The neuropathological diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease relies on the presence of both neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques. The number of neurofibrillary tangles is tightly linked to the degree of dementia, suggesting that the formation of neurofibrillary tangles more directly correlates with neuronal dysfunction. The regional pattern of areas affected by neurofibrillary tangles formation during the course of the disease is relatively stereotyped. Neurofibrillary tangles are composed of highly phosphorylated forms of the microtubule-associated protein tau. Phosphorylated tau proteins accumulate early in neurons, even before formation of neurofibrillary tangles, suggesting that an imbalance between the activities of protein kinases and phosphatases acting on tau is an early phenomenon. The latter might be related to changes in signalling through transduction cascades, since many of the protein kinases generating phosphorylated tau species participate in signalling pathways. The accumulation of neurofibrillary tangles and phosphorylated tau species is associated with disturbances of the microtubule network and, as a consequence of the latter, of axoplasmic flows. The mechanistic relationship between the formation of neurofibrillary tangles and senile plaques is still little understood and in vivo formation of neurofibrilllary tangles in experimental models has not yet been achieved. Future animal models, e.g. transgenic animals expressing combined key human proteins, will hopefully reproduce faithfully all the major cellular lesions of the disease.


We show how an ensemble of $Q^*$-functions can be leveraged for more effective exploration in deep reinforcement learning. We build on well established algorithms from the bandit setting, and adapt them to the $Q$-learning setting. We propose an exploration strategy based on upper-confidence bounds (UCB). Our experiments show significant gains on the Atari benchmark.


The herpes zoster vaccine is recommended for use in adults 60 years of age and older to reduce the incidence and morbidity associated with infection. Its limited uptake has been attributed to logistical barriers, but uncertain efficacy and safety in subsets of this patient population could also be contributing. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the current vaccination practices, barriers to vaccination, knowledge of vaccination reimbursement and strategies to evaluate for insurance coverage among an urban, safety net, teaching hospital, geriatric primary care provider group through a survey administered via paper and online platforms. Survey participants (n = 10) reported lack of availability of the vaccine in their practice settings (6/10), with half of providers (5/10) referring patients to outside pharmacies or to other practice settings (2/10) for vaccine administration. Reimbursement issues and storage requirements were perceived as major barriers by 40% (4/10) of providers, whereas 80% (8/10) of providers reported that concerns about safety and effectiveness of the vaccine were not major barriers to vaccination. Logistical barriers, rather than concerns about safety and effectiveness of the vaccine, were reported as major barriers to vaccination by a significant portion of providers. Lack of availability and reimbursement problems for practice sites allow for gaps in care. Partnership with community and long-term care pharmacies could serve as a possible solution.


Blending historical fact and classical myth, the author of Zorba the Greek and The Last Temptation of Christ transports the reader 3,000 years into the past, to a pivotal point in history: the final days before the ancient kingdom of Minoan Crete is to be conquered and supplanted by the emerging city-state of Athens. Translated by Theodora Vasils and Themi Vasils. The familiar figures who peopled that ancient world - King Minos, Theseus and Ariadne, the Minotaur, Diadalos and Ikaros - fill the pages of this novel with lifelike immediacy. Written originally for an Athenian youth periodical, At the Palaces of Knossos functions on several levels. Fundamentally, it is a gripping and vivid adventure story, recounted by one of this century's greatest storytellers, and peopled with freshly interpreted figures of classical Greek mythology. We see a new vision of the Minotaur, portrayed here as a bloated and sickly green monster, as much to be pitied as dreaded. And we see a grief-stricken and embittered Diadalos stomping on the homemade wax wings that have caused the drowning of his son, Ikaros. On another level, At the Palaces of Knossos is an allegory of history, showing the supplanting of a primitive culture by a more modern civilization. Shifting the setting back and forth from Crete to Athens, Kazantzakis contrasts the languid, decaying life of the court of King Minos with the youth and vigor of the newly emerging Athens. Protected by bronze swords, by ancient magic and ritual, and by ferocious-but-no-longer-invincible monsters, the kingdom of Crete represents the world that must perish if classical Greek civilization is to emerge into its golden age of reason and science. In the cataclysmic final scene in which the Minotaur is killed and King Minos' sumptuous palace burned, Kazantzakis dramatizes the death of the Bronze Age, with its monsters and totems, and the birth of the Age of Iron.


Purpose To compare hyperpolarized carbon 13 (13C) MRI with dynamic contrast material–enhanced (DCE) MRI in the detection of early treatment response in breast cancer. Materials and Methods In this institutional review board–approved prospective study, a woman with triple-negative breast cancer (age, 49 years) underwent 13C MRI after injection of hyperpolarized [1–carbon 13 {13C}]-pyruvate and DCE MRI at 3 T at baseline and after one cycle of neoadjuvant therapy. The 13C-labeled lactate-to-pyruvate ratio derived from hyperpolarized 13C MRI and the pharmacokinetic parameters transfer constant (Ktrans) and washout parameter (kep) derived from DCE MRI were compared before and after treatment. Results Exchange of the 13C label between injected hyperpolarized [1-13C]-pyruvate and the endogenous lactate pool was observed, catalyzed by the enzyme lactate dehydrogenase. After one cycle of neoadjuvant chemotherapy, a 34% reduction in the 13C-labeled lactate-to-pyruvate ratio resulted in correct identification of the patient as a responder to therapy, which was subsequently confirmed via a complete pathologic response. However, DCE MRI showed an increase in mean Ktrans (132%) and mean kep (31%), which could be incorrectly interpreted as a poor response to treatment. Conclusion Hyperpolarized 13C MRI enabled successful identification of breast cancer response after one cycle of neoadjuvant chemotherapy and may improve response prediction when used in conjunction with multiparametric proton MRI. Keywords: Breast, MR-Spectroscopy, Molecular Imaging-Cancer, Molecular Imaging-Clinical Translation, Neoplasms-Primary, Oncology, Tumor Response Published under a CC BY 4.0 license.


The results of a tradeoff study conducted for selection of the most viable Earth-based antenna network architecture for support of NASA's Space Exploration Initiative (SEI) lunar and Mars missions are summarized. The study addressed the lunar mission support requirements, and examined the performance, operations, and cost tradeoffs of using either the NASA Deep Space Network (DSN) large 34-m antennas or smaller commercial antennas to replace or supplement the 34-m antennas. The results are presented as a set of eight tables.<<ETX>>


We present a particle flow realization of Bayes' rule, where an ODE-based neural operator is used to transport particles from a prior to its posterior after a new observation. We prove that such an ODE operator exists. Its neural parameterization can be trained in a meta-learning framework, allowing this operator to reason about the effect of an individual observation on the posterior, and thus generalize across different priors, observations and to sequential Bayesian inference. We demonstrated the generalization ability of our particle flow Bayes operator in several canonical and high dimensional examples.


Polyaniline (PANI) is one of the conducting polymers known to have a reasonably good conductivity, is easy to prepared, stable, affordable and manifests redox properties. It has received attention in comparison to other organic compounds through on-going research work performed either in its native state or functionalized form. Emeraldine base, (EB) is acknowledged as the most useful form of PANI due to its high stability at room temperature. Besides, EB can be doped to the emaraldine salt (ES) which is the conducting form of the polymer. As for this study, EB has been doped with anions called sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate (AOT⁻) to use as a hydrazine sensor and the detection of hydrazine is then observed by using ultraviolet-visible (UV-VIS) spectroscopy. In order to have an insight into the conductivity mechanism as well as its effect on the UV-VIS spectroscopy, a comprehensive study about the molecular and electronic properties of different degrees of polymerization have been explored using quantum mechanical calculations together with molecular dynamics simulation. Through our computational study, it had been found that dimer form of ES that is composed of 8 rings in ratio of 1:1 benzoid and quinoid shows the closest ES UV-VIS peak with experimentally observed result. On the other hand, semi-empirical AM1 and PM6 as well as DFT (B3LYP functional) show the most reliable UV-VIS absorption peak simulation using the dimer model in comparison with the experimental spectra. Then again, DFT with B3LYP calculations are the most reliable calculations, manifesting a consistent lambda peak reduction as more cations at the ES chain are reduced. This is observed during the dedoping process simulation conducted on tetramer and ES compared to the experimental results.


Manipulating heat fluxes at the nanoscale has become increasingly important in modern microelectronics. However, many methods of heat manipulations rely on complex nanofabrication. Here, we propose simple designs for collimation and focusing of thermal phonons based on parabolic mirrors that require no nanofabrication. We perform Monte Carlo simulations of a ballistic phonon transport in silicon membranes with parabolic boundaries. Our simulations demonstrate that parabolic surfaces can act as parabolic mirrors for phonons, thus collimating or focusing phonon fluxes in semiconductors. Such parabolic mirrors can create a directional flux of thermal phonons emitted from a nanoscale hot spot or focus a collimated phonon flux into a hot spot. These devices open new possibilities in the thermal management of low-temperature systems, such as quantum circuits or cryogenic particle detectors.


Abstract In the Republic, Plato developed an educational program through which he trained young Athenians in desiring truth, without offering them any knowledge-education. This is not because he refused to pass on knowledge but because he considered knowledge of the Good as an ongoing research program. I show this by tracing the steps of the education of the Philosopher-Kings in Plato's ideal state, to establish that the decades-long educational regime aims at training them in three types of virtue: (i) Moral Virtue; (ii) the Cognitive Virtue of Abstraction; (iii) the Cognitive Virtue of Debate. Plato's theory of education has much to teach us about intellectual character education today. The Platonic educational program does not advocate the direct transmission of knowledge from teacher to learner but rather focuses on building the learners' epistemic dispositions. Building upon the Socratic Method, Plato's educational program does not 'spoon-feed' knowledge to the learners but rather fosters the growth of intellectual virtues through problem-solving. I explain ways in which fostering intellectual virtues through problem-solving could be applied in classrooms today. I conclude that Plato's rigorous educational program is of definite merit for contemporary virtue education, especially since Aristotle offers us surprisingly little on how to educate for intellectual virtues.


The wild tobacco species Nicotiana attenuata needs to tailor its defense responses against herbivores and pathogens most efficiently, requiring sophisticated signaling systems to distinguish its individual attackers. One of these signaling components is the phytohormone jasmonic acid (JA) which is produced by N. attenuata in response to e.g. Manduca sexta herbivory. This JA biosynthesis is initialized by the chloroplastic glycerolipase NaGLA1 which hydrolizes trienoic fatty acids from membrane lipids. Using transgenic N. attenuata genotypes stably silenced in NaGLA1 gene expression, this thesis work could show that NaGLA1 is the major lipase in N. attenuata involved in JA biosynthesis after wounding and simulated M. sexta herbivory, however not during infection with Phytophthora parasitica. Instead, NaGLA1 participates in the generation of potential signaling molecules different from JA in the latter interaction NaHSPRO, was found to be a potential regulator of early N. attenuata responses to M. sexta herbivory due to its transcript accumulation pattern. To test this hypothesis, transgenic N. attenuata genotypes stably silenced in NaHSPRO expression were generated. Although no involvement of NaHSPRO in N. attenuata´s resistance to M. sexta could be demonstrated, a role of NaHSPRO in N. attenuata tolerance rather than resistance or in the trade-off process between these defense mechanisms is well possible. Plant tolerance is mediated by SnRK1 and it is known for NaHSPRO homologs from Arabidopsis that they are able to interact with this kinase complex. This thesis work could show that NaHSPRO negatively regulates growth promotion of N. attenuata seedlings mediated by the mutualistic fungus Piriformospora indica via SnRK1 signaling, thus supporting also other hyptheses based on a NaHSPRO function via SnRK1 involving mechanisms.


Photodynamic therapy is a minimally invasive and clinically approved procedure for eliminating selected malignant cells with specific light activation of a photosensitizer agent. Whereas interstitial and intra-operative approaches have been investigated for the ablation of a broad range of superficial or bulky solid tumors such as breast cancer, the majority of approved photodynamic therapy protocols are for the treatment of superficial lesions of skin and luminal organs. This review article will discuss recent progress in research focused mainly on assessing the efficacies of various photosensitizers used in photodynamic therapy, as well as the combinatory strategies of various therapeutic modalities for improving treatments of parenchymal and/or stromal tissues of breast cancer solid tumors. Cytotoxic agents are used in cancer treatments for their effect on rapidly proliferating cancer cells. However, such therapeutics often lack specificity, which can lead to toxicity and undesirable side effects. Many approaches are designed to target tumors. Selective therapies can be established by focusing on distinctive intracellular (receptors, apoptotic pathways, multidrug resistance system, nitric oxide-mediated stress) and environmental (glucose, pH) differences between tumor and healthy tissue. A rational design of effective combination regimens for breast cancer treatment involves a better understanding of the mechanisms and molecular interactions of cytotoxic agents that underlie drug resistance and sensitivity.


This experimental work evaluated geopolymer concrete containing fly ash and slag by partial replacement of natural coarse aggregate (NCA) with recycled coarse aggregate (RCA) to manufacture environmental-friendly concrete. The proportion of recycled aggregates considered consists of 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40% of the total coarse aggregate amount. Also, a steel fiber ratio of 0.3% was utilized. The mechanical properties and abrasion resistance of fly ash/slag-based geopolymer concrete were then assessed. Majorly, the mechanical strength of the concrete samples decreased by the increase of RCA content. The geopolymer concrete with 40% RCA gave 28.3% lesser compressive strength and 24% lower splitting tensile strength than NCA concrete at one year. Also, the flexural strength of concrete specimens was reduced by 35% (from 5.34MPa to 3.5MPa) with the incorporation of 40% RCA. The incorporation of 30% RCA caused 23% and 22.6% reduction in compressive strength at 56 days and one year, respectively. The flexural and splitting tensile strength of the specimens was not significantly reduced (less than 10%) with the inclusion of a recycled coarse aggregate ratio of up to 30%. Furthermore, the abrasion wear thickness of every concrete sample was less than 1mm. RCA inclusion of 20% produced either insignificant reduction or better strength results compared to reference mixtures. As a result, it was considered that the combination of 0.3% steel fiber and 20% recycled coarse aggregate in fly ash/slag-based geopolymer concrete leads to an eco-friendly concrete mix with acceptable short and long-term engineering properties that would lead to sustainability in concrete production and utilization sector.


The swab, excise, flush, and agar microbial sampling techniques were applied randomly to the air sac cavities of 130 healthy broiler chickens of 56 to 70 days of age when slaughtered. Samples were obtained from both nonscalded and scalded chickens. The scalded chickens were immersed in the scald water (49 ± 0.5 C) for 120 sec immediately after severing the blood vessels from the outside at the base of the lower mandible. From these data, a selection was made of a sampling technique for the air sac cavity which would yield reproducible counts with the least amount of variation. The flush and swab technique did not differ significantly and had less variation than did the excise and agar techniques. Even though no significant differences existed between the flush and swab techniques, the flush technique might be preferred because of the closed system present during the time in which the sample is obtained. The method of expressing microbial concentration in the air sac cavity might best be as "per air sac."


Most seismic codes specify empirical formulas to estimate the fundamental vibration period of buildings. Evaluated first in this paper are the formulas specified in present U.S. codes using the available data on the fundamental period of buildings "measured" from their motions recorded during eight California earthquakes, starting with the 1971 San Fernando earthquake and ending with the 1994 Northridge earthquake. It is shown that current code formulas for estimating the fundamental period of concrete shear wall buildings are grossly inadequate. Subsequently, an improved formula is developed by calibrating a theoretical formula, derived using Dunkerley's method, against the measured period data through regression analysis. Also recommended is a factor to limit the period calculated by a "rational" analysis, such as Rayleigh's method.


Transcallosal responses to stimulation of the cortex at the depth of 0.5 mm had the least phase I and the greatest phase II as compared with their values at a deeper stimulation. The maximal phase II occurred at the 1 mm stimulation. At a fixed depth of stimulation the maximal amplitude of the phase I coincided with the depth of stimulation. At 1 and 2 mm stimulations, the second maximum of the responses occurred at the depth of 2 and 1 mm, resp. The data obtained suggest that the callosal connections are organized in a "layer--to--layer" way, and that there are some cross--connections between the layers III and V ("one layer--another layer").


In mammals, nicotinamide (Nam) is biosynthesized from l-tryptophan (l-Trp). The enzymes involved in the initial step of the l-Trp→Nam pathway are l-Trp-2,3-dioxygenase (TDO) and indoleamine-2,3-dioxygenase (IDO). We aimed to determine whether tdo-knockout (tdo(-/-)) mice fed a diet without preformed niacin can synthesize enough Nam to sustain optimum growth. Wild-type (WT) and tdo(-/-) mice were fed a chemically defined 20% casein diet with or without preformed niacin (30 mg nicotinic acid/kg) for 28 d. Body weight, food intake, and liver NAD concentrations did not differ among the groups. In the groups of mice fed the niacin-free diet, urinary concentrations of the upstream metabolites kynurenine (320% increase, P < 0.0001), kynurenic acid (270% increase, P < 0.0001), xanthurenic acid (770% increase, P < 0.0001), and 3-hydroxyanthranilic acid (3-HA; 450% increase, P < 0.0001) were higher in the tdo(-/-) mice than in the WT mice, while urinary concentrations of the downstream metabolite quinolinic acid (QA; 50% less, P = 0.0010) and the sum of Nam and its catabolites (10% less, P < 0.0001) were lower in the tdo(-/-) mice than in the WT mice. These findings show that the kynurenine formed in extrahepatic tissues by IDO and subsequent enzymes can be metabolized up to 3-HA, but not into QA. However, the tdo(-/-) mice sustained optimum growth even when fed the niacin-free diet for 1 mo, suggesting they can synthesize the minimum necessary amount of Nam from l-Trp, because the liver can import blood kynurenine formed in extrahepatic tissues and metabolize it into Nam via NAD and the resulting Nam is then distributed back into extrahepatic tissues.


The area of the relative operating characteristic (ROC) curve is a criterion-free parameter-free distribution-independent index of the diagnostic performance of a test. The area of the ROC curve is equivalent to the probability of making the correct choice in a two-alternative forced-choice decision task. In this paper, we describe several methods for computing the area of the ROC curve from data distributions, we provide algorithms for computing confidence intervals on ROC curve areas and for performing statistical comparisons of ROC curve areas, and we show how the ROC curve areas can be used to evaluate the efficacy of different diagnostic tests or data reduction procedures. As an example of the application of the different techniques for computing the ROC curve area, we compare three distinctly different data reduction procedures applied to static visual field data from glaucoma patients, glaucoma suspects, and normal controls. Based on ROC curve areas, it is concluded that none of the three procedures is significantly superior to the others at discriminating glaucoma patients or glaucoma suspects from normals.


Abstract There is a forgetful map from the mapping class group of a punctured surface to that of the surface with one fewer puncture. We prove that finitely generated purely pseudo-Anosov subgroups of the kernel of this map are convex cocompact in the sense of B. Farb and L. Mosher. In particular, we obtain an affirmative answer to their question of local convex cocompactness of K. Whittlesey's group. In the course of the proof, we obtain a new proof of a theorem of I. Kra. We also relate the action of this kernel on the curve complex to a family of actions on trees. This quickly yields a new proof of a theorem of J. Harer.


The research contained herein studied the effect of sister holes on film cooling. This novel technique surrounds a primary injection hole by two or four smaller sister holes to actively maintain flow adhesion along the surface of the blade. A numerical evaluation using the realizable κ-ε turbulence model led to the determination that the use of sister holes significantly improves adiabatic effectiveness by countering the primary vertical flow structure. Research was performed to determine the optimal hole configuration, arriving at the conclusion that placing sister holes slightly downstream of the primary injection hole improves the near-hole effectiveness, while placing sister holes slightly upstream of the primary hole improves downstream effectiveness. Similar results were found in evaluating both long and short hole geometries with a significantly less coherent flow field arising form the short hole study. However, on the whole, the sister hole approach to film cooling was found to offer viable improvements over standard cooling regimes.


The innate immune system is the first line of defence against invading pathogens and is responsible for both initial pathogen recognition and mounting an effective immunological response. The recognition of conserved pathogen-associated molecular patterns can be carried out by a number of families of innate immune receptors, including Toll-like receptors. Toll-like receptors can respond to a diverse range of microbial signals and elicit a targeted immune response against the invading pathogen. A key regulator of inflammation is IL-1β, which can be secreted from activated cells and mediate a strong inflammatory response. The regulation of its release is a tightly controlled signalling event, as its dysregulation has been linked with the pathogenesis of a variety of diseases including Alzheimer's disease and rheumatoid arthritis. The signalling complex which controls IL-1β release is known as the inflammasome, which requires two signals to facilitate its activation. The work in this thesis demonstrates a role for the E3 ubiquitin ligase Pellino2 in the specific activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome. Using a newly generated Pellino2-deficient mouse, it was determined that Pellino2 played no role during TLR induced NF-κB or MAPK signalling. However, Peli2-/- mice were more resistant to the lethal effects of LPS induced septic shock and this correlated with reduced serum IL-1β levels. Pellino2-deficient mice were shown to exhibit diminished NLRP3 inflammasome activation, correlating with reduced levels of NLRP3 ubiquitination and thus, lower levels of IL-1β secretion. While Pellino2 does not directly mediate the ubiquitination of NLRP3, it was observed that Pellino2-deficiency promoted the increased interaction of NLRP3 with hyperphosphorylated IRAK1. The data presented in this thesis defines for the first time a physiological role for Pellino2 in innate immune signalling with a particular function in mediating activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome.


Over the last years, Forest Science has demonstrated that the forest is a "complex biological system". Like all biotic communities the forest must be considered a subject of rights, precisely the rights of the forest . This poses legal and ethical problems. The Author discusses the need for a legal frame that considers the central role of forest ecosystems and acknowledges the "intrinsic value" of the forest.


In this study we propose a novel method to parallelize high-order compact numerical algorithms for the solution of three-dimensional PDEs in a space-time domain. For this numerical integration most of the computer time is spent in computation of spatial derivatives at each stage of the Runge-Kutta temporal update. The most efficient direct method to compute spatial derivatives on a serial computer is a version of Gaussian elimination for narrow linear banded systems known as the Thomas algorithm. In a straightforward pipelined implementation of the Thomas algorithm processors are idle due to the forward and backward recurrences of the Thomas algorithm. To utilize processors during this time, we propose to use them for either non-local data independent computations, solving lines in the next spatial direction, or local data-dependent computations by the Runge-Kutta method. To achieve this goal, control of processor communication and computations by a static schedule is adopted. Thus, our parallel code is driven by a communication and computation schedule instead of the usual ``creative programming" approach. The obtained parallelization speed-up of the novel algorithm is about twice as much as that for the standard pipelined algorithm and close to that for the explicit DRP algorithm.


Diabetic peripheral neuropathy (DPN) is a major complication of diabetes mellitus. Tight glycaemic management focused on lowering haemoglobin A1C and increasing time in the target glucose range along with metabolic risk factor management form the cornerstone of DPN prevention. However, there is limited evidence supporting the efficacy of glycaemic and metabolic control in reducing the symptoms and complications of DPN, including pain once painful DPN develops. DPN treatments include pharmacological agents and non-pharmacological interventions such as foot care and lifestyle modifications. Pharmacological agents primarily address pain symptoms, which affect 25–35% of people with DPN. First-line agents include the anticonvulsants pregabalin and gabapentin, the serotonin-norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors duloxetine and venlafaxine, and secondary amine tricyclic antidepressants, including nortriptyline and desipramine. All agents have unique pharmacological, safety and clinical profiles, and agent selection should be guided by the presence of comorbidities, potential for adverse effects, drug interactions and costs. Even with the current treatment options, people are commonly prescribed less than the recommended dose of medications, leading to poor management of DPN symptoms and treatment discontinuation. By keeping up with the latest therapy algorithms and treatment options, healthcare professionals can improve the care for people with DPN.


Introduction Our country is in the third place in Europe concerning tobacco smoking. Although strict law regulations regarding indoor smoking have been brought, the law banning all tobacco advertising, and the behaviour of our population are inadequate. Our objective was to persuade smokers for the 'Quit and Win' campaign and to establish the number of smokers in health personnel employed in health facilities. Material and methods This population-based smoking cessation campaign was coordinated by Federal Institute of Public Health, through a network of Public Health Institutes within the country with the support of national and local media. Results and discussion Quit and Win campaign was organized for the third time. The campaign was realized with the financial support and sponsorship at community level throughout the country. The Federal Ministry provided a national health award. The national and local media accompanied the campaign. The campaign included 3.178 smokers and 2.575 supporters, that is 0.1% of the population over 18 years of age. This is in accordance with participants in some other countries, who had a better support. More than 60% of health care facility employees are smokers. Conclusions Our tradition, habits in the society and overall situation encourage smoking habits to spread in general population. Our campaign has proved that people should be motivated to quit smoking, but they need to be informed. Actions taken in general population and based on a positive smoking cessation program in which smokers are willing to stop smoking have given unexpectedly good results.


The emerging trends in Resin Transfer Molding (RTM) process technology for composites manufacturing are its applications in the manufacture of complex thick composite structures. Process modeling simulation tools analyzing the three-dimensional flow of resin impregnating the thick fiber preform are instrumental in process optimizations. The true three-dimensional flow field with multiple flow fronts and the merging and diverging fronts involved in the solution of the time progression of the resin inside a mold cavity pose significant challenges and there is a need for efficient, physically accurate algorithms for process simulation studies. In this paper, a new formulation based on the time dependent conservation of resin mass and a pure finite element method are employed to implicitly solve both for the pressure field and track the flow front progression of the resin inside the mold cavity of three-dimensional thick composites. The numerical developments involving the implicit tracking of resin progression flow fronts provide an accurate representation of the physical problem, do not involve the time step restrictions based on Courant condition as in past explicit finite element-control volume associated formulations. * Graduate Research Assistants t Professor * Research Scientists The discrete time progression of the flow front computed based on the present methodology does not depend on the time step size and the tracked location of the flow front at any discrete time does not depend on the time step size employed to reach that discrete time. The present developments have been validated with simple geometries and then extended to practical applications involving geometrically complex thick composite sections.


Most of the deep learning-based speech enhancement models are learned in a supervised manner, which implies that pairs of noisy and clean speech are required during training. Consequently, several noisy speeches recorded in daily life cannot be used to train the model. Although certain unsupervised learning frameworks have also been proposed to solve the "pair" constraint, they still require clean speech or noise for training. Therefore, in this paper, we propose MetricGAN-U, which stands for MetricGANunsupervised, to further release the constraint from conventional unsupervised learning. In MetricGAN-U, only noisy speech is required to train the model by optimizing non-intrusive speech quality metrics. The experimental results verified that MetricGAN-U outperforms baselines in both objective and subjective metrics.


People with dyslexia face challenges expressing themselves in writing on social networking sites (SNSs). Such challenges come from not only the technicality of writing, but also the self-representation aspect of sharing and communicating publicly on social networking sites such as Facebook. To empower people with dyslexia-style writing to express them-selves more confidently on SNSs, we designed and implemented Additional Writing Help(AWH) - a writing assistance tool to proofread text produced by users with dyslexia before they post on Facebook. AWH was powered by a neural machine translation (NMT) model that translates dyslexia style to non-dyslexia style writing. We evaluated the performance and the design of AWH through a week-long field study with 19 people with dyslexia and received highly positive feedback. Our field study demonstrated the value of providing better and more extensive writing support on SNSs, and the potential of AI for building a more inclusive Internet.


We study the interplay between a dynamical process and the structure of the network on which it unfolds using the parameterized Laplacian framework. This framework allows for defining and characterizing an ensemble of dynamical processes on a network beyond what the traditional Laplacian is capable of modeling. This, in turn, allows for studying the impact of the interaction between dynamics and network topology on the quality-measure of network clusters and centrality, in order to effectively identify important vertices and communities in the network. Specifically, for each dynamical process in this framework, we define a centrality measure that captures a vertex's participation in the dynamical process on a given network and also define a function that measures the quality of every subset of vertices as a potential cluster (or community) with respect to this process. We show that the subset-quality function generalizes the traditional conductance measure for graph partitioning. We partially justify our choice of the quality function by showing that the classic Cheeger's inequality, which relates the conductance of the best cluster in a network with a spectral quantity of its Laplacian matrix, can be extended to the parameterized Laplacian. The parameterized Laplacian framework brings under the same umbrella a surprising variety of dynamical processes and allows us to systematically compare the different perspectives they create on network structure.


The early-stage diagnosis of malignant tumours in eye is very important in ophthalmology in order metastasis of cancer could be prevented and the human life could be saved. Ultrasonography of eye is used already for some time and as it possesses no risk to a patient health it can be repeatedly performed for following of the disease progression. In order to get as much as possible valuable information about the tumours and their structure it is necessary to create new methods and instruments for extraction of qualitative and valuable information from the received ultrasonic signals. In order to overcome limitations of the existing equipment the new knowledge concerning interaction of ultrasonic waves with intraocular tissue and back-scattering from the tissue affected by the tumour are necessary to be collected. For example, for optimization of the design and operation performance of ultrasonic annular arrays, numerical simulation can be performed. The objective of this research was to investigate using CIVA software different possibilities of beam focusing in eye using on ultrasonic annular array and to find the optimal solution, which can be used in practice. The ultrasonic fields focused at different distances from the transducer are presented. The propagation of the ultrasonic wave in the eye with tumour and without has been simulated. The simulated and experimental B-scans of the healthy eye and the eye affected by tumour are presented as well. The presented results demonstrate that it is possible to locate malignant tumours in the eye using the optimised ultrasonic annular array. http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.u.66.4.1027


Purpose : Good adherence of caregivers is essential for successful health outcomes in the treatment of childhood asthma. The purpose of this study was to identify the factors contributing to good adherence of maintenance treatment in children with well-controlled asthma. Methods : Children with well-controlled asthma being treated with a daily controller for at least 3 months in Korea University Anam Hospital were selected. Their caregivers who had good adherence to maintenance treatment were recruited. Qualitative study through in-depth interviews was conducted with 18 caregivers who agreed to the study. Results : The 18 caregivers (mean age, 40.0 years) consisted of 15 mothers, 2 grandmothers, and 1 father. The resulting consensus were identified and grouped into 2 domains: the caregiver/patient aspect with 8 theme factors and the treatment aspect with 4 theme factors. The main theme factors in the caregiver/patient aspect were enabling participation in physical activities and exercise (77.8%), perceptions regarding asthma and the need for long-term treatment (50.0%), and perceived value of the medications outweighing the risk of side effects (38.9%). The main theme factors in the treatment aspect were trust in the physician (77.8%), general satisfaction with the manner and attitude of the physician (77.8%) and verification of the necessity of further treatment by performing tests (38.9%). Conclusion : Efforts to improve caregivers' adherence to the treatment of childhood asthma must include a range of factors related to both caregiver/patient aspects and treatment aspects. Among all of these factors, it may be most important to establish a physician-caregiver partnership.


Abstract Fuel storage instability reactions of middle distillate fuel continue to be of great interest to the Department of Defense. Unlike civilian fuel, military fuel typically remains in storage tanks for one or more years. As fuel is removed from these tanks, the tanks are subsequently filled with more recently purchased fuel. In many cases, the mixed fuel is not compatible, resulting in chemical sediment and sludge formation. This fuel incompatibility can result in chemical degradation reactions that form solids that will plug nozzles and filters and render the entire contents of the storage tank unusable. Previous research has shown that polar organic nitrogen functional groups are involved in fuel instability reactions. These organo-nitrogen compounds are difficult and expensive to completely remove during the refining process; hence, this investigation involved the removal of these compounds employing three heterogeneous catalyst systems and combinations of these systems as filtering media. An unstable fuel was treated separately with Sc2O3, Cu/Sc2O3, fullerene (F), a 1:1 ratio of Sc2O3:(F), and a 1:1 ratio of Cu/Sc2O3:(F). The composition of the filtrates after filtering with the different catalytic systems was analyzed by combined gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). The results of this study showed that after treating the fuel with the catalyst systems, the organic nitrogen compounds detected in the extract were 0.29% carbazoles, 18.2% indoles, and 1.0% for both pyrroles and tetrahydroquinolines, and neither pyridines nor quinolines were detected. This investigation showed that scandium oxide, which is a recycled catalyst, is capable of removing organic nitrogen compounds from fuels.


The goal was to compare static magnetic field (SMF) vasodilator capacity with verapamil (VER) a potent Ca2+ channel blocking agent infusion, aimed to asses SMF potential implementation in conditions with vascular ischemia. Mean femoral artery blood pressure, heart rate and ear lobe skin microcirculatory blood flow measured by microphotoelectric plethysmogram (MPPG) were simultaneously recorded in conscious rabbits after 40-min carotid baroreceptor exposure to 0.35 T SMF (SMF-Car, n = 14) or 0.25 T SMF, generated by Nd-Fe-B magnets, exposed directly to ear microvascular net (SMF-Ves, n = 20), Fig. 1a, and compared with that after 30 min VER i.v. infusion (20 mg kg-1 min-1, n = 20), Fig. 1b. The principal finding is that SMF-Car, SMF-Ves and VER significantly increased microcirculation by: 22.6 ± 11.11%, 17.9 ± 9.58% and 30.5 ± 14.06% (mean ± SEM) resp. and that was no significant difference between all of three treatments (p = 0.986). Microvascular dilation was accompanied by significant decrease of baroreflex sensitivity in VER and its increase in SMF-Car coupled with enhanced vessel sensitivity to nitric oxide dilatory effect. This suggests SMF strong, comparable with VER vasodilator property tailored to address neural and myogenic component of microvascular dysfunction in diabetic foot and nephropathy especially employing both SMFs vasodilation synergy. Disclosure J. Gmitrov: None.


Background : Cholesterol and lipoprotein level of pleural fluid and their correlation with serum level is of utmost importance in differentiating exudative form transudative pleural fluid. The present study was conducted in patients with pleural fluid referring to Shaheed Beheshti hospital in Kashan during a two-year period.

Materials and methods : It was a cross sectional study. Light's criteria were used to differentiate exudative and transudative pleural fluid. Cholesterol and lipoprotein levels of pleural fluid and serum were determined using the standard techniques and their correlation was calculated by Pearson method. T-test and Mann-Whitney were used for data analysis.

Results : The study population included 52 males and 67 females with the mean age of 63.5±15 years. Pleural effusion was exudative in 70 (58.8%) patients and transudative in 49 (41.2%). Pleural fluid cholesterol level were 29±16 and 65±25 in transudative and exudative group, respectively (p<0.001). Pleural fluid cholesterol level (transudative and exudative) depends on their serum level as well as the ratio of pleural fluid to serum protein (for exudative r=0.61, p<0.001, and for transudative r=0.62, p<0.001). Correlation coefficient of LDL, HDL, VLDL, and triglyceride of exudative pleural fluid with the ratio of pleural fluid to serum protein were 0.53 (p<0.001), 0.40 (p=0.01), 0.29 (p=0.01), and 0.29 (p=0.02), respectively. These figures were 0.48 (p<0.001), 0.24 (p=0.09), 0.09 (p=0.52) and 0.04 (p=0.79) respectively for transudative pleural fluid. The percentage of cholesterol associated with LDL and HDL in exudative and transudative pleural fluid were 90 and 89, whereas their serum percentage were 83 and 86.

Conclusion : Pleural fluid cholesterol level (transudative and exudative) depends on their serum level as well as the ratio of pleural fluid to serum protein. With respect to the unchanged level of pleural fluid lipoproteins, determination of pleural fluid cholesterol level may help us to differentiate exudative from transudative pleural fluid. In exudative pleural effusion the pleural fluid lipoprotein level depends mainly on the ratio of pleural fluid to serum protein, however, in transudative state LDL level depends on this ratio.


Urbanization is a major driver of stream ecosystem impairment and is typically associated with multiple stressors and species loss. A challenge is to understand how those stressors alter the relationship between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (B-EF). Amongst the Andean streams of southern Ecuador, we assessed the response of shredder diversity and organic matter breakdown (OMB) to urbanization and identified the urban-associated stressors disrupting the B-EF relationship. A leaf-litter bag experiment during stable flow conditions in 2016 was carried out to quantify total OMB and shredder-mediated OMB, which was estimated to represent the B-EF relationship. We calculated the taxonomic and functional diversity of shredder invertebrates associated with leaf packs. Also, a suite of physicochemical and habitat stressors was measured weekly during the field experiment. Along with the urbanization gradient, both taxonomic and functional diversity of shredders declined while OMB rates decreased. Shredders were absent and their contribution to OMB was null at the most urbanized sites. The B-EF relationship was interrupted through nutrient enrichment, physical habitat homogenization, riparian vegetation disturbance, and leaf-litter availability as a consequence of urbanization. Our results demonstrate how species loss spreads to and affects ecosystem functions in urbanized streams and how environmental stressors alter the B-EF relationship. Better land-use practices are crucial in Andean catchments to guarantee ecosystem services which are the result of successful B-EF relationships.


Requirements Engineering and Testing are considered inseparable and together enable successful projects. One could make a statement that serious negligence of any of the two will bring catastrophic consequences for the project, delays, failures and unhappy customers. Thus, alignment and cooperation between the two are not only recommended but highly required for contemporary complex software and system development. In this paper, we share some experiences from a large company that significantly downplayed requirements engineering activities while shifting the focus to testing and QA activities. Despite that, the company's products are well received by its customers and the company remains profitable and significantly growing. We share our experiences and discuss how this unbalance may actually be a recipe for success and what contextual factors enable using this approach.


The morphology of pressure sensitive adhesives (PSAs), especially at the surface in contact with a release liner, is expected to have a dominant influence on the tack strength and energy in an application. We have used tapping-mode atomic force microscopy to determine the morphology at the surfaces of freshly-cast waterborne acrylic PSAs over lateral length scales of a few μm. We demonstrate that topographical features on silicone release liners can be used to pattern the PSA surface in contact with it. Control of the texture of a PSA surface can potentially be exploited to tailor its properties. Latex particle boundaries are much better defined at the air surface of the PSA in comparison to its back face. A series of experiments suggests that this difference results from the distribution of water-soluble species within the dry film. The pressures and processes involved in the transfer lamination process do not alter the PSA morphology. The first reported AFM images of the response of these materials to pressure and shear provide insight into the deformation mechanisms. Amplitude-distance curves on PSA surfaces show that there is a small decrease in tack and an increase in stiffness after ageing for 13 months.


Path integral methods [1], [2],[3] have recently been shown to be applicable to a very general class of optimal control problems. Here we examine the path integral formalism from a decision-theoretic point of view, since an optimal controller can always be regarded as an instance of a perfectly rational decision-maker that chooses its actions so as to maximize its expected utility [4]. The problem with perfect rationality is, however, that finding optimal actions is often very difficult due to prohibitive computational resource costs that are not taken into account. In contrast, a bounded rational decision-maker has only limited resources and therefore needs to strike some compromise between the desired utility and the required resource costs [5]. In particular, we suggest an information-theoretic measure of resource costs that can be derived axiomatically [6]. As a consequence we obtain a variational principle for choice probabilities that trades off maximizing a given utility criterion and avoiding resource costs that arise due to deviating from initially given default choice probabilities. The resulting bounded rational policies are in general probabilistic. We show that the solutions found by the path integral formalism are such bounded rational policies. Furthermore, we show that the same formalism generalizes to discrete control problems, leading to linearly solvable bounded rational control policies in the case of Markov systems. Importantly, Bellman's optimality principle is not presupposed by this variational principle, but it can be derived as a limit case. This suggests that the information-theoretic formalization of bounded rationality might serve as a general principle in control design that unifies a number of recently reported approximate optimal control methods both in the continuous and discrete domain.


A study of sediment alteration on the west flank of the West Hackberry dome, Louisiana Gulf Coast, has documented the existence of ∼5 x 10 10 kg of authigenic calcite-pyrite cement in Miocene sands at depths of 1.4 to 2.1 km in a 1.5 by 1.5 km area adjacent to the dome. The Sr, C, and S isotopic compositions of the cements support the hypothesis that Ca and S were derived from dissolution of salt-dome anhydrite and that carbonate was derived by thermochemical oxidation of methane and by sulfate reduction, possibly at temperatures as low as 70 °C. Constraints on the maximum aqueous concentrations of Ca that could be produced by dissolving diapiric salt require that >5 x 10 9 m 3 of aqueous fluid, equivalent to a fluid volume/ pore volume ratio of >250:1, were involved in destroying salt, transporting Ca and SO 4 , and precipitating these cements. The presence of such cements requires a dynamic subsurface mass-transport regime involving either large volumes of fluid or fluids that are extensively recirculated.


This dissertation is an investigation into how trade liberalization and the adoption of information technology have impacted labour and productivity in India's manufacturing sector respectively. The second chapter analyses the relationship between India's liberalization of tariffs on imported intermediate inputs (henceforth input tariff liberalization) and plant-level skill composition. It reveals that plant-level skill composition increased at importing plants relative to non-importing plants in response to input tariff liberalization, mainly via a relative decline in production workers. Incorporating import competition into the framework of analysis suggests that there is a weak complementarity between imported intermediate inputs and skilled workers. The third chapter delves into the mechanisms underlying this relationship by decomposing the imported intermediate inputs into categories of quality , scale and variety based on whether they were imported for perceived higher quality, lower price, or if they were domestically unavailable respectively. The main finding is that it is the cheaper imported intermediate inputs that have the strongest displacement effects on production workers. Finally, chapter 4 which is based on joint work with Nirvikar Singh, studies the relationship between investment in information technology and plant-level gross value added. An important finding is that plant fixed effects, which possibly control for unobserved managerial ability, significantly reduce the returns to IT investment. An important result that emerges from the dissertation is that skill and abilities of workers are important complements to inputs embodying superior technology -- whether in the form of imports or information technology -- and therefore, may influence the returns of these inputs on plant-level gross value added or productivity.


A new method for instant oxidation of closed, bonded microchannels is presented and evaluated. By placing the tip-formed electrode of a corona plasma equipment in the reservoir of a PDMS microstructure, the plasma spark can spread into the microchannel and oxidize the inner PDMS channel walls. By applying this process, the non-specific adsorption of hydrophobic affinity analytes is markedly decreased, here evaluated with the fluorescent dye Rhodamine B and standard protein BSA. The results show that the surface adsorption in plasma-treated channels is reduced significantly, e.g. the amount of BSA adsorbed at 35 mm distance from the reservoir is only 35% of the amount of BSA adsorbed in non-treated channels. The surface shows very low adsorption during the first 200 min after oxidation, and has recovered (90%) its hydrophobicity first after 24 h. This method of instant surface oxidation has in our group been widely used to simplify microfluidic studies of microstructure prototypes, since the need of other more complicated surface modifications to lower analyte adsorption is eliminated.


Pastoralism has a long tradition in the Mediterranean region. However, there is little evidence about its contribution to sustainable development in the region. Therefore, this review analyses the state of research on the multifaceted relations between pastoralism and sustainable development in the Mediterranean with a particular reference to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It draws upon a systematic review of all documents indexed in the Web of Science by June 2021. The analysis of the scholarly literature suggests that (i) there is a divide with most studies performed in Northern Mediterranean countries; (ii) no article has investigated the contribution of pastoralism to the implementation of the sustainable development agendas (MDGs and SDGs) in the Mediterranean; and (iii) most of the selected articles deal with environmental sustainability (cf. biodiversity, land use, land degradation, deforestation) while social, cultural and economic aspects are generally overlooked. The ongoing processes of intensification, specialisation and modernisation of pastoral systems do not only jeopardise the provision of various ecosystem services, but also put at risk the preservation and sustainability of traditional pastoral systems. Such modernisation also leads to the erosion of pastoral culture and the abandonment of some traditional systems such as sylvo-pastoralism and mobile pastoralism. Sustainable development of pastoralism in the Mediterranean implies improving the livelihoods and living conditions of pastoralists while preserving their unique cultural heritage and social capital and ensuring the continued provision of ecosystem systems. Such development pathway should be guided by and aligned with the SDGs.


Abstract The Dielectric Elastomer-based Minimum Energy Structures (DEMES) pertain to an equilibrium configuration attained by the assembly of a pre-stretched electroactive polymer film and a compliant boundary frame. Because of their unique characteristics, such as fast response and a large reversible stroke; DEMES have been used widely in the development of soft robotic transducers. However, their utility is typically restricted because of the warping resulting from anticlastic curvature. The present investigation examines the effectiveness of stiffeners in controlling this warping, as well as their effect on the resulting electromechanical response when the DEMES is driven electrically. To this end, we devise an energy-based analytical model that predicts the initial equilibrium configuration of an elementary rectangular DEMES with a finite number of stiffeners adhered to the boundary frame. The proposed framework uses the neo-Hookean hyperelasticity model for the polymer film and the linear elastic constitutive model for both the frame and the stiffeners. Predictive capability of the proposed analytical model is established through comparisons with 3 D finite element simulations and experimental observations. The analytical model is then extended in the setting of the least-action principle to investigate the complex nonlinear dynamic behavior of the DEMES emanating from the interplay between material and geometric nonlinearities. The proposed dynamic model provides crucial insights into the role of varying levels of geometric and material parameters on the attainment of the initial equilibrium configuration of DEMES and its DC dynamic response when driven by a Heaviside electric load. In particular, we highlight the favorable impact of adding stiffeners in enhancing the stroke of the DEMES and an amplification in the attained equilibrium angle with an increasing spacing between the stiffeners. The analytical model and the results reported in this investigation can be of potential use in pre-designing the geometrical and material properties of DEMES for enhancing its electromechanical performance.


The role of play as a `social innovation' is attracting emerging research attention since it can affect the emotional climate and complex collaborative performance of the modern workplace. The psychology of play recognises the benefits of incorporating play and `playing games' at work. The increasing use of computer games throughout our society motivates the use of games and game technology for serious purposes including education, training and research. While managers are often reluctant to publicly state that play is good for work, they are willing to use the term `Serious Games'. These are games that engage users in their pursuit, and contribute tothe achievement of a defined purpose other than pure entertainment. This paper presents a study into the use of online team-based gaming to explore the cooperative and social aspects of team behaviour in a department of an organisation that wished to increase its human network-centric capability. A session of an online version of the traditional board game Go was conducted and arange of data was collected, leading to a qualitative analysis of the game and its impact on the players. The results indicate that team gaming sessions can enhance people's awareness and mastery of the collective processes underlying teamwork and cooperation in the workplace. This contributes to our understanding of the use of play and gaming in the workplace as a


We test the hypothesis that climatic changes since 1800 have resulted in unrealized potential vegetation changes that represent a "climatic debt" for many ecosystems. Caledonian pinewoods, an EU priority forest type, are used as a model system to explore potential impacts of two centuries of climatic change upon sites of conservation importance and surrounding landscapes. Using methods that estimate topographic microclimate, current and preindustrial climates were estimated for 50 m grid cells and simulations made using a dynamic vegetation model. Core Caledonian pinewood areas are now less suitable for growth of pine and more favorable for oak than in 1800, whereas landscapes as a whole are on average more favorable for both. The most favorable areas for pine are now mainly outside areas designated to conserve historical pinewoods. A paradigm shift is needed in formulating conservation strategies to avoid catastrophic losses of this habitat, and of many others globally with trees or other long‐lived perennials as keystone species.


The aim of research was to determine the effect of the coating of edible film derived from bovine split hide gelatin on inhibiting microbiological damages and properties of the beef meatballs with different coating concentrations. The material used was gelatin types A (processed with acid cur ing agent) from the bovine split hide and glycerol . The c ompleted randomize design (CRD) with a factorial pattern of 3 x 3 was used in this study. The first factor was 3 levels of coating concentration (0, 5, and 10%) and the second factor was 3 levels of storage time at 10 o C (3 , 6 , and 9 days) . It was continued to Duncan's Multiple Range Test (DMRT) if the treatment indicated significant effect at a probability level of 5%. The results showed that the storage time and coating concentration affected the soluble protein, pH value, water holding capacity (WHC), and total plate count (TPC) in beef meatballs . Bovine split hide gelatin can be used as an edible coating on beef meatballs and extend the shelf time of beef meatballs .


The urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) system is central to a spectrum of biologic processes including fibrinoloysis, inflammation, atherosclerotic plaque formation, matrix remodeling during wound healing, tumor invasion, angiogenesis, and metastasis. Binding of uPAwith its receptor (uPAR) initiates a proteolytic cascade that results in the conversion of plasminogen to plasmin. Plasmin through its own proteolytic function degrades a range of extracellular basement membrane components and activates others such as the metalloproteinases. Independent of catalytic activity, uPAR also is involved in cell signaling, interactions with integrins, cell motility, adhesion and invasion, and angiogenesis. Overexpression of uPA or uPAR is a feature of malignancy and is correlated with tumor progression and metastasis. In contrast, inhibition of expression of these components leads to a reduction in the invasive and metastatic capacity of many tumors. Strategies that target uPA or its receptor with the aim of disrupting the interaction between the two or the ligand independent actions of uPAR include antisense technology, monoclonal antibodies, cytotoxic antibiotics, and synthetic inhibitors of uPA. Targeted therapy is a goal of future cancer treatment and the uPA system is a likely candidate for manipulation.


The preliminary tests described here were made to determine the extent to which wing tip floating ailerons might be effective in reducing airplane spinning tendencies. The tests showed that initial spinning tendencies and rates of stable spinning could doubtless be reduced by the use of tip floating ailerons on an airplane. It also appears to be desirable to reduce to a minimum the interference between wing and aileron. This would serve to maintain uniformity of action at all angles of attack and enable calculation of the aileron characteristics.


strain were decreased in all segments of MI hearts compared with control mice except for one basal segment (P < 0.001) (figure 2 A-B). These reductions in regional contractility reflect the territory of the occluded coronary artery. Conclusion This study demonstrates that 4D-US performs well against MRI and better than M-mode and Simpson ' s multi slice for left ventricle function analysis after MI. STI offers global and regional assessment of myocardium deformation in MI models and can be used to evaluate global and regional functional improvement from experimental treatments for MI.


Given the activity noted with both CTLA-4 or PD-1 blockade, clinical trials are now investigating combination checkpoint blockade. The most mature data with a combination of ipilimumab + nivolumab in melanoma showed a response rate of 40% across dose cohorts with >50% in some cohorts in the context of manageable toxicity. Such responses are generally durable, even when treatment was stopped early for toxicity. Unlike in studies of PD-1 blockade monotherapy, there was no significant difference in clinical activity based on tumor expression of PD-L1. Phase 2 and 3 trials of this combination have similarly shown high rates of activity in melanoma with phase 1 programs in numerous other tumor types. Attention is being paid to the reasons underlying the efficacy of checkpoint blockade in certain malignancies. One hypothesis has been that cancers having a high mutational load may be more amenable to immune modulation by virtue of the larger number of potential neo-epitopes present, fostering baseline immune recognition that can then be potentiated by checkpoint blockade. We have found that melanoma patients having long term clinical activity with ipilimumab have a significantly greater median number of non-synonymous passenger mutations, compared with patients who do not respond or those who have only short-term regression. Strategies to enhance baseline immune reactivity are therefore necessary to investigate as means to improve the impact of checkpoint blockade on a broad spectrum of cancers. Citation Format: Jedd D. Wolchok. Combination checkpoint blockade. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR Inaugural International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science into Survival; September 16-19, 2015; New York, NY. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2016;4(1 Suppl):Abstract nr IA10.


The facies architecture of the Mt. Leyshon breccia complex is reinterpreted as a subvolcanic intrusive breccia and igneous complex. The main pipe breccia defines the margins of the complex, which also contains a number of smaller breccia pipes and dykes, associated with porphyritic intrusives. The grossly rhombohedral shaped main pipe breccia has antler-like geometries with inter-fingering, intrusive host rock contacts. The faulted granite-metasediment contact, controlled the location of the complex within a regional wrench system.

The main pipe breccia is composed of distinctive fine and coarse variants with steeply dipping, gradational contacts. Localised zones of accretionary pellets are interpreted to result from particle accretion during brecciation and gaseous fluid transfer, and are therefore not necessarily diagnostic of pyroclastic lithologies. A juvenile igneous component has not been identified, although the rare presence of cognate igneous fragments suggest the prior existence of a magma system.

An interactive period followed, where smaller breccia bodies are characterised by the presence of cognate and juvenile igneous fragments and the digestion of a fragmental component by the magma. The Mt. Leyshon breccia pipe (the main gold-bearing unit) formed first, followed closely by emplacement of the fragmental component of porphyry unit II, the Mt. Hope breccia, and felsic igneous intrusions (porphyry unit II-IV). The latter partly engulfs and reworks the last two breccia units. Finally, late breccia bodies formed as steeply and gently dipping units containing abundant cognate and juvenile igneous particles (tuffisite breccia dykes and late breccia dykes).

The mobile/transported components of breccia units have characteristics suggesting forceful injection into host rocks. No unambiguous evidence for pyroclastic lithologies exists, nor is there evidence that the complex vented. Facies characteristics suggest the main pipe breccia resulted from prolonged mobilisation and upwards transport of fragments in the presence of a gaseous fluid phase, combined with pervasive host rock extension of basement. Subsequent pipe forming events have characteristics dominantly suggesting processes of localised host rock extension, in conjunction with minor to moderate gaseous fluid release. Strike slip reactivation of ductile basement structures is implicated in brittle extension in the complex. Facies characteristics of the final breccia dykes suggest they resulted from processes of prolonged fragment mobility/transport, as a consequence of gaseous fluid release.

Four main episodes of igneous emplacement, breccia generation and hydrothermal evolution are defined by the geological and paragenetic studies on the Mt Leyshon breccia complex. In the first episode, extensional quartz veins formed in host rock and emplacement of a magmatic system at depth probably contributed to main pipe breccia formation. Episode II began with argillic I alteration of the main pipe breccia, suggesting a significant time interval between breccia formation and high temperature fluid flow resulting in later potassic and propylitic alteration. In a the latter part of episode II, the emplacement of intermediate then felsic dykes preceded sericitic I alteration and quartz-molybdenite vein formation. Repeated breccia formation and (intermediate and felsic) emplacement, beginning with the Mt Leyshon breccia, characterises episode III (interactive magma/breccia sequence). Argillic II alteration affecting the episode III sequence, suggests a time break between rock unit formation and high temperature (episode IV) fluid flow through vein and fault style rebrecciation of rock, in the absence of igneous emplacement. The bulk of gold mineralisation in the Mt. Leyshon ore body, is concentrated within re-break zones (secondary porosity) in breccia cavities and veins.

The breccia pipe is divided into six fades, based on fragmentation characteristics, the proportion of mixed fragment zones and fragment types. The six facies are interpreted to reflect variations in three fundamental mechanisms of pipe formation: (1) Host rock fragmentation. (2) Host rock expansion. (3) Fragment transport/mobility. Fades characteristics suggest the presence of a fluid phase during brecciation.

A pre-pipe host rock stratigraphy is defined by variably in situ fragmented host rock and change of dominant fragment type. Portions of the pipe dominated by fragmentation progressions are merely in situ fragmented host rock, and probably formed by fault induced fragmentation. Regions of the pipe dominated by jigsaw fit textures and highly expanded fragments in matrix indicate horizontal and vertical extension of the host rock during pipe formation. As the degree of host rock fragmentation, expansion and transport/mobility increases in a given portion of the pipe, jigsaw fit textures and mixed fragment zones become dominant over fragmentation progressions reflecting stages in the progressive evolution of the breccia pipe. Zones of fragment transport occur in · narrow regions of maximum extension throughout the pipe and in a steeply dipping irregular region at the northern end of the pipe; the probable focus of fluid release.

An early association of magma with the main pipe is implied by cognate igneous fragments within the main pipe breccia. Subsequent, early igneous intrusion was associated with relatively closed system behaviour (culminating in quartz-molybdenite mineralisation). In a later interactive period of tectonically induced extension, intrusion of igneous bodies were genetically related to and partially consumed breccia units. Current models for magmatic evolution associated with porphyry-style (Cu, Au) mineralised systems require modification to reflect this more realistic geologic situation.

The magnetite bearing Mt Leyshon igneous units are divided into a felsic and intermediate group based on petrography and geochemistry. A late stage petrogenetic model for the Mt. Leyshon igneous units, proposes fractional crystallisation of the observed phenocryst phases controlled their evolution. Periodic input of more basic magma into the system occurred, inducing minor magma mingling (implying volatile transfer), and during extension, resulted in periodic igneous emplacement and volatile loss into the Mt Leyshon complex.

Breciation in the Mt Leyshon complex is related to a repeated magmatic cycle: (1) Recharge of more basic magma and volatile transfer to the felsic magma system. (2) Fractionation to felsic magma compositions. (3) Intrusive breccia generation during vapour release. The Mt. Leyshon igneous rocks have characteristics (e.g. K-feldspar megacrysts in felsic units genetically related to brecciation) implying they were not saturated with an aqueous fluid phase at the time of emplacement. Instead, a vapour phase with significant non-aqueous species (C0₂, HCl, S0₂, etc.) is favoured for brecciation.

Wide variation in breccia types can be produced by changing the rate and duration of structural, fluid phase and magmatic processes. A dynamic model for the Mt. Leyshon breccia complex proposes five breccia forming events linked to four geological cycles. Brecciation results from variable coupling of: (1) Brittle host rock extension, interpreted to result from seismic rupture perturbation at dilational strike slip fault irregularities, as a consequence of the earthquake (crustal/fluid pressure) cycle. (2) Vapour evolution as a consequence of periodic recharge of basic magma and vapour, combined with fractional crystallisation. (3) Explosively driven hydrofracture as a consequence of rapid magmatic vapour decompression (first boiling), evolving to time dependent vapour discharge, and as a result, fragment transport/mobilisation in breccia pipes and dykes. (4) Fluid redistribution in conjunction with after shock activity.

The Mt. Leyshon breccia complex records the passage of a magmatic system through the upper crust during transcurrent faulting. Three general mechanisms of brecciation are envisaged within this time-space framework: (1) Tectonic extension dominant (eg. main pipe, and Mt. Leyshon breccias). (2) Magma recharge and vapour evolution dominant (e.g. tuffisite breccia dykes). (3) A complex regime where both mechanisms interact (e.g. "porphyry" unit II).

Gold mineralisation postdates all coeval igneous emplacement and occurs late in the hydrothermal evolution. Gold occurs in three principal sites within the host rocks: (1) Primary porosity reflecting the breccia characteristics. (2) Secondary porosity resulting from re-break zones cutting across rock units. (3) Tertiary porosity resulting from dissolution of rock and alteration minerals. The characteristics of the ore body (geometry, timing and gold distribution) suggest gold mineralisation was controlled by fault reactivation under high fluid pressure conditions.

The steeply dipping and bulbous geometry of the Mt. Leyshon ore body is consistent with control by the irregular nature of porosity and permeability on gold deposition. At lower levels the ore body consists of linear NE and SE trending en-echelon segments, interpreted to result from movement on strike slip faults. Upper levels of the ore body arc expanded, probably resulting from an upward branching fault geometry and/or rheological contrast between host rocks to the ore body.

These characteristics suggest that at the regional scale the Mt Leyshon ore body was controlled by secondary porosity, resulting from the intersection of strike slip fault segments linked to the Mt. Leyshon and Mt. Dean corridors. The geological model suggests hydrothermal fluid evolution resulted from complex mixing of diffusing fluid into dilated regions of the complex, with trapped magmatic vapour released during after shocks.


The rapid rise of England's colonial commerce in the late seventeenth century expanded the nation's resource base, stimulated efficiency improvements across the economy, and was important for long-term growth. However, close examination of the interests at play in England's Atlantic world does not support the Whiggish view that the Glorious Revolution played a benign role in this story. In the decades after the Restoration, the cases of the Royal African Company and the Spanish slave trade in Jamaica are used to show that the competition between Crown and Parliament for control of regulation constrained interest groups on either side in their efforts to capture the profits of empire. Stuart 'tyranny' was not able to damage growth and relatively competitive (and peaceful) conditions underpinned very rapid increases in colonial output and trade. The resolution of the rules of the Atlantic game in 1689 allowed a consolidated state better to manipulate and manage the imperial economy in its own interests. More secure rent-seeking enterprises and expensive wars damaged growth and European rivals began a process of catch-up. The Glorious Revolution was not sufficient to permanently halt economic development but it was sufficient to slow progress towards industrial revolution.


There is a single major alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) and a single major aldehyde dehydrogenase (AldDH) in Aspergillus nidulans. Both ADH and AldDH are induced by ethanol and by acetaldehyde and both are subject to carbon catabolite repression. ADH and AldDH are necessary for the utilization of ethanol and of threonine, indicating that both compounds are utilized via acetaldehyde. ADH and AldDH each give a single major activity band on gel electrophoresis. Sodium dodecyl sulphate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of cell extracts shows at least two similar ADH polypeptides of approximate relative molecular mass (r. m. m.) 41000 and two similar AldDH polypeptides of approximate r. m. m. 57000. The in vitro translation of mRNA from induced, carbon derepressed wild-type cells gives up to three ADH polypeptides in the r. m. m. range 39000-43000 and an AldDH polypeptide of approximate r. m. m. 57000. The mRNA from uninduced, carbon repressed wild-type cells does not direct the synthesis of the ADH and AldDH polypeptides. This indicates that the regulation of ADH and AldDH is at the level of transcription and/or post-transcriptional modification. The probable explanation of the multiple ADH polypeptides is post-transcriptional modification of the mRNA. Allyl alcohol mutants were made by using diepoxyoctane and γ-rays as mutagens. There are two classes, alcA and alcR. Neither class can utilize ethanol or threonine as a carbon source. The alcA mutants lack normal ADH and are recessive. Of the 47 alcA mutants examined 39 do not make the ADH polypeptides while eight do so. Therefore alcA is the structural gene for ADH. The two alcA mutants tested do not make functional mRNA for ADH. The alcR mutants lack both ADH and AldDH and are recessive. No alcR mutants make the ADH or the AldDH polypeptides. The three alcR mutants tested do not make functional ADH or AldDH mRNA. The mutant alcR125 is a nonsense mutant, which establishes that alcR codes for a protein. The alcA and alcR genes are adjacent on chromosome VII and a preliminary fine-structure map of the alcA gene has been made. Three mutants that cannot utilize ethanol or threonine and have ADH, but lack AldDH, define a gene AldA on chromosome VIII. The aldA23 mutant makes the AldDH polypeptides, the other two aldA mutants do not. Therefore aldA is probably the structural gene for AldDH. Our current hypothesis is that alcA and aldA are the structural genes for ADH and AldDH respectively and alcR is a transacting regulatory gene coding for a protein whose function is necessary for the expression of the alcA and aldA genes.


Long-accepted models of causality cast diseases into the binary of either "contagious" or "non-communicable," typically with institutional resources focused primarily on interrupting infectious disease transmission. But in southern Belize, as in much of the world today, epidemic diabetes has become a leading cause of death and a notorious contributor to organ failure and amputated limbs. This ethnographic essay follows caregivers' and families' work to survive in-between public health categories, and asks what responses a bifurcated model of infectious versus non-communicable disease structures or incapacitates in practice. It proposes an alternative focus on diabetes as a "para-communicable" condition—materially transmitted as bodies and ecologies intimately shape each other over time, with unequal and compounding effects for historically situated groups of people. The article closes by querying how communicability relates to community, and why it matters to reframe narratives about contributing causalities in relation to struggles for treatment access.


The purpose of this paper is to empirically estimate a model of aggregate residential and commercial energy demand elasticities, taking into account capital stock and climatic effects. We model a theoretically founded non-linear energy demand system, the generalized almost ideal, for the most important 117 countries in the world, which represent around 95% of the world population and 97% of the primary residential energy consumption, for the period 1978–2012. To this end, we assume a multi-stage utility maximization process, which models energy demand within a comprehensive theoretical framework. This paper offers three new contributions to research. First, we model energy aggregate demand response with a flexible and theoretically plausible simultaneous system. Second, we empirically measure the complete structure of price and expenditure elasticities of energy demand worldwide. Third, we explicitly estimate the impact of climate conditions on energy demand, with a newly constructed measure of weather impact based on geo-located heating and cooling degree-days. Econometric estimation reveals quantitative evidence of different income and price elasticities across countries and highlights the weather and capital stock impact on energy demand, inducing energy efficiency. Electricity tends to be a luxury good in advanced economies. Our results have welfare-improving policy implications, because appropriate policy strategies can help public decision-makers promote production efficiency and consumer welfare.


At the beginning of the 1930s, various factors made it necessary to transform one of the institutions which was renowned for its work regarding the social reinsertion of the disabled, that is, the Instituto de Reeducacion Profesional de Invalidos del Trabajo (Institute for Occupational Retraining of Invalids of Work). The economic crisis of 1929 and the legislative reform aimed at regulating occupational accidents highlighted the failings of this institution to fulfil its objectives. After a time of uncertainty, the centre was renamed the Instituto Nacional de Reeducacion de Invalidos (National Institute for Retraining of Invalids). This was done to take advantage of its work in championing the recovery of all people with disabilities. This work aims to study the role played in this process by the poliomyelitis epidemics in Spain at this time. It aims to highlight how this disease justified the need to continue the work of a group of professionals and how it helped to reorient the previous programme to re-educate the «invalids». Thus we shall see the way in which, from 1930 to 1950, a specific medical technology helped to consolidate an «individual model» of disability and how a certain cultural stereotype of those affected developed as a result. Lastly, this work discusses the way in which all this took place in the midst of a process of professional development of orthopaedic surgeons.


definition in XIX 215). For the less restrictive systems P 2 and A 2 , the syntactical and semantical versions of non-nullity hold only for formulas which are part of provable formulas. For the systems P 3 and A 3 , which are quite similar to the familiar intuitionistic systems, having the usual rather than the negationless disjunction opera tor 2, only a weakened semantical version of non-nullity remains. A propositional calculus (SLK) of sequents is studied in which the stroke (alternative denial) is the sole formal connective. The structural inference figures are the same as in Gentzen's LK, while the stroke is introduced in a natural way, in the antecedent by a two-premise figure and in the succedent by a one-premise figure. For SLK, Hauptsatz (eliminability of cuts), decision procedure, and proof of consistency and completeness are obtained by neat adaptation of Gentzen's treatment of LK.


Supplemental digital content is available in the text. Background The use of perioperative checklists has generated a growing body of evidence pointing toward reduction of mortality and morbidity, improved compliance with guidelines, reduction of adverse events, and improvements in human factor–related areas. Usual quality management metrics generally fall short in assessing compliance with their perioperative application. Our study assessed application attitudes and compliance with safety measures centered around the World Health Organization (WHO) "Safe Surgery Saves Lives" campaign as perceived by anesthesia professionals in Germany. Methods Three hundred sixteen physicians and nurses participated in our cross-sectional survey, and 304 completed all 35 questions. Results Only 59.5% of participants had knowledge of the theoretical framework behind the WHO campaign. During the "sign-in," patient ID and surgical site were checked in 99.6% and 95.1% as recommended by the WHO. Allergies were addressed by 89.2%, expected difficult airway by 65.7%, and the availability of blood products by 70.5%. A total of 84.9% of participants advocated for the time-out to include all persons present in the operating room, which was the case in 57.0%. A total of 40.8% stated that the time-out was only performed between anesthetist and surgeon; in 17.0% of cases, the patient was simultaneously draped and/or surgically scrubbed. No significant differences between hospital types were observed. Conclusions Our study paints a heterogeneous picture of the implementation, usage, and safety attitudes concerning the Safe Surgery Checklist as promoted by the WHO. The lack of standardized execution and team-mindedness can be taken as further evidence for the importance of interdisciplinary training focusing on human factors, communication, and collaboration rather than the mere implementation by decree.


A portable amplitude-modulation (AM) and phase-modulation (PM) noise standard has been developed for carrier frequencies of 10.6, 21.2 and 42.4 GHz. The noise level from the carrier 1/2 S/sub /spl phi//(f) (phase noise) or 1/2 S/sub a/(f) (amplitude noise) is -122.6 dBc/Hz at 10.6 GHz, -119.6 dBc/Hz at 21.2 GHz and -116.3 dBc/Hz at 42.4 GHz. For Fourier frequencies of 1 kHz to 10 MHz the added noise is flat with an uncertainty of /spl plusmn/0.25 dB. The uncertainty of the noise level for Fourier frequencies of 1 kHz to 100 MHz is /spl plusmn/0.5 dB. The residual PM noise floor between the signal and reference outputs at 100 MHz is less than -182 dBc/Hz.


Sodium hydroxide, NaOH, is one of the most widely-used chemical reagents, but the structural properties of its aqueous solutions have only sparingly been characterized. Here, we automatically classify the cation coordination polyhedra obtained from molecular dynamics simulations. We find that, for example, with increasing concentration, octahedral coordination geometries become less favored, while the opposite is true for the trigonal prism. At high concentrations, the coordination polyhedra frequently deviate considerably from "ideal" polyhedra, because of an increased extent of interligand hydrogen-bonding, in which hydrogen bonds between two ligands, either OH2 or OH-, around the same Na+ are formed. In saturated solutions, with concentrations of about 19 mol L-1, ligands are frequently shared between multiple Na+ ions as a result of the deficiency of solvent molecules. This results in more complex structural patterns involving certain "characteristic" polyhedron connectivities, such as octahedra sharing ligands with capped trigonal prisms, and tetrahedra sharing ligands with trigonal bipyramids. The simulations were performed using a density-functional-theory-based reactive high-dimensional neural network potential, that was extensively validated against available neutron and X-ray diffraction data from the literature.


Abstract Galileo SSI color data between 0.4 and 1.0 μm demonstrate that both Ida and Dactyl are S-type asteroids with similar, but distinct spectra. Small but definite color variations are also observed on Ida itself and involve both the blue part of the spectrum and the depth of the 1-μm pyroxene–olivine band. Ida's surface can be classified into two color terrains: Terrain A has a shallower 1-μm absorption and a steeper visible red slope than does Terrain B. Qualitatively, the color–albedo systematics of these two terrains follow those noted for color units on Gaspra and the variations in 1-μm band depth with weathering described by Gaffeyet al.(Gaffey, M. J., J. F. Bell, R. H. Brown, T. H. Burbine, J. Piatek, K. L. Reed, and D. A. Chaky 1993.Icarus106, 573–602). Terrain A, with its slightly lower albedo, its shallower 1-μm band, and its slightly steeper visible red slope relative to Terrain B could be interpreted as the "more processed," "more mature," or the "more weathered" of the two terrains. Consistent with this interpretation is that Terrain A appears to be the ubiquitous background on most of Ida, while Terrain B is correlated with some small craters as well as with possible ejecta from the 10-km Azzurra impact structure. Because of these trends, it is less likely that differences between Terrains A and B are caused by an original compositional inhomogeneity within the body of Ida, although they do fall within the range known to occur within the Koronis family. The spectrum of Dactyl is similar to, but definitely different from, that of Terrain B on Ida. It does not conform to the pattern that obtains between the colors and albedos of Terrains A and B: the satellite's 1-μm band is deeper than that of Terrain B, but its albedo is lower, rather than higher. By itself, the deeper band depth could be interpreted, following Gaffeyet al., to mean that Dactyl is a less weathered version of Terrain B on Ida, but such an interpretation is at odds with Dactyl's redder spectral slope. Thus, the explanation for the color difference between Dactyl and Ida is likely to be different from that which accounts for the differences between the two terrains on Ida. Given that Dactyl and Ida have very similar photometric properties (Helfenstein, P., J. Veverka, P. C. Thomas, D. P. Simonelli, K. Klassen, T. V. Johnson, F. Fanale, J. Granahan, A. S. McEwen, M. J. S. Belton, and C. R. Chapman 1996Icarus120, 48–65), thus ruling out any dramatic texture differences between the two surfaces, the most likely explanation is that the satellite has a slightly different composition (more pyroxene?) than Ida. The spectral difference is within the range reported by Binzelet al.(Binzel, R. P., S. Xu, and S. J. Bus 1993.Icarus106, 608–611.) for members of the Koronis family, and could be caused by compositional inhomogeneities of the Koronis parent body rather than by post-breakup regolith processes.


Multiple visual pigments, prerequisites for color vision, are found in arthropods, but the evolutionary origin of their diversity remains obscure. In this study, we explore the opsin genes in five distantly related species of Onychophora, using deep transcriptome sequencing and screening approaches. Surprisingly, our data reveal the presence of only one opsin gene (onychopsin) in each onychophoran species, and our behavioral experiments indicate a maximum sensitivity of onychopsin to blue-green light. In our phylogenetic analyses, the onychopsins represent the sister group to the monophyletic clade of visual r-opsins of arthropods. These results concur with phylogenomic support for the sister-group status of the Onychophora and Arthropoda and provide evidence for monochromatic vision in velvet worms and in the last common ancestor of Onychophora and Arthropoda. We conclude that the diversification of visual pigments and color vision evolved in arthropods, along with the evolution of compound eyes-one of the most sophisticated visual systems known.


. Although there is an extensive literature on various means of two positive operators and their applications, these means do not typically readily extend to means of three and more operators. It has been an open problem to define and prove the existence of these higher order means in a general setting. In this paper we lay the foundations for such a theory by showing how higher order means can be inductively defined and established in general metric spaces, in particular, in convex metric spaces. We consider uniqueness properties and preservation properties of these extensions, properties which provide validation to our approach. As our targeted application, we consider the positive operators on a Hilbert space under the Thompson metric and apply our methods to derive higher order extensions of a variety of standard operator means such as the geometric mean, the Gauss mean, and the logarithmic mean. That the operator logarithmic mean admits extensions of all higher orders provides a positive solution to a problem of Petz and Temesi [SIAM J. Matrix Anal. Appl. 27 (2005)].


The purpose of this usability study was to determine the most effective of three ways to display hierarchical data using the interactive data visualization software, Tableau. Often, data visualizations contain large amounts of important information that users need to be able to manipulate and interpret. Viewing hierarchical data in an interactive data visualization software like Tableau has the advantage of allowing dynamic selection of the hierarchical level of detail of results displayed. This enables improved understanding and exploration of the material. However, individuals using such software do not necessarily have knowledge of a dataset and/or the data visualization software, resulting in an inability to fully investigate data relationships. It is therefore critical that research be conducted to determine which data presentation styles promote intuitive navigation within the data visualization. A within-subjects usability study was conducted to examine the most effective of three ways to display hierarchical data within a designated area of a Tableau visualization. Three distinct visualizations of hierarchical data were randomly shown to participants. Each visualization was bordered by identical contextual information with the centrally placed hierarchical data varying. One condition showed the data relying on filters. A second condition showed the data relying on users to expand and collapse the level of detail with scrolling. A third condition showed the data as a drill-down chart that only expands the level of detail selected by the user. Metrics of user-response time, the accuracy of responses to assessment questions, the subjective rank of usability for each data visualization, and open-ended user feedback were examined. Results are discussed.


In his recent book Waar geest is, is vrijheid [Where there is mind, there is freedom], Guus Labooy sets forth an original and intriguing argument, inspired by the work of John Duns Scotus, for substance dualism in the philosophy of mind. In this paper we argue that his argument, although worthy of serious attention, is under-supported. In section 2 we question the significance of the particular scotistic notion of freedom he uses in his argument, even though we agree with his premise that humans do possess freedom in the libertarian sense. In section 3 we argue that Labooy fails to make his key contention that significant freedom requires an irreducible immaterial soul sufficiently plausible. The key problem is that he does not consider the work of physicalists who also believe in libertarian freedom. In addition, it is not self-evident that an immaterial soul, as opposed to a physical body, can possess significant freedom. This requires argument. In section 4 we comment on Labooy's specific conception of dualism and advise him to change it into a conception in which the soul — and not the composition of soul and body — is the human person, for the latter conception has absurd consequences.


Seismic-refraction profiles shot on the continental rise and slope south of the Grand Banks show great sediment thickness which reaches a maximum of nearly 10 km about 90 km south of the 100-fathom curve and thins rapidly under the banks. Three sediment layers are present, with average velocities of 1.83, 2.47, and 3.97 km per second, the highest velocity layer constituting the major portion of the column. The basement is thickest under the south edge of the continental shelf, thinning to 2 or 3 km to the north and to the south. Its velocity averages 5.77 km/sec except on the southernmost profile where it is 6.70 km/sec. Sub-basement is reached on the three southernmost profiles at an average depth of about 13 km, the velocity decreasing from south to north from 7.76 km/sec to 7.24 km/sec.


A direct reconstruction method for three-dimensional (3-D) electrical resistance tomography was introduced by using the factorization method. Compared with the traditional image reconstruction algorithms based on the sensitivity/Jacobian matrix, the conductivity distribution in any part of the 3-D region of interest can be obtained directly and independently. A new way to calculate the Neumann-to-Dirichlet map was also introduced by using the adjacent current pattern. Several phantoms were constructed for image reconstruction in three dimensions. The data were collected from 16 electrodes on a single cross section, which can be only used to produce two-dimensional images in the literature. Neither matrix inversion nor iteration was used in the process of image reconstruction. The reconstructed results validated the feasibility of the method.


Universal Primary Education (UPE) policy in the form of fee abolition has become popular in many countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) since the mid 1990s in order to achieve Education for All (EFA). Even after learning from the past, the current UPE policy is devoid of analytical studies on its impact and challenges beyond school enrollment. This paper is an attempt to make a comparative analysis on UPE in four countries, namely, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, and Uganda, to identify common and unique themes and to examine how these seemingly similar policies are responding to the capacity and needs of each country. The results show that effective policy implementation would require considerable consultation with key stakeholders and a baseline survey that will enable systematic implementation and consideration of equity. Mutual accountability and a responsibility mechanism between the government and parents/communities is also a key to the sustainability of the UPE policy.