In biofilms, microorganisms are embedded in a hydrated matrix that provides a stable structure and protection against influences fromthe environment. Thismatrix is formed by extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) that are produced by the microorganisms of the biofilm. A major part of the microorganisms in nature lives in aggregated forms like biofilms. Yet, knowledge about biofilm formation, composition and structure is limited. A specific formof biofilm is granular sludge. A granule is a spherical biofilmthat is not attached to a surface or carrier. In wastewater treatment, granular sludge systems are used for efficient wastewater treatment. Due to the high settling velocity of granules, granular sludge-based plants can be built smaller, compared to conventional plants (with flocculent sludge). Anaerobic ammonium oxidizing (anammox) bacteria are applied in granular sludge systems in wastewater treatment. Anammox bacteria are important players in the nitrogen cycle in wastewater treatment, as well as in the natural environment. Although the formation of granular sludge is not completely understood, EPS are the key components in the formation of the matrix that provides a stable structure wherein the bacteria are embedded. The aim of this thesis was to characterize the EPS composition of anammox granular sludge.


The transcription factor and tumor suppressor protein p53 undergoes rapid turnover in the cell by the ubiquitin-proteasome system. Not only is it monoubiquitinated, but p53 is modified by chains of ubiquitin molecules to ensure efficient degradation. Grossman et al. have determined that p53 is polyubiquitinated by p300, a transcriptional regulator. This enzymatic activity settles some of the outstanding riddles of how p300 can control both p53 activation and destruction. Because p300 regulates various short-lived transcription factors, the finding may have broader implications. S. R. Grossman, M. E. Deato, C. Brignone, H. M. Chan, A. L. Kung, H. Tagami, Y. Nakatani, D. M. Livingston, Polyubiquitination of p53 by a ubiquitin ligase activity of p300. Science 300, 342-344 (2003). [Abstract] [Full Text]


According to the fair play defense of political obligations citizens have a reciprocity-based duty to share the costs involved in the production of public goods. But sometimes, states produce collective goods through wrongdoing. For example, sometimes states' wrongful immigration policies can contribute to the welfare of their own populations. Do citizens have duties of reciprocity in light of such wrongful benefits? I argue that the answer to this question is negative. Drawing on the observation that beneficiaries of wrongdoing incur compensatory duties to the victims of that wrongdoing, I argue that, rather than having a duty of reciprocity for wrongful benefits, citizens have a duty to disgorge the benefits in compensation. Furthermore, the fair play defense of political obligations entails that citizens can be justified in disobeying the law in order to comply with their compensatory duties to victims of their state's wrongdoing.


In most networks, it is simple to find the identity of participants communicating with each other or to link packet flows together. Our objective is to develop a proactive routing protocol for ad hoc networks preserving the anonymity of the nodes as much as possible and assures the unlinkability of packet flows between two given nodes. In order to develop practical solutions, we propose to accept that the identity of the nodes would not be perfectly hidden.


BACKGROUND
Healthy lifestyle has been associated with decreased risk of coronary heart disease. In contrast, little is known about its association with stroke risk.

METHODS
This is a prospective cohort study among 37 636 women 45 years or older participating in the Women's Health Study. Stroke was self-reported and confirmed by means of medical record review. We considered the following self-reported lifestyle factors: smoking, alcohol consumption, exercise, body mass index, and diet. The health index was calculated from these variables by assigning scores from 0 to 4 to the respective variable categories, with a higher score indicating healthier behavior. Healthy behavior was defined as never smoking, alcohol consumption between 4 and 10.5 drinks per week, exercise 4 or more times per week, body mass index (calculated as weight in kilograms divided by the square of height in meters) less than 22, and a diet high in cereal fiber, folate, and omega-3 fatty acids, with a high ratio of polyunsaturated to saturated fat, and low in trans fat and glycemic load.

RESULTS
During 10 years of follow-up, 450 strokes (356 ischemic, 90 hemorrhagic, and 4 undefined) were confirmed. Compared with participants with 0 to 4 health index points (4.3%), women with 17 to 20 health index points (4.7%) had multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (95% confidence interval) of 0.45 (0.24-0.83; P<.001 for trend) for total stroke, 0.29 (0.14-0.63; P<.001 for trend) for ischemic stroke, and 1.27 (0.37-4.29; P = .62 for trend) for hemorrhagic stroke.

CONCLUSIONS
In this large prospective cohort of apparently healthy women, a healthy lifestyle consisting of abstinence from smoking, low body mass index, moderate alcohol consumption, regular exercise, and healthy diet was associated with a significantly reduced risk of total and ischemic stroke but not of hemorrhagic stroke. Our findings underscore the importance of healthy behaviors in the prevention of stroke.


— Due to the volatility of the cost and sustainability concerns associated with the rare earth permanent magnets, alternative product designs using less or no rare earth contents have, recently, gained popularity. Another method to address this need is to apply a magnet recycling process, such as the novel HPMS (Hydrogen Processing of Magnetic Scrap) which can be applied to the end of life products such as Hard Drive Disks (HDDs). Despite the growing research on the background science of different recycling techniques, a practical make, use and evaluation of recycled magnets in a real life application, is rarely attended. To address this gap, in this paper and for the first time, the viability of the HPMS recycled magnets for use in a permanent magnet traction motor is investigated. On this basis, a detailed description and testing of the recycling process and the magnet production for a customized traction motor design is provided. Furthermore, the behavior of the motor using the final magnet product is analyzed using simulations and prototype testing. Based on the results, the proposed recycled magnets satisfy the overall requirements, while demonstrating similar or better electromagnetic performance compared to the alternative low cost ferrite magnets.


The results of our investigations may be summarized as follows: (1) In the heart of the Decapod Crustacea three systems of nervous elements can be distinguished, viz. ( a ) a local system of neurons which are distributed in the heart itself; ( b ) a system of fibres connecting the heart with the central nervous system; and ( c ) a system of nerves which supply the valves of the arteries arising from the heart as well as the muscles of the pericardium. (2) The local nervous system consists of a nervous trunk situated in the dorsal wall of the heart near to its inner surface from which branches to the muscle-fibres of the heart are distributed. The main trunk is generally called the ganglionic trunk from the presence of nerve-cells in it. The cells are of two kinds: large and small. Their number was found to be constant, and comprises in Cancer pagurus, Maia squinado, and Homarus vulgaris--the species which could be best investigated as to this point--nine elements., viz. five large and four small cells. It seems that in other species of marine Decapods the number of cells in the hearts, if not the same, does not at any rate vary much. Potamobius, however, has not less than sixteen elements (eight large, and eight, maybe, nine or ten, small ones). The cells are multipolar in shape. Their long processes--the axons--after sending out shorter ramifications run in regular courses, giving off long branches to all the muscles of the heart including those of the ostia, but excluding the muscle-fibres of the arterial valves. The short processes, which I regard as dendrites, spring from the cell-bodies and from the proximal parts of the axons. The endings of the dendrites which ramify in the muscle-bundles differ in appearance from the terminations of the long branches springing from the axons. The small cells possess similar processes, i.e. dendrites and axons. The latter could not be traced well. In the main or ganglionic trunk which in different species has different shapes, the following elements are present: ( a ) large and small cells, the arrangement of which varies in different species, but in all cases the small cells are situated in the posterior part of the trunk; ( b ) the axons of the large and small cells and a part of their branches; ( c ) the fibres of the dorsal nerves; ( d ) the neuropile-like networks of fibrils where the synapses between the efferent fibres and the neurons of the local system take place. These neuropiles form several more compact masses in Brachyura whilst in Macrura they are more diffusely scattered in the ganglionic trunk. (3) The fibres connecting the heart with the central nervous system take their origin in the infra-oesophageal ganglion and travel in the nerves running on the thoracic muscles. As separate bundles, one on each side, they turn towards the dorsal surface of the heart; hence the term nervi cardiaci dorsales is proposed; the other term--regulator nerves--indicates their physiological character. In their further course these nerves pierce the heart-wall and reach the local nervous system. The fibres of the dorsal nerves are of various diameters. The thicker, which in the description have been called System I, run throughout the ganglionic trunk and break up therein in many richly arborizing branches which at many places resemble in appearance the neuropile-like networks of fibrils. They are the fields of conjunction of all the fibres of System I with each other, as well as with the neurons of the local system. From the latter the following parts are in close relation with the fibrils of System I: ( a ) the collaterals of the axons entering the neuropile; ( b ) the dendrites; ( c ) the cell-bodies surrounded by a network of fibrils of the dorsal nerves; these basketworks, however, could not be seen in all the species investigated, and occur on the large cells only. Some branches of System I were found leaving the ganglionic trunk, but their destination is uncertain. The remaining fibres of the dorsal nerves which, it may be assumed, do not belong to the System I are of smaller but not equal diameter. Some take their course to the muscles without entering the ganglionic trunk, others travel in the latter, but their distribution could not be made out. (4) The third system of nerves, which enter into relationship with the heart by innervating the valves situated at the origin of the main arterial trunks, contains the following elements: ( a ) Nervi segmentales cord is, which number, as was found in Astacus, four on each side, branch from the thoracic nerves and pass on the ventral side of the pericardium towards the middle line. Here they join into--according to the species--one or two bundles, which take a longitudinal course. From these bundles branches are given off to the valves of five arteries, viz. arteriae antennales, arteriae hepaticae, and aorta posterior, and to the muscles of the ventral pericardial plate. The latter receive also branches springing directly from the segmental nerves. The system of the segmental nerves of the heart is connected with the nerves of the dorsal abdominal artery which in its turn receives segmental nerves originating in the abdominal ganglia and ending in the valves of the arteries arising from the vessel named. ( b ) The nervus cardiacus anterior arises from the stomatogastric nerve and runs alongside the median anterior artery. The territory of the terminal branches of this nerve, known as 'nerf cardiaque' of Lemoine, has been found to be confined entirely to the valve of the median anterior vessel (aorta anterior s. arteria ophthalmica). No connexion with the nerves of other valves could be ascertained. (5) Besides the three nervous systems enumerated which are in relation with the heart itself, several nerve branches running from the thoracic nerves penetrate the pericardial cavity. They break up here in the neuropile-like networks situated on the so-called ligaments of the heart and on the connective tissue covering the dorsal wall of the heart. (6) The probable function of all these elements is thought to be as follows: The local system is an 'autonomic' nervous apparatus from which the muscles of the heart receive impulses necessary for their regular contractions. The fact that the dendrites of the cells end in the muscles suggests that the rhythmical discharges in the nerve-cells are under the influence of the rhythmical action of the muscles. Thus, there may be secured a reciprocal regulation of the process in two parts of the neuromuscular apparatus of the heart. The dorsal nerves convey to the heart the inhibitory and accelerator fibres. Some evidence seems to indicate that the thicker fibres which have been found giving synapses with the neurons of the local system are endowed with the inhibitory function. The nerves of the arterial valves may be considered as carrying impulses which hold the muscle-fibres in contraction during the diastolic period of the heart. The nerves in the pericardial cavity, ending in fine networks, have evidently some sensory function.


Abstract Estrogen is a neuro-protective hormone in various central nervous system (CNS) disorders. The present study evaluated the role of estrogen during experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) at doses selected to mimic any suppressive potential from the hormone during pregnancy. Here, mice were ovariectomized and then 2 weeks later treated with MOG antigen to induce EAE. Concurrently, mice then received (subcutaneously) an implanted pellet to deliver varying estrogen amounts over a 21-day period. Clinical scores and other parameters were monitored daily for the 21 days. At the end of the period, brain/spinal cord histology was performed to measure lymphocyte infiltration; T-cell profiles were determined through ELISA, flow cytometry, and real-time PCR. Transcription factor expression levels in the CNS were assessed using real-time PCR; T-cell differentiation was evaluated via flow cytometry. The results demonstrated that estrogen inhibited development of EAE. Histological studies revealed limited leukocyte infiltration into the CNS. High and medium dose of estrogen increased TH2 and Treg cell production of interleukin (IL)-4, IL-10, and transforming growth factor (TGF)-β, but concurrently resulted in a significant reduction in production of interferon (IFN)-γ, IL-17, and IL-6. Flow cytometry revealed there were also significant decreases in the percentages of TH1 and TH17 cells, as well as significant increase in percentages of Treg and TH2 cells in the spleen and lymph nodes. Real-time PCR results indicated that high- and medium-dose estrogen treatments reduced T-bet and ROR-γt factor expression, but enhanced Foxp3 and GATA3 expression. Collectively, these results demonstrated that a medium dose of estrogen – similar to a pregnancy level of estrogen – could potentially reduce the incidence and severity of autoimmune EAE and possibly other autoimmune pathologies.


Exposure to different ambient pollutants maybe more toxic to lung than exposure to a single pollutant. In this study, we discussed the inflammation and oxidative stress responses of rat lung caused by ozone and PM2.5 versus that of rats exposed to saline, ozone, or single PM2.5. Wistar rats inhaled 0.8 ppm ozone or air for 4 h and then placed in air for 3 h following intratracheal instillation with 0, 0.2 (low dose), 0.8 (medium dose), 3.2 (high dose) mg/rat PM2.5 dissolved in sterile saline (0.25 mL/rat), repeated twice per week for 3 weeks, the cumulative doses of PM2.5 in animals were 1.2, 4.8, and 19.2 mg. Rats were sacrificed 24 h after the last (sixth) exposure. The collected bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) was analyzed for inflammatory cells and cytokines. Lung tissues were processed for light microscopic and transmission electron microscopic (TEM) examinations. Results showed that total cell number in BALF of PM2.5‐exposed groups were higher than control (p < 0.05). PM2.5 instillation caused dose‐trend increase in tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF‐α), interleukin‐6, lactate dehydrogenase, and total protein of BALF. Exposure to ozone alone only caused TNF‐α significant change in above‐mentioned indicators of lung injury. On the other hand, ozone could enhance PM2.5‐induced inflammatory changes and pathological characters in rat lungs. SOD and GSH‐Px activities in lung were reduced in PM2.5‐exposed rats with and without prior ozone exposure compared to control. To determine whether the PM2.5 and ozone affect endothelium system, iNOS, eNOS, and ICAM‐1 mRNA levels in lung were analyzed by real‐time PCR. These data demonstrated that inflammation and oxidative stress were involved in toxicology mechanisms of PM2.5 in rat lung and ozone potentiated these effects induced by PM2.5. These results have implications for understanding the pulmonary effects induced by ozone and PM2.5. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Environ Toxicol 30: 343–356, 2015.


Bangladesh is a global leader in inland fish production and has been ranked as the fifth largest producer of aquaculture food fish in the world. The fisheries sector, including aquaculture, provides employment to 17.8 million people, out of which women constitute 1.4 million. The shrimp industry alone employs over one million people in its processing factories, out of which 88.64 percent are women. While women play a significant role in aquaculture production in Bangladesh, their contributions remain under-reported. While there is some empirical information regarding women's roles in and outcomes from aquaculture in Bangladesh, much of it is project-based (regarding homestead aquaculture) or worker's rights-based (regarding shrimp factory employment). More fundamentally, there is a dearth of information regarding women's empowerment in relation to aquaculture, and the associated enabling and constraining factors. This study addresses this gap by exploring women's empowerment in aquaculture in Bangladesh, including positive outcomes and limitations.


Data quality is crucial to any data analysis task. Many imperfection-handling techniques avoid overfitting or simply remove offending portions of the data. Polishing identifies blemishes in the data and makes corrections to retain and recover as much information as possible. When using information collected from channels susceptible to disturbances, data quality is a concern-especially when the primary objective is to assimilate and understand the data. Imperfections can arise from many sources, including transmission and bandwidth constraints, faults in sensor devices, irregularities in sampling, and transcription errors. An intuitive application that exemplifies handling data imperfections is the spell-checker. Developing such a spell-checker would require novel techniques for repairing data imperfections. We are exploring such techniques using a data correction method called polishing. Here, we compare polishing to two alternative approaches to handling data imperfections, focusing on how to evaluate and validate data correction mechanisms.


A lack of financial literacy for many people in the United States is a prominent problem that has largely gone unaddressed, but one that can have devastating results. Currently, 43% of student loan borrowers are not making payments and 33% of American adults have $0 saved for retirement (Pascarella 2-4). These alarming statistics amid a strong economic environment highlight the negative affects a lack of financial literacy can have. Higher education at LMU is geared towards providing students an education of the whole person to enable them to become better people. This research investigates whether or not LMU prepares students to be financially literate. It seeks to bring attention to the current rates of financial literacy among LMU students across various majors and determine if there is a link between rates of financial literacy improvement and a student's area of study over the four years of education. The results of the study indicate concerning levels of financial illiteracy across all areas and stages of study. Students studying finance exhibited the highest levels of financial literacy in both the beginning and ending years of study. There were significant positive changes across the four years of study in the College of Business Administration, but not for Non-CBA students. While LMU does not currently have a core personal finance component available to all students, this study indicates that the significant discrepancy in financial literacy change might be cause for further investigation into personal finance education for Non-CBA LMU students.


Background Doublecortin-like kinase 1 (DCLK1) has been proven to be involved in numerous tumors, while its role in prostate cancer (PCa) is still unclear. This study aimed at investigating the expression pattern and prognostic value of DCLK1 in PCa. Patients and methods Real-time polymerase chain reaction and Western blot were employed to determine DCLK1 mRNA and protein levels in 25 paired fresh samples of PCa and benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) as well as in PCa cell lines. Immunohistochemistry (IHC) was also performed in 125 PCa and 65 BPH tissues to assess DCLK1 expression. Then, the association of DCLK1 expression with clinicopathological parameters and biochemical recurrence (BCR) after radical prostatectomy was statistically analyzed. In addition, the role of DCLK1 in PCa cell proliferation, migration, and invasion was evaluated by using MTT and transwell assays. Results The mRNA and protein levels of DCLK1 were markedly higher in the fresh samples of PCa than that in BPH. Consistently, IHC revealed increased expression of DCLK1 in PCa paraffin-embedded tissues compared with BPH. Moreover, increased DCLK1 expression was significantly associated with postoperative Gleason grading (P=0.012), pathological T stage (P=0.001), seminal vesicle invasion (P=0.026), and lymph node involvement (P=0.017), respectively. The Kaplan–Meier curve analysis demonstrated that high DCLK1 expression was associated with lower postoperative BCR-free survival (bRFS). Furthermore, multivariate Cox analysis showed that postoperative Gleason grading (P=0.018), pathological T stage (P<0.001), seminal vesicle invasion (P=0.012), lymph node involvement (P=0.014), and DCLK1 expression (P=0.014) were independent predictors of BCR. In vitro, the overexpression and knockdown of DCLK1 in PCa cell lines indicated that DCLK1 could promote cell proliferation, migration, and invasion. Conclusion Increased DCLK1 expression is associated with PCa aggressiveness and may independently predict poor bRFS in patients with PCa.


Multi-wire sawing process with slurry has been popularly adopted for wafer slicing of silicon substrates for solar cells. This paper is to investigate the chip size estimation for effective blending ratio of mixing slurry of wire sawing. Different combination of slurry has been studied with microscopic pictures of abrasive grits by SEM and distribution of particle size of slurry. The chip size can be estimated by the developed method and then the TTV of sliced substrates is used to evaluate the blending ratio of slurry for cost efficiency of wire sawing. Experimental results indicate that the slurry with certain ratio of reborn grits increases the TTV value of sliced substrates. As the weight percentage of silicon chips is above 6 % for the blending ratio of 50% reborn abrasive grits after sawing run 2, the slurry is suggested to be changed to new slurry for wire sawing. Under this developed rule, the average TTV can be maintained under 0.016 mm for nominal thickness of 200 m silicon substrates. Results of this paper can be used to estimate the feasible blending ratio for maintaining the TTV under the desired specifications of silicon substrates for cost efficiency.


This contribution presents a novel multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) detection scheme for quadrature amplitude modulation (QAM). The proposed method is based on the slowest descent (SD) method and is suitable for both iterative and non-iterative detectors. Similar to other low-complexity detection schemes, such as sphere decoding;, the new SD approach restricts the maximization/marginalization to a small set of candidate vectors. Simulation results indicate that the method achieves a close-to-optimal performance, with a complexity that scales only linearly with the number of transmit antennas


In the current era of emerging technologies such as deep learning, artificial intelligence, multimedia data analysis, Internet of Things (IoT), the significant role of vibration analysis can be seen in biomedical, nonlinear dynamics, and control engineering. Despite the numerous applications, lots of challenges and issues are still needed to address like nonlinearity, fault diagnosis, vibration spectrum analysis, and biomedical data monitoring and processing. The aim of this Special Issue is to cover and address all the aforesaid challenges and issues and practical solutions for such emerging technologies. We have received 21 manuscripts in total for this Special Issue across the globe and after the rigorous review process, only 10 manuscripts have been accepted for publication. A brief overview of contributions to this Special Issue is as underneath. Zhu Jia, and Ashutosh Sharma contributes an article entitled "An Exhaustive Study Engine Vibration Fault Analysis Based on Data Mining". In this article, the authors have proposed the method for the detection of rotating equipment faults by utilizing the vibration analysis. The spectral content is extracted and fed into the classifier like k-Nearest neighbors (KNN), backpropagation neural network BPNN, Sparse Representation Classifier (SRC), Support vector machine (SVM) and Random Forest (RF) for the type of failure prediction and analyze the unbalance condition (UNB), bearing faults (BDF), and broken rotor bars (BRB) faults. The RF classifier is better as compared to other classifiers in terms of accuracy, precision and recalls values by approximately 10.92 %, 11.03 % and 20.13 % respectively. Genling Huang, Lijuan Qiao, Shaweta Khanna, Pljonkin Anton Pavlovich, and Sandeep Tiwari contributes an article entitled "Research on Fan Vibration Fault Diagnosis based on Image Recognition". In this paper, a novel image recognition technique is proposed for vibration-based fault diagnosis using the spectrum images of the vibration signals. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) classifier yields better performance in terms of various performance parameters. The percentage improvement in accuracy for ANN classification methods over Support Vector Machine (SVM), k-Nearest Neighbours (kNN) and Random Forest Ensemble (RFE) methods are 10.01 %, 4.51 % and 2.01 % respectively. Effectiveness of the proposed image recognition-based technique is compared with the state-of-the-art methods. Xiaohong Zhang, Min Lin and Shalini Sharma, Shaweta Khanna, and Pljonkin Anton Pavlovich contributes an article entitled "Optical Fiber Deformation and Vibration Monitoring at Distinct Data Rates with Distinct Photo-Detectors Devices". In this article, two different methodologies for optical fiber deformation aiding vibration monitoring have been proposed. One is using the pin diode as a photo-detector device and other is manifesting the avalanche photodetector. It is found that pin diode and avalanche photodiode are exhibiting a quality factor of 40.5944 and 43.3523 at 30 Gbps, respectively. It has been concluded that use of avalanche photodiode at high bit rates is utilized. Yubin Liu, Weiying Ding, Yufen Feng, and Yuxiu Guo contributes an article entitled INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE: FUTURISTIC TRENDS AND EMERGENCE OF TECHNOLOGY IN BIOMEDICAL, NONLINEAR DYNAMICS AND CONTROL ENGINEERING. GENNADY VESELOV, ALEXEY TSELYKH, ASHUTOSH SHARMA 1316 JOURNAL OF VIBROENGINEERING. SEPTEMBER 2021, VOLUME 23, ISSUE 6 "Ensembled Mechanical Fault Recognition System Based on Deep Learning Algorithm". In this paper, a combination of feature selection with Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithm is presented for the mechanical fault recognition to deal with smart machine tools. Here, authors propose a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) based fault recognition and classification framework that uses the combination of feature extraction, feature vector decomposition using Empirical Mode Decomposition (EMD) and deep neural network (DNN) for recognising the different fault states of the rotating machinery. The proposed fault recognition and classification method performs better in terms of all the parameters yielding 99.01 % accuracy with respective cross-entropy loss of 0.325 and time complexity of 18 mins and 31 seconds. The comparative shows that the maximum improvement of 12.29 % is attained in terms of accuracy for the proposed fault recognition method. Wei Wang, and Yu Shao contributes an article entitled "Building Vibration Monitoring Based on Digital Optical Cameras". In this paper, the vision-based monitoring with the sources of errors is presented. The PSNR and Structural Similarity are analysed for the performance comparison. The MAPE and MAE values obtained by the presented technique are less for all the signal samples. The proposed method outperforms the existed technique by 3.21 % to 44.02 % in form of MAPE. The proposed method outperforms well with the percentage improvement by 33.93 % and 42.43 % in terms of MAE. YiYuan Cheng, Mingyang Su, Ming Hui,Wei Liu, and Yangbing Zheng contributes an article entitled "Mathematical simulation of adaptive vector finite element method for the analysis of electromagnetic vibration spectrum field response". This article realizes a three-dimensional adaptive vector finite meta-acting algorithm of controlled source electromagnetic vibration spectrum (CSEM) field to address 3D meshing for the simulation of terrain fluctuations and complex electrical anomalies. The two approaches analysed in this article are CSEM onedimensional positive algorithm and finite meta-method. The validity of the proposed algorithm is verified through numerical simulation of one-dimensional and three-dimensional models. The experimental analysis shows the ability and effectiveness of the algorithm to simulate the electromagnetic vibration spectrum field of complex geoelectrical structure. Vilor L. Zakovorotny, and Valery E. Gvindjiliya contributes an article entitled "Self-organization and evolution in dynamic friction systems". This paper deals with the mathematical modeling of the processes of self-organization in a dynamic friction system in combination with the analysis of the equilibrium of the system, its stability, and the manifolds formed in the vicinity of the equilibrium. It is shown that the proposed mathematical models are integro-differential functionally coupled equations that describe self-organization. The study and experiments show that measurement of parameters available for estimation of some coordinates in the dynamic friction system allows one to solve the problem of non-decoupled dynamic monitoring of the state of friction units and opens new ways of improvement of friction units. Anna Diligenskaya, and Alexandr Samokish contributes an article entitled "Parametric Identification of Technological Thermophysics Processes Based on Neural Network Approach". In this paper, the inverse problem of technological thermophysics under the influence of disturbing factors has been studied. The proposed solution combines the advantages of an accurate analytical method, and artificial intelligence methods. The attained results confirm the possibility of obtaining adequate solutions to the inverse problems of thermal conductivity with the intensity of the measurement noise in the range of 0-15%. In the investigated class of solutions, the error in approximating the temperature state can be up to 2-5%, and the error in restoring the unknown characteristic can be up to 7-10%. Hongyan Gu, Huimin Liang, Guoyun Tong, Fang Liu, Yu Liu, Xing Liu, Zhen Jia, and John Paul contributes an article entitled "Research on Vibration Mechanism and Control Technology of Building Structure Under Earthquake Action". In this article author develops a novel dynamically optimized and decentralized mechanism using the PID controller for the selfregulation of conventional PID controller-based method. The proposed simulated model provides 95.54% earthquake tracking precision and can be used for developing the earthquake protective INTRODUCTION TO THE SPECIAL ISSUE: FUTURISTIC TRENDS AND EMERGENCE OF TECHNOLOGY IN BIOMEDICAL, NONLINEAR DYNAMICS AND CONTROL ENGINEERING. GENNADY VESELOV, ALEXEY TSELYKH, ASHUTOSH SHARMA ISSN PRINT 1392-8716, ISSN ONLINE 2538-8460, KAUNAS, LITHUANIA 1317 schemes for the adequate survivability of tall building structures as well as to safeguard the human occupant in it. Anh Son Tran, Anh Huy Vo, Diep Cong Thanh Tu, and Ha Quang Thinh Ngo contributes an article entitled "Dynamical Analysis and Validation of Motion Control by Filtering Performance for Aerial Robotic System in Monitoring Agriculture". In this paper, the research topic related to Autonomous Aerial System (AAS) model to indicate the filtering effects in the agricultural application for making an alternative solution is presented. By utilizing various sensing devices such as gyroscope, accelerometer and compass in real-world hardware, the experimental results could evaluate more precise and efficient design. The findings of this study are to (1) propose the model of AAS and proper filters, (2) launch the verified process and calibration, and (3) demonstrate the competitive performance among filters. We hope that the quality research work published in this special issue will be able to serve the concerned science, environment, and technology. The Guest Editors are thankful to the authors and reviewers who contributed to this special issue with their scientific work and useful comments, respectively.


The emphasis on processors that are both low power and high performance has resulted in the incorporation of dynamic voltage scaling into processor designs. This feature allows one to make fine granularity tradeoffs between power use and performance, provided there is a mechanism in the OS to control that tradeoff. In this paper, we describe a novel software approach to automatically controlling dynamic voltage scaling in order to optimize energy use. Our mechanism is implemented in the Linux kernel and requires no modification of user programs. Unlike previous automated approaches, our method works equally well with irregular and multiprogrammed workloads. Moreover, it has the ability to ensure that the quality of interactive performance is within user specified parameters. Our experiments show that as a result of our algorithm, processor energy savings of as much as 75% can be achieved with only a minimal impact on the user experience.


Very different toxins are responsible for the two types of gastrointestinal diseases caused by Bacillus cereus: the diarrhoeal syndrome is linked to nonhemolytic enterotoxin NHE, hemolytic enterotoxin HBL, and cytotoxin K, whereas emesis is caused by the action of the depsipeptide toxin cereulide. The recently identified cereulide synthetase genes permitted development of a molecular assay that targets all toxins known to be involved in food poisoning in a single reaction, using only four different sets of primers. The enterotoxin genes of 49 strains, belonging to different phylogenetic branches of the B. cereus group, were partially sequenced to encompass the molecular diversity of these genes. The sequence alignments illustrated the high molecular polymorphism of B. cereus enterotoxin genes, which is necessary to consider when establishing PCR systems. Primers directed towards the enterotoxin complex genes were located in different CDSs of the corresponding operons to target two toxin genes with one single set of primers. The specificity of the assay was assessed using a panel of B. cereus strains with known toxin profiles and was successfully applied to characterize strains from food and clinical diagnostic labs as well as for the toxin gene profiling of B. cereus isolated from silo tank populations.


Adams, JB, Edwards, D, Serviette, D, Bedient, AM, Huntsman, E, Jacobs, KA, Del Rossi, G, Roos, BA, and Signorile, JF. Optimal frequency, displacement, duration, and recovery patterns to maximize power output following acute whole-body vibration. J Strength Cond Res 23(1): 237-245, 2009-Power is an important component of general health, fitness, and athletic performance. Traditional overload techniques require considerable time, intensity, and volume of training. Whole-body vibration (WBV) is a potentially less time-consuming method for increasing power performance than traditional training. However, the exact protocols that can maximize power output have not yet been identified. Eleven healthy men, aged 32.3 ± 4.1 years, and 9 healthy women, aged 29.1 ± 3.5 years, performed countermovement jumps (CMJs) of maximal volition to assess peak power pre and post (immediately and at 1, 5, and 10 minutes) randomized WBV stimuli set at different frequency (30, 35, 40, and 50 Hz), displacement (2-4 vs. 4-6 mm), and duration (30, 45, and 60 seconds) combinations. Repeated-measures analysis of variance on peak power normalized to initial power (nPP) revealed no significant effects attributable to duration of stimulus. However, high frequencies were more effective when combined with high displacements, and low frequencies were more effective in conjunction with low displacements (p < 0.05). Additionally, the greatest improvements in nPP occurred at 1 minute posttreatment, with significant improvements lasting through 5 minutes posttreatment (p < 0.05). Optimal acute effects can be attained using as little as 30 seconds of WBV, and they are highest from 1 to 5 minutes posttreatment. Additionally, high frequencies were most effective when applied in conjunction with high displacements, whereas low frequencies were most effective when applied in conjunction with low displacements.


Abstract During the past twenty years, manufacturing industries, particularly in the United States, have gone through a revolution in the use of statistical methods for product quality. Tools for process monitoring and experimental design are much more commonly used today to maintain and improve product quality. A natural extension of the revolution in product quality is to turn focus to product reliability, which is defined as "quality over time." This has given rise to programs like Design for Six Sigma. In this paper we discuss the relationship between engineering quality and reliability and outline the role of statistics and statisticians in the field of reliability. We provide a brief introduction to the statistical tools used in engineering reliability and make some predictions for the future of statistics in engineering reliability.


The physiological parameters that could be reference for trustful diagnosis and prognosis of prostate disorders in dogs were obtained. Thirty six intact male dogs without clinical signs of neither prostatic nor reproductive disorders were allocated according the age in three groups. These animals were submitted to semen manual collection for microbiological exams; transabdominal ultrasonography to evaluate dimensions, ecogenicity, and texture of prostatic parenchyma and aspirative puncture with fine needle for cytological and microbiological analyses. Ultrasonography revealed that the predominant prostatic shape was round with regular surface. Dimensions varied according to age, being small in young animals and large in old ones. There was a positive correlation between prostatic dimensions and body weight. Microbiological exams detected microorganisms on seminal plasma from 11 dogs and prostate tissue aspirated from 10 animals, although they were healthy. Cytology did not reveal any inflammatory, proliferative, or neoplasic alteration in young and middle age dogs, but in three older dogs signs of hyperplasia/hypertrophy was found. It was observed positive correlation between age and cellular area but a negative correlation was observed between nucleus:cytoplasm ratio and craniocaudal dimension.


Technoscientific innovation has played a central role in UK biofuel policy. When the government was proposing mandatory targets in 2007–08, public controversy over 'unsustainable biofuels' was channelled into prospects for future biofuels to avoid environmental harm and land-use conflicts. This vision serves as an imaginary—a feasible, desirable future. Societal benefits have been envisaged according to specific models of economic competitiveness, valuable knowledge, and environmental sustainability—together comprising a prevalent imaginary of future 'sustainable biofuels'. This has informed institutional change along two lines. First, targets are envisaged as a temporary transition until future 'advanced biofuels' make liquid fuel more sustainable. Second, UK research institutes realign their priorities towards seeking investment from foreign counterparts and global energy companies, in the name of making UK science and industry more competitive. Together these measures have been justified as necessary for a transition to advanced biofuels which would better contribute to a low-carbon economy. Although this imaginary may eventually be transformed into reality, initially realised has been institutional change that reinforces infrastructural dependence on liquid fuel for the internal combustion engine. As an imaginary, then, 'sustainable biofuels' can help explain how a policy agenda promotes one future, while marginalising alternatives. Keywords: imaginaries, un/sustainable biofuels, low-carbon economy, innovation policy, technofix, waste hierarchy


The determination of the power of underground nuclear explosions (UNE) is of great significance. The seismic method of UNE yield determination allows monitoring at large distances, but is less precise than local monitoring methods. A way is proposed to calibrate UNE based on the idea of the vibroseis method in which powerful vibrators are used to produce seismic waves in the UNE epicenter; UNE calibration is carried out by comparison of the vibroseis record with a UNE seismogram. Results of preliminary work on the problem are presented. It is based on experience with vibrosounding of the Earth as well as earthquakes and chemical and nuclear explosions wave field structure studies. It is concluded that UNE calibration with the aid of seismic vibrators is both possible and expedient.


Studies were carried out on the effects of coumarin, ferulic acid and naringenin on soybean seed germination and on the growth of seed-borne fungi at concentrations of 50 and 100 mg.L-1. The compounds showed good inhibition of seed germination, especially at 50 mg.L-1, but little fungistatic activity. Possible mechanisms of action are discussed.


We develop a new approach to inferring lightness, the perceived reflectance of surfaces, from a single image. Classic methods view this problem from the perspective of intrinsic image decomposition, where an image is separated into reflectance and shading components. Rather than reason about reflectance and shading together, we learn to directly predict lightness differences between pixels. Large-scale training from human judgement data on relative reflectance, and patch representations built using deep networks, provide the foundation for our model. Benchmarked on the Intrinsic Images in the Wild dataset [4], our local lightness model achieves on-par performance with the state-of-the-art global lightness model, which incorporates multiple shading/reflectance priors and simultaneous reasoning between pairs of pixels in a dense conditional random field formulation.


Caenorhabditis (C.) elegans is a model animal used in genetics, neuroscience, and developmental biology. Researchers often immobilize squirming worms to obtain high-quality images for analysis. However, current methods usually require physical contact or anesthetics. This can cause injuries to worm bodies or neuron disturbances. This study presents an alternative technique, called addressable light-induced heat knockdown (ALINK), to effectively immobilize worms by using light-induced sublethal heat. A microchip composed of an indium-tin-oxide (ITO) glass plate and an ITO glass plate coated with a photoconductive layer (a-Si:H) was produced. Worms to be immobilized were immersed in a liquid medium and sandwiched between the two plates. When the worms were irradiated with a focused laser beam in the presence of electric fields (referred to as an optoelectric treatment), the optoelectric effect heated the liquid medium. The neural functions of the worms shut down temporarily when a critical temperature (>31 °C) was reached. Their neural functions resumed after the heat source was removed. A temperature above 37 °C killed all worms. Using short-wavelength light reduced the worms' recovery time. An equivalent circuit was modeled to predict the operating modes, and an optoelectric treatment with a high-concentration medium enhanced rapid heating. A safe operating range (20 Vpp (peak-to-peak voltage), 100 kHz to 10 MHz, 31 to 37 °C) to induce heat knockdown (KD) was also investigated. The results show that the heat KD was well controlled, autonomous, and reversible. This technique can be used for worm immobilization.


The study examined the elasticity of production and profitability of feed milling systems of poultry egg farmers in Ogun State, Nigeria. Primary data were collected from 99 poultry egg producers using simple random sampling technique. Data was analyzed using descriptive statistics, multiple regression, costs and returns analysis, and break-even analysis. The profit per bird for commercial feed users, toll mill users and self-millers were N1257.41, N1684.65 and N1879.45 respectively signifying that poultry egg production is highly profitable in the study area. The break-even points for commercial feed users, tollmilled feed users and self-milled feed users were 1,743; 586 and 4,228 crates of eggs per year respectively. The result further revealed that poultry egg farmers had negative, decreasing returns to scale (-0.921) in egg production. The study recommends policies directed towards reducing the cost of feed inputs and efficient use of resources.


The paper examines three central problems involving punitive social control in recent decades. First, the steady increase in the number of incarcerated people (the phenomenon of great confinement), with special emphasis on the Brazilian case; second, the way criminology interprets contemporary confinement (New Penology); and finally, the lack of a (dogmatic) criminal law theory on the reality of mass incarceration. Incarceration data are presented here as premises and their inevitable ethical, social and political implications, in order to inquire about the relations between the (normative-philosophical) theories regarding the justification of punishment and the (empirical) phenomena of mass incarceration. The questions behind the current reflection are therefore about what role criminal theories play in the expansion or contraction of the power to punish (potestas puniendi) and the explanations the justification models offer to the problem of hyper-punishment.


Background: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is present in the body with metabolic disorders such as type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), obesity, and cardiovascular disease. However, no significant evidence has been found till date exhibiting their association epidemiologically in Indian patients. Objective: To assess the association among NAFLD, T2DM, and obesity, and to validate the scoring system with grades of fatty liver (severity of liver disease) estimated by ultrasound vs. NAFLD fibrosis score, BARD score, and APRI score. Methodology: A retrospective, observational study was conducted out in patients with NAFLD (n=316) where diagnosis and grades of fatty liver were established via ultrasound reports. The patients were divided into two groups, Group A (n=114, NAFLD with T2DM) and Group B (n=202, NAFLD without T2DM). R 4.0.0 was used for statistical analysis. Results: The mean age (in years) of the patients was 54.08 ± 10.78 in Group A and 48.10 ± 15.36 in Group B. The mean BMI in Group A was found to be slightly higher as compared to Group B, 27.49 ± 4.94 and 26.56 ± 4.68 respectively, and the difference was found to be statistically significant (p-value Conclusion: BMI might be an independent risk factor for NAFLD. NAFLD fibrosis score appears to be a reliable non-invasive tool to determine the severity of liver fibrosis in NAFLD patients. BARD score may predict Grade 1 liver fibrosis. However, APRI scores do not correlate with imaging evidence of fibrosis like NAFLD and BARD scores. Disclosure M. Saran: None. J. K. Sharma: None. A. Ranjan: None. S. Deka: None. M. Sabharwal: Employee; Self; Health Arx Technologies Pvt. Ltd. S. Palukuri: None. B. Chandolia: None.


Research on philanthropy has not sufficiently examined whether charitable giving to religious causes impinges on giving to secular causes. Examining three waves of national panel data, we find that the relationship between religious and secular giving is generally not of a zero-sum nature; families that increase their religious giving also increase their secular giving. We argue that this finding is best accounted for by a practice theory of social action which emphasizes how religious congregations foster skills and practices related to charitable giving. We also argue that denominational variation in the influence of religious giving is best accounted for by the financial structuring of the denomination. We conclude with the implications for studies of religious causal influence more generally.


As commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) components are used in system-on-chip (SoC) design technique that is widely used from cellular phones to personal computers, it is difficult to modify hardware design to implement hardware fault-tolerant techniques and improve system reliability. Two major concerns of this paper are to: (a) improve system reliability by detecting transient errors in hardware, and (b) reduce energy consumption by minimizing error-detection overhead. The objective of this new technique, selective procedure call duplication (SPCD) is to keep the system fault-secured (preserve data integrity) in the presence of transient errors, with minimum additional energy consumption. The basic approach is to duplicate computations and then to compare their results to detect errors. There are 3 choices for duplicate computation: (1) duplicating every statement in the program and comparing results, (2) re-executing procedures through duplicated procedure calls, and comparing results, and (3) re-executing the whole program, and comparing the final results. SPDC combines choices (1) and(2). For a given program, SPCD analyzes procedure-call behavior of the program, and then determines which procedures can have duplicated statements [choice(1)] and which procedure calls can be duplicated [choice (2)] to minimize energy consumption with reasonable error-detection latency. Then, SPCD transforms the original program into a new program that can detect errors with minimum additional energy consumption by re-executing the statements or procedures. SPCD was simulated with benchmark programs; it requires less than 25% additional energy for error detection than previous techniques that do not consider energy consumption.


Quality of service (QoS) guarantees can be provided within a network by relying on the integrated services, differentiated services, and active networking approaches. The three approaches are presented in several papers, but none provide a comparison between all of them. Therefore, this paper overviews the key functionality and the relative strengths and weaknesses of video-specific QoS control techniques based on the three approaches. This overview discusses both academic research and practice in the industry. The quality assurance and scalability of the three approaches are then compared. Finally, future research directions on each approach are suggested.


The role of epistemic communities in influencing policy formulation is underexplored in International Relations theory in general and in nuclear non-proliferation studies in particular. This thesis explores how epistemic communities – groups of experts knowledgeable in niche issue areas – have affected nuclear non-proliferation policy formulation in two important and under-studied cases: the Brazilian-Argentine Agency for Accounting and Control of Nuclear Materials (ABACC) and the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction (CTR) Program. It demonstrates that applying an epistemic community approach provides explanatory power heretofore lacking in explanations of these cases' origins.
The thesis applies the epistemic community framework to non-proliferation, using Haas' (1992) seminal exploration of epistemic communities in the context of natural scientific and environmental policies. Specifically, it analyses the creation and successful implementation of ABACC and the CTR Program, which, respectively, verified the non-nuclear weapon status of Argentina and Brazil and facilitated the denuclearisation of Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine. These cooperative nuclear non-proliferation agreements are shown to be the result of a process involving substantial input and direction from experts constituting epistemic communities.
The thesis explores the differences in the emergence, composition, and influence mechanisms of the epistemic communities behind ABACC and the CTR Program. It reaches the conclusion that understanding the role of an epistemic community in non-proliferation policies leads to the possibility of creating more effective non-proliferation policies in the future.


The generalized Marcum functions appear in problems of technical and scientific areas such as, for example, radar detection and communications. In mathematical statistics and probability theory these functions are called the noncentral gamma or the noncentral chi‐squared cumulative distribution functions. In this paper, we describe a new asymptotic method for inverting the generalized Marcum Q‐function and for the complementary Marcum P‐function. Also, we show how monotonicity and convexity properties of these functions can be used to find initial values for reliable Newton or secant methods to invert the function. We present details of numerical computations that show the reliability of the asymptotic approximations.


The Hymenoptera family Ichneumonidae is yet to be fully known and understood, we still expect that there are new species to be discovered in this family. Cylloceria, a genus within Ichneumonidae, is a genus with a lot of species names both synonymous and currently in use. How sure can we be that those species actually are different enough to be considered true species? In this study a part of the determined collection at the NHM in London was examined morphologically with focus on four known species (C. borealis (Roman, 1925), C.caligata (Gravenhorst, 1829), C. melancholica (Gravenhorst, 1820) and C.sylvestris (Gravenhorst 1829)) and one assumed to be a new species, to see if specimens of the five focus species are most similar within the species or if they are closer to specimens determined to other species. The other species present at the NHM of London (C. alvaradoi (Gauld 1991), C. arizonica (Dasch 1992), C. aquilonia (Dasch 1992), C. barbouraki (Gauld 1991), C. imperspicua (Rossem 1987), C. impolita (Dasch 1992), C. striatula (Dasch 1992), C. trishae (Gauld 1991) and C. ugaldevi (Gauld 1991)) were used as outgroups which made it possible to see if the five species keeps together in their species. In total 31 specimens of 15 species were examined using morphological characters.The data of collection sites and collection times of the specimens investigated morphologically enabled me to conclude approximately when and where both the five focus species and the genus Cylloceria are flying during the year. The five focus species flies from around May to September where only the species C. melancholica might have two generations. Cylloceria as a whole were found to have one generation from in April to July and one second flight period in November to January in South Mexico and Costa Rica, specimens collected north of there had only one generation in May to September.A cluster analysis was made based on eight of the morphological characters, the ones that were categorical excluding the ambiguous and constant characters. None of the five focus species formed species unique clusters but grouped with specimens from other speciesin the tree, although C. borealis was much more separated according to species than the rest. The result of the morphological analysis shows that there are much more to be done to get a clear definition of the five focus species including whether or not the possibly new species actually is a new species. I would believe that a future study with a genetic analysis in combination with morphological characters to know definitely which specimens that belongs to the same species, followed by a study of type specimens so that the found species gets the correct species name could make the uncertainties in the genera (Cylloceria) almost disappear. If the morphological characters analysed are later used to find out which characters that should be used in future morphological species determination then all current questions regarding the genus taxonomy will be solved.


Heparin is still the most commonly used anticoagulant in cardiac surgery necessitating cardiopulmonary bypass. In recent years, endothelial-related coagulation (e.g. thrombomodulin/protein C-system) has enlarged our knowledge of the regulation of haemostasis. In a controlled randomised study, the influence of different regimens of anticoagulation on the thrombomodulin/protein C-system was studied. Sixty patients undergoing elective coronary artery bypass grafting were randomly allocated into four groups (n = 15) to receive: 300 IU.kg-1 of heparin before bypass; 600 IU.kg-1 of heparin; 300 IU.kg-1 of heparin as bolus followed by a continuous infusion of 10 000 IU.h-1 until the end of bypass; or 600 IU.kg-1 of heparin plus 'high dose' aprotinin (2 million IU of aprotinin before bypass, 500 000 IU.h-1 until the end of the operation and 2 million IU added to the bypass pump prime). Grouping was blinded for the surgeon and the anaesthetist. Plasma concentrations of thrombomodulin, protein C and (free) protein S as well as thrombin/antithrombin III were measured by enzyme-linked-immunosorbent assays after induction of anaesthesia, during and after bypass, at the end of surgery, 5 h after bypass, and on the first postoperative day. Activated clotting time was significantly longer during bypass in group 2 (566 (60)s) and group 4 (655 (59)s), whereas standard coagulation parameters showed no differences between the four groups. Blood loss and use of homologous blood and blood products were highest in groups 2 and 3. Thrombomodulin plasma levels were similar (and normal) at baseline (< 40 ng.l-1), decreased during bypass and reached baseline values postoperatively without showing significant group differences. Protein C did not show any differences among the groups within the investigation period. 'Free' protein S plasma levels were most reduced in group 1 (from 68 (8)% to 48 (9)% after bypass). Thrombin/antithrombin III plasma concentrations increased most in groups 1 (to 69 (14) micrograms.l-1 after bypass) and 2 (to 48 (7) micrograms.l-1 after bypass), whereas they remained significantly lower in groups 3 and 4. The thrombomodulin/protein C-system was not significantly influenced by the regimen of anticoagulation. Administration of 'high-dose' heparin was associated with the highest blood loss, which could not be related to endothelial-associated coagulation.


Road transport is responsible for 76% of cargo movement in South Africa; at the same time transport cost in Sub-Sahara Africa forms a much higher fraction of the total cost of landed goods compared to the rest of the world.  Fuel represents the single biggest operational cost for road transport operators; efforts towards improved fuel efficiency are therefore a priority within this sector.  As fuel usage depends on many factors, including engine size, vehicle fabrication, driver behavior, payload, traffic conditions and route inclinations, it is not a trivial exercise to create accurate consumption benchmarks for a specific operation.  This paper investigates various factors that are known to impact fuel utilization with the aim of quantifying the relative importance of the contribution of each.  Fuel usage data was collected for a representative set of trucks covering all major routes in South Africa and for various cargo categories over a 3 year period.  This data was filtered based on different criteria, including driver identity, route and vehicle model.  Comparisons were drawn between consumption figures derived from manually recorded refuel events and figures derived from measurements that are automatically performed by on-board vehicle sensors.  It was concluded that driver behavior and the possible siphoning of fuel from vehicles seem to be a major factor and would justify further actions towards curbing fuel losses.  At the same time route inclination, payload and vehicle model also play an important role and should be incorporated into costing models used to determine how different routes and trips are priced.


Among those who believe that richly embodied AGI is a promising path to creating AGI systems displaying human-level general intelligence, the possibility of virtual-world embodiment, as opposed to real-world robotic embodiment holds considerable appeal. Here we consider the question of what properties a virtual world should have in order to constitute an adequate environment for the cognitive development of a human-like, human-level general intelligence. We ask what properties a virtual world must have so that an AGI embodied in that world could viably infer humanlike theories of naive physics and folk psychology, and carry out tasks typically required in cognitive development tasks and preschool play centers. Based on these considerations we suggest a "minimal adequate environment" we call "BlocksNBeadsWorld," in which agents can construct objects from blocks using adhesives, and can also fill containers, coat objects and create fabrics and substances with various sorts of differentially adhesive beads.


The purpose of this study is: on the basis of a comparative study of the biological characteristics and chemical composition of Centaurea scabiosa L. wild-growing and cultivated, to assess the prospects for its introduction into culture as an additional source of raw materials for the anthelmintic drug development.
It has been established that the Centaurea scabiosa L. cultivated under the conditions of the Tomsk city in terms of developmental phenology is close to a wild-growing plant. The vegetative organs ratios of wild-growing and cultivated plants were determined: leaves constitute 10% and 24%; baskets – 37% and 24%; stems up to 0.5 cm of thick –18% and 20%; stems with a thickness of more than 0.5 cm – 34% and 31%, respectively (beginning of flowering phase).
The cultivated Centaurea scabiosa L. is comparable to a wild-growing plant according to the sesquiterpene lactones content in separated organs. The sesquiterpene lactones maximum amount accumulates in the budding phase, decreases slightly at the beginning of flowering, and significantly decreases at the mass flowering phase.
The Centaurea scabiosa L. harvesting periods (the leafiest shoots with a stem diameter of not more than 0.5 cm) are experimentally substantiated – the phase of flowering onset.


With the development of human genome projects (HGP) in the world, a mass of genetic information is generated. Now there are hundreds of different kinds of important bioinformatics databases in the world. How to unify the bioinformatics database from different countries has become an important issue in Bioinformatics. In this paper, we present a data integration program based on Web Services of heterogeneous bioinformatics databases. The key technology of bioinformatics data integration has been researched and designed as well.


For parents who live in areas of deprivation, structured parenting groups may be the first learning environment and contact with an educator since leaving school.

The purpose of this research was to enquire as to the actions of parenting workers (called educators in this project) in disadvantaged communities. Parenting workers support families in a group environment who have been referred by multi agency professionals. The workers who facilitate the sessions have a unique set of skills, sometimes not recognised by policy literature or education bodies. The literature review discusses this, as well as elaborating on adult education theory that fits with the work conducted in such areas.

This study researched three distinctive parts of parenting education, that combined, was able to test an hypothesis based on a theory of adult learning, self esteem and actions of a specialised area in adult education.

Research was conducted using three pre existing parenting groups. These consisted of 2 male groups and 1 female groups (n=25) with varying characteristics including age, time in group, and content of parenting programme.

Questionnaires were given using the Rosenburg Self-Esteem Inventory (1965) to record any increases in self esteem since starting the group. It was proven that self-esteem had in fact increased since the start of group. Time in group, gender and content of the programmes may have influenced the outcomes.

Recorded focus group interviews and participatory methods for data collection (Mills, 2003) were used to examine whether learners had developed conscious thought, using Knowles' (1998) statements on maturation through learning. Data was collected from pre defined codes, and surprises in data and it was shown that learners indeed become more conscious of themselves and the world around them.

Each statement produced results pertaining to change of consciousness and transformation in each group.

Both male groups showed an initial resistance to learning, and that there was possibly a high internal control in this matter. "Adults need to know why they need to learn something, before undertaking it" (Knowles et al, 1998 p.149). Wlodowski (1985) states motivation to learn is based on success, volition, value enjoyment, of the learning environment, and this was shown in the research to be the case.

Dependence on the group rather than the educator for learning was found in both male groups, even in Group A which was an initial group and only six weeks in duration. Group B used words such as "we" and "us" to denote the group as a whole, not using the terms to separate the educator and the learners. This shows high level of Social Capital. Equal Learners saw themselves as "mutual partners in the learning endeavour" (Imel, 1994 p.2), and groups showed learner centred rather than education centred instruction (Knowles' 1994). This showed a high level of skill and awareness form the educator.

Male group participants seemed to predominantly appreciate the support of group and educators in controlling anger, and the female group discussed the value of group in controlling their fear. The data collected could be seen as important in the nature of how males and females perceive emotional literacy within the set culture, and is useful for discussion in designing groups and further programmes.
The hardest part for all of the groups was reflecting the truth for some parents was in fact not real. This leads from Freire (1972) ideas on praxis and what the parents decide to do with the information (Smith 1997, 2002) Reflection (Schon, 1987) on their own childhoods were used by groups as to why they wanted better for their children They valued the tools used from programmes, and were quoted as part of the conversation. Although the programmes were not delivered with a high degree of fidelity, a change of schema (Senge p.174) was observed by the learners naming program tools. Double loop learning Argyris (1982) was evident with a member modifying his goal from managing their child's behaviour, but to changes in his life ". The female Group C reflected on admitting that they needed help as being hard for them. The discussion implied their inability to show their family and community how they really felt as a parent, and how they would portray their world as perfect. This shows the absolute value of group for these parents in being able to make sense of the world around them.
There was many incidences of how a learner changed in their social role as Freire (1998), states from "there" to "here" The learner becomes a being with their own true needs and wants (Knowles, 1989). This suggests a freedom and change of life pattern (Moss, 1990) from attending group and that they were looking to further themselves with education.

The emotion of anger was prevalent again in both males groups whereby they had been able to change their actions based on information and support from group. There were also internal changes of the self in all groups. They were also able to recognise tools from varying programmes. This shows that by coming to group, experience is transformed by learning. Again, this shows learning using the tools from programmes, but not form a ridged prescribed format.
Success came from being able to make social bonds with people, and being able to attend groups. It also came from being able to form relationships with their children, and with other adults.


The NASA Goddard Space Flight Center stratospheric ozone lidar system has the capability of collecting both Rayleigh -Mie and Raman backscatter data simultaneously at a number of wavelengths. Here we report on an improved method by which temperature can be derived from a combination of the Rayleigh -Mie return at 351-nm lidar channels and the Raman nitrogen return at 382-nm lidar channels. We also examine some common techniques by which temperatures are retrieved from lidar data. Finally, we show results obtained in 1995 during two Network for the Detection of Stratospheric Change intercomparison campaigns at Lauder, New Zealand and Mauna Loa, Hawaii.


Gadolinium is used in Magnetic Resonance Imaging scans to enhance image quality and allow doctors to more effectively diagnose patients. It is administered to patients through intravenous injection of gadolinium-based contrast agents (GBCAs). Although most of the injected gadolinium is excreted from the body soon after it is administered, studies have shown that some gadolinium remains in the body for extended periods of time. In patients with renal dysfunction, gadolinium retention has been associated with Nephrogenic Systemic Fibrosis, and even in patients with normal kidney function, long-term gadolinium deposits have been observed in the brain following exposure to GBCAs. The specific biochemical effects of gadolinium retention remain largely unknown, but it is possible that gadolinium may impact enzymatic activity. The present experiment investigated the effects of gadodiamide (brand name Omniscan), a common GBCA, on the function of catalase, a crucial biological enzyme that converts hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen. We exposed beef liver to various concentrations of hydrogen peroxide both with and without gadodiamide, and we determined the Vmax and Km values of the catalase. We found that the presence of gadodiamide did not significantly inhibit catalase, which we hypothesize is due to the chelating agent present in gadodiamide. This work has important implications for understanding the biochemical effects of GBCAs and their potential impact on patient health.


A novel, electrically small, UHF (350 MHz–750 MHz) microstrip slot antenna is presented. The antenna is designed for the characterization of Steel Fiber Reinforced Concrete (SFRC) segments. The antenna consists on a three layer structure headed by the slot ground plane, followed by the feeding microstrip in the central layer with some resistive loading for bandwidth enhancement purposes; finally on the bottom layer a strip line reflector is positioned to provide a unidirectional radiation pattern, required for harsh environments. The whole design has been optimized in front of SFRC for maximum impedance bandwidth. Input impedance and radiation pattern are studied both theoretically and experimentally, and some laboratory measurements have been done on real SFRC specimens. Satisfactory results for the fiber density of SFRC are presented.


This paper describes the evolution of Collins GPS receiver architecture as it has matured from Phase I. The growth in functional capabilities required of the receiver over the course of the GPS program has necessitated the development of various processes and techniques to ensure that User Equipment (UE) could be produced at low cost while meeting the imposed performance requirements. The results of Life Cycle Cost (LCC) trade studies became the driving force in determining receiver architecture as the receiver design progressed from Phase I. Phase I, Concept Validation was structured to prove three major tasks. These were: (1) GPS validity as a navigational system, (2) verification of the engineering concept chosen for implementation, and (3) demonstration of military utility. These tasks necessitated the development of various types of User Equipment (eg, GDM, High and Medium Dynamic sets, Manpacks) tailored to provide certain test data without, necessarily, optimizing for costs or producibility. Phase 2, Full Scale Development, demonstrated the integration of GPS Receivers into a select group of eight Host Vehicles (HVs) representing a wide range of HV types across low, medium and high dynamic applications. The emphasis in this phase was to utilize available technology to produce receivers (in a factory environment) that provided the required performance and survived the Host Vehicle environment. LCC results played the key role in determining the Phase IIB architecture—the production baseline for Phase III. Phase III is concentrating on optimizing the integration concepts to take full advantage of the increased functional capabilities of the GPS receiver. Improvements in Hardware (HW), as well as an inventive interface processing approach in Software (SW) have allowed the receiver to offer the basic navigational data in a wide range of functional "flavors" while minimizing the HW and SW changes from Phase IIB. Finally, a glimpse of improvements planned for future receivers will be shown.


This thesis is concerned with detection of transient signal families and detectors in nonlinear static sensor systems. The detection problems are treated within the framework of likelihood ratio based binary hypothesis testing.An analytical solution to the noncoherent detection problem is derived, which in contrast to the classical noncoherent detector, is optimal for wideband signals. An optimal detector for multiple transient signals with unknown arrival times is also derived and shown to yield higher detection performance compared to the classical approach based on the generalized likelihood ratio test.An application that is treated in some detail is that of ultrasonic nondestructive testing, particularly pulse-echo detection of defects in elastic solids. The defect detection problem is cast as a composite hypothesis test and a methodology, based on physical models, for designing statistically optimal detectors for cracks in elastic solids is presented. Detectors for defects with low computational complexity are also formulated based on a simple phenomenological model of the defect echoes. The performance of these detectors are compared with the physical model-based optimal detector and is shown to yield moderate performance degradation.Various aspects of optimal detection in static nonlinear sensor systems are also treated, in particular the stochastic resonance (SR) phenomenon which, in this context, implies noise enhanced detectability. Traditionally, SR has been quantified by means of the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and interpreted as an increase of a system's information processing capability. Instead of the SNR, rigorous information theoretic distance measures, which truly can support the claim of noise enhanced information processing capability, are proposed as quantifiers for SR. Optimal detectors are formulated for two static nonlinear sensor systems and shown to exhibit noise enhanced detectability.


This paper presents a CFD-based simulation method for air/water and water/dodecane Taylor flows through an axisymmetric microchannel with a circular cross-sectional area. A systematic analysis is conducted by exploring the effects of different superficial velocities and apparent viscosities on the hydrodynamics of a slug flow regime. A concentric junction is employed to make bubbles of air in a continuous flow of water and slugs of water in a continuous flow of dodecane oil. A time-history study is conducted to predict the air-bubble and water-slug evolution processes, in particular at the moment of slug breakup. The results show that the larger apparent viscosity ratio of phases involved in the liquid-liquid flow generates a more stable interface. However, the liquid slug length is less and film thickness is slightly larger in liquid-liquid compared to gas-liquid flow. Furthermore, variations in gas and liquid holdups are correlated by the superficial velocity ratio. The numerical analysis developed in this paper is in good agreement with the correlations and data in the literature.


In this short paper we discuss the use of experimental economics as a useful research tool in the study of gambling markets. Through a laboratory experiment, data can be collected that reveal individual choices in response to several parameters relevant in gambling markets. These data can then be analyzed using the same wealth of statistical techniques developed by econometricians for the analysis of market data. We provide an example experiment design that shows how the revenue-maximizing level of gambling taxation can be determined based on demand parameters revealed in a laboratory setting.


The femoro-popliteal (FP) segment is the most commonly diseased artery of the peripheral circulation. Obstructions of these lower-limb arteries are frequent and even with the new generation Nitinol stents (drug-eluting or otherwise), long-term restenosis rates following endovascular procedures range from 15 to 40% and are much higher compared with the long-term outcomes after coronary artery interventions.
The major difference between peripheral and coronary arteries concerns their mechanical environments, with the FP arterial segments being subjected to repeated external deformations during leg flexion. It has been widely hypothesized that the high distortion of the tissues due to the un-physiological deformations of the arteries following stent implantation is the main cause for restenosis. However, there is very limited information on the FP artery deformations of patients with Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD). Furthermore, the effects of endovascular therapy on the deformation behavior of the PAD-afflicted FP arteries are currently unknown. As such, further research on the deformations of the FP arteries is warranted to not only improve existing stent designs, but to also determine the correct interventional procedure.
The main objectives of this thesis were to characterize the deformation behavior and mechanical response of the FP arterial tract through clinical and numerical investigations. The former was achieved by, first, investigating the pre-angioplasty deformations of the FP arteries during leg flexion in a pilot study of five patients with PAD and utilizing 3D rotational angiography. The methodology was then adapted to perform a clinical study of 35 patients with PAD, in which X-ray angiography was used to image the FP arteries in straight and flexed positions prior to endovascular therapy and following either Percutaneous Transluminal Angioplasty (PTA) or primary Nitinol stent implantation. The 3D models of the FP arteries were reconstructed from the 2D X-ray angiograms and the deformations of axial deformation and
curvature were quantified. Both studies showed that the PAD-afflicted FP arterial segment undergoes significant shortening and an increase in curvature with leg flexion. Comparisons between the pre- and post-treatment deformations, as well as between the different treatment methods, suggested that the choice of the treatment method significantly affects the post-interventional axial deformations of the FP arteries (post-balloon: 7.6% ± 4.9%; post-stent: 3.2% ± 2.9%; P: 0.004). As such, while PTA results in a more flexible artery, stents restrict the arteries' shortening capabilities. Depending on the anatomical position of the stents, this axial stiffening of the arteries may lead to chronic kinking, which may cause occlusions and, consequently, impact the long-term success of the procedure. As current stent designs were found to conform to the curvature behavior of the FP arterial tract, improvements should be focused on reproducing the native axial stiffness of the artery to reduce the risk of restenosis for patients that will have to undergo stent implantation.
The complexities caused by leg flexion are further exacerbated by controversial clinical practices, such as Nitinol stent oversizing. The procedure is frequently performed in peripheral arteries to ensure a desirable acute lumen gain and strong wall apposition, and to prevent stent migration. However, the increased radial force exerted onto the arterial walls by the oversized stents could lead to significant arterial damage and, in turn, restenosis. The contradictory findings between animal and clinical studies, in conjunction with the majority of the numerical studies focusing on balloon-expandable stents, suggests that the efficacy of the procedure remains as an issue to be answered.
The mechanical behavior of the FP artery under Nitinol stent oversizing was investigated by creating a validated finite element (FE) framework, which included numerical models of healthy FP arteries with patient-specific geometries and idealized arteries with clinically relevant levels of PAD. Based on the artery model, either only stent implantation or the complete endovascular therapy (PTA + stent implantation) was simulated. Four different stent-to-artery ratios ranging from 1.0 to 1.8 were used in the simulations. For the healthy arteries, additional analyses, in the form of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses and fatigue behavior of the stents, were performed to observe the hemodynamic behavior of the arteries with respect to increased oversizing ratios. For the calcified arteries, three different plaque types were modeled to report the influence of the plaque behaviors on the outcomes of endovascular therapy and stent oversizing. Regardless of the presence of a plaque tissue, results showed that Nitinol stent oversizing was found to produce a marginal lumen gain in
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contrast to a significant increase in arterial stresses. For the lightly and moderately calcified arteries, oversizing was found to be non-critical; whereas for healthy and heavily calcified arteries, the procedure should be avoided due to a risk of tissue failure. These adverse effects to both the artery walls and stents may create circumstances for restenosis. Although the ideal oversizing ratio is stent-specific, the studies showed that Nitinol stent oversizing has a very small impact on the immediate lumen gain, which contradicts the clinical motivations of the procedure.
In order to predict the possibility of restenosis through mechanical markers that are associated with the effects of leg movement following stent implantation, clinical investigations should be complimented with patient-specific numerical analyses. Combining intra-arterial imaging methodologies with in-vivo arterial deformations, which can be translated to FE simulations as boundary conditions, and building upon the numerical framework that is introduced in the 2nd part of this thesis, it's possible to generate accurate patient-specific models. These models, evaluated in conjunction with clinical follow-ups, are expected to provide a deeper understanding of the mechanical background of restenosis in peripheral arteries.


Many multi-object-tracking (MOT) techniques have been developed over the past years. The most successful ones are based on the classical tracking-by-detection approach. The different methods rely on different kinds of data association, use motion and appearance models, or add optimization terms for occlusion and exclusion. Still, errors occur for all those methods and a consistent evaluation has just started. In this paper we analyze three current state-of-the-art MOT trackers and show that there is still room for improvement. To that end, we train a classifier on the trackers' output bounding boxes in order to prune false positives. Furthermore, the different approaches have different strengths resulting in a reduced false negative rate when combined. We perform an extensive evaluation over ten common evaluation sequences and consistently show improved performances by exploiting the strengths and reducing the weaknesses of current methods.


Ultrasound strain and strain rate imaging have been proposed to detect myocardial muscle viability and contractility change. However, it's not easy to control experimental parameters and acquire high SNR data during in-vivo animal experiments. To address this, we performed 2D cardiac elasticity imaging on a well-controlled isolated retroperfused rabbit heart paced through the apex. The excitation-contraction decoupler, 2,3-butanedione monoxime (BDM) was used to optimize the maximum strain given frame acquisition rate, reducing the decorrelation due to excessive frame-to-frame strain. Under a local animal protocol, a heart was harvested from an anesthetized New Zealand White rabbit and prepared using a Langendorff preparation. Modified Oxygenated (95% 02 5% CO2) Krebs- Henseleit (K-H) buffer (PH 7.4, 37 degC) solution was retroperfused through the aorta. The heart was paced through the apex with electrodes at 3 Hz. The internal left ventricle (LV) pressure was recorded using a pressure meter connected to a water-filled latex balloon placed in the LV. The ECG signal was simultaneously recorded. Two linear array connected to a commercial US scanner (Sonix RP, Ultrasonix, Richmond, BC, Canada) were used to acquire RF data. The pacing signal, US RF, ECG and LV pressure data capturing were all synchronized using an field programmable gate array (FPGA) chip (ezFPGA-C6-6, Dallas Logic, Piano, TX, USA). All these data were acquired before administering, during perfusion and after flushing BDM without/with the ligation of left anterior decending (LAD) artery At each data acquisition point, US RF data were acquired over two heart cycles (41 frames/cycle). 2D speckle tracking was applied to estimate displacement and strain. In this experiment, principal stretches were also derived using tracking results from two probes with resolution about 1.25 mm along its own axial direction. The principal stretches were compared for the normal heart and heart with ischemia or MI produced by LAD ligation. The isolated rabbit heart combined with BDM (2 mM) provided a well-controlled experimental environment for cardiac strain imaging with a virtually high frame acquisition rate. By comparing the synchronized pacing signal, LV pressure, ECG signal, and principal stretch, we were able to monitor and verify the local cardiac contractility referenced to the electrical stimulation.


We have developed a new method for determining levels of tubulin polymer, based on quantitative fluorescence detection of x-rhodamine tubulin microinjected into living cells and we have applied this method to analysis of the mitosis-interphase transition. LLC-PK cells in interphase and mitosis were microinjected, then cooled and rewarmed to drive tubulin incorporation. Total tubulin fluorescence in individual, living cells was quantified using a cooled, scientific grade CCD image sensor. Cells were then washed and lysed into a microtubule-stabilizing buffer to extract the soluble pool. Total tubulin polymer fluorescence was determined for the extracted cells in the same way as for living cells. Fluorescence images were corrected by flat-fielding and background subtraction. The ratio of extracted cell fluorescence/living cell fluorescence for individual cells, was taken as the proportion of tubulin as polymer. Cells in M-phase, G1 and random interphase were analyzed. G1 cells had almost the same proportion as random interphase cells. Mitotic cells gave a value of 90 +/- 5% of G1 cells at 37 degrees C. Within M-phase, levels of tubulin as polymer in metaphase and early anaphase were not significantly different. In contrast to the general expectation of microtubule depolymerization at anaphase onset, these results indicate that as cells exit mitosis, the overall proportion of tubulin as polymer does not change dramatically even though the mitotic spindle disassembles. We conclude that the mitosis-interphase transition is accompanied by a redistribution of tubulin at an essentially constant polymer level. Therefore, a global shift to depolymerization conditions is not the driving force for anaphase chromosome movement.


This article argues that the International Financial Reporting Standard (IFRS) neglects social structures and the special culture of operational economics. The article refers to an ethnographic study of a family-owned shipping company in Sweden (Forsberg, 2001). Based on an understanding of how the people in this company actually think and work the article suggests that an accounting system suitable for a family-owned shipping company should consider the relevance of operational economics, income smoothening and prevention of speculations.


Prior to the introduction of a contaminated land regime in England and Wales, the role of the environmental lawyer was limited and focussed on regulatory compliance issues. Even in a transactional setting, this tended to confine the role to one of environmental due diligence. The regime has allowed the 'corporatisation' of environmental lawyers bringing them into the heart of transactions where they design and draft risk transfer mechanisms. Environmental lawyers have had to cultivate an 'internal client base' to sell these services first and foremost to colleagues specialising in corporate and real estate matters. They have done so in spite of the fact that the contaminated land regime has not been actively enforced by regulators. Based on interviews with top environmental lawyers in the UK, and employing suggested roles for transactional lawyers taken from the socio-legal literature, this paper reviews the role of environmental lawyers. It suggests that they have adopted reforms in the area of land remediation as a springboard to a more central role in corporate transactions. This involves a shift from merely facilitating the completion of deals to the development of a wider role, which involves the design and structure of transactions to accommodate environmental regulation.


Recent findings suggest that humans deploy cognitive mechanism of physics simulation engines to simulate the physics of objects. We propose a framework for bots to deploy probabilistic programming tools for interacting with intuitive physics environments. The framework employs a physics simulation in a probabilistic way to infer about moves performed by an agent in a setting governed by Newtonian laws of motion. However, methods of probabilistic programs can be slow in such setting due to their need to generate many samples. We complement the model with a model-free approach to aid the sampling procedures in becoming more efficient through learning from experience during game playing. We present an approach where combining model-free approaches (a convolutional neural network in our model) and model-based approaches (probabilistic physics simulation) is able to achieve what neither could alone. This way the model outperforms an all model-free or all model-based approach. We discuss a case study showing empirical results of the performance of the model on the game of Flappy Bird.


Background: A comprehensive evaluation model for the assessment of the humanistic qualities of medical practitioners is not currently available in Mainland China; thus, we aimed to construct one using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) method.
Methods: We determined the weight of 37 indicators of the humanistic evaluation system.
Results: We found that the consistency ratio index provided by each expert upon grading was less than 0.1. Among all the indicators in the scheme layer, "reverence for life" had the highest weight (0.066), whereas "bioethics" and "ability to express empathy" were 0.053 and 0.047, respectively. The results of the AHP model were better than the results of the mean method model.
Conclusion: The model of evaluation that was established based on AHP is an objective and effective system and also represents a suitable guide for the selection and evaluation of personnel.


Multi-hop textual question answering requires combining information from multiple sentences. We focus on a natural setting where, unlike typical reading comprehension, only partial information is provided with each question. The model must retrieve and use additional knowledge to correctly answer the question. To tackle this challenge, we develop a novel approach that explicitly identifies the knowledge gap between a key span in the provided knowledge and the answer choices. The model, GapQA, learns to fill this gap by determining the relationship between the span and an answer choice, based on retrieved knowledge targeting this gap. We propose jointly training a model to simultaneously fill this knowledge gap and compose it with the provided partial knowledge. On the OpenBookQA dataset, given partial knowledge, explicitly identifying what's missing substantially outperforms previous approaches.


This paper contains a comparison of four SIMPLE‐type methods used as solver and as preconditioner for the iterative solution of the (Reynolds‐averaged) Navier–Stokes equations, discretized with a finite volume method for cell‐centered, colocated variables on unstructured grids. A matrix‐free implementation is presented, and special attention is given to the treatment of the stabilization matrix to maintain a compact stencil suitable for unstructured grids. We find SIMPLER preconditioning to be robust and efficient for academic test cases and industrial test cases. Compared with the classical SIMPLE solver, SIMPLER preconditioning reduces the number of nonlinear iterations by a factor 5–20 and the CPU time by a factor 2–5 depending on the case. The flow around a ship hull at Reynolds number 2E9, for example, on a grid with cell aspect ratio up to 1:1E6, can be computed in 3 instead of 15 h.Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Mg72.5Zn26Y1.5 (at.%) quasicrystal alloys were investigated under different solidification conditions. The cooling curves were gathered by the multi-channel temperature acquiring system and the corresponding microstructures were analyzed. The morphology, microhardness and volume fraction of quasicrystals were detailedly studied. The effects of cooling rate on the above three aspects were also studied and the relation schema among them were exhibited. The results show that the quasicrystal size tend to smaller, its microhardness and volume fraction gradually increased, and the quasicrystal morphology changed from bulk polygon to petal-like and finally changed to plat X-shape with the elevated cooling rate from 2.3K/s to 181.2K/s. However, the quasicrystal nucleation will be restrained and amorphous matter will be created if the cooling rate exceed the critical point which make against the formation of quasicrystals with high performance.


Abstract Context The halo effect describes the improved surgical outcomes at trauma centers for nontrauma conditions. Objective To determine whether level 1 trauma centers have improved inpatient mortality for common but high-acuity nonsurgical diagnoses (eg, acute myocardial infarction [AMI], congestive heart failure [CHF], and pneumonia [PNA]) compared with non–level 1 trauma centers. Methods The authors conducted a population-based, retrospective cohort study analyzing data from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project State Inpatient Database and the American Hospital Association Annual Survey Database. Patients who were admitted with AMI, CHF, and PNA between 2006-2011 in Florida and California were included. Level 1 trauma centers were matched to non–level 1 trauma centers using propensity scoring. The primary outcome was risk-adjusted inpatient mortality for each diagnosis (AMI, CHF, or PNA). Results Of the 190,474 patients who were hospitalized for AMI, CHF, or PNA, 94,037 patients (49%) underwent treatment at level 1 trauma centers. The inpatient mortality rates at level 1 trauma centers vs non–level 1 trauma centers for patients with AMI was 8.10% vs 8.40%, respectively (P=.73); for patients with CHF, 2.26% vs 2.71% (P=.90); and for patients with PNA, 2.30% vs 2.70% (P=.25). Conclusion Level 1 trauma center designation was not associated with improved mortality for high-acuity, nonsurgical medical conditions in this study.