The mainshock of the Kumamoto earthquakes (MJMA7.3) occurred in Kumamoto prefecture, Japan, at 1:25 on 16 April 2016 (JST). The ground motion during this event observed on many stations in Southwest Japan, and several seismic stations in southern Okayama and a part of northern mountain area recorded a seismic intensity of 3 on the JMA scale. Since the azimuths, directions from the source toward the stations, are between 40-50 degrees in Okayama, we regard that the source and the path effects are not different for each station. Therefore, the difference among ground motions observed in Okayama only depends on the site effect under each station. In this study, we analyze strong-motion records in Okayama prefecture and evaluate the site characteristics under their stations. We use strong ground motion records at 113 stations from the networks of K-NET and KiK-net in NIED and seismic intensity meter in Okayama prefecture. We pick Pand S-wave arrivals and identify phases by polarization analysis. Since S-wave durations are for about 11 s from polarization analysis, we calculate Fourier spectra for 10 s after arriving S-wave. Setting on OKYH12 station (Ohara) built on the rock as a reference point, we calculate spectral ratio between another stations and the reference point. Also we compute H/V spectral ratio. Then, we measure primary peak frequency in each spectral ratio. Peak frequencies and shapes of spectral ratio for the reference point correspond to ones of H/V spectral raio in coast area and Hiruzen. However, in another area, primary peak frequencies of H/V are lower than ones of the ratio for reference point. Then, comparing to above peak frequency and site amplification rate in J-SHIS, seismic wave is well amplified under their stations, because 3320112 (Urayasu) and 3358860 (Tsuyama) stations have high site amplifications and low primary peak frequencies. Although 3321430 and 3358860 stations in Hiruzen have high PGA and PGV and low primary peak frequencies, site amplification rates are low. Hence, J-SHIS model cannot describe observed facts in their stations. Acknowledgment: we used the strong-motions records of NIED and Okayama prefecture.


Control of green peach aphid (Myzus persicae), a globally important pest, using plant‐derived oils is a promising alternative to conventional insecticides. Although various plant‐derived oils are potentially useful for insect control, dose–response studies and efficacy comparisons among oils have not been widely reported. Our objective was to compare M. persicae control by plant‐derived oils, focusing on oils derived from Brassicaceae species that exhibit rotational and environmental quality benefits. We thus applied sprays of emulsified ethyl esters from the seed oils of yellow mustard (Sinapis alba), oriental mustard (Brassica juncea) and rapeseed (Brassica napus) to M. persicae in a laboratory bioassay. A dose–response relationship was modelled for the S. alba spray yielding LD50/LD95 values of 18.2 ± 0.87/128.1 ± 5.10 μg ester per cm2 (P < 0.0001). Ethyl esters of oils from all three species and soybean (Glycine max) ethyl ester were compared to determine the efficacy of Brassicaceae oils relative to the dominant plant‐oil spray currently available. All ethyl esters were equally efficacious despite measured differences in fatty acid profiles among the oils. Oils derived from mustards B. juncea and S. alba are potentially useful feedstocks for the production of insecticidal sprays, and testing on additional insects is warranted.


Recent studies of high-resolution trac measurement discovered the self-similarity in both LAN and WAN trac. In this paper, we introduce a two-degree of freedom rate based flow controller, which includes a robust H 1 control block and an LMMSE based capacity predictor. The former part can guarantee the robust stability against time-varying time delay uncertainties and the latter improves the transient response by predicting the self-similar cross-trac. Implementation issues are discussed and performance analysis is provided to validate our design. We also investigate the prediction and control in larger time scale which is more applicable for the real network environment.


The local cerebral bloodflow (LCBF) was studied by the hydrogen clearance technique in the dorsal hippocampus (DH) of rats with a deep stage of the informational pathology of behavior (IPB). The IPB was produced by the chronic negative emotional stress developed during the long period of testing delayed reactions (indirect variant: delay in 2-3 s) under conditions of time deficit between the signals (30 c) and high motivation level. A significant decrease in the LCBF level was demonstrated in the experimental group in comparison with the control animals. It is suggested that: (1) the decrease in the LCBF in the DH may be of a secondary character as a result of suppression of the functional activity of the DH by exposure to the chronic negative emotional stress; (2) it is not inconceivable that the LCBF decrease in the DH is of a primary character and may account for the dysfunction of this structure facilitating the emotional stress and its acquisition of pathogenic properties, thus being an important factor of the IPB formation.


Background: Cardiovascular disease is a major contributor to the poor outcomes observed in hemodialysis. We investigated the relationship between hemodialysis intensity and vascular parameters in high-dose (HDHD; >12hrs/week) and Conventional (CHD; ≤12hrs/week) hemodialysis intensity over a 6-month period. Methods: We present the 6-month longitudinal analysis of a 2-year multicenter study investigating the effects of HDHD on cardiovascular parameters. We used pulse wave velocity, 24hr ambulatory blood pressure and sublingual dark field capillaroscopy measurements to assess macro- and microcirculation on 6-monthly basis. Pro-inflammatory and endothelial biomarkers were also measured at 6-monthly intervals. Results: 47 participants (21 HDHD, 26 CHD) were studied. CHD were older (63.5±14.2 vs 53.7±12.6 yr; p=0.018), with shorter dialysis vintage (median 23 vs 61 months; p=0.001). There was considerable variability in the degree and direction of change of circulatory measurements over a 6-month period. Hemodialysis intensity (hrs/week) did not correlate to these changes, when adjusted for age, dialysis vintage and comorbidity. Higher levels of Interleukin (IL)-8 measured at baseline independently predicted an increase in the Perfused Boundary Region (5-25μm) of the endothelial glycocalyx (p=0.010) whilst higher levels of soluble Flt-1 had a significant inverse effect (p=0.002) in an adjusted linear model. Conclusion: Hemodialysis intensity did not predict changes in either macro- or microvascular parameters. Inflammation mediated through the IL-8 pathway predicted microvascular injury while Flt-1, a potential marker of angiogenesis and endothelial repair, might have a significant protective role. Further understanding of these pathways will be necessary to improve dialysis outcomes.


Builders of expert rule-based systems [Barr 81] [Feigenbaum 77] [Hayes-Roth et al. 82] attribute the impressive performance of their programs to the corpus of knowledge they embody: a large network of facts to provide breadth of scope, and a large array of informal judgmental rules (heuristics) which guide the system toward plausible paths to follow and away from implausible ones.

Yet what is the nature of heuristics? What is the source of their power? How do they interrelate; i.e., how can/should a large corpus of heuristic rules be organized? How do heuristics originate and evolve?

"Heuretics" is the study of heuristics, with an eye toward answering questions such as those. Two case studies, the AM and EURISKO programs, have led to some tentative Heuretics hypotheses, a dozen of which are presented in this paper. Our aim is to stimulate future research in this field.


Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 4 is to 'Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all' and the targets and indicators for SDG 4 emphasise the importance of measuring outcomes for children with disabilities (United Nations, 2015b). This paper reports on findings from qualitative research investigating Fijian stakeholders' priorities for measuring success of efforts within a contextually and culturally meaningful process of disabilityinclusive education; that is, achievement of SDG 4 for children with disabilities. The priorities are presented in light of the specific challenges in Fiji to fulfilling this goal. The research presented in this paper is one part of a much larger mixed method study funded by the Australian aid program that aimed to develop and test indicators for the education of children with disabilities in the Pacific (Sharma et al., 2016). Fijian researchers with lived experience of disability undertook key informant interviews and focus group discussions with 28 participants. The findings include the need for or role of: an implementation plan and resourcing to ensure the national inclusive education policy is activated; improved awareness and attitudes; competent, confident and compassionate teachers; disability-specific services and assistive technology; accessible buildings and transport; and the important role of special schools. Inclusive education reform requires that Fiji incorporates and builds on existing strengths in special and inclusive education to ensure that systems and people are prepared and resourced for inclusion. The paper concludes that targets within SDG 4 are compatible with priorities within Fiji, however additional indicators are required to measure locally-prioritized changes related to barriers which need to be addressed if Fiji is to make progress towards the higher-order targets of SDG 4.


Aging is an inevitable process and many factors like genes, lifestyles, diet and environment determine longevity. As humans go older, physical conditions decline which leads to many illnesses. Depression constitutes the most common emotional disorder found in older people. Estimates of the prevalence of major depressive disorder of the elderly range from 2% 10% of those 65 and older [1]. Depression can be treated by administrating antidepressants, electroconvulsive therapy, Transcranial magnetic stimulations, cognitive behavioral and interpersonal therapies, lifestyle modifications and alternative therapies [2,3]. The alternative therapies encompass a variety of approaches which includes acupuncture, aroma therapy, laughter therapy, biofeedback, chiropractic treatments, guided imagery, dietary supplements, hypnosis, massage therapy, meditation, relaxation and yoga [4]. There is growing empirical literature on the effectiveness of laughter therapy on depression on elderly [5]. The objectives of the study were to compare the mean pre-test depression score of senior citizens between the experimental and control group. We also intended to compare the mean pre-test depression score of senior citizens in the experimental group. The mean pre-test depression score of senior citizens in the control group was compared. The mean post-test depression score of senior citizens between the experimental and control group was compared and evaluated. We also aimed to find out the association between level of depression and selected socio demographic variables of senior citizens in the experimental and control group UPINE PUBLISHERS Open Access L Interventions in Gynecology and Women's Healthcare Research Article ISSN: 2637-4544 DOI: 10.32474/IGWHC.2018.02.000143 Int Gyn & Women's Health Copyrights@ Satyajit P, et al. Citation: Akhil K, Satyajit P. Laughter Therapy Decreases Depression Among in Senior Citizens Residing in Old Age Homes. Int Gyn & Women's Health 2(4)2018. IGWHC.MS.ID.000143. DOI: 10.32474/IGWHC.2018.02.000143. 188 Figure 1.


This paper purports to examine the validity of the common belief that in a developing economy the backward agricultural sector should be subsidized as poorer group of the working population are employed in this sector that send their children out to work out of sheer poverty. A three-sector general equilibrium framework with agricultural dualism and child labour has been employed for the purpose of analysis. It finds that a price subsidy policy to backward agricultural sector is likely to aggravate the child labour incidence while a credit subsidy to advanced agriculture may be effective in reducing the gravity of the problem in the economy. The paper, therefore, questions the desirability of assisting backward agriculture for eradicating child labour in the society.


In this paper, the development of an ultrasonic characterization method for Poly-Vinyl Alcohol (PVA) hydrogel incorporating diffraction effects is purposed. The Lommel integral, diffraction correction procedure, is applied to the model. Nonlinear least square algorithm, iterative computation in forward model, is employed to minimize the error of the predicted parameters efficiently. To validate the model, the ultrasonic signal is measured in the reflection mode experiment. The system consists of PVA hydrogel as a testing sample immersed in water tank and 10 MHz unfocused piston transducer. Before the transducer is utilized to generate the ultrasonic beam, the alignment between sample and transducer must proceed to get the maximum spectrum of the ultrasonic incident beam. The properties of PVA hydrogel in the experimental results are shown in density, dispersion and thickness in micron scale. Finally, the purposed model has potential to estimate other parameters such as the scatterer size in future work.


The United Nations Research Institute of Social Development (UNIRSD) published a monograph after their workshop in Geneva 1994 on the development of Cambodia. Among the various issues the workshop revealed the pressing need for
research regarding the post-conflict economic strategy, the socio-psychological effects of the war, appropriate forms of foreign aid and delivery mechanisms, and the roles and responsibilities of different types of local, national and international institutions involved in processes of rehabilitation and reconstruction. In response to this fundamental quest for knowledge, this study is designed to investigate the development of tourism in the war-tom Cambodian economy in the mist of poverty and social problems. International intervention and assistance, the role of government and the Third Sector!, and community participation are key embedded units for the study. The thesis also intended to examine the appropriateness of the
approaches employed by the government and international aid in promoting tourism. Although this thesis focused on Cambodia, findings and discussions are highly relevant to other less developed countries (LDCs), especially those having a background of war and/or civil turmoil. The thesis also addresses questions related to tourism as a development agent for economic growth, social rehabilitation and political development. For example:
• How can tourism serve to reactivate processes of economic growth and social development without seriously affecting the allocation of resources and current structure of the economy? • How can tourism development be activated given the contextual limitations? • Why should government intervene in the development process and how does one
ensure the results will be accomplished with minimal disturbance to the social system? • What kind of new social problem(s) and/or distortions in the economy, if any,
have been induced by tourism and/or the liberalization of the economy? The delimitation of the study to tourism is for practical reasons. On the one hand, it is impossible to investigate the situation in Cambodia and make meaningful
recommendations without refining the scope of study. Tourism, on the other hand, is the world's largest single industry and one on which many countries have pinned
their hopes. It is renowned for its ability to generate income, to attract foreign investment, to create employment and as some including the World Tourism Organization and the Pope John Paul II even argue for its capability to promote peace2. This thesis developed a tourism system model by theoretical induction making use of Cambodia as the subject of study. The ultimate vision of the study is
to enhance the body of knowledge and thus to capitalize tourism as a development agent for the rehabilitation of a war-tom economy and social institutions to fight both poverty and marginalization. The findings of the study revealed the most current situation in Cambodia by applying the model of the tourism system and the model for tourism development proposed. The proposition that free-market capitalism might not work for less developed countries was tested and proved to be valid. This thesis revealed the barriers and potential of tourism as a development agent
for LDC by using Cambodia as the subject for investigation. Specific recommendations were given. Although it might seem controversial given the difficulties as illustrated in the analysis, Cambodia has very limited option for development. The thesis also argued that many obstacles in the development are administrative. Once the problems were addressed, a significant increase in demand can be expected.
This study attempts to provide answers to developmental questions. However, more questions and gaps in knowledge emerged in the process of the study. This study, as originally designed, is not an end in itself but a stepping-stone to further studies. To conclude, allow me to cite the words of Joan Healy, Overseas Service Bureau Australia, "to understand the meaning of this time we do well to see it
through the experiences and aspirations of ordinary Cambodians. Then our questions change. We ask about ways they see to ease suffering and contribute to peace. We face the fact that we do not know so many answers.


Small factors in the context - things that might seem irrelevant to decisions and action - might either facilitate or impede the end user in accomplishing their objectives. If they are designed to facilitate, these contextual variables are called nudges. On the other hand, there is a category of situations where these contextual variables actively impede activities that are in the consumers' best interest, resulting in a reduction of welfare. These are known as sludge. Because sludge (or contextual variables) works by heightening natural human behavioural tendencies like procrastination and complexity aversion, a sludge to one person might not be similarly seen as a sludge by another person. Therefore, seeing sludge is not easy.

Hence, there is a need for a tool or a dashboard that allows organizations to see sludge. Our goal was to create a tool (scorecards and a dashboard) that organizations could use to see sludge so that they could go about clearing it. Scorecards have three components – a score for the Process, Communication and Inclusivity. Our efforts represent an important first step in developing tools for helping organizations in seeing sludge. We do not claim that our scorecards are definitively the most appropriate tool for all organizations, but we believe they are appropriate for a wide range of organizations and end-user interactions. Our key points are to a) highlight the role of scorecards in seeing sludge, b) propose scorecards that might serve as a starting point for an organization to adapt, c) illustrate a process to generate scorecards and dashboards, and d) discuss several implementation issues in using these tools effectively.

Our paper also includes a TL;DR version – a standalone summary that could be used to communicate the key ideas.


The article discusses the cultural and narratological aspects of melancholic understanding of history in postmodern Latvian fiction. The first part of the study offers a brief overview of Latvian fiction of the 1990s and early 2000s with a special attention to the interrelated questions of history, trauma, and representation. The second part shifts from cultural contextualization to defining melancholic temporality and highlighting narrative ways of expressing it in fiction which addresses trauma, collective and individual, from a posttraumatic place in time. The third part analyzes the indirect and disjointed engagement with Soviet occupation in Gundega Repše's novel Conjuring Iron (2011). This is done by focusing on the poetics of unnarrated as a sign of prolonged mourning and by thinking about the epistemology of a fragment.


Abstract The evaluation, early in the design cycle, of the limits for operating aircraft from ships in a wide range of sea states and atmospheric conditions has become an important issue for two main reasons. First, the simultaneous entry into service of new helicopter types and new naval platforms has generated an enormous task in the development of appropriate Ship Helicopter Operating Limits for in-service operations. Second, it has become clear that such operational factors need to be addressed at the design stage - which of necessity involves developing a predictive capacity in all of the areas which influence operational capability. These considerations need to take place in the context of technological advances which seek to assist the pilot in operations from ships. Improved radar for ship approaches and enhanced cueing, located around hangars and landing spots, are both areas which are being continually developed in association with upgraded aircraft systems for guidance, control, and stability augmentation. Ultimately, however, the situation comes down to the pilot's assessment of the workload involved in any task and the handling qualities of the vehicle being controlled. For this reason there has been a growing interest in two related areas: (i) the development of metrics to provide a consistent indicator of pilot workload and (ii) the enhancement of existing pilot models to generate authentic control activity in the aircraft/ship dynamic interface. This article describes recent techniques for extracting workload metrics from control activity and indicates the extent to which acceptably accurate workload predictions can be made. Some advances in pilot modelling are also described and examples are given to demonstrate the capability and limitations of currently available methods. Finally, the present state of integration of the two aspects into a robust tool for ship and aircraft system design is discussed. The focus of this article is, of necessity, on helicopter operations because that is where most of the current work has been centred.


in HAC15 cells. Saturation experiments using 3 H-NMS and 3 H-Rauwolscine confirmed the presence of muscarinic M 2 and M 3 receptors as well as ⍺ 2A receptors. Using com-petition radiolabeled binding assays we explored the co-operation between M 2 /M 3 and ⍺ 2A adrenergic receptors. Our results suggest that autonomic regulation of intracellular Ca 2+ depends on an interplay of M 3 and ⍺ 2A receptors. Additional experiments will use ELISA methods to determine the functional impact of autonomic receptor cooperativity on steroid synthesis and secretion.


Temperament, Home Environment, And Social Competence Differences Between Aggressive And Non-Aggressive Adolescent Males (Under the Direction of DR. MARTHA CARR) The current study hypothesized that adolescent violence could be predicted by social processing skill, temperament, and family environment. Participants included one hundred twenty-four adolescent males aged thirteen to eighteen years. The nonviolent group consisted of adolescents who were enrolled in public school and had not been in a fight in the previous twelve months. The violent group consisted of adolescents who were incarcerated in a juvenile detention facility for committing violent crimes. Social processing was measured by viewing video-taped scenarios and completing a questionnaire measuring four of Dodge's five steps involved in processing social information. Family environment was measured using the FES, selfreport form. Temperament was measured using the DOTS-R, self-report form developed by Windle. A predictive discriminant analysis indicated that group means on the social processing measure were significant. Family environment and temperament did not differ between the two groups. The unexpected results are likely due to recruitment of participants, the changes in demographics of incarcerated adolescents, and the lack of mediating effects of temperament and family on adolescents who commit violent crimes.


Point your SmartPhone at the code above. If you have a QR code reader the video abstract will appear. Or use: https://youtu.be/5WtzQX_CSEc Introduction: Maintaining skeletal muscle function throughout life is a crucial component of successful aging. Disadvantaged socioeconomic position (SEP) is associated with adverse health outcomes, but has not been extensively studied for the muscle disease sarcopenia. We aimed to determine the prevalence of probable sarcopenia, a precursor to sarcopenia diagnosis, based on the European Working Group on Sarcopenia in Older People 2 (EWGSOP2) guidelines overall, and according to SEP. Methods: This cross-sectional study comprised 3342 community-dwelling older adults [mean age (SD) 68.9 ± 6.3 years] from Wave 1 of the Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing. Probable sarcopenia was identified using gender-specific cut-off values for handgrip strength as recommended by EWGSOP2. SEP was defined by educational attainment. Multivariate regression analysis was employed to determine associations between probable sarcopenia and pre-defined risk factors. Results: Overall, 23.4% of the population had probable sarcopenia and was significantly higher in the subset with low compared with high SEP (28.9% vs 18.1%, p<0.001). Consistent with this, multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that disadvantaged SEP was a significant determinant of probable sarcopenia [OR, CI 1.48 (1.17, 1.87) p<0.001]. Other known risk factors, namely, increased age, low physical activity, comorbidity, and osteoarthritis were significantly associated with an increased likelihood of probable sarcopenia, while overweight/obesity appeared to be protective. Conclusion: Disadvantaged SEP was an independent determinant of probable sarcopenia in community-dwelling older adults. These findings highlight that SEP and health inequality should be considered in prevention and treatment policy for sarcopenia in the community.


Lethality of Candida albicans was monitored in (C57BL times DBA/2)F1 mice bearing the transplanted Lewis lung carcinoma and in sham-operated controls inoculated with Hanks' balanced salt solution. The lethal response to C. albicans infection was significantly delayed in animals inoculated with the microorganism 6-16 days after transplantation of the Lewis lung carcinoma. Maximal increases in survival times were observed when C. albicans was inoculated 8-12 days following tumor transplantation. Therefore, a delay in the lethal response to C. albicans in this untreated model murine tumor system could be elicited through implantation of the Lewis lung carcinoma; preliminary studies with some other model murine tumors and with cell-free filtrates indicated that this phenomenon is not restricted to the Lewis lung carcinoma.


Recruitment and retention of teachers in rural areas continue to dominate educational narratives across the country. School districts, state agencies, and university schools of education have instituted strategies including financial incentives, alternative standards and licensure criteria, and grow-your-own programs that target underemployed locals and paraprofessionals for accelerated licensure. While each strategy may enjoy situational success, none is a panacea for all circumstances. However, there is growing interest in the development of university and school district partnerships in creating innovative solutions to rural recruitment and retention issues. This study investigates the efficacy of a partnership between several small rural districts and a state university partnering to create and test a contextualized clinical practice model. The Montana State University rural practicum placed 13 preservice teachers in a week-long, immersive clinical practice in rural, remote schools in Montana, for them to authentically experience the rural context and for researchers to determine if such an experience might positively affect recruitment and retention efforts. The study used a community-based participatory research method to ensure equal participation of both university and rural school partners in co-creating the experience and in collecting and analyzing data. Results suggest that the rural practicum experience positively affected preservice teacher perceptions of rural teaching and rural communities. Rural school leaders and university personnel also agreed that the model held promise for recruiting and retaining teachers in rural areas.


Eighteen months before the November 1989 privatization of the ten regional water authorities of England and Wales, the UK market for public water supply began to be "invaded" by three French distributors. They entered the market by a route which everyone else had overlooked: the lilliputian world of the private water companies. This book seeks to assess the potential advantages and disadvantages for Britain of this French presence. It highlights those ideas which may play a key role in determining the future success of Britain's water businesses in the 1990s, when, with the advent of the single market, competition in Europe is stepped up. It suggests that foremost among the differences which may be of importance are the following: sufficient room to manoeuvre on the part of management teams; management ambition and capabilities; a cultural leap from public to private sector; and the cultivation and projection of a favourable image in accordance with a new identity. Finally, the book selects some of the broader implications of the episode for Britain and France in post-1992 Europe.


Abstract This article challenges the simplistic view that U.S. leadership in East Asia is weakening relative to China's increasing ability to shape the regional order, which will force other states to choose between these two powers. Based on interviews with political elites, analysts, and academics in the United States, China, Japan, and Indonesia, we argue that the East Asian order transition is more complex and nuanced, especially when we examine views toward: (1) the Sino–U.S. rivalry for regional leadership; (2) whether Chinese initiatives such as the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank and the Belt and Road Initiative disrupt the current order; and (3) the preferred vision of regional order for each of the four countries. While there is hardly a consensus view about issues of regional order, it appears that in the short to medium term, China is not expected to substantially overhaul the existing East Asian order. Nevertheless, Beijing is likely to chip away at U.S. regional leadership and, in the long term, would presumably seek to create an order that would sustain its rise and maintain its regional preponderance. The responses of other regional stakeholders toward these developments would be vital in shaping the collective impact on the East Asian order.


The Jive states o f Northern Europe the three Scandinavian countries together with Finland and Iceland constitute a well-defined regional subdivision o f the European subcontinent. This region Scandinavian calls "Norden". Norden, is equally a geographical category and mental concept. The notion o f Norden pertains to the economic, cultural and social homogeneity, and not the ethnic or linguistic one. Among many reasons facilitating the ongoing process o f the Nordic integration and deciding about its special character, the geographical location and commonly shared historical experiences seem to be most valid and obvious. Economic factors come next in line. All the Nordic states are characterized by open, highly developed, modern and innovative economies based on knowledge, wellfunctioning services sector and technologically advanced industry.


This paper examines the practice and performance of musicians in two separate studies. In the first, 22 pianists, classified into four levels of skill, were asked to learn and memorise an assigned composition by J.S. Bach (different for each level). From cassette recordings of the pianists' practice, values for the mean and standard deviation of "segment lengths" were obtained, as well as a derived coefficient of variation. Following the learning process, the pianists performed their composition in a recital setting and were interviewed about their performance strategies. In the second study, two expert pianists were asked to learn and memorise an assigned composition by Bach and to provide verbal protocols of their performance of the piece under two separate conditions. Analyses of the data from Study 1 revealed that pianists at all levels of skill used longer practice segments as practice progressed. Moreover, they increasingly interspersed short and long segments across the practice process. Analyses of the coefficient of variation revealed that this occurred most often for performers at higher levels of ability, supporting the notion that shifting the focus of attention between levels of musical structure is a salient characteristic of the practice of skilled performers and develops gradually as skill is acquired. The post-performance interviews suggested that the attentional shift was employed during performance and was highly individual-specific with regard to the locations and reasons for shifting. Data from Study 2 provided additional evidence to support the proposed process and demonstrated the use of one possible hierarchical system within which shifts in attentional focus can occur--the music's formal structure. The data are discussed with regard to their implications for furthering an understanding of performance preparation in music and in other domains.


Best Western Italy operates under BW international Inc. a leading hotel and resort brand that provides high quality accommodation services in numerous countries across the globe. All of Best Western hotels are owned and managed independently. BW Italy is the brand's center for operations and reservation in the European market. It has gained recognition from its unique reservations services involving strategic partners to ensure their customers receive the best services at standardized rates. To reinforce its vision and mission, BW Italy management came up with a yearlong "Make a Difference" program to enhance employee commitment by aligning their goals to those of the company. This would entail organizational change which involves a system-wide transfer and application of behavioral science knowledge to the strategic development, enhancement, and reinforcement of the plans, process, and structures that result in organizational efficiency and effectiveness. The results included rearrangement of top management to establish a flatter organizational structure with improved distribution of leadership. A year after the program had been concluded, the General Manager was aware that its implementation had created colossal excitement and interaction among the employees who had taken part in it. However, four employees had refused to participate in the program while the company had recruited ten new employees after the program had ended. BW Italy needs to formulate a strategy to ensure that the "Make a Difference "program changes are internalized by its employees and institutionalized within the organization. The case analysis utilized secondary data acquired through a case study performed on BW Italy during the implementation of the program. Data was analyzed through the McKinsey 7s Model an effective tool used in analyzing organizational change. The McKinsey 7s Model is an effective tool aimed at depicting how effectiveness can be achieved within an organization through the interaction of 7 different organizational elements namely structure, strategy, skill, system, shared values, style, and staff. Keywords: Make a difference, Organizational change, Change program, Organizational goals, Mission and values, Employee commitment, Top management, Organizational diagnostic models, Performance outcomes


West Nile virus (WNV) is a neurotropic, arthropod-borne flavivirus that is maintained in an enzootic cycle between mosquitoes and birds, but can also infect and cause disease in horses and humans. WNV is endemic in parts of Africa, Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, and since 1999 has spread to North America, Mexico, South America, and the Caribbean. WNV infects the central nervous system (CNS) and can cause severe disease in a small minority of infected humans, mostly immunocompromised or the elderly. This review discusses some of the mechanisms by which the immune system can limit dissemination of WNV infection and elaborates on the mechanisms involved in pathogenesis. Reasons for susceptibility to WNV-associated neuroinvasive disease in less than 1% of cases remain unexplained, but one favored hypothesis is that the involvement of the CNS is associated with a weak immune response allowing robust WNV replication in the periphery and spread of the virus to the CNS.


This paper proposed a method to improve the walking behavior of bipedal robot with adjustable step length. Objectives of this paper are threefold. (1) Genetic Algorithm Optimized Fourier Series Formulation (GAOFSF) is modified to improve its performance. (2) Self-adaptive Differential Evolutionary Algorithm (SaDE) is applied to search feasible walking gait. (3) An efficient method is proposed for adjusting step length based on the modified central pattern generator (CPG) model. The GAOFSF is modified to ensure that trajectories generated are continuous in angular position, velocity, and acceleration. After formulation of the modified CPG model, SaDE is chosen to optimize walking gait (CPG model) due to its superior performance. Through simulation results, dynamic balance of the robot with modified CPG model is better than the original one. In this paper, four adjustable factors (, , , and ) are added to the joint trajectories. Through adjusting these four factors, joint trajectories are changed and hence the step length achieved by the robot. Finally, the relationship between (1) the desired step length and (2) an appropriate set of , , , and searched by SaDE is learnt by Fuzzy Inference System (FIS). Desired joint angles can be found without the aid of inverse kinematic model.


This thesis develops methodologies to measure rates of change in individual human behavior, and to capture statistical regularities in change at the population level, in three pieces: i) a model of individual rate of change as a function of search and finite resources, ii) a structural model of population level change in urban economies, and iii) a statistical test for the deviation from a null model of rank churn of items in a distribution. First, two new measures of human mobility and search behavior are defined: exploration and turnover. Exploration is the rate at which new locations are searched by an individual, and turnover is the rate at which his portfolio of visited locations changes. Contrary to expectation, exploration is open-ended for almost all individuals. A present a baseline model is developed for change (or churn) in human systems, relating rate of exploration to rate of turnover. This model recasts the neutral or random drift mechanism for population-level behavior, and distinguishes exploration due to optimization, from exploration due to a taste for variety. A relationship between the latter and income is shown. Second, there exist regular relationships in the economic structure of cities, with important similarities to ecosystems. Third, a new statistical test is developed for distinguishing random from directed churn in rank ordered systems. With a better understanding of rates of change, we can better predict where people will go, the probability of their meeting, and the expected change of a system over time. More broadly, these findings propose a new way of thinking about individual and system-level behavior: as characterized by predictable rates of innovation and change. Thesis supervisor: Alex "Sandy" Pentland Professor of Media Arts and Sciences How Predictable modeling rates of change in individuals and populations


Considerable evidence in recent years suggests that garlic has anti-proliferative effects on various types of cancer. Garlic contains water-soluble and oil-soluble sulfur compounds. Oil-soluble compounds (OSCs), such as diallyl sulfide (DAS), diallyl disulfide (DADS), diallyl trisulfide (DATS) and ajoene are more effective than watersoluble compounds in protection against cancer. DADS, a major organosulfur compound derived from garlic, can reduce carcinogen-induced cancers in experimental animals and inhibit the proliferation of various types of cancer cells. The mechanisms of these action of DADS include activation of metabolic enzymes that detoxify carcinogens, suppression of the formation of DNA adducts, antioxidant effects, regulation of cell-cycle progression, induction of apoptosis, and inhibition of angiogenesis and metastasis. These topics are discussed in depth in this review.


To the Editor: We read with considerable interest the article on "Surgical anatomy of the lateral nasal wall," by Calhoun et al. (OroLARYNGOL HEAD NECK SURa 1990;102:156-60). Without a doubt, a more thorough and comprehensive understanding of the anatomy of the lateral wall of the nose will be necessary for the safe practice of functional endoscopic sinus surgery. Unfortunately, we completely disagree with the conclusions that were reached in this article. The precise measurements and angles between structures on the lateral wall of the nose, recorded meticulously and undoubtedly with considerable effort, demonstrate that there is such a wide variation in these distances and angles between individuals that these recorded measurements should never be used by a surgeon as a guide when operating. To suggest, for example, that the sphenopalatine artery is 5.4 em from the anterior sill of the nose, when the range is between 4.5 and 6.3 em, means that a surgeon may be "off' in his or her identification of this structure by 1 em. This is not safe surgery. It may be, however, that the accuracy of the measurements in an individual patient could be refined considerably by comparing the intranasal measurements and angles to another easily measurable patient parameter. For example, the height of the patient or the interpupillary distance of the patient may be directly proportional to their intranasal measures. Hopefully, if we could correlate intranasal measurements with an easily measurable patient factor, then we could reduce the standard error of the intranasal measurements and consequently these measurements might then be useful for functional endoscopic sinus surgery. In our opinion, coronal CT scans are the preoperative investigation of choice to provide an anatomic map and to ensure the safe practice of functional endoscopic sinus surgery. Intranasal measurements will need to be shown to be superior to CT scans in reliability before widespread clinical introduction of intranasal measurements can be advocated.


AIM
Clinical pathways are used worldwide to (re)organize care processes. They are used by multidisciplinary teams in their search towards excellence. The goal of this study is (1) to assess differences in the perception of health professionals in their evaluation of care processes; (2) to assess whether care processes supported by clinical pathways perform better than those not supported by clinical pathways; and (3) to assess the sensitivity and specificity of clinical pathways in predicting well-organized care processes.

METHODS
A cross-sectional, multi-centre study was performed comprising 309 healthcare workers, 103 care processes and 49 hospitals. The Care Process Self Evaluation Tool (CPSET) was used to score care processes according to their organization. Processes were also scored according to the level of pathway implementation.

RESULTS
(1) Significant differences between healthcare professionals were found on two of five CPSET subscales. No significant differences were found among the overall CPSET scores. (2) Care processes supported by pathways had the highest CPSET scores. Nonetheless, continuous follow-up is necessary. (3) Clinical pathways have significant impact on the coordination of care (odds ratio: 8.92), follow-up (odds ratio: 6.65) and overall CPSET score (odds ratio: 4.26). Clinical pathways have a positive impact on the organization of care processes. Not all pathways have high CPSET scores, and care processes without pathways can also be well organized. Continuous evaluation is essential. This is the first study to analyse how healthcare teams perceive the organization of care processes with respect to clinical pathways. Our findings are important for other quality improvement methods.


Most higher-education institutions strive to be publicly engaged and community centered. These institutions leverage faculty, researchers, librarians, community liaisons, and communication specialists to meet this mission, but they have largely underutilized the potential of institutional repositories. Academic institutions can use institutional repositories to provide open access and long-term preservation to institutional gray literature, research data, university publications, and campus research products that have tangible, real-world applications for the communities they serve. Using examples from the University of Minnesota, this article demonstrates how making this content discoverable, openly accessible, and preserved for the future through an institutional repository not only increases the value of this publicly-engaged work but also creates a lasting record of a university's public engagement efforts and contributes to the mission of the institution.


While the diffusion of solar home systems in Kenya has been market-based for some years, the diffusion of PV in most other Sub-Saharan African countries has been driven by government and donor-supported projects aimed at serving specific needs for electricity while at the same time creating a national niche market for PV. This practice is rapidly changing and, as in industrialised countries, there is evidence of a transition towards more market-based diffusion and private-sector involvement for PV systems for private consumers, institutions and villages. This transition has been facilitated to varying degrees by conducive enabling frameworks comprising innovative financing schemes, exemptions from VAT and import taxes, standardised power-purchasing agreements and feed-in tariffs. Few analyses have so far been conducted on the effects of such measures. This paper aims to contribute to understanding these effects by reviewing the development of markets for solar PV in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, focusing on how the differences in market development have been explained in the literature. The paper finds that, although Tanzania and Uganda are rapidly catching up, Kenya is still leading the development of PV markets not only in terms of installed capacity and market volume, but also with regard to local industry and PV business development. The paper concludes by drawing attention to particular factors that have been used in the literature to explain disparities in market-development trajectories in the three countries.


Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) has undergone intensive research work that has led to confidence in its utilization in various applications. Nevertheless, its utilization as a construction material in the concrete industry still needs to be fully addressed. In this paper, an experimental study was dedicated to investigate the influence of PVA on the fresh and hardened properties of concrete. Three different strength grades, represented by water to cement ratios (w/c), of 0.4, 0.5 and 0.6, with four different PVA dosages of 1, 2, 3 and 4%, by mass of cement, were employed in the preparation of the concrete mixes. Concerning the fresh properties, results showed that there was a significant contribution of PVA to the workability in all produced mixes, irrespective of w/c ratio. In addition, the initial and final setting time of cement pastes modified with 2% PVA were longer than that of the control paste. In term of the hardened properties, results demonstrated that the compressive (fcu) and splitting tensile (fst) strengths of concrete are dominated by amounts of PVA in the mix and w/c ratios. With the high and moderate w/c ratios, they increased when up to 2% PVA was used, and thereafter decreased. However, with the low w/c, PVA did not provide any improvement in the strength, but instead, it decreased the strength when more than 2% was added. The findings revealed also that increasing PVA content resulted in a significant reduction in total water absorption (TWA) of concrete specimens. The larger the PVA contents the lower is the TWA of the specimens.


As the nation pays more and more attention to ecological construction, the government investment in forestation projects increases every year. The project management of afforestation project with government investment is a complex systematic project which needs well coordinate of the relationship of various subjects to find a reasonable combination of every interest subjects by appropriate design of the system, so it is necessary to introduce reasonable project management mechanism. This paper points out the problems exist in the current project management of forestation project with government investment and analyses the reasons; then agent construction system is proposed to improve the management mechanism of the forestation project with government investment; finally, the advantages and disadvantages of the system were analyzed.


Summary

Push-pull or stimulo-deterrent cropping systems combine a trap crop or other attractant or arrestant stimulus distant from the crop and a deterrent or repellent near or within the target crop, to divert pests, reducing their populations on the target crop. Although the concept is decades old, there are few successful applications in pest management.
In this article, we address this shortcoming by offering a mechanistic conceptual framework of push-pull systems, based on the cues, sensory modalities, pest behaviours and spatial ranges over which they can occur during host selection and that can influence pest distribution.
We review published work on push-pull systems in the light of this framework, finding that the literature tends to focus on longer-range stimulo-deterrence strategies rather than the full range of cues involved and modalities that can come into play, with imperfect understanding of cues involved in most systems.
The imbalance in research emphasis and incomplete understanding of push-pull mechanisms suggest opportunities to improve and broaden the palette of potential push-pull technologies.
The framework also helps clarify other aspects important for achieving success with push-pull methods, including the role of synergy, deployment geometry, intraspecific variability and the wider arthropod community in these systems.
Synthesis and applications. A conceptual and mechanistic framework is provided for the development of push-pull or stimulo-deterrent pest management approaches. This framework informs a proposed research agenda for designing push-pull technologies. That agenda involves including all cues and modalities, exploiting synergies, tuning deployment geometry in accordance with these factors. It also considers pest and crop dynamics and the arthropod community of the system. The framework can benefit managers by helping them to consider more fully the behaviour of the target pests when creating crop and non-crop geometries to achieve push-pull benefits. Research-based push-pull systems will be better implemented and modified by producers if they understand how insects respond to sources of push and pull in the system, allowing effective monitoring and fine-tuning to increase effectiveness of this specialized component of integrated pest management.


Coiled tubing (CT) and coiled tubing units (CTU) technology has been widely used in oil and gas field since World War II. Coiled tubing fatigue failure is one of the constraints on promoting used. CT bears complex loads, leading to multiple plastic deformations when operating. Then the fatigue damage cannot be ignored. Through the mechanics analysis of CT with finite element method (FEM) in working state at the wellhead, the results show that high stress and high strain are the main factors which cause CT failure. Based on the analysis, the fatigue life is predicted for CT without defects by using Manson-Coffin formula. The results of CT with different inner pressure show that simulations result is closer to the actual working conditions.


Fully exploring correlation among points in point clouds is essential for their feature modeling. This paper presents a novel end-to-end graph model, named Point2Node, to represent a given point cloud. Point2Node can dynamically explore correlation among all graph nodes from different levels, and adaptively aggregate the learned features. Specifically, first, to fully explore the spatial correlation among points for enhanced feature description, in a high-dimensional node graph, we dynamically integrate the node's correlation with self, local, and non-local nodes. Second, to more effectively integrate learned features, we design a data-aware gate mechanism to self-adaptively aggregate features at the channel level. Extensive experiments on various point cloud benchmarks demonstrate that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art.


Naturally occurring strains of Candida albicans appear to be diploid and heterozygous for a limited number of nutritional markers. Additional heterozygosity can be induced by treatment with mutagens; nitrous acid alone or in combination with UV is a potent mutagen in terms of both efficacy and efficiency in the production of a wide variety of mutations. Spheroplast fusion followed by regeneration on selective media revealed complementation among four histidine-requiring mutants analyzed. Some of the fusion products appeared to be stable prototrophs, whereas in others several kinds of segregants resulted, apparently due to chromosomal or nuclear elimination. The results are suggestive of both heterokaryosis as well as nuclear fusion. The procedures described can be successfully used for generating new mutants and studying allelism. Three sets of linkage relationships have been derived from evidence provided by concomitant appearance or cosegragation of several auxotrophic markers.


Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) are "natural" interferon α (IFNα)-producing cells. Despite their importance to antiviral defense, autoimmunity, and ischemic liver graft injury, because DC subsets are rare and heterogeneous, basic questions about liver pDC function and capacity to make cytokines remain unanswered. Previous investigations failed to consistently detect IFNα mRNA in HCV-infected livers, suggesting that pDCs may be incapable of producing IFNα. We used a combination of molecular, biochemical, cytometric, and high-dimensional techniques to analyze DC frequencies/functions in liver and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) of hepatitis C virus (HCV)-infected patients, to examine correlations between DC function and gene expression of matched whole liver tissue and liver mononuclear cells (LMCs), and to determine if pDCs can produce multiple cytokines. T cells often produce multiple cytokines/chemokines but until recently technical limitations have precluded tests of polyfunctionality in individual pDCs. Mass cytometry (CyTOF) revealed that liver pDCs are the only LMC that produces detectable amounts of IFNα in response TLR-7/8 stimulation. Liver pDCs secreted large quantities of IFNα (~2 million molecules of IFNα/cell/hour) and produced more IFNα than PBMCs after stimulation, p = 0.0001. LMCs secreted >14-fold more IFNα than IFNλ in 4 hours. Liver pDC frequency positively correlated with whole liver expression of "IFNα-response" pathway (R2 = 0.58, p = 0.007) and "monocyte surface" signature (R2 = 0.54, p = 0.01). Mass cytometry revealed that IFNα-producing pDCs were highly polyfunctional; >90% also made 2–4 additional cytokines/chemokines of our test set of 10. Liver BDCA1 DCs, but not BDCA3 DCs, were similarly polyfunctional. pDCs from a healthy liver were also polyfunctional. Our data show that liver pDCs retain the ability to make abundant IFNα during chronic HCV infection and produce many other immune modulators. Polyfunctional liver pDCs are likely to be key drivers of inflammation and immune activation during chronic HCV infection.


The "Supersymmetric Artificial Neural Network" in deep learning (denoted φ(x; θ, θ)w), espouses the importance of considering biological constraints in the aim of further generalizing backward propagation. Looking at the progression of 'solution geometries'; going from SO(n) representation (such as Perceptron like models) to SU(n) representation (such as UnitaryRNNs) has guaranteed richer and richer representations in weight space of the artificial neural network, and hence better and better hypotheses were generatable. The Supersymmetric Artificial Neural Network explores a natural step forward, namely SU(m|n) representation. These supersymmetric biological brain representations (Perez et al.) can be represented by supercharge compatible special unitary notation SU(m|n), or φ(x; θ, θ)w parameterized by θ, θ, which are supersymmetric directions, unlike θ seen in the typical non-supersymmetric deep learning model. Notably, Supersymmetric values can encode or represent more information than the typical deep learning model, in terms of "partner potential" signals for example.


Evidence-based medicine (EBM) advocates the improvement of patient care through the use of current best research evidence in medical decision making. In practice, "best evidence" generally refers to where a study fits on a hierarchy of evidence, which places randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and other population-level research above laboratory research. Because population research is concerned primarily with average results obtained from large groups of people, ranking evidence on the basis of its place in the hierarchy is shortsighted and ultimately limits the ability of research results to inform the care of individual patients. The history and methodology of epidemiology reveals a close relationship between population-level and laboratory research; both types of research are necessary if we are to understand the causes of a disease. What EBM does not take into account in its hierarchy of evidence is that the same thing is true for research on the safety and efficacy of medical interventions. To maximize the information that clinical research can provide for clinical care, RCTs should be designed to elucidate within-group variability. This can only be done if the hierarchy of evidence is replaced by a network that takes into account the relationship between epidemiological and laboratory research.


The deployment of Cooperative Intelligent Transportation Systems (C-ITS) raises the question of future traffic management systems, which will be operating with an increasing amount of information and control over the infrastructure and the vehicles. This topic of research shares some similarities with robot coordination problems, inspiring our research on autonomous intersection management. In this article, we use a mixed-integer linear programming formulation for time-optimal robots coordination along specified paths and apply it to intersection management for autonomous vehicles. Our formulation allows to simultaneously solve a discrete optimal vehicle ordering problem, and a (discretized) continuous optimal velocity planning problem taking into account kinodynamics constraints. This allows faster pruning of the decision tree for the discrete problem, thus reducing computation time. A possible application for ITS is to evaluate the efficiency loss from a given vehicle ordering policy, or dynamically adapt policies to improve their efficiency. Moreover, any intermediary solution found by the solver can be used as a heuristically good policy, with proved bounds on sub-optimality.


The cultivation of applied talents in local colleges and universities is the main channel to convey talents for social production, application and practice. Therefore, the cultivation of practical education of applied talents is more important. Based on the importance of applied teaching mode, this study analyzes the main problems and reasons in the practical teaching mode of undergraduate colleges and universities, and finally puts forward improved methods and suggestions, such as improving practical teaching scheme model and strengthening college-enterprise double cultivation mode so as to provide direction for practical education in undergraduate colleges and universities and to convey more useful applied talents for society.


Evidence has shown the presence of D-amino acids (D-AAs), unusual cell-to-cell signaling molecules, in the pancreatic islets of rodents and humans. In particular, D-alanine (D-Ala) and serine racemase, the enzyme that converts L- to D-serine (D-Ser), colocalize within insulin-producing beta cells. Both D-Ala and D-Ser function as co-agonists of the N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor, which is also present in islets and modulates insulin release, suggesting potential autocrine or paracrine signaling role of these compounds. Here, we investigated the relationship between the endogenous levels of D-AAs and islet regulation of glucose homeostasis. The glucose-stimulated D-AA profiles in the rat islets revealed that the L-AA forms were released from the pancreatic islets in a dose-dependent manner. Interestingly, we observed between a 20% and 45% reduction of D-Ala and D-Ser levels, respectively, in islets after the stimulation which appears to be independent of the extracellular glucose levels. In addition to islets, significant D-AAs were detected in the surrounding acinar tissue; only D-Ala was abundant at high percentage of 11.6 ± 1.5% to total Ala in the tissue, while other D-AAs were not measured at high levels. As beta cells appear not to be able to synthesize their own D-Ala, this suggests that the D-Ala detected in these cells can be supplied by nearby acinar tissue. We also have measured the D-Ser percentages in healthy and type 2 diabetes (T2D)-affected islets received from the Human Pancreas Analysis Program (UPenn). Preliminary results revealed the lower D-Ser level in the T2D-affected islets compared to healthy islets. We are continuing to accumulate more data to determine the potential correlation of D-AAs, including D-Ala and D-Ser, to diabetes progression. The continued characterization of endogenous D-AAs levels will shed light on their roles in islet normal and pathological functions. Disclosure C.J. Lee: None. A. Patel: None. D. Lee: None. S. Rubakhin: None. J.V. Sweedler: None. Funding American Diabetes Association/Pathway to Stop Diabetes (1-18-VSN-19 to J.V.S.)


Bovine trypsin is a well-characterized serine protease used as a vital tool in biochemistry, particularly proteomics, as it cleaves peptides or proteins, with high specificity, at the carboxy-terminus of lysine (Lys) and arginine (Arg) amino acid residues. Moreover, the fragment peptides are typically in mass ranges that are amenable to detection by mass spectrometry techniques other than Matrix Assisted Laser Desorption Ionization (MALDI). In addition, Trypsin is found in the digestive system of many vertebrates, and is stable under diverse chemical conditions. The RAS (Rat Sarcoma) families of proteins are involved in several cell-signaling activities that are vital to processes such as cell proliferation and differentiation. If not properly regulated, these signaling processes can result in diseases such as cancer, underlying their importance as targets for drug discovery efforts to control Ras-stimulated abnormal cell signaling. The activity of Ras-related proteins is dictated by their nucleotide-bound state where the GTP-bound is active, and the GDP-bound state inactive. The regulation of this nucleotide-cycling activity is dictated by protein-protein interactions with effectors that may induce conformational changes. Here, we highlight recent advancements showing the use of trypsin in the characterization of Ras-related protein structure and function in cell signaling and regulation.


Severe involvement of the wrist in rheumatoid arthritis poses great functional restrictions in eating, maintaining personal hygiene, and in performing general daily activities. Twenty-six Swanson radiocarpal implant arthroplasties were performed in 23 patients. Patients' average age was 57 years, with a preoperative diagnosis in all patients of rheumatoid arthritis. Follow-up averaged 33 months (range, 5-47 months). The principal indication for surgery was pain in 23 wrists and wrist deformity in three wrists. Particular attention was paid to postoperative functional status and to any changes in performance of routine activities of daily living pertinent to the wrist. Employing a pain rating scale of 1-4, preoperative scores averaged 3.71 on the operated side and postoperative scores, 1.75. Postoperative activities of daily living that benefited from the improved extension capability of the wrist showed significant improvement. No significant improvement resulted in those activities necessitating strength or fine motor control. Prosthesis fracture in one patient, and recurrence of ulnar deviation in two patients, were the major complications. Capsular reconstruction and tendon transfer to balance the wrist were integral components of the procedure.


We study leadtime pricing in a B2B context where a firm provides guaranteed due-date delivery service to customers that are heterogeneous in their valuation of the products and preference in delivery time. We consider two types of customers based on their delivery preference: one that prefers just-in-time (JIT) delivery and another that prefers responsive delivery. Each type of customer has varying flexibility in delivery dates. The firm has constrained production capacity, and to manage that capacity offers multiple leadtime options – some with due-date guarantees. We develop a maximum-likelihood estimation and multinomial-logit function (MLE+MNL) based pricing method to find the optimal price quote so that the firm maximizes its expected profit while ensuring the due-date guarantee. We form stochastic-nonlinear-programming (SNLP) models to solve the price quote to maximize the firm's expected profit in a stochastic context based on the improved MLE+MNL based pricing method. The problem specific techniques are developed for solving the proposed SNLP models and the simulation results show that near optimal solutions can be found.


This paper presents BIGS the Big Image Data Analysis Toolkit, a software framework for large scale image processing and analysis over heterogeneous computing resources, such as those available in clouds, grids, computer clusters or throughout scattered computer resources (desktops, labs) in an opportunistic manner. Through BIGS, eScience for image processing and analysis is conceived to exploit coarse grained parallelism based on data partitioning and parameter sweeps, avoiding the need of inter-process communication and, therefore, enabling loosely coupled computing nodes (BIGS workers). It adopts an uncommitted resource allocation model where (1) experimenters define their image processing pipelines in a simple configuration file, (2) a schedule of jobs is generated and (3) workers, as they become available, take over pending jobs as long as their dependency on other jobs is fulfilled. BIGS workers act autonomously, querying the job schedule to determine which one to take over. This removes the need for a central scheduling node, requiring only access by all workers to a shared information source. Furthermore, BIGS workers are encapsulated within different technologies to enable their agile deployment over the available computing resources. Currently they can be launched through the Amazon EC2 service over their cloud resources, through Java Web Start from any desktop computer and through regular scripting or SSH commands. This suits well different kinds of research environments, both when accessing dedicated computing clusters or clouds with committed computing capacity or when using opportunistic computing resources whose access is seldom or cannot be provisioned in advance. We also adopt a NoSQL storage model to ensure the scalability of the shared information sources required by all workers, including within BIGS support for HBase and Amazon's DynamoDB service. Overall, BIGS now enables researchers to run large scale image processing pipelines in an easy, affordable and unplanned manner with the capability to take over computing resources as they become available at run time. This is shown in this paper by using BIGS in different experimental setups in the Amazon cloud and in an opportunistic manner, demonstrating its configurability, adaptability and scalability capabilities.


Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are target-specific anticancer agents consisting of cytotoxic drugs covalently linked to a monoclonal antibody. The number of ADCs in the clinic is growing, and therefore thorough characterization of the quantitative assays used to measure ADC concentrations in support of pharmacokinetic, efficacy, and safety studies is of increasing importance. Cytotoxic drugs such as the tubulin polymerization inhibiting auristatin, monomethyl auristatin E, have been conjugated to antibodies via cleavable linkers (MC-vc-PAB) through internal cysteines. This results in a heterogeneous mixture of antibody species with drug-to-antibody ratios (DAR) ranging from 0 to 8. In order to characterize the assays used to quantitate total MC-vc-PAB-MMAE ADCs (conjugated and unconjugated antibody), we used purified fractions with defined DARs from 6 therapeutic antibodies to evaluate different assay formats and reagents. Our investigations revealed that for quantitation of total antibody, including all unconjugated and conjugated antibody species, sandwich ELISA formats did not always allow for recovery of all purified DAR fractions (DAR 0-8) to within ±20% of the expected values at the reagent concentrations tested. In evaluating alternative approaches, we found that the recovery of DAR fractions with semihomogeneous assay (SHA) formats, in which sample, capture, and detection reagents are preincubated in solution, were less affected by the antibody's MMAE drug load as compared to traditional stepwise sandwich ELISAs. Thus, choosing the optimal assay format and reagents for total antibody assays is valuable for developing accurate quantitative assays.


The issues of delay in the registration of the Final Title began since 1960. Lately, with the application of modern technology in land administration, these issues still a major problem for Land Administrators. Without a Final Title, the landowners have to wait for years before he is able to sub-divide, partition or amalgamate his land. Delay in issuing of Final Title resulted in the lost of revenue to the State Governments by way of quit rents. The Federal Government through its agency, Department of Director of Land and Mines (DLM) has amended the National Land Code 1965 (NLC 1965) with options of issuing Qualified Title or Final Title. In year 2001, on the amendments to the NLC 1965, by which Final Title may be registered and issued without issuing of Qualified Title in cases of sub-division, partition or amalgamation. Previously, before Final Title in registered, a Qualified Title must first be registered. By this amendment, there will be less number of Qualified Titles registered at Land Office in the country. Therefore, more time can be spent by the Land Officers to settle the issue of converting Qualified Title to Final Title. The objective of this study is to look at the effectiveness of the amendments of section 183A and 185A. However, the purpose of these amendments is not intentionally to abolish the Qualified Titles. This thesis will carry out a theoretical and empirical studies to evaluate the effectiveness of the new amendments. Our main respondents are Land Offices' staff and Licensed Land Surveyors nationwide. The amendments of NLC 1965 can help to solve problems of replacing the Qualified Title to Final Title


A key feature of the air interface of the Universal Mobile Telecommunication System (UMTS) standardised by 3GPP is that its functionality can be tailored to the requirements of individual applications, In this paper we study how this flexibility can be exploited to meet the stringent delay and packet loss requirements of a voice-over-IP application (VoIP). We introduce an analytical model of the UMTS air interface that allows us to quantify the impact of the air interface parameters (power budget, interleaving span and channel coding rate) on the parameters that determine the perceived quality of VoIP calls (mouth-to-ear delay and packet loss probability). We use the model to explore the trade-offs that are inherent in the setting of the air interface parameters. The numerical results we present illustrate and quantify the trade-offs of bandwidth efficiency versus packet loss, and of packet loss versus packet delay. The latter trade-off is of particular importance for the feasibility of VoIP.


A memory device based on the sandwiched structure of a conjugated copolymer (PF8Eu), containing fluorene and chelated europium complex, has been fabricated. An electrical bistability phenomenon was observed on this device: low conductivity state for the as-fabricated device and high conductivity state after device transition by applying a voltage of /spl sim/3 V. At the low conductivity state, the device showed a charge injection controlled current and at the high conductivity state, the device showed a space charge limited current. At the same applied voltage, the device exhibited two distinguishable conductivities with an ON/OFF current ratio as high as 10/sup 6/ at room temperature. After transition to the high conductivity state, the device tended to remain in the high conductivity state even when the applied voltage was removed. Thus, the device is a potential write-once-read-many-times memory device.


Parallelism and logic programming are two fi elds that have been successfully combined, as is shown by recent implementations of parallel logic programming systems. There are two main sources of parallelism in logic programming, namely or-parallelism and and-parallelism. Or-parallelism is exploited when several alternative clauses to a goal are executed in parallel. And-parallelism is exploited when we execute two or more goals of the same clause simultaneously. Exploitation of full or-parallelism and and-parallelism is limited by the number of physical processors available in a system. And-parallelism is also limited by the interdependence among goals in a clause. In parallel logic programming systems which exploitboth and-parallelism and or-parallelism, a problem that arises is how to distribute processors between the dynamically varying amounts of and-work and or-work that are available. Solutions have been reported for distributing only or-work, or distributing only and-work, but the issue of distributing processors between both kinds of work has not yet been addressed. In this thesis we discuss the problem of distributing and-work and or-work in the context of Andorra-I, a parallel logic programming system that exploits determinate and-parallelism and or-parallelism, and propose scheduling strategies that aim at effi ciently distributing processors between and-work and or-work. We study general criteria that every scheduling strategy should meet to reconfi gure processors without incurring too high overheads in the Andorra-I system. We propose two different strategies to reconfi gure processors between and-work and or-work based on these criteria. One strategy, work-guided, guides its decisions by looking at the amount of current and-work and or-work available in an application during execution. The other strategy, effi ciency-guided, is designed around the intuition that processors should spend most of their execution time doing useful work, i.e., performing reductions. Our benchmark setconsists of programs thatcontain both and-parallelism and or-parallelism and programs that contain a single kind of parallelism. We compare the results produced by our strategies with the results produced by a version of Andorra-I that provides only a fi xed division of processors between and-work and or-work. Results show the benefi t of adding a reconfi gurer to Andorra-I and show that both strategies perform better than any plausible fi xed confi guration for all benchmarks. Although our work is focussed on the Andorra-I system, we believe that both strategies could be applied to other parallel logic programming systems that aim at exploiting both and-parallelism and or-parallelism.


One-atom-thick material such as graphene, graphene derivatives and graphene-like materials, usually has a dense network lattice structure and therefore dense distribution of electronic clouds in the atomic plane. This unique structure makes it have great significance in both basic research and practical applications. Studies have shown that molecules, atoms and ions are very difficult to permeate through these above-mentioned two-dimensional materials. Theoretical investigations demonstrate that even hydrogen, the smallest in atoms, is expected to take billions of years to penetrate through the dense electronic cloud of graphene. Therefore, it is generally considered that one-atom-thin materialis impermeable for hydrogen. However, recent experimental results have shown that the hydrogen atoms can tunnel through graphene and monolayer hexagonal boron nitride at room temperature. The existence of defects in one-atomthin material can also effectively reduce the barrier height of the hydrogen tunneling through graphene. Controversy exists about whether hydrogen particles such as atoms, ions or hydrogen molecules can tunnel through two-dimensional materials, and it has been one of the popular topics in the fields of two-dimensional materials. In this paper, the recent research progressof hydrogen tunneling through two-dimensional materials is reviewed. The characteristics of hydrogen isotopes tunneling through different two-dimensional materials are introduced. Barrier heights of hydrogen tunneling through different graphene and graphene-like materials are discussed and the difficulties in its transition are compared. Hydrogen cannot tunnel through the monolayer molybdenum disulfide, only a little small number of hydrogen atoms can tunnel hrough graphene and hexagonal boron nitride, while hydrogen is relatively easy to tunnel through silicene and phosphorene. The introduction of atomic defects or some oxygen-containing functional groups into the two-dimensional material is discussed, which can effectively reduce the barrier height of the hydrogen tunneling barrier. By adding the catalyst and adjusting the temperature and humidity of the tunneling environment, the hydrogen tunneling ability can be enhanced and the hydrogen particles tunneling through the two-dimensional material can be realized. Finally, the applications of hydrogen tunneling through two-dimensional materials in ion-separation membranes, fuel cells and hydrogen storage materials are summarized. The potential applications of hydrogen permeable functional thin film materials, lithium ion battery electrode materials and nano-channel ions in low energy transmission are prospected. The exact mechanism of hydrogen tunneling through two-dimensional material is yet to be unravelled. In order to promote these applications and to realize large-scale production and precision machining of these two-dimensional materials, an in-depth understanding of the fundamental questions of the hydrogen tunneling mechanism is needed. Further studies are needed to predict the tunneling process quantitatively and to understand the effects of catalyst and the influences of chemical environments.


Multiple studies reported the association of LPL PvuⅡpolymorphism (rs285) with hyperlipoidemia and coro- nary heart disease in the Chinese population; however, the sample sizes of these studies were small (119-647) and the re- sults were not consistent. A Meta-analysis was undertaken to evaluate the role of LPL PvuⅡpolymorphism in hyperli- poidemia and coronary heart disease in Chinese. A total of 11 case-control studies were collected. Among them, 6 studies on hyperlipoidemia contained 943 cases and 1,093 controls, and 5 studies on coronary heart disease contained 821 cases and 727 controls. No significant publication bias was found and significant heterogeneity between these studies was observed. The results of Meta-analysis indicated that the allele P+ increased the risk of hyperlipoidemia (OR=1.36, 95%CI 1.07~1.73, P=0.011), and no evidence of association (P=0.755) was found for coronary heart disease. Our study suggested that the LPL PvuⅡpolymorphism was significantly associated with hyperlipoidemia but not with coronary heart disease in the Chinese population.


In this study, we attempted to analyse a drawdown pattern around a pumping well in an unconfined sandy gravelly aquifer constructed in a laboratory tank by means of both experimental and numerical modelling of groundwater flow. The physical model consisted of recharge, aquifer and discharge zones. Permeability and specific yield of the aquifer material were determined by Dupuit approximation under steady‐state flow and stepwise gravitational drainage of groundwater, respectively. The drawdown of water table in pumping and neighbouring observation wells was monitored to investigate the effect of no‐flow boundary on the drawdown pattern during pumping for three different boundary conditions: (i) no recharge and no discharge with four no‐flow boundaries (Case 1); (ii) no recharge and reservoir with three no‐flow boundaries (Case 2); (iii) recharge and discharge with two no‐flow boundaries (Case 3). Based on the aquifer parameters, numerical modelling was also performed to compare the simulated drawdown with that observed. Results showed that a large difference existed between the simulated drawdown and that observed in wells for all cases. The reason for the difference could be explained by the formation of a curvilinear type water table between wells rather than a linear one due to a delayed response of water table in the capillary fringe. This phenomenon was also investigated from a mass balance study on the pumping volume. The curvilinear type of water table was further evidenced by measurement of water contents at several positions in the aquifer between wells using time domain reflectometry (TDR). This indicates that the existing groundwater flow model applicable to an unconfined aquifer lacks the capacity to describe a slow response of water table in the aquifer and care should be taken in the interpretation of water table formation in the aquifer during pumping. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Herein we show that hydrazine intercalation into 2D titanium carbide (Ti3C2-based MXene) results in changes in its surface chemistry by decreasing the amounts of fluorine, OH surface groups and intercalated water. It also creates a pillaring effect between Ti3C2Tx layers pre-opening the structure and improving the accessability to active sites. The hydrazine treated material has demonstrated a greatly improved capacitance of 250 F g(-1) in acidic electrolytes with an excellent cycling ability for electrodes as thick as 75 μm.


Background. The role of nitric oxide in the ischemic injury of the kidney is still controversial.The aim of this study was to reevaluate the beneficial effect of exogenous nitric oxide and define its effects as regulator of gene p53 expression and apoptosis in the ischemic renal injury. Methods. Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to 75 min of renal warm ischemia and contralateral nephrectomy. The animals were divided into six groups (n=6 per group): Two sham groups at 4 and 24 hr, two ischemic control (IC) at same times and two treated groups (Na-NP), studied at same intervals, where sodium nitroprusside (5 mg/kg) was given 15 min before reperfusion. The parameters evaluated included: serum creatinine, blood urea nitrogen, neutrophil infiltration determined by myeloperoxidase, gene p53 expression determined by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction, apoptosis determined by peroxidase in situ technique and light histology. Results. There were significant improvements in serum creatinine and blood urea nitrogen at 24 hr in the NA-NP group when compared with the IC group (P <0.05). Myeloperoxidase levels were higher in the IC when evaluated against the Na-NP groups. Na-NP exhibited a downregulating effect in the expression of gene p53 when compared to the IC group. Apoptosis was more evident in the IC group and had moderately increased histological damage when compared to the Na-NP group. Conclusions. Nitric oxide demonstrated a protective effect in the ischemic injury of the kidney and exerted an antiapoptotic action dowregulating the expression of gene p53.


ABSTRACT Objective: to evaluate the effect of progressive muscle relaxation as a nursing procedure on the levels of stress for sufferers of multiple sclerosis. Method: random clinical trials conducted at the Neurology outpatients unit at a University Hospital. The sample consisted of 40 patients who were being monitored as outpatients (20 in a control group and 20 in an experimental group). The Progressive Muscle Relaxation technique was used. The control variables were collected through interviews that were recorded on forms and on the Perceived Stress Scale that we used. Five meetings were held every fortnight covering a period of eight weeks. The experimental group was advised to carry out daily progressive muscle relaxation activities. After eight weeks of these activities, they were evaluated again to measure their levels of stress. In order to analyze the data used, the software package Statistics for Social Sciences version 19.0 was used. Results: the application of the t test showed a significant reduction in the Perceived Stress Scale scores in the experimental group (p<0.001), which in turn proved that there was a reduction in the levels of stress after the application of the relaxation practic-es. Conclusion: the progressive muscle relaxation activities contributed to the reduction in stress levels for multiple sclerosis suffers and thus can be used in nursing for patients. Clinical Trials Identifier: NCT 02673827.


Abstract- Internet has consolidated into a cohesive entity and amalgamated itself as a very powerful platform that has changed the way people do things. Social Networking Sites (SNSs) cannot be underestimated or jettison because no other communication medium which has given an international and globalized audience and dimension to the world like it. Facebook, Myspace, YouTube etc each of these and many other SNSs play a vital role on interaction and communication. The access to the internet for SNSs browsing is everywhere now. It is clearly established that even politicians, influential people, corporate managers, security agencies, lecturers, school administrators, and children are using SNSs thus students as well. Most SNSs are similar to each other there is commonality in their technical features. The study seeks to find out the level of studentsâ?? attitude towards SNSs usage in the selected northern Nigerian universities. Quantitatively it was found that Nigerian students have positive attitude towards the SNSs; and that there is no significant difference in terms of gender. However, differences were found significant in terms of faculties in the extent of studentsâ?? attitudes toward the SNSs usage.


In this paper, a microcontroller-based Additive White Gaussian Noise Generator (AWGNG) for security enhancement of embedded real-time web services running on embedded boards is presented. The scheme utilizes combination of Windows Embedded Standard based Web Service on Vortex86 based embedded system connected to Atmega128 microcontroller generating Additive White Gaussian Noise stream. The real time generated stream can be used as seed for random number generators in many security algorithms. Such algorithms benefit from independently generated random numbers.


The high cost of healthcare information systems (HISs) is driven by a number of factors. Proprietary systems drive the cost of interchanging data much higher than if the systems implemented standard interfaces, by not being able to leverage competitive reusable components. The HL7 data standards have been an excellent help, but provide only partial solutions, because of the normal customization that occurs at each organization. The monolithic nature of most large HISs makes it difficult for them to be best-of-breed in an area and very expensive to upgrade or replace. Service-oriented component-based technologies enable systems to be constructed of replaceable, best-of-breed components. This enables much more competition on lower-cost components, with the promise of much lower overall costs. This lower cost is driven not just by competition but also by providing a mechanism to deal with change, by replacing software parts as newer more powerful ones become available without having to replace the entire system. The value of components is not just in their modularity but also in the use of standard interfaces to facilitate interoperability. In addition, the ultimate value to the consumer of components is to enable the ad-hoc assembly of a patient's virtual medical record over the Internet across multiple healthcare organizations. This paper describes the successful implementation of standard components in an open-source system, called OpenEMed, which can be used for a variety of healthcare-related applications.


Econometric Theory is proud to announce the winning article for The Tjalling C. Koopmans Econometric Theory Prize over the period 1988-1990. The prize is jointly supported by the publishers, Cambridge University Press, and Mrs. Truus Koopmans. It is named in honor of Tjalling C. Koopmans, the 1975 Nobel Laureate in economic science. The selection of the winning article was made by the Advisory Board of the Journal and all articles published in Econometric Theory (1988-1990) were candidates for the prize except those that were authored or co-authored by the Editor and members of the Advisory Board. The prize is accompanied by a financial award of $1,000.


Estimation of damping from the measurement of the vibrations or acoustic radiation of structures provides some insight into energy storage and dissipation mechanisms in the structure. Because damping is typically proportional to frequency, a method of estimating damping that scales with frequency is suggested. A wavelet approach has been taken to exploit the natural scaling properties of wavelets to estimate frequency‐dependent damping. A wavelet transform, the damped complex exponential (DCE) transform, has been designed specifically for measuring damping [R. D. Priebe and G. R. Wilson, IEEE ICASSP 3, 205–208 (1994)]. This transform has been applied to stimulate impulse response frequencies to determine its accuracy and sensitivity to mismatch between the assumed damping/frequency ratio used by the wavelet transform and the actual damping/frequency ratio of the impulse response. It has also been applied to the measured impulse response of a fluid loaded thin elastic shell. Results of these measurements s...


Primordial Germ Cells (PGCs) are unipotent precursors of the gametes. PGCs can give rise to a type of pluripotent stem cells in vitro that are called embryonic germ (EG) cells. PGCs can also acquire such pluripotency in vivo and generate teratomas. Under specific culture conditions, PGCs can be reprogrammed to embryonic germ cells which are capable of expression of key pluripotency markers, such as Pou5f1(Oct4), Sox2 and Nanog. One approach to derive EG cells is manipulation of intracellular signaling pathways that play an important role in the pluripotency induction. Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway plays major roles in various cell processes such as proliferation, differentiation, migration, survival, apoptosis and pluripotency. For the induction of pluripotency and reprogramming of PGCs into EG cells, Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway should be activated and using small molecules is one of the methods for reaching this objective. Glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3), is one of the important molecules of canonical pathway of Wnt/β-catenin which signaling and inhibition of GSK3 by CHIR99021 small molecule, causes the activation of this pathway but it is not sufficient for reprogramming the PGCs into EG cells. In order to efficiently derive EG cells, MAPK signaling pathway should be inhibited simultaneously with Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway, using small molecule PD0325901. Thus, the activation of the Wnt/β-catenin signaling pathway and the simultaneous inhibition of the MAPK pathway, can induce pluripotency in the rat PGCs and their reprogramming into EG cells.


Online analytics, in most advanced scientific, business, and social media applications, rely heavily on the efficient execution of large numbers of Aggregate Continuous Queries (ACQs). ACQs continuously aggregate streaming data and periodically produce results such as max or average over a given window of the latest data.

Incremental Evaluation is widely accepted for processing ACQs. It involves storing and reusing results of calculations performed over the unchanged parts of the window, rather than performing the re-evaluation of the entire window after each update. Recently proposed Incremental Evaluation techniques achieve high throughput and low latency in both single- and multi-query environments. In multi-query environments, these techniques share partial aggregates among all of the registered queries (i.e., all the queries are merged and processed as a single execution tree) to achieve maximum sharing. However, it was shown that maximum sharing does not always offer maximum performance, and selective sharing achieves better results by splitting the query load into multiple execution trees. To strike a balance between non-shared and fully shared query executions, the notion of Weavability was proposed, which led to several new Multi-Query optimizers.

In this dissertation, we identify that (1) the current Incremental Evaluation techniques fail to exploit the semantics of aggregation operations, leaving considerable room for improvement, and (2) the Weavability-based Multi-Query optimizers target the Incremental Evaluation techniques that are agnostic towards the algebraic properties of the operations, preventing them from achieving improved throughput and latency, and perform Weavability calculations in an inefficient and resource-intensive way, hindering optimizers' scalability with the increasing ACQ load.

Motivated by the above observations, in this dissertation we re-examine how the principle of sharing is applied in Incremental Evaluation techniques as well as in the Multi-Query optimizers. Our hypothesis is that sliding-window aggregation processing can benefit from (1) improving the performance of Incremental Evaluation by exploiting the algebraic properties of ACQ's underlying aggregate operations and (2) developing new Multi-Query optimizers that can target multi-node distributed environments and efficiently generate high quality execution plans by exploiting the new Incremental Evaluation techniques.

This dissertation research contributes new algorithms for both Incremental Evaluation (FlatFIT and SlickDeque techniques), and Multi-Query optimization (Formula F1, Distributed ACQ Optimizers, and New Cost Estimation Methods). We evaluate all our contributions both theoretically in terms of time and space complexities, and experimentally in terms of throughput, latency, cost minimization, and load balancing using both real and synthetic datasets.


On 2017 April 1 and 3, two large eruptions on the western solar limb, which were associated with M4.4- and M5.8-class flares, respectively, were observed with the Sun Watcher with Active Pixels and Image Processing (SWAP) Extreme Ultraviolet (EUV) solar telescope on board the Project for On Board Autonomy 2 (PROBA2) spacecraft. The large field-of-view (FOV) of SWAP, combined with an advantageous off-point, allows us to study the eruptions up to approximately 2 solar radii (Rs), where space-based coronagraph observations begin. These measurements provide us with some of the highest EUV observations of an eruption, giving crucial additional data points to track the early evolution of Coronal Mass Ejections. In SWAP observations, we track the evolution of off-limb erupting features as well as associated on-disk EUV waves, and the kinematics of both are calculated. The first eruption shows a clear deceleration throughout the lower corona into coronagraph observations, whereas the second eruption, which had a lower initial velocity, shows no obvious acceleration or deceleration profile. This paper presents a unique set of observations, allowing features observed in EUV to be traced to greater heights in the solar atmosphere, helping to bridge the gap to the FOV of white-light coronagraphs. Even with these favorable data sets, it remains a challenging task to associate features observed in EUV with those observed in white light, highlighting our urgent need for single-instrument observations of the combined lower and middle corona.