The GaoFen-4 (GF-4), launched at the end of December 2015, is China's first high-resolution geostationary optical satellite. A panchromatic and multispectral sensor (PMS) is onboard the GF-4 satellite. Unfortunately, the GF-4 has no onboard calibration assembly, so on-orbit radiometric calibration is required. Like the charge-coupled device (CCD) onboard HuanJing-1 (HJ) or the wide field of view sensor (WFV) onboard GaoFen-1 (GF-1), GF-4 also has a wide field of view, which provides challenges for cross-calibration with narrow field of view sensors, like the Landsat series. A new technique has been developed and used to calibrate HJ-1/CCD and GF-1/WFV, which is verified viable. The technique has three key steps: (1) calculate the surface using the bi-directional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) characterization of a site, taking advantage of its uniform surface material and natural topographic variation using Landsat Enhanced Thematic Mapper Plus (ETM+)/Operational Land Imager (OLI) imagery and digital elevation model (DEM) products; (2) calculate the radiance at the top-of-the atmosphere (TOA) with the simulated surface reflectance using the atmosphere radiant transfer model; and (3) fit the calibration coefficients with the TOA radiance and corresponding Digital Number (DN) values of the image. This study attempts to demonstrate the technique is also feasible to calibrate GF-4 multispectral bands. After fitting the calibration coefficients using the technique, extensive validation is conducted by cross-validation using the image pairs of GF-4/PMS and Landsat-8/OLI with similar transit times and close view zenith. The validation result indicates a higher accuracy and frequency than that given by the China Centre for Resources Satellite Data and Application (CRESDA) using vicarious calibration. The study shows that the new technique is also quite feasible for GF-4 multispectral bands as a routine long-term procedure.


Turf breeders are searching worldwide to develop plant species and turfgrass cultivars that can grow and perform satisfactory growth in a wide range of climates, soils, and environmental conditions. This study was conducted in a greenhouse, to compare growth responses of 45 Iranian tall fescue accession and foreign cultivar in terms of physiological changes under drought stresses to find tolerate accession. After two months growing, plant were irrigated to 25% FC condition for three time then fresh leaves were collected again for measuring SOD, CAT andAPX activities, proline and total chlorophyll content. Differences among treatment means were assessed by the least significance difference (LSD) at P = 0.05 probability level. The results showed that there are very different between accession as drought stress tolerant and foreign cultivar, Khoramabad, Salmas accessions were tolerate and Sari, Neka, Lahijan and Chalos accessions were sensitive.


Double envelope vacuum insulation panels (VIPs) have a possibility to significantly increase the service lifetime. In this paper, double envelope VIPs were produced and installed in the residential house. The performance of installed VIPs was evaluated by using the measuring data of heat flux meter. In addition, the total energy, the heating load and the indoor thermal environment of this house were measured and analysed. The average heating load and the average temperature difference between room temperature and ambient air temperature on the representative day was 2.49 kW and 29.9 oC, respectively. The heat loss coefficient per floor area was estimated as 0.69 W/(m2K) and it was almost the same as the value calculated at the time of design. The result of indoor environment measurement showed that the room temperature was maintained at around 20 oC and PMV was -0.5 oC or higher although the outside air temperature fluctuated between -5 oC and -10 oC. The effective thermal conductivities of double envelop VIPs were all estimated as 0.01 W/(mK) or less. It is considered that the insulation performance of the vacuum insulation panels is maintained.


The trend towards globalisation and its role in fomenting hyper-competition practices have brought new forms of workforce development and management strategies to the fore. As such, business coaching as a recent addition to the workforce development interventions has moved into the strategy arena. However, as pointed out in various texts (Cavanagh, 2006; Stout-Rostron, 2009a; Chapman, 2010; Peltier, 2010; Rosinski, 2010; Kahn, 2011; Wildflower and Brennan, 2011), business coaching like most other multi-dimensional interventions is complex. This complexity in part stems from the need to align the organisation's business coaching needs with the needs of the coachee (Stout-Rostron, 2009a). Added to this is the influence of the coachee's sense of readiness as well as the impact of the three-way coaching relationship to the outcomes of business coaching. This means that, while a business coaching model can contribute to the basket of workforce development interventions, it is possible that the appropriate application of this model will be contingent on the circumstances of particular organisations. Against this background, the aim of this study was to explore how contextual factors influence the appropriate application of business coaching. Towards this end, the study placed the contextual focus at Engen Petroleum Limited and the findings revealed six factors, which can influence the appropriate application of business coaching along the three dimensions of: i) aligning the organisation's business coaching needs with the needs of the coachee; ii) readiness for coaching; and iii) the coaching relationship. Two of the six factors, namely clarity on expected outcomes as well as programme structure and support can influence the alignment of the organisation's business coaching needs with the needs of the coachee. Two other factors, namely knowledge about the coaching programme and the level of self-awareness can influence the coachee's sense of readiness for coaching. The last two factors relating to choice of coach and contract as well as confidentiality and progress reporting, can influence the coaching relationship dimension of business coaching. These findings have implications for coaching research and organisational practice in particular, at Engen. Thus, to leverage the benefits of business coaching, the researcher developed and recommends 'The Business Coaching Cycle' (see Figure 6.1) as a framework for Engen and other organisations to consider when seeking to appropriately apply business coaching as a people development strategy. The five components of 'The business coaching cycle' include alignment of the organisation's business coaching needs with the needs of the coachee; ensuring coaching readiness; formalising the coaching relationship; adhering to the coachee's confidentiality needs when reporting on progress and organisational support for referral of the coachee to an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) or a training intervention when necessary. In terms of contribution to the coaching research, the study raised one possibility for further research, namely: 'Exploring the readiness of the work environment for the coachee's behavioural change after a business coaching intervention'. Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za


This paper is a brief review of the current state of Carabidae and Araneae usefulness in indicator-based, geographical science studies. The database of scientific papers on the ISI Web of Science (Elsevier and Springer) was the main source of information. Only papers that considered landscape and addressed human activity in relation to selected taxa were chosen for further analyses. The articles with an explicit ecological character and which showed no potential possibilities for wider application in geographical research were not used. The selected papers were examined with respect to: the leading subject matter, area considered, applications, repetitiveness of the data collecting, and with respect to the aboveground and underground compartments. For clarity's sake, areas of land cover, land use, and human management were divided into four categories. The categories were ordered from 1 to 4, according to increasingly human-induced pressure starting with (1) areas of a natural state, (2) proceeding to forests, (3) farm land, and (4) finally to urban/suburban. This non-exhaustive review confirms the very broad possibilities of applying selected taxa as indicators in geographical studies. Such an application refers to both the range of possibilities of the study location choice (forest, arable, suburban areas etc.), and the subject matter of the study. Faunistic indicators can supply geographical researchers with quantitative and qualitative data. The data then allow for an estimation of the ecological response, due to the variety of changes taking place in the ecosystem. Faunistic indicators are invaluable tools for indirectly estimating subtle environmental changes. Such changes include those which are the result of a specific interaction between ecosystem components, which are difficult to measure using traditional methods. The impact of human activities can thus be assessed in a much more cost-effective way. A key methodological aspect is to choose the most accurate faunistic groups for the study as well as using standardised method of collecting. It is also important to consider the environmental parameters which have an impact on the selected bioindicators.


Model-Driven Software Engineering (MDSE) is an approach for design and implementation of software applications, that can be applied across multiple domains. The advantages include rapid prototyping and implementation, along with reduction in errors induced by humans in the process, via automation. Wireless Sensor Actuator Networks (WSANs) rely on resource-constrained hardware and have platform-specific implementations. Medium Access Control (MAC) protocols in particular are mainly responsible for radio communication, the biggest consumer of energy, and are also responsible for Quality of Service (QoS). The design and development of protocols for WSAN could benefit from the use of MDSE. In this article, we use Colured Petri Nets (CPN) for platform independent modeling of protocols, initial verification, and simulation. The PetriCode tool is used to generate platform-specific implementations for multiple platforms, including MiXiM for simulation and TinyOS for deployment. Further the generated code is analyzed via network simulations and real-world deployment test. Through the process of MDSE-based code generation and analysis, the protocol design is validated, verified and analyzed thoroughly. We use the GinMAC protocol as a running example to illustrate the design and development life cycle.


This practice-based research explores the act of looking in the drawing process, through notions of absence, index and trace. The investigation is grounded in an effort to deconstruct the inter-relationship of eye-mindhand in the activity of drawing, in order to isolate and examine sight. This strategy removes 'the artist's hand', and its associations with the body and subjectivity from the drawing process; to explore vision as an active process mediated by both the mind and the body. Using eye tracking technology as a drawing tool, these methods plot the path of the gaze as the artist views the human subject. The resulting drawings map the saccadic movements of the eye, revealing vision as a subjective and selective process, which it will be argued - implies a subsequent gap or loss in what we see. This loss is further extended in the drawn mark, as the index or trace of the artist's body which is now absent. The exegesis frames the research methodologies and outcomes in relation to the central thematic concerns of absence, index and trace. This document is intended to support and contextualise the studio practice, through a discourse on vision from various scientific and cultural perspectives, and the work of others in the field who examine issues of perception through an engagement with the body in the drawing process. The research outcomes comprise two groups of eye tracking drawings. The first a series of portraits exploring the connections between vision and absence; and a second series of gestural drawings, which register the movements of the eye as the trace of the body.


Introduction The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists recommends prompt postpartum follow-up. However, 40% of women do not attend postpartum visits. These rates are lower in populations with limited resources. In response, the Department of Obstetrics, Gynecology, and Reproductive Science in the Mount Sinai Health System created a postpartum follow-up phone call project that utilized medical students and was conducted at three health system hospitals from April 6 to May 30, 2020. Methods The number of patients contacted by medical students within 72 hours of hospital discharge was recorded. Students at two of the three sites also recorded the number of patients who needed (1) urgent evaluation and subsequent hospital readmission, (2) medications prescribed, and (3) referral for social work services. Students completed questionnaires at the project beginning and end regarding confidence in rendering of postpartum care. Confidence level was based on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = not confident at all, 5 = very confident). Results Nine students participated. Overall, confidence on providing postpartum care significantly increased from 2.2 to 3.7 (p < .001). Three hundred eighty-seven patients were contacted. Four patients were advised to return to the hospital emergently; two were readmitted. Forty-seven patients needed medication prescribed. Two patients were referred for social work services. Discussion Our medical student–driven postpartum follow-up phone call project was associated with a high number of patients called and management of significant postpartum issues. Students' confidence in managing postpartum issues was significantly higher after versus before project participation.


A series of 1-(naphthalen-3-yl)-3-phenylprop-2-en-1-ones synthesized successfully under solvent free conditions in presence of base were character ized by their IR and PMR spectral data. Thereafter, effect of differently substituted 1-(naphthalen-3-yl)- 3-phenylprop-2-en-1-ones was observed on bovine serum albumin in solution. We have found that the synthesized 1-(naphthalen-3-yl)-3-phenylprop-2-en-1- ones interacted with bovine serum albumin irrespec tive of the nature and position of the substituent.


The bile salt-stimulated cholesterol esterase is a digestive enzyme synthesized by the acinar cells of the pancreas. Previous results have shown that cholesterol esterase biosynthesis and secretion in the AR42J pancreatoma cells could be increased 3-5-fold by intestinal hormones such as cholecystokinin (CCK). The purpose of the current study is to explore the signalling mechanism by which CCK stimulation of AR42J cells results in increased biosynthesis and secretion of the cholesterol esterase. The results showed that the CCK-induced cholesterol esterase secretion could be mimicked by addition of the Ca2+ ionophore A23187 or by transient incubation of AR42J cells with the protein kinase C activator phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA). Cholesterol esterase stimulation by CCK, A23187 and PMA could be abolished by the calcium chelator BAPTA or by specific protein kinase C inhibitors such as chelerythrine. Additionally, prolonged incubation of AR42J cells with PMA to reduce the protein kinase C level, also reduced CCK-stimulated cholesterol esterase secretion to a level similar to that observed in control cells. Taken together, these data suggested that CCK activation of cholesterol esterase secretion may be mediated by a Ca(2+)-dependent protein kinase C pathway, requiring increases in calcium mobilization and activation of protein kinase C.


Summary

Offshore renewable energy provides an increasing component of our electricity supply. We have limited understanding of the potential environmental impacts of these developments, particularly in the move to larger scales. Surfaces provided by devices offer novel habitat to marine organisms, which may allow species to spread to new areas.
We used coupled biological and hydrodynamic models to investigate the spread of intertidal marine organisms with pelagic larvae (such as barnacles or gastropods) in the region around south-western Scotland. We assessed the impact of novel habitat on dispersal and its role in allowing transgression of physical barriers.
Model renewable energy device sites provided habitat for pelagic larval particles that would otherwise have been lost offshore. They also provided a source of larvae for existing coastal sites.
Many offshore devices fulfilled source and destination (or intermediate connection) roles, creating new dispersal pathways, and allowing previously impossible northward dispersal from the Northern Irish coast to Scotland.
Synthesis and applications. New habitat close to biogeographical barriers has implications for existing species' distributions and genetic population structure. It also affects the spread of non-native species and 'climate migrants'. Monitoring these sites for the presence of such species will be important in determining the future ecology of coastal habitat and in maintaining economic aquaculture and marina operations. Future model studies should focus on particular species of importance, taking account of their biology and current distribution.


The health analytic (HA) process model presented in this paper is developed to conduct HA projects in an orderly manner instead of approaching them in an ad-hoc manner. While a well-documented process model will avoid overdependence on the experience of an analyst it will also assist novice users in learning the best practices to analytics very easily. The existing process models for data mining have failed to meet user requirements and thus have been unsuccessful in diffusing among the data analysts. This study aims to propose a refined HA process model to guide novice users. The process model is developed using design science research approach followed by an ex-ante evaluation. Design criteria to develop the model were based on the challenges in HA identified through literature and by utilizing a data analytic case. The process model is developed using the necessary theoretical foundation, best practices in software engineering and data mining process models along with design science research approach. The theoretical and practical implications of the model too are provided in this paper.


Wildfires impact both ecosystems and human welfare, being carbon monoxide and PM 2.5 particles the most critical emissions affecting human health. The impact of a fire in the Tepozteco National Park, in the state of Morelos, Mexico was evaluated on its potential to produce health impacts on the surrounding inhabitants. Surrounding population centers are located at around 2000 m from the area affected by the wildfire, which occurred in a natural protected natural area. HYSPLIT simulations to estimate pollutant trajectories were conducted along with a dispersion simulation to determine pollutant concentrations as a function of distance to the centers of population. The results show that the inhabitants of adjacent communities were not subject to significant risk levels according to national and international regulations, because the dispersion trajectory of the pollutants did not impact such populations. In Mexico, it is necessary to prioritize prevention, monitoring, and mitigation measures of human-induced wildfires. It is recommended to increase the coverage of the monitoring network of Morelos to include the Tepoztlan Municipality, due to the high frequency of fires and the growing urbanization in the zone.


The developed associative-memory architecture utilizes a mapping operation of the Hamming distances into frequency space with ring oscillators programmable in discrete frequency steps. As a result fast word-parallel search of the nearest Hamming distance with low power consumption is obtained. Additionally, high robustness against fabrication-related variations of the MOSFET characteristics is achievable by design because the size of the frequency steps is a freely selectable design parameter which can be adjusted to compensate the variation magnitude. A quantitative analysis of within-die variation effects on the reliability of the associative-memory architecture is presented and guidelines for the choice of the design parameters at a given magnitude of the variation effects are derived. Feasibility and performance of this associative-memory architecture are experimentally evaluated with a VLSI design in 180 nm CMOS technology containing 64 reference patterns each consisting of 256 bits. The fabricated chip is correctly operating down to low supply voltages (Vdd) of 0.7 V. The power dissipation is less than 36.5 mW and 307 μW at supply voltages of 1.8 V (nominal supply) and 0.7 V, respectively. Measured search reliability is found to be in agreement with measured variations of the important design parameters and expectations from the variation analysis. In comparison to previously reported digital associative-memory designs, the achieved power dissipation is more than 5 times smaller, while the average search speed is only slightly improved. For Vdd = 1.8 V the search time ranges from a minimum of 50 ns at Hamming distance 0 to a maximum of 245 ns for the largest Hamming distance 255.


Researchers have revealed that the electrocatalytic activity can be improved by creation of defects in the crystal lattice of 2D layered transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) or ternary metal chalcogenides (TMCs) such as MoS2 or Cu2MoS4, respectively. However, the role of anion substitution in the enhancement of overall electrocatalytic activity in TMCs remains unproven. Here, we show the substitution of anion atom sulfur (S) with selenium (Se) in a new electrocatalyst Cu2WS4 for efficient hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) activity. The higher electrocatalytic activity of Cu2WS4 after anion atom substitution can be attributed to the creation of chemical strain in the lattice, which causes an increase of active sites for hydrogen adsorption and desorption. Experimentally, the anion substituted Cu2W(SySe1 − y)4 samples show superior electrocatalytic activities with a low onset potential of −0.320 V at 10 mA cm−2 for the HER, which is two-fold lower than that of the pristine Cu2WS4 (−0.650 V at 10 mA cm−2) sample. In addition, after 1000 cycles with continuous electrolysis in an acid electrolyte for 12 h, the anion substituted samples Cu2W(SySe1 − y)4 preserve their structure and robust catalytic activity perfectly. As a result, our work demonstrates a new approach for developments of real applications of TMCs in energy conversion.


Network protocols are usually tested in operational networks or in simulated environments. With the former approach it is not easy to set and control the various operational parameters such as bandwidth, delays, queue sizes. Simulators are easier to control, but they are often only an approximate model of the desired setting, especially for what regards the various traffic generators (both producers and consumers) and their interaction with the protocol itself.In this paper we show how a simple, yet flexible and accurate network simulator - dummynet - can be built with minimal modifications to an existing protocol stack, allowing experiments to be run on a standalone system. dummynet works by intercepting communications of the protocol layer under test and simulating the effects of finite queues, bandwidth limitations and communication delays. It runs in a fully operational system, hence allowing the use of real traffic generators and protocol implementations, while solving the problem of simulating unusual environments. With our tool, doing experiments with network protocols is as simple as running the desired set of applications on a workstation.A FreeBSD implementation of dummynet, targeted to TCP, is available from the author. This implementation is highly portable and compatible with other BSD-derived systems, and takes less than 300 lines of kernel code.


The opening of the Eastern Mediterranean had a large impact on the structure of the North African passive margin. The first extension event that lead to the formation of the ocean can be traced back to the Permian. A Permian rift system is preserved in the subsurface of Tunisia, north of the Jefarra uplift. Renewed rifting occurred in the Triassic. Triassic rifts are preserved in the Atlas, Sicily, Sirt, and Levant margins. A phase of Jurassic rifting is observed in the Nile Delta and Sicily but a possible occurrence of rifting in the Sirt basin is obscured by younger Cretaceous rifting. Jurassic rift structures also occur in the Atlas. The North African margin rifted again in the Early Cretaceous when the Sirt Basin formed on the site of earlier Triassic rifts. The Sirt rift faults form a 3 armed system where the eastern faults trend E-W parallel to the earlier Triassic rift system. A southern arm trends SSW and a NW branch continues offshore across the passive margin. Early Cretacous rifts occur extensively in North Africa and are known to be related to South Atlantic spreading.


Abstract : The Department of Defense (DoD) is concerned that security vulnerabilities could be inserted into software that has been developed outside of the DoD's supervision or control. This report presents an initial analysis of how to evaluate and mitigate the risk that such unauthorized insertions have been made. The analysis is structured in terms of actions that should be taken in each phase of the DoD acquisition life cycle


This overview substantiates the possibility and expediency of blackberry breeding in Central Russia, where it is in demand, but not widespread in horticulture. Significant achievements of world breeding, which gave modern cultivars a large set of economically important qualities and growing interest in it all over the world, including Russian gardeners, make it relevant to work with blackberries as an object of selection, and as a promising garden plant. However, insufficient frost and winter hardiness of the bulk of the cultivars of this culture cause certain difficulties when growing it in the areas with cold winters to which the Central zone of Russia belongs. The expansion of the market of berry products also imposes increasingly high requirements on the complex of economic indicators of new cultivars, primarily the quality of blackberry fruit. In this regard, improving the existing range of varieties of the culture, increasing its adaptive properties and commodity qualities of berries are urgent tasks for breeders when creating new cultivars. The relevance of blackberry breeding is also dictated by the fact that in Russia its domestic range of varieties is represented by only one modern cultivar obtained in the southern region and adapted, first of all, to it. For the Central zone of the country, the cultivars of this plant have not been developed (except for the limited experiments of I.V. Michurin conducted almost 100 years ago). Therefore, the breeding of adapted cultivars of the culture in the climatic conditions of this region may be promising. It is also possible to grow here (with shelter for the winter) the cultivars already created abroad that can give with the right agricultural technology a good industrial harvest, which is confirmed by the practice of amateur and farm gardening, as well as scientific research. The purpose of this work is to designate the leading directions of blackberry breeding, the most important in the conditions of Central Russia and to show prospects of the development of new cultivars of this valuable culture in the specified climatic zone. The analysis of world trends and experience in the blackberry breeding and variety study, as well as the results of our own research of the culture conducted in the Orel region, allow us to consider it promising and relevant to work on improving the range of varieties of this plant in Central Russia. All priority areas of blackberry breeding, indicated in foreign and domestic breeding programs (winter hardiness, high quality of fresh and processed fruit, the correct shape of berries, their large size, the necessary values of biochemical composition, high productivity of plants, thornless shoots and high resistance to diseases and pests), are relevant for this region of our country, while high winter hardiness is currently the most important of them.


Loan-tracking systems may provide much more information than the current status of the loans. This article describes information that can be gathered on loan application forms to monitor the economic impact of the loan on business owners and their families. Programmes can track changes by comparing applications for initial and repeat loans. The systems reviewed typically monitored changes in the client enterprises and reported key changes separately for men and women, but gave little information on their socio-economic characteristics. The study suggests that loan-tracking systems can often be implemented at a relatively low cost, and even simple systems can generate useful information for guiding programmes.


Speech recognition accuracy degrades significantly when the speech has been corrupted by noise, especially when the system has been trained on clean speech. Many compensation algorithms have been developed which require reliable online noise estimates or a priori knowledge of the noise. In situations where such estimates or knowledge is difficult to obtain, these methods fail. We present a new robustness algorithm which avoids these problems by making no assumptions about the corrupting noise. Instead, we exploit properties inherent to the speech signal itself to denoise the recognition features. In this method, speech is decomposed into harmonic and noise-like components, which are then processed independently and recombined. By processing noise-corrupted speech in this manner we achieve significant improvements in recognition accuracy on the Aurora 2 task.


This study is about the Child Protection Towards Enabling Childhood Development and Community Transformation, also known as Child ProTECT, aimed to help uplift the lives of the poor indigenous peoples and the children residing in Apayao, Philippines. The SPUP-CDCFI partnered with ChildFund Philippines in the implementation of the projects of Child ProTECT through trainings on maternal health and child care, nutrition and sanitation, education and formation, livelihood and skills, and community development. The impact and benefits to the participants of Child ProTECT were assessed. In a way, the program contributed in the thrust of poverty alleviation and improving the lives of the indigenous people.


During the last twenty years we have experienced a sharp rise in the number of international courts and tribunals and a correlative expansion of their jurisdictions. This increase in power invites posing some difficult questions concerning the performance of international courts: Are they effective tools for international governance? Do they in fact fulfill the expectations that led to their creation? And why do some courts appear to be more effective than others? Etc... A growing body of legal literature has turned its attention to such questions of effectiveness in recent years. Such literature contains many important insights as to the factors which could explain increased or decreased court effectiveness. Nevertheless, the 'Achilles heel' of most publications in the field is the crude and/or intuitive definitions of "effectiveness" that they employ, which often equate effectiveness with compliance. The lack of a clear definition of effectiveness is sometimes further compounded by general assumptions about the role of international courts in international life, which seem to transpose the role that courts play in national legal systems into the international realm. At the same time, the social sciences literature has long afforded considerable attention to methodological issues relating to the assessment of organizational effectiveness in general, and public organizational effectiveness in particular. This literature appears to provide a number of conceptual frameworks and empirical indicators that could be alternatively applied towards assessing the effectiveness of international courts and tribunals. The proposed article surveys some key notions used in social sciences literature relating to the methodology for measuring the effectiveness of public organizations and discusses their possible application to international courts. In Part One, I will discuss the notion of "organizational effectiveness" and explain the choice of a goal-based definition of effectiveness as the most suitable approach for evaluating the performance of international courts. I then survey a number of ways to classify organizational goals and illustrate some of the difficulties and ambiguities that measuring effectiveness on the basis of goal-attainment may nonetheless entail. In Part Two, I shall introduce some key methodological moves used by the social sciences literature in order to measure institutional effectiveness after the goals of the organization have been identified. Such moves include the fleshing out of different operational categories relating to the evaluated organization's structure, process and outcome. In Part Three, I will discuss how the methods of analysis developed in the social sciences literature could be applied to study of international courts, given the unique attributes and context for their operation, and suggest some elements that should be integrated in future research projects seeking to develop a suitable research methodology. To be clear, my purpose in the article is not to offer any conclusions as to whether international courts in general, or any specific international court in particular, are "effective". My main interest is, instead, to introduce a research agenda that could advance a sophisticated and inter-disciplinary approach towards addressing the question of international court effectiveness.


St. John's Wort (SJW), an over‐the‐counter antidepressant, contains hypericin, which absorbs light in the UV and visible ranges and is phototoxic to skin. To determine if it also could be phototoxic to the eye, we exposed human lens epithelial cells to 0.1–10 μM hypericin and irradiated them with 4 J/cm2 UV‐A or 0.9 J/cm2 visible light. Neither hypericin exposure alone nor light exposure alone reduced cell viability. In contrast, cells exposed to hypericin in combination with UV‐A or visible light underwent necrosis and apoptosis. The ocular antioxidants lutein and N‐acetyl cysteine did not prevent damage. Thus, ingested SJW is potentially phototoxic to the eye and could contribute to early cataractogenesis. Precautions should be taken to protect the eye from intense sunlight while taking SJW.


This paper presents the results of a two-year study on the dispersion and allergenicity of the airborne pollen in Nanjing. We found 28 families of pollen of plant dispersing in the city. Seventeen species of commonly seen pollen grouped under twelve families were collected and their pollen extracts were used for skin test in the 219 cases of bronchial asthma. The results showed the mode of dispersion of air-borne pollen and the main families of allergic pollen being the Moraceae' Cupressaceae platanuceae and Julandaceae in spring and the gramineae Compositae Chenopodiaceae and Cannabinaceae in autumn. This information provides a firm basis in the prevention diagnosis and treatment of allergic diseases in the area of Nanjing.


Data from behavioural observations and acoustic recordings of free–ranging bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) were analysed to determine whether signature whistles are produced by wild undisturbed dolphins, and how whistle production varies with activity and group size. The study animals were part of a resident community of bottlenose dolphins near Sarasota, Florida, USA. This community of dolphins provides a unique opportunity for the study of signature–whistle production, since most animals have been recorded during capture–release events since 1975. Three mother–calf pairs and their associates were recorded for a total of 141.25 h between May and August of 1994 and 1995. Whistles of undisturbed dolphins were compared with those recorded from the same individuals during capture–release events. Whistles were conservatively classified into one of four categories: signature, probable signature, upsweep or other. For statistical analyses, signature and probable signature whistles were combined into a 'signature' category; upsweep and other whistles were combined into a 'non–signature' category. Both 'signature' and 'non–signature' whistle frequencies significantly increased as group size increased. There were significant differences in whistle frequencies across activity types: both 'signature' and 'non–signature' whistles were most likely to occur during socializing and least likely to occur during travelling. There were no significant interactions between group size and activity type. Signature and probable signature whistles made up ca. 52% of all whistles produced by these free–ranging bottlenose dolphins.


The geometric mean of the response spectra for two orthogonal hori- zontal components of motion, commonly used as the response variable in predictions of strong ground motion, depends on the orientation of the sensors as installed in the field. This means that the measure of ground-motion intensity could differ for the same actual ground motion. This dependence on sensor orientation is most pro- nounced for strongly correlated motion (the extreme example being linearly polarized motion), such as often occurs at periods of 1 sec or longer. We propose two new measures of the geometric mean, GMRotDpp, and GMRotIpp, that are independent of the sensor orientations. Both are based on a set of geometric means computed from the as-recorded orthogonal horizontal motions rotated through all possible non- redundant rotation angles. GMRotDpp is determined as the ppth percentile of the set of geometric means for a given oscillator period. For example, GMRotD00, GMRotD50, and GMRotD100 correspond to the minimum, median, and maximum values, respectively. The rotations that lead to GMRotDpp depend on period, whereas a single-period-independent rotation is used for GMRotIpp, the angle being chosen to minimize the spread of the rotation-dependent geometric mean (normalized by GMRotDpp) over the usable range of oscillator periods. GMRotI50 is the ground- motion intensity measure being used in the development of new ground-motion pre- diction equations by the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Center Next Generation Attenuation project. Comparisons with as-recorded geometric means for a large dataset show that the new measures are systematically larger than the geometric-mean response spectra using the as-recorded values of ground acceleration, but only by a small amount (less than 3%). The theoretical advantage of the new measures is that they remove sensor orientation as a contributor to aleatory uncertainty. Whether the reduction is of prac- tical significance awaits detailed studies of large datasets. A preliminary analysis contained in a companion article by Beyer and Bommer finds that the reduction is small-to-nonexistent for equations based on a wide range of magnitudes and dis- tances. The results of Beyer and Bommer do suggest, however, that there is an increasing reduction as period increases. Whether the reduction increases with other subdivisions of the dataset for which strongly correlated motions might be expected (e.g., pulselike motions close to faults) awaits further analysis.


Network security and data confidentiality of transmitted information are among the non-functional requirements of industrial wireless sensor networks (IWSNs) in addition to latency, reliability and energy efficiency requirements. Physical layer security techniques are promising solutions to assist cryptographic methods in the presence of an eavesdropper in IWSN setups. In this paper, we propose a physical layer security scheme, which is based on both insertion of an random error vector to forward error correction (FEC) codewords and transmission over decentralized relay nodes. Reed-Solomon and Golay codes are selected as FEC coding schemes and the security performance of the proposed model is evaluated with the aid of decoding error probability of an eavesdropper. The results show that security level is highly based on the location of the eavesdropper and secure communication can be achieved when some of channels between eavesdropper and relay nodes are significantly noisier.


Aluminium is being increasingly used in all fields of industry. Especially if it is about the structures like car bodies or frames for transportation units aluminium replaces steel. The components used are regularly assembled by joining welds. Therefore there is an increasing need for reliable repair work on aluminium welds. Repair work to aluminium structures is conducted extremely successfully. This paper will present considerations associated with the repair of aluminium structures due to practical examples. A focus will be the investigation of finding reasons for appearance of failures. Repair strategies are developed to help to prevent problems associated with repair work and to help ensure consistently successful repairs.


Objective: The purpose of this study was to identify areas to improve the transition from acute hospital care to home for patients with traumatic brain injury and their families. Design: Qualitative, descriptive. Setting: Level I trauma centered located in the Southeastern United States. Subjects: A total of 36 participants (12 patients with traumatic brain injury, 8 family caregivers, 16 providers). Main Measures: We conducted 55 semi-structured interviews with participants and used conventional content analysis to analyze the data. Results: Findings showed patients, families, and providers recommend three areas for improvement in the transition home from acute hospital care, described in three themes. Theme 1 was "improving patient and family education," with the following sub-themes: (a) TBI-related information and (b) discharge preparation. Theme 2 was "additional provider guidance," with the following sub-themes: (a) communication about patient's recovery timeline and (b) recovery roadmap development. Theme 3 was "increasing systems-level support," with the following sub-themes: (a) scheduling follow-up appointments, (b) using a patient navigator, (c) creating a provider follow-up structure, (d) linking pre-discharge care with post-discharge resources, and (e) addressing social issues. Conclusions: These findings delineate multiple areas where patients and families need additional support and education during the transition from acute hospital care to home in ways that are currently not being addressed. Findings may be used to improve education and support from providers and health systems given to patients with traumatic brain injury and families and to inform development and testing of transitional care interventions from acute hospital care to home.


BACKGROUND
The upper gastrointestinal bleeding (UGIB) is defined as bleeding within the intraluminal gastrointestinal tract from any location between the upper oesophagus to the duodenum at the ligament of Treitz. It is one of the important medical emergencies worldwide.

OBJECTIVE
The objective of this study is to study the aetiology of upper gastrointestinal bleeding based on endoscopic examination findings in patients of various demographic characteristics.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This is a retrospective observational study. The endoscopic record book from 2007 January to 2009 October was reviewed for all the cases who underwent oesophago-gastro-duodenoscopic examination for upper GI bleeding. The clinico-epidemiological data of all the patients was reviewed and analyzed in concert with the aetiology of bleeding.

RESULTS
A total of 90 patients (58 males, 32 females; mean age 45.32+ 18.47 years) of upper gastrointestinal bleeding was studied and analyzed in terms of aetiology of bleeding and demographic profile. Among the ethnic groups, Aryan 46 (51%) was the most common ethnic group to have upper GI bleeding followed by Newars 24 (27%), Mongolians 16 (18%), Dalits 3 (3%) and others 1 (1%). Out of 90 patients, 47( 52.2%) cases was less than 45 years of age, 30(33.3%) of 46 to 65 age ; and 13(14.4 %) more than 65 years of age. Gastric ulcer 23(25.6%) was the most common endoscopic finding, followed by oesophageal varices 14 (15.6%), acute erosive/haemorrhagic gastropathy 11 (12.2%), duodenal ulcer 9(10%), growth 7(7.8%), vascular lesions 3(3.3%), Mallory-Weiss tear 1(1.1%), fundal varices 1(1.1%) and, no cause was identified in 21(23.3%) cases. The peptic ulcer bleeding was the most common finding in Aryan 22(47.9%), whereas oesophageal varices and growth were more common in Newar 7(29.2%) and 3 (12.5%) respectively.

CONCLUSION
Peptic ulcer disease is the most common cause of upper GI bleeding which was most commonly found in Aryan population; followed by oesophageal varices and growth as second and third most common causes and were more prevalent in Newar and Mongolian people.


We report the new structures of aluminum hydrides derived from the Al4 tetrahedral cages. We perform ab initio quantum chemical calculation for these new aluminum hydrides. Our calculation of binding energies of the new aluminum hydrides reveal that stability of these hydrides increases as more hydrogen atoms are adsorbed, while stability of Al-H bonds decreases. We also calculate electronic stress tensor to evaluate the chemical bonds of these hydrides. As a result, we find that the bonds of the Al4 tetrahedral cage are strengthened as more hydrogen atoms are adsorbed on the aluminum hydrides. Our calculation of the potential energy surfaces and the regional chemical potential show that hydrogen atoms are likely to adsorb on bridge site at first.


In the article there is provided analysis of main and valuable in abundance of information biographic resources of book workers published in period of 1918–1944. On the basis of results of the analysis there are provided reasoned conclusions about the resources and information about Lithuanian book workers. Lithuanian national culture was created by many outstanding personalities during discussed period. Creators of the main biographistic publications that drew frames for further development of the item were prof. Vaclovas Biržiska, Ansas Bruožis, Antanas Milukas, Petras Ruseckas, Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas. In the article there were analysed main publications that became the significant biographistic resources of book personalities and till now they are valuable. These personalities could be named as representatives of the first Lithuanian book science biographistic school, because they defined trends for researches and methodology for further scientific investigations. During Lithuanian independency (1918–1944) as a significant resource of biographistic informatikon could be named periodicals such as "Bibliografijos žinios", "Mūsų Senovė", "XXVII knygos mėgėjų metrastis", "Kultūra", "Literatūros naujienos", etc. On the basis of the analysis of biographistic resources of book workers there were made conclusion that in investigated period (1918–1944) biographistic resources of book personalities are not numerous. Preparation and publication of those resources were important and relevant for culture and art of these days. Certainly J. Tumas-Vaižgantas, P. Ruseckas V. Biržiska and others were among those who made efforts to make these publications. Typical activities for that period were lectures about personalities, later they were changed by publications in periodicals. Afterwards publications were complemented, there were made some corrections and texts were published in particular books or few sheets' booklets. Because of the shortage of time publications had some mistakes, inaccuracy and some fictitious facts, biographistic data was fragmented; only some episodes or their fragments were provided. (This kind of imprecision was typical for Vaižgantas and he was criticized by others for that). Though publications and articles in periodicals were written not in scientific way, not highly theoretical and circumstantial, without providence and evaluation of publishers, yet they provide valuable data about book workers for investigation.


In this paper, the proposed idea of producing fully-enclosed composite cable with CFRP coupling of high-tensile steel wires and the forming technology of the fully-enclosed composite cable body were introduced. The coordination mechanism of the fully-enclosed composite cable, the requirement of equal elastic modulus between high strength steel wire bundle and CFRP were investigated theoretically. We have come to the follwing conclusions: (1) Carbon fiber has the same strain with the high-tensile steel wire under the tension of whole anchorage. (2) The distribution of the force of the composite cable is in accordance with the axial stiffness between the carbon fiber with high-tensile steel wire. (3) To achieve a good synergy between the carbon fiber with high-tensile steel wire, similar or equivalent elastic modulus is required. (4) The stress ratio between carbon fiber and high-tensile steel wire in the fully-enclosed composite cable in engineering application should be controlled around 0.5.


Background & Objectives: Patient satisfaction is a key hospital quality and effectiveness
indicator. Strategic planning is necessary for hospitals to respond to the rapidly changing
internal and external environments, to provide quality services, to maximize revenues and to
minimize costs. This study aimed to examine the impact of strategic planning on patient
satisfaction in a hospital.
Methods: A participatory action research was conducted in a private hospital during the
period 2012-2014. Hospital strategic plan was developed and implemented. A goal for
enhancing patients' satisfaction was determined in the strategic plan. Structural, procedural
and cultural interventions were applied to improve patient satisfaction. Patient satisfaction
was measured before and after implementing the strategic plan via a valid and reliable
questionnaire. Data was analyzed using the SPSS software.
Results: The quality of inpatient services and outpatient services were increased 6% and
8.6% respectively. Accordingly, inpatient satisfaction has increased from 77.4% in 2012 to
83.8% in 2014 (a growth of 8.3%). Out patient satisfaction has increased from 71.6% to
88.8% (a growth of 24%) during the same time period. Outpatients' waiting time has declined
by 33%. Improving quality of services and patient satisfaction enhanced inpatients' and
outpatients' loyalty by 20% and 87% respectively.
Conclusion: Developing an appropriate strategic plan, promoting a collaborative and
cooperative culture, empowering employees, expanding organizational resources and
implementing the strategic plan appropriately improve patient satisfaction and enhance their
loyalty.
Keywords: Strategic planning, Inpatients satisfaction, Outpatients satisfaction, Private
hospital, case study, Participatory action research
Citation: Mosadeghrad AM, Ebneshahidi A, Abdolmohammadi N. The Impact of Strategic Planning on
Patient Satisfaction: a case study. Journal of Health Based Research 2018; 4(1): 13-29.


Sums play a prominent role in the formalisms of quantum mechanics, be it for mixing and superposing states, or for composing state spaces. Surprisingly, a conceptual analysis of quantum measurement seems to suggest that quantum mechanics can be done without direct sums, expressed entirely in terms of the tensor product. The corresponding axioms define classical spaces as objects that allow copying and deleting data. Indeed, the information exchange between the quantum and the classical worlds is essentially determined by their distinct capabilities to copy and delete data. The sums turn out to be an implicit implementation of this capabilities. Realizing it through explicit axioms not only dispenses with the unnecessary structural baggage, but also allows a simple and intuitive graphical calculus. In category-theoretic terms, classical data types are †-compact Frobenius algebras, and quantum spectra underlying quantum measurements are Eilenberg-Moore coalgebras induced by these Frobenius algebras. An earlier version of this paper has been in circulation since November 2005 with the somewhat different title Quantum measurements as coalgebras.


Fluorescent dyes have a wide scope of use in life-sciences and medicine, most commonly as imaging agents, either alone, or in connection with antibodies in immunofluorescence experiments. Biological tissues absorb visible light and a tissue-transparent window (TTW) in the near-infrared (NIR) region is preferred for imaging purposes. This is particularly true in the fluorescence image-guided surgery. Polymethine dyes are good candidates for applications in the TTW and their properties can be tuned by changes in the polymethine chain length and substituents. We chose the indocyanine green (ICG) as an initial model as it is the only NIR dye certified by the FDA for use in clinical medicine. It is usually used as a dye with very limited selectivity, but when conjugated to an antibody, it can also be used for specific visualization of a biomarker of interest. We chose the carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9 as a promising target because it is already successfully used in the diagnosis and monitoring of treatment outcome in patients with pancreatic cancer. First, we labeled the mouse anti CA 19-9 antibody with the ICG NHS ester. The conjugate was successfully tested in a microtiter plate-based fluorescence immunoassay. Testing of the conjugate for detection of CA 19-9 in cell lines and tissue sections follows. We aim to develop a platform for assessing the performance of the newly synthesized polymethine fluorescent labels in complex biological systems.


We consider a source-destination pair that can only communicate through an untrusted intermediate relay node. The intermediate node is willing to employ a designated relaying scheme to facilitate reliable communication between the source and the destination. Yet, the information it relays needs to be kept secret from it. In this two-hop communication scenario, where the use of the untrusted relay node is essential, we find that a positive secrecy rate is achievable. The center piece of the achievability scheme is the help provided by either the destination node with transmission capability, or an external "good samaritan" node. In either case, the helper performs cooperative jamming that confuses the eavesdropping relay and disables it from being able to decipher what it is relaying. We next derive an upper bound on the secrecy rate for this system. We observe that the gap between the upper bound and the achievable rate vanishes as the power of the relay node goes to infinity. Overall, the paper presents a case for intentional interference, that is, cooperative jamming, as an enabler for secure communication.


1. Post-docs Scholar, Department of Geography, University of the Punjab Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan 2. Post-docs Scholar, Department of Geography, University of the Punjab Lahore, Punjab, Pakistan PAPER INFO ABSTRACT Received: May 23, 2021 Accepted: August 20, 2021 Online: August 24, 2021 This paper is very important historical study on the rural society in Pakistan. There have been numerous historical studies on rural societies in last seven decades but the studies that contain first hand direct information from the people living in the rural society are few. Such research papers are important to develop understandings of the changes and development in the rural society. Explaining the social issues and relations of people living in the villages of Punjab with each other for the understanding of the social structure a study is important. This paper shed light on the changes in social structure and interaction in Nauthen a village of Pakistani Punjab. There is relatively little documentation available that can be considered direct evidence from people living in the villages. Regional studies have a single purpose: they act as a check on assumptions made about a broader area, while also advancing our understanding of social processes and human nature in general. It is very important, that there is no village in Pakistan having old settlement that has not a rich legendary history of its own.


This rather thorough book on contact dermatitis in India actually represents the collective efforts of 16 centers interested in contact dermatitis, representing almost all geographic areas of India. The participating dermatologists met in 1981 and subsequently established protocols for patch testing patients with suspected contact dermatitis caused by plants, vegetables and fruits, wearing apparel and jewelry, cosmetics, topical medications, and industrial agents. Patch test antigens in each category were prepared at a central location, and this report basically comprises the results of testing from 1981 through 1987. The concepts of contact dermatitis and the principles of patch testing are discussed in the preface, and an approach to treatment is outlined at the end. There are excellent color photographs throughout the text as well as tables that summarize the results of testing. Although the phrase "methodical and graphic" best describes Dr Pasricha's treatment of data, this compendium provides an extremely valuable


Pareto archived dynamically dimensioned search (PA-DDS) has been modified to solve combinatorial multi-objective optimization problems. This new PA-DDS algorithm uses discrete-DDS as a search engine and archives all non-dominated solutions during the search. PA-DDS is also hybridized by a general discrete local search strategy to improve its performance near the end of the search. PA-DDS inherits the simplicity and parsimonious characteristics of DDS, so it has only one algorithm parameter and adjusts the search strategy to the user-defined computational budget. Hybrid PA-DDS was applied to five benchmark water distribution network design problems and its performance was assessed in comparison with NSGAII and SPEA2. This comparison was based on a revised hypervolume metric introduced in this study. The revised metric measures the algorithm performance relative to the observed performance variation across all algorithms in the comparison. The revised metric is improved in terms of detecting clear differences between approximations of the Pareto optimal front. Despite its simplicity, Hybrid PA-DDS shows high potential for approximating the Pareto optimal front, especially with limited computational budget. Independent of the PA-DDS results, the new local search strategy is also shown to substantially improve the final NSGAII and SPEA2 Pareto fronts with minimal additional computational expense.


Originally published by the Standard Bank as part of a curated exhibition in May 2011, this prestigious volume celebrates the life and works of Peter Clarke (1929?2014), one of South Africa?s foremost artists. A mere 500 copies were originally published, all taken up at the exhibition, and continued demand has led to its re-release. Clarke left his job as a dockworker in Simon?s Town to devote himself to art. The wisdom of this decision is reflected in a remarkable career, which extended over some six decades and was acknowledged in the awards of the Order of Ikhamanga (silver) in 2005 and a Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010.
Listening to distant thunder: The art of Peter Clarke recounts an artist?s life in the context of the social history of South Africa from the 1940s onwards. His images reflect the social disruption of the Cape Flats, and the trauma of his community?s forced removal from Simon?s Town to the bleak apartheid township of Ocean View. Yet Clarke?s images have avoided bitterness, and his work is a perceptive scrutiny and celebration of life in all its aspects.
Illustrated with over 200 reproductions and photographs, this book was researched and written by well-known South African art historians Philippa Hobbs and Elizabeth Rankin, in close collaboration with the artist over almost seven years.


OBJECTIVE
To estimate the risk of mesh complications in women with and without subsequent pelvic and abdominal radiation therapy (RT).

METHODS
We identified women within a large health care organization who underwent mesh-augmented surgery for pelvic floor disorders between 2008 and 2014 and subsequently received RT prior to 2018. We compared them to a randomly selected group of women who underwent similar mesh-augmented pelvic reconstructive surgery without RT in a 1:4 ratio. Mesh complications were identified through chart review corroborated with the ninth and tenth revisions of the International Classification of Diseases and Current Procedural Terminology codes for mesh complications. Mesh complications between groups were compared using survival analysis and Cox proportional hazards models.

RESULTS
We identified 36 women with RT and compared them with 144 women without RT. Indications for mesh implantation and concomitant vaginal procedures were similar between the groups. The majority of mesh implants (94.4%) were midurethral slings. Twelve mesh complications (6.7%) were identified, with similar rates in the RT (8.3%) and no-RT (6.2%) groups (P = 0.65). The risk of mesh complications did not differ between groups when compared using the Cox proportional hazards model, controlling for age, body mass index, diabetes, menopausal status, and smoking (hazard ratio, 1.19; 95% confidence interval, 0.802-1.787).

CONCLUSIONS
There was no difference in the occurrence of mesh-related complications between women with and without RT. Abdominopelvic RT may not substantially increase the risk of mesh complications following placement of a synthetic sling for stress urinary incontinence. The need for future RT may only be a minor factor in counseling patients on the risks of mesh implants for pelvic floor disorders.


Commercial applications for the location of subscribers of wireless services continue to expand. Consequently, finding the Cramer-Rao lower bound (CRLB), which serves as an optimality criterion for the location estimation problem, is of interest. In this article, we derive the deterministic CRLBs for the estimation of the specular multipath parameters and the positions of the mobiles in an asynchronous direct sequence code division multiple access (DS-CDMA) system operating over specular multipath fading channels. We assume a multilateral radio location system where the location estimates are obtained from some or all of the estimated signal parameters at different clusters of antennas of arbitrary geometry. Extension for unilateral and composite radio location techniques is also discussed. As an application example, we use numerical simulations to investigate the effects of specular multipath and multiple access interference (MAI) on the positioning accuracy for different radio location techniques.


A three-dimensional finite element model of the heat flow during pulsed laser beam welding is presented. The heat transfer and parametric design capabilities of the finite element code ANSYS were employed for this purpose. The model calculates transient temperature profiles and the dimensions of fusion and heat-affected zones (HAZ). Temperature-dependent thermophysical properties and experimentally measured beam profiles are incorporated. Model calculations are compared and then calibrated with experimental results of pulsed laser welds. The results suggest that temperature profiles and weld dimensions are strong functions of the absorptivity and energy distribution of the laser beam. For this reason, it is essential to incorporate an accurate description of the heat source.


Dealing with the problem of aging society is nowadays a challenging area of interests for both practice and science. Cognitive decline influences the decision-making process in elderly people. Changes in effectiveness of decisions are however situation-dependent. Aging not only affects the quality of decisions, but also strategy selection and choice satisfaction. Contemporary research and theories are discussed in this paper.


In this essay, I work to develop what I term multi-dimensional matrices of suffering that envisage the understanding of suffering beyond the locus of the human subject. In my theorising of multi-dimensional matrices of suffering, I proceed to conceptualise the suffering experienced in occupied zones as both relational and distributed. In the occupied zone, suffering encompasses complex, multidimensional vectors that bind humans, animals, animate and nonanimate objects and entities, buildings and land. In the context of the regimes of violence that inscribe occupied zones, I situate suffering, and a range of other affects, in ecological configurations that, through a range of forensic indices, evidence the impact of these regimes of violence on the broad spectrum of entities that comprise a particular occupied zone. The conceptualisation of suffering and trauma in occupied zones in terms of its relational multi-dimensionality, its sitespecific matrices and relational distribution across ecologies, I conclude, enables an understanding of suffering that moves beyond anthropocentric approaches. I situate my analysis in the context of Israel's drone-enabled regime of unrelenting surveillance, occupation and military control over Gaza and its continuing occupation of East Jerusalem.


Maturity-onset diabetes of the young (MODY) is characterized by early-onset diabetes with dominant inheritance. To date, 14 causative genes have been proposed for MODY, however the disease-causing genetic variants in numerous cases of early-onset diabetes with features of MODY remain unknown. The aim of this study was to investigate the genetic background of a family with multiple cases of early-onset diabetes using exome sequencing to identify a causative gene. The Japanese family that we examined included eight members with diabetes, three of whom were diagnosed with the disease before the age of 35. All three of these individuals were lean (BMI 1% in the 1000 genomes project or the Japanese exome database. As a result, we identified rare 399 non-synonymous variants shared by two members sequenced. Among the variants, we found a heterozygous S18F mutation in PTF1A [rs761787095, chr10:23192583C>T(GRCh38)]. Following this, we genotyped the remaining family member with early-onset diabetes, who was finally confirmed to share the heterozygous S18F mutation in PTF1A. Interestingly, the PTF1A gene has been implicated in pancreas development. Thus, the S18F mutation in PTF1A may be a causative mutation for early-onset diabetes. Family-based comprehensive exome sequencing is a promising strategy to elucidate the complex genetic background of diabetes. Disclosure D. Tanaka: None. S. Okamoto: None. Y. Liu: None. K. Iizuka: Speaker's Bureau; Self; Kowa Company, Ltd., Novo Nordisk Inc. Y. Hamamoto: Research Support; Self; Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co., Ltd. Speaker's Bureau; Self; Novo Nordisk Inc. Y. Horikawa: None. D. Yabe: Research Support; Self; ARKRAY, Astellas Pharma Inc., AstraZeneca K.K., Eli Lilly Japan K.K., Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Kowa Company, Ltd., Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim Co. Ltd., Sanofi K.K., Sanwa Kagaku Kenkyusho, Taisho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited. Speaker's Bureau; Self; Abbott, ARKRAY, Astellas Pharma Inc., AstraZeneca K.K., Bayer Yakuhin, Ltd., Daiichi Sankyo, Eli Lilly Japan K.K., Fukuda Denshi, Kowa Company, Ltd., Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd., LifeScan, Inc., Medtronic, Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim Co. Ltd., Novartis Pharma K.K., Novo Nordisk Inc., Novo Nordisk Inc., Sanofi K.K., Sanwa Kagaku Kenkyusho, Taisho Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited, Teijin Pharma Limited. Other Relationship; Self; Japan Diabetes Society. N. Inagaki: Research Support; Self; Astellas Pharma Inc., Drawbridge Health, Japan Tobacco Inc., Kissei Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd., Life Scan Japan, Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim Co. Ltd., Novartis Pharma K.K., Novo Nordisk Pharma Ltd.,, Sanofi K.K., Sanwa Kagaku Kenkyusho, Terumo Medical Corporation. Speaker's Bureau; Self; Astellas Pharma Inc., Merck & Co., Inc., Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation, Nippon Boehringer Ingelheim Co. Ltd., Novo Nordisk Inc., Ono Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd., Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited. Funding Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (18K08509)


Real-time streaming of audiovisual content over the Internet is emerging as an important technology area in multimedia communications. Due to the wide variation of available bandwidth over Internet sessions, there is a need for scalable video coding methods and (corresponding) flexible streaming approaches that are capable of adapting to changing network conditions in real time. In this paper, we describe a new scalable video-coding framework that has been adopted recently by the MPEG-4 video standard. This new MPEG-4 video approach, which is known as Fine-Granular-Scalability (FGS), consists of a rich set of video coding tools that support quality (i.e., SNR), temporal, and hybrid temporal-SNR scalabilities. Moreover, one of the desired features of the MPEG-J FGS method is its simplicity and flexibility in supporting unicast and multicast streaming applications over IF.


Building design process is a wide spectrum activity, regarding its complexity. It begins by simple compartments structures till large multistory administrative buildings, involving various specialties. Complex design management, where a multidisciplinary team or teams are involved in the design process; requires high level of collaboration to reach the optimized client goals economically and on time. BIM provides a wide range support for such an activity, where the most critical criterion in design management is ensuring the appropriate flow of information between design partners. Each participant in the design process should receive relevant data or information in a complete form and on time. And consequently design participant should send and share their design outputs with relevant personnel. The perfect BIM environment requires that all participants within the design process are using BIM supporting software, and vice versa. Markets where BIM application is still in the growing phase some of the design participants adopt BIM while others don't. The main target of this paper is to propose a collaborative scheme to ensure information flow between design participants, using COBIE forms and XBIM toolkit; in the case where some of the participants in design process are not using BIM supporting software.


The intercostobrachial nerve (ICBN) is a cutaneous nerve that provides sensation to the lateral chest, medial aspect of the upper arm, and the axilla. It is of particular surgical significance as a lesion of this nerve during surgical procedures can disrupt sensation and adversely affect the patient's post-operative course. Surgeons, radiologists, and anesthesiologists perform procedures such as axillary surgery, breast surgery, and regional nerve blocks involving the brachial plexus or the axilla, in which knowledge of this nerve's course is important. This article will discuss the anatomy and surgical significance of the ICBN.


We consider excited random walks on the integers with a bounded number of i.i.d. cookies per site which may induce drifts both to the left and to the right. We extend the criteria for recurrence and transience by M. Zerner and for positivity of speed by A.-L. Basdevant and A. Singh to this case and also prove an annealed central limit theorem. The proofs are based on results from the literature concerning branching processes with migration and make use of a certain renewal structure.


BACKGROUND
It has recently been suggested that recombinant FSH administration may result in an increased risk of venous thrombosis. An open-label, randomized, controlled trial was carried out to compare the impact of urinary and recombinant FSH on haemostasis.

METHODS
Fifty infertile women were randomized, using a random number generator on a personal computer, to receive either highly purified urinary FSH (u-hFSH) or recombinant human FSH (r-hFSH); a starting dose of 150 IU. Human chorionic gonadotrophin 10000 IU was administered once there was at least one follicle > or =18 mm. The luteal phase was supported with progesterone 50 mg/day for at least 15 days. Fifty normally menstruating women were recruited as controls. Repeated measurements of estradiol, progesterone, prothrombin time (PT) expressed as INR, activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) ratio, fibrinogen (FBG), factor VIII (FVIII), normalized activated protein C ratio (nAPC ratio), antithrombin III activity (AT), protein C activity (PC), protein S activity (PS), tissue-type plasminogen activator antigen (t-PA), type 1 plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI), prothrombin fragments 1+2 (F1+2), were performed during both hyperstimulated and natural cycles, and at onset of the following menstruation or at 8 weeks of pregnancy.

RESULTS
At the end of gonadotrophin administration PT INR increased in the u-hFSH group, while AT and t-PA significantly decreased. In the patients treated with r-hFSH, only F1+2 significantly decreased. No significant changes were observed in the control group. In the luteal phase FBG increased significantly in all groups. In the u-hFSH group no other significant changes were noted compared to pre-ovulatory values, while compared to baseline values AT, PS and t-PA significantly decreased. In the r-hFSH group during the luteal phase PT INR significantly decreased, but did not differ from baseline levels. Other parameters such as FBG, FVIII, t-PA, rose significantly, but only FVIII and FBG values were significantly higher than baseline levels. In the women who became pregnant a significant increase in t-PA and a significant decrease in PS at the midluteal phase were observed. After one month all the haemostatic parameters returned to baseline value if pregnancy failed to occur, while in the pregnant women a significant increase in FVIII and a significant decrease in PS were observed.

CONCLUSIONS
Ovarian stimulation with recombinant FSH does not influence coagulation and fibrinolysis significantly, as already reported for urinary gonadotrophins. The moderate changes induced by both treatments are no longer detectable after 4 weeks.


Significance Since Darwin's ground-breaking monograph on carnivorous plants, scientists have recognized only 11 independent origins of plant carnivory. We report the discovery of a new lineage of carnivorous plants, represented by the North American flowering plant Triantha occidentalis. Among monocots, Triantha represents the only instance of a sticky-trap mechanism and a clearly documented case of holocarnivory, marked by enzymatic secretion consistent with prey digestion. Its trap is unique among carnivorous plants and, unexpected based on theory, in placing all of its prey-capture sites next to its insect-pollinated flowers. Given the existence of Triantha in close proximity to major urban centers on the Pacific coast, our study serves as a vivid reminder that other cryptic carnivores may yet remain to be discovered. Carnivorous plants consume animals for mineral nutrients that enhance growth and reproduction in nutrient-poor environments. Here, we report that Triantha occidentalis (Tofieldiaceae) represents a previously overlooked carnivorous lineage that captures insects on sticky inflorescences. Field experiments, isotopic data, and mixing models demonstrate significant N transfer from prey to Triantha, with an estimated 64% of leaf N obtained from prey capture in previous years, comparable to levels inferred for the cooccurring round-leaved sundew, a recognized carnivore. N obtained via carnivory is exported from the inflorescence and developing fruits and may ultimately be transferred to next year's leaves. Glandular hairs on flowering stems secrete phosphatase, as seen in all carnivorous plants that directly digest prey. Triantha is unique among carnivorous plants in capturing prey solely with sticky traps adjacent to its flowers, contrary to theory. However, its glandular hairs capture only small insects, unlike the large bees and butterflies that act as pollinators, which may minimize the conflict between carnivory and pollination.


Light scalar fields can naturally couple disformally to matter fields. Static, nonrelativistic sources do not generate a classical field profile for a disformally coupled scalar, and so such scalars are free from the constraints on the existence of fifth forces that are so restrictive for conformally coupled scalars. In this paper we show that disformally coupled scalars can still be studied and constrained through their microscopic interactions with fermions and photons, both in terrestrial laboratories and from observations of stars. The strongest constraint on the coupling scale comes from mono-photon searches at the LHC and requires M≳102 GeV.


Objectives
Experimental data indicate that maternal exposure to factors known to alter inflammatory milieu may be specifically harmful to the conception or survival of male fetuses. Indeed, in a recent clinical trial, preconception administration of low dose aspirin versus placebo restored the skewed sex ratio at birth among women with elevated inflammation, providing direct evidence of this phenomenon in humans. However, it is unknown whether other factors associated with inflammation, such as vitamin D status, are associated with offspring sex ratio at birth. Our objective was thus to evaluate the association of preconception serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D levels [25(OH)D] and male live birth among 1228 reproductive-age women with a history of 1-2 prior losses who were enrolled in the Effects of Aspirin in Gestation and Reproduction trial between 2007-2011.

Methods
We estimated RRs and 95% CIs for male live birth according to 25(OH)D sufficiency (≥75 vs. <75 nmol/L) using generalized estimating equations of log-binomial regression with robust standard errors.

Results
Among the 1086 women who completed follow-up, the proportion of live-born males was 24% (n = 136) and 30% (n = 156) in the 25(OH)D insufficient and sufficient groups, respectively. After adjustment for age, race/ethnicity, and other factors, women in the 25(OH)D sufficient group were 23% (95% CI: 1.01, 1.49) more likely to have a live-born male infant compared to the insufficient group. Associations were stronger among women with elevated versus low levels of high sensitivity C-reactive protein (>1.95 ng/mL: RR: 1.41; 95% CI: 0.99, 2.00 versus ≤1.95 ng/mL RR: 1.11; 95% CI: 0.88, 1.41), a marker of systemic low-grade inflammation.

Conclusions
Preconception vitamin D status was associated with male live birth, particularly among women with low-grade inflammation. These data suggest that maternal vitamin D sufficiency may mitigate maternal inflammation that would otherwise be detrimental to male fetal survival.

Funding Sources
Intramural Research Program of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, NIH, Bethesda, MD.


On 2 October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a dissident Saudi journalist residing in the United States of America, where he was a columnist for the Washington Post newspaper, was murdered in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul. This article analyses Khashoggi's killing from the standpoint of the human right to life. It examines not only the obligation of Saudi Arabia to respect Khashoggi's right to life, but also the obligations of Turkey and the United States to protect Khashoggi's right to life from third parties, and to ensure respect through an effective investigation of his killing and mutual cooperation for the purpose of that investigation. It also looks at the extraterritorial scope of these various obligations. Finally, the article examines possible norm conflicts between state obligations under human rights law and their obligations under diplomatic and consular law, such as the inviolability of diplomatic and consular premises, agents and means of transportation.


Recent technological advances have enabled comprehensive determination of the molecular composition of living cells. The chemical interactions between many of these molecules are known, giving rise to genome-scale reconstructed biochemical reaction networks underlying cellular functions. Mathematical descriptions of the totality of these chemical interactions lead to genome-scale models that allow the computation of physiological functions. Reflecting these recent developments, this textbook explains how such quantitative and computable genotype-phenotype relationships are built using a genome-wide basis of information about the gene portfolio of a target organism. It describes how biological knowledge is assembled to reconstruct biochemical reaction networks, the formulation of computational models of biological functions, and how these models can be used to address key biological questions and enable predictive biology. Developed through extensive classroom use, the book is designed to provide students with a solid conceptual framework and an invaluable set of modeling tools and computational approaches.


Multicatalytic proteinases (MCPs) are macromolecular structures involved in the intracellular degradation of many types of proteins. MCPs are composed of a 20S "core" of both structural (alpha) and presumed catalytic (beta) subunits, in association with regulatory proteins. They are characteristically found in both the nucleus and cytoplasm of cells, although mechanisms governing the subcellular distribution of MCPs are not known. RRC3, an alpha subunit of rat MCPs, contains both a putative nuclear localization signal (NLS) and a potential tyrosine phosphorylation site which could play a role in nuclear import, and the nuclear form of RRC3 appears to be involved in the regulation of cell growth. Here we have generated a variety of RRC3 expression constructs to study features of RRC3 important in nuclear localization and cell growth. PCR was utilized to develop constructs containing point mutations in either the putative NLS (K51 mutated to A) or at a potential tyrosine phosphorylation site (Y121 mutated to F), and an epitope from influenza hemagglutinin (HA) was added in triplicate to the C-terminus of the constructs as a means of identification. RRC3 constructs were then made in which the nucleotide sequence near the translation initiation site of RRC3 was modified in such a way that the amino acid sequence of the protein translated from the constructs is unchanged from that of normal RRC3, thus allowing differential modulation of endogenous RRC3 with antisense oligonucleotide treatment. These N-terminally modified constructs are designated mC3, mC3NLS, and mC3y. In vitro transcription/translation reactions with these constructs produced the expected products, which were immunoprecipitated with a mouse monoclonal anti-HA antibody. Immunohistochemical studies with hepatocyte cell lines transiently transfected with either mC3NLS or mC3y showed only cytoplasmic staining, whereas cells transfected with mC3 had a staining pattern typical of endogenous RRC3 (both cytoplasmic and nuclear) with strong staining of the nuclear perimeter. Immunoblot analyses of subcellular fractions from stably transfected CWSV1 cells showed mC3 product in both the cytosol and nucleus of cells, whereas mC3NLS or mC3y products were restricted to the cytosol. CWSV1 cells stably transfected with the pTet-Splice vector containing no insert (as a control) were markedly inhibited (80%) in cell growth and showed altered morphology when treated with antisense oligonucleotides targeted to endogenous RRC3, reproducing previous studies. Similarly, CWSV1 cells stably transfected with either mC3NLS or mC3y constructs showed analogous growth inhibition and morphologic alteration upon antisense treatment. In contrast, CWSV1 cells stably transfected with the mC3 construct showed normal growth and morphology following antisense oligonucleotide treatment, demonstrating that replenishment of nuclear RRC3 was necessary and sufficient to relieve growth inhibition. In 32P-metabolic labeling studies, mC3 was tyrosine-phosphorylated in cytosol as the full-length protein (M(r) 36000). mC3NLS was also phosphorylated in cytosol, whereas mC3y was not. Nuclear mC3 showed phosphorylation of a M(r) 27000 processed form while neither mC3NLS nor mC3y showed any phosphorylated nuclear products. Our results show that nuclear RRC3 is important in control of cell growth and that both the NLS and Y121 are important in nuclear localization of RRC3. Control of nuclear import by tyrosine phosphorylation may represent a novel regulatory mechanism, and our results further suggest that RRC3 may travel as a maverick subunit.


Studies of blood formation and destruction in the polycythemia of high altitude have been carried out. Three different groups of subjects were studied:

1. Healthy adult male subjects from sea level who, after being studied at this level, were taken to an altitude of 4,540 meters (Morococha) where they developed a marked polycythemic process. When these subjects returned to sea level, the mechanisms of recuperation of the hematologic equilibrium were studied.

Normal adult subjects, natives of high altitude, chronically polycythemic due to their permanent residence in Morococha, who were first studied in their native town and then brought to sea level where they were observed during five weeks.

3. Subjects, residents of high altitude (Morococha), who had lost their adaptation to it; i.e. who had developed chronic altitude sickness or Soroche (Monge's malady).

The observations carried out permit the following conclusions:

1. The polycythemic process of subjects with anoxia caused by a low pressure environment is due to a greater blood formation by the hematopoietic organs. This becomes manifest after forty-eight hours. The very discreet polycythemia frequently found during the first hours is probably the result of hemoconcentration and release of stored blood.

2. This polycythemic process is not accompanied by quantitative alterations of the leukocytes nor of the platelets; thus, differing from polycythemia vera, in which there is as a rule an increase in all the hematologic elements.

3. The increased blood volume of residents at high altitude is due exclusively to the increased red cell mass, the plasma volume being more likely to be found diminished.

4. In normal subjects who are temporarily or permanently exposed to an atmosphere of low barometric pressure, the excretion of fecal urobilinogen does not exceed the limits considered normal at sea level, but increases with relation to the larger circulatory hemoglobin mass, a normal hemolytic index being maintained.

5. The hyperbilirubinemia very frequently found in the natives and in those resident for a long time at high altitudes appears to be related to a lesser excretion of this pigment by the liver, probably on the basis of the anoxic state. The greater production of bilirubin in subjects at high altitude is not sufficient to explain, in and of itself, the pigmentary elevation in the blood.

6. The mechanism of the disappearance of the polycythemia when the subjects from a high altitude are brought to sea level, appears to be as follows: (a) temporary diminution or inhibition of erythropoiesis, and (b) a greater blood destruction. The latter takes place only during the first days of stay at sea level, being chiefly responsible for the early rapid decrease of the degree of polycythemia, while the former acts in a more prolonged form and is principally responsible for the erythropoietic "normalization."

7. In two cases of chronic altitude sickness, or chronic Soroche (Monge's disease), the output of fecal urobilinogen exceeded proportionally the increase of the circulatory hemoglobin mass. The hemolytic index was found abnormally high.

8. The above findings indicate that the polycythemia of the normal individual residing at high altitudes is characterized by a proportional and direct accentuation in the processes of blood formation and destruction. On the other hand, in those subjects also residing at high altitudes, who exhibit an abnormally high polycythemia (chronic Soroche), the accentuation in the processes of blood destruction is proportionally greater than that corresponding to the greater erythropoiesis. This characteristic constitutes a possible diagnostic criterion and can perhaps explain in part the etiologic mechanism of this alteration.


The development of electronic data is increasing rapidly, causing the security of electronic data need a fairly powerful. Currently, each person is very easy to exchange information on all matters, including sharing knowledge on how to access the data illegally. Storage of data in the database table is equipped with the password authentication mechanism which is installed on the application can be made. But bad people who intend to seek another way to access the confidential data direct ly to the database table, without going through the application. With the possibility of illegal access the databse directly to the table, the need to develop a mechanism that can secure the data from illegal access of people are not responsible for the database table level. There are many ways you can do for the encryption of data stored in the database table. On this research, suggested techniques using database encrypt ing by PGP is promoted . PGP is an encryption mechanism that is very good practice with the public and private key. PGP is well known for encryption in e-mail and text files, and some other features. Important data which you want stored in the database field, previously encrypted with PGP practice. Once encrypted, barulan ciphertext is stored in the database table field. Keywords: Data Encryption, PGP, Security Database


Getting back to previously viewed web pages is a common yet uneasy task for users due to the large volume of personally accessed information on the web. This paper leverages human's natural recall process of using episodic and semantic memory cues to facilitate recall, and presents a personal web revisitation technique called WebPagePrevthrough context and content keywords. Underlying techniques for context and content memories' acquisition, storage, decay, and utilization for page re-finding are discussed. A relevance feedback mechanism is also involved to tailor to individual's memory strength and revisitation habits. Our 6-month user study shows that: (1) compared with the existing web revisitation tool Memento, History List Searching method, and Search Engine method, the proposed WebPagePrevdelivers the best re-finding quality in finding rate (92.10%), average F1-measure (0.4318) and average rank error (0.3145). (2) Our dynamic management of context and content memories including decay and reinforcement strategy can mimic users' retrieval and recall mechanism. With relevance feedback, the finding rate of WebPagePrevincreases by 9.82%, average F1-measure increases by 47.09%, and average rank error decreases by 19.44% compared to stable memory management strategy. Among time, location, and activity context factors in WebPagePrev, activity is the best recall cue, and context+content based re-finding delivers the best performance, compared to context based re-finding and content based re-finding.


This study was undertaken to evaluate the effect of the levering laryngoscope on the view obtained at laryngoscopy. Two hundred and ten consecutive patients who required tracheal intubation were studied. The view at laryngoscopy with the levering laryngoscope blade in the neutral and elevated positions was recorded. In patients in whom there was a Cormack and Lehane grade 3 view of the larynx with the blade in the neutral position, elevation of the levered tip of the blade significantly improved the visualisation of the larynx. In patients where the view of the larynx was grade 1 or 2 with the blade in the neutral position, elevation of the levered tip often (23%) resulted in the view being impaired. This was not a clinical problem as the blade could simply be returned to the neutral position. The levering laryngoscope is a useful additional aid to laryngeal visualisation.


In inoperable stenosing tumours of the oesophagus the problem arises of maintaining oral food intake. As malignant cells are more cold-sensitive than normal cells oesophageal tumours may be "cold-coagulated" with special probes. Preliminary results with this treatment in 28 patients are reported.


ABSTRACT Seeking to understand how involvement with social media influences travel experiences, the current investigation explores the reasoning and social justifications of tourists' engagement with travel videos on the short-form video sharing platform – TikTok. Using phenomenology, data consisted of semi-structured interviews with 12 tourists who had experiences consuming, producing, and sharing travel videos on TikTok. Findings suggest that consuming and creating TikTok touristic fantasies, hashtagging a #wonderfuljourney through sharing, and storing my meaningful life in a 'public' diary are three primary reasons for tourists' engagement in TikTok travel videos. Results show that the daily use of TikTok, a visual storytelling platform, has extended to the tourism context, resulting in the eroding boundaries between tourism experiences and everyday life and contributing to an understanding of the 'Leisure-Tourism' Continuum in Web 2.0. It advocates DMOs to produce tourism videos based on tourist needs and the distinctness of the platform of TikTok.


Surface roughness and cutting forces are considered as important factors to determine machinability rate and the quality of product. A number of factors like cutting speed, feed rate, depth of cutting and tool noise radius influence the surface roughness and cutting forces in turning process. In this paper, an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model was used to forecast surface roughness and cutting forces with related inputs, including cutting speed, feed rate, depth of cut and tool noise radius. The machined surface roughness and cutting force parameters related to input parameters are the outputs of the ANN model. In this work, 24 samples of experimental data were used to train the network. Moreover, eight other experimental tests were implemented to test the network. The study concludes that ANN was a reliable and accurate method for predicting machining parameters in CNC turning operation.


As this book makes clear, current use of data structures such as frames, scripts, and stereotypes in psychology, artificial intelligence, and all the other disciplines now grouped together as Cognitive Science develop ideas already explored by Husserl who believed that the analysis of mental representations was the proper subject of philosophy, psychology, and other disciplines that deal with the mind.This new anthology will serve as an ideal introduction to phenomenology for analytic philosophers, both as a text and as the single most useful source book on Husserl for cognitive scientists.Hubert L. Dreyfus is Professor of Philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley. He is author of the best-selling and controversial book, What Computers Can't Do. Harrison Hall, who has collaborated with Dreyfus on much of the book, is on the philsophy faculty at the University of Delaware. An MIT Press/Bradford Book.


The most common type of childhood-onset epilepsy syndrome is childhood absence epilepsy (CAE) with well-defined electro clinical features but unknown pathological basis. The incidence of absence epilepsy is about 2 and 8 out of every 100 000 children up to the age of 16, and the prevalence is 2 and 10% of children with any form of epilepsy. Children with CAE suffer from high rate of pretreatment attention deficits that persist despite seizure freedom. Many researchers have still focused on the phenomenon of the absence seizure because of the unclear mechanisms involved in its pathophysiology. Although several models used for screening, quantification and evaluation of absence epilepsy but the key issue is reproducibility of the full clinical syndrome and pathogenesis as well as its different etiology. Considering that each substance has limited duration of action and specific time to observe the seizure. This review includes pharmacological animal models (Systemic Penicillin, Low-dose pentylentetrazole, tetrahydroisoxazolo pyridine and gamma-Hydroxy-butyrate, AY-9944 and methylazzoxymethanol acetate (MAM)-AY-9944 models and genetic animal models (tottering, lethargic, stargazer, mocha, slow-wave epilepsy and ducky mouse, and WAG/Rij, GEARS and Legacies rats). As regards, childhood absence epilepsy has variable genetic etiology; it seems that genetic animal models are more suitable than chemical models, as close correlation of EEG features and behaviors of genetic animal models to the human condition. Among genetic models in mousses and rats the GAERS and the WAG/Rij strains of Wistar, have asserted to be valid and predictive of human absence epilepsy. Most publications were designed based on the WAG/Rij rats. Altogether in both models the thalamocortical circuits obviously involved as the critical generator of absence seizures. Multidisciplinary studies of these two strains, lead to find wealth information about the role of the cortex and the thalamus, and other subcortical circuits.