We classify the nite primitive permutation groups which have a cyclic subgroup with two orbits. This extends classical topics in permutation group theory, and has arithmetic consequences. By a theorem of C. L. Siegel, ane algebraic curves with innitely many integral points are parametrized by rational functions whose monodromy groups have this property. We classify the possibilities of these monodromy groups, and give applications to Hilbert's irreducibility theorem.


The Mars Simulation wind tunnel at Aarhus University is a unique ESA and EU supported simulation facility designed for studies of the Martian environment. Specifically it is capable of recreating the key physical parameters such as temperature, pressure (composition), wind flow and importantly the suspension of dust particulates. This facility is available to the scientific community for collaborative research. Preliminary results from the first year of facility operations will be presented.


ABSTRACT Jagadeesan, V.; Ezhil Praveena, P.; Otta, S.K., and Jithendran, K.P., 2019. Classical runt deformity syndrome cases in farmed Penaeus vannamei along the east coast of India. In: Jithendran, K.P.; Saraswathy, R.; Balasubramanian, C.P.; Kumaraguru Vasagam, K.P.; Jayasankar, V.; Raghavan, R.; Alavandi, S.V., and Vijayan, K.K. (eds.), BRAQCON 2019: World Brackishwater Aquaculture Conference. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 86, pp. 107–111. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Infectious hypodermal and haematopoietic necrotic viral disease caused by the infectious hypodermal and hematopoietic necrosis virus (IHHNV), a member of the Family Parvoviridae, Genus Penstyldensovirus, is the smallest known shrimp penaeid viruses. This viral disease poses a threat to shrimp farming as it causes runt deformity syndrome in Penaeus vannamei and thereby causing economic loss to the farmers. An analysis was carried out in various P. vannamei farms (n=350) along the East Coast of India from 2013-2018, and it was found that 30 farm samples positive for IHHNV. The shrimps in these farms exhibited classical IHHNV clinical signs like deformed sixth abdominal segment, deformed rostrum, cuticular roughness and wrinkled antennae. There was a wide size variation in growth among the affected farms. These samples on histological analysis showed prominent intranuclear, Cowdry type A inclusion bodies characteristic of IHHNV. The inclusion bodies observed were in the tissues of the ectodermal hypodermal epithelium of fore- and hindgut, mesodermal origins like haematopoietic organs, antennal gland and lymphoid organ. All the samples were positive for IHHNV by PCR using OIE primers. An experiment was conducted in P. vannamei (n=100) to study the disease transmission wherein, the animals were fed orally by the infected IHHNV tissue, and it was found that the animals got the infection by day five. The experimentally infected animals did not exhibit the classical IHHNV symptoms as that was seen in animals in the farming conditions.


Structured multi-signatures is a special multi-signature which multiple signer can sign the same message and it provided co-signers with different position have different authorization capability. There are lots of structured multi-signature schemes such as Harn's scheme and Burmester's scheme, etc. Though Harn's scheme was relatively safer, yet this scheme was not safety enough because it was very easily aggressed by the forgery attack. This paper shows the scheme can not resist the forgery attack. Then the paper proposed a new structure multi-signature scheme based on the difficulty of the discrete logarithm problem with verifying signature parameter and signers' public keys. By verifying public-key, the new scheme can resist lots of outsider attack and insider attack. The validity of the new scheme can be verified, and it is a secure structured multi-signature scheme.


Diabetic foot ulcers (DFUs) are a serious and common problem in patients with diabetes mellitus and constitute one of the major causes of lower extremity amputation. The microbiological profile of DFUs depends on the acute or chronic character of the wound. Aerobic gram-positive cocci are the predominant organisms isolated from DFUs. Diabetic foot biopsies from patients admitted to the Angiology and Vascular Surgery Hospital of the Northeast, in Reynosa, Tamaulipas from December 2011 to April 2016 were analyzed. The samples were processed using standard microbiology techniques. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing was carried out according to the protocol established by the Clinical & Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). We obtained 246 bacterial isolates, based on the results of phenotypic resistance. The least effective antibiotics for gram-positive bacteria were penicillin and dicloxacillin; for gram-negative bacteria, cefalotin and penicillin were the least effective. Levofloxacin, cefalotin, and amikacin were the most effective antibiotics for gram-positive and negative bacteria, respectively. Enterobacter genus was significantly associated with muscle biopsies (P = .011) and samples without growth were significantly associated with specimens of pyogenic origin (P = .000). In 215 DFU samples, we found that Staphylococcus aureus was the most commonly isolated pathogen followed by Enterobacter sp. This is consistent with previous reports. Enterobacter species may play an important role in the colonization/infection of certain tissues; however, further studies are needed in this regard.


Memory is one of the most important abilities of the brain. It is defined as an alteration in behavior from an experience. For example, the C. elegans nematode will downregulate its chemotactic response to an innately attractive odor if it is not paired with food. This process is an example of olfactory classical conditioning. Through spaced training with this odor in the absence of food, C. elegans will maintain this memory of the odor for a prolonged period of time, akin to long-term memory formation. Although TRP channels are classically thought of as primary sensory receptors, intriguingly, it has been reported that the OSM-9/TRPV5/TRPV6 (TRP vanilloid) channel is required for odor short-term memory. We have discovered a new role for osm-9/TRPV in long-term olfactory memory formation (LTM). The osm-9 mutant animals can acquire memory of the conditioned stimulus (odor) just like wild-type, but are unable to consolidate the memory for long-term maintenance. Interestingly, this TRPV-mediated long-term memory does not require sleep to form the long-lasting memory. Additionally, we found that genomic DNA and not cDNA is able to rescue the short-term odor memory defects seen in the null mutants. TRP channels are well studied in their ability to sense noxious stimuli, yet they are also implicated in memory and many diseases and disorders that limit neural plasticity, including Parkinsons disease, Alzheimers disease, stroke, and sense disorders including anosmia. Our studies uncovered a role of TRP channels in neural plasticity, specifically, in olfactory long-term memory formation. These findings will broaden our knowledge of TRP channel function as a mediator of plasticity and memory, which could also potentially aid in understanding and treating the many diseases and disorders caused by TRP channel dysfunction.


This study provides a comparative legal analysis of how key governance requirements of sus-tainable land use development are accounted for by the environmental and planning law re-gimes of six selected countries (Germany, The Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland, Spain, USA). To that end, a set of key governance requirements for sustainable land use development were ex-tracted from the available sustainability discourcse as comparative criteria, and on that basis, an extensive questionnaire was developed and answered by national experts. The applied governance critiera includes regulatory provision of (1) a transparent sustainability concept and translation into concrete environmental quality objectives (2) a coordinated and integrated approach of land use management, (3) the constant generation and incorporation of to new sustainability knowledge and adaption of land-use decisions to best available knowledge and lastly (4) effective participation of the public and stakeholders. With regard to these criteria, the study is analyzing both cross-sectoral and sector specific steering approaches. Spatial plan-ning is paid particular attention to as a most important cross-sectoral approach. The sectors analyzed include agriculture, river basin related water resource management, urban develop-ment and energy landscapes. The evaluation of the survey depicts how far the reported coun-tries have advanced in "sustaining" their environmental and planning law and how, yet, diverse opportunities for improvement remain. The comparative law analysis based on the mentioned governance criteria reveals a heteroge-neous picture requiring differentiated appraisal. In very coarse view, however, it can be summa-rized that most notable sustainability deficits of the relevant legal regimes relate to the determi-nation of clear environmental quality objectives and effective implementation instruments, while respectable advancements have been achieved in all analyzed legal orders with regard to integration, participation, generation of knowledge and adaptive design of land-use regulation schemes.


On Certain Classes of Bounded Linear Operators, by Chia-Shiang Lin. Canad. Math. Bull. (4) 13 (1970), 469-473. On page 470, the last line in COROLLARY 1 should read "one element, B(X)". On page 472, COROLLARY 2 is incorrect and is replaced by the following: " On the other hand, if{Tn} is a sequence in B(X) and T e B(X) with T e <&(C\{d}), and Tn->T convergence in norm, it may happen that Tn $ ®(C\{d}) for «=1 ,2 , . . . , even ifTTn=TnT. For example, let Tn=I/n, then Tn e ®({0})for n=l, 2 , . . . , and rn^r=oe<D(c\{0})."


The thesis of this paper is based on the assumption that the socio-economic system in which we
are living is characterised by three great trends: growing attention to the promotion of human
capital; extremely rapid technological progress, based above all on the information and
communication technologies (ICT); the establishment of new production and organizational set-ups.
These transformation processes pose a concrete challenge to the training sector, which is called to
satisfy the demand for new skills that need to be developed and disseminated. Hence the growing
interest that the various training sub-systems devote to the issues of lifelong learning and distance
learning. In such a context, the so-called e-learning acquires a central role.
The first chapter proposes a reference theoretical framework for the transformations that are
shaping post-industrial society. It analyzes some key issues such as: how work is changing, the
evolution of organizational set-ups and the introduction of learning organization, the advent of the
knowledge society and of knowledge companies, the innovation of training processes, and the key
role of ICT in the new training and learning systems.
The second chapter focuses on the topic of e-learning as an effective training model in response
to the need for constant learning that is emerging in the knowledge society. This chapter starts with
a reflection on the importance of lifelong learning and introduces the key arguments of this thesis,
i.e. distance learning (DL) and the didactic methodology called e-learning. It goes on with an
analysis of the various theoretic and technical aspects of e-learning. In particular, it delves into the
theme of e-learning as an integrated and constant training environment, characterized by
customized programmes and collaborative learning, didactic assistance and constant monitoring of
the results. Thus, all the aspects of e-learning are taken into exam: the actors and the new
professionals, the virtual communities as learning subjects, the organization of contents in learning
objects, the conformity to international standards, the integrated platforms and so on.
The third chapter, which concludes the theoretic-interpretative part, starts with a short
presentation of the state-of-the-art e-learning international market that aims to understand its
peculiarities and its current trends. Finally, we focus on some important regulation aspects related to
the strong impulse given by the European Commission first, and by the Italian governments
secondly, to the development and diffusion of e-learning.
The second part of the thesis (chapters 4, 5 and 6) focus on field research, which aims to define
the Italian scenario for e-learning. In particular, we have examined some key topics such as: the
challenges of training and the instruments to face such challenges; the new didactic methods and
technologies for lifelong learning; the level of diffusion of e-learning in Italy; the relation between
classroom training and online training; the main factors of success as well as the most critical
aspects of the introduction of e-learning in the various learning environments.
As far as the methodological aspects are concerned, we have favoured a qualitative and
quantitative analysis. A background analysis has been done to collect the statistical data available
on this topic, as well as the research previously carried out in this area. The main source of data is
constituted by the results of the Observatory on e-learning of Aitech-Assinform, which covers the
2000s and four areas of implementation (firms, public administration, universities, school): the
thesis has reviewed the results of the last three available surveys, offering a comparative
interpretation of them. We have then carried out an in-depth empirical examination of two case
studies, which have been selected by virtue of the excellence they have achieved and can therefore
be considered advanced and emblematic experiences (a large firm and a Graduate School).


This paper presents a comprehensive review on the unified power quality conditioner (UPQC) to enhance the electric power quality at distribution levels. This is intended to present a broad overview on the different possible UPQC system configurations for single-phase (two-wire) and three-phase (three-wire and four-wire) networks, different compensation approaches, and recent developments in the field. It is noticed that several researchers have used different names for the UPQC based on the unique function, task, application, or topology under consideration. Therefore, an acronymic list is developed and presented to highlight the distinguishing feature offered by a particular UPQC. In all 12 acronyms are listed, namely, UPQC-D, UPQC-DG, UPQC-I, UPQC-L, UPQC-MC, UPQC-MD, UPQC-ML, UPQC-P, UPQC-Q, UPQC-R, UPQC-S, and UPQC-VA. More than 150 papers on the topic are rigorously studied and meticulously classified to form these acronyms and are discussed in the paper.


ABSTRACT Using ab initio calculations, the cooperative and solvent effects on cation–π and B···N interactions are studied in some model ternary complexes, where these interactions coexist. The nature of the interactions and the mechanism of cooperativity are investigated by means of quantum theory of atoms in molecules (QTAIM), noncovalent interaction (NCI) index and natural bond orbital analysis. The results indicate that all cation–π and B···N binding distances in the ternary complexes are shorter than those of corresponding binary systems. The QTAIM analysis reveals that ternary complexes have higher electron density at their bond critical points relative to the corresponding binary complexes. In addition, according to the QTAIM analysis, the formation of cation–π interaction increases covalency of B···N bonds. The NCI analysis indicates that the cooperative effects in the ternary complexes make a shift in the location of the spike associated with each interaction, which can be regarded as an evidence for the reinforcement of both cation–π and B···N interactions in these systems. Solvent effects on the cooperativity of cation–π and B···N interactions are also investigated.


There are more senior house officers than doctors in any other training grade in Britain but nobody knows what they do in hospitals or has a clear idea what skills they should be learning. Nobody is responsible for them and they suffer from having a poor career structure and inadequate training. Now that there are government initiatives to reduce the hours that junior doctors work and to limit the time it takes to train to become a specialist, the problems that senior house officers face can no longer be ignored. A conference for senior house officers held last week talked about the problems that they face and tried to find some solutions.


In this study we attempt to couple the MesoNH atmospheric model in its large eddy simulation configuration with a fire contour model, ForeFire. Coupling is performed at each atmospheric time step, with the fire propagation model inputting the wind fields and outputting heat and vapour fluxes to the atmospheric model. ForeFire model is a Lagrangian front tracking model that runs at a typical front resolution of 1 meter. If the approach is similar to other successful attempts of fire-atmosphere coupled models, the use of MesoNH and ForeFire implied the development of an original coupling method. Fluxes outputted to the atmospheric models are integrated using polygon clipping method between the fire front position and the atmospheric mesh. Another originality of the approach is the fire rate of spread model that integrates wind effect by calculating the flame tilt. This reduced physical model is based on the radiating panel hypothesis. A set of idealized simulation are presented to illustrate the coupled effects between fire and the atmosphere. Preliminary results show that the coupled model is able to reproduce results that are comparable to other existing numerical experiments with a relatively small computational cost (one hour for a typical idealized case on a 200 GFlops capable computer). MesoNH serves as a research model for the meteorological systems in France and Europe, and is well integrated within the operational tool chain. Future validation scenarios will be performed on nested simulations of real large wildfires.


Good rehabilitation emphasizes the abilities rather than the disabilities of the paraplegic and promotes the greatest level of self-care and independence possible. However, even with a level of independence, there still exist societal barriers that prevent the disabled from assuming a greater involvement in the community. Educating the government and the public, about the need for more and better suitable housing, more vocational opportunities, fewer physical barriers such as high curbs, stairs and narrow doorways that prevent access to public and commercial buildings and trying to encourage positive attitudes toward the disabled will help bring the paraplegic out of isolation and allow him to develop a full, active life.


High-Q semiconductor microdisk resonators laterally coupled to optical waveguides serve as compact and robust components in wavelength-division-multiplexing systems. We present an efficient algorithm for the two-dimensional design of wavelength-selective filters based on waveguide-coupled whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) microresonators of arbitrary cross-sectional shape. A full-wave integral equation formulation enables us to accurately account for the coupling between the resonator and bus waveguide as well as for radiation and material losses. Furthermore, we apply this approach to the analysis of elliptic-resonator filters. Filter tuning by changing the resonator shape from circular to elliptic reduces the dependence of the coupling efficiency on the width of the air gap. Two alternative coupling designs are suggested for monolithic and hybrid integration technologies. One is based on increasing the coupling length, while the other exploits the field concentration at the increased-curvature portion of the deformed WGM resonator.


Technological advancements in embedded systems due to Moore's law have lead to the proliferation of wireless sensor networks (WSNs) in different application domains (e.g. defense, health care, surveillance systems) with different application requirements (e.g. lifetime, reliability). Many commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) sensor nodes can be specialized to meet these requirements using tunable parameters (e.g. voltage, frequency) to specialize the operating state. Since a sensor node's performance depends greatly on environmental stimuli, dynamic optimizations enable sensor nodes to automatically determine their operating state in-situ. However, dynamic optimization methodology development given a large design space and resource constraints (memory and computational) is a very challenging task. In this paper, we propose a lightweight dynamic optimization methodology that intelligently selects initial tunable parameter values to produce a high-quality initial operating state in one-shot for time-critical or highly constrained applications. Further operating state improvements are made using an efficient greedy exploration algorithm, achieving optimal or near-optimal operating states while exploring only 0.04% of the design space on average.


The turnover of the EU agri-food sector overtops 2,000 billion Euros a year and employs roughly 22 millions workers. The focus of this paper is on the sectors directly linked to agricultural production and the food industry. Having a comprehensive understanding of extended agri-food economic linkages is critical when designing pertinent policies to deliver the full potential of strong EU agri-food and other bio-based sectors. A more disaggregated view is required. This study stars from a Social Accounting Matrices (SAM) for Spain with a highly disaggregated agricultural sector (AgroSAMs) for the year 2000. This study uses the AgroSAMs in its entire disaggregation, in order to provide a descriptive analysis of the agri-food and bio-based sectors. The limits of this approach are evident as many changes in the EU economies have taken place within a decade. However, the AgroSAMs are the only Pan-European database providing the details on all sectors mentioned. An update of the AgroSAMs for the year 2007 is ongoing and will provide more recent data and results .The focus is on Spain; nevertheless a review for every EU Member State is first performed to detect potential key sectors. The methodology adopted in this study allows the analysis of the EU agrifood and other bio-based sectors in space and time.


Background Plasmodium falciparum encoded histidine rich protein (HRP2) based malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) are used in India. Deletion of pfhrp2 and pfhrp3 genes contributes to false negative test results, and large numbers of such deletions have been reported from South America, highlighting the importance of surveillance to detect such deletions. Methods This is the first prospective field study carried out at 16 sites located in eight endemic states of India to assess the performance of PfHRP2 based RDT kits used in the national malaria control programme. In this study, microscopically confirmed P. falciparum but RDT negative samples were assessed for presence of pfhrp2, pfhrp3, and their flanking genes using PCR. Results Among 1521 microscopically positive P. falciparum samples screened, 50 were negative by HRP2 based RDT test. Molecular testing was carried out using these 50 RDT negative samples by assuming that 1471 RDT positive samples carried pfhrp2 gene. It was found that 2.4% (36/1521) and 1.8% (27/1521) of samples were negative for pfhrp2 and pfhrp3 genes, respectively. However, the frequency of pfhrp2 deletions varied between the sites ranging from 0–25% (2.4, 95% CI; 1.6–3.3). The frequency of both pfhrp2 and pfhrp3 gene deletion varied from 0–8% (1.6, 95% CI; 1.0–2.4). Conclusion This study provides evidence for low level presence of pfhrp2 and pfhrp3 deleted P. falciparum parasites in different endemic regions of India, and periodic surveillance is warranted for reliable use of PfHRP2 based RDTs.


Context. L1642 is one of the two high galactic latitude (|b| > 30°) clouds confirmed to have active star formation.

Aims. We examine the properties of this cloud, especially the large-scale structure, dust properties, and compact sources at different stages of star formation.

Methods. We present high-resolution far-infrared and submillimetre observations with the Herschel and AKARI satellites and millimetre observations with the AzTEC/ASTE telescope, which we combined with archive data from near- and mid-infrared (2MASS, WISE) to millimetre wavelength observations (Planck).
Results. The Herschel observations, combined with other data, show a sequence of objects from a cold clump to young stellar objects (YSOs) at different evolutionary stages. Source B-3 (2MASS J04351455-1414468) appears to be a YSO forming inside the L1642 cloud, instead of a foreground brown dwarf, as previously classified. Herschel data reveal striation in the diffuse dust emission around the cloud L1642. The western region shows striation towards the NE and has a steeper column density gradient on its southern side. The densest central region has a bow-shock like structure showing compression from the west and has a filamentary tail extending towards the east. The differences suggest that these may be spatially distinct structures, aligned only in projection. We derive values of the dust emission cross-section per H nucleon of σ_e(250 μm) = 0.5−1.5 × 10^(-25) cm^2/H for different regions of the cloud. Modified black-body fits to the spectral energy distribution of Herschel and Planck data give emissivity spectral index β values 1.8–2.0 for the different regions. The compact sources have lower β values and show an anticorrelation between T and β.
Conclusions. Markov chain Monte Carlo calculations demonstrate the strong anticorrelation between β and T errors and the importance of millimetre wavelength Planck data in constraining the estimates. L1642 reveals a more complex structure and sequence of star formation than previously known.


Underwater shock wave loading has been implemented on various metals, foods and wood. The main goal of this study is to investigate the performance of unbleached jute fiber in terms of underwater shock wave loading and fiber surface parameters. The input short wave loading is varied by shock pressure. The underwater shock wave is generated by the explosion of a detonating fuse in the water tank. The process of bubble generation and expansion inside the water results in the formation of shock waves. After shock loading, jute fiber is taken for physico - mechanical and physico-chemical testing, such as those for breaking strength, elongation, moisture content, wicking, permeability, etc. The effects on jute fiber exposed by the underwater shock waves are also demonstrated by a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The maximum effect is observed at 100 MPa. Jute fiber treated by underwater shock waves shows improved moisture content and dye permeability than that of untreated jute fiber.


Telomere to telomere (T2T) assembly relies on the correctness of sequence alignments. However, the existing aligners tend to generate a high proportion of false-positive alignments in repetitive genomic regions which impedes the generation of T2T-level reference genomes for more important species. In this paper, we present an automatic algorithm called RAfilter for removing the false-positives in the outputs of existing aligners. RAfilter takes advantage of rare k-mers representing the copy-specific features to differentiate false-positive alignments from the correct ones. Considering the huge numbers of rare k-mers in large eukaryotic genomes, a series of high-performance computing techniques such as multi-threading and bit operation are used to improve the time and space efficiencies. The experimental results on tandem repeats and interspersed repeats show that RAfilter was able to filter 60%-90% false-positive HiFi alignments with almost no correct ones removed, while the sensitivities and precisions on ONT datasets were about 80% and 50% respectively.


A subnucleonic structure of light nuclei comprises an alternating up and down quark sequence (AQS) that accounts for the measured RMS charge radii with an agreement of >99% and statistical correlation of ρ = 0.99, p<0.001. An interpretation of the uncertainty principle in terms of uncertainty in energy and time, coupled with Chaos theory as relates to linked harmonic oscillators, allows localization of average quark position. Structures incorporate equally spaced quarks around regular polyhedron geometries. The distance between neighboring quarks in a sequence is constant and equal to the radius of the proton. Light nuclei from H-3 to Li-7 conform to ring structures whose radii are calculated from the formula of a regular polygon having n sides, each side equal to the radius of the proton, and n vertices, each occupied by a quark. Quark-quark interactions link nucleons to maintain a continuous sequence of alternating equally spaced quarks. Parallel strands of quark sequences overlap so that protons overlap with neutrons. Regular polyhedron structures yield better radius predictions; larger nuclei tend to be less regular and less predictable (with the exception of C-12). The relative certainty in the accepted radius of helium-4, and its geometric relationship tithe proton radius, allow a prediction for the proton radius of 0.8673±0.0014 fm.


ABSTRACT This paper provides beginning and intermediate simulation practitioners and interested simulation consumers with a grounding in how discrete-event simulation software works. This is done by describing alternative entity states, the use of lists to organize entities in the various states and the use of algorithms to manage these lists and manipulate entities during a simulation. This general treatment, which should benefit all simulation practitioners, is then discussed in terms of GPSWI-1, ProModel and SIMAN. The focus is on understanding the underlying mechanisms of simulation. Such understanding will help practitioners build models more confidently, use model verification tools more thoroughly, and model complex system logic precisely as intended.


Patterns of life in the ocean wave The open ocean is not uniform. The seas teem with unseen life that has evolved distinctive patterns of species distribution, much as the land-bound world contains a spectrum of biological provinces. Taking data from genome studies, Hellweger et al. devised a model showing how marine bacteria diversified throughout the world's oceans into stable geographic provinces independently of natural selection (see the Perspective by Giovannoni and Nemergut). All that is needed to create these distributions are mutations and ocean currents. Science, this issue p. 1346; see also p. 1246 Mutations and ocean currents in combination have generated the current distributions of marine microbes. [Also see Perspective by Giovannoni and Nemergut] A key question in ecology and evolution is the relative role of natural selection and neutral evolution in producing biogeographic patterns. We quantify the role of neutral processes by simulating division, mutation, and death of 100,000 individual marine bacteria cells with full 1 million–base-pair genomes in a global surface ocean circulation model. The model is run for up to 100,000 years and output is analyzed using BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) alignment and metagenomics fragment recruitment. Simulations show the production and maintenance of biogeographic patterns, characterized by distinct provinces subject to mixing and periodic takeovers by neighbors (coalescence), after which neutral evolution reestablishes the province and the patterns reorganize. The emergent patterns are substantial (e.g., down to 99.5% DNA identity between North and Central Pacific provinces) and suggest that microbes evolve faster than ocean currents can disperse them. This approach can also be used to explore environmental selection.


Many satellites for high resolution image acquisition are being developed very actively worldwide. In Korea, the Government has started a new space program, CAS (Compact Advanced Satellites), to promote image utilization and national space industry. For the successful utilization of satellite images, the geolocation accuracy of them is very important. A research has been performed for automated GCP (Ground Control Point) generation and precise sensor modelling by matching small image chips centered at GCPs against satellite images. In this study, we examined whether GCP chips at 25cm GSD created for CAS-1 images can be used for CAS4 images at 5m GSD and, if so, whether there is an optimal GSD to improve the matching between GCP chips and CAS-4 images. Due to data availability, experiments were carried out using Kompsat-3A images at GSD of 55cm, as a replacement to CAS-1 image, and RapidEye images at GSD of 5m, as a replacement to CAS-4 images. Original satellite images were upscaled to make test images with various GSDs. GCP chips were downscaled to make their GSD identical to test images. We performed matching with the downscaled GCP chips and the test images. Experiments showed that it was possible to reuse GCP chips at 25cm GSD for satellite images at 5m GSD. When RapidEye images were upscaled to the range of 1.67m GSD (one third of the original GSD) to 1.25m GSD (one fourth), we achieved improved geolocation accuracy then matching GCP chips at the original images (5m GSD).


Purpose: The aim of the review is to analyze the available investment applications that can be downloaded by Google or Apple in terms of available functionality. Design/methodology/approach: Correlation and regression analyses were carried out on the obtained data. Next, aspects of the application that most often appear in reviews were distinguished and sentiment analysis was carried out. Findings: The results obtained indicate an extremely important share of the specified functionalities of the application in its global evaluation, and allow for the presentation of specified aspects both in terms of sentiment and evaluation of the application. Practical Implications: The results of the study could be useful for developers and consumers of financial applications. For the first, the analyses carried out can point to directions of development that are particularly relevant. For the recipients, it is important to indicate the wide range of possibilities offered by the applications. Originality/Value: The obtained results indicate the importance of analyzing individual application functionalities in order to understand the complexity of the problem of application evaluation in popular websites.


GiGaNT is a new INL initiative which sets out to develop a computational lexicon (lexical database) covering 16 centuries of Dutch language. This means that all lexical data of the dictionaries, corpora and computational lexica of the Institute for Dutch Lexicology (INL) will be stored into a central database, functioning both as computational lexicon and central infrastructure for the maintenance of lexical data. Dictionaries, corpora and this computational lexicon are all part of the Dutch Language Bank (DLB). The immediate incentive to develop GiGaNT was the need for a diachronic computational lexicon, to serve both as a link between texts and dictionaries in the DLB and as a solid infrastructure for other, similar lexical data at the INL. The GiGaNT lexicon will be used for text or corpus annotation, facilitating the retrieval and investigation of the annotated texts. Integration of existing material into GiGaNT and its subsequent adaptation to enable it to function within computational applications will be a huge step towards another aim: the systematic screening of the complete Dutch word stock for 'gaps' in lexicographic description. This applies to both neologisms and hitherto undescribed historical words. Users will benefit from the possibility to link from word forms in running text to lexicographical definitions in the INL dictionaries. Researchers, who now only have access to separate collections, will benefit as well: in the future they will have one single starting point for their searches and one single basis from which to develop new lexical material. GiGaNT will also give expert users better access to the lexical data maintained by the INL. The infrastructure will function as a database which will be accessible to API's and as a 'service' that enables researchers to compare their data with GiGaNT and eventually to contribute their own material to GiGaNT.


Introduction: Drug resistance to Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tuberculosis) especially multi drug resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) has become a serious public health problem in China and worldwide. We retrospectively analysed the Drug Susceptibility Testing (DST) of 4 Tuberculosis (TB) drugs in 10 years, and provide reference for the prevention and treatment of tuberculosis.
Methods: 10856 strains were isolated from specimen of TB patients during 2006-2015 at our hospital; the liquid culture method was used for DST of 4 drugs-Streptomycin (S), Isoniazid (I), Rifampin (R) and Ethambutol (E). Analysis was performed for monodrug, polydrug and multi drug susceptibility testing.
Results: The total drug resistance rate was 33.92% (3682/10856); the total monodrug resistance rate was 13.38% (1452/10856); the total Polydrug Resistant (PDR) rate was 7.88% (855/10856) and the total Multidrug Resistant (MDR) rate was 12.68% (1375/10856). The single drug resistance resistant rate of Isoniazid (I) was higher than the other 3 anti-tuberculosis drugs every year. The single and multi-drug resistant rates to ethambutol were low. The Multidrug Resistance (MDR-TB) rate was higher in local region than national average.
Conclusion: Adjust the treatment plan of tuberculosis, strengthen the supervision and management are very necessary to control tuberculosis. More effective measures are still needed to curb the outbreaks and the recurrence rate of MDR-TB.


[Extract] Mangroves and intertidal habitats represent the interface between aquatic and terrestrial environments (Macnae 1966). Characteristic assemblages of vertebrate fauna derived from both these sources utilise a wide variety of different habitats within these coastal areas, though few species become specialised to the use any one terrestrial environment (e.g. mangroves) as primary habitat (Hutchings and Saenger 1987). Though mangroves are a notable and prominent habitat type in northern tropical coastal zones, mosaics of mudflats, seagrasses, salt-marsh, beach dunes, woodlands and closed forest habitats generally the norm. As a consequence, diverse fauna communities representing terrestrial and aquatic life-histories are supported in these environments, representing a variety of vertebrate fauna taxa (Hutchings and Saenger 1987; Kutt 1997). Given the general significance of mangal mosaics as a coastal habitat in Australia (Galloway 1982) and the biological interest in these communities (see Clough 1882 and Field and Dartnell 1987), examination of the vertebrate fauna of these habitats is very poor (Hutchings and Recher 1982), with the exception of sea and shore-birds (Hutchings and Saenger 1987).

In Australia there is estimated to be approximately 11,600 km2 of mangroves; second only to Indonesia in southeast Asia/Australasia (Galloway 1982). Australian mangrove ecosystems are, according to Davie (1987) "very significant because, with minor and localised exceptions, they are not being destructively exploited". Australian mangroves have their greatest plant species richness in north-eastern Queensland, with about 25 mangrove species in the Hinchinbrook to Cairns area, and 28 species north of the Daintree River (Davie 1987; Hutchings and Saenger 1987; Lovelock 1993). The diversity and extent of mangroves in northern Australia is not surprising given the belief that mangroves are thought to have evolved and originated in northern or western Australia (Mepham 1983).

The basic driving force behind estuarine ecosystems is the primary productivity contributed by riparian, wetland, salt marsh, mangroves and seagrasses communities. This productivity, based on plant detritus and benthic microflora and intertidal crustaceans, provides the cornerstone of energy pathways or food webs that support the vertebrate fauna assemblages at higher trophic levels (TIMP 1992). There are two stages where productivity enters an ecosystems: from a primary source, where photosynthesis converts radiant energy into plant material, and from a secondary source, where the plant material is converted by chains of organisms to higher trophic levels in the food web (TIMP 1992). The majority of productivity in estuarine wetlands is contributed by mangroves, seagrass beds and saltmarshes (Hutchings and Saenger 1987). The remainder is provided by phytoplankton, benthic diatoms and benthic and epithetic algae within the estuarine and nearshore waters (Hutchings and Saenger 1987). It has also been suggested that chemotrophs, active in the anaerobic high organic content muds fringing mangrove and seagrass areas, enrich the productivity of these environments. Terrestrial sources, such as beach dune shrublands and woodlands, would also ontribute plant and detritus (Hutchings and Saenger 1987).

Estuarine energy systems follow a general pattern: particulate organic matter (mangrove litter, microflora, phytoplankton, seagrasses, epiphytic algae) is consumed by microbes (bacteria), vertebrates (dugongs, green turtles, fish) and macro and microinvertebrates (polychaetes, gastropods, crustaceans, larvae), which in turn are consumed by predatory animals at higher trophic levels (polychaetes, crabs, fish, wading birds, crocodiles). Primary and secondary productivity or energy can be exported out of the estuarine systems by migration of animals and tidal flushing (Hutchings and Saenger 1987).


Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is a global bacterial scourge that has become resistant to many classes of antibiotics, and treatment options for MRSA infections are limited. The cause of MRSA resistance to all commercially available beta-lactam antibiotics is the acquisition of the gene mecA, which encodes penicillin-binding protein 2a (PBP 2a). PBP 2a is a transpeptidase, which in contrast to the other transpeptidases of S. aureus does not experience inhibition by beta-lactam antibiotics. The lack of inhibition is due to a closed conformation for the active site for PBP 2a, which opens up only in the course of the catalytic function of the protein. Here we show that two new anti-MRSA antibiotics now undergoing clinical trials, ceftaroline and ME1036, are able to inhibit PBP 2a effectively, a process that is enhanced in the presence of a cell wall structural surrogate. It is likely that in the course of bacterial growth the occupancy of the allosteric site for the cell wall is co-opted by these antibiotics, and under these conditions the second-order rate constant for the encounter of the antibiotic and PBP 2a approaches the clinically useful value of 10(4)-10(5) M-1 s-1. These compounds are potent inhibitors of PBP 2a as well as PBPs from other species, and have potential as therapeutic agents for treatment of serious infections by MRSA and other resistant bacterial pathogens.


Survey researchers conducting pretesting via cognitive interviews or focus groups often use vignettes to evaluate questions and answer categories in order to identify possible measurement problems, particularly for reporting situations that are relatively rare or for sensitive topics. Although research has compared the performance of vignettes in Spanish and Asian languages in cognitive interviews, there is little research that compares the performance of vignettes across pretesting methodologies in languages other than English. To address this gap, we investigated the performance of a vignette about a homeownership question that was administered in focus groups and cognitive interviews conducted in seven languages: English, Spanish, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Russian, and Arabic. We coded the cognitive interviews and focus group summaries to quantify the responses and the types of comprehension problems respondents had, and we compared the vignette response data from cognitive interviews to the data from focus groups, by language. We find that administering the vignette in cognitive interviews was more effective than administering the vignette in focus groups for uncovering difficulties respondents had with the survey question, particularly for Spanish- and Arabic-speakers. We conclude that using vignettes in focus groups without cognitive interviews may not reveal problems with survey questions as effectively. Regardless of methodology, the vignette task was challenging for certain language groups, and further research is needed on the cross-cultural adaptation of vignettes.


This research advances the current knowledge of tourism expenditure by adapting a new analytical approach to understand expenditure differentials along their conditional distributions, based on multiple segmentation criteria. Using data from survey and secondary sources, we approximate tourists' required utilities via prosperity at their countries of residence, a macro-level criterion, and individual-travel aspirations, a micro-level criterion. Subsequently, expenditure differentials between more and less prosperous/aspired tourists are decomposed into two components. First, group differences in expenditure covariates that represent tourists' relative consumption behaviors and, second, differences in the estimated returns to those covariates, measuring potential third-degree price discrimination. Our results guide policy makers in the tourism industry to develop pricing strategies capable of generating mark-ups within all viable segmentations.


The convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture is increasingly being applied to new domains, such as malware detection, where it is able to learn malicious behavior from raw bytes extracted from executables. These architectures reach impressive performance with no feature engineering effort involved, but their robustness against active attackers is yet to be understood. Such malware detectors could face a new attack vector in the form of adversarial interference with the classification model. Existing evasion attacks intended to cause misclassification on test-time instances, which have been extensively studied for image classifiers, are not applicable because of the input semantics that prevents arbitrary changes to the binaries. This paper explores the area of adversarial examples for malware detection. By training an existing model on a production-scale dataset, we show that some previous attacks are less effective than initially reported, while simultaneously highlighting architectural weaknesses that facilitate new attack strategies for malware classification. Finally, we explore how generalizable different attack strategies are, the trade-offs when aiming to increase their effectiveness, and the transferability of single-step attacks.


In the past, researchers have developed a number of popular taint-analysis approaches, particularly in the context of Android applications. Numerous studies have shown that automated code analyses are adopted by developers only if they yield a good "signal to noise ratio", i.e., high precision. Many previous studies have reported analysis precision quantitatively, but this gives little insight into what can and should be done to increase precision further. To guide future research on increasing precision, we present a comprehensive study that evaluates static Android taint-analysis results on a qualitative level. To unravel the exact nature of taint flows, we have designed COVA, an analysis tool to compute partial path constraints that inform about the circumstances under which taint flows may actually occur in practice. We have conducted a qualitative study on the taint flows reported by FlowDroid in 1,022 real-world Android applications. Our results reveal several key findings: Many taint flows occur only under specific conditions, e.g., environment settings, user interaction, I/O. Taint analyses should consider the application context to discern such situations. COVA shows that few taint flows are guarded by multiple different kinds of conditions simultaneously, so tools that seek to confirm true positives dynamically can concentrate on one kind at a time, e.g., only simulating user interactions. Lastly, many false positives arise due to a too liberal source/sink configuration. Taint analyses must be more carefully configured, and their configuration could benefit from better tool assistance.


Upon its release in February 2015, Sam Taylor-Johnson's Fifty Shades of Grey met with vehement critical derision, finding itself reproached on both artistic and ideological grounds. While the precise focus of this indignation varied between reviews, complaints broadly fell into three categories: (1) it isn't titillating enough (2) it
is misogynistic, and (3) the love story and characters are cliched and unrealistic.

In this article, however, I demonstrate that the film is far more sophisticated than it has been given credit for. Each of these 'failings', I argue, is in fact a symptom of its unconventional identificatory strategy, whereby the film aligns the spectator with Ana's (Dakota Johnson) subjectivity and invites us to share in her
fluctuating and often contradictory emotions. Seen from this perspective, for example, Christian's (Jamie Dornan) misogyny becomes the central problem to be resisted and tackled, not an ideological position that we are unproblematically asked to accept.

I combine my analysis of the film's 'difficult' identificatory strategy with an exploration of its critical reception, in order to open up a discussion of how and why critics negotiated these ostensibly negative emotions. Doing so, I argue, requires a considerable amount of interpretive labour, especially in the context of the
film's widespread critical dismissal, but also because of the complex way in which the movie uses irony both to distance and engage the spectator (cf. Sconce 2002; Plantinga 2009; Lubecker 2015). I argue that the result of these contradictions and ambiguities is that it is often difficult to know how one is supposed to feel towards
these two characters and their relationship at any one time.

Ultimately, the article is an exploration of the interpretive processes involved in taking pleasure from a 'difficult', ambiguous and often contradictory film.


Studies of corporate governance traditionally focus on the governance problems of large publicly held firms, and policymakers' recommendations often focus on such firms. However most small firms, and in many countries, even many large companies, are non-listed. This book provides a comprehensive account of non-listed businesses and their particular governance problems. It explores current discussions and reforms in Europe, the United States, and Asia providing a state of the art account of the law and the economics. Non-listed firms encompass a vast range, from corporations with the potential to go public through family-owned firms, group-owned firms, private equity and hedge funds, to joint ventures and unlisted mass-privatized corporations with a relatively high number of shareholders. The governance of non-listed companies has traditionally been concerned with protecting investors and creditors from managerial opportunism. However, the virtual elimination of the distinction between partnerships and corporations means that an effective legal governance framework must also offer mechanisms to protect shareholders from the misconduct of other shareholders. This volume examines policy and economic measurements to develop a framework for understanding what constitutes good governance in non-listed companies. The authors examine how control is gained and explore the mechanisms that contribute to the development of a modern and efficient governance framework. The book concludes with an exploration of how the closely held firm is likely to stimulate growth and extend innovation and development.


To compare the extent to which (a) amount versus adequacy of received support and (b) support provision versus solicitation behaviors predict marital satisfaction, married couples from the United States (N= 275) provided perceptions of received support and participated in 2 support transactions. Actor–partner interdependence modeling and structural equation modeling techniques were employed. Husbands' perceptions of support adequacy predicted marital satisfaction more than their perceptions of support amount, whereas the results were generally the opposite for wives. Husbands' provision and wives' solicitation behaviors predicted marital satisfaction. Results suggest the need to move beyond simple counts of support received to examining support adequacy—and the various behaviors and roles involved in supportive transactions—to enhance theories of support and relationship functioning.


In order to achieve the digital management of null-pollution agricultural products certification and by adopting techniques such as Web Service, distributed database and workflow, this essay has completed the design and development of the system based on the J2EE platform. It includes certification data service subsystem, declare subsystem and certification workflow management subsystem. This system can highly automize and standardize the key link of origin and product certification such as the review of filing materials, site inspection and environment detection. It can automatically generate filing materials, inspection report and evaluation report. It has the function of sending documents among certification management departments at various levels and storing them respectively. This system has speed up the agricultural products origin and product certification integration process and realized standardized and digitalized management of certification work.


Generalized differential quadrature (GDQ) method is used to analyze the vibration of sandwich beams with different boundary conditions. The equations of motion of the sandwich beam are derived using higher-order sandwich panel theory (HSAPT). Seven partial differential equations of motions are obtained through the use of Hamilton's principle. The GDQ method is utilized to solve the equations of motion. Experiments are conducted to validate the proposed theory. The results from the analytical model are also compared to those from the literature and finite element method (FEM). Parametric studies are conducted to investigate the effects of different parameters on the natural frequency and response of the sandwich beam under various boundary conditions.


We report a two-stage mechanism of formation of the two-dimensional surperlattices in colloidal gold nanoparticles. The first stage is the formation and growth of holes. When the film is thinner than the "pancake" thickness and because the solvent volatility holes nucleate and grow, the dry solid surface is exposed. The second stage corresponds to the reorganization of the colloids in the impacted areas between several holes, in which the particles gathering along the rims order due to the van der Waals-type attraction between colloids and the confinement by the length of dodecanethiol. Then at a compromised distance and perfect position giving the minimum free energy, ordering occurs in small domains along the boundary of the hole. When the ordered domains become closer because of the hole growth, they rotate at certain angles and the further ordering appears.


The purpose of this study is to verify the feasibility of Urban Regeneration as a policy objective through the evaluation of Urban Growth Stage in the circumstances where all South Korean cities focus on Urban Regeneration. In addition, this study aims to draw policy implications for urban regeneration and urban development considering urban growth stage. At first, the existing techniques for evaluating urban growth stages are examined, and Differential Urbanization Model(D.U.M) and Cyclic Urbanization Model(C.U.M.) which utilize population indicators are selected as it is possible to consider inter-urban linkages and to evaluated urban growth stage on macro and micro level. Next, those selected models are used for evaluating the urban growth stages of the five metropolitan cities(of the nation)-Seoul, Busan, Gwangju, Daegu, Daejeon. The evaluation of urban growth stage was carried out on the macro level first which consider the inter-urban linkages and then micro level which consider intra-urban linkages. Finally, this study summarizes the research findings and draws policy implications for urban regeneration and urban development considering urban growth stage. The findings are as follows: First the metropolitan cities differ in urban growth stages. Second, it is difficult to say that the urban regeneration policies are appropriate for all the metropolitan cities. This study is significant in that it verified which and when a city needs urban regeneration in more objective way.


Staff members and residents of nursing homes and old people's homes were interviewed about the facilities and provision of oral health care. Clinical examinations were performed to obtain data about the oral health status of the institutionalised elderly. Results show that in most cases the oral health care facilities were insufficient to give care to persons with natural teeth. Of the edentulous elderly 43% reported that the retention of the lower denture was insufficient.


Comprehensive changes in Russian education are aimed at meeting the requirements of the modern economy and society. At the same time, the main vector in this area is the coordination of the content and component composition of professional training with the demands of the labor market and with the urgent need to increase the availability of high-quality educational services. Public experience demonstrates that objective reality makes significant adjustments to the professional training and education. Therefore, teachers should acknowledge and reflect in their professional activities all the new requirements presented by society in a timely manner. In the context of professional education, intensive search is carried out for adequate forms and methods to improve the effectiveness of education. In this regard, the practical value of simulation methods and technologies, aimed at revealing the creative potential of a future specialist, their individual and professional properties and the ability to function successfully in the new economic conditions, is increasing. Educational technologies as mechanisms for the joint activity of the teacher and students are aimed at the development of certain skills and abilities, as well as personal and professional development. The teacher should correctly apply educational technologies and methods to provide quality training for competent professionals. The variety of these methods is proposed to encourage intrinsic motivation, a lively interest of students in learning and self-development. The competencies of a qualified specialist and the criteria that he/she must meet have become the basis for creating a generalized concept of a professional. Along with the individual properties of the student, the foundation of the concept is knowledge and skills in the areas provided by the general and special components of the Federal State Educational Standards. In the framework of professional education, the main place in the educational process should be occupied by active educational technologies and methods, focused on intensifying the cognitive activities of students, supporting creative initiative and abilities and development of intellectual needs.


Objective Obesity and binge eating disorder have been suggested to be associated with impulsivity and disruption on the cortico-striatal brain network. Here we aimed to examine global network structure in resting state brain of obese subjects with and without binge eating disorder (BED) compared to healthy controls. Method Multi-echo resting state BOLD fMRI scans were taken from 42 obese subjects (including 21 patients with BED; BMI >30) and 42 age-matched healthy controls in normal range of BMI for 10 minutes using 3T Siemens MRI scanner. Non-BOLD noises in the resting stat fMRI data was removed using Multi-Echo Independent Component Analysis (ME-ICA) pipeline, and functional connectivity in 90 ROIs of the Anatomical Automatic Labeling template was estimated using zero-lag cross-correlation. The functional connectivity weights were binarized with the density threshold (5–30%) and complex network properties such as local and global efficiency, assortativity and modularity was computed. Results Both obese subjects with and without binge eating disorder were significantly different from healthy controls in normal BMI ranges in complex brain network properties, but did not differ from each other. Both obsese groups are collapsed in the subsequent analysis and compared to healthy controls. Obese subjects were significantly reduced local and global efficiency compared to healthy controls, implying disrupted small-world network properties in brain networks of obese subjects. Modularity of resting state brain network was also decreased in obese subjects. Among regions of a priori interests, bilateral putamen exhibited reduced functional connections (degree) and local efficiency in obese subjects. Local efficiency was also deceased in bilateral insula in low density network (<15% density). Right caudate and putamen showed increased betweeness-centrality in obese subjects, implying their augmented role as connecting hubs in the resting state brain network. In Region-to-Region functional connectivity, obese subjects exhibited reduced functional connectivity in the putamen, pallidum, thalamus and caudate. Conclusion Small-world and modular structure of resting state brain network was disrupted in obese subjects compared to healthy subjects, suggesting less functional segregation and integration in their brains. Disrupted cortico-striatal network is implicated in these global change of resting state brain in obese subjects.


A selection of materials to empower people to move beyond simply not being overtly racist, and into active anti-racism work.


An image-based visual servo control is presented for an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) capable of stationary or quasi-stationary flight with the camera mounted onboard the vehicle. The target considered consists of a finite set of stationary and disjoint points lying in a plane. Control of the position and orientation dynamics is decoupled using a visual error based on spherical centroid data, along with estimations of the linear velocity and the gravitational inertial direction extracted from image features and an embedded inertial measurement unit. The visual error used compensates for poor conditioning of the image Jacobian matrix by introducing a nonhomogeneous gain term adapted to the visual sensitivity of the error measurements. A nonlinear controller, that ensures exponential convergence of the system considered, is derived for the full dynamics of the system using control Lyapunov function design techniques. Experimental results on a quadrotor UAV, developed by the French Atomic Energy Commission, demonstrate the robustness and performance of the proposed control strategy.


Italy has suffered severe depopulation of its mountains over the past six decades. National and European environmental legislation has been aiming to arrest depopulation by promoting local economic development as well as nature conservation. Cultural and social struggles remain between managers of the protected areas and local populations. By exploring the conflict in the Parco Nazionale dei Monti Sibillini, a protected area in the Central Apennines, this work reveals how professional ecologists seem to conceive a universalistic form of possession and management of nature that excludes local traditional uses and knowledge. The needs and expectations of the local communities are overlooked and the bureaucratized forms of nature protection, in addition to the continuous, strenuous political negotiations between the park and the local administrations, tend to nourish feelings of disillusion and hostility towards the park. Perhaps, the time has come to affirm a principle of democracy of knowledge and the need for a participative political ecology. Key words: European protected areas; mountain areas; depopulation; community; agriculture.


Next-generation wireless systems are envisioned to have an IP-based infrastructure with the support of heterogeneous access technologies. One of the research challenges for next generation all-IP-based wireless systems is the design of intelligent mobility management techniques that take advantage of IP-based technologies to achieve global roaming among various access technologies. Next-generation wireless systems call for the integration and interoperation of mobility management techniques in heterogeneous networks. In this article the current state of the art for mobility management in next generation all-IP-based wireless systems is presented. The previously proposed solutions based on different layers are reviewed, and their qualitative comparisons are given. A new wireless network architecture for mobility management is introduced, and related open research issues are discussed in detail.


Subjects admitted 12 months or more previously to two child and adolescent psychiatric units in New Zealand and the United States with a diagnosis of nonorganic, nonautistic psychosis, were contacted and those who received a DSM-III-R diagnosis of schizophrenia were studied (« = 33 [New Zealand] and n = 24 [United States]). Premorbid and first-episode data were obtained from the admission record using global clinical measures of moderate reliability, outcome diagnosis and status by interviews, and professional and family reports. Mean ages at onset were 13.9 (New Zealand) and 15.6 (United States). Premorbid and clinical features resembled those in adult schizophrenia, though there were probable quantitative differences. At outcome (mean interval = 4 years) few subjects were symptom-free or independent, and mean global assessment of functioning had fallen from 55 to 40. Outcome was much worse in schizophrenia than bipolar disorder. Despite a 59 percent attrition rate and higher rates of initial misdiagnosis in the United States, and some demographic differences, New Zealand and United States samples resembled each other clinically and in outcome. Initial misdiagnosis of bipolar disorder as schizophrenia was not due to minimizing mood symptoms, which were common in both disorders. Within this age range (mostly 11-17), age at onset had only minor effects. Outcome was best predicted by premorbid personality.


Aim: To evaluate the safety and efficacy of lamotrigine monotherapy as an acute treatment of bipolar mood elevation in children with bipolar spectrum disorders. Method: This was a 12‐week, open‐label, prospective trial of lamotrigine monotherapy to assess the effectiveness and tolerability of this compound in treating pediatric bipolar disorder. Assessments included the Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS), Clinical Global Impressions‐Improvement scale (CGI‐I), Children's Depression Rating Scale (CDRS), and Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS). Adverse events were assessed through spontaneous self‐reports, vital signs weight monitoring, and laboratory analysis. Results: Thirty‐nine children with bipolar disorder (YMRS at entry: 31.6 ± 5.5) were enrolled in the study and 22 (56%) completed the 12‐week trial. Lamotrigine was slowly titrated to an average endpoint dose of 160.7 ± 128.3 in subjects <12 years of age (N = 22) and 219.1 ± 172.2 mg/day in children 12–17 years of age (N = 17). Treatment with lamotrigine was associated with statistically significant levels of improvement in mean YMRS scores (−14.9 ± 9.7, P < 0.001) at endpoint. Lamotrigine treatment also resulted in significant improvement in the severity of depressive, attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), and psychotic symptoms. Lamotrigine was generally well tolerated with marginal increase in body weight (47.0 ± 18.0 kg vs. 47.2 ± 17.9 kg, P= 0.6) and was not associated with abnormal changes in laboratory parameters. Several participants were discontinued due to skin rash; in all cases, the rash resolved shortly after discontinuation of treatment. No patient developed Steven Johnson syndrome. Conclusions: Open‐label lamotrigine treatment appears to be beneficial in the treatment of bipolar disorder and associated conditions in children. Future placebo‐controlled, double‐blind studies are warranted to confirm these findings.


Artificial neural networks are comprised of an interconnected collection of certain nonlinear devices; examples of commonly used devices include linear threshold elements, sigmoidal elements, and radial-basis elements. We employ results from harmonic analysis and the theory of rational approximation to obtain almost tight lower bounds on the size (i.e., number of elements) of neural networks. The class of neural networks to which our techniques can be applied is quite general it includes any feedforward network in which each element can be piecewise approximated by a low degree rational function. For example, we prove that any depth-d+1 network of sigmoidal units or linear threshold elements computing the parity function of n variables must have R(dn/sup 1//d-/spl epsiv/) size, for any fixed /spl epsiv/>0. In addition, we prove that this lower bound is almost tight by showing that the parity function can be computed with O(dn/sup 1/d/) sigmoidal units or linear threshold elements in a depth-(d+1) network. These almost tight bounds are the first known complexity results on the size of neural networks with depth more than two. Our lower bound techniques yield a unified approach to the complexity analysis of various models of neural networks with feedforward structures. Moreover, our results indicate that the in the context of computing highly oscillating symmetric Boolean functions, networks of continuous-output units such as sigmoidal elements do not offer significant reduction in size compared with networks of linear threshold elements of binary outputs. >


Our purpose was to verify the effects of the use of the anchors on postural control after the fatigue of the plantar flexor muscles in young and older adults. They stood barefoot, with their eyes closed in four conditions combining the use of the anchors and the fatigue. When using the anchors, participants held one cable in each hand and kept the cable taut without removing the loads (125 g) from the ground. The fatigue protocol consisted of performing a single series of bilateral plantar flexion movements. The fatigue protocol increased postural sway in both groups. Both groups reduced postural sway with the anchors, but this effect was independent of fatigue. We conclude that the anchors contributed to the reduction of postural sway in young and older adults, but they were unable to compensate for the disturbing effect in postural control created by fatigue of the plantar flexor muscles.


The p53 oncosuppressor protein regulates cell cycle checkpoints and apoptosis, but increasing evidence also indicates its involvement in differentiation and development. We had previously demonstrated that in the presence of differentiation-promoting stimuli, p53-defective myoblasts exit from the cell cycle but do not differentiate into myocytes and myotubes. To identify the pathways through which p53 contributes to skeletal muscle differentiation, we have analyzed the expression of a series of genes regulated during myogenesis in parental and dominant–negative p53 (dnp53)-expressing C2C12 myoblasts. We found that in dnp53-expressing C2C12 cells, as well as in p53−/− primary myoblasts, pRb is hypophosphorylated and proliferation stops. However, these cells do not upregulate pRb and have reduced MyoD activity. The transduction of exogenous TP53 or Rb genes in p53-defective myoblasts rescues MyoD activity and differentiation potential. Additionally, in vivo studies on the Rb promoter demonstrate that p53 regulates the Rb gene expression at transcriptional level through a p53-binding site. Therefore, here we show that p53 regulates myoblast differentiation by means of pRb without affecting its cell cycle–related functions.


This article considers the immense task faced by those compiling the Valukas Report into the fall of Lehman Brothers. The report published in March 2010 gave a valuable insight into the collapse, examining the potential liability of senior figures both inside and outside Lehman Brothers. Of particular interest in the report were the techniques and methodology used by the investigators in the examination of electronically stored data. The article considers the context of the report, in particular the collapse of Lehman Brother and the aftermath. It explores the findings of the report and then considers how the investigators researched the huge quantity of electronic information. Finally, the article considers the significance of the report for the industry and in terms of broader issues of regulation and governance.


Parallel search algorithms harness the multithreading capability of modern processors to achieve faster planning. One such algorithm is PA*SE (Parallel A* for Slow Expansions), which parallelizes state expansions to achieve faster planning in domains where state expansions are slow. In this work, we propose ePA*SE (Edge-Based Parallel A* for Slow Evaluations) that improves on PA*SE by parallelizing edge evaluations instead of state expansions. This makes ePA*SE more efficient in domains where edge evaluations are expensive and need varying amounts of computational effort, which is often the case in robotics. On the theoretical front, we show that ePA*SE provides rigorous optimality guarantees. In addition, ePA*SE can be trivially extended to handle an inflation weight on the heuristic resulting in a bounded suboptimal algorithm w-ePA*SE (Weighted ePA*SE) that trades off optimality for faster planning. On the experimental front, we validate the proposed algorithm in two different planning domains: 1) motion planning for 3D humanoid navigation and 2) task and motion planning for a dual-arm robotic assembly task. We show that ePA*SE can be significantly more efficient than PA*SE and other alternatives. The open-source code for ePA*SE along with the baselines is available here: https://github.com/shohinm/parallel_search


The characteristics of two types of leaky modes on the asymmetric three-layered dielectric slab waveguide are fully investigated by solving the eigenvalue equation numerically. Loci of propagation constants and field distributions are presented and the effects of asymmetry on the propagation characteristics are discussed. It is found that the characteristics of substrate leaky modes are quite different from those of air leaky modes, and that the attenuation constants of substrate leaky modes become extremely small as the asymmetry becomes small.


Histone modification has emerged as a promising approach to cancer therapy. We explored the in vivo efficacy of a butyric acid derivative, pivaloyloxymethyl butyrate (AN-9), for the treatment of gliomas. Relative to control and single-modality treatments, the combination of AN-9 and radiation significantly inhibited tumor growth and prolonged time to failure in mice bearing glioma xenografts. The enhanced response to radiation was accompanied by inhibition of cellular proliferation and by increased phosphorylation of H2AX, implicating DNA double-strand breaks in the antineoplastic effects of AN-9 and radiation. The data suggest that AN-9 in combination with radiation may be an effective therapy for malignant gliomas.


Superparamagnetic iron oxide particles (AMI-25) were evaluated as a liver contrast agent in high-field MR imaging (1.5 T). 16 patients with up to 5 presumed focal liver lesions (liver metastases n = 8, HCC n = 5, Klatskin tumours n = 2, FNH n = 1) received 15 mumol Fe/kg BW intravenously and were examined via standard T1- and T2-weighted spin-echo sequences. Quantitative image analysis showed a post-contrast increase of the contrast-to-noise ratio (C/N) from 1.6 to 7.4 on SE 2,500/15 images (p < .05). However, C/N was in the same range on plain SE 2,500/90 scans. Blind evaluation by two independent readers revealed that AMI-25-enhanced images did not provide a significantly increased number of lesions. Two patients reported minor, self-limited side-effects (flush, back pain). We conclude that in contrast to reports at mid-field MR imagers, the use of AMI-25 at 1.5 T does not significantly improve the detection of focal liver lesions on conventional SE images.


There has been a recent swell of interest in the analysis of blog comments. However, much of the work focuses on detecting comment spam in the blogsphere. An important issue that has been neglected so far is the identification of diversionary comments. Diversionary comments are defined as comments that divert the topic from the original post. A possible purpose is to distract readers from the original topic and draw attention to a new topic. We categorize diversionary comments into five types based on our observations and propose an effective framework to identify and flag them. To the best of our knowledge, the problem of detecting diversionary comments has not been studied so far. We solve the problem in two different ways: (i) rank all comments in descending order of being diversionary and (ii) consider it as a classification problem. Our evaluation on 4,179 comments under 40 different blog posts from Digg and Reddit shows that the proposed method achieves the high mean average precision of 91.9% when the problem is considered as a ranking problem and 84.9% of F-measure as a classification problem. Sensitivity analysis indicates that the effectiveness of the method is stable under different parameter settings.


We have analyzed the first XMM-Newton, Swift, and archival ROSAT PSPC observations of the quasar LBQS 0102-2713. The object was selected from the ROSAT archive as being notable due to the steep soft X-ray photon index and due to the UV brightness based on Hubble Space Telescope and optical spectroscopic observations. The first XMM-Newton observations carried out in 2009 December and the first Swift observations from 2010 have confirmed the steepness of the soft X-ray photon index, which ranges between 3.35 and 4.41 for the different XMM-Newton and ROSAT detectors, the UV brightness of the source, and the absence of significant absorption by neutral hydrogen. The new data allow a combined spectral fitting to the Swift Ultra-Violet/Optical Telescope and the XMM-Newton/ROSAT data which results in a huge luminosity of (6.2 ± 0.2) × 1047 erg s−1 and αox values ranging between (−1.87 ± 0.11) and(−2.11 ± 0.12). The nature of the soft X-ray emission can be explained as local Comptonized emission of the UV disk photons in the pseudo-Newtonian potential. The black hole mass is estimated from the Mg ii line and translates into an Eddington ratio of L/Ledd = 18+33−12. For the dimensionless electron temperature of the plasma cloud θ = kTe/mec2 we derive an upper limit of about 10 keV.


Understanding how the spatial structure of blood vessel networks relates to their function in healthy and abnormal biological tissues could improve diagnosis and treatment for diseases such as cancer. New imaging techniques can generate multiple, high-resolution images of the same tissue region, and show how vessel networks evolve during disease onset and treatment. Such experimental advances have created an exciting opportunity for discovering new links between vessel structure and disease through the development of mathematical tools that can analyse these rich datasets. Here we explain how topological data analysis (TDA) can be used to study vessel network structures. TDA is a growing field in the mathematical and computational sciences, that consists of algorithmic methods for identifying global and multi-scale structures in high-dimensional data sets that may be noisy and incomplete. TDA has identified the effect of ageing on vessel networks in the brain and more recently proposed to study blood flow and stenosis. Here we present preliminary work which shows how TDA of spatial network structure can be used to characterise tumour vasculature.


The digital display interface for an ultra-high resolution flat panel (3200/spl times/2400-pixels) requires 16 Gb/s bandwidth; moreover, 20 Gb/s is required when using an 8B10B encoder to increase serial data transmission accuracy. Low power consumption and low cost are also essential for consumer applications. These requirements are supported by multi-channel transmission, such as four 5 Gb/s CMOS LSIs, which is an effective approach to achieving an aggregate bandwidth of 20 Gb/s. There are two system problems in developing a multi-channel transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) LSIs. One is the phase difference between multiple chips due to the data skew caused by differences between transmission cable lengths. The other is the frequency difference between the TX and RX system clocks. In response to these problems, we have developed compensation technology featuring the use of an elastic buffer for both the phase and frequency differences. Moreover, to achieve 6 Gb/s operation, a self-alignment phase detector with parallel output for a high-speed clock and data recovery circuit (CDR) and a 500 MHz fully pipelined 8B10B encoder are developed.


Robinson lists are adopted in many countries to protect phone subscribers against commercial spam calls. In its essence, they collect the denial of the subscribers to be contacted by marketing operators. Nowadays, all Robinson lists run as centralised services. Namely, citizens have to rely on trusted third parties for the management of their own choices. The Blockchain allows us to envision the development of a decentralised Robinson list in which citizens are finally empowered to autonomously manage their choices. In this paper, we present a proof-of-concept (PoC) of a decentralised Robinson list developed with the Algorand technology. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first attempt to implement a Robinson list on a blockchain technology. The PoC has been designed to support the requirements provided by Fondazione Ugo Bordoni, the manager of the Italian Robinson list. The evaluation of the PoC shows that our decentralised solution provides satisfactory performance, in terms of scalability, latency and costs, when compared to the current centralised service.


The ultrasound (US) screening of the infant hip is vital for the early diagnosis of developmental dysplasia of the hip (DDH). The US diagnosis of DDH refers to measuring alpha and beta angles that quantify hip joint development. These two angles are calculated from key anatomical landmarks and structures of the hip. However, this measurement process is not trivial for sonographers and usually requires a thorough understanding of complex anatomical structures. In this study, we propose a multi-task framework to learn the relationships among landmarks and structures jointly and automatically evaluate DDH. Our multi-task networks are equipped with three novel modules. Firstly, we adopt Mask R-CNN as the basic framework to detect and segment key anatomical structures and add one landmark detection branch to form a new multi-task framework. Secondly, we propose a novel shape similarity loss to refine the incomplete anatomical structure prediction robustly and accurately. Thirdly, we further incorporate the landmark-structure consistent prior to ensure the consistency of the bony rim estimated from the segmented structure and the detected landmark. In our experiments, 1231 US images of the infant hip from 632 patients are collected, of which 247 images from 126 patients are tested. The average errors in alpha and beta angles are 2.221${}^{\circ }$ and 2.899${}^{\circ }$. About 93% and 85% estimates of alpha and beta angles have errors less than 5 degrees, respectively. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can accurately and robustly realize the automatic evaluation of DDH, showing great potential for clinical application.


This paper reports a newly achieved best result on the common emitter current gain of 4H-SiC high power bipolar junction transistors (BJTs). A fabricated 1600 V – 15 A 4H-SiC power BJT with an active area of 1.7 mm2 shows a high DC current gain (b) of 70, when it conducts 9.8 A collector current at a base current of only 140 mA. The maximum AC current gain (DIC/DIB) is up to 78. This high performance BJT has an open base collector-to-emitter blocking voltage (VCEO) of over 1674 V with a leakage current of 1.6 μA, and a specific on-resistance (RSP-ON) of 5.1 mW.cm2 when it conducts 7.0 A (412 A/cm2) at a forward voltage drop of VCE = 2.1 V. A large area 4H-SiC BJT with a footprint of 4.1 mm x 4.1 mm has also shown a DC current gain over 50. These high-gain, high-voltage and high-current 4H-SiC BJTs further support a promising future for 4H-SiC BJT applications.


Examining oral history narratives of more than five hundred farmers from all the southern states, Melissa Walker explores how farmers recall their agrarian past and the lessons that they draw from that past. These farmers understood that their way of life was passing - indeed, many of them would be pushed off the land forever - and they told stories to preserve a sense that their way of life mattered. Landowners and sharecroppers, native-born farmers and immigrants, African Americans and whites, and men and women narrate the compelling story of how the rural South was modernized in the twentieth century. "Southern Farmers and Their Stories" tells the tale of southern rural transformation as it has never been told before - in the words of the farmers themselves.


Abstract The psychiatrists and health professionals who 'updated' the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders in 2013 changed how 'autism' is meant to be interpreted. For example, Asperger's disorder merged into an overall collective of 'autism spectrum disorders', rendering Asperger's non-existent as a separate disorder. Yet the terms 'Asperger's', 'autistic' and 'autism', in general, are used on a daily basis by people who have been diagnosed/labelled in this way over the course of their lives, or indeed are used by people to label others in stereotypical and prejudicial ways that leads to their marginalisation. With this thought in mind, the author briefly reflects on his own experiences of being labelled with 'Asperger's' or as being 'autistic' (a label he rejects), whilst thinking from a 'dis/human' perspective, a viewpoint that seeks to unpack and challenge the dominant concepts of what it means to be human in the twenty-first century. While it is difficult to avoid being labelled in ways that lead to discrimination and rejection, a dishuman perspective offers a viewpoint against the narrow versions of what it means to be human, relating to how disability can trouble the notion of what it means to be human and indeed inform the very meaning of what it means to be human.


Abstract This article describes a cultural mapping tool developed specifically for working with Aboriginal people experiencing mental health problems. The tool has broad scope, drawing from ecological and systems approaches. It will assist social workers to understand cultural and family obligations and build relationships with Aboriginal service users. Students learning about cultural diversity have expressed concern about asking culturally-sensitive questions. Australian human service workers typically state they feel inadequate in addressing Aboriginal culture in their practice approaches. The three components of the cultural mapping toolbox, (a) the social and emotional wellbeing cluster map, (b) the community and cultural diversity map, and (c) the migration map, provide social workers with a way of supporting a culturally connected lifestyle in contemporary society.


Vietnam is reported to be one of the most vulnerable countries to future climate change, particularly in relation to sea-level rise and extreme climatic events. Agricultural adaptation and mitigation will be crucial for maintaining food and fibre production. Areas in Central Vietnam are prone to flooding, particularly in the lowland rice production areas. This article presents a case study of how small-scale rice farmers in the lowland areas of Le Thuy district, Quang Binh province, have transitioned into a ratoon system, locally referred to as 're-generated rice', as a means of adapting to early flooding. While ratoon rice systems have been globally implemented, farmers in Le Thuy have adopted this system recently, based on their indigenous knowledge. The ratoon system was found to result in economic, social and environmental benefits for the surveyed households (N = 80), despite typically lower yields than the conventional system (approximately 70% of conventional). Through the sustainable livelihoods framework, findings show that the ratoon system is more economically efficient than the conventional and also allows farming households to spend more time on other income-generating, social or family activities, which is particularly important for balancing the gender division of labour. However, the new system tests the ability of the region to meet provincial level rice production targets, challenging conceptualizations of food security and livelihood security.


Two p-tert-butylcalix[4]arene derivatives bearing one or two nalidixic acid groups connected to the lower rim of p-tert-butylcalix[4]arene through the propylenic spacer were studied upon interaction with model bacterial membranes. Indeed, these derivatives were developed recently as new macrocyclic antibiotic carriers for antibacterial therapy. To obtain molecular level information about the interaction between the calixarene conjugates and a membrane lipid, atomistic molecular dynamics simulation, as well as surface pressure, surface potential, polarization modulation infrared reflection-absorption spectroscopy, and Brewster angle microscopy studies of 1,2-dimyristoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphoethanolamine (DMPE)-calixarene derivative films were performed. The results obtained indicate that the interaction between the calixarene derivatives and DMPE occurs via the phosphate and carbonyl groups present in the lipid. Although both calixarene derivatives increase the chain tilt and conformational disordering of the DMPE molecules, these effects are more important in the case of the monosubstituted derivative. Importantly, the two derivatives have an opposite impact on hydration of the phosphoglyceride polar head.


Recent innovations in real-time machine vision, distributed computing, software architectures, and encrypted high-speed networking are expanding the available technology for intelligent camera arrays on televiewing and interactive applications. In this paper we describe research aimed at the realization of a powerful televiewing system using arrays of omnidirectional cameras. The video arrays provide an interactive, real-time, multiresolution televiewing interface to multiple people including physical security and emergency response crews simultaneously. Security measures such as authentication and network encryption are implemented on multiple platforms. Fusion of high-resolution rectilinear image over the omnidirectional image is also carried out. Computer vision techniques based on motion analysis are used for detecting interesting events. The televiewing system is verified for the performance as well as physically tested on the Super Bowl 2003 event for crowd detection and traffic monitoring.


Human trafficking, also referred to as trafficking in persons, is a crime typically hidden within communities and societies. According to the U.S. Department of State, human trafficking involves recruiting, supplying, transporting, and/or obtaining persons for involuntary labor or repayment of debt by the use of coercion, force, or fraud. Human trafficking can include a wide variety of forced labor, including commercial sex work (prostitution, exotic dancing, and pornography), personal service (domestic or sexual servitude), forced labor in sweatshops, manual labor at agricultural or construction sites, forced employment in nail salons, and various jobs within the hotel and food service industries.


Lifetime enhancement has always been of crucial importance for energy constrained sensor network due to resource limitations of sensor nodes. The protocol play important roll, which can minimize the delay while offering high energy efficiency and long span of network lifetime. This paper concentrate on energy optimization by introducing a novel and an adaptive clustering algorithm that is fuzzy logic and mobile sink based. In this paper, a three- level fuzzy logic is utilized to evaluate the Priority of sensors to become a cluster head. In the first level, the qualified nodes are selected based on their residual-energy and density of them. Then, in the second level, nodes overall cooperation is considered in the whole network with three fuzzy parameters. These parameters are centrality, proximity to base station and distance be- tween cluster-heads. In the third level, the sink is move based on two parameters energy of cluster heads and distance of cluster heads to sink. This paper compares the result of this CFMTL approach to LEACH, Fuzzy, GA and FGA algorithms.


Carotenoid pigments of 14 white-fleshed sweet potatoes were found to consist of phytofluene, ζ-carotene, neurosporene, and, s-zeacarotene. These are precursors of beta-carotene, the principal carotenoid of normal orangefleshed sweet potatoes. Green color of cooked sweet potatoes was associated with an epoxide of the above carotenoids that is blue in acidic solution. Sweet potatoes that are yellow are milder in flavor than orange sweet potatoes, yet still are somewhat active as provitamin A.


Intrahepatic bile duct cells (cholangiocytes) play an important role in the secretion and alkalinization of bile. Both Na+/H+exchange (NHE) and Cl-/[Formula: see text]exchange (AE) contribute to these functions, but their functional distribution between the apical and basolateral membrane domains remains speculative. We have addressed this issue in a normal rat cholangiocyte cell line (NRC-1), which maintains a polarized distribution of membrane markers. Gene expression of AE and NHE isoforms was studied by RT-PCR. For functional studies, cells were placed in a chamber that allowed separate perfusion of the apical and basolateral aspect of the epithelial sheet; intracellular pH (pHi) was measured by 2',7'-bis(2-carboxyethyl)-5(6)-carboxyfluorescein microfluorometry. In[Formula: see text]-CO2free medium and in the presence of apical amiloride, pHi recovery from an acid load was Na+ dependent and was inhibited by basolateral amiloride and by HOE-642 (10 μM), consistent with basolateral localization of the NHE1 isoform, which had clearly expressed mRNA. Apical Na+readmission induced a slow pHirecovery that was inhibited by apical administration of 1 mM HOE-642 or amiloride. Among the apical NHE isoforms, NHE2 but not NHE3 gene expression was detected. The AE1 gene was not expressed, but two different variants of AE2 mRNAs (AE2a and AE2b) were detected; pHi experiments disclosed AE activities at both sides of the membrane, but only apical AE was activated by cAMP. In conclusion, these studies provide the first functional description of acid-base transporters in a polarized cholangiocyte cell line. NHE1, NHE2, AE2a, and AE2b isoforms are expressed and show different membrane polarity, functional properties, and sensitivity to inhibitors. These observations add a considerable level of complexity to current models of electrolyte transport in cholangiocytes.


Impulsive sound and vibration signals in gear system are often associated with their faults. Thus these impulsive sound and vibration signals can be used as indicators in condition monitoring of gear system. The traditional continuous wavelet transform has been used for detection of impulsive signals. However, it is often difficult for the continuous wavelet transform to identify spikes at high frequency and meshing frequencies at low frequency simultaneously since the continuous wavelet transform is to apply the linear scaling (a-dilation) to the mother wavelet. In this paper, the spike wavelet transform is developed to extract these impulsive sound and vibration signals. Since the spike wavelet transform is to apply the non-linear scaling, it has better time resolution at high frequency and frequency resolution at low frequency than that of the continuous wavelet transform respectively. The spike wavelet transform can be, therefore, used to detect fault position clearly without the loss of information for the damage of a gear system. The spike wavelet transform is successfully is applied to detection of the gear fault with tip breakage.