Distinguishing trunk channels and delta-plain distributary channels in ancient systems can be difficult due to poor or incomplete data (e.g., limited outcrop or sparse well data). Accurate channel classification is required to reconstruct the plan view of channel networks in a paralic fluvio-deltaic system and to quantify source-to-sink systems. Channel formative mechanisms, such as allogenic versus autogenic and avulsion versus bifurcation, also remain equivocal. In this paper we classify channel types and quantify their discharge and dimensions in an ancient paralic depositional system of the Late Cretaceous Gallup system, New Mexico, in a recently developed high-resolution sequence stratigraphic framework. Six key facies associations are identified and integrated into a detailed facies architectural analysis using bedding diagrams from two outcrop cliffs. Backwater lengths are calculated and used for interpretation of channel forming mechanisms and classification of channel types. Two types of channels are interpreted in the study area: meandering fluvial avulsive distributary channels formed in the upstream backwater region in an upper delta plain with a paleodischarge of 280–410 m3/s, and terminal distributary channels in a subaqueous lower delta plain with a paleodischarge of 80–190 m3/s. The results show that upper-delta-plain fluvial distributary channels are formed by erosive avulsion and resemble fluvial meandering rivers characterized by laterally accreting point bars and a wide range of paleocurrents, whereas terminal distributary channels are formed by both avulsion and bifurcation and show more aggradation with lateral confinement and relatively larger width-to-depth ratios of individual channel stories. The quantification of channels and their depositional system provides new data from a well-known ancient system for the global database and comparison with other modern and ancient systems.


Several aspects of magic square studies fall within the computations all universes. Experimented computation has reverted patterns, some of which have lead to analytic insight. With the aid of arithmetic modular and the properties of it, we get magic squares, also we use the algebraic operations of matrices which are addition, subtraction, multiplication, transpose, rotation, and reflection, then discuss the results that we are obtained, the eigenvalues of these magic squares are also computed and we get some magic squares with the same eigenvalues, the inverse of the magic squares which are found by using arithmetic modular are also magic squares. An example with order 3 of magic square is given to explain our results.


Ensemble approaches in classification are a very popular research area in recent years. An ensemble consists of a set of individual classifiers such as neural networks or decision trees whose predictions are combined for classifying new instances. A method is used here for generating classifier ensembles based on feature extraction. In the base classifier, the feature set is randomly split into K subsets (K is a parameter of the algorithm) and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) is applied to each subset. It is a technique that is useful for the extraction and classification of data. The purpose is to reduce the dimensionality of a data set. Then the Decision tree is used to classify the data set. Rotation Forest and Extended Space Forest algorithms are used to calculate the accuracy. A novel approach Fast Rotation Forest is introduced to enrich the accuracy rate. The idea of the fast rotation approach is to encourage simultaneously individual accuracy and specificity within the ensemble. By comparing Random forest and Extended Space Forest, Fast Rotation Forest yields high accuracy. Using WEKA, fast rotation forest is examined on a random selection of 10 medical data sets from the UCI repository and compared it with bagging, Extended Space Forest, and random forest. The results were favorable to fast rotation forest.


In order to restore the high position of the Jawi, people need to enrich the use of Jawi in the public infrastructures such as road name signs other than in the scientific literature and education system. The road name signs design in certain places such as in Shah Alam and Muar are not only a way finding system but as a platform of enriching the Malay mother tongue writing which is Jawi script other than the Roman words. However, perception towards the implementation is rarely discussed before especially when it comes to the public view as the main audience. Thus, the purpose of this dissertation is to identify the public perception towards the standardization of Jaw; script as part of the road name signs implemented by the local authorities. Their perceptions are important in the implications acceptance, practicality, functionality, identity or sense of bonding aspects. The first phase of the project will involves an interview with two different local authorities in execution of policy for their road name sign system and the local opinions by using survey about their acceptance in Jaw; usage in road name signs. This survey is
conducted by using 840 questioners in two different local district councils in Muar and Shah Alam. These aspects will explore the acceptance of Jaw; script adaptation in the road name signs and the reflection of national identity in Jaw; script on road name signs
design. The public perspective is important to establish a coordination system, especially when producing a road name sign in a multiracial community. By identifying Jaw; script that can be implemented as part of road name sign design, hence, will allow the other local authorities to take into consideration in having a standard use in the future.


Hybrid journal bearings have been considered for many years as a possible replacement for ball bearings in turbopumps used by the aerospace industry. Due to flow regimes dominated by inertia and due to the nature of the lubricant (cryogenic fluids), the prediction of the linearized dynamic coefficients in these bearings must be based on the compressible bulk-flow equations. Theoretical models based on these equations were validated for hybrid bearings working with water or for liquid or gas annular seals. Validations for hybrid compressible bearings are missing. Experimental data obtained for an air lubricated hybrid aerostatic bearing designed with shallow pockets were recently presented; the data consist of linearized dynamic coefficients obtained for rotation speeds up to 50 krpm and up to 7 bars feeding pressure. The present work introduces a consolidated numerical approach for predicting static and linearized dynamic characteristics. Theoretical predictions are based on bulk flow equations in conjunction with CFD analysis. It was found that, for a given feeding pressure, the value of the pressure downstream the orifice has a major influence on all results. Special care was then taken to describe the complex flow in the feeding system and the orifice. Three dimensional CFD was employed because the bulk-flow equations are inappropriate in this part of the bearing. The pressure downstream the orifice stemming from CFD results and the feeding pressure were next imposed in the bulk flow model and the equivalent area of the orifice was obtained from the numerical solution of the steady flow in the bearing. Since the pockets of the hybrid bearing are shallow, this equivalent area is considered as being the harmonic average of the orifice cross section area and of the cylindrical curtain area located between the orifice and the rotor. The comparisons between theoretical dynamic coefficients and experimental data validated this approach of the equivalent area of the orifice.


Purpose Stent-assisted endovascular treatment of intracranial aneurysms is currently performed in many endovascular centers. Unfortunately, some parent vessel bifurcation aneurysms are not treatable with single-stent-assisted coiling. Recently, small series presented a novel treatment using double-stents in "Y" and "X" configuration. We present our experience with "Y" and "X" stent-assisted coiling of wide necked intracranial aneurysms, with emphasis on clinical and angiographic outcomes. Materials and Methods Clinical and angiographic outcomes of 44 patients harboring 50 intracranial aneurysms, treated with "Y" and "X" stent-assisted coiling in 47 procedures from June 2006 to October 2010, were retrospectively analyzed. Results We treated 44 patients (11 men and 33 women, ages ranging from 35 to 78, average: 54 years), harboring 50 aneurysms (sac sizes from 2.1 mm to 22.0 mm, mean: 8.0 mm; neck sizes from 1.8 mm to 10.7 mm, mean: 5.6 mm), 52.0% (26/50) localized at the middle cerebral artery bifurcation, 26.0% (13/50) on the anterior communicating artery and 22.0% (11/50) at the apex of the basilar artery, in 47 procedures. Clinical presentations were: incidental discovery 68.0% (34/50), recanalyzations of previously coiled aneurysms 24.0% (12/50), subarachnoid hemorrhages 8.0% (4/50). All but 1 procedure (in cases of acutely ruptured aneurysm) were carried out under full heparinization and dual antiplatelet medication (clopidogrel and aspirin). In 1 case of acutely ruptured aneurysm abciximab was administrated intra-arterially and intravenously during the procedure, aspirin and clopidogrel being started after the treatment. We performed 47 procedures, 89.4% (42/47) with "Y" stenting, 6.4% (3/47) with "X" stenting, while 4.2% (2/47) attempted stenting failed. Out of 45 successful procedures, we delivered the stents before coiling in 89.9% (40/45), after in 8.9% (4/45), without coils in 2.2% (1/45). Complications associated with transitory or reversible neurological deficit (<7 days) were encountered in 10.6% (5/47) of the procedures, while permanent neurological deficits were noted in 10.6% (5/47) of the procedures. The 10 procedure-related complications were the following: 2 stent occlusions, 4 thromboembolisms, 3 intraprocedural ruptures and 1 intraparenchymal hematoma. There were no cases of procedure-related mortality. The immediate angiographic controls showed a complete occlusion in 60.0% (30/50) of the aneurysms, a partial (neck or sac remnant) occlusion in 40.0% (20/50). On clinical follow-up, the modified Rankin Scale score was 0 in 88.6% (39/44) of the patients, 1 in 4.5% (2/44), 3 in 4.5% (2/44) and 4 in 6.8% (3/44). To date, 52.0% (26/50) of the aneurysms had been followed up (average: 18 months) with angiography, disclosing a recanalyzation in 15.4% (4/26) and an improvement in 34.6% (9/26). No aneurysm (re)bled during the follow-up period. Conclusion "Y" and "X" stent-assisted coiling of wide-necked bifurcation intracranial aneurysms is a feasible and effective technique for endovascular treatment of wide-necked bifurcation aneurysms. However, we encountered a high rate of complication with permanent neurological deficits. These clinical results should be balanced with those of surgical series. Improvement of stent design and technology may improve the procedural safety in the future.


Modern memories are very power hungry, larger in size, low retention period, low chip density and high cost. Memristor is a missing passive circuit element and regarded as a new class of emerging non-volatile memories overcoming the above problems. Memristor may be thought of an active as well as passive device based on the conditions of Memristance and Dynamic Negative Differential Resistance (DNDR). Memristor has been used for non-volatile memory applications, if and only if it produces non-linear pinched hysteresis curve. If the size of the pinched hysteresis curve increases, power dissipation increases as well. In this paper, we discuss the parametric analysis of memristor adopting the linear ion-drift model to achieve low power dissipation while retaining the nonlinear i-v characteristics.


Background: Honey, the natural sweetener, obtained from Apis mellifera (honey bees) possesses many medicinal properties. Intensive use of carbamate insecticide in agricultural land not only contaminates the crop but also affects the honey and honey matrices. Hence, this study focused on the analysis of insecticide in honey. Objective: Liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry/mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) method development for the determination of Carbaryl insecticide in honey and Comparisons of different extraction techniques to determine the efficiency of extraction process. Materials and Methods: The LC-MS/MS method was developed by optimizing the multiple reaction monitoring (MRM) parameters. Further, the comparison study was done for the optimized extraction techniques such as quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS) method and ultrasound solid phase extraction (SPE) in the developed method. The validation was studied for the developed method as well as the extraction techniques to confirm the robustness of the developed method. Results: The validation study showed good accuracy for the developed method for the concentration from 2 to 9 ppb of the working solution. Limit of detection for the developed method was 0.08 and 0.05 ppb for the fragments 145.1 m/z and 127.1 m/z, respectively. Moreover, limit of quantification for the fragment 145.1 m/z was 0.24 ppb and for 127.1 m/z was 0.16 ppb. The average accuracies for the developed method of both the fragments (145.1 m/z and 127.1 m/z) were 98.51% and 98.15%, respectively. Recovery percentage for optimized QuEChERS ranged from 107% to 112% and for the ultrasound-SPE and from 107% to 118% of the honey samples which were spiked with three different concentrations of analyte. Conclusion: From the validation, it was confirmed that the developed method was robust and simple and provides better sensitivity and intensity and low consumption of chemicals. Thus, the developed method can be used for the routine analysis of carbaryl in honey.


Understanding the mechanism of ET (electron transfer) through electroactive microbial biofilms is a challenge in the field of fundamental and applied life sciences. To date, electrochemical techniques such as CV (cyclic voltammetry) have been applied successfully to study the ET process in intact microbial biofilms on electrodes, providing important insight into their redox properties. However, CV as such does not provide any structural information about the species involved in the redox process. This shortcoming may limit the understanding of the ET process in microbial biofilms. To overcome this restriction, spectroelectrochemical techniques have been designed consisting of a spectroscopic technique performed in combination with electrochemical methods on the same electrode sample. These analytical approaches allow in vivo measurements of microbial biofilms under physiologically relevant conditions and controlled applied potential. The present review describes these spectroelectrochemical methodologies and critically addresses their impact on the understanding of the ET through biofilms.


Recent developments in the bell-shaped spanload have shown the existence of proverse yaw control power via induced thrust at the wingtips. With no need for vertical control surfaces, new types of aircraft designs are possible. Via the use of traditional roll and proverse yaw control power, a lateral directional control space can be created for flying wings where no sweep is required for lateral directional stability and control. These straight tapered flying wings have increased efficiency and performance compared to traditional aircraft. In order to maintain stability and control, straight tapered flying wings require adequate proverse yaw control power. This paper investigated the connection between aircraft geometry and proverse yaw control power while applying the bell spanload. A straight tapered flying wing Biomimetic Aircraft was used for the initial aircraft geometry. By varying taper ratio, wing chord, wing length, twist distribution, and outboard wing control surface (OWCS) size, several relationships between aircraft geometry and proverse yaw control power are determined. Proverse yaw control power is a function of the change in lift over a region of upwash as well as the change in localized downwash. As the OWCS area increases due to larger chord lengths, proverse yaw control power increases. Additionally, increasing the region of upwash via a longer wingspan or twist distribution leads to improved proverse yaw control power. However, increasing the span fraction of the OWCS does not necessarily result in increased proverse yaw control power as it is tied to localized downwash. Varying the lift distribution due to an OWCS deflection can positively affect this downwash decreasing proverse yaw control power. The Biomimetic Aircraft with 10% more span and 10% more twist at the wingtips has 16 times more proverse yaw control power than the original Biomimetic Vehicle. With this increase in proverse yaw control power, straight tapered flying wings are controllable through all necessary flight regimes.


Transferrin (Tf)-functionalized p(HEMA-ran-GMA) nanoparticles were designed to incorporate and release a water-soluble combination of three ion channel antagonists, namely zonampanel monohydrate (YM872), oxidized adenosine triphosphate (oxATP) and lomerizine hydrochloride (LOM) identified as a promising therapy for secondary degeneration that follows neurotrauma. Coupled with a mean hydrodynamic size of 285 nm and near-neutral surface charge of −5.98 mV, the hydrophilic nature of the functionalized polymeric nanoparticles was pivotal in effectively encapsulating the highly water soluble YM872 and oxATP, as well as lipophilic LOM dissolved in water-based medium, by a back-filling method. Maximum loading efficiencies of 11.8 ± 1.05% (w/w), 13.9 ± 1.50% (w/w) and 22.7 ± 4.00% (w/w) LOM, YM872 and oxATP respectively were reported. To obtain an estimate of drug exposure in vivo, drug release kinetics assessment by HPLC was conducted in representative physiological milieu containing 55% (v/v) human serum at 37 °C. In comparison to serum-free conditions, it was demonstrated that the inevitable adsorption of serum proteins on the Tf-functionalized nanoparticle surface as a protein corona impeded the rate of release of LOM and YM872 at both pH 5 and 7.4 over a period of 1 hour. While the release of oxATP from the nanoparticles was detectable for up to 30 minutes under serum-free conditions at pH 7.4, the presence of serum proteins and a slightly acidic environment impaired the detection of the drug, possibly due to its molecular instability. Nevertheless, under representative physiological conditions, all three drugs were released in combination from Tf-functionalized p(HEMA-ran-GMA) nanoparticles and detected for up to 20 minutes. Taken together, the study provided enhanced insight into potential physiological outcomes in the presence of serum proteins, and suggests that p(HEMA-ran-GMA)-based therapeutic nanoparticles may be promising drug delivery vehicles for CNS therapy.


At the input of AC-DC switching mode power supply, we often use a full wave rectifier and a parallel capacitor to get the direct voltage smooth and level. Because rectifier is non-linear and filter capacitor is an energy-stored component, the combination of those two will make the input alternating current distort greatly. The input pulse shape current contains a lot of harmonic waves. This will reduce the power factor greatly. Besides this, a lot of current harmonic emission will make the voltage shape distort and the circuit out of order. In order to reduce the pollution caused by input harmonic current of AC-DC converter and improve the input power factor, we must take measures to limit the input harmonic current. In this paper, I expect to compare several methods of power factor correction and introduce their usages


: The consideration of psychomental and psychological load of employees is not part of the traditional working sphere of occupational physicians. Medical diagnostics and check-up are still regarded as the primary area of responsibility. This fact might be seen as a drawback with regard to the increasing importance of work-related psychomental load on the one hand and the actual requirements for high-quality occupational medicine on the other. The goal of a study in 64 occupational physicians in hospitals was to find out how occupational physicians estimate their own competence for dealing with psychomental problems of their clients, whether employees trust them, and which personal attitudes can be found towards the importance of work-related psychomental strain. The self-estimation of personal competence was--in contradiction to the results of former studies focusing on employees' views--surprisingly positive. A significant influence is the amount of work within the health-care sector compared to others. This might be interpreted as a selective effect and leads to the need for large-scale studies. Agreement could be found concerning the lack of chances for qualification in this sphere. Hence, further education and training in professional work with psychomental problems at the workplace has to be extended.


The Keynesian stability condition is a necessary assumption for the IS equilibrium concept to make economic sense. With reasonable values for the saving parameter(s), however, it typically implies excessively strong multiplier effects. This is more than a cosmetic issue, not least because any simulation study of an otherwise ambitious model will thus be fraught with severe problems along some of its dimensions. The present paper demonstrates that by introducing proportional tax rates on production, corporate income and personal income, the multipliers will be considerably dampened. Within an elementary Kaleckian framework, it also advances a fairly satisfactory numerical calibration.


More and more farmers are growing small crops of fruits and vegetables for specialty local markets. They commonly grow several crops at different stages of development at the same time, so they have a variety of produce to sell to customers. This forces farmers to make several fertilizer calculations because of their diverse crop demands, because water and nutrient requirements vary according to the crop and stage of development. This 7-page fact sheet helps growers correctly interpret fertilizer recommendations and calculate accurate fertilizer amounts to be used based on crop nutrient requirements. Written by Jim DeValerio, David Nistler, Robert Hochmuth, and Eric Simonne, and published by the UF Department of Horticultural Sciences, October 2012.
HS1206/HS1206: Fertigation for Vegetables: A Practical Guide for Small Fields (ufl.edu)


This article examines the process that delineates how members of a specific category of Chinese forced internal migrants understand their own identities. The forced internal migrants that constitute the focus of this article have typically had their residential registration status altered from ruralto urban-dwellers; they are indeed forced to relocate as they have had their property appropriated by the central government. Focusing on a factory and its surrounding communities in suburban Shanghai, this study applies qualitative methodologies to reveal that such internal migrants typically continue to self-identify as rural residents despite the change in their official status. Furthermore, they place considerable emphasis on their distinct cultural origins and ways of life, rejecting any potential assimilation into the existing traditions of their new urban environment. Paradoxically, however, these rural migrants also adopt a hierarchical attitude towards more recent migrants, demonstrating discriminatory tendencies towards these more recent migrants by emphasising and elevating their own social interests. This article explores the ambivalence of rural migrants towards their identity and status, which, it is posited, is the combined effect of local Shanghai residents' 'urban protectionist' attitudes and the government's institutionalisation of exclusionary policies towards internal migrants. It is argued that the lack of fluent adjustment in migrants' sense of self-identity, and their limited access to urban public goods, are both perpetuated by structural and hierarchical barriers to improving status under China's current institutional arrangements and compounded by social exclusion and a lack of social welfare provision.


The problem of determining the state of a power system is currently being solved using a number of methods, most of which are based on a least squares problem formulation. Recently, alternate methods based on linear programming have been proposed [1]. Techniques based on least absolute value (LAV) minimization, a derivative of linear programming, have shown potential for use in state estimators, especially in regards to detecting and eliminating bad data from the measurement set [2].


Autonomous medical devices such as implantable cardiac pacemakers are capable of diagnosing the patient condition and delivering therapy without human intervention. Their ability to autonomously affect the physiological state of the patient makes them safety-critical. Sufficient evidence for the safety and efficacy of the device software, which makes these autonomous decisions, should be provided before these devices can be released on the market. Formal methods like model checking can provide safety evidence that the devices can safely operate under a large variety of physiological conditions. The challenge is to develop physiological models that are general enough to cover the large variability of human physiology, and also expressive enough to provide physiological contexts to counter-examples returned by the model checker. In this paper, the authors develop a set of physiological abstraction rules that introduce physiological constraints to heart models. By applying these abstraction rules to a initial set of heart models, an abstraction tree is created. The root model covers all possible inputs to a pacemaker and derived models cover inputs from different heart conditions. If a counter-example is returned by the model checker, the abstraction tree is traversed so that the most concrete counter-example(s) with physiological contexts can be returned to the domain experts for validity check. The abstraction tree framework replaces the manual abstraction and refinement framework, which reduced the amount of domain knowledge required to perform closed-loop model checking. It encourages the use of model checking during the development of autonomous medical devices, and identifies safety risks earlier in the design process. 1


Measurement of the likely magnitude of the economic impact of climate change on African agriculture has been a challenge. Using data from a survey of more than 9,000 farmers across 11 African countries, a cross-sectional approach estimates how farm net revenues are affected by climate change compared with current mean temperature. Revenues fall with warming for dryland crops (temperature elasticity of -1.9) and livestock (-5.4), whereas revenues rise for irrigated crops (elasticity of 0.5), which are located in relatively cool parts of Africa and are buffered by irrigation from the effects of warming. At first, warming has little net aggregate effect as the gains for irrigated crops offset the losses for dryland crops and livestock. Warming, however, will likely reduce dryland farm income immediately. The final effects will also depend on changes in precipitation, because revenues from all farm types increase with precipitation. Because irrigated farms are less sensitive to climate, where water is available, irrigation is a practical adaptation to climate change in Africa.


BACKGROUND
Measurement of pancreatic lipase in serum is being used for the diagnosis of pancreatitis.

OBJECTIVES
The aims of this study were to measure serum lipase activity by the v-LIP-P slide and serum canine pancreatic lipase immunoreactivity (cPLI) concentration by Spec cPL in dogs with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI) and in serum samples that were hemolyzed, lipemic, or icteric.

METHODS
Serum samples from 50 dogs with EPI, 8 samples spiked with canine hemoglobin, Intralipid, or ditaurobilirubin, and 8 samples from dogs with severe hypertriglyceridemia were evaluated using v-LIP-P and Spec cPL assays.

RESULTS
Serum lipase activity (v-LIP-P) was in the lower 20% of the RI in 58% of EPI dogs, while serum cPLI (as measured by Spec cPL) was in the lower 20% of the RI in 98% of EPI dogs. The mean (±SD) observed-to-expected ratios for serum samples spiked with canine hemoglobin, Intralipid, or ditaurobilirubin were 63.0 ± 25.1%, 489.2 ± 469.7%, and 80.2 ± 11.6% for the v-LIP-P slide, respectively, and 99.3 ± 6.8%, 96.9 ± 9.4%, and 98.7 ± 11.0% for Spec cPL, respectively. However, naturally occurring hypertriglyceridemia did not appear to have a significant effect on serum lipase activity as measured by the v-LIP-P slide.

CONCLUSIONS
These results show that Spec cPL is specific for pancreatic lipase, while the v-LIP-P slide is not. In addition, hemolysis and lipemia had no effect on Spec cPL, while severe icterus resulted in a slight decrease in Spec cPL. Hemolysis and icterus had a significant effect on the v-LIP-P slide. The effect of lipemia on the v-LIP-P slide cannot be conclusively established based on this study.


This article uses advanced natural language processing (NLP) methods to identify companies that are aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) based on the text in their sustainability disclosures. Using the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) reports of Russell 1000 companies between 2010–2019, we apply a logistic classifier, support vector machines (SVM), and a fully-connected neural network to predict alignment with the SDGs. Specifically, we use word embeddings to augment dictionary-based input features, as well as the embeddings as features themselves, based on Word2Vec and Doc2Vec models to classify companies' alignment with the SDGs over time. Notably, the Doc2Vec embedding inputs to the SVM classifier result in high average accuracy of above 80% for predicting alignment.


This study investigates why some parents deviate from American norms on childrearing and decide to use no form of physical punishment. Based on the percentage of American parents who use physical punishment, the views of popular childrearing manuals, relevant laws and court cases it is concluded that the use of physical punishment of children in American society is a context where the use of physical force is legitimate. To locate non-spanking parents, questionnaires were distributed to parents of all first, second and third graders in a eastern seacoast town of approximately 27,000 people. Of those who returned the questionnaires, 87% reported using physical punishment. Among those who spank, 60% said they used it for rule violation and found it to be effective in childrearing. Forty percent reported that they used it when the parents themselves were tired, frustrated or out of control. These parents said nothing about the behavior of their children as being related to the use of physical punishment and, in addition, these parents said that spanking was not an effective method of disciplining. Indepth interviews were conducted with the parents who use no form of physical punishment. The reasons they gave for not spanking involved issues of child management (e.g. it does not work), reactions to their own parent's abusive treatment and views of spanking being a form of violence. All of the non-spanking parents reported being tempted to spank and they all said that they might spank in response to hypothetical scenarios where other parents frequently spank. Yet, when describing misbehaviors of their own children which were similar to the behaviors described in the hypothetical scenarios, these parents did not use physical punishment. It is concluded that the decision not to spank in American society is an extremely deviant position. Nonspanking parents are hesitant to acknowledge their commitment to not spanking. In fact, these parents do not tell others about their deviance. Non-spanking parents are very skilled at the management of their deviance and use socially acceptable accounts, such as saying their children do nothing so serious to deserve spanking, to avoid confrontation with others around them. Yet, by their own descriptions, their children do engage in the very behaviors that would be met with a spanking by other parents.


In modern manufacturing, the integration of ICT in the maintenance process, led to the development of e-maintenance, that automates management operations. E-maintenance, that initially interested only large plant machinery, is now becoming affordable for mass-produced equipment, thanks to the recent advances in ICT. This paper presents Teorema, an innovative e-maintenance solution for Carpigiani ice cream machines, which provides several services: remote monitoring of machines, automatic notification of malfunctions, diagnostics and prognostics functions, remote assistance interventions, and automated reporting of production data. Teorema is already in production and it is significantly improving the after-sale service to Carpigiani customers.


Objective We aimed to determine whether COL9A1 and COL19A1 polymorphisms were associated with Kaschin-Beck disease (KBD) risk. Methods Five single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in COL9A1 and COL19A1 were genotyped in 316 KBD patients and 320 healthy controls using the Agena MassARRAY platform. The association between genetic polymorphisms ( COL9A1 : rs3806093, rs603410 and rs621347; COL19A1 : rs9346371 and rs555313) and KBD risk were assessed using logistic regression model by calculating odds ratio (OR) and 95% con�dence interval (CI). Results After adjustment with age and sex, the frequency distributions of genotypes in rs3806093 and rs9346371 were signi�cantly different between cases and controls. COL9A1 rs3806093 signi�cantly increased KBD risk in co-dominant (OR = 14.80, 95%CI = 1.42-154.80, p = 0.024) and recessive (OR = 16.39, 95%CI = 1.60-168.20, p = 0.019) models. Meanwhile, COL9A1 rs555313 was associated with KBD risk in recessive model (OR = 3.80, 95%CI = 1.01-14.27, p = 0.048). In addition, haplotype analysis revealed two blocks (block 1: rs3806093, rs603410 and rs621347; block 2: rs9346371 and rs555313). Conclusion COL9A1 and COL19A1 polymorphisms were associated with KBD risk in the Chinese Han population, suggesting roles of COL9A1 and COL19A1 in the development of KBD.


In 1998, Nairobi-based Hillside Green Growers & Exporters Ltd. began with a single shipment of mangoes to Dubai. Today, Hillside has blossomed into a steady exporter with a broad product line of fresh fruits and vegetables sold to buyers in the Middle East and Europe. Attainment of key quality certifications and a recent partnership with an NGO supporting SMEs to provide contracted growers with agricultural inputs has allowed Hillside's CEO, Eunice Mwongera, to scale up and establish new, bigger contracts with customers in Europe. The Middle East market offers smaller volumes but year-round opportunities, while orders for European markets are larger but are concentrated during certain months. Much bigger players in the horticultural export industry already serve the European markets—the question is whether Hillside can contend at the same level among those competitors. Eunice also is giving thought to Kenya's own domestic market. With increasing urbanization, Nairobi could be a viable opportunity.


A large tornadic hail-producing supercellar thunderstorm developed in northwest Kansas on the afternoon of 29 June, 2000. This storm was observed by a network of meteorological research polarimetric radars. It was seeded by the Western Kansas Weather Modification Program for more than 2 hours as it transitioned from a multicellular to a supercellular mode, produced an F2 tornado, and produced copious hail ranging in diameter up to 4.5 cm for over 1½ hours. Published studies based on the research radar observations provide a time history of this storm's hail production in terms of volumes of the storm containing hail, graupel, and other precipitation types, as well as volume containing significant updraft. Using these analyses, it is shown that the storm invigorated, and the volume of the storm containing hail increased dramatically shortly after seeding began. Of course, it is not known how the storm would have developed and how much and how big would have been the hail had it not been seeded. It is suggested that a large sample of similar storms, both seeded and unseeded, be analyzed by these or similar polarimetric radar-based techniques in order to better understand the impact of seeding on hail development in thunderstorms. Such analysis could be done inexpensively using National Weather Service radar data. Normal 0 false false false EN-US JA X-NONE /* Style Definitions */
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: Phaeochromocytoma is a rare, autonomous catecholamine secreting tumour of the sympatho-adrenergic system. Due to the continuous or phasic secretion of catecholamines from the tumour, patients present with hypertensive crisis, episodic or sustained hypertension or arrhythmia. Excessive intraoperative hypertension unable to control by usual methods should be considered to be a phaeochromocytoma. Surgical removal of identified lesions should be performed under controlled conditions and after sufficient preparation of the patient. Preoperative alpha-adrenergic blockade with prazosin and phentolamine allows an increase in intravascular volume and affords some protection against excessive intraoperative hypertension. The use of beta-adrenergic antagonists is only recommended in patients with arrhythmia (especially tachycardia) and after induction of alpha-adrenergic blockade. For operation of phaeochromocytoma, modified neuroleptic anaesthesia is a useful anaesthetic technique. Intraoperative hypertension is controlled with sodium nitroprusside and phentolamine. Intravascular volume is substituted under CVP or PAP control, and epinephrine or norepinephrine are used if necessary. During the postoperative period, hypotension or hypertension or left ventricular failure may occur. In an own study, 9 patients with phaeochromocytoma were investigated, 7 patients with other operations of the adrenal glands served as controls. Despite specific preoperative preparation and intraoperative use of antihypertensive drugs, excessive increases in blood pressure could not be avoided in some cases. Extremely high plasma levels of catecholamines up to the factor 1,000 of the normal range were found. Even in controls, considerable increases in blood pressure and catecholamine levels were observed.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Reading is an essential form of the learning process. The information revolution has changed the media, but the book is still the main tool in education, especially in the case of humanities. Digital collections of books, as well as reviews, newspapers, microfilms, audio-video recordings and other materials concerning cultural heritage provide easier access to information and a rapid transfer of knowledge. The constant progress in digitalization of books and other materials makes informing, learning or research more comfortable both for students and professors: it is enough just to click the mouse. Therefore, global information systems facilitate the circulation of cultural goods, and what is more important, reading and listening e-books or taking other digitalized data, whether issued by academic publishing or not, are available for free. Those advantages (quick access, sparing time and money) are so welcome in the field of higher education, especially in developing countries. This paper deals with the educational praxis in the Department of Romance Studies (courses of French and Francophone Literature and Culture) at the University of Novi Sad, where some of digitalized sources are an important part of the educational system, whose modernization has been accelerated in the last decade. Students use digitalized books and materials and are instructed by mentors through different types of learning in order to acquire knowledge and develop critical thinking skills. Their online support is based mostly by asynchronous tools. We noticed that students' motivation and enthusiasm rise during the completion of required activities. Once they complete the task, students share their experiences and show their satisfaction in social networks, which is the best proof that engaging students in this way makes digitalization a useful tool in the education system.


Background In 2010, the European Commission released a public consultation, Green Paper on Audit Policy, and a year later the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board in the US also published a public consultation, Concept Release on Auditor Independence and Audit Firm Rotation, which both included questions about whether mandatory rotation of audit firms should be implemented or not. The main suggestion in both public consultations was that the rotation would enhance auditor independence and increase audit quality. However, in 2013 the legislators in the US decided to prohibit a regulation on mandatory rotation of audit firms whereas the EU legislators, in 2014, decided to adopt the regulation to force public interest entities to change audit firms within a maximum period of ten years. These two different decisions by the EU legislators and the US legislators are interesting since they both wish to achieve the same purpose; to improve audit quality and auditor independence. Still, they used two approaches that are contradictory to each other. Purpose The purpose of this study is to examine and compare the replies from both EU investors and US investors in order to get their viewpoints about mandatory rotation of audit firms and to find out if the investors' viewpoints have had any impact on the legislators' decisions regarding the contradictory approaches in the EU and the US. The main research question is: Is there a difference between the investors' viewpoints of mandatory rotation of audit firms in the EU and the US? Method This thesis has studied the replies made by the investors to the Green Paper and the Concept Release, because investors are one of the primary stakeholders and those who should be most concerned with auditor independence and audit quality. The study consists of 42 replies, 22 replies to the Green Paper and 20 to the Concept Release. Conclusion The study shows that mandatory rotation of audit firms is not supported, according to the investors' viewpoints. A clear majority of the investors in the EU and all of the investors in the US opposed the rotation and similar arguments were used both by EU investors and US investors. The investors do not believe that regulations on mandatory rotation of audit firms will increase auditor independence or audit quality. The study further shows that legislators in the EU have not followed the investors' viewpoints when they decided to regulate the rotation in 2014. However, it does not show why the legislators decided on two different approaches, only that the decision by the legislators in the EU did not agree with the investors' point of view.


ABSTRACT An effective transition to a new grading system requires a process of reflecting on experiences to understand and reframe perceptions of grading. Standards-based grading (SBG), an alternative to the traditional, summative score-based grading, was introduced to higher education engineering faculty either through a workshop or as a direct participant in a larger research project. These faculty were surveyed to better understand the perceptions faculty hold before, during and after implementation of SBG. Perceived student gains, barriers and best practices were solicited using an open-ended survey of faculty who had attended the workshop on SBG, were preparing to implement SBG, had implemented SBG for the first time or had implemented SBG multiple times. Themes among the different groups emerged, providing insights into faculty perceptions at different phases of SBG implementation. The study also demonstrated the necessity of faculty support structures to establish an environment favourable for widespread grading reformation.


The Large Hadron Electron Collider (LHeC) is a proposal for a TeV scale, 10^33 cm^?2 s^?1 luminosity electron-proton collider at CERN. In the proposal, an electron accelerator collides a beam of electrons with one of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) proton beams at one LHC interaction point (IP). At the time of writing, the project has been approved as part of the CERN mid-term plan.The LHeC project is planned for the 2020s, around the time of the High Luminosity LHC (HL-LHC) upgrade. The LHeC thus depends upon the success of the HL-LHC project, which plans to deliver p-p luminosity of L=5�10^34 cm^?2 s^?1. Unique challenges are presented by the LHeC, particularly by the interaction region (IR) and long straight section (LSS), and constraints must be considered from beam, particle and detector physics and engineering.This thesis presents the study and design of a complete collision insertion solution for a ring-ring LHeC. This provides a solution at a conceptual level to the problem of delivering TeV scale e?p collisions at L?10^33 cm^?2 s^?1 for the first time, with detector coverage within 1 degree of the beam. This high acceptance, high luminosity solution substantially increases the value of the project, allowing high statistics across an unprecedented kinematic range.Further studies are presented into optimising the optical flexibility of the LHC LSSs, and into the effects of fringe fields in the HL-LHC large aperture quadrupoles. Modifications are proposed which maximise LSS flexibility, and fringe effects are found to be significant but manageable.


Purpose

Average bank net interest margins vary widely across Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, net interest margins of Omani banks are significantly higher. The resultant low level of financial intermediation implies reduced investment and economic growth. Understanding the reason for these high and persistent spreads is important to develop a policy for improving effectiveness of the banking system. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Design/methodology/approach

Net interest margins of Arab GCC banks during the period 1999-2012 are examined using the balanced panel regression model with bank specific, financial/market structure specific and macroeconomic factors as determinants. The method used for estimation used is the estimated generalized least squares (EGLS) method with both fixed effects and random effects.

Findings

Bank-specific variables, which explain net interest margins in GCC, are bank capitalization ratios, loan ratios and overhead expenses. Spread of banking sector (as measured by ratio of total bank credit to GDP) is positive and highly significant, implying that along with the expansion of the banking sector in GCC economies, interest margins of banks also improved. Omani banks were able to increase interest margins by aggressively marketing high yield personal and credit card loans, and, zero interest paying deposit products. The study also finds a negative relationship between concentration and net interest margin, and attempts to explain this finding which is at variance with other country studies using the price leadership model of oligopoly.

Research limitations/implications

The standard, accepted econometric model of net interest margins which has been used in earlier studies is unable to explain the high net interest margins of banks in Oman although it is able to explain interest margins in other GCC countries. There is a need to develop non econometric models. More work is needed on the implications of NIM spreads for how they affect an economy.

Practical implications

The study shows that as the banking sector spreads in the economy, individual banks have more opportunities to market their products while at the same time maintaining interest margins. Bank managements should note this point and look for opportunities to expand.

Originality/value

There is no evidence of any empirical studies which focused on net interest margins in the GCC countries. This study attempts to fill in this gap with a view to nudge policy makers to look at the issue of high interest margins and its detrimental impact on economic growth and development in the Gulf region. The paper is useful for policy makers to understand and rectify the problem of excessive interest spreads which is hurting the financial intermediation process.


In previous studies at McGill University; tin was successfully cold sprayed onto carbon fiber reinforced polymers (CFRPs). A "crack-filling" mechanism was described as the deposition mechanism that allowed deposition of tin onto the CFRP. Improving the coating conductivity for lightning strike protection (LSP) purposes was achieved by adding other metal powders (aluminum; copper; zinc) to tin and cold spraying on the CFRP. At the same time; it was noticed that the addition of this secondary component (SC) provided an increase in deposition efficiency (DE); tamping was initially hypothesized to explain this improvement; thus prompting a study solely on the effect of SC hardness; which is reported elsewhere in this conference. However; it is recognised that other powder characteristics may also be influencing the DE. Thus; in this study; SCs with a wider variety of particle sizes; morphologies; densities and hardness values were mixed with tin and sprayed on CFRPs. The effect of SC properties on tin deposition is discussed and an optimal combination of SC properties for cold spraying of tin is suggested.


Determining loadability margins to various security limits is of great importance for the secure operation of a power system, especially in the current deregulated environment. Here, a novel approach is proposed for fast prediction of loadability margins of power systems based on neural networks. Static security boundaries, comprised of static voltage stability limits, oscillatory stability limits and other operating limits such as generator power output limits, are constructed by means of loading the power system until these security limits are reached from a base operating point along various loading directions. Back-propagation neural networks for different contingencies are trained to approximate the security boundaries. A search algorithm is then employed to predict the loadability margins from any stable operating points along arbitrary loading directions through an iterative technique based on the trained neural networks. The simulation results for the IEEE two-area benchmark system and the IEEE 50-machine test system demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for on-line prediction of loadability margins.


Head and neck cancers comprise a group of diseases with the most common being oral cavity and oropharyngeal cancers. The incidence of these cancers is on the rise but vary globally due to differences in risk factors such as alcohol, tobacco and betel quid consumption in addition to human papilloma virus infection. Despite advances in treatment, including cancer immunotherapy, the mortality rate remains high, which is mainly attributed to late diagnosis. Early detection of malignancies and prediction of malignant transformation in potentially malignant lesions are therefore vital to improve patient outcome. Digital pathology, which uses pre-defined algorithms to generate consistent and faster histopathological analysis, has made great strides in the quantification and identification of different markers capable of predicting disease progression, patient prognosis and response to therapy in head and neck cancer. The combination of digital pathology with different novel technologies including omics platforms, artificial intelligence and machine learning holds great translational potential for identifying prognostic biomarkers for head and neck cancer and beyond.


Statistical methods play a significant role throughout the life-cycle of HEP experiments, being an essential component of physics analysis. Only a few basic tools for statistical analysis were available in the public domain FORTRAN libraries for HEP. Nowadays the situation is hardly unchanged even among the libraries of the new generation. The present project in progress aims to develop an object-oriented software toolkit for statistical data analysis. More in particular, the Statistical Comparison component of the toolkit provides algorithms for the comparison of data distributions in a variety of use cases typical of HEP experiments, as regression testing (in various phases of the software life-cycle), validation of simulation through comparison to experimental data, comparison of expected versus reconstructed distributions, comparison of data from different sources - such as different sets of experimental data, or experimental with respect to theoretical distributions. The toolkit contains a variety of goodness-of-fit tests, from chi-squared to Kolmogorov-Smirnov, to less known, but generally much more powerful tests such as Anderson-Darling, Lilliefors, Cramer-von Mises, Kuiper. Thanks to the component-based design and the usage of the standard AIDA interfaces, this tool can be used by other data analysis systems or integrated in experimental software frameworks. We present the architecture of the system, the statistics methods implemented and the results of its first applications to the validation of the Geant4 Simulation Toolkit and to experimental data analysis.


In 1998, many fixed-income investors grossly underestimated the extent of credit spread risk. The main reasons were a failure to take heavy tails into account when estimating risk, and a failure to incorporate a sufficiently long history of credit spreads into the statistic estimation process. In this article, the author provides a non-technical presentation that shows how longer-term daily data, combined with extreme value analysis, can be used to generate more accurate and more robust quintile estimates for credit spread shifts.


Recombination of plasmid DNAs and recombination of bacteriophage lambda red mutants in recB recC sbcA Escherichia coli mutants, in which the recE region is expressed, do not require recA. The recE gene is known to encode exonuclease VIII (exoVIII), which is an ATP-independent exonuclease involved in the RecE pathway of recombination. A 33,000-molecular-weight (MW) protein was observed to be coexpressed with both exoVIII and a truncated version of exoVIII, pRac3 exo, when they were overproduced under the control of strong promoters. We have purified this 33,000-MW protein (p33) and demonstrated by protein sequence analysis that it is encoded by the same coding sequence that encodes the C-terminal 33,000-MW portion of exoVIII. p33 is expressed independently of exoVIII but is probably translated from the same mRNA. p33 was found to bind to single-stranded DNA and also to promote the renaturation of complementary single-stranded DNA. It appears that p33 is functionally analogous to the bacteriophage lambda beta protein, which may explain why RecE pathway recombination does not require recA.


We have two conceptions of the relationship between antitrust and patent: in tension or complementary. In reality, both conceptions have an element of truth; the relationship is multidimensional. The relationship between antitrust law and patent law involves a series of trade-offs: How much should competition be suppressed in the short run in order to encourage innovation in the long run? Are there instances and industries where intellectual property rights are unnecessarily expansive, such that competition is suppressed more than needed to incentivize innovation? These trade-offs between antitrust and patent take place in the context of broader innovation policy. Instead of thinking about patent policy versus antitrust policy, we should be discussing an innovation policy that has two constituent parts: IP and competition law. IP law may be a cornerstone of innovation policy, but the patent system — as currently constructed — cannot maximize innovation without the assistance of a strong antitrust regime. Antitrust and patents are not merely complementary in that they pursue the goal of innovation; instead, they affirmatively depend on each other. Both are necessary; neither is sufficient. They are components of an overall innovation policy that maximizes both static and dynamic competition. This Article explains how patent law and antitrust law should operate in tandem to condemn and deter several forms of innovation-stifling activity. Judges too often operate as if, when patent law proscribes particular conduct, an antitrust remedy is unnecessary and no antitrust violation has been committed. This Article argues that patent and antitrust remedies operate differently, and that when particular conduct violates both areas of law, both patent and antitrust penalties should be imposed. Finally, this Article discusses the relative advantages of patent and antitrust law when both condemn the same misconduct and argues that antitrust should play a greater role than it currently does.


Demand for image editing has been increasing as users' desire for expression is also increasing. However, for most users, image editing tools are not easy to use since the tools require certain expertise in photo effects and have complex interfaces. Hence, users might need someone to help edit their images, but having a personal dedicated human assistant for every user is impossible to scale. For that reason, an automated assistant system for image editing is desirable. Additionally, users want more image sources for diverse image editing works, and integrating an image search functionality into the editing tool is a potential remedy for this demand. Thus, we propose a dataset of an automated Conversational Agent for Image Search and Editing (CAISE). To our knowledge, this is the first dataset that provides conversational image search and editing annotations, where the agent holds a grounded conversation with users and helps them to search and edit images according to their requests. To build such a system, we first collect image search and editing conversations between pairs of annotators. The assistant-annotators are equipped with a customized image search and editing tool to address the requests from the user-annotators. The functions that the assistant-annotators conduct with the tool are recorded as executable commands, allowing the trained system to be useful for real-world application execution. We also introduce a generator-extractor baseline model for this task, which can adaptively select the source of the next token (i.e., from the vocabulary or from textual/visual contexts) for the executable command. This serves as a strong starting point while still leaving a large human-machine performance gap for useful future work. Data and code are available: https://github.com/hyounghk/CAISE.


The chitosan scaffold we prepared have a high porosity of about 90% with pore sizes from 50 to 200m. Lactose was conjugated onto the inner surface of the highly porous chitosan scaffold. It was used as substrate for rat hepatocytes culture. The cell attachment ratio was much higher than on monolayer membrane and non-modified porous scaffold. Metabolic activities of the cells were evaluated in terms of albumin secretion and urea synthesis. It was found that hepatocytes cultured on the modified scaffolds showed an increase in albumin secretion during the first 4 days and were more stable than that on non-modified scaffold. The results showed that the microstructure of porous scaffolds provides large surface for cells to adhere and facilitates nutrient and oxygen transportation. Such lactose modified scaffold has a potential application in bioartificial liver support system.


Starch is an essential and widely distributed natural material, but its detailed conformation and thermal transition properties are not yet well understood. We present a rapid Mueller matrix imaging system to explore the structural characteristics of starch granules by using 16 measurements with different incoming and outgoing polarizations. Due to the minimum rotation of the optical elements and the self-calibration ability of this system, the full Mueller matrix images can be accurately obtained within ten-odd seconds. Both structural and molecular features of the starch granule were investigated in the static state and gelatinization process by means of multiple optical characteristics deduced from the Mueller matrix. The experimental results for the structural changes during the gelatinization were close to other nonlinear optical approaches; moreover, the crystallinity and optical rotation of the starch granule are also determined through the use of this approach.


In the field of computer graphics, Volume Rendering techniques allow the visualization of 3D datasets, and specifically, Volume Ray-Casting renders images from volumetric datasets, typically used in some scientific areas, such as medical imaging. This article aims to describe the development of a combined visualization of tractography and volume rendering of brain T1 MRI images in an integrated way. An innovative web viewer for interactive visualization of neuro-imaging data has been developed based on WebGL. This recently developed standard enables the clients to use the web viewer on a wide range of devices, with the only requirement of a compliant web-browser. As the majority of the rendering tasks take place in the client machine, the effect of bottlenecks and server overloading are minimized. The web application presented is able to compete with desktop tools, even supporting high graphical demands and facing challenges regarding performance and scalability. The developed software modules are available as open source code and include MRI volume data and tractography generated by the Diffusion Toolkit, and connectivity data from the Connectome Mapping Toolkit. Our contribution for the Volume Web Viewer implements early ray termination step according to the tractography depthmap, combining volume images and estimated white matter fibers. Furthermore, the depthmap system extension can be used for visualization of other types of data, where geometric and volume elements are displayed simultaneously.


The heliotail is formed when the solar wind (SW) interacts with the local interstellar medium (LISM) and is shaped by the interstellar magnetic field (ISMF). While there are no spacecraft available to perform in situ measurements of the SW plasma and heliospheric magnetic field (HMF) in the heliotail, it is of importance for the interpretation of measurements of energetic neutral atom fluxes performed by Interstellar Boundary Explorer. It has been shown recently that the orientation of the heliotail in space and distortions of the unperturbed LISM caused by its presence may explain the anisotropy in the TeV cosmic ray flux detected in air shower observations. The SW flow in the heliotail is a mystery itself because it is strongly affected by charge exchange between the SW ions and interstellar neutral atoms. If the angle between the Sun's magnetic and rotation axes is constant, the SW in the tail tends to be concentrated inside the HMF spirals deflected tailward. However, the twisted field soon becomes unstable and the reason for the SW collimation within a two-lobe structure vanishes. We demonstrate that kinetic treatment of the H atom transport becomes essential in this case for explaining the lobe absence further along the tail. We show that the heliotail flow is strongly affected by the solar cycle that eliminates artifacts, which is typical of solutions based on simplifying assumptions. The heliopause in the tail is subject to Kelvin–Helmholtz instability, while its orientation and shape are determined by the ISMF direction and strength.


Bilirubin-related adverse reactions (ADR, e.g., jaundice and hyperbilirubinemia) induced by herbs rich in certain polyphenolic acids are widely reported. However, the causes and the mechanisms underlying these ADR are not well understood. The purpose of this article is to determine the mechanism by which certain polyphenolic acids inhibit UGT1A1-mediated bilirubin glucuronidation, leading to jaundice or hyperbilirubinemia. We investigated in vitro inhibitory effects on bilirubin glucuronidation of salvianolic acid A (SAA), salvianolic acid B (SAB), danshensu (DSS), protocatechuic aldehyde (PA), and rosmarinic acid (RA), as well as two Salvia miltiorrhiza injections (DSI and CDI) rich in polyphenolic acids. The results showed that average formation rates of three bilirubin glucuronides displayed a significant difference (p < 0.05) and the formation of monoglucuronide was favored regardless if an inhibitor was present or not. SAA, SAB, DSI, and CDI, but not DSS, PA, and RA, significantly inhibited human UGT1A1-mediated bilirubin glucuronidation via a mixed-type inhibitory mechanism. Average IC50 values of SAA, SAB, DSI, and CDI-mediated inhibition of bilirubin glucuronidation were bilirubin concentration-dependent, and their values (against total bilirubin glucuronidation) were in the range 0.44 ± 0.02 to 0.86 ± 0.04 μg/mL (for SAA), 4.22 ± 0.30 to 12.50 ± 0.93 μg/mL (for SAB), 9.29 ± 0.76 to 18.82 ± 0.63 μg/mL (for DSI), and 9.18 ± 2.00 to 22.36 ± 1.39 μg/mL (for CDI), respectively. In conclusion, SAA and its analog SAB are the main ingredients responsible for inhibition of bilirubin glucuronidation by DSI and CDI, whose use is associated with many high bilirubin-related ADR.


Critical Care Medicine: Perioperative Management, in its 2nd edition, remains one of the leading critical care textbooks and addresses not only intensive care issues but also perioperative issues and the intensive care unit (ICU). This new edition comes in an attractive single volume of 928 pages. With this edition, new authors have been added as well as new chapters, while other chapters from the first edition have been updated. During the 5 years between the two editions, there have been significant breakthroughs in the critical care medicine field. It is good to see these covered comprehensively throughout the book, particularly in the chapters on acute lung injury and acute respiratory distress syndrome, and diagnosis and treatment in infection. The text begins with four chapters on perioperative assessment and ICU organization, an approach that distinguishes this book from standard ICU texts. The chapter on ethical and end-of-life issues is particularly good at tackling these difficult topics, which are often approached poorly in the ICU setting. In section II: Perioperative Interventions and Pathophysiology, the issues regarding general ICU pathophysiology are covered well with polished chapters on evidence-based medicine, research, and informatics. Section IX is devoted to infection and immunology and begins with an excellent chapter on evaluation of fever in the ICU. With helpful flow diagrams and diagnostic and treatment strategies, this chapter guides the reader through the myriad causes of ICU fevers with possible treatments. Sepsis, systemic inflammatory response syndrome, and the management of life-threatening infection are also very well summarized. Section X provides a thorough review of transplantation medicine with an exceptional review on liver transplantation. Section XI, the closing section, guides the reader through specialized ICU care, including obstetric, trauma, and burn patients. This section is covered particularly well, especially when compared to the standard ICU tomes. One area of disappointment is the use of poor pictures and graphics to highlight techniques and procedures in the ICU. Another surprising omission is the perioperative care of the vascular patient (with the exception of a short paragraph on renal protection for abdominal aortic aneurysm repair). There is no mention at all of newer methods of abdominal aortic aneurysm repair such as endovascular approaches and their perioperative concerns. In summary, the 2nd edition of Critical Care Medicine: Perioperative Management is a multidisciplinary text written by a stellar group of authors and edited by four well-known and experienced editors. It remains an excellent and comprehensive critical care textbook. With its slant on perioperative management, it holds a niche that sets it apart from other ICU texts. Furthermore, it is refreshing to see up-to-date, evidencebased theories. At only $149, this is good value for the money.


This paper proposes a method to boost the terminal voltages using a capacitive network. The boosted voltage can improve the power capability of an interior permanent magnet synchronous motor (IPMSM). In the conventional drive system fed by a voltage-source inverter, the terminal voltages of the motor are limited by the dc-link voltage. Such a voltage limitation reduces the torque capability at high speeds. Thereby, the maximum output power is limited. To overcome this feature, series capacitor network between the inverter and the motor is introduced in the proposed IPMSM drive system. The series capacitors boost the motor terminal voltages higher than the inverter voltages to increase the rated speed, resulting in improved power capability. The rated speed in the proposed drive system can be redefined to the desired value through a capacitive network. The enhanced power capability and design freedom in the rated speed are particularly advantageous in fan-load applications where the load torque is proportional to the square of speed. This article presents the structure, d–q equivalent model, operating characteristics, and operable area of the proposed drive. Experimental results are given to verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed system.


The 93rd general meeting was held at Imperial College, London, from 18 to 20 September 1973. Abstracts of most of the scientific communications and of some of the papers read at symposia on 'Some aspects of diabetes' (Chairman: Professor V. Marks), 'Urinary tract infections in paraplegics' (Chairman: Dr A. Percival), and 'Granulocyte function' (Chairman: Dr H. E. M. Kay) follow. A fourth symposium, 'Clinical pathology in other parts of the world' (Chairman: Dr M. G. Rinsler) was held on the morning of 19 September. The Presidential Address, 'Beyond "cogwheel" doctors and the management of the National Health Service', was given by Dr Frank Hampson. Dr P. I. A. Hendry, President both of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australia and of the World Association of Societies of Pathology, gave an illustrated talk on the forthcoming 9th Congress of the World Association of Societies of Pathology, to be held in Sydney in October 1975.


This paper deals with the model of a biogas station. The introduction provides a description of principle employed in this model. The model works with data reflecting the quantity and type of the input biomass to determine the potential energy and offer a selection from various co-generation units. Other important input parameters comprise fermentors and mainly the material composition of their walls to help with determination of heat losses. The input parameters are accompanied by the energetic balance model for a Biogas Station (BPS) concerned. The next section of this paper provides verification of the model with respect to an actual BPS subject to a series of measurements. These measurements focus on electric and heat parameters. The outcome from these measurements was then used to obtain the energetic balance figure. The comparison of measurement results against the model produces slight deviations of the model from the real biogas station only. This paper has been processed pursuant to a long-term research on biogas stations. The biogas station model will be developed further to obtain a more detailed energetic balance for the biogas station.


This paper analyses ethnographic research carried out into the activities of a particular group of makers whose DIY activities are centred on the creation, dissemination and performance of home-made musical instruments in the form of cigar box guitars. From a series of semi-structured, in-depth interviews, it emerged that these objects are almost exclusively based on notions of recycling, reuse and repurposing, and as such extend the life of component parts that would otherwise be discarded. Also, as hand-crafted labours of love, the resulting instruments are often the focus of strong emotional bonds to their makers, and are used for extended periods, being added to, altered and reconfigured over time as new components become available and the makers' skills improve. For many makers, partaking in this activity has been their first foray into creative production of any kind, and often, they need to find solutions to problems they encounter in the process of making of their instruments. As a consequence of the usually very solitary nature of the activity, these makers make extensive use of online forums and networks to become part of a community of practice, openly sharing their knowledge and experience to help each other, and to celebrate their achievements of productive labour. It is argued that the "magic" of the instruments produced and the support of a social media network is directly linked to the extension of product lifetimes of the objects made.


Abstract. Significance: Practical implementation of acousto-optic imaging (AOI) encounters difficulties that prevent it from rapid adoption in clinical use. In many practical medical applications, the region of interest may be accessed only from one side, and using a water tank for coupling is not feasible. The solution might be to use reflection-mode imaging with an electronically scanned ultrasound (US) focus. Such an approach, however, entails considerable challenges. Aim: The possibilities of detecting and localizing light-absorbing inclusions inside turbid media by combining reflection-mode AOI conducted using a one-dimensional US array with electronic scanning of the US focus are investigated experimentally and signal processing algorithms that could be used for this purpose are introduced. Approach: We determine the speckle contrast decrease due to the acousto-optic effect as a function of the US focal point coordinates. Different signal postprocessing techniques are investigated. Results: A significant decrease in the determined speckle contrast difference values is observed due to the presence of light-absorbing inclusions. However, local minima occur in the plots only under specific conditions. Subtracting individual distributions and determining symmetry deviations allow for localizing the inclusions. Conclusions: Detection and localization of optically distinct regions are possible using the introduced approach. Signal postprocessing is required in a general case.


Identifying relevant mediators responsible for the pathogenesis during sepsis may lead to finding novel diagnostic and therapeutic targets. Recent studies indicate programmed cell death receptor (PD)-1 plays a significant role in the development of immune suppression associated with sepsis. In this study, we determine whether B7-H1, the primary ligand of PD-1, contributes to the pathogenesis of sepsis. We report that B7-H1 is upregulated extensively on various immune cells during sepsis and B7-H1 gene deficiency protects mice from the lethality of sepsis. In terms of the histological development of multiple organ damage and inflammatory cytokine levels in circulation or at infectious site, B7-H1–deficient mice showed a remarkable reduction in these indices when compared with wild-type mice. However, B7-H1 gene-deficient mice did not exhibit a lower bacterial burden when compared with wild-type mice, although they recruited more macrophages and neutrophils into infectious site. In addition, we found that, during sepsis, whereas there were no marked differences affecting ex vivo macrophage cytokine productive capacity between PD-1 and B7-H1 gene-deficient mice, preservation of ex vivo macrophage phagocytic function was only seen in septic PD-1 knockout mouse cells. Finally, higher percentage B7-H1+ neutrophils in peripheral blood correlated not only with higher levels of pro- and anti-inflammatory cytokines/chemokines (CCL2, IL-6, CXCL2, KC, TNF-α, and IL-10), but with lethal outcome as well. Together, these results indicate B7-H1 contributes to septic morbidity in fashion distinct from PD-1 and suggest B7-H1 expression on neutrophils could be used as a biomarker of septic severity.


Identifying gene expression markers for Alzheimer's disease (AD) neuropathology through meta-analysis is a complex undertaking because available data are often from different studies and/or brain regions involving study-specific confounders and/or region-specific biological processes. Here we introduce a novel probabilistic model-based framework, DECODER, leveraging these discrepancies to identify robust biomarkers for complex phenotypes. Our experiments present: (1) DECODER's potential as a general meta-analysis framework widely applicable to various diseases (e.g., AD and cancer) and phenotypes (e.g., Amyloid-β (Aβ) pathology, tau pathology, and survival), (2) our results from a meta-analysis using 1,746 human brain tissue samples from nine brain regions in three studies — the largest expression meta-analysis for AD, to our knowledge —, and (3) in vivo validation of identified modifiers of Aβ toxicity in a transgenic Caenorhabditis elegans model expressing AD-associated Aβ, which pinpoints mitochondrial Complex I as a critical mediator of proteostasis and a promising pharmacological avenue toward treating AD.


Identification of factors controlling myocardial differentiation and proliferation is of great importance for understanding the pathogenesis of congenital heart diseases. The molecular mechanism by which serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine, 5-HT) regulates embryonic development of heart and cardiovascular functions remained unknown until recently. Inactivation of the 5-HT2B receptor (5-HT2BR) gene leads to embryonic and neonatal death due to the following defects in the heart: (i) 5-HT2BR mutant embryos exhibit a lack of trabeculae in the heart and a reduction in the expression levels of a tyrosine kinase receptor, ErbB-2, leading to mid-gestation lethality. These in vivo data suggest that the 5-HT2BR coupled to the heterotrimeric G protein Gq uses the signaling pathway of ErbB-2 for cardiac differentiation. (ii) Newborn 5-HT2BR-ko mutant mice exhibit cardiac dilation resulting from contractility and structural deficits at the intercellular junctions between cardiomyocytes. (iii) In adult 5-HT2BR mutant mice, echocardiography and electrocardiography confirm the presence of left ventricular dilation and decreased systolic function. These results constitute the first genetic evidence that 5-HT, via the 5-HT2BR, regulates differentiation and proliferation during development as well as cardiac structure and function in adults.


Background: The Internet Addiction Scale (ISS), developed in the field of health psychology, is a German questionnaire consisting of 20 items. It is used to screen for Internet addiction. The study aims to replicate the factor structure of the ISS. Methods: Exploratory (EFA) and confirmatory (CFA) factor analyses were used to replicated the factor structure of the ISS in a sample of 1123 German adolescents and young adults (M=22, SD=3 years, 52% female). Results: EFA with default on 5 factors yielded no satisfactory solution; the results spoke for a one-factor solution. CFA of the original factor structure (5 scales and total value) showed insufficient model fit criteria (?2=1504.3, df=165, p<0.001, RMSEA=.09, CFI=.86, TLI=.83). Based on these results, items were eliminated. CFA showed acceptable model fit criteria (?2=985.2, df=125, p<0.001, RMSEA=.08, CFI=. 90, TLI=.87). Discussion: The proposed scale structure of the ISS could be replicated neither using EFA nor using CFA in the present sample. The results indicate that some items should be eliminated and others reworded. Further conceptual and psychometric research on the dimensionality of Internet addiction is needed.


There is a tremendous diversity in the level and time-series pattern of the self-employment rate across countries. After documenting this fact with cross-section and time-series data on industrialized and lesser-developed countries, this paper presents and tests a series of hypotheses concerning the sources of this diversity. We show that the major explanation for this diversity is the stage of economic development. While the tendency for the self-employment rate to decline with economic development has long been recognized, this paper is the first attempt to estimate the statistical relationship between self-employment and economic development and to test an explanation for this relationship that is grounded in theory. We also show that the negative relationship between self-employment and economic development remains after controlling for a number of other factors. Although economic development is an extremely powerful force behind the secular decline in self-employment rates, the convergence of several factors in the 1970s tended to stem the secular decline in the self-employment rate for many countries. Of the 23 OECD countries we examined, 15 had increases in the self-employment rate during the 1970s or 1980s. It is likely, however, that these factors are temporary and that self-employment will continue its downwards trend as per-capita wealth increases in the developed and developing world.


Introduction The definition of pesticide covers about 1 00 000 different chemicals, inorganic and organic, that are grouped according to their function or their chemical structure. Evidence is growing about long-term health effects following high-level, long-lasting exposure to some pesticides, including asthma and other allergic diseases, immunotoxicity, endocrine disruption, cancer, and central and peripheral nervous system effects. Identifying such specific chemicals is of paramount importance in preventing ill health in farmers, while preserving the benefits of plant protection against pests. Methods An extensive review of the literature was conducted. Result Currently, the International Agency for Research on Cancer classifies three obsolete agrochemicals as Group 1 human carcinogens (Arsenic compounds, lindane, and 1,2-dichloropropane); six are classified as probable human carcinogens, including captafol, DDT, diazinon, glyphosate, ethylene dibromide, and malathion, generating a vast controversy among the International Health and Safety Agencies and the media about the need to phase them out as some were widely used worldwide. Possibly human carcinogen pesticides are 20, and for 32 there is inadequate scientific evidence to classify their potential human carcinogenicity. The endocrine disrupting effects of numerous pesticides have also been extensively studied, but evidence of hormonal effects comes mainly from animal studies, either laboratory or wildlife animals; such results are difficult to refer to the low level long term exposure in humans. Other chronic effects repeatedly reported among users of specific pesticides include asthma and chronic bronchitis, immunosuppression, and neurodegenerative diseases, with the classical example of paraquat, but also other pesticide classes, and Parkinson's disease. Discussion Major reasons for uncertainty in interpreting epidemiological findings of long term pesticide effects include the complex pattern of overlapping exposure due to multiple treatments applied to different crops and their frequent changes over time to overcome pest resistance. Further research will have to address specific agrochemicals with well-characterised exposure patterns.


Purpose: This cross-sectional study was designed to identify anger-expression types in late school-age children and to investigate the relation of anger and the anger-expression type to their eating disorders. Method: Two hundred fifty four children in elementary school were recruited from 14 to 25, April, 2008. The data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, cluster analysis, t-test, ANOVA, and Tukey's multiple comparison test. Result: Three anger-expression types in late school-age children were found; Anger-in/out, Anger-control, and Low anger-expression types. Children frequently using the anger-out/in type among the three types and with a higher trait anger reported higher eating disorders. Particularly trait anger and unhealthy anger expression type were linked to eating disorders. Conclusion: This study suggests that a specific anger management program needs to be developed for late school-age children with high trait anger and frequently using the anger out/in expression type and Anger-control type than low anger-expression types. Further research needs to be done with large samples and discussed in terms of the role of gender in eating disorders.


Borges, J. B. 2014. Regional Lung Kinetics of Ventilator-Induced Lung Injury and ProtectiveVentilation Strategies Studied by Dynamic Positron Emission Tomography. Digital Comprehensive Summaries of Uppsala Dissertations from the Faculty of Medicine 1018. 68 pp. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-554-9003-4. Mechanical ventilation in itself can harm the lung and cause ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI), which can induce or aggravate acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). Much debate remains over pivotal concepts regarding the pathophysiology of VILI, especially about the precise contribution, kinetics, and primary role of potential VILI mechanisms. Consequently, it remains largely unknown how best to design a well-timed and full-bodied mechanical ventilation strategy. Little is known also about small airways dysfunction in ARDS. Dynamic positron emission tomography (PET) with [F]fluoro-2-deoxy-D-glucose (F-FDG) can be used to image cellular metabolism, which during lung inflammation mainly reflects neutrophil activity, allowing the study of regional lung inflammation in vivo. We studied the regional evolution of inflammation using dynamic PET/CT imaging of F-FDG in VILI and during different lung-protective mechanical ventilation strategies. By dynamic CT we investigated also the location and magnitude of peripheral airway closure and alveolar collapse under high and low distending pressures and high and low inspiratory oxygen fraction. Piglets were submitted to an experimental model of early ARDS combining repeated lung lavages and injurious mechanical ventilation. The animals were subsequently studied during sustained VILI, or submitted to distinct approaches of lung-protective mechanical ventilation: the one recommended by the ARDS Network (ARDSNet), or to one defined as open lung approach (OLA). The normally and poorly aerated regions corresponding to intermediate gravitational zones were the primary targets of the inflammatory process accompanying early VILI, which may be attributed to the small volume of the aerated lung that receives most of ventilation. The ARDSNet strategy did not attenuate global pulmonary inflammation during 27h and led to a concentration of inflammatory activity in the upper and poorly aerated lung regions. The OLA, in comparison with the ARDSNet approach, resulted in sustained and better gas exchange and lung mechanics. Moreover, the OLA strategy resulted in less global and regional inflammation. Dynamic CT data suggested that a significant amount of airway closure and related reabsorption atelectasis occurs in acute lung injury. Whether potential distal bronchioles injury ("bronchiolotrauma") is a critical and decisive element in ventilator-associated lung injury is a matter for future studies.


Ultraluminous X-ray sources (ULXs) are our best laboratories for studying extreme super-Eddington accretion. Most studies of these objects are of relatively persistent sources; however, there is growing evidence to suggest a large fraction of these sources are transient. Here we present a sample of five newly reported transient ULXs in the galaxies NGC 4945, NGC 7793, and M81 serendipitously discovered in Swift/XRT observations. Swift monitoring of these sources have provided well-sampled lightcurves, allowing for us to model the lightcurves with the disk-instability model of Hameury & Lasota, which implies durations of 60–400 days and that the mass-accretion rate through the disk is close to or greater than the Eddington rate. Of the three source regions with prior Hubble Space Telescope imaging, color–magnitude diagrams of the potential stellar counterparts show varying ages of the possible stellar counterparts. Our estimation of the rates of these sources in these three galaxies is 0.4–1.3 yr−1. We find that, while persistent ULXs dominate the high end of galaxy luminosity functions, the number of systems that produce ULX luminosities are likely dominated by transient sources.


An external-cavity diode laser based on self-pumped phase-conjugate optical feedback is reported. An antireflection-coated diode laser is subjected to strong phase-conjugate feedback from a photorefractive Ce-doped BaTiO3 crystal. This provides narrow laser linewidth and good stability. Inherent linewidth of 25 kHz and relative frequency stability of 1.5times10-8 (at 100 s) are demonstrated. Due to phase-conjugate feedback, the laser is insensitive to mechanical drifts and misalignment of the feedback element


4.1 ConclusionThe receptionist is one of the most important parts of the front office in general because it deals directly with guests and can be said of the office's activity center. Therefore, as a receptionist needs for mastery about the understanding of his workplace. In other words, service delivery to customer starts here and a receptionist should provide a pleasant first impression to customers. At P2T, which is a government agency, it is necessary to provide excellent service to customers to increase trust and a sense of comfort between the agency and the customer. There are conclusions of the writer that can be taken after the internship as follows:
1.) The ways the receptionist of P2T provides excellent public service in order to realize the vision and mission of this agency includes the main aspects such as pleasantness, speed, and accuracy, . These aspects implemented in the steps, every customer who came must be served with a friendly smile, giving information to customer about the kind of service we can serve and also always be ready and responsive to help customers as well.
2.) The obstacles when providing excellent service for improving customer satisfaction is basically a common problem for companies or agencies which are engaged in services also experienced such as the estimated time of completion of the document is too long, and how receptionist services the customer. These things can be handled with a few steps such as, stay calm, polite and friendly, learn and find out the cause any customer complaints, and also speed up the document creation. So, the customer who came to the P2T felt satisfied with the excellent service given the receptionist. This is proved by the questionnaire which was given randomly to 70 customers who visited P2T Surabaya. The questionnaire contains questions and statements, especially on the excellent service provided by the receptionist for customer satisfaction and 80% of them felt trusted and satisfied with the performance result of P2T.
After doing the internship in P2T, the writer has got many experiences that had been taken from his agency. He learned a lot about the real implementation how to handle and services the customer who came to the office properly from the subjects that had been studied before in university. This experience had been useful for the writer in his preparation for the next his workplace and also shares his experiences of the students from another university who will do the internship as the same place. Being a part of a government agency is a pride of its own felt by the writer.


When people distrust media systems, one response is to disconnect. This emergent theme within internet research encompasses technologies, practices, discourses, and politics of disconnection. Furthering these discussions, this panel draws together four investigations into technologies and practices of digital disconnection. Each paper interrogates a different form of disconnection and considers the various elements of trust and/or mistrust they reflect.
Two of the papers focus on forms of disconnection centered around avoidance. One takes up the problem of digital propaganda and the associated declining trust in online media systems. It argues that informational avoidance in the form of 'strategic illiteracies' might open new spaces for resistance to misinformation. The other paper considers the challenge of managing personal availability in a context where mobile communication creates expectations of continual availability. It investigates the discursive practices that young adults use to avoid others and argues that these practices rest on implicit systems of trust.
The remaining two papers consider how neoliberal discourses of self-improvement shape disconnective practices and technologies. They investigate forms of disconnection that are based around consumption choices and technology design. In both papers, disconnection is driven by growing distrust in dominant modes of technology design, specifically, their cognitive impacts. In response, the disconnective practices and technologies discussed in these papers place their trust in individualised, and often technological, solutions.
Overall, the panel contributes to scholarly debate around disconnection by considering new forms of disconnection, their role in our contemporary media environment, and the forms of trust and mistrust they reflect.


The GlideScope video laryngoscope has had a profound impact on clinical airway management by virtue of providing a glottic view superior to direct laryngoscopy. Since its introduction circa 2003, hundreds of studies have attested to its value in making clinical airway management easier and safer. This review will update the reader on the art and science of using the GlideScope videolaryngoscope in a variety of clinical settings and its relation to other airway management products. Topics covered include GlideScope design considerations, general usage tips, use in obese patients, use in pediatric patients, use as an adjunct to fiberoptic intubation, and other matters. Complications associated with the GlideScope are also discussed.


Although Polarization Modulation offers a high spectral efficiency, it has been not exploited much in modern communication systems because of the involvement of high switching speeds and complexity of associated hardware. We propose a dynamically controllable graphene metasurface capable to switch the polarization state of incident THz waves in real-time. The metasurface is designed by patterning two-dimensional graphene sheets with Fano-resonant chiral unit cells. Since the reflectance spectrum is characterized with co and cross polarized fields that bear asymmetric Fano line-shapes, several combinations of linear and elliptical polarization states are observed in a narrowband spectrum. At a fixed frequency, the electrostatic tunability property of graphene allows to switch between different polarization states by varying the chemical potential between 500 and 700 meV. The polarization state modulation with the proposed chiral graphene based metasurface is applied to implement a quaternary modulated digital communication system. Full-wave simulation results show the strong possibility of polarization modulation in THz communication systems. Graphene metasurfaces on account of the high electron mobility and discrete Fermi levels offer high switching speeds and seamless integration with digital systems.


In this communication, we give an overview of our work on an asynchronous brain-computer interface (where the subject makes self-paced decisions on when to switch from one mental task to the next) that responds every 0.5 s. A local neural classifier tries to recognize three different mental tasks; it may also respond "unknown" for uncertain samples as the classifier has incorporated statistical rejection criteria. We report our experience with 15 subjects. We also briefly describe two brain-actuated applications we have developed: a virtual keyboard and a mobile robot (emulating a motorized wheelchair).


Autocorrelation in stock returns is one important measure of the efficiency of securities markets pricing. Autocorrelation may be a sign of genuine pricing inefficiency: partial price adjustment (PPA), in which trades occur at prices that do not fully reflect the available information. However, autocorrelation may also arise from three other sources: bid-ask bounce (BAB), nonsynchronous trading (NT), and time-varying risk premia (TVRP). TVRP is not an indication of inefficient pricing. It can arise in a securities market equilibrium because the equilibrium returns of the available investments change over time; in particular, the presence of TVRP is entirely compatible with the absence of arbitrage in securities markets. Anderson, Eom, Hahn and Park (2006) provide methods for identifying a portion of the autcorrelation that can only be attributable to PPA and TVRP. This paper provides bounds on TVRP, as a function of the return period, the time horizon over which the autocorrelations are calculated, and the variability of risk premia. We find that the impact of TVRP is negligible in the empirical setting in Anderson, Eom, Hahn and Park (2006), but could be significant in other settings, requiring correction in estimates and hypothesis tests.