Background: The WHO estimates that approximately 600 million people fall ill after consumption of contaminated food and over 420 000 die every year, resulting in loss of 33 million healthy life years. Hand hygiene is considered   by the WHO to be the most effective preventive measure for infectious diseases including food borne diseases.
Methods: A laboratory-based study involving convenient sampling of common brands alcohol based hand sanitizers (ABHS) from retail community pharmacies and local supermarkets was conducted in Ilala District, Dar es salaam, Tanzania The study was conducted , between December 2017 to January 2018.  A modified protocol of The European Norm (EN) 1500 was used for in vivo testing of sampled ABHs. Efficacy was evaluated using standard strain of Escherichia coli. A total of 26 healthy volunteers were used for hand sanitization.  The percentage of bioburden/microbial reduction was assessed at baseline and after treatment, and the log reduction factor calculated.
Results: A total of 10 gel ABHS were purchased and assayed for antibacterial efficacy. Majority (70%) of ABHS were imported products and contained ethanol as the sole active ingredient.  About 60% of them did not correctly indicate the label disclosure information on concentration of active ingredients.  Only one product was efficacious against   E.coli   with log reduction  of 3.75; while majority (70%)  of the samples had poor bacterial  efficacy with log reduction ranging from 0.140 -0.664.
Conclusions: Most of ABHS  gel products available in the Dar es Salaam market were not efficacious as per FDA and EN 1500 guidelines. Post market surveillance is recommended of the circulating ABH to safe guard consumers.
Keywords: Hand sanitizers, efficacy, E.coli, EN 1500


Leading advocates for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) advancement in the United States debate the central objectives of the movement as well as its proper reformist scope. On the libertarian right, gay rights proponents articulate a narrow vision, devoid of race or class consciousness and focused on obtaining formal equality through spare legal reforms—mainly access to marriage and military inclusion. On the left, advocates envision a larger cultural transformation, one that intersects with racial and economic justice and challenges the norms of powerful institutions such as family, capitalism, and the military.
 A review of empirical research demonstrates that the needs in the LGBTQ community are diverse and, in many cases, urgent. The most privileged, along axes of race and class, may have few concerns apart from protection against discrimination and formal exclusion from major social institutions. Once the full spectrum of LGBTQ demographics and experience are considered, however, such a constricted range of reform objectives reveals itself to be insufficient to address such obstacles as hunger, homelessness, and unemployment.
 A fresh approach to evaluating LGBTQ legal needs yields an equally fresh set of alternatives to the mainstream legal reform agenda. An intersectionally and distributively cognizant shift in the movement's direction could advance the needs of the most disadvantaged members of the community, including homeless youth, transgender sex workers, and low-income parents.


Article history: Received January 5, 2016 Received in revised format June 15, 2016 Accepted July 21, 2016 Available online July 25, 2016 Nowadays, trade mark is one of the most important components of the products in both consumers and producers' perspectives. In this study, two separate but related mechanism through which the trademark is supposed to create value for customers, were investigated. Likeness/ description and functional-aesthetic benefits were taken into consideration. This research shows the positive effects of logo on customer commitment regarding the performance. Commitment reflects customers' desire for cooperation by considering the effects of a logo. Logo will help customers easily identify and select a brand. This research proves that, from the customer's perspective, trademarks contain meaning, and thus include brief information on the struggle for marketing. In case of the purpose, this study is an applied research and in terms of data-gathering it is a descriptive – survey one. Since the population of the survey was unlimited, initial investigations indicated that 384 questionnaires should be distributed based on Morgan table. Using structural equation modeling, the survey results showed that descriptive-cognitive, functional benefits and aesthetic tendencies had significant influences on customer commitment in regards of performance. © 2016 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


Author(s): Bahr, Stephanie Meredith | Advisor(s): Landreth, David | Abstract: AbstractReading "Martyred Signs": Reformation Hermeneutics and LiteraturebyStephanie Meredith BahrDoctor of Philosophy in EnglishUniversity of California, BerkeleyProfessor David Landreth, Chair This dissertation—Reading "Martyred Signs": Reformation Hermeneutics and Literature—contends that Reformation struggles over Biblical interpretation generated a violently unstable hermeneutic environment and exerted a defining influence on Renaissance literature. Although the Reformation hinged on the most fundamental question of literary study—how to interpret texts—most literary scholars encounter these Biblical hermeneutics only indirectly, reduced to doctrinal bullet points. Such a distillation misrepresents as stable product an unstable process fraught with violence, in which the stakes of interpretation were torture, execution, and damnation. Through close analysis of Catholic Thomas More's and Protestant William Tyndale's theological polemics, my first chapter shows that the very hermeneutic distinctions often reified by current scholarship—that Catholics embraced myriad allegorical senses, whereas Protestants insisted on a solitary literal sense—were actually in perpetual collapse. Although More's and Tyndale's interpretive theories are wildly different, their interpretive practices become nearly indistinguishable. I argue that their vicious print battle and its violently unstable hermeneutics shaped Renaissance textuality, poetics, and the fraught categories by which Renaissance readers understood reading. The dominating pressures of these theological hermeneutics cannot be limited to explicitly religious contexts, nor is their influence a purely passive, environmental phenomenon. My next three chapters demonstrate that Thomas Wyatt's lyric poetry, Edmund Spenser's epic allegory, and William Shakespeare's commercial drama actively take up the challenges these violent and contradictory hermeneutics present. Both stylistically and thematically, Wyatt's verse hangs poised between More and Tyndale's hemeneutic ideals, expresses a profound longing for Tyndale's ideal of the stable, literal sense that it treats as unachievable due to the irredeemable corruption of the multitude on whom More's ideals depend. Whereas Wyatt's poetry embodies the uneasy tension between Protestant ideals and Protestant practice, Spenser's poetry seeks to resolve that tension. Confronted with the iconoclasm and anti-aestheticism of the many Protestants who (like Tyndale) condemned romance, allegory, and poetry, Spenser's Faerie Queene implements all three to create an orthodox depiction of Protestant doctrine and hermeneutics. Figural allegory is the only way for Spenser to transform the inward, illegible process of reading-as-salvation into an externally legible pedagogical narrative, yet this narrative is inescapably violent—populated by demonic doppelgangers and rife with physical and psychological torture, murder, and rape. A similar brutality dominates Shakespeare's Titus Andronicus. In Titus, Reformation disputes about whether to read figuratively or literally play out on stage as characters brutally literalize the conventional metonymic fragmentation of the body and as the Romans and Goths enact narratives on the bodies of their enemies. Titus dramatizes the interpretive instability of the Reformation as rape, murder, dismemberment, and cannibalism. By reinvesting in early vernacular theology, my project recovers one of the earliest sources of hermeneutic theories in English, which yoked the physical and psychological violence of the Reformation to the very act of interpretation.


Hong focuses on how the state, in conjunction with market forces and class interests, is constructing and realigning its digitalized sector. State planners intend to build a more competitive ICT sector by modernizing the network infrastructure, corporatizing media-and-entertainment institutions, and by using ICT as a crosscutting catalyst for innovation, industrial modernization, and export upgrades. The goal: to end China's industrial and technological dependence upon foreign corporations while transforming itself into a global ICT leader. The project, though bright with possibilities, unleashes implications rife with contradiction and surprise. Hong analyzes the central role of information, communications, and culture in Chinese style capitalism. She also argues that the state and elites have failed to challenge entrenched interests or redistribute power and resources, as promised. Instead, they prioritize information, communications, and culture as technological fixes to make pragmatic tradeoffs between economic growth and social justice.


The purpose of this study was to assess the impact, in relation to carbon emissions, of electronic course document use and attitudes to paper consumption levels among third- and fifth-year environmental engineering students ( N = 78) enrolled in two courses during the 2015/2016 academic year at the Copperbelt University in Kitwe, Zambia. Data were collected through an online survey, to which 40 students provided complete responses, as well as through semi-structured interviews and observations. Overall, 80% of the students in the sample reported that they read electronic course materials. They also indicated that they 'know a lot' about sustainable development, climate change, greenhouse gases and global warming, and agreed that efficient paper use is an important aspect of achieving sustainability. Importantly, the study found that the lecturer's mode of delivery of course materials influenced the students to develop responsible environmental behaviours such as reading and sharing e-course documents and reusing paper. Keywords: Climate change, paper consumption, education for sustainable development, higher education


ABSTRACT Previous research has revealed the existence of a mismatch between the skills in demand in the urban labor market and the skill levels of large numbers of the urban poor. Numerous public job training efforts have been initiated to ameliorate this problem. Missing from the extensive evaluations of these programs has been the central issue of whether employers perceive public job training programs to have reduced the skills mismatch gap. Through the use of cross-sectional data analysis methods analyzing survey data from a survey of 693 Chicago area employers, we find that almost half of these employers perceive there to be a skills mismatch between their needs for entry-level workers and the skills of public job training participants. Moreover, the employers who perceive there to be a skills mismatch are those who hire white-collar entry-level workers and those who perceive that public job training participants have poor work habits and are racial and ethnic minorities.


Abstract The changed security scenario of the modern time has necessitated increased and sophisticated vigilance of the countries' borders. The technological challenges involved in accomplishing such feat of automated security system are many and require research at the components-and-algorithms as well as the architectural levels.  This paper proposes an architectural framework for automated video surveillance comprising a network of sensors and closed circuit television cameras as well as proposing algorithmic/component research of software and hardware for the core functioning of the framework, such as: communication protocols, object detection, data-integration, object identification, object tracking, video compression, threat identification, and alarm generation. In this paper, we are addressing some general topological and routing features that would be adopted in our system. There are two types of data with regard to data communication – video stream and object detection. The network is broken down into several disjoint, almost equal zones. A zone have one or more one cluster. A zone manager is chosen among the cluster heads depending on their relative residual energies. There are several levels of control that could be implemented with this arrangement with localized decision made, to get distributed effect at all levels. A cell tracks each target in its zone. If the target moves out of the range of a cell, the cell manager will send the target description to estimated next cell. The next cell starts tracking the target. If the estimated cell is wrongly chosen, corrections will be made by the cluster heads to get the new target-tracking. We also propose bitrate reduction algorithms to accommodate the limited bandwidth. One of the main feature of this paper is introducing a Low-Power Low-Bit rate video compression algorithm to accommodate the low power requirements at sensor nodes, and the low bit rate requirement for the communication protocol. We proposed two algorithms the ALBR and LPHSME. ALBR is addressing low bit rate required for sensors network with limited bandwidth which achieves a reduction in Average number of bits per Iframe by approximately 60% in case of low motion video sequences and 53% in case of fast motion video sequences . LPHSME addresses low power requirements of multi sensor network that has limited power batteries. The performance of the proposed LPHSME algorithm versus full search and three step search indicates  a reduction in motion estimation time by approximately 89% in case of low motion video sequences (e.g., Claire ) and 84% in case of fast motion video sequences. The reduced complexity of  LPHSME results in low power requirements.


Steady-state throughput and scheduling of a multicluster tool become complex as the number of modules and clusters grows. We propose a new methodology integrating event graph and network models to study the scheduling and throughput of multicluster tools. A symbolic decision-move-done graph modeling is developed to simplify discrete-event dynamics for the multicluster tool. This event graph is further used for searching feasible action sequences of the cluster tool. By representing sequences with networks, an extended critical path method is applied to calculate the corresponding cycle time. Grouping methods that are based on network are also introduced to reduce the searching complexity. Compared with optimization-based scheduling approaches, the proposed methodology can directly capture the cyclic characteristic of cluster tool schedules and be applied to analyze the impact of process and wafer flow variations on cycle time and robot schedules. We have successfully applied this new methodology to dozens of cluster tools at Intel Corporation. A chemical-mechanical planarization polisher is employed as an example to illustrate and validate the proposed methodology


The levels of mRNA expression of three UDP-N-acetyl-alpha-D-galactosamine:polypeptide GalNAc N-acetylgalactosaminyltransferases (GalNAc-transferases) were quantified for human adenocarcinoma cell lines from pancreas, colon, stomach, and breast. Two of the GalNAc-transferases, GalNAc-T1 and GalNAc-T2, were expressed constitutively and at low levels in most or all cell lines examined. A third GalNAc-transferase, GalNAc-T3, was differentially expressed. Well-differentiated adenocarcinoma cell lines expressed high levels and moderately differentiated cell lines expressed lower levels of GalNAc-T3. Cell lines classified as poorly differentiated failed to express GalNAc-T3 mRNA at levels that could be detected by Northern blot analysis. Differential expression of the GalNAc-T3 protein was confirmed in these cell lines by Western blotting. We propose that glycosylation in tumor cell lines may be regulated in part by differential expression of GalNAc-transferases, and we suggest that GalNAc-T3 gene expression may be a molecular indicator of differentiated adenocarcinoma.


Currently, much attention is given to studying the etiological role of bacterial and viral infection in the development and progression of IgA-nephropathy. We analyzed the renal biopsy tissue from 117 patients with IgA-nephropathy in presence of an infectious antigen. We have discovered that the presence of an infectious antigen does not depend on the age of a patient. A pronounced effect of infection on the development of morphological changes in the kidneys regardless of the age of the patient is shown.


Clustering has been the topic of extensive research in the past. The main concern is to automatically divide a given data set into different clusters such that vectors of the same cluster are as similar as possible and vectors of different clusters are as different as possible. Finite mixture models have been widely used for clustering since they have the advantages of being able to integrate prior knowledge about the data and to address the problem of unsupervised learning in a formal way. A crucial starting point when adopting mixture models is the choice of the components densities. In this context, the well-known Gaussian distribution has been widely used. However, the deployment of the Gaussian mixture implies implicitly clustering based on the minimization of Euclidean distortions which may yield to poor results in several real applications where the per-components densities are not Gaussian. Recent works have shown that other models such as the Dirichlet, generalized Dirichlet and Beta-Liouville mixtures may provide better clustering results in applications containing non-Gaussian data, especially those involving proportional data (or normalized histograms) which are naturally generated by many applications. Two other challenging aspects that should also be addressed when considering mixture models are: how to determine the model's complexity (i.e. the number of mixture components) and how to estimate the model's parameters. Fortunately, both problems can be tackled simultaneously within a principled elegant learning framework namely variational inference. The main idea of variational inference is to approximate the model posterior distribution by minimizing the Kullback-Leibler divergence between the exact (or true) posterior and an approximating distribution. Recently, variational inference has provided good generalization performance and computational tractability in many applications including learning mixture models.

In this thesis, we propose several approaches for high-dimensional non-Gaussian data clustering based on various mixture models such as Dirichlet, generalized Dirichlet and Beta-Liouville. These mixture models are learned using variational inference which main advantages are computational efficiency and guaranteed convergence. More specifically, our contributions are four-fold. Firstly, we develop a variational inference algorithm for learning the finite Dirichlet mixture model, where model parameters and the model complexity can be determined automatically and simultaneously as part of the Bayesian inference procedure; Secondly, an unsupervised feature selection scheme is integrated with finite generalized Dirichlet mixture model for clustering high-dimensional non-Gaussian data; Thirdly, we extend the proposed finite generalized mixture model to the infinite case using a nonparametric Bayesian framework known as Dirichlet process, so that the difficulty of choosing the appropriate number of clusters is sidestepped by assuming that there are an infinite number of mixture components; Finally, we propose an online learning framework to learn a Dirichlet process mixture of Beta-Liouville distributions (i.e. an infinite Beta-Liouville mixture model), which is more suitable when dealing with sequential or large scale data in contrast to batch learning algorithm. The effectiveness of our approaches is evaluated using both synthetic and real-life challenging applications such as image databases categorization, anomaly intrusion detection, human action videos categorization, image annotation, facial expression recognition, behavior recognition, and dynamic textures clustering.


In chapter 1, the background and origins of this study are explained. The aims of the study are defined. In chapter 2, an analysis of the complications rate of limb reconstruction in a cohort of 37 consecutive growing children was done. Several patient and deformity factors were investigated by logistic regression in a polytomous ordinal regression model. The only independent statistical factor influencing the complication rate was the initial relative limb length discrepancy. A simple graph was constructed, allowing comparison of the results with other reconstruction units. In chapter 3, the lower limb reconstruction of a cohort of 30 growing children, followed up for at least 2 years, and still growing, has been analyzed. The analysis is focused on the reaction of the paediatric limb to the trauma of lengthening. 15 patients showed increased growth rates in the operated limb compared to the pre-operative growth rate. This was statistically related to large frames including the femur and tibia with joint distraction. In chapter 4 the results of an experiment are described. The documented increased growth rate after paediatric lengthening was further investigated in an animal experiment. The concept is that the application of a femur external fixator and joint distraction could have a stimulative effect on the growth plate of the proximal tibia during tibial lengthening. The application of a femoral Ilizarov frame during tibial lengthening stimulates tibial growth significantly after the lengthening. Joint distraction has an insignificant minor additional effect to the application of a femoral frame in all animals. Chapter 5 describes the scintigraphic reaction in the growth plates during and after the experiment as described in chapter 4. It was thought that the scintigraphic activity of the growth plates would reflect the biological activity during and after lengthening procedures. Unfortunately, no relation between growth rate and scintigraphic activity of the growth plates could be shown. Several possibly explanations are discussed, but no definitive cause for the findings could be found. In chapter 6, the lower limb reconstruction of 52 patients with post-traumatic deformities was analyzed. The treatment failed in only 3 patients. As described in chapter 2, the analysis showed that the relative limb length discrepancy was the sole factor influencing the complication rate. Again a graph was constructed, showing the relation between complication risk and relative limb length discrepancy/bone loss. This profile shows that the 50% risk threshold for 1 or more complications is 8% limb length discrepancy, for 2 or more complications it is 16%, for 3 or more complications 31%. In chapter 7, arthrodesis of the knee after failed arthrodesis for infected knee arthroplasty was analyzed. The concepts of Ilizarov's method were well illustrated with the union of 14 out of 15 patients and total resolution of the infection in all 15 patients. The success rate of union and infection control has not been reported before. In chapter 8, the findings of all investigations are discussed and put in a context for daily practice.


The paper compares how feedback is expressed via speech and head movements in comparable corpora of first encounters in three Nordic languages: Danish, Finnish and Swedish. The three corpora have been collected following common guidelines, and they have been annotated according to the same scheme in the NOMCO project. The results of the comparison show that in this data the most frequent feedback-related head movement is Nod in all three languages. Two types of Nods were distinguished in all corpora: Down-nods and Up-nods; the participants from the three countries use Down- and Up-nods with different frequency. In particular, Danes use Down-nods more frequently than Finns and Swedes, while Swedes use Up-nods more frequently than Finns and Danes. Finally, Finns use more often single Nods than repeated Nods, differing from the Swedish and Danish participants. The differences in the frequency of both Down-nods and Up-nods in the Danish, Finnish and Swedish interactions are interesting given that Nordic countries are not only geographically near, but are also considered to be very similar culturally. Finally, a comparison of feedback related words in the Danish and Swedish corpora shows that Swedes and Danes use common feedback words corresponding to yes and no with similar frequency.


The third volume of Aspects of the Orange Revolution complements the essays of the first two collections providing further historical background on, and analytical insight into, the events at Kyiv in late 2004. Its seven contributions by both established and younger specialists range from electoral statistics to musicology, and deal with, among other issues, such questions as: Why had blatant election fraud not generated mass protest before 2004, but, in that year, did? How was Viktor Yushchenko able to collect enough votes to defeat the establishment candidate Viktor Yanukovych, and become the new President of a socially, geographically and culturally divided country? How was it possible to prevent large-scale violence, and which role did the judiciary play during the quasi-revolutionary events in autumn-winter 2004? What legal foundations and court decisions made the repetition of the second round of the presidential elections possible? Which campaign instruments, and political 'technologies' were applied by various domestic and foreign actors to activate the Ukrainian population? How did the internet and music become factors in the emergence of mass protests involving hundreds of thousands of people? To which degree and how did external influences affect the Orange Revolution? Erik S. Herron, Paul E. Johnson, Dominique Arel, Ivan Katchanovski, Ralph S. Clem, Peter R. Craumer, Hartmut Rank, Stephan Heidenhain, Adriana Helbig and Andrew Wilson present a multifarious panorama of the origins and dynamics of the processes that changed the nature of political and civic life during and between the three rounds of Ukraine's fateful 2004 presidential elections.


Through a qualitative analysis of primary data collected during visits to about 38 PHCs and ANM Sub-centres in Karnataka, this paper illustrates the various uses (and misuses) of this infrastructure and buildings. Besides healthcare delivery, it was found, these sites and buildings are being used in various ways including adaptive 'repurposing' of rooms, abandonment and part use, and as public spaces and commons. Typically, basic services, especially waste management and sanitation, were found to be grossly inadequate. This paper aims to raise critical issues around the design, development and maintenance of these facilities, and concludes with a discussion on how primary healthcare infrastructure can be made more useful in the delivery of health outcomes.


This documentary, qualitative, descriptive study has the objective to analyze images and representations of the female body and their relation to drug use in the content of articles published in four magazines with national circulation (Veja, Isto E, Boa Forma, Claúdia). The articles selected were submitted to the technique of content analysis, with three thematic groups identified: the body as an incentive to use drugs; risks to the body resulting from drug use; and the search for the perfect body through drug use. The data showed that the media reproduces rigid aesthetic standards, exposing women to social and health offenses that stimulate drug use, either autonomously or by prescription. The search for beauty and the appeal to feminine eroticism, published through the communication channels analyzed limit the social importance of women by using images that link them to the status of sexual object.


ABSTRACT Positive interactions with police among youth can help establish long-lasting positive attitudes toward police (ATP). A particularly important aspect of the relationship between juveniles and the police is their willingness to report crime to law enforcement. Unfortunately, many adolescent victimizations go unreported. We used a sample of 5th and 6th grade students (N = 1,994) in two separate cohorts from two independent data collection intervals of a large-scale study in a Midwestern county to examine how early adolescent ATP, and other factors, such as demographic characteristics, delinquency involvement, prior victimization, fear of victimization, and the perceived risk of victimization, influences intentions to report crime to the police. Results indicated that students in both cohorts who had more positive ATP and a greater perceived risk of victimization reported greater intentions to report crimes to the police. Additionally, White students reported greater willingness to report to the police than Black students. Other results varied between the two cohorts. Implications for the association between ATP and willingness to report to the police are discussed.


This thesis is about the project governance scheme in the Polish road sector. It is based on the case study of the project of the expressway S-7 realized in northern Poland. The aim of this research was to present Polish road sector scheme and to analyse it with basis on the implemented project. To provide investigation properly, a literature study was performed as well as a definition of the road sector scheme based on guidelines and law acts. Based on the research, significant strengths and weaknesses were identified. The most important weaknesses were found to be, firstly, a too large number of actors in decision-making process, and secondly, slighting of the economic values. The most important strengths were found to be, firstly, a very accurate supervision of environmental impact, and secondly, the self-control of the General Directorate of National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA). The thesis had many limitations what encourages to further research. The biggest limitation was difficulties with obtaining accurate data adopted to the analysis for project. The thesis offers two main possible ways for further research. The first consist in advancing deeper into an analysis of the road sector. The other consist in the possibility of an analysis of other sectors and, based on a comparative approach, trying to propose measures with the intention of creating a general national project governance scheme for Poland. On basis of the thesis, some suggestions were formulated based on identified European practices. Examples of these are, reducing the number of participants involved into the scheme, and addressing economic issues in more detail. This thesis should contribute real value for Polish scientists, who are interested in project governance, and international society of scientists by presenting Polish project governance scheme in road sector.


In this study, liposomal hydrogel complex drug delivery system to enhance transdermal permeation of itraconazole as a model d rug was developed. T he complex systems were prepared by incorporating drug liposome consisting of biocompatible lipid, into carbopol to form hydroge l. The systems were evaluated for encapsulation efficiency, particle size, zeta potential and ex vivo release behavior for skin permeability. FT - IR studies were done to find for any drug excipient interactions. The particle size was ranging from 94.2 nm to 104.8 nm with low PdI indicating the formation of monodisperse system. The % of drug released from the formulation was ranging from 48.04 % to 99.92 % in 24 h. In terms of skin permeability, complex liposomal hydrogel has proved to have greater skin permeation compared to simple liposomal system, simple hydrogel system and the plain drug suspension (485.49, 36 2.06, 226.03 and 172. 25 μg/cm 2 /h 1 ). From the release kinetics we can conclude the drug is releasing by diffusion mechanism and also due to erosion of the gelling agent. It was found that liposome in hydrogel complex systems improved skin permeability of the drug when compared to control with high flux and high permeability coefficient. These results indicate that liposome in hydrogel systems can function as probable drug delivery systems to enhance transderma l permeation of the water insoluble itraconazole for treating the topi cal infections.


Policy gradient lies at the core of deep reinforcement learning (RL) in continuous domains. Despite much success, it is often observed in practice that RL training with policy gradient can fail for many reasons, even on standard control problems with known solutions. We propose a framework for understanding one inherent limitation of the policy gradient approach: the optimization landscape in the policy space can be extremely non-smooth or fractal for certain classes of MDPs, such that there does not exist gradient to be estimated in the first place. We draw on techniques from chaos theory and non-smooth analysis, and analyze the maximal Lyapunov exponents and H\"older exponents of the policy optimization objectives. Moreover, we develop a practical method that can estimate the local smoothness of objective function from samples to identify when the training process has encountered fractal landscapes. We show experiments to illustrate how some failure cases of policy optimization can be explained by such fractal landscapes.


Uriel Weinreich's work Languages in contact was a turning-point in the history of bilingualism study, and for many authors it is still an important reference source. Not only does his theory consider numerous sociological inspirations and references, but it also presents a specific perspective and idea of language. While explaining the language on the level of its phonetics, morphology, syntax or praxis, Weinreich relies on cultural anthropology, social psychology, history, ethnology and other humanistic sciences.


Background: Birth weight is very important for long-term physical, mental, health, and brain development. Pesticide exposure is thought to interfere with fetal growth, among others, through disruption of the function of the insulin-like growth hormone-1 (IGF-1) hormone. Objective: To analyze the relationship between exposure to pesticides during pregnancy and low-birth weight (LBW) through the disruption of the IGF-1 hormone. Methods: In a case-control study, babies born with LBW (birth weight <2500 g) and those born later with normal birth weight (≥2500 g) at 2 hospitals in Brebes were chosen as cases and controls, respectively. Maternal pesticide exposure was measured by interview using a questionnaire. Umbilical serum IGF-I level was tested using the ELISA method. Results: There was a significant relationship between pesticide exposure during pregnancy and LBW (OR 6.8; 95% CI 2.0 to 22.9) and low umbilical serum IGF-1 levels (OR 3.6; 95% CI 1.2 to 11.1). There was a significant relationship between low umbilical serum IGF-1 levels and LBW (OR 8.9; 95% CI 2.4 to 32.1). Conclusion: There was a significant relationship between pesticide exposure during pregnancy and LBW through the umbilical serum IGF-1 reduction pathway.


Database systems are widely used to store and query data. Test oracles have been proposed to find logic bugs in such systems, that is, bugs that cause the database system to compute an incorrect result. To realize a fully automated testing approach, such test oracles are paired with a test case generation technique; a test case refers to a database state and a query on which the test oracle can be applied. In this work, we propose the concept of Query Plan Guidance (QPG) for guiding automated testing towards "interesting" test cases. SQL and other query languages are declarative. Thus, to execute a query, the database system translates every operator in the source language to one of the potentially many so-called physical operators that can be executed; the tree of physical operators is referred to as the query plan. Our intuition is that by steering testing towards exploring a variety of unique query plans, we also explore more interesting behaviors-some of which are potentially incorrect. To this end, we propose a mutation technique that gradually applies promising mutations to the database state, causing the DBMS to create potentially unseen query plans for subsequent queries. We applied our method to three mature, widely-used, and extensively-tested database systems-SQLite, TiDB, and CockroachDB-and found 53 unique, previously unknown bugs. Our method exercises $4.85-408.48\times$ more unique query plans than a naive random generation method and $7.46\times$ more than a code coverage guidance method. Since most database systems-including commercial ones-expose query plans to the user, we consider QPG a generally applicable, black-box approach and believe that the core idea could also be applied in other contexts (e.g., to measure the quality of a test suite).


We evaluated the risk of transformation of asymptomatic immunoglobulin (Ig) M monoclonal gammopathy (aIgM-MG) into symptomatic lymphoproliferative disease in 384 patients, in subgroups of patients with IgM MG of undetermined significance (MGUS) and smoldering Waldenstrom's macroglobulinemia (sWM). One hundred seventy-two patients with aIgM-MG with bone marrow (BM) histopathology and immunophenotyping were available for analysis. After a median of 45 months (range, 12-233 months), 45 cases of aIgM-MG (11.7%) evolved into lymphoproliferative disease, as follows: symptomatic WM (n = 41), non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL; n = 2), IgM multiple myeloma (IgM-MM; n = 1), and primary amyloidosis (n = 1). Cumulative transformation probability at 5 and 10 years was 8% and 29%, respectively. The parameters significantly correlated with evolution were, at univariate analysis, BM lymphoplasmacytic infiltration, high erythrocyte sedimentation rate, hemoglobin (Hb) level, IgM size, and peripheral lymphocytosis; at multivariate analysis, the parameters were IgM size and peripheral lymphocytosis, with Hb level associated with a trend toward higher progression risk. Of the 138 cases of IgM-MGUS, 14 (10.1%) evolved (13 WM, 1 IgM-MM) after a median of 75 months (range, 12-117 months); of the 34 cases of sWM, 13 (38.2%) progressed to WM after 55 months (range, 13-154 months). In patients with IgM-MGUS, event-free survival at 5 and 10 years was 95% and 83%, respectively, and in patients with sWM, 77% and 42%, respectively (P = 0.0001). Among patients with aIgM-MG, those at high risk of evolution are patients with sWM, a distinct entity with clear BM evidence of NHL.


The Cambrian Bonneterre Dolomite of south-eastern Missouri, USA, hosts the large Mississippi Valley type (MVT) lead-zinc-copper ore deposits of the region. The Bonneterre Dolomite consists of dolomitized algal bioherms, oolitic grainstone and associated lithologies that were deposited on a carbonate platform surrounding the Precambrian age St Francois Mountains. Porosity was determined by point counting thin sections from cores and mines in the Bonneterre Dolomite and by gas porosimetry. Volumes of epigenetic cements were estimated by point counting cement filling micro- and mesoporosity using cathodoluminescence. Cement volumes were added to present porosity to estimate porosities during various stages of mineralization. Prior to the onset of mineralization, micro- and mesoporosity in the Bonneterre Dolomite averaged approximately 19%. Precipitation of early dolomite cement (roughly concurrent with the main period of sulphide deposition) reduced average porosity to approximately 7% and closed off much of the intercrystalline pore space. Later cementation by dolomite (prior to late stage sulphides) reduced porosity to approximately 5%, and late cementation by quartz further reduced porosity to the present average value of <4%. Periods of carbonate dissolution during MVT mineralization enhanced large scale megaporosity associated with fractures and breccias but did not significantly increase smaller scale porosity. Dolomite cementation associated with MVT mineralization, porosity and permeability were facies controlled. Today, as a result of mineralization, large scale fractures and breccias control porosity and permeability. This study indicates that dolomite porosity may undergo significant change during basinal brine migrations associated with MVT mineralization.


Abstract Nereites ichnofabrics (comprising N. missouriensis) occupy the upper 3–7 cm in brown, oxidized, soft to soupy, uniformly fine-grained sediments that accumulated at a low rate (<5–6 cm/kyr) at water depths >4000 m water in the central South China Sea. Nereites are nearly vertical close to the sediment surface, become increasingly more inclined with depth, and, just above the redox boundary, they show a winding, subhorizontal course. The Nereites producers appear to be guided chemotactically as they maintain a consistent distance relative to the redox boundary, despite variation in depth of penetration between studied sites. The transition from oxic to anoxic conditions is characterized by high concentrations of microbial biomass on which the Nereites producers are inferred to feed. Thus, the Nereites tier in fossil ichnofabrics may reflect the position of the redox boundary. Ash-filled burrows below the 1991 Pinatubo ash layer imply surface-feeding activities of the Nereites-producing animals. However, the small amount of ash in the burrows demonstrates only subordinate use of surface sediments, probably during periods of enhanced particle flux following upwelling. Based on the number of ash-filled burrows and the number of upwelling periods, an average population density of the Nereites producers of 5–6 animals per m2 is estimated.


Solar photovoltaic (PV) powered water-pumping systems are proving to be a very effective in areas where the electric grid is not available. The pulse width modulation (PWM) technique, the power quality, and the torque ripple of an induction machine employed in the solar PV fed water-pumping applications have always been a concern. This paper proposes a modified reference based PWM scheme for a neutral point clamped (NPC) inverter based induction motor drive (IMD) for the solar PV fed water-pumping system. This work mainly focuses on the improvement of power quality of induction motor, converter switching loss, and torque ripple profiles of the IMD. The proposed PWM scheme utilizes ninth harmonic and trapezoidal signals to form the modulating signal, which produces balanced and symmetrical gate drive signals for the NPC inverter employed in the IMD. The generated gate drive signals reduce total harmonic distortion (THD), switching and conduction power losses, and torque ripple of the IMD. The IMD with the proposed PWM switching scheme is examined in the all possible operating conditions of the induction motor. Comparative performance analysis of the proposed PWM scheme with the existing PWM schemes are also conducted in MATLAB/Simulink platform to prove the superiority of the proposed PWM scheme.


Purpose: This study explored how and why young and middle-aged adults disclose depressive feelings to others. In particular, we investigated the role of social norms to see whether using mobile instant messaging (MIM) could lower the perceived barriers of emotional disclosure. Furthermore, the motivations of emotional disclosure via MIM were compared between young and middle-aged adults. Methods: A total of 255 Koreans (128 middle-aged people, 127 young adults) participated in an online survey. Pearson's correlation coefficients, paired t-tests, SPSS PROCESS macro, and exploratory factor analysis were used to examine the relationships among the key variables. Results: The perceived social norms were found to be a significant deterrent in disclosing depressive feelings to others. However, there was a significant interaction effect between generations and perceived social norms. Although young adults with low social norm awareness were more likely to disclose depressive feelings via MIM, emotional disclosure among middle-aged adults increased with higher levels of perceived social norms. Also, different motivations were observed. Conclusion: The results confirmed the significant effect of social norms as well as generational differences when using MIM as a channel of emotional disclosure.


The role of thyroid hormones in gonad development remains incompletely understood. We examined the dose-related effects of perinatal hypothyroidism induced by a reversible goitrogen, 6-propyl-2-thiouracil (PTU), on reproductive development in male rat offspring. Timed-pregnant Sprague-Dawley rats were orally administered PTU (0, 0.5, 1.0, or 2.0 mg/kg/day) by gavage from gestational day 15 through postnatal day 20. We observed a significant dose-dependent decrease in body weight in offspring with PTU exposure up to 13 weeks of age, but body weight became comparable among groups by 26 weeks of age. Testicular weight tended to be lower up to 7 weeks but was higher after 13 weeks of age. Epididymis weight was not different among the groups at any age. Plasma concentrations of thyroxine and triiodothyronine in the PTU groups were significantly lower at 3 weeks of age but recovered to normal levels by 26 weeks of age. No dose-related trend in plasma testosterone concentrations was found. Seminiferous tubules were larger at 13 and 26 weeks of age with PTU exposure. The number of Sertoli cells was significantly higher from 3 through 26 weeks of age. The number of Leydig cells was significantly lower up to 7 weeks of age but was comparable among groups from 13 weeks of age onwards. Thus, transient gestational and lactational thyroid hormone suppression induced small testes in early life but led to paradoxical dose-dependent testicular enlargement in adults as indicated partly by larger seminiferous tubules with numerous Sertoli cells in male rat offspring.


This manuscript acts solely as a brief and concise summary on the research carried out during the ÚNKP-17-3 New National Excellence Program of the Ministry of Human Capacities in a clear and transparent manuscript format. During my Scholarship the main focus of my research topic revolved around regional competitiveness and various aspects of digitalization, as the latter is a phenomenon which becomes more and more embedded in our everyday lives and is capable of changing society and the economy. From day to day, we learn more about digitalization, and through research, we are able to chart and identify the challenges and core advantages that can come with digitalization on a broader scale in the short and long run as well. What is certain that digitalization is a popular buzzword and a key driver of research, a main focus of professionals of several industries and policymakers alike. Our world is in a transitional phase as we are more and more connected globally with each other. People are able to connect with people and smart devices, and vica versa. We also experience a change in mapping consumer behavior as behavioral economics gain significance and also there is a change in how we handle and analyze enormous amounts of data in the world of Big Data (Zuti 2018a, Hollingworth–Barker 2017, Kovács 2017a, Kovács 2017b, Yoon 2017, Magruk 2016, Manyika et al. 2016, Özköse et al. 2015, Brynjolfsson–McAfee 2012). As our social and economic environments undergo a transitional phase, the mindset related to the structure of society and economy needs to adapt as well to the new conditions (Zuti 2018a, Schwab 2017, Leonhard 2016).


The authors develop a Bayesian approach for inferring the joint distribution of several demographic variables when only information about the marginal distribution of each variable is known and when there is prior information about the correlation between the variables. Using public domain U.S. Census Bureau geodemographic data for Sioux Falls and the state of South Dakota, they apply the approach to four specific marketing problems, two involving direct mail advertising campaigns and two involving the location of a retail site. The empirical applications illustrate the serious bias that results from the assumption that the demographic variables are independent of each other. Overall, the Bayesian approach recovers the underlying joint distribution of the variables of interest well and is unique in its ability to provide a measure of uncertainty about the resulting estimates. Hypothesis testing and the construction of confidence intervals are illustrated in the context of a retail site location application. The results of a Monte Carlo experiment indicate that the Bayesian approach recovers joint densities under a variety of conditions in a robust manner.


Nitric oxide, NO, exerts numerous important regulatory functions in biological tissues and has been hypothesized to have a role in the pathogenesis of cellular injury in a number of diseases. It has been suggested that alterations in NO generation are a critical cause of injury in the ischemic heart. However, the precise alterations in NO generation which occur are not known, and there is considerable controversy regarding whether myocardial ischemia results in increased or decreased NO formation. Therefore, electron paramagnetic resonance studies were performed to directly measure NO in isolated rat hearts subjected to global ischemia, using the direct NO trap Fe-N-methyl-D-glucamine dithiocarbamate, which specifically binds NO giving rise to a characteristic triplet EPR spectrum with g = 2.04 and aN = 13.2 G. While only a small triplet signal was observed in normally perfused hearts, a 10-fold increase in this triplet EPR spectrum was observed after 30 min of ischemia indicating a marked increase in NO formation and trapping. Measurements were performed as a function of the duration of ischemia, and it was determined that with increased duration of ischemia NO formation and trapping was also increased. NO generation was inhibited by the nitric oxide synthase blocker, N-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME), suggesting that NO was generated via nitric oxide synthase. Blockade of NO generation with L-NAME resulted in more than a 2-fold increase in the recovery of contractile function in hearts reperfused after 30 min of global ischemia. Thus, ischemia causes a marked duration-dependent increase of NO in the heart which may in turn mediate postischemic injury.


Background: Metabolic and hormonal disturbances are associated with sleep disturbances and delayed onset of lactogenesis II. Research aims: The aim of this study was to measure sleep using wrist actigraphy during gestation weeks 22 and 32 to determine if sleep characteristics were associated with blood glucose, body mass index, gestational related disease, delayed onset of lactogenesis II, or work schedule. Methods: Demographic data were collected at study intake from primiparous women who wore a wrist actigraph during gestation weeks 22 (n = 50) and 32 (n = 44). Start and end sleep time, total nighttime sleep, sleep efficiency, wake after sleep onset, and sleep fragmentation were measured. Night to night variability was assessed with the root mean square of successive difference. Blood glucose levels, body mass index, and gestational disease data were abstracted from medical charts. Timing of lactogenesis II was determined by survey. Results: Between gestation week 22 and 32, sleep efficiency decreased and fragmentation increased (p < .05). During gestation week 32, blood glucose was negatively correlated with sleep duration, and positively related to fragmentation (p < .05). Women who experienced delayed lactogenesis II had lower sleep efficiency and greater fragmentation (p < .05), and greater night-to-night variability in sleep start and end time, efficiency, and duration during gestation week 32 (p < .05). Conclusion: Women with better sleep efficiency and more stable nightly sleep time are less likely to experience delayed onset of lactogenesis II. Interventions to improve sleep may improve maternal health and breastfeeding adequacy.


SUMMARY The term epigenetic refers to long-lasting changes in gene expression that are beyond the DNA base sequence. Understanding the dynamic role of epigenetic mechanisms in the regulation of gene expression in adulthood has led researchers to investigate epigenetic mechanisms in psychiatric disorders. The aim of this review was to describe epigenetic mechanisms and to discuss the role of epigenetic modifications in stress, depression, schizophrenia, and substance dependence. For this purpose PubMed was searched using the keywords epigenetic, stress, depression, schizophrenia, and substance dependence; studies published between 2000 and 2011 were reviewed. Different maternal behavioral patterns and early life stress have been reported to yield heritable changes in gene expression via epigenetic mechanisms, which are reversible. Studies that investigated the role of epigenetic modifications in stress and depression focused on the proteins involved in the regulation of the hypothalamo-pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis, whereas epigenetic studies of schizophrenia primarily focused on changes in the GABAergic system. Studies on substance dependence, on the other hand, showed that substance use might change the expression of many genes by causing short- or long-lasting epigenetic modifications. These findings have led to the development of new therapeutic strategies that target epigenetic mechanisms. Among these strategies, histone deacetylase inhibitors are especially promising. More studies are needed to improve our understanding of the role of epigenetic modifications in the development of psychiatric disorders, and to aid in the development of new treatment strategies that focus on epigenetic mechanisms.


The quest for the so-called perfect body has been an issue in Brazilian society for a long time, especially for women. A number of "digital influencers" perform a fitness lifestyle, producing subjectivities entangled with an idea of success and "well managing oneself." However, as happiness is constructed as a mandatory "individual engineering project," more recently, female influencers have emerged who go against standards of beauty taken as oppressive. They embrace other physiques as forms of self-expression and finding joy, mostly the "big" body. Both forms of self-construction are appropriated by consumer culture and are perceived as authentic, reinforcing individualistic agency in a neoliberal context. But what happens when a fitness influencer accidently leaks the information that she underwent a liposuction procedure? Or when a "body positive" model is criticized for appropriating a plus-size agenda and not having a "true" plus-size body? Based on two Brazilian cases and literature review, this article proposes the notion of "gendered ruptures of performances," which reveal expressive incoherence in the "narratives of the self," thus breaking ideals of authenticity. It is argued that little attention has been paid to female self-presentation dynamics that do not occur as expected. Moreover, since their bodies are constantly subjected to the scrutiny of others, they are more susceptible to having their performances invalidated online.


This research is entitled "An Analytical Artistic Study for the Representation of the Christ from the Treasures of Bawit". Bawit the city that filled with Coptic monuments, is distinguished from other cities by its unique style that appeared in art pieces. The excavations there have been started by the French archeologist J. Cledat since 1901, and there he found; traces of two churches in which one of them is for saint (Apollo), then the excavations were continued by the archeologist Chassinat in 1911, as he found about thirty chapels in different places probably it was parts of a big monastery there (حبيب, 1978)..The monuments were varied among paintings, sculpture and weaving. Many pieces appeared carrying scenes for Christ either he appeared alone, with his mother or with his apostles as will be discussed in the detail through this research.


Percutaneous transluminal renal angioplasty (PTRA) has been used to treat renovascular disease (RVD), a chronic condition characterized by renal ischemia and metabolic abnormalities. Mitochondrial injury has been implicated as a central pathogenic mechanism in RVD, but whether it can be reversed by PTRA remains uncertain. We hypothesized that PTRA attenuates mitochondrial damage, renal injury, and dysfunction in pigs with coexisting renal artery stenosis (RAS) and metabolic syndrome (MetS). Four groups of pigs (n = 6 each) were studied after 16 weeks of diet‐induced MetS and RAS (MetS + RAS), MetS + RAS treated 4 weeks earlier with PTRA, and Lean and MetS Sham controls. Single‐kidney renal blood flow (RBF) and glomerular filtration rate (GFR) were assessed in vivo with multidetector computed tomography, and renal tubular mitochondrial structure and function and renal injury ex vivo. PTRA successfully restored renal artery patency, but mean arterial pressure remained unchanged. Stenotic kidney RBF and GFR, which fell in MetS + RAS compared to MetS, rose after PTRA. PTRA attenuated MetS + RAS‐induced mitochondrial structural abnormalities in tubular cells and peritubular capillary endothelial cells, decreased mitochondrial H202 production, and increased renal cytochrome‐c oxidase‐IV activity and ATP production. PTRA also improved cortical microvascular and peritubular capillary density and ameliorated tubular injury and tubulointerstitial fibrosis in the poststenotic kidney. Importantly, renal mitochondrial damage correlated with poststenotic injury and dysfunction. Renal revascularization attenuated mitochondrial injury and improved renal hemodynamics and function in swine poststenotic kidneys. This study suggests a novel mechanism by which PTRA might be relatively effective in ameliorating mitochondrial damage and improving renal function in coexisting MetS and RAS.


The supersymmetry constraints on the Ĝλ term in the effective action of type IIB superstring theory are studied in order to determine the dependence of its coefficient on the complex scalar field, τ . The resulting expression is consistent with the SL(2,Z) invariant conjectures in the literature.


Upper oceans are characterized by the existence of vertically quasi-uniform layer of temperature (T, isothermal layer) and density (ρ, mixed layer). The thickness of the mixed layer determines the heat content and mechanical inertia of the layer that directly interacts with the atmosphere. Objective and accurate determination of the mixed layer depth is crucial in ocean dynamics and climate change. This paper describes recently developed optimal linear fitting, maximum angle, and relative gradient methods to determine mixed layer depth from profile data. Profiles from the Global Temperature and Salinity Profile Program (GTSPP) during 1990-2010 are used to demonstrate the capability of these objective methods and to build up global mixed (isothermal) layer depth datasets. Application of the data in climate study is also discussed.


We introduce Modular Origami Halftoning, a set of techniques for representing continuous-tone greyscale images using a fixed set of origami modules folded from two-coloured paper. By arranging the modules to reveal different amounts of the paper's coloured side, each module can approximate the brightness of a single pixel from an image. We present two variations based on affixing a grid of disconnected modules to a backing, and one variation in which the modules interlock into a carpet, requiring no tape or glue.


World prices for staple foods increased between 2006 and 2008, and accelerated sharply in 2008. Initial analysis indicated that the adverse effects of higher food prices in Uganda were likely to be small because of the diversity of its staple foods, high level of food self-sufficiency, and weak links with world markets. This paper extends the previous analyses, disaggregating by regions and individual food items, using more recent price data, and estimating the impact on consumption poverty. The analysis finds that poor households in Uganda tend to be net buyers of food staples, and therefore suffer welfare losses when food prices increase. This is most pronounced in urban areas, but holds true for most rural households as well. The diversity of staple foods has not been an effective buffer because of price increases across a range of staple foods. The paper estimates that both the incidence and depth of poverty have increased -- at least in the short run -- as a result of higher food prices in 2008, increasing by 2.6 and 2.2 percentage points, respectively. The increase in poverty is highest in the Northern region, which is already the poorest in Uganda. The need for mitigating social protection measures appears to be greater than previously recognized. Not only are the negative impacts larger, but they are also much more widespread geographically. This suggests the need for continued close monitoring of the situation, including monitoring the adequacy of existing safety nets and feeding programs.


Introduction: It is extensive scientific literature that has defined the metabolic syndrome as a precursor of cardiovascular disease. Objectives: To estimate the prevalence of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular risk in the population of a basic health area of Murcia Methods: Cross sectional study population of the district health "The Esparragal" random sample of the population between 18 and 86 years living in the area. Personal history were collected and held a relevant clinical, anthropometric data and analytics for the estimation of Metabolic Syndrome and Cardiovascular Risk following criteria dictated by the current literature, adjusted for sex and age. Results: The mean age of the study population was 59.34 ± 14.79 years, with 52.5% males. The overall prevalence of metabolic syndrome criteria World Health Organization is presented 36.8%, a figure increased under International Diabetes Ferderation recommendations to 58.2% and according to National Cholesterol Education Program, an estimated 53.5%. The presentation of this syndrome is slightly higher in men (54.1 versus 52.8 %), and in parallel with increasing age (p < 0.001). The prevalence of people at high risk of cardiovascular disease is 32.1 % (95 % CI 29.4 to 34.8), with 45.2 % (95% CI 41.2 to 49.2) in men and 17.6% (95% CI 14.4 to 20.8) in women. Discussion: The prevalence of metabolic syndrome and cardiovascular risk in the study population is the highest found in Spain in population studies, indicating an invaluable population on which preventive measures.


The sudden boom in the e-commerce sector (due to its key players) has been questioned in several economies in the world, particularly so in India. The country's Traders associations have complained that the sector has been growing at the expense of the offline retail sector, primarily the MSMEs. In this context, this study is one of the first attempts to analytically evaluate the significance of booming online retail on India's production economy (including both manufacturing and retail segments). The results indicate while e-commerce has assumed a significant role in positively impacting the sales of the overall retail and manufacturing sector of the country (on average) during the period 1992-2020, the same does not hold true for its MSMEs. The impact on MSMEs has been positive, though not significant – indicating the untapped potential for the country to take advantage of the growing online commerce. Similar results hold true for the overall retail and MSME retail when it comes to their GVC intensity. The findings advocate re-considering the country's e-commerce policy, which is still in its draft stage presently.


Anatomic studies have demonstrated that the mesolimbic dopamine system receives a substantial afferent input from a variety of regions ranging from the prefrontal cortex through to the brain stem. However, how these afferents regulate dopamine neuron activity is still largely unknown. The mesopontine tegmentum provides a significant input to ventral tegmental area (VTA) dopamine neurons, and it has been demonstrated that discrete subdivisions within this region differentially alter dopamine neuron activity. Thus the laterodorsal tegmental nucleus provides a tonic input essential for maintaining burst firing of dopamine neurons, whereas the pedunculopontine tegmental (PPTg) nucleus regulates a transition from single-spike firing to burst firing. In contrast, the recently identified rostromedial tegmental nucleus provides an inhibitory input to the VTA and decreases spontaneous dopamine neuron activity. Here, we demonstrate that an area adjacent to the PPTg regulates both population activity as well as burst firing of VTA dopamine neurons. Specifically, N-methyl-d-aspartic acid (NMDA) activation of the lateral mesopontine tegmentum produces an increase in the number of spontaneously active dopamine neurons and an increase in the average percentage of burst firing of dopamine neurons. This increase in neuronal activity was correlated with extracellular dopamine efflux in the nucleus accumbens, as measured by in vivo microdialysis. Taken together, we provide further evidence that the mesopontine tegmentum regulates discrete dopamine neuron activity states that are relevant for the understanding of dopamine system function in both normal and disease states.


Leonard Rotherham was born in Sutton-in-Ashfield, near Nottingham, on 31 August 1913 and his early life went through difficult times. His father, Bernard Rotherham, who left school at the age of 13, first became a coalminer, and later started a small haulage business with two lorries and a bus with solid tyres. The business prospered for a while but was sold up during the recession and his father returned to coal mining at the Welbeck colliery. Leonard's mother, Jane Rotherham, died when he was 10 years old; his father felt unable to look after his son and sent him to live with an aunt, Mrs Rhoda Page, who also had four sons of her own. By all accounts, Mrs Page was an inspirational woman, although the family lived on a poor farm with very little money. However, Leonard went to the Crich Church of England primary school, where he attracted the interest and support of the headmaster, a Mr Haywood; this marked a turning point for him. From this school Leonard won a scholarship to The Herbert Strutt School in Belper, Derbyshire. This school was founded in the name of a famous family, for Jedediah Strutt was once a partner of Richard Arkwright's; together they established the first cotton mill in Nottingham. At this school he met Nora Mary Thompson, whom he would marry in 1937. From here he won a scholarship from the Nottingham branch of the newly formed Mineworkers Union, a Derby County Major Scholarship, as well as a State Scholarship. With this combined support, he gained a place at University College London, where, in 1934, he obtained a first-class honours degree in physics with subsidiary mathematics. A year later he received an MSc from the same institution for research on the viscosity of liquids performed under the supervision of Professor E.N. da C. Andrade (FRS 1935). Following his decision to undertake research in industry, Rotherham joined the large steelmaking company Firth–Brown in Sheffield in 1935. He was appointed as a physicist in the research department under the direction of Dr William H. Hatfield (FRS 1935), who was Head of the Brown–Firth Research Laboratories. Their name was peculiarly reversed from that of the company, although they were totally integrated within it.


The aim of the project is to investigate the influence of physico-chemical activation on the metal adsorption capacities of natural bentonite clay from the North West Province of South Africa. The clay has been characterized using XRF and XRD analysis, in order to determine the mineralogical and elemental composition of the clay. The following activation techniques have been investigated to determine the influence they have on the adsorption capacities of the clay: acid activation, heat treatment, time of treatment, type of acid and concentrations of the acids. The kinetic and isotherm models have been used to determine the adsorption behaviour of the activated and non-activated clays. The clay adsorption capacity for the removal of Co(II) was improved after chemical treatment, but the adsorption capacity for the removal of Pb(II) was decreased after activation. The FTIR analysis has shown that the binding group mainly involved in the removal of metals is -CO. This study informs on the suitable activation technique for the improvement of the adsorption capacity of the typical clay from the North West Province of South Africa.


Isolation of Male Sterile and Maintainer Lines from NorthIndian Onion (Allium cepa L.) Populations with the Aid of PCRBased Molecular Marker
Marker assisted selection (MAS) using mitochondrial DNA based marker cytochrome b (cob) was integrated with phenotypic evaluation to isolate male sterile and maintainer lines from openpollinated onion varieties adapted to North Indian agro-climatic region. Cytotype (N/S) determination by cob marker followed by morphological and microscopic study of pollen discovered male sterile plants (Smsms) at frequencies of 0.015 in Punjab Naroya, 0.020 in Punjab Selection, and 0.006 in Punjab White. The progeny scoring of test-crosses between male sterile and N-cytoplasmic plants isolated the maintainers (Nmsms) at frequencies of 0.133 in Punjab Naroya, 0.231 in Punjab Selection and 0.182 in Punjab White. As a novel approach, Trait Recovery Programme was demonstrated to reduce the population size required to recover a male sterile plant by 91.08% in Punjab Naroya, 92.99% in Punjab Selection and 97.66% in Punjab White. For recovering a maintainer, 10% reduction in Punjab Naroya and 9.10% in Punjab Selection was calculated. However, no reduction was observed in Punjab White. This analysis also validated that in a randomly mating onion population, frequency of recessive ms allele squared is equal to the frequency of male sterile plants among S-cytotype and frequency of maintainers among N-cytotype (fms2 = fSmsms/fS = fNmsms/fN)....


It is known that two main interdiffusion coefficients, ık Dii and ık Djj , as well as two cross interdiffusion coefficients, ık Dij and ık Dji , are necessary for understanding the atomic diffusion for ternary system. Here, k is the host element of ternary system, and i and j are solute elements. These four interdiffusion coefficients are obtained from a series of experiments using two kinds of ternary diffusion couples. In general, it is believed that ık Dij and ık Dji indicate the same sign to each other, but there are a lot of experimental data showing that ık Dij and ık Dji indicate opposite sign [1]. In such a case, the physical meaning of the cross interdiffusion coefficient has not always been understood thoroughly. The purposes of this study are to measure the interdiffusion coefficients by a series of experiments and to elucidate the physical meaning of the two cross interdiffusion coefficients on the basis of the consideration about the relationship between the thermodynamic functions and the cross interdiffusion coefficients. It is concluded that ık Dij exhibits the opposite sign to ık Dji without contradicting the Onsarger's reciprocity theorem when the ( 2 2 ) c j ∂ G ∂c shows the opposite sign to ( 2 2 ) c i ∂ G ∂c . Here, c G is Gibbs free energy of the ternary system.


ABSTRACT We are reaching a point in history when the generation who experienced the Holocaust as survivors, witnesses or exiles will soon disappear. What happens to our relationship to such a momentous event in global history when our living connection with such a past is broken? To answer this question, this article will explore recent French representations of the Holocaust through the comic book. It will approach such representations from the perspective of the grandchildren of those who were affected by the Holocaust, perhaps the last generation to have personal ties to this wartime past. It will focus specifically on Jérémie Dres's Nous n'irons pas voir Auschwitz (2011), translated as We Won't Go and See Auschwitz. As a "third generation" narrative, Dres's work is attentive to stories of Jewish exile and loss to be found on the margins of Holocaust histories. This perspective translates into an openness towards transnational histories of the Holocaust; a recognition of place as a substitute for living memory and an awareness of comics' potential to innovate in the transmission of Holocaust memories. Ultimately, this article will argue that the contemporary comic book acts as a privileged vehicle of remembrance, indicative of the reordering of Holocaust representations in an age of cultural memory.


Abstract. The Okhotsk terrane, located east of the South Verkhoyansk sector of the Verkhoyansk fold-and-thrust belt, has Archean crystalline basement and Riphean to Early Paleozoic sedimentary cover similar to that of the adjacent the North Asian craton. However, 2.6 Ga biotite orthogneisses of the Upper Maya uplift of the Okhotsk terrane yielded Early Devonian 40Ar/39Ar cooling ages, evidence of a Mid-Paleozoic metamorphic event not previously known. These gneisses are also intruded by 375±2 Ma (Late Devonian) calc-alkaline granodiorite plutons that we interpret as part of a continental margin volcanic arc. Therefore, Late Devonian rifting, which affected the entire eastern margin of North Asia separating the Okhotsk terrane from the North Asian craton, was probably a back-arc event. Our limited 40Ar/39Ar data from the South Verkhoyansk metamorphic belt suggests that low grade metamorphism and deformation started in the Late Jurassic due to accretion of the Okhotsk terrane to the North Asia margin along the Bilyakchan fault. Shortening and ductile strain continued in the core of the South Verkhoyansk metamorphic belt until about 120 Ma due to paleo-Pacific subduction along the Uda-Murgal continental margin arc.


Though hotel resort fees and other service charges are a source of considerable revenue at certain U.S. hotels, most hotels do not charge such fees, and among those that do, they do so for specific and unique market-based reasons such as the behavior of competition. This report reviews the concept of resort fees in an effort to provide a balanced perspective regarding service fees in the light of sensational media reports about the topic. This report finds that only approximately seven percent of U.S. hotels charge such fees, and such fees are mainly limited to resort hotels in certain markets. This report introduces the topic of partitioned pricing whereby prices quoted to consumers by businesses are broken into their component parts, a practice appearing to be common, appropriate, and preferred by consumers as well as businesses in particular types of transactions which may include certain hotel-consumer sales.


Entopolypoides maaci occurs in different populations of Papio cynocephalus in Kenya, but not in the same host with Hepatocystis kochi. Parasitemia may be greatly enhanced by splenectomy, but there is little effect on the host in spite of substantial alteration in hemoglobin and RBC counts, and transferability to other primates is erratic. Descriptions are presented for differentiation of E. macaci from H. kochi.


Abstract Laser Raman spectroscopy is particularly well suited for routine characterization of the crystalline and the better ordered paracrystalline silica phases occurring in silica sinters: opal-C, quartz and moganite. The non-crystalline and poorly ordered paracrystalline silica phases (opal-CT and opal-A) are identified with difficulty, partly as a result of the high level of fluorescence exhibited by the younger sinters that are dominated by these phases, and partly as a result of the ill-defined nature of the broad phonon scattering bands produced by them. Nonetheless, given the limited number of phases present and the high level of phonon scattering from the better ordered phases, judicious use of a Raman microprobe enables the character of most siliceous microtextural sinter components to be determined readily. Microprobe examination of a series of New Zealand sinters, ranging from Late Quaternary to Pliocene in age shows that a silica phase inhomogeneity that exists in some outcrops reflects an underlying phase heterogeneity obtaining in the microstructure of the sinter; it is a consequence of the phase transformation process. In the older sinters, quartz, moganite and opaline cristobalite may be present in a single fabric element but in quite different proportions to their abundance in adjacent elements. Identification of opaline lepispheres partially pseudomorphed by quartz+moganite and the association of quartz+moganite in microcrystals exhibiting common quartz forms, cautions against the use of morphology as a means of identifying silica phases at the microstructural level.


OBJECTIVE
Adult congenital heart disease (ACHD) patients who undergo cardiac surgery are at risk for poor outcomes, including extracorporeal membrane oxygenation support (ECMO) and death. Prior studies have demonstrated risk factors for mortality, but have not fully examined risk factors for ECMO or death without ECMO (DWE). We sought to identify risk factors for ECMO and DWE in adults undergoing congenital heart surgery in tertiary care children's hospitals.

DESIGN
All adults (≥18 years) undergoing congenital heart surgery in the Pediatric Health Information System (PHIS) database between 2003 and 2014 were included. Patients were classified into three groups: ECMO-free survival, requiring ECMO, and DWE. Univariate analyses were performed, and multinomial logistic regression models were constructed examining ECMO and DWE as independent outcomes.

SETTING
Tertiary care children's hospitals.

RESULTS
A total of 4665 adult patients underwent ACHD surgery in 39 children's hospitals with 51 (1.1%) patients requiring ECMO and 64 (1.4%) patients experiencing DWE. Of the 51 ECMO patients, 34 (67%) died. Increasing patient age, surgical complexity, diagnosis of single ventricle heart disease, preoperative hospitalization, and the presence of noncardiac complex chronic conditions (CCC) were risk factors for both outcomes. Additionally, low and medium hospital ACHD surgical volume was associated with an increased risk of DWE in comparison with ECMO.

CONCLUSIONS
There are overlapping but separate risk factors for ECMO support and DWE among adults undergoing congenital heart surgery in pediatric hospitals.


Indonesia is a developing country that began to utilize information technology in education. A form of its implementation is the use of e-learning. However, in practice there are still some obstacles, such as learning resources are not evenly distributed, limited access to services provided, qualified educators resources are concentrated in specific areas. This led to the emergence of disparities educational process, and technology gap due to differences in ICT infrastructure owned by any educational institution. Therefore this study proposes architecture of cloud-based open learning to solve these problems. The term open learning is used in order to encouraging the development of the concept of Indonesia Open Educational Resources (IOER) and as well as the adoption of concept of cloud computing. There are several phase that we conducted in this research such as analysis, design, implementation, testing, and evaluation phase. The design of the proposed architecture consists of six layers: (1) Infrastructure, (2) Platform, (3) Application, (4) Service, (5) Access, (6) User. As a result of the implementation from this architecture is a prototype of Indonesia - Virtual Open Learning System (iVOLS). In experiment, personalization e-learning runs as a service that need large storage and other shared facilities to conduct the program so the system can delivered different learning materials to different learners. The e-learning personalization in cloud environment classified successful if the learners got the best performance on learning and it shown by their evaluation score. Based on the test results and evaluation showed that the availability on Cloud-Based Open Learning further meet user needs. This is indicated by the presence of a simple infrastructure services, application services with just one stage and the availability of a wider range of data and the resource sharing. In accessibility, Cloud-Based Open Learning provides easy access to the user. By economically, the result of evaluation showed that Cloud-Based Open Learning has an investment of 35.61% efficiency, increase Return On Investment (ROI) of 60.95% and Net Present Value (NPV) of 81.97% from the user's perspective. While from the provider's perspective, Cloud-Based Open Learning has an investment of 200% efficiency, increase Return On Investment (RoI) of 220.4% and Net Present Value (NPV) of 109.55%.


This paper explores the recent resurgence in the collecting of cult film soundtracks, in particular films stemming from the late 1960s to the early 1980s and often linked to horror and other modes of exploitation cinema. I consider this phenomenon as an important component of cult film fandom, but one which has largely been overlooked in cult cinema research because it is often considered as belonging to popular music, as opposed to film, research. As films can become cultified in many different ways and across different media, I look into how areas of music culture can both be inspired by, as well as influence, aspects of film culture. The paper also addresses the importance of 'residual' technologies within cult film/music cultures, noting in particular the preference for vinyl records as well as VHS tapes in certain cult fan communities, and explores the appeal that such 'old media' retain within an increasingly digital mediascape.


A case of chondromyxoid fibroma revelated by cervicalgias and involving the right part of the 5th cervical vertebra is reported. This uncommon cartilaginous tumor is usually described in the metaphysis of long bones and appears very rare in the spine. If radiological aspects have been reported, the majors series do not describe a typical appearance of vertebral lesions; our patient is one of the first to have been evaluated by CT scan. Chondromyxoid fibromas are benign tumors, but recurrence is possible especially when treated by curettage alone. In our case, operated on two stages, the resection seemed sufficiently large and CT control on the 10th month did not show evidence of recurrence. Clinical and radiologic findings, and surgical management of these vertebral tumors are discussed.


Summary Hormonal effects on the uptake of amino acids by Staphylococcus aureus have been studied in relation to the reported antibacterial action of the hormones. Progesterone at 40 μg per ml retarded the uptake of 14C-alanine and 14C-glutamic acid. Diethylstilboestrol, testosterone and oestradiol-17β exerted similar inhibitory effects, whereas 17α-hydroxyprogesterone did not. Maximum inhibition of alanine uptake occurred at a cellular density corresponding to 260 μg dry weight per ml, at a pH value between 5·7 and 7·0, and with diethylstilboestrol at a concentration of 20 μg per ml. The assimilation of alanine by Shigella flexneri and Salmonella paratyphi was not inhibited by progesterone. The data are correlated with inhibitory phenomena previously observed and indicate parameters for further research toward elucidation of the hormonal mechanism of inhibition of Staph. aureus.


REPORT OF A CASE A 3-month-old female infant presented with a vascular lesion that appeared on the left side of her neck and upper thorax at birth. Although relatively quiescent during the first 2 months of life, the lesion subsequently expanded significantly with a modification in color ( Figure 1 ), and the infant was admitted to the hospital with a diagnosis of platelet trapping syndrome. This part of the observation has already been published. 1 The hemangioma was inflammatory and ecchymotic, the platelet count was 34×10 9 /L, and there was evidence of cardiac failure. Findings of a chest radiograph showed complete opacity of the left field, and results of a 2-dimensional echocardiogram revealed a massive pericardial effusion without extension of the vascular lesion to the heart. Platelet transfusions and repeated pericardial aspirations were ineffective in controlling clinical symptoms and increasing platelet counts. Treatment with aspirin and ticlopidine hydrochloride (10 mg/kg per


This thesis explores auditor professional scepticism and answers three key question, (1) the influences that shaped the current understanding of professional scepticism in the UK, (2) the problems and challenges in making professional scepticism auditable, and (3) how artefacts are used to construct and capture the operation of professional scepticism in audit engagements. these questions are addressed using archival methods, interviews, and through rare access to an audit form for ethnographic interviews, focus groups, and participant observation. This affords a 'back stage' understanding of professional scepticism, highlighting audit's social nature and the impact this has on scepticism's operation and evidencing.
A genealogical analysis first argues that the rise of attention to professional scepticism in the UK is the result of changes in the regulatory structure, ongoing corporate crises, and an effort to re-individualise the auditor. Ideas of professional scepticism changed over time, from being 'healthy' to something that is 'professional', with this mapping to changes in the emphasis on fraud. Auditees came to be seen as clients, magnifying tensions between trust and doubt. It took a reset of regulatory setting to re-individualise the audit and bring the attention back to auditor professional scepticism. This sets the scene for regulatory attention on scepticism.
Regulators have increasingly noted an absence of scepticism in inspected engagements. This raises the question of the auditbaility of scepticism. It is argued that the challenges in auditing scepticism come from a broad conception of what it is and what it 'looks like'. Issues also arise with auditability being applied to audit, as audit is effectively turn upon itself. The gaps between being auditable and making things auditbale become apparent as a result, with a resultant paradox of evidence arising.
The third argument is presented using rare audit firm access to position scepticism as a jointly-constituted product of both social and material conditions. A sociomaterial view allows for the social conditions and the material artefacts and the affordances to be viewed as co-creators of professional scepticism, suggestion a distributed location of scepticism and challenging traditional structure-judgement divides. this chapter also links in to the concerns about auditablity as it shows how the artefacts most linked to the source of professional scepticism are the ones least likely to be preserved, despite their role as co-constitutor.


Social cognition is a core limiting factor of functional recovery among persons with schizophrenia. However, there is a lack of standardized and culturally relevant assessment tools for evaluating social cognitive performance in Chinese persons with schizophrenia. The purposes of this study were to (1) develop and validate two social cognitive instruments, the Chinese Facial Emotion Identification Test (C-FEIT) and the Chinese Social Cognition and Screening Questionnaire (C-SCSQ), that assess three key domains of social cognition and (2) to evaluate preliminary psychometric properties of the two assessments. The results demonstrated that the C-FEIT and the social cognitive subscales of C-SCSQ possess satisfactory content-related validity and test–retest reliability (ICC ranging from 0.76 to 0.85). Subscales of the C-FEIT and the C-SCSQ showed low to medium correlation with two concurrent neurocognitive measures (absolute values of r ranging from 0.22 to 0.45) and concurrent measures of functional performance (absolute values of r ranging from 0.22 to 0.46). Our findings generally support the use of the C-FEIT and the C-SCSQ as reliable and valid tools for assessing emotion perception, theory of mind (intention-inferencing), and hostile attributional style, which are the key outcome indicators of social cognitive interventions for persons with schizophrenia.


Existing work in growth empirics either assumes linearity of the growth function or attempts to capture non-linearities by the addition of a small number of quadratic or multiplicative interaction terms. Under a more generalized failure of linearity or if the functional form taken by the non-linearity is not known ex ante, such an approach is inadequate and will lead to biased and inconsistent OLS and instrumental variables estimators. This paper uses non-parametric and semiparametric methods of estimation to evaluate the relevance of strong non-linearities in commonly used growth data sets. Our tests decisively reject the linearity hypothesis. A preponderance of our tests also rejects the hypothesis that growth is a separable function of its regressors. Absent separability, the approximation error of estimators of the growth function grows in proportion to the number of relevant dimensions, substantially increasing the data requirements necessary to make inferences about the growth effects of regressors. We show that appropriate non-parametric tests are commonly inconclusive as to the effects of policies, institutions and economic structure on growth.


Acute Radiation Syndrome (ARS) is a set of health effects involving damage to multiple organs caused by exposure to high dose ionizing radiation over a short period of time. Even low doses damage the radio-sensitive hematopoietic system (causing H-ARS). We probed the mechanism of action by which a 3D-expanded placenta-derived stromal cell product designated for the treatment of hematological disorders alleviates symptoms in the H-ARS mouse model. These cells have been shown in vitro to secrete hematopoietic proteins, stimulate colony formation, and induce bone marrow (BM) migration. Previous studies show that cells administered intramuscularly to C3H/HeN and C57BL/6 mice, 1 and 5 days after (LD70/30) total body irradiation, rescue radio-induced weight loss, survival, and peripheral blood (PB) and BM cellularity. The injected cells transiently secrete haematopoiesis related proteins to enhance reconstitution of the hematopoietic system and further induce endogenous cells to secrete a panel of cytokines. Analysis of PB and BM taken from the experimental endpoint (day 23) of cell-treated irradiated mice indicated rescue of blood lineages to levels near those of naive mice. CyTOF analysis of BM cells indicated that in the myeloid lineage, the percentages of neutrophils and monocytes were consistently higher in cell-treated irradiated mice than in naive mice (2.6±0.08 fold for neutrophils and 1.4±0.1 fold for monocytes). There was also a 1.5±0.5 fold increase in the percentage of the lymphoid lineage pDCs and a 2.8±0.9 fold reduction in the percentage of T cells in the BM of the treated compared to naive mice. On the other hand, the percentage of B cells and NK cells were more similar when compared to naive mice (1.2±0.4 fold for B cells and 1.1±0.2 fold for NK cells). Neutrophils and monocytes were also elevated in the PB of cell-treated irradiated mice (1.3±0.09 fold for neutrophils and 1.7±0.2 fold for monocytes), and within the monocyte population, percentages of classical and non-classical monocytes were essentially identical to naive mice (0.97±0.05 fold for classical and 1.1±0.1 fold for non-classical). In cell-treated mice, B cells showed evidence of active recovery from pro-B to the immature stage of development when compared to naive mice (4.4±0.7 fold increase for pro-B cells in BM and 5.5±0.8 fold increase for immature B cells in blood). In addition, CD8+ effector memory T cells showed a 1.9±0.3 fold increase in treated compared to naive mice. The effect of placenta-derived stromal cells on human BM migration in vitro was also analyzed by CyTOF. Results indicated that the stromal cell product may induce significant maturation of early-stage neutrophils to late-stage neutrophils and significantly enhance the migration of neutrophils 17.9±1.4 fold compared to control. Active induction of migration of monocytes (2.4±0.0004 fold), eosinophils (2.6±0.1 fold), and endothelial cells (2.1±0.2 fold) was also observed. A number of these beneficial effects may be ascribed to cytokines known to be secreted by the cell product in high concentration. IL-8 and osteopontin are highly chemotactic toward neutrophils and MCP1 is highly chemotactic toward monocytes. These cytokines may contribute to the observed migration of human BM neutrophils and monocytes in vitro as well as to the increased percentage of neutrophils and monocytes in the blood of the cell-treated irradiated mice. In addition, cytokines known to be involved in neutrophil granulopoiesis, i.e. SCF, G-CSF, GM-CSF, IL-3 and IL-6, are present in the secretome of the cell product and may contribute to the observed maturation of early-stage neutrophils in human BM. Taken together, placenta-derived stromal cells have the capacity to alleviate symptoms of BM failure in the H-ARS model and rescue multiple blood lineages via a complex mechanism of action based on the secretion of multiple proteins acting on multiple hematopoietic lineages. Due to this combined mechanism of action involving the induction of cell migration, proliferation and differentiation, as well as an adaptive secretion profile based on the changing environment within the animal, placenta-derived cells are able to rescue from BM failure multiple cell lineages of the hematopoietic system to near-normal levels. Disclosures Allen:Pluristem: Employment. Sher:Pluristem: Employment. Rekhes:Pluristem: Employment. Pinzur:Pluristem: Employment. Prezma:Pluristem: Employment. Gorodetsky:Pluristem: Consultancy. Volk:Pluristem: Consultancy. Aberman:Pluristem: Employment. Ofir:Pluristem: Employment.


Wireless Information and Power Transfer offers an authoritative and comprehensive guide to the theory, models, techniques, implementation and application of wireless information and power transfer (WIPT) in energy-constrained wireless communication networks. With contributions from an international panel of experts, this important resource covers the various aspects of WIPT systems such as, system modeling, physical layer techniques, resource allocation and performance analysis. The contributors also explore targeted research problems typically encountered when designing WIPT systems.


A potentiostat was used in order to optimise etching and phase extraction. Polarisation curves for different grades of steel and different electrolytes were collected and the results were used for optimisation of the voltage and time with multivariate methods. In electrolytic etching a potential is set to control the etching reaction. With the help of a potentiostat the potential is maintained at the set value and the process is well defined and reproducible. Etching procedures were tried out to differentiate between various intermetallic phases that were indistinguishable using other etching methods and the results were evaluated with light and X-ray diffraction methods. Settings for rapid phase extraction of duplex stainless steels in 10% HCI in ethanol were found from the Potentio dynamic scan (PDS), without dissolving the desired phase. An investigation of the influence of the illumination of the sample in image processing was also performed.


Abstract. A global aerosol reanalysis product named the Japanese Reanalysis for Aerosol (JRAero) was constructed by the Meteorological Research Institute (MRI) of the Japan Meteorological Agency. The reanalysis employs a global aerosol transport model developed by MRI and a two-dimensional variational data assimilation method. It assimilates maps of aerosol optical depth (AOD) from MODIS onboard the Terra and Aqua satellites every 6 h and has a TL159 horizontal resolution (approximately 1.1°  ×  1.1°). This paper describes the aerosol transport model, the data assimilation system, the observation data, and the setup of the reanalysis and examines its quality with AOD observations. Comparisons with MODIS AODs that were used for the assimilation showed that the reanalysis showed much better agreement than the free run (without assimilation) of the aerosol model and improved under- and overestimation in the free run, thus confirming the accuracy of the data assimilation system. The reanalysis had a root mean square error (RMSE) of 0.05, a correlation coefficient (R) of 0.96, a mean fractional error (MFE) of 23.7 %, a mean fractional bias (MFB) of 2.8 %, and an index of agreement (IOA) of 0.98. The better agreement of the first guess, compared to the free run, indicates that aerosol fields obtained by the reanalysis can improve short-term forecasts. AOD fields from the reanalysis also agreed well with monthly averaged global AODs obtained by the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) (RMSE  =  0.08, R = 0. 90, MFE  =  28.1 %, MFB  =  0.6 %, and IOA  =  0.93). Site-by-site comparison showed that the reanalysis was considerably better than the free run; RMSE was less than 0.10 at 86.4 % of the 181 AERONET sites, R was greater than 0.90 at 40.7 % of the sites, and IOA was greater than 0.90 at 43.4 % of the sites. However, the reanalysis tended to have a negative bias at urban sites (in particular, megacities in industrializing countries) and a positive bias at mountain sites, possibly because of insufficient anthropogenic emissions data, the coarse model resolution, and the difference in representativeness between satellite and ground-based observations.