Globalized marketplaces are necessitating the consideration of the needs of users from a variety of national and international regions. Relevant body dimensions are known to play a key role in influencing users' physical interactions with products. The main challenge in designing these products is the unavailability of comprehensive anthropometric databases for detailed analyses and decision-making. This paper presents a new method to this end. Z-scores are computed for each body measure of every individual in a reference population; this can be any population for which a comprehensive database is available. Next, descriptive statistical information (e.g., means, standard deviations, by-percentile values) from numerous studies and surveys are used to estimate distributions of the required body dimensions. Finally, the z-score values from the reference population are utilized to sample from the aforementioned distributions in order to synthesize the requisite virtual target population of users. The z-score method is demonstrated in the context of two existing populations: U.S. military in the late 1980s (ANSUR) and Japanese youth from the early 1990s. Despite certain stated limitations, which are topics of future work in this line of research, the method is shown to be accurate, easy-to-apply, and robust in terms of underlying assumptions.© 2013 ASME


The results of investigations by DSC and DMTA methods as well as dielectric properties of ester-etheramide copolymers - poly[ester-block-(ether-amide)] (PEEA) built of hard oligoester blocks (PBT) and soft oligoetheramideones (OEA). Three series of PEEA differing in weight parts and polymerization degrees of hard and soft blocks were evaluated (Table 1). The effects of these variables on the following values were determined: phase transition temperatures (Fig. 1), dynamic mechanical properties (storage modulus, loss modulus and loss tangent - Fig. 2) and on the courses of dielectric relaxation processes (Fig. 3-6). An increase in phase separation has been found with elongation of oligoetheramide chain. The results of all our investigations show that PEEA type materials discussed show the properties typical for multiblock thermoplastic elastomers.


The technology acceptance model (TAM) is widely recognized as one of the more influential information systems (IS) theories and a practical and parsimonious framework for IT adoption. However, TAM is not without its limitation. Numerous incremental additions in TAM due to easy publication possibilities have made the model unwieldly and theoretically impoverished (Bagozzi, 2007). As a result, TAM, even after years of development is able to explain only 30-40% of the variance in the dependent variables (Lee and Kozar, 2003; Venkatesh, Thong and Xu, 2012). In this study we suggest that using the value perspective in technology adoption can overcome the above limitations. The value perspective leads us to propose a General Theory of Technology Adoption (GTTA). This first version of GTTA addresses the limitations of direct and mediating variables in core and extended TAM used for explaining the behavioral intention of users to use a technology.


X-ray computer tomography (CT) is the most promising method for non-destructively analysing knottiness in wood logs or beams. Two methods for measuring knot size and location from stacks of CT-images were developed and applied to a wide range of wood samples. The first method aims to provide exhaustive and accurate measurements by manually pointing and tracking the knots within the image stack in view to reconstruct 3D knot shape and arrangement. The method was applied on a set of 125 logs of 17 European species (mainly hardwoods) with the objective to identify species-specific markers based on knot morphology. The second method, which is more oriented toward industrial uses, is based upon an automated algorithm to individualise the knots and output their size and location without any human intervention. Still in development, this method is yet applicable to simple branch architecture patterns, like for softwoods, assuming that moisture content is relatively homogeneous between sapwood and heartwood. Both methods were applied to a set of air-dried beams of Norway spruce and silver fir. The comparison showed that, depending on the beam, 71 to 100 % of the manually measured knots were detected by the automatic method. The R2 values between manual and automated measurements were greater than 0.90 for knot maximal diameter, volume and inclination, and equal to 0.65 for knot length.


Local delivery of drugs offers the potential for high local drug concentration while minimizing systemic toxicity, which is often observed with oral dosing. However, local depots are typically administered less frequently and include an initial burst followed by a continuous release. To maximize efficiency of therapy, it is critical to ensure that drug is only released when needed. One of the hallmarks of rheumatoid arthritis, for example, is its variable disease activity consisting of exacerbations of inflammation punctuated by periods of remission. This presents significant challenges for matching localized drug delivery with disease activity. An optimal system would be nontoxic and only release drugs during the period of exacerbation, self-titrating in response to the level of inflammation. We report the development of an injectable self-assembled nanofibrous hydrogel, from a generally recognized as safe material, which is capable of encapsulation and release of agents in response to specific enzymes that are significantly upregulated in a diseased state including matrix metalloproteinases (MMP-2 and MMP-9) and esterases. We show that these self-assembled nanofibrous gels can withstand shear forces that may be experienced in dynamic environments such as joints, can remain stable following injection into healthy joints of mice, and can disassemble in vitro to release encapsulated agents in response to synovial fluid from arthritic patients. This novel approach represents a next-generation therapeutic strategy for localized treatment of proteolytic diseases.


In this paper we study randomized algorithms for circuit switching on multistage networks related to the butterfly. We devise algorithms that route messages by constructing circuits (or paths) for the messages with small congestion, dilation, and setup time. Our algorithms are based on the idea of having each message choose a route from two possibilities, a technique that has previously proven successful in simpler load balancing settings. As an application of our techniques, we propose a novel design for a data server.


Elevated plasminogen activator inhibitor 1 (PAI-1) has been associated with cardiovascular disease in hemodialysis patients. Carnitine, an amino acid-derived nutrient, is often decreased in hemodialysis patients and is associated with dilated cardiomyopathy and peripheral vascular dysfunction. The aim of this study was to determine a relationship between serum carnitine and PAI-1 levels and the composite cardiovascular end point (a history of angina, myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke, peripheral vascular disease) in this predominantly African American patient population. We conducted a cross-sectional study involving 41 African American patients (14 M, 27 F; 60 ± 16 years) who were on hemodialysis $ 3 months. Patient demographics and medical histories were obtained. Predialysis serum PAI-1 (ELISA) and serum carnitine levels (spectrophotometry) were measured. Other markers of inflammation and oxidative stress, including C-reactive protein (CRP), IL-6, IL-10, and TNF-a, were also measured (ELISA). The subjects were divided into two groups: group 1 (n = 36) - low total serum carnitine (< 31 μmol/L for women and < 42 μmol/L for men) and group 2 (n = 5) - normal total serum carnitine ($ 31 μmol/L for women and $ 42 μmol/L for men). There were no significant differences in mean age (60 ± 16 years vs 64 ± 13 years; p = ns), gender, presence of hypertension or diabetes, etiology of CKD or serum levels of CRP, IL-6, IL-10, or TNF-a between the groups. PAI-1 levels were significantly higher in subjects in group 1 as compared to group 2 (62 ± 24 IU/mL vs 37 ± 21 IU/mL; p = .03). Nine subjects in group 1 had a composite cardiovascular end point as compared to none in group 2. In this population, patients with low carnitine levels had higher levels of PAI-1 as compared to patients with normal carnitine levels. This study was limited by small sample size and the high prevalence of low carnitine levels in hemodialysis patients. More studies are needed to further clarify this observation and the association with cardiovascular disease.


Development of Russian and world economies in Q2 2020 demonstrates that despite economic collapse countries are adapting to the current situation and in case there is no second wave of pandemic the crisis will take a V-type form. In particular, the oil price is unlikely to drop below $35 per barrel and the recovery of the world economy up to the pre-crises level is expected by the end of 2022. Forecast for the Russian economy has been improving too, decrease of GDP will not exceed 6.5-7.0% in 2020, this being said, common for the Russian economy risks, major weakening of the ruble and inflation outburst are out of picture. The enlarged government budget deficit can hit 7% of GDP in 2020, however, taking into account balance brought forward on the budget accounts which can be financed, in our view, by borrowings on the ruble market of public debt without the risk to Russia's debt sustainability. In 2021, the high budget deficit will remain (no less than 5,0% of GDP), however, the debt capacity of the Russian market allows to attract the required funds to the budget. In 2021-2022, we expect the recovery of the investment activity, real income of the population, and consumer demand. Nevertheless, by the end of 2022, Russian economy will not reach the 2019 level regarding GDP, and in order to speed it up it is necessary to create conditions for further stepping up investments above the 2014-2019 levels as well as for easing budget policy within available options.


Aim: to study clinical and pathological factors of gastric cancer in Ranchi region, India. Material and methods: This study was carried out in the Department of General Surgery, Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences, Ranchi, Jharkhand, India, for 3 years (1 july 2012,30 june 2015) Total 650 patients were included in this study. Results: Of these 650 patients, 460 (70.77%) male and 190 (29.23%)female, 395 (60.77%) underwent distal gastrectomy, 30 (4.62%) proximal gastrectomy via abdomen and 157 (24.15%) via thorax, and 68 (10.46%) underwent total gastrectomy. Distal and total gastrectomy had more numbers of clearances of lymph nodes than the other operational approaches. The postoperative complications occurred in 55 patients 55/600, 8.46%,including gastric retention in 14(14/55, 25.45%), anastomotic leakage in 10(10/55,18.18%), infection of incision in 9(9/55, 16.36%), disruption of wound in 5(5/55, 9.09%), and thoracic cavity effusion in 5(5/55,9.09%). The complication was most common in proximal gastrectomy via abdomen (12/55,21.81%patients). The overall mortality was 0.77% (5/650). The diameter of the neoplasm was positively correlated with the depth of infiltration and lymphatic metastasis rate while hemoglobin was the opposite. 95(14.61%) of 650were early gastric carcinoma (EGC) with metastasis of lymph nodes in 14 patients (14/95, 14.74%). The frequency of positive lymph nodes in these patients was 4%-5% less than in advanced gastric cancer. In linear regression analysis, age and diameter of the tumor were negatively correlated with the preoperative hemoglobin (P<0.001). Conclusion: This retrospective study has shown that clinico-pathological characters in gastric cancer varied with sex, location, and diameter of the tumor.


The beta2 integrin lymphocyte function-associated antigen-1 (LFA-1; CD11a/CD18) is important for lymphocyte trafficking and activation as well as recruitment to sites of tissue inflammation. The objective of this study was to assess the role of 'T-cell-associated' LFA-1 in the pathogenesis of chronic colitis in vivo. Transfer of CD4+CD25- T cells isolated from wild-type (wt) mice into immunodeficient recipients [recombinase-activating gene-1-deficient (RAG-1-/-] produced moderate to severe colitis, whereas RAG-1-/- mice injected with CD11a-deficient (CD11a-/-; LFA-1-/-) donor T cells displayed minimal macroscopic and histological evidence of colitis. Surface expression of L-selectin, alpha4, alpha4beta7 and chemokine receptor-7 were similar for wt and CD11a-/- donor T cells. Attenuated disease in the CD11a-/- --> RAG-1-/- animals was associated with decreased numbers of CD4+ T cells in the mesenteric lymph nodes (MLNs), spleen and intestinal lamina propria (LP). In addition, significant reductions in Th1 cytokines were observed following ex vivo stimulation of mononuclear cells obtained from the MLNs and colonic LP. Interestingly, mononuclear cells obtained from the spleens of CD11a-/- --> RAG-1-/- exhibited enhanced pro-inflammatory cytokine production compared with splenocytes obtained from wt --> RAG-1-/- colitic mice. Taken together, our data suggest that T-cell-associated CD11a (LFA-1) expression plays a dual role in the initiation of chronic gut inflammation by facilitating naive T-cell priming/activation and expansion within MLNs and by augmenting pro-inflammatory cytokine production following secondary stimulation by antigen-presenting cells in the colonic interstitium.


This paper summarizes the presentations and discussions of a virtual stakeholder meeting on Refugee Resettlement in the United States which built on the foundation of the May 2019 workshop represented in this special issue. With support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and hosted by the Committee on Population (CPOP) of the US National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on Dec 1–2, 2020, 1 the meeting convened migration researchers, representatives of US voluntary resettlement agencies, and other practitioners to consider the role of migration research in informing programs serving refugees and migrants during the COVID-19 pandemic, continuing an emphasis on bringing global learning to those on the ground working with refugees. The goal of CPOP's work in this area has always been to build bridges between communities of research and practice and to create a dialogue for a shared agenda. We present the goals and framework for the 2020 meeting, followed by a summary of each of the four sessions and themes that emerged from these discussions. The paper ends by considering effective ways of amplifying the role of research in refugee policy and programs of refugee resettlement in the United States and how demographers and population researchers might contribute to this goal.


At the protochordate-vertebrate transition, a new predatory lifestyle and increased body size coincided with the appearance of a true head. Characteristic innovations of this head are a skull protecting and accommodating a centralized nervous system, a jaw for prey capture and gills as respiratory organs. The neural crest (NC) is a major ontogenetic source for the 'new head' of vertebrates and its contribution to the cranial skeleton has been intensively studied in different model organisms. However, the role of NC in the expansion of the respiratory surface of the gills has been neglected. Here, we use genetic lineage labeling to address the contribution of NC to specific head structures, in particular to the gills of adult zebrafish. We generated a sox10:ERT2-Cre line and labeled NC cells by inducing Cre/loxP recombination with tamoxifen at embryonic stages. In juvenile and adult fish, we identified numerous established NC derivatives and, in the cranium, we precisely defined the crest/mesoderm interface of the skull roof. We show the NC origin of the opercular bones and of multiple cell types contributing to the barbels, chemosensory organs located in the mouth region. In the gills, we observed labeled primary and secondary lamellae. Clonal analysis reveals that pillar cells, a craniate innovation that mechanically supports the filaments and forms gill-specific capillaries, have a NC origin. Our data point to a crucial role for the NC in enabling more efficient gas exchange, thus uncovering a novel, direct involvement of this embryonic tissue in the evolution of respiratory systems at the protochordate-vertebrate transition.


Why the guidelines were developed COPE was founded in 1997 to address breaches of research and publication ethics. A voluntary body providing a discussion forum and advice for scientific editors, it aims to find practical ways of dealing with the issues, and to develop good practice. We thought it essential to attempt to define best practice in the ethics of scientific publishing. These guidelines should be useful for authors, editors, editorial board members, readers, owners of journals, and publishers. Intellectual honesty should be actively encouraged in all medical and scientific courses of study, and used to inform publication ethics and prevent misconduct. It is with that in mind that these guidelines have been produced. Details of other guidelines on the ethics of research and published codes of conduct are listed in the Appendix.


During the past decade, many primary care physicians have discovered that much of their work can be done quite well by nonphysicians. Consequently, there has been a steady growth of training and employment opportunities for nonphysician clinicians (a generic term for physicians' extenders, physicians' assistants, and nurse practitioners). Although the nonphysician clinician usually works under the supervision of a physician, two thirds of the patient contacts in the primary care setting may be managed without directly involving a physician. 1,2 In some states, a patient contact managed by a nonphysician clinician is reimbursed by third parties for the full fee customarily charged by a physician, implying that society places the same value on certain diagnostic and therapeutic services, regardless of the training of the direct provider of the service. Since this implicit societal judgment may have considerable effect on health care costs, the quality of these services as provided by


Motivated by the phenomenal growth of the Internet in recent years, a number of cable operators are in the process of upgrading their cable networks to offer data services to residential subscribers, providing them direct access to a variety of community content as well as to the Internet. Using cable modems that implement sophisticated modulation-demodulation circuitry, these services promise to offer a several hundredfold increase in access speeds to the home compared to conventional telephone modems. Initial experiences indicate that cable networks are susceptible to a variety of radio-frequency (RF) impairments that can result in significant packet loss during data communication. In the face of such losses, the transmission control protocol (TCP) that is predominantly used by data applications degrades dramatically in performance. Consequently, subscribers of broad-band data services may not perceive the projected hundredfold increase in performance. We analyze the performance of TCP under different network conditions using simulations and propose simple modifications that can offer up to threefold increase in performance in access networks that are prone to losses. These modifications require only minor changes to TCP implementations at the local network servers alone (and not at subscribers' PCs).


Efficacy of antidepressants fluvoxamine, amitriptyline and transcranial electrostimulation of the brain in the treatment of chronic daily headache has been studied. Amitriptyline had the highest effect in dosage 50 mg daily but was not well tolerated by patients that resulted in that only 50% of them finished the study. Fluvoxamine had high efficacy and good tolerability in the treatment of chronic daily headache and medication overuse headache. Small dosages of amitriptyline and fluvoxamine potentiated the analgesic effect of transcranial electrostimulation of the brain. The combination of antidepressants with transcranial electrostimulation of the brain alleviated the negative effect of the withdrawal of overused analgesics and may be recommended for out-patient use.


ABSTRACT Information about the functions of urban buildings is helpful not only for developing a better understanding of how cities work, but also for establishing a basis for policy makers to evaluate and improve the effectiveness of urban planning. Despite these advantages, however, and perhaps simply due to a lack of available data, few academic studies to date have succeeded in integrating multi-source 'big data' to examine urban land use at the building level. Responding to this deficiency, this study integrated multi-source big data (WeChat users' real-time location records, taxi GPS trajectories data, Points of Interest (POI) data, and building footprint data from high-resolution Quickbird images), and applied the proposed density-based method to infer the functions of urban buildings in Tianhe District, Guangzhou, China. The results of the study conformed to an overall detection rate of 72.22%. When results were verified against ground-truth investigation data, the accuracy rate remained above 65%. Two important conclusions can be drawn from our analysis: 1.The use of WeChat data delivers better inference results than those obtained using taxi data when used to identify residential buildings, offices, and urban villages. Conversely, shopping centers, hotels, and hospitals, were more easily identified using taxi data. 2. The use of integrated multi-source big data is more effective than single-source big data in revealing the relation between human dynamics and urban complexes at the building scale.


The permutation algorithm with simulated annealing is proposed for the laser antimissile problem. The attacking sequence optimization plays an important role in the real-time laser antimissile problem. When faced with many targets, it is clearly essential for the laser antimissile system to determine the sequence of the attacking targets. In order to maximize attacking targets are destroyed. This paper presents a permutation algorithm based on the simulated annealing method. The permutation algorithm includes of two exchange strategies which are adjacent exchange and symmetric exchange. Finally, taking ten targets as an example, the simulation results show that the proposed algorithm has better solution than that of pure permutation algorithm and this achievement can be used in the real application.


The cloud computing model offers a shared pool of resources and services with diverse models presented to the clients through the internet by an on-demand scalable and dynamic pay-per-use model. The developers have identified the need for an automated system (cloud service broker (CSB)) that can contribute to exploiting the cloud capability, enhancing its functionality, and improving its performance. This research presents a dynamic congestion management (DCM) system which can manage the massive amount of cloud requests while considering the required quality for the clients' requirements as regulated by the service-level policy. In addition, this research introduces a forwarding policy that can be utilized to choose high-priority calls coming from the cloud service requesters and passes them by the broker to the suitable cloud resources. The policy has made use of one of the mechanisms that are used by Cisco to assist the administration of the congestion that might take place at the broker side. Furthermore, the DCM system is used to help in provisioning and monitoring the works of the cloud providers through the job operation. The proposed DCM system was implemented and evaluated by using the CloudSim tool.


SUMMARY 1. When a crayfish walks forward, its legs are not loaded equally. The third pair is the one exerting the largest vertically directed force, and the fourth legs produce the major part of the propulsive force. 2. Chronic recordings from a CSD2 nerve were made in crayfish walking on a treadmill. The activity of CSD2 rises during the stance phase. The activity peak at the beginning of the power stroke is especially pronounced in leg 4, which was studied in detail. The average spike frequency of CSD2 recordings during the first part of the power stroke is positively correlated with the initial increase in force produced by the leg. This suggests that CSD2 responds especially well to rapid load changes. 3. When a wire was fixed around a fourth leg such that it depressed the patch of compliant cuticle associated with CSD2, the activity of the sense organ was elevated throughout the entire step cycle, and the time between leg 4 touching the ground and leg 3 lifting off was more variable than in normal walking. Thus, CSD2 seems to be involved in the coordination of the walking legs. 4. Depressing the compliant cuticle of CSD2 elicits reflexes in the flexor muscle and the anterior levator in tethered crayfish. Interleg reflexes were not found.


Aluminium metal matrix composites has gained importance in recent time because of its improved mechanical and metallurgical properties. The welding of aluminium metal matrix composites using conventional welding process has got many demerits so in order to overcome them a solid state welding process is to be employed. To achieve a good strength weld in the aluminium metal matrix composite bars an efficient and most preferred technique is friction welding. In this work the aluminium metal matrix composite AA7075 + 10 % vol SiC-T6 is selected and friction welded. The combination of friction welding process parameters such as spindle speed, friction pressure, upset pressure and burn-off- length for joining the AA7075 + 10 % vol SiC P -T6 metal matrix composite bars are selected by Taguchi's design of experiment. The optimum friction welding parameters were determined for achieving improved ultimate tensile strength and the hardness using grey relational analysis. A combined grey relational grade is found from the determined grey relational coefficient of the output responses and the optimum friction welding process parameters were obtained as spindle speed – 1200 rpm, friction pressure – 100 MPa, upset pressure – 250 MPa, Burn-off-Length – 2 mm. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) performed shows that the friction pressure is the most significant friction welding parameter that influences the both the ultimate tensile strength and hardness of friction welded AA7075 + 10 % volSiC P -T6 joints. The fractured surface under microstructure study also revealed good compliance with the grey relational grade result. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.24.2.17725


Abstract Bioethanol is gathering attention as a countermeasure to global warming and as an alternative energy for gasoline. Meanwhile, due to the synchronous increase in bioethanol production and grain prices, the food-fuel competition has become a public issue. It is necessary to see the issue objectively and to recognize that the real background is the change in allocation of limited resources such as farmland and water. In this review, we discuss which, where and how energy crops shouldbe grown to establish a sustainable bioethanol production system. Several combinations of crops, areas and cultivation methods are recommended as a result of a survey of the bioethanol production system with various energy crops. In tropical and subtropical regions, sugarcane can be grown in agricultural and/or unused favorable lands. In other regions, cellulosic energy crops can be grown in abandoned and marginal lands, including lands contaminated with inorganic pollutant like heavy metals and some detrimental minerals. There also is the possibility that, for Japan and other Asian countries, rice can be grown as an energy crop in unused lowland paddy field. Regarding cultivation way, energy saving is beneficial for bioethanol production systems irrespective of energy efficiency. On the other hand, effective energy input should be consideredfor the systems with higher energy efficiency when available land area is limited. Exploring and developing new energy crops and varieties, which show higher biomass productivity and stress tolerances under marginal conditions, are necessary for sustainable bioethanol production because energy crop production would be restricted mostly to marginal areas in future.


This paper describes the query optimizer of the Mermaid system which provides a user with a unified view of multiple preexisting databases which may be stored under different DBMS's. The algorithm is designed for databases which may contain replicated or fragmented relations and for users who are primarily making interactive, ad hoc queries. Although the implementation of the algorithm is a front-end system, not an integrated distributed DBMS, it should be applicable to a distributed DBMS also.


Due to the complexity of ocean environmental conditions and non-linear structural responses, there are many uncertainties in establishing design of deep-water floating platforms. Traditional hydrodynamic analysis and model test, till now, still can't provide the long-term safety and reliability for floating structure in harsh environments. Prototype test, as a full-scale experimental method, is carried out on in-service platforms to obtain the real response without simplification and hypothesis. The obtained data can be used not only to reduce uncertainties, but also to verify and further improve design specifications.In this paper, the full-scale measurement technique for floating platforms is discussed. Four monitoring subsystems are built up related to different characteristics of data collection in-service platform. Individual Remote Monitoring System (IRMS) is established to perform the remote communication between platform and land. The full monitoring system is carried out on a FPS in South China Sea, which supported by a joint industry project (JIP). Some useful monitoring results are presented at last to demonstrate the reliability of the whole monitoring systems.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


Seabed sediment textural parameters such as mud, sand and gravel content can be useful surrogates for predicting patterns of benthic biodiversity. Multibeam sonar mapping can provide near-complete spatial coverage of high-resolution bathymetry and backscatter data that are useful in predicting sediment parameters. Multibeam acoustic data collected across a ∼1000 km2 area of the Carnarvon Shelf, Western Australia, were used in a predictive modelling approach to map eight seabed sediment parameters. Four machine learning models were used for the predictive modelling: boosted decision tree, random forest decision tree, support vector machine and generalised regression neural network. The results indicate overall satisfactory statistical performance, especially for %Mud, %Sand, Sorting, Skewness and Mean Grain Size. The study also demonstrates that predictive modelling using the combination of machine learning models has provided the ability to generate prediction uncertainty maps. However, the single models were shown to have overall better prediction performance than the combined models. Another important finding was that choosing an appropriate set of explanatory variables, through a manual feature selection process, was a critical step for optimising model performance. In addition, machine learning models were able to identify important explanatory variables, which are useful in identifying underlying environmental processes and checking predictions against the existing knowledge of the study area. The sediment prediction maps obtained in this study provide reliable coverage of key physical variables that will be incorporated into the analysis of covariance of physical and biological data for this area.


Chinese Spelling Correction (CSC) is a task to detect and correct misspelled characters in Chinese texts. CSC is challenging since many Chinese characters are visually or phonologically similar but with quite different semantic meanings. Many recent works use BERT-based language models to directly correct each character of the input sentence. However, these methods can be sub-optimal since they correct every character of the sentence only by the context which is easily negatively affected by the misspelled characters. Some other works propose to use an error detector to guide the correction by masking the detected errors. Nevertheless, these methods dampen the visual or phonological features from the misspelled characters which could be critical for correction. In this work, we propose a novel general detector-corrector multi-task framework where the corrector uses BERT to capture the visual and phonological features from each character in the raw sentence and uses a late fusion strategy to fuse the hidden states of the corrector with that of the detector to minimize the negative impact from the misspelled characters. Comprehensive experiments on benchmarks demonstrate that our proposed method can significantly outperform the state-of-the-art methods in the CSC task.


Kohlberg Kravis Robertss approach to leveraged buyouts was an important aspect of the corporate restructuring and governance reforms in the American economy from the mid-1970s through 1990. During that period, KKR crafted a series of progressively more elaborate deals tailored to specific companies and market conditions. Through its creative debt financing and its relationships with an evolving cast of investors, companies, and managers, KKR drove the scale and scope of the buyout phenomenon to unprecedented highs. This book examines KKRs record in detail. Based upon interviews with partners of the firm and on unprecedented access to KKRs records, George Baker and George Smith have written a balanced and enlightening account of how KKR has approached LBOs. This book focuses on KKRs founding, evolution, and innovations as ways to understand issues in modern American business. In examining KKR as a unique form of enterprise - one that subscribes to a set of alternative perspectives on business and value creation - the book bridges the gap between public perception and academic knowledge of the leveraged buyout, a crucial phenomenon of modern economic life.


BackgroundThe Netherlands Triage Standard (NTS) is a widely used decision support tool for telephone triage at Dutch out-of-hours primary care services (OHS-PC), which, however, has never been validated against clinical outcomes. We aimed to determine the accuracy of the NTS urgency allocation for patients with neurological symptoms suggestive of a transient ischaemic attack (TIA) or stroke, with the clinical outcomes TIA, stroke, and other (neurologic) life-threatening events (LTEs) as the reference.MethodA cross-sectional study of telephone triage recordings of patients with neurological symptoms calling the OHS-PC between 2014 and 2016.The allocated NTS urgencies were derived from the electronic medical records of the OHS-PC. The clinical outcomes were retrieved from the electronic medical records of the patients' own general practitioners. The accuracy of a high NTS urgency allocation (medical help within three hours) was calculated in terms of sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV) with the clinical outcomes TIA/stroke/other LTEs as the reference.ResultsOf 1,269 patients, 635 (50.0%) received the diagnosis TIA/stroke (34.2% TIA/minor stroke, 15.8% major ischaemic or haemorrhagic stroke), and 4.8% other LTEs. For TIA/stroke/other LTEs, the sensitivity and specificity of the NTS urgency allocation were 0.72 (95%CI 0.68–0.75) and 0.48 (95%CI 0.43–0.52), and the PPV and NPV were 0.62 (95%CI 0.60–0.64) and 0.58 (95%CI 0.54–0.62).ConclusionsThe NTS decision support tool used in Dutch OHS-PC performed poor to moderately regarding safety (sensitivity) and efficiency (specificity) in allocating adequate urgencies to patients with and without TIA/stroke/other LTEs.Trial registration: the Netherlands National Trial Register, identification number NTR7331.


Pirfenidone is an orally active, small molecule that inhibits synthesis of profibrotic and inflammatory mediators. It was approved for the treatment of adults with mild-to-moderate idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in the European Union based on the results of two pivotal phase III, double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled clinical trials (CAPACITY) demonstrating efficacy and safety, and supported by two Japanese clinical trials (SP2 and SP3). Currently, there is increasing interest in experience with pirfenidone in patients relating to the real-world setting. Following the publication of the CAPACITY clinical studies, additional analyses have been conducted to provide further support for pirfenidone in clinical practice, including a modified per-protocol analysis of the CAPACITY study population. New data from the RECAP extension study also provided longer term data for pirfenidone and promising continuation rates with treatment. Pirfenidone is also being evaluated in specialist centre cohorts providing important information on real-world efficacy and safety. Increasing experience with pirfenidone in everyday clinical practice is helping to establish \expert guidance on the management of known adverse events, together with practical recommendations, to ensure adherence to treatment so that the possible longer term benefits of pirfenidone treatment in reducing lung function decline can be maximised.


Objective One conundrum that frequently occurs during clinical anesthesia is etomidate-induced myoclonus, which results in multiple risks. The aim of the study was to evaluate systematically the effect of pretreatment with lidocaine on preventing etomidate-induced myoclonus. Materials and methods The literature search was performed from the inception to April 2018 in PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Library, and China National Knowledge Infrastructure. All randomized controlled trials that used lidocaine to prevent etomidate-induced myoclonus were enrolled. The primary outcome included the incidence and severity of etomidate-induced myoclonus. The data were combined to calculate the risk ratio and relevant 95% CI. A meta-analysis was performed following the guidelines of the Cochrane Reviewer's Handbook and the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta Analyses statement. Results A total of eight studies were enrolled, and the existing evidence indicated that 1) pretreatment with lidocaine can reduce the incidence of etomidate-induced myoclonus (the incidence of myoclonus: 37.6% in lidocaine vs 73.6% in saline, risk ratio =0.46, with 95% CI [0.34, 0.63], P<0.0001); 2) the pretreatment with lidocaine can reduce the incidence of mild, moderate, and severe myoclonus; 3) a dose of pretreatment with lidocaine cannot significantly decrease the duration of myoclonus compared to placebo; 4) the administration of lidocaine produced no effect on the stable hemodynamic parameters and no more additional adverse effects. Conclusion Pretreatment with lidocaine could be served as one effective approach to decrease both the incidence and the severity of etomidate-induced myoclonus, with limited influence on the hemodynamic stability of patients. However, to confirm precise safety and efficacy of such intervention, more high-quality evidence is necessary.


: A differentiated approach toward treating secondary sulfanilamide resistance in patients with type II diabetes and proposed therapeutic regimens simple enough to be adopted in the management of the patients in question permit achieving satisfactory hypoglycemic effect maintaining an acceptable level of glucose in the blood.


Reconstruction of complex wounds of the hand associated with severe bone, tendon, nerve and soft-tissue injuries has been a major problem in hand surgery. Early definitive soft-tissue coverage of this kind of extensive wound with well-vascularized tissue is one of the most important stages of reconstruction for salvage of the extremity and restoration of function. Although multiple free flap donor sites have been described for complex upper extremity wounds, the authors think that anterolateral thigh (ALT) and lateral arm (LA) flaps are good choices for soft-tissue reconstruction in the upper extremity because of their reconstructive characteristics. These flaps can be used as flow-through and also sensate flaps. There is no need for position change intraoperatively and two teams may work simultaneously. Donor sites can be hidden and there is no required sacrifice of major artery or muscle.


A forklift truck is a kind of machine that is used for moving, stacking and unstacking goods carried on wooden pallets or platforms that can be scooped up on the lifting fork. Forklift trucks can be seen in warehouses, factories, hypermarket, airports and seaport. Most of the lifting machines or devices are driven by electric motor. Some machines such as stackers and forklift are commonly powered by diesel engines or petrol engines or low-pressure gas engines. The same power source or unit drives hydraulic mechanisms or pulleys and chains that raise and lower die forks that carry the loads. In addition, some kind of lifting machines such as forklifts may have tilt specialties to make a safer loads loading or being moved. Some of the lifting devices have telescopic masts, which can extend upwards to allow the forks to stack loads up to 5 meter (16ft) above die ground. The carrying capacities vary from five tones with small machines to 50 tonnes or more. Besides that, a heavy weight at the rear of die lifting machines acts to counterbalance the load to preventing from tipping forward. There are many principles of lifting. They may be in the forms of pulley and chains system, pulleys and screws system, hoist and cranes systems, hydraulic mechanism and elevating system. In our research and project, we have decided to choose the winding lever method of lifting system. The method used the screw jack system that turns to raise or lower the fork vertically. One turns is equal to the pitch of the screw's thread. With a fine pitch, small effort can lift a very heavy load.


Shale-gas plays and other unconventional resources have gained significant importance worldwide. Historically, synthetic based drilling fluids (SBM) are used in these plays when no environmental concerns are in place and are preferred when wellbore stability is necessary. In this paper, we study the use of an improved water based drilling fluid (WBM) that is simple in formulation and maintenance that shows excellent rheological properties, maintains wellbore stability, and a good environmental profile. A combination of well-known and economically affordable materials is combined with new technology to achieve desired rheological properties and wellbore stability. The use of nanoparticles to decrease shale permeability by physically plugging nanoscale pores holds the potential to remove a major hurdle in confidently applying water-based drilling fluids in shale formations, adding a new advantage to the studied fluid. Silica nanomaterials were investigated for this purpose. Due to their commercial availability, these materials can be engineered to meet the specifications of the formation. Characterization of the nanoparticles was completed with Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), dynamic light scattering, and X-ray-photoelectron spectroscopy. Rheological properties and fluid loss are studied together with other important properties such as shale stability and anti-accretion properties. The authors will describe new laboratory methods used to investigate these properties, from a modified API fluid loss test to the Shale Membrane Test that measures both fluid loss and plugging effects and illustrate additional future research that includes adding reactive species, and anchoring them to the pores, thus stabilizing the shale further.


A new symptomatology was observed in celery (Apium graveolens) in Villena, Spain in 2008. Symptomatology included an abnormal amount of shoots per plant and curled stems. These vegetative disorders were associated with 'Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum' and not with phytoplasmas. Samples from plant sap were immobilized on membranes based on the spot procedure and tested using a newly developed real-time polymerase chain reaction assay to detect 'Ca. L. solanacearum'. Then, a test kit was developed and validated by intralaboratory assays with an accuracy of 100%. Bacterial-like cells with typical morphology of 'Ca. Liberibacter' were observed using electron microscopy in celery plant tissues. A fifth haplotype of 'Ca. L. solanacearum', named E, was identified in celery and in carrot after analyzing partial sequences of 16S and 50S ribosomal RNA genes. From our results, celery (family Apiaceae) can be listed as a new natural host of this emerging bacterium.


ABSTRACT Purpose To determine the utility of routine screening ophthalmic exam in patients with systemic sarcoidosis and no history of uveitis. Methods Prospective, single-center, observational study conducted at Northwestern University from October 11, 2012 to October 1, 2020 of new patients with biopsy-proven systemic sarcoidosis and no history of uveitis, referred by medical subspecialists for screening ophthalmic exam. Results Forty-nine patients, with mean age of 51 ± 8.7 years, 59% female, 47% African American, 43% Caucasian, were enrolled. The majority (55%) had no ocular symptoms. The most common location of ocular involvement was the adnexa, in the form of conjunctival nodules (62%) and aqueous tear deficiency (23%). Intraocular inflammation was detected in 6 patients (13%); only 2 had active disease requiring treatment (4%). No asymptomatic patient had ocular involvement necessitating treatment. Conclusion Screening exams are indicated in sarcoidosis patients with ocular symptoms. No benefit of screening was demonstrated in asymptomatic patients.


Object tracking is an essential task in visual traffic surveillance. Ideally, a tracker should be able to accurately capture an object's natural motion such as translation, rotation, and scaling. However, it is well known that object appearance varies due to changes in viewing angle, scale, and illumination. They introduce ambiguity to the image cue on which a visual tracker usually relies and which affects the tracking performance. Thus, a robust image appearance cue is required. This paper proposes scale-adaptive spatial appearance feature density approximation to represent objects and construct the image cue. It is found that the appearance representation improves the sensitivity on both the object's rotation and scale. The image cue is then constructed by both the appearance representation of the object and its surrounding background such that distinguishable parts of an object can be tracked under poor imaging conditions. Moreover, tracking dynamics is integrated with the image cue so that objects are efficiently localized in a gradient-based process. Comparative experiments show that the proposed method is effective in capturing the natural motion of objects and generating better tracking accuracy under different image conditions.


Primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) is considered the optimal approach to the management of ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) when the procedure is performed expeditiously by an experienced team.1 Drug eluting stents (DES) have been shown to reduce the risks of both restenosis and target vessel revascularisation (TVR) after elective PCI, as compared with bare metal stents (BMS) in a broad range of patients and lesions.2 However, most randomised trials comparing DES to BMS have excluded patients with STEMI because of safety and efficacy concerns in this subgroup. Reports from randomised trials and registries have suggested that DES may be associated with increased rates of late stent thrombosis.3 Thrombus is a major component of coronary artery occlusion in acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Angioplasty with DES in this setting could therefore theoretically increase the rate of stent thrombosis, but data on this issue are conflicting.4 In addition, drug diffusion could be reduced in the presence of massive thrombus, leading to a potential loss of efficacy against neointimal proliferation.

To address these issues, several dedicated randomised controlled trials and registries have assessed the efficacy and safety of DES in the setting of primary PCI for AMI. Most of these studies were performed with sirolimus eluting stents (SES), Cypher (Cordis, Johnson and Johnson), and to a lesser extent with paclitaxel eluting stents (PES), (Taxus, Boston Scientific) and have yielded positive short and long term results in favour of SES and PES. Yet, despite these positive findings, the use of DES during PCI for AMI remains controversial and is still considered 'off label' in many countries. The currently available data will be reviewed and put in perspective with clinical practice.

To date, 31 studies, 13 randomised trials, and 18 registries have directly compared SES or PES to BMS in …


We present the Heterodyne Receiver Array CO Line Extragalactic Survey, an atlas of CO emission from 18 nearby galaxies that are also part of The H i Nearby Galaxy Survey and the Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey. We used the HERA multipixel receiver on the IRAM 30-m telescope to map the CO J = 2 → 1 line over the full optical disk (defined by the isophotal radius r25) of each target, at 13″ angular resolution and 2.6 km s−1 velocity resolution. Here we describe the observations and reduction of the data and show channel maps, azimuthally averaged profiles, integrated intensity maps, and peak intensity maps. The implied H2 masses range from 7 × 106 to 6 × 109M☉, with four low metallicity dwarf irregular galaxies yielding only upper limits. In the cases where CO is detected, the integrated H2-to-H i ratios range from 0.02 to 1.13 and H2-to-stellar mass ratios from 0.01 to 0.25. Exponential scale lengths of the CO emission for our targets are in the range 0.8–3.2 kpc, or 0.2 ± 0.05r25. The intensity-weighted mean velocity of CO matches that of H i very well, with a 1σ scatter of only 6 km s−1. The CO J = 2 → 1/J = 1 → 0 line ratio varies over a range similar to that found in the Milky Way and other nearby galaxies, ∼0.6–1.0, with higher values found in the centers of galaxies. The typical line ratio, ∼0.8, could be produced by optically thick gas with an excitation temperature of ∼10 K.


Context. Non-thermal particle acceleration in the solar corona is thought to constitute a substantial part of the energy budget of explosive events such as solar flares. One well-established mechanism of non-thermal acceleration is directly via fields in current sheets.
Aims. In this paper we study proton acceleration during "spine-fan reconnection" at a 3D magnetic null point. This type of reconnection has recently been implicated in some flares known as circular-ribbon flares. It has also recently been discovered that the reconnecting current sheet may undergo a non-linear tearing-type instability. This tearing leads to the formation of flux ropes and quasi-turbulent dynamics.
Methods. A predictor-corrector test particle code is used to model the trajectories of protons at different stages of sheet tearing: when the sheet is intact, just after the formation of the first major flux rope, and once the non-linear phase of the instability has become more fully developed. The fields for these proton trajectories were taken from snapshots of a 3D magnetohydrodynamics simulation treated as three static field geometries represented by interpolated grids. Acceleration in the intact current sheet is compared to earlier simulations of infinite static current sheets and then used as a control case with which to compare the later snapshots.
Results. Protons are found to be predominantly accelerated along the fan surface, especially in the absence of current sheet tearing. Most of the highest energy protons are accelerated in the main body of the current sheet, along the direction of strongest parallel electric field. A high energy tail is present in the kinetic energy distribution. After tearing commences, this direct acceleration no longer dominates and acceleration in the outflow regions makes a proportionally greater contribution. Sheet tearing appears overall to hinder the acceleration of protons in the fan plane, at least in the absence of time-dependent acceleration mechanisms. Some correlation is found between high energy protons and locations of flux ropes formed by the instability, but the nature of the link remains at present unclear.


Solitary fibrous tumour (SFT) is uncommonly found in the salivary glands and is a rare group of spindle-cell tumours. A review of literature revealed only 40 reported cases of SFT of major salivary glands over a 15-year period from 2004 to 2018. SFTs of the salivary glands are usually benign, although rarely, can be aggressive and may sometimes recur after initial resection. Histology and Immunohistochemistry are the most important criteria to distinguish SFT from other head and neck tumours. SFTs strongly stain for CD34 and hence is the most frequently used stain for diagnosis. All reported SFT cases with available information on immunohistochemical stains were positive for CD34. Recently, immunohistochemistry for STAT6 has been introduced as a surrogate diagnostic marker for SFT that is highly sensitive and specific. We report a case of a 51-year-old Chinese gentleman who presents with a 3-month history of a left parotid tumour that required a subtotal parotidectomy for complete excision. It was diagnosed as SFT based on histology and immunohistochemical features. He was followed-up for 3 months post-operatively with no clinical evidence of recurrence. This case proposes that, although rare, SFT should be considered in the differential diagnosis of soft-tissue tumors in the major salivary glands. An awareness of this rare entity will help clinicians and pathologists better manage similar patients in the future.


The cemeteries with dispersed cremations were the main burial type in Estonia during the Iron Age. The essential characteristic of them is their collective nature and intentional indistinguishability of the individual burials. It seems that the burned bones and artefacts are scattered over the grave field in irregular manner, although there could be some cremations in the pit also. The cremations are mostly without containers. The intrasite spatial and quantitative methods which are usually applied for cemeteries with separate individual burials are not suitable for the analysis of dispersed cremations because of the specific nature of the latter. In the paper I will introduce the results of the intrasite spatial analysis of the Iron Age cremation cemetery of Madi, Estonia. Spatial data of artefacts, bones and charcoal were studied on two levels. First, the material from cemetery were analysed as point pattern data with the aim to find out the regularity in spatial distribution. After that, smaller clusters and concentration areas of finds and bones were taken into closer consideration. Different analysis methods were used: autocorrelation, density analysis, nearest neighbour analysis, mean centre analysis and minimum distance analysis.  The digital spatial analysis combined with multivariate statistics allowed to take account many variables simultaneously and to study their relationships and distribution pattern in detail. As a result, the new understanding of the funerary rituals performed on the burial place and formation process of the dispersed cremation cemetery is presented.


Some of the prominent features of the new model microscopes are: i. Improved Objective Clutch Changer which guarantees the objective to be permanently centered. 2 Anastigmatic Tube Analyzer which permits a most crisp definition. 3. Special Illuminating Apparatus, whereby a wider range of application is afforded. 4. Enlarged Microscope Tube which accommodates eyepieces of wide diameter, whereby the field of view is increased 50% over other types of instruments. Ask for Catalog II-B (F)


Permanent deformation in asphalt layers which manifestation on pavement surface is named rutting which represents one of the most significant distress of asphalt pavements. Different empirical models have been used to calculate permanent deformations which include traffic conditions and temperature effect. These empirical models were calibrated in a three dimensional finite element commercial software package. Finite element analysis through ANSYS computer software (version 11.0) was used to analyze three dimensional pavement structures and in order to investigate the impact of wheel load on rutting formation and pavement response considering temperature effect. In that model, the asphalt layer was assumed to follow a viscoelastic behavior by depending on dynamic modulus using Timm and Newcomb model. While, granular and subgrade layers were presented as linear-elastic perfectly plastic based on Drucker -Prager model. After insuring the model validation, the study investigated the effect of temperature on the rutting depth and plastic strain as a pavement response. The analysis of results showed that the rut depth and plastic strain increases with increasing the temperature.


The National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) is sponsored by the USDA:APHIS:Veterinary Services (VS). The NAHMS Equine '98 Study was designed to provide information about the nation's equine population. Twenty-eight states were included in the study. The USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) collaborated with VS to select a statistically-valid sample such that inferences could be made to all equids and operations with equids in the 28 states. For the purposes of the study, equids included domestic horses, miniature horses, ponies, donkeys/burros, and mules. For Part III of the study, data were collected by Federal and State Veterinary Medical Officers and Animal Health Technicians between March 16, 1998, to April 10, 1998, from 1,178 operations that had 3 or more horses present as of January 1, 1998. Over 94 percent of operations routinely used some form of rodent control; cats were the most common means (77 percent of operations ). Seventy-eight percent of operations had stalls available for horses. Thirty-one percent of operations with stalls used lime on stall floors on a routine basis. Twenty-five percent of operations removed all bedding and manure from a stall once a horse was permanently removed from its stall. Operations with horses primarily used for breeding were more likely to disinfect stalls between horses than were operations with resident horses for other specific uses. Evidence of wildlife in the vicinity was often or sometimes seen on 99 percent of operations. Mice were the animals most frequently seen (on 99 percent of operations) , followed by deer or elk (84 percent of operations ). Fifty-one percent of operations trimmed horses hooves five or more times per year. Thirty-one percent of operations reported the majority of resident horses were not shod; thirty percent of operations reported resident horses were shod 5 or more times in the previous 12 months. Twelve percent of operations reported hospitalization of a resident horse in the previous 12 months. Seventy-three percent of operations never tested for parasites; twenty-two percent of operations tested in response to a clinical problem. Over 95 percent of operations had dewormed the majority of horses in the previous 12 months. Sixty-four percent of operations vaccinated horses less than 12 months of age; nearly 75 percent vaccinated broodmares and other horses over 12 months of age. Across age categories, vaccine against tetanus was most frequently given. Sixty-one percent of operations with broodmares had vaccinated them against influenza in the previous 12 months. Contact for this paper: Lindsey Garber


This paper presents experimental and numerical CFD studies of the aerodynamics of a turbine rear structure (TRS). The TRS test geometry is an engine-realistic state-of-the-art design with a polygonal outer case, recessed engine mount bumps, and three different vane types: regular vanes, bump vanes in bump sectors, and thick vanes. Using three different sector types simultaneously was found to be crucial for the inlet boundary conditions. Experiments were performed in a modern rotating test facility with an LPT stage upstream of the TRS. A Reynolds number of 350,000 was used, representative of a TRS in a narrow-body geared turbofan engine. The TRS performance was analyzed both at on- and off-design conditions and a thorough side-by-side comparison of CFD and experiments was performed. Static-pressure-distributions, turning and outlet flow-angles, wakes and losses, and surface-flow visualizations and outlet total pressure contours are presented. The thick vane showed good aerodynamic performance, similar to the regular vane. For the bump vane, the mount bumps were found to generate additional local separations and secondary flows, resulting in extra losses. In the regions with strong secondary flows CFD over-predicts the wakes, whereas the wakes around midspan, where secondary flows have a smaller influence, are predicted well.


Pectin consists of a group of acidic polysaccharides that constitute a large part of the cell wall of plants. The pectic polysaccharides have a complex structure but can generally be divided into homogalacturonan, rhamnogalacturonan I, rhamnogalacturonan II (RGII) and xylogalacturonan (XGA). These polysaccharides appear to be present in all cells but their relative abundance and structural details differ between cell types and species. Pectin is synthesized in the Golgi vesicles and its complexity dictates that a large number of enzymes must be involved in the process. The biosynthetic enzymes required are glycosyltransferases and decorating enzymes including methyltransferases, acetyltransferases and feruloyltransferases. Biochemical methods successfully led to the recent identification of a pectin biosynthetic galacturonosyltransferase (GAUT1), and recent functional genomics and mutant studies have allowed the identification of several biosynthetic enzymes involved in making different parts of pectin. Strong evidence has been obtained for two xylosyltransferases (RGXT1 and RGXT2) with documented in vitro activity and apparently involved in making a side chain of RGII. Strong circumstantial evidence has been obtained for a putative glucuronosyltransferase (GUT1) involved in making RGII, a putative arabinosyltransferase (ARAD1) involved in making arabinan, and a putative xylosyltransferase (XGD1) involved in making XGA. In several other cases, enzymes have been identified as involved in making pectin but because of ambiguity in the cell wall compositions of mutants and lack of direct biochemical evidence their specific activities are more uncertain.


An algorithm is proposed for the estimation of the parameters of a branched tube system, which is realized by a lattice structure in discrete time. Branched tube systems can be applied in the field of speech production for nasals and nasalized vowels. The transfer function of the branched tube model includes poles as well as zeros, which are caused by the coupled side branch. The algorithm is divided into two steps. The zeros are estimated starting with a general pole zero estimation determining the parameters of the coupled tube branch. Then the remaining model parameters are estimated by the minimization of the output power of the entire inverse filter. The inverse filtering is carried out iteratively. For evaluation of the algorithm, test signals are analyzed, delivering almost perfect results. The analysis of nasal sounds yields good results.


This symposium describes the development and use of an online learning platform that encompasses the main components of psychotherapeutics, including essential knowledge domains, principles, skills acquisition, and measurement of competence. The platform is curated by experts and is designed to serve the needs of learners at all levels, from graduate school to pre-licensure interns, as well as experienced psychotherapists who seek to expand their knowledge and skills. It also can serve the needs of course instructors, clinical supervisors, and post-graduate trainers. The first paper presents the architecture of the platform, describing a three-level modular learning system linked to two interactive databases: Approaches presents models of psychotherapy and psychotherapedia® provides a compendium of techniques, made accessible by incorporating therapist-client dialogues. We discuss UX factors and a proposed pilot study to assess the user experience. A brief tutorial illustrates how the user can interact with the knowledge domains. The second paper describes the process whereby experts in content areas collaborate to create, review, and edit the information in knowledge domains. The final paper explains the process of "technique mining" and the development of classification tools for a comprehensive list of techniques. This database includes therapist-client dialogue demonstrating each technique. We conclude with a brief description of future directions, including research and an SBIR grant proposal.


Resistive drift wave turbulence is a multipurpose paradigm that can be used to understand transport at the edge of fusion devices. The Hasegawa-Wakatani model captures the essential physics of drift turbulence while retaining the simplicity needed to gain a qualitative understanding of this process. We provide a theoretical interpretation of numerically generated probability density functions (PDFs) of intermittent events in Hasegawa-Wakatani turbulence with enforced equipartition of energy in large scale zonal flows and small scale drift turbulence. We find that for a wide range of adiabatic index values the stochastic component representing the small scale turbulent eddies of the flow, obtained from the ARIMA model, exhibits super-diffusive statistics, consistent with intermittent transport. The PDFs of large events (above one standard deviation) are well approximated by the Laplace distribution, while small events often exhibit a Gaussian character. Furthermore there exist a strong influence of zonal flows for example, via shearing and then viscous dissipation maintaining a sub-diffusive character of the fluxes.


This article reports how aspects of Chinese young people's perceived identities can be viewed as resources in Australian schooling. The data in this article were taken from a larger scale study underpinned by a critical and interpretive ethnographic method conducted in two school sites. Qualitative methods elicited young people's perspectives about their identities, ethnicity, and perceived strengths and weaknesses with regards to their daily lives, academic and school physical activity contexts. Based on Yosso's notion of cultural wealth and its various forms of capital and operationalised by drawing on Bourdieu's notions of how capital works to privilege and marginalise, we aim to problematise the often taken-for-granted, deficit discourses represented in the popular media, research and educational policy, and to promote a strengths-based approach to understand and recognise young Chinese Australians perceived resources within their socio-cultural environment. We conclude that these young people's lives are constructed across transnational boundaries and they possess resources in dealing with challenges within and beyond schooling.


Background We analyzed and integrated transcriptome data from two large studies of lung adenocarcinomas on distinct populations. Our goal was to investigate the variable gene expression alterations between paired tumor-normal tissues and prospectively identify those alterations that can reliably predict lung disease related outcomes across populations. Methods We developed a mixed model that combined the paired tumor-normal RNA-seq from two populations. Alterations in gene expression common to both populations were detected and validated in two independent DNA microarray datasets. A 10-gene prognosis signature was developed through a l1 penalized regression approach and its prognostic value was evaluated in a third independent microarray cohort. Results Deregulation of apoptosis pathways and increased expression of cell cycle pathways were identified in tumors of both Caucasian and Asian lung adenocarcinoma patients. We demonstrate that a 10-gene biomarker panel can predict prognosis of lung adenocarcinoma in both Caucasians and Asians. Compared to low risk groups, high risk groups showed significantly shorter overall survival time (Caucasian patients data: HR = 3.63, p-value = 0.007; Asian patients data: HR = 3.25, p-value = 0.001). Conclusions This study uses a statistical framework to detect DEGs between paired tumor and normal tissues that considers variances among patients and ethnicities, which will aid in understanding the common genes and signalling pathways with the largest effect sizes in ethnically diverse cohorts. We propose multifunctional markers for distinguishing tumor from normal tissue and prognosis for both populations studied.


This paper introduces a new video-and-language dataset with human actions for multimodal logical inference, which focuses on intentional and aspectual expressions that describe dynamic human actions. The dataset consists of 200 videos, 5,554 action labels, and 1,942 action triplets of the form (subject, predicate, object) that can be easily translated into logical semantic representations. The dataset is expected to be useful for evaluating multimodal inference systems between videos and semantically complicated sentences including negation and quantification.


A case of pulmonary dirofilariasis in a 48-year-old woman is presented. This rare pulmonary disorder is caused by Dirofilaria immitis, the canine heartworm. A review of the literature revealed 40 documented cases, most of which have occurred in the United States within the past 10 years. The incidence of pulmonary dirofilariasis appears to be increasing; thus, this entity represents an important zoonosis and indicates a need for familiarity with the pathologic features of the lesions and the morphologic characteristics of the worm.


Are environmental norms uniform in the EU and if yes – how does that happen? This article demonstrates the process through which norms are transnationally enforced in Europe. It also engages in a theoretical discussion with constructivist research on normative change, arguing for the need to take domestic agency, as well as local ideational structures, into account while also questioning the usefulness of the concept of "socialization" and the notion of "norm diffusion" in the debate on Europeanization. Instead, normative change could be perceived as the empowerment of certain norms and values at the cost of others. A four stage model of norm empowerment is developed, utilizing the mechanism of rhetorical coercion, and tested on the case of a recent environmental controversy over the preservation of the Rospuda river valley in Poland. It is argued that normative change on the level of domestic discourses can be observed and analyzed parallel to the rhetorical practices of societal actors. Mobilization and contestation thus resembles electoral campaigns, and framing, rhetorical coercion as well as entrapment are the most important mechanisms in play, while the EU can be seen as a stabilizer of the normative "status quo" which is the result of the conflict.


Atmosphere, earth and water compose the environment. The presence of heavy metals in the environment has grown because of their large employment in some industrial and agricultural activities. Although these metals are terrestrial products, they flow into the sea through effluents and sewage or are directly discharged from industries placed on the seawater front. It should be considered that metals concentrations vary widely according to different seawater latitudes and depths and can be strongly influenced by fresh water discharges from heavily polluted rivers. In this review recent studies on heavy metal pollution in marine ecosystems and their organisms will be presented. Metal speciation, bioaccumulation in biota, as well as abiotic and biotic factors affecting their bioavailability will be reviewed. Moreover, the use of bioindicator organisms for the biomonitoring of heavy metal toxicity and their ecological effects will be defined. Many marine invertebrate species fulfill the following criteria: Sensitivity to a wide range of chemicals (especially to heavy metals), cost-effectiveness for repeatable tests, readily interpretable biological consequences of pollution. Among the most important marine invertebrates used as bioindicators, the sea urchin embryo is one of the most suitable, especially to assess metal/heavy metal pollution.


A combination of satellite imagery, shipboard profiles, drifter tracks, and moored current observations reveals that an anticyclonic eddy off the coast of northern California transported plumes of suspended sediments from the continental shelf into the deep ocean. The horizontal scale of the eddy was about 90 kilometers, and the eddy remained over the continental shelf and slope for about 2 months during the summer of 1988. The total mass of sediments transported by the eddy was of order 105 metric tons. Mesoscale eddies are recurrent features in this region and occur frequently in eastern boundary currents. These results provide direct evidence that eddies export sediments from continental shelves.


Wireless transmissions are inherently vulnerable to jamming attacks. Frequency hopping (FH) and transmission rate adaptation (RA) have been separately used to mitigate jamming. When RA is used alone, it has been shown that a jammer who randomizes its power levels can force the transmitter to always operate at the lowest rate, by maintaining the average jamming power above a certain threshold. On the other hand, when only FH is used, a high throughput overhead is incurred due to frequent channel switching. In this paper, we propose to mitigate jamming by jointly optimizing the FH and RA techniques. This way, the transmitter can escape the jammer by changing its channel, adjusting its rate, or both. We consider a power-constrained "reactive-sweep" jammer who aims at degrading the throughput of the wireless link. The jammer sweeps through the set of channels, jamming a subset of them at a time, using the optimal jamming power. We model the interactions between the legitimate transmitter and jammer as a constrained zero-sum Markov game. The transmitter's optimal defense strategy is derived by obtaining the equilibria of the constrained Markov game. This policy informs the transmitter when to hop to another channel and when to stay on the current channel. Furthermore, it gives the best transmission rate to use in both cases (hop or stay). The structure of the transmitter's optimal policy is shown to be threshold type, whereby the transmitter stays on the same channel up to a certain number of time slots after which it hops. We analyze the "constrained Nash equilibrium" of the Markov game and show that the equilibrium defense strategy of the transmitter is deterministic. Numerical investigations show that the new scheme improves the average throughput and provides better jamming resiliency.


Well controlled in length and highly aligned ZnO nanorods were grown on the gold-coated glass substrate by hydrothermal growth method. ZnO nanorods were functionalised with selective thallium (I) ion ionophore dibenzyldiaza-18-crown-6 (DBzDA18C6). The thallium ion sensor showed wide linear potentiometric response to thallium (I) ion concentrations ( M to  M) with high sensitivity of 36.87 ± 1.49 mV/decade. Moreover, thallium (I) ion demonstrated fast response time of less than 5 s, high selectivity, reproducibility, storage stability, and negligible response to common interferents. The proposed thallium (I) ion-sensor electrode was also used as an indicator electrode in the potentiometric titration, and it has shown good stoichiometric response for the determination of thallium (I) ion.


Background Sugar is seen by some as the next "public health frontier". Indeed, increasing evidence associates excess refined sugar intakes with obesity, type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Worryingly, the estimated volume of sugary drinks purchased in the UK has more than doubled between 1975 and 2007, from 510ml to 1140ml per person per week. Might a fiscal intervention promote public health? In this study, we therefore aimed to quantify the potential benefits of putting a duty on sugary drinks. Methods We accessed National Diet and Nutrition Survey (NDNS) data and drinks manufacturers' sales data on sugar sweetened beverages (SSBs). We then modelled plausible low, mid and high intake policy scenarios; combining this with data from two recently published models of obesity and associated diseases and Quality Adjusted Life Years (QALYs). We assumed a linear relationship between calories consumed, rates of obesity and obesity-related diseases, specifically diabetes, stroke and coronary heart disease (CHD), and cancer. We then conducted rigorous sensitivity analyses. Results In England, we estimated that a 20% SSB duty could reduce average energy consumption by approximately 8kcal per person per day. That mid consumption policy scenario might cut obesity rates by 1% (from 24.1% to 23.9% of adults) which equates to approximately 100,000 fewer obese people. This duty would result in approximately: 60,000 fewer cases of diabetes per year; 41,000 fewer cases of CHD and stroke per year; 11,000 fewer cases of cancer per year; one million QALYs gained per year; and £18 million in healthcare cost savings per year. In terms of parameters, the main driving factor for the potential reduction in obesity and associated disease was the level of SSB consumption in the population. For the low and high consumption scenarios respectively, a 20% duty could cut obesity by an estimated 0.5%–1.5%, with approximately 495,000–1.5 million QALYs gained and £9million–£28 million in healthcare cost savings per year. Conclusion A 20% duty on sugary drinks could dramatically reduce the obesity disease burden and also achieve substantial savings. Our findings support the Sustain report which recently estimated that a 20% duty could generate up to £1billion in annual tax revenues. Such revenues could be spent on interventions to improve health, such as subsidised healthy foods, food growing co-ops, walking and cycling.


Income smoothing is the way management used to reduce fluctuations in reported earnings to match the desired target either artificially (through method of accounting) or real (the transaction). However, this practice has been criticized by many parties as it can lead to disclosure in financial statements to be inadequate. This research was designed to examine the factors that influence the practice of income smoothing of company size, operating leverage, profitability and corporate risk. Separation between grading company earnings and profits rather than grading by using the Index Eckel against profit after tax for 43 companies listed on the Jakarta Stock Exchange. Statistical analysis used consisted of (1) univariate tests, to determine whether significant differences between grading and not grading company, in this case using the Mann-Whitney test if data is not normal distribution and Independent Sample t-test if normally distributed data, (2) multivariate test, using the Logistic Regression to determine the factors that influence the practice of income smoothing. The results computed by the Index Eckel shows that as many as 22 companies that make the practice of income smoothing and 21 companies are not doing income smoothing. While the results of logistic regression analysis either simultaneously or separately on the four independent variables suspected to affect the practice of income smoothing was only an effect ofproven profitability. This it can be deduced from this study is that firm size, operating leverage and risk the company has no effect on practice income smoothing, which can affect the profitability only company to perform those actions.


The representation of urinating and defecating people by artists is a rather old phenomenon, for they pop up in the work of, for instance, Rembrandt. For the twentieth century the same can be observed, however with this remarkable difference with past ages, that the number of artists (playwrights, painters and performance artists to mention only a few) working with shit (as well as with bodily fluids and matter) enormously increased. Especially in the second half of this century it became very popular to use shit in plays, paintings and performances. This paper deals with the question, whether the artworks of so-called shit artists working in the West generally speaking are just a kind of wild manifestations of decadence and the abject, as so many people claim, or that they are meant to bring across a particular message with regard to the society and culture  in which they are produced. On the basis of the work of the German philosopher Peter Sloterdijk and others the hypothesis will be launched that one cannot understand this remarkable blossoming of shit in the arts without taking into consideration the fact that we are living in an era of neo-capitalism, which implies a horrific transformation of consumption goods bought with the help of money (this eternal companion of shit) into all kinds of waste and ordure.


Background Language has been shown to be affected in Huntington's disease (HD) in several experimental tasks, independently of cognitive disabilities and since the earliest stages of the disease. However, studies of spontaneous speech are scarce and provide contradictory results. Aims To systematically profile the earliest spontaneous speech errors in HD and to test whether they extend to referential dysfunction in production, as it has been described in previous experimental work testing comprehension. Methods 28 native HD gene-carriers (9 pre-HD) and 28 matched controls were recorded while telling the Cinderella story using a visual support. Speech samples were transcribed and rated by two independent raters using Computarised Language Analysis (CLAN). Measures were normalised and errors were clustered in five different components. All participants underwent MRI scanning and high resolution T1 images were analysed using voxed-based morphometry (VBM) in order to study brain atrophy. Results Manifest HD patients showed increased errors in all five components: Quantitative, comprising the Mean Length of Utterances, the Number of Words, and Words per Minute; Fluency, capturing disturbances in the flow of speech due to abnormal Pauses and Truncations; Connectivity, related to the combining of clauses; Reference, capturing all variables relating to the referential use of language in discourse such as the use of noun phrases to identify objects and establish topics of the discourse; Concordance, related to deficits in grammatical Agreement. In the case of the preHD group, these differences were observed in Connectivity and Reference measures. Correlations of these measures with the voxels showing VBM differences between patients and controls showed that the Quantitative measure correlated with atrophy in bilateral caudate and putamen. The remaining components showed no significant correlation with the VBM differences. Conclusions Striatal atrophy is associated to spontaneous speech deficits. However, deficits in spontaneous speech in HD are characterised not only by dysfluencies related to motor dysfunction but also by syntactic and referential errors in their discourse. Specific deficits in connecting clauses and reference are detectable even before overt clinical symptomatology.


"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men?...The Shadow knows!" And who knew The Shadow better than his creator, Walter B. Gibson. Relatively few people have heard of Gibson, but many more are familiar with The Shadow having heard the program on the Blue Coal Radio Program in the 1930s and read the Street & Smith Shadow novels. Walter B. Gibson's life and career come out from behind The Shadow in this biography. It covers his youth in Philadelphia, his development as a writer and magician, his wives, including the third, (Litzka, who was a harpist and magician in her own right), his time living in Maine and upstate New York, and his later years and death. In addition to being credited with creating The Shadow (he used the pseudonym Maxwell Grant), Gibson wrote 187 books, contributed 668 articles to periodicals, created 283 stories for The Shadow Magazine, wrote 48 separate syndicated feature columns, reported the adventures of The Shadow and Blackstone the magician in 394 comic books and newspaper strips, and helped develop 147 radio scripts and many other works under numerous pseudonyms. Gibson has invented many widely used magic tricks and traveled with and befriended Harry Houdini, Howard Thurston, Harry Blackstone, Sr., and Joseph Dunninger.


Background: Rechallenge with imatinib is an option in advanced gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) patients following progression with standard tyrosine-kinase inhibitors (TKIs), imatinib, sunitinib and regorafenib. We retrospectively collected data from metastatic Italian GIST patients treated with imatinib resumption after progression to conventional TKIs. Methods: A total of 104 eligible advanced GIST patients, previously treated with imatinib, sunitinib and regorafenib, were collected from six referral Italian institutions. Mutational analysis was recorded and correlated with survival and response according to RECIST 1.1 or CHOI criteria. Results: Overall, 71 patients treated with imatinib 400 mg as rechallenge were included. Mutational status was available in all patients. The median follow up was 13 months. In patients who received a rechallenge therapy, the median time to progression (TTP) was 5.4 months [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.9–13.5] and overall survival (OS) was 10.6 months (95% CI 2.8–26.9). A correlation between mutational status, response rate, TTP and OS was not found but comparing deleted versus nondeleted KIT exon 11 patients, a significant difference was identified in terms of TTP and OS (p = 0.04 and p = 0.02, respectively). Conclusions: Our retrospective data confirm that imatinib rechallenge is a reasonable option in advanced GIST. The prognostic value of the specific KIT mutations was confirmed in our series.


Nowadays, organizations had discovered that team building effectiveness is essential in increasing the performance of the organization. However, organization needs to be concern on ensuring the practice of team building effectiveness characteristics among employees for high performance. This study aimed on exploring the relationship between the five causal factors (goals, roles, process, relationship and leadership) and team building effectiveness. The research methodology used in this study is the survey method which the research instrument is the survey questionnaire. Mainly, the pilot test is conducted by randomly distributing 30 questionnaires to the employees of CMS Clinker Sdn Bhd to determine validity and reliability of the questionnaires. Subsequently, a total of 81 respondents from Batu Lintang, Petra Jaya and Padungan fire stations were used as the actual study samples for this research. The data collected from the actual study underwent pilot test once again to ensure its validity and reliability of the questionnaires. In addition, obtained data were descriptively analyzed using frequencies and percentages. Moreover, data were also inferentially analyzed using the Pearson Correlation and Multiple Regression test. The purpose of using Pearson Correlation is to measure the relationship between the five causal factors and team building effectiveness. All of the alternative hypothesis is accepted. The results and findings showed that there was significant relationship between the five causal factors with team building effectiveness. Multiple Regression test was used to identify which factor is dominant that affects team building effectiveness. It is proved that team goals is the most dominant factor which affect team building effectiveness. In addition, the outcomes of this research provides benefits to the organization and future researcher in determining five main causal factors that affects team building effectiveness and identify suitable corrective actions to enhance and improve the effectiveness of team building in the organization.


Data quality and trust in the data collection process are critical concerns in survey research, particularly when surveyors are needed for reaching "diverse and inconvenient subject pools." In response to irregularities in a smartphone-based pilot survey data collection in Nigeria, we developed an audio check method that unobtrusively recorded surveyors reading aloud questions to participants. We present evidence that this method detected wholesale data fabrication in 14% of our surveys, prevented further fabrication, and improved data quality through provision of regular feedback to surveyors. Using simulation, we demonstrate that undetected fabrication would have introduced significant bias in our analyses. The audio check performs well compared to more traditional methods of detecting fabrication, and a comparative cost–benefit analysis reveals a savings of more than US$1,500 per surveyor by relying on the audio check. The audio check is a viable tool for psychologists who work with survey teams.


Self-expanding stents are small medical devices used to treat vascular disease and are typically fabricated from a super-elastic, shape memory alloy known as Nitinol and have a fine mesh structure. This paper describes preliminary work on the application of Thermoelastic Stress Analysis (TSA) to Nitinol stents. Uniaxial tensile tests were conducted on thin tubes of Nitinol to characterise the material mechanical properties. TSA calibration exercises were conducted, which showed that Nitinol exhibits a non-uniform thermoelastic response through its elastic region that corresponded to the superelastic behaviour. Initial TSA demonstrated that a viable thermoelastic signal could be obtained from the stents. In high resolution tests the effect of motion and noise were considerable but it was still possible to obtain a readable thermoelastic signal.


A high expression of O-glycosylated proteins is one of the prominent characteristics of ovarian carcinoma cells associated with cell migration, which would be attributed to the upregulated expression of glycosyltransferases. Therefore, elucidating glycosyltransferases and their substrates may improve our understanding of their roles in tumor metastasis. In the present study, we reported that knockdown of polypeptide N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferase 14 (GALNT14) by small interfering RNA significantly suppressed the cell migration and altered cellular morphology. Immunoprecipitation and western blot analyses indicated that GALNT14 contributed to the glycosylation of transmembrane mucin 13 (MUC13), which was significantly higher in ovarian cancer cells compared with the normal/benign ovary tissues. Furthermore, interleukin-8 (IL-8), which could regulate the migration ability of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) cells, had no remarkable effect on the expression of GALNT14 and the tumor-associated carbohydrate epitope Tn antigen. In addition, extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) inhibitor modulated the expression levels of GALNT14. Our findings provide evidence that GALNT14 may contribute to ovarian carcinogenesis through aberrant glycosylation of MUC13, but not through the IL-8 pathway. These data provide novel insights into understanding the function of MUC13 on neoplasm metastasis and may aid in the development of new anticancer drugs for EOC.


Aim: The aim of the present study was to determine the prevalence of carotid artery calcification (CAC) in postmenopausal females on panoramic radiographs and to study the correlation of CAC with possible risk factors such as hypertension, osteoporosis, and hypercholesterolemia, among others. Materials and Methods: Totally, 1214 panoramic radiographs of postmenopausal females attending the Department of Oral Medicine and Radiology were examined for the presence of CAC. The subjects were also assessed for the presence of various risk factors and the possible correlation to CAC. Statistical analysis was done using Chi-square test, and P < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: Two hundred and seventy-eight postmenopausal females presented with CAC and a prevalence of 22.9%. These patients presented with a medical history that was laden with risk factors, of which hypertension (71.2%) was the most common risk factor. Hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, osteoporosis, and obesity were significantly (P < 0.05) related to the presence of CAC while age, diabetes, and smoking were not significantly (P > 0.05) related to CAC. Conclusion: The incidental finding of CAC on panoramic radiographs during the routine dental examination can provide life-saving information for the identification of postmenopausal females who are at a higher risk for stroke. Oral clinicians should, therefore, record a proper medical history of such patients to identify the atherogenic risk factors and refer such patients to the physician for careful evaluation and conformation of the disease.


Abstract The purpose of this paper is to frame selected episodes in the establishment and development of the modern oil and gas industry in the Northern Apennines (Emilia-Romagna region), Italy. The research spans between the political unification of the Italian peninsula into the Kingdom of Italy (1861), and the outbreak of World War I (1914). In the attempt to delve into the socio-economic scenario of those times, we look to contextualize and describe the work of the geologists and engineers who contributed to developing the early scientific knowledge of practical utility on the oil-bearing formations of the Northern Apennines. The history of the Emilia-Romagna oil industry was influenced and shaped by several episodes, and this paper discusses in particular two events that occurred during 1911. The first is an important and political act: the promulgation from the Italian authorities of the first regulation aimed at fostering the national oil industry, including the generous and criticized subsidies to support oil well drilling. The second is a technical–scientific landmark: the publication by Enrico Camerana and Bartolomeo Galdi (both engineers in the Royal Corps of Mines in Bologna) of the treatise I giacimenti petroleiferi dell'Emilia [The Oilfields of the Emilia Region], thanks to which Italian oil expertise made an important step forward. This seminal study on the state of the art of geological exploration of the oilfields of northern Italy represents the point of fracture between the empirical knowledge concerning oil and gas exploration and production and the development of the first national original research in the field of geosciences, to be fully developed in the decades to come.


The aim of this round table discussion is to consider academic and personal
challenges associated with the increasing recruitment of international students to
university programmes as highlighted by Trice (2003), which includes professional
doctorate courses. Current economic factors and changes to the UK higher
education system have led to increasing initiatives to recruit overseas students.
Globalisation has been occurring on large social and economic scales for many
decades with populations finding easier communications, collaborations and
information sharing opportunities due to developing technologies and inter-country
mobility systems. For example, in Europe the Bologna process was introduced to
facilitate the internal mobility of students, teachers and administrative staff, due to
the nature of this increase in international mobility of students (Cardoso et al, 2007).


Given the complexity of the issues surrounding the concept of sustainable tourism, the current paper tries to provide a unified methodology to assess tourism sustainability, based on a number of quantitative indicators. The proposed methodological framework (Sustainable Tourism Benchmarking Tool – STBT) will provide a number of benchmarks against which the sustainability of tourism activities in various countries can be assessed. A model development procedure is proposed: identification of the dimensions (economic, socio-ecologic, infrastructure) and indicators, method of scaling, chart representation and evaluation on three Asian countries. This application to three countries show us that a similar level of tourism activity might induce different sort of improvements to implement in the tourism activity and might have different consequences for the socio-ecological environment. The heterogeneity of developing countries exposed in the STBT is useful to detect the main problem of each country in their tourism activity.