A common complication of endovascular repair of a thoracic or abdominal aortic aneurysm (TEVAR – EVAR) is an endoleak occurring in up to 30% of cases. Endoleak is defined as the persistence of blood flow outside the lumen of the endoprosthesis, but within the aneurysm sac and can be classified into 5 categories, depending on the blood flow into the aneurysm sac. Typical features of the different types of endoleaks are discussed as well as the imaging modalities to detect and classify an endoleak and the diverse (endovascular) treatment options.


The rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has directed substantial attention toward the use of bacteriophages as a means to control bacterial populations. It has been proposed that bacteriophages can be applied as a coating on surfaces in healthcare settings or on indwelling medical devices to create an antimicrobial surface. In this study, antimicrobial model surfaces functionalized with five different types of bacteriophage were prepared and characterized with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and atomic force microscopy. The bacterial capture efficiency of these functionalized surfaces was studied for two common bacteria, Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium. Binding of the phages to a solid surface affected their biofunctionality as expressed by the capture efficiency and rate of host membrane disruption. Moreover, the size and shape of the bacteriophage and positioning of its specific binding proteins significantly affected its bacterial capture capability in the immobilized state. Symmetric bacteriophages were found to be a better choice for antibacterial surfaces compared to more asymmetric tailed bacteriophages. Immobilized phages were found to disrupt the membranes of attached bacteria and are thus proposed as a candidate for antimicrobial surfaces.


Objective: Cell infection by HIV-1 is inhibited by both the expression of CD38 and a soluble peptide (sCD38p) corresponding to its extracellular membrane-proximal amino acid sequence (amino acids 51 – 74). We show here the effects of PEG conjugation to sCD38p and provide new insights into the mechanisms behind the anti-HIV-1 effects of CD38 and derived peptides. Research design/methods: In-vitro and in-silico study. Results: PEGylation of sCD38p increased its ability to inhibit replication of HIV-1 in MT-4 cells and syncytia formation in cocultures of MT-2 and persistently HIV-1IIIB-infected H9IIIB cells. In silico modeling suggests that sCD38p and CD4 form stable heterodimers involving, among others, an interaction between lysine 57 (K57) of CD38 and a groove in the CD4 receptor, which, in CD4/gp120 complexes, is partially occupied by a lysine residue of the HIV-1 envelope glycoprotein. K57 substitution with a glycine in sCD38p impaired its ability to inhibit syncytia formation in MT-2/H9IIIB cell cocultures and gp120 binding to CD4 in a mouse T cell line expressing human but not mouse CD4. Conclusions: PEGylation significantly improves the anti-HIV-1 activity of sCD38p, whose effect is probably due to competition with gp120 for a common binding site on CD4 although other mechanisms cannot be excluded so far. The inhibitory concentrations of the sCD38p-PEG as well as its poor toxicity, merit further consideration in anti-HIV-1 strategies.


Phenol is used in the industry as a starting material for chemical synthesis. This type of compounds can end up as pollutants in wastewater. In this research Photocatalytic degradation of phenol in aqueous solution was studied using synthesized TiO2 prepared by precipitation of TiCl4 solution. XRD and TEMtechniques used for characterization of the prepared sample and it is shown that prepared sample contain anatase phase TiO2 with average crystallite size of 10 nm. The effects of operating parameters such as catalyst dosage, pH of the solution and light intensity on photodegradation process were examined to achieve the optimum condition for degradation of phenol.


The Rhone River Prodelta: Short-Term (10 0 -10 3 Year) Sedimentation Patterns and Human Impact We compared various data sets obtained on the Rhone River delta and the adjacent land over the past 1000 years. Data sources were historical documentation and quantitative results. The period of the Rhone d'Ulmet (before 1300 y. A.D.) corresponds to the north-western position of the river mouth and to climatic and runoff variations of low magnitude. In the prodelta area, mottled muds are common and laminated muds were not observed due to the distance of collected data from the mouth. The "wild" Rhone period from 1587 to 1869 y. A.D. (Bras de Fer and Grand Rhone mouths) shows a dramatic extent (7-8 km distance) of laminated muds resulting from seasonal floods. Changes in climatic conditions probably modified the watershed and played a prominent part in the prodelta development. During this period, pedogenic ochre aggregates were reworked from swamp soils of the delta during channel migrations. In all our cores, the top of laminated muds coincides with the disappearance of the ochre aggregates. The Recent period of the Rhone channeling began with the 1869 rectification which fixed the main channel. The consequence was a drastic reduction of laminated muds to a 3-4 km proximal area off the stabilized mouth. With a decrease in flood supply and a longer time of exposure, we can observe a coarsening trend in the upper part of the cores as a result of repetitive reworking processes. The seasonal build-up of laminites is altered seaward: faintly laminated muds and mottled muds deposition shifted with increasing distance from the river mouth. Markers of the anthropogenic pollution, such as metallurgic microballs (Fe sulfides) and talc characterized the upper third of the cores. A variety of previous sedimentological data and 210 Pb and 137 Cs age estimates indicate very fast sediment accumulation rates in the proximal Rhone prodelta (30-40 cm y ) which would be regarded as apparent rates. Detailed investigation of the gravity cores located off the Rhone River mouth showed marked coarsening-upward trends (condensed section), clast deposition, and truncated structures that indicate the processes of sea floor erosion and reworking. On the distal Rhone prodelta, a thin recent veneer overlies the Holocene tract of the initial transgression and indicates a hiatus of ≈5-6000 y. Decreased discharge and reworking have been especially obvious since 1950, resulting from both the developing hydroelectric catchment and the decrease in winter rainfall.


So why do law schools place skills instruction below the dissemination of legal knowledge even though it is the practice of law that lawyers are engaged in doing and not just the mere knowing of it? Both should be equally significant. Although law teaching methodologies have shifted somewhat to accommodate the changing cognitive adaptations of the human mind in this age of digital technology, law instruction in classrooms still possess a deeply-rooted basis in legal formalist considerations of the law from the 19th century that displaces skills instruction for the advancement of the legal knowledge. Consequently, in order to further the image of the "Learned Profession" of lawyering, law schools have perpetuated a difficult dichotomy between knowledge and practice. As we move to identify the New Normal in legal education during this current crisis, that dichotomy plays a part in how we need to recalibrate law teaching in order to instill competency rather than propagating a formalist concept of legal education that isolates and depoliticizes law from practice. This Article, Function, Form, and Strawberries: Subverting Langdell, attempts to bring both the teaching of practice and knowledge on equal footing with each other to avoid student misconceptions of hierarchy that harbor larger professionalism issues. It offers a method for law teachers to incorporate skills teaching actively in the classroom in a way that legitimizes legal reasoning skills on par with the instruction of legal knowledge. In this way, the Article proposes a new normative in the "New Normal" of legal education: that there should be a continuous engagement with active learning that integrates skills into the doctrinal classroom in a seamless way. The law is a discipline that is brought to life by us and our students very much in part through its practice. We cannot ignore that aspect of this field, nor afford to do so.


The concept of vesicoureteral reflux (VUR) as a consequence of a congenital anomaly of the vesicoureteral junction have undergone changes owing to the finding that such children may have a lower urinary tract dysfunction, which produces a high intravesical pressure and consequently a predisposition for VUR. We investigated relationship of VUR and urodynamics. The urodynamics was investigated by pressure-flow-EMG study in 132 children with primary VUR and 162 refluxing units. Only 33 (25.0%) patients had normal urodynamic finding. The most frequent pathological finding was overactive bladder (OAB), found in 59 (44.7%) children, followed by dysfunctional voiding (DV) in 25 (18.9%) children. The children with VUR grades I and II had higher percentage of pathological urodynamic findings than children with VUR grades III and IV. OAB was more frequent in children under 5 years of age, with unilateral and lower grades VUR. It was found equaly in children with and without uroinfections. DV was more frequent in children older than 5 years, with bilateral VUR, higher grades VUR and uroinfections. The results of our study show that the children with VUR have high incidence of urodynamic disoders and indicate the possible role of urodynamic dysfunction in the pathogenesis of VUR, especially the mild ones. They also indicate the need for incorporating urodynamic investigation in the evaluation of children with VUR.


The mechanistic Monte Carlo modeling of biological effects of ionising radiation at sub-cellular and DNA scale requires the accurate simulation of track structures in the biological medium, commonly approximated as liquid water. The formalism of microdosimetry allows one to describe quantitatively the spatial distribution of energy deposition in the irradiated medium, which is known to relate to the deleterious effects in the irradiated cellular targets. The Geant4-DNA extension of the Geant4 open-source and general-purpose Monte Carlo simulation toolkit has been recently evaluated for the simulation of microdosimetry spectra, allowing, in particular, the calculation of lineal energy distributions. In this work, we extend the microdosimetric functionalities of Geant4-DNA by the development of a new Geant4-DNA example dedicated to the simulation of differential proximity functions. Simulation results are presented for the proximity function of electrons, protons, and alpha particles over a wide energy range using the different physical models of electron interactions available in Geant4-DNA. The influence of sub-excitation processes and electron tracking cut is discussed. Results are compared to literature data when available. As an example, a simple calculation of the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) in the context of the Theory of Dual Radiation Action using the present proximity functions yields up to a factor of 2 variation of the electron RBE in the energy range from 100 eV to 100 keV.The mechanistic Monte Carlo modeling of biological effects of ionising radiation at sub-cellular and DNA scale requires the accurate simulation of track structures in the biological medium, commonly approximated as liquid water. The formalism of microdosimetry allows one to describe quantitatively the spatial distribution of energy deposition in the irradiated medium, which is known to relate to the deleterious effects in the irradiated cellular targets. The Geant4-DNA extension of the Geant4 open-source and general-purpose Monte Carlo simulation toolkit has been recently evaluated for the simulation of microdosimetry spectra, allowing, in particular, the calculation of lineal energy distributions. In this work, we extend the microdosimetric functionalities of Geant4-DNA by the development of a new Geant4-DNA example dedicated to the simulation of differential proximity functions. Simulation results are presented for the proximity function of electrons, protons, and alpha particles over a wide energy rang...


The purpose of software defect prediction is to improve the quality of a software project by building a predictive model to decide whether a software module is or is not fault prone. In recent years, much research in using machine learning techniques in this topic has been performed. Our aim was to evaluate the performance of clustering techniques with feature selection schemes to address the problem of software defect prediction problem. We analyzed the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) dataset benchmarks using three clustering algorithms: (1) Farthest First, (2) X-Means, and (3) self-organizing map (SOM). In order to evaluate different feature selection algorithms, this article presents a comparative analysis involving software defects prediction based on Bat, Cuckoo, Grey Wolf Optimizer (GWO), and particle swarm optimizer (PSO). The results obtained with the proposed clustering models enabled us to build an efficient predictive model with a satisfactory detection rate and acceptable number of features.


............................................................................................................... ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ......................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................... iv LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................................... vii LIST OF TABLES ...................................................................................................... x


Detailed studies have been made for testing the drinking water quality of the Nalgonda district area in Hyderabad. In this study, twenty spots were selected and samples of water were collected from open wells and public wells and tube-wells in the area. The various parameters such as pH, total dissolved solids, total hardness and magnesium hardness, calcium hardness, alkalinity, chlorides, flourides, nitrates, sulphates, carbonates and bicarbonates etc. were determined. Fluorides contents are high in Nalgonda district causing flurosis present in villages of Kamaguda, Yedavalli and Yellareddyguda. The hygienic conditions are very poor and were monitored and compared with different standard parameters. The analysis revealed that the water is not suitable for domestic and drinking purpose. Water of almost all the sampling area were highly contaminated with total dissolved solids (TDS) and nitrate. Total dissolved solids may cause gastro intestinal irritations and high concentration of nitrate in drinking water gives an immediate health concern for infants and pregnant women because nitrate in drinking water has been linked to methamoglobinamea or blue baby syndrome, in which the oxygen carrying capacity of an infant blood is greatly reduced, sometimes leading to death. Fluoride also causes florosis, irregular patches of black pigmentation on teeth, exostoses of skull. The findings have been discussed here.


periods of high pollution. In an attempt to throw some light on this the opportunity has been taken to study a sample of adolescents now living in London who were born around the time of the disastrous London fog of December 1952. In the first phase of the study (1970-71) 800 subjects born in 1952 were seen at an average age of 184, then in the second phase (1971-72) a similar sample drawn from the same areas but born in 1953 was seen, again at age 184. The MRC questionnaire on respiratory symptoms was used, with additional questions on the home environment in early life, and measurements of FEV, FVC, and PEF were made. A preliminary analysis of the results has not revealed any consistent differences in respiratory symptoms or ventilatory capacity between subjects born before the London fog and present at the time, and those born just after it. Both groups were subjected to the high levels of pollution that existed in London throughout the 1950s, and the prevalence of respiratory symptoms is higher than has been reported from 'clean' areas. The results are also remarkably uniform with respect to areas of residence and social class of family, but the prevalence of respiratory symptoms is much higher in subjects who smoke than in those who do not, even though smoking histories are short.


The Paycheck Protection Program, or PPP, was huge. Between April 2020 and May 2021, it provided almost $800 billion to more than 11 million businesses—about a third of all U.S. businesses with 500 employees or fewer. The PPP was also flawed. Treasury and the Small Business Administration faced incomplete statutory instructions and a challenging tradeoff between speed and accuracy in distributing PPP funds.

These flaws make the PPP a realistic and valuable case study; the PPP reveals tools that can be applied to similar distributions of emergency funds. One tool is back-end adjustments, meaning that funds are first distributed and then later it is decided whether recipients may keep the money. Another tool is distribution in descending order of necessity, meaning that the first recipients to receive funds are applicants that most clearly meet the criteria of the program. A fund can follow distribution in descending order of necessity to disburse all of its funds. This approach is similar to a descending price auction for the sale of bonds or a stock of goods. Disbursing amounts in descending order of necessity also allows a fund to collect information needed to improve future distribution policy.


. This communication aims to present a cross-perspective – robotics, industrial engineering, sociology and ergonomics – research project experience dealing with development of collaborative robotics in SMEs. Our conviction is that Industry 4.0 must imply : (1) "departinionning" of disciplines involved in the design of work situations and (2) construction of hybrid approaches for understanding and transforming work. In this communication, we propose to relate such an experience on the basis of a research project - funded by the French National Agency for Reseach (ANR) , and focused on transformation of French Small and Middle Companies (SMC's) in relation to introduction of Collaborative Robotics. Collaborative Robotics is of particular interest for us as it embeds promises and pitfalls of articulation between technologies and work. However, these promises may be discussed and tempered by confronting them to actual design issues, work organization and transformation of work management.


Addition of the opioid peptides, [Leu]enkephalin and [Met]enkephalin, to isolated hepatocytes was shown to produce a stimulation of glycogenolysis comparable with that observed in the presence of maximal concentrations of glucagon, adrenaline or angiotensin. This stimulation was demonstrated to be the result of an activation of phosphorylase by a rapid Ca2+-dependent mechanism and was not decreased by the presence or either alpha- or beta-adrenergic antagonists, although it was dependent on the presence of the N-terminal tyrosine residue in the enkephalin molecule. It is suggested that this may be further evidence for specific opioid receptors in the liver. Addition of [Leu]enkephalin also inhibited lactate formation, indicating that the opioid peptides exert a concerted effect on hepatic carbohydrate metabolism to enhance glucose output. The transient nature of the effect of the enkephalins was shown to be the result of a rapid breakdown of the peptides in the incubation as a result of aminopeptidase activity, the initial product being the inactive des-tyrosine derivative.


A manufacturable, reliable, and high performance InP Heterostructure Bipolar Transistors device technology (SHBT and DHBT) has been developed and being offered for commercial foundry services. These devices are ideal to provide a complete chipset for 40 Gb/s fiber optic communication (OC768) as well as high performance power amplifiers for 3G wireless applications. A peak cutoff frequency, Ft, of over 200 GHz was obtained for non-self aligned 1X3 m 2 device. The devices were designed for high reliability by employing an Alfree (InP) emitter and a carbon-doped base. Excellent device yield and uniformity observed across the wafer clearly demonstrated the feasibility of this technology for MSI-level of integration required in MUX/DMUX communication circuits.


Twenty-five examples of basal cell carcinoma were studied by electron microscopy. The fine structure of the undifferentiated form exhibited a closer similarity to normal epidermis than to hair matrix or other skin appendages. However, the variant forms did display some degree of pilar (keratotic) and eccrine (adenoid) differentiation. Examples of the so-called cystic variant which were studied appeared to arise from central degeneration of tumor cells rather than sebaceous differentiation. These conclusions are consonant with previously held views concerning the embryology of skin and the developmental potential of the epidermal basal cell. Desmosomes, the ultrastructural analogues of intercellular bridges (prickles), were seen in basal cell carcinoma invalidating the absence of such structures by light microscopy as a diagnostic criterion for this tumor.


We study the problem of conservative off-policy evaluation (COPE) where given an offline dataset of environment interactions, collected by other agents, we seek to obtain a (tight) lower bound on a policy's performance. This is crucial when deciding whether a given policy satisfies certain minimal performance/safety criteria before it can be deployed in the real world. To this end, we introduce HAMBO, which builds on an uncertainty-aware learned model of the transition dynamics. To form a conservative estimate of the policy's performance, HAMBO hallucinates worst-case trajectories that the policy may take, within the margin of the models' epistemic confidence regions. We prove that the resulting COPE estimates are valid lower bounds, and, under regularity conditions, show their convergence to the true expected return. Finally, we discuss scalable variants of our approach based on Bayesian Neural Networks and empirically demonstrate that they yield reliable and tight lower bounds in various continuous control environments.


The economic updates aim to share knowledge and stimulate debate among those interested in improving the economic management of Cameroon and unleashing its enormous potential. The notes thereby offer another voice on economic issues in Cameroon, and an additional platform for engagement, learning and change. Cameroon's overall poverty rate has not declined and has even increased in the poorest regions. Food security is also problematic in those regions. Yet, Cameroon has a number of small-scale and ad hoc safety net programs which are not appropriately designed to address either chronic or transient poverty. Too few resources are put into these programs for the moment to make a real difference with most of these limited resources allocated to emergency initiatives. Social safety nets build households' productive assets and expand their income-earning opportunities by building their skills and enabling them to engage in higher risk and higher return activities. Going forward, in addition to continued efforts to foster faster economic growth, an efficient, equitable, and financially-sustainable social safety net strategy should be developed that combines different forms of interventions to deal with the specific needs of the poor and the vulnerable, and includes an effective monitoring system to improve the quality programs.


Cable-driven robots are often considered an attractive solution for applications which require a low-inertia actuator capable of high accelerations, despite the added complexity of the system and increased challenges of the design. Previous research has developed various techniques for analyzing the workspace of a cable-driven robot and several methods of designing a cable routing have been demonstrated which enable a robot to perform a given task. In general, there are many choices of cable routing which satisfy the particular design requirements, and the problem is focused on how to select the best design from among the available choices.Using techniques developed from statistical learning theory, the field of Randomized Algorithms offers explicit bounds on the estimation errors of an optimal solution, provided certain explicitly defined sample complexity requirements are satisfied. The main advantage of this approach is a quantitative understanding of the uncertainty of the result and the accuracy with respect to the true optimum to enable an informed decision regarding the sufficiency of the solution. The desired accuracy and confidence parameters for the optimal solution are tailored for the specific problem, allowing for balance between computational limitations and desire for solution quality. In this work, a summary of the randomized algorithm approach is presented, and an optimized solution to the design of a cable-driven manipulator is developed using a randomized algorithm according to specified accuracy, level and confidence parameters.Copyright © 2015 by ASME


Acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) is an increasingly recognized distinct disease entity encompassing an acute deterioration of liver function in patients with chronic liver disease. Although there are no widely accepted diagnostic criteria for ACLF, the Asia.Pacific Association for the Study of the Liver (APASL) and the American Association for the Study of Liver Disease and the European Association for the Study of the Liver (AASLD/EASL) consensus definitions are commonly used. It is obvious that the APASL and the AASLD/EASL definitions are based on fundamentally different features. Two different definitions in two different parts of the world hamper the comparability of studies. Recently, the EASL-Chronic Liver Failure Consortium proposed new diagnostic criteria for ACLF based on analyses of patients with organ failure. There are areas of uncertainty in defining ACLF, such as heterogeneity of ACLF, ambiguity in qualifying underlying liver disease, argument for infection or sepsis as a precipitating event, etc. Although the exact pathogenesis of ACLF remains to be elucidated, alteration of host response to injury, infection, and unregulated inflammation play important roles. The predisposition, infection/inflammation, response, organ failure (PIRO) concept used for sepsis might be useful in describing the pathophysiology and clinical categories for ACLF. Treatment strategies are limited to organ support but better understanding of the pathophysiology is likely to lead to discovery of novel biomarkers and therapeutic strategies in the future.


The rise of the Internet of Everything lifestyle in the last decade has had a significant impact on the increased emergence and adoption of online learning in almost all countries across the world. E-learning 3.0 is expected to be-come the norm of learning globally in almost all sectors in the next few years. The pervasiveness of the Semantic Web powered by the Internet of Everything lifestyle is expected to play a huge role towards seamless and faster adoption of the emerging paradigms of E-learning 3.0. Therefore, this paper presents an exploratory study to analyze multimodal components of Semantic Web behavior data to investigate the emergence of online learning in different countries across the world. The work specifically involved investigating relevant web behavior data to interpret the 5 W's and 1 H - Who, What, When Where, Why, and How related to online learning. Based on studying the E-learning Index of 2021, the study was performed for all the countries that are member states of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The results presented and discussed help to interpret the emergence of online learning in each of these countries in terms of the associated public perceptions, queries, opinions, behaviors, and perspectives. Furthermore, to support research and development in this field, we have published the web behavior-based Big Data related to online learning that was mined for all these 38 countries, in the form of a dataset, which is available at https://dx.doi.org/10.21227/xbvs-0198.


Our research develops a performance study on newly developed impellers for a left ventricular assist device. In order to analyze the hemodynamic characteristics of blood flow through the ventricular assist device, the CFX-TASCflow software is adopted to investigate the flow-field characteristics. The numerical results provide not only the flow characteristics for the overall field, but also the data of relationship for flow rate and pressure head. In the conceptual design process, hemodynamic study for an initial impeller design is presented first and a geometry change is recommended. Two design models are developed and the associated flow rate and pressure head performances are evaluated as well. According to design criteria, the most efficient design is the one with a smooth flow passage and with a low possibility for vortex generation. We suggest the superior design be chosen for further in vitro testing and be prepared for the new design generation. It has been shown that the design can provide a flow rate of 3.0 l/min with a pressure head of 127.09 mmHg. Both the flow rate and pressure head can meet requirements for the left ventricular assist device to work normally.


Price dispersion reflects ignorance in the marketplace in which different prices exist from the same or different sellers for a similar good. One of the sources of price dispersion is uncertain demand for a business's good or service. Ticket markets are good opportunities to examine a firm's pricing strategy under demand uncertainty, because professional sports teams have to price their tickets well in advance of the actual event and before actual demand is known. The purpose of the present research is to examine the relationship between price dispersion and regular season average attendance in Major League Baseball. Using a two-step generalized method of moments (GMM) model, the present research finds that an increase in price dispersion leads to a decrease in average attendance.


ABSTRACT Concerns regarding the teratogenicity of fluoroquinolones have resulted in their restricted use during gestation. This is despite an increasing need for their use due to emerging bacterial resistance. The objectives of the present investigation were to evaluate pregnancy and fetal outcomes following maternal exposure to fluoroquinolones and to examine whether in utero exposure to quinolones is associated with clinically significant musculoskeletal dysfunctions. We prospectively enrolled and followed up 200 women exposed to fluoroquinolones (norfloxacin, ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin) during gestation. Pregnancy outcome was compared with that for 200 controls matched for age and for smoking and alcohol consumption habits. Controls were exposed to nonteratogenic, nonembryotoxic antimicrobial agents matched by indication, duration of therapy (±3 days), and trimester of exposure. Rates of major congenital malformations did not differ between the group exposed to quinolones in the first trimester (2.2%) and the control group (2.6%) (relative risk, 0.85; 95% confidence interval, 0.21 to 3.49). Women treated with quinolones had a tendency for an increased rate of therapeutic abortions compared with the rate among women exposed to nonteratogens (relative risk, 4.50; 95% confidence interval, 0.98 to 20.57), resulting in lower live-birth rates (86 versus 94%; P = 0.02). The rates of spontaneous abortions, fetal distress, and prematurity and the birth weight did not differ between the groups. Gross motor developmental milestone achievements did not differ between the children of the mothers in the two groups. We concluded that the use of fluoroquinolones during embryogenesis is not associated with an increased risk of major malformations. There were no clinically significant musculoskeletal dysfunctions in children exposed to fluoroquinolones in utero. The higher rate of therapeutic abortions observed in quinolone-exposed women compared to that for their controls may be secondary to the misperception of a major risk related to quinolone use during pregnancy.


Despite the emergence of principled methods for domain adaptation under label shift, their sensitivity to shifts in class conditional distributions is precariously under explored. Meanwhile, popular deep domain adaptation heuristics tend to falter when faced with label proportions shifts. While several papers modify these heuristics in attempts to handle label proportions shifts, inconsistencies in evaluation standards, datasets, and baselines make it difficult to gauge the current best practices. In this paper, we introduce RLSbench, a large-scale benchmark for relaxed label shift, consisting of $>$500 distribution shift pairs spanning vision, tabular, and language modalities, with varying label proportions. Unlike existing benchmarks, which primarily focus on shifts in class-conditional $p(x|y)$, our benchmark also focuses on label marginal shifts. First, we assess 13 popular domain adaptation methods, demonstrating more widespread failures under label proportion shifts than were previously known. Next, we develop an effective two-step meta-algorithm that is compatible with most domain adaptation heuristics: (i) pseudo-balance the data at each epoch; and (ii) adjust the final classifier with target label distribution estimate. The meta-algorithm improves existing domain adaptation heuristics under large label proportion shifts, often by 2--10\% accuracy points, while conferring minimal effect ($<$0.5\%) when label proportions do not shift. We hope that these findings and the availability of RLSbench will encourage researchers to rigorously evaluate proposed methods in relaxed label shift settings. Code is publicly available at https://github.com/acmi-lab/RLSbench.


By a circular increment step load and unload method, a set of rheological experiments were performed to study the creep properties of amphibolite and the deformation data of instantaneous elasticity, instantaneous plasticity, viscoplasticity and viscoelasticity could be obtained. The results showed that: the creep threshold of amphibolite(σs1) was 25.46MPa; whenσs1s2, the proportion of plastic deformation in the total deformation was very small and the value of creep deformation always tended to a stable value; whenσ>σs2, the rock samples failed rapidly and had no obvious creep. According to the creep and failure properties of amphibolite, the generalized Kelvin creep model was acted in series with the Mohr-Coulomb criterion and a modified generalized Kelvin creep model was built and the corresponding visco-elasto-plastic constitutive relationships were deduced. The modified model could simulate visco-elasto-plastic deviatoric behavior and elasto-plastic volumetric behavior. The model parameters of amphibolite were fitted according to the data of rheological test. The testing curves were coincident well with the theoretic curves by comparison which showed the creep properties and the plastic flow of hard rock could be well simulated by the generalized Kelvin creep model.


The lactating cow mammary secretory epithelial cell is very active synthetically and contains numerous very pleomorphic mitochondria. Cup- and ring-shaped mitochondria are frequent and many are extremely elongated. Preferential localization of mitochondria in the basal region, or at the lateral margins of the secretory cell adjacent to intraepithelial monocytes have been observed. Occasional mitochondria show one or several very densely staining cristae with a lattice pattern. Mitochondria are frequently seen closely associated with the tonofilament-desmosomal complex. These structures and associations are present after immersion or perfusion fixation of mammary gland from several breeds of cow; their possible significance is discussed.


Reports of neuroectodermal primary scrotal tumors are scarce. Primary paratesticular neuroblastomas seem even rarer, and only five infants with this condition have been previously described. To the authors' knowledge, this would be the first report of a neonatal congenital paratesticular neuroblastoma. However, the authors postulate that ischemic compressive features in testis could lead to misdiagnosis as testicular torsion and the condition could usually go undetected. A newborn male baby with a left scrotal tumefaction was referred to the authors in May 2003. Doppler ultrasonography findings were inconclusive, and a diagnosis of intrauterine torsion of the testis was suspected. Surgery showed a paratesticular mass with a small attachment to an intra-abdominal epiploon. Pathologic examination clearly established the diagnosis of neuroblastoma. Cytogenetic findings (no amplification of N-myc oncogene, aneuploidy, and no deletion of chromosome 1p) were favorable. As the tumor was classified as International Neuroblastoma Staging System stage I, no additional chemotherapy was administered. All markers showed a progressive decrease, and herniorrhaphy and orchidopexy of the contralateral side were performed at 4 months of age. The patient was tumor-free at 11 months follow-up.


Abstract How can we prepare engineering students to work collectively on innovative design issues, involving ill-defined, "wicked" problems? Recent works have emphasized the need for students to learn to combine divergent and convergent thinking in a collaborative, controlled manner. From this perspective, teaching must help them overcome four types of obstacles or "fixation effects" (FEs) that are found in the generation of alternatives, knowledge acquisition, collaborative creativity, and creativity processes. We begin by showing that teaching based on concept–knowledge (C-K) theory can help to manage FEs because it helps to clarify them and then to overcome them by providing means of action. We show that C-K theory can provide scaffolding to improve project-based learning (PBL), in what we call project-based critical learning (PBCL). PBCL helps students be critical and give due thought to the main issues in innovative design education: FEs. We illustrate the PBCL process with several cases and show precisely where the FEs appear and how students are able to overcome them. We conclude by discussing two main criteria of any teaching method, both of which are usually difficult to address in situations of innovative design teaching. First, can the method be evaluated? Second, is the chosen case "realistic" enough? We show that C-K-based PBCL can be rigorously evaluated by teachers, and we discuss the circumstances in which a C-K-based PBCL may or may not be realistic.


Background: Sarcopenia, the loss of muscle mass and strength, is associated with adverse health outcomes. Calf circumference (CC) has been proposed as a surrogate measure of muscle mass in the elderly; however, ethnic/sex specific cut-off values remain to be established. Objective: A study was undertaken to investigate the relationship between CC and appendicular skeletal muscle mass (ASM), and the ASM index (ASMI), as well as to determine whether CC could be used to diagnose sarcopenia. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of 247 older black women living from Tlokwe, South Africa. ASM was measured using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, and the ASMI was calculated. Receiver operator characteristics curves and maximum Youden index were applied to identify a CC cut-off point for sarcopenia according to low gait speed (< 0.8 m/s), low hand-grip strength (< 16 kg) and low ASMI using a South African cut-off point for sarcopenia (ASMI < 4.94 kg/m2). Results: A strong positive correlation between CC and ASMI (r = 0.84, p < 0.001) was observed. The CC to predict low hand-grip strength was 34.3 cm and 37.8 cm for low gait speed. A CC of 29.9 cm was indicative of sarcopenia. The area under the curve for all outcomes was > 0.60. Conclusion: A CC of 30 cm is proposed as a simple and inexpensive way to predict, screen or diagnose sarcopenia in black women in low-resource health settings. An accessible, inexpensive screening or diagnostic tool could facilitate timely interventions and prevention.


Ruthenium-Carbon (Ru-C) nano-composite films were prepared by microwave-induced plasma-enhanced chemical vapor deposition (PECVD) and the effects of deposition conditions on the microstructure and electrical properties were investigated. The films consisted of agglomerated grains of 10 to 20 nm in diameter, in which Ru particles of 2.5 to 3.5 nm in diameter were dispersed in an amorphous C matrix. The C contents of the films ranged from 86 to 94 vol%. The electrical properties of Ru-C nano-composite films as a catalytic electrode for an yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) solid electrolyte were evaluated by AC impedance spectroscopy. The electrical conductivity at the Ru-C/YSZ interface (σi) was 0.2 × 10-3 Sm-1 at 500 K and increased with increasing temperature. The activation energy of the σi was 70 kJ/mol. Electro-motive-force (EMF) values of an oxygen concentration cell constructed from YSZ electrolyte and Ru-C nano-composite electrodes responded to the change of oxygen partial pressure above 473 K. The response time of the concentration cell was less than 10 s above 573 K.


Distortion Product Oto-acoustic Emissions (DPOAE) and Transient Evoked Oto-acoustic Emissions (TEOAE) were measured in subjects before and after attendance to live music. The changes measured were compared to the exposure levels measured at the position of the subject. The main objectives of this experiment were two fold: 1) to assess the validity of the proposed measurement protocol to measure changes in DPOAE and TEOAE after a concert; 2) to test the reliability of the oto-acoustic emission measurement system under field conditions; Initial results shows that it is possible to measure changes in hearing after exposures of relative short duration (<1.5 hours). There are large individual differences both in sound exposure levels as well as in the changes on oto-acoustic emissions produced by similar exposures. Current results will be presented.


'On Human Nature is not a work of science; it is a work about science.' In fact, the book turns out to be, as its title suggests, mainly about those aspects of human behaviour that appear to the author to be more or less permanent. And, in the absence of that remark in the Preface, one might attach too little importance to what Wilson has to say about science and perhaps fail to note that the book may have been written mainly as a means of furthering those developments in science that its author believes to be urgent. These are the transformation of the social sciences through an effective and fruitful interaction with biology and, partly as a consequence of this, a more thorough integration of scientific thinking into Western culture, so that choices affecting the future of the species may be made in the light of the information scientists can provide about the ways of life that are possible for members of a species with our peculiar biological inheritance. The body of the book develops the thesis that there is a relatively small number of social arrangements humankind could tolerate for more than a very short time-history has shown, for example, that slavery is not one of them, although it occurs in other species-and that the smallness of this number can be traced to our genetic endowment. Such a position is in rather stark contrast to the assumption, which has latterly prevailed amongst behavioural scientists, that human behaviour is very largely the product of learning and, therefore, indefinitely malleable. The case for supposing otherwise is a complex one that ultimately fails to compel assent, at least in the sense that it has not been accepted by many who ought to be in a position to assess its validity. Wilson himself admits that there are large gaps in the evidence and that some of the inferential steps required are large and uncertain-which is no doubt why he does not claim that the book is a work of science. At the same time, of course, it would not have been written if the position adopted in it did not seem to make sense of a wide range of phenomena, and, at the very least, it has the salutary effect of confronting the reader with a sharply delineated set of possibilities which stand in marked contrast to many of our normal assumptions. For example, Wilson contends not only that aggression but also that religion has its roots in our biological natures and. as such, is, for the foreseeable future, inescapable. He argues that the biological importance of human sexual behaviour is to be found not in the propagation of the species but in the permanent relationship which it encourages between parents and that true homosexuality is not only (therefore) not 'unnatural' but actually possesses a biological importance of its own as one source of the only form of altruism which our natures permit us-a kind of enlightened self-interest. Arresting (and debatable) as these contentions are, the main thrust of Wilson's book is at a more general level. It begins with the statement of a dilemma: the human mind is a product of its evolutionary history and cannot, therefore, be said to have purposes in the ordinary sense of that word; yet we must adopt ethical principles which are consistent with our biological natures. The book ends with a show of optimism regarding the future of the species, outlining a 'biological' ethic (which embodies comfortingly familar principles of social justice) and arguing the need to replace contemporary religions such as Christianity and Marxism by one securely based on scientific materialism. Leonard0 readers may wish to know that 'science can hope to explain artists and artistic genius, and even art, and it will increasingly use art to investigate human behaviour, but it is not designed to transmit experience on a personal level or to reconstitute the full richness of the experience from the laws and principles which are its first concern by definition." Art will, therefore, have a part to play in a society properly founded on science.


Analytical accounts chronicling engagement with digital games can always benefit from empirical data outlining the patterns of behavior produced by different players as they engage with the same game, or similar sequence within a game. This paper presents an extension to a novel method, termed feedback-based gameplay metrics, which exploits the audio and visual output of an activated game to produce accounts of player performance. This paper offers an account of an affiliated method, based on similarity matrices, which is derived from the same measurement process and that has yet been applied to the interests of game studies (over design oriented research) to determine the similarity or diversity within encounters with particular games. This paper introduces the method and illustrates its potential applications in the analysis of performance.


State-of-the-art requirements modeling tools rely on predefined notations. In contrast, requirements engineers and stakeholders often sketch requirements in arbitrary notations during early elicitation phases. Engineers must then manually transform the sketches into semi-formal models, which is a time-consuming and error-prone task. We propose to investigate how early sketching and the transformation of sketches can be supported by a semi-automatic method that allows engineers to assign meaning to the sketches on the fly. Our tool-supported contribution is supposed to bridge the gap between sketches and semi-formal models.


Synopsis Little attention has been paid to the suprageneric classification for conodonts and existing schemes have been formulated without attention to homology, diagnosis and definition. We propose that cladistics providesan appropriate methodology to test existingschemes of classification and in which to explore the evolutionary relationships of conodonts. The development of a multielement taxonomy and a concept of homology based upon the position, not morphology, of elements within the apparatus provide the ideal foundation for the application of cladistics to conodonts. In an attempt to unravel the evolutionary relationships between 'complex' conodonts (prioniodontids and derivative lineages) we have compiled a data matrix based upon 95 characters and 61 representative taxa. The dataset was analysed using parsimony and the resulting hypotheses were assessed using a number of measures of support. These included bootstrap, Bremer Support and double‐decay; we also compared levels of homoplasy to those expected given the size of the dataset and to those expected in a random dataset. The dataset was analysed in three hierarchical tranches, representing three levels of certainty concerning multi‐element reconstructions and positional homologies. There is much agreement between the results derived from the three partitions, but some inconsistency, particularly in the precise composition of the three main evolutionary grades traditionally recognised (Prioniodontida, Prioniodinina, Ozarkodinina). This is considered to result from (a) the progressive inclusion of data that is increasingly uncertain and (b) the inclusion of increasingly distantly related taxa, introducing spurious hypotheses of homology. We tested for these by partitioning the dataset into the three main evolutionary grades and in each instance resolution was seen to increase substantially, especially among prioniodinins. Our concluding scheme of relationships is a tree derived from a compilation of the three component subtrees, which is directly compatible with the most‐parsimonious trees derived from the initial second tranche analysis with the exception of the position of Hibbardella. This is compared in detail to the main extant schemes of suprageneric classification. A formal scheme of suprageneric classification is presented and the distribution of characters with respect to component clades is considered as a basis for identifying diagnostic characters.


The research study explores different types of controller simulation and verification methods and proposes a new method which employs the use of a control signals emulator. The research study has formulated a novel technique for emulating quadrature encoder signals to provide virtual closed loop control of servomotors. The deployment of a control signal emulator technique makes the system unique and removes its dependency on proprietary hardware or software. Enabling the real-time data from the signal emulation environment eases the task of realising a real-time machine simulator.


This study assessed the production and categorial discrimination of English / / and / / by native Korean (NK) adults and children. A total of 108 participants (72 NK and 36 age-matched native English speakers) were tested twice. The NK participants were further subdivided according to length of residence (LOR) in North America. In Experiment 1, both the NK adults and NK children differed from age-matched native English (NE) participants in discriminating / / from / /, but the NK children showed more accurate discrimination than the NK adults did. The participants' productions of / / and / / were examined in Experiment 2. An acoustic analysis suggested that, unlike the results obtained for vowel discrimination, the NK children's production of the two target vowels closely resembled NE children's. However, the NK adults failed to produce as large a contrast as NE adults. The differing pattern of results obtained for discrimination and production for the NK children but not the NK adults suggested that the relation between production and perception abilities in a second language (L2) might depend on the age of L2 learning.


In this paper a prey-predator video game is presented. In the video game two predators chase a prey that tries to avoid the capture by the predators and to reach a location in space (i.e. its "home"). The prey is animated by a human player (using a joypad), the predators are automated players whose behaviour is decided by the video game engine. The purpose of the video game is to show how to use mathematical models to build a simple prey-predator dynamics representing a physical system where the movements of the game actors satisfy Newton's dynamical principle and the behaviour of the automated players simulates a simple form of intelligence. The game is based on a simple set of ordinary differential equations. These differential equations are used in classical mechanics to describe the dynamics of a set of point masses subject to a force chosen by the human player, elastic forces and friction forces (i.e. viscous damping). The software that implements the video game is written in C++ and Delphi. The video game can be downloaded from:

 http://www.ceri.uniroma1.it/ceri/zirilli/w9


The multimedia messaging service (MMS) is a popular wireless application that allows mobile subscribers to send and receive messages comprising a variety of media types to and from mobile handsets. As a result of the increasing popularity of MMS across all wireless networks, a variety of mobile handsets are available with MMS capabilities. Handset vendors add extra features to their handsets to make them more appealing to subscribers, so that handsets from different vendors differ in their capabilities. As a result of this diversity, a multimedia message sent from one handset may render improperly or may not render at all on a different model. However, mobile subscribers expect to experience the richness of the content, irrespective of the type of content or the capability of their handset. This implies that media component(s) in a multimedia message have to be adapted to suit the characteristics of a particular handset. Media transformation is the process of conversion and adaptation of various media objects in accordance with the target handset characteristics. It is done in real time while the target handset is retrieving the multimedia message. The paper focuses on the importance and beneficial role of media transformation in an MMS environment. The techniques currently deployed by the available services are presented. The need for enhanced intelligence at the transformation server is discussed. Schemes for implementing some of the techniques and their effectiveness are presented.


The focus of this Thesis has been to evaluate different monitoring systems and processes that are used by the Network Operations Center at TDC Sverige AB. The problem formulation involves (i) how the monitoring systems are used, (ii) how these work together, (iii) what processes are involved and (iv) how the systems and processes can be improved to benefit the Network Operations Center.Processes involved in TDC's work follows the Information Technology Infrastructure Library. To be able to answer the problem formulation, the current documentation is browsed and together with meetings with key figures within the company; such as managers, project managers, technicians and system administrators; information is gathered to give a comprehensive view of the current state of the monitoring systems, and the whole process leading to handover to the Network Operations Center.TDC Network as a Service is a concept that includes different networking solutions in which LAN and WLAN as a Service offers standardized networking solutions for LAN and WLAN. The Network Management System is described, which includes HP Network Node Manager i, Network Performance Servers and incident ticket systems. The process of how incident tickets can be created, both manually and automatically, is described as well as the whole process of how new customers are added to the monitoring and how customers are registered in the different Service Asset and Configuration Management applications. It is discussed how new nodes are added to the monitoring, and which systems are involved in this process, including Network Node Manager i, VisionApp, NetMRI and incident ticket systems. The regular monitoring process of the Network Operations Center is presented in this Thesis. It is suggested that the improvements include involving the Network Operations Center at an earlier stage during the selling and implementation process, and devised a better transition to the Service Operation phase. TDC would benefit from fewer Service Asset and Configuration Management applications and incident ticket systems and there should be better routines regarding documentation.


This paper presents the framework of kernel-based methods in the context of hyperspectral image classification, illustrating from a general viewpoint the main characteristics of different kernel-based approaches and analyzing their properties in the hyperspectral domain. In particular, we assess performance of regularized radial basis function neural networks (Reg-RBFNN), standard support vector machines (SVMs), kernel Fisher discriminant (KFD) analysis, and regularized AdaBoost (Reg-AB). The novelty of this work consists in: 1) introducing Reg-RBFNN and Reg-AB for hyperspectral image classification; 2) comparing kernel-based methods by taking into account the peculiarities of hyperspectral images; and 3) clarifying their theoretical relationships. To these purposes, we focus on the accuracy of methods when working in noisy environments, high input dimension, and limited training sets. In addition, some other important issues are discussed, such as the sparsity of the solutions, the computational burden, and the capability of the methods to provide outputs that can be directly interpreted as probabilities.


It is increasingly understood that work-integrated learning (WIL) opportunities are critical in providing graduating students with employability skills which allow them to gain employment and effectively operate in work environments. This is particularly relevant within degrees such as public health that cut across very diverse fields of practice. Little research has previously investigated student perceptions post-graduation of skill development within public health degrees. This investigation aimed to identify the range of skills gained within a Master of Public Health (MPH) degree which graduates felt assisted them to obtain employment, and to determine the teaching and learning approaches that contributed to the development of these skills. Graduates responding to a questionnaire self-reported that they had good levels of both technical and employability skills especially in the domains: Informed Decision Making, Professional Practice and Standards, Lifelong Learning and Collaboration. Students agreed that there were frequent opportunities for applied learning and enablers to employment within their degree. However, graduates indicated that the employability domain: Commencement Readiness and confidence at point of graduation, could be strengthened. The implications of this research for the development of non-placement WIL experiences, capstone subjects, the overall curriculum and broader university student experience are discussed.


Abstract Multilevel modeling was used to examine the effects of morning pain intensity and morning positive and negative affect on pain's interference with afternoon work goal pursuit and with evening work goal progress in a community sample of 132 adults who completed a 21-day diary. The moderating effects of pain acceptance and pain catastrophizing on the associations between morning pain intensity and afternoon work goal interference were also tested. Results revealed that the positive relationship between morning pain intensity and pain's interference with work goal pursuit was significantly moderated by pain acceptance, but not by pain catastrophizing. Both morning pain intensity and positive affect exerted significant indirect effects on evening work goal progress through the perception of pain's interference with work goal pursuit in the afternoon. Furthermore, the mediated effect of morning pain on evening work goal progress was significant when pain acceptance was at the grand mean and 1 SD below the grand mean, but not when pain acceptance was 1 SD above the grand mean. Thus, it appears that high pain acceptance significantly attenuates pain's capacity to disrupt work goal pursuit. Moreover, morning positive affect appears to operate as a protective factor. Additional interpretations and potential explanations for some inconsistent outcomes are discussed along with limitations, clinical implications, and suggestions for future studies.


Epstein-Barr Virus (EBV) is an enveloped double-stranded DNA virus of the gammaherpesvirinae sub-family that predominantly infects humans through epithelial cells and B cells. Three EBV glycoproteins, gH, gL and gp42, form a complex that targets EBV infection of B cells. Human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II molecules expressed on B cells serve as the receptor for gp42, triggering membrane fusion and virus entry. The mechanistic role of gHgL in herpesvirus entry has been largely unresolved, but it is thought to regulate the activation of the virally-encoded gB protein, which acts as the primary fusogen. Here we study the assembly and function of the reconstituted B cell entry complex comprised of gHgL, gp42 and HLA class II. The structure from negative-stain electron microscopy provides a detailed snapshot of an intermediate state in EBV entry and highlights the potential for the triggering complex to bring the two membrane bilayers into proximity. Furthermore, gHgL interacts with a previously identified, functionally important hydrophobic pocket on gp42, defining the overall architecture of the complex and playing a critical role in membrane fusion activation. We propose a macroscopic model of the initiating events in EBV B cell fusion centered on the formation of the triggering complex in the context of both viral and host membranes. This model suggests how the triggering complex may bridge the two membrane bilayers, orienting critical regions of the N- and C- terminal ends of gHgL to promote the activation of gB and efficient membrane fusion.


This is an elementary, up-to-date text and reference book in global finance. It has been especially designed for beginning students in economics and finance, and also for self-study by anyone with a knowledge of secondary school algebra and an interest in finance and financial markets. The subjects taken up in some details are stocks (shares), bonds, interest rates and derivatives, particularly futures, options, and swaps. There are also chapters on exchange rates and banking, and readers are provided with an elementary introduction to risk and uncertainty. The book is also an easily read supplement to more technical presentations, in that it introduces all categories of readers to real world financial markets.


We use an oligonucleotide library of over 10000 variants together with a synthetic biology approach to identify an insulator sequence encoded within a subset of σ54 promoters. Insulation manifests itself as silencing of expression of a downstream gene during transcriptional read through. Insulation is strongly associated with the presence of short CT-rich motifs (3-5 bp), positioned within 25 bp upstream of the Shine-Dalgarno (SD) motif of the silenced gene. We provide evidence using modeling, mutations to the CT-rich motif, and gene expression measurements on multiple sequence variants, that insulation is likely caused by binding of the RBS region to the upstream CT-rich motifs. We show that the strength of the insulation effect depends on the location and number of CU-rich motifs encoded within the promoters. Finally, we show that in E.coli these insulator sequences are preferentially encoded within σ54 promoters as compared to other promoter types, indicating that there is an important regulatory role for these sequences in natural contexts. Our findings have important implications for understanding SNP/INDEL mutations in regulatory regions and add to existing guidelines for designing synthetic promoters in bacterial systems.


Cities in Europe underlie strict emission limits by the European Union. The transport sector accounts for a large share of pollutants. Electric vehicles combined with renewable energies can help to reduce the emissions and enhance the quality of life in cities. Moreover, e-mobility opens a chance to change the mobility behavior of people and so the mobility culture. But to sustainably introduce e-mobility within the existing transport system cities have to shape the right circumstances. Important questions address the establishment of a demand-orientated charging infrastructure combined with the right marking and design of parking lots, as well as the generation of intermodal connecting points where people can change from one mode to another. But also electric bikes and scooters need a better infrastructure as they have a big potential for reducing traffic and land consumption in urban areas. Besides an appropriate infrastructure, citizens need to be convinced of a shift towards more sustainable transport modes by offering incentives and providing detailed information about new technologies and offers. Some cities are implementing e-mobility measures in their climate action plans or urban development strategies; others try to set legally binding regulations for real estate developers in land-use plans. The royal road has not been found up to the present moment. Also, a new constellation of actors and land use competitions within cities make it harder to achieve short-term goals. The more important it is to work strategically on the transition of the energy and mobility system likewise. The aim should be to develop a sustainable concept for the implementation of e-mobility measures in planning new building areas, and within existing structures. Intelligent mobility concepts have to be combined with innovative urban planning approaches where actors from different disciplines as well as citizens work together. The presentation will point out challenges and chances for cities which come along with the introduction of e-mobility and new mobility forms. It will show some exemplary approaches of cities in Germany and from abroad (e.g. Berlin, Hamburg, Amsterdam, Copenhagen). It will discuss drivers and barriers for progress and possible strategies for municipalities. The presentation is based on the findings of the PhD project by the author, working on the integration of e-mobility into urban planning and street design. Also, some results of a research project dealing with the mobility behavior of people and the needs of electric vehicle user will be highlighted. An emphasis lies on analyzing cities' strategies and comparing it to peoples' demand.


Understanding the water and heat exchanges across the Tibetan ecosystem is of great importance for management of the Asian water towers that originate from the Tibetan Plateau and projection of water and energy dynamics within various climate scenarios. The study presented in this book contributes to a better quantification of the water and heat exchanges at the land-atmosphere interface for a Tibetan alpine meadow ecosystem.

The source region of the Yellow River (SRYR) in the northeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau is selected as the case study due to its great importance to the Yellow River's water resources. A comprehensive observational dataset including in-situ micro-meteorological and profile soil moisture/temperature measurements, laboratory soil property measurements of samples, as well as discharge measurements is developed. The Noah land surface model is utilized to understand the processes governing the water and heat exchanges and predict the measurements.

This book is structured across four research topics to arrive at a reliable prediction of the measured water and heat fluxes at point scale and runoff at catchment scale via enhancing Noah's model physics in representing i) thermal roughness length and turbulent heat transfer, ii) soil heat transport, iii) soil water flow and iv) frozen ground processes. This study highlights the need for a complete description of the predominantly vertical water and heat exchange processes to correctly simulate the water and heat fluxes in the seasonally frozen and high altitude SRYR on the Tibetan Plateau.


Additives are key to achieving optimal morphologies and efficient performance in bulk heterojunction organic photovoltaics. In this work we analyze the impact of three insulating polymers [ethylene acrylic elastomers, polystyrene and poly(methyl methacrylate)] in prototypical small molecule and polymer photovoltaic devices. We find that small molecule–semiconductors and polymer–semiconductors vary remarkably in their tolerance of the type of insulator as well as the degree of insulator incorporation. Insulating polymers capable of self-assembly or infiltration into the organic–semiconductor matrix have a positive or negligible impact on the performance of both small molecule and polymer devices. The spontaneous migration of ethylene acrylic elastomers to the device surface make them adverse additives, however our preliminary data indicates their potential application as a spontaneously forming cathode interlayer in small molecule devices where they match or exceed the performance of evaporated LiF interlayers.


The type 1 insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGF-1R) plays an essential role in mammalian growth and development, and has emerged as a candidate therapeutic target in the treatment of cancer. While the pleiotropic cellular responses elicited following tyrosine phosphorylation of the IGF-1R is usually seen to involve the direct recruitment/activation of classical intracellular effector proteins, it is now clear that cross-talk between the IGF-1R and members of distinct receptor families also plays a significant role in effecting intracellular signalling. In recent years, a number of studies have highlighted the interaction(s) between the IGF-1R and the epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), another transmembrane tyrosine kinase that is an established cancer target. This review describes the components of the IGF signalling system and gives an overview of the emerging picture of the interrelationship that is now known to exist between the IGF and EGF receptors.


The article seeks to develop a new angel for translation studies by rethinking its relationship to the political. It begins with the question "Can the eventfulness of translation itself be thought?" Since neither the familiar model of communication (translatable and untranslatable) nor the biblical model of the Tower of Babel (the promise or withdrawal of meaning) can help us work out a suitable answer to that question, the author proposes an alternative method that incorporates the notions of temporality, difference, and competing universals in the reframing of translation. This method requires close attention to the multiple temporalities of translation in concrete analyses of translingual practices, or what the author calls "differentially distributed discursive practices across languages." The author's textual analysis focuses on a few pivotal moments of translation in global history—chosen for their world transforming influences or actual and potential global impact—to demonstrate what is meant by the "eventfulness of translation." These include, for example, the nineteenth-century Chinese translation of Henry Wheaton's Elements of International Law or Wanguo gongfa, the post-World War II multilingual fashioning of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights with a focus on P. C. Chang's unique contribution, and the Afro-Asian writers' translation project during the Cold War.


This paper reports a 64-channel microsystem for chronic neural recording. The system scans all the channels simultaneously, detects any neural spikes, and reports their occurrence wirelessly to the external world. Any one of the selected channels can also be digitized and read out wirelessly to allow inspection of the full analog waveform. The neural signals are amplified with 60 dB of gain, a programmable bandwidth, and an 8 muVrms input-referred noise level before being processed digitally. For a 2 MHz clock, the channel scan rate for spike detection is 62.5 kS/Sec and the total system power dissipation at 1.8 V is 14.4 mW. The implantable version of the microsystem weighs 275 mg and measures 1.4 cm times 1.55 cm.


I consider the sequential implementation of a target information structure. I characterize the set of decision time distributions induced by all signal processes that satisfy a per-period learning capacity constraint. I find that all decision time distributions have the same expectation, and the maximal and minimal elements by mean-preserving spread order are deterministic distribution and exponential distribution. The result implies that when time preference is risk loving (e.g. standard or hyperbolic discounting), Poisson signal is optimal since it induces the most risky exponential decision time distribution. When time preference is risk neutral (e.g. constant delay cost), all signal processes are equally optimal.


In Failed Frontiersmen , James Donahue writes that one of the founding and most persistent mythologies of the United States is that of the American frontier. Looking at a selection of twentieth-century American male fiction writersuE. L. Doctorow, John Barth, Thomas Pynchon, Ishmael Reed, Gerald Vizenor, and Cormac McCarthyuhe shows how they reevaluated the historical romance of frontier mythology in response to the social and political movements of the 1960s (particularly regarding the Vietnam War, civil rights, and the treatment of Native Americans). Although these writers focus on different moments in American history and different geographic locations, the author reveals their commonly held belief that the frontier mythology failed to deliver on its promises of cultural stability and political advancement, especially in the face of the multicultural crucible of the 1960s.


Researchers have proposed that life satisfaction may be increased by reduced life involvement (i.e., the scarcity hypothesis) or increased by greater life involvement (i.e., the expansion hypothesis). In this study we aimed to determine if female and male college students are more satisfied with their lives if they have more or less active life styles. A total of 157 females and 86 males were assigned to either a high, moderate, or low life satisfaction group and additional instruments were administered to assess the manner of decision making, the extent of role demands and time pressures, and the respondents' satisfaction with school performance and their dating and family relationships. Results indicated that both male and female college students with high life satisfaction had more demanding life styles than individuals with low life satisfaction, but they did not suffer greater personal stress. The significant role of fulfilling inter-personal relationships in overall life satisfaction was also evident.


Using the CFX software and the Large Eddy Simulaion (LES) method, this paper numerically simulates the hydrodynamic characteristics of the flow around a 3d circular cylinder at high Reynolds number (Re=5.6×103, 2.8×104, 1.1×105). The numerical simulation focuses on investigating the vortex shedding angle, the characteristics of the vortex shedding and the vortex tube, the base pressure, the static and the fluctuating drag and lift. The result of calculation shows that the forces of every section along the span of cylinder are symmetrical with respect to the middle section. Moreover the flow around the cylinder obviously appears three dimensional characteristics at high Reynolds number.


Non-isothermal kinetic studies on reduction of iron ore have been carried out under increasing temperature conditions. These studies use a commercial thermal analyser (STA-780) and the moving bed technique (MBT). The heating rate is linear in the former and non-linear in the latter. The theory of non-isothermal kinetics and methods of kinetic parameters evaluation employed in this paper are described briefly. Recently the MBT has been used for generating non-isothermal kinetic data with and without external gas flow. The MBT results presented in the paper show that transport processes significantly govern reduction kinetics. The method proposed can be extended to analysing dynamic non-isothermal type reactors. Simultaneous thermal analysis (STA) plots show stepwise reduction of iron ore (coupled with oxidation of coal) and a change of reaction mechanism at about 600-degrees-C. The moving bed experiments employing larger and bulk samples with external gas flow are presented and their data have been compared with STA data and with MBT data obtained for identical systems without external gas flow. The reducing gas mixture of carbon monoxide and nitrogen in the fixed composition of 30:70 was used in this investigation. The MBT results with external gas flow show stepwise reduction of iron ore, but in the absence of an external gas flow there is considerable overlap of reactions. The variation of apparent activation energy values (12-80 kJ mol-1) indicates the change of kinetic mechanism. Apparently the gas phase mass transport and the initial rate determining processes govern the reduction process under the temperature conditions imposed during the course of the reaction. It is shown that the presence of an external gas affects the kinetics of the reacting system significantly. The M BT can be effectively used to support and substantiate the kinetic data obtained by standard commercial equipment and to carry out non-isothermal kinetic studies employing larger and bulk samples, under conditions close to those of actual systems.


The alkaline pulping properties of wheat straw, which had been hemicelluloses pre-extracted with hot water, were studied. In this work, the process of hot-water extraction at various temperatures, reaction time and other conditions were investigated. The straws pre-extracted or not were made into pulp with NaOH-AQ at same conditions. Then the effects of pre-extraction on properties of straw pulp were studied. The results show that the yield, Kappa number and viscosity of the pulp are affected significantly by hemicelluloses pre-extraction process. The chemicals charge of the extracted straw in the pulping process is lower and shorter cooking time needed, the maximum pulping temperature reduced. These effects indicate that the action of hot-water pre-extraction before alkaline pulping is able to reduce effluent discharge and chemical demand to pulp, and it would be energy-saving. In this experiment, the optimum conditions of hot-water pre-extraction were: maximum temperature 140°C, heat-up time 30min, time at maximum temperature 60min and liquor ratio 1:10. The optimal pulping conditions were: alkali charge 12%, maximum temperature 155°C, heat-up time 90min, and holding time at maximum temperature 60min.


This book is suited for the Entrepreneurship or Innovation course with an emphasis on Sustainability or for a course devoted entirely to Sustainability.

What are the trends and forces underlying the changing character of the business-environment relationship? How they are creating significant entrepreneurial opportunities for individuals and companies? Around the world, the movement toward "sustainable development" has caused many firms to adopt policies and practices that reflect what is sometimes called a "sustainable business" or "triple bottom line" approach. "Triple bottom line" refers to the demonstration of strong performance across economic, social, and environmental indicators.

Those measures serve as indicators of fiduciary responsibility to a growing set of concerned investors and therefore can help ensure access to capital. They also enable innovators to lower costs, create strategic differentiation, reduce risk, and position themselves for competitive advantage over rivals less attuned to trends.

The deep roots of sustainability thinking are now evident in widespread and increasingly visible activities worldwide, and Sustainability, Innovation, and Entrepreneurship explores this evolution; its necessity, its implications and its progression.


The role of Nurse Consultant was developed as part of government strategy to reform the National Health Service. This thesis is an evaluation of my practice in this 'new' role. The evaluation was undertaken in three phases. In the first phase, from an extensive qualitative data base collected from my day-to-day practice, I analysed and constructed four short stories of my practice. Told in poetic form, these short stories evocatively portray the difficulties faced in caring for people at the end of life in an acute hospital and illuminate key themes that shaped my experience in this 'new role'. These were finding my place and being put in my place, the emotion inherent in my day-to-day practice, developing and enhancing palliative care practice, and brokering professional presence and hybridity. In the second phase, I analysed and evaluated the short stories to identify the values that influenced my nursing leadership and patient care. From these a theory of my practice was constituted. This theory was critically examined in the third phase of analysis. The theory emphasises the importance of leadership as a relational practice, through which patient care is enhanced. This practice is influenced by professional power interrelations, the meanings of palliative care within the acute Trust and the cultural divide between organisations, particularly between nursing and education and acute care and palliative care. The thesis concludes with reflections on the research process and the tension I experienced in researching my own practice in a culture where 'evidence-based practice' is the norm and empirical evidence is most valued. My understanding and theory of leadership portrayed in this thesis stems from a different tradition. Grounded in observation and reflection on practice, it provides a perspective on the role currently absent from the literature, especially in the field of palliative care.


To establish National Reference Method (NRM) for , operational performance of 5 different commercial gravimetric-based measuring instruments was assessed at Bulkwang monitoring station from January 23, 2014 to February 28, 2014. First, physical properties, design, and functional performance of the instruments were assessed. Evaluation was carried out to determine whether operating method for the instruments and levels of QA/QC activities meet the data quality objectives (DQOs). To verify whether DQOs were satisfied, reproducibility of QA/QC procedures, accuracy, relative sensitivity, limit of detection, margin of error, and coefficient of determination of the instruments were also evaluated. Results of flow rate measurement of 15 candidate instruments indicated that all the instruments met performance criteria with accuracy deviation of 4.0% and reproducibility of 0.6%. Comparison of final mass concentrations showed that the coefficient of determination () values were greater than or equal to 0.9995, and concentration gradient ranged from 0.97 to 1.03. All the instruments satisfied criteria for NRM with the estimated precision of 1.47~2.60%, accuracy of -1.90~3.00%, and absolute accuracy of 1.02~3.12%. This study found that one particular type of measuring instrument was proved to be excellent, with overall evaluation criteria satisfied.


The high credit card interest rates in Turkey attracted considerable attention in recent years to regulate the Turkish credit card industry. Before any regulation decision taken, there needs to be better conceptualization and analysis of the Turkish credit card market. First, we highlight the most striking aspects of the Turkish credit card market. After exposing the problem, we benefit from the existing theoretical and empirical studies on the structure of competition in the credit card industry. Potential reasons for the lack of competitions are denoted. Having the existing studies in mind, we finally, construct an empirical model to estimate the market structure in the Turkish credit card industry. Newly disseminated data on the Turkish credit card industry is first introduced in this paper. Our empirical results are based on the panel data set of 22 banks from the second quarter of 2001 to the third quarter of 2005. In addition to random and fixed effects regressions, instrumental variable fixed effect regressions are run on this sample. Our results robustly conclude that the credit cards interest rates in Turkey are economically insensitive to the changes in the cost of fund. This result shows lack of strong competition Turkish credit card market.


This paper introduces the first strategy for stochastic bandits with unit variance Gaussian noise that is simultaneously minimax optimal up to constant factors, asymptotically optimal, and never worse than the classical upper confidence bound strategy up to universal constant factors. Preliminary empirical evidence is also promising. Besides this, a conjecture on the optimal form of the regret is shown to be false and a finite-time lower bound on the regret of any strategy is presented that very nearly matches the finite-time upper bound of the newly proposed strategy.


Oligonucleotide-guided nucleases (OGNs) have enabled rapid advances in precision genome engineering. Though much effort has gone into characterizing and mitigating mismatch tolerance for the most widely adopted OGN, Streptococcus pyogenes Cas9 (SpCas9), potential off-target interactions may still limit applications where on-target specificity is critical. Here we present a new axis to control mismatch sensitivity along the recognition-conferring spacer sequence of SpCas9's guide RNA (gRNA). We introduce mismatch-evading loweredthermostability guides (melt-guides) and exhibit how nucleotide-type substitutions in the spacer can reduce cleavage of sequences mismatched by as few as a single base pair. Cotransfecting melt-guides into human cell culture with an exonuclease involved in DNA repair, we observe indel formation on a standard genomic target at approximately 70% the rate of canonical gRNA and undetectable on off-target data.


The most efficient mechanism of the formation of molecular hydrogen in the current universe is by association of hydrogen atoms on the surface of interstellar dust grains. The details of the processes of its formation and release from the grain are of great importance in the physical and chemical evolution of the space environments where it takes place. The main puzzle is still the fate of the 4.5 eV released in H2 formation and whether it goes into internal energy (rovibrational excitation), translational kinetic energy, or heating of the grain. The modality of the release of this energy affects the dynamics of the ISM and its evolution toward star formation. We present results of the detection of the rovibrational states of the just-formed H2 as it leaves the surface of a silicate. We find that rovibrationally excited molecules are ejected into the gas phase immediately after formation over a much wider range of grain temperatures than anticipated. Our results can be explained by the presence of two mechanisms of molecule formation that operate in partially overlapping ranges of grain temperature. A preliminary analysis of the relative importance of these two mechanisms is given. These unexpected findings, which will be complemented with experiments on the influence of factors such as silicate morphology, should be of great interest to the astrophysics and astrochemistry communities.


Mary Cecil Allen (1893-1962) was an Australian artist and art educator who moved to New York in 1927, where she became a lecturer and exhibited in leading galleries and museums. Although a resident of the United States until her death, Allen returned to Melbourne in 193536, 1950 and 1959-60, becoming an advocate of modern art and a symbol of modernity. On each occasion, she attracted large audiences to her lectures on modernism and controversially exhibited her latest work, thereby exerting a considerable influence on attitudes towards modern art in Melbourne. As a glamorous and confident modern woman, she came to represent the seductive vitality of American modernity and acted as a vehicle of Americanisation. This article examines these three visits, tracing Allen's activities and reception, and situating them within a wider cultural context.


This thesis introduces novel and significant results regarding the analysis and synthesis of positive systems, especially under l1 and L1 performance. It describes stability analysis, controller synthesis, and bounding positivity-preserving observer and filtering design for a variety of both discrete and continuous positive systems. It subsequently derives computationally efficient solutions based on linear programming in terms of matrix inequalities, as well as a number of analytical solutions obtained for special cases. The thesis applies a range of novel approaches and fundamental techniques to the further study of positive systems, thus contributing significantly to the theory of positive systems, a hot topic in the field of control.


We extend the macroscopic nonequilibrium thermomechanical multiphase flow theory proposed by Hassanizadeh and Gray for porous media to analyze a set of drainage and imbibition experiments in trickle beds. The nonequilibrium model rests on inclusion of mass and momentum conservations for the gas-liquid interface, nonequilibrium capillary pressure, Helmholtz free energy gradients in the body supply of momentum for fluid bulk phases and gas-liquid interface, and mass exchange rates between interface and fluid bulks accounting for production and destruction of gas-liquid interfacial area. To solve the nonequilibrium model, entropy-consistent constitutive relationships are derived and calibrated using liquid holdup and bed pressure drop measurements in drainage and imbibition. The model captures very well the decay (drainage), and breakthrough (imbibition) curvatures of liquid holdup and pressure drop kinetics, while model closer inspection allows assessing the role of nonequilibrium capillary pressure and of dynamic interfacial mass exchanges for the production/destruction of interfacial area. © 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 58: 3123–3134, 2012


Social recommendation is effective in improving the recommendation performance by leveraging social relations from online social networking platforms. Social relations among users provide friends' information for modeling users' interest in candidate items and help items expose to potential consumers (i.e., item attraction). However, there are two issues haven't been well-studied: Firstly, for the user interests, existing methods typically aggregate friends' information contextualized on the candidate item only, and this shallow context-aware aggregation makes them suffer from the limited friends' information. Secondly, for the item attraction, if the item's past consumers are the friends of or have a similar consumption habit to the targeted user, the item may be more attractive to the targeted user, but most existing methods neglect the relation enhanced context-aware item attraction. To address the above issues, we proposed DICER (Dual sIde deepContext-awarEmodulation for socialRecommendation). Specifically, we first proposed a novel graph neural network to model the social relation and collaborative relation, and on top of high-order relations, a dual side deep context-aware modulation is introduced to capture the friends' information and item attraction. Empirical results on two real-world datasets show the effectiveness of the proposed model and further experiments are conducted to help understand how the dual context-aware modulation works.


Tuberculous involvement of the genitourinary tract is well reported in the literature. However, reports of glomerular lesions of the kidney due to tuberculosis are rare. Tuberculosis has been identified as the most common infectious cause of granulomatous interstitial nephritis (GIN). We report a 23-year-old female patient with a membranous nephropathy and GIN due to tuberculosis. She presented with renal failure and nephrotic-range proteinuria, both of which resolved with the treatment of tuberculosis. There is only one report, from Japan, of a patient with membranous nephropathy and tuberculous granulomatous nephritis. Our patient is the second with tuberculous GIN and membranous nephropathy. In our patient, the close temporal relationship between the infection and glomerulonephritis, an ulcerated tuberculin skin test, the response to the treatment and the absence of any other systemic disease that might cause the glomerulonephritis suggested an association between tuberculosis and membranous nephropathy. However, a causal association can only be speculation, because membranous nephropathy could remit spontaneously. It is also possible that it might relapse at a later date when the tuberculosis is inactive. Therefore, the association might be either coincidental or causal, and could become clearer as similar patients are reported.


Background: Body composition assessment is useful in COPD patients for the evaluation of muscular depletion responsible for low exercise capacity. Aims: (a) to describe body composition in COPD patients referred to pulmonary rehabilitation; (b) to examine the relationships between body composition and exercise capacity; (c) to test if segmental wasting of lower limbs muscle mass correlates with exercise capacity. Method: 50 consecutive COPD patients referred for rehabilitation performed six minutes walking test (6MWT) and body composition assessment by direct segmental multifrequency bioelectrical impedance analysis. Results: The prevalence of nutritional depletion (low body mass index and/or low fat free mass index - FFMI) among our COPD patients was 20%. 16% of the patients had low FFMI and 54 % had low SMMI (skeletal muscle mass index). FFMI and SMMI both correlated significantly with 6MWD (r=0.352, p=0.012, and r=0.312, p=0.027, respectively). The segmental body composition assessment revealed that 76% of the patients had unbalanced upper/lower skeletal muscle mass, i.e. mean upper limbs lean mass predicted was greater than lower limb lean mass predicted: 108,8% versus 87,3% These "unbalanced" patients had significantly lower mean 6MWD: 361.5 m versus 434.6 m, p= 0.038 in "balanced" patients. Conclusions: .The percentage of patients with low SMMI was greater than those with low FFM. FFMI and SSMI correlated significantly with 6MWD. Segmental body composition assessment revealed that "unbalanced" patients had significantly lower 6MWD. These results show that SMMI and segmental body composition evaluation are useful for an early detection of muscular impairment in COPD patients.


The phenomenon of polysemy, often illustrated with words like 'book' or 'window', tells against the idea that human linguistic meanings determine extensions; see, e.g., Chomsky (1995, 2000) and Collins (2017). If 'book' has one sense that corresponds to certain abstract contents and another sense that corresponds to certain concrete vehicles for contents, then as discussed below, dubious maneuvers are required to maintain that some set of things is the extension of 'book'. Likewise, if 'window' has a sense that corresponds to certain apertures and a distinct sense that corresponds to certain panes (perhaps framed for installation into apertures of the relevant sort), then dubious maneuvers are required to maintain that 'window' has an extension.1 Pietroski (2005, 2010, 2014, 2017a, 2018, 2021) connects this point with other reasons for denying that words have extensions. The proposed alternative is that meanings are recipes for how to generate distinctive concepts—mental symbols of a special sort—from a stock of basic concepts that can be accessed via lexical addresses; where a single address can be shared by a family of concepts that are not coextensive. On this view, a word that is often used to fetch a concept C may be used on other occasions to fetch a related but distinct concept C*. Sentences like (1) and (2) can help motivate this idea. (1) The window they had cut in the wall was nicer than the one they installed. (2) The book she brought weighed two pounds, but it had been well reviewed. It seems that in an utterance of (1), a speaker can use 'window' and the anaphoric pronoun 'one' to express—and invite a hearer to access—distinct concepts from her 'window'-family. Similarly, it seems that in an utterance of (2), 'The book she brought' and 'it' can be used to express concepts whose constituents include different concepts from the 'book'-family. Still, one might hope to salvage the hypothesis that meanings determine extensions by saying that extensions include mappings from contexts to senses that determine more classical extensions. Perhaps in contexts where (1) is used to make a coherent claim, 'window' has its aperture-sense, and 'one' has the pane-sense of its antecedent. Appealing to contexts in this way risks the charge of saving a dogma by trivializing it. But in my view, the problem is worse: the meaning of a polysemous expression does not determine a mapping from contexts to senses. Correlatively, I claim, sentence meanings do not map contexts to propositions (or truth values). In this paper, my central argument will focus on (3), which can be used in multiple ways. (3) The window that Click preferred was nicer than the one that Clack preferred. The key point is that a speaker of English can use (3) to make an assertion, and thereby exclude some possibilities that had been left open, without using 'window' to express any sense. A speaker can use (3) without knowing or indicating whether the windows in question were apertures, fillers, or one of each. Expressions can be used in conceptually neutral ways. Such uses are, I contend, unsurprising if expression meanings are recipes for how to build concepts. Sections two through four provide the details. In section five, I suggest that the conclusion applies even to words like 'water' and other so-called kind terms. Section one addresses some preliminary matters, including my uses of expressions like 'word', 'language', and 'meaning'.