Autotrophic picoplankton (APP, <2 µm), composed of both prokaryotes and eukaryotes, play an important role in the production and transformation of organic carbon in freshwaters. Eukaryotic APP are commonly found in winter and spring, and heterotrophic nanoflagellates (HNF) are regarded as significant consumers of APP. Here, we analysed the grazing impact and the growth ability of the HNF culture derived from a boreal clearwater lake on the picoalga Choricystis sp. For comparison, we used HNF monocultures of Rhynchomonas sp. and Bodo saltans flagellates with dis- tinct feeding behaviours. In the grazing experiments, all HNF cultures ingested picoalgae and reached feeding rates between 0.08 and 0.81 cells HNF -1 h -1 . We observed large species-specific dif- ferences in grazing rate (0.97 to 1.96 d -1 ), growth rate (0.35 to 0.85 d -1 ) and final abundance of HNF (5.6 × 10 4 to 74.2 × 10 4 cells ml -1 ) in the growth experiments. Surprisingly, we found an increase in picoalgal growth in the presence of a grazing HNF population. Although HNF appear to be active herbivores capable of significantly reducing APP stock, flagellates were unable to control the picoal- gal population. Overall, this study demonstrates an unexpected role of HNF in microbial food webs by imposing a positive feedback on picoalgal growth through grazing.


Background COVID-19 vaccination is crucial in combating the COVID-19 pandemic. Messenger RNA COVID-19 vaccines were initially authorized as a 2-dose primary series and have been widely used in the United States; completing the 2-dose primary series offers protection against infection, severe illness, and death. Understanding the risk factors for not completing the 2-dose primary series is critical to evaluate COVID-19 vaccination programs and promote completion of the 2-dose primary series. Objective This study examined potential risk factors for not completing a 2-dose primary series of mRNA COVID-19 vaccination. Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study among members aged ≥18 years from a large integrated health care system, Kaiser Permanente Southern California, from December 14, 2020, to June 30, 2022. Noncompletion of the 2-dose primary series was defined as not completing the second dose within 6 months after receipt of the first dose. Crude noncompletion rates were estimated overall and by demographic characteristics, health care use patterns, comorbidity, and community-level socioeconomic factors. A Poisson regression model was fit to examine associations of individual-level and community-level risk factors with noncompletion of the 2-dose primary series. Results Among 2.5 million recipients of ≥1 dose of mRNA COVID-19 vaccines, 3.3% (n=81,202) did not complete the second dose within 6 months. Members aged 25-44 years, 65-74 years, and ≥75 years were less likely to not complete the 2-dose primary series than those aged 18-24 years, while members aged 45-64 years were more likely to not complete the 2-dose primary series (adjusted risk ratio [aRR] 1.13, 95% CI 1.10-1.15). Male sex was associated with a higher risk of noncompletion (aRR 1.17, 95% CI 1.15-1.19). Hispanic and non-Hispanic Black race/ethnicity were associated with a lower risk of noncompletion (range aRR 0.78-0.91). Having Medicaid and prior influenza vaccination were associated with a higher risk of noncompletion. Having SARS-CoV-2 infection, experiencing an adverse event, or having an inpatient and emergency department visit during the minimum recommended dose intervals were associated with a higher risk of not completing the 2-dose primary series (aRR 1.98, 95% CI 1.85-2.12; 1.99, 95% CI 1.43-2.76; and 1.85, 95% CI 1.77-1.93, respectively). Those who received the first dose after June 30, 2021, were more likely to not complete the 2-dose primary series within 6 months of receipt of the first dose. Conclusions Despite limitations such as being a single-site study and the inability to consider social factors such as employment and vaccine attitudes, our study identified several risk factors for not completing a 2-dose primary series of mRNA vaccination, including being male; having Medicaid coverage; and experiencing SARS-CoV-2 infection, adverse events, or inpatient and emergency department visits during the minimum recommended dose intervals. These findings can inform future efforts in developing effective strategies to enhance vaccination coverage and improve the completion rate of necessary doses.


We demonstrate a method for probing interaction effects in a thermal beam of strontium atoms using simultaneous measurements of Rydberg EIT and spontaneously created ions or electrons. We present a Doppler-averaged optical Bloch equation model that reproduces the optical signals and allows us to connect the optical coherences and the populations. We use this to determine that the spontaneous ionization process in our system occurs due to collisions between Rydberg and ground state atoms in the EIT regime. We measure the cross section of this process to be 0.6± 0.2 σgeo, where σgeo is the geometrical cross section of the Rydberg atom. This results adds complementary insight to a range of recent studies of interacting thermal Rydberg ensembles.


It is difficult to apply usual statistical pattern recognition techniques directly to microarray data, because the number of genes is too large in comparison with the number of available training samples. Therefore, one needs a powerful feature selection method for microarray data. In this paper, we compare the previously published feature selection method with the sequential forward selection (SFS) method and the Fisher criterion-based feature selection method on the microarray data of hepatocellular carcinoma (http://surgery2.med.yamaguchi-u.ac.jp/research/DNAchip/). Experimental results show that our method outperforms the SFS method and the Fisher criterion-based method in terms of the recognition rate.


Hutchinson, J, Archives of Surgery (London), 1890, 1, 323. 2 Horton, B T, Magath, T B, and Brown, G E, Proceedings of the Mayo Clintic, 1932, 7, 700. All Ibn Isa, Mernoranduin of a 10th Centuiry Oculist, translated by C A Woods, Chicago NW University, 1936. Cited by Hamilton, C R, Shelley, W M, and Tumulty, P A, Medicine, 1975, 50, 1. Klein, R G, et al, Atnnals of Internal Medicine, 1975, 83, 806.


Mice deficient in the extracellular matrix glycoprotein tenascin-C (TNC−/−) express a deficit in specific forms of hippocampal synaptic plasticity, which involve the L-type voltage-gated Ca2+ channels (L-VGCCs). The mechanisms underlying this deficit and its functional implications for learning and memory have not been investigated. In line with previous findings, we report on impairment in theta-burst stimulation (TBS)-induced long-term potentiation (LTP) in TNC−/− mice in the CA1 hippocampal region and its rescue by the L-VGCC activator Bay K-8644. We further found that the overall pattern of L-VGCC expression in the hippocampus in TNC−/− mice was normal, but Western blot analysis results uncovered upregulated expression of the Cav1.2 and Cav1.3 α-subunits of L-VGCCs. However, these L-VGCCs were not fully functional in TNC−/− mice, as demonstrated by Ca2+ imaging, which revealed a reduction of nifedipine-sensitive Ca2+ transients in CA1 pyramidal neurons. TNC−/− mice showed normal learning and memory in the contextual fear conditioning paradigm but impaired extinction of conditioned fear responses. Systemic injection of the L-VGCC blockers nifedipine and diltiazem into wild-type mice mimicked the impairment of fear extinction observed in TNC−/− mice. The deficiency in TNC−/− mice substantially occluded the effects of these drugs. Our results suggest that TNC-mediated modulation of L-VGCC activity is essential for fear extinction.


The purpose of this study is to isolate, identify, and characterize the inhibin b protein of Rattus norvegicusSertoli cell culture. In this research, culture of Sertoli cell using by DMEM medium + FCS 15%. Confirmation ofinhibin b protein from Sertoli cell culture by dot blot technique used inhibin b polyclonal antibody. Identification andcharacterization of inhibin b protein from Sertoli cell culture by SDS PAGE. The result of this studies showed thatSertoli cell culture is the source of inhibin b protein with molecular weight of 175, 163, 153, 81, 78, 66, dan 29 kDa.


: Introduction: The term vitamin k comes from the German language Koagulations - vitamin. Vitamin K is a fat-soluble vitamin that is absorbed from the gastrointestinal tract in the presence of bile salts. Vitamin K is needed for the synthesis of coagulation factors II, VII, IX, X by the liver2. Due to the short half-life of these factors and the small amounts of vitamin K stored in the body, insufficient vitamin K intake may result in its deficiency in a short time. In the past, all neonatal bleeding disorders were grouped together under the diagnosis of neonatal hemorrhagic disease (HDN). Aim: To determine the prevalence of vitamin K deficiency in newborns presenting with abnormal bleeding to the neonatal unit. Methods: A total of 375 infants with bleeding were excluded from the study, while those with an obvious cause of a bleeding disorder, eg, with anticoagulation therapy, were excluded from the study. It was a cross-sectional study conducted at the Department of Hematology and Transfusion Medicine of the Lady Reading Hospital, Peshawar for one-year duration from March 2019 to March 2020. Results: In an age distribution study, 45 (12%) were found to be 1-24 hours old, 185 (49.3%) were 2-7 days old and 145 (38.6%) were found. at 1-2 weeks of age, 237 (63.2%) are male and 36.8% are female. Discussed by geographical area (urban and rural). Out of a total of 375 cases, 168 (44.8%) were from cities, and 207 (55.2%) from rural areas. Incidence of abnormal clotting profiles in cases, 369 (98.4%) patients had an abnormal clotting profile, and 6 (0.01%) had a normal clotting profile. Incidence of platelet abnormalities in newborns reporting bleeding 362 (96.5%) had normal platelet counts and 13 (0.03%) had abnormal platelet counts. 352 (93.8%) had vitamin K deficiency bleeding and 23 (0.06%) had a bleeding disorder other than vitamin K deficiency bleeding. Conclusion: Vitamin K deficiency bleeding is a very important cause of bleeding in the first month of life. It is more common in men and in the countryside. Vitamin K deficiency bleeding is an avoidable cause of bleeding, therefore vitamin K prophylaxis should be mandatory after birth in all newborns.


A systematic approach to test data design is presented based on both practical translation of theory and organization of professional lore. The approach is organized around five domains and achieving coverage (exercise) of them by the test data. The domains are processing functions, input, output, interaction among functions, and the code itself. Checklists are used to generate data for processing functions. Separate checklists have been constructed for eight common business data processing functions such as editing, updating, sorting, and reporting. Checklists or specific concrete directions also exist for input, output, interaction, and code coverage. Two global heuristics concerning all test data are also used. A limited discussion on documenting test input data, expected results, and actual results is included.


SYNOPSIS We report results of 266 surveys from untenured and tenured accounting faculty employed by both elite and non-elite accounting programs concerning factors that influence career satisfaction. We find that accounting academics are somewhat satisfied with their jobs, although factors that enhance or impair career satisfaction differ for faculty at elite versus non-elite programs and for untenured versus tenured faculty. Our findings suggest noteworthy implications for the accounting academy and provide insights about cultural differences between elite versus non-elite accounting programs. JEL Classifications: M40; M49. Data Availability: Please contact the authors.


Chronic auto-inflammatory diseases are associated with an increased risk of arterial and venous cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Pathogenesis may be related to chronic inflammation and/or traditional CVD risk factors. We aimed to assess the prevalence of CVD and cardiovascular risk profile in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), psoriasis (PSO) and spondylarthropathies (SpA).

 This is a single center cross-sectional study at the depts. of Gastroenterology, Dermatology and Rheumatology. Patients ≥18 years underwent body measurements (blood pressure (BP), BMI, waist and hip circumference), laboratory analysis (plasma glucose, lipid spectrum) and completed a cardiovascular questionnaire (e.g. history of CVD, medication use). Multivariate linear and logistic regression models corrected for age and sex were applied to identify differences between groups.. Sensitivity analyses were performed excluding patients taking statins or anti hypertensive drugs. Within groups, association between lipid levels and clinical disease activity was assessed by stratification, and with CRP levels by Pearson correlation test.

 A total of 668 patients were included (335 males (50%), median age 47 years: 459 IBD (69%), 106 PSO (16%) and 103 SpA patients (15%). (Table 1) The prevalence of venous thromboembolisms was 6%, heart failure 3% and arterial CVD 8%. IBD patients had lower BMI, systolic BP, TC and LDL-c levels, and lower odds ratio of having diabetes, overweight and hypercholesterolemia, as compared to PSO and SpA, but a higher odds ratio of having VTE. (Table 2) These results were independent of statin of anti hypertensive drug use. All groups showed a trend towards higher levels of TC, HDL-c and LDL-c during disease remission as compared to active disease (Figure 1) Overall, TC and LDL-c levels were inversely correlated with CRP (R -.145, p=.002 and R -.111, p=.016); within groups a significant association was only observed in IBD. (Table 3, Figure 2)

 IBD patients have a more favorable cardiovascular risk profile, as compared to PSO and SpA. Screening and early intervention for CVD risk factors requires different strategies for each population.


Human hepatocyte transplantation is being trialled in lieu of orthotopic liver transplants for patients with acute and chronic liver diseases. Stem cells that can be differentiated into hepatocyte-like cells may replace human hepatocytes that are difficult to source, culture and in critically short supply. Hepatocyte-like cells have been derived from embryonic and adult tissue stem cells using a combination of growth factors and chemical inducers. Stem cells derived from the human placenta have gained interest due to the unlimited supply of placental tissue, minimal issues associated with stem cell retrieval from placental tissue and the large yields of stem cells that can be obtained. Placental stem cells have been characterised and differentiated into hepatocyte-like cells. This review summarises the literature relating to the differentiation of human placental stem cells into hepatocyte-like cells, the characterisation of the differentiated cells, testing the functionality of the hepatocyte-like cells in pre-clinical animal models of liver disease and biomaterials used for culturing and transplantation of these cells into extra-hepatic sites.


Abstract:In recent years, critical discourse concerning the millenarian eschatology of the early Patristic era of Christianity has called into question the common notion that millenarian concepts have been utterly rejected as heretical by the Roman Catholic Church. No Ecumenical Council has ever rejected millenarian eschatology, and papal and juridical statements on the issue have been taken out of context. This essay brings forward, as testing agents, John Henry Newman's first two notes in Development in order to determine whether Patristic millenarianism, along with a more recently explored version called Eucharistic millenarianism, is a valid example of doctrinal development of an earlier type. Eucharistic millenarianism borrows many aspects from a primitive apostolic source and has been embraced by the Catholic hierarchy, raising the question of how millenarian aspects might legitimately inform contemporary theology. Newman's theory of the development of doctrine, particularly as seen in his first two notes, is a valuable tool for reevaluating latent concepts that have been unfairly viewed as marginal or even heretical in mainline theological discourse.


A paper and pencil questionnaire is usually filled out at the place of receipt. For a household survey, this is quite often the residential address of respondents. When employment conditions are examined, the survey is often carried out at the work place. If aspects of education are evaluated, a survey is normally done at the educational institution. Most recently, the same applied to an online questionnaire, which was usually completed at the place of receipt (location of the personal computer) – either at home or at work. Nowadays, potential respondents are more and more "digitally mobile". They may choose mobile devices to participate in an online survey thanks to technical developments. Therefore, they are able to access the online surveys regardless of device- and location. As a consequence, the interview situation is more change - able regarding where (location) and how (device) the questionnaire is filled out. Thisvariability – as it is assumed – leads to context-related nonresponses, which influences the nature of the data. Based on this, the research question is: "How crucial is digital mobility, in terms of location and device, due to nonresponses, for the quality of data collected online?" In order to answer this question, the data from an online survey about "participation of students at university" is used. 17,500 students were invited to participate in the survey. 14% of the target group reacted to the invitation, 11% answered at least one question, but just 7% reached the final page. Those response rates or drop out rates differ depending on context-specific characteristics in terms of location and mobile device. The research results show that different situational conditions within the interview should be considered in the course of data processing and analysing – both might contribute to the quality of results.


Sparse signal representation based on overcomplete dictionaries has recently been extensively investigated, rendering the state-of-the-art results in signal, image and video processing. We propose a novel dictionary learning algorithm—the PK-SVD algorithm—which assumes prior probabilities on the dictionary atoms and learns a sparse dictionary under a popularity-based model. The prior distribution brings the flexibility that is desirable in applications. We examine our algorithm in both synthetic tests and image denoising experiments.


In this study, we examine municipal efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) by focusing on emissions from vehicular sources. We compare what different cities have done to address the problem of GHG emissions from vehicles by using atmospheric data to assess the impact policy efforts have had on actual GHGs. We focus on an area overlooked in the literature, U.S. cities on the U.S.-Mexico transborder region. Using GHG vehicular emissions data from the Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) and an ordinary least square model, this research foundcities have reduced levels of GHGs, especially when municipal efforts are supported by state policies to reduce GHG emissions. While GHG in general are transboundary and a global issue by nature, communities in the U.S. border region are directly impacted by vehicular emissions due to cross-border trade that is not prevalent in interior communities. However, one of the main limitations in this type of study is the lack of reportable environmental data for less populated cities on the U.S.-Mexico border. Future studies need to develop alternative approaches to sustainability that could provide a more nuanced examination of some of the challenges or success in the U.S. transborder region.


ABSTRACT Introduction: Visual neglect is a frequent disorder following stroke and is often diagnosed by neuropsychological assessment. However, paper-and-pencil tasks have low predictive value as they lack sensitivity to capture neglect in complex, dynamic situations, such as activities of daily living. Aims of the current study were to assess the feasibility of the Mobility Assessment Course (MAC), a visual search multitask, to assess neglect, and its relation with existing neglect tasks. Method: Stroke patients admitted for inpatient rehabilitation and healthy controls were tested with the MAC in different corridors. Participants had to move through a corridor, finding and reporting 24 targets attached to the walls. In addition, the shape cancellation, line bisection, and Catherine Bergego Scale (CBS) were used in order to compare the MAC with existing diagnostic tools for neglect. Results: Administering the MAC was feasible, as 112 of 113 patients completed the MAC with a median duration of 4.09 min. Depending on the corridor where the assessment took place, in 88.5–93.3% of assessments all targets were visible. The number of omissions (total and contralesional) and the asymmetry score (contralesional–ipsilesional omissions) on the MAC as well as collisions and corrections, were higher for patients with neglect than for those without neglect. Depending on the neglect task used, 4.0–18.6% of patients without neglect on neuropsychological tasks or the CBS showed neglect on the MAC. Vice versa, 17.2–29.3% of patients who showed neglect at neuropsychological assessment or the CBS did not do so on the MAC. Finally, a moderate to strong positive relation was seen between neglect at neuropsychological assessment, the CBS, and the MAC. Conclusions: The MAC is an ecological task in which both quantitative and qualitative data on neglect can be collected. In order to assess the presence of neglect and neglect severity in a dynamic way, the MAC could be administered in conjunction with neuropsychological assessment.


Abstract Aims Cardiac microRNA-132-3p (miR-132) levels are increased in patients with heart failure (HF) and mechanistically drive cardiac remodelling processes. CDR132L, a specific antisense oligonucleotide, is a first-in-class miR-132 inhibitor that attenuates and even reverses HF in preclinical models. The aim of the current clinical Phase 1b study was to assess safety, pharmacokinetics, target engagement, and exploratory pharmacodynamic effects of CDR132L in patients on standard-of-care therapy for chronic ischaemic HF in a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, dose-escalation study (NCT04045405). Methods and results Patients had left ventricular ejection fraction between ≥30% and <50% or amino terminal fragment of pro-brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) >125 ng/L at screening. Twenty-eight patients were randomized to receive CDR132L (0.32, 1, 3, and 10 mg/kg body weight) or placebo (0.9% saline) in two intravenous infusions, 4 weeks apart in four cohorts of seven (five verum and two placebo) patients each. CDR132L was safe and well tolerated, without apparent dose-limiting toxicity. A pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic dose modelling approach suggested an effective dose level at ≥1 mg/kg CDR132L. CDR132L treatment resulted in a dose-dependent, sustained miR-132 reduction in plasma. Patients given CDR132L ≥1 mg/kg displayed a median 23.3% NT-proBNP reduction, vs. a 0.9% median increase in the control group. CDR132L treatment induced significant QRS narrowing and encouraging positive trends for relevant cardiac fibrosis biomarkers. Conclusion This study is the first clinical trial of an antisense drug in HF patients. CDR132L was safe and well tolerated, confirmed linear plasma pharmacokinetics with no signs of accumulation, and suggests cardiac functional improvements. Although this study is limited by the small patient numbers, the indicative efficacy of this drug is very encouraging justifying additional clinical studies to confirm the beneficial CDR132L pharmacodynamic effects for the treatment of HF.


One of the main challenges of heavy duty truck comfort optimisation is to make sure that natural frequencies of axis, chassis, and cabin and seat subsystems are well separated. The design objective should also be to avoid frequencies of these subsystems in the range 4-8 Hz, to which the human body is sensitive. The objective of this paper is to improve the Ford cargo truck cabin. We have avoided to make any changes regarding the design of the above-mentioned parts and to improve the driving comfort without increasing production costs. Therefore, the focus of the work has been to improve the cabin suspension elements (suspension springs and shock absorbers) in order to achieve the design objectives. (A)


Abstract Background. Daily and globally, millions of adult hospitalized patients are exposed to maintenance i.v. fluid solutions supported by limited scientific evidence. In particular, it remains unclear whether fluid tonicity contributes to the recently established detrimental effects of fluid, sodium, and chloride overload. Methods. This crossover study consisted of two 48 h study periods, during which 12 fasting healthy adults were treated with a frequently prescribed solution (NaCl 0.9% in glucose 5% supplemented by 40 mmol litre−1 of potassium chloride) and a premixed hypotonic fluid (NaCl 0.32% in glucose 5% containing 26 mmol litre−1 of potassium) at a daily rate of 25 ml kg−1 of body weight. The primary end point was cumulative urine volume; fluid balance was thus calculated. We also explored the physiological mechanisms behind our findings and assessed electrolyte concentrations. Results. After 48 h, 595 ml (95% CI: 454–735) less urine was voided with isotonic fluids than hypotonic fluids (P<0.001), or 803 ml (95% CI: 692–915) after excluding an outlier with 'exaggerated natriuresis of hypertension'. The isotonic treatment was characterized by a significant decrease in aldosterone (P<0.001). Sodium concentrations were higher in the isotonic arm (P<0.001), but all measurements remained within the normal range. Potassium concentrations did not differ between the two solutions (P=0.45). Chloride concentrations were higher with the isotonic treatment (P<0.001), even causing hyperchloraemia. Conclusions. Even at maintenance rate, isotonic solutions caused lower urine output, characterized by decreased aldosterone concentrations indicating (unintentional) volume expansion, than hypotonic solutions and were associated with hyperchloraemia. Despite their lower sodium and potassium content, hypotonic fluids were not associated with hyponatraemia or hypokalaemia. Clinical trial registration. ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT02822898) and EudraCT (2016-001846-24).


In order to effectively increase the resonance frequency and the quality factor of atomic force microscope (AFM) probes, a novel oscillating probe based on a dog-bone shaped MEMS resonator was conceived, designed, fabricated and evaluated. The novel probe with 400 μm in length, 100 μm in width and 5 μm in thickness was enabled to feature MHz resonance frequencies with integrated thermal actuation and piezoresistive detection. Standard silicon micromachining was employed. Both electrical and optical measurements were carried out in air. The resonance frequency and the quality factor of the novel probe were measured to be 5.4 MHz and 4000 respectively, which are much higher than those (about several hundreds of kHz) of commonly used cantilever probes. The probe was mounted onto a commercial AFM set-up through a dedicated probe-holder and circuit board. Topographic images of patterned resist samples were obtained. It is expected that the resonance frequency and the measurement bandwidth of such probes will be further increased by a proper downscaling, thus leading to a significant increase in the scanning speed capability of AFM instruments.


Computing the Hierarchical Equations of Motion (HEOM) is by itself a challenging problem, and so is writing portable production code that runs efficiently on a variety of architectures while scaling from PCs to supercomputers. We combined both challenges to push the boundaries of simulating quantum systems, and to evaluate and improve methodologies for scientific software engineering. Our contributions are threefold: We present the first distributed memory implementation of the HEOM method (DM-HEOM), we describe an interdisciplinary development workflow, and we provide guidelines and experiences for designing distributed, performance-portable HPC applications with MPI-3, OpenCL and other state-of-the-art programming models. We evaluated the resulting code on multi- and many-core CPUs as well as GPUs, and demonstrate scalability on a Cray XC40 supercomputer for the PS I molecular light harvesting complex.


Bacterial Foraging Optimization (BFO) is a novel optimization algorithm based on the social foraging behavior of E. coli bacteria. This paper presents a variation on the original BFO algorithm, namely the Cooperative Bacterial Foraging Optimization (CBFO), which significantly improve the original BFO in solving complex optimization problems. This significant improvement is achieved by applying two cooperative approaches to the original BFO, namely the serial heterogeneous cooperation on the implicit space decomposition level and the serial heterogeneous cooperation on the hybrid space decomposition level.


Experimental analysis starts with very similar premises: given a specific problem, we need to either collect or generate a dataset and to choose the best model according to the performance. A set of techniques can be evaluated (i.e. statistical or metaheuristic approaches) as well as results from previous works that should be taken into account. Thus, it is necessary to analyse the behaviour of a method with respect to the others in equality of conditions. Therefore it is necessary to formalize an experimental design to solve as effectively as possible the problem with different approaches and to estimate the error rate; so different results from different methods can be compared. In this work we propose four phases for any experimental design: extraction of data, pre-processing of data, learning and selection of the best model. These generic phases encapsulate the main operations and steps that should be performed during an experimental analysis (some of them mandatory and other optional), independently of the kind of data or method used and are not mandatory and can be adapted to a new specific domain. The proposed experimental design has proven to be a vital contribution to compare different techniques under the same conditions in different scopes.


Norms are being used as a mechanism to regulate the behavior of autonomous, heterogeneous and independently

designed agents. Norms describe what can be performed, what must be performed, and what cannot be

performed in the multi-agent systems. Due to the number of norms specified to govern a multi-agent system,

one important issue that has been considered by several approaches is the checking for normative conflicts.

Two norms are said to be in conflict when the fulfillment of one norm violates the other and vice-versa. In

this paper, we formally define the concept of an indirect normative conflict as a conflict between two norms

that not necessarily have contradictory or contrary deontic modalities and that may govern (different but) related

behaviors of (different but) related entities on (different but) related contexts. Finally, we present an

ontology-based indirect norm conflict checker that automatically identifies direct and indirect norm conflicts

on an ontology describing a set of norms and a set of relationships between the elements identified in the

norms (behavior, entity and context).


Microbial transglutaminase (mTGase) is an enzyme that catalyzes site-specific protein derivatization at specific glutamines. mTGase-mediated conjugation with PEG-NH2 to granulocyte colony stimulating factor (G-CSF) yields a site selective mono-derivative conjugate involving Gln135. The same enzymatic reaction of mTGase, i.e. the transfer of the Gln acyl group to an amino donor, was investigated by reversing the substrates. A specific acyl donor PEG derivative was synthesized by coupling the Z-QG mTGase substrate to PEG. The mTGase-mediated conjugation of this PEG-ZQG in the presence of G-CSF generated a high-yield PEG-G-CSF conjugate in which the polymer was selectively coupled to Lys41 of the protein. The PEG-K41-G-CSF conjugate was compared with the PEG-Q135-G-CSF one obtained through mTGase conjugation of PEG-NH2 to Gln135. Biophysical characterization showed that the two positional isomers have similar behaviors, and pharmacokinetic studies in rats demonstrated that they have comparable half-life extensions. Overall, the study demonstrates that mTGase protein derivatization is linked to inherent advantages because it carries with it the possibility of targeting lysines or glutamines, in both cases with a high site-selective specificity.


This article shows how the French feminist and socialist Flora Tristan uses discourses on nationality and ideas of foreignness and exclusion to challenge contemporary gender ideologies in Promenades dans Londres (1840). She casts herself in the role of a disinterested and invisible observer and knowledgeable narrator who describes another nation, England, whose population is marked as "other" and inferior, particularly in her description of her visit to the houses of Parliament. Tristan aligns herself with English travellers such as Lady Mary Wortley Montagu and orientalises the houses of Parliament, thereby simultaneously endorsing and overturning notions of civilisation and superiority, the basis of Western patriarchy. At the same time, by adopting the role of a victim and accusing the members of Parliament of inappropriate behaviour and disrespect, Tristan conceals her own transgressions and establishes an alternative set of social rules. This strategy is repeatedly adopted in her work. (BP )


ABSTRACT Saccharomyces boulardii (nom. inval.) has been used for the treatment of several types of diarrhea. Recent studies have confirmed that S. boulardii is effective in the treatment of diarrhea, in particular chronic or recurrent diarrhea, and furthermore that it is a safe and well-tolerated treatment. The aim of the present study was to identify strains of S. boulardiito the species level and assess their virulence in established murine models. Three strains of S. boulardii were obtained from commercially available products in France and Italy. The three S. boulardii strains did not form spores upon repeated testing. Therefore, classical methods used for the identification ofSaccharomyces spp. could not be undertaken. Typing by using the restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) of the PCR-amplified intergenic transcribed spacer regions (including the 5.8S ribosomal DNA) showed that the three isolates of S. boulardii were not separable from authentic isolates ofSaccharomyces cerevisiae with any of the 10 restriction endonucleases assessed, whereas 9 of the 10 recognized species ofSaccharomyces could be differentiated. RFLP analysis of cellular DNA with EcoRI showed that all three strains ofS. boulardii had identical patterns and were similar to other authentic S. cerevisiae isolates tested. Therefore, the commercial strains of S. boulardii available to us cannot be genotypically distinguished from S. cerevisiae. Two S. boulardii strains were tested in CD-1 and DBA/2N mouse models of systemic disease and showed intermediate virulence compared with virulent and avirulent strains of S. cerevisiae. The results of the present study show that theseS. boulardii strains are asporogenous strains of the species S. cerevisiae, not representatives of a distinct and separate species, and possess moderate virulence in murine models of systemic infection. Therefore, caution should be advised in the clinical use of these strains in immunocompromised patients until further study is undertaken.


It is widely accepted that, in spite of the availability of a national policy, common educational objectives, curricula, text books, evaluation and examination systems to guide the general education process in Sri Lanka, there are clear inequalities within the system in terms of quality and effectiveness. The main reason for this diversity is that there are various factors affecting school effectiveness. It is difficult to provide a precise definition of, or statistical data, on school effectiveness based on the findings of studies done in different countries on the subject. Yet, it is possible to identify factors that determine effectiveness of schools in a particular country or area. The main objective of the present study is to examine the factors that affect effectiveness of senior secondary schools in Sri Lanka. In order to achieve this objective, an exploratory research design involving sample surveys and case studies was employed. While questionnaires, observations, interviews and documentary analysis have been used as techniques of data collection, statistical methods were used for data analysis. The study was conducted in two stages in order to facilitate the use of both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Quantitative data was collected in stage one, while in stage two, case studies of six schools were undertaken in order to collect qualitative data. In the first stage of the study, 36 schools were drawn on the basis of a stratified random sample representing senior secondary schools in all educational divisions in the Colombo district. Then a sample of 500 stakeholders was drawn from these schools. The data collected from these respondents have been analyzed and interpreted in keeping with the objectives of the study. Firstly, the researcher, based on the conceptual framework developed on the basis of the literature survey, formulated a questionnaire covering twelve factors and 95 criteria suitable to measure school effectiveness. Based on observations and questionnaires administered among stakeholders, the extent of the presence of school effectiveness factors were estimated. It was found that the principal's leadership, school mission and objectives, school culture and environment, curricula, student centeredness, and teachers' commitment were satisfactory in the sample schools. Yet, the situation with regard to school-community relations, student - teacher welfare, extent of extra - curricular activities and student expectations in schools and physical resources were not satisfactory. The factors that contribute to school effectiveness in the country as identified by stakeholders in descending order of importance are; school mission and objectives, school culture, principal's leadership, teacher commitment, student expectations, student-centeredness of the curriculum, adequacy of resources and community relations. A clear relationship was found between factors of school effectiveness and GCE Ordinary Level results. The weakest relationship was found between factors of school effectiveness and Grade Five scholarship examination results. A school effectiveness index was developed and used to rank schools in terms of school effectiveness. Accordingly, schools were divided into three levels ranging from the highest to the lowest level of effectiveness. The above classification helped explain disparities among schools in terms of zone, school category, type of administration, composition and location. Accordingly, the greatest disparities were found in the Colombo division, while the least disparities were found in the Homagama division. As regards the type of schools, 9 out of 10 highest ranking schools belonged to 1AB (Schools with GCE A/L Science, Commerce and Arts classes) category. In other words, 1AB schools were more effective than 1C (Schools with GCE A/L Arts and Commerce classes) schools. However, among 1AB schools, national schools were higher in rank than provincial schools and private schools were higher in rank in comparison to both national and provincial schools. Among the government schools, national schools ranked higher than provincial schools and private schools ranked higher than government schools. As for student composition, male schools ranked higher than mixed schools. Yet, female schools ranked higher than male schools. Among mixed schools there are still disparities between 1AB and 1C schools, the former ranking higher. As for the location, disparities were greater among schools in Municipal areas than elsewhere. In-depth analysis carried out confirmed the earlier findings as regards the factors determining school effectiveness. Moreover, in-depth data also confirmed the validity of the school effectiveness index developed on the basis of the quantitative survey. Accordingly, the conclusions derived from the study could be generalized with respect to schools in other parts of Sri Lanka. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljss.v33i1-2.5456 Sri Lanka Journal of Social Sciences 2010/2011 33/34 (1 & 2) 31-42


Mary Lewis Wyche was born on February 26, 1858 near Henderson in Vance County. As a young woman, she wanted to become a nurse but was thwarted by both family obligations and the absence of any schools of nursing in North Carolina. Her calling to become a nurse was so great that when she was able, she moved to Philadelphia to study nursing and graduated from Philadelphia General Hospital Training School in 1894. Upon graduation, she returned to the Tar Heel State and revolutionized the nursing profession (Rogers, 1949). Wyche should be fondly remembered by NC nurses for four primary achievements: the establishment of the first school of nursing in NC, the creation of the first professional nursing organization in the state, the passage of the first nurse registration law in the country and for writing the only book about the history of nursing in North Carolina.


Ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS) is the fastest growing subtype of breast cancer, mainly because of the aging of our populations and improvements in diagnostic mammography and core biopsy. DCIS represents a proliferation of malignant-appearing cells that have not invaded beyond the ductal basement membrane and is a precursor for the development of invasive breast cancer (IBC). Approximately 40% of patients with DCIS treated with biopsy alone, without complete excision or further therapy, develop IBC. Most DCIS itself is harmless if it is detected and excised before it can progress to IBC, and the current approach to DCIS treatment is aimed at just that goal. Typically, it consists of multimodal treatment including segmental mastectomy followed by radiation therapy to the whole breast and then hormonal therapy or total mastectomy followed by hormonal therapy. This review discusses the state-of-the-art in DCIS detection and treatment and highlights promising new strategies in the care of DCIS patients. The data regarding the effectiveness of breast-conserving surgery versus total mastectomy, the possible avoidance of radiation therapy in some subgroups of patients, and the role of hormonal agents are reviewed. Neoadjuvant therapy and the use of trastuzumab for DCIS are currently under investigation and may be future treatment options for DCIS.


The "one-size-fits-all" philosophy used for permanently allocating datapath resources in today's superscalar CPUs to maximize performance across a wide range of applications results in the overcommitment of resources in general. To reduce power dissipation in the datapath, the resource allocations can be dynamically adjusted based on the demands of applications. We propose a mechanism to dynamically, simultaneously and independently adjust the sizes of the issue queue (IQ), the reorder buffer (ROB) and the load/store queue (LSQ) based on the periodic sampling of their occupancies to achieve significant power savings with minimal impact on performance. Resource upsizing is done more aggressively (compared to downsizing) using the relative rate of blocked dispatches to limit the performance penalty. Our results are validated by the execution of SPEC 95 benchmark suite on a substantially modified version of Simplescalar simulator, where the IQ, the ROB, the LSQ and the register files are implemented as separate structures, as is the case with most practical implementations. For the SPEC 95 benchmarks, the use of our technique in a 4-way superscalar processor results in a power savings in excess of 70% within individual components and an average power savings of 53% for the IQ, LSQ and ROB combined for the entire benchmark suite with an average performance penalty of only 5%.


Abstract Objective: This study examined the prevalence of insomnia and its psychosocial correlates among college students in Hong Kong. Participants: A total of 529 Hong Kong college students participated in the study. Methods: Participants completed a self-reported questionnaire that included the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), the Revised Life Orientation Test, the Perceived Stress Scale, and the Beck Depression Inventory, and questions about sociodemographic and lifestyle factors. A PSQI global score equal to or greater than 5 indicated insomnia. Results: Results indicated that 68.6% of the participants were insomniacs. Adjusted regression analyses revealed that optimism, stress, and depression significantly predicted insomnia (p < .01). Conclusions: These results suggest that insomnia is very common among Hong Kong college students and associated with other psychosocial factors. This study provides preliminary data on sleep quality and risk factors for insomnia, which may be used to guide sleep hygiene promotion and intervention among college students.


After a number of recent financial affairs in the Netherlands the Dutch Ministry of Finance created the Financial Markets Amendment Decree on the 1st of January 2013 with the intention of improving the knowledge and understanding of financial products by consumers as well as increasing the quality these products and the given advice. An important part of this Decree was that financial intermediaries would be prohibited to receive any form of commission for the products they are advising from the insurance company or provider of those products. The Dutch Ministry of Finance forged a separation between the financial product and advice and obligated financial intermediaries to charge their customers directly for the latter. The enforced changes in the remuneration system will require a significant turnaround in the business operations of the insurance intermediary as the financial advice will no longer be "hidden" as part of the whole insurance product but should be a distinct charge on the invoice of the consumer.
The Dutch insurance group a.s.r. conducts a large part of its business through independent intermediaries. The aformentioned changes will therefore have a significant impact on a.s.r. as well. A.s.r. will use this graduation research to help the intermediaires that are struggling with the recent changes and that are searching for ways to better coop with the new forms of remuneration. A solid first step in helping these intermediaries is to evaluate how their customers perceive the service and service processes. Is the intermediary actually delivering quality services? The goal is to come up with a model to evaluate the quality of the service model currently used by the intermediary. As a first test group this study will be used as an addition to an existing support class given by a.s.r.; the Cedep master Class. The research question answered in this thesis is 'How can the quality of the services and service processes of the 2013 a.s.r. Cedep intermediaries be inventorised and using that information how can these intermediaries improve these services and service processes?'
Previous literature gives guidance about how the intermediary can provide good quality services. The studies show that financial advice itself can increase decision accuracy of the consumer and can also improve his or her financial situation; given that the advice is indeed actually used. The intermediary can advance the advice utilization by increasing its knowledge and expertise, by taking into account the opinion of the decision maker and by adapting their approach to the type of customer. Past literature also gives the broader roles that intermediaries ought to fulfill in the future. The insurance broker should focus more on providing professional consulting services, on support in the risk management process, on using their network and on being innovative. This graduation adds to this substance of literature by focusing directly on how a specific intermediary should improve its service according to their clientele.
In this study an adapted SERVQUAL method is used to measure the service quality of the intermediary as perceived by their current customers. The model focuses on 23 distinct attributes of the service model whereby delivering quality services means the perception of the service aspect is fulfilling or even exceeding the expectation of the customer. The sample in this study consists of the clients of seven intermediaries that participated in the 2013 Cedep master class as well as one voluntary participating intermediary. The SERVQUAL was conducted through an online questionnaire over the period January to February 2014. A personalized email invitation was send to the clients of each participating intermediary and the data was evaluated and benchmarked against the whole group. Additional questions were asked to measure the need for other channels for information exchange and communication.
The results reveals that the SERVQUAL methodology is suitable for measuring both the service quality of the 2013 a.s.r. Cedep intermediaries as well as other intermediaries. The model has a high reliability and validity and is positively received by both the participating offices as well as their customers. It allows the insurance broker to monitor its service quality and evaluate introduced changes. The model gives the intermediary insight in what aspects of its service model is performing above and what aspects below expectations. The study also reveal that the intermediary has the right intentions as it comes to being a good service provider. Customers find them willing and able to help; they trust the intermediary and view them as friendly with a neat and professional appearance. There are however some aspects that are performing less than desired. The customers want their intermediary to be more proactive; to improve its up-to-date knowledge and keep them more informed about relevant news. The survey also fathomed the need for other types of service channels to enhance this interaction. The study shows the existing forms of communication such as email, telephone, newsletter and direct contact are still most favorable over newer forms such as Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. An important reason for this might be that the customer of the intermediary at this moment is commonly above the age of forty. Intermediaries should take into account that with the growing popularity of these newer forms of media especially among younger generations in the near future there might be more demand for communication and information exchange through these channels. The intermediary would do best monitor this demand and adapt to it early on.


AIM
To investigate the role of cyclooxygenase-2(COX-2) and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in the development of gastric carcinoma and correlation between expression of COX-2 and VEGF and clinicopathologic features in tissues from patients with gastric carcinoma.

METHODS
281 patients with gastric carcinoma who underwent surgical resection between 1990 and 1999 at the First Affiliated Hospital, Anhui Medical University, PRC, were followed up. Expression of COX-2 and VEGF was investigated retrospectively in 232 gastric carcinoma tissues and 60 noncancerous specimens by using immunohistochemistry.

RESULTS
The 5-year survival rates of early gastric carcinoma (EGC) and advanced gastric carcinoma (AGC) were 93.4 % and 59.0 %, respectively. Survival time was highly correlated with lymph node metastasis, vascular invasion, depth of invasion and treatment with chemotherapy. Compared with paired noncancerous tissues, expression of COX-2 and VEGF and microvessel density (MVD) value in carcinoma tissue were significantly higher. The MVD value was much higher in COX-2-positive group and VEGF-positive group than that in COX-2-negative group and VEGF-negative group. Expression of COX-2 and VEGF, as well as MVD value were highly correlated with lymph node metastasis and vascular invasion. The 5-year survival rate of patients with expression of COX-2 or VEGF was significantly lower than that of patients without COX-2 or VEGF expression. Multivariate analysis revealed that VEGF overexpression, lymph node metastasis, COX-2 overexpression, depth of invasion and vascular invasion were all independent prognostic factors of gastric carcinoma.

CONCLUSION
Overexpression of COX-2 and VEGF in patients with gastric carcinoma can enhance the possibility of invasion and metastasis, implicating a poor prognosis. They may serve as the fairly good prognostic factors to indicate biologic behaviors of gastric carcinoma.


Judgements concerning proper or appropriate educational endeavour, methods of investigation and philosophising about education necessarily implicate perspectives, values, assumptions and beliefs. In recent years ideas from the complexity sciences have been utilised in many domains including psychology, economics, architecture, social science and education. This paper addresses questions concerning the appropriateness of utilising complexity science in educational research as well as issues relating to the ways in which complexity might be engaged. I suggest that, just like all human endeavour, approaches to research emerge out of discursive communities and can be understood as self‐organising, dynamic and emergent over time. In this formulation, complexity represents one such newly emergent approach. I argue that it is important that researchers partake in critical and reflective discourse about the nature of education and conceptual frameworks, as well as about impacts and legacies of utilising complexity, so as to participate in and influence the ongoing emergence of educational endeavour. I conclude by suggesting a series of caveats for researchers considering using complexity in educational research.


AIMS
Impaired nitric oxide synthesis has been implicated as one of the underlying causes of diabetic painful neuropathy (DPN). Hence, effects of a cutaneous, nitric oxide releasing patch (NitroSense Derma Protect) were evaluated in subjects with DPN.

METHODS
Fifty diabetics were randomised to active/placebo arms after a 2 wk wash-out period. Patients received 24 mg patches (each patch releases around 9 nmol/cm2/min of nitric oxide) for 3 hrs, every other day during a 3 wks period, or indistinguishable placebo patches. The extent of pain was recorded at start, at each visit and following completion of the study. Changes in pain from baseline were measured using the 11 point lickert scale (PLS), visual analogue scale (VAS), short form mcgill, pain questionnaire (SF-MPQ), present pain intensity (PPI) scale.

RESULTS
Subjects treated with patch experienced a statistically significant reduction in pain from baseline when compared to placebo (PLS scale; p = 0.05). Defining responders as subjects with a > 50% reduction in PLS score from baseline, the number needed to treat (NNT) was calculated as 3.0. A significant post-treatment decrease (p = 0.009) in vibration perception threshold (VPT) for left foot after active treatment was observed.

CONCLUSIONS
Present results highlight utility of NitroSense Derma Protect as controllable nitric oxide source for patients with DPN.


The paper reports the commuting Right Weil spinors and the anticommuting Left Weil spinors obtained by the spontaneous symmetry breaking of the 4N dimensional massless Lagrangian to 4 dimensions. Once 4N−4 dimensions and related fields are integrated out, the statistics flip operator (scalar supercharge) emerges. The restrictions of the Coleman-Mandula theorem are automatically fulfilled. In the same time the scalar supercharge allows to bypass the Pauli principle for the Right Weil spinor.


During trajectory planning, position, velocity and acceleration should satisfy the boundary condition simultaneously, if the interpolation cycle was directly used to discrete velocity, precision loss will occur. In order to solve these problems, a novel double acceleration control algorithm in the deceleration phase is presented and used to deal with linear acc/dec control, based on which a moving-average acc/dec control algorithm is studied, this algorithm can not only meet requirement for velocity and acceleration smooth control, but also realize NC instruction interpretation with high-order differentiability. The simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithm is reasonable.


Abstract. Water in the atmosphere can exist in the solid, liquid or
gas phase. At high humidities, if the aerosol population remains constant,
more water vapour will condense onto the particles and cause them to swell,
sometimes up to several times their original size. This significant change in
size and chemical composition is termed hygroscopic growth and alters a
particle's optical properties. Even in unsaturated conditions, this can
change the aerosol direct effect, for example by increasing the extinction of
incoming sunlight. This can have an impact on a region's energy balance and
affect visibility. Here, aerosol and relative humidity measurements collected
from aircraft and radiosondes during the Dynamics–Aerosol–Chemistry–Cloud
Interactions in West Africa (DACCIWA) campaign were used to estimate the
effect of highly humid layers of air on aerosol optical properties during the
monsoon season in southern West Africa. The effects of hygroscopic growth in
this region are of particular interest due to the regular occurrence of high
humidity and the high levels of pollution in the region. The Zdanovskii,
Stokes and Robinson (ZSR) mixing rule is used to estimate the hygroscopic
growth of particles under different conditions based on chemical composition.
These results are used to estimate the aerosol optical depth (AOD) at
λ=525 nm for 63 relative humidity profiles. The median AOD in the
region from these calculations was 0.36, the same as that measured by sun
photometers at the ground site. The spread in the calculated AODs was less
than the spread from the sun photometer measurements. In both cases, values
above 0.5 were seen predominantly in the mornings and corresponded with high
humidities. Observations of modest variations in aerosol load and composition
are unable to explain the high and variable AODs observed using sun
photometers, which can only be recreated by accounting for the very elevated
and variable relative humidities (RHs) in the boundary layer. Most
importantly, the highest AODs present in the mornings are not possible
without the presence of high RH in excess of 95 %. Humid layers are found
to have the most significant impact on AOD when they reach RH greater than
98 %, which can result in a wet AOD more than 1.8 times the dry AOD.
Unsaturated humid layers were found to reach these high levels of RH in
37 % of observed cases. It can therefore be concluded that the high AODs
present across the region are driven by the high humidities and are then
moderated by changes in aerosol abundance. Aerosol concentrations in southern
West Africa are projected to increase substantially in the coming years;
results presented here show that the presence of highly humid layers in the
region is likely to enhance the consequent effect on AOD significantly.


Background Reducing the effectiveness of broad-spectrum cephalosporins against Enterobacteriaceae infections has been recognized. This study aimed to investigate risk factors and clinical significance of third-generation cephalosporin nonsusceptibility (3GC-NS) among the cases of monomicrobial Enterobacteriaceae bacteremia (mEB) at regional or district hospitals. Methods The study was conducted at three hospitals in southern Taiwan between Jan. 2017 and Oct. 2019. Only the first episode of mEB from each adult (aged ≥20 years) was included. The primary outcome was in-hospital crude mortality. Results Overall there were 499 episodes of adults with mEB included, and their mean age was 74.5 years. Female predominated, accounting for 53% of all patients. Escherichia coli (62%) and Klebsiella pneumoniae (21%) were two major causative species. The overall mortality rate was 15% (73/499), and patients infected by 3GC-NS isolates (34%, 172/499) had a higher mortality rate than those by 3GC-susceptible isolates (66%, 327/499) (21% vs 11%, P=0.005). By the multivariate analysis, 3GC-NS was the only independent prognostic determinant (adjusted odds ratio [AOR], 1.78; P=0.04). Of note, male (AOR 2.02, P=0.001), nosocomial-acquired bacteremia (AOR 2.77, P<0.001), and usage of nasogastric tube (AOR 2.01, P=0.002) were positively associated with 3GC-NS, but P. mirabilis bacteremia (AOR 0.28, P=0.01) and age (AOR 0.98, P=0.04) negatively with 3GC-NS. Conclusion For adults with Enterobacteriaceae bacteremia, 3GC-NS signifies a significant prognostic impact. Efforts to rapid identification of such antimicrobial resistance profiles should be incorporated into antimicrobial stewardship programs to achieve favorable outcomes.


Power is generated across Alberta, Canada, by three major electric utilities and by independent power producers such as cogenerators and wind power producers. The author describes how, in 2001, competition will be enhanced when independent marketers are given the right to market the output of generating units built under regulation. An overview of this restructuring process is outlined in this paper.


The place of the activities coming from the market of the digital economy is inevitably similar to that which they occupied in the real activities of the traditional economy. By creating virtual links, the new economy creates an order of communication that structures relations with others and the relation to oneself in a new dynamic: the digital individual in the new interactions is reconstituted between a free and autonomous individual superimposed a virtual individual unified to a virtual world. The new communication or digital mediation raises questions about the relationship between the individual and the digital, the new form of economy, that is, the individual imbued with digital mediation in the form of a new market for the structuring economy. The new form of communication in the new form of social (more subjective) and technical interaction imposed by the digital economy market deserves an analysis. This analysis focuses on the characteristics of communication with the new order of mediation, the culture of the individual emerging in the culture of the flourishing economy through the digital market: the trilogy of communication with the Internet between individual, the digital and the economy. Thus, this reflection leads us to the evidence of a new social and economic order in terms of behaviors, attitudes and social governance of the new social identity. To this, we retain a number of recommendations that deserve attention at the level of international, national, local and identities governance to ensure security, dynamism, an interactive and confident human network, a deployment of the ideal human of uniqueness by the virtual. Among the recommendations, we have: at the technical level, it is the use of the technical multilinguistic conversion of contents as a new market mediator tool and consequently of international and global social dialogue; at the political level, it is the acceptance of a new identity and security interface; at the moral level, it is the question of the censorship of the interfaces taking into account the variety of the users and sensitivities of the contents for each users.


Stress-related neuropsychiatric (e.g., anxiety, depression) and cardiovascular diseases are frequently comorbid, though discerning the directionality of their association has been challenging. One of the most controllable risk factors for cardiovascular disease is salt intake. Though high salt intake is implicated in neuropsychiatric diseases, its direct neurobehavioral effects have seldom been explored. We reported that elevated salt intake in mice augments neuroinflammation, particularly after an acute stressor. Here, we explored how high salt consumption affected behavioral responses of mice to mildly arousing environmental and social tests, then assessed levels of the stress-related hormone corticosterone. Unexpectedly, anxiety-related behaviors in the elevated plus maze, open field, and marble burying test were unaffected by increased salt intake. However, nest building was diminished in mice consuming high salt, and voluntary social interaction was elevated, suggesting reduced engagement in ethologically-relevant behaviors that promote survival by attenuating threat exposure. Moreover, we observed significant positive correlations between social preference and subsequent corticosterone only in mice consuming increased salt, as well as negative correlations between open arm exploration in the elevated plus maze and corticosterone selectively in mice in the highest salt condition. Thus, heightened salt consumption reduces behavioral inhibition under relatively low-threat conditions, and enhances circulating corticosterone proportional to specific behavioral shifts. Considering the adverse health consequences of high salt intake, combined with evidence that increased salt consumption impairs inhibition of context-inappropriate behaviors, we suggest that prolonged high salt intake likely promulgates maladaptive behavioral and cardiovascular responses to perceived stressors that may explain some of the prevalent comorbidity between cardiovascular and neuropsychiatric diseases.


In the context of Muslim-friendly tourism, marketers have to pay attention to the needs of their main target, Muslim tourists. This study aimed to examine the influence of destination attributes, including both generic and Islamic attributes, on overall tourist satisfaction to get a more comprehensive view. Likewise, this study investigated the effect of overall tourist satisfaction on its consequences. The moderation effect of Islamic religiosity on the relationship between Islamic attributes and overall tourist satisfaction was also considered. An online survey was conducted, with a sample of 231 Muslims who traveled to Muslim-majority cities, and the data were analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling. The results showed that both generic and Islamic attributes positively influence overall tourist satisfaction, while its consequences affected their behavioral, attitudinal loyalty, and churn intention. Overall tourist satisfaction was not found to affect complaint intention. Likewise, the moderation effect of Islamic religiosity was insignificant.


A set $\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ is said to be spectral if the space $L^2(\Omega)$ has an orthogonal basis of exponential functions. A conjecture due to Fuglede (1974) stated that $\Omega$ is a spectral set if and only if it can tile the space by translations. While this conjecture was disproved for general sets, it has long been known that for a convex body $\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ the "tiling implies spectral" part of the conjecture is in fact true.
To the contrary, the "spectral implies tiling" direction of the conjecture for convex bodies was proved only in $\mathbb{R}^2$, and also in $\mathbb{R}^3$ under the a priori assumption that $\Omega$ is a convex polytope. In higher dimensions, this direction of the conjecture remained completely open (even in the case when $\Omega$ is a polytope) and could not be treated using the previously developed techniques.
In this paper we fully settle Fuglede's conjecture for convex bodies affirmatively in all dimensions, i.e. we prove that if a convex body $\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ is a spectral set then it can tile the space by translations. To prove this we introduce a new technique, involving a construction from crystallographic diffraction theory, which allows us to establish a geometric "weak tiling" condition necessary for a set $\Omega \subset \mathbb{R}^d$ to be spectral.


This study sought to compare risk factors for suicidal ideation among heterosexual and sexual minority college students from a previously understudied conservative region of the United States. Suicidal ideation, thwarted belongingness (TB), perceived burdensomeness (PB), and capability for suicide were examined. It was found that PB was significantly higher among sexual minorities than heterosexual individuals, TB and capability were not significantly different, and suicidal ideation was not significantly different when controlling for depression but was significant when depression was not a covariate. Additionally, among sexual minorities and heterosexuals, TB and PB were correlated with ideation and that the strength of the relationship between PB and ideation was dependent on how much TB the individual is experiencing. Sexual minorities, when compared to heterosexual individuals, do not have higher TB or capability, but do have higher levels of PB and suicidal ideation.


Conventional machine learning applications in the mobile/IoT setting transmit data to a cloud-server for predictions. Due to cost considerations (power, latency, monetary), it is desirable to minimise device-to-server transmissions. The budget learning (BL) problem poses the learner's goal as minimising use of the cloud while suffering no discernible loss in accuracy, under the constraint that the methods employed be edge-implementable.
We propose a new formulation for the BL problem via the concept of bracketings. Concretely, we propose to sandwich the cloud's prediction, $g,$ via functions $h^-, h^+$ from a `simple' class so that $h^- \le g \le h^+$ nearly always. On an instance $x$, if $h^+(x)=h^-(x)$, we leverage local processing, and bypass the cloud. We explore theoretical aspects of this formulation, providing PAC-style learnability definitions; associating the notion of budget learnability to approximability via brackets; and giving VC-theoretic analyses of their properties. We empirically validate our theory on real-world datasets, demonstrating improved performance over prior gating based methods.


Abstract In the twentieth century, South Asia experienced mass migrations of millions of insecure homeless people twice: it witnessed the Partition-refugees from 1947 and saranarthis during the liberation war of 1971. The Indian State treated the first category as 'citizen-refugees', whereas the saranarthis were like temporary shelter-seekers. Among the Northeastern states, Tripura played the most crucial role in providing them with all essential supports. Taken as a case study, this article tries to locate the inner dynamics behind the apparent absorption process in Tripura and it aims to argue that the experience was complex and two-fold in nature for both the communities.


Costa Rica announced its carbon neutrality by 2021; however, the real challenge is in the implementation by means of a national sustainable energy strategy. The possibilities to reach 100 percent of electricity generation expanding hydropower appears as the "dominant" solution, however this approach entails environmental problems and social conflicts that compromise sustainability in the long term. Alternatively, the strategy consisting in a higher diversification of renewable energy sources, i.e. with a relevant role of solar energy, remains relegated. Even though, some alternative technologies have been introduced in Costa Rica forty years ago, they still play a marginal role in the national strategy for climate change. Within the country energy mix, hydropower is widely used by public and private energy generators. This does not imply that all actors are expecting non-conventional technologies to become the sole or dominant provider of electricity. Nevertheless, sustainability and long term planning entail increasing the share of other renewable sources in future energy policies and strategies. In this sense, the following questions emerge: what kind of dilemmas stands before the national energy system today and how to create a path based upon alternative renewable sources in order to reach 100 percent renewable electricity generation, foreseeing carbon neutrality by 2021. There is a wide range of explanations in this respect that could be clustered in two groups: governance and people. First, a change in the energy route is a matter of governance with the number of challenges it entails. Second, energy developments are also a matter of strategic actions, from people or actors, oriented to strengthening the position of e.g. solar power into the national energy mix. To be able to answer these questions, a set of theories and approaches will be used from Agency, Governance and Path-dependence frameworks.


Social Commerce is a phenomenon in the ongoing E-commerce evolution through the
adoption of Web 2.0 capabilities to improve customer participation and achieve
successful business. Despite the trends of Social Commerce which highly anticipate
todays the understanding on the appropriate platform is not clear. There is little research
on Social Commerce adoption as mostly the researchers are more likely to explain on the
theoretical background. This study will look on the Social Commerce elements adoption
in the two different platforms of Ordinal E-Commerce website (standard E-Commerce
website) and the Facebook Page (Social Networking Site) to see which one is better in
terms of marketing and business management. The Social Commerce elements that will
be analyze and compare are Forum & Community, Recommendation & Referral, Rating
& Review and Social Advertising as the key elements of Social Commerce to market
effectively. Later on comparison can be used for better overview of Social Commerce
elements and its function as well the best practices to market in nowadays business
culture.


A large number of observations reveal deviations from expected gravitational behaviour
in astrophysical systems. This suggests that something is missing in our
understanding of the Universe. A well established candidate for explaining these
deviations is dark matter, a kind of matter that is not subject to photon interactions
and thus can not be detected by absorbed or emitted light - it is dark. Even
though we can not observe it at any detectable wavelength, dark matter is postulated
to interact via gravitation. These interactions would then account for the
shortcoming of gravitational pull from visible mass, explaining the observed irregular
gravitational behaviour. One leading hypothesis is that the proposed dark matter
component of the Universe is actually made out of massive, weakly interacting particles.
As of today, there has not yet been any detection of such a particle, leaving
the fundamental properties of dark matter unknown.
There are currently several ongoing experimental projects searching for dark matter
particles, and more are being planned. Furthermore, their accuracy is higher
than ever, and if the dark matter particle hypothesis is correct, it is reasonable
to expect a detection signal in the foreseeable future. The different searches take
complementary approaches and exploit either annihilation, production or direct detection
experiments. The latter, which is the focus of this thesis, aims to detect
dark matter by measuring the recoil of a target nucleus in a detector when a dark
matter particle scatters off of it. In case of positive detection at direct detection
experiments, a model describing the interaction between dark matter particles and
baryonic matter is needed in order to be able to draw conclusions about the dark
matter particle properties.
Under the assumption that dark matter is a spin 1/2 particle that only interacts
with baryonic matter via spin dependent interactions, this thesis studies dark
matter-nucleus scattering in order to see if it is feasible to discriminate between
Majorana and Dirac dark matter. I find that, if dark matter particles are detected
at three different experiments, the Majorana dark matter hypothesis can be rejected
in favour of an alternative hypothesis in which dark matter is a Dirac particle. Restrictions
on target elements that are of interest for this test are presented, and the
test procedure is studied for setups containing some of them, namely: 131Xe, 127I,
73Ge, 23Na and 19F.


Plant leaves that are exposed to herbivore induced plant volatiles (HIPVs) respond by increasing their defenses, a phenomenon referred to as priming. Whether this phenomenon also occurs in the roots is unknown. Using maize plants, Zea mays, whose leaves respond strongly to leaf HIPVs, we measured the impact of belowground HIPVs, emanating from roots infested by the banded cucumber beetle, Diabrotica balteata, on constitutive and herbivore-induced levels of defense-related gene expression, phytohormones, volatile and non-volatile primary and secondary metabolites, growth and herbivore resistance in roots of neighboring plants. HIPV exposure did not increase constitutive or induced levels of any of the measured root traits. Furthermore, HIPV exposure did not reduce the performance or survival of D. balteata on maize or its ancestor teosinte. Cross-exposure experiments between HIPVs from roots and leaves revealed that maize roots, in contrast to maize leaves, neither emit nor respond strongly to defense-regulating HIPVs. Together, these results demonstrate that volatile-mediated defense regulation is restricted to the leaves of maize. This finding is in line with the lower diffusibility of volatiles in the soil and the availability of other, potentially more efficient information conduits below ground. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


AZD6244 is a small molecule inhibitor of the MEK (MAP/ERK kinase) pathway currently in clinical trials. However, the mechanisms mediating intrinsic resistance to MEK inhibition are not fully characterized. To define molecular mechanisms of MEK inhibitor resistance, we analyzed responses of 38 lung cancer cell lines following AZD6244 treatment and their genome-wide gene expression profiles and identified a panel of genes correlated with sensitivity or resistance to AZD6244 treatment. In particular, ingenuity pathway analysis revealed that activation of the STAT3 pathway was associated with MEK inhibitor resistance. Inhibition of this pathway by JSI-124, a STAT3-specific small molecule inhibitor, or with STAT3-specific siRNA sensitized lung cancer cells to AZD6244 and induced apoptosis. Moreover, combining a STAT3 inhibitor with AZD6244 induced expression of BIM and PARP cleavage, whereas activation of the STAT3 pathway inhibited BIM expression and elicited resistance to MEK inhibitors. We found that the STAT3-regulated microRNA miR-17 played a critical role in MEK inhibitor resistance, such that miR-17 inhibition sensitized resistant cells to AZD6244 by inducing BIM and PARP cleavage. Together, these results indicated that STAT3-mediated overexpression of miR-17 blocked BIM expression and caused resistance to AZD6244. Our findings suggest novel approaches to overcome resistance to MEK inhibitors by combining AZD6244 with STAT3 or miR-17 inhibitors.


This article reviews the most relevant techniques currently used for the evaluation of patients with multiple myeloma. Although bone marrow morphologic examination and electrophoretic analysis of the monoclonal paraprotein and conventional x-rays remain the "gold standard" techniques for fast, accurate, and cost-effective diagnosis, other assays such as molecular cytogenetics, immunophenotyping, MRI, and PET-CT may contribute to a better assessment of patients with myeloma. Here, we will discuss not only the contribution of each technique to differential diagnosis of monoclonal gammopathies, but also the value of each parameter for determining prognosis and for monitoring treatment efficacy. In addition, possible technical pitfalls inherent to each technique will be analyzed.


Two herbicide experiments on pumpkin were conducted in a San Anton loam at Fortuna substation from 1989 to 1990 to evaluate clomazone, chloramben, DCPA, metolachar and certain sequential combinations. In the first experiment, clomazone at 1.12 and 2.24 kg ai/ha applied preplant gave excellent control of most grasses. Chloramben at 4.48 kg ai/ha provided only fair weed control. Chloramben in sequential application with bentazon + fluazifop mixture greatly improved weed control. DCPA at 11.2 kg ai/ha controlled weed slightly better than chloramben, DCPA in sequential application with bentazon + fluazifop mixture also improved weed control. The highest pumpkin yield was obtained with the weeded check, which was significantly superior to all herbicide treatments. There were no significant yield differences among the herbicide treatments. In the second experiment, the best weed control treatment was clomazone at 2.24 kg ai/ha applied as pre-plant + sequential application of paraquat at 0.56 kg ai/ha. Metolachor at 2.24 and 4.48 kg ai/ha gave good grass control (80-93%), but only fair (46-70%) on broad leaf weeds. Chloramben at 4.48 kg ai/ha only fairly controlled weeds. DCPA at 11.2 kg ai/ha gave good grass control, but was weak on broadleaf weeds. Chloramben or DCPA in sequential application with paraquat at the rate of 0.56 kg ai/ha controlled weeds better than either used alone. The highest pumpkin yield was obtained with clomazone at 2.24 kg ai/ha + paraquat at 0.56 kg at/ha, followed by the weeded check and clomazone at 1.12 kg ai/ha. These three treaments differed significantly from the four remaining herbicide treatments.


This paper presents the algorithm and VLSI architecture of a configurable tree-searching approach that combines the features of classical depth-first and breadth-first methods. Based on this approach, techniques to reduce complexity while providing both hard and soft outputs decoding are presented. Furthermore, a single programmable parameter allows the user to tradeoff throughput versus BER performance. The proposed multiple-input-multiple-output decoder supports a 4 × 4 64-QAM system and was synthesized with 65-nm CMOS technology at 333 MHz clock frequency. For the hard output scheme the design can achieve an average throughput of 257.8 Mbps at 24 dB signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) with area equivalent to 54.2 Kgates and a power consumption of 7.26 mW. For the soft output scheme it achieves an average throughput of 83.3 Mbps across the SNR range of interest with an area equivalent to 64 Kgates and a power consumption of 11.5 mW.


Problem Statement: Malaysia is generally driven by a service oriented industry whereby agriculture was placed at the third ranks of government economic priority. In the agriculture sector, the human capital empowerment has contributed towards agriculture productivity and production success which relates to those people involve in farming as farmers. Recent insight reviled that farmers with quality of an entrepreneur will largely to succeed in agriculture based business. Hence, a lot of agriculture based business depends on agriculture entrepreneur in Malaysia. Thus, an assessment study was done for one of entrepreneurship programme held in Serdang and its relation to entrepreneurship development in Malaysia. Methodology: The research design of this study employs qualitative research method. Data were gathered using social inquiry and in-depth interview techniques. It was used to develop a better understanding of the programme particularly in aspects of course content, their individual perception, and personal experience towards the programme. Sampling method was done via a purposive sampling. Five respondents were chosen and interviewed. Findings and discussions: The interviews of respondents indicated most of farmers or agri-entrepreneur was male, ranging age from 20 to 50 years old and majority mean of agriculture field experience is three years. They became an entrepreneur by inner intuition, learn farming from their parents, and one of them had influenced by his surrounding environments. They were highly specialized in their field, business minded, and very committed to their business venture. All respondents know how to use the technological application of fertigation planting system in growing crops. Finding also shows early acceptance of mediated change to entrepreneurs whereby improving their knowledge, attitude and skill. Thus, entrepreneurship values showed in them are; 1) must have planning and aim, 2) past farming experience, 3) believed in their self, and 4) continue and eager to improve the farming business. This study shows one can succeed in doing business venture through the will power, able to control focus on aims and later will generate profit thereafter. As to succeed in life, they only have to continue pushing the limits and sustainability of their business.Conclusions: The entire respondent shows improvement after the incubation programme and after finish the programme they become a successful entrepreneur where the evidence by their actions for at past, present experience, and in their future aims. This programme is a good programme meant to be as intermediary programme where improving the life of farmers and nurtured them becoming an experience agri-technology entrepreneur.


Ship design today can be viewed as an ad hoc process. It must be considered in the context of integration with other design development activities, such as production, costing, quality control, and so forth. Otherwise, it is possible for the designer to design a ship that is difficult to produce, requires high material or labor cost, or contains some design flaws that the production engineers have to correct or send back for redesigning before production can be done. Any adjustment required after the design stage will result in a penalty of extra time or cost. Deficiencies in the design of a ship will influence the succeeding stages of production. In addition to designing a ship that fulfills producibility requirements, it is also desirable to design a ship that satisfies risk, performance, cost, and customer requirements criteria. More recently, environmental concerns, safety, passenger comfort, and life-cycle issues are becoming essential parts of the current shipbuilding industry. Therefore, "design for X paradigm" should also be considered during the ship design stages. An integrated multiple attributive decision support system for producibility evaluation in ship design (PRODEVIS) is developed to use by industry and researchers in evaluating the producibility of competing ship designs and design features during the early stages of ship design by taking into account cost, performance, risk, and "design for X paradigm" attributes. This developed approach is a fuzzy multiple attributive group decision-making methodology where feasible design alternatives are conducted by a ship production simulation technique. In this approach, an attribute-based aggregation technique for a heterogeneous group of experts is employed and used for dealing with fuzzy opinion aggregation for the subjective attributes of the ship design evaluation problem. The developed methodology is illustrated with a case study.


The prevalence of gallstone disease was studied by ultrasound screening of a hospital population of 424 men and 631 women in Maastricht, admitted for elective surgery unrelated to gallstone disease. In the youngest age group (20-30 yr) no gallstone disease was observed. The prevalence increased with age. In the oldest age category (70-80 yr) 16% of the men and 40% of the women were found to have gallstone disease. The proportion of men with gallstone disease who had undergone cholecystectomy was 39%. In women this was 50%. Data acquired by a list of questions of a sample out of the general population indicated that the prevalence in the general population may be somewhat lower.


Bleomycin (BLM) exclusively affects thymidine-containing compounds such as DNA and polydeoxyribonucleotides by releasing free thymine and leaving aldehyde functions. Molecular morphology and base sequence of the DNA strongly influence BLM activity. High BLM concentrations, besides modifying DNA into oligothyminic or athyminic nucleic acids, cause strand scissions. Enzymatic DNA and RNA synthesis is strongly influenced by BLM. The inhibition in DNA-dependent DNA polymerase and DNA-dependent RNA polymerase assays is of the non-competitive type. Protein biosynthesis in in vitro systems is not affected by BLM even at high concentrations. BLM turns out to be a strong inhibitor of DNase I and of DNase II; the inhibition is of the competitive type. The enzymatic activities of nucleases using RNA as substrate (RNase A, RNase B, Rnase T1, venom phosphodiesterase I and spleen phosphodiesterase II) are not influenced by this antibiotic. The antibiotic reduces cell proliferation (L5178y mouse lymphoma cells) in vitro in low concentrations by cytostasis and at higher concentrations by cytotoxicity. In BLM-treated L5178y cells, DNA synthesis is strongly reduced, while RNA and protein synthesis are not affected. In vivo, using growing quail oviducts, cell proliferation and cytodifferentiation are markedly inhibited after BLM treatment. This is attributed to the observed inhibition of DNA synthesis. RNA and protein synthesis as well as gene expression are not influenced by BLM under the conditions used. The selective inhibition of DNA synthesis in vivo may be caused by the following mechanisms: (1) competition of BLM with RNA; (2) blocking of the accessibility of DNA in chromatin to BLM, and (3) dependence from the repair processes. BLM inhibits growth of sarcomas, induced by oncogenic RNA viruses in vivo; well-developed tumours show regression after BLM treatment. Transformation of chick embryo fibroblasts by oncogenic RNA viruses in vitro and growth of these viruses is blocked by BLM; the most sensitive period for BLM inhibition is the time during the first period (integration of viral genome into cellular genome?) after infection.


Waste incineration is an important part of many processes. Waste water incineration
is however, not a common practice. This thesis has evaluated the performance
of waste water incineration through a case study at AkzoNobel in Stenungsund. The
primary aim of the process is the destruction of ammonia present in the waste water
and ventilation gas feed streams. Secondary focus is to reduce the formation of NOx
in the process. The waste water incineration process consists of two evaporators,
one furnace, one dust cyclone, a separation step containing one quench and one
separation unit, and lastly one electrostatic filter before the flue gases are emitted
to the atmosphere via a flue gas fan and a stack.
The evaluation was performed in three parts. The first part included mapping mass
balances of the incinerator and the important units. The balances were based on
real time data from the process. In the second part a chemical reaction modelling
software was used to make a sensitivity analysis for the operating parameters with
respect to the NOx formation. The third part consisted of experimental tests varying
a set of parameters that were run over a period of around six days.
The result of the mapping shows that the mass balance may be completed. The
modeling results indicates that the most important parameters are temperature,
amount of excess air and amount of water fed to the furnace. The Experimental
test results are consistent with both literature and modeling outcome.
The conclusion from this thesis work is that high temperature and high oxygen levels
yields a low ammonia slip but increase the amount of NO formed. On the other
hand, low temperatures and low oxygen levels gives low levels of NO but increase
the amount of un-reacted ammonia in the stack. The flow of direct water also has
a large effect on the performance of the furnace. The most important uncertainties
are the ventilation gas composition and the amount of ammonia washed away in the
quench step.


The metaphor of the patent bargain, the notion that a patent represents the grant of the right of exclusivity in exchange for the disclosure of a novel invention, is generally accepted among the members of the patent law community. Evidence of the metaphor's persuasiveness and pervasiveness is provided by the Supreme Court's reliance on the patent quid pro quo as a framing device to address the question of the constitutionality of copyright term extension in Eldred v. Ashcroft. This article challenges the coherence and purchase of the patent bargain metaphor by arguing that it rests on an outdated notion of the state inconsistent with the many regulatory goals of patent law. The central thesis is that the patent law community should replace the quid pro quo metaphor with a regulatory theory of patents that sees patent law as regulating primary conduct in the innovation process. The adoption of a regulatory theory of patent would aid not only in avoiding some of the conceptual errors in the Eldred decision, but also in understanding recent reform proposals forwarded by the National Academy of Science and the Federal Trade Commission. While this article presents a critique of many existing patent reform proposals, such as the narrowing of subject matter in consideration of competitive concerns and the loosening of the presumption of validity, the article agrees with the spirit of the proposals as examples of the regulatory theory of patent law in practice. The challenge to the patent bargain metaphor is made first as a broad criticism of social contract theory as applied to patent law. It is argued that social contract theory rests on a quaint and pre-modern notion of government which is inconsistent with the realities of the modern regulatory state. It is also argued that social contract theory rests on a misguided reliance on the prisoner's dilemma as a characterization of the problems in private ordering that patent law is designed to address. The prisoner's dilemma is shown to ignore the role of reciprocity and trust in the innovation process. The article presents the assurance game as an alternative representative of the problem of private ordering and basis for patent law. The assurance game expressly incorporates reciprocity and trust into an evolutionary view of the prisoner's dilemma and supports the view that patent law is a regulatory system designed to promote reciprocity and trust much like securities law. The assurance game is used to critique four existing theories of patent law: the prospecting theory, the information costs theory, the business asset theory, and the industry regulation theory. Finally, three salient patent reform proposals, limitations on patentable subject matter, the NAS reform proposals, and the FTC reform proposals are addressed within the frame of the assurance game. These applications demonstrate the power of thinking of patent law in terms of the assurance game and represent the initial steps towards developing a regulatory theory of patent law.


With the technology trend of hardware and workload consolidation for embedded systems and the rapid development of edge computing, there has been increasing interest in supporting parallel real-time tasks to better utilize the multi-core platforms while meeting the stringent real-time constraints. For parallel real-time tasks, the federated scheduling paradigm, which assigns each parallel task a set of dedicated cores, achieves good theoretical bounds by ensuring exclusive use of processing resources to reduce interferences. However, because cores share the last-level cache and memory bandwidth resources, in practice tasks may still interfere with each other despite executing on dedicated cores. Such resource interferences due to concurrent accesses can be even more severe for embedded platforms or edge servers, where the computing power and cache/memory space are limited. To tackle this issue, in this work, we present a holistic resource allocation framework for parallel real-time tasks under federated scheduling. Under our proposed framework, in addition to dedicated cores, each parallel task is also assigned with dedicated cache and memory bandwidth resources. Further, we propose a holistic resource allocation algorithm that well balances the allocation between different resources to achieve good schedulability. Additionally, we provide a full implementation of our framework by extending the federated scheduling system with Intel's Cache Allocation Technology and MemGuard. Finally, we demonstrate the practicality of our proposed framework via extensive numerical evaluations and empirical experiments using real benchmark programs.