We propose a model of the daily load curve for residential electricity usage, including in particular the effects of dynamic price incentives on the demand response, a topic of considerable interest in the emerging Smart Grid. The model is based on a time series and stochastic regression framework in which the observed daily load curve is represented in terms of a set of periodic smoothing-spline basis functions, with the basis function coefficients evolving according to a linear Gaussian state-space model that incorporates level shifts, day of the week and holiday adjustments, and weather effects, as well as the dynamic price-incentive effects mentioned earlier. Model parameters are estimated from observational time-series data using maximum-likelihood methods, with the computations being efficiently carried out using Kalman filtering recursions. The resulting fitted model can be used for short-term load forecasting by providing a forward sequence of price-incentive signals and weather projections over the forecast period. This proposed modeling and forecasting methodology have many advantages over competing methods in the literature, including the ability to model intraday load-substitution effects that are induced by the specified dynamic pricing schedules, the ability to use fine-grained (5–15 min interval) observational data without greatly increasing the computational cost of the estimation and forecasting procedures, the ability to use informative prior distributions for any model parameters that cannot be reliably estimated from the available observational data, and the ability to update model forecasts based on the latest sequence of partial observational data without having to store the entire time-series history. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


We introduce a new two‐dimensional nuclear quadrupole resonance experiment, in which the first time period (t1) is the duration of the radiofrequency exciting pulse; and the second (t2) is the normal free precession of a quadrupolar nucleus at zero field. After double Fourier transformation, the result is a 2D spectrum in which the first frequency dimension is the nutation spectrum for the quadrupolar nucleus at zero field. For single crystals, this spectrum contains narrow lines, whose frequency, for axially symmetric tensors, is proportional to sin θ, where θ is the angle between the unique axis of the quadrupolar tensor and that of the transmitter/receiver coil. For polycrystalline samples we obtain powder line shapes which are reminiscent of high‐field nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) powder patterns, and which allow determination of the asymmetry parameter η, which has previously only been obtainable using Zeeman perturbed nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) methods. Both theoretical spectra and sever...


It is maintained here that the development and improvement of the standards for the work undertaken for the basic law degree should be of first and primary consideration. Specifically, by making the law schools substantially stronger and more stable, by acquiring good, productive full-time faculties, by placing greater emphasis upon the realization of lawyer skills through legal education and the development of more effective teaching techniques, by maintaining up-to-date curricula, by phasing out part-time evening law school programs and completely disaccrediting the study of law through correspondence schools, by maintaining better research libraries, by setting higher admission standards for some of the less prominent schools and complete certification of law schools by the Association of American Law Schools, rather than the American Bar Association alone-the law schools would undoubtedly gain in strength and maturity and would consequently ensure for their graduates a professional recognition of the highest order.


Background: There is some evidence that statins may have a protective and symptomatic benefit in Alzheimer disease (AD). The LEADe study is a randomized controlled trial (RCT) evaluating the efficacy and safety of atorvastatin in patients with mild to moderate AD. Methods: This was an international, multicenter, double-blind, randomized, parallel-group study. Subjects had mild to moderate probable AD (Mini-Mental State Examination score 13–25), were aged 50–90 years, and were taking donepezil 10 mg daily for ≥3 months prior to screening. Entry low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels (LDL-C) were >95 and <195 mg/dL. Patients were randomized to atorvastatin 80 mg/day or placebo for 72 weeks followed by a double-blind, 8-week atorvastatin withdrawal phase. Coprimary endpoints were changes in cognition (Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale [ADAS-Cog]) and global function (Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study Clinical Global Impression of Change [ADCS-CGIC]) at 72 weeks. Results: A total of 640 patients were randomized in the study. There were no significant differences in the coprimary endpoints of ADAS-cog or ADCS-CGIC or the secondary endpoints. Atorvastatin was generally well-tolerated. Conclusions: In this large-scale randomized controlled trial evaluating statin therapy as a treatment for mild to moderate Alzheimer disease, atorvastatin was not associated with significant clinical benefit over 72 weeks. This treatment was generally well-tolerated without unexpected adverse events. Classification of evidence: This study provides Class II evidence that intensive lipid lowering with atorvastatin 80 mg/day in patients with mild to moderate probable Alzheimer disease (aged 50–90), taking donepezil, with low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels between 95 and 195 mg/dL over 72 weeks does not benefit cognition (as measured by Alzheimer's Disease Assessment Scale-Cognitive Subscale) (p = 0.26) or global function (as measured by Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study Clinical Global Impression of Change) (p = 0.73) compared with placebo.


Expansion of soils has been found to produce significant negative economic and environmental impact on various civil engineering infrastructure. This impact is more deleterious in soils containing sulphates, when treated with calcium-based stabilizers such as Lime and/or Portland cement (PC). The reported study investigated the strength and swell characteristics of Kaolinite clay artificially induced with high levels of Gypsum (sulphate) contents after stabilization with CEM I (PC), which is a calcium-based stabilizer. An optimum stabilizer content/Gypsum dosage, aimed at investigating the maximum magnitude of expansion possible using high levels of 10, 15 and 20% Gypsum contents (4.7, 7 and 9.3 wt.% sulphate) stabilized with calcium-based content of 7, 8, 9 and 10 wt.%. This was expected to provide further understanding on the mechanisms behind high sulphate-bearing clay soils, and the impact of sulphate and calcium content on strength and swell characteristics. The research outcomes showed that the introduction of sulphate to a Kaolinite clay soil reduces the compressive strength of the stabilised product by a factor range of 6–47% at 28 days curing age, while the swell behaviour is mainly dependent on both the sulphate content and curing age. Furthermore, the observed result suggests an 8 wt.% binder content to produce maximum magnitude of expansion (swell) with a high Gypsum content of 10% by weight. This finding is of economic importance, as it is expected to serve as a benchmark for further research on the stabilized clay systems, at high sulphate levels using sustainable binder materials.


Relative clauses (RCs) are considered islands for extraction, yet acceptable cases of overt extraction from RCs have been attested over the years in a variety of languages: Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, Japanese, Hebrew, English, Italian, Spanish, French, and also in Lebanese Arabic and Mandarin Chinese, where covert extraction from an RC is observed. The possibility for extraction has often been presented as evidence against a syntactic theory of locality, and in favor of constraints defined in terms of information structure, or processing limitations and constraints on working memory. Another possibility, still hardly explored, is that locality is determined syntactically, combined with a more fine-grained structure for RCs and a theory of how extraction from this structure interacts with the theory of locality. I argue in favor of the latter approach. I assume the structural ambiguity of RCs and argue that while externally headed RCs do block extraction, extraction is possible, under certain conditions, from a raising RC, and is formally similar to extraction from an embedded interrogative.


This study investigates the consequences of different legal systems for fraudulent transactions in electronic commerce (e-commerce) or online payment. When a fraudulent online transaction occurs and the online customer disputes the transaction, in many European countries, the online customer takes responsibility for the proof of her or his argument, whereas in the United States, the burden of proof lies with the firm. This paper analyzes corollaries of the two different legal systems and discusses why different regulations exist from the perspective of e-commerce laws. We found that, in a market or society where the elasticity for security investment is relatively high, the legal system that imposes the burdens of proof on firms results in Pareto superior and e-commerce firms achieve higher profitability in equilibrium than the legal system that burdens the onus on customers. In addition, we found that, in some range of the elasticity for security investment, return of the security investment of firms in the first legal system is higher than that in the other legal system in the equilibrium.


The inhibition of aflatoxin production in stored grains and pulses was achieved by the use of chemicals. However, these chemicals constitute serious health hazards to humans and animals. It is neither environmentally friendly nor safe for the sustenance of the ecosystem. Therefore, the current study was designed to investigate the use of plant extracts in the eradication of seed- and air-borne aflatoxigenic species of fungi in line with the recommendations of World Health Organization [WHO]. Aflatoxin detoxification and mortality of aflatoxigenic fungal strains by plant-based fungicides were examined using rigorous laboratory procedures. The strains of Aspergillus flavus, A. Parasiticus and A. Fumigatus were totally killed by 1000mg/mL cons. of the phyto-fungicides (100% death recorded). Also, 100% aflatoxin detoxification was recorded by the application of 750 and 100mg/mL concentration of the plant-based fungicides used for this experiment. The use of plant extracts for control of fungal pests is safe and less expensive than synthetic pesticides. More so, they are environmentally friendly and constitute no health risk to humans and animals. This will help reduce pollution from chemical sources and also contribute to a sustainable development of the ecosystem.


Cyclodextrins (CDs) are cyclic oligosaccharides produced by enzymatic degradation of starch. The most common CDs are the main natural ones, α, β and γ, which are constituted of 6, 7 and 8 glucopyranose units, respectively. The CD structure forms a torus or doughnut ring and the molecule actually exists as a truncated cone. The outer side of the toroid is hydrophilic in nature due to the hydroxyl groups of the glucopyranose units while the internal cavity is relatively apolar. Thus, CDs have a high potential to entrap entirely or partially a wide variety of compounds in a process known as complexation. This gives them new physico-chemical properties and characteristics. The main applications of CDs in drug formulation rely on CD complexation and include the protection of easily oxidizable molecules or the improvement of aqueous solubility. The use of CDs in analytical chemistry is based on his host-guest recognition property, known as supramolecular complex formation. Currently, CDs are successfully used in molecular recognition-based methods like chromatographic separations, spectroscopic and electroanalyses. Quiral analytical separations are a CD area of special relevance. In this work, attention is paid to more recent references, especially to selected reviews.


The UPR presents a striking similarity to the state reporting procedure that has been established under African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights (ACHPR). Not only are both procedures based on constructive dialogue as a tool, and seeking to enhance introspection and inspection of state's human rights performances, they also aspire to gauge the degree of compliance with the whole gamut of rights and freedoms. Both procedures are invariably incumbent on all African states, now that the ACHPR has been unanimously ratified by all states of the Continent. The first twenty years of state reporting under the ACHPR saw a myriad of problems, hence dubbed a procedure that has faced implementation crises of dangerous proportions: non-reporting, poor quality reports, poor quality of state delegates, diplomatic rather than honest dialogue, lack of concluding observations and other problems plagued the system. Overall, as one author notes, the reporting procedure under the ACHPR has "tend[ed] to be descriptive, formalistic, legalistic and self-congratulatory, rather than reflective and focused on substance and practical realities, and problems encountered." It is instructive therefore to ask the reasons underlying all African states' almost uniform timely reporting under the UPR and the quality thereof. This paper set out to address the question of whether African states' regular submission of reports under the UPR, which report they failed to submit under the regional instrument, was inspired by capitulation or compliance. It seeks to compare the efficacy of the state reporting procedure under the ACHPR during its first twenty years and the first round of reports under the UPR in the light of the roles of the triple actors involved in the processes - the reporting states, the UN Human Rights Council and NGOs – and the resultant progresses that might have been made in the domestic implementation of the human rights norms being monitored.


This paper presents a new approach for roof facet segmentation based on ridge detection and hierarchical decomposition along ridges. The proposed approach exploits the fact that every roof can be composed of a set of gabled roofs and single facets which are separated by the gabled roofs. In this work, firstly, building footprints stored in OpenStreetMap are used to extract 3D points on roofs. Then, roofs are segmented into roof facets. The algorithm starts with detecting roof ridges using RANSAC since they are parallel to the horizon and situated on the top of the roof. The roof ridges are utilized to indicate the location and direction of the gabled roof. Thus, points on the two roof facets along a roof ridge can be identified based on their connectivity and coplanarity. The results of the segmentation benefit the further process of roof reconstruction because many parameters, including the position, angle and size of the gabled roof can be calculated and used as priori knowledge for the model-driven approach, and topologies among the point segments are made known for the data-driven approach. The algorithm has been validated in the test sites of two towns next to Bavaria Forest national park. The experimental results show that building roofs can be segmented with both high correctness and completeness simultaneously.


A more powerful China under the seemingly confident leadership of President Xi Jinping has committed to a more activist global policy. In particular, this commitment has influenced Beijing's policy towards UN peacekeeping operations, with a long-awaited decision to add combat forces to the engineering troops and police and medical units that have been features of its past contribution. In addition, Beijing has doubled the size of its contribution to the UN peace operations budget. This article explains why the UN is a key venue for China to demonstrate its �responsible Great Power� status and expressed willingness to provide global public goods. The main explanatory factors relate to the UN's institutional design, which accords special status to China even as it represents a global order that promotes the sovereign equality of states. Moreover, there are complementarities between dominant Chinese beliefs and interests, and those contained within the UN system. Especially important in this latter regard are the links that China has tried to establish between peacebuilding and development assistance with the aim of strengthening the capacity of states. China projects development support as a contribution both to humanitarian need and to the harmonization of conflict-ridden societies. The Chinese leadership has also spoken of its willingness to contribute to peacemaking through stepping up its efforts at mediation. However, such a move will require much deeper commitment than China has demonstrated in the past and runs the risk of taking China into controversial areas of policy it has hitherto worked to avoid.


Background Since October 2008 till present time, Lviv Regional AIDS Center and Charitable Salus Foundation implement project "HIV prevention by increasing access to VCT (voluntary HIV testing and counselling), sexually transmitted infections (STI) diagnostics among commercial sex workers (CSW) in Lviv region using mobile gynaecological clinic (MGC).The initiative is supported by International HIV\AIDS Alliance in Ukraine. Methods Specially equipped bus - MGC was used for this intervention. MGC works daily except Saturday and Sunday visiting highest HIV rate places all over Lviv region (2.5 million population) providing CSW with condoms, lubricants, information materials and rapid testing for HIV, syphilis, gonorrhoea, Chlamydia, hepatitis B and C. Shampoos, lipsticks, hand creams were distributed among CSW as a motivation for those clients who passed HIV\STI test. Results During October 2008 - January 2013 12059 visits were done by CSW. 4031 rapid HIV test were made (197 positive results) 2886 rapid syphilis tests (37 positive results) 2133 tests for gonorrhoea (30 positive results) 2133 tests for Chlamydia (230 positive results) 1499 Hepatitis B tests (63 positive results) 1499 Hepatitis C tests (141 positive results) Conclusions Taking into consideration obtained data such intervention is very needed and welcomed by key population representatives. Gender oriented approach in HIV prevention programmes for female sex workers is very important factor for the success of the intervention In great importance continuation of performed services and spreading the range of activities such as tuberculosis diagnostics, access to medications for treatment in MGC.


Path-independent stress based forming limit diagrams for anisotropic materials along with the Hill 48 yield function; power law strain hardening and isotropic hardening are derived. Bifurcation analyses via solving equilibrium equations of a pointed vertex on subsequent yield loci are utilized. The presented practical forming limit diagrams (FLSDs) show more acceptable agreements with experimental data compared with those obtained by other methods. A typical neck detection macro in APDL is developed by FEA simulation for a free bulge tube hydroforming to confirm the significant simplicity and straightforwardness of the mentioned FLSD.


Background: Sutureless aortic valve prostheses have proven to provide a significant decrease in procedural, cardiopulmonary bypass and cross-clamp time, leading to a significant reduction in mortality risk in elderly high-risk cohorts. In this study, we sought to review our institutional experience on the sutureless aortic valve replacement (SU-AVR) and the concomitant mitral valve replacement (SMVR), comparing the combined conventional surgical aortic valve replacement (SAVR) with SMVR. Methods and Material: Between March 2018 and July 2022, 114 consecutive patients underwent a combined aortic and mitral valve replacement at our institution. We stratified the patients according to the operative procedures into two groups and matched them 1:2: Group 1 underwent a combined conventional SAVR and SMVR (n = 46), and Group 2 included combined SU-AVR with Perceval prosthesis and SMVR (n = 23). Results: No significant differences in the preoperative characteristics were present. SU-AVR combined with SMVR demonstrated excellent haemodynamic performance, comparable to that of SAVR plus SMVR, with median postoperative gradients over the aortic valve of 4 mmHg (IQR 3.0–4.0) in Group 1 and 4 mmHg (IQR 3.0–4.0) in Group 2 (p = 0.67). There was no significant difference in the occurrence of postoperative major adverse events such as death, stroke, myocardial infarction and kidney failure between the groups. There was also no significant difference in the permanent pacemaker implantation rate, paravalvular leakage or valve dislocation. We also could not detect any significant difference in postoperative mortality between the groups. Conclusions: SU-AVR has proven to be a reliable alternative to conventional valve prostheses in patients with multivalve disease undergoing combined aortic and mitral valve replacement, offering shorter procedural time and outstanding hemodynamic performance compared to the conventional surgical method.


: For the last 40 years it has been considered that during pregnancy fetal antigens are expressed in a different manner in comparison with other grafts. Current data indicates that the acceptance of the fetus by the mother depends on the lack of expression of the polymorphic antigens and the production of hormones that act as immunological suppressors. During pregnancy there exists immunological recognition of the trophoblast antigens, but these antigens are not polymorphic and thus do not permit the identification of cytolytic T and natural killers cells. This structure also produces hormones that contribute to the diminished production and proliferation of T cells. It has been demonstrated that there exists an increase in the production by the trophoblast of complement inhibitors (DAF, CD46) and in the secretion of hormones such as progesterone, alpha-fetoprotein, steroids and prostanglandins. The identification of these immunological factors and mechanisms may be fundamental in the search for treatment regimens for such illnesses as cancer, infertility, spontaneous abortions, transplant rejection and graft versus host disease.


A new transistor sizing algorithm, SEA (Simple Exact Algorithm), for optimizing low-power and high-speed arithmetic integrated circuits is proposed. In comparison with other transistor sizing algorithms, simplicity, accuracy, independency of order and initial sizing factors of transistors, and flexibility in choosing the optimization parameters such as power consumption, delay, Power-Delay Product (PDP), chip area or the combination of them are considered as the advantages of this new algorithm. More exhaustive rules of grouping transistors are the main trait of our algorithm. Hence, the SEA algorithm dominates some major transistor sizing metrics such as optimization rate, simulation speed, and reliability. According to approximate comparison of the SEA algorithm with MDE and ADC for a number of conventional full adder circuits, delay and PDP have been improved 55.01% and 57.92% on an average, respectively. By comparing the SEA and Chang's algorithm, 25.64% improvement in PDP and 33.16% improvement in delay have been achieved. All the simulations have been performed with 0.13µm technology based on the BSIM3v3 model using HSpice simulator software.


Public authorities can make a wide variety of institutional arrangements for the provision and operation of infrastructure. What is the best organisation or, to put it more pragmatically, what are the advantages and drawbacks of the various options? This is the question that the present chapter will address, building on the lessons of principal-agent theory and on the analysis of various situations pertinent to the European context. The creation of an infrastructure agency is discussed, and then various modes of transport are reviewed: motorways, railway tracks and seaports. Some numerical values are derived for parameters used in cost-benefit assessments of infrastructure projects.


The rapid development of Internet use and b2c e-commerce led to many speculations about the impacts of ICT on society. In the Netherlands, there is a growing concern about the implications of b2c e-commerce for city centre retailing. Therefore, this dissertation has empirically investigated the implications of b2c e-commerce for retailing at city centres in the Netherlands. Approximately 1,000 city centre retailers and 3,200 internet users have been interviewed. So far, the large majority (around 80%) of the Internet users indicate that they do not make fewer visits to the city centre and purchases at city centre stores due to e-shopping. City centre shopping is still considered a pleasant activity. Internet users enjoy going to the city centre and there is no indication that this will be different in the future. Nevertheless, consumers already frequently use the Internet as an information channel prior to purchasing in the city centre. The reverse behaviour where people acquire information in the city centre prior to purchasing online is also frequently observed. E-shopping also modifies city centre shopping, as it tends to shorten the shopping duration at city centres. Finally, online searching also made consumers more aware of the prices of products at city centres. Given the interconnection between e-shopping and in-store shopping at city centres, it came as no surprise that city centre retailers also employ the Internet in a complementary fashion. City centre retailers have responded to the changes in consumers' city centre shopping behaviour, by operating a website in addition to their physical store(s). Results have shown that following an Internet strategy mainly had positive impacts on retailers' performance. Positive effects of going online most often concerned receiving more in-store customers, customer relationship improvement, increased competitiveness, and overall sales growth. Claims that adopting an online selling strategy may cannibalise retailers' in-store sales and induce a shift from costly retail space to distribution space were not confirmed by this research. In addition, following an Internet strategy did not alter the functions of shops, leading to new retail formats at city centres. Thus, in general b2c e-commerce does not seem to have a large detrimental impact on city centre retailing. In fact, consumers and retailers at city centres even benefit from exploiting new shopping and business opportunities as provided by the Internet. However, it should be noted that implications of b2c e-commerce largely vary among sectors and types of city centres. With e-shopping still rapidly expanding, city planners and property owners should be aware of the consequences of b2c e-commerce in relation with other trends that currently reshape the city centre


Can artificial systems be creative? Can they be designed to be creative on their own? What are the requirements of such creative artificial systems? To be able to support humans who are expected to deliver creative solutions, or to automate part of their tasks, this paper presents a proposal for creativity requirements that provide a basis for designing creative


Spiking neurons which integrate to threshold and fire were used to study the transmission of frequency modulated (FM) signals through layered networks. Firing correlations between cells in the input layer were found to modulate the transmission of FM signals under certain dynamical conditions. A tonic level of activity was maintained by providing each cell with a source of Poisson-distributed synaptic input. When the average membrane depolarization produced by the synaptic input was sufficiently below threshold, the firing correlations between cells in the input layer could greatly amplify the signal present in subsequent layers. When the depolarization was sufficiently close to threshold, however, the firing synchrony between cells in the initial layers could no longer effect the propagation of FM signals. In this latter case, integrate-and-fire neurons could be effectively modeled by simpler analog elements governed by a linear input-output relation.


Cloud computing, the brand new concept has attracted widespread concern of the IT industry, especially the e-commerce enterprises. Currently in the process of applying e-commerce, the enterprises are facing a problem of immense cost of constructing IT environment, while the appearances of the cloud computing may help solve it. This paper, in research into the status quo of Chinese e-commerce, has given a good analysis of several e-commerce application models that are based on the cloud computing, and has drawn the conclusion that we shall utilize the new technology, the cloud computing more actively to develop the e-commerce simply, efficiently and with low cost.


The effects of temporal variation in exposure to predation risk on behavioral tradeoffs were tested in the rusty crayfish, Orconectes rusticus. Based on the risk allocation hypothesis, we predicted that increasing the frequency of encounter with predation risk would yield increasing responses to a food stimulus in the presence of both a risk stimulus and a food stimulus. Crayfish were exposed to risk every 12 h, every 6 h, or left undisturbed for 24 h prior to testing. The risk stimuli used were a plain water control, snapping turtle (Chelydra serpentina) cue, and conspecific alarm cue. After 24 h of conditioning, the crayfish were exposed to a combination of risk cue and food cue. The behavioral responses of the crayfish were recorded for 5 min immediately following the introduction of the cues and again for 5 min, 1 h after stimulus exposure. The crayfish were observed at the two times to determine how their responses to the combination of risk and food cues changed over time. The responses of the crayfish were significantly influenced by stimulus treatment, time, and the interaction of time and stimulus treatment. Further analysis indicated that responses to the stimulus treatments changed differently over time. Immediately after exposure, the crayfish were more active in the control and snapping turtle treatments than in the conspecific alarm treatment. The high levels of activity initially observed in the control and snapping turtle treatments waned over time, such that the behaviors recorded 1 h after exposure were not significantly affected by stimulus treatment. Neither frequency nor the interactions of frequency with stimulus and/or time significantly affected crayfish behavior. The results of this study did not support the risk allocation model and contrast with results from similar work on the virile crayfish, Orconectes virilis.


The evolution of solar magnetic arcades is investigated with the use of MHD simulations imposing resistivity on sheared magnetic fields. It is found that there is a critical amount of shear, over which magnetic reconnection can take place in an arcade-like field geometry to create a magnetic island. The process leading to reconnection cannot be solely attributed to a tearing instability, but rather to a reactive evolution of the magnetic arcade under resistivity. The natures of the arcade reconnection are governed by the spatial pattern of resistivity. A fast reconnection with a small shock angle can only be achieved when the diffusion region is localized. In this case, a highly collimated reconnection outflow can tear the plasmoid into a pair, and most of principal features in solar eruptive processes are reproduced.


The most distant AGN, within the allowed GZK cut-off radius, have been recently candidate by many authors as the best location for observed UHECR origination. Indeed, the apparent homogeneity and isotropy of recent UHECR signals seems to require a far cosmic isotropic and homogeneous scenario involving a proton UHECR courier: our galaxy or nearest local group or super galactic plane (ruled by Virgo cluster) are too much near and apparently too much anisotropic in disagreement with PAO and TA almost homogeneous sample data. However, the few and mild observed UHECR clustering, the North and South Hot Spots, are smeared in wide solid angles. Their consequent random walk flight from most far GZK UHECR sources, nearly at 100 Mpc, must be delayed (with respect to a straight AGN photon gamma flaring arrival trajectory) at least by a million years. During this time, the AGN jet blazing signal, its probable axis deflection (such as the helical jet in Mrk501), its miss alignment or even its almost certain exhaust activity may lead to a complete misleading correlation between present UHECR events and a much earlier active AGN ejection. UHECR maps maybe anyway related to galactic or nearest (Cen A, M82) AGN extragalactic UHECR sources shining in twin Hot Spot. Therefore we defend our (quite different) scenarios where UHECR are mostly made by lightest UHECR nuclei originated by nearby AGN sources, or few galactic sources, whose delayed signals reach us within few thousand years in the observed smeared sky areas.


Genome-wide gene expression profile studies encompass increasingly large number of samples, posing a challenge to their presentation and interpretation without losing the notion that each transcriptome constitutes a complex biological entity. Much like pathologists who visually analyze information-rich histological sections as a whole, we propose here an integrative approach. We use a self-organizing maps-based software, the gene expression dynamics inspector (GEDI) to analyze gene expression profiles of various lung tumors. GEDI allows the comparison of tumor profiles based on direct visual detection of transcriptome patterns. Such intuitive "gestalt" perception promotes the discovery of interesting relationships in the absence of an existing hypothesis. We uncovered qualitative relationships between squamous cell tumors, small-cell tumors, and carcinoid tumor that would have escaped existing algorithmic classifications. These results suggest that GEDI may be a valuable explorative tool that combines global and gene-centered analyses of molecular profiles from large-scale microarray experiments.


In this paper, an extension of CPT scheme (CPTE for short) is introduced. In watermarking area, this is a block-based approach. Given a binary image B, in each block F of a size m×n of B, by CPT scheme, ones can embed r = Round(log2(m.n+1)) bits by changing at most two entries of F. In our CPTE scheme, r = Round(log2(m.n)) + 1 bits can be embedded by changing at most two entries of F, too. That means, in most cases, the number of embedded bits given by our CPTE scheme is larger than that by CPT scheme one bit. As a consequence, we establish a new modified scheme-MCPTE based on CPTE scheme to control the quality for security of the embedded blocks, in the same way due to [Tseng-Pan, 2001]. Experimental results show that in general, MCPTE scheme gives more embedded bits than those by Tseng-Pan' scheme, while the quality is the same.


Summary.  The aim of the treatment for von Willebrand disease (VWD) is to correct the dual defect of haemostasis, i.e. the abnormal platelet adhesion as a result of reduced and/or dysfunctional von Willebrand factor (VWF) and the abnormal coagulation expressed by low levels of factor VIII (FVIII). Correction of both deficiencies can be achieved by administering the synthetic peptide desmopressin (DDAVP) or, in cases unresponsive to this agent, the plasma concentrates containing VWF and FVIII (VWF/FVIII). DDAVP is the treatment of choice for type 1 VWD because it can induce release of normal VWF from cellular compartments, but the drug can be clinically useful also in other VWD types, including acquired von Willebrand syndrome (AVWS). A test dose of DDAVP at the time of diagnosis is recommended to establish the individual patterns of biological response and to predict clinical efficacy during bleeding and surgery. DDAVP is not effective in VWD type 3 and in severe forms of VWD 1 and 2. It can induce transient thrombocytopenia in patients with VWD type 2B. The results of several retrospective studies on the use of DDAVP in VWD management have been reported by many authors in different countries for the last 30 years. However, despite the widespread use of DDAVP in the treatment of VWD, there are only a few prospective clinical trials in a large number of cases on DDAVP efficacy and safety aimed at determining benefits and limits of this therapeutic approach. An investigator‐driven observational prospective study on clinical efficacy of DDAVP in 200 patients with VWD types 1 and 2 has been recently organized: the effectiveness and safety of DDAVP will be evaluated prospectively for 24 months during bleeding episodes and minor or major surgeries in the VWD patients who were exposed to an infusion trial at enrollment.


According to accuracy-first epistemology, accuracy is the fundamental epistemic good. Epistemic norms — Probabilism, Conditionalization, the Principal Principle, etc. — have their binding force in virtue of helping to secure this good. To make this idea precise, accuracy-firsters invoke Epistemic Decision Theory (EpDT) to determine which epistemic policies are the best means toward the end of accuracy. Hilary Greaves and others have recently challenged the tenability of this programme. Their arguments purport to show that EpDT encourages obviously epistemically irrational behavior. We develop firmer conceptual foundations for EpDT. First, we detail a theory of praxic and epistemic good. Then we show that, in light of their very different good-making features, EpDT will evaluate epistemic states and epistemic acts according to different criteria. So, in general, rational preference over states and acts won't agree. Finally, we argue that based on direction-of-fit considerations, it's preferences over the former that matter for normative epistemology, and that EpDT, properly spelt out, arrives at the correct verdicts in a range of putative problem cases.


Pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH) imposes right heart and lung detrimental remodeling which impairs cardiac contractility, physical effort tolerance and survival. The effects of an early moderate-intensity continuous aerobic exercise training on the right ventricle and lung structure, and on contractility and the calcium (Ca) transient in isolated myocytes from rats with severe PAH induced by monocrotaline were analyzed. Rats were divided into control sedentary (CS); control exercise (CE); monocrotaline sedentary (MS); and monocrotaline exercise (ME) groups. Animals from CE and ME groups underwent a moderate-intensity aerobic exercise on a treadmill (60 min/day; 60% intensity) for 32 days, after a monocrotaline (60 mg/kg body weight i.p.) or saline injection. The pulmonary artery resistance was higher in MS than in CS (1.36-fold) and was reduced by 39.39 % in ME compared with MS. Compared with MS, the ME group presented reduced alveolus (17 %) and blood vessel (46 %) wall, fibrosis (25.37 %) and type I collagen content (55.78 %); and increased alveolus (52.96 %) and blood vessel (146.97 %) lumen. In the right ventricle, ME group exhibited diminished hypertrophy index (25.53 %) and type I collagen content (40.42 %) and improved myocyte contraction [i.e. reduced times to peak (29.27 %) and to 50% relax (13.79 %)] and intracellular Ca transient [i.e. decreased times to peak (16.06 %) and to 50% decay (7.41 %)] compared with MS. Thus, early moderate-intensity continuous aerobic exercise prevents detrimental remodeling in the right heart and lung, increases in the pulmonary artery resistance and dysfunction in single myocyte contraction and Ca cycling in this model.


We present an elementary derivation of a parametric equation describing electric field lines of an arbitrarily moving point charge. The found equation describes electric field lines as parametrized lines and occurs to be much simpler than the equation for the electric field which requires the solution of the implicit retarded-time equation. The found equation is generally valid and can be applied to arbitrarily complex and relativistic motions of a point charge. We exemplify this equation by considering four particular examples: an uniformly accelerated charge, an uniformly decelerated charge, a charge moving in a free electron laser, and a charge moving in a synchrotron.


Twenty three HIV+ patients with cancer (2% of the infected population: 1100 patients) were treated at our Hospital between January 1987 and July 1997. Twelve patients (52%) had Kaposi's sarcoma (KS), five (22%) presented non Hodgkin lymphoma--B cell type (NHL), the remaining patients presented other non AIDS defining neoplasias. The patients with NHL presented, at the time of diagnosis, several infrequent localizations, poor tolerance to chemotherapy with a mean survival of 3 months. The patients with Kaposi sarcoma had neither positive response to recombinant Interferon alfa 2 nor to the etoposide regimens. A relatively high percentage (13%) of Hodgkin-disease (HL) was observed. Unlike previously consulted data, there was no apparent increased incidence of NHL. HIV+ patients with cancer who underwent conventional radiotherapy presented major toxicity and adverse effects not currently observed in non HIV+ patients.


African American Vernacular English, or called Black English, is one of the varieties of American English, also it is an important part of American's language system. In the past hundred years, although AAVE is often stamped with a degrading mark, or fallaciously recognized as a kind of slang, and subordinates to White English, AAVE carries tremendous power in shaping American culture, it exerted profound influence on the American society. Not only in the aspect of language, but also in movie, music, literature and so on. As far as whatever fields are concerned, economic, cultural or political field, American black people are gradually occupying more space. Therefore, it is necessary to carry out research on AAVE. Due to historical factors, the mainstream of AAVE is Standard American English, but it keeps the characteristics of their own original language―language in West Africa. In this paper, the author is going to takes the actor's speech in the famous African American film Crash as examples to analyze the linguistic features of AAE in terms of phonology,on the basis of fundamental theories of sociolinguistics—to some extent, languages can reflect people's social status. Particularly in the U.S.A., various ethnic racial groups and different cultures mixed up, language in various districts has its own features. Through discussion and detailed analyses, this paper advocates that as a well-established English variety, AAVE with its unique phonetic characteristics, makes motion pictures more vivid, and holds a significant place in the study of the development of America's multicultural society.


We analyze the inspiral dynamics of equal-mass precessing black-hole binaries using multi-timescale techniques. The orbit-averaged post-Newtonian evolutionary equations admit two constants of motion in the equal-mass limit, namely the magnitude of the total spin S and the effective spin ξ. This feature makes the entire dynamics qualitatively different compared to the generic unequal-mass case, where only ξ is constant while the variable S parametrizes the precession dynamics. For fixed individual masses and spin magnitudes, an equal-mass black-hole inspiral is uniquely characterized by the two parameters (S,ξ): these two numbers completely determine the entire evolution under the effect of radiation reaction. In particular, for equal-mass binaries we find that (i) the black-hole binary spin morphology is constant throughout the inspiral, and that (ii) the precessional motion of the two black-hole spins about the total spin takes place on a longer timescale than the precession of the total spin and the orbital plane about the total angular momentum.


Obesity is a growing crisis within the 1st world and the causes of obesity are well studied: a lack of physical activity combined with an increased calorie intake. This energy imbalance leads to fat accumulation leading to eventual obesity. Whilst the cause may appear clear, the options of lifestyle change and/or diet planning that is efficient with effective sustainability has been harder to come by. Genetic variants linked to obesity may hold clues on how to best customise a diet plan to an individual leading to an easier to change lifestyle with better sustainability. This study aimed to find correlations with a diet change that decreased kcal intake by 200kcal per day with a macronutrient alteration (decreased carbohydrates and increased unsaturated fat) and genetic components to discover responders and non-responders. Within the study group of Caucasian males the genes TCF7L2, TFAP2B, PPARG2 and FTO all impacted the response of the dietary intervention. In conclusion it would be prudent to consider DNA analysis as part of a battery of diet and lifestyle tests to personalise a sustainable and effective lifestyle/dietary intervention to help control weight.


The friction and wear behaviors of three kinds of spherical plain bearings with PTFE fabric composite liners were investigated by a high oscillating frequency and heavy load tribo-tester. Dry sliding tests were carried out at different oscillating frequencies. With the help of SEM and EDS, the differences of worn surfaces of the three spherical bearings were investigated. The results indicate that the fiber woven with PTFE effects the friction and wear characteristics of bearing, the tribological properties of bearing with Kevlar/PTFE fiber woven liner is the best in the three kinds of bearing. The abrasive wear are appeared on the surface of wore liners of bearingⅠ,while bearingⅡappeared normal wear, bearing III showed serious adhesive wear and abrasive wear.


on examination. Latency between age at first vaginal delivery and presentation was 32.6 years (0–72.6). There was a strong association between levator avulsion and symptoms and signs of prolapse (all P < 0.001). Patients with avulsion were not shown to present earlier, regardless of symptoms. On multivariable logistic regression, the relationship between symptoms/signs of FPOP and latency was nonlinear and was treated as a binary variable (<=20, > 20 years). However, latency was not an effect modifier of the relationship between avulsion and symptoms/signs of FPOP. Conclusions: We have found no evidence for the hypothesis that levator trauma leads to earlier presentation of women with symptoms and/ or signs of prolapse.


A vast number of people with disabilities are supported by assistive technologies (AT). Often, AT solutions do not directly fit the specific requirements of a user, making costly adaptations necessary. Assistive Technology Rapid Integration & Construction Set (AsTeRICS) aims to change this situation by employing rapid prototyping technologies in AT. A construction set of building blocks to create flexible prototypes for each individual user is provided. This set is configured by a visual modelling software application which allows to connect all building blocks as needed, tailoring the prototype to the user's abilities and needs. Building blocks include sensors (which in this context includes not only stand‐alone sensors such as simple switch inputs but also vision systems, brain computer interfaces, and many more), data processing elements (mathematical and flow control), and actuators (such as mouse/keyboard replacement, smart environments, and mobile phone access). As central part of AsTeRICS, a runtime environment has been developed, handling all signal processing and data exchange operations needed for the interaction of the building blocks. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


A continuous seawater sulfate sulfur isotope curve for the Cenozoic with a resolution of approximately 1 million years was generated using marine barite. The sulfur isotopic composition decreased from 19 to 17 per mil between 65 and 55 million years ago, increased abruptly from 17 to 22 per mil between 55 and 45 million years ago, remained nearly constant from 35 to approximately 2 million years ago, and has decreased by 0.8 per mil during the past 2 million years. A comparison between seawater sulfate and marine carbonate carbon isotope records reveals no clear systematic coupling between the sulfur and carbon cycles over one to several millions of years, indicating that changes in the burial rate of pyrite sulfur and organic carbon did not singularly control the atmospheric oxygen content over short time intervals in the Cenozoic. This finding has implications for the modeling of controls on atmospheric oxygen concentration.


Lithium sulfur (Li-S) batteries are considered as one of the most promising next generation energy storage systems, whereas their intrinsic drawbacks impeded their practical implementation. Herein, a nitrogen doped porous carbon polyhedron coupled with a well distributed α-CoS/Co heterostructure mediator was designed and prepared as the sulfur cathode host for lithium sulfur batteries. The α-CoS/Co heterostructure on a nitrogen doped carbon polyhedron (NCP) not only provides a strong adsorption interaction towards soluble polysulfides, but more importantly, also promotes the fast conversion of polysulfides to insoluble products, chemically suppressing the shuttling of polysulfides through the simultaneous advantages of α-CoS and Co. As a result, the α-CoS/Co-NCP-S cathode exhibits high sulfur utilization with a 1611.4 mA h g-1 first discharge capacity and a well satisfactory redox cycling stability with a low capacity fade rate of 0.042% per cycle at 0.5 C for over 800 cycles. Moreover, the hybrid cathode delivers 860.2 mA h g-1 specific capacity for a high sulfur loading of 4.8 mg cm-2 with remarkable cycling performance.


This book has been appraised from two approaches--that of the authoritativeness of its content, and that of its usefulness to the physician in need of guidance in therapy. For the true student of pathology and physiology of the cardiopulmonary system, this book is excellent reference material. It is expertly written and well illustrated, though some of the illustrations are complicated and need to be studied in depth before they can be understood. I examined the book from the standpoint of the physician who might need to hurriedly look up how to treat a specific illness. At random, I chose three conditions which are relatively uncommon but yet encountered: hyperglycemia of the newborn, narcotic withdrawal reaction, and hypermagnesemia. I was only able to find the treatment for one of the three in this book. Therefore, since this is not a complete guide to care for the critically ill child, it probably should not be titled as such. The authors' contribution might have seemed improved had they limited their discussions entirely to pathology, physiology, and treatment of cardiopulmonary disturbances.-GERALll VAN LEEUWEN, M.D., Omaha, Nebraska.


ABSTRACT. Species richness is central to ecological theory, with practical applications in conservation, environmental management and monitoring. Several techniques are available for measuring species richness and composition of amphibians in breeding pools, but the relative efficacy of these methods for sampling high-diversity Neotropical amphibian fauna is poorly understood. I evaluated seven studies from south and south-eastern Brazil to compare the relative and combined effectiveness of two methods for measuring species richness at anuran breeding pools: acoustic surveys with visual encounter of adults and dipnet surveys of larvae. I also compared the relative efficacy of each survey method in detecting species with different reproductive modes. Results showed that both survey methods underestimated the number of species when used separately; however, a close approximation of the actual number of species in each breeding pool was obtained when the methods were combined. There was no difference between survey methods in detecting species with different reproductive modes. These results indicate that researchers should employ multiple survey methods that target both adult and larval life history stages in order to accurately assess anuran species richness at breeding pools in the Neotropics.


Interaction of fluorescent probes of 3-methoxybenzanthrone (MBA), 4-dimethylaminochalcone (DMC), and of 1-anilinonaphthalene-8-sulfonate (ANS) with suspensions of rat thymocytes and Peyer's patches lymphocytes has been investigated. By means of the MBA, shown earlier to be a maker of B- and T-lymphocytes, it was established that thymus lymphocytes populations consisted mainly of T-cells (95 +/- 3%), and those of Peyer's patch lymphocytes of B-cells (68 +/- 9%). Definition of parameters of binding and fluorescence of ANS and DMC has shown different physical structure of the thymus and Peyer's patch lymphocyte membranes, resp. This is suggested by differences in binding constant of ANS, and in anisotropy of fluorescence of DMC. The difference in the number of binding sites gives evidence in favour of the fact that Peyer's lymphocytes have a greater membrane mass than thymocytes. T- and B-lymphocyte cells are likely to vary in their own structure and in the number of their membranes.


Context. There is a wide discrepancy in current estimates of the strength of convection flows in the solar interior obtained using different helioseismic methods applied to observations from the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager onboard the Solar Dynamics Observatory. The cause for these disparities is not known.
Aims. As one step in the effort to resolve this discrepancy, we aim to characterize the multi-ridge fitting code for ring-diagram helioseismic analysis that is used to obtain flow estimates from local power spectra of solar oscillations.
Methods. We updated the multi-ridge fitting code developed by Greer et al. (2014, Sol. Phys., 289, 2823) to solve several problems we identified through our inspection of the code. In particular, we changed the (1) merit function to account for the smoothing of the power spectra, (2) model for the power spectrum, and (3) noise estimates. We used Monte Carlo simulations to generate synthetic data and to characterize the noise and bias of the updated code by fitting these synthetic data.
Results. The bias in the output fit parameters, apart from the parameter describing the amplitude of the p-mode resonances in the power spectrum, is below what can be measured from the Monte-Carlo simulations. The amplitude parameters are underestimated; this is a consequence of choosing to fit the logarithm of the averaged power. We defer fixing this problem as it is well understood and not significant for measuring flows in the solar interior. The scatter in the fit parameters from the Monte-Carlo simulations is well-modeled by the formal error estimates from the code.
Conclusions. We document and demonstrate a reliable multi-ridge fitting method for ring-diagram analysis. The differences between the updated fitting results and the original results are less than one order of magnitude and therefore we suspect that the changes will not eliminate the aforementioned orders-of-magnitude discrepancy in the amplitude of convective flows in the solar interior.


Multi-drug resistance (MDR) limits the effectiveness of chemotherapy. P-glycoprotein encoded by the MDR1 gene, is known to be implicated in MDR phenotype, but other factors could be determinant in MDR. The aim of this study was to investigate new molecular factors potentially associated with the MDR phenotype using a proteomic approach. Two dimensional fluorescence difference gel electrophoresis (2D-DIGE) and MALDI-TOF peptide mass fingerprinting were used to determine differentially expressed proteins between LoVo human colon carcinoma cell line and one of its MDR sublines (LoVo-R1). Thirty-four differentially expressed proteins were identified. They were classified into five groups based on their biological functions: i) proteins involved in energy request pathways, ii) in detoxification pathways, iii) in cell survival activity, iv) in drug transport and v) in chaperone functions. Among these proteins, endothelin 1 and proteasome subunit beta2 regulations were validated by immunofluorescence and Western blotting, respectively, showing complete consistency with 2D-DIGE results. In conclusion, the proteomic approach indicates that multiple mechanisms are simultaneously involved in MDR. These might be useful in the search for new forms of interventional therapeutic approaches for MDR reversal.


Increasing exploitation effort and efficiency have been leading to population declines and extinctions among large marine animals. Understanding the magnitude of such losses is challenging because current baselines about species' abundances and distributions in the sea were mostly established after humans had started affecting marine populations. For artisanal fisheries, from which written historical records are rarely, if ever, available, approaches based on gathering anecdotal information from fishers' knowledge are a promising method to know the past environmental conditions. We interviewed coastal artisanal fishers, with ages varying from 15 to 85 years, to detect temporal changes in the catch abundance of large fish species, particularly the largetooth sawfish Pristis pristis and the goliath grouper Epinephelus itajara within Abrolhos Bank, Brazil. Most fishers considered that fishing has led to species depletion. However, older fishers reported significantly more species and larger species as depleted than young fishers. Older fishers caught significantly larger largetooth sawfish and goliath grouper in the past than younger fishers. The largetooth sawfish has not been caught or sought for more than 10 years. Probabilistic tests provided no definitive evidence for local extinction, although the past record of sightings indicates a population decline close to the threshold level for extinction probability. We provide evidence that small‐scale artisanal fisheries can decimate the abundance of large coastal fishes, one of those almost close to local extinction. Finally, our results suggest that the younger generation is not aware of past ecological conditions, indicating the occurrence of a shifting baseline syndrome among the fishing community.


Objectives: This study assessed clinical presentations of vitamin D deficiency in Saudi Arabian children.
Methods: This cross-sectional survey was conducted in the Paediatric Clinic at King Abdul-Aziz UniversityHospital in Jeddah from March to September 2015. This study included 371 healthy children, not known to have any medical illnesses between the ages of 2 and 18 years old discovered to have vitamin D deficiency. The families of the children were asked if they noticed any symptoms of vitamin D deficiency in their children. A diagnosis of vitamin D deficiency was made if blood tests found low levels of 25-hydroxyvitamin D, there is no other test done to them.
Results: Of the population studied, 35 children had a past history of bone fractures, 70 had bone or joint pain, 55 had fatigue, 16 had depression, 28 experienced delayed teething, 7 had a bone deformity, 23 experienced delayed walking, 11 had delayed closure of fontanels, 5 had developmental delays, 4 exhibited rachitic rosary, 8 had bowing of the legs, 2 had kyphosis, and 71 children were asymptomatic.
Conclusion: Joint pain was the most common presentation of the disorder followed by asymptomatic vitamin D deficiency in this population. So, routine screening for preschool children and adolescent is necessary to early detect and provide effective treatment.


In this work, a computational modeling study on the mechanism of the acceleration behavior of a plasma bullet in needle-plane configuration is presented. Above all, in our model,two sub-models of time-dependent plasma dynamics and laminar flow are connected using a oneway coupled method, and both the working gas and the surrounding gas around the plasma jet are assumed to be the same, which are premixed He/N2 gas. The mole fractions of the N2(NMF)ingredient are set to be 0.01%, 0.1% and 1% in three cases, respectively. It is found that in each case, the plasma bullet accelerates with time to a peak velocity after it exits the nozzle and then decreases until getting to the treated surface, and that the velocity of the plasma bullet increases at each time moment with the peak value changing from 0.72×106m/s to 0.80×106m/s but then drops more sharply when the NMF varies from 0.01% to 1%. Besides, the electron impact ionizations of helium neutrals and nitrogen molecules are found to have key influences on the propagation of a plasma bullet instead of the penning ionization.


This study sought to determine whether using sodium hypochlorite (NaOCl) as a pretreatment in bonding composite resins has a detrimental effect on bond strength. Previous studies have addressed pretreating dentin with NaOCl after etching; however, little research is available concerning pretreatment before etching. This study examines pretreating dentin with NaOCl prior to acid etching when fourth generation bonding systems are used. Thirty noncarious teeth were selected and sectioned horizontally at the occlusal third of the clinical crown. The teeth were divided into 3 groups (n = 10). Group 1 was the control group, with composite resin bonded to the dentin surface per manufacturer's instructions. Group 2 was pretreated with 6% NaOCl for 10 seconds; then, composite resin was bonded to the dentin as in Group 1. Group 3 was pretreated with 6% NaOCl for 20 seconds; then composite resin was bonded to the dentin as in Group 1. The specimens were stored in water for 24 hours, then thermocycled for 1000 cycles at temperatures of 5°C and 60°C. The specimens were shear tested until failure. According to the 1-way ANOVA testing (α = 0.05), using NaOCl as a pretreatment prior to etching with a specific fourth generation bonding agent does not affect bond strength.


This paper reports a study of evaluating the revised Building Control System in Ireland to establish if they have improved Building Regulations compliance and energy efficiency in the construction of new buildings. The new system of accountability ensures how all involved in the design and construction process are responsible for compliance in a comprehensive mandatory certification procedure, ensuring the design team, building contractor and subcontractors all certify compliance that the work is compliant with the Building Regulations. The research is practice based among building regulation certifiers' in Ireland to investigate the level of Building Regulations compliance since 2014 with the consequential improvements in energy efficiency. Research in Part L compliance has shown to be less than satisfactory, but since the new system was introduced, there is a high degree of accountability from both designers and constructors in the construction process. The findings suggest that the level of Building Regulations compliance have greatly improved, as certifiers are at risk of litigation from certification misstatement. Energy efficiency has improved in the construction of new buildings as Part L compliance is certified at design stage by the design certifier, construction is certified by the building contractor, sub-contractors and ancillary certifiers, and full compliance is certified by an assigned certifier who is responsible for overall compliance. The revised system provides responsibility on each certifier to detect and remedy non-compliant issues and the paper suggests a framework to assist certifiers' in determining the risks to reduce the risk of litigation.


The purpose o f this study is to formally analyze product cost distortions resulting from the process of allocating costs to products based on Activity-Based Costing (ABC) and the conventional product costing systems. The model developed in this paper rigorously shows the impact of treating costs that are not volume related as if they are. The model demonstrates that the source of product cost distortion is the difference between the proportion of driver used by each product in ABC and the proportion of the base used by the same product in the conventional costing systems. The difference arises because the conventional costing systems ignore the existence of batch-related and product-related costs. The model predicts a positive association between volume and size diversity with product cost distortions. When interaction between volume and size diversity exists, the distortion is either mitigated or exacerbated. The magnitude of the distortion is jointly determined by the size of the differences and the size of the total indirect costs.


Teamwork is always challenging. Adding the complication of problem solving and software design only amplifies this challenge. The challenges of developing software as a team can be reduced by using groupware to coordinate and communicate the intricate details involved in the process. The study sets out to determine if in fact there are tools available to assist in the collaborative problem solving and software development process. It must be understood at the outset that problem solving is at the heart of software development. Without amplifying the collaborative problem solving steps required for developing an effective and efficient solution, a much less then accurate solution will result. The paper provides a review of collaborative problem solving techniques and groupware in the software development domain, covering both methodology and technology. There are three areas of focus in the paper: collaborative problem solving and decision making; groupware theory and tools; and group cognition and psychology. The review is followed by analysis of the collaboration models and tools as well as their potential impact on software development. The paper ends with a discussion of future work that will include developing a tool which incorporates a problem solving model and collaborative structures for the software development domain.


In a global context of an irreversible trend of decarbonization of the economy, natural gas plays a prominent role in the global commitment to reduce carbon indices, and its exploration will contribute to the transition of the world's electric and energy matrix. Brazil has enormous potential when it comes to natural gas, particularly in the pre-salt province, which is considered to be the largest oil discovery in the Southern Hemisphere in the last thirty years. If on the one hand, the pre-salt has a great potential for natural gas production, on the other, there are enormous technological and logistical challenges to enable the commercial use and monetization of this gas produced. In this context, the present work proposes to present a contribution to the study of the use of Gas to Wire (GTW) as a technological alternative for the use and monetization of the natural gas from pre-salt province. For that, a review of the specialized literature, including specific periodic data in O&G, and an economic evaluation of the use of GTW in the pre-salt province were carried out, comparing it with the concept of a GTW plant in an onshore environment. In an optimistic production scenario, and even with the expected expansion of the pre-salt gas flow line routes, the difference between the natural gas produced and the injected, burnt gas, used in the offshore site and outflow facilities, will be positive at 15 MMm3/day and will cause operators to seek alternatives for valuation of this resource, since if commercial use is not viable, operators will simply have to paralyze the development and production of their fields, whereas pre-salt natural gas is generally associated with oil. The GTW emerges an alternative technology for the utilization and monetization of natural gas across the inflexibility of gas production not associated with the pre-salt fields. The economic costs for deploying an offshore GTW system and the level of energy cost aiming the use of pre-salt natural gas were competitive accounting for 84% to 91% of the costs of generating a GTW plant in an onshore environment. The case study demonstrates that the concept of GTW can be economically viable, with limitations, such as technological alternative for the utilization and monetization of natural gas across the inflexibility of gas production not associated with the pre-salt fields.


Recent long-term demographic projections suggest a fast deceleration of global population growth and the eventual peaking of world population later in this century at about 9.2 billion, roughly 50 percent above the present level. Some low-income and food-insecure countries, however, have projected populations in 2050 that are multiples of present ones. In some of these countries agriculture must play a leading role in their development efforts because they have high economic dependence on that sector. For those among them that have scarce agricultural resources, a prima facie case can be made that the high population growth rates projected may not be compatible with the development potential offered by such resources. Their demographic projections may need to be revisited, taking into account such inadequate potential. The global demographic slowdown notwithstanding, the "population explosion"-related issues pertaining to food and agriculture will not become irrelevant but will be become increasingly localized. Copyright 2005 The Population Council, Inc..


Anteryon BV produces optical lenses at the wafer scale, which have applications in several areas, the predominant one being in mobile phone cameras. The basic components of a wafer lens are a polymer, which satisfies the optical requirements, and a glass substrate on which this is bonded. During the manufacturing process, the polymer shrinks due to the polymerisation and as a result the final product will not have the designed shape. We have succeeded in modelling this deformation of the rotationally symmetric lens, using the principles of linear elasticity, both for an incompressible and for a more realistic, compressible medium. We have formulated the governing differential equations for the system, under a set of assumptions and used a perturbation technique based on the smallness of the aspect ratio e, to obtain analytical solutions which include the O(e^2) terms, for the displacements of the material points of the lens. These displacements are used to formulate an analytical formula for the resulting lens shape, after a certain amount of shrinkage, given by the parameter zeta has taken place. With the second order terms, the developed model is an improvement on the existing models at Anteryon, which correspond with the zeroth order terms of our model. Using this analytical formula, we also studied and developed analytical formulae for the inverse problem, i.e., what should be the mould shape in order to achieve the target lens shape. We have illustrated the developed model by applying it to a theoretical spherical mould. We have validated the model by comparing it to the measurements of moulds and lenses provided by Anteryon. We have applied the model to measured mould-lens combinations for many positions on the wafer, and for different lens shapes. For a given wafer, we have optimised the parameter zeta by considering the Root Mean Square value of the difference between the model output and the observed lens shape for each combination. The main results are a validation of our model and a method to determine the shrinkage parameter zeta, under specified process conditions. With this value of zeta, and the inverse model, we have a method to predict the ideal mould shape for a target lens shape. In the most ideal case, only one iteration step would be needed to predict this mould shape. Finally, we have also proposed a relation to determine Poisson's ratio for the medium; this result is based on a comparison between the incompressible and compressible models and the measurements.


Based on comparable basic assumptions, a technical, economic, and ecological assessment has been performed for the biomass/waste-related SNG production technologies, with the objective to make a selection for future implementation of the most promising options. Anaerobic digestion, upstream pressurised oxygen-blown or indirect gasification with downstream methanation, hydrogasification followed by methanation, and, in less extent, the co-production of Fischer-Tropsch-SNG have been studied within this project. Although substitute natural gas (SNG) has not yet been incorporated as an alternative fuel in the Dutch and European renewable energy policies, it can play an important role in realisation of the Dutch and European climate and renewable energy targets. Based on the modelling results, the upstream pressurised oxygenblown or indirect gasification with downstream methanation routes seemed to be the most promising options for SNG production from biomass. The RD&D trajectory for candidate SNG production processes, consisting of three development stages (Proof of Principle, Proof of Concept, demonstration of a complete integrated process on pilot scale), is expected to take about 10 years for indirect gasification and 8 years for pressurised oxygen-blown gasification. Also a period of four years is expected to be necessary for the market introduction. The indirect gasification technology, after development, will score better with respect to all aspects, compared to pressurised oxygen-blown CFB gasification, and therefore it has been selected for future development for SNG production. Through this gasification technology almost 100% carbon conversion can be achieved, resulting in a tar-free (by using the ECN OLGA process), low-nitrogen, and high-hydrocarbon content synthesis gas. The technology has also the potential of upscaling to a commercial scale on the long term. In combination with downstream methanation, SNG production efficiencies up to 70% can be achieved. The SNG production cost for this process is 7.8 €/GJ (compared to the current market price of 8.7 €/GJ). With a potential SNG production capacity of approximately 15 PJ a year, this process has the potential to fulfil approximately 5% of the Dutch renewable energy target in 2020, or even 20% of the biomassrelated target. The SNG production capacity of this process until 2020 is 128 PJ. The costs per tonne CO2 avoided and the total avoided CO2 emission until 2020 are € 83, respectively, 7.2 Mtonne.


Professor Arthur McComb conducted pioneer research on the occurrence and mode of action of the plant growth hormones gibberellins for fifteen years. He then applied his experimental skills and physiological knowledge to develop a whole ecosystem approach to the study of aquatic systems. He was passionate in wanting to improve the state of environmental management, based on rational, logical and well-founded biological principles. He and his team focused primarily on the mechanisms controlling plant growth and productivity in aquatic environments, and especially the effects of nutrient enrichment and its consequences, eutrophication. He became a leader in nutrient analysis of water systems, with innovations in how to determine nutrient pathways into waterways and strategies for fixing these issues. This important research has informed the long-term management of several important aquatic systems in Western Australia: the Blackwood River Estuary, the Peel Harvey Estuary, and the protection of seagrasses in Shark Bay, the Swan River and Cockburn Sound. Arthur McComb had a seminal influence on a generation of researchers. Thirty-nine students completed their higher degrees under his supervision and they are spread internationally and throughout Australia in universities, state government departments and consulting firms, confirming his influence on driving our understanding and management of marine, estuarine and freshwater systems.


OBJECTIVE To report the incidence of pancreatitis in type 2 diabetes trials of liraglutide and details of all pancreatitis cases. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Data from Novo Nordisk–sponsored trials with liraglutide (phase 2 and 3; NN2211 identifiers) completed by 19 April 2013 were pooled. All pancreatitis cases were reviewed. RESULTS Total exposure to liraglutide and active comparators was 5,021 and 1,354 patient-years, respectively (n = 6,345 and 1,846, respectively). Eight cases of acute pancreatitis (AP) with liraglutide and one with any comparator (glimepiride) were found. The incidence of AP was 1.6 cases/1,000 patient-years exposure (PYE) for liraglutide vs. 0.7 cases/1,000 PYE for total active comparators. One of the eight AP cases reported with liraglutide did not meet diagnostic criteria for AP. In six of these eight cases, recognized risk factors for AP were present and/or the onset of AP occurred >6 months after liraglutide initiation. All patients were receiving multiple medications. Four cases of chronic pancreatitis (CP) with liraglutide and none with comparators were found. One of these four cases fulfilled diagnostic criteria for CP; these criteria were not met or information was missing in the remaining three. CONCLUSIONS Based on the small number of cases observed, the incidences of reported AP and CP were numerically greater with liraglutide than with comparators. Not all cases fulfilled diagnostic criteria, and confounding variables were present in 75% of the AP cases with liraglutide therapy, precluding firm conclusions.


Since the late 1990s technology has become a central component of national education policies in many Asian countries. In Singapore schools, for instance, technology has become central in teaching, learning and administration. On the other hand, Japanese schooling has been largely impervious to advances in educational technology. This paper aims to stimulate discourse between policy makers, teachers, researchers and the community in Japan and internationally to consider informed, meaningful strategies required for developing suitably skilled pupils for today's Digital Age. The paper begins with a summary of Singapore's technology centric education policy, called the Masterplan for IT in Education. The Japanese context is then summarised and a number of recently proposed educational reforms are discussed. It will be argued that these reforms do not lend themselves to supporting the necessary development of digital competency required of Japanese school pupils in the 21st century. To overcome the shortcomings, strategic actions to support meaningful ICT integration in education, influenced by the Singapore experience, will be proposed.


We examine whether the 'strategic inflection points' described by former Intel CEO Andy Grove correspond to mathematical inflection points in the product/technology life cycle. We find one sense in which they do and two senses in which they do not. This leads to a mapping of colloquial uses of inflection point, tipping point, volatility, chaos, and turbulence against the scientific definitions of these terms. The mapping should be of use to researchers and educators, and also suggests to managers that the possibility of foresight and control in technology-dependent industries is more sharply limited than generally believed. The paper highlights implications for organizational sustainability and offers possible coping mechanisms for managers and directions for educators and researchers.


Ultrathin films containing methaofullerene are prepared by electrostatic layer-by-layer self-assembly of a positively charged trifluoroacetic acid salt of monoamino-substituted methanofullerene (TMAF) derivative and a negatively charged poly (sodium 4-styrenesulfonate) (PSS). Absorptive optical nonlinearities of 30 bilayer TMAF/PSS films and TMAF in water solution are measured using the Z-scan technique at 532nm. Nonresonant saturation absorption is observed in the film sample, whereas reverse saturation absorption was for TMAF in water. The saturation-absorption behaviour is interpreted by a special formula. The saturation intensity is extracted to be 15.2 ± 0.8 MW/cm^2. The mechanism of saturation absorption in the TMAF/PSS film is discussed.


Ursolic and oleanolic acids are secondary plant metabolites that are known to be involved in the plant defence system against water loss and pathogens. Nowadays these triterpenoids are also regarded as potential pharmaceutical compounds and there is mounting experimental data that either purified compounds or triterpenoid-enriched plant extracts exert various beneficial effects, including anti-oxidative, anti-inflammatory and anticancer, on model systems of both human or animal origin. Some of those effects have been linked to the ability of ursolic and oleanolic acids to modulate intracellular antioxidant systems and also inflammation and cell death-related pathways. Therefore, our aim was to review current studies on the distribution of ursolic and oleanolic acids in plants, bioavailability and pharmacokinetic properties of these triterpenoids and their derivatives, and to discuss their neuroprotective effects in vitro and in vivo.


Cost partitioning is a method for admissibly combining a set of admissible heuristic estimators by distributing operator costs among the heuristics. Computing an optimal cost partitioning, i.e., the operator cost distribution that maximizes the heuristic value, is often prohibitively expensive to compute. Saturated cost partitioning is an alternative that is much faster to compute and has been shown to yield high-quality heuristics. However, its greedy nature makes it highly susceptible to the order in which the heuristics are considered. We propose a greedy algorithm to generate orders and show how to use hill-climbing search to optimize a given order. Combining both techniques leads to significantly better heuristic estimates than using the best random order that is generated in the same time. Since there is often no single order that gives good guidance on the whole state space, we use the maximum of multiple orders as a heuristic that is significantly better informed than any single-order heuristic, especially when we actively search for a set of diverse orders.


The Reinvention of Religious Music: Olivier Messiaen's Breakthrough Toward the Beyond. By Sander van Maas. New York: Fordham University Press, 2009. [224 p. ISBN 9780823230570. $55.] Notes, bibliography. In The Reinvention of Religious Music: Olivier Messiaen's Breakthrough Toward the Beyond, Sander van Maas considers the musical, philosophical, and religious qualities of Messiaen's music in order to ascertain music's potential capability of facilitating, in the composer's words, a "breakthrough toward the beyond." For van Maas, it is a matter of asking the question, "Is what is musically overwhelming also true?" (p. 2). He argues that scholarly work on the relationship between music and religion has been weak. Due to the increasing secularization of society, scholars have tended to regard musica sacra as a less than acceptable topic about which to write. Yet, for van Maas, this perspective is outdated due to the recent return of religion to the intellectual public sphere, prompting him to argue that now is the time to go beyond technical approaches to music in order to explore the radical possibility of music's capability of producing a foretaste of heaven on earth. Thus, van Maas proposes a daunting thesis in The Reinvention of Religious Music, one that requires a scholar who can negotiate the subtleties of the musicological, philosophical, and theological aspects of Messiaen's music with equal adeptness. Despite the inherent limits of its thesis as well as a few shortcomings associated with its musicological discussions, the book is a successful interdisciplinary study of religious music in contemporary society. After laying out the book's scope and organization in the introduction, van Maas explores Messiaen's writings (especially the Conference de Notre-Dame of 1977) in chapter 1 ("It Is a Glistening Music We Seek") in order to determine the goals and objectives that the composer had in mind when writing his music. In the second part of the chapter, van Maas considers Messiaen's ideas regarding the relation between music and religion, closing with an exposition of his "privileged figures" that connect the musical with the religious (pp. 28-36): a lack of truth (defaut de Verite ) in music, the analogy of the marvelous (le merveilleux), and the experience of dazzlement (eblouisse ment) by an excess of truth (exces de Verite ), which leads to that "breakthrough toward the beyond." The first figure, music's lack of truth, suggests that through a negative relation with the divine, music refers beyond itself to something more elemental and real. The second figure, the marvelous, is more positive in determination. It suggests those analogies with the divine that a believer may encounter while in the world. The third figure is the sensation of dazzlement that overwhelms a believer's sensory perceptions and thought, analogous to what one experiences while observing stained-glass windows (such as those at Sainte-Chapelle in Paris) where biblical images are rendered incidental. Through his colored-hearing synesthesia, Messiaen translates the transformative experience of dazzlement into music, which gives believers an inkling of the perpetual dazzlement they will experience when they know Christ as resurrected beings. Chapter 2 ("Five Times Breakthrough") embarks on analyses of five passages from Messiaen's oratorio La Transfiguration de Notre-Seigneur Jesus-Christ (1965-69) that the composer identified as examples of breakthrough in the Conference de Kyoto of 1985. For this reviewer, this is the weakest chapter in the book. Because of the lack of music examples and illustrative figures in the chapter (and for that matter, throughout the book), van Maas's analytical discussions are at times laborious to read, lacking the clarifying detail that music examples and figures could help supply. He relies too heavily, moreover, on Messiaen for his examples of dazzlement and breakthrough. As a result, these discussions are somewhat disappointing, conveying the impression of an uncritical approach to Messiaen's attempts to put dazzlement into practice. …


Abstract Elaphoglossum Schott ex J. Sm. sect. Polytrichia Christ is characterized by the presence of subulate scales and the absence of hydathodes. We did a molecular phylogenetic analysis using three non-coding plastid markers and found that five species thought to belong to section Elaphoglossum are actually members of section Polytrichia. The five species were previously thought to belong to section Elaphoglossum because they lack the characteristic subulate scales of section Polytrichia. We refer to these species as the Decursivum Group. We assign two other species to this group based on their morphological similarity to the known members of the group. Besides lacking subulate scales on the laminae, the seven species of the Decursivum Group are distinctive by having a submarginal connecting vein, a character otherwise absent in section Polytrichia. The group is entirely Neotropical, occurring at middle elevations and extending from the West Indies and Mexico to Bolivia and southeastern Brazil. For the Decursivum Group, we provide a taxonomic treatment including a key, descriptions, illustrations, distribution maps, discussion, and lists of specimens examined. Lectotypes are designated for Acrostichum miersii Baker and A. papyraceum Fée. A new species from the Andes, E. vascoae F. B. Matos & R. C. Moran, is described and illustrated.


With the ever-growing complexity and dynamicity of computer systems, proactive fault management is an effective approach to enhancing availability. Online failure prediction is the key to such techniques. In contrast to classical reliability methods, online failure prediction is based on runtime monitoring and a variety of models and methods that use the current state of a system and, frequently, the past experience as well. This survey describes these methods. To capture the wide spectrum of approaches concerning this area, a taxonomy has been developed, whose different approaches are explained and major concepts are described in detail.


This article examines the COVID-19 response in India, viewing it as deeply enmeshed in the dynamics of the 'database' as an emerging technology of governmentality. Databases aim to translate entire populations into units of information abstracted from social identities and local specificities. In the context of the coronavirus pandemic, bureaucratic state systems attempt to manage and respond to the health crisis via databases collating testing data across the country. Problematising COVID-19 testing databases, we delve into the logic of database governance. We find that as a tool of governance the database falters in its attempts to compress complex identities and locations into de-contextualised units of information. As the complexity of lived reality interrupts the logic of databasing, state discourse on 'unintended consequences', 'leakages', 'duplication', and 'reconciliation' processes in the management of databases abounds and the ambivalence of databases becomes manifest in the COVID-19 response. In this article, we use secondary data to understand how testing databases intervene and interact with complex realities to establish bureaucratic order around a pandemic. We posit that COVID-19 testing databases should be understood as being embedded in emerging database governmentalities that supplant care of the population with the maintenance of databases.


METHODS: C57BL/6J mice at the age of 2 mo (young, Y; N=7) and 24 mo (old, O; N=7) were transfected in vivo with either PGC-1α DNA or GFP into the tibialis anterior (TA) muscle. For electroporation, mice were anesthetized, and a small incision was made through the skin covering the TA muscle. A 27-gauge needle was used to inject plasmid DNA solution into the proximal and distal ends of the muscle belly. Electric pulses were applied to proximal and distal myotendinous junctions. The incision was closed with surgical glue. RESULTS: Aging increased SIRT1 level by 1.9, and 2.4-fold (P<.01) in O and O/OE, respectively; PGC-1α OE enhanced this effect (P<.05). SIRT3 and 6 level were decreased by 70 and 80% with aging (P<.01), whereas this effect was attenuated with PGC-1α OE. GCN5 level was elevated by ~10-fold with aging (P<.01), and PGC-1α OE showed no effect. Total cytoplasmic and mitochondrial protein acetylation level was 1.5and 1.2-fold higher in O vs. Y (P<.05), whereas no effect of PGC-1α OE was seen. CONCLUSION: GCN5 and global and mitochondrial protein acetylation levels were increased with aging in mouse skeletal muscle. PGC-1α OE exerted no effect on this aging phenomenon. However, PGC-1α OE upregulated SIRT1 and ameliorated age-associated reduction of SIRT3 and 6 protein levels.


Abstract. The purpose of this research is to collect fundamental data and to establish a performance-based design method for reinforced concrete beams under perpendicular impact load. Series of low speed impact experiments using reinforced concrete beams were performed varying span length, cross section and main reinforcement. The experimental results are evaluated focusing on the impact load characteristics and the impact behaviours of reinforced concrete beams. Various characteristic values and their relationships are investigated such as the collision energy, the impact force duration, the energy absorbed by the beams and the beam response values. Also the bending performance of the reinforced concrete beams against perpendicular impact is evaluated. An equation is proposed to estimate the maximum displacement of the beam based on the collision energy and the static ultimate bending strength. The validity of the proposed equation is confirmed by comparison with experimental results obtained by other researchers as well as numerical results obtained by FEM simulations. The proposed equation allows for a performance based design of the structure accounting for the actual deformation due to the expected impact action.


Understanding institutional changes is crucial for environmental management. Here we investigated how institutional changes influenced the process and result of desertification control in northern China between 1949 and 2004. Our analysis was based on a case study of 21 field sites and a meta-analysis of additional 29 sites reported in the literature. Our results show that imposed knowledge-driven institutional change was often perceived as a more progressive, scientific, and rational type of institutional change by entrepreneurs, scholars, experts, and technicians, while voluntary, knowledge-driven institutional change based on indigenous knowledge and experiences of local populations was discouraged. Our findings also demonstrate that eight working rules of imposed knowledge-driven institutional change can be applied to control desertification effectively. These rules address the issues of perception of potential gains, entrepreneurs' appeals and support, coordination of multiple goals, collaboration among multiple organizations, interest distribution and conflict resolution, incremental institutional change, external intervention, and coordination among the myriad institutions involved. Imposed knowledge-driven institutional change tended to be more successful when these rules were thoroughly implemented. These findings provide an outline for implementing future institutional changes and policy making to combat desertification and other types of ecological and environmental management. 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


Background. Studies of cancer survival by population-based cancer registries are a key component in monitoring progress against cancer. Patients notified by death certificates only (DCO) are commonly excluded from such studies. The validity of this "exclude DCO" approach has been questioned and an alternative "correct for DCO" approach has been proposed. Methods. We assess the validity of both the "exclude DCO" approach and the "correct for DCO" approach using model calculations. We illustrate implications for population-based cancer survival analyses by analyses of 5-year relative survival of cancer patients in Saarland, Germany. Results. The "exclude DCO" approach provides (too) optimistic survival estimates and the "correct for DCO" approach provides (too) pessimistic survival estimates under plausible assumptions. For example, in case of true survival of 50%, underascertainment of 5% of surviving patients and of 15% of dying patients (yielding a proportion of DCO cases of 7.7%), the two approaches would provide survival estimates of 52.8% and 48.8%, respectively. The difference of survival estimates obtained with both approaches increases with incompleteness of registration and the proportion of DCO cases. Trace back of DCO cases shifts survival estimates from the former towards the latter estimate. Conclusions. In case of non-negligible DCO proportions, cancer survival studies should not be exclusively based on either the "exclude DCO" or the "correct for DCO" approach. A combination of estimates from both approaches may be useful to delineate a plausibility range for true survival. Impact. Our results may help to enhance validity and comparability of population-based cancer survival estimates.


There is an increasing demand for distributing a large amount of content to vehicles on the road. However, the cellular network is not sufficient due to its limited bandwidth in a dense vehicle environment. In recent years, vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs) have been attracting great interests for improving communications between vehicles using infrastructure-less wireless technologies. In this paper, we discuss integrating LTE (Long Term Evolution) with IEEE 802.11p for the content distribution in VANETs. We propose a two-level clustering approach where cluster head nodes in the first level try to reduce the MAC layer contentions for vehicle-tovehicle (V2V) communications, and cluster head nodes in the second level are responsible for providing a gateway functionality between V2V and LTE. A fuzzy logic-based algorithm is employed in the first-level clustering, and a Q-learning algorithm is used in the second-level clustering to tune the number of gateway nodes. We conduct extensive simulations to evaluate the performance of the proposed protocol under various network conditions. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol can achieve 23% throughput improvement in highdensity scenarios compared to the existing approaches.


The gastrointestinal morphology was investigated in three mammalian insectivorous species, namely Acomys spinosissimus, Crocidura cyanea, and Amblysomus hottentotus. The aim of the study was to provide a comprehensive morphological comparison between the different species and to explore whether anatomical gastrointestinal adaptations are associated with the insectivorous diet of these species. The shape, proportional length, and proportional surface areas of the different gastrointestinal regions were recorded and compared in the three insectivores. Hematoxylin and Eosin (H&E) and Alcian Blue/Periodic Acid Schiff (AB/PAS) were used for morphological assessment. In all three species, the stomach was simple and uncompartmentalized. The internal aspect of the stomach in A. spinosissimus was hemi‐glandular, containing stratified squamous epithelium in the fundus, with glandular epithelium in the body and pyloric region. However, C. cyanea and A. hottentotus had wholly glandular stomachs. Paneth cells were not observed in the intestinal tracts of C. cyanea and A. hottentotus. Acomys spinosissimus was the only species studied that had a cecum. The proximal colonic region of A. spinosissimus had V‐shaped mucosal folds. Histologically, C. cyanea had villi throughout the entire gastrointestinal tract (GIT), whereas for A. hottentotus villi were not present in the most distal gastrointestinal regions. In both C. cyanea and A. hottentotus, longitudinal mucosal folds were present in the distal part of the colon. The GITs of C. cyanea and A. hottentotus showed little morphological differentiation namely, a simple, glandular stomach and the lack of a cecum. J. Morphol., 2013. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.