adhesion protein 1 (VAP‐1) functions as a molecular brake during granulocyte rolling and mediates their recruitment in vivo. FASEB J. 15, 373‐382 (2001)


Using a search model for Danish labor market entrants, we are one of the first studies to test whether second-generation immigrants have the same job-offer arrival and layoff rates as ethnic Danes have. We contribute to the search literature by incorporating matching as a way to ensure sub-sample homogeneity. Thus, we match second-generation immigrants to their ethnic Danish twins on the basis of parental characteristics and informal network quality. There are big differences before matching, but after matching, second-generation immigrants perform as well or better than their ethnic Dane counterparts do on the labor market, though not with respect to layoffs. This result is mainly driven by the group of high school graduates and those with a primary school education only. Second generation immigrants with vocational education, males in particular, face both significantly lower arrival rates when unemployed and significantly higher layoff rates than those of their ethnic Danish twins.


While the federal government has been slow to address problems such as climate change, many states have adopted innovative approaches to address the climate impact of using natural resources to produce energy, including aggressive approaches to regulating carbon emissions and renewable and clean energy standards. This Article identifies an emerging challenge that subnational regulation faces in the energy and environmental context -- what I will call "maladaptive" federalism -- and argues that federalism discussions need to account for its possibility. Part I highlights adaptive regulation as a form of federalism, echoing a vision for subnational regulation many federalism scholars and policymakers have endorsed over the past two decades. Part II argues that policy choices by subnational units of government that fail to account for or consider these coordination benefits should not be celebrated as a form of adaptive federalism merely because they are state policy choices. I identify subnational recalcitrance (on inaction by states) and backlash (or reversing course) as two potential types of maladaptation, provides examples of each, and use these to illustrate the structural features of subnational governments that make maladaptation most likely. Part III argues in favor of pro-adaptation tools that federal agencies can use to address the enactment costs of states taking maladaptive approaches. In certain contexts, focusing on enactment costs associated with the structure of state governments will superior to federal policies that preempt subnational units of government altogether by making the policy choice for them. Such tools not only make maladaptation less likely; they also help to ensure that when a state does opt for an maladaptive policy path that it does so because it is making explicit tradeoffs in ways that are more likely to be welfare-enhancing and politically accountable.


Aim: This study aimed to assess knowledge, attitudes, and practices (KAP) towards COVID-19 among young adults in Bangladesh. Subject and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted from 5th May to 25th May 2020. Young adults aged between 18-35 years were approached via social media to complete an online questionnaire consisted of socio-demographic characteristics and KAP towards COVID-19. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and multiple logistic regression were conducted.Results: Of the 707 survey participants, the majority were male (57.1%), with a mean age of 25.03 (SD: 4.26) years, 60.3% were students, 57% had a bachelor's degree, and 64.4% were urban residents. Participants gather information on COVID-19 mostly through Social media (70.4%). Overall, 61.2% had adequate knowledge with 78.9% having a positive attitude towards COVID-19 and only 51.6% had good practices. Most (86.8%) of the participants were confident that COVID-19 will be successfully controlled and Bangladesh was handling the COVID-19 health crisis well (84.20%). Only 75.2% of participants always washed hands with soap or hand-sanitizer and 70.6% wore a mask when going outside the home in recent days. Factors associated with adequate knowledge were being female, having a master's degree and above, and living in an urban area (𝑝 < 0.05). Participants having adequate knowledge of COVID-19 had higher likelihood of positive attitudes (OR: 6.41, 95% CI = 2.34-25.56, 𝑝 = 0.000) and good practices (OR: 8.93, 95% CI = 3.92-38.42, 𝑝 = 0.000).Conclusion: Introducing effective COVID-19 Health campaigns incorporating factors to influence KAP is urgently needed.


With an average of over nine children per family, older cohorts of Bedouin in the Bekaa Valley of Lebanon have one of the highest fertility rates in the world. Many married couples in this pastoral community are close relatives--a socially advantageous practice that reflects the deep value Bedouins place on kinship. To outsiders, such family norms can seem disturbing, even premodern. They attract assumptions of Arab "backwardness," poverty, and sexism. Astoundingly, however, Fertile Bonds flips these stereotypes. Anthropological demographer Suzanne Joseph shows that in this particular group, prolific birth rates coincide with moderate death rates and high levels of nutrition. Despite differences in gender, class, and occupation, members of Bekaa Bedouin society rely heavily on kinship ties, sharing, and reciprocity, and experience a high degree of social and demographic equality. This story, unfamiliar to many, is one that is fading as traditional nomadic livelihoods give way to encapsulation within the state. With the help of this surprising, nuanced study--one of the first of its kind in the Middle East--knowledge of such marginalised pastoral groups will not vanish with the disappearance of their way of life. Joseph's book expands our understanding of peoples far removed from consolidated government control and provides a broad analytical lens through which to examine demographic divides across the globe.


This bibliographical, exploratory research seeks to reflect access to information and societal changes at the end of the XIX century and throughout the XX century, highlighting an historical retrospective of Information Science constitution and its importance in the context of a post-industrial society. An analysis of the importance given to information, emphasizing the relevance of Paul Otlet and Vannevar Bush works is done. Following, the study continues with a chronological overview of Information Science historical development pointing out its impact on society and information, and demonstrates the importance of information in today's computerized world.


Passive Millimeter Wave (PMMW) sensors are used for remote sensing and security applications. They rely on radiometric receivers to sense very small power differences. The performance of radiometric receivers should be characterized in different ways than communications and radar receivers. In communications we typically think in terms of carrier-to-noise ratio (CNR) or signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) relating a generated signal to noise floor. In a PMMW system, the signal sources are random white 'noise' resulting from black body radiation from objects in a scene. The power emitted by an object is proportional to its temperature on a Kelvin scale (relative to absolute zero) and contrast is achieved in a PMMW image by spatial correlation of temperature differences within the scene.


Urinary tract obstruction represents a common cause of kidney injury across the human life span, resulting in chronic kidney disease and end-stage renal disease. Yet, the extent of obstructive renal damage can be heterogeneous between individuals, implying the existence of unknown mechanisms that protect against or accelerate kidney injury. In this study, we investigated the role of urothelial remodeling in renal adaptation during congenital and acquired obstruction. In the Megabladder ( Mgb-/-) model of congenital obstruction and unilateral ureteral ligation model of acute obstruction, progressive hydronephrosis is strongly associated with dynamic reorganization of the renal urothelium, which elaborates a continuous uroplakin (Upk) plaque. This led us to postulate that the Upk plaque prevents parenchymal injury during urinary tract obstruction. To test this hypothesis, we interbred Mgb-/- and Upk1b-/- mice, which lack the critical Upk1b subunit for Upk plaque formation. Upk1b-/-; Mgb-/- mice experienced an accelerated onset of bilateral hydronephrosis with severe (>67%) parenchymal loss, leading to renal failure and mortality in adolescence. To investigate the function of the renal Upk plaque during acute obstruction, we destabilized the Upk plaque by Upk1b deletion or genetically depleted Upk+ cells following unilateral ureteral obstruction. Both of these strategies accelerated renal parenchymal loss following ureteral ligation, attesting to a conserved, stabilizing role for Upk plaque deposition in the acutely obstructed kidney. In aggregate, these complementary experiments provide the first evidence that the Upk plaque confers an essential, protective adaptation to preserve renal parenchymal integrity during congenital and acquired urinary tract obstruction.


This research aims to investigate the effectiveness of using applications in developing sixth graders' English language vocabulary, its retention, and self-efficacy. To achieve this aim, the adopted the experimental approach and recruited a sample of (44) EFL(English as a Foreign Language) male learners researching at Belal Ben Rabah Elementary School for boys (A) in the middle area of Gaza Strip. The researchers chose two out of four classes in the school and purposively assigned one class as the experimental group consisting of (22) students and the other as the control group consisting of (22) students. The traditional method was used in teaching vocabulary to the control group, while the applications were used with the experimental one in the second term of the school year (2016-2017). As a main tool for the research, theresearchers used an achievement test of four questions designed and validated to be used as pre- and post-test. The test was applied in the beginning to ensure the equivalence of the two groups' achievement levels and then it was applied as a posttest to detect any discrepancies attributable to using Applications. In addition, the used the same test to measure the vocabulary retention after using applications then a self-efficacy scale to investigate the level of self-efficacy beliefs to the students gained towards learning English in general and vocabulary in particular. The findings of the research revealed that there were significant differences in learning English vocabulary between the experimental and control groups in favor of the experimental group, and this was attributed to using applications. Based upon the previous findings, the research recommends the suitability of using applications in teaching and learning English vocabulary to bring about better results in students' achievement. Also, the researchers suggested that further research should be carried out on the effectiveness of using applications on teaching different English language approaches as well as other school subjects such as science.


The story about the collective past, which is embedded in the students' minds, may serve a significant role in learning history. The fit between students preconceived narratives and the official narrative in textbooks might considerably influence their ability to understand and use the official narrative as a cultural tool. 105 12th grade students wrote narratives about the Melting Pot policy in the absorption of the "Great Aliyah" (Mass immigration) to Israel in the 1950's, a corner stone of Israeli collective identity. The students' narratives were analyzed in order to identify overt opinions, and basic narrative characteristics, such as plot schemes, agency and recurrent themes. The narratives were compared to the central characteristics of the official narrative of the Great Aliyah mediated through history textbooks. Students' dominant narrative stood in opposition to the textbooks narrative, putting forward a highly critical perspective of the immigration absorption. Additional findings show students of "Ashkenazi" (European-Jewish) origin to be significantly more critical towards the Melting Pot policy and it's consequences for the Mizrahi Jews than students of "Mizrahi" (Arab-Jewish) origins. The authors seek to explain their findings within the framework of socio-cultural theory, as evidence of the students' use of social representation of the past as a cultural tool for explaining a problematic present. The personal historical narrative seems to serve as a tool for positioning the individual in relation to the past and in constructing potentialities of responsibility to contemporary reality.


This paper presents positioning algorithms for cellular network-based vehicle tracking in severe non-line-of-sight (NLOS) propagation scenarios. The aim of the algorithms is to enhance positional accuracy of network-based positioning systems when the GPS receiver does not perform well due to the complex propagation environment. A one-step position estimation method and another two-step method are proposed and developed. Constrained optimization is utilized to minimize the cost function which takes account of the NLOS error so that the NLOS effect is significantly reduced. Vehicle velocity and heading direction measurements are exploited in the algorithm development, which may be obtained using a speedometer and a heading sensor, respectively. The developed algorithms are practical so that they are suitable for implementation in practice for vehicle applications. It is observed through simulation that in severe NLOS propagation scenarios, the proposed positioning methods outperform the existing cellular network-based positioning algorithms significantly. Further, when the distance measurement error is modeled as the sum of an exponential bias variable and a Gaussian noise variable, the exact expressions of the CRLB are derived to benchmark the performance of the positioning algorithms.


OBJECTIVE
To assess the agreement and reliability of cardiac measurements obtained with 3 echocardiographic techniques in anesthetized red-tailed hawks (Buteo jamaicensis).

ANIMALS
10 red-tailed hawks.

PROCEDURES
Transcoelomic, contrast transcoelomic, and transesophageal echocardiographic evaluations of the hawks were performed, and cineloops of imaging planes were recorded. Three observers performed echocardiographic measurements of cardiac variables 3 times on 3 days. The order in which hawks were assessed and echocardiographic techniques were used was randomized. Results were analyzed with linear mixed modeling, agreement was assessed with intraclass correlation coefficients, and variation was estimated with coefficients of variation.

RESULTS
Significant differences were evident among the 3 echocardiographic methods for most measurements, and the agreement among findings was generally low. Interobserver agreement was generally low to medium. Intraobserver agreement was generally medium to high. Overall, better agreement was achieved for the left ventricular measurements and for the transesophageal approach than for other measurements and techniques.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Echocardiographic measurements in hawks were not reliable, except when the left ventricle was measured by the same observer. Furthermore, cardiac morphometric measurements may not be clinically important. When measurements are required, one needs to consider that follow-up measurements should be performed by the same echocardiographer and should show at least a 20% difference from initial measurements to be confident that any difference is genuine.


ContextCare of patients with heart failure has been revolutionized throughout
the past decade. A paradigm shift in the strategy for treating heart failure
caused by systolic dysfunction is in progress. Despite the initial perception
about β-blockers' safety, they are now the most extensively studied class
of agents in the treatment of heart failure and have emerged as an important
intervention to improve the clinical outcomes of heart failure patients.ObjectiveTo provide scientific rationale for the use of β-blockers for patients
with heart failure.Data SourcesAll English-language articles of large, randomized controlled clinical
trials assessing the mortality benefits of β-blockers in patients with
heart failure were identified to provide the scientific rationale for the
use of β-blockers in heart failure. Basic science studies were reviewed
to provide an overview of the potential physiologic role of β-blockers
in heart failure. Finally, clinical guidelines for the treatment of patients
with heart failure were assessed to determine current recommendations for
the use of these agents.Study Selection and Data ExtractionRandomized controlled clinical trials of β-blockers that included
more than 300 subjects and assessed mortality as a primary end point.Data SynthesisOf the 4 β-blockers tested in large randomized controlled clinical
trials of patients with heart failure, 3 are available in the United States,
bisoprolol, carvedilol, and metoprolol; 2 of these, carvedilol and metoprolol,
have Food and Drug Administration indications for the treatment of heart failure.
Compared with placebo treatment, β-blocker use is associated with a consistent
30% reduction in mortality and a 40% reduction in hospitalizations in patients
with class II and III heart failure.ConclusionsTested in more than 10 000 patients, β-blockers reduce morbidity
and mortality in class II through IV heart failure. Along with angiotensin-converting
enzyme inhibitors, digoxin, and diuretics, β-blockers have strengthened
the armamentarium to improve clinical outcomes of heart failure patients.
The science supporting β-blockers must be translated into practice safely
and rationally if the agents are to achieve their full potential.


Bacterial colonization of biotic and abiotic surfaces and antibiotic resistance are grand challenges with paramount societal impacts. However, in the face of increasing bacterial resistance to all known antibiotics, efforts to discover new classes of antibiotics have languished, creating an urgent need to accelerate the antibiotic discovery pipeline. A major deterrent in the discovering of new antibiotics is the limited permeability of molecules across the bacterial envelope. Notably, the Gram-negative bacteria have nutrient specific protein channels (or porins) that restrict the permeability of non-essential molecules, including antibiotics. Here, we have developed the Computational Antibiotic Screening Platform (CLASP) for screening of potential drug molecules through the porins. The CLASP takes advantage of coarse grain (CG) resolution, advanced sampling techniques, and a parallel computing environment to maximize its performance. The CLASP yields comprehensive thermodynamic and kinetic output data of a potential drug molecule within a few hours of wall-clock time. Its output includes the potential of mean force profile, energy barrier, the rate constant, and contact analysis of the molecule with the pore-lining residues, and the orientational analysis of the molecule in the porin channel. In our first CLASP application, we report the transport properties of six carbapenem antibiotics-biapenem, doripenem, ertapenem, imipenem, meropenem, and panipenem-through OccD3, a major channel for carbapenem uptake in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The CLASP is designed to screen small molecule libraries with a fast turnaround time to yield structure-property relationships to discover antibiotics with high permeability. The CLASP will be freely distributed to enable accelerated antibiotic drug discovery.


Contemporary education presupposes a perpetual cultural metamorphosis, the borders being visibly blurred. The process of teaching the Romanian language as a foreign language presupposes, in equal measure, a paradigm shift, the emphasis shifting, thus, from the pattern of the native speaker to that of the foreign speaker with an important intercultural component. Often, communication contexts are perceived as areas of intersections of several cultures that involve, finally, mutations in the identity of each of the interlocutors. The intercultural dimension of the act of teaching-learning means a comparative approach of both one's own culture and that of the assimilated one. This paper aims to highlight the perspective from which can be developed that competence of intercultural communication in terms of foreign students, those who come to Romania to study the Romanian language for teaching reasons, to later attend university courses in the language mentioned. The current context is all the more challenging, as the online environment has become the exclusive space of the instructive process educational, methods, procedures, tools used to be adapted to new situations of teaching learning and development of linguistic and intercultural skills


This research project examined the metaphors of Globalization and trade in the context of current asymmetries prevailing between high- and low-income countries. As a theoretical underpinning we used historical discourse analysis which views language as a social activity through which humans conceive and understand the reality they live in. Metaphors in particular provide speakers with an inventory of comparisons and pictures. Metaphors offer the discourse its down-to-earth shading and help in this way to secure one specific perspective on reality. How this is being done in the WTO system is demonstrated in the empirical part of the article. Metaphors on Globalization and trade were extracted from face-to-face interviews with WTO staff and trade diplomats of low-income African countries. These metaphors were analyzed with respect to their force in making trade 'speakable', and by doing so providing the one particular view on Globalization that hardly leaves any space for alternative considerations.


This paper reviews five striking facts about inequality across countries. As Kuznets (1955) famously first documented, inequality first rises and then falls with income. More unequal societies are much less likely to have democracies or governments that respect property rights. Unequal societies have less redistribution, and we have little idea whether this relationship is caused by redistribution reducing inequality or inequality reducing redistribution. Inequality and ethnic heterogeneity are highly correlated, either because of differences in educational heritages across ethnicities or because ethnic heterogeneity reduces redistribution. Finally, there is much more inequality and less redistribution in the U.S. than in most other developed nations.


Engineering systems such as energy production facilities, aviation systems, maritime vessels, etc. continue to grow in size and complexity. This growth has made the identification, quantification and mitigation of risks associated with the failure of such systems so complicated. To solve this problem, several advanced techniques such as Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), Reliability-Block Diagram (RBD), Reliability-Centered Maintenance (RCM), Monte-Carlo Simulation (MCS), Markov Analysis (MA) and Bayesian Networks (BN) have been developed in the literature. In order to improve the strengths and eliminate the drawbacks of classical techniques, some hybrid models have been recently developed. In this paper, an integrated FTA and FMEA model is proposed for risk analysis of safety-critical systems. Minimal cut sets derived from the fault trees are weighted based on Birnbaum's measure of importance and then the weights are used to revise Risk Priority Numbers (RPNs) obtained from the use of traditional FMEA techniques. The proposed model is applied to a Blowout Preventer (BOP) system operating under erratic and extreme conditions in a subsea oil and gas field. Though those failures caused by kill valves and hydraulic lines remain among the top risks in the BOP system, significant differences are revealed in risk rankings when the results from the hybrid approach are compared with those obtained from the classical risk analysis methods.


The cosmic neutrino background is a key prediction of Big Bang cosmology which has not been observed yet. The movement of the earth through this neutrino bath creates a force on a pendulum, as if it were exposed to a cosmic wind. We revise here estimates for the resulting pendulum acceleration and compare it to the theoretical sensitivity of an experimental setup where the pendulum position is measured using current laser interferometer technology as employed in gravitational wave detectors. We discuss how a significant improvement of this setup can be envisaged in a micro gravity environment. The proposed setup could also function as a dark matter detector in the sub-MeV range, which currently eludes direct detection constraints.


Thank you very much for reading social work in oncology supporting survivors families and caregivers. Maybe you have knowledge that, people have search numerous times for their favorite books like this social work in oncology supporting survivors families and caregivers, but end up in infectious downloads. Rather than enjoying a good book with a cup of tea in the afternoon, instead they juggled with some harmful bugs inside their computer.


: This paper addresses the post-entry performance of firms for seven regions in Portugal, at the NUT II level, by investigating the structural characteristics of survival, using non-parametric and semi-parametric methods, during the period 1985 to 2007. In order to approach the prevalence of some stylized facts and determinants of new firm survival, a new entrepreneurship database was produced following the application of the Eurostat/OECD methodology to Quadros de Pessoal . In the non parametric estimation, Kaplan-Meier survival functions and Nelson-Aalen hazard rates are used, while the semi-parametric estimation relates survival with seven explanatory variables and sector and year dummies. The main contribution of this work is the application of an internationally comparable methodology to a linked employer-employee dataset, which provides a regional overview of firm and survival dynamics over an extended period of time, while guaranteeing regional, national and international comparability.


Passive ventilation is becoming increasingly important due to more focus on limiting electricity for ventilation purposes. Underground culverts may be utilized to achieve preheating or precooling of the intake air. Therefore it represents a possible measure to reduce the electricity usage used for heating and cooling. In order to assess the possible heating and cooling performance of a culvert situated at Grong primary school, the impact of rotational versus uniform inflow on the convective heat transfer has been examined in a CFD model. The results from this model have been compared to measurements performed at Grong and other similar experiments. Based on this, a heat performance model was created in ESP-r incorporating a heat convection model and one-dimensional heat conduction model together with local weather data from Grong. The model showed that the culvert might be used for heating during fall and winter when the ambient temperature is low compared to the ground temperature. For the spring, the culvert provides undesirable cooling. During the summer when the ambient temperature is high enough, the culvert can provide cooling in the hottest days.


Abstract:Research denotes the importance of the social interest theory–based concept of acceptance of others as a key factor in increasing positive attitudes toward helping victims of bullying. However, to date, few bullying prevention programs have explicitly integrated instruction to reduce prejudice. Although most teachers will witness or experience bias-based bullying in the schools they will join as professional educators, most students are rarely exposed to these types of programs. This study investigated the effect of integrating bullying prevention and prejudice reduction content into a prevention program. Pre- and postintervention outcomes are reported on the basis of instruments that measured bullying and prejudicial attitudes. Results showed significant changes according to these measures. Implications for the use of integrated programs are presented.


Aim
Globally, the geographical distributions of species are dynamic and strongly influenced by dispersal. At the same time, range dynamics feed back and may select for increased dispersal at expanding range fronts. This interplay between macroecological and evolutionary dynamics happens almost universally across environmental gradients and such gradients can have a direct impact on the fitness of organisms due to the match or mismatch between an individual's environmental optimum and the current conditions along the gradient. Importantly, gradients also provide individuals with information on environmental changes because dispersing individuals may sense whether environmental conditions improve or deteriorate. However, the ability of organisms to use this information on the environment and to subsequently adjust dispersal decisions plastically, that is, deciding to further disperse into the gradient or not, has been largely ignored and the macroecological consequences remain unclear. We here aim to demonstrate the impact of informed dispersal on the eco-evolutionary dynamics of ranges.

Location
Laboratory and theoretical.

Methods
We used individual-based simulations and controlled experiments in replicated microcosm landscapes. Range expansions of the protist model organism Tetrahymena were tracked using video recording and analysis.

Results
We show that information on environmental gradients had a severe impact on range dynamics and inverted the spatial distribution of population densities in comparison with controls where this information was not provided. Additionally, the use of information on gradients prevented evolutionary changes in dispersal rates and an acceleration of range expansion.

Main conclusions
We demonstrate the strong impact of informed dispersal and subsequent behavioural changes on range dynamics in environmental gradients. More generally, our findings highlight the importance of informed dispersal for spatial ecological and evolutionary dynamics.


By reflecting upon Korea's state-led development, its socio-economic consequences, and its current reform efforts and trends, this article calls for reconstructing the state and redefining the identity of its political economy towards people-centered development. Crafting a democratic and empowering dirigisme and institutionalizing democratic values such as public trust and rule of law constitute the nation's pressing task in its quest for a good society. However, dirigiste choice of growth over equity at an early stage of development process may not be easily reversible at a later stage. Dirigiste development and undemocratic governance create entrenched, self-sustaining interests and structures that no amount of reform politics as usual can touch.


A computer model for Cu(In,Ga)Se2 (CIGS) based, monolithic solar cell modules was derived and calibrated using measurement data from an actual mini-module with an aperture area of 80 cm 2 . Simulations using this model accurately reproduce the measurement results on mini-modules with different cell widths to within ±3% of the parameters Voc, Isc, fill-factor and efficiency. The optical and electrical properties of the transparent front-contact were obtained from quantum efficiency measurements on a series of solar cells with ZnO:Al layers of different thicknesses and incorporated into the model. Finally, computer simulations were used to optimize CIGS thin-film modules for the application in low-concentrating systems. Aperture area efficiencies exceeding 14% at up to 10x concentration are predicted by the simulations for CIGS thin-film modules with cell widths of w = 2 mm. These simulation results are supported by preliminary measurements.


This thesis consists of three papers in the broad field of Applied Economics. I focus on three "soft factors", namely, face-to-face communication, brief social interactions and information updates. I study on how they affect individual and organisational outcomes using different natural experiments. The first chapter provides causal evidence on how the ability to communicate face-to-face (in addition to electronic communication) can increase organisational performance. The study exploits a natural experiment within a large organisation where workers must communicate electronically with their teammates. A computerized system allocates the tasks to workers creating exogenous variation in the co-location of teammates. Workers who share the same room, can also communicate in person. The main findings are that face-to-face communication increases productivity and that this effect significantly varies across tasks, team characteristics and working environments. In the second chapter I construct a novel dataset of immigrants and ships arrived to the US in the early 20th century to study the effects of brief social interactions and their persistence over time. The chapter shows that individuals travelling (during few days) with shipmates that have better connections in the US, have higher quality jobs. Several findings are consistent with the mechanism whereby individuals get information or access to job opportunities from their shipmates. The study highlights the importance of social interactions with unknown individuals during critical life junctures. It also suggests that they are more relevant for individuals with poor access to information or weak social networks. The third chapter shows that executions cause a local and temporary reduction in serious violent crime. The interpretation of this result follows from a theoretical framework connecting information updates with the increasing 'awareness' of individuals about the consequences of crime. Consistently with the predictions of the model, the study finds that effects are stronger when media attention is high and lower in places with high propensity to apply the death penalty.


A 14-year-old boy presented with a pink firm plaque with well defined borders in the right infra-orbital skin area. On diascopy, the infiltrate exhibited a typical apple-jelly appearance. No acid-fast bacilli could be demonstrated. A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay did not reveal the presence of mycobacteria in a lesional biopsy sample. Culture of biopsied tissue on Loewenstein-Jensen medium was negative. Although the tuberculosis culture and PCR did not confirm tuberculosis, a diagnosis of lupus vulgaris was made considering the clinical and histopathological findings. After a 9-month antituberculous therapy, the les ion disappeared. We believe that a diagnosis of lupus vulgaris still depends mor e on clinical and histopathological findings than on tuberculosis culture or PCR .


While using VR, efficient text entry is a challenge: users cannot easily locate standard physical keyboards, and keys are often out of reach, e.g. when standing. We present TapGazer, a text entry system where users type by tapping their fingers in place. Users can tap anywhere as long as the identity of each tapping finger can be detected with sensors. Ambiguity between different possible input words is resolved by selecting target words with gaze. If gaze tracking is unavailable, ambiguity is resolved by selecting target words with additional taps. We evaluated TapGazer for seated and standing VR: seated novice users using touchpads as tap surfaces reached 44.81 words per minute (WPM), 79.17% of their QWERTY typing speed. Standing novice users tapped on their thighs with touch-sensitive gloves, reaching 45.26 WPM (71.91%). We analyze TapGazer with a theoretical performance model and discuss its potential for text input in future AR scenarios.


Stella, who lives with her two dads, has no mother to bring to the school Mother's Day celebration, and she's not sure whom to bring. Her classmates try to help her by asking questions ("Who packs your lunch?" "Who reads you stories?" "Who kisses you when you are hurt?"). As a result, Stella decides to invite all the people who care for her: her two dads, her grandmother, her aunt, her uncle, and her cousin ("Stella had the biggest crowd of all"). There is nothing didactic in Stella's tale; it is simply the story of a little girl faced with a problem and who, with a little help from understanding classmates, comes up with a working solution. It's implausible that Stella's teacher would not be familiar with and thereby sensitive to Stella's family structure by that point in the school year (and she also wouldn't be blind to her student's week-long distress), but overall the story matter-of-factly validates a variety of family structures. Clifton-Brown's watercolor illustrations, touched with tiny ink details and colored-pencil-style textures, are laden with warmth and character; though the faces are all drawn to much the same template, Stella's classmates are a cheerfully diverse lot, and the school day is authentically lively. Ultimately, this is a tender story about the variety of people that make children feel loved and supported, and it will resonate with many young listeners. HM