Sonoma Foie Gras is one of three producers of foie gras in the U.S. and the sole producer in California. The company employs the practice of force-feeding ducks and geese to produce this culinary delicacy. The case describes the foie gras industry and pending legislation in California, which would ban the practice of force-feeding ducks and geese as well as the sale of the products of force-feeding birds. Readers are asked to conduct a stakeholder analysis to identify the primary stakeholders and their interests, and to identify alternatives and a course of action for Sonoma Foie Gras.


Successful training of convolutional neural networks is often associated with suffi- ciently deep architectures composed of high amounts of features. These networks typically rely on a variety of regularization and pruning techniques to converge to less redundant states. We introduce a novel bottom-up approach to expand representations in fixed-depth architectures. These architectures start from just a single feature per layer and greedily increase width of individual layers to attain effective representational capacities needed for a specific task. While network growth can rely on a family of metrics, we propose a computationally efficient version based on feature time evolution and demonstrate its potency in determin- ing feature importance and a networks' effective capacity. We demonstrate how automatically expanded architectures converge to similar topologies that benefit from lesser amount of parameters or improved accuracy and exhibit systematic correspondence in representational complexity with the specified task. In contrast to conventional design patterns with a typical monotonic increase in the amount of features with increased depth, we observe that CNNs perform better when there is more learnable parameters in intermediate, with falloffs to earlier and later layers.


Beagle dogs were given access to response-contingent i.v. infusions of phenycyclidine (PCP) and eight related compound. The infusions of phencyclidine (PCP) and eight related compounds. The infusions were available during short (1- or 4-hr) daily sessions when each pedal-press produced a drug or vehicle infusion. All nine compounds maintained consistent, dose-related pedal-pressing at rates considerably above those maintained by their respective vehicles. For each compound there was an inverted, U-shaped relationship between dose (microgram per kilogram per infusion) and number of infusions self-administered per session. By comparing the descending portions of the dose-response curves obtained with each compound, estimates of their relative potencies to maintain equal rates of drug-taking behavior were calculated. The thiophene analog was the most potent compound, followed in order by PCP, the N-ethyl, pyrrolidino, 4-methyl and N-propyl analogs, the two monohydroxylated metabolites and ketamine. The rank-order of these potency estimates is similar to those obtained with a variety of other animal paradigms used to assess the effects of PCP and its analogs. All nine compounds produced varying degrees of ataxia, vocalizations and salivation in the dogs. The results suggest that several compounds related to PCP may have an abuse potential like that of PCP.


OBJECT
Animal models have been used extensively to discern the molecular biology of diseases and to gain insight into treatments. Nevertheless, discrepancies in the effects of treatments and procedures have been encountered during the transition from these animal models to application of the information to clinical trials in humans. To assess the genetic similarities between human gliomas and four cell lines used routinely in animal models, the authors used microarray technology to characterize the similarities and differences in gene expression.

METHODS
To define the changes in gene expression, normal rat astrocytes were compared with four rat glioma cell lines (C6, 9L, F98, and RG2). The data were analyzed using two different methods: fold-change analysis and statistical analysis with t statistics. The gene products that were highlighted after intersecting the lists generated by the two methods of analysis were scrutinized against changes in gene expression reported in the literature. Tumorigenesis involves three major steps: the accumulation of genetic alterations, uncontrolled growth, and selected survival of transformed cells. The discussion of the results focuses attention on genes whose primary function is in pathways involved in glioma proliferation, infiltration, and neovascularization. A comparative microarray analysis of differentially expressed genes for four of the commonly used rat tumor cell lines is presented here.

CONCLUSIONS
Due to the variances between the cell lines and results from analyses in humans, caution must be observed in interpreting as well as in the translation of information learned from animal models to its application in human trials.


PHP is one of the most popular languages for server-side application development. The language is highly dynamic, providing programmers with a large amount of flexibility. However, these dynamic features also have a cost, making it difficult to apply traditional static analysis techniques used in standard code analysis and transformation tools. As part of our work on creating analysis tools for PHP, we have conducted a study over a significant corpus of open-source PHP systems, looking at the sizes of actual PHP programs, which features of PHP are actually used, how often dynamic features appear, and how distributed these features are across the files that make up a PHP website. We have also looked at whether uses of these dynamic features are truly dynamic or are, in some cases, statically understandable, allowing us to identify specific patterns of use which can then be taken into account to build more precise tools. We believe this work will be of interest to creators of analysis tools for PHP, and that the methodology we present can be leveraged for other dynamic languages with similar features.


Abstract The aim of this chapter is to reconsider the concepts 'educationalization' and 'the grammar of schooling' (see also Depaepe, 2005) in the light of the overwhelming importance that is ascribed to 'learning' today. Additionally, we want to indicate that concepts such as 'disciplinary power' and 'panopticism' are no longer adequate to understand what is at stake in so-called 'learning societies' and 'learning environments.' The concept 'learning apparatus' is suggested as an alternative concept to address these issues and maybe as a point of departure for (future) analysis that focuses on the 'grammar of learning .'


South Dakota is an important agricultural state in the United States with annual cash receipts from agricultural products exceeding $9 billion dollars. This production is possible because of large areas of productive soils. This publication describes the general characteristics and qualities of the major soil groups recognized in South Dakota. The soil forming factors are briefly described, soil classification is introduced, and the genesis of typical Udalf and Ustoll soils are discussed. Soil management issues impacting the use of SD soils are considered. Long-term (>70 yrs) cultivation has significantly reduced surface soil organic carbon levels (>30% reduction) when compared to non-cultivated soil. Soil test phosphorus levels significantly increased in cultivated fields due to commercial P fertilization. The major long-term production problems for SD soils are conservation of soil moisture, organic matter and nitrogen losses, fertility management, and wind and water erosion control.


Historically, development in Brazilian Amazon was promoted by permits of deforestation and little territory control or supervision. However, due to the importance of this biome for biodiversity and ecosystem balance in a global perspective, Brazilian's government has tighten deforestation control. Since 2004, political, institutional and market mechanisms have been implemented and annuals rates reduced from near 20,000 km² to 6,000 km² in 10 years. Despite several empirical agents behavior models in literature indicate for a spatial process of deforestation, all aspects of the spatial dynamic of deforestation has not been explored yet. In this context, this work studies the spatial pattern of deforestation in a cross-section and time perspective using exploratory spatial data analysis techniques. For these purposes, we used global and local analysis estimating Moran's I statistic and Local Indicator of Spatial Association clusters maps. Data consisted in annual deforestation by municipality for Brazilian's Legal Amazon, composed by 686 municipalities, within a 12 year period: from 2002 to 2013. Statistics were estimated for three variables: absolute deforestation and two indexes calculated annually by municipality. The first one represents the fraction of the total area deforested in each year and the second one is the cumulative sum of the first index. Considering the absolute deforestation analysis we clarify locations that most contribute for deforestation in a macro regional perspective. The purpose of the first index is to identify municipalities with most environmental degradation and the second index tries to capture a maximization behavior of land use agents. Global univariate results indicate the existence of high spatial correlation dependency. Moreover, despite the efficacy of the policy mechanisms adopted for controlling and reducing the level of deforestation in Legal Amazon, Moran's I positive values show persistent spatial concentration of deforestation. This suggests that policy control mechanisms have achieved relative success to reduce the average deforestation but have not influenced its spatial dispersion. As expected, local analysis show clusters in Arch of Deforestation region, known for being the key region of deforestation. Furthermore, the low frequency of divergent neighbors, i. e., high-low and low-high clusters, supports the hypothesis of high spillover effects, as pointed out by high Moran's I values. Comparing annual results show that municipalities with historically high relative deforestation rate presented reduction in forest area conversion, as their detachment in clusters ceased, although we cannot judge if by market, legal or political aspects. Also, we highlight the different implication of cross sectional and temporal analyses for policy selection. Municipalities that detaches in cross section should suffer control and legal action and detachment in temporal analysis indicates necessity of environmental recover and conservation actions.


Chemical oil dispersants are proprietary mixtures of surfactants and solvents which are directly applied to a spill in order to reduce the natural attractive forces of the oil. When oil treated with dispersants is exposed to mixing energy, typically from wind and wave action, it is broken up into small droplets which may then become entrained in the water column (Li et al., 2009a; Li et al., 2009b; Li, 2008; Lunel, 1995). Many of these droplets are small enough to be neutrally buoyant, and therefore, advection and diffusion forces dilute the plume and transport the droplets far from the site of the original spill. As compared to a surface oil slick or larger and more buoyant physically dispersed oil droplets, these chemically dispersed droplets are much easier for oil-degrading bacteria to colonize and break down (Venosa and Holder, 2007; Venosa and Zhu, 2003). In addition, small droplets enhance dissolution of soluble and semi-volatile compounds into surrounding waters, wherein biodegradation is carried out by aqueous phase microbes. Under these conditions, oil concentration are effectively reduced below toxicity threshold limits, and biodegradation becomes the most important process in reducing the total mass of petroleum hydrocarbons in the environment. By enabling rapid dispersion and biodegradation of surface oil slicks at sea, the use of chemical oil dispersants can be effective in preventing heavy oiling of sensitive coastal environments such as beaches and wetlands, and consequently mitigates risk associated with marine and terrestrial wildlife coming into direct contact with a slick.


SIR,-There are few diseases of which the causative agent is known, and fewer in which it can be simply shown in the consulting-room. Scabies is such a disease, and the demonstration of the Sarcoptes scabiei gives to the physician diagnostic satisfaction and to the patient determination to follow treatment. Mellanby' clearly explained how to remove the mite from the skin, but it is surprising how often this technique has degenerated into blindly scratching and scraping with a scalpcl at a likely burrow or papule. The secret of success is to find the mite in a burrow, usually on the hand, wrist, ankle, penis, or elbow. Burrows and mites may be detected more easily by rubbing the scaly lesions at these sites with soap and water on a gauze swab, thus removing dirt and making the scales translucent. The mite will then be seen by the naked eye as a minute black dot which can be removed on the point of a straight triangular surgical needle, as Mellanby described. From the needle, to which it conveniently adheres as a white dot, it may be transferred to a dry slide. If the slide is warmed the mite will move about, and can better be seen with a hand lens; a microscope is not essential. In recently treated cases it is usually possible to remove dead mites, but the microscope is necessary to distinguish them from keratin debris.-I am, etc.,


funding that can carry on behind high walls. Large institutions, however devised, soon regress into the economies of scale, stigmatisation of patients and staff, and a dreary stultifying of the spirit of research. The "bag ladies" and vagrants of the 1980s are no better, but could justifiably be seen as consequent to high unemployment as much as to community care. It should also be noted that the needs of those discharged from long term care have in general been well met.2 Such patients must not be confused with the younger, impoverished, "new long stay" patients who dominate public concern. The underfunding of the NHS has particularly deprived them of the acute hospital beds, the well staffed medium term hostels, and the community support teams required for their varying care needs. Likewise, the lack of communitv mental health orders to ensure continued outpatient treatment has undermined the ability of families or psychiatric professionals to cope outside a hospital setting. No one denies that some patients will need long term care, but barracks on a hillside are too easily erected. I would suggest that a "community biased" approach is what most patients prefer,34 and that by continuing to expose chronic mental illness to the oxygen of public concern attitudes and resources can be changed. Small specialised units for patients with unresponsive schizophrenia, brain damage, or dementia should be based on high staffing and multidisciplinary (nursing, psychological, behavioural, medical, psychopharmacological) research. Professor Kendell's "mental health campus" sounds alluring but has all the isolationist overtones of what this journal's first editor, Andrew Wynter, called "brick and mortar humanity.""'


A 2-day-old heifer was examined for a pendulous mass in the left inguinal region. The calf also had moderate brachygnathia. The mass was determined to be a parainguinal hernia, which was surgically repaired. Parainguinal hernias can be confused with other hernias in the inguinal region. Because of lack of previous reports, the hereditary aspects can only be postulated.


Interactions of cosmic rays with the interstellar medium and Galactic magnetic fields produce diffuse emissions from radio and microwaves, to gamma-ray energies. Observations of these diffuse emissions are an invaluable tool for understanding densities and spectra of cosmic rays in different places of our Galaxy.
We present local interstellar cosmic-ray spectra, independent of solar modulation, and propagation properties for the first time derived by combining the latest cosmic-ray direct measurements with multi-frequency data of the interstellar emissions observed with radio surveys, Planck, and Fermi Large Area Telescope.

This paper discusses the results based on the work published in Orlando (2018) MNRAS 475, 2724. Details are reported in that paper.


Unprecedented views of surface wind fields in tropical cyclones (hereafter TCs) are provided by the European Remote Sensing Satellite (ERS) C band scatterometer. Scatterometer measurements at C band are able to penetrate convective storms clouds, observing the surface wind fields with good accuracy. However the resolution of the measurements (50x50 km 2) limits the interpretation of the scatterometer signals in such mesoscale events. The strong gradients of the surface wind existing at scales of a few kms are smoothed in the measured features such as the intensity and location of the wind maxima, and the position of the center. Beyond the ERS systems, the scatterometers on-board the ADEOS and METOP satellites, designed by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory and by the European Space Agency, respectively, will be able to produce measurements of the backscattering coefficient at about 25x25 km 2 resolution. A few sets of ERS-1 orbits sampling TC events were produced with an experimental 25x25 km 2 resolution. Enhancing the resolution by a factor of 2 allows location of the wind maxima and minima in a TC with a much better accuracy than at 50 km resolution. In addition, a better resolution reduces the geophysical noise (variability of wind speed within the cell and effect of rain) that dominates the radiometric noise and hence improves the definition of the backscattering measurements. A comprehensive analysis of the backscattering measurements in the case of high winds and high sea states obtained within TCs is proposed in order to refine the interpretation of the wind vector derived from a backscattering model that is currently only calibrated up to moderate winds (< 20 m/s) in neutral conditions. Observations of the TOPEX-POSEIDON dual-frequency altimeter are also used for that purpose. Patterns of the surface winds in TCs are described and characteristic features concerning asymmetries in the maximum winds and in the divergence field are discussed.


Purpose: The aim of the present study was to assess the effects of neuronal nitric oxide synthase (NOS I) inhibitors and a combination of NOS I and NOS II inhibitors on lesion volume after experimental brain injury. Methods: Cold lesion of the brain was induced by application of a precooled (-78 degrees C) copper cylinder to the intact dura of the rat for 6 s. Brains were removed 24 h after the injury and lesion volume determined using the triphenyltetrazolium-chloride method. Results: The specific NOS I inhibitor 3-bromo-7-nitroindazole (Br-7-NI) reduced lesion volume significantly by 21 % compared with the vehicle control. In contrast, 7-nitroindazole had no effect on lesion volume. When aminoguanidine, a specific NOS II inhibitor, was adminis-tered after Br-7-NI, lesion volume was significantly reduced but not significantly more than with either compound alone. Conclusion: Brain injury after cold lesion is partly mediated by NOS I activity and can be attenuated successfully with Br-7-NI, while coin-hibition of NOS II does not improve the outcome significantly.


A robust technique for handling parameter and strategy uncertainty in a pursuitevasion framework is developed. The method is a receding horizon controller valid for problem classes with singularly perturbed trajectories that approximates the optimal feedback solution with small loss in optimality. The receding horizon method is used to ensure the controller is robust to incorrect or extraneous information about an opposing player's dynamics or strategy. A simple analytic pursuit-evasion game motivates the method by demonstrating that the receding horizon solution closely approximates the optimal solution and may be solved much faster. Simulations of a nonlinear game show that the receding horizon controller is especially useful when it is unknown whether the opposing player is performing an active or passive maneuver. In several cases, the receding horizon controller is shown to become more effective than a game-optimal controller acting with an incorrect strategy estimate. The major limitation of the technique for a nonlinear system is the expensive solution time; therefore, the optimal control problem is translated to a nonlinear programming problem and the test cases are repeated. Finally, the test cases are run on hardware to validate the method for real-time practical operation. The singular-perturbation algorithm applied herein is valid only for a small subset of all pursuit and evasion games. Nonetheless, the methods developed here can in theory be used for any generic game scenario, given that sufficient computing power is available to find the numerical solutions.


Hemophilia B is an X-linked genetic disorder caused by decreased levels of factor IX, which functions as part of the blood-clotting cascade. Deficiencies in blood clotting result in uncontrolled bleeding in response to even the slightest trauma.Another problem is bleeding into joints, where subsequent inflammation contributes to deterioration of the joint. Injecting factor IX serves as treatment to stop bleeding, and restoring a fraction of the normal amount can make a difference; however, factor IX does not survive for long in the bloodstream. Fair et al. have shown in mice how embryonic stem cells can be used as a therapy for factor IX deficiency, an approach that would avoid the need for repeated injections and could supply a steady stream of factor IX. In these experiments, the mice carried a mutation in their factor IX gene, and the embryonic stem cells were derived from mice with a normal factor IX gene. In vitro culture conditions were defined to direct the embryonic stem cells to differentiate into cells with features of endodermal precursors. These putative endodermal precursors were then injected into the livers of factor IX–deficient mice. Mice treated in this way showed factor IX expression and improved long-term survival. Engraftment of the differentiated embryonic stem cells did not require injury or hepatectomy. The results provide a promising step toward a cell-based therapy for factor IX deficiency. — PJH


We explore the concept of maximum possible earthquake magnitude, M, in a region represented by an earthquake catalog from the viewpoint of statistical testing. For this aim, we assume that earthquake magnitudes are independent events that follow a doubly truncated Gutenberg-Richter distribution and focus on the upper truncation M. In earlier work, it has been shown that the value of M cannot be well constrained from earthquake catalogs alone. However, for two hypothesized values M and M′, alternative statistical tests may address the question: Which value is more consistent with the data? In other words, is it possible to reject a magnitude within reasonable errors, i.e., the error of the first and the error of the second kind? The results for realistic settings indicate that either the error of the first kind or the error of the second kind is intolerably large. We conclude that it is essentially impossible to infer M in terms of alternative testing with sufficient confidence from an earthquake catalog alone, even in regions like Japan with excellent data availability. These findings are also valid for frequency-magnitude distributions with different tail behavior, e.g., exponential tapering. Finally, we emphasize that different data may only be useful to provide additional constraints for M, if they do not correlate with the earthquake catalog, i.e., if they have not been recorded in the same observational period. In particular, long-term geological assessments might be suitable to reduce the errors, while GPS measurements provide overall the same information as the catalogs.


Electron-collecting interfacial layers play an important role in nonfullerene (NF) organic solar cells (OSCs). ZnO and polyethylenimine ethoxylated (PEIE) are the generally used interfacial materials in inverted NF OSCs. However, NF OSCs tend to show poor chemical and photostability in the presence of the two materials. Here, we demonstrate another option that doped fullerene with an n-dopant of 1,3,5-trimethylhexahydro-1,3,5-triazine (TMHT) can be an efficient electron-transport layer (ETL) for efficient NF solar cells. The TMHT doping improves conductivity by three orders of magnitude and shifts the Fermi levels of PCBM by 0.3 eV. As the doping concentration increases, the electron collection properties of the doped layer were significantly enhanced as confirmed by the current density–voltage (J–V) characteristics of the devices. S-kinks in the J–V characteristics gradually disappear and the fill factor increases from 0.13 to 0.69. The devices with a doped PCBM ETL show better photostability under continuous illumination compared with reference devices with a ZnO ETL.


A series of subsonic wind tunnel tests was conducted on a canard-wing configuration to study the interaction of canard and wing vortices. Both the canard and the wing in the present experiments had equal sweep angles. The velocity contours were measured using a total-static rake at three chordwise positions at front, middle and rear parts of the wing in a plane perpendicular to the wing surface. The experiments were performed at various combinations of angle of attack and canard deflection angle. The results show a close relationship between the strength of the vortices and the outcome of their interaction. According to the present findings, when the wing strong vortex is exposed to the strong vortex of the canard, the result of this interaction would be a weaker vortex on the wing with a smaller size than the original two vortices, while a weak vortex on the canard when interacted with a strong vortex on the wing, amplifies it and results in a stronger vortex on the wing surface. This has also been shown to be true when a strong canard vortex interacts with a weak vortex on the wing. The result would again be a stronger vortex on the wing surface.


Emiliania huxleyi (Lohmann) W. W. Hay et H. Mohler is a cosmopolitan coccolithophore species that forms massive blooms in low phosphorus seawater, partly due to its ability to utilize organic phosphate via extracellular alkaline phosphatase (AP). A novel AP gene, ehap1, was identified from the strain CCMP374. In this study, we examined the expression of ehap1 in various E. huxleyi strains and its genetic diversity in those strains and field populations. Two EHAP1 proteins (EHAP1a, 75 kDa and EHAP1b, 110 kDa) with virtually identical sequence were expressed under P limitation in all strains except one; a third protein (EHAP1c, 115 kDa) was expressed in a few strains. The correlation between AP activity and protein abundance suggests that EHAP1b is inactive and probably the precursor of EHAP1a. The transcript of ehap1 was induced by P depletion in all strains. The ehap1 gene sequence is highly conserved in these strains and field populations with <3% nucleic acid substitution. Most of the ehap1 sequences from one site in the English Channel and three sites in the Gulf of Alaska were essentially identical to one another. No EHAP1‐like protein can be detected in other phytoplankton species tested via Western blot analysis. The rapid induction and high activity of EHAP1 in E. huxleyi suggest that it plays a significant role in P regeneration in the oligotrophic ocean where E. huxleyi is abundant. The EHAP1 antibody and gene‐specific primers are well suited to study the dynamics of P limitation in field populations of E. huxleyi.


Introduction To assure consistency of clinical outcomes, orally inhaled products must have consistent in vitro delivered dose and aerosol properties. Achieving this consistency has been challenging with MDIs, particularly those that combine multiple drugs. Co-Suspension™ delivery technology has been developed for in vitro drug-drug interaction-free delivery of multiple drugs from fixed-dose MDI combinations. This versatile technology suspends the micronised drugs with spray-dried phospholipid porous particles in hydrofluoroalkane propellant. The objective of this study was to determine whether BGF MDI, the triple Co-Suspension delivery technology formulation of BD/GP/FF, displays in vitro drug delivery comparable to its constituent single and dual drug formulations. Methods Single, dual and triple therapy MDIs of BD, GP and FF were prepared by suspending each drug's microcrystals with phospholipid porous particles in HFA propellant. In vitro drug delivery was assessed by comparing delivered dose uniformity and aerodynamic particle size distribution. Results BD, GP and FF formed stable suspensions in the presence of phospholipid porous particles, despite differences in drug physicochemical properties and doses. A consistent and comparable delivered dose and aerodynamic particle size distribution was observed whether emitted from a single, dual or triple therapy MDI. Conclusion The single, dual and triple drug MDI formulations demonstrated comparable aerosol characteristics which should enable patients to transition across the continuum of these MDI therapies without in vitro drug-drug interaction impacting drug delivery and clinical outcomes.


The relationship between Internationalization and performance is a challenging topic for the agenda of researchers across the world, due to the complexity of the variables involved, to the difficulties in construct building and, last but not least, to the controversial results arising from the different studies that have been conducted on the matter in recent decades. This is particularly true in the case of SMEs, which represent a field still to be explored from this point view. The fundamental hypothesis that has driven the present work is that the growing level of market integration has generated a framework of international competition for economic actors which has to be considered as the actual natural environment both for international and for domestic firms.As a consequence, being international is no more than a natural status for the enterprise, in the sense that firms which have not engaged yet in international markets are also part of a competitive international environment that influences strategic decisions and contributes to shaping business models and performances accordingly. This concept applies immediately to those regions where the integration process has gone further and deeper, for example the European Union area, where the domestic market for economic actors has gradually evolved from the former national base to a European one. The empirical study, based on 220 Italian firms, performance - measured by profitability ratios - is not determined by the degree of internationalization in terms of classical export intensity and numberof international agreements, but depends mainly on the ability of firms to gain access to specific markets such as the American one. Moreover, SMEs which have grown in foreign markets through FDI show a lower profitability, showing the existence of a "liability of foreignness" effect at the beginning of their international growth. Howeverthis negative effect can be reduced when SMEs have already developed international competences and knowledge through an intense export activity.


In this paper, an indirect adaptive fuzzy approach is proposed to achieve robust tracking for a class of uncertain nonlinear single input single output (SISO) systems with external disturbances. Adaptive fuzzy control, adaptive fuzzy identification and attenuation technique are incorporated together for the control objective. Based on the existing robust adaptive fuzzy control scheme, adaptive laws are modified by system modeling error to adjust the estimation parameters converge to their optimal values, which in turn improves the control to guarantee the convergence of output tracking error and modeling error. The effect of both optimal matching error and external disturbance on the controlled system can be attenuated. Desired performance is obtained under a low attenuation level, so the control effort can be enormously saved. Some simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


Many AI applications require a base of world knowledge to support reasoning. However, construction of such inferencecapable knowledge bases, even if constrained in coverage, remains one of the major challenges of AI. Authoring knowledge in formal logic is too complex a task for many users, while knowledge authored in unconstrained natural language is generally too difficult for computers to understand. However, there is an intermediate position, which we are pursuing, namely authoring knowledge in a restricted subset of natural language. Our claim is that this approach hits a "sweet spot" between the former two extremes, being both usable by humans and understandable by machines. We have developed such a language (called CPL, Computer-Processable Language), an interpreter, and a reasoner, and have used them to encode approximately 1000 "commonsense" rules (a mixture of general and domain-specific). The knowledge base is being used experimentally for semantic retrieval of video clips based on their captions, also expressed in CPL. In this paper, we describe CPL, its interpretation, and its use for reasoning, and discuss the strengths and weaknesses of restricted natural language as a the basis for knowledge representation.


Inspiring Impressionism explores links between Impressionists and the major European art-historical movements that came before them, demonstrating how often beneath the Impressionists' commitment to capturing contemporary life there lay a deep exploration of the art of the past. Presenting Impressionist works by artists including Manet, Monet, Degas, Bazille, Cassatt, and Cezanne alongside those of Raphael, El Greco, Rubens, Velazquez, and others, the book shows that while the Impressionists moved toward modernity and spontaneity, they remained conscious of and interested in the traditions, techniques, and subject matter of their predecessors. Essays by leading scholars reveal the ways Impressionists drew inspiration from earlier artists from periods ranging from the Italian Renaissance through the early 19th-century Classical and Romantic traditions. A detailed chronology and fascinating comparisons of landscapes, portraits, nudes, still lifes, and genre paintings provide readers with new opportunities to understand the work of both the Impressionists and Old Masters.


Opinions expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not constitute policy of the Bureau of Labor Statistics.


Adult patients with mixed phenotype acute leukemia (MPAL) have a poor prognosis, and the therapeutic role of allogeneic stem cell transplantation (allo‐SCT) for MPAL remains to be elucidated. Thus, we retrospectively assessed the efficacy of allo‐SCT for MPAL. Eighteen patients with MPAL were identified from the transplant outcome database of Kanto Study Group for Cell Therapy (KSGCT). We also selected 215 patients with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) as control cohorts using an optimal matching method. The 5‐yr overall survival (OS) rate of patients with MPAL was 48.1%, and patients in remission at the time of transplant showed significantly better survival than those not in remission (5‐yr OS: 71.8% vs. 0%, P = 0.001). No significant differences were seen in OS when stratifying patients according to immunophenotype, cytogenetic abnormalities, or the type of induction therapy. The 5‐yr OS rate of patients with MPAL was not significantly different compared with AML control patients (48.1% vs. 48.1%; P = 0.855) or ALL control patients (48.1% vs. 37.8%; P = 0.426). These results suggested that allo‐SCT is an effective treatment for MPAL, especially early in the disease course, and innovative transplant approaches are warranted to improve the transplant outcome of patients with MPAL who are not in remission.


The death sentence of Saddam Hussein is one of those extreme cases that put in tension the foundations of the absolute prohibition of the capital punishment, still more in the moment in which we think to extend its capacity in a universal sense and the fact that numerous States (Arabic Countries, China, United States, Japan, etc.) maintain it, comprised therefore western or liberal political systems, and not only authoritarian or religious political systems: the compact exclusion of Europe from that group moreover regards an entity that has financed yearlong Saddam, giving him enormous amounts of war materials, also chemical, thanks which were realized the genocides that he was charged with, included the crime of the 148 died of Dujail (apart from the tortured ones, deported etc.), killed for reprisal after his assassination attempt, and on which the criminal trial has condemned him has been focused. Looking through the accusations and the numerous violations of the defensive guarantees of the process, moreover it is pointed out that the trial of Saddam Hussein has been an effective process, not like the ghost-trial that in 1984 the Iraq Revolutionary Court celebrated in order to condemn to death penalty 148 men, women and children, suspected opponents of the regimen, 46 of which already were died at that time for the tortures or other causes. The vastness of the ascribed crimes to Saddam could not know a proportioned penalty in any case, therefore the punishment in the gross violations of the international criminal law is necessarily out of proportion. In this necessary disproportion we can identify a possible humanistic valence of the criminal law based on the principle (able to renew the foundation of the absolute prohibition of capital punishment) today summarized in the idea that the value of a person cannot be compared with whichever fact he/she committed, because the value of the person is not entirely expressed by the single facts she realizes. The proportion judgment on which the capital punishment is based, results then impossible between one person (his life) and the committed facts. On such positive principle of unmeasurability of the distance between the value of a person and his conducts, we may refuse the capital punishment as a typical penalty of the criminal law of the enemy. Humanistic and religious reflections converge on this conclusion, in a multicultural dimension, which is more positive than a merely secular point of view. The criminal law culture can today carry out a task of singular importance if it indeed agrees to assert the absoluteness of that prohibition, avoiding the church of the western (United States) and of the oriental fundamentalisms, and remarking, from a European point of view, the human corresponsibility on which the refusal of death penalty is based.


I It is the purpose of this paper to analyze the forms of prison sentencing and their relationship to parole, with special reference to provisions in the Model Penal Code of the American Law Institute. Underlying the tentative Code drafts, there are, of course, certain conceptions concerning what are appropriate objectives of the penal law. Put summarily, the provisions relating to sentencing and treatment are predicated on the assumption that the law should endeavor to protect society as fully as may reasonably be possible, both by measures of general and individual pre. vention and by the rehabilitation of offenders. It is further conceived that penal and correctional provisions should be designed to safeguard offenders against excessive and arbitrary penalties. Patently, however, the form and duration of treatment required by different offenders vary considerably with such factors as the age, personality, offense, and prior social and criminal history of the individual and with the sociocultural context. The significance of such influences must be taken into account, both in the provisions of law and in their implementation. It appears, therefore, that a model code should be so formulated as to harmonize somewhat disparate treatment objectives.' It should be designed also to facilitate an effective performance by judges


Objective: Nursing students who take care of the patient in clinical area practices as a part of their internships in primary health care and clinical areas, should be aware of the warning signs of cancer so that they may inform the community about them. Methods: This study was conducted to determine the awareness of nursing students about the warning signs of cancer. The research was planned as a descriptive and cross-sectional study. The research was completed with 460 nursing students between February 2019 and May 2019. Results: The average age of the students participating in the study was 20.05 ± 2.04 years. Female nursing students were more familiar with the warning signs of cancer, than male nursing students. Second, third- and fourth-grade nursing students knew the warning sign of better than the first graders. More nursing students who had taken the internal diseases nursing course knew the warning sign of better compared to the students who did not take the course. Nursing students with a family member with a history of cancer knew the warning better than those who did not have a family history of cancer. Thickening or lump in the breast or elsewhere" was the most known warning sign of cancer (92.6%), whereas the least known sign was "indigestion or difficulty in swallowing" (47.0%). Conclusions: Female nursing students those who had taken the internal diseases nursing course and those who had a family member with a history of cancer were more aware of the warning signs of cancer.


This chapter is intended to give the reader an introduction and insight into the principles of continuous flow chemistry, from the underlying concepts and potential benefits of performing chemical synthesis in this manner to some guidelines and advice on how to get started on running their own flow chemistry. Some basic fundamental flow dynamic theory is introduced along the way. Examples of successful applications from the chemical literature are included to highlight key beneficial areas, together with a look at wider aspects of integrating flow chemistry with other complementary technologies and consideration of what future developments might bring.


BACKGROUND
Cystic fibrosis is a life-limiting genetic condition in which thick mucus builds up in the lungs, leading to infections, inflammation, and eventually, deterioration in lung function. To clear their lungs of mucus, people with cystic fibrosis perform airway clearance techniques daily. There are various airway clearance techniques, which differ in terms of the need for assistance or equipment, and cost.

OBJECTIVES
To summarise the evidence from Cochrane Reviews on the effectiveness and safety of various airway clearance techniques in people with cystic fibrosis.

METHODS
For this overview, we included Cochrane Reviews of randomised or quasi-randomised controlled trials (including cross-over trials) that evaluated an airway clearance technique (conventional chest physiotherapy, positive expiratory pressure (PEP) therapy, high-pressure PEP therapy, active cycle of breathing techniques, autogenic drainage, airway oscillating devices, external high frequency chest compression devices and exercise) in people with cystic fibrosis.We searched the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews on 29 November 2018.Two review authors independently evaluated reviews for eligibility. One review author extracted data from included reviews and a second author checked the data for accuracy. Two review authors independently graded the quality of reviews using the ROBIS tool. We used the GRADE approach for assessing the overall strength of the evidence for each primary outcome (forced expiratory volume in one second (FEV1), individual preference and quality of life).

MAIN RESULTS
We included six Cochrane Reviews, one of which compared any type of chest physiotherapy with no chest physiotherapy or coughing alone and the remaining five reviews included head-to-head comparisons of different airway clearance techniques. All the reviews were considered to have a low risk of bias. However, the individual trials included in the reviews often did not report sufficient information to adequately assess risk of bias. Many trials did not sufficiently report on outcome measures and had a high risk of reporting bias.We are unable to draw definitive conclusions for comparisons of airway clearance techniques in terms of FEV1, except for reporting no difference between PEP therapy and oscillating devices after six months of treatment, mean difference -1.43% predicted (95% confidence interval -5.72 to 2.87); the quality of the body of evidence was graded as moderate. The quality of the body of evidence comparing different airway clearance techniques for other outcomes was either low or very low.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
There is little evidence to support the use of one airway clearance technique over another. People with cystic fibrosis should choose the airway clearance technique that best meets their needs, after considering comfort, convenience, flexibility, practicality, cost, or some other factor. More long-term, high-quality randomised controlled trials comparing airway clearance techniques among people with cystic fibrosis are needed.


OBJECTIVES
The %fT>MIC of ceftazidime has been shown to correlate with microbiological outcome of Gram-negative bacteria (GNB) in preclinical studies. However, clinical data are still lacking. We explored the relationship of ceftazidime exposure and outcome in patients with nosocomial pneumonia using data from a recent randomized, double-blind Phase 3 clinical trial.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Pharmacokinetic (PK) and demographic data from three clinical trials were used to construct a population PK model using non-linear mixed-effects modelling. Individual concentration-time curves and PK/pharmacodynamic indices were determined for individual patients. The MICs used in the analyses were the highest MICs for any GNB cultured at baseline or end of therapy.

RESULTS
A two-compartment model best fit the data, with creatinine clearance as covariate on clearance and age on the central compartment. Classification and regression tree analysis showed a breakpoint value of 44.9% (P<0.0001) for GNB in 154 patients. The Emax model showed a good fit (R(2) =0.93). The benefit of adequate treatment increased from an eradication rate of 0.4848 at %fT>MIC of 0% to 0.9971 at 100%. The EC50 was 46.8% and the EC90 was 95.5% for %fT>MIC. Exposure correlated significantly with both microbiological and clinical outcome at test-of-cure.

CONCLUSIONS
We conclude that exposures to ceftazidime predict microbiological as well as clinical outcome, and the %fT>MIC required to result in a likely favourable outcome is >45% of the dosing interval. This value is similar to that observed in animal models and underscores the principle that adequate dosing can be predicted and is beneficial to patient care.


Due to the high proliferation of web services, selecting the best services from functional equivalent service providers have become a real challenge, where the quality of the services plays a crucial role. But quality is uncertain, therefore, several researchers have applied Fuzzy logic to address the imprecision of the quality of service (QoS) constraints. Furthermore, the service market is highly dynamic and competitive, where web services are constantly entering and exiting this market, and they are continually improving themselves due to the competition. Current fuzzy-based techniques are expert and/or consensus-based, and therefore too fragile, expensive, non-scalable and non-self-adaptive. In this paper we introduce a new methodology to support requesters in selecting Web services by automatically connecting imprecisely defined QoS constraints with overly precise service QoS offerings over the time. We address the dynamism of the market by using each time a modified fuzzy c-means module that allows providers to automatically organize themselves around the QoS levels. The advantage of our approach is that consumers can specify their QoS constraints without really knowing what are the current best quality ranges. We illustrate our approach with a case of study.


Objective: To evaluate antimicrobial activities of the ethanol extracts of 30Thai flowers against pathogenic bacteria and fungi. Methods: Thepathogenic microorganisms included 5 strains of bacteria, namely Bacilussubtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhimurium, Escherichia coli,and Pseudomonas aeruginosa, and 2 strains of fungi, specifically,Aspergillus niger and Candida albican. The crude extracts were examinedfor antimicrobial activity using agar disc diffusion and microbroth dilutionmethods. Results: Most flower extracts, with their highest concentrations(333 mg/ml), exhibited antimicrobial properties against S. aureus, B. subtilisand E. coli, but not against S. typhimurium, P. aeruginosa, A. niger or C.albican. The extracts of Senna surattensis and Caesulpinia pulcherrimaboth demonstrated the highest inhibition effect against S. aureus at acomparable MIC of 300 g/ml. The highest antimicrobial effect was foundin Nelumbo nucifera extract with an MIC of 1,200 g/ml against B. subtilisand E. coli. Conclusion: Antibacterial activities were found in variousflower extracts at their highest concentrations. Nelumbo nucifera extractexhibited the highest antibacterial activity against B. subtilis and E. coli. Keywords: antibacterial, antimicrobial, ethanol extract, flower, Thailand


A smart pixel optical sensor based on positive optical feedback is described and demonstrated. The scheme uses the reflectance of an external scene as part of the positive feedback loop and uses the nonlinear characteristics of a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser to obtain bistability and hysteresis. As a result, the continuous reflectance variation of the scene is mapped to a digital output with increased noise immunity for each pixel of the array.


A reactive transport computer code has been employed to model hydrothermal alteration of a granitoid rock bordering a discrete vein channel. The model suggests that the grey sericitic and sericitic with remnant biotite alteration envelopes at the porphyry copper deposit at Butte, Montana, can be formed by a reducing, low pH, and low salinity fluid under constant temperature and pressure conditions of approximately 4008C and less than 100 MPa during a time span of approximately 100 years or less. Hydrothermal alteration has little effect on the porosity of the host rock (Butte Quartz Monzonite), and the diffusivity of the aqueous species also changes little. A sequence of mineral reaction fronts characterizes the alteration envelopes. The biotite dissolution front occurs closest to the vein channel and marks the transition from the grey sericitic to sericitic with remnant biotite envelope. The plagioclase dissolution front occurs farthest into the matrix and marks the edge of relatively fresh Butte Quartz Monzonite. From the properties of the quasi-stationary state approximation (Lichtner 1988; Lichtner 1991), it follows that once the sequence of reaction fronts is fully established, their relative locations remain constant and the widths of the reaction zones increase with the square root of time.


Antibodies are an important class of proteins with many biomedical and biotechnical applications. Although there are a plethora of experimental techniques geared toward their efficient production, there is a paucity of computational methods for their de novo design. OptCDR is a general computational method to design the binding portions of antibodies to have high specificity and affinity against any targeted epitope of an antigen. First, combinations of canonical structures for the antibody complementarity determining regions (CDRs) that are most likely to be able to favorably bind the antigen are selected. This is followed by the simultaneous refinement of the CDR structures' backbones and optimal amino acid selection for each position. OptCDR is applied to three computational test cases: a peptide from the capsid of hepatitis C, the hapten fluorescein and the protein vascular endothelial growth factor. The results demonstrate that OptCDR can efficiently generate diverse antibody libraries of a pre-specified size with promising antigen affinity potential as exemplified by computationally derived binding metrics.


Background: The obstructive sleep apnea-hypopnea syndrome (OSAHS) is characterized by repetitive upper airway obstructions during sleep, and it might cause cardiovascular complications such as myocardial infarction, arrhythmias, and systemic and pulmonary hypertension. Objectives: We investigated the acute effects of automatic continuous positive airway pressure (automated CPAP) on blood pressure in patients with OSAHS and hypertension. Methods: Polysomnography was used and ambulatory blood pressure measurements were done in 12 patients with OSAHS. Blood pressure and heart rate were measured at night (10 p.m. to 6 a.m.) and during the day (6 a.m. to 10 p.m.). During these periods systolic, diastolic and mean blood pressure and heart rate of the patients on the diagnostic day were compared with those on the treatment day. Results: Patients had moderate or severe OSAHS; their mean age was 52.8 ± 4.2 years. Systolic, diastolic and mean blood pressure and heart rate between the diagnostic and treatment day were not significantly different. Standard deviations of all these parameters during the night of the treatment day (9.1 ± 4.5, 7.5 ± 3.3, 8.0 ± 3.0 mm Hg, and 4.8 ± 1.5 beats/min, respectively) were significantly lower than during the night of the diagnostic day (12.6 ± 4.9 mm Hg, p = 0.023, 10.8 ± 3.5 mm Hg, p = 0.004, 11.6 ± 4.4 mm Hg, p = 0.006 and 6.9 ± 1.6 beats/min, p = 0.003, respectively). We did not find similar results during daytime periods. Conclusions: Automated CPAP therapy in patients with sleep apnea and hypertension did not decrease systolic and diastolic blood pressures and heart rates acutely. However, it might reduce the variability of these parameters during sleep in patients, but not during the day. It might be suggested that automated CPAP reduces cardiovascular morbidity of OSAHS via stabilizing heart rate and blood pressure during sleep.


Reconfigurable hardware (RH) is used in an increasing variety of applications, many of which require support for features commonly found in general purpose systems. In this work we examine some of the challenges faced in integrating RH with general purpose processors and memory systems. We propose a new CPU-RH-memory interface that takes advantage of on-chip caches and uses virtual memory for communication. Additionally we describe the simulator model we developed to evaluate this new architecture. This work shows that an efficient interface can greatly accelerate RH applications, and provides a strong first step toward multiprocessor reconfigurable computing.


The Australian government has put forward many policies in the past three decades with the aim of increasing water market activity. Water trading is widely thought to transfer water to its highest productive use in order to extract the greatest benefit to society. This paper employs an empirical analysis of the agricultural water market in the Southern Murray-Darling Basin in order to determine whether trading has indeed induced agricultural water use efficiency. This thesis focuses on technical water use efficiency as it searches for evidence that water trade has induced innovation in minimizing water use at the farm level. This research is done on three different scales in order to test the relationship between water trade and the efficiency of its use in several situations. First a cross-sectional analysis of the Goulburn Murray Irrigation District shows an increasing trend in water use efficiency between 1998/99 and 2010/11, although only a weak relationship with trade is found. Second a panel-data regression is performed across the four Murray-Darling Basin states in order to estimate the relationship that both permanent and temporary trade has on water use efficiency. The results of the panel regression conclude that while a 1GL increase in permanent water entitlement trade has led to a 0.00089ML/Ha increase in water use efficiency over the past 15 years, there is no hard evidence that temporary trade has had the same effect. Finally a case study of the dairy industry in the Goulburn region models the incentives faced by farmers who can substitute between feed grain and water for pastured grass as production inputs. Given water and grain prices it is possible to illustrate the optimal decision making of farmers in 2007/08 to see the positive impact of water trading in promoting economic efficiency. This thesis makes an important empirical contribution to the current literature on water markets. The analysis done determines the relative success of permanent water entitlement trade in inducing innovation in water use; this innovation in water use increases technical water use efficiency.


Among several commendable qualities of this book, its uniqueness deserves first ranking. Few, if any, truly original concepts are expressed; however, the plan for incorporating the material which it contains into a systematic and meaningful whole is original. The reader is guided through the process of designing, conducting, evaluating, and reporting a research project. This progression does not pertain to a specific experiment, but, instead, the general steps essential for research in the behavioral sciences are indicated. The first of the eleven chapters entitled "A Philosophy for the Behavioral Scientist" discusses the basic nature of scientific laws and relationships and explains the function of the probability theory in evaluating experimental findings. Technical advice regarding the preparation of a scientific article for publication is contained in the final chapter. In the interim the reader is introduced to various types of research and to various methods for obtaining data descriptive of


In order to fully understand the functions of proteins in living organisms we must study their interactions and construct accurate interaction maps. Each protein can be composed of one or several peptide chains called domains and each protein interaction can be seen as a consequence of an underlying interaction of two domains, one from each protein. Since high-throughput methods of measuring protein interactions, such as yeast two-hybrid assay, have high err o rates, the structural similarities between proteins can beexploited to detect some of the experimental errors and predict new, unmeasured interactions. In this paper we solve the problem of Bayesian inference of protein and domain interactions by computing their probabilities conditioned on the measurement results. We formulate the task of calculating these conditi onal probabilities as a functional marginalization problem, where the multivariate function to be marginalized naturally factor s into simpler local functions, and we demonstrate how this equiva lent problem can be solved using the sum-product algorithm. We note that this task is structurally similar to decoding low density parity check codes using a message passing algorithm. The robustness and accuracy of our approach is demonstrated by predicting protein and domain interactions on both real and artificial measurement data.


Professional culture is important to guide members of a profession to think and behave as the profession requires. Project management (PM), as a new profession, should have its own professional culture, which could be minimally defined as a set of work-related values and beliefs shared by PM professionals. On the basis of a questionnaire survey, this research used exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses to establish a model of PM culture consisting of four key dimensions: professional commitment, project team integration, work flexibility, and viewing others in terms of work performance. For each of the dimensions, two or three subdimensions were identified. Also, PM professionals' current values and beliefs around the dimensions and subdimensions were explored using descriptive and t-test statistics to reveal some potential for improvement of the profession.


The spinning geometry of a ring frame plays an important role, and the twist triangle is the critical region in ring spinning. Changes in the spinning geometry may affect yarn properties. This paper examines the idea of ring spinning with a "diagonal" yarn path, and the effect of such a path on yam properties, particularly hairiness. Both "left diagonal" and "right diagonal" yam arrangements are tried on a 24-spindle Cognetex FLC worsted ring frame. The hairiness results obtained from the Zweigle hairiness meter show that the right diagonal yam path produces yams of lower hairiness than the conventional ring spun yarn in almost all the hair length groups. Yam evenness and tenacity are not as sensitive to the change in yarn path. The mean spindle speed at break is also tested, and there is some deterioration in spinning efficiency with the right diagonal yarn path, particularly at higher spinning speeds. Results from this study may help explain variations in yarns spun on poorly aligned ring frames.


IntroductionOn May 30 and 31, 1992, in Secaucus, New Jersey, the Negro League Baseball Players Association held their first Memorabilia and Card Show. For this weekend, 34 former Negro League players signed autographs and talked with thousands of black and white fans. On Saturday, these men, ignored by most Americans during their careers, filled the spacious hotel to capacity. Many fans waited to enter the building. For the following week, these former players were honored at professional ballgames and with media interviews throughout the Northeastern United States.It is only recently that white baseball fans are appreciating the accomplishments of hundreds of these African American players. In the past few years, articles, books, movies, replica baseball uniforms and retrospective baseball card sets began to portray the Negro Leagues. The late-Kansas City Monarchs' first baseman, George Giles, stated in February, 1991: "I'm eighty-one years old, and more good things have happened to us in the last six months than what happened in my whole lifetime. I'm just glad I lived to see things start to change" (Negro League...).As Giles alludes to, the Negro Leagues were not always this popular. In fact, most baseball histories written before the 1970s rarely mentioned the Negro Leagues, and when they did, the black leagues usually were treated as only a footnote. Why were the Negro Leagues written out of baseball history, and how was this version of the past perpetuated? An examination of baseball cards from the 1950s will help answer this questionBaseball Cards as Material CultureSociologists and anthropologists stress that sports are a form of ritual and as such are ideal for examining a society's underlying beliefs and world view (Harris and Park, Novak, Sojka). Although sports rarely mirror a society's nonnative beliefs, they teach social values and maintain and reinforce existing social relations (Harris and Park 14). Similarly, many scholars agree that a society's objects can reflect its basic beliefs and world view (Glassie, Deetz, Prown). Furthermore, material culture not only reflects a society's beliefs, but also transmits symbolic messages that are an active agent in social Interaction (Wobst, Hodder, Shanks and Tilley; Beaudry et al., Little). The relationship between a society's objects and culture is, therefore, recursive. Objects reflect a society's beliefs, and manipulation of these same objects to communicate symbolic messages can bring about cultural change (Shackel and Little). As the material culture of sports, examining baseball cards can illuminate American social behavior.To date only a handful of social scientists have examined baseball cards. For example, Paul Mullins examines baseball cards as a commodity and explores the relationships between cards, the game of baseball, capitalism, and consumer behavior. In another work, economists Clark Nardinelli and Curtis Simon examine the correlation between baseball players' race and the price of their cards. They conclude that racism affects the value of baseball cards, as non-white players are valued less than white players of equal ability. Since baseball cards are considered children's toys, they are only now receiving scholarly attention. In the future, because of their importance in American popular culture, baseball cards will become a common source of data.The Baseball CardIn the late-19th century, as a gimmick to increase sales, tobacco companies began inserting cardboard pictures with their products (Fig. 1). (Fig. 1 omitted) Tobacco during this period was marked toward males (Cook), so the first inserts were photographs of young women. Although originally popular, some thought these images scandalous, and pictures of baseball players replaced them in 1886 (Slocum). Tobacco inserts were popular until World War I, but thereafter candy companies produced the majority of baseball cards. These cards depicted Major and Minor League players, but never Negro League players. …


tetracyclines; and were identified as serotype 5 by specific rabbit antiserum. The pathogenicity of human ureaplasmas is still debated although some can cause non-specific urethritis. This case shows that they can at least produce disease in patients with depressed immunity. The arthritis in this case should not be confused with more chronic types of monoarthritis and polyarthritis that occur in patients with hypogammaglobulinaemia.4 Fluid aspirated from an acutely inflamed joint in such patients should be cultured for bacteria and mycoplasmas, including ureaplasmas. The results of culture and antibiotic sensitivity testing may not be available for several days so intravenous tetracycline treatment should start immediately since only about 10% of human ureaplasmas are insensitive to tetracyclines. Prolonged tetracycline treatment over some months is probably necessary.


Agriculture is among the most risk-prone sectors in the economies of Central Asia. Production shocks from weather, pests and diseases and adverse movements in agricultural product and input prices not only impact farmers and agri-business firms, but can also strain government finances. Some of these risks are small and localized and can be managed by producers. Others are the result of more severe, exogenous shocks outside agriculture that require a broader response. Failure to respond adequately to these more severe risks leads to a perpetual cycle of 'shock-recovery-shock' which reinforces poverty traps and compromises long-term growth. A broad-based program to improve livestock productivity is recommended to strengthen the resilience of livestock production systems and rangeland use in Kazakhstan. Proposed interventions include measures to: (i) reverse degradation of water, soil and vegetation cover; (ii) safeguard the long-term viability of rangeland ecosystems, while ensuring sustainable access to grazing land; and (iii) strengthen livestock services (veterinary, animal health, feed and fodder supply, destocking, water and grazing access, and weather and market information). These measures will enable farmers to manage their resources better, to respond to climate and market signals and to protect their resource base in times of drought. The recommendations developed under these three solution areas continue the underlying emphasis on mitigation as the foundation for risk management. They also highlight the mutually reinforcing benefits of measures to improve crop and livestock productivity for both risk management and sector growth.


The success of wind power integration throughout Europe has been largely varied with some European countries showing large boosts in capacity compared to some which show none at all. This Thesis looks at those countries that have been successful in order to determine which factors have led to this success and what if any lessons can be learned in order to assist other countries. The countries studied make up the top three for total wind power capacity and top three for total capacity per capita. The surrounding elements that affect wind power development are assessed and relevant trends are investigated and discussed. Factors such as, support instruments and overall governance are discussed in detail with a number of trends being found. Calculations were conducted developing an average mean annual percentage increase for total capacity which showed that countries with an undeveloped wind power industry switching to a form of quota system could show a boost to total capacity. No evidence was found that suggested switching to or changing an existing feed in tariff system would result in a boost in installed capacity. In assessing governance, a trend was discovered showing obligations and targets helped to drive boosts in capacity especially for the countries who implemented a quota system. Brining these two trends together it was determined that strong top level governance was required to actually kick start boosts in total capacity. The use of combinations of support schemes is assessed and a trend determined that suggests that use a quota system as a primary support scheme is better suited to having tax incentives as a secondary with feed in tariff systems having financial support as a secondary system. A plan for developing wind power in countries with undeveloped wind power industries is developed based on the trends identified within the Thesis. This suggests that a switch to a quota system combined with strong EU and national Governance could help to boost capacity to a point at which time a switch to a form of FIT would be beneficial to build on this steady base.


A coplanar waveguide (CPW)-fed antenna consisting of slot and monopole antenna for dual-band design is proposed. The proposed antenna can provide two separate impedance bandwidths of 124 MHz (about 5.1% centered at 2.45 GHz) and 1124 MHz (about 22.4% centered at 5.5 GHz), making it easy to cover the specification for WLAN operation in the 2.45-GHz band (about 3.4% required bandwidth) and 5.2/5.8-GHz bands (about 13% required bandwidth). Furthermore, the proposed antenna has a low profile of 3.5 mm, making it suitable for installation in wireless handheld devices. Details of the proposed antenna design and experimental results are presented and discussed.


Pisetsky et al reported on assay variation in the detection of antinuclear antibodies (ANA) in sera of patients with established systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE).1 The authors determined ANA in sera from 103 patients with established SLE using three different validated and widely used immunofluorescence assays (IFA) (from ImmunoConcepts, Inova Diagnostics and Bio-Rad), an ELISA and a bead-based multiplex assay (both from Bio-Rad). With IFA, the frequency of ANA negativity varied from 4.9% to 22.3%. Part of the samples (11.7% and 13.6%) were negative with ELISA and multiplex assay, respectively. This study showed differences among IFA ANA kits which might have implications for eligibility for clinical trials.1

In a correspondence to the paper of Pisetsky et al .1 Dr Mahler discussed some relevant points related to ANA detection,2 including the substantial interobserver variability inherent to IFA. Accordingly, Dr Mahler recommended to use automated interpretation systems to reduce variability and subjectivity.2

We evaluated variation in ANA detection by automated IFA systems. Three samples (sample 1: homogeneous 1:320; sample 2: fine speckled 1:80; sample 3: negative) were distributed to 31 Belgian laboratories that use automated IFA systems and 27 laboratories participated (NOVA View n=12 (Inova Diagnostics, San Diego, USA); EUROPattern n=6 (Euroimmun, Lubeck, Germany); G-Sight n=7 (Menarini, Firenze, Italy); Image Navigator n=2 (ImmunoConcepts, Sacramento, California, USA)). Each sample was determined at least four times in different runs (the majority was determined at least eight times) according to the instructions of the manufacturer. The fluorescence intensity units (reported as light intensity units (LIU) or probability index) are shown in figure 1, except for EUROPattern that does not report fluorescence intensity. The results not only show variation in the way fluorescence intensity is reported by different companies …


The problem of regression estimation is considered with a specific regard for the distinction between interpolation and extrapolation. A neurofuzzy network named NFECH is proposed that is capable of extrapolating (and interpolating) with respect to the convex hull of a finite set of input samples X sub Ropfn. The geometrical construction of the proposed network is explained both mathematically and graphically. The illustrations explain how the particular parts of the construction work, and also show the final surfaces of the obtained models. The method is tested on artificial datasets generated from mathematical functions according to various statistical distributions. Also, comparisons to the commonly used radial basis function (RBF), multilayered perceptron (MLP) neural networks, and to fuzzy rule interpretation (FRI)/fuzzy rule extrapolation (FRE) approach are presented.


Background: In India, it is estimated that nearly 3%–4% of the population is affected by hepatitis-B virus (HBV). During the initial stage of the disease, the patient is asymptomatic, and there is a possibility for cross infection to dental surgeons and to other patients. The purpose of this study was to find the incidence of such HBV-infected asymptomatic patients visiting dental clinics of North India. Materials and Methods: This prospective study was conducted in the outpatient department at five different centers of North India. Three centers in Uttar Pradesh, one centre in Bihar, and one centre in Himachal Pradesh. All the patients visiting dental OPD were advised hepatitis-B surface antigen (HbsAg) screening test day before dental procedure, and the procedure was planned on the next day or on the second day after reports were submitted. Those patients who were found positive for HbsAg were further tested for HBV DNA using polymerase chain reaction technique. Results: Five thousand patients were screened, of 5000 patients, 4840 patients submitted complete blood test reports. One thousand six hundred and ninety patients were female and 3150 patients were male. The male-to-female ratio was 1:2.5. Fifty patients were found to be hepatitis B positive. Thirty patients of hepatitis B were in early infective stage. It was found that forty patients were positive for HBV DNA, whereas ten patients were negative. Conclusion: Incidence of asymptomatic hepatitis-B positive patients visiting oral surgery outpatient department in North India is 1%. We recommend routine HbsAg testing and proper sterilization of dental instruments in all dental surgical procedures.


The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of the MURDER strategy on the learning outcomes of students' Islamic religious education. This research is an experimental research. The subject of the study were 52 grade V students of SDN 6 penujak, 30 female students and 22 male students. This study is a quasi-experimental study that uses two samples, namely the experimental group and the control group. The data planning method used is an objective form test. The results of the study showed that the experimental group learning outcomes were more increased than the control group learning outcomes. After analyzing the data about learning using MURDER strategy in the study program the average value of students was 75.4 with a completeness percentage of 85% while the average value of students who used the conventional method reached 66.8 with a completeness percentage of 68%. Based on the results of the study, it can be concluded that the MURDER strategy has a positive effect on students' mathematics learning outcomes compared to learning using conventional methods.


Fingerprint recognition plays an important role in many commercial applications and is used by millions of people every day,
e.g. for unlocking mobile phones. Fingerprint image segmentation is typically the first processing step of most fingerprint algorithms and
it divides an image into foreground, the region of interest (ROI), and background. Two types of error can occur during this step and both have
a negative impact on the recognition performance: 'true' foreground can be labelled as background and features like minutiae can be lost,
or conversely 'true' background can be misclassified as foreground and spurious features can be introduced.

The contribution of this study is threefold: We propose the feature extractors for fingerprint images with Fourier and variational based approaches
 (see Chapter 2 and Chapter 3).
 In the Fourier domain (cf. [1]), we assume that fingerprint patterns mostly stay in a specific range of frequencies.
 We introduce a novel factorized directional bandpass (FDB) segmentation method based on
 the directional Hilbert transform of a Butterworth bandpass (DHBB) filter interwoven with soft-thresholding for feature extraction.
 Then, a morphological operator is applied on these extracted features to obtain the ROI.
 In the variational approach (cf. [2]), fingerprint images are characterized by a smooth, curved and oriented pattern
 which has a sparse representation in certain transform domains.
 Based on this assumption, we propose a model for global three-part decomposition (G3PD) which takes the
 nature of the texture occurring in real fingerprint images into account.
 The G3PD method decomposes the original fingerprint image into a piecewise constant image, ``texture image'' and noise image.
 The decomposition is obtained by finding the minimizer of the convex minimization $\text{TV}-G^{3/4}_{1,1}-\ell_1-G^{-3/4}_{\infty,\infty}$. After texture extraction by the G3PD method, the ROI is attained by morphological operators. We provide a manually marked ground truth segmentation for 10560 images of the FVC database as an evaluation benchmark
 which is made publicly available. We conduct a systematic performance comparison between our proposed methods and four of the most often cited fingerprint segmentation algorithms. The evaluation shows that our approaches clearly outperform these four widely used methods, especially the $\text{TV}-G^{3/4}_{1,1}-\ell_1-G^{-3/4}_{\infty,\infty}$ model.


Parameters in radioiodine metabolism by the thyroid gland were investigated in 98 beagle pups 0-110 da of age and in 6 adults. Significant age-related differences in thyroidal 131I uptake, uptake/g of thyroid, and retention and subsequent radiation dose were observed. Significant differences were also found in uptake/g, retention and subsequent radiation dose were observed. Significant differences were also found in uptake/g, retention, and dose between litters of the same age. Seventy-da-old pups had the highest mean uptake (approximately 25% of the administered dose) and fastest release rate (effective half-life approximately 3.6 da), whereas neonates less than 12 hr of age showed the highest peak concentration (157% of administered dose/g thyroid). The calculated radiation doses to the thyroid were highest in newborn pups, averaging over 100 rads per microcurie of 131I administered, or about 10 times the dose/muCi for adults.


This is primarily an account of the author's personal experience in amputations for peripheral ischaemia. The book starts with a conventional account of the dynamics of walking and then goes on to preoperative management, a description of the major amputations commonly used for the lower limb, and then a description of postoperative management, and treatment of complications. Then comes a valuable chapter on the natural history of these patients-that is, their age, the incidence of other circulatory complications, and their estimated life span. It confirms that many of these amputations are on patients with a limited life expectancy. The author rightly stresses the value of an integrated clinic, and describes the arrangements in his own clinic. This is undoubtedly the most valuable part of the book, especially to anyone who is thinking of instituting a similar clinic for amputees. His description of the indications for amputation and the indications for aboveor below-knee amputations are inevitably rather superficial, but his statistical analysis of the results is excellent and one must congratulate him that 85 0,h of those who survive three years will still be making use of their artificial limbs. He is honest enough to state that a certain number of patients were dissatisfied with the result, but whether this is because they have forgotten how bad their pain was is not clear from the text. This book is a very useful guide for any surgeon who has to perform amputations for peripheral vascular disorders. It presents a strong argument for such patients receiving attention from surgeons with special experience and interest in their problems. I can recommend it as a useful reference book in every hospital library.


Exploration into the domain of consciousness and 'self' originated within the realm of philosophical thought. However, neuroscientific research facilitates the transition from conceptualization to empiricism, allowing scientists to locate the underlying neural mechanisms behind this phenomenon. Binding the multiplicity of conscious modalities, including the sense of ownership over one's experiences, agency over actions and first-person perspective relating to memory, emotion, spatial and environmental awareness, involves a specific integrative mechanism. It is suggested that the predominant candidate for this faculty lies with synchronous firing between distal assemblies of neurones. However, each cell assembly relates to a specific cognitive capacity, the majority of which is circumstantially recruited as and when necessary, and remains transient in nature. The pervasive and underlying aspect of the conscious self comes from the sensation of ownership over phenomenal experience. This remains omnipresent during waking consciousness and can be correlated with activity within the medial prefrontal cortex. This paper reviews evidence from fMRI and PET data, along with investigations involving lesions, neurological dysfunction and meditation providing a map of cooperative neurological regions associated with the various categories of the conscious self. These regions have been located predominantly within the parietal and prefrontal cortices.


Isotope, major and trace element studies of the Late Cretaceous and Tertiary granitoids of the Atlanta lobe of the Idaho batholith in the western United States cordillera have led to new. insights on the nature of the lower crust and have placed constraints on granitoid magma genesis during a transition from a compressional to an extensional regime.

The Cretaceous (-90-75Ma), calc-alkaline, tonalitic to granitic, ' metaluminous to peraluminous granitoids are characterisedb y high LI]LE/HFSE and LREE/HREE ratios, low Rb/Sr and Snx/Ndr atios and F-Nda nd ESro f -4.9 to -11.6 and 35 to 120 respectively. Only the tonalites and silicic granodiorites to granites underwent significant degrees of within suite fractional crystallization, the former dominated by hornblende and plagioclase and the latter by alkali feldspar, quartz, plagioclase and biotite. The Cretaceous magmas have been successfully modelled as 25%-45% partial melts of tonalitic to gabbroic, biotite, garnet and homblende-bearing meta-igneous*s ources. Thermal conditions suggestt hat anatexis was induced by both Sevier tectonic crustal thickening and ponding of subduction-relatodb asalts at the base of the crust. The inferred source regions were relatively trace element enriched, with high Sr and LlLE/HFSE ratios; this volcanic-arc signature was presumably attained during generation of the source region by subduction related processes. Little intra-crustal reprocessing of the source region can have occurred, but unsupported Sr and Pb isotope ratios suggest that minor depletion of Rb, U, and Th by high-grade metamorphism may have occurred. Small differences between the trace element compositions of the Cretaceous intrusive phases are thought to reflect minor heterogeneitiqs within the source regions. Small volume leucogranites with distintive REE and isotope compositions are interpreted as upper crustal, partial melts of Archaean and Proterozoic metasediments.

Inferred garnet-bearing granulitic residues after partial melting cause Sm/Nd ratios to be significantly reduced from source to magma, but correcting for this produces TLM in agreement with Pb-Pb ages of -1.5Ga. This mid-Proterozoic age of the lower crust indicates that major age province boundaries with the Wyoming and Snake River Plain Archaean provinces exist to the east and close to the southern margin of the Atlanta lobe.

The Tertiary bimodal granitoids consist of a 55Ma-47Ma, metaluminous dioritic suite characterised by high Sr and Ba, low LILE and moderate LREE/HREE ratios, and a 48Ma- 42Ma, peraluminous granitic suite are characterised by lower Ba and Sr abundances and LREE/HREE ratios, higher HFSE and Rb, U and Th abundancesw, ith large LILE variation and minor to large negative Eu/Eu* anomalies. F-Nd and ESr of -4 to - 11.8 and 25 to 65 respectively, in the dioritic suite, systematically vary with major and trace elements and are interpreted to reflect AFC processes, with dioritic initial magmas derived from the subcontinental mantle lithosphere and high proportions of old continental crust assimilants. The Tertiary granitic suite have higher ESr and lower ENd and Pb isotope ratios than the Cretaceousg ranitoids, but NU similar mid-Proterozoic T6M. They are modelled as anatectic melts at the base of a thinned, isotopically distinct region of a trace element enriched lower crust similar to the source of the Cretaceous granitoids to leave a mafic granulitic residue without garnet leading to distinctly higher Y and Yb abundancesin the Tertiary granitoids.

The Cretaceous to Tertiary transition from lower crustal granitoids generatedin a tectonically thickened crust with ponding of subduction-related basalts, to generation of granitoids in an attenuated lithosphere, due to rapid uplift, themial and gravitational relaxation and extension in the latest Cretaceous, is reflected in the change to increasing HREE abundances, the incorporation of mantle-derived material and the epizonal levels of emplacement and association with the coeval Challis volcanics.


This Library guide will help staff and students find information and resources on TPC topics Books and DVDs for Language and learning skills unit


The human umbilical cord represents a promising resource of mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs). In order to improve our understanding of MSCs derived from human umbilical cord (UC-MSCs), we isolated UC-MSCs from human umbilical cord tissues through a direct culture approach. We performed a comprehensive characterization of these cells based on analyses of morphology, growth features, cell surface antigen markers and differentiation capacity. All these analyses validated their stem cell nature. The UC-MSCs presented a spindle-shaped morphology and could be subcultured for up to 15 passages without losing their cellular features. Moreover, these UC-SMCs presented an expression profile of cell surface antigens similar to other MSCs: positive for CD44, CD90, and CD105 expression and negative for CD34, CD31, and CD45 expression. Differentiation assays further validated the multipotency of UC-MSCs by inducing these cells into osteoblasts, adipocytes and functional hepatocytes. Our studies clearly demonstrated that UC-MSCs resemble other types of MSCs in many aspects and have a great potential to be applied in tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.


This paper proposes an infrared (IR) light emitting diode (LED)-based tactile fingertip sensor that can independently measure the normal and tangential force between the hand and an object. The proposed IR LED-based sensor has several advantages over other technologies, including a low price, small size, and good sensitivity. The design of the first prototype is described and some experiments are conducted to show output characteristics of the proposed sensor. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the proposed sensor is demonstrated through anti-slip control in a multifunction myoelectric hand, called the KNU Hand, which includes several novel mechanisms for improved grasping capabilities. The experimental results show that slippage was avoided by simple force control using feedback on the normal and tangential force from the proposed sensor. Thus, grasping force control was achieved without any slippage or damage to the object.


Telecommunication switches have been implemented based mainly on centralized and distributed control. Centralized control is relatively easy to implement but suffers from limitations on real-time capability. Distributed control involves much higher software complexity and intensive messaging. This paper proposes the parallel processing approach to simplify these problems. A system is under development to test these ideas.


Traditional flow production is experiencing a dynamic change towards smart factories. In the context of Industry 4.0 new technologies for worker assistance can be implemented in assembly, logistics or maintenance. Using Augmented Reality (AR) in order picking processes can provide advantages like time and error reduction and subsequently cost decrease. But what is the impact on employees wearing smart glasses during a full shift? Conducting a field study on the shop floor of an automotive production plant with expert order pickers, we analyze health-oriented aspects as well as the task completion time and the error frequency for a full shift usage of smart glasses in order picking processes. We face challenges such as an interaction with the warehouse management system and a predetermined production rhythm to ensure reliable results for the 8-hour usage of smart glasses, which may point the way towards future digital manufacturing.


Characterizing and understanding the human shape variation are essential for providing visual cues of individual characteristics to increase the affective interpersonal connection in an integral part of a virtual agent environment. In this paper, we propose to use a model of hierarchal parameters to facilitate animated agent construction: personality, cartoon character and somatotype parameters. The personality and emotion expressiveness of the generated virtual agents were verified through experiments in our previous work. In this paper we further report the results of our attempt to verify how the somatotype parameters are mapped into cartoon character types and the personality. A personality-based model of a virtual agent is developed to match each participant's profile in the form of a reciprocal agent. The model enables an agent to present his/her characteristics internally and externally. The results reveal that the participants can successfully distinguish the agent's personality and emotions based on the manipulation of personality parameters for neutral motion.


Pre-Congestion Notification (PCN) is currently being developed by the IETF to provide admission control in DiffServ networks for non-elastic flows. Various marking schemes are being proposed as part of this effort. We evaluate a new marking behaviour that could be used to signal three different states by means of a single bit. This scheme is of interest to networks operating with MPLS as the Label QoS coding space is limited to three EXP bits. Similar to the ECN standard for MPLS, this research assumes that just two codepoints will be available to indicate different congestion states. Of these two codepoints, one would be used to differentiate between PCN and non-PCN traffic and the other would be used for PCN marking. This paper outlines the approach and presents the advantages and limitations of the proposal using the evaluations performed. A comparison of the method with a two bit PCN marking approach is also studied.


This Science Fiction Prototype re-imagines the technologies of augmentation which seek to create a space "overlaid" onto our own with a 'mixed' reality. It is proposed that this can be seen as an attempt to build an unseen zone that is reminiscent of the aether worlds of the 19th and early 20th Century. Taking an aesthetic developed by the decadent author JK Huysmans to create a neo-decadent prototype braided with Huysman's own work, this prototype initiates a discussion on the design of future sensuous sound objects as components of a hyperphysical interface to an artificial mind and its material and virtual counterparts.


Within telecommunications development it is vital to have frameworks and systems to replay complicated scenarios on equipment under test, often there are not enough available scenarios. In this paper we study the problem of testing a test harness, which replays scenarios and analyses protocol logs for the Public Warning System service, which is a part of the Long Term Evolution (LTE) 4G standard. Protocol logs are sequences of messages with timestamps; and are generated by different mobile network entities. In our case study we focus on user equipment protocol logs. In order to test the test harness we require that logs have both incorrect and correct behaviour. It is easy to collect logs from real system runs, but these logs do not show much variation in the behaviour of system under test. We present an approach where we use constraint logic programming (CLP) for both modelling and test generation, where each test case is a protocol log. In this case study, we uncovered previously unknown faults in the test harness.


The accumulation of dislocations around hard particles such as martensite in Dual Phase steel has a prominent influence on the mechanical properties of multiphase steels. The origin of these so-called Geometrically Necessary Dislocations (GNDs) is either due to the transformation strain, or to strain gradients that arise during deformation. The generation of deformation-GNDs is explained by Ashby's theory [1] regarding deformation of a plastic mass that contains dispersed undeformable particles. It is argued that the GNDs pile up locally against the ferrite-martensite interface. This work reports the calculated density of GNDs from high resolution Electron BackScatter Diffraction (EBSD) measurements. By measuring the lattice orientation within the grains, the lattice curvature can be quan-tified, which can be directly related to the presence of GNDs. The density of the GNDs can then be estimated either directly through kernel average misorientations, or through the calculation of the dislo-cation tensor. From this first approximation of the GND density a GNDD map has been obtained by two recently developed approaches. This map shows an enhanced dislocation density around the mart-ensite particles due to volume change during transformation. The kernel choice and step size depend-ency of the results are also investigated.


Electron density distributions of 2-aminoethanol (2AE) and 2-amino-1-propanol (2AP) are calculated in both the coordinate and the momentum spaces using the B3LYP/TZVP method. Using the dual space analysis, molecular orbital signatures of the methyl substituent in 2AP are identified with respect to 2AE. Relaxations of the geometry and the valence orbital in 2AP are found to be due to the insertion of the methyl group. Five orbitals, not four orbitals, are identified as the methyl signatures. They are orbital 5a in the core shell, orbitals 9a and 10a in the inner valence shell, and orbitals 15a and 16a in the outer valence. In the inner valence shell, the attachment of methyl to 2AE causes a splitting of its orbital 8a into orbitals 9a and 10a of 2AP, whereas in the outer valence shell, the methyl group results in the insertion of an additional orbital pair of 15a and 16a. The frontier molecular orbitals 21a, 20a, and 19a are found to have no significant role in the methylation of 2AE.