Natural language processing coupled with machine learning has been employed to great effect in the realm of essay and short-answer essay scoring. However, these models typically require a strong understanding of machine learning concepts along with domain knowledge specific to the dataset in order to achieve optimal results. An emerging trend in machine learning is that of automated machine learning. Our project seeks to demonstrate the effectiveness of an automated machine learning system designed to score a critical thinking assessment with no machine learning experience or domain knowledge required. We will show that an ensemble of deep and non-deep machine learners, designed and tuned automatically, can outperform human scorers on this task.


Context. We investigate the linear polarization produced by interstellar dust aligned by the magnetic field in the solar neighborhood (d < 50 pc). We also look for intrinsic effects from circumstellar processes, specifically in terms of polarization variability and wavelength dependence.
Aims. We aim to detect and map dust clouds which give rise to statistically significant amounts of polarization of the starlight passing through the cloud, and to determine the interstellar magnetic field direction from the position angle of the observed polarization.
Methods. High-precision broad-band (BV R) polarization observations are made of 361 stars in spectral classes F to G, with detection sensitivity at the level of or better than 10−5 (0.001%). The sample consists of 125 stars in the magnitude range 6–9 observed at the 2.2 m UH88 telescope on Mauna Kea, 205 stars in the magnitude range 3–6 observed at the Japanese (Tohoku) T60 telescope on Haleakala, and 31 stars in the magnitude range 4–7 observed at the 1.27 m H127 telescope of the Greenhill Observatory, Tasmania. Identical copies of the Dipol-2 polarimeter are used on these three sites.
Results. Statistically significant (>3σ) polarization is found in 115 stars, and >2σ detection in 178 stars, out of the total sample of 361 stars. Polarization maps based on these data show filament-like patterns of polarization position angles, which are related to both the heliosphere geometry, the kinematics of nearby clouds, and the Interstellar Boundary EXplorer ribbon magnetic field. From long-term multiple observations, a number (~20) of stars show evidence of intrinsic variability at the 10−5 level. This can be attributed to circumstellar effects (e.g., debris disks and chromospheric activity). The star HD 101805 shows a peculiar wavelength dependence, indicating size distribution of scattering particles different from that of a typical interstellar medium. Our high signal-to-noise measurements of nearby stars with very low polarization also provide a useful dataset for calibration purposes.


OBJECTIVES The survival rate of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients receiving treatment in Ethiopia is poorly understood. This study aimed to determine the survival rate and predictors of mortality among HIV-infected adults on antiretroviral therapy (ART) at Jinka Hospital, South Omo, Ethiopia. METHODS A 6-year retrospective cohort study was conducted using 350 patient records drawn from 1,899 patients on ART at Jinka Hospital from September 2010 to August 2015. The data were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier statistics and Cox regression models. RESULTS Of the 350 study participants, 315 (90.0%) were censored and 35 (10.0%) died. Twenty-two (62.9%) of the deaths occurred during the first year of treatment. The total follow-up encompassed 1,995 person-years, with an incidence rate of 1.75 deaths per 100 person-years. The mean survival time of patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) was 30.84±19.57 months. The overall survival of patients on HAART was 64.00% (95% confidence interval [CI], 61.85 to 66.21%) at 72 months of follow-up. The significant predictors of mortality included non-disclosure of HIV status (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 5.82; 95% CI, 1.91 to 17.72), a history of tuberculosis (aHR, 1.82; 95% CI, 1.41 to 3.51), and ambulatory (aHR, 2.97; 95% CI, 1.20 to 8.86) or bedridden (aHR, 4.67; 95% CI, 1.30 to 17.27) functional status, World Health Organization (WHO) clinical stage IV illness (aHR, 24.97; 95% CI, 2.75 to 26.45), and substance abusers (aHR, 3.72; 95% CI, 1.39 to 9.97). CONCLUSIONS Patients with a history of tuberculosis treatment, ambulatory or bedridden functional status, or advanced WHO clinical stage disease, as well substance abusers, should be carefully monitored, particularly in the first few months after initiating antiretroviral therapy. Patients should also be encouraged to disclose their status to their relatives.


This presentation focuses on the author's language documentation experience as a Chinese Indonesian (non-linguist) who as an international undergraduate business student in a US university. The author speaks Thong Boi, a language that shares a number of similarities with Hakka (ISO 639-3: hak) spoken in China although there has not been much interaction between the speech communities in China and Bangka. In Indonesia, it is spoken in Bangka Island ever since Chinese migrants came in the 18th century as tin miners. It is also spoken in several major cities where Chinese Indonesians from Bangka have moved to to seek better fortune. Due to its isolation from the rest of the Hakka communities, Thong Boi has evolved uniquely. However, due to external forces such as migrations, social stigma, and government ban on Chinese culture (until 1998), is potentially entering an endangered state with decreasing number of speakers.

The Language Documentation Training Center (LDTC) is a program initiated and run by Linguistics graduate students at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, to contribute to the worldwide documentation effort of endangered languages and share the knowledge with the world.

This presentation demonstrates how through his participation in language documentation activities offered by LDTC and guidance from a knowledgeable LDTC mentor, the author gradually contributes to the documentation and revitalization of Thong Boi through field works, data gathering, and analysis; and producing a website, online dictionary, a few papers/posters, and a grammatical sketch. Furthermore, as the author became more interested in the issue of language endangerment, he took on more responsibilities, using his marketing background and fundraising experience, as LDTC co-director and became more involved in other language documentation related activities, i.e. sharing and presenting his documentation efforts and newly found knowledge at different international, national, and local forums/conferences and organizing language documentation conferences.

Also, by focusing on Thong Boi, a language with cultural origin in China yet bearing 'Creole-like' characteristics, this presentation unfolds the complexity of the sociolinguistic context and enriches our understanding and issues in documenting the language. This study presents an innovative example of how international academic initiatives can make a difference locally. Furthermore, the author's experience in LDTC as participant, and later on as co-director, demonstrates how study-abroad contexts have offered spaces for language documentation and heritage language identity development and rediscovery. In a nutshell, this presentation will show how a non-linguist became a community linguist and language activist through participation in LDTC, a workshop to train speakers of underdocumented languages in a university setting.

Thong Boi website: http://www.ling.hawaii.edu/ldtc/languages/thongboi/


The paper proposes a new disequilibrium approach to modeling international capital mobility for a dynamic multi- region general equilibrium model. Key to this approach are errors in investors' assessments of potential returns to capital, such as those recently observed in Asia. The investment theory, compatible with a simple recursive solution procedure, ensures the convergence of the model towards a stable equilibrium, brings realism into the analysis of international capital mobility and flexibility in tailoring to empirical data. The paper discusses two numerical examples, demonstrating the long- run convergence of the model and the dynamic adjustment to a deeper, longer crisis in Asia.


SiC 600 V Schottky barrier diodes (SBD) are already available in the market and 1.2 kV have been announced. As the highest market for power devices is foreseen for blocking voltages in the range of 600 up to 1700V, we have developed 1.2kV SBDs. In this paper we report the latest results obtained on those diodes, underlining their high temperature working operation capability (up to 200°C). Forward characteristics, reverse leakage current and switching recovery time dependence on temperature have been analysed. The good thermal behaviour of the 1.2 kV SiC SBDs is compared with that of ultra-fast PN-Si diodes (RHRP8120) of the same breakdown voltage.


Influenza viruses continually evolve new antigenic variants, through mutations in epitopes of their major surface proteins, hemagglutinin (HA) and neuraminidase (NA). Antigenic drift potentiates the reinfection of previously infected individuals, but the contribution of this process to variability in annual epidemics is not well understood. Here we link influenza A(H3N2) virus evolution to regional epidemic dynamics in the United States during 1997-2019. We integrate phenotypic measures of HA antigenic drift and sequence-based measures of HA and NA fitness to infer antigenic and genetic distances between viruses circulating in successive seasons. We estimate the magnitude, severity, timing, transmission rate, age-specific patterns, and subtype dominance of each regional outbreak and find that genetic distance based on broad sets of epitope sites is the strongest evolutionary predictor of A(H3N2) virus epidemiology. Increased HA and NA epitope distance between seasons correlates with larger, more intense epidemics, higher transmission, greater A(H3N2) subtype dominance, and a greater proportion of cases in adults relative to children, consistent with increased population susceptibility. Based on random forest models, A(H1N1) incidence impacts A(H3N2) epidemics to a greater extent than viral evolution, suggesting that subtype interference is a major driver of influenza A virus infection dynamics, presumably via heterosubtypic cross-immunity.


Intranasal delivery provides a practical, noninvasive method of bypassing the blood-brain barrier (BBB) in order to deliver therapeutic agents to the brain. This method allows drugs that do not cross the BBB to be delivered to the central nervous system in a few minutes. With this technology, it will be possible to eliminate systemic administration and its potential side effects. Using the intranasal delivery system, researchers have demonstrated neuroprotective effects in different animal models of stroke using erythropoietin (EPO) as a neuroprotector or other different types of EPO without erythropoiesis-stimulating activity. These new molecules retain their ability to protect neural tissue against injury and they include Asialoerythropoietin (asialoEPO) carbamylated EPO (CEPO), and rHu-EPO with low sialic acid content (Neuro-EPO). Contrary to the other EPO variants, Neuro-EPO is not chemically modified, making it biologically similar to endogenous EPO, with the advantage of less adverse reactions when this molecule is applied chronically. This constitutes a potential benefit of Neuro-EPO over other variants of EPO for the chronic treatment of neurodegenerative illnesses. Nasal administration of EPO is a potential, novel, neurotherapeutic approach. However, it will be necessary to initiate clinical trials in stroke patients using intranasal delivery in order to obtain the clinical evidence of its neuroprotectant capacity in the treatment of patients with acute stroke and other neurodegenerative disorders. This new therapeutic approach could revolutionize the treatment of neurodegenerative disorders in the 21 century.


Querying semantically related data sources depends on the ability to map between their schemas. Unfortunately, in most cases matching between schemas is still largely performed manually. As a consequence, semantic integration issues have become a key bottleneck in the deployment of a large scale integration systems (the number of schemas to map is huge). This work deals with automated methods for matching and efficiently generating schema mappings in large scale environments. We propose a level-wise algorithm based on a semantic distance to evaluate similarity between schema nodes. However, in a large scale context, computing the semantic distance for every couple of nodes cannot be done. Thus, we proposed family based heuristics (CHARLIE) in order to efficiently generate mappings. Experiments have shown that our approach is very efficient for large scale integration especially in a super peer based architecture and that it is relevant for real datasets.


This thesis presents a framework for the automatic recognition of Sign Language
sentences. In previous sign language recognition works, the issues of;
user independent recognition, movement epenthesis modeling and automatic
or weakly supervised training have not been fully addressed in a single recognition
framework. This work presents three main contributions in order to
address these issues.
The first contribution is a technique for user independent hand posture
recognition. We present a novel eigenspace Size Function feature which is
implemented to perform user independent recognition of sign language hand
postures.
The second contribution is a framework for the classification and spotting
of spatiotemporal gestures which appear in sign language. We propose a
Gesture Threshold Hidden Markov Model (GT-HMM) to classify gestures
and to identify movement epenthesis without the need for explicit epenthesis
training.
The third contribution is a framework to train the hand posture and spatiotemporal
models using only the weak supervision of sign language videos
and their corresponding text translations. This is achieved through our proposed
Multiple Instance Learning Density Matrix algorithm which automatically
extracts isolated signs from full sentences using the weak and noisy
supervision of text translations. The automatically extracted isolated samples
are then utilised to train our spatiotemporal gesture and hand posture
classifiers.
The work we present in this thesis is an important and significant contribution
to the area of natural sign language recognition as we propose a
robust framework for training a recognition system without the need for
manual labeling.


NK cells are large granular lymphocytes that patrol the body for defect or virally infected cells. The migration of natural killer (NK) cells is critical for the detection and elimination of aberrant cells such as tumor- and virally infected cells. If a NK cell stumbles upon a target, i.e. an aberrant or stressed cell, the NK cell has the ability to kill the target cell. Limitations in the efficiency of NK cells, such as limited migration speed, and the finite number of target cells that can be killed by one NK cell, leaves the immune system vulnerable to diseases. However it has been shown that NK cell populations are heterogeneous, and from one host to another the overall efficiency of NK cells may vary. If the most efficient NK cells could be isolated from a cell population and cultivated, great numbers of high performing NK cells could then possibly be reintroduced to a body and be used to fight maladies such as cancer and HIV.In an attempt to bring us closer to these possibilities, and further examine the characteristics of NK cells, a high quality master was manufactured and used for microcontact printing. This project has focused on how NK cell migration is affected by cell structure and whether NK cells can be directed along a pattern to provide a situation where NK cell migration speed can be measured rigorously. This was done by using microcontact printing to create micro patterns of proteins that mimics the geometry of the NK cells migrating phenotype.This report will give a description of the master fabrication process and it will be shown that NK cells can be influenced to move straighter by interacting with a microcontact printed pattern of proteins. Furthermore our results will conclude that NK cell migration speed is not affected significantly by the microcontact printed proteins.


Intermittent rain events drive dynamic pulses of carbon and water exchange in many arid and semiarid ecosystems. Although soil moisture is known to control these pulses, the effect of atmospheric dryness on pulses is not well documented. Here we hypothesized that vapor pressure deficit (VPD) modulates net ecosystem production (NEP) and ecosystem‐scale water use efficiency (WUE) during pulse events due to its effects on canopy stomatal conductance and evapotranspiration. We quantified relationships between VPD and carbon and water exchange during growing season rain events and tested their generality across four semiarid flux sites with varied vegetation in the southwest United States. Across grassland, shrubland, and savanna sites, we found that high VPD during pulses suppressed ecosystem photosynthesis and surface conductance to a greater degree than respiration or evapotranspiration, particularly when soil moisture was high. Thus, periods of high VPD were associated with a 13–64% reduction in NEP and an 11–25% decrease in WUE, relative to moderate VPD conditions. Sites dominated by shrubs with the C3 photosynthetic pathway were more sensitive to VPD than sites dominated by C4 grasses. We found that a 1 kPa increase in VPD reduced the average NEP of pulse events by 13–56%, which illustrates the potential for projected increases in atmospheric demand to reduce the net productivity of semiarid ecosystems.


A modern design code for composite construction such as Eurocode 4 limits its scope to "non-sway buildings" with efficient bracing systems. Therefore, it gives mainly rules to analyse and to check structural elements like beams, columns, slabs and joints. However, in the last years, the construction of taller buildings and larger industrial halls without wind bracing systems is susceptible to make global instability a relevant failure mode, what is not yet covered by Eurocode 4. For three years, in the framework of a European research project funded by the European Community for Steel and Coal (ECSC), in which Liège University was deeply involved, intensive experimental, numerical and theoretical investigations have been carried out. The latter aimed at improving the knowledge in the field of sway composite frames and at developing appropriate design rules. The rotational behaviour of the beam-to-column composite joints is one of the key aspects of the problem to which a special attention has been paid. This paper presents numerical and analytical studies carried out at Liège University, as part of the above European project, with the objective to investigate the behaviour of 2D composite sway frames under static loading. Particular phenomena put into sight through different analyses are illustrated herein.


Prostate cancer remains the most common noncutaneous cancer among American men. Although most patients can be cured by surgery and radiotherapy, 32,050 patients still died of the disease in 2010. Many patients receive radiotherapy either as a primary therapy, salvage therapy, or in combination with surgery or hormonal ther- apy. Despite initial treatment, several studies suggest that approximately 10% of low-risk prostate cancer patients and up to 30-60% with more advanced cancer patients experience biochemical recurrence within five years after radiotherapy. Thus, elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying radioresistance and tumor recurrence has the potential to significantly reduce prostate cancer mortality. We previously demonstrated that fractionated ionizing ra- diation (IR) can induce the prostate cancer cell line LNCaP to undergo neuroendocrine differentiation (NED) by activa- tion of cAMP response element binding protein (CREB) and cytoplasmic sequestration of ATF2, two CRE-binding tran- scription factors that oppose each other to regulate NED. Importantly, IR-induced NED is reversible and de- differentiated cells are cross-resistant to IR, androgen depletion and docetaxel treatments. These findings suggest that radiation-induced NED may allow prostate cancer cells to survive treatment and contribute to tumor recurrence. In the present study, we further demonstrated that IR also induces NED in a subset of DU-145 and PC-3 cells. In addi- tion, we confirmed that IR induces NED in LNCaP xenograft tumors in nude mice, and observed that the plasma chro- mogranin A (CgA) level, a biomarker for NED, is increased by 2- to 5-fold in tumor-bearing mice after fractionated ra- diation doses of 20 and 40 Gy, respectively. Consistent with these in vivo findings, a pilot study in prostate cancer patients showed that the serum CgA level is elevated in 4 out of 9 patients after radiotherapy. Taken together, these findings provide evidence that radiation-induced NED is a general therapeutic response in a subset of prostate can- cer patients. Thus, a large scale analysis of radiotherapy-induced NED in prostate cancer patients and its correlation to clinical outcomes will likely provide new insight into the role of NED in prostate cancer radiotherapy and prognosis.


This report, the puppet masters, deals with the corporate and financial structures that form the building blocks of hidden money trails. In particular, it focuses on the ease with which corrupt actors hide their interests behind a corporate veil and the difficulties investigators face in trying to lift that veil. It serves as a powerful reminder that recovering the proceeds of corruption is a collective responsibility that involves both the public and private sector. Law enforcement and prosecution cannot go after stolen assets, confiscate and then return them if they are hidden behind the corporate veil. All financial centers and developed countries have committed, through the UN Convention against Corruption and international anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism standards, to improving the transparency of legal entities and other arrangements. This report provides evidence of how far we still have to go to make these commitments a reality. Narrowing the gap between stated commitments and practice on the ground has a direct impact on actual recovery of assets.


In this paper, we analyze the compact models for carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (CNTFET) and observe that the logic-gates implemented using CNTFET with unoptimized device parameter have asymmetric voltage transfer characteristic. We propose the design of a balanced inverter circuit implemented using CNTFET devices. The proposed inverter circuit is functional over a wide range of supply voltage, from sub-threshold voltage to nominal supply voltage.


Abstract Organizations function as small societies with their unique behaviors, patterns, and communication. Organizational culture describes how individuals work within libraries and the patterns, assumptions, values, attitudes, and behavior that help an organization to operate within its environment and achieve, or not achieve, its mission. Effective leaders must understand the operational framework of their libraries in order to be successful in managing or to change the culture in support of strategic goals. Changing the culture of an organization is difficult and a long-term process with a realistic understanding of the current behaviors and a determined vision for how an organization should work. There are some specific strategies that may aid leaders in transforming a library culture into a productive and effective set of behaviors that will contribute to a library's success.


Despite its accepted role, a number of controversies persist regarding the use of antibiotics for exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). The adequate selection of patients, the identification of biomarkers for treatment response, the adequacy to disease and exacerbation severities or the short-term impact on the exacerbation outcome in different settings remain some of the aspects under current debate (1,2). One specific topic that warrants investigation is the potential long-term impact of antibiotic prescription during exacerbations, specifically on the prevention of subsequent exacerbations. The question about whether a specific treatment during the exacerbation can have an impact on the long term preventing future acute episodes is intriguing. Beyond the potential rationale behind, the topic results to be not easy to face, since a number of factors associated with subsequent exacerbations or with re-admissions after an index event are well-known (3).


Nokia's ascent, dominance, and descent have resulted in significant labor inflows and outflows in Finland. In this paper, we document the aspects of these flows using official register-based data covering virtually all individuals and organizations in Finland. Our setup may be compared to a laboratory experiment on the impacts of a single company on a country. During the 1990s, a large share of Nokia recruits were recent college graduates. Most of these recent graduates assumed various specialist and managerial positions at Nokia. During the 2000s, Nokia has been a good source of highly skilled labor for other businesses in Finland. More recently, an increasing share of former Nokia employees has been engaged with startups. Additionally, the proportion of former Nokia employees who have migrated to public sector jobs has grown.


The electrically conducting polyfuran/poly(2-iodoaniline) (PFu/P2IAn) and P2IAn/PFu composites were prepared by chemical oxidative polymerization using polyfuran and poly(2-iodoaniline) in HCl and CHCl3 media. The conductivities of composites were determined as a function of the amount of guest polymer. It was found out that the conductivities of P2IAn/PFu composites increased 100-fold, whereas the conductivities of PFu/P2IAn composites did not show a specific increase. The composite compositions were altered by varying guest polymer feed ratios during preparation. Generally, the electrical conductivities of P2IAn/PFu composites increased with increasing the amount of PFu. Homopolymers and composites were further characterized thermally, employing thermogravimetry (TGA) and morphologically employing scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Further evidences concerning the polymer structures were obtained by FTIR and UV-vis spectroscopies and magnetic susceptibility measurements. TGA results revealed that PFu/P2IAn among the homopolymers (PFu and P2IAn) and P2IAn/PFu composite have the highest thermal stability. The composites synthesized varying the host and the guest polymer order have different conductivities, morphological structures, and thermal properties. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 89: 2823–2830, 2003


We have produced two monoclonal antibodies specific for membranes of colon carcinoma cells that demonstrate minimal if any cross reactivity with normal colon tissue. The antigen of one of the two antibodies (mAb 33.28) is extremely immunogenic eliciting both cell mediated and humoral immunity. The monoclonal antibodies developed in in vitro studies suggested strong antibody dependent cell cytotoxicity (ADCC) for both antibodies, but somewhat stronger for the mAb 31.1. The murine version of mAb 31.1 produced approximately 90% tumor cell destruction in the same period of time. Nude mice with LS174T xenografts (human colon carcinoma) were challenged with 1 x 10(6) cells given subcutaneously in the thigh. By day 10, well animals were incapacitated by tumor growth. Among those animals receiving 400 micrograms of intraperitoneal chimeric 31.1 at day one, all were protected and remained free of disease. Those challenged with chimeric antibody and human effector cells at day 7 demonstrated regression of established tumor nodules among 80% of the animals so treated. Therapy of patients with extensive primary as well as metastatic colon cancer may be found to respond to the above form of therapy post surgery, when employed alone or in combination with an effective cytotoxic (chemotherapeutic) agent.


Abstract Pike perch (Sander canadensis) is a member of the largest order of Osteichthyes, Perciformes, and is an important ecological and economic freshwater species, which distributes in Ili River and Ergis River of Xinjiang Province, China. In this study, we sequenced the whole mitochondrial genome of pike perch, and analyzed the similarity with its related species. The mitochondrial genome of S. canadensis is 16,542 bp in length with 55.05% AT content, contained 13 protein coding genes, 22 tRNA genes, 2 ribosomal genes and an 892 bp non-coding region. In control region, 6 CSBs (CSB-1, CSB-2, CSB-3, CSB-D, CSB-E and CSB-F), one potential TAS and one poly-T region were identified. Comparing all protein-coding genes and whole genome sequence with 4 species of Perciformes (three species of Percidae, Perca flavescens. Percina macrolepida. Etheostoma radiosum and one outgroup Oreochromis sp. red tilapia), ND3 gene has the highest mutation rate, and S. canadensis has higher similarity with Perca flavescens than others. The mitochondrial genomic sequence will help us to study the conservation genetic and evolution of Percidae.


The ichthyofauna of Subsaharan Africa is under heavy threat and
conservation strategies and research for both fish a fish
parasite biodiversity are needed (Moritz and Linsenmair, 2005).
All together 441 freshwater fish species are known from West
Africa; 322 in the coastal rivers region and 194 in the central
revers region. In the current study, metazoan parasite fauna of
freshwater fish originating from 20 localities from National
Park Niokolo Koba, Senegal, West Africa (larger central river
system) were observed by on site surveys carried out during
four field expeditions held between 2004 – 2007. Altogether 471
specimens of freshwater fish belonging to 55 species, 38
genera, 20 families and 9 orders have been investigated for
metazoan parasites. According to Khalil and Polling (1997)
there is more than 200 species of monogenean parasites
belonging to 26 genera have been recorded from West Africa.
Till now, 3872 specimens of monogenean parasites have been
found and material for description of more then 20 new parasite
species were obtained.


The level of work engagement is an important aspect of organizational culture. In this empirical study the relation between engagement and experienced professionalism of probation officers is investigated. Starting from ideal-typical theories on professionalism, a psychometric instrument for measuring experienced professionalism was developed and administered to a sample of Dutch probation officers. Two reliable scales could be constructed that account for 64% of the variance in work engagement. Of these, professional ethos (humanistic values) is the most important predictor of work engagement in probation. Professional facilitation (support from the surroundings), however, also contributes to engagement.


Chemokines and chemokine receptors are key mediators for regulating cell traffic and positioning in both homeostatic and inflammatory conditions. It is also presumed that chemokines and their receptors are likely to play a critical role in the localization of malignant hematopoietic cells in their target organs. This study analyzed chemokine and chemokine receptor expression in several Hodgkin disease (HD)-derived cell lines and in HD tumors. All HD-derived cell lines expressed functional CCR7 and CXCR4 receptors. CCR7 up-regulation was mediated by constitutive NF-kappaB activity. Lymphoid tissues in HD revealed differential expression levels of CCR7, CXCR4, and CXCR5, depending on the distinct subtypes of HD. HD of the classical subtypes, predominantly located in the interfollicular zone, showed strong CCR7 and CXCR4 expression and moderate CXCR5 expression. In contrast, the nodular lymphocyte-predominant HD (NLP) subtype, regularly associated with follicular structures, exhibited no CCR7 reactivity but abundant CXCR4 staining. Their respective chemokine ligands showed marked expression by reactive cells within the tumors of classical HD and outside of the tumor nodules in NLPHD. Functionally, such differential chemokine receptor expression might contribute to specific localization and confinement of neoplastic cells within the target organs in the distinct HD entities.


The demands of migrating on-premises complex enterprise applications to cloud dramatically increase with the wide adoption of cloud computing. A recent research validates the possibility of combining multiple proprietary migration services offered by different vendors together to complete cloud migration. Pattern based service composition has been proven as an appealing approach to accelerate the service composition and ensure the qualities in the Service Oriented Architecture SOA domain and can be applied to the cloud migration service composition theoretically. However, current pattern discovery approaches are not applicable for the cloud migration due to lack of either existing cloud migration business process knowledge or execution logs. This paper proposes a novel approach to discover cloud migration patterns from a set of service composition solutions. The authors formalize the pattern discovery as a special graph similarity matching problem and present an algorithm to calculate the similarities of these service composition solutions. Patterns are chosen out of the solutions by similarity under designed criteria. The benchmark results and quantitative analysis show that our proposed approach is effective and efficient in pattern discovery for cloud migration service composition.


The effectiveness of promotion is the important thing for each of company in order to attract the customers to sustain towards the product and service. The strategy to increase the product will become a heart of the company to get better profitability`s and stronger sustainable competitive advantage. So, the promotions are very important to give information about the product to the customer. The problem in Agrobank Segamat is the managing director of Agrobank, Datuk Ahmad Said has target in year 2015 all of the products in Agrobank will be in Islamic system and no more in conventional system but until year 2010 conventional product is still higher and then Islamic product. Research methodology is the way to obtain information about the characteristic or parameters of a population by using the descriptive research as research design and the population is the customer over 6, 18, 21 and 50 years old who are using the Islamic product at Agrobank Segamat. For sampling design, the researcher uses probability and simple random sampling while the sample size is 100. The researcher uses secondary and primary data for data collection method data. Other than that, the researcher uses survey questionnaire and personal interview to collect the data. SPSS is using in data analysis and work schedule is the timetable for the researcher to complete this thesis. From the analysis, the level of the effectiveness of promotions for Islamic product at Agrobank is effective and the most effective promotional tool for these products is sales promotion. There are relationship between effectiveness of promotion and all five promotional tool with the level of each relationship whether very high relationship, high relationship, moderate relationship and low relationship. Other than that, there are several recommendations to improve the effectiveness of promotional tools for Islamic products in sales promotion, personal selling and public relation.


Drug resistance mediated by clonal evolution is arguably the biggest problem in cancer therapy today. However, evolving resistance to one drug may come at a cost of decreased growth rate or increased sensitivity to another drug due to evolutionary trade-offs. This weakness can be exploited in the clinic using an approach called 'evolutionary herding' that aims at controlling the tumour cell population to delay or prevent resistance. However, recapitulating cancer evolutionary dynamics experimentally remains challenging. Here we present a novel approach for evolutionary herding based on a combination of single-cell barcoding, very large populations of 108–109 cells grown without re-plating, longitudinal non-destructive monitoring of cancer clones, and mathematical modelling of tumour evolution. We demonstrate evolutionary herding in non-small cell lung cancer, showing that herding allows shifting the clonal composition of a tumour in our favour, leading to collateral drug sensitivity and proliferative fitness costs. Through genomic analysis and single-cell sequencing, we were also able to determine the mechanisms that drive such evolved sensitivity. Our approach allows modelling evolutionary trade-offs experimentally to test patient-specific evolutionary herding strategies that can potentially be translated into the clinic to control treatment resistance.


PURPOSE
Evidence suggests that smoking is detrimental to the survival of dental implants placed in grafted maxillary sinuses. Studies have shown that improving bone quantity and quality, using rough-surfaced implants, and practicing good oral hygiene may improve outcomes. In this prospective study, the long-term survival rates of implants placed simultaneously with sinus grafting in smokers and nonsmokers were compared.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Implants with roughened surfaces were immediately placed into maxillary sinus grafts in patients with 1 to 7 mm of residual bone. A total of 2132 simultaneous implants were placed into the grafted sinuses of 226 smokers (627 implants) and 505 nonsmokers (1505 implants). A majority of the patients received a composite graft consisting of 50% autogenous bone. In both smokers and nonsmokers, approximately two thirds of the implants had microtextured surfaces; the remainder had hydroxyapatite-coated surfaces. The implants were restored and monitored during clinical follow-up for up to 9 years.

RESULTS
Cumulative survival of implants at 9 years was 97.9%. There were no statistically significant differences in implant failure rates between smokers and nonsmokers.

DISCUSSION
Implant survival was believed to depend on the following aspects of the technique used: creation of a large buccal window to allow access to a large recipient site; use of composite grafts consisting of at least 50% autogenous bone; meticulous bone condensation; placement of long implants (i.e., 15 mm); use of implants with hydroxyapatite-coated or microtextured surfaces; use of a membrane to cover the graft and implants; antibiotic use and strict oral hygiene; use of interim implants and restricted use of dentures; and adherence to a smoking cessation protocol.


Dynamics of complex signaling networks are important to many biological problems. Quantitative data at early time points after cellular stimulation are necessary for accurate model generation. However, the large amount of data needed is often extremely time-consuming and expensive to acquire with conventional methods. We present a two-module microfluidic platform for simultaneous multi-time point stimulation and lysis of T cells for early time point signaling activation with a resolution down to 20 s using only small amounts of cells and reagents. The key design features are rapid mixing of reagents and uniform splitting into eight channels for simultaneous collection of multi-time point data. Chaotic mixing was investigated via computational fluid dynamic modeling, and was used to achieve rapid and complete mixing. This modular device is flexible-with easy adjustment of the setup, a wide range of time points can be achieved. We show that treatment in the device does not elicit adverse cellular stress in Jurkat cells. The activation of six important proteins in the signaling cascade was quantified upon stimulation with a soluble form of alpha-CD3. The dynamics from device and conventional methods are similar, but the microdevice exhibits significantly less error between experiments. We envision this high-throughput format to enable simple and fast generation of large sets of quantitative data, with consistent sample handling, for many complex biological systems.


Despite the fast development of technology in the world, diabetic foot wounds cause deaths and massive economical losses. Diabetes comes first among the reasons of non traumatic foot amputations. To reduce the healing time of these fast progressing wounds, effective wound dressings are in high demand. In our study, sheep small intestinal submucosa (SIS) based biocompatible sponges were prepared after SIS decellularization and their wound healing potential was investigated on full thickness skin defects in a diabetic rat model. The decellularized SIS membranes had no cytotoxic effects on human fibroblasts and supported capillary formation by HUVECs in a fibroblast-HUVEC co-culture. Glutaraldehyde crosslinked sponges of three different compositions were prepared to test in a diabetic rat model: gelatin (GS), gelatin: hyaluronic acid (GS:HA) and gelatin: hyaluronic acid: SIS (GS:HA:SIS). The GS:HA:SIS sponges underwent a 24.8 ± 5.4% weight loss in a 7-day in vitro erosion test. All sponges had a similar Young's modulus under compression but GS:HA:SIS had the highest (5.00 ± 0.04 kPa). Statistical analyses of histopathological results of a 12-day in vivo experiment revealed no significant difference among the control, GS, GS:HA, and GS:HA:SIS transplanted groups in terms of granulation tissue thickness, collagen deposition, capillary vessel formation, and foreign body reaction (P > 0.05). On the other hand, in the GS:HA:SIS transplanted group 80% of the animals had a complete epidermal regeneration and this was significantly different than the control group (30%, P < 0.05). Preclinical studies revealed that the ECM of sheep small intestinal submucosa can be used as an effective biomaterial in diabetic wound healing.


With the increased use of online English courses, the quality of the course directly determines its efficacy. Recently, various industries have continuously employed Internet of Things (IoT) technology, which has considerable scene adaptability. To better supervise the specific content of English courses, we discuss how to apply multi-source mobile Internet of Things information technology to the practical evaluation system of English courses to boost the performance of English learning evaluation. Therefore, by analyzing the problems of existing English course evaluation and the characteristics of multi-source mobile Internet of Things information technology, this article designs an English course practical evaluation system based on multi-source data collection, processing, and analysis. The system can collect real-time student voices, behavior, and other data through mobile devices. Then, analyze the data using cloud computing and data mining technology and provide real-time learning progress and feedback. We can demonstrate that the accuracy of the evaluation system can reach 80.23%, which can effectively improve the efficiency of English learning evaluation, provide a new method for English teaching evaluation, and further improve and optimize the English education teaching content to meet the needs of the actual teaching environment.


Throughout the last decade the Open Science Grid (OSG) has been fielding requests from user communities, resource owners, and funding agencies to provide information about utilization of OSG resources. Requested data include traditional accounting - core-hours utilized - as well as users certificate Distinguished Name, their affiliations, and field of science. The OSG accounting service, Gratia, developed in 2006, is able to provide this information and much more. However, with the rapid expansion and transformation of the OSG resources and access to them, we are faced with several challenges in adapting and maintaining the current accounting service. The newest changes include, but are not limited to, acceptance of users from numerous university campuses, whose jobs are flocking to OSG resources, expansion into new types of resources (public and private clouds, allocation-based HPC resources, and GPU farms), migration to pilot-based systems, and migration to multicore environments. In order to have a scalable, sustainable and expandable accounting service for the next few years, we are embarking on the development of the next-generation OSG accounting service, GRACC, that will be based on open-source technology and will be compatible with the existing system. It will consist of swappable, independent components, such as Logstash, Elasticsearch, Grafana, and RabbitMQ, that communicate through a data exchange. GRACC will continue to interface EGI and XSEDE accounting services and provide information in accordance with existing agreements. We will present the current architecture and working prototype.


Managers come and go. Projects end and teams disband. No matter how often or how quickly business events change, people and the resulting conflicts remain very much the same. For nearly a decade, Work It Out has been at the forefront helping business leaders, managers, and consultants simplify the complex— and sometimes chaotic—interactions between people at work. Now with fresh insights on applying key concepts from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator® (MBTI®) tool in executive coaching, plus more hands-on exercises and examples, this newly revised edition of Work It Out expands its focus on the powerful solutions type theory provides to address some of today's most pressing issues: fostering sustainable change, building strong management teams, preparing for rapid business growth, and battling office politics.Whether you are managing up or struggling to balance styles with direct reports or colleagues, type experts Hirsh and Kise show how to celebrate differences while capitalizing on the unique strengths of every individual. They examine each leadership and management style based on type—from visionary INFJs to entrepreneurial ENTPs—and through case studies and techniques that run throughout every chapter detail effective teambuilding and coaching strategies to enhance communication, reduce stress, resolve personality conflicts, and improve individual, team, and organizational performance.


>" Peri prosthetic infections are rare, but there is evidence to suggest that their frequency may be underestimated. No single laboratory test has perfect sensitivity and specificity for diagnosing infection. Most tests have better specificity when they are performed for patients in whom infection is suspected clinically rather than when they are used as screening tests. Screening test results that may suggest the possibility of infection include elevation of the erythrocyte sedimentation rate and/or serum C-reactive protein level more than three months after an arthroplasty. Most serologic tests are difficult to interpret when the patient has an underlying inflammatory arthropathy. Cultures of aspirated joint fluid can be especially helpful for patients who have symptoms suggestive of infection, but their results are best interpreted two weeks after administration of antibiotics has been discontinued. Joint fluid cell counts may also be helpful, but Gram stains of joint fluid have poor sensitivity and specificity. Criteria for diagnosing infection on the basis of frozen sections of implant membranes have not yet been standardized, but in many laboratories more than five neutrophils per high-power field in five or more fields (excluding surface fibrin) has been found to be suggestive of infection. Most polymerase chain reactions that detect the universal 16S rRNA bacterial gene have problems with false-positive results, but combining a universal polymerase chain reaction with subsequent bacterial sequencing can help improve specificity. Polymerase chain reactions can detect necrotic bacteria, so the clinical importance of positive results of this analysis in the absence of other features of infection remains to be determined.


[Roman Catholic teaching on marriage focuses on interpersonal love of spouses, of which sacramentality and procreation are dimensions. Post Vatican II disputes about sexual morality, divorce, and birth control have taken place in this general context. A new generation of scholars—married, with children—argues for a more social view of marriage, with special concern about socioeconomic pressures. They emphasize that marital and parental commitment needs more attention and support than the justified exceptions, though they do not stress absolute norms.]


In this paper, a low cost quartz tuning fork temperature sensor adopting H-shaped tuning fork resonator to address miniaturization, high resolution and high stability has been designed, developed and tested. The quartz tuning temperature sensor is designed vibrating in flexural mode with a new thermo-sensitive cut. The quartz tuning fork temperature sensor consists of two prongs connected at one end of crystalline quartz plate with thin-film metal electrodes deposited on the faces, which is used to produce vibration in response to alternating voltages and detecting the resonance frequency in the meantime. When an external temperature is change, there is a shift in its natural frequency. Based on this principle, a resonant thermometer is designed. Finite element method is used to analyze the vibratory modes and optimize the structure. The whole structure is 500μm thickness, the length of tuning fork arm is 3076μm and the width of tuning fork arm is 600um, the frequency of tuning fork is about 37kHz with a sensitivity of rough 85 ppm/°C. The experimental results shown that a temperature accuracy of 0.01 °C and a resolution of 0.005 °C within temperature range from 0 °C to 100 °C. All these research are helpful to design satisfactory performance of the sensor for temperature measurement.


Introduction/Purpose Aneurysm treatment is a major revenue driver of neurointerventional surgery. The cost of devices used during treatment has a direct effect on the profitability and financial sustainability of a given therapy. For aneurysm coiling procedures, the major component of material costs is the cost of implanted coils. As the healthcare system becomes increasingly cost-sensitive, understanding and controlling costs will prove to be instrumental in maintaining the future health of the specialty while maintaining patient outcomes. Stable coil embolisation and aneurysm occlusion is not well understood, but may relate to packing density - achieving a minimum sum total coil volume. Other approaches include achieving lower porosity ratios at inflow zone of the aneurysm, which may achieve functional occlusion of an aneurysm despite residual internal unfilled volume. This approach is best exemplified by flow diversion devices. Modelling the second approach is currently not feasible, as critical factors remain poorly understood, but modelling a reasonable strategy for minimising procedure material costs to achieve a minimum packing density may help identify methods of reducing coiling costs on a volumetric efficiency basis. To date no analysis has been done to model this relationship. Materials and Methods The price information for 468 different coils used by our institution were obtained by Q-Sight and normalised to the price of the least expensive coil. Coil volumes were lifted from the database of AngioSuite Neuro Edition software. Coils were grouped as frame, finish or fill coils by FKH by tertiary structural elements for framing coils, and size and length for finishing coils. Results Mean normalised coil cost per volume by categories yield 0.22 ± 0.24/mm3 for framing coils, 0.25 ± 0.22/mm3 for fill coils, and 0.99 ± 0.81 for finish coils. Between categories, there was no significant difference (p=0.32) between frame vs fill coils, but an extremely significant difference between both of the former vs finish coils (p < 0.000001). Individual cost/volume of each coil are collectively displayed in figure 1, grouped by coil type. Conclusions As a class, finishing coils are approximately 4 times as expensive as their frame and filling counterparts. Upon closer of figure 1 though, as a general trend smaller coils, regardless of frame, fill or finish designation, have a much higher cost per volume. This analysis suggests that the approach when coiling to minimise costs is to always insert the largest volume coil possible. Disclosures C. Wang: None. F. Hui: None.


Oxygen bubble formation and evolution under a 300keV electron beam are analyzed in a Li borosilicate glass under different irradiation conditions: temperature, flux, and dose. Oxygen bubbles are observed to form in a delimited flux and temperature region with a threshold requirement. This region ranges between 100 and 300°C for the temperatures and between 1019 and 1021em−2s−1 for the electron fluxes. In situ transmission electron microscopy allows the bubble evolution kinetics to be described as a four-step process. An incubation step is followed by a growth phase of sigmoid type. For high values of temperature and/or flux the saturation growth and the subsequent dissolution of the bubbles are also observed. The bubble evolution kinetics can be explained by considering the production and diffusion mechanisms of the molecular oxygen O2 as a function of the temperature and the electron flux.


Although SARS-CoV-2 is considered a lung-tropic virus that infects the respiratory tract through binding to the ACE2 cell-surface molecules present on alveolar lungs epithelial cells, gastrointestinal symptoms have been frequently reported in COVID-19 patients. What can be considered an apparent paradox is that these symptoms (e.g., diarrhea), sometimes precede the development of respiratory tract illness as if the breathing apparatus was not its first target during viral dissemination. Recently, evidence was reported that the gut is an active site of replication for SARS-CoV-2. This replication mainly occurs in mature enterocytes expressing the ACE2 viral receptor and TMPRSS4 protease. In this review we question how SARS-CoV-2 can cause intestinal disturbances, whether there are pneumocyte-tropic, enterocyte-tropic and/or dual tropic strains of SARS-CoV-2. We examine two major models: first, that of a virus directly causing damage locally (e.g., by inducing apoptosis of infected enterocytes); secondly, that of indirect effect of the virus (e.g., by inducing changes in the composition of the gut microbiota followed by the induction of an inflammatory process), and suggest that both situations probably occur simultaneously in COVID-19 patients. We eventually discuss the consequences of the virus replication in brush border of intestine on long-distance damages affecting other tissues/organs, particularly lungs.


How do Balinese manage to present to the world the clear, bright face, the grace and poise, that they regard as crucial to self-respect and social esteem? How can the anthropologist pass behind the conventions of such a complex culture to recognize what is going on between people, in terms that convey their own experience? Wikan's study of the Indonesian island of Bali is an absorbing debate with previous anthropological interpretations as well as an innovative development of the anthropology of experience. "This is indeed an important book, a landmark in studies of Bali and one surely destined to have major theoretical impact on anthropological research well beyond that famous Indonesian island."-Anthony R. Walker, "Journal of Asian and African Studies"


This edited collection presents new research on the development of printing and bookselling throughout Europe during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, addressing themes such as the Reformation, the transmission of texts and the production and sale of printed books.


This empirical study examines small firms' strategies towards appropriating the returns to their investments in innovation and finds that they are qualitatively different from those found in earlier studies of more generally representative samples of firms. First, few of the smallest firms appear to benefit from patenting. Even within this sample of small firms, only the largest firms were likely to identify patents as the most important method of appropriating innovation returns. Thus, the strategic choice for most small firms is between secrecy and speed to market. The smallest firms and those in low technology or complex product industries tend to prefer speed, while small investments in R&D, discrete product technologies, and affiliation with higher technology industries explain preference for trade secrets. These results raise policy questions regarding the functioning of the existing systems of intellectual property rights when key policy goals include innovation by and growth of small firms. Furthermore, innovation policies that mandate collaboration are likely to significantly influence firms' appropriability strategies.


Although mate preferences are most commonly examined in females, they are often found in both sexes. In the parasitoid wasp Urolepis rufipes, both female and male mating status affected certain aspects of sexual interactions. Female mating status mattered only in the later stages of mating. Males did not discriminate between virgin and mated females in terms of which they contacted or mounted first. However, once mounted, most virgin females were receptive to copulation, whereas very few mated females were. Whether a male's mating status affected his own sexual response depended on the female's ability to respond and the stage of mating. Examining male behavior toward dead females allowed elimination of the role of female behavior in how males responded. Virgin and mated males are both attracted to dead females as evidenced by their fanning their wings at such females. However, mated males were quicker than virgin males to contact and to mount in an experiment with dead females, whereas there was no such differential response in an experiment with live females. This difference is consistent with greater female sexual responsiveness to virgin males. Male mating status also affected female receptivity to copulate. Once mounted, live virgin females were less likely to become receptive to copulation by mated males than to virgin males, but only in a choice experiment, not in a no-choice experiment.


Deep reinforcement learning algorithms that estimate state and state-action value functions have been shown to be effective in a variety of challenging domains, including learning control strategies from raw image pixels. However, algorithms that estimate state and state-action value functions typically assume a fully observed state and must compensate for partial observations by using finite length observation histories or recurrent networks. In this work, we propose a new deep reinforcement learning algorithm based on counterfactual regret minimization that iteratively updates an approximation to an advantage-like function and is robust to partially observed state. We demonstrate that this new algorithm can substantially outperform strong baseline methods on several partially observed reinforcement learning tasks: learning first-person 3D navigation in Doom and Minecraft, and acting in the presence of partially observed objects in Doom and Pong.


Introduction Following significant changes to the United States healthcare system, community health centres and private providers are providing a greater amount of STI screening, treatment and management that, in the past, would have been performed at public health specialty (STI) clinics. However, general healthcare providers without a background in STIs may be unfamiliar with STI treatment protocols and unusual presentations. To assist healthcare providers in an eight state region, the Denver Prevention Training Centre (PTC) collaborated with the Southeastern National TB Centre (SNTC) to modify their tuberculosis clinical consultation database to serve clinicians performing STI exams. Methods The Denver PTC and SNTC created an online database and call management system modelled on the TB system. The system tracks and facilitates the clinical consultation process from initiation to completion. A toll free number (1–800–4-STD-CCN) and website (www. STDCCN.org) were set up. Marketing was done through electronic channels and at healthcare events in the region. Results The STI clinical consultation system received 2–5 requests a week from clinicians around the region. Unlike the TB system, whose requests have been primarily received through the phone, almost all of the requests for STI consultations came through the online portal. The STI consultation program has been successful both as a means of offering clinical consultation, and, importantly, as a way of tracking the consultations and technical assistance delivered by the training centre. As a result, the STI clinical consultation program will be expanded across the United States in the coming months. The Denver PTC and SNTC are also looking at expanding the process to mobile applications so that consultation can be initiated from mobile devices. Conclusion Web-based processes can help simplify, facilitate and track the process of STI clinical consultation. Disclosure of interest statement The Denver PTC and SNTC are funded by the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, USA. No pharmaceutical grants were received in the development of this study.


Despite its numerical challenges, finite element method is used to compute viscous fluid flow. A consensus on the cause of numerical problems has been reached; however, general algorithms—allowing a robust and accurate simulation for any process—are still missing. Either a very high computational cost is necessary for a direct numerical solution (DNS) or some limiting procedure is used by adding artificial dissipation to the system. These stabilization methods are useful; however, they are often applied relative to the element size such that a local monotonous convergence is challenging to acquire. We need a computational strategy for solving viscous fluid flow using solely the balance equations. In this work, we present a general procedure solving fluid mechanics problems without use of any stabilization or splitting schemes. Hence, its generalization to multiphysics applications is straightforward. We discuss emerging numerical problems and present the methodology rigorously. Implementation is achieved by using open-source packages and the accuracy as well as the robustness is demonstrated by comparing results to the closed-form solutions and also by solving well-known benchmarking problems.


Multi-color (BVIc) CCD-derived photometric data were acquired from V460 And, an intrinsic variable classically defined as a High Amplitude delta Scuti (HADS) type system. Deconvolution of precise time-series light curve data was accomplished using discrete Fourier transformation and revealed a fundamental mode ( f0) of oscillation at ~13.336 d –1 along with five other partial harmonics (2f0–6f0). No other statistically significant frequencies were resolved following successive pre-whitening of each residual signal. An assessment of potential period changes over time was performed using six new times-of-maximum light produced from the present study along with other values reported in the literature. These along with sparsely-sampled data collected during the ROTSE-I (1999), Catalina Sky (2005–2013), and SuperWASP (2004–2008) surveys indicate that no substantive change in the primary pulsation period or amplitude (V-mag) has likely occurred over the past 20 years. Recent photometric data from space telescopes have in some cases contradicted traditional classification schemes and clouded the differences between HADSand SX Phe-like variables. Herein using accurate cosmic distances and proper motions from Gaia DR2, we attempted to exploit potential kinematic differences between established populations of HADS and SX Phe variable stars as an alternate approach for classification. Finally, an investigation with PARSEC models for generating stellar tracks and isochrones provided valuable insight into the evolutionary status and physical character of V460 And.


Good road network could make a country motivate their economic activities and will grow nations prosperity. In Indonesia as well, developing toll where including in National Road Network helpful in product or service distribution activity, make it reach their destination faster and gives good effect for economic progress of Indonesia. Toll Road in Semarang has length 24.75 km and parting be four toll gates, they are Manyaran Toll Gate, Gayamsari Toll Gate, Muktiharjo Toll Gate and Tembalang Toll Gate where Jasa Marga Corp. Semarang Branch be operational support . In each toll gate, there is some employee with duty for servicing toll road users. Those employee who standby in the toll gate called Pul-Tol Official (Collector toll fee).
Pul-Tol official in the toll gate be a front liner who doing communications between company and toll road users. But, sometimes Jasa Marga Corp. Semarang Branch got some report about Pul-Tol official services from toll road users. They feel Unsatisfaction about services. Jasa Marga Corp. Semarang Branch has three ways for toll road user for share their Unsatisfaction they are trough hotline service (024) 7607777, trough on air/off air on Rasika Radio 105.6 FM and Idola Radio 92.6 FM, even toll road users able to come directly to Jasa Marga Corp. Semarang Branch Office to share and make a complain.
This research use content analyze method for describing toll road users Unsatisfaction. This research takes 22 sample of Unsatisfaction reports. Unsatisfaction type which most often to be shared from toll road user is Unsatisfaction where Pul-Tol official using bad words and impolite when gives services during transaction in the toll gate. A company must supplying good communication skill for Pul-Tol official. Hopeful Pul-Tol official able to do communications properly and toll road user Unsatisfaction can be minimized or even can be removed.

Keywords : Unsatisfaction, Pul-Tol Official, Toll Gate, Jasa Marga Corp. Semarang Branch


The branchial uptake mechanism of the nonessential heavy metal silver from very dilute media by the gills of freshwater rainbow trout was investigated. At concentrations >36 nM AgNO(3), silver rapidly entered the gills, reaching a peak at 1 h, after which time there was a steady decline in gill silver concentration and a resulting increase in body silver accumulation. Below 36 nM AgNO(3), there was only a very gradual increase in gill and body silver concentration over the 48-h exposure period. Increasing water sodium concentration ([Na(+)]; 0.05 to 21 mM) significantly reduced silver uptake, although, in contrast, increasing ambient [Ca(2+)] or [K(+)] up to 10 mM did not reduce silver uptake. Kinetic analysis of silver uptake at varying [Na(+)] showed a significant decrease in maximal silver transport capacity (173 +/- 34 pmol. g(-1). h(-1) at 0.1 mM [Na(+)] compared with 35 +/- 9 at 13 mM [Na(+)]) and only a slight decrease in the affinity for silver transport (K(m); 55 +/- 27 nM at 0.1 mM [Na(+)] compared with 91 +/- 47 nM at 13 mM [Na(+)]). Phenamil (a specific blocker of Na(+) channels), at a concentration of 100 microM, blocked Na(+) uptake by 78% of control values (58% after washout), and bafilomycin A(1) (a specific blocker of V-type ATPase), at a concentration of 2 microM, inhibited Na(+) uptake by 57% of control values, demonstrating the presence of a proton-coupled Na(+) channel in the apical membrane of the gills. Phenamil (after washout) and bafilomycin A(1) also blocked silver uptake by 62 and 79% of control values, respectively, indicating that Ag(+) is able to enter the apical membrane via the proton-coupled Na(+) channel.


Previous research on the temporal chunk signal has focused on the use of pauses in behaviour to probe chunk structures in working memory. On the basis of some of these studies, a hierarchical process model has been proposed, which consist of four hierarchical levels describing different kind of pauses. In this model, the lowest level consists of pauses between strokes within letters. On higher levels, there are pauses between letters, words, and phrases. Each level is associated with a larger amount of processing when retrieving these chunks from memory. The main aim of the present study is to test whether the temporal chunk signal can distinguish a fifth level, the sentence level. A secondary goal is to replicate the findings which were used to construct the hierarchical process model in a manner that overcomes some of the limitations of the earlier experiments.


How serious a problem is hazardous waste to the health of America? According to an Office of Technology Assessment report, about 10 000 hazardous waste sites pose a serious threat to public health (March 1985). The Office of Technology Assessment, a research arm of Congress, claims that cleanup costs can amount to $1000 per house-hold. Toxic dumps where steel drums have been left have often deteriorated, resulting in leaks that can contaminate the water supply. No state is free from these dumps. Some areas of the country have drawn greater attention because of their hazardous waste problems, especially Times Beach, Love Canal, and Woburn, Mass, the main focus of Cluster Mystery . Attention was called to the possible role of hazardous waste in contaminating the water supply in Woburn, a suburb north of Boston, when a local minister held a town meeting to propose an approach to investigating a potential link


You are welcome at Zonta Club Dortmund, please inform yourself about our activities und service projects in Dortmund and worldwide, language advancement, Medical Information Centre against negligence and maltreatment of children, YWPA Award, Zonta International


This paper reports our efforts toward an ASR system for a new under-resourced language (Fongbe). The aim of this work is to build acoustic models and language models for continuous speech decoding in Fongbe. The problem encountered with Fongbe (an African language spoken especially in Benin, Togo, and Nigeria) is that it does not have any language resources for an ASR system. As part of this work, we have first collected Fongbe text and speech corpora that are described in the following sections. Acoustic modeling has been worked out at a graphemic level and language modeling has provided two language models for performance comparison purposes. We also performed a vowel simplification by removing tones diacritics in order to investigate their impact on the language models.


Inflammation is a condition stemming from complex host defense and tissue repair mechanisms, often simply characterized by plasma levels of a single acute reactant. We attempted to identify candidate biomarkers of systemic inflammation within the plasma proteome. We applied quantitative proteomics using isobaric mass tags (iTRAQ) tandem mass spectrometry to quantify proteins in plasma of 500 Nepalese children 6–8 years of age. We evaluated those that co-vary with inflammation, indexed by α-1-acid glycoprotein (AGP), a conventional biomarker of inflammation in population studies. Among 982 proteins quantified in >10% of samples, 99 were strongly associated with AGP at a family-wise error rate of 0.1%. Magnitude and significance of association varied more among proteins positively (n = 41) than negatively associated (n = 58) with AGP. The former included known positive acute phase proteins including C-reactive protein, serum amyloid A, complement components, protease inhibitors, transport proteins with anti-oxidative activity, and numerous unexpected intracellular signaling molecules. Negatively associated proteins exhibited distinct differences in abundance between secretory hepatic proteins involved in transporting or binding lipids, micronutrients (vitamin A and calcium), growth factors and sex hormones, and proteins of largely extra-hepatic origin involved in the formation and metabolic regulation of extracellular matrix. With the same analytical approach and the significance threshold, seventy-two out of the 99 proteins were commonly associated with CRP, an established biomarker of inflammation, suggesting the validity of the identified proteins. Our findings have revealed a vast plasma proteome within a free-living population of children that comprise functional biomarkers of homeostatic and induced host defense, nutrient metabolism and tissue repair, representing a set of plasma proteins that may be used to assess dynamics and extent of inflammation for future clinical and public health application.


Abstract This essay offers an explanation for how and why women's rights are included in contemporary peace agreements. I identify six causal mechanisms by which women secured participation and women's rights in the peace processes of Burundi (1998–2000) and Northern Ireland (1996–98). First, violent conflict and peace talks produce the conditions of 'grievance' and 'optimism' necessary for social movement mobilization. Second, women use 'procedural grafting' to demand inclusion in peace processes. Third, they use 'strategic essentialism' to overcome the ethno-political divisions of the conflict. Fourth, women call upon relevant practices used in peace processes of the Global South. Fifth, high-level actors may influence peace processes to further international objectives. Sixth, women's involvement with transnational feminist networks facilitates the reproduction of international human rights language.


Despite its importance (for example in order to distinguish the nature of chronic and transient poverty), good studies on poverty dynamics in Indonesia is quite rare. One important constraint is the need of panel or longitudinal data where observations of the living conditions of the same individuals or households are made at several points in time. In developing countries, the existence of this type survey, of course, is not a norm. In Indonesia, longitudinal household survey was not present until in 1993, Rand cooperation and Demographic Institute of University of Indonesia, conducted Indonesian Family Survey (IFLS), in which around 7,600 household in 13 province in Indonesia were survey and re-surveyed in 1997. This two set of data (to our knowledge) resulted in the first dataset that was specifically designed to be a panel/longitudinal data. In this paper, we would utilize this rich set of data, to study poverty dynamics in Indonesia, by dividing poverty into transient and chronic poverty. We would investigate socioeconomic characteristics of those households that belongs to transiently-poor and chronically-poor group to see any distinctive characteristics between the two. In addition to that, we would investigate whether regional factors i.e. urban-rural location, and geographical difference (such as across province or localities) would also reveal distinctive patterns. Keywords: poverty dynamics, panel data, chronic poverty, transient poverty


This paper provides an analysis of two cases of new infrasves the restructuring of industrial infrastructure in intraurban areas of Montreal in Quebec, Canada, carried out as a part of the technological upgrading process characteristic of transitions from industrial to knowledge-based took into account the contribution of all social actors to a sustainable production model. The second case focuses on the consolidation of industrial infrastructure in Yumbo, Valle Department, Colombia, and suggests local strategies to ensure future territorial sustainability. Palabras claves Habitat e industria, sostenibilidad territorial, industria sostenible.


OBJECTIVE
Emerging evidence from in vitro studies and mouse genetics attributes to osteoprotegerin (OPG), a member of the tumor necrosis factor receptor family, an important role in vascular biology. We evaluated serum levels of OPG in a group of children with Kawasaki disease (KD), before immunoglobulin (IVIG) infusion and at 3-month followup.

METHODS
Fifty patients (38 boys, 20 girls, median age 3.6 yrs, range 4 mo-7.4 yrs) fulfilling criteria for the diagnosis of KD, 30 febrile controls with infectious diseases, 18 patients with juvenile systemic lupus erythematosus (JSLE), and 40 healthy controls were enrolled. All KD patients received IVIG treatment within the first 10 days of illness, and aspirin. Coronary artery abnormalities (CAA) were reported in 6 out of 58 patients; all were male and younger than 5 years. Serum OPG was measured by ELISA in patients with KD before IVIG and at 3-month followup (median time 3.2 mo, range 3-3.5).

RESULTS
At baseline and at the 3-month followup, KD patients had significantly higher OPG serum levels than febrile controls (p < 0.001 and p < 0.004, respectively), JSLE patients (p < 0.0001), and healthy controls (p < 0.0001). At baseline, KD patients who developed CAA had higher OPG serum levels than those without CAA (p = 0.0001); this difference was not present at 3-month followup. The optimal OPG cutoff value of 123.2 pg/ml was a significant predictor for CAA, with a sensitivity of 100% (6/6), a specificity of 96% (50/52), and a positive predictive value of 75% (6/8).

CONCLUSION
High OPG levels might be the result of compensatory production during acute and subacute phases of KD. OPG assay might be an additional clinically useful marker to monitor and differentiate patients who develop, from those who do not develop, such coronary artery abnormalities.


Background and Purpose: Tree of heaven (Ailanthus altissima) is one of the most invasive tree species in Slovenia. Since its invasion into forests is expected, we must raise public awareness and prepare guidelines for forest management in the presence of invasive species. The aim of the research was to predict the potential distribution of tree of heaven, to detect the most endangered forest communities and to discover what characteristics of forest stands make them susceptible.Materials and methods: From databases, literature sources and field observations, we collected all localities in which tree of heaven appears. We assigned these localities geological, geomorphological, soil and climatic data. We then built an ecological model and prepared a map of potential distribution. Based on the modelled future distribution of tree of heaven, we randomly selected and sampled 50 plots in the area in which invasion is expected and beyond this area. We analyzed their morphological and ecological strategies, ecological condition, origin and social behavior spectrum.Results: We found that it has the largest invasive potential in western Slovenia. The model showed that the most susceptible forest communities appear in warm areas with pronounced climatic seasonality. Many differences occur in floristics and plant traits of forest communities in extreme positions, in terms of susceptibility to invasion, but in transitional areas, these differences are not so obvious, only a higher pH of soil and absence of species characteristic of acidophilus communities are an indicator of vulnerability.Conclusion: Susceptibility to invasion by tree of heaven is mainly influenced by macro-climatic conditions; in the transitional zone, communities thriving on shallow, carbonate bedrock are more vulnerable.


The factors such as power, action mode and action time of ultrasound were studied about their effects on the sulphitation and neutralization process in cane juice. The best result was achieved when the ultrasound was applied at the power of 300 W and in the progress of neutralization. The result showed that ultrasound could help to improve the quality of clarified juice. Compared with those without ultrasound field, the residuals of Ca2+ and SO2 decreased by 4% and 21.4%, respectively, and the color value decreased by 10.2%, and apparent purity improved by 0.91% in average. The result of this study provided reference for the application of ultrasound in the sulphitation and neutralization process.


Author(s): Shivers, Sarah Wells | Advisor(s): Roberts, Dar A | Abstract: In California, predicted climate warming increases the likelihood of extreme droughts. As irrigated agriculture accounts for roughly 80% of the state's managed water supply, agriculture simultaneously shows high vulnerability to a warming climate while also offering the greatest opportunity to mitigate the impact of future droughts through adaptation strategies. This dissertation took advantage of hyperspectral Airborne Visible/Infrared Imaging Spectrometer (AVIRIS) and thermal MODIS/ASTER Airborne Simulator (MASTER) imagery collected by the HyspIRI Airborne Campaign over three years of a multi-year drought to measure agricultural response to changes in water availability and highlight the potential of remote sensing to aid in future agricultural management during water-limited times. In Chapter 2, I used the Random Forest classifier to classify crops into categories of similar water usages, assess the accuracy at which hyperspectral imaging could be of use for agricultural mapping, and evaluate changes in crop plantings with drought. The results showed overall field-level accuracies of 94.4% with AVIRIS, as opposed to 90.4% with Landsat OLI and 91.7% with Sentinel, indicating that hyperspectral imagery has the potential to identify crops by water-use group at a single time step at higher accuracies than multispectral sensors. With these classifications, I quantified shifts in crop plantings over drought and found a prioritization of high-value, perennial crops over lower-valued annual plantings. In Chapter 3, I used paired AVIRIS and MASTER imagery to assess crop stress in fruit and nut orchards using an approach that accounted for thermal complexity within the landscape, without the need for ancillary environmental measurements. I used surface characteristics obtained by AVIRIS data to model expected pixel temperatures. These temperatures were compared to measured temperatures as a way of assessing crop stress. Crop species showed significantly different temperature distributions independent of fractional cover (F(10, 33135) = 735, p l 0.001 for 2013, with similar results in 2014 and 2015). Crop residuals were found to increase as the drought progressed with average residuals of 0.14°C in 2013, 0.97°C in 2014, and 1.1°C in 2015. In addition, crops with the highest LST residuals had the largest reductions in yield during the study period. In Chapter 4, I analyzed spatiotemporal patterns of water vapor as they varied across a diverse and dynamic agricultural scene. I tested a set of hypotheses to better understand surface-atmosphere interactions and their ability to be evaluated through AVIRIS-derived column water vapor estimates. Results showed a positive correlation between crop water use and the frequency with which that crop showed directional alignment between wind and water vapor (r=0.42). We also found patterns of water vapor across the region that support advection of moisture across the scene. Results conclude that accumulation of water vapor above fields in these scenes is observable with water vapor imagery while advection at the field level is obscured by variable winds, differences in field structure and composition, and smaller-scale patterns of vapor. Overall, this dissertation enhances scientific and social ability to monitor and assist in food and water resource management with remote sensing during drought.


This Note is about the civic role of private collections of art. Specifically, it argues that private collections can and should be a fixture of the U.S. cultural landscape alongside museums, which are devoted to serving the public. To some extent, this already happens. Collectors often lend their artwork for museum exhibitions, for example, and some put their entire collections up for public display. Nothing better illustrates the convergence of owning art as an asset and for conspicuous public display than one entrepreneur's business idea to sell prefabricated private museums: Why not make it easy for collectors, with readymade galleries to accommodate the Koons or the Basquiat? But this Note adds to commentators who wish to see a reform in private collecting so that the public benefits more from these collections than it does currently.
This Note argues that the public interest calls for enhancing, not subordinating, the role of private collectors. Certain commentators argue that collectors should be compelled to act in service to the public, either by lending significant works of art to a museum or publicly displaying the works themselves.Behind such proposals lies the notion that private collections and museums are in tension, and that museums are a superior institution for benefiting the public, if private collections are capable of providing public benefits at all. Informing this intuition are the legal and normative differences between private and museum ownership. Museums are subject to certain obligations that collectors do not share, the rationale for which is that they vindicate the public interest in art. But it does not follow from this distinction that collectors, lacking these obligations, cannot also promote the public interest through their own actions.
Private collections should play a complementary role to museums in serving the public interest. Private collections and museum collections are qualitatively different in meaningful ways. Furthermore, museums appear increasingly unable to effectively promote the public interest in art, at least without help. Thus, this Note proposes a regime that would harmonize the civic practices of collectors and museums while preserving the role of the collector. Part I explains the differences between collectors and museums with respect to ownership. One way to understand these differences is to say that while collectors mostly operate under general principles of property law, their art being their chattel, museums are subject to certain obligations on account of their charitable status and purpose. Building on the idea that these obligations exist for the benefit of the public, Part II describes how previous scholars have defined the contours of the "public interest in art" and introduces one paradigm in particular for reforming private collecting so that it serves the public interest. Part II then critiques this paradigm and shows why a different approach is necessary; in doing so, it makes an important distinction between proposals that focus on individual works of art and proposals that focus on collections in their entirety. Part III outlines an incentive-based system for achieving the desired reform under this new approach. Accrediting private collections that meet certain criteria for providing public benefits could motivate collectors to act civically and promote better practices for private collecting broadly, depending on the benefits associated with accreditation.


Conventional real estate price indexes provide a single measure for the path of asset prices over time (controlling for the quality of the representative or average property). Properties could, however, have different price dynamics based on the price segment in which they are traded. On the demand side, investors at different price points are differentiated by the amount of capital they have at their disposal and the type and source of financing. Smaller, private investors cluster at lower price points, whereas large institutions dominate the high price points. On the supply side, properties at different price points may serve different space markets with different types of tenants and may reflect different supply elasticity and land/structure value ratios. In this article, the authors use an unconventional approach, quantile regression, to estimate price indexes for different price segments in commercial real estate. Their results show that there are indeed large differences in price dynamics for different price points. These differences are suggestive of a lack of integration in the property asset market because the authors find apparent differences in the risk–return relationship. Lower-price-point properties exhibit less risk (in the form of volatility and cycle amplitude) but have no evidence of lower total returns. Lower-price-point properties also show greater momentum and thus greater predictability.


Inventory of the records of Crockett County. Begins with an introduction and explanation of the roles of various county government offices. Describes the records of the Commissioners' Court, County Clerk, County Court, District Clerk, Justice of the Peace, Sheriff, Tax Assessor-Collector, Treasurer, Auditor, and School Superintendent. Also includes a listing of Crockett County Records and an index.


Hybrid varieties have significantly contributed to increased maize proclivity in Kenya and other SSA countries. A number of factors limit access of farmers to maize varieties, smallholder farmers have sort an alternative option of recycling the hybrid maize seeds. Seeds are carefully selected based on cob and grain size during or before harvest after which they are preserved. hybrid yielding maize varieties (HYMV) developers and disseminators observe that there is a progressive yield decrease of recycling HYMV. The question is Is it economical to recycle HYMV or an innovation that farmers can practice?. This study was designed to evaluate the yield losses and benefits of hybrid maize recycling in Kenya. Through key informants, farmers who grew both certified seed and recycled maize were identified. For on farm trial (OFT), sixty two (62) farmers who recycled hybrid maize varieties and 30 who grew certified seeds were randomly selected while for the On station trial (OST), the trial was laid out in a completely randomized block design replicated four time with plots measuring 100M square. For the OFT, two plots of 100 square meters were superimposed on farmers fields both on recycled and fresh seed. Input and output levels in the plots were identified and valued. The results showed that the yield decreases at an increasing rate. Yield losses for Double crosses low compared to the Top crosses. The yield levels of recycled Top cross reduced by 16%, 17% and 32 while that for double crosses decreased by 20%, 37% and 46% for the first, second and third recycling generations respectively. However, positive net benefits are attained in recycling HYMV. This implies that it is beneficial to recycle HYMV up-to the third generation level. However at regional and national level food security objectives is comprised. This demands that incentives to discourage farmers from recycling may be sought through development of OPVs which can be recycled if national objective of food security has to be enhanced. From the logit results the major significantly influencing factors in recycling HYMVs are amount of credit, fertilizer, wealth and extension contact.


Temperature and rainfall are important climatological parameters, and knowledge of their temporal and spatial patterns is useful for researchers working in many disciplines. In this study, spatial interpolation techniques were implemented in a Geographic Information System (GIS) to study the spatial variability of climate variables (maximum air temperature, minimum air temperature, and seasonal and annual rainfall) in Nebraska. Thirty years (1971-2000) of climate data (average monthly maximum and minimum temperatures and rainfall) from 215 National Weather Service Cooperative Observer Network (COOP) weather stations distributed throughout Nebraska and surrounding states were used in the analyses. Literature suggests that there is no single preferred method of interpolation, and the selection of interpolation method is usually based on the available data, desired level of accuracy, and available resources. We analyzed three different commonly used interpolation methods (inverse distance weighted, spline, and kriging) and evaluated their performance. Overall, the summary of all statistical parameters showed no significant difference between interpolation techniques in predicting the spatial variability in 30-year climate normals. Investigation of interpolation errors at individual weather stations agreed with summary statistics. Spatial variability, in this instance, is likely smoothed due to long-term averaging of the data (30 years), resulting in similar errors for all the interpolation techniques. Subjective assessment of maps for all climate variables showed that the kriging method produced smoother maps compared to spline and inverse distance weighted. Considering the degree to which accurate spatial interpolation could be accomplished with relative ease and less bias, the spline method proves the better option.


Echo-planar magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be used to measure apparent diffusion coefficients noninvasively in vivo, with scan times of 150 milliseconds or less, and to assess early ischemic effects in the feline experimental model, which has an occluded middle cerebral artery (MCA). The apparent diffusion coefficient in ischemic regions, which are identified later from vital staining, is significantly decreased from normal values within 1 hour after the MCA becomes occluded. A series of 10 echo-planar images that are progressively diffusion-weighted can be collected in 1 minute (effective TR of 6 seconds). Semilogarithmic plots of image intensity versus gradient strength factors (b values) were linear. Collecting sequential gradient echo-planar images during the passage of a bolus of contrast medium is also useful when assessing perfusion or vascular integrity before and during ischemic episodes. After intravenous injection of dysprosium-diethylene triamine penta-acetic acid-bis(methylamide), typical signal losses of 40% to 80% were observed and were dose-dependent. Areas of possible ischemia identified from diffusion-weighted images did not lose signal intensity with the use of contrast medium and were seen as regions of relative hyperintensity, clearly discernible from normally perfused tissues.


Recently, Mamyshev oscillators (MO) have attained a lot of attention, due to their generation of mode-locked pulses with outstanding output parameters in terms of output energy, spectral bandwidth and pulse duration. We present a MO with output pulse energies in the range of 0.5µJ, an optical spectrum ranging from 1010nm to 1060nm and an externally compressed autocorrelation duration of less than 100fs. This MO completely consists of commercially available standard step-index fibers. In order to handle the high pulse energies, we apply a few-mode gain fiber with a core-diameter of 20µm in the second arm of the oscillator.


Over the past few years, free-space optical (FSO) communication has gained significant attention. In fact, FSO can provide cost-effective and unlicensed links, with high-bandwidth capacity and low error rate, making it an exciting alternative to traditional wireless radio-frequency communication systems. However, the system performance is affected not only by the presence of atmospheric turbulences, which occur due to random fluctuations in the air refractive index but also by the existence of pointing errors. Metrics, such as the outage probability which quantifies the probability that the instantaneous signal-to-noise ratio is smaller than a given threshold, can be used to analyze the performance of this system. In this work, we consider weak and strong turbulence regimes, and we study the outage probability of an FSO communication system under a generalized pointing error model with both a nonzero boresight component and different horizontal and vertical jitter effects. More specifically, we use an importance sampling approach which is based on the exponential twisting technique to offer fast and accurate results.


ARPA-E is supporting some of the best and brightest scientific minds across the country to turn aspirational ideas into tangible technology options. By presenting an ambitious energy challenge to the U.S. research and development community, ARPA-E attracts ideas from a diverse group of innovators, representing traditional and non-traditional energy backgrounds, who look to address energy challenges in new and exciting ways. Founder and CEO of Alveo Energy Dr. Colin Wessels and Co-Founder and CEO of Indoor Reality Dr. Avideh Zakhor are two ARPA-E project investigators that have made great progress, with support from the ARPA-E Tech-to-Market team, in advancing their technologies out of the lab and into the marketplace.


In this paper, the frequency-dispersive characteristic of a two-port parallel coupled microstrip line (PCML) is presented using equivalent J-inverter network parameters which were obtain from its admittance parameters. The extracted J-inverter parameters, J-susceptance and electrical line length, were used to obtain the transmission zero frequency, fundamental response frequency and harmonic response frequency of the PCML. The transmission zero frequency can be realigned by varying a centrally located single groove size to suppress the first spurious harmonic passband of the filter. A technique was identified by using J-inverter parameters to cancel the spurious response. It was found that the transmission zero of J-susceptance null of the PCML can be realigned to cancel the first harmonic resonance. This was done by using a single groove with specific dimension. The proposed technique was justified by two single-stage bandpass filter of PCML with tight coupling characteristic


Small sample properties of the method proposed by Brunner et al. (1997) for performing two-way analysis of variance are compared to those of the normal based ANOVA method for factorial arrangements. Different effect sizes, sample sizes, and error structures are utilized in a simulation study to compare type I error rates and power of the two methods. An SAS program is also presented to assist those wishing to implement the Brunner method to real data.