Puerto Rican Spanish, a variety that prefers a final rise-fall rather than a fall-rise for yes-no questions has been claimed to have a default contour for information-seeking questions and a special configuration used only for biased negative questions. This study investigates the pragmatic division of labor for the nuclear configurations used for information-seeking questions, confirmation-seeking questions, biased negative questions and incredulity questions. Four contours are presented here: H* L%, (H+)L* HL%, H+L* L% and L+¡H* L%. None of these were favored significantly for the biased negation condition, disfavoring the idea that there is a special contour used for biased negative questions. H+L* L% was the most common contour (52%) for the information-seeking question condition, and was found to be the least preferred for biased contexts. However, H* L% was also commonly found for informationseeking questions (41%). A native speaker judged H* L% and L+¡H* L% as indicating interest and/or surprise while this did not seem to be the case for H+L* L%, indicating a possible relationship between tune choice and level of speaker affectedness in Puerto Rican Spanish. The rather consistent use of (H+)L* HL% for a specific type of surprise, incredulity, also supports this idea.


In recent years, road vehicles have experienced an enormous increase in driver assistance systems such as traffic sign recognition, lane departure warning, and pedestrian detection. Cost-efficient development of electronic control units (ECUs) for these systems is a complex challenge. The demand for shortened time to market makes the development even more challenging and thus demands efficient design flows. This paper proposes a model-based design flow that permits simulation-based performance evaluation of multi-core ECUs for driver assistance systems in a pre-development stage. The approach is based on a system-level virtual prototype of a multi-core ECU and allows the evaluation of timing effects by mapping application tasks to different platforms. The results show that performance estimation of different parallel implementation candidates is possible with high accuracy even in a pre-development stage. By adapting the best-fitting parallelization strategy to the final ECU, a reduction in the time to market period is possible. Currently, the design flow is being evaluated by Daimler AG and is being applied to a pedestrian detection system. Results from this application illustrate the benefits of the proposed approach.


Molecular crystals are at the forefront of research to find new technologies and to probe emerging phenomena such as superconductivity. Their studies are, therefore,
important but also challenging, especially in the field of atomically-resolved dynamics due to low damage thresholds and related factors. Two such crystals,
showing different phenomena, were the focus of this work.

The dynamics of photochemical reaction in ultrathin crystals of spirooxazines were studied using a home-built transient absorption setup and 266 nm light for
excitation. They were found not to be completely photochromic in crystalline state, in contrast to their behaviour in solution and amorphous films. A transient
emerges after excitation, which evolves to form planar trans-merocynanine product within 80 ps in solution, but due to steric restrictions in the crystal, only the ring-opened form of spirooxazine was created without undergoing isomerisation. For these experiments, a methodology was developed to tackle the issue relating to the permanent formation of the photoproducts in crystals, which severely hampers reversibility. It made use of an additional ultrashort beam, making it a three-beam approach, with the third beam acting to arrest the accumulation of the products by removing them from the probe volume via the back photoreaction. Using this approach, it was possible to achieve over 10,000
pump-probe cycles, enabling time-resolved spectroscopy of this system and opens up prospect for femtosecond diffraction experiments.

Femtosecond electron diffraction study was carried out on EDO-MeEDO, a doped crystal of EDO-TTF. The response of the system was found to be different to what is known for the pure EDO-TTF crystal; our findings could not confirm
the occurrence of a cell doubling phase transition. At acoustic time scales, it is hypothesised that cooperative effects play a role, which lead to pronounced phonon signals. Further studies are needed to understand the dynamics of this system.


We study how two of the world's largest gangs—MS-13 and 18th Street—affect economic development in El Salvador. We exploit the fact that the emergence of these gangs was the consequence of an exogenous shift in American immigration policy that led to the deportation of gang leaders from the United States to El Salvador. Using a spatial regression discontinuity design, we find that individuals living under gang control have significantly less education, material wellbeing, and income than individuals living only 50 meters away but outside of gang territory. None of these discontinuities existed before the emergence of the gangs. The results are confirmed by a difference-in-differences analysis: after the gangs' arrival, locations under their control started experiencing lower growth in nighttime light density compared to areas without gang presence. A key mechanism behind the results is that, in order to maintain territorial control, gangs restrict individuals' freedom of movement, affecting their labor market options. The results are not determined by exposure to violence or selective migration from gang locations. We also find no differences in public goods provision.


We give a short survey on some fixed point theorems which are generalizations of the classical Banach-Caccioppoli principle of contractive mappings. All these results are gathered in three theorems about existence and uniqueness of fixed points for operators which act in $K$-metric or $K$-normed linear spaces and, in particular, in local convex spaces and scales of Banach spaces. Three fixed point theorems presented in this article cover numerous applications in numerical methods, theory of integral equations, some results on iterative methods for construction of periodic solution to ordinary differential equations, existence and uniqueness results on solvability for Cauchy and Goursat problems of Ovsjannikov - Treves - Nirenberg type and so on.


This paper describes a case study concerning the virtual reconstruction and navigation of an archaeological site located in Moregine, near Pompeii as it appeared to archaeologists after the completion of the excavation and including the reconstruction of face and body appearance of a woman that found death there, during the eruption of 79 BC. The main challenges faced in this study concern the visual engine required to delivering possibly unlimited visual quality and the methodology for achieving an ethnically faithful face reconstruction from skull bones. The first objective is tackled by adopting a pre-rendering based visualization engine, through which environment navigation is achieved following pre-built paths and performing available actions through a context sensitive motion tracking based interface. Secondly, the plausible appearance of the woman's face is reconstructed exploiting an approach based on craniometrical analysis together with a pictorial physiognomic database and content-based image retrieval technology, to the aim of providing more faithful results compared to other methods in literature based solely on statistical data.


The untimely death of Michael Jackson this past June presents an opportunity to reassess certain thorny estate tax issues that may arise when a celebrity dies owning valuable intellectual property. Elsewhere we have debated hypothetical, tax-motivated changes to state laws relating to postmortem publicity rights. This article focuses on existing legislation, like California's, that makes publicity rights both devisable and descendible. Federal transfer taxes are levied on intangible property as well as tangible assets, and therefore apply to intellectual property, including a celebrity's right of publicity and copyrights retained by an artist in his or her creations. Using Michael Jackson's estate as an example, and focusing primarily on publicity rights, we examine two questions that any estate planner representing a celebrity client ought to consider. First, how should a personal representative value intellectual property for estate tax purposes? Second, what strategies are available to lessen the estate tax burden associated with certain intellectual property rights?


Recently, Korea has made a plan to allocate CH 14∼ CH 51 (470 MHz–698 MHz) for DTV. Therefore, it is necessary to take into account compatibility and sharing between DTV and other potential service systems. This paper assumes that DTV operates on CH 51 (692 MHz∼ 698 MHz) and radio microphones operate on CH 52 (698 MHz∼704 MHz) in spare band, and then analyzes compatibility between DTV and radio microphones. According to interference scenarios, protection requirements and system parameters, in the case of DTV potentially interferes with radio microphone, in the worst case, Minimum Coupling Loss (MCL) methods is used to determine that the required protection distance between DTV and radio microphone should be more than 1710.6 m for indoor scenario and 168.1 km for outdoor scenario; and Spectrum Engineering Advanced Monte Carlo Analysis Tool (SEAMCAT) is used to determine that the guard band between DTV and radio microphone is 2.4 MHz for indoor scenario and 2.9 MHz for outdoor scenario. The analysis results may offer a reference and be helpful for considering compatibility between DTV and radio microphones before DTV will be used.


Foodborne illness is a serious but preventable public health problem – with delays in detecting the associated outbreaks resulting in productivity loss, expensive recalls, public safety hazards, and even loss of life. While social media is a promising source for identifying unreported foodborne illnesses, there is a dearth of labeled datasets for developing effective outbreak detection models. To accelerate the development of machine learning-based models for foodborne outbreak detection, we thus present TWEET-FID (TWEET-Foodborne Illness Detection), the first publicly available annotated dataset for multiple foodborne illness incident detection tasks. TWEET-FID collected from Twitter is annotated with three facets: tweet class, entity type, and slot type, with labels produced by experts as well as by crowdsource workers. We introduce several domain tasks leveraging these three facets: text relevance classification (TRC), entity mention detection (EMD), and slot filling (SF). We describe the end-to-end methodology for dataset design, creation, and labeling for supporting model development for these tasks. A comprehensive set of results for these tasks leveraging state-of-the-art single-and multi-task deep learning methods on the TWEET-FID dataset are provided. This dataset opens opportunities for future research in foodborne outbreak detection.


The relatedness between the technologies used among firms in a region is thought to affect the nature and scope of knowledge spillovers. In this paper, we set out how the concepts of technological relatedness and related variety have enriched recent literature in economic geography. First, applying the notion of related variety has led to new insights in the externalities literature. There is increasing evidence that regions with different but technologically related activities (related variety) benefit more from spillovers. Second, the technological relatedness concept has provided additional insights to the question whether extra-regional linkages matter for regional growth: it is not inflows of extra-regional knowledge per se, but inflows of knowledge that are related to the existing knowledge base of regions that might be crucial. Third, the concept of relatedness has found its way in network analysis. There is evidence that collaborative research projects tend to create more new knowledge when they consist of agents that bring in related competences. Linking network dynamics to the industry life-cycle approach, one expects that cognitive proximity levels between cluster firms will increase over time, with detrimental effects on their performance levels. Fourth, the cluster literature often regards labor mobility as a key mechanism through which knowledge diffuses, but no attention has been paid to relatedness until recently. And fifth, studies demonstrate that countries and regions tend to expand into sectors that are closely related to their existing activities. To the extent that new industries emerge from related industries, the sectoral composition of a regional economy affects the diversification opportunities of regions in the long run. This process of sectoral branching occurs primarily at the regional level, because it becomes manifest through a number of knowledge transfer mechanisms (i.e. spinoff activity, firm diversification, labor mobility and networking) that tend to be geographically bounded.


Abstract Objectives: To compare death and/or neurodevelopmental outcomes of preterm infants exposed to inhaled and/or systemic steroids with those without exposure, and examine the impact of timing of exposure. Methods: Retrospective study of infants born <29 weeks gestation and assessed at 18–21 months corrected age (CA). Neurodevelopmental impairment (NDI) was defined as any Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development-III (BSID-III) score <85, cerebral palsy ≥ grade one, and visual or hearing impairment. Significant NDI (sNDI) was defined as any Bayley Scales of Infant Development (BSID-III) score <70, cerebral palsy ≥ grade three, or severe vision or hearing impairment. Results: Of 2570 neonates, 1811 had no exposure, 125 were exposed to inhaled steroids, 522 to systemic steroids and 112 to both. Infants exposed to inhaled steroids had lower odds of bronchopulmonary dysplasia [adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 0.51, (0.33, 0.79)], and displayed no difference in death/NDI or death/significant neurodevelopmental impairment (sNDI), regardless of timing of exposure. Infants only exposed to systemic steroids before 4 weeks of age were at increased odds of death/NDI [AOR 1.83 (1.43, 2.34)] and death/sNDI [AOR 2.28 (1.76, 2.96)]. Conclusions: Exposure to inhaled steroids was not associated with increased odds of death/NDI or death/sNDI. Systemic steroids use before 4 weeks of age was associated with significantly worse outcomes.


A novel linear generator system prototype has been developed to harness tidal and wave energy. The point absorber is designed to extract energy from ocean waves. The main circuit of power converter and control system based on DSP are designed. The experimental study has been carried out on the three-phase 6/4 structure linear switched reluctance generator. The scotch yoke is designed to convert the motor rotational motion to linear motion, which mimics the tidal motion. Simulation and experimental results verified the design.


In eye-gaze-based selection, dwell suffers from several issues, e.g., the Midas Touch problem. Here we investigate saccade-based selection techniques as an alternative to dwell. First, we designed a novel user interface (UI) for Actigaze and used it with (goal-crossing) saccades for confirming the selection of small targets (i.e., < 1.5-2°). We compared it with three other variants of Actigaze (with button press, dwell, and target reverse crossing) and two variants of target magnification (with button press and dwell). Magnification-dwell exhibited the most promising performance. For Actigaze, goal-crossing was the fastest option but suffered the most errors. We then evaluated goal-crossing as a primary selection technique for normal-sized targets (≥ 2°) and implemented a novel UI for such interaction. Results revealed that dwell achieved the best performance. Yet, we identified goal-crossing as a good compromise between dwell and button press. Our findings thus identify novel options for gaze-only interaction.


In this paper we derive a suite of lemmas which allows users to internally reflect EasyCrypt programs into distributions which correspond to their denotational semantics (probabilistic reflection). Based on this we develop techniques for reasoning about rewinding of adversaries in EasyCrypt. (A widely used technique in cryptology.) We use our reflection and rewindability results to prove the security of a coin-toss protocol.


Purpose of reviewTo review recent research and clinical studies pertaining to the nature, diagnosis, and treatment of speech and swallowing disorders in Parkinson disease. Recent findingsAlthough some studies indicate improvement in voice and speech with dopamine therapy and deep brain stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus, others show minimal or adverse effects. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation of the mouth motor cortex and injection of collagen in the vocal folds have preliminary data supporting improvement in phonation in people with Parkinson disease. Treatments focusing on vocal loudness, specifically LSVT LOUD (Lee Silverman Voice Treatment), have been effective for the treatment of speech disorders in Parkinson disease. Changes in brain activity due to LSVT LOUD provide preliminary evidence for neural plasticity. Computer-based technology makes the Lee Silverman Voice Treatment available to a large number of users. A rat model for studying neuropharmacologic effects on vocalization in Parkinson disease has been developed. New diagnostic methods of speech and swallowing are also available as the result of recent studies. SummarySpeech rehabilitation with the LSVT LOUD is highly efficacious and scientifically tested. There is a need for more studies to improve understanding, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of speech and swallowing disorders in Parkinson disease.


Abstract Stock split ex-dates are associated with both an increased intensity of small investor buying and a positive abnormal return. The broker promotion hypothesis suggests that the increase in relative spread after a split induces brokers to promote splitting stocks to small investors. The trading inconvenience hypothesis ascribes the ex-split effects to inconveniences such as investors' aversion to dealing with due bills, which is unrelated to relative spreads. The reduction in the bid-ask spread due to decimalization allows us to disentangle these two hypotheses. During the 1/8th pricing period, we show that after the ex-date, the relative spread increases significantly. The average buy order size decreases and the frequency of small transactions increases after the split. After decimalization, these changes are smaller in magnitude. We observe significant positive abnormal returns around the ex-date during the 1/8th pricing period, but not in the decimal pricing period. These results support the broker promotion hypothesis.


The vocal folds act as gatekeeper to the flow of air into and out of the lower airway. Another function of the vocal folds is that of oscillating sound source. To date, research has shown that under high respiratory drive (HRD) conditions voice is breathy, suggesting respiratory function will be favored over voice as physiologic needs increase. The problem is for physically active voice users, acoustic goals are relatively fixed. This study used a "physiology of activity" paradigm within action theory to investigate the extent to which phonatory and respiratory functions may be affected by systemically varying vocal and metabolic goals. Thirty-two English-speaking females, ages 18-35 years, who were vocally untrained and recreationally active, participated in the study. Participants produced sets of seven consonant-vowel syllables, at rest, using a pre-determined pitch at a comfortable loudness and in a loud voice. Following, participants walked on a treadmill to achieve low and high workloads at established speed and grade adjustments. The same speech task was repeated, using the same vocal intensities. Order of vocal and exercise intensities were counterbalanced. In terms of phonatory function, Rlaw increased significantly more from a baseline of spontaneous voice at rest during loud voice compared to spontaneous voice, mediated by an increase in Ps. Moreover, Rlaw decreased significantly more from baseline with an increase in workload, resulting in increases in metabolic variables. The decrease in Rlaw coincided with numerical increases in airflow. Voice production, as compared to breathing, reduced Ve, interfering with gas exchange. No differences existed for metabolic variables between voice conditions. This study reflected an attempt to understand the impact of goal-oriented behavior on phonatory and respiratory functions during HRD by manipulating acoustic and metabolic goals. Consistent with prior research, voice, as opposed to breathing, resulted in airflow limitation during HRD, reducing ventilation and CO2 clearance. Extreme respiratory perturbations lead to decreases in phonatory function to support metabolic needs. As predicted by action theory, loud voice appeared to favor phonatory function when acoustic goal was specified, at least in the short term. Conversely, spontaneous voice demonstrated deference to respiratory function when acoustic goals remained unspecified.


Measurements of charged-particle production in pp, p$-$Pb, and Pb$-$Pb collisions in the toward, away, and transverse regions with the ALICE detector are discussed. These regions are defined event-by-event relative to the azimuthal direction of the charged trigger particle, which is the reconstructed particle with the largest transverse momentum ($p_{\mathrm{T}}^{\rm trig}$) in the range $8<p_{\mathrm{T}}^{\rm trig}<15$ GeV$/c$. The toward and away regions contain the primary and recoil jets, respectively; both regions are accompanied by the underlying event (UE). In contrast, the transverse region perpendicular to the direction of the trigger particle is dominated by the so-called UE dynamics, and includes also contributions from initial- and final-state radiation. The relative transverse activity classifier, $R_{\mathrm{T}}=N_{\mathrm{ch}}^{\mathrm{T}}/\langle N_{\mathrm{ch}}^{\mathrm{T}}\rangle$, is used to group events according to their UE activity, where $N_{\mathrm{ch}}^{\mathrm{T}}$ is the charged-particle multiplicity per event in the transverse region and $\langle N_{\mathrm{ch}}^{\mathrm{T}}\rangle$ is the mean value over the whole analysed sample. The energy dependence of the $R_{\mathrm{T}}$ distributions in pp collisions at $\sqrt{s}=2.76$, 5.02, 7, and 13 TeV is reported, exploring the Koba-Nielsen-Olesen (KNO) scaling properties of the multiplicity distributions. The first measurements of charged-particle $p_{\rm T}$ spectra as a function of $R_{\mathrm{T}}$ in the three azimuthal regions in pp, p$-$Pb, and Pb$-$Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=5.02$ TeV are also reported. Data are compared with predictions obtained from the event generators PYTHIA 8 and EPOS LHC. This set of measurements is expected to contribute to the understanding of the origin of collective-like effects in small collision systems (pp and p$-$Pb).


Abstract The southern part of the Eastern European continental landmass consists mainly of a thick platform of Vendian and younger sediments overlying Precambrian basement, referred to as the East European and Scythian platforms (EEP and SP). Some specific geological features, such as the Late Devonian Pripyat-Dniepr-Donets rift basin, the Karpinsky Swell, the Permo(?)-Triassic troughs of the SP, and the deformed belt running from Dobrogea to Crimea and the Greater Caucasus, in which rocks as old as Palaeozoic crop out, form a record of the geodynamic processes affecting this part of the European lithosphere. Hard constraints on the Palaeozoic history of the SP are very sparse. The conventional view has been that the SP is a Late Palaeozoic orogenic belt. However, it is shown that the few available data are also consistent with an alternative interpretation in which it is the thinned margin of the Precambrian continent, reworked by Late Palaeozoic-Early Mesozoic rifting events. The geodynamic setting of the margin is classically reported as one of active convergence throughout the Late Palaeozoic and Early Mesozoic, with subduction of the Palaeotethys Ocean beneath Europe. Actually, there are no direct observations constraining the polarity of Palaeotethys subduction in this area although indirect evidence is not inconsistent with the conventional model. In such a case, the sedimentary-tectonic record of the SP suggests that convergence during the Permo-Triassic(?) and certainly during the Early and Mid-Jurassic was oblique. An Eo-Cimmerian (Late Triassic-Early Jurassic) event is widespread and implies a tectonic compressional regime with systematic inversion of most sedimentary basins. There is also a widespread unconformity at the end of the Mid-Jurassic and in the Late Jurassic. These can be interpreted as indicators of compressional tectonics; however, nowhere is there evidence of intense shortening or other orogenic processes. A revised tectonic model is proposed for the area but, given the degree of uncertainty characterizing the geology of this area, it is best considered as a basis for further discussion.


Abstract Gender is a key lens for interpreting meanings and practices of drinking. In response to the overwhelming amount of social and medical alcohol studies that focus on what extent people conform to norms of healthy drinking, this article extends critical feminist geographical engagement with assemblage thinking to explore how the technologies of biopower covertly materialised as bodily habits may be preserved and challenged. We suggest an embodied engagement with alcohol to help think through the gendered practices and spatial imaginaries of rural drinking life. Our account draws on interviews with women of different cohort generations with Anglo-Celtic ancestry living in a country town in Victoria, Australia. Three vignettes based around emergent themes of maternal, domicile and socialising bodies help shed light on the contradictory ways gender is lived through the dynamics of alcohol consumption which help constitute everyday life in a country town.


Abstract. In July of 2013 a group of undergraduate students from the Federal University of Bahia, Brazil, published a collaborative web map called "Where I Was Robbed". Their initial efforts in publicizing their web map were restricted to announce it at a local radio as a tool of social interest. In two months the map had almost 10.000 reports, 155 reports per day and people from more the 350 cities had already reported a crime. The present study consists in an investigation about this collaborative web map spatial correlation to official robbery data registered at the Secretary of Public Safety database, for the city of Salvador, Bahia. Kernel density estimator combined with map algebra was used to the investigation. Spatial correlations with official robbery data for the city of Salvador were not found initially, but after standardizing collaborative data and mining official registers, both data pointed at very similar areas as the main hot spots for pedestrian robbery. Both areas are located at two of the most economical active areas of the city, although web map crimes reports were more concentrated in an area with higher income population. This results and discussions indicates that this collaborative application is been used mainly by mid class and upper class parcel of the city population, but can still provide significant information on public safety priority areas. Therefore, extended divulgation, on local papers, radio and TV, of the collaborative crime map application and partnership with official agencies are strongly recommended.


To support school improvement efforts, school leaders and education agencies might need to identify groups of schools that are similar so that schools can compare their performance or share practices with other schools in the same group. This could also allow education agencies to provide tailored supports to schools in a group. This guide describes how an education agency can select a distance measure (a statistical rather than a geographic measure) to identify schools that are similar to a target school, using a variety of characteristics that enable school leaders to better understand their schools' relative performance. This guide is based on work done with the Nebraska Department of Education and is designed to help staff in other education agencies who are interested in implementing a similar approach to support school improvement. similar schools. Controlling for outcomes from previous years for current students produces an estimate of a school's current performance. Controlling for outcomes from previous cohorts produces an estimate of change in a school's performance over time.


We investigate the role of grains and grain boundaries (GBs) in the electron transport through poly-crystalline HfO2 by means of conductive atomic force microscopy (CAFM) measurements and trap-assisted tunneling simulations. CAFM experiments demonstrate that the leakage current through a thin dielectric film preferentially flows via the GBs. The current I-V characteristics measured on both types of sites, grains, and GBs are successfully simulated by utilizing the multiphonon trap-assisted tunneling model, which accounts for the inelastic charge transport via the electron traps. The extracted density of electrically active traps, whose energy parameters match those of the positively charged oxygen vacancies in hafnia, is ∼3 × 1019 cm−3 at the grains, whereas a much higher value of (0.9÷2.1) × 1021 cm−3 is required to reproduce the leakage current through the GBs.


This paper describes an analysis of the behaviour of a linear parametric motor. The primary of the linear motor uses a 4-legged laminated iron core and the secondary is constructed with aluminum plate and Fe-Si sheets. The oscillation voltage, currents and static thrust of the linear motor are calculated numerically based on a magnetic circuit model. The calculated values agree well with the measured ones. The analytical method presented here is useful for optimum design of a linear parametric motor with 4-legged core.


A total of 254 women were enrolled in the study of the intrauterine progesterone system Progestasert and some of the subjects have been followed into the 8th year of use of the device. Clinical experience on 192 women in their 1st year of use of the device was reported in 1977. This follow-up study reports on 110 patients who had at least 2 insertions of the Progestasert for continuous use of 13 months to a maximum of 8 insertions for continuous use of up to 86 months for a total of 3808 months. 60% of subjects were nulliparous women who tolerated the device as well as the multiparous. The expulsion rate was low (3.5/100 women-years) noting that 82% of expulsions occurred within 2 months postinsertion or exchange of the device. A total of 7 pregnancies were observed; the pregnancy rate was 2.2/100 women-years. 2 of these 7 pregnancies were ectopic. No uterine or cervical perforations and no serious infections were observed. (authors)


Abstract Ant colony optimization (stocktickerACO) is a meta-heuristic algorithm inspired by food searching behavior of real ants. Recently stocktickerACO has been widely used in digital image processing. When artificial ants move in a discrete habitat like an image, they deposit pheromone in their prior position. Simultaneously, vaporizing of pheromone in each iteration step avoids from falling in the local minima trap. Iris recognition because of its great dependability and non-invasion has various applications. simulation results demonstrate stocktickerACO algorithm can effectively extract the iris texture. Also it is not sensitive to nuisance factors. Moreover, stocktickerACO in this research preserves details of the various synthetic and real images. Performance of ACO in iris segmentation is compared with operation of traditional approaches such as canny, robert, and sobel edge detections. Experimental results reveal high quality and quite promising of stocktickerACO to segment images with irregular and complex structures.


The building spree of movie house megaplexes in late 1990's resulted in 6 of the 10 largest theatre chains filing for bankruptcy. Simply put: too many screens for too few patrons. The saga of Edwards Theatres Circuit is a case in point. Bankruptcy enabled the company to void the expensive leases for unprofitable theatres. But there was much more to the demise and rise of this company, as the turnaround specialists describe in this firsthand account.


We present X-ray spectra of the nucleus of the nearby radio galaxy Centaurus A from observations with the XMM-Newton EPIC CCD cameras (two exposures separated by 12 months) and the Chandra HETGS. For the first time in an FR I type galaxy, we resolve fluorescent Kα emission from cold, neutral, or near-neutral iron at 6.4 keV, with an rms line width of ~20 eV. The Fe line parameters observed are consistent with fluorescent emission from material at a large distance from the active galactic nucleus, either in the form of an absorber that nearly completely surrounds the central engine or a torus that lies predominantly out of the line of sight. Unresolved emission lines from neutral Si Kα at 1.74 keV and neutral S Kα at 2.30 keV are also detected. We find no evidence in the data for a previously reported 6.8 keV broadened Fe line. The continuum spectrum is well fitted with a combination of a heavily absorbed power-law component that we relate, using Bondi theory, to accretion phenomena in the form of a standard, geometrically thin, optically thick disk, and a second, less absorbed, power-law component that we associate with emission from the subparsec VLBI radio jet.


[1] High resolution high frequency (HF) radar observations of surface currents in the Gulf of Trieste (GoT) are presented and compared to moored subsurface current measurements and to high-resolution simulations from the Northern Adriatic Princeton Ocean Model (NAPOM) oceanographic model. Dominant circulation modes of the GoT were resolved and numerical model capabilities in reconstructing them were assessed. The time frame covers March 2011 through October 2012. NAPOM reconstructs the dominant surface circulation features observed by the radar, such as the general basin-wide cyclonic circulation scheme and the coastal jet outflowing the GoT, but is in general less energetic than radar currents. Comparisons between radar, ADCP, and model currents suggest that the model underestimates originate within the low-frequency, diurnal, semidiurnal, and inertial bands, and that both radar and model currents do not reproduce the diurnal tidal ellipse structure observed by the moored current meter. However, radar-model results for the semidiurnal tides are spatially consistent. Using empirical orthogonal function (EOF) decomposition, the coherent spatial scales and corresponding temporal scales were extracted. Findings suggest that HF radar current observations complement model simulations in regions of enhanced topographic variability where variance of model currents at the surface is distorted by the effects of the sigma layer grid. On the contrary, model results complement radar observations in areas with poor radar coverage, and furthermore provide spatial and temporal continuity of ocean state forecasts.


Context: Security bug reports are reports from bug tracking systems that include descriptions and resolutions of security vulnerabilities that occur in software projects. Researchers use security bug reports to conduct research related to software vulnerabilities. A mapping study of publications that use security bug reports can inform researchers on (i) the research topics that have been investigated, and (ii) potential research avenues in the field of software vulnerabilities. Objective: The objective of this paper is to help researchers identify research gaps related to software vulnerabilities by conducting a systematic mapping study of research publications that use security bug reports. Method: We perform a systematic mapping study of research that use security bug reports for software vulnerability research by searching five scholar databases: (i) IEEE Xplore, (ii) ACM Digital Library, (iii) ScienceDirect, (iv)Wiley Online Library, and (v) Springer Link. From the five scholar databases, we select 46 publications that use security bug reports by systematically applying inclusion and exclusion criteria. Using qualitative analysis, we identify research topics investigated in our collected set of publications. Results: We identify three research topics that are investigated in our set of 46 publications. The three topics are: (i) vulnerability classification; (ii) vulnerability report summarization; and (iii) vulnerability dataset construction. Of the studied 46 publications, 42 publications focus on vulnerability classification. Conclusion: Findings from our mapping study can be leveraged to identify research opportunities in the domains of software vulnerability classification and automated vulnerability repair techniques.


Abstract Possible relationships between groundwater arsenic concentration and alluvial sediment characteristics in a ~19 km2 area in West Bengal have been investigated using a combination of hydrogeochemical, lithogeochemical and geophysical techniques. Arsenic hotspots, typically associated with elevated groundwater Fe and Mn, were found to be correlated to some extent with old river channels (abandoned meanders, oxbow lakes), where sandy aquifers included intercalated fine-grained overbank deposits, rich in As, Fe, Mn and Corg. Otherwise no demonstrably significant overall differences in any of lithology, grain-size distribution, mineral composition or Fe, Mn and organic C content of the sediments were found between two representative sites with contrastingly low (<50 μg 1-1) and high (>200 μg 1-1) As groundwater contents. Our results are consistent with microbially mediated redox reactions controlled by the presence of natural organic matter within the aquifer and the occurrence of As-bearing redox traps, primarily formed by Fb and Mn oxides/hydroxides, being the most important factors which control the release of As into shallow groundwaters at the study site.


In February 1998, an organization called the World Commission on Dams (WCD) was launched at a ceremony in Cape Town, South Africa. An independent commission that included members of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) opposed to the construction of large dams, engineering and business groups favoring it, and other experts, the WCD was the outcome of years of international protests about the ecological and social impact of dams. The protests, which in many cases slowed down or completely halted work on specific projects, alarmed the World Bank and the corporations involved. The result was a tripartite meeting of representatives of the World Bank, civil society (NGOs), and business, which led to the organization of the WCD. In January 1999, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan proposed a "global compact" between the UN, business, and civil society to tackle the crucial and contentious issues of environmental protection and human and workers' rights. The tripartite model--an international organization, civil society (NGOs and labor organizations), and business--was evident in this initiative as well. A year later, again during the meeting of the World Economic Forum, the first modest step to make the Global Compact a reality was taken with the official launch of a website, dubbed as the world's most comprehensive resource center on global citizenship. More important than the website was the symbolism of the launching ceremony. At hand were the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the director of the International Labour Organization, the executive director of the UN Environment Programme, the chief executive officer of BP-Amoco, and the general secretary of the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions. [1] Composed of big business, big labor organizations, and international organizations, the Global Compact was an attempt to recreate at the global level the corporatist tripartite arrangements, including government, business, and labor unions, familiar to many European and Latin American countries. The above examples are not isolated ones; similar initiatives are multiplying rapidly. As the international community tries to come to grips with the challenge posed by new issues of regulation and control that can only be tackled at the transnational level and by the militancy of NGO networks seeking to impose their solutions, the tripartite corporatist model of participation is being reinvented. Global corporatism is an idea whose time has come. But global corporatism is also a dangerous idea, to be approached with less enthusiasm and greater caution than prevail now. International organizations, business, and civil society networks all have much to contribute to the solution of the growing number of problems that transcend national boundaries. They contribute, however, in different ways, bringing different assets and relying on different strengths. Trying to tie the three types of organizations into close cooperative relations may weaken the contributions each can make, while at the same time creating new bureaucratic structures. And, despite the claims that tripartite agreements will introduce greater democracy in the realm of global governance, it is doubtful that close cooperation between essentially unrepresentative organizations--international organizations, unaccountable NGOs, and large transnational corporations--will do much to ensure better protection for, and better representation of, the interests of populations affected by global polici es. In the two examples mentioned above and in many similar ones, the word corporatism is not mentioned. The operative word today is partnership. World Bank president James Wolfensohn has made partnership with NGOs a hallowed concept. A visit to the World Bank website offers a panoply of links to seminars, special events, partnership opportunities, information kiosks, and discussion groups on NGOs and their role in international governance. …


The thesis consists of five chapters. The first of them contains introduction. Chapter 2 considers a broad class of two player symmetric games, which display a fundamental non-concavity when actions of both players are about to be the same. This implies that no symmetric equilibrium is possible. We distinguish different properties of the payoff functions, like strategic substitutes, complements and quasi-concavity, which are not necessarily imposed globally on the joint action space. For each of these cases we provide conditions to secure the existence of exclusively asymmetric equilibria. Moreover we consider the case of convex payoff functions. A number of applications from industrial organization and applied microeconomics literature are provided. In Chapter 3 we generalize to the extent possible the known results for the case of games with one-dimensional action sets to the general case of games with strategic complemantarities with action spaces that are complete lattices. One key issue addressed is the extent to which all equilibria tend to be symmetric for the general case of multi-dimensional (i.e. only partially ordered) strategy spaces. We find that the scope for asymmetric equilibrium behavior is definitely broader than in the one-dimensional case, though still quite limited. Another key question investigated here is whether asymmetric pure strategy Nash equilibria are always Pareto dominated by symmetric pure strategy Nash equilibria. While this need not hold in general for games with strategic complementarities, we identify different sufficient conditions that guarantee that such dominance holds. In Chapter 4 we deal with the effects of market transparency on prices in the Bertrand duopoly model. The analysis is intuitive and simple when we consider two types of strategic interaction between firms in an industry - strategic complementarities and substitutabilities. We present also traditional comparative statics analyses, demanding additionally some other regularity conditions, to cover those problems, when neither of these situations is the case. In the first case, the results are close to conventional wisdom, especially, when in the same time products are substitutes. Namely, equilibrium prices and profits are always decreasing in transparency level, while the consumer's surplus is increasing. For a special case when supermodularity holds, but products are not substitutes, the result on profits is not valid anymore. Considering price competition with strategic substitutes, an ambiguity in the direction of change of prices appears. This leads to ambiguity concerning equilibrium profits and surplus changes caused by increasing transparency. In Chapter 5 we provide general conditions for Cournot oligopoly with product differentiation to have monotonic reaction correspondences. We give a proof for the conditions stated by Vives (1999). Moreover we elaborate more general requirements. They allow for identifying increasing best responses even in case inverse demand is submodular, and similarly, decreasing best responses in case of supermodular inverse demand. Examples illustrating the scope of applicability of these results are provided.


The idea of keeping a vehicle safe and secure throughout its whole life cycle, as well as having the opportunity to add functionality after initial delivery, is the key motivation behind automotive software updates. Today, safety or security issues that appear after vehicle delivery need to be resolved by starting a recall campaign. These campaigns require the vehicle user to visit a car repair workshop to get an update. Over The Air (OTA) software updates, being location-independent, can pave the way for higher update frequencies and more efficiency regarding customer satisfaction, resource consumption as well as safety and security.In this paper we analyze requirements for OTA software updates phrased in various standards and regulations as well as in existing development and type approval processes. Prevailing challenges for OTA updates are extracted to identify necessary activities and artifacts within the procedure. Based on that a concept for the approval and execution processes of OTA updates is designed. This concept includes the involved entities, required communication and exchange paths as well as the OTA update specification.


Long-term cannulation of the thoracic duct became a research tool with the advent of plastic tubing materials. However, technical problems still face investigators who try to obtain thoracic duct lymph over a long period of time. In our laboratory, a system capable of obtaining intermittent thoracic duct lymph samples over a ten-day period has been developed. Anatomic Catheter Placement Three anatomic features of the thoracic duct (TD) are pertinent to its successful catheterization: (1) occurrence of multiple communicating collateral branches (Col) near its termination; (2) a bifurcation (Bi) in the main duct in the vicinity of the third and fourth thoracic vertebrae; and (3) multiple lymphatic-to-venous (L-V) connections in addition to the termination of the TD at the junction of the left jugular and axillary veins. Cephalad to the diaphragm, the main thoracic duct gives off several collateral branches (Fig 1-3) which reunite with the main duct at its bulbous


This thesis uses three key episodes from the career of the fourteenth-century Alsatian nobleman, Bruno von Rappoltstein (c.1335-1398) to paint an image of noble power and aristocratic self-consciousness in a border region between Francophone and German speaking spheres of influence in one of the traditional heartlands of the Holy Roman Empire. Bruno von Rappoltstein came to prominence in the second half of the fourteenth century. This was period of significant change in the wake of the Black Death. Bruno was an inveterate feuder and became involved in a series of disputes which occupied most of his adult life and which brought him into conflict with a range of powerful authorities. The manner in which Bruno conducted himself in the face of threats and pressure from the city of Strassburg, the Empire, Richard II of England, the Pope and other greater lords and the ways in which a number of these sought to use the circumstances to further their own agendas provides an insight into the realities of political power within the Empire at that time. Bruno's mentality and his sense of personal and dynastic identity are explored. His inability to adapt behaviour that was acceptable within his own domain to his dealings with greater authorities is shown to have been a leading cause of his ultimate failure which left his heirs with substantial debts and which may be seen as the beginning of a process leading to the family coming increasingly under Habsburg control over the following century. The thesis also considers the extent to which Bruno was manipulated in his feuding by more powerful princes in the context of recent scholarship (most notably that of Dr. Hillay Zmora) which suggests that such manipulation was an important factor in princely state-building. Dr. Zmora's thesis is based on a study of noble feuding in Franconia in the sixteenth century. This thesis finds nothing to contradict Zmora's views but raises a question as to the extent to which they are necessarily valid outside of the period and region of his research. An appendix to the thesis details the career of the English knight. Sir John Harlestone, who played a central role in one of Bruno's disputes and who is an interesting figure in his own right.


Initiation of blade cracks in Francis turbine runners endangers the safety operation of power stations, so it is crucial to detect the cracks before emergencies happen. This article is a preliminary study of applying acoustic emission (AE) technique to detecting the large-scale turbine runners. A series of experiments had been carried out on an HLA286a-LJ-800 Francis turbine runner. The attenuation characteristics due to propagation distance were studied. From the tests, it is concluded that AE signals are detectable after propagating at a distance of 6 m. The propagation distance is the major factor of attenuation. As a result, although attenuation is incurred, it is feasible to apply AE technique to monitoring crack signals in runners. However, it depends on the understanding of background noise and extraction of right signals.


Acute renal failure results in significant morbidity and mortality, yet renal failure is not the usual cause of death in the clinical situation. We have previously reported systemic increases in the inflammatory mediators tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha) and interleukin-1 (IL-1) after renal ischemia in the mouse. In the present study, an animal model of bilateral renal ischemia was used to test the hypothesis that cytokines released with renal ischemia have effects on other organ systems. Increased levels of immunoreactive TNF-alpha and IL-1 and intercellular adhesion molecule-1 mRNA were found in the heart after renal ischemia in the rat. This was accompanied by increases in myeloperoxidase activity, an index of tissue leukocyte infiltration, in the heart as well as the liver and lung. Functional changes in the heart 48 h after renal ischemia included increases in left ventricular end diastolic diameter, left ventricular end systolic diameter, and decreased fractional shortening by echocardiography. Evidence of apoptosis of cardiac cells was also found 48 h after an abbreviated period of renal ischemia insufficient to induce azotemia but not bilateral nephrectomy (which resulted in significant renal failure), suggesting that renal ischemia but not uremia is necessary for the apoptosis observed. It was also found that blocking the action of TNF-alpha limited cardiac apoptosis. Renal ischemia results in distant effects and the alterations observed in the heart may be important in the morbidity and mortality observed clinically.


The service life of rolling bearings is significantly affected by the film formation in elastohydrodynamic (EHD) contacts, which depends on the operating conditions, like rotational speed or temperature. In grease lubricated EHD contacts, the film formation is determined by the grease consistency and composition, i.e., thickener and base oil type as well as properties of the bleed oil, which is released from the grease during operation. Thus, the film formation of grease lubricated contacts as compared to base oil lubricated contacts can be different. With increasing rolling speed, the film thickness of oil lubricated contacts usually grows. However, in case of grease lubricated contacts, which are not fully flooded, the film thickness remains constant or even decreases with further increasing rotational speed. This effect is referred to as starvation. Since the onset of starvation depends on the grease composition, the film formation of two different grease compositions is investigated in this study. The film thickness measurements are performed on a ball-on-disc tribometer for each grease, as well as the corresponding bleed and pure base oils. Thereby, the characteristic rotational speed leading to the onset of starvation has been identified in dependence of the grease composition and the differences in the lubricating film formation of base oil, bleed oil, and grease lubricated EHD contacts have been discussed. The investigations should help to establish an advanced understanding of the physical mechanisms leading to the onset of starvation to encourage future work with focus on a method to predict the film formation in grease lubricated EHD contacts.


A quality model has been developed from parameters determining the interactions of physical, chemical, and biological factors during the preparation of mushroom compost for growing Agaricus bisporus. Our results show that a partial least square model based on the combination of pH, dry matter, ammonia, carbon, hydrogen, ash, Cu, Fe, and Na could explain nearly 90% of the variation in mushroom yield obtained from four compost comparative trials. The yields in the data base for generating the model ranged from 138 to 305 kg per ton of compost. The validity of the yield model has been confirmed in a trial carried out in collaboration with experienced commercial growers. This has significant implications for compost producers, as production efficiencies can be maintained by targeting the important parameters.


Studies indicate that previous caries experience can influence future caries development; however, caries-free individuals also may develop caries. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between baseline caries experience and salivary mutans streptococci (SMS) levels as an indicator for predicting caries incidence in pre-school children. One hundred forty-eight preschool children (mean baseline age, 3-8 years) of low socioeconomic status were examined for dental caries and SMS levels at baseline and annually for 2 years. All children were identified at baseline as either caries free or caries positive. The 2-year delta dmfs scores for both groups were evaluated as 0, 1-2, 3-4, or > 4. The children's baseline SMS levels were categorized as low (0 CFU), moderate (1-50 CFU), or high (> 50 CFU), and were recoded to assigned ranges of 1, 2, and 3, respectively, in each year for longitudinal analysis. Both the caries-free and caries-positive groups had high SMS levels associated with the greatest delta dmfs, and when SMS ranges were added for the three examination years (minimum = 3, maximum = 9), the mean second-year dmfs scores varied directly as the sum of the ranges. Results from this study suggest that SMS levels may be useful in identifying and predicting future caries in preschool children, independent of baseline caries experience.


The executing analytical global placers on a flat cell design might give the best placement results, but nevertheless can incur extremely long runtime, especially when the scale of netlists is increasing dramatically nowadays. And in the flatten mode experiments, the results reveal some unexpected situations like several cells with same logical connections are inseparable. Clustering offers an aviliable solution to above questions and give an attractive choice to reduce the scale and complexity of the design, at the same time improve the placement quality. In this paper, we present a new cluster technique called DyadicCluster to consider the internal and external connections between two cells and add the area constraints, so as to combine the most closely two cells, which is more quick and accurate than previous methods. DyadicCluster has been embedded into the global placement process of a nonlinear placer DCNP for large-scale designs. The DCNP runtime explicitly decreases compared to the flatten mode [1] by 40% and the quality improves by 12%. And the half-perimeter wirelength of our placer after detail placement outperforms current state-of-the-art placers Capo, FastPlace, Fengshui and mPL5-fast by 7%, 9%, 1%, and 5% respectively.


Aim: To determine whether early lead exposure at levels below 10 μg/dl has an impact on educational and behavioural outcomes at school. Methods: Venous samples were taken from a subgroup of the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) attending a research clinic at 30 months of age (n = 582), and lead levels were measured by atomic absorption spectrometry. Developmental, behavioural and standardised educational outcomes (Standard Assessment Tests, SATs) were collected on these children at age 7–8 years. In the analysis, blood lead concentration was investigated both as a continuous covariate and as a categorical variable. Results: 488 cases (84%) had complete data on confounders and outcomes. After adjustment for confounders and using a log dose–response model for lead concentration, blood lead levels showed significant associations with reading, writing and spelling grades on SATs, and antisocial behaviour. A doubling in lead concentration was associated with a 0.3 point (95% CI −0.5 to −0.1) decline in SATs grades. Treating lead levels categorically, with the reference group 0–2 μg/dl, no effects on outcomes were apparent at 2–5 μg/dl, but levels of 5–10 μg/dl were associated with a reduction in scores for reading (OR 0.51, p = 0.006) and writing (OR 0.49, p = 0.003). Lead levels >10 μg/dl were also associated with increased scores for antisocial behaviour (OR 2.9, p = 0.040) and hyperactivity (OR 2.82, p = 0.034). Conclusions: Exposure to lead early in childhood has effects on subsequent educational attainment, even at blood levels below 10 μg/dl. These data suggest that the threshold for clinical concern should be reduced to 5 μg/dl.


We describe a local surrogate model for use in conjunction with global structure search methods. The model follows the Gaussian approximation potential formalism and is based on the smooth overlap of atomic positions descriptor with sparsification in terms of a reduced number of local environments using mini-batch k-means. The model is implemented in the Atomistic Global Optimization X framework and used as a partial replacement of the local relaxations in basin hopping structure search. The approach is shown to be robust for a wide range of atomistic systems, including molecules, nanoparticles, surface supported clusters, and surface thin films. The benefits in a structure search context of a local surrogate model are demonstrated. This includes the ability to benefit from transfer learning from smaller systems as well as the possibility to perform concurrent multi-stoichiometry searches.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study in clinically active juvenile idiopathic arthritis (JIA) was to assess the frequency and distribution pattern of synovitis as hallmark of disease and additional soft-tissue and bony abnormalities on MRI in the knee and wrist as two target joints.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
MRI datasets of 153 clinically active JIA patients (110 with knee and 43 with wrist involvement) were evaluated independently by two readers for the presence of literature-based imaging features: "synovial hypertrophy," "bone marrow changes," "bone erosions," "tenosynovitis" (only in the wrist), and "cartilage lesions" (only in the knee) in accordance with validated definitions and scoring locations.

RESULTS
Synovial hypertrophy was most frequently observed--both in the knee and in the wrist (61.8-65.1% of cases). For the knee, the most frequently involved locations were the cruciate ligaments (46/183 locations [25.1%] affected with synovial hypertrophy) and medial patella (18/62 locations [29.0%] with bone marrow changes). Cartilage lesions and bone erosions were rare (5.5-7.3% of cases). For the wrist, most frequently involved were the radiocarpal joint (21/64 locations [32.8%] with synovial hypertrophy), lunate (7/46 locations [15.2%] with bone marrow changes), and capitate or triquetrum (6/28 locations [21.4%] with bone erosions). Tenosynovitis was a common wrist-specific feature (46.5% of cases). MRI showed no abnormalities in a subgroup of patients with clinically active knee (23.6%) and wrist (16.3%) involvement.

CONCLUSION
The distribution pattern of MRI abnormalities in the knee and wrist of active JIA patients provides a practical tool to detect a signature of JIA disease activity in target joints.


Social seed systems are important for the maintenance of crop genetic diversity on farm. This is governed by local and informal system in the community through a farmers' network. This paper analyses these local seed systems through application of social network analysis tools and mappings and examines the network member and its stability over space and time in a small rice farming community in Nepal. NetDraw software is used for data analysis and network mapping. We found that the dynamic network structure had key role in provisioning of traditional varieties and maintaining of crop genetic diversity on farm. We identify and ascertain the key network members, constituted either as nodal or bridging (connector) farmers, occupying central position in the network who promote seed flow of local crop diversity, thus strengthening crop genetic resource diversity on farm.


To the Editor.— Recently, I had the opportunity to examine a patient with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). After receiving two years of prednisone therapy (75 mg/day to 120 mg/ day) for multisystem disease, the patient had the acute onset of six dermal nodules. Clinically, these were dermatofibromas. A biopsy specimen of one lesion confirmed the diagnosis. The occurrence of multiple eruptive dermatofibromas occurring in patients with SLE who are undergoing immunosuppressive therapy has previously been reported. 1 These associations may not be well known among practicing clinicians. Report of a Case.— Six dermatofibromas had developed on the trunk, flanks, and left palm of a 37-year-old woman during a two- to four-month period. Two years previously, her condition had been diagnosed as SLE. Multisystem disease existed with hepatitis, proteinuria, polyarthritis, cutaneous vasculitis, and a malar rash. She had a circulating anti-factor IX antibody. In 1978, a regimen of prednisone (75 to


This research project modeled and simulated a ventilation system at a Mining Concession, obtaining real-time information regarding the fans used to ventilate the mine. The simulation was developed using the VENTSIM 5 software, which also helped define the number of fans and the operating parameters required, field information, mine dimensions, the mining method, production, geothermal gradient, gas emission, air stream, and air pressure. In addition, the results from software operation revealed the need to open chimneys and use fans. Furthermore, the results also suggest that a specialist dedicated to ventilation and fan maintenance must be hired to formalize mining operations as per the Occupational Safety and Health Mining Regulations from Executive Action No. 024-2016-EM as this Mining Concession is currently operating without license.


Though diabetes is a disease with vascular complications, little is known about its effects on the blood-brain barrier or the blood-cerebrospinal fluid barrier (BCSFB). The BCSFB is situated at choroid plexuses located in the lateral, third, and fourth ventricles. Choroid plexuses are the primary site of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) production and express numerous ion transporters. Previous studies have shown a perturbation of ion transport in the periphery and brain during diabetes. In this study, we investigated the effect of diabetes on ion transporters in the choroid plexuses of streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats. Diabetes was induced in male Sprague-Dawley rats by intraperitoneal injection of STZ (60 mg/kg in citrate buffer, confirmed by glucose analysis: 601 +/- 22 mg/dl diabetic rats, 181 +/- 46 mg/dl age-matched controls); and at 28 days, rats were killed, choroid plexuses harvested, and protein extracted. Western blot analyses were carried out using antibodies for ion transporters, including Na(+)-K(+)-2Cl(-) cotransporter and the Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase alpha1-subunit. The efflux of the K(+) analog (86)Rb(+) from choroid plexus was also studied. Diabetic rats showed an increase in expression of the Na(+)-K(+)-2Cl(-) cotransporter and the Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase alpha1-subunit, as compared with age-matched controls, a decrease in Na(+)-H(+) exchanger expression, and no change in Na(+)-K(+)-ATPase beta1- or beta2-subunit. The net effect of these changes was a 66% increase in (86)Rb(+) efflux from diabetic choroid plexus compared with controls. These changes in expression may affect choroid plexus ion balance and thus significantly affect CSF production in diabetic rats.


BACKGROUND: Transition into Industry 4.0 has had many significant impacts. Customization symbolizes leanness, flexibility, adaptability, and agility. A business operator needs to recognize the factors that contribute to better utilization of the talents of its workforce and more effective workplace learning. OBJECTIVE: The study aims to provide a construct which highlights effective workplace learning. In this context, a construct represents a broad view of various interrelated ideas and concepts which can point to academic and practical implications. METHODS: The study applies action research which is suitable when observing a transformative change. The study intends to observe and notice how the environmental factors have changed and try to predict their impacts on human capital development. To help verify the suitability of these impacts, a comparison with similar studies or findings is made. Focuses on literature reviews which look at the impacts from Industry 4.0 (on a need to tackle the waste of the talents in a workplace), recent developments of learning (on an emerging importance of informal learning), and survey's data (on a shift in a workplace's expectation on the workers). RESULTS: Workplace learning has gradually replaced training and education. The proposed construct can help tackle the underutilization of the talents in a workplace as the workers are nowadays expected to perform the tasks and learn at the same time. CONCLUSIONS: Sustaining learning in a workplace needs to understand behavior, motivation, emotion, and workplace engagement. Informal learning, which reflects the individualization of learning, can enable an organization to deal with workplace learning.


Abstract The "geographic mosaic" approach to understanding coevolution is predicated on the existence of variable selection across the landscape of an interaction between species. A range of ecological factors, from differences in resource availability to differences in community composition, can generate such a mosaic of selection among populations, and thereby differences in the strength of coevolution. The result is a mixture of hotspots, where reciprocal selection is strong, and coldspots, where reciprocal selection is weak or absent, throughout the ranges of species. Population subdivision further provides the opportunity for nonadaptive forces, including gene flow, drift, and metapopulation dynamics, to influence the coevolutionary interaction between species. Some predicted results of this geographic mosaic of coevolution include maladapted or mismatched phenotypes, maintenance of high levels of polymorphism, and prevention of stable equilibrium trait combinations. To evaluate the potential for the geographic mosaic to influence predator-prey coevolution, we investigated the geographic pattern of genetically determined TTX resistance in the garter snake Thamnophis sirtalis over much of the range of its ecological interaction with toxic newts of genus Taricha. We assayed TTX resistance in over 2900 garter snakes representing 333 families from 40 populations throughout western North America. Our results provide dramatic evidence that geographic structure is an important component in coevolutionary interactions between predators and prey. Resistance levels vary substantially (over three orders of magnitude) among populations and over short distances. The spatial array of variation is consistent with two areas of intense evolutionary response by predators ("hotspots") surrounded by clines of decreasing resistance. Some general predictions of the geographic mosaic process are supported, including clinal variation in phenotypes, polymorphism in some populations, and divergent outcomes of the interaction between predator and prey. Conversely, our data provide little support for one of the major predictions, mismatched values of interacting traits. Two lines of evidence suggest selection is paramount in determining population variation in resistance. First, phylogenetic information indicates that two hotspots of TTX resistance have evolved independently. Second, in the one region that TTX levels in prey have been quantified, resistance and toxicity levels match almost perfectly over a wide phenotypic and geographic range. However, these results do not preclude the role the nonadaptive forces in generating the overall geographic mosaic of TTX resistance. Much work remains to fill in the geographic pattern of variation among prey populations and, just as importantly, to explore the variation in the ecology of the interaction that occurs within populations.


PURPOSE
We aimed to evaluate the ADNEX MR scoring system for the prediction of adnexal mass malignancy, using a simplified magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) protocol.

METHODS
In this prospective study, 200 patients with 237 adnexal masses underwent MRI between February 2014 and February 2016 and were followed until February 2017. Two radiologists calculated ADNEX MR scores using an MRI protocol with a simplified dynamic study, not a high temporal resolution study, as originally proposed. Sensitivity, specificity, positive and negative predictive values, likelihood ratios, and the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve were calculated (cutoff for malignancy, score ≥ 4). The reference standard was histopathologic diagnosis or imaging findings during >12 months of follow-up.

RESULTS
Of 237 lesions, 79 (33.3%) were malignant. The ADNEX MR scoring system, using a simplified MRI protocol, showed 94.9% (95% confidence interval [CI], 87.5%-98.6%) sensitivity and 97.5% (95% CI, 93.6%-99.3%) specificity in malignancy prediction; it was thus highly accurate, like the original system. The level of interobserver agreement on simplified scoring was high (κ = 0.91).

CONCLUSION
In a tertiary cancer center, the ADNEX MR scoring system, even based on a simplified MRI protocol, performed well in the prediction of malignant adnexal masses. This scoring system may enable the standardization of MRI reporting on adnexal masses, thereby improving communication between radiologists and gynecologists.


Recent experience has convinced the author of the value of ovarian grafting. He gives the histories of a number of women upon whom he made implants of their own ovarian tissue in the course of operations for double oöphorectomy. The subsequent state of these patients is contrasted with that of women after castration without grafting. When the uterus was left in position menstruation was re-established in over 80% of the grafted cases. The author and his co-workers maintain that the vitality of autogenous grafts of ovarian substance is enhanced by hormones produced by the uterine mucosa. He therefore advocates that grafts of uterus be made in conjunction with ovarian implants whenever possible. Experiments carried out on animals have proved the correctness of this opinion. The results of a series of cases of combined ovarian and uterine graftings are recorded, and the technique of uterine mucosa implants is described.


Quasi-amorphous BaTiO3 thin films (see Figure) represent a polar ionic solid without spatial periodicity. Most probably, polarity of the quasi-amorphous BaTiO3 is associated with directional ordering of crystal motifs formed in the steep temperature gradient and stabilized by high in-plane mechanical stress. A remarkable characteristic of quasi-amorphous BaTiO3 is expression of strong pyro-and piezoelectric effects in a low dielectric constant material.


Living near a nuclear power plant does not raise the risk of leukaemia or non-Hodgkin lymphoma in children aged under 5 years, a review of cases in Britain over 45 years has found.

The incidence of leukaemia near nuclear power plants in Britain was first highlighted in a television documentary in 1983 that found an excess of cancer cases among young people living near the Sellafield plant in Cumbria. A year later a report confirmed a large and unexpected incidence of childhood leukaemia in the nearby coastal village of Seascale, which led to the establishment of the Committee on Medical Aspects of Radiation in the Environment.

The committee found a very small or no …


— Various mechanisms providing mutual exclusion and thread synchronization can be used to support parallel processing within a single computer. Instead of using locks, semaphores, barriers or other traditional approaches in this paper we focus on alternative ways for making better use of modern multithreaded architectures and preparing hash tables for concurrent accesses. Hash structures will be used to demonstrate and compare two entirely different approaches (rule based cooperation and hardware synchronization support) to an efficient parallel implementation using traditional locks. Comparison includes implementation details, performance ranking and scalability issues. We aim at understanding the effects the parallelization schemes have on the execution environment with special focus on the memory system and memory access characteristics.


In this paper we address the impact of ACI on dynamic spectrum allocation in multi-radio systems. In particular, we present the benefits of dynamic spectrum allocation by adapting channel bandwidth and distance in order to mitigate ACI in multi-radio mesh networks. Based on our measurement campaign in an indoor mesh testbed, which we extended in order to use adaptive channel width, we evaluate the performance in terms of network throughput. We show that by using channel bandwidth adaptation and antenna separation, the impact of ACI can be significantly reduced. The performed experiments give important insights into ACI in multi-radio cognitive systems which help to develop e.g. better channel assignment algorithms or capacity estimation methods.


Clinical pathways are integrated plans of tasks dedicated to obtain the major benefit for the patients, considering all aspects of the management, as the role of physicians and nurses and standardizing the procedures in forms and time. Their interest has grown since the developing of clinical management models. In neurological diseases their use has been restricted to acute phases, and in the case of chronic neurological diseases for specific techniques. The authors analyze the interest of the design and use of clinical pathways for chronic neurological diseases starting from the paper from Rodriguez de la Rivera et al. on a clinical pathway for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. For the authors, the specific differences between clinical pathways for acute neurological diseases and chronic diseases are changes in the design of temporal matrix using stages, multispeciality teams, the standardised access to social benefits and the role of case-manager, as professional who maintain a direct relation with patients. The authors also approach the setting difficulties in the development of clinical pathways that should be greater in the chronic neurological disease and suggest the role of scientific societies in their promotion.


We examined the connection between the perception of love and stigma in relationships and how much stigma needs to be present to elicit a heightened perception of love. Participants in the first study rated several relationships on the degree of stigma each one of them faced, and how much the individuals in each relationship loved each other—the perception of the Romeo and Juliet effect. In the second study, participants read a scenario of a male, gay relationship with various degree of stigma (none, one, two, or three sources), and rated how much the couple loved each other. The results suggest that there is a perception that the Romeo and Juliet effect exists, despite evidence that does not (Sinclair, Hood, & Wright, 2014). Individuals in relationships, which face stigma from multiple sources, are believed to love each other more than those with no stigma. Together, the results suggest that perceived stigma and love in a relationship are positively associated, which runs counter to better supported models of relationship satisfaction (Parks, Stan, & Eggert, 1983).


The data studied consisted of conveniencesamples of preadmission information and the results of the admission processes of three technically oriented healthcare degree programmes (Orthotics and Prosthetics, Dental Technology and Optometry) in Finland during the years 1977-1986 and 2003. The number of the subjects tested and interviewed in the first samples was 191, 615 and 606, and in the second 67, 64 and 89, respectively. The questions of the six studies were: I. How were different kinds of preadmission data related to each other? II. Which were the major determinants of the admission decisions? III. Did the graduated students and those who dropped out differ from each other? IV. Was it possible to predict how well students would perform in the programmes? V. How was the student selection executed in the year 2003? VI. Should clinical vs. statistical prediction or both be used? (Some remarks are presented on Meehl s argument: "Always, we might as well face it, the shadow of the statistician hovers in the background; always the actuary will have the final word.") The main results of the study were as follows: Ability tests, dexterity tests and judgements of personality traits (communication skills, initiative, stress tolerance and motivation) provided unique, non-redundant information about the applicants. Available demographic variables did not bias the judgements of personality traits. In all three programme settings, four-factor solutions (personality, reasoning, gender-technical and agevocational with factor scores) could be extracted by the Maximum Likelihood method with graphical Varimax rotation. The personality factor dominated the final aptitude judgements and very strongly affected the selection decisions. There were no clear differences between graduated students and those who had dropped out in regard to the four factors. In addition, the factor scores did not predict how well the students performed in the programmes. Meehl's argument on the uncertainty of clinical prediction was supported by the results, which on the other hand did not provide any relevant data for rules on statistical prediction. No clear arguments for or against the aptitude-based student selection was presented. However, the structure of the aptitude measures and their impact on the admission process are now better known. The concept of 'personal aptitude' is not necessarily included in the values and preferences of those in charge of organizing the schooling. Thus, obviously the most wellfounded and cost-effective way to execute student selection is to rely on e.g. the grade point averages of the matriculation examination and/or written entrance exams. This procedure, according to the present study, would result in a student group which has a quite different makeup (60%) from the group selected on the basis of aptitude tests. For the recruiting organizations, instead, 'personal aptitude' may be a matter of great importance. The employers, of course, decide on personnel selection. The psychologists, if consulted, are responsible for the proper use of psychological measures.


This paper examines underlying factors that could explain the decline in income inequality in the People's Republic of China (PRC) since 2008 and inquires whether the decline indicates that the PRC's income inequality has peaked following the Kuznets hypothesis. The paper first identifies four key drivers of rising income inequality in the PRC since the mid-1980s: rising skill premium, declining share of labor income, increasing spatial inequality, and widening inequality in the distribution of wealth. It then provides evidence that the reversal of these drivers, with the exception of wealth inequality, could partly explain the decline in income inequality since 2008. The paper argues that since part of the reversal of these drivers is policy induced, it is important that the policy actions continue for income inequality to decline further. The paper further argues that a critical factor underlying the Kuznets hypothesis is that taxation and transfers play a bigger role in income redistribution as a country becomes more developed, while their role is still limited in the PRC, the future path of the country's income inequality may not be one directional; and reducing income inequality significantly may require personal income tax and transfers to play a greater role over time.


Using first-principles calculation, the contribution of A-site and B-site atoms to polarization and piezoelectricity d33 in the tetragonal PbTiO3/KNbO3 and PbTiO3/LaAlO3 superlattices is investigated in this paper. It is shown that PbTiO3/KNbO3 superlattice has larger polarization and d33 than PbTiO3/LaAlO3 superlattice, because there is stronger charge transfer between A(B)-site atoms and oxygen atom in PbTiO3/KNbO3 superlattice. In PbTiO3/KNbO3 superlattice, B-site atoms (Ti, Nb) make larger contribution to the total polarization and d33 than the A-site atoms (Pb, K) because of the strong covalent interactions between the transition metal (Ti, Nb) and the oxygen atoms, while piezoelectricity in PbTiO3/LaAlO3 superlattice mainly ascribes to piezoelectric contribution of Pb atom and Ti atom in PbTiO3 component. Furthermore, by calculating the proportion of the piezoelectric contribution from PbTiO3 component in superlattices, we find there is different response of strain to piezoelectric contribution from PbTiO3 component in two superlattices but still with a value larger than 50%. In PbTiO3/KNbO3 superlattice, the c-axis strain reduces the proportion, especially under tensile condition. Meanwhile in PbTiO3/LaAlO3 superlattice, PbTiO3 plays a leading role to the total d33, especially under compressive condition, and the proportion decreases as the tensile strain increases.


. The Offenders Index (OI) is a database intended to contain all court disposals relating to standard list offences since 1963 in England and Wales and is the standard research tool used for conviction studies. • The Police National Computer (PNC) is an operational policing database for the UK (excluding Northern Ireland), which contains additional information, particularly on cautions, warnings and dates of offence. It is not suitable for research into criminal histories, as weeding of records takes place periodically. Police records from the period prior to its launch in 1995 are being computerised and integrated into the PNC database. • The purpose of the present research is to investigate the feasibility of merging PNC records into extracts from the Offenders Index to maximise the information available for research and evaluation of patterns of offending. Aim of research study • To assess the quality of the PNC and the Offenders Index data sources • For selected subgroups of cases, to match OI data with PNC data and to assess rates of matching • To develop a strategy whereby, for any set of offenders, the two sets of information could be merged into a single data source


Many-accelerator platforms have been introduced for maximizing FPGA's throughput. However, as the high saturation rate of the FPGA's on-chip memories limits the number of synthesized accelerators, frameworks for Dynamic Memory Management (DMM) that allow the synthesized designs to allocate/de-allocate on-chip memory resources during run-time have been suggested. Although, those frameworks manage to increase the accelerators' density by minimizing the utilized memory resources, the parallel execution of many-accelerators may cause severe memory fragmentation and thus memory allocation failures. In this work, a framework that optimizes the memory usage by performing memory defragmentation operations in HLS many-accelerator architectures that share on-chip memories is proposed. Experimental results highlight the effectiveness of the proposed solution to eliminate memory allocation failures due to memory fragmentation, reduce memory allocation failures up to 32% on average and decrease the memory size requirements up to 5% with controllable latency and resource utilization overhead.


In October 1950 the Chinese leader Mao Zedong embarked on a two-front war. He sent troops to Korea and invaded Tibet at a time when the People's Republic of China was burdened with many domestic problems. The logic behind Mao's risky policy has baffled historians ever since. By drawing on newly available Chinese and Western documents and memoirs, this article explains what happened in October 1950 and why Mao acted as he did. The release of key documents such as telegrams between Mao and his subordinates enables scholars to understand Chinese policymaking vis--vis Tibet much more fully than in the past. The article shows that Mao skillfully used the conflicts for his own purposes and consolidated his hold over the Chinese Communist Party.


In this study, we seek to identify the development process of the virtual community. This study investigates the development process of two virtual communities: HSC (Home-stay Community) and UTC (University Teaching Community). This case study has produced two major findings. First, the sets of values established in a virtual community are related to the particular system functions employed in that community. While HSC members use blogs to collect related information and utilize forums to make bi-directional communication, UTC members seldom access blogs or edit Wiki pages. Second, motivation leads participants to join their community and to shape its boundaries. The information sharing process is shown to be an effective way of improving community development in the virtual context. Thus, managers are advised to pay attention to active and strongly-motivated players in the virtual context. Future studies may enrich the current investigation by focusing upon the relevant business models.


OBJECTIVES Previous studies of surgical treatment for cervical dystonia have reported highly variable rates of postoperative symptomatic benefit and morbidity. Little is known about functional improvement and long term results. This study evaluates the symptomatic and functional outcome of surgical treatment of cervical dystonia in a consecutive series of 46 patients. METHODS The most affected muscles were selected for denervation after clinical examination and confirmation by four channel EMG studies. Surgical treatment, aiming at selective elimination of pathological activity while preserving normal motor function and avoiding side effects, was achieved by using a broad scope of techniques including intradural denervation, extradural denervation, and myotomy. Rather than carrying out standard operations, the treatment was tailored to the needs of the patient according to the individual pattern of dystonic activity. Long term benefit was assessed with a global outcome score, and a modified Toronto western spasmodic torticollis rating scale (TWSTRS) in those 34 patients who were available for a recent follow up evaluation. RESULTS The 46 patients underwent a total of 70 procedures with intradural approaches in 33 instances, extradural approaches in 21, and muscle sections (singly or combined) in 22 instances. Transient mild postoperative side effects occurred in 10% of the procedures. The mean duration of long term follow up was 6.5 years. The global outcome was rated as excellent in nine patients (21%), as marked in 12 (27%), as moderate in nine (21%), as mild in nine (21%), and as no improvement in five (11%). A persistent side effect consisting of mild difficulty with balance was noted in one case. There were highly significant changes of the preoperative and postoperative mean values for almost all TWSTRS subscores for severity of cervical dystonia, functional disability, and pain. Patients with excellent outcome underwent a higher number of surgical procedures on average than those patients who achieved no benefit. CONCLUSIONS Surgical treatment tailored to the specific pattern of dystonic activity in the individual patient is a valuable alternative in the long term management of cervical dystonia.


The Outlook project based in Manchester offers a range of activities, support and skills training to people over the age of 17 with ongoing or previous drug or alcohol issues. The programme was originally implemented in 2002 in response to identified need for a comprehensive dedicated outreach service to cater for the diverse needs of problematic drug and alcohol users across the east Manchester area (Iredale, 2002). The catchment area for service users has since been extended to include the rest of Manchester city centre (ONS census 2003 estimates that the Manchester city area has a population of approximately 432,400 people).The programme is based on a community model, reaching out especially to 'hard to reach' groups of local people in many socially excluded areas of Manchester. The indices of Multiple Deprivation show that Manchester has an exceptionally low ranking position in the North West compared with the rest of the UK when accounting for factors of income, employment, education, health, skills and training, barriers to housing and services, and crime.


Organizations are always in pursuit of finding ways to enhance their performance. One of the ways is to enhance employee performance by incorporating job characteristics that contribute to employee motivation, satisfaction and commitment of the employees. The job characteristics necessary for better performance of employees are skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of job characteristics on the performance of employees among Private Equity Firms in Nairobi City County in Kenya. The specific objectives of the study were to determine the effect of skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy and feedback on employee performance among private equity firms in Nairobi City County, Kenya. The study also sought to determine the mediating effect of employee motivation on the relationship between job characteristics and the performance of employees among private equity firms. The theories used in the study were the Job Characteristics model, Herzberg's two-factor theory and the Demand control model. The study adopted a descriptive research design and involved a census of all 210 employees in 25 different private equity firms in Nairobi City County, Kenya. Questionnaires were used for primary data collection. To ascertain the validity and reliability of the questionnaire, a pre-test was conducted on one of the private equity firms where the cut-off for Cronbach alpha was taken as a value of 0.7 and the aggregate alpha value in this study was 0.755. The quantitative data in the study was analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Descriptive analysis comprising the mean, frequency, percentage and standard deviation while inferential statistics was stepwise multiple regression. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) was used to conduct the analysis. 116 questionnaires out of the 210 distributed were used for analysis, which translates to 55% of the response rate which was adequate for the study. From the findings, variety of skills, task identity, autonomy and feedback were found to affect the performance of employees, while task significance did not significantly affect employee performance. The results also indicated partial mediation by the mediator on the independent variable. The study recommends that Job characteristics be considered in planning and evaluation of employees' jobs and performance respectively. Increased freedom in decision making and job rotation were cited as some of the ways in which the Private Equity Firms could increase employees' motivation, hence their performance.


OBJECTIVE--To determine the incidence and age distribution of peptic ulcer disease in adults in Gothenburg. DESIGN--Retrospective study of patients with symptoms over one year. SETTING--All gastroenterology and x ray departments. PATIENTS--Any patient found to have an active ulcer crater during 1985. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES--Sex, age, past history of gastrointestinal ulcers, and smoking habit. RESULTS--In 1985, 1402 peptic ulcers were diagnosed in 1137 adults. Over half (403; 54%) of the ulcers in men and 393 (60%) ulcers in women were in patients aged over 60. All types of ulcer showed increasing incidence with age. The sex ratio of patients aged 40-50 with peptic ulcers was 1:1. Nearly half (109; 48%) of ulcers diagnosed for the first time in men and 129 (57%) of such ulcers in women were in patients aged over 60. Elderly men and women were also more likely to develop haemorrhage. CONCLUSIONS--In Gothenburg there is a surprisingly high incidence of peptic ulcer disease, which increases considerably with age, possibly explained by the availability of modern diagnostic techniques as 1121 (80%) ulcers had been diagnosed by gastroscopy. Compared with earlier studies there was no difference in the incidence between men and women aged 40-50.


The cognitive network suffers from scarcity of channels. The Unlicensed users (UU) borrow channels from the licensed users (LU). But when the LUs want them, the UUs have to stop their transmission and handle the channel back to the LUs. This results in delay in transmission of data by UUs. We propsed  an algorithm mostly focusing to meet the delay,by using a data cascading technique where the data of the UUs are stored in the intermediate nodes so that even if the transmission is interrupted, the data is not lost. The experimental results show that proposed system is better than other existing systems.


Amazon Customer Service provides real-time support for millions of customer contacts every year. While bot-resolver helps automate some traffic, we still see high demand for human agents, also called subject matter experts (SMEs). Customers outreach with questions in different domains (return policy, device troubleshooting, etc.). Depending on their training, not all SMEs are eligible to handle all contacts. Routing contacts to eligible SMEs turns out to be a non-trivial problem because SMEs' domain eligibility is subject to training quality and can change over time. To optimally recommend SMEs while simultaneously learning the true eligibility status, we propose to formulate the routing problem with a nonparametric contextual bandit algorithm (K-Boot) plus an eligibility control (EC) algorithm. K-Boot models reward with a kernel smoother on similar past samples selected by $k$-NN, and Bootstrap Thompson Sampling for exploration. EC filters arms (SMEs) by the initially system-claimed eligibility and dynamically validates the reliability of this information. The proposed K-Boot is a general bandit algorithm, and EC is applicable to other bandits. Our simulation studies show that K-Boot performs on par with state-of-the-art Bandit models, and EC boosts K-Boot performance when stochastic eligibility signal exists.


The paper offers a frame for investigating the extent to which decentralisation, and subsequent locally chosen institutions shape private organisational and institutional innovation. To include the numerous locally based "economic regimes" matters as the resulting business system reflects political institution setting and private organisational innovation. Such a frame is a necessary first step for empirical studies attempting to explain the heterogeneity of China's business systems, the emergence of hybrid organisations, and last but none the least, the different growth rates that can be observed across China.


In the standard economic model of cap and trade policies, the regulator is assumed to place zero value on pollution reductions below the cap. This paper considers an alternative case, where the policy makers can manipulate the rules of the program to achieve improved environmental performance. This is achieved by manipulating the trading ratio, the units of pollution credits that are obtained for each unit of pollution reduction. Using a parsimonious model of a transferable discharge permits program, we identify the environmentally optimal trading ratio that maximizes the environmental gains of trading. The model suggests an alternative explanation why non-unitary trading ratios are common and is a counterpoint to the cost-minimizing model that predominates in economics. We conclude by recommending that a middle-ground should be sought, where both environmental gains and cost efficiencies are given weight.