a b S T r a c T The aim of this study is to explore the relation of positive family climate, well-being at school and religiosity/spirituality between Brazilian youth groups of smokers and non-smokers. A non-random sample of 1.232 participants (631 males and 601 females) completed the questionnaire of this study. Ages ranged from 14 to 18 years (mean=15.68; SD=1.26). Smokers had significantly less positive family climate and well-being in school than the non-smoking youth. Regression analysis showed that all psychological characteristics act as protective factors for the smoking behavior among girls. On the other side, high well-being in school and attending school during the day can work as protective factors for boys. These findings can be important in the elaboration of public politics to reduce tobacco consumption.


A new distributed structural damage detection approach based on a two-stage Kalman estimator approach, which is not available in the previous literature, is proposed for the identification of large size structural parameters under limited input and output measurements. A large size structure is decomposed into small size substructures based on its finite element formulation and each substructure is identified by utilizing the two-stage Kalman estimator approach. It can greatly reduce the time of iteration calculation. Numerical example of identifying the parameters of a large-size plane truss bridge is conducted. Simulation results show that the proposed approach is able to identify structural systems.


Terroir—from the French word for soil—describes how local soil, climate, and geography affect the flavor of wine. Research at an Australian vineyard suggests that microbes in the soil make their own important contributions to terroir, changing the flavor of the wines made from the grapes that are grown there (Front. Microbiol. 2019, DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2019.01607). Australia's Victoria wine region has a cool climate and produces distinctive peppery wines from the Syrah grape, known locally as Shiraz. This spicy flavor is thanks to the sesquiterpene molecule called rotundone. But rotundone levels vary among vines, even in the same vineyard. Sequencing the DNA of soil microbes from one vineyard, Gupta Vadakattu at the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation in Urrbrae and coworkers found higher rotundone concentrations in grapes grown in soil that had a high bacterial diversity but low fungal diversity. While it's not clear exactly how the bacteria are influencing the


IEEE 802.3az standard (EEE), is the energy-aware alternative to legacy Ethernet. To save energy by extending the sojourn in the Low Power Idle state of EEE, packet coalescing has been proposed. While coalescing improves by far the energy efficiency of EEE, it is still far from achieving energy consumption proportional to traffic. Moreover, coalescing can introduce high delays. In this work, we use sensitivity analysis to evaluate the impact of coalescing timers and buffer sizes, and to shed light on the delay incurred by adopting coalescing schemes. Accordingly, we design and study measurement-based coalescing control solutions that tune the coalescing parameters on-the-fly, thus adapting the link to the instantaneous load and controlling the coalescing delay experienced by the packets. Our results show that, by relying on run-time delay measurements, simple and practical adaptive coalescing schemes outperform traditional static and dynamic coalescing. Notably, our schemes double the energy saving benefit of legacy EEE coalescing and allow to control the coalescing delay.


Although the impressive performance in visual grounding, the prevailing approaches usually exploit the visual backbone in a passive way, i.e., the visual backbone extracts features with fixed weights without expression-related hints. The passive perception may lead to mismatches (e.g., redundant and missing), limiting further performance improvement. Ideally, the visual backbone should actively extract visual features since the expressions already provide the blueprint of desired visual features. The active perception can take expressions as priors to extract relevant visual features, which can effectively alleviate the mismatches. Inspired by this, we propose an active perception Visual Grounding framework based on Language Adaptive Weights, called VG-LAW. The visual backbone serves as an expression-specific feature extractor through dynamic weights generated for various expressions. Benefiting from the specific and relevant visual features extracted from the language-aware visual backbone, VG-LAW does not require additional modules for cross-modal interaction. Along with a neat multi-task head, VG-LAW can be competent in referring expression comprehension and segmentation jointly. Extensive experiments on four representative datasets, i.e., RefCOCO, RefCOCO+, RefCOCOg, and ReferItGame, validate the effectiveness of the proposed framework and demonstrate state-of-the-art performance.


Fire-spread was measured on 121 grass fires in a 2500 ha experimental site in the Northern Territory, Australia. Selected plots were harvested to alter the height, load and bulk density of the fuel-bed. Fires were lit from a line and allowed to travel up to 400 m down-wind. Fire-spread was correlated with fuel, weather and fireshape variables using multiple regression techniques. Wind speed had most effect on fire-spread. The influence of the other variables was examined after a model for wind speed and moisture content had been fitted. Fuel load did not influence fire-spread. Fires in natural swards burnt 18% faster than fires in cut grass, but this increase could not be fully explained by changes in the height or bulk density of the fuel bed. Grass type characterised either by species group or by surface-area-to-volume ratio of the fuel particle, did not appear to significantly influence fire-spread. Differences in spread rates between the two grasses were attributed to differences in grass curing. The influence of grass curing appeared to be less than indicated by published models. Models of fire-spread in grasslands currently in use need to be revised. Ignition line length was a significant variable influencing fire-spread and this must be taken into consideration when using experimental fires to validate theoretical models or develop empirical models from field observations.


Energy modeling is an important issue for designing and dimensioning low power wireless sensor networks (WSN). In order to help the developers to optimize the energy spent by WSN nodes, a pragmatic and precise hybrid energy model is proposed. This model considers different scenarios that occur during the communication and evaluates their energy consumption based on software profiling as well as the hardware components power profiles. The proposed model is a combination of analytical derivations and real-time measurements. Firstly, the analytical model provides a global view of various elements of the link and MAC layers and shows their impact on the energy consumption. Secondly, the real-time measurements provide an accurate estimate of the power consumption of the software as well as the hardware platform. These experiments are particularly useful to understand the MAC layer mechanisms, such as wake-up or data collisions for the preamble sampling category, and the energy wasted by collisions is evaluated. The presented model is validated under a specific setup with three different test cases. The results verify that the relative error is between 1 and 8%.


We describe a method for searching for ideal symmetric solutions to the Prouhet-Tarry-Escott Problem. We report results of extensive searches for solutions of sizes up to 12. We found two solutions of size 10 that are smaller by two orders of magnitude than the solution found by A. Letac in the 1940s, which was the smallest size 10 solution known before our search.


Statistical models of marine ecosystems use a variety of data sources to estimate parameters using composite or weighted likelihood functions with associated weighting issues and questions on how to obtain variance estimates. Regardless of the method used to obtain point estimates, a method is required for variance estimation. A bootstrap technique is introduced for the evaluation of uncertainty in such models, taking into account inherent spatial and temporal correlations in the datasets, which are commonly transferred as assumptions from a likelihood estimation procedure into Hessian-based variance estimation procedures. The technique is demonstrated on a real dataset and the effects of the number of bootstrap samples on estimation bias and variance estimates are studied. Although the modelling framework and bootstrap method can be applied to multispecies and multiarea models, for clarity the case study described is of a single-species and single-area model.


The North Tyrrhenian Sea separates Corsica from the Tuscany coast and it is subdivided into three sectors with different morphological and geological characteristics: the Corsica Basin, the Elba-Pianosa Ridge and the Tuscan Shelf. The North Tyrrhenian Sea is considered to be an extensional basin formed during the post-collisional phases of the Northern Apennines. It is filled by up to 8.5 km of Eocene to Recent deposits unconformably lying on Cretaceous or older strata. The aim of this work is to present the main features of the seismic line CROP-M12A and provide a linkage between this line and the inland CROP-03 profiles. The M12A line crosses the Tuscan Shelf from SW-NE, south of Elba Island from the Elba-Pianosa Ridge to the Punta Ala promontory. The Corsica Basin is bounded to the west by an east-dipping master fault (the Solenzara fault) active in Oligocene times and reactivated in the Late Miocene. To the east the basin is flanked by the Elba-Pianosa Ridge. Industrial and deep seismic profiles indicate that the sedimentary fill of the Corsica Basin is up to 6.5 sec (TWT) thick, and that it is composed of Oligocene to Quaternary poorly deformed strata resting on Eocene deformed strata, in turn resting on the acoustic basement, probably composed of calcschists. The Elba-Pianosa Ridge has been drilled by the two wells Martina 1-Mimosa 1 and it is crossed by the CROP line M12A. The submerged part of the ridge is mainly composed of a thick Eocene-Early Miocene siliciclastic succession. Only at Pianosa Island, where the top of the ridge is emerged, are Lower Miocene-Quaternary deposits exposed. The Oligocene deposits are well-imaged on seismic line CROP M12A and have been penetrated by the two wells; their thickness reduces towards the Tuscany coast from 2.0 sec TWT (about 3000 m) to 0.7 sec TWT (about 800 m). Industrial seismic profiles across the Tuscan Shelf show that Oligocene deposits are folded and thrusted eastwards and that Burdigalian-Langhian sedimentary fill occurred the thrust-top basins. Evidence of a post-Oligocene deformational phase has recently been documented by the stratigraphic revision of the Mimosa 1 well, where the tectonic repetition of the Eocene series has been recognised. A suite of basins filled by about 2500 m of Late Miocene-Quaternary deposits, resting unconformably on the acoustic basement, characterise the eastern part of the Tuscan Shelf. Basins formed as half-grabens during Late Miocene-Early Pliocene times, and hilly post-rift conditions occurred in the Pleistocene. East-dipping basin master faults show listric geometry and can be followed down to 3.0 sec TWT. The acoustic basement of the eastern part of the Tuscan Shelf is represented by the Mesozoic carbonate rocks of the Tuscan Nappe. CROP-M12A analysis underlines that the Montecristo High is one of the major structures of the Tuscan Shelf. Similarly to the Middle Tuscany Ridge, it is bounded by opposite verging faults. The western NE-verging thrust was reactivated as a normal fault in the Late Miocene. The thrust can be followed throughout the whole Tuscan Shelf and affects the crust down to about 15 km. The prominent reflections at depths of 7.0 and 8.0 sec TWT are interpreted to be the Moho. The shallow reflection is interpreted to be the Apenninic Moho, and the deep reflection to be the Tyrrhenian Moho.


Pigs are the most likely source animals for cardiac xeno-transplantation. However, an appropriate method for estimating the cardiac function of micropigs had not been established. Computed tomography (CT) analysis aimed at estimating cardiac function and assessing the coronary arteries has not been carried out in micropigs. This study determined the feasibility of evaluating cardiac function in a micropig model using multidetector row computed tomography (MDCT) and compared the cardiac function values with those of conventional pigs. The mean age of the conventional pigs and micropigs was approximately 80 days and approximately 360 days, respectively. The mean body weight in the conventional pigs and micropigs was 29.70 ± 0.73 and 34.10 ± 0.98 kg, respectively. Cardiac MDCT detected ejection fractions of 52.93 ± 3.10% and 59.00 ± 5.56% and cardiac outputs of 1.46 ± 0.64 l/min and 1.21 ± 0.24 l/min in conventional pigs and micropigs, respectively. There were no significant differences in cardiac function between conventional pigs and micropigs in the reconstructed CT images. There were also no differences in the coronary angiographic images obtained by MDCT. It is expected that the results of this study will help improve understanding of cardiac function in micro-pigs. The data presented in this study suggest that MDCT is a feasible method for evaluating cardiac function in micropigs.


"Guardians of Hidden Universes" is a playful story for experiencing on your phone in the street. You're a Guardian of Hidden Universes, and when you check your Communication Terminal you find the Guild has made a terrible mistake they need you to repair.

The experience lasts about 15-25 minutes, and takes you around whatever city you happen to be in. That's right – you can play it in any city in the world!

The app was launched at Popup Playground's 2013 Fresh Air Festival – a new pervasive gaming festival in Melbourne, Australia.

This playful story is inspired by the idea of creating a locative-experience that is not site-specific. How can we have an experience than engages with the environment that also can work worldwide? The story is also playing with the idea of engaging with a character and a space and intuition within a short period of time.

The short and playful experience is a Universe Creation 101 production. It was conceived, written, and designed by Christy Dena; with artwork, coding, and interface design by Elroy.


I am pleased to join the President of the International Committee of the Red Cross in introducing this special edition of the Review focusing on the 50th anniversaries of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and of the Office of the High Commissioner for Refugees. This tribute has special significance for us at UNHCR, as we see the ICRC and the International Movement of the Red Cross and Red Crescent as among our closest partners on the humanitarian frontlines.


Cyber-security threats are a growing concern in networked environments. The development of Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) is fundamental in order to provide extra level of security. We have developed an unsupervised anomaly-based IDS that uses statistical techniques to conduct the detection process. Despite providing many advantages, anomaly-based IDSs tend to generate a high number of false alarms. Machine Learning (ML) techniques have gained wide interest in tasks of intrusion detection. In this work, Support Vector Machine (SVM) is deemed as an ML technique that could complement the performance of our IDS, providing a second line of detection to reduce the number of false alarms, or as an alternative detection technique. We assess the performance of our IDS against one-class and two-class SVMs, using linear and non-linear forms. The results that we present show that linear two-class SVM generates highly accurate results, and the accuracy of the linear one-class SVM is very comparable, and it does not need training datasets associated with malicious data. Similarly, the results evidence that our IDS could benefit from the use of ML techniques to increase its accuracy when analysing datasets comprising of non-homogeneous features. Keywords—Classification Algorithms; Cyber Security; Intrusion Detection Systems; Machine Learning Techniques; Network Security; Support Vector Machine; SVM


This paper presents a unique method for improving the performance of the generalized predictive control (GPC) algorithm for controlling nonlinear systems which can be extended to other forms of predictive controllers. This method is termed adaptive generalized predictive control (AGPC) which uses a multidimensional workspace of the nonlinear plant to recalculate the controller parameters every sampling instant. This results in a more accurate process prediction and improved closed-loop performance over the original GPC algorithm. The AGPC controller was tested in simulation, and its control performance was compared to GPC on several nonlinear plants with different degrees of nonlinearity. Practical testing and comparisons were performed on a steel cylinder temperature control system. Simulation and experimental results show that the adaptive generalized predictive controller provided improved closed-loop performance over GPC. The formulation of the multidimensional workspace can be readily applied to othe...


The impact of TRIPS agreement on the growth and technological capabilities of the Indian and emerging country pharmaceutical industry has emerged as a critical issue in quest for affordable healthcare for poor populations all over the world. Evidence suggests that the initial response of Indian pharmaceutical industry to the TRIPS challenge was based on exploiting superior process R&D capabilities and targeting small molecules generic markets in advanced countries. However, in the last decade the decline in traditional generic markets, aggressive acquisitions by MNCs, regulatory hurdles in advanced country market and failures in managing new drug development has made existing business model redundant, creating significant challenges of growth and survival for the Indian firms. The research presented in this paper suggests that in this new environment some leading Indian firms are now targeting the set of opportunities presented by the emergent biosimilar segment in the global generics market as a new source of growth. Some Indian firms have made gradual transition towards development of biosimilar capabilities and using case studies of three Indian firms, this paper argues that this transition represents a next phase of creative evolution for the Indian pharmaceutical industry. The different set of capability required for biosimilar product development and market entry forced Indian firms to employ different technology and marketing strategy, revealing clear differences between strategies adopted by firms to develop and target small molecule generic markets and biosimilar markets. This research further highlights the underlying learning process dominating this transition and influence of path dependencies in shaping them. This paper concludes with discussion on implications of these findings to evolution of business models of pharmaceutical firms based in emerging and developing countries.


: Criteria of professional rehabilitation potential, rehabilitation forecasting of disabled persons were developed based on clinical data and results of the commission of experts. 412 patients with vestibular dysfunction as a result of previous cranio-cerebral trauma, chronic suppurative medium otitis, compromised neurosensory apparatus of an internal ear have been observed. Optimized variants of social-labour rehabilitation of persons with compromised vestibular analyzer were proposed.


Usually in a radar signal-processing scheme, the primary consideration is the geometrical resolution of the system, or, if a particular measurement is desired, the accuracy of the system. Thus a given signal-to-noise ratio may be sought in order to meet a simple detection requirement or a desired accuracy. Usually, beyond these simple criteria, the matter of signal amplitude fidelity is not particularly stressed. In many processes, however, signal fidelity can be an important consideration in evaluating the over-all effect on the observer. In this paper the loss of information caused by signal interference in correlation or matched filter techniques is evaluated in an approximate manner. This is related to the invariance of the total integral of the Woodward ambiguity function. Degradation of the desired signal due to the statistical fluctuation of the signal itself is also considered. The distinction between pre-detection integration, which is involved in the correlation process, and post-detection integration is made. How these fluctuations can be reduced by post-detection integration is discussed and the resulting probability distributions of the signal are evaluated. Finally some brief comments are made on the philosophy of providing adequate gray-level rendition in radar displays. Attention is given to reconciling the dynamic ranges of the display and the signal, and to the number of resolvable gray levels available in the signal. A good example of these principles is the problem of recognition of objects in maps obtained from high-resolution radars.


Over the past couple decades, the explosion in the development of high-resolution and super-resolution microscopy techniques has led to the need for the development of new protein labeling techniques. Click-labeling via genetic code expansion (GCE) has received particular attention given its potential has the ultimately small labelling probe for proteins. Click-labeling via GCE offers a reliable and sterically minimally demanding capacity to label proteins, but its application in non dividing cells such as neurons remains poorly exploited due to its low efficiency. Here, we describe a simple, efficient and reproducible protocol that allows to fluorescently label transmembrane proteins in live neurons using click-labeling via GCE, both in dissociated culture and organotypic brain slices.


The overall aim of this research was to review the general criteria for selection of trees for urban environments and city environments. The reason for this research was to assess the extent to which criteria for tree selection can contribute to nature conservation in cities. We conducted an extensive review of the literature, looking for publications about the selection criteria. In particular, we looked for any previous published reviews of the criteria. With reference to the criteria used in New Zealand, we undertook an unstructured review of the practices adopted in most cities. A review of the literature revealed many publications about different criteria but only one publication in which there was a general review of the criteria used for selecting trees for urban environments. By way of contrast, lists of tree species deemed to be suitable (or unsuitable) for urban planting are widely available, and some include information about selection criteria, but often with little background explanation. Worldwide, commonly used criteria included commercial availability of species, compatibility with urban environments, landscape design, low maintenance, avoidance of nuisance factors and historical practice. The most common criteria are concerned with the concept of choosing species compatible with local climate and soils. Anecdotal evidence suggests that more and more cities are using a mix of criteria including those that may contribute to conservation and restoration of native biota. We suggest that there should be greater use of ecological, genetic and biogeographical criteria to meet the needs of nature conservation in New Zealand cities.


This study, being the second part of a two-part paper, presents the application of a lifetime performance analysis methodology to three reinforced concrete bridges located in an existing bridge network in Colorado. The focus of this paper is on reinforced concrete slabs and girders of these bridges. The limit state equations were previously derived in the companion paper by grouping the random variables, deterministic parameters, and constant coefficients in such a way that the formulas are applicable to reinforced concrete slabs and girders in general. The results presented in this paper for reinforced concrete slabs and girders are part of a larger study focusing on lifetime performance analysis of multiple bridge types in a selected bridge network. The bridges are individually described herein, followed by the presentation of the performance analysis results including both initial reliability indices and lifetime reliability profiles. Once the values associated with random variables, deterministic parameters, and constant coefficients are assigned, component reliability indices for the slab and the girders are calculated for each bridge. Detailed results are presented for an individual bridge, whereas the lifetime reliability profiles are presented for all bridges. For time-variant performance analysis, special emphasis is placed on the chloride penetration modeling in reinforced concrete, theoretical basis of which was presented in the companion paper.


The thyroid hormone, 3,3′,5‐triiodo‐l‐thyronine (T3), mediates several physiological processes, including embryonic development, cellular differentiation, metabolism and regulation of cell proliferation. Thyroid hormone (T3) and its receptor (TR) are involved in metabolism and growth. In addition to their developmental and metabolic functions, TRs play a tumor suppressor role, and therefore, their aberrant expression can lead to tumor transformation. Aberrant epigenetic silencing of tumor suppressor genes promotes cancer progression. The epigenetic regulator, Ubiquitin‐like with PHD and ring finger domains 1 (UHRF1), is overexpressed in various cancers. In our study, we demonstrated that T3 negatively regulates UHRF1 expression, both in vitro and in vivo. Our results further indicate that UHRF1 regulation by T3 is indirect and mediated by Sp1. Sp1‐binding elements of UHRF1 were identified at positions −664/−505 of the promoter region using the luciferase and chromatin immunoprecipitation assays. Notably, UHRF1 and Sp1 levels were elevated in subgroups of hepatocellular carcinoma patients and inversely correlated with TRα1 expression. Knockdown of UHRF1 expression should therefore provide a means to inhibit hepatoma cell proliferation. Expression of UHRF1 was downregulated by TRs, in turn, relieving silencing of the UHRF1 target gene, p21. Based on the collective findings, we propose that T3/TR signaling induces hepatoma cell growth inhibition via UHRF1 repression.


Harmonics cause major problems in power systems due to non linear loads. With the rapid growth in the utilization of rectifiers for critical loads, e.g. in computer or medical equipment, the need for high quality uninterruptible power is increasing. Non-linear current drawn by the rectifier loads distort the output of a UPS system. Mainly because of the output filter impedance in a UPS. A distorted output voltage will result in reduced DC-bus voltage or rectifier loads and may lead to excessive losses and heating. The main objective of this thesis is to eliminate harmonics and reduce the power loss in inverters. The harmonic separation process is implemented with a processor and achieves low THD using blind signal separation. It is mostly used in medical instrumentation and medical applications like ECG and EEG.


The 2nd School on Engineering Trustworthy Software Systems (SETSS 2016)
was held during March 28 { April 2, 2016, at Southwest University, Chongqing,
China. It was aimed at PhD and Master students in particular, from around
China, as well as being suitable for university researchers and industry software
engineers. The �rst 50 participants accepted for the School received free places.
This volume contains a record of some of the lectures and seminars delivered at
the School.
The School was held at the time when Southwest University was celebrating
its 110th anniversary. It was organized by the School of Computer and Information
Science at Southwest University, providing lectures on leading-edge research
in methods and tools for use in computer system engineering. The School aimed
to enable participants to learn about state-of-the-art software engineering methods
and technology advances from experts in the �eld.
An opening address was delivered by the Vice President of Southwest University,
Prof. Yanqiang Cui, followed by an introduction to SETSS 2016 by
Prof. Zhiming Liu. Sessions at the School were chaired by Professors Zili Zhang,
Jonathan Bowen, Zhiming Liu, and Jim Woodcock.
The following lectures courses (four 90-minute lecture sessions each) were
delivered during the School:
{ Tao Xie: Parameterized Unit Testing: Theory and Practice
{ Michael Butler: Modelling and Veri�cation in Event-B
{ Martin Leucker: Runtime Veri�cation
{ Yifeng Chen: Parallel Programming Today
{ Jim Woodcock: Semantics of Reactive Systems
{ Alvaro Miyazawa: Java in the Safety-Critical Domain { A Re�nement Ap-
proach
In addition, there were two 120-minute evening seminars on related subject areas:
{ Jonathan Bowen: Alan Turing: Founder of Computer Science
{ Zhilin Wu: Formal Reasoning about In�nite Data Values: An Ongoing Quest
These additional presentations complemented the longer lecture courses.


This study was designed to measure the magnitude and duration of inhibition of platelet aggregation following doses of aspirin or ibuprofen alone or taken in combination in a group of healthy volunteers. Ten normal volunteer subjects underwent 3 randomized treatment sessions: aspirin 325 mg alone, ibuprofen 400 mg alone, and ibuprofen 400 mg, followed by dosing with aspirin 325 mg 2 hours thereafter. In addition, a confirmatory study was performed in patients. Over 27 months, a cohort of patients treated with aspirin for secondary stroke prophylaxis while concomitantly taking a nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drug (NSAID) was identified. A significant reduction was found in both the magnitude and duration of aspirin's inhibitory effect on platelet aggregation when ibuprofen was given prior to aspirin administration in normal volunteer subjects. During a 27‐month period, a cohort of 28 patients took regular daily doses of ibuprofen or naproxen. Of these 28 patients, 18 returned for follow‐up testing in the absence of this pharmacodynamic interaction. None of these 18 patients demonstrated inhibition of platelet aggregation while on both NSAID and aspirin; however, all showed inhibition of aggregation following discontinuation of the NSAID. Notably, 13 of these 18 patients (72%) had experienced a recurrent ischemic episode while taking aspirin and NSAIDs concomitantly. These data suggest that ibuprofen prevents the irreversible inhibition of platelet aggregation produced by aspirin needed for secondary stroke prophylaxis, and this interaction can have clinical consequences for patients taking aspirin.


This paper takes as its primary concern the relationship between prefaces, realism, and what Tzvetan Todorov terms "fantastic fiction." I use a close reading of the paratextual apparatus of two canonical works of fantastic fiction, Wilkie Collins's The Woman in White (1860) and Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897), to argue that the preface plays a crucial role in establishing a realist pact with the reader before the narrative proper commences. Many critics have convincingly shown that literature of the "fantastic" exhibits, somewhat incongruously, a strong reliance on the realist mode: in order to have a highly improbable tale accepted as "true" and read as credible, it is incumbent upon authors such as Collins and Stoker to establish a realist pact with the reader. While this paper relies on precisely this insight, it extends the analysis by drawing on Gerard Genette's influential 1987 monograph Seuils (translated as Paratexts in 1997) to theorise the role of prefatory discourses in the creation of textual meaning and a realist pact.


Daily horror stories related to software vulnerabilities necessitates the understanding of how vulnerabilities are discovered. Identification of data sources that can be leveraged to understand how vulnerabilities are discovered could aid cybersecurity researchers to characterize exploitation of vulnerabilities. The goal of the paper is to help cybersecurity researchers in characterizing vulnerabilities by conducting an empirical study of software bug reports. We apply qualitative analysis on 729, 908, and 5336 open source software (OSS) bug reports respectively, collected from Gentoo, LibreOffice, and Mozilla to investigate if bug reports include vulnerability discovery strategies i.e. sequences of computation and/or cognitive activities that an attacker performs to discover vulnerabilities, where the vulnerability is indexed by a credible source, such as the National Vulnerability Database (NVD). We evaluate two approaches namely, text feature-based approach and regular expression-based approach to automatically identify bug reports that include vulnerability discovery strategies. We observe the Gentoo, LibreOffice, and Mozilla bug reports to include vulnerability discovery strategies. Using text feature-based prediction models, we observe the highest prediction performance for the Mozilla dataset with a recall of 0.78. Using the regular expression-based approach we observe recall to be 0.83 for the same dataset. Findings from our paper provide the groundwork for cybersecurity researchers to use OSS bug reports as a data source for advancing the science of vulnerabilities.


The design of nuclear power plant has to follow a number of regulations aimed at limiting the risks inherent in this type of installation. The goal is to prevent and to limit the consequences of any possible incident that might threaten the public or the environment. To verify that the safety requirements are met a safety assessment process is followed. Safety analysis is as key component of a safety assessment, which incorporates both probabilistic and deterministic approaches. The deterministic approach attempts to ensure that the various situations, and in particular accidents, that are considered to be plausible, have been taken into account, and that the monitoring systems and engineered safety and safeguard systems will be capable of ensuring the safety goals. On the other hand, probabilistic safety analysis tries to demonstrate that the safety requirements are met for potential accidents both within and beyond the design basis, thus identifying vulnerabilities not necessarily accessible through deterministic safety analysis alone. Probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) methodology is widely used in the nuclear industry and is especially effective in comprehensive assessment of the measures needed to prevent accidents with small probability but severe consequences. Still, the trend towards a risk informed regulation (RIR) demanded a more extended use of risk assessment techniques with a significant need to further extend PSA's scope and quality. Here is where the theory of stimulated dynamics (TSD) intervenes, as it is the mathematical foundation of the integrated safety assessment (ISA) methodology developed by the CSN(Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear) branch of Modelling and Simulation (MOSI). Such methodology attempts to extend classical PSA including accident dynamic analysis, an assessment of the damage associated to the transients and a
computation of the damage frequency. The application of this ISA methodology requires a computational framework called SCAIS (Simulation Code System for Integrated Safety Assessment). SCAIS provides accident dynamic analysis support through simulation of nuclear accident sequences and operating procedures. Furthermore, it includes probabilistic quantification of fault trees and sequences; and integration and statistic treatment of risk metrics. SCAIS comprehensively implies an intensive use of code coupling techniques to join typical thermal hydraulic analysis, severe accident and probability calculation codes. The integration of accident simulation in the risk assessment process and thus requiring the use of complex nuclear plant models is what makes it so powerful, yet at the cost of an enormous increase in complexity. As the complexity of the process is primarily focused on such accident simulation codes, the question of whether it is possible to reduce the number of required simulation arises, which will be the focus of the present work.
This document presents the work done on the investigation of more efficient techniques applied to the process of risk assessment inside the mentioned ISA methodology. Therefore such techniques will have the primary goal of decreasing the number of simulation needed for an adequate estimation of the damage probability. As the methodology and tools are relatively recent, there is not much work done inside this line of investigation, making it a quite difficult but necessary task, and because of time limitations the scope of the work had to be reduced. Therefore, some assumptions were made to work in simplified scenarios best suited for an initial approximation to the problem. The following section tries to explain in detail the process followed to design and test the developed techniques. Then, the next section introduces the general concepts and formulae of the TSD theory which are at the core of the risk assessment process. Afterwards a description of the simulation framework requirements and design is given. Followed by an introduction to the developed techniques, giving full detail of its mathematical background and its procedures. Later, the test case used is described and result from the application of the techniques is shown. Finally the conclusions are presented and future lines of work are exposed.


Previous studies have shown that the diuretic hormone atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) also regulates the steroidogenic responsiveness in isolated Leydig cells from mouse and rat testes. In the present study, we examined the distribution of specific receptors for ANP and C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP) in the testicular compartments of 12-week-old Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). We used an in vitro autoradiographic procedure on slide-mounted frozen testicular sections to localize the receptors of the natriuretic peptide hormone family using 125I-ANP and 125I-CNP as radioligands. A high level of specific 125I-ANP binding sites was localized largely in the Leydig cells of the interstitial compartment; other testicular cells were not significantly labeled. On the other hand, no significant difference was observed in 125I-CNP binding sites in the testicular cells of SHR and WKY. Semiquantitative analysis of the binding sites indicated that the density of 125I-ANP receptor binding in Leydig cells of WKY testis was ninefold higher than in those of SHR testis. A moderate level of 125I-ANP binding was also observed in seminiferous tubules, particularly in the spermatids of both SHR and WKY. 125I-ANP binding in WKY spermatids was approximately 2.5-fold higher than in SHR spermatids. Northern blot analysis showed that mRNA specific for guanylyl cyclase type A (Npra) was expressed at approximately twofold higher levels in WKY than in SHR testis. ANP (1 x 10(-8) mol/L) stimulated fourfold to fivefold increased levels of testosterone production in isolated Leydig cells from normotensive WKY compared with those from SHR. These findings support a new physiological role of ANP in Leydig cells, in which a functional relationship seems to exist between testicular ANP receptor expression and testosterone production and the state of hypertension in SHR.


Embedded systems are an important element of controlling wind turbines. Embedded systems development and learning are inseparable. This paper presents a study of wind turbine control systems and the developers' learning with the hope of contributing to the understanding of embedded systems development and practice-based learning. Our approach focuses on the sociotechnical practices, including the reciprocity between constitutive means and the developers' individual experience; central matters in this framework involve the process of understanding the indeterminacy and the handling of the IT. The embedded systems development case addresses development of hardware, software and their interfaces. Learning occurs, enabled by converging understanding of the indeterminate situation and the different experience of the developers. The case shows that embedded systems developers deliberately keep technical knowledge close to their chests, which constrains learning. The paper contributes to the understanding of the individual systems developer's learning and the mechanisms of enablers and obstacles in the learning processes.


Abstract A dinoflagellate cyst record with strong Mediterranean/Lusitanian affinities is described from marine deposits of Eemian age (Last Interglacial; Late Pleistocene) at Ristinge Klint, Denmark, revealing new information about the hydrographic evolution of the southwestern Baltic Sea. A revised correlation of the pollen record at Ristinge Klint with that of the annually laminated site at Bispingen in northern Germany provides temporal control. Approximately the first quarter of Eemian time is represented. A marine ingression into a lake took place during the Quercus rise, about 300 years into the interglacial, and is marked by low (< c. 3 psu) salinities at the base of the Cyprina Clay that increased progressively. An abrupt and significant rise in the inflow of warm, saline waters from the North Sea occurred at about 750 years into the interglacial (the Corylus rise), and at about 1900 years into the interglacial, strongly stratified waters developed. Higher in the Cyprina Clay and continuing to its top, at nearly 3000 years into the interglacial, more open-marine waters are indicated, although fully marine conditions were not reached. The dinoflagellate record throughout the Cyprina Clay at Ristinge Klint is therefore one of increasing marine influence. Summer sea-surface temperatures approached, and may have exceeded, 26–28 °C during early Eemian time, indicating temperatures at least 5 °C warmer than at present. These warm conditions persisted to the top of the record at Ristinge Klint. No evidence exists at Ristinge Klint for the influence of Arctic watermasses, and the paucity of cold-water species throughout the section reflects mild winter temperatures in the southwestern Baltic Sea. The new species Spiniferites ristingensis is formally described, and the name Operculodinium centrocarpum var. cezare de Vernal, Goyette & Rodrigues, 1989 is validated.


The paper is based on the researches carried out during 2007-2009 in the special plots placed on the hill with 10 % slope in Agricultural Research and Development Station Oradea. The metal panels and soil dams there were between the plots. The variants studied: black fallow, pasture, wheat, maize on the level curves, and maize from hall to valley. The biggest soil losses were determined in the variant with black follow and the variants with maize seeded from hill to valley maize on the level curves, wheat and pasture had the smaller losses in this order. The biggest yield losses were determined in the year with the biggest annual rainfall, 2007. The maize crop from hill to valley determined soil losses bigger than the yield losses from variant with maize cropped on the level cures. The wheat assured a better protection against the erosion in comparison with the maize and the best protection against erosion was assured by the pasture. In the same time the erosion determined the differences between the physical parameters (hydro stability of the macrostructure - aggregates bigger than 0.25 mm, bulk density, g/cm3; total porosity, %; hydraulic conductivity, mm/h; penetration resistance, kg/cm3) of the soil in the top and the base of the hill; in the top of the hill the values of the physical parameters were less favorable for plants in comparison with the hill base. The worst situation was registered in the variant with black fallow fallowing the variants cropped with maize from hill to valley, the variants cropped with maize on the level curves with and pasture. The big soil and the big yield losses determined in the variant with maize on the level curves the big soil losses determined in the variant with black fallow are the arguments to crop the wheat (or other plants with small distance between the rows) or the pasture on the hill with 10% slope in the conditions of the area with 615.2 mm rainfall a multiannual average too. The results were obtained in the project "Study of the risk factors, the quantification of their impact on agricultural systems, the creation of the new genotypes and technologic needed for sustainable development". CEEX 35/2006 project.


Copyright: © 2012 Hui P. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. In recent months, two specialty pathology journals chose article images of molecular diagnosis of hydatidiform mole as the journal front covers: the March issue of The International Journal of Gynecological Pathology [1] and the July issue of the Journal of Molecular Diagnostics released [2]. Such emerging interests in the molecular diagnosis of hydatidiform moles may be explained by one simple reason that is our inability to accurately diagnose these common conditions by traditional histology and ancillary studies.


This paper reports a method for analyzing data from a DriveCam unit to determine impact speeds and velocity changes in vehicle-to-vehicle impacts. A DriveCam unit is an aftermarket, in-vehicle, event-triggered video and data recorder. When the unit senses accelerations over a preset threshold, an event is triggered and the unit records video from two camera views, accelerations along three directions, and the vehicle speed with a GPS sensor. In conducting the research reported in this paper, the authors ran four front-to-rear crash tests with two DriveCam equipped vehicles. For each test, the front of the bullet vehicle impacted the rear of the stationary target vehicle. Each of the test vehicles was impacted in the rear twice - once at a speed of around 10 mph and again at a speed around 25 mph. The accuracy of the DriveCam acceleration data was assessed by comparing it to the data from other in-vehicle instrumentation. We found that, for inline front-to-rear crashes like those tested in this paper, the video, GPS and acceleration data reported by the DriveCam systems is useful for reconstructing crashes, provided that the reconstructionist accounts for potential limitations in the data.


The theoretical models and finite element models of implant-supported fixed partial dentures and surrounding osseous tissues were founded. It was studied of the influence of connector sectional area on implant-supported fixed partial dentures and surrounding osseous tissues. The results indicate that increasing the connector sectional areas to some extent has positive effect on fixed bridge itself. But the maximum stresses in some regions of surrounding osseous tissues increase as the connector sectional areas increase, the change extent is smaller comparatively. The study provides biomechanics evidence for the optimum design of implant-supported fixed partial dentures.


In the current-driven, kink-type Tayler instability (TI) a sufficiently strong azimuthal magnetic field becomes unstable against nonaxisymmetric perturbations. The TI has been discussed as a possible ingredient of the solar dynamo mechanism and a source of the helical structures in cosmic jets. It is also considered as a size-limiting factor for liquid metal batteries. We report on a liquid metal TI experiment using a cylindrical column of the eutectic alloy GaInSn to which electrical currents of up to 8 kA are applied. We present results of external magnetic field measurements that indicate the transient occurrence of the TI in good agreement with numerical predictions. The interference of TI with the competing large-scale convection, resulting from Joule heating, is also discussed.


In order to make much detail monitor and more practical evaluation on structural safety and durability for long-span continuous rigid frame bridge, the condition for prestressing reservation in service stage turns out to be a necessary key index. By means of obtained stress value on prestressing tendons, discrimination on subordinated mode and recognition on nominal coefficients of prestress losses are implemented. Furthermore, unified evaluation on effective prestress of post-tensioned PC bridges are realized at anytime of the whole service life, which include different geometric patterns of prestressed reinforcement, different types of structure and different structural formation systems. Simultaneously, recognition on two types of nominal coefficients for prestress losses is realized and regularities of practical distribution can be simulated. The practical utility of a long-span continuous rigid frame bridge show that the general principle for effective prestress can be demonstrated. Therefore, key parameters for health monitoring on existing long-span continuous rigid frame bridge are provided and the results lay the foundation for further control.


We have found previously that the retinoblastoma (Rb) suppressor associated protein 46 (RbAp46) is a gene upregulated by the Wilms' tumor suppressor, WT1, and functions as a potent growth inhibitor. To investigate the effect of RbAp46 overexpression on early development of breast cancer, we established stable cell lines from neoplastigenic breast epithelial cells, MCF10AT3B, a cell line derived from a model of human proliferative disease, to constitutively express exogenous RbAp46. We have found that expression of RbAp46 suppressed colony formation of MCF10AT3B cells in soft‐agar, and inhibited tumor formation of these cells in nude mice. Expression of RbAp46 sensitized MCF10AT3B cells to apoptosis induced by serum deprivation and hydrocortisone withdrawal. Furthermore, we have found that the c‐Jun NH2‐terminal kinase (JNK) pathway and GADD45, a growth arrest‐ and DNA damage‐inducible gene, are constitutively activated in RbAp46‐expressing cells. Our data suggested that high levels of RbAp46 expression inhibit the tumorigenicity of neoplastigenic breast epithelial cells by facilitating JNK‐dependent apoptotic cell death. Our data also suggested that dysregulation of RbAp46 gene may be involved in the early development of breast cancer. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


ABSTRACT:We study the implications of the Great Recession for voting for antiestablishment parties, as well as for general trust and political attitudes, using regional data across Europe. We find a strong relationship between increases in unemployment and voting for nonmainstream parties, especially populist ones. Moreover, unemployment increases in tandem with declining trust toward national and European political institutions, though we find only weak or no effects of unemployment on interpersonal trust. The correlation between unemployment and attitudes toward immigrants is muted, especially for their cultural impact. To explore causality, we extract the component of increases in unemployment explained by the precrisis structure of the economy, in particular the share of construction in regional value added, which is strongly related both to the buildup preceding and the bursting of the crisis. Our results imply that crisis-driven economic insecurity is a substantial determinant of populism and political distrust.


Animations of American Sign Language (ASL) and Pidgin Signed English (PSE) have accessibility benefits for many signers with lower levels of written language literacy. In prior experimental studies we conducted evaluating animations of ASL, native signers gave informal feedback in which they critiqued the insufficient and inaccurate facial expressions of the virtual human character. While face movements are important for conveying grammatical and prosodic information in human ASL signing, no empirical evaluation of their impact on the understandability and perceived quality of ASL animations had previously been conducted. To quantify the suggestions of deaf participants in our prior studies, we experimentally evaluated ASL and PSE animations with and without various types of facial expressions, and we found that their inclusion does lead to measurable benefits for the understandability and perceived quality of the animations. This finding provides motivation for our future work on facial expressions in ASL and PSE animations, and it lays a novel methodological groundwork for evaluating the quality of facial expressions for conveying prosodic or grammatical information.


In this dissertation by an old—or let us say, older—pediatrician, I wish to elaborate on the hypothesis that research in practice is a partial solution to the problem of the ills of pediatrics. And since my years permit it, I should like to give advice to younger men seeking the "New Pediatrics." Today it is a common complaint among these young pediatricians (and many older ones) that they are less than happy in the pursuit of their profession. The hours are long; payment, in contrast to other fields of medicine, not particularly rewarding; and that, most of all, they are bored. Perhaps boredom could be better replaced by the word "fed-up." Certainly one would be a magnificent hypocrite if at times he did not admit to being "fed-up" by the day-to-day pressures of practice, having to see too many people in too short a time, having to mollify overwrought mothers,


Nowadays, hairstyle is one of the fashions that can bring the image of the face and whole attire. One of way to choose a suitable hairstyle is by considering the shape of the face. If the hairstyle been form perfectly but does not suitable with the face shape still could make a terrible image. Based on observation, 61 percent of people did not know their own face shape. This project is built to help the user to find the face shape by applying modern technology which is image processing. This project also provides suggestion of suitable hairstyle base on the face shape. The technique will be used is Canny edge detection and the platform will be MATLAB. The technique is chosen because of its accuracy in detecting the edge of image than using other techniques which are Sobel, Prewitt and Robert. Development method that suitable for this research project which has six phases is agile method because of its flexibility in developing a project. The focus in this technique is the Edge detection which needed to find the image information to determine the shape of the face. As a conclusion, this research would give some benefits in image processing area. Other researchers can make some enhancement in the future in order to improve this research. The system can be improved by better input and output of the project and also develop for mobile application for the future work.


The Consortium for Continental Reflection Profiling (COCORP) transect across the southwest margin of the Colorado Plateau in Arizona reveals prominent subhorizontal zones of reflections, here termed the Bagdad reflection sequence (BRS), which dominate the upper and middle crust in the transition zone (TZ) between the Colorado Plateau and the Basin and Range province. A Cenozoic origin for the BRS is considered most likely; it may represent fragmented or sheared zones related to detachment faulting or a series of intrusions, possibly emplaced along preexisting zones of weakness. Moho reflections observed beneath the TZ and the Basin and Range province contrast with the nonreflective Moho beneath the Colorado Plateau, suggesting that extension and its associated igneous processes probably played a key role in the development of reflectors at the Moho. The Moho and a prominent midcrustal reflector are offset by about 3 km in a normal sense in at least one place; this is the best example of offset Moho yet found by COCORP and contrasts sharply with COCORP observations of a smooth Moho elsewhere. This offset is probably a late tectonic expression of crustal extension and thinning across the TZ.


New multi-channel seismic reflection data acquired in the southwest Indian Ocean is used to evaluate the basement structure and the origin of the southern Mozambique Ridge (MozR). Another objective of the interpretation of the data is to investigate the possible impact of the structure on palaeocean circulation in the evolving Southern Ocean. Investigation of the new geophysical data shows the occurrence of extensive lava flow sequences and a great number of extrusion centres. The observations suggest a Large Igneous Province origin of the southern MozR and its emplacement between 131 and 125 Ma. The sedimentary record in the area of the southern MozR acts as an archive for the water mass exchange between the Indian and South Atlantic Oceans through the African-Southern Ocean gateway. Characteristic sedimentary structures are deposited by current-controlled sedimentation and allow for an interpretation of the intensity, pathway and direction of the palaeocean circulation. The observations document the evolution from a restricted circulation during the Cretaceous towards an open marine circulation during Neogene and Quaternary times within the gateway.


In the past, the primary job responsibilities of Rehabilitation Sciences professionals included evaluating and treating patients, however, clinicians today need to be able to understand, apply and generate research, manage and administer clinics, and provide education to future professionals (1,2). Accordingly, the entry level educational requirements for Rehabilitation Sciences professionals have extended from undergraduate to doctoral degrees (2). The current benchmark of clinical practice is evidence-based practice, and we need to ensure that Rehabilitation Sciences professionals are trained to be effective evidence-based practitioners (2,3). Clinical outcomes are highly reliant on clinicians' understanding, integration and production of new research evidence related to clinical knowledge and skills (2).


In this report, droplet movement due to a gradient in surface energy is studied. The droplet is a 2µl 1-decanol droplet. The gradient is created by forming an array of different chemically striped patterns with alternating hydrophobic and hydrophilic stripes, allowing for reproducible gradients. The hydrophobic stripes are selfassembled monolayers made of hydrophobic
uorinated molecules, while the hydrophilic stripes are the bare SiO2 surface of the wafer. The ration α, defined as the width of the hydrophobic stripes divided by the width of the hydrophilic stripes, is a key parameter that influences the dynamics of the droplet moving on a surface with a surface energy gradient. Another key parameter for the droplet movement is the absolute width of the hydrophobic and hydrophilic stripes. The movement of the droplet is influenced by the patterned surface underneath the droplet.
The droplet tends to move more easily over patterns with wide SiO2 stripes. The length of the individual patterns influences the droplet motion as well.


This study investigated the effect of UV light irradiation on a Pt working electrode during the anodic electrodeposition of ceria (CeO2) thin films in an aqueous solution containing Ce3+. UV light irradiation on the Pt anode induced the formation of holes in the valence band of anodically preformed CeO2 nuclei, which serve as photoabsorbers. The resultant holes oxidized Ce3+ to CeO2 at the CeO2/solution interface as well as at the bare Pt surface. That is, CeO2 itself acted as a sensitive layer for photoelectrochemical deposition. Although the current efficiency was reduced by the UV irradiation, the deposition amount and crystal size of CeO2 clearly increased as compared to the dark process. It was verified that the oxygen saturation of the electrolyte solution was also effective in enhancing the deposition. In this paper, the photoelectrochemical deposition mechanism of CeO2 is discussed in detail, and the positive effects of photoirradiation on film quality are demonstrated.


Environmental education programs are critically important for raising awareness about global and local environmental concerns, by providing the knowledge, tools, and means for young and old generations to cope with current challenges. Of the greatest importance is the implementation of environmental education programs in biodiversity hotspots where environmental crises are high and resources to fund mitigation programs are low. Madagascar is one such priority hotspot, featuring intensive wildlife-human conflicts due to shrinking natural environments. The Duke Lemur Center-SAVA Conservation Initiative has been conducting environmental education activities in the SAVA region, northeastern Madagascar, since 2011. These activities have been aimed at increasing awareness of local and global environmental issues and at stimulating the involvement of local school students. Our initiatives have predominantly supported teacher trainings to provide teachers with environmental education content, examples, and recommendations on how to integrate activities into their regular curricula, commonly referred to as a "cascade approach". Due to logistical hurdles, including high teacher turnover rates, however, these interventions have not been monitored to assess their efficacy. Thus, to better inform current and future interventions, we designed and implemented classroom-based surveys to gather baseline data on the basic knowledge of SAVA students and their perceptions of the environment. We identify informational gaps in surveyed schools, including those located in large towns vs. villages, and those with trained vs. untrained teachers. Based on these results, we make recommendations for future environmental education efforts in the region, including activities that could address real-life environmental problems and decision-making solutions.


: A solution synthesis is described of the partially protected N alpha-benzyloxycarbonylheptadecapeptide Z-Lys (Tfa)-Thr-Glu-Arg-Glu-Asp-Leu-Ile-Ala-Tyr-Leu-Lys (Tfa)-Lys (Tfa)-Ala-Thr-Asn-Glu (OBu t)-OBu t corresponding to sequence 88-104 of horse heart cytochrome c. The synthesis is achieved through the preparation of two subunits H1 (sequence 88-96) and H2 (sequence 97-104) and their linkage by an azide coupling step.


Transmembrane channel‐like protein isoform 1 (TMC1) is essential for the generation of mechano‐electrical transducer currents in hair cells of the inner ear. TMC1 disruption causes hair cell degeneration and deafness in mice and humans. Although thought to be expressed at the cell surface in vivo, TMC1 remains in the endoplasmic reticulum when heterologously expressed in standard cell lines, precluding determination of its roles in mechanosensing and pore formation. Here, we report that the KCNQ1 Kv channel forms complexes with TMC1 and rescues its surface expression when coexpressed in Chinese Hamster Ovary cells. TMC1 rescue is specific for KCNQ1 within the KCNQ family, is prevented by a KCNQ1 trafficking‐deficient mutation, and is influenced by KCNE β subunits and inhibition of KCNQ1 endocytosis. TMC1 lowers KCNQ1 and KCNQ1‐KCNE1 K+ currents, and despite the surface expression, it does not detectably respond to mechanical stimulation or high salt. We conclude that TMC1 is not intrinsically mechano‐ or osmosensitive but has the capacity for cell surface expression, and requires partner protein(s) for surface expression and mechanosensitivity. We suggest that KCNQ1, expression of which is not thought to overlap with TMC1 in hair cells, is a proxy partner bearing structural elements or a sequence motif reminiscent of a true in vivo TMC1 hair cell partner. Discovery of the first reported strategy to rescue TMC1 surface expression should aid future studies of the TMC1 function and native partners.


In this article, we construct a model to study competing payment networks, where networks offer differentiated products in terms of benefits to consumers and merchants. We study market equilibria for a variety of market structures: duopolistic competition and cartel, symmetric and asymmetric networks, and alternative assumptions about consumer preferences. We find that competition unambiguously increases consumer and merchant welfare. We extend this analysis to competition among payment networks providing different payment instruments and find similar results.


The literature in the psychology of aging shows cognitive declines among older adults in many abilities. This study addresses the question of whether informant age affects production in free listing. The study compares numbers of free-listed items across four quotidian domains by groups of older (n = 30) versus younger ( n = 31) adults. Smaller samples of five, ten, fifteen, twenty, and twenty-five were also analyzed to assess age by sample size interaction at smaller sample sizes. Results show that at the level of the group and at every sample size, older adults produce more unique items than younger adults but that when idiosyncratic items (mentioned by only one person) are eliminated from the analysis, older and younger adults produce equivalent numbers of items. Finally, we varied the size of target sets (ten, fifteen, twenty) of most frequently cited items at thirty participants and examined the percentage of those items present for sample sizes of five, ten, fifteen, twenty, and twenty-five participants. For all set sizes and for both age groups, approximately 74—79% of items were present at n = 20 and 80—87% were present at n = 25. No effects were found for either different target set sizes or for age groups. These results suggest a modest advantage for older versus younger adults in free listing.


Attention maps are a popular way of explaining the decisions of convolutional networks for image classification. Typically, for each image of interest, a single attention map is produced, which assigns weights to pixels based on their importance to the classification. A single attention map, however, provides an incomplete understanding since there are often many other maps that explain a classification equally well. In this paper, we introduce structured attention graphs (SAGs), which compactly represent sets of attention maps for an image by capturing how different combinations of image regions impact a classifier's confidence. We propose an approach to compute SAGs and a visualization for SAGs so that deeper insight can be gained into a classifier's decisions. We conduct a user study comparing the use of SAGs to traditional attention maps for answering counterfactual questions about image classifications. Our results show that the users are more correct when answering comparative counterfactual questions based on SAGs compared to the baselines.


We propose a general framework for (multiple) conditional randomization tests that incorporate several important ideas in the recent literature. We establish a general sufficient condition on the construction of multiple conditional randomization tests under which their p-values are "independent", in the sense that their joint distribution stochastically dominates the product of uniform distributions under the null. Conceptually, we argue that randomization should be understood as the mode of inference precisely based on randomization. We show that under a change of perspective, many existing statistical methods, including permutation tests for (conditional) independence and conformal prediction, are special cases of the general conditional randomization test. The versatility of our framework is further illustrated with an example concerning lagged treatment effects in stepped-wedge randomized trials.


ABSTRACT Accumulating evidence indicates that student attendance is closely tied to a range of educational outcomes, and yet millions of students are chronically absent each year. Under the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), schools are now held accountable for their students' attendance at a scale this country has never before seen. As such, this is a crucial time to understand what research and evaluations suggest about what schools can do to move the needle on student attendance. As researchers work toward understanding the impact of different interventions and practices, and how results vary by grade level, on-the-ground experiences in schools highlight the pervasive use of incentives from pre-K to grade 12. Schools have employed a wide range of incentives to improve attendance, with varied levels of success. Unfortunately, there is little guidance on what policymakers and practitioners ought to consider when deciding if incentives are an appropriate intervention, and then how to design incentives in ways that align with the nature of specific attendance barriers and problems. This article presents a framework to fill that gap. We outline the design considerations when creating attendance incentives and offer guidance to practitioners deciding what to implement in their school.


Human NAT2*5 allele is a designation for a group of variant alleles of the NAT2 gene, which is located in the vicinity of 8p22 and is approximately 10 kb in length. The wild-type allele, which encodes arylamine N-acetyltransferase 2 protein, is involved in the activation/deactivation of arylamine and hydrazine compounds. This group of allelic variants of the NAT2 gene all exhibit a SNP (c. 341T>C) that results in a I114T coding change and is associated with decreased enzymatic activity of the encoded protein.


We propose a novel machine learning technique that can be used to estimate probability distributions for categorical random variables that are equipped with a natural set of classification hierarchies, such as words equipped with word class hierarchies, wordnet hierarchies, and suffix and affix hierarchies. We evaluate the estimator on bigram language modelling with a hierarchy based on word suffixes, using English, Danish, and Finnish data from the Europarl corpus with training sets of up to 1–1.5 million words. The results show that the proposed estimator outperforms modified Kneser-Ney smoothing in terms of perplexity on unseen data. This suggests that important information is hidden in the classification hierarchies that we routinely use in computational linguistics, but that we are unable to utilize this information fully because our current statistical techniques are either based on simple counting models or designed for sample spaces with a distance metric, rather than sample spaces with a non-metric topology given by a classification hierarchy.


Introduction: Preterm delivery is estimated to be one of the leading causes of perinatal morbidity and mortality, for which there are no known effective preventive measures. C reactive protein (CRP) is one of the sensitive markers of systemic inflammation and ferritin is an acute phase reactant protein. Objectives: To compare the serum levels of high sensitive C-reactive protein (hsCRP) and Ferritin between pregnant women presenting with preterm onset of labor followed by delivery and age matched women who delivers at term. Materials and Method: The study included 50 women aged between 18-35 years with singleton pregnancy and gestational age between 24-34 complete weeks with the diagnosis of new onset of preterm labor and a control group of 50 healthy and age matched pregnant women in the term labor. In all the cases and controls, serum hsCRP and ferritin were measured by the latex enhanced immuno-turbidimetric methods using reagent kits from Agappe diagnostics. Results: Serum mean levels of hsCRP and ferritin were significantly higher in preterm labour cases when compared to controls. The difference was statistically highly significant (p < 0.001). Conclusion: Present results demonstrated that the assessment of maternal concentrations of hsCRP and ferritin can be used as suitable biomarkers for predicting preterm labor.


Abstract. 2D and 3D imageries can allow the optimization of rock mass exploitation (quarries, roads, rail networks, open pit, potentially tunnels and underground mines networks). The increasingly common use of photogrammetry makes it possible to obtain georeferenced 3D point clouds that are useful for understanding the rock mass. Indeed, new structural analysis solutions have been proposed since the advent of the 3D technologies. These methods are essentially focused on the production of digital stereonet. Production of additional information from 3D point clouds are possible to better define the structure of the rock mass, in particular the quantification of the discontinuities density. The aim of this paper is to test and validate a new method that provides statistics on the distances between the discontinuity planes. This solution is based on exploiting the information previously extracted from the segmentation of the discontinuity planes of a point cloud and their classification in family. In this article, the proposed solution is applied on two multiscale examples, firstly to validate it with a virtual synthetic outcrop and secondly to test it on a real outcrop. To facilitate these analyses, a software called DiscontinuityLab has been developed and used for the treatments.


If one or more federal trial or appellate court judges disagree on whether summary judgment should be ordered, summary judgment can still be granted when an appellate majority finds in favor of summary judgment. The case will be dismissed, and a jury will not try it. Logically, however, should this occur? At least one judge has stated that a reasonable jury could find for the party against whom summary judgment has been ordered. In these situations where judges disagree on whether summary judgment should be granted, they often portray the case's facts in very different ways—what I refer to as "massaging facts." The massaging of facts, along with the issues of summary judgment's unconstitutionality and the underlying reasonable jury standard's impossibility, make summary judgment legally problematic. At the same time, courts extensively employ summary judgment to dismiss many factually intensive cases, including police brutality and sexual harassment cases. Given that summary judgment has no prospect of being eliminated any time soon, the question is whether the "summary judgment problem" can be reformed to make the procedure more defensible. This Article explains the summary judgment problem including the concept of massaging facts. It then analyzes "the consensus requirement"—an effort to make summary judgment more justifiable given its continued use today.


Narrative sensemaking is a fundamental process to understand sequential information. Narrative maps are a visual representation framework that can aid analysts in this process. They allow analysts to understand the big picture of a narrative, uncover new relationships between events, and model connections between storylines. As a sensemaking tool, narrative maps have applications in intelligence analysis, misinformation modeling, and computational journalism. In this work, we seek to understand how analysts construct narrative maps in order to improve narrative map representation and extraction methods. We perform an experiment with a data set of news articles. Our main contribution is an analysis of how analysts construct narrative maps. The insights extracted from our study can be used to design narrative map visualizations, extraction algorithms, and visual analytics tools to support the sensemaking process.


Semantic role labeling (SRL) identifies predicate-argument structure(s) in a given sentence. Although different languages have different argument annotations, polyglot training, the idea of training one model on multiple languages, has previously been shown to outperform monolingual baselines, especially for low resource languages. In fact, even a simple combination of data has been shown to be effective with polyglot training by representing the distant vocabularies in a shared representation space. Meanwhile, despite the dissimilarity in argument annotations between languages, certain argument labels do share common semantic meaning across languages (e.g. adjuncts have more or less similar semantic meaning across languages). To leverage such similarity in annotation space across languages, we propose a method called Cross-Lingual Argument Regularizer (CLAR). CLAR identifies such linguistic annotation similarity across languages and exploits this information to map the target language arguments using a transformation of the space on which source language arguments lie. By doing so, our experimental results show that CLAR consistently improves SRL performance on multiple languages over monolingual and polyglot baselines for low resource languages.


We consider statistical inference in the presence of serial dependence. The main focus is on use of statistics that are constructed as if no dependence were believed present, and are asymptotically normal in the presence of dependence. Typically the variance in the limit distribution is affected by the dependence, and needs to be consistently estimated. We discuss first the leading caes of location and regression models, stressing least squares estimation. We then consider the use of robust estimates, such as M-estimates, in these models. We go on to discuss more general statistical models, including econometric models. The rules of inference adopted in these cases typically involve use of a bandwidth or smoothing number when the dependence introduces a nonparametric aspect, and we discuss choice of such numbers. We then consider some possibilities for improved inference by use of higher-order asymptotic theory and the bootstrap. The dependence considered in the paper is mostly of short-range type, but we also discuss forms of long-range dependence. Finally, we consider inference based on smoothed nonparametric estimates of probability densities and regression functions, where dependence often has no effect on first-order asymptotics.


The Dinarides and southwestern part of the Pannonian Basin are placed at the contact of the Adriatic microplate and the Eurasian plate. Although some authors emphasize the subduction of the Adriatic microplate under the Dinarides, the location of subduction is still subject of discussion. Two-dimensional gravity modelling was carried out to highlight the contact of the Dinadires and Pannonian Basin and to define better structure of the crust. The area of exploration covers the areas of the Croatia and the Bosnia and Herzegovina. Four profiles were set up perpendicularly to the spread of the geological structures, i.e. the Dinarides and the contact zone. Among the profiles the ALP07 profile was also used, which was defined in framework of the seismic experiment ALP 2002. The profile stretches in Croatia in the WSW-NNE direction from Istra to the Drava river. On this profile the both modelling was performed, the seismic and the gravity modelling. Considering that seismic data have a much higher resolution, boundaries of individual layers and lateral boundaries on the profile ALP07 were taken from the seismic model to calibrate density distribution in the gravity model. On this way resolution of the gravity modelling at the other profiles is increased, which enabled more precise definition of crustal and upper mantle relationships in the investigated area. According to the gravity models of the profiles three types of the crust can be considered: Dinaridic crust, Pannonian crust, and Transition zone. Dinaridic crust is two-layered with low densities in the upper crust and high densities in the lower crust. Pannonian crust can be thought as a unique layer, which is characterized by low densities. In the Transition zone lateral variation of the densities can be seen, caused by the wide ophiolites zones at the contact of the Dinarides and the Pannonian Basin. Anomalies of high densities that can be followed at all profiles are probably caused by the oceanic crust rocks. Crust of the Transition zone is more similar to the Dinaridic crust. Possible subduction of the Adriatic microplate could be placed at the edge parts of the Pannonian Basin. On the basis of all gravity models a general structural map of the area was established, which can be very helpful in planning of further seismic experiments in the area.


Aquatic ecosystems are environmentally heterogeneous with features such as fronts or clines of temperature and salinity. This heterogeneity varies over time and is likely to cause changes in predator-prey overlaps, which will affect the diet composition of the predators. We investigated how inflows of oxygenated and saline deep water alternating with stagnation periods affect the con- sumption rates of the herring Clupea harengus L. and the sprat Sprattus sprattus L. by the cod Gadus morhua in the Bornholm basin of the Baltic Sea. We developed conceptual models for the effect of predator-prey overlaps on the aggregate diet of the predator population to test the hypothesis that the effects of inflows on the aggregate diet are mediated by changes in cod-clupeid overlaps. After estimating salinity and oxygen thresholds of the spatial distributions of cod and clupeids and calcu- lating cod-clupeid overlaps from March 1958 to 2004, we applied the models relating cod-clupeid overlaps to observed numbers and masses of herring and sprat in cod stomachs. Our study indicated that (1) the ratio of consumed herring to sprat increases faster than proportionally to the ratio of cod-herring to cod-sprat overlaps, and (2) the ratio of consumed herring to sprat increases slower than proportionally to the ratio of herring to sprat in the sea. The latter is most pronounced at the low ratios of overlaps that occur during stagnation periods, which destabilise the clupeid populations, and may have contributed to the drastic increase in the sprat abundance during the late 1980s.


: Liver biopsy remains establishment of assessment and frameworks for liver illness in young people, while work of liver biopsy is varying by the improvement of elective strategies to find and advance liver imaging systems. Evidence from liver biopsy is progressing as information on etiologies, non-invasive biomarker options and healing choices for liver disease in children increases. The methodology can routinely be confounded in young people by specialized disorders, cost and the small size of the example. Correspondence and organization of doctors with pathologists practiced in pediatric liver illness is fundamental. DNA sequencing, original imaging modalities, non-offensive biomarkers of fibrosis in addition apoptosis, proteomics, and genome-wide affiliation testing suggesting probable elective techniques for the evaluation of liver disease in children. The current research offers explicit signs, contemplations, techniques, tangles, contraindications, and options for liver biopsy in children.


This paper discusses the joint venture between the German Aerospace Center (DLR) Institute of Robotics and Mechatronics and the German robot manufacturer, KUKA Robotics GmbH, for the successful transfer of the knowledge in robot dynamics and control, human robot interaction, and sensory feedback as originally developed for the remote control of space robots to industrial robotics. This technology transfer venture aims to promote more industrial sensory feedback applications with particular focus on the fusion of vision and force, while merging service and industrial robots into the future. As such, the aim is to transfer new robonaut technologies and ultra-lightweight, torque-controlled, kinematically redundant arms with multifingered articulated hands into the terrestrial robot industry.


Introduction : Small scale artisanal mining which is also called gold panning is rampant in gold rich areas in Zimbabwe. Objectives : This is a study of the nature and extent of neurosurgical injuries affecting miners and an evaluation of their financial means to access medical facilities. Design : This was a cross-sectional observational study carried out to study the neurosurgical injuries seen at Parirenyatwa Hospital. Materials and Methods: The setting was the Neurosurgical Unit at  Parirenyatwa hospital. The study period was January 2014 to December 2016. Data was collected at discharge onto a datasheet with subsequent computer analysis. Results : A total of 36 patients were seen during the study period following artisanal mining related neurosurgical injuries. Thirty-four (34) of them were male (94.4%) while two (2) were female (5.6%).The age range was 20-45 years.


We tested the assumption that female Euphausia pacifica produce multiple broods of eggs during their spawning season by maintaining individual females under laboratory conditions at 10.5°C and comparing the egg production of females collected from 2 populations, 1 from Heceta Bank off central Oregon (44° N, n = 27 individuals), and the other from waters near Santa Barbara, California (34° N, n = 12 individuals). We documented the production of multiple, distinct broods by daily observation of females over periods from 1 to 9 mo. Median brood sizes were not significantly different between regions: 102 eggs for females from Heceta Bank and 116 eggs for females from Santa Barbara. Median interbrood period (IBP) was significantly different: 4 d for Santa Barbara females and 5 d for Heceta Bank females. Brood size and IBP were highly variable within and among individuals. The total number of eggs produced female -1 in the experiment ranged from 378 to 8600, and IBPs ranged from 1 to 79 d. A brood of eggs represented an average of 9% of the female's weight in carbon, equivalent to 0.5 to 6% of body weight d -1 (average of 1.7% d -1 ).


The demise of the Howard Coalition Government in Australia in late 2007 and the coming to power of a new Labor Government provides a timely opportunity to consider the fate of regional development under Howard and its prospects under the current administration. Much of the focus of debates over regional policy under Howard has been on the highly controversial Regional Partnerships Program, which was said by many to have (further) politicised regional policy. There is a need for a much broader and more comprehensive analysis of the period in question. The paper seeks to provide - or at least to commence - such an analysis, and to uncover both the key policy trends and the reasons for them. It argues that the principal development in regional policy was to further embed 'localism' as the preferred approach, and that this was broadly in line with developments in the States and Territories and overseas. The Howard Government's approach begs the questions whether this reliance on 'local solutions to local problems' is the best way of doing regional policy, and what it means for regional development. The paper makes some tentative suggestions for better regional governance in the light of the experience of the Howard Government.


PURPOSE
Many health systems face challenges such as rising costs and lacking quality, both of which can be addressed by improving the integration of different health care sectors and professions. The purpose of this viewpoint is to present the German health care Innovation Fund (IF) initiated by the Federal Government to support the development and diffusion of integrated health care.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH
This article describes the design and rationale of the IF in detail and provides first insights into its limitations, acceptance and implementation by relevant stakeholders.

FINDINGS
In its first period, the IF offered € 1.2 billion as start-up funding for model implementation and evaluation over a period of four years (2016-2019). This period was recently extended to a second round until 2024, offering € 200 million a year as from 2020. The IF is triggering the support of relevant insurers for the development of new integrated care models. In addition, strict evaluation requirements have led to a large number of health service research projects which assess structural and process improvements and thus enable evidence-based policy decisions.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE
This article is the first of its kind to present the German IF to the international readership. The IF is a political initiative through which to foster innovations and promote integrated health care.


The Poisson INAR(1) CUSUM chart has been proposed to monitor integer-valued autoregressive processes of order 1 with Poisson marginals. The effectiveness of this chart has been shown under the assumptions of Poisson marginals and known in-control process parameters, but these assumptions may not be very well satisfied in practical applications. This article investigates the practical issues concerning applications of the Poisson INAR(1) CUSUM chart, considering average run lengths obtained through a bivariate Markov chain approach. First, the effects of deviations from the assumed Poisson model are investigated when there is overdispersion. Design recommendations for achieving robustness are provided along with an extension, the Winsorized Poisson INAR(1) CUSUM chart. Next, analyzing the conditional average run length performance under some hypothetical cases of parameter estimation, it is shown that estimation errors may severely affect the chart's performance. The marginal average run length performance is used to derive sample size recommendations. An example for monitoring the number of beds occupied at a hospital emergency department is used to illustrate the proposed approach.


A hybrid finite element-Laplace transform method is implemented to analyze the time domain electromagnetic scattering induced by a 2-D overfilled cavity embedded in the infinite ground plane. The algorithm divides the whole scattering domain into two, interior and exterior, sub-domains. In the interior sub-domain which covers the cavity, the problem is solved via the finite element method. The problem is solved analytically in the exterior sub-domain which slightly overlaps the interior subdomain and extends to the rest of the upper half plane. The use of the Laplace transform leads to an analytical link condition between the overlapping sub-domains. The analytical link guides the selection of the overlapping zone and eliminates the need to use the conventional Schwartz iteration. This dramatically improves the efficiency for solving transient scattering problems. Numerical solutions are tested favorably against analytical ones for a canonical geometry. The perfect link over the artificial boundary between the finite element approximation in the interior and analytical solution in the exterior further indicates the reliability of the method. An error analysis is also performed. AMS subject classifications: 35M10, 65M60


Background and Objective: We investigated the effect of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) in moderating pulmonary endothelial leakage in endotoxin-induced acute lung injury (ALI). Methods: Male C57BL/6 mice at 8 to 12 weeks of age were studied. Murine iPSCs were delivered through the tail veins of mice 4 hours after intratracheal instillation of lipopolysaccharide (LPS). Lung histopathological findings, proteins level and proinflammatory cytokines in peripheral blood and bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), expression of junctional proteins, and regulatory signaling pathways were analyzed after 24 hours. Human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) were cultured as a relevant model as cells expressed major junctional proteins to be responsible for maintaining vascular integrity in vivo. Results: iPSCs significantly diminished the histopathological changes of ALI mice compared to treatment with control cells. Proteins leakage, IL6 and MIP-2 levels in BALF were significantly reduced in iPSC-treated ALI mice. The iPSC therapy restored VE-cadherin expression in the lung of ALI mice. iPSC reduced the permeability of HUVECs monolayer increased by LPS or VEGF. In HUVECs, the iPSCs restored the expression of VEcadherin in response to LPS or VEGF via reducing Snail expression and phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) in Tyr397 (pFAK-Tyr397). We found conditioned medium of iPSCs (iPSC-CM) contained TIMP-1, an antiangiogenic factor. Pharmacological TIMP-1 inhibition significantly reduced the histopathological benefit and the change of VE-cadherin and pFAK-Tyr397 expression from iPSC-CM in ALI mice. Conclusion: iPSCs attenuate endothelial cell leakage in endotoxininduced ALI. These effects are mediated, at least in part, by the enhancement of TIMP-1 activity and reduction of FAK/Snail pathway.


It has been investigated about Electron Spin Resonance spectra of Sour-sop Leaves (Annona muricata L) extract compound from Kupang distric . The aim of this research is to determine the amplitude response and sensitivity of sour-sop leaves extract compound to X-ray radiation. In this research, sour-sop leaves extract compound is obtained by maceration extraction method using n-Hexane and ethanol pro analysis solvent, then its extract is evaporated. Furthermore, it is conducted annealing process to obtain its powder. Samples of sour-sop leaves extract compound were weighed 0.2 grams then be irradiated with X-rays voltage of 70 kV - 85 kV at RSU Prof. W.Z. Yohanes Kupang. The dose rate were obtained in this research is from 8,69 x 10 -8 Gy/hour to 9,91 x 10 -8 Gy/hour. Subsequently, these samples was calibrated using an Electron Spin Resonance Spectroscopi in Physics Laboratory, Science and Technique Faculty - Nusa Cendana University . Based on research data analysis result, amplitude response and sensitivity of sour-sop leaves extract are obtained 9,45 Volt/kg - 10,8 Volt/kg and 9,20 x 10 -9 Gy.kg/h.Volt - 9,22 x 10 -9 Gy.kg/h.Volt respectively. Amplitude response of sour-sop leaves extract compound is linear to the absorbtion dose rate and its sensitivity is relatively constant to dose rate. Based on amplitude response and sensitivity value, sour-sop leaves extract compound is potential to use as an alternative active material in dosimeter for medical radiography purposes. Keywords : Sour-sop leaves, amplitude response, sensitivity, medical radiography


Wear and rolling contact fatigue interaction in rolling/sliding contact is an important topic in the research on structural integrity of rails and railway wheels. Wear is in competition with rolling contact fatigue, as it removes surface material layers, reducing cracks length and hindering their propagation. Cracks nucleate by accumulation of cyclic unidirectional plastic strain (ratcheting). In this paper a model for ratcheting assessment is discussed and applied to the UIC 900A steel, after a calibration based on experimental results. The experimental tests allow also a characterization of the crack formation condition for this material. By this model, a computer program is developed in order to simulate in a very short time the effect of a large number of load cycles, providing a tool for predicting crack formation and propagation rates.


As there is a worldwide adoption of 3D printing (3DP) in many activity areas, formal education becomes mandatory for acquiring theoretical knowledge and hands-on skills for an efficient use, for bringing real contributions to the development of this technology and its applications. Truly digitally natives, Gen Z students are now entering higher forms of education. They are trained by Gen X and early Gen Y professors who should be able to cope not only with students' different set of skills and mind-set, but also, in case of 3D printing, with the media overexposure of this technology and, consequently, with a tendency of fast acquiring shallow knowledge and being auto-sufficient with this. In this context, our research examines the challenges and implications raised by 3DP curriculum aspects, providing a series of considerations and analyses based on literature review and on a long experience of teaching this topic in an engineering environment. Results of a survey aimed to understand Gen Z Romanian students' expectations on learning and teaching 3DP are also presented. We agree the idea that teaching should be adapted to student prior knowledge, not being practical and efficient to customize it to student trait. In the same time, we consider that knowing new generation characteristics, learning habits and preferences, as a group, can definitely support teachers in choosing the right tools and methods so that to improve correct content delivery and to ensure that this content efficiently reaches audience.


Objective: To explore the current literature that describes the effects of insurance status on traumatic brain injury (TBI) outcomes among pediatric patients in order to gain a better understanding of its public health relevance. Method: This review was conducted using the Preferred Reporting Items of Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA). A search of OVID Medline was conducted in December of 2013 for peer-reviewed articles that included keywords related to "brain injuries" and "insurance status". Results: After screening for inclusion and exclusion criteria between the two researchers a total of 12 articles were included and considered relevant for review. Discussion/Summary: The findings of this study indicate that Insurance status has a significant effect on the health outcomes of pediatric patients who experience TBI. It seems clear that insured patients have significantly lower odds of mortality following traumatic brain injury. Additionally, those insured by the government, while still faring better than uninsured patients still have higher odds of mortality than those who are insured commercially. This study also found evidence that insurance status plays a role in long term outcomes such as rehabilitation and disability.